Timeframe? Adjusted. Mistakes? Fixed. (Martial Arts Club / Afternoon)

As everyone finished up their exercises, the odd muttering and speaking in between the mostly silent time. Then, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention, Tomomi smiled and spoke. "R-right, well, glad to see everyone's warmed up! Now, we'll get to what you're here for! First, we're going to need to determine... Well, determine how far ahead different people are in their knowledge of Martial Arts. After all, while it may be the first time for many, for others it might be a regular thing. So! We're going to spar! Specifically, we're going to do what's called Groundwork Randori. For those who don't know, Randori is the act of sparring in Judo, and the groundwork variety is where you will be fighting on your knees, and trying to get each other into a basic ground hold. For this activity, I want you all to get into pairs, and go across from one another. Um... Since we have an odd number, one person will have to wait at first. Then, from your positions, I'll have everyone shuffled around slightly so that everyone is with a different partner. We'll keep this up repeatedly until I say stop. As for the rules, the obvious one is that you'll be fighting on the ground. This means you'll be on your knees and shins, not standing on your feet. The objective will be to put your opponent off balance and get them into some form of ground hold, of which I don't mind which type you use so long as it's safe - If I see anyone doing something unsafe I will call off the sparring okay? We're all here to train together and have a good time, not maim our peers."

Coughing, Tomomi shook his head before continuing. "If you're about to be put in a ground hold, you can try to struggle out and get back into fighting position. If you get put into a proper ground hold, and can't manipulate your way out, tap on your opponent - arm or leg. This is a sign of submission. Reverse way, if someone taps you, let them go. So um... Let's so... Any other rules... Ah! No striking. Grappling, pulling, manipulating, all of that's fine. But I don't want to, well, um, see you punching your partner in the face to get them on their back, okay? With all that said... Begin!"

Once things began to calm down and move onto the sparring Eryka was surprised to find one of the members approaching her. Sadly, his smug smirk and the general attitude he approached her with angered her greatly. Who was this jumped up little child to approach Eryka with such undeserved smugness in his actions? Arrogance, smugness and an implied/undeserved sense of superiority were one of the many things that drove Eryka to murderous anger.

"Prove you can hold your own and I may consider it...however how do you even know there will be sparring?" The irritated edge to the amputee's voice made it clear she really did not like the implied swagger in how he assumed he had the right to ask her to be his sparring partner. She only sparred with those she knew could hold their own verses her; Eryka did not hold back and would rather not be forced to deal with the stress that was stupid people biting off more than they can handled.

When it got to the point where the leader of this club announce the next activity, sparring, and how it would be laid out Eryka was honestly a little disappointed. She fully agreed that appraising one's skills was a valid approach to take, after all every would have different skill levels, but how could you appraise everyone's skill set if you ruled out certain types of moves and stances? The amputee would raise her prosthetic limb up into the air and speak, eager to capture the attention of the club's leader.

"While I fully agree and support your idea of appraising everyone's skill level...how can you do that if you force us to kneel on the ground and prevent us from performing any direct strikes? Not all forms of martial arts involve grapples or holds such as myself. My martial arts experience is in kick boxing which contains no form of grappling. Your restrictions seem counter productive to appraise our skill sets...or am I wrong in my assumption that this is a mixed martial arts club? Do you intend to teach us one specific form?" If the club leader truly did plan to not budge from his restrictions then, sadly, Eryka would not be interested in this any further.

"However....I'll be the one to wait for a partner." Eryka's purpose in that was to appraise if anyone here was actually worth accepting as a sparring partner.

After the workout there was a moment of rest, which Isaac spent sitting with his hands resting on his knees. His relaxed pose belied the muscles coiled to strike in every inch of his body. He was watching the group as the time between passed, and saw the red-haired guy approach Eryka. Isaac watched silently as she cold-shouldered him. He felt a rebellious wave rise up inside him as he watched how easily she brushed off this guy who - quite honestly, looked like he'd already been tested in enough fights. He repressed the urge to get involved - right up until the woman asked to be the one left out, after voicing her concern about the sparing style.

At that point, Isaac, who had already stood and prepared himself for the sparing chimed in. "You've already seen me fight, Tomo. Why don't I take her on in her own style after we do some ground work?" He looked from Tomomi to the girl. "That work for you, Cadet? A little bit of both?" He asked, with a fearless, friendly smile.

After the exchange, while the girl sat out the first round of sparring, Isaac would give the groundwork a go. He wasn't fantastic when it came to the groundwork - striking was his specialty after all - but it was clear his skill level - and overall physical acuity - was higher than the average student enrolled in the club.

The term 'ice queen' was what came to Akuma's mind at Eryka's reply to his request to spar with her. He knew from the start sparring was possible because Tomomi had said from the beginning they would at some point before. Still, she made her point clear, but if they would be shuffling around, he wouldn't press it further. Sure, he was a womanizer at times (not admitted to himself) but he knew when to back off when told. Still he felt smug he could hold his own against her-- at least be a challenge. And he wasn't stupid either. Any girl in that shape and taking an interest in martial arts would be one you wouldn't want to upset in an ally-- she would turn the tables on the thug trying to hurt her.

As Tomomi explained the rules, it made sense to Akuma. One of the martial arts he did learn was Judo. "Its about leverage, the assertion of position, and stance. " he explained since the question of how to determine skill was asked. "Its more about working with your opponent's movements to try and overpower it. THink of it as a game of thumb-tag if you gotta...Or maybe tug of war is a better way to consider it. Still, technique does come into play to try and lock down your enemy like that, let alone to get them on the ground. " he said in a rather odd analogy of the situation.

He soon would pair off with them, using his own strength and sense of awareness to meet his enemy's attemps on him. Once he had em on the ground, binding them up by isolating a limb would be pretty simple. Still... he was more worried of going too far like he had with Tomomi. In that rare instance, he held back so he wouldn't hurt anyone. He didn't want a repeat from what happened before.

His overall lack of physical endurance was showing by the end of the warm ups, something that proved quite irritating. What was also irritating was just listening to the girl, Eryka, that was her name, as she first spoke with the big guy, Akuma. As much as some good drama could make for entertainment, something about her attitude just rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe because he'd been on the receiving end of it himself?

For the time he'd simply shut that out, focusing instead on what Tomomi was saying. Grappling, pulling, no strikes. Right. No mention of things like shots below belt, or going for the eyes, but he just assumed that was the common expectation.  It was funny, watching some feelow cadets at work, one of the, Isaac, flaunting the status of both himself and Eryka around like it was some shiny badge to show off. Well, it was a shiny badge, Gozai wouldn't deny that, but did the other really crave attention so much that he'd just advertise it to anyone who'd lend half an ear? He silently shook his head to himself. Fools. Fools the lot of them. "And to think these are the kinds of people I'll be out hunting terrorists and demons with." Not exactly an encouraging thought.

Still, he remained silent, doing the described groundwork as instructed. And it was here where both his lack of physical strength and physical endurance came to show. On average he managed to bring down maybe one out of four or five matches, the rest finding him held to the mat. Indeed, it wasn't long before he found more of his attention and mental fortitude devoted to the thought of NOT strangling the latest member who'd managed to floor him.

Why was he here again?

Tomomi had hoped that it would progress smoothly. He wasn't a natural leader after all, so, having to reorganise or change plans last minute would be difficult to say the least. But that hope was crushed as Eryka declared her discontent with the sparring. Isaac's attempt to help was appreciated, and while he appreciated the sentiment of Akuma's attempt it was... Heavy handed. Perhaps that was just the sort of person Akuma was. Then, he let out a light sigh, walking over to Eryka as he spoke. "You can sit out of the first round, that's fine. While that happens, mind if we have a little chat? Then you can decide what you want to do for the rest of the club time alright?"

His voice was soft, a light smile on his face as he signalled for everyone to get into sparring situations, before walking and standing in front of Eryka, speaking up. "I can understand, um, being unhappy about it not being a form you're used to, and I'd like to apologise that it's not really to your liking so far. As for your specific concerns..."

Tomomi rubbed at the back of his neck, pausing for a moment and brushing his hair out of the way, before continuing, the fighting and sparring going on behind him. "Yes, this is a mixed martial arts club. The reason I started with grappling today is because there are a lot more members than before, and we as a club are currently going through a new leadership change. Out of striking, mixed or grappling, the safest to start with is grappling, as both striking and mixed, if people aren't trained enough yet, can cause serious harm, while grappling is... Well... A lot more restricted in what you can do to cause direct harm, especially on a ground work level. As for checking skill, I don't quite mean skill in grappling itself... Um... S-specifically, I'm not trying to look at who wins and loses in this sparring activity, because as you say it wouldn't be fair. Instead I want to look for the little things. Posture, and ability to admit when they've won or lost, form, and things like that. Then in future sessions, I can help those that aren't quite so good with that to learn how to get better posture and form while allowing those that have that covered to progress into their own development route. Because it's mixed martial arts, everyone is expecting different things, and will want to learn different things. And I want to be able to help people, um, you know, do that. But I can't without getting a base understanding of where people are in simple things like pose and form. Also the basics of grappling, with balance, form, and movement, will allow for an easier transition into striking than a transition from striking will to grappling... T-that said, um..."

Tomomi pointed to Isaac, before speaking. "I-if the two of you would like to spend the rest of the session today sparring in striking, that's fine so long as you are okay with me paying more attention to it than I would normally for safety and analysis reasons to make sure I can help teach you both better? P-plus, um, if you'd like to talk more about how the club might be right or not right for you after the club ends, i-if you have time, I'd be happy to stay behind before I pack everything away to let you know more? I-it's up to you though, s-since I don't want you feeling like you wasted time."

As he spoke, Tomomi's voice got more quiet, the boy's naturally timid personality beginning to arise despite his attempts to supress it for the sake of running the club. There, Tomomi watched as people continued their sparring, walking back to the other end of the mat, and watching, calling for shifts in partners at different intervals. Then, after about 20 minutes of this, the boy shouted "Stop!", gesturing for everyone to face him once more.

"O-okay guys! That almost wraps us up for today! Before we're finished, I want to do some last stretches to allow your muscles to cool down and relax! T-then if you could, try to avoid exercise for one day so that your muscles can rest, then grow stronger! But um, if that's not possible, I understand! Life and stuff!" At this Tomomi smiled, before running the class through some stretches. As they finished, Tomomi then gave a final "Thank you!", before allowing everyone to leave at their leisure, Tomomi glancing over everyone with a smile, eyes particularly focusing on one brown haired boy, Eryka, Isaac, Akuma, and Gozai, before landing on Eryka again as though waiting to see what answer she came to.

"I admire your confidence in challenging me Issac but I will have to decline; at least until I've seen you in action. I want to see your skills first so I can determine whether fighting me is safe or not." Eryka hated comprising her beliefs especially when it came to fighting. She did not believe in holding back but neither did she want to cause people serious injuries hence why she had the personal rule of making sure others would be able to look after themselves if they fought her.

Eryka stepped away from the group, standing off to the side as to avoid getting in their way. Other people stumbling into the path of martial art students, even beginners, during their training was a wonderful way for people to get hurt. Eryka had next to no desire of being responsible for that; it was far too big of a pain for her to deal with. When the club leader walked over Eryka turned her head towards him, staring intensely as she listened with intensity to each and every single world he said. His reasoning was.....more valid than she initially assumed.

"I see....your reasoning is sound. At first I thought you were a child playing at this, refusing to allow us to display our full range of experience out of some silly notion of protecting us but that doesn't seem to be the case. If it's the little things you're looking for then I will demonstrate them in full detail." Eryka's eyes, and head, moved to follow Tomomi's finger as he point at Isaac but such a thing would not be necessary. However Eryka felt, whatever she believed and no matter what perspective she held this was still Tomomi's club.

"I will play along..once everyone else is wrapped up." Indeed the moment the first round of grappling was over Eryka stepped forward and marched towards Isaac eyes boring through him on account of her expression's intensity.

"Kneel." It was a simple command Eryka gave, ordering Isaac to kneel as Eryka did the same. The moment Isaac was on the floor opposite Eryka she would charge. She would collide with Isaac at full force, crashing her body into him and wrapping her left arm around Isaac's right arm. Instead of focusing on her arm muscles she used those of her torso, directing her efforts into pushing Isaac off balance while simultaneously attempting to lock his arms in place.

No matter how hard Isaac tried or what tricks he pulled Eryka would not surrender. This back and forth between the two of them would continue on and on with neither side gaining any real advantage over the other. It was only when the club head spoke up that Eryka would stop, immediately releasing Isaac and standing up. Eryka engaged in the cool down stretches, releasing the tension in her muscle until the session was officially over at which point she would start to leave.

Isaac did well on the ground work. He paced himself, wasn't afraid to tap out if his opponent had advantage, and knew his stances and techniques. It wasn't his area of expertise, but he was above average.

When it can time to fight Eryka, Isaac quickly noticed she was prioritizing her left arm. As she came in, he would try to turn her momentum against her. The first time he touched the right arm, he felt a shock run through his whole body, sapping his strength. Before he knew it, the world as spinning. What was this? Some cadet ability? Was this woman cheating to show of or something. At that point the sudden exhaustion caused the tables to turn drastically in her favor. Struggling against the hold, Isaac grappled formidably, but as he touched the right arm a second time, the world faded to black.

[Isaac has been reduced to 0 hit points. Someone get the medic!]

The sparring was going well, and Eryka had taken Tomomi's words well from the looks of it, now finally willing to participate not only in the club, but even the groundwork sparring. Then, as Isaac and Eryka began to partner up for a spar, out of the corner of his eye Tomomi watched the limp form of Isaac. Quickly, almost out of pure instinct, the boy put his fingers to his lips and let out a loud whistle, calling for all sparring to end at once, running over to Isaac and Eryka.

Then, gently pulling Isaac away from Eryka, Tomomi spoke, lifting the larger boy onto one shoulder. "S-sorry everyone, but, I'm going to have to end the session early! E-Eryka, don't worry, you're not in trouble or anything, and it's not your fault, things happen. I-I'm going to go take Isaac to the nurses office, so, if everyone could please exit the room in an orderly manner! And um, Eryka, if you still want to have that chat with me, you're um, more than welcome? A-anyways, um, thank you everyone for coming!"

Not wishing to waste any more time, Tomomi left the hall with Isaac on his shoulder, bare foot walking down the halls of the Academy to get to the nurses office, where carefully Tomomi knocked on the door. "U-um, I've got someone that's unconscious, and w-would like to request um, h-h-help please!" the boy called, trying hard to keep the panic out of his voice.

To say Eryka was confused was an understatement. She had just been grappling with Isaac, employing the perfectly ordinary amount of strength she had always used in the past but then he suddenly passed out collapsing before her. That was obviously something of great concern to Eryka who jumped to her feet and rose her voice seeking to get the attention of the club's leader.

"Alert the nurse, immediately. Isaac has lost consciousness." Eryka had.....no idea what to do. She genuinely knew next to nothing about first aid or medical treatment. Should she leave him here? Should she carry him to the nurse? Should she lie him on his back? Hmmm....She stepped away from Isaac suddenly worried about herself. This was not something she had intentionally done yet still, the blame lay at her feet.

Despite not actually feeling even the slightest lick of guilt, Eryka knew she was involved in this incident and most likely going to be viewed with a great deal of suspicion because of that. As such, she decided the responsible thing to do would be to accompany Tomomi to the nurse's office and take responsibility. Eryka did exactly that, quiet and silent as she followed after Tomomi wondering what was going to happen. She was genuinely concerned that, somehow, she had unintentionally caused this.

Akuma had done his exercises and had sparred with only two of the others as he soon saw the woman take on Isaac from all his tough talk. He was curious as he sat himself down against the wall to watch things unfold. His money was on Eryka but he had no clue how serious she would be.

... Turns out, very, as she soon knocked the stuffing out of the kid. And Akuma felt bad for hitting too hard on Tomomi before. That was a whole new level of brutal. "The hell... and I thought I had restraint problems..." Akuma commented as he saw Isaac go down like a sack of bricks.

As she asked someone to find a nurse to help, Akuma could see the lack of compassion in Eryka's eyes. The term Ice Queen couldn't have fit better for her, as he just felt that chill that came off of her. He wasn't afraid, but it was clear it wasn't something he could forget easily. This chick was brutal...

Shaking off the moment, Akuma got up to accompany Isaac to the nurses office too. If he didn't stop to care what happened then, he really would feel like trash. Jumping up to full height he dashed for the door to keep up with them.

When things would calm down, Akuma would leave slowly at his own accord-- but not before he gave a thankful bow to Tomomi and wished Isaaic a speedy recovery when help arrived.

End.

The whistle caught him by surprise. What was the meaning of it? His gaze followed the sound to it's source, Tomomi, and past him, to the two cadets... The sight had him just about ready to burst out laughing. He wasn't sure which was funnier, really, the would-be cadet Isaac, unconscious on the floor, or how Eryka seemed like she was the one to blame for it.

It had a certain delicious comedy to it, though it would also make him a lot less confident of the nights to come. "She's crazy. What else could it be?" Again, thoughts he kept to himself.

Tomomi was going to take the wanna-be cadet to the nurse to get patched up. This seemed like a good thing, until Eryka apparently decided to tag along. So much for that plan ten. He couldn't risk being around those two at the same time, no, he needed a different approach.

So he'd wait, first for Tomomi and the two cadets to leave, and then still for the  crowd to thin out some. Then he would go to his bag, pull out a pencil case, and a piece of scrap paper. He'd scribble some text onto said piece of paper, before walking over to Tomomi's bag, and slipping the note around one of the strap, trying to make it as visible as possible.

That done, he'd leave, swiftly. Should Tomomi find the note, He'd find the following written on it:

"I'll be at the library if you need someone to talk to. -Gozai"

[Gozai EXIT]