Chapter 1

Takamura Mamoru, an up and coming boxer fighting in the middleweight division of the Japanese Boxing Commission, was currently doing his road work. Jogging down the stone path alongside the river on his usual route, periodically he would stop and start shadow-boxing.

He continued running down the path and was coming up on a bridge leading across the river where he noticed a group of four people underneath. He stopped running while he continued looking on as he noticed from their uniforms that they were most likely high school boys. Three taller boys, punks and bullies judging from their way of crowding the fourth guy and from their wannabe punk haircuts and tall stature.

Takamura walked down the slope of the bridge to get a better look. 'Why the hell am I getting involved? Ah screw it if I don't do something the kid's gonna get hurt' he thought.

"You think you're some tough guy huh?" said one of the bullies, "You call me and my boys a bunch pricks in front of our girls and think we would just let it slide?!"

"Well it didn't look like they were having a very good time with you… so yeah. I think I'm allowed to call 'em as I see 'em" answered the lone teenager. This led Takamura to stop dead in his tracks and continue observing.

The boy stood tall and confident against the gang of three and had messy, dark-brown hair with bangs over his forehead and was neck-length in the back, he had a tanned complexion and looked to be pretty fit for his age.

"So, what's it gonna be three against one?" he asked sarcastically. This ticked off the trio of thugs before the leader with a pompadour snapped back, "You fuckin' got that right. I'm gonna enjoy wiping your blood off the bottom of my shoe after this."

The three thugs spread out to try and intimidate the lone teenager. Takamura was about to step in but stopped dead in his tracks at what he saw next.

The teenager took his hands out of his pockets and without any indication, threw a right punch into the leader's midsection and followed up with a left uppercut that sent the leader falling back.

He pivoted to the right and dodged a punch by the thug on the right before landing a left hook to his face and then a right body blow and another left hook.

Not noticing the third thug, he grabbed the kid in a head lock while he tried to struggle and break free. The leader got up off the ground and ran over to beat on the kid. He threw a right punch, which the kid evaded by slipping his head to the right. This resulted in the thug holding him getting hit in the face and the kid jammed his left elbow into his side. The thug's grip loosened, the kid turned a full 180 and threw a left uppercut into the thug's chin and knocked him away with a right.

The kid then turned back to the leader and the two charged forward and he threw out a right.

Takamura had been watching the whole fight intently, never taking his eyes off it for even a second. But what he saw next impressed even him.

The kid had ducked and weaved under the leader's right punch and circled around to his right. He cocked his left fist back. His waist twisted, and his left fist shot forward. It landed. And the thug leader was sent flying backwards, the force of the punch knocking him right off his feet and skidding into the dirt.

Takamura had seen it all. He saw how this one kid took out a trio of taller, stronger street punks and beat them all by himself. But what he had noticed the most, was the completely high-level left cross this kid threw in a simple street brawl.

Takamura began to get closer and approach the group. The kid turned and noticed him walking before Takamura spoke up. "Well… that was a pretty show kid. Took care of these guys like they were nothing."

"Yeah? And what's it to you?" he spat back, "You wanna fight too?"

Takamura put on a serious expression before answering, "If you think you got the guts," he curled his finger, "then bring it in."

The kid widened his stance and raised his fists, his right at the waist and his left just above the hip.

He stepped forward and threw out his left. Takamura, with his hands still in his pockets, simply sidestepped to the left and sway to right. The kid was starting to get irritated, gritting his teeth as he threw out more wild swings and hooks as Takamura dodged them all.

His rage at full boil now, the teenager threw the same punch he used before. Twisting his waist and launching his left.

Takamura then raised his right open palm and caught the fist.

The kid's eyes were wide in disbelief, but quickly turned to shock as Takamura threw out his left but stopped only one centimeter from the boy's face.

They remained frozen for a time before Takamura retracted his fist and let go of the boy's hand. Both men lowered their guard.

Takamura raised his right hand and examined it. 'My hand is still stinging from that punch… Just what the hell kind of power does this kid have?' he thought.

"Hey kid," said Takamura, "I could tell from the way you handled these dumbasses here," he gestured to the other unconscious thugs, "that this isn't your first fight."

The teenager wondered where this random stranger was going with this.

"And that punch you threw just now was pretty good. But…" he raised an eyebrow, "your technique was all over the place. Those punches you were swingin' around were too easy to read."

"Seemed to work just fine against these guys."

"Yeah but they were amateurs, not some real high-class fighters like me" said Takamura while pointing a thumb towards himself while putting on a smug smile. "And I think I can show you some real good punches."

The kid raised an eyebrow at the stranger's remark but continued listening, clearly intrigued.

"Follow me" said Takamura as he walked past the teenager and out from under the bridge.

They walked a few meters towards a tree growing by the river bank. Takamura walked towards the trunk before kicking it and causing the leaves to fall. Takamura put up a guard and loosened his fists.

With blinding speed, he shot out his left and followed up with his right in a rapid succession. The teen's eyes went wide at the speed of his fists and continued watching until he stopped.

Takamura stepped away and turned towards the boy before raising his hands up, opening them up to reveal a bunch of leaves falling out of his grasp.

"How's that? You wanna learn how to throw punches like that?"

The teenager continued looking at the leaves before snapping back, "Who the hell would wanna learn something like that?"

Takamura dropped the leaves and looked back at the kid, "Well if you think you could do better than by all means,"

The teenager stepped forward and kicked the tree, leaves came falling and the kid got into his stance. He threw out his right fist and caught a leaf but failed to catch a second. He tried again but failed. He began to get angry but failed after multiple tries.

Takamura stood by and watched the kid thinking, 'Why is trying to catch them with his right? Wait… right…' Takamura took a better look at the kid's stance before coming to a realization, 'right foot forward, left foot back… right to jab and holding his left behind… wait a minute…'

"Hey kid," piped up Takamura, "are you right handed or left handed?"

The teen stopped and looked over before answering, "I'm left handed."

'I knew it! This kid is a southpaw!' realized Takamura.

The teenager tried again and failed once more before shouting in frustration, "RAAAHH! Why the hell can't I catch these fucking leaves?!"

"Tell ya what, you keep practicing that jab and let's meet back here in week."

The teen gave a surprised chuckle before responding, "A week? Isn't that too much time?"

"If you think you can do it in less than go ahead, after all I could do it in less than a week" said Takamura before turning to get back to his roadwork.

"By the way," Takamura turned back, "I never did catch your name."

The kid didn't speak for a moment before giving his name, "Narushima… Narushima Raian."

"Well Raian, keep practicing that jab and we'll meet back in a week" and Takamura went back to running.

Raian looked towards the man running down the road before turning back to the tree.

Raian remained at the tree for the next hour before finally deciding to give it a rest for the day and to try again tomorrow. As he had work right now.

Raian ran down the road before arriving at an open auto repair garage.

Raian walked inside through the garage door and walked past a row of cars being repaired by mechanics. Raian made his way down a hall and walked through a door into room with lockers. Raian walked up to one and undid the combination lock and began to change into a boiler suit and walked out while putting on a red baseball cap.

"Well it's about time you showed up" spoke a slightly chubby man with gray hair and mustache and was covered in splotches of motor oil.

"Ah get off my back boss, it's not like I'm late I'm five minutes early for my shift today" answered Raian.

"Uh huh… so who were unlucky dumbasses that ended up eating your fist today?" asked Raian's boss.

"Same guys different day… So, what's the load for the week?"

The mustached man looked at his clipboard before turning back to Raian, "Got a '86 Mitsubishi that needs it's front and rear axles changed. Then you got to help Tojo repair the chassis in a '75 Chevy later."

Raian adjusted his hat before getting right to work. For the rest of the afternoon until nightfall, Raian continued to work in the garage before finally clocking off. He grabbed a train and rode the rest of the way before arriving home in Machida, Tokyo.

Raian walked into his apartment and locked the door.

"Welcome home Raian" said a woman's voice.

Raian turned and was met by a middle-aged woman with brown hair, "Hey Mom" said Raian before giving his mother a hug. "Did you have a good day at school?"

"Yeah it was alrite."

"And how was work?"

"Not too bad. Think I might be getting used to this" answered Raian.

"As long as your doing your best. Any way dinner's ready!" announced Raian's mother.

The two sat down and ate dinner where Raian later showered and went to bed.

Throughout the early part of the night, Raian's mind went back to the day's afternoon. Back to the man who told him to catch the leaves.

Raian got up from his bed and got into a fighting stance. He threw out a right but wondered, 'what am I doing wrong? What did he do with his fists that made them go that fast?'

Raian continued to remember the way Takamura threw out his fists but realized that he loosened his hands before throwing out his punches. "Lightly…"

Raian loosened his fists and threw out a right. The punch came out much faster than before, "I get it… keep your fists light then tighten them once you punch."

Raian continued for the rest of the night. Throwing out more right jabs until it has muscle memory.