Shielding you from the rain. [PM for Invite]

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    The bells of Death City struck noon as Keiko calmly waited for Mel to arrive. she slowly went through kata to warm up both her body and her mind. She knew that her partner had a tendency to be late, but she was so excited to be working with him that she would let it slide this once. Mel had begun working with the academy more closely than ever before, and when he had eventually asked to work with a partner Keiko was the first in line. With her brother, Yemi, missing after their run in with some kishin eggs she had been feeling a little lost, but her time spent working with Mel had changed things. Though they had yet to resonate, they had been training like this in order to learn how to do so.

     Maybe ten minutes later, Mel arrived on scene shading his face from the sun. Keiko quickly stopped what she was doing and wiped the sweat from her brow with a towel she pulled from a duffel bag she had brought. Nice weather today, right Mel? The sun is working awfully hard. She looked cheerful as she slightly laughed at herself acknowledging that she was being at least somewhat awkward. The heat off the sun fought against the dry air. Like all deserts Death City and the surrounding air had trouble keeping a stable temperature, so the heat would fluctuated as the intensity of the sun did.

     Hhmm. It must be then. Mel, seemingly from a lack of effort but mostly from a lack of wanting to open up, dismissively answered the question. He gave only enough of a response to acknowledge his partners presence. Already it would be apparent to the astute eye why these two had difficulty resonating. Mel was inclined to give too little and Keiko wanted to give too much.

Keiko and Melrose were not the only two at the training grounds at that time. There was someone else there, currently mercilessly beating a tree with a training sword. Each movement he made was obviously practiced and quick, though speed wasn't anything new around the Academy. Each strike splintered wood and threw bark up into the air; that is, when hitting any part of the tree that hadn't already been completely stripped of the course outer layer. Two white strips ran down the side of the tree, making it clear that this person had been assaulting the tree for a while. He only stopped when one of the strikes fractured the plastic blade and bent it to the side, rendering it unusable. Glyndwr wasn't used to his recently acquired strength just yet, and so wasn't used to pulling his blows when it came to inanimate objects.

The snapping of the blade prompted Glyn to sit down on the ground, leaning against the tree he had so abused, breathing only marginally faster than what one might expect from someone who wasn't doing anything strenuous. The side of the tree which he was leaning against wasn't in the shade, though Glyndwr didn't seem to mind the heat or sun at all. For someone that could step into a fire and not mind it, this was nothing.

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   Mel almost instantly noticed the glimmer in Keiko's eyes when she recognized the sound in the background. Before she had been much too enthralled in her kata to notice the faraway chipping of the wood, but now that her focus was free to wander she scanned the training grounds with her now freed up senses to help her notice where the hacking sound came from. Through the rather thick forest sounds like hacking became rather muffled or displace, but knowing another way to find the other person in the forest Keiko turned to Mel excitedly.

    You know what would be a good way for us to train?

    Was that rhetorical? Mel could already smell the strange smoky scent of the other soul, maybe not well enough find its owner, but he it was an enticing smell

    Let's find the other person in the forest.

  Keiko changed into her weapon form, her body dissolving into a crackling stream of bandages that landed in the immortal's awaiting palm. He held the heavy, cumbersome paper umbrella above his head as he strained to hold it. Its canopy open above his head provided Keiko with the ability to sense a vague aura of the purple haired man's bio-electrical signals. Mel made his way to where the man was in an attempt to satisfy his partner as she guided him as he arm tingled with pins and needles.

    He is close and at your 2 o'clock. Obediently the meister followed, silently impressed at his partners abilities.[/color]

Glyndwr was about to get up and start kicking the tree for a change, and in fact started to move to do so, before he heard the sound of footsteps moving towards him. Curious as he was in nature, he sat himself back down and waited to see who the person was; or people, rather, as he saw with his almost perpetually active soul perception that there were two souls on their way. He wasn't expecting to be the the subject of their interest or anything but when he saw a person with an umbrella as a weapon form, of all things, he couldn't help but try and grab their attention. "Hello there." He called, raising a hand and waving in the air a moment. "What do you think is a more unique weapon form: An umbrella, or a bouncy ball? Because those two are contenders for the top of a list, at least."

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    Mel could tell once they were up close to this man that there was something strange about his soul. It was unusual for him to be able to smell someone so strongly, this rich smoky smell like walking into an incense store, lightened the load on his arm as he slowly lowered the umbrella. He had his ideas about what the man before them, was though this wasn't an appropriate time to mention those ideas.

The stranger acknowledged them before they had a chance,"Hello there." Mel fanned his hand open, slightly tilting it in a simple wave to acknowledge the stranger. He kept a slight distance, because as unlikely as it was he knew this person could be a Kishin egg or an autonomous demon blade if they were especially unlucky.

    "What do you think is a more unique weapon form: An umbrella, or a bouncy ball? Because those two are contenders for the top of a list, at least." As the stranger spoke once more Mel whispered in his mind, 'I wonder if she will take this the wr-'

    There is no comparison, of course the bouncy ball is stranger. Right Mel? As she transformed out of her weapon form Keiko was visibly embarrassed by the comment as she looked towards her meister, confirming his worry as she spoke.

    Would you be interested in sparring with us?The young man's voice was almost monotonous as he spoke. Sleepy looking eyes avoided those of his partner Mel knew better than to answer the question truthfully, and instead opted to actively avoid the topic. He knew this was a sore spot for his friend, and he did his best to engineer his way out of it, though it may not have looked that way.

"I didn't say strange, I don't think it's strange." Glyndwr said from the floor, smiling at the pair. He was partly trying to avoid further offence and partly trying to explain what he meant; dropping the subject would have been the best thing to do, probably, but Glyndwr didn't think to simply leave it. When asked whether he'd like to spar, he picked up his bent and battered implement before realising that he had actually broken it only moments prior. With a sigh, he jumped to his feet effortlessly. "Now, don't be alarmed." He said, before closing his eyes and dropping his rather weak soul protect; this prompted a lick of purple flame to race along his body, most notably sweeping his hair and giving him small fangs. Looking closely would reveal a change in the shape of his pupils and ears, too. "I hope you don't mind a little bit of fire..." He said then, after pulling a knife from a sheath behind him and running his hand along the edge and then further on, leaving a spectral flame blade behind it. This blade was clearly blunt and was facing the weapon and meister pair.

.(OOC: Though I am going to play it up in posts, I think Glyndwr should be the win this fight, assuming he doesn't hold back: he has more experience and power)

    Keiko's face grew a little serious as Glyndwr went to talk again. It was easy to tell that she knew she was being overly critical, but it was also as clear as day she didn't care that she was as a mild scowl formed on her face. Mel did his best to keep a straight face, burying the lower half of his face in his scarf.

    "I didn't say strange, I don't think it's strange."

    I guess I won't hold it against you then.

    Iki. Mel simply pleaded out to his partner stop with a childhood nickname. He glanced at her briefly before nodding with a quick, unspoken 'thank you' to Glyndwr.

   "Now don't be alarmed" Mel's eyes widened slightly as the smell hit him and he stood both in front of Glyndwr and Keiko and also within his soul room.

Mel raised his head up from a bowing position as he sat in a dark room on an empty pew. Warlock?

    He struggled to hide his surprise at the reveal as the smoky smell transform in a burst of aroma into a cascade of flames. Keiko was not nearly as impressed taking the transformation in stride. Though she knew something that there was something significantly different about the young man her experience let her take it in stride.

    "I hope you don't mind a little bit of fire..."

    Only if you don't mind a little bit of electricity. Crackling bandages unwound Keiko and flew to Mel's awaiting hand as she transformed back into an umbrella, her canopy closed and in her sword-like, closed form. Seeing no reason to add anything else to the conversation Mel re-established his focus, passively taking in bits and pieces of Keiko's soul wavelength as the heavy weapon sent small jolts of electricity up his arm. Bandages covered the length of the weapon hiding its true nature and masking it to look like a sword.

Keiko sits beside of her partner in a long, light blue, medievalesque gown longingly looking at something incorporeal far in front of her. We can do it this time. Let's win.

Glyndwr swung the sword down to point at the ground at his side and stood straight, with one hand behind his back, out of the way. "Would you prefer an open area, or would you rather fight in the forest?" Glyndwr asked, as it was all the same to him. Whether a battle or a sparring session, forest or not, he wasn't planning on losing.

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Mel shrugged as lightning crackled along his arm. He spent a significant amount of his focus concentrating on his arm, he mostly just wanted to get started before maintaining resonance became too taxing. As a weapon who had exclusively been used by her twin, Keiko wasn't used to having to try to synchronize, so she always ended up forcing too much of her wavelength into Mel inevitably causing her numbing wavelength to hinder her partner. Meanwhile Mel failed to communicate this to his partner seeking to compensate on his part instead bearing with the pins and needles. The two waited for Glyndwr to move first.

When the choice was left up to him, Glyndwr took a few steps back away from the pair and brought the sword up in front of himself. If he stretched, he could just about hit Melrose from the range he was at. He wasn't going to attack first, however, but wait for Mel's first strike. And wait he did, sword pointed in the general direction of his opponents face. He still held a smile on his face, as he was thinking of all this as a bit of fun. Whether that smile would be wiped was up to the skill of his opposition.

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    The duo would slowly raise their weapon until it was parallel to the ground and roughly at the same level as Mel's shoulders. Mel would thrust Keiko forward even at the behest of his partner to do the opposite. The tip blunted by a strong layer of bandages aimed straight for Glyndwyr's throat. Mel was no fool he trusted Keiko's assumption that a counter was already prepared, in fact he did this specifically for that reason.

"If your right, If your right then I guess you'll have to watch my back." The adrenaline that the two felt as they truly fought together for the first time helped them to begin thinking on the same wavelength.     "Your swings aren't quite as fast as Yemi's, so I'll have to cover you if this guys any good." The weapon spoke calmly to the person sitting at the bench next to her.

     If their opponent went in for a stab like Keiko believed he was going to she would flare open just long enough to block the attack. Mel under-committed to the swing, allowing them the ability to retract his blade and test their opponent's reaction speed.

Rather than attacking just like that, Glyndwr stepped backwards quickly and batted Keiko away with a diagonal swing to his bottom left, before swiftly turning his blade around and striking up along that same line, stepping wide to Mel's left, away from his weapon. He wasn't going to get anywhere near a weapon that he doesn't know the capabilities of; he wasn't going to take the bait of attacking head on against a counter he couldn't predict. If Mel was using a normal sword he'd have been more than happy to simply step to the side and return a stab, but Glyndwr was too cautious to do so in this case.