𝐈𝐋𝐒𝐄'𝐒 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋.ʜᴀɴᴊɪ ᴢᴏᴇ̈

『 𝟑 』𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐘

𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘, 𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝟑𝟏𝐒𝐓, 𝟖𝟒𝟕 𝐀𝐓 𝟏𝟒:𝟏𝟔

⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺

  The sun beat down its hot rays on your face; there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and as Lance Corporal Levi had said before, "It's a great day for hand-to-hand combat training." It didn't mean that you necessarily liked it, but you supposed that as a soldier in general -let alone one in the Special Operations Squad- you had to do things from time to time that you didn't really want to.

  You glanced to your left, and saw the lance corporal himself training with Gunther, 'He's arguably one of the best at hand to hand combat, so it makes sense that he's training with Levi.' Not too far to your other side was Petra and Oluo, who were currently blocking each other's hits. You tried to keep in a giggle as Petra landed a rather hard hit on the sandy-haired teen, him falling backwards and stumbling a little before attempting to retaliate, 'It's always funny when Petra dominates him,' you thought to yourself, 'Not only because she is always so kind and sweet, but also because it knocks him off his high horse a little.'

  It was as if karma had personally heard your thoughts though -because it wasn't much longer after the thought passed your mind that your own training partner -Eld- punched you in the gut, causing you to wheeze a little.

  Your eyes connected with his golden ones as you momentarily doubled over, and you brought yourself back down to reality; quickly hopping back a little, you wasted no time recovering and instead going into a defensive position as he attempted to hit at your other side. He missed his attack as he underswung his balled fist, and you analysed his face -trying to see if he would unintentionally hint at what his next move would be; recognising that he was rather stone-faced however, you quickly went to his body posture in hopes that there was something there instead.

  You were better at offence, so whenever you saw the opportunity to practise defence, you took it -wanting to better yourself for a possible encounter in the future where you would need it. He stood with his legs parted, his right foot in front of his left, and his fists held before his face, ready to attack or block at a moment's notice -you yourself were in a similar position, the only difference between both of your positions being the height he had over you. He was waiting for your next attack, and you didn't hesitate to take the window of opportunity he provided by taking a step forward, you feigning a hit with your right hand that was curled into a fist and throwing your left one in the direction he went in to avoid your first hit, feeling it collide with the shoulder of his jacket. This time he was the one to take a step back, trying to gain some space in between the both of you -you only shortened the distance though, pressuring him to take a jab of his own at you.

  His blonde hair -that was in a looser bun due to practising- swished around his head as he fell into the pressure, attempting to land a hit on you again. You bit back a smirk as you dodged it almost perfectly, and as you leaned to the side you felt an air blast past your face while you went to attack him, his entire right side left defenceless.

  Well, you would have attacked him if it weren't for the fact that when you turned to do so, he swiftly brought his left leg to your back; effectively ending up with him standing tall and you with your face in the dirt, sliding upon the ground the smallest bit.

  You heard him chuckle a little, laughing as you let out a groan of discontent, "Mmmm, mm mmmmm mm mmm mmmmmmmm." you said in a grumbled retaliation. His eyebrows rose in partial confusion at your words, clearly not being able to understand what you were trying to say, "Huh? What was that, dumb-dumb?" he teased, smiling and using a playful title -one that you both knew held no actual malice, especially since he had called you that multiple times in the past. Sitting yourself up on the ground, you spit out some dirt that managed to find its way into your mouth and wiped at it with your one sleeve, "I said, 'Geez, you didn't have to go all out on me.'"