YSS Yukika II Intermission One - A Light Workout

She never set out to inflict torture or hardship on her crew. No, for they were precious to her. Rather, Tachiko merely brought them along to do what she herself does. It just so happens that what Tachiko does, as a matter of course, is inflict torture and hardshup upon herself.

In those moments before First Shift took over duty, while the last Third Watch rotation still presided over the ship, it was time for the crew's physical training. Physical training, of course, had standards across the Star Army that had to be met, and the Nekovalkyrja, Yamataians, Nepleslians, and other advanced forms of humanity had less need for exercise to maintain optimal fitness. However, Tachiko was Tachiko, created in a different age as a different kind of Nekovalkyrja, and furthermore one who saw every tiny blemish and irregularity in herself magnified to a fatal shortcoming. The injuries she received and the rescue it warranted were, in her mind, an unacceptable failure on her behalf, and the overwhelming odds, completely unexpected, despite their monumental weight did nothing to dissuade her from such a harsh self-assessment. She was, in her belief, supposed to be the rescuer, just as she'd rushed into the jaws of a horrible, titanic monstrosity to pull a soldier from its gullet on her very first mission. Being the rescued was not acceptable. Thus, it necessitated a doubling down on her training. It meant she got even more Yugumo business done, wirelessly, while she zoned out during strenuous exercise.

The session began innocuously enough with standard Star Army stretches and light calisthenics. The following yoga was rather nice. The weight and resistance training that followed was a nightmare of pushing limbs and core to all they had until muscles failed and arms and legs were numb and abdominal muscles screamed. Then, and only then, once everyone's arms were numb, rubbery noodles that they could scarcely hold above their waists, did the grueling stint of bag drills, alternating heavy and speed, begin. And they did not end until the punches of the mightiest Nekovalkyrja or ID-SOL-descended Nepleslian hit like feathers. That's when Tachiko believed the ideal time for sword drills was, repetitive swings until perfection or aching hands could not longer grip them, whichever came first.

"Suit up!" Tachiko's command finally came once she'd reached some count in her head, or thought she'd reached some ideal in an overhead swing. "Explorer suit, sword, NSP. Back here in five minutes. Dismissed!" Once everyone had departed, she selected the scenario from the volumetric room's list of sims.

Yingzi finally understood what the purpose of Advancer's Zhenren Human Upgrade Package was all about. While she benefited from Advancer's earlier Iron Bone augmentation, it was inferior to the Zhenren I4B Musculoskeletal Enhancement Package as that workout had completely drained her will for life as she felt the screams of lactic acid and its inability to repair her muscles fast enough to keep up with demand as she went to do as was demanded. This universe had no place for humans for they would perish just working out at the Captain's pace.

"That's it, you win Star Army. I'm going Zhenren." she muttered to herself as she tried to move at a faster pace than a walk to get cabin so she could put on her explorer suit. She painfully started removing clothing even before she even got to her cabin's door, down to her undergarments as the cabin door hissed open to allow her to enter.

"5 minutes... talk about setting up for failure." she muttered to herself as she took out her explorer uniform. A model of the Megumi Environmental Skinsuit with an additional top layer and components of SAoY design submitted as a contender for the Explorer Uniform, the baggy nature of the deactivated uniform was a divine gift in her physical state as she merely pulled it up around her. With a mental command once she connected the high collar to her neural interface on her neck and zipped up, the uniform tightened to fit snugly to her body. She even programmed a gentle massage program just for occasions such as now.

Holstering her NSP and grabbing her non-ceremonial katana she used for practice, she made her slow return back.

VC Chamber

Taiga was watching. She was always watching or finding an excuse to observe.

Already in the Volumetrics Chamber she had not been participating in the physical merriments of torturing the enlisted. No, her duties had seen her busy elsewhere overseeing her staff but once that was done she had made her way to the goings on to watch and observe as she often tended to do whenever she knew there was some larger than average gathering of the crew to be had.

She regarded and examined. Casually taking up a corner she observed not for the selfish reasons of the young but for what her role on the ship demanded. She looked for burnout, she looked for wear or fatigue both physical and mental and what they might entail aswell as the small chance someone might go overboard and injure themselves or another.


And, of course, not to lie to herself she did like to watch for more selfish reasons when the young got all physical and hot & bothered.

Taking advantage of her height to stay out of sight at the start she took advantage of the clearing room to casually walk forwards, already dressed to impress with suit, and never without her sword or mini-laser as inconsequential they might seem to walked in tiny steps up to her captain until a few feet away and at shin height still on the ground she spoke up.

"Do you usually work them that hard, Shosa Motoyoshi?" She asked of her cute but still slightly older superior as she rested one hand on the her belt right before the pommel of her Wakizashi; Decorates in patterns of orange and black the blade was almost a quarter shorter than a base katana looking all the size of a toothpick but she showed no bother by it as though it was as natural on the small of her back as the explorer suit she wore.

She asked the question rather innocently as though by passing conversation but with the slightest undertone that made it subtle but not hiding that Taiga Kishikibe was openly using psychoanalysis on her captain as her profession often did.