HA3 1.6 – Unknown Side
As soon as Hide disappeared from her sight, Hanna immediately went straight to the backyard gym. Over there, she found Coach Kotaro was sitting in the bench next to the gym’s door, casually enjoyed a piece of egg sandwich as his breakfast.
As soon as Hanna arrived before him, he immediately asked her, “Do you want to know why I put forward Hide’s sparring schedule?”
“Yeah,” Hanna firmly replied. “Most of all, I wants to know the reason why you put Hayashida as his first opponent.”
“This talk will take some time,” Coach Kotaro casually said. “Have a sit.”
Wasting no time, Hanna sat next to Coach Kotaro, and after taking a sip of his orange juice, Coach Kotaro turned his gaze to her.
“How long do you know Hide?”
After a short ponder Hanna replied, “Around a few weeks.”
“So, you don’t know him long enough.”
“Yeah,” Hanna openly admitted. “But other than his professional attitude towards his study, part-time job, and physical exercise, or his mature temperament, Hide is still a high school kid.”
“I see.” After a short pause Coach Kotaro asked in a drop dead serious tone. “Did he already bang you?”
“He did,” Hanna replied as she creased her brows. “Is that a problem?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. But, it’s definitely not like you at all.” Coach Kotaro calmly said. “Letting a man, especially a far younger one, to enter your personal life so easily.
As far as I remember, you always whine in front of me every time a man you know only for a few weeks want to enter your personal life, and you will just reject them.”
“Well,” Hanna let out a deep breath before continuing. “The first time we did it, it just happened so naturally, and I was not drunk by the way.
The next morning, I tried to prevent it from blooming into a relationship, but Hide managed to convince me that we should tried it first.
It felt weird initially. But I gradually realize that Hide doesn’t behave like a high school kid, and our relationship just grows further.”
“Just like that?” Coach Kotaro said as she looked at Hanna with big wonder.
“Yeah, just like that,” Hanna casually said. “I don’t know how to describe it, but from our first meeting, Hide is really good at make me feel comfortable at my pace, so why don’t I just enjoy it?”
After letting out a long sigh Coach Kotaro said, “Didn’t I warn you, you should have double precaution for a man who could make you feel comfortable at first meeting?”
“You did,” Hanna calmly said. “But it’s not like I will marry Hide. There is a high possibility he will get bored of me at some point. At that time, we will just end our relationship peacefully.”
‘The problem is, you already fall for him, stupid girl,’ Coach Kotaro muttered as he helplessly looked at the foolish smile in Hanna’s eyes.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t just meddle with Hanna’s personal life no matter how deep he cared about her. So, in the end he could just gave Hanna another warning.
“If he makes you cry,” Coach Kotaro sternly said. “I will send him to ER with a few broken ribs.”
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After giving Coach Kotaro a light smile Hanna said, “If he makes me cry, feel free to break all his ribs, and a few other bones.”
After a satisfy nod Coach Kotaro said, “Good. I’ll add some other bones in the process.”
“Now, back to the topic,” Hanna said. “Why did you put forward Hide’s sparring schedule?”
“This is the sparring footage between Hide and Hayashida. It will explain my reason.” Coach Kotaro handed over his tablet to Hanna as he added, “I bet, it will also make you realize that you know almost nothing about Hide.”
Big question mark instantly filled Hanna’s forehead to the brim. Then, she immediately took the tablet and checked the footage.
It was pretty much standard footage, like any other sparring footage in the backyard gym. However, a few seconds after watching it Hanna immediately realized that Hide was too calm. The first thing that came to her mind after that was, Hide’s overconfidence would cost him dearly. Then, Hanna’s heart instantly skipped a beat as Hide received a full blown jab.
A moment later Hayashida dropped his guard. It was his habit to make his sparring opponents wasted their energy by chasing him, and then he would go for the kill when they were already too tired to avoid his killing strike.
Seeing Hide took Hayashida’s bait and approached him with casual steps, Hanna could only letting out a sigh. However, as he was only one and half step away from Hayashida, in one flowing movement Hide suddenly lifted his right knee as close as possible to his body, while his toes pointed downward straight to the matt, and a split second later his heel already landed on Hayashida’s chin and knocked him out cold.
It was compact, precise, and powerful front kick. Hide had a gift with flexibility, so it was not that surprising if he could perform such kick. Actually, Hanna had seen this kick from the footage when Hide did a heavy bag.
However, to perform it in his first sparring with ease, it was too hard for Hanna to swallow it. As the result, she immediately put the sparring footage into pause, and then turned her gaze into distance.
“What do you say about his kick?” Coach Kotaro curiously asked.
“He is…. a natural kicker,” Hanna hesitantly replied while her shock was still clearly visible in her eyes.
“In that case, watch the second round.”
Wasting no time, Hanna continued watching the footage. A moment later, she dropped her jaw as Hide ended the fight with rear naked choke unchallenged. It was as if Hayashida knew nothing about the defense against grappling.
Hanna instantly put the footage into pause again, and then turned her gaze to Coach Kotaro as big question mark appeared in her forehead.
“To be able to execute such a smooth and seamless rear naked choked, talent alone won’t be enough. It takes tremendous amount of training and fighting experience to master it to such degree,” Coach Kotaro casually said. “But it seems you have no clue about the version of this Hide.”
“I truly have no clue about it,” Hanna weakly admitted as she continued watching the footage.
In the third round, it was clearly visible Hayashida had fully come to his sense. He didn’t underestimate Hide anymore. From the get go, he went as if he was facing a professional opponent.
On the other side, Hide’s fighting disposition also drastically changed. He looked more relax, but somehow it gave Hanna an impression that Hide became more dangerous, like a tiger that had just free itself from shackle. If Hanna didn’t have prior image about Hide, she would definitely think that Hide was a professional fighter.
Then, the two made their approach, closing the distance with confidence steps. Just two steps before the merge, Hide suddenly made a half side-step, and without fail Hayashida mirrored Hide’s side steps.
Unfortunately, what Hide executed was not just ordinary side steps. It was a preparation for a back spin kick. And so, just as Hayashida completed his side step, Hide’s right heel landed on the side of his head.
Hide only made a light jump when executing his back spin kick. His left feet went to the air only about 2-3 cm above the matt, but it was more than enough to power his kick with more than half of his body weight.
Worst of all, this was the first time Hide performed such kick, so Hayashida never expected it and just receive it with the side of his head. Hanna instantly dropped her jaw as Hayashida got knocked out cold one more time. After that, the medic staff had to carry Hayashida into infirmary.
“He truly hides his skill so damn deep,” Hanna said as complicated expression filled her face to the brim.
“He does,” Coach Kotaro calmly expressed his agreement. “And as someone who helps me shape numerous fighters, I bet you can see Hide’s fighting character by now.”
Hanna instantly nodded. “He follows the basic principal of don’t fight your opponents on their term.”
“Yeah, don’t box against a boxer, don’t kick against a kicker, don’t grappling against a grappler.”
“So, someone have taught him Krav Maga.”
“No, it’s something older.”
“Something older?”
“Taiho-jutsu.”
“The arresting art?”
“Yeah, and Hide is super good at it.” After a moment of pause Coach Kotaro added, “And now I realize that despite his docile attitude, from the beginning he doesn’t actually need my guidance.
He already knows what he want to do and how he should do it. He just needs sparring partners to help him polish his art.”
“Wait a second,” Hanna turned her gaze to Coach Kotaro as she worriedly said, “Don’t tell me you want to kick Hide out of the gym.”
“On the contrary, I will help him find a good sparring partner. In return, I will use him to shape Hayashida’s defense against grappler.”
“Other than Hayashida, who do you plan to pick as Hide’s sparring partner?”
“Myself, because I’m the only one who know how to use edge-weapon, and Old Unagi because only him will be able to give Hide a grappling spar that truly benefit him.”
“Do you mean Unagi the Eel?”
“Yup, that Old Eel.”
“How will you convince him to come here? He always refuses your invitation to work as a trainer here.”
“He instantly accepts my offer after I send him the sparring footage a moment ago. He will start to come here in 2-3 weeks.”
“I see.” Hanna instantly took a deep breath full of relief. “I will support your arrangement.”
“Hide is definitely a good thing for this gym.” Coach Kotaro tone became drop dead serious as he added, “However, it doesn’t mean he is also a good thing for you. At least, make sure he is not a con or violence type.”
“I’ll do that,” Hanna firmly replied.
“Good. Now, can you drop Hayashida to the hospital? Hide hammered his head twice. We need to make sure he has no loose screw in his head.”
“I can’t. I have a meeting with Kamui’s representative.”
“It’s about the adjustment for Sakura Project.”
“Yeah, we will move the location to the vacant land near the beach in the south, and Kamui will handle the land acquisition.”
“I see,” Coach Kotaro calmly replied. “I will take him to the hospital myself then.”
After some other small talk, Hanna then left while Coach Kotaro went to infirmary to wake up Hayashida.
*****