So Kit spent his seven days in hell, it was the most extensive physical training he’d ever experienced. During his sparring sessions the most common phrase his supervising master (Daisuke) said was “Kisara, if he’s not gunna to take you seriously just go ahead and kill him!” Not like she needed the encouragement, after all she seemed perfectly content to beat Kit down without his advice.
The last night before his new school the masters spoke to Kit and Kisara seriously. Daisuke starting by talking to Kit.
“I just wanted you to know that starting tomorrow you’ll be attending St. Roderick’s. This isn’t like any other school... this a school of fighters; never been to this particular school, but I hear it’s pretty dog eat dog. You represent ME tomorrow, kid. If you look like a fool-I look like a fool, so don’t fuck this up!” Daisuke came at him quickly. “You best introduce somebody’s face to the floor quickly so we don’t look like a couple a pussies! You mess this up and it’ll be hell week EVERY week, you here me?”
“Thank you Daisuke... I think I can take it from here,” the elder told him calmly.
“Sorry elder, just wanted to set the kid straight,” Daisuke amended as he stepped back.
The elder turned his attention to them without replying. “Loathe as I am to admit it, Daisuke’s right. Starting tomorrow you will represent Ryouzanpaku at this new school, and I expect you to acquit yourselves admirably. Remember that we teach martial arts, the art of fighting for a cause, to use your skills without cause is just useful violence, and bullying. Conduct yourselves with honor, even if your enemies never do, and most importantly... look after your friends and each other,” the elder told them. His speech was more supportive than demanding unlike Daisuke’s. “And for the love of all that’s holy WIN ONE!” he added haughtily.
Brock approached Kit before all the others, he had this sad look on his face as he put one hand on Kit’s shoulder. “Poor Kit, you were so young... try to die bravely,” Brock told him through tears.
The elder stood in front of Kisara. “I suppose I’m going to have to babysit him?” Kisara asked bluntly.
“Well... Kit is your junior disciple, and we would like to convey a message of support, but if you don’t really want to... I wouldn’t blame you,” the elder replied with a shrug.
“YOU HEAR THAT? YOU GET IN OVER YOUR HEAD AND IT’S YOUR PROBLEM!” Kisara shouted to him.
“I’m dead!” Kit whispered softly.
“Keep your head up... your heart’s still beating and you still draw breath,” Hitomi told him.
“Don’t forget to breath kid, remember what we taught you and you’ll survive,” Denali coached me.
“And if you’re gunna die at least take one of ‘em with you!” Daisuke added excitedly.
Needless to say Kit didn’t sleep that night. He stayed up all night considering just what waited for him at school the next day. Kisara looked like she’d slept all night... he wondered how she could possibly have gotten to sleep knowing that they were bound for this new prison they called a school.
“You don’t look good,” she told him. The remark was like a knife to the chest.
“I’m gunny die, I don’t have to look good,” Kit answered her dejectedly.
Kit kept getting this nagging feeling that he wasn’t alone as they headed off to their new school, but Kisara never said anything and her senses were sharper than his, so he assumed that everything was alright. The walk wasn’t long, it was actually closer to the dojo than his old school, but there was an almost tangible line where the surroundings went from quaint to savage... this place bred monsters.
“Relax Kit... I’ll watch you back, and you’ll watch mine... we’ll be fine,” Kisara told him confidently as they stood before the doors. His heart was racing, but he decided that if he was going to remain in control of himself that he would take the first step now. He reached up slowly and pulled the door open, holding it for Kisara like a proper gentleman.
“It takes a big man to send a girl in first,” Kisara told him dryly as she stepped in.
“I- I was just trying to be polite,” Kit answered her, his voice was quivering like crazy. First they had to report to the office to get their schedules and what not, and then it was to the classroom. Foxie was waiting for them in the office, it was one of the few times Kit saw him coming, but he still managed to snake his arm down Kit’s pants... it was creepy to Kit how he managed to do that every time they met.
“I waited for you Kit,” Foxie whispered into his ear gently. “Hello skank,” the fuzzy dragon told Kisara glibly.
“At least you’re not shaking like a coward... Kit hasn’t stopped trembling since last night. How do you plan on surviving here... you can’t fight,” Kisara greeted Foxie.
“Fighting is a soldier’s job, I AM A GENERAL AND I DEMAND TO BE TREATED AS SUCH!” Foxie told her in an overly loud voice. “Besides... I’m a great journalist with sources everywhere, I’m already a part of the news club, with Kit as muscle and me as the brains... I’ll run this school before long. My school has changed, this merely changes the venue for my first triumph!” he declared proudly.
“So you’re mental... that explains a lot,” Kisara answered.
“When my goals have been achieved, you, SLUT, shall be the one who suffers first and most,” foxie announced, he sounded like he was starting a war or something.
“You know without you he’s going to die right?” Kisara asked as Foxie headed off to his classroom.
Kit was still in his own little world, contemplating his own mortality at this school of brutes. At the desk they signed all of the necessary paperwork before the attendant handed them their schedules. “It says here you two are martial artists?” she asked as she read over it.
“Yes,” Kit answered as if the word confirmed his doom.
“You two will have to report to room 220 to take your martial exams so they can place you in one dueling tier or another, good luck to both of you,” she explained to them kindly. Her soft voice almost made her sound sincere.
As they walked down the hall they saw posters plastered everywhere with Kit’s face, he was in all sorts of different photo-shopped poses, wearing his Ryouzanpaku uniform. The headline of them all was the same Wind of change blows into new school, is St. Rodrick’s ready?
“How does he print this stuff up so fast?!” Kit shouted as he ran to start ripping the posters down, he had just about cleared his first one when the class bell rang, and the students came pouring out of the room in clumps. All down the hallway fighters were clamouring to the front to read over the posters, and afterwards glances were thrown at the young fighter as he tried desperately to hide behind Kisara.
“Oh yer dead,” Kisara laughed as she led him down the hallway, he was using her as a shield at this point.
Room 220 wasn’t what he’d been expecting, instead of a classroom or a doctor’s office, it was a ring. Kit had hoped that they would just evaluate him and send him to class, but it seemed that this was going to be a physical evaluation.
“Kitachi Sunahama and Kisara Kazumi?” a voice asked them as they slid in the door. It was a small wolf of their age; and what appeared to be a stuffed animal, it took Kit a second to realize that the toy was actually a monkey.
“That’s us,” Kisara answered dutifully for them both. They hadn’t been given a student uniform so Kit was there in his fighting clothes and Kisara wore the same clothes she had the first night Kit had met her.
“Interesting choice of fighting clothes, anyway I’ll be working with you Kisara; so don’t expect showing skin to do you any good,” the wolf explained to us. Kit didn’t understand until the wolf pulled off the long and heavy formal clothes... she was a girl. A cute girl. A hot cute girl. Kit couldn’t help but stare at her chest... it was rather well developed. He realized he had his mouth open and snapped it shut.
Kit heard Kisara give a little harrumph in irritation as she glared daggers at him. “Cassius here will be your opponent Kit, he might not look like much but take him seriously. We are two of the highest rated fighters in the school, we are charged with finding a tier for you two,” the wolf told him as the small monkey approached him. “Let’s let the boys do their thing first, Cassius isn’t one to wait,” she motioned for Kisara to sit down.
Kit calmed as he took center stage, this monkey didn’t look near as big as his last two opponents, he couldn’t relax, but he wasn’t as put off by the thought of getting hit as he had been last time. Cassius used a Kempo starting form... Kit recognized it as one of Hitomi’s favorites. Kit thought back to his training, Denali had told him that a defensive stance like this one was easily off put by assuming a different defensive stance, an opponent that specializes in defending himself is hard pressed when forced to attack.
Kit chose one of Brock’s favorite stances, a relatively closed off karate stance as he took his place across from Cassius. ~
“I haven’t even called the start yet and it’s already over,” the wolf remarked as if disappointed to Kisara before she stood up. ~
“Begin,” the wolf called in a bored tone.
Cassius charged him in an instant. He threw his foot at Kit’s mid section, and Kit dropped his elbow to try and block, when they met Kit knew he’d made a mistake. Instead of feeling an impact he felt Cassius’ foot grip and hold him, then a great weight moved onto his right side where the kick had been aimed. Cassius had virtually disappeared in front of him. Kit looked around for only a second, the foot that had met with his elbow was the foot of a monkey... it was like a hand.
He felt a huge impact to the back of his knee as he collapsed to the ground, his knee had just slammed into the mat when a fist came across his left side, he moved both arms to block, but the hand opened at the last second, gripped his forearms, and spun around to shove a foot into his face.
He felt a pressure on his right shoulder as Cassius spun around to his back again. This time he saw two legs wrap around his abdomen and lock just before he felt the strike to his kidney. Kit dropped his hands down to his waist to try and pry Cassius’ feet from their hold, but half a second after he dropped them one hand came up over his shoulder and caught him with a skull splitting strike. Kit was dazed for a moment as Cassius continued to strike out at his head and exposed back.
When Kit regained his senses he covered his head with his arms to cushion the blow, he couldn’t think of what else to do at this point. He hadn’t even seen his opponent’s chest since the start of the fight, Cassius was so small and light, but he was so strong, every time Kit had tried to block his attacks Cassius had simply latched on and come at him from a different angle. Kit couldn’t find a way to stay standing and fight this out... and that’s when it hit him. He gripped Cassius’ ankles firmly in his hands stepped to the center of the ring amid the rain of strikes, one had come under his shoulder as an uppercut right to his chin, but Kit managed to stay standing. when he reached a point where he was comfortable; he threw himself down onto his back. At the same time he hit he snapped his neck back,so when Cassius’ head bounced off the floor it slammed into the back of Kit’s head.
It had seemed like a good idea at first, and he knew that Cassius would be stunned from the hit, but he hadn’t counted that he might also be stunned by the reverse headbutt. He shook it off first though, and rolled Cassius onto his back, he pinned him down with his left arm and just started pounding with his right hand. After a few blows Cassius seemed to regain his senses, one foot lashed out and caught Kit right in the chin again, this time Kit latched onto the ankle with both hands and heaved with all his strength to throw Cassius across the room, just after the body slid past his shoulder though something caught around his neck and anchored Cassius to him. Kit fell over backwards. Cassius stood up and Kit had a second to understand that the vice like pressure around his neck was a tail. It was so strong.
Cassius had looked so small, but in fact he had been hunched over, when he stood up fully he was almost as tall as Kit, he used his tail to hold Kit off the floor as he squeezed the fight out of him. Kit tried desperately to get his hands around the tail to pry it away, but it was too small and it had too tight of a grip on his throat. He started to see spots and panic, what could he do... Cassius was using his tail to keep out of Kit’s reach.
I can’t reach him! Kit realized with dismay. He tried to think of what to do, but nothing was coming to him. Cassius was too fast, Cassius was too agile, Cassius was too smart. Then he realized it, Cassius wasn’t stronger, nor did he have more stamina, he could already feel the tail drooping. That’s when it hit him, he had tried to pry the tail off, why hadn’t he tried to bring Cassius in closer?
Before he could black out Kit lashed out with his left hand, he caught Cassius’ tail in a backhanded strike, he wrapped his arm around the tail and pulled Cassius in closer. He flailed his fist as hard as he could and it smashed into Cassius, instantly he felt the pressure around his neck release as he fell to his knees and air burned it’s way down his throat to his lungs.
His chest burned from the time he had been unable to breathe. Cassius rushed at him again, and this time Kit felt a startling clarity as the other fighter approached, he had an open stop.
Kit used a high low strike first to halt Cassius’ attack, it forced the smaller fighter to block, and blocked his vision of Kit’s next move. Cassius had the wind knocked out of him by the sudden change of events, his arms were covering in front of his face, so Kit used the lull in his opponent’s movements to use a double palm strike to the shoulder. He slammed his fist up into the kidney the way Daisuke had taught him once, the force of the blow rocked Cassius’ forward, he was stunned again. Kit pivoted on his right foot to get next to Cassius’ right shoulder, he kicked off of the ground hard as he slammed his left foot into Cassius’s chin. Instinct told him to press the attack, he gripped Cassius by the collar and pulled his right knee up to hit him once again. When both of his feet hit the ground he spun quickly and tossed Cassius over his shoulder, he hit the mat hard, and Kit could tell he was out cold.
The lack of oxygen caught up with him though as he fell to the mat on his hands and knees again. ~
Kisara almost laughed at the change of the other watcher’s expression. That frustrating grin of smug satisfaction at the fight had changed utterly when Kit had broken Cassius’ chokehold. She looked outraged when Kit had managed to put Cassius on the defensive, and she stood up with shocked resignation when he’d landed the spin kick. She stared at him in open-mouthed awe as Kit finished the combo.
“He was like...,” she said quietly, but she couldn’t find the words to describe it.
“A hurricane,” Kisara chimed in after a moment. She hated to admit it, but Kit’s little combination had had the same effect on her the first time she’d seen it. It was an almost poetic beauty the first time you saw it... the second time you might notice a few holes, but none that could be dealt with in the middle of it. “You told us not to underestimate you... back at ya,” Kisara responded as she approached the ring.
“You ok?” she asked as Kit stood on shaking knees.
“What was that?” Kit asked her suddenly.
“Most people are calling it a ‘hurricane’... ‘Sunahama’s hurricane’ they say,” she answered him with a bemused expression, such childish names she thought.
“It was brilliant,” Kit told her with a huge grin.
“I could’a done it better, but I suppose the original will always be given more credit than the one that does it best,” she mused back.
“I need to see the nurse... there are spots in my vision,” Kit told her. He collapsed a minute later. ~
Kit woke up about twenty minutes later. “You must have really made an impression on the exam proctor, they placed you in the third tier, usually first timers only get to the second tier at best, would have been a record if that girl behind you didn’t fight too. Who’d have thought there would be anybody that could fight on the fifth tier from outside the school... that’s the highest rank you know,” the nurse chatted to him hurriedly. He didn’t understand this talk of “tiers” but he was sure somebody would explain it to him. “... never heard of anybody breaking Cassius once he get’s into his zone, but that just goes to show you that anything can happen I suppose. Anyway, you’re good to go back to class, everything will be explained to you when you arrive tomorrow,” she told Kit as a dismissal.
Kit was headed to his assigned class when he saw one of them. A school paper plastered up and down the hallways. Wind of change rocks the fifth tier, as Sunahama’s Hurricane makes short work of Cassius Cicero! Members of the Cage rattled by the turn of events!
“I’m gunna kill him,” Kit thought to himself of Foxie. How could he have printed this so fast?
A cold tension entered his mind as the temperature dropped a solid twenty degrees, Kit’s breath turned to frost in the air. He knew what was coming when he broke out in a cold sweat.
The cold, but gentle hand slid down his trousers as he stood paralyzed by this aura of cold. “You have made me very happy today Kit. You are a good soldier and I shall reward you... someday soon,” Foxie told him as he draped himself over Kit’s shoulders.
“Please... don’t,” Kit plead with him quietly, it was barely a squeak.
“Don’t disappoint me Kit; I have big plans for you,” Foxie told him as he released Kit’s testicles and walked away. The cold aura disappeared a moment after Foxie had. What that meant? Kit asked himself, but before he could contemplate it further he remembered he had to get to class.
