“You’ll have to do better than that, Kumi!” Tera shouted as she easily dodged Kumi’s attempt to punch before swinging down her fist into Kumi’s stomach, causing the vixen to go flying backwards. Kumi managed to catch herself, swinging her body around and landing on her feet, using one hand to help balance herself on the ground. Tera stood proudly in front of her master, a wide grin on her face. Since learning of her summons Kumi had spent countless hours training and fighting each one to help improve her skills. All of them were skilled in various kinds of combat, Tera was exceptionally skilled at hand to hand. Not only did she pack a powerful punch, but landing a blow on her seemed near impossible and if you did she wouldn’t even flinch before simply returning the favour. “Hehe, come on then little fox, you’re not holding yourself right.” Tera taunted before leaping from the earth and attempting to pound down with a fist heading right towards Kumi’s face.
The vixen quickly dodge rolled out of the way, while in a regular battle she would simply use her aura abilities to dash, she was trying to learn to live without them, in case she ever found herself without enough power to go on. Especially after her fight with Althea, that little girls very presence had drained her spirit, making her unable to cast spells often enough. In Kumi’s personal opinion it was important for one to know where they were lacking and attempt to correct those weaknesses.Pushing herself off the earth to give her some extra force she then attempt to punch Tera in the side as she landed. However the summon simply rolled her body in mid air, causing Kumi’s eyes to widen as she realised her mistake and Tera’s foot came swinging into her chest, knocking the fox back to the ground.
“I concede.” Kumi panted as she lay on her back in the dirt, honestly she doubted she’d ever beat Tera, but each time they fought she definitely lasted longer in battle. The first time she had been wiped out in just a single punch, this time she had managed to take a full ten blows before calling quits.
“Awe, so soon?” Tera mocked with a sly half grin on her face as she sat down next to her master. “You are definitely getting stronger, it is good to see.” Tera complimented her voice full of sincerity, the earth summon was proud to call Kumi her master, even if some of the other guardians were not so fond of having her command them. It was something Kumi was thankful to have, she enjoyed knowing she had a friend like Tera around, even if she couldn’t remain in this plane of existence for too long without draining her of spiritual energy. “I think you might be ready…” Tera whispered, just loudly enough for Kumi’s sensitive fox ears to prick up and hear.
“Ready for what?” Kumi asked, sitting up next to Tera her golden eyes full of curiosity. She knew that the guardians of the stars knew more about her than she did herself. However, they had been keeping those cards close to their chests, telling her they’d let her know when was ‘ready’ whatever that meant.
“Heh, you’ll learn soon enough.” Tera chuckled.
“Awe come on, don’t be like that!” Kumi pleaded, wanting to learn more about herself.
“Sorry, kid, I made a promise to Rai that he’d be the one to tell you. We all did, so until that time you’ll have to wait.” Tera stuck her tongue out before vanishing into thin air as she returned back to the realm of the guardians.
“DAMN YOU TERA! WHY DO YOU TORMENT ME SO!?!” Kumi yelled out to no one, but she knew she could hear her, they always could. So the vixen lay back down in the dirt, tired and defeated again as she pouted. To be honest Kumi was fairly certain Rai would never tell her anything, he seemed to strongly dislike her and she didn’t understand why. He said it was because he thought she was too weak, but it seemed like it was something more than that. Possibly it was something that had happened before she lost all her memories, she wished desperately that she could remember. A single tear dropped from her left eye, dripping down her face as she grew sad.
After a few minutes Kumi decided she’d had enough moping about, wiping the single tear from her face, it was time to get back to training, but which guardian to call upon next? The vixen thought for a bit before deciding she wouldn’t mind a bit of sword practice, standing up as she summoned one of her other favourite spirits. “I call upon you, Cordelia, guardian of the stars.” Kumi called inside her mind, bringing the water elemental based summon to her side.
“Well hello, Kumi! It’s been a while.” Cordelia grinned, pleased to see the vixen. Cordelia was definitely one of the kindest spirits in her arsenal. She was absolutely stunning visually, she may have been even more beautiful than Kumi, although the kitsune would never admit such a thing. Cordelia’s hair was a beautiful bright blue, and she had two matching horn like corals that stuck out from the top of her head. She always wore the most lovely of dresses, that were puffy but still combat appropriate. Her most common of outfit which she adorned at this moment was a shoulder-less blue dress that flowed behind but was short at the front, allowing for fluid movement, along with long sleeved gloves that stopped at her wrists. Large pearl like stones then weaved around the dress loosely, giving her a very mermaid like appearance. Then of course she held two swords made of what she called ‘solid water’ in her hands. Yes, many would call it ‘ice’ but they’d be wrong, the water wasn’t cold to touch and it never melted. The swords also appeared somewhat liquid as the water particles moved about, but to the touch they were incredibly sharp and hard. The first time Kumi had seen them she had spent a good hour trying to figure out how they worked, but eventually gave up, proclaiming it must have been some strange starlight magic sorcery which had made the water spirit laugh. Since then Kumi and Cordelia had become good friends, while the water spirit wasn’t the brightest she shared a dislike for Rai, and as the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. However, right now there was only one thing on the fox maiden’s mind, training.
“Indeed it has been a while.” Kumi agreed with a small smile back.
“There are no enemies though… why call?” Cordelia asked, tilting her head curiously.
“Training.” Kumi responded simply, forming her own two handed sword out of her Aura. Her sword was not quite as strong as that of Coredelia but it was good enough to train with. And the vixen was well aware her swordsmanship skills could do with some work.
“Oooo!” Cordelia squealed excitedly, readying herself for combat against her master. “I’ll let you have the first strike!” She giggled, waiting patiently for the fox woman to attack and attack she did, dashing with such intense speed she practically teleported, swinging her sword down to the left of herself, the right of cordelia. Even though it had been but a partial second, the water summon had no trouble blocking with hand hand, creating a clang as the two swords met before swinging with her free hand towards the centre of Kumi’s body, who reacted just as quickly as she jumped back letting the blue sword swing passed her, missing her by just an inch. “Why so slow, Kumi?” Cordelia giggled again, making Kumi wonder what she was on about, but as she looked down it appeared her shirt had been torn by the sword strike.
“Damnit.” the vixen muttered, angry she hadn’t reacted faster to the attack. She really liked this shirt too, maybe she could get Anemone to repair it later, Annie did enjoy sewing her new outfits, she shouldn’t have a problem fixing up one. Kumi realised her concentration had been elsewhere for too long, looking to see that Cordelia had already moved from in front of her. ‘Where’d she go?’ Kumi closed her eyes, feeling for her aura, finding it just in time as she turned to block the oncoming double sword strike from above with her own sword of aura, causing another loud ‘clang’ noise.
“You really should concentrate more on the task at hand, Kumi.” Cordelia teased as she jumped back while still in the air, landing flawlessly back onto the ground a few meters from the fox woman.
“Sorry, I just really like this shirt.” Kumi huffed, still annoyed it had gotten torn, as she dashed towards the guardian of water attempting to strike low, only to find herself easily blocked again as she quickly retreated to avoid taking the second sword’s blow.
“Kumi dear, why are you so slow today?” Cordelia joked as she activated an enchantment over her whole body, causing Kumi to panic, knowing that even though she was fast she was nothing compared to what was about to strike her, if she was lucky though she might be able to block the incoming attack. The water spirit then disappeared from sight, leaving the vixen attempting to track her movements through the summon’s aura while her eyes betrayed her. ‘BEHIND’ Kumi yelled internally as she felt her coming, turning only just in time to block the first of the attacks that Cordelia called ‘Aqua Jet’, before Kumi could even sense her aura again, the water spirit was already upon her, attacking her from the right, the vixen managed to block one, but not both of the blows, causing her to take a full strike to her right arm. However, Kumi did manage to predict the third and final blow of the aqua jet ability, blocking both swords heading towards her left side with two shockingly quick maneuvers. “You gotta sharpen those reflexes!” The water summon appeared in physical form before the fox maiden once more, “Although I’m impressed you managed to block me so well.” She exclaimed excitedly, “I think that’s all we should do for now, you should tend to that arm.” Cordelia said pointing on of her swords towards the gash and blood flowing from Kumi’s right arm.
“Ah.” Kumi’s sword made of spiritual energy dissipated as she reached with her left hand, her hand glowing a bright green as she closed the wound. It brought back memories of the first time she had attempted to train against the water spirit. Cordelia had whooped her butt without even using her enchantment. So at least this was another sign that she was indeed steadily growing stronger and more skilled with her magic and combat which was nothing to sniff at. “Yes, we’ll stop for now, thanks.” Kumi nodded, signalling that Cordelia could return to the spirit realm if she wished.
“Be sure to continue to practice even when I’m not around!” The water summon laughed before vanishing from sight as she returned to the dimension of the guardians, leaving the vixen alone with her thoughts once more.
Kumi rested on the ground, looking up at the bright blue sky above. It was quite a beautiful day, and it wasn’t too hot, making it a great choice for her to do her one on one training with her summons as her opponents. Still what Tera had said was irritating her a bit, she was the only one completely out of the loop, she wasn’t sure if they were doing that out of kindness because they truly wanted her to remember on her own, or if they were just jerking her around because Rai had them all under his thumb and he just didn’t like her. Of course she didn’t get along with all of the guardians like she did with Tera and Cordelia, but most still listened to her, however, Rai was just a complete jerk and for what seemed to Kumi to be no reason at all. As far as she recalls he’d been a complete and total arsehole since the first time they’d spoke during the card fight in the centre of Magnolia. Then when she summoned him for the first time he had continued to be a prick and hadn’t stopped since then. He’d even gotten some of the other guardians of the stars to act similarly to him. To the point she didn’t even call upon him anymore, she didn’t want to deal with someone with a superiority complex like him, not during the heat of battle. However, she couldn’t deny he was her most powerful of all her spirit summons.
Maybe just one more quick bit of training, something a little more my style, she decided, snapping out of her sad thoughts and standing up again, not bothering to clean herself up yet.
“I call upon you, Flint, guardian of the stars!” Kumi called telepathically as she had done before, this time however, a much younger spirit appeared before the vixen. He had strange hair that was bluish-purple at the front, with long sides while the rest was tied in a thick ponytail that stuck out that shone reds and oranges, the colours of his flame magic. He was quite a bit shorter than Kumi and looked at her curiously with his red eyes.
“What’s up, master?” He asked politely, Flint was another one of the vixen’s summons that she had grown quite fond of, he may be small but he was definitely just as strong, if not stronger, than the rest of her spirits, aside of Rai. As usual he wore his yellow t-shirt with blue short sleeved jacket and matching pants along with adorning two small brown sweat bands on his wrists.
“A game.” Kumi announced, “First to hit each other 1 time will be declared the victor of the match, only basic balls of energy allowed, ready?”
“Of course.” Flint whispered, moving instantly running to ensure he would be a difficult target to hit and sending a small ball of flame towards Kumi. The fox maiden dodged with ease, predicting he would move as such, while he was strong he was still young and predictable, this training was just as much for him as it was for her in all honesty. “Damn.” the flame spirit whispered to himself before dodging the incoming ball of energy Kumi had sent in retaliation only just in time. If she hadn’t specified that only small attacks were allowed he would have just blown her away at this point, but that was not allowed in this game. Flint sent another ball of flame out towards the vixen, but his attack was nullified with Kumi’s own attack. Suddenly the boy had an idea, it was ballsy but it might just pay off. He stopped running around, suddenly dashing towards Kumi directly catching her by surprise, she hadn’t expected this, that was for sure. She fired a ball of energy towards him, but he quickly dashed to the side, before continuing to weave to and fro as he moved closer he was just about to release a ball right in front of her, a small grin on his face, but it was wiped clean as he felt one of Kumi’s balls of spiritual energy strike him. Causing him to stop immediately, “You win it seems.” He stated cooly, but deep down he was a little upset at the result.
“Indeed, but nice job you are also improving, the first time we played this, you lost instantly.” Kumi responded with a small smile, making the boy smile back. “You can go now, thanks for that.” Flint simply nodded, before dissipating into thin air. Kumi sat down on the earth, laying back as she went back to thinking about her previous thoughts of not understand her true purpose. She had been given the power to summon them, yet they refused to tell her anything, even Cordelia had apologised before saying she was bound by oath to not tell the vixen anything till Rai declared her ready. The thoughts swirled in her head, causing a few tears to find their way to her eyes and drip down the sides of her face as she stared up into the sky.
“Hey crybaby, would you cut that crap out already?” A familiar, yet irritating voice echoed from close by.
Kumi immediately sat up, wiping her face with her wrist before scanning the area till she spotted him. Rai. “What…? I didn’t call you, what are you doing here?” Kumi demanded, it wasn’t like him to come to her side even when she did call for him, so what was he doing here now?
“I came here with my own power, unfortunately that means I don’t have too long, so if you’ll shut up and listen for a second I can tell you.” the lion man spat. Kumi furrowed her brow but none the less didn’t talk back, waiting for him to explain himself. “Tera spoke to me, and is basically forcing me now. I still don’t think you’re entirely ready, but I don’t really want to have her giving me the silent treatment all the time so here it goes. You must go to the Sakuramori forest, that’s all I’m going to say, what you do from there is up to you.” Rai explained, “If you follow the right place it’ll lead you to where you need to go, from there you will learn about the lost part of yourself.”
Kumi’s head swelled with questions, his statement only made her more unsure as to what was going on. Honestly, she was more confused than ever before, but at least he had given her a destination to aim for, Sukuramori.
“Well that’s I came here to say.” the electric summon declared before turning around, “I hope you find him.” He muttered under his breath before vanishing in a similar fashion as Tera had before. As tough as his exterior made him appear, deep down he only wanted the best for Kumi, but he would never let her know that, not till she remembered properly. It was unforgivable that she could just forget about them for so long then expect them to all just listen to her while she didn’t even know her own purpose.
Kumi missed his last whispered words and she folded her arms, still sitting while she thought about all that Rai had said to her. The vixen was a little bit pissed off that he’d been so cryptic over the whole situation, but still at least she had a lead. The day was coming to an end though, the sun was already beginning to set upon her, she had been training longer than she had realised. She would have to meet up with Sage to let him know she would be gone for a while, but would be back as soon as she could. While Kumi didn’t mind his company, she didn’t want to drag him into anything, and she was fairly confident this journey was one she would have to do alone. She wasn’t sure why she felt that way, but she did.
Maybe it was the way that Rai spoke about it, something in his voice suggested that this was a journey where she may learn more about herself. Well if it was a soul search she was more than up for it, in fact she prayed that her hunch was right. She would do anything even if it meant just unlocking a few extra memories and knowledge on why she was here in this world. Kumi sighed to herself, knowing it was going to be dark soon, she had promised she’d return before the sun had finished setting and she didn’t want to worry the water mage, besides she was not one to take her own words lightly. The fox maiden would never break a promise unless it was impossible not to. With another small sigh Kumi looked up at the sky that was a bright orange now, a few bright stars starting to show. Well she best be off then.
Standing up slowly, the vixen brushed the dirt that had collected on her pants off before checking her surroundings, but she couldn’t feel the aura of anyone close by, meaning she could safely remove her shirt, revealing her chest that was held by a well fit pink bra. She then shook out her shirt, not wanting to walk around and meet up with Sage covered in filth. Kumi then put her top back on before patting the dirt out of each of her nine tails. Once she was happy that she was clean enough she made her way back to the inn close by that they were staying at. She wondered what her teammate had been up to since she had chosen to go off an do some ‘solo’ training. Kumi hoped he’d gone to the sweet store and would have a snack for her.
The vixen quickly dodge rolled out of the way, while in a regular battle she would simply use her aura abilities to dash, she was trying to learn to live without them, in case she ever found herself without enough power to go on. Especially after her fight with Althea, that little girls very presence had drained her spirit, making her unable to cast spells often enough. In Kumi’s personal opinion it was important for one to know where they were lacking and attempt to correct those weaknesses.Pushing herself off the earth to give her some extra force she then attempt to punch Tera in the side as she landed. However the summon simply rolled her body in mid air, causing Kumi’s eyes to widen as she realised her mistake and Tera’s foot came swinging into her chest, knocking the fox back to the ground.
“I concede.” Kumi panted as she lay on her back in the dirt, honestly she doubted she’d ever beat Tera, but each time they fought she definitely lasted longer in battle. The first time she had been wiped out in just a single punch, this time she had managed to take a full ten blows before calling quits.
“Awe, so soon?” Tera mocked with a sly half grin on her face as she sat down next to her master. “You are definitely getting stronger, it is good to see.” Tera complimented her voice full of sincerity, the earth summon was proud to call Kumi her master, even if some of the other guardians were not so fond of having her command them. It was something Kumi was thankful to have, she enjoyed knowing she had a friend like Tera around, even if she couldn’t remain in this plane of existence for too long without draining her of spiritual energy. “I think you might be ready…” Tera whispered, just loudly enough for Kumi’s sensitive fox ears to prick up and hear.
“Ready for what?” Kumi asked, sitting up next to Tera her golden eyes full of curiosity. She knew that the guardians of the stars knew more about her than she did herself. However, they had been keeping those cards close to their chests, telling her they’d let her know when was ‘ready’ whatever that meant.
“Heh, you’ll learn soon enough.” Tera chuckled.
“Awe come on, don’t be like that!” Kumi pleaded, wanting to learn more about herself.
“Sorry, kid, I made a promise to Rai that he’d be the one to tell you. We all did, so until that time you’ll have to wait.” Tera stuck her tongue out before vanishing into thin air as she returned back to the realm of the guardians.
“DAMN YOU TERA! WHY DO YOU TORMENT ME SO!?!” Kumi yelled out to no one, but she knew she could hear her, they always could. So the vixen lay back down in the dirt, tired and defeated again as she pouted. To be honest Kumi was fairly certain Rai would never tell her anything, he seemed to strongly dislike her and she didn’t understand why. He said it was because he thought she was too weak, but it seemed like it was something more than that. Possibly it was something that had happened before she lost all her memories, she wished desperately that she could remember. A single tear dropped from her left eye, dripping down her face as she grew sad.
After a few minutes Kumi decided she’d had enough moping about, wiping the single tear from her face, it was time to get back to training, but which guardian to call upon next? The vixen thought for a bit before deciding she wouldn’t mind a bit of sword practice, standing up as she summoned one of her other favourite spirits. “I call upon you, Cordelia, guardian of the stars.” Kumi called inside her mind, bringing the water elemental based summon to her side.
“Well hello, Kumi! It’s been a while.” Cordelia grinned, pleased to see the vixen. Cordelia was definitely one of the kindest spirits in her arsenal. She was absolutely stunning visually, she may have been even more beautiful than Kumi, although the kitsune would never admit such a thing. Cordelia’s hair was a beautiful bright blue, and she had two matching horn like corals that stuck out from the top of her head. She always wore the most lovely of dresses, that were puffy but still combat appropriate. Her most common of outfit which she adorned at this moment was a shoulder-less blue dress that flowed behind but was short at the front, allowing for fluid movement, along with long sleeved gloves that stopped at her wrists. Large pearl like stones then weaved around the dress loosely, giving her a very mermaid like appearance. Then of course she held two swords made of what she called ‘solid water’ in her hands. Yes, many would call it ‘ice’ but they’d be wrong, the water wasn’t cold to touch and it never melted. The swords also appeared somewhat liquid as the water particles moved about, but to the touch they were incredibly sharp and hard. The first time Kumi had seen them she had spent a good hour trying to figure out how they worked, but eventually gave up, proclaiming it must have been some strange starlight magic sorcery which had made the water spirit laugh. Since then Kumi and Cordelia had become good friends, while the water spirit wasn’t the brightest she shared a dislike for Rai, and as the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. However, right now there was only one thing on the fox maiden’s mind, training.
“Indeed it has been a while.” Kumi agreed with a small smile back.
“There are no enemies though… why call?” Cordelia asked, tilting her head curiously.
“Training.” Kumi responded simply, forming her own two handed sword out of her Aura. Her sword was not quite as strong as that of Coredelia but it was good enough to train with. And the vixen was well aware her swordsmanship skills could do with some work.
“Oooo!” Cordelia squealed excitedly, readying herself for combat against her master. “I’ll let you have the first strike!” She giggled, waiting patiently for the fox woman to attack and attack she did, dashing with such intense speed she practically teleported, swinging her sword down to the left of herself, the right of cordelia. Even though it had been but a partial second, the water summon had no trouble blocking with hand hand, creating a clang as the two swords met before swinging with her free hand towards the centre of Kumi’s body, who reacted just as quickly as she jumped back letting the blue sword swing passed her, missing her by just an inch. “Why so slow, Kumi?” Cordelia giggled again, making Kumi wonder what she was on about, but as she looked down it appeared her shirt had been torn by the sword strike.
“Damnit.” the vixen muttered, angry she hadn’t reacted faster to the attack. She really liked this shirt too, maybe she could get Anemone to repair it later, Annie did enjoy sewing her new outfits, she shouldn’t have a problem fixing up one. Kumi realised her concentration had been elsewhere for too long, looking to see that Cordelia had already moved from in front of her. ‘Where’d she go?’ Kumi closed her eyes, feeling for her aura, finding it just in time as she turned to block the oncoming double sword strike from above with her own sword of aura, causing another loud ‘clang’ noise.
“You really should concentrate more on the task at hand, Kumi.” Cordelia teased as she jumped back while still in the air, landing flawlessly back onto the ground a few meters from the fox woman.
“Sorry, I just really like this shirt.” Kumi huffed, still annoyed it had gotten torn, as she dashed towards the guardian of water attempting to strike low, only to find herself easily blocked again as she quickly retreated to avoid taking the second sword’s blow.
“Kumi dear, why are you so slow today?” Cordelia joked as she activated an enchantment over her whole body, causing Kumi to panic, knowing that even though she was fast she was nothing compared to what was about to strike her, if she was lucky though she might be able to block the incoming attack. The water spirit then disappeared from sight, leaving the vixen attempting to track her movements through the summon’s aura while her eyes betrayed her. ‘BEHIND’ Kumi yelled internally as she felt her coming, turning only just in time to block the first of the attacks that Cordelia called ‘Aqua Jet’, before Kumi could even sense her aura again, the water spirit was already upon her, attacking her from the right, the vixen managed to block one, but not both of the blows, causing her to take a full strike to her right arm. However, Kumi did manage to predict the third and final blow of the aqua jet ability, blocking both swords heading towards her left side with two shockingly quick maneuvers. “You gotta sharpen those reflexes!” The water summon appeared in physical form before the fox maiden once more, “Although I’m impressed you managed to block me so well.” She exclaimed excitedly, “I think that’s all we should do for now, you should tend to that arm.” Cordelia said pointing on of her swords towards the gash and blood flowing from Kumi’s right arm.
“Ah.” Kumi’s sword made of spiritual energy dissipated as she reached with her left hand, her hand glowing a bright green as she closed the wound. It brought back memories of the first time she had attempted to train against the water spirit. Cordelia had whooped her butt without even using her enchantment. So at least this was another sign that she was indeed steadily growing stronger and more skilled with her magic and combat which was nothing to sniff at. “Yes, we’ll stop for now, thanks.” Kumi nodded, signalling that Cordelia could return to the spirit realm if she wished.
“Be sure to continue to practice even when I’m not around!” The water summon laughed before vanishing from sight as she returned to the dimension of the guardians, leaving the vixen alone with her thoughts once more.
Kumi rested on the ground, looking up at the bright blue sky above. It was quite a beautiful day, and it wasn’t too hot, making it a great choice for her to do her one on one training with her summons as her opponents. Still what Tera had said was irritating her a bit, she was the only one completely out of the loop, she wasn’t sure if they were doing that out of kindness because they truly wanted her to remember on her own, or if they were just jerking her around because Rai had them all under his thumb and he just didn’t like her. Of course she didn’t get along with all of the guardians like she did with Tera and Cordelia, but most still listened to her, however, Rai was just a complete jerk and for what seemed to Kumi to be no reason at all. As far as she recalls he’d been a complete and total arsehole since the first time they’d spoke during the card fight in the centre of Magnolia. Then when she summoned him for the first time he had continued to be a prick and hadn’t stopped since then. He’d even gotten some of the other guardians of the stars to act similarly to him. To the point she didn’t even call upon him anymore, she didn’t want to deal with someone with a superiority complex like him, not during the heat of battle. However, she couldn’t deny he was her most powerful of all her spirit summons.
Maybe just one more quick bit of training, something a little more my style, she decided, snapping out of her sad thoughts and standing up again, not bothering to clean herself up yet.
“I call upon you, Flint, guardian of the stars!” Kumi called telepathically as she had done before, this time however, a much younger spirit appeared before the vixen. He had strange hair that was bluish-purple at the front, with long sides while the rest was tied in a thick ponytail that stuck out that shone reds and oranges, the colours of his flame magic. He was quite a bit shorter than Kumi and looked at her curiously with his red eyes.
“What’s up, master?” He asked politely, Flint was another one of the vixen’s summons that she had grown quite fond of, he may be small but he was definitely just as strong, if not stronger, than the rest of her spirits, aside of Rai. As usual he wore his yellow t-shirt with blue short sleeved jacket and matching pants along with adorning two small brown sweat bands on his wrists.
“A game.” Kumi announced, “First to hit each other 1 time will be declared the victor of the match, only basic balls of energy allowed, ready?”
“Of course.” Flint whispered, moving instantly running to ensure he would be a difficult target to hit and sending a small ball of flame towards Kumi. The fox maiden dodged with ease, predicting he would move as such, while he was strong he was still young and predictable, this training was just as much for him as it was for her in all honesty. “Damn.” the flame spirit whispered to himself before dodging the incoming ball of energy Kumi had sent in retaliation only just in time. If she hadn’t specified that only small attacks were allowed he would have just blown her away at this point, but that was not allowed in this game. Flint sent another ball of flame out towards the vixen, but his attack was nullified with Kumi’s own attack. Suddenly the boy had an idea, it was ballsy but it might just pay off. He stopped running around, suddenly dashing towards Kumi directly catching her by surprise, she hadn’t expected this, that was for sure. She fired a ball of energy towards him, but he quickly dashed to the side, before continuing to weave to and fro as he moved closer he was just about to release a ball right in front of her, a small grin on his face, but it was wiped clean as he felt one of Kumi’s balls of spiritual energy strike him. Causing him to stop immediately, “You win it seems.” He stated cooly, but deep down he was a little upset at the result.
“Indeed, but nice job you are also improving, the first time we played this, you lost instantly.” Kumi responded with a small smile, making the boy smile back. “You can go now, thanks for that.” Flint simply nodded, before dissipating into thin air. Kumi sat down on the earth, laying back as she went back to thinking about her previous thoughts of not understand her true purpose. She had been given the power to summon them, yet they refused to tell her anything, even Cordelia had apologised before saying she was bound by oath to not tell the vixen anything till Rai declared her ready. The thoughts swirled in her head, causing a few tears to find their way to her eyes and drip down the sides of her face as she stared up into the sky.
“Hey crybaby, would you cut that crap out already?” A familiar, yet irritating voice echoed from close by.
Kumi immediately sat up, wiping her face with her wrist before scanning the area till she spotted him. Rai. “What…? I didn’t call you, what are you doing here?” Kumi demanded, it wasn’t like him to come to her side even when she did call for him, so what was he doing here now?
“I came here with my own power, unfortunately that means I don’t have too long, so if you’ll shut up and listen for a second I can tell you.” the lion man spat. Kumi furrowed her brow but none the less didn’t talk back, waiting for him to explain himself. “Tera spoke to me, and is basically forcing me now. I still don’t think you’re entirely ready, but I don’t really want to have her giving me the silent treatment all the time so here it goes. You must go to the Sakuramori forest, that’s all I’m going to say, what you do from there is up to you.” Rai explained, “If you follow the right place it’ll lead you to where you need to go, from there you will learn about the lost part of yourself.”
Kumi’s head swelled with questions, his statement only made her more unsure as to what was going on. Honestly, she was more confused than ever before, but at least he had given her a destination to aim for, Sukuramori.
“Well that’s I came here to say.” the electric summon declared before turning around, “I hope you find him.” He muttered under his breath before vanishing in a similar fashion as Tera had before. As tough as his exterior made him appear, deep down he only wanted the best for Kumi, but he would never let her know that, not till she remembered properly. It was unforgivable that she could just forget about them for so long then expect them to all just listen to her while she didn’t even know her own purpose.
Kumi missed his last whispered words and she folded her arms, still sitting while she thought about all that Rai had said to her. The vixen was a little bit pissed off that he’d been so cryptic over the whole situation, but still at least she had a lead. The day was coming to an end though, the sun was already beginning to set upon her, she had been training longer than she had realised. She would have to meet up with Sage to let him know she would be gone for a while, but would be back as soon as she could. While Kumi didn’t mind his company, she didn’t want to drag him into anything, and she was fairly confident this journey was one she would have to do alone. She wasn’t sure why she felt that way, but she did.
Maybe it was the way that Rai spoke about it, something in his voice suggested that this was a journey where she may learn more about herself. Well if it was a soul search she was more than up for it, in fact she prayed that her hunch was right. She would do anything even if it meant just unlocking a few extra memories and knowledge on why she was here in this world. Kumi sighed to herself, knowing it was going to be dark soon, she had promised she’d return before the sun had finished setting and she didn’t want to worry the water mage, besides she was not one to take her own words lightly. The fox maiden would never break a promise unless it was impossible not to. With another small sigh Kumi looked up at the sky that was a bright orange now, a few bright stars starting to show. Well she best be off then.
Standing up slowly, the vixen brushed the dirt that had collected on her pants off before checking her surroundings, but she couldn’t feel the aura of anyone close by, meaning she could safely remove her shirt, revealing her chest that was held by a well fit pink bra. She then shook out her shirt, not wanting to walk around and meet up with Sage covered in filth. Kumi then put her top back on before patting the dirt out of each of her nine tails. Once she was happy that she was clean enough she made her way back to the inn close by that they were staying at. She wondered what her teammate had been up to since she had chosen to go off an do some ‘solo’ training. Kumi hoped he’d gone to the sweet store and would have a snack for her.
[WC: 3545/3500]
