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(Damage doesn't really matter since it has 3 HP and my minimum damage is 4. Victory!!)

Izumi's blow made contact and he was rewarded by the satisfying crunch of its skull caveing in. The scorpion let out a short squeal and collapsed, bleeding profusely. Luckily Izumi's own wounds were few and he was ready to get going again, after wiping the blood from his hands and making sure Amaya was OK.

Kai sat down on the ground almost enjoying the fact that she didn't have to worry about being dirty for a change. Since she normally wore her kimono about the village she took special care to stay clean and not sully her father's work. Training meant she was free to get in touch with the land and the stone in a way she was comfortable with. A plain black t-shirt and sweatpants were sure to take just a good washing to be back to normal. With her hair pulled back in a sloppy ponytail, she was definitely comfortable and in the mood for a good workout.
Taking off her worn sandals she slipped the first weight on and felt the strain and pull on her leg. Ignoring it she put on the other and shakily made her way to her feet.
Once upright she was a good deal better off, she was even quite stable. But when she had the idea to take a few practice steps, she proved to herself that she was in for a lot of work.
Lifting her foot was hard, sending it forward was almost painful. Both were enough to unbalance her and send her face first into the dirt.
At least she had her mouth closed, and now she knew what to expect. She'd have to be a lot more careful when she tried this again.

Kaiho swatted irritably at the hand poking her with almost unnatural force. she leaned up a bit to realize that the person poking her wasn't much bigger than she was, or older.
"Stop it," she groaned as she sat up and looked to the person.
She sat up rubbing her forehead and slowly made her way back to her feet flinging out her arms for balance.
"I'm fine. Who are you?" she asked curiously.

For just a moment Kai was tempted to run. Just for a moment. Then she thought better of it. This girl was odd, nothing compared to her mother, but still...odd. In fact that name was just a bit familiar, but she couldn't place it. She wanted to see the anklets.

Kai glanced down. She couldn't blame her. Like almost everything that her mother owned they were beautifully crafted and colored the deep emerald of darkest jade in a sleek yet wide band that covered about the entire ankle. It closed almost like a shackle with a tiny brass closure to the inside.

Queen of the world? What's that about?

"You can try them. I don't think anyone can really break them," she deadpanned.

She allowed herself to tumble to the ground again and gratefully took off the anklets offering them to the very hyper girl.

To say the very least, Kai was...stunned. The girl pranced about in the anklets as if they weighed nothing at all. She felt a bit annoyed at herself, this girl couldn't have been any older than Kai was, she even seemed a bit younger. Yet she'd given more attention to her physical training than Kai had, obviously.

Woddle Method, huh?

The whole thing seemed silly and she knew she'd look ridiculous, but so what? Years and years ago there was talk about ninjas doing silly things like running miles on their hands on a whim as training. So how was this so different? Well if the very same technique had made Haruko so strong, there was no harm in trying it out.

She accepted the anklets noting that Haruko's arms didn't waver as she handed them back, unlike her own arms. The weight pulled at her as if making sure she didn't forget just how much of a challenge this was going to be.

"I guess I can give this a try," she said in a less than hopeful tone.

Kai put the anklets back on one ankle and decided to get in position to start the exercise before daring to don the other. She spread her legs a good deal farther than shoulder-width apart and lowered herself into a horse stance that would have been painful if she wasn't already used to it.

She felt the strain almost as soon as she put the other anklet on and straightened up.

Ow!

Though her face didn't betray her discomfort, inwardly she was cringing with the effort of remaining steady. Forgetting about saving face she threw her arms out to steady herself again and regain some semblance of balance.

As that came quickly enough, she decided to try and move.

[[Weight Training
DC: 18
Success: 8
1D20 + STR mod {4}
]]

[[Attempt 1
Success 0/8]]

[[Result of attempt 2: Success
]]

Instead of feeling her body pitch forward as she was expecting, her foot came off of the ground and actually made a bit of progress. Shocked and somewhat elated she allowed herself a small grin, but not to get too excited. She still had a ways to go before she could count herself as done with this exercise.

If the other foot could do the same, she'd acknowledge that she'd made a bit of improvement.

[[Attempt 3
Success 1/8]]

Izumi merely blinked as the ground rumbled beneath him. What in the world was going on down here? He could hear the sounds of scorpions screaming and fleeing all through the tunnels. They certainly weren't afraid of him, so Izumi decided not to stick around long enough to find out what had terrified them. He couldn't hear the water because of all the noise but he still remembered the general direction it was in, and so he ran towards it as fast as he could.

(54/100)

Izumi hadn't made it very far across the wall when the stampede finally finished. He dropped down and wiped the sweat from his forehead and pressed on. Why was it so hot down here? He had a feeling he would find out soon enough and continued following the sound of water. It was growing larger and larger with each step.