[Closed] Fancy seeing you

[Willoria]

Her days had the same routine now. She started early with a light breakfast, and a soak in the small hot spring in her home. From there it was off for training. Sometimes she took a bento box with her for lunch, sometimes she didn't. And she didn't return home until the sun had begun to set, ending her day the same way it began, in the hot spring and a meal. Today was no different. Ume was in a training ground, slamming her fists over and over against the trunk of a tree, feeling the wood crack and splinter beneath her skin. Of course, doing so without gloves was ill advised and already had a negative impact. After a couple of hours she finally sat on the ground, back against a tree with her knuckles red and dripping blood.

'Every day I kill him again, Koyama... every day I stop it before it all starts...' She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, letting out a heavy sigh as she did her best to clear her mind of the pain that drove her today. It would take several minutes of her sitting like this to get a clear enough head that she felt up to beginning again and she stood. "Ninjutsu next... I've torn these up enough..." she muttered, looking over her hands a moment and the cuts and gashes that littered them. Her fingerless gloves were in a back pocket and for a moment she contemplated pulling them on.

But then out of the corner of her eye she saw a familiar figure and she chewed on her lower lip a moment. "Checking in on me?" she asked, almost coldly considering she hadn't seen him for a few days at least. Not since her attempt to see Tatsuo which backfired entirely. "I'm sorry again that the elders wanted to make you my new guardian, you don't have to do it though. I don't want anyone else hurt."

[Kao]

Truthfully, Kotaru needed time alone so that he wouldn't snap. So much had happened in the past few weeks and for a fourteen year old - though his birthday was right around the corner - it was all a bit much. Responsibility suited him but only to an extent; he only fulfilled his duties because the alternative was less attractive. Typically when he wanted to be alone he went off to train he went to one training ground or another, whichever one wasn't very populated that day. He thought he found the perfect place to unwind, but of course - of course - he ran into the one person he was trying to avoid.

He watched for a while - as he tended to do whenever he snuck up on someone - and he found that seeing Ume gave him a whirlwind of emotions, all of which he struggled to suppress and leave unacknowledged. Just as he decided he should find somewhere else to let out his frustrations she noticed him, giving him some scornful comment that made a deep frown mar his lips. "What makes you think I'm checking up on you? Last time I saw you, you stormed off all pissy just because I said everyone needed space. Real nice."

Kotaru crossed his arms when she brought up the council. It wasn't a topic he really liked talking about, especially considering that woman was constantly trying to pull him under her wing. He gave a one shouldered shrug and went on, "I'm not going to. I'm the last person who should be anyone's guardian. I don't even get why they'd consider me for it so I told them to never bring it up again. Seems like they listen to me more lately." Perhaps it was because they knew Kotaru was climbing up in Iwagakure, but the council was slowly becoming less pushy. Maybe their attention was shifting elsewhere.

[Willoria]

Ume couldn't help rolling her eyes at Kotaru's statement. "Space... right... nice way of saying 'get the fuck out Ume, we all wish you'd died.'" she countered, turning her back to him and back to the tree. Ignoring the pain echoing through her hands she pulled on her fingerless gloves, as if they were actually going to negate any damage at all, and threw another punch at the tree. Parts of the trunk were splintered already, the girl was strong but not strong enough to fell the tree, and blood stained where she'd managed to break the bark off.

"Maybe they're plotting my death and don't see the point of wasting you on it. Who knows? I don't." The thought had occurred to her honestly. At this point she wasn't even being depressive, she was thinking rationally in the same way the clan would. She knew she was probably seen as a liability. The insanity of both her parents, the plague, the death of her guardian, her drug binge, and especially the fact that she couldn't remember anything over a six to seven month period during that time? It all made sense to her. She had an astrashiin and for a clan weapon she had so far proven weak in every facet of the word.

She struck the tree gain, involuntarily groaning at the pain that echoed down her left arm from the strike and leaving another stain of blood on the trunk that had soaked through her glove. "We'll find out in the Arena what is supposed to happen to me I guess." she muttered, pausing in what she was doing for a moment. Her body went relaxed, though her back was still to Kotaru. "Any tips you can offer? I've never been..."

[Kao]

At first, Kotaru said nothing in response. He simply let her talk, watching as she went back to pummeling the tree and essentially letting it pummel her right back. He didn't miss the blood or the splinters or the groan, and he knew that she was pushing herself possibly a bit too far. Good. With blood came strength. When she finally finished grumbling about everything - the ridiculous comment that they wanted her to die, the seemingly offhanded remark about the elders, and finally the stupid fucking Arena - the boy couldn't help but nearly snarl.

"Alright. In order. Do you even hear yourself? No one wanted you to die. If that were the case I'd have left you where I found you and not have even bothered getting you settled back in. I was - " He stopped himself, changing gears so that he wouldn't say too much. He was still, deep down, someone who had a hard time with admitting his own feelings. "Tatsuo was a fucking wreck. He's still a fucking wreck, so much that Mits and I barely ever see him and there ain't shit we can do besides wait for him to come to us. He was barely coherent, he thought I was using a genjutsu on him. So yeah, everyone needed space but that doesn't mean we preferred it when we thought you were dead."

He walked toward her with his hands in his pockets, stopping just behind her so that he could lean over and look at her gloved hands. "Second, fuck the elders. They probably are. I don't care, I won't let them." Her posture changed, the tension in her shoulders waning, and only then did he walk to her front to stand between her and the tree. "Lastly. Don't die. That's all I can offer, really."

Kotaru paused, pensive as he thought back to his time in the arena. It was completely out of control, and though he knew that wasn't a normal occurrence, he worried that chaos might be the new normal for a while. Chaos could thin the numbers and lead to strong Akari becoming even stronger. "You'll never really be ready for it no matter what I say, and I don't think you can understand that until you're in there."

[Willoria]

Ume didn't say a word as Kotaru spoke, partly because she was expecting something far worse in his words. She expected hate, bile, anything to make her feel worse. She wasn't sure if she had just gotten used to how harsh Kotaru was to people, or if he was simply being kinder because it was her, but she didn't feel any of it. What he said didn't bother her, it didn't eat at her core the way she expected. She did look up at him as she moved to stand between her and the tree, and the girl sighed, nodding at his words. "That's pretty much what Koyama was always telling me..." she admitted quietly, swallowing hard and looking down at her own hands.

Carefully she pulled her gloves off, grimacing as she did so. The blood had already caged through and caused them to stick to her wounds. Some were light scratches, others so severe she could pull up a flap of skin if she wanted to. But as she took the gloves off she spoke. "You know... I did." she admitted quietly. "While we were on the road, Koyama started giving me an earful about not paying attention. I went off on him about how maybe I deserved to die, after everything I did to you and to Tatsuo..." she swallowed hard, her eyes still on her hands as she spoke. But the girl didn't look up at him, and she didn't cry either. She spoke as if it was all just simple matter-of-fact. "Tatsuo and I might have patched things up, but it was never the same. Not being able to see you made it worse. I felt like I had sacrificed myself just to lose my friends."

She took a deep breath and finally looked at Kotaru. "And that's why Koyama died. I was so focused on myself, my own bullshit pain, that I was nabbed and he got killed trying to get me back." she chewed on her lower lip a moment before looking down again and tucking her gloves away. "There's a lot I don't understand, especially about our clan. It's taken me losing too many people to make me realize what this clan is... and what I need to be. But I'm diving headfirst into it now."

[Kao]

"It is a pretty shit clan," he said finally, watching as she tucked her gloves away. As she spoke he had begun to channel chakra, and the telltale green hue of the iijutsu covered both of his hands. Kotaru took both of her wrists and pulled her hands up and towards him, then let her go to hover his own hands above hers. First he cleaned her hands, then the wounds slowly began to clot. "That might change one day. But it probably won't. This village and the people in it change their ways about as often as a mountain changes its shape."

Once he was satisfied that her cuts were clotted enough, he altered the chakra. The boy wasn't very good at healing other people, so it took a little concentration to close the wounds. "Stop thinking like that though," he mumbled without looking her in the eye. "You're blaming yourself too much. For Tatsuo, for Koyama. You're gonna crush yourself because you worry all the time." Of course, telling someone to simply stop such a morose line of thinking wasn't enough. If all it took was a command from someone else, no one in this world - or any world - would ever need to endure mental suffering. It was never that simple.

But Kotaru was just a boy who had no idea what to say to make her feel better. Maybe there wasn't anything he could say. Maybe Ume simply needed time. He finally looked up once her skin began healing in earnest, realizing what she had just said. "What do you mean 'diving headfirst'? What are you planning?"

JutsuShow

*[Iijutsu • Sterilization Technique]
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
As sanitation cannot always be guaranteed in field operations, this technique provides a quick substitute to traditional sterilization methods. After focusing chakra into his/her hands, the user will channel the chakra throughout his/her upper body (torso, arms, hands, face). This chakra will chew away at harmful bacteria and other foreign bodies on the skin, cleansing it until it is thoroughly sterile, and can be spread to objects, most commonly surgical tools. Of course, this takes both concentration and time, and in order to sterilize the entire upper body, it will take a duration of one (1) post. Users of this technique can also choose to sterilize certain parts of their upper body or the wounds of another person instead for a lesser concentration period. Once they are sanitized, they remain this way until coming in contact with more bacteria.

*[Iijutsu • Blood Clot Technique]
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
This highly useful field technique is applied to bleeding wounds to help encourage the coagulation of the blood. After focusing chakra into his/her hands, the user will hover them over the bleeding wound and begin to channel chakra through it. The chakra will began to thicken the blood, causing it to clot. Wounds must be dealt with one at a time, and the number of wounds that can be tended to within the three (3) posts that this technique lasts depends on their size. Small wounds take very little time to clot, while moderate wounds take one (1) post of concentration to clot, and large wounds take two (2) posts to clot. Although this technique stops the bleeding, the wound remains vulnerable and will require further care after this has been performed.

*[Iijutsu • Skin Generation]
C-Ranked Ninjutsu
Often utilized by medical-nin to heal small, superficial wounds or for producing excess skin to use in skin grafts, the *[Iijutsu • Skin Generation] technique has its number of uses. After focusing chakra into his/her hands, the user will channel it into a small area of skin cells on the patient's body. This chakra will force the skin cells to multiply at an ample rate by confusing this area of the body into its reconstruction stage that is achieved during slumber. As this is a type of regeneration, users must keep in mind that each cell draws from nutrients in the patient's body, and as such, too much can cause serious harm. In order to regenerate medium-sized areas of superficial wounds, it takes one (1) post of concentration. Areas smaller than this take considerably less time. In the case that the skin sample is separate from the body, the cells can be multiplied more quickly than they could be otherwise. These types of samples are generally use for skin grafts. The *[Iijutsu • Skin Generation] technique can be held for four (4) posts.

[Willoria]

She didn't fight him as he took her hands though she grimaced at the touch. It wasn't that it was him of course, rather the grimace was for the pain and bruising she had put into her own flesh which he now touched. She couldn't help a curious look however as he began to channel chakra and she watched him begin to heal her wounds. "I didn't know you knew Iijutsu..." she muttered, more than a little surprised by it. By Kotaru's temperament most would never expect him to take on a discipline that was all about helping others, but at the same time it brought a small smile to her face. She knew better than most that Kotaru cared more than he let on, especially about those close to him. To her it made sense.

She knew he was right though, some part of her knew she was worrying too much. But she didn't say anything about it, she simply remained quiet as he healed her hands, looking at him a moment as he asked what she had planned. "Simple, Kota. To survive I have to become exactly what they want me to be." she replied, removing one of her hands from the green glow of his briefly to reach up and pull the cloth off her face and reveal it's lower half. She smiled, a smile made all the more eerie now by the fact that every one of her teeth were sharpened to a point. "I'm done being scared of everything and everyone. My father, even Koyama, they kept me locked away from it all and thought that would keep me safe. It might keep me safe, but it doesn't keep those around me safe. I'm done locking myself away... if I don't die in the arena I plan to come out of it covered in someone else's blood. I'll force the rest of them to fear me instead of the other way around."

[Kao]

"Yeah, well, it's not something I really go around bragging about. I just sort of picked it up." He took a bit more time to concentrate, making sure her skin was grafting appropriately. He wasn't a medic in any sense, so he knew that she would need someone who was better versed in the art to truly heal her up. Training was something he did so excessively that he was on a first name basis with some of the staff at one of Iwagakure's hospitals; perhaps he could take her there so they could clean up his novice attempt at healing.

When he looked up she had pulled down the cloth mask on her face and he paused. He stared, actually, when her smile revealed her new, much sharper teeth. Surprise and confusion twisted his features comically, and glanced around for a bit as he tried to find the words. Finally, "Well...that's one way to go about it if you want to...tear someone apart with your teeth." It was hard to imagine Ume doing something so brutal. The girl had always come across as a bit of a timid crybaby, a sensitive girl who depended on others. That didn't seem to be an accurate assessment anymore. "I...like it? I think. I'm not really sure."

The open wounds of her hand had closed, so the boy ceased the channeling. His hands, however, stayed in place. "You've changed a lot, you know. We both have, I guess, accepting that we're part of this fucking clan and refusing to be afraid of them. That used to hold me back a lot. I couldn't even walk around the compound without being terrified." Eventually he dropped his hands, replacing them back into his pockets. "You won't die if you've been training enough. You...have been training, right? Punching the shit out of a tree isn't really enough."

[Willoria]

Ume couldn't help a bit of a chuckle at Kotaru's reaction to her teeth. It wasn't the worst reaction she'd expected, if anything it was probably the most positive reaction she could expect. "I figured it might make it easier to get at someone's shiin... plus, you know, intimidation and all that." she said, smiling slightly and shaking her head. She had felt a little ridiculous getting it done honestly, but at the same time in their clan it made a weird kind of sense in her mind. "I figured at the least, it should make my opponent pause. I'm pretty sure most people in this clan either don't know me at all, or still see me as some timid creature."

She fell quiet as he spoke again, nodding as he mentioned how they both had changed. "Same, actually. When I first met Tatsuo I was terrified of going anywhere, but covered it up by acting stupid really. I would dodge my guardian and run off... almost got killed for that one more than once." When he asked her about the tree however she couldn't help a laugh. "Yeah that's mostly me trying to work out frustrations and work on my pain tolerance..." she admitted. "I've been working on my Taijutsu and Ninjutsu lately... mostly Tai really though. Bone Breaker, Totem Style... Don't worry, I've been training."

She looked at Kotaru for a moment, almost wanting to say more, but buried the thought. Instead she reached out and touched his forearm, giving it a light squeeze since she couldn't reach one of his hands, before letting go and sighing. "I should probably work on my Plague stuff more too though... just haven't given it much thought yet..."

[Kao]

Kotaru didn't react when she touched his arm. How could he? Their situation was essentially the same, and he was slowly coming to terms with it. Ume was his cousin's girl - even though the status of their relationship was up in the air - and the two of them were simply friends. Technically they still weren't supposed to be alone together, but that was a detail he tried to avoid thinking about. But then she brought up her plague techniques, and his eyes lowered for a moment as his mind went back to the day he found her in Rock Country, when she kissed him and it made his lips and throat sting. It was yet another thing that wasn't supposed to happen between them. "Ah, yes. The plague stuff. It's...interesting in practice but it's not all that potent. Plus I don't know if you'll have the time or opportunity to kiss someone in the Arena."

He gave a moment of thought before adding, "You could make a sort of aerosol with it. Projectiles, coat weapons. I can't help you with...the kissing bit but anything else...." The jounin trailed off to gauge her reaction. He had quite a bit experience with training people now, and although it wasn't his favorite way to pass the time, if it helped keep Ume alive, he'd bear it.

[Willoria]

His lack of a reaction didn't go unnoticed, and if Ume were to admit it out loud it caused some kind of a pang in the girl to see that. He usually seemed to enjoy any small touches from the girl usually, or even treasure them, but this time there was nothing and she could feel her own expression fall as he looked down. She listened quietly as he spoke and realized why he had looked down, the fact that she used a kiss as one of her Ekirei techniques. Ume couldn't help a slight blush as she realized it was the only one he had seen and she shook her head. "It's not the only technique I have... it just tends to work well as a sudden or surprise attack. People don't expect a kiss to be.... that..." she cleared her throat and shrugged, starting a pace a bit as she thought about the techniques she had already.

"The thing about my Ekirei is that I have to use other elements with it. Each move has an element infused to it. The kiss is Katon based... I have a touch that's Katon based as well." she began explaining, trying to keep focused on the subject of the ninjutsu as a distraction over what was really going through her mind. She was worried that if she didn't stay focused she might actually tell him. 'Choosing between him and Tatsuo was the hardest choice I ever made... and I don't know if I made the right one...' The momentary thought she shoved aside almost violently in her mind, telling herself it was a moot point regardless by now.

Realizing she'd gone quiet for a moment the girl cleared her throat again. "I can also make a Doton based binding formation and a wall with the same effect if it touches flesh. Oh and... I figured out a water shuriken one too. I'm still trying to figure out what I could do at the next level though..."

[Kao]

Kotaru watched her as she began to pace and describe her techniques. It was the first time she had called it by name, giving the impression that this wasn't something she had created on a whim, or a fluke technique based on one method. It was interesting, to say the least, and he wanted to see how far she had actually gotten with the techniques. "In that case," the boy began as he channeled chakra to the small of his back, "show me. There's no better way to figure out what you need than by putting it into practice."

Two long, dark red tendrils erupted from his back, dancing lazily behind him as he took a few steps back. "Unless, of course, you still want to beat up the tree. If so then, by all means. But at least show me the water one. It's not every day you see a suiton user in Iwa." Truth be told, he could tell something was weighing heavily on Ume's mind. The way she paced, the way she almost rambled. Even the way she had suddenly become quiet all but broadcasted the fact that she was worried and mentally preoccupied. The jounin had learned to sublimate similar feelings by focusing on training and training alone. It helped, to a fair extent, to take frustrations out on others.

Kotaru waited for her response, his hands still shoved deep into his pockets. The nearly black melashiin continued to sway in the air, one of them even going so far as to creep over Kotaru's shoulder and gesture toward Ume in a beckoning motion. He smirked at that, wondering if she would take him up on his offer.

JutsuShow

Partial Formation: Melashiin
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
Type: Melashiin
Like the typical Formation technique, Kotaru focuses chakra to his shiin, causing it to inflate. With this technique he can control how many of his melashiin tendrils manifest rather than releasing all of the tendrils at once. The melashiin is able to recover at double the rate of a normal body part would. The strength and durability of a melashiiin are equal to 3/4ths of the user's strength and stamina.

[Willoria]

For a moment Ume stopped in her pacing and stared at Kotaru as he told her to show him. It suddenly occurred to her that the two had never sparred, nor really fought. After all, what had happened when he found her hardly counted. She had still been drug addled and out of her mind at the time, she had hardly been controlling anything or really trying to do anything. It had all happened by instinct really. She took so long to process the train of thought though that she realized after a moment that Kotaru had manifested two of his shiin, and one of them was even beckoning at her. She couldn't help a slight frown, and even stuck her tongue out at him as she realized he had made a remark about beating up the tree.

As requested, Ume moved her hands through the seals, causing a single water shuriken to form in her hand with a 6 centimeter diameter. The color of the suiton was a little off of course, given the Ekirei properties instilled into it. She threw it at Kotaru and waited until it got close before kai'ing it, causing it to explode and through the Ekirei laced water everywhere. Though once it did she formed another set of seals and struck the ground with her foot, causing a doton formation to rush in Kotaru's direction that also seemed a little off due to the Ekirei chakra within it. She knew none of it was likely to really hurt Kotaru, like the others she knew he had long since outpaced her and left her behind in the shinobi arts.

Jutsu UsedShow

Ekirei • Water Shuriken
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
Prerequisite(s): Suiton
After performing the correct hand seals the user will form a shuriken of Ekirei warped water that can be thrown approximately 6 centimeters in diameter in their hand. When kai'd, this shuriken explodes with a force equal to a D-Rank explosion and covers the immediate area in water. If not consumed, this technique lasts for three posts. In addition any portion of this Ekirei Suiton that touches bare skin on the target will cause a pain akin to deep cuts or wounds. This feeling lasts for two posts and then fades.

Ekirei • Binding Formation
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
Prerequisite(s): Doton
After channeling Ekirei warped Doton chakra into their foot the user will slam the ground within 3 meters of a target's feet with their heel, causing a formation of rock to shoot upwards at a speed of 6 binding the target's feet at a strength of 4. The plagued nature of this form of Doton will also cause a sensation of pain anywhere the formation touches bare skin. This pain may cause the target to shake or be unstable on their feet due to the severity of it. This pain lasts for two posts before it fades.

[Kao]

Kotaru watched unmoving as she went through her first set of seals, his hands still casually resting in his pockets. Even as the shuriken got close he barely moved, and he simply dug his feet into the ground and maneuvered his melashiin to block in front of him, crossing in an 'x' pattern. He had expected the shuriken to simply hit his shiin, but instead she made a motion to kai it to explode. For a split second he braced for the explosion, but it turned out to be much weaker than expected. He didn't budge, and he lowered the tendrils to peek through the opening, his brow slightly quirked. Next she used the doton, but it approached so slowly that he could have sidestepped it. Instead he allowed it to make contact with him, but even it was weak.

His skin wasn't exposed on his arms or legs, but the suiton had made contact with his hands and face. It stung, but it did nothing more. Kotaru sighed, lowering his shiin slightly and giving the girl with a cold glare. Without warning he closed the distance between them and whipped his melashiin toward her legs, aiming to wrap it around her lower body and hoist her into the air. "What. The hell was that?" he asked without any semblance of playfulness in his voice. He was all but scowling. "That almost tickled. Is that all you've come up with?" He waited for a response, any response, before manifesting two more tendrils.

"If that's all you've got, then you might as well not bother with your...what did you call it? You'll be slaughtered." He released his grip and took more paces back his hands still in his pockets as he put more distance in between them this time at five meters. "Take this seriously or you don't stand a chance."

[Willoria]

To say Ume was taken by surprise as he suddenly hoisted her up into the air would be a serious understatement. The young woman let out a yelp as she was suddenly hauled up, staring at Kotaru in shock at the way he spoke to her. "I... I... they're just D ranks!" she sputtered out. She yelped again as she was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. "I don't exactly have experience in making this kinda stuff!" she snapped at him, pushing herself up to her hands and knees before getting to her feet. "I'm flying by the seat of my pants here and only made the Ekirei to save my own life, in case you forgot!"

It'd been a long time since Kotaru had been even remotely harsh with Ume, and in a lot of ways it pissed her off. With a motion of her shoulders her Phasmashiin lined Eroshiin wings formed at her back and a quick flap launched the girl at Kotaru in her own anger. She dropped low as she got close, aiming to grab one of his legs in a maneuver to bring her elbow down and break his leg. A move she likely wouldn't even get to complete.

Jutsu UsedShow

~Basic Formation: Eroshiin
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
Type: Eroshiin
Channeling chakra to their shiin, they cause it to inflate, fully forming into its full glory. Taking the form of energy-like jelly small wings, they are incapable of flight on their own, however are very aerodynamic, allowing for the user to slowly float down, based on their prerequisite taijutsu. The Eroshiin has a strength and stamina equal to 3/4ths the user's strength and stamina.

~Basic Formation: Phasmashiin
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
Type: Phasmashiin
Channeling chakra to their shiin, they cause it to inflate, fully forming into its full glory. The phasmashiin takes the shape of a scaled and skeletal weapon over one of the Akari's limbs. The phasmashiin have a strength equal to Akari's, but a stamina equal to the clan member's stamina+3, while causing the limb that they are on to move at 3 speed less.

Fire Forward
C-Ranked Maneuver Taijutsu
Type: Eroshiin
In this Maneuver the user flaps their Eroshiin wings to create a boost to their speed, launching themselves forward at a speed of +6 for a max of five meters. This results in a -6 to Ninjutsu while in use.

*Last Leg
B-Rank Taijutsu Maneuver
Pre-requisite: 20 Strength
The user swipes underneath their opponents feet causing an unbalance, and grabs either their left or right leg firmly grasping around their knee with their left hand the user brings down their right elbow on the opponents femur breaking it in two. This causes extreme unbearable pain, and causes their opponent to be crippled in the afflicted leg. The user must have 5 higher Strength than the opponent's strength to be successful with this jutsu.

[Kao]

"Just D ranks!" he mocked while twisting his face into a full on scowl. "You think you're gonna walk out of the arena alive by just spitting out genin level shit?" He could see the girl getting frustrated, evident by the way she charged at him. His melashiin fanned out behind him, two on each side as she flew forward and at greater speed than she had been moving previously. It was an impressive change in speed by most people's standards, but to Kotaru she was still moving far too slowly.

Just as she dropped, one of his tendrils that had been poised in the air at his left side slammed down, blocking her attempt to hit his leg. Her elbow would instead ram into the shiin, causing it to bend quite a bit at an unnatural angle. Had it contained bones, they might have fractured somewhat from the stress. Kotaru lifted a second tendril and spun his body around, using the momentum to slam the shiin into her stomach. Before she could fall away from the impact, another tendril would snake behind her legs and then snap forward, aiming to knock her legs right from under her.

"I haven't forgotten," he added sharply as he curled the bent melashiin behind him so it was out of the way for the time being. "But if you haven't developed it more than that then how important is it to you, really?" Kotaru began to circle her slowly, his gaze cold as he considered her. His demeanor had changed completely. This wasn't the first time he had trained someone, and it certainly wouldn't be the last since he typically got results. He used the same approach with his student, Shishi, and he would be no different with Ume. Pain, along with a little fear, was an excellent teacher. "Show me that you're ready for this, Ume, cause so far I'm disappointed."