Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX or Mulan
Chapter 10
Training
The soldiers were assembled and waiting for their first day of training to begin. But they weren't in order. Instead, they were all messing around, talking and jumping on each other and practicing unskilled fighting moves.
Crowler moved past a group of them, his faithful clipboard in one hand, waving his equally faithful paintbrush at them.
"Order!" he called desperately. "People, order!"
One man stuck up his hand.
"I'd like some fried noodles!" he called.
"Oh, and some sweet shrimp" Jim added.
The men all burst into laughter while Crowler growled.
"That's not funny!" the stuck-up blonde man hissed at them, before moving on, avoiding the men who were doing impressions of him and pointing to their own imaginary blonde ponytails.
The men continued to laugh until Aster looked to the right and saw a certain brunette approaching hastily. Aster slapped Chazz on the arm and gestured towards the person hurrying towards them.
"Looks like our new friend slept in this morning!" Aster called, while Jaden moved quickly into her place - unfortunately for her, that place was right with Chazz, Aster and Jim. Every man there fell silent and glared at the brunette, who had cost them their first day of training and meant that they had all spent hours picking up rice the previous night. Yubel - as they knew her - was not popular. Jaden knew that much perfectly well. She looked at the ground but Aster grinned at her.
"Hello, Yubel" Aster said, with mock kindness. "Are you hungry?"
Jaden smiled nervously while Jim came up behind her, looking worried.
"Yeah" Chazz contemplated. "Because I owe you a knuckle sandwich!"
Here he grabbed ahold of Jaden's shirt and drew his fist back. Aster grinned and turned away, covering his ears, while Jim's worriedly look grew. Jaden covered her face with both her hands, but they were interrupted before Chazz could hit the cowering girl.
"Soldiers!" a familiar voice shouted.
Everyone stopped what they were doing - and most of them had been waiting for Chazz to hit Jaden - and quickly assembled into a straight line and stood silently.
The bluenette walked up to a huge pile of bamboo sticks, long and sturdy, and there he took off his white shirt and laid it on the ground. Jaden peered out from her place in the line, next to Jim, and stared at the captain.
Wow, she thought, as she gazed in awe at the muscles on his body, accented enough to be attractive but not too much. He's gorgeous.
"You will assemble swiftly and silently every morning" Jesse said simply, picking up a bag and a bow (the type used to fire an arrow) and walking in a parallel line to the soldiers. "Anyone who acts otherwise, will answer to me."
"Oh, tough guy!" Chazz muttered sarcastically.
"Chazz" came the southern voice.
Chazz's sarcastic expression changed to one of surprise as everyone but him took a large step backwards, leaving him alone. Jesse drew back an arrow on the bow, causing another look of surprise to come to Chazz's face, and then he fired the arrow upwards, hitting a very tall wooden pole at the top of the pole. His target met, Jesse shrugged the bag off his shoulders and dropped the bow.
"Thank you for volunteering" he said to Chazz with a smile. "Retrieve the arrow."
Chazz glared at him for a moment, before cracking his knuckles. He then glared more at the bluenette and spoke in low growl.
"I'll get that arrow, pretty boy" he muttered. "And I'll do it with my shirt on."
Chazz walked up to the huge wooden pole - it looked to be perhaps twenty metres high - and got into position to jump. But just as he was about to launch himself off the ground, Jesse came up behind him.
"One moment" the bluenette said. "You seem to be missing something."
Chazz, who had been glaring angrily at the ground, turned around with a glare.
He saw that Crowler, the blonde irritating one, stood next to Jesse, holding a thin brown box, which he appearing to be about to drop. His arms were in a painfully straight position, his face desperate. Jesse opened the box and pulled from it two objects, with complete ease, like they were light when they were actually very heavy.
They were two huge gold coloured weights, each held by a strong black band.
Jesse walked over and wrapped one around Chazz's right wrist, holding that wrist up.
"This represents discipline" Jesse informed everyone.
He dropped the black haired man's wrist, and it fell to the ground. Chazz picked it up again, grunting at the heaviness of the weight. He looked almost worried as Jesse held up his other wrist and put the other weight on it.
"And this represents strength" Jesse said.
He then dropped the other man's wrist, and with a look of terror, Chazz fell to the ground.
Aster and Jim appearing to be in quiet hysterics, and Jaden bit her lip as she looked at them in terror. She was terrified of what might be going to happen.
"You need both to reach the arrow" Jesse said, and he nodded to Chazz to tell him to get moving.
Jaden swallowed. Everyone would have to do this? How was she going to get up a perfectly smooth, straight wooden pole to reach that arrow with two weights on her wrists? Suddenly she realised just how hard this was all going to be, and she continued to bite her lip in fear. But she tried to calm herself down, reminding herself that she had to appear to be a strong male warrior. Maybe it was easier than it looked. She watched Chazz attempt it.
Chazz looked up in awe at the arrow and then glared at it.
He leaped at it, clutching onto the wood and quickly scurrying up the first two metres or so, before he started to slip. Desperate, he sunk his teeth into the wood, but he slid down anyway, leaving a teeth-shaped gouge in the wood.
When Aster tried, he fell down so that he lay full out on the ground, his chin caught on the wood, his expression dazed.
When Jim tried, he managed quite a height and fell down with such a thud that the pole came a few inches out of the ground before sinking back in, Jim watching sheepishly.
When Jaden tried, she fell down onto her behind, staring up at the arrow.
She walked back to the line, rubbing her sore rear with both hands. Jesse watched her go, rubbing the back of his neck in irritation.
"We've got a long way to go" he remarked.
Jesse picked up the multitude of bamboo shoots and tossed them towards the line of men, his aim perfect and each man was able to catch one bamboo pole - except for Chazz, who meanly grabbed two, and Jaden folded her arms in annoyance at him. Chazz used her own to trip her up, and then threw it down on the ground next to her, looking innocently away.
Jesse got them assembled, grabbed a stick of bamboo and began the training. Of course, this was done through song - the old fashioned way.
Let's get down to business.
He struck two pots with the bamboo and shattered them.
To defeat the Fiends.
Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?
Aster put a bug down the collar of Jaden's shirt, causing her body to jerk about irrationally, unintentionally hitting the people around her with her bamboo. From a distance away, Atticus face-palmed.
You're the saddest bunch I ever met.
But you can bet before we're through,
Jesse jumped over the men on the ground - Chazz and Aster watching in awe - and grabbed the bamboo away from Jaden, oblivious to the cricket holding the dragon back from attacking him.
Mister, I'll make a man …
He grabbed Jaden by the collar.
…out of you!
Jesse led them on a exercise which involved a bow and arrow.
Tranquil as a forest but on fire within.
Once you find your centre, you are sure to win.
You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot.
And you haven't got a clue.
Somehow I'll make a man out of you!
One a survival exercise, they learned how to catch fish with their bare hands. One flick of his hands in the water and Jesse had a fish. Chazz and Jaden tried it. Feeling her fingers close around something fleshy, Jaden pulled it up - only to see a human foot in her hand! Looking down, there was a half drowned Chazz underwater. She sheepishly lowered his foot and took the fish that Atticus offered to her.
On an exercise on dodging flaming arrows …
I'm never gonna catch my breath, Jim sang.
Say goodbye to those who knew me, Chazz sang, as he was shot in the behind.
Breaking blocks with their faces …
Boy was I a fool at school for cutting gym, Aster sang, breaking off three teeth.
In combat lessons Jaden was fighting Jesse, and he hit her in the face and she flew backwards into a tree, where Atticus dabbed at her forehead with a damp cloth.
This guy's got 'em scared to death, the dragon sang.
Hope he doesn't see right through me, Jaden answered.
Jumping across high pillars over deep water, Jim sang out Now I really wish that I knew how to swim!
Then more training exercises followed and Jesse continued, accompanied by the soldiers.
Be a man.
You must be swift as a coursing river.
Be a man.
With all the force of a great typhoon.
Be a man.
With all the strength of a raging fire.
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon.
The soldiers were carrying heavy stone in two bags balanced on bamboo poles across their shoulders as Jesse continued.
Time is racing towards us, till the Fiends arrive.
Heed my every order and you might survive.
Jaden collapsed and sighed in embarrassment as the so attractive captain took her bamboo on his shoulders along with her own and continued. She hung her head.
That night, Jesse's song continued as he led Jaden's horse up to her.
You're unsuited for the rage of war.
So pack up, go home.
You're through.
How could I make a man out of you?
Distraught, Jaden turned away, but then she looked up at the arrow. Nobody had reached it yet. This was her chance to prove herself!
She found the gold weights and leapt at the wooden pole, and fell off. She then looked at the bands that were tied to both her wrists and the weights, and had a sudden idea. She put her arms around the wooden pole and twisted the bands together so that they formed a circle of rope.
Jaden used this circle to walk up the wooden pole, hoisting her weight up as she went along. It was taking hours, and sunlight came. Men came out of their tents and watched as Jaden made her way to the arrow slowly but determinedly.
As Jesse Andersen walked out of his tent, an arrow fell at his feet.
He looked up to see Yubel - as he knew her/him to be - sitting atop the wooden pole, smiling hopefully down at him, as the other soldiers cheered.
As the song between the captain and the soldiers continued, Jaden's progress just got better and better, and soon she was leading ahead of the other soldiers.
Be a man.
You must be swift as a coursing river.
Be a man.
With all the force of a great typhoon.
Be a man.
With all the strength of a raging fire.
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon.
Soon, Jim could leap across the water with no fear, even doing cartwheels.
Soon, Aster could break those blocks using his face, and do it right.
Soon, Chazz was running through flaming arrows with a grin on his face.
Soon, Jaden could sometimes beat Jesse in single combat.
And as she made dubious friends with some of the men, everyone got better until they all knew they were almost fully trained soldiers. Jesse watched them all the while, impressed with their progress.
He was impressed by Yubel most of all.
Please R&R
