"I brought my mother." As I blinked, Tatiana took a few steps back.

"Wh-why would you bring your mother?" Placing the bottle back, she immediately went after her braid and wrapped it around her neck. Her hand kept fiddling with the tip.

"She wanted to see where I train for a long time. She is actually afraid that something bad may happen or that I will be under a bad influence here."

Hearing me talking, Tatiana was gradually calming down though her cheeks were still burning red.

"So I wanted to show her that I'm not playing games anymore and taking this seriously. You are the one who is in charge of my physical training." Hearing these words, she puffed her chest slightly, and her pupils had a happy glint in them. "So I wanted to introduce you to each other. As you are my coach, she will need to know you better. And seeing how great of a coach you are, her doubts will vanish."

She nodded a few times, and I felt that her usual cheerfulness was slowly getting back. "That's true. There is no bad influence in our gym." she finally let go of her braid.

"Also, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable yesterday." I bowed slightly. "It wasn't appropriate to talk about this with someone I don't know."

"Oh, that." her smile froze for a second, but soon her expression turned back to the natural. "Don't mind it. Perhaps I overreacted as well." She went towards my side and slapped my back. "And don't act so uptight. We are all family here. So relax a bit."

As my answer, I returned her a smile.

"Hahahaha, now let's show how hard you actually can work. I made an experimental training regime, so work hard today, hahaha." Hearing her hearty laugh, I braced myself.

What kind of torture will I go through?

"Slap!"

Never mind. There is nothing worse than getting slapped on my butt by a woman in front of my mother.

"Now, what are you standing for? Go get the barbell. You know where it is, hahaha."

Sighing as I heard this, I entered my training mode.

"Give me one more rep, and you can rest for a few minutes."

This was the thing I wanted to hear the most from Tatiana.

I've spent almost two hours getting yelled at while I was doing all sorts of exercises. At the moment, I was doing pull-ups.

And there were two huge chains wrapped around my waist. I don't know how much they weighed, but it was probably over fifty kilos.

"HRRRGH!" Aligning my chin with the horizontal bar, I tensed my muscles going down.

"Huff…HRRRGH!" Mowing up again, I felt my muscles flaring up while my top-wear was sticking to my torso.

"ARRGH!" Clenching my teeth, I went up again as my arms were trembling heavily. Centimeter by centimeter, I was going up. My throat was so dry it hurt me when I tried to breathe.

"AGH!" After finishing the last repetition, I maintained the position.

"Good, you can rest now."

"Ugh!" Hearing these words, I unclenched my numb fingers that felt like rigid twigs. Falling down, I stumbled and almost fell over. All around me was the sweat that splashed on all sides as I fell.

Looking to the side, I saw Tatiana talking with Annie as both of them smiled. This time, in particular, Annie was laughing as she covered her mouth with the back of her hand.

"That's the amount of your resolve to be a good mother?" I, of course, didn't voice my complaints. Somehow Tatiana and Annie clicked up really well, and in the brief moments of rest that I had, I saw them chatting.

I shook my head bitterly and stumbled towards the place where my drinking water and towel were.

Sitting down directly on the floor, I drank a few mouthfuls of water and poured some on top of my head before ultimately wiping my head.

"Ahahaha!" I heard Tatiana's hearty laugh from afar and shuddered slightly. What were they even talking about for so long?

Unfortunately, I had no leisure to think about all of this. I couldn't even cool down when I heard the voice of my coach. Telling me to proceed to the next exercise. Bracing myself, I plunged right into the abyss that was known as Tatiana's training regime.

"UGH!"

"ARGH!"

"HUUUF! HUUUF!"

"HNNGH!"

Another two hours came by. Going through the training, I felt Like I made all sorts of noises, even the types I never knew I could do.

"Will I die?" I felt my soul was leaving my body.

"You are going to be alright. Brace yourself!"

"We still need to visit bars and brothels together, brother!"

""Hang in there!"" My eyes looked lifeless as I heard Bill and Johnny trying to encourage me. They arrived at the gym not so long ago, and now they were looking after me with pity in their eyes.

The whole world was spinning before my eyes, and my stomach churned. I closed my eyes to gain at least a bit of relief from all of this.

"Don't close your eyes!"

"A newbie's mistake!"

""SLAP-SLAP!"" feeling two slaps, simultaneously hitting both my cheeks, I opened my eyes.

"FUCK! Would you let me rest for a bit?" I jumped to my feet.

"We were thinking you are dying." Bill shrugged.

"There was something white and foggy going upwards from your mouth." Johnny clasped his hands in prayer and looked up.

"Urgh!" I rubbed my face. "I'm tired and uncomfortable. Can't you leave me alone for a second and let me get some rest?"

"Should've said this earlier."

"Anyway, want to spar?"

"Yes-yes! I will! Just let me rest for some time, please!"

"Deal."

"But, We don't want any excuses later on."

"We gonna whoop your ass."

"Pray as we did." Carrying smug expressions, they went away.

As I was finally done with the physical part of my training, I was able to take a breather.

Hearing only bits and pieces of what Tatiana and Annie said, I got a feeling that they were now best friends forever. My initial goal was to show her that everything was alright. The rest was of no concern to me.

Sitting on a bench somewhat at a distance from my stepmother and coach, I looked to nowhere in particular. My eyes were lifeless. The usual emptiness I felt after training hard was here.

I would probably sit there for a few hours straight if only one person didn't come here. I haven't seen her for a long time, and now, seeing her brought a little joy to me, revitalizing me slightly.

Jessie walked to nowhere in particular. Her short hair was gathered in a small top-knot in the middle of her head. Yet there was no mistaking it, she was sleepy, and she couldn't hide her bed hair.

Creaking like a dried wood log, I stood up and walked towards her.

"Still having a hard time getting up?"

"Yawn, yeah. I think I have started feeling the winter now." she squinted her eyes as she looked behind me. "So, how are you doing? I heard you asked Tatiana to train you?" she yawned once again, covering her mouth with a fist.

"Why else would I look like that?" I helplessly spread my hands. Walking past a mirror, I saw my reflection. My body looked like I lost at least half of all the fluid I initially had. The muscles were clearly pronounced, the veins bulged, and ligaments were visible. To be fair, it wasn't aesthetically pleasing. Rather, it was creepy, seeing myself THAT drained.

She squinted, giving me a look-over. "Hrmm, I guess you look like you trained with her," she nodded, "Did you like it? I've taken you to her with the thought that you would be a perfect tandem."

"I don't know about liking it, as for being a perfect tandem…" I stretched the end of my sentence and saw Jessie yawning as she rubbed her eyes.

Was she even listening to me?

"Whatever…" I decided to give up on this.

"Hm?"

"You know, I've actually taken my mother here to look around."

"Hm!?"

"So how about talking with her until you get yourself together? In the meantime, I will go spar with Bill and Johnny?"

"Hm."

During our conversation, instead of moving her mouth, she moved her eyebrows. Raising one eyebrow as she missed what I said in the beginning. Moving both of her eyebrows up in amazement. And lastly, lowering them down as she nodded to me in agreement.

"They are…" I turned around and looked for the pair. "There. Oh, and I hope you won't tell them anything… you know… embarrassing."

"Hum-hum." She nodded for one last time and slowly trotted to where my mother was.

"Sigh. I don't think Jessie told to her father a single thing that involved my and Reid's relationship. I hope she will do the same and won't tell this to Annie."

Doing everything I could to ensure the three of them meet, I looked over Jessie. Seeing their meeting, I was left to my own devices. Getting to the changing room, washing down, changing the clothes, taking tape, gloves, and mouthguard, I went towards one of the cages. It wasn't hard to find friends. There was already a small group around them. Bill was talking with a few guys, and Johnny was warming up with another pair of tough-looking dudes.

"Hey, the star of the show is here!"

"Yoo! You ready for your ass to be whooped? You brat!"

"Watch closely guys, as we will manhandle this upstart."

"I will serve him my special technique."

Seeing me, Bill and Johnny went towards me as they started talking rubbish.

"What kind of technique Billy, is it the one when you cry when the guys do a neck crank to you?"

"Or when you are huffing in a bulldog chokehold."

"Oi, I remember him escaping from the Peruvian necktie one time, but a moment later, he got himself into an armbar."

The guys started mercilessly dissing Bill as they cackled.

"HEY! Stop this, or I will whoop your asses as well. This and that is different. From now on, there won't be a single jiu-jitsu practitioner who will outwrestle me. With the help of this guy here," He pointed at me with his eyes, "I will transcend my limits. Tell them, Johnny."

"Yeah, tell us, big John, what will happen? The newcomer will beat your liver black and blue?"

"Or will he drain your legs with low kicks?"

"Oh, I know. He will actually pepper your nose with some jabs."

"WHY ARE YOU DISSING ME AS WELL!?!" Feeling the injustice, Johnny made an especially pitiful expression.

"Anyway, all of you will get a piece of this guy." Bill walked to my left side.

"We will see if you would fare any better." Johnny walked to my right side.

With a deep sigh, I went into the cage.

"I'm spent after training with Tatiana, and you know… To hell with this!" putting my gloves in one swift motion, I helped myself with my teeth to tape them. Finishing it, I started jumping from one foot to another.

"Bring it on!"

"Attaboy!" Bill slapped the canvas and went in, putting his gloves on.

"Don't whine afterward. We are coming after you. AHAHAHA!" Johnny tried to squeeze a villain's laughter as he came in to supervise our sparring.

Time passed, and the area around the cage was littered with bodies of young men of different body types and heights. Almost all of them sported some kind of shorts. Here and there lay MMA gloves.

It was akin to a scene of a massacre from an action movie. Except there was no blood or actual injuries.

I was lying in the middle of the cage with my face sticking to the canvas. Usually, I would feel squeamish to do a thing like that. But, right now, I could barely move my eyes.

Drained from all the energy, I was lying sprawled on my stomach. After Sparring with Bill and Johnny came another guy, then another one, and then they started swapping. After this, they formed pairs and started sparring with each other.

Though, we weren't giving our all. We weren't using full strength so that we won't get traumatized. It was still a draining, hellish type of sparring.

And as Bill and Johnny said, my ass was whooped more than once. At first, I managed to gather some energy and fight back. However, later on, there was nothing. Except for my guts and willpower, nothing was left.

An obvious result was my body screaming to me, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!"

I was still unable to move when Bill and Johnny picked me up, dragged me towards the bench, and sat me down. They went as far as dousing my head with water and wiping it.

As they slapped my back to tell me to get some rest, I almost fell face first, and they panicked, catching me. With their hands outstretched towards me like I was porcelain placed on the edge of the table, they walked backward. Seeing everything was alright, they walked away, exhaling nervously.

I would probably continue sitting on my ass still as a withered tree if there wasn't a small group walking in close proximity to me.

The leader of Brave and Bold Paul, Patrice, and a few other men and women walked talking about something. And I needed to talk with Paul, preferably one on one. It was a conversation that should be held sooner rather than later.

With my unbending joints, I turned and took a bottle of water. Barely opening it, I started pouring water into my mouth. In the end, it started pouring all over me as there was no way for me to drink as much. Still, greedily drinking whatever I reached my mouth, I finally stood up.

With my gaze fixed on Paul, I went to meet him.