fandomhighdorms | The Salle, Sunday afternoon

It had happened again. Shiemi had been on an ExWire assignment with the rest of her class. A simple assignment to investigate the haunting of a farm just outside of True Cross. It had taken them a week but they'd finally manifested the demon... demons, it turned out. And not ghosts, but Reapers. These frog were a smaller variety than what they trained with at the academy, so Shiemi had assumed it would be an easy task to deal with them when she came across a nest on her own. But then she'd let her negative emotions get control of her and the group of Reapers had picked up on them and turned to attack her. Nii-chan had protected her, of course, but that meant she'd had to cower and wait for one of the others to help.

She thought she'd gotten stronger! But no. So here she was, finally taking Dante-san's advice and learning how to use a weapon. The school had a weird name for their dojo, but she'd finally found the 'salle' and there were lots of swords here! She finally found one that wasn't too heavy and was very pretty. It didn't look a bit like Rin's or like any of the other demon swords they'd learned about so far, but the name plate by it said 'fleuret' and that was a flower so it was OBVIOUSLY perfect for her!

Right?

Shiemi gripped the small sword tightly and took a deep breath, then let it out in a feeble yell and ran at the dummy with the same hack-and-slash attacks she'd seen Rin use in fights.

[open! And yes she is attacking a dummy with a fencing sword!]

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Dante didn't go to the salle much. He got enough practice with his sword - not dirty, even - without having to bother.

But his route into town did take him right past the thing.

And... was someone yelling?

He took a couple of steps closer to the door, frowning and passingly curious. "The-- Shiemi?"

"Eh?" Did someone call her name? Shiemi stopped shrieking and hacking at the dummy's shoulder and turned around.

"Ah! Dante-sempai!" Shiemi wiped at the sweat on her forehead with a smile. "Good afternoon! Look; I'm practicing!"

"Practicing what?" Dante said, both his eyebrows raised. "Weed-whacking?"

"No," Shiemi giggled and held her sword up proudly. "Sword fighting. I'm getting good at it, too. I've stopped hitting myself and I haven't tripped once!" Well, not since she'd taken off her socks anyway.

Her shoes, of course, had been placed beside the door when she came in.

Long pause. Looong pause.

"That's not a real sword," Dante pointed out. "You're just kinda hitting a thing with a fancy stick."

"I didn't think so either at first," she nodded.

"But it is. It's called a flower, uhm. No, a 'fleuret', which means little flower." Shiemi pointed with it towards the far side of the room. "I got it from over there. There's even pictures (http://s2.lemde.fr/image/2010/11/05/534x267/1435818_3_0a70_brice-guyart-est-double-champion-olympique-en.jpg) of people using them, so I know it's a sword!"

"It's not a real sword," Dante repeated. "You think you're gonna hurt a hair on a demon's head with that thing?"

Shitting hell.

"Of course I can't. Not yet. Being a Knight isn't like being a Tamer. It's going to take hard work and practice!" Right?

As for the other... well, Shiemi was more than a little confused about Dante still saying it wasn't a real sword. "Do you mean it's not a Demon Sword or a Holy Sword? Because I know it's not. I didn't really look for one; the priests wouldn't let those be left out unguarded, would they?"

Dante rolled his eyes, walking towards the stacks of training swords. "I'm saying that no amount of hard work is gonna teach you how to kill demons with a fucking needle," he said.

He pulled out a training sword shaped more or less like a longsword. "Those things aren't made for killing with. They're for sport, I think."

He trotted along after him, about to protest again that it was a reeeeeeal sword, when his last words hit her. "Oh. I see. So these are almost like... like safe? For competitions and things, where people don't really fight?"

Well. That totally explained why she felt so comfortable holding it!

"The label didn't say that. I guess I should have studied non-exorcist swords more."

Dante held the fake longsword out to her, hilt-first.

"Helpful tip," he said, "If you want to find something deadly, check how many sharp parts the sword has."

"Sharp parts? What's different about this o...woah!" She took the sword and almost dropped it, both the weight and balance not at all what she was expecting.

"Yeah," Dante said.

Encouragingly.

He picked another one up for himself, lifting it like it weighed nothing.

"Whoah. This feels different." Shiemi set the fleuret down and used both hands on this new one, then looked up at Dante and let one hand drop again, trying to hold hers the same way he was...

"Like this?"

The sword trembled slightly and holding it hurt her wrist but she was not going to be a crybaby! She just needed to get stronger!

"Like that," Dante agreed. He eyed her for a second. "Though maybe start with a lighter one."

Not that that sword had been that heavy to begin with.

Heavy garden-related things were held totally different from a sword! Don't make her make you carry a few buckets of fertilizer to prove it.

"It's fine, it's fine!" she shook her head. "It, uhm. It's balance is on wrong, that's all." Hadn't that been something she'd heard the Knights exorcists complain about? "Can I use two hands? I've seen some people do that in demon fights!"

It was Dante. He could lift cars. Carrying a couple of buckets of fertilizer wouldn't teach him shit about anything being heavy.

"Yeah, two hands is good," Dante said, shrugging. "Helps you get a better grip. And a better swing."

Shiemi gripped the sword with her second hand and gave a sigh of relief as the pressure on her wrist changed. She lifted it easier now, see? "And more power? It always seems to hit harder when Rin uses two hands with his sword."

Edited 2017-01-20 02:53 (UTC)

"The sword lets you hit hard and cut while you're doing it," Dante said, "But it still needs your muscle. So yeah, it hits harder."

He walked over and reached out to give her shoulder a little nudge. "Move that back."

"I don't have much muscle so I better always use two hands," she nodded.

She let him move her shoulder, no sign of fear or worry. She was more worried about getting this right!

"Do I have to stand a certain way? In the pictures on the wall, they do, but Rin and the others always seem to just be normal."

"It helps," Dante said. "Especially if you're a newbie. So yeah. Make sure you stand solid."

The Salle, Sunday afternoon

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