[1 v 1] The first of many things (Mai x Vaith)

[revenant aria]

Vaith had never been in the gym before. He looked around, his elbows leaning against the ring, red eyes turning upwards. He had just turned to a year two, outfit, upgraded abilities and all. He had yet to show it to anyone and he wondered if Mai would even recognize him.

What if she didnt?

But he had the noise tail, noise wings and his familiar .. His familiar glowed yellow, a new effect, that Vaith was sure would come handy when he came home to his dormroom during the dark. He was pretty surprised that they both were thinking of a spar .. He wans't sure what Mai's intentions were for a spar but he suspected it had something to do with mirror toilets. Who wouldn't want to murder those things? But back to worrying-- his frown deepened. He didn't look that different. But what if he did? He ran his gloved hand through his hair, his rebellious bangs falling back forward.  

[peipuru]

Mai left her dorm a full hour before she really needed to. She was getting used to this early departure requirement whenever she was supposed to actually be somewhere on time. It was just inevitable that the ghoul would get lost/sidetracked/fall asleep between one place and the next. There was just no avoiding it.

This time, she found that her estimations were almost spot on, and she arrived at the gym in time to see Vaith making his way in. She recognized him immediately, seeing his distinctive tail trailing behind him. But.. he looked different somehow. Mai was instantly curious, but she made sure to spend a moment to brush the leaves off her skirt and pick the branches out of her hair. She'd acquired these when she decided to take a short snooze in the bushes on her way here. Absently, she wondered why the heck she even thought that would be a good idea.

After she was sure that there wasn't any stray flora attached to her person, Mai entered the gym. She spotted Vaith as he was looking around. The ghoul smiled wolfishly and made her way silently to him. She was being obviously suspicious to any onlookers as she sneaked across the open space between her and her intended target. Mai wasn't positive, but she thought she saw Vaith's familiar turn around at look and her. She gestured for the creature to be silent by putting a finger to her lips. But couldn't be sure if she was spotted, and who knew if the noise familiar would tolerate her antics anyway. Determined not lose this opportunity, she rushed forward the rest of the distance.

The ghoul's cool hands slipped around Vaith's face to cover his eyes. She pressed herself against his back and put her lips close to his ear. "Guess whoooo?"

Mai thought maybe it was a pointless question, since he was expecting her after all. But what the hell, it was an excuse to get some contact. She practically purred as she felt the warmth of his skin under her fingers.  

[revenant aria]

Vaith hadn't been expecting Mai's entrance. Although if he were to guess, it'd be something like that-- assuming he was actually thinking versus thinking of closing his eyes for a tiny little catnap. Vaith's familiar, although it's head perked up a little, it seemed to understand Mai's silent motions, lowering it's head back down in attentive fondness for the ghost.

Meanwhile, Vaith pulled at an annoying strand of hair, when his vison was suddenly obscured by a flash of blue .. and then black. Instant mirth forced his lips to turn upwards, even before he heard Mai's sultry voice in his ear, warming at the sudden chilly breath. He leaned slightly back into her cool body for just a moment before reminding himself to straighten as he answered. It was difficult not to become too receptive to Mai's familiarity, struggling not to get caught up in her pace too much .. or end up as a result of her femme fatale qualities that was just too irresistible at times.

"I wonder?" His hands covered Mai's hands over his eyes, warm gloves over her own, managing to peel away for just a little bit of vision. His familiar stretched open it's wings to traverse the short distance from Vaith's shoulder to Mai's, hungry for attention similar to the one the ghost had lavished on Vaith.

However, Vaith was reluctant to share. Especially since cuddling led to only one conclusion. More cuddling. Not quite what they were here for.

"Don't get too comfortable Note-- you promised that you'd help us practice spar. I can't fight with you hanging all over her, can I?" Vaith pointed out, a reaper lacking in a weapon but with the bonus of an added companion.. only if the companion should cooperate. He spoke without turning, anticipating the noise's familiar movements well.
 

[peipuru]

Mai laughed softly and genuinely as Vaith's hands covered hers. Her amusement even seemed to spread to the little wisps that had accompanied her into the gym. The small ghost lights bobbed and danced around them, almost as if they were also laughing. When Note landed on her shoulder, Mai gave the familiar an affectionate chin scritching as a reward for not spoiling her surprise attack.

Oh that's right, she thought as Vaith mentioned sparring, they were here for training. She'd already forgotten.

"So.." Mai said softly, trying to be a good girl and stepping back to what was a more appropriate distance between the two. "How do we-" she stopped herself as she got a better view of Vaith. She eyed him up and down. "New look?" she inquired, lifting her eyebrows a bit. She closed the distance between them again and pulled playfully on the zipper at his throat. "I like it.."

And then as if to remind her again why she was there, one of her wisps floated close to her face and puffed softly. The ghost blinked at it, then blinked at Vaith.

"Oh.. So," she said, picking up her previously derailed train of thought. She didn't move away from him though, and she was still tugging gently at the zipper. "How do we go about that anyway? The sparring I mean. I've never been in here before. What does one normally do for training in this place?"  

[revenant aria]

Mai's infectious laugh was pleasant on the ears, drawing a few chuckles from Vaith, releasing his hands from her's. Vaith glanced down at her wisps in fascination, he had caught sight of them once before, during the haunted house when the lights went out but that hadn't really been a time for idle conversation. Curious, were they like his noise markings? Her assessing glance over his attire gave him time to reach out for a wisp curiously, his fingers curling around the blue element.

"New year, new look." He briefly implied, not being one to brag of his achievements. Not that Vaith spoke of anything pertaining himself, really. Conversation about one's self was rather redundant.

"Thanks."

His hand withdrew back to his side as Mai stepped forward, the bold curve of his collarbone flashing as the ghost tugged on his zipper, revealing a hint of his chest, along with a white underlayer. Mai's question wasn't answered immediately, the reaper's hand acting as a stopping point to keep the zipper from going too low and undressing the first half of his outfit. But half of his jacket was already unzipped, which was also another redundant point. But unclothing here wasn't part of today's plans either.

"Normal might not exist for here. Looking around, I think this place is built to withstand a nuclear pumpkin explosion. But I'm going to assume, fight like you have something to win. Fear, combat .. the works. Anything's probably a go." Vaith wasn't the best for explanations and this time wasn't any different. He shrugged, shaking his head slightly--

-- He wasn't much more informed than Mai. His only goal was to get stronger and the methods to that route was a hazy foggy path.

But he figured, this was the start.  

[peipuru]

The wisp that Vaith reached out to seemed to thrum invitingly at him. Blue flames coiled and flowed around the boil's fingers as his hand passed through the spectral fire. It probably would have felt somewhat similar to putting one's hand into a stream of cool water.

Mai tilted her head to one side and watched her friend as he spoke to her. She had reluctantly stopped pulling on his clothing when it seemed she wasn't going to be able to coax the zipper down past Vaith's blocking hand. Shame.

"So... we're supposed to go all out then?" she asked. Her eyes roamed away from his face to get another look at their surroundings. It certainly seemed like the other students here were taking things pretty seriously. She felt she understood the necessity of it a little bit better after the last school trip. The ghost had felt so completely and utterly unprepared for an actual combat situation that she ended up contributing very little and spent most of the fight trying to avoid being trampled. Her expression became neutral as her eyes returned to Vaith.

I have to become stronger, she thought decisively to herself. The thought had been eating at her constantly since she returned from that fiasco of a training mission. Mai had a sneaking suspicion that the spell seal stuck to her face was acting up again.. which would explain why she felt so agitated and restless. She hated that damned incomplete summoning compulsion. It was always attaching itself to the most inconvenient things. The last time this happened, she spent a whole two and a half weeks trying to figure out how to make the perfect carrion sandwitch. Of course, once she'd assembled one that satisfied her criteria, she didn't really want to eat it. She hated carrion. Too bad she'd ended up dropping out of her Shadowcraft class because of her temporary culinary obsessions.

She felt the compulsion flaring up again, demanding her to take action. Become stronger. Well. They were here to spar right? "Shall we get started?" she asked, dropping into a semi crouch. Without waiting for an answer, Mai launched herself into a low kick at Vaith's legs.

Mai's HP: 30/30
Damage: Miss!  

[revenant aria]

Vaith glanced around, following Mai's gaze around the gym-- they were fighting on a surface that covered them from falling into the pool. The sight of water and the feeling of falling into it, even though there was a barrier that allowed one to fight on the clear surface of the pool, the water rushing two layers underneath their feet, was an unsettling feeling.

But while his red eyes were busy looking around, he briefly caught sight of losing eye-contact range with Mai, her figuring disappearing as she crouched below his height. His hand left his zipper, falling to his side, his fingers curling in, the stiffness of his new ring pressed against his palm. He hadn't put much stock into it, assuming that she leaned down to tie her blue and black shoes or dust her skirt. But her sudden sweeping motion was uncharacteristic of those two scenarios, raising a thread of alarm in Vaith's hazy mind.

The noise markings shifted suddenly, reflecting his alarm, forcing the reaper to sidestep, his tail swinging automatically in a reflexive attack. Unfortunately, the ghoul down down-low and his tail swung a little too high.

Breathlessly, Vaith's eyebrow started rising to his forehead as he gave Mai a look.

It wasn't ruined with the effect of words.

But it was a look.

Mai didn't play fair-- But all was fair in love and war, right?

Vaith: 30/30HP
Status: Miss too!

 

[peipuru]

Mai dipped under Vaith's counter attack and hopped backwards a step before straightening. The look that he had given her was compelling enough that she had to pause to consider it.

"We're here for training," she said simply. Her tone was matter-of-fact, but her expression managed to look just a teensy bit guilty. She leaned on one foot, then the other. "In a fight, you should always take the advantage where you can, yes?" Mai scuffed the heel of her boot against the floor self-consciously. "I'm sorry.. if there's etiquette that should be followed, I'm not familiar with it."

At this point, she was already too wound up. Both from the rush of their first physical exchange, and the prompting from her compulsion. The excitement manifested in her eyes as their glow seemed to intensify, smoldering bright cerulean. Her normally docile wisps also seemed to be in a state of agitation, flaring and pulsing as they circled her. To be fair this time, she made an obvious shift into an attack stance as he had his eyes on her. The ghost shot forward and aimed another kick at her opponent.

Mai's HP: 30/30
Damage: 2  

[revenant aria]

"No, no etiquette." A hint of white flashed, his hand lifted to shake in a gesture of dismissal. "Ready for everything and anything-- including hippos that come out of nowhere. I don't think that hippo gave us any warning." Vaith brought the incident up, the irony of the dancing hippo brought up a new flow of distasteful memories. It's blows had been as horrendous as it's many legs and outfit. Vaith linked his fingers together, arms extending out in some sort of stretching, his noise marking shuffling together in preparation for battle.

Unfortunately, the time it took to prepare his noise magic wasn't the fastest process-- Vaith's expression twitched as he took Mai's kick against his legs, using the second afterwards as an opportunity for a noise symbol to reach out, gripping Mai by the ankle, tripping and halting the finishing end of her kick. Briefly, Vaith thought, he was supposed to be gender equal but how was he supposed to punch Mai?!

"I'm just gonna say this in advance. Since we're going all-out, no hard feelings."

So Aurian, Junko, or Seiji wouldn't kill him for sparring with Mai.

Vaith: 28/30 HP
Damage: 1 damage (rofl, forgot to roll the other dice but its fine!)  

[peipuru]

Mai's face was almost comical as her ankle was captured and her balance was destroyed. She hopped a few times, trying unsuccessfully to yank her leg free from Vaith's grasp. Then the noise markings shifted in a sufficiently jarring motion that she lost her footing entirely and fell to one side. She lost her breath as she hit the floor with a dull *thud*.

"Ah," she grunted from the floor as she tried to lift herself as gracefully as she could manage (which was not at all). "I remember that thing... that hippo thing.. It was.. grotesque.."

Once she was standing again, Mai rolled the shoulder she had landed on. "No hard feelings," she agreed, then added, "Do we get to make up afterwards?" Mai grinned seductively as she lunged forward, swiping at his face with a neatly manicured hand. She managed to just barely nick him on the cheek with her nails, but it was more playful than anything.

Mai's HP: 29/30
Damage: 1  

[revenant aria]

"Make up? Sure-- For a second, I thought you were going to say 'make out.' If we left Junko and Seiji alone, they might have." He referred to their time in the haunted house, shaking his head, reminiscing about the slightly better hours before the hunter attack. As if in response to her seductive smile, his yellow gloved hand swiftly darting out to capture Mai's wrist, just passing his ear as she nicked his cheek.

He pulled the ghoul forward, it almost seemed like he might pull Mai into his arms, the shadow of a smile brushed against Mai's cheek ever so slightly. His hand briefly brushed against her spiked black bracelet, long locks of her white hair and his sandy brown hair crossing each other..

Until he side-stepped to let the ghost fall to his side, his grip loosening. It was almost like a misplaced sort of dance, the levels of excitement and anxiety had yet to reach the heights of a serious battle. For now, it was a testing of sorts.


Vaith: 27/30 HP
Damage: 1 damage  

[peipuru]

"Most likely," Mai said with a low chuckle as she remembered the pair. Too bad they probably wouldn't have let me join, she thought privately with a pout.

Her pout became a self-satisfied smile as Vaith took her wrist and pulled her toward him. She blew out a cool breath as she felt the ghost of his touch on her cheek... and then just as quickly her expression shifted back into a pout when Vaith side-stepped and her momentum carried her away from him.

"Ooohh," she growled softly, looking petulant and amused at the same time. But his sudden shift had left her off balance again and she twisted her ankle painfully trying to right herself. There was a moment of flailing in which she managed to elbow Vaith soundly in the ribs. Well, it was something at least.


Mai's HP: 28/30
Damage: 1  

[revenant aria]

"Were you expecting something?" His husky voice and slanted red eyes held an implicit promise, although the challenge never faded. Vaith's easy grin didn't vanish, even as he stumbled forward from her blow to his lower torso. Ughh. Mai knew how to get an elbowing in, wincing slightly. Vaith admitted inwardly, he probably deserved it. But this was no break time, he recalled, trying to gather his wits and battle-stance ready.

A bit of distance was put in between them, stopping the peir from trying to trip each other yet again. He was a reaper and he should probably act like one-- Combat was supposed to be one of their best abilities. He aimed a high kick toward's Mai's torso, his upper half turned slightly while his lower half raised his leg high to kick.

But there was a lot less force-- He didn't intend to knock the ghoul out of commission, after all. Hopefully, she wouldn't do that to him-- Jack knows, how they might make it to their rooms at the end of the day. The possibility of sleeping in the gym was still open.


Vaith: 26/30 HP
Damage: 1 damage  

[peipuru]

"Maybe," Mai answered slowly, still in full pout. She braced herself for Vaith's kick and turned her body so it just glanced off her side. Still, it was the side she'd received those awful burns from Red during the school trip. There were no visible signs of the wounds on her anymore, but there was a lingering sensitivity on the places she was burnt the worse. Mai winced as a sharp stinging sensation radiated out from where she was kicked.

Well, that wouldn't do. She shook it off, resisting the urge to hold her side. She'd just revealed a weakness, wasn't that a big no-no? In an effort to cover it, she quickly launched a counter-kick at Vaith, aiming the pointy toe of her shoe at his thigh.

They hadn't really dealt any forceful strikes to each other at this point. Which, Mai thought, probably wasn't helping them learn much. "Why don't we make this interesting?" she asked, stretching her arms over her head and.. er.. almost falling completely out of her top in the process. "If I win, I get to stay the night in your dorm room." She smirked, letting her arms drop to her sides. "And if you win," she shrugged. "You name your prize." She blinked then, pointing her finger at him suddenly, almost accusingly. "And you have to be there too." Had to add that last part. Didn't want him to just leave her there all by her lonesome. That wouldn't be very fun.

She maintained a come-hither expression, though the simple truth of it was pretty innocent. Mai was just lonely. Being alone in her room didn't used to bother her much, but these days she found her own company was becoming tiresome. The idea of having a warm body to sleep next to at night was extremely attractive.

"How about it?" she asked, smiling invitingly. She motioned at him with her outstretched hand to come at her again.


Mai's HP: 27/30
Damage: 2  

[revenant aria]

Vaith had no clue he hit her injured side, merely lowering his foot after making contact with her black-clothed torso, his arms lowering. His tried to block Mai's prompt kick towards his thigh with his hands but it ended up passing his slow motions. The sharp edge sent a searing pain at it's point of contact, landing a sensitive and compressed blow. Vaith had to thank the big pumpkin up there, his thigh was a far enough distance from his boil parts. If this was any other situation, he would have done a complementary bro-fist and a nod of kinship.

But for now, he'd have to settle for the mental versions of those.

Their blows paused, Mai's proposition interrupting the spar. He let out a low hiss between the grit of his teeth-- ghouls should know that their footwear could serve as a simple weapon alone. Thankfully, it gave time for their respective injuries to stop throbbing, although the relief was short-lived. Vaith's hands traveled up to his eyes, as Mai's arms lifted, his "cool" expression taking on a slight flush, covering his entire expression with the broad palm of his hand. He lowered it when he caught sight of her arms dropping through the slits made by his fingers.

Vaith hadn't leveled up all that much.

"You only want one night? Or any amount of nights?"

Knowing the ghost's desire for a warm body, Vaith was sure he could supply that, his expression still flushed, his hand covering his nose and mouth. She probably had her pick of the school easily, it was a little flattering for the ghoul to even consider the lame reaper's simple room. Vaith guessed, visits during the daytime was nothing special. While he hadn't invited a ghoul to stay with him for the night .. This was Mai. A sleepover might be something to distract him from the plaguing nightmares. Aside from the loss of pride if he lost, the bet didn't seem at all like a bad deal. Like Mai, the idea of having somebody by his side, even if it only happened once in awhile, was an attractive idea.

"Of course I'll be there. What's the point of staying in my room if it's empty?" Vaith chuckled, his hand extended out to tap Mai's hand in a tag-team manner. His chin lifted, tipping his head. His answer was unnecessary, Mai could tell the answer simply by his grin.

"You're on."

If he won, his win would be named after the fight. What could it be?~

The fight resumed, with a punch that was intended to cuff Mai's ear.


Vaith: 24/30 HP
Damage: 2 damage