"You were reckless again." Frei was looking mildy displeased.

"Oh please! Are you serious? We've just settled, I'm exhausted, can we have that talk later?"

Fanny had released me. We were finally back in Kyoto after our two-day trip to the capital.

But it was the first time I was alone with my bodyguard/friend since then. My best friend and her boyfriend had finally left our apartment to get back to theirs.

"I've held on it for long enough, don't you think?" Frei was right. And unfortunately for me, avoiding the conversation would not be possible in our shared space.

I grumbled in response. I sat down on my bed, if I couldn't escape from it, at least I would face it comfortably.

"You took risks in the train, you weren't supposed to put yourself in danger." She unnecessarely explained.

"Yeah I get it." I said firmly. "But what you need to understand is, I'm not defenseless, and if I can help, I will."

"I'm not sure your mother would agree..."

"Not talking about her. And It's my father who's technically employing you so she shouldn't even matter." I told her. But mentioning Luc put a bad taste in my mouth. I still hadn't gotten my gene results. My Japanese lessons would begin in two days, and I'm wasn't sure I would ever manage to get there. I had a funny feeling I wouldn't.

Frei didn't notice my grimace.

"Still, I'm supposed to be your bodyguard first, and you're not making it easy."

I sighed.

"I know, but that won't change. Best piece of advice I can give you, get good enough so I don't feel the need to help."

She smirked.

"What a terrifyingly patronizing thing to say. You're right though, which definitely makes it worse."

She was mocking me. I glared at her.

"Please, I told you I'm tired, if you want me to put gloves on I need some rest first."

"Fine, I can't convince you. But you can be certain of one thing, you'll be training with me. Better we learn to fight together than you getting in my way."

"I'M getting in your way? I believe I made you win our last encounter."

"Sure you helped, but you should have been skewered on the train's window, and if our assassin wasn't so young, she wouldn't have lost her bearings when you actually managed to block her attack... And who the hell knows how to catch throwing knives in this day and age?"

"I've had an unconventional family."

That made her think for a minute.

"You weren't trained my Ms Skörskind were you." It wasn't a question so I didn't answer.

She continued.

"There are similarities, but your styles are different. I didn't understand why before. But she wasn't your first teacher."

That was a painful memory, even now, even though I had forgiven her.

Frei noticed. She went in timid-Frei mode for a moment.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know it was a sensible subject."

"No, no, it's not anymore."

"You're sure? I never saw you make such a face before."

I sighed again.

"Yeah well, Hailey Skröskind pretty much abandoned me when I was one year old."

"What?" Said my friend, disbelieving. "She would never do that!"

I smiled sadly and looked her in the eyes. She swallowed loudly, and silently sat down next to me.

After a few moments, she talked again, softly.

"She wouldn't right?"

"She was a renowned, top athlete. She was young with a great career in front of her. To take care of me she would have had to sacrifice both of those things."

"Oh..." She understood. Her hand touched mine on the futon.

"Yeah, you know her. At the time it was even worse, nothing got between my mother and her sword. My father didn't. Not even I did."

Silence again.

"What about,... what about him?"

"Well their relationship wasn't supposed to leave any strings attached, so it was pretty much the same thing with him. He had just begun working and his career was important to him and the family. He tried to visit every week-end though."

"So, if not Hailey, who trained you?"

"My dad's family, well my grandfather mostly." I paused. "Sometimes my grandmother, hence the knife-catching." I smiled saying that.

"Your grandparents were martial-artist?"

"More like ex-military." I didn't want to delve deeper in the subject. She felt it in my tone of voice.

"Ok." She simply nodded.

We stared at each other silently for awhile.

"You can stop holding my hand now." I told her jokingly.

She blushed bright red, removing her hand immediately.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I didn't even notice."

"Nah don't worry, it's nice, but you should remember, I was still a boy a few months ago, I could have misinterpreted that."

She gave me an undecipherable look, seemed on the verge of saying something but then stopped.

It looked like multiple emotions had hit her at the same time. Surprise, anger, and a few others I couldn't see.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Erm, you remembered right?" I still said with a smile, but a bit more seriously.

"Yes. Yes." She quickly answered. "It's just, erm. Well it's easy to forget with how you, well, look."

"Aouch." I was not getting used to that any time soon.

"Yeah, sorry, I know it mustn't be easy for you. But well, that's why I held your hand, I wouldn't have done that if you weren't a girl." She seemed to insist on that.

"Erm well yeah?"

She wasn't making a lot of sense.

"Oh for fuck's sake." She was getting angry now. I'm not sure if it was against me or herself.

"Erm Frei? You alright?"

"Oh stop being so damn nice, worry about yourself, you just told me you had been abandoned, and you're still trying to fix me. Damn fucking psychologists."

"I'm not trying to fix you! And I'm not technically a psychologist, haven't done any..." I defended myself.

"Oh shut up. You're just being dense yeah, and I'm chickenshit."

"Ermm?"

"I am done, you're tired, me too, let's just go to bed." She ended the conversation abrubtly by fleeing in the bathroom.

"What the hell happened?" I said out loud.

Monday.

"One minute!" I heard Fanny shout behind her apartment's door.

Frei was still looking at me with an apologetic expression.

"It's not that bad, you needed a break anyway."

"No I didn't. And stop saying that please."

She was trying to recomfort me since I had to leave the japanese school this morning. It was almost noon now and...

Frei opened the door, looking flushed, breath ragged, hair discheveled and still in her pyjamas. Either she had a rough night or she was busy with something else.

Urgh, having good perception is a curse.

"Sias? What are you doing here? Problem with the school?"

I grinded my teeth.

"Yup, they enrolled me but not Frei yet, and I'm not 'authorized' to attend anything without her. She's only beginning next month because of an 'administrative' mistake. Dad's meddling I'm like 60% sure."

"Oh." She reajusted her bra strap. Henry appeared perfectly dressed out of their bathroom. His face was also pretty red, but he wasn't as obvious as his girlfriend.

"Cool!" He exclaimed. "Let's be dumb tourists for two weeks then, you'll be doing stuff and we'll all have fun together.

I couldn't help but smile at his optimism.

"Yeah, sure. What were you guys planning? Any space for two lost girls?"

Fanny answered.

"Henry wouldn't mind." She winked at him.

"Mh, I think you would be the one that doesn't mind." He countered.

"Pervert." I whispered.

"I heard that!"

"How many times did you touch my ass in those changing booths."

It didn't even make her flinch.

Frei gasped loudly though.

Fanny continued, laughing diabolically.

"I did no such thing. I'm perfectly pure."

"Do I need to remind you what you two were up to right now?" I argued.

That shook her up.

"How?... Oh fuck I always forget about you superpower."

Henry looked at the ceiling. Fiddling his thumbs.

"Sias has a superpower now?" Frei asked.

"Yeah she can always tell when you are having a private time."My best friend explained.

"It is not true! And it's definitely not a superpower!" She was the one supposed to be put in a difficult spot not me! I looked back at Frei, who was gazing at me with horror.

Or was it Guilt? Shame?

"No I didn't notice you masturbating in our bathroom." I guessed.

Her cheeks became extremely red.

"How would you know that then?!"

"Well, you made it pretty obvious just now."

Ah ha! I wasn't the one getting the short end of the stick right now!

Henry tried to help her.

"Don't react like that, Sias and Fanny'll love that, they'll try to bother you just for a laugh."

"No I don't!" Fanny and I said at the same time. Before laughing simultaneously.

Timid-Frei was fuming.

"Well yeah! Who wouldn't be in my situation! Sleeping next to..." She put her two hand in front of her mouth.

Erm. "Wait what?" I said.

"Ahaaa!" Exclaimed Fanny.

Henry facepalmed. "Why is it always turning like this..." He said out loud.

Realising the cat got out of the bag, or the closet in this case, Frei continued, getting redder by the minute.

"Yeah, you! You don't wear pants inside, no bra, only a shirt and panties, and you look like my idol but younger and cuter. I'm still in my early twenties and you all never stop talking about sex. It's fucking hard!"

"Pfrrr." Fanny childishly laughing at the 'hard' part.

I was completely flabbergasted.

"But, I'm a girl now..."

Fanny laughed even harder, even Henry grinned and mocked me slightly.

"Sias, you really didn't notice?" He said.

Nooo I was the one being made fun of again.

"I'm a martial-artist, I'm idolizing Hailey Skröskind. Aren't you supposedly super perceptive?!" Frei almost shouted.

"Wait you..." Oh I got it now.

Frei looked expectandly at what I was going to say next, so well I couldn't resist.

"...you have a muscle fetish?" I told her with my most serious face.

Her expression was priceless.

Henry began laughing out loud, while Fanny was almost down on the floor.

"What?!" Frei exclaimed. "No! How the hell could you even..."

She paused. Looked at me with dark eyes.

"I'm not falling for it."

"Yes you did." I was having a broad smile,my first since long I believe. "But honestly, you could have told me, you know about Fanny, I don't care about stuff like that, which is also the reason why I don't notice."

The aforementioned Fanny finally stopped laughing. "Yeah, even if you wear rainbows as a scarf and a I am Gay pin on your fluorescent pink jacket, he, she barely notices. T'was fun seeing Sias confused at how you acted sometimes."

I simply scratched my head at my friends statement, I really couldn't deny that. That exact thing had happened. I could spot a psychopath in a single exchange of stares, but I couldn't tell if someone was homosexual or not most of the time. By the way, a perfect example of why I don't believe I'm perceptive : I don't see things, I just feel what's inside.

"Are you serious!" Frei exclaimed. "I almost believed she was doing it on purpose."

"Hey!" I protested "I wouldn't do that. Sorry about the clothing, I'll be more careful in the future."

"No wait, I didn't say you had to stop..." She intervened.

Fanny couldn't resist.

"Yeah I understand, would be too bad to get rid of such a view eh?" She ostensibly looked at my ass.

"Fan..." I threatened.

But the one who finally finished the conversation was Henry.

"Honey, could you please not gaze at someone else's bottom when I'm around? And to answer the initial question, which I believe all of you clowns forgot by now, we're going for some sightseeing, you're free to join us."

Frei cleared her throat and tried to get back to a professionnal appearance. Hard to do when you confessed ogling your client.

"I'd like to have your map then, I'll need to study it while we're going there. Sias, behave."

"The nerve of you woman! You should be the one behaving! I'm not a damn piece of meat." I answered in fake outrage.

Her serious expression crumbled a bit.

"Sias please, now you know, could we not talk about it anymore?"

"Of course."

She sighed in relief.

"For the next hour at least." I continued.

Henry laughed at that.

I left first, letting a desolate Frei behind.

Fanny gave a compassionate pat on the back of my mixed-blood friend.

"She's holding grudges hard our little Sias."

"But I didn't do anything!"

"You didn't tell her about yourself, and even hid something."

"I didn't hide shit!"

"That's not how she sees it, but she knows she's partly to blame, so she won't be too mean, not like I would at least."

I couldn't see what Frei did in response but it seemed to make my best friend laugh.

I only heard her call to me.

"Sias, stay here! I'm supposed to protect you goddamnit! Stop going ahead!"

"Nooope, I promised my mommy to never listen to perverts."

I could only hear her exclaim "Argh!" before getting inside the elevator.