ITO AKEMI | 2nd | GRAVITY+/-
Akemi held in the urge to yank her hand from Himawari's. The girl was bold, and maybe a bit jarring. Akemi didn't mind boldness, but she'd never experienced anyone as quickly accepting as Himawari seemed to be, and it simply surprised her.
Shaking off the initial repulsion of being violently hugged, talked to, and then taken by the hand to run, Akemi started memorizing the halls and staircases, noting every possible route of escape, and mapping the place in her head. It being a construction of Lycoris and Hollyhock nature meant that there was going to be a lot more to it than met the eyes. The safe houses Akemi stayed in alway had several forms of escape, and about a million different hiding places. Of course, none of them would be obvious, so Akemi made a mental note to explore the place on her own when no one would be awake. She didn't sleep much, so that wouldn't be a problem.
Akemi almost pulled one glove off to let herself float behind Himawari. The girl was fast. She wondered how Himawari had managed to stay so cheerful, given their line of work.
Stepping into the center of the space, and taking a moment to analyze it with sharp, trained senses. With a deep inhale, she took Himawari by the shoulders and moved her to the side of the room.
"You don't seem to be the type with a fear of heights. Tell me if I'm wrong, though." She said, walking back to the center.
Her heart always raced a bit when she had to remove her gloves, and this moment was no different. She squeezed both hands once before pulling the leather garments off and tucking them into the pocket of her pants, stretching her bare hands at her sides and secretly enjoying the feeling of air hitting her skin. Her hands were slender, but strong. They had callouses and scars from years of training and actual fights. Three of the fingers on her left hand were bandaged, the tips of them achey from having lost the fingernails on a recent mission. She cringed at the thought of it, and then shook herself free of nerves as she briefly reciting a simple line of meditation. Regardless of the context of a situation, if she was going to be using her ability, she recited the line. She had to, otherwise she felt off balance.
Taking hold of her katana's sheath in her right hand, and the hilt in her left, Akemi inhaled. On her exhale, she drew her blade with a terrifying and silent speed. Her target was one of the humanoid dummies sitting stationary on the other side of the room. The moment her blade touched the air, there was the sound of her clothes ruffling. No sound of racing footsteps as she moved in to attack the stationary dummy. Just a rustle of clothes, the sound of metal slicing through canvas and sand, and the thud of the dummy hitting the ground, split into two clean halves. One moment she was at the center of the room, the next, she was standing on the ceiling above and behind the dummy. To a well-trained eye, one would've seen her lunge forwards, and fall towards her target, and then push herself up into the air gently before landing on the ceiling. Her hair and clothes didn't hang down as it should've been while standing upside down. She looked composed, as if she were standing upright on the ground. But for Akemi, the ceiling washer ground.
Akemi glanced over to Himawari, sheathing her blade and remaining on the ceiling.
"Gravity manipulation." She stated, as if it were obvious.