Kris's Training

Kris had never been so thankful for her teachers back in the academy as she was taught the calming relief of tai chi.  Most importantly for her however was that with every movement she could focus her chakra and her Crystal Release abilities and control. As she made every soft movement she could create tiny thin plates of crystal that she pushed up, rolling them along her arms like a wave. As she pushed her arms out to one side she let her breath go along with it, slow, and watching the sway of the very crystals she controlled. On top of the wave look, the clattering noise they made only made her sound more at home. And if anything that was the level of control over her Crystal Release she desired, to feel at home in her body and her abilities. Even if she had yet to convince her parents of this exact love.

That thought alone sent her reeling back into discomfort. These exact things that she loved, they seemed to despise, and in turn whilst Kris deep down knew it was not true, she could not help the belief that they too despised their daughter and only child because of her abilities. She couldn’t blame them completely, she was training to be a shinobi after all and it was an unavoidably dangerous job to be in. And the first time she had performed a Crystal Release technique she had accidentally caused a lot of damage. So perhaps they weren’t complete in the wrong. “No, I’m stronger now. I don’t lose control any more. It wouldn’t happen again unless I wanted it to happen.”

Kris was getting herself distracted once again. She folded her hands together in front of her before knocking her two fists together, a simple sign she’d adopted as her own that seemed to help her focus herself, before starting her tai chi poses right from the beginning once more. Each movement she would inhale, followed by the next movement exhaling. In minutes her eyes were closing again as she focused back upon the feel of the crystal waves and the sounds they were once more waking. With her eyes closed she could still catch the slight glare the sun light gave when bouncing off of the crystals, able to see them only by the sudden flash of light even behind her eye lids.

After half an hour of this she would paused and touch her fists together again, finally reopening her eyes as she sun was setting beyond the horizon and she began to feel the drain the lack of sunlight caused in her clan. One downside to not being miners like most of the family, she wasn’t adjusted to the dark. Another stretch off of her arms, Kris dropped down to sitting, tucking her feet up in to her lap. Kris shut her eyes again as she focused herself inwards, letting her body be victim to the fading light, and feeling the drain upon her body as she exhausted the light absorbed by her body. As the night approached, she had to affix herself to the sensation. She didn’t feel she could ever move past the effect, but she could at least train her body to sustain it.

Training 3D 1C, needing 500 words, did 543

Trained:

Hate to be the barer of bad news, but there's most likely a mistake in those speed tiers. The rank should increase each level so they won't all be D-rank. Either remove the B speed one or add 400 words before they can be approved.

Edit done, so approved

Training: Team Training Spec

Kris stood outside her birth home for the first time in a couple of weeks, bag slung over her shoulder and body aching from all the time of training she had spent. She knew exactly what she was facing when she would step inside and it wasn’t exactly something that she looked forwards to. She understood her parents worry. But dammit why wouldn’t they just give her a chance? She was the first ‘prodigy’ in the family for years, albeit she did learn later in the Academy she wasn’t actually a prodigy by any means. Almost an hour was spent in the shadows near her home, watching the outlines of her mother behind the curtained windows every couple of minutes.

“She’s waiting for you. She’s been waiting from the moment you left us,” Kris turned suddenly to come face to face with her father. After the surprise worked off, she mentally screamed, she wasn’t alert at all and had someone sneak up on her. Her father! He snuck up on her. An old miner. In mining boots. She’d had enough, a little disappointed in herself for not realising his presense, and pushing herself away from him to stalk walking towards the house. “…Dammit Kris. Just… Just talk to me, alright?” He shouted back to his daughter. Kris turned, seeing he hadn’t moved, and glanced towards the house. Her mother hadn’t noticed at all it seemed. “C’mon, talk to your old man. I… don’t agree. But… c’mon before she sees you and drags you inside,” He looked tired, too tired. She was beginning to get a feeling something was going on outside of her life. She moved quickly back into the shadows, away from where her mother might see them both.

“… Alright, fine. You wanna talk, then-“

“Stop it Kris. I’m… exhausted. You’re too like your mother. Stubborn as the rocks we price ourselves with,” He always knew the right words to get a smile from Kris, and the smile her returned showed that, along with a gap where he was down two teeth. “See, there’s my precious crystal.” He stepped away a few feet and with a loud groan he dropped himself onto a fallen log. “We miss you. We worry about you,”

“Yeah Dad, I-“

“No. You don’t. You’ll know how it feels when you’re a mother. When you retire, and you have a little girl of your own. And in fact… you still won’t. Because we’re not fighters. We’re just hard working people who can’t even stop… We just don’t know how to handle,” There was something he wasn’t telling her, Kris knew it right away as he changed the subject. Pieces of a mystery were just floating around and she hadn’t quite worked out how to piece them together just yet. “But we’re getting there. I… am getting there.”

“Geez, c’mon Dad I’ve heard-“

“No Kris! You have not!” She was taken aback by the raised voice, he never shouted at her. As far back as she could remember she was a Daddy’s Girl because he never shouted at her. If everything his shouting made her feel worse than whenever her mother was ‘disappointed’. An odd paradox to the age-old parental saying’s effects on a kid. “Look, things aren’t perfect. I’m getting old, your mother can’t help me in the field. Times are catching up on us. But… we’re still proud. You know what you want, and we didn’t want that for you,”

“You still don’t,”

“Kris shush.” Kris gulped, “Your mother doesn’t want it for you, I… I don’t but I’m not capable or wanting to fight you over it anymore. We both want you to be safe. We want grandkids for goodness sake,” Both father and daughter got a short laugh out of that. “So, I’ll talk to your mother, and we can treat every day together like you’re not out galavanting around fighting people.” A short sigh of displeasure left Kris then, “We can treat each day together like a real family.” He gave her the stern look again. “And there’s only one thing that I ask. And this is me asking, no other ‘additions’ from myself or your mother after this next two minutes.”

“… Fine. What do you want? Money?”

“Kris! How dare… I’m ashamed. I really am.”

“… Sorry Dad,”

“You better. Now… I want a letter.”

“A letter?”

“Nothing more. Once a week. To let us know you’re safe.” A smile began to cross his face then, the same warm one that Kris could recall in her earliest memories. “And to brag if you feel like it. C’mon, you’ve not stopped flexing your hands. I don’t have to be a shinobi to not notice when my own daughter is thinking about things.” He held his arm up to her. For a moment Kris wasn’t sure how to respond, “… Sweetie I’m old, I need help up.”

“Oh! S-Sorry Daddy,” She spoke out of reflex, getting a laugh from her father as he picked up her slip. She grabbed his hands as the crystal plates on her hands vanished back into her skin. Grasping him with both hands to helped pick up her father, hearing short cracks from his hips and knees, injuries from a life time of hard work. “… Mom’s gonna be mad as hell.”

“You think she’s made now... wait until you go to bed and we’re alone,”

“I’ll try not to antagonise her too much,”

“Oh I dunno… they say there’s advantages of going to bed angry.”

“What… oh! C’mon!” Kris needed a second to realise her father’s joke. Walking besides him she slapped him half way between his chest and his shoulder. “That was gross,” Her father couldn’t help laugh,

“Well don’t look at me. A couple of months ago you would never have understood that. My little girl’s growing up.”

“Hopefully not that fast.” Kris shot back. She looked back to the house to see her mother looking out of the window and sprinting away as the back door flew open. Her father gave her a little shove.

“Go. Just… give her a hug. You’re her daughter. Make this our first step to understanding,” He gave another shove to her back to get her moving. Without her father limping along, Kris was able to move faster, helping along by her father snatching her bag off her shoulder. She felt the butterflies in her chest, dealing with her mother was always the harder part. But something snapped. She broke into a run, and put herself right against her surprised mother. Kris had her arms around her mother quickly, leaving the older woman surprised.

“… Kris… I’ve missed you too sweetie.”

Approved

Kris flexed off her arms as she worked them just as Armenezra had shown her, even if he wasn't a user himself he could still help her get the basics of the style at least. This was perhaps the first time she'd been trained something personally by him and after just the short session she had taken her work to her home to continue the practice in hopes he might approve of her extra work to master the taijutsu fighting style. All the while her mind worked hard, thinking how to incorporate these punch related skills in to her own current repertoire of Crystal Release. Bit by bit she was understanding how to move, to throw her punches and keep her body back still prepared to block or strike again.

Learning:

Approved

Kris severely questioned why this wasn’t a thing widely taught. Or she would have if she hadn’t been developing the style herself. Whilst staying with her parents she had helped them out whilst she was making up her mind on what to do about this Bachiatari position. To know what she was actually being trained for, what gifts she would receive if she was able to do well and impress. She was able to keep her training up at least even if her parents didn’t realise just what she was really doing. With the additional heat she added to her fire jutsu, she used the ability to help along her father in the mining work. When he brought up some of the ores from the nearby mines, she requested that he leave the furnace out for the time being.

“So, this going to be some fancy schmancy ninja thing you learned?”

“Something like that,” she muttered, forming the hand seals she needed to breath her fire in a stream from her mouth to the opening of the furnace. She surprised herself enough, but her father, she swore, almost wet himself with the sudden heat she was exhaling. She would keep this up for a whole other minute before she had to stop, in part to catch her breath, but also because the furnace was in full heat with little more she could do. “Phew, good to know my fire still hasn’t diminished,”

“Kris that… just don’t let your mother see that.” Her father wasn’t sure what to even say to his daughter any more. He had begun to accept her choice in lifestyle as a ninja, although he didn’t know anything about her new upcoming roll with the Bachiatari, nor actually would he really know when the family was so far detached from most of the country. They might know the name, but nothing about them. As he got to work, he would glance in and step back in shock, “How… Did you actually smelt the rocks yourself?” He clearly didn’t expect that,

“Oh. Well, actually, yes. It’s just something I’ve been practising. That’s why my fire was so hot,” It was hard to explain all this to someone who didn’t know anything about ninjutsu. “The clan techniques in the library, they taught me to use earth jutsu in the same way as the crystal jutsu. I began to practise and learned how to use fire to shape rocks. Actually… it was you who taught me how to do it after all. I just… took your lesson and made it into a jutsu,” It was a little embarrassing, but the wide grin on her father’s face told her he had a new form of pride in his only daughter.

Learning:

Approved

Kris knew she was approaching the end of her vacation with her parents. She’d taken the advice she was given to spend time with them, try not to argue with them, and get them to see why she was doing what she was, rather than just yelling that it was what she wanted. Her mother had still yet to come around, Kris was beginning to wonder if she ever would come around in all honesty with how they’d just been avoiding each other. It was nice to have spent time with her father though, giving him a bit of a break of his own as she was able to get around a month’s work done in a week for him. She even came away from it with a nice little bracelet from some small impure gems that wouldn’t be able to be sold. Probably cheaper than a bar of chocolate, but the fact it came from her father was enough that she would take care of it. Now she was just getting ready to leave for her first official mission. She’d just been thankful to intercept the courier, just the thought of her father taking a note addressed to ‘Peewee’ would’ve had her locking herself in her room from the embarrassment. Though part of her wondered if they might meet Rai again some time soon to get some other new ideas from him.

“So I guess this is just a body guarding type mission then,” She muttered to herself reading the note passed on to her for her mission. It didn’t sound too difficult, perhaps more potentially irritating, but she couldn’t see why she could mess this up unless there was to be some big plot twist. Just looking over an old woman who may or may not be being targeted by assassins. It sounded pretty unbelievable. There was nothing that indicated she was of any importance after all, and she was in a pretty public place, and this whole threat on her life was oddly specific in terms of timing. Still, a mission was a mission and she was going to take it seriously. But for today she had to finish the last thing that she hoped Armen would approve of, and that was to perfect the new fighting style.

With all of her gear packed and ready for after, she left it begin to go through the vacant house and out to the yard. It brought a nervous smile to her face to see the hasty repairs that were made so long ago when she first began to learn ninjutsu only to have it back fire on her horribly. It was odd to see just how much progress she had made in all that time. Feeling a little smug, she flexed her arms, clenching her hands in the fists she needed as crystal sprouted from her skin and coated her arms. All this whilst she would stare directly at the biggest scar in the house from accidentally summoning a single large crystal shard that barrelled through the home. She held up her arm, matching the patched up hole parallel to her arm. It just felt like a personal victory. Showing herself and the house how different her level of control now was.

Hours passed and her mother came home first, exchanged nothing but a brief glance, and disappeared in to the house through the back door and out the front door to go in to town. Kris tried to just ignore this detachment. It was just something to get used to and she wasn’t exactly staying more than another couple of hours.

“She’s going to miss you. Don’t you go forgetting that,” Kris had long since worked up a sweat by the time her father appeared. Either side of her stood one each of her crystal clones glittering in the setting sun revealing their crystalline nature and making it clear who the real Kris was. She turned, making the crystals in her arm fade away so she could wipe her brow without cutting herself on the crystal plates. Certainly something she’d learned from experiencing just that one time too many. And this was on the first time she’d done it alone, making that mistake rather a lot.

“… Yeah I know you both will.” Instead of the standard dismissing of her clones, she took the chance to punch them both out of existence with her one remaining crystal gloved fist. “I’d just like if she could at least not look at me like a monster,”

“Oh she doesn’t look at you like a monster.” He snapped at her, a little fed up with his daughter’s attitude to it. “She looks at you like a worried parent, the same way that I look at you every day. She just can’t handle it as well, can’t put words to her feelings. Now you’re going to come inside, she’ll be back soon, and we’re going to actually eat dinner together. No ninja stuff, we’re not going to get on your case. Just… one last nice meal before you go away for a bit,”

Learning:

Approved

Kris oddly felt at ease as she drifted off to sleep as the sun was rising, just needing a couple of hours now that the Makabee case was resolved. It had been difficult, certainly more so than she actually expected. To deal with something so creepy, to have to multi-task vital components to a scenario whilst also still calculating what was needed of her second after second. It thrilled her. She would fall asleep believing completely that this was why she got in to learning the arts. She protected two people that night, no matter how she looked at it, if she hadn’t looked in to the case there was no chance Makabee would have survived the night, and maybe even the Nurse would have been killed along with her.

As the dream land took hold of her Kris found herself oddly enamoured in her dream. Everything felt so strangely real, yet odd ethereal all at the same time. She found herself on the edge of a sheer faced cliff, overlooking far stretching fields that ended on the horizon with giant mountain tops. She scratched her shoulder as the cold touch of what she at first was snow would hit her in just the right place to create involuntary spasms. It was only as she recoiled in pain, seeing the hardened shards of what she immediately recognised as crystals were imbedded in her fingers. As she truly looked, holding her hand out palm up and catching slowly falling crystals did she actually notice it. The more she looked even, the more obvious it became. It became enormously clear it was raining crystal.

But the more she looked at the crystal falling, the more she actually realised how everything else around her was wrong. There was the cliff she was standing upon; It was purposely cut. There was no chance of it being a natural face, it was like someone took a blade and cut directly down, leaving the edge at a right angle. Even the face seemed melted. The ground itself she stood on was crystal. The sky was dropping feather light crystal shards down upon her. As she looked out, even the mountains were crystal. Every second she scoured the landscape she saw more and more crystal. The colours warped more and more in the light refracting through the raining crystals against the backdrop. It truly felt serene. This was exactly where Kris wanted to be, surrounded by a world of crystal. It might not exist, or ever exist, but it was a world she wished she could have. A world she could one day control down to the last drop of crystal snow.

Learning:

Approved

Kris shuddered in the night air as she was desperately trying to complete this new technique she had been taught. She had so much focus on her crystal that she had deeply begun to neglect her others, namely that evening she was aiming to expand her fire element. The one she was suggested to learn wasn’t too difficult, she was able to perfect it in a day without a great deal of pain, mastering wouldn’t come as easily but that could come much later. Her chosen training ground had been a field with a harsh cliff face at one end so that she might practise the effects of her earth melting style of fire. Blow after blow since noon that day she had performed the same process time and time again, and the marks surely showed. The once flat surface was now littered in the bottom 8 feet from the ground up with large rounded scorch marks. Without the light of day the side effect was less obvious until the lunar light was shining on instead, but the rounded surface would reflect the light as if it was a true forged stone like the crystals of the Suisho clan. For the last hour she had the technique for the most part, but she would spend that time just to aid in her control, until each time she exhaled the fire chakra she was hitting the same spot time and time again, causing even the faint light of the moon to finally shine off of it.

Learning:

Approved