Another few days had passed, and the only thing keeping me sane during these fucking sparring sessions was knowing that shooting would come next.
Rin didn't even comment on my flaws anymore, probably expecting me to somehow figure them out myself. Our individual fights had increased from an average of five minutes to almost eight; I kept track, looking over my shoulder at the clock between each one. Each one that I still lost.
I leaned back, dodging a swift strike aimed towards my face, and countered with a swing towards her knee. She easily deflected it. Throwing the end of her staff into the air, and dragging mine with it, she exposed my left side and swung for it. But I was ready. It was a maneuver of hers I had seen almost every fight and was almost always my downfall. But this time I lowered my left hand, catching her just in time. With a spin, I jabbed at her exposed stomach. She leaped out of the way with the speed of a darting rabbit.
Whenever I thought I had finally found an upper hand on her, she threw out some crazy move I had never seen before. I had only just begun to successfully react to her new strikes with my improvised counters to some success. I had also become familiar with her expressions, knowing exactly where she was going to strike from her analytical eyes. She had the habit of darting her eyes towards her path just before she followed them, making it just a bit easier to judge her movements and respond accordingly.
She's getting tired, I realized with a burst of confidence. With a stab at her ribs, she deflected with a sweep of her pole, sidestepping with it and, to my pleasure, stumbling along the way. Her movements were growing slow and clumsy, and I finally felt a victory coming on. Finally.
My confidence convinced me to attack more furiously. One swipe towards her leg, she dodged backwards. A stab towards my ribs, I parried. Rising my weapon over my head, I brought it down towards her shoulder. She shifted the pole into one hand, and I watched, stunned, as she deflected the shot with the pole, and used her free hand to slap her palm into my wrist. Pain shot up my arm, and I dropped the pole. My other hand instinctively grabbing at my throbbing wrist.
"Dead."
Just when my fucking knee heals, too.
It wasn't broken, I could tell that much. If anything, it was just a minor sprain. Nothing a little shooting wouldn't fix.
But the increasing number of losses I had suffered only ticked up one more, and I was furious at losing my only chance. "You didn't tell me we were allowed to-"
"Anything goes in hand-to-hand combat," she said, resting the staff on her shoulder. She was breathing heavily, too. "Gotta learn it all."
Mother fucker. My wrist didn't hurt nearly as bad as my pride. It was like I couldn't win, no matter what. It wasn't fair. I was unwillingly dragged into this stupid place to get beat up and thrown around like a rag doll. To be scolded and disciplined like a child. To be looked down on and teased. And I didn't even want to be here.
I didn't reach for the pole on the ground, instead trying to keep myself from erupting into a rage. I had never felt like this before. Never before had I considered myself the hot-headed type, but I felt like I was about to explode.
And somehow, I kept it under control. Even under Rin's condescending glare across the mat.
She seemed to sense that something was wrong. No words left her as she gently set her pole back against the wall, and walked past me out of the room.
"You were close," Flower called behind me. Sometimes she showed up early enough to watch our sparring. Sometimes not. Today was the former.
I didn't respond. Instead, I let go of my wrist, moved my hand a bit to judge the pain, and, after setting my pole on the wall next to Rin's, walked off towards the armory. Flower followed me.
As always, I entered her lessons frustrated. And, as always, it felt good to shoot that frustration into a faceless silhouette. I had moved up to the big guns, literally. They kicked much harder, they shot much farther, and even with ear protection, I left the range daily with a ringing noise to follow.
An hour in, we hadn't spoken a word to each other. Usually, Flower was full of encouraging words to improve my mood. Today seemed different.
I was able to reload, shoot, reload, shoot without any help from her now. Se had barely begun to teach me how to disassemble and reassemble the weapons, which wasn't nearly as fun as shooting them.
I emptied another mag and reached for the next.
"You're stronger than her," Flower suddenly said, her voice muffled from my headphones.
I pulled one side of the protection off of my ear. "What?"
"She beats you because she's fast," Flower explained, leaning against the wall behind me. "She's smaller than you, and she's faster than you. But she's weaker than you."
Hearing about the fight was something I was uninterested in. Especially after I had just gotten it off my mind through shooting. "But… we're fighting with poles. Not fists."
"She hit you today," Flower reasoned. "I'm not telling you to punch her in the face, Len. I'm just saying, she's a lot smaller than you are. You're gonna have to take advantage of that to beat her."
I furrowed my brow, trying to foresee any possible way to use my strength against her in a fight like that.
"That's how she beats you, anyway. She's small and fast, but weak. You're big and strong, but slow. And she takes advantage of the fact that you're slower than her. That's how she beats you."
I knew that, though I had never thought about it in that way before. Her speed was something I had always considered to be her strength, not my weakness. But it made sense. Even in my mind still muddled with anger, it made sense.
Flower pushed herself off the wall. "Let's go check your shots, and then we'll do some more disassembling back in the armory."
"Today's the fun stuff, Len!" Anon called as Flower and I walked into the main room. Kanon sat next to her sister at the table. Rin and Yuma we nowhere to be seen.
Flower and I sat across the table from them.
"We have a contract," Kanon informed me, her eyes trained on the laptop in front of her. She crossed her arms on the table. "What's the first thing we do?"
"Hm?"
Kanon looked expectantly at me.
I let out a huff, folding my hands under the table and thinking. "Um, me and Yuma haven't gone over this stuff, yet-"
"That's okay," she shrugged. "Just guess. We've got a person contacting us for an assassination. What's the first thing we do?"
"Check what they're offering us?"
"Nope. We choose the price. Our clients know that."
"...I guess research the target?"
She shook her head. "Nope. Try again." Kanon was probably closest personality-wise to Rin, though the girl in front of me with still twenty times nicer than my sparring partner.
"Hmm…" I thought, seriously trying to think of an answer. "Ask for more details from the client?"
"Closer, but not quite," she answered politely.
I shrugged.
"We need to research the client, first," she informed me, glancing back down at the laptop. "Make sure they don't have any… ill wills against us. If you get a client, and you do a full background check on them only to find that there's almost no record of them whatsoever, chances are you're talking to someone using a fake identity. If that's the case, you're probably talking to an agent or a cop. You don't even want to respond to those sorts of people. Also-"
From the living wing, Rin emerged with a book in her hand. I purposely avoided my eyes, still ticked off from our sparring.
Kanon started explaining the process of accepting or declining a contract. Flower and Anon occasionally added comments. Rin stayed silent. I listened as intently as I could, though I found myself especially exhausted from my day. The anger really took it out of me.
After a while, Kanon was cut off by the sound of a door opening. I tensed at the noise. There were no doors down here. The sound was unfamiliar, and it had been ingrained in my head that anything unfamiliar was a threat.
But it was just Yuma, appearing at the bottom of the stairs, his clothes soaked and a wide grin on his face. "You guys gotta come up here," he said.
"We're in the middle of a lesson," Flower told him.
"But, it's like, pouring."
Kanon grinned. "You're that impressed by the rain?"
"It never rains here! Come on!" He waved us on and then turned to climb the stairs once again.
I haven't been outside in almost two weeks. The realization hit me like a truck, and I longed for the fresh air. So, giving the girls one last look, I pushed myself away from the table and jogged after him.
"God dammit," I heard Flower curse behind me. And then more chairs scraped against the surface as they followed me.
The stairs were steep. I had passed them countless times during my training but never climbed them. Yuma stood at the top. He cast me a grin. "They're boring, huh-"
"Watch it, Loki," Kanon said from behind me.
He shrugged. "I didn't think you'd come. Anyway-" The door above us was closed, and the green backlight of a keypad shone from the wall. There were no lights in this hallway other than the green shine. Yuma punched in some numbers and pushed the doors open.
I had forgotten what fresh air smelled like.
Living in downtown Los Angeles didn't count as fresh air, either.
The door opened to reveal tall, green pine trees surrounding the small metal door. Dirt and undergrowth spread across the ground, and there was no sign of human life in sight. Completely forgetting about their promise to kill me if I tried to leave, I stepped out of the cellar, looking around wildly. Leave crunched under my shoes as I took my first step out. Some small animal dashed away to my right at the noise, kicking up an array of dirt in the process. The steady sound of rain softly hitting the trees filled the air. It smelled fresh and alive. Everything felt so full of life up here, unlike the plain white walls of the base.
I had no plans of trying to escape. Even if I wanted to, I wasn't stupid enough to even hope of getting away alive. Despite that, I knew the others were watching me carefully. In an odd way, I really was their prisoner. But it didn't bother me too much at the moment.
"Hey, Len," Yuma said from behind me.
I expected him to warn me not to go too far. Almost ten paces already separated me from the door, so I stopped, turning around. "I know, I know. I'm staying-"
I was cut off as a handful of mud splattered against my face.
"Hah! Get fucked, dude."
I wiped the wet dirt from my face, shooting him a glare. "It is on."
I scooped up a handful from the ground, throwing it towards him. The girls nearly screamed as the crossfire pelted them, running to dodge it in response. Rin backed away, clearly uninterested.
"You asshole," Yuma scolded. "Got the girls involved?"
Out of nowhere, Kanon appeared behind him, reaching over his shoulder and smearing a fistful of mud across his cheek. He flinched away as she laughed. "Take that," she said, before jumping away right away.
Even Flower was somewhat trying to retaliate the shots, a small smile tugging at her lips.
Someone pelted Anon in the back of her head, and her hair looked more brown than orange. She screamed in protest but laughed through it.
Yuma hit me with another good shot at the chest, but he couldn't escape the armful Flower and Kanon scooped onto his back. All of us were stained with mud up to our elbows, along with our own battle scars we earned from the fight. Flower took a shot in the leg, Yuma was able to get back at Kanon with a shot in the shoulder.
"This is my favorite jacket, you ass!" She laughed back.
Only Rin had escaped the fight. Because she wasn't participating. I noticed her out of the corner of my eye wandering through the nearby trees as if looking for something.
"How about girls against guys?" Anon proposed with a grin.
"Unfair!" Somehow Yuma had ended up next to me. We were facing the three of them. "There's only two of us-"
"Sucks for you," Flower said, before letting loose another shot. It spattered against Yuma's shoulder. I held up a hand to protect my already-disgusting face from the backsplash.
"You guys are lame," Rin suddenly said, cutting off our laughter. We all turned towards her, and my shoulders slumped. "How about a real fight?" She asked smugly. In her hands were two long, thin sticks that she had plucked from the woods.
You're stronger than her.
Everyone's smile faltered, aware of the tense mood created. My struggle in our fights, both physical and mental, was no secret to the others.
Rin held out one of the sticks expectantly. "Anyone?" The rain continued to pour around us. They weren't like the sparring poles in the gym. They weren't perfectly straight, there were imperfections in the wood that would surely throw off its weight, and the bark wasn't nearly as smooth as I was used to.
Despite all these reasons to say no, my desire to redeem myself overcame my logic, and I stepped forward, grabbing a stick out of her hand.
Her eyes gleamed. This wasn't training anymore. This was a show. With everyone watching. I stepped away from her, the pole in my left hand, until we had the same amount of distance away from us as usual.
She's smaller than you, and she's faster than you. But she's weaker than you.
The rain continued to pour. It was already cleaning the mud off my face. And blurring my vision. We had never fought in these conditions before. Despite the downpour, the air was warm. Or maybe it was the adrenaline.
Turning over the stick in my hands, I tried to adjust myself to its weight and dynamics. It was thicker than the sparring poles, meaning it would be much slower, and hit much harder. I didn't want to hurt her. I had the feeling, however, she wasn't going to be careful with me, so I made no plans to take extra care either.
The others moved off to the side, watching us.
Right from the beginning, I refused to give her the advantage. So, for the first time, I struck first.
She definitely had not expected it. I ran at her with a swing from above me, trying to clip her on the shoulder, but she gripped her stick with both hands, blocking the shot. Bark flew around our faces at the impact, just like the red-hot brass from Flower's guns. I pushed away from her, putting extra force into the shove, and watching as she stumbled back. With a quick pause, she dashed forward, trying to take a swipe towards my head. I ducked, pushing her off to the side. Rising her weapon straight over her head once more, she bore down on me. I deflected, the sticks meeting with a loud whap, and we held the pose for a second.
With her stomach exposed, I didn't want to keep her near me any longer than I had to. So, bracing myself for some sort of yell from the others, I rose my foot and kicked her away from me.
She stumbled back, taken by surprise once more. I heard a few gasps from the others. Surely that was illegal in her little set of rules, I figured. But she said nothing, quickly regaining herself, and looking up at me with that ice blue stare once more before dashing again.
We continued like this in our usual manner, only with much more physical contact than usual. She'd hit my hand away to knock me off my balance, I'd shove my shoulder into her to knock her off hers. There were a few times when she attempted her usual tricks to disarm me, but I was able to successfully counter them all, even getting a few good hits in on her in response. There was still no tearing that stick from her hands, like I wanted to so bad, but I reveled in the fact that I didn't look like a complete idiot in front of everyone.
After minutes of this, the rain seemed to only increase, sticking my hair to my face. Hers clung against her skin as well. Both of our outfits were completely soaked through, making it much more difficult and uncomfortable to execute the maneuvers I needed to avoid defeat, but I did it.
She's weaker than you.
She came at me one last time, gripping the stick with both hands as she tried to rapidly swing at me with both ends. She extended her right arm, I tapped against it to stop. Her left, I tapped against it again. The attacks were quick but weak. Weak. She's weak. I rode out the quick assault, and, at the first pause, I slammed the staff as hard as I could into the center of hers, a blast of satisfaction rolling through me as her stick broke in half with a crack. Her eyes widened, and she tried to attack me with her weapon, now weapons, but I stopped her as I swooped my hand across hers, knocking one of them out of her hand. I didn't stop there. Seeing an opportunity, I jumped forward, completely letting go of my own stick, and grabbed the bottom of her arm. Turning my back, I lifted her completely off the ground, her weight nearly nothing, and pulled her through the air. The other end of her stick slipped out of her hand. I yanked her over my shoulder and slammed her into the ground in front of me.
Who's being thrown around like a rag doll, now?
She landed in a puddle, splashing mud everywhere on her impact. A loud grunt escaped her as the air left her lungs in shock.
Her surprise lasted only a moment before she instinctively rolled into the kneeling position, watching me. Her fighting stance was gone. It was over. She was completely covered in mud, even more than the rest of us. For a few tense moments, the only sound in the forest was the rain.
Ah, shit. I thought, trying to catch my breath. Once my adrenaline wore off, I frowned. I've done it now.
"Holy-" Yuma said beside us, breaking the silence. "That was badass."
"Atta boy," Flower said proudly.
"Woooo!" Anon cheered.
Their words were kind, but my attention was trained on the girl in front of me, our eye contact still unbreaking. I could only imagine the rage building inside of her, the Hell I would have to go through to make this up to her. Slowly, she stood, lowering her head.
I took a deep breath. Here it is. The screaming. I had seen her let out a few angry shouts, specifically when I had learned my code name, but I had never seen her lose her temper before. And I didn't really want to.
The others continued their cheers. My breath caught in my throat when Rin finally rose her head.
She was smiling.
And it wasn't like one of those little smirks she gave Yuma when he said something stupid, or the grins she offered Kanon when interacting with the girl's latest invention, or even the huffs of amusement when she found something funny. No. She was smiling. White teeth showing, corners of her eyes wrinkling, smiling. Seeing her like that, her uniform covered in mud splatter, her hair stuck to her face, and her eyes shining, the thought occurred to me that she was beautiful.
"Good work," was all she said.
"Me next! Me next," Yuma jumped in, swiping the stick from the ground. "But I get the whole one. You get the halves."
Rin moved off to the side. My eyes followed her, trying to see enough of that smile to keep in my memory forever. I had a feeling it would be a while before I saw it again, if ever.
I picked up the halves, discarded and now soaking wet.
Fighting Yuma was like walking in the park compared to fighting Rin. As we attacked each other, I watched her, out of the corner of my eye, as she opened the door, and disappeared down the stairs. Her back was completely covered in brown mud all the way up to her hair.
The next morning, I allowed myself more time eating breakfast, knowing that my sparring sessions with Rin were over, and eternally thankful for it. Without them, I had nothing to do. So I crossed to the gym a bit early to see if Flower was already there.
She was, but she was in the range, clearly practicing herself.
"I thought you weren't gonna show," Rin's voice sounded behind me.
I whirled around, catching sight of her standing on the mat, a sparring pole in each hand. "I… I'm sorry. I thought we were done."
"We are." Something about her voice had changed. Like she didn't see me as a little kid anymore. "But you can never get in enough practice." She held out a hand. "If you want."
She was giving me the option. In the two weeks I had been here, I would never have even imagined sparring her for fun. But, the more I thought about it, it really was pretty fun when we were evenly matched. When I wasn't losing every single time.
I considered the pole in her hand. Fuck it. Taking a step onto the mat, I grabbed it from her.
While her smile was long gone, she looked pleased. "You ready?"
"Hell yeah, I'm ready."
She jumped forward before the words completely left my lips.
I'm expecting this to be about thirty chapters. When I started it, I was anticipating no more than fifteen. I have a problem.
I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this story. Your reviews and follows make my day :)
Thanks for reading!
