User blog:Carol of the bells/Days of Ruin --- Zen's exile, part 30

Days of Ruin --- Zen's exile, part 30
Wooh! Finally Saturday~



Okay, on with the post!



"Come on, Zen!" Tillith cheered enthusiastically, "You won't get past Maxwell with that slow speed! Pick up the pace!"

Zen paused her push-ups to glare at the goddess. "If you wish to join me, be my guest."

She shook her head. "No. I'm the coach, I can't do that."

After finishing her set of two hundred push ups, she rolled over on her back, exhausted. "O-okay...what now?"

"Take a quick break," Galant instructed, stretching his arms, "Then I want you to show me that crystal technique of yours."

Sergio offered her a water pouch, which the summoner accepted gratefully. "Don't push yourself too hard," He said.

Zen shook her head. "I won't but...." She set the pouch down, looking up at the sky. "At my current strength, I'm barely able to stand up to Ko. I have to become much stronger if I am to defeat Maxwell."

"Fool," Mifune grunted, standing off to the side, "You can't defeat anyone if you die from exhaustion."

She smiled at his disguised concern.

Galant approached them, arms crossed and a smile on his face. "Alright, break time's over."

Sergio scoweled at him. "It's barely been five minutes."

"Exactly."

Zen stopped the water unit as he was about to argue. "It's fine. I've trained harder than this before, so I'll be alright."

He hesitated before nodded and walking off with Mifune.

"Alright," Galant nodded to her, "Show me your technique."

She held her palm out, blue crystals sprouting from her palm and growing like a plant. It changed shape into various objects before retracting it.

The fire unit furrowed his brow in thought. "That's it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," he pointed to the shrinking crystal, "Haven't you ever tried making a different colored crystal? Surely you can make more than just one kind."

Zen blinked in realization as the crystal disappeared. "Oh...No, I haven't. It never crossed my mind."

He chuckled a little. "Well then, we have work to do. Why don't you give it a try? Just imaging a color in your mind, say....green."

The summoner nodded, cupping her hands and concentrating. At first, nothing happened. But, as she focused her mind entirely on the color green, a small jade shard appeared in her palm. "Ah!" her eyes widened. "I did it!" The shard grew slightly, taking shape into a small bird. To her great surprise, the crystal twiched slightly before it actually moved. She watched in amazement as two bits of crystal that appeared to be wings seperated from it's body. It hopped once before flapping clumsily into the air. "A-amazing..." She stared after it. "I had no idea I could do such things!"

Galant laughed heartily. "Discovering true potential is wonderful, isn't it?" He seemed to be congratulating himself more than he was her. "Try again, this time with more refinement."

She obeyed, this time purposely imagining a bird in her mind.



Sergio and the others were watching from a distance as their summoner trained. The water unit sighed loudly, his shoulders slumping.

"What's wrong?" Selena asked, slightly concerned.

"I know it's childish of me to feel this way, but..." He looked away, embarrased. "I feel...slightly...j-jealous..."

Lancia snickered, then burst out laughing. "Ha! And I was the one who thought I was being replaced!"

"Jealous of what?" Selena probed.

Sergio grunted, trying to gather his thoughts. "It's just that...I said I would help Zen get stronger...but it turns out I couldn't even tell what kind of potential had. Galant hasn't even known her for more than three days, and Zen's already excelling."

The female water unit chuckled quietly. "Perhaps. But Zen would not be progressing so quickly if you had not taught her control and refinement."

"What do you mean?"

Selena smiled softly. "Your training may not have completely unearthed her true potential, but it prepared her for it."

Before he could respond, Zen called out to them. "Sergio!" She ran up to the units, her hands clasped around something. When she reached them, she opened her hands. A piece of jade sat in the middle of her palms. It was distinctly detailed and was clearly a bird, but Sergio was surprised to see it bury it's head under it's wing to satisfy an itch before looking up at him.

"Isn't it amazing?" She grinned.

Though Zen was a kind person at heart, she rarely smiled. In fact she hardly got excited about anything. That's why Sergio was more surprised that she was smiling, more than he was about the moving stone. "Y-yeah..." He responded unsurely.

"....it really is amazing..."



Mushy-mushy moment. I'm not very good at writing them, so make of it what you will.


 * Takes deep breath* Ah, I never thought Saturday could be such a beautiful thing. Waking up at 6 am daily is killing me...

Anyways, thanks for reading~