Ryuji blinked, his features slack with surprise. "Practice...?" he asked, not believing what his ears had heard.
Niijima gave Ryuji a level look. "Yes. I was planning on simply going through my normal breathing and warmups, but with a partner I could get substantially more practice in," she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"B-but...I don't have a gi! And I don't know anythin' about aikido neither..." he said, holding up his hands as though that might fend her off. Niijima's gaze remained level as she considered his words.
"While that may be the case Sakamoto, having you help me with my warm ups doesn't require any prior training. I can talk you through the basics if need be," she replied. Then her gaze dropped abruptly. "And truth be told, a gi isn't exactly necessary, just thicker athletic wear like the track pants you're wearing. Although, you would need to roll them down," she said, as though embarrassed about her gi. Why's she wear it if she doesn't need it? Does she just like wearing a gi? wondered Ryuji, though more pressing thoughts began to crowd his mind.
For a long moment, Ryuji weighed his options. His thinking face was almost comical; his brows furrowed and he rubbed the back of his head. Niijima almost thought she could see the gears physically turning in his head before he met her gaze again. Eventually though, Ryuji looked up at Niijima with a shy grin on his face.
"Well, I dunno nothin' about aikido Prez, but I feel like I kinda owe ya one for all your tutoring. So sure, I'll help you out," he said, and Niijima actually smiled. It was a small smile, born more from satisfaction than true happiness, but for whatever reason, her smile struck Ryuji hard.
He'd never seen Niijima smile before.
Ryuji wasn't able to dwell too long on this revelation though, as Niijima's expression returned to its usual, more composed state.
"Thank you Sakamoto, it'll be very helpful to have a partner this morning," she said, her tone taking on a more formal cadence. Ryuji recognized this, it was the same way she sounded when she was tutoring. Well, it figures that she might see something like this as similar to her tutoring, though her voice didn't exactly match her more clipped tones when they had been first assigned to each other.
"One of the things I want to work on is pretty simple; in fact you might call it a game," she said, sitting down with her legs tucked under her in the seiza position. Ryuji sat down, awkwardly adjusting his legs until he approximated her sitting position. "It's a game to learn to roll with impact," explained Niijima, holding her hands out, palm facing upwards.
Ryuji regarded the gesture with raised eyebrows. He placed his hands on hers, their palms touching each other, as though they were setting up to play a game of slaps. Makoto looked at him with a blank expression for a second.
"No, lay the backs of your hands in my palms," she said, twisting her wrists to indicate that she wanted him to flip over his hands. Ryuji complied, though there was a notch between his eyebrows that suggested a faint confusion with her directions.
"Okay, now you're going to try to strike me, and I'm going to roll out of the way," she said, and looked at him expectantly. For a moment, Ryuji sat still in his awkward seiza position, trying to make sense of the fact that his tutor had just asked him to try to hit her.
"Are...you sure about this Prez?" asked Ryuji, his voice unsteady. Niijima looked like she was considering rolling her eyes, but thought better of it.
"Yes Sakamoto. I promise that you won't actually strike me," she replied, sounding like she was reassuring a toddler that there weren't any monsters under the bed. A little embarrassed, Ryuji met her gaze with resolve.
"Alright, let's do it then," he declared, and moved his hand to slap her, albeit at a reduced speed and power.
And Makoto effortlessly rolled away out of her seiza and away from Ryuji's hand. Her eyes glittered as she rolled back up into her starting position. Ryuji's eyes had widened slightly in surprise at her deft ability to roll backward and then immediately recover.
"Now try with your other hand. Alternate between your right and left hand for strikes so I can practice rolling away on either side," instructed Niijima. Ryuji nodded, hiding his amazement as best he could while he set up his next strike at Niijima's head.
And again, Niijima rolled back out of her seiza position without any difficulty, and recovered herself just as quickly. At that Ryuji couldn't contain himself.
"Prez, how long have you been doin' this? Kinda seems like you're already a master," he blurted just as he reached out to slap again. Niijima rolled back and away, before recovering more quickly this time, almost bouncing back to her sitting position.
"Not that long really. I've been at this about a year and a half," she said, her voice casual as she continued to roll and recover. That gave Ryuji pause. Somehow, she'd been doing aikido for a year and a half...and no one had known about it? He turned this piece of information over in his mind as the two practiced together. He tried to reason out why, although she wasn't exactly hiding it, she certainly wasn't advertising that she was practicing a martial art.
He shrugged mentally. Maybe it was just a case of martial arts not being the right image for a prim and proper student council president. He should ask if Principal Kobayakawa had asked her to keep this quiet...it'd make sense for that bastard to tell her to keep a lid on it.
"Would you like to try dodging some?" came Niijima's voice, pulling Ryuji from his thoughts. His mouth dropped open.
"Uh, me?" he asked as Niijima reversed their hand positions.
"Yes. We can go slowly so you can get used to the timing and the feel of the roll," replied Niijima, apparently thinking he was all ready to go.
"I uh...sure," he said, and tried tucking his legs under him more to match her position. She waited patiently for him to finish fidgeting before launching into her explanation.
"When you roll back, make sure that you don't fall onto your back hard, let your body gradually and smoothly roll against the floor to distribute your weight more evenly," she explained, reading her right hand for a slap. Ryuji nodded, his eyes trained on her hand with a laser focus that Niijima had rarely seen.
"Anything else Prez?" asked Ryuji, his eyes never leaving her right hand.
"And don't feel the need to sit in seiza when you roll, you can really let your legs do whatever so long as you don't kick me," she said, and her right hand came out in a slow, almost glacial approximation of a slap aimed at his head.
Ryuji's head tipped back out of the projected path of the slap, but as he leaned back, he lost control of his carefully regulated fall and landed with a thump. Niijima exhaled slowly and deliberately as Ryuji struggled back up to a sitting position.
"Remember Sakamoto, try to smoothly roll against the floor. This is going to make recovery better and it's to make sure that you don't hurt your back when you try to get away from me," she said, her tone controlled. Ryuji scowled, but said nothing, his eyes flicking down to focus on the other hand that was prepared to strike him.
For what felt like hours but was surely only about twenty minutes, the two students played the game. Ryuji slowly became better, no longer thumping against the ground hard as he dodged Makoto's glacial slow slaps. Niijima for her part, asked Ryuji to change up the speed of his slaps so she could get the feel for different timings.
At the end of their self imposed practice, the two Shujin students were breathing a little heavier than they had been before, and Ryuji felt the first twinges of soreness from landing hard on his back. But the practice had left both Niijima and Ryuji feeling energized.
"Nice work Sakamoto, you made marked improvement over the course of the warm up," she said, getting up from seiza. She offered her hand to Ryuji, who grabbed it after a moments pause. With a strength surprising coming from her slight hand, she hauled him up to his feet with a grunt.
Ryuji wiped his damp palms on his track pants, his mouth curving into a small smile. "Eh, I learn best by doing," he said, rubbing the back of his head and looking away. "Anyways, that was fun Prez," Ryuji said, and Niijima's eyes sparkled with satisfaction.
Ryuji turned to go, picking up his back pack from the entrance to the practice room where he left it. He waved goodbye to Niijima before heading to the boy's bathroom to change.
She waved back, telling him that she'd see him at their normal tutoring session before she also departed towards the girl's locker room, likely for the same purpose.
As Ryuji changed out of his damp track clothes, he couldn't stop himself from thinking. Maybe Niijima was somebody he'd...really like to get to know.
