Winds Blown Differently

Aleri shrugged. "The girl would be Vita, yes. She's an old friend of Rexial's and mine."



Vita slipped down and to the side a little, parrying with her knife and rushing at Riku, getting in close before pulling out a second knife, aiming to slash at his right arm, trying to avoid anything terribly lethal.

His right arm being the one which held his sword, Riku was not nearly so unprepared, and pushed Vita away with a Dark Shield, following up quickly with Shadowbreaker.

Upon hitting the ground, Vita dived out of the way of the oncoming Shadowbreaker, then attempted to tackle Riku when the attack finished.

As Blake and Ventus made it to the training room, he saw Vita and Riku fighting. "Damn, too late, haha. So how does the training room work?"

Meanwhile, in the forest nearby, a unknown figure looked at their arm. It flooded with darkness as it opened a volley of darkness at a nearby elk, ending its life. They summoned a rather large broadsword, and cut the elk into slices of venison. "Gotta start a campfire..."

Riku, instead of dodging, initiated Dark Splicer. The hits hurt slightly, as they normally should have, but the attack went on as usual, him teleporting around Vita at every angle, slashing two or three times, and then landing a finisher.

<Note: "Landing" when I write typically means making contact, but as that's up to Nebula, in this case it means "performing">

<No worries; I get it.>

Vita was completely unable to dodge, having been relying on the idea that she could cancel Riku's attack by hitting him. You'd think attacking with her whole body would've done the trick, but apparently not.

She fell to the ground, wounded and surprised. "That wasn't... guh... good." Pulling herself back up and returning to her original stance, she tightly gripped both her knives, wiping some blood from her mouth and grinning. "Not bad! That was a pretty s-solid attack. You gave me your name, Riku, so I'll give you mine. I'm Vita... Coltelli."

The girl was breathing fairly heavily, not used to fighting opponents as strong as him. She was doing a good job at hiding her pain, but the attack had really done a number on her. She'd had no idea how to dodge it, and it was a wonder she could still stand after taking it. Vita was shaking a little, unstable, but not willing to give up yet.

Riku put out a palm. Vita, as she introduced herself, was clearly having a rough time, so this would be it. Energy gathered in his hand, and he fired it. Dark Firaga.

"I'm not done yet!"

Vita leapt over the fireball, somersaulting and using her momentum to kick down, just short of Riku, to land on the ground in front of him and slash upwards with both knives.

Riku used the time delay to throw up a Dark Barrier, and put Soul Eater to Vita's throat. "That was quicker than usual, but I got a fair sight of your talents. I think if you were still acrobatic enough to dodge me with how hard you were breathing, you'll do fine."

Dropping her knives and kneeling to catch her breath, Vita punched the ground. "Argh... I still didn't win... Ah, well, at least I passed, right?"

Returning the knives to their hidden sheathes, she shakily returned to her feet, her combat high wearing off and the pain starting to affect her more. "I'm just gonna go find the nearest first-aid kit and patch myself up, or see if Al's not too busy to use some magic to fix me up. Looks like we're in the way of those two, so we'd better clear out."

Shuffling into the living room and collapsing onto the couch next to Athez, Vita let out a sigh. "Augh, I talk about how I'm gonna beat him down, but it's MY pride that takes a beating..."

Riku followed out, and as he passed the living room, he called, "Don't say your pride took a beating, I could easily have decapitated you at the end. THAT would have given a blow to your pride." And then he continued on.

<Also, Athez went to the kitchen.>

<...Somehow, I was under the impression that it was somebody else going in for testing. I think it had to do with the idea that Athez wasn't testing as immediately because Minato got fed up with him...?>

"Well, that would definitely top off the week." She sighed. "But that doesn't exactly help. You basically just told me that you could have easily killed me, and I'd have been powerless to stop you. That's one of the heaviest blows you could deal to somebody's pride."

"Well, then don't be so prideful."

"Then don't be a d*ck."

"Oh, so it was the girl..." After a moment, he thumps himself on the head. "Where are my manners? I forget if I told you, but I'm Robin, and this is Pell," gesturing to the girl, who smiles slightly. "Hey... um... Our friend Gavin is downstairs, I think... he was the guy with green hair. Really short-looking guy?"

"Gavin?" Aleri frowned. "...Take good care of your friend. You never know what could happen, and I can feel loneliness radiating from him. Lonely people invite destruction into their hearts to fill the void... Well, Robin, Pell, nice to meet you. I am Aleri Kinsetsu, Keyblade Wielder and former traveller of the Worlds."

"I apologize for making an obscure video game reference that I shouldn't, in all honesty, know about myself. Please, try to ignore the reference. But, really, letting your friend be so distant is a bad idea."

Robin and Pell blinked, for some reason having forgotten about ten seconds of this man's speech. What mattered, though, was his sensing of Gavin's disturbances. "Gavin? Invite destruction?" Pell asked. "But... there's no way! Sure, he's a loner type, but that's how he's... always been." She stopped, thinking of her own words. Her eyes hit the floor and she struggled not to blush. Puck took over to cover for Pell. "Be that as it may, I'll make sure he stays calm and collected."

<Must... not... make... discord... joke...>

Aleri chuckled softly, amused. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so serious. I was just trying to tell you not to let your friend drift away. You never know how a weakened friendship could affect your life, and around here, I think having bonds might have a serious effect on reality. I don't know what, but something here has the ability to turn bonds into power, be it good or bad."

Skife was slightly annoyed he was ignored. He cast that off when he smelt the pasta from the kitchen. He followed his nose to outside the kitchen.

Robin's apprehension not only immediately melted but switched gears and changed to piqued curiosity. "Whoa, really?... Hey. Can you, like, sense powers or something?" His tone indicated a lack of suspicion, and filled with wonder and, strangely, familiarity.

Gavin, approaching the kitchen himself, took a whiff of the food and immediately knew what was cooking. Garlic powder, tomatoes, basil, and something's boiling... Lasagna or spaghetti tonight, then. He moseyed on over to kitchen, deeply inhaling the food's scent.

<...The word you forgot was "scent" wasn't it?>

<...Do you people just not look at your calendars? Also, lost a post. Dammit.>

Aleri laid back on his bed, sighing. "In a way. My experience with Magic and the Keyblade, and my connection to Rexial, have opened up additional senses that allow me to feel the hearts around me, those connected to me, the balance of light and darkness. Even the energy around me, and vague premonitions once in a while."

He sat back up, blinking. "...Have you met somebody with the same qualities?"

Pell shook her head, having recovered from her last blunder at last. "No, not quite... we were part of a group of individuals with unique talents like yours, though. Well... not specifically like yours, just gifted in odd ways."

"Huh. Well, I doubt you would know anybody like me anyway. My combination of talents, senses, skills and ability, it's all fairly oddball. I'm an ex-wandering Keyblade Wielder Master Wizard Scholar-of-Magic Balance-and-Energy-Sensitive being who feels social links tangibly, and carry a blade that reflects magic, while other Keyblades can be used to channel it."

<And yet, there's probably about 26 OCs like him in other peoples' fanfics.>

Pell thinks about it for a moment, and then nods. "Yeah, no one quite like you, but we did know of people with talents like yours. Usually it was just a talent per person, but occasionally we had a freak occurrence here or there and someone would wind up with two powers."

"Wasn't Josh the only guy we personally knew that was like that?" Robin butted in.

Pell smiled. "Oh yeah, Analytical and Clever were the domains he was given, right?"

"I remember Analytical... I don't quite remember the second, but I think you're right."