damned_institute | Night 43: F21-30 Hall

"Yeah," she said gruffly as she kept her gaze away from Meche for the moment. "Just a little worried Hokuto's not here yet."

Which wasn't a lie. Considering her girl's room was right next door, she expected her to be there by now. Though, she kind of didn't want Hokuto around with as hungry as she was. She didn't think she could forgive herself if she bit Hokuto. Okay, she probably couldn't forgive herself if she bit either Senna or Meche either, but it'd hit her harder if it was her girlfriend.

Twirling the spear around, Falis slipped into a stance and demonstrated the thrust full speed again. "How about you do five of these in a row, starting our slow and then increasing your speed a little each time until you hit full power on the last one?"

That was right, this was supposed to be another full meeting of the LDGC, or something like that. "Well, it's still early yet," Meche said, trying to be reassuring. "Maybe she just got a late start." She'd never heard about any monsters appearing in the patient blocks, so Hokuto should have a pretty safe trip, Meche told herself. She might be moving a little slower than usual because of her injuries, or maybe she'd run into a friend on the way. There shouldn't be any reason to worry yet, right?

Or was tonight one of the nights when they kidnapped--

No, she just worried too much. It would be silly to panic this soon in the night, when there were still plenty of good reasons why Hokuto might not have gotten here yet. Meche decided the best thing for now would be to keep going, and if Hokuto still hadn't shown up in a little while, they would go out and look for her.

She raised the spear again and did the first thrust slowly, just like the last few. Power coming up from the ground. Don't overshoot. The next couple of reps got progressively faster. On the third one, Meche realized she'd driven too far out again and made a little noise of frustration as she pulled back. She slowed the next thrust down before speeding up again, and kept trying until she got five reps in a row that she felt pretty good about. By then she could really start to feel it in her back and shoulders. She'd have to get stronger if she wanted to be able to keep this up for long.

As Falis watched Meche's repetitions, she started partially listening to Soma and Senna's conversation. She hadn't been paying attention to it, but when she picked up the fire and passion in Senna's voice, even as her roommate kept it low, the hunter turned part of her attention to what she could hear. She didn't particularly like what she heard if only because it made her think of Namine and the question she had once asked Falis. The hunter still believed what she'd told the girl back then. If Senna wasn't going to give this a rest, she might have to step in. Senna was smart, though, so she shouldn't have to. Probably.

Her eyes narrowed as Meche finished her segment of thrusts. "Hmm. Okay drop the spear and stretch out. You're too tense. Relax."

Meche could hear the girls in the background, but she was making a real effort not to listen to them. Even when she carefully set--not dropped; even heels this good wouldn't prevent her from breaking a toe--the spear on the floor and started rolling her shoulders, she kept facing the other way. The conversation sounded like it was taking a serious turn, but it wasn't any of her business to eavesdrop or interrupt unless something really went wrong. Right now she had to keep focused.

She did a quick series of stretches, mostly with her arms and then a few with her legs. A couple of joints cracked audibly. Boy, between the foot races and the spear, she was well on her way to coming up with the definitive Landel's Institute fitness program here--for added aerobic benefits, just beat up a few zombies on your commute home. Maybe she should pitch it to Manny when he got back.

All right, time to get serious again. Meche did one last stretch and picked up the spear again to show that she was ready for Round Two. "Anything else I should fix about those?" she asked.

The hunter's brow furrowed a moment. Approaching, she moved behind Meche and put a finger between the woman's shoulder blades. "Do you carry your tension here?"

Did she? Meche had no idea. "I never really thought about it before," she admitted. "I think that's where I'm feeling most of it right now, though." Stretching had helped, but she still wasn't feeling very relaxed. As counterproductive as it would be to this kind of training, she thought suddenly that she could really use a cigarette right now.

"Huh."

Falis put her hand flat against the woman's back, concentrating on the feel of the muscles beneath the flesh and not the warmth of said flesh seeping through the Meche's shirt into her hand. "I think I can help. Don't fight me."

She then grasped the forearm of the arm that currently was not holding the spear and brought it back behind Meche's body. She kept her other hand flat against her back, creating proper resistance. "This is going to feel really fucking weird," she warned before she brought the arm back just beyond it's comfort zone and gave a quick push with her palm, feeling the upper vertebrae shift just a little. There, that should realign things.

"Better?"

When Hokuto woke up, she expected it to be morning. Seeing that it wasn't just confused her; what had happened?

After a moment, she remembered... Kakyou had come to her again. He'd been worried, and even though he had to be going through worse, he'd asked what was wrong... she really missed him.

At least being fashionably late is my usual style, she thought dryly. Because she felt like a change, anyway, she put on her sun dress; she hadn't managed to pick up a second pair of shoes, so she put her indoor slippers back on, and then ran next door.

Rather than knock, since they were expecting her anyway, she opened the door and peeked in. Yep, last. Oh well... she smiled at everyone and said, "What did I miss?"

[jumping down here]

"What are you goin--ay!" Meche yelped as Alita did something with her hands and something else moved somewhere along her own spine. By the time she could really process what had just happened, it was already over--and Alita was right; it did feel better. "Wow, thanks," she said, lifting the spear in both hands again to test it out. The twinges in her muscles had faded, at least for now.

She was about to suggest they get started again when she heard Hokuto's voice, and turned to see the girl standing at the door in a sundress. Meche's first thought was that she was glad Hokuto was all right, but the close second was: where was she getting that wardrobe? That dress would be a bit too bare for Meche, but she and Donna couldn't be the only ones who'd probably slog through another zombie apocalypse for a decent set of clothes.

"Evening, Hokuto," she said with a smile. "You haven't missed much. Alita's trying to teach me to slay dragons, but I think I'm a pretty slow student so far."

Letting go of Meche, Falis turned at the sound of her girlfriend's voice and then stopped and stared. That dress Hokuto was wearing...

Fuck me.

The hunter swallowed, licked her lips and continued to stare, too stunned to do anything else. Damn, did her girl look good in that.

Hokuto smirked the slightest bit; she hadn't expected that strong a reaction from her girl. "Can I be of any assistance?"

Since Soma and Meche were there, too, she doubted they were actually going to do anything tonight (and she'd better stop thinking about that before she got a nosebleed). Still... she could take a little pleasure from how Falis reacted just to how she looked in this dress.

She couldn't resist catching a glimpse of Senna, to see if she was reacting...

Meche, as the only one in the room immune to the raging teenage hormones that were practically rebounding off the walls all of a sudden, was quickly starting to feel like the fifth wheel here. Nothing like young love to make a girl feel old.

"Well, I could use all the help I can get," she said honestly. Then, trying to be tactful, she added, "But you know, we've already gotten a good start for tonight, so I could always head back to my room and work on my stance some more. You must both be tired after last night." Tired probably didn't have a lot to do with it, but Meche was remembering pulling the shades down on a train ride last week and feeling a little empathetic. Anyway, the children here had to grow up so fast. For all that she felt like their mom sometimes, it wasn't her place to stick her nose into the ways they supported each other.

Had that really been only last week?

"I'd love to eat you right now," Falis said to Hokuto in a low voice that hinted at her current predatory disposition. Once the words were out of her mouth, she realized how true they were given how much flesh Hokuto had exposed, as if she was taunting the hunter. She swallowed hard. "So best you not come to fucking close looking like that," she replied, before turning away from Hokuto back to Meche.

"Oi! I didn't say you were done, did I? Show me another thrust," she said, emphasizing her words with her own powerful demonstration, "now that your back isn't all fucked up."

Hokuto wasn't sure if she should blush, back away, or both. Something about the way Falis had said it... worried her. "Well, since you're busy," she managed to tease, this time glancing a little more obviously at Senna.

For the moment, she stood back to watch the training lesson. Tonight, they needed to relax, or at least work off their stress. She was content enough to just watch.

"That's the thanks I get for trying to be nice, huh?" Meche cracked, but if she was honest, she was glad not to be leaving this early. She still wasn't too solid on these simple thrusts, and they hadn't even gotten to how to dodge or strike again yet. Being able to hit any way but straight forward was still a distant pipe dream. Time to get back to it.

She replanted her feet, brought the spear up, and thrust forward. She could really feel the difference in her back--fixing that probably wouldn't stop her from getting sore eventually just from the weight of holding the weapon up, but it did ease the pain from earlier. This attempt she felt good about.

If only Meche knew her presence was helping Falis to resist the urge to devour her girlfriend right then and there.

"Good!" Taking up a stance across from Meche, she held her spear at the ready like she was the woman's opponent. "Now when dealing with a live target, your strongest attack will always be the thrust. You just need to look for the right moment and adjust to the needed angle. By remembering the core stance and positioning, you can produce a thrust just as powerful in any of the forward directions."

Slowly, she demonstrated one aimed at Meche's stomach instead of her chest, the spear's point stopping a few inches away. "You just angle the motion down a little."

Returning to the ready position, she showed a strike to Meche's shoulder that would have disabled the limb if it hadn't stopped a few inches away. And again, she demonstrated, with one at the woman's thigh.

'The principle is the same. Remember, it's a dance and even though the steps are the same, it's your partner, your opponent, that leads you to what the step's adjustment is for that specific pass."

[skipping Hokuto with permission]

Meche watched carefully again. It was tough to keep herself from flinching every time the spear looked like it was going to drive itself into one of her limbs; by the end of the demonstration, she was gripping her own weapon so hard her knuckles had started to ache. Still, it was easy to appreciate the girl's technique, and she was moving slowly enough that Meche could at least begin to follow it. Alita's thrusts were so clean no matter where she was aiming.

"I understand that with a human opponent, but what should I do if I'm trying to fight a monster that's bigger than I am?" she asked. "Should I keep aiming at my height and try to hit its legs?" She was probably getting ahead of herself here, but the monsters were really what she wanted to know how to deal with. Meche was hoping she wouldn't find herself fighting too many humans.

"You aim for whichever of the four major strike areas are available to you," Falis replied. "You're a fucking smart lady. Think about it. When you're facing an ogre is a strike at the leg where it has more than enough muscle to absorb the hit going to work?"

She shook her head. "You've gotta get it down to your level, so you go for one of the two out of four areas you have in reach." She thrust the spear down at the inside of Meche's foot, again stopping short, then she pulled back and thrust toward the woman's pelvis. Granted that last one was far more affective on a male opponent than a female one, but it still fucking hurts.

Meche tried to make a list of important-sounding strike areas Alita had demonstrated how to hit so far (chest, stomach, shoulder, thigh, foot, pelvis) and was pretty sure she must be missing something, because she was definitely coming up with more than four. Then again, it hit her that what she had signed on for didn't look like it included a whole lot of complex strategy lessons. The Alita School of Spearing apparently had two main components: 1) learn to hit things and 2) hit whatever things you can. Hard. With power coming up from the ground. Use a knowledge of human anatomy whenever it seemed to apply and just take your best guess when it didn't. Well, that was easy enough to understand, anyway. Meche had gotten used to that kind of fighting in the forest. But...ogres?

She lifted the spear and tried some very slow thrusts in the general direction of various points on Alita's body, careful to keep the spear well away from anything it could hit. "All right, I understand. What next?"

On the last strike of Meche's, Falis shifted the spear in her own hands from a thrusting position to bring the non-pointed end down across her body to block it. She grinned.

"Blocking." She kept her body in the position it was, the spear diagonally across her body after she had guided Meche's spear to the side away from her target. "The important part about blocking is keeping your balance and making sure your spear covers as much of your body as you can when doing so."

[still skipping Hokuto until she wants to jump back in]

Learning to block sounded like a good plan. Meche drew her spear back and then positioned it in front of her body, trying to imitate the way Alita was holding hers. It was pretty easy to keep it still like that; she just wasn't sure she could move fast enough to actually use it to block anything.

She hefted the weapon back up into the thrusting position and then down into the blocking position again, watching carefully on the swing to make sure she didn't manage to stab herself. The tricky part was figuring out how far to hold the spear from her body--the way Alita was doing it wasn't coming naturally to her yet. Meche frowned and studied the girl's position again. Was there a "power coming up from the ground" trick to this too?

It was really too bad that her own skills didn't exactly come in handy like this at Landel's. If only there were a market for reading stories or filing papers, she thought wryly. Obviously her resume could use a little work.

Blocking was not something that had a power from the ground aspect. It was all about flexibility and grip. Watching the older woman's struggle, Falis stepped out of her stance and brought her spear before her, holding it in one hand before her perpendicular to the ground. The hand was exactly where it would have been had she been in the core stance.

"You need to get used to the swing before you can be effective at blocking."

She then rotated her wrist, bringing the spear's point from threatening the ceiling to threatening the floor. She reversed the rotation, putting the spear back in its starting position. After a brief pause, she rotated it the other direction, bringing the point back to the floor, but in the opposite direction. She repeated the motion, all the way from one side to the other slowly, as if she was twirling the spear without it ever completing a full 360 path.

"Give this a shot and keep doing it until you feel comfortable."

Meche nodded and angled the spear straight up like Alita's, then took one hand away. This thing was too heavy to thrust with one-handed for long, but not so heavy that she couldn't hold it out and spin it--for a while, anyway.

Keeping the spear almost at arm's length now (was that right?), she rotated her wrist slowly to one side, trying to keep the movement smooth and steady. It should look fluid, Meche thought, like drawing a semicircle in the air with one pen stroke. Like a dance, Alita had said. She brought the point back up and then down and up again to the same side. Doing it so slowly really made her aware of the muscles working in her arm--not painfully, just that it had been a long time since she'd had muscles to think about. Meche wondered idly if all this would be easier if she were still in the Eighth Underworld.

She rotated the spear the other way. It took a number of attempts, but after a little while the swing started to feel a little more comfortable, at least--if not exactly second nature.

While Meche spun the spear, Falis kept the motion of her own up. With an almost seamless transition, the spear moved from Falis' right hand to her left hand. She rolled her right shoulder, eyes flickering with pain with the motion.

"Okay, switch hands now. Stop if you have to, but be prepared for it to be harder unless you're same-handed."

"I wish." About the most strenuous thing she did with just her left hand was smoke. Meche switched over and swung the point of the spear clockwise, but this time the movement was much less steady. When she turned it the other way, her wrist didn't want to bend as far toward the outside either. "You weren't kidding," she commented as she tried again. This was probably good for flexibility and strength in this arm, but she still hoped she wasn't going to have to use this move too much.

This set of reps took longer to start to feel easier. When she finished, she switched the spear back to her right hand and propped she shaft on one shoulder while she flexed and stretched her left arm out again. "Guess it's not as easy as you make it look, is it?" she asked Alita with a little smile.

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