lucetilogs | a face in the crowd / unsung, against the mold

a face in the crowd / unsung, against the mold

Who:

causeblocked
What: ~~Beating Isamu up~~ Testing out a theory.
When: slightly forward-dated, morning of July 7th
Where: The woods not far from complex 7.
Summary: Isamu offered Sanji the chance to put him on the receiving end of a few kicks as he tries to develop a method of physical shielding.
Rating: PG-13 for language

He'd said he'd send Sanji a message when he was ready to try this thing out, and he had - filtered over the journals. A separate note was left for Naoki, explaining that he'd be going out for a little extra training that morning. That was true enough, he just wouldn't be headed for the barracks like usual.

Isamu returned to the same small clearing the chef had found him in earlier. It was a good thing they were starting this early, since it was already starting to get warm. The day was just bound to get hotter from that point on.

He'd come in his gi, at least. This might not have been martial arts training, but he'd probably be moving around a lot all the same. No sense sweating up his better clothing.

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Sanji had almost turned Isamu down when he got the message, seeing as Luceti had managed to shit on his good mood again. The last two days had been a pain in the ass, one long headache. And to add to the load, he still needed to talk to Katara about Sokka, and get ready to ... deal with Xion's eventual... eh.

Which was why, he thought with a grunt, kicking a guy just to test a possibly faulty shield when he was on the agitated side could not lead to good things. He'd like to think he and Isamu were on decent terms. Even if the kid had accepted the initial offer, broken ribs did not a friendship make.

And hell if he wanted to get on Naoki's bad side.

The reason he showed up was simple, then: stubbornness and curiosity. If successful, this shield business could really be a help. And maybe Sanji wanted to prove to himself that he could rise above his own streak of bad luck.

Either way, he raised a hand in greeting when he entered the designated clearing. "Yo."

"Yo!" Isamu stopped in the middle of a couple stretches, offering Sanji his usual smirk. He hadn't thought the pirate would bail on him, but it was good to see him show up nonetheless. In most respects. There was still the possibility that teen was just setting himself up for a beating.

"So I'm not really sure how well this is going to work," he admitted, nudging a couple rocks out of the immediate area with his foot. "My method for working with this spirit is, I think, a little different than most. Might just be getting my hopes up."

Which would suck. He was so sure he'd been getting somewhere the other day, though, so it couldn't hurt to try.

Isamu was... not easing his anxieties over this.

Shit, Naoki was going to have his head on a platter, and Sanji would let him.

But he kept those thoughts off his face and just smirked right back, arching a brow. "Well. Just let me know where you wanna be kicked and I'll handle that angle." And try not to break anything.

Tell him when he wanted to be kicked, huh? Yeah, this was going to be the highlight of his day. Still, he'd signed up for it. "Gotcha."

Right now, a full bubble that blocked on its own was out of the question. He'd have to put some of his training with Raph to use and block with his hands - the idea being not to actually injure them in the process, just use them as a focal point.

He took a deep breath, willing a slight, nearly imperceptible shimmer to form around his hands. Repelling. That's what he wanted. The concept couldn't be that different from when he used the magic to 'sew' a wound back together.

"All right." He held both hands out in front of him. "Let's give this a try."

The chef considered the very vague shimmer briefly, his stare on the dubious side. Yes, this still screamed Bad Idea. He'd have to do some serious scaling back on strength for this.

Once Isamu gave him the go-ahead, though, he flushed those thoughts away and readied himself, paused, then sent a very basic kick at the hands. To his surprise, something did meet his foot that wasn't flesh for a split second, a few shimmers igniting into brightness.

But. It was only for less than a second.

He snapped his leg back a moment later but, eh. Hopefully that hadn't hurt.

The kick was met with a sharply uttered curse as Isamu's concentration failed to hold. Sanji had done well with holding back the force of his kick, but the teen shook his hand out all the same.

Come on, Nala-chan. You gotta work with me here. Think outside the box, okay?

He sighed out loud. "Let's try it again."

A nod from the chef. He gave Isamu a few seconds to shake the feeling back into his hands before lashing out with another kick.

The improvement was vast; where wet, paper-thin resistance had been before, now a heavier force tried propelling his foot away. It reminded him of a magnetic force, albeit a very weak one. He cut off what energy he could from his kick, intrigued by the marginal success, but motion kept it flying until it broke through again.

He grinned lightly at Isamu anyway. "That what you expected?"

"About..." Isamu muttered. He hated slow progress, but at least it was progress. Luceti seemed intent on teaching him patience. He shook his hand again.

"Just throw a kick my way every half-minute or so. I'll tell you if I need you to stop." What he needed to do was keep Sanji's foot from connecting completely, though even lightening the impact was better than nothing.

He held his hands out again. "...Thanks for humoring me, by the way."

"Not everyday someone requests I kick them," he retorted, doing as instructed. Now that he had an idea of what Isamu could handle, the last of his apprehension had ceased to be, and he kept a steady, constant pace.

"But it looks like a useful skill to have." He slipped his hands into his pockets. "Plan on keeping it to yourself?"

"That depends." Isamu grunted as a foot made contact again. He'd be lucky if he could still feel his hands after all this. "If I can't do any better than this, there won't be much reason to share it. I've gotta turn this into something worthwhile!"

Maybe after that...

The statement was met with a thoughtful hum, Sanji thinking his own thoughts at that. But the determination didn't surprise him, now that he'd gotten a chance to know the guy a little better. "Worthwhile, huh? And what do you plan on doing with this power? Another trick in the arsenal?"

Which he wouldn't blame him for. The reason Sanji knew as many of the filial spirits as he did was due to the worst type of prompting. Nothing like the fear of losing what you consider important to motivate you into getting stronger.

Isamu smiles wryly at that, even after he stumbles back from the impact of one of Sanji's kicks. "Something like that. Maybe."

He wasn't the strongest of people, and it would take some time for him to even come close to being a match for a good portion of Luceti's population. Anything that could give him a slight edge would help.

"Wonder if it could stand up to other filial magic." The thought had crossed his mind at least once before. Then again, the percentage of Lucetians who used that brand of magic were few and far between, it felt like. Maybe normal magic instead...

"Don't know, man. I couldn't even get it to stand up to rain water. You saw." Isamu took a step back, breathing a little hard. "Hold up. Let me rest a bit."

He took a seat, rubbing his hands together a bit and checking for damage. "Maybe it's not structured like a shield - more like a net. Water could slip through that easy."

He cast a glance at Isamu's hands himself, glad for the break - he'd gone two hours without a damn cigarette. "So mostly useful against physical blows." Perfect for punches, kicks, and whatever other body parts a person could throw at someone, but a waste against the elements. Too bad.

"Can you still feel your hands?" He meant the question honestly, never mind his expression was caught in thin amusement.

Making a face, Isamu flexed his fingers. "Mostly. Won't be doing much with them for the rest of the day, though. That's for sure."

He thought over the matter of the shield a bit more. Being able to combat spells was definitely a useful talent, but he wasn't sure it was something he'd be able to do. "...Back where I came from, the best way to learn to shield yourself from an element was to learn the element itself." He glanced up, watching Sanji. "A demon that specialized in ice magic, for example, had a good chance of being immune to similar spells or even absorbing them."

A cheeky grin was flashed at him, and Sanji leaned against an available post, smoke now in his mouth. "Maaah, that's not too bad. I'm not used to anyone using their hands at all after I kick them a few times."

Isamu's explanation held a lot of merit to the chef, seeing as he was somewhat familiar with the concept. Sanji nodded slowly, exhales a stream of smoke. "It sorta works the same way where I'm from. Someone who eats the Ice Devil Fruit isn't gonna catch a damn cold anytime soon. Only problem is there's only one of the fruit, which doesn't grant the rest of us with chances for immunity." Not to his knowledge, anyway. The best anyone could hope for was a loophole, maybe.

Fruit? That was probably some common thing in their world that wouldn't do him much good to know about here, so he let the topic slide for now.

"You've worked with the spirits here, right? What sort of elements have you picked up?"

"All except for Hyt, the light filial." And he ticked off the rest with his fingers. "Fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, and a bit of healing, though I leave the heavy-duty shit to the real doctors."

Isamu frowned, but only for a moment. Damn, but he was jealous of that. There was something about his attitude that most of the spirits didn't seem to like, but Sanji would already be aware of that.

"What sort of things have you managed to do with them?"

It's because Sanji knew of Isamu's unique predicament that he hesitated. Demonstrations would be a lot easier than explaining, but flashy light shows were one hell of a way to rub in someone's face what they couldn't do.

"Some good offensive shit," he started out with. "Nothing like setting your leg on fire and kicking someone to get a point across." A move he'd been able to do before Luceti, incidentally. "And I can create lightning at will, pull moisture out of the air..." A shrug. "Basic stuff."

Setting your leg on fire sounded painful, and Sanji got a raised eyebrow for that one.

"So would you say you've put your own spin on how you use their abilities?"

He just smirks back. Setting himself on fire isn't the strangest shit he's done, either. "I would. Their powers aren't that strong alone, unless you count electrocuting someone. So it's more effective using them with what you already know."

"And do you have experience with any type of shields at all?" Even if he couldn't use the magic himself, being able to test a theory would be nice. If Sanji was willing, anyway...

"... Shields?" Sanji paused and had to rack his mind for that question. He used his body as a shield more often than he should, but figured Isamu wasn't inquiring about that.

After a full minute of thinking, he had to admit defeat and shake his head. "Sorry, but no."

"Huh. Not sure how well I can help with that, then." Especially since he'd yet to perfect his own method here. It was possible that this was as far as he was going to get. If that was the case, he was going to be damn angry about it.

He got back to his feet, brushing himself off. "All right, you ready?"

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a face in the crowd / unsung, against the mold

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