Abandoned Hospital

"Ggg..h..!" Caelica tried to push back, but eventually hopped back a few inches to get out of the bladelock. She couldn´t keep up with him, even though he was definately holding himself back. Still, it was amazeing to her that he didn´t defeat her yet.

Her brain worked in a way that was never used by her before, she analyzed his stace and tried to figure out which move he could deflect the worst, judgeing from her position.. as quick as she had jumped back, she closed in again, the tip of her blade aimed to stab at his chest. Katana´s weren´t good stabbing weapons due to thier curved blade, but that wasn´t something Caelica would know or even care about. Right now, it was like an ancient instinct in her had awakend and tried to take down Jubei by any means she had to offer.

'That's what I'm talkin' about, let's get this going...', the thought seemed timely, but did not affect his reaction to Caelica's attack.

The sudden thrust was a surprise move by Caelica, but this was just what he was looking for. While she'd find that the cat tilted his head down in time to parry the attack, the blade did still graze his coat from her shear pace. It was nothing that he'd expected much if at all, but it would be returned by an immediate rise of his face; tilting the blade up again, he unveiled more of the beastkin strength surging through his body as he whipped the dull side of the blade towards her side. Though with the katana locked against Musashi, it was likely this would only push her back; none the less he made the move to see just how far this instinct was going to push her.

Reiei had kept unnoticed to everyone. He was observing Caelica, and didn't know when and how the One-Eyed Lotus in person came here without being noticed even by him.
He was observing the conversation, but one thing was sure: Setsuna was not here. His presence made no sense at all. Besides, now they were battling he would be better if he left this place quickly and silently.
Let's just say this mission is a total failure and go back to HQ quickly. We have no clue where Setsuna is anyway., thought Reiei as a motivation for himself to leave. He quickly escaped from here, having nothing to learn now.
---> Exit

Caelica turned in shock and reversed her grip on the Katana to block his, twisting it in her hand and blocking with one of her hands, but soon she had to use both hands.. and even if she pushed her whole weight against him, Jubei didn´t buldge and just increased the pressure, makeing her stumble back.

A little grumble came from her, but she regained her composture soon, turning the blade again and holding it with both hands to focus again, her side was turned away from his blade, but she tried yet to be better.. her next slash was aimed for his back, going from left to right, aimed for the scabbard of Musashi... only when she was getting closer she realized what a dumb idea that was and that the powerful Nox could just deep-fry her on impact or something like that... her ears caught a faint noise of footsteps nearby, but she paid no mind, she had to concentrate or she might loose a limb here.

The move to his back was a move that he hadn't counted on, while the cat knew well out of happenstance the sheath and second blade would respond to her, even from a closed off state that it would hurt her. But since the cat was just starting to get to like this action, he threw himself forward and rolled to the side in a sudden motion. She'd have found that his increase in agility was a bit more of that which he held back. It was a move to completely avoid her slash, this for one fact alone: if it ended now she wouldn't be able to embrace that instinct now would she?

"Yer gettin' better, good...good Caelica." of course by no the words were still muffled by the hilt of the blade between his lips, the cat had turned to her and moved forward with the blade extended; another rush with the flat of the blade aimed for her side.

"I... have to.. in order to... keep up." Caelica said, lightly panting whilest turning and deflecting the strike aimed for her side. He was repeating himself, probably to increase the training effect, or because she barely got past that last time.. He still didn´t draw his second sword, that was good, but as soon as he would, she was going to have to retreat to the bed and get the saya back... she doubted that she could fight two blades with one.

Her stamina was increased thanks to the Azure, but she felt like engageing it soon just to match his pace. Whatever he felt it or not, he was stressing to keep up with, even when he wasn´t even trying.
For now, though, she responded by whirling the blade around her neck and giving him a shoulder strike, a decapitateing motion that was hard to block when the blade was stuck in his mouth... but then again, if anyone could block that, it would be him.

Her new action impressed him, since it forced him to adapt to her action, she'd find that his head was not only angled up; but the position of his body was adjusted slightly into a kneeling position. As by point now, he would absorb the impact of her slash, which to his surprise had lots more force than he thought it might. She was pushing hard enough that he considered taking the blade with his paw, in point to even the playing field and show that she had 'graduated', but this would have to wait and see if he could overpower her.

Using his jaw's grip on Musashi to increase the tension in his blade, using this basic principle of increasing one's pressure on the handle; he revealed more use of that excellent practicd handling he had. It had been quite a time since he had to consider using something even under these circumstances, but sure enough Caelica's efforts were worth it.

Caelica considered trying to fight it, but she broke the blade lock very quickly, being worried about the state of her sword... Musashi was definately sharper than her antique model, and Jubei had enough power to push its blade through hers and break it.
Once again, she thought about useing Armagus, but that trump card would have to wait until she really needed it. Jubei was a tough enemy, she needed to be strong.

So far she had been doing fine, but she was panting more than before and her lack of training was starting to show, as she was sweating and feeling light headed. However, her mind was clear and sharp, her arms strong and her grip just right... she tried something that just came to her mind, grabbing the sword with both hands in a backhanded position, she swung it at his side with great force, so much force in fact that the recoil made her turn on her own axies, but she used that momentum to follow up with a swift, one handed overhead slash that would stop her when he would block it... which was certain right now.

The move was a smart one, since Jubei knew that his mouth would no longer cut it, while he was skilled there, it was experience that told him she was pushing him onto a new plane of battle. She had the action delivered just right, this would no longer be continued well if he continued using his mouth to wield Musashi. As if clockwork, the feline took grip of the hilt of Musashi with a single hand and rose quickly to meet her blow.

This meant one of two things: That either she was challenging him enough to force this or that her coming slash was too powerful for his original choice of combat. And truth be told, both were right on the button: by now she'd find arm flexing with some effort of his to absorb the impact of her slash. He was holding back that much less now, since she proved to be worthy of it; he would give her more effort in order to force the greater strength out of her yet. "As I suspected, that potential there, yer finally tappin into it!" the response warranted her to notice his growing fondness for the fact she improved quickly; but also that he wasn't playing nearly as much as when they started.

With the beastman strength he unveiled, his single flexing action was boudn to have an interesting result in Caelica's response to the boost in his physical strength.

"Still´s gonna... take... a couple of years to... be on Bloodedge`s... level..." She panted, her sword recoiling from his as she swiped it around to regain composture. He didn´t even seem to break a sweat, but then again, he had fur.
Quickly gaining a small distance from him, she regained focus, analyzeing the situation and grasping it quickly. Her body might feel tireing, but her Azure was going to supply her with as much stamina as she needed... there was plenty of energy in the boundary to use.

With the sword now in his paws, that meant two things, one, that Jubei would no longer be vulverable on the horizontal line, two, that he could use a heck of a lot more strength with a lot more speed. She didn´t know how a cat could hold onto a sword like that, but if he could, he could beat her, too.
Trying to figure out a new weakpoint, she turned the weapon in her hand again and sliced from bottom upwards, trying to suprise him with an inversed slash... that had to be harder to block when his sword was faceing the other way, right?

She was certainly playing it smart when reacting to him and this only made Jubei consider what else he should be doing. Not everything had to be directly parried or dodged at close range, he had a few tricks to use in an instant like that, of course this one coming to mind made him catch a clue.

No doubt about it, the reverse slash would not be easy to block, had that been his aim. He chose something more in mind; one that might be wiser than his first thought, he took that which entered his mind the moment his good eye watched the sweeping momentum of her sword. Instead of outright clashing with her like he could, he simply leapt back from her; the choice itself was simplistic enough but it held an ulterior motive beneath it. As the cat prepared his next move for Caelica, he gestured with one of his tails for her to come forward, with his face holding a new grin...one could say that he hadn't been so excited about practicing in a while. Even if it was just Caelica's ingenuity that had him pursuing more that she could offer.

The blade went through the air, then turned in mid motion and went into a normal cutting position... Caelica grumbled a bit, then put the blade behind her neck, dashing forth at Jubei, then throwing a diagonal cut at him, with power gotten from twirling it around her neck... but not just that, this position allowed her to repeat the cut several times, always cutting, pulling the sword over her head, twirling it around and cutting again... with that, she moved forward, trying to drive him back with numberous, rapid slashes followed by blocking motions.

The speed was certainly backing her move as she aimed to push him back, Jubei was forced on the rebound to parry her slashes, the twist of the blade around her neck and return to a set of unique motions: these were impressive skills of the technique that sent him on a backwards tussle of his feet, the cat had not lost balance but wanted Caelica to believe he had. While he was impressed with her driving pace, this next move was sure to break it if it worked.

As Jubei stepped back with his right foot and twisted the blade in a circular motion; sending her blade to pass over the end of his own, he hoped to throw her off balance so that he could turn the tables on her fresh. He wanted to see how well she adapted to his counter.

Caelica almost stumbled as her sword met resistance, then suddenly none at all, Jubei trying to throw her off... in instinct, she grabbed the first thing she could get, Jubei´s coat, but then she got an idea, grabbing the Beastkin by the scruff of the neck and throwing him behind her, then turning around to advance on him again, regaining focus and stance, quickly dashing after the beastkin to slash at him whilest he was still flying through the air...

Uh, damnit, that might actually hit him...

To his surprise Caelica had enough strength there to toss him into the air, to be kurt, she was certainly in the zone now; there was little need to offer her so little resistance. For as her blade neared him and had even by now clipped the edge of his jacket, was suddenly met with a solid connecting blow. Something of maybe...1/4 the true force he held, just enough to push her down. She was starting to push such a level and to his surprise only kept upping the ante. 'She's damn sure worth it, just like ol' Nine...she'd be proud...' just uttering a thought inside that he knew would be true.

It was here that Jubei was sure he would not only land without her chasing blade striking him, but that his blow would surely direct her to the floor; albeit harder than he would have liked thanks to the additional momentum. Of course this all depended upon whether Caelica could compensate for yet another boost in his power.

Caelica could keep her balance, but stumbled back several feet, almost falling over... she fractically looked for any chipped edges on the Katana, but was relieved that it was intact... for now. But that strike had hurt her hands to the point where they ached and were swelling alittle, so she decided to throw the towel.

"Okay... okay... i... i`m calling it quits. I think neither me nor my weapon can take any more power." She said, pulling out a tissue paper to hold it up as a white flag. She seemed pretty exhausted at first glance, but it was only foolish act, her Azure could´ve powered her up for a couple of hours more. Still, she didn´t want to bore Jubei and she didn´t want to push her luck with him, plus it was enough learning for one day. It felt almost natural what she did there, fenceing and fighting with this master of weapon arts, as if she didn´t even need training. It was a strange feeling to recall how she moved, how swift and accurate her strikes were.... it felt unreal, but it boosted her confidence.

As Jubei noted her wish to quit the sparring, he gave a nod of understanding to that extent. After all she had managed well to push one of the proclaimed 'Six Heroes' decently to point that he drew his blade to hand and dueled her effectively, she had a style and flair that seemed unending. What was best was that while he wasn't sure to what degree, she seemed to be feeling better than before. Perhaps more confident? That was a hope of his, as he wanted to see her actions reaching the higher points.

"Well done Caelica, that was some classy fightin'. I reckon you have more natural grace than Ragna does. He does tend to be a bit more brutish with his combat, but to each their own." to compliment his words, she'd find that the old cat had a grin on his face, one of satisfaction: both at the skill she showed and the chance to wield Musashi like he hadn't in a while. She pushed him good enough, and as he sheathed the single kodachi of the Musashi pair, he moved to her side and patted her back.

"Now that's just the kind of skill that I hoped to see, with only one thing remainin', is to make that thick skull of Ragna's understand you can handle yourself." he seemed more certain about that, plus with two Azure users so close, they'd be lots safer together.

Caelica nodded, grabbing the scabbard from the bed and sleathing her sword, then holding it in one hand.

"Yeah... i wish Ragna wouldn´t need this kind of presuadeing. I`m more or less already dead, what´s he so worried about? "

A small voice inside her head told her that Ragna wanted to get rid of her to meet his girlfriend or something among that line, but that was ridiculous. Ragna wasn´t the type to have a girlfriend in the first place... everything about him screamed virgin.

"...so, what do we do about that? He could be anywhere now, seeing how he ran off hours ago..."

The old cat was sure that he'd return, after all with Jubei here and the pup he trained out running around to find him? There was no doubt that there would be some quick stepping to be made in reverse, he was sure that Ragna's instinct would be to come right back here with ease of course.

"I reckon Caelica, we should sit here and wait a bit, that pup knows when he comes looking fer me, I'm always wherever he doesn't expect. And here is a similar thing, he wouldn't know I'm not in Kagatsuchi, but as long as someone points him off, he'll come a runnin'." the words were meant to also give the message 'have faith', as the veteran hero was sure that Ragna would return here.

Caelica blinked. That made sense, somewhat.

"Okay then." She replied, sitting down on the hospital bed, putting the sword beside her, looking at him innocently. "I guess i´m gonna make myself feel at home, here..."

Suddenly, something came to her mind, something she had been wanting to ask Jubei for some time now, but with all the stuff Ragna had put her through it slipped her mind... it was important, though, so she didn´t delay it any further.

"Jubei... uhm... you wouldn´t have heard of my sister, have you? I´ve heard some rumors that her magic was used to make Kusanagi... and that someone had banished Rachel with true magic.. and that the Imperator could use teleportation... no low level stuff, but real serious arch-mage magic."

The question did well to make him stiffen as it brought him back to the moment of his being attacked, after all it wasn't every day that one person would appear and zap him with magic. Though it had been a hell of a lot more than a 'zap', he knew well that every word Caelica spoke was true and would do just that to respond: tell he what best he knew of it and what he felt.

"I'll be real with ya, Caelica. I don't rightly know if that thing I ran into was Konoe...but I'll be damned if I didn't get the impression out of it. The spells and the power...it all feels so familiar, I'd reckon that this being under the control of the Imperator or Terumi, that critter; is responsible fer woundin' me earlier." the words came with a hint of emoton, as he did his best to keep that down.

He calmed himself while remembering the confrontation, his unwillingness to combat her..., deep down he was sure it was Konoe, but didn't want to admit it. "I don't rightly know myself, but I've got the hankerin' feeling that I am right about my guess." the discovery of this might be grim, but in truth he almost hoped it was not. For it was just another wound that he didn't want to reopen.

Caelica nodded quietly, looking down a bit. If Konoe was controlled by the Imperator, then they would have one hell of a weapon on thier hands, if not the most powerful weapon imagineable.

"I can feel that she´s still out there somewhere... restless, confused and angry."

With a sigh, she looked up at him, then down again.

"It would make sense to me... its not like Terumi to waste potential like that by killing her. They didn´t do that to me, and i´m not even half the witch she is. Sure, she enslaved him and treated him like dirt, but its not like we didn´t do that either."

Her hands folded a bit, quiet and bothered.

"The only thing i can be sure about is that my Bloodedge is dead and gone..."

A brief silence followed, then she smiled again and looked up at him.

"Oh, enough of the grief. I`ll make tea for us.. its probably going to take a while until Ragna gets here."

With that, she jumped up and fetched a water heater from a utility closet.

As he watched her go, sensing the frustrations of her own and then the sudden burst of being rid of it; he had to admire her courage and strength during the moment. It was enough to say that she had a lot on her plate and that was going to make things tough to deal with. But she was powering through them and that was what he liked, it was a similar tactic that he employed in order to deal with it all.

"I reckon, yer a lot tougher than you think..." the words were of course spoken softly during the moment before the second silence before he looked up at her words. She was right, this was no time to be moping around: after all they'd be fixing things right? After they got as much of this straightened out as possible, it would just work for them.

"Tea sounds wonderful." he meant well with this, to move on as she had moments ago.

Not even ten minutes later, Caelica poured tea into a set of cups, smileing a bit as she held a third one ready for the case Ragna would change his mind and come back in time. The odds were he wasn´t going to come back before at least a couple of days, but who knew.
With a gentle smile, she handed the old beastman a cup and took one for herself, sitting back on the bed and takeing a sip.

"Thats gonna keep my mood up until Ragna comes back."

As he took the tea and sipped it, he offered her a grin; she still had her knack for preparing tea. "Gotta say it Caelica, ya still have a knack for makin' some great tea. I reckon that the pup should be findin' us soon. I doubt it took him long to learn I was outta Kagatsuchi there." this just speaking of the cat's mind was focusing on the matter at hand, of course that was nothing more than keeping Caelica company.

It was just a matter of time before Ragna found them once more and then the veteran hero would finally understand what it was that his student desired. "Well at least it'll be somethin' new, I doubt Ragna would be lookin' for me without reason."