Wednesday, 5:13pm.
"No thank you." Mark thinks to himself after seeing how jam packed the shop is through the glass windows and doors, "Its too hot, I think I'm getting heatstroke or something. Can I wait out here while you guys do your thing?" Mark asks his mother who gives him a knowing look, not buying his lie before agreeing anyway.
"Then can I wait out here too?" Scott asks, almost dripping with sweat. "We're here for you!" Their mother stresses, tapping him toward the door with a rolled up magazine, "But you know what I want." Scott argues despite the door already closing behind them.
"This is shorts weather y'know?" A voice ambushing Mark specifically despite the bustling city centre street, "You dress like that in the wild too?" Valentina asks, grinning as their eyes meet. "Seriously, in this weather you can ditch the long sleeves and jeans." Mark stumbles over himself for a moment, Valentina taking the chance to swipe the outside of her hand on his forehead. "Nevermind. You're immune to the sun apparently. Not one bead of sweat running across that massive forehead."
"Massive?" Mark asks himself, "What are you doing here?" His question directed towards Valentina this time, his bearings now mostly in tact but not even processing Valentina had just touched his face. "Shopping, hopefully just like you. I was meant to be doing this with my mother but she didn't show up to my duel just like someone else so we're not talking." Valentina shooting the most blatant accusatory look directed at Mark. "Me? I went."
"If you came you'd have shown up at the infirmary afterwards." Her voice portraying she wasn't actually mad. "Infirmary? Why? There were healers." Valentina laughs at his perceived naivety, "They can only do so much at their level. Someone needs to take you shopping, you dress like an old man." Picking at Marks jacket that's obviously too warm for the weather like she's dissecting 'his' sense of style, "I'm picking something up so I've got to go but show up on Friday, I've got something I want to show you."
"Why not tomorrow?" Mark questions, "I'm having lunch with Alex, the girl I duelled. Before you ask, because sometimes people do, just because we kicked each others asses doesn't mean there is any bad blood." Valentina explains, literally waving away any concerns with her hand.
"You beat her." Mark mutters, Valentina only just making out his words, "Look at you defending me."
Thursday, 4:18pm.
"When do you find the time for training?" Miles asks as he trails Freya through the mall.
"I don't. I'm strong enough to hold out where I am now until my metamorphosis." Freya answers casually as she stops at a shop window and takes a sip of her drink.
"Yeah but what about aiming for top two? You can definitely do it." Miles, now standing beside her.
"There's no point. I'm content where I am. Going into college I'll have gone through my metamorphosis so I'll aim for number one then." Freya says, walking away from the window display.
"You feel nothing after seeing Valentina and Alex's duel? Even I felt like making a push for a moment after that." Miles, purposely exaggerating the effect the duel had on him to try and push Freya to make the right decision in his mind.
"Of course, I'm happy. I'm glad. If Alex of all people did that to her then I overestimated her abilities. Probably because she's an Emperors daughter." A store out of the corner of her eyes steals her attention, "Ohhh the bag I sent you was in there last time! C'mon I'll get you something too!"
Marching down the cold and unfeeling halls of his families house Jack, escorted by his fathers men, greets his father as he stands outside the doors to his own office.
"A man from the main branch is here. Why is he asking for you? What have you done, boy?" Jacks father says aggressively, squaring up at the door, preparing himself for what's to come.
"How would I know, old man?" Under cutting his fathers intensity as he too squares up at the door to his fathers office.
One last mean look and Jacks father slides the door open to see the man stood behind his desk, young but long grey hair running down to his shoulders and a hand firmly placed on the sheath of his pristine, stylized katana as he pushes around a few loose papers on the desk with his free hand.
"Master Tazawa." Father and son both bowing.
"No. I am no Master, be glad I am not. They would not accept having to wait in the slightest." Discarding the loose papers, Tazawa moves past the desk and towards the two men. "Tell me of the Elskaya girl."
"Why?" Jack answers, almost flippantly. "You dare!" His father shrieks, gripping the area between his sons shoulder and neck, digging his fingers in hard afterwards.
"Not in my presence. You forget yourselves." His voice steady while he holds the edge of his sword against the fathers forearm before he can even react, Jacks eyes catching Tazawa's attention.
"The clan heads are interested. Enough?" Despite the question posed all three of them knew it wasn't really a matter of if he thought it was enough information. "Yes, of course. Dual Wielder, she has moved up the rankings but I find her middling as she is now. If we duel, I will win."
Tazawa and Jacks father exchange a couple of intense glances but Tazawa is first to ease his arms, silently requesting for the small standoff to end and Jacks father nods ever so slightly.
"Will you?" Tazawa asks, sheathing his katana once more and Jacks father follows suit with his arm, "I don't like the boy but there is a reason we haven't pulled him out of that school. That reason won't protect the Elskaya girl, put a blade in my sons hand and nobody that hasn't seen their metamorphism can hold a candle to him."
Letting the words sit with him as he allows his eyes to rest upon Jack as if he were analysing his current abilities, Tazawa walks straight in between the two on his way to the door not bothering to take the extra couple of steps to go by them. "He noticed my blade before you did, once his body catches up to his senses send him to us. I may train him personally."
Now alone in his office, Jacks father smacks him hard, making sure to catch his ear as he does so. "You psychotic piece of work. Daring to give such answers to a main branch member! Do you wish for our families destruction? Get out of my sight before I decide a slap isn't enough!"
A sly grin slithers onto Jacks face, purposely only allowing it to make an appearance as he takes a performative bow, "As you wish, father."
"Monday!" Anthony excitedly screams down the microphone of his phone, Mark holding his off to the side of his head and still being able to hear him perfectly.
"You're back on Monday? It's a bit soon right?" Mark responds tentatively bringing the phone back to his ear. "Slow and steady but they say I'm far enough along to get something out of classes! Monday!"
Friday, Around 12:00pm.
"You said you wanted to show me something today?" Mark asks casually as both he and Valentina sit on the connector bench.
"Yes but it's only my progress." Moving her book from being held at the bottom of the spine with a finger marking the page to laying on the bench beside her, Valentina holds her hands out in front of her so they're facing each other like Mark had previously shown her and promptly uses her Lightning.
Much more potent, stretching farther and additional bolts that she previously couldn't control in the slightest, Valentina had improved leaps and bounds, considerably more than Mark thought possible for her, "Did you think of this on the spot?" Valentina asks, moving her eyes from the blue lightning to Mark.
"Trial and error." The thought crossing his mind suddenly. "Awakeners, especially with elemental abilities, have a base resistance to their own power engraved into their bodies so your palms can handle it and finely controlling the power exerted should make you better at controlling it, in turn improving your understanding." Mark explains, expecting Valentina to be somewhat uninterested but she listens keenly. "You must be a natural. Improving that much in this amount of time is a massive achievement."
"Thank you, I have a great teacher." Valentina manages to say through her flattered smile and modestly rosy cheeks.
"Hopefully she takes her progress slowing down well." Mark thinks to himself solemnly.
Using ones ability however which way after awakening grants guaranteed growth, using genuine training techniques just helps reach the point, strength wise, where that stops faster. While this is quite common knowledge it can still be disheartening to have to go to extra lengths for progress that came much easier beforehand. Every awakener has gone through this but its especially hard for older awakeners who awakened nearer to the backend of the expectancy for awakening which is 4-20. While Valentina awakened her Weapon Conjuring early, her second awakening came only a couple of months beforehand.
"My mother says a thank you is only complete with a gift, to show how deep your gratitude runs. Close your eyes." Mark cocks his head for a moment, confused. "Close them and hold out your hand." Valentina repeats, still holding her smile.
Relenting, Mark does as he's told, the darkness of his eyelids the only thing he sees as he listens to Valentina rummaging through her bag, finding what she was searching for and dropping it back to the floor.
Unable to resist the urge, Mark attempts to take a sneak peak but Valentina catches him the instant he tries as if she was waiting for him to do so. Blind to the outside world again, Valentina can't take the chance of Mark peeking again, lightly pressing her free hand against his eyes and brow.
The blind touch catches Mark off guard but to his genuine surprise he doesn't fight it more than the initial instinctive pull back of his head, his brain wanting to buck her hand off of him but his entire body accepting her hand as if it were natural, no one having earned the trust to do anything like this with him faster than Valentina for some unknown reason.
"Her fingers are bony and callused but her hand is warm." Mark thinks, accepting the strange feeling paper into his hand.
Valentina reclaims her hand, giving Mark her permission to look.
"My mom loves tea." Mark finally says, lifting the teabags up to his face. "That's a Core Enhancement, it's not strong but it will help you grasp your core much easier. Drink it and begin to focus on your system but it may knock you for a loop so drink it with people around, ok?" Valentina stresses while watching Mark inspect the bag like it's some sort of alien contraption.
"I don't need this, and its real expensive so I can't take it --" Valentina interrupts swiftly, "Drink the tea, we have a bunch of it and it's useless for me now. My father is sending me some more potent stuff so.. and it tastes like crap it's a double edged sword really.. Just take it, you can't return gifts after they're given. Not to me anyway." Valentina rambles, hardly being able to face Mark as she does.
"Then I'll have to accept but because I'm so grateful I'll have to get you a gift to say thank you. Don't expect anything like this though, I'm on a tighter budget."
"I'd be offended if you thought I care about how expensive a gift would be. Just no Matryoshka dolls, every year I go to a new school and somehow whenever there's gift giving I get given the same god forsaken Matryoshka dolls. Anything is better at this point."
"You shot down my first choice before I even got to think of a second!" Mark dramatically yelps, acting as if her words had wounded his very soul.
"Don't worry, you'll think of something." Valentina playing along, changing her voice to soothe him.