Chapter 4 Fighting

"Stop holding back Tohru! If you really want to fight, then you have to be willing to hurt your opponent." Uo-chan was right, Tohru knew that, but even with the sticks they used for practice, Tohru just couldn't bear to hurt Uo-chan. Arisa was becoming frustrated. They'd been practicing for three months now. She knew the basics of combat and she was quite proficient with her metal pipe. But Tohru couldn't bring herself to land a single blow. She always stopped just short of striking. Arisa frowned at the welts and bruises that peppered Tohru's arms and legs. She knew there wasn't a single bruise on her own body.

"I'm sorry Uo-chan." Tohru whispered miserably. Arisa sighed heavily.

"It's alright, but we're done for today, I can't really stomach the thought of hurting you anymore."

"Hey, you girls, I got a couple of deliveries for you, if you're done playing around." The voice was deep and gravelly and belonged to their new boss. Mite Himagawa owned the Cozy Cat buffet and delivery restaurant. Tohru took it as divine providence when they arrived in Hume and saw the help wanted sign in the window. She'd immediately gone in and applied for a position Arisa needed a job as well so they both applied. They were accepted on the spot and almost immediately pressed into delivery service.

Hanajima stayed with her grandmother during the day. She was trying to harness her powers. What happened between her and Akito had terrified her. She didn't want to lose control of herself like that again. She had not even been aware that her powers had grown so strong, that she was even capable of summoning a storm of lightning. Truthfully, it had even freaked Arisa out.

Tohru didn't talk too much about that night. She'd reluctantly explained the details of the curse which the Sohma's suffered under as the three of them left town that night three weeks ago. When Hanajima realized she had used her abilities against a god she'd gone white.

Although Tohru didn't say anything Arisa knew she was suffering. She didn't eat much and it was beginning to show. Her clothes were fitting looser. There were dark circles under her eyes proving that she hadn't been sleeping very well. She'd been exercising with Arisa everyday. They ran three miles every morning before work and ran through a gamut of aerobic exercises and muscle toning techniques in the evening. Arisa usually fell into an exhausted heap. Apparently Tohru was not so tired. If she was, she wasn't sleeping. Arisa had awakened during the night a couple of times to use the bathroom, returning to the room the three girls shared to find Tohru with her eyes wide open staring blankly up at the ceiling.

"Sure thing boss." Arisa was abruptly jerked from her musings at the sound of Tohru's cheerful voice. She watched as Tohru carefully took the food and placed it in the basket on the delivery bike. She took a moment to latch her helmet beneath her chin before turning the bike around and beginning her ride. Arisa watched her worriedly.

"She'll never be a fighter." Mite chuckled softly his voice like gravel crunching beneath car tires. Arisa leveled a cool glare at her boss's head.

"Then she's going to die." Mite's eyes widened.

"Why should a sweet little miss like Tohru have to learn to fight? She should find herself a man. He would protect her." Mite shook his head affirmatively then bit down on his pipe as if that settled the matter. Arisa gave a short, sharp laugh.

"She has two of them. That's why she has to learn to fight. She's determined to save them." Arisa snatched up her deliveries, enjoying the look of disgruntled surprise on the boss's face before she too pulled away to make her deliveries. Her smile faded as she drove off. Tohru really was going to have to learn to fight. Although she was getting more adept at dodging blows, moving with more grace and speed, she refused to strike out except halfheartedly. Arisa had attempted to goad Tohru into getting angry, but when your opponent was someone you loved and each angry word fell like broken glass into a raw and open wound you quickly found any excuse to end the exercise.

Tohru just didn't have it in her to inflict harm on another person. Arisa had known this, of course, but Tohru insisted she needed to learn to fight. Arisa just couldn't see any solution to the dilemma. Tohru would be adequate in defense, more than adequate actually, if her speed and agility kept improving, but she just didn't have what it took to truly fight back.

Mite Himagawa watched the tough yankee ride away. He was troubled. Since the girls arrival three months prior he had delighted in the infectious joy of their presence. That yankee was funny, always looking out for the little one, she nevertheless had a good and gentle soul beneath her tough girl façade. Tohru Honda- now there was someone truly special. She always wore a bright smile, she cooked like an angel and cleaned better than his own dear departed mother. She was always willing to accept more responsibility, and she worried and fussed over him in a manner the old man secretly delighted in.

Anytime her duties at the restaurant permitted she was either exercising or begging Uotani to "train her". Mite was curious at the motivation that seemed to drive the girl constantly. Occasionally he would catch her staring pensively out a window or back up the only road that led into Hume. Her eyes would be dark and haunted. His heart would twist as he again wondered what drove her so hard. What could have possibly happened to cause her such pain?

She's going to die…

His heart rebelled at the thought. Why did her boyfriends need to be rescued? And Tohru just didn't strike him as the kind of girl who went in for two men at once? He grinned at the absurdity of the idea. She was just too naïve. Maybe she liked one as a friend and had her heart set on the other. She was a mystery. Mite decided to close shop early. If Tohru needed to learn to fight, he knew a method that she could probably master. He'd admired her aversion to violence and the rapidity with which she improved her speed and grace. If she could continue such dramatic improvements the ancient art of acupuncture battle could work perfectly for her. In particular, her own innocent nature would aid her in its application. She could place a needle, effectively immobilizing an enemy without causing any truly lasting harm.

Mite knew the art well, as it was practiced in his family for generations, usually by the women, but his mother had died when he was a boy and his grandmother had raised him. His wife had died delivering their only child twenty years earlier and he had never remarried. The art as his family had practiced would undoubtedly die with him unless he found someone he could teach it to. He pondered how best to broach it. He did know one thing for sure. He didn't want Tohru to die and if she needed to know how to fight he wanted to help her.

Tohru steadily pedaled her bike to the address indicated on the order she was delivering. She wore a flower print baby doll dress with a brown vest. She had worn holes in all her socks and the soles of her shoes had been super glued together twice. She knew she was in desperate need if some new clothes but the thought of spending any of the money she had been hoarding made her feel queasy. She didn't know how much she would need later.

Worry consumed her. She tried to put on a brave face. She didn't cry when the others could see her. She didn't talk about her desperate worry or the gnawing desire to run right back to the Sohma's and demand she be allowed to see Kyo at the very least. Her worry for him was what drove her past exhaustion. She thought of him sitting alone in that house and vomit rose into her mouth. She trained harder than she had ever done anything before.

I want you to know what it feels like to hold a diploma in your hand…

Tohru felt her eyes water as she remembered her mother's words. She knew what it felt like.

It felt like terror.

Like the end.

The day she received her diploma was the day everything went wrong. Somehow she had to find a way to put things right.

She needed to find a way to protect her mind from Hatori. She needed a way to fight Akito. With all the good she found in all the members of the zodiac Tohru knew there had to be some good in Akito. The weakness had been in herself that was why she hadn't been able to find it and help Akito see the beauty in Kyo and in the other members of the Juunishi. Tohru admitted that Akito terrified her. Her power over the others, her frightening authority, her homicidal rages, and her ability to find people's weaknesses and use them to hurt them stirred feelings of rage and dislike in Tohru. Tohru didn't like these feelings. She wanted to see the best in everyone, including Akito. But Akito must have sensed her reserve. That had to be why she was so cruel.

Tohru shuddered as she remembered the beating Akito had given her. She still had huge lurid yellow bruises on her back and angry red scab tissue that clung to her shirt everyday. It was an arduous process peeling off her clothes at the end of a workday after she had sweat through them.

Tohru knew fighting Akito with a metal pipe or any weapon wouldn't really work in freeing her boys. Fighting Akito was going to require mystical aid. That would undoubtedly require money if it could even be found. So Tohru couldn't bare the thought of spending anymore of the money she earned on herself than necessary. Every extra yen earned could bring her that much closer to saving Kyo, seeing Yuki and the others again and reaching Akito's heart.

She made her delivery swiftly, accepting the offered tip with a blush and stumbling over her words of gratitude before starting the trek back to the restaurant. As she sped away she remembered how she obtained her position as a delivery girl. As soon as she saw the big orange cat in the window and the small help wanted sign next to it, Tohru had been drawn to the Cozy cat.

Mite Himagawa, the Café's owner, was a round older man whose gentle but lonely heart lay bare in his eyes for all the world to see. She'd felt an immediate kinship with the man. He had thin greasy hair that hung to his shoulders and fat pudgy fingers. But his smile was rounder than his face and his manner was so friendly one couldn' help but relax around him. He reminded her of Shigure in a lot of ways. Mite had evaluated her skill by having her keep the buffet full during the luncheon rush. He was amazed at her level of proficiency and he just sat back and watched her move. If cooking and keeping a kitchen clean had been a form of martial arts Tohru would have been a black belt. She knew Mite had been impressed. He gave her the job that day. She did a little of everything, deliveries, cooking, cleaning, waiting tables. Uo-Chan did some of that too and she managed the register. Tohru knew that if she didn't constantly worry about Kyo locked away in that box she could have been very happy in Hume.

Tohru's leg muscles strained as she pushed firmly on the pedals, her breath came in labored gasps as she forced herself to pedal harder up the hill. The sun beat down on her head and the top of her dress was already soaked through with sweat. The thin material clung to her slight curves like a second skin. As she crested the rise pedaling became easier and she made it back to the Cozy Cat quickly. She was surprised to find Mite sitting on the front stoop, pipe in hand grinning quizzically up at her, the air rich with the scent of tobacco, the closed sign displayed in his window.

"What's going on? Is everything okay?" Tohru asked, concern coloring her voice. Mite waved his hand dismissively, taking a long drag on his pipe before blowing a plume of smoke into the air.

"Everything's fine. I just decided to close shop early today. I have something I want to show you." Tohru cocked her head sideways considering the old man as he heaved himself to his feet. He laughed wheezily. "I'm not as young as I used to be, that gets harder to do every day."

"Nonsense," Tohru demurred, "you're young yet, you just need more practice."

"Mmm, that's what I wanted to talk to you about dear, your practices with Uotani."

Tohru turned a brilliant crimson. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to cause any problems, its just that we weren't busy and we had some free time and I didn't know we were bothering anybody so I thought it would be okay to practice in the yard, but I can see now that it may have been a problem and-" in the middle of her stammered apology Mite shifted his weight slightly. His arm moved so swiftly that Tohru never saw it land but the next second she fell to her knees immobile and silent. It wasn't that she had stopped speaking; it was simply that suddenly even though her brain was sending the messages to her mouth to speak her mouth had simply stopped responding to the impulses.

"Your practice is fine and is not disturbing me in the least, except for the fact that you are continually getting beat up due to your aversion to violence. I propose to teach you a new fighting style. It is a secret technique handed down to the women in my family for generations. There is no one to pass it onto in my family. My grandmother taught it to me when I was a child hoping I would pass it on to my own daughter but I never had a child and so I would like to teach you. It is a technique that relies on speed, dexterity and finite precision, but it is not violent. You need never land a single blow." He bent down beside her and pulled a pin from the side of her neck. "All you need do is place the pin correctly. You can immobilize and silence your opponent as I did you, you can put them into a relaxing sleep. You can drop them to the ground with the same ease as I did you and all it requires is precision. You can bring them pain, you can grant them pleasure. It is all in the placement of the needle. Think about it." Mite smiled and took her hand. He dropped the pin into her palm and patted her on the head before lumbering down the road toward his home leaving Tohru staring numbly after him.