"I know." Meche stopped the spear. "But I don't know what we can do about it. Right now our options are either hold them down and try to force-feed them and hope it helps, lock them in, or just put it off for a little while and see if they get better on their own. I don't really like any of those, but we can't follow them around every night just waiting to break up fights."

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?"