2023-03-17: Sentiment du Fer
- Cast: Alouette Pommier, Sho Tachibana
- Where: Jindai High School
- Date: U.C. 0097 03 17
- Summary: In a devastating dance of blades, more moves are made than just footwork.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Today's classes in Jindai went without much of any incident, even with two part-timers attending. Which means that the grand opening of Jindai's new duelling club in the school gym can go on without interruption.
The club hasn't been extensively advertised, and it's expected to have less pull than it would in a Britannian-based school like Ashford. Unlike those schools however, there's less of a focus on Britannian-style duelling, opting to draw from styles from across the world in true GUTSy fashion.
For two part-timer students, this is a grand opportunity, as they know well a good fight is one of the best ways to learn about someone... Alouette changed out of her Jindai sailor-uniform into the gym uniform (Sho may notice that's a lot less layers than last time), holds a practice AEU-style fencing sword, awaiting the arrival of her opponent.
And when she does arrive, there's an innocuous, yet somehow menacing polite smile on her face, as she motions as if to sharpen the sword, even though it's made of wood. "...I've been waiting for this, Sho Tachibana."
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
Ever since Prom, Sho Tachibana has found herself... not training as diligently, perhaps. Sneaking into Ashford and making a scene is the kind of thing Go would do - not that she didn't enjoy it, and technically Go would barge straight through and be the scene whereas Sho didn't intend to make the scene until there was a need for her to intervene, but still - she's been feeling restless.
So the announcement of Jindai's duelling club opening has her heart thumping and a grin on her face.
She's also in the Jindai gym uniform when she enters the room, having picked up a bokken from the equipment locker and resting the wooden practice sword across her shoulders. Her grin broadens when Alouette greets her, and she responds. "You know what? Me too."
She looks around the auditorium. "Are we expecting any spectators? And what rules are we going to use?"
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Alouette grins, hearing just the response she likes to hear from Sho. She does raise a good question too, as Alouette looks around the room herself. "It doesn't look like we've attracted much of a crowd just yet, and we don't exactly have someone to play judge, either... so we can call this a practice session." She decides. "It would be fun to get enough people together for a big tournament sometime, though." They'll have to begin advertising a little more aggressively for that, then.
As for rules... do you have any preferences?" She eyes the bokken resting across her shoulder. "I admit I'm not actually too familiar with kendo, but I'd be happy for you to teach me. Otherwise..." She gazes down at her own practice sword. "We could start with a match of epee.. that gives us the most freedom without a judge, I'd think."
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
"I'd say 'first to yield', but... neither of us is that kind of person." Sho thinks. "Hmm, yeah, we're gonna have to be a little more assertive in getting signups for next year. For right now, though... I'm kind of glad it's just the two of us."
She hops from one foot to the other. "How about freestyle to first touch?" She transfers her bokken to her left hand, holding the practice weapon close to her hip as she continues to limber up.
"... If we can get permission for live steel, like Ashford has for their class tourneys, that'd add a little extra spice, too. We'd definitely need a proper medic though." She makes sure her hair's secure, done up in a ponytail behind her.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
"You're probably right about that... we'd be out here all night if we did it like that." Alouette laughs. "I'm sure we won't have a hard time getting some sign ups though.. this school has a reputation for weapons freaks, doesn't it?" She stands up from her spot on the gym bench. "But yeah.. I'd rather focus on just you for now." She definitely doesn't quite realize how that one might've come off..
"Let's do it," Alouette responds, as she prepares her own fencing gear. A bokken versus an epee is quite unconventional, but this club is hardly all about being conventional.
"Oooh, live steel, huh? You're really into this, then... but I'd hardly back down at that either." Her own hair is curled as it always is, perhaps a statement of confidence in its own right.
Alouette takes a deep breath, staring her opponent down.. (the ponytail's a good look, actually). "If you're ready, then.. en garde!" A polite salute, before she gets into position. Force of habit almost led to her yelling Emission before drawing her blade.
"Allez!" Her demeanour changes completely, as she lunges forward in a fleche thrust... how will someone like Sho respond to such a fast strike, she wonders?
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
"I wouldn't mind that," Sho replies when Alouette says they'll be here all night.
Her face does redden when her opponent says she'd rather focus on her, but she meets Alouette's gaze and replies with "... The feeling is mutual."
She grins when Alouette responds positively to the idea of live steel. "Trickier to get authorised and we might have to make it a special-case thing, but... yeah. Makes things very interesting."
And then Alouette salutes, and Sho responds by letting out a long breath and bowing at the waist to her opponent before resting her right hand on the grip of her weapon, green eyes watching Alouette's every movement.
Damn, who let her get away with having legs like -
"Allez!"
shit
Shaken from her distraction by Alouette's cry, Sho sharpens up immediately, leaning to one side as she brings her bokken up to clack! against Alouette's practice epee before tightening her grip on the weapon and following her deflection with a scything right-to-left swing!
"You're fast!" She grins. "So am I!" She follows up with two more swings, left-to-right and then a horizontal sweep in the opposite direction before getting a two-handed grip on her weapon.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
"Ahaha, wouldn't you? I can think of worse ways to spend a night for sure..." She replies, very intentionally this time. It is true that a mock fight is a lot more fun than thinking up a counterplan against the very real Ruin Apostle who just made his appearance.
"Special-case... we could reserve it for the semi-final and finals matches, maybe. That way the people using it definitely know what they're doing." She nods.
Alouette sees how quickly Sho gets caught off guard - surely she won't make her victory that easy! But she smirks as Sho gets her footing and deflects the blade with a right-left swing, leading Alouette to whoosh right along at the mercy of her swing. "S-So you are..." She breathes out, ultimately catching the bokken with her own epee, using the strike to edge backwards.
She's already impressed by Sho's speed, and if they're equally matched on that front, then she'll just have to control the flow of the match! Alouette, still a few steps back from Sho's position, locks her blue gaze to the left, and indeed strikes left... and then right! She already picked up on Sho's use of visual cues during prom night, so Alouette figures the best way to handle it is to make her movements known, yet unknown at the same time.
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
The energy of the distraction nearly immediately costing Sho the match has the Getter pilot's adrenaline through the roof. As expected, Alouette deflects and retreats from Sho's swings, but the redhead presses in anyway. Close-in is a little risky for both of them, but if Alouette is epee-style it controls the options she has to strike.
Sho catches Alouette's leftwards telegraph and her brow furrows for a split-second, keeping her eyes on the 3G Operator's own as she shifts to her own left - and is almost caught again when Alouette follows up with a jab aimed exactly at where she dodged to!
Sho, moving towards the wooden epee, leans away, letting it pass just under her chest. She's overbalanced and about to fall backwards, so she pivots all the way around as she goes over, trying to catch Alouette's ankles with a sweep and force her backwards as she rolls upright again.
The air is electric, like the moment before the discharge of a Plasma Thunder. Sho's grin is sharklike and firmly fixed to her face as she pushes off the floor and pursues Alouette, letting out a mighty kiai as she brings her bokken down in a vertical two-handed stroke!
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Feeling the adrenaline herself, Alouette wordlessly smiles as her opponent continues to chase her down even as she motions for a retreat. But she won't let herself become prey for this feisty Jaguar pilot, as her gambit pays off!
She caught Sho, but she knows the same trick won't work twice, so she has to simultaneously think of her next move while dodging Sho's own formidable techniques.
This time, she's not retreating of her own volition, but because of Sho's own pressure, as she forces her closer and closer to the bounds line. "Haaah.. we're cutting it close. But we did say 'first to yield' just wouldn't do it." Many duelists might indeed just surrender here, but Alouette grits her teeth and invokes her own indomitable GGG spirit in the face of Sho's classic Getter grin.
So when she hears that shout of kiai, she surprisingly turns this into a contest of power instead of speed, pushing back that two-handed stroke with all the strength she can muster in a parry. But bringing so much power down leaves her victory condition perfectly exposed... so as soon as she sees an opening, she makes a play for the shoulder in a vicious riposte. If she misses, victory is almost guaranteed for Sho... but Alouette will never let her courage falter.
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
Bokken meets training epee with a loud THWACK, and Sho pushes down against Alouette pushing back up. "I haven't had a fight like this in a long time," she pants, green eyes sparking. "Kicking that BC brat's ass was fun, but this..."
Alouette might have seen stuff circulating on GUTS social media - photos of an Ashford student, 'Willow Greenleigh', face captured in that moment when all the wind gets forcibly expelled from your lungs in a look of shock - or a video of Sho disarming her and then launching her several metres back with the leverage afforded by her own halberd.
"This is fun." Sho grins, even as Alouette pushes her back and to the side. Her follow-through is leaving her vulnerable, she knows it - but a Getter pilot leans into her vulnerabilities and turns them into strengths.
Sho drops low, and as she does so she switches to a one-handed grip and sweeps her bokken up, balancing herself on the ground with her free hand. Alouette can still find an opportunity to seize, she's sure, but creating her own threat is the right play here.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
"So that was you," Alouette breathes out, sweat dropping from her forehead. "That was pretty amazing, but yeah.. I'm definitely nothing near that easy." If she was Blue Cosmos she most certainly deserved it, but she keeps her attention focused on the moment.
"So much fun..." She agrees, but it starts to become noticeable that for all Alouette isn't a pushover, Sho is the more experienced fighter. Alouette isn't smiling any less for it, though.
Alouette understands that danger in vulnerability, recognizing that her victory isn't in front of her just yet. She knows that one mistake is enough to let Sho leap up and strike, but nonetheless, she twists her epee downwards, dropping down to a one-handed grip herself. Her gaze meets not the bokken, but her opponent herself, as she attempts to drive the sword downwards in a piercing strike that leaves her just as vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
The weapons collide once more - at the exact moment that Alouette's training sword catches Sho right between her shoulderblade and shoulder, and Sho's bokken catches Alouette's neck just under her chin.
The Getter pilot, midway through rising up and following through with her uppercut, is motionless for a long while, looking up at Alouette. She's panting heavily, and her face is flushed with the exertion of their duel, but her eyes are still burning with energy.
She catches her breath. "... Damn good fight." She grins, slowly pushing herself back up to standing as they relax from combat position, suddenly keenly aware of Alouette's slight height advantage. "We'll have to have a rematch, you're one of the best opponents I've ever had. A tie is a little dissatisfying... but neither of us would walk away from losing, huh?" She lowers her bokken, then throws it aside.
"Maybe there's something to make it feel like we both won," she wonders, playfully, then reaches up to grab Alouette's shoulder and pull her close as Sho rises up on tiptoe to kiss the french fencer firmly on the lips.
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
It ended up being a tie... such a perfect picaresque ending she won't argue about it either... she's too winded to anyways! "...Indeed it was. I think you're definitely the more skilled fighter, you had me nearly beat there all too many times." Alouette offers. "But I have the tenacity of a Brave. Unstoppable force versus immovable object, wouldn't you say?" She smiles, clutching her arm, tired after such an intense fight.
Alouette wonders what Sho could possibly mean by that... until she steals her for a kiss! Her face immediately flusters a deeper red than her opponent's hair, as she locks in place. "O-oh wow... I was going to suggest tea or parfaits... but there's no replacing that taste of victory, h-huh?" She manages to get out after the kiss reaches its conclusion.
As she gets a more intimate look at her dueling partner's face, she really is beautiful and dashing.. Alouette decides she likes it just as much as the glimpse she caught of her wild, intense side during their match.
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
When they break the kiss, Sho is breathless for a completely different reason than the fight, nervous for a couple of seconds - but thankfully, Alouette seems receptive to her impulse. "Tea and parfaits sounds great too," she grins. "I assume you know a good place?"
"I'd like to... do more than just duel you, Alouette." That's pretty obvious from the kiss, in fairness, but it's better to speak it than let it go unsaid. "I haven't dated anyone before, but I'd like to go out with you."
She swallows. "Maybe we can get those parfaits, or catch a movie sometime - if you're okay with that?"
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
Alouette slowly regains her composure, after Sho breaks her guard in a way she never quite did during the duel. "I certainly do.. there's plenty of good spots in Nouvelle Tokyo.. but I'd love to show you a few places out in France too."
Alouette takes Sho's hand after she makes her offer. "I never have, either. I've never quite had the right idea of it even after so many movies and books." She admits, which might explain why she was at the prom party instead of dance floor. "But I'd like to try... with you." She smiles, heartfelt.
"Then it's a date~ quite literally." She chimes. "I'd be happy to set something up anytime. Just VERTEX me, okay?" She takes a deep breath.. she told Rikka she'd keep her posted on how it went but she wasn't expecting this. It's not such a bad thing, though, to be charmed so thoroughly.
<Pose Tracker> Sho Tachibana has posed.
Sho beams and pulls Alouette in for a hug, this time. "Great. I'll... How about I VERTEX you tonight and we can set something up? ... Assuming Operator work doesn't keep you too busy, we heard about Hong Kong all the way over in NISAR." Despite the gravity of that, Sho's excited, a different kind of energy in her bearing now.
"Gai's never gonna let me hear the end of this, I might have to kick his ass," she grumbles - but it's a fond remark about her wingman.
She squeezes Alouette's hand and grins. "I kind of don't want to let go." She'll have to eventually, but for now... "How about we go get those parfaits and get to know each other a little better? I have a bunch of things I want to know."
<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.
"Of course... and let it be known I'm not the type of girl to neglect my date for work. No matter who it is dropping an asteroid this time." That is business that will need to be solved, but she lets this moment remain between two people for now. "Between Ikumi and Hana... I'm not sure who I'm telling first myself." She laughs, at Sho's comment about her wingman, both in Getter and in love.
"Let's go then~ there's a place right near the school. We'll save the authentic French parfaits for next time, shall we?" She grins. "There's a lot I want to know about you too... like how you learned how to become so smooth so out of nowhere."