"... like so!" he instructed, swinging the weighted weapon in a sidewards swiping motion. His feet moving in a particular way, as to not throw off his balance. His eyes kept upon the small yellow kitsune on top of a pedestal nearby. Usually the place he would have placed a lantern for his late night escapades, but it's wide flat surface would have made an excellent training stand as well for his tiny son.

"Hmph!" his son grunted in a somewhat cute way, swinging his miniature sized version of his own training weapon. Trying to find people willing to manufacture such a crafted and weighted weapon for someone that small was actually surprisingly easy. Though Tatsu's footing was off and he nearly fell forward, but luckily enough was caught by his fathers gentle hand.

"Whoa whoa, see, this is why you have to place you foot in front, if you're taking a swing -that- strong, but we're just doing some basic lunges kiddo. You don't have to put all your strength at it at once." and let his kid slide off his hand back onto the stone, where he picked up the implement once again. "Now, one step at a time, like so." He moved forward, raising his foot, and sliding his stance forward, pressing his foot back on top of the plush grass. It really was a very basic move, but one that surprisingly built the body up in strength, and led up to some of the more advanced movements that he would be sure to teach his son later.

He turned to watch his son do the same thing successfully. "There we go!" and smiled. His kiddo looking a bit frustrated.

"Daaaaad! I thought you were supposed to be teaching me those super-cool-fantasmic moves that you said you did in your stories! I want to go taking out baddies and monsters and and aaaallll of that great stuff that you did when you were younger!" The elder kitsune chuckled and smiled, resting his weapon in the crutch of his arm.

"Alright, see, the thing is though kiddo, I said pretty much the same thing you did when I was your age. Heck if anything you have a -large- advantage because of your ... particular gift. And gestured to the multiple yellow tails wiggling from the tiny one's rear, which at this moment was fluffed up in both anticipation and annoyance, the motion causing a slight smirk to appear on Mephis' face.

"Alright, so you want to learn how to..." and with that did a step backwards, followed by a step forwards, his leg positioned in the exact same beginning pose, a few brief swings, as the air started to heat up around him, his eyes tuned to the nothingness but the grassy plains ahead of him, an empty spot within his view. ears twitching at the sound of the branches of the nearest cherry tree started to move, the air literally turning from nice and balmy, to sweltering. Or at least, it would have if they weren't in the center, as with a few brief swings, long blades of fire swept out from the tip of the wooden implement, following the tip, as if one was drawing on sand with a stick, flames rocketing out in a very accurate position, swinging around the nearby trees, his offhand, now free from the grip, making small twisting and clenching motions, directing the flames in a rather showy way, shaking the cherry blossom leaves off the branches to follow the warm air's movement, this way and that. An outstretched hand pointed to the sky, as with one final swing, a plume of flame erupted from the tip, colliding with the smaller fire 'blades' high above the two, as with the same of a fireworks display, exploded in a bright orange white finish, even in the daylight, sending small sparks every which way and that. The only remnants of the fiery display being the cooling air and the small shower of pink petals.

Patting the tip of wood to cool it off a bit, he looked back at his son, who himself was standing there, with his eyes wide, and his fingers twitchy on his own sword's handle. "... cooooooooooool." was all he could say, before he shook his head for a moment and took up his position on the stone once again, brows furrowed in determination.

"Alright then. From the top ...like so!"


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Alright, this was an ancient commission I had gotten done by  Shukit a long time ago. She did an amazing job on this piece. You can even see Tatsu's determination on his tiny face as well. ... man do I wish I had abs like that though. Heh.

Mephis ©  Mephia
Tatsu ©  Tatsu_Kimiero
Art ©  Shukit