Chapter 13- Improving

A day had passed since the ending of the Ceremony, Hako was in her room staring at her phone looking for recipes for today's dinner, Tokume was laying down on her bed staring endlessly into the dark yellow celling. The two reflected on there matches and guessed how well they thought they did, a feeling of stress came over them but another feeling of guilt slowly went over Tokume because of what happened to Fuyu. Scratching her hair, she tried to get it off of her mind. Turning her head, she looked at her phone that was sitting on a small stand with a lamp on it.

Opening her curtains, she started into the bright blue sky with not a cloud in sight, remembering that right before they left Mia and Tokume traded numbers. So, if any case she was interested in improving her teleportation she would give a call. Hearing a knock on her door Hako opened it to see her sister with her jacket on.

"Where are you going?" Hako asked already knowing she was up to something.

"Remember that Mia kid?"

"The one with the weird laces on her? Yeah why?"

"She said she can teach me a couple of things with my teleportation. So, I'm gonna head out for a bit."

Hako looking a bit confused she rubbed the back of her neck where Hisuku stuck it, "Why now? Aren't you sore from all that moving and fighting?"

"Hell, yeah I am! But I want to get better on it, you saw how it was with my fight with her, I had no chance against her!"

Giving a sigh she grabbed her hand and started to write with a marker on it, "Fine not like I can really stop you. But be back on this time I might need help with cooking tonight got it."

Looking at the palm of her hand it read 7pm then she looked back up at her, "Are you sure, you want me to help? Cause you remember what happened last time."

"Just go before I regret it."

"Alright well I'll see ya later!" Jumping down the stairs, she grabbed her wallet and a bottle of water, she opened the door and stepped out into the calm breeze.

Compared to the last couple of days the streets almost seemed empty, there was still a lot of people walking around and some cars driving by but the excitement in the air was gone. Going down the walk away she looked at her phone seeing the places they were supposed to meet.

"Huh that's weird," Tokume started at the location that pinged red on her phone, "that a little outside of the city."

Seeing that it would take her almost the entire day she looked up at the top of a building. The next thing she knew was that she had left the ground and slowly landed on the rooftop.

Stumbling on her feet she fell down on her knees, "Guess I'm that worn out huh…well nothing I can do about it."

Taking a deep breath, she started to run across the rooftop, reaching the edge of the building she jumped right on to the other. Rolling to break her fall she continued on, continuously teleporting, jumping and running to rooftop to rooftop, already halfway through the entire city she could see the exit.

"OH SHI-!" When appearing she was on the side of the building, she lost her balance and started falling to the floor.

Wrapping her arm in water she swung it like a lasso to wrap against the sign of a building,

"Ahhh, I'm saved!"

Looking down at the ground she started to take deep breaths then vanished back on the top of the building. Another 30 minutes went by as soon as she reached the exit from the city, seeing many go in and out she followed the crowd, stepping out of the gate there was three separate landscapes. One that she saw in front of her was of a dry desert field, on her left was a bright green forest leading one way with a bumpy road, to the right was cold and a little snowy land with a mountain filled with snow.

When she was in school, she remembered what she was though about why each place was like this and how they don't interfere with each other. Like everything in this world each living thing has Halo Force but these lands Force never interfered with each other they stayed with their own land. According to legends, the GOD of Fire, GOD of Plants, and GOD of Ice where funding against each other than after hundreds of years they came to agreement. Creating what is now called "The 3 Domain Agreement."

It was always a breath-taking thing to see, looking at her phone she saw that the red dot was now closer, "Alright should be in the desert field, not to far either."

Walking down the path she stayed off from the road onto the left side of the dessert, "This should be the place…never seen this before though."

In front of her was a broken-down Colosseum, pieces of it were laying down on the rough ground, as the pillars stood with all their might to hold up what was left. Large amount of chunks were missing from the side of it especially at the top, walking inside she touched cracked hard walls filled with dust, looking around she was impressed on how this structure was even standing at this point. Reaching the inside, she looked around to see broken stairs, fallen rooftops, and statues that somehow resembled the shape of a human.

"Hey, you finally made it! Took you long enough!" Tokume heard a voice coming across the stage, putting her arm above her eyes she saw the silhouette of a person sitting on top of the Colosseum. They pushed themselves off of the ledge only to vanish mid fall.

The next thing Tokume saw was Mia's face in front of hers, "Come on I didn't take that long only like a hour or so."

"Fine I'll give you that for a newbie, but us teleporters have to have quick reactions and think of where to go, kinda like how you almost fell off that roof." She said lifting a finger in the air giving a smile.

"How did you know about that? Where you following me?" Tokume took a step back.

"Eeehh…sorta not really though," A sudden flow of Halo Force surrounded her, "you can see it right?"

Tokume say a purple like aura around her then right behind Mia was the small dust lines surrounding the entire colosseum, "Your Halo Force I'm guessing?"

"Yup! As you hopefully know everyone has their own Halo Force, some born with flames will be stronger than others born with flames, that's because when people are born it's never a fully balance of Light and Dark energy some have more and some have less," Opening her palm in front of her chest a small amount of her purple Force started to twist and turn, telling Tokume to touch it, she followed as instructed, " you got a taste it right? Now you know that this energy is mine, that's how I knew where you where, you got a pretty distinct Halo Force, so it was easy to tell where you were. I only got a little during our fight sooo. I showed you my Halo Force so you should too!"

Following in her footsteps she opened her palm and concentrated, a few seconds passed by and she felt a cold feeling surrounding her hand. Opening her eyes, she saw a black like wave surrounding her entire hand, it had small white dots all around it then it suddenly changed into a tar like substance, Mia being intrigued reached out her own hand.

Touching it she felt something colder than winter, it slowly grabbed on to her own hand, pushing her hand up it really did feel like tar, a heavy and slimy feeling but in an instant it turned back into soft water feeling being able to pull her hand out.

"Woah that's pretty cool!" Mia started to play with the tar like substance.

"Hey not to rush or anything but can we get started I'm running on a time limit here."

"Uh yeah sure," Mia took a step back, 'anyway back to what I was talking about, so when you messaged me, I focused and looked for your Halo Force and it was easy because your is almost a complete balance and its rare to see someone with that. So, if you remember what I said this dust is called "Tracker Dust", this is only something us teleporters can see."

"I see…so its like a dog following a sent." Tokume putting her hand on her chin.

"Why did you have to put it like that…"

"Its easy for my brain."

"Anyway, as we all know every living thing as Halo force and nonliving things have none, but here give me a second."

Mia teleported back to where she sat and back, in both hands she had an orange can and a red can, "Pick your poison!"

Reaching for the red can she know it was a can of soda, "What are these for?"

Seeing Mia chug the can of soda she finished it in a matter of seconds, "AHHH, Damn that's always good! Alright things like this, a nonliving thing has no Halo Force at all so you can't really track it but there's a trick to it. So, pay attention and sit back and watch!"

Mia threw the can across the stage and crouched near the floor, arms behind her she waited, Tokume saw a bright line of dust connect to the sky, it was almost like a string attached to something, Mia's purple Halo Force started to connect to line of dust and wrap around it. In an instant she vanished in the air and came back with the crushed can.

"BOOM!!"

"Wait how did you do that! I couldn't even see the can because of the sun!"

With a cocky laugh she smiled and began to explain, "Ok so basically since something like this has no Halo Force, I covered it with some of mine making something like a rope and a guide for me to teleport to it. Then once I feel like I'm sure when I want to teleport, I let the line guide me and teleport back. But I still have to be a step or so ahead and predict where it will be in the few seconds because you know…its still falling from the sky and gravity is a thing. Now it's your turn to give it a shot!"

Looking at her red can she cracked it open and started to chug it, "Let's do this!"

"That's the spirt!" Mia laughed as she patted her back.

Holding the can in her hand a small amount of her energy surrounded it, once she was sure she was ready she threw it in the air. It was hard to see the line of white and black, but she was able to sense it slowly falling, Mia standing behind her examined carefully, unlike her Tokume's trail of Trackers Dust was at the can but instead of a straight line it was scattered in different directions like branches from a tree. Crouching down she pushed herself into the air quickly vanishing.

"Ah there she goes…" Mia heard the distant screaming of Tokume's voice seeing her falling from the sky.

The can had already touched the ground but Tokume was in sky way above from where she thought the can was. Right before she went any further, she closed her eyes to only feel that the blowing and howling wind had stopped but she wasn't touching the floor. Opening her eye's, she saw Mia's face and noticed that she was in her arms.

"You know if I had a dime for every time, I was carried like a princess from falling from the sky, I'd have two dimes which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice," Tokume stated as she was being put down, "so where did I go wrong there?"

Scratching her head Mia started to gather her thoughts, "Well for starters you didn't do the last step and applied your Halo Force before you teleported but you're a beginner, so it was pretty expected along with your Tracker Dust being a bit wonky and visible, but don't worry we'll work on it as time goes on."

"Wait I thought I already stuck my Force on there? How did I do it wrong." Tokume sat down on the dusty ground.

"So, when you apply it at first it's like a small string attached to it, it's more of a way to feel of where it's at, but when having your Halo Force wrap around that small string it will act more as a guide for your body to follow."

"Ok I kinda get it but you said something about my dust being to "visible" or "wonky", what do you mean by that?"

"If for some reason you go against another teleporter and depending on how skilled they are their dust will be either very visible, faint or almost no dust at all. But you don't gotta worry about that right now we'll get there sooner or later."

"Isn't this a bit complicated for someone like me? Its hard to add more energy as it falls to the ground." Tokume wiped the sweat off of her head as the sun started to burn her alive.

"Yup! What I'm teaching you right now is pretty advance." Mia started to smile as she pulled out another can from her pocket.

Hearing the sizzling of her opening the can Tokume asked her before she could drink, "Wait if this is something to advance for me why am I doing it in the first place?"

"I wanted to see how good you are with your teleportation soo basically a test."

"A test?"

"You heard me a test," Mia swung the can to the side as she put her other hand on her hip, "and well to say out of ten…your around…a 4 or so."

"AHH damn! I was hoping like a 5 or even a 6!"

"Don't worry about it! It took me like a couple of months to almost fully master it," Mia offered her hand to help Tokume off the ground, "well at least I know where to start, so well do something…easy."

"That "easy" didn't seem like you were sure."

"I was sure in my heart but anyway well start with following my tracker dust. I'll start by only teleporting to the other side of the arena, when you see even the faintest of dust teleport there got it."

Tokume shook her head and stared at the other side, hearing Mia count down to three she could see a small thin line of dust appear. Right as soon as she stopped counting Mia was already on the other side, looking around for any sign of Tokume she couldn't see anything until she heard a groan on the ground. Facing her head to the floor she saw Tokume lying down as her face was a bright red.

"Did you hit the-."

"Yes, I hit the wall." Tokume interrupted but replied to Mia knowing what she was going to say.

"Welp can't really help it, come on get up we gonna keep doing this till you get it right."

She grunted and walked back to her original place as Mia teleported back. Time and time passed as within each practice she slowly got the hang of it. As the sun slowly went down Mia told Tokume that it was time for a break. Throwing another can Tokume caught it and sat down.

"Seems like you're finally getting the hang of it." Mia sat down next to her.

Wiping the sweat off of her head she replied, "Yeah kind of."

Looking around the statues always caught her eye, "Hey uh what with these statues?"

"Oh, those things? Well, I don't really know myself, but my teacher thinks it's something to the GODS."

"You know speaking about teacher who is this "teacher" that you keep mentioning?"

"His name is Jason I meet him when I wassss eight so about eight years ago, I think. He was the one to teach me everything I know about teleportation and he was the only one I knew who had the same ability as me…well not anymore at least. Because you know I found you at the Arena and was happy that I found another like me." Mia stared into the sky as she continued to take sips.

"Where is he now?"

"I don't know…one day he just said he had to go, and I was alone again," Mia's expression didn't change but she could tell she was sad from her tone of voice, "but I'm sure hell come back one day. Anyway, it's getting late let's call it off for today."

"Uh sure," The two got off the ground, "when are we gonna do this again?"

"Hmm…I'll just hit you up with a text when I got something I have to do."

"Alright that sounds good."

"Bye!" In an instant Mia disappeared.

"Wait! Damn it I was gonna ask for a ride!" Tokume looked at her phone and saw that she only had an hour left. Not wasting anymore time she started sprinting back home.

Reaching the center of the 3-Domain Agreement she saw something gaze the corner of her eye when she passed by the icy domain. It was only a glimpse but what she saw was a girl with icy long silver hair. Stopping in her tracks she took a minute to look back only to see that the girl was gone.

"Shit! What am I doing!" Tokume started to run again.

Teleporting up on the closest building she started to repeat what she did earlier in the day. Using what she learned she dug in her pocket and pulled out the can she had, hesitant at first, she brushed her doubt away and just threw the can. Praying she jumped off the building and fell on the roof of another building.

"hehe?! HAHA!! I did it!" Tokume started to run again with a smile on her face.

Reaching her house, she opened the door to see Hako, "I'm surprised you actually got her on time."

"Heh! Praise me if you want!"

Hako took a sigh a threw a towel over Tokumes face, "Take a shower your full of dust and sweat."

"Fine."

Chapter 13-END