A Self-Defense Class

As Blackfire looked through the rows and rows of available classes and clubs, she was looking for something that would appease her warrior sensibilities. If this whole situation was just a highly detailed hallucination, she would rather spend it active in some way. Despite her previous owner’s constant drunkenness, there doesn’t seem to be a warrior’s hall anywhere nearby meaning either these Prime Worlders are not as active as Tamaraneans or the warriors were elsewhere.

Blackfire picked out one of several pamphlets depicting people fighting. It was one of multiple indicating it was about a self-defense class and club though this one had a long haired girl in some form of training gear. This one was marked ‘Self-Defense with Ran Mouri’ while the others included ‘Self Defense with John Wick’, ‘Self Defense with Master Chief John-117’, and ‘Self Defense with Joukyuu Kunitoshi’. The one with Ran Mouri appeared to be the only one that was running at this hour, the others were later in the day or in the early morning.

“Good choice sister!” Starfire cheered as she hovered over Blackfire’s shoulder. “Ran-san is a skilled user of unarmed combat, is called the black belt, and is a fierce protector of bumgorfs. One protected James and I when we were turned into five years olds a long time ago.”

“You got turned into five-year olds?” Jirou and Blackfire both asked at the same time. Jirou glanced at Blackfire before continuing. “Just how old are you and James? Did you have to grow up all over again? When did you have time for all these adventures?”

“When traveling to different universes, time can be weird,” Poppy explained. “From what I remember of that experience, James and Starfire celebrated twenty-five new years and Christmases in a Detective Conan universe before leaving and never aging a day along with all the other people there. And when they got back only a week had passed in Universal Universe Standard Time.”

“It was very strange yet fun, except for the daily murders,” Starfire admitted, causing Jirou to mouth ‘daily murders?’. “And turning into a child was very painful, thankfully when getting cured they had us sleeping for the reversal transformation.”

“Are you sure I’m not dreaming right now? Or that you gave me the right language knowledge,” Blackfire asked as she stared at her sister, not believing what she was hearing.

“The Detective Conan world is about a deaged high schooler detective solving murders as a five year old while secretly helping the police, which no one really batted an eye at,” Poppy shrugged, not getting their confusion or concern.

“I have some pictures,” Starfire declared as she pulled her phone from her crop top. She quickly found the pictures she wanted to find and showed the group selfies of miniature versions of herself and James in what looked like the middle of a crime scene with a bow tie and glasses wearing kid looking curiously at something off screen. Poppy smiled recalling when one of her trouble-making brothers was small and cute.

“Come on, let's go see the class of ‘Self-Defense’,” Starfire said as she picked up Blackfire and Jirou and hurried to where the class was held. Poppy and Yoko looked at Starfire flying away and started walking in the opposite direction. A few moments later Starfire turned back and went in their direction.

The group found the right room and entered to see several sparring mats, punching bags, and training equipment scattered here and there. To Blackfire’s confusion there were photos and drawings of a brown haired, blue eyed human male with a smirk on most of the punching bags and targets. “I see this Ran is still mad at Shinichi.” Starfire giggled a little.

“Oh hey,” the girl from the pamphlet said as she looked up from correcting a Prime Worlder child’s stance. “Umm, if you’re here for the class, we usually only have standard human level strength people here but you’re welcome to hang around.”

“Blackfire, do you want to stay here?” Poppy asked the black-haired Tamaranean who just silently walked over to a punching bag. Ran hesitantly went to stop her.

“Please don’t use the equipment, it’s not rated for Tamar….,” Ran was interrupted by Blackfire throwing her strongest punch at the bag. Ran gasped thinking about how she was going to explain the damage to her owner, both damage to the bag and to the walls the bag is going to fly through. But thankfully she doesn’t need to explain anything as she looked a little confused at where the Blackfire’s fist impacted. The bag barely budged and Blackfire was just glaring at her fist.

“Argh…” Blackfire groaned as she shook off the pain in her hand as she looked confused.

“She was freed from furniture today, she’s barely stronger than an average baseline human,” Poppy informed the Ran instructor.

“Oh, how horrible,” Ran covered her mouth as she thought of that kind of situation.

“She’s a gift for my brother, and she needs to get to a healthy state,” Poppy said as Ran listened as they watched Blackfire try to punch the bag again several times and flinching at the ineffective impacts. “Think she can maybe sign up to train here for a while?”

“I’ll have to ask my owner, but I don’t think it would be too much trouble,” Ran said as she walked over to a backpack and retrieved some papers. “Here are some papers for your brother to sign once she’s given to him, and some for you to sign as her current owner. Oh and can I get a number to reach you or her to let you know if my owner said yes?”

“Starfire? Can you give her your phone number,” Poppy asked, causing Starfire to quickly recite her number which Ran quickly jotted down.

“Okay, she can continue using that punching bag. I don’t know enough about Tamaraneans to give any real advice, sorry,” Ran said as she pocketed the number. “We are closing in about an hour for the ‘Yoga with Ty Lee’ course so until then she can stay.”

“Thank you,” Starfire said, giving the surprised Ran a hug.

“No problem,” Ran said as she awkwardly patted Starfire’s back. Soon Starfire let go and went over to Blackfire to give her some encouragement and tips, only some of which Black fire accepted.

Blackfire worked on the punching bag for nearly the full half an hour they had until Aelita’s class was over.