[153] Training, and Invasion From Who Now?

Chapter 153: Training, and Invasion From Who Now?

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[Third Person Point of View]

“Ten more minutes.” Mai lifted her wrist and read the time.

It was almost the agreed-upon time for the date to begin. Aqua wasn't here yet.

Mai had little expectations for the day. It wasn't actually a date, at least not to her, she couldn't be sure if Aqua saw it as one. He had convinced her to do this by luring her with a promise to power.

“Your potential is far greater than Touki training,” he had told her with a profound look in his eyes. “If what I'm planning isn't impossible, I can make you a lot stronger, a lot faster. Can we meet at a later time?”

Recently she found herself interested in the field of magic and supernatural arts. Her school of magic wasn't the usual spell casting, but rather applications of Touki in versatile ways. It could never achieve the vast limited-only-by-imagination effects of spell cast magic, but then it gave her physical and martial powers to boot.

So for Aqua to claim that he had methods to grant her more powers, where her racial potential would bloom further, it naturally grabbed her interest.

However, she doubted it. For all his feats and powers, he was still a young mortal. After all, the Lagomorph King hasn’t been down the mortal world since the Heian era. Nobody knew his current whereabouts.

When nobody knew anything, how could a young mortal know otherwise?

For all that doubt, however, a bit of hope existed within her too. It was not because of Aqua himself but his affiliation.

The Immortal Venerable Over Heavens. It was a name that the higher-ups of this side of the world often took recently. They've been in search of this man, but his identity remains a mystery. The Chinese Gods and supernatural entities refused to comment on it, too.

The reason she came here was because of that. The Queen of Yokais herself, Yasaka, reached out to her to make her poke some information out of Aqua about his master.

As one of the strongest users of Touki, the Nine-Tailed Fox Demoness was interested in this Venerable One who raised this fresh and young superhuman powerhouse.

Truthfully, Mai disliked this mission. Even if she didn't like Aqua romantically, she was grateful to him because he saved her life, her existence. Must she really try to bait him to reveal information?

So she promised herself just to ask him once directly, instead of trying to manipulate the information out of him and see if he'd answer. If he didn't? That's the Yokai Queen's loss.

“Mai Senpai,” a voice interrupted Mai's train of thought just when she raised her wrist to take a look at the time again.

Blonde hair reflected in her eyes, swaying in the wind. A charismatic smile met her indifferent expression, which caused her to show a small smile of her own.

Aquamarine Hoshino was just in time.

“You know, I wouldn't even have been surprised if you came here two hours ago and tried to play a gentleman.” Mai said as he stopped in front of her, “I might have felt a bit disappointed that I am the first to come here, even if you're on time.”

“Sorry, I had to rescue this kitten from a tree,” he said, taking her hand to place a kiss. She stared at him dryly. “Too corny?”

“Too old fashioned for a man too modern to be a gentleman,” she said but did not withdraw her hand from near his lips. He showed her a smile, took another kiss, and then let her go.

“Have you had breakfast yet? We can go to this place nearby, it has good shrimp,” he said and she shook her head.

“Let’s not waste time pretending this is a real date. You baited me with your words, and it's your turn to prove them true. And I've already had breakfast,” she said.

“Dinner, then.” He said, “If I'm going to show you my tricks, you'll be too busy for lunch, so we'll have dinner at night.”

“....”

“Come with me,” he snapped a finger in the air and pulled half an Instant Dungeon over them.

Their surroundings remained unchanged, but any odd and magical stuff they did, they would not be noticed by the cameras and humans. He turned around and looked at her from his shoulder, “I'll take you to some secluded area. Try to keep up.”

…

Aqua led Mai deeper into the park, their fast steps muffled by the thick ruffling of summer leaves.

Aqua led the way, his stride confident as the city blurred past them, the subtle shift of the Instant Dungeon, like a soft mirage only visible here and then, enveloped them like a second skin.

Mai kept pace with him in silence, a deep curiosity whirling in her mind.

They stopped in front of an old, gnarled tree that seemed as ancient as the legends. It was an old abandoned park.

“Here,” Aqua said, gesturing to the space around a tree. “This spot is saturated with natural energy and seems to be a ley line intersection. An ideal place for what I want to show you.”

Mai raised an eyebrow, intrigued despite herself. “And what exactly is that? Just tell me already.” She was tired of waiting.

The area was shrouded by ancient trees, forming a natural alcove. Aqua paused at her question, allowing the stillness of the secluded grove to settle around them like a cloak. The air here was ripe with the scent of earth and growth, which Aqua found to be a perfect setting for awakening ancient powers.

"Your lineage,” Aqua started, “as one of the direct descendants of the Lagomorph King, isn’t just a legacy of simple Qi arts; it should provide powers unique only to yourself," Aqua's low and resonant voice hummer seamlessly through the air. "From what I know, and correct me if I'm wrong, the Lagomorphs were not creatures of the earth, they're from the moon, and are masters of spatial arts. Their dominion lies in space hopping. Teleportation, short and big.”

Mai's eyes reflected his wise expression as she nodded, “I heard the legends about it, yes. I'm surprised you're aware.”

“Well, but of course,” he shrugged at that. "Today, I'll introduce you to what I call the [Moonshadow Leap]. It is one of the basic abilities that Lagomorphs use for space jumps," Aqua explained, his eyes scanning the area for the perfect demonstration spot.

“Naturally, as not a lagomorph myself, I can't show you how it works, but,” He stepped back when his eyes found a spot he liked, and a look of concentrated focus overtook his features. "I have a technique that's similar in result, it's called the 'Whirlwind Blink’. I'll show you. Observe closely," he instructed.

Mai nodded and watched.

With deliberate calm, Aqua’s form started to blur, his body’s outline shimmering as if becoming part of the air itself. A moment later, in a flash of wind and light, he sliced through the space where he had stood and reappeared several meters away.

The air hummed softly in the wake of soft static electrons. It was ionized.

Mai blinked. “But I don't sense any space element from the movement. How?”

"Because it's not a spatial technique. The result is teleportation, something only possible by manipulating space. Except Whirlwind Blink does not manipulate space directly, it simply transforms my physical entity into a burst of wind and air. Then I manipulate the electrons in the air to traverse," he continued, returning to her side. "My power is related to Storms, so it's easy for me to mess with wind and lightning. For your case, however, the technique should be purely Space Element."

Mai absorbed the lesson, her mind racing through the implications. "Do you really believe I can do this? I don’t see how seeing this technique helps. Cause I’ve seen teleportation spells before, but they didn’t give me any insight into my Lagomorph bloodline." she said, her voice a mixture of skepticism and hope.

"Well, you lacked the right guidance and sufficient practice," Aqua affirmed. "Both of which I can provide. You can start by sensing the space around you, the same way you were able to tell that I wasn’t manipulating space before. Feel the reality itself around you, its depth, its essence, its ‘blueness’. There is a thing called the Layer, some even call it the Way. It's the leyline within the universe and beyond. Let your energy extend out, become one with it, find the space within it, and occupy it. Or at least try to.”

Mai stared at him for a bit, wondering if this was really going to work. She saw him do it in person, so she knew he could do it, but did her bloodline really have such an ability pre-coded?

She took a deep breath, centering herself amidst the natural amphitheater of trees and whispered breezes. There was only one way to find out. To test it out herself. Not like she had anything to lose.

Closing her eyes, she tried to envision her energy. She followed Aqua's whisper word by word, as he instructed her in real time. She imagined her existence as a fluid wave, seeking to synchronize with the world around her. With a focused exhale, she visualized her body dispersing into a cloud of particles, attempting to mimic Aqua’s seamless transition.

Naturally, as her eyes were closed, all of her world was dark. Even though it was daytime, it was dark. But just then, for the briefest moment, her world grew bright.

When she opened her eyes to check, there was no change. There was a slight blue glow on her shoulders, but that's it.

“It almost worked,” Aqua stood with his arms crossed beside her. “Again.”

Her initial attempt was less than smooth, but she kept trying. She ran, she jumped, she sat still, she stopped breathing, and she tried a lot of other things. None seemed to be helpful. At one point, her form flickered uncertainty, partially dissolving into space, and she realized it was working.

She could feel it with her eyes closed, but that made her too excited, causing her to abruptly snap back into solidity. Her eyes snapped open, and she staggered slightly upon re-materialization.

“Easy there,” he held her by the waist and stopped her from falling. The air popped and fizzled around her, the scent of ozone flaring briefly as she regained her balance, looking into his eyes.

"Not bad for a first attempt," Aqua said, his tone encouraging. "Don't take it heavy on yourself. You managed to initiate the transformation in a few mere hours. It’s a solid beginning. Rest for now.”

Mai, determined and slightly frustrated, glanced back at her starting point. "Again," she insisted, her resolve like steel.

“How stubborn,” Aqua chuckled, with a grin on his face.

The two of them continued practicing for a long while, the park fading into a timeless bubble as Mai repeated her attempts. Each effort brought her closer to the fluidity required, her form beginning to dance with the whispers of the wind.

Even so, she still fell short of a proper Moonshadow Leap. Yet, with each trial, her control and understanding deepened.

As the session drew to a close, Mai’s breaths were heavy, her body draped in the sweat of her stubborn tries. Despite the physical toll, her spirit remained surging with undimmed fervor. "I haven't managed to get a single one right yet," she let out a grumble, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead, "I feel furious because I know I can do it since I almost did it! But something simply isn’t clicking!”

"That's the spirit I hoped to see," Aqua responded, a smile of approval lighting his face. "But don't get frustrated, take it easy and cool. We’ll pick this up again soon.”

Mai didn't exactly mind taking a break, to be honest. She had stuff she had to talk to him about, too. About his master.

However… the air grew ionized and she realized she would have to wait for a bit before she'd get the chance.

“And besides,” Aqua said softly as his smile dropped sharply and his perception focused behind a tree, “We have uninvited and unattended guests near us.”

An overwhelming presence smoked out of him, dampening the air like the weight of a raging storm. Oddly enough, Aqua felt the energy of the White Tiger from those fools lurking in the bushes.

What's going on now, all of a sudden?

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