Oh god. I'm gonna die! (Delilah, Koshiro)

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

"What is it you're trying to show me here Del?"
He gasped out. His chest coursing with pain, his arm unable to move. His shoulder pinned. She had made it impossible to move. Clearly he was going to have to actually try if he had any hopes of training with her. His head was by far the worst, not because of her though. It was aching.
His vision had blurred out again. Just like before, he blacked out for just a second. He never felt this before, yet it was so familiar. He usually was to quick to get hit by thugs and miscreants. He had become complacent with them and stopped honing his skills. He had become weak, and that had not been apparent till this moment.

Two years ago, he would have had a chance, he was only working off muscle memory today. He knew what he had to do now and it wasn't going to be fun. He would have to admit he was weak. Not something he enjoyed, but he was. He was to weak to beat his commander. What was he to do now?

He had to accept Delilah's teachings as gospel. Accept that she had been right all along, and accept that people may have to die along the way. Suddenly he started remembering his old master's teachings and understood what she had said before. What a fool he had been to have forgotten his master. Had this blackout really done so much to him?
But it was true. Since the blackout he had changed so much. After all he had been a god damned mercenary! He was having trouble with morality? He was only one level below her in skill!

Look at what you have become Koshiro.

It was a voice......his father's voice.

He fully blurred out. To Delilah it would look as though he was temporarily brain dead, or something. As his eyes would lose life, but his body was fine.....for the most part.

The scene changed. It was suddenly afternoon. His father standing in front of him. He was 15 again. His father had just asked him to kill his Mother. He was on top of his father. Sword to his throat.

"I WILL NOT DO IT FATHER!!!!!"

"Look at what you've become Koshiro. A blood thirsty killer." He said in such a conceded tone.

"I am not a killer!" He screamed.
They were in their estate in Texas where Koshiro grew up.

"Really? What happened to that little boy? Hmm? And that man a few years ago? Where are they Koshiro?

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" He let off his father
Malakai would pin him to the ground. Koshiro knew how to get out of this and he threw his father off instantly.

(The flashback will continue through the thread as he does have a concussion. For the moment he looks blank to Delilah. This is all taking place in his mind. If you want to have to play with it yourself then assume he is muttering some of this and you can do whatever. )

[Delilah A. Black]

"What is it you're trying to show me here Del?"

"The way of the warrior," she responded almost immediately, refusing to let up on him.

...and then the young man stopped moving, stopped resisting. She looked down tentatively, peering to the side to examine his face. He had gone catatonic and was muttering something, lost in the depths of his mind. She watched him for a moment and sighed.

"Koshiro."

Her voice rang out, commanding, demanding attention.

"You will never be a warrior if you cannot face your demons. Do not let your fear of what you may become alter the path you take. Our way is hard and difficult to pass through. But you must.

"Do you want to be a slave to your father your whole life?"

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

Delilah was behind him. He saw her out of the corner of his eye, but something was weird about it.
When she spoke though it was not her that spoke. It was his father.
What Delilah would see was him falling deeper into his mind. He made no movement or indication he had heard her. It would seem even deep in his mind he was defiant to the end......

The way of the warrior?

Delilah's voice rang through when she said his name, but it was like a ripple. a rope barley hanging down. Just a doorway to the outside world.

Then her voice was his father's again.

"I am no slave!!!" His voice would ring through to the outside and he would scream it even their. Suddenly a light flickered back into his eyes for just a second. Then it was gone again.

His father drew his sword and lunged.
He defended.
Somewhere he still loved his father and didn't want to hurt him.
He punched his father in the stomach. Malakai keeled over. While his father caught his breath, Koshiro would look around for a moment.

Delilah......he landed that punch.....This isn't how it happened. The sky went dark, his quiet yard disappeared. he was falling, but Del was still as though standing on glass.

He yelled "Help me!"

Malakai was gone now, but where.
Delilah looked at him in the eyes "No." She whispered.

out of no where the room appeared. It was the gym. His father standing on his neck. He could tell just looking that his father was stronger.

"My son. You are so weak." He leaned down to Koshiro. "You are small......" His voice was so sinister. It was as though the devil was whispering in his ear.

The gym. It had no roof now, it was a black sky.
Koshiro's head hurt still. It felt like someone was shoving an ice pick into his eye and straight though his brain.

It was certainly an acid trip. He thought.

he needed to pull his father off of him.
His arm like lightning, would reach up and grab his father.
Lightning flashed! His father was now in a different position. His knee was on Koshiro's chest. The other on his shoulder. One of his arms was twisted around.

His arm, the one was still free. Moved up and grabbed the ankle that he could reach.
The same would happen in the real world, as the light like an explosion flashed into his eyes. It would be clear to Delilah that he still was not there. He was angry. A darkness like none he had ever shown was flaring in his eyes. He was angry, but something else was different. All the training he had that was locked up in his mind, now it flooded back into his mind. His mind was just like it was when he was 15. He was as he was before leaving the family.

Dark.

[Delilah A. Black]

Interesting..

Koshiro grabbed her ankle...but nothing else. There was a palpable energy floating from him now but she was undaunted. She maintained her position, reminded suddenly of a little three day trip she took up to the beach some time ago...

"...so will you let the beast rule you as well, Koshiro? The one your father made?"

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

The Delilah behind him would speak. he looked at her.

"He is the beast! Not me!" He would say. Headstrong. Like a teenager would.

His arm still firm on the ankle.

What was he up to?

He realized something. He was thinking less clearly than normal. He let go of the ankle. Wiggled his arm under his chest and pushed up. It had been a while since push ups with Someone on top of him, but he could manage. He pushed all the way up and then.

"this is gonna hurt." [ /color]

He rolled onto his side knocking Malakai off, bit with that grip still on his shoulder, he would land all his body right onto that arm. It would hurt bit hopefully she would release his arm so he could move.

[Delilah A. Black]

Her eyebrows lifted and a smile came to her lips. Well well. Wasn't that a surprise.

As he pushed off and her away, however, the way she let her knee drop from his head slightly to the side meant that his arm was twisted in her grip. Very likely, the limb was either dislocated or partially dislocated. In response to his getting away, she rolled to the side and back to her feet, discarding bits of his hair to the ground and wiping her hand on her shirt.

"Your anger and hate were created by him. But it was made worse by you.

"You have a beast inside you Koshiro. We all do. And you are letting it off the leash."

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

He drew a knife out of his shoe as he stood. He was shaking with anger. His senses heightend, his reflexes too. Whatever this darkness was. It certainly had a use. He threw the knife directly at Malakai (Delilah). And then he stood in his natural fighting stance. Ready to fight.

[Delilah A. Black]

Her left hand flashed up, catching the knife by pinching the middle of the blade between her forefinger and thumb. She shook her head, tsking as she wiggled the knife at him. "Throwing your weapon is never a good idea unless you have the skill and extra weapons on your belt. You just gave me a free knife." She cast the blade aside, sending it skittering across the floor.

"Anger makes you loose finesse. I refuse to attack you while you're in this state; taking candy from a baby, or so to speak."

...unless you attack me first, that is, she finished privately, still staring straight across at Koshiro, appraising.

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

Lightning flashed. The image of Delilah and Malakai switched.
Now Del was the one speaking.

He pulled one of his other knives out of....well, His belt.

"Don't think me a fool, Ma'am. I asked to join you for a reason."

He used a meditation technique to center him, and then he spoke.

"Sorry about before....." His voice was much deeper and calmer than it had been all day. He spoke as though he knew something she didn't

"I needed to Reboot." he took a deep breath. The air of the room changed completely.

His stance changed into a Kamae no kata, doko

"I learned this style from master Hakai when I was in Japan with my father."

Something was different with Koshiro. It was subtle, but he spoke about his father with love.....no not love.....admiration.

[Delilah A. Black]

"Then you were taught wrong," she snapped, watching with visible annoyance as he took another "stance" (again, ninjutsu never having set stances, but postures flowed through and to in the midst of a technique). She shook her head, with a sigh. Clearly he did not understand.

But that was besides the point, and something she could address later, if she decided she wanted to continue teaching him. The air around him was colder now, not as angry. But such a rapid shift in personality made her think he was unstable.

Hmm.

"Koshiro, if you throw that knife or attack me with a weapon, I will have no choice but to respond in kind." she warned gravely, hand resting lightly on the hilt of her tanto.

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

"What? This?" He threw the knife straight up. It stuck in the ceiling.
"I don't need it." He raised an eyebrow.
"Ninjutsu is about the natural movements of the body. This is natural to me."

The air was indeed cold.

(Flashback) Just as the lighting struck. Malakai's "ghost" as it were, lunged forward and stabbed Koshiro. The evil side of him took over. All the darkness he had left behind. The bloodthirsty man that killed so many times. The evil that Koshiro didn't allow himself, was now free. The "beast" as Delilah had referred to it, was now in control. The true Koshiro was trapped in his own mind, forced to live all his darkest moments over and over. What was controlling his body was nothing more than an image. A ghost. This was no normal concussion. This was a deep seeded fear that took on its own life. Once it faded out, hopefully Koshiro would come back........(end flashback)

[Delilah A. Black]

"Standing with your hand up by your ear in a modification of ichimonji no kamae is natural?" she asked skeptically. She shook her head again.

"Then by all means; show me how that stance is 'natural'." she beckoned to him, inviting him to strike.

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

"Yes." He said coldly.
"I take a stance that feels natural. Do you have any idea how long it takes to react when you just relax. I was taught correctly. I react faster when I'm like this, and don't think I'm just gonna tire out like this."

He did two back flips away from Delilah into a Shadow. Then he disappeared behind the bleachers. At one point he could be heard climbing the bleachers, but then he was gone.

"I dabbled in a little Ventriloquism in my younger days." His voice echoed through the room, but there was a discernible direction, it would keep changing as he moved.

"You know, a rich family and all. I pretty much had all I ever wanted. To think I could have kept that by just killing one person, HA!" His voice hissed from right behind Delilah as he mentioned his mother. Then he was gone again.

For just a moment his voice would tremble, but not because he was angry.
"I should have killed her, and S-s-Sider too. Then my father would be the head of the family."He struggled at the mention of Sider.

Now he had circled the room. He made his way up to her silently, and just as he was right behind her, he tried to jump on her back, he would bring his legs around and lock them in front of her stomach then lock his left arm around her neck. If it worked he would have her in a perfect lock, where she would not be able to move to attack him.

[Delilah A. Black]

She just listened with a slight twitch in her brow and let out a soft sigh. She wondered a few things as the young man flipped away from her and into the 'shadows'

...of the brightly lit, windowless training room. And even if it weren't, the gaudy earring in her ear allowed her to see with perfect clarity in the dark, just as well as she could in the day. She knew exactly where the young man was...and it aggravated the fuck out of her.

How many times had she told him not to jump around all over the place like some taekwondo kid with springs in his shoes and restless leg syndrome on cocaine? Clearly he was not one for paying attention, or maybe he truly was taught incorrectly and he believed that was the pinnacle of ninjutsu? Either way, her patience was wearing thin.

So, she would make a point of demonstrating, one final time, that what the boy with two partially dislocated arms and a bleeding scalp was not going to work.

Her back still turned to him, as he JUMPED AGAIN she simply swiveled her hips to the side as though she were a door on hinges, letting him leap right by her. A hand flashed out from her side and aimed for his lower rib cage as he passed, not only designed to wind him but to perhaps crack a rib or two.

"And how's that working out for you?" she repeated in a bored tone. "Either you are incapable of understanding or you are being willfully ignorant. On top of this interesting new attitude you have developed in the last few minutes, related to your quetsionable training."

And she didn't even have to move her hands from her sides more than six inches. Shizen no kamae, or "natural posture" was how she stood.

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

As her arm swung out he grabbed it, and stopped himself. He backed up several feet and faced her.

"I did wonder how much jimmy Joe's school of ninjas really knew, but hell. I've made it out alive every fight I've faught. So......he musta taught me somethin'."he spoke in a very Texan accent.

He laughed and then mimicked her stance from before.

"if I was taught so badly......then maybe I should just copy you." He would now mirror her entirely.