Basketball Training Centre

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"Speech/Japanese Speech"

'Thoughts'

[True English]

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"The Basketball Training Centre?"

"That's right. We enlisted you to be able to attend it for the next three months every day while your mother and I are off on business meetings and such."

"Okay, dad."

Karma was currently in their hotel room sitting on his singular bed as his father sat opposite of him on the double bed that his mother and his father slept together on. His mother was currently in the shower as his father was filling him in on what was going to be happening for the coming days here in France.

Apparently, they had both signed him up for a three-month registration to a basketball training facility here in Paris. From what his father had told him so far, the place was welcoming to children of all ages from ages as young as six to senior high school students as well. It was dedicated to helping players get better as well as helping people start out.

He wasn't certain as to what the place would be able to provide him. But, at least he'll be able to play basketball at least.

He also hoped that they allowed him to utilise the workout facilities if they have them, which they most likely do. Back in Japan, he would always put some time into doing weights and working on his muscles at the training facility his parents owned. He just hoped that the myth about weight lifting at an early age stops him from growing.

He needed to be taller when he gets older.

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Karma decided to make a quick stop to the stores to buy a few things, he still had an hour or two before he needed to head off towards the training centre. He already knew where he needed to go as the map his parents handed to him was detailed and easy for him to follow.

The things he wanted to buy as of right now were a few ingredients so he could cook for himself in the hotel instead of needing to constantly be going down to the food area in the hotel. He was pretty sure he wasn't allowed down there without his parents, so he at least wanted to cook his own food.

He would go outside to eat, but his parents might get mad. He wasn't sure.

Another thing he really wanted to buy were a pair of fingerless gloves, a strong pair of lean fingerless gloves to be specific. He wanted to go to the gym at some point, and if the training centre had provided that, then he would be needing gloves if he was allowed. He really didn't want to be growing blisters on his hands.

At the present time, he bought an entire container of lollipops along with the ingredients. He isn't ashamed to admit it, but he loved lollipops, addicted even. Though, he wasn't certain if that was even something to be ashamed of. Probably not.

"Alright, that should be enough!"

"Excusez-moi, je ne pense pas que ce soit correct. [Excuse me, I don't think this is correct]."

"What?" Karma muttered as he looked up from his grocery basket to see what was happening. When he looked, he saw that some kind of commotion was happening in the checkout lane that he was heading towards. He blinked as he saw two people seemingly arguing.

"C'est tout à fait inacceptable! [This is completely unacceptable!]."

'Oh my gosh, is this what I think it is...? Please, no...'

"Je demande à voir votre directeur! [I demand to see your manager!]."

'It is, they exist everywhere! A Karen! A French Karen! Hell nah, to the other checkout lane I go! Allons-y! I ain't dealing with this!'

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"This looks to be the place."

Karma muttered to himself as he dressed himself in his usual casual comfortable clothes, he wasn't going to wear anything restricting when playing a game like basketball. His parents had given him directions to the place and they were thankfully quite easy to follow.

Though, he felt like someone or something was watching him the whole way. It sent shivers down his damn spine.

Walking into the building, he was thankful for the fact that it was cool inside. He always loved the rush of wind blowing on his face, especially if it was a cold wind. Looking around, he saw a bunch of other people hanging around the place. They were all conversing with one another, seemingly waiting for something.

Looking carefully at each person, he could see that they ranged from different people from all across the world. While he did see some fellow Japanese people along with others of different nationalities, the most prominent one was most likely French. He couldn't tell who was French, but he could assume the majority would be.

"Excusez-moi, êtes-vous ici pour le programme des trois prochains mois ? [Excuse me, are you here for the program for the next three months?]." Karma turned his head as soon as he heard the voice and saw that an old man who wore a business suit walked up and crouched down in front of him.

"Oui, c'est exact. [Yes, that's right]."

"Oh~, vous parlez bien le français. [Oh~, you speak French well]." The man chuckled as he heard Karma speak. The man could obviously see that Karma wasn't French, the boy was obviously of Asian nationality. "Si c'est le cas, veuillez vous rendre dans la zone de l'école primaire là-bas. [If that's the case, please head on over to the elementary school area over there]."

Karma looked to see the old man pointing towards a group of kids around his age, ranging from a few aged around six to probably eleven gathered up in a certain area of the building away from the older groups. He noticed that the boys were separated from the girl groups.

Basically, the groups were Elementary Boys, Elementary Girls, Junior High Boys, Junior High Girls, Highschool Boys, and Highschool Girls.

He wasn't certain if that's how the school system worked here in France, but it didn't matter as it looked like the groups were separated in age brackets similar to the school system in Japan, so he was just going to say it as such. It didn't really matter to him.

Karma bowed slightly in thanks before quickly making his way over towards the Elementary Boys group. There were far more Junior High and Highschool players here than there were Elementary. The boys probably had around eighteen for their group while the elementary girls had around only ten or twelve over there.

When he came into the group, a few of them introduced themselves to him as they were all talking to one another about what was going to happen here over the next few months. Apparently, they were waiting for their trainers to arrive here, which should be soon.

Karma smiled as he crossed his arms. He was honestly curious about what kind of training they were going to be doing here, hopefully it was going to be beneficial to him. He already was decently advanced in basketball. He knew all of the basics already.

He then soon felt a tug on his shirt.

"Bonjour... [Hello...]."

Karma turned around to see the person that had voiced out to him after having gotten his attention by tugging his shirt. When he did, he widened his eyes only slightly in surprise at the person. Standing in front of him was the very same girl that he had run into at the airport a couple of hours ago.

"Oh, Mimi. Ravie de vous voir! [Oh, Mimi. Nice to see you!]." Karma smiled as he turned his body around to fully face the girl as she looked up at him, he was still taller than her, even if it was only a few centimetres. "Je ne m'attendais pas à vous revoir de si tôt. Il est évident que vous êtes ici pour ce programme. Alors, êtes-vous prêt? [I didn't expect to see you again so soon. It's obvious you're here for this program. So, are you prepared?]."

"Mm." Mimi merely responded with a nod to his question. Karma chuckled slightly in amusement. "Que pensez-vous que nous allons faire? [What do you think we'll be doing?]."

"Eh bien, il devrait être évident que nous allons très probablement faire des exercices de base et peut-être quelques jeux si nous avons de la chance. Il s'agit d'un programme d'entraînement. [Well, it should be obvious that we'll most likely be doing basic exercises and maybe some games if we're lucky. This is a training program]."

"Karma!"

"Oh, je ferais mieux d'y aller ! A plus tard. [Oh, I better go! See you later]." Karma smiled as he waved her off when one of the boys he spoke with called him over. Their trainer had arrived and were gathering them all up. Mimi just waved him off silently as she soon to was called over by her group's trainer who arrived a few seconds afterwards.

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"Très bien, tout le monde! Je m'appelle Bruno Marchal et voici Fiona Boutin, nous serons vos formateurs pendant ces trois mois! [Alright, everyone! My name is Bruno Marchal and this is Fiona Boutin, we'll be your trainers throughout these three months!]."

Both the girl's and boy's elementary groups were actually put together as they were now sitting on the ground looking at the two trainers listening to Bruno, who was the trainer of the boy's, as he was explaining things to all of them about what was going to happen.

Bruno was a man around the age of forty with blonde short hair and was wearing a black suit, honestly, it looked a bit too formal for basketball right now. The same could be said for Fiona as she was also wearing a black suit as she had long brown hair that reached down to her waist.

"Nous ferons des échauffements le matin avant de commencer à faire des exercices d'entraînement! [We'll be doing warmups in the morning before we start doing some workout exercises!]." Bruno explained as Fiona then continued as she added.

"Nous aurons ensuite un peu de nourriture avant de poursuivre le tir et de passer à l'entraînement ainsi qu'à la préparation physique. [We'll then have some food before continuing on with shooting and passing practice as well as more body conditioning]."

"Enfin, nous allons déjeuner et terminer les journées par une partie de basket-ball! [Finally, we'll have lunch and finish the days off with a game of basketball!]." Bruno voiced as he clapped his hands. "Si vous travaillez assez dur, vous serez peut-être autorisé à travailler avec certains des joueurs les plus âgés à un moment donné! [If you work hard enough, you may be allowed to work with some of the older players at some point!]."

'Hmm, isn't this a bit much?' Karma frowned a bit as he heard their schedule that they will be doing. For him, this was extremely easy. He usually worked on his flexibility in the morning, body conditioning and strengthening in the afternoons and school study at night. His schedule was far more severe than this.

However, he wasn't sure about if these guys could handle it. He was born with an abnormally strong body, so he was already at an advantage with that. He would be lying if he said he wasn't worried for his fellow players here. Can they handle it?

While the schedule was definitely tame for older players and himself, it certainly would put quite an impact on normal people his age. Well, if worst comes to worst, he'll see if he can ask Bruno or Fiona to tone down the schedule a bit.