In the Beginning...

[Oren]

Shoutoku placed his hands on the ground, stretching out his leg and back muscles. After a little bit of debate, he and Gunner had decided to fight it out in the stone garden. It wasn't much of a modern garden, though. It was more like the gardens of old. For one, it was huge! Two, there were mini forests, swamps, meadows, and many other forms of landscape. A stream flowed through it, there was a hedge maze, and a section of old stone statues all overgrown with ivy. Anyone coming here for the first time would be in quite a bit of awe.

Once he had finished a quick stretched, he flung his feet into the air, balancing in a handstand for about a minute before going into a bridge and standing all in one motion. After staying up-side-down for so long, all the blood had run to his head. When he stood, all of it had left, leaving him dizzy. He crouched down to steady himself.

"Maybe I shouldn't do that for so long..." he mused as he stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes. It was a funny face, and sort of out of place, but he didn't care. He didn't care what people thought. He never did. Probably never would, either. People were just that: people. If they didn't like you that was their problem, not yours.

Thus, if Gunner found him annoying, they would part company and never see each other again. Shoutoku was quite good at avoiding people. How else could he have stayed out of Kendryek's detection for so long? Actually, he wasn't sure if Kendryek really didn't know he was there or had simply ignored him. He had been messing with that wolf lately, and Crane had seemed to take a liking to him, or at least a liking to what the dragon could do for him. It was very possible that Kendryek was just too busy for his relative. Shoutoku didn't mind and, in fact, quite preferred that his cousin left him alone.

Alas! it wouldn't last for long! No matter the reason that they hadn't made contact, they would soon. He could feel it in the atmosphere, the foreboding aura of the fated meeting. He laughed at his own description. Kendryek was the nicest person he'd met in a long while, besides that Chasity girl he'd had which him the last time they'd met, and he was still dreading the contact. That only went to show how much Shoutoku hated the company of others.

Yet here he was, getting ready to spar with a random girl he'd met only a few hours before.

It was funny how that worked. He was quite ready to enjoy this time of mock fighting and real learning but dreading a simple 'hello'.

Interlacing his fingers, he stretched them above his head. "You ready for this?" he asked Gunner. "It's been a while since I've done something like this, so do you wanna do a warm-up round and then go at it? Or would you rather just going at it?"

[Anzeh]

The garden was a beautiful place, and definitely one that Gunner ignored if she could help it.

It reminded her too much of the past she was trying desperately to forget, of everything she wanted to keep buried and all the things--like her father, her mother, and everything about herself she simply wanted to forget. Meeting Soga meant that she had to come to terms with this or else she wouldn't focus during their fight. She had to rember the aromatic flowers and the soft grass under her feet, the old marble and stone ensnared by thick green vines.

Even while she thought of these things she stretched and moved. Punch, kick, block, punch, block, kick, block... She bent back into a bridge, then into a handstand before jumping back to her feet. She could actually feel her muscles begin to warm despite the biting chill. After a couple minutes she felt at nearly 100 percent, bouncing and doing textbook punches and kicks. Of course, in reality what she did eas anything but textbook.

Once she was sure that her muscles were strong and warm she turned to him and said, "It doesn't matter to me. But why not have a little warm up? At least then it'll be a bit more fun."

One hand out in defense, one tucked closer to her body, her legs spread apart in a stance that, in practice, made her difficult to knock down. The look on her face read, "come get me" in an almost ferally excited manner. She really wanted this fight, and judging by the look on her face, she would enjoy it immensely.

[Oren]

He saw the eagerness on Gunner's face and felt his own blood start to pump and the adrenaline flood his veins. His senses heightened themselves even after all this time of tranquility and he was almost surprised at how ready his body was getting itself. His muscles itched to move as he moved into a ready stance. Gunner had already chosen her position and was waiting for him to make the first move.

How polite of her, he thought to himself, his sarcasm making him all the more attentive.

He toyed with the thought of saying something, but only for a second. Words would only ruin the moment of anticipation. She couldn't care less if he said something and he couldn't think of anything witty, so what was the point? There wasn't one, and that was why he wasn't going to say anything.

Taking the chance she was giving him, he lunged forward, striking for her head with a fist, her arm with a straight slice, and her hips with a spinning kick. If she couldn't dodge all three of those, this fight wouldn't be worth it. His good spirits would disappear and he would lock himself in his study for the next month like he did after all social encounters he had. It would be such a waste.

It was worth a try, though. If he could find someone, anyone, of the same caliber, he would be quite pleased. Even if she was a little slower or a little faster, he wouldn't care. At least she would be close. Maybe then he could experience the thing normal kids called 'friendship'.

But that all depended on how good she was.

[Anzeh]

It was as though Soga was moving in slow motion.

Even though she knew that he must've been moving swiftly, the adrenaline pulsing through her veins made it seem like he was slowing down. She could see what he was going to do in his countenance, and unless he was only coming up with a course of action as he fought it would always show.

Knowing his plan she did a very simple but practical dodge that didn't require much skill. There was no time to waste on being showy--and besides, this was a practice round. Why would she show all of her moves right now? Gunner took a few steps back and went on the offesive.

As she attacked all pretense of a martial art vanished. It looked like a common close-combat fighter, albeit one with as few openings allowed as possible.Several quick punches and kicks to pressure points of the body, and she backed up again, the textbook martial art student returning once more.

[Oren]

It was amazing how fast people could move. For the average fighter, their world would 'slow down' during a fight, the adrenaline making their eyes react faster. For Shoutoku, who's eyes normally picked apart every person's movement, the world was ten times faster. So was he. In a way it was 'slow motion'. His eyes would pick apart the movements and automatically react about five times faster. He was a hawk. He had to strike fast, hit hard, and react automatically. It was how he had been raised. More than that, it was how he had survived his parents method of child-raising.

Gunner's reaction wasn't quite as fast as he had expected, but then again the last person he had fought had been Kendryek, and there was no way she was as fast as he was. She would be easier to fight, that was for sure. It was still up in the air if he could actually beat her or not. She wasn't as fast as that stupid dragon, but she wasn't slow either.

What she threw back at him wasn't quite martial arts, but it was still fighting, and that he did quite well for a bookworm. His mouth opened in a grin and his eyes lit up, a low chuckle escaping. This could actually be worth it. He might actually not regret going outside the school. That would be a nice change.

He barely dodged the attacks, her strikes coming within millimeters of contact. It was something that showed either considerable skill or immense inability. In his case it was skill, but there was no way Gunner could be sure of which it was. Assumption would be her best bet, but which she assumed was up to her.

He himself upped the level of his attacks a bit, adding a little speed and ferocity. This was a warm-up round, therefore, it was a time where he should exploit his opponent's ability and see exactly where they stood in comparison. He planned to do exactly that. His method was an easy one, slowly climbing the ladder of difficulty until she could no longer respond as fast. That was, of course, only of she wasn't as good as he. If push really came to shove, he would be at the top of his ladder the same time she was.

[Anzeh]

Gunner smirked as Soga barely dodged her attack. Anyone else would have been cocky, but the words that he'd said before resounded in her head. He'd had a mentor, and anyone with a mentor had to have some level of skill. Soga was only going in the direction of considerable skill. A wild gleam quite unlike a unicorn shone in her eyes. Fun. This was fun!

For some reason she didn't understand, it was as though they were taking turns fighting, like some bizarre boardgame. Blue eyes didn't dare leave her adversary. The danger that posed was too great to risk. She could see he was getting more serious, and that meant if she wanted to get as much as she could out of this fight, then she had to up her own game as well. As he came at her she dodged and parried, but she only did the latter--not because she couldn't dodge--but because it made more sense for her not to.

Without any conscious thought from her, her body sped up, warmed up, got worked up. All it knew was that standing before it now was someone who needed to be defeated, and it wouldn't rest until the opponent was weak and broken.

It would be incapable of rest.

Suddenly Gunner backed up and took a lower defensive stance and waited, blinking slowly at Soga.

[Oren]

Soga noted that, although she smirked, she didn’t become cocky at his movements. Either she was making sure she didn’t underestimate him or making sure she didn’t overestimate herself. If he could get her cocky, he could beat her, but what was the point in that? He only used such methods when in a real fight that he absolutely had to win. While he would like to win every fight he took part in, this was one of those that he didn’t necessarily need to win. Gunner seemed skilled enough. She’d been educated in the art longer than he had, and although he had had Kendryek, her father seemed to have had a hard curriculum as well. It would bring him no shame to be beaten by her.

After blocking his attacks she hung back, waiting for him to move, he assumed. While it was a good idea to observe your opponent, one should never hang back for too long. This was just a warm up, so maybe she was trying to get a feel for him just as he was? Well, there was only one way to find out.

Moving forward, again making himself a little bit faster and more precise, he struck at her. The moves were slightly complicated and definitely more Asian-looking than hers, but he too kept openings to the bare minimum and the effort to even less. If he worked himself too hard he’d run out of energy. That was the curse of being a hawk. He had to have food. After ten minutes of fighting he’d need food. Knowing this, he carried a small bit with him, but he knew it wouldn’t suffice. They’d have to visit the cafeteria after this. Actually, it’d probably only be him. She had her candy and, of course, didn’t have the metabolism he did. Such a pity...

After his moves, he moved back as she had, waiting for her to move. Two could play at this game.

[Anzeh]

Aeon hung back for as long as she thought she could afford before something happened. A frown threatened to spread across her fce, but what stopped was that the waste of energy that would cause. Even though she knew that she had more than enough to spare, as she always did, but she still had to conserve, just in case the fight dragged on too long and and her levels reached below her standard par.

The game was getting intense, but nothing she couldn't handle.

However, she'd already backed up a bit further than ever was a good idea in a fight. Gunner estimated the wall of the garden to be about two feet away from the backs of her boots. That was way too close, and since she had been banking on him doing something, she had put herself in this position in vain. It was more than dangerous it was damn stupid. She was always making stupid mistakes like that. But those types of mistakes were more than good for her, they always make her stronger. Even though it would be wonderful if she would learn NOT to get in these situation at all. But even after eleven years of conditioning, she had still not reached that crossing point. It was a surprisingly hard thing to get out of the habit of doing.

Soga was moving surprisingly fast, but not fast enough. Rather than move she lifted up her foot as a way of blocking on attack and moving out of the way of the others. That was the way it usually worked. When dodging became near-impossible, the best thing to do would be to stop or get hit by one and use that opening to dodge the other attacks. He backed up and now it was her turn to go on the offensive.

Instead of dropping all pretense of training as she attacked, her body jammed her into martial arts mode. Her actions and blows were comparible to some powerful martial artists, even though the asian-ness wasn't as obvious as it was in Soga's. She didn't like complex moves, especially when the same result could be achieved with a simpler move. But this particular onslaught went on longer than those before it, even though the moves went faster than ever before.

When she finally stopped she didn't really back away so much as take a defensive stance.

[Oren]

As the skill level rose, Soga couldn't stop enjoying himself even more. After a bit it would take all his concentration to stay in the game, but utilizing his mind to its maximum was his favorite thing to do, be it in his studies or his strategies. How he used his mind didn't matter to him, just so long as he was constantly using it. Even when he had been walking toward Gunner at the candy shop he had been counting his steps and measuring the distance by sound alone.

Now, though, now he was focused on her movements, their repercussions, and the moves he'd have to make to avoid them. The way she blocked him this time was creative. It was amuzing too, but in a good way. Many martial artists didn't use their mind and everything they did came straight from the manuel. Nothing from the average joe was someone elses style. What Gunner had managed to do was make her own out of the many. Soga had done the same, but, of course, they were different styles. While her's focussed on using as little energy as humanly, or inhumanly, possible, but Soga's was more fucussed on keeping the oponent guessing. He would often do one move, start out another the same way but end up doing something different. While it was more taxing, it was more effective for him. Gunner probably wouldn't fight well his way. In the same sense, he wouldn't do good fighting her way either. But this was the reason for different fighting styles.

When she came back at him, her style changed a little. If he hadn't needed concentration, he would have chuckled. That was a nice little trick. It wasn't good enough, though. She was trapped against the wall, and they both knew it. Proof of this was how she didn't back up after her onslaught.

But now was his chance! She would most likely be furious at him for what he was about to do, but that would only drive her. He didn't even wait for her to completely gain her deffensive stance. He'd only been using about half his strength up until now. With his full skill and speed he snatched her wrist, swinging himself around her body to where they were back to back. He stepped back the slightests bit, giviving himself more room before pushing against the wall with his foot, sending Gunner stumbling away.

Now that she was no longer against the wall, they could proceed.

[Anzeh]

Gunner stumbled weakly away from the wall. Quickly however she composed herself and retook her defensive stance. After a moment a huge smile broke her face. Like her dad always said: If you started sweating before you've attacked twelve times, then you've met your match. Gunner only counted less than twelve attacks and there was a lone bead of sweat rolling down her forehead. Of course, she knew after the first blow that she'd found her match.

Time to get a little more serious.

But rather than launch herslef forward and attack, she put up on finger that signalled "give me a moment" had they actually been fighting for real she wouldn't dream of doing that, but since they were only practicing she didn't think too much of it. Gunner pulled off her jacket, leaving her in a pretty plain T-shirt. And tossed her jacket somewhere, being careful not to disrespect any of the silent guardians overlooking their fight.

Having done this she ran forward with more speed than before, launching several quick hard punches on almost random parts of his body, but seemed to, once again be targeting nerve endings. Of course, even if she hit Gunner had her aim slightly off on purpose. It wouldn't be fun if Soga was frozen helpless.

Once again she backed away, launching herself back further than before and took a very low, close to the ground stance.

Even as they fought, Gunner was watching his execution, searching for moves she could add to her repetoire. So far she had seen three, and figured their mechanics for only two.

[Oren]

Shoutoku would say that they were climbing the proverbial ladder of difficulty but what they were doing was in no way proverbial. The difficulty was very real and it's escalation was no figment of the imagination.

He smiled at Gunner as she held up a finger. Her reasons for discarding the jacket were definitely valid. Although the wind was more prominent in the walled garden, time was now at the hottest hours of the day. The clouds that had dotted the early morning were now all but gone and moving like they had been wasn't aiding the heat.

During the short pause, Shoutoku also removed his jacket. The wife-beater he was wearing underneath proved his love of ample mobility and and natural weather. Despite his love of studies and the indoors, he rarely used the air conditioning, be it in winter or in summer. He always assumed it had to do with how he had grown up out in the elements on high cliffs in Asia...

But who cared? No one did, not even himself.

Just as Gunner came at him, he stuck a hand in his pocket.

Well, this is going to be interesting.

He decided to see if he could dodge her even like he was, one hand restricted. It hadn't been purposeful, but it might just work to his benefit. He needed the protein now, not later, so hopefully...

He blocked her attacks with more difficulty than before, a few almost hitting him. Chuckling to himself as he noticed her purposefully askew aim, . So they both weren't playing to their fullest. It was to be expected. This was the warm up round... though it barely seemed like it.

Finally pulling his hand out of his pocket, he produced a small container of square objects that looked like Turkish Delight. They were slightly more solid looking and if one had a good nose they would be able to tell it was meat. Raw meat. He wasn't sure if Gunner would mind, but he was getting hungry and caring what people thought wasn't an option.

"Okay, give me a sec," he said, opening the bag and quickly shoving three pieces into his mouth. Just a quickly, he zipped it shut and tossed it over to where his jacket was laying. He nodded, still chewing, signaling that he was ready.

Though why let her have two moves in a row?

Jumping forward, he spun in a tight circle, sticking out a leg in an attempt to trip her. Coming up from this, he used the momentum to carry his arm around toward her head. In the next split second he dropped to the ground, sweeping her feet out from under her before she had time to react. As he jumped up he felt new energy course through his veins. Oh, how he loved a hawk's metabolism!

Before she could get fully up he snatched both of her wrists and shoved her back down, straddled her waist and flipped her to her back so that she could see him.

He smiled, knowing that she'd be ****ed.

"I win."

[Anzeh]

Before Gunner knew what had happened she was on her back being pinned into place. She knew how she'd gotten on the ground, that much was no puzzle. What was the puzzle was how he'd managed to do it before she'd managed to attack him. There had been an opening. She'd counted three. But for some reason her body wouldn't move to hit him. Although she managed to dodge him some, she was unable to stop herself from falling and behind pressed under him.

Anger rose in her and she began to thrash under him. Despite how much she struggled against him. "Ego mos iuguolo vos sensim!"* She snarled out as she tried to let herself up. Even as she did this she knew it would be no good. Her martial arts, although she could fight fine if she could use her arms, she was significantly less of a threat if she couldn't--after all, she was taught that strength wasn't a truly important part of the arts if you used them correctly.

But now she was stuck on the groud with nothing but a young girl's strength to get this guy off her. No wonder so many girls got raped. "Permissum mihi sursum!"** She yelled. Honestly, Gunner didn't know she was speaking latin--she didn't notice, mostly since she was from a country in which Latin was the main language was latin. It was a tiny island, even though she never spoke Latin there.

She'd heard a few humans speaking it to each other. To her ears, she sounded like a normal human.

*"I will kill you slowly!"
**"Let me up!"

[Oren]

"Whoa whoa whoa!!! Hey, hey, calm down! Killing me isn't going to solve anything!"

As he had expected; she was freaking out. It was cute, in a way. To him she was so young and quite small. She was a little girl that was acting like she was fighting for her life when there was no danger at all. If he was someone else he would expect her to act this way, but... she didn't trust him? That was quite sad. Didn't she realize that by fighting him she was putting her life in his hands? She must have known that he was older than her! Or maybe she was just that confident in her abilities? Whatever the case, she should have thought it through more if she was going to act this way when pinned.

Or... maybe this reminded her of something that had happened? Maybe she was afraid of something that hadn't happened yet? She was young, after all... For a second he thought about letting her up, but something in him wanted her to trust him now. She would avoid him if he let her go like this, and he was not going to let that happen! If their encounter had gone any differently he wouldn't care, but she was someone he might actually get along with and he was not going to let this slip by.

But she was ignoring him...

"GUNNER! LOOK AT ME!"

[Anzeh]

Gunner didn't know why being trapped under Soga like this made her so angry. Even when she was exhibiting incurable rage like this, even when she knew that there was nothing to fear from being under him (after all, she was a flat little kid, there was no point in doing much of anything) there was something about this she hated. She hated the sheer helplessness it made her feel, the inadequacies it made her come to terms with. Aeon had been raised to fight, she'd been raised to kill anything she felt should die. But this--this went against everything she believed in and wanted to achieve.

And yet she still couldn't understand how he'd gotten her like this. Where did this position come from? Why were they laying in the grass like this surrounded by bushes and stone overseers--was it really needed? Of course not! It was something that he'd come up with, a strategy.

So why the **** couldn't she understand?

His comment about killing him not solving anything slid off her like water. She didn't even dwell on the fact that he'd understood her even though she had spoken to him in latin. She was too preoccupied in concocting ways to make him pay for this, ways she could teach him that he couldn't take advantage of her that easily. Oh yes, he'd see quite easily with a knife in his eye socket--

It was as though he'd brought a guillotine down on her thoughts when he shouted at her to look at him. She cracked her eyes open, not realizing that they'd been closed. When had she closed her eyes? When had she stopped listening to him? It was odd. She usually paid much more attention than this. Was something wrong with her today?

Yes, that was it. That had to be it.

[Oren]

While he didn't relax his grip on her, he did sigh, calming his own frustration at not quite knowing what to do with her. Truthfully, he next to no dealings with girls, especially ones that were freaking out. He'd read books, of course, but that was the only knowledge he had on how girls worked and that wasn't very reliable knowledge. Good thing he'd taken quite a few psychology classes.

Gunner probably wasn't calming down mentally but she wasn't thrashing as much. So that meant he had either gained her attention or shocked her into being still. Whatever the reason, there was a good chance she'd listen to him this time.

This time around he spoke softly and in a calming manor.

"Gunner, I need you to understand something, okay? Can you listen to me for a second?" He almost added more, a little bit about being a good fighter, but he didn't want to con her into doing something she didn't want to just to prove herself to him. That just wasn't a good reason right now.

"Look at me," he continued in a gentle voice. "Look at my eyes, Gunner. Look in my eyes and tell me that I'm dangerous to you. Tell me that you should be afraid of me."

His only hope was that she could see the kindness and good will he had within him. That was the biggest risk he was taking by telling her to judge him by his eyes. Rage and fright often clouded one's judgment, and both were present in Gunner. If she insisted that he was untrustworthy, he would get up and leave her alone. Odds were he'd never speak to her again.

As he came to this conclusion, a small bit of pain pierced his chest. He'd felt this feeling before, many times, in fact. Most of those times it had been more prominent. Most of those times were when his family was attacking him. They did not accept him because of his violent ways and drove him off because he was 'a threat to the others'. If only they knew how peaceful he was now that he was older. Maybe they would take him back... then again, he didn't want them to accept him, now. Their decision had been made and if they changed their minds, they definitely had ulterior motives.

In truth, he needed this relationship with Gunner. He longed for friendship and was about to do anything to achieve his goal. He knew how it must look, him befriending a girl, but it didn't matter how others saw it. His motives behind his actions were what should count, and they were pure. As long as Gunner knew this, he had a feeling that everything would be okay.