Shakugan No Hybrids: Chapter 23

Chapter 23 : The Training Of A Flame Haze – Part 1

The next morning Shana wakes up feeling refreshed, her body not suffering from any traces from her painful encounter with the denizen ghost of last night, her fatigue vanished.
A quick look outside of the cave tells her it is probably a few minutes before dawn..
In the sky a few stars can still be spotted, and the cold of the night is still present, unwilling to leave the forest into the cunning hands of the day.
The huge trees look even more massive in the semi-dark and Shana wonders how they ever managed to grow this big as she grabs Malachite’s swords and goes outside.
She feels no need for a breakfast, the leftovers the hybrid left for her the other day were more than enough to fill her stomach.
“Time to practice!” she thinks as she looks around, trying to locate him.
He must be somewhere around,  since it is clear that he kept his promise, and spent the night outside.
She remembers his flawed reasoning for doing so.
“It is clear that you are afraid of me..somehow.
Fear means you won't rest.
And rest you will need.”
She can only shake her head while thinking back about that stupid conclusion.
“I am not afraid of you” she thinks, “just cautious”.
Still, it always pleased her when Malachite was wrong about something, no matter how small.
He was arrogant enough already, and the fact that he was right most of the time only made it worse.
More on instinct then actual knowledge Shana turns her head back towards the entrance, and towards the rocks scattered around at the left side.
“There! Near the biggest rock! Isn’t that a human shape?” she wonders.
As she moves closer she sees that she is right.
It is indeed Malachite in a sitting position against a large polished rock.
Strangely enough, he doesn’t move or in any other way acknowledge her presence.
That really isn’t like him, he should be busy trying to insult her by now.
Then she notices that his eyes are closed.
Slightly surprised she raises a brow.
“He’s asleep?”
She wonders how he managed to sleep out here, with the dangers of those ghostly existances being around.
“He either knows something that keeps him safe..or he is just very, very, stupid” she concludes.
Malachite’s face does not look very peaceful.
It is painful expression to say the least, and the way his eyes are moving behind his eyelids clearly indicate that he is dreaming.
“He doesn't seem to have a nice sleep..” she whispers the obvious to herself.
“Wait! Not that I care anyways!” and carefully she moves closer, determined to wake him up.
Suddenly the hybrid clenches his fists, and Shana freezes instantly, knowing that waking someone from a nightmare can be a very bad idea...especially when that person can cast unrestricted spells.
Malachite is moving his lips…he is saying something!
“No…”
Even while that can mean anything,  Shana is surprised by hearing the amount of pain and despair coming from that single word.
“I failed…”
What did you fail at, Shana wonders.
Not for the first time she wishes she knew more about this denizen’s past.
She hates it that everything prior to him making himself known to her is a big gap in her knowledge.
Even Alastor didn’t know anything other than that he was several centuries old, not a small accomplishment for someone who lacks any form of raw offensive power.
“Whatever the cost…”
What is it that placed this burden upon him, Shana asks herself again.
It is clear that whatever Malachite’s motives are, this must be the one thing that is more important to him then everything else, the one thing he is willing to put everything he wants and believes in aside for.
The one thing that made him attack her in order to analyse the Nietono no Shana against all odds, the cause that made him save her life from the Disciple almost at the cost of his own, the reason he is now doubting about taking an offer from what he sees as his arch enemies…
“If only I knew what is was that is taking such a hold on him” she thinks, “it would make it so much easier to understand and predict his actions…”
“NO!”
The amount of hatred, pain and pure distress behind that word alarms her senses and the small flamehaze quickly jumps backwards as Malachite opens his eyes wide in terror, jumping into a fighting position within a timeframe even the strongest flamehazes would find impressive.
“Fuzetsu!,” he yells while his hands search above his shoulders for the place he usually stores his two swords, breathing heavily.
When he realizes his swords aren’t there he looks around him searching for a weapon, still not realizing that he is awake.
Then his eyes meet Shana’s, and a wave of confusion washes over the hybrid’s face.
“You were dreaming” she plainly states the obvious, making sure to keep both her face and body language neutral.
Malachite comes to his sense as he hears her voice, and the panic and terror in his eyes fade, slowly getting replaced by their usual mix of intelligence and arrogance.
He closes his eyes while taking a deep breath, and unlocks the Fuzetsu.
“No” he says with a low voice, “It wasn’t dreaming…it was re-living.”
Automatically his hands go to his back once again , trying to grab his swords out of habit.
Shana raises a brow.
She really is curious about Malachite’s past, but she also knows that the chances of him telling her are close to zero at this point.
Then she dismisses her curiosity, determined to focus on the task and training at hand.
“Anyway… here” she says, and hands him the swords he gave her the night before.
The familiar weight of the weapons in his hands clearly calms the hybrid, and with a minor shaking of his head he manages to shrug off whatever it was that his nightmare forced him to see.
“How is your shoulder?” he asks her, referring to the wound she suffered from the crimson ghost the night before.
“Will it limit your movements today?”
His voice is void of form of sarcasm, something she noticed quite often during the last time he trained her.
Whatever the hybrid might be plotting, the training he gives her is something he appears to take very seriously.
She shakes her head in response.
“It is fine, I am ready for everything!”.
It was true.
She felt great today, not only because Alastor restored her strength, but also because the hybrid’s lessons the other day caused her to control her own existence better so it would not get drained so easily by the hostile environment.
“Fine.
Because today is your lucky day.
You will get to hurt me.”
He grins at her in a way that implies that it won’t be as easy as he makes it sound.
“Hm! I won’t say "at last" or anything!” Shana thinks.
She would not give him that satisfaction.
Even while she finally got a bit used to his arrogant behavior, she would not pass up on a chance to beat that guy into the ground!
“ Just let's start!” she says, unsuccessfully trying to conceal her excitement.
“Excited are we?” Malachite taunts her as he reads her feelings from her voice.
“Fair enough.
Focus.
And call out your flame using the technique I taught you yesterday.”
She nods and calls upon her flame, the flame of the flame-haired-red-hot-eyed-hunter.
Not in the way she is used to, but in the focused and controlled manner the hybrid showed her.
It feels more natural this time as she feels her hair and eyes change into their red color.
Out of habit she draws the Nietono no Shana and allows the flame to swirl around the legendary longsword’s sharp edges.
Unlike yesterday everything goes well, and she is fully in contro-
Suddenly she feels weak, and her grasp upon the flow of existence becomes slippery.
“Someone is disrupting my control!” she thinks alarmed as she looks up.
Malachite has extended his hand towards her as he is shaking from pure concentration.
The distortion intensifies, and even while she still is in control of the existence flow,  Shana feels herself struggling.
“What...what are you doing?!...” she yells at the hybrid, losing more control with every passing second.
“I do..what they..will..do!” Malachite responds as the sweat drips of his forehead, taking deep breaths between his words.
“I warp your power…making it unstable..”
He narrows his eyes and the flame in Shana’s hands starts to flicker as the existence slips out of her grasp.
Coming from afar the chaos of the maddening voices slowly increases in intensity again as her control crumbles..bit..by..bit.
“Try to shut me out!”
Malachite’s voice is hard to recognize between all those other voices that scream in her ears.
“Imagine your existence…like it is a fire…burn away all outside influence!”
Shana falls on her knees as she feels that despite all of her efforts her strength gets sapped away.
Panting heavily she desperately closes her eyes and tries to focus on Malachite’s teachings.
But it is hard..so hard..
As the sweat slowly falls down her neck Shana begins to see explosions of colour behind her closed eyelids, as the pain of the imbalance in her existence makes it almost impossible to do anything.
Powerless she feels how Malachite mercilessly amplifies the strength of his attack, and the sheer intensity of his aggression causes her to fall, face down on the ground.
Between her teeth she can taste the mud as the flame-haired-red-hot-eyed-hunter forgets about everything in the world besides trying to resist the urge to throw up.
“Is that really the best you can do?” Malachite mocks her.
“Be more aware!
FEEL your existance!
FEEl where the weak spots are!
FEEL where I am invading you!”
Shana wants to scream out sheer of frustration.
Her power of existence never gave up like that on her this way before..betrayed her like that before..
In one final desperate attempt she tries to gather all the control she has for one last time as she tries to become one with all of her existence, trying to feel the pulling of Malachite inside of her..
Shana’s breathing becomes irregular as the battle with the hybrid for control asks for more power than her small body can provide..