The remainder of her day was fairly uneventful and Natsumi soon found herself home alone, her parents still at work and her sister out with friends. It didn't take a terribly long time for her to finish whatever schoolwork she still had left (making her several days ahead of the lesson plan), and so the girl was slumped down on the couch in the living room within the hour. Inevitably her thoughts turned back to what Ren and his cronies had done to her at lunch, the remembered pain and humiliation causing the Japanese girl's cheeks to burn bright red. There had to be something that could be done about them, something that she could do to get them off her back. Preferably everybody's back.
At that moment a lightbulb went off in Natsumi's head, the tiny pre-teen suddenly sitting up as her eyes wandered towards the hallway. According to her mother, her father had loved working out while he was in college and had been one of the fittest people on his campus, maybe even in town. His job stole so much of his time nowadays that he'd had to give up on the idea of regular workouts, but all of his weights and other equipment were still set up in the basement if he ever felt the urge to go use them. Natsumi didn't believe that she'd be able to get anything close to stellar results, but maybe... just maybe she might be able to get strong enough to protect herself.
Knowing that she only had a couple of more hours before her sister would get home, she quickly went and changed into some lighter clothing and made her way downstairs, flipping the light-switch along the way. The girl tentatively took her first steps onto the padded mat and made her way over to the weight bar, carefully plucking the lightest of the dumbbells (a miniscule 2 lbs.) from their place and starting to curl them. The task was difficult at first, her arms struggling with the weight, but before too long a familiar warmth had suffused her arms. Each successive curl became easier then the last, Natsumi soon hefting the weights like a pro, the determined look on her face pushing her to work even harder. Over the next two hours she transitioned to other common exercises like crunches and running around the edge of the room; with each activity the warm feeling spread to more and more of her body until she could feel nothing else, the fabric of her clothes growing uncomfortable over her skin.
That night at dinner Natsumi tactfully informed her parents that she had decided to start working out, carefully omitting any mention of the weight training or other 'strenuous' activities and making it seem as though she was only interested in cardio. Her father in particular was quite supportive of this, encouraging her to use the space downstairs whenever she pleased, overjoyed that at least one of his children seemed to care about their health. Natsumi devoured her meal that night, ignoring the subtly tighter feeling of her formerly loose workout attire and somehow not noticing that she appear to be sitting a little higher in her chair that night.
Her activities repeated for the next two days, the Japanese girl venturing down to the basement as soon as she finished whatever homework she could, eager to continue her plan. By the end of her second work out she'd moved from the 2 lbs. weights to their heavier 5 lbs. counterparts, and by the day after that even those were starting to seem light to her. The same could be said of her other exercises, her tummy growing flatter and flatter and her legs able to complete greater and greater numbers of laps. These first few routines removed nearly every inch of baby fat from her body, sparing only her face from this strict regiment, leaving her form slimmer but undeniably tighter. Strangely, the warmth had never returned quite as strong as the first day, seeming only to simmer below the surface during her next two work outs. Natsumi was so focused on her progress that she failed to notice that she'd grown an additional two inches since she'd started, her body taking to the athletic activity immediately.
The next day, Friday at last, saw her own personal group of miscreants accost her once more; save this time, Natsumi couldn't help but notice that Ren and his gang appeared... smaller and somehow less imposing than she remembered. Before long, they moved to trap her against the lockers once again, Ren's grip still strong enough to hold her despite his decreased stature. His henchmen's attempts to harm her were useless, however; Natsumi felt little more than a pinch every time her legs were thrown against the metal behind her, the limbs totally resistant to the pain. She made as though to slump to the ground as they let her go, but suddenly caught herself as soon as the trio turned away. A fire burned in the Japanese girl's eyes, one of her fists clenching tightly shut. They couldn't hurt her anymore, so now it was time to make sure they couldn't hurt anybody else.
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