Nihoooon- GO!

Mamouru smiled at her words. He stopped and looked at Cassie, turning his body and facing her. "They flew. Their flight arrived just a little bit ago. I brought them here. I contacted your father and made arrangements to have them flown in." He shifted his eyes down to look at her lips. "You needed to see them, it was obvious." His eyes lifted back up and looked her in the eyes. "And we both know you couldn't go back. This was the best way, the only way." He said as her looked at her firmly. He was trying to keep his voice low as well, but at the same time they still needed to have this conversation while they were alone.

Cassie wrinkled her brow while she thought.

"You... did?" She said. "Wow."

She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot and fidgeted with a bok choy. What Mamouru had done, the scope of it, defied comprehension. He probably didn't even know what he'd done, at least not all of it. Maybe it was an obvious thing to do, anyone who knew Cassie for long enough knew what her family meant to her, but Mamouru was one of the reasons why she'd been in such dire need of her family in the first place. If anyone could straighten her out, it was them, but now Mamouru was right in the middle of it.

"Thanks." She said quietly, and began chopping vegetables. She couldn't say anything else there. She didn't want her parents to hear too much until she was ready to tell them.

Mamouru let out a sigh when Cassie was finished. He smiled at her and turned to begin working on the fish. "Of course, Cassie-san." He said as he put on a pot to boil some water. "Really, it was an honor for me." He said sincerely.

Mamouru then looked at the fish. "So..." He said, looking at her chopping the bok choi. "What... exactly are we working towards, here?" He smiled. "Or are we just going to cook until we're satisfied we've made enough?"

Knife in hand, Cassie looked blankly at Mamouru, and then blinked at the pile of random vegetables in front of her.

She shrugged and made a noise that vaguely translated to "I dunno."



"So how do you know Cassie?" Jacob asked. "Well, okay, stupid question, but really. How did Cassie end up rooming with the champ?"

He looked around at the very open room and the minimal equipment and grinned. He immediately felt at home. He found a pair of dumbbells and with very clean technique and perfect posture hefted them up to his shoulders. He slowly squatted them once, and then sprung back up and pressed the weights over his head.

"Hey." He said. "Ten bucks says I can squat you." He grinned. "Or I guess it's ten Yen, eh?"

"She's mutual friends with my Imouto-chan." She said as if Jacob wouldn't know who she was talking about if she said her name. "When Taylor got married, she moved down to Kyoto. Cassie-sa was out a roommate and my girlfriend left me a while back, so... I was feeling a little lonely. It was a win-win, really!" She said with a bright smile, trying to to let the fact that the girl she had wanted to be with for the rest of her life just up and left without much word otherwise. It was something she wasn't going to get over quickly but it was also something she wanted to keep to herself. She certainly didn't need company to see it affecting her.

"She's a great workout partner, anyway." She added, her features bemused by Jacob's energy. "You'd owe me a lot more than ten yen, that's for sure!" She said and then stepped backwards. "I think you just want to get your hands on the champ." Akashi said slyly and backed up towards some mats and squatted down.

"Are you calling me fat?" She said with a wide grin. "Weight is weight, I'm just woman shaped." She said. "Why don't you see what you can manage when I don't just let you try it." She said as she beckoned him forward. "I'm in my regular clothes so I even have a little bit of a handicap."

Jacob's attention was immediately piqued at the mention of Taylor, but he didn't show it. He didn't want to be rude to Akashi.

"It must be fun for her to see if she can tap you out before you squish her like a bug." He grinned, and set the weights back down. He cracked his neck and stretched his back. As for just wanting to get his hands on Akashi... "No comment."

"Now I would never call you fat. Fat is fat and muscle is muscle, and one without the other is no good, right?"

He held his hands up in front of him and into Akashi, clapping on a collar and elbow before quickly seizing her arm, turning into her and dropping to his knees to fling her over his shoulder, a fast drop seoi nage. It just happened to be his best throw.

Akashi playfully narrowed her eyes at Jacob's words. "I don't just squish people, you know." She said and raised her eyebrow coyly. She patted her stomach. "That's right!" Anyone who thought that Akashi was fat never busted their hand trying to punch her in the stomach.

Akashi readied herself as she saw Jacob come at her. With all his talk, she was really eager to see what he was made of. When he grabbed her by the collar and felt the pull, Akashi wanted to grab him but his drop caused her to flop over. She'd known the feeling quite well but in a 'spar' she wouldn't loose a sumo match. She hit the mats with a thud and rolled and quickly bounced to her feet, pushing herself towards Jacob and get her hands around his waist so she could slide his hand to his back and toss him to the ground with a skuinage.

Jacob was easily hefted off the ground by the powerful sumo. He hit his breakfall upon landing with a thud, no doubt audible to the company downstairs. He quickly pivoted to wrap his legs around Akashi's midsection and pushed him self up on one hand while he wrapped his other arm around Akashi's neck, behind her head.

"Do they use much judo in sumo?" He asked, while he worked to back his hips up to a position where he could pop up to his feet if he wanted. He wasn't in a hurry to get up quite yet. "Maybe I could go for a sumo career."

Akashi stared down at Jacob as he held onto her. His question intrigued her and she nodded eagerly as she slid her arms under Jacob to she had a hold on his back. "Yes!" She chirped. "There's a lot of sumo moves that are indistinguishable from Judo moves even by name." She then grinned at him. "Though, sumo matches don't quite last as long as Judo matches."

She frowned. "My Onii-chan suggested that I should take up Judo since I couldn't compete in Sumo..." She sighed, suddenly gripping Jacob tightly. "But Sumo is my life! I had to do that or nothing at all!" Her cheeks blushed. "Well... until wrestling... Now I am not even sure if I would go back to Sumo if I was suddenly able to..."

"Oh, come on, you can do whatever you want." Jacob said reassuringly. "Why can't you go back to sumo? And what's an 'o-nee chan'?"

Without waiting for an answer, Jacob suddenly exploded out from under Akashi, pulling his legs out and kicking out to the side so that he was perpendicular to Akashi. He shoved her onto her back and pinned her far arm to the floor with one hand, while he kept his head and chest tucked tightly against Akashi's chest, or at least that's what he intended. Akashi's considerable assets changed the angle somewhat.

"Well, this is a little awkward." He grinned.