As You Like It

 "Is hard work really too much for you? You've been off all week." Eden's narrowed eyes accused him as the white-haired Nihonjin took his helmet off. "Surely that Ki shard isn't still affecting you."

"Healed from that weeks ago," Lachlan sighed, his own helmet settled under an arm, and ran a hand through his hair. "All the heat's making it hard to sleep, that's all."

"Lack of sleep doesn't make you charge headlong into a beam anyone could have seen coming from miles away."

"You've got it the wrong way around. The beam charged headlong into me," he retorted, turning as Ariake thumped down and strode over, yanking off his helmet as he went, and called out before the lad could, "'What the hell were you doing Lachlan? You ran straight into that beam! The hell were you thinking?!'"

Ariake's open mouth closed into an amusingly constipated expression. "...What the hell, gaijin?"

"I thought so."

Drake wandered up with a yawn. "I want a break. When is this day-off, again?"

Lachlan arm-punched him. "Hey, you're not helping our gaijin reputation, dragon."

"Sumimasen," he responded primly. "No rest allowed, got it."

Lachlan sighed, hanging an arm on the big lad's shoulder. "Don't even joke. I can't even feel my right hand today, and they've still got us running psychic intuition drills at notch high-as-you-can-go."

"If you want to win, you have to push through your own weaknesses, gaijin. This is the Samurai way."

And the hero of the hour, Hirano himself, butted in on his casually-striding way past, throwing a sideways smirk at them all. As if it wasn't his fault for herding Lachlan into said laser-beam.

Lachlan's own return smile didn't reach his eyes. "My weaknesses would like a word with your face."

Hirano didn't blink as he slowed, turning to face him. "You want to fight, gaijin?"

…Well, why the hell not?

He narrowed his eyes, pushing away from his impromptu support, the big lad giving him a questioning look as he took a step to meet perfect star-pupil. "You know, maybe I do. I've had about enough of your jabs, Blond-san, and I'm in the mood to blow off some steam. Why don't we have a little match in the training room?"

"What are you doing—?"

Hirano's raised hand cut Ariake off, his little smirk signalling a victory all on its own. "I accept your challenge, gaijin."

So he found himself at the edge of another ring with both teams present to referee things, and a few from the others for an interested audience. Ariake glared at nothing in particular with his arms folded and his shoulders hunched, Drake looking at Lachlan sideways, and Eden giving him a sharp look. "I hope this isn't also sleep-deprivation making you even more stupid than usual."

"Might have something to do with it," he said easily, down to a loose shirt and a pair of shorts as he slipped through the barrier. "In any case, the only damage any of us're getting is to our pride. Alright, wish me luck."

"You deserve to get your ass beaten," Ariake muttered, wishing him the highest luck.

He winked, throwing him a two-fingered salute. "And we all know you'll bring flowers to my grave."

Cracking his knuckles and rolling his neck, he stepped up to face Hirano, matching him smirk-for-smirk as the other assessed him. "You're not backing out, gaijin? Good."

"There's still time for you to run back to mama," Lachlan casually returned.

"I've been waiting too long for this." Hirano tilted his head. "But I didn't expect you to give in so easily."

"Haven't given in yet." He rolled his shoulders, pulling up his hands. "Alright, no glimmer, no weapons, no pulling our yuurei. Just man to man." He held his eyes, letting a hint of tooth into his smile. "Wolf to wolf."

That lazy smirk answered him. "As you like it, gaijin."

"Are you ready?" Umiko called into the ring, and received only affirmatives. "Then... fight!"

Hirano jabbed quick as lightning straight for the solar plexus, like some kind of karate kid, and he jerked back, deflecting it by the skin of his teeth.

The old "end the fight before it begins" adage, eh?

Lachlan grinned tightly, throwing a feint Hirano barely blinked at. In return, the blond threw a series of hand-blades at him, similar to his method of dazzling swordsmanship, and damn, would've been nice to have a gun here too.

A kick came from nowhere, primed to send him to the floor, and he twisted away, making a botched grab for the ankle only for a jab to catch him savagely in the ribs.

He's just too damn fast. Smacking away a follow-up at his face with his right, Lachlan threw himself into a straight punch with his left. It caught Hirano by surprise somehow, a solid hit straight in the nose, and he reeled back, stunned.

So Lachlan followed up with a hook to the jaw, cracking him neatly underneath with the full force of his weight behind it.

Hirano might have technique, he might have skill, but he was still only eighteen, half-Nihonjin, and hadn't spent the last four years hauling around heavy nets, dragging boats, and acting as pack-mule for two demons. He went down, and he went down hard.

Lachlan shook out his half-numb hand. "Damn, I wasn't expecting that— "

A white blur shot up as hard as he'd gone down, leaping straight for the throat.

Damn— Lachlan twisted away, teeth and coppery-gold-black flashing past and landing like a cat, snapping for his leg. So that's how you want to play it. Twitching back, he landed on his own set of paws, meeting a surprisingly smaller set of teeth head-on.

He probably didn't expect Lachlan to twist and clamp down on his head, shaking him like a ragdoll. The pup snarled, kicking him in the chest and tearing out just long enough to snap his ear, cutting off with a grunt as teeth met his throat and Lachlan hurled him away, leaping forward to pin him.

And from this angle, he could see the size difference wasn't just age. Well smack him sideways. Hirano wasn't a wolf, he was a dog. A husky with a sable coat.

"Well well." He refused to budge as his smaller, wiry opponent thrashed, giving his throat a warning shake. "You're full of surprises."

Hirano responded by kicking him full-force in the underbelly and switching at the same time. Which hurt, dammit.

He tumbled back into his own skin with a choked wheeze, twisting away from an attempt to pin him and aiming his own kick at the blond's ribs. Hirano rolled with it, giving him just enough time to stumble to his feet, gritting his teeth and gasping for breath. "You can fight dirty when you want to. And here I was, starting to think you'd never seen a real fight."

"It's a mistake—" A foot lashed out at him, clipping the side of his head as he dodged too slow "—to think I've never had to fight for anything, gaijin."

A follow-up jab caught him right in the kidney, and he cursed, twisting away into his yuurei's form to slip out of the pin-throw and lurching back onto two feet again.

"In this world, nothing is handed to you." Hirano gave him no room to recover, nearly clocking him head-to-floor with a side kick. "You have to take it."

The kid launched at him, and he fended off a flurry of jabs and punches, losing ground, hissing in breath past the dull-sharp pain in his torso. Hirano's piercing blue eyes glittered as he caught a counterpunch, snatching Lachlan's arm, and oh hell— "You know this as well as I do."

He slammed to the floor in a throw.