The second round never came.
"That's enough." The voice cut through the courtyard chatter like a blade through silk, and every head turned toward its source.
Uncle Hiroshi stood at the entrance to the courtyard, still wearing his work clothes from the gym. His expression was calm, but Kai had lived with him long enough to recognize the storm brewing behind those dark eyes. This was the face Hiroshi had worn in the ring twenty years ago—controlled fury wrapped in absolute confidence.
The crowd of students began shifting nervously, suddenly remembering that what they were watching wasn't exactly sanctioned by the school administration. Several of the younger ones started edging toward exits, clearly hoping to avoid whatever consequences were about to rain down.
"Uncle," Kai said, his voice rougher than he'd expected. "How did you—"
"Sensei Ishida called me," Hiroshi interrupted, his gaze never leaving Daichi. "Seems he was worried one of his students might be about to do something monumentally stupid." His eyes finally shifted to Kai. "Looks like his concerns were justified."
Daichi straightened, trying to reclaim some of his earlier swagger. "This is just a friendly sparring session between classmates. Nothing wrong with that."
"Friendly sparring." Hiroshi repeated the words like he was tasting something bitter. "On concrete. Without proper gear. With no medical supervision." He stepped into the courtyard, and several students scrambled to get out of his way. "Tell me, son, what gym are you training at?"
"Elite Boxing Academy," Daichi replied, and Kai could hear the pride in his voice. "Coach Matsumoto runs the program."
"Ah, Matsumoto." Hiroshi nodded slowly. "I know him. Good technical instructor, though he's always been a bit loose about teaching his students when fighting is appropriate." He looked around the courtyard, taking in the chalk lines and gathered crowd. "I'm guessing this wasn't his idea."
"This was between me and him," Daichi said, gesturing toward Kai. "We had a disagreement that needed settling."
"A disagreement." Hiroshi's tone remained conversational, but Kai could see his hands beginning to clench. "About what, exactly?"
Daichi hesitated, probably realizing that explaining their morning confrontation would require admitting to years of bullying behavior. "Just... school stuff. Nothing serious."
"Nothing serious," Hiroshi repeated. He turned to look at Kai, and his expression softened slightly. "You want to tell me your side of this 'nothing serious' situation, nephew?"
Kai felt every eye in the courtyard focused on him. Part of him wanted to downplay the whole thing, to make it sound like a minor misunderstanding that had gotten out of hand. But the blood on his lip and the ache in his ribs reminded him why he'd been willing to fight in the first place.
"Daichi's been making life difficult for a lot of students at this school," Kai said carefully. "Today I told him that wasn't acceptable anymore. He disagreed. We decided to settle it definitively."
"I see." Hiroshi studied both teenagers for a long moment. "And you thought the best way to settle this was to beat each other senseless behind a building?"
"It seemed like the most direct approach," Kai admitted.
"Direct." Hiroshi actually smiled at that, though it wasn't a particularly warm expression. "You know what's more direct than this amateur hour nonsense? A proper match, in a proper ring, with proper supervision and rules that actually mean something."
Daichi perked up at that. "You mean like a real boxing match? I'd be happy to arrange something through my gym—"
"Not your gym," Hiroshi cut him off. "Mine. This weekend. You want to prove who's tougher? We'll do it right."
The offer caught both boys off guard. Kai stared at his uncle, trying to figure out what he was thinking. Hiroshi had always been protective of his students, careful about matching them appropriately and ensuring they were ready for whatever challenges they faced. This seemed completely out of character.
"Uncle," Kai said slowly, "I don't think I'm ready for—"
"You weren't ready for this either," Hiroshi pointed out. "But you did it anyway. At least in my gym, nobody's going to end up with permanent brain damage because they slipped on concrete and cracked their skull open."
"This Saturday?" Daichi asked, his competitive instincts clearly overriding his common sense. "What kind of rules are we talking about?"
"Standard amateur boxing rules. Three rounds, two minutes each. Headgear, mouthguards, proper gloves. Referee stops the fight if anyone's in real danger." Hiroshi's smile grew sharper. "Of course, if you're not confident enough to face my nephew under proper conditions..."
It was masterfully done. Daichi had built his reputation on being willing to fight anyone, anywhere. Backing down from a formal challenge would undermine everything he'd worked to establish.
"I'll be there," Daichi said without hesitation. "What time?"
"Seven PM. My gym's address is in the phone book." Hiroshi turned to address the gathered students. "The rest of you can find something better to do with your time than watching teenagers give each other concussions for entertainment."
The crowd began to disperse, though Kai noticed several students pulling out their phones, probably already spreading word about the weekend match. By tomorrow morning, half the school would know about the formal challenge.
"Kai," Hiroshi said once most of the spectators had left, "we need to talk. Now."
The walk back to Hiroshi's truck was conducted in uncomfortable silence. Kai could feel his uncle's disapproval radiating like heat from a furnace, but there was something else there too—something that might have been disappointment, which somehow felt worse than anger.
They drove through the afternoon traffic without speaking, the radio playing softly in the background. Kai found himself watching the familiar streets pass by and wondering how many more times he'd see them. If Saturday's fight went badly, Uncle Hiroshi might decide that boxing wasn't for him after all. And if it went well...
Actually, Kai wasn't sure what would happen if it went well. That outcome seemed so unlikely that he hadn't bothered planning for it.
"You want to tell me what you were really thinking back there?" Hiroshi asked as they pulled into the gym's parking lot.
"I was thinking that someone needed to stand up to Daichi Sasaki before he hurt more people," Kai said honestly.
"And you decided that someone was you."
"Yeah."
"Despite having maybe six months of casual training. Despite never being in a real fight before. Despite having no idea what you were getting yourself into."
"Despite all that."
Hiroshi parked the truck and sat there for a moment, staring through the windshield at the gym's entrance. "You know, when I was your age, I thought fighting was about proving something. About showing the world that I was tough enough to handle whatever it threw at me." He turned to look at Kai. "Took me years to figure out that real fighting—the kind that matters—isn't about proving anything. It's about protecting something."
"That's what I was trying to do," Kai said. "Protect people."
"By getting yourself beaten senseless in a school courtyard?"
"By showing that Daichi's not invincible. That someone will fight back if he pushes too far."
Hiroshi was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was softer. "You know, there's something different about you today. Something I can't quite put my finger on. This morning you were asking about serious training for the first time in your life. This afternoon you're taking on experienced fighters. It's like you became a different person overnight."
If only you knew, Kai thought. "Maybe I just got tired of being the same person I've always been."
"Maybe." Hiroshi opened his door and climbed out of the truck. "Well, different person or not, you've got four days to get ready for a real fight. And let me tell you something about Daichi Sasaki—he wasn't holding back out there because he was being nice. He was holding back because he was playing with you. This weekend, in my ring, he's going to try to hurt you for real."
They walked into the gym together, past the heavy bags and speed bags that would become Kai's world for the next four days. The smell of leather and sweat felt different now—less like a hobby and more like a necessity.
"So what's the plan?" Kai asked.
"The plan is simple," Hiroshi said, heading toward his office. "We're going to teach you how to survive three rounds with someone who's better than you. Not how to win—that would take years. But how to survive without embarrassing yourself or ending up in the hospital."
"That's encouraging."
"I'm not here to encourage you. I'm here to prepare you." Hiroshi pulled out a training schedule and began scribbling notes on it. "Starting tomorrow after school, we're training twice a day. Morning conditioning, afternoon technique. No breaks, no shortcuts, no complaining about being tired or sore."
"What about today?"
"Today we're going to have a long conversation about why you decided to challenge someone completely out of your league, and why I'm crazy enough to let you go through with it."
Kai settled into the chair across from his uncle's desk, prepared for an interrogation that would probably last until dinner. But before Hiroshi could start asking questions, the gym's front door opened and familiar voices drifted back toward the office.
"—told you he was acting strange today. Something about the way he carried himself, like he was planning something."
"Yuki," Kai muttered, recognizing the voice immediately.
"Sounds like your girlfriend heard about your afternoon entertainment," Hiroshi observed. "This should be interesting."
Footsteps approached the office, and a moment later Yuki appeared in the doorway. Her school uniform was slightly rumpled, like she'd been running, and her face was flushed with what looked like a combination of worry and anger.
"Kai Nakamura," she said, and her tone made his full name sound like a curse, "what exactly did you think you were doing today?"
Behind her, Emi peered around the doorframe with obvious curiosity. "Is it true you got in a fight at school? Yuki came to find me right after classes ended. She seemed really upset."
"It wasn't exactly a fight," Kai began, but Yuki cut him off.
"It wasn't exactly a fight? Half the school saw you trading punches with Daichi Sasaki behind the old gymnasium. What would you call it?"
"A learning experience?"
The look Yuki gave him could have melted steel. "Don't you dare try to make jokes about this. Do you have any idea how worried I was when I heard? Do you know what could have happened to you?"
"As a matter of fact," Hiroshi interjected, "we were just about to discuss that very topic. Why don't you girls have a seat? This concerns all of us now."
Yuki and Emi found chairs while Kai tried to figure out how to explain his actions without revealing the real reason behind them. The truth—that he'd lived through ten years of watching bullies like Daichi escalate their behavior until people got seriously hurt—wasn't exactly something he could share.
"Start from the beginning," Hiroshi said. "What happened this morning that led to this afternoon's circus performance?"
So Kai told them. He described the confrontation at the school gates, Daichi's escalating provocations, the lunch period challenge, and his decision to accept. He tried to make it sound rational, like a calculated decision based on careful consideration of the alternatives.
None of them were buying it.
"You could have been seriously hurt," Yuki said when he finished. "Daichi's been training for years. Everyone knows he's dangerous."
"Which is exactly why someone had to stand up to him," Kai replied. "He's been terrorizing students for too long."
"So you decided to be the hero," Emi said, but there was more curiosity than criticism in her voice. "That's very noble, brother, but also kind of stupid."
"Thank you for that ringing endorsement."
"She's right, though," Hiroshi said. "What you did today was brave and stupid in equal measure. The question now is what we do about Saturday."
"Saturday?" Yuki asked.
Hiroshi explained about the formal challenge, the proper ring and rules, the weekend timeline. With each detail, Yuki's expression grew more concerned.
"Can't you just call it off?" she asked when he finished. "Say it was all a misunderstanding or something?"
"Too late for that," Hiroshi said. "Word's already spreading. By tomorrow, half the local boxing community will know about this match. If Kai backs out now, it'll follow him for years."
"And if he goes through with it and gets hurt?"
"Then at least he'll get hurt for the right reasons, under controlled conditions, with people who know how to help him if things go wrong."
Kai appreciated his uncle's support, but he could see that Yuki wasn't convinced. She was looking at him like he'd suddenly revealed himself to be someone she didn't recognize.
"I need to ask you something," she said quietly. "And I want you to be completely honest with me."
"Okay."
"Is this really about protecting other students? Or is this about something else? Because the Kai I know has always been thoughtful and careful about avoiding unnecessary conflicts. Today you went looking for trouble, and that's... that's not like you."
The question cut deeper than she could have known. How could he explain that the careful, conflict-avoiding Kai she knew had been exactly the wrong person to protect the people he cared about? That sometimes avoiding trouble just meant letting it build up until it became unstoppable?
"Maybe the Kai you know isn't the Kai I want to be anymore," he said finally.
"And what kind of person do you want to be?"
Kai looked around the office at the three people who mattered most to him in the world. His uncle, who'd dedicated his life to teaching others how to fight for what mattered. His sister, who was brave enough to speak her mind even when it wasn't convenient. And Yuki, who saw the best in people but wasn't naive about the worst.
"I want to be someone who can protect the people I care about," he said. "Someone who doesn't have to watch from the sidelines when bad things happen. Someone who's strong enough to make a difference when it matters."
"Even if it means getting hurt?"
"Especially if it means getting hurt."
Yuki was quiet for a long moment, studying his face like she was trying to read something written there in a language she didn't quite understand.
"Alright," she said finally. "If you're determined to go through with this, then I want to help."
"Help how?"
"I don't know anything about boxing, but I know you. And if you're going to spend the next four days training like your life depends on it, you're going to need people who care about you making sure you don't kill yourself in the process."
"She's right," Emi added. "Someone needs to make sure you eat properly and get enough sleep. You have a tendency to get obsessive about things."
"I do not get obsessive—"
"Remember when you spent three weeks reading every book in the library about World War II because you wanted to write the perfect history report?" Emi interrupted. "You lost ten pounds because you kept forgetting to eat."
"That was different."
"No," Hiroshi said with a slight smile, "that was exactly the same. You commit completely to whatever you decide is important. It's one of your best qualities and one of your most dangerous ones."
Kai looked around at their faces—concerned but supportive, worried but determined to help him succeed. In his original timeline, he'd faced most of his challenges alone, convinced that asking for help was a sign of weakness.
Maybe that had been another mistake.
"Alright," he said. "If you're all crazy enough to help me prepare for this, I'm grateful enough to accept."
"Good," Hiroshi said, pulling out a fresh piece of paper and beginning to write. "Because we're going to need all the help we can get. Four days to turn a amateur into someone who can survive in the ring with a trained fighter. It's not impossible, but it's going to require everything we've got."
"What's our first step?" Kai asked.
"Our first step is figuring out exactly what we're up against. Daichi's trained at Elite Boxing Academy, which means he'll have specific strengths and weaknesses based on their program. Tomorrow I'm going to make some calls, see what I can learn about their training methods."
"And what do I do?"
"You rest. Tomorrow we start training like your life depends on it, because in a very real sense, it does. This weekend you're going to step into that ring with someone who wants to hurt you, and the only thing standing between you and serious injury is going to be what we manage to teach you in the next ninety-six hours."
Hiroshi's words hung in the air like a challenge, and for a moment Kai felt the full weight of what he'd committed himself to. But alongside the fear was something else—anticipation, determination, and the growing conviction that he was finally moving in the right direction.
In his previous life, he'd spent ten years watching from the sidelines. This time, he was going to be in the center of the action, for better or worse.
The only question now was whether four days would be enough to keep him alive long enough to make a difference.