[Private] Meeting Above The Clouds (Yukiko/Jingee/Lillie)

Lillie stretched her arms above her head, the cold metal fingers of her cybernetic hand meshing with the warm ones of her flesh and blood opposite hand while she looked out from the upper-deck of The Rising Eagle down onto the lower where she expected to see her first and second mate to arrive from soon, due to the fact she had told them the night previous to meet her there for a briefing and discussion as to what they were to do next as a Crew and of course, on the subject of what types of tests they would give their Second Mate in order for her to prove her worth as a high-ranking member of the crew rather than a simple swabbie or something of the sort.

Stepping down the stairs from the upper deck and down onto the lower deck, Lillie would turn her attention outward to the sky before them, arms crossing idly over her chest as a small smile came to her lips at the sight of the birds and clouds around them and the smell as well as taste of the fresh air of the open skies that they sailed through:

"It doesn't get a whole lot better than this.." Lillie mused to herself, closing her eyes and just taking in all the other sensations of the moment for a short while before opening them again and returning her gaze to the people passing through the ship around her, waiting for her First and Second Mate to arrive.

When they would arrive, if they did so, Lillie would greet them with a bright smile and small wave of her cybernetic hand while calling out in an excited voice:

"Are ya ready to get down to business?" She asked, smile forming into a sly grin as she placed her flesh hand upon her hip idly. "'Cause we've got a lot of ground to cover." She added, waiting for them to respond patiently after she had spoken while occasionally fiddling with the belt that held her tools or the goggles upon her head both in a somewhat subconscious manner of anxiety due to the fact that, despite how excited she truly was about having become a Commander within the revolutionary army, she also realized that it was a huge responsibility and that her decisions could very well affect hundreds if not thousands of people for better or worse.

But that was the price of being able to actively participate in the fight for freedom, she supposed, you had to take the risks that were necessary to further the cause even if there was a very real possibility that things might not work out and that all your work could come crashing down around you - You had to believe that things would work and that instead you would emerge victorious with your allies in even the toughest of times if only you had faith in their abilities as well as your own.

She pushed all these heavy thoughts from her mind, currently, and tried to focus instead on the tasks at hand and the slightly more fun prospect of testing her crew as well as coming up with new ways to bring the fight to the World Government, no matter how small or how large. Lillie only hoped that her crew had the same enthusiasm that she did or at least were willing to follow along regardless of their own personal convictions.

So there she waited, hopefully having already seen and spoken with her crew and if not simply remained introspecting while looking out at the open skies, hoping for them to show.

Having been told to meet on the lower deck of the ship, Jingee prepared. He was dressed in his typical attire. A black Judogi, with a white headband tied around his forehead. He switched off the alarm blaring as he readied himself, a Den Den Mushi with a recording of his own voice yelling at himself to wake up. He longed for a calmer, soothing alarm however knew that he would just fall back asleep after deactivating it. This at least kept him up. The Den Den fell back to sleep, he would have someone feed it later he decided. The crew present aboard the ship were currently hard at work to keep the ship air-bound, or were hopefully. It didn't take much, the ship did all the real work, they just ensured there were no malfunctions with anything.

The crew they have at the moment are new to the Revolutionaries, and it would appear Lillie and himself were in charge of their training. They were fairly weak, he could tell. Hopefully over time this changed.

He left the Men's Quarters, to the lower deck where he was to meet Commander Elric and Second Mate Yukiko. The three were apparently to meet according to the Commander.

He would begin to lean against the railing along the ship, looking down at the ground below. He hadn't even realized they had taken off until he was woken up in the middle of his sleep. It always seemed peaceful flying. He didn't hate sailing, however it definitely seemed to be more work. Maybe it was just less work he had to do, but regardless. He knew that flying island to island wouldn't be an option due to fuel sources, and he was curious for as to why the crew took to flight in the first place. Something he would need to ask, perhaps.

It wouldn't be long before he heard the Commander asking if the lot were ready for business. "I am." He would say, standing tall. "Evenin', Commander Elric. I would imagine we did indeed have a lot to talk about if you were to call a meeting with just us two. Nothing drastic, I hope?"

Only the shortest sound of an alarm going off could be heard before it was interrupted by the quick slam of a clenched fist, a single crack running down the plastic time display where one had previously not. With that, Yukiko was awake, albeit in a rather bad mood. She never liked waking up to an alarm, but at the same time she couldn't just sleep the day away. There was work to be done, there always was, and today was no different. She remembered that her commander had requested her to meet with both her and her first mate. She heaved a sigh, pursing her lips to blow air up at her bangs. A lock of hair floated for a moment before she stopped, the hair falling back down at her eyes.

Yukiko stood up from her sleeping mat and began to ready herself for the day, dressing and making herself look like she didn't just get out of bed despite that being the case. Admittedly, she felt a bit of resentment about this lifestyle.  Something about the more this more organized routine, it didn't feel like her. But at the same time, she never found so many people who were passionate about something in one place. That was the sort of company she wanted to keep. If having to wake up and do what felt like the same thing over and over most days was the price she had to pay for it, she'd gladly do so.

After dressing herself in a semi-casual outfit, the woman made her way from the sleeping quarters and to the deck. As she stepped outside from the interior of the ship, she turned her head, looking at the sky rolling. Quickly, she felt her stomach recoil and her body grew tired. Her breathing grew heavy while her expression morphed into a scowl. "Just like any other day..." Yukiko thought to herself as she continued to walk out onto the deck, albeit at a slower pace.

She approached both her commander and the first mate of her crew. All instincts made the red head want to stand at attention before the other woman. Yukiko respected her requests more however, and simply crossed her arms under her breasts in an anxious motion. "Yes Commander." She said with a nod before continuing to ask "What is it you wished to address?". She noted the male's words, if Lillie were to call the both of them for a meeting of sorts, it had to be something important. As the ship continued to move past the clouds, Yukiko could feel a chill running through her body, as if having broken out into a cold sweat. She wouldn't be shaken by this however, seeming to work past the sickly sensation.

"Well," Lillie began after having listened to Yukiko and Jingee speak in regards to their being summoned and inquiring as to what it was all about in the first place. She smiled, perhaps showing in doing so that nothing she was about to say was all that dire or at least to her, as she continued on. "I wanted to bring the both of you here because, first of all, we're about to land at Jakavol Bay - What I reckon is one of the biggest trading centers in The New World, or at least that's what one of the Sailors told me." She would say, gesturing over the railing of the ship down to the distant island on the horizon before then continuing to speak after a short pause.

"But that's not really the big reason, I also wanna prove to ya, Jingee, that my new Second Mate here can handle her own." She would say, before then clarifying. "If you're gonna serve together, I want y'all to be confident in one another and what better way to prove it than to show your stuff, right?" She would say as a bright smile formed over her lips briefly before she seemed to become at least somewhat serious again.

"But we do got a lot of other stuff t' talk about, like what we're gonna do for this crew and for ourselves - We gotta start plannin' our next big move and what better place to do it than somewhere like beauty of a ship?" She would add, turning her attention to Jingee briefly as she continued to speak. "Me and you, Jingee, we'll have to rough it up soon - I wanna show you that I ain't a pushover either." She would say with a grin and little wink of enthusiasm before her gaze turned finally onto Yukiko.

"I know you've been through a lot of trainin' lately, but trust me, it'll pay off and being my Second Mate ain't so bad either I'd reckon." Lillie said in an attempt to reassure the other woman that she was at least not just trying to train Yukiko into the ground and was, after-all just trying to prepare her for the dangers of the world they found themselves in.

After this brief exchange, Lillie would then move out of sight briefly into the ship in order to fetch the crew-member she intended for Yukiko to fight in order to challenge her abilities. She would return, within a few brief moments with a woman slightly over six feet tall and seemingly well-built - though it would be hard to tell beneath the armor she wore.

The woman which Lillie had brought would also appear to have large, feathery wings upon her back and fire-filled amber eyes that immediately seemed to take note of Yukiko and give her a rather cold stare:

"This is Sabelina, she's among the toughest of the new recruits we got and I think she'd be a good test for ya, Yuki." She said with a sly smile, even having shortened the red-haired woman's name in a casual, perhaps friendly manner as she introduced the knightly woman who stepped forward and stopped within an arm's length of Yukiko while Lillie gave a little nudge to Jingee. "This is gonna be good to watch." She would say to her first mate with that same sly smile of hers as she watched the two women silently now, waiting for the action to start unless of course Yukiko decided to refuse the match, in which case she could not blame her - it had been a long series of days and training seemed to be the only thing going on as of late, but at the same time she hoped that the other woman would simply for the fact of she wanted to see how her abilities compared against others than herself.

While waiting for Yukiko to make a move, the knightly black-haired and fire-eyed woman would stare towards the red-head and speak with surprising softness to her in perhaps an attempt to abolish any worries she may have: "I will not wound you." She said simply, as perhaps a way of saying that she had no intent to hurt Yukiko and merely viewed this as a test of her own abilities as well, though if Yukiko were to say anything or accept the duel in the first place was entirely up to her.

Companion Link:

Listening to the Commander, this meeting seemingly was focused around the training of the second mate, who for whatever reason was chosen into their position out of all the new recruits. After mentioning she had a combat buddy for Yukiko here, the Commander mentioned having a spar with himself in order to prove she was no pushover. He sighed in response, "Sure Commander. I'm always up for a fight, no matter how one sided it'll be I suppose." He said, lacking all confidence in himself. He was sure she'd hold back -- maybe, but either way, she was in her position mainly due to the fact that she can fight. As well as lead others in fights to back that up. While Jingee himself was pretty high up the totem pole, the Commander was the literal next step. He wasn't feeling like it would be totally one sided, despite the sarcasm. "Maybe you and I should avoid fighting until we're sure we won't plummet to our deaths though. No offense to the two you have lined up to fight, however I don't see them knocking each other around as far as we could." He said, recommending that, due to each other's strength, they should probably wait for solid ground to fight on. "I mean, I'm up to fight whenever. I'm just not quite ready to test how far I can fall before I die. Y'kno?"

After a while, he would watch as the Commander would bring out the other new recruit for Yukiko to fight. He had no idea who would win, looking at the two. Neither seemed strong, but one had equipment to back herself up. "Wanna bet? 1,000,000 Beli? My money's on Yukiko, if you are." He would say, hoping for a little bit more entertainment in this spar.

Yukiko raised an to the winged woman. Her lips pursed as a hand came up to scratch at the back of her neck, almost like a tick of some sort. This felt kind of sudden if she had to be honest. Granted, that may have been the point. Present a test or exam of sort without any previous indication of one, see how on can react on their toes. Sure, every instinct told the red head to just jump at this stranger and try to pummel them into the deck. But as of late, she had tried to practice more control and acting less and less on her impulses.

Her eyes wandered over to the cyborg standing next to her first mate. Though she'd make no physical gestures, she seemed to be looking towards Lillie for some guidance of sorts. Some sign of what she was supposed to do. Except she knew what was wanted of her already. They wanted to see Yukiko fight with Sabelina. It was then that she heard a soft voice, that of the stranger Lillie had just introduced. The woman turned her head to look back towards the winged one and taking note of her words.

"Yeah, I'll try not to hurt you too badly either." She'd reply, almost trying to make small talk with the black haired woman more than convince her that this would be just a friendly spar. Her hands dropped to her sides for a moment, pausing to take a deep breath. Exhaling a sigh, Yukiko brought her arms up and curled her fingers into fists. Her body shifted as she raised herself on to the balls of her feet, taking a boxing stance. Her eyes locked with those of Sabelina's, a light seeming to shine in her lenses as she took another second of mental preparation. It seemed as though they were expected to fight, and she didn't exactly want to disappoint her commander after all the practice she put Yukiko through. If she were not interrupted, the red head would extend her left arm out in one quick moment, aiming a jab square for the bridge of the winged woman's nose. If her strike were to land true, she would immediately bring her arm back to it's original position in accordance to her stance and begin to turn her body slightly to left. Her right arm would draw back at her waist as she arched her arm as she did so. She'd then begin to swing it upward, attempting to land an uppercut right under the other woman's chin.

Lilie would give a soft laugh towards Jingee's response and gave him a somewhat rough pat on the back with her cybernetic hand as she spoke to him with that same big and bright smile as she had before:

"Yeah, I can see why ya wouldn't want to fight up here - But don't ya ever doubt yourself." She would say, placing her hands on her hips idly as she continued on. "You, Me, and the rest'a the crew are gonna be the best in the Seas one day, maybe even the World - It just takes time." She would say, before then addressing the second matter he had made of betting on the fight that they would be seeing unfold before them, raising a brow at the bet before then answering in kind:

"I'll take that bet, but in the sake of fairness I gotta put a million on my new recruit, she's got quite a fight in her too." Lillie said, referring to her winged recruit whom she had personally been accompanying and training recently along with Yukiko herself whom the woman would be fighting.

Meanwhile, the fight had begun between Yukiko and Sabelina with the former letting loose a punch towards the woman's nose which had managed to connect but - due to the woman's rather high defensive abilities it did not seem to be enough to knock her onto the floor immediately, however was enough to cause her to begin bleeding from the nose that was now likely either broken or at the very least injured from the attack.

After this attack had landed, the winged woman jumped backward and stood for a moment whilst wiping the blood from her nose with a gloved hand and narrowed her eyes before then moving forward and taking the large sword from her back - with it's scabbard still on in order to prevent slashing or cutting the other woman - and began to swing it in a diagonal movement towards Yukiko while maintaining an arm's length distance between them so that she would hopefully have time to react in the case of the other woman attacking again and if this attack failed would raise one arm in a defensive manner while still holding the blade with the other. If, however, it had succeeded, the winged woman would continue to let loose with a barrage of powerful blows aimed at simply beating the other into submission as it would seem that she was quite angered by the first blow having been landed and injuring her in such a manner.

As the fight continued, Lillie briefly turned her gaze towards Jingee and spoke quietly to him. "Do you think that they'll last out there, y'know, in this New World..?" She asked with a more serious tone than she had used before, seeming concerned now for the safety of her crew-mates as she waited for an answer quietly before returning her attention to the two sparring women, worried that perhaps even with all of her and Jingee's training that they may not survive in a place such as this that seemed to have people's and creatures with powers beyond the imagination of the common people - this place was definitely, as she had known it, a New World.

The Commander seemed to agree with the fact that the two shouldn't fight up on the deck, which he was glad for. It was nice not having a hot-headed Commander willing to fight anywhere and anytime. That was his job, after all. She even seemed a bit supportive, saying that Jingee shouldn't doubt himself. "I don't, thank you. I'll honor the request for a spar -- later, when we dock on that trading Island you had mentioned earlier." He said, turning his attention towards the two again as Commander Lillie placed her money on the new recruit. He figured as much, wouldn't have bought this Recruit up if she didn't have a little faith in her capabilities against Yukiko. "Alright then, it's a bet." He said, while offering a friendly handshake to seal the deal.

"OI!" he began to shout towards the two. "Don't get your ass kicked, Yukiko!" he said, tauntingly, trying to amp her up. It wouldn't be long before the Commander quietly questioned Jingee about the safety of the crew in the New World. "It'll be fine." He said, quieting down so the rest of the crew couldn't hear him. "Personally, I think it'll be some trouble. Of course, war doesn't come without casualties." He said, solemnly. "It's something that is unavoidable. However, they all signed up for this. Where they ended up didn't do them much good." He said, following with a sigh. He grinned shortly after a quick break. "Though, it's my job to train them and I'll do my damnedest to protect them. 'Till they can fend for themselves, of course. Shouldn't take them too long, I imagine it like a bird. They'll either fly or they won't. After they try there's not much we can do to help. Besides, we could always retreat back to the Grandline to help them out." He finished, gazing back towards the fight hoping to see Yukiko winning. He imagined this would take a while. "How long'll they fight for, by the way?.. Did uh, you ever mention how far they're gonna go? Are they just going until they knock one another out or?"

Yukiko took a quick step backwards after her uppercut had missed its mark. Though she landed her jab, she'd rather have missed that and hit her haymaker. She retained her boxing stance and continued to hop slightly on the balls of her feet as she looked towards the winged woman. A bit of curiosity rose in her as she noticed a red liquid leaking from her nostrils. Did she really manage to break her nose? Whoever Lillie found, she had to be really fragile if just a jab to the bridge of her nose was enough to break it; or maybe she was even beginning to underestimate her own strength. She had been training with her commander for the longest time. so it was hard at times to gauge her own growth when compared to someone leagues above her. "Uh, hey. Are you alright?" the woman asked with a worried tone.

As Yukiko let her guard down would be when Sabelina decided to swing her sheathed sword. The blow connected with her shoulder, a loud grunt of pain escaping her throat as she stumbled away from the attack. A sharp pain jolted through her arm as the woman made any attempt to move it, making her wince visibly. She turned her attention back to the winged woman and saw her begin to swing again. She began to shuffle her feet and contort her body as she attempted to dodge the flurry of swings coming from her opponent.

( Redoing this thread due to lots of changes going on OOC wise and character wise during the events of the thread - Might delete this later. )

( P.S Done with approval from my crew-mates of course )