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Sailor Tempesti anxiously checked her phone’s clock for the thousandth time, as though it might magically change to reveal that she was in fact late for meeting up for her sparring session with Sailor Aruna. She had never sparred with anyone in her life and despite the increase in her strength since she began training in earnest to swim to that island, the senshi was nervous.

As Tempesti waited she idly ran her fingers along the braid she’d pinned around the crown of her head. Though she didn’t think that Aruna would be the sort to resort to hair pulling, she wanted to get into the habit of keeping her hair restrained in combat for when she encountered someone who had no such reservations.

Bouncing on her heels she took a few deep breaths, it couldn’t hurt to do a few stretches before they began.

Tempesti was finishing her stretches as Aruna arrived and flashed her friend a quick smile, “No need to apologize, just getting in a bit of stretching before we get started. I’d suggest that you do the same but it looks like you’ve already warmed up.”

The senshi swung her arms anxiously as she stood there, she knew that they wouldn’t intentionally hurt each other, hopefully the harpies would behave themselves.

Tempesti thought for a few long moments, she had no idea how they should go about this. She knew what sparring was in theory, but in practice she was utterly clueless on how to begin. She wondered if they should have asked people more experienced in this area for ideas. In hindsight she saw that some kind of padding would probably have been a good idea. Maybe next time. For now, she had the first aid kit that lived in her subspace.

“I have no idea, I’ve…never tried sparring before, and my only fight with another human consisted mostly of trying not to let an insane whale person kill me. Besides, I need to learn to take a hit.” She made a face at the memory before calling her first aid kit into her hands. “This is always in my subspace, I don’t think we’ll be doing anything that will end in anyone needing surgery. I mean, hopefully. So this should be good I think.”

“I know, and I’m glad you want to look out for me. But I think I need to get used to fighting fighting. With humans, not just smacking youma. She sighed, “I don’t even like fighting youma.”
It was difficult to admit that it wasn’t fear that made her dislike fighting those strange creatures. A lot of her felt bad for ending them, after all it’s not like they could help what they were. Still, their nature made them run around trying to eat people and their souls. She couldn’t live with letting that happen, even if they were just following their own nature. It was only knowing that the alternative was worse that allowed her to push through those feelings.

“I’ve got a good grip on the range, I think. Just not so much on the control.” Her face probably betrayed her frustration at the confession, that she couldn’t help it only made the situation more aggravating. “I’ve got my first aid kit in my subspace too, but I can’t imagine that’s as good as healing magic.”

She planted her feet firmly where she stood, bracing herself. “Alright, I’m ready.

She planted her feet firmly where she stood, bracing herself. “Alright, I’m ready.

“Yeah, it doesn’t seem like they exactly deserve to get hurt. If they would just leave people alone I wouldn’t even go after them. But if they got someone who couldn’t fight them off and I could have stopped it…I don’t know how I could deal with that.” Squaring her shoulders, she prepared herself as best she could.

A soft hiss passed through Tempesti’s gritted teeth as the debris battered her. Aruna was right, of course. As fun experiences went, being bombarded with rocks had to be pretty far down the list. With the earthen cascade’s continued showering down upon the arms she’d thrown up to shield her head from the worst of it an idea prickled at the back of her mind. She suspected that it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but it couldn’t hurt to test it.

“Bitter Blast!” The harpies arrived on cue, bringing with them their wind and lightning. Experimenting with magical interactions? That could be an interesting approach.

It worked? It worked! Not to any massive degree, but knowing that their magic could produce different effects on each other was an interesting development, definitely something she would want to explore later. “I’m alright, nothing I can’t ice when I get home!

Tempesti chewed on her lip thoughtfully, “I wouldn’t try to stop a bear from eating a fish, but I would try to stop it from eating a human. I don’t think a bear would be any more likely to listen to me than a youma would though. I mean. We should learn more about them if we’re going to have to fight them.” The thought did nothing to lift her spirits. Human or not, youma did show some kind of intelligence, hints of a mind. It wasn’t like they were willing to stop and have a conversation with her though, unfortunately. “I’m ready,” She thought for a moment, “Want to see how that works in reverse?”

“True, I really wonder how all of that works.” Tempesti made a mental note to record whatever she saw on the subject, wishing that there was information of the sort available through her phone.

“Bitter Blast!”

The senshi scurried out of the way as best she could to avoid the worst of her own ability before Aruna’s could make contact. It was impossible to tell if the windstorm was doing anything to slow the landslide. It didn’t much look like it, but there was a lot of debris in this one. It was an impressive display, if nothing else. “That was so cool! Glad it didn’t hit me.

“I wouldn’t recommend it, honestly.” Tempesti smiled slightly, the memory of lightning sparking against her skin unpleasantly fresh. Still, she couldn’t help but find it a little bit funny that her starseed remained uncooperative. “The harpies are very enthusiastic for being not quite real.”

It was a bit of a relief to call it a day, she’d only expended three bursts of magic once before and the aftereffects were less than enjoyable. “Sure! Thanks for this, by the way. It’s definitely been a learning experience.”