All That Bloodshed

Chapter 17: you said I had to trust more freely

It all started with Ryouhei commenting or how unfit he was, especially after an extended hospital stay. (He willfully ignored how he'd never been all that fit to begin with.)

It had been a perfectly innocent comment he'd made during dinner he and Usagi were having with Anna and Kuina. Usagi had been talking about her work and how she was excited to get back to rock climbing now that her legs were pretty much all healed. It shouldn't have been anything more than a pressing comment, but Ryouhei had never been that lucky.

"You should totally come to the gym with me," Kuina suggested easily. "You're so skinny, I could snap you like a twig. You could use some meat on your bones."

Ryouhei opened his mouth to object, but Usagi lit up at Kuina's suggestion. "Yes!" she smiled. "Then we can train to go mountain climbing together."

And Ryouhei's protesting spirit fizzled out before it'd even had a chance. "Ah Usagi, you know I'm not the most—" he tried anyway.

"I mean, you managed to survive quite a few grades and clubs games," Kuina cut in, slurping obnoxiously at her noodles.

Ryouhei glared weakly at her. "Yeah, survive," he agreed, emphasizing the second word. "And besides! It was some... freak coma dream."

"I mean, you shouldn't live in fear, but wouldn't you prefer to be in better shape if it happens again?"

That shut down Ryouhei's protest. He could vividly remember the Four of Spades and just how much he'd struggled, especially in comparison to Usagi. He'd been a bit better by the Queen of Spades game, but he was 90% sure that adrenaline had carried him through that one. There'd been so much at stake.

Here in the real world again, he hadn't put much thought into being active. He'd felt so focused on just being able to walk again... and he hadn't been any kind of fit before. He'd never had an easy time packing on muscle and had given up on even trying by the middle of high school when he'd been able to quit PE. It had seemed like a whole waste of time and effort.

But as much as he was reducing their nightmare experiences in The Borderlands to just a 'freak coma dream', he remembered it all too well. Maybe it was just paranoia talking, but Kuina had a point about not wanting to be caught off guard again.

"I know that it was a damn good thing I still occasionally made it out to a dojo before everything went down," Kuina continued. "I owe the fact that I survived against Last Boss and his katana to those skills."

Ryouhei rolled his eyes. "Yes, we know you're a badass," he agreed. "But we can also all agree that I am most certainly not."

"We can change that!" Kuina said optimistically. Ryouhei made a face and she winced. "We can try!" she corrected.

And Ryouhei was a weak man, so when the two woman stared at him expectantly, he couldn't do anything but give in.

"I'm going to regret this," he announced, but this didn't seem to so much as dim the girl's excitement.

"I go almost every other day, but we'll ease you into things," Kuina said, clapping her hands together sharply. Ryouhei groaned quietly.

"Yeah, this is gonna be a mistake."

Kuina was a surprisingly good teacher.

Perhaps he was doing her a disservice by saying 'surprisingly' but... well he hadn't been expecting it. She'd never struck him as impatient or even overly loud. She got on well with the likes of Chishiya after all. Chishiya wasn't one to suffer annoyance unless he had to. He supposed that was probably why Kuina hadn't managed to drag him to see the gym.