Chapter 23

"And this is how you-" Hitomi drowned out the rest of what the professor was saying, her eyes falling shut just for her to open them again. She was damn tired and was starting to regret having signed up for some extra-curricular lessons that were held the month before the semester begins.

Another night of not getting much sleep was taking its toll on her and she had a hard time staying awake. She tried and failed to stifle a yawn, but managed to hide it, looking down on her notes she was taking as the man rambled on.

The pen she was holding was slowing down more and more and she found herself staring down onto the table surface, finding it strangely inviting, and unconsciously lowered her head to it.

Just a little bit she thought and closed her eyes, just wanting to rest them a little.

"Am I boring you so much Miss Buchfink that you are able to sleep in my class?" Hitomi jolted awake, sitting up again and looked around her, seeing the other students staring at her. Her eyes darted to the front of the room where her professor stood looking at her, an unamused expression on his face.

"What?" she asked.

"Is my lesson so boring that you find time to sleep?" he asked, taking a step in her direction.

"No professor." she said.

"So you were out all night partying? May I remind you that I'm giving these pre-semester for the students that want to really study."

"I-" she said but was cut off.

"Maybe you should go back home and take a nap." he said, his tone leaving no room for argument. Hitomi wanted to defend herself but decided it wasn't worth the effort, gathered her things inside her backpack and left the room.

With a sigh she made her way to the cafeteria, which was mostly abandoned at the moment, and sat down at one of the tables, resting her head on it and closing her eyes, immediately starting to doze off.

She was woken up by a finger tipping against her head. She opened her eyes and looked around, seeing a few people streaming into the cafeteria, before finally settling on the familiar form of Viktor holding a tray with two plates full of food.

"Hey." he said and placed the tray on the table, sitting down in the chair opposite of her, then took one of the plates and placed it directly in front of her.

Hitomi gave him a questioning look.

"Here, heard the curry rice was pretty good so I brought some for you as well. Saw you sleeping here when I entered, you ok?" he asked looking at her, then handed her the cutlery when she held out her hand.

"Thanks." she said and took a taste of the rice. It was pretty good. "And I'm ok, just a bit tired." she half-lied. She was tired after all but he didn't need to know how what happened was also affecting her.

"Yeah, I can see that." he gave her a wry smile, then sobered up quickly. "I, uh, I wanted to apologize for the other day, I didn't know you two were..." he trailed off.

"We're not, and don't worry. It was the alcohol."

"I see, so how's the girl taking the effects of alcohol?" he asked, starting to eat his own food.

"I don't know, she left after you ran off, she's back in China." she told him and looked down at her food, missing him staring at her.

"Oh," he said simply. "Fuck. Is that the reason why I haven't seen you around much?"

She didn't answer that. She had tried to act as normally as possible on the outside but just didn't find the vigor to do more than she had to do on any given day and then just went home.

"I...I hope you two are ok." he said after she didn't answer.

"That remains to be seen." she said simply, not betraying any of the inner turmoil she was having.

"Hey if there's something I can do-"

"Don't worry, I'm fine, really." she gave him her best fake reassuring smile. "I just haven't gotten much sleep lately. I even fell asleep during the lesson and the professor kicked me out because of that." she shrugged. "Maybe I'm getting sick or something."

"Then you should be at home. Damn I don't even see why you signed up for this anyway. I know I need some extra lessons, but you? You got a good score."

"Yeah, well too late now. Next time I'll just apologize to the professor." she said and continued eating her food, noticing just now how hungry she actually was.

"Still, take it easy alright? You're at your dad's dojo this afternoon as well, right?"

"Yeah, I'm set to spar with some of the rookies today." she told him and actually smiled for real now, happy to have something else to talk about. "Maybe there's gonna be a surprise."

"You should take a day off, you know one day without studying, working or training with the team, just a day for you. I bet that will help you with your sleeping problem." he suggested her. "How about this, I'm gonna take you with me the next time I'm going out with the other two."

With other two he meant Sven and Tim.

"I dunno." she said, not very excited of the prospect but had to admit that the idea was actually good. She was getting utterly stressed out.

"Come on, don't be like that. Maybe it'll even take your mind off this, uh thing with Leifang." She looked at him for a moment, contemplating what he said, tapping the back of her fork against the table.

Everything did bottle down to what happened with Leifang in the end, didn't it?

"Alright, alright. You win."

Viktor's face split into a grin. "Great!" he slapped her shoulder in a friendly gesture. "I'm gonna tell the others then. I'll be in touch about when we'll go."

"Yeah, knock yourself out." she said and dedicated herself to her meal, simply listening to him as he chatted away.

After parting with Viktor she decided to make a small trip around town on her bike since she had more time on her hand than expected before heading home to get ready for her job. She grabbed all she needed and put it into her sports bag, then headed out.

Not being in a hurry she took her time, enjoying the nice weather for a change, pedaling at a leisurely pace until the dojo came into view. It was an odd sight, a rather traditional looking dojo amidst old southern german buildings from the beginning of the last century.

Her father set great value upon the art and as thus wanted to impart some of the cultural aspects to his students as well, beginning with the dojo itself.

She greeted some of the students as she approached the building shouldering her bag and walked inside, leaving her shoes at the entrance.

Joachim Buchfink was easy to find, big man that he was, and of course he was always in the same spot in the training hall.

The brunette watched her father warm up for a while until the older man finally noticed that he was being watched and gave his daughter a smile.

"Hi, Papa." she greeted him and gave him a quick hug.

"Hello. You better get changed." he told her and she nodded, giving him a bright smile, or as bright as she could muster given her circumstances at the moment. She had a feeling that her father was suspecting that something was up and that she always looked more tired than usual didn't help matters, but she had gotten a nap in today so at least she didn't look half dead.

As she walked to the instructors changing rooms she saw more and more of the students coming in. They had gotten a lot this past year, children from every age category as well as some young adults were amongst them, though her father and herself mostly trained the older ones while the other instructors taught the youngsters.

Hitomi quickly changed into her karate gi and walked back to join her father, who stood at the side, his arms folded in front of his chest. He gave her a nod, his face showing that he was completely focused now and her loving father was taking the backseat to the sensei.

They waited until all the students poured into the training room and sat down.

The brunette joined her father and the other instructors in front of the students, where her father was beginning to tell them what today's lesson would consist of.

Hitomi found her attention slipping as her thoughts turned back towards her friend, if she could still call her that. She shouldn't have waited a day before going to her. Maybe she would have had time to explain everything, to appropriately apologize.

But why did she run off without telling me anyway? She wondered. Yes it must have been a shock and it was her fault for letting herself get carried away, but running off in the dead of the night like that?

Wait a minute she frowned. Why was it her fault? She wasn't the one that just up and left, and she wanted to apologize to make everything alright between them.

Suddenly she found herself getting angry.

That was actually very typical now that she thought about it, not the first thing she would be running from. She was running from her responsibilities by avoiding studying as well!

Hitomi knew it wasn't fair of her to think that way, but was it fair of Leifang to just run off?

The Karateka was shaken out of her thoughts when she saw her father and the other instructors move into position to go through the basic katas, together with the students. She joined them, moving through the katas in hard but fluid motions like she always did.

"Good work everyone." her father told the students. "Now I want everyone to form a circle."

The students sat down on the floor, forming a circle and Joachim and Hitomi walked into the center, the other instructors remaining behind.

"Hitomi here," he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Will now do a few sparring matches with some of the newer ones of you. Hmm, you!"

He pointed to a young man that looked about her age, maybe a year younger give or take, who pointed at himself. "Yeah, you Gregor, come on."

Gregor stood up and moved towards them. "Now pay good attention everyone."

Hitomi and Gregor bowed to each other and took up position, him more hesitantly than her.

"Begin."

Hitomi narrowed her eyes, looking at Gregor, watching his every movement, gauging his next action. But none came, which was normal since the new ones were always hesitant, so the brunette did what she always did and threw a simple punch at him which she allowed him to block.

She did that a few more times until he became confident enough to attack her. Good.

Blocking the punches he threw at her she took a step backward and, when his leg shot out in a kick, she grabbed it and pulled out his other one from under him with her foot, causing him to fall to the floor.

She walked back from him, giving Gregor room to stand up again, then began attacking him, throwing punches at him from every direction that he had a hard time blocking.

Her thoughts turned to Leifang again and she felt her anger flare up more, the force behind her punches becoming more intense. Gregor brought up his arms to defend himself better, managing to push her back a little, which only caused her to become more angry.

He punched at her, but she simply slapped his effort aside and pushed against his shoulders to shove him back, scowling openly now.

Finally having enough of this she pulled back both her arms and pushed against his block full force, breaking it and leaving him vulnerable. The Karateka grabbed his left arm and moved behind him, pushing his arm so that she couldn't move it, then did a somersault with him, got up immediately leaving him lying exposed on his back and made a punch for his face.

"Enough!" the commanding voice of her father halted her in her tracks. She turned to look at him, then at all the students who looked at her in a mix of awe and fear, before storming out of the room heading for the changing room.

She was just finished with changing, standing before her locker where she stored her normal clothes while working, when a knock on the door and the voice of her father called out to her. "Can I come in?"

"Yes." she said.

Joachim walked into the room, checking if his daughter was really properly dressed before doing so, and walked towards her, his arms coming up to fold before his chest. Oh boy

"What was that about?" he asked her.

"I sparred with him like I told you." she told him, not looking at him once, pretending like there was something interesting to look at inside her locker.

"You were too rough with him!" he chided her. "He's only a beginner, you are a black belt, you know you have to hold back. This didn't happen before so I want you to be honest now: What's wrong?"

Hitomi's lips formed a thin line. Her father too? It was hard enough that she would have to come out to him eventually but now also this?

"Nothing's wrong." she said in a tone unlike her.

"Oh, is that so? I think if my daughter, who I know can restrain herself perfectly, suddenly starts to roughen up one of my new students, then there is something wrong with her."

"And I'm telling you," she turned, directing her now evident in her eyes anger towards him. "There is nothing wrong with me!"

"Watch your tone Hitomi Buchfink, you're still talking to your father here!" he was almost shouting.

"Yes and I would appreciate it if my father would mind his own business!" she slammed her locker shut, grabbed her sports bag and walked past him out of the room, not listening as her father called her name.

She put on her shoes and left the dojo, angrily slamming the door behind her before making her way back home.

Holy crap, did Hitomi just actually blow up?

Guess even she has a final straw. What will happen next I wonder?
Nah actually I don't since I already know what will happen.

See you guys next week~