Author's Note: Loosely based off of the chariot social link. Italics are the character's thoughts. I don't think there's enough Yu/Chie out there, so rather than complain about it I decided to contribute something of my own. Any others out there that are a fan of this pairing I encourage you to do the same. I'm not a big fan of writing fluff, but I do enjoy reading it. I like to think my writing is fairly decent, but I'm not that confident about it. Any constructive criticism is much appreciated. Chapter 2 is finished, but needs some revising and editing.
I'm going to try to make the romance aspect a bit realistic, so there won't be even any signs of it budding for at least a few chapters.
Yu straps on his shin pads and wraps his hands just like the countless times he has before. He puts on some gloves, which are more akin to MMA gloves. They're lightweight and will protect his hand from being broken, but they allow for the use of his fingers so he can grapple. He tosses his shin pads and training gloves from when he was a bit smaller to Chie, who looked a bit confused.
The reason for her confusion being the fact that while fighting shadows, his weapon of choice is a two-handed sword.
"Are you gonna put those on or are you just gonna keep standing there? You got a mouth guard like I told you to right?" Yu looked like he was raring to go.
This snaps Chie out of her confused trance, "Oh yeah, sorry. I was just surprised is all. I mean, if you knew some MMA why do you use a sword?"
"Well, if you think about it... A sword is just an extension of your body. Its like having an extra long arm that's really sharp. If conditioned the right way your body itself can be a weapon." Yu's philosopher side shows itself as he explains eloquently. "Either way I wouldn't really call it MMA, I'm just decent at Muay Thai, western boxing, and grappling. I know a little bit from other styles, but its really not much overall."
"I've only picked up some things from Kung Fu movies... You're still so much more impressive compared to me." Chie seems pretty sullen while saying this.
Yu rubs the back of his head a little, "Hey, don't get down on yourself." He stands straight up and faces her, "C'mon, I wanna see how tough you are! And don't you dare hold back!" Yu puts his mouth guard in and shifts in to his fighting stance.
This was all Chie needed to hear to perk up, "Alright, but you'll be sorry!" She puts her mouth guard in and shifts to her own battle stance.
In all honesty, Yu planned on pulling his punches more than he usually would for a spar. He felt apprehensive about fighting a girl, but he kept reminding himself it was a friendly spar.
Yu circles around Chie, making sure to keep his steps proportional to make sure his feet stayed the same distance apart. Chie stayed still in anticipation, her body coiled ready to strike at a moment's notice. Well if he isn't going to make the first move, I will!
Chie darts at Yu and winds up for a devastating roundhouse to his midsection. Yu merely zones out of her range and lets her foot slice the air that he was occupying a moment earlier. Chie's face scrunches up in frustration, as she was sure she was fast enough to catch him, but now she left herself wide open for a counter attack.
Using the opportunity in front of him, Yu does a quick step in and delivers a swift front leg kick before zoning back out and resetting his stance.
Chie winces at the pain this causes and is genuinely surprised that such a simple kick could cause this amount of damage. She stumbles back in to her stance, only she starts bouncing around to try to get the feeling in her left leg back.
He's so calm, that its pissing me off! He's toying with me. Chie knew full well Yu could have done a lot more than that.
This time Yu took the offensive. He steps in to his punching range and throws a jab that connects with Chie's forehead. Snapping his hand back to his guard, he bends his knees and throws his hand out one more time to dig in to Chie's stomach. She grits her teeth at the sudden jab to her midsection. It knocks a bit of the wind out of her, but she knows it could be much worse.
He quickly resets his stance before his right hand flies out towards her face. But something was different, his palm was out facing her. This was to keep her focus on his hand while he sends out a forceful rear leg kick to her left leg.
"Agh!" Chie tries to step away, but it was too late as Yu's shin already made contact with the side of her quad. "My leg won't listen to me!" Her leg went numb, and she tried to guard the rest of her body in anticipation of the onslaught of strikes that were surely coming for her.
But nothing happened. She let down her guard and looks towards Yu. "Narukami..."
"Okay let's stop there." Yu had a worried expression on his face. "How is your leg? I'm sorry, I went overboard with that last kick, didn't I?" He walked closer to her.
This only proved to irritate Chie further, "Don't treat me like some weakling!" Reason left her mind for a split second, and anger took over her body to deliver a straight kick to his stomach.
The kick was unexpected, and the vicious intent behind it was already enough to knock the wind out of Yu. He instantly falls to his knees clutching his stomach. Raspy groans escape his mouth, and his forehead makes contact with the ground.
Chie immediately regretted her action, "I'm so sorry Narukami! I don't know what I was thinking, I just got really mad. I feel so weak." She frowns as she laments her own powerlessness over her emotions.
"It's alright Satonaka." his voices manages to rasp out while he holds up a hand to reassure her.
Eventually he catches his breath, and he looks up to give her a warm smile. "There are some things we should go over, though. Let's spend the rest of the time going over technique. I just wanted to get a good gauge of your current skill level." Chie perked up at the thought of being actually being taught and getting stronger.
Yu's expectations were pretty spot on. Chie has a good grasp of her own body mechanics, she knows how to put power in her kicks. She's got a pair of pretty strong legs and she's pretty agile to boot. However, her footwork and technique were both lacking. Sure, it's great to demolish an enemy with a single, fatal blow, but it's generally safer to take potshots while maintaining a comfortable margin of safety. You never know what can happen, as an enemy may turn out to be more tenacious than you thought and all of a sudden you can find yourself wide open to a counterattack that can potentially end your life.
Chie earnestly listened to Yu's advice and instruction on footwork. He was confident that she would be able to dance around enemies in no time. But one thing was still concerning him.
"Your legs aren't conditioned enough." Yu had a serious look on his face now.
"Huh? Didn't you just tell me I had strong legs?" Her eyebrows scrunched as she tried to make sense of what Yu had just said.
"No, your muscles are fine. I mean your pain tolerance. It only took two leg kicks before your leg went numb, and seeing how your legs are your main weapons, it's a liability."
"W-well, how do I fix it?" Chie sighs at this realization, looking towards the ground.
"Unfortunately... You just have to take more kicks. You should also condition your shins, so that even if you kick something really hard, it won't hurt as much."
At first Chie is already wincing in pain from this explanation, but resolve immediately replaces the hesitance in her eyes. Yu explains the exercises and drills that she is able to do on her own at home in order to help the process along.
"I think we can call it a day at this point. The sun is going to set pretty soon." Yu looks towards the sun while he wraps up his instructions. "I'll walk you home, let's go."
