As she helped her mother clean the dishes, she couldn't help but remember the talk she had with her master.
"The training will be simple. You will run ten kilometers, perform one hundred sit ups, one hundred squats and one hundred push ups and make sure the push ups are made without your knees on the ground. You will perform this training regime at the bare minimum every day no matter what before I teach you something more advanced."
"Uh, Wu sunsengnim", she said the unfamiliar word a bit hesitantly, "how I'm supposed to run for ten kilometers every day?"
"That's not my problem", he stated with a shrug, "think of it as a test, to see how far you're willing to improve and how much you want to be trained by me. I can give you a few occasional pointers in your training, but frankly this is such elementary stuff you should be able to handle it on your own."
"I'm only nine", the girl reminded her master, who once again shrugged.
"So was I when I started training. I'm sure you will figure something out."
After they finished washing the dishes Honoka tried her best to calm down and not fidget. She'd need to do this perfectly or else all was lost before it even began. "Kaa-san, can I ask you a favor?"
Her mother turned to her daughter, her ever present serene expression cracking at the seams. It's been nearly a week since the [I]incident[/I], and while her daughter managed to hide the full extent of how much she was affected by it to her father and brother, for Saori Shirahama it was clear as the day that her daughter was still deeply affected by what happened.
Which was why she had hopes of Honoka finally opening up to her since then. Perhaps with this she could start to regain a bit of her cheerful nature instead of plastering that fake smile that broke Saori heart every time she saw it.
"What is it dear?"
"Uh, you see, I wanted to improve my health a bit by starting running and I wanted permission to go."
In a sense Saori was happy that her child was taking some effort to move past her trauma, considering Honoka didn't complained when her husband demanded to bring and take her from school, remaining silent through the trip the few times she accompanied her. Still...
"I"m sorry dear", she said with a pain in her chest, "but the streets are too dangerous those days", which basically translated to 'we are afraid something might happen', "why don't you run on your school instead?"
"Hmm, I honestly didn't thought of that", Honoka replied before frowning, "but dad always comes at the school right after it ends, leaving me little time to do stuff."
"If you promise to stay on the school grounds I can ask your father to take you later. I do know that he's forcing himself to bring you back by leaving his work early, and I'm sure the school itself is safe."
Honoka nodded, before looking up again. "But I wanted to run before and after the school too."
Now that's strange, thought Saori. "Why's that dear?"
"Weeeell", Honoka said in that familiar 'I'm saying something but thinking of something else' tone of hers, "more exercise, more improvements, right?" She tried with a nervous smile, but her mother was impassive since she knew very well that was a shitty excuse.
How to explain to her mother that she want to improve as fast as possible so she could be properly trained by her sunsengnim? How to explain to her that she didn't want to be so pathetic, so useless again? "I, I just, I just wanted to be better", she finally managed, her voice cracking and lowering to a whisper as she continued. "If only I could do something back then, if only I could have ran away and call for help..."
She's interrupted in her musings as her mother kneels in front of her giving Honoka a tight hug, softly stroking her hair. "There, there dear. It's alright now." Honoka returns the hug and the two of them stay like that for a few moments before her mother looks up. "I still think the streets are too dangerous for you to go alone, but I'm sure we can think of something."
~~O~~
Almost a month later, Honoka is sprawled on the ground, her body and heart hurting from the exercise. "Why it's so hard?" She asked to no one in particular.
"I'm actually curious about that myself", came the sudden reply from a familiar voice, before Honoka looked up to see her master. "It's not like the training regime is that hard, even for a little girl like you, and you do run that ten kilometers in smaller piece after all. Here, stand up and show me your back."
She gingerly obliged, still panting from her exercise before she felt the hand of her teacher on her back, then she felt something warm pressing against her chest. "What was that?"
"So you have it", said her master almost ignoring her, "it's only a mild case, but still it unfortunate."
"I have a what now?"
"It's called a Yin type body. Some of your ki pathways are blocked, which manifest in the body as intermittent sickness. You have the One-Yin type body, which manifests usually as a heart murmur at least, but other types heart problems aren't unheard off."
Realization dawned on Honoka. "I heard about something like that when I went to the doctor when I was little. He said it might cure itself as I get older."
Her master shock his head. "If it were a minor illness that would be right, but I felt the resistance your ki pathway had earlier. It's basically incurable unless you have access to special types of spirit medicines, and they're both unavailable to you and are expensive to boot. Still your case is mild so keep doing what you're doing and you should be fine."