Pre-season (6)

7th March

1 PM

Kiko was walking down a hallway with his hands in his pockets and a pair of red worn-out boxing gloves hanging around his neck by the ropes.

He was moving towards a huge black vending machine with a huge variety of sports drinks and health bars.

He stopped right in front of it and sighed loudly in disappointment.

"Who the hell eats nothing but healthy shit." He shook his head as he used his eyes to browse through the snacks.

Right behind him was a young man of average height but extremely muscular, just his physique could make any gym-rat jealous.

"Hm? Gallant what're you doing here?"

<Craig Young>

Nickname(s): The Gallant

Grade: 5th year

Title: None

Weight-class: Heavyweight

Height: 5'9/1.75m

Record: 17-13-20

Punching speed: B

Punching force: B

Dominant arm: Left

Fighting style: Slugging

Fighting stance: Southpaw

Hair: Medium length Brown hair cut in a fade

Eyes: Brown

Charm: C-

"My sister is playing in the soccer tournament, so I'm here to support her." He said with a huge smile on his face.

'He's pretty giddy. It's kinda ironic that all the heavy weights in the club are a bunch of softies.' He internally chuckled to himself.

"I see, must be nice having a supportive brother." Kiko picked a bottle with an orange beverage from a plastic bottle. He proceeded to fish it out of the machine with his left hand.

Gallant started humming happily as he picked his snacks of choice.

"See y-"

"Where do you think you're going..." Craig wrapped his left arm around Kiko's shoulder tightly and turned him around.

He got the snacks he wanted from the vending machine with his arm still wrapped around his junior.

"I'm going to show you the best soccer player you've ever seen." He grinned proudly as he dragged him across the hallway towards the wide door.

'Am I being kidnapped?'

The two walked for a while, turning multiple times and going through a variety of different doors before they stopped outside wide automatic doors. (Actually, it was more like Kiko was being dragged by his neck in a hurry.)

The automatic doors opened and Kiko was dragged in, they were greeted by a large football field with grass so green that you'd think it was completely artificial. It was an indoor field with artificial lighting at the top, the stands were packed, and the crowd was cheering incredibly loudly; here

Kiko realized soccer had way more supporters than boxing.

'I guess since it's the break, Azure won't be mad at me for not being there.' He sighed.

'Why the hell am I even here anyway?' He internally complained, but he was fully aware it'd be impossible to escape the clutches of someone with a strong sister complex.

Especially the Gallant.

***

2:45 PM

The match was honestly nothing to brag about, the St winter's team was being dominated for the whole 90 minutes, and the person the two went to watch barely played at all.

'It's just as I suspected, she's terrible.' Kiko fought the urge to laugh as he sat next to Gallant who was grinning from ear to ear as he recalled the events of the match.

"Did you see her junior? That is what you call talent" He smiled ecstatically.

"Tensei?" A girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes stood at the bottom of the stands with a pair of cleats in her hands and dressed in black shorts, a striped blue and white football jersey, and a pair of slides.

Shocked that he wasn't noticed first, Gallant turned to face his junior emanating an aura of pure hatred and bloodlust.

"Junior, you betrayed me." He whispered angrily.

Ignoring the energy that was directed at him, Kiko turned to the pretty girl with a blank expression on his face.

"And you are?"

"How dare you speak to my little angel like that, you worthless son of a bi-"

"Brother!" reprimanding her brother, she looked at Kiko once again.

'It seems she's already used her brother's antics and outbursts.'

"I'm Young, Laura Young... we're both in 1-J"

Kiko jumped down from the tall stands and landed with a loud thud with his knee's half bent and his legs on the ground. This caused the majority of people in the stands to turn to look at him with various expressons.

"Nice to meet you, Laura."

"How dare you use my princess's first na-"

"BROTHER!" Laura once again stopped her brother's obsessive scolding.

"Sorry about that, my brother can be a bit much sometimes, but he means well." She smiled embarrassedly.

'He's a complete psychopath is what you mean.'

"Right..."

"So, what're you doing here?"

"I came to watch you play; you were really..."

Kiko stopped himself from saying anything as he couldn't bring himself to unnecessarily lie.

"I know, I was bad right." She stared at the ground disappointingly.

"No matter how much I try, I don't seem to improve..." She continued sadly.

'At least she is self-aware.' Kiko decided not to voice out his opinion for fear of having his head bitten off by Gallant.

"Well, when did you start?" Kiko asked trying to at least lighten the mood.

"This is my first year," Laura said a bit quietly.

"Hm? That's fairly recent. There's no reason to be so upset then... I also started boxing this year, let's improve together." He smiled softly at her.

Her cheeks turned bright red as she heard the youth's words.

"Yeah, we should train together." She smiled proudly as she offered the youth a joint training session.

"That sounds..."

VRR VRR

The youth's watch vibrated indicating the end of the break.

"Hm?" he looked at it then back at the girl.

"Yeah, we should." Kiko halfheartedly replied as he dashed towards the door at a frightening speed shocking everyone around.

"Kiko Tensei... he's weirder than the rumors say." she giggled.

***

The first match of the 2nd half caught his attention, it was the bout between Percy and Leonard, the number 1 and the number 4 of the Welterweight bout.

"Will Leonard King and Percy Avenoir please make their way to the welterweight stage for their weigh-ins?"

Kiko's eyebrow raised slightly as he turned to Azure who got up and was prepared to join the two fighters at the bottom.

'That's strange.'

"But they're both from the same school?"

"And?"

"I thought we fought as a team..."

"That may be so but, we still fight against each other. When we go pro, there will be no boxing 'teams' it's every man for himself. That's the reality of it."

"I see... Then what about the coaching?"

"I'll be coaching Percy since he's the younger one."

"Interesting, then what if theoretically were in the same weight class? Who would you coach."

"The rules officially say whoever I want to, but I'd coach none of you." Azure chuckled.

***

In the middle of the ring stood the 2 shirtless well-built teens.

One was of average height, had divinelike bronze skin, and tied up black hair; the other was extremely pale and had short spiky black hair.

Leo stood in a traditional stance with no one in his corner, but despite having no coach he looked extremely confident.

"Don't disappoint me boy-wonder." he laughed playfully.

Azure was in Percy's corner reminding him of the things they went through during training.

DING DING

The two infighters dashed toward each other at comparable speeds. The ring was extremely stable despite the abuse the two fighters were putting it through.

Having a longer reach, Percy was able to throw the first punch.

It was a quick but strong jab that Leo easily parried with a tap of his fist.

He returned fire by throwing a deadly left hook at Percy's head.

Although he anticipated the attack and watched it move toward him, he wasn't fully able to comprehend its speed.

He just managed to weave underneath it and tried to return fire but was greeted by a welcoming jab to the face.

Percy managed to block it but was forced to take a step backwards.

Continuing the pressure, Leo threw another jab and took a step forward to line up a cross.

Percy was handling the combo quite impressively by blocking it with both arms.

Before Leo was able to deal any more damage, Percy threw an explosive uppercut toward his chin.

Leo rotated his torso and blocked the uppercut using his elbow.

'Got this one from Hubris.'

"Hehe, nice try Boy-wonder..."

Percy's fist connected with his senior's elbow causing him quite a bit of pain in his hand.

Leo countered by crouching and using his rear hand to throw a body hook at Percy's left side of his abdomen.

He was too slow to react to the attack and landed right where it was intended to hit. Percy staggered back slowly when Leo rushed in closer with his legs still bent and his head still low.

Leo threw 2 low jabs at the bottom of Percy's guard near his elbows. He proceeded to throw an uppercut that zipped through the air diagonally, it connected perfectly with Percy's arms.

Pery's guard broke as he staggered even further backward.

"Sorry, but you haven't reached my level yet." Leo chuckled as he went to deliver his final blow.

Leo used his left hand to throw a cross that whizzed through the air straight toward his face.

Percy was simply too overwhelmed that he wasn't able to deal with the blow in time.

BAM