"Fantastic," Jean said pleasantly, finally removing her foot from his chest.
Blake pushed himself to his feet in a few quick movements, and watched her calmly, feeling for all the world like he was himself for the first time in what had to of been years. Blake patted himself down, completely failing to remove the imprint of her shoe from his hoody much to his displeasure.
"Where is this organization of yours located?" Blake murmured in annoyance.
He would have to throw this one away, the blood from his cheek had stained the collar red, white was such a difficult color to wear in battle, but he wouldn't lower himself to wear something else.
"Antarctica." Jean said primly, "We will be taking one of the organization's many planes in the morning in a circuitous route there, you'll need to make yourself present at the airport, tomorrow at eight."
Blake gave up on his hoody in disgust.
"Very well," Blake met her eyes once more. "You'll be providing equipment for travel in cold weather, I expect?"
Jean hummed in amusement again, and he narrowed his eyes at her.
"You'll only be exposed to the coldness of a hangar at the headquarters for a few moments at most, but I will provide you with an appropriate garment," Jean said pleasantly. "You'll be able to reach the airport on your own, Blake?"
Blake scoffed at the question, and turned away from her, heading towards the entrance.
"Of course," Blake said scathingly, "I have some business to finish up in the meantime, I'll be seeing you soon."
Jean just hummed again and watched him leave without comment.
Blake closed his eyes and enjoyed the hot water of the shower as it poured over him.
Sleep had been hard to come by and he could already feel his good cheer fading in the chill of the early morning. It was six currently, which left him with several hours before he had to avail himself to the airport.
Blake couldn't help the mixture of excitement and annoyance that bubbled up when he thought about the woman who would be waiting for him there. The fight had played out through his dreams in a loop of attacks and counters, leaving him wanting nothing more than to continue where they had left off.
Blake would endeavor to make sure that she would be the one beneath his boot once he had mastered that speed technique of hers. Jean's hand to hand skills had left much to be desired and he was going to ensure she was aware of the fact, her only saving grace was that she was strong in a variety of ways, he wouldn't have lost to a weakling after all.
The tale she had spun about the heroic servants from bygone eras, being summoned to fight in the present, or the past as it would eventually be, intrigued him. The heroes of old had been one of the only things he could relate to when he found himself, once more as a child in this place strange place. These heroes of old shared numerous similarities with his own world, violence, reputation, and fighting against fate.
Given the power difference between himself and a 'mage' he could help but think that these Heroic Servants must be incredibly powerful, he wished nothing more than to test himself against them but given his shameful loss against Jean he would need to spend every waking moment working to make up the difference.
The water temperature dropped suddenly, and he shut it off before it worsened, before stepping out of the shower and completing his morning routine by rote. The waste of space that was his current roommate remained passed out on the floor surrounded by bottles.
Blake didn't know his name, only that he paid the rent for the week before he drunk himself into unconsciousness, he didn't bother saying goodbye as he stepped outside and made his way out of the building.
If there was one thing Blake appreciated about this world, it was its easily accessible foods and drinks, coffee, in particular, was a favored stimulant of the masses which he found to his tastes. There was no need to hunt down animals and prepare them yourself, no need for careful storage of foods that spoiled easily, with the existence of refrigerators.
The airport was another novelty to him, the planes in particular.
There had been nothing so large that had flown through the air back in his old world, but here they had seemingly conquered the skies, enough so that the commoners could travel the world with ease, an achievement worthy of respect even from him.
Blake had never personally been on one of the things, due to a lack of need more then any other reason, he had stayed in the same city for his entire second life. Cars were unusual, but not more so than anything else here, there had been wagons back in his old world, cars were easy enough to imagine as a refinement of that idea, albeit much more complicated.
The thing he found most strange was the complete lack of weapons.
Carrying a melee weapon of almost any sort in public was illegal here, which was ludicrous, how were people supposed to protect themselves from others? The peacekeeping force here, the 'police', couldn't possibly be everywhere and people would die because of it, but nobody seemed to mind.
It rankled him.
Sword technique only existed within very secular schools here, and the masters weren't half as trained as the average person he had killed back in his youth, there were dojo's scattered around, far more numerous in fact, for hand to hand fighting in a variety of styles, but the same issues were present. They also refused most of his attempts to challenge any of them, apparently, you had to join them to be able to fight them, the idea had bewildered him, and they had far too many restrictive rules of combat, it was insane.
There were far more people at the airport then he expected, not that he had ever been inside before, and he searched over the heads of everybody looking to spot a particular woman but found nobody of note. He was early, by more than an hour, so it was no real surprise, so Blake found an empty seat near the middle of the airport, in clear view of the doors and waited.
He spotted her almost immediately when she entered the room, more by chance than anything else, as he had been staring at that specific door for at least a minute. Jean surveyed the room as she moved towards the center, and he stood up to approach her.
Jean's gaze flicked over to him as he came closer and she smiled pleasantly. Blake narrowed his eyes at the woman, she looked so docile for someone so dangerous, it was jarring.
"Blake," Jean said easily, "I trust you haven't been waiting long?"
"No," Blake said evenly, "When will we begin instruction in the technique?"
Jean hummed in amusement.
"As soon as we are at the facility I will endeavor to teach you reinforcement." Jean acquiesced easily, "I'm afraid using mage-craft like that in public is forbidden, and results in, ah, very messy ends."
Blake took the warning to heart, a mage peacekeeping force perhaps? It was something to inquire about later.
"Very well, I'll refrain from asking until we arrive." Blake said calmly, "Shall we?"
Jean nodded pleasantly and motioned for him to follow, so he fell in step beside her without comment.
"We can begin boarding now, although the plane isn't scheduled to leave for another hour." Jean informed, "Have you flown before?"
"No," Blake said calmly. "Jean, you're hand to hand skills are atrocious, whoever taught you has failed."
Jean let out a startled laugh at the sudden comment.
"I noticed that you were moving to counter me very quickly during our fight, but atrocious?" Jean said bewildered, "I'll admit its not my strong suit, that would lie somewhere else entirely."
Blake let out his own quiet hum.
"You are far too straight forward, too direct," Blake said evenly, "Your footwork is poor, and you have no foresight to deal with counters or feints, even identifying them seemed to be an issue, when was the last time you practiced?"
Jean turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"It been years since I last practiced any kind of martial arts," Jean admitted.
Blake almost flinched, martial arts? She was a dabbler, a house painter at best, to think that he was beaten by an out of practice amateur whose talents lie elsewhere entirely.
"To have lost to this?" Blake said mournfully, "Will the shame ever leave me?"
Somehow he doubted it.
"I take insult to that," Jean said wryly, clearly not insulted in the least. "Perhaps you can help me sharpen my skills once I being instructing you in the basics of mage-craft?"
Blake couldn't allow the travesty to continue, he would have to teach her how to fight properly so if others found out she had beaten him they might think she was at least somewhat talented.
"I insist." Blake said darkly, "I will complete you're training in these martial arts."
Jean hummed in amusement again, as they approached a door with several men in dark suits, who immediately opened the door behind them when they noticed her. Blake didn't give them a second glance as he strode through the doorway behind her, and into a long hallway that tapered down towards the ground. They completed the walk-in silence, before emerging from another door into a large hanger, with a sleek white plane resting in the middle. It was interesting to look at, Blake thought, he'd seen the things on the internet, and seen videos of them flying through the air, but to look at it, it really was just a large tube of metal.
How it could possibly fly was a mystery to him, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, none the less Jean led him up to the thing and they climbed the stairs inside. Tables and chairs lined the inside, and another woman greeted them pleasantly as they boarded, wearing a black and white garment, with black straps along the front.
"Please take a seat whenever you like, we will be leaving once we have finished refueling," The woman said sweetly, "It shouldn't take longer than thirty minutes."
"Thank you, Kara," Jean said pleasantly, before turning to continue past her up to a small door, presumably to talk to the pilot.
Blake didn't bother with a greeting of his own, instead of slipping past 'Kara' and into the first seat on the left and closing his eyes to begin meditating quietly, the presence of the others in the plane burned like a sun in his senses, not able to relax enough to reach a proper meditative state while they were nearby.
Almost half an hour later he had just managed to reach the proper state despite them when the plane abruptly started moving, and he opened his eyes curiously, to stare out the window on his left. The walls of the hanger drifted past slowly until the light brightened to almost blinding for a moment and they were suddenly outside, the wings of a distant plane stuck out from beside another hanger.
The plane drifted slowly out onto the runway, and Blake watched with interest at it began to pick up speed and the world was flicking by quickly. The plane lifted off, with a brief feeling of weightlessness and he watched the ground fall away as the sky slowly grew to take over the window.
How strange, Blake thought idly, flying was rather mundane after all.
It was none-the-less interesting to watch the distant landscape, and for a brief time, he could see the city he had lived in for twenty years from above. It looked distinctly larger than the mental model he had built up of it, some trick of distance, familiarity, and mental association at work within his cognition.
Blake could hear someone making their way towards him, and he turned to face Jean as she approached him.
"The view is interesting isn't it?" Jean said pleasantly, as she took a seat across from him, crossing a single leg over another to maintain her modesty.
Blake studied her quietly for a moment.
"Interesting is a good word for it." Blake confirmed, "How long will we take to reach our destination?"
Jean looked thoughtful for a moment.
"It's a rather long trip, I'm afraid," Jean said carefully, "Fifteen hours from here to our refueling stop-off, and then another three hours from Chile to Antarctica."
"That's a long time to be doing nothing," Blake commented with a sigh.
Jean hummed in agreement.
"I'd like to take some of that time to check on the state of your magic circuits if you don't mind," Jean said pleasantly.
Blake considered the request and realized he had no idea how to make an informed decision about that because he didn't have any idea what magic circuits even were.
"Explain to me how these circuit work first, and I'll allow it," Blake said studying her carefully.
Jean simply nodded.
"Consider this our first lesson," Jean said pleasantly, and he nodded seriously. "To channel magical energy, a person must have a system of magical circuits contained within there body, these circuits are extensions of the soul and are spread throughout the body as if a secondary nervous system."
Blake turned his attention inwards for a moment, seeking out these circuits but found nothing unusual, like he had when an attempt to find his energy core when he had first appeared in this world, and instead found it missing, he continued to search himself as she spoke.
"Consider the circuits as channels for life energy to be converted into magical energy which in turn can be used to perform mysteries." Jean summarised, and he frowned at the term 'Mysteries.' "Exchanging magical energy into the attacks you've seen me use, among other things."
Blake nodded, eyes still closed.
"How do you access these circuits? I cannot sense them within me." Blake said calmly.
Jean raised an eyebrow at him.
"They must be activated for the first time before you could sense them in that way, but rest assured you do indeed have them." Jean said simply, "To activate them you must first associate a trigger within yourself, as a mental switch to begin converting your life force into magical energy, and once you've channeled energy through them they will become active."
"A trigger?" Blake murmured.
There was nothing like that required to access his core, back then, it had simply existed as warmth within him, none the less he was persistent, he would create this trigger. Blake searched inwards calmly as he thought of the things that made him act, things that he had acted upon, and how he had acted upon them. The commonality between the three was his old sword, he fought with others and he cut them down with his own superior technique.
"Something familiar, something that resonates as the beginning," Jean said calmly, "A gunshot starts a sprint, a flag dragged through the air starts a race."
Blake imagined his sword resting comfortably in his hand, the weight of the blade, the roughness of the sharkskin handle, the tsuba curving away from the blade, and the razor-sharp edge that ran along the length. It had been over twenty years since he had last held it, but it wasn't something he would ever forget.
A sword arcing through the air, his trigger could be nothing less.
Blake crystallized the image in his mind, replayed it over and over, while he listened to Jean's quiet instruction until he felt something tiny spark through him, and the sword flashed through the air, his eyes snapped open and his body crackled. He could feel his adrenaline spiking at the feeling, as it traced its way across his body in an intricate pattern that would take an eternity to map.
"Impressive," Jean said intently. "That was much faster than I imagined, your trigger must have been meaningful."
Blake wondered how he could have missed such a system residing within his own body for so long, he should have found this years ago, he let the feeling fade slowly until it ended, and then immediately crystallized his trigger once more and the energy crackled back into existence inside him. A simple effort of will now, but energy without form or purpose was useless, as was a blade with no edge.
Blake would need to learn how to use this new energy with diligence.
"You are a good instructor," Blake admitted easily. "Is there a meditation exercise associated with the use of this energy, perhaps to refine it in some way or gather more energy?"
Jean smiled at the compliment, before tilting her head.
"Meditation will help you control the energy, as with any form of introspection comes familiarity, however, it will not grow stronger, the amount of energy you have now is what you will have unless you undergo certain ritualistic surgeries that carry a very high risk of permanently damaging your circuits." Jean explained carefully, "However, once you have begun to learn mage-craft you can increase your ability to use those mysteries in more effective ways."
Blake nodded in understanding.
"This is all you will teach me before we reach the facility?" Blake confirmed once more, and Jean nodded apologetically. "Very well, please complete your examination as agreed."
Jean smiled pleasantly at him.