"So why did you move here to Sapporo?" Chiyo asked. "And why haven't you been writing any of us? You just up and disappeared!"

"Sorry about that..." Ayumu took a long sip from her glass. "I... really don't know why I didn't contact any of you guys. At the time, I was just trying to get away."

"From what?"

"I don't even know. It was just... one morning at college, I woke up and realized that I was desperately unhappy. I bugged out, didn't even bother going home again. I'd already been told that I wouldn't amount to anything, and I didn't want to prove them right. Sapporo seemed like a nice place, so I just sorta... came here."

Chiyo didn't even know what to say to that. She looked around the small room awkwardly. "But... but you're okay now?"

"Never better! Actually, I kept trying to write you guys, but every time I started a letter, I... hm. I mean, what would I tell you? 'I dropped out of college, now I live on the other side of the country with no income, please don't worry about me?'"

"And you didn't think we'd worry about you if you just vanished?"

"I..." Ayumu smiled ruefully. "You know, sitting here explaining it to you, I realize how stupid it was. I'm real sorry. But it made sense at the time. And, and don't worry, my fortune turned around... I'm doing great now, trust me."

For some reason, Chiyo didn't. However, as she didn't want to make things any more difficult, so it was time to yet again change the subject. Just as Ayumu's had earlier, her eyes panned over the pictures, feeling the occasional melancholy pang herself.

Towards the more recent end she saw a picture she didn't recognize; a slightly younger Kagura, Tomo and Ayumu stood in a row in black gis (or doboks, rather) slashed with blue, Tomo and Ayumu with yellow belts and Kagura with a green. Kagura was grinning heroically, giving the camera a V with one hand and holding a small bronze trophy in the other. Tomo just looked thrilled to be alive, as usual, or maybe it was because she was giving the others bunny ears. Ayumu's smile was a little more subdued, with a nasty bruise discoloring her cheek, but she seemed just as happy.

"Oh, that was about two months before I left," Ayumu said. "Actually, the Tae Kwon Do classes were about the most fun I've ever had."

"You never struck me as the martial artist type. And why Tae...?"

"I never struck me as the type either. Kagura dragged me and Tomo into it and made us promise not to quit. I guess she didn't want to do it alone, and, well, you remember what happened the last time we all tried to join the martial arts together..."

Sakaki suddenly burst out of the Dojo and leaned against its outside wall, shaking like a leaf and covering her eyes. There was some commotion in the building behind her, but it quickly died down. After a few seconds, a young man came out after her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, don't be like that!" he said reassuringly, "Chiyo-chan's all right, and Master Arai says that the ceiling tiles aren't a problem." Sakaki straightened a little and looked at him hopefully. "Yeah, you just forgot your own strength. Don't worry. Chiyo-chan's fine. Oh, and Master Arai says you have to do forty push-ups 'cause you didn't bow out."

"How could I forget?" Chiyo asked, putting a hand on her solar plexus. "I just wish Sakaki hadn't blamed herself for me quitting. She beat herself up over that one."

"After that, I kinda lost my stomach for it, too," Ayumu continued. "So Kagura didn't want that to happen again. She made me and Tomo promise not to quit for the first year... and it's a good thing she did, too. I wasn't the most... athletic... student."

Chiyo nodded. She well remembered countless PE Classes where the gal from Osaka showed her humiliating lack of coordination, strength and speed again and again. The slowest runner in their grade, most likely to be on the losing side of any game, severe liability in every sports festival... the list went on.

"Well... Tae Kwon Do wasn't any easier. Everyone was so patient with me, but I could barely even kick above my own waist. I'd even say that they made it worse by encouraging and stuff. Eventually, I ended up leaving pretty much every class in tears."

"And that was the most fun you've ever had?" Chiyo asked.

"Not at first. You see, Kagura and Tomo started trying to help me after classes."

"So what are you going to do?" Kagura asked skeptically, leaning on the dojang wall.

"Trust me," Tomo said, "It's a proven method. Ready, Osaka?"

"That's Ayumu."

Tomo ignored her. Oh, well, if the wildcat idiot's proven miracle method really did work to improve her flexibility, Ayumu wouldn't have much to complain about. She slid as far into the splits as she could, reaching the point where her feet where her feet were a little more than two and a half shoulder-widths apart. With a grunt of effort, she pushed them out another half-inch.

"Is that as far as you can go?" Tomo asked. She nodded.

"You know, Kagura," Ayumu said suddenly, "Are we being unpatriotic? Why did we choose Tae Kwon Do? What would be wrong with a good Japanese mar—oh GOD!"

The last was yelled as Tomo jumped onto her shoulders, grinding her feet at least another seven inches apart. Kagura slapped her forehead. "That's your proven method?"

Before Tomo could answer, they crashed to the floor.

"She left that night before I could walk again," Ayumu said, smirking at the memory. "By the time the next class rolled around, I'd forgotten all about revenge."

"That sounds like Tomo, all right." Was it Ayumu's imagination, or did the younger girl sound a little sad? "So they were helping you out..." she prodded, putting their conversation back on course.

"Yeah... but for the longest time, I didn't improve at all. We went for weeks and weeks, staying hours after class. Eventually, Kagura started to lose her patience. It was all so easy for her, you see, and she couldn't fathom my struggling for hours on something she just picked up instantly. In fact, I didn't really start to improve until Kagura and I had this watershed moment..."

"C'mon, just a little higher..." Kagura held the bag at the level of Ayumu's ribs. The other desperately threw a kick, coming just short. "Try again." And again her foot didn't quite make it up. It was late, they were both getting a little tense, and Tomo had long since gone home. Kagura had said that they weren't leaving until Ayumu could kick that high, so here they stood, a living picture of futility.

"Are you even trying?" Kagura finally asked, tossing the bag aside. Ironically, Ayumu's last kick would have gone right through it, but neither noticed. "How long have we been here?"

"I'm trying as hard as I can," Ayumu said quietly. Her cheeks were already burning for shame from the class before; she didn't need this. The tension that had been rising in her chest since starting TKD was beginning to grow unbearable.

"I don't know what to do..." Kagura sighed. "It's like you're just determined not to get any better. Are you trying to waste our time?"

"It's not like I'm holding you here," Ayumu said sullenly. She regretted those words as soon as they left her mouth, but it was too late.

Kagura stared at her for a long moment, then blew out a harsh sigh. She turned on her heel and started walking away, undoing her belt. "Fine, then. I should have known better. See you at the next class... or not."

Her tone of voice stabbed into Ayumu, cutting all those weeks of tension loose. "You try it!" she yelled after her friend. Kagura stopped and half-turned. "What?"

"Y-you try it!" Ayumu gritted, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. "You try being the slow, weak, incompetent one for once! I'll bet you won't like it! What, do you think it's fun? Do you think I enjoy failing everything I try, getting dead last in every competition, always coming just short? Well it's not any fun! It sucks!!"

"Then maybe you should actually start applying yourself!" Kagura replied hotly, "Do you think I got good at this by magic? It doesn't work that way! I worked my butt off for it!"

"What the hell do you think I've been doing!?"

"I don't know what you've been doing! I don't know where your focus is!"

"My focus-!?"

"Yeah! Can you even buckle down for five seconds? No matter what we're doing, you're always just drifting around! Dammit, all you ever do is dream!"

Ayumu's anger fled, leaving her wilted and tired. "You're absolutely right. All I do is dream..." her voice slowly gathered energy and fury as she continued. "...because my dreams are the only place where I have any worth to anyone! They're the only place that I can do anything right! Dreaming is all I'm good for, it's all I have and it's all I'll ever do! SO DON'T GO BERATING ME FOR IT!"

Kagura and Ayumu stood there awkwardly for a few seconds after that. Finally, Kagura commented, "Um... well, it's getting late."

"Yeah."

"So... so, I'll see you at class on Friday?"

"Yeah. Sure thing."

They walked out together in silence, bowing out side by side. In the parking lot, as Ayumu lifted her bike off the ground, Kagura gently laid a hand on her arm, eyes shimmering.

"Look... I'm sorry," she said.

Ayumu forestalled her apology. "If you start crying, I'm gonna kick your butt, green belt or no, y'hear?"

They both had a good laugh then set out their own ways for home under a darkening sky.

"Woah..." Chiyo stared. "I can't imagine... Kagura was always so easy-going! And you weren't exactly a firebrand yourself."

Ayumu took another long sip from her glass before forging ahead. "Well, we were both pushed pretty far. Kagura's easy-going, sure, but towards herself, she's absolutely merciless. I should've been flattered that she cared enough about my growth to freak out over it... but the story's not over."

Ayumu pedaled away furiously, if anything even angrier than before. Her legs were on the verge of giving out, but she ignored them. She also ignored the traffic shrieking by frighteningly close beside her and the lovely shade of twilight green the sky had turned in the last minutes of light.

"Why do I have to be such a weakling!?" she asked the air as she started up a hill, "Why can't I do anyth—no! Stop crying! Dammit, don't cry, you little milksop!" Her leg muscles were screaming with the effort of pulling her up the hill, but she was deaf to their cries. "If you have to be a worthless little nothing, at least don't cry about it! Why do I have to be such--!?"

As she crested the hill, a thought struck her like a thunderbolt. Ayumu thumped awkwardly to a stop and dropped to her feet on either side of the bike. "Wait a second..." she said, turning back towards the dojang, eyes wide, voice now full of wonder. "Why do I have to be a weakling? What could be holding me back?"

Nothing. That was the answer. There was absolutely nothing holding her back. A stiff breeze threw her hair dramatically, adding import to the moment as she turned this over in her head. All at once, she started laughing. "If that's all it took, I'm a bigger idiot than I thought!" she said. "Wow!"

She felt the urge to strike a dramatic pose, but before she could, a semi blazed past less than a foot from her handlebar, turning the dramatic proclamation she had planned into a panicked, "YEEP!"