Chapter 4: Chapter 4 - First Match
Chapter 4
~
Somchai walked away from the group and made his way through the gym to the other side, making a quick stop at the registration booth and fetching the little girl's entry submission, and entered one of the doors arriving in a small room, two bookshelves one of them about 2 meters tall, the other one a meter stood against the back of the room containing various books and notes with a few boxes haphazardly places on top of them.
Above the shorter shelf hung a board with a few papers tacked onto it while a red circle clock hung beside the taller one. In the middle of the room stood a brown wooden desk with a monitor, a stack of papers, a cup of pencils and a smoke tray placed on top of it, Somchai looked to the person currently sitting behind it on an old office chair writing something.
It was a well built middle-aged man, he had neat short brown hair slicked back and black eyes, a well trimmed beard while he gave off a firm but friendly feeling. He was wearing a loose white shirt and some comfortable black pants while leisurely writing away, only looking up when he heard the door open due to the noise of the gym entering his office and gave a curt nod when he saw who it was before going back to work.
"Oh, Somchai."
"Adam." Somchai also nodded in response, closing the door behind him as he waited for Adam to finish up, the office descending into a comfortable silence for a few minutes before he put down his pen and straightened out with a grunt.
"I don't even know what sort of demon possessed me to make me think this would be a good idea, opening a gym might have sounded fun at first but this paperwork is seriously killing me." Adam grumbled as he put the document into one of the desk's drawers before standing up and stretching, producing a small series of clicks.
"Oh? I seem to remember a certain someone shouting that this was the best idea ever on the top of his lungs and telling just about anyone who was willing to listen that he was going to make the best gym in G City just a few years ago." Somchai raised an eyebrow in amusement as a small smile appeared on his face.
"Bah! Whoever that was probably took one kick too many to the head, he's probably absolutely miserable right about now. I should know, after all, I'm real familiar with the guy." Adam posed theatrically before his shoulders slumped towards the end of his sentence as he finished lamely with a sigh.
Somchai chuckled at his friends antics and gave him a pat on the back.
"Anyway, did you need anything? The matches are about to start in a few minutes so I should probably get out there anyway." Adam asked as he glanced at the clock on the wall behind him before started sorting through the paper stack.
"Ouh. I need a favor."
"Mhmm, what is it?"
"I want you to approve a participant I'm a bit curious about."
Hearing this Adam raised his head and looked at him in confusion after finding the papers he wanted, putting them under his arm as he walked around the desk.
"What do you mean? You can enter as long as the matches haven't started yet, was there any problems with the registration booth or something?"
"No, not really. They're just a bit young, apparently they misunderstood the 'junior' in Junior tournament to also include Bantam entries aswell."
"Huh, really? There's barely even any tournaments that include them anymore unless they're independantly hosted, and even then they're mostly for community fun than actual fighting since pretty much no one attends them unless they know the participants. I've only heard about a few Intermediate tourneys lately and even they are rare."
"I'm also unsure, maybe they only heard about it from someone else and they omitted some information. Either way, do you think you could pass it?"
"I mean, I guess? As long as it's not just some kid that's never been in the ring before we can just do a quick spar before starting the actual matches, but what's got you so interested all of a sudden?" Adam asked curiously as they walked out of his office and made their way towards the registration booth.
"Could she continue through the tournament if she wins the match?" Somchai ignored his question as he asked.
"Uh... I don't really care to be honest. If she does win she can advance, sure. But I won't be able to give her the entry into the Junior tournament the winners of this one is supposed to get if she by some miracle makes it that far. Even I can't do anything about that, you know that right?" Adam said, ending with a small frown on his face.
"That's fine." Somchai nodded in satisfaction as he continued walking.
"So... why are you so interested anyway?"
"..."
"Oi, Somchai-"
---
Over the next few minutes the participants began trickling in before starting to prepare themselves for the fights, psyching up, changing into regulation competition outfits and wrapping their hands.
While Sam was hanging over Nana's shoulders immersed in a video she felt someone tap her shoulder and looked up to see that one of the gym staff manning the registration booth was holding a pair of wrappings, gloves, a heardguard and a mouthguard gesturing at her to take them. Sam raised her eyebrow in confusion as she looked at her, prompting her to answer the unasked question.
"Mr. Adam, the owner of the gym sponsoring this event, has approved of your contestant participating in a warm up match before starting the tournament, however he also said that if she were to win, she would be allowed to advance. The caveat being that even if she somehow places first, he can't grant her entry into the tournament following this one." The staff member explained simply.
"Oh..." Sam answered somewhat hesitantly as she grabbed the gear, the staff member quickly walking away after she did as she stared somewhat dumbfounded. That creepy guy was actually able to get Nana approved? What the hell?
The others had also looked over as soon as the staff approached and were also surprised by the news.
"Don't know how he did it, but it works our for us doesn't it?" Chad shrugged his shoulders after a period of silence.
"Yeah... I mean, I guess it does?" Sam was still feeling a bit weirded out but quickly moved past it, as long as Nana could get into the ring she was convinced she wouldn't lose to anyone here.
"Well. Let's quickly prepare Nana for the match, the others are already done gearing up and I don't think we have much time since she's going first." Coach John shook his head before he swiftly started wrapping up Nana's hands after which he fastened the headguard and helped her put on the gloves. Making sure it was done properly despite being in a bit of a rush, finishing just in time to hear a brown haired man start speaking.
"Alright then ladies and gentlemen, it's time to get this tournament started! My name is Adam, the owner of this gym and the acting referee for today. I'm assuming most of you know the rules already but I'll give you a quick rundown to refresh your memory: You can only attack with properly clenched fists and no strikes below the belt, kidney shots and the back of the head are also off limits. If you're knocked down, I'll give you 30 seconds to get back up. No using the ropes for leverage and no hitting an opponent when they're down. If I see any of these performed by a contestants, I will flag you. Maybe even disqualify you if I deem it appropriate, I'm warning you now, and I promise you. I will see it." Adam announced, putting on a stern face as he lightly glared at the crowd, a few people even flinching as his gaze swept over them. Deciding the message probably stuck he was about to continue when he was interrupted, everyone looking over to the source.
"What's with all these rules man? Like, come on. Back home, it was just fight until one 'o ya drops. See that's much simpler, ain't it?" A tall rough looking young man with bleached hair scoffed as he crossed his arms, showing a few tattooes peeking out of his sleeves, with an annoyed expression. While at his side, a black haired boy promptly kicked him in the shin making him wince.
"Sorry about this guy, he's been hit in the head for as long as I've known him and it's taken it's toll." The black haired boy muscled the slightly taller boy into a head-lock as he apologized before he whisper shouted into his ear. "Stop making a scene you idiot!"
Adam raised an eyebrow as he looked on but didn't pursue it.
"Moving on, today is a bit special since we will be having a pre-match spar between one of the contestants and an entry that unfortunately was a bit too young to participate."
Hearing him everyone's faces turned confused caught off guard by the announcement, but didn't really react other than that. Alot of tournaments used gimmicks like these to attract both participants and attention from the public these days, it was basically a standard practice at this point.
"I see most of you aren't surprised by this, what probably would surprise you however is that if our young entry somehow manages to win, she will be allowed to join the tournament along with everyone else despite her age, which is currently 12 years old!"
This time, most of the crowd gained a shocked expression. It was common knowledge that although boxing wasn't dangerous to practice, and alot of people started young, 12 years old was barely reaching the age you would have your first spar, nevermind actual tournament matches. No one thought she would genuinely be able to win, but if her opponent sandbagged enough that she won by outscoring them, she'd still be allowed in which most were confused about.
Even if she won the practice match by her opponent sandbagging, she'd just lose the first actual tournament match so no one really saw the point of giving her a chance.
The crowd descended into hushed discussions wondering why they decided to do something like this instead of something that would actually attract people, like a free hot dog or something.
Standing at the back of the crowd Sam's eyes narrowed dangerously as she heard a few comments that was starting to pissed her off.
"This is just a waste of time."
"Pretty much. I mean, I get trying to be original with the events but setting up a Bantam class against a Junior class? Is there even any doubt about who wins?"
"Well it'll be quick at least, we won't have to wait too long for the real tournament to start."
"Honestly it's not the worst pre-tournament event I've ever been to. Jerry, you remember that time the gym owner decided to give out free haircuts to everyone there?"
"Haha, yeah. The whole tournament turned into a shitshow because everyone that tried were so pissed off for the rest of it."
"Oh, come on you spoilsports. At least pretend to look excited, the kid's gonna get sad getting into the ring and seeing everyone bored."
...
...
...
Sam silently simmered with a large frown plastered on her face as they counted Nana out before the match had even started. She knew intellectually that thinking a 12 year old would lose to a 15-16 year old in a fight was just common sense, but Nana being dismissed to easily still pissed her off somewhat fiercely.
Grabbing Nana's shoulders and turning her around to face her, Nana tilted her head as she looked at her not looking bothered in the slightest. Sam knew that although Nana wasn't very good at speaking herself, she had an uncannily keen ability to pick up and understand what other people were thinking so she was a bit worried that she would be affected, but it looks like she worried for nothing.
However even if Nana didn't care about their comments, Sam sure did. Putting on a serious face, Sam looked into Nana's dull black eyes as she spoke gravely.
"Nana, go all out from the beginning and knock out whoever you opponent is the second you hear the bell, okay?"
Nana just blinked at her while Sam continued persuading her.
"...Should we stop her?" Coach John asked hesitantly. He, Chad and Yama had already taken a step back when they felt Sam's anger start spiking. They had all been on the receiving end of an angry Sam for various reasons, but they felt that mother hen Sam reacting to anyone attacking Nana would be far worse and wisely retreated early to not accidentally poke at her.
"...Are you volunteering yourself?" Chad asked dryly as he watched Sam seriously instructing Nana to punch the shit out of her opponent. He also didn't like the comments being thrown around but what could he do? He wasn't about to start throwing hands and Nana would prove them wrong either way. Apparently Sam had decided to vent through Nana and direct her ire towards whoever her opponent would be which while not really deserved, he didn't want to try stopping it either since he valued his personal safety.
"Oh, I just remembered that I haven't seen my friend that I wanted to meet yet, I should probably go look for her." Coach John glanced down at his clock with a 'surprised' expression before beating a hasty retreat, quickly disappearing into the crowd.
Chad shook his head to himself as he looked back to Sam and Nana before something caught his eye.
"You okay there Yama? You're more absentminded than you usually are." Chad asked in slight concern, Yama had been a bit out of it for the past 15 minutes or so.
"Hmm? Oh I'm fine, just thinking about trying to pick up a new hobby since I have alot of freetime at the gym." Yama nonchalantly waved off his concern, even if he had decided to get stronger in some way, he wouldn't do so at the cost of his current lifestyle. What good would it do if he somehow got stronger but in exchange lost what he wanted to protect.
"Oh, cool. What brought this on though, you usually occupy yourself with watching over Nana most of the time."
"Nothing special really, I just felt the urge to start doing something rather than just loitering around is all."
"Hmm, do you have anything specific in mind? I could teach you a bit of stock trading when I'm free if you want."
"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to get in the way of your managerial work or training."
"Nah, it's fine. I do most of the work in the mornings and I'm not even close to Nana's level when it comes to stamina, we could do some lessons after most of the other members have gone home."
"Then, I'll gratefully accept. Thank you Chad." Yama bowed slightly as a small smile spread on his face.
"It's no problem at all. Don't worry about it man, I'm happy to help." Chad laughed lightly as he gave Yama a reassuring pat on the back.
---
A few minutes later the group stood in Nana's corner and looked on as she leisurely climbed into the ring.
"What's with the face?" Chad asked in confusion as he saw Sam's disgruntled face, her arms crossed as she idly kicked at the floor.
"Nana said that she would rather see how her opponent fought instead of ending it as soon as possible." Sam complained grumpily as a slight pout formed on her lips. The both of them already knew that Nana learned best by seeing and mimicking, which made her drag out most of her spars as long as she possibly could or until her opponents' form started deteriorating at which point she rapidly lost interest.
"Yeah, that's what I thought she would do. I would honestly be more surprised if you actually managed to convince her not to."
"Well, at least she'll win. I'll take what I can, I guess." Sam grumbled under her breath.
"Pfft. You actually think she can win?" Someone suddenly spoke up from behind the group.
Sam's expression worsened, her eyes narrowing into a glare as she turned around to see a woman about the same age as her with back length light brown hair and black sunglasses, though what stood out the most was that the woman was fully dressed up, wearing a soft pink jacket over a white blouse and stylish white shorts.
She was also kitted out with multiple diamond inlaid accessories, a necklade and multiple bracelets. Even her very uncomfortable looking high heels had a row of diamonds embedded in them while over her shoulder she had a small expensive looking bag that Sam recalled seeing featured in a video showing the most redundant yet expensive items money could buy.
She looked extremely out of place.
Sam felt her anger rising as she looked at the woman's very puncheable face pull into an insufferably smug expression as she started talking again, speaking like she was explaining something to a child.
"Where are you even from?" The woman lowered her glasses with a finger as she gave Sam a once over with a raised eyebrow. "Well, I don't really care either way. With your outfit I probably wouldn't know even if you told me. Either way, it's not good to mistake fantasy for reality, you know?"
"..."
"-ll ---l yo-..."
"What's that?" The woman leaned forward, cupping a hand around her ear to hear better as she started complaing to herself. "Can't you even speak properly? Ugh, why did Jonah want to come here of all places. I'll never understand how he thinks."
"I'll kill you bitch!" Sam's anger finally exploded and she surged forward with a ragefilled shout, her fist cocked back for a punch. Her temper had gradually been poked throughout the day starting with Nana being too young to participate followed by everyone dismissing her and now this pink sprinkle princess bitch also wanted to fuck with her and insult Nana? Let's see if she can continue strutting around with a black eye or two then. She'd go from peacock to panda when she was done with her.
The woman's eyes widened at the sudden move and only had time to instinctively flinch back with a startled scream. Luckily for her, the fist that was just on a crash course towards her face just past missed her by a centimeter or two due to Chad reacting quickly enough, catching Sam around the waist midair and stopping her momentum.
"Let me go Chad! I'm gonna fuck her up!" Sam started fiercely thrashing around in his hold while reaching towards the startled woman with muderous rage in her eyes.
"Sam calm dow- Oof!" Chad tried speaking but was interrupted by Sam's knee slamming into his stomach forcing all the air out of him. Chad managed to just barely remain standing, wheezing as he shakily carried Sam away as quickly as possible while she continued struggling against him, shouting at the woman who immediately started shouting back.
"Get over here! I'm gonna strange you!"
"You're crazy!"
Hearing the commotion everyone looked over curiously to see two women screaming at each other, one of them being held back by her friend that had been standing beside her while the other one was pointing at her from further away.
On the other side of the ring, Nana's opponent facepalmed as he let out an exasperated sigh, he should've known this would've happened. The 16 year old with light brown hair was about 182cm tall with a slender build of compact lean muscle currently wearing the gym distributed boxing gear, and was just preparing himself, since he was chosen for the practice match, before he heard shouting and instantly recognized one of the voices.
Standing up from the stairs leading up to the ring he was sitting on, he started walking around the ring in resignation already having a pretty good idea of what had happened.
Unsurprisingly, he quickly spotted the familiar figure shouting at the lady he had seen standing with his little opponent and his mind connected the dots.
"Sis... what the hell are you doing?"
"Jonah!" Seeing her brother, the woman's eyes lit up as she quickly made her way over to him, pointing at Sam accusingly. "See! See! I told you we shouldn't have come to the outer ring, there's all kinds of crazy people around here!"
"Fuck you!" Sam yelled back at her making the lady preen like she had just proven herself right.
"Uh huh..." Jonah deadpanned at her not buying it for a second. This wasn't the first time he attended a tournament outside of the city center and although it was a bit rougher, it wasn't like there were criminals around every corner. It was just people going about their lives, the only difference he could see between the city center and the outer ring was that the closer to the center you got, the higher the chance of meeting someone with a stick up their ass rose.
Either way G City was pretty safe in general, even on the fringes of the city where law enforcers were pretty scarce. A big reason for this being that martial arts was pretty popular throughout the city leading to anyone thinking of acting out having to evaluate the chance of targets being fighters, deterring most of them.
He also knew that his sister could be a bit... extremely obnoxious in the way she speaks and acts so he was already half preparing for something like this to happen the moment she declared that she was joining him.
"And it wasn't you that said something making her angry, right?"
"Hmph, and why would I do something like that?"
"...Because you always somehow manage to rile someone up in some way."
"That's not true!"
"..."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Jonah shook his head and stepped past her, walking to the lady she had been yelling at with a resigned sigh.
"Hey, uh... sorry about my sister. I know she can be extremely infuriating, but I promise that she doesn't really mean anything by it she's just... well... she just sucks at speaking in general-" Ignoring his sister's indignant shout, he bowed deeply. "-I apologize on her behalf."
"..."
"Tsk." Sam clicked her tongue as she rolled her eyes. As much as she wanted to continue being angry she wouldn't start shouting at a kid, not to mention one trying to apologize. "Go away. Just entertain Nana a bit and we're even." Sam waved him away as she grumpily sat down on a chair nearby, directing her gaze at the ring while Chad breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you." Jonah straightened and nodded at both of them before turning around and walked back to his corner, snatching his sister's arm on the way there making her squawk at the suddenness, as he dragged her with him. Nana tilted her head slightly having watched the confrontation. She hadn't acted since although she felt that the woman was a bit hostile towards Sam, it wasn't to the point of wanting to harm her.
Despite that however her body had remained taut through their confrontation, primed to instantly shoot off the moment she felt hostility turn to malice.
"Hmm, I see why you were so interested now Somchai." Adam mumbled to himself, his eyes narrowing slightly as he rubbed his chin. He and Somchai had been watching the situation play out from the side since he didn't really care enough to stop it, however, his attention was quickly drawn to the little girl.
"She's quite special, right?" Somchai added, unsurprised by the way she reacted to the situation.
"You plan to train her, I assume?"
"If she agrees. I will give their gym a visit after making some preparations."
"Hm. Keep me updated, now I'm also a bit curious."
"Sure."
"I guess I should get finally get this thing started." Adam hummed as he pushed off the wall and entered the ring, clapping loudly to attract everyone's attention before he announced loudly.
"Alright, with that out of the way I think it's about time we got some fighting going, don't you think!?" He bellowed loudly as he gestured grandly receiving a loud cheer from most of the crowd.
"Good! Both contestants please enter the ring." He shouted. Nana didn't move since she was already in the ring while Jonah climbed the stairs in the other corner and jumped in using the ropes as leverage.
"Now let's see here..." Adam mumbled as he was handed both of their tournament applications and a mic from a nearby staff member. He turned on the mic by flicking the switch at the bottom while giving the applications a quick read through, turning to the crowd a few seconds later.
"Participating in the pre-tournament event we have in one corner our challenger gunning for a spot in the tournament despite her young age! Nana, 12 years old from the Dieseldunk Gym!~" He announced loudly receiving a fairly lackluster response from most of the crowd while Sam, Chad and Yama cheered from her corner.
"Kick his ass Nana!"
"Good luck in there Nana, not that I think you'll need it."
"Make sure to have fun."
"Is that her?" A no nonsense looking woman standing in the crowd asked gruffly as her eyes scanned the little girl from top to bottom.
"Mhmm."
"Let's hope she lives up to your bragging then."
"Hmph, you won't be disappointed. I've watched her progress from just starting out to now and she's a real menace in a fight." Coach John huffed with a fond smile appearing on his face.
"And in the other corner metaphorically guarding the gate we have 16 year old Jonah Chambers from the Silverscale Gym~!"
Hearing the gym's name most of the crowd looked to each other in confusion wondering where the gym was since they hadn't heard of it before, eventually deciding to just cheer anyway as Jonah threw a few punches at the air and started posing.
"Beat her up, Jonah!"
Jonah stumbled slightly as his sister's scream cut through the cheers and just sighed to himself.
"The matches will consist of 3 rounds of 2 minutes with a minute of rest inbetween, it will be the same for all the other matches."
"Fighters ready?" Adam asked as he stood in the middle of the ring between both contestants receiving a small nod from Nana followed by a more enthusiastic one from Jonah.
"Then, begin!" He shouted before moving out of the way, staying on the edges of the ring.
*Ding*
Nana entered the traditional boxing stance as she slowly made her way forward, a flash of curiosity appearing in her eyes when Jonah kept his hands at about waist height while keeping his upper body loose and relaxed, his feet nimble and light almost as if he was floating.
Eyeing him intently Nana proddingly threw out a jab, Jonah easily dodging it by leaning to the side and retaliated with a light uppercut cleanly hitting her in the stomach despite the awkward angle created by the height difference producing a crisp smack.
Jonah bounced away slightly as he eyed her wondering if he was too heavy handed, though he was surprised to see her not even reacting to his blow. Even if he wasn't using too much power she would have at least felt it, right?
He shook his head and focused back at the match seeing Nana approaching him again and threw another jab at him, the previous sequence repeating, Jonah once again backing away to look for any signs of uncomfortableness on her face, finding none whatsoever.
Jonah internally raised an eyebrow as he saw her doing the same thing once again, approaching him and throwing a jab his way, maybe she hadn't been in that many spars yet and defaulted to the same routines that she had been training?
Once again easily dodging by leaning to the side, Jonah decided to increase the power he was using in his punches. Although he felt a bit reluctant to hit a little girl 4 years his junior, his instructors had hammered it into his head that holding back in a fight could very quickly lead to a black eye or a quick nap down on the canvas.
Shaking away his thoughts Jonah easily went through the motions with experience gained from countless hours of training and once again cleanly drove his fist into her stomach with another crisp smack, though before he could back away he saw Nana's arm twitch for an instant.
"Huuuu...!?"
Jonah suddenly let out a strangled noise from his throat, his eyes widening as he literally got the wind knocked out of him. He quickly retreated, almost stumbling, desperately trying to inhale as much air as possible as he looked at Nana in befuddlement, registering a pain on his side a few seconds later.
Jonah's mind spun at breakneck speed as he processed the situation. Did he get punched in that split second he wasn't paying attention? If he did, the answer already apparent in his mind, then...
He looked at his unmoving shorter opponent filled with incredulity, if that was true then she was fast, extremely fast. Not only that, the punch he felt was like getting hit with a small cannonball!
Still panting but feeling like he had somewhat regained his breath, Jonah felt adrenaline churn through his body like he just got done skydiving as excitement started flooding his body.
He didn't know that he would encounter such a gem at one of the countless tournaments by chance.
A small smile appeared on his face as he eagerly rushed towards her, her response remained unchanging a, now that he knew better, very slow jab heading his way which he smoothly dodged and quickly leaned back, barely dodging a textbook perfect left hook.
They continued trading blows back and forth and after just a few exchanges Jonah had a weird expression on his face, and it wasn't only because of the pain brought by Nana landing another punch.
Why was she just standing still, why wasn't she at least trying to evade?
"Ugh..." Sam let out a long suffering groan as she tiredly rubbed the bridge of her nose pointing into the ring. "Look, she's doing it again."
"Did you think she would change her stop just because it's a tournament?" Chad had an amused smile on his face as he watched the match.
"I just don't get why she likes doing that so much. I know she can dodge, some of her spars even end when her opponents just end up quitting because they can't even touch her shadow. So why is it that 9 out of 10 times I see her in the ring she just stands there. I. Don't. Get. It. Chad." Sam frantically pulled at her hair in frustration.
"Meh, it's fine isn't it? She's gotten crazy resilient lately and even with all the training she does and spars she's had, she just gets stronger when she's healed the next day. Coach John would have stopped her if she was hurting herself, you if anyone should know since you and Yama insist on accompanying her every time." Chad shrugged noncommitantly.
"Tsk. Hey, Yama! Back me up here!"
"As long as she doesn't get hurt and enjoys she herself, I think it's fine. Even if I too would prefer if she started dodging a bit more. Ahaha..." Yama smiled wryly.
"You... You're both idiots!"
Slipping under another punch and frantically retreating to evade another flurry of blows Jonah winced as his side flared up in pain. Although Nana was still stationary, standing in the spot she was at their first confrontation, Jonah felt like with every exchange the more reluctant he was to approach which was a first for him.
Although it should theoretically be an easy match since mobility was a crucial piece in the puzzle that is boxing, Jonah almost felt like it was he who was at a disadvantage.
Every punch he landed was just shrugged off like nothing, as if he wasn't using punches, punches that had a combination of his entire weight, a high proficiency in kinetic transferance and the experience of literal kings of the sport standing behind them.
His mother was an avid boxing fan and so as soon as he showed a bit of interest she immediately hired an army of instructors ranging from current titans to retired legends who has been training him since he was a toddler holding nothing back.
Whether it was physique, psyche, technique, thinking, tactics, senses. He had been forged in the unrivalled furnaces of those who ran when everyone else crawled, of those stood above everyone else looking down from atop their thrones built solely by themselves through blood sweat and tears.
They molded him using everything they knew into not only an extremely dangerous fighter, but also a man that strove towards constant improvement.
Although Nana was unsurprisingly far below him in terms of skills, she somehow made up for this with a combination of what seemed like an untiring body, an unnatural perception and a terrifying instinct able to take full advantage of everything she gathered. She was even rapidly improving as they fought, getting quicker to respond to things she hadn't seen before, more unpredictable with in her attacks and maybe most shockingly, she was subtly changing her style, slowly incorporating bits and pieces of his more refined movements and making them her own.
*Ding*
As the bell signaling the first round's end resounded Jonah immediately started jumping, continuing to do so while getting a gulp of water from the bottle his sister swiftly handed him as he eyed Nana out of the corner of his eye, still standing in the same spot she had stood in for the entire round. Tossing the water bottle back out of the ring Jonah ineffectively tried wiping the sweat from his face.
Closing his eyes Jonah did everything he could to get his breathing under control while also keeping his body active. Nana had landed her fair share of punches, most of them in the same general area, and although he wouldn't crumble yet he decided that keeping the adrenaline majorly dampening the pain he felt was preferable.
Meanwhile silence reigned supreme over the stunned crowd, their expectations of one of the participants play fighting with a kid being more than just overturned.
*Ding*
As the next round started the silence started turning to incredulity as the intensity of the match spiked sharply compared to the first round. Heavy and solid but very swift smacks resounded throughout the gym as the two continued laying into each other.
Falling for a faint and just barely managing to dodge the following left hook, Jonah could hear his heart beating loudly in his ears, a few of the heavier punches Nana had landed really starting to hurt now even through the adrenaline padding the worst of it. Not to mention that Nana kept going for the same spot at his side with a scarily accurate precision and weird timings that made it hard for him to anticipate and react.
This, and the pain getting more and more apparent lead to him involuntarily flinching, flinches that Nana mercilessly used to her advantage.
A small feeling of helplessness sparked inside his chest as despite him landing the majority of the punches throughout the match the only reaction she showed was so small it might as well have been nothing, a very slight pink he could only see because he was so close to her appearing in the spots where he managed to hit her multiple times.
Jonah felt like he was fighting against a turtle, all his punches ineffectively landing on it's sturdy shell doing nothing other than tiring himself out while also having to use all of his focus to try and avoid it's lightning jaw snapping back at him.
Not only this, but he had a feeling that she wasn't going all out yet. He had already figured out that she was curious about how he fought due to the curious glint being very apparent in her otherwise dull black eyes. She was pushing him as hard as she could while also trying to make sure that he wouldn't just walk by allowing him to lay into her freely just to see more of his style, how he would react, how he moved, how he thought.
Her previously dull eyes had gradually gained a very slight luster as the fight progressed, her eyes tracking his figure with a piercing, beast like focus.
*Ding*
Hearing the bell Jonah shakily made his way back to his corner and plopped down on the foldable chair one of the gym staff had placed there as soon as the round finished while he panted raggedly, feeling like his lungs were leaking all the air he inhaled. Sweat dripped down his body in droves as he leaned his tired body against the ring post. He felt like the world was blurred, his heartbeat thundering in his ears.
"Jonah, drink some water." Blearily registering his sister's voice through the fog of weariness, he shakily reached out as she put his water bottle into his hand and took multiple large gulps, also pouring some on his head as he closed his eyes. Gritting his teeth he quickly stood up and started moving around listlessly, walking in small circles as he lifted his head to face the ceiling, feeling like he got more air that way.
A monstrous pain had exploded from his side the second he sat down due to his body getting the signal of being able to rest and he had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to stand up again should he sit down until the next round started.
"Are you sure you want to continue Jonah?"
"Yeah... I don't think I'll win this one, but I'm at least finishing the last round."
"...If you say so. Don't hurt yourself." His sister said softly, her voice tinged with worry. He knew that although she really sucked at making friends and came off as unfriendly and spoiled, underneath all that she was also a very kind person... to those she liked. Despite not wanting to see him hurt, she had never even once asked him to stop.
"Don't worry, I won't risk an injury because of something like this." Taking a deep breath, Jonah exhaled strongly recovering what little composure he scrape together while doing his best to ignore the small voice on the edge of his mind whispering at him to sit down.
"Sis." Jonah spoke up still panting heavily.
"Yes?"
"She didn't even sit down to rest, did she?"
"...No."
"Is she still standing in the same place as she did before?"
"..."
"Yeah..."
"Thought so... Haa... Haa... Man~ Everyone's gonna be laughing their asses off... when they hear about me getting beat up by a 12 year old girl. ...I just know they're gonna hold it above me forever. Probably gonna bring it up every single time they get the chance." Jonah lamented miserably, having the urge to cry as he thought about his instructors' reactions to distract himself. "My future is bleak."
"It can't be that bad, right?" His sister giggled to herself in schadenfraude making him sigh.
"10 seconds left!" Hearing the gym staff's warning he prepared himself.
"Haa... Let's get this over with I guess." Jonah mumbled as he finally opened his eyes burning with determination to at least finish the last round. He didn't have much hope of actually winning, but he wasn't about to just fold either.
"You're a little monster, you know that?" Jonah complained bitterly as he saw Nana innocently standing in her spot having already recovered from whatever slight exhaustion he managed to bring out throughout the match, though he had a sinking feeling that she could probably easily fight him in his optimal state for the rest of the day and still have strength to spare.
Hearing him talking to her Nana tilted her head at him obliviously.
Jonah just sighed, shaking his head as he grumbled about little girls with inhuman bodies under his breath.
*Ding*
As the bell announcing the third round sang, Jonah resolved himself for another beating as his bruises flared in pain just thinking about the surgical precision of the little devil in front of him. She had been persistant in her efforts to only focus on a few areas on his body, one being on his side under his ribs and the other in the middle of his pecs.
All three areas were currently colored an extremely angry red rhythmically pulsing, every single echo making him throb and forcing him to hold back a wince.
He was just about to really focus up when his brain stuttered for a second, not believing the sight in front of him.
As soon as he had moved Nana had also readied herself, entering a stance. Though it wasn't the traditional one she had been using so far, no, it was a stance he was very familiar with, and how could he not be. Nana's hands hovered at around waist height rather than her previous standard guard while her legs smoothly shuffled back and forth making it look like she was hovering above the canvas while her upper body swayed hypnotizingly.
"...Now you're just fucking with me, right?" Jonah deadpanned as he looked at her.
"Heh." Adam smirked to himself.
"Let's see how well you do with something you're not familiar with, little monster." Somchai mumbled to himself with crossed arms, his piercing eyes locked onto the little girl's figure lightly bouncing figure.
"Hoh, did you teach her that?" The stern looking woman standing next to Coach John raised her eyebrow as she asked curiously. The lass had exceeded her expectations so far.
"Nope. You know I don't like that stance, it just feels naked."
"Peh. What's a guard good for if you never get hit." The woman scoffed as her face scrunched up.
"You haven't changed one bit, Maria." Coach John sighed deeply as a small smile appeared on his face.
Jonah quickly shook off his surprise as his face gained a concentrated look. Although he was pretty sure that he had already lost the match, he wouldn't allow his younger opponent to do whatever she wanted. No matter how much he denied it, it somewhat grated on his pride to lose against someone 4 years younger than him, someone who didn't have monsters, both current and past, teaching her.
"You may be able to somewhat copy me, but I refuse to believe you can beat me with my own style."
Jonah surged forwards aggressively a combination of adrenaline and irritation allowing him to temporarily push through the agony. A quick feint allowed him to land a body shot strong enough to slightly lift Nana off the ground. Evading her retaliatory punches he swiftly retreated before dashing at her again.
Jonah continued laying into her while doing his best to ignore the worsening pain from the few punches she managed actually to land while getting used to throwing punches from a lower angle, somehow still accurately hitting the same general areas as before, Nana continuing to use his style despite being pushed back.
For the rest of the match, Jonah continued punishing Nana by relying on his familiarity with the fighting style turning the situation around, however his exhaustion was rapidly catching up with him. He would usually be able to go on for far longer, unfortunately, Nana's punches were taking it's toll, every single one she landed now feeling like metal poles impaling him.
What made the situation even worse was that Nana was starting to get better and better at utilizing his style. This on top of his punches seemingly doing next to nothing barring a busted lip, Jonah's will was quickly wearing down which lead to him making a small mistake.
As the end of the last round approached the crowd was now full on cheering, having forgotten about this only being a pre-tournament event filling the gym with noise.
In the last 10 seconds of the round they saw a battered and bruised Jonah panting dead on his feet, just barely managing to remain standing. Meanwhile, his opponent's only signs of almost 3 very intense rounds in the ring being a small cut on her lip.
Jonah reared back and threw a heavy cross using everything of the little he had left, determined to get in one last good punch, but just before it made contact his eyes widened as Nana's figure suddenly blurred before it looked like she disappeared, his mind barely had time to comprehend the change before he was hit with a devestating uppercut, her smaller boxing glove clad fist pushed into him with what felt like the force of a train as his body bent around it.
Burning hot agony exploded from where she hit and Jonah was convinced that he just blacked out for a few seconds due to the pain, coming back in midair just as his falling body collapsed down onto the canvas as he felt his body lock up, trying to prevent him from doing whatever he was just doing, to stop anymore pain from coming it's way. Not that he had any plans to get up anytime soon.
He let out short strangled gasps of air in rapid succession as his body screamed in agony, deliriously cursing both himself for wanting to get a last solid punch in and the bell for not stopping himself in time internally. As if to mock him even further, he heard that accursed bell the instant he faceplanted into the canvas.
*Ding*
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone