Complete Western Brisshal Long Fang Training

[Ueno Mizuki]

Right. Fortunately, I can do most of my work from home, so it's fairly easy to move around my schedule to make time for exercising. I imagine that there are also light repetitive exercises you can do while you're doing office work?

It would be a rather interesting experience to be spending so much time working out, even if the actual exercises wouldn't be too intensive. Then again, Cleo seemed to be pushing herself to the limit, so for her the idea of taking every opportunity to improve yourself was probably normal.

She shook her head as Cleo declared that she'd keep her hands to herself, wanting to quickly clear up the misunderstanding.

I didn't mean to say that you can't touch it, but it's like if someone hugs you without warning. (As if to demonstrate she brushed her tail against Cleo's leg.) You can touch it if you want, now that I'm expecting it.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

There's stuff that you can do, yeah. Not as much, if you need to sit down, but you can do things like the air chair exercise. That's where you try to make yourself hover just above your chair by keeping muscles tense in your upper body and legs. Though it can be pretty draining and can be very uncomfortable at times, so I'd only do it if the work you're doing isn't super important.

It was a little bit of an archaic way to work out too, but otherwise it was totally fine. She wasn't too sure what else could be done to work out in an office, but there were a few universal things that basically anybody could do anywhere.

Also doing stuff like getting up and doing some stretched can help, since it helps keep your body in the mode where it's expecting physical activity. And if you decide to go ham with stretching, you can experience some increase in muscle and stamina from that, though I wouldn't recommend pushing it that far.

And then Mizuki's tail brushed against her leg, making Cleo shudder. But since the offer was available, she'd reach out to comb her fingers through it as they walked.

So do you want to clean yourself first before our sparring match? Or would you rather just spar first and then clean yourself up afterwards?

@Ueno Mizuki

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

The air chair exercise was something that Mizuki had heard of before, but she hadn't thought of it until now.

I see. I'll give that a try then and see if I can keep it up. With modern voice recognition software, there's a lot of things you can do on the computer without having to use your hands, so maybe I could also try lifting small weights while working?

Her eyebrows raised up as Cleo explained the benefits of stretching even if she wasn't planning to follow it up with a more intensive workout. She hadn't thought that merely keeping her body in expectation of physical exercise would already be beneficial.

That's good to know. So far most of my workout has been jogging and going to the gym for the treadmills and the like, but it sounds like I could do most of my workout from home like this. Is yoga also a good idea? I've seen some conflicting opinions on whether it actually helps or not.

The sensation of Cleo brushing her tail even as they walked was odd, but not uncomfortable. Despite it only existing within this world she could feel it as keenly as if it was her own arm, and she couldn't help but start humming softly as the sensation of someone stroking her tail caused a release of endorphins. Her attention was only drawn away from the sensation when Cleo asked another question.

Huh? I was planning to clean myself first so you don't have to worry about getting dirty from the goblin blood. I don't think we can avoid getting muddy, but I imagine you'd prefer to not smell like this.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

That would work too, yeah. I hadn't considered using voice to text software for doing things like writing up reports and stuff. But yes, if you have access to those kinds of things, you should definitely use them to free up your hands. I'd bring in a few light weights and do a lot of repetitions with them, to build muscle tone and density. You want dense, lean muscles, rather than large and powerful ones.

Though when Mizuki metioned yoga, Cleo nodded. Though she wasn't a practitioner of it herself, she knew enough to know that it was at least fairly good for the body. Supposedly the mind too, but she was less qualified to comment on those kinds of things.

Yoga can be quite good for you too, yes. It's can supposedly reduce inflammation and is good for both your posture and the health of your bones. Plus it's likely to train a few muscles that regular workouts don't actually train all that well.

And from there they fell into a silence for a while, only the sound of them walking and Mizuki's humming filling the air, until Cleo had asked her question, which snapped Mizuki back into reality from whatever rush that the tail brushing was causing.

Ah that's fair enough, yeah. I wouldn't want to get covered in any secondhand goblin blood if I can avoid it. I suppose you'll want some privacy to bathe, right?

She let go of Mizuki's tail as they finally emerged from the forest canopy and out under the open sky, breathing a sigh of relief.

@Ueno Mizuki

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

So less of the treadmills and the more intensive exercises, and more of the consistent repetition. It seemed that Cleo hadn't thought of combining voice recognition with lifting weights yet, but she approved of the idea so Mizuki filed it away as a good idea. The idea of building up muscles which were dense and durable instead of bulging with power also appealed to her.

I'm more interested in improving my figure than showing off my muscles, so that sounds good to me. And I'll look up some good yoga exercises as well, although I'll be grateful for any examples you can suggest.

If she hadn't already appreciated Cleo's company, she certainly would have after the red-haired beauty proved herself to be knowledgeable in the ways of fitness and health. Mizuki's understanding was that a healthy body also helped with mental health, so the better her workout regime the higher her quality of life.

Perhaps, although as you've pointed out already it's not like our current outfits leave much to the imagination. I'm not planning to take long either, but if you're uncomfortable watching me bathe I'll move a bit further up the stream.

As they left the trees behind they'd find that Mizuki's prediction that the weather was calming down was accurate. What before had been a downpour was now more of a steady drizzle, enough to keep everything wet but no longer trying to drown the earth below. Mizuki would step away from Cleo, reluctantly also pulling her tail away from the detective's gentle ministrations, then made her way straight towards the river which had noticeably grown as a result of the downpour. However, before she'd get in she'd wait for Cleo to signal that she'd rather not watch the wolfess clean herself, or whether she didn't mind.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

A little muscle goes a long way. People are always shocked at what they can do and how much better they look if they just build a bit of muscle and then switch to focusing on reps and building muscle tone. I can't really help you all that much with yoga though. I know a bit about it but it's not something that I've ever really tried before, so I wouldn't want to give you any bad examples or advice.

Though she wasn't all that sure that it was possible to get yoga wrong in ways that would cause harm, it was possible that somebody could cause themselves some damage trying to stretch into a position that their body just wasn't ready to do. Flexibility, like many other physical skills and attributes, had to be trained and worked for, otherwise there wouldn't be anything special about escapists and certain kinds of dancers.

Though on the subject of Mizuki bathing, Cleo blushed slightly, glancing away as Mizuki stepped away and pulled her tail away from her. Though really, there was no real point in looking away from the bathing wolfess. They were both grown, mature women. And besides, what if something attacked her whilst she was bathing?

Anything to justify it.

I can keep an eye on you. Y'know, in case anything tries to attack you whilst you're relaxed and cleaning yourself.

@Ueno Mizuki

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

I'll look up instructions for yoga online then. Maybe I can find something that you'll find useful as well, although I'm guessing that flexibility isn't the highest priority for police officers.

If Cleo was helping her out, she could also try to help the lancer out. Friendships were about mutual benefit, after all, and Mizuki would feel bad if she was only asking for Cleo's assistance and didn't give anything in return.

As Cleo explained that she'd keep an eye out in case some kind of monster or other threat showed up while Mizuki was bathing the wolfess nodded, then turned towards the detective and bowed in formal Japanese fashion.

Thank you for taking care of me then. I'll try to not take too long.

With those words, she tossed the bundle of mud-caked clothes she'd been carrying all the way onto the ground and grabbed the wet fabric that still clung to her frame so she could pull it loose and shed it like she'd shed her other clothes before. Once she was bare as she was born, her tail the only thing that somewhat preserved her modesty from behind, she waded into the water until it was up to her thighs. The water was cold, but no colder than the rain that had been falling upon their heads all this time, so Mizuki got to work scrubbing her skin clean of the goblin blood and various other fluids that she'd rather not be stained with any longer. Her positioning meant that while Cleo would receive some glimpses of more sensitive parts she would never get a full view, in part because that large tail got in the way.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Maybe Mizuki would find something that would make her decide to pick up yoga, though Cleo wasn't quite so sure that it would really give her anything that she needed, considering that there wasn't exactly a big call for her to be flexible in her life. That kind of skillset had just never come up and she didn't expect it to come up any time soon, considering that the opportunities that being flexible brought up were honestly quite niche and unlikely to be relevant any time soon.

Though Mizuki bowing to her made her feel strange. She knew that it was part of Japanese custom, but it still felt quite strange for her, somebody who only had passing knowledge of those kinds of things, to be treated with that kind of reverence and respect.

And speaking of respect, she tried to remain respectful as she watched Mizuki peeling her clothes off, trying to make sure that her eyes scanned the river, rather than the woman's bare body. It helped a little bit that the woman was covered in blood and gore, so even though it was a good looking body, it wasn't quite as enticing as it would have been.

So Cleo sat on the bank of the river, alternating between scanning the river and taking some time to watch Mizuki, swallowing each time at the sight as she had to remind herself that it wasn't real. It was just a fictional avatar. There was nothing wrong with looking and admiring, was there?

She sighed, applying a small time acceleration to her clothes, so that they would dry out faster.

@Ueno Mizuki

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

As Mizuki had stated she didn't waste any time, shifting her hands and feet back into their more human state so she could clean herself properly, wiping away what viscera had clung to her and scrubbing until the blood that was sticking to her skin surrendered and was washed away by the river and the rain. Since Mizuki had been in the middle of the deathmatch there was quite a lot of blood to remove, and if the creak was any bigger she would have worried about contamination. As it was, she was fairly confident that the relatively small amount of blood would quickly disappear amidst the larger stream.

Once she was as clean as she could hope to be under these circumstances she grabbed her underwear and began to scrub those as well, although it was more difficult to remove the blood from the fabric. She did her best, but eventually had to acknowledge that she'd have to spend some time finishing the job at a later date.

Stepping out of the river Mizuki stretched and checked whether she'd cleaned every spot, then shook herself like a dog would to try and shake off most of the water before putting her underwear on once more, the sopping wet fabric clinging tightly to her skin as the wolfess sighed and shook her head.

It'll do for now. I'd suggest you clean yourself as well, but since you don't have any blood on you I don't think it'd be of much use to get rid of the mud. (She walked over towards Cleo, then motioned away from the river.) Let's move a bit further away from the river so we don't have to worry about falling in.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

That was right, Mizuki would have to scrub her clothes clean too, even her underwear had gotten dirty, from the blood and gore that had covered her and from the mud that had gotten onto them when Mizuki had set her underwear down to wash herself. It was almost amusing to watch the woman scrubbing at them to remove the blood and mud from the fabric.

Though eventually Mizuki stepped out of the river, shaking herself like a wet dog and pulling her underwear on. Cleo could only grin when she noticed the way the wet fabric still clung to the beastkin woman, at least happy that Mizuki would be suffering from a similar issue that she herself was. She cut the Chronomancy spell she was using to dry her own clothes, sighing when they were still damp enough to cling to her.

Yeah, getting the mud off of me will just be kind of pointless if we're about to go and kick up even more mud by sparring with each other.

Cleo nodded, before she began to move away from the river, until they were a comfortable distance away. She projected a single spear into her hands, giving it a small flourish and pointing the tip at Mizuki. There was a sudden flare of crimson arcane energy that began at her hands and flowed along the spear, until it reached the tip, blunting the tip and rolling the blade edge until it was safe to spar with.

Come at me whenever you're ready. And don't you dare go easy on me.

@Ueno Mizuki

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

It looked like Cleo was more presentable than before, with her clothes having dried up somewhat, whereas Mizuki was even wetter than before now that she'd bathed. Trying to dry herself off wouldn't work either, as the drizzle was still ongoing. The huntress would just have to make do, especially since she didn't want to keep Cleo waiting any longer.

With Cleo's assent, the two of them moved away from the river, walking across the grassy fields that extended outwards from the edge of the forest and along the river into the distance. Once there was enough space that they could move freely without any danger of a sudden bath Mizuki would come to a halt and drop into a low stance, her hands almost touching the ground as she nodded at Cleo.

Got it. I'll do my best.

With those words, her expression changed, hardening as she showed her fangs and placed her hands against the ground. After taking a couple of seconds to study Cleo's spear the wolfess suddenly dashed forward, quickly closing the gap between them before suddenly coming to a halt. Putting all her weight on her hands she lashed out with one leg, trying to sweep out the lancer's feet from underneath her.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Facing off against somebody with Mizuki's peculiar style of combat would be interesting, Cleo figured as her hands clenched around the shaft of her spear. It would be like facing a wild animal with the cunning and intellect of a person, which would be a pretty difficult combination to topple. Her only real saving grace was that she'd seen at least a bit of what Mizuki's hand to hand prowess was like, whilst Mizuki had pretty much only ever seen Cleo herself throwing or launching spears. Cleo had just a bit more information to work with.

Though seeing the woman's hardened expression, Cleo's own expression became steel, crimson eyes focused on Mizuki's own mismatched eyes, trying to gauge when and where Mizuki would attack based on where the woman was looking.

It gave her just enough warning to leap backwards when Mizuki dashed forwards and tried to sweep her feet out from under her. She lashed out with her own attack, her spear flicking out to poke the blunted tip into Mizuki's forehead, then she gave the spear another flick, a circular motion aiming to slash out at the neck and torso, which would force Mizuki to backpeddal if she didn't want to tank the hit.

@Ueno Mizuki

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

As Mizuki had expected, it would take more than a quick attack to catch Cleo. The detective was an experienced combatant on Earth and clearly transferred that experience into Terrasphere, even if the rules of combat weren't identical. As her sweeping strike was dodged Mizuki would let the momentum carry her to the side to evade Cleo's counterattack, catching herself with hands and feet after rolling over the ground and quickly getting herself dirty once more.

A light growl escaped her lips as she utilized her greater physical ability to try and circle around the lancer, trying to move faster than Cleo could follow so she wouldn't be able to bring that spear up in time to defend herself. Once she thought she had a good chance she'd push herself up, going from her quadruped stance to a bipedal stance while aiming a fist at Cleo's side, putting her upwards momentum behind the strike.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

There was a flicker of crimson arcane energy from Cleo's eyes as she had to fight off the instinct to project and fire a spear at Ueno to prevent the woman from countering her own counterattack, watching Mizuki leap to the side and land into a roll, then proceeding to try to circle around Cleo. It brought a stab of amusement to Cleo, as she recalled doing the exact same thing against Hanno when they had been training with one another. Mizuki had similar instincts to her, then, to try to outmaneuver a more stationary opponent.

This experience did mean that she was prepared enough to bring the shaft of her spear up to block the punch that had been aimed at her side, the force pushing her up off of her feet, which she used to hop backwards, letting go of her spear with one hand.

In that free hand, a second, identical spear appeared, as Cleo decided to reveal that she was a dual wielder, a sharp jab flying out with the new, second spear, aimed at Mizuki's chest, whilst the first spear was spun to her side, before lashing out to sweep at Mizuki's feet now that she was on two legs and possibly distracted by avoiding the blow to her chest.

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

Mizuki's own heterochromatic eyes glowed faintly in response to Cleo's, the wolfess taking that glow as a sign that the lancer was getting more serious. Having her blow get blocked, with Cleo even going so far as to use the momentum to create some more distance between the two of them, meant that she was back to square one, except she also had to contend with the attack that Cleo was launching at her in return.

Seeing that her opponent was both jabbing at her chest and trying to sweep her legs Mizuki's first instinct was to dodge backward, but she couldn't allow Cleo to control the space. So instead she took a more daring approach: Pushing herself from the ground she jumped into the air and spun, grabbing the spear that was aimed at her chest and pulling on it to try and drag Cleo forward even as her feet came down in a double heel kick that would hit both of the lancer's shoulders if not avoided or blocked.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Rather than just allow Mizuki to tug the two of them closer together, Cleo pushed forwards with the tug that Mizuki had given her, even as both of her attacks missed, her spear planting itself firmly in the ground as Mizuki surged up and prepared to bring both feet down, heels aiming for Cleo's shoulders. It would be difficult to block them, but she had one plan left.

She gripped the spear that she had planted into the ground, using her upper body strength to pull her feet off of the floor and use the spear as a pole to swing her own body around, just narrowly avoiding the heel kick as she span around her spear, before planting her feet again, wrenching the tip out of the ground in a spray of mud and dirt.

A twirl brought the tip up and around to point at Mizuki, whilst she thrust it at the beastkin wolfess, aiming to drive it into the space between Ueno's shoulder blades.

@Ueno Mizuki

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

Mizuki was surprised at the speed with which Cleo managed to react to her attack, as well as the physical ability required to spin herself around the spear. A part of her wondered if maybe the lancer was enhancing her reaction time with Chronomancy, as she had suggested before, but she figured it was just a testament to the redhead's fighting ability.

With her attack having missed both her feet landed on the ground and sensing that Cleo was coming at her from behind Mizuki lowered herself further until she was on all fours once more, allowing the lancer's strike to pass far overhead. Twisting her body as if she was breakdancing Mizuki would support her weight with both hands and one foot. The other foot was now lashing out towards Cleo, the huntress trying to plant her toes squarely in the lancer's stomach. If it wasn't for the extra balance she got from her tail such a move would have been reckless, but there were some advantages to having a fifth limb.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Her attack sailing right over Mizuki made Cleo frown, for the split second she had to feel bad about it before Mizuki launched another attack, using her hands and one foot to support herself whilst lashing out with her other foot. It was reminiscent of a martial art that Cleo had seen before, Capoeira, otherwise known as breakdance fighting. It used a lot of similar motions, such as using the hands and a foot to spring off of the ground to give a kick extra force.

Cleo grit her teeth, bringing her other spear to defend against the kick, though she still could only gasp as Mizuki's kick split the shaft and drove into her stomach. She'd taken enough of the force out of it with her defense to not be instantly winded, but she did groan as she noticed her HP bar deplete slightly, backpedalling with the force that had been given to her through the kick, dropping both halves of her snapped spear as they began to break apart into arcane energy.

She lashed across horizontally with her remaining spear, aiming for the ground, rather than Mizuki herself, to send a spray of dirt, grass and mud at the beastkin to distract her, whilst she brought her spear around again for another, vertical slash.

@Ueno Mizuki

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

Mizuki could both feel and see how her foot managed to pierce through the shaft of Cleo's spear before striking the lancer in the stomach, but she could also tell that the blow wasn't deep enough to disable her sparring partner. Sure enough, rather than being slowed down by the strike the redhead responded quickly. The huntress was picking up a pattern where Cleo preferred to let any blows that struck her push her backward rather than taking the full impact, which was an effective method of minimizing the damage she took as long as she didn't have to deal with several opponents at once and had enough space to move about.

She quickly spun around to try and resume the assault, but the spray of dirt and mud made her flinch and bring up an arm to protect her eyes. Her ears twitched as she heard the whistling of Cleo's staff coming at her from above, and even with her vision still obscured she brought her other arm up to block the strike even as she kicked herself away from the ground, propelling herself forward and straight at Cleo in an attempt to tackle her.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Her attempt at distracting Mizuki and forcing her to protect her face and eyes was a success, though Mizuki had managed to notice the attack descending down towards her hear, the shaft of the spear colliding with Mizuki's arm, a meaty 'thwack' sounding out as the weapon and the limb made contact, though Cleo was left to deal with Mizuki kicking away from the ground and launching straight at the lancer in a tackle attempt. The agent could only grit her teeth, planting her foot and pushing off to launch herself to the side.

Except that was the exact moment that the muddy ground beneath her foot decided to surrender, the lancer slipping and stumbling, unable to make any other moves to defend herself before Ueno's full force and body weight slammed into her.

She tried to roll with the momentum, at the very least, hoping that she could position Mizuki underneath her and place the tip of her spear at Mizuki's throat in a last ditch effort to win as the two rolled in the mud.

@Ueno Mizuki