Kyo slowly made his way around the outside of the room, his arms behind his back and his attention focused on the six pairs of students sparring in the middle of the room. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and he was running his thrice-weekly Nanakyū class, made up of eight and nine year olds. They weren't his only class of kids, but over the years this age range had come to be one of his favorites.
"Emiko, Daisuke, break!" Kyo's voice came out like a bark, and the two students in question obediently stopped and stepped apart as Kyo approached.
"You've both got great speed today, but remember you need to keep full extension in every strike. If your arm is straight and true but your hand is flopping like a dead fish, then you're not going to do anything but hurt yourself. You want it to look like this," he said, demonstrating a knifehand strike away from himself in slow motion, "or this," as he brought the hand back in a ridgehand strike. "What I'm seeing from you two is more like this," he said as he let his hand dangle limply from his outstretched arm. Both students giggled at the demonstration, and Kyo grinned back.
"Now, I want to see you try it again, with proper attention to your form. Ok?"
"Ok, Sensei!" Both students bowed to Kyo, and he stepped back to allow them to begin, then smiled, satisfied with their newly straightened hands. After observing the pair for a moment longer, he resumed his slow circuit of the room.
They were all doing well, over all. One of the things he loved about this age group was their energy and intensity; they tended to have passion, while being able to focus and follow instructions. Younger kids could be wild cards, and you had to spend a lot of time simply corralling them. Older kids could be annoyingly cocky. All of them had their pluses and minuses, but he felt that as far as instructing kids went, this was a sweet spot.
After several more minutes and a few more corrections, Kyo stepped back and barked out to the whole group "Nanakyūs, break!" The six pairs broke apart, and at Kyo's command each student bowed to their sparring partner.
"Good job, everyone. It looks like you've all been staying on top of your practicing, so keep it up. Just remember, hands and feet count. A lot. I don't want to see flailing, I want to see sharp, clean strikes. Remember that for next time."
"Yes, Sensei!"
"Alright." Kyo walked over to stand in front of the class, who had shifted into three spaced-out rows. "Today I want to see Heian Nidan," referring to that days' kata of choice. "Make sure you've given yourself enough space. When you're moving, make sure you are crisp and clean. Again, no flailing," he said with a smile, one returned by most of his students. "Are there any questions?"
"No, Sensei!"
"Alright, begin."
Once again, Kyo's attention was focused on his students as they began to move through the twenty-six steps of the kata. He'd purposely picked an easy one for tonight, because he wanted to see how well the students would do with something they all should know extremely well. It could be very easy for sloppiness to creep into karate practice, and sloppiness one of Kyo's pet hatreds.
But it seemed that his reminders had stuck; pretty much all of his students were making all of their moves cleanly, and that was always something he loved to see.
As the class finished up, Kyo noticed the room's door sliding open, revealing Sensei Kenichi. He was only mildly surprised; as the Master of the dojo, Kenichi often took the time to stop in and check on the progress of the various classes. It was only unusual that he'd made an appearance so close to the end of the class.
As the group finished with their kata, Kyo called out a firm, "Great job, Nanakyūs!" Then he turned and glanced at Sensei Kenichi, who had bowed and was walking into the room. "Nanakyūs, respect for Master Matsuda!" The whole group, Kyo included, gave Kenichi a bow, and he returned it before coming to stand next to Kyo.
"Thank you, Sensei Sohma, and excellent work, Nanakyūs. I was watching your kata, and all of you are doing very well, very well indeed. Please continue to work hard and focus, and you'll all continue to do yourselves and Sensei Sohma proud," Sensei Kenichi said in his gruff way.
Kyo could tell that praise had struck home; every single one of his students was standing with a newly puffed out chest. And Kyo himself might have had a slightly puffed out chest, too; he certainly wasn't too old to enjoy getting praise, for either himself or his students.
"We're just about to close out class, Master Matsuda. Would you like to join us?"
Kenichi nodded, and Kyo turned back to his students, settling in for the familiar routine. "Nanakyūs, line up!" They did, lining up in a neat line facing the instructors with only a minimal amount of scurrying.
"Kneel!" Everyone, including Kyo and Kenichi, dropped down into a kneeling position.
"Breathe!" Everyone looked down and took a few deep breaths. This was always one of Kyo's favorite parts of a class, time to reflect and reset his brain out of 'fight' mode and back into normal mode. This was less of a thing when he was teaching rather than participating, but hearing the collective intake of breath still had the same weirdly calming effect.
"Finish!" Everyone's gaze lifted, and Kyo felt thirteen pairs of eyes return to him.
He took a deep breath, feeling slightly self-conscious since Kenichi was there. Even though he'd been teaching for five years now, he always felt a little bit like a high schooler taking a test whenever Sensei was there.
They were almost done now; all that was left before the final bows was the recitation of the five principles. How many times had he said them, over the years? How many times had he thought about what they meant, not only for karate but for life in general? And how long had it taken before he was truly able to live up to them?
"Seek perfection of character." No matter how hard it could be.
"Seek perfection of character," repeated the class, along with Kenichi.
"Be faithful." Which wasn't hard at all, at least not for Kyo.
"Be faithful."
"Endeavor." Always. Never stop trying.
"Endeavor."
"Respect others." And make sure you gave them good reasons to respect you.
"Respect others."
"Refrain from violent behavior." It was embarrassing, how long it had truly taken for this one to properly sink in. Hopefully his students could like up to this principle far better than he ever had...but hopefully none of them would ever have the same stakes he'd had, either.
"Refrain from violent behavior."
"Bow!" Kyo and Kenichi shifted slightly to bow to the front of the room, along with the class.
"Bow!" One final bow from the students, this time to Kyo.
"Thank you, Sensei!"
"Alright, that's it for today. Again, everyone did a great job. Think about your hands and feet, and I'll see you on Friday." At a gesture from Kyo, everyone stood back up, Kyo and Kenichi included, and the students dispersed.
Kenichi crossed his arms and looked at Kyo as the students bowed their way out of the classroom. "I'm sorry I missed out on the sparring, I'd hoped to catch how they've all been progressing. What are your thoughts?"
Kyo considered for a moment, thinking about his twelve students and all that he'd seen that day. "Overall, they're doing good. We've got to work on speed versus form, and we'll be working on it for quite a while, it looks like. You know how it can be with kids, they get all excited and suddenly it's a slap fight."
Kenichi had to chuckle at Kyo's language; considering Kyo's own youth, hearing him refer to 'kids' with his world-weary air was rather amusing. But he understood, and he agreed. "Yes, it's always much easier to hit your lines when you're simply repeating basics. Being able to take what you've learned and apply it in a practical, real-time situation is always going to take much more work, and a lot more time to master."
He looked over at Kyo with a smile. "That's actually related to why I wanted to stop in, Kyo. How are things going at home with you three these days?"
Kyo let out a deep breath and exhaled. That was a pretty good question. "I guess you could say we're figuring a lot of stuff out. Hajime wakes up a lot at night to eat, but he usually falls back asleep pretty quickly and he's been a great sleeper so far. He seems to take after Tohru in that respect, thank God." Both men chuckled at that; both of them, along with most of the other karateka at the dojo, were light sleepers and early risers. It was a great habit in an athlete, much less so in a newborn! "He also seems to be pretty easy-going so far, which is also pretty great." Not that they had a lot to compare him too, but he wasn't all that fussy. Another thing he'd probably gotten from Tohru.
"Tohru is getting better every day, which is a big relief. We really can't thank you and Ayako enough for all you've been doing to help us, Sensei, truly."
The first evening the Sohmas had been home from the hospital, practically the entire dojo staff had stopped by to bring food, gifts, and meet the baby. Kyo had been worried about it being too much for Tohru, but it turned out that his colleagues all knew exactly what kind of visit was best: a short one. Kyo was the dojo's youngest instructor, and several of his colleagues had children of their own, so everyone was very familiar with what was and wasn't helpful.
The women had naturally fawned over both Tohru and Hajime. Hajime's orange hair had come in for a lot of comments, compliments, and some good-natured teasing directed at Kyo; one of his friends had even joked that he'd had no idea what lengths Kyo would go to to maintain the façade that orange was Kyo's own natural hair color. And Kyo had laughed, joking back that he only had to take a look in the locker room sometime to know Kyo would never lie about that.
Fortunately, that whole conversation had been out of earshot of Tohru.
The dojo staff had brought enough food to tide Tohru and Kyo over for days, along with enough snacks to keep Tohru fed for weeks. And that's when Tohru had been asked what their plan was for the next few weeks while she was recovering from her c-section.
"Well, I'll have Kyo here for the next few days, of course, and then after he goes back to work it'll be me and Hajime! Kyo is making sure I have everything I need all together down here, so Hajime and I will just set up camp here in the living room."
The women's response to that plan had been first surprise, then concern. All of them were aware that both Tohru and Kyo's mothers were deceased, but none of them had realized that Tohru had no one who'd be there to help her at all.
That had actually been a rather sore spot for Kyo, and one that the two of them had gone back and forth debating. The fact of the matter was that there was a glaring deficiency of available women in their lives, especially women of the 'able to drop everything and come help Tohru' variety. Tohru hadn't wanted to burden any of their relatives; it was asking a lot, to have someone take time away from work and travel so far to sleep in uncomfortable surroundings and deal with the complicated and messy aftereffects of childbirth.
On his part, Kyo hadn't thought it too much to ask at all. Tohru had spent a lot of time taking care of other people in her life, it was only fitting that someone should come and take care of her. Even if he really, really, really hated some of the 'best' choices.
Kyo had actually gone so far as to reach out to Hanajima and Uotani on the down low. He wasn't thrilled about either of them staying in the Sohma's very tiny house; he and Uotani still had a habit of getting on each other's nerves, and he doubted the high stress newborn period would help him have more patience. And Hanajima was...Hanajima.
But he could and would put up with a lot, for Tohru's sake.
Work, as ever, was the complication. But both of them had said they'd be on the very next train if Tohru needed help, Kyo just needed to say the word. And he'd been relieved to have those options, even if Tohru was absolutely, adamantly against it.
He'd decided not to push Tohru too much on the issue of help right away. There were already shaping up to be way too many battles he had to fight, so he was trying to pick and choose his priorities with care. Against his better judgement, he'd agreed that she could at least try to manage on her own for a day or two after he went back to work, but if it was too much for her he'd be calling in reinforcements.
That had been the plan, anyway, until the dojo ladies had gotten wind of it.
Tohru had been unprepared for the onslaught of care and concern from the other mothers, none of whom liked or agreed with her plan. Everyone was in agreement; Tohru needed more care herself, she wasn't in a position to be the sole caregiver, not so very soon. And in true Mother Hen style, Ayako had immediately stepped into the breach.
"Tohru, dear, we all know you're capable. You're such a strong, dear girl, if anyone could make this work right away I'm sure it would be you. But you shouldn't, especially in your condition. Please, let me come over and help you?"
Tohru had protested immediately. She couldn't make such a claim to so much of Ayako's time! But the older woman had stood firm.
"What else could I be doing that's a better use of my time? My children are grown and don't live around here, and I'm not needed for my grandchildren. The dojo is more than capable of managing itself for a time without me supervising constantly. And it would be a pleasure for me to get to spend some quality time with you and this this fine young man," Ayako had said, cuddling the sleeping Hajime.
In the end, Tohru had accepted Ayako's offer, feeling a weird mixture of relief and guilt. In five years she'd grown incredibly close to the older woman, but it still seemed like a massive ask for Ayako to come and spend every day with her!
Kyo had been amazed and relieved to hear of the plan. Ayako had raised three kids of her own and loved babies, and she adored Tohru. Tohru loved her. They both trusted her. And best of all, she didn't have to actually live in their house.
Kenichi had been amused when Ayako informed him of the plan, but hardly surprised. And then, like now, he'd brushed off any of Kyo's attempt at thanks.
That had been almost four weeks ago. Every morning at eight o'clock, Ayako would turn up at the house just before Kyo would leave for the dojo. And she stayed all day, helping Tohru and taking care of the house. She'd have dinner ready when Kyo got home from the dojo and then she'd leave, to go back to her own home and have dinner with her husband, unless it was a night Kyo had late classes. She'd been a godsend, if just for Kyo's nerves.
Kenichi was smiling, but he shook his head dismissively at Kyo's attempt to thank him. "Please, I had nothing to do with it. This was all Ayako, and I feel as though I should be thanking you two. It's been a while since she's had a chance to feel so needed, and she truly loves it. As long as Tohru continues to be fine with her being there, Ayako is happy to help. Though I doubt Sakiko appreciates it that much," he said, referring to his currently childless younger daughter. "Now that Masako's Daichi is almost six, Ayako is truly mourning her lack of infant grandchildren."
Kyo chuckled at that; he could see how Ayako could possibly come off as intense when it came to her children and babies. "Well, tell Sakiko I'm sorry. Hopefully getting to play with Hajime helps keep any of Ayako's urges at bay."
"You really are new to the motherly type, aren't you, Kyo?"
They both laughed at that again, then Kenichi looked at Kyo. "So Hajime is doing well, Tohru is healing, and Ayako isn't making too much of a nuisance of herself. How are you doing, Kyo?"
The question actually caught Kyo up short. He was very used to answering questions these days; time had done nothing to stop people's habit of reaching out directly to Kyo with concerns or questions about Tohru, and he'd officially given up even trying to make them stop. But those questions were almost exclusively about either Hajime or Tohru, exactly as they should be. Not a lot of people had checked in on Kyo himself.
Which is why the question felt so very hard to answer. How was he doing? Personally? And how honest a response should he give, when he was being asked by his boss?
Honestly, he didn't know. Some things were going really well; Hajime had started to be awake for longer periods of time, and was getting to be more interactive. He still didn't smile, but he would stare seriously at them with his dark blue eyes and make all kinds of cute noises.
And then there were the struggles. In general, Hajime was a great sleeper, but he still woke up a lot during the night. Kyo tried to step in and help out as he could, but there wasn't a lot he could do about nursing, which was still proving incredibly hard on Tohru. He'd started to tentatively broach the topic of bottles, but she'd shut him down every time. And while it was true that Tohru's recovery was coming along nicely, she was still very achy, and Kyo hated to see her in pain.
But Sensei was asking about him.
After a few moments of thought, he gave Kenichi a shrug. "I guess I'm doing ok? Tired, obviously," which earned an understanding chuckle from Kenichi. "Kinda overwhelmed by everything still. Hajime is great, but it's just...very different right now." Understatement of the year. "And it's hard, watching Tohru struggle. Like I said, she's healing fine, but there's just so much right now that she's having a rough time dealing with it all. It's why I'm so very grateful to Ayako for helping out, I don't think Tohru could manage right now no matter what she thinks. I'm doing my best to help out with everything at night, but..." he trailed off, then smiled awkwardly. "It's kinda hard right now."
Kenichi nodded and patted Kyo on the shoulder. "The early days are very difficult, especially when it's your first child. It's obviously been a while for us," as even Kenichi's youngest child was a few years older than Tohru and Kyo, "but I do remember enough of the struggle. Be sure to give both yourself and Tohru as much grace as you can while you all get used to everything."
The door to the practice room slid open, and a younger child tentatively stuck his head into the room. Kyo gestured for him to come in, and he did, followed quickly by more as Kyo's next class started to filter in.
Kenichi smiled at the students, then patted Kyo's shoulder again. "Well, I guess on that note I'll leave you to it. I'm glad to hear that things are going well, and I hope they continue to improve for you all."
"Thanks Sensei, that means a lot." Kyo bowed to Kenichi as the older man began to move away, and Kenichi bowed back.
"You, Tohru, and Hajime are all part of our family, Kyo. Don't hesitate to ask if any of you need our help."
"We won't, Sensei, thank you."
As the door closed behind Kenichi, Kyo let out another deep breath, then smiled. When he'd decided to leave Tokyo after graduating, it had been with the intention to break away from his past. To move away from the darkness and shadows, to finally start experiencing the world. To find people, and to truly be among them. He hadn't cared where he went, as long as it was somewhere else.
And as long as he had Tohru at his side.
They could have ended up anywhere, but they'd ended up here. A stab in the dark, a chance on his father's desire to help them out and Sensei Kenichi's willingness to gamble on Kyo. He'd been so scared, but so excited, and so determined to prove himself. To all of them.
It was so hard to believe sometimes that all of this was real. There were nights, rarer and rarer now, where he would still wake up in a cold sweat, grabbing at his wrist in a panic for his beads. Nights where he would shoot bolt upright and check to make sure Tohru was still there, that their room was still there. That he was safe, and free, and not looking out through cold iron bars.
But it was real, all of it. And every day, he was reminded how unbelievably lucky he was. He was free. He had Tohru. He had his father. He had this amazing dojo family, who'd taken them both straight to their hearts.
He had Hajime.
He never needed to be alone again, unless he wanted to be.
Kyo glanced around the room at his young students, who were just finishing wiping down the floor. Even though this group was only six or seven years old, he hadn't needed to tell them what to do; they knew the routine, and they just did it.
How long before he had that same confidence in his new routine? He couldn't say, largely because things were still changing. But hopefully, with a little more help, he'd sort it out soon.
Endeavor.
As the students put away the cleaning supplies, Kyo straightened up and looked out at the group.
"Kyūkyūs, line up!"
"Yes, Sensei!"
Author's Note: Please excuse any liberties with the karate lesson format!