"Alright! Izumi can fly now!" Nejire cheered, bouncing up into the air and doing a flip just because she could. "Now we can have a race! Oooh! And we can have an obstacle course! Oooh! I know! You guys can fly around and try to dodge my attacks too! Oooh! I can do the same later! Just keep the power down, I don't wanna get hurt too much! This is going to be so much fun!"
Izumi laid on top of her broom, her arms and legs wrapped tight around it so that she wouldn't fall down onto the padded floor once again. The two feet between her and the ground seemed like it was actually a lot more. Maybe she should try to lower herself a bit?
Her broom jolted down.
No! She needed to go back up!
Her broom shot up.
Too high!
Back down!
Why couldn't she control this thing! It felt normal when she was looking at it, but when she was actually on her broom, it just felt like it controlled differently.
She fell onto the padded floor of the flight gym with a dull thud and found herself staring up at Inasa's concerned face.
"Izumi, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she groaned and arched her back, a slight wince forcing itself on her. "I totally meant to just throw myself into the ground like that."
"Ha! Sarcasm!" Inasa shouted and slapped his knee. At least he was humoring her. He extended his hand towards her and smiled. "I really thought you had it that time."
"Me too! Me too!" Nejire floated down beside her. "That was the longest you've gone without falling off of it like that. You said you managed to go up on top of a building like that, right? What was different between this and that?"
Izumi took Inasa's hand and let out a slight yelp when he basically threw her onto her feet with a slight tug. Right, he was tall and like, really strong too! "This is different. When I tried it the first time, I didn't have to worry about balance and I only went up and down. When I tried it like that with Momo, I would end up spinning in the air because I had to think about it differently or something!"
She flailed her arms and summed her broom back towards her, spinning it twice over in the air before it stopped at waist height next to her, parallel to the ground.
"It's like riding a bike I control with my mind except the balance is weird because I don't have to balance it just myself and if I start panicking then I lose control and throw myself to the ground."
Or in the case of this weekend, into Momo's pool.
"Hmm, balance is a problem that we all have to deal with." Inasa nodded. "It's a struggle to keep myself from spinning with my wind and not start tumbling in the air."
The dozen or so face imprints scattered around the flight room were proof of that.
"Yeah, that's super duper tricky." Nejire bounced up and paused in the air like it was nothing. Though, in her case it wasn't nothing, she had years of practice in the art of flying around like a fairy, and the scars to prove that it was hard work and not natural talent that let her buzz around so easily. "It's like riding a bike with no bike! The trick is to find your center of gravity and adapt to it changing. But, I'm not sure how much advice I can give you Izumi."
"Huh? Why?" Izumi bounced her broom up and down. Center of gravity, huh? She knew the concept pretty well from all those drills with Byleth-sensei, but that was applied to weapons mostly.
"Well, me and Inasa kind of fly in the same way." Nejire shot her hands straight down, and visible blasts of her energy poured from her palms, allowing her to hover in place. There was something about how Nejire's body changed when she did that. It was like she had just automatically adapted to the change in how she was floating. "We both can push ourselves with blasts of stuff! Basically, we're using our bodies to fly while you're using a uhh." Nejire bounced down onto the ground and patted the brush of Izumi's broom. "A broom! Like a real witch! So how you do things is different to how we do things."
"So, what should I work on then? I want to learn how to fly as soon as possible." It would make everything so much easier! In hero practice, she'd have a huge advantage against most of her classmates, and when she became a hero, she'd be able to control it much better.
Plus! She really really really wanted to fly to school!
"Hmm," Nejire tapped her chin. "I have no idea, just keep doing stuff until you get something to work!"
"Nejire-senpai, sometimes I wonder about you."
"Like you're one to talk, I might be an airhead but at least I'm not dense!"
What the heck did that mean?
"Umm!" Inasa stood straight, his arms at his side. "Izumi! I think I might have an idea!"
"What is it?" Izumi tilted her head to the side and grabbed onto her broom.
"Instead of starting with a broom, why not start with something that's easier to balance on? Or make the broom easier to balance on by adding a seat, or even some handles. Something that makes it feel like you and whatever you're riding are connected."
"Oh wow Inasa!" Nejire cheered, and gave her cutest smile. "You're a lot smarter than you look."
"Really?" Inasa blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Thank you Nejire! That means a lot."
Wasn't that basically an insult though?
Izumi shook her head and then ran her fingers through her hair, looking up towards Inasa again. He grew again, didn't he? He had to at least be a foot taller than her. Why couldn't people be more Momo-sized? Momo was like, the perfect height for a tall friend. "Okay, so, training wheels for my broom? What do you guys recommend?"
"Oh! I know!" Nejire darted away in a hurry; each step was longer than the last like she was on the moon before she took off flying into the storage area.
After a few moments, a light screech, a shared look of concern with Inasa, and then a brief silence, Nejire emerged carrying a balance beam that was just about as long as she was tall. It even had the legs attached to it.
"Here!" Nejire plopped it down right in front of Izumi and smiled like she deserved a treat or two. "Is this too big for your spell thingy? It should be easier to balance on this! Once you're good at flying on it, then we can worry about you looking like a smoking hot witch babe that can fly while pole dancing." Nejire blinked, her eyes going wide as she clapped her hands. "Izumi! We should take a pole dancing class! I know that Midnight-sensei used to go to one before she became a teacher, but I think she'd be happy to teach us."
"Uhh. Maybe." She guided her broom over to the wall and leaned it there despite it being just another copy of the wooden one that stupid Neito had broken during training. Maybe she needed some super duper badass broom made of unobtainium or something. Maybe Momo could make her a super awesome one if she burned her wallet or something.
Control, object.
Smaller objects were easier to control than larger ones, at least at first. With her broom, thanks to her training with Byleth-sensei, she could move it as quick as a pencil if she needed to. Which was fast. She had no idea how fast, but fast enough that bonking someone with it hurt. The large balancing beam moved slowly and a bit unsteadily, almost like it was a buoy resting atop the waves.
"Hup!" Izumi jumped up onto the beam and straddled it. The width of the beam was easier to sit on than her broom, and she didn't feel like she was going to be constantly falling off of it. She could even sit on it properly too without having to wrap her entire body around it! "I think this might work. Plus, the legs mean I don't have to worry about slamming into the ground, right?"
"Sure!" Inasa gave her an awkward thumbs up. "If you say so."
She stuck her tongue out as a show of maturity. "Alright, I'm going to try and fly like this."
Nejire gave her a more positive thumbs up and nodded. "Show us what you got Izumi!"
The balance beam moved sluggishly, raising into the air a foot as she made her way towards the small flight obstacle course that Inasa had been bashing his skull into for the better part of the day.
Several large hexagonal pillars went half way up to the ceiling. A gap of about three meters separated each pillar, and said gaps were often filled with beams and other protrusions sticking out at random angles. It didn't look that hard, but it was enough to give beginner fliers a struggle.
At a brisk pace that was a bit faster than she walked, Izumi entered the obstacle course. She guided her balance beam up and over a beam, then down to avoid some wires. This was so much easier to control than her broom! Slower though, and harder to carry around. It was still a good stepping stone!
And once she got good with this she could—
She pulled up, trying to dodge a beam that came out of nowhere, and she thought she cleared it. But the legs of her balance beam got hit and she tried to over correct, sending her flying. Her first reaction was to lower herself again, and in a matter of moments, what had started as a smooth ride ended with her getting tossed stomach-first into one of the beams she was supposed to avoid.
"You know," Nejire hummed as she floated over to her and sat down on the beam a few inches away from Izumi's hands. "I know it's your first time actually flying like that, but you're not supposed to crash."
Izumi pinched Nejire's thigh out of spite. "Just you wait Nejire! I'll be able to fly just as good as you in no time!"
"Ooh! I hope so! Then we can race and do all kinds of fun flying stuff!"
Why did it feel like Nejire's smile was more than just teasing.
AN: Sorry for a short chapter, in a smol funk.