World Tree MUSH

     It's early in the afternoon on a warm partly cloudy day, and Suiren has recently left the Pokemon School for the day and is heading to the park. It's been a week since she watched her friend and Sifu Frost brutally defeat another of her close friends, Luke at an offworld tournament, and while she certainly hasn't forgotten about it, with time and spending time with Luke her temper has cooled and she also has new things to occupy her thoughts, namely the Eevee walking beside her along with Iona the Popplio, the two having already bonded as friends. Suiren already knew the little normal-type had a love for the water, but she hasn't had a chance to do much training with her new partner, find out what moves he knows and such. She was clearly excited to find out though judging from the happy smile on her face.

 
 For all of Cyber Frost's downfalls -and boy were there many!- it wasn't like her to miss the fight of her favorite and only student. Frost had made it pretty evident that for all her brutality and sadism, she was extremely fond of Suiren and she was very invested in Suiren, not only as just her student but also as her friend. If she hadn't been around for the fight against Rez it must have been because something prevented her from doing so. 
 
 Fortunately, Frost was not the type to simple wander off and die somewhere. The cybernetic kunoichi had returned from her dangerous mission, and on her way back she had made certain to watch the recorded fight of Suiren and Rez. 
 
 "Hey! Suiren!!!" Came the excited cry of Frost as she ran over to the smaller blunette girl, waving her arm as she quickly approached her. "Come 'ere you!!" Without warning, Frost snatched Suiren up and picked her up, spinning her around whilst laughing. 
 
 "I saw your fight! You did great, kid!! I little passive for my liking, but you won!!" The spiky blue haired ninja rubbed her cheek against Suiren's own. "I'm so proud of you!" 

     Suiren looks up with surprise as she hears that familiar voice call her name. She turns and waves back, Iona waves a flipper as well, while the Eevee looks curiously at Frost as he hasn't met her yet. Then the hug comes and lifts her off the ground. Suiren is still smiling, but the expression has dampened a bit from a moment ago when she was just going to the park. One would think that she'd be ecstatic to be getting praise like this from Frost after her win, but that wasn't the case as thoughts of the fight come back to her again. 

     "Thanks, even I thought in hindsight that I was a little too passive at the beginning of that fight, but I had a feeling after talking to Rez before the fight, that he was testing me, and not just my fighting ability. I watched some of his other fights and learned some about other battles he's had, and I'm pretty sure he could have easily beat me that night if he chose to fight to his fullest. But you... your fight was a bit scary to watch if I'm honest. It was the first time I've really seen you fight I guess, and well, Luke is a friend, and by extension so are his Pokemon. It certainly didn't seem like you were holding anything back and might have crippled Bewear, or worse if that last attack had landed..." Suiren says calmly, her attention fully on Frost as her Popplio and Eevee play in the background.

 
 Cyber Frost did notice the new Eeve that was following Suiren around, but she'd had to inquire about that later as all her focus was on her student right now. Additionally, Frost has never been the most perceptive of people, she could feel that Suiren wasn't as ecstatic as she ought to be, but didn't really focus on it and instead decided to zero in on the fact that someone else was trying to teach her student things. Typical Frost, it was all about her.. even when it ought to be 
 
 "Testing you??" She said in slight outrage as she set Suiren down. "Why, the nerve of that freaking Lion! Belittling you like that! He's lucky I didn't run into him in the tournament, I would taught him a thing or two about not taking fights seriously." Her hand turned into an ice drill which she whirled with ferocious intent but ended up shrugging eventually. 
 
 "Eh, if he's going around giving free wins to people that's on him. You did your best, Suiren and that's what matters." She gave a nod and placed her hands on her hips. It looked like she was going to continue on saying something else until Suiren gave her that worried look. Even now, Frost still didn't seem to get it. 
 
 "Eh? Well of course I didn't hold back. It's a tourny, kiddo, yer supposed to give it your all. A moment's hesitation is the difference between victory and defeat." She rubbed at the inside of her ear with her pinkie, even as a cyborg Frost could still feel itchiness, which was a strange feature to still have.. 
 
 "Yeah, probably." She casually admitted that she wholly intended to cripple Luke's Bewear. "I was totally going to break his collarbone. Too bad that Luke pulled him out in the last second otherwise we woulda gotten a nice meaty crunch of his bear's clavicle shattering to pieces, hah!" She chuckled a little. "Spinning double axe kicks, man. They'll mess ya up!" 
 
 "Anyway," She tried moving on. "Wanna go get something to eat? My treat." 

     Suiren sighs and shakes her head. "Relax, he wasn't teaching me to fight, it was more philosophical. It had to do with what he said at the beginning of our fight, that he only desires to fight those that are the best in their world. I believe if he felt that I didn't have the strength or spirit to face you, that he would not have conceded the match so that he could fight you instead of me." She tries her best to explain, not sure how much Frost would understand or care about all that. 

     After a deep breath, she continues. "I fought Rez, maybe not directly, but my Pokemon gave that battle everything they had, and my direction helped them to that victory. Of course, my Pokemon lack the raw strength that you possess, so even giving their all, even if I had joined the fight myself and done the same, we wouldn't have been able to inflict the sort of damage, crunching bones..., as you. But even if they or I could, I refuse to go that far for a silly tournament! This isn't war, this isn't a fight on the streets where your very life is on the line. Maybe you think I'm weak and naive to think I can win without going to such extremes, but I don't care, I won't do it!" She cries out, the volume of her voice rising, with more emotion entering her speech the further she went through the statement, and by the end tears are welling up in her eyes before finally falling down her cheeks. 

     By this point Eevee is looking worried/confused, not knowing what has upset Suiren, but there is a hardened look in Iona's gaze, she was there to watch what happened, so she understands.

 
 Cyber Frost understanding or caring about things was always very much not guaranteed, for the cyber ninja only appeared to care or understand things that directly affected her. This much was the norm for her and it had been the norm back when she was in her homeworld. 
 
 But she did not have Suiren back at her own realm, and she made it clear that for Suiren she was always willing to go the extra mile. Where she would have simply zoned out completely and started looking at something else when Suiren began explaining herself, Frost instead grew quiet- a task in of itself- and paid attention. This appeared to be a deeply upsetting situation and Frost was wondering what was wrong. In particular because as Suiren's Sifu, it was her duty to care for her student. 
 
 She wouldn't make the same mistake as Sub Zero. Frost would not fail her student like he did her.. 
 
 "Okay?" She arched an eyebrow, clearly still confused why Rez decided to throw the fight, but it wasn't what was bothering Suiren. It was something else. 
 
 Frost watched as her student grew more and more agitated and as Suiren finally started actually screaming at her, Frost took a step back, actually looking scared, her eyes wide with panic. "Whoa! Whoa! Calm down!" She pleaded with her student. "I don't think you're weak or naive, of course I wouldn't expect you to fight like me, you don't have the same background." And now Suiren was crying- oh crap. 
 
 "Hey, come on.." Frost knelt down and did her best to wipe Suiren's tears away, looking at her worriedly as she placed her hands on the girl's shoulders. "I'd never ask you to cross a line you're not ready for. You don't need to try and mimic me in combat. I'm only teaching you the tools you need to defend yourself. What you do with them is up to you."

     Suiren feels like she's gotten a heavy weight off her shoulders getting that out, especially when Frost helps to wipe away her tears and tells her that she doesn't think she's weak, nor expects her to fight as she does, that the choice of how to use the things Frost is teaching her is ultimately still up to her, which actually sounds silly to even think that it wouldn't be in hindsight. 

     She had been looking away from Frost for a moment, but her gaze turns back to the woman's eyes as she nods. "Sorry, I guess I didn't know what to think after that night, and I thought the time that had passed since had helped, but I guess really I was just lying to myself, and it had given my imagination more ammunition. I was afraid of how you might respond actually because if you did want me to be like you, I don't think that I would be able to continue being your student. I guess it's clear now that the world you come from is vastly different than mine, enough that I think I understand why you have kept details about it vague, but I think I want to know, to understand where you're coming from if you're comfortable talking about it..." 

     She pauses a moment to wipe away some more tears, and feeling Eevee nuzzle at her leg, she bends down to pick him up and gently pet the little fox-like Pokemon. "At least, with how things went, Bewear has already healed, Pokemon do heal pretty fast and they have incredible technology to speed things along even further here. Bewear even wants a rematch, so I guess ignited a desire to grow even stronger."

 
 Frost let out a sigh as well that she didn't know she was holding when Suiren looked again at her. The fear of losing her had certainly crept up within her, and it was a sensation that was new to Frost, and just as terrifying. She had proposedly never grown attached to anyone, it was perhaps the reason why her Sifu's betrayal had stung so much. The very first person she had genuinely admired and he had nothing but scorn for her, he saw her as a burden, a useless lump that Raiden had dumped on him. When Sub Zero made it abundantly clear he wanted nothing to do with her, it carried the same feeling when Suiren looked away from her sadly. 
 
 "Ah.." Even Suiren -mentioning- that she was considering not being her student anymore felt like someone was grabbing Frost's heart and twisting it violently inside her chest. Her eyes and lips twitched, he body tensed, before she realized that Suiren had only been thinking about it, but with the relief that Frost was not going to try and push anything on her she was apparently fine continuing being her student. Frost wasn't sure what to say then, particularly as Suiren began asking for her past. Now it was her turn to look away as Suiren began prodding at those memories that she'd locked away for so long. 
 
 'I killed my mother when I was 12.' She heard her own voice in her head, not daring to say that out lout to Suiren. 'She was going to sell me to a crime lord. I was living in the streets after that. Then I learned I could create ice and joined death tournaments. I've been killing people for money since then.' Cyber Frost twitched, not daring to say anything. In the end, tears starting running down her cheeks because she knew she'd have to confess to Suiren what kind of horrible person she was in her world, and when she did she wasn't certain Suiren would want to stay with her. 
 
 As those tears ran down, they actually froze on her face. She didn't even know how to cry properly. 
 
 "If it looks like I'm merciless.." She said at last. "If it looks.. like I'm all too eager to kill.. it's because I've known nothing else." 
 
 "Every fight I've ever had has always been to the death. To show any weakness at all, was to invite my own demise." 
 
 She did smirk when Suiren mentioned that Bewear had already recovered and even wanted a rematch. "Really? Heh.. I wouldn't mind a rematch. It was fun."

     Suiren nods as Frost doesn't go into detail about her past, but explains that it has been a constant fight for survival. It's difficult for her to imagine such a life, especially if it went back to when Frost was a child. She had hoped Frost would share more, but she had said 'if you're comfortable talking about it' for a reason, and so just hoped one day Frost would be. For now, she leans closer and gently hugs the taller cyborg while being careful not to squish Eevee between them. Of course, he had other ideas, as he squirms out of Suiren's grasp and climbs onto her shoulder to lick at Frost's face. Suiren laughs seeing that and nods about the rematch. "Just... promise me you'll try not to permanently injure his Pokemon, much less kill them, ok? I know accidents happen, even around here Pokemon Battles have gone badly at times, though it's extremely rare. But I don't want to lose either of you."

 
 If Frost could help it she'd never reveal such secrets to Suiren. She feared that doing so would forever tarnish Suiren's image of her Sifu. Even now, she was pretty certain that a day would probably come where she'd have to fess up to Suiren on who she really was back in her world, and she just hoped that when it did happen she would have a strong enough bond with Suiren that the girl wouldn't run away from her immediately. "Yeah, I promise." Frost said and she more than welcomed that hug, she leaned into it, wrapping her own metallic feeling arms around Suiren. "I don't want to lose you either, kid." She closed her eyes and laid her chin on Suiren's shoulder. "You're everything to me.." Her one and only friend ever. Suiren had become Frost's meaning to live. 
 
 Then there was.. a tongue on her face? "Hey! What the hell??" She reeled back, eyes blinking rapidly, was Suiren licking her now? No wait, it was another Pokemon that Frost hadn't seen before! "Huh?? Who's this little guy?" 

     Suiren hugs Frost a little more tightly once there is no danger of Eevee squishing. She had always felt that Frost liked her a lot, but to hear her say that she was everything to her, that was quite the statement, the only other person to have expressed that kind of connection with her, would be her own mother. But before she could think too deeply about that, Frost is suddenly pulling away out of shock and confusion. Suiren giggles as she realizes that her new furry friend had been licking Frost. "I guess since you were crying he decided you needed some kisses. This is Sandy, an Eevee, and my newest Pokemon partner. 'Caught' him yesterday. Though really I rescued him from a couple of Team Skull grunts that were fighting over catching him themselves after watching him Mantine surfing, after that he wanted to stay with me."

 
 "Huh.." Cyber Frost rubbed the back of her palm and her arm across her cheek, both to clean where the Eeeve had licked her and to get rid of the icicles on her cheeks. For her part she wasn't lingering on what she had told Suiren, she said what she said, and Frost had made it abundantly clear that Suiren meant the world to her. Why else would she care so much about what the girl thought about her. She cared so much about Suiren's approval in fact, she was willing to change her entire lifestyle. 
 
 "Well, well. Another rescue, huh? Seems like you do that a lot. Good to meet you, Sandy." She shook the Eeve's paw. "I'm Frost, but you can call me, Sifu. Hah!" She began standing up. "I'm just kidding, it's up to you if you want me to teach this little guy too, Suiren." Well.. that had been an eventful moment, and Frost was all too ready to move on to more pleasant things. "Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, you wanna go celebrate our wins? I'm craving some Pho and bubble tea." 

     Suiren smiles and nods about the rescue thing. "How's that saying go? Twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern? I guess I've just been in the right place at the right time, and sure, I think Sandy can join Iona and me for training with you, we'll see how he does. One thing to consider is that Eevee has unstable DNA so they have more possibilities for evolution than any other Pokemon. We can talk about it over food, sure. I was going to do some training with Sandy now, but that can wait a bit."