“Irasshaimase!” A voice shouted from behind the counter. “Sorry, but were not open yet, so please come back lat-”

As the man rose from behind the counter to see Ryuuji, his welcome was cut short, and his tone changed from cheerful to that of slight disappointment. With a strict voice, he spoke.

“Oh, it’s just a kid skipping school. Namimori Middle at that, too, huh?”

After all that had happened today, Ryuuji had just remembered that he was indeed wearing the school uniform for Namimori Middle School. While he himself is 25 years of age, to other people, right now he just looks like another middle schooler that decided that he didn’t want to go to school for the day. A delinquent, in other words.

“Sorry, but you should go back to school before I alert them.”

From what Ryuuji remembered about the story, this man was Yamamoto Takeshi’s father, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi. While he looked like any normal middle-aged man from the outside, with short, black hair wrapped with a white bandana, he was, in fact, one of the successors of the Shigure Soen Ryu sword style and the one that taught Takeshi the base of his swordsmanship. Wielding a style also known as the “Invincible Sword Style”, this person was by all means not an ordinary person.

Despite knowing this, Ryuuji’s hunger caused him to take a shot.

“I’m sorry, but can we leave that for later? I haven’t eaten anything at all recently, so if possible, can I please get some food first? Just some rice would do?” Pleaded Ryuuji.

“At least you have some manners.” Tsuyoshi’s voice became less stern as he noticed the sincerity in Ryuuji’s eyes. “I don’t like that you’re skipping school, but I can at least feed you a bit before I send you back. Come sit at the counter and I’ll whip something up for you.” He said, beckoning Ryuuji towards him.

“Thank you very much.” Ryuuji replied with gratitude, as he walked over to the counter and pulled out a chair. Sitting down, he could see the array of sashimi and whole fish from the showcase, fresh and glistening on top of an ice bed. It was almost as if he could smell the ocean.

“Here you go!” Tsuyoshi said as he placed a bowl of white rice, piled high, and three slices of what looked to be premium grade salmon, in front of Ryuuji. While he never really had an eye for the luxurious, Ryuuji could still tell that this salmon was very high in quality. No fishy smell. Good amounts of fat. Very springy. As for the rice, from the tip of his nose, Ryuuji could smell hints of sushi vinegar mixed in, as well as the slight aroma of the sesame seed and nori furikake sprinkled on top.

Ryuuji reached for a pair of chopsticks conveniently placed in a container right in front of him and said his thanks before digging in. The rice was beautifully seasoned, just the right amount of salt and vinegar, paired perfectly with the sesame and nori, giving a slight sour and salty taste with a hint of nuttiness. The salmon, on the other hand, was extremely fresh and springy. Biting into it gave some resistance but it wasn't overly tough. The fat seemed to just melt inside the mouth. There was no fishy aftertaste and it went smoothly down the throat.

Ryuuji, despite his hunger, still ate with manners, not too fast, properly chewing and savoring each bite. While this was not the best meal he's ever had, it was the best meal he's had in a while. Within a couple minutes, he had completed his first meal

As Ryuuji finished his meal, Tsuyoshi interjected. "Sorry I couldn't give you much more. This is some quality stuff after all."

"Please, don't be. This is more than enough." Ryuuji replied with an earnest tone. "Sadly, I don't have any money on me at the moment, but if you'd let me, I'd be more than happy to work off my debt."

"Don't worry about it, kiddo. It's not much anyways."

"Please. I insist." Ryuuji said with a fire in his eyes, as if he would not take no for an answer that easily. Ultimately, Tsuyoshi gave in and accepted his offer.

"Alright. Then first help me sweep the dining area while I prepare stuff in the kitchen."

"Gladly."

__________________________________________________________

Back at the small leather-seated booth, the three men, once again, began to butt heads.

"Damn it! What's wrong with that kid?" Jirou, exclaimed.

"I don't know, Aniki. I think we should stop. That guy looks more trouble than he's worth." Saburou worriedly interjected.

"No! That kid made a fool of us. I won't let him get away with this!"

As Jirou finished his sentence, the eldest brother, Ichirou, who had been quiet up until now, spoke up.

"Kids like this are stubborn." Ichirou said, as looked in the direction of his two younger brothers, with a mischievous grin on his face. "Parents, when it comes to their kids, on the other hand, are like putty in my hands."

"What did you have in mind, aniki?" Jirou questioned.

"We call the school and report that we found a student skipping class, saying that we want to contact the parents." Ichirou smiled. "The three of us keep him from escaping while we wait for his parents to come to us. Then we can extort them for money with the ol'home tutor plan."

Saburou, with a worried expression, interrupted. "Are you sure that will work? What if the parents don't bite?"

"Has my plan ever failed?" Ichirou smirked.

"Sometimes…"

Ichirou' clenched fist hit the top of Saburou's head. It wasn't enough to severely damage him, but it still hurt.

"Quiet, you. Now, lend me some change. I have a call to make."

__________________________________________________________

"Hello, this is Nezu of Namimori Middle School speaking. What is the reason for your call?"

Since Namimori Middle School was one of the only middle schools in the town of Namimori, it was no surprise that Ichirou knew its number, given his 'profession'. From inside a phone booth, Ichirou's plan began.

"Hello, I'm calling because there seems to be a student of yours skipping school and causing trouble in the middle of town."

"I see. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We will alert the authorities and have them bring them back."

"Thank you very much." Ichirou said with his most professional mannerisms. "Actually, I'm a home tutor that specializes in helping out troubled kids like this. If I may, I would like to inquire about the parents of this student afterwards."

At the comment, Nezu sounded as if he was taken aback. "I apologize, sir, but without knowing who this student is, we won't be able to contact their parents. And even if we did, it would be a direct breach of privacy."

"Please, Nezu-sensei. It pains me to see children go down the wrong path."

"Like I said, we can't-"

Suddenly, the sound of the door to the faculty office being slid open rang throughout the room.

"What's this I hear about a student skipping class?" The voice of a young man was heard in unison with the sound of leather shoes making contact with the tiled floors.

"You! What are you doing here? This is the teacher's office." Nezu exclaimed.

As the young man walked closer, it was clearly visible that he was a student, yet none of the teachers dared to stop him, much less even look him in the eye. A black gakuran rested menacingly on his shoulders, with the word "discipline" embroidered on a sash attached to the left arm.

As he reached Nezu's desk, the young man forcefully yanked the phone from Nezu's hand. Nezu, as a teacher, wanted to put a stop to this kind of behavior, but in the presence of this person, he could only sit and watch. The phone cord rattled as he put it up to ear.

"You. Tell me more about this student."

"Who is this? Well, I last saw him enter Take Sushi downtown."

"That's all I needed to hear." As the young man put down the phone and proceeded to walk out. To the surprise of everyone in the office, however, Nezu called out to the young man.

"Hey, you! Where do you think you're going?"

The young man, without stopping in his tracks, turned his head around and said. "When there's somebody that disrespects the rules of this school, I'll bite them to death."

__________________________________________________________

"Tsuyoshi-san! Where should I throw the trash away?" Ryuuji shouted from the back of the kitchen. After cleaning up the dining area, he proceeded to clean the kitchen area while Tsuyoshi was preparing the seafood. He was used to the kind of work, as no corner was left uncleaned.

"Wow, you're finished already? Just throw it out in the trash can in the back. I’m kindly glad I didn’t send you back." Tsuyoshi chuckled.

Ryuuji opened the door into an alleyway. It wasn't as rancid as he would have expected the back of a sushi restaurant to smell but the slight stench of decomposing fish was still present.

As he lifted the cover of the trash can and threw the bag of dust and scraps in, he was alerted by the presence of three men approaching him.

"So this is where you were." Ichirou said as the three gradually enclosed the alley.

Seeing the three all together, Ryuuji was able to put it all together. "So you two were related. And there was a third one as well."

"So you figured something out." Ichirou started. "No matter. We just have to keep you here until the school comes and picks you up."

"School? What are you talking about?" A reasonable reply. In his mind, Ryuuji was still not used to the fact that he was ‘younger’ now. In reality, he just looked like any other teenage boy with an attitude. "Anyways, I have to get back to work."

As he was about to reach for the door, Saburou intercepted him and leaned up against the door, blocking his path. "You aren't going anywhere, kid."

"Just sit there quietly or else." Jirou added.

At the sight of this, Ryuuji tensed up. He was, by all means, not a naive person. He knew when things were to turn south. "Are you threatening me?"

"Of course not. Just a friendly suggestion." Ichirou replied with a grin. While they usually worked individually, these three brothers have considerably good teamwork. Plus, to them, they were only against a middle school kid.

But, hearing this, Ryuuji wouldn't back down so easily, given his situation.

"Oh, I must have been mistaken then. I thought you were planning to threaten me with only three measly wannabe thugs." He said with a smirk on his face.

Jirou immediately stepped forward from behind Ichirou. His expression, bright red, veins pulsing.

"Aniki, let me have a go at this kid. I can't take it anymore."

Seeing his brother like this, Ichirou couldn't help but sigh.

"Here we go again. Alright. We'll just tell the school that he attacked us first."

"Sounds good to me." Jirou confirmed, as he walked towards Ryuuji, cracking his knuckles. While he wasn't a conditioned fighter, he still had a few brawls under his belt.

"Oh, you're approaching me?" Ryuuji asked sarcastically.

"I'll teach you to mess with adults." Jirou said as he furiously swung with his right arm.

The sight of an intimidating man, such as Jirou, attacking would be an extremely frightening experience for a lot of people. That is, if they didn't have experience fighting. Contrary to what the three brothers saw Ryuuji as, which was a pubescent rich kid, he's been in, what you could call, a 'fair share' number of bouts.

As such, a wide telegraphed attack was of little threat to Ryuuji. With ease, he rolled under the punch and stepped in with his left leg to Jirou's right side. Pivoting his back leg while twisting his core, the resulting momentum brought upon a devastating right straight directly making contact with Jirou's face. The force of the blow was strong enough to send him tumbling backwards a couple feet, knocking Jirou to the ground.

'Wow, this new body is amazing!' Ryuuji thought to himself after seeing how fluid his new body could move. 'It's like I'm back to my prime again.'

Injured, but not quite unconscious, Jirou struggled to get back up.

"L-lucky shot!" He screamed as he rushed back toward Ryuuji.

By this point, the outcome was fairly obvious. As Jirou was about to reach his target for a submission, Ryuuji circled to the right, and threw out a swift right jab directly to his opponent's chin. While the blow was not as strong as the previous straight, even a knick would cause one's brain to start rattling.

Jirou's head began to ring as he felt the floor rising up towards him. As he was trying to regain his stature, a heavy knee rose up, knocking him up by the chin. At this point, Jirou's eyes rolled back white, as he fell to the ground, unmoving.

Seeing their brother being easily dispatched by a middle schooler, the two remaining were still in disbelief. 'How could a kid do something like that?' and 'He was supposed to be an easy target.'. These were the thoughts running through their heads.

From this, however, they knew that simply facing Ryuuji in a one-on-one situation was rather suicidal. The two brothers nodded at each other and brought out their 'brotherly cooperation'.

Immediately, Saburou came up from behind and put Ryuuji in a full-nelson. While his brother held the target in place, Ichirou would be on the offensive.

Ichirou walked up to Ryuuji, who was surprisingly not struggling, preparing to attack. After all, an incapacitated target would find it much harder to fight back. Winding up his punch, Ichirou looked Ryuuji directly in the eyes and spoke.

"This is payback for making a fool out of us adults." As he threw out his fist.

But this is what Ryuuji was waiting for. They said that an opponent is most vulnerable in the moment that they are confident that their attack will hit. As the punch was about to reach,

Ryuuji tested out the capabilities of his new body and kicked straight up, making contact in between Ichirou's chin and neck.

Saburou, hesitating after seeing his two brothers get demolished by a single kid, began to loosen his grip. Feeling a decrease in tension, Ryuuji lifted his right leg up, then immediately proceeded to stomp down directly on the front portion of Saburou's feet. The great amount of pain caused Saburou to completely let go of his clutch on Ryuuji, to which the latter proceeded to turn around and end it with a right hook to the jaw.

To that, the fight ended 3-0, with Ryuuji left as the victor, unmatched and undamaged. He couldn't say that he didn't expect something like this to go down, but never did he think it was to this degree. His body, however, while it had regained its youth, was not as conditioned as he had hoped.

As the adrenaline died down, he then began to think of what to do about the current situation, until he heard a mellow chime in the back of head.

[Congratulations. You unlocked the achievement: Win your first fight. Reward: 1 gem and Free Draw Ticket x 1]

Ryuuji's expression immediately lit up. "So there was this kind of feature as well, huh? Interesting."

Ryuuji's satisfaction, however, did not last long. The sound of marching footsteps echoed along the alleyway as a large group of pompadoured men fashioned in black gakurans blocked the entrance. Like Moses and the Red Sea, the men parted and made way for a single man. While he was smaller than the rest, there was a particular air around him, as if he were a tiger ready to pounce at any moment.

"So you're the troublemaker I've heard about." The young man in the front spoke.

Seeing the figure emerge, Ryuuji's eyes seemed as if they were about to burst from their sockets.

"You have got to be kidding me…"