 only... all the time."
Sakura nodded. "When you get into a dangerous situation, you probably freeze up. Your breathing gets more erratic, and your brain struggles to react in any kind of helpful way. Even if you train your muscles, you'll fly into a panic when you're in danger. Learning to control your breathing will give you a better chance of reacting to a threat in a productive way. You can fight back with all your skill, or run with all your speed. So you see, breathing is the most practical thing you can learn, to help you survive the killing game and build your confidence."
Chihiro tried it, taking a deeper and slower breath, and letting it out just as slowly. "Like, like that?"
"That's better." Sakura nodded. "But you have to keep working at it, until it becomes second nature. See, you're already back to breathing shallowly again."
Chihiro mentally berated himself, and tried to breathe slowly again. "OK, you've made your point. Do you have some kind of exercise to help me get better... at breathing?"
"Just sit, like this," she sat back down, and Chihiro mirrored her. "Close your eyes, and focus only on your breath. Deepen it until you can feel it, sinking deep into your diaphragm."
Chihiro closed his eyes, and started to breathe as Sakura instructed. He could feel the difference immediately, the calming effect, the greater sense of strength... and about a minute later, his mind was wandering, off to other things, to breakfast, or to his shift in the store, and Sakura was snapping her fingers to get his attention. "Oh! I'm sorry," Chihiro flushed with shame. "I'll, try again."
Sakura nodded, and the two returned to their practice. But, in less than a minute, Chihiro was distracted, and it showed in his breathing. Sakura snapped her fingers again. "I'm, really sorry. I'm trying, I can do this..."
"It could take time, especially for one as... untested, as you." Sakura rested her chin on her hand. "When I was having trouble mastering breathing, I sat under a waterfall near my family's dojo. The cold water kept my mind from wandering, and I learned to focus through the pain."
"Yeah," Chihiro snorted, "Too bad there's no waterfall around here. Uh, why are you smiling?"
Sakura stood up. "Come." Chihiro obeyed, curious but unquestioning. Sakura led him out of the dojo, back itno the atrium, and towards the fountain in the center. Once there, she pointed to the stream of water, gushing from the stone Monokuma.
Chihiro reflexively tensed up. "Uh, are you sure about this? Th-that water's pretty cold."
"Not as cold as my waterfall." Sakura smiled. "Don't worry, I know you aren't me. I'll keep a close eye on you, and pull you out if it's too much." She stepped into the fountain ahead of Chihiro, and reached back, offering her massive hand to help him in.
"Ignore it," Sakura advised. "You aren't in danger, so the cold is meaningless. The water will block out everything else, just focus on your breathing."
Chihiro tried, but his body was constricting, his mind was reeling, and...
Nothing else mattered. Not what he was going to do later, not his fears, not any other sensations, just the water. He only had to block out one thing, and then there was his breathing. He deepened it, countering his body's reaction to the cold, and as he did so, his mind calmed, and his body loosened. His body adjusted to the cold, and he relaxed, and simply breathed. He felt a smile play across his lips. He was breathing, like he'd never breathed before!
Before he knew it, Sakura was lifting him out of the water. She sat him down on the tiled floor of the atrium, and he immediately began to violently shiver as the rest of the world came back to him. "I I I I did it, I think," he sputtered through clenched teeth. "Ha, ha." Sakura wrapped him in a towel, that she must have gotten from the store.
She hugged him, tight, to help him warm back up. "You did well. Though, I'm afraid that was a bit, much of me to ask from you. Are you alright?"
"Are you, k-kidding?"  "That was amazing! I actually d-did it."
Sakura started leading him back to the dojo. "We need to walk, to get some heat back into your body. Then, if you're up for it, we'll run. But it's important to breathe deeply like that, especially when you're exercising or fighting."
Chihiro wasn't a very good runner yet, despite his attempts to breathe better and follow Sakura's instructions about his form. But, he nevertheless felt elated when she released him from his training session, and told him to eat a big breakfast. He felt like he really deserved it, so he jogged to the banquet hall, and started loading a plate up with eggs and sausages.
 She wiggled the chair next to her. Mahiru was nowhere in sight, but Ibuki was there, playing with her food again. 
"I was training, with Sakura. She made me sit in the fountain." Chihiro said.
"And you liked it?" Hiyoko scowled.
"Ooo, maybe Ibuki could sit in the fountain with you next time!" Ibuki said.
"She said it would help my breathing," Chihiro told the others. "And I think she was right."
"Oh, yeah," Hiyoko muttered. "You are a programmer, I guess. You could probably use all the help you can get. I had to learn breathing technique to be a better dancer, but I didn't do anything that, extreme for it."
"Ibuki had breathing training, too! She got to learn how to scream as long and loud as possible! Wanna hear?" Ibuki inhaled deeply. Chihiro had the foresight to slam his hands over his ears and duck. Then, an unholy, banshee-like sound exploded from Ibuki's throat. Everyone in the banquet hall, and a couple of people in the atrium, stopped whatever they were doing to look, slack-jawed, towards the source of the monstrous noise.
At last, Ibuki's scream was spent. Chihiro slowly took his hands away from his ears, and his skull vibrated with echoes of suffering. Ibuki sat there grinning with her tongue out, and said, "Wait, I think I can do a better one, give me a sec."
But Junko was marching towards the table, her teeth locked in a furious grimace, makeup running down from her eyes. 
"Huh?" Ibuki asked, "Oh, uh oh."
"If you ever do that again, I'll pull your tongue out through your ass!" She made an exaggerated yanking motion, to illustrate her intentions.
Ibuki looked skeptical. "You can do that?"
Chihiro was cradling his forehead. "Ibuki, this, ow, isn't a good time to joke around. Some people don't handle loud noises very well. Augh..."
"Oh, Oh. Um, I went too far this time, didn't I?" Ibuki looked down at her plate, her shoulders sinking. "Ibuki is... sorry, sorry."
 
"Ibuki is sorry, to you too, Chihiro." Ibuki bowed towards him, briefly. "Ibuki forgets that people can't keep up with her sometimes."  
"Hey, lay off it." Despite sitting right next to Ibuki during the scream, Hiyoko had never flinched, and was now smiling coyly. "I like your energy, and everybody else can just get over it. Yeah, you probably shouldn't scream like that again, but you didn't know, and now you do, so what's the big deal?"
She didn't quite look convinced. "I... Ibuki still hurt Chihiro, and Junko."
Hiyoko snorted with childish glee.  And hey, maybe we can make it up to Chihiro." She turned to him. "How about it? Want to try dancing today?"
"Um," Chihiro rubbed at his forehead. "I would like to try, but I need to shower off first. It'll give me time to recover from this headache too, hopefully."
Hiyoko sipped her apple juice through a straw. "Yeah, that makes sense. OK, I'll be in my room. Ibuki can help."
Chihiro finished his meal, as much as he could handle, and retreated to his room. His head still hurt, but some time in the shower soothed him. When he got out, he went about getting dressed in a clean uniform. Then, he stood in front of the bathroom mirror, blow-drying and fixing his hair.
Chihiro studied her face in the mirror. Her rosy cheeks, her cute hair, her big, soft brown eyes. And she smiled. She was pretty, she’d always known that, but had never really