The following morning began with a much louder gong than normal; while everyone else was busy covering their ears and trying to recover from a sudden loss of hearing, Moppet was completely oblivious, still firmly in dreamland. Even after Sensei Wu rang the gong right beside her ear, Moppet refused to wake up, content to remain unconscious, blissfully in dreamland until she had been deposited in a locked shower, and the water turned on (despite the impressive volume of the gong, the other residents of the ship agreed the resultant noise Moppet produced was far louder).
Once Moppet was coherent enough to operate the lock on the shower door, she exited, firmly disgusted with her sister and friend (no one else made her wet to wake her up), however, her mission for revenge was forgotten when she literally bumped into Lloyd, who promptly began laughing.
Moppet glared, the target of her ire had changed to the small, annoying boy, and she was not about to let this insult to her (ruined) dignity pass. Moppet angry. Moppet smash.
Lloyd screamed as Moppet attacked him head on, tackling him to the ground and punching and kicking the boy for all she was worth. Even more embarrassingly for Lloyd, he, and the floor, were soaked, and he couldn't build up enough traction to perform a counterattack. The resulting commotion drew the other residents of the ship to the scene, shocking them as the normally sweet-mannered girl tried (ineffectively) to pummel the much more capable boy, who was inexplicably trapped. After Lane had pried Moppet from Lloyd (long experience with younger relatives had rendered her immune to slipping in convenient puddles on the floor), she set Lloyd on his feet and directed him towards the bathroom to dry himself off, and gave Moppet a scathing glare.
"What are you doing?" Lane demanded. "How many times do I have to tell you, brain damage is messy, not to mention usually permanent!"
"...beating sense into him..." Moppet grumbled, angry at the loss of her target, "...not supposed to laugh at me."
Realizing that Moppet was still a ticking time bomb, Alexia ran into the kitchen, grabbing some lollipops from Lloyd 'secret candy stash', before returning to the hallway and stuffing one of them into Moppet's mouth. Moppet calmed down rapidly, sucking on the lollipop with a dreamy expression on her face.
After breakfast (where everyone was still walking on eggshells to avoid another scene), training resumed, with only one major change.
"But you have to!" Lloyd insisted. "I'm your teacher, you have to listen to me."
Moppet cooly ignored the boy, sitting at the edge of the deck, watching the sea pass by beneath the ship. "No, I'm not going on that training course again, I always bump into something, and it hurts. You Can't Make Me."
Groaning, Lloyd tried to drag Moppet back to the course, "Look, if you don't go right now, I'll get your sister to drag you!"
Moppet snorted in disbelief, refusing to get up. Lloyd, exasperated, left the room and returned with Lane, who immediately walked over to Moppet and set her on her feet,.
"So, what's wrong?" Lane demanded.
Moppet, to Lloyd's disbelief, then proceeded to answer her older sister's question in halting German (at least he thought it was German, sure sounded like it), effectively cutting him out of the conversation.
Lane turned to Lloyd, "As far as I can tell, she's calling you a meanie head who has a stone for a brain," at this point Moppet made an interjection, and Lane sighed, "alright, a jelly donut brain and you either kick or trip over puppies, given her pronunciation, it's hard to tell."
Lane then turned towards her sister, looking stern, "Moppet, I'm actually on his side here, either do the course, or improve on your insults," She walked away sighing, "Gosh, I thought we taught her better than that."
Grumbling, Moppet walked towards the course. However, the moment Lane had left the room, Moppet went back to her previous spot and huffed.
"And I mean it!" Echoed in from the doorway, causing a very startled Moppet to rapidly reverse her course and begin her daily training.
Realizing he was in for a very long day, Lloyd facepalmed.
Outside...
"No... Higher! You've got to keep up your guard!" Kai instructed.
This would be easier IF YOU WEREN'T TRYING TO KILL ME! Alexia screamed internally. Soon enough, Alexia ended up back on the ground, swearing in pain. While not impressed with her sword skills, Kai was mildly impressed at her creativity with cuss words.
Getting up for the fifty-something time, Alexia tried to ignore the likely colorful array of bruises on her body as she resumed her stance. "Alright... Try to hit me." Kai said, bored.
Unlike the last few times, Alexia decided to take a page out of the Mongols' book of tactics. She charged, but immediately retreated before she got within range. As expected, Kai came after her, exposing his stomach, which became the victim of a hard thrust from Alexia's practice sword. Kai, surprised by her attack, managed to stay upright though he stumbled backwards, giving Alexia time to put her sword at his throat.
"I do believe I won this round." Alexia said sweetly.
Narrowing his eyes, Kai hit her sword away. "Try that again." He gritted through his teeth.
Knowing the same trick wouldn't work again, Alexia tried to feign a slash on Kai's left while going for his right. Kai dodged, slashing down as hard as he could for Alexia's chest.
In a fit of panic, Alexia rushed to block by pulling back her sword. It half worked; while Kai's thrust missed Alexia's chest, it was immediately deflected to Alexia's left arm.
Biting back a yelp, Alexia dropped her sword, holding her arm. "Come on, I didn't hit you that hard." Kai snorted.
"Shut the *We're choosing to let you readers insert the curse, in order to keep this at the rating of T. Suffice to say it includes name-calling.*! I told you to never touch my arm!" Alexia countered.
At this point, Kai remembered back to when he'd tapped her shoulder, and quickly realized something was very wrong. He quickly dropped his sword, kneeling by her. "Let's go inside to the medic room." Kai offered.
Alexia's demeanor changed in seconds, becoming defensive. "I'm fine." She insisted.
"If you were fine, you wouldn't have dropped your sword and cursed the devil out of hell." Kai responded. "You can walk there willingly, or I can throw you over my shoulder and carry you."
Knowing that she was at a disadvantage and preferring to not look like an idiot, Alexia obediently followed Kai to the medical room, where he got out bandages. "Can you roll up your sleeve?"
"I'll do it myself."
Kai groaned. "Stop being stubborn and just roll it up. I'm helping you whether you like it or not."
"Why don't you stop being stubborn and let me do it myself?"
"There are straps on the table, and if you don't stay still and let me bandage your arm I will use them."
Finally, after bickering for another five minutes, Kai managed to roll of Alexia's sleeve. His eyes widened as he took in the large, now red scar. "This is what you call nothing?"
"It's six years old." Alexia retorted, now telling the truth.
"You clearly didn't let it heal properly."
"I wasn't exactly in a situation to let it heal properly!"