trans_9 | Tightrope

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Tightrope

It had been a few days since the Outsider's gathering, where Hit Girl had finally been able to utilize her strength and talent to help others. All in all, it went pretty well: choices were made, friendships were had, blah blah and kumbaya. What SHE had wanted to show was that she was the type of girl who got the job done, and if anyone needed to be reminded, she would show that to them. Grabbing the flag had just been the start: now she wanted to make sure that whatever happened next, she would be ready, she would show people the type of person her daddy trained.

Which led to today's excursion in the Sensorium: she was doing tightrope walking, one of her weaker points, in order to maintain balance and poise. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop had demanded both, and while she had mastered that, she had not yet made her foray to really careful jumping in tight spots. To give her some energy, she had this playing in the background, and she jumped from rope to rope, her eyes concentrating, her tongue sticking out slightly in concentration.

Each step took courage, and the slightest imperfection would result in her falling, although of course it wouldn't be that big of a deal when you were in the Sensorium anyway. Despite this, Hit Girl demanded nothing less than imperfection: once she had this mastered, going to Negi and learning the delayed spells would be next, not to mention training Sasami.

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"Where I'm from, defeating them means you kill them," Hit Girl said flatly. "There are humans that are supposed to take down criminals without killing them, those are cops. My dad used to be one too. The problem is humans are bought and sold pretty easily these days, and when my dad refused to be, he was wrongfully imprisoned. My mom took her life in grief, and dad learned a lesson: to take down criminals, you can't BE on the side where killing is the last resort. They don't play by the rules, and they'll do whatever they can to take you out. So you have to be a vigilante, be willing to do the things a normal hero wouldn't do."

Not she felt she needed to defend herself, or that she would stop killing an enemy. If anything, the Ohm were proof that restraint meant death. The idea that you could take out an enemy without killing them was still something she looked at as fiction and going along with heroes with super powers. When she was strong enough to b an overlord, then she would feel safe enough to NOT kill her enemy.

"He went out doing what he had to," she said. "And one of those things was making sure I was safe."

"So your father made a choice to be a vigilante, in order to protect the things that he cared about," said Zouichi. "He came to the conclusion that abandoning his former principles and taking human lives was an acceptable price for accomplishing what he wanted."

"If you are comfortable with this decision and proud of him for making it, I do not understand why you seem so angry with those who chose not to."

Was this guy really trying to summarize what she and her dad had been through? It seemed so nonsensical to her: didn't he get by now that every world was different?

"My dad learned that you have to work outside of the law to protect some of the good things you love," Hit Girl said. "But its not a god or bad decision to me, just one that had its own consequences. It means he had to train me to be a competent fighter and killer, and there was the risk I either reject that, or NOT reject it and go down the path he chose, even if it meant I might die. And the consequence for ME is that my life becomes nothing resembling what a normal life is for someone as young as I am."

She looked skeptical. "Dude, I'm not angry at people who choose to take that way of life: if anything, they're lucky. It means they either have the strength to not kill and can do that, or it mean the law enforcement in their world aren't under the thumb of criminals. If anything, I'm probably a little envious there, but its just not something that works in my world."

What Hit Girl was saying made little sense to Zouichi; if she truly believed deciding to kill was no better than deciding not to kill, why all the speeches about why killing was necessary, and why did she feel the need to distinguish herself so clearly from the rest of the crew? She had certainly emphasized time and again how different her choices had made her from everyone else; in his experience, humans did this most often when they were convinced the other side was wrong.

If her father's choices were not good or bad, right or wrong, why did she feel the need to explain at such length why refraining from taking human life would be utterly futile? If her father had "learned a lesson" when he'd decided to become a vigilante, a decision she had clearly accepted, did that not imply that this second decision was the correct one?

At least she seemed be acknowledging that there were other worlds out there, in which a more pacifist outlook might be just as valid. Still, it was probably best to bow out of the discussion -- she seemed frustrated, and he simply didn't have much experience speaking to younger people. "They are indeed lucky," he agreed, "At any rate, I believe I've spent more time here than I meant to. I will find another location to train. Good luck with your exercises."

"I didn't say you had to leave or anything," Hit Girl said. "I man, I guess I kinda get the music's not your style, but you're free to train however you want, I guess. Besides, it might be cool to see how somebody else trains on the ship. Go crazy."

She had always needed to kill, and she had, because she was on the ship, felt it necessary to explain why. It wasn't easy, killing as freely as she did and explaining why, since no one really expected a twelve year old to be such an eager killer, so of course the explanations came. Sure, she could essentially say "fuck what you think," but more and more, that just seemed like a cowardly way to do things, especially when she was going to proceed how she wanted in the end, no matter what anyone said.

He blinked. "I would need quite a change of scenery in order to practice, actually -- I usually practice against multiple combatants. Well, virtual combatants."

Zouichi didn't have a lot of face time with twelve-year-olds who could kill, but he didn't have much with twelve-year-olds that couldn't, either. He had to rely on how an average adult would react or say.

"It's the Sensoriums," Hit Girl said. "And anyway, if you're all squeamish about fighting a little girl, I've killed a lot of guys. At the very least, this place won't let you kill anyway."

Besides, she was actually really curious about this guy's fighting style. Hell, she didn't even know if he was human: the Major was a reason to always wonder if what you were fighting was human or not.

"You want me to fight... you? It seems I misunderstood. Most of the people I've met here have been uninterested in fighting." Let alone sparring.

"Do you usually fight hand-to-hand? I don't mind, but I need to know how gauge how much force to use. Unless the Sensoriums also guard against damage from other crew members."

"Well yeah," Hit Girl said, looking a little amused. "It's not like I'm on vacation. My world is destroyed and there's an alien scourge responsible for it destroying more. I figure the best way to hammer out a grudge is getting stronger and beating the tar out of them. I don't get why anyone wouldn't want to be fighting."

Pacifists. So useless sometimes.

"Yeah, I do. Uh, regular kind of force, I guess? Don't be afraid, just, you know, if you're a cyborg, try to refrain from breaking anything? I kinda need my limbs."

"I understand," he said. Perhaps it was best to simply start out light and increase the amount of strength he used as he gauged her abilities.

"Whenever you're ready."

"Got ya," Hit Girl said, and started to stretch out her muscles forst. He had mentioned that he wanted to habve the simulation in his sort of circumstances, and she had no intentnion of denying him that: if left to her, she'd probably have it take place in that Berk battle arena where they trained against dragons.

After a few minutes, she was full stretched out, and she started moving slowly towad him, arms out. "Ready."

Zouichi didn't try to change the scenery. He did settle into a ready stance, slightly modified since his opponent was smaller than usual, but made no move towards her as she approached, instead taking the time to gauge her reach.

He'd estimate her strength at the level of an average adult male. Zouichi nodded to her; it was only polite to allow her to go first.

Ok. No changing the scenery? She'd do that: and they were in the dragon traning arena, a reasonable facsimile of Ruffnut, Overlord Zetta and a few of the Outsiders in the stands, whooping it up. Alongside them, however, was some of D'Amico's men, jeering and very clearly hoping for her downfall. That was more than enough for her.

She started by rushing forward, using one of the nearby walls and a jumping point and she was on him quick, her long reaching staff at hand. They hadn't quite agreed on what terms they'd go yet, weapons or non, but she could tell he was the type that would have anticipated it nonetheless.

Edited 2011-03-22 23:39 (UTC)

He didn't recognize the environment, but it looked like some kind of arena setting. An odd choice for a practice match. A few of the faces in the crowd were familiar, but most were not.

When Zouichi saw her go for her staff, his hand was at his side at an instant, bringing the GBE pistol up out of its holster to meet the impact using the bottom of the gun's barrel. He didn't pull the trigger, of course, but twisted his grip on the weapon sharply, to perform a quick parry. He gave it precisely enough force to knock a man off balance.

The environment she had already been planning on, the spectators was something she came up with on the fly. Personally, she would have liked Overlord Zetta and Ruffnut here to watch her, but she was fine with this facsimile.

What she had not expected was that he would have a gun all his own: if she knew that, she would have had her own now. What he did have, though, was strength enough to knock her back, enough so she actually needed to keep herself from falling over. It had been lucky she had fought men bigger than her, or she definitely would have fallen on her back right now.

"Sweet," she said, and she came at him again, this time a little faster, going for the midsection this time.

They had only just started, and she was already breaking a sweat.

It seemed that his initial estimate would suffice.

Zouichi realized that he'd forgotten to ask her to clarify the rules of this bout, and what would constitute winning, losing, or cheating. The only guideline she'd offered was to refrain from breaking bones. Perhaps the best course of action was to aim for a stalemate.

He leapt backwards slightly to avoid her attack, using the opportunity to aim an experimental sweeping kick at her legs.

Rules schmules. If anything, they would learn them as they went along. Hit girl knew now that if Zouichi used a gun, she could use her own, though so far there were no projectile weapons in use, so she was going to stick with her short range weapon.

Sweeping of the legs was a good tactic, and Hit girl just barely moved out of the way and still got clocked pretty good in the kneecaps. She winced, but shot her bow toward Zouichi as she went down, hoping to get a hit out the deal.

Zouichi had merely pulled the gun in response to her sudden use of her own weapon; in that instant, he'd decided that she was used to using any available advantage in a confrontation, which meant that the staff might also hold additional surprises. He really had to look into obtaining a combat baton or something a little less lethal; he couldn't be subduing people with a beam emitter.

Hit Girl's elbow did hit him, directly in the chest. Zouichi gauged that it would have hurt a great deal if he were human. But he wasn't, so he merely backed off. Pursuing the opening would have violated the impasse; instead, he waited for her to gather her next attack.

With that hit, Hit Girl figured out a few things: Zouichi was either not human or was at least pretty well armored. In any case, she was going to have to keep at him, looking for a weak spot, or she might as well be hitting a punching bag. She took the bow and retracted it quickly.

She went toward Zouichi again, and this time she came at him with her pistols drawn. She fired a few shots toward the chest: in the Sensoriums, they were really more like explosive B.B.'s, though they woudl still sting.

Part of her wanted to know how good of a shot he was, and the other wanted to see if she could avoid what he shot her way.

As soon as he spotted her reaching for her pistols, he dove behind a wall for cover. From the sound of the shots against its surface, he gauged that they were not nearly as powerful as ordinary bullets, and thus not likely to cause him harm. But still, pulling a gun on someone for a practice match?

"If you are trying to test my aim," he said, "I should inform you that I cannot actually fire my current pistol at you. I have no idea what effect it would have in the Sensoriums."

What he could fire at without reservation, however, was inanimate objects. He brought himself out partially from behind his cover, pulling the trigger several times in the short instant before he retracted his arm. The pistol clicked quietly as he did so, and portions of a wall near Hit Girl were simply and suddenly gone, punched out in neat circular holes about two feet wide each. Its foundation dismantled, it fell, and if she didn't dodge, it would fall right on top of her, pinning her down.

Hit Girl's perception was ever alert, especially at a time like this. She had no idea what to expect from this guy, or what he was capable of doing. Of course she never planned for the bullets to hit him, it was why she had shot them lazily: she was curious to see if he would actually use his own, and if he did, how good of a shot he was.

A moment later, she found out.

She could see now that he was definitely not human, not when he could use his arm as a weapon and take out chunks of a wall. She was all too familiar with what happened when foundation started to get chipped at though, and jumped out of the way immediately. She took a breath as she saw the wall falling, and the bow was out again as Hit girl ran to gain more ground with their initial separation.

She realized this left her open, but only for a moment.

Zouichi took the opportunity to dart out from his current spot, using additional obstacles as cover as he ran towards her and leveled his pistol...

...at her ground near her feet. A large gouge opened in the ground right in front of her, approximately three feet in diameter; if she wasn't quick on her feet, she was liable to fall right in.

And Hit Girl, of course, was not one to just go rushing into things. That was more of a Ruffnut kind of thing, and while she was starting to take some of her ways of fighting in, jumping into the fray was something she was actually more careful about than most.

She danced backward, and ran around the gorge, guns in hands again and firing a few projectiles toward him.

There was no point in dodging her gunshots now that he knew they were nonlethal; BBs would have little effect on him even outside of the Sensoriums. He merely continued to run towards her, bringing up one arm to guard his vision, using the time it took her to fire to close the gap between them.

When he deemed he was close enough, he aimed a punch directly at her center of mass, this time with enough force to simply drop a man.

Well crap. She had hoped that it would have some kind of effect on him, and she really didn't want to bring out her wand: she hadn't learned how to do delayed spells yet, and it wasn't as if he would have any good anyway.

Buts he did see what he was doing, and before he could go for the hit she jumping up, aiming to land a hit to his temple.

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I'm going to assume that's an elbow?

Re: I'm going to assume that's an elbow?

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Huh? No, he just fired his gun. His arm isn't a weapon.

Oh, ok, I was actually REALLY wondering about that. Thanks!

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