Open Hard Knock Invitation

[Kyouketsu Shinda]

The Academy courtyard was quiet in the way only training grounds ever were when night had fallen. This area was open, scuffed, and carried memory of countless fights among students, that had ended in dust and bruises. Shinda stood near the center of one of the many training rings. His posture was not rigid, not coiled tight, but loose in his posture as if he were simply killing time between classes. His eyes were the most striking part of him even in the night, his gaze neither bright or intense, but steady and observant. He carried the look of someone who noticed everything and reacted to very little. There was a calm to him that felt earned rather than practiced. His muscles held no tension and he held no clenched fists. He looked like someone who had already survived enough fights to know he didn’t need to announce readiness. This look would go against any that Goro had seen of him before now, his calmness betrayed an aura of seriousness.

Shinda wasn’t imposing at first glance, his physique being lean, average height, and built more from endurance than brute strength. But there was a quiet solidity to him that made it hard to look away once you noticed it. Once you looked past his calm demeanor and observant gaze....he was cursed. Inhaling, the scent of incense and ash controlled his senses causing a tear to form along his left eye. This tear didn't fall though, but clung with a stubborn grip. The twenty three had passed on a valuable lesson to Shinda, approach combat as if you were facing death's embrace.

“If one of us ends up flat on our back, that’s fine. If neither of us does, that’s fine too.” He stepped forward a pace, then another, stopping well within striking distance without a hint of concern. The sand shifted under his feet, soft and familiar as Shinda finally lifted his hands into a loose guard. His form was loose and adaptable, elbows bent with his fingers relaxed. He looked more like someone ready to adjust to action than someone braced to deliver impact. A faint exhale left him, not a breath of focus, but something closer to a sigh.

“Go whenever,” he said. “I’ll keep up.”

[WC: 271]
[Topic Entered w/ Goro]

 

[Goro]

Goro stood in the center of the training ring and felt the weight Shinda had mentioned earlier. He believed in his gut that what he did to Toshi was right, even just, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he had shamed the Tsuchigumo. To his clan, the rules were the thread that held everything together, and he had snapped them. He watched Shinda with a focused and unblinking stare because the loose way his teammate stood felt like a trick. In the Hive, a slack web was usually just a trap waiting for something to touch the center.

Goro’s nose twitched as the smell of incense and ash hit him. It was a heavy and somber scent that danced in his nostrils and made his skin crawl. He didn't fully understand the philosophy Shinda lived by, but he recognized the look of someone who wasn't afraid of getting hurt.

"You talk like we're already done for...." Goro said in a low and raspy voice.

To Goro, a fight was just another job that needed the right tools. He shifted his weight and scuffed his boots against the sand to lower his center of gravity. Slowly and mechanically, he unfolded his four extra arms from beneath his vest. They didn't move fast or wild, but with a synchronized and steady grace. He didn't take a normal stance. Instead, he held his six hands at different heights. Two were high to guard his face, two were at his middle, and his main hands were low and open. It was a wall of limbs that most people didn't know how to handle.

"Alright... I'm coming at you from tthe start."

[Calling B-Mod]