Chapter Eight: Element Reading

After lunch, Kazane practically dragged me outside, and I started wondering who the person she trained was. "You're probably thinking about who I must've trained right?" She turned to me with a smile, as if she had just read my mind.

"H-How did you..?"

"I read the air around you." She snickered. "I trained Agni by the way, and Agni trained Jinny."

"She trained Agni?!" I thought to myself while barely keeping a straight face. "And Jinny trained me...so who trained you?" I asked aloud.

"Hanako trained me and Daichi trained her."

"So Daichi was the first after Akari..." I muttered.

"Yeah... It's been almost a year since he turned. His birthday's in two months!" She grinned.

"I see... Is there like...some kind of interval between when people turn?"

"There's always a month and a half in between. It's always happened in a random town, random day of the week, and random time. But, it's always in this country, and those two will sense it."

"Akari and Atiyama..." I mumbled and Kazane nodded. The day we were going to be attacked would mark my one month anniversary as an Elementia. "Is there a possibility of there being two- ah, I mean four people turning at once?"

"Hm? Well, it hasn't happened yet, but I wouldn't cross off the possibility. If it did then you'd get to train two people though!"

I chuckled. "Let's focus on my training first before getting into something like that."

She laughed as well. "Alrighty, let's get started."

"So what're we gonna be doing?"

"It kind of goes in hand with what you were doing before. Not what Agni was teaching you, but what you did while you were training."

I tilted my head, confused before I realized. "Does it have to do with how I could sense electrical currents in people's bodies?"

"You got it! I was really surprised when you dodged me before. You should've seen the look on Agni's face too." She snickered. "We're going to be practicing how to read your element. With me, I can sense the air shifting and that's how I know when someone's coming. Agni can sense the heat from someone's body, Jinny can sense the water, and so on."

I remembered when the other Elementia had all jumped out of the mansion when the Dark Elementia appeared before. "So that's how they knew..." I thought.

"We're going to keep at this until it becomes like second nature to you. I imagine you won't always have the opportunity to listen to music on the battlefield, so we're gonna work on your focus a bit while we're at it. No earbuds."

I nodded and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and mentally preparing myself. I felt a small jolt in my brain and I could sense where Kazane was, if only faintly. "Bring it." I opened my eyes and I could feel a powerful gust of wind as she flew at me. I quickly jumped out of the way, sensing her approach. She palmed at the area where I was, a blast of wind shooting out of her hand, the force of wind so strong it still reached me. I blocked with my arms and did a backflip, my feet skidding against the ground as I caught myself.

"If you can touch me while I'm attacking you, you win." Kazane looked back at me and grinned. I could already feel the sweat beading down my forehead as I learned of my challenge. She flew at me swiftly once again, spreading out her arms as if they were wings, and wind began swirling around them powerfully. I quickly shot lightning from my feet, blasting myself out of the way as Kazane clapped her hands, the small tornadoes forming around her arms crashing together where I was just standing.

"She's coming at me like she wants to kill me..! I guess that's the best way to learn, but this is more like a game of tag than a focus exercise!" As I was midair, I aimed my hands backwards and fired two bolts of lightning from them, propelling myself toward Kazane. I reached out to try and grab her, but I had forgotten she could sense the change in the wind. She turned to me, ducked, dodged my hands, and palmed my gut.

"Ugh..!" A blast of wind sent me flying back and barreling through the air before I crashed and rolled on the ground so hard I bounced a few times. I trembled a bit from the pain, groaning quietly. If I was in a real battle, I'm sure there would've been attacks raining down on me, but Kazane just watched me. "It hurts...but I have to keep going...and getting stronger..!" I punched the ground and forced myself to stand.

I fired lightning from my feet once more, blasting myself into the air again. I instantly sensed Kazane flying toward me, so I fired a bolt of lightning from my right hand to blast myself out of the way. "Moving in mid-air is a lot harder than it looks..!" I thought to myself before shooting a lightning bolt from my other hand, flying back at her. I reached out to touch her, but she fired a small blast of wind from her hand, pushing the both of us away from each other.

Kazane floated almost gracefully, the air swirling around her to keep her floating. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that. As I fell to the ground, I fired a bolt of lightning below me to stop myself from crashing. I panted heavily, but Kazane was hardly sweating. "How do I get to someone who can fly..?" Another thought ran through my mind suddenly. "You bring them to the ground..."

I held out my hands, lightning sparking in them. Kazane watched, prepared to dodge my attacks. However, I fooled her. A small bolt of lightning zapped her from above, causing her to yelp. "Owie!" I fired the bolts of lightning I was charging in my hands at the ground, propelling myself to her once more. I stretched out my arm, but Kazane sensed my movement yet again. Although she was somewhat stunned, she used the wind to move her out of the way. I reached for her as I flew past her, trying to grab her leg or arm, but she was too far.

I groaned in frustration, catching myself by firing more bolts of lightning to stop my fall. This game continued for several hours. Kazane was too swift and she wasn't dumb enough to fall for the same tricks twice. I kept trying several different things, but nothing seemed to be working, and I was covered in bruises, dirt, and sweat. Kazane was a bit sweaty and had a couple red marks from the various places I shocked her. I stared at Kazane closely, looking all over her for a weak spot. The sun was starting to set, so it was going to be even harder to hit her with something that produced light.

Kazane snickered. "Lots of people would get the wrong idea if they saw you staring at me like that." I knew she was trying to distract me, so I ignored her words, though I couldn't keep my cheeks from becoming a faint red. I had already fallen for that trick when she took her shirt off before and didn't realize she had a tank-top underneath.

An idea had formed in my mind, a trick that I came up with but had yet to perfect. It wasn't full proof, but it was the only trick I had left, and I didn't want to be stuck playing tag all day the next day. I rushed at her on my feet and she did the same. I was able to sense her completely, just as she could sense me. It really had become second nature, just like she said. "This game of tag is getting annoying, hope you don't mind if I end it!"

I lunged at her, lightning blasting from my feet to propel me. She spun around and dodged me, turning and jumping back so I couldn't touch her, as I expected. I fired several thin lightning bolts at her from my fingers, about ten. She avoided them all easily by blasting herself out of the blast range with her wind, which I had also expected. I slowly started closing my hands, directing the thin bolts of lightning to follow her, and her eyes widened. I guessed correctly again; she didn't know I knew how to do this yet. Kazane flew around, flying away from my lightning bolts. So far, she was doing everything I wanted her to.

"Alright...let's hope this pays off!" I clenched my hands into fists completely and the ten lightning bolts suddenly circled her, closing her in a sphere; a cage of lightning.

"E-Eh?" Her eyes widened in confusion and she looked over at me. I gave her a bit of an evil smirk and flicked my fingers forward. Suddenly the tiny bolts of lightning started bouncing off one another inside the sphere. The sphere was big enough for Kazane to move around a lot in, which she did. Unfortunately I couldn't make it smaller yet, but the dozens of lightning bolts bouncing wildly on the inside of the cage would make it harder for her to sense things properly.

Kazane dodged the bolts as best as she could, getting grazed a few times. What she didn't know was what I was aiming for. I snapped my fingers and two bolts bounced off each other, both bouncing off the cage of lightning after. Kazane dodged the first, unaware she had just moved exactly where I wanted her to. The second bolt hit its mark, zapping the back of her neck, where her spinal cord was connected.

Kazane's eyes widened as she was hit, tensing up and falling, paralyzed. I shot lightning bolts from my feet to blast myself into the sky again, spreading my arms quickly and banishing the lightning so Kazane didn't fall onto it. I caught her in my arms as I flew under her, flipping forward and firing two more bolts of lightning from my feet, stopping my fall and stumbling, but I managed to land safely. I looked down at Kazane and grinned. "Looks like...I win..." I panted heavily, and though she was paralyzed, she smiled.

"Good job... You pass..." She giggled. I hadn't zapped her very hard, so she wasn't entirely paralyzed. I touched the back of her neck, releasing her from the paralysis. She trembled slightly before she was able to move again. I set her down gently and she wobbled a bit. I moved to help her, but she held up her hand. "I'm good. Looks like you learned a few other things while we were training huh?" She laughed. "Just as we all expected."

I smiled and nodded. "Thank you for training me. I'm grateful."

She smiled. "Three days to go." I nodded, a faint sense of dread washing over me. I still had a really bad feeling about the day of the attack.