4 Interlude 1

Sadao Chino was a peaceful man, born in the Chino family he, like all his ancestors, trained in their family's martial arts.

Such arts were what made the family one of the most respected within Kuoh during the Edo Period.

Unfortunately, the family has long fallen from its graces. With the changes that the Meiji Period brought, the interest of the population in the family's craft dwindled, making its power diminish as well.

Sadao was the last living of the family, and he'd stay like that until he passed away.

He had grown up with strict parents. His father forced him to learn their martial arts, and his mother made him focus on his studies, other than that, he was the Young Master of the Chino Family, he also had been the most talented individual to be born in the family in the past century.

He developed social issues, making him unable to create relations with those who were not members of his family, it was reduced to only his parents and their siblings, thus he hadn't been able to create any lasting bond with anyone.

Once recognized as an adult, Sadao defied his parents' beliefs and went out into the world. He wished to meet new people, see for himself if they were all as unbearable as his family.

This journey lasted forty years, during this time he made friends and fell in love. It had taken a long time to cure his social deficiency, but with the help of very stubborn friends, he did it.

One of those turned out to be more special than the others, Miki Tokunaga, now Miki Chino, was the most headstrong of them all. She'd fallen for the guy and decided that she'd have him regardless of what happened.

Their relationship was beautiful, they considered each other the best of friends, which made it easy for them to decide to live together for as long as life would have them. Another factor that helped was their friends always mentioning how well they looked together, how their silvery hair combined and how her silver eyes always took a bit of the brown coloring of his whenever they looked each other in the eyes.

Lamentably, their family couldn't grow, Miki had suffered from womb cancer, the treatment was its removal, making it certain that the couple would stay just a couple until death took them apart. They took years to get over the disease and its vestiges, but they found comfort in each other and got through it.

Another life-changing event for them was the news of the death of Sadao's parents, old age being the culprit. This made the couple travel to Kuoh and for Sadao to take over the family business.

Once he became the head of the family, he found that his uncles and aunts had also passed away a few years back, but their bad relationship with the man's parents made it so he never received the news.

-O-O-O-

The Chino family's life now had a new responsibility, the old family dojo had fallen into Sadao's hands to be run.

Always being one who disliked his family's ways, Sadao decided to change the way that he'd run the dojo. Instead of teaching their martial arts, he'd help anyone that decided to study there.

He had discovered many different combat styles during his travels, and being as talented as he was, he got a good understanding of them all.

The new style of teaching gathered a good amount of attention from the locals, however, many didn't adapt to its ways, and chose to leave and look for another place to learn from.

Sadao and Miki didn't bother too much with that, money wasn't a problem for them, the only issue that the lack of students brought them was the fact that they'd have nothing to do during the day.

Said boredom made them decide to move to a new neighborhood, one that they might find new students or just new people with which they could pass the day talking.

They chose a smaller house and a smaller building for the dojo, they knew that it'd be hard to find students so they decided to use a better-suited option.

And much like when they first opened, all the students that enrolled left, and once again they're on their own. That was until a brown-haired teen showed up.

"Welcome to the Chino Dojo! How can I help you?" Miki said when she saw that a teen had entered their establishment.

The teen had an average height with brown hair and two locks poking out from behind, he wore the city's school uniform.

"Hey! I would like to learn how to fight."

Miki had been working as a receptionist for a while, ever since she and Sadao had moved to Kuoh, so she could discern the type of clients that they got from her initial interaction with them on the front desk.

'He's enthusiastic, I hope he doesn't get turned off by our teaching style.' She couldn't help but think.

"In that case, what is your name?" The boy scratched the back of his head, smiled at her, and said, "Issei Hyoudou, nice to meet you!" After which he did a small bow as was the tradition in Japan.

"Well then Hyoudou-san, I must inform you that the way we teach here is different from any other dojo, you should be aware of that before you decide if you want to stay with us or go look for another place."

Issei looked at her expectantly, it was a clear signal for the woman to continue.

"Here at Chino Dojo, we help you develop your style of fighting, we aren't specialized in a single martial art, and we'll only teach you what you ask us to."

The teen nodded and put on a thinking position, after a while, he asked the receptionist, "So I have to know a fighting style before enrolling here?"

Miki smiled gently at him and said, "No, if you don't already have training in any martial arts we'll do an interview and find out what is the best one for you and your needs."

Upon hearing her words, Issei was certain that this was the place for him.

"In that case, I'd love to study here!"

The woman was delighted with his response. He'd be their first customer in a while, it would be good for her husband to have something to do during the day.

Since they both agreed to Issei's enrollment, the teen was asked to take a contract to his parents so they could legitimize the service, he couldn't sign it himself since he was still a minor.

With the papers in hand, Issei left the dojo, leaving a happy Miki behind.

Once alone, the woman decided to close earlier and go talk with her husband about their new student. Later that night they celebrate what could be a resurgence of their business.

-O-O-O-

Issei was back the next day at the same time he had arrived previously, this time he carried the contract signed and the money that he had to pay upfront.

After changing pleasantries with the receptionist once more, the teen was led inside so he could meet his new teacher and discuss what he'd like to train.

Sadao sat in the room that he'd use to train his students, it was a simple room, with a mirror wall and a tatami floor, he was eager to meet this new student, according to his wife, he could be someone that'd stick around.

"Hello. I am Sadao Chino, welcome to my dojo!"

Issei noticed the older man after he talked, figuring this to be a more formal interaction he bowed and responded to the man, "Hello. I am Issei Hyoudo, thank you for having me Chino-sensei!"

"There is no need for that, boy. You can call me by my first name… Now come! Have a seat, we shall discuss your training."

The teen followed his orders and sat facing him.

"Tell me Hyoudou-san, what is it that you wish to learn here?"

The boy barely had time to sit correctly when he heard the teacher's question, he hadn't thought too much about it, he only wanted to learn hand-to-hand combat.

"I want to learn how to fight, but I don't want to do so in competitions."

That raised a bit of concern in Sadao, teenagers learning how to hurt others could be very bad for all those involved.

"And why would you want to learn how to hurt others?" The older man inquired, he was using all of his experience in intimidating others to make sure that the boy wouldn't think to lie to him.

"I don't want to learn how to fight with rules because I'll fight against people that will want to kill me or the ones that are important to me, and I know that they won't care about the rules to do so."

That answer only made him more worried, however, this time it was to know what had this boy been doing that his life would be in such danger.

'I don't think he'd say that to me, even if I asked. I can keep him here and keep an eye out, so if anything dangerous happened I'd have a chance to help.' He thought.

"I see… Very well, I'll teach you, but you have to promise me that you won't use it to bully others, what I am going to teach you could be used to kill someone, so you have to be responsible about how to use this knowledge."

"Don't worry sensei, I'll only use what you teach me to protect myself and those that I care about." Issei understood the man's worry, but he knew that that wouldn't be the case with him.

"Hmm, very well… Let us figure out what exactly you want to learn. How do you want to fight? With your hands, your feet, taking people to the ground?"

The teen took a while to think, he had to consider his future enemies and how his power could help him.

'The Boosted Gear is a gauntlet, then it should be best to learn how to punch, however, when I Balance Break I'll have full armor, so I shouldn't forget about kicks.' He thought.

After a moment of consideration, Issei said, "For now I want to learn how to punch people, but in the future, I'll need to know how to use my legs as well."

Sadao nodded at the boy, some ideas of what to teach him already popping in his mind.

"I know a few ways that I can teach you, to choose one I'll have to know how you want to fight people if you want to be the one with the initiative, if you want to wait for them to go for you and then counter-attack them, or if you'll be defensive and strike when you see an opening."

This time, Issei didn't take long to decide, "I'll take the aggressive one, that will be the one that gives me the most chance of winning."

"Then I'll teach you boxing, more specifically, the in-fighter style. This is one that I saw the most in Mexico, it was used by people who liked to get close and overwhelm their opponents with a big number of punches. But you have to know that there are ways to counter it, and you'll have to do some physical training to complement it."

The teen didn't have anything to say to the older man, he just accepted his words and tried to make sure to remember the physical training advice.

"If you don't have any more questions we can start to discuss a time for your classes." Sadao got up and waited for the boy to do so with him.

Issei, seeing that, got up and both of them moved to the reception area.

The walk was enough time for Issei to choose a time that he was free, thus when they got there he answered him, "I'm free during this time if that is fine with you."

Considering that the dojo didn't have any students and the couple didn't do anything other than looking after it, Sadao was fine with it.

Thus it became formalized, Issei would have to go to the Chino Dojo every day of the week during sunset, the couple also gave him the option of going in the morning during weekends, if he wished to learn faster.

With that the conversation ended, Issei went back to his home, while Sadao celebrated the new arrival of a student with his wife.

-O-O-O-

The next day was the day that the training began, Issei arrived on time, and after being guided by Miki, he found himself being in the same room where he had discussed the arrangements on the prior day.

"Good evening Hyoudou-san, I hope that you are ready for today's class." Sadao greeted him.

"Good evening Sadao-sensei, let us have a good class today." Issei bowed respectfully.

After the greetings, Sadao asked Issei to change into short and for him to be bare-chested, and as a willing student, he did so.

"Now… The first thing that I'll teach you is the proper stance, which is your main hand?" The session started.

Issei indicated his left hand, then was promptly asked to move his body.

"I want you to separate your feet, shoulder-width apart, your right foot half-step in front of your left one."

The student followed the instructions, a few changes were made by the trainer to make it as perfect as possible.

After getting the position of his feet right, Issei had to start moving around.

"You have to move around a lot, boxing is a style of footwork, come on! Forward!... Now backward!..."

The teen's stamina wasn't as great as the duo expected, he had tired himself after a few minutes of movement, thus Sadao decided to change a bit.

"While you rest, I'll teach you your hands' positioning… Right hand up, make it eye level, keep your arm straight. Your left hand beside the chin and the elbow tucked on your chest."

Similarly, with the feet positioning, the teacher had to do some corrections. After which he made Issei hold the stance, maintaining the position of his hands and feet as he wanted.

Once Issei had caught his breath, he began moving around, this time having to make sure to keep all his limbs in the proper position.

This routine turned out to be all that they did during the first class, Issei was dripping with sweat and Sadao was surprised with the results.

"Issei, you're talented in this, by the end of the class you weren't making any mistakes on the form, we'll see how it goes tomorrow, I might start teaching you some of the punches."

His words of encouragement refilled the young teen with energy, his tired physique became upright and, after some energetic words, he left back home.

The next day was similar, after their greetings, they began the day's class.

It turned out that Issei really was talented, he hadn't lost any progress from one day to the other, so Sadao decided to advance the teachings.

"Great! Now stand in front of me." Issei did it while maintaining his stance. "I want you to use your right hand to hit straight ahead, you'll use your torso to give more strength and spin your fist, so it isn't uncomfortable for you."

It took a few tries, with the older man correcting his forms until Issei was doing a good Jab. That was when Sadao probed him to see if he wanted to move forward.

"Do you want to keep training this punch, or do you want to learn a new one?"

Issei stopped his movements, using this opportunity to catch his breath, and decided to learn a new move.

"Then, this time you'll use your left hand. You'll throw a straight punch, but this time your chest and your hips will help with your movements."

The teen had a harder time with this movement, making it so Sadao had to interfere more. The class ended with him perfecting this punch, which was named a Cross.

The following days were similar, Issei had to train Jabs and Crosses until he made the movements seem fluid, all the while moving around and keeping his stance.

Once he managed to easily chain one punch into another, his teacher decided to add in another move. This time it'd be the Hook.

"Issei, you're showing great progress with these two punches. I think you're ready for a third one… This one will use your right hand. First, you'll draw back your elbow, then you'll rotate your torso and your hips and strike."

His movements seemed more fluid, a side effect of his body starting to get to the flexibility needed to make these movements at a fast pace.

The hook was the punch that drained the most out of the boy, thus he had to take a break before he could get a satisfying form out of the punch. He managed to do so during that class, what awaited him next was trying to do a right jab, following with a left cross and a right hook.

This would be the combo that he'd train the most.

There was another punch that he had to learn, the Uppercut, like all the previous three, Issei learned the move fast, but he chose to not use it as much as the others. A decision that, upon further inspection from Sadao, was due to the teen wanting to master the first combo that he learned before moving on to others.

The day that completed one week of Issei's enrollment was being used as an evaluation day. The teen had to perform everything that he learned and have a spar with his teacher.

"Ready Issei-kun?" Sadao asked, he had started to call the student by his first name thanks to a conversation where it was pointed out that it didn't make sense for one to use it if the other wasn't going to.

After the older man's prompting, Issei got in position and the sparring began, Sadao had limited himself to only using counter punches, so the student could have a chance to demonstrate what he knew.

That being so, Issei took initiative.

He started with a probing jab, what he got in return was a very strong gloved fist to the face. He lost his balance, but his opponent gave him time to recover.

His second approach was with another jab, but this time he dodged the one he received and

countered it with a cross.

Sadao gave him a satisfied smile, prompting the teen to go for his combo, the jab and the cross-connected, but the hook fell short and Issei lost his footing.

The teen stumbled towards his teacher and was stopped when he headbutted his opponent's glove.

This made Miki decide to stop the fight, she looked concerned at the young student as he tried to stand straight.

Since the fight was over the couple went to look if he had taken any damage from the punch, when they got closer to him all they saw was the determination in the teen's eyes. He hadn't liked one bit to lose due to a mistake.

The testing ended with Sadao giving his feedback to his student.

"You did well, much better than any week-old student. We'll work on those mistakes and see about trying some kicks. Your punches are good, but you still have a lot to improve."

Issei thanked him and left home. He felt proud of his achievements, but the frustration of a loss would still take a while to go.