Chapter 4

The streets of Freiburg were as empty as ever at this time of day. The town wasn't exactly buzzing with life with its roughly 220.000 inhabitants so nightlife was pretty much non-existent. The fact that it was a workday didn't help any matters either. The city was mostly known for its University after all, not for its nightclubs.

Tomorrow Hitomi would have her entry exams at the Albert Ludwig University and she seriously hoped that she was ready; else it would mean another try next year. Two weeks had passed since she returned from the. Two weeks filled with studying and pretty much nothing else apart from part-timing at her father's dojo.

When she returned, her father greeted her with mixed feelings. Of course he had berated her for neglecting her studies, but he was also very proud of her for making it so far in the Dead or Alive tournament so he went easy on her. After all, her becoming 2nd did cause a lot of new students to join, so it was hardly without gain for him.

Tonight though she was nervous and unable to get some sleep for over an hour, so she decided to get in some extra training; maybe that would calm down her nerves and make her get some sleep. The brunette rode her bike around the corner taking a look at her wristwatch.

11:23p.m.

This is just great she thought, letting out a sigh. She had taken her studying a bit overboard the last few days and this was probably why she was nervous in the first place.

She slowed her bike down when she reached her father's dojo, kicked down the kickstand and got off of it in one fluid motion. Her right hand went into her pocket, fishing out her keys. Locking the bike in place she made her way to the front door.

He forgot to lock the door again; she shook her head as the door opened as soon as she pushed it slightly. One day her father would forget his head even though it was attached to his body.

Hitomi loved the dojo. This was where she spent most of her childhood, practicing the art, and it was filled with happy and sad memories alike. Here she proved to her father that she was an independent adult. This was also where she fell in love with Hayate's persona Ein before he vanished all too suddenly after the second Dead or Alive tournament, only to appear again as the ninja she knew now. It had been a long time since then and while it did hurt initially she let her romantic feelings go.

Just inhaling the air inside its rooms calmed her down considerably.

She went and changed into her Gi and started her workout. It was a practiced routine that she kept up for god knows how long and this time was no different from the others. Too bad she didn't have a tiger to scare this time around. That had been fun.

With a stomp of her foot that made the wooden floor shake a little, she entered a firm stance and closed her eyes, inhaling the smell around her and letting it engulf her senses. How long she stood like this she didn't know but when she opened her eyes her father was standing in the doorway, dressed in brown slacks and his favorite teal colored shirt, strong arms crossed in front of his chest.

Years ago his hair had been the same color as hers, but with his 48 years he had long since lost the color in it and his hair – which he always kept short - as well as the trimmed mustache were a silvery gray that was almost white in color.

But he was still a mountain of a man that could take on people half his age. In Hitomi's opinion he would look at least ten years younger if he would just shave off that beard. But that was a lost cause.

His blue eyes looked kindly at her. "Hitomi..."

"Papa."

"Couldn't sleep?"

"Realized you forgot to lock the door?" this made the man smile as if he was expecting that answer, guilty as charged and all that. "Yes. I'm a bit nervous about tomorrow and I thought training for a bit would help me."

"Want me to spar with you for a bit?"

She shook her head. "Mm-mh. I'm fine now. Practicing my katas for a bit helped a lot. I'll just hit the shower and then get going." It was an appealing thought.

"Good, wouldn't want you to beat me up. I'm way too old to be getting beaten up by my own daughter," Her father chuckled, uncrossing his arms, and walked into the room. "I'll wait till you're finished. Might as well use the time to get some equipment ready for tomorrow's lesson."

Hitomi walked out of the room to the female locker room, gathering her clothes before heading into the showers. She washed the sweat from her body real quick, dried herself and changed back into her street clothes, putting her training clothes back into her sports bag.

Her Father was waiting at the entry of the dojo by the time she got out of the locker room.

"There, now it's locked." he said after locking the door when they were outside. Hitomi noticed his old BMW standing nearby. She herself was no fan of cars and didn't bother to get a license. She rather trusted her legs.

Noticing that his daughter was looking at the car the man asked "It's late. Do you want me to drive you home?"

"No, I have my bike after all."

"Are you sure? We could just put it in the trunk, you know."

"Yeah, I'm sure Papa."

"Alright, but no detours. I want you to go straight home young lady."

"Aye aye, sir." She mock saluted. Father and daughter looked at each other for a second before sticking out their tongues. He leaned forward and gave his daughter a kiss on the forehead. His mustache always tickled her skin when he did that, making her giggle.

Her father was a good man, even if he could scare people at first sight. Back when she had found Hayate he took the young man in without question helping where he could, teaching him the art of Karate. When he got better again from his sickness and Hitomi decided on studying he wanted to pay for it without question, since her job as a waitress wouldn't have provided her with enough money. She had hardly gotten by back in the day before she decided to study.

They argued heavily on the topic since she didn't want run right back to him because of something like that. In the end they decided that she would get money from him for being a part-time instructor in the dojo and would only get the standard salary with no bonus because she was family. Also she knew her father could need the help and for all he had done for her, it was time to give something in return.

That she was paid for the help was second in her agenda but it provided her with enough money to keep her afloat way better than before, so that was good as well.

And the prize money of becoming runner-up in the tournament helped a lot too. Studying did cost a lot, so much in fact that some people had to take on loans from the state to do it. But with the money she won that was one less thing to worry about. She would only use it for study fees though; the rest would be safely stored in her savings account for emergencies.

She didn't want rely on it too much and she rather bought things with money she earned, so she wouldn't start getting lazy and dependent. After all she couldn't always win tournaments.

Of course if she ever needed a bit more 'buy' money, she could just do some additional waitressing again.

"Good night." he said.

"Good night." Hitomi watched her father enter his car and drive away before unlocking her bike and making her way home.

Back in her apartment she put her trainings clothes into the laundry and went straight to bed. This time she was able to sleep.

She woke up bright and chipper on the next day, feeling completely refreshed and with that good mood she ate breakfast and after that took a nice long shower.

She should have skipped on the long shower though, as she found out when she walked back into her living room. Her clock was saying it was 7:35 a.m.

"Shit!" Hitomi swore under her breath, dropped the towel that hung around her body and ran stark naked into her bedroom. She flung open her drawer, grabbed the first pair of panties and a bra she could find and put them on hurriedly. Right now she didn't care that they weren't matching.

She looked around and found her jeans lying over the chair by her desktop, quickly grabbed them and put them on.

Not bothering with a shirt and socks Hitomi just put on her brown boots and grabbed her green and white trainings jacket with the black H on the left breast side putting it on while leaving for the door, making sure to zip it up so that no one would notice her lack of shirt, stumbling over the carpet on the way there and landing on her knees.

"Damn it." she grumbled to herself as she got up.

Grabbing her keys and bag she left the apartment and ran down into the bicycle storage room to get her bike.

She raced down the streets with neck-breaking speed, ignoring the traffic lights wherever she could without running in danger of getting hit by a car or being stopped by the police. A ticket would've been just what she needed.

"Sorry!" she shouted, barely dodging a passerby who promptly threw a few insults after her.

Hitomi looked at her watch. She still had 8 minutes. Looking ahead she saw the University not far. I can still make it!

After arriving she took a few seconds to lock her bike, ran down the hall and up the stairs. The room she was supposed to be was on the 2nd floor.

216...216...21-Ah there! The brunette dashed forward, dodging the other people in the hallway followed by more than one Excuse me by her. Slowing down she slid across the floor right into the room.

Am I too late?! She looked around frantically, only to see several people sitting in their seats giving her questioning looks. The professor who would overlook their exam was nowhere to be found. Breathing out a sigh of relief she walked to one of the free seats and sagged into it.

"Safe!" she muttered to herself. She opened her bag and pulled out her pencil case as well as her reading glasses that she had to use since she was 16. Putting them on her nose she adjusted them slightly. The young Karateka slapped both her hands against her cheeks to focus herself. Alrighty, I'm set! Hitomi then noticed that the shoulders of the person before her were shaking in silent laughter. She wanted to ask what was so funny but the person was already turning around in their seat.

"Hey Hit-girl. Nice to see you gracing us with your presence"

"Ah! Viktor, so you decided to take the exam as well?"

The young man sitting there was Viktor Hager. She met him years ago when he took the basic Karate course in her father's dojo and they've been friends ever since. As it so happens he was also her neighbor and in fact he was the one that had gotten her the apartment in the first place, vouching for her to the company that sold the apartments – lucky for her having made 3rd place back then.

He was a thin guy, a little on the wiry side, but towered over her a good head, with fair skin that seemed to never get a tan. His black hair was in his usual neat and at the same time lazy style with it parting exactly in the middle of his head. His glasses sat on his nose, looking like they would drop off any second and were only hindered by their own laziness.

In fact everything about the young man screamed lazy. Apart from his hazel eyes. Those shone with bright intelligence.

If you just looked at him you would never guess that the guy could understand Japanese even better than Hitomi did, at least when it came to writing and reading it. But that was probably only because the guy was a major japanophile. She contented herself with speaking the language fluently.

"Yeah. As fun as it was these past few years getting my hands dirty with actual work I figured it was about time to broaden my horizons so that one day I get paid for doing pretty much nothing." He chuckled. "Now seriously, though. Haven't seen you around since you came back. What gives?"

"Well some of us have to study." The girl huffed. "And I had to pick up the slack after my training trip. It didn't leave me much time for lounging around town."

"Ah, so THAT was why you left in such a hurry. Gotta give you back your spare key later by the way."

"Thanks again for watering my plants."

He waved it off. "No problem really. A training trip makes sense I guess, but on such a short notice?"

"My friend insisted, and she can be rather...pushy when focused on something."

"Friend?" he looked at her quizzically for a moment. "The one you told me about, that Chinese girl?"

Hitomi nodded. "Leifang."

Viktor leaned forward, putting his elbows on top of her desk. "Oooooh, tell me tell me. You never went into detail. Is she a bombshell?"

"I don't think I'm the right one to answer that, you know." That wasn't exactly right. She was a bit envious of her friend's looks, especially the nice legs. But that didn't mean she could quite determine if she was a bombshell.

"No fun!" he hung his head in defeat. His fist slammed down onto her table making a few of the other inhabitants look over to the two.

"There there." The brunette patted his head.

"Ugh whatever." He leaned back into his chair. "Congrats on becoming runner-up on the tournament."

"You saw that?"

"Of course, ran in TV after all. But I only watched when it was your go. You sure showed butch and pretty boy how it feels to get their asses kicked."

"They were quite the good fighters"

"But you still beat them up. And then that Bruce Lee wannabe came along, you know...whatshisface?"

"Jann Lee" He gave her a look that asked if she was ribbing him.

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

"Holy shit," Viktor held back a snort of laughter. "I really don't know what to say about that. Anyway that was a real good fight; I actually stood up in my seat."

He gesticulated like he always did when he retold something. "And then when I thought you had him 'ATOOOOOOOWWWWW' and you went flying from that kick in the face."

The girl rubbed her face, feeling it sting just from the memory. "Damn that hurt."

"Well everything seems to be in place, so I guess it's alright." Before he could continue the Professor walked into the room. "Catch you later."

"Good day ladies and gentlemen." He said and cleared his throat to get the last few people that were whispering to each other to stop. "This test will determine who will be admitted and join the summer semester, so it would be wise to keep your attention to the test and not each other."

Now or never! Hitomi thought as the man rambled on.

2 hours later Hitomi and Viktor were sitting outside the building, on the stairs.

"Oh man, I'm burned out." Hitomi gave a defeated sigh. She felt like her brain was fried, but at least it seemed she did well enough.

"Yeah" Viktor concurred. "That was fucked up"

"You had a hard time as well?" She chuckled.

"Fuck no"

Hitomi furrowed her eyes and punched him in the arm. "Why're you saying it then?!"

"Ouch!"

He rubbed the spot she hit, rolling his eyes. His right hand went into his pocket, pulling out a package of cigarettes. "Cig?"

"No thanks."

"Fine by me." He pulled one out with his teeth. "Figured you wouldn't, what with the health tick you got going."

"Hey, what's wrong with being healthy?"

"Nothing, but the day I die I'd rather be a little unhealthy. At least I know what to blame then."

"With that attitude that day will be sooner rather than later."

"Thanks, mom. I don't think I would'v- OW!" She punched him again, the same spot.

"Come on, let's grab something to eat. I'm a bit hungry."

"Hit-girl, I think I can agree with you on that one."

After having eaten, both of them returned home. Their Apartment building was a small one, having only three floors with about a dozen apartments. Hitomi liked it. Everyone knew everyone and they were all friendly.

"Oh yeah, old granny Dumas made some cookies the other day. Pretty tasty. I think you need to get your groove going or else she might win."

Hitomi giggled at that. The old lady and her had a friendly rivalry when it came to cooking and baking and would often share some of their food with the other residents.

Both of them parted ways at their respective apartments but not before Viktor handed over her spare keys. "See ya, Hit-Girl" She once asked him why he called her like that but he just gave her his usual smile that looked like it was a joke only he got.

Back inside she decided to get some laundry done and after that was finished fired up her PC to check her mails.

Wonder what Leifang is up to.

Hitomi's father is a pretty cool guy, eh? Sports a pornstache and doesn't afraid of anything.

So yeah I added an OC with Vik here, figured I had to resort to those eventually if I wanted to describe our two main character's private life a bit and I can't just shoehorn the whole Dead or Alive cast into the story.

Well until next week then.