( Yuuki's POV )
Having our new training camp the first thing on our agenda was meditation sessions, a perfect familiarity with the flow of Ki was the basis for any technique she wished to master.
I used Ana's seal needle on myself too, to practice and teach Koneko at the same time, she had said that her species was good at controlling Ki flow but I had experience with different energies and I caught up to her quickly and then surpassed her.
That led me to think there was something holding her back, probably related to her refusal to use this power before.
Koneko: You're not feeling anything strange, Sensei.
Yuuki: Besides the Ki moving through my body, no, not really, why do you ask?
Koneko: You have to be careful with this power, it could affect your head.
What Koneko said seemed to be the root of her doubts, so I stopped the meditation.
Yuuki: Have you seen it happen?
Koneko looked down and nodded shyly.
Yuuki: You want to talk about it.
That must be a painful memory for her because as she shook her head her mood worsened and she had a slight gloomy aurora around her, Seeing her in that state, I got up and went to pat her head.
Yuuki: There are many powers that have that risk, but that's why we're training together, I promise I won't let that happen to you and I won't let it happen to me, you know how I always keep my promises.
Koneko narrowed her eyes at me remembering how I disappeared last time, but when she touched the bell tied around her neck she put on a small smile.
With that we resumed our training but when I sat cross-legged and closed my eyes to begin meditating Koneko sat on my legs and leaned her body against me, I looked down at her, and she raised her gaze to meet mine, without me asking a question, she responded sweetly.
Koneko: I concentrate better this way.
She was trying to keep her expressionless face, but at the same time she was blushing hard, It was true that when we had physical contact, Ki flowed more easily through our bodies and some of that energy was shared between us.
After a week of training our mastery of Touki was almost second nature, every day we went from meditating to hand-to-hand combat, after that I thought about strengthening this technique using the Ki of nature around us, because of our energy exchange when we were making contact, I knew this was possible and I thought it wouldn't be much different, but I was wrong.
Absorbing nature's Ki required a much higher level of concentration than when you are using your own, You couldn't move during that process or the Ki could get out of control and you had to be focused on the nature that surrounded you, basically you had to become one with nature, I could teleport while absorbing energy or accelerate time around me so that wasn't much of a problem for me, Koneko, being a Nekoshou, could absorb energy very quickly, but in a real fight that lost time could be fatal, so I thought I should create something to help her with that.
It took us almost a month of constant training to master that technique but there was a time barrier that made time go by faster for us so that was not a problem.
Using Touki combined with Nature Ki greatly increased our power and also caused some minor physical changes, Koneko entered her Nekoshou form and she had an extra tail, while my eyes changed to those of my dragon form and black marks like claw mark appeared on my hands and under my eyes.
After three months of hard training we had one last fight to finish our training, we were on opposite sides of a clearing that had been created after our constant battles, We both activated our Touki and when we finished absorbing the Ki of nature we launched ourselves directly towards each other, with our speed it seemed like we had disappeared and when our fists collided in the middle a shock wave was created and pushed the trees around us a little.
After these three months Koneko had changed a little, her hair had grown long obviously, She had grown a little taller, giving her attacks more range, and she was also fuller in certain parts of her body, I don't think the changes in her body were normal growth, It is likely that his mastery of Ki was what transformed her body.
I was deep in thought while my body was moving almost automatically, blocking and dodging Koneko's attacks but I had a close call when Koneko threw a kick to the back of my head, I ducked to dodge the attack and put my focus back on the fight.
Koneko's fighting style used to be very simplistic but now she was mixing animalistic moves with it, relying more on speed and agility to land a powerful blow.
I was going to end the fight there but when white flames appeared in her hands I wanted to see more, she threw two fireballs at me, and I deflected them with a sweep of my hand, Touki formed an invisible barrier around my body but Koneko's flames were able to pass through it and leave a mark, She then covered one of her fists with white flames and jumped with her fist pulled back for a powerful punch, She was gathering all her power in that attack but I grabbed her fist in the air and stopped her, she didn't care about that and immediately threw a punch with her other hand, which I also caught, but then she threw a headbutt and she hit me in the forehead.
Yuuki: Ok, that's enough.
I stopped the fight there, and Koneko fell to her knees, she was exhausted, but still had a smile on her face.
"Well, she should be proud of what she's accomplished in these past three months."
Koneko: ... I did it, I finally got you.
Yuuki: Um? What was that?
Koneko: Not like the night we met and none of us could do anything against you, I was able to land a blow.
Yuuki: Yeah you've grown quite a bit.
My words intentionally had a double meaning and Koneko blushed a little upon hearing them.