trans_9 | I don't know what you're going to do, but I have work to do.

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I don't know what you're going to do, but I have work to do.

People dealt with things in different ways. In Mindy's case, she had continued severing people in the cafe. The hours were rough, her sleep patterns shifted, and she had told herself to take it easy after the ejecting from the Sensoriums by Overlord Zetta. Much like a bartender though, working in the kitchens meant hearing people's conversations, and that led to the topic most people were talking about: the Daligig, the former crew and the inevitable fight for the ship. This wasn't just gossip: it was legit information, and while she could skim over Howard's really long summary, it was Allenby's that hit home. Sure, she had that dumb phobia about tech that was irritating, but she was truthful.

And that meant training time had to happen. NOW.

She didn't waste any time either. Quick to the Sensoriums, Hit Girl costume on and the simulation began ten minutes after intense push ups, stretching and a little running.

She learned something in the past few weeks: the only way to really train yourself was to push, and that push had to keep going and going and make you better. So now she was back again against the Daleks, testing her ability to dodge and run and make things fall on them. Then came that duel with Aqua, where she got much, MUCH better with a blade. Then she was back to attacking SAINTS and the hark robots, making sure there were twice as many.

But the grand finale? Shadow Zetta, unstoppable, merciless, and constantly coming at her. Even in the aftermath of broken robots and a beaten Aqua, she couldn't come close to landing a hit on shadow Zetta that mattered. Yet here she was, going at it again and again, and somehow, the audience were smug looking members of the Daligig, looking like Ceasars at a lion feeding.

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Hit girl winced, shaking her head. "Had to go there, didn't you?"

"Hey, you asked. Besides, it's reality," he said, shrugging.

"Reality sucks sometimes," Hit Girl muttered, but its not like there was much more she could say in response. "Thanks though, for this. I needed it."

It was underselling what she meant, but he could see that, right?

"What are you, kidding? I'll grant that the, uh, monthly thing will be a pain in the ass, but other than that... physically, at the very least, you're going to grow up into an amazing woman. You should be proud of that, because your strength and dedication will make it happen," Morgan said, a bit thoughtfully.

"You're welcome, though. It was nice to stretch."

"Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that," Hit Girl said, who hadn't even been thinking of that and hated the idea. Bleeding from a wound you got was one thing, but out of your cooch? The idea was just really really bothersome.

The other words had been lost for the moment, but now she was remembering what he said. "Oh, uh, thanks, actually. But yeah, I plan to keep doing what I'm doing, no matter what kind of body I grow into."

She laughed. "Aw, just a stress?"

He lifted his eyebrows. "I wasn't fighting back, remember?"

Oh yeah. Damn.

"So I guess that means I gotta get good enough where I can take you on and you don't have to hold back," Hit Girl said, grinning. "That's fine. I like having something like that to look forward to!"

Which is why it will suck later to find out her cook was no longer unpodded.

Morgan contemplated cautioning her about overreaching on expectations. He'd been at this much longer than she'd been alive, after all. But... if he told her that, she'd just take it as an insult, and push herself harder to achieve it.

Balance and harmony, indeed.

"Just remember that the journey is as important as the destination," he said instead.

Oh, she was keeping that in mind now, after all of that. But she also knew how well she progressed meant she had to be serious about how much she dedicated herself.

"I'll remember," she said. "I have a feeling there's a lot I still am gonna go through before I can get even close to what you're able to do."

"And you may never. Your path may be a different one. With your chosen magical style that's already more likely than not."

Then he snapped his fingers. "Countermagic. Whatever you do, you should put some effort into learning countermagic and unweaving."

"Huh. Well, I never done something where I have to go and find the answers without knowing where I'm going. I guess some of this stuff is like groping around in the dark, huh?"

Now she looked confused. "Countermagic? You think I'm gonna come across some guys with magic powers? And what's unweaving?"

"Yes you have, it's called life." Morgan half-smiled, though it slid lopsided a moment later. "No, you won't ever come into conflict with someone else who can use magic," he said wryly, idly flexing his fingers. "Unweaving is removing an existing effect."

"You had to put it on those terms huh?" Now she felt like an idiot. "I know you cant guarantee anything in life and all, but at least you can sort of gleam where you're going, right?"

Well, she thought you could, sort of. "Removing an existing effect. What kind of an effect are we talking about?"

"You can try, but the honest truth is, it can all change in one heartbeat, to something so strange or weird you could never have prepared for it." He glanced around pointedly. After all, who could have seen this coming? And yet that was just the latest incident in his life he could name.

"Well, suppose hypothetically I had Friction Cursed you and you kind of wanted to move again instead of burn. Any magical effect you can thoeretically do, you can undo."

"Yeah, I hear you," she said, somewhat moodily. "But hey, I try to keep some semblance of what someone in some place can consider normal or whatever. For me, anyway. I mean, coming from a world where there's no magic or superheroes or mutants, where doing what I do will either get me killed or arrested? I'd say I've adjusted to all this shit pretty well. What you're talking about is still pretty startling to me."

She raised an eyebrow. "Ok, I have no problem learning something like that. How does it work?"

"Well, if it were me, I would be feeding aligned chi into the pattern in opposition to its natures. For a hermetic style?" He shrugged. "There's probably some Latin or Greek phrases you chant while making the appropriate passes, I'm not sure. In this instance I can really only tell you what's possible, not how to do it."

"I would learn it the Latin way, but Negi is gone," Hit Girl said. "He was literally the gateway I had to learning magic. I was starting to learn from him before he was taken away. So with him gone now, the only way I can continue learning the magic is by learning it your way. And if you can't show it to me that way, telling me will still help. I'll just have to adjust how I do it."

"I see your point, but I don't know if I agree with it," Morgan mused. "You don't do things my way, so there's a very real possibility that trying to reverse-engineer what I do will be harder and more complicated than developing techniques on your own."

Developing it on her own? "But I don't know Latin, and anyway, there's no one from Negi's world left here on the ship. It's not like I can just make magic happen all on my own, right?"

Ignoring the fact, of course, that she HAD technically amplified her wind and water attacks without Negi's help, though she was slow to realize this.

"Of course you can," Morgan said, trying not to sound too incredulous that she hadn't realized that. "Past the opening stages, most people are lucky if they have someone to teach them, and plenty of people develop their own styles entirely on their own."

For most people, realizing they could do magic was something to be embraced,a and a part of Hit Girl did. How could she not? She was always reinventing what she could do, using it to the best of her ability. She had, however, always done this through blood and guts and training. Magic, that was an idea she had never thought possible, yet look what she'd done in several months?

"I know it sounds like I'm underselling what you do, and what I can do," she said. "It's just...I'm not used to shit just working because I want it and will it, at least, not through ways that in my world are thought to be fiction."

"'Your' world?" Morgan asked wryly. "I'm from Earth too, you know. Let me demonstrate something, though -- fire off a magic bolt in that direction." He pointed to his right, arbitrarily.

"Aw come on, you know what I mean. There are lots of people from Earth, but its not the same Earth, or the same time even. I'm sure you noticed that too."

Easy enough request. Hit Girl whispered the Latin incantation and fired a single ice bolt to their right.

Morgan didn't even bother watching the bolt. "Looks like you weren't exactly doubting that you could do that, to me."

'It's not that I don't know how to do it," Hit Girl said. "It's how I learned it: studying the words, feeling the will behind it, gathering the energy. But to make it more powerful without learning the specifics, the procedure? That's what throws me off."

I don't know what you're going to do, but I have work to do.

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