Chapter 3 - Progression

Chapter 3

~

The next few years Nana's interest in boxing, martial arts or just activities which required you to move your body in general saw a sharp increase, eventually reaching the point where her staying still was more rare than seeing her flitting around the gym.

Sam, Chad and Yama had gotten very worried about her, thinking that her body wouldn't be able to handle it and had taken her for a check up when it really started ramping up. In the end however, the results surprised the one doing the check up just as much as it did them.

Contrary to their concerns, Nana's body was adapting to high intensity actions at a frankly terrifying rate, although they had barred her from doing actual strength training at first since she really would hurt herself if she did, her endurance and energy was seemingly growing without limits by the day.

Seeing as she couldn't start lifting weights without them interfering she took to doing stretches, long sessions with the jump rope, running around the gym and exercises that used her own body weight against her day in and day out.

Everyone else could only look on in beffudlement as the usually stationary little girl seemingly turned into a training maniac overnight, doing mundane repetition exercises until her body gave out like they were the most entertaining things in the world.

One problem that occurred was that although Nana tried persuading them in her own way, staring at them for extended periods of time, they didn't really know how old she was so they couldn't tell when it was fine for her to start training harder without stunting her growth.

Eventually when Nana looked about 7 years old they decided to let her begin with some light weight lifting while the boxing coach kept an eye on her to make sure she was doing it with proper form after which her strength quickly started rising.

It continued like this with Nana growing in both height and strength as the years passed, not to say that her skills stagnated. She kept up with the drills Chad had shown her and the new ones the boxing coach gave her until the day of Nana's first spar arrived when she was about 12 years old, they had decided to assume that she was around 6 when she arrived at the gym for simplicity's sake.

Yama stood outside the ring in Nana's corner, looking at the two fighters in slighty nervousness, Sam and Chad were too busy running a few errands so they unfortunately couldn't come. Nana hadn't really changed much in appearance other than growing taller standing at 155cm and her body being covered in lean corded muscles, though still being distinctly feminine.

She was currently wearing a black headguard, a pair of boxing gloves with wrappings underneath, a sportsbra and some loose black shorts with her hair tied up in a messy high ponytail, two bangs running down the sides of her face. It was basically her only hairstyle, he had a feeling the only reason she even bothered was because it got in the way otherwise.

There was a bit of a problem since they had to get a mouthguard that actually fit Nana's shark teeth which took a bit of time but worked out eventually.

Opposite of Nana who was lightly bouncing on the heels of her feet stood Derek, a 15 years old with prior experience in fighting standing at 176cm tall that had been a member of the gym for just a few weeks. Apparently he had to move and this boxing gym was the best one in terms of convenience.

"You sure she can take it? Even if it's a spar punches still hurt." Derek asked with a raised eyebrow as he glanced towards the boxing coach who was keeping an eye on everyone's spars, occasionally shouting corrections at the others, as he relaxedly threw a few punches at the air.

"She'll be fine. Now focus up." Coach John had seen the lass training like a person possessed for the last few years and had personally seen her improvements with his very own eyes, the kid was in for a big surprise if he underestimated her.

"Whatever, just don't blame me if she starts crying or something." Derek scoffed as he rolled his eyes, raising his orange gloves into a loose guard.

"Alright, both ready? Start."

The two started walked towards each other meeting in the middle of the ring, Derek starting with a few probing jabs which Nana easily dodged by leaning back slightly before they started lightly trading blows back and forth.

Derek initially thought that he had the upper hand due to his previous experience but he quickly realized that Nana began either slipping or guarding his punches more and more as the spar went on while she also started landing more and more punches.

Nana had decided to go at it slowly at first since she wanted to get used to punching and defending against something that actively fought back but a few minutes into it she had gotten bored with the pace and started slowly raising the intensity.

Meanwhile, Derek was feeling increasingly stiffled. Nana's pace kept increasing which forced him to follow since he didn't want her to land more punches than him, she was three years younger, there's no way he's letting her walk away with a 'win'.

As the fight progressed Derek's irritation kept growing with every miss as he started using more and more strength in his punches, despite this however Nana didn't seem to react much to the hits she tanked other than slowly increasing the strength alongside him.

Derek looked at her still blank face and her dull eyes staring in his direction feeling like she was mocking him. A few rounds later the majority of Derek's punches were now missing due to a combination of fatigue and Nana getting more used to fighting against him.

Contrary to his sweat drenched exhausted appearance, panting heavily because of the intensity they kept going at. Nana's only sign of having fought a few rounds in the ring was her breathing having gotten slightly heavier.

"Are you bored or something? Huh!?" Stepping back to catch his breath a bit, Derek glared at her as he growled into his gloves.

"..." Nana didn't reply, just waiting for him to recover enough to get back to the sparring as she stared back at him.

"Tsk. Why aren't you saying something!?" Derek shouted as he stepped forward aggressively throwing a few rage filled punches with all he had while Nana easily evaded him.

"Fight me seriously!" Derek roared at her in anger before stepping back, taking deep gulps of air while still keeping his gloves up as he glared at her fiercely.

Nana sort of just looked at him for a few moments before nodding simply and started approaching him. Derek readied himself as he focused on her shoulders, his eyes suddenly widened before he hastily blocked a lightning fast jab, throwing a cross at her which she ducked under and stepped inside his guard, Derek didn't have time to do anything else before his side exploded in pain.

"Ahk-"

Derek's eyes widened as the air got punched out of him, his mouthpiece dropping while his body locked up before falling down to the ring as burning hot agony ran through his being making him unable to do much but groan in pain, breathlessly holding his side as his body instinctively curled up.

"Hey, are you alright kid!?" John shouted as he quickly climbed into the ring to check on him. "Can someone get an icepack over here? If you can't find any just a wet towel will do!"

A few minutes later, Derek was sat against one of the walls with face scrunched up in pain holding a pack of ice against his side with his headguard and gloves lying beside him.

"Nana..." John sighed as he scratched at his head looking at Nana still standing in the ring waiting for her next opponent having seemingly already recovered, though even if she looked good to go, he knew that Derek's punches were having at least some effect it was just that she was ignoring it.

No matter how good her endurance and stamina, to his knowledge she's never really taken a punch before and the spar escalated enough that Derek was probably going all out at one point, it was inevitable that she would be affected.

"Are you sure you want to continue sparring?" John felt the need to ask despite having a feeling that he already knew her answer, his guess being confirmed when she just nodded in response to his question.

"...Alright, but I'm adding a compulsory weekly check up to your 'schedule' going forward."

After this Nana had started using the medicine ball wanting to get more used to taking hits on top of wanting to spar everyday, basically making the boxing ring a king of the hill zone, with her as the king and the ring as the hill.

It wasn't long after she started doing this that she had worked her way through most of the younger gym members and started trying to convince the older members to fight against her, most of which were reluctant to hit a little girl young enough she could realistically be their daughter, no matter how good she had proven herself to be in the ring.

Unfortunately for the older members's sanity however, Coach John had gotten wind of a junior boxing tournament that was just about to take place a few weeks later from an acquaintance of his which prompted Nana to start pestering them even harder until one of them reluctantly gave in, alot of the current gym members had seen the girl grow up over the years and has long since known that she could be extremely stubborn when she wanted to be.

In her first sparring match against an adult Nana unsurprisingly did not win as candidly as she had against the younger members, what surprised most of them however was that although they had started slow to get a feeling for each other Nana had eventually pushed her sparring partner enough to be going pretty much all out against her.

While most people would understandably be appalled at the onlookers letting the spar continue especially at this level of intensity, everyone there had already understood something about Nana.

She was abnormal, bordering inhuman even.

As young as she was, her deceptively slender frame already possessed more strength than the average moderately trained adult did while also being very dextrous and limber, her stamina spoke for itself with Nana being able to execute high intensity motions for hours upon hours on end. This combined with her resilience rapidly rising ever since she started sparring and her stubborn mind that kept her standing until her body physically couldn't anymore, she was a little monster in the making.

The reason they were reluctant to spar against her was more due to the moral dilemma of hitting a little girl than actually being able to hurt her what with her being able to seemingly heal from whatever hits she took overnight, being as energetic as ever just the next morning.

The spar eventually ended with Nana ultimately being the one left standing purely through sheer endurance and stubborn bullheadedness while her sparring partner was on the verge of passing out due to exhaustion, both of them sporting more than a few bruises.

Nana panted raggedly as she shakily climbed down from the stage drenched in sweat, her usually blank expression was still present on her face though now heavily clouded with fatigue as her slightly unfocused eyes stared into nothing ahead of her. Meanwhile her opponent had decided to lay down to try and reduce the amount of black spots clouding his vision before even thinking of standing up.

"Are you okay, Nana?" Yama asked in concern as he hovered over her in worry, holding out his arms to catch her just in case her body suddenly decided to shut down on it's own as she unsteadily made her way to the showers, something Sam had made sure to engrain in her was the habit to shower after every single one of her sessions since when she finally stopped she basically looked like she just came out of a pool, her body essentially operating on autopilot at this point.

"I'll make sure she doesn't pass out in there, don't worry." Yama nodded gratefully as one of the women who had spectated the spar jogged over and gave him a pat on the shoulder before trailing into the room after Nana.

"I'm relieved you found something that you like so much little Nana, but to think it would be fighting..." Yama mumbled under his breath as a wry smile appeared on his face, though there was no mistaking the gentleness in his eyes as he waited beside the door absentmindedly looking around the gym.

After seeing her sparring multiple times pretty much everyday for the past few months you'd think he would get used to seeing her both taking and dishing out blows, however Yama still felt the urge to wince everytime he saw her tanking a punch. He didn't know if he would ever get used to it to be honest, however he wouldn't stop her.

During the time they had been at the gym, being around 6 years by now, Nana hadn't really had an interest in anything else from what he had seen so far, despite him continuing to introduce her to various different things over the years. There was the odd something here and there that she took a liking to for maybe a day or two before she went back to her previous routines.

She wasn't interested in school either when he asked and considering her past, he was fairly sure she didn't have a birth certificate, there was even a chance she wasn't even a registered birth which made things even more complicated and Yama didn't feel knowledgeable enough to remedy this. Not to mention, Yama had a feeling Nana wouldn't do very good in school, not for a lack of intelligence, but because she probably wouldn't even bother in the first place.

He had already gotten enough money to get their own place if needed but when he brought it up to Nana she said, or well, gestured, that she'd rather stay at the gym which he didn't have a problem with, he had talked with Sam and the two of them had added a small kitchen area to the gym and a couple of foldable beds.

He was fine with using the clothes and blankets he used before after a thorough wash as bedding while Nana had both the blanket he gave her and the one he found her with despite him offering to buy her new ones. In the end he only bought a couple of bed sheets and a few pillows for the both of them, though now he actually had something to spend money on, a percentage of his wage going to gas, which Sam also payed a part of despite his attempts to dissuade her.

She felt like she should since she also ate at the gym quite often, the other expense being the ingredients they were cooking with. Him, Sam and Chad had all cooked a few times and rotated inbetween them since they were all pretty average cooks overall, though they were extremely surprised when the first time Nana cooked an absolutely incredible smell filled the gym.

After taking the first bite they felt like they went to heaven and when they eventually snapped out of it they had already devoured the whole plate, leaving not a single grain behind. When they all asked Nana where she learned to cook they were all shocked at her answer, she had apparently watched the tv store across the street which occasionally broadcasted cooking programs on the displays through the window and slowly learnt various bits and pieces which she used to build up her knowledge.

Apparently on top of her terrifying physique she had an equally monstrous psyche being able to remember all the knowledge from the cooking shows she watched and piece it together into a coherent whole, instead of just a bunch of scattered pieces of knowledge.

Well, safe to say, they quickly put Nana on cooking duty whenever she was free and it wasn't long until the other gym members were attracted to the delicious aroma that occasionally spread from the kitchen area and asked for a portion, even offering to pay.

This lead to something that made all three of them both quite exasperated and speechless. Nana had somehow gotten her hands on a fairly large piece of cardboard and a sharpie and just put up a sign next to the kitchen after one of the gym members helped her write what she wanted in exchange for some of her food.

'Fight = Food

-If Good, 3 Fights For 1 Meal

-If Bad, 5 Fights For 1 Meal

-Bring Your Own Ingredients

-Nana Will Take A Portion Of The Finished Food'

Well, safe to say, the gym entered a frenzy the next few weeks as everyone scrambled to get a spot on the 'waiting list' which Yama had to make since pretty much every member had applied, and he volunteered to get some sort of schedule going.

Each day going forward were basically filled with the non-stop thudding sounds of sparring as Nana had pretty much taken permanent residence in the ring, only broken up by small breaks and occasionally quick jaunts into the kitchen whenever someone met her requirements while she grew stronger, faster, more resilient and longer lasting with every day that went by.

It continued on like this until the day of the junior tournament finally arrived.

---

"Coach, are you sure Nana isn't going to just run through everyone there already? She's been starting to drop some of our more skilled members the last few days, I kinda don't see the point of her even going there in the first place." Sam asked nonchalantly as her, Coach John, Yama, Chad and Nana prepared to set off. The gym was temporarily closing for the day since she also wanted to be there to watch the tournament.

"Oh come on Sam, it'll be fine." Chad rolled his eyes as he held the door open by leaning against it. He'd known her for a few years already and while she may be trying to mask it, he knew she was a bit worried. It was one thing to start boxing the gym members, gym members she knew and was at least a bit familiar with. But regarding anyone outside the gym, it wasn't like she could just call it off whenever she wanted to which probably made her feel a loss of control.

The two were now both 23 years old looking much more mature but hadn't really changed much outside of that in terms of personality, Sam was still working as the gym's receptionist while Chad had started getting into stock trading after managing to convince his uncle to lend him some money and had so far been pretty successful, having lucked out with a few of the companies he invested in rapidly climbing in value over the last few years.

When he was sure they were on the rise he had also gotten Sam to invest a bit, so they were now both making a pretty decent chunk of passive income leading to Chad spending alot more time in the gym than before while also keeping an eye out for anything interesting popping up, apparently he had a very acute business sense since he found it fairly easy navigating the market.

"You're really worried about Nana, huh? If someone told me you'd be such a mother hen when we first met I would've called them delusional." Chad chuckled with his arms crossed as the group stepped out of the door, closing behind him as he moved away while Sam went to lock it, giving him the stink eye.

"I'm not a mother hen, I just don't think Nana will have any fun is all. She's in the Bantam group by age and any other 11-12 years old will go down in a single hit from her, even if she's not trying at all. She could tap them to victory." Sam denied with a scoff as she straightened her black leather jacket and put the keys into her pocket, winding the lanyard around the belt hoop of her jeans a couple of times just in case.

"Uh huh." Chad stared unimpressed with a raised eyebrow as he saw Sam holding her hand out for Nana to take, which she did, and start walking away, ignoring him.

"Well, I suppose we should get going. It won't start for a while so we have time, but I'd like to meet up with an old friend of mine and talk a bit before the matches begin." Coach John mumbled as he rubbed his hands together and blew into them. It was still a bit chilly, the winter having just passed. Tightening his jacket he saw Yama by his side doing the same with the long coat he wore and directed a dry gaze at Chad standing in red shorts and a hoodie.

"You sure you're not gonna catch a cold walking around like that?"

"I'll be fine. Nana was about to walk out in her workout outfit a few minutes ago, you know? Well, before Sam saw it and made Nana into a walking ball of clothes." Chad waved his hand placatingly as they trailed behind the pair in front of them, Sam made Nana put on so many layers that she ended up having to half waddle her way towards the tournament site.

It was something he had noticed over the years of knowing the little girl that suddenly barged into both their lives and hearts, she was someone who went with the flow most of the time letting Sam mother her as much as she wanted for example. Most children he knew would've thrown a tantrum long ago.

Well, although she was a very placid person in most situations, she was also the most stubborn person he'd ever met when she had decided on something.

The three of them engaged in idle small talk as they walked while Sam was showing Nana something on her phone.

Arriving a few minutes later the group entered the gym and saw a few groups of people already waiting inside. The room was fairly large, rectangular in shape with a boxing ring occupying maybe a sixth of it placed in the middle, the rest looking like a standard martial arts gym, a handful of people going at the punching bags or working out scattered around the room.

"I'll go submit Nana's entry." Coach John said before walking over to a small booth they had set up.

"This it?" Sam asked in slight confusion as she looked around, she had watched a few videos of junior tournaments because she was curious and they were always hosted used big gymnasiums or even stadiums.

"Yup. Everyone in those videos you watched probably went through drop-in tournaments similar to these to even get the chance to participate in the bigger tourneys. " Chad shrugged his shoulders, he wasn't surprised.

"Are you nervous Nana?" Yama asked gently as he walked over, having taken off his old long coat now hanging over his shoulder, starting to remove all the various layers Sam had wrapped around her.

Nana shook her head slowly as she dully stared into space wondering about who she was going to fight. She felt that she was approaching the ceiling of what she could reach in terms of skill since she learned by both seeing and fighting others more skilled than her which was now not possible anymore as she already sat on top amongst everyone in the Dieseldunk gym in terms of skill and she was slowly but surely getting up there in physique aswell.

She didn't feel like she had alot of options to move forward unfortunately, she really liked getting stronger but she also didn't want to leave the Dieseldunk gym to do so. Not to mention that even if she decided to leave the gym she wouldn't have any idea of where to start looking for someone that could teach her further.

She had played around a bit with the movements from the cartoon Sam showed her but nothing really clicked with her yet, and since alot of those movements used kicks she didn't feel like using them in her spars since everyone else was using boxing.

She hadn't thought of a solution yet but was already considering asking Sam or Chad what she should do, she wanted to figure out a solution by herself but she didn't really have any good ideas.

When Yama finally helped Nana escape the clothing prison Coach John returned with a somewhat difficult face, scratching his head.

"What's up?" Sam asked with a slight frown when she saw his expression making him sigh.

"Well, it seems when they said 'junior' tournament, they meant actual Juniors as in 15-16 year olds which my acquaintance either didn't know, or didn't think I'd bring a 12 year old which means Nana won't be able to participate."

"..." The group went silent as they processed his words.

"Did you ask if she could at least try for a match? I don't think anyone here will be able to defeat her so if she could just get a single match and wins, maybe she'd be allowed to continue?" Chad suggested as he rubbed his chin ponderingly trying to find a solution.

"I did, but they can't just bend the rules all willy nilly with these things since today's winners are going to continue into one of the bigger junior tournaments." Coach John shook his head. It was unfortunate but not something he could do anything about, they were just unlucky.

"Tsk, can't they just allow a single match? I don't want to have come here for nothing and Nana's been preparing for weeks." Sam crossed her arms with a small scowl, despite being slightly against coming to the tournament she thought Nana would at least be able to play around a bit.

"There's not really anything we can do unfortunately-" Coach John began in a tone of resignation before a deep gruff voice interrupted him.

"The lass wants to fight?"

Turning around in surprise the group saw a middle-aged man about 200 cm tall wearing a black tracksuit standing behind them calmly. He had short black hair and eyes and a naturally solemn face set in a stern expression, his slender but solidly built body had a deep tan while he gave of a weirdly oppressive feeling.

"Who the hell are you?" Sam immediately glared up at him while taking a step to stand in front of Nana, hiding her from view while the rest of the group looked on from the side in surprise.

"...Sam. Your mother hen instincts are going into overdrive again." Chad facepalmed as he also stepped forward, grabbing onto Sam's shoulders just in case she suddenly decided that attacking the guy was a good idea. He looked at the man with a nod and apologized. "Yeah, unfortunately she's too young to participate so my friend is a bit annoyed, sorry about that."

"Hmm." The man just nodded stoically, letting out a rumbling hum as he looked down at the little girl's dull black eyes staring at him from behind the lady. He had a feeling that she wasn't normal, she wasn't the same as all the others participating in today's tournament, same as anyone he'd ever met really. She had given him a weird feeling the moment she stepped into the gym.

He hadn't paid it any mind at first, but the feeling stayed in the back of his mind no matter how he tried to distract himself. Finally having enough he decided to get a closer look at what could be causing it. Outwardly the little girl wasn't anything he hadn't seen before, he had seen alot of odd people during his life so he just filtered out her odd eyes, the markings under them and her sharp teeth he had seen when she yawned.

Now standing in front of her, the feeling of weirdness got even stronger. It wasn't anything dangerous just... there something was odd in her mannerisms. He knew of how everyday people moved, even when practicing things that minutely changed their habits like martial arts, he had trained enough that he subconsciously moved in entirently differrent ways which made it stand out all the more. But this was different.

It wasn't until the girl apparently lost interest in him and went back to blankly staring at nothing that it hit him, making his eyes widen slightly before he quickly composed himself.

The little girl in front of him was instinctively shifting her body in a way that outwardly expressed her emotions, the previous curiosity turning into apathy regarding his presence. Although most living beings did the same, the previous woman aggressively taking a step forward and shielding the girl behind her a physical expression of wanting to protect, to both simultaneously hide the girl and to draw his attention onto herself being an example.

Animals also did this having various ways to convey what they wanted, a bear might show aggression by trying to display their teeth as much as possible with a snarl and pounding at the ground with their front paws while huffing at you, a dog might show trust by allowing you to access their belly, wagging their tails in certain ways and softening their facial features.

More general body language applying to both animals and humans being stiffness in their bodies which could mean a very wide variety of things including but not limited to fear, hesitation, uncomfortableness and so on.

However, the difference between humans and animals was the importance of body language represented. Humanity's primary method of communication was vocal, by speaking. Animals on the other hand displayed alot more nuances in their body language with a combination of muscle tone, gait, facial expressions, eye size, vocalization, stance, posture and pheromones put together which allowed them to 'speak' to each other.

If a group of people saw an animal most of them would probably be able to tell it's mood just by looking at it's mannerisms, which goes to show just how much they could express using solely their body language while humans relied much more on facial expressions and vocalization.

Essentially, animals were undisputed masters of charades.

The little girl in front of him however, was instinctively using very minute muscle shifting as a way to express her emotions, something even he wouldn't have seen unless he got as close as he did and even then, it took him a while.

However, how did she end up like this, using her body to express herself rather than vocal communication? Maybe something happened that forced her to do so? How did she even learn to do so in the first place?

He felt his curiosity rising as he continued staring at her despite her disinterest. Deciding to really make sure that he wasn't wrong in his assumption he shifted his body in a way that he thought would display slight hostility. He was nowhere near as subtle as she was but most people wouldn't even be able to notice any differences in his stance.

His theory rang true when the little girl's head instantly snapped towards him again and blinked before she tilted her head when he didn't make any further moves.

"Hey! Are you even listening!? Why are you staring so much at Nana you creep, I'll beat you up!" Snapping out of his thoughts he saw the lady from before frantically trying to reach towards him while being held back by and old man and what he thought was the little girl's coach. Meanwhile, the man from before now sported a small frown directing a guarded look towards him.

"While I'm not as hot-headed as my friend, you are staring an awful lot. Is there any problem?"

"No, I apologize. I was merely a bit curious hearing about such a young entry." He answered easily as he gave them a very slight bow, it might not have been his intentions to come across as such, but he could understand their reactions. He wouldn't fault them for being vigilant.

"Would you like to participate in the tournament?" He directed his gaze towards the little girl, intently focusing on the minute changes in her stance she made this time. She subconsciously expressed her agreement using minute twitches, before she manually nodded her head with barely any delay inbetween. It seems she has gotten used to having to visibly gesture rather than using the language she was used to.

"I see. Then, I look forward to seeing your matches." He nodded and was about to leave before hearing the man speaking up again, still wary but trying not to be impolite.

"As I said before sir, she's too young to participate unfortunately."

"My name is Somchai Adulyadej, I will be visiting your gym in the near future." Somchai ignored his words and decided to introduce himself since he planned to visit the little girl later, planning to propose her the chance to learn the discipline of muay thai. He was curious of how her hyper competence in body language would translate to learning new movements because as a side effect of her usage of body language, or maybe vice versa, the little girl also had a terrifying control of her body. Using very specific muscle twitches with unbelievable ease.

"What a weirdo." Sam spat as she glared at Somchai walking away moving towards the registration booth. No matter how much she denied it outwardly, she already knew that she was very protective of Nana, and Somchai didn't really leave the best expression on her. The guy was basically staring at Nana through their entire interaction.

"I didn't get any bad vibes from the dude but I agree, the staring was a bit creepy." Chad shook his head and retracted his gaze from Somchai's back and asked a question as he turned around. "Well, do we just go back to the gym? We can't really do anything about Nana being too young anyway."

"Let's wait for a bit." Coach John suddenly spoke up making the others turn to him in surprise.

"You don't really think he can get Nana in just because he said so, right?" Sam raised an eyebrow as she leveled an unimpressed stare in his direction.

"We won't lose anything by just waiting for a few minutes, it's starting soon either way. Maybe little Nana wants to spectate a match or two?" Yama proposed, trying to seem nonchalant.

"Tsk, whatever I guess." Sam scoffed before shrugging uncaringly. Taking out her phone she embraced Nana from behind leaning on her shoulders and held the phone in front of the both of them. "Let's watch some videos Nana~."

Coach John and Chad seeing as they didn't have anything else to do started talking about some potential changes to the gym, whether anything needed repairing or if they needed to buy something new entirely. Since Chad had alot more freetime now he had taken on the role of the gym's manager sort of, though he still kept up with his boxing.

Yama stood slightly to the side and quietly sighed to himself. The previous situation was replaying in his mind as his fist clenched tightly. If Somchai had actually been hostile, what could he have done to help? He didn't know how to fight and even if he did, he didn't think he would be able fend him off, he just exuded that confidence of strength.

His thoughts spun as he tried to find any way he could've stopped it and came up with nothing. It made him feel powerless... useless. He realistically knew that should something like that actually happen, trying to get fetch the cops would be the smartest decision, a task he would most likely be able to do, however the feeling of being unable to protect little Nana if the situation called for it... it didn't feel good.

He didn't even know why he was so hung up on the thought. Maybe it was his mind telling him to wake up? He had been wandering the streets for a few years before he met Nana and he knew how dark humanity could become, he had seen many cases of betrayal violence and all sorts of evil during his time wandering, and he knew even that wasn't the worst humanity had to offer.

It would take only one unlucky encounter and something irreversible could happen, the mere thought making his heart clench in nervousness.

Maybe if he had been stronger back then, he could have prevented what happened?

...

Taking a deep calming breath, Yama closed his eyes. It may have been just a passing thought, but it was 'just' a passing thought that brought little Nana into his life as well. Making up his mind, Yama resolved to look into making himself 'stronger'. However, strength came in many forms and although he was not a fighter, he was determined to be a protector.