Author's Note: Hey sorry it took me so long, This chapter was almost ten thousand words and I feel that it was worth it. I would have been done with it last week if my computer didn't crash and delete almost all my files.(Goodbye all my music T-T). Well, once your done give me some feedback in your reviews. Enjoy!

Ways of Mana

After proving himself, Roxas had finally convinced Auron to teach him and the vigorous training had begun. During the past week from dawn to dusk, Roxas had been drilled non-stop on proper swordsmanship and new techniques he could use to help him in combat. Even though they only trained with wooden swords, Auron's training methods would end up leaving Roxas so bruised up that he would have no choice but to go to the medical clinic to ease the pain. If it wasn't for the fact that Namine worked at the clinic and he got to see her everyday, Roxas could have sworn his life was going down the drain. During his visits to the clinic, Roxas would find out that he and Namine had become close friends. At first it started out as idle talk when she was healing his wounds and bruises but over time the idle talk escalated into a deep conversation. Before he knew it, Roxas would to Namine for so long that he would find out that his five minute trips to the clinic would become three and a half hours long.

Over the past week Roxas and Axel had also begun to become quick friends. Roxas had been registered to live with Axel after consulting it with Ansem. After his training with Auron and his visits to the clinic, Roxas would not arrive back at Axel's apartment until 11:30p.m. Axel would ask he were he had been and when Roxas would reply that he had went to the clinic to see Namine, Axel tease him about liking Namine. Roxas would either blush madly and say they were just friends or would wipe his comment off to the side.

At the current time Roxas was walking to the dojo to get his lesson from Auron for today. At the moment, Roxas was feeling pretty excited because Auron said that he would teach him how he could usefully use his mana in combat situations. When Roxas arrived to the dojo, he was surprised to see it completely empty. "Hello!" he cried out but silence was the only answer he received. "This is strange," Roxas said talking to himself. "Usually Auron tells me never to be late and here he is nowhere to be seen." After a few moments of pondering, an idea struck Roxas as he smacked his forehead with the hilt of his palm, "He's probably just on the roof, duuuh." With that, Roxas made his way to the stairwell which lead to the roof.

"Aarrgh, he's not up here either," Roxas irritatedly exclaimed as he arrived to the roof of the dojo to find it just as empty as the inside. "I don't understand, where could he be," Roxas continued to look around the roof to see if anything was out of place. Just when he was about to turn back towards the stairs, an object in the corner caught his eye.

Propped against the wall of the roof laid a long slim object concealed but a piece of brown cloth tied at the center of it by a piece of string. Curiosity getting the best of him, Roxas stated towards the object to investigate. Once in front of the mysterious object, Roxas hesitantly picked it up with shaky hands. While untying the string from the cloth, a piece of paper from underneath silently glided to the floor. Roxas stopped untying the string and gently put the object (still covered by the cloth) on the ground. He picked the paper up and after a moment of scanning it, Roxas found out that on the piece of paper was a letter addressed to him by Auron. It read:

Roxas,

I left this up on the roof, hoping you would be smart enough to find it. Anyway, I wrote this letter to you to tell you that for the time being, I will be on an important mission and cannot teach you for the next three or four days. Until I return, you will attend an afternoon session with Mr. Lionheart and his three student at four o'clock today. Mr. Lionheart is a former student of mine and I expect you to give him as much respect, if not more, than myself. Lionheart will start teaching you where I left off; learning how to use mana to fortify your, strength, endurance, stamina, and agility. Expect much pain with this training because manipulating mana to preform and accelerate bodily functions is not an easy task. On a lighter note, I have taken notice that within the short week of training under me, you swordsmanship has increased ten-fold. Where you once had shaky hands gripping the hilt, now you hold the bokken as if you had your whole life. You have not perfected every skill quiet yet, but you have every right to call yourself a swordsman. In fact, your training is going so well and at such a quick pace that I think that it is only right that you begin training with a real sword. If you had not already seen what lays under the cloth, I will let you see for yourself. Before I learned how to form my Chaser weapon, this item helped me in the heat of battle and I could depend on it every time. It may not be brand new but it will serve you well. This will also symbolize your hard work and dedication and the passing of a lesson between mentor and student. My this help you on your never ending path to become an even better swordsman.

Respectively,

Auron

At the end of reading the letter, Roxas felt surprised at Auron deep words gratifying him. In fact, Auron's words were the complete opposite of what he had expected. During their training, Auron would always harshly critique his skills with a sword by saying his posture was off or that he had sloppily executed a move. To know that Auron truly thought high of him was almost overwhelming to Roxas. Roxas then remembered that he had yet to see what Auron had given him. After carefully folding Auron's letter and placing it in his pocket, Roxas once again picked up that mysterious gift and continued to untie it.

Roxas gave a small tug to the string and the cloth fell on to the floor with a thud. Roxas stared awe struck as he gazed at the item that Auron had given him. Laying in Roxas' hands was katana with a grey hilt and sheath. At the tip of the sheath was a beautiful white lining in an interesting pattern. Roxas unsheathed it to reveal a beautifully crafted sword that seemed to glimmer as the lights of CORE reflected off of it It was obvious that the sword had seen prior battles to a this as Auron had said, but despite that, it did not look any less beautiful to Roxas. Roxas tested the blade out by giving it a quick horizontal swipe. The blade was light and quick, which would make it a deathly force on the battlefield.

Roxas sheathed the blade back into its container and tied the sheath to his waist. With a blade at his side and the encouraging words spoken by his teacher, Roxas felt like a real swordsman for the first time. It then struck Roxas that he had nine hours to kill before his training with Leon. Namine probably wasn't even awake right now and Axel and Larxene had an important meeting with Ansem. With no one to visit or hangout with, Roxas had no idea what to do. "Hmm ..... I guess I could go visit the Moogle district again. They could have something I could by there." With that, Roxas made his way to the stairs and to the train station.

........................................

"Wow, I cannot believe that I have lived he for week and I still don't know my way around this city." Roxas said, frustrated at himself for getting himself lost. Roxas had made it to the Moogle district without a problem, but once he got there, he could not remember where the store Selphie worked was at or what it was called. "Moogle Republic? Moogle GAP? Aarrgh, I can't remember what it was called." Roxas said as he aimlessly walked through see a never ending people. The streets of the Moogle district were packed, which only made Roxas more lost. "What am I suppose to do now?"

"SORA! There you are!" a female voice said from behind Roxas. Before he could even react, a pair of slim arms wrap themselves around his waist and he feels someone's head rest itself on his back. "Here I thought you wanted to spend some time with me and I find you aimlessly walking around the streets," the voice continued, "What's up with that?"

After a few seconds of finding his voice, Roxas says, "I'm sorry miss, but I think you have the wrong person." The arms slowly move themselves from Roxas' waist and he turns around to find a slightly flustered red head behind him who had an uncanny appearance that reminded him of Namine. She has shoulder length red hair and big violet eyes that were even wider from realizing that this was not the person she had expected to see. "Oh my gosh, I so sorry," she said still a shade of pink, "I thought you were someone else.

"Based off of my superior skills of deduction, I am going to guess that I was a certain brunette?" Roxas humorously asks. The girl wears a slightly confused face as she asks "You know Sora?"

"I have met him a couple of times while I have been here," Roxas says, "you see, I have only lived here for about a week now and I've been so busy that I haven't gotten to socialize with many people." For some reason, this girl reminded him of Namine so much that he found it pretty easy to talk to her. "So your a new person here aye?" she said "You would happen to be this Roxas person Namine keeps talking about, are you?" Initially Roxas wanted to ask 'Does Namine really talk about me?' but was able to restrain himself and instead ask "How do you know Namine?" The girl gave Roxas a small smile and said " I'm a friend of Namine's. The name's Kairi. It nice to finally meet you." Kairi held out a friendly hand which Roxas was happy to accept with a firm handshake.

"It's nice to meet you a well Kairi," Roxas said as he brought his hand back to his side, "I sorta remember Namine mentioning you also. Anyway, it's to my understanding that you were trying to locate Sora?" Kairi's smile disappeared and was replaced with a small frown, "Sora said that he would meet me in front of the train station so we could hangout today," Kairi said a little disappointed, "but I've been waiting here for nearly an hour and I still haven't seen him. Don't get me wrong, Sora is a sweet guy and all but I swear that sometimes he can be denser that a brick house."

Roxas let out a warm chuckle and thought about the last time he had talked to Sora. Roxas was leaving the training dojo after his session with Auron and was about to go visit Namine at the clinic when he bummed into the brunette outside of the building. Sora friendly greeted Roxas and the two started to talk as if they had been friends for a long time. Within three minutes of the talk, Roxas realized that Sora would sometimes stare off into space or would get distracted and unintentionally change the topic of the conversation. Roxas was amazed at Sora's short attention span .

Roxas could see sadness weld up in Kairi's eyes. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn't resist a pretty face or maybe it was the fact that she resembled Namine so much, but either way, Roxas had the sudden urge to help out Kairi. "Hey, I know we just met and all, but how about I help you look for the guy. I admire anyone who is able to put up with someone as oblivious as Sora." Roxas offered in a playful manner. Kairi's eyes lit up as she said, "You'll really help me Roxas? Thank you, thank you, thank you. Namine was right about you. You really are a sweet guy, aren't you? "

Roxas felt his face warm up and he could swear that his heart skip a beat when Kairi told him of what Namine though of him. "She thinks I am sweet?" Roxas asked a bit nervously. "C'mon, lets go look for Sora," Kairi said either ignoring Roxas' question or too intent on finding Sora to hear him. The two teens made their way down the busy street in hopes of locating Sora.

............................................

Kairi and Roxas continued to look for Sora even after an hour of searching. During their time maneuvering through a the many stores and the endless sea of people, Roxas found out that talking to Kairi came easy like Namine. Unlike Namine, who could be a tad quiet at times, Kairi seemed to not stop talking. Whether being angry at Sora, complementing someone's clothes as they passed them, or complaining how she had a slight ache in her back, Kairi always seemed to find something to talk about. In fact, their whole time looking for Sora, Roxas felt as though the conversation was a bit one-sided since Kairi barely gave him a chance to speak. Kairi seemed to take notice of this when Roxas didn't look particularly excited on her talk about what she should make for lunch that day. She quickly looked around for something that would offer a talk that they both could engage in. She spotted Roxas' sheathed katana hanging from his side and it had caught her interest.

"I couldn't help notice that sword you happen to have on you. Do you practice sword play?" Kairi asked. Roxas, slightly surprised that he was able to participate in the conversation, replied, "You could say that. Right now me and my teacher, Auron Ishikawa, are practicing a little to improve my swordsmanship, but our main objective right now is on creating a Chaser weapon from my mana."

"You're taught by Commander Auron?!" Kairi said with an awe struck look on her face. "Yeah, Auron teaches me," Roxas said. "But believe me it was not easy convincing him to. I have the bruises to prove it. And what do you mean Commander Auron? I know the guy's suppose to be a pretty good Chaser but since when does he have a title?"

"Pretty Good?!" Kairi said still wearing the same awe struck expression, "Roxas, Auron Ishikawa is the best fighter in all of CORE, second only to Ansem Wise! Auron is so powerful that Ansem appointed him the head of all military operations! Not only that, he also trained the current two ELITE captains, Leon Lionheart and Sephiroth Shimomura, and the legendary Cloud Strife! What surprise me most of all is that he actually accepted you as a student. "

"Really? And here I thought that he was just some grumpy old man," Roxas said with a hint of sarcasm. Kairi let out an exaggerated sigh and keep walking, while Roxas let out a small chuckle. Even though it didn't seem like it to Kairi, Roxas had to admit to himself that he was quite impressed with all that his mentor had accomplished. Just then Roxas' eyes caught a flicker of a spiky, chestnut colored hair in the seemingly endless crowd of people. Roxas squinted his eyes to get a better look and sure enough he spotted Sora aimlessly wandering the street with a lost look on his face. At this he smirked and turned to Kairi. "Hey Kairi, I know something that might cheer you up." With a suspicious look, Kairi turned to Roxas and ask, "And what might that be Roxas?"

"What's light-headed, has spiky hair and is standing in front of that ice cream store over there?" Roxas said with a coy tone. Kairi, skeptically turned her head in the direction that Roxas had implied, and when her eyes landed on Sora, her eyes seemed to glitter and she stared to run straight at him. Roxas couldn't help but grin as he stared to watch the scene unfold. When Kairi arrived to Sora, Roxas saw Sora's eyes fill up with an emotion that looked like the cross between relief and fear (if that were possible). Roxas expected Kairi to give Sora a big hug and tell him that she missed him or she was so worried when she couldn't find him. Instead Roxas saw the complete opposite. "What the hell, Sora!?" Kairi yelled, earning some confused looks from other nearby by pedestrians. "You idiot, I told you to meet me in front of the train station nearly two hours ago at 12:00 and hear I find you mindlessly walking the streets."

"Wait a minute, Kairi." Sora said nervously as he put his hands up in defense. " See here's what happen, I got to the train station nice and early because I knew if I didn't then I would have probably been late. Anyway, it was about five minutes until noon when I realized that I didn't eat any breakfast. I thought to myself 'If I run really quickly to the ice cream store, grab a bite to eat, and get back here before Kairi gets here, and everything will be fine'." Kairi narrowed put her hands on her hips and wore an expression that said she was not amused. "What I didn't count on was the fact that the wait in line would take about forty five minute." Sora said as he continued his story. "Who knew that so many people in CORE liked to eat ice cream. Anyway I went back to the train station after I got my ice cream. I guess I must have missed you, huh?"

"You think?" Kairi said sarcastically, "You were only an hour late. Do you know how much time we spent trying to find you?"

"We?" Sora asked as he looked up to see what Kairi was talking about. His eyes found Roxas as he put on a smile and waved to him. " Hey Roxas, long time no see."Sora cheerfully said as Roxas made his way to his other companions. Roxas shook Sora's hand as he said "I could say the same to you too man. Do you know how much trouble Kairi and I had trying to find you. I'll tell you now it wasn't easy."

"What can I say, I am a one in a million type of guy," Sora said with a smirk. "Oh please," Kairi said, "your about as unique as a Number 2 pencil. In fact if I didn't know any better, I would have said that you and Roxas are long lost twins."

"Are you kidding me, I am much too handsome to look anything like that guy," Sora said jokingly. "Really now?" Roxas slyly said. "I thought I might have been the better looking one since Kairi was all over me at the train station."

"WHAT!?!" Sora shouted. Roxas gave a smirk before he felt a quick jab to his side from Kairi's elbow. Roxas winced from both the pain in his side and the stern look on Kairi's face that sent shivers down his spine. "J-Just kidding with ya buddy." Roxas said nervously said as Kairi put on a sweet smile hearing Roxas apology. Sora rubbed the back of his neck and said, "I guess I kinda deserved that. So what are you doing here anyway Roxas? I thought you usually trained till four o'clock with old man Auron." It was Sora's turn to get an elbow in the stomach from Kairi after his remark. "I swear, doesn't anyone know how to give respect to people who have earned it." Kairi sighed.

Roxas let out a small laugh before saying " Usually I would be killing myself at training right now, but luck would have it that he was sent on a mission. Speaking of which, I suppose to have lessons with Mr. Lionheart until he gets back. I guess I'll be training with you for the time being Sora."

Sora gave his trade mark grin and patted Roxas on the back. "That's great Roxas! Do you know what this means? It means we get to hang out little more often now! I also get to introduce you to Riku as well. Just imagine, You, me, Kairi and Riku training side by side. What else could a guy ask for but spending time with his friends."

Roxas wore a shocked expression after Sora's outburst. It wasn't Sora's rant that had surprised Roxas. It was that Sora had called him a friend. "You really consider me to be a friend of yours." Roxas said unsurely. "Of course I do Roxas," Sora bluntly said, "I haven't known you for that long, but ever since we've met, I have always had a good feeling about you and so far my feeling of trust has never been wrong before." "That goes for me too." Kairi said as she playfully punched Roxas in the shoulder. "Sora has a knack for trusting the right people. So if Sora and Namine say your a good person than I believe them. Plus, you also helped me go through the trouble of finding this airhead, so you must be a good person."

"Hey, who are you calling an airhead?" Sora cried. As he did Roxas felt overcome by a warm feeling in his heart. Here were two people who barely knew him and already they had offered to be his friend. Something about this action of kindness really touched something deep down in his heart. Before he knew it, Roxas felt a warm wetness in the corner of his eyes. "You Okay Roxas," Sora asked noticing that Roxas had just gotten really quite. "Y-yeah, I'm fine." Roxas said as he turned around to try and wipe away the tears before Kairi or Sora could realize. Too late.

"Awww, Roxas is crying," Kairi said in a teasing voice. "No I'm not, something just got stuck in my eye." Roxas said defensively.

"Hey you guy, as much as I would like to make fun of Roxas' sensitivity, if we don't hurry to the dojo, were going to be late to our lesson and my dad is going to serve my ass on a silver plater."

"Well if someone didn't spend almost an hour to get some ice cream then we could have had more time to hangout and make fun of Roxas' waterworks display," Kairi said, still teasing Roxas. With that said Kairi and Sora sprinted towards the train station. "Hey you guys, thats not funny at all." Roxas said as he chased after them. Despite feeling slightly annoyed, Roxas couldn't help but wear a grin on his face.

.................

Riku's POV

4:23. Sora and Kairi are late again. I hear the the agitated sigh of Leon next to me. It is obvious that he is overcome by impatience. It is evident from the light scowl that is lingering on his lips. I can understand how infuriating Sora's lack of attention and discipline can be. Believe me, I have known the guy for practically my whole life. I'm just glad that Sora doesn't have my father instead of Leon. Let's just say if Sora was in my shoes with his attitude, he probably would never see the light of day again.

"How is it Riku that you always seem to get here on time and my son somehow manages to never to arrive on time with an excuse?" Leon asked, snapping me from my thoughts."No offense sir, Sora is my best friend, but the kid tends to become distracted, whether it be because of food, sleep, or Kairi."

"And that's putting it kindly." Leon said. I couldn't tell if he was being serious or just joking around. That's Leon for you. Almost always had the same stoic expression to him. It was kind of ironic. Leon was almost impossible to read and his son Sora was practically an open book. "Oh. I forgot to mention this to Sora and Kairi, but we will be having a student from Commander Ishikawa join us for lessons until he gets back from his latest mission."

"The Commander took up a student?" I said surprised. This intrigued me. Auron was known for his coldness towards others and the fact that he was regularly busy with military affairs made me question how someone was able to get an apprenticeship under him. Whoever was able to do it, must have been extremely powerful. Just then, the entrance doors opened and look who it was. Sora. It was obvious from the nervous look in his eyes that he knew he was so screw. I glanced up to Leon and looked into his eye to try and figure out what punishment for today he had in store for Sora. Following Sora like a sheep to a shepherd, Kairi strolled in behind him, looking ashamed as if she had committed a crime or something. I kinda felt bad for her. She is usually a good girl and comes in on time. It was probably thanks to Sora's shenanigans that made her late.

Oh what's this? Someone else is with Sora as well. This must be the Commander's student. I must say for some who is taught from somebody of as high of a prestige as the Commander's pupil, he sure seems to take to Sora's ways well. It must have been Sora's doings again to make this guy late.

WAIT A MINUTE...... the blond spiky hair, the piecing icy blue eyes, the same stoic expression, looks almost like Sora. This guy was the guy who was with Namine that one day. This is the guy that is Auron's protégé? There's way Auron would accept such a weakling as an apprentice. This has to be a mistake.

Well it seems that Sora has already accepted him as a friend. Sometimes I swear that Sora could make friends with a brick wall. Sora may trust this guy but I sure as hell don't. I knew I got a bad vibe from spiky over here when he was fawning over Namine like a piece of meat. If he goes anywhere near Namine, I'll be sure that I rearrange his face.

............

Normal POV

Sora, Kairi, and Roxas all timidly approached scowling pair standing in front of them. The silver haired boy however seemed to directed his glare toward the Roxas. Leon sighed the stepped towards the late trio.

"Before you say anything let me explain myself," Sora quickly said before anyone else could open their mouths, "Well me being the good student that I am, I decided to head to the dojo early to get some early training in. On my way there however, I bumped into Kairi and she said that she wanted me to come with her to go shopping. I told her that I didn't want to be late but she swore it would only take a second. So thinking that we would only take five minutes, I go with her to make sure she doesn't make herself late. However, there's a sale at one of the stores and I spend about an hour trying to find her after she ditch me. " At this point, Leon decided to humor his son by listen to the rest of his story with expressionless eyes. Kairi, however, wore such an angry expression on her face that, standing next to her, Roxas could swear that he could feel killing intent radiating off of her.

"Anyway, after an hour of searching, I find Kairi trying to strangle one of the other customers who also wanted to buy the last blouse that she did." Sora said continuing his story. " After I practically dragged Kairi out of the store and on to the train we were about twenty minutes late." Roxas couldn't help but chuckle at what an innovative story teller Sora was. "Once on the train, Kairi and I found Roxas fast asleep on one of the seats and woke him up before he was even more late." Roxas' grin fell and it was his turn to be angry.

Before Roxas and Kairi could beat Sora to a pulp, Leon said "Really Sora, is that the best lie you can come up with? And here I thought again I was going to hear the one where you saved the world or helped an old lady cross the street. Roxas, since this is your first day training with us, I will let you off with a waring.

"As for you two," Leon said turning towards Kairi and Sora, "Kairi, I'm slightly disappointed that you were late today, but since you are not consecutively late like my son, your punishment shall only be twenty five laps around the dojo." Kairi saluted to Leon and started her first lap."You on the other hand Sora must do fifty laps around the dojo and forty laps after practice."

"Awe man." Sora complained as he took off after Kairi. "It seems that you have already been acquainted with Kairi and Sora." Leon said to Roxas " I would like you to meet my other pupil, Riku." Roxas turned toward the silver haired boy. Riku had a muscular frame and broad shoulders that gave Roxas the slightest feeling of intimidation. What was most notable about Riku was his eyes. It wasn't the light blue color that intreeged, it was the hunger for power that was ever present in his eyes. Trying his best to ignore the strange feel, Roxas put his hand out and said, "Hey, it's nice to meet you. My name's Roxas."

"Sorry, I don't associate myself with weaklings," Riku harshly said. At first Roxas was confused at Riku's actions but when Riku continued to glare at him, Roxas frowned and said, "Hey man, I was just trying to be friendly. You don't have to act like such an ass."

"What the hell did you just say?" Riku said, his voice raising. "Both of you calm down now." Leon said sternly looking at both of the young men. "We are going to be working with each other for a while and until then, we are going to get along or at least pretend we are. Now I want both of you to apologize. "

Roxas muttered something under his breath before he offered his hand to Riku again and a short,quick 'Sorry'. Riku grimaced as he took Roxas' hand and gave a quick shake. "Yeah, whatever." Riku said without emotion as he looked in some other direction.

Leon could see that something about Roxas bothered Riku and he didn't want there to be any bad blood between them on the very first day. "Riku, why don't you go work the advance mana exercises that I taught to you a few days back," Leon said quickly thinking of a way to avoid unnecessary conflict. "I was going to work with Roxas one on one and teach Roxas here some of the basics with mana and I wouldn't want to hold you back."

Riku saluted to Leon and started to walk to another area of the dojo. As he walked past Roxas, he intentionally bumped shoulders with his, causing Roxas to slightly stumble back. Roxas just glared at Riku's back as he walked away.

"What the hell is his problem?" Roxas said once Riku was out of earshot. "I try and be friends with him and he insults me as if I have done something to him."

"Look Roxas," Leon said, carefully choosing his words, "I know what Riku said was a little uncalled for but I ask you to look in your heart to forgive him. He has a tough life and Riku will sometimes think and act irrationally. Not to mention he can almost be as stubborn as my son." Roxas gave a slight smirk at this. "I guess I can try," Roxas said unconvincingly.

"That good to hear," Leon said. "Anyway, Auron has told me that you ended you last lessons with enhancing bodily functions with mana, right?" Roxas nodded. "Okay then, I guess we'll start off with something simple. The first step in mana manipulation is to release the mana within your heart so that you are able to use it. To do this all you have to do is relax yourself and search within your heart until you find an indescribable power slumbering there. Here let me show you how I do it."

Leon relaxed his arms, which felt to the sides of his body, and closed his eyes. Within a few moments, Leon's eyes reopened. It appeared as though nothing had happened, other than Leon's eyes appeared to give off a light shine. "See, easy. Now you go ahead and give it a try."

Roxas took a deep breath and closed his eyes. As if meditating, Roxas began to search the recesses of his heart. At first all he felt as though he was lost in an endless oblivion. Roxas felt trapped in the everlasting darkness but he knew if he wanted to get stronger, he had to continued he search for the mana. After a couple more minutes in the dark, Roxas began to felt a small warmth inside of him. At first, it was a small flicker, but when Roxas began to concentrate on it, the flicker stabilized and a strange feeling over took him. Words couldn't describe how the warmth felt, but all that Roxas could think of is how it empowered him with unknown strength.

"Leon, I think I found the mana in my heart," Roxas said, his eyes still closed. "Good job Roxas, you found it quicker than I expected." Leon said slightly astonished. "The next step you need to do is to release it from your heart and into the plane of existence. To do this concentrate all you attention on the mana and it will began to seep out of your heart."

Roxas focused on the small warmth inside of him and forced all of his attention onto it. As he continued to concentrate on that the warmth, it continued to grow warmer and warmer until his body felt like it was engulfed in comforting flames. As soon as it felt as though he might explode in a burst of fire, a cool wave descended throughout Roxas' entire body. Roxas could feel the mana flow through his entire body like a river current. The feeling empowered him to the point were he felt as though he could take on the world single handedly.

"Leon, I think its working," Roxas said as he could hardly contain his excitement, "I can feel the mana taking its course through my body." Roxas opened his eyes and tightened his fist to test his new found strength. As he squeezed his fingers together, Roxas could feel untamed power behind it. "Excellent Roxas," Leon voiced, "The next thing I want you to do is very important and must always be followed when dealing with mana manipulation. Once you have retrieved the desired amount of mana from you heart, it is important to always close back the pathway leading to your heart. Not only is your heart vulnerable at this point in time, but if the pathway remains unsealed, mana will continue to pour out from your heart to the point of complete depletion. If your heart is completely drained of it mana, you will die."

Roxas, who at the moment didn't feel like dying, searched his heart for the warmth in the recesses of his heart once again. Once found, he quickly focused on extinguishing the it, hoping that it would close his heart pathway, The once great warmth he had felt began to diminish until it was entirely eradicated. The mana is his body however, was still flowing through his body.

"What you are probably feeling now is a set amount of mana that you received from you heart," Leon said, bringing Roxas back from his meditative state. "Right now it is freely floating around inside of your body. Unless you release more mana from your heart, you are only able to actually manipulate the mana you feel right now, however I believe that you have released enough to last for today's lessons."

"Hey Leon. Why were you able to release your mana so quickly and it took me almost five minutes."Roxas asked, slightly annoyed at himself.

"You have to remember Roxas that I've been releasing my mana for over half my life." Leon said," You however didn't start until today. Don't worry about it though. You actually did it faster than a lot of people. In fact it took Sora almost an hour to do what you just did in five minutes. Now follow me, we still have some stuff to work on."

Leon lead Roxas to the center of a sparring circle. As Roxas climbed the stairs to get on, every step he took felt as light as air. "Now before we began," Leon said once inside the small arena, " I will explain what you will be learning today. As Auron may have told you, certain bodily function can be enhanced or accelerated by distributing mana to certain parts of the body. The easiest one, and the one we will be starting with will be increasing your speed and agility. This task can be preformed by sending and concentrating mana to the muscles in your legs and below your waist. I'll give you a hands on demonstration."

Leon relaxed his frame and started to send his mana to the lower regions of his body. "Okay Roxas, once your muscles have absorbed the mana you sent them, they will be able to preform feats that will reach the human body limitations. Observe."

What Leon did next, simply astounded Roxas. Leon had preformed a jump that left him about twenty feet away from where he was standing from Roxas. Leon then crouched down and jumped straight up to touch the ceiling of the roof, which stood about thirty feet above the floor. Then, as soon as he feet touched the ground, he kicked off the floor and as he was in the air, he started to flip towards Roxas. Before he landed in front of Roxas, Leon had done six consecutive flips in the air.

"Wow!" Roxas exclaimed, "That was amazing. Are you saying that I will be able to do all that stuff you just did as well?"

"If your body is able to handle it, there should be no problem. Now focus on the muscles in your leg to transfer some of the mana to there."

Roxas began to focus on the lower portion on his body. As he did, he felt the muscles in his legs tighten up as the mana was being absorbed by them. He felt a surge of adrenaline course through his legs once they were done absorbing the mana.

"I take it that your done transferring the mana?" Leon said as he took notice to Roxas' expression, "Well don't just stand there. Try running around."

Roxas looked at Leon for a moment and then started to sprint as fast as he could around the circle. At first his speed appeared normal and unchanged but as a few seconds passed, he found himself running at speed in which he thought he could have never run in this lifetime. The whole dojo was a blur around him as his ran around the a circular arena. "Leon, this is amazing," Roxas shouted on account of the wind wisping past his ears. "I have never ran this fast before."

"Your body always able to run that fast, but when exposed to mana the task becomes a whole lot easier." Leon said as Roxas just finished his tenth lap around the sparring circle. "Why don't you try jumping now. When Roxas stopped running, he found that he had skidded a couple of feet before coming to a complete stop. Roxas crouched down and pushed off the ground as hard as he could. To his surprise, he ascended with great acceleration. To his joy, he had completed Leon's task with relative ease. "Hey Leon, that was way too easy."

"Roxas, watch out!" Leon shouted. Before he could even ask what Leon meant, Roxas felt the back of his head hit something extremely hard and he found himself plummet back to the floor. "Aaagrrrh," Roxas said as he landed on his back with a thud.

"Ow, that looks like it had to hurt," Leon said making his way towards Roxas, "You Okay kid?" Roxas slowly stood up and started to rub the back of his head. "What the hell just happened? My head is killing me."

"You hit your head on the ceiling," Leon said bluntly. "Really?"Roxas asked, "I guess I didn't realize how much mana could increase the power of my jump. It's kinda like taking some sort of super steroid, huh?"

"I guess you could say that," Leon said before he started smirking. "It's actually kinda ironic. When Sora first learn how to transfer the mana to his legs, he also hit his head on the ceiling as well."

"Wow, that makes me feel a whole lot better." Roxas said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Hey, don't feel embarrassed," Leon said. "You were able to past the first lesson with little to no effort, so now we can began the next lesson, using mana to increase one's own personal strength to its limits. However, where you found the last lesson almost too easy this task will prove much more difficult. Instead of sending mana to a general region, you must specifically target the triceps, biceps, deltoid, and forearm muscles in your body. Also you need to add a certain amount of mana to these muscles. Not too much and not too little. If you don't or you happen to miss them, the effects can be quite strange but nothing fatal. You can start any time you want to, but I will ask you to proceed with caution."

Roxas took in a deep breath before he closed his eyes and started to direct some of his mana to the muscles that Leon had told him. At first everything seemed to be going smoothly. Just as he had done before, Roxas forced the mana to the desired destination and found it just as easy as the first lesson. As the time passed on Roxas began to feel quite strange. Just when Roxas began to target his second deltoid muscle, all of his muscles began to feel numb and Roxas had a little trouble moving them. All of a sudden, his arms feel limply to his sides and remained unresponsive to his.

"What the hell?" Roxas said a little worried. "Whats wrong with my arms? It feels as though somebody replace them with bars of steel."

"I tried to warn you." Leon said. "You applied too much mana to your muscles. As you can see, the effect weighs them down because they are beyond their mana capacity and will no longer function with that mana inside of them. Release it and your arms should revert back to normal."

Roxas withdrew the mana from his arms and started to wave them around to make sure everything was functioning properly. "Okay Roxas, lets try again." Roxas closed his eyes again and tried to correct his mistake this time. Within a couple of minutes, Roxas' arms feel to his sides again. Leon sighed and said, "This may take a while."

...............................

After about thirty more minutes, Roxas had tried twelve more times and his was still unsuccessful with the exercise. "Damn it!" Roxas shouted at his latest failed attempt, "I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I'm doing everything you tell me to do and I still end up with the same results." With each failed attempt, Roxas had grown more and more frustrated and Leon took notice of it.

"I think I know what your problem is Roxas," Leon said ending Roxas' rant. "Roxas, it seems that you have a very aggressive nature. As so, I assume you try and command the mana to enter your arms. Your going at it all the wrong way. Mana is not a thing to be controlled. Instead of acting like a master and telling it what to do, act as a servant and simply guide it to its destination."

Roxas looked at Leon unconvinced, but decided that he wasn't getting anywhere with his method and he might as well try Leon's approach. Unlike the times before, Roxas forced on the mana instead of the muscles and guided it towards the muscles. Instead of going limp, Roxas felt the same feeling in his arms as he did with his legs when mana had enhanced them."Finally I think I got it." Roxas said triumphantly.

"Only one way to know, unsheath your sword. " Leon said as he removed a small grey sphere the size of a large baseball out of his pocket. "Normally in a head on collision between steel and iron, the two metals would recoil off of one another, leaving the iron with a small dent or scratch. With you mana enhanced muscles however, you should be able to cut threw this iron ball with your sword like a hot knife slicing threw butter." Roxas pulled his sword out and got into the attack position. "On three Roxas. One....Two........THREE!" Leon threw the steel orb at Roxas and it sped towards him with terrifying speed. Roxas waited until the very last moment and swung the sword with all of his might. His arm, which were at one point as heavy as lead pipes, now felt as though they were lighter than air. When the sword had made contact with the hurtling sphere, there was a bright spark and a phhh-ting noise filled the air. Once the blade passed through the iron in a liquid motion, the ball remained intact until it collided with the floor, in which it fell apart into two separate pieces. The cut in which the sword had made was perfectly smooth, showing no fractures or signs of deformities. "Mission accomplished," Roxas said giving Leon a thumbs up sign while wearing a confident smirk.

"Don't get cocky yet," said Leon, "you may have finished the first two exercises, but the last one shall prove to difficult and if you take it lightly the consequences could be fatal."

Roxas' confident demeanor fell and was replaced by a more serious one. "The next exercise involves stimulating stamina and endurance by directing mana to the heart, lungs and brain. All of these are vital organs and must be handled with extreme caution. It will be similar to sending mana to your muscles but instead of being absorbed by the mana you must instead provide a coat of mana over the organs. Each of these organs are much too delicate to directly absorb the mana head on so instead the mana will around the organ and slowly be absorb by the organ when your body began to tire out or is hurt. Before we began this, do you have any questions?"

Roxas scratched the back of his head and said, "Kinda get how the organ only absorb the mana when it is need, but why send it to the brain and the heart. I get sending it to the lungs will sustain my respiratory system, but whats the point of sending it to the other places. Even better, isn't it kinda redundant to send it to the heart when it's the heart that makes mana?"

"Send mana to the heart doesn't enhance its function in mana production. " Leon began, "Instead it focuses on the circulatory system. Well, lets say that your in a battle, and you're facing massive blood loss. When you lose a significant amount of blood, the heart will absorb the necessary amount of mana surrounding the heart and will be able to produce more blood. As for the brain, you're completing two functions at once. Since the brain controls all muscle movement in you body, it is able to locate them all as well. By surrounding the brain with mana, if you receive a bruise or a wound, mana will be sent to that area of the body to better fortify it and provide some protection. Also by sending it to the brain, the mana is able to reduce the amount of pain signals that your nervous system sends to your brain."

Leon looked at Roxas with slight concern in his eyes, "Be careful, Roxas. This procedure is not one for the feint of heart."

"I've come this far, so there's no point in turning back now," Roxas said sternly.

Leon gave on last look at Roxas and said, "Okay then, anytime you're ready."

Roxas began to focus his mana and guide towards the vital organs of his body and started to form a coat of mana around them. He was successful in performing this task for his heart and lungs and was starting with his brain. As he was almost done with it a wave of doubt began to fill Roxas' mind which cause him to lose his concentration. As a result, some of the mana went off of its course and was absorbed by the nervous system. In an instant, a great and sharp pain ensnared Roxas' entire body. It felt as though a hundred white hot knives were just lunged all over his body. He fell hard to the floor while howling in pain. His body began shaking uncontrollably while the echo of his screams filled the building.

Leon rushed over to his side and grabbed his shoulders, "Roxas! Roxas!" he yelled, "You have to release the mana now or else you'll slip into unconsciousness from all of the pain. Roxas you need to release it now!"

Roxas could barely focus on Leon from all of the pain he was feeling, but he was able to read his lips for the most part. Without a second thought, Roxas release the mana from his organs and his body turned limp. He was breathing hard and his vision had turned blurry. He tried to stand up, but had a hard time from the soreness that covered his entire body. "What just happened?" Roxas huffed out.

"I think that all of your pain receptors were activated by some stray mana. Maybe you should rest and we can work on this tomorrow."

"No," Roxas quickly said as he started to stand up, "I can't give up now. I won't give up now!" With all doubt erased from his mind, he tried the exercise one more time. "Roxas, wait," Leon said but it was too late, Roxas had already started. As he started with his brain again, questions of doubt filled his mind and soon he was feeling the unbearable pain return again. 'No,' Roxas thought, 'I have to remain focused and not doubt myself. I WILL believe in myself and I will complete this task.'

Inspired by his own inner thoughts,Roxas focused with all of his might this time and made sure that he didn't faultier under any uncertainty. His vision began to clear and all of the soreness disappeared from his body. Even the bump on his head that he had acquired earlier seemed to disappeared as his body began to reguevinate itself."I knew I could do it," Roxas said to Leon and himself.

"Excellent job, Roxas," Leon said. "You completed all of the basic exercises in mana within a couple of hours. I'm sure with this progress, you should be able to form a Chaser weapon in no time."

"Thanks Leon," Roxas said, "but to tell you the truth, I'm feeling worn out."

"You used a lot of mana to do all those exercises. Why don't we call it a day and you can go get yourself patched up at the clinic." Leon suggested.

"Sounds like the most reasonable thing that I have heard all day," Roxas said as he made his way to the exit."I'll see you tomorrow Leon. Tell Sora and Kairi I said goodbye." And with that, Roxas disappeared through the entrance doors. Leon, however, remained planted in his spot wearing a serious expression.

'Amazing,' Leon thought 'He has only had his mana activated for five days and he has progressed with an incredible speed. He has learned the all of the basic exercises of mana in only two hours with relative ease, where as it usually takes a normal person at least three days to learn each one. Initially I was afraid that Auron wouldn't teach him but now I think I am beginning to understand why Auron decided to accept him as a pupil. You really are your father's son aren't you, Roxas.'

"Hey, who said that you could stop running Sora!"

................................

The clinic, which was usually busy during the earlier hours of the day, was empty for the most part. Namine who currently sat behind the reception desk, was reading a book titled "The Archaic Language and You".Namine had initially started to work at the clinic in hopes that she could learn a thing or two about healing mana from the other mages that worked there, but the longer she stayed there, the more she found out that she actually enjoyed ridding people of their suffering and misfortune. Since the clinic had not scene much action today, Namine though it was a good a time as any to catch up on her reading.

As she was turning the page, a person who had slipped through the doors unnoticed, stood right in front of her and said, "Shouldn't you be working?" The sudden noise had startled Namine so much, that she let out a yelp and fell out of her chair. Sitting on the ground now, Namine pushed her golden hair out of her face to reveal the culprit who was responsible.

"Roxas, why did you scare me like that," Namine whined. Roxas, who was wearing an amused grin, offered a hand to help Namine up. "I couldn't help it Namine, you were just too easy. Although I have to admit that you falling out of your chair was an enjoyable bonus."

"Oh ha ha Roxas your a riot." Namine said sarcastically grabbing Roxas' hand, "Anyway, what I wasn't expecting you to arrive for another hour. What are you doing here so early?"

"Well, Auron had a mission to go on," Roxas said as he took a seat on top of the reception desk, earning a disapproving look from Namine, "And he assigned me to work with Leon's group for a couple of days. Leon decided to let me off early since I was a little low on mana."

"Oh, really?" Namine asked as she began to search for something in her pocket."How did you like meeting Kairi and Riku?"

"Riku was..." Roxas began to search for the right word, "..a bit forward and Kairi was really nice. In fact, I got this strange feeling that Kairi kinda reminded me of you. I mean besides the hair color, you two could almost pass off as twins."

"You wouldn't believe how man people have said that to us," Namine said still trying to find something in her pocket, "Now that I think about, you and Sora kinda look the same. Ah, found it." Namine pulled a small vial out of her robe that was filled with a blue liquid and handed it to Roxas. "Here, drink this. It should restore you mana to a comfortable level."

"What is it?" Roxas said as he took the vial from Namine and looked at it questionably. "It called an Ether. It's a sort of nutrient in liquid form that helps stabilize mana levels. It's quiet useful for Elites who go on long missions outside of CORE."

Roxas gave one last skeptical look at the liquid before he uncorked the top and drank the liquid in a single gulp. The effects of the Ether took place immediately as Roxas went from feeling tired to feeling like he was ready to run a marathon.

"Wow, that stuff really works," he said handing the vial back to Namine. "Of course it does, I'm the one who made it." Namine said playfully."So, what are you going to do now? You have a good four hours until curfew."

"Well, besides coming here to heal myself," Roxas said, a light blush creeping on his face, "I wanted to know if you wanted to go hangout or something, maybe grab a bit to eat?"

"Roxas, are you asking me on a date?" Namine said with coy smirk."No, no, no," Roxas said quickly, while his face became as red a a tomato, "Just a friendly outing with a friend."

"Well I don't know Roxas, things here at the hospital are quite busy," she said motioning to the empty front lobby. "But what the heck, I'll go as long as you pay for the food." She said as she started heading for the door.

"But I thought I said that this wasn't a date." Roxas said.

"I know. It's just pay back for scaring me earlier." Said Namine as the pair exited the clinic.

Author's Note: Hoped you enjoyed it. Next Chapter Roxas and the gang go on a mission. Waring: For those of you who don't enjoy the senseless slaughter of heartless, do not read the next chapter (take a quick glimpse though XD). Oh yeah, Happy Holiday's too!