[Closed Log]

[dontmindmepleasecontinue]

Who: Koizumi and Chief Beifong
What: Sparring
Where: A provate training room at the gym
When: Earlier this week?

Koizumi has been working nearly nonstop this past month - devoting himself completely to police training, to the SOS Brigade, and to his duties as an esper. It's hard work, and long, and it means he has almost no time for himself - but so far he has proven himself up for the challenge.

At the moment, he is facing off against two nonfictional officers - blocking or diverting all of their attacks and advances without countering or reciprocating. He'd been practicing all the physical aspects of his training for the past three hours - firearms, stealth, interrogation training, several forms of martial arts, and now self-defense - which had been preceded by several more hours of study on protocol.

Though he is very talented, and a quick study as regards all these subjects, he appears to be particularly gifted at self defense - his movements flowing and guiding his opponents', using their force and momentum against them. Despite his oncoming fatigue, he's easily outmatching his opponents.

Comments

[steelweb]

Lin has just stopped by to make sure that any laggard officers on the evening shift get their asses to the station on time. And, of course, to check on the progress of her trainee. Slipping in silently, she stands along the wall and acknowledges the instructor's nod with a tiny jerk of her chin. ...He wasn't bad. One of the attackers rolled to a stop by her feet and popped up, panting. Good. He was working his attackers as hard or harder than himself.

She flashed a hand signal to the instructor, who called a halt to the assault.

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Koizumi glances at Lin when she walked in, but doesn't otherwise divert his attention from the engagement at hand. With a deft twist, he sends one of the officer into a roll that ends at Lin's feet.

Though he's facing the wrong way to see Lin hand gesture, it's obvious the match is over by observing everyone else's reactions. He relaxes out of his defensive posture, though his body still seems alert, in a very controlled way - ready to spring into motion at the slightest need.

He turns to the instructor and bows formally, though he never takes his eyes off the other man. The instructor, well used to this by now, is mostly just amused, chuckling as he waves off the bow - but he follows this by nodding respectfully in return.

Koizumi then turns to Lin, offering a small and confident smile as he walks up to her, his back straight and his hands folded behind it.

"Good evening, Chief Beifong-sama."

[steelweb]

She tilts her head in greeting. "Trainee. You're improving." A flick of her hand dismisses the rest, who slowly vacate the room. Some of them deliberately drag their feet, casting the pair of them covert looks, but she glares until they pick up the pace and the door swings to behind them. Only then does she return her gaze to his face. If he keeps standing here like this, he's going to stiffen up.

She starts off around the edge of the matting, inviting him along with a gesture. "Are you secure in your training thus far?" Flexing her fingers, she exerts her bending and pulls her gauntlets off one after the other to bare her arms to the shoulder.

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He nods, taking it as a statement of fact instead of a compliment. It was true - the match with the two officers was better than perhaps any he'd had before it. He glances at the slowly retreating officers, amused at their display, but remains standing there in a respectful yet relaxed stance until Lin turns back to him and invites him onto the mat.

"I am. I'm no master, but I've been steadily improving in all areas. I'm well ahead of the standard officer training program's timetable." His answer is prompt, succinct, and honest. He's pleased with his accomplishments, but he neither lauds nor depreciates his performance.

He looks at her appraisingly as she takes off her gauntlets, then tilts his head slightly to the side in question. "Am I to take it you wish a assess my progress yourself?"

This was one fight, he knows, where he will be entirely outmatched. He knows Lin is a top notch fighter, even without her Earthcraft - his life had depended upon it before. If he is to understand correctly, she'd been Chief of Police in her own city for many years before she had come here. She has many more years of experience fighting than he has been alive, and he's only just begun training. Even more than that, he has been extremely mentally and physically active for hours now, and fatigue is creeping up on him. By all rights, he can hardly even present an interesting match for her.

Against all reason, he feels his determination increasing as he loosens his muscles to help insure a better reaction time. So it will be a challenge. A nearly impossible one. He's used to those.

Besides, though he's learning a lot from his trainer and the other officers, it's always a very controlled pace and environment. He never quite gets to test his limits. Here, he doesn't have to worry about that.

... This is going to be fun.

[steelweb]

Lin recognizes the spark in him and feels her lips twitch upward in response. "If you think you're up for it, rookie. Not everything is going to be so uniform as in this place." He's seen her earthbend before. And with that video of her duel with Lensherr that was going around, he's probably seen her metalbend too. He knows what he's going up against.

Motioning for him to stay put, she goes to the side of the room and lays her sleeves aside, then removes the rest of her armor with a few simple gestures. Her tanktop and uniform pants should be enough. No need to give herself even more of an advantage. Rolling her neck and easing the eager tension in her arms, she makes her way back to the mat and tries to keep a predatory smile off of her face. Most of the other officers courteously decline to spar with her - chickenhogs.

She takes up the proper position across from him and bows, sliding into an easy, wide-based opening stance and quirking an eyebrow. Come on, then.

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"Oh, I'm well aware, and I am nearly certain that I am not." He grins, waits for her to take off her armor, then bows with her - though again, at no point does he take his eyes off her.

It's not going to be a long fight, however it happens. He's already too tired. With that in mind, there's no need to hold back or conserve his energy - it wouldn't make a difference. And if all she's seen recently is him defending and reacting to attacks, perhaps - on the first blow - he can surprise her with his speed and ferocity.

He takes a couple slow steps forward, sliding and shifting right and left as he goes. Without warning, as he's crossed have the space between them, he speeds up dramatically, doing a quick drop to one arm and what looks like a double leg sweep, though it changes into a pair of upward kicks at the last moment. If she moves to dodge or jump the sweep, the kicks might just topple her balance.

[steelweb]

She watches his approach carefully, analyzing the way that he telegraphs his moves, and he's enough of a learner that she sees the drop coming. Instead of skipping backward or simply hopping over the line of the sweep, she dives neatly over him and rolls once, coming back to her feet. Slipping forward, she keeps her feet well apart and crouches low to strike out twice with the flat of her palm at his head and neck. That should keep her under the arc of where his legs might be, and cause him to raise his arms to defend himself. Or if he's smart, he'll block her and roll away and try to face her again.

[dontmindmepleasecontinue]

When she dives over him, he has the presence of mind to roll quickly to the side, narrowly missing her blows. He ends the roll in a sumersault, landing back on his feet and facing her. Light on his feet, he moves forward again quickly, taking the offensive by striking out rapidly at her torso. If she blocked him physically instead of dodging, his slightly taller stature might give him a slight edge in a grapple.

Then again, she was likely quite a bit stronger than he was - but that would be a hinderance regardless of the strategy he used. The only possible way to avoid that disparity would be to be faster than she was - which he is not at all certain of - dodging and feinting in and out, and that would wear him out even faster, and require him to burn more energy than she was.

[steelweb]

Excellent reflexes on his part, she notes dispassionately as he rolls away. And keeping the distance closed where his strikes will be the most effective. Good. Then his assailants shouldn't have time to pull a firearm. She meets his blows by angling her arm inside his, deflecting them away from her ribs and twisting her torso to bring the flat of her opposing hand up in another double-tap strike at his face. Her footwork mirrored her body's motion, her back foot sliding forward to stop in the perfect place to implement either a hook of her ankle or a groin blow.

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Instead of deflecting like she did, he brings his arm around to push her attacking arm in and down, away from his chest. His response is to strike with the heel of his palm straight at her throat. The motion is a little exaggerated, drawing more attention to his arms - though in such a way as to simply look a little inexperienced, his movements slightly less efficient than they might have been - in the hopes of distracting her from his lower body. He had read her movement forward, and had immediately moved his own leg around and to the left to catch hers in the same hook she had just been threatening - at the same time carefully disciplining to stillness his torso and upper body movements, preventing her from reading the leg sweep from watching his center of mass.

[steelweb]

Lin ducks down and right, circling her right arm to get a hold of his wrist and push/pull him in that direction. In her slightly twisted position, the reverse ankle grab is a good tactic and brings out a slight smile. She allows him to take it and, keeping a tight hold on his arm, arches backward and untwists a little to come down with her shoulder blades square to the mat, kicking up with her bound leg. Her weight and the force of her fall should help counterbalance his and throw him up and over her. That way she gets loose of the grab and reverses the tables again, as she can roll sideways and get up. If he breaks her hold on his wrist before that and gets out of the way, she can still roll backward and back to her feet in a crouch.

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While they're falling, he's uses his other hand to try to grab her wrist, and endeavors to keep his legs entwined with hers - when they hit the ground, he's directly next to and facing her.

With their limbs all tangled up, there's not a lot of room for maneuvering, and just about none for grace. At these close quarters, the fight just turned into a test of strength. Pressing her as soon as they hit the ground, hoping she might have been expecting something else and he might have a moment of advantage, Koizumi simply struggles to keep hold of her hand and to free his other arm from her grip.


[ooc: You weren't awake to discuss, so this goes perhaps a bit farther than it should. I just figured we didn't want to drag this on forever by only having a sentence or two in each post. Let me know if there's something she would have done such that it wouldn't have occurred this way.]