I collapse to the floor, Red drags me off the mat and over to the benches. She drops me onto one then sits next to me. Red slaps me on the face as I think I'm about to pass out.

"Anything serious?"

I don't respond but sit there in silence trying to listen to my body. "No, just a couple fractured ribs, nothing too bad."

"I told you that would happen if I went harder."

I smile while I slowly find my pocket and take out the vile. After drinking slightly more than normal I sit up looking at her.

"So how much was that if you had to take a guess?"

"I don't know, maybe thirty percent. I can't really tell."

"Ha, have you ever gone all out before?"

"Once..."

"How much did you lift?"

"I didn't lift anything, I crushed... That was when I was a little girl so I can't tell what it would be like now."

I could tell by her face that she didn't want to talk about this anymore, "I have a hard time imagining you as a little girl. Maybe a short muscular woman, I could see that."

Red looked over at me, the corners of her big red lips rising slightly, "You're one to talk, you're bigger than me now."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. Red still stood a few inches above me and her legs dwarfed mine, "Just because my arms and chest are bigger doesn't mean anything. Besides, I'll never come close to your strength obviously--what's wrong?"

Did I say something wrong, why is she looking at me like that? "Um, anyway, do you think I'll be able to take him?"

She maintained strong eye contact with me a while before responding, "I don't know it's been a while since I've fought him. You should stand a good chance, at least."

"You never mentioned that you fought him!" Here I have been learning everything I could about the fifth-ranked person through Wayne when I could have asked someone who has fought him! "What's his ability like?"

"Well see, nothing really affected me when I fought him. So..."

"Are you telling me you beat him without even finding out his ability?"

Red nodded in confirmation. I guess it makes sense that someone like her wouldn't really have to worry about someone's ability, she is a walking tank after all. Damn, I guess I'll just have to do what I can with what Wayne has told me. It's already been a few weeks and all I've been able to gather about him is that his opponents tend to trip a lot and seemed to get hit even when he misses. If only I could get people who have fought him to talk but no one wants to. They probably all plan to use the knowledge they gathered for their own advantage.

"You ready to go again?"

Red looked at me with a condescending look on her face, "You've got nothing left."

"What, I could go another round. I'll show you."

"No. Time, you're out of time. It's like you have no internal clock."

After realizing what she was saying I could feel all the energy leave my body causing me to fall to the floor. Red's voice came from above me, this time even more condescending.

"I thought you could go for another round." I then get flipped onto my back and my body begins to move. I'm being pulled across the floor by my foot. "I swear, I've seen people work out until they vomit or until they can hardly move, but I've never seen someone drop like you do. It's like you just run out of gas and shut off, you didn't even puke and you already can't move."

Is she calling me a pussy?

She pulls me out of the training room, dragging me across the floor in front of everyone. We make it out of the room and into the hallway, she pulls me far enough to not be visible to the people inside and then picks me up into her arms. I have a hard time admitting how good this feels, but I can't deny it. Because she's so strong she carries me quite high without realizing it, so I'm held against one of the few soft parts of her body while she caries me. The rocking sensation of walking threatens to put me to sleep, but another sensation fights to keep me awake.

We eventually make it to my cell. I know this because she lets go of me with one arm and leans back while holding me tighter with her single arm so I don't fall. She then maneuvers me through the doorway without ramming me into it and sets me down on the bed. Now laying on it I almost pass out instantly but I feel something that surprises me. The bed dips in a direction as if someone was sitting next to me. I feel a hand touch my chest before pulling away as soon as it did. Not too long after the sensation of a hand touching my skin appears on my right arm. I can feel the hand start at my bicep, rubbing it and squeezing it softly before moving down to my forearms. Fingertips run atop my many scars and I can feel my heart rate increase by the second. Before I knew it I had my perception on, making the feeling last longer than it would have and I am unable to fight the tiredness anymore.

God, you know it's sad when you're dreaming about someone just touching you. I mean compared to my other dreams about Red it might as well have been the nun of dreams. Well, today's the day. I think I have trained enough with Red, time the challenge him. I open my door and Wayne was standing there, like every day, if I didn't know better I would say this is his ability.

"So, you going to do it today?"

"What makes you think that?"

"You were talking about doing it soon and it's already been a few days since then. You're a pretty impulsive person so it shouldn't be much longer."

Am I really that easy to read? Why do I always make friends with people who can break down my every thought? "Fine, you got me Tobie--"

"Huh, what did you just--"

I quickly cut Wayne off, "WAYNE! I said Wayne, alright let's go to the cafeteria!"

I try to walk without talking but Wayne doesn't let me.

"So who is Tobie, it isn't the first time I've heard you say that name."

"Don't worry about--what do you mean this isn't the first time?"

"You say it a lot at night."

"..."

"Come on, you should talk to someone about it. If not me you could always talk to Red about it."

"... It was a friend of mine."

"Was? Y'all have a falling out? That can happen I guess, I haven't had many friends but I've watched the people in here. People get in fights all the time, who knows, maybe he wasn't that good of a friend."

"No, he was the best friend I will ever have."

"Oh, so why?"

"He died. He's dead because of me."

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing to me?"

"Because I know what it feels like, and because you need to hear it."

You don't know anything about my situation, but I can't say you don't know anything about causing someone's death. With an ability like his, it's almost inevitable that he would have hurt someone by accident, so I'll let it slid.

We walked the rest of the way in silence.