April 21st, 2012, with Akeno, Morning.
The force of the kick was tremendous, a concussive impact that sent Akeno Himejima hurtling backward through the air.
Her body slammed into the thick trunk of an oak with a sickening thud, the sound of cracking wood echoing briefly before she crumpled to the ground. The attack had come from the glittering glass boots of Cendrillon, whose face immediately contorted in a mask of horror and regret.
"I'm so sorry, Akeno!" Cendrillon shouted, her voice laced with genuine panic as she sprinted toward the fallen girl. She skidded to her knees on the dew-damp grass.
"I didn't mean to hit you so hard, sorry, sorry! It's only that sometimes I can't control my strength!" she apologized, bowing her head so deeply her silver hair brushed the ground.
Akeno pushed herself up onto her elbows, a sharp, painful cough wracking her frame. A spatter of crimson blood dotted the green grass, a vivid contrast that made Cendrillon's eyes widen in utter shock.
"Diarahan!" the Persona immediately cast, her voice ringing with command. A soft, warm light enveloped Akeno, knitting bruised flesh and soothing fractured bones in an instant, wiping the blood from her lips.
"Thanks..." Akeno managed to say, her tone carrying a faint, weary note of annoyance at Cendrillon's characteristically excessive behavior.
"Come on, Akeno! I said I'm sorry. Please forgive me? Pretty please?" Cendrillon pleaded, clasping her hands together and looking up with exaggerated, shimmering puppy-dog eyes.
Akeno let out a long, slow sigh before gathering her strength and getting to her feet. She brushed a stray leaf from her traditional shrine maiden attire. "I forgive you. Happy?"
Cendrillon nodded her head vigorously, a bright, relieved smile replacing her worried expression. "Ok, ok! Now, next phase of our special training! Or... are you too hurt to continue?" she asked. Despite her typically exuberant tone, a thread of genuine preoccupation for Akeno's well-being was evident.
"I can go on," Akeno replied, her voice firm as she straightened her hakama.
'Pain is nothing if I can finally repay Rias for everything she has done for me, she thought, her resolve hardening as she prepared to start again.'
Cendrillon jumped in excitement, her glass heels clicking together as she bounded backward to put some distance between them.
"Ok, now for the magi—" she began, but before she could finish her sentence, her head whipped around.
With a fluid, practiced swing of her leg, she intercepted and redirected a sizzling bolt of lightning that had been hurled directly at her back. The electricity dissipated harmlessly into the air with a sharp crackle.
"Akeno! Why would you do that!!?" the dancer Persona shouted, a hand flying to her chest in shock. "I thought someone wanted to harm us!"
"I just wanted a little revenge," Akeno giggled, a look of pure, mischievous contempt on her face as she enjoyed Cendrillon's flustered reaction.
"Don't do it anymore! You never know when an enemy might be lurking, waiting to strike us!" Cendrillon protested, her nerves still visibly jangling. Her reaction only caused Akeno's satisfied smile to widen.
"So? What is this magic part you were talking about?" Akeno asked playfully, tilting her head.
To focus herself, Cendrillon gave her own cheeks a gentle but firm smack. "We don't have enough time to improve your overall combat capabilities, so we must focus on one aspect: your magic," she declared, her voice taking on a more instructional tone. "Go on, Akeno, show me a real lightning. Not that weak zap from earlier."
The challenge was gladly accepted. Akeno raised her hands, her expression shifting to one of intense concentration. The air grew heavy, charged with ozone as dark clouds began to swirl above them. Then, she unleashed her power.
Thick, violent forks of thunder and crackling tendrils of electricity rained down from the sky, aiming to strike the dancing figure below.
Cendrillon moved with impossible grace, a prima ballerina in a storm of her own making. She pirouetted and leaped between the blinding streaks of energy, her glass boots seeming to barely touch the ground as she avoided each cataclysmic strike.
"The only way to perfection is practice, Akeno! Don't stop!" she encouraged, though she could see the girl's magic was beginning to slow, the relentless overuse draining her energy reserves, causing sweat to bead on her forehead and her arms to tremble with strain.
"Magic is like dancing," Cendrillon called out, her voice rising above the din of the storm. "Like the greatest ballerinas who hurt their feet as they practice, until they can't even move anymore. Magicians cast their spells until their energy is completely depleted, until their minds beg them to stop, until their spirits are on the verge of crumbling. Without pain, without sacrifice, you can't achieve anything, Akeno!"
As Akeno's assault began to wane, Cendrillon prepared her own demonstration. "And now! Admire the grace of electrons!" she shouted.
Cendrillon began a breathtaking pirouette, pivoting on one toe at a blinding, dizzying speed. The effect of her spinning was immediate and terrifying; it generated a powerful electric field that coalesced around her form.
The air itself seemed to hum, then scream with the building energy. When she finally stopped, the sound of the electricity surrounding her body was a deafening, high-pitched roar, a contained tempest waiting to be unleashed.
"Ziodyne!" the dancer shouted, thrusting her leg forward and pointing the golden tip of her glass boot directly at Akeno.
A colossal, blinding beam of pure lightning erupted from her foot. It tore through the training ground with the fury of a divine wrath. Throughout the entire Gremory estate, one could hear the cataclysmic racket of the lightning and see its blinding, searing light. The beam shot just past Akeno, so close she felt the heat singe her hair and the static make her skin crawl.
When the light finally faded, Akeno was left panting heavily, her heart hammering against her ribs from the sheer terror and awe of the struggle she had just witnessed. She turned her head slowly to look behind her, and her breath caught in her throat.
The spell had annihilated a massive swath of the old forest, leaving behind a long, smoldering trench of barren wasteland. The trees that lined the destruction were ignited, their branches becoming torches against the morning sky.
'She did that with a dance move?' Akeno thought, utterly bewildered.
"I didn't want to do that, I swear it!" Cendrillon shouted, her earlier bravado vanishing as she hurried towards Akeno, her hands clasped over her mouth in horror.
"The Universe will never forgive me for this... I destroyed the forest," she whispered, her voice thick with shame as she stared at the devastation.
"Was it necessary?" asked a new, calm voice. Makoto Yuki had arrived, hurrying to the scene in response to the enormous explosion of power. He surveyed the scorched earth with a critical, though not unkind, eye.
Cendrillon lowered her head like a scolded child, not daring to look at Makoto.
"Yuki, how are Rias and the others doing?" Akeno asked, deftly changing the subject. "I hope they're with someone more contained than Cendrillon."
"I'm contained!" Cendrillon whined in a small, embarrassed voice. "I just got a bit excited seeing you so committed..."
"They're doing fine," Makoto replied, his gaze still taking in the damage. "It's just the first day, after all."
"I can't wait to make that scumbag Riser Phenex suffer for all the anxiety he caused Rias," Akeno said, a fake, innocent smile gracing her lips.
She tried to conjure a few triumphant sparks on her fingers to emphasize her point, but her power reserves were far too depleted. Not even the smallest flicker of magic answered her call.
"You're tired, Himejima. Rest for now," Makoto stated, his tone leaving no room for argument. He then turned to the pouting Persona. "Cendrillon, don't do anything reckless anymore, okay?"
"Yeah..." Cendrillon whined, scuffing her glass boot against the charred ground.
"Thanks, Yuki," Akeno said, offering a grateful, if exhausted, smile before turning to walk back toward the manor, leaving the smoldering clearing behind.