A Step Toward the Light

A throbbing pain could be felt all throughout Kai's body.

He blinked awake, staring up at the white ceiling of the infirmary.

"You getting dejavu yet, buddy?" 

Standing at the end of his bed was Daigo and Junpei, grinning cockily.

"Shut up." The three of them chuckled, but continued. "We heard what happened, that Shade must have been strong to take on all four of you."

"Yeah…I still can't believe how strong they can be. And the two Breakers that showed up to save us, they took it out like it was nothing," Kai paused for a moment, thinking back to the fight.

"Yeah, well, they are Breakers. They've got much more experience than us. Trust me, we'll be there someday," Daigo said, "We're gonna get outta here. Doctors said you're good to go to classes tomorrow, he healed you up pretty good."

Kai gave them a nod and the two left, leaving Kai alone with his thoughts.

'I really have to get as strong as them..? Right now, it seems impossible. But until I can reach that level, I can't face him…'

He rolled over and went back to sleep, trying to rest for class the next day.

—-—-—-—-—-

Sunlight filtered through the infirmaries windows, filling the room with a warm light and waking Kai up, who was eager to get going again. He didn't want to waste too much time, he still had much to learn.

Getting ready quickly, he sped out of the infirmary, saying a quick goodbye to the lady working at the front desk, and running off towards his first class.

The halls were filled with students as usual, chatting, walking to classes and studying.

Passing by, Kai could tell he was getting more looks than usual, likely due to the news of the expedition, however, he ignored them, keeping his strong pace towards his first class, which today, is not Jin Application, all Kai knows is that it has something to do with Core Breakthroughs, Kai recently made it to Green Core, so he was rather excited for this class. 

Making it to the room, it was a large circular shaped room, the center being the lowest point with steps/benches leading up from the center. It seemed to glow a faint white light, Rin crystals lining the floors and walls, many familiar faces already seated.

Standing in the middle was a purple haired female instructor, she had amber eyes that seemed to pierce your soul when she looked at you. She was wearing a golden and black cloak, showing off her status. 

"Hey Kai! You made it!" Junpei shouted from his seat, Daigo just next to him. 

"My name is Instructor Hinata, you will refer to me as such. In this class, we will focus solely on trying to improve your Core. Whether that be what color your core is, how much Rin it stores, or the quality of Rin it stores."

Everyone seemed excited, improving your core is a major part in increasing your power. Sure, with a Blue or Green Core you can still have more Rin than others, however, there is a limit on how much, as well as the quality of the Rin you can store.

On top of that, your Core cannot handle Jin applications that are too powerful for its level, meaning with a Green Core, Kai still cannot manage to do higher level Jin applications, despite having the amount of Rin needed to do so. The same can be said about your ability, this is especially true in Kai's case, it's possible that if he can hit Yellow or Orange Core that he could use his ability more freely. And for most, it means learning new applications for your ability, a Fireball may become a Firesword, if you're lucky.

"As you are all aware, there are seven Core tiers, most of you are either Blue or Green, so, I hope to get those of you that are still Blue into Green, and those of you that are Green into Yellow, if possible. This class will be everyday for the next two weeks, after which, I'm sure all of you have heard of it, you'll be participating in the Last Light Tournament." 

Last Light Tournament, this is a tournament held every year for students of all years and schools, meaning students outside of Korin will be participating, even students from other countries will be there. 

This tournament is huge, built to show the might of the future Breakers. Students from every year will battle other schools in one on one matches, in the end, there will be one winner from every year, the school with the most winners obviously wins the tournament, however, at the end, each year, starting from one to five, can challenge one of the other winners, if they win that match, they may receive rewards depending on if higher ups enjoyed the fight. 

This seemed to excite people even more, "Excuse me Instructor Hinata, how do you level up your Core? I thought it just happened over time?" Mizuki, a girl Kai almost forgot existed, asked.

"Good question. Ordinarily that is correct, you cannot force your Core to get stronger quickly, it usually takes years to get to the Yellow and Orange Core, however, there are methods that can quicken this time, such as forcing Rin from an external source into your Core while meditating, very stressful battles, and other similar methods. Near death experiences are known to jump start peoples Cores to higher levels faster. Not that we will be doing anything like that in this class." 

The students looked around at each other, nervous, however still excited. 

"Now, let's begin."

Instructor Hinata walked over to a random student, placing her hand on his back.

"Close your eyes, focus on your Core. You are currently a Blue Core, but I can feel that you are close to breaking through to Green."

A light blue aura appeared around the two, lighting up the room with a blue glow. The boy had his eyes closed and began to sweat a bit, Instructor Hinata pushing some Rin from her Core into his, trying to force the last bit of a breakthrough.

Suddenly, the blue aura changed to a bright green, shooting out in all directions, and Instructor Hinata took a step back.

"You did it, you are now a Green Core. Congratulations!" She said with a smile, walking back to the center of the room.

"This may take awhile, however, I plan on trying this with each and every one of you. Until I get to you, I just want you to all relax, focus on your Core, try to focus on pushing more Rin into it, just stay calm."

And with that, everyone began to close their eyes, relaxing and focussing on themselves, which is a fairly rare calm moment at this school. 

Kai closed his eyes, doing as he was told and focussing on his Core. He can see it, a bright green glow emanating from within, and pulsating throughout his body.

The Rin that was moving throughout his body, all the way out to his fingertips, was now circulating back to his center, to his Core. He was trying to draw in as much Rin as he could to get as close to a breakthrough as he could.

He was very calm, in that moment he could tell exactly what was going on within him, he could feel every ache in his body, every beat of his heart, every breath he took. He had never really done this before, but he realized he needed to do this more often for a multitude of reasons.

The Rin in his body began changing, his Core shifting. It hadn't turned Yellow, however, it changed to a very bright Green, nearing Yellow. This excited Kai, if he was able to break through to Yellow shortly, that would be incredibly impressive, and it would allow him to learn more advanced Jin.

However, he felt a hand get placed on his shoulder. Opening his eyes, Instructor Hinata was standing in front of him. 

"What are you doing, Kai?" She asked, having heard of him from Tomura. "I was…doing what you told me?" 

Looking around, everyone seemed visibly confused, more tired than usual.

Hinata sighed, "You activated your ability, Kai. While I can't blame you, you must be more careful. You were draining Rin from everyone in this room."

She said, annoyed. "Uh…sorry? I swear I didn't mean to!" Kai said, also confused, he wasn't trying to activate his ability. Considering he couldn't really activate it consistently nor very well, he was concerned as to how he not only did so, but had it target EVERYONE in the room. 

"It's fine, just be more careful next time. It's your turn. Turn around and close your eyes. Do what you were just doing, but without activating your ability please." She said, Kai doing as he was told. 

Closing his eyes yet again, he focused on his Core, however, he was now concerned about his ability, so he wasn't as focused as before.

Suddenly his chest felt extremely tight, a wave of heat coursing through his chest down to his Core. He could tell it was Instructor Hinata's Rin. He felt it enter his Core, swirling around within him.

He tried to hold it all within his Core, causing some pain, however, it seemed to be working.

He could feel it, see it even, his Core began to get brighter, first it was just a bright/lime green, then it verged on yellow, however, it suddenly stopped, stuck at a very bright green, not changing.

"That's all it will accept for now, Kai. It's good progress, I believe you will be able to break through to the Yellow Core by next week. However, this goes for all of you, we cannot do this too often." 

This confused the class, they were starting to wonder if you could do something like this, why they don't just have Red Cores come in and do things like this, to create stronger Cores earlier on.

"It is dangerous to do this more than a few times ever. I'm sure those of you that I managed to get to felt some discomfort and pain. If we were to do this too often or too forcefully, it could damage your Core, which is permanent. That kind of damage cannot be repaired."

With that, the class ended, students packed their things and moved on, Kai having a free period as the expedition was ending that day with his Jin Application class, so he decided to go check in on his squad, Ryumi and Sava were out of the Infirmary now, the former still being a little beat up, however, Fukoro was still injured pretty badly.

—————

Kai made it to the Infirmary, walking in he saw that Ryumi and Sava were already there, chatting with Fukoro. 

"Hey guys!" Kai said from the door, excited to see everyone again. "How are you doing, Fukoro?"

Fukoro seemed a little gloomy, which was fair, he was in some pain and got beat up pretty badly. 

"I'm doing…fine I guess. Should be good to go in a few days the Doctor said, but I need to take it easy."

Sava gave him a hug, back to smiling like she used to. Fukoro's hand trembled a bit, still a little scared about the whole event. 

"How about you, Kai? How are you doing?" Sava said, standing and giving Kai a hug.

"Doing great! I'm close to breaking through to Yellow Core, so I'm pretty excited about that!"

Sava hugged him tighter, "That's great, congrats, Kai." Ryumi said, standing next to Fukoro.

All three of them were already Yellow Cores, in fact Ryumi was close to breaking through to Orange, so it was incredibly ambitious of Instructor Hinata to expect a few first years to do it, but it wasn't completely unheard of. Renji Takahama, the third year, as well as Riku Enzan, the Student Council President, were both Yellow Cores in their first year, in fact Riku was nearly an Orange Core at the start of his second year. 

"Thanks…So how are you feeling, Ryumi?" Ryumi looked down at his feet, also still a little frightened about the whole ordeal. 

"Honestly? Shocked. I had no clue the power difference between humans and Shades. That thing wasn't even graded as a Feral Class I, it was a Class II, strong, but not at all what we were taught. I thought at the very least we could stand our own against one of them, but we didn't stand a chance."

He took a breath, then continued, "Then those Breakers came in and destroyed it. Honestly, I can't see myself reaching their level. I wonder if they ever thought the same as us? Asked this very question?", It seemed as if he was asking himself that question, rather than us.

"Hey, it's okay. Remember, they're much older than us! We got this!" Sava beamed, trying to keep the mood up.

"Yeah…" She failed.

—————

It had been an hour or so, the group just relaxed with Fukoro, however, it was finally time for the three to leave him and get to class. Kai had a class with Tomura to work on his ability some more, however, he's struggled as of late with these classes. Sure, he gained more insight into his ability, but still was unable to fully control it.

However, he still needed to go, any work is better than no work.

He met up with his roommates again, however he was approached by Haruto, someone he hasn't personally spoken with since they graduated. 

"Hey Kai!" He shouted, loud as ever. "I heard about your run in with that Shade! Tell me about it!" He bellowed, drawing attention from the others, causing a small circle to form. 

"Uhh…what do you want to know about it?" He asked, a little nervous. "Tell me about how strong it was! What it looked like!" Still not lowering his voice, a larger circle formed, now about fifteen students listening in. 

"Well, it was in an old Shrine. When we went in, we couldn't find anything. No sign of a Shade, just an empty but creepy Shrine. When we went to leave, it was blocking the gate, and began…speaking to us."

"The Shade could speak?! Totally awesome!" Haruto shouted again, getting closer to Kai.

"No way. I refuse to believe it." Mizuki said, storming into the circle. "Most Shades that can talk are nearing Special Grade, but from what we were told it was only a Feral Class, not even a Feral I. How did you guys even lose to it?"

She asked, clearly looking down on him and the group.

"What we've been taught is wrong…or at least it was in this case. That thing was strong as hell. It was far faster than any of us, stronger, and had some form of Rin ability. Luckily for us, it hadn't developed it yet, or we would all have died before the Breakers could make it to us." Kai said, looking down at his shaky hands. Before anyone else could ask a question, Tomura walked in, demanding attention. 

"Listen up everyone! I have two weeks to get you all ready for the Last Light Tournament! This Tournament is our school's pride, we have won the past three years in a row, we want to keep this streak going! So I expect one of the people in this room to win it for the first years!" 

Instructor Tomura seemed very excited about this, clearly more into it than some of the other Instructors. 

"Alright, let's begin! Most of you have awakened some form of your ability thus far, if you have, just practice with it. For those of you still struggling, come over here now. Class has started, get to it!"

Kai as well as one other approached Tomura, still not fully grasping their abilities. 

It was a black haired boy, around Kai's build, who had green eyes. 

Kai hadn't really spoken with him before, his name was Ishinita, he wanted to become a Breaker that specialized in swordsmanship, however he wasn't nearly as impressive as others. He was often referred to as the most incompetent swordsman, however, he kept practicing, and Kai liked that.

"Kai, Ishinita, I can feel you are both close. Just think deep. Both of you have used your abilities before, you just can't use them consistently, yes? When you did use them, what was happening? Were you angry, stressed, calm? Try to recreate a scenario in your head."

Kai thought deep, 'I was fighting Leonar. That Wretch. But then I activated it while focussing on my Core. I can sometimes get it to work, sometimes I can't. This is hard. What would he do?'

Kai thought about all the fights he had been in thus far, and that's when it hit him. Every time he was fighting, whether or not he was actively thinking about it or just subconsciously, he was thinking about his father, how he needed to get stronger to meet him.

He needs to focus his drive, think about how he must meet him once more.

His ability shot to life, a glowing red line attaching to both Ishinita and Tomura, something that hadn't happened before.

Kai continued to think, he absolutely has to meet his dad once more. It'd be a dishonor to his mother if he fails. 

"You're doing it, Kai." Tomura stated, however he was rapidly losing Rin, said Rin forming an Aura around Kai.

"But that's enough for now." Kai ignored him.

The red line grew stronger, more defined, as did the aura around Kai, however, it suddenly disappeared, Kai opening his eyes, a seemingly powerful aura around him. 

"Sorry, sir. I got carried away." He spoke, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish grin. 

"It's fine, you did well. See if you can find a volunteer to practice with you."

Kai nodded, walking away, leaving Tomura to help Ishinita.