Chapter 13

The blow came quickly, but Hitomi managed to block it rather easily, taking a step back from the man and, as he followed her with a step of his own, kicking her right leg to the left after shifting her position, intending to sweep him off his feet. He simply changed his stance and lifted his leg to deflect her kick with his own, unbalancing her enough so that her side was exposed, and slammed into her with his right shoulder, pushing her a few feet away.

Not wanting to give him a break she took a quick step to the side and aimed a high sideways kick at his head. She cursed inwardly as he blocked it with the palm of his left hand midair, grabbing her ankle, and deftly blocked the punch she threw at him with his right. He then guided his hand down her leg to the back of her knee and pushed her away again, this time leaving her sprawled on the floor.

Damn! She clearly had underestimated him. Rusty my ass.

Thinking for a moment Hitomi charged at him, punching towards his mid-section, which he easily swatted aside with his left. She had done this two times already in their little sparring match, and by the second time she had noticed that it left him exposed for a short moment. This time she intended to make good of it.

As her right arm was swatted aside she used it to change the angle of her arm, bent it and brought her elbow up, smacking him across the face and leaving him stunned and exposed for a quick one-two combo to his chest with her fists before taking in a steadier stance and delivering one of her stronger punches directly into his mid-section. The force of the punch drove him backwards, nearly making him fly, and made him collide with one of the expensive vases.

The young Karateka's eyes widened as it danced around, as if weighing its two options of either falling down or staying put, before finally deciding on falling, smashing onto the floor and bursting into tiny pieces.

Shitshitshitshitshitshit! She thought and rushed towards Jintao, who was rubbing his back where it had crashed into the vase looking down at what was left of it. "I'm so sorry! I got carried away, are you all right?"

The man checked the side of his mouth where her elbow connected for blood and, when finding none, nodded. Hitomi's eyes darted to the broken vase. "I'll pay for it, I promise."

He held his hand up palm out. "I told you to not worry. This is easily replaceable and I chose the location after all."

"But-"

"No," he told her. "It's fine, really." He walked with her back to the middle of the room, rolling up his sleeves. "That was a good hit. So I assume we can now start to get serious?"

"I, um, if that is what you want, sure." she said, albeit reluctantly.

"Good." He started towards her suddenly, catching her off guard for a moment and landing a precise strike against her collarbone. Before she could react, he struck her with his right elbow just under her chin causing her head to snap backwards, spun around and slammed the back of his hand into her side.

The Karateka stumbled a little to the side but managed to gather her wits and kicked her knee upwards, slamming it directly against his forehead. She straightened her leg after he stumbled back,rose it high above and brought it down in a vicious arc towards his head.

He managed to dodge to the side at the last second, jumped up and grabbed the arm she was about to use to punch him in the face, grabbing the other one and crossing them over each other before pulling them down and letting go just as quickly, leaving her exposed to the rough shove he gave her. Before she could fall backwards he grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her back, let go and put his hands on either side of her face, pressing his thumbs roughly against the space between her eyes.

Hitomi brought her arms up, swatting his aside and punched him in the stomach with her right before bringing it up to slap the back of her hand across his face and grabbing his arm to throw him over her shoulder again. Just as she was about to do so Jintao turned the tables on her and pulled back and her with it, turning her around slightly and delivered a few carefully aimed punched directly at her face before pushing her back, causing her to stumble a bit and leaving her back exposed.

When she felt his hand on her shoulder she slammed her elbow back, driving it into his gut, turned around and struck him with her fist in the same place, slamming him back a few feet.

Breathing heavily she returned into her stance and watched him, breathing hard himself, undoing his waistcoat and throwing it to where his jacket was lying then nodded at her.

With a shout she dashed forward and jumped, spinning and aiming a kick straight at his head, but the man didn't stay put, dashing forward himself and catching her midair, and pushing her down onto the carpeted floor. Hitomi immediately rolled to the right to dodge the foot that was coming toward her face and got to her feet. Nimbly, she dodged under his next attack and struck him with the palm of her right hand across his face, using the momentum to spin around and slamming it into his chest.

The brunette heard the door open, looked to the side and saw her friend walking in. She opened her mouth to say something, then heard as the man tsk-ed and felt herself being struck in a flurry of punches against her chest, pushing her back. Grunting she kicked out her leg, which he caught as he brought his elbow down on her knee, but before it could connect Hitomi pushed against his shoulders with all of her might and jumped, causing them to tumble down onto the floor where she managed to wrestle herself free, grabbed his head and aimed her knee directly at his temple.

She stopped just inches from it, breathing heavily. She heard the man chuckle, before bursting into laughter in which she heartily joined in, letting him go as she slumped to the floor beside him.

"What is it, Leifang?" he asked through his laughter. Hitomi managed to get a good look at her friend, who looked as if she didn't really want to be in here.

"Mother wanted me to ask if you two would finish up before something else is broken." she told them, sighing and rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Did she now? Well," he started, chuckling while getting up from the floor. "You can tell your mother to calm down. We're finished, right?"

"Yeah" Hitomi agreed and pushed herself up as well, brushing off her pants as she got back onto her feet. They faced each other and bowed.

"Thank you for the exchange." the Karateka said.

"No thank you" The man walked over to his discarded clothes and gathered them up, then turned to his daughter, who was still standing there, smiling at Hitomi. "Your friend is a good fighter. A shame that she didn't win. Oh, was there something else?"

"Yes, Mother wanted to ask if she should get started making dinner." Leifang said.

"No." he said, earning him a puzzled look from his daughter. "I changed my mind. We'll dine at the restaurant tonight. Don't worry I'll tell your mother myself."

With that he left the room, stopping for a moment at his daughter's side. "You two should return home. I'll tell the driver, we'll come and pick you up later. Hitomi should change into something nice and will probably want to take a shower after our little bout, god knows I need one."

Nodding to Hitomi goodbye he walked out of the room. Gathering her boots and putting them on she walked over to her friend, who still smiled at her.

"So," she said grinning. "Did I pass?"

The Chinese giggled "Yes. Yes you did. Let's go and get you fixed up then."

"About that. I don't have anything really fancy in my luggage." she told her.

Leifang tapped her chin letting out a "Hmm" in thought.

After they had gotten back Leifang had pretty much ordered her friend to take a bath even though the Karateka had insisted that a shower would be enough, but the Chinese proclaimed that it would only be fair if she got to enjoy the luxuries like she did every day she was at home and Hitomi just decided to let her be, knowing how she could get if she made up her mind.

And she would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the bath immensely. Closing her eyes she slid deeper into the water, letting out a contented sigh. Jacuzzis were awesome.

Her eyes perked up suddenly when she heard the rustling of clothes and the sound of them hitting the floor behind her. Opening her eyes and turning around she saw her friend about to discard her bra. "Leifang? What are you doing!?"

The Chinese stopped for a moment, cocking her head to the side, then simply let her bra decent onto the floor. "I want to take a bath myself, and since we're a bit strapped for time I was thinking we could share."

"Uhm, are you really sure it's ok?" Hitomi asked, getting a little bit flustered and sinking a little deeper into the water. This was definitely a new one. Sure they've been around each other in bathing suits more than once, but never naked. Suddenly she felt very self-conscious.

"Yeah. It's nothing special, we're just bathing together. You Germans have group showers, this isn't much different, or am I wrong?" She took off her panties and Hitomi found herself looking her smooth legs and hips up and down enviously.

"No, I suppose not." she conceded, looking her friend in the eyes. They stared at each other for a few moments, before Leifang smiled cockily.

"Then I must be right." she said, sitting down on the edge and then slid into the water, closing her eyes and sighing in pleasure. She remained this way for a few minutes in which Hitomi didn't know what to do, then opened her eyes again. "Turn your back to me."

"Eh?" What?

"Turn around, I'm gonna wash your back for you and afterward you can do the same for me."

"Oh you meant that." she said and did as she was told. She felt her friend position herself behind her, feeling the heat that radiated from her body.

"What did you think I meant?" The Chinese asked and started washing her back.

"Nothing..." Hitomi could only murmur, not wanting to think that there were a few things that it could meant, shutting her eyes as her friend gently washed her back. I really need a boyfriend.

Unconsciously she let her hand drop to her side to where Leifang had positioned one of her feet, gently brushing against the side of it, eliciting a giggle from her friend.

"Hey, stop that. I'm ticklish there."

"Sorry." The Karateka pulled her hand away embarrassed.

"No harm done." Leifang assured her and Hitomi, despite her embarrassment, couldn't help herself and cracked a smile as a comfortable silence set in.

"Come on, just try it on. It will suit you." They were both standing in Leifang's room, the wardrobe thrown wide open. Leifang was already dressed up in one of her trademark Cheongsam and held out one of her blue ones towards the German, who was dressed in her undies looking at her skeptically.

"I don't think so." In Hitomi's opinion long dresses didn't suit her at all. She was more of the blouse and dress pants or skirt type and the few dresses that she did own were either work related or short black ones that were rather simple. This was a complete other league.

"Don't be ridiculous, you'll look stunning." Without getting another say in the matter the Chinese had pushed the dress into her hands, then crossed her arms in front of her chest and tapped her bare foot on the floor expectantly.

"All right, all right, fine." Hitomi, with a little bit of help, put on the Cheongsam, then turned to the mirror, looking herself up and down. Still good 'ol Hitomi.

Leifang clasped her hands onto her shoulder, smiling at her through the mirror. "You look great."

"Really?" Hitomi didn't agree on that one.

"Yes, now sit down here. I want to do something." The Karateka let herself be guided by her friend and sat down onto a chair. Immediately after sitting down her friend started to work on her hair, pulling out her hair band in the process and tossing it away somewhere into the corner of her room.

After about fifteen minutes she was done and Hitomi saw that her hair was pulled up into an elegant ponytail with a few deliberately loose strands here and there. She looked...good she had to admit.

"Perfect" said Leifang, proud of her own work. The German looked herself once over one more time before grabbing the front of her Cheongsam between thumb and pointer of her right hand.

"It's a bit tight around the chest though." she said, then looked at Leifang who was puffing her cheeks and putting her hands on her hips "What?"

The dark haired girl simply huffed at that.

Finally, the first bathing scene. I bet a lot of you were waiting for that :P

Next up dinner with the parents.

See you next week, guys.