New Year... New Start? (Open)

Keni had been ready, but this girl had still tackled him to the ground. Unluckily for her, she had loosened her grip just enough for him to move his hands. He lightly hit a few pressure points on her body. While she wouldn't feel any pain, it did cause some involuntary reactions that made her muscles relax. Keni then easily got her off of him. Keni then laughed.

"There's not attacker. You just fell asleep, and it was the perfect chance. This is what I mean. You lack discipline. Now, remain standing. Close your eyes, and empty your mind of all thoughts. If you fall asleep again, you'll wake up to find yourself strung from your ankles." Keni said. Of course, he really had no way to carry out the threat, but she didn't know that. Besides, there's no way it'd be a fair fight between him and her.

Sophie sighed. She had a feeling this "discipline" thing was going to turn out incredibly boring.

She stayed stood still and closed her eyes.
'Oohh it's all dark!' She thought to herself.
'Shut up mind!' She tried to tell herself but it only resulted in a conversation between different parts of her mind. She tried to get rid of all the weird conversations but her head just wouldn't shut up. She stood there for a few minutes and then she told herself to shut up before trying to carry on.

Keni chuckled in his own mind. He could see that she was having trouble clearing out her mind. "Sophie... stop thinking. Don't try to not think... just don't think." Keni said to her. While she still had her eyes closed, he soundlessly changed his position, moving behind her. Heh, this oughta be good.

Sophie stood there and crossed her arms.
'You'd better shut up!' She told herself.

All the voices in her head disapeared and she sighed. Finally a bit of peace.

Keni moved himself back to the front. "When your mind is all clear, let your body relax... feel the energy within flow naturally..." Keni said. He also meditated, his body and mind relaxing. However...

"KENI!" Keni looked over and saw the same official from earlier.

"You're coming with me, young man!" the official said, almost grabbing Keni's arm, but stopped himself. "You broke that young man's arm! Explain yourself!" the official said, face livid with rage. Keni stared at him with a passive mien.

Sophie opened her eyes to see the official shouting at Keni. She walked forward so she was next to him and stared at the official.
"Nice going, you broke the guys arm," She whispered to him.

She then left Keni and walked up to the official and stood directly in front of him, glaring at him.
"You think you can yell at him like that?!" She yelled at the official, "Keni was attacked by that guy! Attacked! It was only right that he broke his arm! He deserved it."

Keni sighed. He stepped up to Sophie, covering her mouth with his hand. He leaned in close. "Bite my hand and you'll regret it." he told her, his voice taking on a threatening tone. He then turned to the official.

"Sorry, she's a bit of a hothead. At any rate, I'd only meant to paralyze his arm, not break it. I must've hit the wrong pressure point." Keni said. The official nodded.

"I see... at any rate, we did have the whole incident on camera, so I guess we have to let you off with a warning. However, don't let us catch you breaking any more bones again, okay?" the official asked. Keni nodded, and the official walked away. Keni then removed his hand from the Sophie's mouth.

When Keni removed his hand from her mouth she glared at him. Just glared. For what seemed like ages.
"I am not a hothead." She muttered to herself. He was the one who broke the damn bone not her so why was she the hothead? She wasn't simple as. Just no.

Keni met the girl's glare with one of his own. If she thought she could intimidate him, she had another thing coming. Whens he muttered, Keni shook his head.

"I'd say you are. You tried to start an argument with that official over a subject you weren't involved in. You need to learn to restrain yourself." Keni said, walking over to one of the sakura trees. He stared back at Sophie, before staring up at the trees. He shook his head.

"At any rate, I think we're done here for the day. I want you to practice meditating. We'll continue this another time." Keni said. He continued staring at the sakura trees.

Sophie stared down at the ground. He was right she really was like he said she was. She didn't even know why he was bothering with trying to teach her these things. It was clear she'd never understand it. She never did learn anything, she was terrible at it. She carried on staring at the ground, her hair covering her face.

"I never mean it. I only try to help," She muttered before starting to walk away, hiding her face behind her hair so he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes.

Keni said nothing as she walked away. However, his own anger was boiling up. Why had he hurt her feelings? All she wanted was to learn martial arts. With a shout of anger, Keni struck at one of the sturdier trees, striking it repeatedly with rapid punches in the style of Jeet Kune Do. After a few strikes, his knuckles started to bleed, but Keni didn't care. He continued punching at the tree, his blood running down the bark and starting to stain the grass. Eventually, Keni stopped, seeing he'd knocked the bark off of the area he'd been punching. Keni then walked away, heading toward the gymnasium. Perhaps some practice and meditation would take away his anger...

Sophie walked through the doors and into the gym, looking for something to do to make her feel better. She looked around for a bit but nothing really caught her eye. Nothing she could take her stress out on.

She noticed a basketball in the corner and picked it up. She bounced it along the length of the gym and stopped in front of a hoop. She rubbed the tears from her eyes and threw it as hard as she could, watching it go through the hoop and bouncing on the floor with so much power it went to the other side of the gym.

Keni entered into the gym, and headed off to one of the supply rooms that was open for student use. There, he pulled out a punching bag and two training dummies. He set up the punching bag, rapidly delivering punches with his now-bandaged hands, ignoring the pain and focusing instead on getting all his stress let out so he could finally meditate and get back to his usual calm demeanor. He didn't even hear Sophie enter the gym or start bouncing the ball. He didn't even notice the ball hit him as it bounced to where he was, slowly rolling away from him, as if it felt his anger. As each hit connected, Keni grunted in exertion and anger.

Sophie turned around to find the ball. She quickly scanned the room for it and spotted it on the the other side of the gym, slowly rolling away from someone's foot. She began to walk towards it. She looked up to see the guy was Keni. She felt fresh tears in her eyes and shook her head, as if that would get rid of them. She covered her face with her hair and walked towards the gym door, she really didn't feel like staying there while he was there after all.

Keni finally was finished punching... and he saw blood through the bandages. He'd agitated his wounds. Keni shook his head, seeing Sophie walk away. Great... he'd scared her away. Keni then did something he knew he'd probably regret. "Sophie! I'm... sorry... wanna see something cool?" he asked. "You know, a bit of a preview for some stuff I'm learning that I'll teach you in due time... if you want to, that is..." Keni said. He hoped she'd stay.

Sophie stopped in her path. She stared at the floor as tears dripped down her face. She reached her arm up to her face and tried to wipe away the tears, only for more to fall. She wanted to stay, she really did. But he'd just laugh at her for crying. After all that's all anybody ever did was laugh at her. This was simply another reason to. She felt fresh tears against her cheeks and closed her eyes. She had to stop this. She opened them again only to find more tears. She remained stood there, fighting against her own feelings simply because she wanted to stay with Keni.

Keni saw her look up, seeing the tears he thought he'd heard when they were outside. Keni walked over to Sophie. He used his finger to raise her chin up. "Hey, I'm sorry. I said some things I shouldn't have. I know you're trying to help, but you gotta learn to restrain yourself. Trust me on that one." Keni said to her, his voice gentle. He almost sounded like the type of guy who would never hurt a fly. Keni shook his head. "Boy, aren't I a fool? I get the chance to talk to a great girl like you, and I screw it up..." Keni said.

He walked a few steps away, his feelings stirring up within him. He then shook his head. "If you don't wanna stay, I understand." Keni said. He stood there for a few moments, before slowly heading back toward the equipment he'd gotten out.

Sophie stood there for a few minutes. She tried to wipe the tears away from her eyes. She wasn't very successful but she didn't care. He hadn't laughed at her, finally someone who didn't laugh at her.

She slowly followed him towards his equipment and stood next to him.
"What did you mean?" She asked him almost silently, "I'm not a great girl... Most people hate me..." She felt more tears drip down her face as she stood there.

Keni shook his head as he set up one of the dummies. He then turned to her. "Now, now... no more of those." Keni said, wiping the tears away with his bandages. Fortunately, no blood seeped out of the bandages. He shook his head.

"Fools, every single one that hates you. You're a great girl, and those tears aren't befitting that pretty face o-" Keni said, stopping himself too late. He shook his head. "At any rate, I'll show you an art few have ever seen if you'd like... even though I'm still learning it myself..." Keni said, trying to change the subject.

Sophie nodded she looked up at Keni. She raised an arm and wiped away the last of the tears. She smiled at him. He was right. She was a great person and everyone that hated her was a fool. As for the pretty part, well that was weird. But she could move on from that.
"I wanna see," She told Keni.

Keni nodded. He took a deep breath in and out, before making sure Sophie was out of the way. "Ever hear of a martial art called 'Capoeira'? It's a Brazilian martial art that is based on acrobatics and dancing." Keni said, starting up the basic ginga that he'd done outside. After going back and forth for a few seconds, Keni reared up into a spinning back-hand. After landing, he continued the ginga, then performed a spinning high kick with both feet. When he landed, he continued his momentum into a low sweep kick. He then stood and gave Sophie a martial arts bow.

Sophie watched him amazed.
"Wow, that's so cool! You're like, amazing!" She told him, smiling, "I wanna learn that too!"

Well she had cheered up all right. Very much so. She rolled the sleeves of her jacket up and took the golden ring that looked kind of like a snake wrapped around her finger off and played about with it in her hands.

Keni found himself blushing at her compliment. He shook his head. "I wish I could teach you... but I won't be certified until I attain black belt rank. I'm only a white belt at Capoeira. However, I'll teach you as soon as possible." Keni said.

He set up his second dummy and threw a punch at it that perhaps only Bruce Lee would've seen coming, as he hadn't telegraphed the punch at all. His feet weren't in the "proper" position, and he didn't "wind-up" the punch or anything. The dummy fell apart (as it was supposed to do) from the impact. Keni then packed up the equipment and put it away. He then came out to where Sophie was.

"Let's get outta here before the nurse comes by. If she finds out I agitated my knuckle wounds, she'll skin me." Keni said, his voice indicating that he was trying to joke, but was failing.

Sophie smiled and looked up from the ring she was holding. She placed it back on her finger and smiled at it.
She followed Keni towards the door and felt kind of strange all of a sudden.

She stopped and leaned against the gym wall, trying to make sense of it. Her head hurt and she didn't really know why. Maybe she'd just messed herself up too much earlier. She clenched her fists and loosened it again when her head started to hurt worse.

Keni was about to ask Sophie something when he saw her back a few yards, leaning against the wall. Keni went back and hefted her into his arms. He shook his head. "Guess I'm gonna have to get yelled at anyway, huh?" Keni asked, carrying her to the nurse's office.