Tail of the twins [Amber]

Was Amber looking forward to today?

Not really. She had been positive and gung-ho about it for her sister, but really, there was just something in the back of the fox's head bugging her about all of this. Fighting, training to be stronger? Practice was one thing, but wasn't making a whole routine out of it taking it a bit too far?

Regardless, Amber didn't voice her complaints. She simply went about her own life until then: drawing, occasional trips to the store with 'ma, and the like. But the day would eventually roll around when Coal would be taken to the Knight's tower, by portal - leaving Amber and Holly largely alone up there in the mountains. Holly didn't find Amber working on a piece of art when she was opening the door.

Nope - instead, she was looking over a 'gift' that Syre left for her this morning: training weights! She hadn't unpacked them yet, but there were two sets: one for her ankles, and one for her wrists. Looking over them, the fox found her ear flicking as Holly opened the door. "Heh - guess it is the day." Putting a smile on her face, the artsy fox would stand up, and stretch out her arms as she looked towards the Meiphemon.

"Interesting that dad and mom mentioned you for this, though. I thought you used, like, electricity?"

---

As for Iko?

Typically, he left the family affairs of their members alone, but with how many of this family were a part of the Knights, or were considering it, Iko more-or-less had to make an exception for these foxes and cats. Besides, another shadow-user that wasn't just some crazed demon or devil type out in the Dark Area? The wolf had a bit of personal interest in this one!

As Silence let Iko know that his student was here, the wolf would give a nod, and would make his way over to the arena. One might have expected him to look stern, but he actually managed to keep a casual air around himself, for once. He was dealing with an absolute beginner, after all! Coal would hear a door open in front of her, as Iko would nod for Silence to take the stands with the butler. The wolf would step out, looking right over towards Coal with those odd, yellow eyes.

"Coal, then?" The Ankomon gave a nod. "Let's see exactly what you can do, before I start teaching you. Give it everything ya got."

She may have been looking over the gift, but Amber hadn't even taken the weights out of the packaging yet. She didn't know what today was going to be, after all - and as vain as it might have sounded, Amber didn't want to make this any harder than it had to be on herself.

So those weights would be left on the dresser, as Amber would blink towards her sister. Was that seven different things that her older sister could do? "Eheh... maybe that explains how Coal and I ended up so different. So many different elements in the family makes for a lot of different stuff..." Giving a nervous chuckle, she'd give a nod at Holly's explanation. Holly was going to teach her how to use her invisibility more effectively, as well as teach her how to fight in general.

Made sense - she gave a nod, closing her eyes at that head-pat, before she'd move to follow the Meiphemon out of her room! "Well, thankfully the weather looks like it'll be holding up well enough - so long as the forecast holds up, anyway..." As they made their way to the door, Amber would grab her cloak - a dark, rough red in color - and would move to follow right along with Holly. At the start, her pace wasn't too bad - though her steps were pretty deliberate, taking care not to slip on any invisible patches of ice on the path.

---

As for Iko?

He was perhaps one of the few who could keep track of Coal through her efforts, and see exactly where the Renamon was without missing a beat. He could still sense the differences in light and the movement of the shadows, but it didn't impede his ability to sense the fox - his eyes traced calmly between her and the target, seeing it all.

The tendrils, the blades, the chains - and the spear launched from her eye. It would have been difficult for Silence to track, but for Iko? He got a pretty decent picture of it, even from such a short display.

"Interesting - by the way you're talking about it, it doesn't seem like you're intentionally manipulating the shapes. Meaning the chains and the spear are already things decided by the construct of your data?" The wolf mused. "But it also means that you're expending a lot of energy for these grand occurrences. Less 'control' and more simply exerting as much force as you can to fill the requirements of the attack."

"So let's take a step back. Watch me - with your goggles off." Iko would nod, step forward, and crouch down next to Coal's shadow - tapping it once with his nail. As he pulled back, the shadow itself would be drawn into his palm, much like a spider web, until it formed into a ball in his palm. And that ball would then turn into the shape of a dagger - one that Iko would toss down, stabbing through the floor, leaving a small gash in it before melting back into the fox's remaining shadow.

"That is where you want to be with your own shadow: being able to shape and use it to form proper weapons. This looks similar to using your tendrils... but that method of incantation is inefficient. As it stands, if someone gets close to you, and dodges the technique from your eye, you're defenseless."

Coal had an interesting problem - one that took Iko a couple of tries to realize just what was going on. The fox had immense 'base' power, but had very little control over the scale - almost as if her shadow was a whole 'beast', rather than a simple source for her to control. That alone wasn't a bad thing, and it wasn't entirely clear if this sort of training was possible - and after a few attempts, Iko would motion for her to stop.

"Let's try something else... Garlond? Bring me a piece of chalk and a candle. Actually, a pack of each." The training would be put on hold for just a minute or so, as the butler would eventually come back with those supplies. Striking a match, Iko would carefully light the candle, before setting it down on the ground between himself and Coal. He'd then take the piece of chalk, draw about a foot-long circle around the candle, before letting the chalk stand upright a few inches away. The candle's flame would send out a flickering, uneasy shadow from the candle itself.

Iko gave a nod, and planted his palms on either side of the chalk line, a single finger intersecting the chalk's shadow. He focused - the shadow would steady, thin out, and become one dark circle, entirely and evenly filling the chalk outline, without a single bit spilling out to the end.

"You might not be able to do small manipulations. That's fine - even if you do stronger ones, you can do this." The wolf gave a nod towards Coal, as he drew his hands back, the shadow gaining its original shape. "I'm not going to change the 'game' again, though. I want you to keep at this until you're able to fill out the shape. Without disturbing the chalk or the candle, and without the shadow going outside of the circle."

---

... An obstacle course?

Coming up to it, Amber gave a blink as she saw just what Holly had come up with - and honestly, more than anything else, she was impressed! Rather than immediately climb up, the fox would move towards one of the trees, and test the rigidity of the base of one of the platforms, finding it to be nice and solid. The ropes looked good, the careful swing of the bags already in place - and the last bridge looked unsteady, but that was intentional, right?

"... Sis, how long did it take you to make this?" The Renamon-X gave a chuckle, and climbed up, sitting on the first platform as she listened to Holly's instructions. Alright, so this was an obstacle course? The fox gave a nod at the Meiphemon's explanation, and would step right up on the first platform. "So I just have to get to the end... like this?" Amber would jump - and her foot would catch the ice straight away as she failed to stick her first landing, sending her sprawling past the first platform, right into the rope-net below. Caught in its springy grip, the fox would shake her head, pick herself up, and crawl right back to the start.

"... More like..."

She tried again. This time, she kicked off of one foot, and trusted her other foot to land - only to feel it skid, only able to stick her landing as she let her other take the weight.

... Right. This wasn't going to work. She calmly took a breath, and slowly slipped down to all fours - looking much more like a proper fox, as she felt her weight easily slip into her front paws. The next few jumps, after she made that switch, were less perfect - but her claws were able to make up for the mistakes, and with a careful pause after each jump, she'd actually manage to clear the section on her second attempt.

Only to see those swinging bags in front of her.

"... They look much heavier up close..."

Four days, just for her training?

If anything, that thought made her feel a bit bad about feeling unsure about the training this morning. Now that Amber was out here, moving her feet, and figuring out what she needed to do, it actually didn't seem so bad - and the way that Holly set it up, it sort of looked like a game!

A slippery game, with a springy net keeping her from simply rolling down the hill when she fell - and once Amber got past the first platform, she had gained an understanding for just how tricky this was. Right, even if the bags weren't going to whollop her, they'd still probably do a number on her as she'd be flung off the platform - so what was the best way to go about this? The Renamon-X first checked to see if there was a timing where she could just run through, but the bags seemed to be swinging at an uneven rate. So, it was more a stop-and-go sort of thing?

The Renamon-X would get right back up onto two feet, idly testing the platform in front of her, before she'd make a dart forward. The first move was easy - she moved from one platform to the next simply by moving to wrap her arms around the next tree - but the next stretch with two bags?

She blinked, made her way through the first bit - stopped for the second bag to get out of the way - and then found herself swung right off by the first bag, hitting her right in the side. She fell off, swearing under her breath as she clambered back up onto the platform.

"Friggin blind spots..." Another thing to keep in mind. She still seemed to have a kick to her step, though, and with gritted teeth and another four tries, a near exhausted Amber would finally find her way onto the second checkpoint.

Dear lord, this wasn't easy.

---

At this point?

There was not much Iko could teach. Shadowcraft was a unique skill, one that Iko could definitely help with, but unless Coal was already at a baseline understanding of how her shadows worked, the wolf himself would be too high level of a teacher. And he knew, for a fact, that Coal wasn't going to be able to do this in the first day. It required thinking, a good sense of balance, confidence, and the ability to adjust with your own flow - especially to make the color as flush and consistent as Iko made it.

So he'd watch, as Coal slowly made her progress, not giving too much advice one way or the other. Again and again Coal would try, and fail, and try again - making progress, but perhaps so slight that the fox might not notice it from try to try.

"On the plus side," Iko mentioned, "This is something you can easily try at home. Not with a candle, but with a lightbulb, a pencil, a stick... your sister is an artist, right?" The wolf gave a nod: "Eventually, maybe you'll be able to fill out the lines of her sketches."

The second set was definitely trickier than the first.

Reaching that second checkpoint, Amber did indeed take a small break, sitting right on the side of the wooden platform. She took the bottle, giving a nod towards her floating sister (heck, she'd been around Holly long enough, stuff like that was just normal by now!). Uncapping the bottle, the fox took a long drink, before turning her eyes to face the rest of the course.

"Its... ugh, harder than I thought it would be. I mean its cold, so I don't really feel my body heat up out here, but I'm feeling the strain in my arms and legs a lot quicker than I thought out here... its like I'm exerting myself without thinking it, or something?" It was probably a combination of the obstacle course and the absolutely frigid weather.

Regardless, Amber would get back up on her feet - hop down - and move right back to the start of the obstacle course. "Don't know about the entire thing, but I do want to keep going for a bit. Keep an eye on me, alright, big sis?"

She'd give a nod, and would set off onto the obstacle course once more!

---

"Don't think of it as a little bit of training, Coal. Think of it more as something to learn - something you take seriously, until you're able to do it like blinking, or breathing."

Was that a bit much? The wolf didn't seem to think so, and even went on to talk about more complicated shapes. His head tilted at the next thing, though - seeing Coal manage to produce a small dragon out of the shadow.

... Curious. Did Coal's shadow have its own will? That might explain why this was so tricky, as the Renamon-X didn't seem to pay that creation any mind, and it didn't impact the circles she was working on. "Hm... don't be disappointed at the form of training, Coal." Iko gave a small nod.

"It may start out simple, but once you have a handle on this? You'll have a good basis to start for everything else."

"I guess... its better to get used to the home weather first, right?"

Amber gave a chuckle. There was no doubt about it: this was hard, and absolutely nothing about this came easy to the Renamon! But her demeanor about it seemed less apprehensive than this morning, smiles coming easier to her face. Maybe she was starting to like it, or maybe Amber really needed that drink to pick herself up. For now, it was just a matter of keeping up the pace - what good was it going to be if Amber stopped right when she started to feel the strain?

No. She had to push through it, get used to it, and rely on her more medically-inclined sister to keep an eye on her. She saw her breath condense into cold vapor again, as she put herself on the starting line once more...

---

As for Iko?

Silence knew from the start that Iko was more of a hands-on teacher, so perhaps this approach would catch the Renamon's eye, the longer it went on. All the wolf gave Coal was a goal: not instructions for how to spread her shadow thin, or hints as to how she could do it, or anything of the like. Either Iko had no idea what he was doing - which was unlikely - or he truly thought that this was the best way to go about it.

And Coal? Coal didn't give up. She got tired, yes, but even then she decided to try and figure it out herself, going as far as to take off her glasses to try and focus. The wolf would nod, sit across from Coal, and simply observe with crossed arms...

---

"Uuuuuugh..."

Well, that was an ordeal! Mikemon's ear gave a flick as he came back through the front door, back to the living room, seeing the yellow Renamon lying on her back. The fox was completely wiped, gloved hand over the front of her head, as she caught her breath. "I didn't know I had all of these muscles..."

"..." The doctor didn't give a remark at that, simply giving a chuckle and a nod over to Holly. "I take it that it went about as expected, then?"

An interesting question.

Iko wanted Coal to figure it out herself, but asking these questions was part of the process. And hearing that, the wolf would sit down in front of her, and draw a chalk circle in front of himself. He'd drag a nail through his own shadow, drawing the dark energy back into his palm. "You talk about 'pulling' - as if you're trying to stretch it. But perhaps that simply means there wasn't enough there to begin with."

For reference? He let a single 'drop' of that shadow fall into the chalk circle - and he tapped his nail right against the middle. It stretched out, but being so little, it failed to reach the edge. After that, Iko let the rest of the shadow fall in, and did the same thing: it extended out far wider than the chalk line, easily upending it into a cloud of smoke as it made a much larger circle.

"Addition and subtraction. Focus on the shape, more than anything - and then adjust what you are putting into it, accordingly."

---

"The day after tomorrow, huh?"

"Holly wants to make sure that I'm not running a cold or something... that, and I don't think this is something I can keep up every day..." Amber gave a groan, sitting up to stretch out her arms. "Sheesh... did you do practice like this, Holly?"

"Actually, Holly mostly practices with Syre." The doctor gave a half shrug at that. "Mostly running, occasional sparring. Holly's one of the few around that can be at your sister's size, so..."

"Huh... its kinda late, isn't it?"

Amber changed the topic, and Mikemon's eyes flicked over to the clock. Right... the doctor took out his D-Terminal, and texted Silence.

Don't let that wolf go crazy. Coal needs to recharge at some point.