The Deck; Saturday Morning [10/02].

[kawaii_complex]

It had been a very strange morning, and Motoko didn't quite know what was going on, but she figured she had time to figure it out. After her training.

If anything, the training would help. Some meditation. Some forms. And perhaps she would be able to see clearly and ignore the fact that she'd awaken in a strange room with a strange presumably boy and an owl in it and figure it out.

Was it some sort of test of her training? No one had mentioned anything like this before, but the Shinmei-ryu were known to have their secrets.

And so training it was. Meditation. Focusing on her inner self and her outer surroundings and what it all might mean in the greater scheme of things. She found a space on the deck and had out her practice sword, made of bamboo, and got to work, lifting it high above her head and then, sharply, stiffly, precisely, swinging it down parallel to the ground. She lifted it again over her head, repeated the move with a small sound. Lifted it again. Swung it down. Over and over and over.

Anyone looking particularly close might notice that, with each motion, she was actually slicing the small, tiny leaves that were blowing over from a nearby tree, nearly all of them perfectly in half.


[[ open deck is open of course! Sakaki is Motoko Aoyama from Love Hina and giving me some Old Skool nostalgia viiiiibes~ ]]

Comments

[craic_killer]

A redhead in a long dress in an eye-popping shade of chartreuse made her way out onto the deck. "Good morning," she said with a friendly smile.

[kawaii_complex]

Motoko had, of course, sensed the other girl coming, but she was not going to let it distract her from her training too much. She got in a few more good, strong, leaf-slicing strokes (how convenient, that it had gotten so breezy around the dormatory that morning!), then gave a small nod.

"Morning," she said, almost a faint grunt, and continued with her strokes.

[craic_killer]

"Whatever are you doing?" Penelope gaped.

If she had known sword fighting could get her a husband, well, it was a sight more interesting that embroidery.

[kawaii_complex]

If sword fighting lead to Motoko getting a husband, she might as well commit seppuku on this very practice sword now!

"Training," Motoko grunted out in response, her strokes keeping on consistent and undisturbed. Simple. To the point.

And incredibly obvious, she would think.

[craic_killer]

"To fight the French?" Penelope asked.

[kawaii_complex]

No. To fight demons and gods, but Motoko couldn't exactly say that. It was sort of all a secret.

"Why would I fight the French?" she asked instead, still not letting up on her work, although her question seemed to have a thread of irritation to it that might threaten her streak.

[craic_killer]

"Why wouldn't you fight the French?" Penelope asked. "It's where the war is, after all."

[kawaii_complex]

"France is on the other side of the world," Motoko pointed out.

And if they needed special magical swordsmen to help, she would know at least that. She may still be in training, and only fifteen, but she was the next in line to inherit the school.

"Are you fighting the French?"

Stroke. Stroke. Stroke.

[craic_killer]

Penelope made a little scoffing sound. "Of course not. I'm not a gentleman."

[kawaii_complex]

There was...a slight hesitation before the next stroke.

"But neither am I," said Motoko, who was not at all now suddenly worried that people would get the impression she was a boy.

Not that she really cared to embrace her feminity and supposed natural beauty, either, but still!

[craic_killer]

"Well, I thought that maybe things were different in," Penelope paused delicately, "more foreign parts."

[kawaii_complex]

"Japan," Motoko offered, with maybe a little more firmness in her strokes now. "I'm from Japan. The Shinmei-ryū is a bit different, but temple maidens have been traditionally trained in various martial arts for centuries..."

[craic_killer]

"We are trained in the pianoforte," Penelope said. "And poetry recitation."

[kawaii_complex]

"That sounds like it would be helpful," said Motoko, "against the French..."

[craic_killer]

"They are properly terrified of a well-bred British lady," Penelope said, nodding.

[kawaii_complex]

Motoko definitely had her doubts about that, but she didn't know much about the British or the French, mostly just what she'd learned in school and a few things from the European members of the Kansai Magic Association, so she didn't say anything, she just kept on her work.