FWHAP!

The ten-kilogram weight I had been using for curls dropped to the floor, then bounced once on the rubber mat.

“Aaaaand we’re done!” Dr. Watanabe said.

It had been two very long weeks of working out and dieting; every day was an excruciating new hell on Earth, filled with horribly difficult exercises and even worse food. At one point, the hospital’s dietitian had to step in and correct my diet to one more suitable for my case, though that change did little to change the flavor of the foods I had to eat.

“Can I get water?” I asked, wiping the sweat off of my forehead.

“Sure,” she said, throwing a bottle at me. I caught it, then drank about half of the bottle before sitting down.

“So, we’re done with this now, right?” I asked, waving around the room.

“Physically, it gets a lot easier,” she replied, dodging the question.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no,’” I sighed.

We walked to the cafeteria and ate lunch quickly before making our way to the hospital’s main lobby.

“You’ll be discharged at two o’clock this afternoon,” Dr. Watanabe said. “Starting tomorrow, you’ll be doing brief workouts and training sessions at my training facility.”

“Right,” I confirmed, “is there anything else I need to know?”

“Not for now. I have to get to another appointment, so I’ll text Takahashi the address tonight,” she said. With that, she turned around and left the hospital. I returned to my room, showered, then sat on my bed.

The nurses had become more lenient with me since I had regained most of my physical strength, but they were still weary of letting me be discharged. The nurse who had given me her hairband was especially against me leaving so soon, but after we talked about it with the doctor, she ended up being ok with it. Not that she really had much say in it to begin with, though.

I packed up what few belongings I had in a drawstring backpack, then sat on my bed and waited for half an hour for Takahashi to show up.

“You ready to go home?” he asked when he arrived.

“You have no idea,” I answered with an eye roll, scooping up my bag and heading to the door. On our way out, I made sure to stop at the nurses’ station and offer my thanks. After my goodbyes, Takahashi drove us back to the apartment.

“Oh, Watanabe sent me an address to give you,” Takahashi said as we walked up the rusty stairs. Takahashi opened the door and walked in, and I followed after him. The apartment smelled like paper and bread; a smell I hadn’t realized that I missed.

“Where’s Sana at?” I asked, noticing that she wasn’t home.

“School,” Takahashi said. “It’s Friday.”

“Oh,”

“What do you want to do for lunch, now that you can eat real food again?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “something with rice?”

“Thanks for narrowing it down,” he said sarcastically. “I’ll go pick something up. Get settled in and relax til’ I get back.”

After Takahashi left, I took my bag to mine and Sana’s room. Upon opening the door, I was greeted by a number of drastic changes to the room. First, every wall was covered in posters of various music groups; some bands were on the walls more than one time, appearing in multiple posters. Second, a desk was crammed in one corner of the room, and a stack of CD’s and noted were laid out on the desktop. Third was the fact that my futon was already set up, but was pushed up against a corner of the room. I walked over to the futon, where there was a sticky note with a message written on it.

Sorry I kinda took over the room, but I’m not giving it back! Really, it’s your fault for staying in the hospital so long and letting me get used to having so much space.

That sounded about right. I crumpled up the in my hand, then jammed it into my pocket. I unpacked my clothes and folded them up, then left them on the futon.

“I’m back!” Takahashi yelled from the door; it hadn’t even been five minutes since he’d left.

“That was quick,” I said as I walked toward the living room.

“Forgot my wallet,” he said, laughing nervously. “Didn’t realize it until I felt my pockets.”

He grabbed his wallet off of the kitchen counter and left again, letting the door slam as he jogged out the door.

“Airhead,” I muttered as I threw myself onto the couch. The TV was on, with the Uber Slash Bros loading screen filling the picture. I picked up a controller and logged in; I played games against some bots, but got bored after just three games. Even the most difficult settings were still way too easy. I tried to load up Battlezone, but it needed another update, so I decided against it, opting to scroll through my phone until Takahashi got back.

Roughly twenty minutes later, Takahashi burst through the door.

“BEHOLD,” he shouted, kicking the door closed behind him, “ONIGIRI!”

In his hands were two packages of Onigiri-to-Go. The cellophane wrapping clung tightly to each ball, keeping them from moving around and losing shape.

“That’s what you got?” I asked.

“Do you not like it?” he said, looking a little hurt.

“It’s not that,” I explained. “I just didn’t think you were just going to get onigiri.”

“I got drinks, too,” he said, pointing at the plastic bag he had placed on the counter.

“Thanks for lunch,” I said apologetically.

“No problem,” he said with a thumbs-up.

After we ate, Takahashi had to go to work, so I decided to go for a walk until Sana was done with school. I grabbed my phone and wallet, then left the apartment. I walked to the park by Sana’s school and sat under one of the oak trees behind the playground. Nobody was around, so I played music from my phone and read manga on my phone. About an hour later, I got a text from Riku.

Whatcha doing?

Nothing much. Sitting at Toshima Park. Why?

Look behind you.

I immediately did a full one-eighty, nearly cracking my neck in the process. Riku was walking towards me, followed by Yua.

“What’s up?” Riku asked.

“The sky,” I replied sarcastically. Yua waved at me, but didn’t say anything. “What’re you doing out of class?”

“We got out early again and were headed to your place,” Riku explained, “but you’re here, so no point in going.”

“I’m waiting for Sana to get out of class so I can pick her up,” I said. “You guys wanna get something to drink?”

“What kind of drink?” Yua asked.

“I dunno, maybe a coffee or something from FamilyMart,” I said, pointing to the FamilyMart on the other side of the road.

“Bro, you know FamilyMart has the worst coffee,” Riku complained.

“Then don’t get a coffee, idiot,” I said.

We got our drinks and walked to Meio, where Sana was waiting at the gate and fiddling around on her phone.

“Yo,” I said, snapping my fingers in her direction.

“You’re alive?” she asked sarcastically, looking up from her phone.

“Surprisingly, yes,” I answered flatly.

“Well I need to get to work,” Yua explained as she started walking down the street. “See you guys tomorrow!”

“Later!” Riku and I said in unison, waving goodbye.

“I’ve got to get going, too,” Riku said, turning to me. “Gotta cook dinner tonight…”

“You can cook?” I asked sarcastically.

“Shut up,” he said through a laugh. “I’ll see you tomorrow if you go to school.”

With that, Sana and I were made our way back to the apartment where we waited for Takahashi to get back from work. A few hours passed, and Sana went to bed. Having been evicted from what was now Sana’s room, I carried my futon to the living room and made myself a spot between the coffee table and the TV.

It had been more than five hours since Sana and I got back from her school, and Takahashi still hadn’t come home. I decided that he must have been kept late, being overworked by his impudent boss yet again, and closed my eyes to sleep. I must have been more tired than I thought because as soon as my eyes were closed, I was trapped in a deep sleep.

My eyes snapped open, revealing that same dark basement. I knew I was in a dream, but everything felt much more real than it should have. I could taste the stale, dusty air, and I could smell a very dull, bland odor. I looked around, and saw that everything was dark, aside from the light outlining the door at the front of the room.

“Just like the basement,” I mused.

“Did you say something?” a raspy voice whispered into my ear. I would have jumped, but I was frozen in pace.

“Who is that?” I asked, trying to stay calm.

“Nobody important,” the voice said. “Well, at least not yet.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” the voice chided.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, growing more nervous.

“I just thought I should warn you about something,” it explained.

“Warn me about what?”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” it said, “I seem to have forgotten!”

“Are you messing with me?”

“Who knows,” it said. “Well, it’s time for me to let you go. Until next time!”

I sat up from my futon, nearly smacking my forehead on the table. It was six in the morning. I looked at the door and saw Takahashi’s shoes sitting next to the door, meaning he had gotten home some time after I had fallen asleep. I stood up and walked to the kitchen, where I saw a note written in Takahashi’s messy writing sitting on top of a paper map.

Go to this address whenever you wake up. There’s enough cash for your train fare and some breakfast under the map. Go kick some ass!

The address was a few kilometers north of the apartment, next to Iwabuchi Elementary, meaning I could just take the Namboku Line a few stops up. I changed into a fresh set of gym clothes, grabbed my wallet, and jogged a kilometer to the station. Though it was only four or so kilometers away, the train took nearly a half hour to get from our station to my stop. The area wasn’t very far away from Takahashi’s apartment, but it felt much busier and more chaotic; I definitely preferred our neighborhood to this one.

Despite knowing exactly where I had to go, I managed to get lost amongst the shops and houses. All of the streets looked the same. By the time I had figured out how to get to Dr. Watanabe’s place, it was already almost eight o’clock.

The building seemed to be relatively new, and it was considerably larger than its surrounding buildings, though it wasn’t any taller. I walked up to the door and knocked three times.

“Come in!” I heard Dr. Watanabe yell from somewhere inside. I opened the door and took off my shoes, placing them by the doormat. Dr. Watanabe emerged from on of the other doors wearing some kind of baggy martial arts clothing.

“Good morning,” I said with a shallow bow.

“Formalities don’t suit you, Touma,” Dr. Watanabe said, handing me a plastic-wrapped garment. “Go ahead and change into this. I’ll be waiting for you in the room three doors down on the left.”

I opened the bag and put the uniform on over my gym clothes, then walked to the room that she had specified. As soon as I opened the door, I noticed that she wasn’t in there.

WHACK!

A shin collided with my stomach, dropping me to the floor completely winded. Gasping for air, I looked up at where the shin came from. Standing over me was Dr. Watanabe with an outstretched arm and a cynical smirk on her face.

“Give me a minute,” I said, wheezing through short gasps of air.

“Nope,” she said, pulling me to my feet. “This is where the fun begins.”