BECAUSE I SAID SO!

Taylor made a face. "Warm up."

Oh my god.

She breathed a sigh so heavy that she felt like she could've melted into a puddle and dripped off the edge of the ring. This wasn't what she signed up for. The dojo seemed like such an awesome idea. They could all share their passion for the sport with young, up-and-coming rookies, and help mold them into brilliant fighters. Instead, Taylor was just babysitting some douchebag home-wrecker who couldn't stop rolling her eyes for long enough to do a goddamn pushup. Fuck.

She began wriggling her bare feet through the elastic of her shin guards and got them each situated over her calves and feet. She pulled out a slightly smaller pair of gloves from her bag, and while she went about strapping them on she began to speak in a weary tone, as if she had already resigned herself to taking whatever shit Ninjette felt like giving her. She had to take that, but she would be damned if she would watch her roll her eyes while she did it.

"So step one for you is muscle mass. You're pretty pathetic right now, especially with your style. You couldn't hurt a kitten. A lot of people think that flyer types don't need strength, and they're retarded. If you're not strong, you're slow. There's more than one kind of strength. It's like having one horse pulling a wagon, it won't go as fast as if you had more. We'll keep you lean, and get you some more horsepower, so you actually stand a chance against someone in the ring."

She hopped off the apron and walked over to the heavy bag against the wall. "Get your heart rate up and keep it up, I don't care how you do it. I'll let you know when you can stop."

She began to ease herself into some bag work, starting with her footwork. She danced around the bag, moving quickly in and out while she played her game of inches, flicking punches into the bag while staying out of reach of imaginary retaliation. Once she began to add kicks, she started to turn up her power, and soon she was sending the bag swinging with every shot.

Junko was watching from Behind Kozue as Taylor instructed the girl. It made her proud to see taylor already becoming fast friends with the girl. And when she was finished, Junko clapped her hands loudly by Kozue's head.

"She's right. Stretch." Junko said. "Then you can run ropes until you collapse. We'll figure out the rest after that, fufu~"

Junko was wearing a black sports bra and a pair of short gym shorts. Unlike the motherly figure that greeted Kozue, her body looked steely and she was in just as good a shape as either of the girls with much more apparent muscle than the ninjette, especially around her legs.

She had a whistle around her waist and lifted it up, blowing it hard into Kozue's ear.

"Chop chop, fufu." She said with a wide grin as she leaned over and began to stretch.

Okay, step one to getting through this with Kozue's sanity and/or body intact: She'd have to learn to sift through bullshit. Taylor was giving good advice, even if she did it like she was reading a tax return transcript and sprinkled it with her usual jabs and jeers. By the time this was all over, her skin would thick enough to deflect bullets.

She was just about to start when Junko increased her chances of early hearing loss, clapping right behind her ears."Ah, Jesus fuck!" She jumped forward and spun around with wide eyes, her heart rate already skyrocketing. Maybe she'd been too focused on Taylor to hear her come in, or maybe she was just that good. Either way, Kozue never saw it coming. Little eerie, but she got the feeling that was one more thing she'd have to get used to.

She composed herself and nodded, breaking into some stretches, too. Trying hard not to dwell on her status as the skinniest, weakest thing in the room. At least she could stretch well enough. She'd always had good flexibility, if nothing else.

"Right, sensei." She bent forward and folded her body, stretching far enough to smack her forehead against her knees, and started going through a standard routine from there. Butterflies, quadraceps, rotations. She gave Taylor a few glances as she went, trying not to jump too much when she gave the bag a brutal blow. Not something she wanted to be on the receiving end of. Which, of course, meant she would be.

Taylor looked at Ninjette, and then helplessly at Junko. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad when she wasn't the only one here. They just needed to get her some playmates.

"Where do you want to start, mom?" Taylor asked, her eyes back on the heavybag in front of her.

She put out a couple feeler jabs, and then snapped a lead-leg kick into bag at mid-level and hopped back a step. She drove back into the bag with a fast flying knee that sent the bag crashing against it's chain.

Junko looked at Taylor and gave her a wide, devious grin. "What's good for the goose, Taylor-chan, fufu." She said. "You can run ropes too. Until you can't go anymore. Let the newbie see where the gap is between the two of you." She then turned and looked at Kozue. "Or maybe she'll surprise you, fufu."

Junko began to stretch herself though she wasn't going to do anything as strenuous as the girls. "Just wait until this place is full and buzzing. How wonderful to have this house filled with the springtime of youth once more." She said to herself, sighing pleasantly.

Kozue tied her hair up tighter and made her way into the ring, rolling in under the bottom rope. "Just might, yeah." She kind of felt like most the gaps were already well-established, but maybe this was one area where she could keep up. Speed had always been her thing, the one advantage that let her not get completely bowled over in Tension, gave her the few straight wins she did have. Good place to start.

The comment about more girls piqued her interest, though. Now that she thought about it, this was a well-put together operation they had going, made her wonder how far they planned to take it.

Kozue made her way to the far side of the ring and and crouched, giving her shoelaces one final check. It didn't sound too bad, but given the way Junko had been talking earlier, there was no telling how long she'd want them to go. Paid to be prepared.

"Right. But I don't know what a gander is."

Taylor closed her eyes and took a long, slow breath. Unlike most people, Taylor's big problem was learning to slow down. Everything inside her urged her to go faster, harder, do more, and early in her career that had served her well. Now, she and Junko worked diligently on staying relaxed, and being able to conserve energy. She was in peak physical condition, but any human body could only sprint for so many seconds before slowing down or collapsing. Taylor was a born sprinter, now she was learning when to sprint.

She ran to the ropes, turned, and rebounded effortlessly. She stayed loose and ran at what was for her an easy pace. Ninjette looked like she was waiting for a starting gun, or something. "Bitch, just run," she huffed as she passed by.

Every third lap she took at a full, blinding sprint. After so many laps, she began to rebound by jumping and pushing off the top rope with her feet, as if for a springboard. Her movements, the placement of her feet and her balance, were precise and disciplined, as if she could do it a thousand times and never miss.

Soon, she was breathing hard enough to make conversation difficult. Maybe Junko would run them until they puked, but whatever. It was part of the job. Seeing Ninjette puke would be a plus, though.

"Male goose." Kozue said, keeping the snark out of it and just stating a fact. She stood up with closed eyes, drawing breath as she rose. "It's a male-"

Her eyes burst open as Taylor passed by in her own, unique way. She'd thought they were going to wait until they were side by side or something, but it was looking like things were a bit more freestyle than that. Fine. "Running." She spoke through clenched teeth, biting back the comeback that would've shot on reflex anywhere else.

Kozue was a good runner. Being light helped, but years of dancing and free-running had built up solid leg muscles. She could move when she wanted to, was good at climbing up surface, navigating terrain, and skateboarding had given her excellent balance. She ran at least five miles every day, turning it up to ten on the weekends. Maybe she couldn't hit the hardest, maybe she couldn't do the best moves, but her legs had never failed her.

Until today.

Kozue managed to keep up with Taylor for the first bit. Good enough not to get run over, anyway. She would start to catch up, pressing hard to close the gap, almost there...and then Taylor would sprint off on the third lap, making a new space to close. The springboarding made things worse, way worse. Kozue could do it, of course. Springboards were one of her favorite things to do. But putting it next to Taylor's showed all the problems. It was sloppier. Less crisp, less natural. Her movements were more mechanical, like she had to go through the steps in her head each time. Taylor moved through them like they were coded into her DNA. Kozue even fucked it up a couple of times, fell on her knees and stumbled on the landing, had to recover fast and keep moving before Taylor lapped her.

Her breathing was starting to get wheezy, chest started to hurt, but Kozue was holding it together for now, even if the gap seemed wider after every lap. She hoped that was just her imagination.

Junko prowled along the edge of the apron as Taylor began to run. Every time she hit the ropes, Junko blew the whistle. "Running ropes isn't about speed, it's about endurance. It's not who can go the fastest, it's who can go the longest. It's a simple but effective way of showing YOU where YOUR at." She said, blowing the whistle each time both girls completed a lap.

She watched as Taylor mixed it up. Normally she might scold the girl a bit for showing off but for now it was fine. Ninjette mimicked and Junko raised a coy eyebrow. Everything was going well. Quite well indeed.

"When Is ay you run until you can't go anymore, that doesn't mean you run until you die. We're setting benchmarks here, ladies. Run until you feel like you can't push yourself anymore. Then lightly jog until you are ready to walk. Walk until you're ready to stop. Don't stop cold."

Junko continued to blow her whistle while they ran. "Kozue-san, it's not necessary for you to mimic Taylor-san. She's advanced. She's been running ropes for years. Don't feel bad if she out paces you. Don't feel bad if she can perform at a more advanced level. Don't take it personally but DO take note of it and strive to match and surpass it. Not today, not necessarily tomorrow, but at some point. And if you come close, then she'll know she needs to dig deeper. We're all here to help each other, ladies. When one of us succeeds, everyone else has the tools to succeed as well because they can read the blueprint."

Junko continued to speak while she paced along the apron. Her words were nothing like her usual coquettish demeanor. She was serious as she spoke.

Taylor noted Ninjette's springboards, and each time she faltered. She hadn't really intended for the girl to try to do what she did, but it made sense that she would try. She probably just wanted to show that she could do everything better than Taylor. Whatever. Taylor was just doing her thing.

"Relax," she said. "We'll work on it later."

Anything that was to be used in the ring had to be drilled a billion times over until it was as natural as breathing and sleeping. It had to be easy in training, so that it would be possible when beat up and exhausted, and to reduce the risk of fucking up as much as possible. Winning against the level of competition in Friction title contention was hard enough without helping your opponent by slipping and landing on your head. Ninjette just had not had the structure and discipline in her training until now.