[Log] Confrontation
Characters: Kite Eishirou, Sanada Genichirou, Yanagi Renji
Location: Shoreline
Time: Remember way back when Sanada was planning his suicide voyage off the island? Back then, sometime right after Yukimura arrives and before Kite leaves for the jungle.
Rating: PG-13 for violence.
Summary: Part 3 of 3 (parts 1 and 2 are still in progress :x) of persuading Sanada that leaving the island to look for help isn't the smartest thing to do. On the pretense of ocean survival lessons, Kite decides that if talking him out didn't do much good, then he would just have to physically stop him. Thank goodness Yanagi is there (damage control, you know). Warnings for, uhm, Sanada and giraffes.
~*~
A part of Kite was pretty excited about this. It wasn’t often that he got a good fight. The pickings on the island were very slim. There was his usual playmate. But if they sparred too much, too often, there was a good chance that he’d break his favorite toy and that wouldn’t be any fun at all. So he had to find his little violence fix. Plus, there was someone on this island that needed some serious sense beat into him. And for once that someone wasn’t Momoshiro. That someone was the former demon vice-captain of Rikkai. Sanada.
Sanada was being foolish and reckless. Kite had been dragging his feet as much as he could on his lessons on how to survive on the open sea. Pretty sure, he was positive that Sanada would figure out that he wasn’t being very helpful at all. Then the moron would just go off into the water and die and that would help no one. As much as he hated to admit it, he still remembered what Sanada had said. The island was full of "his people". The people that Sanada protected. Without the strong presence there, regardless of how silly he could be… Kite didn’t like to think of what might happen. Because he wasn’t going to start looking after the idiots. That was for certain.
Honestly, he thought that the reason why the man was being like this was that he had too much energy and stress building up. This was a stressful time and there was nothing anyone could really do about it but wait. For men of action, sitting and doing nothing was infuriating. It was annoying and it led to too much energy pent up. He knew of only two ways to release that feeling. Sex and fighting. And Sanada wasn’t Kite’s type. So that left playing the villain and picking a fight or order to help the larger man release some of that energy and maybe injure him enough that he couldn’t go through with his idiotic plan to sail on out of there. And he was on a time limit. He was planning on leaving for the deepest jungle in the next few days. He had to snap Sanada out of it before he left.
He just really didn’t have a plan of attack. The man seemed not to rise to any baiting. He was left with one option. Telling him that the sea would kill him and then sucker punch him. If that didn’t work, he didn’t know what could. It was as good as he was going to get at the moment. Especially since he already saw the man waiting on the beach where he usually had their lessons.
The last few days had been even more restless than any of the first two months, if that were even possible. Sanada had been quite sure that once he made his intentions known and put his plan of action into motion, that the others on the island would rally forth with full support. He had not counted on people not wanting to leave. Not wanting to take any action against the circumstances they were living in. He could not understand such dejection, such ready acceptance of the situation, that not only prevented themselves from stepping up, but also acted in resistance towards Sanada wanting to do anything about it. 'Can't you see I'm trying to save your lives!?' he had wanted to shout out more than once already. Such learned helplessness was TARUNDORU!! But all he could do was to take what help he could get and make do.
It was because of this that he readily accepted the help of and offer to be a crewmate from one man already, so that the physical means to get off the island was almost complete. What was left was the survival skills once the two of them were at the mercy of the waves. From a man whose innate instinct was that for survival, it was almost too good to be true that Kite had also offered his help. Lessons in survival, with which Sanada had hung onto every word, for even though he was positive he wouldn't die out there, like he had been saying over and over again to all the others, there were those who just didn't have any faith in his ability to stay alive, as if he were the sort of person that invited trouble and met it with the worst of luck.
The lessons had been going a bit too slowly for Sanada's liking, but he assured himself that Kite must be emphasizing these points because they were vital for his survival. Basic groundwork from which he was to build up upon, to ensure a solid foundation for the rest of the knowledge Kite would surely impart on him soon. Very soon. Better be soon, because Sanada wasn't sure how much more his patience could take; time was running out and he needed to know all he could by the time the ship was done. It was with a sigh of relief that he faced forward to greet Kite, one hand digging through his back pockets for the folded up piece of paper and a pen he had been using to take notes for the past several days. 'Water is wet,' read the line at the top of the page, where he had left off last.
Before the other could say anything, he first let him know, "I told Renji he could sit in a lesson today, if that's no trouble. I think he was interested in survival skills as well, but he wouldn't say exactly. ‘Any data is useful data,’ or something like this. You know how he's like. On that same train of thought, I was wondering if we could move on from our previous lesson? I understand very well that water can be-- is-- wet, as I have been experiencing throughout my life. I have seen the signs around the public beaches too, warning that the seawater is not safe to drink from. If we could move on to..." He broke off, seeing Renji approach. It wouldn't do to start the lesson without his friend, after all.
" ‘…to actually learning how to survive a storm in the sea, and to fight sea giraffes’, isn’t what you were going to say, Genichirou? " Yanagi said before bowing politely. "Good morning, Kite. I appreciate you assisting my friend in developing a self-preservation instinct. By experience, I must say it’s a very difficult task…" Yanagi greeted once he was close enough. Yanagi had seen the ‘notes’ Sanada had written down and clearly saw what Kite was trying to pull. Everybody seemed determined to stop Sanada at any cost. He couldn’t understand it, though, why people seemed to enjoy being stuck in an island. Not that he found Sanada’s plan any better; there were so many factors that could end in the death of the ones sailing into the unknown.
What he was absolutely positive of was what the thrill of a worthy opponent could trigger inside of fighting men like Sanada and Kite. Men that have been deprived of release that danger and body combat could provide, and could cross the safety line quite easily, with that pent-up tension. Yanagi didn’t want his friend injured beyond repair on a desert island, thank you very much.
Yanagi didn’t stand against it, though. He wasn’t even sure anymore if he wanted to stop Sanada or to join him in that absurd, dangerous odyssey.
Boredom is a very dangerous thing for restless minds. So is curiosity.
And you couldn’t just say no to such a golden opportunity to gather valuable information. "I hope my presence doesn’t represent a bother to you."
Inwardly, Kite cursed. An audience. Not that having an audience would stop him from doing what he was going to do. He honestly didn’t care what anyone thought of him. So he didn’t care if the dataman went away from this thinking Kite was some bastard who attacked people with no provocation whatsoever. When he had decided to do this, he had already made peace with the fact that Sanada was cared for and that he was going to make a few enemies this way. He was going to be the bad guy… again. A spot he was getting far too used to and comfortable in, really. But it was for a good cause. He’d be the villain if it kept the man in front of him from going out onto the seas and dying. Because Kite knew: lessons or no lessons, death was certain.
He raised an eyebrow and mouthed sea giraffes. He hadn’t thought of that. He had been more focused on all the sea life that could kill Sanada that actually existed. Sharks, jellyfish, schools of regular fish. Whales. Sea birds. He hadn’t even thought to use Sanada’s ridiculous phobia. Perhaps if this didn’t work, he would use that information to reiterate that there were very very scary things in the ocean and it was safer and smarter to just be patient a little while longer. After all, Kite had been on this island for months before anyone else had arrived. If anyone should have wanted to get the hell off, it should have been him.
He then shrugged. "Not at all. My lesson today can be given regardless of who else is here." He just needed the opportunity and the opening and he was sure he knew how to get it. "Besides, you might find the lesson interesting. Today, it’s going to be dead reckoning and reading the weather. Compasses don’t work out here. You’ll need to navigate by knowing which way is east. And weather is important too. Right now, I can look at the sky and tell you exactly when the next storm will hit and where it will be strongest. " The joys of having grown up on a tiny tropical island. He then glanced over to the larger man. "Can you. Look up and tell me. Tell me what time it is right now, by where the sun is. And tell me when it’s going to storm." And when Sanada did look up, Kite was going to sucker punch him.
Sea giraffes. Sanada nodded readily in agreement to Yanagi's ever-accurate prediction of his words. It was the first he had heard of the creatures when Jackal showed him the images, but he could understand why their existence had been kept quiet to the general public. There would be mass hysteria if word got out of these creatures, no one would want to leave their homes, and all society would grind to a halt unless the world could rally together and prepare for an all out war to eradicate those horrors. Creatures whose head was the size of the schoolyard not even in adulthood, whose hoof was the height of a grown man-- and perhaps the worst thing of all-- could swim through the seas. Giraffes. In the ocean. Long neck, dead eyes and all.
Weather forecast wasn't exactly what Sanada had in mind for a follow-up lesson to the physical properties of water, but it was definitely a step up, and maybe Kite had chosen this topic because he knew that sea giraffes typically favor one sort of weather over another. So he obediently turned to raise his eyes to the sky, fighting to ignore logic hinting of the answer and instead focusing on the position of the sun to tell him. After nearly twenty years of the same routine of rising from bed at four in the morning, he trusted his internal clock more than the sun, which, in this place, didn't seem to follow the normal convention of rising in the east and setting in the west, though it still took such a path in the sky so that it hung directly overhead at noon and maintained the usual 24 hour day.
Eyes lingering on the jetty out at a distance off to the side of the sun instead of staring directly at it so that it wouldn't blind him, Sanada could see that it hadn't reached the peak of its path yet, which his internal clock agreed with, it having been perhaps only four or five hours since he had gotten up, sat through zazen, worked some more on the ship, and reviewed the past days' notes before his meeting here. Still relatively early morning. "Half past eight?" he chanced a guess, before looking across the sea, where he could see dark clouds rolling in, not too thickly that it threatened a storm this current day, but definitely sometime this week if they kept building up like this. Which was the exact reason why he needed to be done with that ship now.
Yanagi saw Kite tensing for a half a second, and if he followed the line of the other's body language, he was 89% sure he had planned to sucker punch Sanada if the other had done the most common thing of just lifting his face to see the sun. Yanagi smirked. People usually thought that Sanada's stoic, straight-forward and simplistic thinking meant he was stupid. They were far from it. And, his body had been trained since he was a baby to never let his guard down. Sanada was a very strong opponent in every sense of the word. A nickname such as the Emperor was not for nothing after all.
If only he wasn't such a stubborn dork...
Yanagi inwardly sighed and spotted a nice log on which he could sit. He made himself comfortable. "That is a very important lesson, I believe. High and low waters present themselves usually at similar times per season…" He pulled his phone out. "Oh, 8:40 AM."
Kite knew that Sanada wasn’t stupid. He knew not to underestimate the man. He also knew that this was going to be the only chance he got, because the man seemed rather immune to his usual ways of picking fights. The man before him didn’t seem the sort to get out of shape because of childish insults and playful banter in the form of merciless teasing about sore subjects. He knew what a fight with Sanada might mean for him. But Sanada wasn’t the only man from the junior high tennis circuit with a nickname. Kite just had a more… unfortunate and rather fitting one. Hitman. A killer for hire that hunted down his target and struck when least expected. Striking hard and fast and where it hurt the most. One shot. One kill. Only he knew it would take more than one shot to take down the larger man. He hoped for it. It didn’t look like Sanada had a glass jaw. He was banking on the fact.
He waited. Waited until he thought the man had most of his attention elsewhere. He nodded a little at the guess. It was impressive really. Kite’s own internal clock said the same thing. Yanagi’s voice confirmed that they were both correct. But he saw his chance as the gaze of the other traveled to the sea. He wondered, in the back of his mind, why the man on the log wasn’t going to try and stop him. He supposed he could ask later. He had something he needed to do first. And though he hated doing so in front of someone who could easily dissect the movement, Kite took the chance while he could and he moved. He was right beside Sanada in a flash and his fist was moving, aimed directly at the other’s jaw line. He had done it with no other indication that he was going to attack. No other sound, no other motions. Just the singular smooth movement and the punch. Kite really was a master when it came to the martial arts.
Sanada had made to look at Kite before giving his prediction of the weather, but although he saw the man beside him, he was too late to avoid the fist completely, which collided with a small but distinguishable crack that indicated one of them likely either had a fractured jaw or fractured knuckles. The face was one of the four target areas in kendo that were assigned points when struck properly. Sanada knew how to best avoid them in an honorable head-on competition, but was not completely useless against an attack from the side either. If he had been caught entirely unawares and hadn't immediately rolled with the punch on instinct as best he could, it was likely the impact would have spun his head hard around enough for a concussion, with Kite's shot so well placed, right where the jaw attaches with the skull, if not for that nearly imperceptible distance his target had moved beforehand. He could have died. ...Which would certainly have prevented him from leaving the island.
One hand up to touch his jaw, Sanada winced slightly in pain and dropped his hand quickly, his face a mixture of rage and confusion. Kite had just... punched him. Kite, who had always been so agreeable in teaching him about the ocean, had just punched him. It was as if all his faith in the world had evaporated on the spot the moment his teacher raised his hand. Sanada instinctively put a bit more distance between him and the other, regarding him closely. 8:30... 8:40... was his being ten minutes off really that horrible a mistake that he deserved punishment for the wrong answer? Even he didn't backhand others for giving him the incorrect time of day. This was ridiculous!
Yanagi watched intently how Kite moved, admiring the speed and elegance in his movements, so different from Sanada’s strong, defined ones. He had sworn to himself he would not interfere in whatever this might turn into (unless it might endanger or compromise his friend’s safety/life). He would rather his friend explode than implode.
With his eyes open in a deathly glare, Yanagi clenched his hands into fists at the cracking sound of the collision, but made no other movement.
That look… Kite felt suddenly like he had kicked a puppy. There was just something about that betrayed look on Sanada’s face that almost touched his heart. Almost. It would have… if Kite actually possessed such a thing. But he didn’t and this was for the greater good. He could live with the man never trusting him again. He could live with the intelligent man sitting and watching this disliking him as well. He’d already started to make his bed. Now he just had to sleep in it.
He frowned a little at the distance. He wouldn’t be able to get close again. Even with his movement techniques, taking Sanada on head was crazy. But it also seemed that hitting him so suddenly hadn’t done anything. The man, Kite decided, must have been made of stone, to take such a hit and not lose his temper or at least not think of retaliating. Lightly, he shook his hand out. Definitely made of stone… The still tender second degree burns on the inside of his palms didn’t help his case any.
It would take a lot more then, to pick a fight with Sanada. He wondered just how low he would have to get in order to do that. He smirked a little and out of habit, tried to push up glasses that he no longer wore. "You think the sea giraffes will give you any warning either? They’re crafty. They’ll sneak up on you while you are unawares. You’ve already proven that you can’t guard against me. How could you even think to guard against them." He let his body relax. He was going to go in for an attack again. This time, he was going to let the man know he was coming. "The giraffes and the storms. The rogue waves and the sharks. If you can’t even defend yourself against me, how can you even think of going out there?" He appeared in front of the man and dropped, to try to sweep Sanada’s legs out from under him. "If you do, you WILL die."
The legs weren't one of the designated strike zones in kendo, but kendo wasn't the only martial arts Sanada was familiar with; in the police, one of the requirements for a policeman to attain his job was to be skilled in at least one of the designated categories of martial arts, and because of this, he had spent some time watching and learning from the other arts. He might not have practiced them enough to compete professionally, and his own dojo specialized in purely kendo, but he recognized the stance for executing a leg sweep and it wasn't hard to dodge Kite's attack once he was aware of the attack. Like he had worked to incorporate kendo into his tennis when he was developing his skills in middle school, he could work the strikes and footwork into unarmed combat. A weapon was only an extension of one's own arms anyways, and the rest was the same as close combat against an opponent who liked to crowd.
Sanada nodded in belated response to Kite's reason for battle. He wouldn't have been able to speak properly without a slur anyways if his jaw had been fractured even if it was just a hairline, but the pain when he clenched his teeth was enough to show him that had Kite meant business when he fights. Pain, however, cleared Sanada's head and sharpened his senses now that he knew his task was a battle and not deciphering the sky or the waves. A battle he could do, especially now that he knew Kite's purpose was teaching after all-- of course he had to have his wits about him while on sea, and especially had to keep fit and alert for anything, which was what Kite was testing for in this lesson's exercise. He was right to have trusted his education in this man, Sanada decided, allowing himself to feel shame for having doubted him a moment before.
No holding back; that was what he owed Kite for the lapse of faith. Against a sea giraffe, he would slay at the neck, where the creature would have the least maneuverability. Tsuki! was what Sanada would have called as he made the hit at the fourth strike zone at the throat between the normally covered head and shoulder, if they were in a dojo wearing the proper equipment. But they weren't, and sea giraffes wouldn't understand Japanese speech anyways, so Sanada was silent when his arm moved for Kite's neck, aiming to kill as he would the beast.
It was beautiful. Yes, there was an 84% probability that Sanada got his jaw fractured, if only slightly but the sight of two martial artis displaying their abilities in a head on fight was worth it. Yanagi realized he had missed the look of his friend’s face, so focused, full of determination and mental and physical strength. After getting shot, Yanagi felt something broke inside Sanada (beside blood vessels and nerves). He thought that trying to save everyone’s lives in what would most likely be a suicide mission was Sanada trying to fulfill his own expectations, instead of following what he wanted to do. Like trying to fill the void the constant routine was creating.
Yanagi thought that the times Sanada looked most like the ‘real’ Sanada was in the middle-near-the-end of a challenging tennis match and when fighting a worthy opponent. It was a very interesting sight…
… And Kite’s elegant moves were definitely a plus. This, this… The probability of getting a chance to obtain accurate information about that before-spectacled man was under 54%. Yes, he could definite hack into the military system database, but the last time he did he had almost got caught and if the information was not as accurate as he expected it to be, it was just not worth it. Good thing he didn’t need notebooks as Inui used, because taking his eyes off the action in front of him might had resulted in losing precious valuable information.
Calculating the trajectory they were going to follow after the Kite dodged Sanada’s attack, Yanagi moved 15 cm to the left.
The neck. Kite noticed it almost too late. There were places that even in the middle of a fight, Kite would never strike at. No because he didn’t trust himself. He knew he could hold back and stop before he actually hit, but because if he did make a mistake, the person he hit would never ever get back up. As much as he had held Momoshiro at knifepoint, he didn’t want any deaths here on his head. Not because he was squeamish, his job in the military made that an impossibility, but because he actually sort of liked some of these idiots. A blow to the neck was a serious, death dealing thing. He had to dodge or end up unable to breathe on the ground.
Unlike the imagined sea giraffes, Kite was far more flexible. The leg sweep made him end up in a bad angle and he had to bend almost completely backwards not to get hit. But that wasn’t going to stop him. Instead of landing on his back, he used the bend to plant his hands on the sand and spring backwards. He wasn’t someone who did acrobatic tennis, but martial arts made a back handspring possible. He didn’t land as gracefully as he wanted, but still managed to crouch, trying to make the escape look slightly more impressive to hide the fact that he had run away from a potential strike.
He straightened up and smiled. A slow, almost too happy smile. Sanada was serious. Wonderful! And he was skilled. Even better. He attacked again. Kite had always liked close combat when it came to fighting. Crowding when it wasn’t a kick or a full strike. But this was Sanada and he wasn’t going to be using Okinawan bujutsu. He was using something far more primal. A bar room brawl mix of everything he knew. He was going to give his worthy opponent the joy of going all out. And for once, Kite didn’t do what he often did when he played with Hiyoshi. He didn’t speak again. He didn’t mock. Fighting with Sanada was different than fighting with Hiyoshi. Hiyoshi was a game to him. It was for fun. For the perverse pleasure he got out of the other’s reactions. Sanada wouldn’t get riled up. And this wasn’t a game. This was for the safety and survival of a very worthy man.
He advanced, watching him, keeping the dataman’s location a constant in the back of his mind. He wouldn’t trust anyone behind him. He’d never get caught off guard from behind again. His advance came with the movement for a solid chest strike.
If a sea giraffe was anything like this-- and Kite was doing a splendid job at mirroring what Sanada imagined to be the right amount of aggression and trickery the beasts would portray-- Sanada would definitely have to be careful. 'Kill or be killed,' and he very much preferred to stay alive. He would have to thank Kite wholeheartedly after this exercise, for giving such a lesson. Renji too, perhaps they could also emulate giraffe battles in their spare time; his friend should know more about giraffes than him, telling him what he did right and where he went wrong in his first attempt in this simulation with Kite.
Sanada's hand closed on nothing but thin air, which didn't surprise him in the least. They were intelligent creatures, these giraffes, or they would never have survived so long. Of course they knew where their weak points were, they wouldn't make it so easy for an enemy to snap their neck or limbs, they would be able to guard or get out of the way. A good enemy did not allowed their weak points to stay weak points. Regardless, since he did not know those points on a giraffe, there was nothing to do but to rush the opponent again. Pressure it, back it into a corner, do not let it get away. This was 'Invade like Fire.' Nothing but pure strength, a head-on attack. In close combat, he was no stranger to the field.
That dangerous smile on the other man's face reflected all too well the mockery Sanada believed a giraffe would exhibit if it too could pull its lips back and bear its teeth in such a manner. And then Kite was at his side again, too quick for him to turn and have the fist glance off his chest so instead he took it straight on, not even giving time for the inevitable strike to complete before he had already swung his own fist. The most immediate target was the left of Kite's shoulder, the same one in Sanada's being of long since splintered bone and frayed nerves.
Kite knew Sanada would be able to take a hit. And he knew that the man would be solid. More so than his jaw. Hitting Sanada reminded Kite of his days in the karate dojo, breaking cinder blocks with well executed blows. Only hitting Sanada was NOT like hitting the blocks. The blocks were softer and didn’t hit back with such force. He knew he wouldn’t come out of this unharmed. There was no way this would be so simple. He knew that this would injure them both. But this was such fun. This was exciting. Because Sanada was fast. Sanada was powerful. Sanada was… like the other side of himself. While Kite was the bad, Sanada was the good. The dark and the light, clashing on the sand.
His shoulder. He couldn’t dodge it. That powerful blow was enough to dislocate his shoulder. But he would never show the pain. He was used to hiding it. Besides, he had another arm. And another elbow… and a knee. He was close enough for kick boxing, and his knee went up. Kidneys. Sanada would be pissing blood. And eye for an eye… A kidney for a shoulder. A hit and run, bouncing back to grab his shoulder. The sound… that horrific sound of a joint being put back into place. But his arm wouldn’t be of much use even putting it back in place. But doing so took too much time and he knew ever second his attention was away from Sanada was a second that the man could attack.
While there was no need to wind up in order to execute a proper punch, there was hardly any room to prepare the punch or dodge a blow. Even without his full strength, Sanada could feel his fist impact at just the right place and something give way, but by then he was already dealing with a reciprocal shot. Fighting so close a range, the choice was either taking the hit or minimizing the impact-- because he would not turn tail and back off in this fight. Not against a giraffe, he promised himself, real or representory. Last time he turned his back, he almost failed to get his friend off the ship. Next time, he might fail to escape the sea. Bruises on the organ would heal on their own, but he was through with dealing with ruptured blood vessels. Here on the island, there wasn't even a hospital around for anyone to drag him kicking and screaming off into surgery. But even if he couldn't block it completely, Sanada would never allow a clean hit. Doing so, he might die before the training exercise was over, and if he survived the day then he would definitely die at sea. Giraffes were not known for being merciful.
When Kite leapt back grabbing his shoulder, instinct told Sanada he should re-close the gap. While the amount of space wasn't enough he comfortably worked with, there was no comfort in combat, and he knew that even if he couldn't parry off blows properly, neither could Kite, who seemed to have abandoned his left arm. Sanada could take as many blows to the body as necessary, but to win this fight, he had to disable his opponent completely before the other does the same to him. And the fastest way was the knees, be it human or giraffe, so his leg's next target was the offending knee that tried to take his kidney out of commission.
Yanagi did a quick evaluation of the most dangerous injuries the two opponents were presenting, ignoring the blows that were inevitable and concentrating on the ones that might result in complication. Kite: complete shoulder dislocation and in a 13° angle downward; swelling, numbness, weakness, bruising; most likely suffering muscle spasms from the disruption and therefore excruciating pain. He highly doubted Kite was susceptible of forfeiting from pain alone (and may actually enjoy it or the adrenaline it brought). If he had received a similar injury before, the stability of his shoulder was at risk, just like…
Sanada.
Yanagi could already see the symptoms of blunt force kidney trauma. The body tension in order to endure physical pain, the swelling, the sweat, and Yanagi was sure the nausea was going to start soon. Even if they lacked any of the medical equipment to treat him in case of emergency, he was quite sure it wasn’t going to be needed anyway; his friend knew how to take a hit. That, of course, didn’t mean the pain or the resulting blood in urine was going to be pleasant at all.
The probability of Sanada aiming of Kite’s right knee in order of restrain dangerous movement and prevent further attacks were above 96%. The rage, the pain, and the mentality of fighting giraffes were most likely to increase Sanada’s force by 35% and in contrast, they would be decreasing his ‘caring’ and ‘not going over the top’ mental seal. The probability of resulting in a meniscus tear injury to Kite was 94%. That would result in Kite aiming at Sanada’s left shoulder. The angle where the most probable hit would take place wouldn’t be the best to achieve a severe injury, but if it he rotated it 26° to the right, Kite might be successful in dislocating it.
They were in enough pain already, they had their turns at beating the crap out of another worthy opponent and there was no need for more severe injuries to be caused. Plus, he didn’t want to see his friend in the physical pain/emotional turmoil of having his shoulder blasted a second time.
There was no way Yanagi could reach to stand between the blows (and it was stupid to do so anyway), so he rushed in to press the pressure points to immobilize Sanada just for the two seconds required, and pushed him down onto the sand and out of reach. If his friend hasn’t been so enthralled in the fight he wouldn’t have been able to do so.
Unfortunately, that meant standing in blow-distance of Kite if he decided to attack, but it was the less problematic case-scenario of all.
His knees. Kite’s fighter’s sense told him it was coming. He knew that Sanada had the same instinct. That bloodthirsty instinct to utterly destroy the opponent. He had been put into pain and he was going to repay it in turn. He was going to make Sanada remember him. He was going to etch the memory of tangling with Kite Eishirou into his body. And he knew where to strike. Because Kite had no mercy, no heart, and he would always, always attack weakness, real or imagined. And Sanada’s weakest point was his shoulder. The shoulder that had been injured long before the island. The mirror to his own aching arm, throbbing with such pain that he could barely ignore it. Even resetting it so suddenly hadn’t helped, but only made the pain into unbearable agony. He wouldn’t lose. Not to the pain and not to Sanada. And he was going to make certain that one of them wasn’t walking away from this beach under his own power. He meant it to be Sanada. Hurt him enough that he had to recover. So that he couldn’t leave for a little while longer.
With a useless arm, he could only do certain strikes. But he still had a full range of deadly kicks. There would be no holding back. An ax kick to the shoulder followed by a spinning back heel kick to the back of Sanada’s head. It would be dangerous. His legs were in danger and without them, he couldn’t kick. He had one shot at this. When Sanada advanced, he started the frighteningly complex combination. Only suddenly, Sanada wasn’t there. Sanada was on the ground and Yanagi was in the way… worse, he had already started.
His foot swung and he twisted himself, heel landing upon nothing. He’s missed; just barely. He was sure Yanagi heard the sound of his boot as it zipped past his face. Over extended, Kite lost what was considered the most supernatural of balance and he ended up on his ass in the sand, panting hard and giving the Dataman what should have been quite the death glare. Should have. Instead, it looked more like a young boy whose mother had told him he couldn’t play anymore because dinner was ready. He was having fun… despite the pain and the wanting to kill each other… plus, he wasn’t sure his goal had been accomplished. He didn’t want all that energy to have been spent for absolutely nothing.
He panted more and gave Sanada a look, lightly holding his shoulder, trying to push it back in the rest of the way. "You aren’t ready for the sea yet," he stated, as calmly as he could.
Sanada did not know what was the most devastating: the premature stab of pain he did not foresee and then him collapsing onto the sand like a block of lead, the sheer terror that shot through his mind like a bolt of electricity when he raised his eyes just in time to see Yanagi there in his place about to be stuck down, or the spoken fact that drove through him like a lance at full force... that no, he wasn't ready. He wasn't able to defeat Kite, and worse, he wouldn't be able to protect anyone he brought with him. He couldn't do this. He knew this now.
He would have liked very much to stand right then and help Kite up, thanking him for showing him his limitations, but at the moment all the nerves in his body seemed to have given up on him, which was a relief to his left shoulder and the injured kidney just below the lowest rib, but a real inconvenience to the rest of him, who would not be able to move for another few minutes, laying here in a sort of numb stupor until Yanagi decides it's not funny anymore and help him up. 'Renji, help please,' he tried to say, but all he could manage was a effortful but still unintelligible growl of annoyance that he had absolutely no feeling in his limbs until it goes away on its own or Yanagi presses the pressure points to stop it. Sometimes, he was scarier even than Kite. Than giraffes.
Yanagi looked down the two men that were sprawled on the sand and smirked a little. They were great fighters, yes, but there was a teenager steak latent in each one of them. Useful thing, that he had babysat his team members back in middle school for long enough to know how to handle this kind of situation. The probability of Sanada trying to get off the island in a near future was lower than 23% now; the probability of Kite involving himself in reckless fights was… the same really, but at least the dislocated shoulder would stop him for a while.
"No, you’re not ready but I’m positive you realize that now, Genichirou," Yanagi said before kneeling into the sand and checking for a jaw fracture before pressing the pressure points to make the numbness that was taking over his friend subside. "Oh, yes. Small fissure but nothing to worry about; your kidney appears to have reasonable, but non life-threatening damage, but if something feels out of ordinary consult Hiroshi about it." More like he would have to ambush his friend to make him accept a checkup; that was manageable, of course. He pressed the pressure points necessary for his friend to recover the sense of his body. That was actually the only way he could ever win a fight against Sanada, and the chances of being able to press all the mandatory points to knock him out were extremely rare, even more so without getting hit. Yanagi didn’t want to experience another blow from his friend any time soon.
He turned to Kite. "And even if you make a remarkable sea giraffe, you are not undefeatable." Yanagi scowled at the former captain. Without asking for permission, he grabbed the other’s injured shoulder to check it over. "Genichirou, help me please. We need to put it back into place. This is going to be the opposite to painless, but you already know that, don’t you, Kite?"
Kite scowled even more at the dataman. He didn’t like being told that. He knew it was true. He wasn’t completely invulnerable. He could be beaten. It just took someone of equal skill… or someone to sneak behind him and hit his pressure points like Yanagi had done to Sanada. Kite silently vowed to never let that man behind him without having his guard completely up. But instead of answering to Yanagi, he spoke to his former opponent. "When you can defeat me, then you’ll be ready to face the ocean. Until then, you stay here and watch over the ones on the beach. I’ll accept your challenge at any time."
Any time but now, of course. He clenched his teeth when his arm was taken. The pain was horrific. Had he been anyone else, he might have passed out from it. Though those teeth, he grunted. "Then get on with it. I can take it." He could. He’d force himself to.
Sanada gave a slow sigh of relief as the feeling came back into his limbs, leaden but there. He wouldn't have gone to see Yagyuu about this on his own accord, but he also had a slight suspicion Yanagi had his ways to make him go all the same, and there was no fighting that. Last time he fought, he woke up with four days missing out of his life and his shoulder in a splint. So instead of arguing that lost point, he got to his feet and positioned himself by Yanagi at Kite's shoulder, knowing that these sort of injuries got worse the longer they weren't fixed.
He smiled grimly at Kite, as well as his jaw allowed him, and nodded his understanding. "Lie down," he grunted, finding it bearable to speak but uncomfortable enough that he wouldn't readily talk, at least for a while anyways. It was easier to relocate the shoulder when the patient was lying down, but he thought maybe that was because the person was usually distressed and thrashing about, and Kite was anything but. Good. Admirable man for going through all of this; he approved. Sanada had very little medical training from his time with the police, besides the basics such as CPR and applying tourniquets, but he had seen shoulder injuries at the dojo while practicing kendo before, and how his brother would put the shoulder back into place while they called for an ambulance, so he knew how to help.
With Sanada’s help, Yanagi made Kite lay down in the sand. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and put it over Kite’s chest. "Bite if your must; I don’t want you to bleed to death if you bite off your tongue. Genichirou, hold his other shoulder down." If the circumstances were any different, he would have just shoved it inside the other’s mouth, but the chances of Kite biting him were rather high niceties must be observed. Yanagi’s face was serious and concentrated when he gently put the arm in a 90° angle and gently rotated, then with a good hard tug in the right direction, put the shoulder back into place with a loud ‘pop’.
He sat in the sand with a small, satisfied smirk. "That went well for my first time, I believe."
Kite let them manhandle him, but only because he couldn’t very well go off into the jungle for days on end as he planned without getting that arm reset. Even after, it still wouldn’t be that wise of an idea. But he would still go out. Since he knew that Sanada would be around to make sure the idiots didn’t kill themselves while he wasn’t there to watch and laugh.
He frowned darkly at the handkerchief but didn’t accept it. It remained right where it was placed. He let Sanada hold him down a little more. Which was good. Because had he not been restrained, he might have punched Yanagi out of reflex. That ugly hurt those that hurt you reflex. Because it did hurt. It hurt so badly that at the tug, he felt a sick. A lesser man would have passed out. A lesser man would have screamed in pain. He was not a lesser man. He held it in. Barely. There was just smallest sound from him. A strained whimper almost drowned out by that sickening pop.
He glared at that smirk he saw and looked between the two former Rikkai demons. "I’ll be sure," he stated, voice a little strained from his efforts, "not to give you a second time." Just like neither of them would ever get him on his back again. He was sure they both knew that. But at least now, he could get up and disappear back into the jungles… once he was let back up that was. He didn’t feel much like wrestling and he doubted his arm would let him, even back into place. It would need rested.
Sanada winced inwardly at the noise the joint made when it was forced back into its proper place, but didn't let it show on his face as he got back to his feet first, extending a hand first to Yanagi and then to Kite to help them up, though he suspected Kite might regard the hand just as he did the handkerchief. The pain on Kite's face was pain that he caused, and even if it was in mutual understanding in a fight where all bets were off, it was still somewhat distressing. Pain inflicted on a giraffe was one thing, of course, that was because the intent to kill came from both sides. Kite might have refused to be 'one of his' but the fact stood that he was still human and someone Sanada would keep an eye out for regardless of whether it was necessary, and it likely wouldn't ever be.
"Thank you for everything, Kite," he said slowly, solemnly, as if addressing a dying man but only because it was uncomfortable to speak. Men like this don't die that easily, he had to remind himself, but neither does he. The seas would see him some day, but that was wasn't today, or anywhere in his immediate future.
Yanagi took the hand offered and dusted the sand off his pants. "This was a very enlightening training lesson, thank you very much for letting me participate," he said with a small smile whilst reaching for the backpack he had left near the log he sat on before. The dataman rummaged inside it for a bit before taking out a bottle of painkillers and a pack of cigarettes. He opened the bottle and took a couple of pills before closing it again and throwing it at Kite. "They’re from my private collection, so they’re good." He handed over the pills in his hand to Sanada and lit a cigarette for himself. "That means that Hirsohi nor Niou know about their existence, and I would like that to stay that way, Genichirou." He smiled at his friend before turning once more to the other man. "Even if it seems incredibly tempting, don’t swallow them down all at once, and least of all with alcohol." In case of an OD they wouldn’t be able to reach the soldier on time. "Or if you do, try to do it with your… with Hiyoshi Wakashi in the vicinities. He won’t be of much use but he will shout out for help if you pass out and need medical assistance."
Kite accepted the hand Sanada offered to him. He accepted only because it was as close as he was ever going to get to a handshake after a good match. But once up, he was dusting himself off as well and doing his best not to favor his injured shoulder. "It’s no problem," he answered back.
A bottle of pills came flying and he caught them. Turning them to see the label, he blinked. They really were the good ones. Did Yanagi really expect him to take the whole bottle with him? He wasn’t the sort to want painkillers or need them. They dulled the senses. Pain meant that you were still alive. It wouldn’t be the first night he didn’t sleep because he hurt, nor would it be his last. Instead, he opened the bottle and fished out just four. Those, he slipped into a little waterproof baggy that he carried about in the very roomy pockets of his fatigue pants. Pills secure, he tossed the bottle back to the owner. "Not with alcohol. Understood." He tried not to react to the Hiyoshi comment though. He wanted to dare Yanagi to finish that sentence. What the younger martial artist was to him was… complicated… at best. And he was sure if he ODed, Hiyoshi would only be angry because it wasn’t he who defeated Kite, but Kite’s own stupidity. If he recovered, the little mushroom would never ever let him live it down. So there was no way in hell he was going to give him that chance.
He turned his attention back to Sanada for a moment. "I’m headed into the jungles for a while. Your next lesson will be after I return. At that time, I’ll do a question and answer. And I’ll answer any question you have." He meant it too. Any question. Sanada was worthy of that much at least. "Until then… I’m sure Yanagi will be more than happy to help you learn all about the… Sea Giraffes, won’t you, Yanagi?" Maybe the dataman could make up something frightful enough to scare the man away from the water for a while longer that injured kidneys and a broken jaw would.
The jungle. Sanada nodded his understanding. It was a place he hadn't bothered stepping foot in yet. He had no intention in going further inland, no sense of adventure or spark of curiosity that drew him towards the trees. So long as the majority of the people stayed on the beach, that is where he would remain to look over them. Besides, surely rescue lay in the waters and not in the jungle, and whether rescue was coming to them or they were to create their own rescue by someday leaving, he intended to be there when the opportunity presents itself.
While he was worried for Kite being out there, his concern was abated almost immediately. Kite was the sort of man who could take care of himself, and did so. Sanada might not know about the jungle or what lay inside, but he could assume Kite was well adapted to it if he was able to live in there, and he had also seen others go in and out of the jungle more or less unscathed. The one Renji mentioned, Hiyoshi, was one of them. It wasn't often-- it looked like he preferred the ship whereas Sanada wanted nothing to do with it ever again-- but sometimes Sanada would see him stepping out of the trees in the early morning, almost always with a scowl on his face and his eyes cast down as if the sudden contrast between the shadows of the jungle canopy and the morning sun stung them. But, to his knowledge, Sanada hadn't lost count of the numbers on the island. Things were still okay.
Another lesson... He already knew what that would consist of, and what questions he had-- he was already teeming with them, and most involved strategic battles against sea giraffes, and if Kite had knowledge of the matter, giraffes of all sorts as well. But there was no rush really, so long as Sanada was right in banking on the fact that there were no giraffes already here and none island-bound, since he wouldn't leave now. He couldn't anymore.
"Interesting…" Yanagi said, catching the bottle of pills and then shrugged. Well, that confirmed the other actually enjoyed pain, or at least found it worth suffering. Did he see an unidentified emotion in Kite’s eyes at the mention of Hiyoshi? Interesting indeed. "Of course, I’ll provide any information that can be useful about those creatures." He nodded for emphasis. "Take care and let us know if we can be helpful in any way." He hardly believed Kite would seek help if he actually needed it, but Yanagi was grateful at the soldier and former captain. Sanada wasn’t the type of man that was stopped by being told he couldn’t do something; it needed to be proven to be true… and he also needed to be given motivations, and entrusting him with the safety of the ones at beach will keep him focused on such a task for the time being.
Kite would sooner die than ask for help. But he knew that if he absolutely had to… then he would ask these two. These two… he could trust. And that… that was quite a step for Kite. As was turning his back on them both. He had to though, as he was a man of his word. Without so much as a fare-you-well, he started off towards the jungles. He sort of used his good arm to give a wave over his shoulder, but he didn’t turn. The beach belonged to Sanada again. The jungles… were his. And to prove it, he disappeared upon reaching them. Vanishing into the underbrush like a ghost or a shadow. He would be back though. Because he was a man of his word.
Location: Shoreline
Time: Remember way back when Sanada was planning his suicide voyage off the island? Back then, sometime right after Yukimura arrives and before Kite leaves for the jungle.
Rating: PG-13 for violence.
Summary: Part 3 of 3 (parts 1 and 2 are still in progress :x) of persuading Sanada that leaving the island to look for help isn't the smartest thing to do. On the pretense of ocean survival lessons, Kite decides that if talking him out didn't do much good, then he would just have to physically stop him. Thank goodness Yanagi is there (damage control, you know). Warnings for, uhm, Sanada and giraffes.
~*~
A part of Kite was pretty excited about this. It wasn’t often that he got a good fight. The pickings on the island were very slim. There was his usual playmate. But if they sparred too much, too often, there was a good chance that he’d break his favorite toy and that wouldn’t be any fun at all. So he had to find his little violence fix. Plus, there was someone on this island that needed some serious sense beat into him. And for once that someone wasn’t Momoshiro. That someone was the former demon vice-captain of Rikkai. Sanada.
Sanada was being foolish and reckless. Kite had been dragging his feet as much as he could on his lessons on how to survive on the open sea. Pretty sure, he was positive that Sanada would figure out that he wasn’t being very helpful at all. Then the moron would just go off into the water and die and that would help no one. As much as he hated to admit it, he still remembered what Sanada had said. The island was full of "his people". The people that Sanada protected. Without the strong presence there, regardless of how silly he could be… Kite didn’t like to think of what might happen. Because he wasn’t going to start looking after the idiots. That was for certain.
Honestly, he thought that the reason why the man was being like this was that he had too much energy and stress building up. This was a stressful time and there was nothing anyone could really do about it but wait. For men of action, sitting and doing nothing was infuriating. It was annoying and it led to too much energy pent up. He knew of only two ways to release that feeling. Sex and fighting. And Sanada wasn’t Kite’s type. So that left playing the villain and picking a fight or order to help the larger man release some of that energy and maybe injure him enough that he couldn’t go through with his idiotic plan to sail on out of there. And he was on a time limit. He was planning on leaving for the deepest jungle in the next few days. He had to snap Sanada out of it before he left.
He just really didn’t have a plan of attack. The man seemed not to rise to any baiting. He was left with one option. Telling him that the sea would kill him and then sucker punch him. If that didn’t work, he didn’t know what could. It was as good as he was going to get at the moment. Especially since he already saw the man waiting on the beach where he usually had their lessons.
The last few days had been even more restless than any of the first two months, if that were even possible. Sanada had been quite sure that once he made his intentions known and put his plan of action into motion, that the others on the island would rally forth with full support. He had not counted on people not wanting to leave. Not wanting to take any action against the circumstances they were living in. He could not understand such dejection, such ready acceptance of the situation, that not only prevented themselves from stepping up, but also acted in resistance towards Sanada wanting to do anything about it. 'Can't you see I'm trying to save your lives!?' he had wanted to shout out more than once already. Such learned helplessness was TARUNDORU!! But all he could do was to take what help he could get and make do.
It was because of this that he readily accepted the help of and offer to be a crewmate from one man already, so that the physical means to get off the island was almost complete. What was left was the survival skills once the two of them were at the mercy of the waves. From a man whose innate instinct was that for survival, it was almost too good to be true that Kite had also offered his help. Lessons in survival, with which Sanada had hung onto every word, for even though he was positive he wouldn't die out there, like he had been saying over and over again to all the others, there were those who just didn't have any faith in his ability to stay alive, as if he were the sort of person that invited trouble and met it with the worst of luck.
The lessons had been going a bit too slowly for Sanada's liking, but he assured himself that Kite must be emphasizing these points because they were vital for his survival. Basic groundwork from which he was to build up upon, to ensure a solid foundation for the rest of the knowledge Kite would surely impart on him soon. Very soon. Better be soon, because Sanada wasn't sure how much more his patience could take; time was running out and he needed to know all he could by the time the ship was done. It was with a sigh of relief that he faced forward to greet Kite, one hand digging through his back pockets for the folded up piece of paper and a pen he had been using to take notes for the past several days. 'Water is wet,' read the line at the top of the page, where he had left off last.
Before the other could say anything, he first let him know, "I told Renji he could sit in a lesson today, if that's no trouble. I think he was interested in survival skills as well, but he wouldn't say exactly. ‘Any data is useful data,’ or something like this. You know how he's like. On that same train of thought, I was wondering if we could move on from our previous lesson? I understand very well that water can be-- is-- wet, as I have been experiencing throughout my life. I have seen the signs around the public beaches too, warning that the seawater is not safe to drink from. If we could move on to..." He broke off, seeing Renji approach. It wouldn't do to start the lesson without his friend, after all.
" ‘…to actually learning how to survive a storm in the sea, and to fight sea giraffes’, isn’t what you were going to say, Genichirou? " Yanagi said before bowing politely. "Good morning, Kite. I appreciate you assisting my friend in developing a self-preservation instinct. By experience, I must say it’s a very difficult task…" Yanagi greeted once he was close enough. Yanagi had seen the ‘notes’ Sanada had written down and clearly saw what Kite was trying to pull. Everybody seemed determined to stop Sanada at any cost. He couldn’t understand it, though, why people seemed to enjoy being stuck in an island. Not that he found Sanada’s plan any better; there were so many factors that could end in the death of the ones sailing into the unknown.
What he was absolutely positive of was what the thrill of a worthy opponent could trigger inside of fighting men like Sanada and Kite. Men that have been deprived of release that danger and body combat could provide, and could cross the safety line quite easily, with that pent-up tension. Yanagi didn’t want his friend injured beyond repair on a desert island, thank you very much.
Yanagi didn’t stand against it, though. He wasn’t even sure anymore if he wanted to stop Sanada or to join him in that absurd, dangerous odyssey.
Boredom is a very dangerous thing for restless minds. So is curiosity.
And you couldn’t just say no to such a golden opportunity to gather valuable information. "I hope my presence doesn’t represent a bother to you."
Inwardly, Kite cursed. An audience. Not that having an audience would stop him from doing what he was going to do. He honestly didn’t care what anyone thought of him. So he didn’t care if the dataman went away from this thinking Kite was some bastard who attacked people with no provocation whatsoever. When he had decided to do this, he had already made peace with the fact that Sanada was cared for and that he was going to make a few enemies this way. He was going to be the bad guy… again. A spot he was getting far too used to and comfortable in, really. But it was for a good cause. He’d be the villain if it kept the man in front of him from going out onto the seas and dying. Because Kite knew: lessons or no lessons, death was certain.
He raised an eyebrow and mouthed sea giraffes. He hadn’t thought of that. He had been more focused on all the sea life that could kill Sanada that actually existed. Sharks, jellyfish, schools of regular fish. Whales. Sea birds. He hadn’t even thought to use Sanada’s ridiculous phobia. Perhaps if this didn’t work, he would use that information to reiterate that there were very very scary things in the ocean and it was safer and smarter to just be patient a little while longer. After all, Kite had been on this island for months before anyone else had arrived. If anyone should have wanted to get the hell off, it should have been him.
He then shrugged. "Not at all. My lesson today can be given regardless of who else is here." He just needed the opportunity and the opening and he was sure he knew how to get it. "Besides, you might find the lesson interesting. Today, it’s going to be dead reckoning and reading the weather. Compasses don’t work out here. You’ll need to navigate by knowing which way is east. And weather is important too. Right now, I can look at the sky and tell you exactly when the next storm will hit and where it will be strongest. " The joys of having grown up on a tiny tropical island. He then glanced over to the larger man. "Can you. Look up and tell me. Tell me what time it is right now, by where the sun is. And tell me when it’s going to storm." And when Sanada did look up, Kite was going to sucker punch him.
Sea giraffes. Sanada nodded readily in agreement to Yanagi's ever-accurate prediction of his words. It was the first he had heard of the creatures when Jackal showed him the images, but he could understand why their existence had been kept quiet to the general public. There would be mass hysteria if word got out of these creatures, no one would want to leave their homes, and all society would grind to a halt unless the world could rally together and prepare for an all out war to eradicate those horrors. Creatures whose head was the size of the schoolyard not even in adulthood, whose hoof was the height of a grown man-- and perhaps the worst thing of all-- could swim through the seas. Giraffes. In the ocean. Long neck, dead eyes and all.
Weather forecast wasn't exactly what Sanada had in mind for a follow-up lesson to the physical properties of water, but it was definitely a step up, and maybe Kite had chosen this topic because he knew that sea giraffes typically favor one sort of weather over another. So he obediently turned to raise his eyes to the sky, fighting to ignore logic hinting of the answer and instead focusing on the position of the sun to tell him. After nearly twenty years of the same routine of rising from bed at four in the morning, he trusted his internal clock more than the sun, which, in this place, didn't seem to follow the normal convention of rising in the east and setting in the west, though it still took such a path in the sky so that it hung directly overhead at noon and maintained the usual 24 hour day.
Eyes lingering on the jetty out at a distance off to the side of the sun instead of staring directly at it so that it wouldn't blind him, Sanada could see that it hadn't reached the peak of its path yet, which his internal clock agreed with, it having been perhaps only four or five hours since he had gotten up, sat through zazen, worked some more on the ship, and reviewed the past days' notes before his meeting here. Still relatively early morning. "Half past eight?" he chanced a guess, before looking across the sea, where he could see dark clouds rolling in, not too thickly that it threatened a storm this current day, but definitely sometime this week if they kept building up like this. Which was the exact reason why he needed to be done with that ship now.
Yanagi saw Kite tensing for a half a second, and if he followed the line of the other's body language, he was 89% sure he had planned to sucker punch Sanada if the other had done the most common thing of just lifting his face to see the sun. Yanagi smirked. People usually thought that Sanada's stoic, straight-forward and simplistic thinking meant he was stupid. They were far from it. And, his body had been trained since he was a baby to never let his guard down. Sanada was a very strong opponent in every sense of the word. A nickname such as the Emperor was not for nothing after all.
If only he wasn't such a stubborn dork...
Yanagi inwardly sighed and spotted a nice log on which he could sit. He made himself comfortable. "That is a very important lesson, I believe. High and low waters present themselves usually at similar times per season…" He pulled his phone out. "Oh, 8:40 AM."
Kite knew that Sanada wasn’t stupid. He knew not to underestimate the man. He also knew that this was going to be the only chance he got, because the man seemed rather immune to his usual ways of picking fights. The man before him didn’t seem the sort to get out of shape because of childish insults and playful banter in the form of merciless teasing about sore subjects. He knew what a fight with Sanada might mean for him. But Sanada wasn’t the only man from the junior high tennis circuit with a nickname. Kite just had a more… unfortunate and rather fitting one. Hitman. A killer for hire that hunted down his target and struck when least expected. Striking hard and fast and where it hurt the most. One shot. One kill. Only he knew it would take more than one shot to take down the larger man. He hoped for it. It didn’t look like Sanada had a glass jaw. He was banking on the fact.
He waited. Waited until he thought the man had most of his attention elsewhere. He nodded a little at the guess. It was impressive really. Kite’s own internal clock said the same thing. Yanagi’s voice confirmed that they were both correct. But he saw his chance as the gaze of the other traveled to the sea. He wondered, in the back of his mind, why the man on the log wasn’t going to try and stop him. He supposed he could ask later. He had something he needed to do first. And though he hated doing so in front of someone who could easily dissect the movement, Kite took the chance while he could and he moved. He was right beside Sanada in a flash and his fist was moving, aimed directly at the other’s jaw line. He had done it with no other indication that he was going to attack. No other sound, no other motions. Just the singular smooth movement and the punch. Kite really was a master when it came to the martial arts.
Sanada had made to look at Kite before giving his prediction of the weather, but although he saw the man beside him, he was too late to avoid the fist completely, which collided with a small but distinguishable crack that indicated one of them likely either had a fractured jaw or fractured knuckles. The face was one of the four target areas in kendo that were assigned points when struck properly. Sanada knew how to best avoid them in an honorable head-on competition, but was not completely useless against an attack from the side either. If he had been caught entirely unawares and hadn't immediately rolled with the punch on instinct as best he could, it was likely the impact would have spun his head hard around enough for a concussion, with Kite's shot so well placed, right where the jaw attaches with the skull, if not for that nearly imperceptible distance his target had moved beforehand. He could have died. ...Which would certainly have prevented him from leaving the island.
One hand up to touch his jaw, Sanada winced slightly in pain and dropped his hand quickly, his face a mixture of rage and confusion. Kite had just... punched him. Kite, who had always been so agreeable in teaching him about the ocean, had just punched him. It was as if all his faith in the world had evaporated on the spot the moment his teacher raised his hand. Sanada instinctively put a bit more distance between him and the other, regarding him closely. 8:30... 8:40... was his being ten minutes off really that horrible a mistake that he deserved punishment for the wrong answer? Even he didn't backhand others for giving him the incorrect time of day. This was ridiculous!
Yanagi watched intently how Kite moved, admiring the speed and elegance in his movements, so different from Sanada’s strong, defined ones. He had sworn to himself he would not interfere in whatever this might turn into (unless it might endanger or compromise his friend’s safety/life). He would rather his friend explode than implode.
With his eyes open in a deathly glare, Yanagi clenched his hands into fists at the cracking sound of the collision, but made no other movement.
That look… Kite felt suddenly like he had kicked a puppy. There was just something about that betrayed look on Sanada’s face that almost touched his heart. Almost. It would have… if Kite actually possessed such a thing. But he didn’t and this was for the greater good. He could live with the man never trusting him again. He could live with the intelligent man sitting and watching this disliking him as well. He’d already started to make his bed. Now he just had to sleep in it.
He frowned a little at the distance. He wouldn’t be able to get close again. Even with his movement techniques, taking Sanada on head was crazy. But it also seemed that hitting him so suddenly hadn’t done anything. The man, Kite decided, must have been made of stone, to take such a hit and not lose his temper or at least not think of retaliating. Lightly, he shook his hand out. Definitely made of stone… The still tender second degree burns on the inside of his palms didn’t help his case any.
It would take a lot more then, to pick a fight with Sanada. He wondered just how low he would have to get in order to do that. He smirked a little and out of habit, tried to push up glasses that he no longer wore. "You think the sea giraffes will give you any warning either? They’re crafty. They’ll sneak up on you while you are unawares. You’ve already proven that you can’t guard against me. How could you even think to guard against them." He let his body relax. He was going to go in for an attack again. This time, he was going to let the man know he was coming. "The giraffes and the storms. The rogue waves and the sharks. If you can’t even defend yourself against me, how can you even think of going out there?" He appeared in front of the man and dropped, to try to sweep Sanada’s legs out from under him. "If you do, you WILL die."
The legs weren't one of the designated strike zones in kendo, but kendo wasn't the only martial arts Sanada was familiar with; in the police, one of the requirements for a policeman to attain his job was to be skilled in at least one of the designated categories of martial arts, and because of this, he had spent some time watching and learning from the other arts. He might not have practiced them enough to compete professionally, and his own dojo specialized in purely kendo, but he recognized the stance for executing a leg sweep and it wasn't hard to dodge Kite's attack once he was aware of the attack. Like he had worked to incorporate kendo into his tennis when he was developing his skills in middle school, he could work the strikes and footwork into unarmed combat. A weapon was only an extension of one's own arms anyways, and the rest was the same as close combat against an opponent who liked to crowd.
Sanada nodded in belated response to Kite's reason for battle. He wouldn't have been able to speak properly without a slur anyways if his jaw had been fractured even if it was just a hairline, but the pain when he clenched his teeth was enough to show him that had Kite meant business when he fights. Pain, however, cleared Sanada's head and sharpened his senses now that he knew his task was a battle and not deciphering the sky or the waves. A battle he could do, especially now that he knew Kite's purpose was teaching after all-- of course he had to have his wits about him while on sea, and especially had to keep fit and alert for anything, which was what Kite was testing for in this lesson's exercise. He was right to have trusted his education in this man, Sanada decided, allowing himself to feel shame for having doubted him a moment before.
No holding back; that was what he owed Kite for the lapse of faith. Against a sea giraffe, he would slay at the neck, where the creature would have the least maneuverability. Tsuki! was what Sanada would have called as he made the hit at the fourth strike zone at the throat between the normally covered head and shoulder, if they were in a dojo wearing the proper equipment. But they weren't, and sea giraffes wouldn't understand Japanese speech anyways, so Sanada was silent when his arm moved for Kite's neck, aiming to kill as he would the beast.
It was beautiful. Yes, there was an 84% probability that Sanada got his jaw fractured, if only slightly but the sight of two martial artis displaying their abilities in a head on fight was worth it. Yanagi realized he had missed the look of his friend’s face, so focused, full of determination and mental and physical strength. After getting shot, Yanagi felt something broke inside Sanada (beside blood vessels and nerves). He thought that trying to save everyone’s lives in what would most likely be a suicide mission was Sanada trying to fulfill his own expectations, instead of following what he wanted to do. Like trying to fill the void the constant routine was creating.
Yanagi thought that the times Sanada looked most like the ‘real’ Sanada was in the middle-near-the-end of a challenging tennis match and when fighting a worthy opponent. It was a very interesting sight…
… And Kite’s elegant moves were definitely a plus. This, this… The probability of getting a chance to obtain accurate information about that before-spectacled man was under 54%. Yes, he could definite hack into the military system database, but the last time he did he had almost got caught and if the information was not as accurate as he expected it to be, it was just not worth it. Good thing he didn’t need notebooks as Inui used, because taking his eyes off the action in front of him might had resulted in losing precious valuable information.
Calculating the trajectory they were going to follow after the Kite dodged Sanada’s attack, Yanagi moved 15 cm to the left.
The neck. Kite noticed it almost too late. There were places that even in the middle of a fight, Kite would never strike at. No because he didn’t trust himself. He knew he could hold back and stop before he actually hit, but because if he did make a mistake, the person he hit would never ever get back up. As much as he had held Momoshiro at knifepoint, he didn’t want any deaths here on his head. Not because he was squeamish, his job in the military made that an impossibility, but because he actually sort of liked some of these idiots. A blow to the neck was a serious, death dealing thing. He had to dodge or end up unable to breathe on the ground.
Unlike the imagined sea giraffes, Kite was far more flexible. The leg sweep made him end up in a bad angle and he had to bend almost completely backwards not to get hit. But that wasn’t going to stop him. Instead of landing on his back, he used the bend to plant his hands on the sand and spring backwards. He wasn’t someone who did acrobatic tennis, but martial arts made a back handspring possible. He didn’t land as gracefully as he wanted, but still managed to crouch, trying to make the escape look slightly more impressive to hide the fact that he had run away from a potential strike.
He straightened up and smiled. A slow, almost too happy smile. Sanada was serious. Wonderful! And he was skilled. Even better. He attacked again. Kite had always liked close combat when it came to fighting. Crowding when it wasn’t a kick or a full strike. But this was Sanada and he wasn’t going to be using Okinawan bujutsu. He was using something far more primal. A bar room brawl mix of everything he knew. He was going to give his worthy opponent the joy of going all out. And for once, Kite didn’t do what he often did when he played with Hiyoshi. He didn’t speak again. He didn’t mock. Fighting with Sanada was different than fighting with Hiyoshi. Hiyoshi was a game to him. It was for fun. For the perverse pleasure he got out of the other’s reactions. Sanada wouldn’t get riled up. And this wasn’t a game. This was for the safety and survival of a very worthy man.
He advanced, watching him, keeping the dataman’s location a constant in the back of his mind. He wouldn’t trust anyone behind him. He’d never get caught off guard from behind again. His advance came with the movement for a solid chest strike.
If a sea giraffe was anything like this-- and Kite was doing a splendid job at mirroring what Sanada imagined to be the right amount of aggression and trickery the beasts would portray-- Sanada would definitely have to be careful. 'Kill or be killed,' and he very much preferred to stay alive. He would have to thank Kite wholeheartedly after this exercise, for giving such a lesson. Renji too, perhaps they could also emulate giraffe battles in their spare time; his friend should know more about giraffes than him, telling him what he did right and where he went wrong in his first attempt in this simulation with Kite.
Sanada's hand closed on nothing but thin air, which didn't surprise him in the least. They were intelligent creatures, these giraffes, or they would never have survived so long. Of course they knew where their weak points were, they wouldn't make it so easy for an enemy to snap their neck or limbs, they would be able to guard or get out of the way. A good enemy did not allowed their weak points to stay weak points. Regardless, since he did not know those points on a giraffe, there was nothing to do but to rush the opponent again. Pressure it, back it into a corner, do not let it get away. This was 'Invade like Fire.' Nothing but pure strength, a head-on attack. In close combat, he was no stranger to the field.
That dangerous smile on the other man's face reflected all too well the mockery Sanada believed a giraffe would exhibit if it too could pull its lips back and bear its teeth in such a manner. And then Kite was at his side again, too quick for him to turn and have the fist glance off his chest so instead he took it straight on, not even giving time for the inevitable strike to complete before he had already swung his own fist. The most immediate target was the left of Kite's shoulder, the same one in Sanada's being of long since splintered bone and frayed nerves.
Kite knew Sanada would be able to take a hit. And he knew that the man would be solid. More so than his jaw. Hitting Sanada reminded Kite of his days in the karate dojo, breaking cinder blocks with well executed blows. Only hitting Sanada was NOT like hitting the blocks. The blocks were softer and didn’t hit back with such force. He knew he wouldn’t come out of this unharmed. There was no way this would be so simple. He knew that this would injure them both. But this was such fun. This was exciting. Because Sanada was fast. Sanada was powerful. Sanada was… like the other side of himself. While Kite was the bad, Sanada was the good. The dark and the light, clashing on the sand.
His shoulder. He couldn’t dodge it. That powerful blow was enough to dislocate his shoulder. But he would never show the pain. He was used to hiding it. Besides, he had another arm. And another elbow… and a knee. He was close enough for kick boxing, and his knee went up. Kidneys. Sanada would be pissing blood. And eye for an eye… A kidney for a shoulder. A hit and run, bouncing back to grab his shoulder. The sound… that horrific sound of a joint being put back into place. But his arm wouldn’t be of much use even putting it back in place. But doing so took too much time and he knew ever second his attention was away from Sanada was a second that the man could attack.
While there was no need to wind up in order to execute a proper punch, there was hardly any room to prepare the punch or dodge a blow. Even without his full strength, Sanada could feel his fist impact at just the right place and something give way, but by then he was already dealing with a reciprocal shot. Fighting so close a range, the choice was either taking the hit or minimizing the impact-- because he would not turn tail and back off in this fight. Not against a giraffe, he promised himself, real or representory. Last time he turned his back, he almost failed to get his friend off the ship. Next time, he might fail to escape the sea. Bruises on the organ would heal on their own, but he was through with dealing with ruptured blood vessels. Here on the island, there wasn't even a hospital around for anyone to drag him kicking and screaming off into surgery. But even if he couldn't block it completely, Sanada would never allow a clean hit. Doing so, he might die before the training exercise was over, and if he survived the day then he would definitely die at sea. Giraffes were not known for being merciful.
When Kite leapt back grabbing his shoulder, instinct told Sanada he should re-close the gap. While the amount of space wasn't enough he comfortably worked with, there was no comfort in combat, and he knew that even if he couldn't parry off blows properly, neither could Kite, who seemed to have abandoned his left arm. Sanada could take as many blows to the body as necessary, but to win this fight, he had to disable his opponent completely before the other does the same to him. And the fastest way was the knees, be it human or giraffe, so his leg's next target was the offending knee that tried to take his kidney out of commission.
Yanagi did a quick evaluation of the most dangerous injuries the two opponents were presenting, ignoring the blows that were inevitable and concentrating on the ones that might result in complication. Kite: complete shoulder dislocation and in a 13° angle downward; swelling, numbness, weakness, bruising; most likely suffering muscle spasms from the disruption and therefore excruciating pain. He highly doubted Kite was susceptible of forfeiting from pain alone (and may actually enjoy it or the adrenaline it brought). If he had received a similar injury before, the stability of his shoulder was at risk, just like…
Sanada.
Yanagi could already see the symptoms of blunt force kidney trauma. The body tension in order to endure physical pain, the swelling, the sweat, and Yanagi was sure the nausea was going to start soon. Even if they lacked any of the medical equipment to treat him in case of emergency, he was quite sure it wasn’t going to be needed anyway; his friend knew how to take a hit. That, of course, didn’t mean the pain or the resulting blood in urine was going to be pleasant at all.
The probability of Sanada aiming of Kite’s right knee in order of restrain dangerous movement and prevent further attacks were above 96%. The rage, the pain, and the mentality of fighting giraffes were most likely to increase Sanada’s force by 35% and in contrast, they would be decreasing his ‘caring’ and ‘not going over the top’ mental seal. The probability of resulting in a meniscus tear injury to Kite was 94%. That would result in Kite aiming at Sanada’s left shoulder. The angle where the most probable hit would take place wouldn’t be the best to achieve a severe injury, but if it he rotated it 26° to the right, Kite might be successful in dislocating it.
They were in enough pain already, they had their turns at beating the crap out of another worthy opponent and there was no need for more severe injuries to be caused. Plus, he didn’t want to see his friend in the physical pain/emotional turmoil of having his shoulder blasted a second time.
There was no way Yanagi could reach to stand between the blows (and it was stupid to do so anyway), so he rushed in to press the pressure points to immobilize Sanada just for the two seconds required, and pushed him down onto the sand and out of reach. If his friend hasn’t been so enthralled in the fight he wouldn’t have been able to do so.
Unfortunately, that meant standing in blow-distance of Kite if he decided to attack, but it was the less problematic case-scenario of all.
His knees. Kite’s fighter’s sense told him it was coming. He knew that Sanada had the same instinct. That bloodthirsty instinct to utterly destroy the opponent. He had been put into pain and he was going to repay it in turn. He was going to make Sanada remember him. He was going to etch the memory of tangling with Kite Eishirou into his body. And he knew where to strike. Because Kite had no mercy, no heart, and he would always, always attack weakness, real or imagined. And Sanada’s weakest point was his shoulder. The shoulder that had been injured long before the island. The mirror to his own aching arm, throbbing with such pain that he could barely ignore it. Even resetting it so suddenly hadn’t helped, but only made the pain into unbearable agony. He wouldn’t lose. Not to the pain and not to Sanada. And he was going to make certain that one of them wasn’t walking away from this beach under his own power. He meant it to be Sanada. Hurt him enough that he had to recover. So that he couldn’t leave for a little while longer.
With a useless arm, he could only do certain strikes. But he still had a full range of deadly kicks. There would be no holding back. An ax kick to the shoulder followed by a spinning back heel kick to the back of Sanada’s head. It would be dangerous. His legs were in danger and without them, he couldn’t kick. He had one shot at this. When Sanada advanced, he started the frighteningly complex combination. Only suddenly, Sanada wasn’t there. Sanada was on the ground and Yanagi was in the way… worse, he had already started.
His foot swung and he twisted himself, heel landing upon nothing. He’s missed; just barely. He was sure Yanagi heard the sound of his boot as it zipped past his face. Over extended, Kite lost what was considered the most supernatural of balance and he ended up on his ass in the sand, panting hard and giving the Dataman what should have been quite the death glare. Should have. Instead, it looked more like a young boy whose mother had told him he couldn’t play anymore because dinner was ready. He was having fun… despite the pain and the wanting to kill each other… plus, he wasn’t sure his goal had been accomplished. He didn’t want all that energy to have been spent for absolutely nothing.
He panted more and gave Sanada a look, lightly holding his shoulder, trying to push it back in the rest of the way. "You aren’t ready for the sea yet," he stated, as calmly as he could.
Sanada did not know what was the most devastating: the premature stab of pain he did not foresee and then him collapsing onto the sand like a block of lead, the sheer terror that shot through his mind like a bolt of electricity when he raised his eyes just in time to see Yanagi there in his place about to be stuck down, or the spoken fact that drove through him like a lance at full force... that no, he wasn't ready. He wasn't able to defeat Kite, and worse, he wouldn't be able to protect anyone he brought with him. He couldn't do this. He knew this now.
He would have liked very much to stand right then and help Kite up, thanking him for showing him his limitations, but at the moment all the nerves in his body seemed to have given up on him, which was a relief to his left shoulder and the injured kidney just below the lowest rib, but a real inconvenience to the rest of him, who would not be able to move for another few minutes, laying here in a sort of numb stupor until Yanagi decides it's not funny anymore and help him up. 'Renji, help please,' he tried to say, but all he could manage was a effortful but still unintelligible growl of annoyance that he had absolutely no feeling in his limbs until it goes away on its own or Yanagi presses the pressure points to stop it. Sometimes, he was scarier even than Kite. Than giraffes.
Yanagi looked down the two men that were sprawled on the sand and smirked a little. They were great fighters, yes, but there was a teenager steak latent in each one of them. Useful thing, that he had babysat his team members back in middle school for long enough to know how to handle this kind of situation. The probability of Sanada trying to get off the island in a near future was lower than 23% now; the probability of Kite involving himself in reckless fights was… the same really, but at least the dislocated shoulder would stop him for a while.
"No, you’re not ready but I’m positive you realize that now, Genichirou," Yanagi said before kneeling into the sand and checking for a jaw fracture before pressing the pressure points to make the numbness that was taking over his friend subside. "Oh, yes. Small fissure but nothing to worry about; your kidney appears to have reasonable, but non life-threatening damage, but if something feels out of ordinary consult Hiroshi about it." More like he would have to ambush his friend to make him accept a checkup; that was manageable, of course. He pressed the pressure points necessary for his friend to recover the sense of his body. That was actually the only way he could ever win a fight against Sanada, and the chances of being able to press all the mandatory points to knock him out were extremely rare, even more so without getting hit. Yanagi didn’t want to experience another blow from his friend any time soon.
He turned to Kite. "And even if you make a remarkable sea giraffe, you are not undefeatable." Yanagi scowled at the former captain. Without asking for permission, he grabbed the other’s injured shoulder to check it over. "Genichirou, help me please. We need to put it back into place. This is going to be the opposite to painless, but you already know that, don’t you, Kite?"
Kite scowled even more at the dataman. He didn’t like being told that. He knew it was true. He wasn’t completely invulnerable. He could be beaten. It just took someone of equal skill… or someone to sneak behind him and hit his pressure points like Yanagi had done to Sanada. Kite silently vowed to never let that man behind him without having his guard completely up. But instead of answering to Yanagi, he spoke to his former opponent. "When you can defeat me, then you’ll be ready to face the ocean. Until then, you stay here and watch over the ones on the beach. I’ll accept your challenge at any time."
Any time but now, of course. He clenched his teeth when his arm was taken. The pain was horrific. Had he been anyone else, he might have passed out from it. Though those teeth, he grunted. "Then get on with it. I can take it." He could. He’d force himself to.
Sanada gave a slow sigh of relief as the feeling came back into his limbs, leaden but there. He wouldn't have gone to see Yagyuu about this on his own accord, but he also had a slight suspicion Yanagi had his ways to make him go all the same, and there was no fighting that. Last time he fought, he woke up with four days missing out of his life and his shoulder in a splint. So instead of arguing that lost point, he got to his feet and positioned himself by Yanagi at Kite's shoulder, knowing that these sort of injuries got worse the longer they weren't fixed.
He smiled grimly at Kite, as well as his jaw allowed him, and nodded his understanding. "Lie down," he grunted, finding it bearable to speak but uncomfortable enough that he wouldn't readily talk, at least for a while anyways. It was easier to relocate the shoulder when the patient was lying down, but he thought maybe that was because the person was usually distressed and thrashing about, and Kite was anything but. Good. Admirable man for going through all of this; he approved. Sanada had very little medical training from his time with the police, besides the basics such as CPR and applying tourniquets, but he had seen shoulder injuries at the dojo while practicing kendo before, and how his brother would put the shoulder back into place while they called for an ambulance, so he knew how to help.
With Sanada’s help, Yanagi made Kite lay down in the sand. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and put it over Kite’s chest. "Bite if your must; I don’t want you to bleed to death if you bite off your tongue. Genichirou, hold his other shoulder down." If the circumstances were any different, he would have just shoved it inside the other’s mouth, but the chances of Kite biting him were rather high niceties must be observed. Yanagi’s face was serious and concentrated when he gently put the arm in a 90° angle and gently rotated, then with a good hard tug in the right direction, put the shoulder back into place with a loud ‘pop’.
He sat in the sand with a small, satisfied smirk. "That went well for my first time, I believe."
Kite let them manhandle him, but only because he couldn’t very well go off into the jungle for days on end as he planned without getting that arm reset. Even after, it still wouldn’t be that wise of an idea. But he would still go out. Since he knew that Sanada would be around to make sure the idiots didn’t kill themselves while he wasn’t there to watch and laugh.
He frowned darkly at the handkerchief but didn’t accept it. It remained right where it was placed. He let Sanada hold him down a little more. Which was good. Because had he not been restrained, he might have punched Yanagi out of reflex. That ugly hurt those that hurt you reflex. Because it did hurt. It hurt so badly that at the tug, he felt a sick. A lesser man would have passed out. A lesser man would have screamed in pain. He was not a lesser man. He held it in. Barely. There was just smallest sound from him. A strained whimper almost drowned out by that sickening pop.
He glared at that smirk he saw and looked between the two former Rikkai demons. "I’ll be sure," he stated, voice a little strained from his efforts, "not to give you a second time." Just like neither of them would ever get him on his back again. He was sure they both knew that. But at least now, he could get up and disappear back into the jungles… once he was let back up that was. He didn’t feel much like wrestling and he doubted his arm would let him, even back into place. It would need rested.
Sanada winced inwardly at the noise the joint made when it was forced back into its proper place, but didn't let it show on his face as he got back to his feet first, extending a hand first to Yanagi and then to Kite to help them up, though he suspected Kite might regard the hand just as he did the handkerchief. The pain on Kite's face was pain that he caused, and even if it was in mutual understanding in a fight where all bets were off, it was still somewhat distressing. Pain inflicted on a giraffe was one thing, of course, that was because the intent to kill came from both sides. Kite might have refused to be 'one of his' but the fact stood that he was still human and someone Sanada would keep an eye out for regardless of whether it was necessary, and it likely wouldn't ever be.
"Thank you for everything, Kite," he said slowly, solemnly, as if addressing a dying man but only because it was uncomfortable to speak. Men like this don't die that easily, he had to remind himself, but neither does he. The seas would see him some day, but that was wasn't today, or anywhere in his immediate future.
Yanagi took the hand offered and dusted the sand off his pants. "This was a very enlightening training lesson, thank you very much for letting me participate," he said with a small smile whilst reaching for the backpack he had left near the log he sat on before. The dataman rummaged inside it for a bit before taking out a bottle of painkillers and a pack of cigarettes. He opened the bottle and took a couple of pills before closing it again and throwing it at Kite. "They’re from my private collection, so they’re good." He handed over the pills in his hand to Sanada and lit a cigarette for himself. "That means that Hirsohi nor Niou know about their existence, and I would like that to stay that way, Genichirou." He smiled at his friend before turning once more to the other man. "Even if it seems incredibly tempting, don’t swallow them down all at once, and least of all with alcohol." In case of an OD they wouldn’t be able to reach the soldier on time. "Or if you do, try to do it with your… with Hiyoshi Wakashi in the vicinities. He won’t be of much use but he will shout out for help if you pass out and need medical assistance."
Kite accepted the hand Sanada offered to him. He accepted only because it was as close as he was ever going to get to a handshake after a good match. But once up, he was dusting himself off as well and doing his best not to favor his injured shoulder. "It’s no problem," he answered back.
A bottle of pills came flying and he caught them. Turning them to see the label, he blinked. They really were the good ones. Did Yanagi really expect him to take the whole bottle with him? He wasn’t the sort to want painkillers or need them. They dulled the senses. Pain meant that you were still alive. It wouldn’t be the first night he didn’t sleep because he hurt, nor would it be his last. Instead, he opened the bottle and fished out just four. Those, he slipped into a little waterproof baggy that he carried about in the very roomy pockets of his fatigue pants. Pills secure, he tossed the bottle back to the owner. "Not with alcohol. Understood." He tried not to react to the Hiyoshi comment though. He wanted to dare Yanagi to finish that sentence. What the younger martial artist was to him was… complicated… at best. And he was sure if he ODed, Hiyoshi would only be angry because it wasn’t he who defeated Kite, but Kite’s own stupidity. If he recovered, the little mushroom would never ever let him live it down. So there was no way in hell he was going to give him that chance.
He turned his attention back to Sanada for a moment. "I’m headed into the jungles for a while. Your next lesson will be after I return. At that time, I’ll do a question and answer. And I’ll answer any question you have." He meant it too. Any question. Sanada was worthy of that much at least. "Until then… I’m sure Yanagi will be more than happy to help you learn all about the… Sea Giraffes, won’t you, Yanagi?" Maybe the dataman could make up something frightful enough to scare the man away from the water for a while longer that injured kidneys and a broken jaw would.
The jungle. Sanada nodded his understanding. It was a place he hadn't bothered stepping foot in yet. He had no intention in going further inland, no sense of adventure or spark of curiosity that drew him towards the trees. So long as the majority of the people stayed on the beach, that is where he would remain to look over them. Besides, surely rescue lay in the waters and not in the jungle, and whether rescue was coming to them or they were to create their own rescue by someday leaving, he intended to be there when the opportunity presents itself.
While he was worried for Kite being out there, his concern was abated almost immediately. Kite was the sort of man who could take care of himself, and did so. Sanada might not know about the jungle or what lay inside, but he could assume Kite was well adapted to it if he was able to live in there, and he had also seen others go in and out of the jungle more or less unscathed. The one Renji mentioned, Hiyoshi, was one of them. It wasn't often-- it looked like he preferred the ship whereas Sanada wanted nothing to do with it ever again-- but sometimes Sanada would see him stepping out of the trees in the early morning, almost always with a scowl on his face and his eyes cast down as if the sudden contrast between the shadows of the jungle canopy and the morning sun stung them. But, to his knowledge, Sanada hadn't lost count of the numbers on the island. Things were still okay.
Another lesson... He already knew what that would consist of, and what questions he had-- he was already teeming with them, and most involved strategic battles against sea giraffes, and if Kite had knowledge of the matter, giraffes of all sorts as well. But there was no rush really, so long as Sanada was right in banking on the fact that there were no giraffes already here and none island-bound, since he wouldn't leave now. He couldn't anymore.
"Interesting…" Yanagi said, catching the bottle of pills and then shrugged. Well, that confirmed the other actually enjoyed pain, or at least found it worth suffering. Did he see an unidentified emotion in Kite’s eyes at the mention of Hiyoshi? Interesting indeed. "Of course, I’ll provide any information that can be useful about those creatures." He nodded for emphasis. "Take care and let us know if we can be helpful in any way." He hardly believed Kite would seek help if he actually needed it, but Yanagi was grateful at the soldier and former captain. Sanada wasn’t the type of man that was stopped by being told he couldn’t do something; it needed to be proven to be true… and he also needed to be given motivations, and entrusting him with the safety of the ones at beach will keep him focused on such a task for the time being.
Kite would sooner die than ask for help. But he knew that if he absolutely had to… then he would ask these two. These two… he could trust. And that… that was quite a step for Kite. As was turning his back on them both. He had to though, as he was a man of his word. Without so much as a fare-you-well, he started off towards the jungles. He sort of used his good arm to give a wave over his shoulder, but he didn’t turn. The beach belonged to Sanada again. The jungles… were his. And to prove it, he disappeared upon reaching them. Vanishing into the underbrush like a ghost or a shadow. He would be back though. Because he was a man of his word.