So much had happened within the span of a few days, Rashomaru wasn't sure if he could handle it all. Fortunately he had his family and friends to help carry the burden, as it was now the entire Kaname house's duty to ensure Enya's location was hidden from prying eyes and ears. Until Etsuji returned with the guardianship rights fully transferred to her grandparents, not a word related to Enya could leave their lips. The best way to go about this would be to keep Genjiro and Enya at the house since not even Nui trusted him to keep his mouth shut. When Effie offered to train his younger brother, he was admittedly hesitant. Aelos' warning of Effie's condition was always in the back of his mind, but on the other hand she might be just the person Genjiro needed to whip some discipline into him. He himself was partially to blame for spoiling him from their childhood years, but now he had to learn how to hold his own. At this point Rashomaru was like a third parent to him, and it showed in how nervous he was when Effie and Genjiro's first lesson started.

He wasn't sure who he was more worried for–Effie or his brother. His brother was durable thanks to being a pureblood oni, but it was hard for him to sit still. He was also easily distracted, impatient, and childish… With a sigh, he went to see how far they had progressed. If Genjiro ran off he would eventually come back either by force or by habit, but if Effie lost control–no it would be better if things didn't escalate to that level. As long as he was there he could do something. That was how Rashomaru reassured himself once he arrived at where Effie and Genjiro were beginning their training. The first hurdle was making him wake up early and not dawdle during breakfast. With Enya around that wasn't easy, as the two were nearly inseparable. Yukari offered to teach Enya a few things while Genjiro was training, so that gave a good excuse to have her remain indoors where she couldn't be spotted. So far no one had seen any suspicious people loitering around but they could never be too careful. 

Effie was sitting cross-legged on a large rock that was just outside of the basin of the waterfall she had chosen to train Genjiro with. “Patience is not one of your virtues.” It was something she had said countless times the very first few hours of their practice.

He had gargled the water, fidgeted, asked her a dozen questions… and even tried to take off to go see Enya. Now, him getting up to leave was what broke the camel’s back. She had systematically destroyed Genjiro for that. Getting up she waded into the water as he tried to leave. “One thing before you go,” Effie cracked her knuckles and slammed her fist into his gut sending him flying through the raging water and into the hard rock behind it.

It had ultimately made him pass out and that had been her goal. It gave her time to slam a post into the rocks and tie the younger brother to it while the water poured onto him. “You are going to learn the art of sitting still one way or another.”

Effie returned to the rock and sat still. Her eyes were unwavering on Genjiro no matter what he did or said. Pleading fell on deaf and uninterested ears and she only broke her concentration once Rashomaru arrived. “Hello,” Effie broke the hardened warrior look she had and stretched. She wasn’t even hiding the cracks in the waterfall base or Genjiro at this point.

“Today, he is learning to sit still… he is failing at it. Once he masters sitting still I’ll give him a Kamura Candle to practice his fire on… He’ll love that. It took me three months to light it.” Her eyes moved to Genjiro and she spoke up. “Fire is deadly because it relies on the passion of the user. When we are scared we go out of control and have the chance to kill those we don’t mean to. We are among the deadliest of elements.”

She took a deep breath and the water surface burst into fire. Holding up her hand she concentrated and it lasted a good few seconds before the fire extinguished itself. “Concentration, endurance, and will power. These are the ingredients to a master fire wielder. In order for us to be masters, we must first be patient… Which you are failing miserably at.”

Perhaps… She needed to go about this in a different way. “I’ll tell you what. I know something about your sweetheart that you don’t know. We were taking a bath the other night and I noticed she has a birthmark… I’ll tell you where it is if you manage to sit still for six hours and meditate as I told you to.”

…Yes, he did seem more like a rewards person instead of punishment.

“All of our training will have rewards if you simply follow through.”

Her eyes drifted to Rashomaru. "What do you think? We can chat while Genjiro concentrates… I'll even cut him down so he can do it all on his own."

Indeed it was no surprise that Genjiro needed time to burn off his excess energy before he could stay put, and when his older brother came to find him tied to a post underneath the falls he could only sigh. Rashomaru noted the damage to the surrounding area, knowing full well what probably happened. Fortunately Genjiro was good-natured enough to take the beating, mentally sidetracked about who knows what. While Genjiro wriggled, he listened to Effie as she explained the reason behind the discipline exercises. The message hit home for Rashomaru, especially since he was the only one out of the three who had seen the aftermath of Genjiro's breakdown and Effie's loss of control in full. His gold eyes went wide when Effie then set the water's surface aflame. The fact it lasted as long as it did amazed him, especially since water overcame fire. 

Now that the idea of a reward was on the table, Effie got Genjiro's attention almost immediately. With the mention of his girlfriend in the same sentence he actually stopped squirming in the ropes and stared back with his mouth open. The moment of stillness didn't last for very long as his brother began insisting that Effie tell him about Enya's 'secret birthmark'. The idea of sitting still doing nothing for six hours left him crestfallen, but that bit of motivation had him think of a way to pass the time. After much struggling, Genjiro settled down and actually meditated–but Rashomaru was sure he was just fantasizing about the possibilities of what the birthmark looked like and where it was. 

He gave a small smile to Effie. "I think he might be able to manage this, but you're right–we can never be too careful." Especially after he had made them accomplices in 'kidnapping' Enya from her house. It was quiet for once and only the sound of the rushing water could be heard as he watched her unpack the boxed lunch he had made. "There's a piece of lightly breaded pork on rice with freshly pickled carrots and cucumbers. I added a bit of vinegar and sesame oil to give it some flavor to balance out the meat. Oh, and there's a little surprise for you for dessert today."

Rashomaru had been practicing making sweets in secret, and today he decided to make strawberry mochi. Carefully wrapping the fresh fruit inside the sticky rice, he then molded it into the shape of a rabbit and added some color to make the ears stand out. Pressing in two black sesame seeds, the eyes were done. He had originally thought of making the mochi pink, but he didn't want to give away the filling. Training Genjiro would be stressful, so he wanted to make Effie as happy as he could in between breaks. That way the risk of her other self surfacing would be less likely.

Effie knew the only possible way to get the boy to cooperate was to offer him something he would have wanted badly. “Nope~ You behave and I’ll tell you.” That was all Genjiro was getting while he practically begged Effie for more details about his girlfriend. Effie knew that while he was focusing on Enya he was still actually meditating. This was just the struggle they were going to have to live with while she trained him. Genjiro was normally all over the place and had a lot more energy than even Effie knew what to do with.

Genjiro was a unique individual who knew or rather created unique ways to get around situations. What Effie didn’t want was him to get that creative with her so she had resorted to actually tying him up.

Her hazel eyes got large as she looked through the boxed lunch that Rashomaru had made for her. “It all looks so yummy!” Food was always the one thing that seemed to excite her over everything else. “A surprise… for me?” She tilted her head and reached up to press her lips to his cheek as she began to dig into the food.

Her magic often ate largely at her energy which meant that she had to eat more than the normal person. She must have looked like a slob as she went through all the food but luckily she didn’t choke on anything, this time. She got the mochi and told Rashomaru how cute it was as she decided to taste it. “Strawberriessss~” She said with a mouthful as she looked happily towards him. It was one of her favorites and she set the box down and smiled towards him once she was done. “You are so good at stuff like that! It was really good!”

Effie leaned into Rashomaru as her hand fell onto his. Her eyes closed and she counted down the moments until she could unleash Genjiro back into the world. Once the six hours left she hopped up and walked around and hopped her way to where he was tied up. “Alright, you are done.” Taking a dagger she cut him loose. “Now, show me flames on the water. It is a moving surface that counteracts your magic and requires concentration. Show me what your meditation these last few hours have done for you! If you are successful I will finally tell you what I know.”

Just when he thought he'd never be untied, Effie came back and cut him loose. Genjiro slid down as he was freed, taking a few moments to get out of whatever method he had used to meditate. He really, really wanted to know about Enya's birthmark–but being held in place for six hours managed to curb his enthusiasm just enough to focus his fire onto the water. He frowned as he focused hard, crimson wisps licking at the water's surface. The flames quivered for a while until at last fiery red began to spread across it. "It's working! It's working! Hey look–I did it!" He grinned, practically beaming with pride. However as soon as he took his eyes off the water, the flames snuffed out. Confused, he stared at the non-flaming water with a puzzled look. "Huh? Where'd it go?" He wasn't confused for long. Since he managed to make flames appear, that meant she would tell him Enya's secret!

"So what's her birthmark like? Where is it? I wanna know!" He could barely contain his excitement. Any longer and he might just run off to ask Enya herself, but then it wouldn't be a secret. As Rashomaru looked on, he recalled Nui making an offhand remark about his younger brother while he was causing trouble. 'A shiba. He's like a shiba inu that won't sit still.' With the puppy eyes Genjiro was making at Effie, it wasn't too difficult to understand why. Once he received his 'reward', Genjiro without a doubt would show Enya what he could do, then ask to see her birthmark. The two lovebirds were practically inseparable, but lately his younger brother had pulled him aside–begging him to give him lessons on how to cook. Sometime in the past weeks he must've bragged to his girlfriend about his cooking skills, but couldn't bring himself to let her know.

Having enough of his pestering, Rashomaru gave him the silent treatment, finally telling his brother to ask their father to teach him. The constant begging stopped since then, so it looked like he was still trying to figure a way out. Their father was a man of few words, which unfortunately made him difficult to understand. He was better at showing how something was done than telling you how to do it. He was a patient man, but his face was a bit hard to read. Crossing his arms as he watched Genjiro charge back into the house, he asked Effie out of curiosity. "How did he do? Hopefully the lesson will stick, or he'll be spending a lot of time under the waterfall in the near future."

Effie was folded up on the rock staring at Genjiro and how he was handling the training. He had come pretty far. “You broke concentration Genjiro. If you don’t keep focused it’s going to break. Only a select few people can keep focused while doing anything else.”

She waved her hand at Genjiro, “It looks like a petal. It’s on her lower left hip. It’s really cute actually… Like the rest of her.” Looking up at Rashomaru she smiled, “He’s getting it but he doesn’t realize it’s focusing that is letting him do it. Once he can do it better we’ll give him the candle.”

She helped herself up once she wiped her mouth. “He’s… special. Enya is the only thing I can use as a bargaining chip with him… Nothing else really works.” She did a few stretches and rubbed her neck. “If you can think of anything else let me know…”

"Genjiro's always had a hard time sitting still. I might've had a part in that." Admittedly Rashomaru felt he had spoiled his younger brother a bit. For a long time it was just the two of them, the two brothers were always close. When Effie stayed with them, it was obvious with how Genjiro wouldn't leave the two of them alone. It was only until he met Enya that he wouldn't stay attached to his hip. "He's finally found someone who will stay with him forever; I'm glad." He said with a small smile. Thinking back on what Genjiro had went through from before he was adopted up to now, Rashomaru understood why he would cling so hard to someone. In away, Enya was now his brother's #1 person. 

"Before I'd include myself in that category. Aside from Enya, you might be able to convince him with food and other things he likes." That suddenly gave him an idea. "I still think Enya's his best motivator, but if you offered to teach him something he can impress Enya with–he'll definitely listen." He needed to hold back or else Genjiro wouldn't learn to be responsible. Being a third parent to him had led to his impulsive personality. Encouraging him to ask others for help and search for information on his own would be a good learning experience. "Due to his personality, he'll probably bother you for fighting practice so we'll need to mix things up too." That brother of his never seemed to run out of energy. "Nui's surprisingly good at dealing with him. We can always have her help out. She's been busy lately, but she won't hesitate to come over if it's an emergency." 

Nui had left the village to see the outside world and was now staying in Sularia. Returning to Nisshoki wasn't difficult, as Cyril's brother could create a portal. She sent them letters and gifts from time to time, talking about how she had met someone she was now dating. It was a welcome change from the times she came back upset.