Exercising Faith

Taiga stirred slightly under the sheets; the sun peeking in through the window, some of its rays landing on said girl's face. Taiga cracked her eyelids open and looked over out the top window, that she couldn't even reach without a ladder, once her eyesight adjusted to her current surroundings. Not shielding herself from the light for once this time, since she was actually looking forward to the day. Taiga smiled and sat up to stretch, yawning and sighing contently after the satisfying feeling of getting one's tension out of all the muscles once awakening. After thinking on it more, and remembering that she wanted to train today, Taiga first started with some more techniques in bed to help her body wake up as well.

Lying back down, Taiga felt motivated to actually go through with all this, and focused on her breathing, resting her arms on her belly. Slowly she inhaled and exhaled, taking deep, full breaths five times. Keeping her hips level she brought her right knee towards her chest, holding it in place before slowly extending her knee to stretch it out. Breathing deeply, Taiga held the stretch for about twenty seconds before doing the same with her left leg. After finishing with that she sat back up and turned to sit at the edge of the bed.

Taiga carefully folded her body forward to stretch out her back and neck, making sure to keep taking a few deep breaths before slowly sitting back up. She started to stretch her neck at the same pace by doing forward and backward, then side-to-side tilts. However, Taiga stood up for the latter. Gently using her hand to push her head towards her shoulders, stretching her neck a little more. Interlocking her fingers behind the back of her head next, she slowly moved her shoulders and elbows to feel this stretch more as well.

Taiga held it for about 20 seconds once again before moving on. She stood with her feet shoulder-width apart and her arms now by her sides. Making sure her arms were parallel to the ground, Taiga slowly rotated her arms in a circle, starting with small rotations and then big ones until she felt a good stretch, reversing her actions after ten seconds. Taiga kept on pushing herself and ended up finishing her first set of stretching exercises with a Standing Quad Stretch, Seated Spinal Stretch, and a Figure Four.

Taiga laid flat on the floor after, her face buried in the carpet.

"Ugh... I need to try and keep up with this more. It'll get easier, but it's just so tough."

She still felt motivated, but her body needed to get used to this again.

It's been a while since she's even been feeling up to training, and Taiga knew she's gotten overweight but didn't care at this moment. She knew it didn't mean she was weak whatsoever or couldn't fight; and her overall goal was to always be prepared and know how to protect herself, as well as others. It felt nice to be able to, since she couldn't in the past. Taiga didn't want to be underestimated by others, so why should she do it to herself?

Feeling filled with lots of determination ((wait, that sounds very familiar)), she got back up into a sitting position.

"I'm strong no matter what. Even regardless of what my mind may say otherwise." Thinking out her next set, Taiga nodded to herself. "Alright, let's do this!"

Getting her breathing back under control after drinking some much-needed water, she started off with the butterfly, and two other variations of hamstring stretches for twenty seconds each. Taiga carefully did the side splits and even she was surprised  with herself how she did it on the first try, that is, before she fell over on her face, leaving her in a very weird looking position. Thankfully, Spark never judged her during these times. However, she was kind of glad he was still asleep.

"...Ow... Whatever, I still did it~!" Taiga carefully got back up and tried to repeat the side split again and hold it for the full twenty seconds.

After successfully pulling it off, Taiga felt proud of herself again. Giving herself a well-deserved pat on the back. Taiga used to cringe at giving herself those forms of praise, but it did actually help her feel better sometimes. What could it hurt? She did feel self-conscious however from the judgeful gazes or words brought up from some who have witnessed her doing it in public before.

Quickly blocking those thoughts from her head, Taiga resumed her exercises, doing forward bends for the same amount of time. After she finished those, Taiga realized that she should probably not continue in her pajamas and went to change into a white workout tee, and a lined light pink skort. Even though she was sweating like crazy, she still felt confident and like she looked really nice again. It always is such a good feeling, even if rare. Taiga still wanted to work on keeping said confidence outside, though. Like with the skirts she loves to wear for example, once she gets out into the public eye especially, all of the negative thoughts come rushing in.

It was just something about the way the material can flow along with her like no other without hindering her movements, especially while growing up and getting more agile; made her feel so giddy and special. Once she learned how to not be as clumsy as she once was as a kid, once she decided to start training in general, once she learned it's possible to make it through... Sighing softly and grimacing, finishing tying up her matching white and light pink-striped sneakers, Taiga tried again to not dwell on those thoughts until she actually got to the punching bag. Taiga felt awkward and sometimes vain for praising herself too much or thinking about how nice her legs looked even more these days or moved in general-

Taiga blushed. "Gah!"

Taiga quickly stopped her shoulder stretches to start lunging from side-to-side, then from knee-to-elbow. After moving into another back stretch on the floor this time, Taiga started two more variations of arm stretches before standing back up to finish off with doing forward, backward, and knee bends. For each, she did three sets before slightly resting inbetween. Feeling ready, Taiga put her Kumpur wrap on and flexed her fingers, moving her hands a bit to test how it felt. Seeing it was fine, Taiga looked out of her side window down into the alleyway.

Taiga wasn't confident enough to go to a gym, even if she could afford it, and she preferred doing this anyway. No one has seen her yet, that she knew of, and Taiga would much rather keep it that way. She checked her phone, seeing that it was already 12:43 PM and put it in her left pocket, then grabbed hair ties and lots of bobby pins to put her hair up into two top buns. Taiga also grabbed her nata and headed downstairs to the same alleyway. Turning left around a corner, and then right around another it was more dark back there and hidden by old boxes and other debris no one bothered to clean up, and probably never would. However, it worked as a cover for Taiga.

After making sure no one was around and/or watching, Taiga carefully started climbing the mountain of trash, being careful not to cut herself or fall like she has before. Jumping down once at a safe distance on the other side, there was a little open area at the back of the dead end. Taiga hid her punching bag and other equipment here after stumbling upon this place. For once she was thankful for mountains of litter. Once she put her stuff down, Taiga went up to the bag and started bouncing on the spot after doing some torso rotations, getting back in the zone.

After starting off with light punches and low front/turning kicks, she started hitting harder. Wanting to start letting out more of her frustrations again, a sudden memory hit Taiga hard that made her grit her teeth and, with all her might, successfully land a spinning kick onto the bag.

---

W̶e̶'̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶h̶u̶m̶a̶n̶,̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶?̶

It was currently late May, the weather was beautiful, sunny and clear skies.

Today, Mika wore her favorite shirt, even though it was a bit raggedy and baggy: A lightly faded blue and white striped shirt, and with it she wore matching baggy black shorts that had scraggly white threads poking out at the ends that made her itchy a lot, plus white soled blue high top shoes her dad got her as an early birthday present. Mika always appreciated his gifts, even though they were few and far between. He worked hard to get Mika and her mother nice things. Her mother demanded many more things, though...

Mika's hair was a bit messier, because she didn't know how to properly do her hair, especially to hide her now much larger ears. And her tail... It was much, much bigger and the only solution Mika and her family could find was to tie up and tuck it away as much as possible in her bottoms. Her skin however, couldn't be hidden over the years. Her skin slowly turned over time from the terrible testing she had to endure that her parents signed Mika up for; to try and get answers or a cure as well, but neither arose from it, and the worse her mother would get.

More breakdowns meant more chastising and blame for Mika ruining their family's image. Words of how she was a mistake and her mother wishing she was never born was emotionally scarring enough, but... At least her already purple skin "hid" the physical bruises in a way. Still, her outward appearance caused even more teasing and bullies over the years, but at least they didn't know her secrets.

Once Mika met up with Luci, she immediately helped her tidy up her hair. She had more leverage and covered her ears completely for Mika without her having to ask. Luci always kept her secret and made anyone who saw keep quiet as much as she possibly could. Mika truly thought of her as her bestest friend in the whole wide world. "There you go! Beautiful as always~!"

That made Mika giggle and smile a lot. "Thank you... So are you!"

"Aw, shucks!" Luci smirked and made a silly face to get Mika to laugh; she loved hearing it.

Luci was wearing a beautiful white dress and had her long hair tied up high in a regal ponytail with a matching white ribbon. She also wore white, tan bottomed wedges. Luci was slowly teaching Mika how to walk in shoes that made her taller when she could as well; Mika thought she could pull off everything so perfectly, but she'd still love her regardless. Her parents always got her really lovely things as rewards for her good grades. Luci was always an honor roll student, and seemed to just excel in general. Succeeding at whatever she set her heart out to do.

Mika was always grateful Luci's parents were nice to her as well, they'd never kick her out or make her stay away like most others in the neighborhood. Mika tried not to stay at their house too much though, afraid she'd end up ruining their image as well. Luci always told her that it didn't matter, but Mika was always afraid in the back of her head that it did. So, just to be safe, she'd keep doing the same, only meeting with Luci or Markus at a tiny abandoned park that they'd call their special "secret" place. No one has found out they've gone there and caught them at that park yet!

The pair were walking together now. They were now 10 and 11 years old respectfully; on their way to their elementary school, excited about fifth grade almost being over. All this time, they've remained great friends, helping each other as much as possible.

"Are you excited for your birthday to come, Tai?" Mika smiled, she loved the nicknames Luci ended up giving her around the end of preschool.

Luci always said that she knew Mika wasn't just some innocent little kitten, but was also like a powerful tiger deep down, and that's another reason she liked her. Especially after the both of them found out about Zodiacs from different countries around Kindergarten.

"See? I knew it! You just have to let it out! Hahaha~!"

Mika felt like she would always remember that. Luci helped bring out the best in her and cheer her up, especially when things got tough at home or school. Mika would sneak out when she could to meet her two friends. Even though sometimes she was caught and punished for it, she'd never rat them out. It's what she looked forward to most in her life at times.

"I always am whenever I can spend it with you... But I do wish Markus was around too as much as before, though..."

Luci frowned slightly. "Yeah, it sucks he kept ending up in different classes; he was sweet. I know he'd be there for you when I couldn't be. I always did respect him for that!"

Around 2nd grade, we weren't able to see him as much because of that, and he'd never let us come to see his house for some reason; always making an excuse. Even though those two weren't really friends, they both appreciated each other's company. Especially when Mika was around. "Hopefully you can talk to him again before school ends!" Luci spoke again, noticing Mika's sad, thinking expression.

"You're right. I'll try to look for him, and even after the school day's over. Thank you again, Luci!" Mika hugged her tightly.

Even though they had different classes didn't mean they had to stop being friends, but for some reason they'd see less and less of him at their secret meet-up place over the years, as well as in the halls in general.

...

Like she said she would, Mika was searching as much as possible during the day but didn't see anything. Now that it was time for recess, she just sat on a bench and thought. "Where could he be...?" Other kids were probably wondering why she wasn't enjoying the last recesses she'd ever have before going off to middle school, but she didn't care about that now, she just wanted to know where her friend Markus went, she truly missed him. Mika sighed and went inside to use the restroom.

After finishing up and exiting, Mika had an idea but was very nervous to try it out. Especially alone. Mika always followed the rules and tried not to break them or step out of line... But this could be her chance at getting the answers she needed. Mika rushed once outside to get Luci and told her what her plan was. "You don't have to help... I don't want to get you in trouble, but I knew I could at least tell you before deciding if I shou-"

"I want to help!"

"...Really?"

"Of course, this is important. They wouldn't voluntarily let you do this anyway. So... Let's do it, I've got your back!"

Luci decided she would stand guard near the principal's office, but they'd have to work fast. Most teachers were doing paperwork in their classrooms or watching the kids outside. Sneaking past them was easy since they weren't really paying much attention, but they didn't know when or if the principal would even leave his office anytime soon. Now, Mika knew that Luci wasn't very patient and did things impulsively at times; she had good advice to give but sure needed to heed her own words of wisdom in many circumstances. Next thing Mika knew, Luci threw a dodgeball as hard as she could at the principal's door, hitting its window and leaving a crack in it.

Mika's eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

"Hide!" Luci whispered, and they both scrambled to get away from the scene of the crime. The principal quickly unlocked the door to step out and saw what caused the slightly broken window in the now empty hallway. He started to search the hallways but Luci and Mika hid behind an empty classroom's open door.

Once they heard his footsteps pass and start to disappear they headed back to the office.

Mika's heart was racing and once Luci gave her the thumbs-up showing she was ready, Mika quickly went in and started looking around. 'I know they have records on everyone... Yes!' She found a folder with his name labeled on it. Intrigued that his last name is 'Donnchadh,' since that was another fact he would always keep hidden, but they'd respect his wishes. 'Huh.'

Quickly reading and flipping through, Mika saw nothing off until she reached around the years when they were all in primary school. "Troubled life at home, sent to foster care multiple times, run aways, has recently been reported missing-"

Mika got a really bad feeling in her gut. She liked knowing the truth, but it was usually scary and hurt a lot. She put away the file neatly, back into the folder and drawer it came from.

Making sure everything looked untouched, Mika was about to leave before Luci suddenly came in looking panicked. "Time to go! He's coming back, and a couple of teachers are coming from the other way!"

Mika's heart sunk, she hated getting in trouble, but she's never been in this much trouble before. "Don't worry, I don't think they saw me since I moved so fast, but we'll have to leave through here!"

Luci opened the window and hopped out, helping Mika out as well before she fell down.

"Whoa-!"

"It's ok, I got you! Now, please close the window!"

Mika could barely reach, but she did and successfully closed it.

Luci carefully put Mika down so they could book it out of there. They cut around the side of the building so they were back by the playground, but had to climb the fence before getting there. They hid behind some of the bushes until they were in the clear to sneak over. Luci slowly went along with Mika until she got the hang of climbing with her. They made it over without getting spotted, and they both plopped down, sighing.

"I can't ever thank you enough for all you do, Luci..."

"It's ok. Your friendship is thanks enough... But, did you get what you wanted?" "Yes, actually..."

Mika told her everything she found out and Luci seemed fired up again instead of worried like she was.

Luci stood up and reached her hand out to Mika, saying: "This just means we'll have to search farther!" Helping Mika up, she made a plan to have Mika meet her that night at 8:00 PM, at their ol' "secret place" and to bring her backpack with her. "He obviously needs our help, and we can't give up on him! Right?"

Mika was in awe at her braveness, as usual, and nodded after snapping out of it. Even if she was scared, Luci always pushed through it, just like she'd try and teach Mika to as well. "Right!"

"I'll bring some supplies that should help us, and we'll decide where we should start from there... Is that ok with you?"

"Definitely!"

"I promise we'll find Markus!"

She gently took ahold of Mika's hand and gave it a light squeeze.

"No matter what! Together, we're unstoppable!" She did a funny pose, and pointed up at the sky to make Mika laugh again, successfully distracting her from noticing how much she was trembling right now.

Even when she felt scared, Luci always felt more at ease inside whenever Mika was around. Mika could notice things about her that she hid well from others, but sometimes Luci still didn't want to seem weak in front of her and lose face. "Team Taici, to the rescue!" Luci called out and smirked back at Mika, starting to act like she was doing Tai chi.

Mika looked confused for a bit, but then realized she mashed their nicknames together. "...Ohh, I get it!"

Luci started to laugh hard, falling on the ground. After her laughing fit ended, she sighed happily. "You're too cute, I love you!"

The bell then suddenly rung loudly.

...

Mika made sure her mom was fully passed out in her bed before sneaking out from the small window in the basement. The climb wasn't as difficult anymore since she got used to balancing on the items placed on top of her dad's toolbox.

It was easier than earlier, since this window was level to the ground. Thankfully her father was at work again. She silently closed the window, but not fully, so she could get back in. She used to use her bedroom window, but since she was caught before, her mother made her dad board it up tightly.

Mika missed waking up to the sunrises and falling asleep to the sunsets, but it was her own fault for that being taken away after all... Dismissing those thoughts and readjusting her backpack upon herself, she quickly made her way over to the abandoned playground.