“HEY! QUIT SLACKING OFF!” The senior slapped the back of a student who was bent over fiddling with her shoe instead of following her directions. The senior’s face wore a stern stare, one that struck fear into the clubmates that were doing anything but what she asked. “In a fight you don’t get a chance to tie your shoes! Focus on your attacker and your attacker alone! If you can’t follow my directions, then leave this class!”

“Y-yes- ma’am!” The student instantly shot onto her feet, visibly shaken.

“That’s more like it…” the club leader gave a thumbs up. Her attention turned to another club member not too far away. “You’re the new kid, aren’t you?”

Haruna was looking at her partner, trying her best not to fall apart at the seams with anxiety. Her attention was broken by the club leader, only causing her to shake even more. “Y-yeah! I’m- Omo, Omo Haruna!”

“Welcome to the club, Omo.” The club leader said. “Have much experience with the sport?”

“N-nooo… not exactly…” She nervously laughed.

“I see… well, experienced or not, we'll get you into shape. Do you remember the directions I gave the class? You looked confused.”

“Uhhhhhhhh…. Yeah, I forgot them!” She laughed.

“Do you see your partner?” Her club leader pointed to the girl opposing her. “She’s going to be punching you. You have to dodge her punches at least ten times in a row. Think you can do that?”

“Uhhhhh… no, not exactly, hehehehe”

The club leader chuckled, gently patting Haruna on the back and walking away. “At least you’re honest.”

There was a brief moment of hesitation in Haruna’s movements. Her hands buckled tightly, sweat rolling down her cheek. She was remembering his words, his promise, and his needs. But they weren’t her needs, so should she just… quit? She thought about this a little longer until coming to a reluctant conclusion. Haruna solemnly looked at her partner, “I- I’m sorry… I,” Haruna bowed, slipping off her gloves and speed walking to the exiting door of the club room. (“I don’t wanna do this… I don’t wanna do this… I don’t wanna do this… he can’t make me; he can’t make me. This is insane. I hate fighting, I hate being here. I hate this. I couldn’t sleep last night. I couldn’t even eat dinner last night. This is insane, I have to escape.”)

Her hand rested on the door handle, twisting it. At the moment she twisted the handle, she felt a pair of gloves slam into the back of her head. A familiar voice echoed in a haunting booming voice, causing her to freeze in her tracks.

“HEY! Where do you think you’re going, first year?!”

“A-A-Akane…” Haruna stuttered, her feet frozen to the ground.

“You’re not thinking of ditching on us the first day, are you? You were the one who wanted to come here!” She scolded whilst tapping her foot impatiently.

The class emerged into soft chatter. The word “quitter” was tossed around a few times, which Haruna picked up on and cowered away like a turtle hiding in its shell. (“I didn’t even want to come here in the first place…!”) Haruna thought to herself. “I- noooo! Of course not, why would I ditch?! I just- just… needed to…”

“That face says it all…” Akane pointed at Haruna. “You know, I rented that gym with my own money. I even worked at a temporary part-time job just to get enough money to have it to myself. Ourselves. I’d hate for the person who showed up late to the club and wanted to be tested, ended up being the one to ditch on me the next day… all of that wasted time and money.” Akane’s eyebrows furrowed. “Haruna Omo, have you no pride?”

“P-pride?”

The class once again began to chat amongst each other while watching Akane and Haruna’s conversation like a hawk. Even the club leader was surprised.

“There is only one way to solve this….

“I, Akane, challenge YOU, Haruna Omo, to a match!”

Haruna didn’t know any more if she was awake, or alive for that matter. Was this real? Her? Right here? Right now? Fighting Akane? The girl who never flinched when she punched her? It looked like there was no way out of this, and the pressure of everyone watching dragged her further into the corner, like a cornered kid being beaten by the school bullies for her lunch money. What was she supposed to do…?

Nothing.

Absolutely… nothing.

-_-

“I want a good, clean fight between you two! No hits below the belt and no kicking.” The club leader said, taking the position of referee for the match. The rest of the club stood around the ring in wait for their eyes to eagerly gaze upon this spectacle.

Haruna looked at Akane with anguish. She could barely keep her head off the ground because it felt like it weighed a ton. Her arms were noodles, her legs as fragile as pretzel sticks. Omo’s posture was more like that of a scared infant than a fighter.

On the other hand, Akane gave the fiercest of looks she’s ever witnessed in her life. Her simple yet effective stance was the manifestation of confidence, power and ruthlessness incarnate. Is this what true fear looked like in the flesh? In the shape of an upperclassman trained in the sport of heartless violence? There was nothing scarier to her than that, at least that she could think of.

“Come on!” Akane balled her gloved fists, “Give me all you got, Omo! Because if you don’t, then you’ll be hurtin’ a whole lot more!”

“Fighters, take your stance!”

Omo slowly brought up two poor excuses of fists in front of her face.

“Ready? START!”

“ORREEAAAAH!” Akane immediately launched a right uppercut straight into Haruna’s guard, the singular punch blowing her fragile arms wide open. A second punch rammed into her gut, knocking the wind out of her before she had a chance to react. Haruna, left helpless, fell to her knees and held her stomach. In just two seconds, she was already fighting tears instead of her opponent.

“Hey! Fight back!” Akane demanded, taking her stance and bouncing back and forth around Haruna. “You chose to join this club, so you get to fight!”

“I- I don’t–! Why?! Why are you doing this?!” Haruna groaned, though, she weakly attempted to pull herself back onto her feet. Akane gave no answer to her question, just taking advantage of Haruna’s slow ascension to knock her back down again with a furious uppercut.

“K.O!” The club leader announced. She walked over to Akane, grabbing her hand and raising it. “In a record time of ten seconds, our winner of this match goes to Akane!--e-er- what’s this?”

Haruna sat flat on her bottom, her hand cupping her quivering chin. A small stream of blood rolled down the corner of her mouth. She was almost in a daze; she could barely think straight. To her, the world was spinning, and she was in the center of it. Was Akane in front of her or behind her, she wondered?

Akane’s eyes fixed on Haruna, the entire class falling silent. A feeling of looming anxiety flooded the room, stopping everyone’s actions to a dead halt. Haruna’s eyes grew colder, a harsh scowl revealing itself under her sorrow.

“Rrrrgghh!!!” She growled. “YOU- YOU!” A white-eyed furious Haruna stormed over to Akane, her heavy steps making the floor quake beneath the class’ feet.

“Coming for Round 2?” Akane grinned, getting back into formation.

“REEEEEAAAAAAGH!” Haruna violently screamed, her fist soaring for Akane’s face. But at the last moment, she missed! Like a vacuum, the power in her fist diminished, said fist swerved away from Akane’s head and drooped over her shoulder. The unnerving fury previously expressed returned to the pitiful sorrow on her face once more.

Omo, visibly defeated, buried her face into her hands, sobbing silently. She missed the chance to see the pure whites in Akane’s eyes, who looked like what just happened was a miracle, like she just dodged a bullet! Akane was left scared speechless along with everyone else. To Omo, the worst thing that could happen just happened. Fighting? She hated fighting. Being labeled a quitter? She hated being called a quitter. But… losing her composure? That she could never forgive herself for.

Feeling like a fool, Haruna dashed out of the door, hoping to never show her face inside that gym again.

“What have I done…” Akane asked herself. The audience that paid their attention to Haruna now looked at Akane, and the feeling of a million unforgiving gazes did not fit her right. She fumbled with her hands a bit, avoiding eye contact with her fellow classmates, then quietly pursued Omo.

“Wait! Omo!” Akane called out, waving her hand, but Omo just ran harder.

Before Haruna could escape behind a corner, her hand was snatched, her grabbed arm yanking her back. “LET ME GO!”

“Hey!” Akane’s grip eased off of Haruna, speaking in a softer voice. “I want to talk.”

“You’ve done enough talking!”

“Hey hey… calm down.” Akane removed her hand from Haruna’s. “Tell me. What’s the problem? When I saw you yesterday, there was a fire in your eyes to learn about this club. But now you want to avoid it like it’s the plague! Is something wrong?”

“I-... no, it’s just…” Haruna sputtered, trying to spray out words but they all ended up coming out as unintelligible nonsense.

“Take your time.” Akane persuaded. “But if you hate fighting, then why did you want to join this club in the first place?”

“I… I don’t know…” Omo slowly spoke, her gaze shifting to her shoe.

“Hrmmmm…” Akane rubbed her chin. She took a slow deep breath, then sighed, leaving a small smile. She leaned against the wall next to Haruna, staring out at the opposing side. “I remember when I first joined this place. I was just like you and in this exact situation.”

“You… were?”

“Of course I was!” She exclaimed. “Everyone starts somewhere, right? I was a crybaby too once upon a time. I didn’t hate fighting like you, no. I grew up watching sumo and I still do. While sumo is different from boxing, I think it helped play a part.

“I joined, simply put, because I failed in my PE classes. The guy setting up the Boy and Girl Boxing Clubs, he came to me when he saw I was struggling. I jumped on it and thought it’d be an ‘easy way to grow stronger’.... Heheh, boy was I wrong.

“One day I just couldn’t take the pain and the frustration of losing, so I ran out of the room in broken tears. The club leader had to chase me down and give me a pep talk. She told me a rather silly analogy when I was in your place, but I never understood what it meant: Life is like a drive thru, not a salad bar. You say what you want, but there’s always a chance it’ll come out wrong. You can stamp, scream, and complain to the manager all you want, but there are no refunds.”

“That is a silly analogy…” Haruna agreed and softly giggled.

“After a while, I understood it, but it still didn’t help me much. But there was something that did, or rather someone.”

“Oh? What would that be?”

“Friends! -er friend. When I met her, she was a junior high kid. She was, and still is, always a bundle of joy. On the surface she comes off as a bit nuts, but she’s the nicest person I know! You should meet her. If she was able to influence me to keep moving, then she’ll help you. Her name is ‘Mirai Keikan’, and she goes to this school now. She’s a first-year student just like you!”

Mirai… well, she sounded like she’d be the antidote to her anxiety, so perhaps it’s worth a shot. Nonetheless, it still didn’t stop Haruna from being scared to death. She had no doubt Mirai was a good person, but… if she had another day of fighting, Omo’s head was going to blow to smithereens!

Did she want to meet Mirai?

Probably not…

Did it seem like she had a choice?

No. Not at all.