You're The Best Around : Karate War Training Montage Log

[strikefirster]

The All-Trench Karate War | Training Log!

Who: Combat instructors, students, and anyone caught in the crossfire.
What: Training for the Karate War!
Where: Throughout Trench
When: Throughout April

[ Welcome to the catch-all log for the Karate War player plot! Please find your instructor's header below and feel free to start your own toplevels under that header. You can specify "OTA," "OTA to teammates," or "For [Character]" etc in the subject line.

Or jump down to the miscellaneous mingle and start your own toplevels there! Enjoy! ]

Comments

[terriblepurpose]

They haven't done anything to us. I'd prefer not to.

[There's also the small matter of them being bears, and Paul having chosen to come armed with only his pale blade in a hidden sheath under his training gear. Still: the way he says it suggests he's prepared for the possibility.

The bears continue to close on them. Paul decides he also prefers observing them from a height.]

They're faster than we are. But there's a saying where I come from - you don't have to be faster than the cat.

[He grins at Akechi, a playful, reckless challenge.]

You just have to be faster than everyone else. Run and climb it is.

[As is his habit, Paul assessed the area on the way. There's a half-fallen hillside some meters back from their position, surrounded by dense, thorny bushes on all sides but the scree-covered slump. He points in its direction, obscured by the trees between them and it, and takes off without another word. He needs his breath for the sprint.]

[fabrications]

[ Akechi is ready to read something into Paul's reluctance to hurt the bears as it contrasts with his apparent willingness to do so - but that comment about the cat and the accompanying grin give him something much more interesting to analyze. He tries to make a point of staying composed during Johnny's classes, not convinced that his usual vehemence in combat would sit well despite Cobra Kai's apparent philosophy, but he can't stop himself from answering Paul's grin with a lazy one of his own.

He has an idea of where Paul is going, having seen the dilapidated little hillside himself. So, equally silent, he takes off after his fellow student, trailing just a few feet behind him. That comment about the cat makes him wary of any potential trickery from Paul, even as it drives him to consider his own bit of trickery in turn. But for all of his bluster Johnny doesn't seem to approve of actual treachery among his students; deliberately getting one of them eaten by bears would probably prove to be something of a downer. So he refrains. Let Paul tip his hand first, if he even has one to tip.

Scrambling up the loose, rocky soil of the hillside proves a bit tricky, but Akechi takes that as a good sign, since the bears and considerably heavier than he and Paul. It should buy them some time at least, particularly when he pauses halfway up to kick loose a small but hefty boulder and send it rolling down the hill, leaving a trail of extra loose soil in its wake.

He's covered in honey and sand by the time he reaches the top, but there's no sign of bees (apparently they left early enough) and more importantly no bears. Thus, a moment to converse again. ]

Do you suppose sensei had a particular end goal in mind? Or is he just going to get bored and call them off eventually.

[terriblepurpose]

[In this case, Paul has no hand to tip. There are plenty of other students already doing an admirable job of providing a distraction, which Paul can still overhear from the crest of this hillside. He's as dishevelled and sticky as Akechi is, but when he dangles his legs over the edge of the pseudo-cliff it doesn't seem to concern him.]

I'm not sure 'calling them off' is an option.

[He's still a little breathless from the sprint, his heart racing, and he devotes some of his focus to down-regulation as he leans over his knees and looks with interest in the direction of the noises coming from elsewhere. That scream sounded particularly abrupt.]

My guess? It's a lesson in discretion. Not every threat needs to be met head on. A cobra doesn't seek out unnecessary conflict, but knows when to retreat to the rocks.

[He shrugs, a rueful twist to his mouth.]

Or someone told him it would be a bad idea. One of those, I think. Do you think anyone is actually going to be able to fight a bear without resorting to weapons or powers?

[fabrications]

[ Akechi is inclined to agree with Paul - he doesn't think calling off the bears is something Johnny is actually capable of doing even if he wants. He's not inclined to agree that there's any sort of wise hidden lesson in this, though, and only tips his head when Paul mentions the possibility that someone told Johnny not to do it. ]

Or implied one of the other instructions could manage it instead of him.

[ He thinks he remembers hearing something about a bear on the rumors post... Regardless, he hums thoughtfully at Paul's question. He turns his gaze down to the chaos in the distance as well. ]

No. At best someone might be able to scare them off. Bears can be rather cowardly.

[ Though not these bears, apparently. ]

I'd say someone should challenge him to fight a bear himself, but I think he'd just get himself killed.

[terriblepurpose]

[A certain deliberate and studious unseeing is required on Paul's part to knit together the best of what he believes about Johnny with the conduct he sometimes (usually) has in the public sphere. He still huffs a quiet laugh at Akechi's words, swinging his feet idly.]

He has a bad track record with wildlife.

[If you could call the Leviathan that. It's a wound not quite scabbed over, a dimming of his good cheer that he only mostly shakes off when he straightens his back and makes an attempt at scraping gritty honey from his face.]

This is going to be a nightmare to get off. I understand why he didn't use blood, but - fish guts couldn't have been that hard to come by.

Do you think we should do something to help, now that we're up here? Considering. [The mutually accepted fact that most people won't stand a chance.] I'm not sure if we could be better lures than everyone running and screaming down there.