Demonstrations [Kazumi]

Today Tammy didn't have to teach any classes at this time of the day, so she took her time to find an unoccupied corner of the gymnasium where she could practice her martial arts forms as she learned them from her mother. She was dressed in some sort of high Chinese fashion however; consisting of a red qipao with a high slit. Why she was wearing this, well, she just felt like it today, and also she wanted to see how quickly she could move wearing a flashy outfit such as this. She had moved over a bunch of thin planks of wood which she rested in between a pair of wooden horses she had brought out to see how high she could bring her legs up. Raising her right leg as high as she could with the slit (it was possible for observers to see her red underwear, which might have been intentional) she brought it crashing down on the thin plank which broke it with a loud thud, a sound loud enough for anyone nearby to have heard.

Kazumi had a free period at this time, which she had decided to make use of by getting a bit of practice in. She had started working through the paperwork to put together a martial arts club, and she wanted to be in top form when she started with that. If she was going to lead the club, after all, she had to be the example that everyone else aspired to.

To her surprise, though, she wasn't the only one in the gym. There weren't any classes at this time, but she hadn't thought there would be enough other people with free time at the moment for there to be others in here at the time. But here they were, several people scattered about and doing their own thing. Kazumi started looking around for an unoccupied corner she could practice in, only to instead find an older woman doing her own martial arts training. It took a moment for Kazumi to recognize the woman in the Chinese dress as her math teacher, Tammy Mu. Huh. She supposed that it shouldn't have surprised her - Kazumi could tell that Mu-sensei was a very active person (it was in the legs, which Kazumi had found herself staring at more than once), so this wasn't exactly unexpected.

Well, maybe doing it in a qipao with a slit so high that Kazumi could see her underwear when she brought her legs up high enough was.

"You have good form, Mu-sensei," Kazumi said, walking to the edge of the math teacher's 'training area' and bowing. "I had you figured for a martial artist, but I didn't expect to actually see it."

After Tammy destroyed the thin wooden plank with some manner of axe kick, she was approached by one of her third year students, a black-haired beauty by the name of Kazumi Hoshino. Tammy could tell that she was high-spirited due to her involvement with martial arts, but she wasn't sure if the reverse held true. Guess she would find out today. Kazumi complemented the teacher on her form and said that she figured her for a martial artist but didn't expect to see it. Bowing in response to Kazumi's own gesture, Tammy smiled. "Thank you, Miss Hoshino. I can't say it's a surprise to see a strapping young woman like yourself here," she said. "I suppose you are also here to get some practice in? Usually when I train I am in more appropriate attire, but sometimes I decide to test my limits by wearing fancy clothes, like in the movies, you know? Those hot kung fu ladies in the real nice dresses flipping around and kicking ass."

Tammy had carefully glossed over the fact Kazumi might have seen her undewear. In a way, she wondered if the student would bring it up. "But anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you outside of the classroom. Martial arts serves as a way to ground me when math manages even to stress me out, haha!"

"I am," Kazumi responded. "I have free time now, and I want to keep myself in top form." She stretched her arms behind her back, surprised and a little amused at Mu-sensei's explanation for her unusual training attire. Like in the movies, huh? Well, she'd certainly seen plenty of that from Linhua's collection. She hadn't expected Mu-sensei to be the type to want to show off like that, though. She wondered if she should mention that...side-effect of the teacher's dress, or if she should keep it as her own little secret. Whatever the case, she'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the view.

"Likewise, to you," Kazumi said to the teacher's 'introduction.' "Martial arts is my passion, even more so than dance. I've been doing it since before I could appreciate it. I'm sure our styles are different, but if it pleases you, I wouldn't mind training with you for a bit."

Kazumi responded by saying she did have free time at the moment and opted to keep herself in top form. Tammy could respect that. It was still fairly early in the morning for her anyways. Up bright and early to train was always a display of certain discipline that her mother would try to instill in her. Besides, Tammy didn't have any morning classes to teach today. So she could get away with it. In any case, she stood in attention as Kazumi explained that martial arts was her passion, more so than dance. Ah, so it appeared that Kazumi was at the academy to improve her dancing, but she preferred martial arts. In a way, martial arts could be seen as a form of dancing. That's how Tammy had to win in her Wushu competitions after all. She was usually a winner of the non-weapon categories, but weaker with the weapons such as dao and polearms.

"Well, I'm impressed. In a way, I suppose martial arts can be considered a form of dance. Anyway, I certainly wouldn't mind training with you as well, if you feel like I can be a worthy partner for you."

Kazumi nodded. "They are quite similar. I started dance because it required a similar...grace. Balance, coordination, flexibility, that sort of thing. And restraint, which I'm not as good at." She gave an awkward laugh. "At any rate, don't worry. There's no such thing as an unworthy training partner. I've learned plenty from beginners as well as my instructors."

As she started stretching to warm herself, Kazumi looked over the equipment that Mu-sensei had set up. A number of thin planks for breaking had been set out, with the remains of one still sitting on the ground between a pair of wooden horses. Yeah, she'd seen that one, and it had been a hell of a show. More so for what else Kazumi had seen than the act itself. "Do you mind if I try one of those?" Kazumi asked.

"Well, in fairness, I don't think I'd consider myself a beginner," Tammy remarked softly. In any case, she noticed that Kazumi had an interest in the thin planks she had brought along in order to practice her axe kicks. In fact the student had asked if she could try to use one of them. Tammy nodded. "Sure, you can try one. I'll put it here and you can adjust it yourself to your needs or wants" Tammy said as she grabbed one of her fresh planks and placed it directly in between the wooden horses, in the center - such that it wasn't too high and it wasn't too low. She stood nearby but gave Kazumi some space so she could do additional warm up or proceed to try using it immediately.

"Take your time, and if you need another plank when you're done, just let me know." Tammy said, smiling.

"Nor would I think you are," Kazumi said. "I know very few beginners who can kick as high as you did earlier." She continued her warm-up routine as Mu-sensei set up a board, putting it in the center of the wooden horses. Not as high as what she'd just done, but not so low as to imply a lack of confidence in Kazumi either. That would be fine.

Once Kazumi was done warming up, she approached the wooden horses, standing at just enough distance that she couldn't actually reach the board with a kick. "I'm sure I will. Boards like these always feel like paper," she commented. It was for that reason that she'd taken to using re-breakable boards: plastic boards with a breaking point down the middle where they would break, then could be re-attached to be used again. "Okay, here goes." Kazumi settled into a guard, then pulled her forward leg back, stepped into the kick and brought her kicking leg well over the board, then brought it smashing down. The plank broke effortlessly under her, falling to the ground in two pieces.

"Yeah, after a while you think they were actually made of paper," Tammy joked after Kazumi's comment about how the boards always felt like paper when kicking them down. It seemed that Tammy had judged Kazumi's skill fairly enough, since she didn't move the board at all - a competent martial artist could flex their legs high enough to reach that plank, so Kazumi had a fair amount of experience under her belt. Quite impressive given her age. Tammy smiled in approval. The student took a moment to position herself and settled into a guard stance, before pulling a leg back to step into the kick, raising her kicking leg well over the board and brought it down on the plank, cleanly smashing it into two pieces - a much more elegant display of strength than the pile of crushed wood Tammy made earlier.

"Hey, nice one," Tammy smiled, complimenting Kazumi casually. "It seems you have better control over your strength than me," she exclaimed, pointing the differences in the piles of wood. Kazumi had made two clean pieces while Tammy had created a huge mess instead, the cracks where the board broke were far more jagged compared to what Kazumi did to the plank. "It seems I could learn a thing or two from you!"

"Thank you," Kazumi said. "I usually train with re-breakable boards, so I've learned to be as accurate as I can with breaks." That was both the good and bad thing about the plastic boards. No matter how strong a technique was, if it didn't hit dead center, the board would not break. "I would be happy to teach you a few things, if you like. I've been working with this for awhile. Along with everything else." She said this with a thin smile. Mu-sensei, at least, was probably different, most people balked at the sheer amount of work Kazumi did. After all, she was still a student as well as a martial artist.

She approached the wooden horses and gathered up the wood - both the two pieces Kazumi had made and the fragmented chunks that Mu-sensei had. She examined the latter, noting where and how the board had broken. "It's not as much a matter of strength as accuracy. You can put all your strength into a break into a break, but if it's focused and precise enough, you'll still have a clean break."

Tammy nodded and listened intently as Kazumi explained herself, showing the two piles of pieces off in some form of mental comparison. Then, as Kazumi explained that if it was focused and precise enough, a clean break was still possible, it dawned upon Tammy. "Oh. I see now. I wasn't taking care of placing the strength of my kick in the right place. You must have been able to strike it down at the center point of the board, but I wasn't paying any attention to that. The difference is pretty drastic," Tammy said. She wasn't going to make excuses for that - she was trained more in performance martial arts than practical martial arts though she knew both. Thus her display of strength was more often than not chaotic, she only presented accurate strikes when she put her mind to it.

"I probably ought to follow your practice regime more instead," Tammy grinned. "When I was young, my mother trained me to win Wushu performance competitions. As you might imagine, a lot of what you learn in performance martial arts isn't exactly practical for self-defense, unless you want to get laughed at" Tammy chuckled.

"If I may be blunt, it looks like what you were doing was more for show than for technique," Kazumi said. It wasn't a bad kick, in the practical sense. After all, if it was used for self-defense, it would still mess a person up. But for martial arts, particularly where Kazumi came from, it was sloppy and chaotic. That was what Kazumi gathered from the pulverized board, at least. The form, at least, was still impressive, right up until the moment of execution.

Kazumi nodded in understanding as Mu-sensei explained. "Ah, that would do it," she said. "My knowledge of Wushu is rather limited, but competition martial arts tends to be very different from even your usual dojo. I've been to a few tournaments myself, and I'm always judged on my technique, but I've seen a few performance teams that...well, let's just say they looked impressive, but never won. Apparently they were quite good in actual performance competitions, though."

She set the boards aside, then gestured for Mu-sensei to grab another one. "What I was taught to do to practice breaking is to envision where I want my technique to go, and try to hit the exact same spot each time. I used to do that by kicking a wall, but my parents got upset because I was putting marks in it." She chuckled.

Tammy nodded. "Competition is divided into some categories. There are ones which will judge you on your actual technique and such, down to cleanliness and purity of form," she said. "The ones which I was trained to excel in were performance ones, sometimes you'd have to do some performances with a weapon such as a sword or a polearm. I never won those, I was much better with the barehanded forms." Tammy nodded, though she seemed a bit disappointed that she didn't have the same kind of training Kazumi did. Tammy went off to grab another board upon Kazumi's request when the student explained how she would do her training, something about envisioning where she wanted to land her technique and then attempting to reach it each time. Sort of like rote training in archery, where you always want to aim for the bullseye or at the very least, aim close for the bullseye.

Tammy laughed when Kazumi pointed out she would practice on her wall, but it would annoy her parents due to ruining the wall over time. She was certainly strong. Tammy simply held the board she got and waited for what Kazumi wanted to do with it.

"Interesting. I'm actually better with weapon kata," Kazumi said. "Comes with being from an Okinawan dojo, I suppose. Or maybe it's personal interest." Okay, she wasn't going to lie, she thoroughly enjoyed working with weapons, and that prospect was one of the reasons she had managed to get on task and stop messing around during classes. "I haven't worked with my bo in awhile, maybe I should." That assumed that she would even be allowed to. That was one of those things she'd mentioned with the forms for the martial arts club, and she wasn't sure how it would go over yet. Still, if her old school could have a kendo club, she was probably fine.

"Hold that one like this," Kazumi said, demonstrating by getting down into a forward stance and miming holding the board vertically, braced with the palms of her hands. "It's easier to practice with something more basic than an axe kick. I'm going to do a side kick. It's clear that you've got a lot of power in your techniques so I don't have to explain anything like aiming to go through and hit you in the chest, but you want to aim for the center of the board and hit it with just your heel." She waited for Mu-sensei to get ready, then distanced herself so that she would (hopefully) be far enough away to not actually hit her. Then, she pivoted forward on her front foot and drove the heel of her rear foot into the board in a side kick.

Tammy nodded in understanding as Kazumi explained she actually did better with weapons. It was probably a mixture of both points of interest, though. It seemed that Kazumi did pretty good with the 'bo' which was a long pole of sorts, blunted on both ends. Basically a really long stick. Tammy used one herself but never in a combat situation, only for performance. Kazumi demonstrated to Tammy how she should hold the board, and the maths professor followed the instructions as closely as she could. Nodding affirmatively as Kazumi said it was easier to do something more basic than the kicks they'd already been using, Kazumi said she would do a side kick. Then she said that Tammy should aim for the center of the board and hit the point with just the heel. Tammy got herself ready and positioned herself appropriately a distance from Kazumi. Using the side kick, Tammy could observe how Kazumi accurately brought her heel of her rear foot down on the center point of the board, the force was enough to make the board snap in half, leaving Tammy holding two broken pieces of board.

"Ah, I see. I think I'll need to practice doing that more consciously then. I've only managed these clean breaks when I really put my mind to it, as I have to transition out of a less flashy-based mindset." Tammy nodded, smiling softly.

"Not bad," Kazumi said, seeing the clean pieces of the board still in Mu-sensei's hands. One would have thought Kazumi was commenting on her own break, but instead she was looking at Mu-sensei. "Have you done this before? Usually when someone holds for the first time, they either recoil when someone goes to hit the board or let go the moment it breaks, so the pieces go flying."

She nodded at the teacher's observation. "It does take conscious thought at first. Once you start to see and correct what you're doing, it gets to be easier. Even I still have to think about where to place my techniques, though. I usually do one or two test swings before I actually go to break a board, but today I guess I've been showing off a bit myself."

She went over to the stack of planks and grabbed another one. "Want to try again? I'll hold for you."

Tammy looked and discovered she was still holding the pieces. A remnant of when her mother was demonstrating to her how to break boards to show off to a judging panel. "Mmm, yeah, thanks. I've done this before. When my mother taught me how to break boards with my feet, she emphasized that judges back then preferred sheer display of force rather than technique," Tammy explained. The teacher heaved a small sigh of relief when Kazumi explained it did take thought at first to get into the swing of things, which made it easier from that point on. She also explained she might have been doing a bit of showing off herself, which made Tammy smile. To see someone like Kazumi work hard at what she enjoyed, was quite heartwarming. When given the opportunity to try, Tammy leapt at the opportunity.

"Sure, I'd like to give it a shot. If you don't mind holding it for me..." Tammy stepped back a moment to stretch.

"For me, it's always been a mix of technique and being able to move quickly between breaking multiple boards," Kazumi said. "Of course, you still have to actually break the board, but even with something sturdier it doesn't take as much force as you'd think." Then, once Tammy expressed her interest in trying again, Kazumi lowered herself into the same stance as when she was demonstrating how she wanted Tammy to hold. She held the board vertically, locking her arms out and bracing her palms against the back. "Whenever you're ready. Don't worry about going too far and hitting me, I can take it. Although, I'd appreciate it if you can avoid my hands."

Tammy nodded as Kazumi explained for her it was a mixture of technique and being able to move quickly between smashing up multiple boards. Apparently it seemed she had quite a strict training if she had to move quickly to break boards in succession. Or maybe she had to break multiple boards at once? Regardless, Tammy was impressed. Kazumi soon enough lowered herself into a stance to hold the board vertically. She locked her arms out and braced her palms, mentioning that she would most appreciate it if Tammy could avoid striking her hands. Tammy nodded and looked much more serious than she did earlier, taking a step back and focusing hard on the board before her, as if she was opening her mind's eye. After a prolonged moment of silence, Tammy stepped back a distance, making sure to compensate for her long legs, before pivoting forward with her front leg to bring down a side kick; with the way Tammy moved, Kazumi was able to have even a closer and better look at Tammy's underwear, as the teacher managed to bring her heel dropping down very close to the center of the board (though not exactly pinpoint like Kazumi did) with some force.

Kazumi had noticed. Just like the first time she'd seen Mu-sensei kick, she had a clear view of the teacher's panties as she kicked. For the moment she did her best to ignore it, focusing instead on keeping the board steady. Mu-sensei managed to get off a much more accurate kick this time, managing a mostly clean break that, due to being slightly off-center, broke the board into two unequal pieces. Nonetheless, she hadn't made a huge mess of it this time. "Not bad. Not bad at all," Kazumi said. "Very good technique, and good job making a clean hit too. You're a little off-center, but that'll come with more practice."

She set the pieces of the board aside. As she did, it was clear that she was blushing slightly, although she still opted not to comment on what she saw. "Is there anything else you want to try? I'm no instructor yet, but I'm hoping to get there eventually, so I could try working with you on something else. Or we could keep practicing this. Goodness knows you brought plenty of boards."