Training

Noelle is known to be stricter to the rules in her work place. She goes by the rule in almost every aspect. From how to handle the shooting range, to how workers should treat each other in a professional setting.

Of course, there are speculations, gossips, that she is completely different at home. Plenty dismiss this notion, saying that her work ethic must be the same at home or else she would be a hypocrite.

They are almost right. Almost is the keyword.

She is stricter to the rules even at home. However, in her brother, Jace's opinion, she is the laziest person in the world.

Not that he can blame her. She dedicated herself to do more paperwork than necessary for their expenses. She needs the chance to relax and take a break.

Even if it means buying chocolate cakes every weekend.

Jace can only shake his head in amusement as he watches his sister stress eating the chocolate cake. This time it is a mix of chocolate and mango, a surprisingly sweet combination.

At least he only makes sure to buy a piece rather than an entire cake. She is rather subdued this weekend.

"Jace, stop staring at me and get back to the office's gym already." Noelle chides her brother. The man laughs at how serious she sounds but her actions do not reflect it.

"Yeah I know, I'll take the motorcycle." She hears the sound of keys rattling and the starting on an engine to know her brother is leaving. Well, as long as the idiot did not hurt himself on the way it will be fine.

Who is she kidding, he would be a dead man if he isn't fine. They don't have the money to pay for one more hospital bill.

Well, she has no time to worry about anything this weekend. For now she wants to pamper herself with the chocolate cake.

At the road, Jace carefully swerves through the cars at moderate speed. He knows he is technically not following the rules and he is an officer. But this is the weekend, he doesn't need to follow it to the T.

That, and he is excited to help the girl. What's her name? Xeng Ti? Xing Ta? He'll ask her later.

It takes about half an hour to arrive at his destination, which is the Faunus Police Station. Many of his co-workers and comrades greets him with a good day, but the exception few look like they barely slept.

He can't blame them, as the casualty two days ago is at the double digit. Every time a skirmish with the Glitches happens, the casualty count becomes higher. Friends, perhaps even family, are killed in action.

It hurts the city's reputation as a relatively peaceful place for a holiday. The recent attacks have endangered many people's lives, and more gravestones are propping up every attack.

But he pushes the depressing thoughts out of his head. The station hires many therapists to help people cope with the losses. For now, he has to help a certain girl to train her in combat.

Jace made a beeline to the changing room while making plans in his mind. He changed his casual uniform to a workout uniform, consisting of black t-shirt and shorts.

Once it is done, the man leaves the changing room with a towel and a bottle to the gym room in the station. It is not a long journey, but he could see some male and female co-worker give him a 'gaze'.

He internally sighs, still finding it annoying that he is the source of attraction for both genders and more but still not used to it.

Even so, he has a job to do. His commander assigns him to help train the new recruit with combat, to help her catch up to their fellow co-worker's level of skill. It is a tall order, but he is up for the challenge.

He arrives at the gym room and surveys around to find Xing Tian. It isn't easy to find her, as she is not the only one with black hair. But over time he finds her sitting on a bench in a white workout uniform.

"Hey Xeng Ti, been waiting long?"

Xing Tian giggles at the man's attempt to pronounce her name. "It's pronounced as Xing Tian, and I've waited for only a few minutes."

Jace feels a tiny bit of embarrassment creeps in him at his failed attempt. He quickly pushes it away for the task ahead.

"Right, right. Anyway, I'm gonna have to ask you a few questions before we get started. Good?"

She nods and Jace continues. "How experienced are you in hand-to-hand combat?"

"I got into some street fights before to defend myself from robbers during my travels." She shrugs as if it is nothing. "I learned Karate and Taekwondo. But I mostly used Karate for my arms while Taekwondo for my legs."

"So you have an idea how fights are then and you used mixed martial arts in your own way." Jace nods in approval. "Alright, that makes things a little easier. I'm going to help you improve in how you fight then."

Xing Tian's expression brightens at the man. "Does that mean we get to spar?"

Jace cuckles, her excitement seems to be infectious to him. Then again, he can be easily influenced. "Slow down girl. I still have something to tell you. Are you a battle junkie?"

She frantically shakes her head, fidgeting her fingers. "I just… Want to be better at fighting so I can protect people… you know…"

"Well, we're all here to help. Now I have to remind you that our spars won't translate to actual fights with the Glitches."

Confusion and curiosity takes over her, represented by a tilt of the head. "Then why the spars?"

"To develop your game sense." Still confused. "You see, in battles it's more important to be able to change your strategies and style on the fly than sticking to one style. However, for people with one style, how do they do it?"

Xing Tian snaps her finger, feeling enlightened by what direction he is going. "Experience. With experience it creates better game sense. That way they can stick to what they know, but tune it to fit the situation."

Jace is getting excited and giddy over her. Now she gets it. Maybe, to him, being a mentor is something that can be fun. "Bingo. We're here to make you understand when to block, dodge, or effectively take damage."

The girl is now psyching herself up. "Okay, so we can get started now?"

"Let's get to the sparring ring and warm up first. Then we begin sparring."

Both of them make their way to the unoccupied ring and do warm ups. Both of them wear protective gears, ensuring no major injuries will be done to either of them. A few minutes later they got into their individual stances. Jace gets into a boxing stance while Xing Tian gets into the Karate stance, Dachi.

They shuffle around the ring, keeping their eyes on each other to discern their opponent's intention. Neither dares to take the initiative, trying to not get countered by each other.

Xing Tian hops forward with a punch which Jace quickly blocks and counters with his own punch. She swerves her head to the side, using her free hand to punch Jace's gut.

Contact, as the man feels his air forcefully expel from her punch. Both of them create a distance from each other and recuperate from the small exchange.

"Not bad." Jace compliments with a smile on his face. "Your punch is good and you dodge fast."

"Thanks." With that, both of them charge at each other and begin their second exchange.

Jace goes for the offensive with a fast jab, intentionally going for her face. She parries the punch away, and quickly uses her free palm to stop a second punch coming to her gut.

She grits her teeth and dodge to the right from an incoming knee strike. Releasing the fist that she blocked, she creates a small distance from the man and goes for a kick towards his head.

Jace quickly grabs her feet, capitalizing her sudden vulnerability by using his feet to sweep her. With nothing to defend herself, she crashes on the floor violently.

They stop their spar once more, ending the exchange.

"That hurts you know…" Xing Tian slowly picks herself up from the floor and unconsciously rubs her rear. "So it's one to one now?"

"For now." Jace returns to his boxing stance and gives her the 'come here' gesture. "But we still have more exchanges to go until we're done." Jace then decides something malicious, wanting to see her reaction.

"Unless you're already done for now. If that's the case, we can go on a date."

A light blush plasters on the Asian girl's face, but she calmly replies to him. "Well, if you managed to score three times higher than me."

'Challenge accepted.' Jace thought to himself as both of them return to their sparring.