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Post by misa on Feb 4, 2008 18:26:23 GMT
She hadn't meant to end up here. It was past midnight and she hadn't been able to sleep. Misa had thought a walk might help. She hadn't intended to go this far. But, let the feet lead the way and they will show you where you honestly want to go. The Battle training arena certainly hadn't been on her mind, but then again, she could barely think properly about anything at the moment. It felt as though she'd been walking through the smog of sleep-deprivation for a lifetime now, she forgot what it felt like to be well rested.
Now that she was here though, in such a big open empty, she felt some of that smog lift. Summoning some of that energy which only seems to exist in the small hours she connected with Tyuosa and pushed back one of the walls, doubling the length of the room.
Carefully (she didn't want to pull the building down), Misa began to set up various obstacles and things, creating a sort of course around the room - the best bit being that creating it was also training.
"On your marks, set..." She whispered to herself, but before she said go, she heard the door open. Uh-oh, busted...
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Post by Arihant on Feb 4, 2008 18:35:56 GMT
Aw, cr*p he thought, as he saw the young woman standing there.
It had been very difficult to sleep tonight. Well, scratch that, it had been impossible. Arihant, for all his... his travelling, well - he'd never been good with unfamiliar beds. After several hours of tossing and turning, he had decided to take a walk.
It was against the rules, he knew, but he didn't exactly plan to stay here very long.
As he thought this, a pair of blue eyes flashed in front of him as he remembered the girl he had been speaking to earlier, and for a moment he felt a slight twinge of regret, but no - he was decided. As soon as they fixed him, he'd be out of there.
He didn't really have "powers", anyway. You could hardly call what he could do a good thing.
The young woman who had been practising looked up quickly. Arihant assumed that she was startled -
Oh, Jesus. This was bad. She'd tell them that he was out of bed after hours. He wasn't planning on staying here, yes, but if this got out then they mightn't cure him at all!
"I- I'm sorry" he stammered, looking away quickly and blushing so hard that he was certain that it was visible even against his dark skin. He rubbed the back of his neck with his gloved hand. "I didn't realise anyone was... anyone was in here..."
He tailed off rather pathetically, and made to leave before the person would be able to identify him. He could always claim ignorance of the rules if he had to, although he had the feeling that would be a fairly feeble excuse.
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Post by misa on Feb 5, 2008 15:49:54 GMT
Misa whipped round, her mind racing for a valid excuse, but nothing came. Then she saw who it was and her heart join the race - their battling paces a dull roar in her head.
He (it was definitely a he) mumbled something indistinct and turned to go. His face was half in the vast door's shadow, but Misa could tell it wasn't someone she'd encountered in any of her lessons before.
And he was wearing black gloves, she could see his hand on the side of the door as he made to close it.
Was he a thief?
A careless spy from the enemy forces?
"Stop!" She exclaimed, her voice ringing in a way that made her horribly uneasy.
Suddenly she didn't welcome the unsheltered nature of the room. She felt out in the open, defenseless...
Get a grip! Her mind cried out and she threw her body into fight stance. She could feel Tyuosa vibrating against her sternum, ready to defend her if needs be, it gave her courage,
"Stay where you are!" She called in her darkest tone.
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Post by Arihant on Feb 5, 2008 18:30:55 GMT
OK, he was dead. Metaphorically speaking, of course - then again, he didn't know to what extent his 'powers' would manage to protect him...
He froze with fear, his body tensing violently. There was certainly going to be no problem obeying the woman's order to 'stay where he was' - he couldn't have moved if he'd wanted to. He raised his hands slowly, like he'd seen criminals do on TV. He felt rather idiotic having done it, but it would look even more stupid if he put them down.
"I- I'm sorry," he stammered. He was going to deny having knowledge of the rules, then realised the extreme stupidity of that - if he could deny it, then evidently he knew what it meant.
He hoped he wasn't going to get hurt. The people here had powers that could even... he was sure they'd even hurt him.
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Post by misa on Feb 6, 2008 18:49:59 GMT
She watched him tense with fright and thought there was something odd about it, if he was from the enemy surely he would have taken immediate action? But then again, perhaps it was a ploy...either way she couldn't be too careful. He had thrown his hands into the air and Misa inwardly memo-ed herself: her 'scary' voice wasn't something she needed to work on.
"I don't want to hurt you, but I can. " She called, keeping her hands raised, but edging forward noiselessly. "Now, who are you?"
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Post by Arihant on Feb 6, 2008 19:31:48 GMT
"My name is Arihant," he said, shaking a little. He was dead. He was very very dead.
Or, at the least, he was definitely out. They wouldn't let him stay here if he was already openly breaking the dorm rules.
He wanted to see the woman's face - his powerful curiosity acting up again, an unfortunate side effect of having spent so long outside of society - but he was rooted to the spot and couldn't bring himself to move an inch. Except for his trembling, of course.
"I'm new here - I just arrived this afternoon."
He waited for her reply and prayed he would escape with his life.
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Post by misa on Feb 6, 2008 19:49:10 GMT
As she got closer, saw his trembling, heard his catching reply she knew he couldn't possibly be one of Theirs.
He was just too underconfident, too...fresh.
He had to be new.
She was still slightly suspicious of the gloves, but maybe she was just being silly. She felt rather foolish about the whole thing, but then you could never be too careful at a time like this.
"Okay," She said slowly, lowering her hands and touching his shoulder lightly to let him know it was no trick of her own.
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Post by Arihant on Feb 7, 2008 16:34:07 GMT
Jesus!
He didn't know why, exactly, but he really hadn't been expecting her to touch him. It was probably because of... oh, a million different reasons. No one had really wanted to touch him - well, not wanted, but had even had the most passing desire to - for near four years now. It was taking him quite some time to get used to it.
He jumped, and quickly pulled her hand off his shoulder - it was too dangerous for her. He hadn't thought he'd be seeing anyone else tonight, so he had been reasonably lax with his choice of garments, just wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt and his habitual gloves. If her hand even just slipped slightly to one side, just hit his skin for a mere second... The prospect was too horrible to think about.
He wheeled around and looked at her, alarmed, his panic showing clearly on his face. She couldn't do that again if she wanted to- to survive, but he had no way of telling her. Well, he did, but... he wasn't sure about that just yet. He didn't want to go around shouting his darkest secret to every passing person just because he could.
He was perfectly aware of how strange his behaviour must have seemed, but that was probably a good thing. No one wants to touch an insane person.
"I'm sorry," he repeated, his voice tense. He didn't quite know why he was apologising just yet, but something about her made him want to. He didn't know what it was...
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Post by misa on Feb 9, 2008 11:49:25 GMT
Misa's heart leapt as he moved, faster than she had thought possible to pull her hand off his shoulder. What on earth...?
He span round to face her and she fell back to thinking maybe it was all just a set-up, a well practiced act...But the startled look on his face just wasn't something that could be fabricated.
She shifted back slightly, she knew what it felt like to feel trapped, cornered. If he was knew as he said, any number of terrible things could have happened to him, things people could have done to him with just a touch as she knew from experience they could- she had watched the enemy do the exact same thing to Ken'ichi. They had been reluctant to touch her, to come into physical contact with her (although it hadn't stopped them when she made them angry), but he they had not relented in beating, in grinding down physically as well as mentally. Perhaps this boy had been through a similar ordeal. Maybe even worse. And even though he looked well on the outside now, the invisible scars took a lot longer to heal.
Her thoughts all now geared to empathy for him now, the next words from his mouth didn't surprise her much,
"I'm sorry," He said again, but she held up a hand,
"I'm the one who should be sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," She explained, gently dropping her arms to her sides to show him she wouldn't invade his personal space again.
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Post by Arihant on Feb 9, 2008 12:17:56 GMT
"No, no, it's OK" he said, a little breathlessly, but also with rather a lot of guilt. He was doing it again! How did he always manage to make everyone so uncomfortable? "That's not it - well, that's to say - It's not your fault. I'm just a little..."
What was the word for it? Nothing really seemed to work.
"... jumpy." He smiled awkwardly, but then his face dropped as something awful occured to him. "I'm really sorry if I hurt your hand."
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Post by misa on Feb 9, 2008 12:39:14 GMT
Misa smiled back reassuringly. It didn't seem to help him at all,
"I'm really sorry if I hurt your hand." He said and she just wriggled her fingers,
"It's still working just fine," she laughed lightly as the look of concern remained on his face. "Really, it's nothing to worry about, I'm fine."
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Post by Arihant on Feb 9, 2008 12:51:27 GMT
"That's good," he said, rubbing the back of his neck while smiling with relief. He paused for a moment, not sure what to say, and looked down at the girl in front of him. She was very pretty in an exotic sort of way - he'd seen very few Asian people in his lifetime, as there hadn't been very many in India or Austria.
He hesitantly offered her his hand to shake as a truce of some sort - not that he was under any delusion that she was his enemy, but a moment before... Well, there had certainly been a tense atmosphere. He tried his best to clear it now, but it was hard for someone as bashful as he was.
"What's your name?" he asked her, trying to disarm the remaining tension in the room. And of course, just managing to sound more idiotic while he did so.
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Post by misa on Feb 9, 2008 12:56:45 GMT
She shook his hand, happy that he was inviting the contact. The leather of his glove was warm, but not in an unpleasant way. It felt safe. She kept eye contact as she shook it, that was the first thing she'd been taught in her Court Lessons. If you kept eye-contact you developed trust, without it deceit was commonplace.
"I'm Misa, Misa Matsuyama," She said. "So, Arihant, did you want to get in some late night training, too?"
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Post by Arihant on Feb 9, 2008 13:45:05 GMT
He let go of her hand, glad that she wasn't angry at him. But he was also confused and rather surprised. "Training?" he asked, and glanced around the room. It was... so empty. Then again, he didn't really know what magical training constituted. "Is that what this is?" he asked absently.
He looked back at her. "To be honest, I'm not really sure where anything is. I just... couldn't sleep."
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Post by misa on Feb 9, 2008 13:55:15 GMT
"Yes, this the Battle Training Room," Misa explained, gesturing at the room, I know how you must be feeling - on both accounts. I'm pretty new myself and my sleep pattern isn't so great either, understatement of the century. "You stop, but your mind just keeps going, doesn't it?" She said softly, wondering out into the space again.
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