Kaito kept working hard as he aged, he had gotten to the point where he could consistently beat Amire in battle, but Kaid and Kate were still at an unreachable place.
Though, strange enough, something everyone in the village noticed was that Kaito had become a mage. None of them knew when, but they noticed from the increase of physical abilities, as they no longer held back as much. But even stranger than that, he was a mage without an affinity.
A mage who couldn't use magic, yet another strange thing about him.
Tips: usually a way to tell mage affinity is by the color of their core, an intangible attribute. But certain mages, the more skilled ones to be specific, could see the color. The cores glow colors such as golden, a vibrant red, a cool blue, a violent violet.
Despite this, Kaito's core was grey, a dull silver. It was strange, but it didn't limit him physically at all, though he was still a weaker mage.
Kaito is enjoying the peace and quiet of the forest when his cousin Amire launches a sneak attack on him. She forgot the most important part of a sneak attack: be silent! Kaito easily dodges her attack and chops her on the forehead. "You've gotta be silent to sneak attack someone," he tells her.
Amire holds her forehead in pain. "I almost had you that time!" she shouts.
"What's up?" Kaito wants to know what she's doing here.
"Your dad is calling for all of you," Amire tells Kaito.
He seems nervous. "Oh no, he's gonna be upset I still can't use magic!" Kaito panics inside.
"Thanks for letting me know, Amire, I'm going." He waves her goodbye and rushes to meet his father.
Kaito walks into the training grounds, where he sees his siblings, including the twins who are now 5.
Sun greets him. "Kaito, how nice of you to join us." He gives a warm smile.
Kaito nervously laughs. "Hey Dad, good to be here." He sits next to the twins.
Kailey leans over to him. "He's gonna kill you," she says with a Koi smile.
Sun walks over to him. "Have you awoken to your magic yet?" Sun asks him.
Kaito sweats nervously. "Oh uh, yeah totally Dad, I can use lightning." Kaito lies, but everyone can tell he's lying. He's an awful liar.
Sun sighs. "Kaito, compared to your brother Kaid, you are falling drastically behind. At your age, Kaid had multiple kinds of magic at his disposal and could hunt monsters all by himself," Sun lectures.
Kaid looks over to Kaito. "Don't judge yourself too much, Kaito, I'm just amazing," Kaid confidently says.
Kaito breaks eye contact with Sun. "I can hunt monsters too," Kaito says while looking away.
"Look people in their eyes when you speak, Kaito," Sun coldly says.
Kaito looks Sun back in his eyes. His softer eyes meeting his father's steel gaze.
"I won't deny that you've become a better fighter than you once were, Kaito, but you are too soft." When Kaito would beat any of his cousins, he never dealt lethal blows. When they fell, he stopped to help them up. He was never extremely violent with them. But he was always proud of his own progress. This just upset his father.
Sun looks around at the rest of his children. "The rest of you can go, I need to speak to Kaito alone," Sun says, and the kids look at Kaito.
Kate pats his shoulder as she passes him. "Good luck, Kite," she says bleakly as they leave.
Kaid nudges his arm a bit. "Don't get hurt too bad, man."
The twins just walked away giggling like they were happy with what was about to happen.
Sun and Kaito sit in silence for a while. After the tension in the air was so thick Kaito could choke on it, Sun broke the silence.
"Kaito, I believe you fell behind so much because of your cooking lessons with your mother," Sun explains.
"But I like cooking with Mom," Kaito says.
Sun rubs his eyes. "You shouldn't be cooking with your mother; you should leave that to the women!" Sun raises his voice, startling Kaito.
"Your mother made you soft, Kaito," Sun says as he then turns to Kaito and begins walking to him.
Kaito stands up and backs away. "Dad?" Kaito questions.
"I think you just need an extra push to help you awaken," Sun says as he begins to burn with magic.
Kaito backs away. "Dad, come on, you can't be serio-" Sun punches Kaito in his face, sending Kaito flying a few yards. He shakes his head, and he notices that his head is bleeding.
"Are you trying to kill me?!" Kaito yells at his father.
Sun ignores Kaito and swings at him again. Kaito ducks and kicks Sun in the chest. Sun grabs Kaito by the leg and throws him to the ground. The force of the slam knocks the air from Kaito's chest. Sun stomps down, but Kaito rolls out of the way and uppercuts Sun. Kaito grabs his dad's arm and tries to flip him, but Sun doesn't budge and effortlessly throws Kaito away.
Kaito flips midair and catches himself, sliding across the ground. Sun charges and he blasts fire at Kaito. Kaito panics and ducks under the blast. He breathes a sigh of relief before Sun punches him into a tree again.
"Come on, Kaito! I've trained you for years—is this the best you can do?!" Sun yells. Kaito sits, almost knocked out, on the ground.
"Stand up!"
Sun turns to walk away, disappointed in Kaito, but something feels off. He looks at the ground and notices flames beginning to swirl around Kaito.
"Finally," Sun says as he gears up for another round.
"Oh my god!" Moon yells as she runs over to them. She grabs Kaito's bloody and bruised body from the ground.
"What are you doing?!" Moon barks at Sun.
"I'm making him stronger. He's finally awoken to magic," Sun says, proud of himself and proud of Kaito.
Moon shakes her head at Sun as her body glows a warm color.
She casts a heal arte on Kaito and his wounds vanish.
"You are insane! How could you do this to him? He's 11!" Moon barks.
"He was falling behind. If the boy wants to travel the world when he turns 14, he needs to be stronger," Sun says to her.
Moon takes a deep breath, attempting to calm herself.
"You've gone too far this time, Sun," she says, burning with rage. "We'll be discussing this later," she says.
Sun scoffs. "Moon, what is it that you want here? The entire world hates us. Do you want to just waste away in this forest forever? With the power of this next generation of Kaya, we no longer have to just live in fear. We can finally take- "
"NO!" Moon shouts, sitting Kaito gently down against a tree, then storming up to Sun. "My kids aren't your soldiers. We aren't soldiers. We agreed we'd train them to survive, not to conquer!" Moon barks, but Sun just sighs.
He loses his temper. "Kaid is going to be the strongest mage to ever exist one day. I'm not going to just sit around and be some coward hiding away in a forest," he says.
Moon walks away and picks Kaito up. "Then leave," she says.
"Do you really believe you're in control here?" Sun asks.
Moon snaps. "Do you forget who's in charge? Do I need to remind-" Kaito's vision fades to light.
The rest of the conversation seems like it was completely lost to Kaito, since when he awoke, he woke up in his and his siblings' room, on the bottom bunk of his bed with Kaid. Kate's bed in the corner, where she sat, along with the twins sitting on either side of her.
Taking note of him, she set her book to the side. "Morning, Kite," she said.
Kaito scratches his head. "Morning?" he asks.
Kate looked back at him, wondering why he's confused about this. "Yeah, you just woke up," she mentions.
He can't seem to remember how yesterday ended. All he remembered was training with his dad. But he sees Kate reading the book of the outside world, so he forgets everything else and runs over.
He sits himself right in front of her, and she smiles.
"Wanna hear more of the outside?" she asks, and Kaito nods happily.
Kate giggles. The twins and Kaito all sit around Kate as she reads her book, about mountains that stretch to the skies, bodies of water so large they seem like they never end. This strange thing called sand, and entire valleys of it, all these things exciting Kaito for his upcoming adventure, and all the while Kaid snores loudly from his bed.