The Ogre 06 (Patreon)

"Hey Ty, how's things going at the comics club?" Matt asked. We were in the locker room before gym class.

“The truth is that I left the club. I'm busy in the afternoons,” I replied.

“Right, right, going to that abandoned shed right?”

Taken by surprise, I pushed Matt against the locker and covered his mouth. “How the hell do you know that?”

Matt grinned moving my hand from his face before pulling out a pad and spinning a pen in his fingers. “Ninja reporter, remember? But enough about me, what does Holly have you doing? What dangerous activities are you two up to behind closed doors? Give me the scoop!”

“Nothing weird,” I said with a heavy sign. “She’s just… teaching me to defend myself. Nothing more. Nothing less. No secret romance or anything.”

Matt burst out laughing. “Of course there’s no secret romance! No one would think that.”

“What?” I said. Matt’s casual attitude actually kind of stung. “Is it that hard to believe?”

Matt flipped through his pad for a second. “Let’s see here. She’s huge, terrifying, violence, not to mention attractive, and you are a small little weedy kid who runs from fights and reads comics in his free time.” He flipped his pad shut. “Trust me, the only hope for people like us to lose our virginity is for someone to feel sorry for us, and Holly doesn’t seem like the kind of person to feel sorry for anyone.”

“Gee, Matt, just when I thought you couldn’t be any more supportive,” I said as I closed my locker and head out to the track. Holly, as usual was sitting in the stands. She never participated… who could make her?

That afternoon I met Holly in her private gym again and decided to make some light conversation.

“So why don’t you participate in gym class anyway? You have to be the strongest one there?”

“I have my reasons…” she said, folding her four arms. “Gym class is stupid. You run around in circles all day like rats on a wheel. This is all the exercise I need.” She flexed her biceps in front of me. Normally I would be intimidated, but I had gotten used to it.

“Is it a health problem?” I said lifting my small set of weights.

“Curious today aren’t ya?” Holly said, bending over to pick up a much larger set. “It’s my mom. She writes excuses for me to get out because she’s worried about my heart after the accident.”

“Sounds like she cares about you a lot then,” I grunted as I tried to squeeze out another rep.

“Hah, hardly. I’m a burden for her,” Holly said easily curling the massive weights. “The less time I spend at home the better. So she keeps signing the excuses and I don’t bother her,” she said, curling out another set with her lower arms.

“I… I’m sorry-“

“Stuff it,” she said cutting me off. “I don’t need your pity, and I don’t owe anything to anyone.” She hefted the weights over her head. “If she can’t love or accept me for who I am, she can go to hell.”

I chuckled to myself and went back to the weights, pushing out 20 more reps before dropping them. I wiped my brow with a towel and looked to Holly, who was still pushing herself, on her 50threpetition.

“What happened anyway,” I said getting a drink of water. “In the accident that is…”

“What… haven’t you hear the rumors?” Holy said lifting the weights over her head once more. “Everyone’s talking about it.”

“I heard a member of the Yakuza tried to cut you in half,” I said taking another sip and gasping in relief as my body cooled down. “But even the strongest sword couldn’t cut you.”

Holly dropped her weights laughing. “That’s not a bad story,” she said with a smile. “The truth is way more boring.” She toweled herself off and sat on a bench.

“So what happened?”

“A truck hit me…”

“Seriously!? A truck!?” I said in utter disbelief.

“What, does getting attacked by the Yakuza sound more believable to you?” Holly said with a wave of her hand and a small growl. “I got hit by a truck and ended up in a coma for a month..”

“Geez… how the heck did that happen? Was he asleep at the wheel? Or drunk? Did you get hit in the middle of the street? Did he skip the sidewalk?”

“I don’t know OK!” she suddenly snapped me. “I don’t know, and I don’t remember… can we leave it at that?”

“O… Ok?” It was so weird that she… asked me to stop instead of ordering me to.

“Anyway, worm, we got much more to get through. Stand up.”

“Alright! What are we going to learn? A special knockout punch? A wrestling technique? A submission hold?”

“Hahahaha, you need to be strong before you learn that, and you are still as weak as a noodle. No. You are going to hear to take a hit.”

“Take a- OOOF!” Holly suddenly punched me in the gut which send me falling to my knees. “W-what was that for,” I said, gasping at air to refill my lungs.

“No one can block every hit. So you need to not crumble the second you take one.” She lowered her hand to help me up. This too was surprising… She was almost being, helpful. I shakily rose to my feet. From this vantage point, her curvy and sweaty body looked less like a monster and a little more-“OOF!”

She delivered a powerful front knee which send me tumbling backward.

“Come on worm! Get focused! You can’t daydream in a fight!” she barked like a combination Rottweiler and drill instructor.

“I *gasp* was just thinking *wheeze* about how tough *cough* you must be to *pant* survive a truck crash.” I didn’t want to let her know I was distracted by her body.

“Hah, you should have seen the truck!” She said laughing. “Now raise your guard!”

She spun and delivered a kick to my ribs. I managed to catch it with my right arm. A successful block so my ribs didn’t break… but it sure felt like my arm did. I struggled to raise it again.

“Good. You are getting the hang of this…” she said with a smile. “Now I’m going to go a little harder.

This was going to be a long afternoon.