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*** Special Training***

Juni had had her self-esteem attacked by experts; the boy who thought she was no martial artist was right, of course, but that didn't mean she couldn't learn. As such, she was only mildly frustrated by him. Really, it was more frustrating to not be able to communicate well than to be accused of being exactly what she was. (Still, at least he wasn't accusing her of being incapable of it because she was a girl, merely because she was a geek. That made a certain amount of sense.)

She took the gi into the area suggested by Honey's gesture for changing and shucked out of her school uniform. She considered the cotton of the gi for a moment - it didn't feel like it was going to chafe too badly, so she left the track shorts in her duffel and just pulled on a t-shirt under the gi's top. Knotting her mass of hair up on the back of her head with one of her ubiquitous bandannas, she folded her uniform up into her duffle bag along with her smart glasses, watch, and earrings, and padded back out onto the tatami in bare feet.

Hanging out with her cousins at various points in time had taught her at least a minimum of dojo ettiquette; she bowed at the edge of the tatami mat before moving over to where Honey was standing. "Should, should I call you Honey-sensei while, while I am here?" she asked.

(( REPOST from GOHC - Tamaki's Mind Theater thread ))

(( I think we can ditch the title, since we're in a separate thread now, woo-hoo! ))

Juni considered what Honey was doing, and smiled. "Warmups, I understand," she said. "We do them for, for track and cross country, and I, I do them for parkour. Your stretches will, will probably be different though."

She did her best to imitate him, pausing every now and again to adjust her legs and feet to mimic him as much as possible. Juni was definitely in good shape, albeit a bit stiff in the right leg from her enforced month of inactivity with it. But her muscle memory was for other stretches and poses; she kept having to adjust the direction her toes were pointing.

Juni straightened up, and rubbed her knee. "In legs, yes - arms? Back? Not so much." She swung her arms around for a bit, like windmills, then did a few over-the-shoulder stretches of her own, and rotated her shoulders and waist experimentally. "But I do not know how far I will be pushed today. I will tell you if I need more stretching."

She smiled. "I am no martial arts master, but I, I am an athelete. Is no good to hurt myself right after I recover, no? I will push to, to the line - not past."

Juni watched Honey carefully, then shifted her weight until she felt she had her balance. She brought up one knee - the not-wounded one, and carefully kicked out. Then she brought it back down.

It was obvious she'd done some soccer - the kick was with the top of her foot, not the ball of it, just as she would kick a soccer ball. And her supporting leg wasn't pointing forward - it was off to the side at an angle. But her balance didn't wobble, and her spine was relatively straight - she didn't throw her head forward like most beginners, at least.

Juni smiled. "Ah, but is tricky to, to do without thought. When going over hurdles, or, or climbing a wall, I do not think, 'lift leg,'" she paused in her repetitions and shifted her weight slightly, "'curl toes, bend knee, spring' - I think, 'go,' and I go." She tried the kick again, with slightly better success, or at least, she thought with slightly better success.

"Much practice is required." She switched legs, and tried off the other foot, to slightly worse results - unsurprising, as this was the leg she'd hurt. She was more cautious.

Juni smiled. Her arms, she had not hurt. And she'd been working out with free-weights as much as possible to try to make up for her feeling of enforced inactivity. Though she did not have as much raw strength in them as a boy would, she was tough and wiry. (And she climbed brick walls for fun.)

So once she got Honey to show her how to actually make a proper fist - which took a couple of minutes of careful work, so that she was punching with her knuckles and not with the palm of her hand or something similar that would damage her wrists - she had good control and reasonably good form.

It helped that she had almost no practice in anything like punching - she didn't throw roundhouses, or act like a brawler in a movie. She did have a small problem with overextending her arms, though - a common beginner's mistake

Juni considered the angry boy, chugged about half the water bottle down, then considered him again. "Hormones?" she offered, giving the other teenager an out. "Or jealousy, maybe - he is, is perhaps protective of, of your time. You are, ah, the best, so he may think you, you are wasting your time teaching a, a complete novice." She smiled back at Honey. "Thank you - I will try to, to work on the strength in my leg now that I, ah, can use it again. I did the, the physical therapy, so it is just a matter of, of building the strength back."

She rubbed her sweaty hair. "What should, should I do about, ah, practicing solo? So that I, ah, can waste less of your time." Her smile showed that she was grateful - and perhaps lobbing a small self-depricating dart at her own lack of skill. She didn't seem particularly upset at Chika.

If he threatened her, or made an observation that wasn't true - she was a novice, her form was bad, but the cure for that was practice - she might get more upset. But for now, she didn't see any need to engage with his bad mood. She finished the water bottle. Not interested in dehydration cramps, nope.

Juni laughed, and gave Honey a firm hug back. "Do not worry so much about my leg, Honey-sempai. The, the doctor said it was healed. It is just, just a little weak because I, I have not used it so much. I am being careful, but it, it won't get stronger if I don't, don't use it. But with a, a teacher as enthusiastic as you, I do not doubt I, I will improve." She considered the water bottle, then set it down. One was enough for the moment, she didn't feel thirsty right then. "And if, if you do not think you are, are wasting your time, that is good enough for me. It is just what, what Chika-san might think."

She added, "I like tutoring math because, because then other people enjoy it too. For you, it is like that too, yes?"