Tsuji

An hour later, Miu stood outside the grocery store while chatting with the store owner.

"Also, I'd like three pumpkins and one watermelon please." Miu requested. "I'll take the biggest one you've got."

The store owner happily brought out what she asked for. "You sure are a cute young lady, why don't you go ahead and take another melon with you? It's on the house." He offered generously.

A few feet behind her, Kenichi was hunched over as he was carrying heavy shopping bags, next to him Ohma was carrying something much heavy and he was wearing a backpack that was twice the size of his body, though he didn't seem to be struggling with it.

Kenichi grumbled. "This sucks, I thought this would be a date."

"Stop whining, it's just a little weight training mixed with unpaid labour," Ohma commented. "Also, watch your posture you'll hurt your back like that."

As they finished their business and were walking back to the Dojo. Miu turned to the two of them and gave them a look of gratitude.

"I can't thank you enough. If you guys weren't here to help, I don't know what I would do." Miu told them.

Ohma just narrowed his eyes at her. "I'm really starting to rethink this whole friendship thing."

"No problem," Kenichi replied, still disappointed.

"I'm worried that I might have gotten a little too carried away and bought more stuff than we need." Miu noticed with a hand over her mouth.

Kenichi smiled and said, "It's alright. I am happy to help."

Ohma sighed, "This guy is down bad."

"Hmm, is something wrong Ohma?" Miu asked, honestly not knowing a reason why he would be upset.

"Is she really that stupid or is this girl is just messing around?" Ohma honestly didn't know the answer.

Miu continued. "I really appreciate this, every time I go grocery shopping, I end up buying more than I can carry. I ask the guys for help but Kensei and Akisame are always too busy, Apachai would eat everything before we check out, and Sakaki won't buy anything but Sake."

Kenichi let out a tired sigh. "I see your point."

"Besides." Miu stopped as she blushed a bit. "Things have been pretty crazy lately and we've been working so hard, I feel like none of us has had a chance to talk."

Kenichi immediately perked up. "Yeah, I feel the same way."

"You're both my first real friends and I treasure our time together," Miu confessed to them. "Our friendship means a lot to me."

Ohma over and whispered to Kenichi. "Congratulations, you got friend-zoned again."

"Friendship, huh?" Kenichi whispered too as he pondered it. "Well, I guess it's a good start."

"You mean you haven't started yet?" Ohma asked.

"See, what did I say?"

A familiar voice was heard not too far away from them and it wasn't the voice of a friend. They turned to see that standing at the end of the street behind them was a small collection of thugs from Ragnarok, there were around seven of them, and leading them was Tsuji, and standing next to Tsuji was the one who spoke before—Koga the Kicker.

"Didn't I tell you this was blondie's regular shopping route?" Koga pointed at them.

"Yeah, you did a good job. Thanks, kid." Tsuji said while keeping his attention on the others.

Koga gleefully waved to Miu. "Hi~ How's it hanging blondie?"

Ohma looked to Kenichi. "Who are these guys?"

"Delinquents." Kenichi quietly replied.

"I'm impressed by your dedication there, pal," Tsuji commented, referring to the oversized backpacks. "Never seen a fighter work his weight training into his shopping routine."

"Now would you just leave me alone," said Kenichi.

"Is that right?" Tsuji stayed brash as he pointed at him. "I need a minute of your time, Shirahama. I've got a little proposition for ya."

Miu dropped her shopping bag and prepared herself for a fight while Kenichi placed his arm in front of her to stop her from doing anything.

"Listen, we're kinda busy right now, so go find someone else to pick on." Kenichi rejected his proposal.

"Don't worry about your girlfriend, my guys won't touch her," Tsuji reassured his concerns.

Kenichi's expression was still fully concerned as he thought. 'I'm not worried about her. If I don't do something, Miu's going to annihilate them.'

"I wanna talk to you alone, man-to-man, no distractions." Tsuji requested of them before turning to Miu. "Go home, little girl."

Koga didn't seem to like that idea. "Hey, wait for just a second, that wasn't the plan. You said we were gonna deal with Kenichi and then I'd get blondie."

Tsuji glared at Koga. "Why don't you get lost!?" He yelled as he pushed Koga to the ground. "I got what I needed from you kid, so get out of my sight before I decide to teach you a lesson."

"But you promised I'd get a shot at the girl…" Koga muttered angrily, clearly not intimidated by Tsuji's threat. "Nobody tricks me!"

Koga sprung to his feet and jumped and he leapt toward the nearby wall and used it as a jumping post he sprung forth and used the momentum to power up his kick that he aimed at Tsuji's head. But to his surprise, Tsuji caught his kick with one hand and completely stopped Koga without budging an inch.

"Bad move kid!" Tsuji increased his grip and started spinning Koga in midair.

Then like an athlete participating in the Hammer Throw event, Tsuji threw the spinning Koga forward as his body slammed into a pile of nearby trash cans and bags. Koga slumped over unconscious afterwards.

"Did you see that?! That guy just grabbed his kick and threw it right off!" Kenichi gasped in shock.

"Not impressed, I could do that too," Ohma commented.

"Ah, I just remembered, I was supposed to talk out the garbage yesterday and I completely forgot." Miu gasped, not focused on the current dilemma at all.

"Is that really what you're concerned about right now?" Kenichi asked deadpanned.

Tsuji looked back at them. "You're not afraid. You're a real man, aren't you? Take a walk with me. I think it's time you show me what you're made of."

"Hmph… All right, fine, we'll walk with you." Ohma said.

"Wait, we will?" Kenichi questioned that decision. "Come on, it's better not to get involved with this guy."

Ohma said, "Come on I can take care of myself."

Tsuji grinned. "Glad you feel that way, guess you do understand, then let's go."

Ohma removed his backpack and dropped it to the ground. "Miu, head back on your own."

He told her that without waiting for her response as he walked up to Tsuji and his gang, while Kenichi was still unsure about this, he decided to go as well as he dropped the shopping bags he was holding and followed Ohma. As they all started to leave the area, Miu looked around as though she was trying to find something.

Soon enough, she found what she was looking for—A nearby pay-phone. Miu then gathered all the groceries in one spot as she used the phone to call Ryozanpaku.

{…Hello! Give Apachai your money and he'll teach you how to fight!}

"Apachai, how many times have I told you, that's no way to answer the phone?" Miu likely scolded him on the other line. "You're gonna give people the wrong impression." She then got serious. "Listen up okay, Kenichi and Ohma might be in trouble." She saw that the group was almost out of sight. "Oh no, they're getting away! I'm-I'm gonna leave the groceries in front of the corner store, all right? I need you to swing by and pick them up. I've gotta go and help them!" She said urgently.

Back at the Dojo in the dining room, Apachai was holding the phone and Akisame was there too, sitting behind him as Apachai finished up the phone call with Miu.

"Got it, be right there." Apachai proclaimed as he hung up the phone and turned to Akisame. "Miu says groceries in trouble."

Akisame's eyes widened. "What…? My watermelon… No."

With that done, Miu rushed as she ran down the street the others left down. However, they were already gone and nowhere in sight.

"Where'd they go?" Miu wondered desperately as she approached a fork in the road. "Which way should I turn? To the right or to the left?"

"To the right."

Miu suddenly looked behind her when she heard someone answer her question. "Hey, that sounded like Kensei's voice, how weird?"

She then saw that it didn't just sound like Kensei's voice, it was his voice and that Kensei himself was right behind her, following her as she ran and holding a recording camera, aimed right at her rear behind.

"Hey?! What are you doing with that camera?!" Miu snapped at him.

"Admiring the view," Kensei answered before dodging her kick.

As Kensei leapt in front of her, Miu let out a volley of kicks at him, while he effortlessly dodged all of them. "Why are you here anyway?!"

"I've been following you since this morning~" Kensei answered as he continued to dodge. "I assumed this was a date so I wanted to see what would happen." He then moved behind her again. "And to think you just used him to haul your groceries, I actually feel sorry for Kenichi for getting his hopes up. And you even dragged Ohma along, I bet he was royally pissed at you." As he finished, Miu threw another kick which he dodged by stepping back as he got serious. "Of course, even he might have trouble against that mop-haired guy if he lets his guard down. It's safe to say Kenichi wouldn't stand a chance against him."

"Oh no." Miu became concerned again when she heard that. "Come on, we've got to go after them."

"Now hold on." Kensei put away his camera. "You or I could easily defeat him, but what good will that do? Let's allow Ohma to handle this himself."

"But…" Miu looked upset.

"I know that you worry for them but you won't be doing them any favours by giving them too much support, it'll hurt their development if someone else fights their battle for them," Kensei advised her with his own philosophy. "Besides, more to the point, I think if we tried to interfere, Ohma would resent us for it."

"What?" Miu became confused at that. "But why?"

"Because this is going to be a tough opponent," Kensei answered, when Miu didn't seem to get it, he explained further. "You remember how he looked when he came back after fighting the Boxer? He was roughed up and hurt, but he was genuinely happy. Fighting someone who can push him to the brink is something he doesn't always get to experience, so when he does, it gives him a real sense of fulfilment, he lives for that sort of fight. And if he now has a chance to experience it again, don't try to take it from him."

"Even if that's true, I don't want to just stand back and do nothing," Miu said softly.

"Of course not, let's follow them and see how they do," Kensei suggested.

Kensei used his jumping ability to leap up to the roof of a nearby house and Miu did the same, they both roof-hooped further until they found Ohma, Kenichi, Tsuji, and his gang still walking somewhere not too far away.

"There they are." Kensei spotted them. "What slow-pokes, the kids these days have the weakest legs."

Miu prepared to jump down to meet them on the ground but Kensei placed a hand on his shoulder and stopped her.

"Just give him a chance to win on his own, we'll intervene if they need it but I'm certain they won't," Kensei reassured her with confidence. "Trust me, they won't need our help at all."

"You really think they'll be okay?" Miu asked.

"I have faith because those two are the best Disciples Ryozanpaku's got," Kensei said with a big smile. "Though technically speaking they're the only Disciples we've got but that's beside the point."

The group soon arrived at the park and stood in the middle of it on the path as Ohma and Kenichi stood a few feet from Tsuji and his gang.

"Well, we're here, so what did you want to talk about?" Ohma questioned him.

"I'm not gonna beat around the bush here," Tsuji told him as he got straight to the point. "I want you guys to be a part of my crew!" He declared.

Kenichi responded first. "I don't understand. Why? Why do you want me to join your gang."

"Isn't it obvious?" Tsuji raised his hand up and pointed to the sky. "A man's value is determined by the number of people he's in command of. I'm gonna keep expanding my personal army so that in the end, I'll be in charge of the most powerful group in Ragnarok!"

"And what do you plan on doing after you've made it to the top huh?" Kenichi narrowed his eyes disapprovingly at him. "What about once you graduate from high school? You can't be a high school delinquent forever you know? Eventually, you and all your thug friends are going to have to grow up and get real jobs."

SOUND LOGIC

The rest of the thugs were silent after hearing Kenichi's rational argument, except Tsuji who was going over to a park bench and looked ready to punch it, until… Ohma started to laugh.

Everyone looked to see the source of the snicker, it was coming from Ohma. He soon stopped as he looked at Kenichi.

"Huh? What are you laughing about?" Kenichi asked?

"Oh come on, you just said it, 'What about after you graduate from high school'?" Ohma's face turned back to his usual stoic self. "Seriously you all have no plan? You actually train so hard to fight these clowns?"

"I'll worry about that complicated stuff later!" Tsuji shouted.

"Right now, I just wanna go wild and have fun!" A third one agreed. "You can take all that reasonable crap and shove it." Tsuji then pointed to Kenichi. "My men and I don't need your cleaver logic, there's no way you could ever understand that a man's greatest desire in his life is freedom. Everything my men and I do is about being free."

Kenichi sighed before he said. "I can understand that, but if your harming people to get your way, that's not right. You and your gang are running around town enjoying your freedom but all you are doing is causing other people pain. That's not freedom, don't you see? That's tyranny!" He declared loudly.

Once again everyone was silenced by his bold declaration, including Tsuji. And once again, only one person had something to say about that.

"Who cares what they think, it's my life so I'll live it how I want!" Tsuji.

Nearby, Miu and Kensei were hiding in the bushes and watching them as Kensei commented. "Oh wow, he's getting them to follow every word he says like he's a leader of men."

Tsuji smirked. "Guys like us don't worry about labels like that, we take it in stride. A part of being free is not being concerned by the details and living the way you want to."I'd rather be hated by a bunch of nobodies than live in a way I'd regret."

"Don't any of you get it?" Kenichi questioned. "Just going around doing whatever you want isn't practical, that's not how life works?"

"Oh, then, by all means, tell us what we should do?" Tsuji requested. "You seem to know so much so why don't you tell us? Where did that get you? You are just like the rest of us."

"No, that's not it." Kenichi shook his head. "It's just, don't you think there are other ways to enjoy yourselves other than violence and starting fights? You've got to have other stuff you like aside from brawling right, so why do you do it?"

No one else said anything, it was as though they were waiting for Tsuji to respond, he's the one who's had an answer or response to Kenichi this whole time so it just felt natural at this point to let him answer for them. And he did.

"Because it's fun," Tsuji said. "Now, let's fight."