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Keiko

The following day, Keiko, Kaori, and Ash made their way to a training spot belonging to Jade\'s army, located near the Spirit Gardens District. Satsuhiro had let them know about it. It was a dojo-like, two-floor building, the kind Keiko associated with her clan. Inside, a few soldiers were currently occupying the first floor. The soldiers gave them strange looks as the group moved to a nearby staircase. Keiko and her group headed for the second one, which was empty. 

On the sides of the room were a few weapon racks and suits of armor decoratively placed. Keiko had brought her sword but anticipated that there would be a spear or two that she could use to help the Saviors. 

Of course, Kaori, who was still searching for an option she could use over her swordstaff, would still be using this weapon until she did. 

I must admit, Keiko thought,  there are many aspects of my life back at the Compound that I hated. Things I did simply because I had to. But, this...  she looked around and placed her hand on her sword\'s hilt,  this, I enjoyed. 

"O-Oh, um, leave your shoes over there," Keiko instructed. 

"Why?" Ash asked. 

"Just common courtesy for these sorts of spaces," Keiko replied. Admittedly, she didn\'t know if this was a courtesy in army spots, rather, it was the familiarity of the place that had Keiko talking like this. 

"Sure," Ash shrugged. 

"Now," Keiko said, unsheathing her father\'s blade. From her right, sunlight poured in that reflected off her sword. "Who wants to start?" 

"You mean, which of us wants to get our asses handed to us?" Ash asked with a smirk. 

Keiko smiled and shrugged. 

"Being a teacher does come with its perks, I suppose." 

"You go ahead," Kaori quickly said. "I\'ll go after." 

Ash nodded and transformed her Savior\'s Weapon into a sword. 

"We should check your proficiencies again, by the way."

"Alright. It\'s... Wait, what?" Ash was surprised. "It went down. I remember it was like 4 or 5, it\'s at 3." 

"Seriously?" Kaori asked. Then, she checked her own. "Wait, mine did too!" 

Keiko nodded to herself. 

"I had suspected that this would happen." 

"What do you mean?" Ash asked. 

"Do you remember what I told you when we first trained?" Keiko lifted her blade and held it out horizontally. "Your proficiency," she swung it to the side, "is a measurement of how you stack up against other users of the same weapon. It stands to reason that if you don\'t train, your proficiency will reduce, as it shows you are letting your training slip away." 

"Shit," Ash muttered. "So, what, are we supposed to train every day?" 

"No, no. But, three weeks, nearly an entire month off, that was bound to make your proficiency go down one or two points."

"Well," Kaori smiled, "we\'re here to catch up on our skills, aren\'t we? This is just extra motivation."

"I guess," Ash replied. 

"Very well then," seeing Kaori\'s attitude made a smile appear on Keiko\'s own portrait. "Let\'s begin." 

What followed was a couple of hours of weapons ringing out as they clashed. Their sounds echoed, paired with the sliding of their feet along the floor, and their rapid breathing. 

Keiko charged forwards and Ash struggled to block a quick succession of slashes from her. Up, down, left, Keiko made sure to attack any opening that Ash gave her, while of course, moving slowly enough for Ash to cover herself. 

"Parry!" Keiko instructed, raising her sword up. As she brought it down on top of Ash\'s head, the half-demon pushed against it and knocked Keiko\'s sword out of her hands. 

"Eh!?" Keiko yelped as the sword fell behind her. 

"Shit, sorry," Ash said. 

"No, no, I just..." Keiko chuckled. "You\'re far stronger than when we had first started." She retrieved her blade. "So, how does training again feel?" 

"Hmph," Ash looked down at her sword. "After using my claws so much, this feels so fucking weird." 

"These lessons will likely be more meaningful for Kaori," Keiko said, approaching the blonde, "since you have that Demon Form to rely on. Kaori? How is it going for you?" 

Momentarily, a brief expression of sadness overtook Kaori, but just as quickly, she replaced it with a grin. 

"It\'s going great!" Kaori chuckled. "I like training with you, you always seem so much more, like, in your element when we do this." 

"Because I am," Keiko acknowledged with a smile. "This is all I\'ve done for the past ten years or so. This is what I know." 

"Plus, it also helps that I have a pretty hot teacher," Kaori whispered, "just saying." 

Keiko blushed and cleared her throat. 

"You two are bad for my heart," Keiko muttered and the Saviors laughed. With that, they got back to work. 

They were there for only a few hours before deciding that they wanted to wash off the sweat they\'d built up. 

Keiko helped Ash get her sword proficiency up to 5, Kaori\'s swordstaff proficiency up to 4, and both their spear proficiencies up to 2. They decided not to do any bow and arrow work though, as Kaori of course couldn\'t use the weapon and Ash had her spells to rely on. 

When they left, the sun was directly over their heads. 

"Uh, hey," Kaori said, "I... I want to go see my parents for a bit." 

"Oh," Keiko nodded. "Do you want us to accompany you?" 

"No, no," Kaori took a deep breath. "I... I feel like I just need to talk to them alone for a bit." 

"Gotcha," Ash said. "Alright. We\'ll let the others know." 

"Yeah, uh, thanks," Kaori chuckled nervously. "See you later." 

---

Kaori

It had happened again last night. 

The last nightmare had left Kaori tired. Tired to the point where today, although Kaori had done her best to hide it, she had to keep herself from falling asleep during training. Even now, her body felt so much heavier than it usually did. 

She was too tired. Too tired to even acknowledge the dirty glances thrown her way by those few who recognized her as the "Murderer Savior" that some in Jade knew of her as. She absent-mindedly paced all the way to her parents\' home, where she knocked a few times and waited. 

The door opened and her mother was on the other side, a shocked expression on her face. 

"Kaori!" She noted, smiling. Kaori returned the same grin, albeit an exhausted one. 

"Can I come in?" She asked. 

"Haha, of course!" 

Her mother led her to the living room where Kaori immediately laid down on the couch. 

"K-Kaori?" Her mother asked, surprised. 

"Sorry, I\'m sort of tired." 

"Oh. Were you exercising?" 

"Yeah."  Do I smell that bad?  Kaori nearly laughed. 

"Okay, how about this, you go take a bath, I\'ll make you some tea and you can lay down after. How does that sound?" Her mother said, placing a soothing hand on her forehead. Kaori nodded against it. 

"Help me up?" 

"Sure." 

A few minutes later, Kaori was drying herself off in the bathroom, a candle lit on the top of the toilet as she looked at herself in the mirror. She noticed a few things about herself, as she stood topless. 

Her short blonde hair had grown a little, reaching further past her shoulders. Her body was thinner, and she was beginning to be able to see her own ribcage. Indeed, all Kaori had eaten these past three weeks was whatever Metsumi would make for her. 

Sighing, she left once she\'d thrown on a shirt and waddled into the living room where, again, she faceplanted onto the couch. Her mother was there with some tea in seconds. She sat up and took a few sips. 

"Dad\'s working?" 

"Yes," her mother replied. "Will you be home for long?" 

"I don\'t think so," Kaori replied. "We\'re leaving Jade again, tomorrow, I think. I have to get ready. I wanted to see you both before then, but you can tell dad I came by. I\'ll leave him a little letter." 

"Okay," her mother took a comforting tone, which was all Kaori needed to understand that she knew something was up. 

"I..." Kaori took a deep breath. "It\'s been rough... This past month." 

"Aw, sweetie," her mother ran her hand down Kaori\'s hair. "Do you need a break?" 

"This is my break," Kaori chuckled. "We took the last few weeks off, we\'ll be getting back to work soon. I just..." 

A few of the images that haunted Kaori resurfaced. The blood-covered streets, the gore the demons were capable of. The humans who perished fighting them. Kaori wanted to close her eyes, but that would only make the images all the more visceral. 

"It\'s hard," Kaori said. "I\'ve... I\'ve seen a lot of terrible stuff and I don\'t know how to handle it." Her voice choked up towards the end. 

Quickly, her mother gave her a hug. 

"Maybe you need a longer break?" Her mother asked. 

Kaori shook her head as she wrapped her arm around her. 

"The demons aren\'t going to wait for me to get my stuff together. People need me," Kaori sighed. "It\'s just hard to deal with is all." 

"You\'re a human being first though, Kaori," her mother stated. "All that Savior stuff comes second. You need to make sure you\'re alright before you can help anyone else." 

"Yeah, but if I wait to get my head straight, people are gonna die before that happens. They might be dying right now," Kaori stated. "I can\'t ask them to wait." 

"Just... Just make sure you\'re taking at least a few moments for yourself, every now and then, alright?" Her mother asked. "At least do that. I like that you\'re helping people, but I don\'t think anyone wants it to ruin you in the process." 

Hearing that last part made Kaori tear up. She nodded. 

"I\'ll try." 

And that was it. Kaori couldn\'t bring herself to tell her mother more, no matter how much she trusted her. 

She never told her about what she\'d seen in Sapphire, or the nightmares she was going through, but by the time Kaori was exiting her home, and mentally preparing herself to leave Jade again, she thought this helped if only a little. 

---

The Next Day

"They\'re here," Satsuhiro said as the group, which surprisingly included Kasumi, sat down just outside Jade\'s eastern gate. A carriage then rolled up to them, pulled by two brown horses. 

Her mother\'s words were still fresh in Kaori\'s mind.  Take some time for yourself, huh?  She asked.  I\'ve been doing that for three weeks and it hasn\'t helped. 

Metsumi helped Satsuhiro stand, handing him his crutch. 

"Everyone ready?" He asked. 

Kaori kept looking down at the cube tied to her belt. Her Savior\'s Weapon, which served as a reminder of her responsibilities, what she was supposed to do. She felt she needed to focus on that. 

"Kaori?" 

"Hm?" Kaori looked to the side and saw that everyone was gathered by the carriage already. "O-Oh, coming." 

And with that, the group departed, a few stray demons waiting for them at Onyx.