Revelations in Ice and Snow (Training)

[Methedor]

It was still moving inside him quickly, but it wasn’t dense enough it wasn’t piercing the skin and just fractured. The young Kaguya’s arm dropped and so did him, in pain. The thick misty frost of the watery treed scape swirled around at a temperature that would chill most to the bone. He fell to his knees clutching his arm. He concentrated and felt the splintered bones, pretending it was like the Teshi Sendan Naito was able to shoot the fragments out of his arm. Blood dripped a moment from the wound spreading in the slush that coated the ground.

“Agk!” he grimaced and swore. “I've learned everything else. Why is the Shikotsumyaku being difficult now.”

He was trying to gain mastery over the fundamentals and insecticides of the Shikotsumyaku, the bone. The boy wanted to master his clan's gift. With the loss of Mononoketo and his family small the clan's secrets of great importance to him. Already being here for hours of practice he decided to change his tactics. He rose to his feet as the trees dripped. He'd been trying to master speed first, maybe it should be density. The Kaguya walked towards a particularly large tree his mind focused on the bone of his arm, the mass increasing and expanding familiarly through his flesh, muscle and skin. The bone slowly peeked out of his hand, a blade, the edge morphing and narrowing to exacting sharpness. There Naito stood before the lumbering wood and gripped the blade like a hilt and rose his arm to swing at the tree. The tree buckled bark flying as the dense blade cut through a segment.

“heh.” it came out bemused. He was getting closer he could feel it. Clamping his grip down on the bone extension he focused and rose up another layer of bone, reinforcing, merging it and resharpening. He swung again, this time a cleaner slice from a denser blade. This was it, this was his method. Just making something denser and just all around better from the start was too complex, however forging layer upon layer like a good craftsman enhancing it with every extra bit. Naito would just have to be swifter and more efficient from beginning to end. The bone sword began to cut better with every strike, each layer reinforced and sharper. Over time the lumbering tree was cut enough to fall. The frosted inanimate fell cracking the bark frost and breaking branches. Naito extracted the blade with an accompanying wet sound and grunt.

He stuck the boned blade into the ground. Natio knew he had to do more, be more refined have the initial blade be better to start with and layer as the blade is made. Unfortunately certain refinements could only be accomplished through experience. After a break featuring hunted meat from the strong predators of Mizu no Kuni the Kaguya continued his practice into the night. As the sun set and the temperature fell the mist was joined with falling snow. With frosty breaths his mind momentarily drifted to his memories of home or at lest what he could remember of it. A renewed vigor moved through him as he wasn't just doing this for himself Natio was to master himself, the Kaguya, to find the fate of Mononoketo.

With a bust of speed he began to move, he needed something more challenging to train against as he could clearly perform against trees now with the Shikotsumyaku alone. The soft white snow fled his body as the landscape sped past. The moon shifted position as reached his destination, a lake mixed of ice and rock. The area seemed perfect for the challenge, here there was risk. Perfecting his clan's gifts in such a place would put him at a test of mental fortitude, dexterity and some third challenging thing that didn't come to mind at the moment.

He leaped to a floating peace of ice and took in a breath ignoring the cold on his feet. He felt the bone structure inside of him, flexing a piece here and there he began to extend a piece again, but began layering as he went, bending and folding at some new level he couldn't quite think about. The extended piece was bloodied as this was new, but it felt sturdy and sharp. With an elated smirk on his face he gripped the blade with both hand leaping from the ice towards an ice encased boulder...

[Word Count 741]