First Squad Division, meet the boys of the Blood Moon.

The tall boy from the head of the class exchanged swings with Kevarre, finding that he himself was being dodge more easily than he'd expected. Having to accept several punches, the boy finally found himself bowled over on the ground. In a silent growl, he stood, eyeing Kevarre as if he couldn't believe that the other boy possessed so much skill.



No, that couldn't be it. It was beginner's luck, that was all.



“Is that proof enough or do you want me to knock you out? Course we could move on to something more challenging for me if you wish…”



The tall boy angled his body into a fighting stance again, and ignoring the jibe, shot warry glances between Kevarre and the rest of the Blood Moon boys.



It was then that Yeoun stepped up, allowing his arms to fall back to his sides, his generally neutral expression filled with amusement. "Well, it's no fun if we take them on one by one. We may as well take them all on at once." A sidelong glance sent Kevarre a purely knowing look, as they both knew that no matter how many in the regular class came at them, they couldn't lose.



Tall boy's ego wounded more than his body by the hits Kevarre had landed, shouted to the rest of the trainees on the training ground, eager to have his vengeance, "Let's put these sharddin' sons of whores in their place. Get 'em!" Of course none had what it took to defy him, and so the entire rest of the class (at least 25 boys) jumped into the fray.



The difference in the level of skill between the two groups of boys became quickly noticeable as the regular class rushed in. Two of them coming at Yeoun one right after the other, he spun clockwise, using a grappling technique to grab hold of the first boy’s right arm while he tried to punch, making it so that he was unable to move. Using the boy's body as a shield so that others wouldn’t come at him from the opposite side while he had his hands full, Yeoun drug his first opponent with him, stumbling to keep his footing every time Yeoun moved. Yeoun ducked under another incoming swipe, thrusting a kick into his attacker’s diaphragm, which sent the next boy tumbling over backwards.


Turning his attention back to the body-shield he still held captive in joint lock, Yeoun used that captive arm like a lever, flipping the boy through the air to ground him solidly on his back. Jarred, and unwilling to get back up, neither boy returned to fight him again right away.



As the next pair of opponents closed in, a third young man standing back out of the way but ready to jump in at a moment’s notice, Blood Moon’s Yeoun went into the air. Instead of dodging kicks and punches, Un sailed over them, his body twisting into tight spins and aerial kicks with great agility. His trainee’s uniform lifted about him, catching the air in circular fashion as he whirled. His movements flowed seamlessly around those who attacked him in effortless anticipation of each of their moves. Every time they struck out, he was no longer there, but somewhere in the air, exchanging a kick or knife-handed strike of his own.








Toshiro sill leaned his weight partially onto Ariadne where her back was against the wall, his head next to hers with forehead bowed almost to her shoulder sleepily. Here was not the appropriate place to be close to one another nor was it really an appropriate place to be confessing to each other –which is one reason why Shiro now held onto his words. But he needed to use the excuse of her checking his wound to be close to her. Ari ‘s presence made him feel revitalized. And he had missed her while they were apart.



“Are you able to move around like you used to? It’s not impeding your training much anymore I hope?”



“I’ve been building up my strength again and working on keeping that side stretched so that I don’t lose any flexibility. It’s been slow going though. The cut doesn’t bleed anymore…” He’d paused, letting his thoughts be sidetracked by Ariadne’s touch. But just as he was about to say something more, there were sounds of the trainees in an uproar outside. Taking only a split second to realize that it must be a fight breaking out, Toshiro smirked wryly, from one corner of his mouth, lifting his head at last, so that he could look into Ari’s eyes. His right hand came off her shoulder, leaning into it a bit as he planted his palm against the wall behind her, keeping her cornered.



“Do you have any treatment to administer? If so, you might consider doing so quickly, though.. I don’t think we have to worry about the boys killing eachother.” That sorry group of misfits. Inwardly to himself, he was shaking his head in wonderment. If those were the sounds of this current round of trainees getting into a fight with the new trainees from the Blood Moon in order to determine some heirarchy amoungst themselves, he already knew who would win; and there was no reason to hurry and interrupt them. Toshiro knew how to keep discipline, but above discipline at times, it was more important for boys to be left to discover how to respect eachother on their own terms.



If things had already boiled down to a confrontation between the two groups, then it needed to happen; sometimes those conflicts could turn into experiences of personal growth. Perhaps the run-in between the two groups would help his these less skillful trainees realize where their abilities stood in comparison to others their age and humble their egos a bit; maybe it would give them a new goal to shoot for as far as practice went. Of course, there were limitations as to how far he should let that conflict go, so Shiro didn't want to leave them unattended for too much longer. The only reason he felt comfortable letting them be for the time, was because they were young adults now, not children. He had to respect that and cater to the needs of the maturing young adult in them just like he demanded respect from them as their teacher.

“How’d he know we were sons of a whore?” Kev’s brother said with a smirk similar to the one Kevarre was already wearing. “Lucky guess.” He said.

His brother had taken a position at his back, swinging the axe around from behind his back. “This would be better if it were a fair fight.” His brother said, as Kev answered him, “Yeah we should have told half the boys to sit out.” He laughed as he dodged the tall guys coming at him. For some reason he seemed to have decided that Kev was the man to take out because he had been the one talking.

So some of the bigger guys had come to take him on, which suited Kevarre just fine. He and his brother did two forward rolls to get out from the five who were trying to surround them, once they had more space they were able to move more freely and were consequently able to take on more than one opponent at a time. He wasn’t going to say it was easy, but it was fun and he found himself lost in the moment. Finishing off his second and then third adversary.

He and his brother took care of at least five on their own (but who was counting?) before they had a chance to check around to see how the others were faring. Kevarre caught sight of Yeoun who was dealing damage enough on his own After a quick sweep of the area Kevarre came to the conclusion that this fight wasn’t going to last long.

Besides if the Captain couldn’t see them it didn’t necessarily mean he could not hear them. Kevarre had his suspicions that the man would arrive at any moment and end this madness.


Ariadne finally took her hand off of the wound, mostly because touching him and being pinned to a wall were probably not a good combination for her right at that moment. Her mind went on to think over his words on how he was healing. “It is good to take things slowly. I wouldn’t want you to reinjure yourself from pushing the limits too far.” Of course she had not wanted him injured in the first place. She had as good as told him that before he left.

Now he was physically on the mend but she didn’t dare ask about how he was faring emotionally. She could tell just from coming to see him and his actions that he was not healed from those injuries. In all fairness she could not judge him for that. She was not whole emotionally, even now that she was beginning to feel that she could have a life without Evander and another man could be part of that life. Still the fact that Toshiro had been so hurt by his Master’s words that he had lashed out at her, someone who had always been supportive of him and tried to be a good friend, made her worry.

With the ruckus caused by the young men and his question about applying anything to the wound she answered, “No, Lyria said if it needed anything she’d be by tomorrow to assist.” Ariadne changed the topic quickly because she didn’t like to think ill of the healer who had been so very kind and accommodating to her and Toshiro. “If we were to bet marks, those new boys are my favorite to win. And I do know how to pick good fighters…” She said with a smile. Ari knew he needed to leave and get back to work but a small part of her wanted him to stay there and just be with her. No words or anything, just being around one another. It would be enough for her today.

Duty however was duty and Toshiro would have to deal with the new Trainees. “Can I ask you something?” She said pausing long enough for him to agree, “Do you think we could have one of our talks soon? You know when there aren’t boys trying to kill eachother and neither of us is technically supposed to be working…”

Grounding the opponents he'd been working on, they all soon began to stagger back to their feet. Seeing as the regular class was beginning to understand that to make any headway with the Blood Moon Squad they'd have to work together a little better, Yeoun dashed toward Kevarre, landing a spinning kick to a classmate's jaw who'd been about to reach for him. Yeoun stepped in behind Kevarre to provide defence for his back side, figuring they themselves could work well together, too. Hands coming up in a defensive posture, facing away from his friend, he couldn't help but grin. "They just can't get it through their heads that they're outmatched."


Just then, Yeoun noticed that the tall boy and others were beginning to pull out their weapons. Apparently, if fists were ineffective, a little test of martial skill with weapons would have to do the trick. Glancing back at Kevarre, Yeoun didn't want to have to be the first one to draw a weapon for something like this. He didn't want to have to draw a weapon at all. With great uncertainty about the whole situation now, he decided that he would continue defending himself with his bare hands; not only because he didn't want things to turn too serious, but because he wasn't willing to put all his energy into an unnecessary battle of egos.

So, while he and Kevarre were standing back to back, ready to fight together, Yeoun simply held his stance, letting the regular class regroup themselves and make the first attack.



“If we were to bet marks, those new boys are my favorite to win. And I do know how to pick good fighters…” She said with a smile

Toshiro took a breath to respond, but as she went on, he remained quiet, releasing that breath slowly in consideration. Of course he would want to be together with her again soon. Finding himself appreciative of the request, a faint smile formed upon his features, but it took only a fraction of a second for the expression to turn rogueish. It would have been unlike him to let an opportunity slide where he could be the mischievous rogue, right?

"We can talk...but only if you answer me this:" Since he wondered with genuine, if not worried curiosity, the light in his eyes dimmed a little bit, "Since you said you know how to pick a good fighter," he paused with evident insecurities, "do you think that you would ever pick this one?"

The Captain watched Ariadne's eyes for a response even before she would be able to voice one, eager to know how she felt. No matter how she answered though, he would talk with her if she wanted to talk; even if she doesn't answer 'right', he thought smugly.

The insanity was they didn’t know when they were beat. Instead of taking things in a way that was, as Kev would consider, honorable, they were taking out their weapons. Glancing back at Yeoun and his brother, the youngest of the three stepped forward. “I got this.” His brother said, stepping in front of the two light weights. From his back he pulled out his axe and twisted in around in the air above his head in an intricate wave, as if the axe weighed no more than a feather.

Kevarre was in no way allowing his brother all the fun and already had his sword in his hand. He said he was going to make things more fair, they should be glad he hadn’t used his bow or knives to drop them where they stood now. “So Yeoun, how do you like practicing in the front row?“

The young man was purposefully toying with the others. It was fun and as much as Kevarre liked to taunt them, he knew better than to truly insult them for anything other than the fighting. He wasn’t pulling out insults to their mothers or their sisters which was actually good behavior for Kev. They had no intention of using their weapons for anything other than to defend themselves and since Kevarre was the main target, he was going to have to use a weapon.
“Ready little.”
“Ready big.”

The brothers said to one another as the next onslaught came to them. This was a fun training practice. His brother was crazy with that axe, he even broke one guy’s sword in half with it, while trying to block it from coming to Kevarres shoulder. No help for poor blacksmithing. Kevarre was dodging most blows, using his sword to block them when need be. That Captain Toshiro could show up any minute now cause he really didn’t want to have to knock out his new class mates.
He sounded like he wanted to but there was something in his agreement that made her wonder why he would put any contingencies on it. He wanted to see her again, she knew that for certain. So if she didn’t answer she would be in a sad state and so would he. When she heard the question she read his emotions better than she thought she would. Ariadne’s cheeks flushed ever so slightly at his question.

"Since you said you know how to pick a good fighter," he paused with evident insecurities, "do you think that you would ever pick this one?"

How to answer that without sounding desperate or mushy or completely crazy? She didn’t take too long though to answer because she could sense the answer meant quite a lot to him. “Toshiro, you should know the answer.” She said, her voice growing soft, “I already picked you.” At least her heart had already decided not to settle on anyone else around. She had chosen him before she even realized she had. He might not have noticed that she had and he might not believe her because she was slow to show him how she felt.

As strange as it might seem to him, she knew what she was feeling, she’d felt it once before. Moving her hand to touch his chin and tilt his face up to her, she looked into his eyes, trying to read them. Did he truly not see her growing love for him? It should be obvious. She had given up time with her family, her daughter who was the world to her, to spend time with him. What did he feel for her? Did he feel for her? Was it all lust for him? She didn’t know and she didn’t dare to ask just yet. They could talk when they met up later.

Ariadne's admission nearly made his heart jump through his chest. It made sense to him somehow, what she'd said, because somehow he'd known it all along, yet had been unable to consciously let himself realize it.

He'd gazed into her eyes then as she willed it, with something akin to longing though somehow his stubborn self wouldn't allow him to speak of it. Recognition was there though, and wasn't that always the first step? Toshiro began to feel a bit foolish then, having posed such a question to Ariadne, but the feeling waned quickly as he considered her response; he should be glad that he had asked it.

Leaning forward again with his lips nearing her ear, Toshiro kept his hand posted on the wall behind her. He wanted desperately to kiss her. He wanted desperately to hold her, but now was not the time. It even pained him to think that at this very moment he had to walk away from her in order to calm the sensibilities of a bunch of miscreants given to his care. Unfortunately for them, that only worsened his mood before practice began; which made it all the more likely they would suffer for it later.

Toshiro's left hand lifted to gently rest along the side of her neck where his thumb stroked over her cheek and his fingers disappeared into her curly mass of hair. Just before he pulled away from her, he spoke softly, "You'll have to let me go this time." He had to get back to work.

Stepping back from her reluctantly, Toshiro reached down to pick up the uniform top at his feet from the floor. He swung the wrap-around uniform top over his shoulders to slide his arms through the sleeves and then tied the garment loosely about himself. "We'll have a talk though, right? In three day's time?"



===================================================================================
When their conversation had ended, Toshiro went from the Guard Hall, down the steps and onto the outdoors training grounds. Without stopping in walk toward the rowdy group of boys, the Captain shouted as he neared them. "HAAALT!"

And when only the outer edge of the crowd ceased in their activity to regard him, the others obviously too distracted by their conflict to hear him, the Captain walked straight into the midst of their confrontation.


Yeoun was regarding Kevarre's remark about being at the front of the class with a smirk when he heard the Captain's shout over the ruckus. He barely had time to do anything else before Toshiro had carved a path through them all, leaving a trail behind him of fallen and disarmed trainees in his wake. It must have taken him no more than ten to fifteen seconds to have at least seven of the boys on the ground, rubbing various joints and body parts sorely.

By that point, everything had stopped, and almost every one of the regular class members had turned to stand at a loose attention in his presence, somewhat guilty expressions coming over a few of them.

With a warning glance, the Captain glanced about the lot of them. "I can already tell who won the first round of fist fights."

The only reason he'd hurried himself to make his way here was because he'd heard the distinctive sounds caused by the drawing of weapons, and now, even as several of the boys still picked themselves up from the ground, he started their evening lesson. "A crucial part of swordsmanship is knowing your own strengths, and also knowing those of your opponent."

Sidestepping so that he could turn to see and meet the gazes of more of the class, he continued, "Those of you who drew your weapons: were you ready to die for the cause that you drew them? Because the moment you draw a weapon is the moment you've decided it's OK to have to give your life up."

Letting his words sink in, he gave them something else to think about, pointing out their sorry cowardice. "If you aren't ready to die, then fight fair and honourably without them." The expression of the Captain's eyes turned cold, leaving a deeper impression behind them of just how unforgiving he might be in actual combat; then he completed that thought with a tone of the the same feeling. "You only drew your weapons to compensate for your fears...because you don't really want to get hurt."

Dangerous insight is what allowed him to so quickly put down so many opponents. In the case of rowdy miscreants as it were, it would be no different. He wasn't about to let them think they were tough shit by being the first to swing a weapon.


Leaving it at that, not caring for what started it all, Toshiro commanded them to all fall into their lines for drills, with the Blood Moon Squad coincidentally, at the front of the class. There was a purpose for that however. He was aware of their advanced training, and the drills they would be doing with the regular class were several turns behind them in skill level, so they would be able to become the example for how the patterns of the drills were done correctly. It would also allow him to observe them more.

The Captain stepped up to the head of the class then. "The pattern you'll work on today is the same we began adding onto yesterday: Intermediate Form Two. Don't forget to watch the placement of the back foot after both circular kicks. Make sure to come back to the original placement of the stance you took off from." With that, he signaled the trainees to begin their hand-to-hand Form drills.

Toshiro didn’t answer her for a good while. He had been fairly quiet for the entire conversation. She wondered if maybe he had not been quite ready to talk with her but then that’s why she was hoping their talk later would be able to get some of what they were thinking out in the open. His proximity was making it hard to think about anything other than him though. As his lips came close to her ear, she felt as if her heart was loud enough to hear a mile away. Was it any wonder that she had lost all sense of what was appropriate in his presence?
His touch on her cheek made her wish he did not have to go. She would not be able to wait to see him with anything akin to patience now and she had already begun to look forward to that talk before he had touched her. “Three days.” She agreed, watching him move away from her.
(Closing Ariadne’s part)


Kevarre was doing fine, listening for Yeoun’s answer when the Captain arrived. Damn it. He had almost knocked another one out. The Captain looked a bit pissed really and no wonder, they were really acting poorly. This would not have been allowed at home, at least not the part with the weapons. Still he and his brother had every right to use them in defense. At least that was his feeling on it. With the Captain there, everyone seemed to come to terms with the fact that they were here to practice and that they were in fact on the same team.

When Toshiro had the Blood Moon boys come to the front Kevarre couldn’t help but shoot Yeoun a glance and a smirk. That other guy was probably seething on the inside. From that point on though, his attention was fully on the Captain and his orders. They were working on things he and the gang had done before but that didn’t mean they could not improve.

Kevarre was always trying to improve and he took the Captain’s words from earlier to heart. Captain Toshiro had a reputation. They should all try to emulate him. Kevarre knew Yeoun would be the best at this particular drill but he himself was not too shabby either. Turns and turns of practice, he should at least look better than the guys behind them.

He repeated the drill over and over; trying to be sure he was keeping his position accurate. It was important not only to know what direction one wanted to go in but to visualize the space and know how one’s body could move through it.