Dan could see this decision was hard for Kyle to make. He didn't want it to come to this but if he didn't, Ruman would control the whole town. Not only that but there was a risk of a gang war between the two.

Dan started to look at the room at all the members that were currently inside, most of them were young adults who were made homeless. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, they had decided to join Noir.

At first, it was just a place of shelter for them, but little by little they started to feel like a real family that looked out for each other.

"What happens if I lose?" Dan asked.

"Then we have agreed to submit to the Ruman family, you know I am a man of my word. If they lose we expect them to do the same." Kyle answered.

Dan could feel the pressure mounting on top of him. Last time a long ago he had been asked to fight, it was against the same Ruman family back then as well. He had backed out of it and the Noir gang suffered and ever since there had been high tension between the two gangs. Yet still, Kyle had decided not to punish him for it.

After coming back to Noir again, there was no chance he could leave the gang with no consequences a second time. The trust between the leader and the other members would have been lost.

Dan took a deep breath in, he had made his decision. If either way, he might have taken a beating, then he might as well have done it trying to save the gang.

"I'll do it," Dan said.

A soft smile appeared on Kyle's face, he couldn't exactly feel happy about it, after all, he was sending his brother into battle.

"Thank you Dan. The fight is in two days on Thursday night. We will meet here." Kyle said.

With the fight all set, Dan now had two reasons to concentrate more on his fighting skills. One was for the semi-final match on Saturday and now for the gang fight on Thursday.

It was late in the afternoon and school had already finished, there was no point for Dan to go back so instead, he decided to head for his training spot with Tony. By the river underneath the bridge.

When he arrived, Dan was an hour early before there meeting time, so instead Dan decided to some practising of his own. He started his warm-up routine with a few spins. Then went into a brisk jog.

Once his body was heated and warmed up he proceeded to shadow box but as he did something felt off. He then realised something.

Whenever he was in the boxing club and had a match coming up, he didn't have a problem shadow boxing.

That was because he knew who his opponent was going to be. When you shadow boxed you usually had the image of the opponent in your mind, you would know there fighting style and imagine them hitting you and you hitting them back.

For now, all he could do was push away to get a sweat going.

"Looks like you're all warmed up," Tony said.

Tony was in what looked like a teachers P.E uniform and by his side was a large Gym bag. "Well, you ready then?" Tony asked.

"Ready, for what?"

"Don't you remember, I booked a flight for today so you could practise."

With everything that had happened today with Kyle, Dan had completely forgotten what their plans were for the day.

****

The two of them walked around town until they had eventually stopped just outside of a centre. Outside was a large sign that had the words Thai kickboxing written on it.

When the two of them entered, they could see the gym in full swing. At the entrance of the gym was a boxing ring, then spread around the room were several boxing bags. There were around twenty different people inside the gym each doing their own thing.

Some were skipping, some were shadow boxing, two people in the ring were currently sparing and the rest were busy hitting the bags.

The sight of everyone working hard brought back memories for Dan, it reminded him when he used to be in the clubs at school. They would just be as active, each of them trying to reach their dream.

Although the VSW club was no different, every day the club would spend their time training without fail. The sight of the others working hard only reminded him why he was here in the first place.

As Tony walked forward with Dan behind him, the other members respectfully bowed to Tony before continuing their training.

"Do you go to this gym or something?" Dan asked.

"No not really, but I have been in here before."

After walking past the rest of the members, Tony knocked on the door at the back of the room that was marked office. After waiting patiently an old man had appeared from the door.

"Is this the kid you were talking about?" The man said as he looked Dan up and down.

"Yep, he's my new student," Tony replied.

The old man then immediately started to feel Dan all over, it felt like the old man was giving Dan a massage on his body.

"What a good set of muscles, he seems to be in good shape." The old man said, "All right, if he is as good as you say he is, I see him having no problem going up against Tod."

"Tod get over here!" The old man shouted.

Just then one of the members who was busy hitting the bag came over. Tod was a fairly dark-skinned boy who looked to be in good shape, he was eighteen years of age so a little bit older than Dan.

"Tod here has only just passed his pro exam you see, but he has yet to have his first match. To get him up and running we wanted someone who could give him a challenge."

Dan looked at Tod, he looked like a peaceful person but was slightly larger than Dan himself. "Do you want me to pull my punches?" Dan asked.

The old man started to laugh.

"Don't think it will be so easy, but just to make sure, both of you will wear the appropriate gear."

Before getting into the ring the two fighters started to get ready, wearing protective gear on their shins, gloves on their hands, headgear and a gum shield in the mouth.

It truly did remind him of the time he was in the boxing club.

Once the two of them had entered the ring all they needed to do was wait for the bell to ring.

*Ding

The match had started and neither opponent rushed in, they were both cautious about what the other could do. For both of them, it was unknown territory.

Dan slowly started to inch forward and then when he was in striking distance. Tod did a roundhouse kick to the face, just at the right time, Dan managed to step back and avoid the strike.

"That was close," Dan said.

The strike was a fast one and he could tell Tod wasn't holding back his power. Not only that but Tod was slightly taller than him and had longer legs. Meaning his reach was greater, Dan had to figure out a way to get in on the inside.

Dan again slowly startled to shuffle his way in trying to put pressure but as soon as Dan walked in too far, another kick came flying out, only this time it was towards his thigh.

Dan was too slow to react and the kick managed to hit his thigh. A stinking numbing pain was sent through his body. His leg suddenly went stiff and felt like he would fall over any second.

However, Dan felt like this was his chance. He gritted his teeth and ignored the pain going in for a kick of his own and it had landed.

However, Dan wasn't done there, Dan then threw two faint punches allowing Tod to dodge them, then Tod came out with a hook of his own.

Dan rolled underneath the punch and when he came back up grabbed Tod's head with his hands around the neck.

He pulled Tod's head down and at the same time kneed him in the stomach. However, Tod was tough, he then grabbed back onto Dan's kneck with both hands.

A kneeing match had begun the two of them. They continued to knee each other in the stomach one after another, waiting for one of them to let go.

Tony hadn't actually expected for the fight to last this long, he thought if it ever came to this that Dan would give in. In the first place, Tony wanted to show Dan that he still had a lot to learn, although he was skilful and learnt things quickly, there was something that could never be taught and that was heart.

The will to keep on fighting no matter how hard it got, for people who had never fought much in their life before, this was a huge learning curve. A mind game to tell your brain it doesn't hurt and that your opponent was hurting more than you.

Tony couldn't help but think about what a boy only at the age of 16 years had to have gone through to have a heart like this.

Finally, a winner had emerged from the confrontation as one person let go and was knelt down on the floor. Covered in sweat and bruised all over, Dan stood in the ring, with his back looking bigger than ever.