Chapter 43

"All right class, that's it for today. And don't forget to repeat today's lessons at home." Her professor said and Leifang gathered her things and put them into her handy little bag. Another day and she had made good progress. "Ah, miss Gāo. Would you please be so kind and stay for a moment?"

Leifang looked at the clock. Well she still had some time. After they rest of the class had left the room the woman, Prof. Lannis, beckoned her over.

"I just wanted to tell you how amazed I am with your progress, my dear. It's no overstatement when I say that you are the best student in this class." she said.

"I'm said to have a talent when it comes to languages." Leifang admitted. It felt good to get such praise, and from a person that was fluent in nearly a dozen languages herself! The last time she did had been when she was studying with her Sifu, and even that was a case of a carrot-and-stick-policy. Her parents were never that vocal about it.

"Indeed. And not only in languages I hear. My good friend Prof. Neuhaus told me that you are also very remarkable on the piano."

Now Leifang felt embarrassed, but in a good way. He actually talked about it to the other members of the faculty?

"Yes, well I used to practice it. But it's been over eight years now. I'm sure he's exaggerating." Leifang said.

"No. If he says it he usually means it. Now I wonder why didn't you decide to follow up on that talent? You clearly have a gift and, frankly, I can't really see you working in a big corporation down the road. No offense."

Leifang would have lied if she said that she didn't think the same way deep down. It had taken a while but she was slowly realizing that what her parents wanted of her wasn't what she wanted. But she had chosen this, so there was nothing she could do about it.

"None taken." she looked at the clock again. "I'm sorry but I really need to go now."

"Yes yes, off to visit that friend of yours. The one in the hospital."

"Yes." she said and smiled. "My best friend."

"Ah, that reminds me of my own youth. Hurry along then, wouldn't want you to be late."

Leifang said goodbye to her professor, put on her jacket and headed out of the class. She walked down the hallway, her heels clacking with every step that she took.

She felt like she dodged a bullet there, since it really wasn't a discussion she was up to right now. Might never be up to in fact. How should she tell her parents that she didn't want to succeed her father one day?

God, she didn't even know how she should break it to them that Hitomi and her were an item. With a sigh she went down the stairs and out through the front door.

Don't think about it. Leifang told herself. She could think about it another time. For now she just wanted to be with Hitomi. After what they had been through it was only fair that they could spend some time with each other.

Hitomi had been in hospital for about a week now, and was making good progress from the point of view of the doctors. So good in fact that they might allow her to go home in a week, though she would still need to keep it down for a month until she was fully recovered.

But things looked up.

Next up, going home. She had planned something special for Hitomi. Maybe it would make her stop complaining about the hospital for once. Though if the TV they had put into her room didn't help, she honestly didn't know what would do.

Leifang hurried over to the bus station and got on board before it drove off without her, then got off at the station near her apartment, walking the rest of the way.

Inside she put her bag onto the sofa in her living room then went into the kitchen. It was time that she put all those hours that she had watched and helped Hitomi to good use. A nice home cooked meal would be exactly what she needed.

Leifang had looked up several stores during the past week and had, at long last, found a store that sold ingredients for her to make some authentic Chinese food. One of her mistakes back when Hitomi had caught that cold was that she had used ingredients from the weekly market.

Without further ado she started to prepare the food.

And went actually well all things considered. At least at first. About halfway through cutting some of the ingredients she came a bit too close to her finger. Leifang let out a hiss and looked at her finger. She didn't cut herself, just scraped her skin a bit.

Her fingernail had been cut though and she looked at it, a frown on her face. With a sigh she picked up the cut nail and threw it into the garbage bin.

Guess another appointment at the manicurist is in order. She thought and resumed her work. Leifang had found this absolutely lovely beauty parlor ten minutes from here that had a nice atmosphere as well as a nice staff.

It had been strange at first, living in Germany to study had been such a rushed decision at the time, and the culture was so different from the Chinese one. Where Germans were stiff and uptight the Chinese were easy going and vice-versa.

But she was starting to find her way around. Slowly, but steadily.

After finishing the lunch she put it into a Tupperware, shouldered her bag once more and headed out. There was still somewhere else she needed to go to.

At the hospital she immediately headed towards the elevator and up to the third floor. With quick strides and a smile on her face she arrived at the door of Hitomi's room, lifting her hand to knock, which she always did out of courtesy.

She halted when she heard voices from the inside. Leifang let out a sigh, already having an idea whom it could be. Looking around and not spotting anyone she placed her ear against the door.

"Please Miss Buchfink, if you can remember anything you have to tell us or the culprit will get away." she heard a man say and her suspicions were confirmed.

For the past week the police had been here almost daily, bombarding Hitomi with their questions. But Hitomi's answer had always been the same.

"I told you, I couldn't make out who attacked me. It was dark and I was completely beat from finishing my shift at the Oktoberfest. I could barely stand on my legs at the time. Why are you still bothering me?"

"Because I believe you're lying. You know something." the policeman said. Leifang didn't catch his name and to be honest that's how she wanted it to remain. Couldn't the guy get a hint?

But then again, she wanted to know the truth as well.

"Why should I lie?" Hitomi asked.

"I don't know. But what you told me contradicts itself. You told me you could barely stand because you were so tired. But why didn't you just stay home after your shift was over? I've been told you headed out later that day."

"And?"

"Where did you go and from there did you go near the forest where we found your bike?"

The forest? Leifang wondered. What would Hitomi have wanted near there?

"I-"

"You see, I think whatever happened did happen there. And whatever that was you want to keep it a secret somehow. Now I want you to be honest with me so that I can help you."

The Chinese's lips turned into a thin line and her hand found the door handle. She had had enough of this. With a bit more force than was necessary she opened it.

"It was stolen." she said forcefully and Hitomi looked at her with surprise in her eyes. The man turned to her as well. He was a young man whose goatee only had the purpose of giving him a chin.

"Ah hello, Miss..." he struggled to remember her name.

"Gāo." she said slowly so that he would remember how to correctly pronounce it.

"Yes, Gāo. You were saying?" Leifang all but glared at him and moved to Hitomi's side, who was sitting sideways on her bed, her feet dangling above the ground and dressed in a pair of pajamas that Leifang had gotten her the other day from home.

"I said it was stolen." placing her bag on the floor she sat down beside her girlfriend. "She stayed with me until very late and when we went outside her bike was stolen. I suggested to her to stay over but she said she would just head over to the next bus stop."

"Is that so. Funny that we never talked about this before." he said. Until now Leifang had gone out of her way to talk with the police about the incident, figuring that her statement wouldn't really make much of a difference anyway. But it was clear that Hitomi needed a way out right now.

Also she believed if Hitomi went out of her way to lie to the police, then it must have been something they wouldn't be able to handle anyways.

"Before you ask we didn't call the police right then because it's just a stolen bike. As for why I didn't talk with the police I tend to like my privacy. A lot." as if to stress the point she put an arm around her girlfriend's shoulder.

"I have nothing more to say." said Hitomi. The man sighed and nodded.

"Very well." he said. "But if you change your mind, you have my telephone number."

"Don't worry." said Hitomi. "I won't."

"Good day. To both of you." and without waiting for either of them to answer he left the room. They both waited until his steps couldn't be heard anymore.

"Thanks." said Hitomi as Leifang got up from the bed and sat down on the chair opposite of it. The Chinese crossed her arms in front of herself and looked at the German.

"Will you tell me the truth then?"

Hitomi looked at Leifang for a moment, her expression neutral, then pulled one of her legs up and nodded. "Alright. I promised you I'd tell you."

And she did. She told her everything that had transpired that night and Leifang just sat there and listened patiently. It sounded crazy of course, but Leifang knew of the Ninjas after all. It wasn't exactly hard if you participated in the past Dead or Alive tournaments.

"But I want you to know that none of it was Ayane's fault. I stumbled onto her by chance and it was MY decision to get involved." she shook her head. "I just couldn't stand by while she was hurt."

Leifang wanted to stand up and slap her at first for being so damn stupid, but after hearing those words she just couldn't do it. This was just who Hitomi was, and Leifang would never force her to change that.

"You're so incredibly stupid sometimes." Leifang muttered under her breath.

"I know." Hitomi said.

"Did you even think about the people you might leave behind?"

"The whole time. You were on my mind the entire time." Leifang looked her in the eyes and saw only honesty in those blue orbs. She averted her gaze and pouted.

"It's really hard to stay mad at you when you're like this." she said.

"Hehe." Hitomi laughed sheepishly for a moment but sombered up again. "I promise to be more careful from now on. And I'm sorry for having worried you so much."

Leifang said nothing and just got up, before leaning over and planting a kiss on Hitomi's forehead. "Stupid. I'm going to hold you to that, you know? Here I've brought you something."

The Chinese opened her bag and presented her with the food she made.

Hitomi's eyes immediately brightened up. "You made me some food? Thank god. The grub here is terrible!"

Hitomi all but snatched the box out of Leifang's hands and, grabbing the hospital cutlery from the table, dug in. Her cheerfulness quickly dissipated though when she took a bite.

"Hmm, what's wrong?" Leifang asked and Hitomi hesitated for a moment, before simply continuing eating. Leifang had made the effort of making her something decent to eat and she didn't want to dash her hopes.

"Nothing." Hitomi said between bites.

"It's bad, isn't it?"

"No no." Hitomi assured her but Leifang just looked skeptic.

"It's alright, you can admit it. I'd rather have an honest opinion than a feigned one."

"It's not exactly bad. But it's not exactly good either." Hitomi finally conceded. Leifang let out a sigh and grabbed the box from Hitomi's hands.

"Well it was worth a try. At least I seem to be improving. But I was prepared for that aaaaand," she pulled out another box from the bag. "Got you this."

She handed it Hitomi, who opened it, revealing a slice of Sachertorte. "Aww, you're way too good to me." Hitomi leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek, then whispered conspiratorially. "Though the medical staff won't like me eating it."

They snickered.

"Ah, but damn them. The food here is anything but healthy anyway." Hitomi said and started eating.

Afterwards they spent the day talking about this and that. While talking Hitomi's hand found Leifang's and her thumb was caressing it all the while.

For all of you who thought showing up with a blade inside you wouldn't get the attention of the authorities. :D

This one I think was pretty obvious. Leifang eventually had to learn of what happened in that night so there's that. I'm sure I'll revisit on this event down the road so you just stay tuned there.

Until next week guys. :)