My back slammed into the mat for what felt like the hundredth time that morning. "Ri-chan, you have to focus! You know what to do, so get up and let's try it again, okay?" Honey was standing over me trying to get me to perfect the last defense move that he had been teaching me. It had been several days since I started learning, and I had several bruises from all the times I wasn't able to block a hit in time, but I felt proud of these bruises; they meant so much more to me than any of the other bruises I had gotten in my life.
"Mitzukuni, take a break, you've both been working hard." Mori stood up from where he was sitting on the edge of the room. He threw me my water and the sat back down, looking at me in concern. "You're unfocused, what's wrong?" I looked at Mori in surprise, then tri
