The rest of the trip went by smoothly. Raito got along with Reo and Keito got to see the old Reo again. Raito might not be ready to move on but now he knows he’s not broken. It was bittersweet for Raito to say goodbye to his cousins as he got on the plane to go back home. But now Raito had a goal for when he got back.

What Leech had said to Raito really stuck with him. He was so busy learning to use his Gift that the idea of training his own body didn’t even register to him. If he had any chance of closing the gap between an experience Gift user and himself. He had to take that leap. He knew that the next time he ran into a Gift, no one will be coming to save him.

Raito spent the first few days at home trying to fix everything that he broke. His mom wanted to help but rejected it, “This is my mess and I need to be the one to fix.”

His father had tools and there was plenty of wood in their backyard garage to get things started. He fixed his bed, bookshelves, desk, and furniture. Luckily most of the work was just replacing broken wood and fixing any damages. But the next part was getting back into his comic.

He worked for hours. Drawing everything as fast as he could. Erasing mistakes and redrawing details in mere seconds. He used every technique he knew to color in the drawings at a rapid pace. If it wasn’t for his mom going up to his room with food; he would have past out from exhaustion. Raito dropped his pen, started rubbing his wrist, and stretched his fingers. His hands kept wanting to fold back into position as if he was still drawing. But he had finally finished his latest chapter. “I’m finally done. Now it’s my turn to get stronger just like you,” Raito roared while staring at the screen before pushing the submit button.

With a quick check of his phone, he was off to his car and began following the GPS. As he looked around the area he noticed that it was very secluded. Many of the stores were out of business and there were only a few people outside walking around. He started to think that maybe the location wasn’t updated or possibly he was at the wrong place. “You have arrived,” his phone said as Raito found himself in a back alley with no clear signs on what he was looking for. He pondered for a few minutes on whether to head back or not. So he checked his phone again and notice that he needed to walk the rest of the way. Deciding to take a chance he drove back around to find a place to park and started to head to the location on his phone. The area wasn’t as frightening as the one he was in when he fought Blight. Raito looked around and started reading the various signs on the nearby buildings, “Technology house, Massage therapy, Grocery & Stuff, Beauty Shop, The Boxing Boot Camp…. The Boxing Boot Camp!” Out of all the abandoned buildings, this one seemed to be the only one still standing.

Raito peeked inside and saw a ton of people inside. Two were sparing inside a boxing ring, five were working out using weights, seven were doing various cardio exercises, four were just socializing, and another eight were doing various boxing training workouts. They all looked like they were in fantastic shape and were giving it their all. Raito’s eyes glisten with excitement as he wanted to jump right in. As he tried to take a step in, a man’s voice shouted, “You lost?”

Raito pulled back his foot and was thrown off, “No?”

“Was that an answer or a question?” the voice asked.

Every inside the building stopped what they were doing and turned their attention onto Raito. Raito’s hand began to shake nervously and tried to avoid eye contact with the people inside. But knowing they were looking at him caused him to look back, which only fueled his anxiety.

“I….I’m here to learn how to fight.” Raito stuttered.

There was a brief pause before everyone burst out laughing.

“Did I say something funny?” Raito asked.

“You came to the wrong place to learn how to fight my man. Boxing and fighting are two different things.” The voice continued.

Raito looked around the room to try and figure out who was talking to him when he noticed one of the men in the boxing ring. The man was medium size and very well built, his muscles were very well defined. He whipped away some of his sweat and rubbed his hands on his shorts, trying to get rid of as much sweat as he could. He reached out his hand and introduced himself, “Name is Jamar.”

Raito shook Jamar’s hand, “The name is Raito.”

“That’s a unique name.”

“It’s Japanese.”

Jamar laughed.

“Why is that funny?

“As you can see. This gym isn’t exactly diverse.”

“How come you’re the only place open around here?”

“People move out of the ghetto for a better life. As more and more left, businesses left with them. But my place has always been the get-together hangout for many of the kids that grew up here. So I keep it open for them. But back to you. Why do you want to learn how to fight?”

“I want to be stronger!” Raito declared.

“See, that’s why we’re laughing at you, my dude. Fighting and boxing are two different things. Being stronger and knowing how to fight are also two different things.” Jamar turned around and shouted, “Craig! Get your ass in the ring and bring a pair for our newbie over here.” He gestured over to Raito for him to follow as he made his way to the ring. “Take your arms out so I can put these gloves on you.”

“Wait- What!? I..I don’t know how to fight! You’re not going to show me anything first!?” Raito questioned.

“Before I can teach you, you need to know what you really want. So I want you to spar with Craig over there first.”

Raito looked over Jamar’s shoulder to see a teen putting on his gloves. He was built similar to Jamar but was smaller.

“I can’t fight a kid!” Raito shouted.

“Trust me, you won’t be able to land a hit on him.” Jamar finished prepping Raito and walked towards the center. “Alright, clean round you hear me!? Craig, I want you to do boxing. Raito, you can fight as dirty as you want.”

Before Raito could even say a word the bell rung and Craig nearly rushed into Raito. Craig’s speed was not something he was expecting so he threw a left jab.

Craig easily ducked it. As he was about to get up, threw his right arm up for an uppercut. “There was no power in that weak ass punch!” Craig growled.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Raito closed his eyes prepping himself to take a punch. But the punch never connected. Craig purposely stopped his punch before contact and backed up. “That’s one.”

Rait tilted his head to the side, “That’s one?”

This time Raito decided to make a move and rushed over to Craig. Craig simply waited for the last second to sidestep the rush. Causing Raito to run into the ropes and losing his focus. Craigh planted his right foot onto the floor and twisted his body as he followed through with a strong left hook. Stopping again right before it made contact. “That’s two,” Craig said.

Everyone outside of the ring began shouting things like, “Come on man. You’re bigger! You going to let a kid beat you!? You can fight dirty go for the balls!

Frustrated, Raito tried copying Craig again. He put up his fist and started to move around the ring, eyeing Craig for his next move.

Craig started showing off by shuffling his feet and pretending to go in for another punch but then backing off. Raito decided now was the time to go for a surprise attack. As Craig went in, Raito waited for Craig to back off and moved forward to throw a right kick. Craig purposely took the kick to his leg and threw four quick left jabs before throwing in another right hook into Raito’s gut. Again, none of the strikes made contact with Craig saying, “That’s three.”

“Make the next one count Craig!” Shouted Jamar.

“Make the next one count?” Raito whispered to himself.

Craig then dropped his guard and starting taunting Raito, “My face is right here man.” He even stretched out his head a few times, hoping it would encourage Raito to go for it.

“I need to think. Every time I think there is an opening, I make a mistake. This time I’ll wait till he comes to me.”

Getting tired of waiting, Craig started to walk towards Raito with his guard still down. As he got closer and closer, Raito decided that was the moment he was waiting for. Raito dashed towards Craig, hoping that Craig wouldn’t have time to react, and threw a right punch. Craig took the punch. “Got you!” Shouted Raito.

“This makes four.” Craig moves back as the punch didn’t even phase him and threw a right punch into Raito’s face. Then finishing it off with a left hook, again, planting his right foot and twisting his body as it followed through with the punch. Knocking Raito out!

It took about five minutes before Raito woke up from his knock out. “What happened,” He questioned.

“You got knocked the fucked out, that’s what happened,” Craig said.

“He technically knocked you out four times but purposely held back till I gave the okay. And this my friend is the difference between fighting and getting stronger. Anyone can fight. But if you don’t have the strength to finish your opponent off, then the match is already over. You hit Craig two times but he took the hit on purpose so he could go in and hit you back harder.” Jamar explained.

“The strikes were nothing but love taps,” Craig commented.

“So I’ll ask again. What is it that you want? To fight or to be stronger.” Jamar asked.

“I- I think. No! I want to be stronger and learn to box!” Raito yelled out.

“That is what I wanted to hear. Gym membership is twenty bucks a month. You in?” Jamar said as he took his hand out for Raito.

“I’m in!” Raito grabbed on to Jamar’s hand as Jamar helped Raito up from the ground.

“First step. Building up those things you call arms!”

Every day for a month Raito continued to go to the gym to not only train but too also workout. It didn’t take long for Raito to build up muscle or get stronger because of how scrawny he was originally. That’s not to say that the training wasn’t easy. The words “That’s one. That’s two. That’s three. That’s four.” Echoed into his ears as his body hits the floor every time he got to four. But he was determined to not give up. It didn’t matter how many bruises or how many times he got knocked out. He was determined to win at least one match.

“Alright, everyone. It’s been about a month since our little buddy here has been training and he has yet to win a single match! Let’s see if today is his day! In one corner we got the only Asian guy in the house, Raito! And in the other corner, we got Terry! She might be a woman, but she can kick your ass and I know from experience. Let’s get this shit going!” Yelled out, Jamar.

“Why am I fighting her again? I can’t even beat Craig yet.” Asked Raito.

“Yah but your punches have gotten a lot stronger. It wouldn’t be a fair fight.”

“And this is! She’s bigger than me!”

“And you were bigger than Craig.” Jamar winked.

The bell rang and Terry made her move. She was clearly a pro. The way she had her guard up, her feet movement was fluid yet sturdy, she was constantly faking going in and out to fish for an opening. Then there was Raito who knew to keep his guard up and to focus on his feet movement but was not experienced at all when it came to going in. Terry faked a rush which caused Raito to sway back. That was the opening Terry was looking for and rushed in once Raito stopped moving back. She did a quick left jab to the stomach before finishing it off with a right punch to the side of Raito’s head.

“Don’t say it, don’t say it,” Raito murmured as he tried to compose himself.

“That’s one” Terry roared.

“Man, if she went full strength I would be out already!?” Raito said to himself. “I need to be calm. I need to focus I need to-“ Then Raito heard something. He could hear the sounds of Terry’s feet shuffling. Raito had been so focused on training his body that he nearly forgot that he had an advantage; he was a Gift. “Maybe I can do this.” Using his Gift he tried to listen to Terry’s body movement. “I think I can do this!”

Raito slowly made his way in closer to Terry, while trying not to flinch to her fake dashes. That’s when he heard a difference. Terry’s body actually loosens up when she goes in for a real dash. Sadly that was too little too late. Raito took another hard hit from Terry. Three jabs to the face, that he was able to block, then a strong right hook to his stomach. Knocking the air out of him for a bit before hearing her say, “That’s two.” He knew he only had one chance left before Terry went all out for real.

“I can faintly hear her muscles move too when she gets ready to hit me. If I had more time to get used to this I think I can turn this around.” Raito said to himself.

Everyone’s attention was on the match. People were cheering and yelling for Raito to at least land one hit. Some of them were impressed that Raito was even able to take a few hits from Terry, even if they were light strikes.

Raito decided this time to distance himself so he can better hear the difference in Terry’s movement. With every move Terry made, Raito was making sure to memorize it. Before he knew it, he realized that there was a pattern to her movements that were on a consistent beat. Then he heard a break in the pattern. Terry was going in. Raito focused his eyes on Terry’s fist while listening to her feet.

“It’s going to be an uppercut” Raito predicted as he blocked the first three jabs and quickly sidestepped to the left to avoid the strike as well as being in Terry’s blind spot. Terry was now wide open but only for a few seconds. Raito planted his left foot hard onto the ground, twisted his body as he followed through with a fierce right hook.

“Our bodies are stronger than the average human,” Leech said.

The strike landed on Terry and even knocked her back a little. But that wasn’t the full force of Raito’s right hook. Raito looked down to see a shadow had pulled back his own shadow, stopping him from following through with his punch.

“You would have killed her if I had not stopped you.” Leech went on.

Raito turned around to face the crowd. Everyone was cheering and congratulating Raito. “Leech?” He asked as he tried to look beyond the crowd but couldn’t quite see anything.

“Turn around! Turn around!” The crowd shouted.

“Huh?” He turned around only to see a fist aiming for his face. “Oh shi-“

Were Raito’s last words before getting knocked out…again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Why are you protecting him?”

“I’m not I-”

“Then why is he still alive!”

“He will shake things up.”

“How so?”

“He can be the first one.”

“Only because of you.”

“He has the potential.”

“Then what?”

“Then what?”

Leech breaks eye contact with his reflection from his bathroom mirror. “Then what?” He looked over to his hand which is bandaged up. He then giggled a little bit before exploding into laughter. “AHAHahaHHAahahAHAHHHaahahah! Then this world will finally change! Timekeeper will no longer rule and everything will be set ablaze! This world will pay. They all will pay!

Leech then threw his left arm out to create a black hole that acted as a mirror. In it, he saw Raito fighting Terry. Leech could see Raito improving and getting ready to make his move.

“That idiot already forgot about our superhuman strength.”

“That is because you keep saving him” Leech’s reflection answered.

Leech ignored it and went through the black hole.