Anywhere but the Face [private; nk]

The irony of getting any nickname with a canine reference was not lost on the man as he continued to squint moodily at the persistent elder white haired woman. He really didn't want to do this for real. Well, he didn't want to do it at all now, but before Maeko showed up, he'd already decided he wasn't going to actually fight June. Why was she forcing him into this?

But...he really wanted her baby, the pervdog thing, to die. So what choice did he really have when it came to this stubborn, pushy woman? "Fine..." he muttered, moving out from under her hand and back into the clearing. "You can pop in whenever," he said to Maeko, though his reluctance was clear from his voice. Cracking his knuckles out of habit, he limbered back up and pulled up his fists, though he was still in a defensive stance. Why did she want to be good at taijutsu anyway? She had a sword and all those bones. Fists fights were his thing. "Come on then," he said to June, then sighed and said, "I need a drink after this," to himself.

"O-okay!" June announced as she tried to bow to Kiigan to show some bit of respect despite her teasing. Finally. Just her against him. She had grown so much recently.... Now, it was time to see just how much all of that growth actually meant! To see if, after all of this time, she was even good enough to stay on this path or if it was just a dead end that threatened to weigh her down completely.

Her feet shifted into a widened stance as she slowly raised both arms, pointing her hands down and bringing them closer to her body as two lengthy spikes of bone extended from her wrists, both pointing forward. A determined glare crossed her face as she stared at Kiigan intensely. Only one thought had remained on her mind. Despite everything, despite the pain and the stress and the shock, one simple thing drove her. A single desire above all else. A desire to not be useless to people any more!

Without a word, June pushed off of her right foot as she moved forward, sliding her left foot ahead of her body into Kiigan's space as the kunoichi's right leg remained bent before she leaned forward with her limbs, quickly stabbing at her opponent's torso with a quick jab from both wrist spikes before she pulled her torso back and raised her arms defensively with her hands pointed forward. Simply watching the man as she quickly prepared for how he could possibly counter.

(Taijutsu 1/5)

Kiigan truly looked uncomfortable. She was improving more than he'd anticipated when he agreed to this. Dodging and parrying harmlessly was what he had in mind while she figured out how things worked, but soon he wasn't sure if he could keep that up. Some sort of negative emotion flashed into his eyes as he looked at her. Was it worry? Panic? Most likely confusion caused by some internal conflict.

She made stabs at him and he bobbed and weaved his way out of them like one would expect from someone who fought as much as him. Out of a brawler's habit, once she entered her defensive stance in preparation for his counter, he almost gave her one. He weaved suddenly, flinging his arm out in what looked to be a powerful blow with the back of his fist. His eyes widened before the impact, and next thing he knew he was jerking his arm back to himself before it could even land. Kiigan staggered backward, jaw clenched. He couldn't hit her. Every mental alarm he had was blaring so loud he wanted to grab his head, but he resisted. There was a notable uptick in his heart rate and breathing as he stood staring at her. No. He couldn't display this sort of thing. It'd be perceived as a weakness, something he wasn't willing to show June yet.

He tried to play it off as he'd meant to feint her, rolling his shoulders and easing back into a defensive stance with both arms raised and legs spaced with slightly bent knees. He waited for her next attack, though he heavily dreaded it. He should have never agreed to this.

A feint without a follow-up? June swiftly retracted her spikes as she held her stance for a moment, carefully observing his movements. What was that about? While she wasn't experienced in unarmed combat, she understood how feints worked with blades. Usually, the purpose of a feint is to disguise a follow up strike, you bait them high then move into a low attack. You feint left, then go for their open right side while still actively maneuvering to keep from leaving yourself open. But why would you feint into defense from a punch? Was it to avoid her blades or keep his limb from being grabbed? Either way, he let go of whatever pressure he could have had.

Fine. If Kiigan wanted to give up the offense, then all that meant was that she had a chance to go into the new attacks she had been planning! Her hands opened as thinner spikes extended from each palm before June shifted her weight towards her right foot and extended her arms more, entering a more offensive stance. "Okay, Kiigan... I've been practicing this one a bit, but I still haven't quite perfected it! Here goes!"

Without hesitation, June spun at Kiigan, feinting with a quick slash that would barely miss him before she suddenly jumped forward, spinning even faster, as the white haired woman quickly swung three entire slashes at him within a fleeting second, stretching both arms further and further out as she did so in anticipation of the man trying to back away from the attacks!

(Taijutsu 2/5)

Her anticipation was correct. He kept leaning back out of the way of her slices, backing away further and further until his back touched the roughness of bark. Glancing, he saw he'd backed himself into a tree in his haste to avoid her attacks without actually countering. He had no way to block or parry with nothing more than bare arms against her bone blades. He slid down quickly, wincing at the bark against his back as he ducked into a crouch and attempted to sweep her legs from under her with one if his legs.

He then made a mad dodge to the left, hopping back to his feet and facing her again. "You've already improved a lot," he said, both proud of her and full of dread for himself. This was a really hard thing for him, but he didn't expect her to understand even if he did try to explain, which he probably wouldn't. This was a very deep and complicated issue that he was only really just now coming to face. It wasn't every day a woman put herself in his path, almost forcing him to try and hit her. Honestly, it'd been years since the instance that caused this aversion in the first place.

As she landed, June stumbled backwards at Kiigan's sudden leg sweep, just barely avoiding it as she finally steadied herself and tried to slip into an open-palmed combat stance, her bone spikes still extended as she took a second to catch her breath. Right, lows. What would Kiigan even do against lows? In sword play, you'd try to match the opponent's stance. So did that mean she had to react to low attacks with her own low attacks? Dodging was fine, but she would have to figure this out eventually for her own sake. If she couldn't dissect countermeasures and responses to these types of moves, then she really would be far behind, wouldn't she?

"I... thanks, I guess-!" She replied to Kiigan's sudden compliment as the white haired woman relaxed her posture slightly. She still wasn't any closer to finding out just how far the gap between them was, though! By now, even someone as dense as her could see that the brawler was staying on the defensive. Maybe he wanted to see what new ways of attacking she could do. Maybe he just wanted to feel her out before going in. But, either way, it started to seem like a possibility that the Jinchuriki might not be giving this his best shot. "Okay..." June muttered. "I think I'm starting to see what's going on...."

A quick smile crossed her face! That had to be it! How could she be so oblivious?! He was trying to judge her distance before using his fire at a distance! Well it wasn't going to work. June slid her left foot back as she extended both of her arms to either side, both bent slightly as she confidently stared at Kiigan. If he was going to use ranged techniques, then there was no reason for her to hold back, either!

"Ready or not, Kiigan... This is something special I managed to train on my own a while back! Lets see how effective it really is!" Before he could respond, June pushed herself forward and swiftly spun around twice, both times swinging one arm then the other in Kiigan's direction at high speeds as a sudden barrage of ten bullet-like tiny bones were launched at the man in a wide spray! "Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets!!!"

Spoiler:

[Chakra: 60/360]

(Taijutsu 3/5)

Wait. No...this was okay. Kiigan was no where near on the track she assumed him to be, but a ranged attack he could handle. It was fast, meaning he couldn't really hope to dodge in time, but he'd just learned something that could help. As she fired her bone bullets, he raised his arms and clapped. Compressed wind gusted out from his hands. He didn't clap hard since he didn't want the bones to repel perhaps faster than fired back at June. His mistake, though, was he aimed a little high to go over her head just in case, meaning two of the ten bones were missed and lodged into his upper abdomen. They dug into the skin, stopping at rib bones. Kiigan grunted and winced, looking down to assess the damage. Nothing vital was hit. Just bleeding a little, though not as much as he would if he removed the bone plugs.

"Huh," he smirked in approval, looking back to June. "That's a pretty nasty jutsu." He was impressed, really. Very useful. He'd really intended not to use any ninjutsu in this spar, but she'd forced him to unless he wanted to take all ten hits from those. Knowing she wasn't done, he got back into a defensive stance, eyes keenly watching to try and anticipate her next move.

Jutsu Used:

[Chakra: 530/560]

Slowly, the white haired woman retracted her bones as she suddenly began breathing heavily. That was a lot more chakra than she expected to lose. A bit of sweat dripped down her face as the strain caught up with her before she wiped it away, taking a few more breaths before finally starting to regain a bit of her strength. That wasn't great... but at least she managed to get some hits off. Now Kiigan would know that staying at a distance wasn't the best option. Now he'd have to come at her directly, which means she'd finally be able to get a grasp on his abilities.

"Okay...." June breathed. "I'm ready. Please, Kiigan... don't hold back. I need to experience what you can do directly so I know how I match up to it." She raised her arms, extending her right arm in front of her left with open palms. "I'm ready for it now!" She shouted, with renewed determination!

[Chakra: 75/360]

He approached her hesitantly, not getting too close, only a couple steps. The look of discomfort was back. Kiigan understood that she wanted to test herself. He honestly wanted to see how much he'd improved as well, since he'd been working pretty hard after the Zeel thing. There was even a small part that wanted to show her, since she'd been the one barking about his wasted potential back then. But not against her. He tried to psyche himself up. Some blue flames even chased over his skin and his hands made fists, but that was about it. His crimson eyes were distant, as if seeing back to another time, then they were very present again. A frown settled over his mouth.

"Why do you need to match up to me, anyway?" he asked, stalling in the face of her renewed determination with his own extreme lack of. "We're on the same side. If anything we should be working on combos, since we've learned new stuff. I don't need to come at you with everything to tell you've about caught up with me, if not already even," Kiigan said in a hopeful tone, trying to derail her.

Her expression softened in surprise at the man's sudden question. Did he really not want to do this? But... he promised he would, right? He agreed to this and was actively telling her not to hold back earlier. But.... He didn't want to go all-out either? Did he just not care about her? Was she doing something wrong? Suddenly, the woman's hands started trembling before she formed them into fists, holding them close to her as she shook her head. It... it wasn't her, right? Was there something wrong with her? Was that why Kiigan didn't want to take her seriously? Was all of this just some game to just appease her without ever being serious about it?

"I... I don't...." June muttered to herself almost impulsively. This was not her world. This wasn't something she was familiar with doing. It wasn't something she enjoyed or took pleasure in. This wasn't even something she completely understood, it was something different. A foreign, alien, thing she had always known she would have to take part in but had never considered out of her own poor judgement with conduct and rules she still barely understood. It wasn't the world she was used to living in, this world of violence and honor and pain.... But even if she didn't understand it, she understood herself. And she knew why she needed to enter such an odd world in the first place.

In a moment of almost unprecedented bravery, she spoke up, her face twisting into a pained, inhuman, look of fear and desperation as she did so, seemingly completely unprompted by what Kiigan had asked her. "Because I'm pathetic!" June almost screamed without thinking as she turned her head away, almost reeling back at the sound of her own realization. "Because I'm... pathetic. I'm weak. Because I'm nothing. I'm... I'm not worth anything...! Because... because I don't understand. Because I don't... I.... It's because I need to see it, Kiigan.... I need to. I need to see the difference between us. I need to know how far I have left to learn, just how far behind I am! Only then.... ONLY. THEN. !"

Her words seemed almost incoherent at times, but the meaning was clear for anyone who even attempted to follow her reasoning. It wasn't just that June thought she was weak. She KNEW it. It was a set fact to her, a part of her psyche that had been ingrained by years of doubt and mistrust with herself. To her, it was a fact. A fact she didn't believe she could escape.... So, if someone thought it wasn't true, then there was only one solution.... That person must be wrong. They had to be, because otherwise June would have to admit that she didn't even understand herself. This world... this world of combat and bloodshed.... Its very nature had begun to tear at her very soul and threatened to one day rip her apart if she couldn't get past this horrible mindset. This mental block that had plagued her for far too long.

Without waiting, the white haired woman's yellow eyes almost flickered with misdirected anger and frustration as she turned to face Kiigan, her right arm bursting into a random series of excessive spikes, pointing out and vaguely forward from all directions of her forearm as she ran forward and blindly swung the appendage at his side in a vicious thrust, almost openly challenging the man to stop her! To put her back in her place! To embrace this world she still just barely understood on her own and guide her through it!

To fight was to lose but to dodge was to only fan the flames. This was her only unfocused hope.

(Taijutsu 4/5)

"Hey, now..wait--" Too late. She was on him again, blindly swinging as if she could do nothing else until she exhausted that thing in her mind. It was like she was possessed. That messed up line of thinking was running away with her. If Kiigan had known that promising to spar with her to help her would send her down this roan, he'd have never done it. One, because it was unhealthy. Two, because she was really trying to force him to attack her, and he was completely unwilling to do it. It was one thing to defend, grapple, or just use fists to work on technique. It was another to go full strength against an ally. Full strength was drawn from the will to fight. In this case, though she had it to an insane degree, he lacked it.

Kiigan dodged her spiky arm club, starting to get pissed off that she was trying to back him into a corner, simply because her self esteem issues were bothering her again. Had he not made it clear that this is not what he wanted? She needed to snap out of it. "June!" he shouted at her angrily. "That's enough! You can sprout bones and I can't even get near you without being stabbed. The only one that can make you feel pathetic is you. STOP IT!" he roared, continually stepping backward. If he just threw the fight and let her really hurt him, would that solve this issue for her? If she won, would that fix her? Or would it just make it worse? Would him fighting back with all he had be the answer? What if she won? What if she lost?

What if he hurt her? This was just like before. Oh god, this was so similar to back then...the revulsion rose in him as his mind made the definite connection. He would never do that again. He's rather June take him down right now and deal with whatever consequence that brought than go through that again. "Don't compare yourself to anyone, least of all me! I won't let you use me as a measuring stick!" Kiigan now stood still, prepared to take the next attack.

Before she could re-consider what she was doing, June's body almost seemed to move on its own, going one more attack than she needed to, unable to stop during the excitement of the moment. For a brief instant, time seemed to freeze as her body was overcome with fear, her eyes widening as tears began to drip down her face. "Kii... gan...." She muttered, powerlessly, as she continued to stare at his face, too horrified to look down at the large, gaping, uneven, gash she had inflicted on his side. Even without looking, she could feel how much blood had splattered across her arm and could instinctively tell just how bad it was.

Why did things have to end up this way? All she wanted to do was practice her hand to hand combat skills. She just wanted to know how they stacked up against eachother.... How much faster he was, how much stronger he was, what his demon let him do.... But when did that turn wrong? They were joking and having fun with things at first, right? But... when did that turn into... THIS??? Why was she such a screw-up. Why was she so bad at controlling her emotions and handling stuff like this? What was it about this that she just didn't understand? It didn't feel fair... it wasn't fair.... None of this felt fair at all!

"Kiigan...." She breathed again, trembling slightly. Without thinking, she forced herself forward as she tried her best to hug the man without cutting him any further with her arm spikes. "What the heck have I done-? I don't.... I don't understand any of this! Just what.... I don't know! Just tell me what to do, Kiigan! I don't understand any of this!!!"

(Taijutsu 5/5)

Kiigan closed his eyes and grunted in pain, though he held his ground even as her bone spikes tore through his side in their vicious passing. His face contorted a bit for a moment, then seemed to ease into a blank expression. There wasn't any pain or any anger. It was all gone as he lost his mental battle.

"You've just wounded my host," a voice not belonging to Kiigan broke his silence, sounding a bit androgynous if not feminine. There was a tone of ancient wisdom, and almost an other-worldly echo quality as Matatabi spoke directly to the Kaguya girl. Perhaps it was to her benefit that Kiigan's mind had been turned off. If June looked up, she'd see two pupil-less eyes; one green and one yellow. Matatabi couldn't help but think she'd come out too soon now, since June seemed back at herself once Kiigan's blood spilled out onto her arm. Truth be told, she'd been struggling against his psyche to try and get a grip on him before June landed the nasty injury, but he'd fought her off just enough. Stubborn host. "My apologies June-chan. I tried to prevent this, but..well, you know how he is," the two tails continued, drawing Kiigan's mouth into a soft smile. One of Kiigan's arms raised, patting June's trembling shoulder.

"He is unable to fight you like you wish. I was prepared to fight you for him, but now you've seemed to come to yourself. What you need to do is quit believing the worst about yourself, young one. It possessed you, robbing you of your will. You have the ability. You need only believe you have the potential, and anything less is a gross misuse of your strength. The spirit and body must balance to be effective. One without the other ends in monstrous disaster," Matatabi informed the girl desperately seeking for answers, hoping her knowledge wouldn't fall on stubborn deaf ears like it usually did for Kiigan. "Does that make sense?"

This was... it was Matatabi, wasn't it? This was the demon inside of Kiigan. The one who was responsible for ruining his life indirectly. But... how did.... Would he be alright? No, that didn't matter, the bigger problem was with his wound. Would Kiigan be able to survive that?! Did he need medical attention? Did they have to go somewhere to get help? Still shaken, June tried to follow the demon's words as she searched them for some form of answer before, finally, responding after taking a moment to let them settle into her mind.

"N-no...." She muttered, her arms still wrapped around the possessed man. "I don't understand.... I don't understand at all. I... I know I messed up. I did something horrible. I could have killed him. But... I don't get any of this! Isn't that what he wanted me to do?! To come at him with everything I had?!? I... I thought........"

The woman shook her head before finally taking a step back, pulling her bones back in as she held her hands close together in front of her chest. "I was just doing what he wanted me to do. I was just trying to face him as an equal! That's what this was about, right? But... why.... Why couldn't he treat me the same way?! As someone on his level?!? And right after he promised he would, too! I...." Her voice failed her as she stopped, now looking down slightly, away from the man. "I guess you wouldn't even know, would you? I'm just screaming at a wall right now... I don't even know why I even care about something as dumb as that...."

"I wouldn't know?" Matatabi asked, almost snorting like June had said something funny. Bringing Kiigan's hand over to the wound, she examined it and its threat level to her fleshy prison, then clamped over it to try and staunch the flow. "June-chan, I know him better than he knows himself. He made that promise so you could see what you had. He wanted it to become easier to attack others. If you can attack a friend with all you had, you can definitely attack an enemy without panicking. He wanted you to give it all you had and he'd just dodge and deflect. Kiigan didn't make that promise with any intention of fighting back with the intent to try and hurt you, because he actually can't. You could be his equal, or even better than him, and he could not raise a fist," she demon explained, sighing. Humans looked at things so oddly. "Can you understand?"

"Listen, June-chan. Kiigan has many deeply rooted issues from various experiences that have affected how he sees and reacts to the world. All humans do. In this case, a very similar situation happened between him and someone very close to him several years ago. He ended up hurting her, and it damaged him. He's only recently started to recover, though I fear this may have set him back. Either way, his promise was genuine, it's just what that promise meant to him and meant to you were two different things, and he was too proud to clarify himself in fear of being perceived as weak," Matatabi continued, starting to feel Kiigan fighting to take himself back. "I came out to fight for him, didn't I? shouldn't that be answer enough that I have little doubt that you pose an absolute threat to him, and by extension my life? He has no method to block your bones. In strictly taijutsu, you have the advantage unless he uses distance for ranged fire attacks. Can you imagine the blow to his ego that you are probably better at the only thing he took any pride in?" she finished with a wink, then started shaking his head and trying to keep him out just a little longer.

"I... what...?" June muttered blankly, unsure what to make of all of this. "Kiigan.... He wanted this to happen? He wanted me to hurt him? He wanted to go through all of this... just so he could make things easier on me? Just because I'm so w-.... So indecisive?" Without thinking, the white haired ninja grabbed the side of her head as she tried to think everything through. This was because of how bad off she was with Zeel, wasn't it? Because of how much that hurt her. It was because she showed so much weakness in front of him that he felt like he had to go to such extremes with all of this.

And yet.... Despite all of that, he was apparently dealing with something similar, too. Something from a similar mistake he made that was hurting him in a similar way. A similar problem that probably had a similar solution. But, even with all of that, she still didn't have it in her to do a similar thing for him. No, it wasn't even that she couldn't, she wouldn't want to do it. June would never want to force him to make a choice like that! .... And yet, despite all of that, without even realizing it, that was exactly what she was forcing him to do purely out of her own self-interest. Purely because she felt like it would benefit HER.

"What have I done?" She simply asked in an almost empty voice, suddenly realizing her actions. "I put him through so much.... I always put him through so much. Time after time I've put him in danger just because of personal problems, and yet.... Even after all of this.... After the cats and Zeel and Sodai’namoso, he's still so willing to help me. He's still just so... accepting.... Why...? Just why does he keep fighting so hard to save me when all I ever do is hurt him, Matatabi?!"

"Because you don't expect him to," she replied simply, as if it really was the most simple truth in the whole world. At the end of the day Kiigan was rebellious. Whatever was demanded, expected, or forced on him, he most certainly would not do, or perhaps even do the opposite out of spite. She never asked anything of him. June never asked to be saved, which was the exact reason he did it so freely. He wanted to, so he did.

Either way, once her last answer was out of his mouth, Matatabi lost the mental war. His lids slid over her eyes, pressed firmly shut for a few moments, then creaked open to reveal his crimson ones. And boy, were they pissed. With a stifled growl of both anger and pain, the man doubled over. Kiigan felt the full brunt of his injury for the first time. His feet shuffled into an awkward stagger, struggling to remain upright because his knees wanted to give out but he didn't want to give in. Somehow he returned to standing straight, gripping his side and doing his best to contain himself. "I'm fine," he strained, as if already trying to ease her assumed worry. Internally, he was shouting some pretty colorful stuff at his unwieldy hijacker. How dare she. "I'm fine," he repeated, looking up to meet June's eyes. "Good job."

"Wait Matatabi! Don't go-" June randomly shouted after Kiigan tried to re-assure her. "I don't- Why does he still like me?! What if I have more questions, what if I need to make a deal for something?! There's more that I think I wanted to talk to you about, Matatabi!!!" Before she knew it, she was practically inches away from grabbing Kiigan by the collar in surprise before she finally stopped. Without thinking, she stumbled backwards a few steps before starting to fall over as she lost her sense of balance and tripped over her own feet.

Why was she so desperate to know something so pointless? Why did she even care? Why did any of this matter to her at all? Despite her desperation, not even she knew what places her own mind was going to while it tried to grasp this issue. All she knew was that it mattered. For reasons she didn't even begin to comprehend, it felt like it mattered. All she knew right now was that her arms were flailing wildly, looking for anything they could find to grab onto to keep her from hitting the ground.

More than a little put out by her calling for Matatabi, whom he was beyond royally pissed at for taking him over again, Kiigan resisted snapping at her. He didn't know what she and his demon had talked about, since the Wraith saw it fit to keep him locked in some hole while he couldn't do the same to her, but whatever it was he wished it hadn't happened. Him and June had been becoming friends on their own. She didn't want anything from him because he was a jinchuriki. She didn't expect him to perform miracles. She was different, or at least he thought she was. The way she was nearly clawing at him to try and get the ancient fire cat back made him doubt. This was his body, June should be just fine talking to him. "Why don't you ask me instead--" he started to demand, but was interrupted.

June was falling, flailing her arms, tripping over her own feet as if it was a physical manifestation of the confusion in her mind. Despite his injured condition, he instinctively reached out with his own free hand to catch one of hers. He was successful, but his balance was compromised, so he stumbled in the direction her body weight was heading. Thinking fast, he pulled her with his one arm toward him while also twisting in the air to essentially switch places with her. Kiigan landed hard on his back with an "Oof!" He'd be the bloody cushion for her, since he was unable to keep her from falling to begin with.

As she fell down, June felt her forehead smash into the man's face as she quickly rolled off of him in pain, quickly grabbing at her scalp in pain at the sudden impact. Why was she suddenly so dizzy? This didn't seem right. No, she couldn't worry about that, what about Kiigan? If he was knocked out by that, then... what could she even do? She didn't even know where he lived. Maybe she could take him to the hospital or something? Even if he was fine, that still seemed like a good idea... right?

"I'm- I'm so sorry!" She randomly mentioned before partially rolling over and putting her hand on his chest without thinking, still holding her head with the other arm. "Kiigan, are you okay? I didn't mean to- I didn't think I'd...." Without explaining herself at all, she quickly found herself moving her arm from her own head to where she hit him, trying to feel how bad it was. "Does it hurt? Is it too bad? I didn't mean for any of this to happen, I swear!"

He didn't answer right away, being sufficiently stunned by the accidental headbutt that all he heard were bells and all he saw were black spots. Once some of his senses began to wander back, he found her hand was on his face. That seemed strange. They were both probably just realizing he had a bloody nose and that his eyes were watering. What happened? Kiigan looked over at her with a wince and a groan, followed by giving her a dazed and slightly goofy smile. "Juuune~ calm down. I'm fine," he told her in an unsteady voice, followed by a tiny chuckle. She really did have a very hard head...

"Are you okay?" he asked next, laying there with her rather peacefully despite all the red he was leaking. "Did I hurt you?" His ruby eyes searched her face and what he could see of the rest of her for injuries he may have caused that he didn't know about. He raised a hand to investigate the light weight on his chest.

"Wha-" She muttered to herself for a moment before suddenly putting both hands on his shoulders, rejecting his attempt to grab her hand by accident. "You're not okay!!!" She suddenly screamed at him without thinking. "I can tell! You don't sound okay at all, Kiigan! You're not fine! You're not! I can tell you're not fine!" Before he could interject, she shoved her face closer to him, staring straight into his eyes with her own. "Please... don't lie to me, Kiigan. We need to get you checked out. First the side-wound and now this... I'm worried...."

Suddenly, she found herself pulling back from the awkward position as she quickly grabbed the side of her head, shaking it slightly. What was she talking about again? Huh, weird.... Suddenly she felt so lightheaded. It was like something just suddenly overtook her. A sudden sensation that suddenly something was suddenly.... What was she even thinking again? It didn't matter. Whatever this was didn't feel great at all, she felt like she was low on energy and almost sad for some reason. But she was fine, it was just a headbutt, it shouldn't cause any major problems, right?

"Sorry, Kiigan.... I just.... I think I might have to go home soon. I'm not feeling great, myself, either...." June admitted, seemingly out of nowhere. "I... are you sure you're okay? I mean... really sure? It's your body, so you'd know it better than me, right?"

Kiigan flinched back at she screamed at him, her sudden loudness beginning a pounding that sounded like his neighbor's kids stomping up and down the stairs. He squinted at her, watching her face so close to his double and nearly triple, and just as he was sure he'd pass out...she stopped. He was relieved that the noise was gone, but it seemed she was hurt. Her head had been the one that smashed his, so it was understandable. She may have a hard head both literally and figuratively, but no one wins with a headbutt.

The wine-haired man attempted to sit up normally, but his wound prevented that, leading to him awkwardly rolling around almost like a turtle stuck on its shell until he flopped onto his stomach and could use his arms to shove himself up without bending his middle too much. He staggered once up, but nonetheless turned to reach a hand to his worn out friend. "I'll live," he said, returning a little more to himself since only a smirk manifested instead of that weird smile from moments before. "I'll walk you home," he said, perhaps being a little ambitious for his state, but he'd make it work.

A slight smile crossed the white haired woman's face as her eyes closed slightly. She felt so lightheaded now... so sleepy.... How weird.... Maybe she hit her head harder than she thought? "Oh, you're live?" She repeated to him without noticing how forced the man's attempt to get up were. "That's nice... I'm glad you're better." Her voice seemed unusually light and airy as June began weaving back and forth slightly.

It was nice knowing everything was alright. Poor Kiigan... he had her so worried there for a bit. But now everything was going to be okay. Everything was going to be completely, absolutely, undoubtedly, 100% okay! Imagine that! Without thinking, June's mouth opened as she quickly coughed up a darkened mass of clotted blood before almost immediately closing her eyes and falling over, unconscious.

At least everything was completely fine now, she thought, as her body began heating up with an unknown illness of some sort.

It was Kiigan's turn to be alarmed. Coughing up that clot was really, really bad. He looked her over frantically, looking for any wound he or Matatabi could have inflicted on her. He found nothing but what might eventually be a bruise on her head from hitting him with it. "June! June, answer me. What's happening?" he asked as his hand touched her head, meeting with feverish skin. Enough of that. This was no time to ask an unconscious girl questions.

Running on pure adrenaline, he pulled her up despite the nauseating pain in his side as he did so. Time to go to the hospital. They both needed to be there, honestly. Kiigan had lost a lot of blood, and June's body was fighting off something very strange. Moving as fast as he could, he hauled them both away from the training area and into the streets, making a beeline for one of his less favorable places to be. Hopefully it was nothing too serious...