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RP: ZHS [OVA 4] Martial Arts 101

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Navian

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Zenjinkaze Fighting High School
Classroom

The Ketsurui clan's wandering samurai stood in the front of a classroom, hands behind her back as she waited for students to arrive. She looked austere as her lips tightened and her colorless eyes followed the first student to arrive, Yuu Sakaki.

The Type 33 Neko entered the room with a curt bow and said, "Onegaishimasu," as she prepared to be instructed. She went to an area of the classroom just to the right of Rei and sat down on the floor, knees bent and feet tucked under her.

Her Nepleslian student, Sarena, arrived a moment late, peering anxiously around the corner, before walking in with her head down, and her hands firmly clasped at her waist. Her bow did not pass her shoulders, and knelt stiffly near the middle of the room, without ever turning her eyes away from the floor.

"Hajime, let's begin," Rei said after the three of them had waited in the room for a few elongated moments. She instructed them to close their eyes, "Mokuso." When the students had been given enough time to sufficiently ruminate on what they were about to do, she said, "Yame, end." Once their eyes were open, she had them stand, and brought them through foot exercises, moving from one part of the foot to another, then up and down on the balls of their feet, rocking back to their heels. Sarena wobbled, and was soon waving her hands around for balance, becoming unsteady each time she rolled back onto her heels.

"Are?" Rei said with a questioning lilt to her voice, but continued on with the stretches, watching the students out of the corner of her eyes as she brought them through the leg stretches. Moving on from them, she had the students relax their hand muscles, then arms were worked and, finally, she had them begin blocks.

"Ichi, ni, san..." she counted as they moved their arms up into blocks. The first sets went well, then the second chest-level blocks were of the same caliber. Rei stopped her own demonstrations of the blocks as she counted. "Ku, ju! Yame. I would like to walk us through the kicks and punches that you probably already know, but first, let us see these blocks in action. Sarena, if you will," Rei said as she held Sakaki's arm and shifted her towards the position Rei had been in while she led the stretches. Rei continued speaking, repeating her words before extending her sentence, "Sarena, if you will, continue your chest-level blocks for me, then I will begin punching at your sternum, lightly."

Sarena tensed, but raised her arms in a cross-guard position, before relaxing to prepare for the blocks she'd been demonstrating. She shifted her feet uncomfortably as she sought to find the right angle, not used to having an opponent's guard placed near her waist level.

Rei began her series of punches with a few fast, but gentle ones that withdrew before they could touch Sarena, as the student pushed Rei's arms away from her sternum with her blocking motion. The pair continued the action, almost rhythmically, as they both became accustomed even more to the movement of either punching or blocking.

They only ended when Rei stepped aside and said, "Now, Sakaki," she said, pulling on Sakaki's arm and placing her in front of Sarena, "you will take the position of the defender and Sarena, you will be punching. Hajime!"

Sakaki then reflexively lifted her arms up to their positions for mid-level blocks and moved swiftly as Sarena threw awkward straight punches, left and right. The two of them continued to do so for minutes on end, it seemed, before Rei again said, "Yame!" Their arms went back to their sides and Rei congratulated them by lifting herself into the air and patting each on the head and said to them, "Well done, well done. Now, I would like to see the two of you begin combat, using only those two techniques. No hitting below or above the sternum and no use of the feet or legs, besides for moving stances. Hajime!"

Sakaki began bouncing on the balls of her feet and moved back and forth, stable and precise in her motions. She swung forward with a fist, the first of the two to do so. Sarena brought her forearm down to Sakaki's wrist to deflect it, but only as the fist reached her. She tensed up for the blow, knowing she couldn't step back.

Sakaki's fist didn't touch, though, as she had been trained to never needlessly strike, instead, it jolted back to her side just as quickly as it had sprung forward. Sakaki bounced backwards and looked at Sarena, wondering if she would assault, if given the opportunity, or not. Sakaki bounced forward and made herself an easy target for Sarena, ready to use the block they had just trained on.

Sarena didn't know why she hadn't been struck, but she did take the opportunity, and began a combination. The first punch was the same she'd been using, but was stiffened somewhat by the strength in her shoulder, not just that in her arm. It was off-target at Sakaki's own shoulder, missing her sterum by far. The second was a right hook, using most of her body, and aimed right at Sakaki's chest. It wasn't quite on the pattern.

Using her arms to block off the punches in the same fashion as she had been instructed, Sakaki was unable to properly thwart the attack. First her shoulder was punched, then, reeling from the impact, as she looked at her instructor instead of her opponent, Sakaki was punched in the chest by Sarena. She used her gravity manipulation to be pulled back and up, away from the punch, upon the first moment she had felt the punch.

Rei looked between the two and hovered up to tug on Sakaki's uniform and brought her back down to the ground. "Ready stance," she said and Sakaki put her hands up in defense, and put one foot in front of the other, awaiting another attack, willing to do more than just a middle block. "Hajime!" Rei said as she stepped away and folded her hands behind her back.

Sarena took a step back, and a step forward again, meanwhile, glancing uncertainly toward her teacher. At the signal to resume, she began an uppercut, hesitated, then threw another, very weak right hook.
Sakaki moved quickly to duck away from the right hook, lowering herself almost completely, with her fists still raised defensively. She popped back up and made a quick jabbing motion not meant to strike towards Sarena's head, then forcefully pressed her other fist towards Sarena's stomach, pushing towards impact. Even if just a tap, Sakaki wanted to get her punch to connect.

Despite that her her knees were still bent from the aborted uppercut, Sarena's right arm was too high to defend with. She slung her left arm across her midsection, only aiming to block, and not parry.

Sakaki's forearm felt the pressure of Sarena's arm, and she grimaced as she realized her punch would not push through. She stepped forward as her arms was pushed to the side by Sarena's, and forcibly pushed her heel against the inside of Sarena's front shin, effectively trying to sweep her leg. Before she could, though, Rei pulled on her arm and pinched her sharply.

"Yame, yame, stop. I said only middle blocks and punches, none of what you both did. For that, you will get to do conditioning. Here," Rei said, demonstrating on Sakaki. She threw her leg towards her inner shin and all Sakaki could do was raise the leg. She winced at the pain of the impact on her shin. "Now you," Rei said and Sakaki pushed her leg forward, only to get caught by Rei's as she lifted it.

"But won't that hurt us?" Yuu Sakaki asked and Rei nodded.

"Hajime."

Sakaki held her hands up as she swung her leg forward again, towards Sarena's shin, as if she were sweeping the leg as she had attempted earlier. Having never done this before, Sarena could only try to mimic the movement she'd seen demonstrated, without understanding. The pair continued for several minutes, until both of their shins ached from the pain, before Rei allowed them to attempt to spar again.

"You may kick, this time," she prefaced the sparring match by saying, and to Sakaki said, "Are you going to want to sweep with that leg?"

Sakaki looked at the spot where her shins had hit Sarena's, which were reddened and not yet swollen, but the pain was still felt. She shook her head, no.

"Huhuhuhu," Rei laughed before saying "Hajime!" once more.

Sakaki, with her hands up and bouncing on her feet, was ready for anything Sarena threw at her. Sarena's bruised shins, meanwhile, made it even harder for her maintain balance, and she struggled with her normal guard position. All she did was try to make punches like Rei had shown her before, without any strength in them. Sakaki found them trivially easy to block.

Pivoting off of her left foot, Sakaki delivered a kick with a tremendous amount of force behind it to Sarena's chest with her right foot, leaving the Nepleslian with little option than to try to block or get out of the way. If it had been a spin kick, Sarena might have had time to move, but as it was, she may as well have been rooted in place. Sarena tried to catch the leg with her arms, as much as was possible, to blunt the impact. Sakaki, though, pushed even harder, and felt her kick deliver all its energy before she withdrew her leg in a quick snapping motion.

She persevered, and threw another punch down towards Sarena's lower section, beneath where her guard had been. Sarena was falling already, and an additional strike, after she losing her grip, would only add more disorder to her unbalanced state. Her head moved forward, her torso twisted to the left, and her legs seemed to receive useless mixed messages. She still kept her right arm up to protect her upper body, but her left seemed to have decided that blocking the floor was a higher priority than more strikes from Sakaki.

The punch nearly connected before Sakaki gasped, and fumbled to grab at Sarena with her extended hand, as the girl fell to the side. Without meaning to, she inadvertently pushed the Nepleslian down even harder. If it had not been for quick action from Rei, Sakaki would have likely caused the girl to slam into the ground hard enough to sprain her wrist. Rather than let that happen, Rei flew forward and planted her feet on the area where the girl would likely land, and put her hands between the girl's shoulder and floor, catching her before she could fall all the way.

Sarena winced in anticipation, but was surprised when the expected impact did not come. She looked around to sort out what had just happened, before stammering, "Ah... arigato!" and nodding her head brightly in thanks, certainly not able to bow from this position.

Once Rei let her down, Sarena pulled her legs in and pulled herself back to her feet very quickly, though she was still left holding her midsection; winded and flushed, if not otherwise harmed. She staggered around a few steps, trying to find her balance again.

"Again," Rei said, standing as she stepped away, "Hajime."

Sakaki looked to Sarena quizzically, wanting to ask if she was okay, but instead understood her sensei was asking her to spar, and that was what she would do. She again bounced from foot to foot before punching forward, first at Sarena's sternum, then her face, neither pushed far enough to come close to where Sarena could block them. Both were meant to deter Sarena from noticing Sakaki's knee as it came forward, towards Sarena's stomach.

Between her pain and her disorientation, Sarena had a limited amount of things she still allowed herself to think about, this far into the fight. She twisted as she moved to block Sakaki's first strike, uselessly, ignored the second, and was beginning a strong punch with her left when Sakaki's knee struck her. She paused briefly to flinch, and started feeling sick. Rather than simply cave in to further blow, she at least tried to finish her punch, throwing it hard, though not far from how it had already been telegraphed. Her right arm moved down to interfere with Sakaki's defense, though it was more like a shove than a proper strike.

Sakaki moved away from Sarena, allowing herself to be pushed away, and took stock of the situation. It seemed Sarena could forcefully take command of the fight in a matter of seconds, and Sakaki didn't want to see that happen. She pursued victory, as she pressed forward with her fists, punching in a flurry, ad nauseum, hoping one would make contact.

Sarena blocked many strikes, not always effectively, and Sakaki had her tied up. There was no way to block everything, not with her reactions, and she'd likely be feeling a few the next day. But with Sarena having ten kilos and half a foot on her opponent, Sakaki's blows weren't enough to end the fight... not until she lost her balance entirely, at least. On her back foot and unable to see another way past, Sarena gingerly raised her other foot, and slammed it down on top of Sakaki's, heel-first, hoping to buy some time.

Sakaki, hurt and in horror at the pain, lifted herself off of the ground, and floated in confusion for a moment before returning her mind back to the fight. She swung her leg again at Sarena, recalling it did the job last time. She pushed it forward, aiming at the top of Sarena's shoulder. Sakaki had put a good amount of her body mass into the kick, enough to knock the Nepleslian girl to the ground, and Sarena had no defense but to roll with the blow. She botched it by leaving the ground just before the strike, as if still attempting to dodge.

There was a 'pop' as Sarena's shoulder joint dislocated, and she landed with a crash and a bounce, though this did no more harm, as it had been an intentional dive. She did not seem too distressed by her shoulder, though she could not use her arm, and resetting it would likely hurt more than its dislocation had. Sarena shook her head as she struggled to stand up again, in less of a hurry this time. She knew she had lost already, despite her adrenaline rush.

Upon hearing that 'pop', Rei immediately moved between Sakaki and Sarena, and yelled out for them to end, saying, "Yame, yame!" She then hurried to Sarena, and held the healthy shoulder in one hand as her other gripped the mauled one. Pushing with just a fraction of her strength, was enough to relocate the joint. "Does that feel better, now?" she asked Sarena after, administering the aid.

Sarena shut her eyes and grimaced at the unexpectedly prompt treatment. "Um... yes!" she lied. Still, it became true within a few seconds. "Ouch," she commented belatedly. She flexed her fingers to show that her arm was still working, but still held her upper arm steady with her left hand.

"Then, let us continue with the lesson. Please, sit." she said. As they did, she took her place at the head of the classroom and sat down. "You have learned an invaluable lesson today, that there is a difference between being hard and soft in your movements. When Sakaki pulled her punches, she was being soft, while when you stomped her foot, Sarena, you were being hard.

"There is a place for hard and a place for soft movements. I want us to focus more on being soft in sparring, and hard in conditioning. When you were hitting shins, that was conditioning. When one of you blocked and one of you punched, that was conditioning. Conditioning is meant to strengthen the body to its breaking point, then further that breaking point from the point in which you started.

"In sparring, you are developing the techniques to be employed later on, but it is not conditioning. It is not meant to further your breaking point, it is meant to further your technique. The difference will make itself clear with enough guidance and training. Now, mokuso," she said as she closed her eyes. After a few moments of reflection, she said, "Yame. Now, do you need to see Shayla, Sarena?"

Sarena had started to shake as her adrenaline rush ended, and all the sensations from the knocks she'd received earlier began flowing back. She nodded, once, not trusting her voice at the time.

"Then let's get you to her," Rei said. "Sakaki, please join us."

Sarena stood up, swallowed hard, and protested weakly, "I... I can go on my own." She was crumpled and leaden-limbed, but not about to fall over without a push.

"Hai," Rei said in agreement and made eyes at Sakaki, telepathically telling her, "Follow her, not closely, and make sure she gets there just fine."

Sarena grabbed her bag and hung it on her good shoulder, walked out of the room, and looked around while she tried to remember the way. A few moments later, she lifted a pear from her pouch and took a big bite, before walking off to the principal's office. Sakaki slunk behind her after peering out from the door to the classroom.

She followed her the rest of the way to the principal/nurse's office, and when she saw that Sarena had arrived safely, Sakaki left the hallways to visit the courtyard, where she stared into the koi pond. She hoped for the cat to arrive, and ease her feelings of guilt.
 
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