Renji had finished his morning duties for the Kuchiki and before he could think up anything else for his Lieutenant to do, Renji begged off on a prior engagement and strolled off toward Fourth.
:It'd be easier to teach if I had someone to demonstrate the throws,: Renji mused to himself as he sauntered along. :But the only other person I know who's as good with them as me is--:
He broke off mid-thought. Well why not? Their friendship was back on track and there was no reason why she wouldn't. She'd probably enjoy it. Renji paused and thought about all the fun she used to have practicing the holds on him and amended his thought; no, she'd definitely enjoy it. With that, he altered course and flashed off to Thirteenth to see if she was free.
"Oi Rukia!" he called from the courtyard, sensing her presence in the squad had-quarters near the windows on the upper floor, and throwing pebbles at the screen until she answered.
A moment later the screen slid aside and Rukia's rather irritated face popped out and looked down at him from the third story.
"What, Renji?! I'm trying to read!" she snapped in annoyance.
"I'm callin' in a favor," he called back, waving cheerfully at her. "Are you free?"
"You're so loud!" she said. "But yes. Now what kind of favor?"
"Don't worry, it's the fun kind," he said with a smile.
She looked at him in suspicion.
"You get to toss me around and put me in holds."
As usual, the smile on her face made his world a better place. He was so pathetic. What kind of real man would happily let a girl have the advantage over him in a fight just because he knew it'd make her happy?
"Sound's great, I'm in," she said, hopping to her feet and flashing out to join him at his side.
"I'm helpin' yer friend Hamtaro out," he said. "He's such a wimp so I thought I'd give him a hand and show him a few things."
"That's nice of you," Rukia said in approval.
Renji tried not to feel too pleased about it. It wasn't like he was some kinda sap that glowed with every compliment he got from her or something.
"And it's Hanatarou, Hamtaro is a mortal world children's show about a hamster."
They caught up on recent times with each other as they strolled to fourth. Rukia looked a question at him when they reached their destination. When they walked into the Squad courtyard both Renji and Rukia were taken aback to see it somewhat crowded with young men and women wearing Healer green. When they saw them, the crowd all bowed in unison and said
"Please take good care of us!"
Renji blinked and surveyed the small crowd, there had to be upwards around thirty... a quick head-count gave him twenty six. He exchanged a long look and a shrug with Rukia as Hanatarou stepped forward, looking chagrined and embarrassed.
"I'm sorry," he said bowing. "But when they heard about what you taught me, they all seemed so interested in learning it that I told them I'd ask if you'd teach them too."
Renji surveyed the crowd, picking out the number of females there were and said the only thing that popped into his head.
"Shouldn't you women already know this shit?"
Rukia elbowed him in the stomach and he looked over at her in consternation.
"What?" he asked. "It should be standard for females to learn this stuff."
"Excuse you?" Rukia said.
Her eyebrow pulled up in an aristocratic arch, exactly the same way her brother's did when he was about to nobly reprimand some poor sucker.
"Not that these twerpy-lookin' guys don't need to know it too," he hastily amended. "But I'm just saying..."
He shook his head like a dog dislodging water from its fur and shrugged. It was always smart to be in good with a Healer, and being in the good books of most of Fourth Squad was probably an even better idea. Especially with the way Renji practiced; in his lights, it wasn't a good practice-session unless someone was bleeding. He couldn't even begin to count the number of times he'd been draggd there (or had to drag someone else to Fourth) for a Healing after a nice, vigorous go-round to sharpen their skills. Sure, he was a lieutenant now, but a real warrior never stopped learning or trying to improve himself, so he anticipated still seeing the inside of the wards at Fourth for the next several years. Always a good idead to store up some credit. It wasn't like he was going to be stuck doing it regularly, one lesson wouldn't be too much of a bother.
"I guess it's just as easy to teach the bunch of you as it is to teach only a few," Renji said, shrugging with his voice. "So let's git started."
He had them pair off into two-person teams for practice and gather around with their buddies for the first lesson. They already knew how to roll and take a fall, so review for that wasn't necessary. He explained the mechanics behind the first maneuvers he wanted to teach them and then had Rukia demonstrate how it was done, with him acting as the attacker (since he was so much larger than she was).
"..and once you have him down like that, you can build up a charge and--- Hado thirty-three!" she shouted.
Lucky for him she zapped the ground next to him instead of aiming for his chest. Renji looked up at her and she grinned. He knew they were both sharing the same memory.
"But won't that hurt him?" one of their students asked.
"You better believe it," Renji muttered, remembering well the very first time Rukia had tested a Kido blast out on him, he'd been down for the rest of the day.
"It'll take him out of the fight, or rather, it'll take the fight right out of him," Rukia said as Renji kipped up to his feet. "That particular attack doesn't do permanent damage unless you let your kido burst get out of control, and you're all Healers, so you're well-trained enough not to. If you don't feel comfortable inflicting pain on that person, you can slap them with a binding spell. It'll immobilize them long enough for you to get away."
"If you don't want to use kido to take out your attacker,' Rukia said. "There's a lot of holds you can execute instead. Here."
Rukia gleefully demonstrated the various ways that arms and hands and wrists and fingers could be twisted turned and locked to incapacitate a person.
"It's good to see that you're as enthusiastic as ever about causing me pain," Renji said, rubbing his elbow after one particularly emphatic arm-lock.
"Whiner," she grumbled. "I didn't pinch that hard."
Renji snorted and thought about planting her on her ass in retaliation, but he didn't think that watching their two instructors try to pound into each other was going to help anybody. Especially when he knew that he was going to let her get the upper hand in the end anyway.
Renji decided he'd had enough of being tossed around and his limbs being twisted enthusiastically at odd and unnatural angles so he signaled Yamada up to be his dummy for the next lesson. Rukia moved to protest and he cut her off with a
"You need to learn this one too," he said shortly. "I shouldn't have been able to get a choke-lock on you like that without you bein' able to knock me back on my ass, so pay attention."
Hanatarou obediently walked up to the impromptu teaching circle where Renji gave him some quick instructions and a demo on technique so he could help out with the lesson, and Renji faced his class.
"Now, I'm sure you've had your share of assholes picking you up by the collar and slammin' ya back against something," Renji said to his audience. "I'll show ya how to break that hold."
Renji grabbed the smaller man by the collar to pick him up and pushed him back against the nearby wall, while trying to keep an angle that would allow his audience to see the demonstration.
"When he does this," Renji continued. "Drop whatever you've got, or better yet, throw it in his eyes, then cross yer arms like this and insert yer fists into the hole made by yer attacker's arms and separate 'em with a hard jerk to to the sides so his arms get knocked loose. This'll break his hold. Try it."
Yamada obligingly demonstrated the tactic Renji had sown him and slipped to the ground once Renji's arms were out of the way.
"The first and most important rule about defendin' yerself is to be flexible," Renji continued. "I mean don't just limit yerself to one trick. If he's holdin' ya up in the air like that, far from placing you at a disadvantage he's put himself in a place where you can reach several of his weak points. Now. Ya got more power in yer legs and feet so if ya c'n hit 'im below the belt do it. Ladies, you especially should know that if ya kick him in the nads and he'll let go real quick."
Yamada's eyes widened at that.
"The only problem with that cheap shot is that they usually expect it and they'll protect themselves. Here..."
Renji grabbed him by the collar again and put him up against the nearby climbing wall holding his feet dangling in the air.
"Now, how many vital points can you reach?" he asked. Yamada looked at him consideringly.
"Um... kidneys?" he said tentatively. He gently bent his knee and lightly lashed with his foot, not actually trying to hit it with any force but just to see if he could reach it at all.
"Good," Renji said aprrovingly. "What else?"
"There's a pressure point there, if you poke it right..."
"Ow!" Renji said in real surprise when the little guy did something to his wrist that hurt like hell!
"Don't forget what I showed you with the eyes and the nose and the throat earlier," Renji said, trying not to sound disgruntled or rub his wrist to make the after-pain fade a little more quickly. "If you can't hit 'im below the belt, gouge out an eye with yer thumb, if nothing else his attention will change focus an' ya can git away."
He set the kid down and faced his impromptu class.
Rukia rejoined the lesson by demonstrating next the various ways to break the two most common wrist grabs and how to turn a wrist grab into a counter by bringing ones opponent off balance. Next they demonstrated two more common techniques to use when an enemy grabbed by the neck from behind. Even Renji hadn't been really expecting her to kick him in the back of the head. Say what one wanted about Thirteenth, but they apparently kept up on their limbering exzersizes.
He spent the next ten minutes kissing the dirt while Rukia demonstrated the clothesline throw, a specialty of hers. Wench. He was beginning to think that the rest of the class was enjoying it too much because they repeatedly asked her to demonstrate it again, saying that they'd missed how she'd done it. Since it was one that had him on his back with her straddling his waist and her fingertips ready to crush his windpipe, he got the sneaking suspicion that it had become entertainment to them.
He had them pair up with their buddies and start working on how to break holds and to practice the throws against each other. Rukia and he circled among the groups, correcting a movement here, answering a question there and sometimes having to take over and re-demonstrate a maneuver to a set of buddies that wasn't working it out on their own.
In the course of his teaching he noted that the Healers of Fourth knew every single weakness that a person's body possessed, in fact, they were teaching him things! Combine that with their Kido manipulation and those guys had an awesome sort of power in their hands. They didn't need swords as long as they were facing other people. The sole problem that he was seeing was simply a basic lack of confidence. Fourth was pretty much always known for being the small dog on the bottom of the heap, he guessed that if that's what everyone always told them for so long, they eventually just came to believe it.
:They grow a little more spine, an' I wouldn' wanna be the poor bastard that takes one o' them on!: Renji thought to himself.
Those who knew how to put you together, also knew how to take you apart! There was a reason that it was a proverb.
"Another good defense against attack is to always travel with a buddy," Rukia said, when they called a break from the practice session. "A person will be more reluctant to go up against you if there's another person out there to even out the odds."
"An also, ya got someone to watch yer back to make sure a guy don' come sneakin' up behind ya,' Renji added, nodding firmly.
"Included in the use of the buddy system is an excellent way for taking down multiple opponents," Rukia added. "Out of all the strategies aside of avoidance tactics, teamwork is the most effective way to defend yourself against more than one enemy."
"If yer alone, the best thing ta do is prob'ly ta run fer it an' hope they don' catch ya," Renji said frankly. "But if ya got a buddy and he, or she, is good at Kido, ya got an easy way ta take down a lot o' people."
Rukia and Renji put their backs against the nearby restraining wall and Rukia put herself in her kido summoning form while Renji stood defensively, halfway in front of her but not so much in her way as to destroy her shot.
"Okay," Renji said, pointing to the five tallest individuals at random. "Rush at me like yer gonna take me out. When you feel a shock, go limp like yer unconscious."
The five he'd picked exchanged a long speaking glance and reluctantly banded together in a group and rushed at him. Renji quickly, but trying to be as gentle as possible with the poor fellows, rushed up to meet them, taking the first two fastest runners and tossing them back behind him by rolling them over his back. Rukia touched them with hands that glowed a soft pinkish color, reiatsu on its lowest setting. The guys gave a small gasp of surprise, because the shock stung in the same way that static electricity stung, then remembered that they were supposed to go limp. The third attacker, Renji just grabbed by the front of his shirt and sling-shotted behind him, pushing him off balance and into Rukia's waiting Kido attack. Fourth and fifth he took out himself with an easy clothesline and and a throw-and-hold respectively. Rukia mopped up fourth attacker with a kido attack to the forehead while Renji held fifth face-down on the ground, Renji sitting on the small of his back with the guy's arm twisted up behind him.
"As you can see, I used my lowest setting so that no-one was actually hurt," Rukia said as they helped their fallen demonstrators to their feet and dusted them off. "But in a real fight, you'd be using enough to knock them unconscious. It doesn't even require that you fire off a Hado attack, just build enough of a charge in your hands to knock them unconscious."
His audience seemed to be about evenly divided between people who were amused and a little anticipatory about learning the new technique and those who seemed to be a little troubled by it. Oh well, that wasn't his look out, he could teach the stuff to 'em, but they didn't have to use it if they didn't want to. Even if they never did, it might be a bit of a comfort to them that the knowledge was there if they needed it. If they did need it, they weren't getting hurt by being ignorant.
"If yer in the open, the best thing to do is fight back to back," Renji said. "Fighting this way is a lot harder than fighting with yer back to a wall because there's always the chance that you could trip each other up or some enemy could manage to get between you. It takes practice to be able to keep one eye on your buddy and one eye on your enemy."
"One trick to it," Rukia said, seamlessly picking up where he'd left off. "Is to keep a running dialogue with your buddy, let him know whats up and who's coming. Even if he's got his own problems to think about, it'll help you win the battle."
Renji obligingly placed himself at her back and let her take this part of the lesson.
"Another trick is to launch your own targets into your buddies enemies," Rukia said. "Trust me, big guys don't like it when they spend all of their time bumbling into each other because not only does it not make them feel like they're big and tough, more than likely they'll turn on each other and fight among themselves and the two of you can usually get away in the confusion."
"It doesn't work as well fer smarter opponents," Renji admitted as an aside. "But as fer the kinda thugs that'll generally pick on weaker fighters, it works pretty great on them."
"You might want to get together, some of you, outside of your work here in Fourth and keep in practice, I know none of you are much in the fighting department but being a tank like this guy here isn't always an advantage," she pointed to Renji. "With the right application of force, and some quick thinking on your part, you'll have a better chance of coming out of a situation unharmed. The key, and most important thing, is to always be aware of your surroundings."
"If you know there's more likely to be trouble in the streets, it's always best to grab yer buddy an' make 'im come with ya," Renji said. "I don't mean to sound gender-biased here, but especially you ladies. I know Rukia here can make a grown man cry fer 'is mama, but some o' th' rest o' ya might look like a good target if a man's fulla the bottle, if ya catch my drift here."
Rukia nodded, supporting his point.
"A person when they're sober might never dream of trying that, but people do stupid things when they're drunk," she said.
Renji tried not to smile in reminiscence of some of the gems he'd gotten away with under the influence. There had been one incident (as yet unsolved to this day) where the fish from the Elventh Division koi pond had wound up gracing the Fifth Division's barrack's bath-house. He thought that Momo still held her suspicions about that one.
"In addition to that," Renji added. "I'm sure all you Healers know that alcohol deadens a guy's ability to feel pain, so if ya wanna get a person off ya, ya really gotta make him feel it."
"So, once more from the top, we'll run through what we've covered so far," Rukia said, taking control of the class room.
Renji smiled a little reminded of ther Rukon days together; Renji had been the leader of their little gang of street toughs, the one who kicked and bullied their people into getting things done, but Rukia had been, undeniably, the brains of the outfit. Renji could rely on his plentiful supply of brute strength to face down tougher opponents, kick people into respecting his own groups particular sovereignty, and keep his own people from getting into deeper trouble, but it had been Rukia's quiet strength and intelligence that had kept them fed and clothed. Rukia had picked the targets, and devised new ways and strategies to get a hold of the things that those miserly old merchants had guarded so jealously and it had been Renji's job to make people listen to her and get it done. Rukia proposd and Renji disposed, and that was the way thier partnership had run. This odd little system had prompted many a siggering comment from among thier friends about just exactly who was running the gang.
He'd missed the way they fell into step beside each other, Renji'd always ben a social kinda guy and he had a lot of friends in all the other squads and among the Lieutenants, but there was no-one in his life quite like Rukia. He'd fight through hell just so he could fight at her side, and he didn't think that there was anyone, even Kuchiki, who could deny him now his right to do so.
And speaking of Kuchiki, in the next and final chapter (this one's just a quickie, only four chapters long) enter... the protective older brother. I had sort of started with this scene in my head and the three chapters that came before this were just a pretext to set things up.
I'm posting up the first Chapr of Stray Dog Strut, so please drop on by and read it. Look forward to it please.
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