Semblance

Seeing that Coco was ready to begin transcribing, Arthur closed his eyes while letting both his aura's dissipate completely so he could restart the process and better analyse his actions.

"Okay, I'm starting" he said, his eyes slowly opening as he began to circulate his aura around his arm in its basic combined form without separating it. But once he began to separate his aura as he had done previously he began to feel something different, "I can successfully separate both auras, no discomfort or pain, instead my arm feels heavy… yet it isn't heavier? Hmm…" he muttered and began to raise and lift his arm where he noticed another thing about his aura, "The black aura leaves a thin black mist as I move my arm, while the white aura leaves particles of light similar to what happens when using Salvator, yet these seem different… so those particles do not originate from Salvator but from my aura, and Salvator alters them then?" he questioned aloud.

After a moment longer of moving his arm around to see the various particles he lowered it and pointed his palm towards the flame, "Here goes nothing…" he muttered and began to push the black aura from his palm, causing a thin mist to begin falling from his hand, disappearing after a few centimetres, Arthur then began to will the mist to condense into the orange fire that was burning in front of him, Yet nothing happened, "Nothing happens when pushing my aura into the flames…" he muttered in confusion.

"Hmm… pure aura does not affect the flames, so it isn't my aura affecting them, so my semblance allows me to do it then?" he muttered, calling in his head for his Tome to open up to his Abilities page and Skills page.

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{G --> F} Mortem

{F --> E} Aura Control

[New] {F} Pandora (Semblance) [Empowerment]

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"Not vague at all…" he muttered in annoyance, "Mortem's rank increased, so the black aura is related to Mortem, while white is Vita, Life and Death" he snorted, "And my semblance is… empowerment?" he squinted and began to think, eventually turning his eyes back to the orange flame he began to imagine his aura entering it once again, but now he began to imagine his aura beginning to intertwine with it and mix with it.

And the moment he did, from the edges of the flames closest to his began to change colour, changing into pitch-black colour that seemed to absorb the white light surrounding them, after a few second the flames had turned completely black, now barely even letting the outline of the wood show through them.

Yet, this was short lived as the moment Arthur stopped supplying the flames with aura that they disappeared leaving not even a pinch of ash in its wake, "Strange…" he muttered kneeling next to where the wood block had just been, "The flames were different this time, they were pure black and didn't release any of the same white light as this…" he stared up at the burning orphanage, "And the black flames almost instantly disintegrated the wood, while this is still standing after several days of burning"

"Hmm…" he stood up walking up to a loose chunk of burning wood on the outskirts of the blaze, his hand quickly pulling it from the main blaze, standing up he then began to imagine instead of pushing his aura into the flames he instead began to pull on it, attempting to separate the aura from them.

After a few seconds the fire began to flicker as the aura began to loosen itself from the fire and return to around wrapping around Arthur's arm, but instead of only the black mist he also notice tiny, miniscule particles of white hovering around within the mist, "Interesting, the flames affecting the orphanage are a mixture of both my auras, is that why it's still standing then?" he said, letting the excess aura dissipate into the air, leaving him standing there, pinching his chin as he stared at the now orange flames in front of him which released a crackle.

"If that's so what does the white aura do?" he muttered and immediately put his thought into action, now pushing his white aura into the flames in the forms of many tiny white particles, and began to merge with the fire, turning them now a pure and bright white, not blinding albeit, but would certainly cause discomfort if you stared at it for too long.

Like with his previous experiment nothing happened until he severed his connection to the flame, after which from the top of the chunk of a wood, a tiny bump began to form, albeit very slowly, "The wood is changing?" he muttered staring with intrigue at the small bumb which eventually burst from the top of the wood with a small green sprout, "Scratch that, it's growing…" he muttered scratching his head trying to figure out how he had made dead wood, live again.

"Huh, that is actually a really cool image" he said admiring the small sapling growing amidst a torrent of white flames, looking back up to the orphanage Arthur spoke again, "So the fire is of two colliding forces then? My death aura trying to destroy the wood but my life aura stopping it from destroying anymore, that would explain why such an isolated fire is still burning after so long" he said.

"But then is the life aura stronger than the death? If there is so much more of it in the fire than the life aura why hasn't it been completely overtaken?" he questioned pinching his chin while kneeling in front of the flaming sapling that was continuing to slowly grow taller, having grown a few centimetres while Arthur was monologue, yet the mass didn't come from no were as the wood block began to get smaller the more the sapling grew, this didn't go unnoticed due to Arthur's thinking as Coco added her own observation's every now and then, the changes with the sapling being one of them.

"Hmm…" he muttered with a squint, his expression changing as he let out a long drawn out yawn , thoroughly breaking him from his thoughts, "I'll think about it later…" he muttered and stood up, stretching his back, not really doing anything due to his flexibility. His words seeming acting as a catalyst for Coco as well as she also let out a yawn, and saved her log and closed her scroll, and walked up next to Arthur, both of them staring silently at the fire for a few minutes.

"Shall we head back?" Arthur questioned turning to look at Coco "I think we both need some sleep" he said, getting a nod from Coco, "Yeah, it is getting late now, my teams probably gonna start heading to bed soon anyways, so might as well get there before everyone blacks out, want me to get you a picture of Velvet sleeping?" she asked nudging his shoulders while also giving him a wink.

"I have a feeling you'll take one either way" Arthur replied getting a shrug from Coco who said, "Eh, what can I say, she's a cute sleeper".

Arthur felt a smile creep up his face as he began to shake his head, "Let's go" he said and began to walk back to the car. Stumbling when Coco latched herself around his arm suddenly, while also resting her head on his shoulder.

Neither of them noticing that the pure white flames of the sapling had somehow bridged the gap between it and the black and white flames, which were slowly beginning to cause the wood to disintegrate as the flames seemed to get darker in colour.

As they arrived at the car Arthur looked to the booth finding that the officer had dozed off leaning back in his chair with his feet up on the desk in front of him.

Arthur looked back to the car, just as Alf had opened his door to get out Arthur said, "It's fine, I've got it" and opened the door, shrugging his shoulder to get Coco to move, which she did, albeit sluggishly as she sort of just flopped into the back seat, making Arthur chuckle as he lightly shoved Coco slightly so he could get in.

"Apparently, Coco gets sleepy very easily…" he muttered in amusement while Coco sat up and immediately left her body flop to the side, her head once again on Arthur's shoulder.

"No I don't…" she responded but was interrupted by a yawn, "I just haven't had any coffee in a while…" she muttered her words fading, "And you're really… comfy…" she muttered, finally finding her eyelids shut.

"And here I am unable to fall asleep after an hour of lying down in my bed…" Arthur sighed, slightly rolling his shoulder to move Coco's head into a more comfortable position.

"Considering Coco's current state, I'm guessing you would like to be brought back to the airdock for Beacon?" Alf inquired a smile on his face as he looked back to Arthur and Coco in the mirror.

"Please" Arthur said as Alf began to drive, but just as they began to leave Arthur saw something or someone walking towards the fire, a child, no older than seven or eight, short, neck length dark green hair and light brown skin, in her hands carrying a bundle of flowers.

Seeing this sight Arthur's eyes widened for a moment before closing into a squint as he recognized this child from somewhere, 'Emerald…' he thought, recognizing this child as the same one that had been created by Emerald when she along with Cinder and Mercury attacked Amber.

Gritting his teeth Arthur covered his mouth with his fist as he began to think of what this could mean to him, 'I've been too conspicuous…' he muttered, his mind flashing to the broadcast showing off his heroic deed and then to his interview just a few hours earlier, 'Crap, but what would they want from me? It can't just be because of the fire or the interview, do they think I'm a threat?" he thought, chewing on his fist, "And why use the illusion on me now? Not when I'm alone?" he muttered under his breath.

"And why that illusion specifically?" he pondered; now tapping his fist against his chin, his mind wandering to a certain cinnamon haired girl, 'Do they know Fairy's a maiden? No, no, they can't unless they are working with the butler and his master, so am I the target?' he thought, 'Even then, why use that particular illusion?' he said, closing his eyes while massaging his temple trying to think up an answer for his conundrum.

His eyes bolting open in realization after nearly five minutes of thinking, 'They know about Fairy, but not about her powers, but how I treated her… they went to Velvet's parents Café… that explains how they know who I am and where I was, they've been following me' the moment that thought came to his mind he clenched his teeth tight, and felt a shiver run down his spine, 'They've known about me since at least yesterday, maybe even the day of the fire, they… no Emerald, Cinder wouldn't waste her time tracking me and Mercury would be a lot less subtle, so Emeralds either doing this on her own or on orders from Cinder, which is the most likely'

'Then Emerald found out I had been to Velvet's Café, where she learnt about Fairy and how I treated her, maybe even my name and where I was…' he pieced together, 'and then she camped out at the air docks waiting for me to appear' he thought, a small smile beginning to form on his face as he began to slightly understand things, 'but using the illusion now, and like that? Is she setting up something for later? For when I'm alone…' he once again began to question as a grin formed on his face, 'Oh, it is so nice knowing more about your enemy than they know about you' he thought as another thought came to his mind.

'Or, It's a coincidence and I'm thinking too much about nothing…', he looked back to where he had seen the child, now seeing nothing but an empty path, 'No, I never saw a child that looked like that when I first got to the fire…'

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Alternate Chapter names: [Elementary] [Aura of life and Death] [Learning the Semblance]

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