Nightshift 60: F11-F20 Hallway

[fourstonewalls]

[Inside F16]

Now that Ilia had left, there was plenty of room to pace, and Lana took it. It would help keep her muscles loose, too. Ilia had been a help, but the most important point was getting the basics to Ema -- including the part about running away being the best thing to do if she couldn't help. She would hold onto that guilt; Lana knew

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F16

[stray_shinigami]

[From here]

Renji actually did turn on his flashlight once he got into the last hall. Monsters didn't make it in that far too often, and he also didn't want to miscount the rooms and miss the one he was aiming for.

He walked quickly up the hall to F16 and knocked, then added, "It's Renji," for good measure.

[Lana and Ema. Ladies note, Renji's got his sexy black shinigami threads. XD]

[fourstonewalls]

Lana opened the door wide. After all, the man had claimed martial experience; no amount of caution could help if this was a bad idea. Except for the gun in the top drawer of her dresser, but she had decided to trust.

Instead, she looked him up and down. He certainly looked the part of a warrior; he could have walked off any Samurai set in Hollywood and straight into the drab little hallway.

"I'm Lana. I've invited my sister to join us, but she hasn't arrived." It hadn't been very long, so Lana wasn't more worried than her usual well-concealed abject terror at what this place could be doing to Ema. "Please, come in."

Her flashlight was sitting balanced on her desk, pointed upwards. It provided more shadows to the room than light, but at least they wouldn't be tripping over the beds. Or Lana expected she'd manage to avoid that; Ema could trip over thin air. "I've had a few pointers, but she has had nothing, and we're both very aware of how dangerous that can be."

Both to ourselves and to others went without saying;

[stray_shinigami]

Renji stepped inside the room, then bowed. "Nice to meet you," he said. He glanced at where she had her flashlight, then balanced his on one of the beds. It helped the dark a little.

"My partner's gonna show up to get me at some point, but he's gonna give me some lead time to help you guys out. So it shouldn't be a problem." Renji nodded, then cleared his throat a little awkwardly. "I didn't want to ask on the bulletin board cause... well. But is what you're mostly worried about in this case monster-shaped or people-shaped?"

It wasn't exactly the most delicate way to put the question, but Renji wasn't a delicate guy. And it was an important question, because that would determine what direction any lessons were going to take. Monsters and people attacked differently, had different goals.

And really, for Renji's part, he hoped it was monsters. It was better to deal with a nasty thing just trying to eat your face than some sick fuck trying to hurt you.

[fourstonewalls]

Lana let out the breath she'd been holding, and smiled politely. "We appreciate the help. And it's the monster-shaped variety I'm more concerned about." Her smile sharpened to a razor's edge. "There have been some people here I'd rather have avoided, but all of them generally preferred manipulation to more direct means." And the Chief -- hah -- among them had last been seen lying in a drawer in the morgue, while the staff claimed he'd gone home, so she was cautiously optimistic she wouldn't need to deal with him again

[stray_shinigami]

Renji nodded, feeling a small wash of relief. The fact that it was monsters instead of people made things both more and less complicated. Monsters were a lot stronger, but also more direct. "Gotcha. Okay. Guess we'll work with what weapons you got, and a couple of things you can do unarmed. It's a place to start."

He eyed the candlestick thoughtfully and nodded. "Glad you have it. I used to have a sword, but it went missing when I got taken out, so I guess it's gone for good." He made no move to take the candlestick, though. He didn't want her to think he was going to try to take her stuff.

He glanced at the door, but there was no sister immediately running in, so that let him ask the next question. "Your sister gonna let you protect her? Because it's way harder to get the job done if there's someone in the way."

[fourstonewalls]

"I'm afraid she might have the same intention. Our parents died when she was young; we've only had each other ever since." The fact that Lana herself couldn't have been that old, given the usual minimum age this place seemed to allow, went without saying.

"I think we might be able to agree to watch each others backs, though." She didn't want to let Ema go after any monsters, but she was trying to be realistic. One of them had to.

"As far as I know, she's unarmed, so perhaps we should start with that." Lana's eyes flicked to the door -- she hoped Ema hadn't fallen asleep again, even if the girl could use the rest.

[scientist_skye]

[from here]

When Ema finally arrived at F16, she could hear muted voices from the other side of the door. It looked like their tutor had beaten her there, which wasn't much of a surprise given Ema's delayed start and her slow pace. More likely than not, they would get started as soon as she announced her arrival. All she could hope for was that she wouldn't be too much of a failure as a student. Self-defense wasn't something with which Ema was well-versed. Lana was the one capable of great physical feats, not her.

Of course, all of that would happen after gaining entry to the room. Ema knocked on the door a few times before calling out, "Lana? It's me!"

[stray_shinigami]

Renji nodded. He knew kind of how that worked, at least when it came to kids watching each other's backs and the bond that formed. It was important, and not something you could just break. "Okay. I understand. More'n you might guess." He grinned. "You can probably get her to let you be in front eventually, but it helps if you're way better at fighting than she is." That had been the only way he'd ever gotten Rukia to let him take some hits, and even then she'd sure made him pay for it

[argh sorry christmas ate me]

[fourstonewalls]

"Understood." She didn't like it, but she didn't have to. She just had to do it. And as if summoned, Ema had arrived. She caught Renji's positioning; nicely done. She waved, beckoning Ema in.

"Ema, this is Renji. He's agreed to give us a few pointers."

The next words came out like she'd swallowed leftovers that had gone bad -- the words came out normally, but her brow was wrinkled and her expression confused. "He mentioned that we need to get you a weapon -- after we're done here, do you want to go look for something?"

"But first, your students await."

[post-Christmas ate me. ^^() Sorry about the delay!]

[scientist_skye]

Ema stepped into the room when Lana beckoned her in, looking around until she found their instructor for the night. The man--Renji--looked like someone who knew how to defend himself; she couldn't help but feel like meeting him under different circumstances (i.e., in a fight) was something she'd want to avoid. It was a good thing he was there to help, at any rate. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Renji."

When Lana brought up weapons, Ema's stomach sank a little. She was armed last night, although she didn't actually use it when the monster attacked. Besides that, Mr. Javert's handaxe was no longer in her possession. Perhaps it was just as well. Ema wasn't sure she'd have the heart to actually wield it. "I have a small garden shovel," she offered, pulling it out of her bag to demonstrate. "I figured that was better than hitting rats with my flashlight." After a bit of hesitation--honestly, Ema didn't want to go anywhere--she added, "But we can get something after we're done if you think we should." What Ema wanted and what she needed

[stray_shinigami]

Renji gave Ema a little bow, just because he felt like he should. "Yeah, likewise

[fourstonewalls]

"We're with you." Lana took a grip similar to the one Renji had shown on her own candlestick, and took a tentative swing. "I'd like nothing better, I assure you. I'm just afraid that hasn't been possible, in my experience."

"The thing I saw looked like a lot of different animals patched together -- with some ugly claws." The fact that Ema had seen something similar didn't need to be brought up; if she could spare her having to talk about anything, she'd do so. "What's the best way to avoid those, if running is impractical?"

All they'd need to do would be to get to each other, if she could use the ring to move, but that hadn't worked very well last time, now had it? Though why Gant hadn't teleported himself alone, she would never know; pride, perhaps. It seemed more likely than altruism.

[scientist_skye]

When it came to physical combat, Ema's pride wasn't so great that she intended to prove her prowess by standing down a monster in the hallway. She'd been on the receiving end of an attack by a smaller animal and had seen first-hand an attack by a much-larger patchwork horror. Escape from an attacker was priority number one. Scientifically speaking, it was one-half of the fight-or-flight instinct, after all.

When Mr. Renji began his instruction, Ema grabbed her journal out of her bag and began jotting down notes. This was a lesson, which meant that she was taking it seriously. What if she forgot something later? She even took a few would-be practice swings with the journal, holding it on either side with both hands as she went through the motions. "Got it."

Lana's question interrupted Ema's practicing, however. This was something that Ema needed help with, more so than defending herself against the giant rats that roamed the hallways.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji watched both the women and made a few corrections, just on how to stand a little better. "When you swing, you get the most power out of overhand, but it also takes longer. Just try not to have to do an upswing. It's low power and you're fighting gravity instead of getting help. Okay, and since there are two of you, get comfortable fighting back to back if there's more than one thing. That doesn't mean actually having your backs together... you need enough space that you can still move and get in a good swing. So you want like two or three paces between you. Enough that you can back up fast if something tries to get between

[fourstonewalls]

Even guns hadn't done much, though as guns went, it had been a rather small one. The scalpel had done the most damage, but it had been a complete lucky hit, and one that she couldn't count on repeating.

The stairs were a good idea -- damn, she should have jumped on the desk instead of ducking behind it. Grabbed one of the drawers as a shield. Instead, she'd hid and panicked and relied on Gant's rusty firearms training, which had not been his most shining moment.

"I was afraid of that," she said, in answer to his comment about those things infesting the entire institute. "It was my fault; I knew this was something we should do, and I hadn't found the time. Now all we can do is prevent it happening again." She still hadn't specified what it was, but if Renji couldn't put two and two together, he didn't need to know

[scientist_skye]

For her part, Ema held onto Mr. Renji's every word as she took down notes--advice, technique, all of it. Although, when he got to how best to deal with the patchwork monsters, Ema had to use extra effort to stay focused. It was hard not to get caught up in remembering the previous night and how that had ended. Mr. Javert could have ran with them, but he'd elected to stay back and hold it off. And...

No. She needed to focus so it didn't happen again. Otherwise, this whole exercise in self-defense was pointless, as was Mr. Javert's sacrifice. Better to focus on the lesson and not the feelings associated with it.

After watching Lana give a few practice swings and swinging her book twice herself, Ema turned to their instructor and asked, in all seriousness, "How would you define what's too tight and what's too loose, scientifically speaking?" It was a perfectly legitimate question as far as she was concerned, since it sounded like the margin of error that was permissible for either was relatively slim.