Kindred Pairs
by milesprower06
After he had seen Takato off, Henry returned to his room, dimming his monitor, leaving the Digimon game on idle, and shut off the light, splaying out on his bed, starting at the ceiling, not quite sure if he was going to get to sleep or not yet.
It had been nice to see his friend again. It had been over a week since he last saw him out on their school's running track. Out of his two closest friends, he saw Rika far more often now, due to her joining him for tai chi. He began to think back to when he brought her to the do jo to introduce her to Sensei Chou...
"So, why the sudden interest in tai chi lessons? Don't get me wrong, I'm more than happy to bring a friend along, just wondering why now?" Henry asked, as he and Rika walked side by side on the walk leading up to Chou's dojo, with Henry carrying a duffle bag containing his training uniform.
"Well, I've seen MegaGargomon in action, and I have a feeling that all of it didn't magically come with the biomerge. You're easily the most fit of us, so I wanted to come see what it was all about, and once I get far enough along, maybe I'll be able to augment some of Sakuyamon's fighting skills. I know some of the tai chi forms include a staff." Rika answered.
"Well, that's at least a year of training, maybe more. But maybe with your experience as Sakuyamon, you'll pick it up a bit faster. And here we are." Henry told her, as they came to a small one story brick and white stone structure. It was dwarfed by the surrounding apartment buildings, all of which were five stories and up. The roof was an elegant, slanted design, looking something like black-painted bamboo.
Henry led her up the front steps up to the front archway door, where he knocked. Moments later, the knock was answered, and the door opened to reveal a middle-aged man with a thin, pointed mustache and jet black, slicked back hair.
"Henry, welcome," He greeted, before slightly turning to face the girl next to his student. "And you must be Rika. Henry tells me he is willing to share his one-on-one instruction time with you. Welcome to my dojo."
"Rika, this is my Sensei Chou." Henry told her before bowing respectfully, with Rika doing the same afterwards.
Chou wore a tunic with a blue chest and white sleeves. His pants were a plain white, except down at the cuffs, which were again blue. At his waist, a green sash was tied at the back. He stepped aside, and let them enter to remove their shoes on the mat.
"Henry will get you a gi, show you where you can change, and then bring you to the main room." Chou said, before proceeding down the hall.
"Come on, spare uniforms are over here." Henry said, leading her down the left hallway to a small storage area. He slid the door open, revealing a shelf with several stacks of neatly folded articles of clothing. He did a quick check of the size on the tags, and handed Rika a pair of plain white trousers, a long sleeve top, a black sash, and a pair of black martial arts slippers.
"The bathroom is right behind you, and when you're ready, the training floor is down the center hallway, where we came in." Henry told her. She smiled and nodded, and watched as he went down to the other end, where the men's room was. She entered the bathroom, and unfolded each article of clothing, laying it next to the sink, before removing her socks. She quickly changed into the gi, before securely tying the sash around her waist, making sure her ponytail was secure and didn't get lose during the changing. Sliding into the slippers, she folded her street clothes neatly, then carried them out into the hallway, going back out towards the front door, and made a left, following where Sensei Chou had gone. She came to the large center room, where she saw Henry kneeling in front of Sensei Chou, appearing to be in a meditative stance.
"Ah, there you are, Rika-san. Come to the center." Sensei Chou told her, motioning to the immediate area behind Henry. She walked forward, and came to a resting stance. Henry stood up from his kneeling stance, and turned to her. His gi consisted of a sleeveless orange-red tunic, black trousers, and black sash.
"Alright, now let's begin with some basic stretches."
Symmetrically stretching with Henry made it much easier to ensure she was doing things right. Five minutes later, they were all limbered up.
"Rika-san, Henry-san tells me that you have minimal karate experience, in addition to your, shall I say, rather extraordinary activities. I would like to see your form. Henry-san will assist."
Henry turned and bowed to Sensei Chou, then turned on his heels to face Rika, bowed to her, then went into a ready stance while Chou stepped away from the center.
"Rika-san, strike him if you can. Semi-contact. Henry-san, evade and counter." Sensei Chou instructed.
Henry merely remained in his stance, while Rika bowed to him, then tried to remember the fighting stance from the month of karate she had taken when she was younger, before she had gotten bored with it like so many other hobbies and activities.
As they began circling each other, Rika wasn't honestly sure what she expected on her first day. She had pictured getting right into punching and kicking, maybe, but sparring against a friend within the first few minutes? That was a curve ball.
If Henry's instructions were 'evade and counter' she figured he wasn't about to make the first move. Semi-contact meant punches shouldn't be pulled, but also not applied with full force. She led with a right punch and Henry merely twisted his torso as he jumped back six inches. She followed with a left punch to the same area, and mirrored his previous evasion. She attempted a high punch, which he leaned out of the way of.
Rika's frustration built quickly. She tried to remember how she had done it as Sakuyamon, but it was too different. The warmth wasn't there. Renamon wasn't there.
She prepared to follow with a wide kick, but she telegraphed the move too far in advance, and just as her foot left the floor, Henry suddenly stepped forward, placed just his index finger on her forehead, and pushed. It was unexpected enough for Rika to get startled, lose her balance a quarter of the way through her kick, and fall backwards, rolling over onto her knees before coming to a stop.
She resisted slamming her fist down on the mat, but as her frustration continued to build, what she could not resist was swatting away Henry's outstretched hand as he offered to help her to her feet.
"I need a minute." She said angrily, turning and briskly walking back towards the entrance hallway, turning the corner back towards the bathroom.
"Rika..." Henry called, beginning to follow.
"Henry-san." He heard Sensei Chou call him. He turned to him, and his teacher gave a curt shake of his head. "She said she needed a minute. She'll have it."
Henry returned to the center of the room, and dropped to his knees, taking a deep breath.
"This hasn't been easy, Sensei. On any of us." Henry told his teacher.
"Your partners leaving?"
Henry nodded.
"It feels wrong being apart from them for this long. My friends haven't been seeing each other as much as we used to, and I think it's starting to affect us. We're slowly drifting apart. Some days we don't sleep well, other days we don't eat well. I'm wondering if we're dealing with the separation alone as well as we could be dealing with it together. That's why I immediately said yes when Rika asked to come to my class with me."
"I'm glad that's why you're doing it, and not purposefully using your years of experience against an amateur with prideful, boastful moves." Sensei Chou replied, raising his index finger and pointing it at Henry.
Henry took another breath. His sensei had a point, that little stunt was nothing but showing off and taking absolute advantage of Rika's lack of balance and focus. After another breath, he heard footsteps on the other side of the mat, turning and saw that Rika had re-entered the room.
"Rika-san, are you alright?" Sensei Chou asked.
Rika nodded and bowed.
"Apologies, Sensei. I think I'm coming into this with the wrong mentality." Rika said, before returning to a standing position.
"Don't apologize to me, apologize to yourself, and I think my student also has something to say." Chou replied.
Henry stepped forward, and bowed.
"I'm sorry, Rika. That move was just foolish boasting on my part, and that's not fair to you."
Rika smiled at him.
"It's alright. I think with the expectations I had coming in here, I needed a bit of humbling."
They shook hands, and then they both returned to the center of the mat, facing Sensei Chou.
"I think I'm ready for the basics, Sensei." Rika said.
Chou nodded, stepping up to his students.
"Your haste is understandable, given your experiences, Rika-san. But it is far more than punching and kicking. Before you can build the balanced pillars of offense and defense, you must prepare the foundation; your kata. The first, most essential part to every kata... Is breathing."