FUDOSHIN ☯ Jack Brewer

i. wasabi warriors

With the sun beating down through the window in Rudy's office and the faint sounds of attempts at karate being muffled by the headphones in her ears blaring music, Marie stared down at the tax forms in front of her. A frown marred her expression as she chewed her bottom lip fervently. The unnecessary expenditures were adding up in a way that she was sure was going to have upper management breathing down their neck in the next few months.

Although, she thought to herself as she checked the profit margins from last month after the gi and jockstrap sale, perhaps there's more wiggle room to work with.

Glancing one more time at the spreadsheet on the monitor in front of her, she grabbed the forms that had given her a headache and headed to the door of the office. If they cut off the extra lights and TV in the office, that'd give them enough capital to finally get the mats cleaned – assuming Rudy approved of it. But if she promised to not forget to write it off as a business expense on the tax forms again, surely there'd be no reason to veto the operation.

"Hey Rudy," Marie called out, walking onto the main floor and taking out her earbuds. She took careful strides to avoid tripping on the mat as she read over the paperwork one more time. "I'm looking at the finances from last month and I think we can finally fix up th-"

The words fell dead in her mouth as she looked up to see a giant hole in the wall mural. Drywall was scattered everywhere, bits and pieces of an old martial artist's painted face staring up in oblivious ferocity. Dust billowed in the air in noxious clouds that left their surroundings whitened like a cruel mockery of Narnia. Rudy himself was standing there in shock, staring at the gaping chasm that had previously been their beloved focal piece of the dojo.

And at the center of it all, was some brunet kid crouched on the floor with skater gear adorned on his gangly limbs. Warm brown eyes almost hidden behind shaggy hair stared up at her with an emotion she couldn't quite name. It was only as he saw her visibly building bewilderment start to shift into indignation that he scrambled up. He's about as tall as Eddie, she duly noted in the back of her mind while he dusted himself off.

"Uh, hey," the kid started in a shaky voice that seemed like it had been going for something a bit more suave. "Didn't see you there."

Her brow raised, unimpressed, and perhaps he would have said more if it hadn't been for the mall cop that leaned in through the hole. "C'mere you," the older man growled at the kid through gritted teeth.

The skater kid perked up at that, finally seeming to gain back his confidence. "Gotta go," he turned back to wink at them all cheekily. "Sorry about the wall!" As he slyly grinned, he then proceeded to do a series of unnecessary – yet oddly impressive – flips to get to the door. Despite her current grudge against the vandal, she couldn't help but admire the guy's ability to just ignore gravity like that.

Unfortunately for him, his little acrobatic show slowed him down enough that by the time he made it to the exit, two more mall cops had shown up to catch him. One of them was a new hire, too, Marie winced. The new hires were always eager to prove themselves. There was no way he was getting out of this one easily.

She and the other dojo students swarmed around the entrance arch where Rudy had already moved to watch the kid get whisked away. "Who was that?" Rudy sputtered like he had never seen anything weirder.

"Jack!" Jerry, Milton, and Eddie all chorused in unison as if it were meant to be obvious.

"Is that like a friend of yours?" Marie asked, perplexed by the turn of events. She had always been under the impression that the other students didn't have any friends that could be considered 'cool'. Seeing them know a comparatively normal kid was like watching her little baby birds begin to fly away from the nest – even if they were flying toward a rabid, nest-destroying falcon.