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Tamamo     When the sparring chamber instatiates its environment, it's nothing too elaborate. At least, the immediate area isn't. It looks like the courtyard of a temple, perhaps one found in the lands of Tamamo's memory. The inner temple is in one direction, eight-foot-high walls easy enough to jump over surrounding it, and a large, ornate gate in the opposite direction from the inner buildings. The gate holds a pair of fierce statues, the bulky, bald figures either guardians or war gods, watching over what occurs within.

    The courtyard itself is made up of slightly rough and uneven stone tiles, packed dirt between the edges. For most, this could be considered a wide-enough arena, with additional space and benches to watch or rest on the edges, and little to distract fighters in the middle.

    The simulated area isn't bounded by those temple walls, however. They're a soft suggestion, at best.

    Tamamo is wearing the 'lighter' of her usual sets of miko-like clothing. It's something also known as a 'witchcraft-user's outfit,' though that depends on who you ask. One might think it hard to get around in those impractically high geta of hers, but she seems to do just fine with it, and at least the outfit isn't restrictive for her legs hardly at all.
Futaba Nuki Slipping into the designated area for tonight's session, Futaba does a bit of sneaking around to set up her entrance instead of just rushing in like an overexcited puppy. By disguising herself as one of those very statues with a conspicuous leaf stuck to its head and an out-of-place golden bangle on one arm, she nonchalantly drops a few flower petals from high above here, rustling some branches over there, and then she quickly drops her statue disguise to stay nice and flat behind another statue while projecting her voice a bit.

"It's time, Miss Tamamo." Futaba takes one firm step out from behind that statue, staring off to the side for a few seconds before turning to Tamamo with a fierce(ly eager) gaze. "Are you ready to bear witness to the fruits of my training?" She speaks in a bad impersonation of that one announcer from the movies, but she also seems to be having quite a bit of trouble trying not to break character.

She totally does, of course, and eventually just jumps once to turn and face Tamamo properly with a wide grin. "Thanks for coming! Don't worry, I won't let you down today! So... This is gonna be a normal fight, right?"
Tamamo     Sometime in the middle of watching Futaba's entrance, Tamamo's produced a fan, unfolded it, and hidden her smile.

    "A 'normal' fight..." Tamamo considers this for several moments. "I wonder as to whether there is such a thing. Is it strange to come to find fighting a normal event? Ah, and yet, it is certainly so, that many do. As you say, we shall consider this 'normal.' I shall show you some techniques as are most familiar to myself, and you shall respond as you consider most appropriate. To restrict the other and prevent her from resisting is enough to declare 'victory,' shall we say? I am not too fond of pain, and so, you may not find that such a difficult feat, no matter your inexperience."

    "Come, then." Withdrawing a set of talismans from inside her sleeve, Tamamo plucks one from the bundle. "It would be best that I make the first move, no? One who seeks to learn should first observe, and thereby steal the techniques of others. Such is the way of some masters I have known."

    Snapping shut the fan, and holding the talisman in its place, Tamamo flicks it upward with two fingers. It twirls through the air, taken by the light pull of gravity and the heavier buffeting of air to paper, until it suddenly ignores both to fly toward Futaba as if pulled by a string. It doesn't need to quite reach her before it, and a circle of ground directly below it, bursts into a pillar of flame, as suddenly going out again after a few seconds.
Futaba Nuki "Normal fights? Uh... I mean, they happen a lot in our line of work, right? There must be some kind of normal there." Futaba replies with a thoughtful furrowing of the brow, one hand propping her other arm at the elbow so she can do that smart-looking hand on chin thing. "Although I guess if its gets the blood pumping hard, then it's still not completely normal...? Hmm."

That's quite a bit for Futaba to think about already. Her eyes gleam a bit when Tamamo mentions showing off her familiar techniques, and she nods quickly while settling into a classic 'ninja' combat stance with one hand behind her back and the other in front of her face while she's leaning forward. "And I'll show you my restriction tricks, too! Shapeshifting's more than just bashing heads in, so it'll be fun trying to get back into that flow!"

The scarf flapping behind her certainly helps the aesthetic. The jacket and shorts don't. Nevertheless, the 'ninja' nods eagerly as she slouches a little further forward, ready for Tamamo's first attack to come. "Right! I'll take whatever you've got and then some."

The talisman flies, and Futaba stares intently at it. Is it going to shoot something at her? Explode? Stick her to the ground? Just in case, Futaba draws a kunai (with a fishing line tied to the back) from her pouch, and she leaps backwards just as the flames come forth. They singe her tail a bit, but she scurries out of harm's way before long, then dives forward once they go out.

"My turn!" With kunai in hand, she flings it high over Tamamo's head as though it were some sort of feint, then... Disappears? No, she shrinks herself to barely a speck while clinging onto the fishing line, letting it pull her through the air. Once she's got the attack vector plotted out, she releases the line, regrows to her full size, and dives for the bunrei's legs with far more arms that are visibly stretching more than they should to try and wrap them up in one big movement.
Tamamo     "Oh?" Tamamo, watching for some sort of disappearing trick, is slow to realize just what was used. Rather, she might not have realized at all, yet she still moves just slightly out of the way. It's easier to believe that she was lucky than that her reaction speed was that good. Certainly, she's not as fast as Futaba.

    And yet, those arms only brush against her legs, wrapping around only to find she's just managed to slip out, with a grand, backward leap of a backstep, robes fluttering.

    She left behind a talisman on the ground, for Futaba to see. She really shouldn't look at it, though. If she does, there's every possibility that the curse on its paper will enter her mind, resulting in the very focused, confusing effect of--

    "I am over there."

    But, that's not true. It's only a trick of the mind, making it difficult to see her opponent where she is. Tamamo certainly isn't 'over there.'

    She's stepping back in, to give Futaba's back a push.
Futaba Nuki Without being able to get a good hold of Tamamo, Futaba slides forward a bit with one hand hitting the ground a little too hard while the other is actually used to steady her while turning back around to face Tamamo. "Whoa! I didn't think you could move that fast in tha-"

As she turns around, however, she notices that talisman on the ground. Although she probably shouldn't look at it, it's too late to unsee! Remembering what had happened with the last talisman, though, has Futaba scrambling and tumbling this way and there just to avoid the risk of getting set on fire again. It's more of a reflex than a conscious maneuver, but it nevertheless leaves her flame-free.

It doesn't save her from that push, though, but the push does finally get her head back on track with where Tamamo is and has her doing a front flip into a roll just to keep her back from staying exposed.

"Huhu... Sneaky! So I really don't know what might come out of those... If anything!" Clearly impressed by that, Futaba brushes her nose as she settles back into that low stance with her hands and feet on the ground. "Alright, let's try... This!"

Springing forward yet again, Futaba opts not to use tools this time, but instead on trying to trip up Tamamo with another display of her transforming prowess. As she leaps, the tanuki's hands spread this time, getting bigger and bigger until they're roughly the size of smaller sedans. Instead of grabbing at Tamamo with those hands, however, its her leg that does the grabbing, having transformed into a longer, rope-like appendage that stretches forward to try and wrap around her waist for a tricky stance'd grab!
Tamamo     Though Tamamo does avoid the larger hands, this time, minimal motions carrying her out of the way of what were feints in any case, she doesn't manage to avoid the... leg? It seems more like a rope, but let's call it a leg, even if it wraps around her waist, right around that gold-bound, black obi she wears.

    "Oh, my? You are quite flexible, Futaba-san. Oh, but if it is only this..."

    As difficult as it may be for her to escape like this -- that assumes that she isn't let go. And the great, ornate mirror that appears in a flash of light above her is descending with just such danger in mind, its edge poised to his along Futaba's leg.

    And where its descent covers vision between the two, Tamamo moves to tap a draining talisman right onto the limb holding her. It's nothing too nasty. She won't wither away to nothingness, but it's enough to make someone feel particularly lazy, and a bit too relaxed.
Futaba Nuki "Huhu... Right? But you're pretty darn slippery too, Miss Tamamo, and those talisman tricks... I can see why everyone in the Paladins counts on you!"  Grinning again, Futaba's ego proves to give Tamamo the opening she needs. She's still holding onto her around that obi, balancing on her tail and free leg while the other one stays still long enough for that mirror to come down and...

Well, it's a good thing Futaba's leg is in its weird stretching mode and not solidly bone-having, or she'd be in way worse shape. As it is, though, the mirror digging into her leg and the talisman sapping her energy are more than enough to force Futaba to release Tamamo again, yelping while drawing her leg back to herself and reconsidering her plan of attack.

"Yeesh... Did you just summon that?  Like, out of nowhere?!" Despite having that pouch of hers, Futaba still manages to sound genuinely impressed. "What else do you have? Ah... Wait, don't spoil the surprise. I'll see it when it comes out!"

Shaking her leg off to get that feeling back (and not noticing the talisman just yet), Futaba settles into a lower stance that definitely isn't a cover for her fighting off that drowsiness. Alas, her next maneuver isn't quite as tricky as her previous attempts as she just flings herself straight at Tamamo without even bothering to use the statues or walls to her advantage.

That's not to say there's no trick this time, though, as she promptly evaporates before impact, scattering into a cloud of damp air that flows past Tamamo. Reforming slightly above and behind her this time, Futaba falls towards Tamamo to try and get her legs around the bunrei's head and shoulders, then making herself considerably heavier like some kind of weighted clothing, but clunkier.
Tamamo     "Oh, no, the mirror was always present. It had simply yet to materialize." Tamamo says, calmly explaining. It moves through the air even after Futaba retreats, as linked to the motion in her fingers, though there's a floatiness to it beyond the simple fact that it's hovering. It's a force being applied, rather than a solid linkage. "It is not so different from a transformation, in that sense, I suppose? Of course, yours is more... material to material, I would guess."

    When Futaba charges, it's right against that mirror's surface that she evaporates. Tamamo's voice rises in a tone of surprise, "Oh, no--?"

    Only for Futaba to fall onto her--but miss her head, as Tamamo leans back in her shock. It's a wholly different sort of "Oof!" that follows weight hitting the bunrei's front side, rather than her shoulders, and a wild swipe of her mirror in the process of stepping away, made without thought. She was simply lucky once more, though not quite as lucky as one might hope for. A coincidental miss during high speed and tricky maneuvers.

    One could expect a quick turnaround and renewed attack, but Tamamo's hands come together in a loud clap, her fingers coming away again with a string of paper strips between them, before it can. Wariness of those is ever wise. "That is quite enough of that, I think."

    This time, they're not aimed at Futaba at all. They drop to the ground in a circle, and burst into spreading ice, covering over the stone tiles shooting up to reach 'anyone nearby but Tamamo,' too.

    The swirling circles of ice are rather pretty, if viewed from above. The sudden chill reaches up there, too.
Futaba Nuki Futaba grunts after her somewhat rougher landing when she doesn't quite catch onto Tamamo the way she expected, stumbling a fair bit herself in the process. The tanuki flattens her forearms out to spread the shock of the mirror knocking her back and away with a somewhat clumsy flip, giving her a bit of a breather and a chance to see what Tamamo's got up her sleeves next.

The clap, of course, gets her to jump a bit before really focusing/looking even more excited. Her eyes follow the strips of paper, and she settles into a low stance again, prepared to start rolling and weaving around once she sees something flying right at her.

Once again, though, Futaba's attention is in the wrong place, and the bursts of ice draw a startled screech from her when the ice quickly starts covering her legs. She's dressed for a match rather than the winter, after all, and even rolling is going to be a risk for Futaba at this point!

At least, without dealing with the ice first. "An invisible mirror... Cool! All my stuff's just in here." Futaba explains while patting her bulging pouch of stuff, reaching into it with a mischievous smile. "And speaking of, I've got just the thing!" Out comes a katana in an ornate sheath, sliding out with a dramatic unsheathing noise even as the ice keeps keeping further up Futaba's legs.

The unsheathing is soon followed by the katana bursting into flames, then Futaba pointing it forward and blasting flames out around, but not directly at Tamamo. The fires will have to act more as a distraction and something to neutralize the ice long enough for her next maneuver: Transforming into a beetle and running right at Tamamo along the encroaching ice and surrounding flames. She scuttles along that precarious surface to close the distance between them as quickly as she can without being too obvious about it (visual tells and moving way too fast for a beetle notwithstanding), all to finally turn back into herself from beneath Tamamo this time!

Like with her earlier maneuvers, it involves sprouting an excessive numbers of arms. They twist and spin in a spiral-esque pattern, both for the aesthetic and for yet another attempt to physically restrain Tamamo with more of the transforming gimmicks at her disposal.
Tamamo     "'Invisible'? I suppose it was difficult to see, to be sure. One needs a certain eye for such things, to see the potential of something, even before it has to materialize. A blessing is such a thing. Blessings exist, yet are unseen, until they pull one potential into being."

    Tamamo waits a moment, pulling more talismans from inside her sleeves, to see what Futaba does with the katana. "Oh? A counter of that sort is useful to have, to be sure. One should be prepared for both heat and cold."

    And then, the scuttling. "You are quite adept at disappearing, no...?" But while geta tap across the ice as Tamamo avoids the flames, only coming close to each (and with very little apparent concern, considering how she mentioned a dislike of pain at the start), she's also dropping more talismans on the ground. Even if she can't spot the beetle, the invisible walls that spring up between this set of charms serves as a kind of defense.

    Invisible, and immaterial. Futaba can run straight through the walls, but doing that would confuse even a... well, no, it usually only works on brains bigger than beetles. It's mostly used for making humans get confused and walk back out before they stumble across some youkai or kami's place of rest. Secret temples are rarely concerned with keeping out beetles.

    Appearing from below her is -- effective! She's there, and she's in range! It's undoubtedly the closest moment Futaba has come to winning their little duel. Why, then, might Tamamo be calmly continuing her earlie explanation of her mirror? "This is, you see, the Eightfold Blessings, though I suppose that that is not so important."

    Perhaps it's because appearing beneath Tamamo has given her the perfect opportunity to step on Futaba's face, and oh, those geta are really solid. It might be rude to call it a stomp, but it looks more elegant from the side than it does from taking it.
Futaba Nuki "I still need to figure out something for heat, yeah. Turning into something sweaty.. Works, but it's gross." Even though she's mostly hands, Futaba still somehow manages to sound grossed out. She's probably tested it before, to unpleasant results.

What turns out to be far stranger rather than unpleasant is Tamamo's reaction to Futaba coming out of the ground. She was expecting the bunrei to be surprised and shocked, after all, so hearing a calm explanation that she doesn't quite get yet is jarring! More jarring to Futaba is getting the geta to the face, drawing a startled and muffled noise from the tanuki as she just slams facefirst into it. She can't quite get her hands all the way around to an effective binding state, and she slips away again to recompose herself with a bruised face and a bloodied nose.

After going through so many of her techniques in a row, Futaba's also starting to look more on the winded side. She actually has to stop for a moment as she squats in place, staring intently at Tamamo while wracking her brain for ideas.

"A certain eye to see the invisible, huh? I wonder... Is that something that can be taught? I bet between your walls... The Eightfold Blessings? Between that and my moves, we could really catch some people off guard when we're working together. I don't really disappear, either, but for someone that's not looking with that 'certain eye'-" She winks confidently at that. "Close enough, right?"

She's already seen the stretchy hand thing. She's already seen the cloud dispersal thing. She's seen the other hand flower thing, and the big hand net thing, and the flaming sword. She's even seen the fishing line trick! That leaves Futaba with one last trick up her sleeve, and she grins widely as it all starts coming together in her mind.

"Think I've still got a few more left in me... Okay! Don't blink, Miss Tamamo, or you'll miss the biggest trick I've got left!" With that non-subtle warning given, Futaba shifts into a sprinter's stance, shimmying to the side a little bit once she remembers that the freezing talismans are still there and, at this point, more than capable of getting her face stuck to the ground if she slips the wrong way.

Once she's satisfied with her positioning, Futaba takes off, sprinting at Tamamo once more. Her arms spread out to her sides in the typical ninja sprint pose, and her torso is practically at a 90 degree angle with the ground with how low she's leaning forward. She gets closer, building up as much speed as she can before...

She turns into a great net, not unlike something that would be dragged behind a fishing boat. With the momentum built up from running, though, she's hurtling at Tamamo fast enough that she might just wrap around her several times if she can latch on at the right angle.
Tamamo     '...we could really catch some people off guard when we're working together.'

    "I expect so... oh, but it is ever the way of ninja, is it not, to catch others unaware? I merely know a few useful things that happen to be just a little bit related."

    'Is that something that can be taught?'

    "It is possible, though it is often quite difficult to learn that sort of perceptiveness. Many take years to train their eyes. I could, if you like, lend you a small mirror. It might allow you some similar feats, so that you know that of which I speak. We may settle this afterward, of course."

    And then Futaba is heading straight for her, and Tamamo holds up both hands in front of her. They form a sign--as if framing a picture, followed by her fingers pinching.

    Not all of the talismans she'd thrown down earlier had activated. Mixed in with the ice and the walls of confusion were other ones. Futaba runs straight into a solid wall, this time, wrapping around and around glittering golden lines in the air that crackle with strained energy.

    One might wonder just how many trump cards Tamamo has mixed into her earlier actions, and whether she was planning on letting the tanuki grab her at all -- though she had succeeded the once, hadn't she? Chalk up the rest to the firm instruction of a senior Paladin.

    "Shall we step things up, once more? I have spoken of hidden blessings, yet some curses are more difficult to hide. Behold, this, Chaotic Heaven."

    Lightning striking from a clear sky could certainly be called chaotic. It's fortunate that the effect is far more 'temporary paralysis' than 'severe burns,' doubtless some facet of the way the magic works. There is some additional difficulty in that the talisman only needs to be somewhat close to Futaba for the lightning to strike close enough to shock her.
Futaba Nuki "Urf.. Eh? Oh, yeah, I guess it is, isn't it?" Laughing lightly even as she peels herself off that wall, Futaba takes a moment to admire the golden magic in front of her as she steps back to try and figure out her next plan of attack. "My biggest challenges before coming out here were mostly figuring out how to deal with people I could see instead of stuff like this, or someone way bigger and scarier than me before I got the cool stuff to deal with them."

Stepping back again to find a proper way forward, Futaba inadvertently steps into another freezing talisman that she doesn't even notice after first. Her attention is still held by that golden wall, and then by Tamamo herself when she suggests kicking things up another notch. Rather than balk at the challenge, Futaba instead seems genuinely excited by seeing what Tamamo can throw at her next, and she nods quickly while pumping her fists at her sides.

"Chaotic Heaven... Oh, that's a cool name, too! Sounds like it's gonna be something from the sky, so..." Keeping her gaze focused upwards, Futaba gets ready to sprint and only then realizes the ice has claimed most of her legs, forcing her into a rather difficult position when she only has a split second to decide on what to do as the lightning comes down at her.

Finally, that bracer shows its worth as, perhaps out of reflex more than anything, Futaba raises her right arm, using the bracer itself to take that bolt of lightning in her stead! Alas, the lightning bolt isn't something she can just parry like a physical projectile, so she does have to compensate with partially turning her arm to stone as well. It's not fast enough to protect her from the paralyzing effects completely, but it helps her weather that strike before slouching forward again with that mounting fatigue getting to her.

Fatigue, temporary paralysis, confusion on where Tamamo could actually be at this point, freezing... There's a lot for Futaba to try and deal with as the session drags on, and she smacks her cheeks a few times to try and focus herself before realizing she's facing the wrong way.

"Cool mirror, cool mirror... Okay! I'll take you up on that later, for sure, and you can take a look at my stuff, too. But first..." Standing upright again, Futaba raises her scarf slightly, making it look like she's got a proper face mask on between that and the markings on her face. "Let's finish this!"

One more time, she springs into the air towards Tamamo. Aware that there's still some wide variety of talismans on the ground that could lead her into another one of those walls, the tanuki opts to stay in the air with a pair of wings that replace her arms. With a mighty flap, she launches herself higher into the air before diving towards Tamamo at a steep angle, legs pointed forward like she's about to do some kind of large kicking maneuver.

She still hasn't forgotten about the rules of this engagement, though, and her moves becomes clear the closer she gets. Two legs become four, then eight, then sixteen, all stretching out widely as if Futaba's expecting to crash into a mirror any second. With her too-many legs spread so wide, then, she closes them in towards Tamamo from the sides and further above her in another wide-reaching attempt to wrap her up with far too many limbs. It's visibly a last ditch effort to try and clinch things out with the bunrei rather than drag things out further, especially with her energy waning as it is and even her arm-wings transforming back into regular arms after just those two big flaps.
Tamamo     Tamamo has, by this point, unfortunately for Futaba, managed to spread the last of those shielding talismans all around her. The barrier that forms is a complete, eight-sided figure, though Futaba's enthusiasm is such that there's hardly anything of them left by the time Tamamo's next counterattack arrives. It's a hurried one, which is the more subtle tell that dealing with the multitude of stretching legs was a real effort for her. She doesn't have time to bring out more than a talisman she's already used once.

    "Curse: Fiery Heaven." It would be a bit easier to avoid if she named it before it turned into an airward burst of flame. The flame itself is one problem, but so is how it steals away one's breath in that blast of hot air, leaving a victim gasping.

    "There are many such, though I suppose I do not always give their names aloud. They must be written, of course. Even if another cannot read the ink, a curse can still travel through words. Ah, shall we... oh, but we still have a bit to go, and I have expended much of what I intended to show. One more, perhaps...? Ah, this one is not a curse, but is known as... Mantra: Bestial Sky."

    Though she said that, it's hard to tell just what she's doing. There's a vague 'feeling' about her, like a heat mirage, the impression of smoke curling around her without seeing any, a rising tension that isn't reduced at all by that thin smile.
Futaba Nuki Even with so many legs, Futaba's wide clamping gambit doesn't quite reach as far as she'd like or even make contact with Tamamo by the time she starts standing on the great barrier. The temptation to stomp right into it is strong, but that would be the same as letting her brawn guide her instead of showing Tamamo everything she's capable of the right way!

That moment of hesitation, though, ends up costing her quite a bit when it hits her square in the chest and pulls more of that willpower out of the tanuki, both in the metaphorical and physical sense. Despite the relatively lesser impact, the feeling is far more unpleasant than even the shocking paralysis from the heavenly lightning moments ago.

"That one... Huh. I guess that can work, too, but... Isn't shouting the names more impressive? Especially if it's got fire in it...!" Eager-sounding as she is, Futaba's clearly just buying time to catch her breath. Perhaps she realizes she doesn't have much of it, then, when Tamamo calls on what might very well be the last thing Futaba would be able to withstand, if at all.

Although the tanuki can't tell what that feeling is precisely, there's enough of it lingering around their battle that she can already tell she's probably not going to want to get hit by it. In a way, that makes it all the more tantalizing to stall, but she's not about to insult the bunrei by holding back in that sort of way. There's an unspoken honor at stake, to really put her best foot forward!

"Or, with all that ice from before... Frozen Ground Collapse, maybe? And if it's from above, something like... Rushing Sand Gourd?" That rather awful name is the clue Tamamo gets before Futaba does a backflip and transforms once more, turning into a great wave of sand that just falls onto the barrier, scattering around it, flowing around it and seeking out gaps that she can exploit just to get past that defensive wall. With any luck, she'll find even one miniscule space to force the rest of her sandy form into before churning towards Tamamo in a last ditch effort to surround and bind her from neck to toe in a little gourd-shaped cage of Futaba-based sand.
Tamamo     The final shield that Tamamo could prepare only delays the rushing sand, but it's a delay that proves pivotal. It's just barely enough time for whatever she's building to finish. The energy ceases to flow, in that almost-visible way, when it has fully infused her. This must be another of those 'unseen potential' blessings she mentioned.

    "Curse: Gyokutenhou." Something in that doesn't translate cleanly, an ambiguity in reading. What was it? 'Collapsing the Jewels of Heaven,' or 'Rupturing'?

    When that unexpectedly empowered kick rises to meet the onrushing sand, it just so happens to be aimed somewhere sensitive. When it's followed by a second and a third kick to different locations, it's the same, each one accompanied by a "Hoh!" It just so happens to be where, if someone could tell what part of Futaba was transformed into what nondescript pile of usually-inanimate matter, it would deal the most debilitating damage. It just so happens to occur every single time, without Tamamo even looking.

    It happens again when she forcefully wrests herself away from the grab, skidding on the ice, then leaps into the air, lands atop her mirror, and comes back down with one last, dropped heel, heedless of what it must look like, to be kicking sand.
Tamamo     When she does land, leg extended, then retracted, then placed below her as she relaxes from the sudden shift to a martial arts stance, Tamamo folds her hands. "I had been practicing that, as something new."
Futaba Nuki Logically, Futaba should be at her sturdiest when she's in her sand or cloud or water states. It's hard to really kick sand effectively, after all, but that's just what happens when Tamamo's final curse kicks in just time for Futaba to get kicked in square in the... Somewhere. It's not clear where she's even getting kicked with her trademark leaf and bracer swirling around in that sand, but the impact can somehow be felt each time.

Perhaps it's no surprise, then, when that last heel drop draws a winded grunt, and the pile of sand shifts back into Futaba's usual form with her face right under that heel. She's still in a bit of a daze, too, even as Tamamo relaxes and as Futaba herself continues laying on back without trying to pull anything else off after that. "Whew... I can tell, Miss Tamamo! That's more of your curses at work, right?"

Letting out another winded groan, Futaba finally sits back up while turning to Tamamo with an impressed and just-as-eager glint in her eyes. "Each kick wasn't... Like. Super hard or anything? But hitting me through that form... That's not something just anyone can do by being really good at martial arts or whatever."

Another airy breath later, and she goes right back to her usual bright-eyed grin. "That was a really good training session.. Thanks for coming out to show me all this stuff!"
Tamamo     "It is so." Though Tamamo really should be winded, after all that, she has a specific defense against appearing ungraceful that hasn't yet been pierced. She'd like to show off at least that much for her junior. "A combination of blessings and curses that... well, it is a bit long. Perhaps I may explain the details another time. If one can ensure the worst possible result for an opponent, and the best possible result for oneself, then greater strength is hardly necessary. You are quite strong, after all. I would not think to contest that directly."

    She smiles, this time gently. "You are most welcome. And... oh, yes. I had promised to provide you with a mirror. A small one shall do, I think. Here, would you like to see through it?"

    It really is small, to be another item she'd somehow stored up her sleeve. It's more like a pocket makeup mirror in size, and in how it closes, though the strong similarity to gold and silver suggests that this isn't actually something that should be casually loaned out.

    "Different sorts of mirrors can reflect different sorts of things, you see?"

    It's most notable how, if one holds the mirror to view Tamamo, she's glowing with warm light, her pink-red hair instead a cascading flame, her eyes almost too bright to look into.

    "I would not want you ill-equipped, in working with our fellows. Still, perhaps, it is a bit difficult to learn to properly use such things. There might be another item better suited for you, yet outside of my knowledge."
Futaba Nuki Tamamo's efforts certainly seem to work on convincing Futaba that much, especially in light of the tanuki's looking as winded as she does now in comparison. "I get it... Strategy, planning, curses and blessings, and everything in between! I really wouldn't want to fight you for real if I only had my brain to rely on, that's for sure."

Still beaming at having her ego stroked once again, Futaba finally picks herself back up fully, and a casual observer might even think she's moving as easily as she usually does in walking over to Tamamo to gawk at that pocket mirror. "Oh, sure! Huhu... Thanks, Miss Tamamo." Her sparring partner, however, will quite easily notice what she's not doing: Running, bounding over, and otherwise being as overly energetic as she usually is even in her tone.

That's not to say she isn't still curious, of course, since she's still 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing at the little mirror. She's just spent, physically more than anything else, but looking through the mirror is easy enough on that front. "Let's see. Oh! Wait, this looks kind of like..."

There's some confusion at first, but things start to click as Futaba angles the mirror around this way and that, at herself and at Tamamo just to see where the differences are in that context. Tamamo might even notice that Futaba's own reflection reveals something closer to a divine sort, and her hair is a muddier shade of brown in there with some whiter streaks.

Most of her own supernatural magic also seems to be concentrated in the gut, for some reason.

"I really appreciate it. I know I could keep up with everyone when it comes to straight fighting, but for stuff like this... I'll make sure to figure it out before we head out on a mission together!" Even if Futaba doesn't understand it fully yet, there's definitely a sense of wonder in her eyes as she turns back to Tamamo once more with that gleam returning. "Ohh? Another thing? What do you have, Miss Tamamo?"
Tamamo     "Oh, I do possess many things, and many secrets, of course," Tamamo says, peering at Futaba's reflection, as well. A good deal of interpretation is needed to make proper use of this tool in an anlaytical capacity. "Every maiden must hold a few, no? The mystery compels others. As for this moment, however, I do not know of that which might be better suited for you. If you would like to borrow this for a time, do feel free."
Futaba Nuki "Really? Cool..." Futaba murmurs, clearly taking Tamamo's words of wisdom to heart. Whether or not she's taking the right things to heart is debateable, but she's definitely taking something there. "I'll take good care of it! I'll study it, too, so I an figure out how to use it and..."

She's not really sure how to use it effectively yet, but it'll be a work in progress. "... And then I'll make you proud!" If nothing else, Futaba sounds confident or stubborn enough to pull it off.