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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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.

Without hesitation, he tightened his turn and drew his arm back in instead, whipping around in one fluid motion to simultaneously dodge her blow and aim a roundhouse kick at her in counterattack.

And that definitely got her. It hit her pretty bad, and she fell back, but was not about to let him get another chance at an attack. She reared her legs back, and the moment her back hit the floor she launched herself forward, bow again in hand, going straight for the face.

Since she'd made it quite clear through her actions that she wasn't going to accept a polite exhibition match, this time he hadn't waited for her to recover, nock her arrow back, and fire; he simply followed her forward through her fall, aiming his fist directly at her face as she launched herself at him.

And while his fist connected, her bow was also coming down as hard as she could muster onto his shoulder, though it was now getting harder to see when you had a fist hit you that hard in the cheek. It was lucky she had turned her face, otherwise it would have hit her pretty hard in the eye and made the fight all the worse for her.

He took the blow, same as the first, but this time he backed away. She might still be willing to fight, but he wasn't. Rather, if he'd known she was going to take it this far in the first place, he'd never have agreed to the bout.

"I think that's enough," he said, extending a hand in case she needed steadying. "You learned what you wanted, did you not?"

She got up, trying to shake her head a little. It was a hell of a fight, but she had to admit it: right now, she was no match for this guy. The next time though, they really should have defined HOW they were going to fight. Chances were he had no idea how much she was going to get into what they were doing. That, and people pretty much freaked out about that anyway.

"Sure, sure," she said, and she did take his hand, not too proud to accept the help. "Man, you're really good. I really am going to have to find a way to compensate for size: I don't really have a chance with the height difference. Not that I'm whining: I know when I'm beaten."

"No, I believe you handled the size differential admirably, and you obviously have the ability to handle a wide range of weapons." His face looked pretty impassive, as always, but his compliments were quite honest. "But those weapons were also limited in efficacy by our environment."

"You are also an extremely tenacious opponent. If we are ever enemies, I believe I may have to kill you." Or try, anyway. He predicted from her behavior during the fight that she would take this as the praise it was intended to be.

She nodded. "I has a feeling at hand to hand you would have the upper hand: so I had to improvise. But you were able to compensate for what I pulled out: I mean, most people would have gotten thrown off guard, but you held up well. Dad would have loved you."

She nodded. "If I didn't get told that, it means I'd have a lot more training to do," she said, grinning. "At the very least, the Overlord would be pretty pleased."

"My world contains... a lot of surprises, when it comes to fighting unknown opponents." That was the understatement of the year. "If you cannot adapt quickly, you will almost certainly be killed."

For the first time, he smiled -- just a little, but it was noticeable. "I am glad that you're not the type to be easily discouraged. I'm sure you are an excellent student."

He paused. "I don't believe I ever introduced myself. My name is Zouichi."

"Yeah, mine too," Hit Girl said, "although its nowhere near as cool as yours, there are assassins, bombs, ways to cheat, that kind of things. I always have to kind of adapt to what's happening. There was that one time that guy came out with the machine gun...that was pretty intense."

She shook her head. "Training doesn't mean you get off easy. If anything, you don't really go anywhere if you're just in it for the easy way out. You have to be ready to go all in."

He hadn't, how had she not noticed this? "I'm Hit Girl, but you know, maybe one day I can just show people who I am really. For now, I'm still seeing if I can trust people on this ship."

Zouichi's smile turned a little wry. "I'm not sure I'd call it 'cool', but it certainly was 'intense'. This ship feels quite peaceful by contrast." Which wasn't necessarily a good thing, at least not for long periods of time.

He nodded. "Pleased to meet you. I don't know if they'll be worthy of your trust, but I've found a few I'd consider friends."

"Yeah, which sucks," Hit Girl said, rolling her eyes. "I mean, a few days, maybe its all right, but after that you start to get restless, you know? Its why I look forward to the Overlord's training, or learning a new fighting or the missions. I need something to do."

She nodded. "Same here. The Overlord is truthful, that Sasami girl and Negi kid is ok. And, of course, there's Ruffnut. She's one of the more awesome people on the ship. She's a freaking viking."

"I... do." He blinked in surprise. "In fact, I usually refrain from talking about the restlessness, because mentioning that I miss the battles gives off the impression that I'm..." A psycho, maybe? Because most people don't miss nearly getting their heads kicked in on a daily basis.

"...at any rate, I know the feeling."

"I've met Ruffnut, actually. In fact, I stunned her by accident, something I still need to apologize for."

He didn't have to say it: Hit Girl laughed, holding up her hand. "Yeah, at least you're old enough where it just seems like you have a restless fighting syndrome. There's a reason why I don't want to be part of the psych evaluations."

She knew damn well how crazy she was, she didn't need someone else telling her. "I understand though, trust me. When you're someone that fights, you don't let go of that easily."

She laughed. "I can't see her getting too upset about that. Just give her the chance to get you back, you'll be ok."

"The psych evaluations." He looked a little grim. "I am not looking forward to them, either -- but I hope the attending will at least refrain from insisting I develop a healthy outlook on life." What was a healthy outlook for a nonhuman killing machine? Figuratively, of course.

"Yes, it's... difficult. I cannot afford to lose my fighting skills, but people keep telling me to enjoy the break in between attacks. There is only so much relaxation any person can engage in."

"I will take your word for it -- but she seemed fairly angry at the time." Maybe she'd cooled off since then, though. That was possible.

"I'm looking forward to not taking them," she said, stretching almost idly. "I know enough how crazy I am, I don't need some headshrinker deciding it for himself. Besides, its not like I'm some psychopath going around slicing people up for fun. I slice up the psychopaths. That's gotta count for something, right?"

She shook her head. "I'll take some relaxing time, but I'm not looking to get comfortable. There's way too much going on for me to be lying around. The hell with that school learning and shit they do to make me quiet. I'm a fighter, its what I was meant to do."

She shook her head. "Trust me, she's been through worse. Why did you accidentally stun her anyway?"

He shook his head. "I suppose it's reassuring to most of the crew members to have someone rubberstamp the sanity of the rest of their shipmates. But anyone determined enough could probably find a way to slip through the cracks."

"School learning? Do you attend classes aboard the ship?"

"I was one of several people affected by some kind of magical curse. Unfortunately, it chose to manifest for the first time while I was talking to Ruffnut, and she assumed that I was responsible. I probably should have reacted a little more... judiciously, but I'm not used to being accused of having magical powers and using them against people." In fact, he hadn't known magic had existed until someone on the ship had explained it to him.

"Oh come on," Hit girl said. "If you're a smart crazy person, all you have to do is lie, I can't see how they woudl know. And if you're not smart enough to lie about it, then people woudl have already noticed how crazy you are to begin with."

She rolled her eyes. "No, I'm a little more concerned about my living situation than my book smarts right now. I go to the library when I can of course, but otherwise I'm all about trying to fight the Ohm."

Hit girl laughed here. "In that case, just tell her about it being some magical randomness. She ought to know by now that stuff like that happens at the drop of a hat. I'm surer she'll understand."

"The doctor could be psychic," he offered. That was a discouraging thought, one he liked even less than the idea of someone scrutinizing some psych profile and asking him hours of questions about Freudian gobbledygook. "But I agree. An ordinary evaluation has the potential to miss warning signs altogether. I'd consider it more important to keep track of who is and isn't on the ship." Since apparently people were repodded left and right.

"Hmm, I thought education might be compulsory. It is on my version of Earth; at least until you are considered legally old enough to opt out." He wondered if there was a school here on the ship; he hadn't run across it.

"Ah, then, I'll do just that. This place does seem to get its share of... magical oddities." Like that time Aibghalien had exploded beer all over the Jedi Temple.

"Yeah, I like the idea of a psychic Psychiatrist even less," Hit Girl said. "All in all, I think what you're saying makes a lot more sense then the stupid evaluations. I don't need anyone telling me whether I am or am not fit for duty on this ship. So long as I'm not going around knifing people for kicks I think they should let me do what I need to."

She grinned. "Aw, come on. You mean to say you've never heard of the kid adage 'I'm not doing it and you can't make me?' I thought that was universal."

Hit Girl raised an eyebrow. "More than its fair share, honestly. It'll get someone killed someday, I swear."

"So, since you're not planning to take part in the evaluations... what will they do? Try to force you into it?"

He shook his head. "I was never a 'kid', at least not in the traditional sense. Although I do remember being quite stubborn."

"I certainly hope not. That is what the Magical department is for."

...although come to think of it, they hadn't been the ones to put a stop to that magical curse.

"Supposedly, but they'll have to find me first," she said, "and then they'll have to hogtie me to a chair and THEN they'll have to deal with a kid staring at them for however long they plan to do thuis evaluation. I'm not telling them shit."

She quirked an eyebrow. "You weren't a kid? How did that happen?"

There was something different about him, but she didn't know what that was yet.

"Oh yeah, the magical department. Do they actually do a good job?"

He had to choke back a laugh -- the image of Hit Girl tied to a chair, trying to kick the psychiatrist in the face...!

Well, he assumed she had gathered he wasn't human, by now. "I was raised in the Shiki-- a simulator. I'm a Synthetic Human, so my body was constructed as an adult's."

"I don't know, honestly. The few members I've met seem to be competent... but of course, I'm not the best judge of magical ability."

Tightrope

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