In which Cloud pulls women. Oh Cloud. When will you stop? You are just incorrigible. Isn't two or three enough? Can't you help yourself?
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(Rosé PoV)
I ate dirt. Fairly hard, too. With a low groan I pushed myself back up to my feet. Cloud just stood opposite me with heavy boots in the small grass meadow menacingly. He had a giant chunk of metal on his back, his shield, and he held a four foot long longsword in one hand easily. He was tall and broad at the shoulder with a set of narrow hips. He cut a dangerous figure and as a hunter he was even more dangerous than he looked.
He was beating me. I suppose I had asked for it but it hurt all the same. It didn't make the pain of my ass whopping any less so to know that I literally asked for this.
I'd rarely seen him fight and when he did truly get down to business he became a hovering blur of wicked speed and enormous strength. His skill with his blade was unbelievable. I had chosen well for a teacher. He seemed to have wisdom beyond his years, he was a font of experience in dealing with monsters and people. And he was so young, still. He was practically my age. Just under five years separated us. Not so long when you thought about it.
He also had Neo who had helped train me a little too. But mostly she just beat up on me. Cloud had convinced her by calling it a personal favor (those were his exact words he said to her) for him so sometimes I went up against her as well. Cloud said having diversity in my opponents was a good thing. That way I wouldn't be just learning his own habits and would have to think on my feet. He was big on that.
Still, I don't think Neo liked me very much. She put her heels on me whenever we fought and dominated me completely. Cloud at least took it nice and easy on me and only really punished unsafe overextensions hard. The rest of the time he let me work myself over. Against him I worked offense and against Neo I worked terrified defense.
That led me to where I was now. Eating the grass over and over again as I tried to get in on him.
"You're doing well," he encouraged. "The point isn't to actually get a hit on me."
"Yeah well I'd certainly like to for once," I grumbled. He just laughed, throwing back his head slightly and chuckling deeply. I was glad to be a source of entertainment for him. Ever so glad.
I readied my weapon, three feet of Titania edge. My training wheels blade, Cloud had called it. I was fond of it all the same. Cloud lowered his. Crocea Mors, he named it. His weapon had personality and an identity. It gave him quite the cutting figure with the too long red handle on the far end of his instrument.
I ran at him and took a diagonal swing he blocked then he very slowly and transparently riposted with a sideways cut which I quickly turned my blade to block. Though he had hardly swung, or at least appeared to have hardly swung, the blow sent vibrations up both of my arms and I staggered back a half step before I regained my footing.
"Remember, blade foot forward," I switched my stance at his words, shifting so that my right hand which held the blade was matched by my right foot being forward. It gave me more range, according to him. Range was a good thing. I held my left hand like it was paralyzed across my chest as he had taught me.
I gave him another slash and he stepped back and easily blocked it. I hacked at him again and once more he shifted his blade into a roof block. Then he twisted his pommel towards my face and I quickly ducked and stepped away before he could hit me. Flinching was natural. It was good. So long as you didn't let it blind you then it could save your life. His words, not mine.
He came at me with a slow telegraphed attack from on high and I shielded under my sword and let the blades ring together with a clanking noise. Then he pushed into my guard and shoulder checked me to the ground. He somehow made it gentle but it hurt all the same.
"You lost your footwork and became unsteady. Keep your feet shoulder width apart all the time. It'll make it harder to knock you over and stop you from losing your balance. Footwork, footwork, footwork."
I huffed my hair out of my face and sat up for a moment to catch my breath. He allowed me to and rested his blade against his shoulder easily. I just took in gulps of air and let my soreness flow over me. He looked relaxed while I was flustered.
He was a good teacher and always seemed to know when to push and when to relax. He had a certain ebb and flow that allowed him to mentor well without ever overstepping. He should be a teacher full time. Sure he had his weaknesses but they didn't get in the way of his work. He indulged in substances but he was under a lot of pressure. It was slightly forgivable, in a roundabout way. I found I could ignore that and focus on his positive side.
If only he wasn't also so damn mysterious. He sent a letter to certain friends and there was the intrigue of what had happened to his team and partner from Beacon. Neo wasn't it. She was a different friend. It made one wonder and think. Then he said he fought in the battle of Beacon's fall on black out day but then he just went into the wilderness and became a real hunter. He was so mystifying but he was a good man. He saved people's lives without asking for anything in return. He was the spitting image of what a huntsman was supposed to be. With a big sword and handsome face and hair done up in a spikey fashion. It made one think. And it didn't always make one think appropriate thoughts.
We were training just outside of Gongaga. We needed a ship to carry us and our horses across the small channel to the Sanus mainland and off the island of Mark near the continent of Solitas. We had stayed in the city for several days now while we looked to book passage to the mainland. Cloud had money, it would seem. He explained that hunters really had no trouble getting the stuff. He even said that it was almost too easy. I hung on his every word. They could all be useful one day, he was so rich in experience and he had been all over the world. How cool was that? He was so lucky to be well traveled. I was jealous. Traveling was a part of the appeal of the job. A huntress could and should travel the world.
The whole while Cloud had never seen fit to stop my training and now that we didn't have to travel all day it was all the more intense and he had started working me over personally. He swore that I was improving and that I would notice it with time but that I just didn't see it. Sure I felt my aura but I didn't feel like a fighter just yet. Not like Cloud or even Neo. And Neo was dangerous; I could tell that much. She just wasn't as dangerous as her interpreter was. Cloud was a menace. When I saw him fight he flew and with two quick strokes of his six foot blade he'd cleaved the Beowulfs in two. He was a walking talking nightmare in battle.
The long green grass of the little clearing rustled in the breeze and I took a moment to just listen to the wind. The midday yellow sun beat down on me harshly in the cool spring air. Then I got up again and raised my silvery and bronze blade. He was going to beat me and it was going to be easy for him, almost mockingly so. But it really wasn't mocking. He was certainly toying with me but only because if he destroyed me over and over again I'd learn nothing. That wasn't how training worked. You couldn't just beat someone up over and over again. They would learn nothing but pain. Cloud only punished me when he thought what I was doing was particularly an affront. Messing up my footwork, for example. Hacking without purpose or aim, for another. Those were the times he'd strike me and brutally at that. He was so strong and fast. And, get this, his semblance only made him stronger and faster. He was beyond superhuman. I just had to hope that not all hunters were as good as him or I would never catch up to people training at schools like Signal.
So far he has been good to me. He'd been a caring guide and showed me all the ropes. He taught me what he knew about Grimm and people so I would be ready to fight them. He showed me the weak points of Grimm and he was trying to teach me how to find the weak points of people. That was much harder. He wanted me to have no illusions about whether or not I'd be fighting people. He really wanted me to know that. He wanted me prepared. That was another thing he really tried to drive home into my skull. Being a hunter wasn't glamorous. It was hard, brutal, and dirty work. It came at a price.
I hadn't been sure I was ready to pay that price. But now, seeing the strength with which Cloud carried himself, I could see myself doing it.
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I made my way through busy streets. A dray went by before me, drawn by a steady breathing horse. The driver held the reins attentively even though he looked relaxed and let his feet dangle aimlessly. My way was blocked by several women in a hurry and I let them pass first. I was in no real rush.
I came to the top of a steep street around which there was a small square of open stalls. I smelled baked goods and flowers wafting on the breeze from the stalls. There was variety to the vendors and I looked between them for a moment deciding.
"Excuse me, Miss?" I looked down at where a small voice got my attention- I was walking through Gongaga to get lunch for my little traveling group on my master's orders. It was a little girl I saw when I looked down. She was in a tiny red and white dress with brown hair and bright brown eyes. She was adorable. She had a pink ribbon in her shoulder length hair to tie the look together as well as her crop of hair.
"Um… yes? What can I do for you?" I looked around. I caught sight of a lady whose hat was covered in flowers. I saw a man who was laden with buckles. A young man not much older than my master hurried by with a walking stick. Was she alone? I couldn't spot anyone who had their attention on us in the little market square I was in. Where was this young girl's mother or father? Was she out all alone, truly? A young girl like this needed someone looking after them. People walked past me on the street right and left. They bustled about with their heads down and they parted around the two of us as though we were big rocks in a creek of flowing water.
"Are you a huntress?" The girl asked childishly with that sort of boundless curiosity some children have that made them ask the obtuse. But when they did so it was in such an endearing way that one could not help but to answer.
Carriages on delicate wheels were traversing the street and scurrying past us pulled by horses. I tugged the girl out of the street and into the shadow of a building.
"Not yet. But I'm going to be. I'm still learning," I explained. "I have a master that I'm learning from."
"I could tell because of your sword. Is it sharp?" My sword and my outfit should have been a dead give away that I was a huntress or at least that I was a huntress in training. My clothes were too bright and my weapon was custom. It wasn't like some common guard's mass produced tools.
It was indeed sharp. It hung on my belt like a razor. Titania held an edge like no other metal. I bent down to the little girl's level. "It's very sharp," I told her. "Sharp enough to shave with."
"Is your master nice or mean?"
"He's nice, I think. He can be a little harsh but that's only because he wants me to stay alive. He worries about me."
"You look like an angel," the girl whispered with big eyes looking up at me. "That's how I knew you were a huntress. You're too pretty to not be."
I blushed and dropped my mouth open slightly. I worked my jaw and stared at the little girl. She spoke with that sort of giddy honesty some kids have. The compliment was too earnest to be taken as any kind of flattery and so must be genuine. Some honesty from children was raw like that.
"Where are your parents?" I asked at length. I had finally found my tongue after a moment of searching for it and I worked my voice like it was rusty. "Are you out here all alone in the city?"
She nodded. "We live near the edge of the town. I know what street I live on," she spoke proudly. "Dad is in the dust mine and mom's working her stall. I'm not really supposed to leave the house. I'm supposed to do my reading. But then I saw you. A real huntress!" She spoke quickly and excitedly. It was contagious and I smiled at her. I couldn't help it. "Do you fight monsters?" She asked me. She only stopped talking to breath and even then it was a close thing.
"Sometimes," I answered vaguely on purpose a little for the intrigue. "I've only killed little ones so far. My master has killed much bigger creatures than I have. What's your name?"
"Coral," she answered. Then she looked past me. "Is that him? Is that your teacher?"
I turned and saw Cloud moving through the street. He was tall and broad and he had an enormous sword on his back; and people parted before him with some haste. One look at him and it was clear he was a hunter and not just because of his weapon.
"That's him. That's my mentor. He knows a great deal," I spoke kindly and sort of hushed though I wasn't sure why. It wasn't as though Cloud could hear me from there and even if he did what I said didn't really matter. I figured the girl, Coral, was mind tricking me somehow.
"He's so handsome," Coral stretched the words out with a bit of awe. I blushed a little. I thought the same way. "Is he very strong?"
"Very much so," I told her with my cheeks flushed.
"Do you think of him often?"
I did but that was none of her business. What I thought about belonged to me. Not this mind reading little girl.
Coral looked back at my face and narrowed her eyes. "You like him!" Drat! It had that same brutal honesty to it that couldn't be denied or dissuaded.
"Shshsh," I hushed her. Or tried to at the very least. I was sure my face had turned as red as my hair. Maybe even more so.
"Is it because he's your teacher? Some girls like that. I totally understand."
"Let me buy you a snack from one of the stalls." I tried to change the subject and fast. My master had given me more than too much money for food and I could spend a little on the girl without him noticing and he probably wouldn't mind to start with. He had a certain apathy towards money. The sort that came from spending and earning too much of the stuff.
"Tell me about him? What's he like?" The girl would not be distracted by my bargaining. She was curious about the tall striking hunter.
"Well- he's… that's to say… he's very mysterious," I managed at length.
"Ooh," she pressed. "Mysterious is nice. It's dashing. What else?"
"And he's patient and knowledgeable and that makes him a good teacher. He's also kind. He saves people with no self interest. His character is good."
"No wonder you like him. It's like something out of a romance book," the girl blurted. "I read a lot at home," She over shared.
I sighed a little. The thought had crossed my mind as well. I mean, a young girl with her dashing huntsman teacher going off together to slay monsters and accomplish her dreams? It was something someone would write about and give a happy ending to. I could imagine reading it myself. Sure there was Neo but there really truly didn't seem to be anything romantic going on between the two of them. And yes, he had said his love life was complicated but he made his whole life seem complicated what with that business with a laboratory.
"Hush you…" I tried. I failed. "Please let me buy you something to eat. Then I'll walk you home. I'll tell you some stories about him?" Not that I had all that many. "What do you say? Deal?"
Coral grinned like a cheshire cat. "Deal." She held out a tiny hand for me to shake on it.
I did.
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-WG
