5:30am Fridays, FiRE building, sharp! [Tutor with Yume]

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

The time was 5:15 in the morning on a Friday. For normal children, this would be very early, but for someone who tends to the Shrine like Kaori this is quite late in the morning. In order to get her chores done she had to wake up a little earlier than usual, but that isn't a problem. She would endure waking up at 3 in the morning to see the idol that had taught her so much. The more she listened to Yume's music, the more it started to stick to her. The songs, at first, sounded like white-noise, not having appealed to her sense of taste. Through constant exposure to the music, however, she is now hooked. What made the music even better was the fact that she had to sneak into the supply shed and listen to it on the boombox given to her on extremely low volume. Thankfully, her wicked mother cannot access the supply shed as there are a lot of sacred instruments in there that she isn't able to touch.

She arrived to the building with enough time to spare; the thought of being late struck her as something that irresponsible people would do. An open invitation was given to her by the beloved pop idol and she felt that it was an honor to have captivated her attention like she did. Her heart raced and pounded in her chest, physically feeling each beat of her heart. This feeling that she felt with every step closer to the receptionist was an interesting one; one that she hadn't felt before.

Adoration​

For the time being, she wore her Shrine Maiden outfit with large red ribbons in her hair. While Yume would protest her wearing this, she was still extremely self-conscious about them. Though, releasing these items for public use DID help her ease into society a bit, she didn't want to also look like a crazed fan of hers. Kaori stepped up to the reception desk and placed her hand upon it and peaked over the large desk. "U-um, hello? My name is Tenkawa Kaori and I'm he-here to see Idol-Sens-- I mean, I'm here to see Yume," she said bashfully. She cleared her throat and stood on her tip-toes so she could see over the tall desk. "Uh-um, she said she would let you all know I was expected," she said with a crack in her voice.

 

[Yume]

Re: 5:30am Fridays, FiRE building, sharp! [Open with Yume]

The logo of company building glowed softly with neon lights from the outside above the main entrance, even with sunlight breaking into the horizon. Inside of the lobby, some employees had already started making their way into work, yawning and making a beeline straight for the adjacent FiRE owned cafe restaurant for their first shot of caffeine for the day.

The lobby on the first floor was clean, sleek and spacious. On the wall, a television that showed off the music videos the company's talents had played, along with the faint, yet noticeable music. Right now was their darling U<3ME. As Kaori approached the reception desk, it would be visibly unlit. The receptionists had new and more palatable hours instead of the previous crack of dawn. They wouldn't arrive to their station until seven. So their desk should have been empty. Luckily for Kaori, someone happened to be behind the desk. Though the expression on his face was nothing like the friendly Yume's, even if they were working in the same company.

NPC: U<3ME Manager​

Jun looked up from the files he was trawling through and peered down at the young girl and stared. Behind his glasses, they were a blank emotionless expression--a way to mask the exasperation at whatever the hell Yume did now. Oh, perhaps she did mention something along the lines of having a spectator during her workout sessions. The manager sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose before stepping out from behind the desk.

"Come with me."

They went up two flights of stairs, reaching a door that opened to an entire floor of training equipment and workout space. On the other side of the room, dressed in a plain tank top and shorts, and her insane hair twisted up into a bun, Yume's back was facing them. She was stretching her arm this direction and that before warming up with a jog on the spot, push ups and jumping jacks. Her shinobi personal trainer was doing the warm ups alongside her.

"Yume," Manager's voice cut through the air like a knife.

"Oppa! Did you get my white choco mocha?" Yume chirped, spinning around. "Oh, you got me Kaori-chan! Morning, Kaori-chan! You decided to come!"

"Just because of that, you can survive without coffee," the older male stated, briskly walking over to a stationary bike. No, not to exercise himself--he just wanted a seat. Pulling out his black planner book and having his headset at the ready, he was already in work mode and promptly ignored Kaori and the others.

Yume didn't let it bother her at all, and she hoped that Kaori didn't either. The idol waved her over with a radiant grin. "So you want to shadow my workout sessions? Oh, the brood you were walking with before. That's just my manager. He's actually pretty nice, so don't worry about his antics."

Though she was one to talk.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Re: 5:30am Fridays, FiRE building, sharp! [Open with Yume]

The grim, haunting face of a man came into view causing Kaori to step back and put both of her hands over her mouth, muffling a scream. His sudden appearance caused a sharp sensation to run through her body for a brief moment. She didn't expect to see much behind the counter only to see a demure and quite lifeless-looking man shuffling through paperwork. It was then where the man's personality began to shine; a lovely fellow he was. As directed, Kaori started to follow behind the man as the two of them walked through the building. Televisions were on at a low volume, showing the one she was here to see. U<3Me as the posters showed seemed like a pop idol (or in some people's eyes, a pop goddess). It's a wonder that even young boys would go gaga over her; she has a beautiful face and her body is very fit, something that all men would lionize as a symbol of perfection. Not only was she appealing and beautiful on the outside, but from their last meeting, she was also beautiful from the inside.

The two of them fought two flights of stairs. Kaori's breathing elevated slightly. Thanks to Coffee-Sensei's unreasonable regimen, she was able to actually tackle those stairs without dying half-way up. Afterward, the two were in Yume's training room. There was stuff all over the place! A cursory glance left Kaori in awe at the diverse amount of things that one could use for self-improvement. She turned her eyes from the large amount of stuff towards Yume. Any warm-blooded fan would LOVE to be in Kaori's shoes right now. And then another group of words confused her.

White Choco Mocha?​

Kaori was lost in thought for a moment before Yume addressed her directly, snatching her back to reality. Kaori nodded her head and smiled to the idol. "Yes, of course! I couldn't turn down an invitation like this, Yume-Sensei," she said confidence. With a summons, she grabbed the hakama she was wearing, lifted it up, and ran towards Yume only to stop within arm's length from her. Her eyes darted at the pale-faced ghoul of a man. He was her manager? Interesting. She turned to look back towards Yume.

"I didn't know the undead could get work," she said. Sadly, she wasn't being facetious; she actually believed the gaunt man was actually an undead -- he had all the hallmarks of an undead, for sure. She turned her head towards Yume as her eyes lit up and her head nodded ferociously; a glint of happiness in her eyes as she did. Kaori went from not knowing who one of the most (if not the most) popular idols in Konoha was to an absolute fan almost overnight. "Yes! What do you need me to do?" She was excited and couldn't wait to get started with whatever it was Yume wanted her to do. If she could endure Coffee-Sensei's work, she would gladly do whatever it took to do something for someone she idolizes.​

WC: 505
[MFT]

 

[Yume]

Re: 5:30am Fridays, FiRE building, sharp! [Open with Yume]

"The undead?"

His deadly monotone voice pierced through the air with a chill, but Yume brushed it off with a hysterical giggle. Covering her mouth in attempt to muffle the sounds, she tried her best to stay still as possible, but it was futile. Her body trembled along with her quiet laughter, until she finally gathered herself and wiped a tear from her eye.

"I knew it!" Yume remarked with a relieving sigh. Her eyes crinkled up in mirth. "Oppa is naturally pale. I told him to dye his hair back to pink, but he wouldn't do it!"

"It was fun while it lasted. Needless to say, I don't need other FiRE employees to keep asking me when I signed up to be an idol," the man muttered.

"Ah, well. I hope you do it again," the idol said with a clap of her hands together. "You looked less intimidating to others that way."

She ignored whatever her manager had to say (it was just a haughty grunt), and turned her attention back to Kaori. At first, she examined the purple haired girl from head to toe, placing a hand on her chin in thought. Yume glanced over at the jounin personal trainer, then her gym bag in the corner of the room, then back to Kaori. The hand was still on her chin, thinking.

"Hmm..." She was humming for a while. "I don't think my workout clothes would fit you."

Could she work out in her priestess clothing? Yume wasn't a priestess herself--she only hosted one in her dreams--so she wasn't sure if that was even sacrilege. Plus, this was a girl that had not the basics of hand to hand combat down yet. She could foresee an unfortunate tripping accident.

Nevertheless, Yume had a cheeky grin on her face, and gestured boldly towards her manager as she addressed him. "Oppa! Get some workout clothes that would fit Kaori-chan!"

The reply was prompt, as if he anticipated this. "No. Hurry up and finish your workout, we have a full schedule today."

"Please! Please, please, pretty please!"

"..."

A heavy sigh wafted across the room and the male stood, snapping his planner shut. "Do your workout in the meantime. Please."

And then he left. Yume threw up a cheery victory sign to Kaori and grinned. "Problem solved! Ah, Seonsaengnim! Sorry for the wait, I'm ready."

With a wink to Kaori, the idol quickly jumped up and down for another makeshift warm up before going into a front stance. "Once Oppa comes back with some clothing for you to move about in, you'll be doing something like this, Kaori-chan! Just watch me closely."

She faced the jounin, who had already armed himself with a kickboxing shield. This scene played out again for the second time, he realised. He wondered whatever happened to that other girl.

"Well, you know the drill, Yun-chan," the personal trainer said. "Whenever you're ready."

The drill, as the trainer called it, consisted of a rotation of various hard hitting punches to the shield. After about five minutes, Yume would stop for a short drink break before they switched to a rotation of kicks. After five minutes of that and a drink break, it was just free for all, as long as Yume kept moving and kept hitting the shield with vigour.

Words of encouragement would be had, once Manager returned with suitable clothing for the young priestess.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Re: 5:30am Fridays, FiRE building, sharp! [Open with Yume]

The 'undead' manager left in a huff to go retrieve clothing for Kaori before Yume's routine began. A large shield-like bag was carried by the trainer before Yume unleashed a flurry of punches into the bag. The many different types of punches that was delivered to the bag completely threw her off. She attacked the bag at multiple angles and multiple distances, giving a lot of variety to the different types of punches available. After 5 minutes, Kaori clapped her hands and nodded her head. "That was so cool! I didn't know that there were that many different kinds! You must be strong to know how to do all of that!" she shouted out in absolutely excitement. Perhaps it wasn't necessarily her strength that made her so good, but experience in fighting; something Kaori severely lacked.

Afterward, Yume went to kicking drills. The thought of kicking something above waist-height was another foreign concept to her. Kaori tried to emulate what she saw only to lose balance, landing on her butt. A wince and a rub of her rear was made as she continued to watch after moving her legs underneath her, placing his palms upon her knees. Kicks were something Coffee-Sensei hadn't taught her yet, which may be important to her as she is going to be emphasizing close quarters combat when she becomes a shinobi. She sat by and watched intently until Yume went on another break. Standing up quickly, she rushed over to Yume with the same excited look on her face.

"Those kicks were so cool! How did you get to be so flexible?" she asked. The droning work she did for the Shrine didn't allow her to do anything that required any form of flexibility, so the thought never crossed her mind to become flexible like that. Afterward, she returned to her seated position, watching Yume start beating up the bag in freestyle mode. The combination of kicks and punches excited her and captivated her attention until a clearing of the throat could be heard. She ignored the first one before it happened again. She turned to look towards the source of the sound only to see her manager holding some clothes in his hands ready to deliver it to Kaori. Standing up, Kaori graciously took the clothes and ran off to get dressed.

After few moments, she returned to the training area wearing the clothing she was given. Neatly folded clothes and ribbons over-top were held in her hands. Dropping her Shrine outfit to a corner she noticed, at this time, that Yume would be done with her punching and kicking; it took a little while to get out of her Shrine garbs and figure out the clothes she was in. She looked ready-for-action! "My turn! My turn! I want to try!"

 

[Yume]

With a sheepish grin, Yume waved her hand in front of her face, as if to shoo away those assumptions. "Strong? No, no it's super basic fitness training for idols! And a lot of dance choreography requires flexibility, so stretching everyday is important to keep yourself limber."

After she said that, Yume dropped low to the ground in a vertical split, posed with a victory sign before wiggling and struggling to get herself back up to her feet. "Phew! Of course, it took a couple of months to get to get to this point, but you'll be there before you know it if you try! Now with the punches--"

"How about I take care of that, Yun," her trainer interrupted briskly, lest the manager got into another hissy fit due to her mucking around. "You can start with the ball routine."

"Oh," the idol sounded briefly before she nodded. "Okay! Don't worry, Kaori-chan. He's a super good teacher. I'll just be over here..."

She wandered a bit away to pick up the medicine ball, with a slight heave too. "Playing with this ball." She looked over to them for a second before turning her attention to her routine. The thing packed quite a bit of weight for a squatting and lunging routine, one could easily tire out after a few repetitions. But Yume powered through almost effortlessly, aside from the sharp exhales after a movement.

The personal trainer, having worked with Yume for too long to know that she'd be fine unsupervised for a while, turned to Kaori. "We'll start with the punching drill. Do you know how to throw a basic jab, cross, hook and uppercut?"

If she didn't, or didn't know the other punches, she'd get a real quick crash course on them. Not detailed enough to develop perfect form for a fighting ninja, but it was good enough for an idol. With the kickboxing body shield in front of her now, the trainer would smile and let her have it. "Don't worry about form for now, just go through the drill as quickly as you can for a minute, then change stance."

And then they'd do again for the other neglected side. In the corner of Kaori's eye, she'd see Yume hold the medicine ball with one hand, while the other waved good luck!

Tutoring start
Word count: 388/1500
Post: 1/5
Marked for training

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Mental note: Stretching is important!​

Yes, indeed, stretching seemed to be one of Kaori's current (and paramount) concerns at the moment. She was as limber as dead leaves when it came to flexibility; something she knows that Coffee-Sensei would probably drill into her sometime today. It was just then that Kaori's jaw dropped to the ground, seeing Yume drop to the ground with her legs in a straight line. At first, she thought Yume hurt herself, holding her hands out as if to go to help her only to see her stand back onto her feet. "Wh-what was that? A-are you okay?" she asked as she started to visibly shake. She had never seen anyone do the splits before and thought that kind of movement, from her own experiences, was completely unnatural.

Kaori broke out of her daze after her personal trainer stepped up, volunteering to do the training. Yume went away to go play with a ball, leaving Kaori by herself with someone she didn't know. Her heart started to throb out of fear before they were taken away by Yume's reassurance. Taking a deep breath, she nodded her head and fist-pumped both of her fists. "Okay! I'm ready!" she said with excitement flowing through her. She still felt uncomfortable because she didn't know this person, but if Yume said he's a good person, she will believe her.

And even more punching drills, yay! Kaori tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. The words coming out of the trainer's mouth sounded like jibberish. Jab, cross, hook, uppercut? What were those things. A look of confusion was plainly visible. Taking a stance, it was more relaxed, more natural (but still far too rigid) Kaori looked up towards the trainer and stated, "I don't know what any of those are, I just know about these" she said delivering a stiff jab and a stiff cross and nothing else. She wasn't taught any special variations like a hook or uppercut, let alone extremely foreign things like knife-hands or hammer-fists. Those will come in due-time.

A shield was put up in front of her after a short demonstration of each of the punches were. She tried her best to commit these punches to memory before taking it slow and unloading her punches into the bag. She started with a few jabs and escalated up to crosses. These two punches seemed like the most natural as they are straight-forward motions with her strong arm and her weak arm. A moment passed where not a single punch was delivered and with a single wild swing, she attempted to deliver a hook to the bag, hitting it with a near-miss. Shaking it off, she tried again, repositioning herself so that her punch would land on the bag. With success, she tried doing a hook with her forward hand, hardly making any noise or even a dent in the bag, itself. She tried a few more before moving on to the most difficult one presented to her: the uppercut.

Kaori took a step back to assess the bag and unleashed a single uppercut in the bag, barely grazing it, feeling friction burn upon her knuckles. This caused her to recoil a bit and shake her hand. Her knuckles were scuffed red, causing her to try it again with her jabbing fist, thinking she should punch INTO the bag instead of trying to graze it. She punched into the bag instead of around it to much more success. After finding success doing that, she attempted to do it with her friction-burnt hand to more success, but there was still pain from the previous attempt plaguing her knuckles. The more she punched this bag, the more she understood.

Try to punch through the bag, not around the bag! Be mean to this bag! Rawr! she had thought to herself before delivering a hail of uncontrolled punches, which looked more like a child throwing a tantrum, into the squishy shield until she stopped to catch her breath.

Post: 1/5
WC this post: 663
Total WC: 663/1500
MFT

 

[Yume]

Yume had stopped her routine with the medicine ball early to watch Kaori's performance. She couldn't help but bring her hand to her mouth to cover her laugh. It was adorable to see her flail randomly at the kickboxing shield. The trainer barely seemed to move from the impact as well his expression was one of loss and slight speechlessness. He probably should have known better than to expect a shrine maiden to know how to fight?

"... Good start, Kaori-san," he said as she was catching her breath. Yume skipped over to the girl with a grin and patted her on the shoulder for a well done try. However, if she wanted to learn and improve, she won't be escaping from any criticisms.

"Now just try to keep in mind where the rest of your body is when throwing a punch. See, you're only throwing out your arms and not moving the-- Yun, you can't seriously have finished your routine already." His feedback was cut off with that last line of half-hearted exasperation.

Unfortunately for Kaori, there was the extra distraction that lingered around them, even if this was Yume's personal workout session. The girl smiled, almost catlike and swung her hands up behind her head, blatantly ignoring the icy stare Manager was giving her.

"It's so boring working out on my own, that's why I train with you! And it'd be a lot more fun doing it along with Kaori-chan, ne?" she giggled. The idol leant down to the young priestess's level and smiled again, reaching around to place her hands on the girl's hips. "I'll show you a trick so PT won't ever complain about the power of your punches. See, a lot of your force comes from here in your torso."

As if all boundaries were broken, Yume wriggled Kaori's hips around. She released her promptly after though and straightened up. "So when he was talking about with low impact, you only moved and struck with your arms. Try winding up, then moving the rest of your torso with the punch for more power like this!"

Hopping into a front stance of her own, Yume waited for only a second for the personal trainer to ready himself before throwing out a jab then a cross at the shield as a demonstration. The trainer stumbled backwards for a bit. Yume laughed and clapped her hands, before noticing that the former was shooting her a deadpan look.

"You used chakra."

"I just wanted Kaori-chan to think I'm cool," came the shameless reply. The redhead turned her attention back to the younger girl and giggled. "The foundation is still basically the same. We can play with chakra later. Want to try again with the opposite stance? Other foot in front. This way will take a tiny bit longer with the wind up, but you'll find more power in the punch, definitely!"

It wasn't long until Manager barked at Yume to get back to her own workout.

Word count: 888/1500
Post: 2/5
Marked for training

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Naturally, for someone as inept at fighting as Kaori was, to struggle with a martial art's shield wasn't at all alarming. She had only recently learned the basics and now she was applying it to an actual, physical target. Her balance and pivot of power were weak, but that is why Yume was there to help her. Kaori took a deep breath, trying to regain her stamina and gave a small smile towards the trainer before listening, with full attention, to what Yume had to say. Her power comes from her hips, hm? The thought of using more than your upper body with punches and more than your legs with kicks was a strange, alien concept. Then again, everyone combat related was completely alien to her.

The ghoulish manager chimed in again. Kaori certainly didn't like that undead man. His voice, his hair cut, everything about him simply rubbed her the wrong way. As Yume raised her hands, Kaori stuck her tongue out at the man in a taunting manner for a brief moment before putting her attention back to Yume. Another big, broad smile was given to Yume as she took the words that came from her lips as a compliment. It was thrilling to know that her company brought joy to another person. Stark contrast from the discomfort that she used to bring or disappointment that her fleeing to the Shrine to perform her duties brought.

A combination of a jab and a cross was delivered into the shield, having a lot more weight and a LOT more impact. Eyes broadened and mouth gaped in amazement. More questions started to formulate in her mind as the trainer mentioned something about chakra. More questions will come later on; perhaps their next training session. "Yes, of course!" she responded to the question of wanting to try again, this time with the opposite foot forward. Clearing her throat, she jumped into position with the other foot forward. This felt awkward. She felt a lot more comfortable in the other stance, but she was asked to do it this way.

She threw a couple punches with almost no power. "Now, use my hips like this..." she said as she slowly went through the movements the same way that Yume moved her around, hardly making contact on purpose just to practice the movement. Once she did it a few more times, she threw an actual punch, this time making a significantly more powerful strike. Though, in comparison to Yume's attack, this one was still quite insignificant but in terms of her previous attacks, this one actually held a lot more weight. Now that she knew how that felt, she tried it again and again and again, making a 'thud' 'thud' 'thud' noise with each punch. After she felt comfortable throwing a single punch, she did this with a jab and cross combo.

Every strike felt heavy and impactful to her, feeling a vast difference in power between her original punches and what she's doing now. She turned to look towards Yume with a bright smile, one filled with excitement. After a few more punches, she started to go to kicks, still aiming at only her mid-section and lower due to her absolute arse flexibility. However, it was plainly evident that she was turning her hips into every kick, each making a louder and louder clap with the bag than before.

"I think I'm getting the hang of it!" she said in gleeful delight. "Oh! That reminds me! Want to see a neat trick I learned? My mom said I shouldn't ever do this though, but I trust Yume-Sensei~" she said before taking a step away from the punching bag and closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath in.

Veins started to form around her eye sockets and she opened her eyes to reveal a flattened lavender eyes with a dark black orb in the middle. Out of the dark black orb, an explosion of right light start to swirl around it before forming into lizard-like slits for a brief moment before returning to it's circular shape.

Never show anyone the Dragon Eyes. If you do, they will call you a freak!​

She smiled big towards Yume for a brief moment before she moved towards the bag again, this time her fists and feet landing completely and fully, as if trying to obliterate the bag being held by the trainer. After a few punches and kicks, Kaori fell to her knees, cupping her eyes in her hands. Her body shook as if in pain.

Post: 2/5
WC this post: 760
Total WC: 1423/1500
MFT

 

[Yume]

So far, Kaori was doing well. Yume smiled, giggling a little when she noticed that brief stint of disrespect towards her manager. Ah dear... For some reason Manager was not a big hit with the young girls, even when he had pink hair. Yume smiled, her gaze trailing off to the distance for a second. She wondered what that cold and quickwitted Megumi was up to now.

Well, not the time to reminisce now. The idol returned her focus on Kaori, seeing her excitedly punch the shield with more vigour. It surprised her when the young priestess suddenly stopped and eagerly said she wanted to show something she wasn't supposed to. Yume crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, confused.

At that point upon hearing the Tenkawa's words, Manager looked up from his planner just in time to see the veins protruding from her temples. His eyes flickered immediately over to the idol, who reacted as well as anyone could really. "Oh wow, those look pretty cool!" she said, her eyes crinkling up and obscuring her greening eyes as she gave a smile back. She leaned forward, bringing her hand to her chin as if in thought. "What is that, Kaori-chan? Your bloodline limit?"

She had yet to receive an answer, as Kaori almost immediately returned to punching and kicking the body shield with full force, catching the personal trainer off guard for the first second. Watching her directly from behind, Yume straightened back up with her arms folded over her chest and an expressionless visage. What was that? The veins that appeared at will on the sides of Kaori's head indicated Byakugan, but the eyes themselves were anything but. For a second, it looked like she had the eyes of a demon.

Which was a ridiculous notion to Yume. She should have been able to tell if she actually was.

Sticking with her belief that Kaori was fully human, this lead to the next set of mental inquiries. Whatever these eyes were, what exactly can they see? If they were similar to the Hyuuga clan's Byakugan, then she'd be able to see the chakra that flowed throughout people's bodies. Well now... With that possibility in mind, how much of Yume's chakra could Kaori see? Instead of a calming, translucent blue, did she see the inky black wisps that swirled around in the Yamaguchi princess's body instead? Or else, did she see anything that might allude to her not-so-human heritage?

Yume just wasn't sure. Kaori didn't seem to react if that meant anything. Her fingernails tapped against the bare skin of her upper arm, as she wondered if she should cast a memory wipe spell (genjutsu) on her for good measure.

A small crumpled piece of paper hit Yume lightly on the head, snapping the girl out of her deliberation. Now green eyes looked over to the culprit: her manager, who had flicked the small projectile at her in attempted discretion while Kaori busied herself with the kickboxing shield. He gave her a look. The look.

Don't be brash.

Yume blinked, resorting to a silent exhale and immediately rushing to Kaori's side the moment she saw her collapse to the floor. Her bright blue eyes shimmered in concern as she reached out and laid a hand over Kaori's, who was already covering her own eyes.

"Kaori-chan! Are you alright?" she asked. The slightest aura of healing chakra emitted from her fingertips, ready to help soothe whatever pain that lingered in the back of her eyes. The other half of her mind was ready, watching out to pinpoint the slightest give in Kaori's expression that might warrant that spell. She wholeheartedly hoped that it didn't need to happen.

Word count: 1,514/1500
Post: 3/5
Won't be counting words henceforth

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Hands peeled away from her eyes and she smiled up towards Yume and nodded her head. The veins that covered her temples had subsided and her eyes returned to normal. Her eyes were misty with tears running down her cheeks. "I don't think I've learned how to control it yet. Maybe a little bit more control and it'll be fine," she stated. She tried to stay positive to show to Yume that she was healthy and fine. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she stood up and looked towards the punching bag that was in front of her.

She didn't have any frame of reference to judge chakra signatures of another person. All Kaori knew was that everyone had their own specific color and pattern, but that was due to her ignorance and lack of experience using the Dragon Eyes and it was that same lack of experience and practice that caused the cursed eyes to backlash. "It's these eyes and horns that made my mom think I was the descendant of dragons," she explained. It was because of those cursed horns and eyes that imprisoned her in the Shrine for most of her formative years. She didn't know what a bloodline-limit was. As far as she knew, what she had are birth defects and that the eyes she had were only unlocked by the women of the Tenkawa family. This was a trait that her mother, not being of Tenkawa blood, had obsessed over for years; yearning for the power of the dragon, now living that dream vicariously through her young puppet of a daughter.

"Show me some more cool punches and kicks, please?" she asked politely. She really wanted to change the subject away from herself and back to the training-at-hand. She wanted to be able to punch and kick someone to oblivion and not worry about the cards she was dealt nor did she want to think about the Shrine that kept her imprisoned for so many years. She just wants to become a shinobi; a good one that people will talk about for years to come.

Post: 3/5
WC this post: 351
Total WC: >1500 /1500

 

[Yume]

Yume responded to Kaori with an empathetic expression. Still knelt down to her level, the idol reached out and rested her hand on the younger girl's shoulder comfortingly. She smiled, bright and optimistic. "Don't worry," she said, playing dangerously close to the line with her words. "There are people out there that think I'm a demon."

Only difference was that they unwittingly weren't wrong. Her bright and cheerful demeanour made it close to impossible to believe that she could be anything remotely inhuman.

From a distance behind Yume, she could sense the slight shift of her manager and the swirl of annoyance emanating from his aura. What is she doing, indeed? The company worked hard to keep her demonic heritage as completely untrue at best, or unfounded rumours at worst. Though Yume's words now weren't terribly risky, there were times that they, or her actions, were the ammunition against the barrier built around her.

But ultimately, Yume wanted to genuinely let Kaori know that she was not alone, even though the circumstances between them were drastically different. She let the dragon girl change the subject as she wished, and stood up on her feet. Glancing over to her personal trainer, who was checking the time on his watch, then back to Kaori, Yume smiled again.

"Sure, I think we can do that another time. Best get the basics down pat before we try anything advanced, ne?"

Shifting into a battle stance with her fists positioned close to her face, Yume invited Kaori to do the same. "Let's finish with a spar of what you learned. PT, that counts for the rest of my workout routine, right?" Even though she wasn't intending to do much.

"Well, I--" He could barely get two words in before being cut off by the idol.

"Great!" Yume turned back to Kaori. "Let's figure out your style."

Word count: > 1500
Post: 4/5

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

"Well, those people are stupid!" she said in defense of Yume-sensei, who she is coming to adore; thinking of her like an older sister than anything else. Certainly, it has been a rather short time since they've known each other, but even from that short time-frame Yume has treated Kaori more human than her mother had. She is nothing less than a tool for her mother, she is shunned by her siblings, her father is emotionally not present, and others dislike her due to her duties of being a tool for her mother's ambition with the Shrine. Her admiration for Yume was one similar to Mina's.

It was then that Yume chirped about doing something a bit different. Something a bit more advanced. Her heart pounded, beating her chest, as she waited in anticipation. Something advanced wasn't something she expected for being as green as she was, but it wasn't turned down in an effort to not let her down. She wanted to make Yume proud of her. Being treated like a human being will do that to someone who is so used to being treated sub-human. Kaori stood at attention and saluted to Yume. "Yes! Anything you want, Yume-sensei!"

Her stance shifted to an offensive stance, prompting Kaori to shift into her rather sloppy stance that Yume recently told her. She stood with her left, dominant leg, forward. Fists clenched tightly at a distance trying her best to mimic the stance that Yume had assumed. Her heart leapt into her throat at the suggestion of an actual spar. This was the first time she put anything learned from Coffee-Sensei and Yume to the test. Coffee-Sensei gave her a modified pair of gloves that were fit specifically for her, but those were left at home. This was probably the last thing she expected.

It seemed Yume wanted to gauge Kaori's current strengths and weaknesses. She didn't have much experience with kicks, she wasn't very flexible, nor did she have much for endurance. Her style might be sloppy. Yume was also strong enough that any of Kaori's punches probably won't do much damage to her. "Well, if that's what you want, Yume-sensei," she calmly said before her stance changed to something a bit more wild and stretched out. Her legs stretched out and her arms were wide open. She turned her body to the side to offer a much smaller target.

This was a stance she was taught very, very recently. Something useable specifically for her special eyes. "I won't hold back, Yume-sensei" she said before kicking forward and attempted to throw a couple quick punches, one with her left hand and another with her right hand. After that combo, she stood up and attempted a round-house kick. However, not knowing how to properly balance herself with the round-house kick, she fell flat on her face only to stand up, brushing it off. She then attempted to throw another few punches towards Yume's midsection; 2 quick jabs followed up by a straight reverse.
----
Post: 4/5
WC this post: 500
Total WC: >1500 /1500
((Time to kick Yume-sensei's butt XD))

 

[Yume]

Another thing that would have indicated that she might have been a Hyuuga. Yume cocked her head to one side as she examined the stance Kaori was in carefully, but didn't mention anything about it. What she did realise however, was the significant difference in height between the two. Oops. Guess it just kind of slipped her mind when she made the suggestion.

To rectify that, Yume dropped down onto her knees, keeping level with the girl. Of course that would make moving around and kicking difficult to do, but hey, without sounding too disrespectful, Yume might be better of with a handicap anyway.

Yume blocked the first couple of punches telegraphed to her, and almost left her position when Kaori spun around with a kick and fell down on her face. "A-Ah, are you alrigh--?" She didn't even finish her sentence when she saw Kaori stand back up without complaint. A brief smile feathered across her lips as Yume continued to block off the incoming strikes. One punch did manage to land against her abdomen, knocking the idol back onto her rear for a second. Manager stood up in response almost immediately. However, a hand raised up towards him in a gesture to say stop, while Yume urged Kaori to continue with the remainder of the spar. There were only a few minutes left until the personal trainer called it, and Yume wanted to make sure that she understood Kaori's style (or lack thereof) for the time being. Why? Who can guess at this point.

So the spar continued, presumably, but it was not the trainer that called the end of the fight. Midway through one punch, Kaori would soon find that it made impact, but not on the target she intended. The small fist might just find itself in the palm of a bigger hand instead, just a few centimetres away from Yume's chest.

The manager seemed to be glowering, more at Yume than Kaori. Yume pouted back. "Oppa! What was that for, you can't just intervene like that!"

"... We're behind schedule." He withdrew his hand and straightened up. "I wish you were more careful with yourself. Both of you go shower and get dressed again."

Yume puffed her cheeks, visibly annoyed at the back of his head while the latter was thanking the trainer for the trouble. His words may be cryptic to young Kaori, but it'd soon be rather clear later on in the locker room.

"Aish... Okay, Kaori-chan, guess we'll do this again another time!" Yume chirped, keeping a nicely professional face in front of her. Some words were going to be strongly and loudly exchanged with the manager later on today. Moving over to her gym bag and slinging it over her shoulder, she turned to the girl. "C'mon let's just go freshen up and change."

Word count: > 1500
Post: 5/5
Tutoring complete

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

One of her punches connected, launching Yume on her rear. Shock and dismay crossed her face as she saw Yume get pushed off of her feet. She moved out of the stance and slowly walked over to her, her entire body shaking, holding her hands out as if reaching out towards Yume. "Uh, uh, uh, Yume-sensei. A-a-are you alright?" she asked with a sharp breath of air inward. It was then that she was encouraged to keep fighting. She felt horrible fighting Yume while she had the handicap of being on her knees, but she respected her wishes and decision to do that to herself. After all, Kaori believed Yume was strong enough to withstand the attacks as she was the strongest person she had ever met in the village.

She continued throwing punches and failing at kicks, doing nothing more than failed leg kicks towards her leg; which didn't have any power at all due to the sloppy form and not following through. She threw more punches only for them to be easily swatted away from the ever-powerful Yume-sensei. It was during a single punch towards Yume's gut did she feel something like iron catch her hand. The initial shock of the blocked punch caught her off-guard before turning her attention to the hand that caught hers: the hand of Zombie-san.

She received an order from the zombie and Kaori replied with a tug of her eye and a tongue out of her mouth. "Zombies should go back into the ground where they belong," she shouted as if she was a spoiled brat. She would go up to the manager and kick him in the shins if it wasn't for Yume speaking. Her attention quickly stuck to Yume as she said that this would be done another time. A slouch of her shoulder and a nod was given to Yume. "Okaaaaaay, Yume-senseeeeeei," she said in defeat.


Yume sparkled as she spoke to her. Even when she had to deal with Zombie-san and all of the crazy talk of people thinking she's a demon and everything else negative towards her. It was hard for Kaori to believe any of it. Someone as sweet as Yume couldn't be a demon and someone as strong as her shouldn't need protection from a green student. The fact that people are underplaying her made her steadily angry. The only response she could give to Yume, however, was just a nod and a bright smile. "Yeah," she said as she followed Yume to the showers, assuming this building had that, and picking up her hakama along the way.
----
Post: 5/5
WC this post: 432
Total WC: >1500 /1500
*I wanna continue this as a social from here on if that's okay with you ^^
[MFT]

 

[Yume]

Manager's eye twitched in annoyance, and his lips curved down in displeasure. Yume laughed nervously, stopping by the man before she headed towards the showers. She reached up to ruffle his hair, then gave a pat of her hand against his cheek. "Maybe you should dye your hair pink again?" she smiled.

He grimaced, rolling his eyes briefly. "What difference does that make? She can find a different name to call me if she really wants to, even if my change my hair to pink."

"Aww, how sensitive!" Yume giggled, pulling him into a hug by the neck. He was considerably taller, and barely moved from the gesture so she had to stretch up on her tiptoes. She didn't seem to complain about it. "There there, all better."

"... Get your sweaty body away from me, Yume."

Of course, that only made her hug him tighter. Manager stayed the same tense manager he was, but he did let out a defeated sigh, riding out the duration until the absurd hug was over. Yume skipped off to the second door of the gymnasium, Kaori in tow.

Reaching the showers, Yume had no problem stripping in front Kaori before hopping into a cubicle herself. It was that window of time that if Kaori looked to her, she could see it glare right back at her. An unslightly surgical scar, perhaps only a few weeks old, ran down the middle of her chest. It was something that didn't match the image of an idol at all. At this point, Yume had half forgotten it was there. She still resented losing her ability to reverse time because of that near death experience. Now who knows how long it'd take until the scar was completely gone.

That priestess probably had something to do with this too. Whoever she was.

Though Yume would not be adverse to answering questions, should Kaori ask, it'd be obvious from her replies that she still hadn't come to terms with it. It was an unsolved case, so far. But the sound of warm running water soon echoed through the room, and Yume hummed one of her songs to herself for a while until she decided to speak up with small talk.

"So what else do you have planned today, Kaori-chan? Are you going back to your shrine?"

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori had witnessed something any hot-blooded young man would have given their souls to see for a brief second. Her eyes drifted to something that had caught her attention; other than her large (comparatively speaking) breasts, she noticed a scar upon her chest that seemed pretty fresh. Having been born with the Eyes of the Dragon sorta makes one more observant of little things like that. Yume had rushed off to her shower cubicle, prompting Kaori to get undressed as well, covering herself after disrobing and running into one of the shower cubicles. She still felt embarrassment, even at her young age, to not want anyone to really see certain parts of her body. Thankfully, however, she didn't have any more deformities on the outside of her body other than the horns upon her head and the strange Ryuugan that appear from time-to-time.

After entering the shower, Kaori scowled and looked down at her little bust and curled her lip in disapproval. A little groan was released before she turned her head up towards the water, letting it pat her hair down.

A little fantasy started to play in her head with her having much larger breasts when she got older. She imagined running through a field of flowers, her large breasts bouncing up and down as if to defy gravity. With each step, she attracted the eyes of either male or female, watching her every move. This daydream seemed to be in slow motion as she continued to skip across the field of flowers, the sound of laughter could be heard in the daydream. The busty version of Kaori finished skipping through until a flat-chested version of Kaori attempted the same thing only for silence to take-hold.

The flat-chested Kaori stopped in the field of flowers and stomped her feet. "You don't need big breasts to be attractive!" she was responded with mocking laughter. "You're all pigs! I swear!"

Kaori shook her head, being brought back down to Earth from Yume's question. "Well, um. I got off today from the Academy. Um, uh. Coffee-Sensei is doing something at the moment so I'm free from him. And I have t--" she said with a slight pause. She was about to say something about the Shrine. She knows she's going to get scolded, if not tortured for thinking of only herself. 15 lashes is probably worth spending a day of being a human being with Yume.

"Nope, my schedule is clear. What did you have planned?" she asked as she grabbed the soap and started to wash herself. She wasn't used to using a shower, so this was an invigorating experience. She knew how to use one, but it still felt odd to not be completely surrounded by water, but to use tiny pulses of water hitting her body to clean herself.

 

[Yume]

Yume stepped out of the shower cubicle, having finished her wash already. Essentials on, Yume threw an oversized tee over her head. Or was it just a shirt dress? Whatever it was, it was long enough to keep her decent for the summer. She switched out her workout shoes for a less functional pair of cute sandals. With a quick ruffle of her hair, enhanced by the heat of the beginning remnants of a fire jutsu, she was all ready to go.

"Oh, I thought perhaps you'd like to accompany me today to work. It'd be nice to have a friend with me that's not Oppa!"

When Kaori's shower stopped, Yume looked around to notice that she hadn't brought in a towel with her. Of course she wouldn't, if a towel gets wet in the shower then it'd be useless! She didn't know how casual the priestess was with nudity, even if it was in front of another female, so she walked over to the rack of towels and grabbed one to fling over the door.

"Ah, what am I saying. It's pretty boring stuff, like vocal practice and a photoshoot... so you can refuse if you don't wanna."

She held out the set of priestess clothing towards Kaori once she came out, eyes looking heavenward in thought. "Or we could totally skip and go get ice cream."

That sounded pretty nice too.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori had started the shower and began washing her body. Everything in the shower smelled nice from the shampoo to the soap and even the shower-stall itself. Everything felt very pleasant to her and enticing her sense of smell. She felt a warmth flowing down her face, moving her hand up to her eyes and looked at it. Her eyes were bleeding from having activated the Ryuugan, the Dragon Eyes, earlier. Turning her head up to the shower, she let the blood flow over her small form and down onto the floor, eventually flowing down the drain. She opened her eyes to feel the blood gathering where her tear ducts normally are. Then Yume spoke to her. She looked around and washed her face once again.

There was a slight delay between when Yume spoke to her and when Kaori answered. "I would love to, Yume!" she said trying to sound as excited as usual while scrambling to clear out the blood pouring out of her eyes. She hadn't learned to completely master the Ryuugan, nor did she even learn how to keep it maintained without it causing terrifying damage and pain to her eyes. This damage isn't permanent, however, but results in tears of blood for a brief moment. The blood stopped and Kaori quickly turned off the shower once it was rinsed off of her body and the floor beneath. She took the towel given to her and started to pat herself dry.

"No way! It'll be fun! And if it's not, we'll make it fun!" she stated with her usual enthusiasm. She was happy to be spending time with another human being instead of a statue. Her family isn't usually present to pay her any company, not that they wanted to spend time with a monster like her anyway. Kaori slowly opened the door and peeked out, her hair matted against her face with her black horns quite prominent in appearance without her hair puffed up to try to cover it. She noticed the clothes and snatched it out of Yume's hands. One would think that since Kaori doesn't really talk to other people that she'd lack inhibition, but the opposite would be true. Compared to Yume, there wasn't much to show with her body.

"I wouldn't want Mr. Ghoulface to get mad at you for skipping work to eat ice cream," she said. That was the responsible answer. In reality, she wouldn't miss eating ice cream with Yume for the world. Kaori is also missing her work to spend time with Yume, so even the most mundane thing would be refreshing for her. One can only praise an inanimate object for so many hours a day before slowly losing their grip on sanity; whether they believe it existed or not. Kaori started to get dressed in her priestess garb, carefully putting her clothes on as to not drop it on the wet floor. After a brief moment, she walked out, finishing her adjustments on a pair of ribbons that would go in her hair to block out the horns.

She walked out feeling refreshed and extremely happy to actually feel like a girl for once. It wasn't every day that she came out smelling as adorable as she felt. Her hair was still wet, but it didn't matter to Kaori much. She smiled and nodded to Yume. "Whatever you want to do, Yume! I'll follow you."​

 

[Yume]

Yume blinked, placing a hand to her chin in thought before she ended up smiling with Kaori. The distracted, wistful tone echoed throughout the empty room. "I guess Oppa wouldn't like that... I've been skipping out a lot recently."

She brought her hand down, folding them over her front as she giggled. "Aww, Oppa would be so sad being called a ghoul face. Calling him Manager is just fine." The suggestion was rather non-committal, such that Kaori was free to continue on calling him as she pleased. It was just a brief, joking note more than anything. Reaching out, Yume boldy patted down Kaori's hair, using the heat of her chakra enhanced fingers to comb and dry her hair. She even twirled the ends of her purple hair into soft curls, just because.

Yume withdrew her hands and clapped her hands in delight. "There, that's cute! Let's go to practice then, shall we? You can see what I have to go through just to release a song."

She let Kaori leave the showers first, following after with her gym bag slung over her shoulder. Manager was already standing by the exit of the gym, tapping his foot impatiently. "Hurry up, Yume. We're going to be late." He turned to Kaori; despite having been called names all morning by this girl, he was polite in addressing her. "It was... nice meeting you. Have a good day."

"Oh... Oh no, Oppa, she'll be coming with me," Yume chirped brightly. "She wanted to see how idol life is like, didn't you Kaori-chan?"

A sound choked from the back of the managers throat and he glared at the redhead. But she had already started skipping out the door, leaving a dumbfounded manager with Kaori. "Come on! Didn't you say we'd be late to vocal practice?"

Her voice grew fainter as she was on her way down the stairs to the level above. "Oppa! Can you call a PA to get us some brekkie? I'm starving! Get Kaori whatever she wants to eat too!"

Indeed, the manager was still dumbfounded as well as exasperated at her whimsical wants. After sliding a palm down the lower half of his face, he turned to Kaori. "What would you like for breakfast? I'll get one of the assistants to bring up something from the cafe."

The studio they were going to was a floor above. Designed to be acoustically sound, it also doubled as a storage for the instruments that may be used in recording. Sectioned off part of the floor was a closed off room where recording would normally take place, but since it was still rather early in the morning, none of the idols would be here to use the recording booth. Even if they did, they wouldn't say no to the face of the company if she needed to use the place for practice. That being read as the Yamaguchi princess.

A woman was already waiting in the room, strumming one of koto zithers as if she was tuning it. Yume slowed in her arrival and swallowed the small lump that was forming in the back of her throat. It was weird, seeing this familiar face after a strange series of circumstances that may or may not be related to that scar on her chest. She took a deep breath in regardless and cheerfully announced her arrival.

"Kotone Eonni! Sorry we're late! I have a friend coming to observe, is that okay? Kaori-chan, this is Kotone. She's one of the company idols, but it seems she likes teaching me more?"

Who could guess why!