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

[Delilah A. Black]

Delilah watched as he backed away (and defied physics), the corner of her eyebrow twitching in irritation.

Oh, the woman was so through being disrespected.

"You could try."

No holding back. Not pulling any punches or holding back her speed.

No more Miss Nice-Del.

She flashed forward, one moment there, the next here, flickering in front of him; a fist would come out, hard and fast, a straight jab to his throat to make it hard to breathe should it connect; the second hand came out just as quickly, aiming an uppercut for his solar plexus, to wind him. If he attempted to move back or away at this point, he would notice she was following him, her distance and timing nearly perfect. If he blocked he would find his blocking appendage blown back or injured by the attack.

Down she went, before there was a retaliation, aiming to sweep his legs out from under him, which should work if he had been adequately distracted with her punches. As she came around, before he hit the ground, her hand would come up and seize him by the ankle. Grabbing him with both hands she would whirl, lifting him in mid air by his foot with surprising strength and toss him at the wall above the bleachers.

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

The first punch landed (no duh). He grabbed his throat. The second...an uppercut. He fell back. Gasping for air he clutched the air. As if trying to bring it down to him. For a moment he looked scared then......he went limp. Whatever the shadow personality had been. It was gone now. Well. To Del it would seem.
Inside his head was now a Malakai that was disembodied. Talking to Koshiro. Weather it had been the damage or the lack of food.....or the obvious concussion....or the fact that whatever the heck that was shouldn't have been possible. Koshiro would come back. The beast as she referred to it. Was no more. Koshiro was free. He no longer cared about what his father had done. Now it was about regaining his name and finding his mother.

His eyes shot open. He was in an defense amount of pain. Delilah was no longer on top of him....as a matter of fact. They were not even where they had been. He looked at her then up. He stood. Looked her right in the eyes.

"Del. What the fuck just happened?!!"

[Delilah A. Black]

"I beat you up," she replied with a raised eyebrow, walking up the bleachers to where he lay. "And you deserved it."

She tilted her head to the side, scrutenizing him with interest.

"You don't remember?"

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

"Remember? Last I saw you had me thoroughly pinned and.....Ow! My arm is dislocated....kinda." he wiggled it around.

He took a deep breath.

"then everything went dark and I was fighting my father." He spoke the words with disgust. He had meant to say Malakai.

"It felt so real....then I was watching all these dark moments throughout my life.....I've done some terrible things." He took a moment and reflected. He then looked at his watch. The had been at this training session for 4 hours! He hadn't trained like this since he was in Japan.

"Del.....Ma'am." He corrected himself. He suddenly was very formal again.

"i think I cracked a few......most of the bones in my body. Ma'am. Been a while since someone kicked my tail like that." He grabbed his chest and sat down.

"Are we going to train some more. If so I'd like my sword back I think......."he looked into the deep blue eyes. For a fleeting moment he wanted to thank her, but he didnt know why.

His stature was a little different. He seemed more confident. Sure of himself. Not that he lacked that before. He sat up straight and didn't lean over to look at his feet. He couldn't place why, but he trusted himself more.....that might have been the several blows to the head too.

[Delilah A. Black]

Her eyebrows lifted as she approached him. "And? These terrible things. Where do you stand with them now? Are they still nightmares that will hound you at night?"

Ignoring his last two statements...for the moment.

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

"They are terrible things. All the things I've done, but as for haunting me......no. Those things are done. I can't change them. I want to make up for them." He stood, ignoring the pain. He stood straight and looked intensely into the icy blue eyes before him.

"The best place to start is taking out Barker, but before that. I need some real training. Not something that will help me with street thugs. I need real training." He did not break eye contact once.

"This today has shown me, that I have a lot left to learn. Ma'am. I am ready and willing."

[Delilah A. Black]

Delilah stood there for a while, staring at the young white haired man with violet eyes. Studying. Deciding.

Finally, she reached out her hand towards him.

"Give me your arm."

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

Koshiro without hesitation stuck his arm out to delilah. He trusted her completely.

"Ma'am"

[Delilah A. Black]

Nodding absently, she took his arm and examined it with a scrutinous air. Gingerly, she gripped his elbow and his wrist, holding the arm in a loose arm-bar that would not be painful--

--until she twisted her upper body, popping his arm back into place.

The result would be rather painful and unnerving; having a joint rotate and grind back the way it was meant to go after sliding out in the first place was bound to be unpleasant.

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

He grunted in pain, but tried not to show it. A couple seconds later the pain started to fade, and he had full range of motion again.

"Hey, thanks." He smiled at Del.

"Well ma'am. Is training over?"

[Delilah A. Black]

"I think that's all for today. Go and get some rest and some food. Tomorrow at six am, one of my Tengu will be leading warm-ups. Follow them exactly as they say.

"Dismissed."

She would watch him go with a concerned draw to her eyebrows, puzzling over the white haired boy. She still wasn't quite sure of what to make of him.

But she supposed she would find out eventually.

. . .

[[ooc: write out what each day looked and felt like for Koshiro; use the basis of the exercises you were already worked through by Delilah in your posts; write a 200 word paragraph for each day, detailing struggles, pit falls, personal successes and adapting.]]

The next day at six am, Koshiro would find the room active, the members of Tengu all stretching and chatting amicably amongst themselves. Today, Talon was running the class. While somewhat nicer than Delilah, he was by no means any less efficent; they went from one excersize to the next without a break. After the final round of chi-yo tenshi tobi, they would be dismissed after three hours of excersize for their assigned tasks.

The day after was Sergei's class, and it began before the six am start up. The former Russian colonel woke up the Tengu and Koshiro with sharp blasts of a whistle at four am. Forced to dress quickly, he lead them on a run along the beach in full gear; resistance training, which was very difficult. Running in the sand with combat boots was not a good time.
Coming back to the training hall at five fifteen am, exersizes would start immediately. Instead of focusing on a well rounded approach like Delilah and Talon, Sergei seemed to place much importance on cardio. He would not stop until every single man and woman had collapsed from exhaustion. Then, and only then, would they be allowed to go and eat and continue with their day.

Heather's turn was next. The pretty, tanned blonde girl's class was a simple one; a few laps in the morning around the gym...and then yoga for the next three and a half hours. While Heather herself was a master contortionist, the positions that Koshiro and the Tengu would be bending themselves into would be very painful and straining. Falling down was expected, and not laughed at; it was hard to maintain balance while bending your leg up and behind your head to touch your heel to your forehead.

SPOILER: Click to show

Like Sergei, Birch's run of the class would come early. Too early; only a couple of hours after Koshiro had fallen asleep, a bucket of cold water would suddenly drench both him and the bed.
Until nine am the following morning, the task would be to catch Birch as he ran all throughout Crow territory, keeping the team on their toes as they were bombarded with water balloons from seemingly all directions, forcing them to work together just to get by. For the thirteenth consecutive time, Birch would get away unscathed.

Nigel's day of training meant building muscle mass. Most of the work done was focused on weights and lifting, building core strength and pushing yourself to the limit, followed by a round of shadow boxing, supervised and nitpicked to DEATH by Nigel until nine am.

Cain's training started outside, working on ambush techniques and an acute knowledge of their surroundings. Hiding in plain sight and patrolling the area was also covered; what is expected of Tengu is far above what the army corps standards are.

Nick focused on one thing and one thing alone; techniques. While the skin-head wasn't terribly bright, he had a natural knack for picking up what the boss lady was putting down, and he was unnaturally skilled at making people bend and scream. Every thing from joint locks to bone breaking to flesh tearing was looked into; by the end of the day, everyone would be leaving with a set of fresh bruises and perhaps a bit of a limp.

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

Koshiro walked in on the first day to see all the hustle and bustle of Tengu. He walked in and immediately felt at home. For a team of elite killing machines, they were nice guys. They accepted him, or it felt like it. The day started off well, Talon had been leading very well. He was efficient, but patient. Something Delilah was more harsh on, Talon was helpful and engaged. Koshiro did have some issues when it came the Chi- yo Tennessee Boogie…..Or whatever he called it. It sounded familiar, and he thought he was doing well, but he really just sat back, shut up and trained hard. Today he felt much better. He remembered to eat some food before training. The man wasn’t stupid…..just absent sometimes. He tried not to say much, especially while getting his ass handed to him….He coped well. Being beaten on was not out of the norm for him, but after the intense fight yesterday his tolerance was way down. Everything felt bruised, he just hoped that Del didn’t tell too many people about what happened. He was just as happy that, that stay a little secret…save for between him and Sider, and Del.

“Where’s Del” He asked at one point.

“Working.” One of Tengu said coldly

After training, he went about his day. The sun was nowhere to be seen as it was cloudy. A nice day by his standards. He was tired and worn out but still was going to push himself. He picked a direction and went running.




4am in the barracks. From a deep sleep he was dreaming about talking with his mother. She started to speak. It was very important, something about a baby, but just as she was about to tell him, her voice was drowned out by a whistle. Quiet at first but soon deafening. As it drew louder and louder the background faded to black. Soon, he was falling….no not falling. Rising! Higher and higher in the blackness until….his eyes shot open. A whistle was booming next to his head. All of Tengu was already up and moving. He lept up without a word and threw his gear on, with his special addons. (See beginning of thread). It was pouring outside when he opened the door. The man with the whistle spoke to all of them in a heavy accent.

“Get started. The sooner you finish the run, the sooner you dry.” The man pushed Koshiro forward as if telling him to lead off.

Koshiro ran off. He let himself fall behind into the middle of the group at first. He was doing this to train, he needed to keep pace with the bulk of Tengu.

After half an hour or so, the man told them to head toward the gym, and that the first one there got to dry first. A “No duh” Moment, but Koshiro knew better than to bother saying a word. Tai worked that out of him. He pushed himself to the front and stayed there. When they got to the gym he opened the door and let his squad go in first. When asked he simply responded that it was about teamwork and something about trust.
The exercises were almost identical to Del’s when she taught. It was clear that Sergi focused on Cardio, so they moved quickly through the exercises, well it was all blending together so he really didn’t know what was what anymore. He just did what he was told. After training finished he went and found the biggest plate of food he could, then. Another run. He ran all the way to dragon territory and back. About the time they yelled for lights out he was getting into the Barracks, hoping tomorrow they could wake up at 5:30, and not 4.

Koshiro did well at first. He had really good balance, but his flexibility left something to be desired. Almost every position she demonstrated she had to push his arms and legs to do. He felt embarrassed, but Tengu said and showed nothing. That was ice at least. He had no idea that there would be so much bending. He heard many things crack in his body that shouldn’t. He was still bruised from all the previous work. He did his best but knew he would need a lot of work in this area. After 2 hours he couldn’t move anymore, but pushed himself. He at this point focused more on stretching than perfectly mimicking the blond haired lady. She was nice to him, but still expected nothing less than his best. He wasn’t going to fail in that. After training, he went to the mess hall, an sat alone in the corner. For some reason he still didn’t feel like he was “Part” of Tengu.

He finished his meal and went on yet another run. Until he was given an assignment from someone in crow territory he felt this was a good use of time. He enjoyed the time to think and meditate. Today was sunny and pretty unlike the days before, which had been mostly rainy. He saw many more faces on the roads of California. It was nice……kinda. He decided to go on a late run. He didn’t get to bed until late, but fell asleep easily. He was really hoping for a good nights rest.

Which would not happen…..He jumped and then fell out of bed onto the floor. Sopping wet and cold. Worse, a cold front had blown in the night before, it was 50 outside and the water was colder than that! With only 2 words Birch would disappear into the night.
They rang in his head like a challenge for 6 hours.
“Catch me!”

The day came, and they all tracked their teacher through Crow territory, at times splitting up and sometimes all together. He was spotted once or twice leaping around, but for the most part, totally invisible. At one point he was in the center of the group. Un-noticed for 45 minutes. Then he lept away again. Koshiro did his best, but at one point finally asked for 5 people to follow him. They did. He sent one off to the left. Another to the Right, but didn’t tell them why all he said was “He might be listening. Finally. Just as he wanted. Birch. Right in front of them. He threw a rock off the right, then the left, then told another to chase Birch. Just as he had wanted. Birch. Cornerd….so to speak. He thought that he had three people on top of him. Truly just some well placed rocks. Koshiro ran right up to Birach, and…..! A water balloon hit him right in the face. He staggered back and soon as he blinked….Birch was gone.

“DAMN IT! I spread myself too thin!” He realized in setting the trap he had left no one near him to help grab the damned man. Another few hours passed, and his little squad heard someone hollering from across territory. They saw him. Koshiro spread them out into a net. If Birch fled this way with those damn balloons, Koshiro was ready. Finally a whistle blew. Birch called it over. They had spent 36 hours chasing his ass and nobody caught him.

He was going to run, but was so exhausted he went to Barracks and slept! Nightmares kept waking him. He was running, and sometimes, he was chasing. Other times it was a battle that was going poorly, and other times, he just woke up screaming. Well after that he finally slept the rest of the night.


Nigel told them what to do, Koshiro started pushing what he knew he could do. Then he would add 5 lbs, then 5 more, then 5 more. He did this until he could not push the bar any more. He pulled a few pounds off and worked with that for the rest of that time. Then they started boxing, he had done a little in high school, but nothing….you know. Advanced. He did his best, but still getting kicked in the end. He kept on as much as he could. He got a few good shots in. He was fighting one persona and lightning struck outside. The lights went out and it was dark. Everyone stopped and looked around for a moment, but no stop call was given. Koshiro took the opportunity to K.O. His opponent. Nigel then spoke sharply.

“Never get distracted. Otherwise…” He nodded to the Knock out on the floor.

“Good job Koshiro.”
A few snotty looks that day, but for the most part he was happy. After they worked out he got a snack and went running again. He didn’t even know why he needed to run this much….It was a desire that was building more and more. Perhaps he would find out later.

Koshiro did extremely well with this part of the job. He was hard to find. He would hide up on walls and rafters. Nobody looked up that much. When he was the seeker (as this was mostly just adult hide and seek) he would start by looking up. Whoever he was with usually did well. Some new techniques were shown, he really enjoyed learning from Cain, mostly because he enjoyed hiding like this. He got to watch Tengu more than any other day. He saw how organized and perfect they were. They were more than just a squad too. They were a family. They all seemed to move like shadows. It was an incredible thing to see. If it applied to anyone. Tengu squad were Ninja’s. After the long session, they moved inside. More exercises like Delilah’s. They had learned well. Koshiro was starting to get a hang of the squad, and they were starting to develop a dialog with him. He was starting to feel accepted. As usual he went on his afternoon run, and got back at about 9 or 10 pm

Nick came in and basically had them work on muscle memory all day. Copying his moves, and teaching techniques. They moved as one. Koshiro even did well. When he started to struggle a few would stop and help him get the hang of it. Then they started on something more advanced. This was painful! He felt his body doing things he knew it shouldn’t! Cracks, here and there. His body locked up a couple times and he just hurt, this was not his favorite thing. Nick pushed them hard, then the time rang and Koshiro was extatic that training was over for the day. One more minute of that and he might have snapped! He felt like he had done well despite it all. Some of Tengu even had a conversation with him. He went to mess and they all sat with him. Then when he got up to go run 4 or 5 Tengu got up and followed him. One of which being Talon. They all walked outside. He turned and asked why they were following and if they needed him? What had he not done? Or missed? They looked puzzled and agreed that they wanted to go run with him. Koshiro was puzzled now. Why? He did not question, but welcomed the company, and at first they all ran together with no problem but after a while he looked up and they were gone. He ran back and found his squad mates slowly running a couple hundred feet away. “What’s wrong Tengu?” He hollered sarcastically. “Can’t keep up with the new guy?” He laughed. Then he told them to follow him a little further then they would stop.

A little later, they made it to a hill, at the top were 2 tree’s (Apple Trees). The trees had grown up but over the long years bent toward eachother and eventually grew as one. This was his favorite spot to meditate. He tossed them some apples and then sat. They seemed to have no problem and actually sat at the top of the large hill with him meditating, almost as if they were his class. He didn’t think that though, he just kept going. After an hour or 2 he got up and said he was going. Then took off again.

(OOC: I think that’s what you were looking for? I added a little character building there. Thought it might help. Sorry if I borrowed Tengu where I shouldn’t have. Lemme know if I need to mod.)

[Mr. Kaar]

Koshiro gains 5 exp