Yomi enjoyed her time getting to know her rather eccentric niece, Haley, and wondered what Mika's other children were like. She decided to meet up with Mika's oldest son, Aaron. The young man wasn't inside the palace, instead Yomi heard her mother Shizen outside trying to instruct Aaron on something.
"Just concentrate on the image Aaron, it's not that hard." Shizen suggested as she watched her grandson. Furrowing his brow, the kintaro began to concentrate, using ice magic to create a column of ice almost as tall as himself.
This intrigued Yomi who watched with keen interest as Aaron now tapped into his fire magic to cut off certain pieces of the ice and appeared to be making a figure of some sort. Aaron seemed deep in concentration, focusing on making it as perfect as he could. From a distance, Yomi could see the young kintaro strain, trying to force his magic instead of letting it flow naturally. An errant cut caused Aaron to grunt in frustration as he quickly melted the sculpture.
"Oh, Aaron it's alright, it's only your.....fourth attempt, you can still try again." Shizen said encouraging her grandson.
"No, I think I'm done grandma," Aaron sighed. " Maybe I should just accept that my magic is more of a blunt instrument than a surgical tool. I'm....I'm just not very good with magic." Seeing her nephew so downtrodden, Yomi now slowly approached to speak with him.
"Oh! Yomi, maybe you can help Aaron out with this." Shizen suggested with a friendly smile to her daughter.
"No grandma, that's alright, I think I'm done trying." Aaron said as he got onto a nearby bench to sulk.
"Mother, what's wrong with Aaron?" Yomi asked wanting to try and help her nephew with his problem.
"Oh, Aaron wants to create an ice sculpture of his girlfriend that looks just like her and send a picture of himself standing next to it to her. He's been missing her since she went back home with her family in the vampire realm." Shizen explained.
Yomi now confidently stepped over towards Aaron with an idea.
"Aaron, could you give me a block of ice for me to make something?" Yomi asked as Aaron was a little unsure just how his aunt would fare better than he could, but he still created a block of ice for her to use.
"Please forgive me, I'm just a little rusty with my magic." Yomi apologized to the two of them as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before proceeding with the ice.
Aaron was in amazement watching her as his aunt. The white vixen's eyes began to glow, her magic slowly seeping like ethereal tendrils, shaping the ice as if it were clay.. She seemed to be a professional, effortlessly molding the sculpture, even though it was her first time using her magic for the first time in what felt like forever. Aaron and Shizen marveled at her sculpture when she was finished and were amazed to see that it looked like a perfect ice replica of Shizen.
"That's amazing, how....how did you do that?" Aaron asked as Shizen stood next to the ice sculpture and looked it over to see how perfectly accurate her daughter had captured her image.
"Well, I've found that when you use magic, it usually comes from the heart. When I came in, you seemed to have been doing well with your fire and ice magic. You just forced it at the end. All it takes is a bit of practice, I'm sure you're quite proficient at this point." Yomi complimented.
Aaron's face went into a bit of a frown here as he looked back down at the ground while sitting on the bench.
"I....actually, uh.....I've never really kept up really well with practicing my magic." Aaron admitted.
"Haven't kept up with your magic?! Haven't your mothers been teaching you and your siblings all these years?" Yomi asked.
"Well, a little, but I'm actually more of an experienced demon hunter." Aaron explained.
"A demon hunter? You? I would've expected you to be a master swordsman like your uncle Jiro by this point." Yomi commented as Aaron looked at her a little confused.
"I have an uncle Jiro?"
"Fukushu Yomi, remember, he changed his name to Fukushu." Shizen said gently putting her hand on Yomi's shoulder.
"Oh, right.....I forgot he did that. But, back to my question, why are you a demon hunter?" Yomi asked.
"Well, when I was around 3 years old, I helped out this demon hunting family. There was a bad man came to our home to try and attack us. He actually hurt one of hunters and I came to his rescue. The family was so impressed by me that I ended up training with them for years, usually with martial arts and weapons. I tried to keep up with my fire and ice magic, but.....it was mostly a tool. A blunt instrument or compliment my fighting and weapon skills. ." Aaron explained.
"Alright, well as I said before, magic comes not from the mind, but from the heart. Tell me about this girl, tell me how you feel about her." Yomi suggested.
"Well, she's a dhampir, basically a half vampire half human that can go outside during the daylight. She's also a princess of a very prestigious vampire family. We met due to my best friend wanting to meet his girlfriend at this ball that his family was hosting. Looking back it was a very stupid thing to do." Aaron chuckled.
"Sometimes love makes you do stupid things. I should tell you about all the times that your grandfather tried to win over my affection." Shizen commented, quietly chuckling to herself.
"Anyway, after my friend and I met with his girlfriend, she introduced me to her sister, not for any romantic reason or anything at first, we just....started talking, then we started dancing, then after a while, we gazed at the night stars and.....shared our first kiss. I don't think I'd ever fallen in love with a girl like her before." Aaron said holding his hand close to his heart.
"Alright that's good, now take those feelings and run with it, and remember all the good moments you have with her and make your sculpture." Yomi encouraged.
Shizen and Yomi watched as Aaron worked on the sculpture while recalling all their happy moments together. The thoughts of Nyx, seemed to relax the kintaro as his magic began to surface.
Meeting each other at the ball, stargazing, dancing to a karaoke song, the campfire, returning to her at Christmastime and giving her the best kiss ever. All of it filled his heart with much joy. Aaron finally opened his eyes and was surprised at first, before growing a big smile, there in front of him was the perfect image of Nyx sculpted in ice.
"Oh Aaron, it looks so much like her. I think you'd like her Yomi, she's such a wonderful girl." Shizen complimented.
Aaron went over to Yomi and gave her a hug, which surprised her a little bit before she returned the hug to him.
"Thank you aunt Yomi." Aaron said.
"You're welcome Aaron, I'm sure she'll love it." Yomi said as Aaron gave his phone to Shizen so he could stand next to the sculpture before sending the picture to Nyx.
Aaron had gained a new perspective towards his aunt Yomi and thought he'd ask her to give him a few more pointers in magic lessons later.