Gambling is a man’s right [Tutor]

[Eishi]

Another day, another dollar I hummed to myself as I sat in an unmarked warehouse full of old gambling tables of all sorts and sizes. Most were defunct machines, but there were the occasional roulette and poker tables lying around that I planned to make use of. Today’s course was another one on one session. It was supposed to be a class, originally, but I've been getting denied for teaching classes more recently. When I had questioned why I hadn’t been given a class to take over in recent months only to be given some lame excuse that I was too 'harsh' for the usual crowd of shinobi. It had something to do with me constantly sending other kids to the infirmary, but what could I say? I was twelve and my level of normal was so much higher than the rest that I just didn’t know how to hold back. Likely for me, I hadn’t lost the coin toss today so I didn’t have to take center stage as the teacher. Instead, I'd let my tsukumogami partner do all that burdensome stuff. She was a better teacher than I was, anyway. More patience and what not for the kidlets.

“You’re up bee-itch,” I said as a burp came up at the last word. My beer from earlier must have given me some gas or something. My spear gave me a dirty look, but I didn’t mind. I was doing the prep work when I heard the intended student trip the entrance seal inside the building we were stationing the tutoring session at. I was going to be playing the part of a second student, regardless. I was the age of an average academy student, so unless people started to wise up to my name, I’d likely be fine to play the ignorant student well enough.

“Get to your position, boy,” my spear spoke condescendingly to me in return. I had to chuckle at that. While I didn’t like her backtalk much, her derisive tone was almost too similar to my own. I sometimes really did kind of see her in the ‘big sister’ role. I just would never admit that to her. Fucking wouldn’t ever hear the end of it if I did.

OOC Eishi, Spear-Chan

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

Norisuke was one year Eishi's senior. But here he was, in some run down--even unmarked--warehouse.

The crass boy wore his uniform, though a little wrinkled, he still adhered to dress code, and put minimal customization on it. No cliche popped collar, but he's deigned to not button it up the whole way.
Warm black hair trails down his back, to the shoulder blades, his hands going into his pockets. Condescendingly observing with upturned nose, the drunk child.

"You here for class too?"

 

[Eishi]

"Aye," I responded, a slight nod to my head as I took a seat on top of one of the many roulettes table. I wasn't the type to initiate contact with kids my age, they always seemed so immature or just plain stupid, so I wouldn't bother with much more of an answer. It was a good thing I didn't need to say anything, anyway, as my spear began her little pre-practiced speal.

"Good, you're both here. I will be your instructor for the day," She started herself off rather curtly as she looked the two of us over as if evaluating. It seemed she wasn't in much of a good mood after losing our little bet. I could only chuckle in silence as she began shuffling a deck of cards she had drawn from one of the tables as she came over to our position. After a good thirty seconds, she finally drew ten off the top and facing them all face down on the table in front of her.

"Come on up and pick a card. It shall decide your fate," She moved to the side as she waited for the boy to come up and choose. Regardless, I would do my duty and pick the one on the far right. I already knew what it contained, so I wasn't surprised when I flipped it over and it revealed the joker. The rest of the cards truly were random, but this one wasn't. I had told her to put this one on top of the deck when she spread out her original ten.

"Free pass?" I held up the card, the words written under the picture of the joker.

"What does that mean?" I asked like I was the slow kid in class. My spear simply smiled at me like I actually was simple. I just gave her the stink eye waiting for her to reply, but it seemed she was going to wait for the actual student to draw one of the other nine cards before bothering to explain. It was probably what I would’ve done, but it still annoyed me to be on the receiving end of the mockery.

OOC Pick a card between 1-9

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

“Fate...” he grumbly begins, walking over to the round, green felt poker table. “Yawn.” Norisuke says aloud, rather than actually yawning, and places his hands on the edge of the table.

“I’m no stranger to gambling, but I’ve never played this game...probably some dipshit, mystical, eye opening game they’re trying to teach us.” The oblivious Kujo kid taps Eishi’s shoulder with the back of his hand, to get his attention. “Can you believe she’d rather talk through a spear than actually be here to teach?”

As he says this, he draws a single card of nine remaining, drawing a five of spades.

 

[Eishi]

Right. Only I could see her in human form at all times due to the fact that the bitch stole most of my soul. It’s good that I hadn’t said anything to give away a connection to each other, but I’d still have to play along.

“It’s a spirit. Try and look past the physical,” I told him. It was a rather open-ended concept that even I couldn’t explain very well. You either had some sensitivity to spirits or you didn’t. Hell, even my own ability to look into the unseen veil were lackluster compared to some of my close friends. Then again, the lot of us were pretty abnormal, to begin with, so maybe I was amazing, but just not in the same league. Either way, it was another couple seconds of silence before I saw her truly materialize from the air around the spear. She came into her human form and placed her true form into the holster behind her back.

“The game is simple,” she started off as she drew a card herself from the pile of eight left on the table and then placed it face up. It was a jack of Spades.

“We are playing twenty-one and I’m the dealer. Jokers can be any number between one and eleven. A huge advantage in many ways as you can guess,” She commented, getting the rules out of the way before coming at me, attacking exactly eleven times before stopping. I definitely hammed it up to appear that I was struggling a lot more than I actually was. I even let her get a solid backhand of her gauntlets to streak across my face, a bloody nose as my reward for the play fighting.

“I will attack you the same amount of times as what is on your drawn cards until you either beat my hand or I bust. You will start over if you bust and will confining until you pass or quit. May you be ever lucky,” she finished, not wasting any time as she went after Kujo. Five attacks, without holding anything back. True, she wasn’t imbuing her attacks with chakra, but for a budding academy student, a jab from her probably felt like getting punched by sledgehammers if he attempted to block or took a direct hit. He was going to have his work cut out for him if he expected not to get beat to a pulp before winning this game, that's for sure. Regardless, once he had taken the hits like a man, we’d all be drawing our next hand for the next round. I’d probably let the kid draw first this next time around as I lifted my head back and tended to my now bloody nose.

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

Each blow sounded like gunshots. The rapid onslaught hammers Norisuke’s face and shoulder, the final, fifth attack, retaliation is attemped, one of those bastardly, nefarious violet gauntlets forming from blackness.

The shady protectives, as if from the darkest hours, blacken the portion he raises to guard against the invisible, fifth attack.

The unseen fist careens through his guard, and slugs him in the forehead, knocking him over, tumbling across the cold concrete floor.

“FU-FUCK!”

The gauntlet dematerializes, and he rushes past the spear, and to the table, hocking some blood in his mouth onto it as he approaches, and scooping up a two of hearts.

“DO IT!” He barks, the mad-dog boy showing off the card, beckoning with moxie at the invisible tutor.

“I try my fucking hardest win all my gambles. I’ve taken lumps for high stakes before, too. So c’mon. Even if I can’t ‘see past the physical’, I can take it!”

With that, he braces himself for two attacks, his middle and index finger pinching tight on the two of hearts.

 

[Eishi]

"Stop being a cunt, the boy obviously can't see you even in that form," I commented with a nasally voice to my spear. My head was still leaning back the entire time as I was finally getting my nose to stop bleeding. She just looked at me derisively as she solidified her form to become even more visibility. Enough so, that she knew regular people had no trouble seeing her. She had assumed she hadn't needed to bother, but here we were. What would be introduced to Kujo was a big bitch of a woman standing almost 183 centimeters with well-defined muscles. There was no mistaking her for anything other than a warrior.

"I'm not used to those who can't see me. I must apologize, child," She stated bowing her head at Kujo before straightening up and coming at him again now that he had drawn a two of hearts. the first attack was a simple jab to his center of mass with a follow-up elbow sweep towards his head. Her last volley had definitely caught him off guard, but at least it had seemed to instill some fear into him. That was good, fear was always a great motivator in a fight.

I, on the other hand, was busy drawing my own card. This time a three of diamonds. I barely had time to look it over before she came rushing at me just as promised. I played along, but this time I didn't let her get a clean hit in for the first two hits and even returned the favor by giving her a knee to the stomach as she returned it with a nasty elbow into the center of my back. Fuck did it hurt, but I had been through worse and I even made her almost lose her lunch. Oh, she was pissed at me now, but I didn't mind. We always fought like this and at the end of the day we were basically family, so nothing would come of it besides a few broken bones. Not wasting her time after recovering from the stomach blow, she would draw a card, look it over and keep it face down like any dealer would.

After her, it was my turn again so I, once again, drew a card. This time it was a nine of clubs. I got into another bout with my spear in her human form, giving and receiving some nasty bruises as we both went serious for once without exceeding nine attacks. I was no longer pretending to be incompetent, my spear knew how to egg me into getting serious as we exchanged blows and I was more than down to give her just what she wanted.

"Twenty-one. three, nine, and the joker as a nine," I stated as I put my three cards down next to the deck pile on the table. From there I took a seat on top of one of the other empty poker tables and waited around. It was now up to the boy to try and make twenty-one and so far he had only had seven and it was his turn to draw.

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

“...”

I can fight back..?! He considers the massive woman, just a few inches taller than he. Majestic, and strong. He was entranced for a moment, until he was socked twice by more barrages. The pain was balanced with the exhaustion he was subjected to from recovering the blows.

His sensei strode back around the table again, both gauntlets materializing with manic on his arms. The barely hooked claws sinking into the felt.

“F-f-fuck...” He spat more blood, this time onto the floor. The black pool spread out. Intense concentration on the cards cause him to shift his feet his anger spiking with a shudder of his shoulder blades, as he realizes he’s stepped into his bloody hacking, staining his shoes.

“FffFFFFFffff...FUCK!” He finally lets out, a single knee giving out, elbow slamming into the table to keep him standing. Norisuke can’t select, because something is kicking his brain. A pain greater than the elbow swing, than the bruise on his chest, the surging violet over his heart from the centre-mass blow, the soreness in his shoulders and jaw...

...there was a wound to his fragile pride.

“No one ever said Kujo Norisuke was a nice guy...I beat the shit out of people, more than I have to. Some of these cold fucks are still in the hospital. When I go to a resturaunt and the food is ass, I stiff them with the bill.” His monologue paused, shaking fingers browsing over each card, stroking, but then putting them down. There was a dark will in his eyes, as if some underground beast had unearthed itself, and spat fire and breath of brimstone.

There was a point to his speech, but it hadn’t revealed itself as eagerly as the dark will of Kujo Norisuke. He takes a deep, quaking breath, and continues.

“I’ve had dipshit teachers that like to talk big, like to think they’ll ‘civilize me,’ ‘turn me into an upstanding young man,’ so I teach them a lesson. I’ve liked some—the one’s that leave me the fuck alone. I’ve even commited to doing some of the schoolwork those meek shits pass out, just as a good turn returned.”

He snaps his head over his shoulder, another loogey of blood launching itself at a crate.

“But they all tried to teach me something, whether it was a shitty, worthless lesson, or something that piqued my interest for half a fucking minute.”

He climbs to his feet, slamming his palm on a face-down card, the table creaking.

“But this isn’t a fucking lesson at all! You haven’t done anything but beat the shit out of me and this noseringed brat. And making us pick a fucking card to see how many times we get smacked around...” His fingers close round the card, and he swings his forearm up, presenting it to the spear-spirit. The Kujo boy was red in the face, brimming with fury and indignance.

”WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TRYING TO TEACH ME?!”

His voice rose to a din, the card crinkling from the grip he struggles to contain.

The card he displayed to the harsh sensei was the king of diamonds, his other hand shut tight, ready to clash with her, no matter how greater, more powerful, and enamoringly intense she was.

 

[Eishi]

She just looked at him without even blinking as she let her cold gaze fell on him to me. I nodded ever so slightly before she went back to him and continued her gaze. Her voice a couple octaves lower as she spoke.

"I was going to wait until you lost a few times, but it's clear you can't handle it, boy," She said the last line with no small bit of condescension as she chuckled to herself. Hot damn, when she got pissed, she really did turn into a female version of me compared to her usual calm demeanor. Honestly, I probably should have expected that. I wasn't exactly a 'good guy' either so my female counterpart likely would have a bit of a temper as well. There was definitely something to the gruffness of the kid that was kindred, though. I'd have to check him out if he got his ass past graduation. Which, was seeming less and less likely as he kept egged my spear on. I gave her a warning look not to beat the boy too badly. If we were going to give him the answer to the test, he best be earning his credit for the class the hard way.

"The point of today's lesson was, 'if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying'," She then flipped over her folded down card and showed an ace of diamonds. Giving her twenty-one. Generally, when you tied with the dealer it just meant it was just a wash round with no chips exchanged, but we had been vague on what 'winning' actually entailed. Then again, she was always going to draw twenty-one. There were only two ways out of this challenge. Either get lucky or cheat.

She then went in on him hard this time as he drew a king. Still not imbuing her fist with chakra to make this truly deadly for the poor boy, but she still went a lot quicker than she had been with him, prior. She pounded in on him ten consecutive times without much pause between each hit, testing the bounds to see just how far this boy could stand. Even after it all, he'd still only be at seventeen after this draw. He best hope he's lucky on his next draw of this will continue until he either wins or quits. After she was done with her vicious bullying, she'd take her place behind the table, a wicked smile on her face.

"I'll be holdin'. It's your turn to draw, sugga'," she drawled. Hot damn she mimicked my mocking drawl, that damned bitch. I'd have to scold her on that later, but for now, it seemed she was also fired up and rearing to continue the beatdown.

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

Cheating?! Dirty fighting?! This was what she wanted to educate him on?!

As she advances round the table, the havoc in his eyes also glistened with fear—and that fear was reasonable, considering how powerful this shinobi was.

“I can handle breaking the rules. I’ve bended fucking plenty to get what I want. But here you are telling me to cheat at a game. And you admit to that kind of dishonesty!”

He blades his figure at her, standing in sheer defiance, Kujo Norisuke putting his fists up, his stance and breath suddenly aligning.

“I doubt you don’t know who I am. Everytime I face a history book, I also face my family. The petty and mortal sins in my blood, or however the fuck you like to phrase it!”

His forearm guards connect with her blows, the chakra emboldened metal absorbing the brunt of these rapid attacks, attempts to counter attack inbetween.

His first counter was a lunge for her face with fingers unfolded, the claws gleaming as they careen at the watchful, alert eyes of their sensei, who makes an artful dodge of this.

The second was an all-or-nothing kick, that he even jumped for, swinging his leg toward her head. Still, she saves her eighth strike to absolutely negate this attack, knocking him without much effort to the floor.

“GUAH!”

He tries a last-ditch swipe at her legs as she walked over, a leap over the clawing attack is followed up by two swift kicks to his head and shoulder, toppling him onto his back.

“F-fuck...” He had a shiner on his left eye now, a nasty one at that. Norisuke had no choice but to get up, and continue to make his point.

“I know what you want me to be...a fucking scoundrel like the rest of my family tree...” He coughs, hacking up a considerably greater amount of blood.

This one he makes sure to step over.

“No illusions...I got no illusions that apples don’t fall far from their tree. But me...”

Norisuke crumples, the pristine darkness not fading from his determined eyes, as he limply pushes himself off the floor.

“...I’m going to be a true man about this. You’re cheating...but I’m not gonna cheat back. A true man doesn’t break the rules!”

The boy staggers his way to the felt gambling table, and leans on it, blinking to regain his sight and his thoughts.

Collected, he finishes with:

“He uses them to his advantage!”

His left hand darts for his chosen card: a four of clubs.

A twenty one—a wash round! There was a light in those eyes now, but not the washy glazing of fear, and anticipation, but triumph, the moon shining its cool gaze on the earth, still blanketed in darkness despite this meager lightbringer’s presence.

His concentration looked up, as he halfassedly casted the five of clubs at the spear-spirit.

“Next round...huh?”

 

[Eishi]

"What's wrong with being a scoundrel? You're training to be an assassin for fuck's sake," I admonished him from where I sat. As I finally got off the table, I had my mouth full of chips so my words might have been a little mumbled as I spoke again, but I didn't care.

"You worry too much about what others think to keep up this tough guy facade," I said as I began to pack up and get ready to exit the building and area in general. It was roughly around then that my spear went in for the last four hits. Not holding back once again as she started out with a two-handed slam aiming for the back of Kujo's head before following up with two haymakers and a flying uppercut as the finishing move. Assuming he made it through that, my spear would toss him a water. I, on the other hand, would come up from behind and grab him by his shoulder in a viper grip as I went about fixing any broken bones or obviously large wounds through the infusion of my chakra and his bodies own natural healing process. I wasn't going to be thorough, I still wanted him to feel the pain of today, but at least he'd be useful for his classes this week. I've been told to hold back a few times, so I guess undoing the damage was good enough.

"Alright, you're good, so I'm outta here," I concluded as I began walking out. My spear would leave in a bit and do whatever it was she did when I didn't tell her what to do. Regardless, she'd be back at the house before ten, so what did I care?

[EXIT]​

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