At any point, you have the power to say,
"This is not how my story is going to end."

-Mikia's POV-

The week following the Judou tournament was fairly busy for me. There was paperwork to file for the judou team's funding since we had placed well enough as a team to continue to the next level of tournaments. That was a fair amount of paperwork for me to fill out including starting on our stats sheets for the next tournament and seeing who all qualified to test for the next level of belt. So far only the two second years did, but I would after about a month's worth of practice.

And that was just the work I had for the Judou team, I also had exams in my Russian, Linguistics, Keigo (Formal Japanese), and English Literature classes. The Russian exam went awful despite neglecting the other exams to study for that one. The other exams went alright in comparison, but if I wanted to maintain my scholarship for the next semester, I couldn't afford scores like those again. My last class of the day on Friday finally ended, and I found myself dragging my feet to practice, totally spent from the hectic pace of the week.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAPTAIN!" a chorus of shouts filled my ears as soon as I entered the gym, confetti poppers going off causing me to flinch and jump slightly in fear that I quickly covered up with a shocked expression as I took in the scene in front of me. Our practice area had been completely decorated with deep purple and pale pink streamers. A huge, hand-made sign that read HAPPY BIRTHDAY ENDOU MIKIA in large font and decorated with some adorably messy drawings of judo uniforms, stick figures of the team, and signatures from all of them was hanging on the wall behind my entire team who were standing there with huge smiles. Tears filled up in my eyes a bit, as I quickly rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand as I looked up at all of them and gave them a huge grin, immediately forgetting about my exhaustion from the week.

"Thank you guys so much!" I said, the grin not fading at all from my face. Castillo came up to me with a gift bag and handed it to me with a knowing smirk.

"You totally forgot your birthday was today, amiga," he said, leaving no room for me to argue as I just nodded and gave an embarrassed laugh as I took the present.

"I haven't had time to care this week if I'm honest," I admitted, "Senior year is kicking my ass."

Noticing the looks of anticipation on the faces of my teammates, I opened the gift bag and felt myself getting misty eyed again as I looked at the leather bound book in front of me with big red letters that said MEMORIES AT KEIZAI. As I opened the book, I was shocked to see it filled with pictures from each of my years at Keizai University. Most of them of course were of me and the other members of the Judou Teams from each year.

What surprised me most were the pictures of me outside of Judou. There were several of me in selfies making silly faces with the various members of the team, and even one that I can only guess Castillo had taken of me with my hands in my hair and my face on the desk in the language lab with Haiba laughing his ass off. The pictures reminded me of just how far I'd come in these 3 years, and as I paused, paying special attention to a group photo of our team from the beginning of the semester, I noticed the huge, sincere smile on my face. I looked so happy that I didn't recognize myself.

When was the last time I had seen my reflection with a smile or something other than the bruises I constantly had to hide or the lines between my furrowed brows as I tried to calm down before Katashi got even more mad?... I couldn't remember anymore. Shaking my head at the thought, I made sure I still had a smile on my face so no one worried. Surely it was all in my head and it wasn't that bad, right?... Right.

"Senpai, come eat! We got cake! Luisa-san said that lemon was your favorite so that's what we got!" Tatsu explained, as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards where the cake was. I laughed a bit as he dragged me along. The rest of the little celebration went well, with everyone talking about different memories and going through the album together. With all the emotions and smiles, time flew. Before leaving though, Luisa requested that we get one final picture of all of us together with the decorations, showing me that there was already a page in the album decorated with a space for the photo to go once it was printed out.

After taking the picture, I happened to glance at my phone and noticed the time. My pulse raced as I quickly excused myself from the team with everyone telling me to go ahead and they would clean up. I quickly threw on my tennis shoes and sprinted back to the apartment. About halfway back, it started raining heavily, soaking me to the bone well before I reached the apartment. As soon as I made it to the door, I unlocked it and made my way inside only to be met with words and a voice that made me want to run back out of the door I had just entered.

"Nice of you to finally show up, whore," Katashi's voice spoke harshly as I turned to see his emerald eyes blazing in anger as he showed me his phone screen. When I looked at the picture on his screen, I felt my blood freeze in my veins as I finished shrugging off my soaked button up shirt, leaving me in my pale pink tanktop that just barely covered my bra and pulled my soaked blue jeans off, revealing just a pair of black tight athletic shorts that I always wore under my clothes.

One of my teammates had posted the picture from the party earlier. In the photo, Castillo and Saito, one of our second years, had their arms around my shoulders, and I had an open mouth smile on my face since the picture was apparently taken right after they made me laugh. Looking at the photo, several emotions rushed through me but the two most prominent ones were yearning, yearning to be able to feel happy like I was in that photo, and fear, fear of the man in front of me, the one I had dedicated a good chunk of my college years to as well as my heart.

"Nothing happened. They threw me a surprise party. I'm not even sure how they knew my birthday was today!" I protested, mostly telling the truth. Castillo remembered my birthday every year, but there was no way in hell I was telling the obviously already pissed Katashi that tidbit of information.

"What bullshit... I always knew you were a slut. Now, I have fucking proof. Damn. I don't even know why I put up with your shit. After all I've done for you," Katashi spat venomous words while pulling his phone away from me, and as I lost view of the picture of the people who made me really smile, something in me snapped.

"And what exactly is it that you've done for me? And what exactly is it that I always do? Have friends? Because the Judou team are the only friends I've had in years. You made me ditch all the others," by now, I was shaking as I spoke and tears welled in my eyes but I couldn't stop the words coming out of my mouth like gasoline being poured on a fire, "I've revolved my entire life around you for the past 3 years. I do everything for you and make you my number one priority. And what do I get? Bruises I can barely fucking cover up."

That's when I felt the first blow to my face, a sickening crack announcing my newly broken nose. Despite the dizzying pain, I was able to face Katashi as he looked livid. The look in his eyes was something unlike anything I had ever seen from him. He looked... murderous...

"Let me tell you what I've done for you, you worthless slut," he all but hissed as he grabbed a fist full of my hair and yanked me closer to where I could feel his hot breath on my face, "I took pity on you and chose to live with you when I could have picked plenty of other girls who were much prettier, much smarter, and worth so much more than you are. You should be thankful that I even give time to someone so worthless that her own parents kicked her out." His words hurt like a punch in the gut; however, the punch he actually gave to my gut made me vomit.

As I doubled over in pain from the retching and trying to catch my breath, I heard his footsteps fade further away, and for a brief moment, I had hope that I had already faced the worst of his wrath. In fact, I had already started planning how to hide the damage done to my nose or explain it away so no one noticed. My naive hopes were ended when my jaw was gripped way too harshly, and I was yanked into a standing position before I felt several small objects shoved into my mouth before a hand plugged my nose and covered my mouth. In a panic, my eyes met Katashi who had a sadistic grin on his face.

"Don't worry, baby. These will help you calm down until you can remember your place," he cooed in a sickeningly sweet voice as he held up a pill bottle. When I saw the label, I panicked. It was a sedative that I had been prescribed years ago for panic attacks, when Katashi's anger was just showing its ugly head. The doctor had warned me that since it was a barbiturate, if I took more than the recommended dose, it could kill me. At that thought, I began to struggle, but I was losing too much oxygen, and when I still didn't swallow, Katashi gave me a hard slap across the face, causing me to swallow some of them while I managed to spit a few out.

I wanted to ask why... Why would he do this to me... He knew the effects of that medication, and as I looked into his crazed emerald eyes, a realization hit me: he didn't care if I died here. At that thought, my sense of self-preservation kicked in, and on pure instinct, my leg lifted up delivering a swift kick to Katashi's manhood, causing him to buckle over, giving me enough time to grab my two bags by the door and book it out of the apartment.

Without any sort of plan, I ran out of the building and hid under the awning in the alleyway beside the apartment complex. Feeling panicked as the effects of the drugs started to kick in a bit, I collapsed in the alleyway, only halfway covered by the awning and shoved two fingers down my throat, causing me to retch and throw up what I hoped was enough of the pills that Katashi had made me swallow.

When the retching finally stopped, I had no energy left as I just managed to prop myself on the side of the building, my body going completely numb, my eyes open but not really comprehending what they were seeing as a guy with yellow tipped hair came into view, his cat-like eyes asking a million questions that I no longer had the ability to answer. The last thing my brain processed was seeing him remove his black jacket and putting it over me and pulling out his phone. Then, everything went black.

-

Song: Blackbird (Cover by Boyce Avenue)