In The Sands of The Iramashsa Settlement, An Angel Girl & An All-Star Track Runner Learn Self-Defense Lessons!!!!

She inhaled sharply as she listened to the angel’s critics, her left hand rested on her hip whilst her right arm hung loosely. The blonde’s head was tilted to the left - that was becoming a habit - her blue eyes fixated on her teacher as her mind figured out what went wrong. She knew her first three strikes of the second set had been good, but she hadn’t been able to maintain it and so she didn’t finish the set strong. It made her a little frustrated, but she did not allow it to show upon her face for she wish not to look like a brat before Cirno.

So, the blonde shoved her frustrations to the side and took note of the angel’s critics for they were important to her. She, Cirno, had chalked up her inability to continue producing the energy to a lack of focus or her inability to focus on anything else but producing the same amount of devastating effects she had done during the demonstration. Kazumi couldn’t say if the angel was right, but she saw the latter option to be a plausible reason why she had just stopped incorporating energy into her thrusts.

She assumed that Cirno would have her do those ten strikes again, but the blue-haired fairy had decided to up the ante. It went from ten punches to fifty, a task that Kazumi was pretty sure she couldn’t complete. She was aware that her face probably gave off the impression that she thought her teacher’s task to be absolutely ludicrous at the moment; and though she didn’t want to seem ungrateful or anything, she just couldn’t mask it. She was skeptical, really skeptical, and that was evident, but the blonde would do it. Just not right away, the angel giving her another demonstration which gave her the impression that either the girl hadn’t seen her face or didn’t care what thoughts were running rampant within her mind.

With the demonstration out of the way, Kazumi prepared to perform her task, but stopped the moment the angel began forming something. More? That had been the thought that ran through the mind of the blonde as she assumed the same stance as Cirno. She blinked several times as her mind processed what stood before her. Two Cirno, the clone looking like the original in every way except for the eyes. Where the original’s were vibrant and full of life, the clone’s looked cold and unfeeling - pretty much dead. She stared at the clone some more, breaking the stance she had assumed as her mind focused on it, but she would be snapped out of her trance by Cirno.

“Wait. What?” She asked upon hearing the word attack leave the angel’s mouth. Though the thought of having to beat the clone caused the blonde’s voice to go up several. “Eh?! Wait. Time out! Don’t you think we should-“ The clone movement caused Kazumi to shut her mouth, her flight or fight response becoming active upon her mind perceiving the clone as a threat to her safety. Of course, Kazumi picked the flight response, the blonde letting out a high pitched ‘eeek’ as she ran from the clone. Flight, a response she was use to taking seeing as how she avoided conflict as if it were the plague itself, forgetting for a minute what this lesson was all about.

So, yes, she ran from the clone for a good couple of seconds, caring not for if Cirno was laughing her head off at the display. Yet, upon remembering that the angel was trying to teach her how to fight and her mind telling her that fleeing wasn’t part of the lesson, Kazumi would stop running and turn sharply, throwing her left fist forward. Her eyes were closed so she wasn’t entirely sure what she was aiming at, but she could tell she had thrown a regular punch. How? Well she hadn’t felt the surge of energy flow through her body and concentrate into her fist like she had when she first accomplished that goal. She was also pretty damn sure that her hit connected to nothing or the clone was unaffected by it if her strike did connect. She was also pretty sure she wished not to open her eyes, but she did because fighting blind really wasn’t a good idea. And depending on what she saw, well she may just resume running if the clone didn’t decide to teach her a thing or two about pain.

Hehehe~! The expression on the blonde faces told Cirno that this lass was utterly dumbfounded by some of her antics. But, despite that, The Angel of The Ice firmly believed it would all sink in due time. When you are put into critical situations, you either think on your feet -- or call on your behind to death. And, if Kazumi was any student of Cirno's, she'd surely rise to the top of the occasion and win the fight against adversity! Therefore, it was caution to the wind for The Icy Fairy Iramasha as she let out a playful laugh at her students dismay.

"Don't worry, Track-Rack, I believe in you! You humans are pretty good at spooking us supernatural folk these days. So tap into your energy's potential and rip it out! Go, go, go, go, go, go!"

At this point, Cirno would then produce two pars of white and blue pom-poms in her hands through the handy-dandy art of Chaos Magic. Then, The Iramasha would start dancing her bare feet against the warm sands and cheering on her lovely student to victory as she grinned and snickered throughout the whole ordeal.

"K-A-Z-U-M-I! YOU CAN DO IT, YOU CAN DO IT! IF YOU CANT' DO IT...then you suck, bakkkaaaaaa~!"

At the end of that little chant, Cirno stuck her tongue straight out at the vixen and snickered with mischievous glee. Sure, she was taunting her a bit, but it was only out of fun. So, she decided to follow up with a more "positive" chant:

"BUT, K-A-Z-U-M-I! EVEN IF YOU S-U-C-K, YOU'LL STILL GET BACK AND W-I-N BECAUSE YOU ARE T-R-A-C-K R-A-C-K! NOTHING STOPS THE TRACK RACK!"

Good job there, Cirno.

Digressing, it was at this time that the clone needed to otherwise step her game up and begin putting the pressure on the human girl. It would not allow her much time to question the circumstance she was thrown into. For, more than anything else, this was about thinking on your feet and she needed to tap into that state of improvised fighting if Kazumi wanted to deal with many of the twist, turns and surprises that could occur in combat. Therefore, Cirno would give a thumbs up in regards to her response to the threat.

"Nice speed, Track-Rack!"

This remark wasn't sarcastic by any means, though it might have certainly been to the blonde girlie over there.

Why would she applaud fleeing from the scene? Simple: tactical retreats are totally fair in war and battle. Sometimes you needed to gather more space in order to pull off some incredibly awesome move, or perhaps prevent yourself from being turned into a pool of blood, guts and bones. And, given the fact she had enough speed to otherwise escape the range of the clone indicated to her that the effects of her energy infusion were indeed coming to pass.

Nevertheless, after The Frigid Clone chased after the fearfully fast lass, it would come to a sharp halt as it took the punch head first.

...

Super cold.

That's the first line of thought that may ooze into Kazumi's consciousness. This replica was compromised entirely out of ice with a false layer of energized skin coating it. So, the first sensation that should rip into The Blondie's body is one of absolute cold. Second, after that, a sharp sense of pain would more than likely follow because the creature's body was relatively dense and hard. It would be like punching a frozen rock without any enhancements made to her punch. Hopefully for her, however, the adrenaline would mask the pain. After all, she was in a fight or flight state, so maybe she might just ignore the pain. But, at the very least, there would perhaps be a red mark or so on her fist.

Moving on, the clone would stand there for a few moments before giving -- a hug! Yes! She squeezed Kazumi with the utmost of affection. A kind of -- sadistic affection. Seconds passed and this grip would become increasingly tighter to the point where she was now in a body lock. It is at this point where Cirno would then attempt to chime in and give some coaching advise to the scared human:

"Good. Ride that fear out! Use it to make you stronger! There is no shame in being afraid because all fighters are on some level, Kazumi! Go with it and use that terror to help awaken your abilities! If you want that clone off of you, you have to augment yourself and use your energy to force her away from you."

These words would be shouted in a much more serious tone than before, as it seemed most of the jokes from the child were over and she was going into instructor mode. Why was this so? Everything she spoke was from the heart and none of it was just feel good non-sense. Without fear, Cirno believed there wasn't much to a fighter because they'd have no reason to fight to begin with.

When one lacks that primal anxiety, there simply wouldn't be much passion, thought or development in themselves because that internal dread leads to a sense of progression and change in a person. That fear, in other words, helps them to grow and overcome the challenge so that they may reach a stronger version of themselves. Some can control their fear, others can suppress it; but all fighters have it!

"Have that energy come from deep within your heart and then have it flow from your heart, to your limbs, to your mind and every inch of your body until you are devoured by that awesome power that comes from within. You can do this, Kazumi. I strongly have faith in you!"

And thus, in those encouraging words, was it then time for Kazumi to come to terms with her own panic and shock and use it as power. If she couldn't? Then chances are, she wasn't going to win this practice fight. Hence, Cirno believed with all of her heart that she could see this for herself and hopefully her time to shine would come soon afterward.

Idiot! Was the first mental thought that rushed into Kazumi’s head upon her fist making contact with the target. She grinded her teeth as a chill ran down her arm and up her spin, her body shivering from the cold. Pain blossomed in her hand, but it really wasn’t as painful as one would think given the fact that she had punched a clone made of ice. Yeah, that had definitely been on stupid move on her part and she should probably make distance between herself in said clone, but she was stunned that fist had met the clone’s face. She blinked several times and when her body was wrecked with chills once again, she pulled her fist back. She noted that it was rather painful, but she had no plans of inspecting her injury any further. She needed to get away from the -

“Eh?”

clone. Kazumi blinked several times once again as her mind slowly processed the fact that the clone had enveloped her in a hug. Confusion spread across the blonde’s face and she began to squirm, resisting the normal urge to hug the clone back for it was far too cold for her to be comfortable with prolong exposure and this was a training session. She struggled harder the moment she realized the clone was tightening her hold on her, a frustrated expression on her face as she attempted to shove it away. Fear, of course, was creeping up on her once again, the confusion gone as was the feeling of being cold; all she was concerned with now was getting away from this clone before she got hugged to death - that would be a very odd way to go now wouldn’t it?

Kazumi was panicking which meant she wasn’t thinking or really listening to what Cirno was saying. She did catch tidbits here and there, but not enough to make a well educated guess of what the angel was trying to communicate to her. So, she attempted to calm herself down just enough so that she may think clearly or come up with some sort of way to get out of this hold before she ended up with some nasty bruises as a result of the clone’s tight grip. She took a deep breath, wincing a little bit as the grip got a little tighter, but she ignored the pain that was beginning to creep up on her once again - it was dull, so an easy task.

Breathing did calm her down enough to think and she had done it just in time to hear Cirno hand out some encouraging words. The angel had been encouraging her throughout this entire fight now that she thought about it though she hadn’t been paying attention to them whilst she ran from the clone, but now that she was sort of stuck, she could actually pay some mind to the words that left Cirno’s mouth. They were comforting in a way and had a calming effect on the blonde that she had forgotten about the clone that was attempting to squeeze her to death for a split second.

Yet, it was only for a split second, her mind returning to what she must do to defeat this clone. For some reason, Kazumi felt like she needed to make Cirno proud, the only way to do that was to meet her expectations and finish this task. She closed her eyes, took another deep breath, and felt for that energy Cirno spoke of with the intentions of manifesting it and using it to shove the clone away from her. She didn’t think too hard about how she would go about doing that, just enough to focus on drawing out the energy in the way Cirno described it.

Energy began flowing throughout Kazumi’s body, starting at the core and making its way throughout her body. It had been a slow build up, but the rate it gathered and flowed throughout her body increased dramatically within seconds. Without any effort on her part, the energy exploded from her body. The burst felt like a strong gust of wind, the power causing the small particles of sand to fly away from her. It, the energy, would die down within seconds, the strong winds becoming nothing more than a breeze, and the sand would settle back on the beach. She felt the energy within her own body slowly receded back to her core and the blonde cracked open one eye to see what had occurred.

If she had blown the clone away with that burst of energy, Kazumi would immediately take note of the lack of arms around her and she would also notice the fact that she no longer felt cold. Blue eyes would seek out the clone, the blonde wanting to know what happened to the clone. If she couldn’t spot it, she would look at Cirno with a questioning look on her face, an eyebrow raised. If she spotted the clone though, she would be ready to flee but would wait to see what it did before doing anything.

Of course, that was dependent on the clone’s hold being relinquished. If it hadn’t, well, that was an entirely different problem and she would have to think of something else.