Are Bonds For The Past?
A female german Karate master is training alone in her own dojo... she trains, by attacking a wooden training-dummy over and over again... the girl was called Hitomi. Normally, she is known for fighting fairly, but today, she didn't do that and it showed, by how hard she hits the dummy. She obviously wasn't feeling pleased... she was feeling anything, but happy... she was angry, and it's about something personally... ever since Hayate has regained his memory and now has returned to his own clan, the dojo has become much lonelier and less full of life like normal... but this wasn't really bothering her. What DID bother her though, was the fact, at how Hayate never seems to show any interest towards her and not in a romantic way, but in a friendship way... she felt, as if the ninja completely forgot, what kind of bond they had together and so far, nothing changed, as if he really forgot about her... she then ends the session with one final punch, sending the head of the dummy flying... it fell on the floor, rolling to the entrance to the dojo in the process... little drops of sweat run down her now shiny skin, as she presses her hands against her knees, while bending forward in exhaustion in order to catch her breath...
"D-Damn you... H-Hayate... have you forgotten...?!" Says Hitomi in an exhausted tone, as she then lets herself fall on the blue training mattress, while then removing her white head-band.
Usually, training was always the best thing for her to let out her frustrations, in order to free her mind from all the stress that is left in her brain, but this time, she felt like she only wasted her time. She then slowly closes her eyes... memories of her and Hayate training together in the dojo passed through her thoughts, before he had to return home to Japan... all this brought a smile to her face, as she fell into a slumber... but as soon as she opened her eyes again, she felt her heart shatter into thousand bits... when she came to realization, that all these memories are no longer part of the present, she felt two little tears running down her cheeks... she has never felt this betrayed in her life... she understood, that Hayate has to bear the burden, that is the responsibility for his clan and his people, ever since the last leader passed away, however... for her, this doesn't excuse him to not come in contact with her, only once. She then jumped up and balls fists tightly together, to the point where bloody nail-marks have formed in the palm of her hand... the pain didn't bother her though... what really bothered her, was Hayate... she then had enough. She went upstairs, took a quick shower, changed into a pair of jeans, a yellow, belly-free, sleeve-less top and a jeans-coloured jacket, before then heading downstairs to catch some money from the jar, in order to buy a ticket to get to Japan, by plane... but before she touched the jar, she heard someone knocking at the door.
"OK, who might that be..." mutters Hitomi in an annoyed tone, rolling her eyes, as she then moves over to open the door, but when she looked through the peeping hole to view at her visitor... she nearly fell back.
It was Hayate.
"H-Hayate...?!"
"Hitomi, are you at home? Could I please come in?"
The Karate master still hasn't forgiven the Mugen Tenshin leader for not even caring about her for so long, despite the bond they used to have... but Hitomi is too light-hearted to be so cruel, so she decided to shake it off and first let him in.
"Wait a sec..."
She unlocks the door and Hayate comes in... with a troubled expression, written on his face. She could tell, that something was bothering him as well... but she was more bothered at how he was able to find her here.
"Hey... one question, from where did you gather information, that I live here? There is no way, you could have come all by yourself, without asking around town first..."
The ninja scratched the back of his head, while looking a little embarrassed.
"Well, let's just say, a bird tweeted something in my ear about your exact location... nah, just kidding. I used a navigator to get here. And no, I did not come with any vehicle, not counting the plane, that brought me here to Germany..."
"Ah... figures... always ready for action, eh? Typical..."
Hitomi then turned around to look at him with a perplexed look.
"Say... why did you come here exactly?"
When she asked that question, Hayate became serious, real quick.
"To tell you the truth, nothing work-related... I came, because I wanted to sort something personal out and that involves you... yes, it's between you and me."
When Hitomi heard the last part of that phrase, that peaked her interest... and once it did, Hayate is already at it, at closing all doors and windows and locking them, since it was a habit of his, to not let anyone listen to anything he is saying, but himself AND the person in the same room... and once he was done, he took a deep breath and sat down on the couch with Hitomi sitting down right next to the ninja.
"Well, what is it?"
"I know... you are guaranteed to hate me for this, but... do not get me wrong, I have NOT forgotten you in any way and I still see you as a good friend of mine, HOWEVER... and I only do all this for your own safety... we should stop meeting one another."
"Huh?!"
"Yes, you didn't mishear anything... I want to cut the relation between us... now with Donovan still being on the loose, because of me and my relatives destroying his old fortress, he will probably be dead-set on setting his sights on me, Ayane, Kasumi and anyone else involved, that is related to any of my family members and that includes you."
Hitomi just didn't know, how to react to that announcement, since she knew, that Hayate is a really busy and work-obsessed man, but the way he said all this... she simply couldn't see Ein anymore... like at all. It felt so cold, so cruel, so selfish and so hollow... she felt her heart shatter into smithereens, as her hands start trembling and she tried her best to not let any tear shed from her cheeks...
"...This is it?"
"Actually... yes. Please, do me this favour. But you must know, that I still care about you..."
The way he tried to defend his own words and coat them in sugar in a completely pathetic attempt, made her blood slightly boil. She knew, that he wasn't interested in being involved with her and her problems anymore. She knew, that he was actually running away from her, as if trying to avoid bringing up anything about the time, when he was still Ein, the one guy she remembers the most in him and with all that being gone now within just one announcement, drove her to pure madness... she grits her teeth tightly together and this time, she couldn't help, but slowly beginning to sob softly.
"No... you bloody don't... if you did... then you would have NEVER said any of this!"
"What? That's not true, Hitomi! You have to understand, that I will NOT tolerate Donovan going after-"
"AND WHAT IF HE DID?!"
With that phrase, she jumps up from her seat and she looks at him with burning rage and disappointment in her eyes and the ninja could clearly see, how much all this troubles the female German... and it slowly shadowed upon him, why.
"I'd rather perish under his hand, rather than having to know the fact, that a certain someone simply didn't care about how I felt about this entire situation! Do you seriously think so low of me?! Am I really too weak to do anything in your eyes?!"
"I am seriously confused right now! What is your issue with all this? All I want is to protect you, Hitomi! Is that too hard to understand?"
"Protect me?! What kind of "protecting" is this, where you simply straight-out say, that you want to cut all ties to me and yourself?! This is anything BUT protecting and more like of being nothing but an ungrateful prick, after everything I've done for you! Is this your way of thanking me!?"
As the heated argument between the two heated on, more and more tears ran down Hitomi's cheeks, as she couldn't comprehend all this ungratefulness of Hayate anymore. It simply broke her heart. It felt like, as if the ninja never cared about her and only did it, when he was suffering under amnesia. At one point, Hayate broke himself and he stood up to grab an enraged, but exhausted Hitomi, by her shoulders to look at her in a pleading way, as he now completely understood, why she is acting this disappointed towards him...
"Hitomi... are you upset... because... I am not Ein anymore?"
Hitomi violently pushes Hayate away and screams at him in rage and in a heartbroken tone. He failed to understand, why she is this mad with him and this made her even more angry.
"GO AWAY! I DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE AROUND HERE AGAIN! I DON'T NEED 'FRIENDS' THAT TREAT MY BOND WITH THEM LIKE NOTHING AND LATER DARE TO COME BACK TO ME AGAIN WITH NO HINT OF SHAME WHATSOEVER! JUST LEAVE ME BE!"
She then runs out of the house, with even more tears flooding down her cheeks, but just after she smashed the door shut, Hayate is quick to react and stand back up to go after her.
"Hitomi! Wait! Please, give me a chance to explain!"
He runs after her, after shutting the door.
TO BE CONTINUED...