2014-08-14 - Cutscene - 365 Days

Two women sit in lotus on a tatami. They look similar, to anyone who studied their facial features. No-one does; they are alone. No-one would dare interrupt this conference, and Cassandra Cain is taking it very, very seriously. She says nothing, having been to speak not a word until the training is ended. Both are naked.

Lady Shiva instructs Cassandra Cain to keep her eyes open. Her sharp, surprisingly familiar voice becomes Cassandra's world, and the hope of regaining her abilities focuses her better than any distraction.

"Watch my stomach move for now. Ignore everything but that, and my voice. Match your breathing to mine, watch my stomach. Take whatever time you need. Good. Continue.

"Now, look at my throat. Watch here, my artery. The heartbeat. Follow it, slowly. Match your heartbeat to my own. Close...there. Continue. Do not let it change."

"I will perform moves without the wasted motion of actually doing them, and you will see nothing but the movements before the action begins.

"Look here, in my shoulder. Watch it. The motion, as I begin to move in a punch. The small motion. Match to my heartbeat again, you are off. There. Now, the shoulder. The motion, as I lift. I turn the hand to the left. There, in the stomach. Yes, there.

"The heartbeat in the arm, here. You see it. Good. See how it slows. Match to that heartbeat. The shoulder tenses, watch there. Yes, in the shoulders. The hands move last, look in the core, the body. Look in my eyes. I move left, watch the eyes. The small motion as the muscle pulls the eyes left.

You see the arms begin to lift, the heartbeat speed just enough for a block. Good. The legs tense, to begin to slide left, to try and avoid your attack. %R%RLook up at the head, the shift of the neck just before I would try to jump. Muscles preparing to move, the balance shifts forward to let me begin a backflip.

Here, the arms lift to catch at the end of the flip. The feet prepare to slide out, catching my balance. The stomach is tensed, good, I saw that strike that wanted to come out of you, when my guard was low. The arm comes across to block, you see the shoulder. No, the shoulder.

My eyes fake left, but the ...yes, the hip betrays the kick. Again, the hip, you can not see it. There, yes. Now you see it. Finally. Who taught you to wince at a simple kick to the face? Oh, it wasn't the kick? My comment. Too bad. Match my heartbeat!

Good. We will start over. Shut up, I will have no whining.

Cassandra was sweating all over, but did not notice that Lady Shiva had stopped speaking vocally some time ago. The training continued, and her brain kept finding the old connections...