C-Mage: This might be the last chapter you'll get for a while. I'm going
on vacation for seven weeks on the 22nd.... This chapter was written under
influence of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which I got today.
Eeeeee!
T.Anjel: No comment.
Disclaimer: We don't own CCS. You don't own CCS. Who does? CLAMP and a bunch of companies....
Summary: Syaoran and Sakura have a talk and another sparring match. First self-defense club lesson! ^.^
Learn to Love Me - Chapter 8 - Syaoran Learns to Hit a Girl
Damn those idiots, I thought to myself.
I was driving back to school after changing my shirt. The one I had been wearing was unsalvageable, thanks to the ink my students had decided to prank me with.
What is it with American students? I asked myself. The students in Hong Kong had certainly never done any such thing, and they would have been severely punished if they had.
Then I remembered. I'd forgotten to write the referrals. I groaned. Well, I would just have to do that when I got back. If I could find any slips without ink on them. I growled low in my throat. I hated being upstaged by students. I hated being made fun of. And I hated spiders with a passion. Okay, so maybe I was more scared, but still. My students had made me look like a total idiot. I'd probably loose their respect for weeks....
Finally I reached the school and headed off to my classroom. Absentmindedly, I turned the doorknob. It wouldn't go. I jerked it back and forth, but it wouldn't budge. Sighing, I slumped against the wall. Kinomoto must have locked it and left, and, just my luck, I'd left my key to the classroom in - you guessed it - the classroom.
Kuso.
My pride too strong to allow me to go wimpering to the janitor, I settled in for a wait, sitting down on the floor. Thankfully, class was still in session. The students already had enough to laugh about - I wasn't keen to give them more.
I was idly checking my watch, seeing that it was ten minutes until the period was over, when I heard footsteps approaching. Finally. It really had taken her long enough....
I stood up, trying to look as in control as is possible when your pants are covered in dust. Tapping my foot impatiently, I finally saw Kinomoto round the corner, backpack thrown haphazardly over one shoulder. She gasped when she saw me, then jogged over.
"Mr. Li!" she cried, looking shocked. "I'm so sorry! I thought you'd have your key with you!"
"Obviously, I didn't," I said coolly, ticked off at myself for being so stupid. "Now, could you please open the door?"
"Oh!" she exclaimed, smacking herself on the forehead lightly. "Right." She pulled out a key, unlocked the door, and walked in, flicking on the lights.
"Thank you," I murmured coldly, and she blushed.
We settled down at our respective ends of the classroom, and I started digging through drawers for more referral slips. I slammed the last one shut, not having found anything, and Kinomoto giggled.
"What?" I asked, more annoyed than I had been. I'd forgotten that Kinomoto had seen the prank as well. She must think I'm some sort of ninny, I thought.
"You just seem so..." - I glared at her - "grumpy," she finished.
"Of course I'm grumpy," I muttered, standing up and heading for the door.
"Where are you going?" she asked looking surprised.
"To the office, if you must know," I replied. "All of my referral slips are covered in ink. And, please, don't lock the door again." I turned before seeing her turn scarlet and headed down the hall.
The bell rang as I was in the hall, and soon I was flooded by students. I started to wedge my way through, trying not to notice the looks and muffled snickers around me. My class must have spread the word of the prank. Lovely.
Finally I managed to read the office, just as another bell rang. Luckily, I had this period off, too. After I'd gotten my new set of referral slips, I was just heading out of the office when I heard a voice behind me.
"Punishing a lot of students, Li-kun?"
I turned around. "Iie," I replied. "My students, er, destroyed the ones I had."
Hiiragizawa-san smiled. "Aa. Li-kun, I have news about the self- defense club." I nodded. "As you requested, the school's mats will be available to you, and we managed to scrounge up some blocks and padding. You may start Friday."
"Good. Arigatou, Hiiragizawa-san." I left and went back to my room, relieved to see that the door was unlocked. I noticed Kinomoto, reading a book, and figured I should tell her the news. I cleared my throat.
"Yes?" she asked, looking up.
"Mr. Hiiragizawa said that we can start the self-defense on Friday. Be sure to be at the school at four, in the gym. Be on time, please."
"Okay." She thought for a moment, obviously wrestling with herself internally.
"Spit it out," I said, and she blushed again.
"Mr. Li, if we're to be in charge of the self-defense club, you're going to have to hit me."
I was puzzled. "Excuse me? Hit you?"
She sighed. "Yes. When we had to practice bought, all you did was block. You didn't attack me a single time, which I find disrespectful. You should respect that I've had training and can defend myself."
I frowned. "I was taught never to hit a woman," I stated. Did she want me to go against all of my training?
"Well, you'll have to, or else this club will never work." She, too, frowned. "Unless you plan on having me demonstrate everything, while you hold the padding."
"We could do that."
She threw up her hands and made a small shriek of exasperation. "I don't want to do that, do you get it? I want to be an equal to you! Not a 'woman,' not a member of the 'weaker' sex! Can you treat me as an equal at all?" She looked at me, her patient temper obviously began to flare.
"I do," I said abruptly.
"Where?" she asked, incredulous.
"In the classroom."
She thought for a moment more, then said, "You'll always treat me as an equal in the classroom, right? Because I'm an educator?" I nodded, feeling uneasy. Her usual wide, innocent eyes held firm with my own. She didn't seem to have the need to blink either. "Well, then think of the self-defense club as a classroom. You should treat me as an equal whenever we're teaching the club. You said as much yourself."
I opened my mouth to tell her off, then stopped. Shimatta. Trapped by my own words, I thought. "Fine," I said haltingly. "But only during the club. Not during practice or anything. Only when we're teaching. We won't even be doing sparring to start with, anyway."
She smiled, her fiery temper gone in a snap. "Thanks, Mr. Li. Four o'clock, Friday, gym?" I nodded. "I won't be late." She turned back to her book, smile lingering.
I walked back to my desk, trying hard not to stop. I'd been roped into fighting against the opposite sex, something I'd been trained not to do since childhood. I'd just have to forget about it....
I looked at my hand, surprised to see the referral slips, then remembering that I needed to write referrals. I sat down and started to write them out, noticing that my desk had been cleaned up. Where there should have been ink and ruined papers, there was my desk as it should be - neat and tidy, albeit missing some papers.
"Ms. Kinomoto," I called, looking over at her.
"Yes?" she asked, slightly puzzled.
"Thanks for cleaning my desk," I grumbled quietly, finding surprise at how easily the words came out.
She grinned. "You're welcome. I figured I wouldn't want my desk to be messy, so I thought you definitely wouldn't want it like that."
Pushing down a smile, I finished my referrals and placed them in a pile at the corner of my desk.
~*~*~
The rest of the week veritably flew by. I contended with jokes and teasing in almost every class, but second hour was by far the worst, because they had been witness to what had happened. Soon enough, it was Friday, and I was heading to the gym after class for the club.
It was amazing how quickly had word gotten around. I'd told my classes about it, of course, and printed out a few flyers, but the students buzzed with talk of learning how to beat up their little brothers and sisters. When they weren't laughing, at me, of course.
I changed into loose clothes. I'd need freedom of movement for this. Then I started to pull out mats, laying them on the floor and velcroing them together. I was wrestling with one particularly annoying mat when Kinomoto showed up.
"Let me help," she said, picking up one end and carrying it to the others, then positioning it. "There. How many are left?"
"That was the last one," I said.
"All right. When do the students show up?" She didn't stop smiling.
"The flyers say 4:15, but some will probably be late."
"Undoubtedly." She smirked. "Never count on students to be on time."
We sat down to wait after piling the blocks and padding in a corner, and slowly the students trickled in, in groups of by themselves. They headed to the locker rooms to change, then came back out, all wearing loose clothing - some even wore their P.E. uniforms.
After the last student had straggled in, I stood up, as did Kinomoto. The students stopped talking and turned to look at us, faces expectant. I cleared my throat.
"Hello," I said. "This is the newly started self-defense club, as you all should know." A few people chuckled. "Ms. Kinomoto and I will lead this club. We will show you the basics of self-defense, and maybe even how to spar, if you do well enough."
Kinomoto slid in, as if we'd rehearsed the speech. "We'll start with stretches, of course." She smiled. "Never try any physical exertion without stretching first. You could pull a muscle, which, while painful, might not be enough to get out of class." There was some laughter. Kinomoto definitely got along better with the students than I did. "So, we stretch."
We led everyone through various stretches, stretching as much of the body as we could. There were winces during some stretches, especially the harder ones, like touching your toes while sitting down. They did reasonably well, for not stretching every day.
"I know you all may be imagining learning how to beat up your rampant siblings or the school bully, but you won't be," I said. "Self-defense is precisely that - the defense of yourself. We'll start with basic punches and kicks."
Some students groaned.
Kinomoto laughed. "Punching and kicking may be boring, especially if you repeat them endlessly, but eventually they'll become like second nature to you, and you won't have to think about using them - you just will. Now, let's start with a front kick...."
For the next hour we led the students through kicks and punches, first demonstrating on each other, then having the class practice all together. We walked around as they practiced, correcting stances and aim. Near the end, we called them up in two's to practice on us, using the padding and blocks to keep from getting hurt. Finally, the last two had finished.
"Good job, everyone," I said, taking off my blocks and tossing them aside. "You all did very well for your first time. You can practice at home - it'll help." I paused, then decided to go on through with my idea. Kinomoto shouldn't mind too much. She was the one who wanted me to hit her, after. "I know you'd all like to see what you'll be able to do after a while, so Kinomoto and I will have a demonstration spar."
Kinomoto looked at me, shocked, but the faces of the students in the club were priceless. They looked as if they had won the lottery. But I don't think Kinomoto'd realized that I'd meant what I'd said in my room, or that I'd act upon it so quickly. I motioned to the mats, and she walked over, taking up a stance opposite me, ready to block, forcing me to go on the offensive.
I was much more prepared for this match than for the previous two. I'd gotten a glimpse of her fighting style, and I definitely wasn't underestimating her. I suddenly shifted my weight and lauched myself at her, fist aimed for her side. My mind registered the surprise on her face, but she blocked flawlessly, as I'd expected.
We fought back and forth for a while, sending punches and kicks at each other that were blocked easily. Kinomoto increased her speed - maybe she was getting bored. I increased mine to compensate. Eventually my mind was completely focused on Kinomoto, looking for a sign of a future move. This was the hardest bought I'd been in since I'd been training in China against Wei-san.
Vaguely I heard gasps and cheers from our audience, and a small part of my mind wondered if they were surprised at how well we could fight. The rest of my mind said to focus on what I was doing - on how my arms were moving through the air, on any single opening in Kinomoto's defense.
Abruptly, I noticed an opening and went for it with all of my leftover energy. I blocked two punches and aimed my fist for her face, stopping less than an inch from her nose. I knew I'd won, and my body relaxed. For the first time I noticed that I was sweating and panting for breath. I found the short fight to be satisfying, but both Kinomoto and I knew that we both held back. We were just having a demonstration after all.
Kinomoto grinned. "Nice one, Li-san," she murmured in Japanese. Picking up a towel to wipe her flushed face, she turned back to the students. "So, how was it?" she gasped.
They went wild. "Awesome!" a few cried. "You were great, Ms. Kinomoto!" yelled others. "Mr. Li, you were so cool!" even a few called.
I blushed. I wasn't used to praise, especially after being criticized as potentially the most boring teacher in the school. "Thanks," I muttered.
"Thanks, you guys!" exclaimed Kinomoto, ecstatic, for all that her hair was plastered to her neck and face and she looked exhausted. "The next meeting will be next week, at the same time. 'Bye!" She waved as the students left to change, then turned to me.
"Li-san!" she said in amazement. "You hit me!"
I allowed a small smile. "Of course I did. I said I would, didn't I?" She nodded. "I don't go back on my word."
"Arigatou! That was much more exciting than our last match!"
"I was ready this time," I explained. "I'd fought against you before, so I was better prepared."
She nodded vehemently. "Me, too! You were very good at attacking, as well. I can see how you're a master of kenjutsu and jujutsu at such a young age. You've got a perfect sense of timing."
I blushed. "Arigatou." I busied myself with the mats as students filed out, talked animatedly about the match.
"How did you get into fighting, anyway?" Kinomoto asked, taking the other side of the mats. Did she know how nosy she was being? But her voice was soft and wasn't demanding information out of me, so I answered her:
"It's part of my family's heritage. My family's clan is famed for its martial artists, so every member gets intensive training, beginning as soon as they can walk. I've been drilled in all sorts of Chinese fighting styles since before I can remember."
"Wow," she breathed, obviously impressed. "No wonder you're so good."
"You're very good, too," I said, trying to be fair. "You said you've gone years without practicing, but it's as if you just practiced yesterday."
She gave a small laugh. "It's as I said earlier - if you practice enough, you'll just remember it subconsciously. I'm sure you know what I mean." I nodded.
Soon the last mat was away, the blocks and padding stashed in a closet. I gathered my stuff, preparing to leave and lock the gym up for the weekend. Kinomoto grabbed her school bag and headed to the door, pushing it open to let in a little breeze.
"Sayonara, Li-san," she said, holding the door open for me as she exited. "I'll be sure to call you if I notice any problems with the homework." She winked, and I felt my cheeks burn.
"I'm sure you will, Kinomoto-san. Sayonara." She went to her car, and I closed and locked the gym door, thinking back to the match. It really hadn't been that bad, hitting a girl.
TBC.
C-Mage: There it is. I'm sorry if it's a bit short - I honestly couldn't think of more to write. We'll be starting on the romance during the next chapter (finally!), so look forward to that. I hope it's better than the last chapter....
T.Anjel: .Yes.look forward to the next chapter. I am! Review.or die! Just kidding.
T.Anjel: No comment.
Disclaimer: We don't own CCS. You don't own CCS. Who does? CLAMP and a bunch of companies....
Summary: Syaoran and Sakura have a talk and another sparring match. First self-defense club lesson! ^.^
Learn to Love Me - Chapter 8 - Syaoran Learns to Hit a Girl
Damn those idiots, I thought to myself.
I was driving back to school after changing my shirt. The one I had been wearing was unsalvageable, thanks to the ink my students had decided to prank me with.
What is it with American students? I asked myself. The students in Hong Kong had certainly never done any such thing, and they would have been severely punished if they had.
Then I remembered. I'd forgotten to write the referrals. I groaned. Well, I would just have to do that when I got back. If I could find any slips without ink on them. I growled low in my throat. I hated being upstaged by students. I hated being made fun of. And I hated spiders with a passion. Okay, so maybe I was more scared, but still. My students had made me look like a total idiot. I'd probably loose their respect for weeks....
Finally I reached the school and headed off to my classroom. Absentmindedly, I turned the doorknob. It wouldn't go. I jerked it back and forth, but it wouldn't budge. Sighing, I slumped against the wall. Kinomoto must have locked it and left, and, just my luck, I'd left my key to the classroom in - you guessed it - the classroom.
Kuso.
My pride too strong to allow me to go wimpering to the janitor, I settled in for a wait, sitting down on the floor. Thankfully, class was still in session. The students already had enough to laugh about - I wasn't keen to give them more.
I was idly checking my watch, seeing that it was ten minutes until the period was over, when I heard footsteps approaching. Finally. It really had taken her long enough....
I stood up, trying to look as in control as is possible when your pants are covered in dust. Tapping my foot impatiently, I finally saw Kinomoto round the corner, backpack thrown haphazardly over one shoulder. She gasped when she saw me, then jogged over.
"Mr. Li!" she cried, looking shocked. "I'm so sorry! I thought you'd have your key with you!"
"Obviously, I didn't," I said coolly, ticked off at myself for being so stupid. "Now, could you please open the door?"
"Oh!" she exclaimed, smacking herself on the forehead lightly. "Right." She pulled out a key, unlocked the door, and walked in, flicking on the lights.
"Thank you," I murmured coldly, and she blushed.
We settled down at our respective ends of the classroom, and I started digging through drawers for more referral slips. I slammed the last one shut, not having found anything, and Kinomoto giggled.
"What?" I asked, more annoyed than I had been. I'd forgotten that Kinomoto had seen the prank as well. She must think I'm some sort of ninny, I thought.
"You just seem so..." - I glared at her - "grumpy," she finished.
"Of course I'm grumpy," I muttered, standing up and heading for the door.
"Where are you going?" she asked looking surprised.
"To the office, if you must know," I replied. "All of my referral slips are covered in ink. And, please, don't lock the door again." I turned before seeing her turn scarlet and headed down the hall.
The bell rang as I was in the hall, and soon I was flooded by students. I started to wedge my way through, trying not to notice the looks and muffled snickers around me. My class must have spread the word of the prank. Lovely.
Finally I managed to read the office, just as another bell rang. Luckily, I had this period off, too. After I'd gotten my new set of referral slips, I was just heading out of the office when I heard a voice behind me.
"Punishing a lot of students, Li-kun?"
I turned around. "Iie," I replied. "My students, er, destroyed the ones I had."
Hiiragizawa-san smiled. "Aa. Li-kun, I have news about the self- defense club." I nodded. "As you requested, the school's mats will be available to you, and we managed to scrounge up some blocks and padding. You may start Friday."
"Good. Arigatou, Hiiragizawa-san." I left and went back to my room, relieved to see that the door was unlocked. I noticed Kinomoto, reading a book, and figured I should tell her the news. I cleared my throat.
"Yes?" she asked, looking up.
"Mr. Hiiragizawa said that we can start the self-defense on Friday. Be sure to be at the school at four, in the gym. Be on time, please."
"Okay." She thought for a moment, obviously wrestling with herself internally.
"Spit it out," I said, and she blushed again.
"Mr. Li, if we're to be in charge of the self-defense club, you're going to have to hit me."
I was puzzled. "Excuse me? Hit you?"
She sighed. "Yes. When we had to practice bought, all you did was block. You didn't attack me a single time, which I find disrespectful. You should respect that I've had training and can defend myself."
I frowned. "I was taught never to hit a woman," I stated. Did she want me to go against all of my training?
"Well, you'll have to, or else this club will never work." She, too, frowned. "Unless you plan on having me demonstrate everything, while you hold the padding."
"We could do that."
She threw up her hands and made a small shriek of exasperation. "I don't want to do that, do you get it? I want to be an equal to you! Not a 'woman,' not a member of the 'weaker' sex! Can you treat me as an equal at all?" She looked at me, her patient temper obviously began to flare.
"I do," I said abruptly.
"Where?" she asked, incredulous.
"In the classroom."
She thought for a moment more, then said, "You'll always treat me as an equal in the classroom, right? Because I'm an educator?" I nodded, feeling uneasy. Her usual wide, innocent eyes held firm with my own. She didn't seem to have the need to blink either. "Well, then think of the self-defense club as a classroom. You should treat me as an equal whenever we're teaching the club. You said as much yourself."
I opened my mouth to tell her off, then stopped. Shimatta. Trapped by my own words, I thought. "Fine," I said haltingly. "But only during the club. Not during practice or anything. Only when we're teaching. We won't even be doing sparring to start with, anyway."
She smiled, her fiery temper gone in a snap. "Thanks, Mr. Li. Four o'clock, Friday, gym?" I nodded. "I won't be late." She turned back to her book, smile lingering.
I walked back to my desk, trying hard not to stop. I'd been roped into fighting against the opposite sex, something I'd been trained not to do since childhood. I'd just have to forget about it....
I looked at my hand, surprised to see the referral slips, then remembering that I needed to write referrals. I sat down and started to write them out, noticing that my desk had been cleaned up. Where there should have been ink and ruined papers, there was my desk as it should be - neat and tidy, albeit missing some papers.
"Ms. Kinomoto," I called, looking over at her.
"Yes?" she asked, slightly puzzled.
"Thanks for cleaning my desk," I grumbled quietly, finding surprise at how easily the words came out.
She grinned. "You're welcome. I figured I wouldn't want my desk to be messy, so I thought you definitely wouldn't want it like that."
Pushing down a smile, I finished my referrals and placed them in a pile at the corner of my desk.
~*~*~
The rest of the week veritably flew by. I contended with jokes and teasing in almost every class, but second hour was by far the worst, because they had been witness to what had happened. Soon enough, it was Friday, and I was heading to the gym after class for the club.
It was amazing how quickly had word gotten around. I'd told my classes about it, of course, and printed out a few flyers, but the students buzzed with talk of learning how to beat up their little brothers and sisters. When they weren't laughing, at me, of course.
I changed into loose clothes. I'd need freedom of movement for this. Then I started to pull out mats, laying them on the floor and velcroing them together. I was wrestling with one particularly annoying mat when Kinomoto showed up.
"Let me help," she said, picking up one end and carrying it to the others, then positioning it. "There. How many are left?"
"That was the last one," I said.
"All right. When do the students show up?" She didn't stop smiling.
"The flyers say 4:15, but some will probably be late."
"Undoubtedly." She smirked. "Never count on students to be on time."
We sat down to wait after piling the blocks and padding in a corner, and slowly the students trickled in, in groups of by themselves. They headed to the locker rooms to change, then came back out, all wearing loose clothing - some even wore their P.E. uniforms.
After the last student had straggled in, I stood up, as did Kinomoto. The students stopped talking and turned to look at us, faces expectant. I cleared my throat.
"Hello," I said. "This is the newly started self-defense club, as you all should know." A few people chuckled. "Ms. Kinomoto and I will lead this club. We will show you the basics of self-defense, and maybe even how to spar, if you do well enough."
Kinomoto slid in, as if we'd rehearsed the speech. "We'll start with stretches, of course." She smiled. "Never try any physical exertion without stretching first. You could pull a muscle, which, while painful, might not be enough to get out of class." There was some laughter. Kinomoto definitely got along better with the students than I did. "So, we stretch."
We led everyone through various stretches, stretching as much of the body as we could. There were winces during some stretches, especially the harder ones, like touching your toes while sitting down. They did reasonably well, for not stretching every day.
"I know you all may be imagining learning how to beat up your rampant siblings or the school bully, but you won't be," I said. "Self-defense is precisely that - the defense of yourself. We'll start with basic punches and kicks."
Some students groaned.
Kinomoto laughed. "Punching and kicking may be boring, especially if you repeat them endlessly, but eventually they'll become like second nature to you, and you won't have to think about using them - you just will. Now, let's start with a front kick...."
For the next hour we led the students through kicks and punches, first demonstrating on each other, then having the class practice all together. We walked around as they practiced, correcting stances and aim. Near the end, we called them up in two's to practice on us, using the padding and blocks to keep from getting hurt. Finally, the last two had finished.
"Good job, everyone," I said, taking off my blocks and tossing them aside. "You all did very well for your first time. You can practice at home - it'll help." I paused, then decided to go on through with my idea. Kinomoto shouldn't mind too much. She was the one who wanted me to hit her, after. "I know you'd all like to see what you'll be able to do after a while, so Kinomoto and I will have a demonstration spar."
Kinomoto looked at me, shocked, but the faces of the students in the club were priceless. They looked as if they had won the lottery. But I don't think Kinomoto'd realized that I'd meant what I'd said in my room, or that I'd act upon it so quickly. I motioned to the mats, and she walked over, taking up a stance opposite me, ready to block, forcing me to go on the offensive.
I was much more prepared for this match than for the previous two. I'd gotten a glimpse of her fighting style, and I definitely wasn't underestimating her. I suddenly shifted my weight and lauched myself at her, fist aimed for her side. My mind registered the surprise on her face, but she blocked flawlessly, as I'd expected.
We fought back and forth for a while, sending punches and kicks at each other that were blocked easily. Kinomoto increased her speed - maybe she was getting bored. I increased mine to compensate. Eventually my mind was completely focused on Kinomoto, looking for a sign of a future move. This was the hardest bought I'd been in since I'd been training in China against Wei-san.
Vaguely I heard gasps and cheers from our audience, and a small part of my mind wondered if they were surprised at how well we could fight. The rest of my mind said to focus on what I was doing - on how my arms were moving through the air, on any single opening in Kinomoto's defense.
Abruptly, I noticed an opening and went for it with all of my leftover energy. I blocked two punches and aimed my fist for her face, stopping less than an inch from her nose. I knew I'd won, and my body relaxed. For the first time I noticed that I was sweating and panting for breath. I found the short fight to be satisfying, but both Kinomoto and I knew that we both held back. We were just having a demonstration after all.
Kinomoto grinned. "Nice one, Li-san," she murmured in Japanese. Picking up a towel to wipe her flushed face, she turned back to the students. "So, how was it?" she gasped.
They went wild. "Awesome!" a few cried. "You were great, Ms. Kinomoto!" yelled others. "Mr. Li, you were so cool!" even a few called.
I blushed. I wasn't used to praise, especially after being criticized as potentially the most boring teacher in the school. "Thanks," I muttered.
"Thanks, you guys!" exclaimed Kinomoto, ecstatic, for all that her hair was plastered to her neck and face and she looked exhausted. "The next meeting will be next week, at the same time. 'Bye!" She waved as the students left to change, then turned to me.
"Li-san!" she said in amazement. "You hit me!"
I allowed a small smile. "Of course I did. I said I would, didn't I?" She nodded. "I don't go back on my word."
"Arigatou! That was much more exciting than our last match!"
"I was ready this time," I explained. "I'd fought against you before, so I was better prepared."
She nodded vehemently. "Me, too! You were very good at attacking, as well. I can see how you're a master of kenjutsu and jujutsu at such a young age. You've got a perfect sense of timing."
I blushed. "Arigatou." I busied myself with the mats as students filed out, talked animatedly about the match.
"How did you get into fighting, anyway?" Kinomoto asked, taking the other side of the mats. Did she know how nosy she was being? But her voice was soft and wasn't demanding information out of me, so I answered her:
"It's part of my family's heritage. My family's clan is famed for its martial artists, so every member gets intensive training, beginning as soon as they can walk. I've been drilled in all sorts of Chinese fighting styles since before I can remember."
"Wow," she breathed, obviously impressed. "No wonder you're so good."
"You're very good, too," I said, trying to be fair. "You said you've gone years without practicing, but it's as if you just practiced yesterday."
She gave a small laugh. "It's as I said earlier - if you practice enough, you'll just remember it subconsciously. I'm sure you know what I mean." I nodded.
Soon the last mat was away, the blocks and padding stashed in a closet. I gathered my stuff, preparing to leave and lock the gym up for the weekend. Kinomoto grabbed her school bag and headed to the door, pushing it open to let in a little breeze.
"Sayonara, Li-san," she said, holding the door open for me as she exited. "I'll be sure to call you if I notice any problems with the homework." She winked, and I felt my cheeks burn.
"I'm sure you will, Kinomoto-san. Sayonara." She went to her car, and I closed and locked the gym door, thinking back to the match. It really hadn't been that bad, hitting a girl.
TBC.
C-Mage: There it is. I'm sorry if it's a bit short - I honestly couldn't think of more to write. We'll be starting on the romance during the next chapter (finally!), so look forward to that. I hope it's better than the last chapter....
T.Anjel: .Yes.look forward to the next chapter. I am! Review.or die! Just kidding.