Hello again! We're starting this off immediately after the previous! So, we've got the princess vs. the priestess, the monotone match of the century and crimson vs Kitsune! it kind of just stopped working at the end, so that's what you're ending up with. Anyway, let's go!
Super hero time!
Shuujin: Learning of your weaknesses allows you to find your true strength.
Issei: And battling church agents allows you to use that strength!
Shuujin: This is going to be the brawl of the century, I can promise you that!
Issei: and this training will probably not go horrendously! I like those odds!
S + I: Break the chains! phone up the future!
"You're a liar."
Sat with a cup of tea in hand, poured by her apparent trainer, Akeno was only slightly surprised by the accusation. They had been transferred to a small section of the forest away from where Ophis had taken Koneko, an attempt to find one of the few places where they could achieve 'proper privacy' in Onihime's words.
"Ara, what a blunt introduction. Whatever could make you think that way?" the queen questioned, a hand to her cheek as pink eyes fell closed. The challenge would not go unheard, the gothic dressed girl taking a sip of her own beverage before answering.
"Half of gambling comes from analysis. To scan your opponent's body language in an attempt to find their reactions and what correlates to what event, to try and figure out any sort of cheats they would be able to utilise, to deduce the best bets to place in order to ensure psychological victory; this is what makes gambling fun. It is clear from the slight tensing of your body in response to my statement, the gentle movements of your fingers and a small hitch in your breathing that you have something to hide." Onihime stated, Akeno giving a small start before looking down upon her body, to the disappointment of her teacher.
"It would be an insult to my abilities if you were able to see the changes, no matter how unconscious they were." She dismissed before her claw started to tap upon the wood of the tree trunk they had appropriated for a tea table. "Now tell me, what is this secret of yours? Would it just so happen to have something to do with your… body?"
"And what would have you assume that then, Miss Onihime?" the girl was quick to catch onto Akeno's tone as she asked the question, an iron visage in place as she formulated her answer. The priestess of lightning was surprised by the card that Onihime seemed to flick out of nowhere, completely blank on both sides.
"There are documented cases of people hiding the truth in plain sight; that you should know." the gambler lazily commented, receiving a nod in return. "And it seems to positively ooze out of your confidence. Clearly with the way she acts, there can be no issues with her image of body, right? Why would she so openly flaunt it, if subtly in fashions, if she didn't like it? I'll take a risk here and say it's not because of your body's shape, but what it's made of.
"…It's a true show of your deductive skills. Are you certain that you're a gambler, rather than a detective of sorts?" Akeno remarked, a small chuckle escaping Onihime as she placed down her cup.
"I'm afraid that is another of my friends. With my current… incarceration, I fear that I may never see her again." Even if her words could be construed as sad, the lackadaisical take took out much of the aimed venom. "Never the less, this is about you, isn't it? Will you tell me of your woes?"
"I'm afraid I can't divulge that quite yet. Are we not meant to be training?" the queen piece declared, a small tut escaping Onihime at the blanket dismissal.
"With no subtlety. Here." The card was flicked over the table, caught between two fingers as Akeno was entranced by the rippling faces, colours and shapes soon weaving a beautiful pattern upon the card.
"The Joker…"
"A creation born to be the trump card, yet often missed out or simply made to act as a substitute to others." Onihime clarified. "It doesn't belong in the same ways as others, simply used in order to gain an advantage other the others. As soon as it doesn't bring about a higher chance of victory, it is discarded and often forgotten. The history of a joker in real life is one viewed only to laugh at, living a life of general dismissal and ignorance of the true self. Basically, your fears rolled into one."
Whether Akeno was listening to the gambler's words was debatable, her eyes focused upon the card. A joker. A fool. Something to laugh at, use and then lose all care for. This girl most likely already knew about her broken body; what else could she pull? Before the devil could even voice her answer, a hand was pulled over hers, the cold metal crawling across the surface of her skin.
"I'm sure you know that you don't have to tell me unless you truly are confident in doing so." The girl whispered, a teasing smile taking over blood red lips as she stepped across the grass, a small clearing peeking through the trees. "But we should familiarise ourselves in another way. Tell me, Queen, would you like to dance?"
"Ara, I can't deny a challenge so openly given, can I?" a remnant of her composure returned, Akeno too stepped through the forest, her hand lingering upon the wood as a question floated into view. "But are you able to do so? If I recall, you were originally in captivity with your 'friends'. Is your ability to fight not hampered?"
"You saw the card, did you not? Surely as a devil, you've bared witness to far stranger things?" Onihime answered, a key also resting in her fingers. "And that girl, Starway Rider. She certainly could find a better place to hide her keys. It's a shame, but it allows me to do my given duty." There was barely a second before a second card flew past Akeno, only the primal instincts within allowing her safety as the simple playing card dug deep into wood.
"Sword Six. Should I have already used an ace, it would allow me to utilise my entire body as a blade, but seeing as I haven't, I can only use the card as a weapon." Five more fluttered into Onihime's fingers as Akeno quickly began to spark in return, a giggle being let free. "Shall we begin then?"
"Oh, absolutely."
"You're, a nekoshou." If Ophis had the choice, she really wouldn't be here. Teaching someone to use the powers they already had? That was boring. Hanging out with her father and potentially doing nothing more than sitting about? That was bonding; bonding could never be boring.
"Yes." Replied the white haired rook in a similar monotone, hands held up ready to fight. There was no hiding anything in this trip apparently. The black haired girl did little other than nod, looking to the trees that obscured the sun above. Darkness… she never really had an opinion of it. Where Onihime seemed to relish the darkness, allowing underhanded tricks to go 'unnoticed', and Kunou absolutely refused to sleep alone without a nightlight (Issei had been called for a conversation, only to enter when Yasaka was trying to bring the young kitsune to bed), she had never really found any trouble with it.
Sure, her mother's world was constantly lit by stars and whatever power she used to bring light to her palace, but the night was always quieter when she had left, compared to the bustling swarms of people that were doing whatever they did during the sun's arc over their side of the earth.
"You, don't use your power. Why?" might as well start off simple, right? Unlike her more endowed friend, Koneko was far more open with her hesitation, the clenched fists losing their passion as they dropped a few centimetres.
"Don't need it."
"You, will now." It was a tried and tested technique, simply counter every argument your opponent had and there was little they could do apart from being stubborn. The fact that the two spoke in short bursts of monotone only served to make each side's defence easier, simpler and faster.
"I can fight!" Ooh, a hint of emotion! That was a small crack in the impenetrable wall the short girl had put up. Probably a little put out by the fact that there was another who could match her in both voice and word.
"Can, you win?" strike at the vulnerable points and people usually tend to get so flustered, they let more be exposed to attack. If she were here to hear her, would Onihime be proud? Ophis knew that she had taken over another part of the forest to deal her own brand of training, so maybe she could. "There, are many things easily beaten with Senjutsu. Why, don't you use it?"
"I can't control it." Koneko growled in response, amber eyes narrowing as Ophis tilted her head, the movement preventing the fist from colliding with her face. "It drives people mad."
"It, uses the power of nature. Nature, has been corrupted by humanity." The gothic girl recalled, brushing off her shoulder as if there hadn't been a danger to her beauty mere seconds ago. Really, there hadn't; she could've let twenty of the fists hit her and she'd still be content with simply rolling off the sweat of her opponent from her dress. "But Nekoshou, can push past that. A few, yokai can push past that."
"It's not easy." A pair of straights were added onto a roundhouse sweep, a small hop having the Koneko miss both punches and leave herself vulnerable to the light flick on her arm raised in defence, the resulting force sending the cat girl barrelling through the trees.
"If, it were easy, everyone would be using senjutsu." Ophis remarked, a dismissive look towards the trees spared before she ceremoniously plonked herself down upon a root, pulling out a sandwich she had been lucky to pilfer earlier. Not even the sudden flying kick that came her way, courtesy of Koneko kicking off one of the surrounding trees, was enough to draw her away from the chicken. He never really showed it, but Issei was a great cook when he was inspired enough. "But many, have used senjutsu without the bad effects. Why, are you so determined to forego its power?"
"I've seen what happens." Koneko hissed, standing up with only a small amount of effort. Well, attacking straight on wasn't going to do anything, but what else could she try? She was a rook, her main power was her physical strength and strangely enough, she hadn't really had a need to learn any sneak attack techniques; most rating games were won with forward fighting.
"You, don't have anything over than attacking me face on, do you?" the girl had to leap forward at the small whisper upon her ear, ready to kick off of the grass in a second. When did Ophis get behind her? "You, let a traumatic experience misguide you. It, tainted your view, but now you have nothing else other than rushing into battle.
There was no response, the girl was frozen in place. If she moved, then she would only be attacking as she had done before, proving the point further and there was little she could elsewise, meaning staying still was the only thing available to her. Every inch of her was being judged and from the looks shot out of those cold silver orbs, the results were clearly lacking in whatever it was that Ophis was searching for.
"You, can try to fight without Senjutsu. We, shall just have to train harder than ever before." The Lolita eventually declared, holding her arms out to her side. "Hit, me with everything you've got."
Who was Koneko to ignore such a simple command? Putting her all into that single punch, the girl let out a primal roar as she lurched forward. There was no need to hold back, seeing as the girl held enough strength to send her flying with what seemed to be a simple flick.
"…I, see." But not even an inch was moved apart from the fluttering of fabric, the girl's lazy expression still remaining in place. A glance was spared towards Koneko, a shiver passing down the white haired girl's spine as she was forced to dive into the abyss that was Ophis' eyes. "We, have much work to do."
"We're going in on the deep end! Just try and hit me!" Kunou exuberantly commanded, a small moment of hesitation coming from Rias. While the girl didn't seem too different from the youthful confident girl she had present before, now that she was on the opposite end of the battle field, there was a certain ferocity to her yells that gave a small shiver to her body.
"Okay then. I'll warn you though: just because you're young, it doesn't mean I'm going to hold back!" Rias called out in return, the swirling energy that was the power of destruction quickly gathering in her hand. With a single flick, the orb was sent launching towards Kunou. She had been lying; there was no way she was just going to fire her strongest attack at a child, the loud crash making her wince slightly.
"Ack, are you trying to use a smoke screen or something?" the coughs drew the king piece out of her slight guilt, a small blonde escaping the resultant smoke with nought but the smoke caught in her throat. "Well? Are you going to carry on?"
"I honestly didn't expect you to survive the first hit." The devil admitted, a second burst appearing in her hand, even if it was a bit smaller. "Well, here we go!"
But it was the same result. Within the fortunately large arena, there was ample space for the small kitsune to launch back and forth, easily dancing around the crimson strikes that tore the dirt apart. It didn't take long for signs of fatigue to appear upon Rias' face, only a few minutes of pure firing being enough to push through a fair chunk of her reserves.
"You've gotten tunnel vision, haven't you?" the flames that collided with the redhead's back were completely unexpected, the rapid shots pausing as the girl whipped around to a yawning Kunou. "You thought I was still in front of you, didn't you? Don't you think it was a little strange that there was no unique movement in the smoke that would've been made by my movements?"
"Movement?" Rias parroted, Kunou giving off a haughty laugh at the sheer confusion present upon the Occult club president's face.
"Really? Even I know about that! It's basic logic!" the young fox girl scolded, her tails flicking back and forth playfully. "When something is somewhere, something else can't be there at the same time! That means the smoke couldn't be in the place I was and would have to be pushed out of the way as I moved."
'Displacement of matter: different matter can't exist in the same location at the same time.' Rias repeated mentally in a more easily understood fashion. The fact that there wasn't any displacement of smoke meant that either she wasn't in the smoke or had found a way to mask her movement.
"And to add to that, you wasted so many attacks in the blind search for me. You also didn't take a step from your place, meaning it was an easy task to literally attack you without you ever knowing about it until it was too late." Kunou listed, the slight sound echoing out being the shattering of the president's pride by the second. "Do you really think that's going to help you win the fights you're going to get into?"
"It's simply been beaten into my head so much, it didn't occur to me." Rias attempted to excuse, but the only reply was a tut with a shake of the head, from someone around half her age!
"Even though I've only started my training, I was told repeated not to stay in one place or risk someone being able to make their attack connect. What sort of training were you doing before this?" the Yokai leader's daughter questioned incredulously.
"I was trained by some of the best tutors!" the Gremory was quick to announce. It wasn't exactly a lie, even if it wasn't true. The best tutors had been hired for her, but she had never really progressed to far into the training before she was off to the human world on her own request. The most she had gotten was to improve her aim and speed in the usage of the power of destruction on static targets, as well as tactical knowledge.
"Well those tutors must really suck!" Kunou spat back, blowing a raspberry to her senior. Did the girl show no respect!? "Well anyway, I'm the teacher now, and we're doing things my way!"
"Your way?"
"The way I'm stealing from my teachers!" it was the proud pose, Kunou's eyes closed in immense self-congratulations that really sold it. How someone could be so happy while declaring that their methods were stolen off of someone else, Rias may never know. "Anyway, we're swapping this around. You've got to avoid getting hit by me. You have until you manage a hit on me."
Hopefully with this method, she would be given a bigger motivation to learn how to create her attacks while on the move or risk burning all of her clothes to the hell fires of Kunou! With their positions quickly swapped, Kunou raised her hand as far as it could, a smirk dancing upon her lips as she looked to her now slightly apprehensive opponent.
"Ready? Then let's… rock!" a shot immediately collided with Kunou's original opposition, a blonde bullet launching up out of the cloud, white kimono unstained as she sent a storm of fire in the crimson princess of destruction's way. The fact that she had taken to wearing a white kimono was purely to taunt Rias, the lack of dirt and sweat signalling the minimal effort she had to put in to not just meet, but exceed her senior's skills.
Three bursts of the power of destruction met the raging flames, the immediate issue presenting itself to Rias: at this rate, she would be tired out even faster! But there was no time to think on that, a second load of blaze aimed her way.
And she liked this shirt…
Let's hold it there. so, we're edging closer to a lovely little conflict with a phoenix! There's someothing potentially interesting to come and I plan to use what I have to its fullest potential! I've still got six more spaces to fill! and I don't think that will be the end of the growth... but what does that even mean? I'll let you figure that one out as well.
1 - Dragon (Ophis: scale slicer)
2 - Kitsune (Kunou: Kit o' nine tails)
3 - Technomancer (Starway Rider: .EXE(but!)cuter)
4 - ?
5 - ?
6 - ?
7 - ?
8 - ?
9 - ?
0 - ErRoR (woman: ErRoR)