Diplomacy on a Beach? Why, yes! [Himitsu, or Invite][NR]

A grin spread across Amaranth's face. "Because, the best thing sometimes to do in a fight is to just let go, to let your body take control and do what it wants. This will help you get used to that feeling and know how to accept it."

She followed after the female as she let herself go off of the platform, following down with her just as quickly, remaining only three or so feet from Himitsu at all times. It would be a safe and quick journey down, that was for sure, and the zip line ended on the beach - so other than sand - it would be a comfortable and safe stop when the female's feet touched ground again. It would also take them back to where they would be continuing the training.

So, no more than sixty seconds later the trees cleared and the sandy beach was beneath them, the zip line straightening out so that Himitsu would lose the speed she had safely, and be able to stop without any sort of rough impact. Amaranth's own feet touched the sand and she skipped her way across it for a moment before coming to a stop near where Himitsu would to help her back out of the harness and unhook her from the zip line itself.

"So, every day when I go to train you we'll take one path or another up to the mountain: and I'll mix it up to keep it interesting and keep you on your toes. Then, you'll take the zip line back down so that you can get used to that feeling. Now, once you're ready, we'll go on to our next task... which is going to put a serious strain on any balance issues you may have."

He was lying in one of the beach chairs, near one of the bars. His large white wings were spread out lazily to either side. Jr was somewhere between asleep and awake. Not really feeling like doing anything besides lying here, he fought with himself over whether he wanted something else to drink, or maybe something to eat, or, to just keep lying here.

Amaranth was up to something with one of the tourists or one of the many visitors of the island it seemed. He lifted the straw hat he was using to cover his face from the sun, or from being seen, to see her flying alongside the woman as she zip-lined back down toward the beach area. It was one of may tourists activities, so he didn't pay much mind. He didn't even seem to pay much mind to all the half naked females running around, splashing each other, having a great time in paradise.

Jr felt something strange a minute ago on top of the mountain his Niece and that woman were on a second ago. Even in his lazy state, with his senses barely attuned to anything, he could pick up something that... just wasn't right in the world up there. Whatever it was, it was moving away now, so Jr didn't pay much mind to this either... but when Amaranth got closer he reminded himself to ask her about that...

God damn this sand. It was powdery and dry, leaving a fine dust all over her every time she walked. But on the bright side, at least her skin would be smooth by the time this training was finished... Sand, salt and sugar were good at scraping away dead skin and rough spots, even better than lotion could moisturise.

So zip lining was to learn to let go, to get used to the body's own natural reactions... Yeah. She needed some work on that. She didn't like her body doing things without her say. She very much liked her will to stay in place.

"So, every day when I go to train you we'll take one path or another up to the mountain: and I'll mix it up to keep it interesting and keep you on your toes. Then, you'll take the zip line back down so that you can get used to that feeling." Himitsu nodded slightly at this. Training every day sounded nice. It gave her something constructive to do, kept her from harassing Re too much.

"Now, once you're ready, we'll go on to our next task... which is going to put a serious strain on any balance issues you may have."

She sighed softly as Amaranth got her harness unhooked. She was free from that. She didn't like the harness much, it was restrictive and suffocating. The only reason she had to love it was because it was the only thing that would be keeping her from falling to a bone breaking landing in the future.

"Okay... I'm not sure if I have any balance issues... Sato-" She cut herself off before she could finish the name. Too many memories tied to that name... Too many long sleepless nights of bitter crying and self blaming... "I was trained to fight with a sword. Imbalance is not acceptable."

She was telling the truth. Trying to fight with a sword while having balance issues was a recipe for running your own blade through you. Not to mention the gruelling amount of balance training she had gone through with her previous mentor and the needle bed.

Amaranth noticed her catch herself with the words she spoke, but she didn't bring it up. There was probably a very good reason in Himitsu's mind not to finish the sentence she had started and she wasn't going to pry when it wasn't going to benefit her training at all.

Her senses picked up on her uncle, not far away and her silver gaze flickered over to him and his comfortably sprawled out looking form. An eyebrow rose and she shook her head with a chuckle. "Alright, well follow me and we'll test those words", her tone was light and playful, joking really.

She turned, walking in the direction that her uncle was lying in, to where several pillars stuck out from the sandy beach. "I'm going to have you stand on the lowest pillar here. It's only big enough to hold one foot at a time, and anyway you're not allowed to have more than one foot on the thing anyway. You're to remain on that leg for five minutes at a time, when you go to switch you're to jump into the air and land on the other. You can begin when you're ready."

She came to a stop near her uncle and blinked down at him before fishing in one of her many pockets. She pulled out a bag of chips and placed them down next to him, figuring he might enjoy the snack. "Don't fall asleep out here and end up all sun burnt.. I've heard the tourist complain, they say it hurts a lot...", words filled with concern, nothing more, as her silvery gaze then flickered over to Himitsu.

Jr, after several moments, moved the hat again to see Amaranth. The words that were coming from her mouth sounded like blah blah blah blah blah. It was mostly due to his lazy half asleep/half awake state.

"Wha?.." he said, squinting his eyes some. He couldn't really make out much of anything she said, but he did notice those potato chips she put nearby. His halo beginning to glow brightly again, this was the first reason he'd had since coming out here this morning to actually sit up and see what was going on here.

What she said no longer really mattered as he scooped up the bag and peeled it open, in the meantime spreading out both of the large magnificent white feathered wings to beat them several times, shaking out the tiredness and the sand. There were several great gusts around them while he flapped them several times.

An index, middle finger and thumb dove into the bag to grab several of the potato chips and bring them to his mouth. The crunch sound was audible as he put them in and began to chew. He blinked blood red eyes and had himself a look around. Girls were on the beach, barely wearing anything, some of them giving him the eye. The woman who zip-lined down here was now in an exercise that looked to be training her in balance.

"Hey... Niece," Jr said. "I mighta been dreaming, or half sleep? But, I coulda swore I felt something strange up on that mountain. What were you doing up there?"

"I'm going to have you stand on the lowest pillar here. It's only big enough to hold one foot at a time, and anyway you're not allowed to have more than one foot on the thing anyway. You're to remain on that leg for five minutes at a time, when you go to switch you're to jump into the air and land on the other. You can begin when you're ready."

The pillar was only about a foot and a half tall. It seemed like it would be easy. It was wide enough for one foot, flat topped... Thank god it wasn't a bed of needles... She reached down and dusted the thin layer of sand off the top of the pillar before she placed her right foot on it. She pushed up, bringing herself to a standing position. Exhaling softly she let her left leg point towards the ground. She wasn't tensed though. Tensing and trying to balance was like a surgeon with an unsteady hand. It was counter productive, completely unneeded in it's field. To balance you had to be as fluid as the graceful sea. You had to be able to adapt.

Himitsu was doing perfectly before the man that Amaranth was speaking to spread his wings and beat them. Sand in her face, up her nose and irritating her eyes, not to mention the great gusts of wind he caused that pushed her off balance.

She fell backwards onto the sand. It might have been crunchy and powdery, but impacting the earth still did not feel nice. So she sat there for a moment, glaring at the sky, waiting for the male angel to stop flapping his wings. She grumbled incoherently as she sat up, she had been trying to keep as much sand off of her as possible but that just wasn't going to happen today. Nope.

Running a hand through her hair she shook out what must have been a miniature beach Sand was down her shirt and up her pants, in every crevice on her she was sure of it. It was irritating. Sighing discontentedly she shook the sand out of her clothes the best she could. She was going to need a shower later just to get the sand out. She re-situated herself on the pillar, this time on her left foot. Intent on not falling off again.

She watched Himitsu fall and blinked before shaking her head slightly and looking back over to her uncle. She had figured it was the sand and the gusts of wind caused that made her fall, instead of a lack of actual balance. But, she watched Himitsu get up out of the corner of her eye and go back to her task, so that in itself proved she was willing to get back up when she got knocked down. A trait that Amaranth respected.

At the question posed to her she tilted her head slightly, "Hm..? Oh! There was a spirit of vengence up there... " She reached up, scratching the back of her head. "That's.. a very long story, but I guess... no time like the present. So, Demi and this guy named Squall went over and started messing with Himitsu's" she nodded her head in the direction of the female doing the balance exerise "city. Grandad called them home, Demi got spanked, Squall got into trouble too, both were told to leave her and her city alone."

Amaranth shook her head and sighed. "Demi actually listened, came here, stuck around her boyfriend and little girl.. kept her nose clean. Squall went back and started killing innocence. That vengeful spirit was created from it, and killed him.. but he cannot rest until Demi is dead too because she brought Squall there in the first place - but, he said he wasn't going to kill Demi because he didn't want anymore war, and 'cause I guess Grandad said something to him that changed his mind."

She glanced back to Himitsu, making sure to keep an eye on her progress. There really were no pointers she could offer, it was just something the female had to do herself to be able to get it right. "There's.. been a lot of death these past few days... "

Jr listened to the whole story while crunching down chips. Some of what she was saying still sounded like blah blah blah though... Demi and some tough guy Squall started bullying that lady over there... His father spanked Demi... Hmm. Jr wished he was there to see that, even though her crazy ass probably liked it... They got told to leave her alone, but the tough guy didn't listen, and ended up being killed by a revenge spirit?

"Buhhhh. Seems like I missed out on a lot then. Sounds like a comic book..." he mumbled, crimson eyes moving to see the woman fall off of the pillar because of his beating wings. "Sorry, sorry about that, my bad." Jr stopped flapping his wings, causing the winds to cease and feathers to be scattered about.

Whatever went on up there between that woman and that spirit was none of his business, so he wasn't going to ask. Himitsu, he heard Amaranth say. She was Boss of Shinkai Shigai, that city that wasn't very far away, where he'd felt that spirit heading toward. "So it's not gonna go after Demi cause of something dad said, huh. I wonder what dad said to the guy..." Jr crunched down more potato chips. "Ok... so that's what's up. Then..." He pointed in another direction, where there was a large black plume of smoke that seemed to stretch all the way up into outer space. "...What's the story with that over there?"

She heard Amaranth explain something about something, summarising the last few day's gossip about Shinkai Shigai... But she wasn't really paying that much attention to the conversation. When the man apologised she simply nodded her head at him to show that she had heard him. She was more focused on making certain that she remained absolutely still, but yet at the same time, was fluidly moving enough to constantly balance without falling. Her mind was still adjusting to her being healed, how having energy coursing through her veins felt again. How strong she was now that her muscle was back and that she was of a healthy weight.

In but a few seconds she was completely balanced, and when she felt the perfection she began to move her arms slowly, making certain to keep balanced. She moved her arms in what would be considered a strange fashion if one did not know of the type of stances she was practising. She was letting her arms move through the various stances of Tai chi, letting her body's spiritual energy move through her with the soft guidance of her movements. She moved with a strange amount of grace.

She counted to the number three hundred before jumping, lifting her left foot and placing her right foot down in it's place. The pillar wobbled slightly, but that was okay. She was balanced, the slight shaking would not bother her.

One...

Two...

Three...

Four...

Five...

Six...

Her mental counting would continue until she reached three hundred yet again. Three hundred seconds, otherwise known as five minutes. That was how long Amaranth had instructed her to remain balanced on each foot before switching.

Amaranth reached a hand up and scratched the back of her head again, looking over in the direction that her uncle now pointed. "Well.. uh. A demon took over New Vegas and he came here... with the intent of killing me, 'cause I guess he was bored or something. So, my dad and I chased him off. But, Grandad wasn't happy. So I guess he went over there and erased the place to try and draw the demon guy out.. but I doubt he showed. He seemed kind of cowardly."

She looked towards Himitsu, watching her switch from foot to foot. "Before you make your next switch I want you to start going up the higher poles from the one you're on." She indicated the poles that were nearby as well, close enough to easily be hopped to. Each one went up about six inches until the tallest, which was about ten feet or so off of the ground. The poles, however, came back down gradually as well, turning it all into one giant circle. "I want you to go the whole way around without touching poles. Rule for this is you can only remain on the same pole for five seconds at a time."

"Eww, a demon. They stink, bad." Jr was full aware of the methods his father used. In the back of his mind, he thought he already knew what happened; Amaranth's words just confirmed it. "So dad's still blowing up cities and stuff huh. He's got too much of an attitude problem. Mom needs to come back from where ever she is and calm him down again."

Jr figured his father had good reason to go and level a place. A Demon tried to kill his grand daughter. Jr knew himself that if pushed, he could become even more of a threat than that of even his father, who was given the nickname "The Psychotic Gunman." Jr didn't like getting rowled up like that though. it was one of the reasons he chose to come out here, and not stay in that Tower. Too many bad memories...

So Amaranth was training this woman. From the looks of things, she was getting Himitsu combat ready. The how's and the why's made Jr bored, so he didn't ask. he thought of even helping out some kind of way, but for now he would just watch...

Alec had destroyed a city? Hmm... Interesting... But she wasn't going to ask about it right now. She had to complete this task set before her.... To most it would seem a steep challenge. Thirty-six pillars. One hundred and eighty seconds was the maximum amount of time that she was allowed to take for this, and she couldn't let both feet touch any of the pillars...

This... This would be fun indeed. With he prospect of falling and getting more sand up and between her everything, she wasn't planning on falling.

Two hundred and ninety-eight...

She picked her left foot up, hopping off of her right foot just before her opposing foot made it's mark. It was an awkward hop.

One...

She felt the vibrations of her sudden weight shake the thin wooden pillar, her arms were out stretched, balancing herself as her left foot shook slightly. She remained perfectly balanced, even with her foot moving her leg did not; as if there was something extra in between where her ankle joined to her Tibia and Fibula that was absorbing the shock. This was not an ability, just a natural thing for balance trained people. She already knew how to land her body to absorb the most amount of shock and stress.

Now her right leg, which had never really ceased it's motion, passed the pillar, careful not to touch it.

Two...

Her right leg in the correct position, her left leg sprung, muscles bunching, relaxing and stretching out to provide to correct amount of power needed to make the jump to the next pillar. Her left foot left it's standing but a tenth of a second before her right foot contacted the top of the next surface.

One...

She was now roughly two and a half feet off of the sandy ground. The time it took her to balance out this time was shorter, she let her knee give, bending just a bit while her left leg swung out as her right leg left the pillar and pushed her into the air. Her left foot met top long after her right foot was away from the previous surface.

One...

Less and less time was needed now. She was no longer taking the time to stop and make certain that she was balanced. She could feel it, her body was falling back into it's previous adjustments, re-learning the way to automatically fall into balance. Right leg out, reaching for the next pillar as if it was natural.

One...

Her momentum was now carrying her forward from pole to pole, in more of a prancing delicate run than that of a stiff balancing game. Her arms where still out by her side, but now they were closer to her body, taking turns moving slightly forward and slightly back as each foot met it's mark. She didn't even pause when she got to the tallest pillar, but that was because she was only on the thin wobbling pole for less than a second before she was onto the next lower one. Thirty-six pillars, one hundred and eighty seconds. She had completed it quickly, only spending about fifty-four seconds total on it.

She stopped on the beginning pillar and looked at Amaranth, not sure if the girl wanted her to do it again or run it backwards... Maybe Amaranth was going to ask her to juggle as she balanced, or maybe she'd have to do the whole thing on her hands while keeping a feather from hitting the ground with her feet...

Or maybe they would take a break... Nah... That would be a ridiculous assumption to make!

Amaranth giggled softly at Jr and just shook her head. "It'll be interesting to see if that demon comes back. He didn't seem quite so happy that he got stumped so easily. He underestimated the situation..."

She turned her focus back to Himitsu and nodded, seeing her finish. "Good job... now, before we're done for the day, you're going to do the same thing again, only much harder."

She lifted her left arm, pointing towards the ocean, where the same set up was... only in the constantly moving water. the first pillar's top only peaked out when the water receded. So, the constant slight shift of the poles, plus the wetness of some of the lower ones, was definitely going to add a challenge. "Your first task will be the same as it was here. You'll hop from foot to foot on the same pole until you're used to your balance enough to go what you just accomplished."

A grin spread across her face. "After that we're going to get a big dinner... I might have healed you, but your body is going to start to need a lot of food again." She wandered slowly over to the pole set up in the water.

Jr lay his head back, emptying the rest of the chips into his mouth. With both of cheeks puffed up in the fashion that made him resemble a cartoon did he wolf down the rest of the chips, the air filled with crunch noises. So a demon showed up here, and got ran off like the coward it was. Jr must have been up in the hotel, or somewhere asleep when this happened.

Watching Himitsu train was beginning to make him tired, and all he was doing was watching. His eyes dimmed to that half closed bedroom look, and he'd began to slide slowly back toward the semi conscious.

She dead-panned completely when she caught sight of the water logged pillars... She hated water. She wasn't half fish like Re'yoak. She didn't enjoy swimming. A shower was one thing, the ocean was completely different.

She'd very much enjoy the sand way more than the water which would soak her completely and make her smell like salt...

Eeeeeehhhhhhh...... She could've whined out loud, but that would have shown weakness and lowered her viewing in the eyes of the ones around her. It would have made her seem like she wasn't willing to stand up and do what was needed to protect her city. The truth was far from that. Her city was her child. She was to be the city's guiding light when they were lost, the protector of the citizens... She had already failed them twice. It would not happen again.

No. Never again. Not in her lifetime. The next time a threat faced her city? She would wipe the threat off of the map or die trying to. It was her duty to protect. The punishment of failing would be death in itself. Death was the road to awe... In the abyss you make your own light.

Her city, Abyssal City was it's true name. She had named it as such for the bitter irony. A completely pure white city, strictly ran to prevent as much violence as possible... It had been ruled by a Mafia family since it had risen. A family whose members put hits out on fellow brothers and sisters, cousins against cousins in a grand struggle to reach the seat at the top; the drive to get power. It fuelled their blood lust. All of them wicked. Sinners. Twisted minded fools. Proprietors of drugs, weapons and slaves.

But they were all normal humans. None able to use the magical arts save for a little fragile girl. A gentle hearted, sweet, obedient and delicate little girl. One who was born as her mother screamed curses upon her, a neglected child, beaten and abused. Abused but precious. Completely white, periwinkle blue eyes, white hair and untanning pallid skin. A little girl who simply loved everything for just existing.

No one but her father and guardian had ever shown any type of love towards her. She watched them both die... Father stabbed repeatedly in the chest, Satoshi... Brains blown all over her by a sniper's bullet. She had watched the people she loved die in front of her, too weak to prevent it from happening.

No one else would die because she was too weak. Not in her life time.


Nodding gently she stepped off of the bottom pole she had been balancing on, walking across the sand with focused, and sinking, steps. Sand still bothered her, but she would deal with it. If it made her more able, she would deal. Her face was stoic, blank and void of any expression... But her pale eyes, they spoke, screamed out a burning passionate determination. She would complete her training. She would protect the ones that looked to her for protection, or she would die.

Her black boot sank into the wet sand, in a way it felt like the sand was trying to consume her... Drag her down to the hell were most of her fellow blood kin suffered, clawing with their greedy taloned fingers, pushing each other out of the way in a vain attempt at escaping their eternal prison.

She lifted her right foot, feeling her left foot sink into the sand another half inch with the sudden increase of weight on the limb. Her right foot made contact, making firm with the water swollen wooden pillar. The pillar's top peeked out just two inches above the water level. With the undulating waves, balancing would be somewhat difficult. She would have to constantly change, or rather, move, her centre of balance so that she wouldn't end up soaked and covered in wet sand. She did not plan on having shells and other various things stuck to her.

She felt the wooden pillar sway a bit as she put her full weight on it, lifting her left foot out of the hungry sand. She would have to scrub her boots to get the salt off... Now she had wet feet and sandy hair. Just needed some kelp and starfish to complete the stranded mermaid look.

Then the first wave smacked against the pillar. Granted, it wasn't a huge wave or anything, but it still made the over-heavy pillar wobble in a slightly disorienting way. Just let your body adjust itself. Don't force it... Forcing it will make you stiff, if you're stiff, you'll fall your ass right into the water and sand. She told herself. Easier said than done. Every time a wave came by, wobbling the pillar, she tensed just a little bit. Oh... She hated water, nearly fearful of falling into it and drowning. A bathtub was one thing, a pool was one thing, the ocean? Nope. If she couldn't see the bottom she didn't like it, actually, if it was higher than her belly button, she didn't like it. There was a reason she preferred showers over baths. No standing water. Something about water enveloping her scared the shit out of her, she didn't know why...

Leaning back she let her left foot hit the sand once more. She wasn't going to get anywhere with awkwardly stiffening her self every time a wave came by. Sighing audibly she shook herself like a dog shaking the water from it's fur. She inhaled deeply through her nose, exhaling slowly through her slightly parted lips. She would attempt until she got it right.

She placed her right foot back on the pillar and stood, left foot barely above the water level. She reached her hand out and placed it on the pillar in front of her. Amaranth had said only one foot at a time. She had given no restrictions on hands touching the other poles. Technically, she wasn't breaking any rules, so Amaranth had no right to fuss her out. Besides, she was only going to brace herself until she was used to the nauseating sway of the sea.