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What we will teach you here is martial arts not violence. Despite public opinion there is a difference. Violence is fighting for the sake of fighting, martial arts are more about reasons than fighting. That being said most martial artists fight because they find it fun... they don’t seek to dominate their enemies like  most believe, but rather they seek the challenge of an opponent that can test their skills. However, what we teach here isn’t what you’d call tournament arts, instead our styles are more based on situations in the real world, that being said what you’ll learn here is only applicable in Vale Tudo tournaments. Those tournaments are usually considered the most brutal because there are considered “anything goes” fighting. What I’m saying is, you will fighting in matches until either you can’t fight any more or you surrender, there will be no judging for you to fall back on... no time limits to save you. The judges in these tournaments are simply there to check that you’re still conscious,” the elder explained to him.\n\n“I didn’t think there were any rules to fights without judges?” Kit asked.\n\n“Technically there aren’t, however there are a few courtesies that every fighter knows to extend, for instance you don’t attack a man’s groin and you don’t involve outsiders,” the elder explained.\n\n“And you don’t kill each other,” Kit tacked on. The elders face turned slightly pale for a second.\n\n“Some fighters believe this too, however, not all follow this code. If an enemy fights this type of warrior, they have to know when to quit, if they insist on continuing even when they should stop, they will be shown no mercy,” the elder answered him.\n\n“You’re saying I could be killed?” Kit asked him.\n\n“Well there are a few more rules, for instance it’s generally accepted that disciples don’t fight to the death, and masters don’t involve themselves in their students battles. Truthfully it’s a little pointless that first rule because you REALLY have to hate somebody to try and kill them,” Perrin explained.\n\n“So, Daisuke won’t be able to save me again?” Kit asked them.\n\n“Not the way he did today, he could call a stop to a match for you though,” Hitomi shrugged.\n\n“Why would anybody want to do this? I mean fight,” Kit told them.\n\n“In your case it holds something that you want desperately, a few things really, but most important among them is redemption. Your sister saw you at your lowest point this evening, and while she may not think less of you because of it, you’ll think less of yourself. By following this path, you can redeem yourself in your own eyes, by regaining your pride and dignity, and by having those around you witness you as you rise to your fullest potential,” the elder told him.\n\n“Not to mention if he comes at you again you could kick that idiot badger’s ass,” Daisuke tagged on.\n\n“Daisuke!” the elder said in a chastising voice.\n\n“What? I said ‘if he comes after you again’... it’s not like I’m encouraging him to go looking for him or something,” Daiuske said defensively.\n\n“So... who’s going to train me? Daisuke or Hitomi?” Kit asked him eventually.\n\n“Don’t you want to be trained by me?” the elder asked him.\n\n“Well... I thought... I thought that you trained them, and then they trained others, so that there was some sort of hierarchy... of course I want to be trained by the elder of the dojo,” Kit rationalized to him.\n\n“If only. Sadly I have two students already and they keep me pretty busy as it is, even if they are almost finished with their training. I’m afraid that we’re going to do your training slightly different. Daisuke and Hitomi will both train you as far as the basics for everyday situations, while Kisara and Renka will consult when you get to the point of sparring,” he told Kit.\n\n“So... wait... I have 2 masters?” Kit asked him.\n\n“While the two of them are masters of the arts, we aren’t exactly sure as to your... tendencies, and so while you’re learning you’ll work with both of them until such a time as we can get you all figured,” the elder continued.\n\n“Thank you... sir,” Kit said unsure.\n\n“You’re a pupil here now... I am your sensei,” he corrected Kit.\n\n“I thought that sensei meant master or teacher in the old languages of the west?” Kit asked him.\n\n“Sensei, as a literal translation means ‘one who came before’ and is generally used in relation to teachers and masters, however it is also used as a term of respect for a master of their craft... since you use the western language and there is no full equivalent, sensei will do for me, master for Daisuke and Hitomi though,” he tutored Kit politely.\n\n“No offense elder, but I’m rarin’ to go,” Daisuke commented from the side.\n\n“I... as well... am anxious,” Hitomi commented timidly.\n\n“Today you’ll start out with the basics, we’ll show you proper hitting form and the like,” the elder decided.\n\n“What am I supposed to wear for training?” Kit asked them. “I mean do I wear something like they do... or?” Kit asked them politely.\n\n“What’s... wrong... with what we wear?” Hitomi asked softly.\n\n“Uhm... er... nothing, it’s just a little... traditional,” Kit responded.\n\n“Kids today have no respect for the old ways, at least not ‘til somebody like me comes around and beats it inta ya. Gym fads come and go, but the shozoku is eternal,” Daisuke commented to one side.\n\n“What you wear doesn’t really matter all that much to us here, we have a set of gym clothes for you to wear if you’d like, but if you want something else we can procure it at any time,” the elder laughed. They took him out the back of the main building to a second smaller building, inside was a full athletic gym and dojo, complete with two types of sparring ring, one had ropes like a boxing ring, the other was just a wide platform with a mat on it.\n\nWaiting for Kit in the locker room was a pair of black athletic shorts and a white athletic shirt. Kit felt silly dressing up like this, especially since he wasn’t particularly experienced at sports, but he figured he had to just go with it for a while.\n\nHe stepped out into the gym after he had finished and Kisara and Renka were both there too, they were both in a ring fighting with each other, but they stopped as he stepped in. Kisara wore these long red pants with gold stripes up the side that looked kinda heavy even from a distance, and a white sports bra on her. Her hands were wrapped in bandages, and now that she wasn’t wearing a uniform he could see that she was really fit. Renka on the other hand wore pink shorts and a pink sports bra, and her long hair was rolled back into a loose bun, and without her glasses. “Wow Kit, your body is well built,” Renka called out as he approached.\n\n“You wouldn’t have known from the school uniform,” Kisara added in. Kit started to blush, nobody really commented on how he looked. He also couldn’t help \n\n“Yeah... guess that’s because of work... I had to move the heavy stuff and set up the displays. You guys too, by the way,” he answered nervously.\n\n“We weren’t sure if you wanted to wear gloves or bandages, so we figured we’d let you choose, really it’s about preference, really no advantage to one or the other, all they really do is protect the bones in your hand,” Daisuke said as he came up.\n\n“I don’t really like the feel of leather on my fur, so can we go with bandages?” Kit asked.\n\n“No problem... but they take more time,” Hitomi told him. They spent the next few minutes showing him how to wrap his hands properly so the bandages wouldn’t slip. “Make... a fist,” Hitomi told him. Kit clenched his hands and held them up.\n\n“Alright well at least we know our starting point... we’re going with skill base zero. It means you don’t know anything about fighting, no offense. What you did there is called a clench and while it will hurt somebody, it’ll also hurt you. What I want you to do when you make a fist is this. First instead of fanning your fingers out when you start, hold them all together like they do when people salute, then start rolling your fingers down, so that when you’re done you should just be gripping the fold of your knuckle. What this does is give you a tighter fist to cause more damage to them and less damage to you,” Daisuke explained as he demonstrated what he wanted. Kit followed his instructions as he explained. He noticed his fist was better. “Oh I forgot the other important part about this. Your thumb is actually important when making a fist, you don’t want it to cross your middle finger like it is there, because it rounds out your fist, instead put it so that it crosses your index finger maybe JUST touching the middle finger, it makes for a good striking surface,” Daisuke told him, then he stood back and let Kit hit the bag.\n\nAfter four hits Hitomi stopped him. “I’ll teach you how to improve your form real quick, first of all, you’re too far away. To demonstrate I’ll show you. What I want you to do is stand just as you were with the bag and try to push me over,” Hitomi explained to him. He stood in front of her, extended his arms all the way out and tried to push her back. It was like trying to push a wall. “Ok, now I want you to step in a little closer, bend your arms and try it again, you’ll see,” she coached him. This time when he pushed she fell back a step before it became like a wall. “See the difference it makes? Punches aren’t at their strongest when your arm is fully extended, but just a little before, this way you have a little room to follow through with. Most people don’t believe it when I tell them that unarmed fights are won up-close,” she explained, she was still shy but she didn’t seem as hesitant to speak anymore.\n\n“When you hit, don’t twist your fist so much, I honestly don’t know why, but for some reason if you only twist about halfway, so your fist is diagonal you tend to do less to your own hand and more to whatever you’re hitting,” she explained further.\n\n“Finally it doesn’t matter how many of those punches you throw, you can’t knock somebody out with them because you’re not putting your weight behind them. You’re losing most of your power by using only your arms, pivot when you punch and you’ll land a more solid strike,” Hitomi finished.\n\n“Typical striker for ya, she can tell ya 15 ways to do a punch and they’re all right, but the moment a grappler tells you how to do... they’re wrong,” Daisuke commented irritably.\n\n“I didn’t say... you were wrong. I said... he had... bad form,” she answered with her usual shyness returning. Her face was somewhat red.\n\n“Uh... excuse me but... a striker?... Grappler?” Kit said nervously.\n\n“A striker is a type of fighter that prefers to fight using strikes as opposed to grappling, a striker is traditionally a stand-up fighter, meaning they prefer fight on their feet than fight on the ground,” Hitomi explained. It seemed she only lost her tentative side when she was explaining things about fighting. “During a street fight you’ll keep your fist clenched... most street fights last about 5 to 10 seconds and then it’s over, during a match you’ll want to hold your fist gently and then clench just before you strike for your own stamina,” she clarified for him.\n\nAfter that Kit began punching using her tips and noticed that the bag would would swing back farther. “Hit it about a thousand times for now,” Daisuke told him. Kit did as he was told, however he noticed that Daisuke only counted about every third hit.\n\n“You’re not counting most of them,” Kit remarked after Daisuke had called out 133.\n\n“I’m only counting out the good ones, you have to use proper form every time,” Daisuke told him. He was panting heavily by the time he finally managed to finish up.\n\n“You’ve got pretty good stamina, most people would have collapsed after about 600, but I guess all that work helped you there. While you have power, your punches are slow... tomorrow we’ll have you start wearing weighted gloves outside of your bandages, that way when you take them off you’ll get faster, they should help improve your stamina too, when you take them off that is... when you wear them they’re going to wreck your stamina,” Daisuke explained. Kisara and Renka were just heading off to the locker room then.\n\n“I think that’s enough... for tonight,” Hitomi commented.\n\n“Yeah you don’t want to wear yourself out just yet, not to mention you’re probably hurting after that beat down you got earlier,” Daisuke commented.\n\n“You’re dismissed,” Hitomi told him.\n\n“Um... where do I sleep?” Kit asked them after hesitating for a moment.\n\n“Oh... right, your room will be on the second floor of this building. Third door down, on the left side. I you want to live you won’t open the first two doors on that side, and you’ll knock before you open the only door on the right,” Daisuke warned him.\n\n“What are in those rooms?” Kit asked.\n\n“On the right is... the shower room, on the left are... Renka and Kisara’s rooms,” Hitomi answered as she leisurely walked away. “If you peek on them... you’ll be killed,” she said as she told him before she left the gym. Daisuke took off a moment later.\n\n“Hit the lights on your way out or the Elder will pitch a fit about the electric bill,” Daisuke called back at him as he too left.\n\nSlowly Kit wandered over to the stairs and hit the lights to the gym as he started up the stairs. He was almost to the top of the stairs when he heard their voices, they sounded like they were talking about something privately. Kit stopped on the stairs to listen in.\n\n“So what do you think of him?” Renka asked quietly.\n\n“Well... he’s not entirely hopeless... I guess,” Kisara answered her.\n\n“Cut him a little slack, Kisara. It’s his first day. I mean... he’s kinda cute, right?” Renka said with a giggle.\n\n“If you say so,” Kisara brushed her off. After that they started talking in a quieter voice. Kit had a slight blush to him, nobody had ever called him cute... at least nobody that wasn’t a relative. He kept going when he decided he wasn’t going to get anything new out of listening.\n\n“Oh, Kit, come on in here a sec,” Renka said as he was walking past her door. “We were just talking about your first lesson... what did you think?” Renka asked kindly. Her flowing blonde hair fell down in curtains past her shoulders, and she was wearing soft pink flannel pajamas with puppies on them. She was laying there on a big pink fluffy bed facing towards the door and her blouse was undone until the third button, Kit’s attention was diverted by this momentarily.\n\n“Renka, he’s looking at your puppies... the ones inside your shirt,” Kisara said as she cleared her throat. Renka quickly pressed her hand to her top and made sure he couldn’t see down it before she buttoned up a bit more, Kit blushed furiously. From the doorway this room was an assault of different shades of pink.\n\nKisara looked out of place as she slumped on the floor. She wore a black shirt that only covered one shoulder, on the other side she had a thick white bra strap, a pair of cutoff jeans that showed her well-toned and silky smooth legs, to cap it all off she wore a ragged tyrolean hat, that had faded to a pea green color with time and wear, its band made of a dark brown, braided hemp rope, and instead of a brush had brilliant, if somewhat bedraggled, yellow feathers that ended in goldenrod edges. Perhaps the most striking feature of her hat was the number of pins that adorned it, each one represented a place the owner had traveled to. Kit knew all of this because the bastard had a hat with a collection of pins just like it, when he was younger Kit used to ask him about each one. “Stop staring at my bra strap, and if you even think of looking down my shirt... I’ll kill you,” Kisara threatened him.\n\n“I- I won’t,” Kit swallowed hard.\n\n“So... you never said how you felt about your first day?” Renka pressed him. Kit just sort of smiled that confused smile he used a lot.\n\n“I feel like I’m doing a lot more wrong than I’m doing right, but hopefully that’ll stop some day soon,” Kit responded.\n\n“It looked to me like you were picking it up pretty quick. What do you think Kisara?” Renka asked her.\n\n“I think it’s still too soon to say,” Kisara said as she stood up and left. “Oh, and your sister wanted to see you in the main building,” she added from the hall.\n\n“Did I do something to upset her?” Kit asked as he turned to Renka.\n\n“She’s hard to understand sometimes,” Renka shrugged.\n\nIn the front building Kit found his sister’s room and tucked her in for bed like he had every day for the last two years. “Are you really going to fight?” Ayano asked him in his worried tone.\n\n“I don’t know if I can, but I want to have the choice. Watch me Ayano, I’m going to become a big brother you can be proud of,” Kit told her for a moment. For a moment her eyes were hard to read.\n\n“You’d better, because I’ll be watching you... you’d better turn out to be a real hero so I can feel proud when I  tell other kids that you’re my brother,” Ayano made him promise.\n\n“Someday... I will,” he promised her as he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead before he left to go back to his own room. ~\n\nKit lay in his bed for a few hours trying to sleep, but he spent most of the time trying to figure out the whirlwind of events that had happened on this day. This morning he’d been in a homeless shelter, and tonight he was here. This place wasn’t a home, but it was at least a place to stay. He wondered what life would have in store for him from here on. He was getting restless when he heard something coming from outside of his room. It was a soft sound, but in his past every time he’d heard a noise and not investigated it had meant that somebody in another room had turned up dead, Kit crawled out of his bed quietly. In the hallway he saw that there were lights coming from the first floor. He thought about it for a second but he was sure he’d shut the lights off when he’d gone to bed. He heard a strange sound coming from the main floor over and over again. Kisara’s door was shut tight and he couldn’t hear anything from her room when he marched past, but Renka was out like a light if her snoring was any indication.\n\nHe crept down the stairs on the legs of a mouse, he edged his way up to the wall of the stairwell and looked around the wall, desperately afraid that he’d stumbled onto something that would get him killed. When his eyes slid past the corner he saw Kisara standing there with her back to him, wailing away at the heavy bag with both hands. He was going to go back as soon as he saw what it was, but for some reason he instead decided he’d watch for a few seconds. Her brow wasn’t furrowed like it usually was, she looked almost peaceful as she danced around the bag. He saw from the side as she landed one solid punch and at the time she looked so cool.\n\n“You can come out... I know you’re there,” Kisara said as she stepped over to grab a bottle of water and toweled off her face. She was wearing the same training outfit he’d seen her in before.\n\n“I... I didn’t mean to intrude on anything I just heard a sound, and back at the shelter that can be dangerous, so I decided to go and take a look,” Kit explained.\n\n“Couldn’t sleep either?” she asked him as he came toward her.\n\n“Guess not, it’s been kind of a whirlwind of a day for me if you know what I mean,” He answered as he sat down on a weight lifting bench nearby.\n\n“Yeah, well Renka’s snoring makes it impossible to get a good night sleep, so I figured I’d come down and hit the bag until I was tired. Sorry if I’m being too loud,” she told him. She wasn’t acting the same as she usually did for some reason, usually she came off as a bit hostile, but now she seemed almost friendly. She went back to hitting the bag as he sat there. “If you’re not going to go back to sleep then you should put on your stuff and try hitting the bag a bit... it helps me to sleep at night,” she told him.\n\nTen minutes later Kit stood there at one of the bags next to her. She was doing a lot of different punches, but he focused on what he’d been shown that day. After a few shots Kisara looked over to him. “You’re lucky,” she commented.\n\n“What do you mean?” he asked her as he kept hitting.\n\n“You pick things up fast, you’re a quick learner... when my uncle started teaching me, it took me three days to hit properly like that, you’ve had less than three hours of training and already you’re hitting with it every time,” she explained.\n\n“I feel like an idiot sitting here with the same strike over and over while you go all ninja on that bag,” he responded with a laugh.\n\n“I can go ‘ninja’ on the bag because I’ve been learning how to fight since I was Ayano’s age. Like everything else, this takes time, even for somebody who learns fast,” she returned.\n\n“Really?” Kit asked her as he stopped.\n\n“What you didn’t think you’d just start out and you’d be good. It doesn’t work that way. Nobody has that much talent, like I said, you’re lucky that your talent in life seems to be that you’re a fast learner,” she told him.\n\n“Oh... no... I meant the part about training since you were my sister’s age,” Kit clarified for her.\n\n“Somewhere in there,” she returned simply.\n\n“Now I really feel like a fool, you’ve been doing this for so long and you’re so good at it, and here I am the same age and I have no clue what I’m doing,” Kit told her with a laugh.\n\n“You’ll get there, like I said, give it some time,” she told him again.\n\n“So... what’s your talent?” Kit asked her after a second.\n\n“What do you mean?” she asked for clarification.\n\n“Well, you said that my talent is that I learn fast... what’s yours?” Kit asked her.\n\n“I’m unlucky... I don’t have a talent, so I have to work hard to gain skill,” she answered him.\n\n“Aren’t they the same?” he asked.\n\n“I forgot for a second that you’re new to all this. Talent is when a person can come into something for the first time and do rather well at it, maybe not perfect, but well. Skill is something you develop when you don’t have anything in the way of talent, it’s harder to get... it comes from effort. A person who has talent at something can look cool when they’re doing it for the first time,” she explained.\n\n“Then shouldn’t you say your talent is effort? I mean if you don’t have any talent and instead you try hard to make up for your lack of talent, then it sounds to me like your talent is the ability to work hard. I mean... look at you right now, it’s like 1 in the morning and you’re up hitting a heavy bag to get better, and you look pretty cool,” he explained to her, after a moment he got this odd feeling that he’d said something stupid so he scratched his head. ~\n\nKisara stopped hitting the bag for a moment to look at him. For some reason she felt a little flushed. “You’re just saying that because you don’t know much about fighting,” Kisara told him after a moment.\n\n“Well... that might be, but still you really did look pretty cute when I came in,” Kit told her after a moment. His face grew red when he realized what he’d said. “Cool... I meant cool... not cute... I mean... cute too... but I meant to say cool,” Kit tried to backpedal but the more he said the darker he turned. Kisara felt the flush creeping up her neck. She went to laugh at the way he reacted but it came out as a giggle... and then she knew something was wrong. Kisara didn’t giggle, she wasn’t the type, she never giggled. Now that she had she felt like she’d made a fool of herself in front of Kit and for some reason that made it worse. This whole situation was confusing her.\n\nKisara did what she had always done when she was confused by something... she left. “I’m gunna hit the showers,” she told him as she turned and headed up the stairs. As she started up the stairs the flush had died down, and her stomach was in knots. He noticed as she was walking away that her shirt was too tight, she hadn’t noticed it before, she must have washed this one too much. ~\n\nKit felt embarrassed by what had just happened. He tried to hit the bag a few more times but all he could think was how he’d just made such a colossal fool of himself by not watching what he’d said. He’d meant to call her cool, and instead the word cute had just slipped out of his mouth. Things had been going well between them, Kisara seemed to generally be warming up to him, but the moment that had slipped out she’d completely cooled off. He hadn’t meant to say cute, in fact he wasn’t sure he’d even thought it until after he said it, but now that he had said it, when he thought back, she was kind of cute back then. He waited until he heard the showers running upstairs to call it a night, so he wouldn’t have to face her again right away.\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "After dinner Kisara and Renka were sent out to start their evening training while the masters of the dojo spoke with Kit.

“I wanted to make this perfectly clear to you Kit. What we will teach you here is martial arts not violence. Despite public opinion there is a difference. Violence is fighting for the sake of fighting, martial arts are more about reasons than fighting. That being said most martial artists fight because they find it fun... they don’t seek to dominate their enemies like  most believe, but rather they seek the challenge of an opponent that can test their skills. However, what we teach here isn’t what you’d call tournament arts, instead our styles are more based on situations in the real world, that being said what you’ll learn here is only applicable in Vale Tudo tournaments. Those tournaments are usually considered the most brutal because there are considered “anything goes” fighting. What I’m saying is, you will fighting in matches until either you can’t fight any more or you surrender, there will be no judging for you to fall back on... no time limits to save you. The judges in these tournaments are simply there to check that you’re still conscious,” the elder explained to him.

“I didn’t think there were any rules to fights without judges?” Kit asked.

“Technically there aren’t, however there are a few courtesies that every fighter knows to extend, for instance you don’t attack a man’s groin and you don’t involve outsiders,” the elder explained.

“And you don’t kill each other,” Kit tacked on. The elders face turned slightly pale for a second.

“Some fighters believe this too, however, not all follow this code. If an enemy fights this type of warrior, they have to know when to quit, if they insist on continuing even when they should stop, they will be shown no mercy,” the elder answered him.

“You’re saying I could be killed?” Kit asked him.

“Well there are a few more rules, for instance it’s generally accepted that disciples don’t fight to the death, and masters don’t involve themselves in their students battles. Truthfully it’s a little pointless that first rule because you REALLY have to hate somebody to try and kill them,” Perrin explained.

“So, Daisuke won’t be able to save me again?” Kit asked them.

“Not the way he did today, he could call a stop to a match for you though,” Hitomi shrugged.

“Why would anybody want to do this? I mean fight,” Kit told them.

“In your case it holds something that you want desperately, a few things really, but most important among them is redemption. Your sister saw you at your lowest point this evening, and while she may not think less of you because of it, you’ll think less of yourself. By following this path, you can redeem yourself in your own eyes, by regaining your pride and dignity, and by having those around you witness you as you rise to your fullest potential,” the elder told him.

“Not to mention if he comes at you again you could kick that idiot badger’s ass,” Daisuke tagged on.

“Daisuke!” the elder said in a chastising voice.

“What? I said ‘if he comes after you again’... it’s not like I’m encouraging him to go looking for him or something,” Daiuske said defensively.

“So... who’s going to train me? Daisuke or Hitomi?” Kit asked him eventually.

“Don’t you want to be trained by me?” the elder asked him.

“Well... I thought... I thought that you trained them, and then they trained others, so that there was some sort of hierarchy... of course I want to be trained by the elder of the dojo,” Kit rationalized to him.

“If only. Sadly I have two students already and they keep me pretty busy as it is, even if they are almost finished with their training. I’m afraid that we’re going to do your training slightly different. Daisuke and Hitomi will both train you as far as the basics for everyday situations, while Kisara and Renka will consult when you get to the point of sparring,” he told Kit.

“So... wait... I have 2 masters?” Kit asked him.

“While the two of them are masters of the arts, we aren’t exactly sure as to your... tendencies, and so while you’re learning you’ll work with both of them until such a time as we can get you all figured,” the elder continued.

“Thank you... sir,” Kit said unsure.

“You’re a pupil here now... I am your sensei,” he corrected Kit.

“I thought that sensei meant master or teacher in the old languages of the west?” Kit asked him.

“Sensei, as a literal translation means ‘one who came before’ and is generally used in relation to teachers and masters, however it is also used as a term of respect for a master of their craft... since you use the western language and there is no full equivalent, sensei will do for me, master for Daisuke and Hitomi though,” he tutored Kit politely.

“No offense elder, but I’m rarin’ to go,” Daisuke commented from the side.

“I... as well... am anxious,” Hitomi commented timidly.

“Today you’ll start out with the basics, we’ll show you proper hitting form and the like,” the elder decided.

“What am I supposed to wear for training?” Kit asked them. “I mean do I wear something like they do... or?” Kit asked them politely.

“What’s... wrong... with what we wear?” Hitomi asked softly.

“Uhm... er... nothing, it’s just a little... traditional,” Kit responded.

“Kids today have no respect for the old ways, at least not ‘til somebody like me comes around and beats it inta ya. Gym fads come and go, but the shozoku is eternal,” Daisuke commented to one side.

“What you wear doesn’t really matter all that much to us here, we have a set of gym clothes for you to wear if you’d like, but if you want something else we can procure it at any time,” the elder laughed. They took him out the back of the main building to a second smaller building, inside was a full athletic gym and dojo, complete with two types of sparring ring, one had ropes like a boxing ring, the other was just a wide platform with a mat on it.

Waiting for Kit in the locker room was a pair of black athletic shorts and a white athletic shirt. Kit felt silly dressing up like this, especially since he wasn’t particularly experienced at sports, but he figured he had to just go with it for a while.

He stepped out into the gym after he had finished and Kisara and Renka were both there too, they were both in a ring fighting with each other, but they stopped as he stepped in. Kisara wore these long red pants with gold stripes up the side that looked kinda heavy even from a distance, and a white sports bra on her. Her hands were wrapped in bandages, and now that she wasn’t wearing a uniform he could see that she was really fit. Renka on the other hand wore pink shorts and a pink sports bra, and her long hair was rolled back into a loose bun, and without her glasses. “Wow Kit, your body is well built,” Renka called out as he approached.

“You wouldn’t have known from the school uniform,” Kisara added in. Kit started to blush, nobody really commented on how he looked. He also couldn’t help

“Yeah... guess that’s because of work... I had to move the heavy stuff and set up the displays. You guys too, by the way,” he answered nervously.

“We weren’t sure if you wanted to wear gloves or bandages, so we figured we’d let you choose, really it’s about preference, really no advantage to one or the other, all they really do is protect the bones in your hand,” Daisuke said as he came up.

“I don’t really like the feel of leather on my fur, so can we go with bandages?” Kit asked.

“No problem... but they take more time,” Hitomi told him. They spent the next few minutes showing him how to wrap his hands properly so the bandages wouldn’t slip. “Make... a fist,” Hitomi told him. Kit clenched his hands and held them up.

“Alright well at least we know our starting point... we’re going with skill base zero. It means you don’t know anything about fighting, no offense. What you did there is called a clench and while it will hurt somebody, it’ll also hurt you. What I want you to do when you make a fist is this. First instead of fanning your fingers out when you start, hold them all together like they do when people salute, then start rolling your fingers down, so that when you’re done you should just be gripping the fold of your knuckle. What this does is give you a tighter fist to cause more damage to them and less damage to you,” Daisuke explained as he demonstrated what he wanted. Kit followed his instructions as he explained. He noticed his fist was better. “Oh I forgot the other important part about this. Your thumb is actually important when making a fist, you don’t want it to cross your middle finger like it is there, because it rounds out your fist, instead put it so that it crosses your index finger maybe JUST touching the middle finger, it makes for a good striking surface,” Daisuke told him, then he stood back and let Kit hit the bag.

After four hits Hitomi stopped him. “I’ll teach you how to improve your form real quick, first of all, you’re too far away. To demonstrate I’ll show you. What I want you to do is stand just as you were with the bag and try to push me over,” Hitomi explained to him. He stood in front of her, extended his arms all the way out and tried to push her back. It was like trying to push a wall. “Ok, now I want you to step in a little closer, bend your arms and try it again, you’ll see,” she coached him. This time when he pushed she fell back a step before it became like a wall. “See the difference it makes? Punches aren’t at their strongest when your arm is fully extended, but just a little before, this way you have a little room to follow through with. Most people don’t believe it when I tell them that unarmed fights are won up-close,” she explained, she was still shy but she didn’t seem as hesitant to speak anymore.

“When you hit, don’t twist your fist so much, I honestly don’t know why, but for some reason if you only twist about halfway, so your fist is diagonal you tend to do less to your own hand and more to whatever you’re hitting,” she explained further.

“Finally it doesn’t matter how many of those punches you throw, you can’t knock somebody out with them because you’re not putting your weight behind them. You’re losing most of your power by using only your arms, pivot when you punch and you’ll land a more solid strike,” Hitomi finished.

“Typical striker for ya, she can tell ya 15 ways to do a punch and they’re all right, but the moment a grappler tells you how to do... they’re wrong,” Daisuke commented irritably.

“I didn’t say... you were wrong. I said... he had... bad form,” she answered with her usual shyness returning. Her face was somewhat red.

“Uh... excuse me but... a striker?... Grappler?” Kit said nervously.

“A striker is a type of fighter that prefers to fight using strikes as opposed to grappling, a striker is traditionally a stand-up fighter, meaning they prefer fight on their feet than fight on the ground,” Hitomi explained. It seemed she only lost her tentative side when she was explaining things about fighting. “During a street fight you’ll keep your fist clenched... most street fights last about 5 to 10 seconds and then it’s over, during a match you’ll want to hold your fist gently and then clench just before you strike for your own stamina,” she clarified for him.

After that Kit began punching using her tips and noticed that the bag would would swing back farther. “Hit it about a thousand times for now,” Daisuke told him. Kit did as he was told, however he noticed that Daisuke only counted about every third hit.

“You’re not counting most of them,” Kit remarked after Daisuke had called out 133.

“I’m only counting out the good ones, you have to use proper form every time,” Daisuke told him. He was panting heavily by the time he finally managed to finish up.

“You’ve got pretty good stamina, most people would have collapsed after about 600, but I guess all that work helped you there. While you have power, your punches are slow... tomorrow we’ll have you start wearing weighted gloves outside of your bandages, that way when you take them off you’ll get faster, they should help improve your stamina too, when you take them off that is... when you wear them they’re going to wreck your stamina,” Daisuke explained. Kisara and Renka were just heading off to the locker room then.

“I think that’s enough... for tonight,” Hitomi commented.

“Yeah you don’t want to wear yourself out just yet, not to mention you’re probably hurting after that beat down you got earlier,” Daisuke commented.

“You’re dismissed,” Hitomi told him.

“Um... where do I sleep?” Kit asked them after hesitating for a moment.

“Oh... right, your room will be on the second floor of this building. Third door down, on the left side. I you want to live you won’t open the first two doors on that side, and you’ll knock before you open the only door on the right,” Daisuke warned him.

“What are in those rooms?” Kit asked.

“On the right is... the shower room, on the left are... Renka and Kisara’s rooms,” Hitomi answered as she leisurely walked away. “If you peek on them... you’ll be killed,” she said as she told him before she left the gym. Daisuke took off a moment later.

“Hit the lights on your way out or the Elder will pitch a fit about the electric bill,” Daisuke called back at him as he too left.

Slowly Kit wandered over to the stairs and hit the lights to the gym as he started up the stairs. He was almost to the top of the stairs when he heard their voices, they sounded like they were talking about something privately. Kit stopped on the stairs to listen in.

“So what do you think of him?” Renka asked quietly.

“Well... he’s not entirely hopeless... I guess,” Kisara answered her.

“Cut him a little slack, Kisara. It’s his first day. I mean... he’s kinda cute, right?” Renka said with a giggle.

“If you say so,” Kisara brushed her off. After that they started talking in a quieter voice. Kit had a slight blush to him, nobody had ever called him cute... at least nobody that wasn’t a relative. He kept going when he decided he wasn’t going to get anything new out of listening.

“Oh, Kit, come on in here a sec,” Renka said as he was walking past her door. “We were just talking about your first lesson... what did you think?” Renka asked kindly. Her flowing blonde hair fell down in curtains past her shoulders, and she was wearing soft pink flannel pajamas with puppies on them. She was laying there on a big pink fluffy bed facing towards the door and her blouse was undone until the third button, Kit’s attention was diverted by this momentarily.

“Renka, he’s looking at your puppies... the ones inside your shirt,” Kisara said as she cleared her throat. Renka quickly pressed her hand to her top and made sure he couldn’t see down it before she buttoned up a bit more, Kit blushed furiously. From the doorway this room was an assault of different shades of pink.

Kisara looked out of place as she slumped on the floor. She wore a black shirt that only covered one shoulder, on the other side she had a thick white bra strap, a pair of cutoff jeans that showed her well-toned and silky smooth legs, to cap it all off she wore a ragged tyrolean hat, that had faded to a pea green color with time and wear, its band made of a dark brown, braided hemp rope, and instead of a brush had brilliant, if somewhat bedraggled, yellow feathers that ended in goldenrod edges. Perhaps the most striking feature of her hat was the number of pins that adorned it, each one represented a place the owner had traveled to. Kit knew all of this because the bastard had a hat with a collection of pins just like it, when he was younger Kit used to ask him about each one. “Stop staring at my bra strap, and if you even think of looking down my shirt... I’ll kill you,” Kisara threatened him.

“I- I won’t,” Kit swallowed hard.

“So... you never said how you felt about your first day?” Renka pressed him. Kit just sort of smiled that confused smile he used a lot.

“I feel like I’m doing a lot more wrong than I’m doing right, but hopefully that’ll stop some day soon,” Kit responded.

“It looked to me like you were picking it up pretty quick. What do you think Kisara?” Renka asked her.

“I think it’s still too soon to say,” Kisara said as she stood up and left. “Oh, and your sister wanted to see you in the main building,” she added from the hall.

“Did I do something to upset her?” Kit asked as he turned to Renka.

“She’s hard to understand sometimes,” Renka shrugged.

In the front building Kit found his sister’s room and tucked her in for bed like he had every day for the last two years. “Are you really going to fight?” Ayano asked him in his worried tone.

“I don’t know if I can, but I want to have the choice. Watch me Ayano, I’m going to become a big brother you can be proud of,” Kit told her for a moment. For a moment her eyes were hard to read.

“You’d better, because I’ll be watching you... you’d better turn out to be a real hero so I can feel proud when I  tell other kids that you’re my brother,” Ayano made him promise.

“Someday... I will,” he promised her as he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead before he left to go back to his own room. ~

Kit lay in his bed for a few hours trying to sleep, but he spent most of the time trying to figure out the whirlwind of events that had happened on this day. This morning he’d been in a homeless shelter, and tonight he was here. This place wasn’t a home, but it was at least a place to stay. He wondered what life would have in store for him from here on. He was getting restless when he heard something coming from outside of his room. It was a soft sound, but in his past every time he’d heard a noise and not investigated it had meant that somebody in another room had turned up dead, Kit crawled out of his bed quietly. In the hallway he saw that there were lights coming from the first floor. He thought about it for a second but he was sure he’d shut the lights off when he’d gone to bed. He heard a strange sound coming from the main floor over and over again. Kisara’s door was shut tight and he couldn’t hear anything from her room when he marched past, but Renka was out like a light if her snoring was any indication.

He crept down the stairs on the legs of a mouse, he edged his way up to the wall of the stairwell and looked around the wall, desperately afraid that he’d stumbled onto something that would get him killed. When his eyes slid past the corner he saw Kisara standing there with her back to him, wailing away at the heavy bag with both hands. He was going to go back as soon as he saw what it was, but for some reason he instead decided he’d watch for a few seconds. Her brow wasn’t furrowed like it usually was, she looked almost peaceful as she danced around the bag. He saw from the side as she landed one solid punch and at the time she looked so cool.

“You can come out... I know you’re there,” Kisara said as she stepped over to grab a bottle of water and toweled off her face. She was wearing the same training outfit he’d seen her in before.

“I... I didn’t mean to intrude on anything I just heard a sound, and back at the shelter that can be dangerous, so I decided to go and take a look,” Kit explained.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” she asked him as he came toward her.

“Guess not, it’s been kind of a whirlwind of a day for me if you know what I mean,” He answered as he sat down on a weight lifting bench nearby.

“Yeah, well Renka’s snoring makes it impossible to get a good night sleep, so I figured I’d come down and hit the bag until I was tired. Sorry if I’m being too loud,” she told him. She wasn’t acting the same as she usually did for some reason, usually she came off as a bit hostile, but now she seemed almost friendly. She went back to hitting the bag as he sat there. “If you’re not going to go back to sleep then you should put on your stuff and try hitting the bag a bit... it helps me to sleep at night,” she told him.

Ten minutes later Kit stood there at one of the bags next to her. She was doing a lot of different punches, but he focused on what he’d been shown that day. After a few shots Kisara looked over to him. “You’re lucky,” she commented.

“What do you mean?” he asked her as he kept hitting.

“You pick things up fast, you’re a quick learner... when my uncle started teaching me, it took me three days to hit properly like that, you’ve had less than three hours of training and already you’re hitting with it every time,” she explained.

“I feel like an idiot sitting here with the same strike over and over while you go all ninja on that bag,” he responded with a laugh.

“I can go ‘ninja’ on the bag because I’ve been learning how to fight since I was Ayano’s age. Like everything else, this takes time, even for somebody who learns fast,” she returned.

“Really?” Kit asked her as he stopped.

“What you didn’t think you’d just start out and you’d be good. It doesn’t work that way. Nobody has that much talent, like I said, you’re lucky that your talent in life seems to be that you’re a fast learner,” she told him.

“Oh... no... I meant the part about training since you were my sister’s age,” Kit clarified for her.

“Somewhere in there,” she returned simply.

“Now I really feel like a fool, you’ve been doing this for so long and you’re so good at it, and here I am the same age and I have no clue what I’m doing,” Kit told her with a laugh.

“You’ll get there, like I said, give it some time,” she told him again.

“So... what’s your talent?” Kit asked her after a second.

“What do you mean?” she asked for clarification.

“Well, you said that my talent is that I learn fast... what’s yours?” Kit asked her.

“I’m unlucky... I don’t have a talent, so I have to work hard to gain skill,” she answered him.

“Aren’t they the same?” he asked.

“I forgot for a second that you’re new to all this. Talent is when a person can come into something for the first time and do rather well at it, maybe not perfect, but well. Skill is something you develop when you don’t have anything in the way of talent, it’s harder to get... it comes from effort. A person who has talent at something can look cool when they’re doing it for the first time,” she explained.

“Then shouldn’t you say your talent is effort? I mean if you don’t have any talent and instead you try hard to make up for your lack of talent, then it sounds to me like your talent is the ability to work hard. I mean... look at you right now, it’s like 1 in the morning and you’re up hitting a heavy bag to get better, and you look pretty cool,” he explained to her, after a moment he got this odd feeling that he’d said something stupid so he scratched his head. ~

Kisara stopped hitting the bag for a moment to look at him. For some reason she felt a little flushed. “You’re just saying that because you don’t know much about fighting,” Kisara told him after a moment.

“Well... that might be, but still you really did look pretty cute when I came in,” Kit told her after a moment. His face grew red when he realized what he’d said. “Cool... I meant cool... not cute... I mean... cute too... but I meant to say cool,” Kit tried to backpedal but the more he said the darker he turned. Kisara felt the flush creeping up her neck. She went to laugh at the way he reacted but it came out as a giggle... and then she knew something was wrong. Kisara didn’t giggle, she wasn’t the type, she never giggled. Now that she had she felt like she’d made a fool of herself in front of Kit and for some reason that made it worse. This whole situation was confusing her.

Kisara did what she had always done when she was confused by something... she left. “I’m gunna hit the showers,” she told him as she turned and headed up the stairs. As she started up the stairs the flush had died down, and her stomach was in knots. He noticed as she was walking away that her shirt was too tight, she hadn’t noticed it before, she must have washed this one too much. ~

Kit felt embarrassed by what had just happened. He tried to hit the bag a few more times but all he could think was how he’d just made such a colossal fool of himself by not watching what he’d said. He’d meant to call her cool, and instead the word cute had just slipped out of his mouth. Things had been going well between them, Kisara seemed to generally be warming up to him, but the moment that had slipped out she’d completely cooled off. He hadn’t meant to say cute, in fact he wasn’t sure he’d even thought it until after he said it, but now that he had said it, when he thought back, she was kind of cute back then. He waited until he heard the showers running upstairs to call it a night, so he wouldn’t have to face her again right away.

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