Earlier that day, while the clash between titans raged in the monastery, Kouriki had found the remainders of Nowhere Generation. Now, he was beside Saionji, Inoshishi, and Suzuko. The four sat, a bottle in Inoshishi's hand as they talked, seemingly worn from their own tests and training. "Their fight won't be too long, I'm sure." Kouriki assured, looking over the three newcomers to his home.
They had been offered clothes which suited the monks more, Saionji donning a weighted sash which hung around her lower gut, and she had propped her sheathed rapier against a log as she leaned her head on it. Inoshishi offered Saionji a thumbs up and a smile as she sprawled out on the ground, instead taking a swig from his bottle and looking to Kouriki, his leathers having been swapped for more relaxed clothing, a white, short-sleeved button up, with flaming red cuffs and stitching, alongside some old looking khaki-colored cargo shorts. "Won't take too long? What, you guys think time is made up or something? It's been a few minutes, and I can still hear 'em... that normally means it'll take a lot more to settle things."
Suzuko snickered, putting a finger up to her grinning wooden mask, and she flicked her tail, letting the tip curl as she perked up her ears to hear Andrei and Vivian's battle. "I can still hear big bro... though not what he's saying. Lots'a shouting though..." The girl then swiped Inoshishi's drink greedily as sweat dripped from the bottom of her mask, and she unzipped the top of her sweatshirt, practically steaming as she released what pent-up heat was there. "Your training, Kiki..." Suzuko stuck out her tongue through the teeth of her mask. "... I don't know why you're making us work! I know my power more than you!"
Kouriki chuckled a bit as he stretched, he too was sweating, though not as much as Suzuko or Inoshishi. "Your other friends are working their butts off, don't you want to be able to keep up with them?" He thought back to the wolf-man, to the vampire, with a smile on his lips. They all seemed almost excited at the prospect of breaking their limits... unlike this masked cat.
A pair of aura-enveloped monks stared off against Shimoda and Wu, the Iwatayaman beastkin. The two of them stood shoulder to shoulder, Wu unable to tap into his ch'i, though Shimoda more than able to compensate as the masters seemed to go soft on them. From the sideline, Okuri grumbled, shouting at the monks to pick their fight up a notch... they were aware of how ch'i worked, clearly, but they seemed hesitant to unlock its latent potential. "C'mon! Don't be easy on the kids! Work 'em to the bone if you gotta'... they'll only stagnate like this!"
His grimace only developed further as the monks refused to push beyond their limits, to the point of even tuning Okuri out entirely. The wolf-man growled in disdain for this 'training' he was watching as Shimoda fended off another series of strikes, while Wu attempted to tap into what it was that drove him.
As Andrei and Vivian's clash seemed to slow in the distance, Okuri found himself stepping in. Opposing both Shimoda and Wu, and the two monks, his aura was enough to overtake the two 'teachers' with ease, and he turned his attention to the two students of his. He knew what it was that drove Shimoda, or at least he knew that Shimoda did. That was all that mattered. But what drove Wu? The monkey-man glared at Okuri, struggling under the intensity of his ch'i, but he didn't fold. Not yet. That interested Okuri, at least a little bit. "Wu... You wanted to learn how to fight with that... disability Asura gave you." His lips turned up into a grin. "Try focusing on that. When I ask, "What drives you?" What will you tell me?"
Shimoda stood beside Wu, attempting to use his own ch'i to shield him from Okuri's wave of soulful blue. It seemed that his justice-driven purple wasn't required however, as Wu seemed to understand what it was that Okuri said. "What'll I tell you...?" The cursed simian gritted his teeth, and clenched his fists before standing, back rigid to look Okuri in the eye, even through the stress of his aura. "... I'll tell you..." Tears began to well in his eyes. "... I'll tell you that I don't know. That's what drives me." He let out a bestial roar, and took a step forward, his muscles tensed as Okuri stepped up his ch'i output. "That feeling of discovery is what drives me, Okuri-sensei!"
YOU ARE READING
CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD
Action- BOUND THE WORLD - After falling from the sky in a blaze of glory, without so much as a memory to his name, and cleaving a path through the whole of the Tokyo Dead Zone with the discovery of his nature as a half-human half-Chimera, a monster from a...
