Chapter Three: Jinny's Past; Part One

The next day was the same as usual. I woke up, got ready for the day, and had breakfast, then headed out to train with Jinny afterward. Once we reached the arena, she turned to me and smiled. "Ready to start? I won't just beat you up this time, promise." I looked at her with a suspicious gaze, my hesitation apparent. "Oh come on, don't give me that look... Tell you what, if you can land even a single blow on me, I'll do whatever you want."

I gave her a blank stare for a moment, processing what she had just said. "Anything..?"

She nodded. "Yeah, anything at all. I'll even let you grope my breasts if you want." She snickered and gave me a wink.

I smirked just a bit. "You're gonna regret making this bet. Deal."

She chucked in return. "We'll see." She took a stance and I did my best to copy it, not knowing what I was doing at all, but it wasn't as if I didn't have a plan. Jinny thought to herself, "His stance is sloppy. He doesn't even know what he's doing." She smirked as she prepared herself. "Looks like I get to kick his ass again after all." She rushed at me and I began moving back as fast as I could. "Don't run away!" She ran faster.

I grinned at her before tripping backward. "Ah..!" I fell off the edge of the arena, falling back onto the ground, grunting as my back collided with it and groaning in pain afterward. "Nngh...owwww..."

She blinked a couple times and sighed, going to the edge of the arena. "That's what you get for not paying attention. Don't take your eyes off your opponent, but remember your surroundings at least. You could get into some really dangerous situations if you're not careful."

I sighed. "Yeah... I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention." I sat up and she lent me her hand and I slowly took it. She pulled me up, but suddenly, I pulled her to me, smirking. Having let her guard down, she didn't have time to react as I flicked her forehead. "I win." I grinned proudly.

She stood there, dumbfounded, staring at me in disbelief. "You planned that whole thing, didn't you, you cheeky bastard?"

I chuckled. "Guilty."

She continued to stare at me, lost in thought. "He had already memorized the layout of the field long ago... He tripped on purpose to get me to lower my guard...then he attacked... This guy's a dangerous one." Her lips curved into a small smile. "Alright, you won fair and square." She blushed faintly and looked away. "W-What are you gonna make me do..?"

I'll admit, the look on her face got me tempted, but I shook my head, banishing the thought. I wanted to go with my original plan anyway. "Instead of training, let's talk." I smiled at her. "I wanna get to know you more."

She paused, tilting her head. "Seriously? That's it?"

"Yeah. What, did you want me to ask for something...indecent?" I chuckled, winking.

Jinny's face instantly became red. "N-No you perv! I-I just wasn't expecting that is all! What you asked is fine!"

"Then instead of training we'll talk by the tree. It's settled." I grinned, already heading over there.

"H-Hey! Wait up you hole!" She followed after me, huffing and I laughed at how flustered she had become. Once we made it over to the forest, we took our usual spots by the trees. I took a breath of fresh air as I gazed at the view before looking to Jinny who was already looking at me. "What do you want to know exactly?" She asked, curious as to why I wanted to know at all.

"Anything you're willing to tell me." I answered, stretching a bit.

"Come on, there has to be something specific right? You're not the type to just spring this on someone for no reason."

I paused, my smile slowly fading and I gave her a bit of a blank look. "...Your past. I want to know more about your past."

She paused for a moment and sighed. "I figured as much... But it's not like I really mind telling you, so I will." She smiled at me, though it quickly faded. She brought her hands together, fiddling with her thumbs as she began her story. "Where to begin... Well, I guess I can start with the fact that I actually used to be terrified of water."

I stared at her in shock. "Wait really?"

She nodded. "I wouldn't go into any large bodies of water, I couldn't swim, wouldn't go out in the rain, heck, even being splashed freaked me out a little." I didn't take my eyes off of her as she spoke, giving her my full attention. "The reason for that was...well..." She mumbled and the light in her eyes dulled a bit. "Because whenever I did something wrong, as punishment, my parents would fill our sink up with water and dunk my head in it a few times. It was the only punishment they could give that wouldn't cause any kind of injury."

I've never really felt anything for stories like this. For me it was always a kind of a, "Wow, that sucks..." kind of deal. I'm not really good with words either, so there was nothing I could ever say. Though for some reason, I felt really angry, and I clenched my fist, a slight, steaming sensation flowing throughout my body.

Jinny glanced at me before continuing. "The only person that knew about that was my husband. We met our senior year of high school." She smiled as she recalled some of her past memories. "People were afraid of me back then. Though it doesn't surprise me because I could pretty much kick any big shot's ass who tried to mess with me, which also got me in trouble."

"But wouldn't that get you in trouble with your parents?"

"Ah, no. I moved out when I was 16, and they were happy to oblige since they no longer had to take care of me. The only thing they really did was give me money once a week, only about a couple hundred per month, but I had a job too so that actually helped a bit."

"I see..." I leaned forward, my chin resting on the back of my hands and my elbows resting on my legs as I continued listening to her story.

"Anyways, I was 18 going into my senior year of high school. I started a year late because my parents needed to earn enough money to let me go. They preferred it when I was out of the house and I was out of the house a lot at 13; either at a friend's house, or just hanging out with friends, stuff like that." She explained.

"Your middle school years sound a lot different from your high school ones... Sorry if that's rude, I just..."

"No, I figured you'd notice. I learned just how cruel some people could be my freshman year of high school. That's why the rest of the years, I kept to myself and decided other people can't be trusted. Once again, he showed me that some, even if there aren't very many, can be trusted... I feel like I can grow to trust you, which is why I'm telling you all this."

I couldn't help but blush a bit at her words. "Geez, you're making me blush..." I scratched the back of my head, averting my eyes.

She laughed before continuing. "What exactly happened that year..? That's what you're thinking right?" I nodded hesitantly at her words, internally questioning how she could read me so easily. "Well I'll continue from there. I had the same friends since the beginning of middle school. I didn't find out until about the middle of the year that I was that friend. The one that wasn't included in some things, that was talked about behind their back, etc." I continued to listen, somehow feeling as if I'd been in the same situation before despite never having any friends.

"I noticed we seemed to be hanging out less and less together and I was more or less hanging out on my own most of the time. One time I found all of them hanging out without me. I felt a bit hurt, but figured there must be some times where someone is left out at times. I remembered times where a couple of them wouldn't be there when we hung out, or where I specifically only hung out with one or two of them. There were about...seven of us in total. But I started to see them hanging out all together without me more and more and I would even hear them planning events together in class, and they wouldn't even ask me if I wanted to come... It hurt a lot to find out my friends didn't care to have me around anymore. We did everything together and they just...purposefully left me out of everything..." I could hear the trembling in her voice for a moment as she spoke, making me frown.

"When I confronted them about it, they told me they didn't want to hang out with me anymore. They just gave excuses. I was older than they were, I was a bit weird, etc... I was 15 and I didn't like a lot of the things they liked, but I was always always, always willing to try new things..." Her voice cracked and she looked down, the shadow of her bangs covering her eyes. I don't think I'd ever wanted to find some people and make them pay in some way so badly before.

"After that, they started avoiding me, and I did the same. I started avoiding everyone really. I noticed that a lot of groups were like that, and some were much worse. I was already a part of a kind of 'loser' group, so I decided it was best to not get involved with other people at all. The end of the year came, as did my birthday. I told my parents I wanted to get a job and move out, and they had no problems with it, as I said before. I got a one bedroom one bathroom apartment, small, but cozy. Then sophomore year I became a loner." I clapped, trying to lighten the mood, and it seemed to work, as Jinny began giggling. "The story's not over yet ya dork."

"I figured, but that was a nice touch I think." I snickered and she splashed my face with a tiny water ball. I shook my head, splashing water everywhere. "That's not cool." I said jokingly, which only made Jinny snicker once more.

"What are you, a dog?"

"I might as well be." I got on all fours, walking like a dog. I then ran at Jinny and she simply put her hand up, holding me back with relative ease.

"Down boy." She laughed, ruffling my hair.

I fell over after a few minutes, growing exhausted. "Why are you so strong?" I groaned and she laughed once again.