Welcome to Gaia! ::

The female teacher almost cracked another smile when Noel bowed again. She could feel the enthusiasm radiating from the girl and her team mates. She clapped her hands. "Five laps around the field, girls. Last one is the designated water girl for the week. Afterwards, we'll start with some aiming and archery."

Aya felt a smile tug on her face again. Having good aim was also something she was good at. She wondered if the teacher would use human targets for training. Her father had made her train as a child as a target by placing a fruit on her head and having some others aim for her. It had been a bit unsettling, but she knew how it felt when she became the hunter instead of the target, aiming for the fruit.

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Will smirked. Rave was actually one of the better ones in class. The blonde himself also ranked pretty well when it came to fighting.... and of course, if there was a class in pissing people off, he'd come in first on that.

Will wondered if the teacher had given him the particular scroll on purpose as he employed the technique on it. Defensive, and from the looks of it, the technique seemed to minimize hurting opponents to some extent with mostly throwing and diverting attacks. The blonde was naturally more of an offensive type. Tsch. Does the old man want me to just grope Rave? Not only that, it seemed for now, he was limited to his upper body, and not allowed to employ kicks. Kicks were one of his strong points.

The blonde student turned to see Rave's foot aiming for his head again. Again, he moved to redirect the kick to the side. The flipping and rotating made it a bit harder though and it made Will loose his balance, but he twirled away to regain his balance. Ironically, it made him look like he was dancing. Grabbing it is. Will immediately thrust forward toward Rave with a hand strike to his neck. Feint, grab, and throw.

At this point, Tatsuya returned. Late as well. He narrowed his eyes when he saw Rave and Will sparring.

((If you're curious, I'm following the concept of a form of aikido. Honestly, I'm not great with fight scenes, so I'm open to pointers...but I think choosing the defensive forms just kinda restricted me too.))

((Thanks? We can time skip to lunch or other times when you want to. Maybe it's time to introduce some local gangs later and then follow up to some scenes with whatever you had planned for the emperor.))

The female teacher watched the girls as they ran. One of the girls was lagging in the back of the group. She was shorter than the others and seemed frailer. It looked like the water girl for the week was going to be her unless someone tripped and fell behind. Meanwhile, the archery equipment had been set up.

Aya positioned herself next to Noel. "Hi, Noel. Where you are from?" the girl asked Noel as they ran.

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Will stopped any more movements and offered Rave a hand. After Rave got up, Will would do the standard bow as an end greeting to the match. Between the two, Will clearly had exerted less energy because the technique he was employing mostly used Rave's energy to execute. Lesson? What sort of answer should he give? "Well... using some of the opponent's own medicine against him can work pretty well," Will finally said as he took a seat. He noticed Tatsuya eying him. The blonde had no idea that Tatsuya had been at the girls' training facility or that he had offered to show Noel around. Despite that, Will just smiled innocently at Tatsuya. Tatsuya took that the wrong way. It just looked suspicious. Will was thinking of who to drag over to the girls facility. Rave and Tatsuya were two on his list.

Aya answered calmly, but with a slight smirk. "Himitsu, and my name is Aya. I look forward to competing against you." With a haughty nod, she pulled ahead and became the first to complete the five laps.

It seemed that time had passed rather quickly here too, and the chimes rang signaling the end of the session. The girls were chattering, wondering what to do for lunch.

The female teacher greeted them. "The city has much to offer." She encouraged them to explore, but warned them against going into certain sections of the city. They were not fully trained yet, and she didn't want anything unfortunate to befall them. One of the areas she mentioned was a region of the city that was known as a courtesan heavy section. While people frequented there often, the female teacher did not think it was appropriate for the trainees to go there, especially on their first day. It was definitely an area that the guys were more interested in.

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The chimes were ringing. Time had passed quicker than he thought, but maybe it was because Will and Rave had been late. "Lunch?" Will grinned. "I'm going to go visit those new girls that just came in today. Want to come?"

At this point Tatsuya came up, hearing Will. "Will-"

"Oh, Tatsuya, you up for it too? I heard there are some lookers this year. Your type too." Will winked. He looked at Rave. "So, what to do you say, Rave? Grab a few and take them out to lunch. Gross them out? Sugar them? Whatever." He started walking.

Tatsuya managed to hold back a grimace. "My type? I don't know what you're getting at, Will, you jerk."

"Oh, keep talking to the empty air, Tatty. We'll leave you behind!" Will called out without turning.

Grr.. Tatsuya frowned and ran to catch up. He'd expose Will for sure. He was pretty sure Will was the "instructor" that Noel had referred to.

While Noel was witing, the other girls were other chatting, and some probably tried to talk with Noel too. It was their first day too, and they wanted to get to know other people in the troupe as well. This included the shy girl who had finished last and become the water girl for the week.

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"Get the girls first at their place, and then..." The blonde smirked. "Let's take them to the red light district to Ayra's place. They've got good food there among other things." He made a motion with fingers. "And I have enough money to blow. My treat guys."

Tatsuya made a face. "Really?"

Ayra was a highly sought after courtesan in the red light district. She was the head of one of the more successful establishments and wielded a significant amount of power.

After Rave spoke, they'd probably get to the girls' training facility.


(( sweatdrop ))

The shy girl looked at Noel, her face turning pink slightly. "Umm, suuree," the girl stuttered. After another few seconds, she added curiously, "Are you already familiar with the city?" She wondered if the boys were people Noel already knew in the city.

Aya was also in the gathering, talking to other girls.


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In reality, Tatsuya was also not completely comfortable with what Will had said. He was still planning to expose Will, but it made it a little hard when Will had said he was going to treat them all. That's why he had made a face. He eyed Rave with a look that said, Should we really be doing this?

"We'll be fine," Will said reassuringly before walking up to the group of girls gathered by the academy. "Ah, Noel, how was your day so far?" he asked.

Tatsuya cringed, looked at Rave, nodded, and immediately walked up to Noel and waved.

((You can choose a name for the shy girl and play her, if you'd like. Think Aya should butt in?))

Will smiled warmly back at Noel and also greeted the shy girl after Rave. He specifically did not mention that he was an instructor this time. Maybe it had something to do with too many people being around, and the female teacher being close by. "Good to hear." He slid a hand through his hair to straighten it from the breeze.

Tatsuya also introduced himself to the shy girl and shot a warning look at Noel, trying to warn her about Will without alerting Will to his actions.

Will, however, was more interested in Noel for whatever reason, though he looked around at the other girls in the class. "Shall we?"

Tatsuya wasn't sure if Noel had gotten his message, but he hoped she did. As the group walked along, many of the girls that happened to walk in the same direction broke off to check out other places along the way until basically, only Will, Tatsuya, Rave, Noel, Gale, and Aya were left. For some reason, Aya was following Noel for whatever reason, and she was being quiet about it, just as quiet as Rave. She looked at Rave with a smile, as if trying to strike up conversation. She was clearly along uninvited.

"Any preference on food? If not, I know a good place," Will said as he continued walking. If Gale or Aya knew enough about the city, they might notice that they were headed into the red light district. There seemed to be a lot more men than women in the streets, and if there were women, they were mostly with men.

Along the way though, they came upon a brawl of some sort. Eight men were duking it out in front of, ironically, Ayra's building. Maybe they were part of two separate gangs, or fighting over a girl. Will arched an eyebrow. Fights weren't common in front of Ayra's establishment.