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Lilian Rook     Since realizing that Hibiki made her idiot decision in dealing with Hiromi out of mindfulness, regret, and implicitly, having listened seriously to what she didn't have to at all, Lilian has done something deeply unusual. Enough that even Hibiki had apparently been capable of dimly grasping that, in her own backhanded bullshit white woman way, Lilian had been attempting to express appreciation for Hibiki trying to stick with her, and a sense of responsibility for her getting broken in half for the effort.

    And the way she seems set on dealing with that feeling is . . . breaking Hibiki in half again? But, productively this time. The subtext of 'What do you want from me? A friendship speech? Do you think I know how to give those?' is deafeningly implicit.

    At the very least, she's been invited to the place where being hypothetically broken in half won't ruin her grades even further. Being easily wealthy enough to rent private space off the factional training budget card for this silly indulgence, Lilian has of course already prepared Hibiki's two hour slot, and given her annoyingly precise directions around the outer ring of the Shrine of Adversity (honestly, given the way she talks about gift shops and food and the possibility of being distracted by them, it's almost like she thinks Hibiki is dumb or something).

    It is probably bigger than it needs to be for one non-flying non-lasering magical girl's custom tailored course. White tile floor that could have been left at featureless training room settings is instead defined as unnecessarily gorgeous marble, a classic square shape is foregone in favour of a vast dome, walls rise about fifteen feet before giving way to sparkling glass triangles that look out on a (probably? just projected?) seaside, plus forest and cliff.

    Two by two arrangements tiles have risen out of the ground to form almost videogame-y pillars; their sides are densely engraved with incredibly fine patterns that sort of hurt one's head to stare at, if they really care to look. Goofy little staircases branch off from the singular doorway in, rising up along the walls and sliding behind an inner layer of that crystal clear glass, forming a sort of curved balcony along one side, ten feet off the ground, which is equipped extremely like a VIP stadium box with fully equipped bar and ridiculous furniture.

    The fact that Hibiki will not be running a little tag race around the geometric formations of suspicious pillars is implicit by the fact that Lilian is waiting around in the middle, for the ~~Earth tournament~~ friendly instruction to begin.
Rita Ma      Rita isn't dumb, but she does get waylaid: when she shows up on the arena's balcony, she's clearly been hurrying to make up time, and has an officially licensed Cantio plushie tucked under one arm.

     "Hi, Ms. Rook! Hi, Hibiki!" she says, leaning over the railing with one leg girlishly kicked up to wave down at the entrants. "Oh, I wanted to ask! What exactly are you training her for, Ms. Rook? To help fight Ms. Hiromi better? Or just to fight better in general? I don't think fighting you is much like fighting other people, that's all."

     Then she sets about mixing a drink for herself: a weird fizzy concoction that turns red when she adds 'an ingredient from home'. Her expression says it tastes good, but not as much as she'd hoped: "Mmmm. I'll have to ask Ms. Grier to show me how again."

     When the other spectators filter in, she very peppily asks them for their drink orders! It's hard to say no to a face like that.
Stanley Padgett     Of all the spectators, one would probably not expect Stanley to be out here. But a little bird had told him that Hibiki would be doing things out here, and Hibiki's a friend, and frankly, Stanley didn't want to be in Lampport right now. Even IF going to the Shrine in the presence of a bunch of other Elites is sort of tipping his hand back home to the school board.

    "...Hello, Miss Rita. Got anything uhhhhh non carbonated back there?"
Ishirou Ishirou was here! He was drinking something out of a thermos and typing on a holographic screen that POD was projecting near him. He rubs the underside of his chin every so often, before sliding things in a way. If someone looks, it's the various budget, nutrition, and lesson plan updates that he proposed to a certain school.

Despite not looking up he seems capable of seeing what's going on around him. In fact, POD has moved somewhere near Rita, beeping to her in greeting.

"Hmm...I'll have to email that to Lilian.." he mutters and presses a few buttons. Probably to email something.
Hibiki Tachibana     Let it be known, Hibiki Tachibana is a being who rarely does things with forethought for what's going to happen in the future. And she sure wasn't expecting everything that happened back with the whole Hiromi deal to evolve into somehow getting inducted into a Lilian-led training special. If she had to describe how it felt, it was some combination of surprising and...kind of nice? It was nice. To have your feelings acknowledged, even in an unexpected way. Maybe it's another sign of just how far they've come.

    That, and it's not like she has a defense when it comes to needing more training. She always needs more of that. So if today's substitute for a dramatic friendship speech is the assbeating form of instruction and working together better in the future, she can more than live with that. Plus, it'll probably also work out better than some more traditional teaching. The best way to speak is with your fists, as a wise man once said.

    You know, by this point, Chase has probably said it enough when it comes to her that she really believes it.

    Thankfully, she avoids being thrown off track by the various food shops - this time, she'll be back later - and find her way to the Shrine's Hyperbol-- designated training room, all prepped and ready to go. On stepping inside, Hibiki glances first at the pillar setup, then down at the fancy flooring...and then straight ahead, to exactly who she knew would already be waiting for her. Because of course she would. Silently, she steps forward to stand across from Lilian, her Symphogear's pendant clinking around her neck with each step rather than hidden away beneath her collar...

    The illusion of a fighting game intro sequence is promptly broken when she realizes that there actually are people in the spectator's stand, and she double-takes back with a surprised blink - before making a small sound and giving a wave back up at both Rita and Stanley, her other hand rubbing at the back of her neck. "H-Hey, everyone...I can't say I was expecting you guys to show up..." Even Stanley! Read: she was not expecting an audience watching her get the Rook Laying Out Special.

    Though in a way, it kind of bolsters her resolve a little bit, and there is definitely a small smile on her face before turning back to Lilian puts her back to a slightly more serious expression. "She's got a point there, you know. But...we've never actually fought each other when we weren't both serious about it, have we? Huh."
Cantio Rita's not the only one in the stands today. After hearing about another one of Hiromi's massive impacts in the face of so many Elites, some of which include her friends and other associates, Cantio's here to witness the festivities for herself! She's dressed in a thigh-length jacket (purple) with big hand warmer pockets on the side, jeans (blue), and actually has her hands free of visible/obvious weaponry-type things for once (unless the iced drink counts).

The officially licensed merch is a given, of course. She's not handling the sales herself, but she's definitely bought out some space with the various merch vendors to aid in her ??? out of ### step plan to get more exposure bucks.

Coming up from besides Rita, Cantio raises her hand in a friendly wave while sipping some kind of sugar-laden blended ice drink with hints of coffee in it. "Hey, Hibiki! Hi, Rita! Lilian, hey! Ishirou! And... Stanley!" The last greeting takes a bit longer, but she still manages to recall all those names, and just in time to take a seat on the railing itself. "Of course we'd show up to see all of this. What's the plan today, anyway? Just a training match, or...?"

She's not sure what else it could be. At least, she probably doesn't want to think about what else it might be.
Stanley Padgett     Stanley smiles are Rita and Ishi and Cantio. "...hello! I'm uh, I'm here for Hibiki and also to get away from Lampport. I am.... I'm not exactly welcome at school right now."
Rita Ma      "Hi, Mr. Stanley! Hi, Mr. Ishirou!" Rita doesn't verbally greet POD, but she does smile and pat the top of its chassis.

     "Something not fizzy... how does a strawberry daiquiri sound, Mr. Stanley? Or maybe a frozen fruit rosé? I think they can do that here." Rita pauses halfway through checking the bar fridge. "Oh. Um, Mr. Stanley? How old are you again? I kind of forgot."

     "Sorry, Hibiki!" she calls down a moment later. "I haven't seen you fight Ms. Rook before, though! When it's two of my good friends, I'm not going to pass up something like that. You can just pretend we're not here!"

     Once all the drink orders are resolved, she flumps down onto a very comfy couch and peers over at Ishirou. "What are you working on? Is it secret, Mr. Ishirou? It looks really complicated." Someone's high-energy today.
Ishirou Ishirou watches Biki manage her start, but the fun part has yet to come. Still, it's important to watch...eventually Lilian would be doing it to him. It's probably going to hurt his soft babby boy skin.

POD accepts the pat with enthusiasm. It follows Rita around, while she gets drinks and then back to Ishirou.

"Sorry Hibiki, I didn't realize it was private..?" he says, knowing full well it wasn't at all. Cantio gets a wave as he continues working. "I think it's just training, but not sure what...so I guess we'll find out."

When Rita sits down he looks up. "Oh, no nothing like that. As Stanley's school has started trying to bureaucracy my improvements, I'm working up a way to implement them in the nearby school, the one not kept going by rich people's donations..."

He scratches the underside of his chin. "It's not /that/ complicated, but it's a lot of numbers. So here..." he starts going over a detailed explanation of budgets, student food programs, and curriculums. He won't stop unless you say something.
Rita Ma      Rita props her chin up in her hands and listens along attentively to Ishirou's lengthy explanation, though she does sometimes stop him to ask for an explanation of something scarily basic between sips of her fizzy drink- "What's 'algebra'?" or "What are sloppy joes?"

     By the end, she seems to understand the gist, and perks up with a smile. "So you think all these changes will make things a lot better in that other school. And then... when they see how good things are over there, Stanley's school will want to make those changes too. Right? That's really smart! Thank you for helping those people, Mr. Ishirou."

     As an afterthought while chewing her lip, she adds: "So why are you here? Are you hoping to learn from Ms. Rook, too?"
Lilian Rook     "Oh, so it's just 'Hibiki' for her, but still 'Miss Rook' for me?" Lilian asks Rita sarcastically. The acoustics in here are amazing; she barely has to turn her head from her Rantsona Position. "You might say that it has more to do with the latter. Of course, even given a million years in this place, I couldn't train Tachibana to beat me, but how well she does at fighting me is a far away concern beyond the glaring problems in her basic foundation. I'm certain that you should be able to tell what I'm speaking of, Rita. Even just at a glance."

    Her smart device blinks from its wearable position when Ishirou swipes to send. She lifts a hand as a sort of half-assed wave towards Cantio, then focuses on Hibiki instead.

    "My my, I almost expected to see you walk in that door thirty minutes late with a new crane toy. My congratulations, Tachibana." She's probably just happy to see her. "Don't mind them. I failed to say no to Rita, and then you know how it goes from there." Lilian's fingers wind into the chain of her own pendant absentmindedly, playing with the ancient heirloom like a lock of hair. "That may be true, but my purpose here isn't something so childishly naive as trying to tutorialize you as if you were fighting a 'video game' 'boss'." She says it so stiltedly that one could almost forget that this clearly communicates she knows exactly what those are. "This is an exercise between martial artists, concerning the matter of martial arts."

    "Because, by the original definition, that's what I am. And as reluctant as I am to say it, that's what you are too, now. So it's about time that you started taking your art seriously. Not treating such a heavy tradition like an after school club."

    Snatching the pendant off, a flash of black-gold light sparks from Lilian's breast, like a pulled plug and the electricity that was just invisibly coursing through it. Motes of energy seep out from behind thin air, becoming matter that becomes mass. Waves of particles settle against Lilian's skin, settling into an undersuit and coalescing into the impossibly fitted and interlocked black armour band and plate overtop. Residual particulate circles around her head, growing out a pair of small black antlers that loosely curl inwards like a crown, framing her lily pin. And yet, no sword.

    "Transform, Tachibana. I'll wait for a little while. And then when you're ready, come at me. It'll be easier to show you my than it will be to explain what your teacher's obvious blind spot for you is."
Ishirou Ishirou is more than happy to answer any questions Rita has. Not once does he become frustrated or set off his game by basic questions. He answers everyone as if they were important as any other question. To him, it is. Understanding everything is important to the whole.

"Well, I admit a bit of spite is causing me to do this, but it comes from a place of wanting to help the students. Also, the breakfast loaf that Stanley showed off is awful."

"I also want to implement these changes on a larger scale for Stanley's world...then I could turn that to doing it across all words."

A pause as Rita asks an important question. "Well, yeah? I wanted her to train me, so I'll take this as an opportunity to learn. I've also...you know, been working out and trying to improve. Even with how I was at the spa...which is just me being dumb.
Stanley Padgett     "The loaf isn't THAT bad, Ishirou, it just doesn't look the best. I've like... I've had much worse at 'better' places." Stanley huffs a little bit, as his phone's ringer goes off.
    He flicks at the message, and a blast of steamy Kpop music escapes the speaker. He grumps and flicks it closed again. "...And no, Rita, I'm not supposed to have alcohol, sorry I didn't say. So, yeah, non-carbonated and soft.
Ishirou Ishirou, in response produces a picture of 'breakfast loaf'. He just stares at Stanley.
Cantio "You, too? That's great! Er. Being here for Hibiki, I mean. Not the... School matter." Cantio replies and clarifies quickly afterwords to Stanley. "Have you tried a different school, then?" She asks, not having nearly the same context for the situation as someone greener and hairier in the Concord might.

Ishirou's response gets a firm nod. "It does sound important, considering..." Cantio doesn't finish that response to Ishirou, quickly recalling who was the likely impetus for this session in particular. The look on her face is even somewhat complicated, mixing in both pride at one of her allies being able to spur such a thing for her friends while also mild concern at being outpaced if she's not careful.

It does give her some ideas, too, but that's something for another day.

"Watching both of them should be useful all around, honestly. Seeing how far Hibiki's come, seeing Lilian fight in a situation that isn't so..." Cantio can't quite find a word to describe the feeling she's got in her head, eventually turning to Rita directly. "... Like the situations she usually does?"
Ishirou <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "It's fine Rita, we all have our problems. Just accept that we don't think you're a burden. I can even produce a PowerPoint presentation on it."
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says quietly, "All of that is true, I guess. I'm just scared I'll put myself in danger, and someone will do something risky to try to save me. Or that..."
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Someone will get hurt because I wasn't strong enough to help them because I've been selfish with keeping 'that' body."
<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Hold on, creating the presentation."

Ishirou stops whatever he was doing and clears the screens and starts furiously creating something else. He works for about five minutes straight, trying to put the finishing touches on doodles to try and make this at least somewhat presentable.

Then POD projects it for Rita (and all) to see.

The Title: Why Rita is a great person who isn't a burden.

Slide one: It's a drawing of Rita, it's badly done because Ishirou is a bad drawer, but he tries to draw normal girl Rita. 'Rita is a normal girl, but despite this, she is very strong.'

Slide two: It's a drawing of Rita in BladeCraft, you can tell this because digital parts are there instead of the first drawing. 'Rita also helps in BladeCraft, by using her magic to support, optimize, and help out the group.

Slide three: It's a drawing of Rita again, this time with anime sparkles. 'Rita is also cute, and this raises the morale of those around her by a lot.'

Slide Four: Rita again, but she's in a bowing pose. 'Rita is also overly humble, wanting to help her friends over herself.'

Conclusion: Rita is not a burden to anyone. This is followed with a sun with a happy face.
Hibiki Tachibana     Fortunately, Hibiki has gotten halfway decent at intuiting what Lilian actually means, even when her words are pretty harsh. That is, probably, the only reason she hasn't already gotten into a minor row with her over the whole deal with Petra - there's absolutely a point she would have without hesitation. That's something that's going to wait for another time either way though, just like her concerns with Stanley. "No, I figured it wouldn't be anything that simple," she replies as her instructor-to-be elaborates on things.

    And that's all she leaves it as, as Lilian readies herself - and yet no sword. That doesn't surprise her, for a lot of reasons. So there's no complaint at all as a hand comes up to clutch at the crimson pendant hanging from her neck.

    "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron..."

    The now-familiar golden light explodes outwards, silhouetting her form from the neck down as casual clothing is replaced with undersuit and trace amounts of armor, bulky gauntlets and heavy boots - and finally ending off with the headphone headpiece and the flowing scarf covering half of her face. Only after the motes of radiance left behind from her own transformation finish dispersing does she speak up again. "An exercise between martial artists..."

    She repeats that in what almost sounds like a wistful tone before focusing forward on Lilian again. One foot behind the other, half-turned towards her, and both fists raised. "...Right! Then you had better make sure to grind in what that means! I'm pretty thick-headed!"

    Delivered without a hint of shame. And just like that, she ducks in low before kicking off the marble and launching forward. As she does, the quickest way to get to her goal is a straight line - and that's also convenient for building up a whole lot of momentum into one arm hauled back. "But you know, it's not like I don't treat this seriously--!"

    She only barely cuts some of it with a skid that's going to take her right in front of Lilian, fist swinging upwards in an uppercut. A simple start, but still one that's going at least smart if it connects, knowing her.
Rita Ma      "Of course it's just 'Hibiki' for her!" Rita calls back down from the balcony. Then, mischievously: "She's shorter than me, isn't she? So that means I don't have to call her Ms. Tachibana. That's how it works!"

     Rita smiles her sunniest, most approving smile at Ishirou next. "That's really great, Mr. Ishirou! I guess I shouldn't be surprised you care so much about school."

     As an enjoyer of fine cuisine, she makes a Face about the loaf.

     "Oh! Of course, Mr. Stanley. Let me see what I can get you." She hesitates with the idea of getting up from her comfy couch seat, then struggles to muster up a little bravery for what she says next. With a shaky-plucky smile: "Hey, do you want to see a magic trick, Mr. Stanley? Watch!"

     She holds out her hand towards the bar, and the glasses and ingredients start to move by themselves. It looks just like telekinesis! Of course, if he reached out to touch a floating glass, he might feel the slick, clammy invisible tentacles that are really doing the manipulating. But shhhh.

     At the end, she presents him with an opaque crimson drink held in her actual hands. "There! A Virgin Bloody Mary. It should be sort of savory and tangy! Try it!"

     Then she gets comfy in her seat again, legs crossed and hands folded in her lap. "I can tell you've been getting stronger, Mr. Ishirou! You did a lot more in that second fight against me than the first one. I trust you more, now, to use that strength in a good way. So keep trying, okay?"

     Then she looks back over her shoulder to smile at Cantio: "Yeah. It's nice to see her not taking a fight as seriously. I think that means something good for Ms. Rook's heart." A little pause. "Actually, I have a lot of thoughts about how to fight her. Like it's-"

     She's interrupted by the appearance of the slideshow. Less than five seconds in, she's mortified and trying to bat it away by swatting at the hologram in embarrassment. "Nooo! Stop! Stop!! I'll be good, I promise! Mr. Ishirou, turn it offffff!!"
Ishirou Ishirou grins while Rita flails around trying to stop the presentation. He DOES stop it at her mortification, with a big smug look on his face. He did a good deed, making Rita feel good about herself.

"Oh, thanks. Yeah...I...whew, was really cringe back then wasn't I? You and Lilian helped me grow a lot. Despite things that happened at home too, I'm so much happier than I am now too. Funny how life works out.."

"And yeah...education is important to me. I can't understand why people aren't more focused on this? Probably capitalism's fault."
Cantio 'She's shorter than me, isn't she? So that means I don't have to call her Ms. Tachibana. That's how it works!'
'I'm glad, Ms. Cantio!'

Cantio makes a mental note to never stand right next to Rita. Sitting on things, fine. Wearing bigger boots, sure. Just no standing normally ever again.

Sipping more of her drink, she listens to more of the talks of who's gotten stronger how, and she keeps taking mental notes on all that up until Rita speaks of Lilian's heart. "Isn't it? It almost feels like..." She doesn't finish that thought, clearly wary for her own safety there, but there's a notable lean-forward when Rita's about to go into strategies on how to fight Lilian.

Ishirou's presentation about Rita interrupts that, though, getting a long stare from Cantio in turn. She slips on some kind of futuristic-looking monocle to look at it again, then puts it back into her pocket just as quickly. She looks away for a moment and holds her palms together in front of her face, looking like she might be on the verge of laughing, then...

Gives Ishirou a firm thumbs up and an approving nod.
Lilian Rook     "Oh my? Is it?" Lilian replies to Rita, smirking just a teeny bit. "I thought it had something to do with the status of a personal relationship and all that." She pauses in thought for a moment. "Well, you did ask me to call you just Rita. The rules are consistent. Carry on then."

<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Now that I think about it, Ms. Rook..."
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says slyly, "If I'm allowed to call Hibiki 'Hibiki' because she's shorter than me, maybe someday other things will change too."
<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Not likely."
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma mock-thoughtfully, "I think my mom was around your height. And my dad was really tall, so..."
<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou suddenly grows quiet.
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, with heretofore-unseen Little Shit Energy: "Is something wrong, Ishirou?"
<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Um...uh..."
<J-IC-Scene> Ishirou looks at Lilian, then... "No."
<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma makes a *smug* noise.

    "Wait, don't--"

    Too late though; Lilian started this match, and now she has to deal with Hibiki charging at her. As much as she might tease her, Lilian is not quite so arrogant as to completely discount the seriousness of hypothetically being punched head on by the Symphogear user. Her attention is drawn away by her extremely well-sharpened 'impending threat' reflex, and two things happen instantaneously.

    One is that Lilian is now standing five feet behind Hibiki; an uppercut swooshes through empty air, which is probably what Hibiki was expecting anyways. The other is that Hibiki's wrist to elbow is wrapped tightly in some sort of glossy black cable; metallic, but smooth and flattened, like Lilian's armour. Two separate strings are actually hooked around each other with each crisscross, which is something actually impossible to do by momentum alone. Someone has to be standing still to tie that. Worse, the remaining lead is pulled both tight over Hibiki's shoulder, so that after her uppercut, her fist is set to end up pinned to her clavicle, and looped under her arm, so that trying to turn sideways to free it only tightens the twist and squeezes her wrist and shoulder together instead.

    "Thank you Tachibana for getting to exactly what I mean." says Lilian, wire from nowhere wrapped and creaking around her gauntleted fist. She doesn't sound all that sarcastic. Just dry and matter-of-fact. "This is the crux of your foundational issue. Your style is 'fast, short, direct', isn't it? The maximum amount of power channelled along the shortest route to the greatest effect with the least delay."

    Hibiki is quickly going to notice a couple of things. One is that her Symphogear-boosted strength is much, much harder to use without the benefit of leverage; dealing with a proper bind is actually far more difficult than it looks. And the other is that it already feels as if she's been fighting for a solid minute. The first uppercut has taken an unusual tax on her muscles, and struggling is immediately, distressingly exhausting.

    "It sounds wonderful. Truly the style of a martial arts master who knows what he's talking about. Movements without wasted motion. Short battles that are decided decisively, without attrition and presenting minimal risk to the user. However, master is the operative term. That man is teaching you as if you were able to absorb master-level technique."

    "The reality is, of course, that you cannot. You aren't ready for that." says Lilian. Looping the strangle cable around her wrist a few more times is sufficient to drag Hibiki's arm into an agonizingly tense position. "Which isn't a suggestion of fundamental incompetence, mind you. The fact is that you lack the requisite battle sense to employ it effectively. I hope to demonstrate to you that, counterintuitively, your excessive focus on efficient movements is wasting energy."
Ishirou Ishirou also turns to Cantio, after the thumbs up. He notices her consternation in talking about what Hiromi did. "You're not here, despite being in the same group. So don't worry about it..."

There is a pause, "Guess I got to rebuild the R.E.S.C.U.E. Gosh this sucks."
Rita Ma      Once the holographic slideshow is over, one way or another- she might have to resort to grabbing POD and physically covering its projector lens with her hand- Rita slowly settles down, and shifts to sitting on the edge of the couch with her chin in her hands, attentively watching the battle.

     In response to Cantio's implied prompting: "Ideally, you'd be tough enough that Ms. Rook can't hurt you no matter what she does, and strong enough to wear her out at the same time. But except for Ms. Hiromi, I don't know anyone who really could do that. For everyone else..."

     "There's no point in going half-and-half." She points at Hibiki's uppercut, as if to say 'see?' "You can hunker down and make sure she can't hurt you, to catch your breath or hope she overextends. Or you can attack her hard enough that she uses up all her energy defending, and doesn't have any left to exploit you being wide open. You can even change between those two."

     "But if you open your defense halfway, so you can attack halfway... you won't pressure her at all, and she'll take advantage of that gap. Even if you're only vulnerable for a second, a second is forever to her."

     "... Or you can be like me, and catch her off-guard before she can use that. But I don't know anyone else who can do that either."

     Suddenly self-conscious, Rita leans back in her seat and scratches her cheek with a little laugh. "That's what I think, anyway. Sorry."
Hibiki Tachibana     A lack of a clean hit. Even Hibiki was expecting that much. Lilian is right on the money with that one. The other thing? Not so much. The contrast between fighting a Lilian Rook who's actively trying to dismantle her or lashing out versus a Lilian Rook who's trying to imprint a lesson becomes immediately obvious - as evidenced by the binding locking down her arm. "Wh--" That's a new one.

    A split-second after, the limb snaps back to her collarbone and tightens in place, and her instant effort to try and loosen it is only met with just how effectively the wrapping has been done...and more exhaustion than she has any right to have the first moments of the fight. Pushing directly against the cable is going to have less than no effect, it's just going to tire her out more. A bead of sweat dropping down the side of her face, her attention is half on Lilian and half on it. "Damnit..."

    And it's not like she can argue much against that, either. They've fought against, and with, each other enough that Lilian is very well knowledgable on exactly how she operates. "So you're saying it's another...experience issue, or something like that...?" There's the undercurrent of stress on her voice, which probably isn't surprising in her current position. "Asking me to change that is like asking me to change who I am, you know..."

    She phrases it like it's a sarcastic joke in the moment, even when it's not. "...Which just means that I need to get that 'battle sense' you're talking about. Some way or another. Even I know that fighting like this has never worked against you...but even so...!" She still has one hand to use. For now, at least - and it goes to work to grasp onto the loose cable connecting her back to Lilian as tightly as she can, making up for any lack of grip on the smooth surface by clenching down tight enough for an iron hold.

    "--If you're here to prove that wrong, I might as well help you 'demonstrate'!" Lack of leverage is hard to work with. But she can sure brute force it as best as she can, all for the purpose of /yanking/ the cable in and thus attempt to try and drag its owner with it, straight in towards her. Would Lilian Rook of all people let that happen? Doubtful.

    But she does have a boot with her name on it in the off-chance.
Cantio "You mentioned the damage, right... Well, what's it intended to do? Cantio asks Ishirou as she reaches for something at her side only to remember that she didn't actually bring her attache case of stuff with her. She tries to play it off as dusting her leg off, but it's kind of unnatural. "Was it specially designed for combat, or to... Er. Rescue people from bad situations? I can't really give too much advice on anything specific to Hiromi since she's still an ally, but... Knowing what you want it to do might be a good starting point for figuring out how to rebuild it for future encounters."

She takes another moment to sip her mostly-ice cup, then strokes her chin while watching the fight beginning. Cantio finds her gaze fixed on where Hibiki's aiming and where Lilian was, then where Lilian is. It's still somewhat disconcerting to see that power used so effortlessly, but it's...

Actually, she's not really drawing much in mind from that at all. Using it, certainly, but combating it? That's the harder part. It's not until Rita spells it out for her that the logic behind the ability's strengths and weaknesses starts to come together. "That... Makes sense, yeah. I know when I used to.." Wait. Does Rita know about that? Well, no sense in hiding something that doesn't exist anymore. "... Be able to do that, it was pretty tiring to turn it on and off."

Also, embarrassing. Still, the pose did help her focus on it enough to get it to work for a while.
Ishirou Ishirou laughs a little, shaking his head a little. "The R.E.S.C.U.E. Unit is actually a variable combat suit that Blemshine and I developed for my use, it was based on the flight unit I had before, but with upgraded features. It stands for The Recon, Exploration, Surveying, Combat, and Unified Environmental Unit. It's created to go into a varied amount of environments and perform a variety of jobs."

"I'm not exactly human, but I'm a far cry from the average elite in strength, so this makes up the difference. It's made to do anything an elite might need to do on the field," Ishirou sounds very proud of it, but also a little sad it got so thoroughly destroyed.

"Yeah, Rita's right about that. Going half and half like that, and not going for a dedication for either offense or defense is going to just leave you doing both poorly. She's completely advantaged by having the time to think of any counter to something like that. Dedicating something to it would negate the advantage...in theory anyway."

"Surprise only works so long before she starts adapting," He considers, before smiling at Rita, "No need to be sorry, it's pretty insightful."
Lilian Rook     "Something similar." says Lilian. "Your teacher is clearly gifted, but he has no idea how to construct a lesson path. You're picking up flashy techniques and master-level theory, but you haven't gone through the basic steps that would have taught you how to apply them." She smirks openly at Hibiki's initial struggling. "For instance, you knew that attack wasn't going to connect, didn't you? You pulled it back, used something quick and low-expenditure, and kept on the defensive. But here's something to consider, Tachibana:"

    "What was the point? Why swing at me if you're certain you won't hit? You didn't have anything else in mind after, did you? No further steps to a plan that would guarantee that it was put to good use. So, listen to this carefully. No matter how clean and direct your fighting style is, if you're efficiently accomplishing nothing, it isn't efficient. For instance--"

    Lilian's middling weight is pulled right in by Hibiki's immense strength. There is no particularly elegant way to leave the ground and go flying towards someone, but the ripple wave of energy kicks in just in time for her to stylishly reorient herself in mid-air on the approach, rather than choosing to relinquish the bond. Her free hand pulls against the gripping one, and extends more rope from nothing with a hiss like iron sand, as if readying a wound garrotte. Then . . .

    Lilian slides underneath Hibiki's kick, skating past her with a subdued spray of sparks and leaping to her feet behind her again. Hibiki feels the wind driven out of her from what must have been line impacting her midsection at high speed, thanks to the strength of her own pull, and it's difficult to get back her breath, given how tightly it is zigzag laced around her midsection, and then crossed diagonally several times over her chest, compressing her lungs and biting into her shoulders and waist, reducing the range of the muscles she needs to throw punches. It's even looped into the existing arm bind, now securing it to her back.

    "Cute, but every Elite always gets the exact same idea whenever they're grappled like that. I've seen it a million times. More importantly, that was a waste of energy too. When you pull me in like that, I know exactly where your attack is going to go, and when it's going to come out. I'm moving in a straight line at a static speed and you're going to lash out to hit me just as I come within your reach. Once again, very efficient, very direct, and completely pointless."

    Worse, lacking sufficient air is going to get to Hibiki extremely quickly, rendering her dizzy and weakened in moments. She could swear that the oddly smooth metallic ribbon is sucking the energy out of her, judging by the exponential rate at which she's exerting herself. She can feel her core temperature rising as if from intense exercise, even though it's barely been a minute.

    "It's true that a prime goal in mastering martial arts is to turn as little energy as possible into as much power as you can. If it takes you a thousand points of energy to muster a hundred points of attacking power, you'll practically always lose to someone who can respond with a hundred points of defense using only a hundred points of energy. However." Lilian pulls for emphasis, or just to be mean, crushing around Hibiki's chest and waist.
Lilian Rook     "Even if you're able to turn five hundred points of energy into five hundred points of attacking power, when you do it like this, I don't need to scrape up five hundred points of defense. Because your attacks are so linear and so predictable, because your fighting style is so honest and easy to read, and because you don't have a plan for the step after your first blow, and the step after that, or any counters in mind for what your enemy might do as well, you open yourself up to far more efficient ways of dealing with them. It only costs me fifty points of energy to defend against these attacks by simply moving aside. Hiromi knows this as well. She spends even less to simply move you aside. And now your 'fast, short, direct' style is fighting at a ten to one deficit of motion, energy, and openings."
Stanley Padgett     Stanley has, maybe to some people's surprise, been taking notes. Of a lot of things, but mostly combat techniques.
Rita Ma      "You could do that??" Evidently Rita didn't know. She looks at Cantio briefly with sparkly wonder, and then with a touch of sadness. "I mean... I'm sorry. That sounds like it was really hard, Ms. Cantio. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

     Her brow furrows slightly as she looks back down at the ongoing fight. "I always thought of it as a 'power' she just had, and not a 'skill' someone has to work on. Knowing you had a hard time with it makes that feel more impressive, I guess."

     Then, gently scolding Ishirou: "That's only true if you're bad at surprises, you know. When you surprise people, they change their expectations. Then you can surprise those new expectations, too. As long as you stay a step ahead, it can go forever, until they just give up and shut their eyes. And most people can't beat you blind."

     Finally, with a sip of her fizzy drink, she glances over at Stanley. "What do you think so far? They're both really cool, aren't they?"
Stanley Padgett     Stanley found himself some canned cucumber green tea at some point. He's got several of them in front of him now, and seemingly startles a bit hearing Rita talking to him directly again. "Oh! Hah! Well. Uh."

    He points a bit. "First off, I am just going to say I've never fought another person like that before, just like... really tough Shadows and Tyrants so I can't really say one way or another on... uh... fighting other people."

    He holds up his little notebook. It's supposed to be his AP Multiversal History note book. Now it's got a bunch of drawings of what he can spot of Lilian's combat. "...I'd rather not fight either of them, to be honest. But."

    Stanley makes a face. "It looks like I'm not going to get a choice in the future. So, I suppose I've got to get some practice in some time soon, before I get the matter forced on me."
Stanley Padgett     "But yes. Hibiki and Ms Rook are both really cool."
Ishirou Ishirou frowns at Rita's light scolding, tilting his head towards her. "Well, if all you do is surprises, then the guard is up high. Sneak attacks generally don't work a second time," he argues back. Though she DOES make a good point.

"Oh right, people can't see omnidirectionally. Or have as good of sight as I do..." he muses on this point. "My problem with your attacks is they are just so fast, I can't overcome them. I guess I just need more time to work on my reflexes."

Or maybe learn he just isn't great in a fight, but support.
Stanley Padgett     The bloody mary that Rita made was dutifully consumed, at some point, and Stanley made the point of mentioning it was delightfully under garnished. "Some places I see around here make it a point to serve you a whole meal on top of one of these."
Cantio "An all-purpose suit, then... It certainly sounded impressive from everything I've heard about it. I'd love to have seen it when it was still one piece." Cantio admits with a chuckle of her own, pursing her lips briefly when she sees another swing from Hibiki not going quite as intended. Lilian expounds on why that strategy isn't working, and Cantio even goes quiet for several moments as she listens to the explanations, the difference in their hypothetical energy expenditures, and the differences in their approaches.

"I guess... It's kind of different compared to this fight, actually. To get stronger tools, you need to emphasize their strengths. Being so versatile means more points of failure, especially if the parts are all dependent on each other to exist. My-" Cantio is once again cursing her lack of foresight in not bringing her stuff for once. "-weapon is kind of brittle because it's made of so many parts, so I can't count on it to withstand too many heavy hits. Instead, I work with that, and the pieces are designed to be shattered. It's... Kind of cheating a little because I use magic with it, too, but it's a really potent weapon that can fit whatever need I have because it breaks."

She emphasizes the 'weapon' part really hard as she says it. "I use it to protect people, sure, but... It's still intended to hurt and to kill people before all that. It's not a protective suit, or a recon enhancer, or anything like that. Just a really fancy weapon." She clarifies, sounding somewhat down by the end of that.

Luckily, Rita's there to help perk her right back up! Cantio laughs lightly and nods, then raises a hand at that apology. "Oh, there's nothing to apologize for. It was a step towards real growth, even if it was a..." She pauses briefly, remembering something darker in her mind, then casts it aside with a quick shake of her head. "... Well, it was something that happened, and it made me better for it."

Probably. "There's skill involved in using the power effectively, to be clear. I mean, it was a 'power' because it wasn't something I could normally do? And then it turned into something else I could do. And..." Cantio raises her hand for emphasis, then just puts it completely through the railing without anything being disturbed or broken. "... Now I can do this! I haven't really mastered it yet, though, so it's more of a power without the skill so far."

Stanley brings out his homework, and Cantio strokes her chin as she mulls over his comments with a firm nod. "It'll be good to be prepared sooner rather than later, that's true. Elites like us do get into fights pretty often, with or against each other. It's part of our jobs, even if we'd rather it not be... That."
Ishirou Ishirou listens to Cantion, but explains some things. "Actually, we thought of that in the construction. That was actually what was wrong with the original Flight Unit. Instead, we focused on the modularity of the basic suit, with enhanced functions in it. Then we split things down into modules."

"From there we just broke it down into what each part does and focus on that. Though.." he says, with a thoughtful expression... "I haven't focused on a defensive or a pure offensive function for either.."

He pauses, and opens up a screen, typing some things on it. Ishirou seems deep in thought as he starts running calculations and engineering problems.
Lilian Rook     Lilian apparently feels at-ease enough to raise her voice aside for Rita. "Of course it's a skill. How easy do you think manipulating time and causality is? If I'm not the one at the wheel, who is? It's not as if there's a computer to simply do it all for me with the flick of a switch."

    She sounds weirdly nostalgic, for such an odd topic. "When I was very young, I used to be only able to do a few seconds at a time. Perhaps a few minutes a day. And it was messy. Very obvious. Spliced together very roughly. Sometimes things would snap back into place, or everyone around would get vivid deja vu. I hurt myself with it more than a few times. It took immense amounts of work to get where I am now, you know. When I first joined the Paladins, I used to only be able to manage about twelve hours a day under relaxed conditions. Now I'm nearly up to about twenty two."
Hibiki Tachibana     Lilian goes skidding past, another missed hit - and she immediately goes lurching forward with a sound somewhere between a dry heave and a gasp. There's a chance that the only thing stopping her from momentarily dropping to a knee is just how much more tightly she's bound now, keeping enough pull in the opposite direction to keep her on her feet. Especially when the metaphorical noose only tightens further around her body.

    "Hah...hah...ugh..." She can barely get any air back in. Her torso is getting squeezed in too hard to manage much. There's a long moment where all she can do is struggle to try and do it anyway, while Lilian speaks - and it doesn't help that she's working at cross interests, using up some of that oxygen to reply after the fact. "I get...what you're saying..." If she sounded strained before, imagine now.

    For a moment, there are a few lurches, but no real fighting back as the lightheadedness begins taking effect. "You know, way back then, I never could figure out how to fight you...no matter how hard I thought about it. And just throwing myself at you...over and over...never worked either. 'Haven't I already told you how predictable it is...? Do you think coming at me even harder is going to help...?'" She repeats something from a long while back, in another display of hanging onto a lot more than she probably had to.

    "I know I need to shape up, and I know I'll never beat Hiromi like this...! So--!" She even sounds more acknowledging than frustrated with that fact, which says something. Most of the tension in her voice is actually from the deep breath she tries to take despite the restraints, her way of bracing herself before she forces herself back to a full stand, and this time, she's the one moving - launching herself back along the connecting cable, straight towards Lilian. Another head-on attack, it looks like. Even being locked down this hard isn't seeming to stop her from trying to close the distance in an instant.

    A full-body tackle short of the ability to move as well as she wants, it looks like? Or--

    A split-second before she'd otherwise make contact, her Symphogear's thrusters quick-fire and blast her straight to the side, the abrupt boost combined with the momentum carrying her in an arc. She can't outmaneuver Lilian. But she sure can excel at overpowering her if it comes down to it. If it comes down to it, she can tug Lilian around better than the other girl can do the same to her, even if it takes up a ton of energy. Or just maybe do something that'll force her to relinquish the hold on her.

    Which is why she makes another sudden twist of her body as she goes, feeling the cable clenching down into her body the entire time, for the sole purpose of trying to once again drag Lilian along for the ride - although this time, rather than trying to bring the dark magical girl to her, she's going to /swing/ her off of her feet and directly into the nearest of the pillars. Fast enough that it'll be nearly instant, and with enough effort behind it to probably leave a Lilian-shaped indent, if not topple it entirely depending on its sturdiness.

    This is probably going to hurt. After the fact. For her.
Rita Ma      "Wow! How'd you do that, Ms. Cantio??" Rita touches the bar as if to double-check it's really solid, and stares at her phased-out hand with eyes wide. "Is it because you live in a place that's all computers? But you said it's a power you just got, so..." She trails off, looking at her questioningly.

     After that: "Raising your guard is an expectation too, you know," Rita says to Ishirou, sounding just a little put out. "When the other person puts their guard up, that's when you catch your breath, or run away, or fake them out." She circles her finger in the air, pointing up. "And on and on, like that. You're just not using your imagination enough, Mr. Ishirou."

     "And you're more susceptible to it than you think you are! Not giving people time to think it over is part of the point."

     Rita leans back into the couch cushions again, crossing her legs. She listens to Stanley elaborate while sipping the dregs of her drink, at least until a grimace interrupts it. "Yeah," she says, making a hangdog expression. "I felt that way too, Mr. Stanley. I guess I still do a little. Where I'm from, we only fought monsters too. So fighting humans meant..."

     That I was a monster, she avoids saying. "That I felt like I was doing something wrong."

     A little pause follows. Rita straightens herself out. "But that's just the way it is. Sometimes people will do awful things, just like monsters do. You're right that it's hard to avoid..."

     She gestures down at the fight below. "This, in the end."

     Rita's left alone with her thoughts for a moment, broken up only by the sounds of fighting below. Then she perks up: "Oh, right! Congratulations on getting engaged, Mr. Stanley!"
Stanley Padgett     "I mean it might not be one of you guys. As I'm quickly learning, there are a lot of Elites out there who are not with any of the big factions, so like...' Stanly makes a face. "Now I just gotta figure out if I'm tough enough to beat a wizard and a mecha-man if it comes down to it."
    Cantio gets a nod. "Someone back home is trying to force issues I'm not sure they're ready for and I just... I just don't want people to get hurt around me, that's all."

    And then Stanley is coughing on his tea as he whines. "Not you too, Miss Rita. I just.... I have been trying to get those taken down, and now it's up to being engaged?"
Cantio "A modular system isn't a bad thing at all, if it's meant to do low impact stuff. My drones aren't really meant for fighting, so I can afford to load them up with stuff like-" Cantio grins, actually having one of those in her pockets! It's just her phone, but it floats once she lets go of it, and it sprouts those stubby limbs and that gross face after a moment. "-Audio projection, note taking, compasses, all that extra stuff that won't help me cut or shoot something better unless it's for a surprise attack or something."

The screen coming up gets her raising an eyebrow, but she'll give Ishirou his privacy on that. No sense spoiling any surprises down the line, after all!

Lilian mentions how long she's able to stop time, and Cantio furrows her brow for a moment. "Does... Wait. Does that mean you're older than you should be, too?" She gestures at herself, then at Lilian while stepping willingly on that potential land mine. "I know I've missed a while just from catching up on sleep with mine, but I haven't been doing it nearly as long as..."

Catching herself, Cantio tries to pivot right off that land mine as Rita brings up the hand-phasing thing. "This? Hehe... No, that's also from... Actually, the same person I had gotten the power like Lilian's from before it stopped working." She pauses for a little while longer, only then remembering that it might not be a good idea to mention BB around Lilian.

Well, maybe she's been vague enough without saying any names for it to slip by. "Although it's true that a lot of stuff and people back home are computer data in a sense, we're still suck with a lot of the same 'rules' that regular humans have to follow. Eating, sleeping, taking breaks, all that... Although I'm pretty sure my sister's disappeared a few times without opening the door before, so maybe she could do it already?"

'Congratulations on getting engaged, Mr. Stanley!'

"... Oh, wow. Already? I didn't know you two were that close already!" Cantio giggles with a surprised look on her face, tapping her feet against the railing once before leaning forward. "So! Who's the lucky person?"
Ishirou "Wow engaged Stanley? You move fast.." Ishirou says, with a bit of wonder.

"...Maybe..." he admits to Rita. "I was figuring out just a one-on-one fight in a vacuum. I never considered other situations," he doesn't pause his typing, though he does take a moment to delete something and work on another thing.

Though to Rita's comment about awful things...he sighs and sucks in a breath. "What about Phreak's father? He wasn't a monster, he really loved his son. He was an awful person but..." he shakes his head. "You also lied to me and Lilian to do it too."

Oddly, he's not actually trying to throw it in her face, or recriminate her, instead, he asks an important question. "Why? Tell me why you thought that it was the only way to be resolved. I don't understand.."

Ishirou looks at Stanley, "Maybe you should consider getting allies. There are people out there who do give a damn about you, okay?"

Cantio's comments on his system get a frown. "Maybe I need to compartmentalize the combat packs. The mobility modules work as is...hmmm..."

"Oh, that stuff I can do internally," he says, not tapping at his head, "And POD handles overflow I can't." He says with a beam towards his partner. The POD speaks up, "Even if you don't take my advice and be less reckless."

Ishirou's face goes red, "Shhhh about that..!"
Rita Ma      Rita freezes up when Lilian addresses her from below. She looks uneasy, though not necessarily just because she's being set straight.

     "I don't know," she answers slowly. "How hard is something that's impossible? I didn't know what to think about that. The 'impossible' things I do mostly just come easily. So..."

     She doesn't like the idea that there is a 'computer' to simply do it for her.

     Twelve hours a day to twenty-two. Rita's eyebrows shoot up, but then she starts counting on her fingers. How long has Lilian been in the Paladins? Not more than four years, right? That's got to be some kind of exponential increase.

     Smiling and half-joking: "If you figure out how to stop time forever, you'll still come back to visit sometimes, right?"

     Then she looks back to Stanley. Her expression of concern is genuine. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Stanley! Were you hoping to keep it a secret?
Stanley Padgett     Stanley put his head in his hands and sighs. "Gods okay, so after I got suspended on Monday cause Remee and Kukuru sent me breakfast at school, and by that I meant Remee bought like 150 dollars worth of breakfast, had it sent to me. The courier got turned away, so she had Kukuru just... teleport into the middle of my classroom and drop it off."
    "That is what got me suspended and I guess while she was trying to sort things out afterwards, she tried to tell the Solutiony people that I was her boyfriend and like..."

    "There are students that work in the office to do like running stuff to teachers and to get attendance slips and that sort of thing and one of them heard it and now..."

    Hands in the air. "No I am not dating Remee, he's cute, I wouldn't mind it maybe but the gossip gangs at school are relentless about this, me dating some offworlder elite." He's hiding his face, but it's hard to do that and also hide the burning red ears under that shaggy blue hair.
Rita Ma      Rita is fully and completely out of her depth with High School Gossip Problems, and Stanley can see it on her face. Even so, she tries gently patting his shoulder. "Oh. I'm really, really sorry, Mr. Stanley. I didn't know that was making so much trouble for you. I don't know much about situations like this, but... it's not true, right? If you just hunker down, I'm sure they'll stop saying it."

     The hopefulness in her voice isn't quite convincing though.

     Rather than look less impressed on being told Cantio's power is a gift, Rita looks just as starry-eyed. "Oh, wow! You have some really amazing friends, Ms. Cantio! I'm glad there's so many people who want to support you."

     Then she taps her chin, in that exaggerated way she sometimes does. "Your sister... she's an important person with her own big house, right? Maybe she just has secret passages or something. I feel like that's more likely than her teleporting without you knowing it."
Rita Ma      Finally, she's just finished off her drink and started to give the fight her full attention again when Ishirou brings up That Day. It's a good thing she's set the glass down, because she needs both hands to rub her face.

     "I didn't lie," she says, sounding both surprisingly tired and surprisingly harsh. "You tried to boss me around, and just assumed I'd go along with it. Shut up."

     Her hands drop to her lap, revealing a queasy, sharp-eyed expression. "Why were you going to let him live? Your coworkers have said they'll cut me up. Why would I trust their organization to be fair?! Why would you?"

     She scrunches her eyes shut tight for a moment, then breathes out through her nose while opening her eyes again. She looks calmer, but even more depleted.

     "I'm sorry. I like you, Mr. Ishirou. You've grown a lot. Maybe when you grow some more, you'll understand."

     Rita can only bear to look at Stanley out of the corner of her eye, while pretending to watch the fight instead. He's still green, and Ishirou's broached the topic of her killing someone. How's he going to look at her now?
Lilian Rook     Lilian responds to Hibiki's recitation of past grievances with an odd kind of neutral calm. "You remembered." she says, staring at her pensively. "That's true. Hiromi may appear to be a big stupid monster, but she's clearly quite skilled in martial arts as well. She fights completely differently from me, but she roughly understands the same principles as I do, from when I was trained by Aobheil, then Gerart, then Scáthach." A pause. "Which is very annoying. I'd prefer her to be stupid and aggressive. It's entirely not fair how skilled she is whilst also being that strong, immortal, untiring, and impossible to mentally influence. Bitch."

    Of course, Lilian looks deeply unimpressed at Hibiki charging her head on like that. Her eyes widen, however, when she suddenly jukes sideways. Hibiki could swear that she saw the corners of Lilian's lips twitch. There's a moment where she feels the line go tight, just as all that momentum travels down the wire and into overriding Lilian's inertia-- and then the world tumbles nauseatingly end over end as Lilian braces the tensed length across her opposite forearm, grips ahead of it, and pulls apart and diagonally.

    "Better! You attempted a feint there! It costs a little more energy, but it leaves you less vulnerable, and your attack is more likely to hit, making the expenditure of time and motion have higher value. That ratio of risk and effort to probable reward is what you need to maximize, not just minimizing the first two or maximizing the latter on their own. However . . ."

    It's clear what she's doing even before she says it. "Those thrusters are fixed to specific points in your Symphogear. Mainly your back and lower body. As long as I have a moment to react, I can use very little energy to displace your momentum like this, and . . ." Lilian strains on the wires for a second to try and send Hibiki spinning into a pillar herself instead. "A feint alone only works if I can't react in time. When you charge at me from so far away, I still have plenty of time, even if you are very fast. You're revealing your hand too early, and wasting your energy and opportunities by chasing the enemy around head on like that. Have you ever seen fighters circle in with each other? Or stand still and wait for an opening? Of course, I don't need to think fast enough to counter you. I only need to realize it's a feint, and I can plan as much as I like."

    Lilian blinks forward to take advantage of the moment she bounces Hibiki, zipping behind and past her to bind her opposite arm behind her lower back, and tying it together with the one over her shoulder, fresh loops squeeze in diamond cross over her chest to secure them, and the spare time she had in one comfortable burst was apparently enough to get double loops around her upper thighs, threatening to finally seal the movement of her legs with the next false move.

    "What I want to train you is to fight as if you'll only get six exchanges of blows at most. You need to stop thinking you'll get infinite tries. Hot blood and determination can only go so far. To that end, I've accelerated entropy for you in this room. That means you'll tire yourself out twenty times faster. Each of your missteps will whittle down your options. We'll reset the Shrine between tries, lest you perish of dehydration and exhaustion."
Ishirou "We came to an agreement over the radio, nothing was said about changing plans until we were right there, and he was down. I didn't try and boss you around, and I won't shut up," Ishirou says firmly. "However, you at least answered my question."

"If you mean Kale, that same coworker helped coordinate that day with you and Lilian...if there is someone else..." he says, because she has mentioned someone from the Paladins having abused her before... "I can't help fix something I don't know about."

"I like you too, but..." he sighs, "It just feels like there is this barrier between people and myself, and I can't understand them no matter what. But..." he pauses, taking in a breath, "A dead person can't pay for their crimes."
Stanley Padgett     Stanley's ears fade from their crimson hue as he watches Lilian experly take apart Hibiki down below, and he murmurs in Rita's direction. "Tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation, and no sin for Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come." He furrows his brow a bit, and then pushes over his last can of tea.
    "I have met greater monsters than any of you. Cruel for cruelness, cruel for ignorance. You all seem to want to devote yourself to some greater purpose, and I've yet to see you be... casually horrible to people."

    Hibiki's fading down there, and Stanley whispers. "You people scare me, but out of awe rather than some worry that you're going to... rip me to pieces for something I can't control."
Lilian Rook     'Does... Wait. Does that mean you're older than you should be, too?'

    Lilian quietly flips Cantio off while busy with the metallic ropes, then says "Should that count? If we add on a few more years from time that never existed, we might as well subtract all the years I didn't exist before, so really I'd end up being much younger." She doesn't elaborate on that baffling sentence. "It means that I'm still improving. And you should be too. Don't treat your abilities like an appliance."

    'If you figure out how to stop time forever, you'll still come back to visit sometimes, right?'

    Lilian smiles a tiny bit forlornly. "I think I'd get lonely. If I could do that, I'd rather take you all with me." A sad little smile is interrupted by a sudden thought. "Not 'you all' up in the bleachers."

    'If you mean Kale,'

    "Don't try to apologize for the Paladins. Don't try to make excuses for the Paladins. You don't have the right to contradict what everyone else stands for, even if some of them are imbeciles. You don't have the power to forgive them on behalf of Rita. If I do something shitty, I want her to hate me for it, not have you tell everyone what I really meant; I meant what I meant."

    'the gossip gangs at school are relentless about this, me dating some offworlder elite'

    Lilian's tone just oozes viciously sardonic sarcasm. "At least she isn't black though, right?" Then mutters too-loudly about 'fucking Americans'.

    'I have met greater monsters than any of you.'

    "Don't bet on it. I grew up British."
Rita Ma      "That's a lie." Rita stands up, unnervingly crisply. Her voice has an edge of desperation. "I told you what I was going to do! I said I'd kill him from the start! And you chose not to listen to me. You just assumed I'd fall in line. And then you acted shocked when I didn't."

     She hasn't often raised her voice before, and it's not something she can maintain for long. Rita simmers silently at that intensity for only a couple of heartbeats before decompressing again. Her hand clutches her arm. Her posture slumps.

     In a small voice: "I don't want bad people to 'pay'. I just want them to change or go away. He didn't want to change, so I made him go away."

     Then she awkwardly sits back down, looking away from Ishirou. There's no elegant way to step back from that; not without a 'sorry' she doesn't really want to give.

     "Thanks," she says to Stanley. She really does smile, albeit shakily, and the gratitude in her voice is real. "That means a lot to me, Mr. Stanley. More than you think it does, I feel like. I don't want you to ever have to feel that way. About me or anybody."

     "And you shouldn't be in 'awe' of us. Well, maybe some-" she peeks over the railing- "but you're still really new at this, right? You'll catch up soon. I promise it happens fast."

     She looks over at him, still anxiously balling her hands together in her lap. "You'll find a way through it to someone you're really happy being. That's what I think."
Stanley Padgett     Stanley's hands ball together a bit more at Lilian's barbs from downstairs... but he doesn't respond to them.

    He isntead stands, and hugs Rita. It's not long, it's just a hug from behind, before he murmurs. "...Detective Caelan is probably wondering where I am. I'll... See you people later."

    And then, leaving behind his empty cans, and notably his AP MH notebook, woops, he tersely makes his way towards a bus terminal to catch a lift back home via the Velvet Room.
Ishirou "It's not a lie!" Ishirou says, turning towards Rita, more than annoyed...but angrily. "You said that before Lilian got involved. The issue was settled, and you did not raise an objection at all...or did you instead say nothing to get me involved. You had plenty of time to correct my understanding of the situation at any time up til that point."

"I assumed you wouldn't deceive me like that..." a pause, "Or maybe I let myself be deceived, thinking you'd have said something if you weren't going to agree."

Though Lilian's call from the grounds causes him to turn his head toward her. "I'm not trying to. Someone did this, they shouldn't do this! What hope do we have of doing good if we can't even stop people in our own ranks!" There is another pause, "And you're not shitty.."

"Do you think people just change right away? That they don't have to pay a debt to society first? Killing a person can't change. All it does is leave a corpse. Even if you won't regret it today, you will in the future. It's not fair for you to take that stain on yourself.."
Hibiki Tachibana     'Those thrusters are fixed to specific points.' Of course she realized that. Which means--

    There's a tug along the cable, and that's enough to send her spiraling out of control, getting a taste of her own medicine as she plows directly into one of the pillars at high speed. There's the sound of a muffled cry of pain as she collides with it and bounces back off for a brief second before gravity kicks back in - and by the time sense and the ability to see straight ahead again, the restrictions she's fighting under have only gotten that much worse. How obscenely uncomfortable it is aside, she knows how bad it is. Both arms tied off, and she doesn't have the energy to try and break the bonds by force. Her legs aren't fully locked down, but they're going to be there shortly if she doesn't do something.

    "Hah...hah...ah..." Scratch that. 'Seeing straight' is a little too generous. She's too exhausted to do that, and a look at how unfocused her eyes are shows that much. But not enough not to process words. Right. Lilian is an exception to the usual rules of trying to throw people off. She needs better than that. "Twenty times...is seriously...some crap..." She murmurs, somewhere in the middle of Lilian replying back to everyone up in the stands.

    Six blows at most. There's another strained inhale, or at least as best as she can manage. "I know there's...a limit to that stuff...ngh--even if I promised someone...I'd never stop getting back up..." She didn't say anything on the topic of Hiromi before, but that's as close as she'll get. Also, she would have also had to call Lilian out on being 'not fair', but complaining isn't going to do anything at this point. But true to her word, she looks as if she's still using what range of movement she still has to try and pull herself up.

    "Gh--...sorry. I'm really not good at this stuff..." She sounds...very genuine about an apology she probably doesn't have to give. Right before the barest amount of energy returns to her voice. "But if you're...gonna give me 'infinite tries' to get it right...I at least won't waste that much--!"

    Hibiki wasn't getting up at all, actually. Just moving enough that, with one leg braced against the marble flooring, she can push down and launch herself up without very much warning at all. It's not much to worry about at all, aside from how sudden it is - a headbutt out of nowhere, to have that famously thick skull come up and try to crash into Lilian's jaw. Hard.

    She's wasted too many of those 'tries' this time. But if she can manage it, she'll at least try to make sure one of them gets through, by acting quickly enough that even Lilian might not realize it was coming.

    Might. She's going to end up right back on her face after that, that's for sure.
Lilian Rook     "I know you aren't." Lilian says to Hibiki matter-of-factly. "That's the point of this training. To make you better at it. There's no shame in being terrible at something once you first start learning it." That is probably the most supportive thing that has ever come out of her mouth directed at Hibiki. "You should have seen me when I first started learning to fight."

    Finally, Hibiki's headbutt is actually a little bit surprising. Not that surprising for Lilian, but giving her just a bit less time to react; especially when she's already so close. This time, Lilian steps back and catches the heavy blow on the outside of her forearm rather than blipping away, shifting her weight to the right whilst she pushes her arm out to the left and lowers her stance so her arm isn't pushed into her body. The Symphogear-clad headbutt clangs on that warm black armour, throwing off golden motes of light like sprayed drops of water, and slides to bounce on her equally armoured shoulder, before the rest of its momentum slips past on the sloped, mirror smooth surface, and--

    Well, Lilian has the perfect opportunity. The convoluted binding pulls down Hibiki's front as she slings past and diverts course, through the loops prepared on her upper legs, and then down to her ankles, winding around the thrusters several times to cover them up, and then going back to join the loops above, able to completely seal the last of her ability to fight, and dump her on the ground sweaty and exhausted from the temporal acceleration.

    "Need to take a breather~?" Lilian smugs, just a little. "You're getting the idea."
Rita Ma      The hug relaxes Rita significantly. "Oh! Um, bye, Mr. Stanley! Be safe out there, okay? ... I'm sorry." She notices his forsaken notebook a little too late, scooping it up only after he's out the door.

     Then she's pulled right back into it. Rita's body quivers. Her fingers grip handfuls of her clothes, white-knuckled. She's an amateur at anger; her body doesn't know what to do with that energy. It just builds and builds with no release valve, not even violence.

     "SHUT UP!"

     She doesn't seem to realize she's yelling until the words leave her mouth. She even more doesn't seem to care.

     "I don't CARE what you think I'll regret! I don't CARE what you think 'stains' me! Do you know how arrogant you are?! You're THREE YEARS OLD and you want to talk about regret?? Don't you DARE say another word. Not..."

     It's reaching the end of her lung capacity, and not anything else, that forces Rita to slow down. She takes a deep, shuddering breath in through her teeth.

     She isn't yelling anymore. "Not even 'sorry'. Just shut up."

     And then she's walking towards the exit.
Hibiki Tachibana     And just like that, down Hibiki goes - with a full four-limb tying for the trouble. Even if she wanted to move, she couldn't with every avenue of being able to move locked down. And if she wanted to break out, she'd have to draw on things she just doesn't have to give right now. Also, these loops are really tight. Like, /really/ tight. How much of that she processes in her current state is up in the air.

    Panting for air, completely unable to even shift on the spot, she looks like she's not even going to be in the right condition to let any more lessons sink in for a good while - which promptly gets proven wrong when Lilian speaks up from overhead, and the magical girl actually does manage to shuffle juuuust enough in place to glance upwards. Her vision is still unfocused, but...that sure is a glimmer of her usual annoyed-not-genuinely-annoyed at being teased.

    "Just...for five minutes...then we're....going again..." She gets that out, and immediately goes limp on the spot again to recover. "Ugh...you're seriously mean..." Probably going to be more than five minutes, but still. Just barely past her tiredness, she can hear the sounds of...yelling? Yelling, from up there in the stands...

    One thing at a time, Hibiki. Before anything else, you need to get at least a few more of those kinds of hits in.
Ishirou Ishirou jumps when Rita finally snaps.

He turns towards her fully, stopping his typing on his holo-screens as she tears into him. Initially, he doesn't know what to say, so taken aback by the usually quiet Rita verbally tearing him a verbal hole. Finally, he speaks, his hand shaking.

"I'm arrogant?" he says, his voice quivering, but he keeps going. Even if he is yelling at her back, he continues. "/I'M/ arrogant?! Why because I'm young?! Or because I think that the life of anyone shouldn't be put in anyone's hands if it can be avoided!"

"I won't shut up. I was told to shut up for years. So what if I'm wrong, so what if I'm naive? I asked you why to try and understand it, but all you've done is tell me to shut up. Fine," he says, finally.

"I'll say nothing to you, /ever again/," Ishirou says, petulantly.
Lilian Rook     Lilian rather rudely rolles Hibiki over with her foot, wearing the most terrifyingly smugly condescending grin. "Good girl~ And thank you for participating in this test. I actually hoped to get in a little training myself. I conceived of this not long after acquiring this armour, as a more sane means of dealing with people instead of having to break all of their limbs. That, and people who don't die when they're killed. I'm serious about training you, of course, but best that I get something out of it too, no~?" She leans down, putting a little weight on her heel. "Besides seeing you in this adorable position~" Mercifully, she relents so far that the binds slacken enough for Hibiki to breathe properly.

    For now, Lilian's weight disappears from Hibiki's middle, when she glances up at drama in the stands.

    It's so that she can reach Rita before she leaves. The smaller girl bumps into Lilian's chest, and the taller girl's arms squeeze gently around her shoulders. There's so much tension in her arms, matching the heavy shadow cast on her face by her bangs, but none of it is applied to Rita herself. It doesn't seem like anger. As far as Rita is able to read her, it exudes nothing but deep unhappiness, silently hidden behind tuned out eyes and a blank expression.

    "Enough, Ishirou. This is far too childish for you." Lilian barks. "I though you were trying to learn wisdom? Understanding? To solve problems with that intellect of yours. Get through to people. Not misusing it trying to 'win' arguments. I can't stand this. I won't watch you two grind your rough edges against each other in hopes that the other one breaks off first."

    Her voice lowers. "I wish you hadn't, Rita. Because what I told that friend of yours was that he could rely on the Paladins to help him. That he shouldn't feel cornered when we should be on his side. I don't like that I told him that the Paladins would be there for him, and it ended in being at odds anyways." Lilian sighs. "But I wasn't there to solve it. And those two represented the Paladins poorly. Phreak made his choice, and I'm certain you felt pressured in the moment." A word askance. "I just didn't get what I wanted from it. I'm over it. And I suggest you get over it too, Ishirou."

    Back to Rita. "If I were someone different, though. If Lilian Rook weren't a knight. Then I might have done the same. I want that --for people to change or go away-- maybe more than anyone. So, as much as I wish you did, you didn't join us, and you don't have to ask us for permission. That's a reality to accept; the same way I don't ask the Watch for permission before acting. It's the job of consensus to confirm itself, not us to conform to someone else's consensus."
Rita Ma      There's no way that Rita doesn't hear Ishirou, but she petulantly refuses to give him the pleasure of seeing her react. She simply keeps droopily trudging towards the exit as he talks, her gaze on the floor.

     Just five steps away, she comes to a sudden, soft halt. (But not that soft.)

     Rita looks up with a characteristically cute 'mm?' of surprise, then perks up just a little when her eyes meet Lilian's and those hands rest on her shoulders. What follows isn't really encouraging, up until the end, but the fact that it's Lilian saying it helps her reserve judgement without any more symptoms than dropping her eyes back to the floor.

     "Ms. Rook... I think I understand. You're saying, you don't owe more to an authority than it can claim? So I shouldn't feel guilty." She takes a deep breath in, and her shoulders un-slump a few more degrees. Tentatively, she looks Lilian in the eyes again. "I'm sorry that didn't work out the way you hoped. Thank you for understanding. And thank you for..."

     She casts a glance back at Ishirou, finally, with conflicted feelings. She doesn't finish that sentence. Instead she turns back and gives Lilian a brief, but tight, hug.

     "I still need to give this notepad back," she says awkwardly after pulling away. "And fix dinner for Ms. Grier. Um, thank you." And then she's leaving properly.
Ishirou Ishirou's response to being barked at is almost to recoil. He stops fully from it, before taking a breath and taking clearing breaths. He takes a few more breaths, and then he tries to calm down. He's trying to carefully choose his next words. He's not succeeding.

"I asked her why, I asked her for reasoning. I tried to understand, and I was told to shut up," he says, closing the holo screens and standing up. "That I'm arrogant for having beliefs and that I'm too young to understand anything."

"I asked this so that we could avoid something like that again...but I guess I was wrong," he says, and just...walks towards a different exit to walk in a different direction. It will take him three times as long to go where he wants to, but he's just not really thinking with a clear head.