Perception Is Belief (Part Two)

There was nothing like training to kill some time and take my mind off of things. With the social fallout of Megan's breakup beginning to come down on my head, and the pending threat of... something transpiring during the Field Day opening ceremony, I needed to vent.

The chance to focus on something else other than the poisonous shit that permeated my brain whenever I was left alone to think was always welcome. Lifting weights was fine, but I really liked fighting – a lot. Fortunately for me, I had plenty of willing and able participants to feed the need, so to speak, and they were on my team.

Laura was a serious challenge for me to keep up with – a guaranteed bloody nose if there ever was one. I only sparred with her when I wanted a real test of how I was progressing. On the other hand, sparring with Hisako was a much more casual affair. We still trained pretty hard, but the fighting was a lot less serious than if I were doing it with Logan or Laura. Of course, maybe that was just me, because honestly, when she wasn't armored up, it wasn't really that difficult for me to kick Hisako's ass.

And she was definitely trying to kick mine. The operative word being 'trying'.

For the umpteenth time that afternoon, Hisako came right at me, set on punching my nose flat. She'd even come up with a new trick to do it: armoring up certain body parts only, like her arms and legs, instead of her entire body. It was a way to save energy. Still, she never really got close. At one point, I leaned back out of the way of a punch and extended my leg forward. With all of her momentum moving ahead, she basically stamped herself in the chest with my foot and knocked herself down to the floor of the Danger Room.

"Oof!" Air left Hisako's lungs as she hit the ground. She held her chest and coughed before glaring up at me, "You kicked me in the boobs, bonehead."

"No, you ran your boobs into my foot," I defended. She had absolutely been coming at me with the intent to clean my clock, even though we were just sparring. But I was nine goddamn inches taller than her, outweighed her by ninety pounds, and was better at fighting than she was. I could go thirty-percent against her ninety, and still overwhelm her. She had no advantages over me, "I'm your worst matchup ever. You know that, right?"

Both with my powers and fighting hand-to-hand. If she fully armored up out of frustration, I'd just shoot through it and get to her directly.

Hisako smiled when I reached down to help her up, "It'll just make it sweeter when I put you in the dirt," she tried to kick out my legs and pull me down to the ground for a submission hold, but again; me... too big... too strong, "Damn it," She complained when I lifted her clean off of the ground and put her down on her feet, "I've been training with Logan since spring. Why can't I beat you yet?"

I chuckled as she walked over to the side of the dojo and reached down for her bottle of water, "Because I had training before I came to school, I've been training with Logan since winter, and I train way more than you do," Thanks, insomnia, for preventing me from sleeping, and thus forcing me to find other things to pour my time into, "I'd better be better at this than you. I have to be good at something. Clearly, I'm not much of a lover. That must mean I'm a hell of a fighter."

Hisako looked up from her bottle, frowning at me despite having her cheeks full of water. She quickly swallowed before admonishing me, "Don't do that, Bel."

"Do what?"

She rolled her eyes and slung some water at me, "What you just did – making a joke about the thing with Megan," Before I could say anything, she cut me off, "Don't lie. I know the only reason you said that 'lover' crap is because it's still eating at you."

I took a measure of offense as I wiped water from my face, "And what if it is?" It still sucked to think about, and I thought about it all the time. If I had to think about it, why not try and make it funny for someone else? Everyone else in school thought it was already, "What does it even matter to you?"

Hisako smacked me on the arm and leaned next to me against the wall, "It matters to me, because you deserved better, idiot," She huffed, arms crossed over her chest, "Yes, you're a jerk sometimes, but you're our jerk. And more importantly, you were never bad to Megan or anyone around her. You were good."

I sighed. Not good enough, it seemed. As much as I was holding onto a smoldering ember of anger in my gut, I didn't need my friends doing the same, "Hisako, it's not like she signed a contract, sticking her with me for so many months or years. She has the right to break up with me whenever she wants."

Hisako nodded in agreement, even though she never stopped glaring out into space, "Oh, I agree. She was well within her rights to break up, whether you did something wrong or not. What I'm upset about isn't just that I don't think you did anything to deserve it. It's that she couldn't break up with you herself, or tell you to your face. And that no one's stopping the rumors about you and Laura."

Finally, for once her ire was directed at someone who wasn't me. And, miracle of miracles, it was in my defense. Go figure, "Well, thank you," It was all I could think to say.

Hisako let out a grunt and pushed herself off of the wall to leave the room, "Don't mention it. You really need to start taking better care of yourself," She said, punching me in the arm before leaving me alone.

I lingered behind in the gym for a little longer before going my own way. Apparently, I had other places I needed to be.