trans_9 | Target Practice

Since living in the new castle with Ruffnut, Mindy had done her best to maintain upkeep, even "borrowing" a few things from the wreckage of Grand Central to spruce up the place. It helped, especially since the events of the homecoming, to keep her head busy. On the one hand, yes, dad had appeared: he wasn't dead, he was proud to know they won, and for just a little bit? She got to be a little girl again, to crack wise with her dad, to show him how far she'd gotten.

But then he was gone again, and the new pod pop didn't bring him out. She shouldn't have hoped for it, but she had, a little. Once that was a no go though, she was either training or helping Ruffnut patch up some of the frayed tapestries or fix up carpeting or overall making sure there were no holes for them to fall through anywhere. It had been good, but even Ruffnut had sort of side stepped asking her about dad. It was something she appreciated: Mindy wasn't known for easily delving into her feelings.

This naturally led to another thing on her mind: what had happened on the mission, where the Castle gun shootout had almost taken her out- SHOULD have, if it was anyone else. She had severely underestimated what she could do: the way she;d moved, the accuracy in each shot, the sheer carnage: that was akin to a limit break.

And now, she wanted to control it.

She emptied herself of all thought: that was how a fight in the dark was, if you had no edge. There were only a few precious seconds to gather your mind, and then you opened your eyes and all hell broke loose. Your eyes and your hands had to work in tandem then, and you pulled back and took out people one by one until you got the job done or you were dead.

Like now: it was those gun slingers from the castle, and she started with ten at first, taking them out easily. The background was the saloon again, only she made it bigger to accomdate the increase in shooters.She cursed to herself (it was too quick!) then brought the number to fifteen, then twenty.

Each took less time, and Hit Girl nodded: she HAD gotten better. She wasn't even using Zetta's gun or her artifact, and she was still taking these bastards down.

"All right: switch it to forty, and place them all over the bar."

Ok. GO.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, that!" Hit girl exclaimed, staring at him like he had five heads. "You mean to tell me that THAT isn't fucking cool where you come from? Because its really bad ass where I'm from, trust me. We can't do anything like that. I don't know why you'd even say something like it isn't great. You're nuts!"

Man, what she wouldn't give to have a sweet ass weapon like that! And he pulled it out all cool and everything! And what was better, if he could do that, they could train, couldn't they? The possibilities for what that could do was endless! Hell, she wouldn't mind pulling out that sword as one of her weapons! How did he not see the bad ass of this?

"Who's Amidamaru though? Another kind of weapon?"

He was giggling bashfully, cheeks a nice shade of crimson. "Heh, well, yeh, I mean, I guess most of my Oversoul types are pretty cool..."

"You, really think it's that awesome?"

"Nope." He puffed out his chest proudly. "Amidamaru is my Guardian Ghost. They're our partners. Our true partners. It's all well and good going around having different spirit partners but you won't be strong that way. Having a Guardian Ghost is having someone you grow with, you bind with and understand each other. You get that, right? You've got a partner. I mean, it's fine having a few guys you can count on in a pinch to help you out but you'll never fight as well with them as you do with Ruffnut, right?"

Hana smiled. "It's like that. And Amidamaru, well, he was my dads Guardian Ghost first. They went through alot together. Amidamaru was an unbeatable samurai who died 600 years ago, but he's not like normal human ghosts, because he was so loyal to my dad he was able to let go of the ego human spirits have and become a higher class of spirit. He and dad have been friends since dad was my age. And then dad gave him to me. I've known him all my life."

His smile turned sad. "I miss him."

Aw, that was too cute. It reminded her a little bit of Negi in a way, except with less of that super genius ring to it. It was hard for her not to like Hana.

"Yeah, are you kidding? Your hand became a fucking sword! How is that ever uncool? It's like Ash's chainsaw hand, but with a sword!"

Now she got it. "Yeah, you have to have your human partner. I totally get that now. It sucks not to have that one person that completes your step, you know? And yeah, actually, you're right. I can probably fight alongside a lot of people, I sorta trained to do that. But if its with Ruff, we know how we work with each other best. We complete each other as partners on the battlefield."

She grinned, remembering that prom where they invaded and took that pony hostage. That was cool.

"Is there anyway he might be on the ship?"

"Heh. I guess one day I might be able to show you how I fight with it. I'm alot better with it than I am when I tried to fight you with nothing." That would certainly show his skills off more.

"Well, maybe I'll show you the Oversoul me and Amidamaru do sometime. I mean, I might not have him here with me, but I can make pretty much anything in these places, right?" He gestured around the Sensorium. "I could at least let you know what it looks like." Hana allowed himself a smug grin, he did like his true Oversoul a lot. "It's pretty badass."

"I don't really know how she goes about getting spirits on the ship. Even if he is here, he must be sealed away pretty tight somewhere, I can't sense him."

"Yeah, you better, are you joking? I'd love to take you on with the sword! We better not use the real one though: one bad move and I'm going to be pretty skewered. It was gross seeing that dude piss all over himself, but I'm not so stupid I couldn't see why."

Not that she thought she would ever make a bad move, of course, but better safe than sorry? She didn't need to go dying early.

"Yeah, you can. There are some people who are scared of the Sensoriums, but they're just cowards. I definitely want to spar with you with one of those weapons! Seriously, why the hell haven't we been hanging out more?"

She shrugged. "Stacy is Stacy. She'll find a way." Hi, Hit girl has a smug smile of her own.

"Sparring with you again would be awesome! I mean, whenever you're free!"

That was a fair question. Hana was actually closer to Hit Girls age than Ruffnuts, and they got along pretty damn well.

He gave her a smile but it was ever so slightly lopsided. Hana didn't want to admit it but sometimes, not enough that he could be totally sure, but still when he'd seen Hit Girl while hanging out with Ruffnut he could swear he sensed... something in the way she looked at him. He wasn't sure what, but it made him kinda nervous.

"I dunno. Maybe coz you're really busy?"

"Oh." Yeah, THAT would be why they haven't sparred more often. She was always busy, wasn't she? Well, she'd have to go and make time, of course. She was Hit Girl, she was amazing! She would find a way. Still wished she understood what she had felt earlier, that stupid weird jealousy, but she was SO over that! It's not like it made any sense anyway, right?"

"Well, I'll just make time. If you're hanging out at Ruffnut's place a lot, we'll have to meet eventually, right? Definitely get to do that! It;s kinda sad, but I don't really have a lot of friends my age, ya know?"

Hana gave her a bright grin that seemed to fill the room. "Sounds cools! It'd be great for us all to hang together!"

"Well, we're about the same age, but friends don't need to be, right?"

"Nah, but most of the friends I have on the ship are older than me, in case you haven't noticed. It's kinda nice to have someone as cool as me that's actually my age, you know?"

Wow. Those two as friends were bound to get into trouble.

Target Practice

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject