Life at Windian High (Part 2)




Frank, Kate, and Chris were currently making their way into Colosseum, chatting amongst themselves about the upcoming fight Frank was currently preparing for. Other then his fight against Kate in the Colosseum, Frank hadn't set foot on the sandy grounds of the fighting arenas, and that incident seemed like a lifetime ago. Frank was a formidable fighter, that was no secret, but everyone seemed to agree that it was best to make sure he was well trained for his upcoming challenge. It was one thing to fight when your life is at stake, Tellka often liked to point out, which was the sort of fighting Frank was often used to doing. It was another thing entirely for a person to actually fight against someone else without having a real reason to. Besides, fighting in the arenas was different then many of the all out fights Frank had been apart of. There were certain limitations that he might or might not have to face, like Null Magic arenas, or being limited on how many items he'd be allowed to use during a fight to recover. And well, like with all things, it was just best to be practiced and prepared for the situation.

"Tellka said she'd meet us in the usual spot." Kate's tail waved about lightly as she walked with her friends. The 'usual spot' she was refering to was the training room that Tellka liked to reserve for Kate's fighting lessons. The three made their way through the large building and finally into the practice room where Tellka had been practicing a few moves against her shadow. The older woren's ears twitched just slightly and she turned as she heard the three enter.

"Kate, Frank. About time you got here." She noted Chris and raised an eyebrow at the woren.

"Chris wants to help me out as well." Frank started to explain. "Give me some training tips, things like that. So," the Persona User seemed eager to get started. "What's todays lesson?"

"Well Frank, honestly?" Tellka shouldered her staff, tail flicking lightly behind her. "I'm taking you shopping."

Frank did something of a double take. "What? Shopping?"

Tellka nodded. "Seriously Frank. Look at yourself. You're not at all dressed to fight, let alone practice well." The fighter shook her head. "So I'm taking you out shopping. There's a nice armory that gives discounts to Colosseum fighters." She motioned with a nod of her head to Kate. "It's where I got her outfit from."

"Alright then," Frank just shrugged. "Shopping it is."


Tellka, Frank and Kate all entered the armory shop together. Chris had declined to come along, mentioning that Diane was still at the Reverse Edge and there were a few more things they wanted to go over, but be sure to let him know any time Frank was going to practice and he'd tag along to help. For now, however, Tellka was dragging Frank about the armory shop much like she'd done to Kate when she first get her a Colosseum outfit. It wasn't more then five minutes into their arrival and Tellka already managed to load up Frank's arms with various items to try on. Frank was glancing over what the woren fighter handed him and a small frown appeared on his face. Tellka looked over from where she was currently going over a display full of gloves and gave Frank a curious look.

"What?"

"Where's the kevlar?" Frank glanced over a few more item in the store. "That's what I usually wear..."

Tellka just stopped and stared at the Persona User for a moment. "Kevlar? Frank..." The woren rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Look, you're fighting in a Torana colosseum against a Torana native using Torana weapons... you're going to wear Torana armor!"

"... I totally forgot." The Persona User shook his head. "And to think, I told you back in Lunarvale that kevlar can only stop bullets, nothing more..."

"Right. Now then," Tellka went back to hunting through the store, pulling out more and more items as she handed them to Frank. "You'll need to try this and this and this and oh, one of these..."

"Um... Tellka?" Frank's voice was slightly muffled under the pile of armor in his arms. "Aren't we over doing it?"

Tellka paused and looked over at Frank, ears twitching thoughtfully. "You know, I think you're right." She turned and lead Frank quickly over to another part of the store. "I've been focusing far too much on the different sort of belts you could use and completely forgot about the other accessories."

Kate giggled as she heard Frank groan and watched the two head off to another part of the store. She smiled to herself, remembering what it was like when Tellka first brought her here. It was basically the same thing Frank was having to go through. The young woren began to look around curiously. Although she wasn't honestly too interested in fighting, parts of Tellka were rubbing off on her and she was finding it a bit more interesting to glance around armor and weapon shops for anything she knew how to use. The woren spotted the display of gloves that Tellka was looking at and headed over, examining them. Being a claw user herself, and generally working with hand to hand combat, Tellka was always stressing the importance of finding just the right gloves to Kate. The woren's gaze skipped to another display case where various claws could be seen, and she made her way over to look at those instead.

"You use those things?"

Kate let out a startled yelp as the deep female voice suddenly sounded behind her, and she spun around to see a woren girl about her age, dark orange fur with thin, black stripes, sitting on another display case. The woren watched her through deep, shining brown eyes, and Kate couldn't help but note the black streaks in her otherwise red hair. There was something about her that seemed rather wild, maybe it was the way her tail waved slowly back and forth as she seemed to size Kate up, or just the fact that one long canine could be seen sticking down from the corner of her mouth, but there was definitly a very wild aura about her that even Kate could sense. Silence lingered between the two for a little while longer before the stranger spoke again.

"You don't wanna use claws. You should try those instead." She motioned with a nod of her head towards a display of various knuckle weapons. Some steal, some spiked, others fancy looking and marked with strange carvings. The strange woren's tail continued to wave back and forth slowly as she grinned, one side of her lip raising up higher then the other to expose even more of her long fang. "People say they're really similar, but I say it's the difference between just slappin' someone and actually punchin' them in the face."

Kate just blinked. She wasn't at all sure what to think of the new woren. There was a sudden noise from nearby and both looked over as the store owner, a burly looking man with a large moustache, came walking out from the back room, looking slightly annoyed. "Rin!" He bellowed out loudly. "Stop messing around and get back to work!"

The woren girl's ears lowered for a moment, and she turned to Kate, flashing her a quick grin before she hopped up, standing on the display case, and then with a quick leap, vanished behind a rack of vests. Kate just stared at the spot where she vanished.

"Something wrong?" Tellka came walking up, Frank following behind her.

"Huh?" Kate turned to her guardian and her boyfriend, ears twitching lightly before she smiled. "No, I'm alright. Was just... um... talking to someone?" She raised an eyebrow curiously, it's not like they were actually talking...

Tellka just shook her head. "Well anyway, we've finally settled on an outfit so we're done here. There's still some time," Tellka glanced out the window, "so we can get some quick practicing in before I let you both go."

Kate nodded, and with one last glance to try and spot Rin, she followed Frank and Tellka to the counter as they paid and then headed out of the shop.


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