( Arata's POV )
Arata: Our new home, are you serious?
I know we were supposed to be together at all times, but this is a little too much, although to be fair, this isn't the most extreme thing they've done.
Ren: All your belongings have already been brought here, so all you have to do is choose a room and start cleaning the place.
Urara: Wait, are my things here too?
Ren: Of course, why wouldn't they be? I have other matters to attend to, enjoy your new home.
Sun's mother got into her car and left us behind without saying anything else; well, nothing else to do but go ahead.
Arata: Let's check the place out.
Sagiri: ...I guess we should.
I walked inside the inn and the girls followed behind me; they too had succumbed to Sun's mother's actions, Urara still felt a little like she shouldn't be here, so I turned around to talk to her.
Arata: Are you coming?
Urara: Yeah, I-I guess so.
Upon checking into the inn, we saw a lot of suitcases with our belongings. As I suspected, no one had lived there for a while, and the place was quite dirty, but the building was in good condition.
Arata: Should we start cleaning first, or...
Sun: I think we should choose our rooms, you first, Arata.
Arata: Okay.
I went up to the second floor and opened a few rooms, and seeing that they were all basically the same, I chose a random room.
Then the girls quickly chose their rooms. Sun and Ranna took the rooms next to mine, and Sagiri was in front of mine. Urara chose the room next to Sagiri's.
Once the room situation was sorted out, we started cleaning. This place was a bit too big for just the five of us to clean, but we made quite a bit of progress and then we decided to stop for the day.
After work, the girls decided to enjoy the hot springs at this inn, a massive perk of this place.
I, on the other hand, decided to go to the back of the inn, the place was like a small forest and perfect for my training. Sagiri saw what my intentions were and decided to accompany me.
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Entering what were now our new training grounds, I gathered energy around my hand.
After all the experience I had gained, I could call upon my inner energy at will, but giving it the properties of an element was a different story, but I tried to concentrate on a simple image, a ring of wind around my hand.
Minutes and a lot of wasted energy later I managed to create what I was imagining and then I tried to shoot a blade at a tree.
As I threw my arm forward, an energy blade flew in a straight line and hit a tree, but my attack didn't leave a cut, only a mark as if I had been hit by a blunt object, not only did I fail to give my attack the properties of an element, I also failed to give it the intention to cut.
Arata: umm Do you have any advice, Sagiri?
Sagiri: To create or replicate something, it's best to constantly familiarize yourself with it; the hairpin I use is made of energy, maintaining it at all times is a basic control training for us chuuma ninja.
Arata: That's fine and good, but there's wind around me all the time, what else can I do, stand in front of a fan for hours?
Sagiri: That's not a bad idea, but first maybe you should try your other element; fire is something more distinctive.
I wasn't expecting her to accept something I wasn't seriously saying as a viable practice, but putting that aside, I followed het advice and began to practice my mastery of the fire element, Repeating what I did before, I concentrated on the heat and the simple shape of a flame.
It took a little less time for a black flame to form in my hands; I threw that flame onto a pile of dry leaves, and when my attack landed it seemed that I had failed again to give it properties of the element, but a little smoke began to come out of the pile of leaves.
I wasn't good enough to light a small campfire, but that was progress, I thought about making more attempts, but at that moment I remembered the pact I had with the girls, at this moment the girls were absorbing energy from me, but that worked both ways; taking some of Sagiri's energy and control skills should help my training in theory.
I focused on my fingers and the energy that flowed through our pact, closing my eyes, I imagined a rope connecting me to Sagiri, and by pulling on that rope, I activated the energy exchange function of our pact.
A ring of light appeared floating around my finger and I could immediately feel my control of my abilities increasing in leaps.
I extended my hands to my sides and called upon my inner power; a giant ball of fire appeared in one hand, It felt so hot even when it wasn't directly touching me that I thought it was capable of creating a huge forest fire, so of course I didn't throw that attack, a small tornado appeared in my other hand; I tried to concentrate it into a sphere that would deal concentrated damage, but before I could do that, the ring of light in my hand disappeared, and with it, my two attacks also disappeared.
Arata: tch I was so close to a breakthrough.
I was going to try to activate our pact again, but before I could do that, I noticed that Sagiri was acting somewhat strange, she was hugging her body tightly and was breathing heavily.
Arata: Sagiri, are you okay?
I went to check on Sagiri but when I was close, she lunged at me and wrapped me in a tight embrace. Sagiri looked up and gave me a pleading look.
My heart started beating fast and I was going to put my arms around Sagiri, but before I could do anything, Sagiri's expression changed as if she had come out of a trance, and she pushed me away.
I felt somewhat disappointed that things didn't progress further.