Another early evening rolled around in a certain quiet corner of Osaka prefecture. The pink sky hung overhead, outlining silhouettes of towering office buildings. Gentle rumbles of car engines passed by on the city streets. Fluorescent lights of the street lamps flickered, casting blinking shadows of meandering pedestrians onto the gray sidewalks. In their usual empty lot, Iori and Kiki trained together. Their grunts and groans of effort resounded in the open space.

"That's it, keep them coming," Iori encouraged her as he blocked her punches and kicks with his palms. Kiki strung together hit after hit, taking careful aim at Iori's hands as he positioned them in various spots in front of his body. Occasionally, his hand would get knocked back an inch from the impact, and he would take a mental note of that. After a few more minutes of target practice, Iori spoke up, "And stop."

Kiki backed off and did a full-body stretch, "So, how was that, Mr. Yagami?"

Iori sat on the pavement and pulled out a box of cigarettes from his pocket. "Not bad," he said as he put one between his lips. Kiki sat a few feet away from him to rest. Igniting a small purple ember from his fingertip, Iori lit his cigarette and took a drag. "You're improving. I can actually feel some force with your hits this time."

"Awesome!"

Iori side-glanced at her, "You ready to learn one of my moves?"

Kiki's whole expression brightened. She scampered right next to Iori and leaned in close to his face. "Yes," she squeaked.

"Settle down," he grumbled as he pushed her face away. He ground the tip of his cigarette down against the pavement and stood, "Observe."

Kiki retrieved her notebook and pen from her pocket as Iori walked a few feet away from her. He lowered himself into his usual stance with his feet wide apart and his fingers sprawled out in front of him. "Ready?" he called out.

Kiki showed him a thumbs up, "Ready!"

On cue, Iori lowered his stance even further and closed his hands into fists. Taking a step forward, he shot his left fist up into an uppercut, took another step, punched up with his right, then ended with a leap forward while swinging both fists above and behind his head then downward.

I think I remember Iori using that move on Kyo a couple weeks back, thought Kiki as she quickly sketched his movements into her notebook.

When he finished, Iori stood tall and walked back towards Kiki. "That was the Reverse Method 127: Aoibana," he explained.

"'Reverse Method…. Aoibana…." Kiki repeated to herself as she wrote the move's name above her diagram.

"It's a move that doesn't require flames," explained Iori. "So, I figured it would be easy for you to replicate."

Kiki nodded in agreement, "Makes sense to me."

"So," Iori beckoned to her, "let's see you try."

"'Kay!" Kiki pushed herself up to her feet and stood in a stance similar to Iori's. Her mentor observed her as she took a deep breath and began her maneuver.

She punched up with her left fist, punched upward with her right, jumped forward, brought her fists together in front of her, and swung them down where they almost hit the ground. Upon landing, she stretched her arms above her head and turned to Iori, "How was that?"

Iori shook his head, "Terrible."

"H-Huh?" She hopped back an inch from shock. "What did I do wrong?"

"Where do I even begin?" he sighed and positioned himself into his neutral stance again. Lowering his body, he explained, "When I start low like this, it gives me a wider range of motion, which means more follow-through." He demonstrated his point by throwing the first uppercut. "If I do what you just did," he began as he rose to his original position and punched up, "there's not as much room to work with." He swung his left fist back and forth to prove his point. Kiki nodded and furrowed her bow as she focused. Sure enough, there was a smaller arc of motion than before. Iori explained further, "More follow-through means a bigger impact." Kiki nodded in understanding.

"With the second hit, step as you punch, not after," he said as he showed the maneuver. "The step is the wind up before the actual hit."

Kiki drew arrows onto her diagram, emphasizing the step in her drawing of the second punch, "A wind-up… I see, I see…"

"And with the final part," he leaped, bringing his fists above his head on his way up, and hammered them down as he landed, "same deal as the first: give yourself more of an arc to deal more damage." He swung his arms up and down to demonstrate.

Kiki drew more arrows onto her diagram, noting the arm motion for the last part. Once she finished, she gave the diagram a once over. Nodding to herself, Kiki looked back up at Iori with a burning determination in her eyes, "I wanna try again!"

Iori gestured to her, "Go ahead."

She hopped up from her seat and followed Iori's instructions exactly: she lowered herself before her first uppercut, led in with a step for the second one, then finished off with a leap and a wide hammering swing for the final blow. Upon landing, Kiki stood tall, turned to Iori, and showed her best "How did I do?" grin.

Iori just nodded.

She jumped for joy, "Hell yeah!"

"We're not finished yet," dec. He got into his fighting stance, "We're going to practice that move for the rest of the night. We won't stop until I know you've really got it down."

Kiki grinned widely and got into her stance as well. "Let's go!"