Let's get this trainwreck moving.

It's a warm, windy day. The perfect kind of day to go work outside. The perfect day to just do nothing, lay about in the grass and enjoy the sunshine.

The perfect sort of day to skip Saturday's morning-only school lessons with my girlfriend and go into the city.

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. Something."

We end up wandering around the city for a couple hours, eat lunch, and continue. Not a bad time, all in all.

"Hey...isn't that Lilly?"

"Yeah, it is. You wanna go over to her?" I ask.

"Sure, why not? She can't be alone, can she?"

I certainly hope not. That would be...weird, at the very least, and terrifying at the worst. Lilly's blind, there's no way she doesn't have a guide. Right?

"Hey, Lilly!" I call as we approach her. "You okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Okay. We saw you alone, and..."

"Ah, is Miki with you?"

"Yeah." Miki answers.

"It's nice, the way you two are always together. You did well, finding each other."

We smile, though Lilly can't see it.

"Who's with you?"

"Hanako, and my sister."

Ah, the infamous Akira. I've overheard some stories from Hanako, and even a couple from last year when Lilly and Shizune were still on good terms.

"...they both had to go?"

"Akira went to get ice cream. Hanako went to the bathroom. I guess there was a long line..."

"We can keep you company, it's not like we had much of anything else to do." Miki offers, and I agree inside my head.

"I would like that."

Eventually, the two return. Akira is carrying three cones, and she gives one each to Hanako and Lilly. "Friends of yours?"

"Yes." All three of us say at once, and Miki punches me.

"Always good to know my baby sis is making more friends."

Akira, it seems, isn't much for the formality that Lilly aspires to. We'll get along just fine.

"She has a knack for it when she's not in the wrong company."

"Shizune?"

"Tricked her into trying to press me into the Student Council. Eventually tried to directly go against me and make me join the Student Council. Not a nice woman. Perhaps the wrongest of the wrong company that can be found at Yamaku."

"Harsh. You know they're cousins, right?"

"You know Shizune probably doesn't give a damn, right?"

Akira smirks.

Yes, we're going to get along very well.

"What were you two doing out here, anyway?" Akira asks.

"We were on a date, but this is fine too." Miki says.

"Are you sure?" Lilly asks. "I'd hate for our activities to get in the way of your date."

"Yeah, it's all good. There's plenty of chances to do stuff by ourselves, but we haven't done a whole lot with you two, you know? It's nice to go on dates, but tomorrow's a free day, and I enjoy spending time with friends." I offer.

Miki nods, smiling in agreement. "Besides, there's only so much of this big lug that I can take before he gets to be too much on me, you know?"

I give a backhanded swat at her, and she moves so that I barely brush her hair; that's good, her reflexes have improved.

"Nice try, tiger."

I make a purring sound, and even Hanako laughs.

"I'll get you back for that at some point." Probably not.

"No you won't." Damn. She knows me too well.

We spend the rest of the day tagging along with the trio, visiting various shops before eating dinner at the Lighthouse. I offer to pay, and so does Lilly, but Akira ends up taking the bill for all five of us.

I decide then that Akira is my friend, regardless of the fact that we've only known each other for a few hours.

Anyone who willingly pays for my food is a friend. No exceptions.

I'm a little easy to win over once you know how to do it. It's kind of sad, actually.

Give us a chance to live, give us a chance to die Give us a chance to be free, without fire from the sky. Give us a chance to love, give us a chance to hate, give us a chance before you kill us all!

I'm ending my forms when the idea strikes me, something so ridiculous and crazy that it might actually be conceivable. To be honest, I'm not sure how I didn't think of something like this sooner, being the person who I am in the place that I am.

Create a martial art for the physically handicapped. People missing one or both arms, a leg, or a leg and an arm.

How on earth could this idea not have come earlier?

It's a daunting idea, to be sure. I'm likely one of the best-suited candidates for the task, but it would mean creating four distinct and separate styles...or maybe just learning how to apply specific styles to those who have some manner of physical difficulty?

Either option seems plausible, and it's not like I'd be creating an entirely new fighting method from scratch. Even when Bruce Lee created Jeet Kune Do, he only drew from other styles rather than come up with an entirely new one.

Not that he didn't piss everybody off by doing it, but he did it. He did it well.

Maybe I can follow in his footsteps.

I bring it up later, when Miki and I are walking around the small forest within Yamaku's walls.

"Are you serious?" She's not angry, not mocking, there's no disbelief in her voice. It's an honest question.

"If there were any interest for it, then yes. I was going to ask around, but I figured I should go to you first."

"...I'll see."

I expected as much. Given the things I've done, I can understand why she'd be anti-fighting.

Something tells me that I shouldn't get my hopes up, that there probably aren't too many people who'd be willing to learn, but I need to try. At the very least, it'll give me something productive to do when I'm skipping class.

Incredibly, there's about twenty or so students who'd be interested in learning. While it's not like that's a particularly large number, the idea would be for a style specifically suited to those who've lost a limb or two. Deaf, mute, blind, and those students with other disabilities unrelated to their limbs, don't qualify. With that in mind, twenty is a good number. It's more than I was expecting.

"Alright. I'm not going to lie, I don't really have an idea of where I'm going with this. All I know is that I'm good at martial arts, and I figure that there's gotta be some way to share my knowledge without cracking all your skulls...for now. To help me demonstrate what you might be able to do, eventually, I've brought a guest."

Haji has all his limbs; he's in Yamaku for his single, weak, lung. I don't really know the details, but if he's a black belt in Karate then he'll serve my purposes well. We tie my left hand behind my back, and I explain that I'm using my weak hand.

"Just because I'm right-handed doesn't mean it's stronger. I do almost everything with my left hand except write and hold a knife."

Haji comes at me, then. I use my hand to pull him forward, and my foot finds a place in his gut. Not strictly legal by any definition of proper martial arts, but sometimes you've gotta take what you can get.

"What's inside of you, man, a sack of bricks?"

"Titanium."

"Oh, great. I'm gonna love what's next, huh..."

I don't bother answering him as my right hand joins my left, tied behind my back. Haji starts toward me again, reaching to grab a hold on my shoulder and take advantage of the fact I won't be able to grapple, but I launch one of my feet high and send him flying sideways after it connects with his shoulder.

"Careful, man!"

"That was careful. I held back a lot."

Haji rolls his eyes before my right hand is untied and my right foot gets tied in a way that the knee points straight down. Having an arm and a leg on opposite sides allows for better balance.

I hop to Haji's side, grab onto his collarbone, and hop up before sweeper-kicking at the backs of his knees. He's kneeling as I land, at which point I prepare my fist for a knockout blow.

"Those were just examples. Not every encounter will be that straightforward, not all opponents will have as much of a difference between their strengths as the two of us. It's really just kind of a toss-up, and you won't know until you're actually in the ring against them. Thank you for coming to this meeting...I'll start working on forms and styles as soon as I can."

Miki's there, in the back, trying to stay hidden behind a column. Once our eyes meet, though, and she knows that she can't anymore. After everyone else leaves, she comes up to me, and I voice the thought that's been rattling in my head since I told her a few days ago.

"I thought you said you weren't interested."

"I gave you a 'maybe.'"

"'Maybe' is usually taken as 'no.'"

She punches me.

"I told you I'd see, and I saw. It's a sweet idea. Girly, even."

"Teaching people how to fight is girly?" I raise an eyebrow. "Put me in a skirt and call me Jane."

"No, not that. Reaching out to help people in need, even if they don't realize they need help, even if they don't understand you're helping them. You can try to lie about it, twist it to fit your mind's purposes, but that's what you're doing. It's kind of a girly thing to do."

"You have some weird notions about gender." I say, taking to the flame and the void in order to keep my emotions in check.

I haven't actually needed to do that in a while, almost a week. It feels good to be empty again.

"You have some crazy thoughts about people." She retorts.

Damn. She got me.

"You're a girl who acts like a boy, how am I not going to treat you like a guy?"

"So you like guys?" She jabs.

"No, I like you."

She smiles. Our word game ends itself with a kiss, cut off before it could go any further. Miki's sarcasm, her blunt actions, and all the rest of "her" is what appeals to me. I enjoy playing these games as much as she does, these arguments made in fun. I suppose it's our version of, "the other person in the relationship is the better person," since both of us know that Miki is better by far.

I have a noble soul, but it's coated by my heart of stone and kept inside a suit of metal bones. Miki's just an ass.

"I really like you."

"I really like you too." She says.

"I hadn't noticed. Not like we're dating or anything."

She punches me.

As I head off to bed, the thought strikes me that this is going to take a lot of work. What if they're only missing the hand, like Miki, instead of their whole arm? What if they have no fingers, but still the hand?

I'll take it as a challenge. It's just another fight, and there's no fight I've ever lost. I'll beat this problem the same way I beat everything: blood, sweat, and muscle.