3:40 PM in Tokyo, Japan. On a random park nearby the school grounds. Two silhouettes can be seen staring down each other.
"Y-You damn bastard!" A boy with spiky blonde hair still wearing his school uniform glared at the boy in front of him like a jackal.
WHOOSH!
Suddenly, the other boy dashes forward, his right hand forming a fist. This caused the blonde kid to flinch, instantly raising his guard in panic.
"Heh, idiot! A simple jab would only leave a temporary strain!! They call me the turtle of—!!" The blonde kid's eyes twitched as the boy in front of him suddenly vanished and appeared to his right side.
Then—
TWHACK!
A shoveling body blow fired from the boy's left-hand, digging right through the blonde kid's liver.
The blonde kid dropped to the ground with saliva escaping from his mouth, his breathing becoming uncontrolled.
The boy standing before him had a luscious red-hair styled into a grown crew cut. His fists curled with blood stained on his knuckles. Surprisingly, his pale face was left untouched by the brawl.
"S-Stop…" Clutching his body, the blonde kid held his free arm in surrender.
The red-haired boy glanced at him in disappointment and annoyance, but didn't say a word.
"I lost." The blonde kid gritted his teeth, kneeling on the dirt, trying to avoid eye-contact.
Turning his back, the red-haired boy scratched the back of his head, reminiscing of how similar he was before to that guy.
"Probably from then on. The fact that everything became boring."
_
"Woah!!"
Loud shouts from several middle schoolers echoed throughout a bustling arcade.
WHIRR!
The red-haired boy from before can be seen in his younger years, his hands mashing buttons while fictional characters battled on the video game he was playing.
"Ugh!" Another kid beyond the red-haired boy's monitor fumed in rage, his eyes couldn't keep up with his opponents actions, let alone his hands.
"K.O!"
The sound of the game coming to an end was heard, followed by the chattering of the nearby middle schoolers for their bets.
"Keke, told you he'd win again!" A sketchy delinquent snatched a thin stack of money, counting them one by one.
"Tsk, that little shit!" The boy he took the money from grunted in disdain. This was his 71st try of betting on the red-haired kid's opponent due to the high reward on the other side.
Unfortunately, this came with a high risk, and it was somewhat guaranteed to lose his bets everytime.
Angered, he stepped forward and slammed his wallet onto the table that was basically turned into a place to throw out bets, and said "Get out of the way! I'm fighting you myself!!"
"Eh? Isn't that guy the former local E-sports champion, Rin!" A murmur among the crowd drawed out the attention of everyone.
"I'll teach you a lesson, kid!" Rin scoffed, inserting a nickel into the coin slot.
"Okay." The red-haired boy replied.
"3, 2, 1, FIGHT!"
The best boxing game in the arcade, "Rising Souls." Hundreds of fancy combo techniques, realistic sense of hitting the enemy. It made a lot to fall in love with it that they would even skip school altogether.
But the reason why I liked playing the game is that… If you win, you get 250 yen from these guy's bets.
I can play the games over and over again, and this is brought about by an extremely childish idea.
If I had a lot of free time, I'd sit in the arcade all day, and analyze the play of masters. And the result of such analysis…
"K.O!"
…is me becoming a stagnant water.
"8..82 consecutive wins! No way!"
"I can't believe Rin lost 11 times in a row…"
Whispers rushed out from the bystanders, snowballing into a loud chatter.
"Oh, I'm hungry." Azami Hanamichi, the red-haired boy, stood up from his chair, stretching his sore back from hours of hunching.
He casually accepted the money he earned from the bets and walked to a vending machine, taking a chocolate bar and a soda.
Azami looked at the mixed emotions on the middle schoolers faces who had joined the bet earlier, some where happy and were using the money they earned as a fan, while others were slumped on the floor like they just used up their lfie savings.
To be honest, after becoming a stagnant water, a big problem occurred. The game became boring, the same techniques and patterns everytime after time. It was no match for me.
As a result, boredom came while playing the game. And then, something happened.
"Aaaarhh!! You fuck!" Rin crashed out, rushing towards Azami like a bull.
The red-haired boy, still drinking his soda, was caught off-guard. Rin choked him by the collar and dragged him outside the arcade.
SMACK!
"You cheeky little bastard! You annoyingly kept using tricks huh?" Rin screeched, literal smoke emerging from his nose. In front of him was Azami, holding his aching cheek.
"You've won the game too much. You should know that and just go home. You tried winning for a long time!" Rin smirked arrogantly, waving around the cash he stole from Azami's pocket.
"Why did you hit me? What's wrong with being better than you?!" Azami bellowed.
"H-How dare you talk informally to a middle schooler?!"
WHACK!
Rin threw a backhand slap, connecting towards Azami's face, followed up with a barrage of sloppy punches, forcing the red-haired boy to block with his forearms.
It was the first time in my life where I got to fight someone. My body trembled and my mind went blank. I don't know if it was because I was too excited or something, but it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would.
His punches looked slow. The moment I felt that. The opponent looked like a game and…
"The Ultimate Shock! Boom!!" Azami screamed to the top of his lungs, darting forward with a haymaker.
SLAM!
The punch landed directly onto Rin's chin, knocking him out to the ground like a ragdoll.