Chapter Seven: Total Control

The next day, I woke up, did my usual morning routine, and was about to head outside, but the others suddenly stopped me. "Slow down dude! We gotta talk to ya for a minute." Kazane grinned and I looked at her with a confused gaze.

"The four of us decided that we'd each train you separately until the final day, the day we should be attacked. Today, you're going to be staying inside with Agni." Daichi explained and I looked to the others. Jinny, Agni, and Hanako all nodded while Kazane just grinned.

"Jinny you might not get a chance to train him again. Unless he learns something quickly." Daichi stated.

Jinny nodded. "The more he learns, the better."

"Do you really think I can learn something new everyday?" I asked.

"Well, you learned how to attack the quickest, so these simple things will be easy." Agni said. "Now come on, mine is probably going to be the simplest." I nodded and stood up, following Agni out of the dining room.

He led me into the kitchen. "I like to prepare lunch early, so you're going to be helping me."

"Right after breakfast?"

"Chances are you're going to mess up a few times, so yes." He picked up an unplugged cord attached to the oven, handing the end to me. "Today I'll be teaching you how to incorporate your element into everyday items. Like this." He snapped his fingers and the burners suddenly had flames coming out of them as if the stove had turned on.

"Woah! That's awesome!"

The flames then went out. "I'm guessing you know what you're going to be doing?"

I thought to myself for a second. "Become a human generator..?"

He nodded. I slowly sent a jolt of lightning through the wire, very faintly. Agni turned the knob once and the flames were almost what they were supposed to be at. "Alright, good. Now just maintain it."

"R-Right..." I had to focus quite a bit so I didn't put too much lightning into the wire. "This is difficult... If I lose my focus-"

Kazane burst through the door suddenly. "Hey Agni!" I jumped and sent a lot more electricity through the wire, causing the flames on the burner to burst, a lot of smoke to building up and even a tiny explosion. I quickly dropped the wire and the flames went out, all of us coughing and the smoke alarm went off, sprinklers going off soon after.

"I'm guessing Jinny controls that..?" I asked between coughs.

"Yep..." Agni muttered.

"The distraction was also part of your training! Good luck!" Kazane laughed evilly and ran out.

"Son of a..." I muttered.

"This not only takes a lot of focus, but a lot of control as well. If you don't control your element and just send it forward, it'll burst out in every direction, but I'm sure you know that already."

"Yeah..." I smiled nervously as I recalled learning to attack and my lightning blowing up in my face multiple times.

"With this training, you luckily won't need to control where your lightning goes. However, you will need to control the output, keeping it steady, and being able to keep it up throughout any situation. If you manage to complete this training, you'll be able to control your output to the point where it'll become second nature. You won't even have to think about it."

I nodded, becoming filled with determination and sending lightning through the wire again. This went on for a couple hours. I did my best to focus, but every time Kazane bursted through the door, even making me jump a little, the flames would get too hot and burn the food.

I jumped again as Kazane bursted in, instantly burning the food once again. "G-God damnit!" I threw the wire down and sighed.

Kazane patted my back. "Hey it's alright. You'll get it."

Agni ruffled his hair a bit and sighed. "I know it's frustrating, but you just have to keep trying. It took me all day to get this right. It may not be as difficult as some of the other stuff you've done, but it requires a lot of focus. For someone like the Lightning Elementia, I can imagine how that'd make it more difficult."

"Yeah, take his word for it. He's the Fire Elementia, so you can imagine how he exploded." Kazane laughed at her pun and Agni rolled his eyes. I looked over at them, smiling a little and nodding. I have to admit, I got a bit distracted by Agni's cooking and kept looking around the room at times, sometimes losing focus before Kazane even bursted into the room. It was hard for me to stay still and keep focus with all the energy I had.

I knelt down and picked up the wire, thinking for a second. "Wait, I know..." The two of them gave me confused looks. I shook my head and smiled at them. "Don't worry about it. Let's just say I have an idea." I set the wire aside for a second and ran out of the kitchen suddenly. Kazane and Agni both gave each other confused looks. I went to my room and grabbed a couple of things before running back to the kitchen. I walked over and grabbed the wire. "Alright, I'm ready." The two looked at each other again before shrugging. Kazane headed out and I started sending electricity through the wire again.

About fifteen minutes passed before Kazane bursted into the room again suddenly, but this time, I didn't even give her a glance and just focused on the wire. Kazane tilted her head. "Huh?" Agni focused on his cooking, surprised the flames weren't getting any hotter, but he didn't want to ruin the food by getting distracted.

Kazane walked over and poked her head out in front of me. I, however, had my eyes closed. I knew she was there because I could sense the electrical currents in her body. My element allowed me to sense things like that while I was so focused, but even that didn't distract me. Kazane gasped, her eyes widening as she saw what was keeping me so focused. "No way!"

I had earbuds in my ears and was listening to music. Kazane tried to shove me, but sensing her, I moved out of the way. I heard her yelp as she fell over even through my earbuds, but continued to focus on the wire. I bobbed my head to the beat of my music, continuously dodging Kazane's attempts to distract me. Soon enough, Agni finished cooking.

"Alright, enough! He passes. Just in time for lunch." Agni chuckled.

Hearing him yell, I took my earbuds out. I looked over to see the cooked, unburnt food on plates for everyone, and I immediately jumped with joy. "Hell yeah! I did it! Finally!" I raised my fist into the air, grinning like a dork.

"Good job Sandy!" Kazane laughed and jumped on my back, ruffling my hair. "That means you get to train with me next since you finished early!" I smiled, fixing my messed up hair a little when she got off of me.

"Using music to distract yourself from everything else but your task, which in turn helps you focus. Impressive. Looks like we've learned something new about you." I turned to see Hanako at the door with the others.

Akari smiled and her eyes shined brightly, as if she was proud of me, Jinny grinning at me as well. I smiled at them all, picking up a few plates. "Lunch is served! Get it while it's hot!" They all ran into the kitchen, going to grab their plates. Daichi patted my shoulder as he passed, Hanako rubbing my head like I was a child, Akari gave me a pat on the back, and Jinny ruffled my hair, looking into my eyes as she smiled. I kept my back to them after that, a bright smile forming on my face.

I headed out to the dining area by myself, setting the plates I had in my hands down. I stood there for a second and noticed a bit of water dripping onto the table. I felt my face and realized they were my tears. I smiled, chuckling to myself. "Never thought I would ever cry tears of joy..." I looked up at the lights, seeing the faces of my family. "Can you see me now? I'm not a failure anymore..." The tears continued to fall and I looked down, lightly hiccupping as I wiped my eyes clean of them.

I heard everyone's voices, jumping a bit, wiping my eyes quickly, and turning to the dining room entrance with a bright smile. "Took you all long enough, geez."

"Shaddup." Jinny rolled her eyes as she walked in with the others.

Jinny stared at me for a second and got closer to me, leaning close and looking directly into my eyes. I gave her a confused look and averted my eyes. At the time I didn't know she had the power to sense water, like how I could sense electrical currents in human bodies. My cheeks were slightly wet from the tears. Not to mention my eyes were a faint red. Without saying a word, Jinny gave me a soft smile. It was different from her usual playful smiles. I couldn't tell if it was sympathetic or pitying, but whichever it was, it made my cheeks go red.

"W-What?" I gave her another confused look.

"Oh nothing." She ruffled my hair again after setting her plate down.

"Will you stop treating me like a kid? My hair's messy enough." I groaned a little as I started fixing my hair.

She grinned and rubbed my head yet again. "Maybe in the future." I rolled my eyes and lightly pulled her hand off my head. She kept looking into my eyes, which made me pause, my hand still holding hers, and we stayed like that for a few moments. I soon couldn't look at her anymore and let go of her hand, taking my seat. My heart was going crazy and the burning feeling in my cheeks wouldn't go away as Jinny sat next to me. She always sat next to me, but my heartbeat was unusually fast the whole time. However, we all happily ate, and I acted as if nothing was wrong.