The Fruits of Our Labors (Closed)

[Kazumi]

Sweat streamed down the sides of the young blonde girl's face as she leaned her back against a wooden training post. Her classes' distinctive gi had became tattered, shredded and the clan symbol that adorned it was not even recognizable at this point. It had been quite a few weeks since her training had begun, and while it could be said that great leaps and bounds have been made for her classmates...

The area was rather deserted outside in the sparse field of posts, and her heavy breathing and light hair was an easy way to catch sight of the orange garbed girl, even if she was only a speck in size. A few feet away was a duffelbag with a white towel draped across it, some of the sand and dirt having scattered over it during the time that she had been training. Now twenty feet away stood an entrance into the dojo proper, but being the later afternoon that it was there was no traffic to be seen there.

 

[Tori]

Daichi ran out of the building. Her intent was to sprint right home, heavy clothes and all. The reason she suddenly stopped had much to do with Yumi's hair standing out a lot. That and well...her outfit appeared really crappy at this point. To be fair, Dai's attire wasn't too far behind, but the weird girl went through great pains to keep it from getting there.

Perhaps she should approach? Before Dai could bring herself to consider why, she darted over to the training post Yumi leaned on. The raven-hair girl lean on it from the other side, looking at her classmate curiously. Compared to herself, Yumi appeared very worn. Daichi might have been among those students that were shaping up quickly. Physically, anyway. So no panting or smelly sweat would give the youth's condition away.

Yumi wasn't facing the threshold to the building and so Dai's arrival appeared to have escaped her notice for the time being. Just how tired was she? Finally announcing her presence with a, "Are you okay?" The youth's face lay partially obscured by the training dummy, her scattered black hair and wide green eyes being most visible, "You...look kind of beat up."

 

[Kazumi]

As she got closer, Daichi could notice a pair of short blades laying on the ground next to Yumi, one near her left and right hands as if they were carefully set there. Her breathing became slightly less labored over time as the drops of sweat evaporated and were replaced by fewer and fewer of their comrades. At first she didn't seem to notice Daichi's approach, and it was not until she spoke the second time that she finally did notice the on comer in full.

The girl's red iris'd eyes looked up from the ground and up towards the familiar classmate. "H-hi..." she responded breathfully, a smirk on the girl's face welcomed Daichi, but it seemed hollow for one reason or another. She allowed her eyes to close and her head leaned back against the wooden post to help herself relax. "What... what brings you here?" She lifted her right hand up as if she were going to try and use it to push herself up, but a slightly pained groan urged her to simply let it lay back down to rest.

Upon closer inspection it seemed that the post that she had been laying on had seen quite a bit of use over its lifetime, and while it had a good number of puncture wounds it was difficult to determine exactly how many of those were made anytime recently. If the small number of splinters that littered the ground around both Yumi and the post were any determination then Yumi likely was the fiend who had caused atleast some of them.

 

[Tori]

Dai answered with a, "Just training." The girl never committed very much to conversation. Whenever she tried, words tended to spew forward uncontrollably and she ran the chance of being completely misunderstood. Yet giving up on built momentum was always annoying, "Can't find the pacing yet?" It didn't occurred to her just how vague the question was, so instead Daichi simply continued on, "Burnout's the worst, so you may want a break."

 

[Kazumi]

She nodded faintly, her eyes still closed as she continued to relax. "Y-yeah.. I think I will for a bit. Thanks." She took a deep slow breath and let it out in a controlled sigh of relief. Thankfully it was cool enough in their underground home that she was able to regain her composure quickly enough. "Just taking a break from failing for a while. Bullying innocent dummies is a good way to relax..." She giggled softly in how odd that sounded to say.

 

[Tori]

"Meh, they're not so innocent. Always with the splinters. Those aren't nice." Daichi grumbled about this while looking at her knuckles. The student hadn't started training with a weapon of any kind yet, so she worked with her fists. Her hands appeared to bare the abuse well, but the sensation that was screaming at her earlier returned briefly, causing Dai to grasp them and growl some more.

How fortunate that Dai pull herself from that tangent. She looked pretty sheepish when she asked, "So what sort of weapons are you using?" For some reason she suddenly decided to hide her hands behind her back despite being obstructed by the training equipment.

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi's expression brightened as Daichi inquired about her weapons. As if a tub of cold water was splashed onto her, Yumi purshed herself to a stand and snatched up the pair of blades. They were short and blunted, little more than long knives to an adult, but there were suitably sized to be wielded in one hand each by a child. "This is Trust and Steady." She bobbed one hand and then the other to identify the respective weapons. "The Steward gave them to me!"

 

[Tori]

Daichi's eyes widened at the sight of Yumi tossing aside her current fatigue like a candy wrapper. They only got wider at the presentation of named weapons. "The Steward gave you those?" Her expression could only be described as unreadable, but Dai sounded surprised, at least. As long as the scrapper diverted attention away from herself, she was content. She got the feeling that Yumi wouldn't mind in any case.