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When the serpentine senshi had reached out to Aruna, asking to spar and to talk, Aruna had readily accepted. The entire battle with the Calamitous Hollow had left her drained and shaken and a stranger to sleep, but she refused to let herself take even a second to slip, to fall behind. She needed to get stronger, needed to get more powerful, so that she would never see her friends and family fall ever again. So sparring sounded like the perfect thing for the sleep-deprived senshi.

Arriving at the reservoir where they had originally met, Aruna worked on stretching as she waited. She had only ever had one mock battle before, and it was with Tempesti. She didn't want to hurt Chang'E, but she also wasn't sure what he was capable of. Best to be prepared for anything, she figured. Looking up, she lifted a hand in greeting and smiled as Chang'E approached. Deep, dark circles ringed her eyes. The sort that even a raccoon would be envious of. But even so, her smile was still soft and warm, and she was visibly glad to see him.

Ah. The dreaded "are you okay" that she had been refusing to think about. SHe gave him a tired smile and shook her head dismissively. "I'm alright. As much as I can be after fighting a world ending snake in space." It was meant to sound lighthearted, but her tone just sounded exhausted. "It was....an experience I would like to never repeat. Which is unfortunate, because there are apparently more of them out there." She sighed softly and pulled something out of her subspace to hold out to him. In her outstretched palm was one of the scales she had picked up from the battlefield. "Have you ever seen anything like this before? It came from the Calamitous Herald. It shed a bunch of them towards the end." She motioned for him to take it and waited patiently for his response. She hadn't had a chance to ask Helene about it yet, and Chang'e was the only other deep space senshi that she really knew well enough to feel comfortable asking.

"Calamitous Hollow, sorry. Herald of the Dark Star." There had been a lot of information she had learned before and during the battle, and in her tired state, it was easy to get it jumbled. "I grabbed a handful of them, so I don't mind parting with one if you want it." She had intended to give them to a friend of hers, but he had all but seemed to have vanished without a trace now, leaving her with a pile of trinkets she had thought to give him and a feeling of sadness.

The mention of rest made her shake her head firmly. "No. I'm fine." Her tone was firm and said that she clearly was not letting it be up for debate. "I've been taking it easy, I'll be fine." He didn't need to know about the nightmares that plagued her every time she closed her eyes, that all she saw was the battlefield littered with those she loved, friends and family alike. He didn't need to know that she hadn't willingly slept since returning to earth.

Standing up straight, Aruna gave him a small smile and gestured at the area around them. "Besides, you wanted to practice, right? We're both already here and ready."

Aruna seemed uneasy at the idea of hand to hand combat, but she had agreed to help him and wasn't about to back out now. "I should tell you that I've never done anything regarding hand to hand other than learn how to defend myself by blocking hits. So I suppose this will be a learning experience for both of us." She gave him a small smile and moved into a more flexible position, bringing her arms up near her face out of habit.

It had been three years since she was last hit, since she last had to defend herself. But as she moved into the familiar position to protect herself, she felt the slight uptick in her heart rate, the tell tale signs of anxiety that she remembered whenever her mother would storm around the house. This was familiar. This was something she knew how to do.

Aruna winced as he made contact with her forearm, then frowned. "Try holding your hand like this." She lowered her arms to demonstrate. "I don't know a whole lot about hand to hand fighting, but I know that you want to curl your fingers into your palm and have your thumb wrapped around them like this. It makes a solid surface to hit with, and having your thumb like this stops it from getting broken." It was about the only useful thing she knew, along with using someone's momentum against them.

An idea forming in her head, she held her hand up, palm out to him as if in a "stop" gesture. "Try punching my hand like that and see if you can feel the difference." Her grandfather had taught her a few things, and some of them stuck, thankfully. Hopefully she would be able to remember enough to be helpful.

She let her elbow bend as she took the punch, helping absorb some of the impact. Even so, she found herself rubbing her hand a bit. "You definitely have some strength behind it. When you step forward, step forward with the opposite leg. So if you're going to punch with your right hand, step forward with your left." She demonstrated as she spoke, stepping forward with her left leg as she extended her right arm.

Ah. Defending. Now that was something Aruna knew. "Well, if all you mean to do is block or shield yourself, your forearms are good." She raised her arms again as she had before, showing him. "It's harder to hit someone in the face if you have to get through their arms, yknow? And they'll be hitting a bone instead of something fleshy, so it'll hopefully hurt them. But what I would really suggest is using their momentum against them. If someone is coming at you and they throw a punch... Here, walk towards me like you're going to throw a punch and I'll show you." She waited for him to move, then gently grabbed his wrist and pulled him past her, her hand tapping at the back of his shoulder to mime a hit. "If they're already moving, either just punching or straight up running at you, this will redirect their momentum and help you stay safe. It's a little harder if someone is moving fast, but it's really good to keep in mind and to practice. If you also shove them too from the back, itll make them keep going a bit further and you can put distance between you and them." She spoke with a seriousness that hinted at experience on this end of the subject, and she watched him to see if it all made sense to him.