Back at the dorms, Soke began preparing a nice meal for us, alongside Kai.
The scent of fresh roast filled the room, my stomach growling in response.
"AHHH! I can't wait! When're ya guys gonna finish that meal!?"
"Sorren, just go wait in the balcony." Hana responded.
I hadn't taken a shower today. I should probably get that done with before the food's ready.
"I'll go take a shower."
***
Warm needles of water massaged my face, the air turning to a soft, white velvet. A heavy curtain of wet hair framed my eyes, softening the world into a quiet, shimmering blur.
I'm a real cadet now. No more catching thieves or drunk old men.
I'll be dealing with things much more dangerous.
Rebels, demons, everything. I'll have to keep up with the rest. My own sparks would have to shift in colour at some point as well. And soon, things will change.
Not just with me and Kai, but Hana, Sorren, and even Soke.
They'll change.
***
We all were seated at the table, eating our food in silence.
"So, uh, guys. How about we talk about our goals?"
"Huh? What're we gonna do that for?"
"Just curious, why did we want to be cadets? Aki, how about you start?"
Why I wanted to be a cadet?
"I guess... to bring a change."
Sorren and Hana glared at me. Kai spoke out.
"That's the both of us."
Soke raised a doubt. "By bring a change, do you kids mean people? Aurelia..?"
"The world. I want to bring the world together."
Soke's eyes peeled open. His spoon dropped to the floor with a clang.
He let out a slight snicker. "Quite the noble pair, huh?"
Kai responded. "I guess you could say that."
Soke walked towards the balcony door, leaning himself against the glass.
"Well then. How about we get started."
"Started with what exactly, Mister Soke?"
"You four are real cadets. We can't keep slacking off forever. It's time for a real mission."
"Ya mean we're gonna go to the outskirts!?"
"Yes. Right now, it's only about 5pm, we can head over and be back by 10."
The outskirts? Right now?
"Mister Soke, what are we going to do?"
"Demons. We're gonna hunt demons. Don't worry we'll only go far enough for the weaker ones, you guys should be able to handle them easily."
That sounded like a reasonable starting point. I wanted to ask something else, though.
"Are we doing this for some type of training?"
"Yeah, you guys are close to manifesting your charms. And we're gonna make that happen today."
We stood from the dinner table in a surprise.
"Don't act so shocked. In that month of training, you've already honed your training and even changed the colour of your sparks. You just need one final push."
...
Change of spark colour, huh?
Kai ruffled his hair as he approached the balcony. "There's no time to waste then, let's go."
Soke smirked, dashing out the window.
"Ah! Ya guys gotta wait!"
Sorren followed quickly, as did Hana and I.
We dashed across the city, city lights dissipating into the horizon as we grew distant. We advanced further into the outskirts, darkness encompassing our surroundings.
"Hey, grab a hold of these. And leap off the trees from here."
Soke chucked flashlights at us.
"Attach them around your waist, you'll see good enough."
A few minutes passed before Soke grabbed hold of a branch, balancing himself.
We soon stopped after him, grabbing hold of the trees.
"Down there, that's a demon."
I quickly scanned my surroundings.
There.
A low, misshapen silhouette clung to the earth, pinned at the very centre of Soke's stare.
Rough skin, spikes growing from its back, creeping across the grass on all fours.
Sorren and Hana's eyes looked unsettled, teeth slightly gritted.
I squinted mine, not unsettled.
But pitiful.
Demons like that have existed since before us, it was shameful.
The shame that a mutual understanding may never be possible with a creature like that.
I gazed at Kai, his eyes as clear as ever.
What was he thinking?
____________________________________________________________________________________________
"Down there, that's a demon."
I followed Soke's gaze, a creature was crawling across the ground, indescribable.
It didn't have a face; just a lipless slit that leaked a dark, oily bile onto the grass. The sight turned my stomach, a familiar heat rising in my chest.
It's the same as back then. Nothing was different.
Inhumane. It's a mistake.
Sorren and Hana looked unsettled. I suppose that's to be expected. Those three haven't seen-
Three?
I glared at Akio, his own eyes squinting. It was the quiet, hollow look of someone watching a wounded animal die in the mud. His eyelids were drooping, almost...
Disappointed.
How could he feel that way? That sense of pity for demons. No, not just demons. For everything.
It was as if he was just trying to push forward without a sense of the past.
Why, Akio?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Alright, I'll deal with this one. Then we can go further and you guys will have to do it."
His voice was so casual. It was apparent that killing demons had become natural for Soke.
Wind blew past us as a blur of Soke dashed away, leaves falling in the impact.
Yellow sparks manifested from his palm tracking paths down to the ground as he made contact with the demon.
"Grarhhr!"
"Be efficient, weak ones like this can be taken down in one clean blow."
His palm pressed against the demon's 'face.'
Then, an explosion.
Purple shaded fluid spat out in all directions as Soke backed away.
We watched in awe. Just one shot.
He stared back up at us. "There's more a bit further, we're gonna get those charms of yours ready today."
We headed deeper into the outskirts, demons increasingly coming into sight.
"Alright, here. There's a whole lot, who's going to go first?"
Kai raised his hand. "I'll give it a go."
"Right on then."
Kai jumped to the floor, emanating white sparks as he grew closer to the demon.
Just then, almost imperceptibly, he leaped across, arms spiralling through the demon's guts.
It was quick, almost familiar. Kai had finished it just as fast as Soke.
"Great job, Kai. Too great, honestly. Have you fought demons before?"
"Not really, I just went hunting often as a child. I guess you could say it carried on."
"I see." Soke's voice was unconvinced, but dismissive. "Then Sorren, Hana, you guys go."
"Wait, Soke." Kai interjected.
"Let me try again. My charm, I think I have a grasp on it."
"Charms will manifest when you're able to grasp your mental state and energy, then solidify it as a weapon best suited to them, are you sure you can do it after just one kill?"
"I think so."
He believed he could get his charm this early? Kai must've been able to significantly improve over the last month.
Soke gave a slow nod.
Kai dropped from the branch without a word, landing low on the grass. His sparks shifted as he steadied himself, something different about them. Less scattered. More deliberate.
He walked toward the demon.
Not cautious.
Just certain.
The demon lurched upright as he approached, that lipless slit splitting open, a sound crawling out of it that wasn't quite a scream.
Kai didn't stop.
His right hand rose, fingers loosely curled.
Then; something changed in the air around him. The white sparks tightened, condensing, pulling inward rather than scattering outward. They traced the shape of something solid, something long, wrapping themselves around a form that hadn't existed a second ago.
A katana.
Plain. No ornamentation. Just clean, straight steel engulfed entirely in white, the sparks running along its edge like breath on cold glass.
Soke's eyes widened. "He wasn't joking."
Kai's fingers closed around the grip.
He exhaled once.
Then closed the distance in a single step, the blade drawing a clean arc through the demon's torso.
The creature folded.
Silence.
Kai stood with his back to us, the katana still in hand, sparks beginning to settle.
He looked at it for a moment. Then turned.
An accomplished smile formed on his face. But it didn't feel happy-
It looked relieved.
"I did it, guys."
"WOAH! YA ACTUALLY DID IT! THAT'S YOUR CHARM!?"
"It looks like a Katana, doesn't it?"
His charm had manifested, Kai had done it.
"Yeah, it is. I kinda like it!"
I stared at Soke, he'd put on a smile, but. It felt unconvincing. He knew something was off.
He just didn't question it. As did I.
"Okay then, Kai's done. Hana, Sorren, and Akio, it's your turn."
"Right now?"
"Yes, once you grasp on to that feeling, that stability, and concentrate your energy, then your charm will form. Try killing a few demons first."
The three of us dropped off on to the ground.
Sparks engulfed the grassland, each of us aiming for our first kill.
Green sparks.
Black sparks.
White sparks.
Each of them colliding as we flew past each other, lopping off demon heads.
"Seems they're gonna go on a killing spree, eh Kai?"
"Yeah, seems so."
Several demons were reduced to lumps of bodies as time passed by.
Gradually, Sorren and Hana were getting the hang of it.
Until eventually, it clicked.
On Sorren's fourth kill, something shifted. The green sparks pulled tight around his hand, condensing into a shape; a blaster, squat and solid, the same shade as his energy. He fired once. A concentrated burst tore through the demon clean.
He stared at it like he hadn't expected it to work.
"Woah!"
On Hana's fifth kill, a dagger materialised in her grip; small, dark, swallowed entirely in black sparks. She moved with it like she'd always known how. Nothing wasted. Nothing hesitant.
Efficient. Almost brutal.
"Neat."
Kai joined back in, each of them harnessing their charms, adapting.
And yet nothing had changed for me.
Five.
Eight.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Nothing.
Nothing at all. Each kill was the same.
I was the same.
Soke was disturbed, glancing at me with a concerned face.
Sixteen.
Please.
Eighteen.
I'm begging.
Twenty.
Just let something change.
***
Nothing changed.
No matter how hard I tried.
Focused my energy, tore through demons, expanded my sparks.
My mind couldn't be cleared.
Something wouldn't let me be stable. And that thing was a memory I didn't want to resurface.
I'm torn in two. My body can't keep up with my mind.
Trapped.
And so I stopped.
I had no choice but to give it a rest. The rest watched quietly. Their mouths began shaping words that never seemed to come out.
How pathetic.
Soke was the first to try and break that haunting silence.
"Aki-" Just then, Soke's eyes peeled open, he slowly turned back, his hand gesturing us to stay quiet.
My eyes began drifting across the grasslands, trying to spot what Soke had. Beyond the piles of disfigured bodies, a distant figure approached steadily. What emerged from that darkness was... a person?
No, not exactly. He had human eyes. Human hair. A human body. But he had crisscrossed silver lines that etched deep canyons into his flesh, dipping suddenly into dark, hollow pits where the muscle had long ago surrendered to the bone.
Sweat trickled down my spine, tracking down cold paths to my jaw before I could blink them away, the heat of a flush crawling down my neck. It was the same for everyone else. But Soke.
I redirected my eyes back to the figure, it was gone.
FWOOSH!
In an instant, yellow sparks repelled our bodies, my own tumbling over the floor, grass caressing my face.
"Rgh!"
The figure's arm had clashed with Soke's, disturbingly red sparks grappling with the golden.
"You four! Get to a distance!"
"Mister Soke! What's that!?"
"The stronger a demon, the more humanoid they look. Those distorted things we fought were evidently weak because of that."
He grunted as he pushed himself off the ground, away from the creature.
"But, this one. It's a high level demon. You guys aren't able to handle these types yet."
"Soke! We have charms! Let us help-!" Kai exclaimed before getting cut off.
"I said get to a distance! Just shut up and watch!"
I stood rooted to the floor, my muscles turning to stone as I stared. Then, a raspy vibration broke the silence, crawling from his throat; a sound shaped into words.
"Let's have a good match, so-ke."
It spoke.