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had to edit it, don't download the document just use the text preview thing... IB doesn't do docx and i got a new computer lately, sorry folks", "writing": "“Read their stance, don’t just look at the other guy, observe him. You pay close enough attention and you can predict what they’re going to do, and that’s the first step to doing something about it. Don’t be afraid to test your opponent, maybe throw a jab or a cross at the right time to see how they react,” Daisuke coached Kit from outside the sparring ring. He wore protective headgear and had 10 oz boxing gloves on. Kisara stood across the ring from him dressed in similar clothes.\n“Bob and weave, slip punches, keep your feet moving, and keep your guard up,” he added.\nThis was Kit’s first open spar with one of the girls, and Kisara had been chosen because her style of fighting was most compatible with Kit’s own, with her preference for striking. Kit and Kisara closed in on each other in the center of the room.\n“You ready?” Daisuke asked them.\n“Yeah,” Kit answered him. The kick came so fast Kit didn’t even have time to read where it was from, Kisara’s right foot came crashing through his guard and caught him across his jaw, cheek, and even to his ear and the back of his ear. Even with his high stamina Kit’s brain was rocked and he fell to the ground senselessly as his body went limp underneath him. He tried to stagger to his feet but he went down hard and this time he stayed there as he tried to register what had just happened.\n“Kisara, we talked about this, baby steps, he doesn’t have our reflexes,” Daisuke explained to her.\n“Where’s Perrin?” Kisara asked him irritably.\n“Like I told you, we have a special job this time,” Daisuke told her evasively.\n“What’s the job?” Renka asked him from where she was striking a punching bag.\n“This isn’t the time to talk about this,” Daisuke answered her.\n“Where’s Hitomi?” Kit asked him suddenly.\n“She’s with Perrin on the job,” Daisuke answered him.\n“This is a big job, there’ve been two of you gone constantly for the last two weeks, and you’re hiding the specifics from us,” Kisara theorized for what must have been the hundredth time.\n“Kit really doesn’t have time for this, he has two weeks and he’s still shoddy at best when it comes to kicks,” he pointed out to them.\n“Could you tell them all of this if I left the room?” Kit asked him. It was made abundantly clear to Kit that the members of the dojo were keeping a secret from him, something about this job they were doing, or the jobs that they did, since he understood that this wasn’t the first time.\n“Elder told me not to tell the girls the specifics for a reason, we don’t want them getting involved,” Daisuke told them.\n“What’s the reason?” Kisara pounced on the thread.\n“This one is dangerous... very dangerous,” Daisuke answered her.\n“Not wanting Kit to know this secret is a good reason not to tell us, but this is different, even if the job is dangerous you could all go and leave things here to us, instead you’re walking us to school, shadowing us wherever we go... you’re babysitting us,” Renka pointed out.\n“Which means you’re worried about backlash from this one, or that something might happen as a result of the job,” Kisara followed Renka’s train of thought.\n“I didn’t say that, and I’m not shadowing you guys, I just like hanging out with you,” Daisuke answered them.\n“The only times you’ve ever ‘hung out’ with us in the past without being on Perrin’s orders are when it benefited you, and seeing as how you can’t place bets on us in the off-season I don’t see how there’s a benefit to you now,” Renka stated almost coldly.\n“Such cold words, I’m hurt,” Daisuke said in a flat tone.\n“Last time you were truly hurt by cold words was when you hit on that lady that had no clue who you were,” Kisara shrugged.\n“Well... who the hell hasn’t heard of Daisuke Takahata in this day and age... I mean honestly?” Daisuke shook his head.\n“Didn’t she call you old after that?” Kisara laughed.\n“Shut up,” Daisuke told her. They went back to their training for about twenty minutes.\n“Where’s Perrin?” Renka asked.\n“Right here. Daisuke, Hitomi’s waiting,” the elder answered her as he stepped into the gym.\n“On it,” Daisuke told him as he took off out the front of the room.\n“Where’s Hitomi?” Renka turned to him.\n“She’s on assignment you know that,” Perrin answered her.\n“What’s the job?” Kisara asked him.\n“Get back to your training,” he told them in a cold tone, he would take no further inquiries into the subject. Perrin slipped on a pair of mitts and held them up for striking practice with Kit. As he swung he instructed Kit to watch him carefully to try and see if he could figure things out. Kit ended the practice with a fair collection of new bruises, but he’d also learned exactly where he needed to watch and what to watch for. “You have good eyes or good instincts, that’s all it takes to make it far in this business, well... that and good reflexes I suppose, and we’re working on that,” Perrin encouraged him as they walked away from the training and into the front room for dinner.\n“Oh, I thought Daisuke was playing with us today,” Ayano said as they filed through the back door.\n“It was my turn to look after the house, how are you this evening Ayano?” Perrin asked her.\n“I’m excited, they’re saying that the night before the big fight they’re going to air a special about the dojo, and about all of the individual members, including a first look at Kit,” Ayano told them.\nEverybody in the room seemed surprised. “Oh... yes, I forgot to mention to all of you that they’re going to be doing ‘day in the life’ segments on all of you, complete with interviews, filming starts next week, our job will have to wait for this particular piece,” Perrin told them.\n“Why would they want to do a special segment on me?” Kit asked him.\n“You’re a new fighter in our stable, something that hasn’t happened since the girls began training, Jaxon stopped in with us a few years ago but it was well-known that we had helped his master train him, and he was an established fighter, whereas you’re fresh meat and the world has no clue about you... and if you turn out to be a dud they can still get your opinions on Kisara, Renka, and all the rest of us,” Perrin tried to explain it to him.\n“What do they want to see from me?” Kit asked.\n“They just want to know a little about you, I’ve already told them that they can sit in on the training sessions but that there won’t be any filming at that time, we want to keep it a secret for your first fight since they aren’t doing a segment on your opponent, all they know is that we’re training your core skill as boxing,” Perrin told him.\n“What about the film crew? Is there going to be a big crew? How many people are we talking about here?” Kit asked him, he had a strange look in his eyes as he said it, Kisara got the feeling that there was an unheard question in the lot.\n“Sorry Kit, I know you wanted to meet with Jaxon Davenport, but he’s already busy at that time, they say he’s going to be doing a special assignment for the Network and that he’ll be occupied for the entire day. I know he was your childhood hero, but I guess he’s just too busy, but maybe you’ll meet him some other time,” Perrin told him.\nKit’s face jumped to disappointment at the news. “I didn’t think he would be able to, I was just kind of hoping, you know?” Kit asked him. “Can we do a second round of training after lunch? I really need to figure out this thing with kicks if I’m going to keep Raph from stompin’ a mudhole in me.”\n“You have to go to the psychologist today,” Perrin reminded him.\n“What do you think the odds are that she’s forgotten about this weeks session?” Kit asked him.\n“Well considering she called to remind me this morning... zero to none,” the elder laughed.\n“Damn,” Kit swore. “Uh- I mean, ‘Darn’,” Kit amended when he saw Ayano sitting at the table.\n“Smoothe,” his sister told him with a thumbs up.\n“What do you talk about at those sessions, anyway?” Kisara asked him suddenly.\n“Kisara!” Perrin chastised her instantly.\n“No, it’s ok, mostly she just asks about how I’m adapting, what I’ve been up to, sometimes she asks me questions about you guys, how I’m doing in school, that sort of thing,” Kit told them nonchalantly.\n“Why do you even have to go to these sessions then?” Renka asked him.\n“Renka!” Perrin barked.\n“It’s fine elder, I’d be curious if it were one of them,” Kit shrugged.\n“But YOU wouldn’t be so rude as to just blurt out your questions,” Perrin commented.\n“With how I’ve lived these last few years, they want to make sure that I’ll be able to handle this sort of fight without freaking out. Especially with somebody like Raph who’s been my tormentor for years, they’re afraid that if things go one way or another that I’ll have a psychological break I guess. You know, that if it turns out I’m stronger that I’ll feel the need to pay him back and go insane and hurt him badly, but at the same time that if I lose that I won’t go to some dark place thinking that things won’t change and turn suicidal or something,” Kit explained to them as they started to dish out helpings of shepherd's pie.\n“Is that really a concern?” Ayano asked him suddenly.\n“Well, she keeps trying to say that I have a fragile ‘ego’ whatever that is. I think that my ego is just fine, I mean I’m no Daisuke or anything, but at the same time I don’t think that I do everything wrong. I have humility, I don’t know why they think that means I have a fragile ego,” Kit answered her.\n“They’re shrinks, they’re just pulling this crap out of their asses so they can bill us for it,” Kisara told him as she broke open a biscuit.\n“Kisara- language!” Perrin told her irritably as he spread jam on his own biscuit.\n“Sorry, ‘they’re just pulling this stuff out of their butts so they can bill us for it’,” Kisara amended.\n“I thought that they didn’t charge you for this sort of thing?” Ayano asked Perrin.\n“They don’t bill us, they charge their fees to the network on our behalf,” the elder told her. “Hitomi and Daisuke will be back this afternoon as well, so I figured at about two o’clock we’d go to the mall, the network is urging me to get us all cell phones this year, so they can always get in touch with us, and by urging I mean they have us contractually obligated to both have and answer the phones if they call within reason, obviously there are times of our lives they will excuse us for not answering, but they want us to have them,” Perrin told them with a shrug.\n“Do I get a phone?” Ayano asked him hopefully. Perrin smiled and chuckled.\n“Would you like one? I think it’d be rather rude for all of us to go to the store for phones and to leave you out,” he told her in a tender voice.\n“I’m gunna have a phone?” Ayano phrased it as more of an awed statement than a question.\n“You’ll be responsible with it, if I see your grades starting to slip or you neglecting your chores around the dojo I’ll take it away from you,” Kit reminded her harshly of her responsibilities.\n“I won’t, I promise, I’ll be good,” Ayano began to tell him.\n“You’re kind of a buzz-kill you know that?” Kisara asked him.\n“Ayano and I don’t have any money saved up for after high school, she and I both are entirely dependant on scholarships if we want to get into a good university,” Kit told her.\n“As long as you’re with us you won’t have to worry about money, however most good schools still require decent grades, and it never hurts to pad your pocketbook,” Perrin told him.\nAfter lunch Perrin looked down at his watch. “We have to go now Kit,” Perrin reminded him.\nThe two rode in silence to the the Battle Network headquarters, where Perrin had business to attend to in the corporate offices he said as he left Kit at the check-in station.\nHe felt the tension in his back as they lead him to the examination room again. Three times Kit had been here, and they always stuck him in the same room. The first time he had been given the room to himself when he entered, every time since Katrina had been waiting for him, and this time was no different. The last two meetings had passed in a familiar routine. Kit knocked on the door timidly.\n“It’s open,” Katrina called to him through the door.\n“Good afternoon,” he told her as he pushed the door open.\n“You know for somebody who said he’d be in Mondays from 2-4, you sure do like to come in Saturdays at noon,” she smirked as she folded up the book she was looking over.\n“There are less people here on Saturdays, I don’t have to worry about running into people that I don’t want to, and there’s a greater chance of seeing somebody I do,” Kit shrugged.\n“Yes, I’ve heard you once had a fondness for Jaxon Davenport, as I understand he was your childhood hero, mind if I ask what changed?” Katrina asked him as he sat down.\n“I grew up,” Kit answered.\n“Care to explain?” she pressed him.\n“No,” Kit answered.\n“How are things going in school?” she asked.\n“Rough, we’re only two weeks in and already my algebra professor has a test planned for us,” Kit shook his head.\n“And Ayano?” Katrina asked him.\n“She’s fine,” he told her.\n“And how’s she doing in school?” she prompted him.\n“She’s fine,” Kit answered as he set his jaw.\n“Kit, you agreed to this,” Katrina reminded him in a firm yet gentle manner.\n“I come to the sessions,” Kit answered.\n“Yes, but you spend the whole time avoiding any of the real questions. I understand that you have things you don’t want to talk about, but that’s not how therapy works. You don’t get to pick and choose what you want to talk about, you have to talk about the personal, difficult things as well as the mundane,” she pressed him.\n“There’s a reason I don’t want to talk about the personal and difficult things, because they’re personal and difficult,” Kit told her.\n“We’ve met twice now Kit and you have yet to tell me one relevant fact about yourself, one concrete piece of information to try and help you with. You’re going to force my hand Kit. If we don’t start talking about this today I’m going to have to put you on Psychiatric Leave and have you barred from fighting. Do you know what that will mean? Hitomi Dojo will suffer heavy damages both financially and to their reputation, after all they’re the ones that proposed this opening bout and then their own fighter was forced to back out,” Katrina explained to him.\n“Why would you want to do that to them?” Kit asked her.\n“That’s just my point Kit, I’m not doing it to them, you are! Showing up is only the first step, what you don’t understand is that I’m trying to help you, but you have to let me. I’m not asking you to tell me everything, just tell me SOMETHING. Something about you, not what you had for lunch, or how you’re doing in school, but about yourself, or I’m not going to have any choice,” Katrina told him, though it seemed more like she was pleading with him.\nKit sat there for a moment as he thought about something. “Ayano is excited right now, this afternoon Perrin is taking us all to the mall to get phones. Even in kindergarten all the other kids have a cellphone, she’s wanted one for as long as I can remember, but we never had even close to enough money to worry about things like phones,” Kit told her.\n“And what about you? Aren’t you excited to have a phone?” Katrina asked him as she sat back down.\n“A little, I mean, it was always one of those things that I could never afford,” Kit shrugged.\nKatrina seemed to think about that for a moment before going on. “I heard that the Network is going to do a big segment on you and the dojo, are you excited or nervous or just... indifferent about it?” she asked him.\n“I’m a lot of things, but indifferent isn’t one of them. I mean we’re talking about how the whole world is going to be watching a segment about me, taking a peek into my life, I’m a little worried that my camera crew is going to get bored,” Kit told her.\n“You don’t have to worry about that, those people are professionals, they’re only with the network because they find the fighters incredibly fascinating, even the disciples, the only time you would have to worry is if you were much younger than you are, and they’ll do a wonderful time of making sure that the world is interested in you,” Katrina tried to reassure him.\n“That’s just it, I don’t want the whole world interested in me. I don’t want the fame or the hype, I’m not even sure I want to fight, but I can’t NOT fight, I owe too much to Perrin and the masters, not to mention our agreement,” Kit explained to her.\n“As I recall you and Perrin agreed that they would teach you martial arts, I don’t recall them demanding that you fight, they wouldn’t do that to you Kit. Fighting isn’t the only thing that improves with martial arts. Perrin Kazumi isn’t the type of man that would make you fight if you don’t want to, he’s absolutely against forcing people into situations like that,” she pointed out.\n“I just feel like I’d be letting a lot of people down if I didn’t fight, I mean Perrin gave me this whole opportunity, then Daisuke and Hitomi are taking some time out of the schedules to help me, ME, and there are people who would pay millions of dollars for just one easy lesson with them, Renka and Kisara help with my training by taking time away from their own,” Kit reminded her.\nKatrina’s facial expression changed as he started. “What about Ayano?” she asked him.\n“Yeah, they look after her too, it’s just all starting to stack up, the score is too slanted,” Kit nodded.\n“Score?” she asked.\n“You know, I can’t settle the score with them after all they’ve done for me, like nothing will make us even, our relationship will never work,” Kit shrugged.\n“Can I ask you something a little personal?” She suddenly asked him as she began to write something down furiously.\n“I’d prefer if you didn’t, but if it’ll keep you from barring me from the first fight, go ahead,” Kit answered.\n“What made your relationship work with your former employers?” she plied him.\n“They offered me a chance in giving me the job, in exchange I was the best stock boy in the city,” Kit answered her.\n“I think I understand what’s wrong. This is just my initial assessment, but Kit, I believe you base your self-worth not on the opinions of others, but on what you can offer them. From what I’m hearing relationships, in your mind at least, are a series of barters where one side has something to offer the other, and the other returns the favor in time. To paraphrase what you said, you keep score in your relationships, even here, by allowing me to ask you a question you stipulated that I had to give you something else,” Katrina tried to explain to him.\n“That’s not wrong, that’s... how life works,” Kit told her, his head wagged back and forth like this was common knowledge.\nKit and Katrina went back and forth debating their own personal opinions on this particular topic until the end of the session and half an hour past. They were interrupted when her assistant reminded Katrina that her next appointment was for the top of the hour.\n“Kit, I know you didn’t like it, and you probably don’t feel like it, but we made some progress today, if we can pick it up where we left off next time, I think I might be able to help you. That’s all I ever really wanted, the chance to help you,” Katrina told him hopefully.\n“You mean I’m almost done?” Kit asked her, his face perked up.\nShe gave him a soft chuckle. “No Kit, I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that, today was just the start, the real start anyway, but we’ll build on it slowly and soon enough... who knows?” she shrugged to him.\n“Alright... I’ll see you next week,” he said to her.\n“I’ll be here,” she said as he turned to leave.[right][/right]", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "“Read their stance, don’t just look at the other guy, observe him. You pay close enough attention and you can predict what  they’re going to do, and that’s the first step to doing something about it. Don’t be afraid to test your opponent, maybe throw a jab or a cross at the right time to see how they react,” Daisuke coached Kit from outside the sparring ring. He wore protective headgear and had 10 oz boxing gloves on. Kisara stood across the ring from him dressed in similar clothes.
“Bob and weave, slip punches, keep your feet moving, and keep your guard up,” he added.
This was Kit’s first open spar with one of the girls, and Kisara had been chosen because her style of fighting was most compatible with Kit’s own, with her preference for striking. Kit and Kisara closed in on each other in the center of the room.
“You ready?” Daisuke asked them.
“Yeah,” Kit answered him. The kick came so fast Kit didn’t even have time to read where it was from, Kisara’s right foot came crashing through his guard and caught him across his jaw, cheek, and even to his ear and the back of his ear. Even with his high stamina Kit’s brain was rocked and he fell to the ground senselessly as his body went limp underneath him. He tried to stagger to his feet but he went down hard and this time he stayed there as he tried to register what had just happened.
“Kisara, we talked about this, baby steps, he doesn’t have our reflexes,” Daisuke explained to her.
“Where’s Perrin?” Kisara asked him irritably.
“Like I told you, we have a special job this time,” Daisuke told her evasively.
“What’s the job?” Renka asked him from where she was striking a punching bag.
“This isn’t the time to talk about this,” Daisuke answered her.
“Where’s Hitomi?” Kit asked him suddenly.
“She’s with Perrin on the job,” Daisuke answered him.
“This is a big job, there’ve been two of you gone constantly for the last two weeks, and you’re hiding the specifics from us,” Kisara theorized for what must have been the hundredth time.
“Kit really doesn’t have time for this, he has two weeks and he’s still shoddy at best when it comes to kicks,” he pointed out to them.
“Could you tell them all of this if I left the room?” Kit asked him. It was made abundantly clear to Kit that the members of the dojo were keeping a secret from him, something about this job they were doing, or the jobs that they did, since he understood that this wasn’t the first time.
“Elder told me not to tell the girls the specifics for a reason, we don’t want them getting involved,” Daisuke told them.
“What’s the reason?” Kisara pounced on the thread.
“This one is dangerous... very dangerous,” Daisuke answered her.
“Not wanting Kit to know this secret is a good reason not to tell us, but this is different, even if the job is dangerous you could all go and leave things here to us, instead you’re walking us to school, shadowing us wherever we go... you’re babysitting us,” Renka pointed out.
“Which means you’re worried about backlash from this one, or that something might happen as a result of the job,” Kisara followed Renka’s train of thought.
“I didn’t say that, and I’m not shadowing you guys, I just like hanging out with you,” Daisuke answered them.
“The only times you’ve ever ‘hung out’ with us in the past without being on Perrin’s orders are when it benefited you, and seeing as how you can’t place bets on us in the off-season I don’t see how there’s a benefit to you now,” Renka stated almost coldly.
“Such cold words, I’m hurt,” Daisuke said in a flat tone.
“Last time you were truly hurt by cold words was when you hit on that lady that had no clue who you were,” Kisara shrugged.
“Well... who the hell hasn’t heard of Daisuke Takahata in this day and age... I mean honestly?” Daisuke shook his head.
“Didn’t she call you old after that?” Kisara laughed.
“Shut up,” Daisuke told her. They went back to their training for about twenty minutes.
“Where’s Perrin?” Renka asked.
“Right here. Daisuke, Hitomi’s waiting,” the elder answered her as he stepped into the gym.
“On it,” Daisuke told him as he took off out the front of the room.
“Where’s Hitomi?” Renka turned to him.
“She’s on assignment you know that,” Perrin answered her.
“What’s the job?” Kisara asked him.
“Get back to your training,” he told them in a cold tone, he would take no further inquiries into the subject. Perrin slipped on a pair of mitts and held them up for striking practice with Kit. As he swung he instructed Kit to watch him carefully to try and see if he could figure things out. Kit ended the practice with a fair collection of new bruises, but he’d also learned exactly where he needed to watch and what to watch for. “You have good eyes or good instincts, that’s all it takes to make it far in this business, well... that and good reflexes I suppose, and we’re working on that,” Perrin encouraged him as they walked away from the training and into the front room for dinner.
“Oh, I thought Daisuke was playing with us today,” Ayano said as they filed through the back door.
“It was my turn to look after the house, how are you this evening Ayano?” Perrin asked her.
“I’m excited, they’re saying that the night before the big fight they’re going to air a special about the dojo, and about all of the individual members, including a first look at Kit,” Ayano told them.
Everybody in the room seemed surprised. “Oh... yes, I forgot to mention to all of you that they’re going to be doing ‘day in the life’ segments on all of you, complete with interviews, filming starts next week, our job will have to wait for this particular piece,” Perrin told them.
“Why would they want to do a special segment on me?” Kit asked him.
“You’re a new fighter in our stable, something that hasn’t happened since the girls began training, Jaxon stopped in with us a few years ago but it was well-known that we had helped his master train him, and he was an established fighter, whereas you’re fresh meat and the world has no clue about you... and if you turn out to be a dud they can still get your opinions on Kisara, Renka, and all the rest of us,” Perrin tried to explain it to him.
“What do they want to see from me?” Kit asked.
“They just want to know a little about you, I’ve already told them that they can sit in on the training sessions but that there won’t be any filming at that time, we want to keep it a secret for your first fight since they aren’t doing a segment on your opponent, all they know is that we’re training your core skill as boxing,” Perrin told him.
“What about the film crew? Is there going to be a big crew? How many people are we talking about here?” Kit asked him, he had a strange look in his eyes as he said it, Kisara got the feeling that there was an unheard question in the lot.
“Sorry Kit, I know you wanted to meet with Jaxon Davenport, but he’s already busy at that time, they say he’s going to be doing a special assignment for the Network and that he’ll be occupied for the entire day. I know he was your childhood hero, but I guess he’s just too busy, but maybe you’ll meet him some other time,” Perrin told him.
Kit’s face jumped to disappointment at the news. “I didn’t think he would be able to, I was just kind of hoping, you know?” Kit asked him. “Can we do a second round of training after lunch? I really need to figure out this thing with kicks if I’m going to keep Raph from stompin’ a mudhole in me.”
“You have to go to the psychologist today,” Perrin reminded him.
“What do you think the odds are that she’s forgotten about this weeks session?” Kit asked him.
“Well considering she called to remind me this morning... zero to none,” the elder laughed.
“Damn,” Kit swore. “Uh- I mean, ‘Darn’,” Kit amended when he saw Ayano sitting at the table.
“Smoothe,” his sister told him with a thumbs up.
“What do you talk about at those sessions, anyway?” Kisara asked him suddenly.
“Kisara!” Perrin chastised her instantly.
“No, it’s ok, mostly she just asks about how I’m adapting, what I’ve been up to, sometimes she asks me questions about you guys, how I’m doing in school, that sort of thing,” Kit told them nonchalantly.
“Why do you even have to go to these sessions then?” Renka asked him.
“Renka!” Perrin barked.
“It’s fine elder, I’d be curious if it were one of them,” Kit shrugged.
“But YOU wouldn’t be so rude as to just blurt out your questions,” Perrin commented.
“With how I’ve lived these last few years, they want to make sure that I’ll be able to handle this sort of fight without freaking out. Especially with somebody like Raph who’s been my tormentor for years, they’re afraid that if things go one way or another that I’ll have a psychological break I guess. You know, that if it turns out I’m stronger that I’ll feel the need to pay him back and go insane and hurt him badly, but at the same time that if I lose that I won’t go to some dark place thinking that things won’t change and turn suicidal or something,” Kit explained to them as they started to dish out helpings of shepherd's pie.
“Is that really a concern?” Ayano asked him suddenly.
“Well, she keeps trying to say that I have a fragile ‘ego’ whatever that is. I think that my ego is just fine, I mean I’m no Daisuke or anything, but at the same time I don’t think that I do everything wrong. I have humility, I don’t know why they think that means I have a fragile ego,” Kit answered her.
“They’re shrinks, they’re just pulling this crap out of their asses so they can bill us for it,” Kisara told him as she broke open a biscuit.
“Kisara- language!” Perrin told her irritably as he spread jam on his own biscuit.
“Sorry, ‘they’re just pulling this stuff out of their butts so they can bill us for it’,” Kisara amended.
“I thought that they didn’t charge you for this sort of thing?” Ayano asked Perrin.
“They don’t bill us, they charge their fees to the network on our behalf,” the elder told her. “Hitomi and Daisuke will be back this afternoon as well, so I figured at about two o’clock we’d go to the mall, the network is urging me to get us all cell phones this year, so they can always get in touch with us, and by urging I mean they have us contractually obligated to both have and answer the phones if they call within reason, obviously there are times of our lives they will excuse us for not answering, but they want us to have them,” Perrin told them with a shrug.
“Do I get a phone?” Ayano asked him hopefully. Perrin smiled and chuckled.
“Would you like one? I think it’d be rather rude for all of us to go to the store for phones and to leave you out,” he told her in a tender voice.
“I’m gunna have a phone?” Ayano phrased it as more of an awed statement than a question.
“You’ll be responsible with it, if I see your grades starting to slip or you neglecting your chores around the dojo I’ll take it away from you,” Kit reminded her harshly of her responsibilities.
“I won’t, I promise, I’ll be good,” Ayano began to tell him.
“You’re kind of a buzz-kill you know that?” Kisara asked him.
“Ayano and I don’t have any money saved up for after high school, she and I both are entirely dependant on scholarships if we want to get into a good university,” Kit told her.
“As long as you’re with us you won’t have to worry about money, however most good schools still require decent grades, and it never hurts to pad your pocketbook,” Perrin told him.
After lunch Perrin looked down at his watch. “We have to go now Kit,” Perrin reminded him.
The two rode in silence to the the Battle Network headquarters, where Perrin had business to attend to in the corporate offices he said as he left Kit at the check-in station.
He felt the tension in his back as they lead him to the examination room again. Three times Kit had been here, and they always stuck him in the same room. The first time he had been given the room to himself when he entered, every time since Katrina had been waiting for him, and this time was no different. The last two meetings had passed in a familiar routine. Kit knocked on the door timidly.
“It’s open,” Katrina called to him through the door.
“Good afternoon,” he told her as he pushed the door open.
“You know for somebody who said he’d be in Mondays from 2-4, you sure do like to come in Saturdays at noon,” she smirked as she folded up the book she was looking over.
“There are less people here on Saturdays, I  don’t have to worry about running into people that I don’t want to, and there’s a greater chance of seeing somebody I do,” Kit shrugged.
“Yes, I’ve heard you once had a fondness for Jaxon Davenport, as I understand he was your childhood hero, mind if I ask what changed?” Katrina asked him as he sat down.
“I grew up,” Kit answered.
“Care to explain?” she pressed him.
“No,” Kit answered.
“How are things going in school?” she asked.
“Rough, we’re only two weeks in and already my algebra professor has a test planned for us,” Kit shook his head.
“And Ayano?” Katrina asked him.
“She’s fine,” he told her.
“And how’s she doing in school?” she prompted him.
“She’s fine,” Kit answered as he set his jaw.
“Kit, you agreed to this,” Katrina reminded him in a firm yet gentle manner.
“I come to the sessions,” Kit answered.
“Yes, but you spend the whole time avoiding any of the real questions. I understand that you have things you don’t want to talk about, but that’s not how therapy works. You don’t get to pick and choose what you want to talk about, you have to talk about the personal, difficult things as well as the mundane,” she pressed him.
“There’s a reason I don’t want to talk about the personal and difficult things, because they’re personal and difficult,” Kit told her.
“We’ve met twice now Kit and you have yet to tell me one relevant fact about yourself, one concrete piece of information to try and help you with. You’re going to force my hand Kit. If we don’t start talking about this today I’m going to have to put you on Psychiatric Leave and have you barred from fighting. Do you know what that will mean? Hitomi Dojo will suffer heavy damages both financially and to their reputation, after all they’re the ones that proposed this opening bout and then their own fighter was forced to back out,” Katrina explained to him.
“Why would you want to do that to them?” Kit asked her.
“That’s just my point Kit, I’m not doing it to them, you are! Showing up is only the first step, what you don’t understand is that I’m trying to help you, but you have to let me. I’m not asking you to tell me everything, just tell me SOMETHING. Something about you, not what you had for lunch, or how you’re doing in school, but about yourself, or I’m not going to have any choice,” Katrina told him, though it seemed more like she was pleading with him.
Kit sat there for a moment as he thought about something. “Ayano is excited right now, this afternoon Perrin is taking us all to the mall to get phones. Even in kindergarten all the other kids have a cellphone, she’s wanted one for as long as I can remember, but we never had even close to enough money to worry about things like phones,” Kit told her.
“And what about you? Aren’t you excited to have a phone?” Katrina asked him as she sat back down.
“A little, I mean, it was always one of those things that I could never afford,” Kit shrugged.
Katrina seemed to think about that for a moment before going on. “I heard that the Network is going to do a big segment on you and the dojo, are you excited or nervous or just... indifferent about it?” she asked him.
“I’m a lot of things, but indifferent isn’t one of them. I mean we’re talking about how the whole world is going to be watching a segment about me, taking a peek into my life, I’m a little worried that my camera crew is going to get bored,” Kit told her.
“You don’t have to worry about that, those people are professionals, they’re only with the network because they find the fighters incredibly fascinating, even the disciples, the only time you would have to worry is if you were much younger than you are, and they’ll do a wonderful time of making sure that the world is interested in you,” Katrina tried to reassure him.
“That’s just it, I don’t want the whole world interested in me. I don’t want the fame or the hype, I’m not even sure I want to fight, but I can’t NOT fight, I owe too much to Perrin and the masters, not to mention our agreement,” Kit explained to her.
“As I recall you and Perrin agreed that they would teach you martial arts, I don’t recall them demanding that you fight, they wouldn’t do that to you Kit. Fighting isn’t the only thing that improves with martial arts. Perrin Kazumi isn’t the type of man that would make you fight if you don’t want to, he’s absolutely against forcing people into situations like that,” she pointed out.
“I just feel like I’d be letting a lot of people down if I didn’t fight, I mean Perrin gave me this whole opportunity, then Daisuke and Hitomi are taking some time out of the schedules to help me, ME, and there are people who would pay millions of dollars for just one easy lesson with them, Renka and Kisara help with my training by taking time away from their own,” Kit reminded her.
Katrina’s facial expression changed as he started. “What about Ayano?” she asked him.
“Yeah, they look after her too, it’s just all starting to stack up, the score is too slanted,” Kit nodded.
“Score?” she asked.
“You know, I can’t settle the score with them after all they’ve done for me, like nothing will make us even, our relationship will never work,” Kit shrugged.
“Can I ask you something a little personal?” She suddenly asked him as she began to write something down furiously.
“I’d prefer if you didn’t, but if it’ll keep you from barring me from the first fight, go ahead,” Kit answered.
“What made your relationship work with your former employers?” she plied him.
“They offered me a chance in giving me the job, in exchange I was the best stock boy in the city,” Kit answered her.
“I think I understand what’s wrong. This is just my initial assessment, but Kit, I believe you base your self-worth not on the opinions of others, but on what you can offer them. From what I’m hearing relationships, in your mind at least, are a series of barters where one side has something to offer the other, and the other returns the favor in time. To paraphrase what you said, you keep score in your relationships, even here, by allowing me to ask you a question you stipulated that I had to give you something else,” Katrina tried to explain to him.
“That’s not wrong, that’s... how life works,” Kit told her, his head wagged back and forth like this was common knowledge.
Kit and Katrina went back and forth debating their own personal opinions on this particular topic until the end of the session and half an hour past. They were interrupted when her assistant reminded Katrina that her next appointment was for the top of the hour.
“Kit, I know you didn’t like it, and you probably don’t feel like it, but we made some progress today, if we can pick it up where we left off next time, I think I might be able to help you. That’s all I ever really wanted, the chance to help you,” Katrina told him hopefully.
“You mean I’m almost done?” Kit asked her, his face perked up.
She gave him a soft chuckle. “No Kit, I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that, today was just the start, the real start anyway, but we’ll build on it slowly and soon enough... who knows?” she shrugged to him.
“Alright... I’ll see you next week,” he said to her.
“I’ll be here,” she said as he turned to leave.
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