She's so going to kill me. "Yeah," Hokuto answered, trying to smile. "At least it was a little better than the way I met my last girlfriend; some guys were chasing her, and I couldn't just do nothing. So I fought them long enough to get her away, then found out they were cops." She laughed, sheepishly.

My poor girl. I hope she's doing better than she ever was... hey, she knows a little bit about defending herself now, and maybe I gave her enough strength to last. I hope so.