004... steel and wind, sweat and blood

Entry tags:

004... steel and wind, sweat and blood

Characters: Cloud Strife and YOU
Setting: Floor 25
Format: Starting prose but will match
Summary: Cloud had been ~~conned~~ talked into giving sword lessons to those interested in it. So anyone wanna try lifting the FHS?
Warnings: some violence? some sword swinging? some cookies? maybe not the cookies...

He didn't expect so much space on this floor. He probably didn't look properly at it before, especially when he had other concerns on his mind, but now, standing in a ring made by his swords, Cloud stood and looked at the sky. Maybe it was all faked, maybe the grass and the trees and the water was all just part of his imagination, but so far it was a good feeling.

Shaking out of his daydream, Cloud pulled the First Ken from the ground and swung the main blade around a few times. Sparky - and it was odd to call Reno that but how else were the two Renos going to be told apart? - suggested that he showed some people how to fight. While Cloud had tried to give lessons to Denzel and Marlene, they seemed more taken with Tifa's style then his. He wasn't sure how to even start, so while he waited, Cloud decided to go through a few basic forms.

Simple moves, meant to develop strength in the arms and back and give the wielder a better understanding of the weight and momentum of a sword. Cloud breathed deep, cutting the air and staying within the circle of his swords.

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Reno crawled out on to the meadow, yawning and stretching a bit, and watched Cloud give his practice swings.

He sobered a little, watching the other man move. Maybe if he watched closely he could figure out why Cloud kept defeating him time after time. Know your enemy, and such.

"Don't you have anything lighter?" He asked, flopping to the ground nearby, not quite ready to get into training mode himself.

Cloud brought his sword to a stop, keeping his arm extended, the blade pointed to the left. Glancing over at Reno, he smiled just a little and swept the blade down, snagging one of the switchblades swords out of the ground. A spin and he caught the handle in his off-hand, crossing the two swords in front of him.

"Yup." He set the First Ken into the ground and flipped the switchblade over, folding the hilt with a well-practiced ease. "I even had the two blades that ended up in my trunk with me. I figured no one is gonna be able to use my set so I brought all the swords I had."

Wriggle practically lived on this floor, so it wasn't uncommon for her to find other people there. What was uncommon was finding them swinging a weapon with no visible target. If he was looking for a fight she could surely give him one, a few bullets in his back wouldn't be too hard. Surprise attacks weren't proper duel etiquette though.

Flying into his line of sight, just out of reach of the blade she gave a confident smirk and put her hands on her hips, trying to look as intimidating as a short, androgynous, firefly girl could.
"If you're looking for a fight the air won't give you much competition!"

Tara normally spends time on this floor to meditate, and practice her magic, and to gather her thoughts and muster her nerves in general.

So to find a stranger here apparently going through the motions of practice with the biggest sword Tara has ever seen, and levitating several others on top of that without any apparent effort, stops her cold on the stairs, eyes widening in alarm.

...but, when her shock faded, Tara could see something similar in what Cloud was doing with the swords to what Tara did to keep her telekinesis sharp. There was a grace there, grace and care and skill, and it was...admittedly a bit fascinating to watch.

Rather than risk getting in the way, Tara settled down on the steps to watch, and wait until Cloud had finished.

Reno merely raised an eyebrow at Cloud's showing off. But there was something familiar about the way Cloud tossed his swords around, something that had been bugging him for months back on Gaia, and it hadn't been until much later he had realized why.

"You learned a lot of that from Zack, didn't ya?"

"Yeah."

He set both blades down, leaving them in the circle and stepping out to pick up a water bottle and take a healthy mouthful. He looked up at the sky and shrugged. The J-cells or his memories? Which ones where really responsible for his knowing things that Zack had tried teaching him? Cloud just didn't know.

"Well, mostly. I picked up other stuff from the people I traveled with and from the places we've stayed."

He finished his last pattern and brought his sword to rest on his shoulder, eying the strange little girl standing in front of him. She seemed okay, maybe a little odd for trying to challenge him, but okay. Maybe this wasn't exactly the right place to be swinging his swords if people were just going to try to challenge him.

"I'm practicing," he finally said, shrugging. He brought his sword down in the beginning guard position. "If you don't practice, your skills grow rusty."

He finished the last of the warm-up katas and rested his sword against the wall, stepping out of the circle and going for his water bottle. While he had fought a few monsters in the building, he didn't have enough time to assess Doc Brown's work until now. He was pleased with how close they were to his sword from home - the weight and material was just as tough and durable, and he couldn't feel a difference in the weight, which would have put him off until he adjusted to it.

He took a few careful sips so not to upset his stomach, looking around at his surroundings and spotted Tara. He nodded, the smile fading just a little but still visible in his slightly glowing eyes.

"Hi."

"Oh..." She seemed to visibly deflate at his statement, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed for assuming otherwise. "Yeah, I guess that's true..."

Besides her tantrum a few weeks back she hadn't used her skills much either. Wriggle had always been a little rusty though, even when she was in practice. Then who better to practice with than the guy who was already in the middle of practice? Once again she put on that vise of confidence.

"In that case I'll help you!"

"You will?"

He would never assume that she couldn't fight unless he was otherwise told. After all, in his travels he had met a mechanical toy cat that could fight - granted it was more of an amusement factor then a real fight, but still. Cloud nodded and moved from guard to attack to block.

"Sure. Why not?"

The smirk lit up on her face as she launched backwards, out of range. In one swift motion a number of blue and yellow lights materialized around her before launching in Cloud's direction. The spread was wide but there were still gaps between the bullets.

He didn't say anything for a while, not even looking at Cloud, just staring at the grass.

Heh, Reno had thought he was over regrets by now.

"You know... life is pretty funny."

Jeanne had passed by this floor a few times on her way down to the cafeteria, but hasn't really stopped to investigate it until now. It was... beautiful, a place of unusual calm in such a strange place. It was a place where she could feel a moment of contentment that she hadn't felt in a long time - even in her first life.

It was disrupted, a little, when she caught sign of movement. She turned and watched the man practice for a bit, staying off to the side so she won't interrupt him. When he pauses, the girl spoke up.

"Impressive."

"...I know."

Zack should have been the hero. He was the kind of person that would be a good one, always willing to give a hand, always smiling. Cloud was just a dick from a small town. He didn't even have the social skills like Zack did.

"I always wondered if they knew that that mission would end like this."

Weird, very surreal feeling now. Stop it, Reno. Stop bonding with Cloud.

Stop.

"That whole damn thing was a fuck up from beginning to end." He grumbled, rubbing his forehead. "If we hadn't've been distracted by those boobs at HQ... Zack might be alive." Wait... that sounded odd. Five months here and he still had trouble with some things. Like people being alive. "I mean back home."

What the..? Was that magical or just physical bullets? It took him a second to react, to move, and then he grabbed one of his shorter blades to cut through the bullets he didn't dodge.

Cloud looked up from his apple and nodded in greeting. "Thanks."

This was pretty surreal in a way; practicing out in the open. Usually he would go into the ruins of Midgar, using the crumbling buildings and the hidden monster dens as his training ground. But here, people came to this open area for their own reasons. He wondered what they thought of the crazy kid and his huge swords.

"Are you used to working with swords?"

It wasn't so weird for Cloud. There was on understanding between him and the Turks - a thin one, but they still did not try to kill each other on sight.

At Reno's words, Cloud nodded glumly. "I always thought that someone wanted to make sure he never survived and that the same someone wanted to trigger Sephiroth as well."

Frankly, this is pretty tame. She's seen and has knowledge of some pretty crazy sword-wielders; just in the previous War alone there had been an Archer who used his vast treasury of swords as projectiles. So his group of blades didn't faze her at all.

"Indeed I am." She says with a smile. She held out a hand, a simple knight's sword materializing in it.

"I don't have the lifetime of training like some do, but I've become quite decent at swordplay."

Somewhat of an understatement, considering her sub-class of Saber.

Reno thought that one over for a while, then shrugged. "It was going to happen. After what happened to Genesis and Angeal... hell, I'm surprised he lasted that long."

That was another thing the Turk didn't understand. He was writing it off as timeline differences, but- "Say, Cloud. I don't think I really asked ya before, but... what changed? And I ain't going to believe we just suddenly made up after Meteor."

The vast Tower of Animus seemed to be plagued with more than just spooks as Haldir ascended towards the next floor. He didn't know what to expect once he swung the massive doors open and found himself nearly blinded by a crystal-blue sky. Blinking his indigo eyes rapidly as he tried to adjust to the light, the Elf stood there speechless as he stared out towards the grand meadow before him. Haldir knew that this tower was controlled by some very powerful magic, but he never expected such a room to exist. How could so much space fit into just one room alone? Honestly perplexed by this phenomenon, the Elf hesitantly walked into the meadow. Keeping his right hand upon the hilt of his sword, Haldir watched out for fiends as he walked amongst the grass. The leaves were crushed beneath his steps, but he made sure to avoid the sparsely littered flowers on the field. Silently appreciating the beauty of this peculiar meadow, the marchwarden paused suddenly once spotted someone nearby.

It was a swordsman, a man with wild blond hair that seemed as unmanageable as hay. He was dressed in dull colors, clearly an individual who possessed a fondness for black or blue, lightly armored with leather straps and tarnished metals. The swordsman seemed oblivious of his approach but Haldir knew otherwise. Judging by the sheer size of the blade he wields, the Elf could tell that the young man must have years of experience wielding that monster of blade. More curious than fearful, Haldir watched in mild fascination as the swordsman continued with his drills. It seemed that the object of this exercise relied on the wielder's capability to stay within the makeshift ring compromised of various swords. Haldir figured that if the swordsman was trying to work on his balance while swinging the massive blade. Which would make sense as to why the other swords stood poised all around him. One false move and these swords would come tumbling to the ground.

"Hi." Tara gave him a tiny wave from her spot on the stairs. After a second to reassure herself that Cloud really was done with the gigantic swords, if only for the moment, she got to her feet and dusted off her skirt.

"I, I never really thought of using this floor, f-for something like that...but, um, I guess it does have the most space, right? At least...the most space without there being, um, s-some kind of monster, or a lot of screaming, or bad light."

She stepped off the stairs and onto the grass, giving a contented little sigh at the feeling of grass and life beneath her feet once more. "Y-You were really good. I mean, I-I don't know what you were trying to do, but...it was really interesting to watch."

"They must have been really close."

He barely knew about the other two. Angeal for sure thanks to Zack but Genesis was a mysterious figure that liked poetry. That was all he knew about the man.

He looked up at Reno's question, frowning to himself. He didn't know? But wouldn't Tseng inform them about the changes? He shook his head and put the cap back on his water bottle.

"The Remnants appeared. They grabbed Tseng and Elena and tortured them before going after Rufus. I think they also beat you and Rude up badly trying to get information from you about JENOVA. We put aside our differences to fight them, and started... sharing information."

Cloud set the water bottle down, walking back over to the First Ken. "We didn't forget what happened, but... we need to work together if we want to rebuild the world."

"I was just practicing," he replied, shrugging a little. All these years, and admitting that he could practice this way, with the speed and skill of a SOLDIER was still weird.

"Even the best trained fighter would be worthless if he didn't practice his skills every day."

He nodded to himself, taking another bite of apple. She seemed nervous - and who wouldn't be? - so he attempted to smile a little, scratching at the back of his neck. He wasn't too winded or sweating hard, the exercise not really pushing him as something else might have.

"I'm Cloud."

Edited 2012-07-23 04:15 (UTC)

He probably would be surprised to hear that someone else was a bit weird when it came to swords. As it was, he had heard all the jokes concerning his six-in-one sword and the massive amount of care he put into it.

"I'm still learning too," he said, nodding at the appearance of her sword. "That's an interesting trick."

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004... steel and wind, sweat and blood

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Hope this is okay?

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it's fine :3

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