Where Angels Fear to Tread

31 Days

1 Month Later
Draco

     744 Hours. That's how long the rest of Unit Four and I had been attempting to land a blow on Kotaro, all the while repeating the same training regime as our first day as official Liquidators. It wasn't all bad; Even though we still hadn't managed to land a blow on our Captain, the entire group greatly benefited from all of the over the top physical training Kotaro had us doing.

     Sometimes he'd even switch up the routine. If we weren't dragging around cars, we'd basically bench press heaps of metal inside of an increased area of gravity, provided by Kotaro of course. At the end of the day, however, the goal of our training was ultimately the same every day: Work until muscle failure, attempt to land a blow on Kotaro moments after.

     Even when most of our "dams" broke about halfway through the month, Kotaro still seemed way too far out of reach. Moon's was the first to break, followed by mine breaking a few days later. When I'd asked Moon what it felt like, she only told me that I'd know when it happened, that it was unexplainable. I don't think she's ever been more right than in that moment.

     When the wall separating me from my Ether had finally fell, I felt as if I was reunited with a part of me that I never even realized I'd lost. It felt as if it was supposed to be there, as if I was finally made whole. The energy coursed through my body as naturally as oxygen, the feeling of harnessing it almost becoming second nature. It wasn't a physical feeling per say, it was more on a spiritual level than anything. The minute I felt it, I felt more connected to the world around me. I was more in tune with myself and the environment than I'd ever been, as if somehow there were invisible threads attached to me and everything around me.

     Harnessing it's power only required focus and willpower. It was as if the Ether sat dormant inside my body, waiting for me to command it. When focused, I could send Ether flowing through different parts of my body. If I wanted to reinforce my body, all I practically needed to do was will it to be stronger and boom, I'm a lot stronger and faster. Moon's swordsmanship had gotten a lot scarier after she learned that technique.

     Whereas reinforcement required willpower, increased perception required focus. If I wanted to increase my perception to an insane degree as I'd unconsciously done during the Test, I just needed to breathe and focus on sending Ether to my brain. Once there, It would kick my brain into overdrive, increasing the speed in which I perceived information and events, in turn slowing things down from my point of view. Aside from the basics, we'd each learned two other ways to apply our Ether, both of which required some degree of creativity—Construction and Application.

     Ether construction was quite difficult for me. It required a person to be able to calculate the exact measurements and volume of the construct they were trying to make. This method of using Ether was how Asami compressed her fire into different shapes, although that was pretty much the extent of her abilities in that area. Ether application was surprisingly the easiest thing for me to learn, only requiring me to focus on discharging Ether from my body.

     Once discharged, I only had to activate my Gift for the effects to carry over to anything my Ether came into contact with. My theory is that it's easy for me because of the way I view Ether—as an extension of my own body. Discharging it was also easy enough as long as you focused on it coming from a single point, such as a finger or an eye for example. If I manage to get really skilled at it, I'll be able to discharge it from everywhere on my body simultaneously like Captain Kotaro. After training with him for so long, I'd figured out his trick to increasing the gravity all around him; He'd discharge a wave of pitch black Ether in all directions, applying his gift to it immediately after. It was truly amazing how he implemented Ether into his fighting style.