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Who: Kisa and Chloe
Where: Chitoku Gym
When: April 24th, Monday, After school
What: Super fun Judo club time!

When she was told that she had to pick a sports club and a culture club, she had been less than enthused. Clubs meant other people, and everybody knew by know how she and other people got along. Of everything, she had ended up choosing judo. Why? Why not? It wasn't like she cared about it, right? ... right?

The German currently stood in the gym, wiping the sweat from her brow on the sleeve of her Judogi. For someone who didn't care about the sport at all, she sure was busting her ass for it. Club was only a around half done and she had already worked up a sweat. Regardless, she didn't show signs of taking things easy any time soon either. The ferocity at which she went at Judo was both admirable and frankly kind of scary. Her cold and calculating gaze didn't really help when others were facing her to practice kata either. There was almost always hesitation when someone was paired with her for the kata routines, and it almost didn't phase her anymore. The hesitation was just like the whispers. She could shake them off. She could handle them.

The class was currently on a small breather break. While others were drinking water or sitting down to take a rest, Chloe had other ideas. The German was on one side of the gym where they held their judo club practice sessions, going through various Ukemi; it was always nice to know know to breakfall so one didn't stupidly hurt themselves. And so she practiced them, over and over again, waiting for class to be called back into session.

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"You should at least take a breather, Abendroth-san."

Kisa had popped up near Chloe -- but not so close as to get in the way of her practicing -- after tending to a first-year who'd overextended a muscle while playing uke to a promising but over-enthusiastic second year who'd applied a joint lock a little too hard.

"Practicing is important, but so is taking care of yourself."

A familiar voice popped up to her right and she stopped mid Ukemi. Her icy gaze turned to look at Kisa, wiping more sweat from her face with her sleeve. Since the awakening event, things had been sort of awkward between them, but a different kind of awkward from before. The German stood in her regular passive stance at Kisa's word, panting slightly as she tried to get her breath back.

Taking care of yourself... that was something she wasn't really good at, like a lot of things. She paused slightly, as if contemplating Kisa's words... before her shoulders eased a bit. The German was always tense, but less tense than when she was practicing at least.

"I apologize, senpai."

"There's no need to apologize!"

Kisa waved it off with a sharp gesture and a smile that bore a note of concern. "I just want to make sure you're not overdoing it. Especially with... things going on."

Her voice trailed off a little at that, but its firmness returned quickly enough. "It's something I've noticed from you. It's not good to push yourself so hard."

Something she had noticed? Hm... usually it was her noticing things about other people. The German's eyes looked at Kisa almost calculatingly. Kisa was perceptive, she would at least give her that much. She wondered what it would take to shake that inner calm her senpai seemed to exhibit at almost all times.

It wasn't good to push yourself so hard. She was pushing herself? She looked at the palms of her hands silently. She didn't view it as pushing herself. Not entirely anyway. She just... she couldn't give anyone a reason. She had to rely on herself. If she made sure she was well-trained, she could keep them safe. She knew that she had a higher constitution than a lot of the other kids, so the more she could take, the better off the others were. She couldn't afford to slack.

"I'm not."

It wasn't an answer Kisa wanted to take, but she got the feeling that she would probably have to. Chloe didn't seem the sort to listen to others' concerns, well-meaning though they might be.

"... If you say so," she replied uncertainly. At the least, Chloe seemed to have the physical endurance to keep it up to some degree. "At least make sure you take one or two per session," she added, sounding a little more insistent. "For safety's sake."

The way Kisa's voice faltered gave Chloe insight into just what she had done. This was exactly what she always did, wasn't it? She was so standoffish that she simply drove people away. People who, very rarely, only had her best wishes in mind. People like, perhaps, Kisa. Something in Chloe's eyes shifted slightly as that familiar feeling of self-loathing and shame seeped into her mind.

"...I will try, Saiga-senpai."

The German said, her voice a bit quieter than it had been. She rolled her shoulders slightly, taking a calming breath. One or two breathers during class... she could handle that, right?

"That's all I can ask."

There was a little more resignation than satisfaction to her response, but she was at least willing to leave it at that.

For now, anyway. She had a feeling this would come up again later.

"All right!" Stepping away from Chloe, she turned back to the club as a whole and clapped her hands sharply a few times. "Now that you're all rested up, we're going to do some hiza-guruma practice. Advanced students, I want you going through the nage-no-kata. Find your partners and line up!"

There was still something there. A certain awkwardness that could definitely been felt but never mentioned. Kisa had the patience of a saint, it seemed, to be able to deal with her at all really. Chloe knew she wasn't an easy person to deal with. Hard to deal with, but that meant one had to try first... and as soon as Kisa mentioned pairing up, she knew exactly what would happen.

Students that were friends paired off first, quickly getting into the kata. The stragglers who might not have had distinct friends took one look at Chloe and gravitated to each other, pairing up with others in the same situation as them. The German watched this happen without much surprise. During their first meet she had a crazy thought that maybe it wouldn't be like what she was used to. One meet later and she had stopped kidding herself.

Everyone had paired up now, save for her. The tall girl looked at Kisa, her gaze shifting slightly. Maybe it was an off day, but her eyes held a certain tiredness now. A blank, unsurprised tiredness. If Kisa were looking carefully, she might even notice the apologetic look in her eyes as well.

It was not a surprise. The other students had tended not to pair with Chloe unless they had to. Kisa had always felt awkward taking the duty on herself, but it was something she had never backed down from.

Today... today felt a little bit better. She stood opposite Chloe with a smile and bowed. "All right, Abendroth-san. I'll start off as the uke. Do you remember everything from the last session?" Unspoken but clear from the bit of concern that had crept in at the end was we had a lot of other things to worry about that day.

Inwardly, she felt bad for Kisa. The shorter girl was usually the one that had to group with her for kata, the one who had to deal with her. No doubt she would rather be with the other students, but it couldn't be helped it seemed. Though she heard everything Kisa was saying, the German's mind was elsewhere... back in that place. Back in the other world. The flickering image of Garmr would not leave her mind. Everyone else's manifestations came in clear and strong, but Garmr... he flickered and wavered, as if he would disappear at any moment. What had she done wrong? She had done everything that the others had done, yet still...

Chloe quickly returned from her thoughts when Kisa asked her question. Last session, right... that was the day they had been drafted. Her brows furrowed slightly in a tired manner as she tried to remember.

"Yes, Senpai."

Truthfully she did remember; her muscles more than her mind did even. Chloe took up the balanced shizen hontai stance, watching Kisa and her movements carefully. Nage-no-kata was a series of maneuvers meant to illustrate the concept of unbalancing and throwing an opponent. It was often used for demonstration purposes, so often times it was more like a routine than anything, done in a specific order. Even then, the German tried to keep her guard up as she and Kisa locked together in a standard right handed sleeve-lapel grip. Once Kisa stepped forward, she could compromise her balance with Uki otoshi, the floating drop. Chloe did her best to ignore the burning in her chest that hadn'd left since the Shinmen training, trying to keep her focus on judo for now.

Judo practice was soothing for Kisa. Even during randori, all of the parts of her mind that stressed and fretted about other things were quieted and replaced by instinct and reflex. And kata were even better -- she knew the motions and could just follow the flow. Of course, she had to stay alert, especially with a relatively inexperienced tori, and she had to strive to improve her own motions in the process. Yuudansha she might be, but she still had a long way to go.

But it was something she could easily keep the whole of her mind on, and that was enough. She initiated the tsugi ashi, her body relaxed and ready to accept the throw and move into the ukemi.

Chloe was no beginner to Judo, but she certainly had room for improvement. While a few years was nothing in the grand scheme of things, she was a fast learner. Nage-no-kata in itself was was new to her, but she felt somewhat secure in its execution. When Kisa took the step forward, her muscle memory remembered more than her actual memory. The German took a step back, compromising Kisa's balance. When Chloe dropped to one knee to throw Kisa behind her, the pain in her chest flared for a moment, causing her to take an unusually sharp breath. She managed to make sure she didn't throw off Kisa's landing, but the taller girl quickly exhaled with a pained grunt.

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