I stared out at the river in boredom.

"Parents being overbearing again?"

"Yeah."

Suou sat down besides me. "Do you want to spend the night at my place?"

I glanced at him. "Sure, I guess." I turned back to the setting sun.

Suou moved behind me and started braiding my hair. "If you're keeping your hair long, at least make sure it's neat."

"I want to cut it, but my parents won't let me get an undercut."

"Oh. Why not just cut it short?" he asked, finishing.

"I dunno. Come on, let's go." I pulled out my phone and took a quick picture of the sunset before standing up.

It's been about a year since then. I'm 14 now. I go to Beigoma Academy and I'm part of the Bey Club. I was hella excited when I got Nocnitsa-Satori.

"...uko."

"...tsuko."

"NATSUKO!"

"Wh-I'm up!" I lost my balance and fell out of the tree into the grass.

"Are you okay?" Mina asked.

I sat there for a second. "Ow. Why do I always have delayed reactions?!"

"Come on, there's some new kid here."

"Huh?" I stood up, brushing the dirt off my side. "Where?"

"The training field."

I started walking over, running into Suou, Fubuki, and a kid in a different grade that I don't remember the name of.

"Let me guess, you just woke up?" Suou asked.

"Shut up, man."

He reached over and brushed some leaves off my beanie. "You're a mess."

"Okay?" I reached up and pressed my thumb into my neck.

I stayed next to Suou the entire time. "Didn't this Aiga kid have 100 battles already? He's uh... pretty energetic. I swear I've seen him somewhere..."

"You say that for a lot of people," Suou pointed out.

"Yeah..."

Achilles burst, which meant that Fubuki had won.

"I knew he was no match for Fubuki!" Koji exclaimed.

"I don't know about that..." Suou said.

"What?"

"He just fought a hundred battles, and lost 2-1. He still got a point."

Aiga collapsed on the ground, and a young girl ran up to him.

"Woah, kid, you good?" I ran up. Checking his pulse, it was slightly accelerated, but not too much. "I think he's just worn out."

•~•~•~•~•

The repeated thumps from the target were the only thing I heard as I continuously kicked it, and over it as well.

"Sonosuke, I think you should take a break," Nika said worriedly.

"Why?" I asked, knocking the target over with a side kick.

"You can barely stand straight," Tokonatsu pointed out. "You're swaying back and forth."

"Really? Then maybe I should..." I set the target upright again before walking over to them and collapsing on the bench.

"You never did this before. What changed?"

"Oh... my parents keep saying that I'm overweight, so... yeah."

"You shouldn't eat less just because of that," Nika said.

"You noticed?"

"Kinda hard not to. You throw away a lot of your food nowadays."

I stood up and walked over to the animals, climbing over the fence and picking up one of the rabbits. "Oh well."

After a few minutes, I heard a yell and Aiga jumped over the fence, straight for the sheep. I watch in amusement, scratching the rabbit's head.

"Hey, you."

The two of us turned around to see Ranjiro standing there.

"Kiyama."

"Ai. Are you Aiga Akaba?"

"Huh? Who are you?"

"Don't play dumb!"

I sighed, knowing where this conversation was going since I talked to Ranjiro last night. "Ran, call me later and tell me who wins."

"Sure thing, Nat."

"Sono."

"Right, sorry."

Standing up, I headed to class.