Chapter Two; Part Two

A couple days passed after my first day of training. I was trying the best I could to control my element like Jinny described. I knew how to call upon it and keep it under control so I didn't keep shocking myself when I got wet, so I was finally able to take a shower, but when we moved to attacking with my element, it just blew up in my face or I got shocked beforehand. I was able to stay calm and keep my thoughts at bay when thinking of my element, but I couldn't understand why I couldn't just fire the damn thing.

"Alright, I think we should take another break, before you kill yourself." Jinny said as she watched my pathetic attempts.

I chuckled at the irony. "Right..." I sighed and took a seat by the trees we normally sat by and she sat across from me like always.

"Don't feel bad, it took all of us a while honestly." She explained.

"Really?" I looked at her with a suspicious gaze.

She averted her eyes. "Yes really. it took me four days to learn how to attack with my water."

I groaned and leaned my head back against the tree. "I'm never gonna do this..."

"Hey, come on now, it's only because of how your element is. It's not exactly peaceful like some of ours are. I'd be surprised if you completed it fast." She giggled a bit.

I stared up at the sky. "You'd think it'd be easier with an element like mine..." I thought of a raging thunderstorm with me in the center and all the things I could do if I could control my element. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, feeling someone's gaze on me and I glanced at Jinny, noticing she was looking at me. Remembering what she said before, I couldn't help myself. "Take a picture, it'll last longer~" I mocked her.

Her cheeks visibly reddened and she looked away. "S-Shut up! Asshole..." She grumbled.

I laughed, thinking to myself. "So she can be cute too."

"What're you laughing about?! I can kick your butt now if you prefer!" She held out her hand and a ball of water formed.

I jumped and held up my hands. "N-No no no! Please, it's nothing! I'm sorry!" However, she threw the water ball at me anyway, splashing my face with water. I blinked a few times, my hair and face soaked.

Jinny started laughing. "Sorry sorry, I just couldn't help myself!"

"You're lucky I can't do anything to you right now..." I thought to myself, grumbling and drying my face with my shirt. I then just sat there, thinking about what I could be doing wrong, but we were suddenly called inside to eat. I got up with Jinny and we headed inside. Funny enough, Agni was actually the cook of the group. I know he had the fire element and all, but he was so temperamental and seemed like the type who would serve all of his food charred black. Don't judge a book by its cover I guess. I still didn't know his story, but I'm guessing he used to cook for that little sister he used to have.

I still felt pretty awful about the things I said the other day. I may have killed my entire family accidentally, but I wasn't all that close to any of them really. I was a shut in. It's not like I didn't love my family or anything, I just didn't feel much of anything. I didn't care about not having many friends or not having a girlfriend, heck I didn't even care about not even having had my first kiss. I made a big deal of killing my family I wasn't that close with when these people accidentally killed people extremely important to them. I sighed as Agni placed a plate of food in front of me. "What's your problem?" He asked as he heard me sigh.

"It's nothing." I took a bite of the sandwich in front of me.

"Training not going well?" Daichi asked after taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Yeah I'm having a bit of trouble I guess..." I scratched the back of my head, a nervous habit.

"Don't let it get you down." Hanako smiled at me. "We all struggled with learning how to attack with our elements; you can't expect to get it right on the first day. The shortest it's taken any of us was Agni, who mastered his in three days, which is shocking considering he has one of the more wild elements."

Agni smirked confidently as he was praised and I rolled my eyes. "Who took the longest?"

Akari spoke up after swallowing the last bite of her first sandwich. "Without any help training, it took me a couple months to control my element fully. It took me two weeks to learn how to attack with it. With training however, the longest it's taken someone to attack was Hanako. It took her a week." Hanako giggled a bit, sweat dripping down her forehead.

"Yeah, so don't expect it to get it on your first try kid, we all struggled. So don't worry, even if it takes a few years, it's not like we age anymore." Agni smirked again.

I paled at the thought. "Y-Years..."

Jinny lightly punched Agni's shoulder. "It won't take him that long, quit trying to scare him." Jinny spoke in between taking bites of her sandwiches. Surprisingly, she had the most food out of all of us. Daichi, who was the biggest, only had about six sandwiches. I had three, Agni having the same amount, Hanako and Akari both had two, Kazane had four, and Jinny had eight. They may have only been halves cut into triangles, but we all had a few sides as well, like chips, crackers, rice, etc. I looked at Jinny and my eyes trailed from her face to her chest. I quickly shook my head, smacking my cheeks and erasing the sudden thought that had formed in my mind. The others seemed to take it as a sign of pumping myself up thankfully.

"That's the spirit!" Daichi chuckled.

"Yeah!" Kazane shouted, talking with food in her mouth. She really was like a child.

I smiled and chuckled nervously. "R-Right..." I paused as I recalled what Agni said. "Wait, did you just say...we don't age?"

Agni scoffed. "Were you not paying attention when Akari was telling her story? She's over a hundred years old now, so of course the rest of us won't age either."

"Wait, so you mean...when you all told me your ages..."

"They're our real ages idiot. The unnatural disasters happen every couple months, so none of us are older than we look. But we definitely don't age, which is why we all look as if we're in our prime." Agni explained.

He was right, I definitely looked as good as I think I could've gotten, as did everyone else. Jinny looked like she could pass off being 20 honestly. "I see... So we're not going to age at all?"

"No." Akari spoke up, having finished her second sandwich. "Like our elements, we too are now eternal. If any one of us were ever to die, then it's possible that our element might too."

"So if you were to die there might not be anymore light..?" I asked.

"It's a possibility." Akari stretched. "But don't think of it as a definite possibility. No Elementia has ever died before so I'm not entirely sure what would happen. That's just a worse case scenario."

"Worst case scenario..." I thought of a world without electricity and gulped a bit.

"Let's continue training and get your mind off of all the glum things Akari told you about." Jinny said and stood up, having already finished all her food.

"O-Oh I'm fine, but yeah, let's continue..." I smiled and stood up, following her and deciding keeping my mouth shut about how fast she just ate would be best.

We continued training like before, but I didn't make much progress at all. I sighed in frustration as I stared at my palms that were steaming a bit. "That's enough for today. It's getting late, we should head to bed. Come on." Jinny turned and walked to the mansion., and I hesitantly followed. We all ate dinner and headed for our rooms.

I took a shower and changed clothes, then laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. I thought of what Akari and the others had said and then the dark figure I imagined came to my mind again. I clenched my fists slowly and stood up, heading outside, making sure to be quiet about it as to not wake anyone up. I went to the edge of the plateau instead of the arena, going as far away from the mansion as I could without crossing the forest and decided to continue training on my own. The sounds of my yelling and the zapping of my lightning echoed throughout the night, as well as my pained groans and light explosive sounds as the lightning blew up in my face several times.

The sun slowly began to rise and Jinny awoke, yawning. She sat up and stretched, going to the bathroom to get ready for the day. She was always up before anyone else because she liked to watch the sunrise. She walked out of the mansion and began walking toward the edge of the plateau. She loved sitting at the edge and watching the reflection of the sun on the water. She felt the view was the most beautiful part of this place. She smiled as she thought these things to herself, but her thoughts were disrupted when she heard a bit of a zapping noise.

She blinked and turned her gaze toward the horizon, seeing me, my clothes a bit torn and my arms were steaming, looking as if they were just on fire. Her eyes widened and she began to run toward him. "Sanda! Have you been out here all ni-" I couldn't hear her as a few sparks covered my body. The zapping sound of the lightning around me was too loud for me to hear Jinny's voice. I held out my arms, the palms of my hands sparking, and I let out a shout, firing a spark of lightning. It was nothing fancy and wasn't very powerful, like the lightning bolt I imagined firing from my palms in my head, but it was a start. I panted and looked back, seeing Jinny standing there, wide eyed.

"Have you been...training all night..?" She asked in a mutter from how amazed she seemed to be.

I gave her a weak smile. "You think...I'll be able...to beat Agni's record at this rate..?" I chuckled as I felt myself starting to collapse, seeing Jinny running toward me as my vision blurred.