The howling of the wind and the clashing of steel mixed in the air as Miria went through sword drills with them yet again. Helen had taken a seat on a nearby rock anxious to do something other than swing the stupid sword again. It was not that she didn’t see the importance of it, but she was wishing for something other than drills to occupy her time.
As many of her companions would tell you – Helen being bored is a dangerous thing. Not only does she think of weird pranks, she also has the drive to see them through. So when the seven hid their youki and stayed up North, Helen became extremely bored. No more bars and pubs to drink herself away, no making faces at kids as she passed them on the road, no more flirting with young men who struck her fancy.
No, it was now just Miria, Deneve, Clare, Tabatha, Cynthia, Yuma, and Helen now - all one big happy family out in the middle of nowhere. Man, she’d kill for a nice warm pot roast right now or even some ale.
As Miria called a halt to the practice session, Helen sighed loudly, drawing some whimsical design with her boot as Cynthia came over and sat down.
“Bored as usual I see,” Cynthia gave her a smile as she pulled her pigtails back from in front of her face where the wind kept blowing them out of place.
“Geez, like you wouldn’t believe,” Helen muttered, glancing at the other girl. “I mean, other than the occasional wandering Awakened one we find, what are we gonna do?” For Helen, it was kinda hard to see how the ever-smiling Cynthia was ranked higher than Serious Face Deneve. Only when Cynthia and Deneve sparred was the difference made known – Cynthia was just slightly better at swordplay than her friend. Deneve acknowledged it from before but it was the first time Helen had seen Deneve go against someone near her level. It was quite a sight. That and the first time Cynthia encountered an Awakened Being after the Last Stand at Pieta, the girl became downright scary.
“Hmmm," Cynthia let her eyes drift skyward as they often did when she wanted to think something through, "I guess we are all just surviving right now,” Cynthia looked back at the group that had splintered off. Clare and Yuma were watching Deneve display a sequence while Miria was with Tabatha off to her left, pointing to the east. “Surviving and growing stronger. Is that not good enough?”
"Tch," Helen brought her fist down against her knee, agitated at Cynthia's remark. “Hell no!”
”Eh?” Cynthia was surprised by the other girl’s heartfelt outburst. She, along with Tabatha and Yuma, had grown accustomed to Helen's rather boisterous nature but sometimes the former rank 22 surprised them like so.
"Ah, sorry Cynthia. I guess I'm just pent-up over this." Helen leaned down and began gathering a ball of snow, slowly packing it tightly. “I want to live a full life, despite being a Claymore. I do not want to be cowering here up in Snow White Land just training endlessly.” She made another one and plopped it into Cynthia’s unresisting hands. “Aren’t you bored too?” With that, she chucked the ball right at Tabatha’s back.
Tabatha took a surprised step forward and whipped around, her eyes immediately falling to the snowball held by Cynthia, who quickly whipped it around behind her back.
“Leave her, it was probably Helen anyway,” Miria told her, giving a glare at Helen's general direction, to which Helen just smiled and waved back almost innocently.
“Why did you do that?” Cynthia asked, still holding her snowball behind her back.
“Why wouldn’t I throw a snowball? Look where we are! The snow isn’t going anywhere, might as well make use of it. It would be a shame not to!”
Cynthia brought the snowball from behind her back and looked at it for a moment, thinking of her junior's words. She wouldn't show it but she too felt fustrated from time to time during their stay so far up in the North. Her eyes showed a new kind of resolve as she then brought her arm back and threw the snowball. The ball smacked Deneve right on the head, leaving a bit of snow on hair. Cynthia covered her face, slightly appaulled that she had done such a thing but Helen nearly died laughing at the sight until Deneve threw some snow back at her, hitting her in the face.
“I didn’t throw that last one! Cynthia did!” Helen sputtered, wiping off the snow with a gloved hand.
“I know but you were laughing,” Deneve replied matter-of-factly, shaking her hair free of the snow. Damn, the snow didn’t hurt but it sure surprised the hell outta her.
“Fine!” Helen gathered up some snow quickly and threw it back at her friend, who nimbly dodged out of the way this time. Clare sidestepped the white projectile but Yuma was not so quick to react and got hit on the arm. Clare was very surprised when Deneve dropped an armload of snow on her head when she turned around.
“Deneve?”
“Don’t think that you’re getting away scott free,” Deneve’s face held a faint smirk, which dissipated immediately when twin snowballs found their mark on her back. Helen was now attacking Clare while Cynthia introduced Yuma to some more snow. Deneve eyed the two stalwart figures not too far away and bent down and gathered some more snow…
Miria could hear the sounds of the girls behind her and she bit back the urge to sigh. “Matte ku, what is wrong with –“ She barely angled her head out of the way of the incoming snowball but once again, Tabatha was not spared. Concentration broken, Tabatha wheeled to face the others. “What are you doing!?”
“Oi oi, can't you tell? We're playing!” Helen yelled back, tossing two more snowballs at her. Tabatha caught them and returned fire, running right at Helen but was tackled by a now giddy Cynthia into a snow bank with Helen cheering all the way.
“Alright! Way to go Cynthia!”
“Clare-san, watch out!”
“Ack! Helen! No fac - *whuck*”
“Ahaaahahahahaha~! Gyah, that’s cold Yuma!”
“She said no face shots!”
“Then how bout a snow dunk eh!?”
“Kiyaaaah~!”
“Double technique – Dual Snow Barrage!”
“That’s cheating Deneve!”
“Fine! Windcutter revised – Snow Blower!”
“Augh! Now who’s cheating! Using swords!”
“…” Miria was once again dumbfounded by the sheer amount of silliness going on around her. Weren’t they supposed to have some dignity left!? Miria continued on her silent berating until she decided that it had suddenly gotten too quiet. She looked up to see all six girls looking right at her, snowballs in hand.
Even a half-brained Youma could have figured out this situation...
“You wouldn’t…”
“Ah, is fearless leader afraid of some snow,” Helen challenged, tossing a snowball up and catching it teasingly.
Miria looked at their faces. The stress and worry on their faces had significantly dropped, if not disappeared all together. They were relaxed and smiling – something they had not done in a long time. ‘All work and no play’, she thought. Maybe…just maybe playing around once in a while wasn’t so bad. Besides, she was getting bored herself. Just a bit mind you.
Miria gave her hair a proud, taunting flip at Helen, her eyes equally challenging. “What makes you think that you could touch me even if you wanted to, rank #22?”
Challenge accepted, Helen grinned, hefting her arm back. “’Cuz this says so!” She threw the snowball as hard and as fast as she possibly could. A split second later, the other girls released their barrage of snow at the warrior known as 'The Phantom'. Miria’s mouth curved upwards into a smirk as she held up her right hand, caught the first snowball and vanished, the other snowballs flowing right through her mirage. She appeared right behind Helen, arm held high and paused, letting the situation fully register in Helen’s mind before she smashed the snow right into Helen’s hair, rubbing it in good.
“Still got a long way to go, Helen-chan.”