Do Not Be Afraid
(Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0LNpZdPuDY )
A red-haired woman in a suit and an American student of hers take a walk around Shiketsu's campus on an early October afternoon. By no means is this an unusual occurrence, as the Japanese teacher knew Sally clammed up even more when she was shoved into an office.
"McCathy-San, I wanted to ask about your naps during lunch," the woman says in a kind voice tinged with sympathy.
"I-I..." Sally stammers, thinking her lunchtime naps in the various girls restrooms around Shiketsu had been well hidden. If Rosethorn knew, then all those looks from Hoge meant the ninja bug knew too.
"And I wanted to suggest a better place to nap if you really need the rest. I'll tell Weber-san to let you have one of the beds to rest on in the nurse's office if you'd like," says the woman as she brushes her blazing locks behind her right ear, a gesture mimicked by Sally with her own voluminous head of dark brown hair tied up into its usual loose ponytail.
"...Why are you helping me nap? I didn't even get to nap when I went to school in America," Sally says, her stiff Japanese caged in lingering suspicion of her sensei.
"Because I understand how difficult things can be, going to a school as demanding as Shiketsu, and I get the feeling you still don't trust me for whatever reason," Rosethorn says as she sits on a bench on the edge of campus, the setting sun making Sally look toward the woman or at the ground.
"I... I just don't want to look weak or needy..." Sally mutters, speaking in a lower tone.
"I heard some kids think I'm Noah's... bodyguard and that he's some princess in a boy's uniform. They're making fun of me like some butch lesbian freak..."
"And you think putting on a strong front will stop that?"
Sally looks up at her for a moment before her paranoid side kicks in again. The wind picks up some fallen leaves, which Sally's eyes follow as she tries to avoid the woman's kind eyes. "...It just helps to avoid it; gives me an hour to dream that I'm at home, not getting stared at like an animal out of its cage... They run off whenever I try to tell them to stop... I guess... people are scared of me, as they should, I guess."
"Do you want people to be afraid of you or to love you?"
"...I want to be loved and trusted, but it's... not something I can do. I'm some rough, vulgar, dirty American here, not a person you want to be seen with. Besides, the more they would get to know, the more they'd be right."
Rosethorn adopts a worried look as she looks at the shrinking Sally, her legs drawn together and her back hunched over. Self-deprecation was not her usual way of talking; quite the opposite happened when she had to do group work and valiantly did her best with her limited functional Japanese. She wasn't always successful in articulating herself, but she was learning fast enough to need a tutor less than she did in the summer. She looks away from the girl, giving her space to pity herself.
"McCathy-san, You are amazing for doing as well as you are on such short notice! Think of it like playing baseball with one arm. You're having to swing the bat and hit with split attention and pitch with less accuracy. The fact you can hit the ball at all is something that makes you a good student, even if it gets caught and you get struck out more often than not."
Sally looks up, trying to process the sports metaphor, as Rosethorn continues. "I know you're more than a scary reaper, McCathy-san. You have to put in double the work everyone else does, yet you can still smile sometimes in class, and you can still find time to make friends amongst the class. I know your peers trust you; you just have to trust in their trust."
"But... what if it's all fake?" Sally says as she looks up toward the woman.
"If you keep thinking like that, you'll never find a good answer to that question. It's okay to show your feelings a little bit, okay?"
Sally looks up toward the tall teacher, absorbing the words and nodding.
"And if it helps, we did that all in Japanese. You're getting much, much better, McCathy-San," the teacher says with a wink as she pats Sally on the head and stands up to leave.
The two wave goodbye, Sally not immediately heading home to her own pocket of familiar comforts that was her apartment, instead taking a hike up to Mitsurugi Dojo.
(Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS1p0CMqo5E )
Sally closes her eyes as Chihiro adjusts her stance, taking deep, paced breaths. As much as Majectic was good at teaching her how to make the most of quirk (much to her begrudging respect toward the glory hound), she was never trained to fight at close range, except for a boy in middle school once giving her a boxing lesson as the worst first date ever.
Chihiro was strict and quiet as she observed the American's stance while Orochi and Hoge took a short break. Sally was usually a rambunctious student who couldn't stand to sit around or do the slower parts of swordplay, yet she stood very still today. The short samurai adjusts Sally's elbows and feet and corrects her grip on the practice sword. The sword autist took a moment to observe her breathing. It was slower than normal, as if trying to force a calm and collected attitude.
"McCathy-San, I've made adjustments," Chihiro says quietly as Sally opens her eyes.
The Gun Nun would have usually broken her stance and found a dummy to start swinging at, but instead she held it. "Is it still correct?" she says to the sword sensei.
'She's holding her posture, as if she expects an attack. Wise,' Chihiro muses to herself as she nods to the foreigner.
"Chihiro, I wanted to admit something to you," Sally says in a solemn tone.
"I'm glad you still let me train here, even if I'm far behind Hoge and Orochi," she says with her attempt at a grateful tone.
"You've gotten better. After you came with Atsushi-san, I expected you to not return."
The two look at each other for a bit before Sally breaks the silence. "Would... you honor me with a rematch?"
Chihiro looks at her student and nods, retrieving her own practice sword as she prepared to test what she had been trying for weeks to instill in Sally: the very basics of fighting with a blade. To keep space, balance, and position in mind instead of blindly swinging like she previously did.
The two bow toward each other as Chihiro moves in slowly, noticing Sally's eyes. They're focused, like when she's in the training gym blasting targets with her quirk and deaf to the world around her. A good sign that she is applying a similar rigor to her lessons at the dojo. Chihiro makes the first strike, a swipe from the right to test if Sally had simply spaced out, a test she passes with a light block that knocks the shorter girl's wooden blade away from her side while she moves a centimeter out of striking range.
Chihiro humors her with a strike from the left, one that Sally uses her sword to block and cover her movement to Chihiro's right-hand side. She attempts to bring her blade down on the girl's head, but quickly finds the energy reversed into her stumbling backward and Chihiro already making quick steps to capitalize on her being out of position. This was usually where the pairs matches ended, with Sally trying some stupid, desperate attack that only made Chihiro's strike an assured hit.
Today, however, was different. Sally stood strong, observing the charging little girl's blade, managing a clumsy block, forcing it away, and attempting a quick counter-attack on her shoulder, only for the American's blade to be deflected in a flash and for Chihiro to hover her sword over Sally's neck.
Sally takes deep breaths, tired out from both her school day and the training session. As Chihiro lowers her blade, the American has a weary smile when she realizes she got a bit further than she usually does. She bows to her sensei and says, "Thank you. I... I really appreciate you teaching me, Chihiro."
Sally notices a slight smile grace the little teacher's lips; her red eyes looking away at the trees through the dojo's screens for a moment. She returns the expression and gives her a bow as Hoge and Orochi return from getting water. The four enjoy a mutual break, with Chihiro speaking about some of the students she met in 1-E who went to an amusement park with her and Hoge.
Sally begrudgingly walks with Orochi and Hoge back to the train station after she has changed back into her brown plaid skirt and sweater. Hoge's ridiculous shoes made Sally want to wisecrack about why she wears carpenter's scraps, but she caught her tongue at the last moment. However, the first character of that thought was uttered aloud. The two others turned to the quiet Gun Nun, waiting for her to finish her thought.
When she did not, Hoge sighed. "{What are trying to say? Maybe we can help,}" she said in her usual expressionless English, with Orochi simply giving a more encouraging nod.
"I was curious about your... shoes," Sally says, not having the vocabulary to accurately describe Hoge's tengu geta.
Hoge sighs. "{They are to work on my balance, and they are called ge-ta. It's just a one-toothed version of what those kabuki actors wore.}"
"There is more to it, Sally-chan, if you want to take a dip in the pool of Shinto mysticism," Orochi says with a playful tone.
"...Fine, I'll listen," Sally says, surprising both of them, who expected her usual prattling about not wanting to hear of pagan practices.
"In the ancient times of Japan, its mountains were home to long-nosed winged spirits of mischievous or arrogant men who dwelled in trees and played potentially deadly pranks on those who dared to pass through their mountains. They were also spirits of great military skill, teaching famous samurai the knowledge needed to become legends," Orochi says in a storyteller's tone, clearly trying to be funny over informative.
"So they're like wendigos?" Sally asks, causing Orochi to smile and Hoge to pinch the bridge of her nose.
"{Wendigos and native American monsters which eat people. Tengu are noble pranksters. Simply because they dwell in similar places does not make comparable to barbaric monsters from your home,}" Hoge chides, though she clearly finds some enjoyment in correcting Sally.
"I mean, she's got something of a point, Nyoro-chan. Though I wonder if there's any myths about wendigo spiriting children away to be taught as pupils as the tengu did," Orochi says.
Sally walks a bit closer to the group, even her hated rival Nyoro Hoge, as they head home and chat about Japanese folkloric creatures. The three even share some laughs at each other's dramatized retellings of stories they heard when they were kids.
For a moment, Sally finds herself just hanging out with people she can almost call friends, even by her paranoid standards. Not worrying about her investigation, her temper, or who's watching. It's a relief, like fishing in a lazy river with new friends.