Finally Out

[A/N: MC's improvement will always be shown at the end of the chapter.]

Word Count: 2332

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[Ego Namikaze POV (Japan: Tokyo)]

My stay at the hospital lasted a few weeks as I had to recover. Over time I realised how screwed the original owner's situation was with scars all over his body. The abuse was pretty bad and they really hit him where it was visible for anyone to see.

All wounds were on my arms, legs and face.

This was unfortunately made obviously clear with the malnourished body. But I have been able to recover mostly from it as the effects of such will go away in a few more days.

I'm not accusing anyone but my parents or at least one of them was a dipsh*t if I was in their care.

While before, the bandages that were all over my body felt exaggerated, they are all off right now and it feels great. The most obvious scar was on my face. It went from my right cheek down to my neck which feels weird but I like to touch it.

Not sure how the kid is alive but my priority right now is to keep my body healthy. My face though looked very unkempt with long black hair I wanted to cut, with the addition of sharp eyes coloured gold/yellow?

My whole career depends on my health as being an injury-prone guy would side-line me too much. I mean have you seen the dunks and how players land with one foot in the NBA constantly?

People keep talking about how "He would be good if healthy" but ignore that being healthy is talent too. While yeah it might be bad luck at times, being so explosive every match would f*ck your body up a lot naturally.

Knowing the impact of those landings with my old bad knees made me cringe so hard watching the NBA. It's no wonder players injure their ankles, knees and other parts of the body so often. So my playstyle is going to be more "lazy" with efficient movement.

It would be based on Kawhi's playstyle when he surgically f*cks up a team's defence. To be honest it looks like he's doing the minimum and still scoring. I won't force anything but I'll test it out as soon as I can when I visit a park with or without Grandpa. 

Relearning how to use this body decent way to improve my coordination, it went up a whole grade but I'm sure it's because of my past life. Right now I'm currently in the patient room just doing hip mobility exercises, calf stretches, ankle stretches and side steps. After asking the nurses for a few stretches and incorporating my own after they leave, it's been going well.

It isn't anything too complicated but it will help me regain my old coordination. This will set me up to exercise in hopefully the near future.

'I wonder if there are any basketball courts in the area I'll be living...' I thought against a wall stretching my calf.

Unfortunately, thoughts like these were normal trying to take my mind off not having any technology and of course the pain in my calf right now. Because my sweet summer child these calves are not having a good time.

Ironically doing these stretches is when I'm most calm when not thinking of living with Grandpa.

Speaking of Grandpa, he's not a bad person per se, but he's the definition of an "Asian parent" who cares for his grandkids a lot. The man has the same personality as my Grandpa from the Philippines who deeply cares for his grandkids and insults his own children.

It's a weird dynamic.

From personal experience from my past life, he definitely cares for me but the way he shows it is limited to spoiling me and acting rough. Thankfully today is his second to last visit before he gets to take me out of the hospital and into his care.

'We'll get to test that spoiling theory soon" I off-handedly thought. 

Off-topic thought the year is currently 2004, while I never directly asked for the date it was pretty obvious what the year would be when my date of birth was revealed.

1994 on the 6th of December.

My birthday has already passed so it's pretty close to Christmas and New Year's the fact it was snowing outside.

Finishing up my last few seconds of the stretch, a noise hits my ear.

*Creak*

Turning around, Grandpa Tokei was entering the room.

"Hello, Grandpa! I want to leave the hospital right now." I told him with anticipation to which he showed a warm smile. Raising an imaginary eyebrow at the rare smile I watch as for the sixth time this week he has visited me.

There's no reason to hate the man so I'll just treat him like a grandpa I never met and just found out about. 

Only god knows how many I had back in my past life as a Phillipino.

"You've finally gained some weight, you need to eat more." He softly reprimands me. "Don't be too impatient, Grandpa will get you out of here soon. After that, you can start school again."

Hearing this I just nod not really too excited about doing school activities.

"Can I buy a Basketball?" Grandpa Tokei hearing this thought about it for a little bit before nodding at my question.

"There's nothing wrong with that, we will go to the store before we arrive at my house. I'm going to take a few days off to help you." He says rubbing his chin. Satisfied with his answer a bright smile could be seen on my face.

Grandpa Tokei seeing this started to pat my head. With this last interaction done and Grandpa needing to head home, a few more days pass...

...

[Tokei Namikaze POV (Japan: Parking lot outside Hospital)]

"It's time to go Ego, I'll take you to the stores before we eat alright?" I tell him hoping he wasn't hungry yet. The place I wanted to go had excellent food and wasn't open yet.

Looking at the back of my car through the inner rearview mirror, my sight spots a kid with scars all around his body. In reality, he was wearing a comically large coat fully covering himself but that's not what I keep seeing. Despite being 10 the kid was already 5'7 and was estimated to be 6'10 when he grows up by a friend of mine at the hospital.

Is this why my own flesh and blood hit him?

Every time I get a look at the wounds, a guilty feeling always goes through my heart. Despite it not being my fault, it was my son of all people that did it. That in itself is not acceptable and with him gone now there's nothing to talk about.

'To his own child, he has no shame to abuse him.' The sheer thought was able to make me blind with rage.

Was I too strict with my child?

Should I be more lax with Ego?

The answer doesn't seem too clear to my clouded mind but I will make sure to set things right with this child. Seeing that my son and daughter-in-law overdosed they are none of my concerns as bad as that sounds.

My "anger issues" never stemmed into physical violence, so I can't see the logic behind all of this. As a single dad, I never thought my parenting was amazing but my mind thought it improved over time.

I see now that's not the case...

Thinking back on Ego's amnesia, it could be seen as a blessing at the time but the further I hide the truth the more of a curse it seems looming over me.

'I can't hide the truth forever, but I'm going to raise him right.' I make up my mind. My business can run itself anyway, so I can spend all my time taking care of Ego and raising him correctly. But this time I'll need to be patient.

"Grandpa, are there any parks near the house?" I hear Ego ask with a hoarse voice. Snapping out of my thoughts I realised that my eyes were drifting off. Blinking a few times I keep my cool and quickly process the question.

Now that I think about it sports could be a good distraction for him. His father never tried sports despite his gifted height from his mother and myself.

"There's a park across the road from the house, I'm sure there's a basketball court there. You can try to make some friends."

I say, silently hoping the idea wasn't too out of reach, and sure enough my day couldn't get any better from his response.

"Sure I'll make loads of friends, But I want a basketball first!"

Unable to hide a small smirk forming on my face, I start the car and drive off.

[Ego Namikaze POV (Japan: Sumiredōri Shopping District)]

It took around half an hour to arrive at the shopping district and as expected it was quite empty.

To be fair it was dead cold in the morning with small clumps of snow on the edges of shops. It seemed like the walk paths were regularly cleared out probably because this place attracted a lot of people.

Walking through the side of the path I take in the district in all its glory. It was still early but apparently the sports shop is open right now so I've got nothing to complain about. Most shops had a [Closed] sign to which Grandpa and I just walked past.

The walk was silent but comfortable, I'm not sure if it's awkward for Grandpa but I was never a talker.

It took a few minutes of walking till we found a sports shop to buy some stuff.

"The eatery we will go to is at the end of the district and will open in 10 minutes. So take your time alright?" Grandpa reassures me to which I happily nod.

Looking up at the banner on the store, it showed a huge [Sports Store] with a blue colour. With shining eyes, I excitedly went to the door without checking the directions as I pushed on a pull door. Grandpa seeing this got an amused expression.

"Didn't I just tell you to take your time brat?" He reprimands me putting a hand on my shoulders while opening the door beside me. Chuckling at the situation I follow him into the store.

*Jingle* *Jingle*

'Ah, the signature notification for someone entering.' I thought getting some nostalgia as I used to enter shops like these all the time.

Shortly after greeting the man at the counter, I started to wonder about the place and to my surprise it was bigger than what it showed. The place had multiple aisles and they even had full-on basketball hoops that could adjust sizes.

Getting to the section with multiple different basketballs my eyes weren't interested in any of them. Walking up to the cased-up basketballs in a package I saw the price and just murmured to myself.

"Bruh." I deadpan seeing the 25,380 yen price on the ball. Grandpa who was behind me walked to my side and pointed at the ball.

"Do you want this?" He asked curiously. Looking at his expression my mind connected the dots realising he's probably never bought sports equipment before.

It's not really that hard to tell when he's making it obvious with his body language. Pausing for a second I just shrug not really sure.

"It looks expensive," I respond not really knowing the man's wealth. To my surprise he just takes the little cardboard box with the ball inside and hands it to me. 

"You will need to study hard in school and I'll buy you more alright?" He says in a gruff voice looking away. With imaginary tears falling down my face I promised him right then and there I'll get top grades in school.

It's not like it would be difficult as I was a straight-up "nerd" in school. If anything it is pretty pathetic if you can't get straight grades from middle school to at least the last year of high school.

The only problem might be writing in Japanese though. But sacrifices to being a professional like learning a language is nothing.

'That is kind of subjective as I know some mates that "studied" but it didn't help. But hey, they called me crazy doing advanced math tests without a sheet full of formulas. So maybe I'm just different.'

We spent our time in the shop just looking around, especially at the basketball hoops section where I admired the glass backboards. We also ended up picking an air pump and multiple ball needles.

Not too long after we made our way back to the counter to which grandpa paid and we left.

Admiring the plastic bag in my hands, I held it up with my hands like it was some kind of trophy making the old man chuckle. Turning to my side to see his face he quickly put a hand on his mouth and looked forward.

Before I could comment on this he spoke first.

"Look on ahead, they just opened thankfully." He says making me look back in front. We were nearing the end of the shopping district and there was a banner that showed the name of the little eatery he was talking about. "It has a lot of comfort food I think you'll like Ego."

Not doubting his words my stomach starts to grumble as I see the name of the place.

'Restaurant Yukihira?'

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[A/N: I'm still new to making stories and my portrayal of my characters isn't as I desire but that's alright. Hopefully, I improve on the journey!]

[Body]

Strength: F- > F

Speed: E 

Agility: F

Dexterity: E > E+

Coordination: E+ > D

Vitality: D- > C-

Endurance: F > F+

[Overall: F > F+]

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