Mizuki frowned as she looked at the obstacle in front of her. She had been chasing some prey here that she wouldn't have as easy a time finding on the mainland of Falderen, a strange kind of primate with large teeth and sizeable claws. They weren't actually too strong, Mizuki being able to defeat them as long as she kept her wits about her, but they were smarter than your average animal and it seemed like they were quick to realize when it was better to run. More problematically, they were very good at running away: on the ground Mizuki was faster, but here on Druuk Island where there were lots of obstacles and objects the strange monkeys could use to move about she was finding that she was constantly losing track of them. She would have given up already, but she didn't want to be beaten by a bunch of monkeys, even if their way of beating her wasn't through combat but through clever escape. She wasn't going to be unreasonable and keep going long after it had no use any longer, but she wasn't going to give up until she had made a good attempt either. Unfortunately she was getting the feeling that maybe this was the point where she had to give up on her good attempt. The monkeys she had been chasing had climbed up one of the many cliffs that adorned this island abandoned to nature and the outlaws who preferred to be outside of the jurisdiction of the royalty of Falderen. She had nearly managed to run them down but they had managed to reach the cliff before she did, and once they had something to climb up on they raced upwards as if they were running up the nearly vertical surface. Now Mizuki was stuck at the bottom trying to quickly think of a way to get up there before the monkeys got away, and for the most part unfortunately drawing a blank. She could see that a bit further along there'd be an easy path upwards, but by the time that she had gotten there and ran back to this spot on top of the cliff the monkeys would already be gone, having no reason to wait around until Mizuki had gotten her act together and followed them up there. She could already hearing them scampering off even as her thoughts raced, the Felis growling softly in annoyance at the fact that she was being outsmarted by a couple of monkeys for no other reason than that they were so good at taking advantage of the rough terrain. It was hard to run at full speed here as well, with rocks everywhere and plants making it hard to see in front of you so if you didn't slow down you could seriously hurt yourself with the rocks, hollows, roots and various other obstacles. It really wasn't the best place to go hunting if you were more of a runner, who relied on speed and stamina to run the prey into the ground. You could say that was a reason to stay away from here, but on the other hand you could say that was a reason to come here. Mizuki sighed in frustration before she tried climbing the cliff, at least having enough good fortune that there were plenty of handholds and places where she could plant her feet for increased stability. However that didn't remove the fact that she was a runner, not a climber, and she moved slowly as she carefully had to check to make sure that she didn't grab a rock which was too loose, which would simply fall down and maybe cause Mizuki to fall as well if she put too much weight on it. She also occasionally would have difficulty reaching, the Felis stretching herself to the utmost limit even when she simultaneously still held back because she didn't trust her hold on the cliff too much. By the time that she arrived at the top of the cliff it had already taken minutes and minutes, and the monkeys, of course, were long gone. Mizuki bared her teeth for a moment, cursing the monkeys inwardly before turning away and beginning her path back to the rather lawless city of Nacre, where she was staying for her trip to Druuk Island. She wasn't going to try chasing the monkeys without some kind of preparation again. It looked like it was time for her to ask Kaede whether she could help. She was strongly aware that for Kaede hunting those monkeys would have been a lot easier. Mizuki was plenty fast out in the open fields, but she hadn't missed the way that Kaede took advantage of the environment as easily as those monkeys if not easier. Mizuki might have raw speed, but Kaede had agility, flexibility and knew how to move and where to move. The thought of asking Kaede for help with that had occurred to Mizuki more than once before now, but she hadn't wanted to bother the girl with it if she could learn it herself as well. Unfortunately it looked like she wouldn't be able how to move like someone with the Rogue mastery unless she actually gained the Rogue mastery herself, and she'd need Kaede to teach her that mastery. At least the redhead had agreed to joining her on her trip to Druuk Island, so she didn't need to find out where Kaede was before asking her. Entering the town of Nacre, passing through one of the tunnels that led to the settlement located in the hollowed out cave, Mizuki headed towards the part of town which was a bit less messy than the rest. Well, one of the more organized areas at least. While this town was one where the centralized government of Falderen held little sway and what rules there were benefited more from the honour amongst rogues and thieves than actual enforcement there were still areas which were more suited for outsiders to visit. One might consider it strange, until they remember that even outlaws and pirates need something to spend their stolen money on, or to sell their stolen goods to. In certain ways those that visited this place were safer than outside, because in here you were a source of money which could keep coming back for more unless you angered the wrong person, while outside you were nothing more than the person who held onto the valuables until the pirate or thug came along to take them off of you. Mizuki headed for the inn she and Kaede were staying at, hoping that Kaede hadn't gotten drunk yet. While she didn't think drinking in the game was as harmful as outside the game, whether it be long-lasting damage or short-lasting damage, but if Kaede were to teach her the Rogue mastery she'd probably be better off if the redhead was sober in the process, unless she somehow miraculously managed to learn some kind of mystical Drunken Fist mastery instead. Mizuki looked around for her companion and friend, internally being thankful that at least Kaede's blazing red hair made her easy to find... when she wasn't purposefully being stealthy. @Kaede Hoshi
_____Druuk island, not always the best place since Kaede had started to set herself on a path of reform but still a decent area if she wanted to train in more difficult settings like around the city found here. So many others that could match or keep up with her was something she enjoyed when training but for the time being she was laying in her room with a cooking book over her face and a cup of water hanging loosely in her hand that was over the side of the bed. She was not in mood to train herself farther and reading was starting to bore her rather quickly. _____With a dragged out sigh from her lips she moved her hanging hand to set the cup down on the nightstand and later moved the book from her face to set it down also. Rolling up to sit on the side of the bed as she stretched calmly and got her glass again before walking to go find her boots somewhere in the room considering he enjoyed habit to kick them off at random. Walking past the mirror and back tracking to adjust her bowtie before she moved out of the room. _____Her outfit was another way she stood out like a sore thumb but to be honest as she lifted her glass to take a sip of water she was not much in the mood to care how people thought she looked or for the attention. Reaching the downstairs part of the Inn as she noticed Mizuki and waved calmly as she approached sipping her water carefully as she noticed a slight bit of annoyance on the girl, or maybe it was just her reading things wrong but she felt it was enough to talk and hope she was right. ”Something troubling you Mizuki? I might not always be good at helping others but if it is something I can do just let me know, it’s the least I can do to help you out after all you have done to help me out.~” @Ueno Mizuki
Mizuki didn't find Kaede before Kaede found her, which honestly embarrassed her a little bit since she doubted Kaede was being intentionally sneaking right now, and her red hair really should have been sufficient to both spot and identify her. Unless Mizuki's own hair, which was black with white highlights, Kaede had a magnificent head of fiery red hair, which Mizuki thought suited her more playful side quite well. The fact that she didn't notice it before Kaede was already greeting her made her wonder if Kaede really just liked messing with her or if she needed to improve her skills even more pressingly than she already thought. Kaede's outfit was also something which should have been eye catching, but which Mizuki apparently had failed to notice. It was eye catching because not only was it a very strange thing to wear in this rather rough place, where the common attires were more suitable for thugs and the shadier types of merchant, but it was also something she rarely saw Kaede wear. She didn't even know there were such outfits available in Terrasphere, which looked like they belonged more in the more luxurious types of parties back on Earth. Maybe she had not noticed Kaede because she hadn't been expecting the outfit? Mizuki could only guess. However she had to admit that it suited Kaede quite well. She didn't think she'd wear something like it herself, at least not here in Terrasphere, but it did help Kaede with making a confident, strong impression. At Kaede's words Mizuki blinked, although more for the end than for the beginning. She wasn't the best at hiding her feelings, so it was no surprise that Kaede had managed to pick up on the Felis not being in the best of moods. She was more surprised that Kaede so readily was offering her air before Mizuki could even ask, and even more so that Kaede apparently believed that Mizuki had already done a lot for her, something which confused the Felis since she wasn't sure what exactly she had done for Kaede. She had helped with those bandits, yes, but beyond that... Well, no reason to argue about it, since Mizuki did happen to need Kaede's help. "I'm not happy about how successful exactly my hunt today was, so yes there's something troubling me. But you are good at helping, so I'm glad you offered because I do think I really need the help at this point. But first let's sit down somewhere." Mizuki located the two of them an empty table with a pair of chairs, so they could discuss the issue in relative privacy. Once seated Mizuki pressed her fingers and thumb against her forehead and sighed before folding her arms and looking straight at Kaede. "I was trying to improve my chasing skills, but my attempts didn't go anywhere since I learned that the creatures living on this island do not survive through speed but through flexibility and cunning. As fast as I am I don't seem to be able to catch them, which means that I need to improve in another field than just speed and strength. No matter how much speed I might have it won't help here, and you might be able to help with that..." Mizuki frowned slightly, in thought more than actual worry. "I'm not sure if you'll consider my request a tall order and I don't know how experienced as a trainer you are either, but since you are exceptional with stealth and mobility I was wondering if maybe you could teach me the Rogue mastery as well. After all, if I'm going to keep hunting the ability to stay hidden and to move freely would be of great help." She looked around at their surroundings, at the other patrons in the inn, before turning back to Kaede. "I'm not sure how exactly you would go about doing that, but I'm guessing the easiest way for anyone to gain a new mastery is with the help of someone who already has it. I could keep trying to climb trees and cliffs all day but I don't think I'm going to get much from that, at least nowhere as quickly as with your help." She did feel a bit bad for asking this, since even with Kaede already freely offering Mizuki was worried that she might give the impression of trying to push Kaede into this. There was a vast difference between being good at something yourself and being good at teaching others, so applying too much pressure would just end badly. "If you don't want to it's fine, since I'm sure there's people in this outlaw town who can teach me... And I'll be careful enough not to let them take advantage of me." Lack of acrobatic skills or not Mizuki was fast and strong, so as long as she stayed perceptive she should be able to handle herself in cases of betrayal or deception. Granted, Mizuki wasn't trying to get exactly the same kind of mobility as Kaede's: she found Kaede's way of moving effective but not entirely her style, since she was trying to go wild in this game in a way that she wouldn't be able to do back on Earth. She didn't make a habit of informing people just how eager she was to cut loose here, but she herself was already somewhat startled by how underneath her serious demeanour on Earth there was such a vocal part of her that wanted to behave more like some kind of animal. To be exact, a hunting wolf, taking advantage of all the available skills to sneak, detect, chase and surprise. She wasn't even entirely sure if that was just how her mind reacted to this world, the possibility itself being enough to develop the desire inside of her, or if she had deep down always had some desire for a more primal approach and only now was having the opportunity to live that wilder life. She was still part of civilization in Terrasphere, but she definitely wasn't trying to mingle and act as your everyday person. Regardless, now she just had to hope that Kaede would say yes. "You're very skilled, so if you're willing I think I could learn a lot from you." @Kaede Hoshi
_____Moving along with the girl and listening to everything she had to say all the while thinking the idea over. On one hand she was more than excited her help was needed, but on the other she never exactly was the best teacher, much less having any clue how to teach someone in this game. But hearing the girl until the end she felt there was only one real reply she could give. Moving to stand up before offering a hand out to the girl with a smile. If it was taken she would feel a gently tug before a small item seemed to go missing from her person and held in Kaede’s free hand. ”Well Rouge is not just about sneaking around or being agile and flexible.” Kaede would move again to return the object she had likely taken from Mizuki before she resumed talking. ”There is slight of hand, lock picking, and some agility factors to it also. But let’s focus on what you want first, the mobile and flexibility.” Moving away slowly she began walking out of the Inn waving for Mizuki to follow her out of the city and into the forest area she felt would work best. _____Once there Kaede would begin to stretch a bit, eyes looking to Mizuki for her to follow the example as she reached down to her toes a few times before stretching her legs to the sides and getting ready to speak again. This time her voice slightly more mature and directed. ”One thing I focused on at the start was my body and the limits it had. If I could not reach my toes I tried to avoid motions to such degree, if I could not do the splits I’d avoid situations I had to do those to start. You seem decently limber so let's start simple, I want you to try and rush at me, and only change direction as you reach me, and try to wrap my location as closely as you can. If you don’t trust me try it with a tree or two. It is better in this case to hit the tree then make a clean movement around it, try using different movements each time.” _____Kaede would not show the girl an example just yet, she still needed to figure out where the girl was at before she could fully start teaching her. @Ueno Mizuki
Mizuki could see that Kaede wasn't entirely too thrilled at the idea of teaching her from the very beginning, reacting rather neutrally. Mizuki didn't know Kaede to be one to hide her feelings in either one of her two personalities, so a neutral reaction usually indicated that either Kaede was being very serious or grim, or the subject at hand just didn't move her that much either positively or negatively. Which wasn't bad, since it wasn't like teaching someone was necessarily all fun and games. You had to figure out how to turn your own knowledge and experience into a teaching method which could carry all that knowledge and experience over efficiently, you had to invest time into seeing how your student developed, and you had to have a lot of patience to watch them slowly improve and, almost undoubtedly, make mistakes in the process. Mizuki was about to excuse herself because she didn't want to impose on Kaede until the redhead suddenly offered her hand and smiled. Was she just hiding her personal lack of interest or had she finally become more passionate about the subject? Mizuki didn't know, but if Kaede was willing to display enthusiasm to help she wasn't going to say no to it, especially since she had been the one asking. She took Kaede's hand, somewhat curious what Kaede exactly was aiming for, until she realized that Kaede was suddenly holding a pair of dice... which Mizuki recognized as the pair she had obtained not too long after arriving in this town. "Oh... Right." Honestly Mizuki had forgotten about that part, mostly because she had really been focused on the more physical parts of the Rogue mastery. She felt a bit silly now, her tail going down as she tried to hide her embarrassment while she coughed. "Right, that makes sense. The tricks and everything." As she took the dice back she remarked to herself that it might also be a good idea to learn those things, because while so far she had been more focused on fighting things and becoming stronger that didn't mean that learning some tricks of the trade couldn't be useful in the future. Watching Kaede Mizuki followed her after a second of hesitation, curious just how Kaede was going to teach her. In her mind there was some kind of obstacle course, but it wasn't like Kaede could set that up at a moment's notice. Once in the forest Mizuki watched as Kaede began to stretch, then hastily moved to copy her movements. Since she had done a lot of practising with the Mobility and Body Combat masteries her body was already pretty fit, so while she didn't do it with the same grace and ease as Kaede she did manage to touch her toes, although in all fairness she was helped a bit by the fact that she had designed her arms as a bit longer than usual so she'd have an easier time running on all fours (even in character creation Mizuki had already been thinking about using the Felis race to make a character who'd move in an unusual manner). Standing up straight she stretched while listening attentively to Kaede, her ears sharp and aimed towards her friend as her tail gently moved from side to side behind her. What Kaede was saying did make sense, that one of the first steps towards being able to move nimble wasn't to increase your flexibility but to know just exactly how flexible you were. Mizuki's body had already been improved by her continuous running about and fighting, so for her learning control was even more important than for someone who was starting completely from square one. The task given also made sense, at least Mizuki thought she understood it. A good part of being nimble was in moving in the correct manner, so being able to move around Kaede or a tree with as little deviation from her path as possible would be a good display of control. Mizuki nodded. "All right, I'll try." With that she moved a bit further away, wanting to give herself a bit of a running start. Turning back around she lowered her body as she narrowed her eyes, looking at Kaede before suddenly dashing forward at high speed, toes digging into the ground as Mizuki used her high Mobility mastery to probably move a lot faster than she should have while starting out with this training. And she quickly learned that she was going too fast. While Mizuki wasn't the most expressive that didn't mean she didn't have emotions, and in this case she was nervous because even if she believed that she understood what Kaede wanted from her that didn't mean she had much confidence in her ability to deliver. She wanted to succeed, focused so much on succeeding that she ran forward way too fast, and when she got close to Kaede she tried to quickly move around her redheaded friend only for her feet to become entangled as in her excessive focus and nervousness she became too rigid in her movements. Without much ceremony she faceplanted, letting out a short cry of surprise before it was surprised by a grunt as the ground knocked the air out of her lungs. Laying there on the ground next to Kaede she felt her cheeks redden into a furious blush as she scrabbled back upright, at least being fortunate enough that her athletic form hadn't incurred any real damage from the fall. Instead it was only her pride which had received the blow. "...That doesn't count." Stomping back to her starting point Mizuki once more lowered her body before dashing off towards Kaede, but it looked like this time she was too afraid of making the same mistake so she jumped to the side too early and moving too far, when she realized what she was doing looking frustrated as she ran a hand through her hair and let out an annoyed huff. "...I can do better than that." She grumbled, not willing to admit that maybe she just wasn't very good at this. To be fair, she probably would do a better job of it if she was calmer and relaxed, but since she was too obsessed with succeeding to notice that her current state of mind was making things worse she was basically denying that which seemed like the truth to her. @Kaede Hoshi
_____Kaede would watch without a judgmental gaze as her friend’s first attempt went as she partly expected and the girl overshot her speed. It was not uncommon for people to do that, but at the same time she slightly expected the girl to undershot her speed and not overshot it like she had. Watching the second attempt go south Kaede would slowly reach her hand up to have the girl take a moment. If she stopped moving Kaede would move quickly to get almost in kissing range before sliding behind the girl and slightly tugging at Mizuki’s tail. ”Do I have to take something from you to make you focus? Speed does not matter starting out. Even though I was some distance away you could have walked and simply stepped around me. Rogue is not all quick and sneaky, sometimes the greatest acts of deception are nothing at all.” _____Kaede would give the girl’s tail another playful tug before walking back to her spot and waiting to see if maybe she helped the girl out. Or maybe she only made the girl more unfocused, either way this whole teaching thing was not exactly Kaede’s cup of tea. Even when she was her old self she struggled to teach girls ways to make her moan or want more, much less show them how she did some of the things she does to them. _____The train of thought drawing a blush to her face as she recalled the number of nights like such leaving her wide open and not fully focused on what Mizuki was doing or trying to do or say. It was a good chance to get payback for pulling her tail. @Ueno Mizuki
Mizuki felt judged by the judgemental gaze was not in a good mood after her first couple of attempts had ended in failure, first the humiliating experience of her face meeting the ground, and then her jumping aside as if afraid that if she got too close to Kaede she'd catch some kind of disease. She hadn't thought she'd get it right in one go, but she'd also hoped that she wouldn't make herself look like some kind of clumsy idiot. Learning new things always came with messing up, since the kind of person who could pick up something new without even the slightest issue was very rare (and usually earned themselves a lot of scorn from the rest of the population. Being that blessed and talented had its downsides). As it was Mizuki was basically fuming, angry at herself and trying to suppress it, but all her attempts at suppressing it honestly only made her angrier since she kept reminding herself of what she had done wrong and she couldn't exactly stop thinking about it since she'd just asked Kaede to help her train so she couldn't just walk away from it... She looked sullen as Kaede motioned for her to stop, the Felis's heterochromatic eyes narrow and annoyed as she looked past Kaede, not paying as much attention to the redhead as she maybe should have. She wasn't angry at Kaede, since she was a friend who was going out of her way to help her, but she was a bit too absorbed in her own failure. Which meant that when Kaede suddenly got close enough for a kiss Mizuki reflexively took a step back, her thoughts confused as her angry state of mind suddenly clashed with surprise and uncertainty. Which was only made worse when Kaede pulled her tail, the Felis yelping and then covering her mouth as her face now went red for another reason entirely, her anger forgotten as instead she had the strong urge to whimper as Kaede literally had her by the tail as she explained. She tried her best to actually listen, but Kaede had grabbed her rather close to the base of her tail, which made it hard to focus properly. It did a good job of getting rid of her anger, as Mizuki instead stood there with a red face, trying not to move too much in fear of effectively pulling her own tail, nodding as Kaede explained that there was no reason for her to overdo it in her first attempts. Now that Kaede explained it Mizuki felt silly, thinking that she'd have to go as fast as possible when she was just starting out... or thinking that faster was automatically better than slower. Kaede had already told her that the Rogue mastery was as much about subtlety and deception as acrobatics and nimbleness, but Mizuki now had to be reminded once more that the goal of Rogue wasn't to just rush through everything as possible. While that was one thing Rogues were supposed to be good at it was just as acceptable to move slowly and carefully, if that happened to be the better approach. "N-no need to take anything." She yelped out when Kaede tugged her tail once more, once Kaede let go and walked back to her own spot rubbing her tail. Kaede hadn't been so rough that her tail really hurt, but... Mizuki shook her head and tried to put that out of her head as she returned to her own spot as well. With Kaede emphasizing precision over speed Mizuki dropped the running stance, instead just standing there for a couple of seconds while waiting for Kaede to return to her position before walking forward. She found it a bit silly, but she believed that Kaede knew that she was talking about, so she'd try it out slowly first. Approach Kaede normally, and then just step around her as if there wasn't anything to it. When you thought of Rogues you'd think of fancy movements, but now that Kaede had managed to at least get rid of the anger by replacing it with embarrassment Mizuki was capable of reminding herself that fancy movements weren't the point, the point was efficient movements. Sometimes fancy movements were the most efficient ones, sometimes it was all right to show off, but right now she had to prioritize on learning what worked and what didn't work. One of her primary motivations for learning all of this was so she could chase creatures in difficult terrain, after all. While that required speed that wasn't as important as making the right movements. Clever planning and precision should yield better fruit than just rushing like a madman without any cunning. Walking around Kaede wasn't exactly difficult now that she was moving at a slow pace, although when she looked around at Kaede Mizuki noticed that her redheaded friend wasn't really paying attention. And going by the blush of her face... The Felis raised an eyebrow. She didn't think that having Kaede lose herself in the more sexual part of her mind would be conductive to training... And maybe she just wanted to get revenge for having her tail pulled. Mizuki didn't think Kaede meant anything bad by it, and the elven redhead had been careful enough not to hurt her, but pulling a Felis's tail was still a move that the Felis might want to pay you back for. In this case Mizuki did feel like getting a little bit of revenge, and perhaps somewhat unfortunately for Kaede the wolfish woman did have an idea of how to get her revenge. Checking once again that Kaede was really lost in thought (hopefully, anyway... it could be a trap, but Mizuki had no way of telling until after she did what she wanted to do) Mizuki moved behind Kaede, then leaned forward... and quickly stuck out her tongue to lick one of Kaede's long slender ears before quickly jumping back. She didn't want to get caught by Kaede lashing out in surprise, and even if she didn't have Kaede's precision and skill she did have plenty good speed and reflexes, so getting out of the way before Kaede hit her should be within her capabilities. She wasn't cruel enough to lick the tip (not cruel enough and she didn't think Kaede would be very interested in teaching afterwards if she licked the tip), but the advantage of Yladian ears (or the disadvantage, depending on how you looked at it) was that they were long enough that it wasn't that difficult to touch it if the Yladian in question wasn't paying attention. "Was that subtle enough?" Mizuki asked, her face moderately calm even if the swishing of her tail betrayed her. @Kaede Hoshi
_____Kaede was roughly thrown back to reality as she felt a cold and wet object against her ears. Her voice a mix of a squeak and moan as she moved her hands up to cover her ears and ducked into a ball holding them. She was trembling, and the overall air seemed scared as she tried to level her emotions back down to avoid losing control again. Turning with puffed cheeks to Mizuki as she got read to slightly chew the girl out for her actions. ”Here I’m trying to help train you! I don’t want to get tossed into back seat more… Just focus on doing it with the trees!” _____Kaede would not explain her comment about getting tossed into back seat and clearly seemed to have a very large lack of trust with Mizuki as she moved away and kept her hands over her ears. The crimson shade on her face a bit deeper and almost making some assume she was just a super innocent girl with a dirty mind. To be honest that was who she was right now, but most still knew her for being a pervert both mind and body. ”If you want more of a challenge… try to run up a tree slightly and flip afterwards…” _____Kaede would show by example, frame moving to rush towards a tree before she seemed to break the law of gravity and started running straight up for a good ten feet before she kicked off and spun to land on her feet about three feet from the tree on her feet. The entire time keeping her hands over her ears and slightly less red now that she had to focus on something else. ”If I was faster I might have got higher, honestly right now I’m just quick but very limber and nimble. Most those who try to be a rogue user mix with mobility but I’m just interested in sneaking around and not so much quick crazy movements… I don’t advise trying to run too high, just getting two steps on the tree before doing a flip would work.” @Ueno Mizuki
Mizuki had to admit, even though it was a bit cruel it was funny to see Kaede literally curl up in an attempt to protect her sensitive ears. It wasn't very nice of her, and a part of Mizuki felt guilty and embarrassed, but she couldn't deny that it was amusing to watch, although she managed to keep her face stoic to hide that part. Although when it seemed like Kaede was genuinely scared the amusement quickly vanished as Mizuki took a step forward, not sure if she should help somehow or not... She wasn't sure how to help. Give the redhead a hug to apologize? She wasn't the social one, she didn't know how to help people best. Instead she just watched with worry, when Kaede recovered enough to scold her taking the rebuke silently as she nodded. While Kaede pulling her tail also had been rather harsh Mizuki had never given Kaede reason to believe it was as bad as Kaede's reaction to having her ear licked. Having your tail pulled was shocking, and either quite painful or very distracting in another fashion, but compared to this... She tilted her head as she watched Kaede for several seconds, her heterochromatic eyes studying Kaede with mixture of worry, confusion and curiosity. Two moons, one a warm golden and the other an icy blue. Kaede's comment had certainly been an interesting one, even if she wasn't going to elaborate on it. 'I don't want to get tossed in the backseat once more...' Mizuki might not be the social one, but she wasn't exactly unobservant. She wouldn't notice something if there were no clues to alert her to it, but she'd interacted with Kaede both before and after the girl died and was reborn, and she hadn't failed to pick up on how Kaede's behaviour had changed. Or to be more precise, it seemed to wobble back and forth between how she behaved in the past and a newer, less assertive attitude. Maybe it was just a side effect of dying, maybe dying had reminded Kaede that there were threats in this game to be wary of. However Mizuki had taken note, and Kaede's comment confirmed that there was something going on, if only because that wasn't something you'd just say unless there was an actual meaning behind it. Mizuki bowed towards Kaede. "I apologize for my behaviour. I'll endeavour to refrain from making the same mistake in the future." However as she straightened she added something else. "However I'd ask of you to elaborate once we have the time." She didn't say what she wanted Kaede to elaborate on, as she was pretty sure the two of them both knew what it was about. Mizuki didn't know what exactly was going on with Kaede, but to provoke that kind of reaction towards something Mizuki had thought of as playfully cruel but ultimately innocent the Felis thought it wiser to try and learn all the details so she knew best how to deal with it. With that said and out of the way Mizuki nodded once more as Kaede suggested running up the trees, her tail swishing with a bit more energy. That sounded more like what Mizuki had been thinking of mostly with the Rogue mastery, the kind of acrobatic technique that'd allow you to move in ways that someone without the mastery could only look at in surprise and awe. Even if running up a tree was a basic move it would be a start, and it could possibly be used to confuse enemies in the middle of a fight, as vertical moves were often difficult for people and monsters alike to follow if they weren't expecting it. Watching Kaede do it was also very educational, although admittedly the fact that the redhead refused to remove her hands was both worrying and funny in a way. "I'll try my best then." Of course she wouldn't perform as well as Kaede, although at least in this case she'd have the advantage of being faster than Kaede, so gathering enough momentum to run up the tree shouldn't be too difficult. Taking a deep breath Mizuki tried to focus solely on the tree, hoping that if she showed that she was once more focused on the task it'd also help Kaede relax a little. As long as she was covering her ears Mizuki was going to feel guilty, so she would even be willing to fumble if that meant speeding up the process. However she still preferred not to fumble if necessary, and she was trying to remind herself of the first lesson, namely that she shouldn't overdo it... even if in this case speed was supposed to be highly beneficial. Once she thought that she had the proper mindset of focus and calm Mizuki lowered her centre of mass, then ran towards the tree. Not as fast as possible, not by a long shot, but plenty fast. She needed speed for this to work, but too much speed and she wouldn't be able to move precisely enough to actually kick herself off and make the flip... Reaching the tree she planted her foot firmly on it and launched herself upwards, immediately bringing her other foot forward to plant that one firmly against the trunk of the tree. Since Kaede had advised her to try only two steps at first she didn't hesitate to use a lot of force when putting her foot down, pushing herself both upwards and away from the tree even as she ignored every part of her which didn't want to do such a risky thing and turned in mid-air. The world spun around her and if things weren't going to fast she would have feared that she was going to slam with her face against the ground. Instead, however, she managed to land on her feet, although she stumbled and nearly lost her balance as her mind tried to catch up with the constantly changing point of view. She was used to rapid movements thanks to her decent Mobility mastery, but vertical movements really took some getting used to. @Kaede Hoshi
_____Kaede would simply clap as the girl did not fail, to be honest slightly jealous as she herself fell a number of times before she was able to flip at all in the game. But after recalling the girl’s comments and past actions she figured having stats to start sort of helped her out with this training and took less of a blow to her mind she otherwise would have suffered. Slowly waving her hand for Mizuki to do it again as Kaede moved to an area close with a tree to mirror. When Mizuki started to move Kaede would move to keep up or go faster, staying in her range of control as best she herself could while showing Mizuki what she might be able to do later on. _____While Kaede took a slightly faster speed this time to match the girl she also got higher and had more spin to her flip, By the time she reached the ground her sense of direction was scrambled as she slightly staggered, even if she was mastered in rogue her speed was still lacking to keep up with some of the actions. Waving her hand to follow her before she started to run off into the deeper part of the forest. Keeping a decent warm up speed as she began jumping over rocks or stepping to walk tight rope style on a fallen log. ”If I get to fast or to complex to follow just let me know.” _____With that Kaede would start to slowly scale her pace, herself starting to wake a bit more and her route slowly scaling in difficulty. Climbing half way up a tree before jumping to the next and the next, to slowly get back to the ground before resuming the advance workout she wished she had where she lived. A quick glance behind her to see if Mizuki was still behind her or fully following each step to the best of her ability. If she fell down or asked to stop Kaede would slow down and wait for her to resume the course. @Kaede Hoshi
A short blush would adorn MIzuki's cheeks as Kaede clapped, the Felis unable to not feel a small amount of pride at the praise. She knew that it shouldn't be anything much, but she couldn't help it, at least not before she managed to rein herself in and forcibly calm down. Just because she had managed to not mess up completely didn't mean she should be getting too full of herself. Instead she should use a good start as basis for more hard work, so she could improve to a level where she'd actually be able to consider herself decent. After all, Kaede had made a bigger jump and made it seem like nothing. Mizuki's jump had been a small one, and it only worked because she happened to be fast enough that she could substitute speed for skill. Nodding as Kaede motioned for her to repeat Mizuki took her distance from the tree once more before charging at it again, once again taking two steps before jumping and flipping. Unfortunately just because you succeeded before didn't guarantee that you would succeed again, as Mizuki learned. She managed to push herself into the air just fine, but when she flipped she lost track of where the ground was supposed to be, only barely managing to hit it with her feet first instead of another body part... and even then she didn't have enough control over her landing, so she ended up slipping, hitting the ground harshly with her backside, wincing as her tail got trapped underneath as well. She also had tried to catch herself with her hands, which had helped reduce the damage on her butt and tail but had left her an unpleasant feeling in her palms, as the shock had travelled up her arms through her hands. Shaking her head the wolflike Felis stood back up, although before she could try again Kaede motioned for her to come closer. As Mizuki wondered what Kaede wanted the redhead began to run, leaving Mizuki to realize that it wasn't a sign to come closer but a sign to follow. Without further hesitation she ignored the stinging of her palms and the discomfort from her behind as she ran after Kaede, quickly accelerating until she was fast enough to catch up to Kaede... Or at least, make a very determined attempt. While she couldn't hope to equal Kaede when it came to nimbleness or precision this newest part of her training was something she was already really good at, namely covering ground. Once she caught up with Kaede her trainer told her that she was going to up the difficulty, Mizuki nodding and replying. "Understood." Of course, if this was training then that meant she couldn't just rely on being faster than Kaede: she'd have to try and follow Kaede's movements and imitate them, although Mizuki was pretty sure that an amateur like her trying to imitate Kaede would actually leave her slower than if she just tried her best to cover ground as quickly as possible, in which case she'd probably be able to outrun Kaede for at least a while until the terrain became too tricky for someone to be able to cover it efficiently without a more acrobatic approach. At least the tasks here shared that of the tree jump, namely that a lot of speed helped you with completing them. Jumping over the rocks was easy, the harder part being landing in the right spot and not being slowed down by the landing and possible hindrances located behind the rocks. Using a log as a tightrope was immediately harder, since in a jungle like this there was a lot of moss and the Felis had difficulty with not slipping off of the round log, trying to regain her balance with her arms before giving up and stepping off and running after Kaede before she fell once more. Climbing the trees, on the other hand, proved to be a separate challenge. For one thing, while speed would allow you to run a bit up the tree before you had to resort to climbing there was still the actual climbing, which Mizuki's speed didn't cover at all. Considering how high Kaede was climbing she couldn't run that high up, at least not until she managed to combine her speed with agility and skill. So climbing after Kaede was a hassle, especially when Mizuki managed to get up the first tree, but in her attempt to jump to the second tree simply missed, managing to land on her feet but finding that Kaede had already advanced far enough that she had to abandon that track and just run to catch up with her teacher once more. All in all Mizuki was managing to keep up and make a decent attempt at the obstacles, but it became clear that whenever an obstacle couldn't be solved with pure physical prowess (primarily speed) she tended to underperform, after which she'd just run to catch up with Kaede to try again. However despite the fact that she was clearly not being as successful as she hoped she would be MIzuki showed no signs of wanting to slow down or stop, chasing Kaede with a kind of stubbornness or bullheadedness, as if she had decided that she would learn how to move with agility and she wasn't going to accept failure. Mizuki was used to a life where to achieve you had to work hard, and while she wasn't used to this level of messing up (as long as you had a good working ethic even a failed attempt at studying still gave you a decent grade because you'd been paying attention during the actual lectures. Also, getting an answer wrong on a test didn't leave you flat on the ground... usually) she still was going to stubbornly keep going, struggling her way towards skill. At least Kaede was easy to spot in the middle of all the green, with her vibrant red hair, so even when the foliage threatened to obscure her vision Mizuki could still catch a flash of red and go after that, after which it wouldn't take too long before she was on Kaede's heels again. When Mizuki focused on speed rather than traversing the terrain acrobatically keeping track of Kaede wasn't too difficult, since even if this place was very overgrown there still was plenty of opportunity to run, especially when your target was purposefully going easy and was willing to wait once in a while if it looked like you were really falling behind. @Kaede Hoshi
_____With all the information she gained from Mizuki’s actions during the small training session kaede would turn and reach her hand out to show three coins each marked with a letter, how and when she did such was unclear but they seemed to be her next idea for training as she would keep offering them to Mizuki until she took them and she could move her hand back. Waving her hand across her own frame before she decided to speak incase Mizuki might not get what she was hinting with her motions. ”Three coins game. Hide each coin on your body somewhere, I try to do them based on the number being harder to get to, once you're done I’ll show you roughly what to do and then you can try. As an added bonus I also have coins four, up to ten on me if you think you can guess where I hid them while I was running the course with you~” _____Kaede would keep her focus on Mizuki, for her it honestly was unfair since she knew the game very well and was already a master at rogue to make this far to easy for her. But after Mizuki looked like she was ready Kaede would walk closer and lightly bump shoulders with Mizuki’ her hands moving to the girl's shoulders before moving away, flicking her wrist to reveal all three coins if Mizuki was not clever to hide them somewhere Kaede would not try and check in the extremely quick motion. _____If Mizuki was keen enough to notice she could also see the edge of a coin in the glove Kaede had that was holding the coins she managed to take from the girl. Moving back to her spot without running into the girl before reaching her hand out of any coin was missed so she could allow Mizuki to try. ”It’s a pickpocket and sneak training game. Have to be careful to not alert someone where you're touching unless to buy you some extra time. The first coin I got from running into you, and between me moving to tap your shoulder, well you get the idea.~” @Ueno Mizuki
Mizuki obediently came to a halt once her teacher did, her breathing a bit heavier than normal as she did her best to recover quickly from the little workout they just did. The actual moving wasn't too tiresome, but trying to do so according to what Kaede did rather than what Mizuki would have done on her own required effort and concentration, especially with her trying her best to keep up with Kaede at the same time. Add in the fact that she didn't always succeed and while she wasn't even close to running out of stamina she was a tad glad that she could catch her breath and relax for a moment, even though she doubted that Kaede was going to already call a break in their training... especially since after Mizuki had messed with her ears she might want to try and work Mizuki into the ground, even if with Mizuki's Mobility that would be a fair challenge in its own right. The coins were curious, since at first the Felis had no idea what they were meant to be for. Maybe Kaede was going to throw them up in the air and she would have to try and catch all of them before they hit the ground? Possible, although that sounded more like a Mobility thing, even if the Rogue mastery would also help a lot... Taking the coins she studied them, noting the different letters and doing her best to memorize them, in case that turned out to be important. She still didn't know what they were for, but she might as well do her best to be prepared for whatever Kaede might have in store for her. Once the explanation was given Mizuki blinked in surprise, then nodded as she finally realized what the idea was. It was actually quite ingenious: the Rogue mastery was as much about stealth, subtlety and sleight of hand as agility, and this training/game would be very suitable for a mastery which was also supposed to make you good at pickpocketing. Not exactly what Mizuki was the most interested in, but it could definitely be useful in the future to be able to get items from those who were unwilling to give them up. Especially if you could do it without them noticing (how easy it was to consider stealing things in the game, even though back on Earth it would have immediately been followed by a rush of guilt if she even considered it. Well, she'd still have to try and avoid becoming too used to just stealing whatever she felt like stealing... the people here also had a right to their own stuff. Most of the time). With Kaede having explained what to do Mizuki tried to think of where she should hide her coins. The first one she simply put in the pocket of her pants, because that was as easy to think of a place as any. The second she placed on her palm, using her thumb to keep it in place while holding her arm close to her body so it would be difficult for one to see the coin. The last she slid inside the waistband of her trousers, where it would be kept in place by the piece of clothing. She thought it was a bit unfair since it wasn't visible there and because it would be difficult to get it out of there without the person hiding the coin noticing that someone was pulling on their waistband, but Kaede had said that the coins were supposed to have an increasing difficulty to them. Now that she had put the coins in place she just had to wait for Kaede to show off her skills. Which the redhead promptly did by neatly grabbing all of the coins as if it was the easiest thing in the world. Mizuki blinked as she realized what had happened, looking puzzled as she checked whether the coin in her waistband had truly been stolen only to reaffirm that yes it had. The fact that Kaede could pull something like that off would have made Mizuki nervous about what else Kaede might steal if she didn't trust her friend. Instead she just looked at Kaede with clear admiration of such skill, waiting for Kaede to signal that it was her turn to try before she did her best to take the coins back from Kaede. Of course since this had nothing to do with moving fast or quick reflexes Mizuki's Mobility wouldn't do a lot with this training, but there was something else Mizuki could use here... if that was a good idea. She wasn't sure if using her Hunting mastery here would help with the training or get in the way of her gaining the Rogue mastery. Well, Hunting was about finding and Rogue was about not being detected, so she should be fine with using her Hunting mastery for the finding. Activating her enhanced Investigation mode Mizuki did her best to move casually as she circled around Kaede, trying to figure out where she could have hidden ten coins (how could you hide ten coins in separate locations? Mizuki would have given up after six and even then she'd probably have used at least one spot twice). The Investigation mode allowed Mizuki to do a decent job of finding the coins, but as one might expect the wolflike Felis was somewhat awkward in retrieving them. She was doing her best, but unlike Kaede she neither had the slight of hand nor the experience to take the coins without making it somewhat obvious to Kaede what she was doing, although she herself did think she did a decent job with the coin in the glove. After a while Mizuki would have four coins, the only ones which she had attempted to 'pocket' from Kaede without being noticed, with varying success. She knew the location of more, but she was pretty sure there was no way in hell she could get those without being laughably obvious. While the point of course was to practice Mizuki also thought there was wisdom in admitting that something was still out of your reach. "This is a lot trickier than you'd expect." Mizuki admitted, turning off her Investigation mode. "Finding the coins isn't too difficult thanks to my Hunting mastery but I'm having trouble figuring out how I'm supposed to grab them without being caught... Seems like someone could make it very difficult for you to pocket them just by putting their money somewhere where you can't get to it without opening a bag or something." She didn't sound too frustrated, more very focused and thoughtful as she tried to figure out how Kaede had done it... She hadn't even seen her friend's hands reach for the right areas when Kaede retrieved her three coins. @Kaede Hoshi
_____Listening to Mizuki’s words Kaede would tap her chin slightly opening her mouth and moving her head up to reveal the coin marked with a ten, slightly to prove there was far harder spots you could hide something to avoid it getting stolen. The real trick was keeping it there without it being noticed at all and Kaede was proud she so far managed such. Opening her UI to draw out a small handbag, a satchel, and lastly a coat like the one she was wearing. Setting each on a different tree before moving to the suit and standing to the side so Mizuki could see. ”For a suit using the bump tactic works for a beginner. Have your hands where you want to be searching but close to your own frame, just before clashing you reach for what you want then bump into them to remove the action from their mind. The quicker you can do it the less time the brain has to register the first action compared to the impact of, well an impact with the person you're stealing from. That’s how I tend to go about things is by using the brains slight lag, sometimes I get caught because some people’s minds work better but the average if not majority have the delay.” _____Kaede would use the tree as an example for her explanation, tapping her head when she spoke of how the mind slightly worked before moving to her next example location. Looking over the handbag, she already knew few people in the game had them but it was still slightly worth showing the girl as the higher end pickpocket side of things. Tapping it lightly before she moved to the next item saving the smallest for last. ”For the satchel here the easiest would be to simply take it and run. These are harder to sneak into without being noticed unless the strap is fairly loose. If they keep it close to their side anything you do has a higher chance of causing the strap to shake and that would alert them. Not to mention time is always limited before the brain takes notice to things more subtle so… Always better to avoid these unless truly needed, but they are great to stop thieves who don’t want to risk attention.” _____Moving herself back to the small bag Kaede would look it over, hand trying to hint that it was the same case with such a small bag even for her. If she was quicker with her movements she might be able to think of a few things but so far these two items left her at a rough note being only focused on sneak and not speed for it. Moving to start retrieving her items and stashing them back in her UI before she would turn to Mizuki with a light smile. ”Any questions about any of that, or anything you might like to go back over in terms of training… Sorry not used to being a teacher to people ha-ha… Most times I just do things and that's about it…” _____Kaede would nervously tap her fingers to each other, she was more skittish about failing to teach the girl after she was asked to do so then anything else. Moving to kick the ground slightly before recalling Mizuki asking to know what Kaede meant by getting tossed into the back seat of her own mind. Inhaling slowly as she moved to look to the sky, how exactly could she explain things to someone who knew her before what happened and why it did. @Ueno Mizuki
Mizuki blinked when she saw that Kaede had actually gone through the trouble of hiding a coin inside of her mouth. The wolflike Felis hadn't even thought of that when she had been thinking of places where she could hide the coins. Which just showed that Mizuki wasn't always as cunning as she wanted to be, and that if she wanted to get better she'd have to keep trying to think of new things instead of getting stuck in old routines. For now she just watched as Kaede prepared some more training material, this time giving several trees some items which could be used as containers for things a thief might want to steal. Pretty straightforward, but Mizuki still listened attentively as Kaede began to explain. The explanation with the suit did make sense of a way, and showed that there was a lot more than just being clever and possessing nimble fingers to be a successful thief. To use the fact that people actually have difficulty focusing on multiple things at the same time to overwrite the sensation of the hands with the sensation of being bumped into... Most rogues probably got that trick from experience instead of approaching the issue scientifically, but it was still very impressive. If you didn't know how a rogue did their work you'd be quick to assume they mostly just relied on both a quick mind and quick hands, but this was definitely a step above that. Mizuki was pretty sure it'd also take a while to get the hang of it, even with Kaede explaining it so clearly to her. Even if she knew the how she'd still need to get the timing down, and also learn how to bump into someone without making it either too blatant or too soft. And if you bumped hard enough into someone to send them stumbling it didn't even matter if they knew you were trying to steal your stuff or not, they'd begin paying attention to you anyway. The matter of the satchel was a bit worrying, because Kaede's explanation was more along the lines that it was too much of a hassle to even bother with that kind of thing than that there was some kind of special trick for dealing with stealing something out of a satchel. Which was of course very realistic, since you couldn't expect to be able to pickpocket everything even if you were an experienced thief. In stories you'd read about legendary thieves who'd steal your shirt while you were wearing it, but realistically speaking a proper thief would judge what they could steal and what they couldn't and focus on the former while ignoring the latter. If there was a thief who could steal whatever they wanted it wasn't Mizuki, and she doubted Kaede was at that level either, especially with Kaede admitting that while she had cunning and nimbleness she was lacking in raw speed, something Mizuki had her beat at even if Kaede's skill more than made up for it in most cases. The handbag was more of the same, which made sense since it and the satchel were really similar in design. When Kaede expressed embarrassment and worry about being a good teacher Mizuki shook her head and smiled back. "Don't worry too much about it. I'm learning a lot, and I feel more comfortable with you helping me than if I asked some stranger who I didn't know, even if they were more experienced at teaching. As for questions..." Mizuki frowned as she thought about it, folding her arms as she tapped the ground with one foot. "Most of the examples you've been giving are about if you happen to encounter someone on the streets and want to steal from them without drawing their attention. I know it's not exactly asking about what you've already taught me, but can we later on also cover just trying to not be detected at all? And some of the other things that you should be able to do as a rogue I guess." She placed a finger on her lips. "Hmmm... For things you've already covered... I do have a few questions, but those are more about special circumstances... Like if the target is a mage, do you have a way of figuring out what wards they might have and how to bypass them, or do you just avoid mages entirely? And if someone does catch you, do you think it's smarter to just get away as quickly as possible or to bluff your way out of it?" She noticed that Kaede still seemed a bit uncomfortable even after she had already told her redheaded friend not to be so nervous about whether she was doing a good job or not. She couldn't say for certain what it might be that was bothering Kaede still, but she assumed that just being told once that she was a good teacher wasn't enough for Kaede to completely lose her doubts in her own abilities as a teacher. Mizuki tried to think of a way to reassure Kaede some more, since she did honestly think that so far the teaching was going quite well. She was giving good examples and also explaining what to do if there was more to it than just a bit of practice, and she gave Mizuki plenty of opportunity to try without getting angry or impatient. Of course her training method wouldn't be effective if the student wasn't eager to learn, but since Mizuki was trying her best she was pretty sure it was as good as you were going to get, especially if the teacher was not used to it. "For now I think I'd like to keep training in the more physical parts, unless you've got other things you want to do. I should learn about the stealthier parts as well but becoming better at controlling my body is my priority for now." She stretched, her tail swishing behind her. "So unless you've got some other training ideas in mind I guess we'd return to what we've already been doing?" @Kaede Hoshi
