The first time Fuji had seen the big black and red wolf she had been in awe. He wasn’t as tall as mumma or papa but he sure was bigger than she was, and he had a big stick with two sharp ends! It was amazing! The tiny wolf had set about finding a new enough shoot of bamboo that it wouldn’t completely outweigh her, and stayed thin enough to be clenched between her minuscule jaws. She then found a dead end in the bamboo and tried to mimic some of the moves she had seen him practicing, but kept losing her balance, and she fell on her face more than once. Her neck muscles hurt, and she was just about ready to call it quits when a shadow passed by her little dead end dojo. Her whole face lit up and she bounded back towards the path, shouting at the top of her lungs. “Hey! Come back! I wanna sword fight!”

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Usagi was aware the two new wolves - one of which was the suspicious koi man that enlisted he and Roo’s help - in the pack had a new litter of pups. New life to their bamboo forest, which clearly made Kuroo excited and eager to meet the little things. Usagi, on the other hand, well..he was less amused. He didn’t much care for children - to him, they were loud, obnoxious, and generally a sore thorn in his side. It was hard to believe for anybody, even him, that he had once been so small and innocent. His cold features, bitter scowl and cold mossy eyes seemed to have been a trait from birth. Needless to say, the rabbit-like man was less than amused at the prospect of having excitable little fluff balls clinging to him and nagging him to play and whatever else they demanded. As such, he kept himself busy, and distant from the family. He felt it best to give them their space, and only interacted with them when he needed to, to provide food, or when he happened to be with his brother. Just typical pack duties - he simply made sure they were fed and safe.

Padding through the interwoven stalks of green, the male realized he knew this place lkke the back of his paw at this point - weaving effortlessly through with barely a thought, antlered cat and Akita somewhere nearby. Or not, he didn’t need them at the moment, anyways. His double-bladed sword slung over his shoulder in his sheath, he had decided to find a clearing he favored to spar in on his own, and practice some sword skills. It was the least he could do to better himself. Still, the route took him just past the new family’s dojo, and his unamused expression glanced over to a bright pink-ish child who was..sword-fighting? He paused - he rname was Fuji, right? While he didn’t much go out of his way to interact with the children, it was polite to at least learn their names, so he did. And if she wanted to practice sword fighting herself? Well, to each their own. She’d make a decent warrior, even if she was tiny. He turned his head and continued onward when suddenly he heard the tiniest of pawsteps scamper behind him, and a rather loud, high-pitched voice rang out. Usagi sucked in a deep breath, his upright ear flicked in annoyance before turning his head to the tiny little child who’d had her own “sword” with her as well. Cocking a brow, the koi gave her a once-over, carefully deliberating his words before saying flatly, "Maybe when you’re a little bigger."Truthfully, he was all for pups learning even from a young age, but he mostly was wanting to get her off his back. Besides, sword fighting wasn’t the safest activity, and there would surely be hell to pay if the girl poked her eye out under his watch. Still, he had a feeling she wouldn’t let him go that easily, even as he attempted to continue onward. Yeah, she wouldn’t buy that. Not at all.

Speech

wishing there was something left to lose

this could be the day i die for you—

When the big man tried to brush her off her eyes narrowed and lips pursed, blowing her cheeks out to contain her frustrated scream. What came out instead was the most fearsome growl she could muster and she hoisted her light bamboo stick, running forward to swipe angrily at his ankles. She spoke through gritted teeth that still held the stick as she swung it about angrily. “An’. What.” Each word was punctuated with another swing. “If I don’.” She could feel tears stinging the backs of her eyes. It wasn’t like her to get so emotional, but he had unwittingly poked at a sore point. “Git. Bigger?” Her chest was heaving from the exertion and her pale golden eyes were blazing a challenge. She didn’t care that he towered over her. He could help her or he could suffer her wrath and bruised ankles for the rest of the day. She was a stubborn child.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Usagi figured the child would pout and throw a fit. He expected no less - he figured she had a temper from the moment she demanded he teach her his sword fighting methods. The flop-eared male kept a cold, mossy glance towards Fuji as she swiped her bamboo around, not wanting to give in to her fury, but at the same time feeling some prickle of concern that she would poke her eye out. After calmly watching her huff and puff and ready to scream, he would sidestep her attempts to hit his ankles. His normally fiery temper was quelled - he was mature enough to know not to stoop to her level. He wasn’t a child, unlike her, he had control over his anger. Something she had yet to learn, in due time. She wasn’t far off from how he acted as a kid, himself. With a heavy sigh, Usagi padded over to the crying girl, looking down at her with a gaze that was quiet yet firm. If she really wanted to learn, she had to understand that hitting one’s ankles was the wrong way to go about it.

’Lesson number one in sword fighting," He said, his voice unwavering, yet hopefully enough to make the girl stop sniffling and just listen. After all, this is what she wanted, was it not? But if she wanted to learn the basics, she’d have to do as he said. He asked for that much, at least. "We do not wildly swing our swords around. That’s how you poke your eye out, or somebody else’s. We learn safety first before anything else. Understand?" If she acknowledged, the male would turn towards the direction he had intended to go in the first place - a decently flat patch of clearing through the green stalks of bamboo. Glancing behind him towards the child, he figured she could learn something out of this - but make no mistake, he wasn’t giving into her tantrums, and hoped he got his message across. "There’s a clearing just up ahead I use for training. If you would like to learn some basic moves, follow me." He paused, just so the very tiny girl could catch up to him, though he moved at a steady, even pace that a pup could easily follow. Realizing he hadn’t introduced himself quite yet - he knew their names, but did they know his? - he added, ’Your name’s Fuji, correct? I’m Usagi." It quite literally meant rabbit, clear in his nub tail and flop ear. A joke of a name, but he kept it all the same. Fuji sounded a great deal more powerful - perhaps though little in size, the fiery girl held a lot of potential.

Speech

wishing there was something left to lose

this could be the day i die for you—

Breaths heaved in and out of the small girl’s chest as she mustered up her most fearsome scowl, that quickly melted into a dauntless smirk as she was chided for potentially poking someones eye out. “What if I want to poke their eye out? An’ an eyepatch might look pretty badass. Mumma said I have an uncle that only has one eye.” Although from a medical perspective, she already understood that that would make seeing things harder, and would make distances harder to judge. Regardless, it seemed letting herself get a little carried away was working in her favour.

She hoisted her length of bamboo and trailed after Usagi. She already decided she liked him as much as she liked Kuroo. Kuroo was great to climb on and her fingers were itching to braid some ribbons into his fur, Usagi would look good with ribbons too. They should be as pretty on the outside as they were on the inside in her opinion.

As they reached the clearing she sat attentively and rested her bamboo pole between her paws. “Yeah, I dunno why we all got plant names. Fuji isn’t even pink, it’s purple.” She canted her head to the side as she considered. She supposed Wari wasn’t yellow like a sunflower, and Rhuem wasn’t the colour of rhubarb. The only that really fit was Potato.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

-lesson 1/3-

Usagi resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Fuji calmed down a bit from her tantrum, then proceeded to ask why she couldn’t poke somebody’s eye out. Did he really care that she had an uncle with one eye? Or how cool an eyepatch would be? Personally, he wanted to discourage this fiery behavior - even as some of her feistiness reminded him, albeit grudgingly, of himself at her age. Except he’d never seek to jab somebody for shits and giggles. "If you want to poke their eye out, you’d better have a good reason to do it - like if they’re an enemy wanting to do you serious harm." He wanted to make it clear and precise enough so that the child wouldn’t get any mischevious ideas. Although she seemed to have her wits about her, and though impulsive, she wasn’t utterly foolish.

Once they reached the clearing, Fuji rested her bamboo stalk on her paws and mentioned that the plant based off her name wasn’t even pink - it was purple. He nodded. That was true - none of the children, save for Potato maybe, had color corresponding names. Not that it really mattered to him. He wasn’t a plant expert. He glanced at her before beginning their lesson of sorts. Flicking his flopped ear, his scowl lessened slightly as he began explaining.

"If you’re ready, we can begin with a few simple exercises to warm up. Just to get a feel for how a sword would feel when you carry it in your mouth. It’s an additional weight you’re not used to yet, so you need to practice so you can build up the muscles in your neck required to support it and balance it, too." He gently unsheathed his sword from its sheath, backing up a distance away from the child so she wasn’t in the way. "Back up a bit. You have a bamboo stalk, but my sword is dangerous to be close to. Just watch and repeat after me." He grabbed the handle in his jaws, feeling the weight. It felt natural. It felt right. The child had a much loghter stalk but it would serve her well to know how it felt to have it in her maw for a while at a time. He did some simple side to side tilts of his head with the sword in his mouth, gentle and slow, andenough for a kid to follow with ease. He did some exercises where he lifted and lowered his head, gently pivoted his head towards one side of his body to the other.

Speech

wishing there was something left to lose

this could be the day i die for you—

Fuji knew enough of the members of her pack (and she considered them all family) to keep her mouth shut when Usagi started his lesson. She didn’t think she had ever heard the man string so many words together, so she paid very close attention to what he said. She took a step back when he told her to, even as her honey coloured eyes were drawn to focus on the silvery blade. She collected up her bamboo stick and mimicked his movements, occasionally whacking herself in the sides as she turned slowly from one side to the other, and then quickly correcting her grip and position to make sure it wouldn’t happen on the next pass. She knew if she had been holding a real sword, she could be causing herself harm, and that wouldn’t help anyone. She kept checking in with the larger wolf and copying his movements until eventually, it had been several passes since she had poked herself with the stick at all. Her chest swelled with pride.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

-lesson 2/3-