Inheriting a Legacy [Private, Suzume]

[Miroku Riyota]

'Tap Tap Tap​

The young woman would hear three light taps on the glass of her window. If she did not respond to them there would be another three, then again, with five second delays in between each volley of light taps. If her window was visible, unobscured by blinds or curtains she would see the scruffy hair and scratched face of her mentor. Not a sight many would wish to see at any time of day, but it was especially curious considering the sun was only just rising and night was turning to day. Riyota looked like he had barely gotten any sleep the previous night, there were heavy bags under his eyes, his brown tufts of hair were jutting out in random directions and he was starting to grow some scraggly chin fluff. Furthermore it was evident that he had not repaired his jacket since their last training session since it still bore many cuts and scorch marks from Suzume's own electrical attacks.

Whether she opened her window or not he would begin talking. "Hey Suze! Hope I didn't wake you but this is important, I spent a few hours coming up with a plan for our next training session and well it mainly boiled down to a proper spar. Before you say anything yes I know we've sparred before but I mean a PROPER spar." His speaking was quick and erratic, he was talking as if this was the first person he had spoken to in years, like an old man spouting ancient tales to an impressionable youth. It would probably be quite a bit for her to take in this early in the morning.

Despite his chipper attitude Riyota did not look well. Even beyond his general tired demeanour. His skin was paler than usual and his gaze seemed far less focused than usual. His eyes were cloudy and his attention never seemed to stay on the same point for long. It was likely that last night was only the latest in a series of sleepless nights.

He finally took a breath after spending a while explaining, his right leg dangling off the windowsill as his left kept balance whilst he sat. "I mean it gives you a chance to beat the stuffing out of me." He offered that incentive, deciding to keep things light-hearted for now, assuring himself that he could explain the main reasons for the spar once they got to their destination. If she even accepted his training and didn't shove him out the window.

MFT

 

[Kazumi]

Three times the ruler rapt onto the board at the front of the class as the ox, standing on its hind legs and somehow grasping a ruler in its front hooves, stood and stared sternly at the class ahead of him. Suzume looked around her, as she sat along in the middle of the vast expanse of a classroom as the bovine continued to glare at her from his perch nearly a hundred yards ahead of her. Again the ox loudly tapped tie ruler onto the board as Suzume tried to stand up, only to find that her legs would not support her weight. Becoming inpatient as the girl attempted to pry herself from the chair, to which she now appeared to be sinking into, he tapped the board trice again. With a desperate vigor, she pushed herself up, out of the chair and-

With a hard thump Suzume crashed to the floor beside her bed, having restlessly fumbled her way out of her bed in a tangle of sheets as the unruly bird perched itself outside her window. Dazed, confused and still struggling to move in her quasi-mummification, Suzume stared off at the window as Riyota tapped three more times onto it and finally began to speak, once he noticed he finally had her awake and her attention. It took a few moments, but she sleepily unraveled the sheets from around her and stumbled over towards the window, her hair a mess and sleep still encrusting her eyes as she fumbled with the window latch, trying and failing to catch most of what the muffled voice was saying.

Eventually she did manage to decipher the complex locking mechanism, which consisted of a simple turning latch, and opened the window to him just as he finished speaking about some proper match. "What... what time is it?" She asked, a yawn creeping into her voice as she leaned forward onto the window, barely managing to keep herself from stumbling forward. She peered behind him, blinking hard to try and clear her vision. Before she spoke, she looked back to him once more, noticing the sorry state that he appeared to be in. "What... did you even sleep last night?" She asked, sounding drained as her mind slowly began to spin up. "You... look terrible."

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Let me respond to those three things in sequence, here we go. Firstly, I have no idea, s'pretty early though. Second that's an excellent question and C) How dare you..." He would speak quickly and with a slight lilt in his voice, to any normal person he would appear intoxicated, but hopefully Suzume knew her teacher better. "Anyway the time and my health are irrelevant factors. You should always be on top of your game, do you reckon an enemy will wait for you to get your beauty sleep?" He would ask with unintended intensity before calming. "...The answer is no, by the way. Little freebie for you." He settled back down into his sitting position on the windowsill. "I need to know if you're in or out here. I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be here and I don't know what you guys do to intruders." He would conclude.

If she accepted he would nod and give her half an hour to prepare. With the time given he would descend from the windowsill and make his way to a reserved area of the Dojo. He would send a pulse of chakra through his system to keep himself awake. He knew he wouldn't be able to fully get to sleep but he didn't want to doze off before arriving to where he needed to be. As he walked he thought to himself 'War's on its way Suze, I need to make sure you'll be ok. That you'll wind up stronger than me.' He shook the thought from his head for now. He needed to focus on challenging his student.

And so, once he had arrived, he paced back and forth trying to keep himself occupied until her arrival. Once she had arrived he would formally invite her to make the first move against him.

 

[Kazumi]

Suzume had opened her mouth to answer his question before she was summarily cut off with the correct answer. Blinking her eyes slowly as she leaned against the wall, looking as if she might pass out on the spot, she nodded absently until he eventually vacated from her window. Thirty minutes was barely enough time to do anything at all. Her doppelganger in the mirror gave her a small fight once again as she stumbled into the bathroom to take a shower, still not used to seeing the strange face in the mirror. The spook did startle her enough so that she did not pass back out once she concluded her hasty shower, and so Riyota would not be finding his time spent waiting in vain.

It was a few minutes past the half hour when she finally did arrive, her hair clean and dry with a tightly fitting training outfit donned. In her haste she had failed to bring any supplies, aside from the symbol of the Chains that rested underneath her shirt, dangling from a sturdy black string around her neck. She had given Lord Jashin her prayers and words of encouragement this morning, believing that every bit of positivity she could imbue within him brought him one step closer towards his freedom. She had not spoken with any of the other members since her arrival. The Chains were few and far between, even more so than those of the Way, and so her mind wandered from time to time to fill in the blanks of her knowledge.

Faintly out of breath, she hastily pushed open the door to the reserved room, offering a few breathing apologies as she hurried to close the door behind her. Suzume jogged over to Riyota, taking a moment to rest as his wait was finally concluded. "Sorry about the wait..." It only took a few moments and as many long breaths to gather her stamina back up, a notable improvement from how she had been when they first began. He wasted no time in inviting her to begin, likely looking to make up for his time that she had wasted prior to her arrival. Slightly caught off guard, she Eventually nodded in agreement and put a little distance between them near the center of the area.

Suzume formed the set of five seals, having mastered the art of seal-forming far before she had ever had enough chakra control to actually perform any techniques. If this had been any of the training sessions that they had before then the technique would have ended before it even began. Sparks and crackles of electricity filled her right hand, as voltaic energy formed, barely contained as it struggled to arc away from her grip. The chaotic energy continued to crackle as she gripped it harder within her hand, elongating it to half of the size of a spear, its core a flowing white with its fringes fraying and randomly arcing towards nearby surfaces. Then, with a fluid motion, she stepped forward and arced the bolt of lightning straight towards Riyota with impressive speed and accuracy, given that this would be the first time he had ever seen her be successful.

While not as quick as actual lightning, the bolt shot through the air at a rate that was nearly impossible to see, heading straight towards Riyota's chest. Whether it connected with flesh, bone or solid ground, the bolt would pierce easily through any of the three, leaving a hole no small than an inch in diameter. Eventually the bolt would shatter, after hitting something hard enough to stop it, or after digging through enough material to slow it down to the point it broke apart in a shower of short lived sparks.

---

Technique: Zeus Flash

 

[Miroku Riyota]

"Impressive technique, good speed, good power!" He would congratulate his student from where he stood, just left of a scorch mark on the wall behind him. "The technique was well executed but you're still telegraphing your attacks too much. You need to speed up the prep or distract your opponent, otherwise they could strike you before you've even formed that third hand seal." He critiqued her straight after the compliment, and whilst the critique may hurt in the short term he knew it would improve her the next time she tried attacking.

"You see distraction can be very helpful when attacking a foe..." It was about now that Suzume would probably be able to feel the ground just beneath her warming, getting hotter and hotter. If she were to look she would see it begin to glow red hot. Whether she dodged or not a bright flame would burst up out of the ground beneath her, scorching her intensely. If she jumped or moved away from the fire she would hear and audible click as it died down. Riyota would speak again. "Furthermore, effectively using any prep time you are given can let you get the upper hand on your opponent." He smirked as one of his chakra mines detonated beneath her, the force of the fiery explosion sending her flying.

"Those are just two very basic techniques that anyone you meet could have in their repertoire. If you wish to remain on-par you need to be unpredictable." He would take a few steps towards her. "That concludes the tutorial, from here I want you to treat me like an enemy, someone who's going to try to kill you." The metal hand of his prosthetic split and the two halves moved up towards his shoulder as a blade slowly slid out of the gap created. "Now c'mon Sparky, show me something cool!" He increased his pace, charging towards her quickly. This was a fight now. She would need to adapt accordingly.

MFT

Searing Eruption
Landmine

 

[Kazumi]

Suzume grimaced as the bolt missed its mark, leaving a fairly deep, if narrow, hole in the wall behind him. Feeling frustrated she gritted her teeth as she listened to him offer advice, which, if she had not just missed, might have resonated with her a little more. He could likely tell this, and was only saved from turning into a toasted marshmallow by the glow just at the edge of her vision. Glancing down, her eyes widened as she tried to jump away. Her feet slipped, but she managed to tuck into a roll before the gout of fire erupted from where she had just been standing, barely avoiding it, even if only through luck.

Catching her bearing a few feet to the side, she got to her feet and began to stand as she heard the faint clicking sound from somewhere nearby. Given her lack of experience, she had no idea what the sound signaled, but instinct told her that she needed to be anywhere but where she was right then. Quickly focusing her chakra into her legs, she pushed off the ground as hard as she could, leaping up just a split second before the explosion sent her flying upwards towards the ceiling. She avoided the direct force of the blast, but the shock-wave combined with her leap sent her smashing into the ceiling with excessive force. The impact was not enough to cause serious damage, but her senses were knocked clean out of her, only barely managing to recover before she hit the ground.

Managing to brace herself from the fall, she staggered to a stand, looking dazed but no worse for wear as her opponent began to make his advance towards her. Suzume took a step away from him, either in fear or instinct as her brain began to slowly function once more. With each of his steps her vision began to clear more until the edge of his arm blade finally came into focus. Wracking her brain, a thought came to her, and she quickly formed another set of handseals before she knelt down and pressed them to the ground. A wave of electricity pulsed through the ground around her, up the walls and across the ceiling before vanishing without a trace.

She continued to kneel there as she kept her hand pressed to the ground, staring over at him with concentration. Finally, as he turned his walk into a charge, a narrow bright line shot from one of the walls to his left, streaking out until it impacted a wall to his right. Instead of dissipating as the bolt of lightning had earlier, it persisted as a narrow rod of glowing light. It was easily avoidable by ducking, but the one line became two, then five and twenty as the these rods shot out from the walls, floor and ceiling towards Riyota, determined to block his path. These continued to streak from the charged surfaces until he eventually would have to stop, or risk one of the lasers connecting with his neck. Then, during the brief moment of hesitation, more would criss-cross behind and around him. As long as he did not move, the beams did not seem to be dangerous, but so many were surrounding him that it precluded all but the smallest of movements.

Most of the lines behind him vanished as Suzume stood, her heart racing and her head still swimming, leaving only those that kept him trapped between them. It took concentration to maintain these beams, but it was strangely instinctual for her, as if she had been doing so most of her relatively short life. "Cool enough for you?" She asked with a sly smirk. "I would not touch those if I were you, they aren't very thick, but they're really sharp." Sharp was not the correct term for it, but if a piece of his fabric or hair brushed against one of the lasers he would find it severed at the impact point, as well as faintly singed. To the naked eye, she did have him trapped and at her mercy, but, instinctual as it was, she could not do much more than focus on maintaining the few dozen points of energy on which the beams connected on the walls, otherwise they would fail as quickly as they came into being.

Laser Prison - 93

 

[Miroku Riyota]

As he approached his target it seemed she was not going to take the assault lying down. Before he knew it bright beam after bright beam began appearing in front of him. A laser grid was forming that seemed impassable. A defence network erected within seconds. Riyota didn't have time to stop and change direction without injuring himself at least partially and he also knew that's what Suzume would be hoping for. Thus, he grit his teeth and kept charging. 'Monstrous disfigurements don't fail me now!' He thought to himself as the first beam sliced through his flesh, just beneath his eye.

The rest hit soon after, searing and lacerating his skin and tearing through his clothing like paper. Blood began slowly trickling down, surprisingly not cauterising from the heat of the lasers. His flesh needed to repair and it couldn't do that if it became scar tissue. Once Riyota had concluded running the gauntlet through Suzume's laser wall he began his counter-attack. His clothes already turning a deep crimson from bleeding.

The mentor brought the blade up as if to slice, he brought it down close to his student's form, threatening to cleave through her left side. Before blade met flesh though Riyota swiftly side-stepped to Suzume's right, impacting her with a swift hook to the side of the head that was likely going to knock her off balance.

With his student likely caught off-guard and himself still held in the air he would begin rapidly forming handseals. Above them both a large chunk of red crystal would form. As he landed Riyota would slam his hands on the ground, causing the crystal formation to explode and shatter, sending shards of ruby all over the area, which would stick into his student painfully unless she could avoid them or shield herself from them.

Riyota was getting worked up, his blood was boiling as his body awoke to the combat situation, although he knew it was merely a simulation of actual combat he still felt the same instincts and thrills. His pupils were beginning to dilate and tendrils of his curse mark were starting to snake up to the bottom of his neck. Neither combatant had revealed their trump card yet, but the fight was only just starting and could easily escalate.

Tiger Hook - 53
Ruby Rain - 78

 

[Kazumi]

Suzume's expression of triumph quickly turned to shock as he pressed forward through the thin beams which sliced through him and his clothing cleanly. Had he been any normal human, the very first one that slid through his skull would have been the end of him, but outside of a line of blood that traced along the line that the beam had cut, there was no sign of damage at all. His clothing did not fare as well, which now threatened to fall off in bits and pieces as the half-dozen other red lines appeared and faded across his body. The fact that he was still alive only began to register to her as he shot through the air with his arm-blade ready. She moved to dodge to the side, but that only opened her up for the true attack: His fist, which impacted squarely on the side of her head.

Seeing stars, she practically spun through the air from the impact, somehow managing to land feet first on the ground, a red mark quickly forming on her cheek from the strike. She let out a groan of dazed pain as she stood back straight, turning to face him just as the crystalline formation shattered in front of her. Her battle instincts were raw and inexperienced, leaving her far to open as she shower cascaded down in her direction. A dozen small fragments embedded themselves in her torso, arms and legs. Two impacted her head, unable to pierce the skull, but stabbing into the bone with force enough to stick into it, looking like mismatched horns that stuck out at poor angles. One larger shard went straight through the side of the unwary girl's neck however, going straight through to the other side. The shard pierced her left jugular, causing blood to quickly stream through the front and back openings of the wound.

Suzume did not seem to notice the serious injury, either oblivious to it or more in pain due to the dozen other shards that still remained in her. The front and back of her shirt quickly began to turn red as she formed another set of handseals, her teeth gritted through the pain as her eyes watered. Finishing the seals as Riyota landed from his attacks, a ball of energy formed between her hands, bright but traces of what appeared to be black energy sipping across its surface. She brought both arms back to her side, splitting the ball into two smaller ones that cupped in each of her hands. Another spasm of pain struck her as she thrust both arms outwards, the balls each opening into fist sized columns of energy that shot both towards the cloud and towards Riyota. Due to the pain and inexperience, her aim was too far off to connect soundly with either, though a section of the crystals were vaporized by the beam.

Gigavolt Cannon - 32/46

 

[Miroku Riyota]

'I need to calm it down before she gets seriously hurt...' He mentally scolded himself for the amount of damage he had already begun to inflict on his student in these early stages of their spar. 'C'mon Suze, you need to bite back. You're getting knocked flat by everything and taking far too long to recover from it.' He kept these criticisms in his head, both because he didn't want to distract her, but also because right now he wasn't her teacher. He was her opponent.

It seemed she planned to retaliate rather than heal her injuries as he had hoped she would. He looked on, a sad expression crossing his face as she very plainly telegraphed her next attack to him. Perhaps she was sluggish because of the wound she had suffered, or perhaps she merely hadn't learned the lesson yet. Whichever it was when the two beams of lightning came shooting towards him he easily deflected them with his blade. Sending them off-course into a nearby wall or pillar.

Riyota considered calling it here, returning to a normal lesson before she got even more hurt, he could hardly bare seeing her like this, with blood gushing out of her neck. However he knew what he was supposed to be preparing her for, and he knew he could show know mercy just as the foes she faced on the battlefield would show no mercy. Closing his eyes for a moment and steeling his mind, he took a deep breath. Sheathing the metal blade back into his prosthetic he extended his real arm outwards. Slowly, bones began to twist and knot together, strengthening and forming into a large, dangerous scythe like weapon. Twirling it around on his fingertips, he infused it with his crystal affinity, creating a weapon amalgamated of a fusion between bone and crystal. The handle being skeletal but the blade being made of glinting, sharp, diamond.

Riyota continued his approach with the scythe primed, he walked slowly towards her, giving her once more chance to attack before he made his move.

Dead Bone Pulse
Diamond Cutter