Rooftop Lessons

"M-Maybe." Riye replied, giving a small nod; at the mention of an idea, her curiosity was piqued, watching as Fay stepped back before she held her hand up.

It wasn't like before, it was angled differently; a different type of training then!

She listened to the instructions, giving another small nod, though her confidence wasn't entirely there. She needed to kick...Maybe..Maybe she was better at that. She could only hope...

Trying to shake the questioning from her mind, she once again pumped herself up for this. "O-Okay!"

Kick. Kick. Kick...She needed to kick.

That in mind, she took position and did as asked, attempted to give a good kick to Fay as she had been instructed to do!

It...It was stronger than the punching, but it lacked, it wasn't that much stronger...and with a bit of embarrassment, she could silently admit her movements had been a bit...sloppy. A...Aha...

Fay was prepared to keep a straight face. She was prepared for Riye to fall. She was prepared for lots of things. She was less prepared, albeit still a little bit so, for that. The kick came flopping up to her hand, poorly thrown and completely just... The foot barely touched her hand before it slipped around to rest under Riye's heel, keeping the leg there in the air.

"This might be... more work than I thought it would be..." She'd maybe underestimated how much of this sort of thing came naturally to her or how little combat training Riye had... "But I know you're trying your best." She said with an affectionate smile. "You wanna take a break?" She asked.

She was, of course, still holding Riye's foot where it had kicked to.

"Aha..." Riye had stumbled a bit when Fay caught her foot, holding it there, but at the woman's words she could do no more than give another sheepish laugh.

She...She'd said she wasn't good at fighting...

Break?

Glancing up at Fay, Riye blinked. Hadn't...Hadn't they just started though? She'd only thrown a few punches and this one kick...Was it even okay to take a break so early? "I-I can still go on longer, if you think a break is best though we can!"

Whether taking a break was a wise idea right now or not, she wasn't sure...this was the first time she'd really ever tried to...train offensively.

Her mouth made a little hard line frown. Well... It wasn't so much that a break seemed necessary... so much as she needed to re-evaluate their training plan... She may have overestimated Riye's starting potential. "Hmmm... A small one, yeah." she said with a nod, before letting Riye's foot down. She walked over to the parasol covered couch and sat down, grabbing a bottle of water on the way.

Taking a swig, she sighed. It wasn't like she was disappointed in Riye, really... She only wanted her to be better at fighting so she'd be safe... Maybe her defensive abilities were a little better... If she could protect herself fine until Fay could reach her it would at least be a little better...

"Okay." Riye replied, giving a little hop back as she regained her footing once Fay had released her foot. She followed her over to the couch, seating herself down next to the other woman, glancing over as Fay drank from her water bottle.

At the sigh, she glanced off again; she was a bit worried...considering she knew fully well she wasn't that great...at all really...at offensive combat. She...She had her shield though! It had always helped her, so...so she was good at keeping herself safe that way...

Fay glanced over with a little frown after sighing. She sunk a little, looking away. It wasn't... she wasn't upset... She just... She sighed again and put an arm around Riye, giving her a reassuring little squeeze with a small smile. "I'm... just worried about you." She still wasn't used to sharing all the stuff she felt, but she could tell Riye thought she was disappointed... She at least could let her know that wasn't the case. Even if she couldn't manage to tell her that, even the short time she'd known her, Riye made Fay so happy... she couldn't bare going through this just for some hollow to get her...

"I... just want to make sure you're safe... That's all."

Riye gave a small nod, "Mm, it's okay...ah...I may not be good with...fighting, but like I said, I'm really good with defense! I-I have confidence in that!"

She seemed positive in her statement, but it was how she really felt. She knew she wasn't a good fighter, she wasn't good at harming others even in defense of herself...but she could defend herself and then run away just fine! She was fully confident in that!

She smiled. "Good. I believe you and we'll try that out. I suppose if you can defend yourself that's good enough..." She put her head on Riye's shoulder for a moment, before sitting up straight and chugging the rest of her water bottle. She stood up, doing a little hop or two to re-energize herself.

"Alrighty then. Why put it off, yeah? Let's see how good that armor of yours is..." She started thinking on how she was going to test it without hurting her. Hrm...

With an enthusiastic nod Riye stood, giving a little hop herself as she did so. Alright, she could do defense! Offense was the weak point, but not defense!

"Right!" She wasn't sure how this part of the training would go, but she knew she could at least block, or keep herself unharmed, from what was thrown at her. Those hollows hadn't been able to break her shield at all, not even a crack!

Fay crossed her arms and smiled a little, tipping her head down and moving the hair out of her face. Riye was too cute. But no. TRAINING TIME NOW. "Okay.. So.." She led her back over to the training area. "Let's just dive right in, yeah? So... Bring your shield up and we'll try this... um.. carefully. I believe your defense is good but.. I don't wanna hurt you." She dug her foot into the floor absentmindedly.

Listening to Fay's instructions, Riye gave a small nod; she was supposed to bring her shield up first then...that seemed a lot simpler than what she'd been imagining just now. She'd expected to be rushed at like those hollows did, but...if she didn't react in time she could see why Fay wasn't doing that.

That in mind, Riye activated her ability, the ring on her finger morphing as it usually did, the shiny silver covering her skin, she allowed it to move up to where it had last night, when she'd showed Fay, letting it come up some to her cheeks.

"Ready!"

Fay nodded. Okay... She narrowed her eyes. She had to harden up for this... She was still in her human form so... she could only hit so hard... If she still hurt Riye there... would be a long great deal of apologizing, training would immediately stop and then she would feel miserable forever.... Okay.... She nodded and sprinted at Riye, darting forward. She came forward and brought her fist forward, slamming it into the shielded Riye's midsection as hard as she could.

As Fay ran towards her Riye braced herself, feeling the woman's fist make contact with her midsection...

Riye stood strong though, the shield proving its worth and protecting her from the punch. Upon contact, she hardly even flinched; upon seeing that, Riye gave a smile.

Fay backed up. Huh. She seemed... pretty sturdy. She flicked her hand, her knuckles stinging just a little. "Well... That's uh... Good. Yes..." She was honestly just so relieved.... She still wasn't sure HOW strong it was.. but it could protect her from any human attackers for sure... Was it bulletproof? Hrm...... She shifted to her spirit form in a flash, rubbing her chin.

"Okay... Let's... test something..." She said with a firm little frown. She was trying to find.. somewhere she could maybe break the shield without hurting Riye... Hrm... There wasn't a spot... Okay... She'd basically haymakered her before... Let's just try... She took a step back and punched Riye's chest. The punch was... significantly stronger this time... Stronger then any human could give.

Riye stood by as Fay moved into her spirit form, smiling slightly at her previous words. It was good, that was nice to hear. Though, she was a bit concerned about Fay possibly hurting herself...even if it was just a bit of soreness from hitting too hard.

She watched as Fay brought her fist to her chest, punching in her spirit form which was...stronger, Riye could tell, but her shield held strong.

Fay blinked. "Wow..." She said, taking a step back. She moved her hand up to her mouth and very briefly kissed her knuckle. It was definitely one of the harder things she'd ever punched. "Okay! So um... Yeah... That's strong..." She walked up and put a hand on Riye's arm, feeling the shield. "Very strong." She looked up, proud of Riye and her power. "You weren't kidding about defense... although..."

She reached out quickly, and tapped Riye on the forehead. "How are your reflexes?"

Riye's smile brightened as Fay complimented her defense, happy Fay was satisfied with it; as she reached out though, a small noise escaped Riye in reaction to being tapped in the head.

"Mm, well I've usually been able to react pretty quickly. I mean, I've never gotten seriously injured or anything."

She chuckled a little, easing up a little bit now that she knew Riye's armor was well... thick as shit, was a good way to describe it. She crossed her arms. "Hrmm... Okay.. You can keep your armor up if you like, but I'd like to test your reflexes a little... I'll try to tap or poke you... you just have to block it... okay?" She asked, before dropping into a little fighting stance, her fingers up like little mantis hooks.

"Alright." Riye prepared herself, she had to be sure to show Fay she her reflexes were good, when attacked she always reacted straight away...

Though, at Fay's pose she had to bite back a small laugh.

Fay noticed the restrained amusement and took that as her cue to strike. She went for the face first before striking at her sides, stomach and occasionally face again. Since she was just tapping this also meant she didn't have to hold back, striking as fast as she could. She didn't want to push Riye in a way that could hurt her but this wasn't so bad.

Riye blocked as Fay threw her pokes at her, moving to block with her arms or attempt to avoid the pokes altogether. As they quickened though things got much more difficult, but Riye attempted to hold her off; Fay managed to tap her near the end though, a couple of times when she attempted to strike at her sides again.

Fay hopped back a bit after she managed to start consistently getting past Riye's defenses. "Wow." She said, rather happily. Surprised almost but she didn't want to show that so much. She came up and gave Riye a quick hug before stepping back. "That was... very excellent! You weren't kidding when you said you had good reflexes." She said with a happy smile. "Hmm.. Well... your offensive abilities need work but... your defensive abilities are.. really good.... So.. I dunno if there's anything in particular you wanted to learn?"

She wasn't sure how to proceed. Maybe Riye had an area she wanted to invest in particularly?

Riye couldn't help but be happy at Fay's compliments towards her reflexes, she seemed really impressed!

"I don't think there's anything in particular...but...it's important I stay safe though, so I can try to learn in areas I'm lacking! I...Things take time, right? So maybe I'm not totally hopeless? Maybe I can learn a few tricks?"

Fay listened, nodding and agreeing though her expression changed slightly when she started talking about being hopeless and whatnot. She looked at Riye pensively, before frowning a little. After a moment though she inhaled and smiled. "You're not hopeless in any sense of the word. And you can learn a LOT of tricks." She said.

"Heck if all we had to worry about was regular people, I wouldn't wanna teach you.. But... Hollows are more dangerous than people and... well.. I just couldn't bare it if something happened to you, y'know?" She crossed her arms, shifting uncomfortably, feeling rather vulnerable saying all that out loud.

Fay was right, hollows were dangerous; it felt...nice to know that her safety was such a big concern to Fay, but she wanted to ease her worries some...she could improve with her skills, she'd definitely try! She needed to!

"I understand, and I'll be sure to train hard so you won't have to worry as much. I'll get better, promise." Riye replied, giving a small, and hopefully reassuring smile after walking a bit closer to her.