"TRANSFER STUDENT! JOIN THE BOXING CLUB! LET'S TRAIN TOGETHER TO THE EXTREME!" The white-haired boy shouted from across the classroom.
'There goes Ryohei again…'
Both the students and teacher had the same expression in their face, as if this were something they were used to. After massaging her temples, Komura-sensei tried to quell the chaos within the classroom.
"Sawagawa-san, please sit down. Anyways, Nakamura-san, please sit in the seat directly in front of that boisterous young man just now. Regrettably, that's the only seat available right now. Please ask your desk neighbor to share textbooks for today."
From the tone of her voice, it was that she hated or had it out for Ryohei. It was more like, whenever she had to deal with him, a headache would usually always ensue.
As per the instructions given to him, Ryuuji did just that and went to take a seat in front of Ryohei. Being right next to the window, the spring breeze refreshingly blew past his skin. And just like that, class resumed as normal, although he did take notice of a few wandering glances from the other students here and there.
The class that was currently being taught was English, to which Ryuuji became somewhat bored. It wasn't because he was disinterested in academics, but rather because the curriculum that was being taught was too easy. Despite it being roughly a decade since he's studied English in school, the comprehension that he acquired from hanging out with Johnathan and translating/interpreting at the black company were more than enough. If anything, he had better things to do right now: the [Free Draw Ticket] in his 'fight' against the Three Criminal Brothers he received the ticket as an achievement for winning his first fight.
While he was unsure as to whether he would get more of these tickets or not, or what future achievements would unlock, there was no harm in using the ticket now.
Activating the interface in his mind once again, he directed his consciousness towards the [Shop] tab, which, to his surprise, had changed in its layout.
Instead of the pop-up that presented itself to him like before, a grand [Black Market Roulette] button was plastered directly in the center of his interface. The button was decorated with a simple, cute design, in spite of its name, to which Ryuuji couldn't help but smile at.
Under the skill and item roulette options, he noticed that there was, instead of a cost that these games usually had, a sign saying [Free Draw x1] appeared below.
Taking into consideration his current understanding of his power, he knew that he could receive abilities and possibly items from various origins, from various fictional worlds. The problem was that he could only do so much to affect the outcome of what he would get.
'If I were to receive an item, then if I get something overpowered, then that would help me alot in my fight against Mukuro.' Ryuuji optimistically considered it at first, but then thought otherwise. 'But what are the chances of that happening? And even if I get something good, would I be able to use it?
After much back and forth wishful thinking, Ryuuji decided to take his chances gung-ho. While it would be good for him to receive an item, a skill would most likely grow with him, being more beneficial in the long run. Plus, depending on his conditions, he would always have more chances to test his luck.
With slight hesitation, he selected the button and the wheel appeared before him once again.
.
.
.
[Congratulations! You have acquired: Nabong Needle Ryu!]
[The acquired skill card will be placed into your Inventory.]
[The card has been recorded into your Collection.]
'Again? I have no idea what these abilities are. . . And this one doesn't even sound strong.' Ryuuji lamented as he switched tabs to reap his rewards.
[Learned Nabong Needle Ryu!]
[Nabong Needle Ryu]
[Type: Skill]
[Rank: C]
[Origin: God of High School (Na Bong-Chim)]
[Level: 0 (0.00%)]
[Ability Description: Allows the user to use their fingers as needles to puncture pressure points and vital points of the body. It can be used to heal or damage the body.]
* [Locked]
* [Locked]
* [Locked]
* [Locked]
* [Locked]
While the name of the skill doesn't sound very appealing, after looking at the effects, it didn't seem that bad for him. However, there was something about it that caught Ryuuji's eye.
'What's with all the [Locked] text? And don't skills usually start at level 1?' Ryuuji pondered. 'Does that mean that there's some kind of prerequisite?'
Although he wanted to probe further into the matter, Ryuuji decided that he would set that aside for later and focus on the new options that appeared for him in the time being. As he was about to explore the [Exchange] option that was just presented to him, he felt a finger poke his back.
Turning around had found that Ryohei was the one that had poked him. Knowing him from the original story, Ryuuji had assumed that Ryohei was most likely going to pester him into joining the boxing club.
"Yes, Ryohei?" Ryuuji replied in a voice slightly louder than a whisper.
Ryohei, not replying, just pointed forward with his finger.
"Nakamura-san." Komura-sensei sternly said. "I know this is your first day, but that is no excuse to be staring out the window and not paying attention to my class."
Upon hearing that, Ryuuji came to his senses and sprung upright in his seat. This was one of his bad habits: whenever he was in deep thought or preoccupied with something, he tended to drown out all other noise and stimuli, focusing on just that particular thing. Unaware, he had been staring out the window, chin on hand, for the entirety of the time he had been in class.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" Ryuuji frantically apologized, bowing his head.
"If this is how you're going to behave in my class from now on, please read and translate the first paragraph on page 64."
At this point, all eyes were on him, as he had no choice but to get up from his desk and read out loud from the English textbook he received from his neighbor. As he regained his composure, Ryuuji began to read the sentences under the gazes of many.
少し前、新宿区5丁目にあるボロボロの老人ホームにお爺さんとお婆さんがいました。二人はとても貧乏でした。この5丁目の裏道には悪さばっからいするちろおという暴走族のボスがいました。ちろおはスーパーへ行く人を困らせては読んでいました。ある日、お爺さんがその裏道を通ってスーパーに行きました。そうしたら、側をうろうろするものがありました。「なんだ、こりゃ？」と思ってみたら、大きくて、乱暴な暴走族がいました。お爺さんは心の中で「こいつがあのちろおだな~」と思いました。とても怖かったけど、わざと平気な顔をして、ちろおの愛車のフードに腰掛けて、おにぎりを出して、食べ始めました。
“All right. Now, please translate the text.” Komura-sensei asked. While usually she would go around and ask each student to translate only one sentence each, she decided that this would be a good enough deterrent for the new student to be dozing off in the middle of class.
With a soft sigh, Ryuuji took a look at the paragraph once more, and started to translate the piece of text.
[“Recently, there lived an old couple in a run-down nursing home in the 5th district of Shinjuku. They were very poor. Chiro, the boss of a delinquent group lurking in the backstreets of the 5th district caused nothing but trouble. Chiro enjoyed giving people heading to the supermarket a hard time. One day, the old man took the backstreet passage to the supermarket. He saw something lurking near him.
“What’s this?” he thought to himself as a large group of delinquents appeared. “This must be Chiro.”
The old man was very scared and kept his calm. He then sat on the hood of Chiro’s beloved car, pulled out a rice ball, and began eating.]
“Would that suffice, sensei?” Ryuuji asked Komura-sensei after finishing his translations. While it was not difficult by any means, he was somewhat appalled by the level of text that he was given to translate.
‘I must still be used to the mountain of English documents that my damn boss made me translate.’
Looking up for his book, Ryuuji was taken aback by the expressions that were worn by his teacher and classmates. Whispers could be heard from every corner of the room.
"What?" The whole class, along with the teacher, questioned in unison. The sudden answer by Ryuuji made the students gasp in awe.
'He can't be serious, right?'
'He instantly translated that long paragraph!.'
'He sounded just like a native!”
'
Even Komura-sensei was in disbelief at what had just happened, rapidly flipping through her textbook to confirm the answer.
"Was there a problem with my translations, Komura-sensei?" Ryuuji repeated, scratching his head, thinking that they might have not heard him.
"Um… that's correct, but there were some mistakes… I think?" Komura-sensei asked with a doubtful tone. While this was something that the students had to do on a daily basis, she did not expect that the new student would be this talented from the way that he looked. Japanese schools’ English curriculum was somewhat lacking in the early 2000s after all.
“Is that so?” Ryuuji questioned, believing that there shouldn’t have been a problem with his translations.
“When you translated “the old man” and “the old woman”, you used the word… “couple”, was it? That seems to be incorrect based on what I have written here.”
“Ah! I just thought that I could shorten it a bit. I just assumed the old man and old woman were together, so I didn’t see the need to lengthen the translation.”
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“I… see. Thank you. You may sit down…”
After that, class went on as normal. Apart from the occasional stares from his classmates, nothing much happened. If he were to catch them looking at him, he would simply just give them a smile then nod. He wasn't called up to the board either; just seldomly asked to give his answer to questions.
In the meanwhile, Ryuuji went back to exploring the new features of his ability. [Exchange] was fairly straightforward: it was a currency exchange system. Using this, he was able to exchange outside currency for gems. This was a pretty useful feature as he didn't have to wait to unlock achievements to acquire gems. . . Except for the fact that the exchange rate was absolutely abysmal!
'Current exchange rate: ¥100,000 = 1 gem?! Do you know what I could do with ¥100k? And how much is each pull from the roulette? 10 gems?! ¥1 MILLION?!'
Ryuuji's eternal screaming lasted until the end of the school day. Thinking that he could acquire power-ups somewhat easily, he was optimistic. But now, he was distraught.
One after another, Ryuuji was faced with another conundrum as soon as the school bell rang; this one, however, looked as if he would take 'no' for an answer.
"RYUUJI! COME TO THE BOXING CLUB!" Ryohei exclaimed, startling Ryuuji from his daze. His gleaming eyes showed genuine interest in the new transfer student, though the feeling wasn't quite reciprocated by the latter.
"COME ON! LET'S PUT OUR FISTS AND GUYS TO THE TEST!"
Ryuuji, who was not feeling up to it, tried to politely decline. "Sorry Ryohei, I don't feel li-" to which he had a sudden change of heart. "You know what? Let's go for a few rounds."
A wide grin formed on Ryohei's face.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
"Yosh! Here's the club room." Ryohei said as he slid open the door. As weird as it sounded, the smell of rubber and sweat reminded Ryuuji of the past that he had long forgotten, the good old days.
"Go ahead and change. There's some equipment in the back."
"Alright. What about you?" Ryuuji asked, albeit all too soon, as Ryohei was already in his boxing shorts and shoes. "I'm not even gonna ask how you changed that fast."
After Ryuuji had a change in attire, he returned to meet Ryohei in the main room. To his surprise, there was a small crowd present, ready to spectate the match. Rather than club members, they looked just like regular students who overheard them talking about the match.
"Ryuuji, how much do you weigh?" Ryohei asked as the two were bandaging their hands.
"58 kg, I think."
"I'm 59kg, so I'm in a higher weight class than you. I'll give you a handicap then."
"Don't worry about it. Let's just burn off some steam."
During their warm-up, Ryuuji could see that Ryohei's body was well built. While not in the condition you would see someone before their fight, there was muscle definition, letting Ryuuji know that his opponent was definitely not one to slack on his training.
Ryuuji, on the other hand, looked small in comparison. Compared to the toned body he once had when he was 15, his current physique was reminiscent of that of a normal teenage male, not overweight but definitely hindered by a healthy amount of body fat. To put it into picture, Ryohei looked as if he was around 10% body fat while Ryuuji was around 18%.
'Looks like I might have to build my body back up again.'
As both fighters finished their warm-up, Ryohei threw over 18oz gloves to Ryuuji's corner of the ring. "No handicaps, right?" Smiling.
"18? That's a little- you know what, nevermind. Let's get this party started."
Putting on their headgear and mouthpiece, the two met in the middle and touched gloves. Ryuuji could feel a strong heat radiant off of his opponent, even after just light shadow boxing.
'As expected of the future Sun Guardian, I guess.' Ryuuji chuckled.
As they returned to their corners, the tension in the air became thick.
"Red corner ready? Blue corner ready?" A student who looked to be one of Ryuuji's classmates entered the ring as a referee. In the anime, he never saw any other boxing club members, except for the seniors that one time at the beach, so it was most likely just a friend of Ryohei's.
Being given a nod from both corners, the fight began.
-Ding!-
At the sound of the bell, Ryohei rushed in towards Ryuuji, as expected of his hot-headed nature. Ryuuji stood his ground, observing every move, every single detail, as if waiting for the opportunity to pounce.
"Extreme Rush!" Ryohei led with a barrage of jabs and straights. While it looked as if he was throwing out lefts and rights, paying no attention to guarding, his defense was still solid.
With the help of [God-Speed Impulse], Ryuuji had no trouble weaving through Ryohei's attacks. As a southpaw, he naturally had more experience fighting orthodoxed boxers, albeit none as, for a lack of better words, extreme as this one.
Using the skill to his advantage, Ryuuji ducked under one of the upcoming punches and immediately rose, landing a right uppercut on the guard Ryohei had just put up. Seeing that he was able to halt Ryohei's rush, he followed up his attack with a left straight with all of weight. The sound of glove on glove boomed throughout the club room as Ryohei stumbled back to the center of the ring.
Ryohei's grin was as visible as could be, as if he had gotten his hands on a new toy. Wiping the sweat off of his forehead, Ryohei's eyes focused on only what was in front of him. His footwork became more sporadic. His stance, more fluid. His will, stronger than ever.
This time around, instead of a full frontal attack, Ryohei used his footwork to push his opponent back into the corner of the ring. Each strike was more calculated, aiming for the holes in Ryuuji's defense. The latter merely just weaved and parried his way through the attacks.
After an intense back and forth, Ryuuji saw an opportunity to attack as Ryohei went for a strong right straight. Taking advantage of the split second it took for Ryohei to get into position to strike, Ryuuji stepped forward inside his guard and unleashed a fierce uppercut aimed at the chin.
-Ding-
Mere centimeters from making direct contact, the round bell rang, immediately stopping the punch in its tracks.
Cold sweat fell from Ryohei's forehead as Ryuuji receded his arm, returning back to his corner. As Ryohei, as well, returned to his side of the ring, there was a feeling that he just couldn't get over.
"Hey Ryuuji." Ryohei asked as he leaned against the corner pad. "You don't box, do you?"
"What makes you think that?" Ryuuji replied as he panted. Despite his opponent this time around giving him less trouble than Hibari, the duration of the fight definitely took a toll on his body.
"Your footwork. It's not boxing." Ryohei's questioning was indeed justified. While his stance was tight and footwork evermoving, Ryuuji, on the other hand, was much wider in comparison. As for his footwork, Ryohei had thought that he was just a counter fighter, but even then, a boxer's stance should reveal as little surface area as possible, and from the recent round, he knew that Ryuuji was more than capable of a fighter not to know that. "Nevermind. I'm probably just looking into things too much."
"Muay Thai." Ryuuji replied just as Ryohei was about to disregard the matter.
"Eh?" Ryohei asked with a puzzled expression.
"Muay Thai: the art of eight limbs. But I guess you're right. My fighting style isn't really suited too well for boxing."
After a few more breaths, Ryohei looked as energetic as ever, to the point that you would have thought that he completely recovered from last round's fatigue. Unbuckling the strap, he threw his headgear to the side of the ring and walked closer to Ryuuji.
"Now I'm fired up to the extreme! Ryuuji! Fight me with Muay Thai."
"What? Put your head gear back on." Ryuuji was shocked by this request. While it's true that there wasn't a single martial art that was stronger than another, Muay Thai was definitely one of the more dangerous ones. Worried about the safety of his opponent, Ryuuji strongly tried to dissuade Ryohei from his 'unreasonable' request. "You can't be serious."
"I'm dead serious. Show me what you got."
"Look. You can get seriously injured if I'm not careful. Wasn't this supposed to be a friendly sparring match?" The main reason why Ryuuji agreed to this match was just to release some pent up stress since he arrived in this world, not to harm his classmate unnecessarily.
"I'm well aware of the consequences. I'll take everything you have to throw at me."
Seeing that it was useless to argue further, Ryuuji reluctantly agreed. "Don't say I didn't warn you. I'm stopping this match as soon as I think it's too dangerous."
Tightening the flap on his gloves, Ryuuji returned to his corner, also removing his headgear. 'Wouldn't want an unfair fight, would we?'
"Round 2, fight!"
-Ding!-
The two slowly moved towards the center of the ring, making sure to gauge the distance between each other.
Ryuuji abandoned the makeshift boxing style and took up a more frontal stance. Exposing more of his side, his guard rose to protect his chin and head. Distributing most of his weight onto his back leg, his front leg was ready to react to any advance.
Breaking the standstill, Ryohei moved forward, throwing a few jabs. After that little 'test', all seemed well enough to fully engage. Little did he know, he had long stepped into Ryuuji's range.
As soon as Ryohei made his first big step forward, his leg was met with a front 'teep' (push kick), knocking him off balance. Immediately after, Ryuuji rushed in, landing a devastating elbow on Ryohei's temple.
Making an effort to use the flat side of his forearm instead, the force behind the blow was still able to knock Ryohei down on one knee. No blood, but a direct hit like that should have at least rattled his brain, making it difficult to stand.
"So? Do you still want to continue?" Ryuuji asked with a worried expression on his face.
"I'm not down yet!" Ryohei exclaimed as he sprung up and made a dash directly towards Ryuuji, who was impressed by his opponent's durability, stamina, and speed. Seeing this, he wanted to know what this boxer had in store for him next.
As a means to counter the range advantage Ryuuji had from a distance with his 'teep', Ryohei looked to disrupt the momentum with a clinch, an action he would instantly regret.
"Sorry Ryohei, you should never wage a clinch war against a Muay Thai fighter." Ryuuji said as he pierced a sharp knee into Ryohei's side.
Flinching, Ryohei could only watch as Ryuuji swung his foot inside his guard and, using his grip from the clinch, threw him to the ground.
BOOM! The sound of muscle rattling rubber and wood echoed throughout the club room. Groans of second-hand pain escaped from the mouths of spectators as Ryohei fell on his back. Droplets of sweat ran down his glistening skin, soaking up the ring.
In what looked like an act of desperation, Ryohei pushed himself up off the ground, using his knee as a support. Being knocked around continuously like this should have destroyed the moral of any fighter. But this man. HE was a different specimen. A cut above the rest. The fire in his eyes showed no signs of dying out.
"Damn, you are tough." Ryuuji couldn't help but pant-chuckle. "I guess I was worried about nothing."
"Come on! This is just getting extremely fun!"
"You're right. This is fun."
Ryuuji saw no downsides to this sparring match. He needed more time and experience to test out what his current body could do against an opponent that was strong rather than an overwhelming one. That way he could find a good starting point for his training. Ryohei was also getting some training as well. Eventually in the future, he would become the Sun Guardian of the Vongola Family, which means that he would eventually have to go against Lussuria, another practitioner of Muay Thai. Also, above all else, this was fun.
Two fighters looked each other in the eyes, signaling that the match was nearing its end. Taking an action unlike him, Ryuuji leapt forward, keen on dealing the finishing blow. Ryohei, still recovering from the shock of two powerful blows, patiently stood his ground.
"Give me all you got, Ryuuji!"
"Gladly!"
Straight against straight, both sides put all of their remaining energy into one, final blow.
"Extreme Right!!!"
Seeing the determination in Ryohei's eyes, even though he could, Ryuuji thought that it would be a waste to dodge this one. The fight with Hibari took more of a toll on his body than he had hoped, but he was satisfied nonetheless.
The impact of the boxing gloves made ripples upon both of their cheeks. Gritting their teeth through the pain, neither side was backing down. As if they had the same idea, the two followed up with hooks. Then body blows. Uppercuts. Overhand. It was turning into a slugfest, but the weird thing was, in spite of all the damage they were taking, it never once wiped the smile from their faces.
-Ding! Ding! Ding!-
The referee walked up to the middle of the ring to find two heavy bruised men laying on the ground, gasping for air. Unsure as to who he should award the title of victor to, seeing the battered condition of both fighters, all he could do was announce a draw.
“A draw… huh? I could have sworn… I landed more hits than you.”
“My punches were… more extreme than yours.”
Despite their banter, the two showed great sportsmanship in the end, as they touched gloves to signify the end of the round. The act was met with ample applause from the student crowd. This would be an event to remember: a transfer student going toe-to-toe with the captain of the boxing club on his first day; though somewhat overshadowed by another transfer student that thought that it was a good idea to bring explosives to school.