Brawling with Hatsu was nothing like Yami had expected. For one thing, his movements were almost irregular; hard to track. There were moments where he was constantly moving, and moments when he would stand completely still. Sometimes he would come on in a hard offensive, and sometimes refuse to attack even when there was an opening. Quite honestly, the lack of logic in the boy's battle choices was throwing the demon off guard, but eventually he tried to take advantage of them.<br/><br/>After that, the boy seemed to get more serious. Every step he took had a purpose. A sort of logic became visible in his movements for a moment before he would shift techniques again. Whenever the boy went on the offensive, or was within combat range, he would use a style somewhere between karate and judo. Most of the karate-like jabs and hits he used seemed untrained, and could definitely use work, but when it came to the judo aspect... that wasn't so bad.<br/><br/>Had Yami been physically there, he would have been thrown to the ground several times, assuming he was fighting on Hatsu's level, that is. As for the karate aspects, there were two moves in particular that seemed to pack the most punch with Hatsu. The first, was an uppercut kick to the chin. Damn the boy was flexible. The second was a strong punch right to the gut. Again, had he been physically there, that would have hurt.<br/><br/>After a while, Yami called the match. It really had been just to gauche the boy's skills anyway. "Alright..." Yami started. "First I'd like to know if there was any sort of logic behind those random movements of yours."<br/><br/>Hatsu shrugged. "Not in particular. It's just the way I'm used to fighting."<br/><br/>Yami pinched the bridge of his nose. "Honestly, the method could either hurt you or help you, depending on who you're fighting. You're not so bad at the throwing maneuvers... I wonder if we could put that toward a more acrobatic style?" He looked at the boy. "Can you do flips, cartwheels, anything like that?"<br/><br/>Hatsu shook his head and gave a "not really" expression.<br/><br/>The demon sighed. "It would take too long to teach you... Alright. Let's just move on to some target practice for now." Yami had Hatsu practice just shooting with his gun at stationary targets for a while. They left it on its electric setting for a while, just so that if Hatsu over-shot they wouldn't lose the bullets. After that, they switched it to telekinesis mode and had Hatsu do his best to shoot the bullets just far enough to embed themselves in the wall without falling short or going all the way through.<br/><br/>After they did that for a while, Yami took Hatsu outside to practice his hover-boarding technique. He lead him into some tighter spaces like alley ways and inside some abandoned buildings. They also practiced a bit with changing altitudes quickly and free falling. Yami even went so far as to have Hatsu practice shooting and retracting his bullets in the midst of a free fall, and still have to catch himself before slamming into the pavement. Needless to say, the boy was becoming absolutely exhausted.<br/><br/>Eventually, they went back to the warehouse and Yami had Hatsu train for a while on controlling the flow of his electricity. Having it extend from his body and hover in the air with some degree of control. Electricity always wanted a destination, so this was surprisingly difficult. Next they went back outside and looked for heavier objects for Hatsu to practice lifting. Yami took it too far and asked him to try an old car, and the poor boy collapsed from the mental strain before even getting it off the ground. After that, the demon was forced to give him a short break.<br/><br/>Hatsu leaned against the wall of the warehouse, the harsh ache in his head was finally starting to dull. All this endless training was absolutely exhausting. The boy hoped he was improving as much as he thought he was, otherwise he worried he was just wasting his time. Yami called him to attention and he wearily stood up. "What are we doing this time?" he asked, with perhaps a bit less enthusiasm than the demon liked.<br/><br/>"Time for a bit more electricity training," the demon said. He clearly wouldn't be pulling any punches with this training. "Make a static field around your body, as thin as you can possibly make it while still having it cover all of you."<br/><br/>"Static field?" Hatsu asked. "Is that just a layer of electricity?"<br/><br/>Yami frowned. "Sort of. The electricity stays just under your skin, but you take the energy it makes and push it outward. I can see the field, so I'll be keeping an eye on you to make sure you're doing it right. Hold it for as long as you possibly can. Understand."<br/><br/>Hatsu nodded, took a breath, then began his next challenge. The sun was already rising outside by now; it was probably around 7 am, but the warehouse blocked almost all outside light, so the boy was perfectly unaware.<br/><br/>------------------<br/><br/>Slowly, Hiei felt himself rising back to consciousness. Eventually he was able to open his eyes, but it was still just the two of them. Experimentally, he opened and closed his hands a bit before moving to sit up. He bent his arms a bit; his movements felt relatively normal, albeit groggy.<br/><br/>Hiei wandered off to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, his third eye just looked like a little line on his forehead when it was closed. He always felt a bit more on edge when he couldn't use it. With a slight sigh, he pulled his headband back down over it.<span style="font-style: italic">How long?</span>he asked his demon.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Jeez,</span>Alastor complained.<span style="font-style: italic">Speed has robbed you of your patience. I'm working on it now. Weren't you hungry or something?</span><br/><br/>Oh yeah. Now that he'd been reminded of it, Hiei felt like he hadn't eaten in days. Well then, the first thing he ought to do was go to the hide out and get something to eat. It really wasn't far at all if he used his demon power, but that would just make him more hungry. Oh well. The sooner he got something in his stomach, the better... Perhaps his patience could use some work though.<br/><br/>Having little energy, Hiei stopped running as soon as the hide out was in sight. He walked purposefully, virtually ignoring all the people who'd come again for Ayl's training and everyone still down in the hide out. He ordered a rather sizable meal, which prompted a look from the barkeep. The man, who's name Hiei had never bothered to learn, maybe it was Ted or something, had grown more or less used to the small man ordering abnormally large meals, but this was still a lot of food. It took a several trips to carry it all off to his usual table.<br/><br/>Hiei quite honestly didn't care about any odd looks he was getting. He was starving and he was going to eat. It took longer to finish eating this time, which really wasn't long at all by anyone else's standards, but the meal was eventually polished off. The Hunter took a moment to just sit before stacking his plates and returning them to the barkeep.<br/><br/>He received another odd look, then the barkeep just gave a sigh and a shake of his head and accepted the plates. He chose not to comment since he knew this Hunter wasn't the most talkative one. Once he didn't have his plates to worry about, Hiei left the hide out and made his way to the rooftop of a nearby building. He sat down, waiting to feel his third eye open again so he could go and find Anaka. Sadly, he just wasn't any good at searching for people the regular way anymore.