The New Year dawned with a return to Shiori and Inari's intense training holed up in the secluded courtyard. The two beastkin had their students trudging to the hall before dawn and not letting them leave until well after dusk every day as they beat their lessons into their students, often literally. Skipping wasn't an option either.

The first student to try skipping a day's training was Keira, the exhausted scout vowing to her brother that she would take the next day off if it killed her. Trying to sleep in didn't kill her, but she also didn't manage to get much more than a few extra minutes' sleep before one of Inari's masked warriors dragged her out of her bed and to the training hall. That was how Keira found herself screaming curses and dodging arrows, swords, and spells as she ran laps around the training hall.

The rest of them found it funny at first, at least until Shiori decided such an exercise would be great training for all of them. Then it was just miserable.

Jun yelped as another small lightning bolt struck, sending her convulsing to the ground as the electricity wreaked havoc on her nervous system.

"That's the third time you've failed to dodge such an attack kitten. Why?" Shiori said with a frown.

Exhausted and still smarting from the pain of being hit with the spell equivalent of a taser, Jun angrily lashed out. "Who could possibly dodge lightning?! It's impossible! Only someone as crazy and powerful as you would even try!" she screamed, her words echoing in the large training hall. Though she could still hear the sounds of her friends running, no one spoke after her outburst, leaving Jun feeling embarrassed and self-conscious over her outburst. Awkwardly picking herself up, Jun started to run again, not daring to look at her mother's face, afraid of what she might find if she did.

She'd never gotten angry at Shiori before, never yelled at her. She wasn't a bratty teenager rebelling against her adoptive mother. Though Shiori hadn't birthed her and they'd only been together for a few months, she was her mother in deed and action. When Jun landed in this world she'd been lost and confused, still hurting from the sting of betrayal and the most violent rejection of who she was as a person. Her time in the space between lives dulled the pain a bit, but her memories of her last moments on Earth were still seared into her brain.

Such pains didn't just dull with time, one simply grew until they seemed small in comparison, and Jun was still growing. Her frustrated outburst and the silence that followed only reminded her that she had more growing to do. With every silent step she took, she felt her face growing hotter from both the exertion and her growing embarrassment.

It took her a full minute to realize there was nothing flying at her. No arrows or spells to dodge, no masked warriors chasing her down to swing a sword at her back or try to stab her. Confused and embarrassed, Jun started to slow down, wondering if she missed something while distracted by her thoughts. Looking around, she saw her friends stopped in front of Shiori and Inari, her mother's face unreadable as Inari motioned for her to finish her lap and join them.

A new wave of heat washed over Jun's face and she rushed to finish, stumbling to a stop in the sand next to her friends. Wheezing, Jun struggled to catch her breath for a few seconds before she felt the warmth of Inari's healing magic combined with a gentle breeze of magical wind wash over her. The lingering pains from the arduous training exercise faded as if they happened the day before, though she still felt exhausted. Straightening up, Jun cautiously looked at her mother, but her face was still unreadable.

"Sit," Shiori said with a gesture towards the sand, her tone calm but with an undercurrent of anger.

Her stomach felt like it was falling as Jun hurried to obey her mother's command, the tone in her voice sending a spike of anxiety shooting through her. Her thoughts started to spiral as the tone brought up old memories, ones she thought she was long past, but instead they returned like old bones revealed after a storm.

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That tone was something she'd only heard in her past life when her father was truly angry, beyond just losing his temper. When it wasn't just a kneejerk reaction to something that forced him to lash out. No, it was a tone she'd only heard when he'd had time to think about something and was still angry about it. A cold rage, kept alive by logic and emotion working together.

Hearing that tone always had her on edge, because that was when he was most unpredictable. That tone would always come out of nowhere to her. Usually it was something that set him off and brought up an old grudge from his time in the army. Those times he wouldn't talk about what made him mad, only barked orders and expected immediate obedience, or his family would face his ire. The worst times were when he did say what was wrong, because those were the times he always told her how she'd failed. She wasn't smart enough, fast enough, or strong enough. She wasn't manly enough as his "son." She took too long to finish a task, had a tone he didn't like, or made a face that he called disrespectful.

When she was the one to set him off, he always made sure she knew it was her fault that she was being punished. It always made it hurt more. It meant she couldn't just blame her father's temper, that she'd done something to deserve it. Even though the bruises faded, the guilt from knowing she was to blame for her father's anger didn't.

Was Shiori angry at her for not being able to dodge the spell? She could only blame herself for her weakness. She'd spent months struggling with the idea of killing even though Shiori said she would need to fight to survive in this world. Months that Shiori had been patient with her, never pushing her too hard but being honest with her. And her mother had been right. Her weakness had nearly gotten herself and her friends killed. Violence still bothered her, even as she poured herself into training with Shiori and learned to better control her spells, how to fight, how to kill. But she still wasn't good at it.

Would Shiori punish her for being disrespectful to her? For not being strong enough despite the weeks of training? For not being able to handle it? What if Shiori abandoned her? Said she was no longer her mother?

"Students," Shiori began in that same tone, clawing Jun's attention from her spiraling thoughts even as her stomach fell even more. "None of you have avoided this spell today." Shiori held her palm up as an impressive bolt of lightning shot out of it, lancing into the ceiling where it was absorbed by the room's barrier with a shimmer and crack.

"This spell is the Novice ranked spell [Shock], a spell utilizing lightning aspects of mana. While it is fast after it manifests, it is a poor spell to use against any competent opponent, no matter their level. This spell requires the caster to first manifest a mana anchor to their desired target before the primary lightning strike manifests. Without this anchor the spell will miss, striking the ground, a random nearby target, or the caster themself."

Shiori paused for a moment and looked at each of the students. As Jun met her mother's eyes, she flinched back, bracing for her mother's harsh words, or perhaps an attack. Instead, her mother only frowned with a sad look in her eyes before she started speaking again in a softer voice, not breaking eye contact with her. "It is not your fault that none of you have avoided this spell, it is mine."

"While this spell is a Novice ranked spell that should be easy to defeat, that is only true if you've learned to sense mana. It has been some time since I last taught students. When I was still young, unlocking your mana came naturally with your first spells or skills, a new sense you unlocked and simply began to understand. It was not necessary to teach, for how does one teach another how to see or how to hear?" Shiori paused, looking at each of Jun's friends one at a time, before locking onto her again.

"But, things have changed since then. I have been informed that most do not unlock their mana senses until they step into the Gold rank, if at all. That the world does not bless everyone with the gift of mana sense, and no one can teach it or give it to another. I refused to allow the world to blind my daughter and her friends, to keep such an important sense locked away where only luck dictates if it unlocks."

Jun's freefalling stomach seemed to stop at Shiori's admission, relief blowing her anxieties away like a bad smell. They weren't gone, the newly dredged up memories still fresh in her mind, but Shiori's words helped. Her mother wasn't angry at her. She was still her daughter, still loved.

Jun sat, mesmerized as Shiori's eyes began to glow a golden color. "I will do what the world has neglected and unlock your mana senses." The golden glow brightened.

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