<strong>Hero Points:</strong>4 (Sleeping Wyvern), 5 (Scarab), 2 (Chlorophyll, H2GO! & Hornet);<strong>Luck Points:</strong>3/5;<strong>Conditions:</strong>None<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Rakutsu wanted to sign with frustration at the situation he found himself in. But a semblance of his discipline won out. Doing so would alert the bat to his location, who was used to not hearing human sounds. It’ll only make him go further into the tunnel to track it. <br/><br/>That wasn’t a fun task either. The basics of blind fighting were taught to him, but never put into practice. So it wasn’t impossible for him to find where the bat might be, but still annoying. The only sound used to track it being the rustling above him. <br/><br/>Slowly, the boy bent down to feel the mine’s floor. A few moments of this lead to him finding a rock, which he threw above.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>The rock’s flight was virtually silent before it collided, not with the gravelly crunch of stone upon stone but the death rattle of a bat loudly falling to the cave floor. Despite being exhausted, freezing, and near-blind, Rakutsu was able to catch a bat in its native habitat.<br/><br/>The animal gave no more motion or sound. The stone forced it into freefall and the impact killed it instantly, its fate illuminated by the sudden glow of a lantern held by Shuji.<br/><br/>“Well, you did catch it,” Shuji said as he looked it over, lifting the corpse by one wing. “Quick, sudden, and near-painless too. Next we’ll teach you how to boil and skin it!”<br/><br/>He waited for a reaction. “Just kidding, that bastard’s probably full of diseases. We’ll find something safer to eat further in.”<br/><br/>Rakutsu soon learned that the rest of the mine was not in fact abandoned, but a safehouse. Behind a camouflaged wall was a small yet modern facility, complete with its own generator, infirmary, storage room of various camping supplies and medical gear, and a security feed of various cameras hidden throughout the mine and snowy forest. Accessing the computer, Shuji obtained footage of the past several hours with his grandson, looking at their training through new angles. He settled on a nightvision loop of Rakutsu throwing the stone at the bat, replaying it several times.<br/><br/>“There’s definite improvement in your spatial awareness,” he said. “Picking just the right sized rock, the arc of your throw, and you’re just as fast even in your less than hundred percent state.”<br/><br/>He paused on one frame of footage. “But look right here: your adrenaline gave you a kick at this moment, pushing you to use all the force you can.”<br/><br/>Zooming in on the flying stone, the footage followed it instead of the bat. The stone hit the wall, ricocheting off. It left a decent-sized dent in the cavern wall.<br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/WAOvzIA.jpeg)</div>“If you did it just a bit softer the bat would’ve been stunned, and might have flapped a bit before hitting the floor. You’d have been able to catch it alive.”<br/><br/>Shuji remained silent for a bit before speaking again. “This is why this training session isn’t being done with human opponents. The world has enough killers in it; your mind wants your body to live, and in flight or fight it only cares about you.”<br/><br/>He jabbed a finger at Rakutsu’s chest. “But you’re going to be a protector. You’re going to learn how to master that aspect of yourself, and let it out just enough to make it do exactly what you want. You now know what it’s like to take a life; now you’ll learn how not to do that, even when striking with all your might through the principles of controlled ferocity.”<br/><br/>There was a rustling sound behind them, followed by the opening of a box. A man dressed in a ninja-yoroi specialized for cold weather was in the middle of retrieving crackers from the supply cabinet.<br/><br/>“Don’t mind me, I’ll be out of here before you know it. Did I interrupt something?”<br/><br/>Shuji smiled. “What, you didn’t think we had this whole base to ourselves, did ya?”<br/><br/><hr/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Rakutsu noticed this and moved over, muttering a soft apology. Thoughts about the girl started to bubble to the surface of his mind. Like her silky and beautifully dark hair, which he wanted to run his fingers through. Another being the shade of her native dark tone. He never told anyone this, but he found dark skin to be very attractive and eye catching. <br/><br/>The imagine of her rooted itself at the forefront of his mind. (https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4088883?q=arjuna_%28fate%29+genderswap+) The wild imagination of his caused a lapse in his reaction. The menu’s theme played for a few seconds longer before his finger pressed the start button. <br/><br/>Why in the hell is he thinking like that?!</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Amrita watched him play, interrupting only so often to ask about some aspect of play or to marvel at the ruined beauty of the game’s landscape.<br/><br/>“Hmm, I sense you are getting...distracted,” she said. She had the politeness to make the observation at a point in the game where Rakutsu wasn’t fighting for his life, given the lack of a traditional pause button.<br/><br/>She smiled. “Hey, don’t worry, I get it; I don’t have to be a mind reader to see that you’re into me.”<br/><br/>She playfully nudged his arm. “Maybe you won’t be so distracted if you played Bayonetta instead!”<br/><br/><hr/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">But his partner in crime dragged him away before he can properly greet Chris. ”I don’t know what you mean. We were just gonna do a project on the multiverse theory. Is that stuff really that big of a deal?” Rakutsu was much calmer about it than Kaitlyn. Nonchalant even, due to his lack of knowledge about the technology.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>“No, not by itself,” Kaitlyn answered, starting to sound out of breath. “But...I don’t know, I guess I just feel off. Chris is a smart guy, but this is really beyond him!”<br/><br/>She quickly peeked over at Chris’ assembly to confirm what she was seeing. “I mean, I guess it’s good that I’m here to keep an eye on him, but...”<br/><br/>She breathed deeply, then sighed. “All this Silver Storm stuff is living rent free in my head lately. I feel like either Chris is a Stormer, or he’s getting this stuff from someone or somewhere he shouldn’t be getting it. Remember back in first year when he accused me of copying his homework? He can’t be that happy to work with me without something else going on.”<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">OOC</div><div class="spoiler_body">Kaitlyn gains 1 Hero Point.</div></div>