Log: Tezuka and Atobe
Date: Night, July 23 (Wednesday)
Rating: PG-13, fancy that! Violence, mutant powers, destruction of (simulated) public property, and the harming of (simulated) opponents.
Summary: Tezuka runs into Atobe outside the Danger Room, and they fight! No, not with each other; not yet. XD
The first time, it had been a freak accident. Atobe had it in his head that he could do something about Sanada's body temperature and had pushed his own limits in the process. Duplicating that effect is what brought him to the danger room; it was the only place he could think of to immerse himself in temperatures matching those that Sanada was able to produce. It was late at night - no students would interrupt him - and he had not bothered to put on the training uniform, instead sporting a pair of sneakers, shorts, and a sleeveless hoodie. That alone was probably against some school regulation or another, but then again, most schools would not allow the earrings he wore on a daily basis or his blonde hair, either. Part of the decision to send him abroad for school was based upon that alone.
Curiosity did not impede caution, however. The door into the area was rigged to alert Atobe if someone came in so he could pause in his efforts and not show off the full range of his powers to the wrong people. As for his lack of uniform... well, that he would just have to sweet-talk his way around, if he was encountered by the wrong person. He was beginning to wonder if the computer really could withstand what he wanted without removing some sort of safety protocol when the alarm was tripped. He shook his head to chase away the frost that had built up on his hair and ended the program, walking out the door to meet with his fate of whoever had come to interrupt him.
As he neared the doors of the control room, Tezuka realized the Danger Room was in use. He paused, hesitating. He hadn't expected anyone to be there. It was late enough at night that most of Ryuhana's student population was either preparing for the next day's classes or already in bed. Tezuka often came late at this late hour, partly because work kept him late, but also because this way he wasn't in the way of anyone else's training. It wasn't as if one could rent a room just like the Danger Room anywhere else, like one could a gymnasium or tennis court. Tezuka himself was only allowed to used the Danger Room by virtue of being a Ryuhana alumnus.
Should he leave, then, since the Danger Room was in use?
The windows were fogged over; Tezuka couldn't quite tell whether it was because the training program involved fog, or if it was caused by someone's powers. A quick look at the controls signalled that the occupant had wound down their training. In that case, he'd wait. There was no point in leaving when the other person would be gone soon.
As Atobe exited the danger room, he encountered perhaps the last person he had expected to be there at this hour and for once, he was not particularly happy to be graced with Tezuka's presence. Regardless, he put on a lazy smile and made sure that the zipper of his hooded sweatshirt was pulled up before greeting the older man. "Tezuka-san, fancy seeing you here." It made sense, he thought, Tezuka had graduated from Ryuhana, and where else would one practice using a power that let them casually throw cars around. Somehow he got the feeling that would not fly with local authorities.
The last of the frost was melting from his hair, dripping down his neck uncomfortably and he knew he was dripping on the floor when he bowed his head slightly. "I won't get in your way. The danger room is yours."
"Atobe-kun," Tezuka said. He hadn't expected it to be Atobe, actually. Atobe hadn't seemed the type to work hard all hours of the day. A mistake and misjudgment on Tezuka's part, and a disservice to Atobe, Tezuka told himself firmly. Of course Atobe worked hard. It made sense, now, that easy confidence. Atobe knew what he was capable of because he spent long hours working on pushing his limits. Tezuka respected that.
He watched the melting frost drip from Atobe's hair and wondered if Atobe was trying to push himself to be able to control his powers in any adverse condition. Was that why the windows were fogged--ice meeting hot air, instantly evaporating? It must have been incredibly humid in the Danger Room. "I hope I didn't interrupt you," Tezuka said, turning towards the console now that Atobe had relinquished the room.
The subroutines Tezuka had programmed himself loaded quickly once Tezuka input his password. He'd password-protected them because they were too dangerous for the untrained, especially those unfamiliar with electromagnetism, and if anyone other than Magneto himself loaded Tezuka's routines by mistake, he suspected the infirmary would be needed at best. Considering this was a school for young mutants, the majority of whom were in the process of learning to control their powers, the passwords were a suitable enough safeguard. He waited for the Danger Room to re-orient and re-configure itself, and turned back to Atobe in the meantime. "Do you always train this late?"
Curious, Atobe watched what Tezuka was doing with the interface, though he could not really see anything Tezuka was entering with his body physically between Atobe and the console. He probably had his own special program that he routinely used - it would not surprise Atobe if it was intentionally intense and thus not fit for the average student to just happen across by chance. Really, Atobe needed to figure out how he could slice the system so he could accomplish the same - create a more advanced program, that was. As utterly unpleasant as the danger room had been with the air temperature, it had not been enough to trigger the same reaction as Sanada's body heat. If Atobe was able to reproduce the accidental effect of heat, he was hoping that he could then do the same thing on command in the future. It might even be possible to turn his body into solid ice. Furthermore, he might be able to do it without causing his joints to lock up painfully from cold.
"It's easier to avoid interruptions at this hour," the younger mutant responded. Generally, he was trying to get in extra training with Sanada - this was a special case that he was alone. The two of them grew faster together than in the regular training at school. "What about you? Did you just leave the office?"
"Aa." Tezuka nodded. Atobe, training alone at this hour without a spotter or a trainer? Was Atobe just running older programs he'd already mastered? He didn't voice the questions, merely waited for the Danger Room to be ready.
Atobe rested his hands on his hips and asked, "So what's this program of yours? Some sort of specialized training?" With as much experience as Tezuka likely had, if Atobe tried to train with him, he would likely be shot down cold. Still, the curiosity was eating at him and maybe if he could at least figure out what it was, he could think of a way to weasel in a bit more training before he returned to his room for the evening. He did have to wonder how it worked - Tezuka would need metal to manipulate, in theory, in order for the program to be useful to him as far as his powers were concerned... but Atobe also did not question how the danger room worked. It was probably perfectly logical to someone much more mechanically inclined than him.
"Urban combat," Tezuka said after a pause. "This one is the center of Ginza." An uncountable number of places for attackers to hide, an incredible number of things that could turn into projectiles, hundreds of pedestrians and other innocents that one had to protect--yet at any time, any one of those pedestrian "innocents" might prove to be yet another aggressor. Tezuka would have to be able to sense and keep track of all the metal in the area as well as figure out in a split second how to use them to either defend himself or others, or attack with them. Though he'd programmed the Danger Room to be able to randomize other mutant attacks in, though, it wasn't very smart at figuring out attacks that weren't obvious. Briefly, Tezuka thought about how this scenario was much more suited to anti-terrorism than anti-mutant violence.
Humming low in his throat to show he understood, Atobe glanced past Tezuka to the controls once more. Urban combat, was it? He must have been preparing for the hostile metallic invasion. A quirk of a smile came to Atobe's lips at the thought and he suggested, without looking back at Tezuka, "Sounds interesting. You could use a partner." There was no chance in hell Tezuka was going to say yes to that one, but the offer was honest.
"Partner?" Tezuka repeated, staring at Atobe.
"Sidekick?" Atobe offered, grinning fully, now. "I'll even let you be Batman."
About to refuse, Tezuka paused a moment. He had just been thinking about the lack of simulation opportunities with other mutant powers, and it was about time Tezuka learned to work with (or around) other mutants on his own side, too. It might be a little too difficult for Atobe, though... "Remind me how long you've been training."
Atobe had to consider how to answer the question - if he was honest but vague, Tezuka was going to back out when it sounded like he might actually take Atobe up on the proposition. If he were blunt, he would be giving away something that only Sanada knew up until this point. So, he threw caution to the wind and said, "Since I manifested two years ago. Sanada and I trained alone together for the first year." During that time, they had also been tutoring together... it had been Sanada's decision to go to Ryuhana against the wishes of everyone else in his life, Atobe included.
Two years of training exclusively with another. From what Tezuka recalled of his interactions with Sanada, the other boy struck him as a serious sort of person. Coupled with Atobe's obvious (and overlooked) ability to work hard... Not the same as thirteen years, but still respectable. There was no point in coddling Atobe, either--he was old enough to make his own decisions, and Tezuka would respect them. At the same time, there was no sense in being foolhardy.
"Hn," Tezuka said, turning towards the console. He keyed a few commands in, modifying the program this time to make sure four out of every five attacks were directed at him. He wasn't sure what Atobe's true abilities were like in combat of this nature, and he didn't want to cause Atobe any injury. If it was too easy for Atobe, they could adjust upwards--Tezuka would rather be safe than sorry.
He spoke, still fiddling with the controls. "Good choice of costume, then. Red and green draw too much attention."
"But you must admit, the spandex would look fantastic on me," Atobe joked. The other mutant was making some sort of adjustment to the program - probably changing it to somehow take into consideration that there were going to be two people training. No doubt making the program somehow easier, as well. If anything, Atobe's abilities to defend himself were stronger than his attack, but there was no use trying to explain that to Tezuka until he could see it for himself.
"If the program includes a number of female opponents, I'll leave them to you, then," Tezuka said, keying in the last command and then running a code-checker to make sure there weren't any mistakes. "Are you ready?"
Ready to knock them dead with my fabulous fashion sense, thought Atobe, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. It was going to go right over Tezuka's head, anyway. "I'm ready," he confirmed, stretching his arms above his head to work out kinks that were developing in his shoulders for standing still so long after working out. "I'll follow your lead, Fearless Leader."
Fearless? Tezuka cast a glance at Atobe, and then decided to let it slide. There was no point--in a few minutes they'd be a little too occupied with the simulation. "Let's go," he said. "Don't get careless."
There were those words, again - if Tezuka was not careful, people were going to start considering that his catchphrase. Then again, for all Atobe knew, they already did. He just shook his head and went back to the entrance of the danger room, surveying the area before entering. So this was the center of Ginza. Towering buildings surrounded them dappled with giant digital billboards that advertised various large corporations that were doubtlessly paying a mint for the spot in the heart of the city. One building in particular Atobe recognized from photographs - it was circular and the outside was composed almost entirely of windows. At one point, he had known the name of the building and its function, but it was lost on him, now.
The streets and sidewalks were grungy as could be expected in the middle of the city, though it was certainly cleaner than other cities Atobe had visited in his travels over the years. Cars dappled the road - primarily thin, boxy Japanese cars and a scattering of taxis, though both the cars and the pedestrians on the road were thinner than they really should have been for the middle of the day in Ginza. It was probably for their benefit as it would not really lend to training if the area did not have much room to move. It was quite the sandbox to play in; and if their objective was to protect this, they really did have their work cut out for them.
Atobe entered, expecting Tezuka to follow.
Stepping in, Tezuka looked around, taking stock of the situation quickly. A quick breath; immediately he was aware of all the metal in a fifty-meter radius of himself. Cars, of course. Signboards, screws, streetlights, keys, doorknobs, the avant-garde cursive lettering on top of that shop. A lot of jewelery and spare change (why that woman was carrying a bag full of ten-yen coins, Tezuka would rather not know--he wondered at the computer's randomizing too). There would be only three opponents--Tezuka had actually overridden the "random" setting on this one to specify three, just so he knew how many to look for. All mutants, with powers ranging anything from teleportation to super strength.
So far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but Tezuka knew there wouldn't be much time before they would be wishing for a breather. He stood beside Atobe, surveying the area. It was better to tell Atobe as many of the parameters as possible. The better Atobe was prepared, the better Atobe would fare. "Three mutants," Tezuka said. "Powers unknown, strength unknown. Stop them before they stop you, and make sure as little collateral damage is done as possible. Human or otherwise."
"And... just in case, the safeword to stop the program." Tezuka paused. "French vanilla, repeated twice in succession." He'd changed it for this simulation--hopefully Atobe would find it easy to remember.
Atobe raised an eyebrow at that - Tezuka's sense of humor rearing its ugly head? "Simple enough." He scanned the area looking for anything out of the ordinary as Tezuka spoke - anyone who could walk through walls or had inhuman features or was otherwise obviously not one of the humans just milling about. Atobe did have to wonder just what Tezuka was preparing for fighting against other mutants, though as a Ryhana graduate, the answer was most likely the Brotherhood. Sure, there were other, smaller mutant terrorist groups, but none as organized and troublesome as the Brotherhood.
Three-on-two, though... with Tezuka surrounded by this much metal, those seemed like unfair odds. Atobe pulled his hood up over his head, opening his mouth to say something when the ground a meter in front of him suddenly cracked loudly and kicked up dust, a blade of ice jutting out of the split concrete. That was all it took to kick the bystanders into panic, though Atobe merely looked for the source of the projectile. "So you programmed it so we're fighting me." He spotted a man who looked calm despite the chaos around him, standing far enough away that he was out of Atobe's range - he was likely the origin of this.
Well, it would make for an interesting challenge, in any case. Atobe wrapped himself in his powers, a thin sheet of ice covering his whole body like flexible armor. It was hard enough that most things would bounce harmlessly off the armor, but still allowed him movement. If the enemies were going to be throwing things at them, he was going to need it. With that, he scanned the area to find where he could move forward and hopefully both minimize casualties and get closer to that particular mutant. There was a city bus that was being abandoned as he watched - that would do. With a quick smile over his shoulder to Tezuka, he moved forward to get behind the bus.
It was good thinking, and Tezuka allowed Atobe to lead the way. The bus was composed of enough metal that Tezuka could channel magnetic fields through it to magnetize the vehicle, if needed--throwing the bus around would tire him too quickly, and result in too much collateral damage anyway. He'd attempted that before and learned not to do it again for no good reason.
They headed towards the bus, dodging panicked pedestrians. One of them grabbed Tezuka's sleeve and pulled Tezuka along with him. Tezuka turned to shake free and then dodged, sensing the metal blade before it made contact. The man threw the knife at Tezuka. It stopped in mid-air, caught in Tezuka's shield. With a frown, Tezuka cast it aside into the nearest sewer, and then turned to face the assailant--
--only to find he'd disappeared. Had that been a teleporter? There had been no smell, no sound; teleportation was not usually silent. He joined Atobe beside the bus, still thinking about the other man. That made two...
And then Atobe lunged at him, and Tezuka realized too late that there was another Atobe who had not reached the bus and was still covered in that icy armor.
Shapeshifter!
Not!Atobe was warm and drew back for a punch. Jerking to the side, Tezuka rolled with his assailant, angry at himself for being so careless. This, then, was the biggest problem with going into combat knowing others were on your side: who was a friend, and who was a foe, especially if one had to contend with psychological attacks as well as physical ones? He stopped mid-roll, kicked; not!Atobe sprang away unharmed.
A loud crash--the vending machines on the corner of the road toppled over, one of them breaking open. Plastic bottles and aluminum cans spilled onto the road; some lifted themselves mid-air, and then flew both towards Tezuka and Atobe.
"Atobe, watch out!"
The door of the vending machine came off with a sharp crack--Tezuka sent it after the plastic bottles hurtling towards what he thought was the real Atobe. If he couldn't stop the projectiles, he could bat them away, or shield the younger mutant.
A can of Coca-cola hit the asphalt next to Tezuka's head and exploded, water-gas-metal flying. He ducked a sharp aluminum shard--it was too light for him to stop when he was concentrating elsewhere--too late, it cut his ear. He hissed, and the door wavered. Now was not the time; Tezuka closed his eyes, concentrating on the magnetic fields pushing the metal sheet, making them stronger. The torn-off door curved, clanged as two bottles of green tea crashed into it. All dropped harmlessly to the floor.
"Worry about your own hide," Atobe shot back - trying not to boggle at the strange scene playing out between his look-alike and Tezuka. Still, he appreciated that Tezuka was trying to look out for him... but he was going to leave himself open if he didn't pay attention to what was going on around him. There was still that ice-wielding sniper to contend with. Speaking of that, another one of the ice projectiles shot by, this time missing Atobe's head by inches. His first priority had to be that sharp-shooter or they were going to get picked off while they were distracted. He couldn't watch Tezuka's back and avoid being skewered by ice at the same time.
So he was off, again, pushing his way through the panicked masses, moving toward the building where he had spotted the mutant. In front of him a few paces a young girl running with her mother tripped and fell to her knees on the pavement, crying in panic. Without thinking twice, Atobe dove down beside the two and touched his hand to the ground, seeking out the water in the air to create a solid wall of ice, at least ten centimeters thick, between the other mutant and the child. The two humans, both whom he knew not to be real and yet still found himself compelled to protect, thanked him and started moving again once the girl was calm enough to stand. Atobe, meanwhile paused to catch his breath, watching Tezuka for a moment to make sure he was still handling himself, then moved around the edge of the wall he created and took off at a dead sprint.
He was close enough now that the other mutant's attacks became more furious, each one quicker than the last. Some rebounded harmlessly off the ice shielding Atobe's body, others missed him by some dumb luck, and when he could react quickly enough, he would deflect the projectiles with the ice on his arms. Completely lacking his usual grace, he tackled the mutant, sending them both to the pavement with an painful sounding crack of the other mutant's skull against the ground.
The next thing he knew, he was the one flat on his back, disoriented, staring up at the computer generated sky. Did Tezuka program these enemies with judo, or something? He rolled to the side, dodging a lance of ice aimed for his head and got to his feet uneasily. Two could play at this game. He created a ice sword of his own, motioning to the other mutant with it challengingly. "Let's see if your program includes fencing, shall we?"
The other mutant smirked, and then jerked his head backwards as the ground beneath Atobe's feet froze. Instead of fencing, he conjured up another ice dagger, took aim, and threw.
"You think you're cute," Atobe started to say, but that was when the dagger was thrown. He dodged, lifting his arm on pure instinct and knocking away the projectile easily. It may have been one of the first things he had learned, but he certainly appreciated that armor when he needed it. He hardly had time to consider the frozen ground beneath him before the other mutant sent another dagger his way and Atobe stepped back without thinking, partially losing his balance and having to awkwardly swing his arms up to catch himself, again. Oh, great.
Rather than use the sword he'd conjured, Atobe just tossed it at the other mutant as a means of distraction and then held out his hands, pushing his power outward to shoot a wave of frozen air at the other mutant. Tiny pieces of hail and temperatures that would freeze to the bone on contact encased the other mutant... for many, that would be enough to deter them entirely, but in this case, as the other mutant also used ice, Atobe suspected it would only barely buy him time to think of a way to use the frozen ground to his advantage.
With a hiss of pain, the other mutant back-stepped, skin changing color to match Atobe's own. "Ice won't hurt me," he said in a sing-song voice, even as he favored the arm that had first been hit by Atobe's blast of cold. "Or will it hurt you?" He copied Atobe's attack, sending freezing hail and temperatures back.
Well, no. Atobe let the cold wash over him, actually rather enjoying it after the hot temperatures he had been enduring in his last exercise. It only created more frost in the small gaps in his armor, began to turn his skin blue as it did just before he got that horrible joint-locking pain, but it was not painful as it was. Refreshing, sure. It did, however, cause him to slip back a couple feet on the ice... which was obviously the answer. "Tezuka-san," he shouted, once more sending the icy wind back, trying to cancel out the other mutant. "Don't suppose you could toss me a soda?"
About to retort that now wasn't the time for a break, Tezuka glanced at Atobe and took in the situation. No, Atobe was a little too far for Tezuka to throw anything at for the moment, but considering he'd been dodging beverages a while now...
If only he could spot the telekinetic. That had to be the last power--telekinesis. Whoever it was had been content to aim at Tezuka from all directions, and he'd been using the vending machine door broken earlier to fend off the various plastic missiles. Glancing around, Tezuka began to run towards Atobe. Right on cue, more bottles lifted themselves from the mess on the street and launched themselves at Tezuka again. He ducked. "Incoming," Tezuka shouted, turning back and focusing on his own fight again.
Scanning the street brought him no answers; the other mutant--mutants, he reminded himself--were good actors, able to blend in well. Actually, Tezuka didn't know what one of them looked like, and the other was a shapeshifter, so...
He sensed it again, metal, steel band--
--a watch. Circling instead of running away. So that's where the telekinetic was. Tezuka gathered up two bottles and a can before jumping onto the vending machine door. He concentrated, and it lifted up. Flying carpets should be softer, Tezuka thought. Still, beggars couldn't be choosers.
Atobe directed the icy air at the incoming bottle of soda, instead, freezing the contents and watching with no small supply of amusement as - right on target - it beaned the other mutant in the back of the head. All in a day's work. The other mutant staggered forward and Atobe used the opportunity to once more conjure up the ice sword, this time striking precisely once on the mutant's lower back, once on the back of the head rendering him, at least for the moment, out cold on the pavement. Long enough for Atobe to help out Tezuka, in any case.
He stepped over the fallen body on the ground, careful of the ice below his feet, and quietly wondered at what on earth Tezuka was doing up in the air on a flying vending machine door. Once his feet hit solid pavement, again, he ran back in the direction of the bus, keeping one eye on Tezuka as he did. If Tezuka was after one mutant, that meant that there was still another lurking around, somewhere... probably still over by the bus and possibly still wearing Atobe's face.
Except there were two Tezukas, and the one on the ground was aiming a gun at the one in the air.
It was a fraction of a second late that Atobe noticed the second Tezuka. One Tezuka in the air using a vending machine door as a means of transportation, the other on the ground holding a gun - it was likely that the Tezuka in the air was the real one; or so Atobe's gut told him, logic would follow behind in due time as he shouted, "Tezuka-san!" Logic told him that the vending machine door trick as well as pursuing another mutant was a pretty good indication that it was the real Tezuka... not to mention, he highly doubted Tezuka was particularly versed in the use of a gun. Guns were not available in Japan with the ease that they could be purchased in other countries - even paintball guns were outlawed, to the best of Atobe's knowledge. He could shoot a handgun and a rifle fairly accurately, but it was hardly a skill that was common in Japan.
He had no doubt that Tezuka could block the bullet somehow with his power if need-be, but the shapeshifter had been Atobe's target, anyway, so he ran in that direction, generating and throwing small lances of ice as he did - aiming as best as he could while running for anything that would give him an advantage; the gun in the shapeshifter's hand, the arms, vital spots.
Hearing his name, Tezuka turned to see Atobe hurling sharp-looking pieces of ice at someone who looked like Tezuka and who'd turned a gun on Atobe. "Careful!" Tezuka shouted. The two of them were out of Tezuka's fifty-meter range; it was too far for him to deflect the bullet for Atobe without moving closer, and Tezuka wasn't confident of his ability to keep his makeshift transportation aloft, track the telekinetic, and push a bullet beyond the edge of his known range out of the way at the same time.
The simulation was programmed to halt and notify others if any potentially fatal injuries were sustained. Tezuka would have to trust Atobe could handle it on his own, or apologize to Ryuuzaki and Atobe's family later.
The watch paused, no longer moving in a circle, and Tezuka didn't wait--he lifted one of the plastic bottles, aimed quickly, and threw as hard as he could towards the woman his senses told him was wearing it. The bottle slowed, paused in mid-air, and then shot backwards, directly towards Tezuka. He dodged, leaning to the left, the makeshift "magic carpet" swerving to avoid the incoming bottle.
The bottle curved to follow him. Tezuka set his jaw, and then leaned forward, tilting the vending machine door. They raced towards the woman, bottle following behind. He heard a thud from behind a second later--possibly the bottle being dropped. Then he was nearly thrown off the vending machine door as it jolted upwards, the woman smirking at Tezuka. The door hovered in mid-air, Tezuka and the telekinetic fighting for control. Then he felt the edges shift, and suddenly the door flipped over, twenty meters above the ground. Pure instinct led Tezuka to magnetize the can in his hand with the strongest magnetic field he could muster, and for a moment he hung suspended from the underside of the door, kept aloft only by the temporary magnetic steel juice can.
Of course the second he opened his mouth, Atobe became the target - at least it kept Tezuka from being a sitting duck. He had been able to land a couple of hits with the ice spikes, but nothing that was going to slow the gunman down terribly. He dove for the first convenient cover he could find, the crack of a gunshot following him. It grazed his shoulder, hitting only ice, but that ice shattered and left that part of his shoulder exposed. Well fuck, no one said anything about guns. He knocked the back of his head against his cover - he realized as he looked up that it was a car that had been up-turned in the commotion. It would deter the gunsman for a moment, but there wasn't really anything Atobe could use for a shield to get a good look to assess the situation. Maybe if he could create a distraction, here, he could get behind the shapeshifter...
With that in mind, he focused his attention ahead of him, touching his hand to the ground to reach out to objects to his right and send ice crawling over them - as expected, another pair of bullets followed the movement. Meanwhile, Atobe moved slowly to his left, keeping one hand on the ground, and peeked around the edge of the overturned car. He had a few seconds to line up his shot, now, rather than throwing on the fly - he was able to direct a blast of icy wind over the fake Tezuka's arm, knocking away the gun and freezing the limb up to the joint in one fell swoop. The shapeshifter briefly clutched his arm in surprise - or pain - so Atobe took the chance to move closer. It was no sooner that he had reached the other mutant that the shapeshifter recovered - this time taking a swing at Atobe with his right fist and landing a fairly solid hit to the ice armor just below the ribcage. With the wind knocked out of him, Atobe staggered back half a step and took a better stance.
Sanada really would be much better suited to taking someone on in a fist-fight - Atobe was about as skilled as a playground bully in that regard.
Tezuka kept one eye on the two facing off on the ground even as he tried to think of how to get out of this predicament. The vending machine door jerked again, suddenly, but the magnetization held.
Magnetization.
Tezuka couldn't believe he'd forgotten this. Both he and the telekinetic were affecting the vending machine door right now and holding it aloft, so there was no need for his own power to continue. He cut the magnetic field holding the vending machine door aloft, and it immediately dropped downwards, jerking to a halt twelve meters above the ground. It was close enough. Dropping all electromagnetic fields except his personal protection, Tezuka let himself fall the rest of the way, hitting the ground and tumbling.
Unscathed, he was up in another moment, aluminum can already launching towards the back of the other Tezuka's head, and then turning back towards the female telekinetic. Now was not the time for chilvary; he hurled the vending machine door at her.
When the can went flying through the air and hit the fake Tezuka squarely in the base of the skull, Atobe's lips twitched slightly. Was Tezuka taking cues from him, now? And what in the world was he thinking dropping from that far off the ground? Maybe he really was Atobe's kind of crazy... The momentary distraction was enough for Atobe to throw a punch, right upper-cut, connecting solidly, though he could feel a splitting pain in his hand. He really, really needed to learn how to punch. Regardless, it at least caused the other mutant to lurch to the side and take a stumbling half-step to regain his balance.
Atobe put one hand in the other and solidly elbowed the other mutant in the stomach. The fake Tezuka doubled over himself and went to his knees, gasping for air and most likely quite dizzy from the real Tezuka's killer soda can.
The vending machine door slammed to a halt before it reached the telekinetic, and then flew aside, landing with a clang on the road. His waist felt tight, as if constricted from outside, and then in the next moment Tezuka was airborne, the ground receding from beneath his feet. The sensation of being suspended in the air with nothing solid beneath him made Tezuka exceptionally nervous--he struggled to keep calm. He'd never actually been manipulated personally by the simulations before--why did it have to be now? The telekinetic laughed, and then Tezuka was flying across the street. The wall of the building was coming up fast--Tezuka braced himself, but even so, it hurt when he crashed into concrete and brick.
He slid down the wall, landing in a heap on the ground, breathless. Then he realized he was next to a signpost. Public property destruction was better than human casualties, and signposts were easily replaced. Tezuka focused on the sign, willing the screws and bolts apart... there.
Eight tiny projectiles hurtled towards the telekinetic as Tezuka pulled himself to his feet. They bounced off an invisible barrier before the telekinetic, who smirked just as Tezuka threw the sign to the side. "Missed me," the telekinetic said.
"No," Tezuka said, powers flaring. The sign curved in an arc, shooting like a Frisbee towards her head.
The telekinetic mutant's eyes went as wide as dinner plates as she realized at the last moment that the sign was coming back around toward her. She only had a split-second to react, and naturally over-compensated in deflecting the in-coming sign. Rather than missing her completely, the sign crumpled into a twisted ball under her power and barely missed her shoulder as it went sailing by.
Utilizing the momentum of the sign, Tezuka swung it in an arc, pulling it back in her direction, the centripedal motion increasing its speeed. The deflected screws and bolts, pulled by the magnetic field, shot towards her as well. The smaller projectiles hit her first.
There was nothing the telekinetic mutant could do about the screws and bolts - they came too quickly for her to react. Once those had impacted, she was thrown off-balance and her only defense against the balled up sign was to turn her shoulder enough to keep it from hitting her head, instead. If she had been more than a computer program, it would have left one hell of a bruise in the morning. She recovered fairly quickly, reaching for the first thing she could find - a manhole cover - and ripping it from the ground to hurl it at Tezuka's back full-force.
Throwing anything made of metal at Tezuka was never a good idea. Deflecting its path, Tezuka used the manhole cover's forward momentum, swinging it around in a wide arc, and throwing it right back towards her, even as he pulled the balled-up sign and vending machine door up from where they lay and sent them both towards her, too.
First the manhole cover struck the other mutant, then the sign... the vending machine door, though, was what left her crumpled and still on the sidewalk. Tezuka paused a moment, taking stock, and then ran towards where Atobe was still fighting with Tezuka's lookalike.
Only now it was Atobe against Atobe. One of them turned, noticing Tezuka. "Tezuka-san!" he shouted. "A little help, here?"
The other Atobe grimaced, sparing Tezuka only a brief glance. "You aren't actually going to buy that, are you?" He stayed focused on his opponent, but they had just come to an unfortunate standstill when Tezuka approached.
"Tezuka-san?" the other asked, casting another glance at Tezuka.
At first Tezuka had hesitated--after all, Atobe had asked for a projectile earlier--but that was all he needed to make up his mind. He frowned, concentrating, and the gun flew from the ground where it lay a distance from the two. As soon as it was in his hands, Tezuka pointed it at the first Atobe. "French vanilla, french vanilla," he said, and the simulation paused around them.
"Elapsed time, thirty-three minutes and five seconds," a voice said.
"Thank you," Tezuka replied, turning towards the real Atobe. "Are you hurt?"
With a thin smile, Atobe shook his head, letting the ice armor drop away from his body. "I'll have a bruise or two in the morning, nothing bad." He took a step in Tezuka's direction, cocking his head slightly to the side to inspect the man. "You hit that wall pretty hard - are you alright?"
Being reminded of his injuries caused them to twinge, and Tezuka realized his shoulder was aching a little. "I'm fine," he said, stiffening. He would be, once he got home and took a hot bath. He paused, remembering something he'd learned from experience: when others had done well, a little praise went a long way. Atobe had certainly fared better than Tezuka himself had in the simulation. "You... did very well. It was impressive."
Atobe's smile became a little more warm, his whole expression relaxing. "We made a good team, Tezuka-san." He chuckled, adding quite jovially, "But don't let that stop you from telling me how wonderful I am." Not that he needed that reinforcement - seeing where his classmates were at his age, he knew he was well ahead of the curve. What Tezuka had seen was a much better demonstration of Atobe's actual abilities than what his trainers and classmates ever saw.
The mirth faded only a little as he put his hands on his hips and asked, "But I have to know - how did you know it was me?"
The corners of Tezuka's mouth lifted slightly against his will. "You don't beg."
A sudden, rolling laugh ripped out of Atobe and he threw his head back - it always felt good to laugh after a tense situation, be it a battle or an argument... or just about anything else that came of being around Sanada for most of the day every day. He was almost touched; that was suspiciously close to being a statement of Tezuka knowing Atobe well enough to tell him from a doppleganger.
Blue eyes sparkling with humor and adrenaline, Atobe said, "Regardless, I'm glad you didn't try pointing that thing at me. Do you even know how to use a gun?"
Did Tezuka even know how to use a gun, indeed. What did Atobe take Tezuka for? Instead of answering immediately, Tezuka disarmed the revolver, and then let go. It hung in mid-air, and then fell to pieces, its various parts landing on the floor and scattering around them. In the next moment, the revolver was back in Tezuka's hand, perfectly assembled. "Yes," Tezuka said. It was one of the things field operatives needed to know, and Tezuka had masqueraded as one before.
Oh, so he could assemble and disassemble a gun. That proved nothing, but Atobe did not comment. Instead, he focused on the shoulder he knew was bothering Tezuka - he had seen him favor it earlier right after he mentioned Tezuka's confrontation with the brick wall. "Want to put some ice on that?" He titled his head slightly to Tezuka's shoulder to indicate to what he meant. "Heat will feel better but will slow down the healing process, you know."
What Atobe said wasa true, and they did have a convenient source right there. "You aren't tired?" Tezuka asked instead.
Of course Atobe was tired, but he gave a shrug. "Aren't you in pain?"
"I'll manage," Tezuka replied. He was reluctant to admit to Atobe that it was beginning to hurt more. "Don't worry about me."
Oh, for the love of Pete. "Just..." Atobe forced the initial clipped tone out of his voice. "Just hold still." He made sure to make eye contact before stepping forward slowly, as though approaching a timid animal, and slowly froze his fingertips. He reached up with that hand to touch Tezuka's shoulder - gaining confidence when Tezuka didn't immediately go running away screaming, and let the cold spread down his fingers into the palm of his hand as he rested his hand lightly over the cloth of Tezuka's shirt. "You'll have to tell me where."
Stiffening and freezing in place at first--if he pulled away, Atobe might miss and hurt one of them--Tezuka sighed inwardly, shoulders lowering slightly as he relented. The cold did feel better. "Diagonally up and to the... left." Tezuka had to think about which way was left for Atobe a moment. "Further out."
Atobe followed Tezuka's instructions, watching his own hand as he did, not bothered by the proximity, even if it was a sudden development. Once he was settled over the spot Tezuka indicated to, Atobe pushed his power forward, cooling Tezuka's skin as well, though nothing like the temperatures he, himself could withstand. Just enough to soothe the ache. "How's that?"
Tezuka watched Atobe's hand move. "There," he said, and then felt a rush of cold pressing inwards. It was a welcome respite, though Tezuka knew it was only temporary. At Atobe's question, Tezuka looked up--
--and realized the other was a little too close for Tezuka's' comfort.
Tezuka stiffened. "Better," he finally managed. With that, he moved backwards, putting more distance between them. It had been a long time since anyone had stood that close to Tezuka, and it made him very uneasy. "Thank you," he said belatedly.
A bit of temper flared up in Atobe once more when Tezuka moved back - one would think Atobe had some horrible illness. God forbid Atobe the leper should touch Tezuka or share his air. But rather than give into the urge to say something catty, he just retracted his hand and instead settled both hands in his pockets. "I'm just pleased that my power has a practical application, after all." He glanced around the danger room. "This is all well and good, of course, but who does it help at the end of the day?"
"Help?" Tezuka asked, looking at Atobe for clarification.
Shaking his head dismissively, Atobe said, "Never mind." He sighed, giving up on the pursuit of friendship with Tezuka for the evening. "You're right - I'm tired."
It was far past curfew, Tezuka was aware. "I'll walk you to the dorm." In case Atobe was challenged for being out so late when it was partially Tezuka's fault for keeping him.
You might catch my disease. The words were on the tip of Atobe's tongue, but once more he kept quiet, letting out his breath slowly to center himself. Now that adrenaline was wearing off, he really was starting to feel quite tired. The events of the evening were wearing on him. He might have even had a witty retort for the offer to be walked home, but instead he just nodded obligingly. "Thank you." He started toward the exit of the danger room. "And thank you for trusting me - this isn't the standard student training program."
The standard student training program would be far too easy for Atobe, Tezuka thought, frowning. "Aa," he said non-commitally, distracted. Atobe was either naturally gifted at both manipulating his powers and adapting himself to combat, or he'd had a lot of training in it himself. Two years, Atobe had said. What had those two years been like? What sort of training was Atobe receiving at Ryuhana now? He was clearly too advanced for introductory-level training given to newly-manifested mutants. They left, walking towards the student dorms, Tezuka wondering how Atobe worked on his powers.
Two minutes after they'd exited the building, Tezuka spoke. "Was any of that learned at Ryuhana?"
Technically speaking, yes. But only one thing since he had arrived in May could be specifically attributed to his time at Ryuhana - and even then, it was from spending time with Sanada. Irony was thick in his tone when he responded, "Yes. The part where I froze my hand to ease the pain in your shoulder - I just figured out how to do that recently." As far as his control of his power went, most of it was from the time he spent training with Sanada previously or his own tutoring under the watchful eye of the Hellfire Club. As for his abilities when it came to combat, much of it was simply in his blood.
"You're wasting your time here, then," Tezuka said. He glanced at Atobe. It was obvious Atobe knew he wasn't learning much at Ryuhana too. "Why?"
Atobe had heard a lot of that question, lately. He offered Tezuka the same explanation he had offered Sanada, in a round-about way. "I'm not the only one biding my time." He took one hand out of his pockets to pull his hood back up over his head. "I have a promise to keep to the Sanadas to do something about that."
Sanada too? What were two obviously talented mutants doing, attending classes at Ryuhana if they didn't need the training? Were their parents afraid their powers were liable to flare up out of control? Considering how well Atobe could use his powers in a combat situation, Tezuka doubted it was the case for Atobe, and he could infer from Atobe's words that Sanada was at least as good with his powers. "What do you plan to do? Both of you."
"Sanada doesn't know what he wants," Atobe answered truthfully. No one seemed to know what was "best" for him, either, though plenty of people wanted a say in what Sanada was doing with his life. It hardly seemed fair. "I'm going to stick it out until he comes with me wherever the wind takes us." While Tezuka was more or less a loner by nature, Atobe thrived on the partnership that had developed over time with Sanada. Their powers were opposite, but complimentary; everything else about them was much the same.
"I see." That was all Tezuka had to say on the matter at the moment. He wondered if perhaps he could at least do something for both of them. Even if they didn't have a purpose, this was a waste of time for them, and a waste of Ryuhana's resources, too. Neither of them needed the training Ryuhana currently offered them. They could, perhaps, be assigned to better classes, but Tezuka wondered at how good the two truly were.
"This is all well and good, of course, but who does it help at the end of the day?"
Atobe's earlier question came back to Tezuka. Indeed, who did it help? Being prepared was useful, but... prepared for what?
Perhaps self-development was a better goal.
The dorm was before them now, and Tezuka nodded to Atobe. "Thank you for tonight. Sleep well."
When they stopped at the door of their destination, Atobe turned back to face Tezuka properly and looked up at him. There was still that slightly unnatural distance between them that seemed to be where Tezuka was most comfortable - Atobe wondered if he stepped a bit closer if Tezuka would naturally step back. Unable to resist the urge to test the theory, he took a casual baby step in the older mutant's direction as though simply shifting to be more comfortable and replied, "It was my pleasure. Be careful going home."
Tezuka shifted as Atobe did so, moving back, half-turning towards the exit. "Aa." With a final nod towards Atobe, he strode away towards the gates.
Chuckling loudly - Tezuka probably heard him - Atobe turned back to the door of the dorm to face the inevitable encounter with Sanada. He had been out much longer than he had originally intended and no doubt Sanada was going to react badly. He did not spare another look over his shoulder to Tezuka's retreating form before entering the dorm building.
Rating: PG-13, fancy that! Violence, mutant powers, destruction of (simulated) public property, and the harming of (simulated) opponents.
Summary: Tezuka runs into Atobe outside the Danger Room, and they fight! No, not with each other; not yet. XD
The first time, it had been a freak accident. Atobe had it in his head that he could do something about Sanada's body temperature and had pushed his own limits in the process. Duplicating that effect is what brought him to the danger room; it was the only place he could think of to immerse himself in temperatures matching those that Sanada was able to produce. It was late at night - no students would interrupt him - and he had not bothered to put on the training uniform, instead sporting a pair of sneakers, shorts, and a sleeveless hoodie. That alone was probably against some school regulation or another, but then again, most schools would not allow the earrings he wore on a daily basis or his blonde hair, either. Part of the decision to send him abroad for school was based upon that alone.
Curiosity did not impede caution, however. The door into the area was rigged to alert Atobe if someone came in so he could pause in his efforts and not show off the full range of his powers to the wrong people. As for his lack of uniform... well, that he would just have to sweet-talk his way around, if he was encountered by the wrong person. He was beginning to wonder if the computer really could withstand what he wanted without removing some sort of safety protocol when the alarm was tripped. He shook his head to chase away the frost that had built up on his hair and ended the program, walking out the door to meet with his fate of whoever had come to interrupt him.
As he neared the doors of the control room, Tezuka realized the Danger Room was in use. He paused, hesitating. He hadn't expected anyone to be there. It was late enough at night that most of Ryuhana's student population was either preparing for the next day's classes or already in bed. Tezuka often came late at this late hour, partly because work kept him late, but also because this way he wasn't in the way of anyone else's training. It wasn't as if one could rent a room just like the Danger Room anywhere else, like one could a gymnasium or tennis court. Tezuka himself was only allowed to used the Danger Room by virtue of being a Ryuhana alumnus.
Should he leave, then, since the Danger Room was in use?
The windows were fogged over; Tezuka couldn't quite tell whether it was because the training program involved fog, or if it was caused by someone's powers. A quick look at the controls signalled that the occupant had wound down their training. In that case, he'd wait. There was no point in leaving when the other person would be gone soon.
As Atobe exited the danger room, he encountered perhaps the last person he had expected to be there at this hour and for once, he was not particularly happy to be graced with Tezuka's presence. Regardless, he put on a lazy smile and made sure that the zipper of his hooded sweatshirt was pulled up before greeting the older man. "Tezuka-san, fancy seeing you here." It made sense, he thought, Tezuka had graduated from Ryuhana, and where else would one practice using a power that let them casually throw cars around. Somehow he got the feeling that would not fly with local authorities.
The last of the frost was melting from his hair, dripping down his neck uncomfortably and he knew he was dripping on the floor when he bowed his head slightly. "I won't get in your way. The danger room is yours."
"Atobe-kun," Tezuka said. He hadn't expected it to be Atobe, actually. Atobe hadn't seemed the type to work hard all hours of the day. A mistake and misjudgment on Tezuka's part, and a disservice to Atobe, Tezuka told himself firmly. Of course Atobe worked hard. It made sense, now, that easy confidence. Atobe knew what he was capable of because he spent long hours working on pushing his limits. Tezuka respected that.
He watched the melting frost drip from Atobe's hair and wondered if Atobe was trying to push himself to be able to control his powers in any adverse condition. Was that why the windows were fogged--ice meeting hot air, instantly evaporating? It must have been incredibly humid in the Danger Room. "I hope I didn't interrupt you," Tezuka said, turning towards the console now that Atobe had relinquished the room.
The subroutines Tezuka had programmed himself loaded quickly once Tezuka input his password. He'd password-protected them because they were too dangerous for the untrained, especially those unfamiliar with electromagnetism, and if anyone other than Magneto himself loaded Tezuka's routines by mistake, he suspected the infirmary would be needed at best. Considering this was a school for young mutants, the majority of whom were in the process of learning to control their powers, the passwords were a suitable enough safeguard. He waited for the Danger Room to re-orient and re-configure itself, and turned back to Atobe in the meantime. "Do you always train this late?"
Curious, Atobe watched what Tezuka was doing with the interface, though he could not really see anything Tezuka was entering with his body physically between Atobe and the console. He probably had his own special program that he routinely used - it would not surprise Atobe if it was intentionally intense and thus not fit for the average student to just happen across by chance. Really, Atobe needed to figure out how he could slice the system so he could accomplish the same - create a more advanced program, that was. As utterly unpleasant as the danger room had been with the air temperature, it had not been enough to trigger the same reaction as Sanada's body heat. If Atobe was able to reproduce the accidental effect of heat, he was hoping that he could then do the same thing on command in the future. It might even be possible to turn his body into solid ice. Furthermore, he might be able to do it without causing his joints to lock up painfully from cold.
"It's easier to avoid interruptions at this hour," the younger mutant responded. Generally, he was trying to get in extra training with Sanada - this was a special case that he was alone. The two of them grew faster together than in the regular training at school. "What about you? Did you just leave the office?"
"Aa." Tezuka nodded. Atobe, training alone at this hour without a spotter or a trainer? Was Atobe just running older programs he'd already mastered? He didn't voice the questions, merely waited for the Danger Room to be ready.
Atobe rested his hands on his hips and asked, "So what's this program of yours? Some sort of specialized training?" With as much experience as Tezuka likely had, if Atobe tried to train with him, he would likely be shot down cold. Still, the curiosity was eating at him and maybe if he could at least figure out what it was, he could think of a way to weasel in a bit more training before he returned to his room for the evening. He did have to wonder how it worked - Tezuka would need metal to manipulate, in theory, in order for the program to be useful to him as far as his powers were concerned... but Atobe also did not question how the danger room worked. It was probably perfectly logical to someone much more mechanically inclined than him.
"Urban combat," Tezuka said after a pause. "This one is the center of Ginza." An uncountable number of places for attackers to hide, an incredible number of things that could turn into projectiles, hundreds of pedestrians and other innocents that one had to protect--yet at any time, any one of those pedestrian "innocents" might prove to be yet another aggressor. Tezuka would have to be able to sense and keep track of all the metal in the area as well as figure out in a split second how to use them to either defend himself or others, or attack with them. Though he'd programmed the Danger Room to be able to randomize other mutant attacks in, though, it wasn't very smart at figuring out attacks that weren't obvious. Briefly, Tezuka thought about how this scenario was much more suited to anti-terrorism than anti-mutant violence.
Humming low in his throat to show he understood, Atobe glanced past Tezuka to the controls once more. Urban combat, was it? He must have been preparing for the hostile metallic invasion. A quirk of a smile came to Atobe's lips at the thought and he suggested, without looking back at Tezuka, "Sounds interesting. You could use a partner." There was no chance in hell Tezuka was going to say yes to that one, but the offer was honest.
"Partner?" Tezuka repeated, staring at Atobe.
"Sidekick?" Atobe offered, grinning fully, now. "I'll even let you be Batman."
About to refuse, Tezuka paused a moment. He had just been thinking about the lack of simulation opportunities with other mutant powers, and it was about time Tezuka learned to work with (or around) other mutants on his own side, too. It might be a little too difficult for Atobe, though... "Remind me how long you've been training."
Atobe had to consider how to answer the question - if he was honest but vague, Tezuka was going to back out when it sounded like he might actually take Atobe up on the proposition. If he were blunt, he would be giving away something that only Sanada knew up until this point. So, he threw caution to the wind and said, "Since I manifested two years ago. Sanada and I trained alone together for the first year." During that time, they had also been tutoring together... it had been Sanada's decision to go to Ryuhana against the wishes of everyone else in his life, Atobe included.
Two years of training exclusively with another. From what Tezuka recalled of his interactions with Sanada, the other boy struck him as a serious sort of person. Coupled with Atobe's obvious (and overlooked) ability to work hard... Not the same as thirteen years, but still respectable. There was no point in coddling Atobe, either--he was old enough to make his own decisions, and Tezuka would respect them. At the same time, there was no sense in being foolhardy.
"Hn," Tezuka said, turning towards the console. He keyed a few commands in, modifying the program this time to make sure four out of every five attacks were directed at him. He wasn't sure what Atobe's true abilities were like in combat of this nature, and he didn't want to cause Atobe any injury. If it was too easy for Atobe, they could adjust upwards--Tezuka would rather be safe than sorry.
He spoke, still fiddling with the controls. "Good choice of costume, then. Red and green draw too much attention."
"But you must admit, the spandex would look fantastic on me," Atobe joked. The other mutant was making some sort of adjustment to the program - probably changing it to somehow take into consideration that there were going to be two people training. No doubt making the program somehow easier, as well. If anything, Atobe's abilities to defend himself were stronger than his attack, but there was no use trying to explain that to Tezuka until he could see it for himself.
"If the program includes a number of female opponents, I'll leave them to you, then," Tezuka said, keying in the last command and then running a code-checker to make sure there weren't any mistakes. "Are you ready?"
Ready to knock them dead with my fabulous fashion sense, thought Atobe, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. It was going to go right over Tezuka's head, anyway. "I'm ready," he confirmed, stretching his arms above his head to work out kinks that were developing in his shoulders for standing still so long after working out. "I'll follow your lead, Fearless Leader."
Fearless? Tezuka cast a glance at Atobe, and then decided to let it slide. There was no point--in a few minutes they'd be a little too occupied with the simulation. "Let's go," he said. "Don't get careless."
There were those words, again - if Tezuka was not careful, people were going to start considering that his catchphrase. Then again, for all Atobe knew, they already did. He just shook his head and went back to the entrance of the danger room, surveying the area before entering. So this was the center of Ginza. Towering buildings surrounded them dappled with giant digital billboards that advertised various large corporations that were doubtlessly paying a mint for the spot in the heart of the city. One building in particular Atobe recognized from photographs - it was circular and the outside was composed almost entirely of windows. At one point, he had known the name of the building and its function, but it was lost on him, now.
The streets and sidewalks were grungy as could be expected in the middle of the city, though it was certainly cleaner than other cities Atobe had visited in his travels over the years. Cars dappled the road - primarily thin, boxy Japanese cars and a scattering of taxis, though both the cars and the pedestrians on the road were thinner than they really should have been for the middle of the day in Ginza. It was probably for their benefit as it would not really lend to training if the area did not have much room to move. It was quite the sandbox to play in; and if their objective was to protect this, they really did have their work cut out for them.
Atobe entered, expecting Tezuka to follow.
Stepping in, Tezuka looked around, taking stock of the situation quickly. A quick breath; immediately he was aware of all the metal in a fifty-meter radius of himself. Cars, of course. Signboards, screws, streetlights, keys, doorknobs, the avant-garde cursive lettering on top of that shop. A lot of jewelery and spare change (why that woman was carrying a bag full of ten-yen coins, Tezuka would rather not know--he wondered at the computer's randomizing too). There would be only three opponents--Tezuka had actually overridden the "random" setting on this one to specify three, just so he knew how many to look for. All mutants, with powers ranging anything from teleportation to super strength.
So far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but Tezuka knew there wouldn't be much time before they would be wishing for a breather. He stood beside Atobe, surveying the area. It was better to tell Atobe as many of the parameters as possible. The better Atobe was prepared, the better Atobe would fare. "Three mutants," Tezuka said. "Powers unknown, strength unknown. Stop them before they stop you, and make sure as little collateral damage is done as possible. Human or otherwise."
"And... just in case, the safeword to stop the program." Tezuka paused. "French vanilla, repeated twice in succession." He'd changed it for this simulation--hopefully Atobe would find it easy to remember.
Atobe raised an eyebrow at that - Tezuka's sense of humor rearing its ugly head? "Simple enough." He scanned the area looking for anything out of the ordinary as Tezuka spoke - anyone who could walk through walls or had inhuman features or was otherwise obviously not one of the humans just milling about. Atobe did have to wonder just what Tezuka was preparing for fighting against other mutants, though as a Ryhana graduate, the answer was most likely the Brotherhood. Sure, there were other, smaller mutant terrorist groups, but none as organized and troublesome as the Brotherhood.
Three-on-two, though... with Tezuka surrounded by this much metal, those seemed like unfair odds. Atobe pulled his hood up over his head, opening his mouth to say something when the ground a meter in front of him suddenly cracked loudly and kicked up dust, a blade of ice jutting out of the split concrete. That was all it took to kick the bystanders into panic, though Atobe merely looked for the source of the projectile. "So you programmed it so we're fighting me." He spotted a man who looked calm despite the chaos around him, standing far enough away that he was out of Atobe's range - he was likely the origin of this.
Well, it would make for an interesting challenge, in any case. Atobe wrapped himself in his powers, a thin sheet of ice covering his whole body like flexible armor. It was hard enough that most things would bounce harmlessly off the armor, but still allowed him movement. If the enemies were going to be throwing things at them, he was going to need it. With that, he scanned the area to find where he could move forward and hopefully both minimize casualties and get closer to that particular mutant. There was a city bus that was being abandoned as he watched - that would do. With a quick smile over his shoulder to Tezuka, he moved forward to get behind the bus.
It was good thinking, and Tezuka allowed Atobe to lead the way. The bus was composed of enough metal that Tezuka could channel magnetic fields through it to magnetize the vehicle, if needed--throwing the bus around would tire him too quickly, and result in too much collateral damage anyway. He'd attempted that before and learned not to do it again for no good reason.
They headed towards the bus, dodging panicked pedestrians. One of them grabbed Tezuka's sleeve and pulled Tezuka along with him. Tezuka turned to shake free and then dodged, sensing the metal blade before it made contact. The man threw the knife at Tezuka. It stopped in mid-air, caught in Tezuka's shield. With a frown, Tezuka cast it aside into the nearest sewer, and then turned to face the assailant--
--only to find he'd disappeared. Had that been a teleporter? There had been no smell, no sound; teleportation was not usually silent. He joined Atobe beside the bus, still thinking about the other man. That made two...
And then Atobe lunged at him, and Tezuka realized too late that there was another Atobe who had not reached the bus and was still covered in that icy armor.
Shapeshifter!
Not!Atobe was warm and drew back for a punch. Jerking to the side, Tezuka rolled with his assailant, angry at himself for being so careless. This, then, was the biggest problem with going into combat knowing others were on your side: who was a friend, and who was a foe, especially if one had to contend with psychological attacks as well as physical ones? He stopped mid-roll, kicked; not!Atobe sprang away unharmed.
A loud crash--the vending machines on the corner of the road toppled over, one of them breaking open. Plastic bottles and aluminum cans spilled onto the road; some lifted themselves mid-air, and then flew both towards Tezuka and Atobe.
"Atobe, watch out!"
The door of the vending machine came off with a sharp crack--Tezuka sent it after the plastic bottles hurtling towards what he thought was the real Atobe. If he couldn't stop the projectiles, he could bat them away, or shield the younger mutant.
A can of Coca-cola hit the asphalt next to Tezuka's head and exploded, water-gas-metal flying. He ducked a sharp aluminum shard--it was too light for him to stop when he was concentrating elsewhere--too late, it cut his ear. He hissed, and the door wavered. Now was not the time; Tezuka closed his eyes, concentrating on the magnetic fields pushing the metal sheet, making them stronger. The torn-off door curved, clanged as two bottles of green tea crashed into it. All dropped harmlessly to the floor.
"Worry about your own hide," Atobe shot back - trying not to boggle at the strange scene playing out between his look-alike and Tezuka. Still, he appreciated that Tezuka was trying to look out for him... but he was going to leave himself open if he didn't pay attention to what was going on around him. There was still that ice-wielding sniper to contend with. Speaking of that, another one of the ice projectiles shot by, this time missing Atobe's head by inches. His first priority had to be that sharp-shooter or they were going to get picked off while they were distracted. He couldn't watch Tezuka's back and avoid being skewered by ice at the same time.
So he was off, again, pushing his way through the panicked masses, moving toward the building where he had spotted the mutant. In front of him a few paces a young girl running with her mother tripped and fell to her knees on the pavement, crying in panic. Without thinking twice, Atobe dove down beside the two and touched his hand to the ground, seeking out the water in the air to create a solid wall of ice, at least ten centimeters thick, between the other mutant and the child. The two humans, both whom he knew not to be real and yet still found himself compelled to protect, thanked him and started moving again once the girl was calm enough to stand. Atobe, meanwhile paused to catch his breath, watching Tezuka for a moment to make sure he was still handling himself, then moved around the edge of the wall he created and took off at a dead sprint.
He was close enough now that the other mutant's attacks became more furious, each one quicker than the last. Some rebounded harmlessly off the ice shielding Atobe's body, others missed him by some dumb luck, and when he could react quickly enough, he would deflect the projectiles with the ice on his arms. Completely lacking his usual grace, he tackled the mutant, sending them both to the pavement with an painful sounding crack of the other mutant's skull against the ground.
The next thing he knew, he was the one flat on his back, disoriented, staring up at the computer generated sky. Did Tezuka program these enemies with judo, or something? He rolled to the side, dodging a lance of ice aimed for his head and got to his feet uneasily. Two could play at this game. He created a ice sword of his own, motioning to the other mutant with it challengingly. "Let's see if your program includes fencing, shall we?"
The other mutant smirked, and then jerked his head backwards as the ground beneath Atobe's feet froze. Instead of fencing, he conjured up another ice dagger, took aim, and threw.
"You think you're cute," Atobe started to say, but that was when the dagger was thrown. He dodged, lifting his arm on pure instinct and knocking away the projectile easily. It may have been one of the first things he had learned, but he certainly appreciated that armor when he needed it. He hardly had time to consider the frozen ground beneath him before the other mutant sent another dagger his way and Atobe stepped back without thinking, partially losing his balance and having to awkwardly swing his arms up to catch himself, again. Oh, great.
Rather than use the sword he'd conjured, Atobe just tossed it at the other mutant as a means of distraction and then held out his hands, pushing his power outward to shoot a wave of frozen air at the other mutant. Tiny pieces of hail and temperatures that would freeze to the bone on contact encased the other mutant... for many, that would be enough to deter them entirely, but in this case, as the other mutant also used ice, Atobe suspected it would only barely buy him time to think of a way to use the frozen ground to his advantage.
With a hiss of pain, the other mutant back-stepped, skin changing color to match Atobe's own. "Ice won't hurt me," he said in a sing-song voice, even as he favored the arm that had first been hit by Atobe's blast of cold. "Or will it hurt you?" He copied Atobe's attack, sending freezing hail and temperatures back.
Well, no. Atobe let the cold wash over him, actually rather enjoying it after the hot temperatures he had been enduring in his last exercise. It only created more frost in the small gaps in his armor, began to turn his skin blue as it did just before he got that horrible joint-locking pain, but it was not painful as it was. Refreshing, sure. It did, however, cause him to slip back a couple feet on the ice... which was obviously the answer. "Tezuka-san," he shouted, once more sending the icy wind back, trying to cancel out the other mutant. "Don't suppose you could toss me a soda?"
About to retort that now wasn't the time for a break, Tezuka glanced at Atobe and took in the situation. No, Atobe was a little too far for Tezuka to throw anything at for the moment, but considering he'd been dodging beverages a while now...
If only he could spot the telekinetic. That had to be the last power--telekinesis. Whoever it was had been content to aim at Tezuka from all directions, and he'd been using the vending machine door broken earlier to fend off the various plastic missiles. Glancing around, Tezuka began to run towards Atobe. Right on cue, more bottles lifted themselves from the mess on the street and launched themselves at Tezuka again. He ducked. "Incoming," Tezuka shouted, turning back and focusing on his own fight again.
Scanning the street brought him no answers; the other mutant--mutants, he reminded himself--were good actors, able to blend in well. Actually, Tezuka didn't know what one of them looked like, and the other was a shapeshifter, so...
He sensed it again, metal, steel band--
--a watch. Circling instead of running away. So that's where the telekinetic was. Tezuka gathered up two bottles and a can before jumping onto the vending machine door. He concentrated, and it lifted up. Flying carpets should be softer, Tezuka thought. Still, beggars couldn't be choosers.
Atobe directed the icy air at the incoming bottle of soda, instead, freezing the contents and watching with no small supply of amusement as - right on target - it beaned the other mutant in the back of the head. All in a day's work. The other mutant staggered forward and Atobe used the opportunity to once more conjure up the ice sword, this time striking precisely once on the mutant's lower back, once on the back of the head rendering him, at least for the moment, out cold on the pavement. Long enough for Atobe to help out Tezuka, in any case.
He stepped over the fallen body on the ground, careful of the ice below his feet, and quietly wondered at what on earth Tezuka was doing up in the air on a flying vending machine door. Once his feet hit solid pavement, again, he ran back in the direction of the bus, keeping one eye on Tezuka as he did. If Tezuka was after one mutant, that meant that there was still another lurking around, somewhere... probably still over by the bus and possibly still wearing Atobe's face.
Except there were two Tezukas, and the one on the ground was aiming a gun at the one in the air.
It was a fraction of a second late that Atobe noticed the second Tezuka. One Tezuka in the air using a vending machine door as a means of transportation, the other on the ground holding a gun - it was likely that the Tezuka in the air was the real one; or so Atobe's gut told him, logic would follow behind in due time as he shouted, "Tezuka-san!" Logic told him that the vending machine door trick as well as pursuing another mutant was a pretty good indication that it was the real Tezuka... not to mention, he highly doubted Tezuka was particularly versed in the use of a gun. Guns were not available in Japan with the ease that they could be purchased in other countries - even paintball guns were outlawed, to the best of Atobe's knowledge. He could shoot a handgun and a rifle fairly accurately, but it was hardly a skill that was common in Japan.
He had no doubt that Tezuka could block the bullet somehow with his power if need-be, but the shapeshifter had been Atobe's target, anyway, so he ran in that direction, generating and throwing small lances of ice as he did - aiming as best as he could while running for anything that would give him an advantage; the gun in the shapeshifter's hand, the arms, vital spots.
Hearing his name, Tezuka turned to see Atobe hurling sharp-looking pieces of ice at someone who looked like Tezuka and who'd turned a gun on Atobe. "Careful!" Tezuka shouted. The two of them were out of Tezuka's fifty-meter range; it was too far for him to deflect the bullet for Atobe without moving closer, and Tezuka wasn't confident of his ability to keep his makeshift transportation aloft, track the telekinetic, and push a bullet beyond the edge of his known range out of the way at the same time.
The simulation was programmed to halt and notify others if any potentially fatal injuries were sustained. Tezuka would have to trust Atobe could handle it on his own, or apologize to Ryuuzaki and Atobe's family later.
The watch paused, no longer moving in a circle, and Tezuka didn't wait--he lifted one of the plastic bottles, aimed quickly, and threw as hard as he could towards the woman his senses told him was wearing it. The bottle slowed, paused in mid-air, and then shot backwards, directly towards Tezuka. He dodged, leaning to the left, the makeshift "magic carpet" swerving to avoid the incoming bottle.
The bottle curved to follow him. Tezuka set his jaw, and then leaned forward, tilting the vending machine door. They raced towards the woman, bottle following behind. He heard a thud from behind a second later--possibly the bottle being dropped. Then he was nearly thrown off the vending machine door as it jolted upwards, the woman smirking at Tezuka. The door hovered in mid-air, Tezuka and the telekinetic fighting for control. Then he felt the edges shift, and suddenly the door flipped over, twenty meters above the ground. Pure instinct led Tezuka to magnetize the can in his hand with the strongest magnetic field he could muster, and for a moment he hung suspended from the underside of the door, kept aloft only by the temporary magnetic steel juice can.
Of course the second he opened his mouth, Atobe became the target - at least it kept Tezuka from being a sitting duck. He had been able to land a couple of hits with the ice spikes, but nothing that was going to slow the gunman down terribly. He dove for the first convenient cover he could find, the crack of a gunshot following him. It grazed his shoulder, hitting only ice, but that ice shattered and left that part of his shoulder exposed. Well fuck, no one said anything about guns. He knocked the back of his head against his cover - he realized as he looked up that it was a car that had been up-turned in the commotion. It would deter the gunsman for a moment, but there wasn't really anything Atobe could use for a shield to get a good look to assess the situation. Maybe if he could create a distraction, here, he could get behind the shapeshifter...
With that in mind, he focused his attention ahead of him, touching his hand to the ground to reach out to objects to his right and send ice crawling over them - as expected, another pair of bullets followed the movement. Meanwhile, Atobe moved slowly to his left, keeping one hand on the ground, and peeked around the edge of the overturned car. He had a few seconds to line up his shot, now, rather than throwing on the fly - he was able to direct a blast of icy wind over the fake Tezuka's arm, knocking away the gun and freezing the limb up to the joint in one fell swoop. The shapeshifter briefly clutched his arm in surprise - or pain - so Atobe took the chance to move closer. It was no sooner that he had reached the other mutant that the shapeshifter recovered - this time taking a swing at Atobe with his right fist and landing a fairly solid hit to the ice armor just below the ribcage. With the wind knocked out of him, Atobe staggered back half a step and took a better stance.
Sanada really would be much better suited to taking someone on in a fist-fight - Atobe was about as skilled as a playground bully in that regard.
Tezuka kept one eye on the two facing off on the ground even as he tried to think of how to get out of this predicament. The vending machine door jerked again, suddenly, but the magnetization held.
Magnetization.
Tezuka couldn't believe he'd forgotten this. Both he and the telekinetic were affecting the vending machine door right now and holding it aloft, so there was no need for his own power to continue. He cut the magnetic field holding the vending machine door aloft, and it immediately dropped downwards, jerking to a halt twelve meters above the ground. It was close enough. Dropping all electromagnetic fields except his personal protection, Tezuka let himself fall the rest of the way, hitting the ground and tumbling.
Unscathed, he was up in another moment, aluminum can already launching towards the back of the other Tezuka's head, and then turning back towards the female telekinetic. Now was not the time for chilvary; he hurled the vending machine door at her.
When the can went flying through the air and hit the fake Tezuka squarely in the base of the skull, Atobe's lips twitched slightly. Was Tezuka taking cues from him, now? And what in the world was he thinking dropping from that far off the ground? Maybe he really was Atobe's kind of crazy... The momentary distraction was enough for Atobe to throw a punch, right upper-cut, connecting solidly, though he could feel a splitting pain in his hand. He really, really needed to learn how to punch. Regardless, it at least caused the other mutant to lurch to the side and take a stumbling half-step to regain his balance.
Atobe put one hand in the other and solidly elbowed the other mutant in the stomach. The fake Tezuka doubled over himself and went to his knees, gasping for air and most likely quite dizzy from the real Tezuka's killer soda can.
The vending machine door slammed to a halt before it reached the telekinetic, and then flew aside, landing with a clang on the road. His waist felt tight, as if constricted from outside, and then in the next moment Tezuka was airborne, the ground receding from beneath his feet. The sensation of being suspended in the air with nothing solid beneath him made Tezuka exceptionally nervous--he struggled to keep calm. He'd never actually been manipulated personally by the simulations before--why did it have to be now? The telekinetic laughed, and then Tezuka was flying across the street. The wall of the building was coming up fast--Tezuka braced himself, but even so, it hurt when he crashed into concrete and brick.
He slid down the wall, landing in a heap on the ground, breathless. Then he realized he was next to a signpost. Public property destruction was better than human casualties, and signposts were easily replaced. Tezuka focused on the sign, willing the screws and bolts apart... there.
Eight tiny projectiles hurtled towards the telekinetic as Tezuka pulled himself to his feet. They bounced off an invisible barrier before the telekinetic, who smirked just as Tezuka threw the sign to the side. "Missed me," the telekinetic said.
"No," Tezuka said, powers flaring. The sign curved in an arc, shooting like a Frisbee towards her head.
The telekinetic mutant's eyes went as wide as dinner plates as she realized at the last moment that the sign was coming back around toward her. She only had a split-second to react, and naturally over-compensated in deflecting the in-coming sign. Rather than missing her completely, the sign crumpled into a twisted ball under her power and barely missed her shoulder as it went sailing by.
Utilizing the momentum of the sign, Tezuka swung it in an arc, pulling it back in her direction, the centripedal motion increasing its speeed. The deflected screws and bolts, pulled by the magnetic field, shot towards her as well. The smaller projectiles hit her first.
There was nothing the telekinetic mutant could do about the screws and bolts - they came too quickly for her to react. Once those had impacted, she was thrown off-balance and her only defense against the balled up sign was to turn her shoulder enough to keep it from hitting her head, instead. If she had been more than a computer program, it would have left one hell of a bruise in the morning. She recovered fairly quickly, reaching for the first thing she could find - a manhole cover - and ripping it from the ground to hurl it at Tezuka's back full-force.
Throwing anything made of metal at Tezuka was never a good idea. Deflecting its path, Tezuka used the manhole cover's forward momentum, swinging it around in a wide arc, and throwing it right back towards her, even as he pulled the balled-up sign and vending machine door up from where they lay and sent them both towards her, too.
First the manhole cover struck the other mutant, then the sign... the vending machine door, though, was what left her crumpled and still on the sidewalk. Tezuka paused a moment, taking stock, and then ran towards where Atobe was still fighting with Tezuka's lookalike.
Only now it was Atobe against Atobe. One of them turned, noticing Tezuka. "Tezuka-san!" he shouted. "A little help, here?"
The other Atobe grimaced, sparing Tezuka only a brief glance. "You aren't actually going to buy that, are you?" He stayed focused on his opponent, but they had just come to an unfortunate standstill when Tezuka approached.
"Tezuka-san?" the other asked, casting another glance at Tezuka.
At first Tezuka had hesitated--after all, Atobe had asked for a projectile earlier--but that was all he needed to make up his mind. He frowned, concentrating, and the gun flew from the ground where it lay a distance from the two. As soon as it was in his hands, Tezuka pointed it at the first Atobe. "French vanilla, french vanilla," he said, and the simulation paused around them.
"Elapsed time, thirty-three minutes and five seconds," a voice said.
"Thank you," Tezuka replied, turning towards the real Atobe. "Are you hurt?"
With a thin smile, Atobe shook his head, letting the ice armor drop away from his body. "I'll have a bruise or two in the morning, nothing bad." He took a step in Tezuka's direction, cocking his head slightly to the side to inspect the man. "You hit that wall pretty hard - are you alright?"
Being reminded of his injuries caused them to twinge, and Tezuka realized his shoulder was aching a little. "I'm fine," he said, stiffening. He would be, once he got home and took a hot bath. He paused, remembering something he'd learned from experience: when others had done well, a little praise went a long way. Atobe had certainly fared better than Tezuka himself had in the simulation. "You... did very well. It was impressive."
Atobe's smile became a little more warm, his whole expression relaxing. "We made a good team, Tezuka-san." He chuckled, adding quite jovially, "But don't let that stop you from telling me how wonderful I am." Not that he needed that reinforcement - seeing where his classmates were at his age, he knew he was well ahead of the curve. What Tezuka had seen was a much better demonstration of Atobe's actual abilities than what his trainers and classmates ever saw.
The mirth faded only a little as he put his hands on his hips and asked, "But I have to know - how did you know it was me?"
The corners of Tezuka's mouth lifted slightly against his will. "You don't beg."
A sudden, rolling laugh ripped out of Atobe and he threw his head back - it always felt good to laugh after a tense situation, be it a battle or an argument... or just about anything else that came of being around Sanada for most of the day every day. He was almost touched; that was suspiciously close to being a statement of Tezuka knowing Atobe well enough to tell him from a doppleganger.
Blue eyes sparkling with humor and adrenaline, Atobe said, "Regardless, I'm glad you didn't try pointing that thing at me. Do you even know how to use a gun?"
Did Tezuka even know how to use a gun, indeed. What did Atobe take Tezuka for? Instead of answering immediately, Tezuka disarmed the revolver, and then let go. It hung in mid-air, and then fell to pieces, its various parts landing on the floor and scattering around them. In the next moment, the revolver was back in Tezuka's hand, perfectly assembled. "Yes," Tezuka said. It was one of the things field operatives needed to know, and Tezuka had masqueraded as one before.
Oh, so he could assemble and disassemble a gun. That proved nothing, but Atobe did not comment. Instead, he focused on the shoulder he knew was bothering Tezuka - he had seen him favor it earlier right after he mentioned Tezuka's confrontation with the brick wall. "Want to put some ice on that?" He titled his head slightly to Tezuka's shoulder to indicate to what he meant. "Heat will feel better but will slow down the healing process, you know."
What Atobe said wasa true, and they did have a convenient source right there. "You aren't tired?" Tezuka asked instead.
Of course Atobe was tired, but he gave a shrug. "Aren't you in pain?"
"I'll manage," Tezuka replied. He was reluctant to admit to Atobe that it was beginning to hurt more. "Don't worry about me."
Oh, for the love of Pete. "Just..." Atobe forced the initial clipped tone out of his voice. "Just hold still." He made sure to make eye contact before stepping forward slowly, as though approaching a timid animal, and slowly froze his fingertips. He reached up with that hand to touch Tezuka's shoulder - gaining confidence when Tezuka didn't immediately go running away screaming, and let the cold spread down his fingers into the palm of his hand as he rested his hand lightly over the cloth of Tezuka's shirt. "You'll have to tell me where."
Stiffening and freezing in place at first--if he pulled away, Atobe might miss and hurt one of them--Tezuka sighed inwardly, shoulders lowering slightly as he relented. The cold did feel better. "Diagonally up and to the... left." Tezuka had to think about which way was left for Atobe a moment. "Further out."
Atobe followed Tezuka's instructions, watching his own hand as he did, not bothered by the proximity, even if it was a sudden development. Once he was settled over the spot Tezuka indicated to, Atobe pushed his power forward, cooling Tezuka's skin as well, though nothing like the temperatures he, himself could withstand. Just enough to soothe the ache. "How's that?"
Tezuka watched Atobe's hand move. "There," he said, and then felt a rush of cold pressing inwards. It was a welcome respite, though Tezuka knew it was only temporary. At Atobe's question, Tezuka looked up--
--and realized the other was a little too close for Tezuka's' comfort.
Tezuka stiffened. "Better," he finally managed. With that, he moved backwards, putting more distance between them. It had been a long time since anyone had stood that close to Tezuka, and it made him very uneasy. "Thank you," he said belatedly.
A bit of temper flared up in Atobe once more when Tezuka moved back - one would think Atobe had some horrible illness. God forbid Atobe the leper should touch Tezuka or share his air. But rather than give into the urge to say something catty, he just retracted his hand and instead settled both hands in his pockets. "I'm just pleased that my power has a practical application, after all." He glanced around the danger room. "This is all well and good, of course, but who does it help at the end of the day?"
"Help?" Tezuka asked, looking at Atobe for clarification.
Shaking his head dismissively, Atobe said, "Never mind." He sighed, giving up on the pursuit of friendship with Tezuka for the evening. "You're right - I'm tired."
It was far past curfew, Tezuka was aware. "I'll walk you to the dorm." In case Atobe was challenged for being out so late when it was partially Tezuka's fault for keeping him.
You might catch my disease. The words were on the tip of Atobe's tongue, but once more he kept quiet, letting out his breath slowly to center himself. Now that adrenaline was wearing off, he really was starting to feel quite tired. The events of the evening were wearing on him. He might have even had a witty retort for the offer to be walked home, but instead he just nodded obligingly. "Thank you." He started toward the exit of the danger room. "And thank you for trusting me - this isn't the standard student training program."
The standard student training program would be far too easy for Atobe, Tezuka thought, frowning. "Aa," he said non-commitally, distracted. Atobe was either naturally gifted at both manipulating his powers and adapting himself to combat, or he'd had a lot of training in it himself. Two years, Atobe had said. What had those two years been like? What sort of training was Atobe receiving at Ryuhana now? He was clearly too advanced for introductory-level training given to newly-manifested mutants. They left, walking towards the student dorms, Tezuka wondering how Atobe worked on his powers.
Two minutes after they'd exited the building, Tezuka spoke. "Was any of that learned at Ryuhana?"
Technically speaking, yes. But only one thing since he had arrived in May could be specifically attributed to his time at Ryuhana - and even then, it was from spending time with Sanada. Irony was thick in his tone when he responded, "Yes. The part where I froze my hand to ease the pain in your shoulder - I just figured out how to do that recently." As far as his control of his power went, most of it was from the time he spent training with Sanada previously or his own tutoring under the watchful eye of the Hellfire Club. As for his abilities when it came to combat, much of it was simply in his blood.
"You're wasting your time here, then," Tezuka said. He glanced at Atobe. It was obvious Atobe knew he wasn't learning much at Ryuhana too. "Why?"
Atobe had heard a lot of that question, lately. He offered Tezuka the same explanation he had offered Sanada, in a round-about way. "I'm not the only one biding my time." He took one hand out of his pockets to pull his hood back up over his head. "I have a promise to keep to the Sanadas to do something about that."
Sanada too? What were two obviously talented mutants doing, attending classes at Ryuhana if they didn't need the training? Were their parents afraid their powers were liable to flare up out of control? Considering how well Atobe could use his powers in a combat situation, Tezuka doubted it was the case for Atobe, and he could infer from Atobe's words that Sanada was at least as good with his powers. "What do you plan to do? Both of you."
"Sanada doesn't know what he wants," Atobe answered truthfully. No one seemed to know what was "best" for him, either, though plenty of people wanted a say in what Sanada was doing with his life. It hardly seemed fair. "I'm going to stick it out until he comes with me wherever the wind takes us." While Tezuka was more or less a loner by nature, Atobe thrived on the partnership that had developed over time with Sanada. Their powers were opposite, but complimentary; everything else about them was much the same.
"I see." That was all Tezuka had to say on the matter at the moment. He wondered if perhaps he could at least do something for both of them. Even if they didn't have a purpose, this was a waste of time for them, and a waste of Ryuhana's resources, too. Neither of them needed the training Ryuhana currently offered them. They could, perhaps, be assigned to better classes, but Tezuka wondered at how good the two truly were.
"This is all well and good, of course, but who does it help at the end of the day?"
Atobe's earlier question came back to Tezuka. Indeed, who did it help? Being prepared was useful, but... prepared for what?
Perhaps self-development was a better goal.
The dorm was before them now, and Tezuka nodded to Atobe. "Thank you for tonight. Sleep well."
When they stopped at the door of their destination, Atobe turned back to face Tezuka properly and looked up at him. There was still that slightly unnatural distance between them that seemed to be where Tezuka was most comfortable - Atobe wondered if he stepped a bit closer if Tezuka would naturally step back. Unable to resist the urge to test the theory, he took a casual baby step in the older mutant's direction as though simply shifting to be more comfortable and replied, "It was my pleasure. Be careful going home."
Tezuka shifted as Atobe did so, moving back, half-turning towards the exit. "Aa." With a final nod towards Atobe, he strode away towards the gates.
Chuckling loudly - Tezuka probably heard him - Atobe turned back to the door of the dorm to face the inevitable encounter with Sanada. He had been out much longer than he had originally intended and no doubt Sanada was going to react badly. He did not spare another look over his shoulder to Tezuka's retreating form before entering the dorm building.