Chapter Ten

Seth tapped the butt of his staff against the stone floor of the Coliseum’s lobby in a half forgotten rhythm as he leaned against its western wall, keeping an eye on the main doors. He’d left a note for Kyari with receptionist/secretaries at the lobby’s main desk the previous day, requesting another training duel. While he hadn’t received a reply, the girl was nearly a permanent fixture in the place. She would have gotten it. All he had to do was wait and see if she showed up. The young man frowned slightly.

Tap, tap, click. Tap, tap, click, tap, click…

And the rest of the beat continued to elude him. It was infuriating. The rough staccato was familiar, but he couldn’t remember where it was from.

He shrugged. Yet another thing he didn’t know about himself, fancy that.

-tap, click, tap, click…

As he promised, there he was in the lobby. Kyari smiled, shaking her head, not wanting to admit she was glad to see him again. "Good afternoon."

Seth brightened slightly as he picked Kyari out of the crowd of fighters and civilians alike. There was always something nice about having things… work out. It was a feeling he could get used to.

“Afternoon, Kyari.” He nodded his head slightly. “What have you been up to these last few weeks?”

"Nothing of great importance. Earning a little more money, training, that kind of stuff. And you?"

“A debilitating avalanche of the former and almost none of the latter,” Seth admitted ruefully. “I know you said you’d help me with any financial problems, but there’s a certain… vulnerability that goes along with being entirely dependant on someone else, you know?” Of course, there was feeling insecure, and then there was being neurotic, and Seth conveniently forgot to mention just how many other self-sufficiency based insecurities his little part-time job had taken care of. It wasn’t like Kyari needed to hear about his problems; she was his mentor, not his psychologist.

That she happened to be the source of more than a few of his insecurities had nothing to do with it. “It sounds like we’ve both had an enthralling break from the daily grind,” the brunet chuckled. “You sure you wanna go back to the boring old routine?” he asked teasingly.

"Fighting is the old routine. Haven't changed from it in nearly a year and half now. Shall we go now? I have Jalen on call if we need him: I don't trust the medics."

“I guess we might as well get to it,” Seth replied as he kicked himself off the wall.

… tap, click, ta-tap, click, click…

Seth carefully clicked his staff back into its holster. This was becoming a problem. Oh well, he had bigger fish to fry at the moment. Or worry incessantly over, as it were. “What’s this about not trusting the medics?”

"Remember our last fight?" she asked patiently.

“Sure I do,” the teen chuckled. “Near death experiences tend to stick in one’s mind, even if I do seem to have experienced a disproportionate number of them. What about it? If I remember correctly, it wasn’t wildly out of our norm.”

"After our last fight. I talked to my acquaintance: Jalen, and he informed me of the plot against me at the medics."

“And you trust him?” Seth asked. It was a simple question. A simple, loaded question.

She hesitated. "No. I don't trust him. Not really, anyways."

Seth quirked an eyebrow. She didn’t trust him, yet his warning still carried a certain amount of weight. That was a… curious response. Maybe he was overlooking something. “You had your own suspicions?” He asked by way of clarification.

And then promptly gave his right leg a surreptitious shake when he noticed he’d been tapping out that insistent beat mid-gait. It was equal parts irritating and intriguing, neither of which were good for his ability to pay proper attention. The sooner he figured it out, the better.

"Considering every time I've gone to the medics has left me messed up, I'd say yes."

Seth nodded absently. He remembered distinctly that she had been rather worse for wear after their last fight, though at the time he’d put that down to her having actually gotten wounded for once. It made sense, but it just didn’t address the whole picture. That first piece of the puzzle was still floating loose. “So why bring this acquaintance of yours up?” Seth asked.

"Because I have the feeling that we're going to need him after this fight. He'll be waiting for us when we need him."

“Why would we-?” the distracted boy began before it clicked into place. “He’s an independent healer, isn’t he?” Seth asked semi-rhetorically. Strange. She didn’t trust him, and yet she �" presumably �" went to him for healing. Granted, Seth doubted he’d need more than a hand, maybe the short end of both at the very most, to count the people Kyari trusted, so her choices were limited at best, but still...

There was an innate sense of trust and surrender that Seth associated with having one’s ills tended by another person. Either you trusted the healer in question, or, in the case of the Coliseum medics, you trusted the society they were part of and the unsaid assurance that they’d get theirs if they pulled anything shifty.

So how did Kyari rationalize utilizing the services of a private healer who had, at most, his reputation at stake if he were to find his future prospects were far brighter were he to simply make her… disappear?

Best he get it straight from the horse’s mouth.

“Why this particular healer?”

Once again, she hesitated, not sure how much to tell him. "It's a bit complicated. I'll explain while we're fighting." She began walking towards the arena, leaving the bustle of the lobby.

The young man chuckled as he slipped behind Kyari into the dirt-shod stadium proper. “Yeah, because I need another handicap so badly,” he said wryly, sticking out his tongue childishly. Seth flicked his staff out of its holster in a casual flip that was more practiced and smooth than he’d ever hoped it could become. In fact, his little jaunt to the Coliseum had probably been one of the best things to have ever happened to him, the circumstances for his visit notwithstanding.

All hail the almighty silver lining.

Rummaging in organized chaos of his satchel Seth withdrew the arrowhead he’d had adapted into a spear tip and clipped it onto the end of his staff. No sense going in with anything less than 100% after all.

“We haven’t fought in a couple of weeks, so how about we go back to basics? An old fashioned brawl, no limitations besides ‘Don’t kill each other’; get back into the swing of things, yeah?” Seth proposed.

She nodded, beginning with the simple act of unsheathing her dagger.

Seth sighed as he watched Kyari pull out her dagger and do nothing more. Here they went again. Attack and perfectly timed counter. He wondered, idly, whether or not he’d be able to do this in his sleep.

Probably not, he’d probably do better; he couldn’t over-think things in his sleep.

“Oh well, I suppose I did say back to basics,” the brunet chuckled as he stepped forward and thrust the spear at the thief’s stomach.

She spun out of the way, slicing the dagger towards Seth's shoulder. "Jalen's father was my father's healer."

Offering Kyari a silent thanks to his recent reflex training, Seth reversed his grip on the haft of his spear and spun with the young gladiator’s blow, bringing the tip of his spear whirling around towards the small of her back.

“A family friend…” Seth not so much asked as stated as he skidded out of his spin, “I’m surprised you don’t trust him.”

"I've not been one to trust anyone." She ducked, hitting the ground and jumping back up. "Anyways, Jalen often went with his father to learn how to heal. They were the only two that knew I existed."

Slipping an ace of diamonds from his card holster, Seth flicked the steel rectangle after Kyari and immediately followed after it, leaping forward and lashing his spear out at thigh height. “’ They were the only two that knew I existed’? I don’t suppose you’re just making conveniently timed use of hyperbole…?”

Pulling out her sword to block the spear and shielding herself from the card with air, she continued. "No, I'm serious. They kept my father's secret without knowing the reasons..."

‘Keep going, keep going, gotta keep going. Gotta keep the pressure on,’ Seth chanted to himself as he quickly reversed his grip on the spear and jerked back, spinning the butt of the polearm towards Kyari’s right elbow.

Tap, swish, click, swish, tap, ta-tap…

Ok, he really needed to do something about that. Vague annoyance was one thing, but a mid-fight distraction was a whole other kettle of fish.

Fish that could get him killed.

Maybe piranhas?

Click.

Case in point. Mind wanders, zones out, gives you a faux taste of anterograde amnesia and leaves you floundering.

Literally.

Seth stiffened and withdrew another card from his deck and lashed out in front of himself with it, more as a warding blow than anything. “Your father had that many enemies?” the brunet asked, more to cover up his momentary lapse in attention than anything. “Or am I reading into this too much?”

"He didn't trust many people," she replied, hitting the ground and swiping at his legs with her sword. "He knew that if people knew he had me, they could use that to their advantage: he didn't want me hurt."

Seth didn’t reply immediately; he was just more than a little distracted with a small matter of ensuring that his legs remained attached to the rest of his body. The brunet awkwardly hopped into the air, planting the butt of his spear right on the flat of the passing blade more by a combination of accident and luck (though what kind of luck was up to debate) than anything remotely resembling intent.

‘Ok, note to self #1-’ the boy thought morosely as the sword’s momentum shifted his spear juuuuuust enough to tip him off balance, ‘Dual wielding is incredibly stupid. Note to self #2 �" Dual wielding when one of your weapons happens to require two hands to wield even semi-effectively is exponentially stupid, bordering on suicidal. Note to self #3 -’ he snuck a quick peek at the ground as gravity took hold of him again and noted that at his current trajectory, he’d probably end up kneeing Kyari en-route for the ground.

‘Always have a soft landing?’

She was rolling out of the way when she saw Seth hit the ground. Let's see how reacts to hitting the ground this time.

‘Or not,’ Seth frowned as Kyari rolled along faster than a wool carpet on cleaning day. Say what you want, but that girl’s reaction time was ungodly. Another point for inborn talent?

Click, swish, hummmm…

‘While I-’ the teen grunted as he hit the ground knee first and tried to roll with it as best he could, -get the mental junkyard orchestra. Yipee.’

The brunet tumbled away from Kyari like a log under the feet of a particularly excitable lumberjack once, twice before skidding to a stop on his knees - the card in his right hand already flying in his opponent’s general direction before he was entirely still, and another joined the first as he climbed to his feet.

“Well, that went well,” Seth mumbles quietly when he notices his spear is lying a few feet away, having been torn from his hand when he hit the ground.

Click, click, click click click clickclickclickclick-

It gets worse if he stands still.

Grimacing, Seth hurled himself towards his primary weapon, keeping a wary eye in Kyari all the while.

“That’s still some strong paranoia there,” the improvisationalist replied belatedly. “Of course, paranoia isn’t actually paranoia if they really are out to get you. Does your father’s death have anything to do with why you don’t fully trust Jalen?”

The first card hit her cheek like a shard of her own ice, slicing a thumb-length cut open. She had an air shield up before the second card came towards her.

Standing a distance away from Seth, she slid the sword away, keeping the dagger in her hand. "Yes. It does."

Shouldn't have told him in the first place...

Plucking his weapon from the dirt floor, Seth jacked hard to the left just in case Kyari had any nasty surprises in store for him and spun to face the thief.

“You’re not making a real convincing case for yourself; you do know that, right?” Seth asked, drawing his spear up defensively across his trunk. “Why not go to some other healer?”

She stood still, her left hand tapping against her thigh. "It's easier to go to someone who knows better than to not ask questions and already knows a little, than to someone who will casually ask questions and try to gain my trust. Jalen may already believe he has gained my trust, and so I'm free from actually trusting him."

-lickclickclickclickclickcli-

“Makes enough sense, I guess,” Seth grunted as he hurled himself at the idle girl; anything to get the infernal noise in his head to quiet down.

‘Why now? Why is this happening to me now!?’

Whirrrrrrr…

The brunet twisted himself violently into a spin, letting the tip of his spear lash out towards Kyari’s chest even as the hum of whirling chains filled his head. It was unbearably distracting; Seth didn’t even notice whether or not his first blow had connected with the slight gladiator, he just followed through with his spin, sinking down into a spin kick in hopes of taking Kyari’s legs out form under her.

As he came towards her, she threw her dagger at his shoulder, protecting her arm with air to block the spear away. The spin was a different problem, and she allowed herself to be knocked over, somersaulting back into a defensive position. Seth exited his spin and absently noticed two things. One, he didn’t have his spear anymore. It lay approximately four feet to Kyari’s left and quite outside his arm’s reach, having been torn from his grasp when it met the girl’s barrier of air head on. Two, the entirely to his right arm was numb, and not the agonizing pins and needles numb that went hand in hand with having something forcibly ripped from one’s grasp. Numb numb. As in total lack of feeling numb, which was rather puzzling until Seth realized something else…

‘Hey,’ the brunet thought sluggishly, ‘there’s a dagger in my shoulder.’

Mystery solved, Seth popped the blade out with his left hand. Luckily for him the dagger had struck the outside of his shoulder. A couple more inches to the left and he’d have been on the ground with a nicely severed subclavian artery.

“I’m keeping this one; you do know that, right?” He informed Kyari with a lopsided grin before twitching irritatedly.

-ap ta-tap, tap ta-tap, tap ta-tap, tap ta-ta-

Scowling, he began circling around Kyari if only to do something besides listen to the aggravating beat in his head. His expression only darkened when he tested out his wounded arm.

‘Ok, so my elbow and fingers still work, but my shoulder’s totally out of commission. Just perfect,’ he grumbled mentally before wincing. ‘Aaaaaaaand there’s my nerves, back with a vengeance. Things just keep on getting better and better.’

“Trust issues and practicality aside though, you’re still suggesting that we go to a medic who may or may not have had something to do with your father’s death. Excuse me if that makes me more than a little nervous.”

"Jalen had nothing to do with my father's death. It my father's best friend that killed him," she corrected, icing the arena underneath their feet.

“You’re kinda playing fast and loose with the facts there Kyari,” Seth noted right before he nearly tumbled arse over teakettle on the icy arena floor.

‘Oh not this again,’ the teen moaned as he swiftly leaned down and jabbed his newly acquired dagger point first into the ice to stabilize himself. ‘Ok, that tears it. Unless I get in close, and fast, she can just pick me off at her leisure. Granted, she could do that before, but at least I could try and dodge without looking like a giant idiot.’

Ssssssssss…

Seth blinked. Then he blinked again for good measure.

‘Ok, I don’t remember pushing off…’

Which was neither here nor there, as far as observations go, seeing as Seth found himself hurtling towards Kyari across the ice, memories of how he got into this position be damned.

‘Oh well, shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and all,’ the boy mused as he neared Kyari.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, stepping to the side as he rushed pass her.

CRACK

Seth winced slightly at the screeching in his head. At least he thought it was in his head. Having just slipped (and he wasn’t even sure ‘slipped’ was the correct word, because it had sure felt intentional) it could very well have come from the ice beneath him as his dagger slammed violently into it.

It was hard to say.

Not that it really mattered. Dealing with the fallout of his little slip took precedent.

Seth’s shoulder strained to snapping as his forward motion stopped cold. Needing to bleed off the kinetic energy in a fashion that didn’t pop a joint, the brunet kicked the ground, sending himself whirling around the buried blade in Kyari’s direction.

“Well,” the boy grunted as he aimed a kick towards the raven haired girl’s midsection, “now that he apparently has nothing to do with your father’s death, how about you give me a solid reason not to trust Jalen.”

"My father's dying words were asking me not to trust anyone," she replied tersely, planting her feet and absorbing the kick. The blow made her stumble back. Of course, that'll be purple tomorrow. She found a card in her vest pocket, and slipped it out, sending it towards him.

‘Man I wish I had a pair of those boots,’ Seth thought wistfully as he hauled dagger and sent himself skidding towards the relatively stationary thief. That small change in distance spared him a card in the heart, but consigned him to a brand new wound across the top of his left shoulder.

“So you’re saying that there’s no particular reason for me to distrust him,” Seth asked as much as stated, lashing out with his dagger at Kyari’s right arm.

‘Well, no one ever really specified whether an arm for an arm was kosher or not…’

She caught his wrist with her left hand, the dagger stopping hairs from her right shoulder. "No, I suppose not," she replied.

Seth’s arm stop cold. His legs didn’t. Nigh frictionless ice can do that to a moving body.

“Fair ‘nuff,” Seth grunted as he hit Kyari in a full on tackle.

The trick was keeping his dagger away from her body while at the same time pulling out another dagger to protect herself with. Unfortunately, she ended up with a few significant scratches in the tumble.

Seth winced once when his wounded shoulder initially smashed into Kyari’s diaphragm and once again upon landing.

‘If I ever meet whoever came up with that little line about pain and gain I am so punching them in the face.’

“If I ever mention something about ‘going back to basics’ ever again, please slap me,” Seth muttered before promptly smashing his head against Kyari’s as hard as he could.

The ringing in her head was instant. "I'll remember to do so," she replied. Her left hand held his, and was now red, mostly with her own blood. Her right hand attacked Seth as they slid on the ice.

‘IhateiceIhateiceIhate-’ The mental litany ran through Seth’s head at a steadily clip, almost but not quite keeping up with the thudding tempo in the back of his head.

Move, it’s telling him. It doesn’t seem to care that he’s already sliding along the ice (the bloody, tractionless ice) at a speed that probably won’t be healthy once the inevitable collision comes down the pipe; it just keeps beating away in the cradle of his mind, yelling at him in a wordless voice.

Move, move, move, get away, get away get away get awaygetawaygetawaygetawayget-

“Away!” the young man hisses, heaving himself away from Kyari with his left hand, though not quickly enough to avoid acquiring a thin, bloody line down the length of his forearm. At the end of his roll, Seth gives his left arm a hefty tug in hopes of freeing it from Kyari’s vice-like grip.

The ice melted beneath her as Kyari lost focus for the first time. They came to a violent halt, and instead of freeing his hand, Seth ended up pulling her closer towards him. "Not giving up," she replied. "Remember our last fight?"

"Has anyone ever told you that stubbornness can be seriously detrimental to your health?" Seth asked by way of reply, whipping his head to the right on a more-or-less accurate collision course with Kyari's nose.

'I wonder if, in a past life, I used to be one of those little blind mammals they use in those fair games (bludgeon-a-beast or something like that?) that pop up during the Spring festival. It would explain so much...'

"You might have mentioned it once or twice," she replied, turning her head sideways to avoid what could've been a rather nasty bloody nose, taking the lesser of the two evils as Seth's head hit hers. Again. She brought her right hand closer, cutting at his side in an effort to wound, but not hurt him too bad.

“… Titanium.” Seth muttered mutinously as Kyari’s dagger dug into his side. “I’d bet my staff on it.”

He made no effort to get away from her. Whatever musical cues had been sounding in his head had fallen silent, the implications of their sudden disappearance evident.

Game over.

The metal came away red, and she stepped back, finally letting go of Seth's hand. "Don't let someone else get a hold of what is your only obvious weapon. Unless you have a back up plan."

“Oh come now, you know me, I’ve always got a back-up plan,” Seth tried to grin endearingly, but it came out as more of a pained grimace than anything. “Sadly, an unfortunate side-effect of said back-up plan results in the both of us ending up as what might be most accurately described as ground beef. Or headless. I’m still ironing it out somewhat.”

The brunet stood and took stock of his situation. His right shoulder was out of commission, his left shoulder and waist were both still bleeding from their cuts, and to top it off his head was pounding in a way that had nothing to do with the mysterious rhythm that had taken up residence in his subconscious and everything to do with repeatedly headbutting a girl whose cranium he was now completely certain was made of diamond. On the flip side, it made what physical exhaustion he had seem inconsequential. All in all, he’d been in worse situations.

‘Being the next best thing to utterly wrecked and you think ‘I’ve been in worse spots’; wonder what that says about you, Seth?’ The improvisationalist thought wryly.

“Don’t let your opponents get a hold of your weapons, right, got it. Though I’d have thought that would be kind of obvious,” Seth stuck out his tongue cheekily. “Not my fault you’re stronger than I’d anticipated…” The teen blinked a few times. “Ok, stupid comment acknowledged, don’t underestimate your opponent, though how I continue to do that with you of all people is beyond me.”

Without further comment the boy hopped forward and opened with a horizontal kick at Kyari’s mid-section.

She grabbed his leg as it came towards her, twisting it and pushing it away simultaneously. "Figure one out that you can implement that will destroy the other person, but not yourself. It may come in handy."

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr~

Seth wasn’t sure whether or not he should have been rejoicing at the abrupt return of his cerebral symphony, but decided he could evaluate the state of his sanity at a later time. Preferably one when it was the only thing ringing in his head and he wasn’t bleeding from multiple wounds.

“Yes, right, and I only have the one back-up plan in reserve because I’m inherently suicidal,” Seth replied snarkily. “I’d make with the inspiration,” the teen grunted, hopping and spinning with the twist, sending his other foot flying at Kyari’s head, “only I’ve yet to find a way to call it up on command.”

She ducked, rolling out of his way, waiting for him to fall.

The sudden absence of pressure on his leg, combined with the distinct lack of a head colliding with his steel clad foot meant that Seth’s reintroduction to the ground was, to say the least, awkward. In other words, a complete disaster.

‘I wonder,' the young man thought, rather uncharitably, as he bounced along the ground, ‘how many children you’d have to pledge to get reflexes like those…’

He also wondered whether someone had switched out the bare dirt floor for a nice bed of shattered bricks and spare steel when he wasn’t paying attention. Suddenly Kyari’s lessons on falling properly looked ridiculously appealing. Hitting the ground at a poor angle hurt.

“So,” Seth wheezed as he pulled himself painfully to his feet, grinning lopsidedly despite the ache in his side, “the real question is…” Frowning, the boy paused to spit out a tooth (List of things not to do, entry #241: Landing on one’s face is a poor idea. Try to avoid doing it.) before continuing. “How much of a fool can I make of myself before this whole charade’s over.”

And somewhere in the back of his head he hears a bell tolling, and he grins as he leaps towards Kyari, his knife tracking her throat, because hey, bells are new. Maybe it means things will be different this time.

It isn’t until afterwards that he looks back and thinks it was really more of a knell than a toll.

Author's Note

None of these past two chapters have been edited yet...I'm just posting for reading pleasure. I'll edit and revise later.