Maito Gai

*staggers into the corridor, shaking off snow*

What a great workout! Thanks for the sparring match, Honey -- your speed and agility are impressive!

Heh... between sparring with Honey, Sir Integra's new training format, and yesterday's truly EPIC snowball fight, I've done more physical combat than paper homework this week -- and most of it outside! There are so many strong children here. *pats the castle wall* My alma mater is indeed a place of marvels! And so many different styles of combat! I wonder if anyone would be interested in a weekly martial arts club?

Anyhow, I'd better head up to my dorm and get changed before my icy clothes start dripping all over the place....

Wait a minute.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COMMON ROOM!?

[[Between Haruko looking for her guitar and Osaka looking for Gregory, the Hufflepuff common room currently looks like a tornado has gone through it.]]

Seven o'clock A.M.... and what a beautiful day. Crisp, clear, and ten degrees below freezing! A perfect time to warm up with a hefty exercise routine!

*looks around the Great Hall*

What a fine area to practice in. Broad, majestic, plenty of room in front of the head tables, and there are never any real crowds until breakfast starts. But if by chance everyone does get here early, I will persist! I will endure! I WILL COMPLETE MY TRAINING, OR ELSE I'LL DO THE WHOLE THING AGAIN DURING MY FIRST FREE PERIOD!!

Two hundred pushups for starters, I think -- and then... I don't know... taijutsu drills? Laps around the castle? Stances and stretches? Decisions, decisions!

And a one... two... three... four....

[[Gai will be training in the Great Hall until breakfast is served.]]

A last-minute mission delayed my departure, so I could not accompany my PRECIOUS PROTOGE on his FIRST JOURNEY ABROAD. I'm glad now that he doesn't know I'm coming. Accomplishing the trip by himself will improve his concentration and confidence, and get him off to a good start for his first year at Hogwarts. What will he say when he finds out I've been studying there for three years!? Our community's rule of secrecy, as important as it's been with all the politics going around these days, has some definite drawbacks. But I started late, just as he's doing, and he has a good work ethic and a wizarding family to back him up. Now that his talent is developing, there's no way he can fail!

England is likely to be cold and damp. I'll barely have time to get to Platform 9-3/4 after my mission. Even I cannot Apparate that far from here. (Someday I will, though. That's a promise!!) Hokage the Third, our beloved chief wizard, prepared a Portkey to get me to England. In a few days I'll be standing outside the gates of the castle itself. THIS WILL BE THE YEAR OF A LIFETIME!!!!!!

I hope Lee settles in all right. Will he find a youthful rival to hone his spirits during his time of education? And which House will he end up in? Could it be mine?? But no -- I'm certain that such a proud spirit could only be Sorted into Gryffindor.

Must think of some new challenges to spring on my own eternal rival. He may be a genius with talent beyond his years, but as of our last competition, we're almost even!!!! Since he didn't have a mission, he'll probably get to the train before I do. That's another point to him.... well, I'll win it back inside of a week, or else I'll do TWICE the usual amount of Potions homework! Either way, I come out ahead!!