In an empty field back on Earth, tucked away off the beaten path in the woods, there is an old stump, and there is a patch of clover. If he was standing by the clover, and Yuki was farther than the stump, he was safe. If she was any closer, and he wasn’t ready, she’d [i]get[/i] him. It’s a distance he’s gotten quite familiar with. It took him an awful lot of afternoons getting got to get acquainted with it.

The autumn lady’s hand reaches out. Past the stump.

Cutie’s hand closes around the outline of a hilt. In one motion - like he practiced! - he draws forth the outline of a sword, and doesn’t swing it wide and dramatic-like, but remembers to stop when it’s properly centered. When he could see her through the blade.(1)

Yuki had said duels were scary. Sometimes a good scary! Sometimes not. As she’d told him of more and more of her adventures, he only now realized he’d forgotten to ask if they ever got *less* scary. Had her stomach tied itself in knots before she jumped into action just a minute ago?

[b]“Woop!”[/b]

And that’s all the time he has.

He blocks low to ward off the lunge as he takes a half-leap back. Thank you, Yuki, for picking a sword that did lunges for him to practice against. Thank you, Yuki, for letting him practice with you long enough for him to ignore the instinct to keep running away from the scary venom sword. (Thank you, Yuki, for letting him hear stories of a brave knight-in-training, who stood her ground and fought for her friends.) Though the thanks will have to come later. Right now he’s trying very hard to keep breathing.

Cutie plants his feet, swipes back, and only yelps a little bit as he barely catches her counterstroke. “To be faIR! Your knights [i]-eep!-[/i] are breaking everything,” sidestep, lean, but back to the center. “And hurting people badlYYY,” he can’t get pushed back. Hold his ground. “And putt-[i]woah[/i] putting all our guests [i]-woop! hup!-[/i] in danger,” swing when he can. Remember to make her defend too. “[i]and[/i] you're trying to king, kidnap, king and kidnap me!”

A clang, a feint, a twist, and their swords lock, striving to push the other back.

“I think those are some pretty good reasons to be at [i]leastalittledifficult!” [/i]

A knight of Kel would beat her. Cutie can at least hold her here. He [i]has[/i] to.

[Rolling to [b]Defy Disaster[/b] with Daring, like Yuki would. Cutie is risking his own composure, remembering the duel and forgetting the heart: 4 + 3 + 0 = [b]7[/b]]


[hider=(1) - Cutie's Heartblade]He and Yuki spent a good while staring baffled at his heartblade when he first drew it, and then spent twice as long fiddling with it to see how it worked. Or, more accurately, that it was even there in the first place. He could feel the hilt in his hands, and there was *some* kind of weight to the blade, but all they could see was a neon outline of dancing rainbow colors. Clear enough to spot where the sword was and wasn’t, not so bright as to be a distraction or a flashlight. It was like somebody had modded the sword out and left in the visual effects.

He’d thought it was maybe, like, a temporary sword? Something to use while Thellamie is still figuring out what sort of heartblade to give you? But, no, Yuki hadn’t had a heartblade like that when she got here last time. 

Heartblades were supposed to be a reflection of, well, your heart. And he had no earthly (Thellamiey?) idea what this one was supposed to reflect. This, this, empty space where a sword should be.[/hider]