Hajime no Keitaro: Second Round
Chapter 1: Fork in the Road
The sound of an alarm buzzer stirred the young man lying in his bed. It was a sound he was well familiar with, as it kept him on schedule, but that did not mean he had to like it. Grunting in annoyance at the grating electronic buzzing sound that continued with metronomic precision, he patted his hand on the floor next to his futon, searching for his glasses.
Unable to find his spectacles in their usual spot, he cracked an eye open, and immediately realized his folly. Looking at the digital alarm clock as the time switched from 5:00 to 5:01, he smirked at himself. Of course, there was no need for him to search for his eyeglasses. He had stopped needing them almost two years ago. But old habits die hard, and this particular one was more persistent than the average bear.
Curling his hand into a fist, he brought it down onto the top of the clock, and the cacophonous buzzing was halted as quickly as it came. He lay his head back down, toying with the idea of staying in bed for another hour or four. But something nagging in the back of his mind, as usual, made him unable to fall back asleep. A voice he hadn't heard in many months, but reverberated in his skull as though it was right there in his room.
"Get up and do your roadwork," Keitaro Urashima muttered with a deep sigh. His body needed no further cajoling. Like he was an automaton, his routine took his body over. He sat up, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, stood up and shuffled his feet over to his small dresser tucked into the corner of the room and changed into his sweats.
And after taking care of his morning ritual and hydrating, he was out on the road, jogging with a leisurely pace through the fog-enveloped town of Hinata Onsen. It was a typical weekday morning in early spring. The sun had yet to rise, and chirping birds were the only sound on the street in the residential district. But as he approached the harbor, the sounds of industry grew louder. Fishermen were hauling their wares out for the restaurateurs waiting in the wings to barter for the catches of the day, and dockworkers were busy loading pallets of assorted goods into trucks while their drivers paced about to keep warm. And like a classical piece composed by one of the greats, the decrescendo hit as Keitaro exited back into the residential area where everyone remained nestled tightly in their roosts.
Then he saw his daily goal: the long stone staircase leading back to his inn-turned-female-dormitory. Not even the daunting flight of stairs would stay his pace. Quite the contrary, he hastened, dashing up the many flights without regard for the searing pain coursing through his legs and his lungs. Even then it only served to quicken him further, until at last he leapfrogged the last five steps, coming to a stop in the courtyard of his hilltop property.
Resting his hands on his hips, he walked in a circle around the stone path leading to the front door of the dormitory, catching his breath. After a couple of minutes, he stretched his legs while they were still warm from his morning exercise and let himself in the front door, locking the door behind him. Kicking off his sneakers, he guided the shoes into the corner of the tiled entryway with his feet. Pulling his sweater off over his head, he dropped the sweat-drenched clothing over the back of one of the chairs in the foyer and pushed the door open to the kitchen.
Keitaro stopped in his tracks when he noticed the light from the refrigerator illuminating a head of raven-colored hair peering at its contents appraisingly. "Ah, good morning, Motoko-chan," he greeted the young woman, surprised by her presence only for an instant.
Motoko started at the sound of her landlord's voice. "Oh, good morning, K-Keitaro." She winced at the sound of her own voice. She was still unused to referring to him by his given name, and she feared that her stutter may have sounded to him like she was some sort of shy middle-schooler addressing her sempai.
Thankfully, he smiled his usual smile and made his way to the sink to wash his face. Breathing a tiny sigh of relief, Motoko averted her eyes back to the fridge. Although Keitaro had changed much over the course of the last two years, she was thankful that some things about him remained the same. There were some changes in him she was grateful for as well, as she stole several sidelong glances at his well-defined muscles, visible through his t-shirt, wet with his perspiration.
After washing his face, Keitaro bid Motoko farewell, and left her to her hunt for whatever it was she was searching. As per usual, the rest of the household was asleep. But not for long. A certain someone had a 7:30 class she could not be late for. Keitaro returned back up the stairs whence he came, but he did not stop on the second floor. He crested the stairs to the third floor and padded quietly across the hardwood floor, finally stopping before Room 304.
A smile crept on his face as he looked about to verify the coast was clear, and reached for the door. This was his favorite part of the day. Opening the door a crack, he poked his head in and peered through the darkness, spotting the silhouette of a large lump in the middle of the floor on the far side of the room.
He pulled the door open another foot and stepped inside. After closing the door as quietly as possible, he tip-toed towards the bundle. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he had to suppress a giggle when he saw his girlfriend, Naru Narusegawa's sleeping form. She was sprawled out on her back on her futon, with one leg underneath the heavy down comforter, and the other on top of it. Her right arm was raised over her head, hanging over the edge of the mattress, and the other lay across her torso, above the comforter. Her hair was all over the place, indicating she had rolled in her sleep several times. A chuckle passed his lips at how messy of a sleeper she was.
Keitaro carefully moved to a seated position and watched for a few minutes as Naru's chest rose and fell, enamored with how peaceful she looked while she was sleeping, despite the precarious manner in which she slept. He lightly touched her exposed hand, expecting it to be cold, but it was warm instead. She must have adjusted her position recently, he concluded.
He put his hand into hers, and she instinctively wrapped her fingers around his hand. He then began to rub her forearm and cooed her name softly, as though he were waking a small child. "Naru-chan…Naru-chan…"
He did not treat his girlfriend like a child for her sake, but for his own. The last time he attempted to wake her up in a more…adult fashion, it had resulted in a hefty repair bill to both the outside wall in Naru's room as well as his ego. He did not mind doing this, however. On the contrary, he enjoyed seeing his girlfriend at her most vulnerable. It was endearing to him, though the thought of sleeping next to a sleeping tornado sent a shiver down his spine.
The young woman began to rouse, and she rolled onto her side, facing Keitaro. Though her eyes were still closed, Keitaro knew she was awake. He ran his hand through her hair, pulling a few stray strands over her ear. "Good morning, sunshine."
"Guh morn," Naru replied sleepily. "Wha time izzit?"
"It's nearly six now."
"Kay. Thanks for wakin' me."
"Any time," Keitaro replied. He tried to release Naru's hand, but she held firm, despite being half-asleep.
"Uh uh."
"What's wrong?"
"Aren'tcha forgetting somethin'?"
Keitaro breathed out a chuckle as he watched Naru, her eyes still closed, crane her head towards him with her lips puckered.
"I'm still pretty sweaty from my run."
"Does it look like I care?"
"I guess not," Keitaro replied, and leaned in for a kiss.
With her prey ensnared, Naru lashed out with her free hand like a snake, wrapping her arm around Keitaro and pulling him on top of her. "Gotcha."
"Are you sure you have time for this?" Keitaro asked.
Naru opened her eyes for the first time and gave her boyfriend an inviting look. "Only for you. I'll make the time."
Keitaro finally left Naru's room a half hour later, a Cheshire grin on his face. Indeed, it seemed the young man had it all. He was near the top of his class in Tokyo University, a tremendous feat considering his repeated failures in his entrance examinations. His grades were even giving Naru a run for her money.
His personal and professional relationships had never been better. He had a girlfriend who was absolutely crazy about him. His tenants all treated him with the utmost of respect. Kitsune had not been late on her rent in months. Su found a new way to test her inventions that didn't involve using him as a guinea pig. Even Motoko finally came to her senses and started being friendly with him, and they were finally on a first-name basis with one another.
It was all thanks to that day two summers ago, when Keitaro had a serendipitous meeting with a group of boxers from the Kamogawa Gym. They had stormed into the beach house, all full of bravado, demanding to be served after hours. He was less than pleased at their intrusion, being fawned over by all of the girls while he slaved away in the kitchen.
But they were gracious and kind, most especially the smallest of the bunch, Ippo Makunouchi. When Keitaro learned Ippo had been picked on in high school before becoming a professional boxer, he wondered if he could do the same. When Ippo assured him that he most certainly could, Keitaro found himself on a collision course with his own destiny.
The road was a lot tougher than he expected. He worked his body to the bone to get himself into shape, elected to have corrective eye surgery so he could see properly without his glasses, and got beaten to a pulp more times than he could remember. But after having his arm raised in victory against all odds in his debut fight, he could honestly say it was worth every last bit of sacrifice.
That was the first and last time Keitaro stepped into the professional ring. He hung his gloves up for the sake of his relationship with Naru. Oh, he loved boxing. Nothing else had ever made him feel more alive. But if it meant giving up mornings like today, that was one sacrifice he was unwilling to make.
After a short but thankfully uninterrupted morning bath, Keitaro returned to his room and got dressed for the day. Descending the stairs, the smell of cooking eggs wafted into his nostrils, and his mouth watered in response. Entering the kitchen, a group of beautiful, smiling faces greeted him.
"Good morning, Kei-kun," Mutsumi said, beaming at him.
Keitaro's cheeks tinted rose at the sound of his nickname. "Morning, Mutsumi-san."
"Heya Keitaros!" Su exclaimed, practically jumping out of her chair to wave at him.
Motoko, seated between Su and the manager as he walked through the door, pulled Su down by the collar of her school uniform. "Calm yourself, Su."
"Hey, Su-chan. You're mighty chipper this morning."
"We're dissecting frogs in class today! I've been waiting for this all year!"
"Well, that makes one of us," Shinobu replied, looking a bit sickly.
"Good morning, Shinobu-chan," Keitaro hailed as she laid a plate of eggs and toast in front of him.
Like a switch was flipped inside of her, Shinobu's face went from green to beet red in an instant. "G-good morning, sempai!"
"Hey," Naru greeted him softly.
"Hi," Keitaro replied to her with a smile.
Naru giggled softly and lowered her head, the heat rising to her face as she recalled their interlude earlier in the morning. This was not lost on Kitsune, who wrapped an arm around Keitaro's shoulder and said quite loudly, "Well, well. It certainly IS a good morning, isn't it?"
Keitaro wondered for a split second how the hell she could have known about that, but he quickly concluded that she always knew everything, so there was no use arguing about it. "Good morning, Kitsune," Keitaro said in perfect deadpan.
"You know I just hate breaking up the good mood," Kitsune said, her voice full of saccharin.
"Since when?" Naru asked, her eyes narrowing to slits.
Kitsune ignored her friend's jab. "But on a serious note, have you seen this?" She slid a copy of the local newspaper in front of Keitaro. It was opened to the sports section and she tapped her finger on a specific column. She took a large bite out of her toast before saying, "That guy sure has a mouth on him considering what you did to him last year."
"Who?" Keitaro inquired as he traced Kitsune's finger to the title of the column.
Kentaro Sakata Ready For More After Rookie King Victory
The name on the title of the column got Keitaro's attention. Sakata Kentaro, the man whom he fought and defeated in his debut match. "Oh, he won the Rookie King tournament. Good for him!"
Kitsune shook her head and tapped the column again with her index finger. "You gotta read the juicy bits. He talks about you."
"About me?" Keitaro asked as he began to scan through the column.
"Yeah. Guess the guy's still pretty sore about the fact you kicked his ass from Tokyo to Hokkaido."
Keitaro furrowed his brow in confusion. "That doesn't sound like him. He was pretty gracious after the fight."
Swallowing a mouthful of scrambled egg, Kitsune said with a chuckle, "Well, I guess he's over being nice."
Keitaro's eyes darted over the article. It spoke of how Kentaro dominated the tournament overall, concluding with a second round TKO in the final. His opponent stood no chance against the superior Sakata, who fought like a seasoned veteran, expertly dispatching his opponent until the referee had no choice but to stop the contest.
Keitaro grimaced. He was fortunate to fight him when he did, after all. Had he faced Kentaro after he learned his lesson to not toy with his opponents, he might have been the one waking up in a hospital bed instead of the poor sap that Sakata fought in the final.
As the article continued, the columnist spoke about how bright Kentaro's future was, but there would always be one blemish on his record. During an interview after the tournament's conclusion, he was asked about the loss on his otherwise sterling record.
"It was a fluke, plain and simple. Didn't the guy retire after the fight, or something? I don't even remember his name."
"His name was Keitaro Urashima," the interviewer replied.
"Oh yeah, Urashima, that's right. Sorry, I'm not good at remembering the names of people who quit the sport after one fight."
"He did beat you though, didn't he?" asked the interviewer.
Kentaro laughed and replied, "Yeah, and he ran away with his tail tucked between his legs, because he knows if we met in the ring again, I'd knock his head clean off his shoulders. The guy's a joke, and I won't talk about him any more. Next question."
Keitaro stopped reading there. He lifted his head from the paper and stared at the opposing wall. He wasn't even aware he was clenching his fist until Naru put her hand over his. "You alright?" she asked.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Keitaro stood up quickly, apologized, and stormed out of the room.
The first to speak after the abrupt exit was Kitsune. "Well, I wasn't expecting that kind of response."
"What kind of response were you expecting?" Motoko asked, looking every bit as shell-shocked as everyone else.
"Well, not that!" Kitsune exclaimed, gesturing towards the door that was recently slammed shut. "I thought he'd laugh it off or do something more…Keitaro-ish."
"Let me see that," Naru said, leaning over the table to snatch up the paper.
"I've never seen Urashima-sempai that mad before," Shinobu said. "He didn't even eat his breakfast."
"Yay, seconds!" Su cheered, snatching up Keitaro's full plate of food and stacked it on top of her own empty plate.
"Naru-chan, aren't you going to go talk to Kei-kun?" Mutsumi asked the honey-haired girl reading the newspaper article.
"This guy has a lot of nerve," Naru growled as she continued to read, her face slowly turning red with anger. "I'd kick his ass myself if he were standing here."
"Now that's a response I would expect to hear," Kitsune said.
Naru was indeed angry, but she could only imagine how this must make Keitaro feel. Sakata was not just tossing aside Keitaro as though he was last week's garbage. He directly attacked him and his pride as a man. Even she could tell his much from reading the article.
"And to answer your question, Mutsumi-san, yeah, I'll go talk to him," Naru said, and walked out of the room with five sets of eyes watching her go.
In the foyer, Keitaro was leaning over the back of one of the chairs, breathing heavily. Naru could see how white his knuckles were from across the room. "Are you okay?" she asked him.
Keitaro looked up and her for a moment then lowered his head and shook it. "I don't know what's wrong with me."
"Yeah you do," Naru countered. She knew this had been coming for months. They had discussed this a while back after meeting with his old friends from the gym. He had not talked about it since, but she knew it had been brewing in his heart ever since that day. He just needed a catalyst to trigger him into action. And that article finally did it.
Keitaro looked up at Naru again, and laughed at her knowing smile. "Everything is going perfect. I'm happy. I've got you, and everyone else. I've got Toudai. I've got everything I could ever want."
Naru sat on the armrest on the sofa across from the chair Keitaro was leaning against. "Keitaro, you know as well as I do that's simply not true. Otherwise, something like this wouldn't bother you."
Keitaro scoffed, annoyed at himself more than anything. "I know that. I know," he repeated.
"So the question you should be asking is why does this bother you in the first place?"
"I know why already," Keitaro said, but he would not offer further explanation.
"I do too. You don't want to go back to being the old pushover you were two years ago. Right?"
Keitaro nodded.
"So what do you want to do? Don't tell me what you think is right. I want you to tell me what you really want to do."
Keitaro closed his eyes and started shaking his head again. "I don't want to ruin what I have, Naru."
"Hey." Naru stood and approached the conflicted man, touched his chin and pulled it towards her so he was looking at her eye-to-eye. "You remember when you had your first fight, and I swore over and over that I wouldn't go to see it?"
"Yeah, of course."
"A good friend of mine told me then that I should put myself in your shoes and think about what you would do if you were me."
Keitaro looked at Naru's smiling face and knew what she was going to say next.
"So do that for me now. Put yourself in my position, and ask yourself what you would do if you were me."
It was so simple, Keitaro felt a bit stupid. Exhaling, he said, "I'd be behind you one-hundred percent, no matter what you decided."
"Exactly. Now why wouldn't you think I'd do that for you?"
"Because I'm an idiot."
Naru laughed and stroked Keitaro's cheek. "You're my idiot, though. And I'm going to be there for you no matter what, because that's what you would do for me."
"Thanks, Naru."
Naru pulled Keitaro in and kissed him on the lips. After releasing him, she said, "Make that son-of-a-bitch eat his words."
Keitaro nodded his head and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Dialing a number he knew by heart, he waited for several rings before someone answered on the other end of the line. "Hi, coach? It's Keitaro. Do you have a few minutes? There's something I'd like to discuss with you."
Author's Notes: Yeah, this is happening. I know, took long enough right? I honestly didn't expect to write this, but my muse, which recently found her way back to me, wouldn't let this go without at least giving it a try. So here it is, for what it's worth. I'm not entirely sure where this story will lead, but it's going to be an adventure nonetheless. Hope you guys enjoy reading this!