One and Only

Ch. 11 Zen'nin Clan

  Well, the day has arrived. It was barely about to be 5 am, and I wasn't able to sleep for shit. Aside from Mafuyu crawling into my bed, the nervousness that was shooting through me made me restless. I crawled out of bed as quietly as I could and shut off the alarm I had set on my clock. I put on a pair of black drawstring shorts, a plain black t shirt, and some light weight exercise undergarments. I grabbed my sneakers and quietly closed the door behind me. Since I wasn't able to sleep, might as well and try to do some some light exercise to make up for lost time.
  As I got closer to the training area that the students shared, I could hear some movement coming from inside. I peaked my head around the open door and saw Suguru throwing some punches and kicks on one of the punching bags.
  "Mind if I join?" I said, knocking on the doorframe. Suguru stopped mid-kick and turned towards me.
  "Oh, Mai, I don't mind. What are you doing here so early?" He said, grabbing a towel of the ground and wiping the sweat from his forehead.
  "I could say the same to you," I replied, putting on my sneakers and wrapping my hands with tape. "I couldn't sleep. Do you have an extra hair tie?"
  "Yeah, me too." Suguru replied, handing me the elastic. "Are you sure you should be doing anything yet? Isn't your shoulder still pretty banged up?"
  "It's pretty much good, Shoko did some extra healing on me yesterday so it just feels a bit sore." I replied. After I finished pulling the rest of my hair into a quick bun, I started winding my arm around trying to convince Suguru. He just gave me smirk.
  "If you say so. Wanna go a few rounds?"
  "As much as I'd love to, I still have that meeting later. I'd rather not be sore when I'm there." I turned down his suggestion.
  "Ah, yeah forgot about that. What time are ya going?" He asked.
  "The meetings at noon, but Tatsuya is fussing about leaving by 9:30. I guess it's to give me enough time for getting ready or whatever." I answered. Suguru went behind the punching bag and held onto it as I threw a few punches and kicks.
  "Then wouldn't it be better if you tried to do something other than getting your blood pumping?" He said.
  "Yeah, maybe," I threw a harsh kick to the side of the bag. "But I just wanna get some aggression out before I see Naobito and Naoya, I can't exactly do this to them." I motioned to the bag. Suguru just chuckled as we traded places. It was relatively silent for the next few moments, other than a few groans from Suguru and the sound of the bag getting hit left and right. He began to slow down, signaling that he wanted to switch places.
  "So, are you gonna accept?" He asked before I could begin a new set.
  "Absolutely not. I don't want to get married yet." I did a few jabs and cross punches.
  "Are there gonna be any other clans that might send out a proposal?"
  "More than likely both the Kamo and Gojo clans." I looked over at him and saw his jaw tense up. "Can I ask why you're so curious?" I cocked my head to the side to get a better look at him. His gaze was fixated on the floor, as if deep in thought.
  "Suguru?" He snapped out of his gaze and gave me an embarrassed grin.
  "Sorry, what did you say?" He asked.
  "I was just asking why you were so curious about the clans." Suguru rubbed the back of his neck.
  "I'll tell you once it's all done with, I'd rather not stress you out more." I pouted at his answer.
  "Well now I am stressed out about what it could be." He flicked my forehead as he went to grab his water bottle.
  "Be patient. I'll tell you at a better time." I rubbed at the sore spot.
  "Yeah, yeah. Now help me do a few more sets."

  Suguru and I were training for about 3 hours already, our bodies covered in sweat but the atmosphere felt light and rewarding. We talked about upcoming missions, lessons from Yaga-sensei, Himeko and Mafuyu a bit, among various other things.
  "Himeko has really taken a liking to you." I noted. "She follows you everywhere."
  "Probably because I always buy her snacks." He replied.
  "True, but she always tells me about the cool stories you share about your missions and the different people you've met. She loves that kind of stuff since she can't really travel much herself." I gave him a wide smile. "Thanks for looking after my sisters, by the way. I really appreciate everything you've done for them." We went to grab our towels, taking a short break.
  "It's really no problem. They're both really well behaved and honestly, it's really nice having them around. They bring a lot of excitement to the place, you know?" He said, taking a gulp of water. I heard my phone vibrate from the small table I placed it on. I checked the notification to see that I had a text from Tatsuya. I quickly flipped my phone open and read the text, letting out a long sigh.
  "Everything okay?" Suguru peaked at me from the corner of his eye.
  "Yeah, Tatsuya is just asking where I'm at. She wants to go over some formality shit about the Zen'nin's or whatever." I grumbled. "We still have like an hour before we have to leave... she could just tell me in the car."
  "Well, this is probably a good place for us to stop anyway. Don't wanna over work you just yet." He said, throwing a water bottle my way. I fumbled it a bit as I was still paying attention to my phone.
  "A little warning next time." I mumbled out.
  "Sorry, sorry." He said, holding his hand in front of his face apologetically.
  Suguru left shortly after, I stayed behind to do some cool down stretches before heading to the bath.