As usual, Seiun found himself playing with his toys in his room, but unlike all the times past, this brought no joy to him. Every day he was looking forward to interacting with the rest of Ame for more than just a few moments per day. He began to feel cheated but was not given the proper time to process these emotions before the booming voice of his father called his name.

"Coming!"

To the boy's dull surprise, he found his mom discussing something with a much older man before his father came to address any possible curiosity that Seiun had about this man.

"This is Zhengjian, you remember him right?"

In truth, Seiun did have faint memories of him training his sister while he was trying to utter his first word. The older man approached him kindly, almost as if he was family himself.

"Hello young one, do you wish to begin?"

Zhengjian had seen better days. But even though his hair was greying, he still had the tenderness of a younger man when addressing his current student. Seiun almost said yes with a revitalized source of excitement, but his mother cut him off with a more firm version of her child's response.

"Very well, let us begin," He led his pupil to the training sect of the Yasei Mansion, a place that Seiun would associate with many memories both good and bad.

"For starters, try doing these hand seals"

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The older man first formed his hand in a complex angle commonly called the Bird hand seal. He then transitioned into folding his hands as if he were praying with the left thumb on top. He then put his hands together sideways with his thumbs resting on his pinkies. After performing the Ram hand seal, Zhengjian then turned around and fired a yellow ball of electricity at a nearby wall, much to Seiun's fascination.

"Now it's your turn,"

Spurred on by the encouraging tone of his master, Seiun tried to replicate what he just saw. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the first and fourth hand symbol, he couldn't fire the projectile, but a few crackles of lightning did manage to pass between Seiun's fingers.

Cool…

"Absolutely pitiful," The sour voice of his mother seemed to disagree with what her son thought, " Even your shitstain of a sister did better at your age,"

This comment didn't just take the wind out of the 7 year old's sails, it sliced them up with a serrated blade. Thankfully, Zheng was none too pleased with Lady Yasei's comment.

"Oh hush now dear, not everyone can successfully perform hand seals on the first try,"

"But-" Now it was her turn to be cut off

"Yes yes I've heard your 'cream of the crop' spiel many times so you can spare me,"

Looking indignant, Seiun's mother stomped off in a huff while her son was suppressing chuckles.

"Well then, I'm off to attend to more pressing matters, I will leave the two of you to your lessons," With that, Lord Yasei exited the premise as well.

"I have a plan, young one, first, I will teach you the Bird and Ram hand seals. But afterwards, I was wondering if you would be interested in having some fun…"

Seiun's eyes lit up before bowing profusely at his teacher.

"Thank you so much Zheng-sensei,"

"No need for formalities young one, just call me Zheng,"

Smiling, the boy thanked his sensei with the same sentence but this time removing the fornality. From there, the two began to learn the hand seals that troubled the boy.

Maybe this won't be so bad…