A Petal Falls But Once (Ryuu&Wingshadow)

[Wingshadow]

Alex's attempt at a counter-offensive worked wonderfully. The masked figure was pulled down from the roof, falling down toward the ground just in time for the senbon to contact with his assailant, but just at the last possible moment the figure grasped the mask covering the face and used it to block the needle just before it struck. The figure then landed deftly and with perfect poise, looking up at Alex plainly. It was the warrior, of course, and she actually looked somewhat pleased if the subtle softening of her eyes had any actual meaning in them. She said nothing at first, but rather held up her mask with the needle planted firmly through the center.

"You really do enjoy damaging my things, do you not?" she remarked in a rhetorical manner, "I could criticize you on sleeping too deeply as it took quite a stir to wake you... I doubt that will be necessary, all things considered. Although any real assassin would have killed you before you even woke up, you performed reasonably well once aware of the probable danger to your own being. Come, let us move on to the next lesson."

Without even going to change her clothes, she motioned to him to follow her into a small clearing in the trees, where she had made a rather large fire. It smelled of pine wood, which was probably what was burning, and crackled menacingly as if taunting Alex before he even knew of the challenge she would present before him.

"These are ordinary chestnuts," the warrior pointed toward a modest pile of them which were beside the fire, "and this is an ordinary fire. Chestnuts to do not burn as easily as the wood, but they do get very hot and become well roasted if they remain in the fire. Your task is to both place the chestnuts and retrieve them from the fire without burning your hands. It is very possible to accomplish, even for someone of your skill, but this task requires speed and precision. Begin whenever you are ready."

This woman was certainly one for trial by fire, or at least her own master had been, as this was clearly not a job for the faint of heart or the hesitant. Given that this was a relatively simple task, it begged the question of what sorts of tasks she would ask him to perform in the future. Breaking rocks, perhaps?

 

[ryuu]

Alex not suprised at what he saw when the attacker revealed herself, and he saw the women who was now training him. She never struck him as one to worry about what would happen to her students should they fail her trials. Never the less, he was still a little shocked at the fact that she would without warning try and blind him.

However, all of that quickly became unimportant to Alex as he received his new task. He looked curiously at the chestnuts, and fire and turned to the women, and said "Tell me. Am I allowed to get them inside the fire however i want? Or do I have to use my hands?" Alex was hoping that he might be able to simply get the chestnuts inside the fire through tossing them in gently, one by one, rather than risk burning himself right off the bat, making the retreival of the nuts even harder.

 

[Wingshadow]

Had she actually wished to harm him, or blind him for that matter, he probably would not have the chance to put up much of a fight. Personally, she neither disliked nor liked the young man at this point and it probably would not have effected her particularly even if he had been unintentionally harmed. She took his question as acceptance of the next stage, and promptly replied while reclining against the ground in a fairly relaxed manner. She clearly had no intention of continuing any direct training with Alex for the time being.

"You may drop them or place them inside the fire however you like," the woman shrugged, "What is important is how you get them out, not how you put them in."

Truth be told, the warrior probably did not place much thought on the actual danger of her training methods. Perhaps it had something to do with her long life, as the longer one lives the harder it is to be scared or startled, or perhaps she simply did not place much value on her student's well being. She appreciated his company to some degree, but as he was hardly the first to become her student it had become something of a chore for her. She could not count how much she herself had learned from this process of refining and training students, so it was beneficial for herself even if there was no monetary incentive (as in this case). It was a fulfilling chore, but a chore nonetheless.

 

[ryuu]

Alex gave a little cocky smirk when he learned he had no rules here for the most part. Alex looked around him curiously, overlooking everything he could see. His eyes stopped on a small fallen branch which still had living leaves, and walked over to it slowly, and picked it up, walking back to the chestnuts just as calmly, and picked up each individual nut, placing it near the fire, just far enough that the flames wouldn't reach his hands or the nuts though. Alex then used the branch to push the bunch of nuts into the fire, making sure that the flames never reached him. After he pushed them in however, the branch caught on fire and Alex then placed it on the ground and stomped out the fire quickly so it wouldn't spread.

Alex looked down on the ground now, scouring the ground for the key to getting the nuts out without worrying about burns. He finally spotted it. The needle from before. On the way over to the next challenge Alex had dropped it, and now realized that he could use it to pull out the chestnuts by throwing the needle into a nut, and then he could just pull it out. He picked up the needle, and held it up and looked at the woman, gave a hopeful smile and said “Is this allowed? Or do I need to do it the old fashion way?”

 

[Wingshadow]

"The point of this lesson is to increase your speed and dexterity, as well as overcome the in-grained instinct to avoid visible manifestations of pain, such as fire," the warrior replied, not so much as sitting up in order to answer his question, "If you are going to bypass the entire purpose of the lesson, what point is there in doing it? We are not training your mind here, and neither is this my way of giving you an opportunity to be clever. Either do it correctly, or don't do it at all."

She pushed herself up off the ground and walked over to the fire, bending down and picking up some of the chestnuts up for herself and tossing them into the very center of the fire. She waited a good minute and a half before making any further movements, then she slowly spread her arms out to either side of her as she leaned over the fire. Her arms suddenly flashed, and for an instant they seemed to vanish into thin air. The next moment her arms where once again in the air to either side of her, but were now holding the chestnuts which she presented to her student. They were very hot, but her calloused hands probably didn't feel a thing.