Chapter 11: The Trick About Punching
AN: Having taken multiple martial arts classes, along with having been in a scrap or two myself, I'd like to think today's subject is one of the two topics I actually know what I'm writing about (the other being social awkwardness). Also, a bit of a teaser for the arc starting in Restless. Kassidy tries to measure up how she stands in the class (spoiler alert: not very well), and Yang teaches her how to not horribly injure herself in a fistfight.
This is a revision of Meet the Brawler.
(Perspective: K)
"What was my time?"
"You got all fifty targets in 17.43 seconds. I believe that's a new school record."
"It's also not fast enough. Let's run it again."
Kassidy found herself in the gym Friday evening. It had taken three days, but her body had finally fully recovered from the fight with Yang on the first day of class. And all the other little injuries over the course of the week. The team just got finished with dinner, and the other three girls were working on homework. Well, Yang's probably just pretending to work on homework to keep Weiss happy. Willing to bet there's a videogame behind her book. She, however, was working out.
Each of the days in combat training, another pair of students sparred. Thankfully, none of them had quite the results of the first match, but it did reveal one important thing: Kass wasn't ready for this kind of fighting. Even if she had formal training, there was no way she could compete with any of her classmates in a straight up brawl with aura involved. Sure, there was the actual training part, and the team also got together every day from four to six to get extra training in; Kassidy was learning fast. But knowledge could only go so far when your opponent is so much stronger and faster than you.
Well, were they? Kassidy finished another round on the machine she was at, which used holographic displays to train a user's reflexes. 18.36 was this round's score. Taking a break, she went over to her bag and took a drink from her canteen. "Alright Bob, you've been taking data from my iris cam. We're a week in, let's see how we stack up."
As can be expected, Kassidy was by far the physically weakest in the group. There were other scrawny kids, but they could bolster themselves with aura. Even Jaune could lift more than Kass when he needed to. Speed was another obvious category. On paper, only Ruby and maybe Pyrrha could run faster. But then, of course, the damn auras come in and ruin everything. And that's not even taking into account semblances; Bob theorized that Ruby could break the sound barrier if she wanted to. The lack of formal combat training was perhaps the biggest gap: while she usually relied on instinct to guide her in a fight, almost everyone else had adopted a particular fighting style they've been honing for years. What also didn't help was the fact that she absolutely refused to bring her guns to bear on her classmates, resulting in her going fist to fist with swords, spears, axes, and everything else a diabolical teenage mind could throw at her.
But not all hope was lost. When firearms training began, it became obvious inside of ninety seconds that Kassidy was heads and shoulders above everyone else. Ruby might be able to edge her out in long range marksmanship, but that was mostly due to the gigantic 40mm cannon masquerading as a sniper rifle. Everywhere else, the shooting scores weren't even close: she was beating top guns like Ren by unheard of margins. And even though she lost out in raw speed, she was still fast. Even after considering auras, Kass had the fastest reactions of the class, and she always managed to stay in the middle of the pack if it came down to a footrace. But she was the biggest winner in sheer endurance. When everyone else was pushed to exhaustion, she was done with the warmup. When all was said and done, she could push herself harder and for longer than any other kid on campus, bar none.
Another interesting consequence of Tuesday's fight with Yang was there was another benchmark that Kassidy had to compare with the rest of the class. Her partner seemed to have had one of the strongest auras in the class, yet the brawler effectively got downed in three hits. If desperate times called for desperate measures, her body could push itself to compare favorably with any other student in the class, aura or no aura. But excuse me for not relying on being in regular life or death scenarios to compete with my classmates.
That was what drove Kassidy to spend almost all of her free time in the gym. With a constitution that was second to none, and a boundless metabolism keeping her energized, she could make progress on her physicality much faster than anyone else. And she needed to, unless she wanted to get her brain turned into jelly with each and every fight. Kass had already given up on ever outmuscling anybody, so she had to get fast. How fast?
"I just finished processing the data from today's class. Looks like Pyrrha just got edged out for the fastest attack. The new time to beat is Ruby, who managed to get her oversized gardening tool through a space in 0.21 seconds. If you're still insisting on being able to dodge anything, that's the current mark."
A fifth of a second? That's literally faster than the blink of an eye. And they're only going to get faster. Kassidy sighed wearily, more from the impossible odds than from actual tiredness. She was about to step back into the reflex trainer when a familiar voice spoke from behind her.
"What, the record not good enough for you?" Yang apparently skipped studying. The blonde had ditched her usual coat and half shirt for a tank top, and the shorts were more modest as well. She appeared to be in the middle of wrapping her hands with tape.
Kass shook her head. "There's only one way I'm making it out of this school alive. No chance in hell I can outmuscle anyone, so the trick is not to get hit. To do that, I gotta be fast."
"Well that's quite the grim mood. How fast are you talking about?"
"Bob's been crunching numbers based on my camera's recordings. Your sister currently has the fastest attack so far, swinging Crescent Rose around in a fifth of a second. If I don't want get cut in half, I need to beat that."
Yang's mouth dropped. After a few moments of thinking, she spoke up. "Look, I'm your partner. As your partner, it's kinda my responsibility to help you do well."
"C'mon Yang, I'm not that bad off."
The brawler ignored her. "So listen to me when I say that you aren't going to beat that. Hell, I have an aura and I can't beat that." She finished wrapping her hands, then it looked like she got an idea. "Actually, why don't you ditch Jarvis? Follow me." Ever since they watched Iron Man, she's been calling Bob, Jarvis. Kassidy thought about arguing, but her partner did tend to know what she was doing when it came to fighting. The two blondes made their way around to a boxing ring.
"What, you're that eager to get your butt kicked again Xiao Long?"
Yang snorted. "Grandstanding aside, I've been watching you in combat training and when we got extra work in. You're fighting off instinct, which isn't very good. You've gotten some good instincts, but those don't hold up under trial to something with more discipline behind it. I want to start teaching ya a few things, but first I need a better idea of what you can do. Between your scores and your instincts, it's obvious you haven't been fighting how you want to fight."
Kassidy grimaced. "Yang, you know I'm not turning my guns on you."
The brawler dug around in a gym bag. "I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to turn this gun on me." She pulled out a lime green pistol with an orange tip. "Plastic pellets. I'll be able to figure out what you can really do when you're comfortable and there's no real danger. And don't worry, I won't be trying to hurt you this time. I've learned."
Palming the pistol, Kass could tell her partner wasn't lying. "Alright. Don't come crying to me if you're covered in welts though." The pair counted down, and their duel began.
Yang had begun striding forward, but not three steps in she had to stop and throw her arms up to shield her face. It took Kassidy twelve seconds to empty the plastic gun of its projectiles. Every single one hit, every single one a headshot, and a large number of them finding themselves bouncing off of what would be the brawler's eyes if her arms weren't blocking.
The break to reload was the opening the more muscular blonde needed, however. Sprinting forward, Yang brought her leg around for a kick, which Kass rolled under, completing the reload on the way up. Five pellets found their way clustered in the brawler's heart before the gap was closed again. A right straight shot out, which was ducked and more pellets found their way into the appropriate shoulder. A left knee was sidestepped and shots flew into the hip. Left hook, right uppercut, a kick, and more attacks were all dodged as the gunslinger evaded everything thrown at her, while simultaneously keeping the pellets flying.
"Alright, enough." Kassidy was about to finish another reload when Yang called the spar off. "Jeez Louise, why don't you move like that in class?"
"Because I actually have to counterattack. I've been using a gun for so long that I don't even need to try to hit my mark. I can focus on the five D's and just keep the barrel hot."
The brawler looked confused. "The five D's?"
Kassidy grinned. "Dodge, dip, dive, duck, and dodge."
A blink. "Didn't you say dodge twice?"
"Exactly."
Yang returned the grin. "Okay, I can work with this. Reaction time is stellar, obviously. You move well, and also obviously your skill with a gun is beyond reproach." She thought for a moment. "You'll probably have trouble with someone using a shield or someone who can block easily, like Pyrrha, but I unfortunately can't really help there. You might want to ask her about some advice next chance you two can spar."
The brawler took the pellet gun from Kassidy, who let out a groan. "So let's put the focus back on hand to hand. I was being serious about you not moving the same way without a gun. You freeze up and get all jerky. How come?"
The gunslinger flexed her almost nonexistent muscles on her arm, while making sure her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "You're asking why I'm not comfortable in hand to hand combat. It should be pretty obvious why I'm not comfortable, what with these massive guns of mine."
Yang chortled, "Alright, alright, no need to get all defensive on me."
"Kinda have to. Not like offense is my strong suit without my firearms."
"Okay, so let's focus on that." Curiously, Yang walked back over to her bag in the corner and started digging around in it. "Especially with Jarvis around – "
"Bob."
"Oh c'mon, don't tell me you can't see the simila – "
"Of course I can. His name's still Bob."
"Whatever. Especially with Bob around, and with your little comparison of attack speeds, I know you've been doing a bunch of number crunching on how you think you stack up. So how do you think you stack up?"
The AI decided to be the one who answered. "Other than the obvious shooting scores, I rank Kassidy first in reaction time and stamina, thirteenth in speed, and dead last in strength and melee scores. All of that is including aura in the analysis."
"We can work with that." Kass was incredibly curious when Yang pulled out some strange gloves, the kind with the flat plate on the palms so one could practice their punching. What was Yang doing with those in her everyday gym bag? "You just need time in the gym to work on your strength, and I'm not the girl to talk to about speed. So let's worry about that melee score for now. Your punching sucks."
"Oh come on, it's making a fist and throwing it at the other person. Not like there's a whole lot behind it."
"Holy crap, I finally got my brainy partner to be wrong!" The brawler giggled for a little bit before joining the other blonde. "Throwing a punch isn't as simple as balling up your hand and swinging. Believe me, as the girl whose method of fighting involves punching with a side of more punching, I know." Kassidy tried to find basis to argue, but couldn't find a way to get a word in edgewise with that logic. "First off, your fist is all wrong, you need to get your knuckles all in a line." The brawler took her hand into her own, helping form the fist. How embarrassing, not knowing how to form a proper fist. He'd be ashamed of me, that's for sure. Instantly, she shook her head to banish that particular thought.
"What's the matter?" Yang apparently caught on to the motion; like it was subtle or anything.
"Nothing, just something buzzing around." An obvious lie, but her partner seemed not interested in pursuing it.
"Alright, there's that." Xiao Long slipped a training glove onto her left hand, then held it up. "Let's see what you've got. Don't hold back on me now, you hear?" Kassidy obliged, throwing all of her quite meager force into the glove. She was rewarded for her efforts by a crack and a sharp jolt of pain.
"Ugh, that is absolutely NOT how you punch. Here, gimme your hand." Yang took the glove back off, and reached for the injured appendage before the gunslinger yanked it away and cracking the knuckle herself.
"See? Not even broken. Just cracked the knuckle. Which… doesn't bode well for me. Hell, I'm not even strong enough to hurt myself." The two blondes busted up laughing at that revelation, taking a few minutes to calm down. That girl always manages to make me more relaxed somehow. Strange how much she reminds me of him. She stopped laughing and shook her head again. Why was he coming up in her thought processes all of a sudden?
"That fly must really like you." Her partner had finally calmed down, and stood again at her side. "Okay, but seriously, that had to have been the worst punch I have ever seen. Don't lead with the joints, that's a good way to ruin your hand."
"Wouldn't leading with the joints be better, though? Compact the force into a smaller area."
"Yeah, that's exactly what it does, and that's exactly why it's a terrible idea. Sure, it might hurt your opponent that slightest bit more, but where does all that force go on your end?" The answer was obvious, and Kass gave no further argument. "Secondly, you're locking your wrist. A bunch of the energy your body could be putting into the strike is getting wasted. Let your wrist adjust as it needs, let it move how it needs to. The force will go where it needs to on its own. Also lowers the chance of you blowing that joint out."
Yang put the training glove back on, and beckoned for her to hit it again. She did, and a dull thump was the result rather than a painful crack. "Better. Doesn't help that Rubes has more muscle than you do, but nothing we can do about it right now. Now let's look at the rest of your body. You're not throwing your shoulder into it, and your torso's not swinging around. Try doing it like this." The brawler got in a stance, and threw a punch of her own into the air, swinging her torso around ninety degrees as her shoulder pumped with her arm. Kassidy replicated the attack, and was satisfied when she actually got Yang's hand to move.
"There we go! You learn pretty fast."
"Kinda had to. Two brains also helps in that regard."
"Cheater."
"Jealous much?"
"What if I am?" Xiao Long cut her teasing to get back to the lesson. "Now we just need to get your lower body in on the action. Get your hips swinging with your torso, and let your body pivot on the balls of your feet." The brawler demonstrated again, and got the point across easily enough. Another successful demonstration, and the two blondes high fived.
"As much fun as it would be to continue to watch you two oafs beat each other up, don't both of you still have studying to do?" A particularly annoyed heiress materialized behind them, scowling her disapproval.
Kassidy, however, had an idea. Turning to her partner and grinning, she asked, "Actually, I don't think I got the lesson as well as I thought I did. Could you give me another demonstration, by chance?" Tilting her head at Weiss, the not so hidden insinuation was instantly recognized by Yang, who laughed. Schnee wasn't nearly as impressed.
"Ugh, and there I went thinking you were actually taking this school seriously." Her white haired teammate pinched her nose before storming to the ring and picking up firstly Yang's gym bag, and Bob. Needless to say, neither blondes were particularly happy. As they both spouted their… disapproval, Weiss was all too smug to point out, "Follow me to the dorms and get your homework done, and you'll get them back."