16 16 – A new friendship

Thanks a lot for the almost 700 collections, I'm so happy, this is a second chapter, I guess I'll try to get into a third one today If I get 5 comments~

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I woke up on Wednesday, and the routine was as the last day: Kazeo woke me, we prepared, went for Ippo, trained in the school gym, and we got to the classes.

I used the biology class to check my quest tab; there was a new one.

Connect more than 3 punches in the spar (Moderate task)

Reward: x8 training eye senses and punch speed for 1 hour

[COMPLETED]

I don't recall when I got that one, but I smiled when I saw it marked as completed. I have a lot of training items; I will use some of them today.

At lunch time, we sit near the football field, Umezawa brought some melón pan for all of us.

"Did you steal some money?" I said looking at him.

Umezawa looked at me offended "Hey!, I never asked for money..." and then he mumbled, "I did that to Ippo but I never took his money"

Ippo was munching his food and said "That's true, he punched me, but never took my money"

I just shrugged. "That's… not better, still what's new?"

Umezawa gleamed and said, "Dude, yesterday was amazing; Ippo got Knocked out, and Tsuyoshi fought this dude that was really fast, and his brother fought a monster that could even receive kicks and didn't even flinch"

Takemura said, "So that's where you went yesterday; you told me you had some work with your dad, and that's why you declined to go to the arcade"

Umezawa smiled. "Sorry, dude, just...I really wanted to watch that"

Matsuda nodded "I also wanted to go, but just be honest next time"

I finished the bento my brother made and put them in a bag. "Hey Umezawa did you bring your drawings?"

He went silent and blushed "Damn it, here it is" he threw the sketchbook to the floor.

Takemura and Matsuda came near me as I was opening the notebook. We saw some car doodles, desks, and some faces; they were great, but not at mangaka level or professional.

I exclaimed, "Well, they're really cool; you need to work out some details, but they're great"

Matsuda added "Yeah man, those are amazing"

Ippo took the notebook and said "Did you really draw this?, you are amazing Umezawa"

He nodded his head without saying anything.

"I don't draw, but I think I have an idea for some stuff; I'll write something for you to practice," I chimed.

"Don't know man... You don't seem to be the type to read mangas, are you sure you can make something good?" Matsuda asked me

I smiled. "Just because yesterday I asked something wrong doesn't mean I don't read some... but I've got to agree that I don't read a lot of them," I had to say because all of these are ancient mangas, and I don't remember most of them, just the popular ones that our big sister managed to obtain for the other kids. When the Internet was a thing for me and I got my own computer, I just didn't have time to surf the web.

Umezawa looked at me and said, "If it's good, I'll give it a try, and I will bring one for you to read. Just don't let the teachers catch you reading"

"Nah, don't worry; I'll read it at my house," I answered.

We continued talking, and Ippo smile grew each time they talked to him. I wonder if that's a type of Stockholm syndrome. But I just shook my head. He was happy, and in the real timeline, they did become friends.

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Lunchtime ended, and afternoon classes came by. When the bell for the end of classes sounded, a girl approached us.

"Hey makunouchi-san, tsuyoshi-kun, would you like to come with us to the karaoke?" She said.

I looked at Ippo, and he smiled, and then he deflated.

I chuckled and answered, "Sorry, Matsuoka-san, today is no good; we just joined a gym, and we are going to train. Also, we are helping in his family business, so we can't today, but how about on Friday? My treat!"

She clapped his hands and said "That would me nice, ok we shall go again on friday. See ya tsuyoshi-kun, makunouchi-san"

She went and talked with our classmates, and they chattered cheerfully.

"Why did you say that?" Ippo exclaimed.

I turned to him "You don't want to go? Sorry, I'll go alone"

"No! It's... I do want to go" he said in a quiet voice.

I tapped his shoulder "You're too shy, my friend, we can tell the coach we have work on friday and tell my brother to get people to help on friday"

Ippo was thinking and in an instant hist face iluminated. "That's right!, I didn't think of that, your brother said he wants to get people to use that for training"

I added "yeah and we also need to rest. I remember a phrase that some god told me: To train, To learn, To eat, To enjoy, To rest, that's the basic form of a martial contender"

Ippo just chuckled, "what words of a God! Sora, but... I felt good when you said that, you should write those"

I started to walk to the exit "maybe I will"

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At the gym, we got separated and trained with different coaches, I got shinoda and Ippo the old man Kamogawa.

Ippo trained with the mitts; he also did some weight lift with his arms, and a lot of sit-ups, the coach worked him a lot.

I trained some step movement, jumping with ropes, some bag punching, and shadow fights separated by rounds.

When half an hour passed, the coach told us to do roadwork, we went with Kimura and Aoki, also with other trainees; we were maybe like 8 running.

Two of them stopped running after the second km and walked back. I barely finished; my breath was rugged, and Ippo too was breathing heavily but less than me.

When we came back we changed trainers I got Kimura and Ippo went with Aoki.

I trained in the underground ring; I did some drills, mitts, and some combinations, without actually punching, just to remember the trajectory and the speed.

Ippo was training on the upper floor; later, I'll ask what he did.

I finished the day doing some cardio menu; I just did the page my brother told me to. And the coach was glad to know that I already had a good routine to train. He added four exercises and told me to rotate those on even days to vary the muscles at work.

Two hours passed; we got our stuff and said our goodbyes, when we were going out. I remembered the Friday date and turned around to talk with the coach.

He grunted but told us that tomorrow he will train with us harder.

"Hey kid, you have to prepare yourself, tomorrow you're going to train with Miyata" the coach told Ippo.

"Yes, coach," Ippo said

I smiled because the rivalry between those two will still happen.

We finally got out and walked to his house for the evening boat.

When we were at the Park, I saw Ichiro doing some shadowboxing. I watched him and stopped. It was then that Ippo looked at him and opened his mouth in amazement.

His own round ended, and he saw us. He turned his back, and I saw he was going to escape.

"Hey! Miyata-san, would you like a drink?" I said suddenly

He looked at me and coldly said "No thanks!"

Ippo put his head down.

I tried again "Don't be like that. Come on, let's talk. I saw your shadow; that's a counter, right?, you sway to the left, make a feint and..." I made the motion of the counter, and he raised his eyes.

"So you do know your stuff huh?" He told me.

I moved to the conbini and told him "So... tea, coffee, or soda?"

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I really, really, really, enjoy the comments! Please tell me something to get better!