Perfect School

Kyra:

I grimaced. "I think you've taken the fight out of me for a little while," I said quietly. Even if Paublo and Andrew wanted to train, I would be sitting it out. Thought I doubted Andrew would want to do any training, he was more likely to talk with Zero the whole time.

"I guess I'll leave you to do whatever it is you do here," I said with a small sigh. Maybe I would get Paublo's help and try to hook one of our phones up to the screen to watch something.

"I train. It's recorded and stored on file to be brought up anytime. I spent a lot of time watching videos of myself while my trainers went over what I had done wrong and what to do next time. They kept everything." I shrugged and downed the rest of the drink with a shudder. "I live here, I train here, and I recover here. I do not need to recover, and now is not the time to train. So I will just be here."

Kyra:

"Could I... Could I watch your training recordings? It might help me learn..." I asked hesitantly. Not only could it help me learn new techniques, but it could also help me see more of Kira. I wanted to understand her better, maybe this would help.

I blinked at her then shrugged. Beckoning her to follow I went towards the screen against the wall. Grabbing a remote and keyboard from where they sat hanging on the wall I began to boot up the projector and the computer that ran it. "Anything in particular?" I asked while gazing at the screen. I drew up my file, and then flipped through different folders for a moment, changing the sorting first by name, by date, then by last viewed. "If you want a specific task that will have to be searched for directly. Or you can go by date. From when I first came here when I was little till my last test while I was at the school. There are recordings for when I came here from the house I share with you all. But I didn't do training that you'd want to see then."

Kyra:

I took the remote form her after a couple minutes and scrolled through the video clips. I started watching them in reverse, sorting them by date. After a while the Kira on the screen got less cold. She turned into the girl I used to know in that window at school where she was comfortable with us, but not yet turned against us.

It got to the point where I was no longer watching the videos to see her train, but rather to see her as she used to be. I got to a few videos where she was younger than the girl who had come joined the school. And one very young video of her. I pressed play, I couldn’t resist.

I felt detached from myself as I watched the videos on the screen.  I tuned everything else out, not even noticing if Paublo or Andrew came over to watch as well.  I could spot all the mistakes I was making through the videos.  A kick not delivered high enough, body moving too slow, weapon grip too loose.  But that began to fade as I noticed something else.  The icy shell I had built around me seemed to thaw as my face grew younger.  Before long light entered into my eyes and then a smile.

When Kyra selected the video of when I was little I looked away.  Could I face myself that young?  That innocent?  But even as I struggled a delighted giggle escaped through the speakers and my gaze snapped back to the screen.



My hair then was a bit shorter than what I had now, I was a kid then.  No more than eight though quite probably younger.  I was wearing a karate gi, pure white with black trim.  Around my hips was a belt, brown with two black stripes on the ends.  I was alone and before me was a sandbag hanging from a chain.  I danced around the bag, playing some game known only to me.  At the end of every third or so hop I landed on one foot and snapped out a picture perfect round house to the bag.  I was having fun in my game that much was easy to tell by the bright grin and giggles that danced into the air.

But the fun was not to last.  A door opened and I turned gasping, "Alexis!"  I called in delight only to run off camera.  The scene switched to a different view point where I had stopped, drawn up short only a few feet from where I began.  My head had a quizicle cast to it and I chewed on the side of my pointer finger.  "You aren't Alexis.  Are you another teacher?  Is she coming back?  She was my friend."

"Ah hello little one," the voice off screen called.  It was a mans voice, cheerful and almost a purr.  "You are full of smiles aren't you.  You will have to show me that game you were playing just a second ago later.  But first..."  Here the figure strode into view, though the angle made it impossible to tell much about the person beyond they were wearing a pressed shirt.  His voice took on a chiding tone.  "Where are your manners little one?"

Guilt crossed my face and I at first tried to cursty then stumbling slightly as I realized my mistake I took a proper bow for my uniform.  "My name is Kira, it is a pleasure to meet you and I hope I do well under your teachings."  It was an obviously well rehearsed bit and as I straightened and smiled at the man I added on my own bit, "And hopefully be friends too!"

"I'm sure we will..."  The man agreed with a chuckle.

"What is your name sir?"

Beckoning the girl closer he knelt down, "We will get to that my dear.  But first I want you to go through your third kata alright?"

Grinning again I skipped closer and stopped before him, where I bounced in place for a moment before taking a breath to calm myself.  Even though I was calmer and I wasn't bouncing around I still had an air of happy energy as I began to move through the forms.  At the end of it I was supposed to bow to my teacher but instead I danced in place unable to keep from sharing out the boundless energy I had within.

Mid dance the figure's hand snapped out, catching me across the face with a loud smack and driving me to the floor.  I gazed up at him in shock as I held a hand to my cheek.  "You have been having a few behavioral problems little one.  Not showing proper respect to your teachers, and not performing your best even when asked.  I am here to fix that with you over the rest of your training.  My name doesn't matter much.  But you can call me The Man in the Suit.  Alexis wont be coming back my dear but your new martial arts instructor will be here in twenty minutes.  I will be watching."

Here the video ended after the man stood up and I too got shakily to my feet.




I stared at the now black screen for a moment then turned away from it.  "There are earlier training videos than this, but that was the start of me becoming who I am.  If you want to know who I was, look not at the training videos but at the archived videos.  The cameras were always going and I had time without teachers."

Kyra:

I had never imagined that there could be such happiness coming form Kira. Even if I had thought about her as a child, I would have assumed she acted like a mini adult. That she was so cheery gave me hope, but that hope soon tightened in my stomach as the video progressed. It broke my heart to see that cheerful child treated that harshly.

She was like us, I thought sadly. She was Krissy’s daughter, it was more clear than ever from this video. I could only imagine what she could have been like if she hadn’t been ripped away from our family.

My cheeks flushed with anger and my fists clenched. I wanted to tell her how Marie had stolen her as a baby, that her parents wanted her, that her whole family wanted her. But I couldn’t say any of that here, not being watched.

“I think I’ve seen enough,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm, but disgust still bled into it.

"Have you?" I asked then shrugged. Sliding my hands into my pockets I began to move away from the screen towards the center of the room. "This was my home. My life. I didn't have anything else, I didn't have anyone else. I can guess what you were thinking, I had a family who wanted me. None of you knew I existed and you saw how my Mother reacted. She wanted nothing to do with me. Nothing has changed. This will be my life."

Kyra:

"You have me," I said quietly. I wanted to defend my family, but here was neither the place nor the tie to do so. "You would have me regardless of who our parents are. You have me no matter how much you hurt me, physical or otherwise. So that's changed if nothing else." I looked down at the mat. I couldn't speak for Andrew right now as he was still stewing ver what she had done to me, but in the end she had him too.

I barely heard her, but what I didn't hear I could fill in the blanks. "You don't want to have me." I murmured and made my way back towards my cot. I didn't lay down again but I did sit down and begin to work on slowly cleaning the rifle I had disassembled on the ground.

Kyra:

It wasn’t until late the next day that Jonah had shown up. When he walked in, it took me a moment to recognize him. His hair had been buzzed off, his complexion was devoid of his usual color. Even the way he walked was abnormal. It was like we was sluggish. I noticed a pink line on the side of his head, clearly scar tissue.

He immediately had us pack up and go. On the plane, he slept the whole time. He barely said anything to us, and he wouldn’t look at Kira at all, his eyes scanned right over her. It was bazar and unnerving. Back at the house he stayed in his room without coming out for a solid day, and the next day he only come out to eat a couple meals.

For three days, we were left to our own devices. We trained, mostly the three of us together, and Kira separately. On the fourth day, we found him in the training room before any of us had gotten up. He then called us around to inform us that someone would be joining our group. He acted like nothing had ever happened to him, like he hadn’t been locked away from three days.

Someone new would be joining our group. He told us that it was a replacement for Kira, who he hadn’t known would be rejoining us so soon, but as it was, we were one person down a full team from the begging. He didn’t say her name, but he was talking about Emily. Still he did not fully look at Kira.

Kira:

I wasn't used to being ignored by Jonah. Not in this fashion in any case. I felt a mixture of discomfort and relief by the action which only left me more confused by it. The scar tissue on the side of his face was like a map of his child hood, a tramatic event that perhaps shaped who he was now. But it was the sleeping that had me slightly frowning the most.

He had been drugged. I could tell that much but I wasn't going to tell the others. Likely they'd used some chemical compound to get whatever result they were looking for. And knowing just what kind of things they'd created it likely wasn't a pleasant one.

My training sessions were quiet. The others left me be and Jonah never showed. But after three days of silence and sleep finally the old Jonah had returned. My head gave a slight tilt at his news but otherwise I didn't comment. I hadn't even known if I was ever going to come back to them at all. The fact he didn't look at me still though had my eyes narrowing. What had they done to him and what had he'd sworn to do. Normally just mentioning someone else coming by to join us would have ended with a look at me to see some sort of reaction. This wasn't the Jonah I was familiar with. And I wasn't sure I liked it.

Jonah:

Marie had not broken me. That’s what I told myself. And it was true, but she had certainly damaged me. I had been forced to trudge up somethings that I would rather have kept buried deep in my memory. Marie had not succeeded in making me talk about them directly, but the information she had pulled from be was enough to make an accurate guess. I hated that and I hated her for it.

And on top of that she had effectively separated me from Kira. The worst thing that could happen to me was being unable to trust my mind, and Marie had told me it was because of Kira. If I hadn’t been so obsessed with her, I would have had an easier time, she told me. And it was true.

She showed me pictures. Pictures that normally I would have wanted to see, except I knew the reason for them, and what had been done to get to that point. Kira wasn’t mine, she wasn’t attached me, yet I felt like she had betrayed me. What was the point of putting any effort in unraveling her if she would turn around and run to someone else? I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand her.

It was true that I had contacted Evelyn thinking that we wouldn’t be getting Kira back. But it was only in the past couple days that I had set plans for her to join our team. She was a replacement.

It was a couple days later that she arrived, after I had told the team. She was the same height as Andrew, with long legs and plenty of curves. Kyra had her topped in the body department, but Evelyn moved like an expert. Her long brown hair was tied up in a messy bun, but she looked perfect. Her facial features hinted that she was Asian, but it was so slight that she could claim to be nearly any nationality with ease.

I introduced her to the group gathered in the Livingroom. “Hello,” she smiled at them then nodded to Kira. “You’ve come a long way from a little girl in a sun dress,” She said, speaking of the first time she had seen us.

Kira:

Jonah ignoring me was grating to my nerves, but I learned to handle it as best I could. There was nothing I could do about it, and ultimately I was left to my own devices anyway. It all came to a head however when we were introduced to the replacement on our team. Evelyn, the girl from Jonah and I's head of class assignment.

"As have you." I replied. I was sitting in an arm chair, one foot planted on the cushion while my arms were wrapped loosely around my knee. She looked more grown up, and filled out in the same vein as Kyra. "You were quite impressive during the competition." Polite, with barely a hint of emotion on my face or in my voice.

Jonah:

She smiled and the light touched her eyes. “Thank you, but no one could deny that the two of you were the most impressive and the greatest surprise. I look forward to seeing where you stand now.” Her hazel eyes flicked to me, back to Kira, then around the room.

“I’ll show you to your room,” I said to her, nodding to the stairs. Once we were in her room she set her bags down and turned to look at me. “I better not feel like a babysitter here, Jonah. I didn’t realize they were all so young.”

“I assure you that you will not feel like a babysitter. And they might impress you if you give them a chance.” Her eyes raked over me then she turned away with a soft laugh.


Kyra:

“Was it wrong of me to have assumed it was going to be a man?” I asked. It made sense that Jonah would choose a female, he had his own selfish reasons. But men were much easier to find in this profession. “How do you know her?” I asked Kira. I didn’t bother asking the other two what they thought of her. It was pretty clear what Paublo thought, something I didn’t understand why it annoyed me. And Andrew could care less about anything regarding the team.

"The best in class event. She was best in class at her school. I think it is needless to say but Jonah and i were two of the youngest there. She was one of the older.". I remarked with a shrug. Quickly I gave a breakdown of what I knew of her skills and weaknesses.

Pushing off thee chair I stretched. "She is good. I will give her that."

Jonah:

Having Evelyn around was refreshing. She wasn’t quite the puzzle for me that Kira was, but she had her moments. The girl didn’t lie, but she was incredibly skilled at evading a question or answering it with partial truths. Sometimes we had conversations entirely devoted to her trying to trick me with her words.

She was even great to train with. She wasn’t as broadly skilled as Kira, but she had a unique style that she had perfected. She even managed to one up me once or twice, for brief moments. I had her teach the group her style. She beat every one of them, except for Kira, who I do something else.

It wasn’t that I was ignoring Kira, but that I was indifferent to her. There was no need for me to interact with her outside of training. Even during training I had little contact with her because she needed little direction.

More than sparing, Evelyn was an expert with her body. Every movement was enticing if she so wished. She was clever, and she used what she had to her advantage. It was clear to her that she held my attention, and she used it to her advantage. I certainly wasn’t going to complain. It was a nice change to want something ant to be able to have it.


Kyra:

Eve had been with us for a couple weeks before it really grated on my nerves. I liked her as a person. I even thought I could learn something from her, but the way she acted around the boys gave me a twinge of announce. Once or twice she even managed to get a reaction out of Andrew, thought it was mild comparatively. Paublo may have drooled at one point

But the thing that finally got me was waking up at three in the morning to moans reverberating throughout the second floor. My eyes opened to the first one that was loud enough to hear. I was confused until I heard the next one.

My family knows that if I am woken up from a dead sleep for a pointless reason, that there will be hell to pay. It was time for every one else to learn that too. I tossed my covers off, grabbed my robe, and stormed out of my room.

I went straight to the source and pounded on the door with my first. “Shut. The. Fuck. Up!” I yelled without stopping. I was shaking with anger by the time the door opened to a shirtless Jonah with a sheet wrapped around his waist.

Paublo:

I wasn't sure how to feel about Evelyn, it wasn't really until I was certain she was with Jonah that I finally came to my senses.  Even then though she just did things that could drive me wild.  I felt guilty after every time.  Especially after seeing those odd looks on Kyra's face after she caught me in such a way.  I wasn't with Kyra either but...it left me confused.

It was getting so that it affected my dreams, both women or things that represented them filled my dreams and fought it out.  Only after hearing yelling did I finally, sleepily wake up.  Confused I poked my head out my door, spotting Kyra with an expression of utter rage on her face as she pounded on Jonah's door.

Kira:

I felt jittery, pent up.  Too much energy and no real place to put it.  I was being alienated from my team and while I considered stopping myself from showing up to the team practices I held off on doing that.  Jonah was ignoring me, utterly indifferent.  It almost showed how much he had cared by how little attention he paid to me now.  But ultimately there was nothing I could do or change about it.

I was a light sleeper by default, easily woken up by the small things.  I was trained to be that way, but I also knew how to ignore and doze through minor things.  But at the first moan I was wide awake.  By the second I was sitting up and staring at the doorway.  And after I heard Kyra's yelling and pounding on the door I was getting dressed.  Staying awake and inside my room would be a waste of my time.

Kyra:

My blood boiled at the sight of him. “You couldn’t even put your fucking clothes on? Oh my fucking God, Jonah. Jesus Christ!” There had been a time in my life where I had a crush on Jonah. It was his easy playful manner and his charming smile. At that time, I would have been flustered to see him in front of me wearing nothing but a thin blanket. That time was long past, and now all I wanted was to snatch the sheet up and cram it down his throat.

“Alright, calm down. We’ll be quiet,” he said, nonchalantly. “My bad. Sorry!” came Evelyn’s voice from within the dark room. The causality of it all brought a high pitched rage groan out of me.

Kira:

Slipping out of my room I didn't even bother glancing at the spectacle. There was no point I could gather what was happening just by the raised voice of Kyra and the quieter voices of Jonah and Evelyn. I just went down the stairs and paused long enough to grab a protein drink from the fridge before pulling up my hood and making my way to the training room.

Kyra:

I went back to my room but I had trouble falling back to sleep. The rage was still coursing through my veins but there was also something else. It was a feeling almost like jealousy, but I certainly wasn't jealous of Evelyn for sleeping with Jonah. In the end, I realized it was longing.

I probably wasn't going to get back together with the teacher, but I did miss being intimate with someone. I didn't have a whole lot of opportunity to meet people, and I wasn't the type to just fool around for one evening.

I eventually drifted off to sleep, but my dreams kept it from being restful. I woke up earlier than usual but gave up on getting more sleep. I dressed and went down to get breakfast. As I made coffee I noticed the lights on in the training building. I knew Kira usually trained in the morning, and it was doubtfully anyone else. I poured another cup of coffee and fixed it the way she liked before taking both out to the training building.

Kyra:

I went back to my room but I had trouble falling back to sleep. The rage was still coursing through my veins but there was also something else. It was a feeling almost like jealousy, but I certainly wasn't jealous of Evelyn for sleeping with Jonah. In the end, I realized it was longing.

I probably wasn't going to get back together with the teacher, but I did miss being intimate with someone. I didn't have a whole lot of opportunity to meet people, and I wasn't the type to just fool around for one evening.

I eventually drifted off to sleep, but my dreams kept it from being restful. I woke up earlier than usual but gave up on getting more sleep. I dressed and went down to get breakfast. As I made coffee I noticed the lights on in the training building. I knew Kira usually trained in the morning, and it was doubtfully anyone else. I poured another cup of coffee and fixed it the way she liked before taking both out to the training building.

Kira:

I was tired, and it was going to be a long day because of it. But I'd dealt with worse. If the past few days had been any indication. I would have a leisurely day. I'd spent most of the time working with throwing knives. But as the sun began to rise I ended up laying on my back with my feet propped up on the target. The bullseye was facing the sky and on occasion I would take a knife from beside me, flick it high up into the air so that it would come back down on the target. For the most part though I simply laid there, flipping a knife up into the air and catching it.

Kyra:

"Good morning, Kira. Want some coffee?" I asked as I walked up to her slowly. I stopped about ten feet back to stay out of the range of the falling knife. Krissy had an affinity for blades too, I thought as I watched her.

The past few weeks had been weird with Kira. I no longer knew how to act with her. It was pretty clear that she didn't want to be family, and I didn't want to pressure her. So I had been giving her space instead of trying to build our relationship again.

With one more flick the knife sailed into the air before I caught it again. It was there I paused and finally looked at her. "Oh, yes please." My voice was quiet, subdued. More emotion than I'd shared for a while. Shifting I removed my booted feet from the target and sat up gesturing for her to join me on the floor if she wished.