When we arrived back at the Drachma Red dorms, Taiga and Tadokoro took the elevator upstairs to their rooms. Before Yukimura left and did the same, I called out to him.

"Yukimura-san."

"Huh?"

"Can I have a moment?"

"What is it?"

"I've been wanting to go to the gym for awhile now. Could you show me around?"

"Huh? You, go to the gym?"

For some reason, Yukimura began laughing.

"Uh... yeah. Is there a problem?"

"What? Dude, aside from Tanaka, you're the last person I'd expect to workout."

I don't know whether to be offended or not that Mitsuba was ranked higher than I was.

"...why's that?"

"You're already hella strong. You don't need to work out."

"I'm not really."

"Not buying that. You one-shot Ritaka."

"It's not that impressive. It just means Ritaka-san is weaker than I am."

Considering even Yogen embarrassed him in a fight, Ritaka was quite low on the power scale.

"Oh yeah? Punch me. Right now."

"...I'm sorry?"

"C'mon, don't hold back. Let's see whether or not if you're strong, or if Ritaka's just a wimp."

"This is unnecessary... can you just show me around the gym?"

"Ah? I'll only help you if you punch me."

"You do know what you just said, right?"

"Shut up, my gut's wide open."

Yukimura unzipped his jacket to bare open his six pack to me. He really wasn't wearing a shirt underneath.

"Unless, you wanna try aiming for my face? Heh."

He lightly tapped his cheek, trying to taunt me due to our difference in height.

"I'd rather do neither..."

"Then go to the gym yourself. It's not that hard to navigate."

What a predicament. I didn't want to punch him, since that would reveal my true strength, but at the same time, I wanted him to come with me as insurance.

After what happened last night with Nakajima, I didn't want to hedge my bets by going alone. It was too risky. I decided that, if I were to go outside the dorms, it would be with someone else at all times to protect myself from being suddenly ambushed.

Yukimura zipped up his jacket and turned around. Just as he was about to leave, I called out to him.

"...hang on."

I guess I had no other choice. Even though I didn't want to go through this ridiculous idea, it was better to go with someone than no one.

At least the solution for this problem was simple. I just had to punch him lightly. How hard could that be?

"You're doing it? Nice, gimme your best shot!"

Yukimura grinned, showing me his abs again. I tightened my fist and took a deep breath.

I relaxed my muscles and swung a loose punch at Yukimura's stomach. As my fist connected lightly, Yukimura's eyes widened and he staggered back.

"...hang on, what?"

He seemed to be confused by what had just happened.

"That was my punch. Not impressive, right?"

The fact he was still standing meant I had successfully landed a soft hit on him. However, Yukimura shook his head.

"No... do it again."

"...what?"

"Do it again! Punch me harder, Takanori!"

"What are you, a masochist...?"

In turn, Yukimura sucker punched me. I guess I deserved that one.

"Come on, punch!"

"You know, inciting violence isn't going to—"

Yukimura tried punching me again, but my instincts made me dodge it without thinking.

"...get me to punch you back."

"Huh? You move swiftly too, heh."

"We're in the lobby Yukimura-san, stop."

Despite my attempt to get him to back down, he ignored me and threw a right cross at my face. I cocked my head to the side to dodge it, then grabbed his wrist with my left hand to lock him in place.

"I'm open, hit me!"

Instead, he leaned forward to present his cheek to me and grinned.

"You're kidding me..."

"What? Why are you so against punching me again?"

"I can ask you the same thing, why do you want me to punch you again?"

"Cuz that punch didn't feel legit."

"That was my full power."

Yukimura snorted.

"Like I'm buying that. I could tell that you were holding back. When your fist hit me, it felt more like a tap."

I guess I messed up the landing. He was catching on quick.

"However, from that tap, I felt an unbelievable amount of power gushing out. You're hiding your true strength from me, Takanori. And that pisses me off."

"Pisses you off? Why?"

"Yeah, you heard me! I hate it when guys act less than what they actually are! If you're actually hella strong, then I want you to show it off to me instead of hiding it!"

There was a rawness behind Yukimura's words that made me understand where he was coming from. Essentially, he hated fake people, which is why he hated ikemen like Matsushita. When I faked my punch earlier, it got on his nerves.

"If I go all out, will you keep it a secret?"

"Depends on how good you are. If you're crap, then I'll tell everyone how much of a loser you are at fighting. If you're good... then yeah, I'll shut up about it."

If there's one good thing about Yukimura, it was that he spoke whatever was on his mind. He was bluntly honest, even if it made him seem rough around the edges. That's why I could believe his words.

"Alright. Tense your stomach."

I let go of Yukimura. He stood up straight and threw his jacket on his ground.

"Bring it."

He took a deep breath and patted the centre of his stomach. I took a sharp breath and threw a punch at his gut.

"Kugaa—!"

Yukimura yelled in pain as he fell backwards from the blow.

I reached out and grabbed him to stop him from falling. I pulled him back up to his feet, but he was still wobbling.

"You okay?"

Yukimura held his stomach and looked at me with narrowed eyes.

Oh man, did I make him mad?

"...I kind of wish I never asked you to do that now. You punch as hard as Shimada kicks, damn."

I expected him to shout at me, but instead, he quietly muttered to himself.

"You took that punch pretty well, all things considered."

"Stop being nice. If you didn't catch me, I woulda fallen to the floor."

Yukimura shoved me away slightly. He knelt down and picked up his jacket.

It seems he was angry, not at me, but at himself.

"Sorry."

"Don't apologise either. It pisses me off even more when you try to act humble after doing that."

I stayed quiet to not provoke him any further. Yukimura sat down on a sofa to cool off.

"Sheesh. I knew you were strong, but I didn't expect you to be this strong... how the hell did you gain that much strength?"

After awhile, he finally spoke up with a tired sigh.

"I don't know. I guess I was just born with it."

"Damn. The saying really is true."

"What is?"

"Whatever it is you're good at, there's always one person better at it than you. In my case, it's two."

"That's impossible. You're the best footballer I know."

"I'm not talking about that... I'm talking about physical strength. I dunno about you, but I pride myself on being strong. It's the only thing I have aside from sports."

"Makes sense."

"So to know you're stronger than me... just pisses me off."

In some ways, I could relate. I prided myself on being a good cardfighter, but Kaido and Kishou wiped the floor with me.

"It's fine if you're weaker. That means you can still get stronger."

"How the hell am I gonna catch up to your level? If that's your baseline, imagine how nuts you'll be if you actually trained your body—"

Yukimura stopped mid-sentence as he realised why I wanted to go to the gym in the first place.

"Oh... you want to become even stronger, don't you?"

"Yeah. I might have the power to punch, but I'm basically weak in every other area. If you punched me now, I'd also go down to the floor."

"Heh... you wanna test it?"

"No thanks."

"Fine. Where's this coming from then anyways?"

"Some various things happened that made me realise how fragile I am."

While reflecting on my fight against Nakajima, I realised that I could've ended it much sooner if I wasn't built like a string bean. If I had muscles, like him or Yukimura, I'd be able to endure more and not be afraid to go on the offensive.

"I wanted to make sure I was strong enough to protect myself and anyone else, if it came down to it."

In the future, Nakajima might target those I'm close to in order to draw me out. If that were to happen, I would need to be strong enough to both save and protect them as well.

"Ain't that a noble cause."

"I wouldn't say it's noble. More just common sense."

"This isn't something most people would think of when it comes to reasons for working out. Most of them would do it cuz they just want to become healthy."

"I mean, that's an added benefit too. I'm starting to feel the stiffness of sitting at my desk all day reading."

"What a nerd. Health is wealth."

"Anyways... I held up my part of the deal. Can you show me around the gym now?"

"Oh, yeah. Aight, let's go."

I followed Yukimura outside as we headed to the Drachma Gym.