Chapter 15

Shishijima Kana did not show up after lunch break for the remained two hours of school and Danuja did not know why that though remained with her till she arrived home.

'' I'm home.'' she said getting off her shoes, smiling when the patting of paws was heard, Dad coming at her, wagging tall and lolled tongue  '' Missed you too Dad.'' Danuja said scratching his head before checking his empty bowl of food

Good. He was eating without her.

She cuddled with him for half an hour before getting ready for training. Danuja wrapped her chest carefully before covering said bandages with a sport bra that could be mistaken as a crop top on her body and after dressing with a pair of pants and a blouse she let Dad lick her fingers before getting out of the house.

The cold weather made her shivers and frown.

I need a new jacket now    she though before beginning to jog towards the gym

---

'' Mr. Touma! Wake up old man, I brough your ramen.'' Danuja said upon entering the gym just to blink startled upon seeing the man scribbling on the wall  '' Is that one of your hobby's?'' she asked snorting when the man raised a middle finger at her

'' That's for you kid.'' he said making sign to come closer, pointing at the numbers on the wall. It was scale.  '' You are tall but I need to know how tall.'' he reasoned humming  when Danuja sticked on the wall  '' 188 cm. Not bad boyo.''

'' So what did you need this for?'' Danuja asked already wrapping her hands 

'' Truthfully, if you wouldn't have showed up today I wouldn't have do it. If you showed up, let's say in two days, we would just go back to leg kicks and punches. Boxing means consistency.''  Mr. Touma said in one of his moment of wisdom, though Danuja should stop being so surprised at this rate

'' We  need to develop a fighting style for you or at the very last adopt one that match your height and range.'' he said  '' Now let's work on your footwork.''  he said excited before throwing a rope at her.

Well...rope was a lot said.

'' That's an improvised rope. Made it just for you last night.''  he said before taking a seat on his bench  '' Jump on that rope with a pause at every ten minutes. I don't care how many times you jump just do it for ten whole minutes. Next hour we do the same thing.''

Before beginning, Danuja inspected the rope that wasn't really a rope to begin , it was some material that was hold tight with adhesive tape and she couldn't really remember when was the last time she jumped a rope before.

While jumping Danuja begin to empty her mind like every time she needed to do something for a period of time, emptying her mind and focusing on a single thing. Jump roping was extenuating after some time.

She could feel her knees trembling, ankles and wrist hurting, her lungs stinging and ears ringing. Her leg uncoordinated, catching the rope making her fall on her knee. Suddenly the image of a curled up girl, holding tightly a worn out jacket appeared in her mind.

'' Four minutes.''  Mr. Touma said making her look at him

'' I have four more minutes?'' she asked cursing herself

'' Nope. You jumped for four minutes, more than I though you could but not enough.''  he said surprising her  '' Stretch a little than do it again.''

And at the end of the two hours, Danuja couldn't keep up jumping for more than four minutes.

'' Take it with you.'' Mr. Touma said at the end  '' Jump in your free time, jump between your classes, jump at home. I won't teach you anything else if you can't jump rope for a whole fifteen minutes till the end of this week.''  he said sighing when seeing Danuja frown

'' Listen kid-''  he said making sign for her to sit down  ''- I know that this isn't what you come from at the beginning. You wanted just a couple of tricks to escape from your bullies and a free haircut. But you are good. '' he stated  '' You are good and you would be surprised how many boys like you give up after a couple of days and turn up here a month or so later because they wanted more.''

'' So stop coming this week and focus by yourself on rope jumping. If be the end of the week you can jump for fifteen minutes straight then I train you however long you want on free.'' 

And Danuja loved free things.

---

Three days passed since that day and Danuja used the tapped rope Mr. Touma give her everywhere, even taking it with her at school. She would let Dad wander around the area while she jumped when they took their nightly walks. Jump between her meals, between her classes.

Rope skipping replaced napes on the school rooftop. And that's where she was now.

Suddenly her concentration was ripped making her stop jumping, breathing heavily on her nose. Danuja tilde her head, surprised when no sounds could be heard before tensing up at the shuffle behind her. The golden eyed girl turned around blinking startled when Shishijima Kana was in front of her, head bowed making her even smaller and a bag hold tightly in her hands.

'' Um.''  her small voice was heard making Danuja arch an eyebrow  '' Thank you.'''  the girl said holding the bag towards Danuja, making her take the bag carefully, fingertips brushing softly on the silver haired girl  '' I'm Kana.''  the girl, Kana, said lifting her head almost like a reflex. She was holding her hands close to her body, gripping them tightly

Soft  Danuja though  having the sudden need to hide her own hands. Suddenly the callouses and small scars on her hands burned  Dangerous 

'' Danuja.''  she said, her eyebrow twitching when Kana shivered. Danuja looked down at the bag and upon seeing her own jacket she said  '' Thanks for giving it back to me.''  didn't though I would get it back

'' N-no! I mean, thank you for landing it to me.'' Kana said  '' I washed it so you don't have to worry about anything.''  the girl mumbled something that Danuja couldn't hear before suddenly taking her leave

A little apprehensive Danuja got her jacket out of the bag excepting to see her old jacket looking worse because of the washing machine. It wasn't even Kana fault. The thing was already worn out when she brought it and Danuja washed it a single time because of the intense smell of cigarettes.

Image her surprise when her jacket smelled like sea salt of all things and the material was much softer than before.

'' Did she-''  she said gripping the cloth gently  ''-hand wash this?''