She put down one of the meat chunks, upon hearing it was dosed. Of course it was, why would she ever think she would ever taste something this good for free. Tsubame had froze for a moment when she heard Sensei speak about failure, unconsciously pushing back from the table and freeing her hand, but the expected blows did not come. It wasn't a comfort at all, considering she had failed, on top of all the other things for today.
"I see. I apologize for my inexperience. I promise I will try to improve myself."
"Well I am going home. Just tell me where we are meeting tomorrow."
"Alright then fair enough little man...oh and since I can tell you're wanting to go as well Tsubame...welcome too squad 13...both of you. I''ll see you in a day. Have a nice night."
"Then I will take my leave as well. Good night, Sensei." With a deep bow to her sensei, she departed, moving quickly home. Hopefully her father won't be so mad about all this...
***
She can't stop the shivering. Tsubame, having finished explaining what happened the whole day, could not meet her father's eyes.
"...you..."
She had wanted to reply, to protest then it was not her intention, that she had tried, before her father's fist slammed into her face hard enough to knock her down. Instinctively her arms went up to protect her head, but this time her father started kicking her exposed stomach.
"..STUPID... IDIOTIC... CHILD!" He punctuated each word with a kick, each one feeling like a hammer smashing on her belly.
He started on his usual rant again, pulling her up by her hair, practically screaming into her face. She didn't resist when he smashed her face into the tatami, she didn't resist when he started kicking her again, she didn't resist when he hurled insults at her again.
Resistance would only made him angrier. It was all her fault for being such a bad daughter after all.
***
She retched again.
There was blood coming out now along with all the other things she had eaten just now. The result of the previous beating obviously. Tsubame wondered briefly if she should be thankful. After all, any ingested food or in this case, the laxative, would take a bit to absorb through the stomach. Whether it would lessen the effect of the laxative would remain to be shown.
Tsubame flushed the toilet and examined herself in the mirror.
The right side of her face was swelling up, but that should recede by morning, if she treated it now, but the cut above her eye, and the bruise on her eye itself, would probably take a little more time to heal. The cuts on her arm from landing on one of the porcelain vase could easily be bandaged and treated, while the wounds from the cat that had opened just needed a fresh change of bandages. It was not the first time she had been injured after all.
Silently she took out the medical supplies in the cabinet, noting which one was needed for now. At least she didn't have any injuries she needed the village doctor to look at. Tsubame felt very uncomfortable every time she goes there and the doctor looked at her strangely.
After finally managing to bandage her whole right side of her face along with her right eye, she examined herself one last time in the mirror, before exiting the bathroom. Tsubame would need to think of the problems her sensei introduced to her. How does one know if one's food was poisoned or not? What if one was poisoned without knowing it? For now, she needed to make dinner before the laxative kicked in.
Father gets cranky if he doesn't get his meal on time.