Facing East

Anything you might want to try out that doesn't temporally or thematically fit the serial should go here. This is an ideal space for all your what-ifs and might-have-beens, as well as for your average silliness.
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IamLEAM1983
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Re: Facing East

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Kurama's block, along with the following redirection and the dozen or so attempted strikes that followed, were just as unconscious as Aspasia's own reaction had been. The tengu and satyress formed a couple following the steps of a dance that had nothing to do with tactical considerations or enemy leverage - reflexes rendered pure and precise guided them both. If someone else had come along, they could've been forgiven for thinking that Sojubo and Aspasia had painstakingly rehearsed this.

In the end, some agonizingly long forty seconds later, the faun finally gave the raven an opening. He bent down in a sweeping arc, passing under one of her swings, and swept the wooden arch he held hard along her legs. He maintained his momentum and continued the swing to the point where he offered Aspasia his back, only to drive his right elbow hard against her sternum, to further destabilize her.
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Re: Facing East

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The blow to her sternum hurt like hell and also threw her respiration and heart for a loop. However, Aspasia was built much sturdier than a human, and she managed to regain something of her breathing in order to react. The fauness tilted backwards as though she was going down, but her strong arms reflexively caught her and allowed her to balance on her hands. With the adrenaline pumping, she swiftly brought both legs up and delivered a powerful hit with both hooves to his torso and the right arm to push him away.

She managed to do a small flip to stand back up, but the hit had affected her breath enough to where she was clutching the middle of her chest. Wincing, she propped herself against one of the dojo's beams and glanced over at Kurama, who she figured would have righted himself. "N-not to brag, but I'm glad I'm not human. Hits like that have stopped people's hearts."
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Re: Facing East

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"I've fought you before," replied Kurama in Japanese, "I knew you could take it. As for the fabled Ghost Spider..."

The look he sent Archie was fairly contemptible. "It seems as though a British's spy's concept of honor differs from ours. A samurai takes a rival's sword upon death. Only upon death. A samurai's sword is his soul."

Archie seemed fairly incredulous. "Are you telling me I shouldn't use my abilities to suit some hackneyed desire for further handicaps?! Honor, dear sir, is expressed in mercy upon the battlefield and in the form of martial fairness!"

Kurama sniffed. "And yet, Englishman did not yield when I took his arm."

Seeing the contradiction, Holden looked flustered. "Well, I could-
- To your eyes, this must not be mere wood," countered Kurama, who held up his wooden blade. "This is an instrument of death, and it kills. It will kill. It must kill.
- But it's bloody wood! I have copper inserts! Do you have any idea how much torque you would have needed to cut my arm off?!
- Ah, so the Englishman does not need me. He masters his heart and the battlefield alike. He lives up to his reputation, I see."

Catching the sarcasm, Archie grimaced.
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Re: Facing East

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Having gotten her respiration and her heartbeat settled down, Aspasia listened to the two men argue and sighed. She ventured over and lightly flicked her index finger against the grimacing automaton's forehead. "Since when did you become so damned literal-minded, Holden-san?" she asked in Japanese, a hand on her hip. "When Kurama-san and I were sparring, I assume you were watching and not sulking. So, here's a pop quiz; what kept me going, even when he struck my sternum?"
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Re: Facing East

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Archie spat back in Japanese. "Of course, O Engineered One, lecture me on focus and determination, school me in the finer points of adaptability!"

He switched to English. "You were made to fight. I was born some scrawny brat who knew nothing if bloodless privilege for years, and who finally bled to earn what little honest advantage he has! I gave everything I had to Victoria's misguided crusade, I served in the British Raj and was then sent off to Saint Petersburg like some vaguely dependable lapdog - and then I died!"

He advanced on Aspasia, teeth clenched. "I never asked to survive that damned jungle; I never asked to be resurrected after Anastasius' defeat! You - people like you - put me here and demanded things of me, you who have always known so much better than I what I ought to do with my life!"

Eiji's shakujo chimed and lightly crunched in the snow. He'd gone back to monk robes but wasn't wearing his hat. He approached from the residence's side of the outer courtyard and entered the dojo's premises silently.

"I should've left," he said, raising his voice to be heard as he came closer, "but I figured I'd use the wobbliness of Time here for a bit of extra charity... Sorry to bother you three but - Holden, you remember how squarely I thrashed you, way back when?"

Thrown off guard, Archie slightly panted. "How could I not," he said, adjusting his kimono. "I knew nothing of your people's customs, when the Meiji boy was alive.
- But you picked 'em up, didn't you? The bows and curtsies, the way we apologize more than freaking Canadians do, on average," he said, adding a self-deprecating chuckle.

He eyed Aspasia. "The catch is, Canadians mean it, when they round out their sorries," he said, rounding out his O in Sorry in a very Vancouver-worthy fashion. "For Japanese, sumimasen's always stealthy polite annoyance. It's one of the most formal ways to beg for forgiveness, sure - but it's worn out by use. Don't think of it as I'm sorry you're upset, but more as meaning I'm sorry you're forcing me to admit you're upset, you meddling foreigner."

Eiji chuckled. "Now, the British, immortal ones from Archie's period, they have a baker's dozen ways of making you feel like shit - and they never so much as dip a toe into outright rudeness. Always cagey with their words, dancing around insults and compliments, packing on enough pounds to puff out the right set of Dickensian jowls but never so much as to leave the boundaries of bland frugality..."

His jovial attitude evaporated. "You're whining, Holden. That billy's gotten into you, and we're short on onmyogi, around these parts. Luckily for you, there's plenty of things people hold sacred, here. Hundreds of 'em, in fact. I know you'll never stoop so low as to beg Amaterasu or even one of the kodamas for penance, however. Out of the hundreds, that leaves you with one choice."

Archie snarled. "Which is it?
- Fight it out. Slice it out. Bleed it out. If you can't, or if you've forgotten or the billy's not letting you focus - you shut up, nod your head, say hai, sensei."

He paused. "You do that, or I swear on my ancestors I'll kill you. I'll fly back to Hope, tell your kids they've found themselves new managers. Katsumoto might take a leap into private security and public contract work. Fancy that, huh?"
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Re: Facing East

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Aspasia's expression had softened some, but she then firmly explained to Archie, "That's part of what I was I trying to get you to think of. I understand you've been hurt deeply, but the key thing is to keep going. I've had comrades who were designed to fight, just like me, but they stopped fighting, gave up completely and died. When I was sparring with Kurama-san, I slipped up and lost my focus. However, I didn't fall to the ground; I kicked him away. Out of all the methods of reacting Katsumoto-san just gave you, they're all ways to keep going."

"When I called you literal-minded, I meant you need to see things beyond what they are. When you fire a rifle, it's an extension of your arm; you slice with a sword whether it's a bokken or a katana and strike at your opponent's core. When you've played your violin in past evenings, it was a musical instrument, but it was also an attachment of your soul. Whatever tool you're using, it also affects the soul."
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Re: Facing East

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"Girl's got a point," added Eiji, after sniffing in what was either thoughtfulness or contempt for Archie's commiserative attitude. "Kurama's got one too. You've been wounded, and you've forgotten what it feels like when you fall. You've fallen once, so it feels like the worst thing ever. You buck and protest. Your sensei tells you to play dead, that his katana's cut off an arm, and you buck against that."

He walked forwards until he stood right in front of Archie, waited for Holden to open his mouth, and then swept his staff hard across Holden's legs, then partially extending it to pin him to the snowy ground.

"You're down, Holden. You're already dead in the Goat's eyes. How's it feel?"

Archie stared daggers at his old friend. "I hate it."

Eiji nodded. "So stand up. You won't do the Bhatia kid any favors if angst keeps your arm from being steady. You won't do me any favors, and you'll waste Aspasia's time. You'll come home as much of a wreck as you were when you left for here, and you'll leave your kids feeling leaderless. The Drake kid's a fine substitute, a great point man - but he can't handle the politics of it all like you can."

His other hand dug in his kimono's fold and pulled out two kunai. "So, do I aim for the eyes, or are you gonna stand up? You have a month to beat the ethnocentrism out of Kurama-san, show him what you showed me. If I were you, I'd take that. I'd take it gladly."

Holden hesitated, and then thrust out his good hand. The kunai disappeared back inside the kimono's folds, and the old and little man's wrinkled hand impossibly pulled the Clank to his feet.

"Knock him out a few times," Katsumoto said in Japanese, addressing Kurama. "He's a feisty one by nature - he's just forgotten."

Kurama offered Katsumoto a fairly dark smirk of approval, but didn't notice as Eiji shifted his eyes back to Archie. 

"Kick his arrogant ass for Aspasia and me, 'kay?" he whispered. "I'll mail you some of my best sake if you put him in traction."

The light in Archie's eyes shifted, going for a more playful take on Kurama's dark joy. Both spies shared in a complicit chuckle.

Katsumoto stepped aside as Archie carefully removed his sling and tested his arm. It still felt strange - but he was focused, now. He'd work through it, the same way he had with everything else. Aspasia had been right - he had to stand up. He briefly bent down and picked up his bokken with his restored arm and hand.

"Junbi ga dekimashita," he then said. He was ready.
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Re: Facing East

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The fauness nodded approvingly and smiled lightly. "Good. Now, let's get to work," she said.

At that moment, Crystal had followed their scents and found her way into the dojo. "I apologize for oversleeping. I'm here now," the werewolf responded with a bow, dressed appropriately for the occasion.

Aspasia looked over at her and sent her a smile, too. "Perfect timing."
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Re: Facing East

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"You didn't oversleep, darling," lightly chided Archie, "I needed a bit of moonlight to feel miserable in."

Kurama laughed contemptibly. "Moonlight, sunlight - Englishman has been feeling miserable in all turns of day!"

Eiji rolled his eyes and smiled at Crystal. "Well, I'm off. California's calling, the sansei can't spend a few hours before messaging their issei... I more or less always have a company to save from the confused ends of my own family."

A gust of wind blew a briefly opaque wall of snow in front of Katsumoto for a less than a second. In the heartbeat that left him invisible, his clothes changed back to the two-piece and cane he'd displayed earlier, the broad-brimmed rice paper hat turning into a dark fedora, some sort of overcoat being hooked over his left folded arm. He bowed, slowly and deeply.

"Have fun tweaking the Kori clan's nose, Club Mab could use a few local setbacks."
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Re: Facing East

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Both Crystal and Aspasia returned the bow. "Have a safe trip," the deputy chief wished him. "We'll definitely be tweaking the Kori clan's nose! Take care!" the restaurateur replied.

After Eiji would have departed, Aspasia asked Sojubo, "Now that everyone is here and has a more constructive outlook, we can get on with the hard work. Is calligraphy still on the agenda?"
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