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femslashficlets2015-06-21 03:40 pm
samuraiter) wrote in femslashficlets2015-06-21 03:40 pm
Entry tags:
FIC: Candles [Senran Kagura – Asuka / Homura (All Ages)]
Title: Candles
Fandom: Senran Kagura
Pairing: Asuka / Homura
Rating: All Ages
Prompt: 012 – The Five Senses
Word Count: 685
Summary: Awareness of your surroundings is key to being shinobi.
* * * *
A circle of candles – one of the oldest tests in the samurai tradition, modified for teaching shinobi the art of the blades. A samurai had to swing a katana in a perfect 360-degree circle to pass the test, snuffing all of the candle flames without damaging any of the candles themselves. A shinobi, on the other hand, had to do it using weapons other than a katana, and, for Asuka, that involved her dual kodachi. It should have been easy for her, but two conditions had been imposed on the test. One, she had to do it blindfolded. Two, she had to be conscious of Homura standing in the circle.
Homura had offered to be the one to set up the test for her as practice – so she said – for the real test that the academy offered, but Asuka suspected that she intended to use it as another excuse to push her to her limits. Not that she minded. Homura had gone from being her strongest rival to being her most demanding teacher ... and more than that, too. Neither of them had put a name to it yet. They fought at almost every opportunity, each seeking to improve the other, only to laugh it off afterwards and go eat together at the ramen stand, only the two of them, never any of the others.
And so Asuka stood in the center of the circle, the blindfold already in place. The only sound she could detect came from the flames of the candles, a crackle so feet that anything other than complete silence could hide it. Homura, like all shinobi, had learned to make her breathing inaudible, as well as her footsteps, and the real test for Asuka lay in determining where she stood so as to adjust her motion and snuff all the candles without striking her. No doubt she already had one of her seven swords at the ready to avoid the dead giveaway that the sound of her drawing it from its sheath could be.
No smell but the light smoke of the candles, no taste but the same, no motion in the air. Only stillness, all but perfect. Asuka centered herself inside her head, clearing all the noise from her thoughts, trying to get a sense of everything around her without relying on any of her normal senses. The candles seemed bright as day to her in spite of the blindfold, but the candles did not represent her main concern. Still no sign of Homura, though Asuka was certain she was only centimeters away from her. How did she do that? Perhaps that represented the real test? At that, Asuka could only guess.
But hesitation never decided anything, and she could not afford to waste any more time in gathering herself. Not acting at all represented failure, and so she took one more breath, reached for her kodachi, and struck in a fluid motion honed by years of training. The entire act took a fraction of second, and ... nothing, no sharp clang of one of her blades striking the one that Homura had ready. She took another breath before removing the blindfold ... and seeing that all of the candles had been snuffed. But what had become of Homura? She then heard a soft chuckle behind her.
"You prepared for me to be inside your range of motion," Homura said over her shoulder, "but not for me to be back-to-back with you, moving as you move. But you did trust your intuition, and that's the point." She turned to face Asuka, taking her by the shoulders. "Not a pass, but improvement is improvement. You and I can try this again at a different time." Then, her expression changed, becoming the more familiar Homura who took her places, rather than the intense Homura she normally only faced in combat. "Not in a ramen mood today. How about udon instead? Sound good?"
"It does," Asuka admitted. Homura clapped her once on the shoulder, and they left the circle of candles together to take their ease away from the academy for a time.
END.
Note: The "circle of candles" idea comes from a PS2 game called Kengo: Master of Bushido, rather than any historical source. It felt like a good fit (IMO) for the surreal goings-on that are a fact of day-to-day life in the Senran Kagura franchise, so I included it here.
Fandom: Senran Kagura
Pairing: Asuka / Homura
Rating: All Ages
Prompt: 012 – The Five Senses
Word Count: 685
Summary: Awareness of your surroundings is key to being shinobi.
* * * *
A circle of candles – one of the oldest tests in the samurai tradition, modified for teaching shinobi the art of the blades. A samurai had to swing a katana in a perfect 360-degree circle to pass the test, snuffing all of the candle flames without damaging any of the candles themselves. A shinobi, on the other hand, had to do it using weapons other than a katana, and, for Asuka, that involved her dual kodachi. It should have been easy for her, but two conditions had been imposed on the test. One, she had to do it blindfolded. Two, she had to be conscious of Homura standing in the circle.
Homura had offered to be the one to set up the test for her as practice – so she said – for the real test that the academy offered, but Asuka suspected that she intended to use it as another excuse to push her to her limits. Not that she minded. Homura had gone from being her strongest rival to being her most demanding teacher ... and more than that, too. Neither of them had put a name to it yet. They fought at almost every opportunity, each seeking to improve the other, only to laugh it off afterwards and go eat together at the ramen stand, only the two of them, never any of the others.
And so Asuka stood in the center of the circle, the blindfold already in place. The only sound she could detect came from the flames of the candles, a crackle so feet that anything other than complete silence could hide it. Homura, like all shinobi, had learned to make her breathing inaudible, as well as her footsteps, and the real test for Asuka lay in determining where she stood so as to adjust her motion and snuff all the candles without striking her. No doubt she already had one of her seven swords at the ready to avoid the dead giveaway that the sound of her drawing it from its sheath could be.
No smell but the light smoke of the candles, no taste but the same, no motion in the air. Only stillness, all but perfect. Asuka centered herself inside her head, clearing all the noise from her thoughts, trying to get a sense of everything around her without relying on any of her normal senses. The candles seemed bright as day to her in spite of the blindfold, but the candles did not represent her main concern. Still no sign of Homura, though Asuka was certain she was only centimeters away from her. How did she do that? Perhaps that represented the real test? At that, Asuka could only guess.
But hesitation never decided anything, and she could not afford to waste any more time in gathering herself. Not acting at all represented failure, and so she took one more breath, reached for her kodachi, and struck in a fluid motion honed by years of training. The entire act took a fraction of second, and ... nothing, no sharp clang of one of her blades striking the one that Homura had ready. She took another breath before removing the blindfold ... and seeing that all of the candles had been snuffed. But what had become of Homura? She then heard a soft chuckle behind her.
"You prepared for me to be inside your range of motion," Homura said over her shoulder, "but not for me to be back-to-back with you, moving as you move. But you did trust your intuition, and that's the point." She turned to face Asuka, taking her by the shoulders. "Not a pass, but improvement is improvement. You and I can try this again at a different time." Then, her expression changed, becoming the more familiar Homura who took her places, rather than the intense Homura she normally only faced in combat. "Not in a ramen mood today. How about udon instead? Sound good?"
"It does," Asuka admitted. Homura clapped her once on the shoulder, and they left the circle of candles together to take their ease away from the academy for a time.
END.
Note: The "circle of candles" idea comes from a PS2 game called Kengo: Master of Bushido, rather than any historical source. It felt like a good fit (IMO) for the surreal goings-on that are a fact of day-to-day life in the Senran Kagura franchise, so I included it here.