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The regular warriors of the Negaverse didn't signal Masahiro as brightly as the corrupted senshi did. Especially not Lieutenants, who's corrupted energy signature appeared as more of a candleflame next to the shining stars of senshi in his mind. But when there was no one else in the area that Masahiro was passing through, even that tiny flame was enough to catch his attention.

Training on rooftops was all very well and good for humans of the Negaverse. As a cat, Hiro had a bit more difficulty making his way up to where he sensed the Lieutenant. Eventually he made it, with the aid of fire stairs and some very careful climbing up a metal ladder.

The night breeze ruffled his fur as he paused at the edge of the rooftop. Sore paws received a quick bathing while Hiro took in the girl and the makeshift 'scarecrow' of a training dummy.

"That's not a bad idea," he said, trotting closer to the dummy. "Do you even know where to practice aiming on it, though?"

A single teal eye focused on Painite, head titled, tail curling lazily as Hiro waited for a response.

Oh god, oh god, oh god.

Hiro's ears went flat. Part of him wanted to flee the approaching 'cat lover', like he would any regular human who tried to hug the 'cute widdle kitty'. His dedication to the Negaverse and his job within it had Hiro hold his ground. Hopefully the girl could be professional about this. Though she was acting like she'd never seen a Guardian Cat befo- oh. Oh dear. Hiro had heard that Destiny City had barely any corrupt cats, but it must be even fewer than he thought. For all this Lieutanent knew, he was some kind of magical fairy cat who spoke.

Well, replace 'fairy' with 'alien' and she'd be technically correct. But still. He was not an itty bitty kitty for petting and scruffing! ...Well, maybe some scritching was allowed... but only off-duty! This was very clearly on-duty. See his serious face? Serious cat was serious! And on duty!

Clearing his throat, Hiro said, "I am very handsome, yes." With his battle scars and all, he was very manly. And dangerous. 'Cute' was not the word he would choose. Painite clearly disagreed. "I did comment on your training. I don't criticize, though, I just tell the truth." Mostly through criticism.

After a brief moment of consideration, he said, "You may scratch my ear after training. If you do well. And by where to aim, I mean, where are you hoping to hit? Do you know the weakest spots on the human body? The places your strikes will do the most damage?" He trailed off, eyeing the girl. The possibility was looking slimmer by the moment (or he could just have been too horrified by her look-a-cute-kitty mode to be taking proper notice). In a fainter voice, he hopefully guessed, "... Major organs?"

Hiro's chest puffed out a little as Painite agreed that he was handsome. Luckily he he had no way of knowing that she still thought he was cute as well, or he'd be less pleased.

He wasn't too sure about a Lieutenant who was so obviously delighted by the discovery of a talking cat. He decided to hope it just meant she was... eager and energetic. Yes. Nothing wrong with those qualities.

Painite began listed off 'weak points' on a human body. She was hesitant and paused several times. The last one sounded more like a uqestion than an answer.

Without moving his head or body, Hiro made the tiniest of adjustments - eye a fraction narrower, ear the bearest degree backwards - to convey an expression of total bisbelief as only a cat could. For now, Hiro decided to leave aside the fact that the skull was pretty decent armour of its own, making the head very sturdy except for extremities (nose, ears) or holes (eyes, ears). Instead, he focused on the last answer.

"Punch the kidney on the dummy," he said, one ear turned as far back as it could go. He had a growing suspicion that Painite wasn't familiar with the placement of the said organ.

The only sound of Hiro's own trap springing closed was a pained sigh from the cat. Paw, meet forehead. After a moment to lament what they taught kids these days, Hiro padded forward to the dummy.

"Your second guess was closer. The kidney," he said while rising onto his two back feet and stretching out with his front paws, "is here."

One paw tapped at the appropriate location, a slight distance above where the curve of a waist would be, if the dummy were human. Painite hadn't been far off, but enough that her strike wouldn't have done the damage that it could have. "And the left kidney," he moved his left front paw, "is slightly higher than the right."

Hiro was glad that he was a large cat. It meant that all stretched out to his full length, from back paws to front paws, he could reach the kidneys (on the dummy, at least - a taller human might be a problem). At least he didn't have to make an ungainly leaps to reach his target - yet.

"They're quite sensitive to a human. A strike there would cause great pain, even without superhuman strength."

He walked back around to the front of the dummy. "As to your other choices, on the head you want to strike the nose - upwards from below if possible, for maximum damage. A broken nose may look effective, but it does very little to the enemy other than marr their looks. 'Stomach' is," Hiro twitched an ear, "technically correct... though the area you want to focus on is the solar plexus: the stomach and the nerve center behind it."

He muttered an aside, "I do hope you were referring to the stomach organ, not the 'belly' region as a whole. What they teach in schools over here, I'll never understand. What ever happened to martial arts training from a young age...?"

Goddamn kids. Why, when he was their age...

Ahem. Back to martial arts training. "Also, that strike was terrible. My grandmother could pack a harder punch than you. And she's a corpse." His tail flicked, straight up, then back down. He took a seated, attentive position near Painite. "Try again, with some effort this time."

Hiro scowled as Painite pointed out that martial arts wasn't a required subject. "Well, it should be," he said. It would make the Negaverse's job much easier. Hmm, possibly the senshi's too, though they'd still have to learn their magic attacks anyway, so it would still be slightly in favour of the Negaverse. At least they could all get down to the business of trying to kill each other without having to worry about teaching everyone the basics, first.

He nodded as Painite drew back for the second punch. Form could use a little work, correct her footwork there... His mental list of critiques was cut off as a shadow fell across him. Eye wide, Hiro dove sideways, an orange blur streaking out from under a falling scarecrow.

Several feet away, the blur slowed to a cat again. Tail lashing, Hiro threw a scorching glare at the fallen dummy as though it had tried to squash him on purpose. It was just lucky that the Mau laser attack didn't spring from their eyes, or it would be a blazing campfire right now.

Ears back, he turned a lesser version of the glare to Painite. "It seems we will need to look into getting you a better training dummy. If only to prevent any cat pancakes. Though it can't hurt for you to be learning to use your weapon, rather than attack it."

"Hmm," Hiro hummed, considering Painite's explanation. It was an act, of course. How could he not approve of voluntary training? Especially someone who thought to correct their own weakness - well, try to correct. Painite clearly needed someone around to advise where to hit (and lucky for her, Hiro just happened to be available tonight).

When Painite crouched down, Hiro assumed she was just checking him over for injuries. No new ones had been added to his tally, thank goodness. As manly and awesome as they made him appear (just ask him), he thought he might have collected enough for now.

The ear scritch took him by surprise. Painite would have felt his body jump a little under her hand, even though he hid the reaction well from human sight. His free ear twitched a little. Hiro recognised that he wasn't getting out of it, so angled his head better for the scritching. At least he didn't have to raise his back leg to attack the itch that had been forming there, he told himself - that was so undignified!

The tiger-striped fur was softer than Hiro's battle-hardened appearance might lead people to believe. Nevertheless, he wasn't a stuffed animal or a normal housecat to sit there and take being petted all day. "Alright, the night is still young," he said, ducking out from under the hand after a minute or two. "Can your scarecrow manage any more hits, or should we find you a better target?"

If Hiro could have seen Painite's little daydream, he would have pointed out that he had no opposable thumbs and thus could not cook food for anyone. Though he wasn't shy about letting people know when it was time for a meal, as his Alkaid had found out the other morning. In any case, Hiro already had an 'owner' (though he viewed it more as himself who 'owned' the corrupted senshi), so Painite might be on the right track with adopting a normal, earth cat instead.

Hiro watched as Painite readjusted the dummy. He peered closer at certain parts, inspecting the bracing and weights to see how Painite had rigged this together. When Painite sat back, finished, he gave the dummy a nudge and was satisfied when it didn't budge.

"Very nice," he said, trotting over to sit beside the girl. "When you're ready, let's try some strikes from the front. It's not like an enemy will let you remain at their back, after all."