Description: Yuri and Rust have a talk behind the scenes about martial arts, as well as the harsh realities of life, and what it means to be a black belt.
The students don't arrive for another 90 minutes, but that doesn't stop Yuri from showing up early to do a little practicing on her own. She's donning her usual gear, save for her sneakers, which leaves her in her white socks since it's a little cold today. "Today's going to be a fine day for training!" Yuri says as she begins some 'shadow sparring,' warming up her muscles and getting the blood flowing in her body. All the while, her usual smile adorns her face, showing that she's pretty much in the right mood for some pre-class training.
Just as she finishes, she hears the crashing noise. She spins around, ready to question whoever had the nerve to be making noise in the middle of a training session, while forgetting that it is too early all the same...
Only to pause when she realizes that it's none other than Rust, and she smiles again. "Oh, Mr. Rust!" Yuri says with a smile. "It's so nice to see you again!" She walks over to where he's practicing with the bottles. "I heard about what happened in South Korea and in Metro City! I'm really proud of you, putting your life on the line to fight against the Shadaloo organization." Her wide eyes and big smile indicates that she's very sincere about what she's saying. "I'm glad you're all right!"
It almost seems like the battle to save Metro City (and, later, South Korea) from Shadaloo influence happened a long time ago.
It's barely been two weeks since the latest in a series of life-changing incidents that have touched just about everyone involved in the struggle whose tide was barely overturned. It's hard enough to try and transition back to a normal life after all's said and done. Metro City and South Korea will be picking up the pieces for a good long while.
How does one who had found himself in the way of his ambitions manage to take it, knowing this fact that it may never, in fact, be over? Vega has made it clear back in Metro City that the very concept of death was, ultimately, an inconvenience.
"Hooah!" A gloved right hand cuts across a row of bottles in front of them along the concrete lot of the Kyokugen Dojo in the very early morning. Glass bottlenecks fly into the air, spinning about as sunlight glints off of the severed pieces before they shatter against the concrete... along with one whole bottle that tips over at the very edge. The very origin of the crashing noises in question.
The older man draws himself back to observe the handiwork, a low grunt as he bends down (with the expected pop of a knee or two, maybe the same one twice?) to sweep the shards of glass by hand into a pile for later disposal.
"Fourth set," he mutters, "still... still can't get 'em all in one." Where he might be expressing discontent with it all, his tone lightens up a little more when Yuri addresses him. A voice that is sometimes worthy of cringing and terror, given the antics she gets up to.
Today, though, hearing her after so much strife just a short time ago? Reassuring, as he reaches up to start taking the chopped glass bottles off of the table. It's a relief to hear her being in good spirits after all's said and done.
"Yeah," he murmurs out as he clears his throat, "was a... real mess." That's still putting it lightly. "We pulled through, but... but there's still a, a lot of damage." He can only imagine how much work Mike Haggar's going through to clean up his city... and how the Kim clan over in South Korea is taking the whole thing, given everything.
"I know, I heard a lot about it." Yuri frowns a little as she looks down at her socked feet with a sigh. "People often say about how there were the 'winners' of a war, but the truth of that matter is, there are no winners in a war. I mean, look at what's happened as a result." She clenches her fists together in a sign of rage, but then she stops abruptly. "At least, though, the threat of that evil lord Vega has been stopped for now! But that's not what I'm worrying about right now."
Yuri then looks up at Rust again, a gentle smile on her face again, although her tone seems a little serious. "Right now, I'm doing what you're doing in a sense. You're trying to break those bottles, while I'm trying to get my skills up as much as I can. I learned recently that I'll soon be ready to test for my black belt, but I have no idea when that is." She pauses to turn away from the front of the dojo, as is general tradition, before adjusting her belt so it's a little more secure, and then looks to Rust again. "As a result, I'm trying to get myself into the best shape I can. Because, during the war, I got worried and I slacked off with my practice." She turns to look at a sparring bag nearby while still looking at Rust a little. "I'm thinking of working on my general attacks to make sure I've still got my overall ability to keep it going." Then she turns back to Rust and smiles again. "Keep it up with the bottle thing, I'm sure you'll get it eventually!"
The way Yuri speaks gives the older man a bit of a callback to one of the students at Pacific, the way she spoke so confidently about the way of the world despite their age and upbringing. It's almost like Yuri went to war herself (he is, presently, not aware of who helped save Saudi Arabia way back when - that was all her).
While she speaks, he's busy replacing bottles. The bottles are not all of the same brand or origin. In fact, most of them are from his living space. (If he had that many lying around, what does it say to the condition of his place, anyway?)
There is a pause when he puts up the fourth new one when she mentions she's going to be testing for her black belt soon. "Yeah? That's, that's... pretty big." Congratulations are almost always in order for being eligible to test in one of /the/ most physically demanding martial arts on the planet. Yuri might not look the part outwardly, but Rust knows she's as fiercely dedicated as anyone.
It does kind of hit him hard when she reveals she was so worried about the war that she let her training slip. Let's be fair, though... who wouldn't worry? One can't take one's survival for granted. The man himself was dead to rights several times over, were it not for his fortune matching his fortitude. He ceases with the bottles for a moment to step up towards Yuri to put a hand on her shoulder as she starts eyeing a nearby sparring bag.
"I'm, I'm sorry I worried you so much." Really, it stands to reason he worried a lot of people when he took off for Metro City and then over to the Korean warzone.
Yuri watches Rust replace the bottles, her hands on her hips in a spunky manner. Then when he's done, Yuri shakes her head. "It's all right, Mr. Rust. You were doing what you felt was right, knocking out those bad guys!" Her comment indicates that her attitude is changing back to the usual one, for better or for worse. "And yeah, training to become a black belt is a really big thing. In fact, the way my father is, one small mistake can result in an instant failure. Because of that, a lot of students have to take the test two or three times." She frowns a little at that.
"It's not fair, if you ask me. I know you need to be disciplined and all, but my dad doesn't know how to be fair at times. I mean, everyone makes mistakes!" She turns away and folds her arms. "I swear he must think that everyone has to be perfect! That's not what Kyokugen Karate is about!"
Even with Yuri's reassurance, a part of him still feels significant guilt that he didn't think to swing by to either site of strife any sooner than he did. That it took the supposed reappearance of Vega to get him to act as opposed to putting two and two together about the seemingly impossible amount of mobilized military (and miscreant mugger) forces brought to bear.
Drawing himself back over to the act of resetting bottles, the ex-shop teacher weighs in without making much in the way of eye contact as he makes sure to align them juuuuust right. It's actually a very delicate process.
"Well, when you get to the, the black belt level, that... that indicates that you, you know all the fundamental elements of it." Keeping in mind Howard himself is a green belt in Kyokugen, even if his martial skill sees him a better-rounded fighter than many in that skill bracket. "Back when I taught shop over at, uh, at Pacific," he clears his throat again, "'scuse me."
Not that saying his place of former employ's a dirty word. His lungs just keep picking up dust.
"I... I was pretty strict too, I mean... had to make sure the kids knew how to, y'know, hold a tool, knew how to understand... directions, how to measure, how not to... hurt yourself," he winces at remembering when one guy spilled molten metal all over the floor. That put an end to any further metalworking in such classes right then and there.
"I mean, Yuri, the worst... the worst you can do, is givin' people who don't know what th-they're doing as, well, the same distinction as those who do," he looks up as he sets down the last bottle of the next row to be on the (karate) chopping block.
"I mean, if... if you got a brain surgeon who got his, uh, his license without being up to standard, well..."
When Rust gives his point about strictness and what not, Yuri puts her hands behind her back and looks down at the ground. "I... I guess you're right. I mean, I don't want any accidents to happen in the dojo either. It'd look bad for us, and my father would probably make me clean the dojo three times a day for a long time." She shakes her head. "I guess it's only right to be strict with something like this, but there are times where I feel my father is going beyond the usual strictness."
Yuri turns away, still looking down at the floor. "I know I'll become a black belt, I know I can do it. I didn't train this long for nothing." She cracks her knuckles and rolls her neck around a little. "I intend to be like my brother and prove that I know the way of Kyokugen Karate, because there's the old stereotype that girls are weak, which is not true!" She turns to face Rust, a look of sterness on her face. "Girls can do anything boys can do! It's the truth! I'll prove it!"
As if someone doesn't always end up having to clean up after the latest little familial spat or some other incident of physical comedy that can really only be funny instead of tragic when it's between people of such incredible endurance to physical duress.
The way Yuri wrestles with the men vs. women argument of strength... along with the fact Takuma has never personally accepted female students, does paint a greater picture of what's at stake for Yuri's own pride and her dreams. Even Ryo himself has, to wit, only ever assisted in the training of one other young woman (aside from his sister, of course).
All the while, Howard takes a step back and puts two hands in front of him self, palms facing the bottles and thumbs extended horizontally as if making extra sure that they're all nice and level and straight.
"Just... just don't forget. Your dad, he, well, he really cares for you." This should never have been in question after the whole King of Fighters 2011 incident. "The, the fact he's testing you for it, Yuri, that... that means he believes that, hey, you're ready. I... I don't think it's about, uh, being a boy, or a girl at that point."
Howard himself would believe it too. Despite Yuri's occasional flights of infantile fancy, she has shown several times over how dedicated she is to the art despite starting her training later than her brother.
Giving his right shoulder a roll to work out the kinks, he takes a step back towards the table to prepare the next chop anew. "Just... confidence, plays a whole lot, too. Gotta... gotta be able to do it with confidence to do it."
Despite him saying this, the look on his face speaks less of 'I am confident that I can get all the necks off these bottles in one chop' and more one of some sort of urgency behind the entire gesture. Maybe he's about run out of bottles once this one's done...?
"Confidence?" Yuri grins now. "I know it's not always easy to be confident, but when you know how to feel it, there's nothing to it!" She stands back and waits for Rust to do his strike on the bottles. She knows it's a difficult and delicate technique, and the last thing she wants is to mess up Rust. So she simply holds her hands in front of her and grins.
The man's face tightens in focus, eyes narrowed. The dark purple /thing/ on his head does not tighten at all. It does not need to focus to continue to be as horrible as it always is, a very mockery of the very concept of hair at all.
It's the same training exercise Robert and Ryo had to practice a whole lot way back in their earlier days, one they had to absolutely perfect en route to their further masteries. The middle-aged man does not have an advantage in youth for making this work, and yet...
He makes the motion with his right hand a few times, stopping short of the first bottle as Yuri watches on with that usual smile. C'mon, this time, he thinks, he's pretty sure he's got it lined up just right...
"Hooyah!" Goes the kiai as the side of his gloved hand slices across glass, his shoulder popping loudly at the sudden movement that earns him a brief grimace.
The tops all fly about in the air, except for one. It's almost always the last one or two bottles that gets him, he inwardly curses as he straightens up. "Well... so much for, for that," he laments in his usual mumbly voice as he decides the first action of order is to pick up the surviving bottle by the neck. When he picks it up by the neck, the rest of the bottle doesn't follow.
"'m gonna have to drink some more beers, I guess," he grunts out as he - humorously enough - fails to notice he actually did get them all this time.
Yuri watches as Rust goes for the bottles, and gets all of them. Initially, Rust doesn't seem to notice that he got all of the bottles, yet his comment does draw a snicker from Yuri. "Well, don't overdo it you--" She then pauses as she realizes what Rust is thinking, and she exclaims, "Wait, Mr. Rust! You got them all, don't you see?" She points eagerly.
He's moments away from just tossing the proof of his success over his shoulder as the other bottlenecks hit the concrete. He even stares at her declaration as she points out the various bottles, but the math is just right. She didn't just put a bottle down that he just picked up, right, he thinks as though she might even do that for his sake after what he mentioned about...
Then he actually looks into his hand. He /is/ holding a bottleneck, not a whole bottle! He is so wary of this fact that he stops to try and fit it on top of the supposed bottle he hit, squinting so harshly at it as if he were capable of determining that this actually came from that bottle...
It's a perfect match.
"Huh," he verbally shrugs at this sobering (yet, paradoxically, invigorating) revelation, "I'll be," as he stands straight up and rubs the back of his head. He breaks into a very short chortle. "Wish Ryo came 'round and saw that, I, I gotta say."
"You did it, definitely, Mr. Rush." Yuri smiles, but then frowns when the mention of Ryo is made. "I actually wish he weren't here, because... well... our sibling rivalry sometimes extends into the dojo. He might make a comment about me helping you cheat, even if it weren't true." Yuri stomps at the ground with her socked foot. "He's a good brother, but sometimes he doesn't know when to stop teasing me." Then she looks to Rust and smiles. "But still, you did it and that's what's important!"
Howard was an only child, and - despite his years - can't really know the fullest depths of sibling rivalry beyond what he has witnessed. He's... pretty sure it's significantly less explosive than it potentially gets inside the Sakazaki family though, as he starts taking the bottles off where they stand with all the positive energy of triumph and all the lethargy of a man who probably should've spent the morning doing the usual stretches and exercises (read: a lot of repetitive push-ups, sit-ups, and laps) instead of attempting the feat of focus and precision.
It'll probably come back to haunt him today through the usual lessons, not to mention...
"Thanks, uh... yeah," the man mumbles out as he starts to contemplate what he'll be doing given what he's about to say next, "got my, uh, my own belt test soon, after... well, I heard we're getting a, a bunch of new students," this statement should be cause for a whole lot of joy for the dojo - and really, when Mr. Rust here is now a two-time war hero to the world at large for standing up to Vega, who doesn't want to send themselves or their children to the dojo he trains at?
"Probably... a, a bunch of people that, uh, that don't realize the dojo is not a daycare." Oh man, how many parents has he had to convince for this very important fact? "Not... not black belt," obviously, he's a green belt and wouldn't be skipping all the way to that, "but... your dad was, uh, he was pretty eager to see how I was after, well, two wars."
Two wars is three too many, he thinks, after all's said and done... but at least this latest time he wasn't assaulted with vehicles and bombs.
"You're right about the dojo not being a daycare!" Yuri says with a hmmph. "My father has to keep some of the younger students in line so much that he's actually started instilling collective punishments on a few of them, just in an attempt to motivate them to stop." She turns away and narrows her eyes. "Like that's doing much good. There's this one kid who actually acts out on purpose to see everyone else get in trouble. I don't know why my father hasn't kicked him out of the dojo yet!"
Yuri turns to face Rust again, a scowl still on her face. "He's an orange belt, but that doesn't mean that he understands the limits of it. I've had to reprimand him numerous times when he was mouthing off to higher-ranked students and my father didn't see it."
Rust knows exactly which kid Yuri's talking about, and he inwardly groans at the mention. It's like that other kid who was once at Pacific, what's-his-name... started with the letter F. "Probably because his folks're, they're still paying the tuition." He knows there's been some mercy cases with the more dedicated students about being able to pay, but the dojo is as much a business as it is a way of life. The business end rarely ever goes too well.
"But... you know," the man with the perfectly fine and youthful hair (not!!) says as he looks to the side... didn't he bring a tray or something to sweep all this glass in? The Kyokugen students in general are extremely tough and probably would not mind or notice a few glass shards out on the lot, but it still doesn't seem right to leave the shattered pieces of glass /there/.
It dawns upon him that yes, he forgot to bring something that would help him clean it up. Which, of course, segues wonderfully into what he wants to say next as he looks back to Yuri.
"Right now, y'know, even with... bratty kids, kind of, kind of vapid parents, your dad's... moods, Robert not returning my tapes, or... Marco's bear," he stretches one of his legs out as he takes in a deep breath, "I gotta say, just... however long it lasts until, ah, whatever pops up next..."
"I'm just glad that... that we got this, I mean. Friends, family. A living. The, the kind of stuff me 'n... 'n a couple others went through hell and back for."
It's a temporary peace at best, given Vega's particularly unique situation in regards to life and death. He's not sure where Munin is now or what she's doing given her uncertainty at what she was going to do next... but he's sure Julia's doing very well with her own environmental ambitions.
"So, I'm thinkin'... maybe, might as well just, just take the day for what it is." Dealing with that orange belt, belt tests, misguided parents, Takuma's displeasure, etcetera, etcetera... no, discounting the little things of life as 'etcetera' is doing them a grave disservice. Every small little thing they all fought for is theirs to enjoy (or at least experience), at least for now.
"'m gonna need to get something to scoop up the glass," he murmurs aloud as he starts to walk off towards the dojo, "if you wanna spar to prepare for later, 'd be up for that."
"You're right, Mr. Rust," Yuri says, trying to compile together what he said in a sense so he knows she's not ignoring him. "We just have to deal with it as it comes. As for the sparring, ummm..." Yuri puts her finger to her mouth and thinks for a moment, before shaking her head with a slightly sad look on her face. "I'm sorry, Mr. Rust, but I'm afraid I have to say no. I have a big test that I have to study for, and if I fail it, I just know my father will keep me from testing again for awhile." She smiles weakly. "But we'll do it again sometime, I promise!"
"Sure." It's still nice to think that he can - these days - get a nice, clean fight without having the weight of the world of one's shoulders or some other nastiness going on. It's always kind of hard to avoid the siren call, despite life having previously gotten in the way many times of it.
He subconsciously pats the pipe on his left hip that's through his toolbelt that he wears alongside his green belt (which looks as weird as one might imagine) as he stares out towards the dojo. He knows full well when he walks in there it's never going to be as simple as picking up a broom. There's always going to be something or someone else who'll somehow make this mundane task a challenge unto itself.
It probably says a lot that he's almost looking forward to that from here on out. A far cry from just running out to the docks on weekends to try and get in even the smallest, slightest taste of a dream believed almost long gone, as he walks away from a young woman who may well be on the cusp of achieving hers.
The Kyokugen Dojo is about to have a day. It does not need to be explicitly 'good.' It will be a day that progresses either of them forward to whatever end as opposed to the stagnation of drudgery or the threat of despair, and... what else can anyone ask for, at this point?
Log created on 16:02:57 09/23/2012 by Yuri, and last modified on 20:06:46 09/23/2012.