บท 8: Pre-season (1)
10PM
Dressed in his boxing uniform, white bandages and a grey hoodie Kiko was jogging home when he saw a familiar figure standing in the middle of the park near the swings.
"Coach?"
"What are you doing here?"
"For someone so fast, it took you long enough to get here."
"Hm? I took a long way, to do some cardio. Were you waiting for me?"
'How does he know where I live? Creep.'
"I needed to talk to you." The coach walked closer to the first year so he could see him better.
"Couldn't we do it at the club?"
"In private." The coach stated.
Azure sat down on a wooden bench and patted it.
"Sit." He commanded in a serious tone much different from his playful and joking one.
'Weird.' The youth sat down immediately.
"So Young Tensei, care to explain to me why you weren't at school for a whole month?"
'Here I thought this was about a serious matter.' Kiko sighed in relief.
"I was training." Kiko stated bluntly.
The coach remembered the bloody bandages the teen wore after returning and put two and two together.
'So, you do have IT.'
The coach's face turned from stern and serious to amused.
He began bellowing and chuckling like he just heard the funniest thing ever.
"Is that why you suddenly improved?" He began slapping his knee hysterically.
"I guess." Kiko shrugged.
"But you haven't improved enough." The old man stopped laughing and stood up.
"I'm well aware." Kiko sighed as he heard the words 'You're useless. ' repeating in his head.
"I like that about you, you're self-aware. " The coach chuckled.
'No need to rub it in.'
"So lemme give you an extra lesson today."
"Right now?" Kiko tilted his head confusedly.
"Why not? You spent a straight month training, what's an extra night session." he looked at the youth intrigued.
"Good point." He stood up and began stretching his limbs.
"So, what're we doing?" Kiko asked curiously.
"Simple, you're going to figure out why your performance at the inter-club competition was subpar."
"You thought so too, huh? I just can't figure out exactly why." Kiko put his fingers on his chin as he thought back on his unsatisfactory performance.
"Although I think my poor coordination with my left hand played a hand in it." He concluded with his honest opinion.
"You're smarter than you look," Azure admitted honestly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He raised his eyebrow at the coach and looked at him offendedly.
"Your assignment for the next week is figuring out, what you're missing." Azure ignored the question from the lad as his facial expression turned more serious.
"Isn't your job to tell me what that is?" Kiko whined to the old man.
"Then you wouldn't learn anything idiot!" He flicked the forehead of the youth with so much strength it turned red and grew a small bump.
"What the hell!?" He began rubbing his forehead with his right hand.
"So, let's begin!" The old man declared as he held out the same hand.
"To help you figure out why you did worse than you could I'll help you get there, that's my job."
"Hit my hand with a jab." He assigned the training method.
"Uh, I've been doing that for a mo-" Kiko said reluctantly.
"Just do as I say!" Using the same hand that was held out the coach flicked the youth's head once again with the same amount of strength.
"Oww! Okay I will." he complained.
Azure once again held out his hand.
Kiko got into a traditional boxing stance and threw a quick jab at the old man's hand.
Just before the attack was about to land the coach's hand moved down, completely evading the fast jab.
"Huh?" Thinking he simply missed, the teen threw another jab, but the same result was produced.
"What's wrong? Hit my hand." The old man grinned mockingly.
Kiko threw a flurry of jabs at his coach's hand but none of them landed, Azure merely dodged all the attacks.
12PM
After trying to land a single attack on his coach the teen failed miserably, not succeeding once.
"That's enough."
"Wai-" In between breaths, the youth managed to muster up a response.
"You won't accomplish anything when you're tired." He stated.
Azure put his hand down and turned away from Kiko and began walking away.
"I want you to figure out why you weren't able to hit my hand by Saturday."
"Sure." The youth fell onto the ground as he watched the back of his coach fade away into the darkness.
"Oh, and one more thing." Although Kiko could no longer see his coach's back he could hear his voice.
"What is it? Wanna torture me even more?" Kiko continued panting in between words
'Fucking Sadist.'
"No, I'm bored of that." The coach chuckled from the darkness.
'Go to hell.'
"Then what is it?"
After a moment of silence, Azure answered in a serious tone.
"If you ever miss a day of school again, I'll burn your house down. Then you'll have no home to return to."
"Eh..."
4th of March Thursday
9AM
1-J
After running with Hulk and Percy in the morning, Kiko reluctantly went to school because of the threat of arson from the previous night.
He was dressed in the same uniform although today his bandages were black unlike the ones, he wore the previous day. Using his long hair, he strategically hid the bruise from last night.
The first year was doing his usual class activity of looking out the window instead of listening, when he was interrupted by the studious Sharlotte.
"What's the point of you coming to school if all you're going to do is look out the window?"
"I'm only here cause you said you missed me." Kiko said sincerely, still watching the trees outside sway in a constant rhythm.
"You really believe your own delusions, don't you?" She nonchalantly replied already used to his absurd replies.
"Delusions help us get through this meaningless journey that is life." He said seriously as he looked out the window.
"..."
The girl was speechless from hearing the surprising words.
"Don't you agree?" He smiled brightly as he looked at her.'
"You too at the back, STOP FLIRTING." Professor Lee pointed at the two at the back with his face turning bright red and his veins bulging.
1PM Lunch
With his hands in his pockets, Kiko made his way to the cafeteria whistling a joyful tune.
"I wonder if they still have meat buns in stock."
As he entered, he saw a long line of students holding trays queueing for the complimentary lunch and another line a bit shorter for the paid lunch.
The cafeteria was extremely large with a capacity of 4 000 although not even a quarter of this capacity was met because most seniors ate in the library or in their classrooms,so they could eat and study simultaneously and quietly.
As he looked at the line for the paid lunch a group of girls at a large table caught his eye. He recognized two of them and remembered to go collect what he was owed.
'Better get it over and done with, right now.'
As he walked up to the volleyball club table most of the girls acknowledged him and the ones that did merely shot him a glare.
Ignoring the unwelcoming atmosphere, he walked up to the leader of the group who was eating a bowl of noodles and chatting loudly with her friends.
"Ava..."
If what Kiko felt before was unwelcomed, it was now bloodlust. Every girl looked at the bold freshman but only 3 recognized him.
'When was the last time someone called me by my first name much less a man.'
The captain thought amusedly.
'Tensei?' Skylar was incredibly confused.
'It's that brat who beat me.' Lilith stared daggers at the freshman.
"What is it, have you changed your mind about being my pet?" Ava giggled along with most of the volleyball team.
"As much as I tossed and turned in my bed last night, considering your offer I'm afraid I'll have to reject it," Kiko said sarcastically.
Ava's eyebrow twitched as she got slightly irritated.
"So, what do you wa-"
Before she could finish her sentence Kiko pulled out his phone and put it on the table next to her bowl of noodles.
"What's your number?" He said calmly.
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