Chapter 19: Bonkers

"So, you want to play tennis, with hammers?" Kirby asked curiously.

Today he received an unusual request from his friend Bonkers. The massive hammer wielding goliath nodded.

"I want to play a game with you and tennis helps me think." Was Bonkers's simple reply.

Always willing to help his friends, the puff agreed.

"Ok, then let's play!" He exclaimed in his usual happy tone.

"Great! Follow me, I made a court for us to use."

"What?! You made a court?!"

"With my coconut trees."

A little-known fact about Bonkers was that he planted and took care of coconut trees.

"I put the net between two of them. I flattened the ground with my hammer so neither of us trip on anything." His friend explained.

"Oh, I see! Let's go then!" Kirby said cheerfully as he followed after his friend.

As the two walked Kirby felt pretty curious about the whole situation.

"Hey, Bonkers, I know you said tennis helps you think. Any other reason why you like it?"

"Tennis helps me control myself. As a sport Tennis requires control, I thought it could help with my anger problems."

Ah, that was right. Kirby did remember that Bonkers had anger issues that often led to him getting into difficult situations. Like there were several times where that happened, one of which was where he and his gang encountered Meta Knight, Dedede, and Bandana individually all in the same day. He didn't remember the details, but Bonkers and his gang attacked them first for some reason and lost quickly in a battle of fisticuffs with each of them.

"But why are we using hammers and not rackets?"

That was something else that his friend had mentioned on their trip. They would be playing tennis with hammers.

"Training. Swinging a hammer builds more muscle than a racket."

Well, that was absolutely true. He knew that from his various training sessions. If anything, the game would be interesting at least.

"Ok, we're here." Bonkers said.

Sure enough, there was a pretty decent-looking court that was surrounded by coconut trees. The trees had pretty large leaves, giving the two plenty of shade while they played.

"Wow, you really thought of everything, huh, Bonkers?" Kirby asked, impressed by what he saw.

"Of course, would you expect otherwise?" He replied, proudly.

Bonkers then picked up a tennis ball that was noticeably larger than a normal one, probably to go with the hammers being used.

"Let's play rock, paper, scissors. Winner decides who serves."

"Ok then!" Kirby nodded. He then took the hammer and inhaled it, copying the Hammer Ability.

The two then proceeded to do rock paper scissors.

"Rock, paper, scissors!" They yelled out.

Bonkers threw out rock while Kirby used paper.

"Yay! I win! But you can serve, Bonkers." Kirby said happily.

"Sounds good to me."

The two went to their according sides of the court and prepared to start their game. Bonkers tossed the ball up and with a mighty thwack sent the ball flying at the child. For an average person this would result in getting smashed in the face, but thanks to the puff's reflexes, he was able to send the ball back, resulting in an even paced back and forth. They continued at this for several rounds, it seemed.

"Hey Kirby, how much tennis experience do you have? You're not making this easy for me." His friend uttered in slight surprise.

"Um... I have some, I guess. I've played tennis a few times with Meta Knight, Bandana, and Dedede!"

"The king and that dweeb make sense, but Meta Knight? Didn't expect that." His friend hit the ball back.

"Yeah, it took a lot of time to convince him to come with us the first time. It wasn't until we actually started playing that he started to enjoy it. Though it ended with him turning it into a training exercise for me after Dedede started using Gordos as the ball."

"Yeah that sounds like them."

"What-HIYAH-about you Bonkers? How's you discover that you liked tennis.? Kirby asked while hitting the ball back.

There was a brief moment of pause as Bonkers hit the ball back.

"Well it wasn't my first choice of sport. Initially, I tried boxing, but I tended to go overboard so I quit. Then I tried football but again, I went overboard. Eventually, I tried tennis and to my surprise it just clicked for me. It's a game that I can focus on without worrying about accidentally hurting someone too much."

Kirby hit the ball back. "Well, that's reasonable."

"I also tried golf, but it was pretty boring."

"Really? Did you try playing on the Dream Course?"

"Yeah, but that only seems to work if you're also a ball." He seemed to look directly at Kirby as he said that.

"Oh, that's right. I could show you how to become a ball." Kirby said innocently.

"Does it have anything to do with that paint witch lady you fought the one time? If so, no."

"Fineeee." Kirby whined playfully.

This time, the child was the one to serve the ball.

"I've always meant to ask you this Bonkers. Why do you like coconut trees so much?" He asked before hitting the ball.

"Coconut tree and coconuts themselves are strong, durable and reliable. Just like me." He responded hitting the ball back.

"Yup!" The child hit the ball back. "Hmm... what kind of tree would you say I am?" He wondered aloud.

"Evergreen." was Bonkers quick and simple reply. "A tree that never loses its color no matter how much time passes."

"Ah, yeah! I think that makes sense! Hm... what about some of the others?"

"Meta Knight's definitely a blue spruce."

"'cuz he's blue?"

"Not just that. blue spruces are prickly to touch. Hard to approach, but reliable all the same." Bonkers said, again impressing Kirby with his knowledge of trees.

"Yeah, that sounds like him. What about Dedede?"

"Cactus."

"Oh, is that because Joe keeps saying he's one of those sun-dairys?" Kirby gave a slight laugh.

"Prickly on the outside, sweet on the inside? Yeah, definitely a cactus."

"What about Bandana then?"

"The kid? I guess cherry blossom would fit him."

Kirby then hit the ball back. "Why do you say that?"

"Not too sure, being honest. Just feels like a natural fit for him."

The puff then gave an audible "Hmm" as he attempted to figure out their next subject.

"Hey, Bonkers. The other day Bandana told me that someone's been beating up lumberjacks. That wouldn't happen to be you, would it?" He then hit the ball again.

"Yeah, what about it?" Bonkers said, hitting the ball back a bit harder thus time.

"Um... just asking." This time, Kirby missed the ball.

"Before you get any ideas, I don't dislike lumberjacks. It's an honest profession. What I do have a problem with is lumberjacks destroying someone's private property."

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense." The puff commented as he scratched his head.

While Bonkers was regularly described as a bully, even he had a code of honor. He never attacked private property. If he had a problem with someone, then he'd go to them directly. So, if he really was attacking those lumberjacks, it was because they started it.

"Whose property were attacking?" Kirby asked.

"Chef Kawasaki actually owns a bit land dedicated to fruit trees. Sometimes he asks me to take care of them while he's out of town on business."

"Oh, I see! You were just helping Kawasaki! Why don't you just tell everyone else in town so that nobody else gets any wrong ideas?"

Bonkers scoffed while hitting the ball back, this time not putting a lot of energy into it.

"Like they'd listen to me. I already have the reputation of a punk. They don't care about the facts."

Kirby looked at his friend sadly. "I could talk to them. They might listen to me."

"Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, Kirby, but that won't be necessary. Besides, I got my trees, my gang and you. Who cares what anyone else thinks?" The puff gave a nod. "Yeah, that's true, I guess."

"Well, maybe I could join in protecting Kawasaki's property?"

"I'm sure Kawasaki would appreciate it, but I think I can do it on my own."

"I know you can." Kirby admitted. "I still wanna help, you know?"

"Yeah, I know."

"So, no?"

"No."

"Fineee. Then how about I protect your trees while you're protecting Kawasaki's?"

Bonkers grabbed the ball laying on the ground and put his other hand to his face, deep in thought. "You know I've never considered having someone guard my trees. I figured people would be too scared to try. Why not, sure, Kirby. You're probably the only one I can completely trust to do that anyway."

The puff gave a smile in response. "I'd be more than happy to do it, you know!"

"Thanks then. Let's take a break real quick. I'll be right back." Bonkers said, leaving to go grab something.

Five minutes later, he returned holding a coconut smoothie in each hand.

"Here you go, Kirby."

The puff took the smoothie and with a happy "Thank you!", gulped the smoothie in seconds.

"How you can do that without getting brain freeze, I'll never understand." His friend uttered with a slight sigh.

"I don't think I've seen you with a brain freeze either, Bonkers." The child said curiously.

"That's 'cuz I don't down my drink in one second." Bonkers said while downing his drink in two seconds.

The two sat in comfortable silence.

"Hey, Kirby, why are you so nice to me? I mean I've fought against multiple times 'cuz of my stupidity and yet, you still want to hang out with me? I don't get it."

"That's easy! We're friends! Friends can argue and fight with each other and while that's sad, that doesn't erase the connections and memories we have. You've helped me through so many hard situations, y'know."

"In fact, I've beaten you up before, so why do you want to be my friend?" Kirby asked, using Bonkers' own question on him.

"Well, it's cause you're nice Kirby. All of my current gang members were actually people who picked fights with me. I had to prove my strength to gain others respect. But not you. You're just a good guy, I respect that about you."

The child bashfully scratched the top of his head. "Thank you, Bonkers."

"Oh, it's getting late." Kirby said, noticing that the sun was about to set.

"One more round?" The two asked each other at the same time.

"Of course!" They both replied at the same time.

They then paused for a moment of silence. Then they laughed together. They quick ran back to the court.

"I'm not going easy on you, Kirby!"

"I hope not!"

The two friends said joyously.

The two continued to play far into the evening.

It's quite humorous that the random wheel would choose a character that appeared in the previous chapter.

Tennis is fun.