"Poison... quarantine..." I grit my teeth, forcing another sit up. I couldn't feel my legs gripping the branch and had long since given up trying to keep my arms about my head, gripping instead my chest and shoulders to try and keep myself stable. "Rancor... sagace... tagliare... uccidere..."

"Japanese." Genkai reminded me, her voice coming from up in the tree, beyond view. I didn't bother trying to spot her; I knew she was halfway up, sitting down against the trunk of the tree. I don't know how, but I knew it. I just... freaking... knew it...

"Vexation... Wroth... xylophone..."

"You've already used xylophone twice."

The leaves were shaking around me from the strain of pulling myself up again.

"Then give me another 'x' word. I don't know anymore." I snipped, not even caring that the woman I was snipping at was probably going to take this hell to another level for being mouthy. I wasn't in the mood. Three sets ago I still cared. Two sets ago I still cared. But after my eighth set of this ABC sit ups on a tree branch in the middle of nowhere with an old sadist crap, I really stopped caring about politeness.

"Looks like we'll be here all day then, kiddo."

I bit the inside of my cheek until blood filled my mouth, trying to calm the hell down from this. What did sit ups and climbing rock walls and doing finger pushups with claps have to do with learning about what was happening to me?

"...Yippee... zombie." I finished my set, spitting out some of the blood so it wouldn't make me any more sick than dehydration would.

"Congratulations. Now give me one more."

"Are you kidding me?" I bit, trying to watch myself, staring up at where I knew she was sitting out of my view. It hurt, but I ignored it, getting pissed.

"You slipped into Italian. Stick to Japanese this time around and you may not have to do another."

I glared, and grit my teeth again. I wanted to drop down and just lay on the ground and never move again. I wanted to hit something and throw a tantrum like a child. I wanted to do anything than another fucking set of sit ups.

"Acerbic... Beheading..." I spit out. I would do the damn sit ups, and I would only curse her name silently, but I didn't have to like them.

(Four days later)

The clouds had started to darken around noon, signaling that it was going to rain. I watched them roll in, beginning to darken and take over the sky from my spot on the ground. Seven days and I already felt like my mind and my body were completely disconnected. I had done more posing in the last week than in the last year alone. Twelve straight hours of balancing in a handstand followed by three hours of studying mathematics yesterday by itself had me wondering which one to live in, which proceeded to give me a headache.

I closed my eyes, feeling the wind brush over me. It was going to rain soon. It would feel like heaven after the ten mile run this morning in the humid, hot weather. It felt like I was part of the ground, sinking into the soft grass and through the dirt and becoming part of the earth. The sun on my face, drying my slick, sweat covered clothes and hair, was encouraging sleep, and I almost answered it's peaceful call.

Until I remembered the demon known as Genkai.

I forced myself to a seated position, overlooking the vast landscape around the compound, bringing my numb legs up to my chest and resting my chin on my knees. It was beautiful here, away from the city and the people. I didn't get to notice the scenery much in between training exercises, none of which had done anything more than make me want to either throw up or make me want to flip a table out of frustration. It was... strangely enjoyable... in a sick, masochistic way.

I couldn't deny that my basic comprehension of reading and writing Japanese had already drastically improved, despite the methodology causing me to grind my teeth to keep my mouth shut. And even though my body felt like pudding, I could see my muscles hardening and feel whatever energy was running through me hopping on an adrenaline wagon and begging for more. It was both frustrating and invigorating all at the same time, and it was a love/hate relationship in the extreme. It was how I felt the first time I tried ballet at my dance studio...

"I'm getting up." I sighed, recognising the creeping sensation up my spine whenever she acknowledged my existence in some way, shape, or form. I forced my legs to work properly and turned around to face her, not surprised that she was standing not three feet away from me.

"Enjoy the view?"

Shit. I was in trouble.

"I did. And I'm ready to keep going." I lied, clenching and unclenching my hands to get the blood working again.

"Follow me." She turned around, stalking across the grass toward the front of the compound again. I obeyed her order, pondering what she was going to make me do now. I wanted to think positively, but I knew better. And somehow, that only excited me more. It was thrilling in its own way, to push myself to exhaustion and know that I might not be getting back up. It was terrifying, but I wanted to push it harder. Something in me wouldn't allow for anything else.

Genkai led me to the opening of the shrine room, motioning for me to sit on the deck. I obeyed, wincing at the feeling of my muscles trying to relax again, and looked out at the view again. This one had a direct view of where the sun would set, and overlooked a dip in the forest where I could vaguely make out what looked to be a river. It was beautiful. Realizing that I was making the same mistake, I sat up straight and watched her instead of the scenery.

"You can relax, kiddo. You're not in any trouble." She smirked, walking to the back of the room and lighting a stick of incense. I watched the tendrils make their way up toward the ceiling, pooling and spreading, looking for a way out of the room. "Today you're going to meditate. Find your center."

"Oh...okay..." That wasn't what I was expecting. "Is there any length of time that you want me to meditate?"

"As long as it takes."

"... As long as what takes?"

"You were distracted long before you got on that bus to come and see me the first time; how do you expect to be able to find your potential when your mind and your heart aren't in your training?" She scorned, turning to face me again.

"I'm sorry... I'm trying my best." I blushed, pulling out my braid for something else to focus on. Was I doing that terrible?

"It's not about how long you can run or how much you can carry before your legs give out. If you are distracted from the task at hand, your mind separates from the task at hand and you don't learn anything. Putting your body through hell means nothing if your mind doesn't absorb it."

I let my damp hair fall down my back, biting my lip. I didn't want to argue, but... meditation? Seriously?

I simply nodded instead, bringing my legs in to mimick the yoga instructors I had seen on television, resting my hands on my knees when I realized that I had no idea what to do with them, seeing as I was NOT going to be putting them in front of me like I was praying. And I wasn't going to be humming. The yoga way was not my way.

She nodded, leaving the room and shutting the door behind her. Her footsteps stopped at the doorway nearest this room, that door opening and shutting with a soft thud. She was probably going to be doing her own training or meditation, but staying near enough that she could keep an eye on me, make sure that I was doing what I was told.

I sighed, looking out at the forest again, imagining taking a dip in that cool water. I would rather do ANYTHING than be sitting here with my eyes closed and my mind wandering, but that's what I was told to do, and doing anything else would just take away from whatever end goal she had for me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, listening to the wind shake the leaves on the trees. I could hear the compound creak slightly from the temperature change, feel the goosebumps on my flesh as the clouds continued to darken the sky, smell the moisture in the air the pressure continued to change. Everything around me was bursting with life, taking on a world of it's own.

And here I was sitting still and getting cold.

I tapped my knees for some sort of distraction. One could only listen to the sounds of nature for so long without just falling asleep to them. I peeped through my eyelids and checked out the scenery, trying to keep the image in my head when I closed my eyes again. My mother's yoga tapes always said to visualize when meditating, to allow your mind to take you somewhere else and feel at one with nature and all that jazz. I always sat down with her and then snuck away after maybe five minutes. I didn't know how to meditate. Sitting still for hours on end wasn't fun.

I hummed under my breath, changed positions, even just tried to pass feelings of warmth to different parts of my body, but when the rain finally started to fall my only results were that I was still sore and my mind was still soaring at 80 miles per hour with no sign of stopping.

I groaned, moving my legs in front of me and pressing my head to my knees to stretch out. I wasn't happy with wasting all of that time.

Forcing myself up, I walked out of the shrine room and into the hallways, glancing around for Genkai. She wasn't anywhere to be seen, so I wandered back to my makeshift room, sitting on the small cot. I pulled off my training clothes, the dried sweat sticking to my skin, and pulled on some comfy sleeping clothes, pulling out my notebooks and getting started on my Literature homework. It was odd not having her nitpick what I was doing, but it was a bit of a relief after a stressful week. It was nice just being by myself for a little while... well, being by myself in a non-meditation failure state.

I bit the end of my pen, finding that reading Japanese was starting to come easier since Genkai had taken over my studies. She may be a hard-ass, but she definitely produced results, I'll give her that.

Translation:

sagace = shrewd or sagacious

tagliare = to slit

uccidere = to kill