Marik stepped out into the courtyard and began stretching. He had already given his light greetings and requested permission to use the courtyard. He may not be able to practice any mystical arts today but there was no ban on doing anything physical. He had actually hoped the twins were around to play with but he hadn't seen any sign of them yet. Deciding to at least get something accomplished today whether they showed up or not, he did a light jog around the courtyard to warm up before starting his shadow fight training in the middle.

He heard the light footsteps behind him of someone trying to sneak up. Assuming from the sounds that it was Sai, he waited until right before she was pretty much close enough to either reach out and touch him or tackle him. He did a sudden backwards roll to the side and landed on his feet facing her. He saw Kiara by the door trying to slowly close it without making any sound off to his side and Sai was lying flat on her stomach where he had been just a moment before. That was a confirmation of sorts that his self-styled martial arts were producing at least some results.

"Good morning, Sai. Hi, Kiara."

He raised his voice slightly to call his greeting over to Kiara.

"Ugh. Why'd you dodge like that?"

"Because it seemed like it would be funny? Isn't that the same reason you were trying to sneakily tackle me?"

"No fair. I want a redo!"

Marik watched and waited as Sai picked herself up and brushed herself off. He had to time this right. He felt that tight grip he always tried to keep on his actions and sanity willingly loosening some. It was okay. At this time, and with these girls, especially since it was his birthday, it should be fine to just let loose a bit. Noticing that Sai had just finished brushing herself off and was straightening up fully to look at him with a pout, he pounced. He full on tackled her in a similar manner to how she had done to him last year, landing straddled on her stomach, his hands pinning her shoulders down, and his face over hers.

"So what do you wanna play today? I've been waiting a year you know? It was really boring you know? Can your sister play anything? Did you know you have pretty eyes? Have you learned any magic? Do you know how to fight? When is lunch? Is there any candy?"

Sai stared at him in a light state of shock as he questioned her intensely. The one to interrupt him finally was actually Kiara tapping him on the shoulder from a full arm's distance away.

"Umm. You should probably get off her. I don't think anyone's ever done that to Sai before, so..."

Marik came back to his senses just enough to let out a small sigh and decided Kiara was probably right. He let his weight off of Sai and started to shift to the side a bit so could push himself over and stand up when suddenly Sai grabbed his shoulder while throwing herself at him causing them to roll over on the ground and reverse positions. Now they were in the same position as a year ago, with Sai wearing the biggest smile possible on her face and her eyes sparkling with excitement. Marik noted briefly that she had grown some this past year. Kiara sighed loudly at the side.

"That means you missed me, right? I'm so happy. I missed you, too. Master said you'd come but I didn't know for sure. She said we could play when you came so I thought about what we could play. Let's play tackle! We both win, already! Isn't that awesome?"

Kiara stood off to the side making sure she was far enough to not get caught up in their movements by accident. She lightly cleared her throat to get their attention. Both Sai and Marik turned their heads to her at the same time.

"Umm. How do I say this? Are you okay?"

"Hmm? I'm fine? It was more of a roll than a real tackle, you know? Or were you asking your sister? Are you okay, Sai?"

"I'm fine! Are you okay, Kiara?"

"I'm fine! Wait! That's not what I meant. I meant, like, Master said that you, you know, had things happen, too. Like, we aren't really perfectly alright in the head and stuff, you know? Master said she fixed us as best she could and all that but...ya. So I mean are you okay? Or did your master have to fix you, too?"

"Hmm? Ohhh. So you two had some rough times, too, huh? My story probably isn't as bad as yours, really. I just had a bunch of people throwing me away or trying to kill me a bunch of times when I was, like, two years old and stuff. It probably helped with the craziness a little bit if that's what you're asking about but I think I was always just a little crazy for...umm...other reasons? I just always held it back until I met you guys."

He could see some shock on both of their faces at the brief summation of his past. As he finished talking he thought he saw a hint of respect on Sai's face and either pity or sadness on Kiara's. Suddenly Sai gripped his shoulders and yanked him up some as she dove down so she could put her arms around him. Slightly bewildered by the sudden hug, Marik tilted his head as he looked at Kiara, hoping she could give an explanation for her sister's sudden action.

"You poor thing. That's so terrible," the explanation came from Sai.

"Well we kind of accidentally destroyed our aunts village, got everyone killed or enslaved, and were forced to watch a lot of bad things happen after being hurt. I felt it was fair to tell you since you told us."

Marik thought about it for a second as he felt Sai start gripping him tightly. In the end he decided to just say what he thought. He wasn't a specialist in dealing with minds or trauma after all.

"Well that sucks. I can see how that could make someone lose it. That's not really important, though? C'mon let's play. I only have today to play here, so I wanna have fun today. Sad later. Fun now."

"Thanks," he heard Sai whisper as she let him go and put her smiling face back in front of his own.

Kiara seemed lost for a moment then burst out laughing. She turned around and walked over to the wall and sat down in the shade next to the door, still laughing lightly. Sai finally got off of him but started crawling around on all fours. After she made a complete circle she stopped and stared at him.

"Let's play what you were playing with yourself a while ago!"

"You mean my fight training? You want to fight with me?"

"No! Not fighting. Playing. Fighting is what you do to bad people and make their heads go squish and insides go outsides with lots of splat splat."

"Fair enough. Let's play then."

Marik spent the rest of the morning showing Sai some of what he was doing in his fight training while sparring with her. Kind of. There were a lot tackles and laughter included. The bearkin maid, Matilda, soon showed up and called the girls inside for lunch. Marik took the opportunity before the maid disappeared to discreetly ask for the bathroom. For the first time she showed a slight smile and led him before walking away to attend to the girls' lunch. When Marik returned to the courtyard he found Kiara sitting in the shade off to his side with two sandwiches. She was nibbling on one cutely and held out the other one towards him. Marik sat down beside her and accepted the sandwich. He watched her nibble hers down until it was almost gone before he finally remembered the one in his hand and started eating it. While he ate, Kiara talked to him.

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"You're pretty weird but we like you. Sai was going to come back here with me but something caught her attention in her mind so she'll probably be here in a little bit. Umm. So, Master said you already know some magic and sorcery. Is it easy to learn?"

Marik finished the last bites of his sandwich and leaned back against the wall in thought with his eyes closed. He tried to remember all the from when he first started learning sorcery to now. He probably had only advanced near as quickly as he had because of his environment where he there weren't a lot of better things to do and his knowledge from his past life. Even with those factors, he had hurt himself plenty of times and some of it might have been worse than it ended up being if he didn't have a wolfkin's strong body or the strangely fast healing from the cursed villages, so saying that it was easy would be a lie.

"Easy, huh? I'd have to say no. It takes a lot of time and effort and knowledge and understanding. There's also aptitude. I think I remember that foxkin have it a bit easier than wolfkin like me but you also have to have some kind of affinity with what you're learning. What and who you are as well what you want to be and do in your life make a bigger difference, I think, than anything else. If you already know all of that and specifically aim to learn in that direction then it'll be easier than if you don't. Like, if you want to be a performer and you like making people smile then learning flashy things that get people's attention is probably a good start."

He had heard the door quietly open and close and someone, who he assumed was Sai again, quietly stand to the side and listen in.

"As for me, I know most of those things about myself. I also kind of had some motivation to figure some stuff out earlier in my life than most people. I don't want to get almost killed any more. I don't want to be thrown away again with no knowing where I am or where to go. I'm a strange wolfkin with a bunch off oddities in a lot of ways who's probably tottering on the edge sanity in some ways. If someone ever tries to hurt me again then I want to be good enough and strong enough to hurt them first or more. That's who and what I am as well as what I want to be and do. Since I know that, everything...well...almost everything I do now is for that. All the things I try to learn and do are to improve my body, mind, and soul and be ready for whatever comes so that when it does come I can deal with it and move on and try to live a long happy life. Learning sorcery and magic is only a part of that for me. That might have been a bit long and complicated, though."

"No. I think it kind of makes sense. So I should figure out the future I want before trying to move towards it and learning magic and sorcery are just a part of that? Right?"

"Wow. I always get told how I'm mature for my age but aren't you the same? How old are you two anyways?"

Marik was looking Kiara in the eyes now.

"We turn nine in about two months. How old are you?"

"I turn nine today."

Suddenly he was hugged from behind by Sai. That was okay but the thin rope she was holding in her hand kind of worried him a little.

"Happy birthday," she said before letting him go again.

"Thanks. What's up with the rope?"

"Well when you were showing me the sparring thing you said it was to help keep the bad people away. Then I remembered that rope is supposed to help keep bad people away so I had Matilda help me find some."

Marik thought through the various training he had been doing. He had long ago decided not to bother with weapons, which ended up a slight sore spot recently with more of his other memories coming in. He did have some interesting memories of seeing interesting weapons. He thought about anything dealing with rope. Some of it didn't come up completely but he had a few interesting things in there. After thinking for a few moments, he picked the one that seemed like it would be the most fun.

"I have an idea. Let me borrow that for a bit and you go find a heavy rock smaller than your fist, okay?"

"Umm. Okay?"

Marik started tying knots in the rope, using his own fist to make some rough measurements. Sai soon returned with a rock that seemed good enough for his idea. It probably wouldn't work well in the long term, though. He made sure the rock was tied as tightly to the end as possible before stepping what he though was just a little more than far enough away to not accidentally hit the girls and began swinging the rope in a circle. This was a very poor imitation of a mix between a rope dart and a weighted sash. After making sure the rock didn't even loosen from swinging the rope around, he slammed it into the ground.

Both of the girls watched him curiously as he started swinging it around again. He couldn't remember all the really fancy moves but he had played around some in he past life and he had better hand-eye coordination in this life. He wanted to show off a little to get Sai interested enough, so as he explained himself he started to do some simple tricks.

"So this isn't exactly how this is supposed to be but it's good enough for starters and a little practice. It's a special weapon that was designed specifically to keep bad and mean people away and make the bad and mean people don't stay away wish they had. Since it's also technically still a rope, then things you can do to bad people with rope you can also do with this. It's supposed to be very difficult to master all of the ways to use it, though, so only people who are willing to work on it for years should try it. I only know a bit because I decided to learn other things. However, even with only what I know I can make it move around like this. Or circle around like this. Or you can make it seem like the weapon itself wants to hit the bad people like this. When people who are really good with it use it they con do even more and even fancier things and make it never stop moving until they want it to. Unfortunately I only know as far as finally hitting someone really quickly by kicking towards someone bad, like this."

He showed all that he knew he could do and hoped it looked impressive enough. Looking at Sai's face told him that it did. He held out the new weapon for her to grab. She took it with sparkling eyes and started to swing it around as he sat back down near Kiara. They watched Sai playing around for while, occasionally hitting herself but always immediately starting over again, when Kiara finally opened her mouth.

"Are you...trying to turn my sister into a dangerous person?"

"Yes."

"Wow. You just straight out admitted to it."

"I don't like lying. It's something that will hopefully keep her occupied when she needs some exercise for now. Some day, if she actually does become really good with it then it could save her life or whatever's left of her sanity. If she can prevent more tragedies from affecting her..."

"*Sigh* I won't say anything bad about it. I was mostly just surprised that you suddenly decided to turn my sister dangerous so quickly. I just hope she, um, doesn't accidentally hurt me while playing with that."

Marik could see her shiver slightly out of the corner of his eye. He frowned just a little and some puzzle pieces in his mind started coming together. She was crazy. The crazy came after an incident where she had likely been tortured. She couldn't get hurt anymore. She just shivered when talking about getting hurt...in pleasure. Marik kind of wanted to confirm it just to make sure but it was probably a crazy thing to do that could backfire immensely. Then again, today he was letting the crazy flow. He leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"If you really want, I can show you a way to dislocate your shoulder in an incredibly painful way. Putting it back is supposed to hurt even more."

Kiara started shivering again before he even finished talking.

"Have my babies," she whispered under breath.

Marik drew back a bit. Her severe masochism was confirmed to be even worse than he imagined. He had never even imagined a little girl not quite 9 years of age suddenly demanding children from him in any situation much less a situation of offering a way to safely harm oneself. Marik should probably do something to curb that slightly before he ended up in a position he didn't want to be in. He liked these twins, sure, but not enough to start puberty early.

"Ahem. Mm. About what we were talking about earlier. To be honest, you seem like the type who would be good with deskwork or doctor work in the future. Nobody says you can't have more than one goal, as long as they don't contradict one another. So since I don't mind teaching you some ways to hurt yourself but I also want to make sure you don't ever go too far or if you do you still have an out, then why don't you learn some healing magic and maybe some sorcery that helps with it. Mind, body, and soul healing. After all, the more you know about each and how to heal them, the more you also know how to hurt them, and vice versa. Just saying. Deal?"

"Deal," Kiara spat out without even sparing any extra thoughts about it.

Marik hoped that would help in some way in the future. The night started to approach and his master showed up, his presence announcing it was time to go home. Marik gave some light words of farewell to the sisters as his master formed the portal home. He reminded Kiara of their deal while being vague then told Sai that she should try to get a proper weighted rope and get as good with it as possible. He then followed his master back into the house where he started asking some questions. He wanted to know if there was some way to give someone a copy of very specific memories, possibly slightly altered, little by little. He also told his master that he probably would need to start getting a little more social interaction before too much more time passed. Then he made a request his past life's self would have never asked for. He wanted a chance to kill some people, obviously not good and innocent people, though. He didn't want to feel hesitation when and if the time ever came that it was necessary since hesitating in a life or death situation was likely to end in his own death, plus he was sure even his master had killed at least a few people.