13666/Rumble in the Dojo

Rumble in the Dojo
Date of Scene:	28 December 2022
Location:	Chikara Dojo
Synopsis:	You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.
Cast of Characters:	Danny Rand, Colleen Wing

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Danny Rand has posed:
An African American man, wearing a dark brown leather jacket, sat on a four legged, wooden stool, in front of a yellow countertop, staring at the white tile wall, as he opened a sugar packet, to stir into his coffee. At the end of the counter, a white man, wearing a dark green coat, got up from his seat, fitting his hat as he walked. He gave a simple slap on the back with the outside of his wrist, not slowing his pace. The other man also got up from his seat, joining him. They walked out through the glass doors of the Qq Cafe USA, with an audible chime.

A few minutes later at Sharks Pool: Two Bridges, an Asian man wearing a red shirt finished his game of pool, sinking the eight ball. He picked up the money from the table, and walked, as a Latino man, wearing a sleeveless black jacket, held up a white jacket, with green lining, and slipped it onto the red shirted Asian man. As they separated, the green dragon image on the back of the white jacket came into view. A third man, wearing a red bandana fell into lock step with them. A fourth, this time a white man wearing a jean jacket, kissed a woman in a grey shirt, and joined.

No words had been spoken. Meanwhile, in the Chikara Dojo, Danny Rand stood, wearing a black t-shirt, grey sweat pants, and no shoes, before a dozen students of varying ages, builds, as they went through their kata.

The two men from Qq Cafe USA, and the four from Shaks Pool, converged on Market St. Two more men, both white, who had been sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against a light post, stood up, adding to the group. They walked together as a group, coming into and out of the light from the lamp posts.

A turquoise truck pulled up, with perhaps a dozen people already in the back, and the group, led by the man with the green dragon symbol on his white jacket, piled into the open back, though the man with the jacket got into the passenger seat up front.

Arriving at the Chikara Dojo, they entered. The door was unlocked, as a night class was in process. They slowly moved, in unison, until they had taken up places along the walls. The students broke their positions, subconsciously collapsing into a huddled mass.

Danny Rand said two words, "training's over."

Colleen Wing has posed:
This is meant to be free time for Colleen. Let Danny teach some kung fu and she can relax. The Hand isn't stupid enough to attack them when all these regular people are here learning lessons and they also know Danny with Colleen is too much to handle without an army - and they tried the army trick already. Odds are the Hand will attempt assassination next.

The stirrings of the variety club waltzing in to her dojo is punctuated by Danny's command that the class is over for the students. This is not the advanced class and they are not up for a real fight - most of them just come here because they enjoy martial arts. Many of them like to stick around for the after class involving weapons that Colleen teaches too.

Colleen wipes her hands dry from the dishes she's doing and steps out in to the doorway of the back room to see what is going on. The students are quickly gathering their things are rushing out of the place. Whoever these people are they seem to have the propriety to wait until the 'innocents' are gone.

"Friends of yours Danny?," Colleen asks. These don't look like the typical Hand soldiers but looks can be deceiving. Now that they've rhiled up a whole hornets nest of Hand they aren't facing the typical ex-students of Colleen's.

Danny Rand has posed:
Thus far, this well, gang, had been unusually polite. Though entirely mismatched, looking as if they come from every walk of life, lowlife anyways, one could imagine, clearly, they were coordinated. And if this was what they brought to bear, what were they holding back in reserve?

So, Danny did not initiate anything. His hand did not start to glow, nor did he make any kind of aggressive move. He was silently relieved that the students, far too inexperienced for this kind of incident, were being permitted to leave without duress. They were too nervous and scared to even say goodbye. They just filed out, one by one, after the first managed to get through the gap that had been purposefully left for them.

Both Danny and the leader shift their eyes, but not their heads, in the direction of Colleen when she comes in from the back room. "Oh yeah, we're going to film a music video." Even in tense situations like this, he had a certain innocent charm about him, as if he genuinely believed that they could be here to film an impromptu music video. And for added benefit, "it'll be all the rage on TikTok."

The lead man reaches into his white jacket pocket, and pulls out a thrice folded white envelope. No, it was not white, but some kind of beige. The paper was thicker. He stepped forward to extend it to Danny Rand, who looked at it, momentarily taking his eyes off of them, but keeping other attention on them via sound.

His expression was confusion, as if he were reading something that he did not fully understand. From her vantage point, Colleen might have been able to make out that it was Japanese, a language that Danny was only somewhat competent in.

Colleen Wing has posed:
Colleen's eyes roam over the able bodied men who have invaded her dojo. Picking out their weaknesses, their dominant foot, their steady hand, their own roaming gaze. The envelope certainly catches her eye and she walks out on to the mats. Toes curling a little as she goes from floor boards to soft cushions there to help the students learn to fall without hurting themselves.

"Careful Danny, you might be being served," she says and looks over the envelope. She takes it and opens it up. The letter has come from Japan. She can smell her home country the moment it's opened. The letter within has been written with skillful calligraphy, which means it was written personally by the hand that its contents come from.

Her eyes roam over the contents of the letter and she looks back at the men. She looks at the lead man who most surely can carry a message back to his boss. "Please convey our deepest regrets to Hashimoto-san," the name must ring a bell. One of the heads of the Yakuza in Japan.

"But so far our attempts to broker a cease fire with the Hand have failed," she explains, then leans in to Danny and whispers. "They're upset we're drawing too much attention their way because the local law enforcement can't tell the different between Hand and Yakuza." The worlds smallest violin right there.

"If Mr. Hashimoto-san wishes to expedite a cease fire with the Hand, I'm quite sure they know much of their attentions have been drawn toward a certain part of New York and.. I'm quite sure their other operations might be less protected than they aught to be." Hell, why not play one against the other. "For instance, Madame Yao's new drug sorting facility in Queens on 147NE Halliday street."

Danny Rand has posed:
Colleen's quip evoked a genuine smile from Danny. It was muted by the situation, but for the briefest moment, he flashed a bright smile. His expression reverted back almost instantly, and he let her take the envelope, fingers briefly grazing against a hand during the exchange.

It was good that she was here. Not only was she an experienced sensei, capable in a fight with anyone, from street level thugs to some superhuman beings, but she was also an excellent negotiator. She also possessed one quality, above all, that Danny Rand lacked: tact.

He watched, and then inclined his head towards her when she leaned in to whisper. He could smell the dish soap on her. "You smell lemony fresh," he whispered back.

The Yakuza lieutenant, or whatever rank he held, was silent for a long moment. It became uncomfortably long. Danny even shifted his weight, fidgeting a little.

And then he said six words, broken up into three parts. The first was, "Shitsurei Shimasu," the second "Ojama Shimashita", and the third, "Oyasumi Nasai." With that said, he bowed, formally, turned, and began to walk out. His people followed immediately thereafter. Interestingly, save for the leader, every single one of them had avoided stepping onto any mat with their shoes.

Colleen Wing has posed:
Colleen watches them file out. She notes the shoes on her mats and the lack of apology for that. No, this was classic politeness as a mask. Something Colleen didn't even realise wasn't normal for Americans until she moved to America. She watches them file out and frowns.

"I was washing the dishes," she casually remarks back to him. "And now we have a problem with the local Yakuza on top of the Hand. I'd say this can't get any worse but I'm sure it can." She crumples up the letter and tosses it toward the dust pan.

She misses.

With a sigh she scoops up the paper and the light passing through it catches her eye. A small metal chip weighted it down. "Danny look at this," she says and peels the chip out from between the layers of the parchment.

"Hm. We'll have to find a friend with a laptop and good virus protection. But why hide this in the letter unless... unless the Yakuza are actually trying to help us. Huh. Makes sense, the Hand are their competitor after all. I guess we won't know until we've read what's on this chip."

Danny Rand has posed:
Under the circumstances, Danny would have personally forgiven the Yakuza man for stepping onto the mat with shoes. He did hand the letter, after all, though it was still disrespectful. But this was not his dojo. It was Colleen's, and she had every right to be upset about that, as well as their impromptu visit.

"What's next, the Maggia, the Mafia..." he paused, lowering his voice in asking, "are they the same thing?" And then he spotted the miss. Colleen rarely missed. She had great hand eye coordination. He followed her over as the scooped it up, and did some sleuthing.

"I think they call it an Air Gap computer. A brand new one that's never been on the internet." Yes, he did see it on some TV show. "Though it wouldn't hurt to have a hacker on hand. Do you know any that can be trusted? That sounds like a great find. Good catch, Colleen!"

Colleen Wing has posed:
Colleen nods her head, "I know a few. And.. actually I don't know. You'd think two Italian mobsters would be at each others throats more often. Let's just hope this is as far as things go. The genie is out of the bottle and Murakami is exposed. He can't take that back and we're only just getting started."

She shrugs her shoulders, "Their strategy is sound though. We can't disrupt their operations if we're always looking over our shoulder. I reached out to Bakuto to see if I could make peace but he did his usual thing of speaking in riddles."

She rolls her eyes with a touch of exhaustion, "Elektra is apparently in trouble and my grand father lied through omission to me. Bakuto is a monster, but he's not a liar. I need to head to Japan - may be there's something at the house I missed."

Danny Rand has posed:
"I'll get the air gap..." he was about all ready to get his wallet, and rush out to some electronics shop, hopefully after putting a coat on. And then he looked out the window, remembering it was dark out. Every mainstream store would be closed by now, and the ones that aren't, he wouldn't trust that much for this.

"... tomorrow." He finished that thought. Seeing the shrug of her shoulders, the roll of her eyes, and other sighs of exhaustion, he stepped around, to apply his hands to her pressure points, and then paused, before making contact, "can I...?" he was pretty sure she understood what he was trying to do, but he wasn't going to do it without her permission.

In K'un-Lun, he would just do something to help another. She had taught him that here, you have to ask before doing almost anything, no matter how helpful it might be.

"I'll make sure that a jet is at your disposal." He may look like a vagabond at times, but he was actually one of the richest people in the world. It was such a strange dichotomy. "I'm sure your grandfather was trying to protect you." He always saw the best in people.

Colleen Wing has posed:
Colleen nods her head accepting his massage. Well, better than a massage. "Yes please," she says and rolls her shoulders as he digs his thumbs in.

She says in surprise, "Really? .. well thank you Danny. That solves the question of how I was going to pay for the trip." Broke as she is. A constant state of being for Colleen but she gets by. "May be dig in to what the Yakuza have given us with Daredevil, if he's around. No gift comes without strings. We have to be careful about what we do with the information they're giving us."

A student walks in to the dojo and sees Danny plying fingers to Colleen's shoulders and he pauses, "Uh. Sorry I'm early. Is this a bad time?"

Colleen grins, the levity of it breaking the dark mood of Hand and Yakuza dealings. "Hey Brad. No the last class ended early. Get changed and do your warmup while the other students arrive. You get motto keiko suru."

Brad looks confused, "What's that?"

Colleen is always happy to teach a little Japanese to her students, "Bonus practice."

Danny Rand has posed:
Danny went to work on her back, applying his fingers to pressure points taught to him in K'un-Lun. He dug in, making her wince, but only momentarily. Soon, each and every part of her back and shoulders that he nudged, tweaked, or manipulated, would sing as if she had just woken up from the best nap ever. Yes, it was better than a massage.

Continuing as he found new stress points, "don't worry about it." She was a struggling sensei. He was a billionaire. And they were friends. "Yes. Even if they have the best of intentions, one never really knows one's own true intentions."

While his actions were above board, it could have looked compromising to the student. He immediately stopped. His class had stopped early, but hers was about to begin. Perhaps he would even sit in and audit her class. She could always use a victim for demonstrations.