Chapter 4: Kazama-Style Traditional Martial Arts Dojo
Week 1. Monday 5.42 pm.
"Lili,"
She felt someone gently shake her shoulder.
"Lili, wake up. We're here."
It took a moment for her to recognise Mrs. Kazama's voice. She blinked her eyes open, and the events of the past few hours came flooding back into memory. After rubbing the sleep out her eyes, she opened the car door and stepped out. She took in a deep breath as she stretched her out her limbs and back.
That was when it hit her- her first bout of homesickness. It was smell of the air, or rather lack of smell, which caused it. Monaco was a seaside city, and relatively tiny in comparison to Osaka. It didn't matter where you were in Monaco; the smell of the ocean always followed you. It saddened her, knowing that home was so far away. But there was nothing she could do about it. She pushed the feeling aside.
She suddenly heard a surprised shriek from behind her. Lili spun around. A middle aged looking man had wrapped his arms around Mrs. Kazama from behind, in a tight, loving embrace.
"Oi you, stop that!" Mrs. Kazama giggled. When the man didn't listen and instead begun to nuzzle at her hair, Mrs. Kazama promptly elbowed him in the gut. The man doubled over in pain.
"We gotta guest ya airhead. Dontcha' 'member what I said yesterday?"
Lili noticed that Mrs. Kazama had changed the way she spoke. The way she slurred her words together and stressed different parts of the sentence made it difficult to decipher what she was saying. She even said some words Lili hadn't ever heard before. Thankfully she managed to understand the gist of she was saying.
The man looked up. After finally noticing Lili's presence, he suddenly darted away from Mrs. Kazama, as if they were teenagers caught behind the school shed. Lili couldn't help but smile.
"This is Lili, she'll be helping manage the Dojo for the next few months," Mrs. Kazama introduced, her accent reverting back to how it had been previously, "Try and speak standard dialect when she's around okay?"
"I'm sorry," the man, whom Lili assumed was Mr. Kazama, apologised with a bow. "Because of her work, my beautiful wife only comes home during weekend. Her bein' at home on a Monday is a special occasion for me."
While the rhythm of his speech remained unfamiliar, Lili understood his words clearly.
Mrs. Kazama blushed slightly before elbowing her husband in the side, more lightly this time.
"Oh that reminds me. Lili, I'm actually going to be the person assessing you and your work on the Dojo," Mrs. Kazama said, "I actually teach Commerce and Business Management at the University of Tokyo, which is why I'm only home on the weekends. I took the day off today because I heard you were coming, but I'll be heading back to work tomorrow. Remind me to give you my contact details later on."
Lili was surprised at the revelation. But it made sense for her university to have someone with qualifications watching over her.
"I understand that one of your requirements is to write weekly status reports, yes?" Mrs. Kazama continued.
"Yes that's correct," she confirmed.
"Feel free to have me look over those before you send them off. Although from what I've heard about you, I don't think there will be a need to."
"I'll keep that in mind," Lili replied. Mrs. Kazama had been so warm and welcoming, and going by her initial impression of him, Mr. Kazama seemed likely to be the same. Maybe this trip wouldn't be such a big deal afterall.
"Anyway, enough yappin'," Mr Kazama suddenly announced, "We'll show ya the dojo and then after that I'll get started on dinner,"
"Sure," Lili said in agreement.
"Alright then, come this way." Mr Kazama opened a gate that appeared to lead towards the back of the house.
Lili took a moment to examine the front of the house, before following the Kazamas through the gate. As she did, she took out a notepad and began jotting down notes. She was racking her brain for a word when Mr. Kazama announced their arrival.
"Here it is. The Kazama Dojo,"
Lili did a double take.
She had been expecting a modern day dojo, something with a compact, studio like look and feel. What was in front of her was the direct opposite of that. It was a traditional dojo, quite large compared to the house, and roughly square in shape. The roof was lined in black tiling, and the corners were slightly upturned, a design feature that was archetypal of traditional Japanese architecture.
What was even more stunning was the garden that surrounded it. Two tall cherry blossom trees framed the entrance to the dojo, one on each side of the stone path leading up to it. To the left of the stone path was a small pond that no doubt had a variety of koi fish swimming in it. To the right was a raised wooden platform, about a quarter of the size the dojo, which Lili assumed was for outdoor sessions and meditation. Everything was in immaculate condition. She was surprised all of this was back here, the front of the house was so unassuming and somewhat boring when compared to what was hiding behind it.
Lili hadn't realized just how long she had been just standing there, mouth ajar, until the Kazamas called out to her from the dojo entrance. She hastily wrote down some more notes as she hastily half jogged towards them, taking care not to stumble in her high heeled ankle boots.
"Shoes off," Mrs. Kazama requested as Lili reached the entrance. Lili saw that there was an area on the ground just before the entrance to the dojo that was tiled in black marble. A pair of low, black, business heels and a pair of wooden geta slippers had been left on the marble, off to the side, their toes facing outwards away from the entrance and towards the house. She removed her boots and did the same, before walking up towards Mr. and Mrs. Kazama.
"Ready for the reveal?" Mr. Kazama said in an announcer like fashion.
Lili nodded in anticipation. Slowly Mr. Kazama slid open the front door.
Authors Notes:
I know what you're thinking. You're 4 chaps in Amaya, where the hell is Asuka?
I promise she'll make an appearance soon. This is probably a good time to say that the asulili in this fic is gonna be fairly slow burn.
But can i get a high five for the healthy, lovey dovey couple that is Mr. and Mrs. K? It feels like half the tekken cast either has no parents or just one parent. And more often than not that one parent is a really shitty one. I wanted Asuka to have awesome supportive parents. And yes i know her mom didnt make an appearance in the manga but it still didnt openly say "Mrs. K is dead" so in my eyes its open to interpretation. In my case, Mrs. K wasn't in the manga because shes a "travel a lot because of work" type mom.
But anywaay, bye for now.
