The Reunion of Master and Student.

It was late in the evening, and Rai had decided to hang out at the local tavern. He wasn't old enough to drink, but at least there was no one around who know's him or would bug him besides the waiter's or waitresses. Dante was there with him as well but only because Dante comes here every night or so. In fact, you could say Dante is the reason why Rai even went over here tonight. It was going on ten pm, and so far Dante hasn't tried to pick a fight with anyone yet. So far it was a good night. Nothing exciting seemed to be happening, so Rai was getting ready to take off for the evening. "Hey! M'on! Say a little onger! Hic!" Dante tried to say. "All I've been doing is sitting around watching you drink. I'm going to bed." Rai replied getting up from his seat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some Jewels and laid them in front of Dante. "Here, just don't get into any trouble tonight." He had said before he started walking towards the door. "Anks man! I don't say this ery ofhen but you're the best!" Dante replied.

The real reason Rai wanted to leave was because tomorrow was quickly approaching, but what was so special about tomorrow? You see, it was the anniversary of Rai's mentor's death. His name was Master Lee, but Rai just called him "old man." To be honest, it was nicer than what Dante use to call him, but I won't bring that up here. Rai made his way to the city park and sat down on a bench. He pulled out a lighter from his pocket and just looked at it. Rai was no smoker, but Lee left this to him as a memento. Lee was a heavy smoker which is why he's dead now. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and died just last year. Come to think of it, maybe the reason why Dante hasn't gotten into any trouble so far is that he knows what tomorrow is as well. Master Lee's last words to him was a request for him to try and stay out of trouble.

Rai spent the better part of an hour sitting there listening to his music remembering the good old times. How Lee would yell at Rai whenever he goofed off when he was supposed to be training. How he and Dante would always spar due to a difference in options. In other words to settle their arguments. Rai tossed his mentor's lighter up into the air and caught it on his way back down before getting up to head back to the tavern. He wanted to check on Dante one last time before bed to make sure he was staying out of trouble. Last time he got into a bar fight, Rai had to pay for all of the repairs from the damage Dante made.

He peeked through the door to see if Dante was where he left him and he was. The only problem was he was now out cold while the bartender was trying to get him to come around. Rai walked in and told the bartender that he'd take him home and picked him up. Before he made it out the door, however, he overheard something rather interesting from a couple of people hiding in the back.

"Yah, Rumor has it that not even the god's themselves can budge it." one man said.

"You're pulling my leg. How can the gods not have the power to move an oversized gem." the other spoke in protest. They had Rai's full attention at this point.

"It's true! I sware on me mom's grave! The gem sits at the top of the Sky Tower; it is said to be held up by two mighty stone griffons. Legan has it that anyone who is brave or mad enough to climb all the way up there will be able to learn with one's master once more."

Rai couldn't believe what he just overheard. He walked over to the two people talking and asked "Is it true? What you just said? Does this gem exist?" Rai asked in earnest. "It exists alright. If you don't believe me go speak with this guy tomorrow." He said while pulling out a pen and paper. He wrote down an address to someone in town by the name of Rick. "This guy just got back from doing that climb and told me himself." The man finished handing Rai the paper. "Are you sure he wasn't just making it up?" Rai questioned. "Known the guy most of my life. He was gone for about a week, but when he came back, it seemed as if he was gone for at least an additional week." He started to say. "Why would you say that?" Rai interrupted. "I can't really explain it, he just seemed." He paused for a moment trying to think of the right words to say. "I don't know. When I saw him, his beard was grown out longer than normal for just a week." Rai took the paper that had Rick's address on it and thanked the gentlemen at the bar before bringing Dante back home.

The next morning, Rai woke up at about 9 am so he could head out and meet this Rick guy. Dante was still fast asleep, figures after how much he drank so quickly last night. He would need more time to sleep off that hangover. Rick's place wasn't that hard to find, in fact, it was only about seven blocks away from the Silvermoon Inn. He knocked on the door and waited, but there wasn't any response. Maybe he showed up to early or Rick left already. Just as Rai was about ready to go and try again later, the door cracked open. "Hello?" a voice called from inside the house. "Hi, is this a bad time? I can come back later." Rai said in response. Rick fully opened the door; he looked like he just woke up. "You work for that local guild right? Black Rose was it? What can I do for you?" he said stepping out into the sunlight. Rai was a bit surprised how tall the guy was; he was easily seven inches tall. "A friend of your's gave me your address so that I could ask you some questions about that gem you found. I was hoping you could tell me your experience with it. What does it do exactly?" Rai asked. "Come inside and have a seat." He said opening out the way to his home.

Rick's house wasn't what you would call a neat one. Rai sat at his dining room table while Rick went to grab some drinks. He offered Rai a verity of drinks, water, pop, juice, but settled on just water. "Before I answer your questions, may I ask why you want to know about the gem? The climb isn't an easy one, in fact, it's very dangerous. One wrong move and you could end up falling to your death. Hate to sent a young man like yourself to his doom." He explained as he handed Rai his water and sat in a seat across from him. "If what I heard already is correct, it allows you to learn with one's master once more right?" Rai started to say. "Yes, but only for specific reason's does it allow that." Rick began to confirm. "The gem of time was created to allow one to learn from their late masters." He continued while Rai sipped his water to wet this throat. "So, in order for the gem to work your master or mentor would have to be dead?" Rai asked. Rick paused for a moment and took a good look at Rai. "That about sums it up. The climb itself is a test of determination to see how badly one want's to see their old masters. Otherwise, everyone and their mother would use it freely. Also, the gem only allows one person to use it once." he started to explain.

Rai understood that Rick was concerned and was trying to get him to quiet before something happens, but if there was a chance to talk to Lee again, he was willing to risk everything. "And once you reached the gem, how does it bring one back from the dead?" Rai said trying to get Rick to continue his explanation. He was silent for a moment before finally saying. "As for how I think I'll keep that a secret." He finished explaining. Rai couldn't have hoped for a better outcome. "Thanks for the information but I need to be going now." He said doing a courtesy bow to Rick. "He or she must be very important to for you risk your life just to speak with him or her." Rick said as Rai was about to walk out the door. "Just think of it as some unfinished business. Oh and before I forget where is the Sky Tower?" Rai replied. "It's atop the mountains that are located south of the Forgotten Desert. Good luck kid. You're going to need it." He said waving goodbye.

Rai returned home to pick up a few things for the trip and even left a letter behind in case anyone was looking for him. By this time Dante finally woke up and was feeling like death. "Where you off too?" Dante asked. "We are going on a trip." Rai replied. "Ah ok... Wait, we?" Dante replied. "Yes we, now hurry up I'll explain on the way." Rai said walking out the door. After what seemed like the better part of an hour but was roughly twenty minutes, Dante finally stumbled down the stairs. "You ready? Let's go." Rai said hurrying out the door with nothing but a travel bag hanging over his shoulder. Dante wasn't in any mood to argue or even walk much, so he just climbed onto Rai's free shoulder and hitched a ride till he started to feel better. "So where are we going?" Dante asked. "To see Master Lee." Rai replied. "Wait. What!?"

The journey to the sky tower took Rai and Dante a couple of days to reach, but they finally made it. "We have to climb that!?" Dante yelled in surprise to see exactly how tall this tower was. It was higher than the clouds just as Rick described they were. Even Rai didn't know if he can climb this thing. If Yazuki had taught him how to use lightning to travel it wouldn't be an issue, they would be up there in an instant. Well, it was now or never, Rai walked into the building and climbed to the top of the roof and started up one of the tower's legs. There was four leg's to the tower all rising past the clouds. Each leg was about 2 meter's in radius and had serpent style design coiling up them. Most people would probably push themselves as hard as they could right away in order to get a quick head start but not Rai. He was smarter than that. Rai knew if he did that his strength would leave him much faster and end up falling to his death.

Rai climbed the tower for two day's taking turns between him and Dante. Rai brought some rope so they could tie to each other's backs and believe it or not but Dante was physically stronger than he looked. Dante was even stronger than Rai if you can believe it. Between the both of them, it was a relatively easy climb, just long and tedious. There were a couple of close calls here and there where either one of them lost their grip and slid down a bit before catching themselves. At least they didn't fall to their death. Once at the top, Rai couldn't help but check out the view from way up there, he could see all of Fiore.

They could see Mt. Hakobe pretty well from up here and even the Phoenix Mountains. Off in the distance, they could see the grasslands of Fiore and the twin cities of Era and Crocus shining in the plains. To the north, they can see the Royal Palace, home of the Politicians, nestled in the forest. They could even see the gigantic beanstalk from Beanstalk Village piercing the clouds up above them even though they were so high up already. And finally, there was Rose Garden, glistening in the distance like a rainbow under a constant enchantment. Even though they traveled from that very city, to see it so clearly from way up here was amazing, to say the least. To the South, they saw the Peace River nestled as a tiny spec off in the distant southern grasslands and Mountain Village just beyond that.

However, they didn't climb that tower for its incredible view of Fiore. They came here for the gem of time. At the center of the summit was the gem of time held up by two stone griffons like the old man at the tavern said. The large jewel was 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Looking at it, you could see why they call it the gem of time. There was an abyss inside the gem full of what looked like stars. Rai walked up to the gem, and Master Lee appeared inside of it. "Old man?" Rai had said before the gem began to shine bright enough to blind them both. "WHATS GOING ON?!" Dante yelled. Suddenly they felt themselves being sucked into the gem. Rai was the closest one to the gem, so he entered and left Dante behind. "Rai!? Hey, Rai!!" Dante screamed wondering where Rai disappeared too.

It took Rai a while before his eye's recovered from the blinding light produced from the Gem of Time. The space he was suddenly in was amazing. It was like he was floating in actual space. Nothing but a black abyss full of bright star's in the distance. "Hello Rai." a voice said behind him. Rai couldn't turn around fast enough. Behind him was none other than his old master. "It's been a while kid. Has Dante been keeping out of trouble?" he says with a smirk on his face. Rai took a quick look around in search for Dante, but he wasn't around. Then he remembered what Rick said, only one person can use the Gem of Time at any given time. Dante is probably waiting outside wondering what's going on. Or even worse he's trying to break the gem and free him. Then again Rai and Dante never did get along, so maybe he wouldn't go to such extremes. Then again Master Lee did tell him to keep an eye on me and vice-versa. "Dante won't be able to do a thing to the gem." Lee said as if he knew exactly what Rai was thinking. "While we are inside this gem all time and space on the outside have stopped. By the time you leave here, it will be as if you never left." he explained.

Rai walked up to Lee and stared at him with a smile on his face before punching him in the stomach. Lee being as fast as he is, easily saw the attack coming and blocked it single handily. "Is that any way to greet your Mentor?" Lee said smiling back. "No, but then again your not like most mentors." Rai replied. There was nothing more that needed to be said. Rai jumped back a couple of steps before jumping at Lee for a swift kick to the head. Lee reacts by moving his head back just enough to dodge the attack and grabs Rai by his leg. Rai quickly responds by going for a kick to the chest with his other leg, and Lee jumps back letting him go. "You've improved quite a bit. You are no longer as easy to beat down anymore. I might have to use some effort now." Lee praised. "You've been dead for a year now, and a lot has happened in that time." Rai explained. "We will have plenty of time to catch up later. For now, show me what you have learned."

Suddenly the room began to shift and turn. It was changing its landscape to something to fit their needs. It transformed into an open grassy plain with a house big enough for two in the background. This place felt fitting for Rai, even if it was real, they couldn't hurt anyone out here so he can really cut loose. Suddenly, Lee took the time to make a sneak attack on Rai. "Shouldn't get distracted." Lee said striking while Rai wasn't looking. He went for a punch to the face catching Rai off completely off guard. Rai hit the ground hard, but he didn't let it slow him down. He quickly got back up and charged straight at Lee, Rai jumps and spins in a 90-degree angle swinging his leg outward. Lee quickly blocked the kick and punched Rai straight to the ground once again. "Come on, all this time, and you still can't get one hit on me? And you call yourself a Thunder God Slayer?" Lee taunted. Rai slowly tried to get back up; he managed to make it to his hands and knees before Lee kicked him back down.

Rai lay's his hand on the ground and channels his thunder god energy into it. Shortly after, a black panther shot out of the ground right in front of Lee and began attacking him. Lee was quick to dodge every attack the lightning panther attempted to do. Never the less, it served its purpose. It managed to get Lee away from him so he can get back up and possibly get an attack in. The panther got Lee turned around, so his back was to Rai. It was too easy. It was as if  Lee was saying come and try it. Rai wasn't going to fall for it and instead points his finger at Lee. He fires a bolt of black lightning at Lee's back, but as Rai predicted, he dodged it knowing full well it was coming. "You can do better than that can't you? I'm getting bored here." He kept taunting.

Rai kept trying to think how he could get a hit in but in the end, he canceled his black panther spell and said "I give up. You win." He just wasn't strong or skilled enough to get a scratch on him. Worst part was, Lee didn't even have to use one spell. Lee didn't seem disappointed in fact he appeared to be a bit pleased. "Not bad, I can tell you've learned quite a bit. Your reaction time has improved, your timing has improved, and your strength and skill have also improved." He praised. "And lastly you know when to give up in a losing battle. Not many warriors are willing to give up so soon in a fight, but you recognized your skill level wasn't up to the challenge and forfeited before you got hurt too badly."

"I'm not an idiot. I know when I'm outmatched." Rai said looking away with a smug look on his face. "Really? Cause I seem to remember some snot nosed punk who didn't know when to quit." Lee retorted laughing. Rai just smiled back saying "And I seem to remember a drunk old geezer who slept all day." They both just laughed. It was nice to reminisce about the good old days before things got so complicated, especially with someone you haven't seen in forever. "Alright! Then let's not waste any time! We got a week to get you stronger!" He roared with great enthusiasm. Master Lee had access to the power of the Gem of Time in order to change the surrounding area into whatever he needed for Rai's training. He first produced a spike on the ground in front of them. "I'm sure you remember what to do?"

As if Lee needed to ask, he only forced Rai to do this training session every day for seven years straight. "You know I hate this stupid exercise." Said Rai was he walked up to the spike. He leaned towards the ground and got up into a handstand and walked over in front of the spike. Rai took his right hand and placed his index finger on the spike and lifted himself fully onto the spike with just his finger and a channel of magical energy through his finger to help keep it strong. "Good. Now let's see how long you can still maintain that." Master Lee said sitting down next to a tree and lighting a cigarette. "Really?" Rai asked. He never did like the smell of cigarettes and not it's even worse that he's a god slayer. "Didn't dying to cancer teach you anything?" Rai lectured. "It's not like it can kill me again. I'm already dead." He laughed. "That's not funny."

Master Lee died last year from lung cancer. He would smoke like a pack a day. The fact that he's still smoking after death shows how badly he is unable to quit the stuff, or how much he loves to annoy Rai with them. "At least keep the smoke away from me." He started to say before almost losing his concentration. "You have heard of second-hand smoke I'm sure." He finished saying. "These aren't even real cigarettes, stupid fake reality dimension doesn't even know how to fabricate a decent cigarette." he explained as if it made any difference to Rai, which it didn't.

Rai knew full well that he was only smoking to mess with his concentration, and it was working. Even though Lee was a good 5 meter's away, Rai could smell his cigarette as if he was standing right next to him. It was starting to make him feel sick, and he could feel his focus giving away. The point of this exercise is to focus one's mind and magic power into a single point in the user's body and hold it there. What this does is teach's the mage increase their focus on both mind and body, so they become in sync while putting a small strain on their magic power to help make it stronger. However, if a mage can't concentrate well enough, then they are doomed to fail.

Rai managed to keep up his balance and focus for at least another 20 minutes before collapsing to the ground. Lee pulled out a watch to check the time before saying "Twenty minutes... I seem to recall you going at least another hour easy." he said in disappointment. "I told you to keep that smoke away from me. Remember I'm a slayer now, we have a better sense of smell, hearing, etc. Even though you're all the way over there, I can smell it like I'm right next to you." Rai argued. He had a valid point, but Lee didn't seem to care. "That shouldn't matter, the goal of this exercise is to increase your concentration and focus. If you can't focus just cause you smell something you don't like then your letting your sense control you." He argued back. Was then he realized that Lee took full advantage of Rai's increase sense of smell. "You knew I would have a problem with cigarette smoke and with my sharp nose, it would only increase my frustration." Rai elaborated. "Guilty." Lee said putting his hands in the air as if someone pointed a gun at him.

"Anyway enough sitting around, let's try it one more time." Lee instructed. Rai got into position once again and this time was determined not to let anything Lee does get to him this time. Rai couldn't help but feel a bit proud of Lee for creating fake cigarettes to help him with his concentration rather than cause he wanted to have one. This time around Lee didn't just smoke some more fake cigarettes, but he also tried to do other thing's that got on Rai's nerves. For example, he took off Rai's headphones. That nearly made him rage out, but he kept a calm demeanor and carried on with the exercise, at least until this training session was over. This time around Rai kept his concentration going for just over two hours before collapsing to the ground. "Not bad, you even managed to beat your old record by 10 minutes. Honestly, after a year I expected you would..." Lee was interrupted by a sudden punch to the face from Rai. "That was for taking my headphones."

Lee squirmed around on the ground for the better part of a minute clutching his nose the whole time. Rai watched as his pathetic excuse for a mentor rolls around on the ground from a simple punch to the face before saying "Get up already, we both know it didn't hurt that much." Rai finished with a kick to his ribcage. Lee quickly got back up as if nothing had happened. "You could have shown a little concern." Lee said. "I would if I didn't already know who I was dealing with."

Rai and Lee spent the rest of the day doing the same exercise. Rai managed to hold his concentration for as long as 4 hours by the end of the day even with Lee trying to throw him off. "Not bad, you've definitely improved quite a bit in this last year." Lee praised. "I think I got a good Idea on how much stronger you've gotten, so the rest of the week will steadily get harder each day." he continued. Rai was lying on the ground completely spent. He used up nearly all his magic energy just balancing on a spike all day. "Alright, let's call it a day. I'll go make us some beds." Lee said before walking off.

Rai slept like a rock. He didn't even notice Lee slipped some venomous snakes into his bed till he woke up the next day. "LEE!!!! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!" Rai screamed when he found a snake poke it's head out from under the covers. He came running out of his room so he can teach Lee a lesson. When Rai got outside, there was a cave that wasn't there yesterday. "I take it you didn't like your new friend?" Lee said from inside the cave. Rai was beginning to wonder why he missed this guy; all Lee ever did was find new ways to piss him off. But even Rai had to admit; it got him to focus on his training, mostly so that way Rai could finally kick his ass.

Rai walked into the cave and found it to be a lot bigger than it seemed on the inside than the outside. It got so dark that Rai couldn't see a thing. "Get out here and take your beating like a man!!" Was then Rai noticed that his static field spell shut itself off and was now blind as a bat. "What the? An anti-magic field?" Rai asked. "That's right, and I'm familiar with your ability to use static electricity to see, today's training will be about honing your sense's. Having heightened sense's is all well and good but if you don't practice with them then what good are they?" He explained.