The night air was sharp, carrying the scent of the stone streets below. Deia sat on the wide sill of her hotel window, knees pulled to her chest, her eyes fixed on the silver disk above.
The moonlight washed her skin pale, its glow a cruel reminder of how small she felt against the world.
Her hotel room, which Kaela, a woman working with Urashin who had guns and had taken Deia to train, had given to her, was dark and filled with shadows. Deia hadn't bothered to turn on the lights.
Behind her, the door creaked. Kaela's boots tapped lightly across the floor before she spoke.
"We leave at dawn. Get some rest."
The two of them were in the town of Adacan, located in Rocai, one of the main lands. Kaela had brought the two of them here because this is where Kaela had grown up.
Deia only nodded at the answer, her eyes glued to the moon, as if it was all she had in this unknown land and the terrifying future ahead of her.
Kaela understood that behind Deia's quietness was something more, something she wasn't willing to show. Kaela turned around and closed the door, walking back to her own room.
"..."
The night went by quickly, and dawn arrived.
Deia and Kaela stood outside, in the middle of the street. They had already eaten breakfast together, but Kaela hadn't said a word about training.
Deia had already familiarized herself with the power system and the paths of Kishin, unlike Yamikuro. On top of that, she already had some basic level control of Seikodo, Naiko, and Shintai.
In other words, her abilities revolving around Kishin, the inner power of every living being, were already somewhat developed, having lived in The Hideout for years now.
As Deia and Kaela stared at each other, neither really saying a word, mainly due to Deia being too shy to break the silence, Kaela pulled out a gun from her waist.
Deia flinched at that, even though Kaela hadn't done anything with it.
"If you're afraid of something like this... Are you sure you should be taking on tough enemies such as Lucian's gang?"
Kaela wasn't trying to be the harsh mentor to toughen Deia, but rather, she was worried for her.
"You're not cut out to be a fighter. You should just give up and go home."
Deia's mind flashed back to the day when they all split apart.
"Let's meet here in one month, then. Whoever is the weakest after this month owes the rest of us a month's worth of meals." Kaminari smirked.
"With this. We'll officially become the people who'll change the world."
"Yeah!" They all said in unison and threw their hands in the air.
Deia's legs felt weak. Could she actually do it? Or was Kaela right about her?
"You know, Deia..." Elara spoke as they baked cookies together in the dorm's kitchen.
Deia looked at her, without saying anything.
"You have more confidence than others said you'd have... Although we are alone right now. But that makes me wonder if you're also stronger than you look."
Deia dropped to her knees, with the teardrops tapping against the cobblestone streets beneath her.
"No... I can't fight... I can't do it..."
"I-I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, I'm nothing but weak..."
Kaela looked at the devastated Deia before her. Instead of comforting her, she had to use this to try to see if Deia was weak or if she didn't believe in herself.
"Deia, if I may ask. What is your Kensei?"
"C-chains..." She sniffed. "I... I'm not sure what they do."
"Interesting..." Kaela muttered to herself.
"Show them to me."
Deia's eyes were still glued to the ground, her tears slowing down as she tried to collect herself.
"I can't do it... They come out on their own." She responded almost as a whisper.
A bullet hit the ground right beside Deia, and her whole body jolted. Kaela had fired her gun, aimed at Deia.
"If you don't attack me, I will kill you. A life of a weakling such as yourself doesn't matter to me."
'Gosh... I really hope I didn't go too far.' Kaela thought to herself.
Deia's body froze, taking everything Kaela said as a threat. She couldn't beat Kaela, not even close. Or so she told herself.
She raised her arms to show that she didn't want a fight, that she was willing to go home.
But that's when shackling sounds echoed in the street. Both Deia and Kaela's eyes widened, looking at what had just occurred before them.
The chains Deia couldn't summon earlier had dropped to the ground from her wrists, shining as the moon would.
However, Kaela collected herself quickly. She tested Deia, her bullet missing on purpose, to see if Deia would do something if threatened with a real action, not just words.
'So she can only summon them under fear and pressure.'
"I know what to do with you," Kaela said aloud.
Kaela brought Deia to a training ground, roughly a kilometer away from the town, where wooden logs were stuck to the ground and a few dummies stood.
"This is where I used to train back in the day..." Kaela said with a smile, reminiscing about her younger days.
Deia quietly looked around, anxious about what Kaela's training could look like.
"We won't proceed to the actual training until you can use your Kensei, in other words, your chains, on command."
"A-alright..." Deia whispered.
They spent the following week practicing with Deia's chains. Kaela got Deia into stressful situations, where her chains appeared.
Although the training wasn't just about toughening Deia, but rather forcing her to adapt and get comfortable with her chains. Kaela saw potential surpassing even herself, if Deia could truly use the chains on command.
She had seen what they could do when Deia accidentally struck a tree, and it fell through the ground. Deia had imagined the tree weighing the same as the moon, which came true through the chains.
In other words, anything that Deia pierced with her chains, she would have full control over it. Deia was mostly using moon-themed attacks, but the full extent of her Kensei was still unknown.
On a day when Kaela had expected them to follow the same routine, Deia revealed she could summon the chains on command.
"Look..." Deia said with a small smile, showing Kaela the chains she had summoned on command.
For the first time, Deia felt proud of herself, even if the amount wasn't something to make her jump in excitement. But she did something to prove she wasn't completely useless.
Perhaps that's what she needed. Not words of encouragement, that everyone gave her, but something to make her believe that she can be more than the shy girl everyone is friendly with.
She had enough self-consciousness to realize people were only talking to her because they felt bad, maybe not her actual friends, but people from her class or in the knitting club she attended. There was nothing she could do, though; her anxiety made her throat stuck, forcing her to be silent.
"I'm proud of you," Kaela responded, also smiling.
Deia had proven her wrong, and with confidence, Kaela announced their next training.
"Now we will make you utilize those chains to their full potential!"
'That was with too much energy...' She thought to herself right after the energetic announcement.
Deia found it fun and went along without thinking that her energy was too much.
A week passed, then another, and before they knew it, their time was starting to come to an end, and the deadline to reunite with Yamikuro and the others was arriving.
"We've practiced... A lot. But now I want to really see what you can do." Kaela said, standing under the bright sun.
"What does that mean?" Deia raised an eyebrow.
"We'll duel."
"Duel?" Deia felt slightly anxious, but tried to regain her confidence.
She had never beaten Kaela before; her speed was always too slow, or Kaela blocked Deia's attacks with Seikodo.
Deia shot the chain from her right wrist at Kaela; the speed was fast, faster than it had ever been. But it still wasn't enough, and it hit the ground further away.
Kaela jumped, landing meters away from Deia's left side.
"Still too slow," Kaela admitted aloud.
"No, you're wrong." Deia said, her eyes full of confidence.
Kaela took a step back, confused by Deia's words.
But that's when she saw it. Deia had launched a chain from her left wrist at the same time as she did with her right wrist.
The shining chain was flying towards Kaela, and she didn't have enough time to react, with it piercing through her Seikodo.
Nonetheless, Kaela still jumped, hoping to get away.
Blood gushed to the green grass, slightly blown around by the breeze.
Deia had pierced through Kaela's right shoulder.
"No...!" Deia yelled in fear as the chain disappeared following her words.
"I'm sorry...!" A tear escaped Deia's eye.
Kaela, however, held against her shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding, while smiling. To her, this was an accomplishment she hadn't thought she'd see.
"You finally hit me. That's all I needed to see."
And with that, Deia had become what she had hoped prior to the training. She was her own person now.