The regional middle school boxing tournament was beginning to rear its head and, much to Morita and Megumi's disappointment, almost none of the boxers in the boxing team were ready for it.
"Shiro-kun, you're going to have to at least try to punch me if you want to win," Morita sighed at his sparring partner, who was noticeably smaller and noticeably more scared.
"I-I can't!" yelped the only other club member who was even close to Morita's height, before he jumped over the ropes of the boxing ring and ran away.
"Shiro-kun, the tournament's tomorrow!" Megumi called out and ran after him.
"This has got to be the fifth time my training partner has run away on me in the middle of sparring," the captain of the boxing team sighed and rolled his eyes. He turned to the rest of the team, all of whom were all staring at him in silence, "I need another sparring partner. Which one of you guys wants to practice with me?"
At that moment, all the club members began desperately piling up at the door.
"Guys!" Megumi called for attention as she pushed her way through the crowd with Morita's former sparring partner in front of her, "The tournament is tomorrow, this is no time to be scared of Morita-kun! He needs help for the tournament!"
"I think he'll be fine with just staring at the opponents..." this got a punch in the arm courtesy of Megumi.
"Don't say those kinds of things," she crossed her arms and pouted, "Morita-kun needs help training just as much you guys do, and as far as I've seen none of you are even close to ready for the tournament tomorrow."
"We're ready!" one of the members shouted out before adding weakly, "We're just too scared to fight Captain Sakuraba…"
She turned to skeptically look Morita up and down, the tall menacing teen only looked like an innocent boy in her eyes, "What are you saying? This is Morita-kun we're talking about here!"
"Come on, guys, we need to train!" the captain insisted as he got out of the ring.
"Where's Sawada?" someone asked.
"Eh?" both the captain and manager of the boxing team suddenly became nervous at the mention of the name.
"Yeah, where is Sawada?" someone else asked suspiciously.
"Um, he was here only a second ago…" Morita said warily, he obviously avoided the gaze of the other members of the boxing club while saying this, "I-I wonder where he went also?"
"I don't think Sawada's actually been to any of the boxing meets since we all joined," said one of the teammates out loud.
"Morita-kun…" Megumi pulled the captain aside and whispered, "They're figuring out that Hide-kun hasn't been here since the beginning of the school year!"
"I know!" he whispered back and turned to smile and wave at the team before looking at her with a pleading look, "Do you think Hide's still here after school?"
"I'll go look," she nodded and rushed off.
"Where is Megumi-chan going?" asked one of the boxers.
"She went to get Hide, the lazy bum," Morita said jokingly.
"Isn't it a bit unfair that Sawada-san hasn't been to any of the meetings, captain?" questioned the teammate that Morita had been sparring with earlier.
"Um…" he hesitated.
"We know the guy's cool and all for what he did at the beginning of the year with that whole underwear-gig," he continued and looked to his teammates for support, "But other than that he's just a weirdo, don't you all think?"
They all slowly nodded as realization crept onto them.
"He is kind of weird…isn't he?" one of the club members remarked, but he seemed a little unsure about what he was saying.
"Yeah, I guess," another boxer said unconvincingly.
Morita heaved a heavy sigh and he prepared himself to fight off the remarks about Hide that were without a doubt that were about to happen.
~8~
"Hide-kun!" Megumi ran up to the roof and saw Hide with Ahiru standing on his shoulders, the little girl appeared to be trying to catch something in the air.
"Megumi-san?" the blonde questioned as he tried to balance the little girl on his shoulders, "What are you doing up on the roof of the school? Isn't the Boxing Team supposed to have practice today?"
"Hide-kun, we need you at practice today!" she said urgently.
"I thought I only had to go to the matches or meetings some of the times?"
"Hide-nii, stay still!" Ahiru ordered, "Ahibird is going to fly away, move left!"
"Okay, okay," he sighed and took a step to his left.
"Not your left, my left!" she huffed.
"We're both facing the same direction!" he pointed out before turning his attention back to Megumi, "I'll be there as soon as we're done with this."
"What are you doing?"
"Catching Ahiru's pet bird, it's up there on that ledge," he gestured upwards and added, "Though I don't see why Kurokawa-sensei couldn't have done this for you. He's like a foot taller than me."
"Got it!" the child smiled brightly, she immediately jumped down onto the ground with her hands clamped tightly together.
"Must be a pretty small bird," Megumi commented.
Hide shrugged and then asked, "There was a practice-thing for boxing, right?"
"Oh, right!" she grabbed his wrist and urgently began to pull him away, "Let's hurry!"
"Ahiru's coming also!" the little girl claimed and ran after them.
Hide was quietly in heaven at the fact that Megumi was touching hand/wrist, so he wasn't really paying attention to the fact that he was being dragged around by her to the horribly smelly Boxing Clubhouse.
"Morita-kun! I got him!" the manager quickly said as she led Hide into the clubhouse.
"Thank god," the overgrown teen muttered with relief and pulled his friend to the front, "See? Hide goes to practice just like we all do."
"Then why haven't we seen him around lately?"
"Um, er," Morita hesitated.
"Are they complaining because I haven't been here?" Hide whispered to Megumi.
"It's smelly in here…" Ahiru remarked unhappily before quickly being hushed.
"Yeah," she nodded, "And there's a tournament is tomorrow also."
"Eh? Is it really tomorrow? Are you guys ready?"
"Not at all," she looked around worriedly, "Especially Morita-kun, everyone's too afraid to practice with him."
"Why doesn't Hide fight him?" suggested Reborn, who stood right behind Hide in red boxing shorts, gloves, and for some reason an elephant hat and white goatee.
"Who are you?" Megumi asked with keen interest.
Do you not recognize him? Hide silently wondered.
"I am Master Pao-Pao," the infant declared, "I was once the master to the great Sasagawa Ryohei."
What's with that ridiculous disguise and name! his student's mouth fell wide open in shock.
"Master Pao-Pao!" Ahiru brightened when she saw the disguised infant.
"How do you know who he is?" Hide retorted.
"Sasagawa Ryohei?" Morita interjected himself into the conversation almost immediately upon hearing the name, "You mean Namimori's legendary Rumblefish Ryohei?*"
Legendary? I've never heard such an outrageous name before! Hide's mouth fell open upon hearing this.
"The one and only."
"Master Pao-Pao is the best teacher in the world!" Ahiru chirped enthusiastically.
"R-really?" Morita, with much enthusiasm as she had, then exclaimed at Reborn, "Master Pao-Pao, it would be an honor if you could temporarily teach us!"
"No," 'Master Pao-Pao' shook his head and said in a despairing tone, "Not today, today I shall just be watching. But if I may suggest something?"
"Go ahead!" Morita nodded obediently.
"Why don't you make Hide spar with you? He doesn't seem to be afraid of you like the other team members."
"Hm, you do have a point…" he began thoughtfully.
Hide immediately ran over to his tutor and hissed, "Reborn! What are you doing? I'm not afraid of Morita-kun because he doesn't try to punch me! It's an entirely different story if he is trying to punch me!"
"What do you say, Hide, wanna spar a little with me?" Morita asked eagerly, he tossed the boy some gloves and head gear.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Ahiru said cheerfully.
He looked up at Morita, who was brimming with earnestness, and couldn't help feel even more nervous under the watchful gaze of the other members of the boxing team. "If I say no, Reborn will just find a way to make me do it anyways."
~8~
After they climbed into the ring, Hide kept a steady eye on Reborn, or 'Master Pao Pao' as he was now calling himself. If there was one thing that the poor blonde-haired boy learned from his time with Reborn, it was that Reborn=horrible amount of pain.
"Megumi," Morita called to the manager who had a bell in her hand, "Just start whenever, okay?"
"If that's the case," without hesitation she excitedly rang the bell, "Go!"
"A-Already?" Hide yelped at the surprising speed that Megumi rang the bell.
"Get ready, Hide!" Morita said with the exact same amount of excitement that Megumi had.
"Hiieee!" he screamed while struggling to dodge the punches that Morita was throwing, "Why so suddenly!"
"Quit being a wuss," Reborn began and suddenly pointed a Leon-gun aimed at his student's head, "And die."
BANG!
I'm dying…Hide thought as his body slowly fell to the ground. But the tournament…that's right! the tournament is tomorrow and Megumi-chan and Morita-kun were relying on me to get their team ready…but I'm dying…If only I had the will to get their team going…if only…
"REBORN!" he jumped to his feet, clad only in his underwear and a brightly colored flame dancing on his forehead, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "GET THE TEAM READY FOR THE TOURNAMENT WITH MY DYING WILL!"
"Huh?" Megumi's mouth hung open at the startling sight of the underwear-only boy, "Hide-kun?"
"YOU!" he pointed at two seemingly random boxers, "BOTH OF YOU, GET UP HERE AND SPAR!"
"But-" one of them began.
"DO IT!"
"Yessir," the two meekly agreed and scurried onto the ring.
Hide jumped out of the ring while Morita unwittingly climbed out. He then pointed at another two members and began dictating the rest of the team to do certain exercises; and if any member dared to question him, Hide would certainly yell: "JUST DO IT!"
Morita, who had been stricken silent this entire time, nervously raised a hand, "Um, Hide…weren't we supposed to be sparring just now?"
"NO!" the boy snapped at the other much taller and way more muscular boy, Hide then grabbed a nearby member and yelled, "YOU'LL BE FIGHTING HIM!"
"What!" both the boxing captain and club member questioned while looking at each other incredulously.
"You want me to fight Shiro-kun?" Morita asked skeptically while pointing at the same teammate that had previously run away crying at the sight of Morita.
"What makes you so high and mighty to tell me what to do?" 'Shiro-kun' asked with raised eyebrows.
Hide grabbed the two by their arms and dragged them into the second boxing ring, all while yelling, "GET OVER IT!"
"H-Hold on, Sawada!" 'Shiro-kun began fearfully, "C-Can't you pair me up with someone else?"
At that moment, Ahiru suddenly jumped into the ring and cheerfully declared, "Ahiru wants to box too!"
"Ahiru-chan! You're not allowed to fight!" Megumi quickly attempted to grab her but the girl evaded her with ease.
"That's an interesting prospect," Reborn mused. A large purple bazooka seemed to materialize in 'Master Pao-Pao's hands, and after pulling the trigger on the bazooka a large cloud of pink smoke.
"Ahiru-chan?" Megumi called out in between coughs through the smog of pink.
"I'm going to bite someone to death…" a mature girl's voice cut through the pink smog. Ten-years-later-Ahiru slowly rose from the cloud while brushing dust off her skirt. As the smoke cleared, she took one look at her surroundings and sourly remarked, "It's smelly in here."
"You're that girl from when we played that quiz show game!" the red-head recalled, she then looked around and asked uncertainly, "But…how did you get here?"
"I'd like to know that also," teen-Ahiru said in a dangerous tone, her narrow onyx eyes focused on Hide, who was still in Dying Will Mode at this point.
"Who is that?" Morita innocently wondered, as he did not recognize the girl.
"SPAR WITH EACH OTHER NOW!" Hide yelled and rang a nearby bell loudly and repeatedly for Morita and 'Shiro-kun' to begin.
"Ahiru," Reborn called out to her.
"Oh, Master Pao-Pao," she nodded at him in acknowledgement.
"Would you mind helping this pathetic excuse of a boxing team win their tournament tomorrow?"
"What would I have to do exactly?"
Reborn smirked and used one of his tiny boxing-gloved hands to gesture towards Morita, Shiro, and Hide. "Beat them up."
A pair of tonfas appeared in her hands and her onyx colored eyes reflected off of the metal of the tonfa, "Let's do this."
"W-What's going on?" Morita paled as she walked over to them.
In one swift moment, the captain of the boxing team was on the ground with a black eye while Ahiru stood over him. She turned her menacing gaze towards Shiro and Hide right when the Dying Will Flame completely dissipated from his forehead.
"Anyone else want to be bitten to death?" she asked dangerously.
"No!" the two shook their heads furiously and hopelessly.
~8~
Two minutes later, Ahiru turned back into her present-self and Hide and 'Shiro-kun' both had bloody noses and black eyes. Most of the boxers were circling around Morita and were all in a daze at what just happened.
"Six minutes this time," Reborn mused from nearby with a stopwatch in his boxing-gloved hand, "You're getting better at this, Hide."
"Gee, thanks," he muttered tiredly.
"Hide-kun!" Hide's eyes tiredly looked upwards at Megumi, who had a sort of desperate look on her face, "Are you alright?!"
The last thing Hide remembered before passing out was the taste blood. In the end, Namimori Middle's boxing team came in second at the regional tournament; an impressive feat that may have been the result of Hide's momentary but strict training regimen. Or it could have been that the boxing members found something other than their captain to be afraid of.