From scratch (Shou/Aiko/Open)

Hell.. now she's getting embarassed too.

Never thought there was a day she'd call someone 'special'. For some reason or another, meeting Aiko just kinda.. 'clicked'? She just naturally enjoyed her company over time, albeit maybe a short one but there was this odd sense of closeness with Aiko that she couldn't describe. Seriously.. sometimes things do come and go suddenly.

Lightly slapping her own cheeks to shake herself out of embarassment, she would go on to speak up.

"I'll do my best. To keep you out of harm's way."

A new goal? Not really sure. Its just something she made up in her mind. She wasn't doing this training to be strong in the first place but just be somewhat competent enough. Its just now, she wants to get good at it to keep someone safe.

When Aiko brought up the idea of trying to hit her, she was a little.. uh.. not too keen into doing it.

Shou enjoys a lot into experimenting a lot of things related to her powers and the person herself is willing to deal with whatever that backfires. But to intentionally hit someone? She physically sucks at it and probably can't even hurt a mouse, and her powers has too many quirks to do anything useful.

Still, she can.. try..?

"Slright.. I'll try.."

Sighing in defeat, she would step several steps back and a few seconds later, ran towards Aiko at full speed in an attempt to push her down.

That was the only method she could think of - speed.

"I did so try. Never said anything about actually hitting!"

With a giggle, Aiko felt herself almost being a bit mischievous.

While Aiko wasn't the greatest warrior to ever grace the field of combat, she still had far more training experience and time to adjust to her powers and the supernatural world than Shou. So, when she saw the full-speed attack coming her way, Aiko went into battle mode.

It did not take her long to move out of the way, position herself behind Shou, and have the woman pushing the air. Then, while she was busy figuring out what happened, Aiko would aim to activate her blood halo and restrain her wrist and ankles. In this way, Aiko would then lightly bonk the head of Shou.

"See? I may be some super scary hollow threat, but I can hold my own. So you should be more worried about yourself than me, Shou!"

"Waaaaa--!!!!"

Shouting in surprise, already finding herself restrained before she even had the chance to process what happened to get herself to this point. With barely any fighting or even training experiences, she was just helpless against counterattack. While Shou does only has speed going for her, her inexperience shows pretty clearly to not being able to make the right decisions which only results herself in.. getitng tied up real good.

Expressing anguish at her current state, even more so when she got her head bonked, maybe.. just maybe she had underestimated Aiko a little since her impression based on her interaction was that she might be more fragile than she thought but yeah, it was the opposite.

"Yes sis, I understand now. You're hella lot more capable than I thought, maybe I just was overthinking things.."

Yeah, it was probably one of her first proper relationship with someone.. friendship? Well, someone that she considers to be important and didn't know the boundaries of her actions whether she might've hurt her unnecessarily. So having that assurance from Aiko left a small sense of relief in her.

That aside..

"So.."

Face reddened in embarassment, Shou was still in restraint on both her wrists and ankles and in addition from being caught off-guard earlier, she was also in a rather compromising position that she couldn't get out of. Having someone see her like this, especially in the middle of the forest, how will she face her ancestors like this?

"Get me out of this.."

All it took was a single clap for Shou to be freed from her restraints as Aiko grinned and giggled.

"I may look like I'm staring into space sometimes, but looks can be deceiving, young Shou."

Taking on a joking tone, Aiko had a bit of confidence in her as she wriggled her nose and softly chuckled—a sign she was getting comfortable with the situation.

"So, what's your goal now? Do you want to keep up the flight training, or are you interested in getting some combat practice in? Or maybe you are ready to call it a day and rest?"

Now tapping her chin, Aiko pondered what path Shou would choose. It was nice being able to train and mentor someone like this, as, in some weird sense, she could under the sisterly bond between them. Like, yeah, they just met and everything, and she isn't gonna go out on a limb and treat her like she is her life-long best friend. But, it was hard for Aiko not to feel a sense of duty to someone younger than herself and feel pleasure in guiding them.

It was a peculiar feeling being around this girl...

Fuh~

Being freed of these restraints was comforting at least. One thing she can agree out of this was looks really can be deceiving, even more so for Shou who's used to observing and adjust her own behavior accordingly. A sister that she thought was a lot fragile was packing a different beast, both physically and well, in power. At least on that end, she doesn't have much to worry about.

But when that question popped up, all she did was smile and waved it off before answering back.

"My goal.. I don't really know. I guess I'll figure it out along the way."

Standing up and giving herself a few pats here and there to get rid of the dust, she would reach into her uniform, she would suddenly pull out a cheap pair of sunglasses that she got for a bargain price of 100 yen, putting them on and crossed her arms to look all cool and dandy with a big smile on her face.

"Of course we will keep on with the training, flight or combat. We can't just half-ass it just because of a small accident, ain't it?"

Aiko tapped her chin and thought of something special. With her wings flapping in the air, she gently raised high enough off the ground to be equal in height to a tree. She didn't wanna go too high for what she was about to do, after all.

"Both. We'll do both then."

Nodding her head, Aiko raised her hand and threw a burst of wind toward Shou as she motioned for her to come up.

"Come up here and fly toward me and try to hit me. Combat won't always go your way, so I think we need to have some more engagement as to what to expect."

With a slight crimson glow around the woman, she smiled and waited for Shou to decide what she was going to do. Was she going to back down? Arise to the challenge? Or purpose something else? Who knew, but Aiko seemed to be enjoying herself at least and Shou seemed to like just going along with the flow. So Aiko would follow suit and take things as they come.

Shifting her sunglasses down after hearing what she's told to do after Aiko flew right up, Shou couldn't help but grin right back. Flying and fighting? While she did mean about not half-assing it, this training was straight to the point, innit?

Great! Now that her emotions and energy is back on track, then she'll respond to Aiko's willingness to help her in kind.

"Hahahaha! Isn't unexpected situation make things fun?"

Fearlessly biting hard into the tip of her own thumb, letting it bleed immediately and have a good amount pool up before it suddenly disappeared into thin air. Self-harm? Has she finally lost it? Nay. She was paying in blood. After that, a strong wind appear right below Shou and blew her right up into the air, leveling herself with Aiko.

Aware of the limited uses of her power, she didn't waste any time to go ahead and pay up the 2nd time with her blood - to compress the air beneath her feet and blast her off at Aiko's direction at high speeds like a bullet in attempt to run into her with her entire body weight.

While it does look like she hasn't learned her lesson, well, she's got measures ready for that.

Aiko raised an eyebrow at Shou as it seemed like she was taking a page out of Aiko's book and fighting with blood. Still, it didn't throw Aiko off by any means. With her eye set on Shou, she would have the scarlet glow around her body grow brighter before bolting off toward Shou in order to then start off with a hard punch to the gut. Of course, she could have aimed for the face, but she saw no need for that with a spar.

"I see you are getting smarter with your powers, but can you handle the stress of combat? It can be distracting when someone inflicts pain. Can you roll with the punches and keep attacking?"

Now seeming more serious, Aiko's heart was pumping, and she was in combat mode. Something which made the woman's blood tick as steam came out her mouth, and she was preparing to engage in something wicked and fierce.

"Show me what you got~."

What should she do? Dodge? Counterattack?

No. She wasn't going to waste her uses and had an even better idea. Shou took the punch to the gut without a second thought, including with herself speeding towards her and abruptly stopping to it, that punch hurts like hell causing her to have a reflex and threw up a little bit of spit.

Gotcha.

Reaching out with a free hand and gripping Aiko by the arm tightly now that she got her punch in, she was smiling in delight.

"I am hella weak so I have to get creative with it."

With her hand holding onto Aiko rapidly heating up out of nowhere, in a second, it would erupt into an explosion of fire that would blow the both of them away from each other for using it at a point-blank range and cause, at least for Shou, to fall and land onto the ground with her own two feet with a few burn marks on her. Afterall, granting herself powers doesn't mean she gains resistance to it as well.

Still, she remains unfazed and even kept on smiling. Knowing full well in their difference in experience and skill, she had to employ some sly tactics herself.

"Even so, sis, just like you, even my looks can be deceiving. I can handle stress just fine, afterall, I can just treat combat like a game. Though I only have just one life! ☆"

Aiko raised an eyebrow at the creative attack and was taken aback by the sudden eruption of fire that threw the two sisters away in the air. However, Aiko flexed her wings and seemed to stop her descent abruptly as her scarlet energy flared up, and she wiped away some of the smoke and flames off her dress. Coughing a bit, she then looked down at Shou with an approving nod.

"See? You are getting the hang of it. You'll be a lil' monster when you get more juice to your skills."

After giving a thumbs up, Aiko wasted no time getting back to the lesson and seemingly disappeared in a bolt of speed. If Shou was perceptive enough, she might be able to sense her coming. If not, Aiko used her speed to appear to the flank of Shou to deliver a swift elbow to her right flank, followed up by attempting to trip the woman to throw her off onto the ground.

"But battle can change quickly~."