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The lake breathed. Blue lights wheeled on invisible currents, rising and fading around Kael's still frame.
He opened his eyes. For an instant, a thin film of blue crossed his crimson irises and was gone.
"Don't use your hands. Use your heart."
The words didn't hit his ears this time they arrived in the quiet place inside, Lucario speaking mind-to-mind through [Aura].
Kael steadied. He raised both hands, palms facing, a small hollow between them. He let the feeling he'd found a minute ago take shape.
Draw in, Listen.
The motes heard him. They coasted toward his chest, dipping between his palms. Blue thickened a ping-pong-sized globe, neither wind nor water, but some of both.
More lights streamed in. The sphere swelled.
Pop.
The globe burst, harmless but absolute blue dust and a rush of wind racing across the lake in rings.
He grimaced. Of course, it was too early. What he'd tried was the first shape of [Aura Sphere], and he'd made it to step three on day one. No one did that.
No one should have.
Behind him, water slapped softly. Lucario approached and laid a paw on his shoulder. Confusion, pride, and something like loss tangled behind its orange eyes.
"Enough for tonight," it said, voice gentle. "Rest."
This wasn't the lesson Lucario planned. It was expected to teach breathing and patience, maybe lecture on the nature of life's hum. Instead, the rookie had flicked the curtain and seen the stage.
Seeing Kael do in minutes what had cost it years hurt in a small, human way. It also rewrote the training plan.
Kael's ears drooped. "Was I… bad?"
They'd barely been out here half an hour. Ending early felt like a verdict. If only he'd held the sphere a heartbeat longer—
"You were excellent," Lucario said, and managed a smile. "It's late. Your body's spent. Sleep. We continue tomorrow."
Kael nodded, misreading the kindness as disappointment.
If talent's thin, work thicker, he told himself. I'll earn it.
• • •
Morning spilled gold through the window. Kael blinked awake, stretched, and checked the clock time before the Hitmonchan class.
Resolve returned with the light. [Aura] wasn't just a neat trick. In this broken world, it was a real edge and knowledge he could carry into other worlds if the System threw him there again.
He hopped from bed, raised his right hand toward the curtains, and let his mind sink.
Five seconds.
Blue dusted the air. His forearm flexed; the motes drifted forward and nudged the fabric.
The curtain swayed.
Not much but not nothing, He grinned, Beginnings are supposed to be small.
He stepped into the hall. Medicham streaked past, all focus and urgency, its psychic field prickling with restless impatience; Farfetch'd in the courtyard cut through a simple kata, leek blurring, heart as calm as a pond. Ordinary life, and somehow warm.
Kael leaned against the doorframe, smile soft.
For the first time since he woke in this world, his apprenticeship felt real.
[Skill Progress: Aura — Novice (0→1%)]
[Equipment Synergy Detected: Terrakion's Bulwark Pauldron → Fighting-type/Aura affinity amplified]
[Reminder: Consistency over intensity. Return to the lake at dusk.]
And somewhere by the water, a teacher re-wrote tomorrow's lesson.
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