The Fractured Veil

Chapter Four

The next day, Takeshi wakes up earlier than the others to prepare a plan for the day. He figures he can at least test her agility in an obstacle course, her intelligence in the quizzing room, and her combat abilities with himself at the end of the day. After he has this planned and ready, he starts his own training early. He heads to the sparring room and takes a sword into his hand. He slashes it through the air a few times, testing the balance. He decides it's a fairly well made practice blade and begins to go through his motions of training. He closes his eyes and begins slicing it through the air, imagining that he is surrounded by enemies in his head. An imaginary thrust of a spear blocked and countered by an upward slash. The whistle of an arrow through the air dodged gracefully. A sword coming for his stomach parried upward and countered by an overhead downward slice. Suddenly his senses are thrown off as the ring of steel brings him back to reality. He opens his eyes to see standing with his sword blocked with a glaive is Alexandra. Takeshi is once again surprised. He did not hear her, see her, or sense her yet again. Alexandra smiles and un-interlocks their blades. She brings her weapon to her behind her back in a fighting stance. Takeshi, a little nervous, gets into his own stance. Am I really about to spar with my trainee at the beginning of her first day? He thinks to himself. She wastes no time and pulls the glaive over her head into a wide slicing motion. Takeshi dodges with a duck and brings his sword across the same way her blade came from. Thinking he was about to get her he slows his attack, only to be struck in the side by the butt of her glaive. I see the first attack was a feign to draw me in. Takeshi realizes after the fact. She's more advanced than I thought. Takeshi retreats a bit to reassess the situation. At this point the other trainees are starting to come into the room and are watching the match.

The two don't notice. "Alright if you are serious then I won't hold back" Takeshi states while smiling at her.

Alexandra smiles back and nods. "Come on then 'Luna'" Luna? Takeshi rushes forward, his sword in a thrusting position. Alexandra readies herself with the tip of the glaive pointed at the ground ready for a counter. Takeshi notices this and quickly spins himself and in the spin changes his attack from a thrust to an upward slash. Alexandra dodges with a spin of her own and spins her glaive around to thrust is backwards towards him. He is able to knock the glaive upward and out of the way bringing his sword down for a strike. Missing wildly as Alexandra side steps pulling the glaive around her head and thrusting multiple times while advancing forward. Takeshi is able to parry the thrusts but is being forced back. Alexandra grabs the rear of the glaive and pulls it around for another wide sweeping attack. Takeshi ducks it but before he can bring another attack her glaive is coming down for another strike. He puts his blade up to stop it and is successful but forces himself open for a kick to the side of his head. He's not dazed by this but surprised she landed another attack on him. He quickly uses his falling momentum into a leg sweep that forces Alexandra to jump. He quickly cocks his sword back for a thrust and releases his attack toward her. No way she gets out of this one. Takeshi thinks to himself confidently. Alexandra smirks. She puts a foot on the flat of the blade and forces it down. The crowd looks stunned by what they are witnessing. Takeshi is more stunned than the rest of the crowd combined. The blade brushes the ground and before Takeshi can react the butt of Alexandra's glaive is in his stomach and forcing him out of the sparring area. The crowd is speechless. Takeshi, who had only rarely taken hits from his opponents, had just lost to an eleven year old girl. They start cheering for Alexandra and a few even go up and start trying to introduce themselves to her. She looks at them all startled, smiles and introduces herself to them too.

Takeshi is still on the floor looking up at the ceiling. I'm amazed by her. She beat me so easily. I never even came close to landing an attack on her. A hand stretches down to help Takeshi up. It's Alexandra smiling at him. He smiles at her and takes it. "You sure you'll need me to teach you?" Takeshi asks jokingly.

She chuckles "There's a lot we can learn from each other." She pulls him up, everyone is looking at them.

"Why'd you call me Luna by the way?" Takeshi questions.

"Everyone calls you that, so I will too." She answers cheerfully. Takeshi just smiles at her. She doesn't know that they do it as an insult. Everyone is given a nickname based on something they've accomplished or something that stood out. Takeshi's was given to him "as an insult for being held to such a high regard by the Order of the Phantoms higher ups. 'Like the moon.'" Or, so he was told. He didn't mind though, he never cared about his status. Who knows, maybe Luna will stick. Nothing wrong with it anyway. Besides I kind of like the way it sounds, he thinks to himself. He looks around for Marrow. He's walking away from them and starts warming up alone.

"ALRIGHT YOU RUNTS! THAT'S ENOUGH GAWKING OVER THE NEW GIRL! GET TO PRACTICE!" Overseer Kade comes in and quickly everyone other than Takeshi and Alexandra disperse. The overseer walks over to them. "I have to hand it to you girl. That was impressive. I never thought I'd see the day Takeshi lost to anyone. Let alone someone he's supposed to be in charge of." He looks over to Takeshi and smirks at him. "Good luck with this one Kid" Takeshi looks nearly as stunned as when Alexandra knocked him out of the sparring area. Did the overseer just compliment ME?

"Thank you sir! I will do my best!" He nods and goes back to the other trainees. Alexandra pulls on Takeshi's arm.

"Ready for another round Luna?" She asks playfully. Takeshi smiles and nods. They move back to the center of the sparring area and face off against one another. I won't lose so easily this time. He thinks to himself before making the first move.