Mom's Training Arc-You're Good, but You Also Suck(151)

"Wait... does that mean I am an Echt Quincy or whatever pure-blood Quincies are called... No..."

Sora didn't like the implications of this. The fuck you mean he was a pureblood?

"How's your little brother?" she asked with a thoughtful look.

"You mean Uryu...? He's fine," he said, tilting his head a bit.

"That's good to know," she said softly.

...

...

"No... I am not his mom, jeez, don't give me that face," she said when she saw her son's look.

"Hm... I wished... I really wished for it. I could've teased him more," he said, sighing a bit.

"Unfortunately, Mommy couldn't get some more, since she was hiding from Mustache Man, but if she wasn't—"

"Don't finish that sentence."

"You're a meanie," she pouted a bit... full-grown woman, by the way.

"Alright, enough sulking, baby boy," she clapped her hands. "It's training time."

Sora groaned, rubbing his face. "Mom, I've literally trained my Quincy abilities to the max. There's nothing more to—"

"Oh? Oh?" Kaede squinted, crossing her arms. "Are you saying you're the best Quincy out there?"

"Damn right I am." He was the best there ever was, the peak when it came to Quincy stuff.

"Wrong. You're strong, but you also suck." Jeez, was she harsh.

"Excuse me?!" was Sora's response, yet she just smiled.

"Yeah, yeah, you trained your control and precision, but honey, you've got more Reiatsu than anyone else. You're leaking spiritual pressure like a damn broken faucet."

Okay, he'd been trying to fix that problem, but his Reiryoku was growing way too freaking fast, okay?

"I regulate my output just fine—"

Kaede poked his forehead.

A sudden wave of spiritual energy exploded from him, knocking the surrounding space into chaotic distortion.

"...Oh."

Okay, maybe it wasn't as perfect as he thought.

Kaede gave him a smug look. "See? You're basically a walking nuclear reactor. You don't just regulate output, baby, you need to learn how to weaponize it properly."

She snapped her fingers. "First lesson—Ransotengai Range Control."

"Wait... did you say range?" he said, looking at his mom, who just smiled at him.

I mean, he had used that technique for a lot of stuff—drawing, as in controlling his hand with the technique alone to draw something, even using it for manual beats of his heart, and so on.

All in all, his control was practically flawless.

She raised a finger, strands of Reishi threads extending far beyond what Sora had ever considered possible.

Then—

She flicked her wrist.

In the distance, a random Soul Reaper dummy suddenly moved like a puppet on strings.

The devious shit possible just wrote itself. So many plans... hehe, this would be glorious.

"This is Remote Ransotengai," Kaede explained. "You're already good at manipulating your own body, but what if you could take control of someone else's?"

He liked where this was going.

Time skip.

Kaede pointed at him. "Next up—Spiritual Possession."

Sora raised an eyebrow. "The hell is that?"

"Simple," she said, cracking her knuckles. "In essence, you let your Reiryoku leak into the air and have it be absorbed by one of the Shinigami's many pores, or whatever being you're fighting. You can even have them inhale it. You wait until a sufficient amount enters their body..."

She smirked.

"—Then you can hijack their body."

"So... basically turning them into puppets."

Kaede gave him finger guns. "Ding ding ding~!"

Sora looked at his own hands.

This. This was broken.

"That sounds illegal," he muttered.

Also, how many crackhead techniques did his mom make?

"A lot," she said, booping his nose a bit.

She liked squeezing his cheeks way too much.

"You're fighting a guy who just one-shot the entire Gotei 13. You think legality matters?" she added, shrugging a bit.

Fair point.

"Alright, so how do I do it?" Sora asked.

Kaede cracked her knuckles. "Time for some hands-on practice, baby boy. Try and take control of me."

Sora paused. "...What?" He knew what she wanted, but really?

"Come on, give it a shot!" she encouraged. "Force your stuff into my body and take over."

"Mom, that sounds incredibly wrong out of context," he said, incredibly embarrassed.

"And yet, you're still hesitating. Go on, possess your mother." She smiled at him.

"STOP MAKING IT SOUND WORSE!"

"That right there? That's your biggest problem. You hesitate, Sora."

"The hell are you talking about? I act just fine in battle—"

"Nope." She jabbed a finger at his chest. "When things get serious, you start overthinking. And overthinking in battle is just a fancy way of saying you're delaying the kill."

Sora opened his mouth to argue—but stopped.

Because she wasn't wrong.

Kaede smirked. "I saw how you fought. You analyze, adapt, counter—but sometimes, you wait too long for the perfect moment. Guess what? You don't need the perfect moment. You make the moment. You gotta start acting like someone who's at the top instead of waiting for an opening like a goddamn side character."

Sora took that personally.

"I do not act like a side character."

"Then prove it. Enter me."

Sora's eyebrow twitched... He ignored her wording.

He focused, letting his spiritual energy extend toward her, flowing into her body.

The moment his energy connected—

BOOM.

Kaede smacked him upside the head so fast he barely registered the movement.

Sora stumbled back, dizzy. "What the hell?!"

Kaede grinned. "Lesson two—if you're gonna invade someone's spiritual body, don't leave your ass wide open."

"You could've just told me that without hitting me..." he groaned a bit. That kind of hurt.

"Where's the fun in that?" She had a big-ass grin on her face.

As they continued training, Kaede pointed out every single flaw in his technique.

"You're too direct in your movements—gotta be sneakier."

"Your Reishi control is great, but your instincts are holding you back."

"You rely on adaptation too much—sometimes, brute force is the answer."

"You're too nice. Stop giving people chances—go for the kill."

"So what I'm hearing is... I suck... Damn, so that's how Uryu feels."

"Nah. You're great, baby boy. But you could be better," she said with a smile.