Growth Apart[Solo/Training]

The search for Akatetsu had met nothing but dead ends, even after enlisting the help of a strange body manipulator who knew Heliohapt's darker side well, Yakuroro had failed to find a single hint as to the whereabouts of his adopted chimera of a son. The Imuchakk gave up on looking for Tetsu in the limits of the city and began expanding his search into the nearby desert and dry plains in hopes of having better luck there, but he was no tracker. Wrought with despair, Yakuroro sat alone by a crackling fire and for the first time in years, wept. Something inside the young magician broke as he felt powerless despite all his recent accomplishments. Yakuroro had ousted the Brotherhood of Ash from Zou, Discovered ancient secrets of the Toran civilization, Defeated a Black Djinn, and gave hope to countless mourning Heliohaptan's. But all the success in the world meant nothing if he could not protect those closest to him.

As Yakuroro sat with his hands wrapped around his knees staring through tear filled eyes into he campfire, he began to doubt himself. "What a fool I was to leave Imuchakk. How could I be so irresponsible? All I did was pull a helpless child into danger..." But his thoughts would be interrupted by the sound of a gravely old voice.


Yakuroro looked up in surprise to see a old human man chewing a plant stalk between his teeth crouched next to a dark furred wolf. Blinking through his tears, Yaku wiped his face on his sleeve and composed himself a bit. Normally he would lie towards some greater purpose, but the magician's devious mind was numb. His words rung with truth and the sorrow of lose as he answered, "My own arrogance has put many in harms way time and time again, but for once I didn't get lucky. Now the chimera whom I foolishly called my own "son" is lost, perhaps gone forever...some "father" I've been." The Imuchakk's gaze settled back onto the fire as he spoke.

The man and his wolf both moved silently to Yakuroro's side and took seats by the campfire as well. Their closeness startled the Imuchakk when the old man spoke once more, "A chimera you say?..." the human gave a skeptical look to Yakuroro and then back to his wolf as if to ask the beast for its opinion. Watching this, Yakuroro realized that he almost never looked to Akatetsu to see what he thought of a situation. The Imuchakk was always looking forward and ahead to the next task. The only times he looked back to Akatetsu were to assure the beast that all was well and to show some minor expression of affection.

The old man seemed to converse with his wolf using soft hums and coos before turning back to face Yakuroro once more. "Are you sure this beast is lost, perhaps it ran away if you were such a bad master?" The blunt question led Yakuroro to clench his body and curl tighter into himself as he let out a whimpered admittance mixed with a laugh at himself, "Ha, I suppose that could be the case too..." Flashes of Akatetsu's smile plagued Yakuroro's mind when his eyes were closed and he forced himself to open them unable to bare the burning image of pure innocence which was causing him so much pain.

The rest of the night was a blur to Yakuroro, but he spent all of it sobbing himself to sleep. Surprisingly, when he awoke, the old man was still there along with his wolf. It seemed the pair had woken early and hunted for breakfast as Yakuroro woke to the man starting another fire to cook the meal. "Here, no meat for you. But fruit is good." The man tossed Yakuroro a small pouch of animal skin that was full of dates and pomegranate seeds as he was only just barely waking up. The Imuchakk took the pouch to the face before sitting up and opening it. He accepted the small meal without a word and went right back to moping about the loss of Akatetsu and his inability to find him.

The old man sighed seeing this and nodded to his wolf companion before looking to the Imuchakk, "We can help you find your lost beast. But I will not reunite an unworthy master with a creature he does not deserve. My partner here has a very good nose, he can track prey across the entire continent on a bad day. But in exchange for his help, you will have to help me hunt in his place. Do you think you can handle such a task?" The human asked as though he half believed Yakuroro to shy away from the effort. But the magician's mind sparked alight with hope as a new option appeared before him. "I-I accept!" Without thinking of the potential consequences, Yakuroro agreed to the offer and so began his training under this man.

After the wolf learned Akatetsu's scent from Yakuroro's clothes and magic carpet, the beast set out and disappeared on the horizon. The man revealed himself to be a nameless vagabond who had been traveling the world but for simplicity said that Yakuroro could call him "Free" if he needed to. Free claimed that the wolf he was currently traveling with was only one of many hundreds of beasts he'd befriended along his life path, but it was also the one that had been with him longer than any other.

Daily life training with Free was filled with all kinds of trials and challenges Yakuroro was not used to. Free had forbidden the use of magic and went so far as to steal Yakuroro's staff and magic carpet, hiding both away in the middle of the night. This left the Imuchakk magician with nothing but his body and his wits to hunt with. Free showed him how to make simple nets and traps as well as what signs to look for when hunting game in Heliohapt. Free tried showing Yakuroro how to look for water as well, however he quickly realized that the magician was able to cheat with such tasks by listening to the sound of the rukh. But survival skills were only the very basics and took up a small portion of each day's time. Most of Free's focus was on teaching Yakuroro about how to reach the hearts and minds of beasts.

At first, Yakuroro worried that Free would be teaching him how to dominate an animal through discipline and control. However the old man simply waved such fears away and laughed saying, "It is possible to own a creatures flesh by beating it into submission but you could never own its beastial spirit and one day it may bite the hand that feeds. The way you win a beast over is to give up on controlling it. You aim for its heart and its mind and build a trust over time." The refreshing view on "Dominance" reminded Yakuroro of the young Fanalis boy Diego and his tiger Madam Trixie. The two shared a bond that transcended anything he'd ever seen from a tamer who used whips and collars on his beasts. They were more like friends or family than beast and master.

Yakuroro was led by Free across Heliohapt's countryside and to many places where he encountered several different animals. Most were docile or domesticated such as stray cats, camels, and horses. More so than he had with any person, Yakuroro opened up his heart to these beasts and showed them compassion where he could. A few days were spent with each animal and in those days, Yakuroro fed these creatures, slept with them, showed concern when they were in pain, and focused his attention on their well being.

Eventually, Free seemed satisfied with Yakuroro's ability to connect with animals. While none he'd met had seemed to imprint a strong loyalty towards him, Free insisted that they would never forget his scent and the warm memories that it would carry. "If you treat you Akatetsu with this kind of dedication, then I would happily call you its "Father"" The words of praise were Yakuroro's graduation of sorts. Alas, shortly after Free determined that Yakuroro had learned all he needed to learn, the man's wolf returned. It led them to Heliohapt's capital where Akatetsu had vanished and to an empty lot on the outskirts of the city. But sadly nothing was there. The scent mysteriously stopped here in this clearing without a trace as to where it had gone.

Yakuroro thanked Free for all of his help and the old man offered to help Yakuroro continue the search, but the magician declined with a smile. His time with the animals had been healing and Yakuroro now had brighter hope for the future. "Thank you, but if the scent led here and ended then I can only think of one reason. Something magical is at work here. I'll continue to search on my own, but I will never forget your help." A bow of gratitude was given and the men spent one last night by campfire together where Free had hidden Yakuroro's things before parting ways.

1125/1125 Dominance Training D -> B:

On the day of the Festival of Light and Darkness Akatetsu was reunited with his creator, and for all intents and purposes his mother, Lady Soushui. He'd not seen her in many months time since Yakuroro and the Chimera left the eastern lands of Zou and there was no reason for the baby beast to expect to see here in Heliohapt for any reason. Needless to say it was both a surprising and heart moving reunion. Akatetsu clung to his mother as one would expect of a baby and sobbed happily as he took in her familiar scent and felt a surge of maternal needs being satisfied which Akatetsu hadn't even noticed were going unfulfilled up till now. While the chimera buried its gyaos into Lady Soushui's chest she flew them to an alley that was near Yakuroro's location as he battled a dark djinn before leaving the magic tool neatly folded beside a crate that would be out of site to people passing the nearby streets but easily found once the blue magician began searching for his son.

With that business handled, the female magician from Zou smiled softly down at Akatetsu and cradled him in her arms before taking a casual stroll through the city despite all the chaos that had been caused by the slave trade bombings that freed countless slaves and the hoards of people fleeing from the two monstrous creatures that had been unleashed upon the capital. She was not aware of what caused the stampedes of people, but it did not matter if the entire world were turning to hell made physical. Nothing could shake this woman, she would not let anything rush or worry her with a child of her own flesh and blood shaking tears in her arms. Lady Soushui remained calm and proud as she had always been in front of Akatetsu and walked to her destination with a head held high.

Eventually, Lady Soushui would come before an empty lot where a grand building had surely once stood. But it was clear that whatever had been there before was long gone leaving nothing but dry, hard, dirt and a few weeds living off what little moisture and nutrients there were to be had in the harsh inhospitable soil. She carried Akatetsu to the middle of the lot and knelt down to set Akatetsu onto the floor. The beast reluctantly let go of his mother and felt its feet touch the ground but he could not bare to part from her too long and as if his legs were high powered springs, Akatetsu jumped back onto her leg hugging it tightly to express how badly he did not want to leave her side once more. A soft laugh came from the woman and she reached a gentle hand to pat the baby chimera's head. "Fufufu~ It's alright Tetsu, where I'm about to go you're coming too." From this kneeling position, Lady Soushui would reach down and place her hand on the earth brushing away dust to reveal a small magic circle.

Upon giving her magoi to the magic circle a few different functions would activate one after another. First, the area around them was shrouded in a veil of light magic that made it seem from the outside as if the empty lot was just that, empty. Then, with a camouflage secreting what was to come next from view, a cutting beam of strength magic would rise up from below to carve out a square platform from the ground. The platform then lowered slowly down into an underground chamber with gravity magic. The chamber was very much like the receiving room in her estate back in Zou. It had a place to put ones shoes and coats or any other extra articles and a small door leading into another room. Lady Soushui stepped off the platform and gestured for Akatetsu to do the same before realizing that he was still clinging to her leg.

The platform rose back to the surface and it sealed itself once more with gravity magic that moved the earth back into place and covered the circle with a layer of dust once again that was just thick enough to not be disturbed by wind alone. As the sunlight above stopped pouring in several candles lining the walls lit and Akatetsu unclasped himself from his mother's leg realizing that this was probably her home. "Well, how do you like my research lab?" she asked as she stepped forward to open the door and moved her hand in a spread as she did introducing the grand sight. There were all kind of plants and animals in glass casings suspended in ice as well as pipes running to and from each of them for magoi to travel between. There was a group of servants near the back powering the magic tools but each of them looked more than content as there was much food and wine readily available to sustain them as well as some other means of entertainment for those not actively powering the tools.

"I've been very busy here in the past couple of months you and your father have been in Heliohapt. I found you both using my magic and figured you'd be needing a more convenient body by now. I don't know how much you two have been through but knowing Yakuroro I imagine you've been through much danger. All this time he's been protecting you, but now it will be your turn to protect him." Lady Soushui smiled down at Akatetsu and the beast looked back up at her not really understanding fully. "Gyao?..." The chimera simply got a head pat as a few butterflies of light fluttered in front of him. Akatetsu suddenly fell over unconscious from the light magic and was caught gently by Lady Soushui. So begins the experiments.

For the next few weeks, Akatetsu's body was subjected to the very same life magic which had created him in the first place with some alterations and help from a few new magic tools. Of the various plants and animals which had been frozen in the lab, the best parts were chosen to augments the chimera's brain and body. Slowly, bit by bit, the unconscious Akatetsu's muscles were merged with that of wild tigers, his ligaments grafted with flexible vine fibers, and a high concentration of carbon was taken from various plants and merged into his skull. Adjustments to his cranial were also made as pressure on his brain that had been there to intentionally limit his intelligence was relieved and an entirely new portion of grey matter was transplanted into the newly made space from the overall growth in Akatetsu's body.

The process took well over a week and before it was over both Lady Soushui and all of her servants hit and surpassed their personal limitations. But they could not afford to stop part way through until it was completed lest Akatetsu lose his life. Much of what they were doing would already have normally killed any creature, but the ever present diligence of Lady Soushui's magic would keep him intact. At last, when the operation was complete, Akatetsu's eyes would open to a troubling sight. Lady Soushui was before him, but her usual proud stance had been reduced to a pitiful form. She was bleeding from all over and her skin was pale and sickly. The woman had collapsed onto the floor and was panting heavily as she used all of her strength to hold up a mirror.


"Now...you should be able to protect...your father..." Lady Soushui said through panting breaths. Akatetsu was very confused and hardly even noticed that the reflection was his own. The baby, in age, let out a cry of worry in the form of a roar that was not its own usual voice however and he quickly began to realize what had happened, "GRWA-!" Akatetsu went silent at surprise of how loud and booming his voice had become. The beast then hurried over to Lady Soushui's side and tried to help her to her feet. "No, no, I'm alright. It's just magoi exhaustion. Let me...rest...I'll be alright when I awake..."

1125+/1125 Akatetsu Upgrade D -> B: