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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:10:38 GMT -6
And then, at last, came the final leg of Rei’s training before she would make her debut as a proper part of the team. This was what San had been postponing, whether consciously or not, for some time now. It was… uncomfortable to think about the idea of Rei being in the line of combat, even incidentally, and more uncomfortable still to explain to her, fully and explicitly, that what she would be doing was deadly work.
… Though he supposed he might have done it already, back when he was asking her to sprint. And in truth she had probably figured it out already. He knew that, despite appearances, she was aware and thinking about what was going on around her.
Even so.
They walked to the training room as they always did, but once they arrived, San found Rei watching him with a slight furrow between her brows.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:11:13 GMT -6
He must not have been doing a good job of disguising his misgivings. Still, she didn’t press the question, and so he offered her no answers. He reminded himself that she would be an agent soon, just like the rest of them, and that he could not coddle her. She was small, but so was Roku; so were most of the non-humans in the Watchful Ones’ employ, so far as San could tell. They were not, after all, the army; they were spies, assassins, rumormongers and thieves. They had no use for beasts of burden or attack dogs.
But spies never won much love anywhere, and ones being surveilled certainly wouldn’t miss them. Being able to dodge a strike was a vital skill. San and Shi had learned it early; Rei was learning it late. But it would be even more remiss of him to neglect this altogether.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:11:34 GMT -6
“Sometimes,” San said, “there will be danger. I’ve taught you to hide, and if things go well and you are careful, you won’t be caught. But if you are… You need to learn how not to get hit.” He didn’t say that if she was struck once, it would probably be the death of her. His goal was not to terrify her. Neither did he want to remind her of her own weakness and relative powerlessness, not when she was beginning to recover. Instead, he focused on the lesson itself. “We will be practicing here, you with me. I’ll go easy until you get the hang of it.”
Rei nodded once. At least on the surface, she was treating this as though it were any other session with the two of them together. San wondered whether… No, it wasn’t the time to think about such things.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:11:59 GMT -6
If she was ready, then he had no business hesitating himself. “Okay. When you sprinted, you wanted to get away from someone as fast as you could. Dodging is a little different. You want to move as little as you can, but still not let them hit you.”
He demonstrated a sway, and then a slight sidestep in the other direction. It was less impressive without someone else there to provide a mock assailant, but at least he was showing her the right movements. “You’ll have to move more than I did because you’re smaller, but eventually you’ll be able to judge how much you need to move. For now… just try your best.”
Rei had stayed quiet and attentive through his whole explanation, and now she nodded once, yet again. With that, there was no more delaying; they would have to begin practicing. “I’ll tell you when, to start,” he said. “Ready? Dodge.”
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:12:59 GMT -6
San waited for her body language to reflect a state of readiness before he struck. It wasn’t anything that could reasonably have been called a strike, and if any of his old trainers could see him now, they would admonish him for sloppy skills as well as for taking it too easy on the agent he was training. But he wanted Rei to be able to succeed, and he reasoned that there was a difference between coddling her and simply being careful with her. After all, he could take a blow to the face or chest from his instructors; it had not been pleasant, and most of his early sessions had left him bloodied and bruised, but he had survived. With their difference in size, that wasn’t something he could risk with Rei.
And so, his hand swept out towards her at a relatively slow pace. If he hit her, it would only be a push.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:13:09 GMT -6
To her credit, she had been paying attention, and she now sidestepped his attempt. It was a little wide, but she had the right idea, and she had done basically as he had asked.
“Good,” said San with a smile. For now, he held off on critiquing her technique. He would do so later, if he felt the need to, but refinement would come with practice. There was no sense in heaping it on now, when she barely had any idea what she was doing.
“Again,” he said. “Dodge.” He reached for her a second time, and once again, she moved just to the right of San’s outstretched hand. He gave her a moment to recover, then said again, “Dodge.” This time, she edged to the left. “Dodge.” She stepped to the right. Time and time again, in increasingly short succession, and with increasing speed, he reached for Rei.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:13:22 GMT -6
At first she did well enough, but as the game went on, he saw her beginning to falter. He stopped just before she would have stumbled and failed, by which point she was beginning to breathe a little hard.
“That’s enough for now, I think,” San said. “Take a break, and we’ll start again.”
The second round, after she had gotten some practice in, began at a faster pace than the first. San didn’t start quite so quickly as he was moving when he had called for a break, but not nearly so slowly as he had initially done either. He watched her more carefully, still holding his tongue but beginning to identify problems. After all, if there were any issues with what she learned here, then it wouldn’t serve her properly if she was ever in any real danger. That was what San reminded himself of as he did so.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:13:54 GMT -6
Based on how tired she was, San had expected this, but observing her the second time confirmed his suspicions. She was moving too much. Otherwise she was doing quite well; her sense of timing wasn’t bad, and that, at least, was getting better. And he could hardly blame her for being shy of getting struck, when San himself was no longer properly pulling his blows.
It was a satisfactory first session when he called it to an end, but they would have to work on fixing that problem the next time they practiced.
On their second session in the training room, San walked Rei through some warm ups, then had her dodge a few strikes, before coming to a stop. “You’re moving too far,” he said. “You’ll tire yourself out like that. Here, I’ll go slow again. This time focus on moving as little as you have to.”
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:14:27 GMT -6
His hand swept out at her very slowly this time, just as he said he would. He could see her watching him carefully, likely trying to figure out his trajectory. “Two steps left,” he said, to help her; to be honest, he felt that she knew already where he was going to be when he got to her, and the problem was more that she had no idea how to barely dodge. She took two steps to the left, and his hand went past her harmlessly, just shy of grazing her body.
“Like that,” he said. “You don’t have to cut it so close just yet, but… That’s the goal we're working toward, in the end.”
Rei stared at his hand, and then, when San retracted it, at the floor. San didn’t rush her, and waited for her to indicate to him that she was ready to start again.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:15:05 GMT -6
He didn’t know if she was merely reassessing her own technique, or if she was coming to some grim conclusion about what her future held for her, but he had said all that he could say on the matter. If it was the latter… There was little enough comfort he could offer her now.
It was serve or be disposed of, after all.
Eventually Rei straightened and looked back at him, and San gave her a nod. “I’ll keep going slowly,” he said. “Dodge.” He kept to his word, and his movements returned to the pace that they had been at the beginning of the previous session. Rei, for her part, focused on minimizing her necessary movement. At this pace, it didn’t take her long to grasp it, but San expected it wouldn’t. It hadn't been lost on San that Rei was picking things up faster and faster now.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 18:16:06 GMT -6
The real question was whether she would be able to steel her nerves to do it when he was moving at speed.
Once he felt that she was growing proficient at it, he informed her that he would be increasing the pace, and gradually did so.He was hoping that if he did it slowly enough, by the time he got back to full and proper speed, Rei would hardly need to think about what she was doing.
Because of that, it was slow work, taking place over several sessions. He wondered if the others questioned how long it was taking him, but if they did, none of them said anything. But eventually the hard work paid off; eventually Rei grew proficient enough at dodging that he could make an honest attempt to grab for her and have her evade him effectively. It hadn't been a pleasant thing to practice, but at least he knew she could do it now.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 22:29:44 GMT -6
At that point it was time for him to begin an even less pleasant aspect of her training. They were in the last stretch of it, so to speak, but that was a mixed blessing in and of itself; past this point she would be doing live work, and he would be able to help her even less then. The only thing he could do now was invest his effort into teaching her, so that her own skills wouldn’t fail her, at least, when the time came.
Carefully, he said, “When we’re out in the field… I won’t always be there to look out for you. Actually, we’ll probably be separated most of the time. You’ll need to learn how to tell if you’re being followed, and if someone is going to ambush you. If you can sense them before they get to you, that gives you time to run away.”
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 22:30:01 GMT -6
And if she missed the warning signs, then she would likely be captured or killed. A single successful ambush was all it took.
“We’ll start practicing now, with me and you. Later the whole team will help, and we’ll move into the city,” he said. It was the sort of thing that he wanted to make sure she could do effectively in a live environment before she started working in earnest. In fact, this was possibly the most important skill he could impart on her. And more to the point, it was important that she got practice with people of agent caliber, since many of those hunting a Watchful agent would have similar training themselves, even if the details and techniques were different.
Besides that, it was entirely possible that she had become proficient at reading San, specifically, since they had spent so much time together. The others barely knew her at all, so it wasn’t an issue for them.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 22:30:45 GMT -6
“To start, let’s continue dodging practice. I won’t call out when I’m going to strike this time though,” San said. It was the most basic step; they were in an empty room at present, just the two of them, and she could see well even in dim light. All she would have to do was watch him.
Rei nodded. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s start, then.”
San didn’t immediately move. Rei didn’t either; she stayed where she was, watching him. Then, slowly, San began to circle the edge of the room. Rei turned with him, staying in the center. San wondered if that was a strategic decision, or if she simply didn’t realize that she was allowed to move around. But against a single foe, with all exit points sealed off, it wasn’t a bad strategy for her to adopt, if she was making a conscious choice.
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Post by Linyü on Jun 19, 2020 22:31:02 GMT -6
If she went for a wall or a corner, she could cut off the possible angles of ambush and make him easier to monitor, but she would also be cutting off her own avenues for escape. And considering her strengths and weaknesses, it was essential for her to stay as mobile as she could.
After circling her for about a minute, San struck. Even now, when he knew she could dodge effectively, he held back from using the full extent of his training. He used as much force and speed as he would have, but the attack was telegraphed much more clearly than if he had truly been intending to ambush her.
He wanted to make it easier for her, at first.
She dodged him neatly, only a beat slower than she otherwise would have been. “Good,” said San. He let the momentum of the attack carry him across to the other side of the room, then started circling her again.
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