Back to Basics (for Kaz)

Talia was a little discouraged after her last loss. It seemed like she just wasn't tough enough to take the hits she had to in Tension just to get by. Wearing a pink t-shirt and purple shorts, she hit the gym. Her usual regiment of cardio and light lifting was replaced by power(ish) lifting. Knowing she had to get stronger, the girl was working out muscles she didn't know she had.

But she also knew it would take more than that. She had to give herself more depth in her talents. Just flying around has probably done more harm than good to her. For now, though, she wasn't sure how to afford a trainer on her budget.

It seemed as if there wasn't anyone else in the gym when Kido walked in with his usual deadpan expression. The boy was in usual fighting/workout attire, wearing a black sleeveless shirts and a black martial arts shorts, along with his worn out low sneakers. The first thing he'd do was placing his bag near the punching bag which located in the corner. At the time being he didn't notice that someone else was around since he expected that no one would be, not at this hour anyways.

Kido was just starting to do some half-assed stretching when he noticed Talia on the other side, lifting some weights. The boy was reminded with their last encounter on the rooftop and decided to pretend that he didn't see her. He'd continue what he's doing silently, hoping that she wouldn't notice.

"One more..." Talia muttered to herself intensely. She pushed on her quads to lift the squat bar up as high as she could. "Ten..." she said out loud before taking a step forward to lower the squat bar to the supports. With a sigh of relief, Talia lifted up her right foot behind her and grabbed it with the opposite hand to stretch out her leg. She repeated it for the other leg and turned around. That was when she saw someone else in the gym. She must have tuned out all the noise in her head. She recognized the man instantly as Kido. After stretching a bit more, she walked over to him and watched as he went to town on the punching bag.

"Hey Kido, how are you today?" she asked him. It was odd with no one else in the gym, but it did provide a measure of privacy. "Do you ever come here when there are other people? I don't think I've ever seen you here." Talia then smiled and watched his technique in his moves. "That's quite a one-two you have."

Right after he finished his "stretching", Kido thought that he'd start with a couple of punch training first. As he was doing so, he thought he heard footsteps behind him, but decided to ignore them.

And here we go... he thought to himself.

"Huh?" Kido would pretend to be slightly surprised as Talia came and greeted him before his expression returned to "normal". "Ah, not bad, I guess. You?" Hearing her words after that made him averted his gaze from the girl. "Yeah, I... don't really like when it's crowded." He would hear the girl commenting on his moves and glanced at her for a second.

"It's nothing," he'd said. "Punches are not my strong point."

Talia leaned on the nearby support column as Kido modestly responded to her. "Yea...your kicks are your strong point. I learned that the hard way," she said with a forced smile. Even now, her abdomen was still sore. She would watch him beat at the punching bag for quite some time before talking again. "Say..." she began but stopped. It felt so odd to ask him for something. They were acquaintances for sure; but were they anymore than that? She thought of him as a friend at this point. At the very least he was a decent guy. If he didn't think the same, the question would be a little awkward.

"You...wouldn't mind giving me a few pointers on that, would you?" Talia asked Kido. "You know...on how to kick..."

Kido silently gazed away as she mentioned about his kick to her from their previous match, as if he's feeling bad towards her about it. It's rare for someone to still act nice and friendly towards a person who beat her like that, at least that's what he thought. Most people in the streets were hostile, so he never really feel anything about hurting them. Hearing Talia's question afterwards made him stopped all of a sudden and stared at her with a rather cold expression.

Is she serious...? he thought to himself. It wasn't a question that he'd expect from anyone, let alone a pro fighter.

"Why me?" he'd ask with a rather cautious tone as he averted his gaze from her. "There are a lot of better people than me."

The girl couldn't help but feel a little like she had a mistake when Kido stared coldly at her. Nevertheless, she knew she'd need help to not get beaten up in the future. "Why you?" She asked right back. "You're very modest, you know?," Talia said with a smile. "You're a very talented martial artist. You're probably also the only one I know who is nice enough to actually help me." She got up from leaning on the column. It was odd asking an ex-opponent for help with training. Even if he didn't think much of himself, he had seen Talia in action. He knew what she lacked, or at least that she hadn't even tried to punch or kick him during the match.

"I really need the help," Talia oddly admitted to him. She had never intended to come off needy, not in the least. After saying that last sentence, she thought it may have been too desperate, and she didn't want Kido to pity her. Without another word, she turned around to walk back to her weight machine.

Hearing Talia's reply made the boy stared at her with his blank expression for what seemed like a half minute. He felt empty hearing her praises, not knowing if that was genuine or not. But she needed his help? Need? It's such a strange thing to hear someone actually said the word to him. No one ever said those words before. As she began to turned around and walk away, Kido let out a sigh.

"Aa...I..." he'd began to speak while gazing away from her back. "...never taught people before. It might not helped you much. If you're fine with that..."

Talia turned around immediately when Kido answered. It was a sort of a half-answer, but it worked. She walked back over to him. "It's fine...we can work something out." In truth, Talia was just glad that he was agreeing to train her. She needed all the help she could get. "I...umm..." Talia began but trailed off. "Thank you." It was a casually stated thank you. Not one between colleagues, but sounding like one between friends.

Trying to break the silence, she immediately started them on her training. There was no time to waste, she had a match next week and she wanted to be ready for it. "Your power comes from your form, right?" Talia asked as she proceeded to stand beside him, copying his stance.

Kido didn't look at Talia as she thanked him, trying to hide whatever he felt at the moment. It wasn't happiness or anything, but he felt some sort of awkward relief nevertheless. As she began to took a stance, the boy would look at her silently for a while.

"Well, the form does help, but the important thing is to use your whole body weight at the moment of impact," he'd began to explain. "It's like... uhh..."

Kido paused for a moment as he's thinking about how to explain it properly. He let out a sigh afterwards before looking at the girl with his blank expression.

"Whatever, just watch me," he'd said afterwards. "It's better to show an example than just describing it."

With that he'd turned at the punching bag. Kido took a step forward before raising his right leg upwards. He'd twist his hip as he lowered his right arm to his right side, and hit the punching bag with his right foot with a decent power. The punching bag flew a bit at the impact of the kick before swinging back and forth for a little while.

"Try it," he'd say at Talia dryly.