Merci arrives several minutes before the scheduled appointment time, and enters the small dojo that Kinoko owned on the far end of the Strip. It was empty inside, so she passed the time walking slowly around the center room, admiring the highly polished, intricately cut steel blades adorning the walls throughout. 

There must be a metric ton of metal in here, she thought to herself as she found herself in front of an exquisitely engraved one. Looking around furtively, she reached out to pick it up off its rack. Not expecting the heft of it, Merci's hand slipped and the sword clanged loudly on the hard floor. At that moment, Kinoko entered.

Merci looked up, embarrassed, as she lifted the sword back to its position on the wall. 

"Sorry," she said, a blush in her cheeks. "I called earlier? My name's Merci. I'm here to learn."

The sound of metal clinking alerts Kinoko from the back office. Kinoko walks and grins as he helps Merci fix the sword back onto the wall. 

"Yes we talked on the phone, you were interested in learning the Fine art of Katana sword right? Nice to meet you Merci, my name is Kinoko, I am the owner of this fine Dojo."

The two smiled at each other. "Is this your first time you ever been to a Dojo? Do you have any previous experience?" As Kinko asked Merci.

"If this is your first time, I would love to teach you to be one with yourself first, mediation if you may. We call it Zen which is the Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and intuition."

Merci nods as she listens. "I don't have any sword experience, no," she says. "Guns, yes. And I'm decent with my hands. But I've never weilded any blades," she says, looking around. 

"I'm familiar with the concept of meditation. Admittedly, I've never practiced, but all things considered, I probably should," she says, a far-off, unreadable expression on her face. Focusing again on the gentleman before her, she smiles.

"So Zen it is. How do you prefer to be addressed?"

Kinoko listens to Merci explain her experience with weapons of such sort. He then guides her to the the middle of the Dojo to begin their training of Meditation, for the mind and spirit should be one. The two walk to the middle of the padded floor.

Kinoko then explains to Merci. "Now Relax the body, take a deep breathe, concentrate your mind, expand you mind...We will start off with some stretching, before we even get to learning how to use the Samari sword the Katana."

As Kinoko smiles at Merci while she stretches her legs and opens her mind. 

"You said you have another friend that is interested in taking on this course. Who may this be?"

Merci breathes, exhaling as she tries to limber up and remove the tension from her muscles. A divorce, a tailspin into drugs, and a rash of insane behavior had taken its toll. She was struggling back out of her misery,  but her body had to catch up.

"Yes, Kathryn Renford, my boss. She said she'd come by if she finished her meetings today. She doesn't have much in the way of defensive skills...I've taught her guns, but she needs to expand her own skillset as well as I do," she says, smiling. 

Kinoko listens to Merci as she explains to him about her boss coming out to the Dojo to check out the course. He doesn't hesitate to let her know that this was a fine idea, for Merci and her boss Kathryn to get closer as friends and to learn something new to bring to their business. 

The two finished their stretching to limber up. It was time to break out the real deal,  A Samari's best weapon of defense and choice, The Katana. 

Kinoko walks from the center of the Dojo's padded mat and walks over to the wall where 25 individual Katana's where hanging up as decoration and to honor the many Sensei's before him who have studied in this Dojo. 

He walks over and grabs a certain Katana that was beautifully made and crafted straight from Japan itself. He pulls it off the wall near the rack. 

"This was my father's sword, he fought many adversities with this weapon." As he says to Merci.

"I want you to take this Katana, it will be your learning weapon of choice here in this fine Dojo."   

Kathryn walked into the dojo practically dressed in jeans and a tank top, far from her usual formality. She saw Merci and a man she didn't know across the room, so she walked quietly over and stood near them, listening as she heard her name. She smirked as she approached.

"Does this mean I get to skip stretching and get right to the chopping part?"

Kinoko smiles at Kathryn from her comment about limbering up. He walks over to her to introduce himself. "Hi my name is Kinoko, nice to meet you. I heard you were interested in learning the Art of Swordsmanship as well?" 

"If so this is the place. Before me and you get to the Chopping Part as you say."  Kinoko then smirks at her humorous comment earlier. 

"Me and Merci are going to have a little bit of swords play before I can teach you the ways of the Samari and how to use the Katana."

Kinoko then walks over to the rack near the wall and grabs his personal Katana, that he takes everywhere. He then waves Merci to join him in the middle of the Dojo, on the rather large padded mat on the floor centered in the Dojo. 

"Okay Merci are you ready? First lets bow to each other in honor of this fine Sword Art."

The two bow at each other. They both raise their weapons. Merci's acts first, fast and swiftly she swings her Katana towards Kinoko, he then blocks the swing with his sword, a sharp metal noise of the two swords touching fill the Dojo.

Kinoko then jumps back, as Merci follows after him with yet another swift attack. She misses as he does a somersault side ways to get of her targeting range. Kinoko then jumps high in the air with a fast yet strong attack downwards onto Merci and her weapon. Once again the sound of metal touching sounds the air as she blocks the blow. 

"A very great block Merci, you are strong. You say you have never used one of these before?"

As Kinoko smiles and looks at Kathryn. 

Kathryn shakes Kinoko's hand with a professional smile.

"I'm happy to watch for a bit."

She took a seat on the floor, stretching out her legs in a v-shape. It seemed like this would be quite the workout. As she watched the sparring, she was impressed by both combatants. Kinoko was obviously holding back, but Merci still looked damn good out there. At a break in the action, she turns her gaze to the wall. Maybe it'd be smarter for her to learn one of those smaller dagger-type things. Easier to keep in a purse than a katana.

Hearing a question, she then felt Kinoko's eyes on her.

"Uh, no. I've never even seen one of these before, to be honest."

Kinoko then turns to Kathryn and explains to her what the smaller sword was called.

"You must be talking about the Wakizashi sword the smaller one of the two weapons, A Samari always carry's two swords on them at all times. The Katana, the larger one of both Japanese weapons is held with two hands always, never one. New comers always make that mistake, the pair is then referred to as daisho. Yet the smaller one is a great sharp weapon that can be used with one hand, and yes."

As he smiled and said.

"Yes the smaller one could fit in a purse or rather large purse then usual. But could fit inside one indeed." As Kinoko explains to Kathryn. 

Kathryn started for a moment; Kinoko had caught her looking at the weapons and commented on it, but it was almost as if he'd read her mind. She thanked him for the explanation.

"Maybe I'll have to get a bigger purse...". 

"You'll just gouge a hole in it," Merci teases. Addressing Kinoko again, she asks practical questions.

'My wrists are already sore. Am I holding it wrong? And that leap you did...I want to learn that. Leverage, right...you get leverage on the downswing?"

Kinoko responds to Merci. "Actually you were holding the sword just right, two strong sturdy hands, you did amazing. Now your wrist was probably hurting from that last downswing attack from me. I do apologize for going a little to hard on ya." 

Kinoko thought to himself. Would be smarter to have the girls have a go at it for a bit so he could critique each of them. Kathryn just finished limbering up. He just remembered that he had in the back office two wooden Katanas, he went to go get them.

Kinoko walks from the back office and walks over to Kathryn and Merci.

"Okay lookie lookie what I fought, I had a great idea. Why don't you two take these wooden Katana's so no one gets hurt. I would love to see where you two stand on this Fine swordsmanship."

He then handed one to Merci and the other to Kathryn.   

Kathryn grinned at Merci as she accepted the wooden sword, giving it a couple practice swings. Merci was the more experience fighter, but Kathryn had showed she was full of surprises on more than one occasion.

Merci smiles. "Sounds like fun," she says, winking at Kathryn and positioning herself in the center of the mat, holding the wooden practice katana like a baseball bat.

When Kathryn stands before her in similar fashion, Merci slices downward as if to smack Kathryn on the backside with all she's got, but she pulls back an inch above her rear end and then simply taps it.

Stunned, Kathryn takes a second to absorb what's just happened, then cracks Merci a good one in the ribs.

Barking out a pained laugh, Merci sputters. "Fine, I'll behave," she says as she spins and whips the katana full circle. Kathryn sees it coming from a mile away and the sound of wood clacking against wood echoes across the dojo. 

Kathryn was not particularly strong- perhaps that was an area that she should focus on- but she possessed excellent reflexes and a natural grace that had only improved through her training sessions with Merci. The women traded hesitant, intermittent blows at first, clacking their practice swords against each other as they looked at Kinoko for guidance.

Kathryn felt out Merci's defenses- God, she was much stronger than Kathryn. Kathryn felt like a fox fighting a wolf- but foxes weren't helpless.

She sent a blow lazily near Merci's head, which was easily parried. Kathryn continued her momentum, though, and quickly spun to sweep through Merci's legs, sending the other woman crashing on her back on the mat they were fighting on. Kathryn delicatey held her sword under Merci's chin like a French noble who'd won a duel.

"Round one goes to me."

She grinned. Swords were fun.

Kinoko watched the two go at it one fierce blow after another. Merci and Kathryn showed Kinoko that these two women can battle against any foe that they encounter woman or man, these were some strong ladies indeed. He knew now that he shouldn't hold back, who knows the Student may out shine the Sensei, he thought he better keep on his toes.  

"Wow you two did wonderful, I am very impressed. I did notice something tho." As he turned to Merci. "You did such a great job, when you first started tho, you held your Katana like a baseball bat. The best way to hold the sword is this way." 

As Kinoko walked over to the front of Merci and guided the wooden katana in her hands, he then moved it to the front of her face and shoulders pointing outwards towards her opponent in the shape of a obtuse angle. For maximum force this stance is key for attacking and defending each blow..

"I got to say this tho Merci, my only quarrel was the holding of the wooden Katana that's it! Your energy and force on each one of your attacks are instantaneous and brutal." I am super impressed with your progress, maybe I should have not held back in our little battle."

Kinoko then turned to Kathryn and clapped loudly, as she won this round, he was surprised as this was her first battle with a practice Katana.

"You did absolutely amazing, didn't see this coming especially the ending blow with the sweep of the wooden Katana under her feet making her fall backwards on to her back. This is what gave you the winning point, I am so shocked you never used a Katana before. As Kinoko paused in a daze. 

"You have never used a weapon like this before have you? 

Kathryn grinned as she winked at Merci.

"No, but I'm a quick learner. Ready for Round Two, Merci? Or are you already asking for mercy?"

Getting to her feet, Merci blows hair out of her eyes and once again faces her opponent, this time with proper form. Lunging forward, she drives Kathryn backwards in a series of left and right swings that pass precariously in front of their faces. On the last connection, Merci rotates the wooden katana in a fast, hard circle in order to try and dislodge it from Kathryn's hand, but Kathryn holds on and turns her body in a fast circle to avoid torquing her wrists. At the end of it, Merci's side is left completely exposed and Kathryn swings down, popping her in the rib cage yet again.

"Damnit!" She curses in frustration. 

Kathryn swings the sword in elaborate motions around her. It just felt natural.

"Don't worry, babe. You may be the master when it comes to things with triggers... but if we ever find ourselves in a time traveling adventure I'll protect you."

Merci did not seem amused.