Chapter 1

Rishi Kayamoto is just your average high school kid, nothing much but the tides of spring on his mind. Don't be mistaken though, he isn't some hero pitcher in the Koshien or anything special. He had always viewed himself as a man of not many talents, average looks, normal height, normal weight (maybe a bit skinny for his height), and not that popular with the ladies or anyone for that matter. However, Rishi could always rely on his two friends, Jing Hoo-Min and Setsuki Nakato.

Jing Hoo-Min was a quirky, small, outgoing, Korean boy. Rishi and he had met under irregular circumstances. On the way back from a trip to Korea to visit distant relatives Rishi had to go to the restroom, which he hated to do on planes. Normally he would have held it in but, 'when you gotta go you gotta go' as they say. He rushed into the bathroom and immediately spun about and began to unzip, it was then that he noticed the small foreign boy already sitting on the toilet. A streak of red comparable to the fire in a lover's eye crossed Rishi's face. He began apologizing with no end in sight. By the time the boy had finally broken his streak, Rishi's throat was as red as his face. They discussed many things that day and found that Jing would be in the same school as Rishi, in the same class on top of that. Faster than a beat of the heart, Rishi offered to show Jing around Japan. After that they become good friends. The friendship they had was the kind of lucid beauty one sees in a dream that appeared to be tangible but could never be touched, no matter how far the arms stretched.

Being the new first year high school transfer student, Jing had no friends except for Rishi. One day he was being bullied by two upper-classmen when the idol of class 1b, Setsuki, appeared to his aid. She tried to drive off the upper-classmen by yelling and quite loud. However, this failed to work and soon one of the upper-classmen raised his arm towards Setsuki, about to strike her across the face. Jing, upon seeing this, bolted up to punch him in the gut, but was quickly dispatched of by the other of these upper-class thugs. After which, they proceeded to use him as a human punching bag. Setsuki attempted to pry them off of Jing, to no avail.

Later that day Rishi had heard news of the fight and ran to the nurse's office to find Jing beaten, tattered, and bloody. He ignored the girl sitting on the chair next to Jing and ran up to the bedside.

"Jing! What's happened! Who did this! I swear, tell me their names and I'll settle this!"

Jing rolled towards Rishi and gave the slightest smile and said,

"If you go after them then they will come back and go after you and it will be an endless cycle of pain. Just please let it go, for me."

Rishi was in the process of storming out when he felt something grasp his wrist. He swirled around to find a tear ridden Setsuki. She led him outside and told him all about what had happened and how Jing protected her. When Rishi was leaving, Setsuki slipped a paper in his hand. Without stopping or even looking back he checked the paper.

"Ryojin Asamura class 3c and Kano Sotsumi class 3c"

Rishi didn't know either of the two, but he figured it wouldn't be too hard to find delinquents such as them. The truth stung through his heart like a pure melody in a world without sound. He knew that he couldn't take them, at least not without a weapon. As he was walking home he thought of an applicable weapon to beat the crap out of them with.

He burst into his house and ran up to his father's room. Rishi went through the whole layout of his room in his head on the way home and couldn't find anything to be used, so he thought of checking his father's. He searched through the closet for anything blunt or sharp.

What Rishi showed up with to school the next day was a bit unorthodox but it would have to do. He left a note in class 3c for Ryojin and Kano to meet him behind the school after class. Of course thugs of their caliber could not turn down an offer to fight, so Rishi saw them rear their faces around the corner.

Rishi got right to the point and lunged at Kano with a bowling ball raised above his head. Kano saw the lunge and prepared to counter the oncoming blow. However, both forces were stopped by none other than the principle.

"Now I know no students of my school would be fighting behind our backs, and with weapons at that! I believe we can come to a peaceful conclusion to whatever argument you two are having." The principle glanced at Rishi and saw the bowling ball. "Ah, I have an idea, how about a bowling match? Now I hope you both know the situation you are in and accept this way of settling the argument, or else we might have trouble."

"I've never bowled in my entire life! This ball isn't even mine, it's my dad's!" Yelled Rishi frantically.

"Well I'm sure your father would be glad you are using it to bowl instead of –other activities-"

Kano retorted by saying that he never backs down from a challenge. That day the first bowling match of Rishi's life was about to be planned out. This wasn't good for Rishi, especially since the only thing he knew about bowling had to due with his father's stories. Rishi, however reluctant, had to agree because he didn't want his dad hounding his ass over fighting in school.