Midori really sucked at rock paper scissors.

When your job and future is basically being the personal helper slash body guard to a future crime lady, and you have a partner who is good at rock paper scissors, you have a tendency to get stuck doing some really crappy jobs. One of those jobs is when Naora gets angry. Normally, Naora will just grumble and curse when things go bad. Lately she's been working out when she's stressed. After the results of yesterday at the big meeting, it was no wonder that she was pissed.

And so Midori got stuck holding the punching bag while Naora pounded the crap out it.

You'd thing that wouldn't be such a big deal, but Naora has been taking her training VERY seriously the past few months. Her punch has reached a whole new level and that's why Naora needs someone to hold the bag in place. She knocked it right off the chain a month ago. They had to buy a whole new punching bag. Midori chocked up her improved skill to relentless training.

Currently the two were in the Terauchi Family Dojo, a separate building from the main house. Shizuya was very insistent that Naora learn here. The Terauchi family always prided itself on its family martial prowess. Shizuya thought it was bad luck that her eldest daughter who took over never took studying the family's martial technique seriously. With Naora, she wasn't going to take any chances. However, unlike her children, Naora took to learning martial arts like a fish to water. She'd already been quite the fighter before she was selected for the process and this only took her to the next level.

Midori gritted her teeth as she leaned into the bag. The sudden flurry of blows from Naora, despite the punching bag being full of some sort of space-age kinetic absorbing material, pushed Midori back making her lean harder into the bag.

"Midori! Will you PLEASE hold it STILL?" Naora wiped her forehead with the back of her bound hand. Midori looked around the bag, "I'm trying, okay? Maybe we need to find some way to bolt it to the floor AND the ceiling." Naora rolled her eyes, "Will you stop fucking around? I'm not THAT strong." A short series of blows into the bag and then another blow that made Midori stagger backwards and grab her shoulder, "SHIT."

Naora glared at Midori, "Seriously?" Midori started rubbing her shoulder, "Damn it..." She looked at Naora, "Look. I get it. Yesterday sucked, but do you really need to take it out on me?" Naora rolled her eyes, "Look, if you need a break, go sit." She walked away from the full body bag to one of the weight machines. She laid down, started doing a few reps, "Who fucked with the machine again?" Midori shook her head and walked over, "Nobody fucked with the machine, you're just getting strong." She pulled out the pin and moved it up another twenty pounds. Naora started doing reps.

Midori stared at Naora, "You want to talk about it?" Naora glared at Midori, "About the contest being bullshit? No." Midori shook her head, "No. I'm talking about Toshi." Naora paused in mid press, glared at Midori, then went back to her reps. Midori leaned against the machine as she talked, "You know, me and Kagi knew something was going on. We tried very hard not to notice, but we knew something was up." Naora kept pushing weights. Midori just stood there then offhandedly commented, "So... Toshi's a slut. Who knew?"

Midori expected a response, but not as fast a reaction as what happened next. Naora leaped off the press and was on top of Midori pushing her back against the wall by the throat. Naora glared at Midori, "What did you say?" Midori struggled a little against the iron grip, "I said. What I needed to." Naora narrowed her eyes. Midori swallowed then choked out, "You love him, don't you?" Naora let go abruptly, "He's not a slut. A slut sleeps around. He only sleeps with me."

Midori rubbed her neck and coughed a few times, "Yeah. Figured that. Except that everyone else is making fun of him. What a big score. Naora, she's great! Got back at the Kimoto family by banging their son." Midori snorted before giving Naora a mocking bow, "You bring honor to us all." Naora rolled her eyes and walked back over to the punching bag. Midori followed behind, "That was brilliant of you, getting Toshi to make all that money and then lure Gen into a trap so you could pretend to have failed but actually succeeded. Quite brilliant how you managed to keep me and Kagi in the dark as well."

Naora paused as Midora spoke, eventually just coming to a halt. They both stood there, Midori staring at the back of Naora's head, "You... did plan that all out... didn't you?" Naora said nothing, "You didn't have a plan. You actually thought you'd have another year to pull something out of your ass, didn't you?"

Naora said nothing.

Midori covered her mouth and turned away, walking off a few steps. They both just stood there for a long time before she finally spoke, "Do you... have any idea how fucked Me and Kagi are if anything happens to you?" Still Nothing. Midori turned and walked over to get in front of Naora. She turned away to avoid looking at her. Midori spread her hands wide, "What the fuck? Seriously? I mean, Keanu! Toshi really pulled your ass out of the fire there and it was totally by accident! You have no plan? What? What are you going to do? Were you just going to stall until the time ran out then run off with Toshi? You that in love with him?"

The sad and hopeless expression on Naora's face said everything.

Midori took a step back, "Shit. You do love him, don't you? I mean.. love love. Not, love to fuck, but-" She covered her mouth again and pinched her lips closed as she turned away. Naora slowly turned to start walking out. About halfway to the locker room Midori asked, "How can I help?"

Naora looked back, "What?"

Midori turned to face her, "Help. As in, Help you with Toshi." She started to close in on Naora, "I get the impression something isn't working out, or you'd be a whole lot happier." Naora looked at the floor, "He won't commit to me unless I give up being a Terauchi, basically. I mean, if the family stopped being criminals, that would work as well, but he won't marry me if I'm the head of a family that..." She let her voice trail off, then added in a whisper, "And I don't want be... that, either."

"Yer fucked."

Naora looked up, "No shit."

Midori ran her fingers through her hair, "You... understand that-" Naora cut her off, "That if I quit the family, as soon as Gen takes control, I'm dead. Since everyone knows that, they assume I'll just go to the police for protection and that will require me to betray the family, so there is a good chance they won't wait until Gen takes control and just kill me to be safe." Naora's voice started to get an angry tone to it, "If I win, I'll have to be in charge of a family that exploits men with no where else to go into selling their bodies while making sure our drug smuggling operation works smoothly." She slowly got closer to Midori, "If anyone gets in my way, I can't show mercy and I'll have to kill them before they kill me." Naora got nose to nose with her, "If I win, I have to become someone I hate and I will lose the greatest guy ever to live. If I lose, I die. If I quit, I die. If I betray everyone, I die."

Midori opened her mouth, then closed it slowly. It was her turn to look away.

Naora nodded, "Yeah. Same here. So I'm sticking it out. So I'll keep running down the clock because I got no other choice and I want as much time as I can get with Toshi before I have to give him up. And why is that?" She clenched her hands at the air and looked around, frustrated, "Because I can't see any way to work this out where I get to live and I'm happy, so I'll settle on just being alive." With that, Naora abruptly charged the punching bag to throw a right cross at it with everything she had.

Now, a typical punching bag is about four feet tall, weighs about forty pounds, and is made of nylon. However, the profession bag that Midori bought for Naora was five feet tall, weighed in at two hundred pounds, was filled with compartments of fine sand, and made of high quality cow leather. It is the sort of punching bad used by professional boxers and designed to put up with years of punishment. So it was a complete shock to Midori when Naora punched THROUGH the bag, tearing it in half with her fist and sending the lower half spiraling through the air to come to a halt against the far wall.

They both just stood there, staring at the half of the bag still hanging from the chain as it drained of all its remaining sand.

Naora turned to glare at Midori, "AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF YOU ARE BUYING CHEAP ASS SECOND HAND WORKOUT EQUIPMENT!!!"  Naora turned to stomp out of the room, hitting Midori with her shoulder as she passed, "Clean This Up And Buy Something BRAND NEW!" Midori just kept staring at the bag as Naora stomped out of the dojo. Long after Naora had left and when Midori was all alone, she finally walked over to gently touch the half of the bag still suspended in the air. She gave it a short tug to test it, then looked at the point where it had been punched in half. There was no sign of wear or tear. No obvious structural flaw. The blow appeared to actually tear it in half while going against the grain of the leather.

Midori slowly turned to look at the door that Naora had exited through.

She spoke with a disbelieving voice.

"But I did buy this brand new."