Serious: Flashback - I'll Make a Man Out of You!

Iken was spending some time alone with Emily, the two seemed to have been getting along rather well - more so than normal. Being in Atlantis was was kind of a blessing in disguise, well for training at least. It had a large opening that was great for running through the motions. While Emily was watching Iken train with his swords, he stopped and looked at he. "You know, since you're coming along; you should really be able to defend yourself. I've lost to much, too many because I was just a little too slow, and I don't want to lose you too." He said with a face that was quite unusual. It was one of sadness, something that Iken hardly ever wears.

Shaking it off, to avoid any discussion about it he walked over to Emily. Iken placed all three of his swords into the ground - they were sunk into the stone ground about a foot each. "Which sword do you think you could wield the best?" Iken asked with a smile. Two of the swords were about six feet in length, both with dragon headed hilt designs. One was about a foot wide while the other had a more slender design and a blueish tint to it. The final sword was only about four foot long with a ring around the handle. It seemed to be much bulkier than the previous two - heavy duty almost.

Emily sat quietly as she watched Iken. Her was sitting on a pole near by, letting her legs swing back and forth as her hands where held in front of her. She wasn't sure what had really caused her to end up there but she didn't mind. Her eyes were locked onto Iken, every time she looked at him she would feel her heart feel strange from the fact that she knew she owed her life to him. She had started to go into a day dream like state when she noticed that Iken had stoped training and was making his way over to her while speaking. She tilted her head a bit and slipped off the pole, she was about to ask him what he meant but he quickly changed the subject.

Emily blinked as she looked at the sword he had put in front of her. She examined each one, having to pull her hood back a few times as it kept slipping down over her eyes before pointing to a sword. Her small finger pointed, that barely poked out from under her long sleeves that still had slight burn marks on it, to the sword with the blueish tint. "i think i might be able to handle that one" she said softly and looked up at him from under her hood.

Iken grins and pulls the sword out of the ground and hands it to Emily. Despite what it looked like, it was actually the heaviest sword he has. The blade has a good mess of seastone mixed into the metal and a small core that ran the length of the blade. For someone that hadn't been trained with a sword similar it would take quite some time to get used to, especially for anyone without a rather strong body. "Try to swing it around a little bit, to get used to the weight." he said watching her.

Emily blinked as she saw him grin. She had been hiding by her self most of the time on she ship so, even though Iken was the one to see her the most, she did not see him that often. She felt the urge to smile as well bubble up inside her but she held it in as she saw him pick up the sword and hands it to her. The second he handed her the sword, she had to hold it tightly from the shock of it's weight. She bit her lip slightly and lifted it slowly, moving out of range from iken before trying to swing it, ending up with her turning as she wasn't able to really stop the swing very well. "ah no!" she said as she fell over when the sword pulled her to the side from the swing.

"Haha" Iken couldn't help but chuckle when she fell over from the weight of the sword. He took a step forward and offered his hand to help her off the ground. Once she was standing again, he slid around her so he was behind Emily. Reaching around her Iken ran his arms along Emily's and gripped the hilt of the sword right below where Emily was holding. "Now just follow my lead." Iken said raising the sword up and down to show her the proper technique. Iken occasionally pressed on parts of her body to move them to the correct position, but for the most part his arms were wrapped firmly around Emily.

She blinked and shook her head after her fall. She stood up slowly, grunting a little as she lifted the heavy sword. Her body stiffened up as she felt Iken come up behind her and put is arms around her, helping her hold the sword. She could feel her face heat up at first before slowly calming down and relaxing a bit. She nodded slightly as he told her to fallow his lead "o-ok" she said softly. She did her best to relax and move with him, though her face kept a light pink blush from the closeness. "u-um Iken" she said softly as they moved "i-i think i should take off my h-hoodie, i-i can't see very well it on" she said softly.

"Oh okay." he said placing the sword down and taking a step back. He waited for her to take the extra shirt off. "I think we should work on your strength first of all. Once we get that down, I'll start teaching you the actual techniques. For now though we'll just stick with the basic slashes until your arms adjust to the weight of the swords." he said raising his hand to his chin to think for a moment. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to work on your speed either." Iken said after his moment of thought.

She let out a sigh of relief as she felt him let go and step away from her. She undid her hoodie, letting it slip off and shaking out her air. She smiled as she let her long red-ish orange hair out and fall to just below her shoulders. She folded up her hoodie and set it down on a near by pole. She had been wearing a white tank-top under her hoodie. She pulled it down a bit before looking up at Iken and gulping a bit "I'm ready now" she said softly as she went to go pick the sword back up.

(( so know her outfit is pretty much a white tank-top, jean shorts, thigh-highs and her shoes xD))

When Emily had finally taken it off, Iken resumed the position they were in before. "One and two and three and four." Iken said helping Emily preform a slash. "When I'm not showing you technique, I'd like it if you would work out with me. If we use weights we'll be able to get you into fighting shape much faster." he said softly.

In what seemed a blink of the eye a few months had gone by. Emily had gotten a lot stronger than before. She was faster, stronger, and overall a tougher girl. It seemed the stronger she got the stronger the bond between Emily and Iken had become. Outwardly, Emily didn't look all that different, but on the inside she was much stronger. Iken held his four bladed sword in the dual bladed position as he stood in front of Emily with a grin on his face. "Come on, I taught you better than this!" Iken taunted.

Emily blushed softly as he resumed the close position behind her and showed her the right way to preform a slash. She nodded and counted in her head, blocking out anything else but what he was showing her.

Though the months, Emily has really opened up to Iken. She was showing up to train with him everyday and even lost her shy blush when he showed her the right way to take a stance. She seemed to always be smiling when Iken showed up, even outside of their training together. Emily grunted as she was sweating a bit from their current spar. She had gotten much better with it and was able to lift and control the sword with ease. She flipped some hair out of her face and took a defensive stance. "I'm gonna win this time" she said tauntingly back to him.

Iken smiled brightly as Emily merely taunted him back and got into a defensive stance. She was really a great student when it came to the ways of the blade that surpassed a normal swordsman by far. Spinning his sword a couple of times he looked over the environment. They were in the training grounds, a dirt floor with a steel dome that had about 100 meters of space for them to play in. With a couple quick movements Iken launched off two airblades before charging leisurely towards Emily.

Emily held her sword in the ready, moving quickly and dodging the air blades with ease before giving Iken a playfully glare and charging to him her self. Even though the look on her face was focused, The way she was holding her sword was off. Her footing wasn't quiet right and something eles was giving away that there was more going on with her. As she came up to Iken she jumped over him, using he weight of her sword to help her move behind him and start to swing for him the moment she hit the ground.

By the time Emily had flipped and turned around, Iken was gone. A cloud of dust from the dirt arena lifted into the air from where he had been standing a second ago. There were multiple foot prints where he had been standing as if many different people had been standing there all at the same time. To the trained eye it would have been an obvious use of soru or one of its equivalents like Iken's Flash. If Emily looked up she would see dirty footprints on the wall of the dome in the same pattern that was on the ground. Slowly and quietly, Iken kicked off the wall behind Emily creeping up slowly behind her.

Had he have been standing there and not done anything, she probably would have at least hit his side. She huffed as she felt her sword go though air and coughed a bit from the cloud of dust. She moved it away and examined the ground. Normally she would have figured out this trick easily and located him rather quickly. Yet something in her mind kept pulling her away from her training. She had been standing there looking at the footprint for about a minute before looking up and then quickly turning around. Though by this point it was most likely to late.

Iken was there with his sword sheathed moving in closer to Emily. With one of his hands he blocked any attempt at a swing at the wrist, gently pushing it away. With his other arm he wrapped it around Emily, pulling her into his body. "What's wrong?" he asked holding her close. He rested his chin on her head taking in the scent of her hair. "You're off today. Is something troubling you?" he asked with a genuine tone of concern in his voice. It was as if there was something deeper than a master student dynamic.

Emily didn't even try to resists as he pushed away her sword and pulled her into him. She sighed softly and stood there, a light blush on her cheeks as she felt his head on top of hers. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as spoke to her "Its..." she started, but bit her lip and shook her head slightly "Nothing...I'm just tired" she said, speaking the last part rather quickly. She wasn't a very good lair...

"Come on I know you better than that, all of the days and nights we've spent together." he said pulling up her chin with his free hand. He stared deep into her eyes with his dark blues. All that Emily could see in them was loving concern if she bothered to look. He took a deep breath before kissing her softly. He smiled at her kind of half heartily before speaking once again, "Well I'm sure whatever it is, you'll tell me when you're ready."

She looked up at him, her light blush growing more as she looked into his eyes. Her heart beating faster until it finally skipped a beat as their lips touched. She was blushing brightly when he pulled away. Her eyes stayed locked onto him as he pulled back and spoke to her again. She couldn't help her self at this point when she let her sword go and her arms move around her, her face barred in his chest. "Everything just hit me.." she said softly "All my friends and family...my parents...they are all gone..."

Iken held Emily tight with his strong arms as she confessed to him her sudden feelings. In all honesty, Iken knew exactly how she felt. He himself had lost his home and family back when Derge Sr. attacked with the marines. It wasn't until he had started to get his life back together, when he found his nakama did it really sink in that they were all gone. He had even formed the crew and named it after his home nation in hopes of finding the survivors. In all the years since he had only ever found six in which only one was still with him today. "I know it hurts, badly. My family all died a few years back when our island was raided by the marines. All you can do is let it out, let out the sadness and anger and grief. Then the next day you get up and know that your family and those that loved you all want you to be happy and to find new love and friendship; whether they survived or not." Iken said with a warm smile.

Emily looked up at him as he spoke to her, telling her he knew how she felt and what had happened to him. She looked up at him with a deep look of sadness in her eyes and tears slowly forming in those eyes. As he finished all she could do was hug him tightly, almost holding onto him as she cried into his chest "t-thank you Iken" she said softly and whimpered a bit as she finally let everything out.

"Come on." Iken said stepping back, holding her hand the whole time. "You'll feel better if you lay down for awhile." he said leading her to a privet commons area. It was a bit more lavish than the other areas of Atlantis, obviously for the people that ran the city before it was over run by pirates and marines alike. Once he shown her the room, Iken got ready to leave and walked towards the door.

She looked up at him, not where they where going but trusting him as he lead her to a rather lush area of the "ship". She was feeling a bit worn out and her eyes were heavy from crying. She Sat down on a rather surprisingly comfy couch, her body getting ready for a nice relaxing sleep. She looked up Iken got ready to leave the room "I-iken?" she asked softly before letting her eyes drop down to the floor. "i-if you don't have anywhere else to be right away...would you mind staying here with me..just for a little while" she said, her eyes lifting to look into his "i-i don't want to be alone right now" she confessed quietly.

Iken stopped in the doorway and grinned, he had been waiting for her to ask him to stay. Turning around he gave her a warm smile. "Of course, Ill stay with you. It would be my pleasure to stay here with you." Iken said sitting down next to Emily. He placed his arm around Emily and leaned back, sinking into the the comfy soft couch. "It's been a long time since I've been able to relax like this." he said closing his eyes for a moment.

She smiled softly back at him as he agreed to say with her and made his way to her. "Thank you Iken" she said softly relaxed as he put an arm around her and relaxed into the couch. she let her head rest on his chest and her legs curl up behind her as she let out a happy sigh, she was already starting to feel better as she sat there with Iken, enjoying that moment.

Opening his eyes, he felt tired as if he had just woken up. By the looks of it he had been asleep for a while. Iken was so comfortable next to Emily that he didn't want to get up, but he knew he had to. He only had a few hours left so he wanted to get some research in before meeting with his target. Getting up, he tried to do so without waking his love. Quietly, Iken walked out of the room.