The New Winds

While thunder raged outside, This was happening inside of the dojo. Saburo, with a set determination that did not look like a scowl but rather ... almost pleasure, had a cloth in place and was running across the dojo floor, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Over and over again. He fully intended, by the look of things, to be able to see his face in the mirrored sheen of the glossy floor, slip on it, fall on his ass and then eat his morning meal on top of it before he cleaned it all over again.

...

Seriously? What else did one expect this boy to be doing at the hour of the Tiger? Sleeping in?

Kokyou gets into the dojo and chuckles, asking sarcastically, "Are ye tryin' t' scrub the deck or put a whole on it, skin-and-bones?

"Scrub. This is standard procedure, and I hardly think my cloth will do any harm to well oiled wood such as this," he grunted out as he went, moving from spot to spot. Between runs, he gave Kokyou a quick bow, resuming his work shortly after. "There's other clothes available. I ... once heard the word 'swab' meant a ... type of crewman. A new one. Seems fitting we both swab, yes?"

It was a hint of implication for Kokyou to help out. This floor wasn't going to shine itself.

"Aye, the swab be a young gentleman o' fortune in learnin'. I 'ave been swabbin' a lot 'til I got here. I am an expert swabber. If ye had a deck t' swab, ye would wants me in thar."

"Watch 'n learn, ye!" Kokyou snorts and snatches the cloth and starts doing his own side of the dojo.

"You, many a deck, me, many a dojo floor," he grunted sourly, nodding once the other took up a cloth. Good, he'd managed to convince this one to do some work. That was a positive. He was starting to think some of his fellow students were shirking a little, though that was probably more his obsession with cleanliness. "And I'd prefer to learn by doing, but let us see your work, yes?"

Small feet paused at the periphery of the dojo; it would have been tragic despite well intentions to immediately step on a freshly cleaned section of floor. At best, it means needing to clean a section of the floor again, at worst, it could lead to an unfortunate spill and a sick face-first slide across the entire dojo on one's face.

Rocking back and forth a little bit from the ball of her foot to her heel was Mari, full of plenty of energy now. She had spent the last few days a bit under the weather, which meant that besides required classes and training she was mostly resting and not able to interact with other students much. She didn't want to use this as an excuse as to why she didn't do particularly well at the jiujutsu practice and physical endurance training, it could have had some influence on her performance but also, realistically, she just wasn't that great at feats of athleticism, let alone 'combat'.

Now though, she was feeling a lot better and wanted to do things. She also felt bad about not being able to help with expected chores and such; she's very much one that follows closely what she's 'supposed to do'.

She stood, watching for just a moment before calling, "Can I help?" and beginning to carefully cross a potentially slippery floor to get a cloth of her own.

"Oh! Asahina Mari, good morning, everyone." she said, bowing to the other two.

Kokyou dashes through with the wet cloth on the floor like a bulldozer. The was only one thing in his mind now, and that was winning. His side would be swabbed clean first than skull-face.

He runs, and run, and doesn't really notice the girl sized roadblock in front of him, until it is too late.

Saburo wasn't remotely concerned with a weird competition that seemed to be spawning here. He had trouble understanding this competitiveness in these people. He was too busy competing with himself, after all, and trying to better his own physical well being to be concerned with how well they were doing other than to offer occasional platitudes about praising them because mother would like it if people didn't outwardly think he was speaking ill of them all the time.

As he ran, though, he saw a collision and called out "Kyokou-san, in front of..." Yeah, that probably wasn't going to stop this travesty from happening.

Mari was so close, so very close to avoiding the impending mishap which bore down in her direction. She was looking at Saburo for the moment, and turned only when he started speaking to the Mantis. She managed to let out a little confused "Mhm...?" before everything began happening at once. Mari tried to do a little hop out of the way, arms raised, unbalanced on one foot, but it just wasn't enough. Arms pinwheeled as Kokyou bumped her mid-step, causing her to pirouette in place on the slick floor, eyes widening as she stumbled to regain balance, taking a step but her foot immediately slid out from under her and she fell forward, arms outstretched.

She slid a little ways on the floor before finally coming to a stop, face down, staying in that position for a moment letting out a small groan before slowly rolling over onto her back, arms laying splayed out to either side, whispering...

"Is this part of training?"

Kokyou stops once he reaches the end of his side and he raises a hand upward with the cloth. Impeccable cleaning.

"Har!" He boasts, adding loudly, "Me side o' the dojo be so swab we literally 'ave a pretty Crane maiden down on the floor kissin' it."

"Kokyou-san!" He snapped, glaring at the boy and setting the cloth to the side before walking over and bowing to the Crane. "I am sorry. he is suffering from an excess of zeal this morning it seems. Do you require assistance, Asahiina-san?" He was going to keep it to that before they worked on finishing the cleaning job. Gah, seriously, this boy sometimes.

...

Gah, seriously, this boy always.

Mari pushed herself up to a sit with a slight wince. She pauses for a moment, looking in Kokyou's direction. He didn't even stop right away. Her brow furrowed slightly, as if contemplating saying something, before letting out a small sigh.

"I think I'm alright, Asako-san, thank you." she said softly, giving a small smile of appreciation. She stood up, rubbing her neck lightly before looking herself over. She held her arms slightly out from her body, looking over her kimono, down along the sides, over the shoulder, before giving her head a little shake and sweeping her hair neatly back over her shoulder again. There was, after all, a certain expectation of Crane being presentable, though the quick preening right after such a spill was a little comical.

"Well, It seems like at the unyielding pace Kokyou-san is going, you might not need it, but I came to help." she said, brushing herself off lightly.

Kokyou hides the cloth by moving his right hand to his back and approaches the pair. With a flourished bow, he greets the girl, rather apologetically. "I beg yer pardon, gorgeous. Once a goal be set, I am dutiful t' it. That's the way o' the samurai. Unfortunately I wasn't able t' stop the wave o' determination in time."

You know... I do believe this man is giving Sakura a run for her money.

Actually... she's just an idiot. He's intentionally disruptive at times. Whatever. She seems fine.

He grunted and returned to his somewhat sour expression that he always wore, nodding over to the Asahina. "Good, I am glad there is no harm. This one is ... exuberrant." What did he just call her??!? Did he just do this with every... no wonder the Toritaka had looked so relieved he left. He cleared his throat and shook his head. "There is always something that will need straining up. Once the floors are done, there are bound to be more things to clean. Your help is appreciated."

With that, he offered her a smaller cloth, one clearly designed more for the racks and like, so that she wouldn't have to be in the path of the mantis tornado. Way of the samurai indeed. I know they don't teach the Mantis this. Even at her worst, Mai's nothing like this.