A whole week passed since I met Patrice. It turned out he was previously a Savateur. He learned savate, French kickboxing, and he was a professional back there. I've never even known that such a martial art existed.

 Painful muscle training, then striking training.

 I was closing my eyes before I was punched, so we always spend a part of our time solving this problem. I would put a boxing helmet on, and Patrice would carefully punch me on the forehead. Though, it was only one of the countless things he did to stop this habit.

 As I needed to improve my footwork, a skipping rope became my best friend. I remember how I stumbled a few times and almost fell face-first into the floor. I was also constantly doing Hopscotch and other stuff that included various footwork.

 And when it came to actual, striking training with him, it was a whole new level.

 I didn't know why, but every strike or punch he did, was burned down into my brain. I could replicate almost everything he did. The quality of my techniques was obviously far from being on par with the best. Nevertheless, when he saw what I did, he said he couldn't believe that I've never trained before.

 I also started to understand what Jessie meant when she told me about a fighter's IQ. After I learned about simple punching combinations, I started seeing it. How I can change my whole tactic after a simple jab.

 Maybe it was my imagination, but I had a feeling that after every training session, I left at least a bucket of my own sweat in the gym.

 If Reid trained like that from an early age, I could understand how he became so good.

 Jessie stopped coming here, but the thing that calmed me down was Patrice's personality. He was constantly heaping praises on me, and overall, he was a calm dude. His looks were really deceiving. When I asked him where Jessie went, he told me that she was training for her next fight.

 And honestly, it worked better for me.

 As the last day of this training week was coming to an end, I felt that I needed to talk with Patrice. One-on-one. After all, he was the only one who could give me advice in this kind of situation.

 After I finished a series of punches with a kick, I heard Patrice saying that it was time to end the training.

 As I nodded, I went to the shower and changed my clothes. Just like I did it every day.

 But there would be something different this time. As I walked from the changing room in my uniform, I didn't immediately go back home. Although I was tired as hell, I've got a question that I needed to ask Patrice.

 As he was fumbling with a piece of training equipment, I went closer to him.

 "Hey, Patrice, can we talk about something?"

 "Is it about increasing the difficulty of the training again?" He smiled.

 "No, it's about something else." I felt my cheeks burning when he mentioned the difficulty. I remember when I told this to him. He laughed, saying how I didn't even pay a visit to the main gym.

 But I had a question that only this gentle giant could've answered.

 "I've got a question about something." under his gaze, the flush on my cheeks intensified. "Erm, About the lower region."

 At first, he furrowed his eyebrows. "You have a problem down there because of the training?"

 "NO-NO, it's nothing like that. How do I say it?" I didn't even talk about this with my father, so it was difficult to talk about it with someone I knew for a week.

 "Then what about it?"

 "Well, it's actually the opposite." After saying this, I bit my lip.

 "The opposite?" he rubbed his chin as he went into deep thinking.

 Part of me wanted him to not understand what I was talking about. But my wish wasn't granted, and soon, his scrunched-up face started to smooth out as he came to an understanding.

 "The opposite huh, I think I know what kind of a problem you are talking about."

 I could only bite my lip and look down.

 "You know, that's a problem lots of men meet when they train a lot. Although most of the time they are too tired to think about it." His face was a mixture of different emotions right now, mainly surprise and compassion. "It confirms that you are a freak."

 I could've joked about sexual prowess with my friend from the previous world. However, listening to someone talking about this seriously turned out to be even more embarrassing than I've ever thought.

 "So, your lower region is restless in the middle of a training session."

 "It's more of an uncomfortable feeling. The problems arise after the training." I didn't make eye contact with Patrice. Not like I didn't want to, but when I remembered how I looked at Annie on one of these days, my head just didn't listen to me. It was bent down, looking at my feet.

 "Isn't it an easy thing to solve?" his big hand enveloped my shoulder, "You should find yourself a girl."

 I involuntarily looked up at his smiling face and whined internally. Is it so fucking easy to find a girl?

 "I don't think I want to be in a relationship right now." I removed his hand.

 "You can find a girl for a few nights. With your looks, it won't be so hard."

 I smiled wryly. "I… don't want to do this."

 "Why?" my answer apparently surprised him.

 "Ugh, you can say that this is something like a principle of mine." It was hard to explain this to him.

 "Well, then you would continue to suffer from this. Isn't there a girl that would help you with this?"

 Who could help me? Mara? Jessie? Joanne? My expression soured even more.

 "Anyway, you should learn to compromise," he patted me on the back and went out, "I would give you a day or two off from the training to solve this problem." I heard his voice from the doors.

 To find someone who can help me with this.

 As I went to take my bag I suddenly saw a small black cube. An action camera that I took from Jet.

 "Violetta."

 She could help me.

 I shook my head.

 "No, I don't want to blackmail her, or what's worse, rape her. I already did it once."

 When I remembered how I felt after the deed, I shuddered, and my stomach rumbled to show his protest.

 "But I need to do this, so I won't get caught into something worse." I could only convince myself like that.

 Deep down I knew, it was all an excuse for myself. I was feeling bad after what I've done to her. But I also wanted to do it again. I had a very fragmented memory of that day. But I vaguely felt how much I was enjoying the process.

 I was leaving the red building, where the gym of Brave and Bold was with such thoughts. And I almost forgot that she took a sick leave.

 "I should check if she returned."

 At first, I wanted to return and look for her, but I remembered something else.

 "Why do this to her and make her wary? I can call teacher Rose." If I remembered it correctly, she told me that we were friends. It didn't really matter to me, but I could use her for getting some info.

 I started slowly walking towards my home. As I waited for teacher Rose to answer the call.

 "Hello?"

 "Rose? It's me, Erlig."

 "Erlig!? What happened to you? Why did you suddenly start to learn how to fight? Didn't you promise me not to fight ever again?"

 Err, I did? I tried to remember it, and indeed I made such a promise, not as I cared about it.

 "I didn't break my promise."

 "What? You've never talked to me about this personally, and you still have the nerve to say this to me!" her voice sounded pissed off.

 "I've never said I would fight with anyone."

 She snorted.

 "You know, after attending a few training sessions, I understood how little I actually knew about the martial arts."

 "What do you mean by that?"

 I needed to bullshit my way out of this. The long lecture said by Jessie came to my mind.

 "You know, martial arts uses your brain much more than your muscles." The only answer I heard was silence. "It's something that lets you understand yourself and the person you…" I almost said fight. "Spar with better." as I almost tripped on a small stone, I looked down, and another thought came to me. "It's also more intimate than I thought."

 "What do you mean by that?" I finally heard her voice.

 "It allows you to focus on yourself more than anything else. I've read books before, but it's always a story about someone. You always let it sieve through yourself. There isn't a moment when you are left alone with your thoughts."

 "Hmmm." she started questioning herself. Which means I needed one last push.

 "When you train, the thoughts that are swarming your head and bother you go away, the only things that are left is something that truly bothers you, without the patina of someone else's thoughts." Although it was bullshit, I felt that what I said had some truth in it.

 "If you say so." and she finally gave up. "But I would like to attend one of your training sessions!"

 Fuck.

 "Yeah, no problems, but if you allow this, I would be the one to name the date when you can visit. Right now, I'm still getting used to everything."

 "Alright."

 As I was walking down the street, I was listening to the constant chirping of Rose. Looking around, I saw a few passersby walking with their phone near their ear talking with someone. There was one man who had an especially sour face as he talked with someone. As I heard a few pieces of what he said, he had trouble with his wife.

 And honestly, I would prefer to talk with a wife rather than this woman. She talked and talked nonstop. If the previous me was in love with her, what the hell he found so attractive.

 I was standing near my home, leaning against a small fence, waiting for her to stop babbling. And when I finally got a moment, I didn't intend to let it slip.

 "By the way, Rose, do you know anything about student guidance counselor Violetta?"

 After a brief silence, I heard her speak again. "Are you talking about Miss Violetta Fliess?"

 "Yeah, her."

 "Ugh, and why do you want to know anything about her?"

 "I had some troubles with her. You probably heard it."

 "Uh-huh."

 "But I managed to resolve it, and when she met me personally, she set up a new meeting. But she suddenly got sick."

 "Uh-huh, yeah, she got sick, but she already returned."

 "Won't you tell me when this happened?"

 "She came back today. Why do you want to know this?"

 "Oh, it's because the appointed meeting is tomorrow. Anyway, thank you for telling me this and talking with me. But, I should go. We will talk later."

 I hung up and was finally able to breathe out. I had a feeling that my ear was still ringing from all the things Rose said. I was also able to enter my family's flat after finishing this long chat.

 As my parents more or less got used to me coming home from training, I didn't have any trouble today. I reassured Annie that nothing bad had happened to me today. I took a cold bath, waited for Greg to return, and had a late dinner with them. I already lost count of how many times I did that, but I still couldn't treat them as my real parents. It was probably fate for us to be somewhat distant.

 The next morning, I didn't hastily pack up and went to the Brave and Bold branch gym like I used to do. Today I had different plans.

 I started my day with the things I didn't do often. I began my day by shaving a short stubble that has grown on my face. And because I didn't shave for almost a week, it grew rather long. When I thought about those protagonists from the novels. Those that transmigrated and didn't need to shave at all, I felt jealous of them. It wasn't a fun activity. If I wasn't careful, I would cut myself or miss some hair. And the worst of all, I would feel itchy after shaving.

 Today I needed to look better than before. I needed to make it look like Violetta, and I was in love. That's why I wasted a long time grooming myself.

 After I looked into the mirror and made a broad smile to see if everything was alright, I went back to my room. I was in a dire need of clothes that didn't look sporty. I managed to fish out a turtleneck sweater and some kind of strict-looking trousers, so I put them on. Taking my bag with some documents that I would use as my cover for a camera, I went towards Birchland High.