He bounced on his toes as he let out his emotions on the bag, the rattling of the chain as the sandbag swung back and forth was almost music to his ears. If he wasn't so concentrated, he probably would have listened to music as he practiced.

Maybe he would do it when he retired, when he was a little bit too old for him to be a professional boxer.

As he kept on hitting the sandbag, everything else drowned out, even that blaring headache that had been killing him since he woke up became a dull thud of his head. He relished in the way his muscles burned, the way sweat dripped down his face, and the way his fists faintly ached from the impact against the leather. He had no upcoming matches and could just relax for a little bit, he could just mindlessly hit the bag.

Kimura just stood back and watched Ippo for a little bit, happy that his friend was finally relaxing. Ippo had been tense about his latest title match, and after he had managed to successfully defend it for the third time, he let himself relax for a little bit. "Someone's in a good mood huh?" Kimura hummed in agreement as Aoki stopped and watched Ippo. It was always a sight to see the small, 126-pound man hit the bag hard enough to make it swing up to the ceiling, and this time was no different. The gym was empty except for the three of them and coach, as most people were still at their day job at this time.

"Yeah man, he's finally relaxing a little bit now that he won his match." Kimura turned to nudge his friend so they could start their workout again, but stopped when he saw his friends scrutinizing look," …something wrong?" Aoki sucked at his teeth as he stared at the featherweight.

"doesn't Ippo…I don't know, he looks weird." Surprised, Kimura looked at Ippo, and was a little bit surprised to see that Ippo did look a little bit off. he still had that usual fire in his eyes, but his normally tanned skin seemed to be a bit paler than usual. Which was weird, since Ippo helps his mom out with the fishing boat every chance he gets, which meant that he spent a lot of time in the sun.

"Hey brat!" the three of them came out of their thinking when they heard Coach call out to Ippo. Ippo snapped to attention as he held the sandbag still, wiping his forehead with the other hand. The Coach they all have come to know and love was standing in the doorway of his office, the usual stern look on his face," it's almost 4:30."

Ippo stared at him confused until he remembered that he asked the coach to tell him when it was 4:30 so he could shower and leave before going back home to help his mom with the new shipment of equipment, "OH! Thank you, coach," he fumbled with the gloves as he started to walk over to his bag," man almost forgot…" it didn't take long before Ippo disappeared into the shower room.

"Kimura! Aoki! If you have time to stand around, you have time to run!" the two boxers cringed internally before sighing and turning around to leave. They can always ask Ippo later.

He entered the shower room with a sigh, he was always happy to see that he had the showers to himself, especially since Takamura had forced his towel off of his hips when he first started at the gym, he didn't need to give his friends more ammo to make unrelenting dick jokes.

Most of the time, it would be refreshing to take a shower, to feel the water wash away the sweat he had accumulated. Today, all it did was make him feel worse. His heart was pounding in his chest and left him breathless as the heat started to get to him. his headache came back in full force and seemed to have gotten stronger while he was working out. It took almost everything he had to not curl up in a ball of pain.

The only thing he could do was lean against the cool tile wall as he tried to keep his legs under him. blindly, he fumbled with the handles, trying to make the water cold so he could cool down.

He yelped when he felt the scorching hot water pouring over him and jumped back to try and get away from the burning water. A gasp escaped his lips when he felt feet slip out from under him, and when he tried to use his hands to catch himself, they just slipped, making him smack the back of his head against the tile.

His world became hazy as his headache became even worse, his thoughts jumbling together in some nonsensical mess that just left him even more confused. Even the cold surface of the tile floor against his bare skin wasn't enough to shock him back to reality. Instead, the only thing he could do there was lay there.

A small whimper escaped his lips when he tried to move his head, it would have been less painful to get punched in the face by Takamura, at least the pain would fade away, but the pain he was feeling wasn't going away, it was getting worse.

The humid, hot air felt thick as he breathed it in, it only made him feel like he wasn't getting enough air, which made his heart beat faster, which made his head hurt even more as it started to thud to his heartbeat. He let out another whimper, this time closing his eyes as he tried to navigate through the pain.

Kimura and Aoki stumbled into the gym, grateful to walk back into the cooler building. Without a second thought, they walked over to the sink and ran cool water over their heads. They could feel the sweat washing away and their heartbeats slowing down as their bodies cooled down.

They heard the faint rumble of someone's voice as they passed by and absentmindedly waved their hand as that someone walked by. Kimura turned off the water with a sigh and shook his head, water droplets flying as he did so. Aoki turned off the water as his friend wiped off his face with his towel. Kimura frowned when he saw Ippo's bag on the bench.

That was odd

"Aoki, what time is it?"

"Huh? Oh, its uh, its almost 5:30." Kimura hummed in response. That was weird.

They left almost an hour ago for their run, and Ippo was still here?

"Ippo is still here?"

"Yeah…" they were both staring at their friend's gym bag as it rested on the nearby bench. They left as Ippo went into the shower, and Ippo usually didn't take longer than 15 minutes to wash up and get dressed. So, it was a little bit odd that he was still here because he should have left a long time ago.

Silently, Kimura left Aoki standing by the sinks, he was just going to check the shower room real quick.

Before he could open the door, he could already feel the heat, he could have sworn there was steam coming out from under the door.

"Woah!" he opened the door to reveal a shower room that was full of steam. He waved his hand around as if it would be enough to make all of the steam disappear so he could see. Leaning backward, he flipped on the fan so the steam could start clearing up before entering the room, "Hello?" he walked towards the running showerhead. He kept close to the wall as he turned off the water, cringing when a few drops of hot water fell onto his arm. He looked around the room again.

"Shit! AOKI! GET THE COACH!" Kimura knelt next to Ippo, his heart leaping into his throat at the faint blood trail that was coming from his head. His friend was flushed, his face was a bright red as his chest was rising and falling far too fast. He heard the distant sound of his friend running to the doorway of the room, saying some sort of curse, before running off again.

It didn't take long for Coach to come into the room and help them get Ippo out of the shower room and onto the nearby bench. One of the other members of the gym had seen what was happening and already had the first aid kit out. While Coach was trying to wake up Ippo, Kimura used the ear thermometer to confirm his suspicions.

"I knew it! He's sick!" Kimura handed over the thermometer to the older man while getting up to run to the office to call the ambulance. Ippo's fever was nearly 103, something that was nothing to laugh at.

The coach was cursing under his breath as he opened Ippo's eyelid, cursing the way his pupils were uneven. His student was in bad shape. When he tried to lift Ippo's neck to place a cold compress under it, Ippo whimpered.

Ippo, the same man who could take all types of physical abuse from matches, the same man who never even complained when he was black and blue after a rough match, whimpered. If he wasn't nervous before.

He sure was now.

.

"He should be fine with time, but we will keep an eye on him since he has a high fever as well as a severe concussion. He's resting at the moment if you like to see him." Kimura, Aoki, and Coach let out a giant sigh of relief before giving the nurse their thanks.

They quietly entered the room, relieved to see a flushed, but calm, Ippo. His breathing was still faster than usual, and there was a bandage wrapped around his head, but he was much better.

"God," Coach sighed heavily as he sat down next to his bedside," This brat, always keeping me on my toes." Aoki and Kimura chuckled as they leaned against the wall.

"You got that right Coach," Kimura looked on fondly at Ippo, relieved that his friend was going to be ok.

"You got that right."