Still not mine, :(

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"James I know you can do better than this"

The Blonde hacker pushed himself up with one hand whilst his other held tight his bokken. Jerking his chin upwards he tried to shake his hair out of his eyes as he looked up at the Ex-Assasin. Standing he adopted the standard ready position and grinned sheepishly back. He didn't want Suzuka to know that his thoughts were still tied up with the events of the night before

"Sorry Susuka, i guess i've got other things on my mind."

"Shall we try again" Smiling slightly at her student. She adopted a mirroring stance opposite Jim across the cargobay. It had been an arrangement which they had both kept to for the past 2 years. With most of his time spent on the ship or working on it, and most of the physical exertions undertaken by either Gene, Aisha or Susuka, there had been little opportunity for Jim to actually get any physical exercise in his growing years. On his 13th birthday as a kind of birthday present he had been given, by Sasuka, lessons in swordplay for as long as he wanted them. For an hour, every day, they had been practising and had reached a point where, whilst jim was unable to take Suzuka down, he was able to take your average outlaw or Pirate down.

"Let's go!" with that Jim charged forewards is sword raised behind him. Meeting his charge head on, Suzuka lunged forwards, a smirk adorning her face. As she swung her sword forwards, aiming a swiping blow at his legs, Jim's face broke out into a grin, as he leapt high into the air. Suzuka's eyes darted upwards towards as he began to come back down, his sword aimed towards her. Her initial strike continued upwards in time to block Jim's downwards strike. As the two swords met there was a loud clatter as wood met wood and Jim, forced back by Suzuka's block, stumbled to the floor once more.

"Now that," she said with a smile, "was a much better attempt" She reached down and helped Jim to his feet. As she walked over to a small table in the corner of the cargo bay she said "The one flaw in your attack was your face."

Jim sat opposite her on the floor and looked puzzled. "Huh? What do you mean my face was my flaw?"

Suzuka began pouring the tea into a pair of delicate china cups which rested on the table."Your form was near perfect. However your intentions were telegraphed by the expression change in your face. Up until that moment i thought that you would strike at my sides or attempt a low attack. Once I saw how pleased you were that i had fell for your ploy, i knew that i would need to change my actions." She raised her cup to her lips and took a sip of the hot liquid. "So what were you thinking about earlier which was more important than practice?"

"Erm, well i was just thinking about different weapon styles. How the style you taught me would need to be adapted if i was using a heavier, wider sword." He looked back at his teacher, a little embarrassed. "Just a bit curious, I guess, watched too many medi-evil films recently" he stammered out scratching the back of his head.

If Suzuka picked up on the lie she didn't show it. She merely nodded pleased that her student was applying his mind to his training. "An intreaging question." She took another sip and then placed the cup down on the table before him. "Those style of swords were usually utilized by knights of Europe. Many of them simply used their swords as metal clubs." Suzuka looked Jim in the eye. "However there were a small number who did practice the art of swordsmanship and exeled to new levels with their specific weapons. The "Broad Swords", as they were called, differed from katannas in a number of ways. They were usually solid metal and significantly slower and heavier than their eastern counterparts. However, the Broad sword was designed to Parry the blades of others. Whilst it's attacks were a great deal slower, the damage and armour penetration of it were far greater." She picked up her tea and raised it to her lips once more.

Jim sat there staring back at her enraptured. Finding his voice he asked "So, how do you use one?"

The Ex-Assasin looked up at her prodege with a small smile on her face. "You feel you've mastered the Katana already then do you?

Jim jerked back as if shocked "no-no-no-no-no, its not that, its just i was just curious thats all"

"Don't worry James" Suzuka said raising a hand to her mouth as she uttered a small laugh "I was just 'pulling your leg' as it were. I would be happy to show you the basics of European Power-sword-play." As she finished her sentance Suzuka rose to her feet and approached a small wooden cabinet mounted on the wall opposite the table. Opening it she removed two wooden swords which looked almost identical to the sword which Hayth used in Illusia. Jim got up and walked towards her but stopped when Suzuka tossed one of the wooden blades towards him. He was immediately shocked at how much heavier they were than the normal practice swords. "The weight will aide to simulate the real things."

Standing at her full height she held tight the sword under the hilt with her other hand resting beneath the guiding one, she waited until Jim took up a stance which mimicked her own. "Their are two styles which are usually used with this weapon. The first is using a shield as the sole defensive part and the sword as the total offensive.It is usually the least skilled fighters who use this method. You are already more skilled than they so we shall concentrate on using the second style." As she finished speaking Suzuka began throwing herself into a series of manuveurs backed by her weight. She was almost never remained stationary, constantly rolling into slashs, parrys and the occasional thrust. Straightening she said "As you can see, the trick is to use your weight and strength to power your attacks. It is also to make sure that you are never stationary. We'll work on the basics of attack today and perhaps tomorrow we can workk on your parrying skills."

Jim looked back to her with a smile on his face "That'd be great." With that they began their training anew.

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Walking with a slight limp Jim made his way into the galley. Suzuka had explained that due to the completely different weapon that the usual bruses he sustained in training would be larger and slightly more painful than their usual training resulted in. A nasty blow to Jim's thigh had prompted her to call it a day and allow the Hacker to get some rest, a decision which he had agreed with. After filling a glass with water he gingerly sat down onto one of the chairs at the table.

The training had indeed been hard but he fealt that it was worth it and couldn't wait to show some of his new moves off to Odana when they met up later on. Reaching into his jacket pocket he pulled out the palm top and began reading the contents of the disc which had come with the game. He had to admit that one of things he was looking forward to was when they next arrived at a planet, although a part of him worried that the new sector in space would prevent him from meeting up with his new friend. Jim's face creased into a frown at this thought. He continued scanning through the manual reading about how the system was designed to work across the vastness of space and individual distances and planets. So engrossed was he that he did not notice the danger creeping up on him until it was far too late.

Jim jumped up, losing his grip on the palm top and having to hastily grab it before it hit the floor. He had been minding his own business, not making any trouble when a finger proddeed him on each side just below his rib cage, just where he was ticklish. Satisfied that his computer was fine he turned to glare at his assailent. Behind him the platinum blonde cat-girl was having hysterics.

"Aisha!!" Jim yelled at the cat girl.

"Sorry Jimmy, I just couldn't resist it" with that she broke up again into peals of laughter, eventually collapsing to the floor. Jim scowled down at the C'tarlC'tarl writhing at his feet before his face broke out into a broad grin. As quietly as possible he crept next to her and reached out. Ordinarily Jim wouldn't be able to get within 5 feet of Aisha without her knowing that he was there, it really is a testement to how funny Aisha thought she had been, that she didn't notice Jim's presence until he began to tickle her. Her laughter didn't stop but it did become punctuated by Aisha's attempts at stopping Jim's onslaught

"Jimmy, c'mon stop it. Oh, you are so gonna regret this" The Blonde Hacker's own laughter soon joined his victim's as he continued his tickling frenzy. However, his laughter ended suddenly when Aisha manged to grab his hands and pin him to floor.

Looking down at him, Aisha grinned. "I warned you Jim, you are going to regret that." With that the tickle fight began anew. Aisha immediately went for him, but after a few seonds Jim was able to carry on his previous asault on Aisha's rib cage. It wasn't long before they became a rolling ball of arms and legs with a continuous stream of laughter and gigling emerging from it. They were still at it five minutes later when Gene wandered into the room in search of coffee.

"Whats going on exactly?" The two blondes looked up at the outlaw standing in the doorway, then looked back at each other, and back up at the outlaw.

"Uh.."

"We were just...." The pair looked back at each other once more and then chorused "Nothing"

Gene just looked exasperated. "And people tell me 'I' need to mature" with that he walked back out through the door towards the cockpit. Aisha bounced back up to her feet and gave Jim a hand up.

"Gene always spoils everyones fun" she said with a slight pout.Taking a seat at the table she said "So what were you doing when i came in here"

Jim took a seat oposite her and pocketed his palmtop. "Aw nothing, i was just working on a new program."

The cat-girl propped her feet up onto the table "I've told you this before Jim you work 'far' too hard. You should take a leaf outta my book, learn to relax a little" The 15-year-old placed his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his hands.

"If we were planet-side the i would agree theres lots we could do to keep to take my mind off work, but on the ship theres nothing to do."

"Thats rubbish theres plenty to do. Watch films, getting beat by me on the comp-games, have catnaps, train. Theres loads of things to do."

Jim looked up at her, a new light shining in his eyes. "You know aisha, that might be a good idea, i think i will go and have a nap." Getting up Jim started to walk to the door. "I'll see you later, Aisha."

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