Who Protects the Weak from the Woman Who Protects the Weak? [Private]

When you're small and cute, there are two kinds of people.  Those who see you and protective instincts kick in, and those who just want to pick on you because they can.  Sadly for Minami, for some reason, people tended towards the latter.  It must take something bigger than an A cup to be considered worth protecting around here.  Minami had decided to do what that violent girl suggested, learn self defense.  For someone so ready to go on the offensive, that was some sound advice.  Minami didn't need to hurt someone, just be good enough to disorient them and knock them down.  Being able to win a fight would be a nice bonus, but a stretch goal to be sure.  Minami's first choice was something like Kendo, which admittedly wasn't the most portable in a modern setting, but enough training and it could translate well enough.  Plus if she could win a fight in kendo she might get some more respect.  Sadly, no vacancies.  So she went for the second choice, taekwondo.  Definitely far more translatable for self defense.  Minami went in to try it out.  "You think you can learn to fight!"  Why did everyone have to be so big?  From the moment she stepped in, she got nothing but ridicule.  Her size, her ability to fight, her cute demeanor, it was nothing more than a joke to the people in the club.  "Go home and go do your hair and leave the fighting to the men."  Rude.  "I bet you like romantic novels."  Unrelated.  Yet that's how these guys seemed to think.  Rude and unrelated, not even necessarily negative but said as though they were, comments.  Minami kept trying to learn but they weren't taking her seriously, so she actually couldn't get anywhere.  It didn't take long for her to just decide to give up.  She was learning nothing, but taking a lot of abuse for it.

It would have been easy, if she didn't accidentally bump into a rack with some equipment, and had the rack fall on someone's foot.  "You clumsy little bitch!"  Strictly speaking, she didn't break any rules, but it could be considered "carelessness with the equipment".  Combined with it slightly inconveniencing a foot, and them already not liking her, it only ended up enraging them.  That's when they challenged her to a fight.  "I don't even know how to fight, you wouldn't teach me!  That isn't fair, it was an accident!"  It didn't matter, they basically blocked off the entrance, and dragged Minami to their little fighting square.  No sooner did they let go, then suddenly Minami looked up only to feel a sharp pain to her face.  She didn't know what happened, and for a few moments couldn't collect her thoughts.  However, it became perfectly clear rather quickly.  They punched her in the face.  Once the initial impact ended, she took a second to realize what happened, since it was head trauma.  She fell flat on her butt when it happened.  While weak and sensitive, she usually wasn't one to actually break out into legit crying, but tears began to form in her eyes.  Even when she tried to learn how to protect herself, she needed to know how to protect herself to even stand a chance.  It was a catch 22.  And everyone there was just laughing.  Minami pushed herself to her feet and ran out of the room, the fighting back the tears as best she could.  They no longer blocked her exit as she ran into the halls of the school.  She didn't care where she went, she just didn't want to be there.  Then she bumped into someone, but of course it was her who fell on her ass.  Horrifically shaken, she of course began panicking a bit.  "I'm sorry!"  It was clear she was choking back, and failing to do so, tears.  She wasn't blubbering or anything, but it was clear she was upset.  And her face, she had a bloody nose...and clear signs that very specifically a fist had connected to her face.

When Minami went to stand up, she quickly found the girl she bumped into crouched down right in her face. It took her a second, but then she realized it was Tsubaki. The girl indirectly responsible for her getting punched in the face, though not in any way she was at fault. "Tsubaki?" She said, blinking a few times. "I...I know that!" Minami said, wiping some of the tears she had been fighting. She didn't look down to realize that some blood got on her hands too, since she was still bleeding. Of course Tsubaki, blunt as before, went and straight up asked if Minami cried often. "No I don't do it often! And I was doing what you told me to! I went and tried to join a club so I could learn self defense. But..." She shook her head. "All they did was make fun of me, telling me to do my makeup and leave the fighting to the "men". Calling me weak. Of course I was weak! I wasn't even given a chance to learn and get stronger, even though I wanted to. Then before I could leave, I accidentally knocked down an equipment rack and it fell on one of their toes. Next thing I knew they trapped me, dragged me to the center of the room, and the head of the club punched me right in the face, even though they all knew I couldn't fight at all." Minami couldn't even look Tsubaki in the eye. She averted them to the side, ashamed. She didn't know Tsubaki well but that made it no less embarrassing. "It was humiliating. I just wanted to get as far away from them as I could as fast as I could." She was shaking a little bit.

Tsubaki didn't react much at first, save a slight scoff. It wasn't until Minami finished her story that Tsubaki finally really reacted. All she had to say was stop cowering. Stop cowering? Is that really all she had to say? Before she could react though suddenly she was picked up by the back of her shirt and placed on her feet. Well, now she was standing again. She didn't exactly know where this was going though. Yet Tsubaki wanted her to follow her. Back the way she came was the club. "Wait...what are..." Minami said, and some sick curiosity prompted her to follow Tsubaki back. What kind of plan could she have in mind? Actually, she knew Tsubaki was violent. This could be a very bad idea. Still, she followed her. Upon getting to the club, Tsubaki seemed to grumble something. Hide, that was what she was told to do. "Eh? Oh." Minami ducked behind some little bleachers meant for when people watch. She peeked around the corner to see what was going on.

Suddenly, Tsubaki violently threw the very rack that Minami knocked over straight to the ground. Minami had to hold in a little bit of an eep. She WAS just punched in the face by those guys. "What the hell, you idiot...oh, it's just some clumsy girl." Suddenly things started to get brushed off. Unlike Minami they "didn't make fun of her". Granted brushing her off like that was insulting anyway. And all things considered, they had to know it was on purpose. "Hey girl, you want to have some fun?" One guy said incredibly suggestively. The other guy lightly hit him. "Of course she does, she tried so hard to get our attention. She's definitely more attractive than that other slut who was here. Flat chested bitch was good for nothing." Ouch...just ouch. Minami didn't want to be here. She wanted to be anywhere but here. They meant nothing, but it still didn't stop her from feeling 2 feet tall. "Still, we have training to do. You can get in this one's pants later." They seemed to ignore the attitude that Tsubaki had, for SOME reason.

Minami wasn't really surprised about their comments.  Interestingly they were a lot less vulgar around her, but they seemed to take Minami's smaller size and lack of...upper assets and see her as not even a girl.  This was doubly insulting, and while attention from them is the last thing she wanted, that didn't make being basically called unattractive any better.  They saw more female in Tsubaki and thus out came the vulgarity.  Funnily enough, personality wise they had it completely backwards.  Tsubaki deflected what they had to say about her and actually shocked Minami a bit, but more importantly she had to stop herself from giggling and basically letting them all know she was there.  Their intelligence was never in question, there was none.  And far more swiftly than their brains functioned, they went down.  Once they were all down or begging for mercy, Minami came out from her little hiding spot, though she positioned herself so that Tsubaki would be inbetween her and them.  She's seen enough movies to know not doing so basically turned her into the enemy's human shield.  Then...she blinked.

Small girl...thing?  When she heard that her heart sank again.  Thing right.  Then... Cute chick with pink hair?  Cute?!  "C-cute?"  Minami stepped back in surprise.  Her confidence lately might not have been the best, but she wasn't self hating or anything.  Just Tsubaki, of ALL people, used the word cute to describe her.  Non-sarcastically at that.  "You okay?"  She asked when Tsubaki began to run the back of her head.  Then she went on to continue.  Wait whaaaaaaaat?  Minami's hands clasped each other in front of her a little nervously.  This girl was violent...but she did defend her, kinda.  She looked to the side a bit.  "W-well..."  Well it was better than nothing.  She got tossed around like a sandbag anyway, what could she lose?  She looked back to Tsubaki.  "A-alright then."  She looked back to the battered and beaten down club.  "Um...thank you, Tsubaki."

She stopped for a moment and wondered if she should ask, but she figured she may as well. "But why did you help me though? You really didn't need to do that. And I mean, last time I saw you you were threatening to beat me down. I don't get it. If you were willing to hurt me, then why would you help me?" Though she felt like it might come off a little poorly, she needed to know. It didn't make sense to her. "N-not that I thought you were just violent or anything..." Her shoulders drooped a bit, she kinda did. "...actually...I guess I did judge you too soon...sorry."

She was only spared because she didn't feel like exerting more energy.  Yep, that is something everyone wants to hear.  Well, at least she admitted it.  And at least it didn't happen.  Sometimes there isn't much of a difference between knowing and not knowing what could have happened, only that it didn't.  "I'm...glad that you didn't."  Then Tsubaki explained why she went to go beat up those guys.  It was her fault so she wanted to make up for it, she might be violent, but Minami really did misjudge her.  She giggled a little bit.  "Aww.  That's sweet...in a weird...punchy sorta violent way."  She glanced over to the beaten up and quivering heaps.  "Not sweet to them though, I know that much."  She stuck her tongue out at them in a "Bleeeeh" sorta way.  That's when Tsubaki began to explain the plan.  It seemed when she made the offer she didn't initially know if she'd feel like following through or not, or at least that was implied.  She listened and her face froze in that awkward "Ohhh, yeah, great" sorta smile.  Yep this was gonna suck.  "Sounds like...fun."  She swallowed.  Tsubaki did kinda make it sound like she was gonna make Minami feel like a punching bag or something, in order to learn to take a punch.  But she looked over at the club members who were beaten down.  They did go down pretty easy.  "Ooookay.  How about..."  She hesitated, knowing finishing the sentence would kinda commit her to this.  "Well I'm free on Sunday, cause it's you know, Sunday.  How's your Monday afternoon look?" Minami's hesitation to commit to this was palpable, but she still seemed to be going through with it.

Minami had a feeling she didn't have every day free, just that she didn't go to anything she had to.  It was sorta confirmed by her admitting she had homework, and that she refused to do it.  Minami, like a little animal, got patted on the head by the crude and violent girl before her.  Typical really.  Minami didn't really feel to bothered by it.  Then Tsubaki mentioned the third gym.  "Isn't that kinda off limits..."  Tsubaki went on to confirm that it was but she had a key.  "No no no!  Privately is good.  Yeah, good.  Alri...wait a second how the hell did you get a key?"  She said it so casually as if she was supposed to have a key.  Minami knew that if she tried to claim she was supposed to that she'd be lying.  It really wasn't a big deal, but it's one of those situations where someone casually mentions something and moves on when it's probably the interesting part of their story.  She shrugged at the food comment.  "That won't be a problem.  Even when I eat a salad, I usually eat, like, 10 anyway.  I eat like, 3 to 4 times as much as a normal person."  She herself mentioned casually.  The girl could eat.  She never seemed to gain weight for some reason though.  She's considered talking to a doctor about it, but her weight has stagnated at a thin but healthy level, so she never bothered.  "Any time in particular?  I know you said morning, but that could be anywhere from sunrise to noon.  Or Midnight to noon if we're talking AM."

Tsubaki seemed to want to keep her methods a secret.  She did so in the same breath she called Minami her "pupil".  That wasn't suspicious at all.  It actually sounded like something that emperor Palytin would say in Star Battles.  "All will be revealed in time, my young apprentice."  This isn't Hollywood though, so it should be fine.  "Alright then, I guess."  Admittedly, Minami was still keeping her guard up more than usual.  It was uncharacteristic of someone so trusting, but subconsciously, she probably still hadn't gotten over being dragged by the hair and threatened.  She didn't even realize it herself, but while her arms are usually pretty relaxed, her arms were crossed across her midsection.  It looked fairly natural the way she was doing it, so it was subtle, but it was a subconscious defensive separation between her and Tsubaki she was doing.  "I don't know, I haven't been losing weight so I never bothered, but I'm thinking of seeing a doctor. It's really weird. But I mean, some people just have a fast metabolism and it slows down as they get older, but still..." Some metabolism's slow down, which is what she sorta assumed would happen. She didn't quite understand her powers though, so for all she knew it had something to do with that. "Four AM?!"  Minami was not happy to hear that.  It was clear in her voice.  That was way too damned early.  Still, no point in arguing.  She was still a tad meek.  "Well what's the plan on Sunday?  There won't be classes then.  Are we just going to take a break when classes normally happen?  Or..."  She gulped.  Oh god, Tsubaki might intend to just not give a break at all on Sunday, except for food.  Though hopefully she'd be given some time to digest it.  "No break?"  It was clear she really hoped that wasn't the case.

Tsubaki seemed upset. Minami wasn't really catching herself too well in the act of mistrust, but to an extent she was certainly showing it. She didn't even really know she was doing it. Consciously she felt like she had accepted Tsubaki as a decent person for helping her. Tsubaki questioned if Minami even understood the point to all this. Minami nodded. "Oh! I'm sorry!" She immediately went to apologize. She waved her arms in front of her body."I didn't mean it like that. I just...never did much physical training outside of PE." Come to think of it, even the Athletic people in PE needed a break. Why the hell did she think she wasn't going to get a break? "I guess that was a stupid question huh..." She felt really guilty and she didn't know why. Even still, the subtle bodily queues that signify caution were still there.

On the bright side, that got Tsubaki to explain the plan. Knowing a plan made Minami feel much better. "I really would rather not ditch yeah." Actually that was rather...interesting wording. You'd almost think Tsubaki would belittle classes since she ditches them so often. "Alright." Minami finally said, steeling herself for the coming storm. She mustered what determination she could and was ready. She put aside her fears, both conscious and otherwise, and knew something would have to change if she was going to get anywhere without a constant bodyguard...which admittedly she could afford. So I guess I'll see you on Sunday?" Minami asked, since it felt like the conversation was coming to a close. She'd wait for Tsubaki's answer, and unless Tsubaki wanted to ask her anything they'd probably be parting ways for the day. Though, before walking away, she stopped. "Hey, Tsubaki...what's my name?"