4 Chapter 3: Riko and Yashun

    After thirty  minutes on my motorbike, I'm finally at Yashun's  doorstep. When I went up to go knock, the door opened to reveal a muscular boy with dark black hair, blue eyes, tan skin and the face of an angel. Yashun smiled when he saw me. I smiled and blushed a little.

        "Hey Riko," he greeted in a deep graceful voice. I had to get a grip. I smiled and returned his "hi" . He led me into his dojo, and I saw his sensei. Unlike me, Yashun doesn't have any companions he can call brother or sister. It's only him and his sensei, and he gets very lonely. All that changed when I meet him. Well, he meet me. When I was younger, and just started training. Kai-Sensei and I were training in the mountains with other masters. A group of boys were making fun of me because of my history. And it's not about my home being burned down and men tracking me. I only tell that to people I've known for a while and who I trust. I'll tell you more on that later.

        He came to my rescue, but he was not as kind and calm back then. He was very selfish and violent. Not to mention rude. At first, I was glad he was gone. It was too bad I couldn't be rid of him forever. I was assigned to train with him. And let me tell you, it wasn't a good idea- we would fight constantly, both physically and verbally. It took a while for us to get along. I don't know what I did, but he started to warm up to me. I was kind of happy about that- I was lonely until I met him.

        After we were finished with our training in the mountains, we had to split up. There Sensei took in everyone else. Before we left, he gave me his address so I can visit.  When training at home was done, I would visit, train and talk to him.  After that, no matter how many times I see him, I feel a nice warmth around me. I hope he feels it as well.

        I bow to his master named Satoshi, in whom I respect. He bowed back, then walked away.

        "Where do you want to practice, Riko?" Yashun asked.

        "That open plain in the forest," I replied.

        "Alright," he answered.

        After we left the quiet and brown dojo, we walked along a side trail that goes through the forest. Twenty minutes later, we arrived at a bright and open meadow. Everytime I lay my eyes on the meadow, I'm both breathless and speechless. The sound of birds in the trees singing, the wind whispered melody through the grass... It never failed to captivate me it. Before I realize it, Yashun is out in the open sunlight. He looked gorgeous. I can't help it, I really fell for him.

        I laughed at that, and stepped out in the open. I took in a deep breath and stretched my arms over my head. Then I relaxed them and asked, "What are we gonna practice?"

        "Why don't we try those dodging moves? We need to work on them. Besides, they may help more," he suggested.

        That sounded like a good idea, since I still needed to work on them. So we trained. I was the one attacking the first round. I could tell he's been practicing, a lot! I barely landed a hit on him. First he was on the left side, when I charged, on the right. His speed improved as well, but so has mine, so I could keep up with him. After a few minutes of struggling, I thought of a strategy that might let me land a hit. I realized that I was putting too much energy in my first punch, which is the reason why that my second strike was sloppy and slow. I didn't have enough power for my second punch, plus he was on the opposite side where I first punched (well attempted to) him. So instead of putting all my weight and power on the first one, I would only put a fraction of power in it and the rest in my second strike. That way it should be able to hit.

        I braced myself for my attack. I looked for a chance to make my move, and found it. I lunged forward and put a small amount of power in my first strike, and put the rest in wait for my next one. He was at my left, when I striked, to my right. After putting only a short amount of strength  in my first punch, I had plenty reserved for my next hit. And was a success. After he was to my right side, I struck as hard as I could, and he went down. At first I was happy, but… I think I may have hit him a little too hard, because he was on the ground, holding his stomach, and… laughing?

        I was so confused, so I asked "Are you alright? I didn't hit you that hard, did I?" I blushed, and  my hands hovered over him as I bent down to see if he was fine.

        "You've gotten strong on the punches. Damn. I never expected that." He sounded genuinely impressed with my progress, which made me happy.

        I giggled softly. "Well there's more where that came from! Wanna go again?" I winked at him.

        "No thanks. I want to keep my breath," he joked. I said sorry to him many times and he said it was alright many times.

        "Well I think it's time for me to practice my dodging now. I hope I can do better than last time," I state.

        "Actually, can we talk for a minute? I've something to ask you."

        He sounded serious. When he is like this, it's not a good sign.