Starting from Scratch

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Carmine was silhouetted in the ruined doorway of what was once a well-respected dojo in Central City - the Kikoukenjutsu Sword School. He'd returned to the rubble and debris on what he insisted was a whim, but knew deep down was not.

Inside the dojo was thick with dust and disrepair, several walls collapsed in from the events that destroyed the rest of the city. Plants had started to grow between cracks in the floorboards where the light managed to peek through.

As he walked into that place he closed his eyes and shook his head. He looked over his shoulder at the doorway, the place where he could sense Ryota was going to be. He'd expected the demon to follow him, considering the way he'd left the Galleon - he knew he'd given a bad poker face, knew that the Captain, his best and only real friend, would know something was up.

"Did I ever tell you about this place, Ryota?"

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"I don't believe so.. It looks like what remains of a dojo. Is this where you learned to fight?" Ryota asked as just as his friend had assumed he'd followed Carmine from the ship and into the crumbled mess that upon closer inspection had a few touches that indicated that it had been a dojo at one point. Ryota hadn't been entirely sure what Carmine had been getting at when he'd asked to steer the Galleon towards Central City. He already knew the city had been destroyed so thankfully that hadn't been an issue.

And when Carmine had suddenly left the Galleon to go inspect a specific part of the destruction Ryota had been even more usure of what to expect. He'd taken only a moment to get Keyra to start up the work that needed to be done on the Galleon as he wasn't sure how long Carmine would need and then quickly followed after the android.

Looking around Ryota noted that there seemed to be a rather abundant amount of swords hidden amongst the rubble, obviously the blades had been knocked from wherever they had been kept and crushed beneath the fallen beams and other bits of the dojo. Perhaps though a few of the blades could be salvaged it would be a pity to let good steel go to waste and if they survived the destruction then perhaps they were meant to 'survive' to see battle.

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Carmine knelt down to retrieve a sword from beneath the rubble. A katana, it's saya cracked and worn. He drew the blade and found himself surprised that it seemed unharmed, if in need of polish and sharpening. He slid it back into its destroyed sheathe, a futile gesture, more habit than necessity.

"Yes and no," he started, "But first I should probably tell you that I lied to you at the tournament. I told you that Keyra had taught me to use a sword, and that I'd taken to it quickly...that wasn't true. I figured if you underestimated my skill level, you'd slip up somewhere. We both know how THAT fight went."

He shook his head and chuckled slightly.

"This was a school for weapon arts. It claimed a long line of great fighters as its masters, but truth be told the man that held the master's seat was no master at all. He didn't hide the fact, really he was open about it. He was very skilled with a blade, but he had no skill with ki techniques and thus could not master the school's signature moves. They'd become almost mythical, though the scrolls were passed down. He let me see them, once, not knowing what I am. I still have that knowledge locked up in my hard drive, and every so often while meditating, I've studied them."

He stood again and looked the Captain in the eyes.

"I think we can make this school great again, Captain. This planet needs it. Hell, the universe needs it. Why keep it to just one planet, just one realm? I mean...I don't intend on leaving the crew."

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Ryota chuckled as Carmine explained that this had been where he had learned to use a sword rather than with Keyra, it made sense considering that while Keyra was quite good with a sword she was still far beyond the level needed to get someone THAT good with a sword that quickly. Given more time perhaps but it made a lot more sense that Carmine had simply lied in order to get a bit of an advantage.

Ryota raised an eyebrow as Carmine spoke of the dojo's techniques. He knew that often a dojo kept a few 'secret techniques' safe for the higher level students. The few true dojos that Ryota had seen in the Demon Realm guarded such techniques with there lives as some such techniques were thousands of years old. It made sense that Earth's dojos worked similarly. The fact that Carmine had gotten a chance to see such techniques was rather impressive.

Then Carmine 'dropped the bomb' he wished to revive the dojo, likely under his own command but he didn't want to limit it to just earth, he wanted to expand it to the Demon Realm and all the other worlds in the Mortal Realm. The particular way the Carmine had said it made Ryota grin, it was exactly what he thought when he thought of taking over the Demon Realm.

"Alright." Ryota said with a nod taking another look around. "I think we can make that work, heck a school would probably work out even better for the crew. It would be a good place to recruit some of the stronger warriors and just overall make the planet better." Ryota said with a chuckle. "If I had the crew help we could probably get this place at least 'livable' before the days end." Ryota said.

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Carmine smiled at his friend. He hadn't expected much resistance from Ryota, but he hadn't expected such a ready acceptance of the idea either. After all, it would mean that one of his best crewmen would be busy with a secondary responsibility, and that, at least for a little while, the android would want to keep Earth as a primary home base, only leaving for major tasks, and returning as quickly as possible.

"That would be great, Captain. A little place of sanctuary amongst the rubble should get the restoration of this city kickstarted as well."

He kicked a small rock and nodded.

"Call 'em down, then, Cap. Also, I don't want you delaying your campaign because of this. I can get this set up and still go with you even with the school in infancy. Hell, patience is important for a swordsman, I can make a training exercise of it. This'll just give me another reason to survive it all to come back."

In his head, he was already working out how best to restore the place, and what sorts of things to add or remove to the old design.

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Ryota nodded to Carmine and then drawing his sword made a quick slash through the air slicing through space itself to crate a rift to the Galleon's deck. The deck itself was bustling with its normal level of activity a few of the crew spotted the rift and raised an eyebrow at the sudden return of there Captain as he and Carmine had only left moments ago. Stepping through the rift RYota took a deep breath.

"EVERYONE, GET TO THE DECK." Ryota shouted, his voice would carry far enough for everyone currently on the deck to hear and those who heard his call would spread the word, it took several minutes but eventually Ryota was fairly certain that every capable member of the crew was assembled. Keyra had arrived shortly after the initial call and rather than bugging Ryota to start explaining simply waited for the rest of the crew to arrive.

"Aright everyone, today we're going to be expanding a bit. Carmine's decided to open up a dojo dedicated to weapon based combat HOWEVER his dojo is little more than ruins at the moment so we're gonna fix that." Ryota called out to the crew, the new brought about immediate conversation among the crew, most of them were ready and willing to help out the android for various reasons. Some simply because he was apart of the crew and that was enough for them, others because they respected him as a warrior, and some just because they were bored with doing the same work. Those who may have had issue remained quiet rather than openly defying there Captain.

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The crew got to work, and as the adage states, many hands make light work. The walls went up first, followed by inner walls, rooms, and doors. The raw materials had come from scraps in the area and from the galleon itself, and as a result when all was said and done, the dojo was less like something out of a kung fu movie and more like something out of a steampunk novel. Half the rooms were traditional wood and paper, the other half steel and copper and stone. In the center of it all was the start of a small, circular garden.

Carmine was proud of it all, and let out a soft breath as he put the final touch on the place - a pair of katanas, two survivors from the wreckage, displayed at the front of the main training floor.

"I think it's done, Captain. I think we can open the doors."

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Ryota smirked at the crews handiwork, the school looked rather impressive and for the most part would appear just as normal as any other building however Ryota and likely Carmine knew that the school itself would be far tougher than its predecessor had been, while much of the materials had come from the old school's ruins Ryota had made sure that a good portion of the buildings foundations came from the wood that was stored within the Galleon, wood from the Demon Realm. THe same wood that made up the Galleon and gave it resistance on par with that of some of the metal ships he had seen in his time visiting Earth. It was unlikely that this school would fall as easily as the old one had.

"The place looks good Carmine, considering it's probably one of the few places already fully rebuilt in the city it shouldn't be long until you've got students lining up. Might be a good idea to see about getting a few extra instructors either before we leave or when we get back." Ryota said as he put his coat back on having removed it both to keep it from getting messed up during the work and because it would have been a bit of a hindrance. "Whats your plan for when we leave though? I don't doubt that you'll have at least a couple prospective students before we head out." Ryota asked wondering exactly what Carmine had in mind for any such students.

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Carmine nodded. Everything was set, but Ryota was right about the timing being less than ideal. Thankfully he already had a plan.

"Well, what I intend to do is give the students training that they can do autonomously - kind of like homework, I guess. Things to strengthen the body, the mind. If I come back and they've not done it, I know they have discipline problems and need to work them harder. It's actually a nice opportunity to assess their potential."

He patted Ryota on the shoulder.

"Thanks for this. For everything. I'm not sure I'd have made this kind of progress if we hadn't met. By the way, have you thought about stopping in at the Lookout? Kami mentioned some gifts he wanted to give us - might be that they'd come in handy during the campaign."

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Ryota nodded liking Carmine's plan for his potential students, the plan was sound enough to work and would show Carmine exactly what he needed to see of his students, hopefully he would end up getting enough students that the exercise would be beneficial. "What do you plan tell them when you leave? I don't mind if you tell them where we are going as them being aware wont be very relevant but 'going to the Demon Realm cya later' may not exactly be a good way to leave them." Ryota said with a chuckle, he doubted that that had been what Carmine planned to do but he decided it was probably a good idea to know what he planned to do.

"As for a visit to the Guardian, I suppose it couldn't hurt I have to admit I am rather curious as to what his 'gift' might be so getting that off my mind at the very least might be a good plan and if it ends up helping in the battle then all the better for us." Ryota said with a grin. "I suppose we can continue are discussion on the Galleon." Ryota said with a shrug before cutting open a rift and heading on through waiting only a few second to see if Carmine would follow through.

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(Think this is a good place to end it. pl plz)