Season 1, Episode 4 - The Microwave IX - "Say It With Some Soul"

The same Saturday, either in the late afternoon or early evening, depending on your definition, back at the Domino Dojo. More specifically, at a table in the Domino Dojo kitchen.

“Some damn fine shepherd’s pie,” Domino said with a content sigh, his plate empty.

Isaac’s plate was about half as empty. It wasn’t that he was a slow eater, but he spent the whole lunch time talking with the old master, and Isaac didn’t believe in talking with any sort of food in your mouth. Their conversation, originally centered on the Electric Kite, soon veered into West Narragansett College’s chances in the upcoming basketball season, what the best potato chip flavor was (Massachusetts had reclaimed its original title of potato chip inventor and was the largest producer of potato chips in the former United States), and what exactly Lyndon B. Johnson’s Jumbo was (Isaac let the conversation drift off when he learned the truth).

The whole time, Reed pushed around the food on her plate, then stood up from her seat.

“Reed, this pie’s amazing, you gotta have some!” Isaac said.

Reed looked away. “Not hungry.”

“Was it the Jumbo talk?” Domino asked.

“Just not in the mood.”

“At least stay!” Isaac suggested. “Come join the conversation.”

With her back turned, Reed headed down a wooden hallway and walked off to somewhere else in the dojo.

Isaac looked back at Domino. “What’s up with that?”

Domino leaned back in his seat. “Ah, to be young. I think I know what’s up.”

“What is it?”

Domino raised a finger. “That’s something you gotta figure out for yourself.”

Isaac thought about it. “I just don’t get it.”

“You’re thinking with your brain, boy,” Domino informed him. He pointed his finger at Isaac. “You have to think with this.”

“My arteries?”

“Your heart, goddamnit.”

“Oh.”

My heart...so Domino’s real important to her...well, relatively important to her, at least, when compared with anything else...she wanted to impress him...her mood seemed to get worse when I’m with Domino...

Isaac’s eyes widened.

“I...have no idea.” Isaac stood from the table. “I’ll just go find her and ask about it.”

“Good idea.” Domino glanced at Isaac’s unfinished plate.

“Uh...I kind of wanted to have that when I get back,” Isaac said.

Domino nodded. “Sure, sure, go ahead.”

Isaac took a step forward then looked back; Domino had his fork over Isaac’s plate.

“Sorry, sorry.” Domino put the fork down. “Alright, how about this. I’ll run down the local store and grab a pizza or sandwiches or something, and when I get back, we can all watch the VHS tape together.”

Isaac nodded. "Let's do it."

Domino smiled wide. “I’m no punk bitch!”

Isaac also smiled. “I ain’t no punk bitch neither.”

The two laughed and then went on their separate quests.

Isaac went down the hallway Reed walked through, and realized that the Domino Dojo was actually a pretty big place. He opened several sliding shoji doors and looked through multiple rooms, not finding anything, until he headed down another hallway and noticed a presence behind a shoji.

“Reed, I know you’re in there, these Japanese door things don’t really hide shadows well.”

“Go away," came the slightly muffled response. "Go train. Go talk.”

Isaac sighed. “I’m coming in.”

He slid the door over and stepped inside. Reed was sprawled on the wooden floor, looking through some open shoji to the outside courtyard. Sun shined down on a robin pecking at a bird feeder in the middle of a Zen garden.

“Domino left to get pizza or sandwiches or something,” Isaac explained. “We’re gonna watch Heavy Traffic.”

“At this time?” Reed questioned, still looking away.

“What? What’s wrong with this time?”

“Who watches a movie at four o'clock? It’s still light out. A movie’s a big event, you know. It should be the last thing you do for the day. How can you do anything after spending all that energy on a movie? It’s the climax of a day, not a midpoint. The only exception is a weekend afternoon karate movie flick. But that’s not what you’re watching and it’s not a weekend afternoon anymore. Afternoon’s like noon to three. Three-thirty, if I'm feeling generous. We’re in the evening now. And Heavy Traffic is only half a karate movie, and I’d round that down to zero. It’s not a karate movie and it’s not a weekend afternoon, so I’m not watching it.”

Isaac crossed his arms. "I'm like ninety percent sure the afternoon is at least until five-thirty. That just sounds like excuses.”

Isaac sat down next to her. Reed scooted away, her eyes on the robin.

“What’s up with you?” Isaac asked. “We had a fun time walking here, and now you’re acting all distant.”

“Nothing’s wrong with me,” Reed briskly replied.

“Is this about the training? Did Domino do something?”

“Nobody did anything.”

“I just don’t get it. This morning was a great time, then we got here, and you started training, then acted all pissy soon after, even more pissy when I started training...”

Isaac made a realization, a big realization that instantly put the world’s biggest shit-eating grin on his face.

“You got pissed when Domino called you out for the scabbard thing, right? And then, and this is the richest part about the whole thing, you got jealous! My dear friend, Hibiscus Reed, jealous of me! All because your Sensei was training me.”

Reed crossed her arms and looked away. “I don't believe in jealousy.”

Isaac laughed so hard he had to grab his stomach. “This is too much! You being jealous! And jealous of me, I’d never thought I’d see the day!”

“Is this amusing to you?”

Isaac kept laughing. “Extremely! You always act so aloof and cool and whatever, but even you get jealous! This is too good. I’ll have to tell Audrey, is there a phone around here...”

Isaac realized Reed still hadn’t made eye contact with him this whole time, so the laughter died down. “Alright, I won’t tell anyone. Just me knowing is enough.”

Reed didn’t say anything.

Isaac stood and stretched, still smiling. “If you’re jealous, then come spend time with us. We can watch Heavy Traffic together. It’ll be fun.”

“No thanks.”

Isaac shrugged. “For what’s it worth, Reed, sometimes I get jealous of you, too.”

Reed looked up at him. “...you do?”

Isaac spoke easily. “Of course. You have all this talent. You more or less ignored everything Domino taught you and you still do this well. Me? I have to train as hard as I can every day just to be a Class 1. How could I not be jealous?”

Reed instantly stood and now she sported the world’s biggest shit-eating grin. “Ha! I always knew you were jealous of me. You're around your dear friend Hibiscus Reed every day, it would be hard not to.”

Reed realized her face had gotten way too close to Isaac’s, so she stepped away.

Isaac sighed. “Alright, fine. We can be jealous together.”

Reed shook her head with a smug smile. “Not a chance. I told you, I don’t get jealous. The only one jealous here is you.”

Isaac reached his breaking point. “Fine, you know what? I admit, maybe I made fun of you a little there, but here I am, trying to make you feel better now, but you put up that aloof cool thing and just brush it all away. I don’t care if you watch the tape with us or not. Be jealous if you want. Or don’t. I don’t care anymore.”

Reed wasn’t sure what to say. She watched Isaac go.

Sitting on an old couch in what could be called the dojo’s living room, Domino and Isaac laughed as a LAPD officer blew up a car and then danced on their television to some funky old music. They heard the shoji to the room open and smiled at who stepped inside.

“...I heard there was pizza or sandwiches or something,” Reed said, a little meekly.

Isaac gestured toward an open box of pizza. Reed looked inside.

“Olives?” Reed asked.

“I know you like those,” Domino said.

Reed looked back down at the pizza.

“...thanks.”

She took a slice and sat at the end of the couch, Domino on the far end and Isaac in the middle.

Nobody said anything, but they were all glad that everybody was in attendance now.

Isaac returned from a bathroom break, strategically-timed so he would be back just in time for the movie’s most iconic moment.

“War, huh, yeah...” he sang softly to himself with a little passion in his step. “What is it good for, absolutely nothing...”

On the couch, both Reed and Domino heard him; Reed looked amused, but Domino looked like he was getting wound up about something.

“What do you know about war?” Domino asked, his voice a little tense.

“Everybody knows war,” Isaac answered, feeling a smile form on his face. “Huh, yeah. What is it good for, absolutely nothing...”

“What is it good for?” Domino asked, his voice rising. “I’ll tell you what it’s good for. It’s for bodies stinking in trenches, the screeching sounds of shells and artillery, planes falling in clouds of smoke, cities in ruin. I’ll tell you what war’s good for!”

Domino suddenly stood. “Absolutely nothing!”

He moonwalked away from the couch and began dancing in front of Isaac.

“Say it again!” Isaac sang.

Domino kicked his legs out and spun. “War!”

Isaac answered. “Huh!”

“Yeah!” They sang together.

While the jazzy instruments and soulful lyrics continued, Isaac and Domino danced together, moving their bodies to the ups and downs in the beat.

Isaac watched Domino squat and move his fingers rapidly, as if they clicking keys. Isaac started clapping along to the rhythm. “Woah, that’s the Typewriter!”

Domino went back to normal dancing and pointed at Isaac. Isaac rubbed his hands together then pretended to push a shopping cart, occasionally reaching up to a pretend shelf.

“The Canned Goods Aisle!” Domino realized.

Isaac pointed back to Domino. The sensei spun in place and then knelt over and pretended to push a starter button. He stood back up and mimed pulling a ripcord.

“That’s the Lawn Mower!”

“War!”

“Huh!”

“Yeah!”

Isaac and Domino danced around each other. “What is it good for?”

They looked expectantly over at Reed, who frowned.

“Get out of here, you guys. I’m not joining your little friendship moment. It was a cheesy scene in Heavy Traffic and it’s a cheesy scene here. What do you want me to do, believe in the power of friendship and how we’re all comrades in arms in this daily struggle of life? What are you gonna have me do, make me say, ‘Nam Myoho Renge Kyo?’ Make me say big words and act lyrical? Make me get spiritual? Make me believe in miracles, Buddhist monks, and Cap’n Crunch cereal? Cause let me tell you, I’m the last person who-”

Reed blinked, realizing she was already standing. She looked down and saw her own foot tapping along to the beat. "...ah, Christ..."

“War!” Isaac sang.

“Huh!” Domino continued.

Reed shrugged. “Ah, what the hell?”

The three came together.

“What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!”

War!

As evening set in, Domino lit a few paper lanterns, basking the train grounds in light. Reed squinted her eyes, flexed her fingers, then quick as a flash withdrew her sword from its scabbard on her hip. A sound wave came from the iaijutsu technique, blasting its way across the sandy training ground until it struck the head of a training dummy.

His arms folded and leaning on the wall of a wooden shed, Domino nodded in approval. Reed nodded back.

Huh!

Golden energy flared around Isaac, who closed his eyes, trying to find the tone of the Rddhi, the silver linings within it. Lines of energy shot out from him, each one coalescing into a clone. Domino delivered a quick palm strike to each. Every clone stood strong and firm, taking the hit with pride, Isaac willing each clone to ignore the strikes, stay coalesced for a little longer.

After striking the last clone, Domino nodded in approval. Isaac nodded back.

Yeah!

Reed sent an iaijutsu sound wave at Isaac, who punched the wave right as it was about to strike him. The force of wave was enough to make him slide backwards in the sand, but Isaac’s form and composure kept him on his feet and ready to strike back.

Lines of energy shot out from Isaac’s fist, coalescing into clones above Reed. Reed sent three slashes, because three slashes were all she needed: rather than waves coming out of her sword, the sword itself was filled with sound energy, exploding outward right as it came into contact with the clones.

Three slashes went up, three clones went down. Satisfied with Reed’s strikes and Isaac’s durability, Domino nodded in approval. Isaac and Reed nodded back.

What is good for?

Standing in front of the training dummy, Isaac, fists raised in a boxer’s stance and primitive noise-cancelling headphones around his ears, felt energy course up his right arm. Letting the Rddhi accelerate him, Isaac’s right fist covered the distance from the boxer’s stance to the head of the training dummy in miliseconds, taking it clean off.

On the other side of the training ground, Reed, wearing a pair of blocky noise-cancelling headphones as well, charged the Domino Sword with crackling red energy. Taking a deep breathe, she found herself yelling “Resonate!” as the Rddhi poured from her sword in a massive explosion, decimating the area around her with a high-pitched screech. Multiple 99 Cent Store glasses and mugs exploded in an instant.

Isaac and Reed smiled at each other from across the training grounds. Domino nodded in approval. Isaac and Reed nodded back.

Absolutely nothing!

At a local ramen shop, Domino smiled apologetically to the two kids, displaying his empty wallet. Isaac sighed and went for his wallet, only to see Reed already dropping money on the counter. Isaac and Domino nodded in approval. Reed nodded back.

War! Huh! Yeah! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!

The three walked up the street, back towards the Domino Dojo, a bounce in their steps, Domino taking a moment to swing around a lamppost, everyone laughing.