1187/Girl Talk

Girl Talk
Date of Scene:	26 February 2024
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy
Synopsis:	Kyouka and Kyouko talk about attack, defense, and recent events while sparring at Fite Club
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Kyouko Sakura

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Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Self-defense class is mostly practical, especially in the mahou segement. People practice, either individual moves or sparring with partners, and Kyouka just kind of supervises. She'll help out if someone has a request, or offer advice if she spots something she feels like she can help improve, but most students won't even have direct interactions with her in any given class other than perhaps to say hello and goodbye.

    Sometimes she does take a special interest though. She has her favorites, and she's not mature enough (or enough of a 'real teacher') to pretend otherwise. Which is why on this particular evening she is sparring with Kyouko, down on the mats herself. It may also have something to do with the fact that Kyouko only shows up sometimes and is choosy about who she wants to engage with, anyway.

    There's no magic going on at the moment- this is purely physical, practical sparring. "Try and hit me again." Kyouka tells the younger girl, grinning. "If you manage it I'll buy you a snack after class."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Some of the advantage of self-defense class is that the stronger students help teach the younger students, and there's a sense of co-operation and community.

Kyouko is still working on that part. She brings competative energy to the mats, and pairing her with some of the less physical students.. Well those are the ones she just doesn't engage with.

The grin is mirrored right back, a little fangily. "I'm in the mood for taiyaki." She notes to Kyouka, as if putting her order in now for the snack she's sure she's going to get later.

Kyouko is quick and she's barely put in that order before she's darting in, a feint and then a blow coming up from underneath to catch Kyouka's shoulder. Or try at least.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka likes Kyouko, and thinks that she has a lot of potential to do good in this city. That does not mean, however, that she is blind to the girl's flaws and thinks pairing her against a newbie 12 year old for sparring is a good idea.

    Kyouka is light on her feet, and while its possible that Kyouko is faster than she is, the older mahou has experience on her side. Plus she's no slouch herself when it comes to reflexes. That feint almost works, Kyouka's arm starting to move in the feinted direction for a split second before she realizes what's going on and corrects, shifting just far enough to the side for the blow aimed at her shoulder to miss.

    She tries to capitalize, leaning into the motion to strike Kyouko on the back of her shoulder, and whether she succeeds or not a quick flurry of blows and blocks is sure to follow until the two break apart again.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Blow and block! Twist and move! Blow and block!

Kyouko tries a few more tricks before the settle back again. "Okay.." She starts, and it's clear that she's thinking a moment. "When you twisted like .. this?" She tried to explain, but instead just steps in close to illustrate a particularly clever movement that looks horribly awkward, but is fast and with great flow. "I mean.. it /works/.. but was that just 'it seemed liek a good idea at the time', or what?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouko probably scored at least a few things that could be considered hits during that exchange, especially considering this is a spar and the two aren't actually trying to hurt each other in the first place. It's likely a taiyaki will be coming her way at the end of the session, but for the moment Kyouka is happy to answer her questions.

    The explanation is sufficient for her to understand what is being asked, and she gives a little shrug of her shoulders. "Aurora used to say 'never let good form get in the way of winning a fight'. What he meant, I think, was that its all well and good to know 'moves' and 'sequences' and to know the 'right thing to do' but at the end of the day whatever works in the moment is the best thing you can do."

    She wipes a hand across her brow, breathing a little harder than average. Kyouko is skilled enough to push her, in terms of purely physical combat, in ways that not many other of her kids can do. "I saw an opening and I moved. The less predictable you are, the more you'll screw up your opponents, too."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
It's a time to try out things, get muscle memory to a point where one doesn't need to think about it to get the job done. When Kyouko and Kyouka are sparring, it's amazing how many other fights are perhaps not quite as focused on their own work, instead watching the pair of them. They're both skilled, and they are both good at what they do. It's a good fight to watch, no matter how many times they pause.

"Yeah.. if I'm stopping to think about what would be perfect, I'm probably also lunch for whatever I'm fighting." Kyouko nods in ackowledgement of that. She's already tossed her hoodie aside, sparring in a t-shirt and shorts. She's working hard too, even if she's trying to be cool about it.

"It's hard to be unpredictable on command. Or once you have enough practice to have your movements pretty familiar." She smirks a little. "Better to just not leave things you fight alive at the end to remember your moves."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    And the spar doesn't involve magic, because Kyouka has always felt that if you learn to fight well without magic you'll not only improve your chances in a magical brawl, you'll keep yourself out of trouble much more often if you find yourself in a situation where you can't use magic for one reason or another. It happens more than you'd like to think.

    "Correct." She says with a smile to Kyouko's words. "Practice is all well and good, in fact it's essential to keep yourself in shape and learn the basics, but there's really no substitute for experience. Eventually you start to 'feel' what the right move is, even if you've no idea what the opponent is going to do until the moment they are doing it. If you're quick enough, that feel will get you out of more tight spots than any amount of practicing forms or specific attacks."

    She snorts in amusement. "Most of my fights have been one-time ordeals, you're very right.. with one notable exception." She grimaces.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Something something, good foundation, something something. Almost like Kyouka is a pretty good teacher in this aspect for certain.

"I'd happily keep up with experience getting." Kyouko mutters with a little bit of resignation in her tone "Hunting's been light on the ground lately. Ah well. There's always more eventually."

"So far, I've had no exceptions." Kyouko comments as she moves over to get her water bottle and take a long drink from it. "I mean.. other than like.. jerks who didn't need hunting, they just needed smacking. That's different."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "You've already got the basics down pretty well." Kyouka says, with a complimentary tone that manages to convey that she's not surprised but is approving. "It's just a matter of fine-tuning. By definition anything that you see for the first time is going to surprise you. So the more things you've seen, the more situations you've been in, the less you're going to be caught off guard when a situation is life-or-death."

    "That is different." Kyouka agrees, with a chuckle, as she likewise goes to take some water on the side of the mat. "And you're lucky. There's nothing quite so frustrating as a stalemate. I'd even take a loss over just a lack of resolution." She pauses, then adds, "Well, as long as losing didn't mean dying anyway."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Yeah, if you could tell the Witches to stick to basics, that'd be awesome, kthanx." Kyouko grins over to Kyouka. Her tone is quiet enough not to carry too far to the mundanes of the class, but she's already the weirdo, she's not too concerned about her perceived level of crazy amongst other students.

"Loss usually means dead, but yeah.. I know what you mean. Stalemate is just like.." Kyouko tries to find the word that might describe it and then she goes with "ugh. it's just like.. nothing burger of a result. Yeah, at least loss when you're not dead, there's the potential for figuring out where you screwed up and going back for redemption." She drinks a little more water. "I guess stalemate, you look at where you screwd up and go back to kick more ass later? That just feels like a redo and a waste."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I'm pretty sure you don't need my help training how to fight Witches." Kyouka says, sardonically. "If you didn't have that down, you wouldn't be here talking to me." She shrugs. "It's the opponents you're not familiar with that you need to be the most careful around."

    "A lot of wasted time," Kyouka agrees with a sigh as she caps her own bottle and places it back down, "A lot of frustration and the feeling of treading water." She speaks like she knows exactly what it feels like. "But that's why we're making sure you win all your rights, right?"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Naw, I pretty much got them covered." Kyouko grins and then shrugs. "I don't fight a lot of other stuff, really. Some minor stuff here and there, if I bump into it, but the last non Witch fight I was at? They had it covered. I didn't need to blow magic on it when they were /fine/. Good practice, and all of that."

Kyouko puts her own water bottle back down, the cap secured. "Hey, I'm not the only one who needs to win all of her fights." She comes back over closer again. "Ready?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I wish it was that easy for me." Kyouka says, with a faint sigh. "My type of mahou didn't even have a youma in particular we were supposed to go after.. you know, like how Puella hunt Witches, or whatever. So it was whatever and whenever. But honestly, it's not even the monsters which are the most difficult. It's the opponents that are other people."

    She gives the girl a look. "You're lucky to have not had to fight other people that much. I hope that continues to be true, but the way things are going around here I wouldn't count on it. Not forever."

    She nods, returning to the middle of the mats. "Ready."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I mean.. fighting other things means I don't get grief seeds. Those are pretty required for me, sooo." Kyouko shrugs. It's just good sense really.

"Yeah. People are the /worst/." Kyouko agrees easily before she launches back into the next flurry of attacks, trying to catch Kyouka off guard. It rarely works, but it's very satisfying when it does.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I know," Kyouka says, with regards to Grief Seeds, "But you have to consider the fact that whether or not you fight isn't always your choice." She gives the girl a level look. "You're used to being the aggressor. It might not always be so. And besides, if the world ends or something, you'll be just as dead as if you ran out of Grief Seeds. So that seems to be a decent reason to fight something else, too."

    At the notion of people being the worst, Kyouka laughs a little bit, shrugging. "I've felt the same, but for some reason I find myself getting lonely without them anyway, so.."

    Kyouko is quick, and almost succeeds at catching Kyouka before she can react. But the teacher manages to slip to one side with a fraction of a second to spare, engaging in a back-and-forth with the younger girl which lasts for several seconds.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Hey!" Kyouko protests while she's still ducking down, avoiding a really good shot to her shoulder. "I offered when you were all freaky about the meeting in that abandoned building that I wasn't supposed to know about, and you declined."

The protest comes with an agressive rush, to get back into striking range, this time with a side order of trying to press back.

"It's always easier when you're the one pressing, reacting when you're already screwed sucks.. but it happens." Kyouko is trying to be the agressor at the moment.

The comment about loneliness is met with a little grunt of non answer. She's not lonely. Not at all. She's fine.

At least right now, amongst fite nite.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Situations differ," Kyouka grunts, remarkably good at talking while fighting, a skill which has no doubt annoyed many an adversary over the years. "Just because it wasn't appropriate then doesn't mean it won't be next time."

    She allows Kyouko to press the attack, going on the defensive. But defending is her specialty, at least of late, and it's hard to find an opening no matter how hard the younger girl presses her.

    She waits until just the right moment, slipping past a quick blow, to suddenly strike back with one quick hit.

    "The hero's dilemma," Kyouka says, "Is that you're always going to be reactive by default."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Yeah.. but you can't say that I stick totally to Witches. I offered." Kyouko is also pretty good at talking while fighting.. but not nearly as good as Kyouka. That practice thing again. Clearly she needs another half decade of it, or more.

"Dammit." Kyouko is tagged, and she makes a face. "Your defense is /on point/." She comments as they reset back to be able to spar again.

"I mean.. short of whole scale slaughter of potnetial jerks, but that kinda isn't super heroic, so back to hero's dilemma." Kyouko gives a shrug. "It's annoying."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "True, true." Kyouka grants Kyouko's point, which wasn't really the point she was making and therefore is easy to grant. When the girl compliments her defense, she shrugs. "When it's the only thing you're allowed to do, you tend to get pretty good at it. Believe me, it was a bit of an adjustment.. I was definitely an 'attack over defense' girl when I was an operating mahou."

    "In the longer-term, it is possible to be the aggressor." Kyouka points out, pausing with a hand on her hip. "Like, once someone starts a war, you can be the aggressor in a particular battle. And sometimes that's the right move. Bad guys tend to assume you just want to live in peace, so they won't expect you to attack 'them' without warning. But by and large, yeah, it's a game of waiting for them to make a move and then responding to counter it."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"No offense.. but I'm kinda glad that I won't have to figure out how to go pure defense. It sounds /super/ frustrating." Kyouko wrinkles up her nose.

"So is this your way of saying that we're planning to start a war?" Kyouko asks and then goes on the offense again, this time without actually checking to see if Kyouka is ready for another bout. Eventually she'll find a hole in those epic defenses. Maybe.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "There are a surprising amount of loophole." Kyouka says dryly. "For example, I can punch people just fine as long as I don't use any magic to do it. I just punched that jerk Riventon in the head the other day."

    Kyouka shrugs her shoulders at the question. "Way I see it, the war started a long time ago. You heard about these Eclipse Zones that Sunbreaker's trying to set up? That's an act of aggression. We're well within our rights to strike back once the gauntlet has been thrown."

    Kyouko keeps almost managing to hit Kyouka, but somehow the older woman manages to slip away or block every strike... at least for the time being. She has skills and experience, but even she isn't invulnerable, and eventually Kyouko will manage to land another hit.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"You probably should have punched him twice." Kyouko comments on the notion of punching Riventon in the head. "He probably needed an extra for stuff you just didn't know he had done."

"What Eclipse Zones?" Kyouko asks as the conversation continues as she keeps poking and prodding and looking for that opening. There's pauses here and there for fluries of blows that make Kyouka at least have to slip away, or move. "Sounds like a Dark Energy thing."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I would have, except he moved." Kyouka says, with a shrug as if to say it can't be helped.

    "I just heard about it from Sailor Moon." She says, of the Eclipse Zones. "Sunbreaker and her minions are setting up some kind of thing that makes a zone that drains small amounts of energy from any mundane who walks through it. On top of that, inside the zone it buffs Dark Energy users while crippling other mahous. So basically, big advantage to them if a fight breaks out inside one. If you see one, or them trying to set one up, you have my full blessing to wreck it. Assuming you don't put yourself in undue danger."

    She moves and blocks and moves, though eventually Kyouko does manage to slip a shot through and land a blow. Ducking back, she grins and gives credit where it is due. "Nice one, kid."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Hunh." Kyouko answers on the topic of the Eclipse Zones, settling back with a pleased look on her face as she actually gets a hit in. She managed it! "How big?" Kyouko asks thoughtfully as she moves to get her water. "Like.. size of a block? Size of a nap capsule?" She gestures with her hand, to get a sense of the scale we're talking here. "If it's only buffing one or two at a time, that's not so bad. If it's multiple blocks?" She shakes her head, letting that notion float out there.

"If I recognize it for what it is, I'll kick it down." Kyouko nods in agreement. "Sounds like a crap deal." She stretches a little, even teens learn quickly about stiffening up post-workout. "Snack?" She asks hopefully.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I don't know exactly, I haven't seen one myself, but the impression I got was a segment of a street. Large enough to have a fight in, certainly. But I don't know the range. I intend to look into it further." Kyouka says, catching her breath and shrugging her shoulders.

    She nods her head in appreciation of Kyouko's assertion that she will knock 'em down if she sees them. At the mention of a snack, she huffs out a laughing breath. "Sure. You did good tonight." She claps the younger girl on her shoulder. "You deserve a snack at the very least."