Observe...the Major kept saying that, kept telling them to pay attention to their surroundings but it was a next to impossible task in the dark. Yet, there were small clues left behind that one could grasp at, the squeak of a rubber sole, or a flash of light from various sources here and there. If one took the time they could almost paint a picture out of the information being spilled around them, but there were still a few pieces missing.
Mouko's voice sounded from behind Sachiko, close enough for a conversation over coffee if that had been what they were doing, but instead they were pointing guns at each other. At least that's what the new recruit guessed the other woman was doing as well, having spun around quickly to meet the voice face on. A flash of vermilion from the Major revealed that this was indeed the case, so without a moments hesitation she let her finger pull the trigger and set one of the training bullets loose.
Despite having potentially reacted accordingly, something was gnawing at the young woman's mind. Mouko had only moments ago told them to account for all factors and yet a factor appeared to be missing.
"She only showed us one of the beasts, the other one is lurking about somewhere in the dark."
That’s one way of putting it, Edward thought to himself. Mouko’s voice echoed in the back of his mind. One thing was going for them, at least. She revealed where she last was. Ed ignored the tiger, which had apparently re-vanished after a playing with Choko. His bow appeared. The soft light lit up the immediate area.
Scanning his immediate surroundings, the quincy moved quickly to where he last heard the Major’s voice. Heartbeats passed, he took a guess as to where she went. And then he fired an arrow above where she should be. Half a second later Ed dismissed his bow, gathered what energy he could, and slid over a dozen meters diagonally away from where she and the tigers were likely to be.
His emerald eyes squinted in the dark, but he focused his breathing. Muscles tensed. She could see them, but how? Was it something to do with a link to the tigers? The question played in the back of his mind, a teasing little riddle that screamed to be solved.
Choko's pupils dilated quickly in the sudden harsh light, illuminating the area. She winced away from it slightly, but forced her self to use it to get a look at the area. The flash of light must have mad the tigers invisible again. However that didn't seem to hold true for the major, as the azure haired woman caught a fleeting glance of her before the light winked out again. She trained her eyesight on the spot where she thought Mouko would be next, "leading" her like a football player with a pass and squeezed the trigger.
I wish I'd have thought of that first, that was clever to use his arrows as a beacon. She allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction as she scanned her surroundings again, checking for immediate danger. "No use in getting a shot off only to get a claw in my back," she thought aloud quietly,Next time something like that massacre happens again I want to be useful, not off somewhere oblivious to whats going on, and definitely not cowering in a corner or dead on the battlefield. Or worse someone I care for dad because of me.
Fireworks in the Lot, a pale blue shimmering briefly before fading. Nothingness had been revealed, the ploy too slow compared to the Major's speed. Another shot, the orange glow of the tiger vanishing from Sachiko's sight to leave only the stalking eyes retreating into the darkness.
"Better, much better." She spoke, right next to Edward. He spun on the spot, rifle raised, before halting. One hand placed on the Quincy's forearm, she leant forward dangerously. "Your energy is the bridge."
In the span of time it took to release the Corporal's hand, she had brought her own revolver up, aiming at the ground next to Edward. A deafening crack rang out, and she vanished outright from his vision. Her voice loomed in the shadows once more, nearing Sachiko before fading away to come closer to Choko.
"We are hunters of those who would harm the innocent. Conjecture, assumption. These are things we must cast aside." Her voice seemed to stabilize, centralizing between all three, spread out as they were. "To become a hunter, we must learn to hunt. To learn to hunt, we must learn to think."
Her tigers lit up once more, Ryou and Ishi now prone and relaxed. Mouko stood between either, and spoke confidently. "We call them Tantei, and Ryoshi-Kyoukan.
"The art of observation, Tantei. Acclimate yourself to your surroundings, take heed of every detail. When the facts are laid bare, the solution becomes simple." She held her left hand out, palm facing upwards as a small grin slipped onto her face.
She held out the right hand, and continued. "The art of hunting, Ryoshi-Kyoukan. What cannot be observed must yet be hunted, and so we bridge the gap with reiatsu. The energy you connect to your eyes becomes a light in the dark, a guide through the fog. Every movement and action becomes known.
"You have begun to think, and so you may begin to hunt." With that, the two tigers disappeared once more, but Mouko simply stood still. "Ryou and Ishi are somewhere in the lot. Find them, and catch them."
[ 346 / 2344 ]
Notes
Resonance: 7885/22,500 (35%)
Shootbangs was Mobile Marksman. Both Ryou and Ishi are in Hunt mode now. Quick thing: please refrain from posting more the once per round. As this is still treated as combat, posting more than once messes with the system.
His attention on Mouko had steadily drawn his focus away from Masato. It was not that the fight was more interesting, but that there was definitely more reiatsu be thrown around like it was dust in a tornado. With an injured arm, Aragon’s senses seemed to heighten mostly due to the fact that the buffeting of reiatsu on his arm was hard to ignore. Watching carefully and listening with an even more intentional ear, he was hearing the same sort of speech he had given a few times in the past. However he focused his mind so as to actually hear instead of being drawn into memories of the past.
He wished he had been paying a little closer attention as he heard the last sentence pass from Mouko’s lips.
"Well that sounds simple enough," Choko mused, holstering her still awkward weapon on her hip. "Find a pair of ghost tigers and catch them," she sighed and looked around slowly, scanning for the smallest bit of a clue. Even feeling outwards with her mind to sense the energy of the tigers, no luck. She growled in frustration and knelt down to her haunches in a crouching position, there was too much reshi floating around in the area to get an accurate fix on their location that way. And she wasn't used to tracking so locating them by the minute freshness of the energy was out of the question.
What a wonderful time to be incompetent, the scarlet eyed woman groaned to herself, its not enough for me to look like an idiot, but now my powers are more fritzy than usual. This is ridiculous. She scowled in the darkness and swiveled her head around to where the arrow kid lit the sky up, and then to where she thought Sachiko was. Maybe they've got an idea, cause mine don't seem to be working out very well lately.
Just like that the cats had vanished, their soft paws treading silently, not betraying their position for even a moment. Slowly rotating around, boot clad feet stepping over each other carefully with a very slight sound to match the clumsy footwork, Sachiko's eye's searched the darkness for even the slightest sign that could betray the tigers' positions.
No such hints were given, the Major stood there observing the three of them as they tried to sort out their next moves. It was obvious that staying still was going to get them no where, but neither was feeling around for a tiger like a blind person.
Taking in a deep breath the young woman raised the rifle, gripping it with confidence and a straight back, as she moved out slowly into the lot. Her feet barely lifted off the ground, unsure of what she'd find with her next step, or what lay on the ground in front of her. For the time being, steering clear of the General's group sounded like the best idea, so she took the area furthest from them while her eyes played tricks on her in the form of dancing blobs on a black field.
Two reiatsu infused spiritual tigers, lurking somewhere in the lot. A pair of proverbial needles in the haystack, and they were supposed to find and catch them. Easy enough.
Edward smirked lightly. Maybe the rush was from adrenaline, or the satisfaction of knowing they were on the right path.
Sachiko and Choko already made their way after their feline targets. Ed followed suit after the advents, his bow a strobe of light. With each pulse he scanned the ground quickly, moving always and erratically. Thanks to the intermittent light his movement became that much more erratic to track.
“One of them should be moving to your right Sachiko!” he called out to his one partner. The paw prints showed motes of dust circling around them. That had to mean they were fresh. The other he couldn’t place. And with the speed they could move, chances were even his thoughts on the one he called out would be utterly wrong.
A final flash brought up no new information that he could see. It also gave away his position. Stepping through the energy, the quincy boy brought his back to a bit of concrete that may have been a wall for training at some point.
A light hum came from Mouko, and she quickly took up purchase of the uncomfortable floor, sitting cross-legged. A light smile played across her lips, and she called out to the trio as they began their hunt. "Stay light on your feet. Prey that knows it is being hunted will attempt to deceive and distract."
Sachiko's rifle swung to her right at Edward's command, revealing nothingness.
"Use the same trick too many times, and your prey will catch wise. To be effective, you must retain the element of surprise, of confusion." She spoke, nodding as she did so. "You must observe every detail, not just those pertaining to what you are hunting. Keep track of yourself, of your current tactics and approach."
Peering through the darkness with a strange clarity, Mouko went silent for a moment. In the distance, the dancing forms of Masato's group fell into near-routine. Amongst the dim lights, a sleek form blurred the pinpricks of illumination. Warping it, distorting it against its natural path as it approached the dancing shadows of the General's group.
"Prey that feels desperate will seek to lose its aggressors even at the risk of personal harm. Desperate prey is dangerous prey. It is more than the observation of the world around you, Suijinja. Observe all that you can."
Air rushed by Choko briefly, only an echo of padding paws caught between the volleys of gunfire that came from the other training group. A brief flicker of light in the darkness revealed the glowing eyes of one tiger, before turning away, beginning to circle around to Sachiko..!
A soft breeze rushed past the slender woman's ear causing her to jump. As the crimson eyed agent turned towards the origin of the disturbance, her hand automatically went to her holstered weapon. She groaned and shook her head, Bullets won't help much against a ghost tiger. She couldn't see any of her allies but off to her right where she last heard the girl called Sachiko, she caught sight of a flicker of movement. The agent turned towards the the light with a look of scrutiny and stood to her feet, "Is that-?" she started before reasoning cut her off, "-! Sachiko, heads up!" Choko cried to the woman, wishing she had an idea of what to do.
Now we've just got to find the other one, shouldn't be a problem. She told herself, as she racked her brain for a plan of action.
Every detail, huh? Corporal Suijinja played the instructions over in his head. The light was waning in the empty lot, still other things could be given a once over. The slightest ripple of air as the major moved away. One of the tigers was near Sachiko, but she already got an alert. The other tiger, that one was more difficult to pin down.
Emptying his mind, Edward searched the area. The faintest reiatsu signature against the cacophony in the lot, distant shimmers of light from feline eyes, the low audible hum of their movements. All pointing to the second tiger, he hoped.
Breathing in, Ed braced his against his shoulder. Within his breath out, a mere moment, Edward called up his bow. Two arrows, streaks of light, lit up their darkened corner of the lot. One aimed at the feline circling Sachiko, it came within a foot of Choko before pursuing further. The other arrow reached into the darkness.
Sachiko side stepped as the quincy's arrow whizzed by her with a low humming sound. The arrow hadn't actually come that close to her, but the sound of it approaching was enough to make her move out of way completely. The action, however, had broken her concentration on the beast the that been nearing her.
With her rifle raised, the onyx-hared woman scanned the darkness slowly for the tiger that had been at her side a moment ago. Perhaps the quincy had succeeded and hit his mark. "You think you got it?" She asked as she cautiously stepped forward while attempting to connect her reiatsu with her eyes. If she could manage this task she'd be able to gain some sort of upper hand on the big cats.
The arrow crashed against the concrete floor, sending up a flurry of pale blue light. Coalescing into wisps only briefly before vanishing into the ether, the distinct outline of Ryou's form was lit up, Edward's energy refracting through its glass-like body to illuminate the inert vermilion within.
The other screeched to the far side of the Lot, briefly lighting up the agents learning the more combat-oriented abilities of the Initiative. Nothing seemed to illuminate, but every so often the lights nearing the leftmost corner of the Lot would flicker and wane, as though something had moved it.
Mouko smiled from her seated position, calling out another tip. "Tantei is about patience, constancy. It is a constant effort of reevaluating your position. It requires thought, and decisive action. Ryoshi-Kyoukan is a burst of action, and activity. Focus your energy onto your surroundings. Feel for the limits of your presence, and visualize all within that presence. Allow your eyes to see more than they need to, and the way becomes clear."
As though the speech were a command, Ryou was off in a shot! Dashing between the trio, its darkened form quickly became difficult to distinguish as it pounced towards Edward!
Now content with the directions she had left, Mouko stood. With a confident smile spreading across her face, she made her way to the melee underway across the Lot.
Caleb huffed briefly with the effort of his attack, the long barrel of his Noblesse shunting the thin stock of Masato's Spectre out of the way. Gunfire sent a deafening whine in his ears for the forty-seventh time - his Potentiation rarely left any information unobtained - before he leapt backwards, generating precious distance.
As he drew away, Aragon drew near. A sort of rhythm had fallen upon the trio of combatants, Miki dancing into range with her perceived leader. As the once-General threw out harsh blows, his faithful companion lanced out at Masato's limbs, aiming to disable retaliation.
Blows slipped past her infrequently, her determination and dexterity were an impressive thing to behold in tandem with Aragon's frightening experience with Masato's own capabilities.
As the 'round' looked to begin, a sudden weight settled on the three. The familiar presence - felt once before - weighed on them thickly, drawing their attention back to the Major who stood uncomfortably close to the whole spar.
She nodded once to Masato, receiving a confused look at first. Then, with dawning comprehension, a conflicted look crossed his face as he glanced to the trio of newer agents scrambling to capture one of the tigers.
Giving one last reluctant grimace, he nodded assent. Her smile bloomed into a predatory grin, and in a flash of movement, Mouko had taken stock of Caleb and loosed a shot from her Epitaphe. The Cryo rounds whistled shrilly as they neared him, her off-hand coming up to retrieve her knife from its holster at her left hip.
Withdrawing it, she rushed the Lieutenant down.
[ 494 / 3103 ]
Notes
Hey so the other group can now target Mouko if they'd like. Not taking this off Sev's hands for the actual training, but y'all can jump back in and have something to do now until he's able to move things along on the training front.
The whirring cryo rounds launched towards him, holding nothing as was expected from the Major. Streams of information continued to flow into his mind, as he pinpointed the location of Mouko, extrapolating out the path each shot was taken with quick calculations.
Move faster.
Caleb raised the barrel of the Noblesse rapidly, a sudden burst of speed that seemed to eclipse everything up until then. After all, delaying was what caused his failure during the last mission, an event he didn’t want to repeat once again. Loading an equal number of shots into his weapon, he moved.
Shoot faster.
The response happened in a blitz, a speed that even surprised the most experienced of the group. While raw combat potential was a forte of many others in the Initiative, he had always preferred speed and the Noblesse was enough to bridge the gap. The first shot was launched in a sudden eruption of light, the Lawbringer round quickly engulfing the first cryo round. However, he had already moved,
Appearing once again, easily ten feet in the air, he loosed a second shot, his calculations tracing back a new trajectory. The second shot was fired from the gun, engulfing more of the Cryo rounds as the laser surged forward. All the while, the lined up shot aimed towards the girl’s sternum.
Now things had gotten quite interesting in this training session. Aragon had slowed slightly over the years of disuse, but within the short span of time much had been refreshed anew. Still to claim he was on par with where he was at was a long game bluff. That all mattered not as soon as the second-generation protégé walked into the midst of the fight, her agile body and swift movements made her a natural. She was as much a wild card as any from what Aragon had observed.
He was still down the use of his right arm, a calculated necessary risk at the time. However seeing his chance to test himself against Mouko was an accepted challenge despite his condition. He would need to move faster, react sooner, and in essence improve himself. Aragon had always known that iron sharpened iron; well here she was to sharpen him.
Bursting forth with one in the holster and the other tied on the outward part of his field dressed arm, Aragon ran to intercept the woman. As he got closer, Aragon knew he would not be able to stop fast enough to brace himself between Mouko and Caleb. Dropping to his knees as he slid the last couple of feet, he fired of two shots one aimed for the tip of the drawn dagger and the other aimed at hip it was holstered in.
The sudden rush he felt from the stimulus of rushing in like he used to as a general suppressed the pain receptors. It felt good to be on this high again, even if it were a training session.
Choko drew her weapon again and tried to focus, maybe she could pick the ghost tiger out of the darkness somewhere. The burst of reiatsu from the first tiger's destruction was a bit disorienting, but now she at least knew what signature to look for. She looked about her surroundings and planted her feet firmly on the ground, if she focused she could almost feel the other agents searching for the beast in the lot. She didn't need to hear them grunting or the sound of their gunshots, she could see the ghosts of their movements just fine.
She shook her head when something buzzed into her ear and lost the picture, Dammit. She growled and tried to reach out again with her energy, if she wanted to find something specific she'd need to focus. "Seeing everything at once is nice, but I've got to zero in on stripey if I wanna finish." She whispered under her breath as her scarlet orbs scanned the room, then taking a deep breath the woman centered herself and reached out again. This time she limited herself to her comrades section of the lot; first the trail left by the quincy arrows, then the burst from their explosions, next was the first tiger's demise; then the lastly, catching the living beast.
The azure haired woman felt a shift in the air as it passed over her, and whipped around to face the beast on its path to the quincy boy. "Found you." she whispered as she pulled the trigger.
Through the darkness a subtle glow began to grow from across vast training lot. The light, dim at first that Sachiko doubted she was actually seeing it, slowly took on a humanoid form. A squeak of excitement left her lips before she pressed them tightly together, trying to focus on what she had discovered.
The slight glow across the way from her was unmistakably female, the Major's no doubt since it was reasonable to assume that Choko hadn't traveled all that way and suddenly developed such a professional stance. With a few blinks other forms became apparent in the darkness, relatively close to Mouko and interacting with her and although each form a was fuzzy and the lines unclear against the dark, it appeared that the woman was now occupying the other group.
This, however, did not mean she had forgotten about them, she still had her tigers on the hunt and the three of them were the prey. With a quick scan of the area, Sachiko could make out the glows coming from her two teammates, including a sudden flash of light coming from Choko and in an instance, the brighter glow of the recently hit tiger.
In a flash the raven haired girl took aim at the beast and let loose two bullets as the big cat made it's way towards Ed. The shot traveled through the intangible tiger and off the floor, "Goddammit..." Was all an irritated Sachiko said with an exhale as she realized her mistake.
Ed watched in wonder as his squad mates unloaded at Ryou. What an utter shame their aim was true but the bullets passed through the tiger as if he wasn’t there. The quincy’s eyes narrowed, he instinctively dodged. Too slow, he realized. Tiger claws, teeth, then the whole body passed straight through him.
Oh right, Edward noted, the whole being intangible thing.
That would explain the bullets passing through it, and why they were so hard to find.
“Where’s the other one?” he asked to no one in particular. The words carried just loud enough to be heard by Choko and Sachiko. Ed scanned the lot, keeping mind of the vermillion tiger that now circled them once more. Nothing concrete and they needed to act. To catch a tiger, and not be mauled.
Plan B, then, Ed judged the pace of Ryou’s pattern. Shaking slightly, Ed charged the ghost like tiger. He stuck his rifle out, directly to where the tiger’s face would be. Then he called out his bow. Was this rather crazy? Most certainly. How the cat would react to a reiatsu consuming bow manifesting within its head was another question all together.
"Hold on," Choko called to the quincy through the darkness and tried to focus on her surroundings again like earlier. She closed her eyes and focused on her own body first, feeling every inch of her mind, then spread out to reach further; extending her mind past the confines of her skull to the area outside. Using her own reiatsu as a starting point she spread her mental reach to the outer edges of the lot, latching on to Mouko's energy signature and using it to track down her second tiger.
After a moment she opened her eyes narrowed them, turning in the direction of her target. Found you, she thought and pulled her weapon free from its holster again and fired it in the direction of the tiger's body. "Here it is!" she shouted to him, unsure of weather or not the tiger would maintain its position long.
A familiar calm settled onto Mouko's shoulders, eyes lighting with an amber sheen as she allowed her power to unveil itself fully.
The power to match even gods, the power of a champion of Earth. Her power.
The once-General's first shot bounced hard against Plan X, the steel wrenching sideways but remaining firmly gripped. Pivoting backwards, her foot rocketed into Caleb's first Lawbringer, twisting out of the way of the second round Aragon had placed.
A low hum accompanied the blow, dark orange gathering to her leg like sparks before she gave a single grunt of exertion. Following through, she swung her foot high, batting the piercing ray of energy into the second one fired.
A splitting screech reached her ears, the two rounds cancelling each other out, but she was already moving. Fletcher's true power would begin to show the instant she made contact with his round, deflected or not.
With a spinning flourish, she brought her revolver up level to Aragon's left leg - his calf - and opened fire at the fast-approaching man. A strange reverb sung in the shot, a conic pressure rocketing from the barrel of the firearm. Invisible against the dark backdrop, the distorted air wave was difficult to discern by even the most trained eyes.
Yet, she was not done.
The blast carried her away, as though she weighed nothing, and far into the air. Twisting around, she braced herself and kicked out - legs colliding against platforms that weren't there - to launch towards Caleb.
The tigers fared less gracefully than their master, the first signs of fatigue beginning to show in the newly-trained hunters' perseverance. Ryou did naught but growl with an intangible throat around the arm of Edward, the swirling energy within lit by the bright hue of his bow. Revealed, the tiger attempted a hasty retreat into the surrounding darkness.
Choko experienced a far more drastic success.
As she opened her eyes, her focus paid in colors. Vibrant and clear, the darkness did nothing to hide the clear silhouettes of orange the tigers laid upon. In the distance, she could make out the other group, and nearer, her own.
Mouko's own form glowed a bright orange, matching her intended targets, and pacing near the back walls was the unmistakable form of Ishi. Tail swishing, the tiger appeared to be waiting. Yet between the hunters and their quarry, were beasts of a fiercer disposition.
The training group spun and whirled with the vicious melee - a fight that had every potential to evolve into one for survival. To reach Ishi, they would have to advance past the intense sparring, and corner the animal.
[ 443 / 3546 ]
Notes
Resonance: 12,915/22,500 (57%)
Internalize to retain grip on knife (Plan X); Gyaku to deflect one Lawbringer into the other. Shot is imbued with Bunkiten, and activated Mobile Marksman (shot power 530, remember to use the values listed in the Orpheus thread, and keep in mind the Epitaphe's stun/Cryo Rounds if you're hit by it). Followed up with an Air Hike to launch herself towards Caleb.
Choko has successfully activated Ryoshi-Kyoukan. Edward has successfully used Gumshoe this round. True Awakening is not active at this time.
[ Bunkiten ] - "Division Point"
To maintain a 'zone of safety', one must create distance from opponents which would otherwise violate this zone. To achieve such a thing, movement and force are requisite. By paying 1000 reiatsu, a practitioner empowers a gunshot with an incredible concussive force. Though the shot may travel its full distance, a cone reaching roughly a 10m range at full spread blasts back any who would dare approach. Bunkiten may be used once per round per firearm.
