Fourth Floor Hallway, then the Gym; Friday Night.
Frustrated. Angry and frustrated. Angry, frustrated, and a teenager; while not always going without saying, today, they've reached a bit of a boil with John. He's needing himself a walk to the gym before he decides to punch the walls because plaster is more expensive than a punching bag. Dressing in sweats and Chucks, he leaves his room, slamming the door a bit more than necessary.
Setsuna looked up from her book with a frown; that was definately the sound of a door being slammed across the hallway, and, if she wasn't mistaken, a punch to the wall preceeding it. Curiousity sparking inside her, she placed a marker in the pages, set the book aside, and crept to the door, poking her head out. "John? Everything okay?" she asked, even thought she knew nothing was ever okay when there was door-slamming involved.
In a word? No. "No." He was obviously pissed off. His body language could write a lengthy Russian tome from what it was conveying, despite the laconic verbal description. He stopped in front of Setsuna, like a wound spring.
Eeeeeep. John could be kind of intimidating when he was angry and you'd been spending the whole day reading about slicing off heads and cleverly veiled samurai sex. "Ummm, anything I can do to help?" She figured that he wouldn't have even bothered turning around unless there wasn't.
"Not unless you want to hold the punching bag for me. Not in a happy mood." John looked like he could chew a box of nails and spit bullets with rivets on the side.
"I can see that," Setsuna said, witha pointed look over him, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "You think just beating the stuffing out of the bag will help?"
"No. But it's better'n beating the stuffing out of a person. Or Vader. An' that'll probably be chips, not stuffing." John did not get the unpleasant image of Vader filled with cotton batting and a Vermont Teddy Bear heart.
Setsuna certainly couldn't argue with that point. But she was thinking again, about how she'd stopped training for a while and was regretting it. She bit her lip. She should at least try. If she still felt sick when she tried with even only a practise sword, then she'd know there was a problem. "Mind if I go down there with you?"
"What, to watch or to spar?" He gave her the once over. She might be just the thing. Ranma'd just piss him off with his superiority nevermind the fact that he was just better trained in a fight. Spar. In a spar.
Setsuna frowned a little. "A spar?" God, she was probably so rusty from her weird little degression into not wanting to fight any more. Would she even be up to it? It could actually be good for her...a good fight to return her to her senses. She let out a thoughtful sound. "Maybe...Would a spar help?"
"It might. I might end up kicking your ass, too. Punching bag's safer." He wasn't exactly bragging or issuing a challenge, per se. No, really. "Company'd be nice."
"The only reason you might kick my ass is because I haven't trained all week!" It appeared as though John may have touched a nerve, and Setsuna, eyes narrowed, studied him carefully. "And even then the chance is slim! Come on." She slammed her own door shut, brushing past him as she headed down the hall. "We spar."
"Fine! Bring it!" He stalks her down the hallway and totally doesn't look at the obligatory fanservice shot as she flounced down the hall. This'll be fun.
Setsuna didn't say anything until they were down in the gym; she was using the silence to build up her anger and transfer it into energy she knew she could use in the spar. Was she ready for this? Could she really fight again? She'd been so...but she knew she was starting to miss it; maybe War Theory had gotten it back into her system. But she'd already accepted John's challenge; she couldn't just change her mind now. She drew in a breath, released it, and tried out a few of the practise swords until finding one she liked well enough. She took a moment, too, to marvel at how it felt to have a hilt in her hand again after a week of absinence. It made her melt a little; how could she ever think of giving this up? And this wasn't even a real sword...
John spent the time in the gym taping his wrists and digging out his old workout gloves. He noticed Setsuna getting a bokken... he opted for a tonfa, tucked into his waistband. He started doing some warmups, jogging in place, jumping jacks, and briefly hit the speedball about 10 times. Tying a bandanna on his head to keep his too-long hair out of his eyes, he stood in a ready stance and waited for Setsuna to signal.
Setsuna watched him at first with an arched eyebrow before she realized it probably wouldn't hurt to stretch a little before hand. So she did. But that seemed an awful lot of prep work. Finally, as Setsuna noticed John fall into a stance, she did the same, and gave him a nod of a bow to signal that she was ready. Was he actually going to make the first move? She figured it would make sense, since he was the angry one, but she'd gotten so used to having to make the first offensive around here. The thought of getting to be on the defensive excited her probably more than it should have, but the defensive was what she excelled at.
John cocked his head and waited a few. Obviously, she wanted him to go first. Fine. He launched a few quick kicks, ending with an axe-kick. Easy enough to block.
She hadn't quite expected kicks at first. She expected him to use his weapon. No matter. Kicks were easy, and an axe-kick especially, which ended with a firm hold on John's ankle and an attempt to use it to pull him off his other foot and lay him out on his back. Not as easy to do one handed, but Setsuna did have a surprising strength in the little tiny body of hers.
John let his weight pull himself down in an effort of drawing her off balance. He had a feeling his wrestling skills could beat hers.
His wrestling skills probably could, yes, but her ninja skills could blow his out of the water. The moment Setsuna felt John pulling his weight down, she sprung from her feet, using his leg almost as a post for leverage as she launched herself up. She flipped over him quickly, landing behind him on her feet, back to him for only a second before she whipped around, sending her sword down for a bop on the head. She hoped she'd moved quickly enough to get him before he really figured out what had happened.
John turtled on his back, looking at an upsidedown Setsuna fanservice and did a Samurai slap on the blade before using a breakdance move to gain his feet.
Setsuna smirked, a little impressed. He was quick on his feet, more so than she would have expected, and she was starting to feel that rush of a good fight build up inside of her again. She'd missed it, she really had. How could she have ever imagined she'd want to give this up? She pulled her blade away, took a quick hop back, and then charged at John, blade back and ready to strike diagonally down at John's shoulder.
[[ pre-played and to be continued here with apocalypsesoon so thread with them is locked to them, but, other than that, open for all your late gym needs ]]