As a dutiful maid ought to (For TheLoneWanderer)

Vivienne was doing the one thing she so often did in the privately rented dojo gym mat room that she had gotten hold of, that was cleaning. Okay the place was already pretty spotless to begin with but Vivienne had high standards for her locations and this was no different, the maid took a brief moment to wipe a bead of sweat from her forehead and took that chance to contemplate her current state of affairs here.

She was remaining in Japan she had reasoned, Charlotte Harenwood had chosen to take the trip back to France citing a lack of interest in spending further time in Tension as well as a lack of confidence in her ability in combat. Still she instructed Vivienne to remain there whereupon she could perhaps learn her craft in her own right, while it was a shame the Harenwood had chosen to depart Vivienne would honour the request and remain here for the foreseeable future. As it stood she had been speaking with the opponent that she had faced in her debut match, a lad by the name of Senji. It had been a very hard fought bout with the maid managing to triumph having displayed to Charlotte her potential at least.

As it stood she had invited Senji over to this gym room a few days after the match, enough to make sure all limbs were in working order surely to work and practise together. Plus Vivienne would admit that she had been a bit.........unlike herself in the bout and wanted to display her more maidly side in all honesty, as it stood the French lady was dressed in her usual dress as she had scrubbed the windows for the second time. If anything the gym ought to be thankful that she was doing this of her own free will, it took away from Vivienne's possible concerns about being alone in this land so far, far from home........

The young man, boy depending on a certain person's age and attitude, wrapped his fingers around the handle of the entrance. Then he pushed to enter the private dojo he had been invited to. From what Vivienne described, she simply wanted to practice. However that'd go, anyway. He assumed it had to do with wrestling of some kind. Whether Jiu Jitsu, Judo, or whatever else. So far, he'd participated in two matches. Most recently, he'd faultered in the second one. Vivienne had choked his lights out since he didn't tap out due to her having given him two choices once having him locked in. Granted, she was beginning to be pleasant to be around. However, he found the whole maid mannerisms a little peculiar. Oh well.

Senji hadn't incurred many injuries in this second match. Therefore, he didn't need to take an extended break from fighting. Due to the knee strike she did, he had a slight limp but it'd pass by itself with time. There was a slight weakness there compared to the other leg.

Fingers were brought to the front of the throat as he finished his entrance. He scratched the front of his neck...then switching to massaging it. He'd already came dressed in a proper outfit. That being, a long-sleeved rash guard bearing a similar color to the hair akin to fire. Eyes like gold coins bored into the room. His first catch of the day was seeing the woman who had fought so fiercely cleaning like a dutiful housemaid. Huh, sticking to the role quite well.

Regarding the rest of his attire, he also had matching thin pants that leave everything from the ankles down to be bared. That included his hands for the rash guard too. In his bag were a spare change of clothes for casual work, his phone since he wasn't an archaic skeleton, his wallet, and some other possessions one would find in a gym bag. That concluded, Senji curled his lips in thought. Finally, he opened the vocal cords to address the fellow grappler...

"Vivienne! I'm here.---What'd you want to practice with me?"

Vivienne's mind was running a mile a minute there as she went about cleaning, she'd be at it till midnight if she had her way with things. The other servants used to scoff at her immense dedication yet the maid instead saw it was a point of pride that she could do such things and still have the energy and prowess to continue on in her daily routines.

Her ears perked up after hearing some footsteps enter the room and Vivienne turned to see the source, that being Mr Senji there. "Ah Mr Senji. Welcome, terribly sorry I've not entirely cleaned here. I can't believe the state when I saw this place truth be told." Vivienne said as she wiped the sweat from her brow and then said "Ah my apologies please take a seat on the mat if you wish, I'll prepare for you shortly. Have you been well since our encounter?

The maid began to remove her headdress, placing it in one corner as she then began untying her apron making sure to bundle her non sparring attire in a neat little bunch over there for today's events!

"Well, the place is tolerable. I've fought in worse."

At the reminder of events better left unsaid, Senji's gaze trailed to the mat...spotting that the various surfaces looked cleaner. That wasn't to be looked down upon. Her energy appeared to be minimally effected too. Really leaning into the role, again. He supposed she earned his attention. She could definitely clean, that was good for anyone to know how to do to some extent. An extremely apparent pig sty isn't very couth of either a woman or man to live in if they could control it. She had apparently made a habit of saying "Mister Senji" too.

It felt strange to be called by that denotation. Usually, people followed the former up with his last name.

'Have you been well since our encounter?'

He was still healing from previous events not including Vivienne. She mainly focused on chokeholds and not joint locks though. His right hand went to his right side near the ribs. Right, still bandaged underneath the rash guard. From what he knew, it'd be best to not go too hard in a sparring session. Something easier, then. She was the host for the evening so it was up in the air as to what exercises she wanted to drill exactly. In the meantime, he'd been prescribed a set of painkillers. He was supposed to take a few whenever the pain got very bad. They were not meant to be a crutch...just a relief. It'd be advisable to not participate in harsh matches for a few weeks.

"In a few weeks, I should be able to participate in high-level matches again---It isn't your fault."

Easy-going sessions were acceptable though.

Senji moved to give Vivienne a pat on the shoulder if she chose to accept the reassurance. Quite the variation of lovely ladies here. Anyway, Senji dropped his hand in order to go where she directed. He put his bag on the edge of the mat so it'd be reachable but out of the way. After that, Senji went to the center, dropped to his knees, and kept his eyes to his lap to pass the time whilst waiting on the Dutiful Defender to get ready. It was important to maintain his figure, so this'd be good for him to do instead of a few weeks of being bedridden had his injuries been more severe.

Vivienne truth be told wasn't close to a hundred percent body wise at least, but she hid it well as befitting her nature as a maid. Her back could be in better shape but it'd been worse so she could grin and bear it as she slowly stood up to test the creaking in her back there. Senji seemed to be doing better than Vivienne had worried about at least, reassuring the maid that she was not at fault.

"Thank you sir." the maid said with a nod, she knew it as well as he surely did. You went into the ring at your own peril, one of Vivienne's instructors drilled this into her brain from when she first swore to uphold the wishes of the Harenwoods and didn't falter since then. But the pure sprit of sportsmanship was also instilled in Vivienne and she would make sure to show her respects, hence partially why she invited him around here in the first place.

The maid would then move to the mat, performing some arm stretches to get her blood flowing. Cleaning was just a light warmup in her mind. "Right then, I figured we could try just rolling about and practising posture transfers and defence. Holds are allowed but don't go full blast as they say. Plus well...........I could do with some social contact.......When your ready monsieur......." Vivienne said as she knelt down to face Senji.

On that note, his host was ready to begin! Senji thought about what she wanted. Mmm. That'd be easy on his ribs depending on how he went about it. A mark on the bone from his first match. A memento from a certain someone who would be giving him interest. Ah well, that was two payments secured to assist him in surviving. That was such a focus for him. Merely surviving to the next day. Senji gave a slow nod, feeling a little warmer on the inside for a different reason at the notion of social contact. He decided not to dwell on that little nugget for too long otherwise he may end up screwing himself over or stumble over his words sometimes. Some things were just beyond his abilities or experiences so he usually just coped to the best of his current standing. It had worked out fairly well for him so far.

Senji strived to guess how much strength he should use. It wasn't a real match so...mmm. Senji selected a level where he'd be putting in only a noticeable amount of effort and go from there. It would spare him from unnecessary soreness too. To begin, Senji moved on his knees to get closer to Vivienne's front. After doing this, Senji went to rest his left hand on Vivienne's right shoulder but not at full speed since that would panic her. If he did so, then his right hand moved to settle on the front of her left hip. Finally, Senji went to exert his weight in the forward direction. This, likely, caused Vivienne to end up in a familiar position. That being, on her back and at the bottom position of one of the various guards.

Their exact position depended on how the maid responded. Why hadn't he tried to pass? Senji wanted to take the conservative approach and not deduct his energy to fast tasks right out of the gate either unless Vivienne forced him to or due to it being a easy-going rehearsal.

Vivienne would admit, she hadn't really thought of much in the way of what would actually occur here today if she was being entirely truthful. Which she would be if she was asked, but Vivienne refrained from announcing this out loud as per what Charlotte would call a stiff upper lip. The maid was ready to roll more or less here but the slower and more friendly pace was........welcomed for her. She kept her eyes fixed squarely on Senji's face there, taking a brief moment to admire the reflection of her in them. To let Vivienne know she was adept in the ways of combat and then-some.

Sporting a slight smile to her face Vivienne would grapple up with the lad, she mirrored his grabs as best she could and gave a slight yelp of surprise as they got into the sort of full mount there. Regardless Vivienne made to turtle up there and remind herself of her location in the mount.

"Mhmph......skilled as before I see......" Vivienne muttered out, she'd move to try and get her legs around Senji's waist. Not tightly given their previous encounter, but enough to hopefully give him pause. Deciding to try and be social given her loneliness Vivienne would say "If you don't mind me asking, where'd you learn your craft monsieur? Your clearly no rank amateur even from your stance I can tell that......."

Senji, as Vivienne's legs settled around his waist, went to lean on his knees until he figured out what he wanted to select and do while his hands settled on either side of her stomach. Her comment about his skills made his ears perk up. Formally, he hadn't progressed above a Blue Belt. However, keeping his skills sharps and making sure they didn't degrade too much assisted him in pulling moves several notches above average. Training with the people here helped greatly alongside the provided gym facilities. On top of that, there was a mind forged in fire and a body built to eventually surpass steel.

Her inquiry still drew a raise of the left eyebrow.

"Hm!---I learned boxing first when I was a kid. Though, I fell out of it for a while after that. I...erm... didn't feel 'well' for four years, you would not like more of it, Vivienne."

By it, he meant more of the story in general. In his tone and in the way his eyes darted to her stomach instead of her face, Vivienne could probably tell he disliked getting into the specifics of that period. It'd do well for her not to press.

"Rupturing a fighter's stomach or liver isn't my first choice either, so I wanted something 'softer'. That's how I began Jiu Jitsu from what my memory tells me. I didn't stay a long time at many schools, never found one where I 'belonged', I think? You're not bad at all though."

Senji gave a half-hearted shrug at that before shooting a smile her way. He dropped it a short time afterwards, refocusing on the battle at hand. Got a little off the race track there! Hell, there weren't too many places where he was completely comfortable. Some for more reasons than others....


The youngest Takijima removed his right hand from its previous position of her stomach, pulling it back so that Senji could ghost the fingers over her thigh and settle on her left kneecap. After that, Senji went to push her knee outward so he could open up some space in between where his right ribs were and her thigh. When fully wrapped up in the guard, there'd been a dull ache. The pain was a steady presence. Still, it wasn't enough to stop him as long as he didn't pull any bumpkin stunts. The final action would be shifting his right leg up into that gap to fill the space and try to force her legs apart by overfilling the space between them. It also came with him pushing down on the inside of Vivienne's leg where it'd, more specifically, put pressure on her crossed ankles and allow him to pop them free like a cork.

If he was successful, Senji pulled the right leg forward so that he could pass her guard after trying to crawl the opposite leg past Vivenne's open guard so that he could scramble into a full mount on the Dutiful Defender's stomach provided the exchange went his way.

Vivienne would be honest, she hadn't much in the way of social contact in her life. She'd always kept a fair distance from her fellow servants and even more so from those she served save for lady Charlotte, it hadn't really bothered the dutiful defender all that much until recently as she was placed in a land so far from France. Still Vivienne wasn't one to sit and grouch about her lot, she'd roll up her sleeves and work hard at it instead. But she'd been curious about those who learned martial arts and how they might be different from her there, it seemed Senji would regale a partial tale about himself to her as they rolled on the mats there.

Still it didn't seem he was all that comfortable, Vivienne raised an eyebrow at this as he talked about rupturing a liver and learning boxing. When he finished there the maid would say "Oui I can understand such a perspective from you sir, its why I was mostly trained in such arts by those my masters would hire. I errrrr didn't have a school to belong to, privately tutored as I was." the maid felt a tad sheepish there, but his assurance of her being competent at least made her feel relieved. Plus seemed like they had something in common there.

The maid would let Senji get himself into the full mount position there, again Vivienne wasn't concerned about her wellbeing given their honourable agreement at least. The dutiful defender would say "Now then monsiuer how will you go from here? Expect my utmost to attempt a denial~" in an oddly more.......playful tone to herself......

"I'm looking forward to it.", Senji responded to her challenge in hushed jubilation. And her skills had credence. She had beat him, after all. Senji hadn't found himself hitting a stone wall in terms of growth. He did perceive himself as progressively getting better. The forks in the road hadn't crushed him as much as some more prideful fighters might have been. He hadn't a reason yet to get overly worried about things such as that. Sitting within the top position of a straddle, higher up past her stomach more specifically but below the actual chest. Senji furrowed his brows in thought again. There were several immediate options here. Chief among them being an Armbar, mounted Triangle, or an Arm Triangle.

Vivienne allotted him a short duration to decide more methodically as opposed to instinctually, at least. When backed into a corner, Vivienne got quite riled up similar to him. Though, there was a bit more unrestrained touch to when Senji did get desperate. She had enough self-discipline to have swivelled around to the back after taking him down in that tackle during the closing parts of his second showing. She'd snatched the opportunity before it'd gone away....

Senji planted his right arm to the left side of her head, aiming to scoop his arm underneath the back of her neck for the establishment of some control. Takijima went to grab ahold of her right wrist with his left's fingers and push it to run next to Vivienne's head. While doing so, Senji leaned down more to compress himself into a tighter position against the woman. That'd allow him more application of pressure when the finisher for the hold came. After that, Senji brought his head underneath her right arm so he could try to press it against her limb and head. Finally, Senji grasped both palms together to clinch the setup portion of the hold as a success if luck were to go his way; the only touch he added was to then settle into a progressive squeeze from both arms to pinch her arteries closed with the help of Vivienne's own body....