Between A Shell And A Hard Place

[Kami-Gaz]

How long had it been since Rakka had last seen Rosie in a one on one conversation? Weeks? Months? He hadn’t really been in that situation since that one night when they sat by the fire and watched the stars and talked about dreams and goals. It was one of Rakka’s favourite memories of being a marine so far. Just that quiet night and a pair talking to try and weasel out their energy so they could be tired enough to sleep.

Now Rakka was going to do something he would never normally do… he was going to ask for help… ask to be trained. He knew that Rosie had used one of the Rokushiki, she had done it on his first day in the division. It was during the training fight… She nullified his clothes line, her sturdiness had thrown him off of his balance and sent him reeling. That was what he needed. He wanted to get stronger and tougher so what happened with the Red Card Pirates will never happen again.

The marine recruit took in a sharp breath and knocked on the door to Rosalyn’s office, waiting for some kind of response before sliding it open and stepping in. As he closed it behind him, he let his eyes rest on his Commanding officer and smiled warmly. Her dream was so similar to his own mothers it reminded him of her in a sweet way.

“Ensign Lovelace… I have a request…” He spoke in an unsure tone… was asking for help always this daunting? “Please can you teach me Tekkai?” Her asked before taking his Stetson off and pressing it to his chest before bowing low.

[Fox]

It was a quiet morning for once. Captain Hertz and Lieutenant Kurt had left her in charge of things while they were away on business. Her recruits were training and recuperating after their run in with pirates. That debacle had been the last thing that had happened while Captain Vaun was here, and he had yelled and raised hell at whoever thought it was a good idea to have recruits out on patrol. One of the other officers. Rosie, herself, didn’t disagree with the recruits getting field experience, but not without an officer’s supervision.

A knock at her door made her look up from the mounds of paperwork that she’d been left with after that incident. She uttered a barely interested ‘Come in’ before looking back down to the forms she was filling out in triplicate. It was Rakka. He smiled at her sweetly like a child would to a relative. She just glanced up after finishing the latest page and fixed him with a patient stare.

He had come to ask her to train him. A rare request, since Rakka often seemed confident in his own abilities. Oftentimes overconfident, if you asked her. His near death experience had probably humbled him a little. “Very well,” she replied with a soft sigh, pushing herself up from her desk, “I could use a break from all this paperwork.”

Walking around her desk, Rosie didn’t bother with her officer’s jacket - which was hanging off the back of her chair. In fact, she even took off her shirt, which was the standard Marine white and blue. Underneath was a black tank top. Training with Rakka was messy, she had learned, and thus did not care to ruin her good clothes. She’d have to hit the showers afterward anyway.

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Rosie | Pale Pink #fad7f6 | Post Count: 1

[Kami-Gaz]

As he waited for the pink haired woman to respond the Marine felt that pit deep in his stomach. What would he do if she said no? Would he need to keep asking? Do some meaningless tasks to make Rosie happy? She was not best pleased with the state he had gotten into during the Night Patrol Incident. He had been near death and spent quite some time recovering and was now jumping straight into more training… and this was quite vigorous.

“Very Well” She said, making the soft smile break into a massive grin on the young recruit as he struggled to contain his excited energy. Something that he was still working on as he had made it his personal mission to become a real badass like his mum always was… just in his own way.

“Thank you Rosie!” He announced as he spun around on the spot and almost went in for a hug against the woman but chose not to at the very last second. He had to maintain that Rosie was not family, she was a superior officer, despite that she had taken a very motherly role in his life since he received the news of his own mum’s passing. News that upset him but that was something he didn’t show to the others in the division just yet, not even Reynard.

“I won’t be using my devil fruit..” The marine muttered, noticing what Rosie was doing. It had become widely known now within the 22nd that any sort of training with Rakka was always a messy affair. He altered the Stetson that sat on his head and looked over the woman. “Won’t you be cold walking to the training room like that?” He asked, a curious tilt to his head.

[Fox]

“You will,” Rosie responded simply to Rakka’s mutterings. She had a few ideas on how he could best apply Tekkai in its most rudimentary form. Opening the door, the piercing cold blasted her skin and made it tingle. The obvious answer to Rakka’s question was, yes, she would be cold. Rosie took off at a jog, using the motion to keep her body warm. It was part of her own training regimen. While her Zoan form could take the edge off the cold, it wasn’t especially adapted to it.

It was a fairly short jog down to the training room. There were two sections. Indoor and outdoor. Indoor was more comfortable, and where they were going to be training this first time. Once Rakka had gotten the hang of it, they could do more practical exercises outside. Outside was likely where they would be fighting any invading Revolutionaries, after all.

Stepping inside and brushing off some snowflakes off her shoulders, Rosie stretched while Rakka trailed in behind her. Tekkai was strenuous on one’s muscles. It was a good idea to stretch before and after. Rolling her shoulders, Rosie finished up her brief stretching routine and addressed Rakka properly.

“Alright. Let’s begin. Tekkai is the hardening of all your muscles in your body. It will immobilize you. So let’s begin with something small. Clench your fists as hard as you can and hold them out to me.”

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Rosie | Pale Pink #fad7f6 | Post Count: 2

[Kami-Gaz]

The young marine shifted his balance and followed his CO out into the harsh cold of Tequila Wolf, despite wearing his thick jacket he was still chattering his teeth in moments. How was Rosie walking through this with no real issue? The rumours some of the other recruits were sharing must have been true. She had to have been a cyborg with a central heating system. It would explain why Reynard said she was ‘Hot’.

He had missed her comment about the fruit, the biting wind already muffling all sounds that weren’t raised voices. Despite it being earlier in the day the sun had still not really shown itself to the world here, this meant the base was mainly lit by shielded lanterns that were muffled by the falling snow.

When the pair got into the training room and the door was shut the young marine instantly threw his jacket on to the nearby hoot and carefully placed his hat on top of that. As he turned around, he caught Rosie’s speech about what Tekkai is. Hardened muscles? That shouldn’t be too hard, he had loads of those.

“Okay!” He replied as he clenched his fists and squeezed as hard as he could to tighten his muscles in his wrist and forearm. Once he was confident, he raised them forth and wiggled his arms slightly. “Like this?” He asked wanting to get praise from his superior.

[Fox]

Rosie stepped forward and gently squeezed the muscle between two fingers. It was flexed, certainly, but not hardened. She shook her head and took a step back. Perhaps a demonstration was in order. With a deep breath, Rosie hardened all of her muscles at once. She’d mastered a technique called Tekkai Kenpo, which allowed her to move while still hardening her muscles. She held out her arm to Rakka.

“This is what you’re aiming for,” she stated, allowing him to feel her arm and the muscles therein. “What I am doing is an advanced application of Tekkai called Tekkai Kenpo. It allows the user to move while performing Tekkai. Do not attempt this until we get your fundamentals down.”

Rosie doubted that she needed to tell Rakka that, but he was a little bit of an overachiever. Which meant that sometimes he got well in over his head.The night patrol incident had proved that much. Once Rakka was done feeling her arm, Rosie relaxed and nodded to him.

“Try it again now, but with your whole body.”

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Rosie | Pale Pink #fad7f6 | Post Count: 3

[Kami-Gaz]

As his hands were inspected Rakka’s stomach took a pit again. Was he doing it right? Could he even perform Tekkai? So many doubts and questions flew through his head before Rosie backed up and visibly stiffened in front of the young man. Then she did what Tekkai uses train for a very long time to do. She moved.

“Hard not tense?” He asked absent minded as he brought a hand up and felt at her arm and squeezed, there was an immense resistance to his gentle touch. In a moment of wonder he applied as much of his inhuman strength that his grip could manage trying to make the muscle budge. When he was confident, he understood what was going on he pulled his hands back and stepped back as well.

“Whole Body… Okay, here goes!” The Marine announced as he took a defensive stance and then took in a deep sharp breath and used his immense strength as a bulwark instead of a means to attack. He tensed his muscles again and hoped that this would help in the hardening.

“Okay…” He managed to wheeze out between clenched teeth.

[Fox]

Rosie walked around Rakka, fixing his stance with slight adjustments as he was tensing up. A nudge here. A poke here. And then he tensed up again. Rosie poked him a few times as she circled back around to his front. He didn’t have it, but that was to be expected. Tekkai training was a grueling and painful affair. Rosie had done it on her own with a little ingenuity, but that didn’t mean that she hadn’t sported bruises for it.

She nodded once and then quickly took an aggressive stance while Rakka was distracted with trying to hold his own stance. Her fist shot straight into his stomach with full force. She wasn’t wearing her gauntlets, or it would have hurt more. She also wasn’t trying to break his ribs, so she avoided doing anything that would break him outright. That said, a punch like this would send a lesser person flying.

“Tekkai means Iron Body,” Rosie said as she followed up with a knee thrust into Rakka’s chest and a push kick. “It means you are unmovable. Blows like this should be stopped dead in their tracks. And you should not feel a thing.”

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Rosie | Pale Pink #fad7f6 | Post Count: 4

[Kami-Gaz]

Rakka stood there in perfect stillness, his entire body clenched up and holding a position. The look on Rakka’s face was priceless. He looked as if he was holding in a massive fart as if his life was depending on it. The scrunched-up wrinkles in his cheeks had a sharp line to them. He felt fairly stupid and was not entirely sure this was working.

That was when it came from outta nowhere. An ungauntleted fist socked the still bandaged Marine in the stomach, pushing into his gut and making him lose his wind. In an instant the young marine keeled over, leaning forwards and holding his stomach as he coughed and spluttered. The knee thrust with a follow up kick seemed unneeded as he stumbled back and hit the deck. “Ow…” He wheezed out.

It took a moment for him to catch his breath as he listened to Rosie’s explanation. It was right, but attacking him without warning was mean… he was lucky she aimed for a spot that had the least bandages. “Ohhh Kaay.” The recruit wheezed again, his breath returning to him now. With the energy he could muster Rakka stood up tall and clenched again turning his strength into defence. “Again!” He grunted, ready for the attack and damn sure he would put his all into stopping it.

[Fox]

Rosie raised an eyebrow as he wheezed out an acknowledgement without honorifics. That was going to cost him. She wouldn’t break his ribs again though. That would be a bit excessive. She was just going to make this next attack really hurt. Rosie geared up, transforming into her hybrid mode and whirling around. Rakka was likely expecting another attack to his gut, but Tekkai was a full body technique, so she opted for something a little more unorthodox.

"Okay...?" she trailed off expectantly, not pausing to allow Rakka to correct himself.

Her thick plated tail slammed into Rakka’s side with incredible force, though it was distributed over a wider surface area. That meant, while it would hurt everywhere, it wouldn’t inflict serious damage. She intended on following through with her tail to knock him off his feet, however, if he couldn’t manage to stop her. She’d forgive a little sliding on these smooth wooden floors.

“Schwanzpeitsche!”

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Rosie | Pale Pink #fad7f6 | Post Count: 5

[Kami-Gaz]

The young marine watched as Rosie wound up for the attack and turned into her hybrid form. It was a great shock to see her spin and whip her tail around at his stomach. He barely had time to register question before the tail slammed into his side with an immense force that despite his best effort forced him to crumple and wrap around it. The hit was harder than he had expected and he still was no where near totally healed from his thrashing on the Night Patrol Incident.

He had achieved some form of Tekkai, but it was not good enough to reinforce his entire body to a hit like that… not yet anyway. At the height of the hit he uncrumpled from around the tail and landed back on his feet, skidding across the floor for a short distance. When he stopped he dropped to his knees and held his side.

“OWWW!” He finally released when his breath caught back up to him. “Not good enough!” He chided to himself before standing with shakey legs, holding the side where the tail had slammed into him. The young marine used his other hand to pull the Stetson back onto his head after it had flown off and landed nearby.

“How did you crack it? How did you figure out how to use Tekkai?” He asked, smiling through the pain with a clenched jaw. He was hoping Rosalyn would start talking and that would give him a few moments to get on top of the pain he was feeling… if he could just forget about the pain for a bit he could focus on the technique.

[Fox]

Rosie reverted to her normal form and walked over to Rakka, looking the boy over. He managed to pull himself to his feet before she could offer him a hand up. He’d taken that fairly well. Rosie shook her head at him and held up a hand for him to stop. She could tell he was in some serious pain. Going much further would only aggravate his injuries and make them take longer to heal.

“You’ve got the rudiments down. Tekkai grows stronger with practice,” Rosie commented before pausing a moment to consider his question, “Tekkai is not based on your force of will, no matter how great it might be. It is based on your physicality. It grows stronger the stronger your body becomes. Technique is part of it as is proper breathing technique. There’s no secret trick. It is long hours of hard work and pain.”

Rosie moved over to a closet, pulling out a machine that looked a little like a miniature cannon.

“I made this to train myself,” Rosie explained, angling it to the side and triggering the mechanism. A small iron ball shot out and flew about halfway the distance of the training room before bouncing and rolling across the floor. “It can be loaded up with several of these iron balls and will launch them at you. There are different power settings.”

Putting it back into the closet, Rosie walked over to Rakka and tilted her head to the side thoughtfully.

“Why is it that you wish to learn Tekkai in the first place?”

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Rosie | Pale Pink #fad7f6 | Post Count: 6

[Kami-Gaz]

The young recruit shakily stood as he held his still aching side and listened to her explanation. This was a much as the young recruit already knew, he had trained hard to master what he could do now. He had lots of falls and a few broken bones in his youth from his oil sliding going awry. Though hearing all of this coming from Rosie was reassuring, she had a natural defence in her devil fruit and she still found this hard.

With a healthy nod he moved forward to inspect the machine she had made, letting his side go as his inquisitiveness buried the pain he was feeling. Rosie was such a smart person; she made this machine to help train her self in a technique that would have needed someone else… this could be used for hours on end to train faster and harder. Rakka knew he was not all that smart so just this simple machine was mind blowing to him.

“Why is it that you wish to learn Tekkai in the first place?”

Rakka stopped, his mouth drawn to a line as he contemplated what would be a good answer for a moment. “I… I want to be able to fight for longer so I can save more people.” He stated, remembering the night patrol incident and how he was nearly killed. “If I was stronger, could take more hits and keep going I could have done more! Maybe Daniel wouldn’t have had to eat the fruit if I was just better.” He carried on, his signature smile faded.

“It’s my fault it went so badly…”

[Fox]

“Hm, I see,” Rosie said softly, turning away slightly. She considered his words for a long moment before turning back to him and giving him one of her crooked smiles, “Perhaps you are correct about Daniel, but the true fault lies with the officers who thought it was a good idea to take you all on patrol without checking. It was not your fault, so erase that guilt from your mind.”

Rosie lifted Rakka’s chin to look up at her.

“Focus on what you can do better next time. Which, I suppose you are, so I must commend you.”

She ruffled his hair lightly like a parent would do to a child before taking her hand away. She stared off into the middle distance, considering.

“I learned Tekkai to become a shield for you all. You, Reynard, Nora, Daniel. All of you. This is my responsibility as your commanding officer. To nurture the next generation and keep you safe,” Rosie tilted her head down at Rakka, “The world needs more like you. So, depend on me to keep you safe whenever you need help. Understand, Rakka? I’ll always be here for you.”

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Rosie | Pale Pink #fad7f6 | Post Count: 7

[Kami-Gaz]

Hearing the comforting words that Rosie offered did help to cheer the recruit up. Sure, he could have been better in the actual fight but the reason they were there was an offers neglect and failure to consider. It could have been something they’d done loads and had thought that a bunch of recruits doing a standard patrol was a none issue if nothing happened.

The hair ruffling brought a large smile to his face, how long had it been since he had a sign of affection like that? Not since he had last seen his mum…. The smile wavered slightly at that thought but it was something he pushed down and buried again. “I understand.” He replied, beaming up to her and standing a little taller.

“Hit me one more time… I’m ready for it now.” He said softly, he had to be better and it wasn’t about willpower he knew that already it was about being solid, an unmoveable object. The reason he was struggling was because of how he was trained to always be moving, fluid and hard to catch. Now he was ready to stand strong, and be the shield Rosie needed. A shield that the entire division needed so there was never another incident like that again!

He tensed his muscles, made his body solid and ground his teeth, struggling to even speak. “Tekkai!”