This girl might had been a kickboxer like Kinu, but she sure wasn’t the same kind of fighter. Where Kinu was playful, quick, and relatively straightforward in her strikes, this Serena was just outright dirty. Feints, low kicks, stomps, shoves. Nothing was illegal in a fight, but it was way more pragmatic than what Reyna had expected after her bout with Kinu. And each hit nearly knocked Reyna down. She only took three punches to the chest and she was already gasping for breath. Partially due to her last fight already tiring her out, but also due to Serena forcing Reyna to fight very defensively. Pushing away punches, bracing her legs for low kicks, only able to get a punch or two in at Serena’s neck and stomach between the onslaught and trick punches. After awhile she could only manage to dodge and deflect. And when it looked Serena was going to finish her off with an uppercut Reyna braced herself, bringing her arms to guard her chin when-
“Ah!” She staggered back, receiving a hard poke to her forehead from Serena’s other hand.
“Gotcha,” Serena pulled her hand back, giving a small smirk at Reyna. Reyna fell flat on her butt, pouting, then looking over to other side of the room to see Kyo on the floor, breathing heavy. Kinu was giggled, looking at the two girls.
“Phew, that was a workout!” She said, stretching. “Ugh, I’m all sweaty now. C’mon girls. Let’s hit the showers and get ready for some learning!”
Reyna didn’t bother answering, only falling on her back and catching her breath along with Kyo. How those two still had the energy to be standing was beyond her. Kinu and Serena looked at the girls, then at each other. Kinu smiled. “Alright, we’ll go first then!”
The two soon left, leaving Reyna and Kyo alone.
“Blondie…”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t get up…”
“Me neither…” If Reyna could sink further into the floor, she would. Her body felt so heavy now. “My… everything hurts…”
“Same…”
----------------------------------------
It took every ounce of energy to just reach the showers, but by some miracle Reyna and Kyo were able to crawl their way there… with help from Kinu and Serena once they saw the two actually crawling out the doors. Thankfully classes didn’t start for another hour, so they were both able to clean up, change into their uniforms, and make it to class on time. And to Reyna’s surprise, classes basically boiled down to a glorified study hall. It wasn’t a surprise given the dorm was more of a detention center of several grades than actual dormitory, but at least it was a simple. Today the focus was on math, so all the students were assigned some reading, a few worksheets to practice problems, and could ask Elenore about things they were stuck on. Even more surprising was that Elenore could actually teach and explain these things.
“Oh yeah, math gets tough when they start throwing letters at you. You just gotta’ move all the numbers away from x like this.” She explained to Reyna. “Just add x to both sides to move it to the right.”
“You can do that?”
“Yup,”
“Why?”
“Because math is just weird like that. Basically, you just have to keep everything balanced on both ends.”
Granted, as much as her explanation helped it still didn’t make algebra much easier in her mind, but it was a nice surprise to learn she could turn to her new teacher for help. Most of class was like that until it was time for lunch. Reyna was just about to head to the cafeteria before she was tugged at from the back of her collar.
“Hang out with us!”
Reyna frowned, trying her best to pull away. It was Kinu’s voice, but her grip was too strong to escape and Reyna was pulled right into Kinu’s arms and lifted.
“Hey!” Reyna started squirming. “Let me go!”
“Naaah, you need to socialize more!”
“I’m going to socialize with my friends!”
“But I’m your friend,”
“But I-”
Kinu looked down at Reyna, pouting in a much too obvious way to be taken seriously. “W-We aren’t friends?” She sobbed out, much too theatrical about it to be taken seriously.
Reyna frowned. She didn’t have the heart to say no, but…
“Hehe~ I’ll take your silence as a yes!”
“But I-”
“Nope, to be silent is to agree! To the cafeteria!”
“Heey!” And so, Reyna was practically carried all the way to the cafeteria in Kinu’s arms, getting stares and whispers from several students.
“Wow, I guess Reyna really is in the delinquent dorm now.”
“She’s being carried by one of them. Is she like a pet for the bad kids now?”
“I think she’s going to work for them now, like some flunky,”
“Guess we should act right unless we want to end up like her.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Hey, stop talking, they’re coming this way,”
Reyna frowned, looking down and away from all whispers and murmurs. So this is how they see me now… She bit her lower lip, forcing an exhale.
“Oh, don’t like it bug you,” Kinu said. “It’s just your first day. You’ll get use to it.”
“I don’t want to get use to this…”
“You will~” Soon after Kinu plopped Reyna in a seat at the end of the cafeteria. Much to Reyna’s displeasure, it looked like Kyo got roped into this as well by Serena, though she was dragged to their table by the arm instead of carried.
“… …”
“… … …”
Neither Reyna or Kyo spoke, only looking away from each before silently going up to grab their food. Reyna chose a bowl of noodles and some veggies on the side. It looked like Kyo chose rice and some kind of seafood on the side. It was tempting to just sit somewhere else, but with these two girls dragging them about it’d only be a matter of being dragged back.
“Soooo,” Kinu said. “Wanna’ give us your names?”
“Teach already introduced us,” Kyo said, taking a bite of her rice.
“Yeah, but I wanna’ hear you guys tell us,” Kinu replied, smiling bright.
“I’m Reyna.”
“Kyo.”
“Oh, come on girls!” Kinu flopped onto the table, deflated and groaning. “A little more than that, please. Some hobbies? Likes? Dislikes? What your studying?”
Both Reyna and Kyo finished chewing their food and stared at the two girls. Kyo sighed and went first.
“Fine.” She said. “I’m learning kung fu, been learning it for a few months now, but I did karate and judo back home. Outside of martial arts I like video games and listening to music I guess.”
“Oh?” Kinu perked up, smiling again. “What do you listen to?”
“Uh… idol stuff actually.”
Reyna nearly dropped her chopsticks hearing that. “Really?” She blurted out, causing Kyo to glare.
“What? Yeah the lyrics are really cheesy, but I just… kinda’ like a lot of J-Pop…” She said, muttering the last bit. “I listen to a bit of rap too.”
That one wasn’t surprising, but the fact that such a tomboy like Kyo enjoyed pop songs was… different. “Well…” Reyna said, clearing her throat. “I’m learning Wing Chun and Chinese Swordplay. As far as hobbies go… I guess I only have martial arts.”
“Nothing else?” Kinu asked, canting her head.
Reyna thought it over. “I like baking sweets I suppose, but that’s really it.” She said. “Both my parents are martial artists and business owners, so I’ve been training since I could walk. Wing Chun, Bajiquan, Baguazhang, those are the main styles I know and my mother taught me the latter two.”
“Wait,” Serena said. “Your last name’s Song, right?”
“Yes, it is. Reyna-Mei Song.”
Serena paused, thinking something over. “As in Lin Song’s daughter?”
Reyna frowned, taking a short breath before answering. “Yes?”
Serena lean back, staring at the ceiling. “Damn, looks like we got a rich girl and celebrity over here.”
Reyna blushed.
“What’s up Rena?” Kinu asked.
Serena looked over to Kinu, giving her a blank stare. “Ki, Lin Song was that wicked scary fighter that owns the FFC promotion company.”
“Wha- really?” Kinu looked at Reyna, then at Serena. “This kid’s the daughter of that beast. Didn’t Lin Song nearly kill three of her opponents before taking over the company.”
“Don’t remind me… my mother a nightmare…” She said, lowering her head. “And please don’t say it so loud. The school agreed to not publicize my background.”
Serena blinked, scratching the back of her head. “Sorry,” She said. “Your story lined up and you I knew Lin had a daughter, so… shot in the dark and all that. Surprised you confirmed it.”
Reyna sighed. “I’m a terrible lair, so there’s no point in pretending I’m ignorant.” She admitted. “Besides, Song is a very common last name, and my name is always under an alias in official articles Only people that are heavily into combat sports would even think to connect the dots.” A saving grace of Panda Academy was that a lot of its students and teachers were traditional martial artists, usually coming from dojos, temples, or other academies. Very few outside of those in boxing or other western arts would even care about combat leagues and professional fighting. I’ll have to be careful around the boxers and kickboxers now though…
“So your mom’s a big deal then?” Kyo asked. “I knew you were rich and had some company you were gonna’ take over, but your mom’s some MMA star too?”
Reyna frowned. “Well… kind of… The Female Fighting Circuit is a promotion company that sponsors several tournaments, rings, matches, and so on. The rules are a lot looser than other MMA companies, along with the fighting styles used. “You know that movie Blood Bout?”
“Where those folks could nearly kill someone in the ring and use weapons? Yeah.”
“Think that, but legal.”
“Jeez, that’s nuts.”
“It gets crazier,” Serena said. “Lin Song won all her match by knockout, half her opponents hospitalized, the other half crippled.”
“Sheesh…” Kyo looked to Reyna. “Now I know why didn’t run off and cry like the other Sapphire girls when you got a bloody nose.”
“I just don’t run from bullies.” Reyna said, narrowing her eyes at Kyo.
“What about you, demon girl? What are your parents like?” Serena asked.
Kyo huffed, narrowing her eyes at Serena before speaking. “Never knew my dad, but my mom’s a priestess for the family shrine,” Kyo said.
“Wait… really?” Serena asked, everyone staring at Kyo. “You’re a shrine maiden?”
“What?” Reyna sat up, looking at Kyo in shock.
“Yup,” Kyo put a bit of a rice in her mouth. “It’s just a small shrine with a dojo down the hill from it, meant to worship a god of war.” She explained. “We get a lot of thugs and gangsters around the place too since the neighborhood’s not really safe, so I had to learn how to fight and defend myself. But karate and judo were kind of boring, so I came here to learn kung fu instead.”
“Oh yeah, I heard about that.” Kinu said. “A freshman had transferred by beating one of the top ten students in a duel and earning a scholarship, right?”
“Yup,” Kyo pointed at Reyna. “Me and Blondie over here had to duke it out for a bit before the teachers let me stay on a scholarship. Just gotta’ stay in the top ten to earn my keep.” She explained, finishing her bowl of rice. “And I didn’t beat her, just lasted five minutes with her in a serious fight. There wasn’t a real winner.”
Reyna stared, perplexed. “I didn’t think you’d be honest about that.” She said.
“You’d say something if I didn’t, right?” Kyo asked.
Reyna frowned, but said nothing against it. “And you’re Number 10.” Reyna added.
“Number 10 and still kicked Number 3’s butt at least 5 out of 11 spars in class.”
“Do you want lose number 7, Demon?”
“You wanna’ gimme’ another tooth for my collection, Blondie?”
The two stared each other down for a moment, then Reyna let out a loud scoff and quickly finished her meal, slurping her noodles down quickly and setting her chopsticks down. “I’m finished. I’ll be heading to my dorm to study.” She said, getting up and leaving the cafeteria.
“Okay,” Kinu said.
“See ya’,” Serena added.
Thankfully, the two didn’t try keeping her down. Probably thinking it’d be best to avoid having Kyo and Reyna fight each other here… or probably for some other weird reason. Just being away from the group for a moment would be a chance to recharge and get some schoolwork done.
Or at least that was the goal.
Just as Reyna was walking to her dorm she was ambushed. Several girls in masks jumped right down from the dorm’s entrance. All were in Violaceous uniforms; all were about Reyna’s size. She frowned, looking around the area. No Elenore in sight, and this didn’t seem like the kind of situation were keeping her head down would let her off. She sighed. “I just wanted to study today too…”