Chapter 7: Control
I parried Shiina's strike, displacing her blade and opening a path for a sharp thrust. She stepped aside, narrowly dodging the blow as she regained her stance. Seizing the moment, I swung my Shinai diagonally downward to break her defence. Realising the danger, Shiina quickly applied more pressure to her high guard, blocking the attack. With the opening she created, she attempted to strike my abdomen—attempted being the key word.
I deftly sidestepped her swing, forcing her to overextend. She applied too much pressure without correcting her stance, leaving her vulnerable. Before she could recover, I slashed downward at the lower part of her Shinai, just above the handle, forcing her to lose her grip and drop the weapon.
"Never make that mistake, Shiina, when you applied more pressure you didn't go back to normal. Applying more pressure meant that you were vulnerable to being disarmed, and now, you are unarmed."
Shiina had been struggling with this concept for a few minutes now since we started this spar. When and when not to increase her grip on the blade thus leading to this moment, where she was quite vulnerable.
"Isn't a stronger grip meant to be a good thing?" She asked.
"Not always. Again." I commended my student to pick her blade up for yet another round.
I stepped back so we were outside of each other's striking range and settled into my thumb grip with the Shinai. As Shiina gripped her own Shinai, I simply said, "Begin."
Shiina took steps forward, aiming for a quick downwards cut which I swiftly sidestepped, seeing her not put too much power into the swing focusing on speed got me to fake a smile. The false smile was to let her know she did good, as she stopped herself from overextending her slash and managing to cut diagonally from her position to catch me off guard, which I blocked, using an increased grip to push her blade back. Stepping out of the soon to be bind, I used a quick slash to hinder her blade's movement towards me and then on the outside taught her a very quick movement. The crosswise cut was quick, precise and caught her off guard. Swinging in one direction forcing her to block, as soon as my blade clashed with hers I quickly switched to her opposite side using that to finish the round on her.
I was teaching the fundamentals of German Longsword whilst teaching her Katana based movements, a quick slash with precise control over the strength of it. Not to overextend but to quickly adapt to the person's movements.
And, it's just a fact that anime sword styles are impractical and aren't that good. I mean, reverse grip is the ultimate example of this. I'll go into it a bit, but t's like this, it leaves your forearm exposed, your reach is greatly weakened, reduced cutting power and in general it's not good for any reason. Defensively, you're better off without using it, as you have to be precise about your block out, get cut, offensively, loss of reach makes it hard to attack your opponent. So on one hand you are completely open to being hit and on the other hand you can't even hit your opponent, it's 100% a liability.
"Again." I got back into the position, and waited. This was going to be a long time.
I was teaching Shiina, over and over, again and again, she lost each and every single round but was learning quickly. Each strike, each block, each repost and parry, all of it was a learning moment for her, when to guard, when to strike. All of it was for her betterment.
When the final round ended, Shiina was breathing heavily, her breathing uneven, whilst mine was only slightly affected, because during the training I was using nose breathing for controlled and deeper breathing which is crucial for efficient oxygen exchange from the lungs. Not only that but my parasympathetic nervous system being activated gave me a much bigger advantage than most realised.
"Well done, Shiina." I stated trying to seem proud of her growth. After all, it was better for me to keep her motivated, and praise often gives people motivation, which allows one to grow faster. It was that motivation that made 3 months of training worth it.
Although, truly it was impressive, I had my reservations about her making it towards Chunin by the time we graduated. In all honesty, a lot of that is because my own plans required waiting. Patience, breeding the results I wanted. Yet, if I were to fully bring her to Chunin level then I needed to take a more active approach.
I guess Chakra Control should be the thing I focus on first.
Shiina's soft voice broke through my thoughts as she caught her breath. "Thank you, Akari."
I raised an eyebrow, "Thanking me? I'm not doing that much for you."
She let out a light chuckle, her smile genuine despite the exhaustion. "You might not think so, Akari, but it means the world to me."
I studied her for a moment, her sincerity evident in the slight curve of her lips despite her exhaustion. Shiina whilst still a child had learned to not always give praise away, so hearing her thank me probably thought I was doing something grand for her, out of kindness.
That couldn't be further from the truth.
"You're learning because you're putting in the effort. All I'm doing is correcting your mistakes."
Shiina smiled warmly, her breath still ragged but her spirit clearly unshaken. "That's exactly why I'm thankful. You don't just tell me what I did wrong—you show me how to fix it. You actually care."
Care? The word felt foreign. I wasn't sure if that's what I was doing. This was all part of a much larger plan. Still, I knew that keeping her motivated was important for both her development and for my own goals.
I faked yet another smile, "I'm just teaching you. Whether you grow or not is up to you."
Shiina nodded, her expression softening. "Still, you didn't even have to help me at all. But you are helping me."
"Because I want an actual sparring partner for my own growth." That was partly a lie, it was because of the Quest, but she couldn't see through the deceit anyways.
"Your reasoning doesn't matter though, Akari, all I know is that I'm thankful for your help, one way or another, you are a very good friend, Akari."
But Shiina, I've never once thought of you as my friend.
"I see." My simple words caught her off guard, but that didn't deter her as suddenly she wrapped her arms around me. This was an action I wasn't familiar with. "Shiina, what are you doing?"
"Showing my appreciation for you in a hug." She stated with a happy voice, and I decided to hug her back.
I see, so this is what a hug felt like. Strange, it's kind of nice. She's quite energetic, as well.
As I stood here, holding Shiina in a hug, I felt a strange, satisfying feeling spread throughout my body. I guess this is the opposite of disliking something, so I guessed I liked this hug? Yeah, that's it.
It's the opposite to what I felt back then.
The rest of a distant memory entered my mind.
4-01, heed my words and remember them. Those who hold all the power yet neglect to use it to their advantage, are nothing more than fools."
Of course they knew what I was doing.
"Leave the room." He ordered and as such I followed him out of the room.
After a while of walking he spoke.
"What the hell are you doing 4-01?"
"What do you mean?"
"What do you mean? You understand what I am asking don't you?"
I sat down on a chair after being told to in a small private room. The man in front of me took a seat as well.
"I see you've completed all of the questions."
"Yes."
"Are you sure you are getting a perfect score?"
"No."
Of course not those scores were deliberately constrained to 80 points.
"Why did you hold back?"
That was both an order and a question.
"You didn't instruct me to not hold back.
I knew that I also wasn't going to just fall behind the curve because I didn't get a perfect score.
"You did realise that you're already leading this term then?"
He knew the answer already.
"Yes."
The man pointed at me before he spoke, "Because you noticed how this curriculum works. If you get a perfect score, the curriculum for the fourth generation students will naturally become harder, this in turn leads to the number of failures increasing. Is that something you want to prevent, 4-01?" That was a correct assumption, but not for the reasons he's suspecting. "Tell me, did you develop a sense of camaraderie with the kids?"
So that's the conclusion they came to.
"Is that what it looks like to you, Father?"
My sudden revelation about him didn't come as a surprise but it surely shocked him a bit. Granted this man in front of me was not seen as a father to me. At most we share the same blood tiesand that was all that I saw it as.
I'm certain this man felt the same.
"The Instructors talked about it, I see." He assumed.
"No, I figured it out by noticing how closely we resemble each other, brown hair, brown eyes, similar facial structure, tell tale signs of us being related to one another. Granted having it confirmed changes nothing beyond confirming my surname. And even then the knowledge is pointless to me since I go by 4-01 in this facility."
"I see. I do suppose it looks like you care for your fellow generation members but after having this talk I feel as if we misunderstood your intentions. We thought you were caring again."
"Whilst it is true that I once cared for the kids here. I do however want to keep them here in this facility. So if I cut corners, I am intentionally replacing a world where they would have already dropped out with one where they didn't. This in turn would allow me to observe them and also learn more about how to manipulate things so it looks like I still have emotions."
"You think your plan is above ours? It is up to us Instructors to decide when someone fails the Curriculum or not."
"Of course that is your choice. That's how the White Room is."
It would be futile to try and fight this man with logic. All that matters was that there was never a rule against holding back. But that wouldn't be so easy to just add a rule against cutting corners.
Even if I got a score of zero, the instructor, who is a third party, would be the one to judge me for holding back.
They won't fail the exam because of that. However, it doesn't mean that the instructor can treat a person who actually got a score of zero as if they got a score of 100 either. It is impossible to tell if they held back completely after all.
"I'm pretty sure we should see what happens Kurayami-Sensei. If she thinks this way it would be a great opportunity for our research."
"Interesting words Shiba. But do not forget what our mission here is."
"Yes, Kurayami-Sensei."
"Very well, let us see where this leads us. 4-01, we will allow you to continue what you are doing but you are to remember the words I spoke earlier."
Not utilising the power one holds, is a fool's errand.
Whether that was true or not, I remembered this day as a moment of interest.
Not because of his words, no it was because an emotion I thought lost had slowly started to form inside me again.
I was beginning to feel that I disliked the man who was my father.
I was alone in my room, glancing up at the ceiling from my a few hours after Shiina and I separated from our hug. With a glance outside my window, I could tell the time based on the position the moon was facing. 9PM. I suppose it was time for me to do what I should do.
Climbing out of my bed, I slipped on a completely black outfit, with a hood to cover my face. Then I began to stealthily make my way to the garden,
The floorboards creaked, but not loudly as I made my way outside the Orphanage building, and into the same field. The door wasn't locked allowing me to slip outside easily. When I did, I began making my way towards a tree.
I leaped upwards, and gripped the tree, beginning to climb it. I wasn't going to learn Tree Walking right now, but I did need a few leaves for what I am aiming for to work. I easily made my way to the first branch, grabbing a few leaves. At least 4.
After my little excursion I began making my way towards the lake.
I sat down in a meditative position near the clear lake, placing the leaf on my forehead. I then closed my eyes and focused.
I began to channel my Chakra to the leaf as a focal point, keeping it in place as I concentrated.
New skill gained, Leaf Exercise
Leaf Exercise LVL 1/5: This training method is done by placing a leaf over an individual's forehead and having them direct their chakra onto the leaf, using it as a focal point causing the leaf to stick to them like glue. The nature of this exercise isn't to teach chakra control but it is used that way, it is used to hone the individual's concentration and to keep their mind from becoming distracted. Each level increases CC by 1%. Uses 1 Chakra every 30 seconds.
The next 2 hours consisted of this training.
Leaf Exercise has reached max Level.
Opening my eyes, 2 hours later, I looked at the skill I maxed out.
So, my growth is that fast with Chakra Control, I knew my skills grew fast but I guess I should have expected this. Hmm, I wonder…
I began walking towards the tree, dropping the leaves as I looked up at it.
Too much chakra and you'll fracture the tree and be pushed away, too little and you'll fall off. In that case, I should try and find the middle ground by fluctuating between lower and high amounts of Chakra. The second I feel I am about to slip, use more, the second I feel I am about to be pushed away, use less. Making minute adjustments till I find the correct amount.
With that plan in mind, I began my tree climbing exercise training.
I approached the tree, focused on controlling my chakra. Placing my foot against the bark, I channelled a small amount of chakra to my soles.
The first few steps felt awkward. My foot slipped slightly, forcing me to increase the flow of chakra. Then, as I reached higher, the opposite happened—I could feel the force pushing me away. I quickly lessened the chakra, adjusting until I felt stable.
As I continued upward, I fell into a rhythm: sensing each change, making small, precise adjustments. Each time I felt myself falter, I either increased or decreased the flow, focusing on maintaining balance. Until I found the exact amount required to properly stick.
New Skill gained, Tree Climbing.
Tree Climbing LVL 1/10: A training method used to gain better chakra control. This training involves focusing a fixed amount of chakra to the bottom of one's feet, and using that to climb a tree without using one's hands. The concept of this exercise is similar to magnetics. When this is learned the user can climb other surfaces with their feet such as cliffs and mountains using Chakra Control. Each level grants 1% extra CC. Uses 5 Chakra every 10 seconds.
The instant I gained proper mastery of the technique, I also received the Skill. Which meant it was time to train. I walked up and down the tree until it was midnight which was when I stopped to begin making my way back to my room, sneakily of course.
Tree Climbing has reached LVL 7
Oh, there was that too. Entering my room, I began to change back into pyjamas, and after hiding my black stealth clothing again, I took a moment to review my day as I always did. Then, I fell to sleep.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone