"This suuuucks."

"Get up."

"No. You're just gonna hit me again."

"It's the only way to judge if you're listening or not."

"How about I judge if I can send you flying 50 feet in the air again?"

"First of all, it was not 50 feet. Second, I would counter and break your skull."

"Just like the first time, eh?"

"You waste of-!"

"Woop, woop, woop, woop!"

Red hazes of heat shot across the open dirt training ground as Vivran hopped around dodging the rays erratically.

"Rah! Sit still, you fourth-rate massage chair!"

"Put more power into it, you- you- you stupid Red-Hair! Gah, I'm such an idiot!"

Vivran abruptly stopped bouncing about to theatrically kneel down on the ground on all fours in a fit of despair. Calor, the one who had been referred to as Red-Hair, stopped his attacks out of confusion from his fellow students behavior.

"What are you doing?" he asked in suspicion with his guard up, preparing for an oncoming attack from an Art.

But Vivran just ignored him, continuing to bang his right arm on the dirt in lamentation.

"Why did I have to give that jerk the nickname Red-Hair!? Doesn't matter what word comes after it; anything sounds cool when you put the word "Red" before it! Red-Jacket, Red-Toad, Red-Map, hell, you could probably even play off Red-Diaper as badass with the proper introduction!"

"Wha-What are you-? Huh?"

"The only way anything with 'Red' in front of it could be embarrassing if it had some crappy context behind it!"

Vivran continued to wail dramatically with Calor left in a state of bewilderment. Of course, this was all part of Vivran's plan you see! By throwing a bunch of literary content at the stuck-up boy, he would have him locked in a stun, even longer than the one he had bestowed upon him earlier using his Vibrio move! However, this plan wouldn't work with just any alphabet soup. If Calor just brushed it off as gibberish randomly being spouted, then he would escape the trap and attack Vivran while he was down. So, Vivran needed to start a rant that he was, one, fully invested in himself and, two, throw in some simple bait that would lead Calor believe that he was the idiot for not being able to follow along. Genius!

Or so the boy had thought. Unfortunately, Calor adapted quicker than expected-

"Something with crappy context behind it...? For example, calling you Red-Arm for sporting the burn that I had given you?"

-and managed to turn Vivran's trap against him.

"Grk-! You little-! Vibrio Bell!"

Focusing the power of vibrations into his fist, Vivran surged forward to land a blow on his cocky opponent. Swinging wide with his right arm, he aimed for Calor's head and-

"Can you honestly not form an original thought in that head of yours?"

The red-headed boy perfectly evaded the blow by slipping under and positioning himself on Vivran's right. Then, using his opposition's momentum against them, he delivered a clean palm strike to the forehead, causing Vivran's rush to evolve into a forward-launching, backward-spinning summersault.

"WAAAAAH-! Oof-!"

This spectacular show of unintentional athleticism ended with a painful faceplant into the well-acquainted dirt.

"I told you that if you tried to do the same thing again, I would counter and smash your skull in. Granted, I underestimated your bone density. You seemed to have traded for it in exchange for less brain space."

"Mmmpgh!" replied Vivran, his face still buried under the dirt.

"Would you stop fooling around!?" Calor yelled impatiently. "You're the one who dragged me here and demanded I tutor you."

"Pwah! That's cause the old man said you're my teacher until I get the basics! I just want to get this crap over and done with!"

Vivran freed his head from its earthly tome to voice the reasonings while smacking the ground in brash emphasis.

30 minutes. That was how much time had passed since Ton-Ire had left the two boys to their own devices, but not before announcing Calor to be Vivran's official tutor, effectively chaining the two boys together even further. As if being condemned to the same living space wasn't enough!

"That damn old man! First he says we're both gonna have to be his students, then he goes and puts us in the same sleeping quarters, and now I have to let you teach me?! He probably planned it out like this from the beginning, slowly and carefully and meticulously piling the crap up so we wouldn't quit at the start! Like some sort of super villain!"

"I'm sure that's not how-" Calor tried to jump in to interject, but after pausing for a moment, he solemnly agreed. "Actually, you're likely right regarding that. Granted, I've only known personally known the man for three weeks, but he does seem to have a tendency to cover up his tricks with seemingly foolish behavior..."

Stolen novel; please report.

The worst part was that the two definitely couldn't forfeit now, not after the manly (childish) handshake that they had had. Sealing the deal with a whole tornado in the background... it would've made them both look very stupid and weaselly to back out after such a legendary scene had been set for them. A vow between men after standing in the face of ultimate power, both wordlessly agreeing to eventually reach that height of power; it wasn't something that you can just go and leave while saying: "Ah, well, it was a good thought, but we changed our minds. Toodles!"

That damn old man had played his cards well. The two adolescents didn't stand a chance against this level of psychological warfare.

And so, Vivran had decided to give in and try to make the best out of the situation. Calor had attempted to leave the grounds in a bitter huff for the day, but before he could escape, Vivran pounced and demanded that they begin lessons immediately. Initially, the red-haired boy had been hesitant, but when Vivran pointed out that the faster they got through this, the sooner the two could begin actual lessons with Ton-Ire.

The only problem was that Calor... sucked at teaching. Like, really bad. Totally not Vivran's fault at all. But seriously, he somehow managed to shape his sentences in even more confusing ways than The Spinner himself.

"Csen is produced through the cerebrum and generated near the solar plexus, unlike that of Ryu, which shares both of these functions with the lungs. By bonding Csen through the cardiovascular system, Pathfinder's can achieve a uniform flowing method, which can increase physical capabilities the more it's focused and honed. However, this may come at the cost of mental exhaust-"

"Question!"

"...What?"

"When does it start making sense?"

One thing led to another and the two boys were once again forced to face their incompatibilities and engage in mortal combat, bringing us back to the start of this chapter.

"Can't you explain it in simpler terms?" Vivran complained while dusting dirt off himself. "It just sounds like you're reading off a script or something. It's way too... stiff and unforgiving."

"That's- that's exactly what I'm doing," Calor briefly stuttered. He continued with a deep breath and looked down his nose at the other boy. "You should count yourself lucky that you can receive the advanced course on Csen. These teachings are all from the higher education that it is my clan's scriptures. With them, you will be able to fully maximize your understanding and complete this bothersome trial. That's exactly what you requested, no?"

"No! Can't you just listen to me!? I! Want! The! Fun! Da! Men! Tals! This isn't time for the 'advanced course'!"

"But that can't be," Calor frowned. "What would be the point of repeating the basics? Surely what The Spinner wanted was for you to broaden your understanding of the foundation of Csen. After all, if you already know what Csen is, it's just a matter of-"

"I DON'T!" Vivran shouted abruptly, interrupting Calor's spiel.

"...What?"

"I don't what Csen is! That's what I've been trying to say! So let's start from there okay? The starting line, or whatever."

"...You don't know what Csen is?"

"Nope. Didn't you hear our argument back in the B.A.T.H room?"

"...I only woke up from the sounds of you yelling at Ton-Ire over his lack of elaboration..." said Calor in a weakening voice. His face was starting to go an alarmingly pale shade, and his eyes became unfocused and wobbly. "I would never have dreamed that you... didn't even know the first steps of the Arts..."

"Hey, uh, you okay?"

"-Since we were both set to be students... under the tutelage of the same Hero, then that would mean... that we were judged to have identical future potential..."

"Uhhh-?"

"-And here I am being valued as an equal to that of a toddler... one who just waves his power around irresponsibly like its a baby shaker..."

"Hey! Rude! You've got a really bad habit of talking to yourself all candidly when others are right in front of you, you know!?"

"Come to think of it-"

"Listen to me!"

"-Your middle name was Upsilon, right?"

"--? Yeah it was, so what?"

For some reason, that was the last straw that broke the drama prince's back. After a minute of sickly wobbling around during that "conversation", Calor finally fell on his butt with a look of shellshock on his face.

"So this is how far I've fallen..."

"I'm seriously gonna hit you."

Vivran didn't know exactly what his "teacher" was mumbling about, but he could roughly understand insulting dialect when he heard it.

"Hey, get it together! Chop chop, lets go!"

Clapping his hands together, he made a huge ruckus to snap Calor out of whatever stupor this was. Vivran's arrival at the training ground had been in the early morning, but they were burning daylight fast, and at this rate he won't have learned anything before nightfall.

However, his efforts didn't seem to have any notable effects. The red-haired boy simply stared at nothing, his crestfallen face full of melancholy and despair.

"Grrr-! Ok, back to the Csen topic. How about you explain it to using easy to understand metaphors?"

"-'Easy to understand'?"

"Yeah, like uhm... bread!"

"-Huh?"

"I totally forgot about my luggage!"

Suddenly taking off as if his hair had spontaneously caught fire, Vivran ran off yelling in distress while leaving trails of dust in his wake.

"Eh-?"

Calor watched him dashed off with wide-eyes in a state of bewilderment. The sudden change of tone had given him emotional vertigo, effectively resetting his brain, leaving him in a dumbfounded state. However, Calor Rho Ondo adapts fast, and it hadn't even been a full two seconds before-

"What the hell-? Hey, wait, get back here!"

Jumping to his feet, he followed after Vivran in frustration, completely forgetting about the dejection he'd been feeling moments before.

----------------------------------------

Even with his swift reaction, by the time Calor managed to round the corner, Vivran had long vanished from his sight.

Damn it, did he use his Art to go faster? It seemed to be in the Dynamic category, so it's entirely plausible...

Not knowing anything about Essence and still being that proficient with techniques... it was a scenario practically unheard of. It would either mean that someone had taught Vivran while purposefully skipping over the term "Csen" or... he was self-taught.

Calor felt sick just at the thought. That trash monkey being so talented that he grasped the fundamentals with no one to teach him? It made him feel queasy. It was disgusting. It was horrifying. It was disastrous that such an aptitude even existed.

But it did. It was a corruption. That "untapped potential" that all the grown ups seem to sing their praises over, without ever considering that it might turn around and consume everything and everyone. Idiots. Disgusting.

Indeed, Calor Rho Ondo felt disgusted. Both disgusted of that potential... and disgusted to be seen as its equal. To him, it was just proof that the hatred directed towards him, towards his family, was rightfully founded.

How can anyone see the destruction caused by an Art without guidance and not flee in terror? How can anyone believe they can step into that unexplored territory and come out with everyone safe and happy? It's so stupid. It's so idiotic. It's so... blasphemous.

He didn't know. He didn't know how the idiots convinced themselves. He didn't know why it was even possible. He didn't know why what happened had to happen.

But what he did know was that he needed to complete this training as quickly as possible. His goal was slipping away with every passing second, and there wasn't time to waste. He'd clear this stupid hurtle, and some erratic brainless brat wasn't going to stop him.