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DownRight Fierce -3- (Part 1)

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"I heard she killed a guy."
"She's a psycho-bitch, keep your distance."
"She looks at you the wrong way n' she might melt your brain."
"Don't be stupid, man. Barely anyone can do that."
"She don't look that tough. What's with the stupid headband?"
"Yea! You think you're some kinda kung-fu master?"

Come on. If they were gonna smack-talk they could at least do it to her face instead of loudly muttering it as she passed them in the hall.

"I heard she's a dike."

That remark caused Nishiko's sneaker to squeak against the tile floor as she came to a halt. She flicked her head toward the source of the sound, but it was a trio of snarky-looking high-schoolers, and they all shrunk a bit at her glare.

"Hey," Seiko quietly grunted, tugging at Nishiko's arm. "Come on."

As Nishiko was nudged along, she kept staring over her shoulder, flashing a middle finger up at the gossipers.

"Stop that," Seiko scolded briskly.

"I didn't start it," Nishiko grumbled back in defense as they rounded a corner.

"It doesn't matter," quipped Seiko. "You've only been here a couple of days. Everyone's got their eyes on you, so if you slip up...-"

"Yea, yea..." With fluttered lips and a mild pout, Nishiko let the matter drop.

They wove down the long hall on the eastern wing of the main building. Nishiko hadn't been this far in before. They passed out through a side exit, hopped through a brief courtyard path, and entered a new building Nishiko wasn't familiar with. Fuck, she'd been so goddamn busy with everything, she still hadn't gotten a proper tour around campus.

They entered the building, which looked like some kind of gym. Wasn't there already a gym? So what was this crap, then? There was a long hall with a couple of locker rooms and restrooms. As they went through, Nishiko noticed more than one trophy rack. A buncha medallions and photos and stuff filled the walls, embedded in glass cases inside the bricks. Nishiko noticed that a lot of the pics had folks in karate getups and she noted the Ki Fighters Federation logo here and there. Wait, so did that mean...-?

"You've got your ID, right?" Seiko asked, eyes deadset on the metal double doors at the end of the hall.

"Huh? Wh-...Yea." Nishiko second-guessed her reply, and smacked her hand against the left-side breast pocket of her button-down. Yup. There it was. "Yea, I got it."

"Good," said Seiko simply, continuing to lead them down. Down, down, into the pit of insanity. That's how it felt, anyway. The longer Nishiko spent inside the sterile walls of this campus, surrounded by uniformed drones, the more crazy she was going to get.

"Anyway, I just finished classes," Nishiko grumbled. "Kinda wanna get out of this school, not go further in. Where are you taking me this time?"

Seiko puffed under her breath, "Just as forgetful as ever..."

"Dude, I've been hella busy since I got here, I don't...do schedules, and...-"
"It's OK, just...-" Seiko paused, her pace still swift. Her shoulders tightened up for a moment before she steadied her tone. "We're going to the LAB – the Ky Gymnasium. I scheduled a session for you there. So we can practice the physical component of the exam?"

"Ah, right." Sounded familiar. Nishiko remembered Seiko shoving some paperwork at her about it that she'd had to sign, but hell if she'd bothered reading it. There was a student – one of those annoying 'hall monitor' types – standing in front of the doors. He was pretty big. Like, six-foot-200-pounds-of-muscle big. Meh. Well, maybe not that big, but he sure felt it when he was two feet in front of her. She could still take him if she wanted to.

"Afternoon," he greeted them sternly, leveling a clipboard into his gaze. "Your business here?" Puh. Took his 'job' too seriously, clearly.

Nishiko's ears perked at the sounds coming from within the doors. It sounded like fighting. Aw, yes. OK. Maybe this wasn't so bad, then! Some action, that's what she needed.

"We're the 4:30 appointment," Seiko calmly replied, pulling out her ID card. "Mitsuda." She handed her card to the sturdy man. Nishiko was caught up in his hairdo. It was all preppy and swooshed over to the side, and just...yuck.

Nishiko's attention was shaken when Seiko tugged at her sleeve. Nishiko withdrew her ID card and shoved it at the guard dog before her. Ugh. She hated her fucking school ID. They'd taken it the day she'd shown up, made her take off her headband...So she had a black eye n' shit, and was all baggy-eyed and gross. Not cool at all. The guard dog raised a brow at her photo and she wanted to sock him just for the demeaning thought he was probably thinking.

"Shimomura," Seiko stated her friend's name for the guard.

"Mmph, yea..." The guy scratched his jaw with his chunky finger. "New kid."

Nishiko's face dulled. Why did that fucking matter? She's show him who was 'new.'

"I'm her chaperone today," Seiko explained. "We're practicing for her aptitude exam."

"Ah, gotcha." The guy nodded, handing them back their IDs and marking something on his clipboard. He flipped it around toward them – a fancy pen was connected to it by a string. It had the school's name printed on it in gold text with the school's painty little tree symbol thing alongside it.

Windy Pines Academy

"Go ahead and sign in," the guy before them advised. "They're finishing up in there."

"Thanks," said Seiko, grabbing the clipboard.

Nishiko watched the girl sign her name all cleanly and cursively. Seiko handed it to Nishiko, who scribbled her name in chicken-scratch print. It was a lot more consistent than when she tried to write in cursive, anyway.

"They've still got a few minutes," the doorman explained, casually pushing open one of the doors as he accepted his clipboard back. "After they leave, you've got a half hour."

"Thank you, Sir," Seiko bid as they passed through.

The guy gave Nishiko a cautious look as she entered, and she cocked her brow up at him, untying her headband from her bicep.

They descended down a stairwell. Fierce shouts and grunts echoed across the concrete space as they went down into the basement. It sounded promising. Nishiko had heard about this place – the one spot on campus where it was allowed to let loose with Ki Flow. There were all of these rules, still, of course. But it was better than nothing.

As they walked down the steps, Nishiko tied her band around her forehead. Seiko giggled quietly.

"What?" Nishiko mumbled with a slight pout.

"Nothing," Seiko assured through a chuckle with a smile, pushing open the door at the base of the stairs. "You're just cute," she remarked, casting an amused look at the band on Nishiko's head.

Nishiko's face bubbled bashfully. Geez, Seiko was a lot more forward than she used to be. Not just with stuff like that, but in general. She was being really stern and forceful, dragging Nishiko around. A couple years ago, it had been the opposite. Nishiko liked this new side of Seiko. Obviously, it had to be because Seiko was a Ki-Gifted now. Nishiko decided that could be the only explanation. Back when they'd started dating, Nishiko was a newly awakened user, but Seiko had only discovered her own powers the year prior, after their break. It was that very fact that had led her family – and her – to decide that she ought to attend this school.

Oh, shit. So did that mean Nishiko was gonna get to see Seiko using some Ki-Flow in action? That might be kinda fun...

The cries of a young woman rattled the walls around them. They were now standing in a gymnasium of sorts. Flashes of light flickered from the center of the hall, casting its glow across the white walls. Sets of bleachers resided both on the entrance side and the opposing one, but they were empty. A small crowd was gathered right in front of Seiko and Nishiko, blocking their view from the gym floor.

The pair squirmed their way through, aiming to take a seat at the edge of the nearest bleacher. The gym itself was scaringly sterile – all white with checkered lines, like...big-ass graph paper? It was sort of like a fighting arena, but...really horizontal. Not much space for moving around.

Nishiko's focus was pulled from the gym's appearance as she was spell-bound by the person demonstrating their Ki Flow in the middle of the gymnasium – the person doing all the shouting and making all the flashy lights. Nishiko could feel their Aura. She'd heard about it – about how Ki-Gifted could detect the Aura of other Gifted when their Ki Flowed. But she'd never felt it like this before. Like a cold tingle down her spine that gave way to a warm pulsing in her cheeks. It was glorious.

Growling with determination as every strike flew through the air, a full-bodied young woman in a white karategi was sweating up a storm and generating waves of Ki the likes of which Nishiko had never seen in person. Sure, she'd seen impressive stuff on TV and such, and obviously she could pump out a pretty hefty force herself, but this girl was the first she'd ever witnessed live and in person whose talents were so instantly apparent.

The youth displaying her skills was brown-skinned, thickly built, with wide hands and feet. A fat nose, fierce eyes, a wide face, and dark hair that was straight in the front and prickly in the back. Hispanic, if Nishiko had to guess. Damn, she had a pretty nice rack, too – even through the gi Nishiko could tell. The way she moved was fucking frightening in the best of ways. Slow, methodical motions gave way to lightening fast bursts of speed. It was compelling shit that Nishiko had never seen outside of a screen before.

"Hey, sit," Seiko snapped, giving the edge of Nishiko's skirt a quick tug.

Nishiko obediently set herself down beside Seiko, her eyes glued to the swift and strong motions of the exhibition before her.

"She's good," Seiko whispered as they watched the woman tighten her body into a horse stance. "I've heard about her..."

In a flash, the karate girl had dashed about fifteen feet forward, thrusting a punch through the air so quick that Nishiko could feel the wind tickle her from the speed. After this motion, the girl held a meditative pose, levelling her palms against each other by her waist. Nishiko was confused over the next few seconds of stillness and the room was eerily quiet.

Then, the girl in the gi whipped out both arms, outstretching them in a circular gesture. Her fists were now blazing, Ki Flow surging, pulsing through her arms and hands. What was especially intriguing was that each hand carried a different kind of energy. One hand was blue and clean, burning like plasma. The other hand was red and smokey, curling around itself – it was an energy Nishiko knew well, as it was the kind she produced most often when she fought.

"Wow," Seiko murmured, almost as awe-stricken as Nishiko was. "She's...really good," she amended her previous statement.

"How's she doing that?" Nishiko demanded quietly, beneath the gasps and cheers of the small group of student spectators to their right.

The demonstrater's fists trembled, but she held her stance, slowing pulling her fists together. It looked as if she was trying to push opposing magnets together or something. Wait, or like, the same kind of magnet? Nishiko remembered dicking around with magnets in middle school science class. Anyway, whatever this chick was doing with her Ki-Flow, it looked damned tricky.

"She's channeling two different kinds of Ki Flow at the same time," Seiko replied to Nishiko's question. "That's super hard. It takes a lot of discipline and practice."

"'Cuz it's like your brain and body are doing two things at once," Nishiko muttered back.

"Right."

"Like..." Nishiko scratched her thumbnail against her nostril and shrugged. "Like pissing and shitting at the same time."

"Um..." Seiko frowned at Nishiko's line of thought, and didn't dignify the idea with a response.

The two opposing energies in the girl's hands finally were brought together, and they left her fists, meshing into a glowing purple orb between her rock-like hands. She could barely contain the compressed Ki for more than a couple seconds, expelling it outward through a flick of her hands. The ball of purple energy sped through the air for a split second before colliding with the ground six feet in front of her, away from where her audience was. The bundle of twisted energy made a loud snapping sound as it burst against the lacquered floor. It was the kind of thing that would've definitely left a mark had it hit a person. Nine-out-of-ten stuff. For sure.

Ogling at the stone-like woman, Nishiko was enraptured by her ragged breathing as she wiped sweat from her forehead and sucked in a deep breath, steadying her body and closing her eyes. A smattering of applause echoed across the empty gym. Seiko courteously contributed, and Nishiko whistled out a cat-call. Much to her delight, the gi-clad girl's eyes popped open at the sound, and those sharp eyes darted Nishiko's way, administering an icey glare that sent a wonderful tingle up Nishiko's spine. With a dumb grin, Nishiko waved, but the girl ignored the gesture. With a slight shake of her head and an eyeroll, she sighed out a deep breath while approaching the collection of students.

They were offering her a swarm of compliments, and she was taking their words without barely a smile. All business, huh? OK. Nishiko was perfectly fine with that when it looked this good.

"Thank you for that demonstration, Miss Vargas," came the voice of an adult. Oh, there was a teacher here? Nishiko had been so spellbound that she had barely paid any heed to the spectators. The teacher was some middle-aged dude in a button-down shirt and black khakis. Boring teacher type.

'Miss Vargas' pressed her knuckles together and bowed to the teacher respectfully.

The teacher addressed the – wait, was this a class, or something?

"As you could see, when two opposing Ki signatures interact, there's a violent reaction. It is extremely difficult to express two different signatures simultaneously, and even more challenging to merge them together, as Miss Vargas was able to accomplish."

"Are you going to teach us that?" demanding a squeaky-voiced student.
"Yea, that was awesome!"
"I want to do that!"
"When do we start the hands-on lessons?"

"Now, now," the teacher sheepishly quelled the ruckus of the class. "We've still got to go through a few more things before we start all that. But...-" He glanced at Miss Vargas, who had her knuckles against her (wide) hips. "Miss Vargas works at a local dojo where she trains pupils to control their Ki Flow. You may want to consider applying for her training program."

The Hispanic gal in the gi smirked as she nodded, carrying a bit of pride in this fact, it seemed. Damn, she had a dojo she trained at, and everything, huh? Nice.

There was some hushed hesitation from the clump of kids, which Nishiko found odd. Uh, hell? Fucking dojo, people. Geez, Nishiko might have to look into that shit, herself, get some hands-on lessons, like that one kid had said.

"If anyone's interested," the teacher followed up, "you can earn some extra credits for taking her course – let me know and I can get you an application."

There was some mumbling as the teacher waved his arms out, gesturing his band of students to exit the premises.

"All right, then – class is dismissed for today. We'll pick this back up next time and discuss in-depth how the process you just witnessed works."

Nishiko was none surprised as just how quickly the hall was emptied at the phrase 'class is dismissed.'

Miss Vargas was the last to leave the hall, and she cast an inquisitive yet grouchy gaze at Seiko and Nishiko as she passed them by. Nishiko flashed the young woman a glowing grin and a wave. Seiko smacked Nishiko on the arm primly, pulling her attention back.

"Don't be weird," Seiko hissed quietly.

"Who is she?" Nishiko immediately pressed, to Seiko's chagrin.

"Marisol Vargas," Seiko explained with an eyeroll. "She doesn't swing that way, so don't even-"
"She's so fucking good," Nishiko whispered with puppy eyes. "Did you see that?"
"Yes, I was here. Right next to you. I saw."
"Where did she learn that?"
"Probably from her mother, seeing as-"
"I wanna do that."
"Nishiko..."
"I wanna take her course."
"That's...-! You have to pass your exam before you can even think about-"
"I should challenge her to a fight some time."
"What? We aren't...-"
"Is that what this place is for?"
"This gym?"
"Yea. People fight here, right?"
"Sometimes, but you need-"
"Is that what we're about to do? 'Cuz I'd kick your ass."
"N-no, Nishiko, that's not...-"
"Then what are we doing here?"
"Stop getting so distracted!" Seiko growled – quote loudly.

Seiko was clawing at her temples in frustration from her momentary burst. Nishiko was wide-eyed, with her lower lip propped forward in curiosity.

"Yaaaaa OK, there?" Nishiko asked nervously.

"Yes," Seiko spat firmly. "Sorry."

"Don't do that," commanded Nishiko with a tint of irritation.

"I said I was sorry," Seiko quipped back in a grumble.

"No, I meant...-" Nishiko shook her head and sighed. "Stop apologizing. I hate it when you do that."

"Rrrright." Seiko propped her glasses up and stood up from the bleacher they'd occupied. "Anyway, can we focus, here? We've only got half an hour."

"Gotcha." Nishiko leaned back, then swung her abdomen forth, propelling herself up to her feet with the momentum.

Seiko paced over to the empty space in the middle off the gym.

She cited, "We have to work on your Ki Flow control."

At this remark, Nishiko clenched her fists at her sides and summoned up a small morsel of the fires in her gut's furnace. She pushed the force out through her arms, igniting her hands with glowing, smoldering Ki flames of red and black.

"Yea," she jeered, fancying herself well in control.

"Stop," Seiko growled, flipping her head over her shoulder. "Don't...-!" She rotated her stance toward her training partner, flashing up warning palms as her expression started to pale.

"Why, ya scared?" Nishiko growled, flicking up her fists into upturned hands and intensifying her Flow.

"Nishiko!" Seiko huffed, taking a step back. "What's your problem?"

At Seiko's freaked out cry, Nishiko caught herself letting her own energies take on their own life – normally, this was great. But evidently, right then, not so much. She pulled her Ki back inward, quelling the flames and steadying herself into a neutral stance with a puff of a sigh.

"I was just foo-"
"Don't do that," Seiko scolded, her tone ice cold and sharp as a razor. "This is a gym for Ki Flow training, not...horsing around. Do you not understand how dangerous it is to let that kind of Ki just...fly around like that?"

"What?" Nishiko was puzzled. "'Fly around?' I was in charge, there."

Seiko glared at her with some disbelief, but Nishiko didn't get what the issue was. Then, Seiko started staring at the floor, lost for a moment within herself.

"You know what? It's OK, it's fine," Seiko was hastily muttering under her breath, taking a deep breath as she settled herself back down. "This is why you're here, Seiko, you're supposed to show her how to...-" Seiko was mumbling sheepishly to herself, pacing in a tight circle with her hands crossed round waist.

"Uh, yea, still here," Nishiko pointed out, drawing her frustrated friend's attention.

"Right." Seiko snapped out of her weird stupor – when had she picked up a habit of talking to herself like that? That was a tick Nishiko didn't recall. "Tell you what, Nishiko – promise me you won't just suddenly start Flowing your Ki like that, and I'll promise to stop apologizing around you."

"...Shhhhure, we can...try that, but...-"

"Now." Seiko interrupted grabbed Nishiko's left arm, stretching it outward, palm upturned. She was acting all kinds of weird today. "If you're in charge, then – when-I-say-so –" She pulled back her hands, letting go and letting Nishiko hold her arm aloft. "-you're going to direct clean Ki to your left hand, and only your left hand."

"...You, uh...Ya lost me, Seiko." Nishiko hadn't quite made out all of what her friend had said. Her brain was scattered, and she was disconcerted by Seiko's rushed, fidgety mannerisms.

"Flow Ki," Seiko said in slow syllables. "Left hand. Go."

Nishiko stood silently for a second, perplexed as to what the point of this was. Why send Ki to one fist when she could send it to both? Didn't make much sense. She tightened her left hand into a fist and opened the internal furnace. The energy coursed through her arms, and her hands once again lit up.

"Left hand," Seiko snapped, taking another step back. "And goodness, Ni-Ni, not so much. Dial it back a bit..."

Nishiko realized her right arm was also burning, though she was unsure of what Seiko was getting at with this 'dial it back' bit. Like, less Ki? What the hell? Anyway...

Nishiko flicked her arms about, like shaking out a pair of burning matches. Rolling her arms around her shoulder sockets, she inhaled deeply, then tried again.

Left...hand...
Argh, nope. Both again. Shit.
LEFT...HAND...!
Damnit. Why can't I...-?

It was sort of like trying to inhale through one nostril but not the other.

"Ni-Ni, whoa, don't...force it," Seiko suggested, extending her hand out as if she were about to assist.

"I'm...not," Nishiko grunted, her biceps tight like rocks as she tried to use her muscles to help direct the Flow.

Grghh, c'mon, just...-! Ow, fuck, it-...Cramp! Cramp! Shit...

Before Nishiko knew it, Seiko was right in front of her.

"Here...Why don't...-?" Seiko was tense, her eyes flickering with fright each time Nishiko's Ki fire lit up her knuckles. "OK, just...-" She was hesitantly reaching out her hands.

Nishiko growled through clenched teeth, shrugging up her arms with impatience as she cast the flames back inside.

"Nishiko, how about you let me...-?"

"What?" Nishiko huffed, shaking her hands with limp wrists. Her fingers were tingling – sort of like when your hand falls asleep, but more painful. Shooting Ki in and out of them in quick succession didn't feel so great.

"I guess it's a good thing we're doing this, then," Seiko observed , tucking her sidebangs behind her ears with a sigh. "You really do need some work."

"I'm...-!" Nishiko was offended by Seiko's belittling remark. Who the fuck did she think she was? Had she ever been in a real fight before? One that Nishiko hadn't needed to save her from? "Look, just because I can't...do this stupid, specific, useless bullshit thing, doesn't mean I 'need some work.'"

"Nishiko," Seiko said with a raised brow. "Just calm down and let me help you."

"Stop talking like that."

"Like what?"

"Like I'm a fucking retard..."

"Huh? I...I wasn't."

"You were."

At Nishiko's accusation, Seiko tapped her index finger against her lips, staring into space for just a moment.

"I see," she conceded. "I didn't...mean to, I want to help."

"Yea," Nishiko came back grumpily. "Probably feels great."

"...What...feels great?"

"Bossing me around," grumbled Nishiko with an exaggerated pout.

Seiko sifted her fingers through her bangs with a bemused nod.

"Um, well...It is a nice change of pace, I suppose," Seiko remarked with a taunting smirk. Ah, good, she picked up that Nishiko was pursuing some banter. And Seiko hadn't apologized, either – that had been a test.

"Yea, thought so," Nishiko muttered. "Anyway, you were saying?"

"Saying?"

"Trying to help me? So whadda I do?"

"Oh...Here." Seiko gestured her fingers, beckoning Nishiko to approach. "First off, you've gotta shift your Aura."

"Aw, not that shit again," whimpered Nishiko, rolling her head as she trudged forward a couple of steps. "I've told you, I don't do that stuff."

"Gimme your arms," Seiko huffed quietly, again flicking her fingers inward. Nishiko did as she was told, though begrudgingly.

Seiko took Nishiko's hands within her own and pressed her thumbs against Nishiko's palms.

"Mm, your Ki Flow is so...blocked up," Seiko mumbled under her breath in observation. As her bony little thumbs pushed down in rotating circles against Nishiko's palms, there was a stinging sensation. Sharp, tiny jolts, like static shocks. Nishiko's hands twitched involuntarily but she tried to play it cool.

"Blocked up?" Nishi pondered.

"It's because you haven't been meditating," Seiko sternly concluded, glaring down at Nishiko's hands. Nishiko, meanwhile, gawked at the stoicism in her old friend's face. It was cute, seeing her all serious, in charge, in control. She'd certainly grown up a little bit in the past year or so.

"Meditation is lame," Nishiko explained simply. "Sitting and doing nothing is...well...-! It's nothing."

"A sound mind requires a sound body," Seiko recited, continuing to massage Nishiko's hands. "And a sound body needs a sound spirit. Meditation is a personal thing – it's different for different people, but the traditional method is one that works easily for most. Clearing the mind and relaxing the body is a universally effective way to...-" She trailed off with a sigh. "Didn't I just go over all of this with you yesterday?"

"...Maybe."

Seiko huffed out in a way that made Nishiko feel belittled, but Nishiko would let Seiko get away with it this time. Well, probably a lot of times, but...-

Ow!

Nishiko's arm tightened up, spiking with pain as her fingers twitched out. A flicker of red fire shot out out Nishiko's palm, flowing out across Seiko's hand effortlessly. It evaporated just as soon as it had appeared.

"There we go..." Seiko muttered with a self-affirming nod. "See how that feels?"

"Huh?" Nishiko was confused. That Ki had slipped out involuntarily.

"Just one arm. It hurt a bit, right?"

Nishiko shrugged, off-put by the question.

"It did," Seiko slyly surmised, amused at Nishiko's denial. "That's only natural. Your body's very tense – your Ki Flow is...all blocked up and strained. You've got to start exercising it."

"I use it all the fuckin' time," Nishiko defended, shaking her wrist off, like her hand had fallen asleep.

"I mean different signatures, Nishiko. Different Auras. Not just...-" Seiko sighed as she watched Nishiko summon a ball of swirling, smoking fire into her left arm. Her face brightened at this sight. "Ah, th-there it is, you...-" But Nishiko couldn't hold it for very long, and her other hand lit up before the fires were put out. "OK, that was a nice start. You picked that up pretty quick."

"Yea, once I got what it feels like, I just...-" Nishiko popped up one shoulder, passing it off as easy, though she could barely contain it for the breadth of a second and a half. Nishiko wasn't a book-learner. She was a doing-shit-learner. Telling her how to do something wasn't nearly as effective as showing. But Seiko, she'd...gone a step further. Like she'd reached...into Nishiko's arm, kinda. "How did you do that, anyway?"

"Do what?"

"The, uh...-!" Nishiko snapped her finger, holding out the hand Seiko had massaged. She wiggled her opposing hand toward it. "The thing, like you were...pulling at my Ki. Guiding it."

"Oh, ha." Seiko crossed her arms with a bit of a pride in her smile. "That was just me directing your Ki a bit. Bending the channels a little. Sort of like moving rocks around in a creek to help the water move along. Like I said, your channels are...kinda plugged up, so there's not much I can do to help."

"Well...shit, that's...still pretty bad-ass, Seiko."

"Ah, thanks." said Seiko, letting the compliment roll off with an awkward smile.

"I didn't even know that...was a thing," Nishiko continued to remark her astonishment as she wandered into her head for a moment. The past few days had been like an overload for her brain. For someone who fancied herself pretty good at this Ki stuff, Nishiko was quickly feeling like a noob. Watching the big boys and girls on TV strut their stuff for sport was one thing, but actually understanding how the moving pieces all came together was quite a reve-...revelayyy...-

It was a bit of a mind-fuck.

"You OK?" Seiko asked, stirring Nishiko out of her brain. There was a lot of empty space in there in Nishiko's noggin, so it was easy for her to get lost.

"Oh, heh." Nishiko nodded in reply with a smirk, dwelling on the pun she'd just made up. To insult her own intelligence. Over all of this crazy shit she was learning.

Naturally, Seiko – like usual – managed to figure out what Nishiko was thinking about.

"This must all be a whole lot to be taking in all at once, huh?"

"...Yea," Nishiko confirmed with raised brows and widened eyes.

"It's a learning process," said Seiko with a sympathic smile and a slight tilt of her head. "You'll get the hang of it, though, Ni-Ni. You're a quick learner." An encouraging pat on the arm and Seiko took a few steps back. "Now let's try it again."

DownRight Fierce -2- <--- Chapter 2
Chapter 3 (Part 2) -----> DownRight Fierce -3- (Part 2)

DownRight Fierce - [Sample Pg #1] by Destiny-SmasherDownRight Fierce - [Sample Pg #2] by Destiny-Smasher DownRight Fierce - [Sample Pg #4] by Destiny-SmasherDownRight Fierce - [Sample Pg #3] by Destiny-Smasher
Nishiko by Sakura-Rose12[DRF] - Nishiko Shimomura (hinokit) by Destiny-Smasher
Originally planned as a graphic novel, DownRight Fierce is a story I'm currently working on writing into prose format.

You can read a bit about DownRight Fierce here, you can see the full gallery of concept art, including sample pages so far over here.
If you'd like to follow updates on this project in progress, you can follow the FB page, the Tumblr blog, or the DeviantArt group.
:icondownright-fierce:
© 2014 - 2024 Destiny-Smasher
Comments3
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Porecomesis's avatar
I really like this chapter. For as tough as Nishiko shows herself to be, it's plain as day that she's way in over her head when it comes to Ki. Clears up a bit where her insecurities come from. Her dismissive attitudes towards aura shifting and meditation give me the impression she feels kind of entitled to the power she wields even though she doesn't really work for it or even understand it. She has some inflated perspective of her on one hand and an unexpressed self-deprecating mindset on the other. I like the contrast

Now for what I really like about this chapter: the Ki. You've done a fantastic job with Marisol; you've written her feats in such a way through Nishiko's eyes that they feel tangible to the reader. As a comparison to Nishiko, she sells the control and exertion and technique that Nishiko has yet to learn for herself.
More specifically about Ki, I'm always a bit of a fan for the nuts and bolts of things. Call me a tinkerer with fictional concepts. Without explaining Ki, you provided a lot of blueprints for how it functions, especially with Nishiko practicing with channeling her Ki through just one arm. As someone who's tried those doing-two-different-things-at-once-with-both-hands things on the Internet, I can feel a bit of how she feels except my identity isn't fundamentally linked to some phantasmal inner force. My point here is you've made Ki a thing that works as opposed to a thing that's just there to justify the powers wielded by characters in the setting. Makes me smile.

Seiko's still proving to be one of my favourite additions. Not because I like her personally (although I do) but because she's a fascinatingly written character. Childhood friend characters are usually the warm sorts or the cold sorts that had massive changes in personality from when the protagonist knew 'em (eg: Chloe Price or, say, any romantic interest for those tosser protagonists in harem anime). Seiko, though? She's in a very uncanny valley; she feels familiar and yet there's something inherently off about her. I really do get the impression this isn't how Nishiko remembers her, and not just because the narration outright says so, and it's a bit uncomfortable.

Everyone's got their eyes on you, so if you slip up...-"
I feel like you can either go with an em dash (—, just hold Ctrl with Num Lock on and then press 0, 1, 5, 1, then let go of Ctrl) or an ellipsis with such statements. Using both makes it look messy. 

They'd taken it the day she'd shown up, made her take off her headband...So she had a black eye n' shit

It was sort of like a fighting arena, but...really horizontal.
You should put a space after these ellipses.

P.S: I thought of a sentence that Nishiko might use to describe someone she doesn't like who she feels is intruding on her circumstances and never seems to leave: "You're like a piece of shit who's going up my ass instead of out of it."