"I dont rob children"

The room was pitch black, and my eyes were wet with sweat. The feel of the bandage on her hand and the smell of her cigar choked me, and I gradually lost consciousness. All I could hear was distorted screams.

“Finish it, Hajime!”

"Don't lose to that kid, Kane."

“It’s you and me outside of Kane, don’t lose this!”

"Hajime, if I run out of money, I'll steal all your shoes!" Many voices echoed, and I forgot where I was, until I heard a familiar voice among the distorted screams.

"The battle is over, Hajime. You have school in the morning." I realized where I was: the underground martial arts ring. When I came out of my trance, I saw my opponent standing in front of me, energetic and dejected, uttering words that were almost inaudible.

"Are you done yet?" I raised my hands, preparing for the next attack. I caught him in the jaw with a right hook, and we started exchanging blows until I slammed him to the ground. The crowd roared as my eyes stopped and my face began to heat up. I moved around a bit and found myself sitting in the back seat of the car.

"There's someone in the back seat!" a girl shouted from outside. As I looked up to find the source, the voice crept up on me. Flowing gray hair and a rapid cooling sensation awaited before darkness fell.

"Who?" I woke up in a cold sweat with a bag of melted ice in my hands. As I bent forward, the wad of bills fell into my lap. After putting it in the drawer, I went to check on my mother in the other room and found that her mother was still sleeping. She was lying with an empty medicine bottle next to her.

"When I got home, Mr. Saito carried you to your room."

"Mom, it's nothing. Please lie down, and I'll prepare breakfast." After wrapping the wound loosely, I made breakfast and headed out the door.

When I checked my mail, I found an envelope with a familiar address from overseas. I tore it up and went to school.

"Hey, Hajime, it's starting to snow, so maybe you should buy a better coat." This is Koichi Sasaki, one of my closest friends. He is a second-year high school student like me. He has his hair slicked back and wears glasses.

"I'll buy it after school." He ran to catch up with me.

"Okay, I'll go with you. Also, buy a matching trench coat."

"I'm thinking of buying a winter coat."

"Come on, you'll look so cool in your matching coats! Don't worry about losing votes anyway. I think we got into another fight last night."

"Is that obvious?"

"You've taken care of a nasty wound. I'm sure she'll notice when she sees you."

“How's writing going for you?” His face went flat.

“Just fine, actually. I'm almost done with my new project. I will let you read it once I find a publisher.” It sounded like he hadn't made any progress.

“Has smoking helped?”

“It's not supposed to help the way you think. It's just to feel more like a writer. It's similar to how bodybuilders buy tight clothes and baby oil to look the part.”

“Hey, guys, wait up!” It was Aoi Tanaka. She is another second year in the same school.

“Hajime, what happened to your face.” Before I could answer, Sasaki answered for me.

“He got into a fight over the weekend. Someone tried to mug him.” She pulled my face down to hers and inspected it.

“You did a horrible job taking care of it! Come over to my place after school so I can patch it up properly.”

“It's fine. I doubt you could do a better job than me.” Sasaki stepped in to make things worse again.

“That's because it's not for you, it's for her to feel better.” She looked stunned then turned towards him with an annoyed look.

“How's your publishing going?” I decided to get him back for what he said earlier.

“Apparently it's been going great ever since he started smoking.”

“You did what!”

“Damnit Hajime, you knew I wasn't going to tell her.”

“So you weren't going to tell me about it!” She began to pat him down as if she was searching for contraband in prison.

“Why would I bring any to school?”

“I know your type! After a long day at work, you smoke a little for the stress.” She emptied his bag and managed to find them.

“So now you're grouping me in with suits? I do it to feel like a better writer. All the famous ones do it."

“I'm amazed at how far you go to feel like a writer.” She threw them into some bushes, and Sasaki’s face didn't change. Once she realized he wasn't moved by it, she went to the bush and emptied them into the trash bin.

“Come on, Tanaka, you didn't have to go that far.” She looked at him with an angry expression.

“You were going to come back for them after school, weren't you?” Then proceeded to pour a bottle of water into the trash bin. He took a deep breath and changed the subject.

“Anyway, I and Hajime were talking about getting matching coats for the winter.”

“I think that would look cool! We could all have matching trench coats.” So this is what he meant by I will lose the vote.

“It's settled then we can go right after school.”

“First we have to go over to your place, Sasaki.” His face turned into stone.

“Don't worry all we will be doing is going through everything you own to make sure you don't have any more cancer sticks.” His plan to change the subject failed.

When we got to school, almost everyone was grouped into one segment of the hall. There was a new girl who just transferred in. While we were making our way towards the class, everyone was moving out of my way while staring at the wounds on my face, each having a different rumor to spread about how I got them. Once we made our way through the crowd, two guys approached me.

“Hajime, it looks like they're back again. I can't stand the two of them.” The two students were Makoto Yamada and Kazuki Arai, both 2nd years. They were known delinquents in our school, but no one seemed to ever stand up to them. The problem is, they're always trying to recruit me.

“Damn, Hajime, every time I see you you're banged up. You must really be a soldier.”

“I just managed to attract trouble.”

“Well, so you know if you rolled with my group you wouldn't have to fight alone anymore. We plan on hanging out on our usual spot today, so swing by if you have nothing better to do.” Tanaka stepped in front of me.

“Sorry, but the three of us planned to go shopping today.” Yamada jumped into the conversation.

“Oh, it's Hajime's puppy, Aoi. I hope you're doing well today.”

“Sasaki, are you going to let him call me a puppy?” Sasaki rolled his shoulders in agreement.

“Calm down, he just meant that you're

really cute and I can agree.” While the three of them were going back and forth, I peeked my head into the classroom to see a girl with long white hair and blue eyes. There were tons of people around her trying to get a word in, but when she looked toward me, our eyes locked for what felt like hours. She began to stand up. Before I could step into the room and speak to her, Tanaka grabbed my arm and pulled me to class.

“Come on, Hajime, I'm done talking to these guys.” She forgot to bring Sasaki with us.

“Are you another one of Hajime's friends?”

“Yeah, but I'm closer to a mutt.”

“I see.”

“I know Aoi is a solid 8.”

“Your friend Aoi is a solid 8.” I looked back to see if he was ok, and Sasaki was clasping hands with Yamada. Once he caught up with us, he heard an earful from Tanaka before we separated into different classes. As I walked in, I ran into my teacher and counselor, Miss Mitsuru.

"More battle scars?"

"I just attract trouble, ma'am."

"See me after school, Hajime." When I went to see her, she seemed annoyed, even though she was the one who set up the meeting.

"Thanks to you, I missed out on what could have been a wonderful date between a beautiful young teacher and a company CEO."

"Didn't you tell me to come here?"

"Yes, because I'm good at my job. I won't make any assumptions because I'm not responsible for what you do out of school, but whatever it is, you won't stop if I told you too, would you?" I shook my head silently. She let out a loud sigh.

"I thought that might be your answer. You come to school beat up often, meaning whatever's going on is unavoidable. Seeing that your hands are bruised too, it looks like you're not trying to avoid it." Her face went from worried to frustrated as she sifted through the possibilities.

"I swear I hate being a teacher."

"Why did you become a teacher if you hate it so much?"

"Because I'm good at my job. Also, stand up a little." I did what she said, not knowing what was going to happen next.

"OWW." The coach of the soccer team came storming in with two other teachers behind him.

"Is everything okay, Aoki?" As he said that, he was staring straight at me, daring me to move an inch.

"Yes, we tried to stand up at the same time."

"Be more careful, Hajime." It's almost like I'm in the wrong.

"If you need anything, I will be in the other room." They slowly walked off while staring at me.

"Not to mention I get special treatment for being a pretty, young, and defenseless teacher. Now, do me a favor and stay out of trouble, because nine times out of nine it circles back to my line of responsibility."

Sasaki and Tanaka were waiting for me outside the school.

“Ok, so first we're going to stop by my place to get Hajime fixed up. After that, we can go shopping for jackets, then search Sasaki’s entire home and street for cancer sticks until 1 in the morning.”

“Sorry, but could we do this another day? I have a lot of errands to run, and I don't want to hold you guys back.” Before Tanaka could go against it, Sasaki stood up for me.

“No worries, man. If you have things to do, go ahead, and we won't stop you, right Tanaka?”

“Yeah, it would be wrong for us to get in the way of your responsibilities.” Sasaki is pretty much the only person I've talked to about my home situation and how I make money, so he understands why I need to go alone. Tanaka, on the other hand, I keep in the dark.

I had to go and buy a new coat, get medicine for my mom, and have food for the week. When I was going to get groceries, I noticed a car was following me. I chose to keep a close eye on it while traversing in crowded places. They trailed me almost the whole day. I went to an alleyway and made sure I had a way out. Two guys got out of the car and followed me. I dropped my bags and turned towards them to see the man I fought yesterday and an old guy. Usually, the night after a fight, the loser comes looking for his money back.

“Hello, Hajime. We noticed that you were walking around today and decided to pay you a visit. We asked Mr. Saito to grant a rematch between you and Kane, but he saw no profit in a fight for honor instead of money.”

“So you came to me instead.”

“Well, you were born with free will. You brought disrespect to my fighter here, and he wants to win it back fair and square.” I've met these types of guys before. They pretend to want a rematch when they just want their money back. I've already spent most of what was on me, but that won't stop them. I went into a fighting stance and let the first guy approach me. We both still had wounds from yesterday, but he seemed full of energy and refreshed. He threw the first punch. His attacks were fast and heavy, so blocking them still hurt. After a few blows to the core, I started to fight back. His form was almost perfect, and his counters were fast and decisive. I went off of defense and full offense. He didn't guard, though. I remembered why he was so difficult to beat. He based his fighting style fully on counters and attacks with little defense. The direction of the change to whoever could dodge and take the most attacks while dishing out the most damage. He didn't go for my face, though. It was only body shots and leg kicks. I realized what his plan was. He wanted to break my spirit. I took this opportunity to stop guarding my face. When I did, the first thing I saw was a strong jab to the face, and I stumbled to the ground.

“Good job on winning back your honor, Kane, and my money.” His whole plan was to lower my guard to get one solid hit in. I lay in the snow accepting my defeat. When the man reached into my pocket, my opponent grabbed his arm and threw him back and spoke in a whisper.

“I don't remember putting any money up on this fight. And I don't rob kids.” He leaned down to me and reached into my pocket.

“For your troubles, go buy me a coffee on me.” As they left, I began standing up holding my face. He really did get a good hit in. Before going home, I went to the store to get the coffee I was promised. When I got there, I saw the girl with the white hair drinking a coffee in front of the store wearing an apron.

“Hey, are you the new girl?” Before I could finish my sentence, she walked up to me and took a close look at my face. Her face was red from the cold.

“These bruises look new.” She began to inspect my face before looking down embarrassed.

“Sorry! The cold was getting to me, and I thought you were someone else. I wanted to get a closer look when I saw

you at school this morning, but you left in a hurry.”

“It's fine, but aren't you new around here?”

“Oh yes, I just moved here last week. My name is Emi.”

“So what's your name?”

“It's Akira Hajime.”

"Sorry for thinking you were someone else. Now I'm back to square one with my dad."

"What do you mean?"

"A couple of years ago my dad quit his job. The problem was he was spending money like water. He told me and my mom that he was trading stocks, but that's not what it looked like. After a while, they got into a huge fight, and my mom moved me across the country. I told my mom that I wanted to finish school in my hometown when really I wanted to know what my dad was hiding. The only clue I have was that some guy was beaten up in the back seat of his car yesterday." I realized I didn't see her in a dream.

"Wait, are you?" Someone began to knock on the window. It was the owner of the store, Ms. Shikimori.

“Akira, when did you get here?”

“I just came by to get some coffee before I headed home.”

“How's your mother? Is she doing better yet?” I held up my bag of medicine.

“I understand. Well, thanks for giving my worker company, but her break is over.”

“I'm sorry! I didn't realize I was out here for so long.” She rushed back into the store but peeked her head out the door one more time.

“Make sure to say hi to me at school tomorrow!” And waved at me before Shikimori pulled her back into the store.

As I walked back home, I crossed a bridge to see Sasaki waiting for me on the bridge. He had a worried expression on his face, holding a bag. I knew what this was about. But I didn't know how to respond to him.

“Kane, you're never gonna survive in this business without making your money back every once in a while. This way even when you lose I can still win in the end. That's what keeps food on the table for both of us.” Kane began to unravel the bandage on his hands.

“Don't act like what you were trying to do was justified, old man.”

It doesn't matter how good of a hunter you are. If you don't eat your share, you're going to starve. Since Saito wants to bring young blood into the ring, we will do the same.”

“You're letting me go?” He began to re-wrap his hands in the bandage.

“You're scary when angry, you know that. I and you both know that you went easy on the kid at first. So I lined up a fighter around the same age, and you will be training him. That should be ok with you. Make sure to discipline him well too. He's a rowdy one.”

“Are his parents ok with this? I've already told you that I'm a fighter, not a criminal. I draw the line at kidnapping.”

“How about relaxing a little? From what I know, he doesn't have any. He's a local delinquent and a pretty good fighter untrained.”

“Fine, I accept under the condition that he goes to school. Fighting isn't the only road to a good life.”

“Your moral compass pisses me off sometimes. Don't worry about that. If it makes you feel any better, I'll even enroll him in a private school."