Exit, Pursued by a Memory (For ThatPolishDude)

[TheLoneWanderer]

Senji Takijima, Age 17.

Hiroyuki Takijima, Age 21.

Senji stared at his brother with a pleading look on his gape. The edges of his eyes were red. Puffy. It was very clear what had overcome him. Hiroyuki looked down at him with a crestfallen gaze. Still, Hiro stood steadfast in his point.

"Have you....considered where this ends, Senji? If you come across the wrong people, they will never stop!---No one warrior. Not even you, can defeat everyone."

Senji slightly recoiled, stepping back. His shoe creaked along the floor of their shared apartment. They'd been living together for a few years now, at that point, after having a good start due to old money and the inheritance of assets that was to be split between the two according to the yore'd father's will. However, a consequent result of the loss hadn't left Senji...ever since he was ten. He found barely any peace. This offended him. Surely Hiroyuki should've understood?!

Senji's voice turned low...sorrowful even.

"---I can't even sleep properly, Hiroyuki."

"Senji, I....there are too many variables. It's too risky to go after these answers."

"This is not just about ME. You're so worried about me, then who's going to keep you from harm?"

Hiroyuki went silent. He let the boy go off on his tangent. Truth be told, Hiro...felt it wasn't exactly wrong just logically a bad course of action. Senji meant that the same man who killed their father could perhaps...finish the business on a whim. He knew this would be a bad move, no matter how one put it. Enemies would be attracted, sooner or later. Their mother had moved back to her home nation of Germany but--- it was still worrisome. Senji wasn't thinking far enough ahead but Hiro wasn't considering the implications in the present.

"I don't need protection."

"---Are you sure?"

Senji shifted on his feet. His right foot pointed past Hiroyuki at an angle. His left one was pointed straight at his elder brother. Senji canted his gaze to look him in the eyes. Bright eyes stared at verdant orbs. They stood there in silence for seconds. Ten. Twenty now. Thirty more. At the apex of their tension, the smaller sibling broke the silence. The front door was just behind Hiroyuki. A shaky breath left Senji. Then, a charged one left Hiroyuki. They hadn't exhaled for the stare-down with each other.

Senji steeled his mind. There's no time to turn back. He knew what must be done.

Steel the mind, kill the heart.

Senji started off for the door...moving past Hiroyuki. Then, the redhead found that he was rooted in place. He could not move. The coins of his face turned to the left. They found warm, green ones once again staring back. Hiroyuki did not need to say a word. They'd shared a connection. Senji would sever it.

Senji's gaze lost its strength as he looked downward. Surrounded by simmering asphalt, fire, and flesh, the flash of a body among the havoc caused Senji to snap to attention. His digits twisted into a fist. Then, before Senji even fully realized it, Hiroyuki reeled from a strike to the left side of his cheek.

At the point of impact, Senji awoke from his dream. He panted heavily as he was driven from the subconscious to the conscious. Memory to Reality. A hand gingerly came to his ribs as he laid back on the pillow. Senji pinched his nose, quickly coming up to speed on it. Right. Bast had "won", not won. The slow release and pat to the chest a nice gesture. Made him feel somewhat better about it, in fact. It did not soothe the aching joints and general sense of tiredness. The absolute misery he'd endured out of sheer capability and will was a few notches above what this was after his treatment.

A question answered itself upon being conceptualized. How long had he been out? It could not have been more than a day. Senji's eyes snapped to Hiroyuki in the farthest bed by the window. They'd been left to rest next to each other. Sweet. Unfortunately, Senji could only stare at the injuries. Dressings covered his limbs. A circular focused bandage was wrapped around his head as he still slept. The bloodied nose had also been cleaned, as various ones covered a lot of his upper half. His legs were covered by the blanket so he could not observe those. He hadn't saw Bast break them so they should be fine.

On Senji's end, the younger boy finally looked down. As the main gravitation, the sensation of metal on his flesh grated along the back. They'd stapled his gash shut following the cleaning, it felt like? Then, the doctors had dressed their fellow member and him for their wounds. In Senji's case, it'd take under 8 weeks for the cut to heal over and the staples could be taken out properly. His forearms had been thrashed. Battered. Trashed. Various other expletives came to mind. To that end, he saw dressings to preserve the damaged, recovering skin. It'd do both of them better to rest their stretched muscles and pulled ligaments.

Senji deeply sighed to himself. He wasn't going to do too much at this rate. Oh well, he'd done all he supposed he did yet it had not been enough....

[ThatPolishDude]

Huan was watching what happened from home. The moment she saw the brothers enter she could smell what was about to happen, she was a fighter since her early teens and you develop the instinct for such things. Still, she hoped that Senji would tap sooner as she tried to tell him to do but he didn't. Then the media announcement came in regarding their injuries, luckily there was nothing catastrophic but she was still worried. That worry was the only thing keeping her from anger.

As soon as the visitors were allowed, she made her way to the hospital. For a moment she thought of bringing flowers but they always seemed just an excuse to not talk, leave flowers, say your best wishes, and bounce. She had every plan to talk. Still, she wouldn't quite go empty-handed, using what she learned from years of her studies and fitness she prepared mouth a diet and some supplement list to aid in the recovery even if just slightly and for when the boys were back to full function, some exercises to make up for any problems their injuries might have provided.

Finally, at the hospital, she found the room they were placed in. Standing at the door she would knock on the frame before getting inside. "Hey kids, how are you holding up?"

[TheLoneWanderer]

His ears perked up at the entrance. From the door, came one of his trainers. Huan Lei Brightspring. A part of him prepared for the earful that never came. At least, not yet. Senji kept his gaze steady. His eyes kept their height without drooping. He should at least be able to hold a conversation. His eyes tracked Huan as she entered the room. Eyes flickered to Hiroyuki, seeing that he was still asleep. After that, Senji returned his eyes to hers to address the older woman's worries.

Though, there was a suppressed delight at seeing that Huan had come to visit him.

"Hey! You came to see us? I think I'm doing okay, Huan.---It doesn't ache a lot as long as I'm still. I'm...sorry about failing again."

Regardless, Senji pursed his lips in thought. This time, Senji initiated the hopeful contact between the two. His damaged arms came half-open, but he did not want to stretch out fully due to various factors. He was inviting her in for an embrace if she wanted one. It may even assist in calming the woman down. On the off chance she refused it, then he did not proceed in any further fashion. Senji reversed the action and kept his hands in his lap, sighing quite hard at the sudden whiplash of exercising his back. That caused him to only sit up straight as opposed to leaning forward to address Huan better.

[ThatPolishDude]

Huan sighed and came to hug her young student before bringing a chair up, next to his bed. Hearing his words somehow calmed her, at least a little. Now she wanted to know if he knew what he did wrong.

"Don't be sorry, you did nothing to me. You say you failed, care to tell me how?"She said in her usual tone while taking a sit on a chair backward so that her elbows rested on the back of it, one hand propping up her chin.

[TheLoneWanderer]

Senji returned the hug soon after, his fingers coming to rest on her back. However, just as soon as it happened, the brief reunion concluded there. He always enjoyed embraces. Though, as displayed, sometimes they made him feel awkward. The case being here where he was dancing on the eggshells with Lei without risking one of them cracking.

Senji had successfully charmed her into calming down regardless. Yay, now there was less of a chance of her ripping him a new one. Now he considered her question as to think on it. Since she was closer now, Senji elected to lean back so he could lay on his back and continue to let his body rebuild itself. Stamina-wise, Senji felt less than exhausted. That was a good start, a few hours of sleep was always good for the working body.

In a confident tone that also conveyed a sensation of tiredness in his vocals, he chose to give her an answer.

"When my back was against the wall, I did not submit."

He submitted before anything broke. That was good, just as he did with Huan when she was drilling submissions with him. Personally, Senji thought he hadn't done the worst thing. Had Bast not wanted to fight then he would've given up due to her not sharing a mutual want to fight if she took the choice. Giving a deep breath, Senji continued his response to ask Huan a question of his own....

"What did you think of the match? This is the first time you saw my brother. But, I didn't mention him because it never came up as important..."

That also spoke to his tendency to remain reserved. Too much information could be a liability in his case.

[ThatPolishDude]

Huan smiled at his answer. "Good, at least you know what you did wrong, next step is taking it to heart. I swear you had more luck than brains out there." Huan replied, they really were lucky, it could have easily ended worse, slightly different angles and their ribs for one could have broken.

When senji brought up his brother Huan looked at the other man, still sleeping on the other bed. "His defense needs improvement, the form is good but I get the feeling he did not get in many actual fights from the way he delivers. Also, you both were getting each other distracted and need to be getting up faster. I can't say more about your brother until I can get a more controlled look." She did not comment on the fight itself, she thought it was foolish of them to get into that but saying it would achieve nothing.

[TheLoneWanderer]

"My luck was off from the start. The original plan was to stick together. Bast caught on to it and kept us separated. She's not an idiot, from what I remember. If I braced for the strikes instead of keeping my muscles limber, as you know, my forearms or legs would've had to take more force."

Senji was referring to the times where he was launched back by Bast instead of trying to tank them. Had he committed, he might've been able to retaliate faster by taking damage in turn. However, Hiroyuki had brought Senji to play the long game with her. She was getting more labored as she fought the two, and was having more trouble with Senji by himself due to the strongest link wearing her down fair and square. The momentum-driven moves especially were ones that snagged Senji except for the flying knee that he'd countered with a liver punch. Though, there was the issue he needed to address. It was a mismatch. He was hardened but still light. That allowed easier physical manipulation. Though, judging by his showings, he obviously hadn't went down easily. There was the fact he hadn't fought like lives were at stake too. Hardcore varieties cut both ways.

"---I promise I would've withdrawn if I had to fight alone, Huan."

That should further calm her down since he had acknowledged his limits. He'd voice his thoughts on his brother in a short time. For now, he had to give Huan time to voice hers on his own feedback towards her advice. He also planned to talk about more training sessions with Huan due to this putting a hamper on those plans.

[ThatPolishDude]

"No plan survives first contact. Splitting you up was a good choice, I would have done the same. There was no luck in how the fight went, you were lucky not to get more injured." She paused to emphasize the point she was trying to make. "Defeating someone larger happens almost only when you are by far superior in skill. That's why most sports don't allow competition outside of weight class. The same is true for fighting multiple oponents unless you can get one out of the mix you are in deep trouble so getting one of you out was an obvious move, alone you were at a massive disadvantage."

She stopped, making a lecture was not her intention so she decided to boil her overall point down to a digestible size. "You are still learning, you are talented but some people here were training longer than you are alive. Take small steps, and always assume your oponent is better than they look to be. Makes life easier"

[TheLoneWanderer]

Senji listened as he desired to do. Wouldn't be right to say what he wanted until after she was done. Mmm. Right, don't make assumptions and get caught off guard. That hadn't been the major error. Stretching from first sight, both knew Bast was an exemplary embodiment waiting to be unleashed. It'd be a good time to bring up Geun too. Had she seen the match? Mmm...perhaps it'd better to have his sessions be combined. That way, Senji could attend the experimental one and the familiar activity at similar times. It should not be too hard his body either. Given Geun and Huan's established behaviors, they'd not recklessly jeopardize him.


"Speaking of....training, your friend Geun took me out for dinner after our match. I'm starting to like her very much. She said she'd be open towards grappling again at anytime. As for you, I believe I can keep rolling with you but I need to 'take it easy' according to my injuries."

The reason why was obvious. His body was healing. Even fully rested, he'd need to wait to get back to his peak. Senji reflected on the fight while he was talking. In particular, he was thinking about how his style clashed against Bast's. Bulking up could be set as a long-term goal. It was not like he was going to be tossing fists against her sooner rather than later. Her notion about him still learning was also true. His arsenal was vast but it wasn't perfect due to lacking a lot of experience. Throws had been an issue too. He'd gotten around those by using his legs to dance around her in the waning moments of the match even if she still caught him with the Judo Throw.

["--My two fighting styles don't flow into each other due to their contrast. I have to switch which creates a pause. I guess the only way is to get faster by building up my body."]

Bast didn't have this issue from what he gathered. That marked her as more versatile for now. Boxing + Jiu-Jitsu was a good base so he wasn't abandoning either one anytime soon.

[ThatPolishDude]

"I know, I actually pushed for that fight to get scheduled. And don't worry, I haven't broken anything in you so far, have I? Though when you recover I think it would do you good to train more outside of grappling and how to blend it together.

If they talked right after his fight with Geun she would explain what exactly could have happened if her friend did not stop applying pressure but given their current circumstance it seemed redundant.

"From your stance with striking, I assume you did some boxing. That's a good base, and your brother does muay thai. I think I can help you both there."