Everybody Has a Plan, Until They Get Punched in the Face

Ryu arose from his bed, and got ready for school, as was the normal routine. He wasn't alone this morning and heard his mother singing as the smell of breakfast permeated his nose.

The only thing different this morning was that when he woke up, he normally checked his quest window to see what he had to do for the day, but this morning there was no quest to be seen.

He quickly showered and got ready for school, as he saw himself in the mirror, he realized most of his bruises were starting to heal or go away and wondered if the speed of this recovery was due to his skill in some way.

He ate the breakfast his mother made quickly. Thanked her, hugged her, then ran out the door to go to class.

At school everything went as normal, or well the new normal. He chatted with Kenji, studied in class, then was on his way to the gym.

This was the routine that he had been following for the last week and a half almost, besides going to class of course because of his leave.

When he got to the gym, he was beckoned over by Ken who seemed excited to see him.

"Hey, hey, hey, he's back for more," Ken said.

"What's up man," Ryu said greeting Ken with a handshake.

"I wanted to ask you if you were planning on going to the unofficial boxing tournament tonight, there's no prize, but it's good fun and it's hosted by the gym any patrons can enter, don't worry we do weight classes if we get enough participation," Ken said to Ryu.

Ryu thought over Ken's proposition quickly. "Well on one hand I could get experience from this, but on the other hand I could also get beaten to a pulp and have to face my mom looking like I got mugged."

[Notification: New Quest Available]

"I wonder what that's about," Ryu thought to himself questioning why the system had waited till now to give him a quest.

"Quests," Ryu thought to himself and watched as the display window appeared in front of him.

[Quests]

[Special Quest: Boxing Tournament]

[Join the Boxing Tournament and Defeat Your First Opponent (Incomplete)]

[Reward: Stat Points, Boxing Related Skill, 500XP, Small Chance of Skill Upgrade]

[Time Limit: Until You Are Eliminated from the Tournament or Win It]

"Holy heck, this quest is loaded, I guess I have no choice but to accept Ken's offer," Ryu thought to himself, as he envisioned himself getting one punch KO'd in the first round.

"Yeah, I'll join the tournament," Ryu said to Ken.

"Great, just show up here around 7 P.M. although it should be starting right around the time you finish lifting."

"Alright, I guess I'll just stay after I finish," Ryu said, as he walked through the scanner and into the main area of the gym, he waved back to Ken as a signal that their conversation was over.

With that Ryu proceeded to have a great gym session, he really felt his muscles burning and was looking forward to making a protein shake once he got home.

Ryu started walking towards the boxing section of the gym where he saw a small crowd of 30-40 people standing around, presumably waiting for the tournament to start.

A few minutes after waiting, Ken appeared and started announcing the details to the group of boxers. "Hey, everyone, I know we normally do MMA tournaments, but I wanted to switch it up and do some traditional boxing this week. Alright, so the pairings are on display on the large screen over there." Ken pointed to a screen and continued with his announcements, "So, you all have been paired with someone I think is most close to your skill level and with someone who best matches your body type, with that the first match will be between my new buddy, Ryu, and my old friend, Jake."

With that everybody started clapping, he initially pointed to Ryu in the audience as to signify that he was one of the boxers up next, and he also pointed out a foreigner, he stood at about 6'1 which was nearly the same as Ryu's height, he had blond curly hair, tattoos lining his body, and he gave off a rugged vibe. Although he looked menacing, he had a very innocent looking face, he seemed to be skinny but toned, holding slightly more muscle mass than Ryu did himself. Although Ryu had a slight height advantage nobody in the crowd had high hopes for him.

"That's my opponent, I might be screwed," Ryu thought to himself as he studied the male's tattoos and rugged demeanor.

"Alright you two, gloves on, hydrate up, and get your butts into the ring!" Ken said as he walked into the middle of the ring, indicating he was going to be the referee.

Ken looked excited and both Jake and Ryu walked up into the boxing rings with their gloves on after grabbing quick chugs from their water bottles.

They went to where Ken motioned, Ryu on the bottom left corner of the ring, and Jake on the top right corner.

Ken smiling gave one final announcement, "To my left, we have the sleeping tiger, the skinny menace, Ryuuuu, and to my right we have the tatted mantis, the golden cheetah, Jakeeeee!" Ken made sure to emphasize their names just like a corny wrestling announcer.

"Alright, you two boys come up to the middle and touch gloves to show good will," Ken said.

Both Ryu and Jake followed his instructions and tapped gloves together, Ryu studied Jake's face and realized the innocent looking baby-face he had before the match was gone, and his wide eyes were replaced with a cold, menacing, hyper-focused stare. Feeling a shiver go down his spine Ryu retreated back to the corner where he started, as did Jake.

"Alright on the count of three… three, two, one, fight!" Ken yelled out into the crowd and retreated back to a safe place where he wasn't in between the fighters, the crowd cheered as the first match had begun.

Ryu was focusing on Jakes form and footwork, as he slowly worked his way up in a defensive position. Ryu had an advantage with range because of his slightly longer wingspan. Once they were within hitting range of each other, Jake spared no time getting into it.

"Whoosh" a fist flew by Ryu's face as he just barely dodged the first punch Jake threw, it was both powerful and fast, and Jake exhibited great form.

"Whoosh", "Whoosh", "Wham" a hail of three punches flew towards Ryu, the first two just barely missed as Ryu's reaction speed allowed him to barely dodge the punches. The third punch was a body shot that just barely missed his liver, it connected because Ryu was still focused on dodging the first two punches by the time the third had arrived.

Ryu felt a stinging pain shoot up from his lower abdomen to his brain. "That hit hurt significantly more than Kenzo's punches," Ryu thought as he processed what had just happened.

As Jake was preparing to send a cross towards Ryu's face, Ryu read the punch before it was thrown, and dodged throwing a fast counter, hitting Jake straight in the face.

With that punch Jake stumbled back and was dazed for a second, while he was dazed, Ryu spared no time and approached his body throwing three more punches, two connected and hit his body, one missed and just barely grazed Jake.

Jake, enraged that he had been hit, threw a volley of 4 punches in retaliations, the first a jab didn't connect, the second a body shot connected with Ryu, the third and fourth were two more consecutive body shots that connected with Ryu, pushing the male backwards.

"Damn he's fast, even if I get him stunned for a second, he's immediately back on me, what can I even do to win this, there's no way I'm losing the challenge."

As he was thinking this he noticed a white object getting closer and closer to his face, he had lost focus trying to think of a plan, by the time he realized it was Jake's fist it was too late.

Black, everything faded to black. By the time Ryu woke up, he was already on the sidelines sitting in a chair with Ken standing over him.

"ryu, ryu, Ryu, RYU, RYU," he heard someone saying his name and it got louder, at the same time someone was repeatedly slapping his face lightly. As he heard the last "Ryu" he woke up slowly opening his eyes to see Ken standing over his chair holding him up to prevent him from falling.

"Yo, buddy, you okay?," Ken inquired to Ryu.

"Yeah, I think so, I just have a headache," Ryu said quietly as he was still regaining his senses, it was the first time he had been knocked out, besides the day Kenzo sent him to the hospital.

"That's normal buddy, you threw up a great fight, if you didn't let that hit you, I'm sure it would've been a close match," Ken said to Ryu to make him feel better about losing the match.

[Notification: Because you failed within the first round, your quest for the day has been cancelled, better luck tomorrow.] 

"Damnit I really needed that award," Ryu thought to himself as he saw the notification flash before his eyes.

"Yeah, thanks a lot man, even if I got the lights knocked out of me, I still had a lot of fun," Ryu responded.

"Yeah man, I'm glad to here it, sitting next to you is Jake, we just want to make sure you're okay so sit down for 10 minutes then I'll walk you home to make sure you don't get hurt on the way back," Ken said.

"Thanks Ken, you're a good guy," Ryu responded then shifted his attention to Jake.

Jake was on his phone not paying attention to either Ken or Ryu, because of this he tapped Jake on the shoulder to gain his attention.

"Good fight, man," Ryu said to Jake, in a sincere tone.

"Yeah man, you got me with a few good body shots, if you ever wanna spar when I'm in the gym let me know, I got a few pointers to give you," Jake said, the innocent look had replaced the fierce one that he had when he was fighting.

"Thank you, I'll make sure to take up your offer soon," Ryu responded.

Ryu then waited 10 minutes and walked back home with Ken. Ken left his work duties to Sakura so he could make sure Ryu was safe, basically he used Ryu as an excuse to get out of work early.

They approached the apartment complex and as Ryu started to walk inside with Ken, Ken turned to him and said, "That's crazy, I didn't expect us to live in the same apartment complex, with how expensive a gym membership is at our gym I thought you'd be living somewhere a little nicer, no offense," said Ken.

"None taken, I mean I got the gym membership as a gift from my sys-, my sister," said Ryu.

"Wow you have a really caring sister, I'd love to meet her someday," said Ken as they walked through the stairs access door and started ascending them to get to their apartments.

"Well, sadly you never will because she doesn't exist," Ryu thought to himself, letting out a chuckle in his head. "Yeah, someday, for sure," Ryu said. 

After a little bit of climbing stairs, they were on Ryu's floor. "Well, this is my floor I'll see you tomorrow, Ken, thanks for everything today," Ryu said. "Yeah, no problem, I'm a couple floors above, make sure you don't have a concussion or anything, but hopefully I'll see you tomorrow, bud."

The two men waved to each other and went their separate ways.

Ryu entered his apartment and slumped onto his bed; his mother was working a late shift this night so even though it was 10 P.M. she was nowhere to be seen. After doing his nightly routine, Ryu approached his bed and laid down, ready for the next day to begin.