Chilled Tradewinds [Yuki Solo Training]

Yuki walked around the lower sector, scanning the inner workings that supported the upper structures. A breeze flowed between each pillar, its sound an ominous echo that haunted the vacant space around her. She brought out a bell needle, ringing it slightly and listening to how far the echo of its sound went. It had such perfect reverberation. Yuki brought out a string of several iron needles, alike in length and size, the only difference were the size of the cavities for the notes they played. They all rung when disturbed, making a mess of a noise, that seemed to blend into a single sound that faded off in the distance. “Right…”, she whispered. Yuki held the string on both ends and placed her other hand under it, letting go of one end so the needles fell into her palm and off the string. A light sound of the needles clattering against each other barely echoed off the walls despite the noise they made prior. “Notes don’t matter right now.”, she told herself.

She stuffed the string into a pocket and sorted the needles out between her fingers, not considering the notes they were. It was going to be noisy and disorganized, but so long as it didn’t mess with her thought process, she didn’t care. She was more than capable of dealing with noise anyways. Yuki tossed the needles upwards, giving herself a couple extra seconds as they fell to attempt something to add to them. As the needles dropped, everything felt slowed. Maybe that was how she saw things in that moment? She brought her hands together and clapped, the sound breaking any silence more than the ringing of the falling bells. A wind flowed out and ruffled her clothes, violently disrupting the descending needles and watched the metallic shards seem to take a new life and shoot forwards a distance away. Some lower needles flew into the ground, some bounced off the pillars, others flying straight into them and pinning themselves to the surface. She went to collect the needles, more than happy that little thing worked. I need to make this flow faster and better… Again., she instructed herself after picking up the last needle and sprinting back to a better spot to relaunch the needles.

Word Count: 381/300

Spoiler:

Approved

It had been a few days since Yuki had encountered Kotsuzui. She wasn’t sure how she was going to deal with hearing the weapon’s tangents on her own. They were endless. The constant rambles from the weapon kept her awake so she would only sleep when she crashed or if she could bring herself to ask Kotsu to stop talking. Even then, she didn’t bother trying with the latter option for the sake of sounding sane around her friends and family.

The girl was now in the elevator, getting space from literally everyone just so she could talk to the weapon without sounding like a loon. At the surface, she stepped out of the elevator and walked around towards the glassy cover that loomed over the village she resided in. “So…”

‘So…?’

“You’re a weapon…”

'Yes.’

“How do I…use you..?”

Kotsuzui seemed to take a moment to consider how to answer this. How could it word things in a way for a child to understand? It wasn’t that Yuki was stupid, but he’d rather put it simply than be questioned for it. ‘Hmm. You envision and feel what you want and allow me to read that. What you wish to create, I will make within the best of my abilities.’ Yuki nodded to herself, wandering over the crystalline window. It was strange how misleading the appearance was on the mirror in regards to its texture. Glossy and smooth, yet it appeared much coarser. “Then… Let’s try to form some skates?” She sat down and tried to envision blades under her feet. No particular shape other than basic ice skating blades. She felt a strange pulling on her skin, the feeling of something moving within her flesh. But it didn’t hurt. It just felt weird. Yuki folded a leg, tilting her foot towards her to see a glittery white skate blade with purple bands accenting it. She traced her finger over the edge of it, feeling a perfect flatness on the skate.

The girl got up, making sure she was balancing herself and not wobbly on the smooth surface. For some reason, she could feel through the blades. A bit of a dull feeling, but it was almost as if she could feel the amount of pressure on them at least. Her bones felt weaker than she thought they were, as if the pressure on the blades was near the limit. She stomped one foot to test its strength. A loud sound of metal on crystal was heard and she felt the remaining shock vibrate through the skate into her leg. Alongside that feeling though, Yuki had felt the bones affected shift ever so slightly to a stronger structure. “Maybe I should have asked Occam to thrash me about instead. That’d probably be easier than this…. But…” The image of Occam’s face when he’s torturing their enemies with his sand. Perhaps he’s enjoy it too much or she may get too injured from it. And that would make Kori worry…. And she wasn’t a masochist like Mu and it may give him the wrong idea if he saw. Thinking of Mu, she could probably have him attack her and whatnot. But perhaps that would make him suspicious that she’d suddenly want to be beaten up for no particular reason. Perhaps she could use the excuse of building pain tolerance? Even then… He used a sword and bees and she was still getting over her fear of bees.

The girl sighed and started to skate mindlessly as she thought. How awkward would it be to have Mu, Occam or Kori go up here right now and see her skating over the village window? Incredibly so. She’d also have to explain where she got her skates from. Chances were since Occam was the only one who knew so far, he’d more than likely question Kotsu through her again. While she was off in her thoughts, worrying about others and what they’d do and their reactions to finding out about Kotsu, Yuki didn’t seem to notice her bones constantly readjusting to the slightest movements. Each turn she made, even the smallest lean had Kotsu constantly fixing any areas it considered weak until it could not detect anymore. Her bones remained flexible for turns and twists, but strengthened enough to not worry about breaking points. As Yuki skated, her thoughts cleared off as she focused more on a personal routine. Even Kotsuzui’s tangents didn’t seem to grab her attention as she skated.

It was only after a couple hours that Yuki skated over to the edge of the window and retracted the skates back into her feet. She knew that wouldn’t be enough to strengthen Kotsuzui. “I may have to ask Occam after all…”, she sighed to herself. Skating was one thing, but being hit and thrashed around was another thing that she and Kotsu would need to train for to worry less about getting a bone snapped by brute force. ‘Ask him to throw us around like a dog toy? Hopefully he knows to keep himself in check.’ “I’m not going to ask him to kill me. And I know he’s terrifying with his sand. But I’d rather not ask Mu and be scared of his bugs. We’ve made so much progress and I don’t want that taken away from a swarm attack.” She wandered back to the elevator and thought of how she would ask Occam to train with her and if he had time. Maybe she could take him out for some pancakes and ask him then? ‘His curiosity of my kind may also serve as a benefit you can give him.’, Kotsu added to her thoughts. “I guess so.”

Yuki walked along the streets, looking through windows and taking her time to get back home. The shops were busy as usual. The girl continued to look around, wandering through some back streets for a bit less noise, aside from Kotsu’s mental commentary about the things she saw and thought. “Kotsu, I think it’s naptime. When we get home, please keep to a whisper if you need to talk unless it’s important.” ‘I will do my best to.’

Shower thoughts:

Approved

Yuki wandered down the street from Occam’s home. “Who even heard of ‘National Pancake Day’ anyways?” She figured Occam of all people would know and couldn’t really be too upset that he’d be busy celebrating something like that. After all, pancakes were his favourite. ‘Lady Yuki-‘ “You can just call me Yuki.” ‘… Lady Yuki, I prefer giving you a proper title for you are my wielder.’ The girl sighed and decided to let Kotsu do or say what he wanted. Who was she to police what was said anyways? “What is it Kotsu?” ‘What do you plan to do now that your idea of training with Occam failed?’ Yuki continued to walk towards the elevators, letting the people in charge of operating that she was going to the lower levels. “Doing this at home would probably make Kori, Hahaue, and Chichiue worry. After all, I never told them about you.”

At the lower level, Yuki pondered what to do instead of worrying those around her and skating into a wall over and over. Immediately she thought about the week prior, where she created blades to skate on. “Maybe we could do that instead….” Yuki sat down and thought about what she could form with Kotsu. “Are there limits to what I can do?” Kotsu answered almost instantly. ‘You cannot create things with me that would detach from the body. So long as they are connected, you should be fine with whatever it is you create.’ With that, Yuki nodded and held up an arm. She turned her arm, looking at the top and the bottom before thinking of making a blade sprout out alongside the dorsal side. Shortly after that thought, she watched the blade seamlessly slide out of her arm, appearing almost like a scythe blade that extended past her hand. A couple more moments of thought and two more smaller scythe blades appeared. They were all still a gleaming white with wavy purple bands wrapping around the shape. The blades retracted a little and sprouted out again, as if they were like claws sheathing and unsheathing. Yuki lifted her other arm and attempted to create the same three blades on her other arm, but only making them appear faster. The blades grew out of her arms instantaneously, which she found pleasing.  The girl tapped the ground with the blades, hearing a soft metallic ‘clink’ each time they made contact.

She got up and ran towards the wall, raising an arm and bringing it towards the wall to test the strength of the weapon. Yuki paused after the impact of bone on the cavern wall, listening to the sound it made and feeling the vibrations move through her arm as the rest of her body absorbed the impact. She stayed still a few more moments to let Kotsu restructure the bone to strengthen it. Yuki moved her arm away and brought the other up in an uppercut motion, testing out its sharpness. The rock in the cave’s walls were mineable, so she figured it was soft enough for Kotsu to chip some off. It was quickly confirmed when she heard and saw fragments of rock tumbling down the wall and chipped areas from where the blades struck. “You’re always adjusting yourself so you’re as strong and sharp as possible, right?” ‘Yes.’ “Awesome! Kotsu, you’re amazing!” ‘I would expect for myself to be amazing.’

Yuki forced the blades to retract and instead grow spikes. She wasn’t picky about the size or shape of them, so long as they grew out and didn’t hurt her, and she felt Kotsu knew those guidelines well enough. The girl took off her shirt, just so Kori wouldn’t have to fret about random holes in her top from ‘simply walking around the city’. She felt many protrusions spring out of her flesh, looking would show random conical spines that curved in one direction or another or were completely straight. “Hm… You think we can make these more like porcupine quills too?”, she asked Kotsu. The spines retracted and shot out again, much thinner and straighter and many more than the spines. She moved a little, feeling Kotsu making them more stable so the sway of the quills didn’t throw her off balance. Yuki crouched down, knowing Kotsu could read her thoughts and felt the quills standing more upright as if she were a sea urchin. “Nice, nice.”, she nodded in approval. The quills retracted and she straightened her posture so she was on a knee.

“Right… Let’s try plating.” Flattened diamond-shaped discs slid out of her arm and covered over her skin. Yuki held the edge of one of the scales and tugged back at it, feeling a slight movement before the scale seemed more set in place so it wouldn’t budge. She felt every scale anchor at the same time so they were immoveable. The pattern of the scales overlaying each other were also very pretty and precise. “I look like I might be part dragon.” ‘Are dragons cold blooded?’ “I… Don’t really know.” She moved to concentrating on making claws by extending the outer-most bones at her finger tips, curving them slightly. “Hmm… You know, if these were longer, I’d probably look more like a pangolin!” ‘Pangolins are such curious creatures.’ “If I can make extensions on the body…” ‘Yes you can make one or many of those if you feel so inclined.’

Yuki formed plates along her back, scales spreading across her back to cover and constantly flattening along her back as she curled up or straightened her back. The plates kept forming along an extension of her spine, creating a long and flattened tail that ended around her ankles. More scales were made along her legs and her neck. Yuki bent forwards to look at the tail, the underside appearing to be some kind of shell akin to a snake’s rib cage that retained the width of her hips. She sat back down on the tail and curled up, noticing the tail extension didn’t seem to move. She forced chakra through the vertebrae, making the tail move and curl around to complete the loop. The scales along her back grew out at the sides and curled around, forming a scaly sphere around. “If Occam were here, he’d probably send me flying by now like this…. Because sometimes he has a mean sense of humour…” She sighed and retracted the scales, now sitting on the cavern floor and hugging her legs to her chest. “But I think this could work…”

Spoiler:

Approved

Yuki felt like there was nothing to do today. She felt no motivation whatsoever, but she had to do something to feel like she did something productive. Kotsu’s fragmented thoughts bounced around in her head. It wasn’t over anything specific, just random tangents that branched from one thing to another. Maybe she could just train up with Kotsu today. That would probably do something. But what would she do? “Hey.. Kotsu? Is there a special ability that living weapons have?” ‘There are many. But mine involves using liquid to aid you.’ “What would it do?” ‘You would take longer to tire out.’

She took that into consideration. What liquids would do that? Moreso, what liquids could she access away from home or other villages that would be used..? The first two that came to mind were water and blood. There had to be more, but she figured at least those two options would probably be sufficient.

She sat down on her bed and leaned back against the wall. “Even though I shouldn’t be in any real danger…” Yuki closed her eyes and let Kotsu take blood steadily. The weapon didn’t need it, nor did it really demand it from her, but it was something to do. However, in doing so, she may have allowed the weapon to take too much too quickly and didn’t notice falling over onto her side as she went unconscious.

Everything was a blank darkness around her and she felt like she was floating around in space. She wasn’t quite sure what was going on around her anymore, finding strangely shaped specks of light. She heard a voice but it was heavily muffled and very quiet, calling out something. Once she had figured out the voice was calling out her name, Yuki felt like she was drowning in the blackness and the scenery changed in a quick flush of light and colour. She looked down to find various gashes all around her body, all with a soft lavender glow. A better look at her arms and she saw streaks of blue, green, and red as if they were tracing along her veins. “This has to be a dream..”, she mumbled to herself. The feeling of falling stopped as she landed into what seemed like a field of flowers blotted out like ink splatters. The petals were in several colours like vermillion, burgundy, and cyan. But the stems and leaves were ebony or silver. She lay down in the strange field, yet it felt like the gravity of whatever world she was seemingly in started to press into her stomach, making it feel like her organs were flattening and forcibly separating from each other.

She glanced up at the ‘sky’ and saw a singular light that seemed to hold onto something that looked like a human-shaped circuit system with a battery cell in the middle where the ribcage would be. It was purple like her gashes and was positioned above her in a pose similar to her own.  A single blink and she was sent falling again, through the weird field of flowers with the petals scattering violently around her. Yuki watched the strange blackness flooding over the field and blotting out the light. More cuts began to burst open on her body as she fell, one on her wrist, another on her arm. A laceration appeared on her forehead, another along her crest, and lastly a large one across her chest. Oddly enough, she didn’t feel pain from these wounds, and just watched under a calmed gaze as the purple light flew out from them.

Crash.

Suddenly there was a deep blue with beams of light flowing through. Small bubbles floated out of her mouth and Yuki had concluded she was now in water in this weird dream. It was empty around her, and the sound of currents in the water roared softly in her ears. She stayed still, slowly sinking further down in the water. Overhead she saw a bottle with a rolled up piece of paper in it and a red heart on the bottle. The water began to swirl around her into a massive whirlpool that forced her to lose what few bearings, if any, that she had. Yet when she was done being spun around, there was suddenly a more vibrant scene around her. Everything was crystalline in appearance from jasper shells to amethyst submarines. She swam closer to see them and noticed her reflection on a large face of an amethyst submarine, finding her eyes were sapphires in appearance. Though this world became much prettier, it was still incredibly lonely to be in. Yuki sighed, releasing more bubbles and continued to swim around, looking at more of the crystal corals that lined rock beds. Alexandrite and rhodochrosite formed into branching corals and white quartz made brain corals.

Yuki’s attention was brought back to her body, where the gashes once there no longer were and she had felt something slowly falling and bumping off her chest. Small red crystals she could only assume were rubies where falling above her somewhere. But she didn’t feel any falling on her head, just her chest and legs. She moved a hand to her face as she felt another bounce off her cheek. Yuki swam down to the corals to see rubies were flowing out of her eyes like tears. But why?

She settled on a flattened rock bed not disturbed by the crystal corals and stared at the shimmering surface of the water above her. Dreams were so weird. The world was definitely pretty but it was just so empty. Yuki turned onto her side to run her fingers over the smooth surface, guessing the rock she was on was actually a sheet of obsidian.

Despite its emptiness, this place seemed incredibly relaxing. There was no sense of danger, and there wasn’t really anything that gave her reason to think she would be in trouble. She closed her eyes again to listen to the muffled roar of waves above. Though listening forced her to drift back into an unconscious blackness that would be disrupted in what felt like a few seconds as she woke up.

Spoiler:

*boop* Approved

‘How interesting.’ Kotsuzui mused as the girl woke up. “What do you mean?”, Yuki asked, sleep still in her voice. ‘The imagery in your head when you enter a resting state.’

“You mean dreams?”

‘So that’s what they are called. Dreams.’

Yuki rubbed her eyes, trying to remember what exactly it was she saw in her dreams. However, they seemed to fade quickly. Kotsuzui seemed to get insight on them though, and it never seemingly sleeps. “I don’t remember much of what I dream most of the time. But all I can really remember was falling and some colours…. And an ocean.”

The weapon itself took a few moments before it responded. ‘So, you have abstract thoughts but cannot remember them like this? What a strange concept. Your mental imagery put in a vivid flurry of scenes, starting with you falling into what looked like a strange field of flowers. There were lines streaking your body and you began to get these mysterious gashes all over your flesh.’ That part at least seemed familiar. ‘But then, the meadow caved and you fell into a crystalline ocean.’ She fell again? The faintest image of the ocean itself caught her memory. Although the image itself was fuzzy.  The idea of nightmares spurred into her head. If Kotsu responded to her mental demands for its shifting ability, what would have happened if she experienced a nightmare? The image of a shredded-up bedroom and a white and purple pincushion appeared and left her with a look of ‘oh no’ on her face. She couldn’t afford to have nightmares at home if that happened.

Yuki would have asked more into the dreams, but felt something that forced her up and straight to the bathroom. A foul feeling that arguably tasted sour. Yuki crouched before the toilet and stayed there, staring into the bowl before feeling a liquid come up and flush out of her mouth. It was a dull purple, almost sludgy in texture. Blood. And it tasted as horrible as it smelled. Why was she throwing up blood? Especially blood like this?! ‘Apologies, Miss Yuki. I tried to inform you when you were resting that I discard liquids after they lack what I need, but I suppose that didn’t go through consciously. Strange, since you seemed to respond.’

“Kotsu-“ Yuki cut herself off and lowered her voice into a whisper, hoping her sister nor her parents just heard that. She still wasn’t ready to share with them that she had a weapon replace her skeleton. Who knows how her sister would react. “Kotsu, we really need to find another way to discard this stuff. I don’t think I can-“ She lurched forwards and spat out a few more drops before flushing the toilet and struggling to get to the sink to wash her mouth out. “I can’t force that out of my mouth without feeling sick.”

‘Agreed. We can’t afford you to get like this if in trouble. Perhaps we should also find alternative methods for my intake so you won’t get sick from ingestion.’

It was comforting the weapon seemed to care for its owner. It made sense for it to, after all it’d be useless without a wielder. She pondered about the weapon in its puddle state, ownerless and a gleaming silver. It brought up the question if a living weapon like Kotsu could be destroyed. Part of her didn’t really want to know the answer. She shook her head and rinsed her mouth out with water as well as the sink to hide traces of blood. The only thing left to give it away was the stench but she’d try to mask it under the scent of an air freshener’s. She opened a window to let the smell escape. Hopefully that would go away before anyone else had to use the bathroom next. If anyone asked, how was she going to be able to explain that she vomited rotten blood? And the level of concern if she did tell them that! She’d hate to give them so much stress over nothing like that. Yuki sighed, maybe if they did find out and ask, that she’d have to explain literally everything about obtaining Kotsu to this. And that was going to be one hell of a story to say. Oh, but what if they didn’t believe her either? Things like this could happen, and she’s always been honest with her family when prompted about something.

‘Miss Yuki.’

Kotsu’s voice snapped her out of her chain of thoughts. ‘You overthink things.’ It was right. She really did overthink things and then panicked over it. That was something she really needed to work on. Yuki stepped out of the bathroom and closed the door behind her to trap the scent before heading out to hide on the roof. The mirror on the roof wasn’t rippling so Kori was either busying herself with new fashion ideas or she was out with her team. A small sigh of relief left her lips at that.

“Yuuuuuuuuuuuukiiiiiiiiiiiii!” Kori’s head popped out of the mirror. “Watcha doin’?”

Yuki jumped and almost slipped on a shingle, a loud yelp of surprise to accompany it. “K-Kori! Don’t sneak up on me like that! I thought you were out!”

“Sorry sorry!”, her sister said with a grin that told her she wasn’t exactly sorry. “What are you up to?”

“N-nothing really… Just waking up from a nap and thinking on things.”, Yuki mumbled.

“Oh? Then you wanna go with me to the store and get some groceries for dinner?”

Yuki nodded, at least it would prove a distraction from her thoughts. “Who’s making dinner tonight?”

“We are!”

“Oh… Hm…” Yuki pondered over the dishes she and her sister could make. “Are you okay with Yakiniku tonight?”

“Yeah we can do that.” Yuki guessed Kori didn’t really have any ideas for dinner and went with it. Knowing how protective her sister was, Yuki had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be able to use the stove with the heat it has.

:

Approved

Yuki had gotten used to Kotsu’s strange rambles and tangents by now. Yet she still seemed to reply or answer to him out loud while it seemed to answer its own questions. Although the weapon stayed quiet if she did have an answer, accepting the added knowledge of another mind. Kotsu itself seemed to be much laxer after getting accustomed to its owners habits and personality, becoming less picky towards her at least. Despite this, Kotsu’s questions on Yuki’s dreams left her worried about the subconscious and unconscious paths her mind took. The mention of things she didn’t recall in her dreams sounded abstract and nightmarish, scaring her at the thought of whatever they looked like based on the weapon’s descriptions.

‘Skating today again?’, the weapon asked in an almost expecting tone.

“It helps me think!”

‘Think about?’

“Well…”, Yuki’s voice trailed off trying to think of an example. “I guess maybe relax from thinking… But I do think while skating too! Like… A new routine I can do that’s different from previous ones! You know, something that’s not exactly in a pattern an enemy’s seen before! I mean.. I know I can’t just go off routine because something will happen to disrupt it and I’d need to adapt and stuff… But it’d be good for practice, you know?”

Yuki took the weapon’s silence as a form of confirmation as she stepped into the elevator. Strange looks from those around kept reminding her that she shouldn’t talk out loud like that. People didn’t know she had a skeletal weapon and it made her look like she was mentally ill. The girl looked down at her feet quietly as she descended to the lower levels. ‘I keep forgetting you can read my thoughts… That’ll be… Kind of important when we’re trying to be stealthy…’, she thought while letting out a sigh.

As she stepped out of the elevator, Yuki channeled chakra in preparation to create ice sheets to skate on. ‘So what is it you’re planning to do, Lady Yuki?’, the weapon queried, despite it potentially already knowing the answer.

Yuki’s focus was lost immediately. “Kotsu, I told you not to call me that!”, she whined quietly, feeling a flush of blood colour her cheeks. “It’s so embarrassing!”

‘Apologies.’

“What I want to do is see how fast I can skate around these pillars without tripping or crashing into them through random twists and turns.”

Even if the weapon didn’t express emotions, Yuki could have sworn she felt the weapon’s concern. She channeled her chakra again, feeling frost creeping up her fingertips. Yuki took in a deep breath and breathed out a large puff of snow, letting it fall and stretch its frigid surface across the floor a bit away. She took a low stance, one leg pointed out to her side. She felt the blades slip out of her feet and through the soles of her shoes, long and straight blades for speed. At least she needed these for the start of it all just for momentum gain. She’d change them before the first turn.

Another deep breath and her mind cleared off. She had to focus on terrain. There were enough disruptions to prevent her from using a straight forward form of skating. She pushed off the edge of the ice, taking only a few strides to pick up speed. She kept going straight in front of her, the blades changing to something shorter with a jagged front. Wherever she went, Yuki formed more ice materia on the ground with her breath so she can keep skating. She was making sure a large enough area was covered, but not so much that others couldn’t pass by safely.

When there was a large enough region covered in ice is when she began to turn and weave through the pillars, making sudden turns and quick rotations to become accustomed to scanning her surroundings quickly. At first everything was a blur per rotation on her toes, but after some time, her eyes learned to dart quickly and check certain areas within a split second. She twisted and skated backwards, checking over her shoulder to keep going.

There was a quick moment where she leaned too much, only able to rebalance by placing her hand on the ground and pushing off as she pivoted another direction. By the time she was comfortable skating, Yuki pretended she was throwing needles. Each rotation preformed, her arms extended quickly as if she were unleashing several of the singing shards. A throw took her off balance, which was caught from a few heavy steps on the ice, ice chunks flying upwards from the impacts. She quickly caught her breath, forcing herself to calm again. Yuki thought of utilizing the rises into the pillars as disruptions on terrain. This would have to do for now, but she’d ask Mu or Occam another time to help her with more unpredictable obstacles.

She regained her speed quickly, skates digging in sideways to push off the ice with more force. She turned on her toe, pushing for a sharp turn, ankle twisting to keep balance as she leaned against it. A stumble and she kept going, turning and twisting between pillars, weaving around them before skating backwards in preparation for a jump. The turn behind her was wide, something she was unsure about being able to change, at least for now. She’s work on it when she was more used to the dynamics of skating and… whatever hell Occam was likely going to put her through if he agrees to helping her out with added agility practice. Her body lowered, only to quickly push off the ground in a leap, her head used to guide a rotation and her body following. How many rotations could she do at a height like this? One or two. She kept on for a second, although she wasn’t in the air enough for a full rotation. Her skate slipped from an early landing and she fell hard onto her hip, sliding a little on her side. She took a few breaths, laying there for several moments before trying to get up. Yuki quickly checked herself, no scratches or cuts. Nothing felt broken. It was just a fall. A sigh of relief left her lips, Kori would have KILLED her if she tore her clothes from an accident. “Let’s… call it a day.”

Freddy, my fucking face is gone:

Approved

What is skating to you?

The question seemed to bother Yuki’s mind. It was a question one of her parents asked, knowing full well the clan’s usage of it. The answer could have seemed easy to answer. But thinking on it, there were many answers. A way of life, a method of survival, a talent, a hobby, a ventilation of emotion, an art, a way to get around. There were so many answers that seemed to apply and even Kotsuzui’s prodding to snap her out of it didn’t seem to work as much as it usually would. It bothered her because she knew these kinds of questions always had some deeper meaning to it, why else would a deceptively easy question surface? 

Yuki would sometimes sit and ponder, mindlessly forcing a spike of bone out of her flesh and push it back in, only to make it protrude again. She closed the question from her mind, curiosity taking hold of what exactly she could do with Kotsuzui. A large spike jutted out of her arm, with a large connection on the bone to stabilize the blade. Just tapping it, she could feel just how strong it was. Pressing it against the ground or the wall, she could hardly feel a bend. 

The girl got up, feeling the weight of the blade shifting her balance to the side. She was off and she needed to correct that. It wasn’t heavy or anything, just that there was more that would throw her weight. And that wouldn’t be super great when in the middle of a fight. One fall and she would be in deep trouble. She swung her arm around, testing how much it’d throw her weight. Maybe she could use this better when mobile? But of course, Yuki would also need to practice using this while immobile so she wouldn’t have an issue if someone were to stop her in her tracks. 

She went up to the surface, no point in trying to run into one of the support columns over and over. Instead, she walked into the nearby patch of trees, around the area where Occam liked to hang around this large rock and stargaze. She forced out ice made of chakra, so she would have the ease of moving around. Of course, there will be a lot of times where she won’t have the time to do that or have to save on her chakra a bit. But right now, there wasn’t anyone to interrupt so she didn’t care as much. 

As a sheet of ice came out around her, chakra seeping out like a frozen puddle and spreading slowly, she made a pair of blades pop out of her feet to skate on. There was a straight pathway down and the blades morphed into longer ones  without grooves at the front end and extended past the heels and her toes. The blades themselves laid flat, not curvature on them so they wouldn’t catch ice and slow her down. One foot was brought back behind her as she faced this pathway, resting perpendicular to the rest of her. It was the only way to get a push with these kinds of skates for right now. Yuki crouched down to wait for a moment. Watching the sheet of ice spread further. Her hands rested down on the ice, drawing some of the ice in her hands and clumping them. She then pushed off and skated forwards, rushing past the trees and making them nothing more than a green blur as she sped down the path. As the end of the ice puddle neared, Yuki tossed one of the frozen clumps she held onto, cracking it and making an extension to the sheet of ice. She’d really need to work on making ice faster without spending so much time making it. She kept going, glancing to the side to see how fast she was moving. The other clump of ice was thrown and she turned to stop on it, only to slip and fall on her side, off the ice sheet and into the dirt of the pathway. 

“Alright, note to self, those don’t stop very well…”, she mumbled to herself. ‘Perhaps try changing the shape?’ Kotsu’s suggestion was a good one. She sat up, checking over the skates and running a finger over the edges to feel the shape changes as she morphed them. The skates shrunk and matched her foot length again. There wasn’t a grooved edge and they retracted closer to her foot, the outer edge curving inwards drastically. Yuki got up. “Let’s try this one.” She stepped onto the ice and started off similarly as before, one foot behind her sideways to push off. 

These skates weren’t as fast, but that wasn’t the point of these. She skated in a wavy motion instead of straight. The skate blades previously wouldn’t have allowed this kind of movement without great difficulty. These ones were a little more agile, allowing her to turn around. She reasched the end of her little ice path and turned to stop, hearing the ice underneath shred and spray a white wave of flurries. She stopped practically dead in her tracks on these. “Hmmm…” Yuki went over to a tree trunk to use as a support to prop herself while she was on one leg to check. These skates shifted a little slowly, so she would need to plan in advance when to change them. That shouldn’t be a problem though.

Finally, one more skate type came to mind. The blades extended a little further from her foot again and a grooved pick curved upwards from the end at her toes. The curvature of the blade edge grew less extreme, but it also wasn’t super flat. It was in between. To her, this was the ost familiar skate type. She didn’t have to push with her foot sideways to start and instead simply just move. 

Yuki’s foot moved around in a circular motion, her body following to make a turn. She began sliding around, accenting her movements with twirls and momentary rotations. A flip around and she was skating backwards. Skating like this always let her think on things, it was practically like breathing to her. She only really had to keep in mind where the ice was for now, but other than that she could just ponder. The sound of the ice scoring from her blades, making fine trails of snowy powder was simply background noise. At one point, she’d loop around and pick up some of that frozen dust, packing it into needles of ice. It wasn’t much powder to make it into anything large, and she wasn’t really doing much with it now. Chakra melded into the thin needles, refining their shapes and molding them into needles with eyes at one end. She held onto them for a while, planning a step routine. Of course, she reminded herself that disruptions to her routine in a fight would happen, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t make a few second’s worth of a dance when she got the chance. 

She glided over the surface, making half spins and suddenly forcing herself into a rapid motion of spins. Yuki would crouch low first and hold onto one foot so that her pivot was on one point instead of two, testing just how fast her rotations were while making herself a smaller target hypothetically. She got up, the foot that was off the ice now lightly on the ice with its grooved picks lightly tracing a circle behind her other foot. She released needles as she was now standing straight, hearing whistles in multiple directions from them. She wondered where they’d land. Everything around was a simple blur of mostly greens. She raised her arms and her spins grew even quicker, her legs slightly tightening to reduce the drag on the air. Yuki broke out of the spins and skated around backwards, head turned so she could see behind her. Kotsuzui wondered how she wasn’t dizzy and still able to keep going but at the same time seemed glad that something like that wouldn’t phase its owner. 

“It’s just… something we learn early. I can’t really explain it, we just kind of do it.”, she explained out loud. Kotsuzui didn’t seem to understand but accepted it as a sufficient enough answer. After all, it’s learned enough of her clan’s talents through her memories and fight styles. Yuki moved to something more like a kneeling position, a foot back to drag the ridged picks on the ice and make a shallow cut into the ice. The upper half of her body leaned back, allowing a rush of air to brush through her hair. Things like that just felt so good and free. She got up with a kick from her leg, twisting around and making a wide turn around with arms out and a heavy lean forwards and slightly to the side to allow her weight to aid in the turn. Yuki’s eyes glossed over the surface of the ice, staring into the scores she left. The ice could handle a few more.

Another lap on the stretch of ice, and prepared for jumps to practice. Skating in a slow rotation, Yuki would tuck her arms in slightly as a warmup for the jumps. Then came the real thing. She skated in a wide arc around, tucking her arms tightly to her chest and kicking off the ice. One rotation.. Two… And she landed on one foot. It was a clean jump. But she wanted to push that and do more than two rotations. She prepared for another jump. This time she would kick harder, giving a stronger push off the ice so she had more air time. One… Two. Thr- She wasn’t high enough and her skate hit the ice, the momentum of the turns giving a hard turn that made her slip and fall onto her side again. She’d need to figure out the right height to get more complex jumps. 

Yuki got up, she’d try again. Either she needed more height or she would have to turn faster. Or both. Both would be great. Knowing Occam, if he were here, he’d just be a dick and launch her as high as possible. Thanks Occam. She shook her head and skated around for another jump. She kicked off, not sure if she was the same height as last time or not. But it felt more than her normal height. She tucked tightly and twisted, making her rotations and counting them. This time she landed on her feet, but it was a sloppy landing. She hopped a little to make a quick little jump so she could back into rhythm. At least she made more than two that time! She wanted to make at least one more jump today. And so she did, kicking off and spinning hard, making sure she was oriented enough to land on the ground. The landing wasn’t super clean, but it was better than the last one. She felt accomplished with herself on that. 

Despite feeling relieved for grasping a better idea of her jumps, she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings for once and skated backwards into a tree. The first thought that came to her mind was that she skated right into someone, and panicked. She heard a sound that wasn’t very pleasant and at the same time, felt her bones altering almost as fast as when she made contact with the tree itself. Hitting the tree hurt a little, and then she felt her body get pushed away from protrusions in her back. Yuki took a moment to calm down, after checking to see it was literally just a tree and felt the protrusions retracting slowly. If she didn’t know any better, she would have asked if it was Kotsu doing that. Well, it kind of was. But not on its own will. It was Yuki’s reaction that spurred it into action, but Kotsu wasn’t capable of shifting on its own intuition. Perhaps what happened would occur more often when she’s got more adrenaline pumping during missions, that would be kind of awesome.

Yuki decided she was done skating for the day and looked at the ice. It could melt naturally, but she’d rather rid of it quicker so people passing by didn’t slip on the ice. She noticed the scores made. Maybe they could be used as a weak point? She slid over to one of the deeper looking cuts in the ice and stomped right into it, cracks rushing through the ice and sending shards flying. Oh right, the ice was infused with chakra. The blades retracted from her feet and Yuki picked up a piece of ice to look at while she was resting. It’d give her something to do, she guessed. 

Looking around the shard of ice, she Yuki would see that it was a rather thick sheet of ice. The layers stained it white, but what if she could make it more compact and still be able to skate on it? The girl began to force chakra out into a similar sheet, only making it thinner. It seemingly stretched like taffy at first, but after leaving it alone the newly formed ice began to stop warping and stay still. It was thinner, and Yuki was trying to see how thin she could make it without it breaking or folding over itself. She tried to bend the two ends to test its strength. To put it simply, it broke. ‘Lady Yuki… What are you doing?’

“I’m just trying to figure out something…”

‘For the sake of it?’

“I guess. I don’t really want to go home yet.”

‘Hmm…’

She thought of how Kotsuzui worked. Bone that was restructuring itself to be the strongest and efficient in formation. She went back to the initial piece of ice she picked up. It was thicker so there was a less of a chance that it would simply crack under the pressure. Chakra flowed through it in attempts to alter the shape and make it press flat into itself without stretching it out. If it did stretch out, it’d just become a larger sheet of ice that was easier to break. It didn’t thin out and spread, thankfully. But that crackling sound that it made had her worry that it would just simply break. It didn’t break though, and that was good. The crackling was just the ice restructuring into something a little more compressed. She tried bending it at the sides. This time, it was only the side that she held onto that snapped off. “Cool.”

‘Cool indeed.’

She was able to tamper with the ice, and making it like this in the first place would be even better. The shard itself was now totally transparent, like wavy glass. A spike of bone protruded out of her finger and she traced it across the surface of the ice. It made such a weird sound. It was sharp and quick, but also just so alien. She couldn’t really describe it. And even when Kotsu prompted about the noise, all she could really answer was “I honestly don’t know. But it sounds so cool!” 

What would the reactions of her teammates be if they heard this sound? Or even Kori or her parents? She hoped that Occam and Mu would find it cool. Occam tended to be very lacking in much emotion over stuff, probably trying to act mature or something. She recalled something about him not really having a childhood. Maybe he’d come up with a reason how it would break infiltration stuff because it made sound. Musei? Would he try to make his bees replicate it? Or would he be impressed because of making such a weird sound with something like a thin plate of ice. Kori might be too busy and say something like ‘Oh that’s nice’ or ‘Cool’ and keep sowing. She really hoped that wouldn’t be the case. Kori's been really busy with designing outfits lately… Maybe she should try to make some weird fabrication fight style if she was so invested, Yuki thought while letting out a huff. Speaking of, Yuki’s mind dashed to another thought. Could she maybe use it as a substitute for her bell needles when she ran out of them? But how would she do that? 

She shrugged, she’d figure out something later. Yuki stayed on the ground, simply just resting and looking at the two different shards of ice. ‘There appears to be a connection between forming compressed sheets of ice and how I reinforce your bones.’ “Yeah… I was just thinking about that.” Of course Kotsu would know she was thinking that, it’s a weapon that’s linked to her mind and skeleton.

She leaned against the tree and looked up. “I feel like there’s so much I can do and haven’t even really scratched the surface.”, she mumbled. Yuki looked at her palm, more spines of bone coming out of it seamlessly. “And you’ve given me even more options, Kotsu.” 

‘I am pretty great, but please do compliment me more.’

A little smile came across Yuki’s lips. “I don’t think I’d be able to modify my bones quite like I can with you.” Maybe she could, she didn’t know nor did she know how. But at least she could just boost her weapon’s ego. Yuki rubbed on the exposed bone. It was so weird, it didn’t look like bone or really feel like it. It was a smooth protrusion, but she could still feel the pressure on the bones when touched. Yuki took a moment to observe the purple bands. They were never the same when they came out, did they? These bands weren’t even either, overlapping each other and practically marbled in appearance. Even on the skates, the protrusions were so smooth and the striping just laced over the white. Kotsu was actually a really beautiful weapon and Yuki never really thought about looking at them, she was so focussed on trying to make herself stronger so she wouldn’t have to rely on Occam or Mu. She couldn’t rely on them forever, that wouldn’t exactly make her part of the team now would it?

Yuki got up after a while of resting, she went back to the village. She might do a little shopping before going home, it was still a bit early after all. Perhaps she’d get some goodies for Occam and Mu, although they would probably be able to get these on their own. It’s the thought that counts though right? On the other hand, Yuki was pretty sure Occam didn’t actually eat the candies that she and Mu’d given him, and Mu’s more interested in the latest shade of eye makeup to match his kimonos. They’ve been busy lately too.

She sighed and looked through the market. Mu’s voice popped into her head with couple words. ‘Treat yo-self.’ She sometimes forgot to get herself something nice, she was always fretting about others. But Yuki considered making others happy a treat for her, something about seeing others have a brightened day just made her feel more accomplished than getting something for herself. 

Yuki entered a cafe she frequented. She ordered some tea and picked up a book from a shelf and flipped around a few pages to see what story she’d land on. It was a kids’ book, and she was admittedly a little old for those. But they were a nice read from time to time, especially if she wasn’t planning on staying at the cafe for long. People probably judged her for it, but she liked these stories and mean stares and whispered chatter wouldn’t stop her from enjoying a little story, even if it was for kids. Mu’d probably find it cute, Occam might not really judge her for it, and Kori would fawn over how cute her little sister is and how her innocence must be protected.. She tried not to read these when around them. Kotsu didn’t judge her for it. It had no reason or bias about these things. Instead it held a general curiosity about the story, why she read books with many pictures, or really just pondering why it was a children’s book. All of these ideas were fair, especially with the latter since some children’s stories are rather dark. But this one seemed to be a cute book about dogs and cats.

‘From the Order of Saint ...Good boy?’

Yuki kept her responses in thought, self conscious that people would find her having half a conversation crazy. ‘It’s about a puppy from a kind of order or council of dogs trying to save their owners from cats of this ‘evil’ cat corporation. It’s a silly take on cats versus dogs.’ 

Quote :

“Are you sure you want to send a puppy for such a task?” The dog asking was a saluki, an elegant and noble breed, a long face with eyes that seemed old and tired. 

“I understand your value for more experienced souls out there, Lady Saluki, but we do need some younger paws on duty now. Most of our experienced dogs are now aged or abandoned. We’ll need some form of appeal to keep our protection going.”, a Yorkshire Terrier stepped in. 

“But a newborn!”, Lady Saluki woofed. “Those cats know no mercy. They will kill them if they get the chance.”

A few others began to mumble amongst each other, seemingly reconsidering the puppy they intended to bring in. It was a newborn dog, that much was true. This meant there was no experience of anything and that the puppy would need to learn on the job. 

A French Bulldog barked over the murmurs. “I have full confidence in our newest member. They’ve come from a great line of Samoyeds and there are great expectations for them.” 

Lady Saluki looked off to space, her gaze not exactly fixated on anything. “I can only hope they exceed those expectations.”, she replied with a strain on her voice.

Yuki paused on the picture of the Samoyed puppy. Oh gosh it was such a cute picture. It was a small bundle of brilliant white fur in a basket, with its eyes closed and a soft glittering background to just add onto the effects of the image. It was almost like something this cute shouldn’t be sent into something that’s practically a war. She took a sip of tea and Kotsu seemed to go off into its own tangent on the thought process of what is ‘cute’. Despite its murmurings, Yuki opted to ignore it as a background noise similar to idle chatter of the cafe’s general traffic and went back into the story.

The next scene showed kids excitedly running into the house, an adult carrying the basket of the Samoyed puppy in and trying to keep their balance while their kids were pulling and begging for the puppy. They had named the puppy Marshmallow, a fitting name for something so unfairly fluffy. The cat came into the scene, sitting down and curling its tail around its paws. The bemused look on its face at this new intruder, the cat would make sure this new puppy knew its place. 

Quote :

“Look at Spencer!”, a kid called out, forcing the cat out of its plan. “He looks like he’s not happy about his new little sister!” There was a laugh. ‘Oh, I’ll be the one with the last laugh.’, the cat thought to himself. He was picked up, giving a soft “Mrrow?”, only to keep his innocent guise. 

Marshmallow had woken up from her nap, clambering out of the basket and getting a few ‘Awwwwww’s from the kids. What was this place? It was huge! There was so much to explore! What’s this thing? What’s that? Who are these other fleshy things that kept staring at her? “Hi Marshmallow!”, one child said. Marshmallow? Was that her name? What’s a marshmallow? “Hello!”, she reply, but it came out as a little squeak. “Oh my god, she’s sooo cute!” From the looks of things, the humans around were the smaller ones and the larger ones were a little further back. 

Marshmallow had explored the area, wobbly on legs and sniffing all over the floor. There were so many scents to take in, so many things to learn. There was a specific area though that smelled really, really good. There were many scents that practically made her mouth water. 

“Hello ‘Marshmallow’.”, a voice with a soft growl said. Marshmallow stopped and looked around, unable to find the source of the voice. “Hello!”, she replied anyways with her tail wagging. Was this another new friend? Where was he? New friend! Friends are good.

Spencer slinked around the corner and Marshmallow hopped back, front lowered but tail still wagging. “Woah! What kind of dog are you? You’re so lanky and small!”

Spencer’s eyes narrowed. Dogs. Why must they be so dumb? “I am a cat. And you will know your place. I am the superior of this household. All the humans obey my order and you will too.”

Marshmallow laid down onto the floor, head cocked to the side. It seems as though Spencer’s threat flew over Marshmallow’s head. “What’s a cat?”

Unbelievable. Spencer thought to use this dog’s lack of know—

A bell rung and snapped Yuki out of the book. A clock showed her that it was getting late. She took a mental note of the page she left off on, Kotsu would probably have a better snap memory to remind her if she forgot anyways, and closed the book. She downed her tea, which was now a little colder than room temperature, and left. ‘I did not know people could get so invested in stories like that.’

me, i am the good boy:

Approved, plus extra