Nightshift 44: F-A Block Hallway
[From here]Hime peered out into the hallway. It was mostly empty; it seemed she was one of the first to come out of their cells. While this presented the problem of wandering alone without the cover of the herd, this also gave her a chance to scout out the population as they left their rooms. While Hime had confidence in her fighting abilities, she
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She frowned and tried to take Senna's advice--or maybe follow her orders was more like it. "All right, all right. I'll try not to worry so much. It's just hard when there are so many things that can go wrong around here."
Now that she was done stating the obvious, Meche kept going with her review of last night's material by dropping her left hand to her side and spinning the spear by rotating her right wrist. She'd have to be careful not to make herself sore before they even got started, but she needed all the practice she could get.
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More the reason to force feed them tomorrow.
"Stuff'll go wrong," she replied with a shrug. Stuff was going wrong, left and right. And she knew it. But... "But no need to make stuff worse by getting upset beforehand. Stuff's good in this second, right?" Senna's eyes danced. "After all, you get to see your boyfriend."
The girl watched as Meche practiced, throwing out, "If you want speed to back that up, you have to only twirl it with your fingers, then grab it on a downward spin to carry it through. It's tricky though." She straightened, pulling the other spear from her belt. Checking for space, she demonstrated--a quick move that made the spear blur. "Other than that, if your opponent knows what you're doing, he could knock it from your hands. So you have to always be quicker." Which led to her fighting style. Shinigami or no, she was a small girl, and she wasn't going to be besting anyone in a strength contest. Speed made up for it. Hit fast enough, and it was more powerful than if you were muscle bound. Plus... no one could hit what they couldn't touch.
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She started the spear up again instead of replying to Senna's comment about Manny--until he was right there in front of her, preferably close enough to reach for at any time, there was plenty to worry about.
It was much more reassuring to focus on practicing instead; Senna's lesson was quite a bit different from Alita's. As Meche had seen in their match last night, Senna had lightness and speed on her side, while Alita wasn't quite as fast but could rely much more on her strength. Meche wasn't sure she had any of that. Nonetheless, she tried the spin Senna's way, and found pretty much what she'd expected--it was faster, but her grip wasn't nearly as good. Hmm. She wasn't sure which way she liked better.
"Okay, so let's say I'm doing it that way. The spear's spinning much quicker, but if the other person does this--" She turned her spear handle-end out so she didn't stab Senna by mistake, then thrust it forward to interrupt the path of the girl's spear. "--what's to keep me from dropping it if I'm only using my fingertips?"
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The spear topic was a whole lot easier. She grinned, nodding. "Yep! You got the weakness of this down. It's totally easy for that to happen. The two things on your side are speed, like I said, and not spinning it longer than necessary. Here. Try that again." Senna lifted the spear up, repeating the same move she had before, except this time it was sped up considerably. Meche moved in to stop it, but Senna had already grabbed it to swing downward, momentum cracking the two together, reverberating along the opposing wood. Without good grip, an opponent would drop it at that point. "It's a good defense as well as offense. But that's just me. You should find what suits you best."
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"I guess I'm just not sure what I should be focusing on yet," she said once she'd done it a few times. "I've never trained with anything like this before, so it's a little hard to tell whether to worry more about speed or strength." Compared to her two teachers, Meche didn't have much of a chance with either. Anyway, it was sort of a toss-up. Her right hook might have more oomph behind it than lots of normal women's, but she wasn't sure any amount of training would really help her out-strong-arm, say, a boxer like Domino. Fast might be something she could do, with a little practice.
"Know any other basic moves I should try?" she asked Senna. Whatever she decided, it wouldn't hurt to pick up all the ideas she could.
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[from here]
Falis was feeling pretty good, despite the zombieness, when she left the hallway on her way to her meeting. Sword resting on her shoulder, the hunter spotted Senna and Meche in the end hall and her trademark smirk fell right into place.
With a devious look in her crimson eyes, Falis brushed the tips of her fingers across the back of Senna's neck as she passed by. "I hope you enjoyed the show," she murmured in a low voice that would not carry to Meche.
Glancing over her shoulder to catch Senna's eyes, Falis winked before turning down another hallway in the women's block.
[to here]
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And as for her question... Well. "I'm not really the best teacher, but I'm sure there's--" She cut off as Falis ghosted by them, repeating the motion she had done earlier in the day. Except this time it was accompanied by words as well. Senna froze, eyes wide; resembling the rabbit she had argued she wasn't. Her head tilted to follow Falis, and Senna just stared for a minute before trying a weak smile. Oh, she was going to heard it.
Turning back to Meche, Senna slid a hand through her bangs. "Uh... Yeah." What were they talking about? Teaching basic stuff, right. Distracted, Senna gave Meche a sheepish smile. "You know, I don't think I'm the best person to be teaching stuff. But if you have any questions on what you got done, I'll try to help." Otherwise, they could chat. There was nothing wrong with blowing off steam.
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It was obvious that Senna was a little embarrassed, so Meche spun the spear again to clear the air and then considered. "I can't think of anything right now. I'm sure I'll come up with it right when that monster's breathing in my face." Three feet above her head was more like it. "She really just taught me what to do against a person with a similar weapon, but I guess it's tough to give a lesson on fighting monsters when there are so many different types to choose from."
Come to think of it, didn't their friend at the ruins have an armored body? She'd just have to hope he had another appointment.
She switched over to some practice thrusts; maybe Senna would have a few pointers on her form. If not, Meche wasn't working so hard that she couldn't chat at the same time.
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"Neck," she affirmed with a tight smile. "Stomach. Chest, but that's sometimes blocked. Limbs, at the joints or straight in the middle of the bone. Base of the skull." Her hands mimed the words, touching each area that she mentioned. "Most things do down with blows to those places. And if you in a tough spot," Senna went on, placing two fingers at the corners of her right eye. "Eyes. Stuff'll always stop if you go at the face."
Otherwise, though, Meche seemed to have the gist of all of this. Her movements were a little shaky, yeah, but that came with practice. The good thing was that she remembered. The only trick left was if the training overtook good instinct. If Meche couldn't react in a pinch, then she was just dancing steps with no music. But Senna could test that later. For now, though, she'd fill up space. Her eyes grew sly, a grin tracing her lips. "So... This guy, huh? You didn't get to finish telling me about him. He saved you? How..." The grin widened. "Like a white knight."
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Meche nodded, a serious expression on her face as she practiced aiming at each place Senna pointed out. It all still felt a little silly, especially now that Alita's spear wasn't coming at her. She closed her eyes for a minute and tried to picture the monster from the ruins: the lightning, that terrible howl, the huge, towering body. Suddenly practice didn't feel quite so silly anymore.
She opened her eyes but kept driving the spear forward as she talked. "Something like that. I told you how I was lost in the forest for a year, and then I got kidnapped and forced to do slave labor for this..." She couldn't think of a suitable word for Domino. "...this guy? Well, Manny was the one who got me and everyone else out of there, and then shut their whole scam down. He spent two years looking for me."
Admittedly it was the abridged version, with the parts about stolen cases and champagne bottles and the warden's bunk cut out, but it really did sound like a fairy tale when she put it that way. Meche smiled to herself. Did Cinderella exist in Senna's world? Maybe some stories were universal.
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He had to have, right? Because why else would you go to all that trouble to rescue a stranger? Well, other than if you were a Death God... But still! A guy like that... Senna guessed he might be alright for Meche, if that was the case.
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"I guess we have time for a chapter of my autobiography, if it doesn't put you to sleep," she cracked. "First, you should know that reapers--who I think are sort of a version of your death gods--bring souls from this life to the next and act as travel agents for their four-year journey across the Land of the Dead. The better life you live, the faster and easier you're supposed to be able to travel." Boy, she really had this down pat by now; maybe she should try to get a job at the DoD next time around. That ticket probably wouldn't be waiting for her, after all this. "I died four years ago. Manny was a reaper, my travel agent. But because of the corruption in the system, he couldn't get me any travel packages, which is how I ended up trying to cross the forest.
"He got fired by the people who were running the scam, so at first he probably wanted to find me to get his job back. I guess somewhere along the line, things changed."
Meche still wasn't exactly sure where. For either of them, really--or even whether things had never changed for her. Maybe she'd felt this way ever since his office, or even before, and there had just been layers of anger and frustration and cynicism caked over it for a while. She wondered if it was possible to fall in love at first sight when you didn't have eyeballs.
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A very familiar figure caught his eye as soon as he walked in. She was standing next to a shorter person, both of them were holding spears, and they were talking about--
Him.
A conscious effort was hardly required to keep his eyes off where he fell last night. "Hola," he greeted brightly, stopping next to Meche and giving the stranger a curious look. With his flashlight pointed to the ground, he could see her face. She was just a kid. If Meche didn't want her around, he'd know. He waited for a name.
Where were his presents, he wondered.
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As if to punctuate Meche's sentence, a man greeted them, standing near Meche. A sword and spear in her belt, and the larger dull European one in hand, Senna didn't blink as she accessed the man, wondering if this was her friend's boyfriend. A description had been lacking, but she smiled just the same to him, watching. "Yo," she greeted in turn.
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She would have had trouble imagining two people more different, she thought now that she saw them together--or more alike in a lot of ways. Aside from their shared job, they both had that way of walking into any situation as though it were completely normal. They were both determined and resourceful, people who could get things done. Meche just hoped they liked each other. If she could make it happen by sheer force of will, she was going to.
Having performed the introductions, she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out several sheets of journal paper: three maps and an early version of "M.E."'s monster list, a note in Spanish, and a final sheet that simply read Maria Morales, F32. "Here," she said. "I copied these out for you earlier. That description is someone Phoenix wanted me to look out for--I gather she's not exactly a fan of his. And I asked Senna to bring that sword along too. You should probably take it if you're going to come see what we do."
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He wasn't that famous, but he wasn't complaining. Manny just didn't want Senna to get the wrong idea. ... Even though 'the wrong idea' in this case was probably the right one. "You're one of the leaders?" he asked, surprised and a bit confused, but not sounding offensive. He wondered if the LSA recruited agents that young.
As Meche handed over his 'presents', he gave them a quick glance before pocketing them. He then looked down at the sword Senna was carrying. He didn't like where this was going, but he held his hand out anyway. If it was too heavy, he'd just give it back. Either way, they'd never get him fighting with that thing.
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