Chapter 4. Projects, Otakus, and Forgiveness. Part 1: Friends!

Alex let out a quick sigh, as he heard the knock at the wooden Dojo door. He also heard the familiar voices of his friends Daizen, Hiroto, and Fuzumi. Alex let in a deep breath, He began to prepare to open the door and let his friends in. He was nervous, he began to think of different scenarios, he thought what if they don’t forgive him or what if they have hate for him, but then he thought of all his memories they had together from middle school. They were all Otakus just like him and since they all got made fun of, they all stuck together. He breathes out as he then slowly reaches for the wooden dojo door handle, he puts his hand on the wood handle, but before he slides it, he breathes in and out one last time.

“Just apologize, Alex.”

Alex said to himself.

Alex just quickly forced himself to open the door, he used all his muscle strength to slide the dojo door very quickly and opened it outright. When he slid the door opened and as soon as Alex saw Daizen, Fuzumi and Hiroto he instantly got onto his knees. He put his head down as a form of a bow. His face was facing the ground as he was on the floor. He began to yell loudly making sure all his friends could hear him.

“I’m sorry!”

Daizen, Fuzumi, and Hiroto all in unison began to look down at Alex bowing in confusion. They all looked at each other in confusion as they all asked Alex the same question multiple times at the same time.

“Huh?”

Fuzumi, Daizen, and Hiroto all said in a comedic way, they were all confused on why Alex said sorry. They had never heard him being serious or even saying sorry for anything.

Alex’s body would shake as his face was facing the floor. He was afraid to speak because he was afraid of his answer, but he knew he couldn’t just sit there so he decided to speak. He moved his head upward as he looked Daizen in his eyes. Alex's facial expression was a bit sad but at the same time very serious. At this moment he would usually cry but since he already cried beforehand only a few minutes ago he didn’t want to. He began to speak as he looked Daizen in his eyes, but at the same time somewhat maintained eye contact with his other friends.

“I’m sorry for hitting you with the ball and sending you to the nurse’s office.”

Alex bit his lip hard and he did this as he began to get a bit emotional. He waited for Daizen’s response, biting his lip harder as he cringed.

“I’m a terrible friend! You’re my friend and I hit you with a ball when you were trying to help your friend. I sent you to the nurses Daizen!”

Fuzumi, Daizen, and Hiroto looked down at Alex, they never saw Alex on the brink of crying. Alex was always happy and cracking jokes.

Daizen slowly walked over to Alex, he looked down at him as he suddenly took a deep breath in. Alex looked at him confused-eyed, he wondered what Daizen was going to say. Daizen stood over Alex for a few seconds with a deep smile then went onto his face, he put his right arm backward by his side as he looked at Alex, and then as soon as he put his arm to his side a fast movement was made. Alex and everyone else didn’t notice until the action was made because Daizen was just that fast. Daizen quickly punched Alex on the top of his head. The knuckles of his fist hit Alex’s head so hard that it made a thumping sound.

Alex let out a loud shriek in pain as he quickly got up facing Daizen, his pain quickly evaporated as he soon got up. A tear rolled down his cheek as his sadness that he had previously turned into pure rage and annoyance. He yelled at Daizen looking for a reason why he was hit by him.

“Hey what the hell man what was that for?!”

Alex said loudly, trying to hold himself back from hitting Daizen back.

Daizen looked at Alex with a somewhat angry face as he replied towards Alex.

“Stop acting all mushy! This is how you act when you finally beat me in something?”

Daizen said towards Alex with great anger and loudness in his voice, He knew that Alex was feeling bad by how he was acting now. So he decided to pretend like his injury didn't bother him. He also knew this was the first time Alex had won at something against him, Daizen would usually have some condensing tone and look when he would win so he didn’t think it was fair to make Alex feel bad.

Alex still looked at him with anger and confusion.

“What do you mean mushy idiot! I’m trying to apologize!”

“Apologize for what? You won Alex you should be happy! Hey and Don’t call me an idiot, idiot.”

“But I hurt you, hey I’m no idiot you’re the idiot!”

“No, you are!”

“No, you are!”

“No, you are!”

Alex and Daizen began to eventually argue back and forth. It wasn’t anything serious, it was more of a friendly argument between friends. They are boys after all so of course, they would have disagreements and arguments, but it seems the emotion and mushiness had disappeared between the two. They were now just arguing and insulting each other.

All the other students in the Kendo Club like Toroma, Hiroto and Fuzumi were all having different opinions and emotions about what was going on between Alex and Daizen.

Toroma and Fuzumi were mostly laughing and giggling at the two boys calling each other idiots. Toroma was a bit happy for Alex since he already knew previously that Alex was feeling bad so he felt good knowing that the feeling of sadness from Alex had disappeared for the time being.

Hiroto being the condescending one, was just pushing up his glasses with his middle finger. He wanted to put on a serious and cool act so he pretended not to be amused by Daizen and Alex.

“You're all idiots.”

Hiroto said under his breath rather loudly.

Alex, still arguing with Daizen, loudly somehow heard Hiroto talking behind him. He instantly stopped arguing with Daizen and then looked towards Hiroto as he began to yell in a comedic way.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY!”

Daizen’s facial expression turned from one of anger to one of amusement. He watched Alex as he saw him run towards Hiroto and hit him on the head.

Hiroto got mad and due to him always trying to act serious all he held in his anger for a few seconds. His face then got red as anger filled him, he yelled toward Alex.

Then suddenly out of nowhere laughing could be heard, it was very loud and distinct of who it was coming from. It was Daizen he pointed towards Alex and Hiroto he began to laugh at them but it wasn’t only them he was laughing at. He also was laughing at himself for being so stupid, tears began to fall from his tears as he laughed harder.

“We are so fucking stupid.”

When those words exited Daizen’s mouth, something in Alex’s and Hiroto’s brain clicked. All their anger somewhat vanished as they began to laugh loudly. Alex was laughing and was somewhat crying at the situation. He began to agree with Daizen as he laughed and talked to Daizen. He was laughing hard as he realized how ridiculous the situation was. They legit started an argument over hitting and calling each other idiots.

“We legit started an argument over calling each other idiots, we’re all idiots!”

Hiroto let his serious attitude go as he began to laugh as well. He always wanted to put on a smart guy attitude but since he was with his closest friends he could let his true goofy self come out. He spoke towards

“I know, we are such dumbasses!”

Everyone in the room was continuing to laugh, They couldn’t help it. The situation was just hilarious to them all, Including Toroma and Fuzumi. After about five minutes Fuzumi cleared her throat loudly to get everyone’s attention. Toroma, Alex, Hiroto, and Daizen looked towards Fuzumi as she began to speak. Fuzumi walked into the middle of everyone as he spoke.

“Anyways, enough lollygagging. We came here to do the project, right?”

Toroma then looked at Fuzumi as he walked up to her and began to speak as well.

“Oh yeah, you and Hiroto have the same project as me and Alex right?”

Fuzumi replied.

“Yeah, we do.”

Toroma then continued to speak.

“Hmmm, you said earlier in lunch we should work on the project together, we should get supplies right?”

Alex then walked up to both Toroma and Fuzumi and tapped his chin.

“Where should we get supplies, and if we are doing the project then why is Daizen here?!”

Alex said simultaneously as he pointed his index finger at Daizen.

Fuzumi smiled as she replied in a teasing tone.

“Oh well he’s done the project before, he’s a tenth grader so he can help us with it since he’s done it before!”

Alex nodded his head.

“Alright then, so what Japanese Island are you guys doing?”

Fuzumi looked towards Hiroto as they both spoke in unison.

“We decided on Ishigaki Island.”

Alex nodded quickly as he then shifted his body towards everyone else in the room, he tried to make eye contact with everyone as he spoke loudly.

“Where should we head to get the supplies?”

Fuzumi tapped her chin as an idea popped into her head, she teasingly yelled loudly expressing her cherry energy.

“Hmm, well I do need some new shoes! How about we go shopping! We can get the supplies and get some new outfits!”

Daizen stepped into the conversation, as he spoke toward Fuzumi asking a quick question.

“Where would we go shopping?”

Hiroto walked up to Daizen using his middle finger to push up his blue glasses.

“We can go to Kamo mall, I heard they just opened it. It's a new mall.”

Daizen nodded.

“That sounds fine.”

Toroma was just standing there quietly, he wasn’t as friendly with Daizen, Hiroto, and Fuzumi so he wasn’t as talkative. Toroma wanted to say something, he wanted to ask something out of all of them, but he was too shy. He looked up then back down, stopping himself from talking.

Alex was gazing around the room like he usually does, he spotted Toroma, and his shyness, and recognized it from earlier. He felt bad for him because he is also an introverted person, so when Toroma looked back up he made a thumbs up and showed it toward Toroma for some inspiration.

Toroma saw this and instantly smiled and was somehow inspired by Alex and began to talk loudly as he asked everyone a question making sure to talk loud, so everyone could pay attention to him. He yelled as his face began to turn red from shyness.

“Hey! Before we go to the mall d-do you guys want to do a quick kendo match? I wanna 1v1 you guys just for fun!”

Fuzumi, Hiroto, and Daizen all looked at each other to gauge each other's reactions. They were all quite wondering what to say.

Alex wasn’t good at reading rooms since he was a socially awkward otaku, but he could read his friends. He saw their lack of reactions and decided to encourage them to do it.

“We should do it guys, Kendo is fun. Think about it just like anime sword fights!”

Hiroto let out an exaggerated sigh, so he then spoke up.

“Sure I’d be down.”

Daizen then came out of nowhere and spoke as well.

“I mean, I like all exercises. I’d be down too!”

Fuzumi not wanting to be left out of anything she spoke up and also agreed to play.

“I’m not very strong, you idiots! B-but I guess I’ll play too.”

Toroma brightly and innocently smiled as he was happy that everyone was going to sword fight with him. He instantly walked over to a closet that was in the kendo room and pulled out another wooden sword. He picked up a second sword that was on the room floor from before. He then looked towards everyone and began to explain the rules of the sword fight.

“Since you guys don’t understand Kendo, we won’t be doing Kendo. We’ll just be doing basic sword fighting, so this is how we are gonna play, we are gonna be using wooden swords. You guys should go back if you're not participating, so when we play we have more space.”

Everyone other than Toroma in the room backed up while Toroma continued to explain. They all sat down on their butts forming a mini crowd.

Toroma said simultaneously putting the two swords in his hand up high in the air. He continued to speak about the rules. He backed up into space in the

“So if we are gonna try to hit each other with the swords, whoever makes the other person drop their sword wins. We can hit each other everywhere except the face, seems simple enough right? So, anyone wanna volunteer to go first?”

Alex, Fuzumi, Daizen, and Hiroto looked at each other once again looking to gauge each other's reactions.

Daizen attempted to step up towards and accept the challenge, but before he did Alex quickly stepped forward walking very quickly. Alex then yelled at Toroma quickly accepting the challenge.

“I’ll go first!”

Daizen quickly got mildly angered as he looked at Alex wondering why he stopped him from going first, He then voiced his opinions.

“Hey what the hell man! You saw that I was gonna go first!”

Alex let out a sigh as he continued to walk forward looking towards Toroma, he ignored Daizen’s angry remark. Daizen’s anger eventually left after a few seconds. Alex stepped right in front of Toroma putting his right arm in towards Toroma, this was a signal that he wanted the sword.

Toroma smirked as he was amazed at Alex’s random confidence, but before he handed Alex the sword he gave him a quick warning.

“Hey just because we are friends doesn’t mean I’m gonna go easy on you.”

Toroma said with a sinister smirk on his face, still holding the second in his hand.
Alex saw Toroma’s smirk and then instantly smirked at himself, Alex seemed to be somewhat more confident than he was before. A smile emerged revealing a sharp tooth in the back of his mouth. He then used his right hand that was still towards Toroma to grab the point of the sword. He used his strength to grip onto the point of the sword and then his speed to take it out of Toroma’s hands by pulling it. He flipped the sword in the air by the tip. It spun around for a few seconds and eventually fell, but before the sword touched the ground, Alex quickly gripped the sword with its grip and moved backward, still keeping his eyes on Toroma.

Once Alex was in a comfortable position he copied something he had seen in one of the many swords fighting anime he had seen. He put both his right and left hands on the grip of the sword, He faced the point of the sword toward Toroma as tried to keep a defensive position. He put his arms forward making the sword also be forward. He was going to stop at that but he wanted the sword practice fight to be spicier. He began to focus on wanting his body to grow stronger and he visualized it in his head. Like he did before, his body began to glow as a Black Aura began to surround the outlines of his body. He felt strengthened, the aura was lessened and was slimmer due to him using it multiple times today but at least he was now somewhat stronger. His eyes also once again had become black which filled his iris, pupils, and Sclera with an unnatural black glow. The glow also spread to the sword and little did Alex know the sword had become stronger from his glow spreading onto the sword.

“I won’t go easy on you either, Let’s take this seriously.”

Alex said toward Toroma giving him a belittling look, he shifted his head to the left and looked toward his friends that were grouped up together watching the fight in a corner by the kendo room door. Daizen, Fuzumi, and Hiroto didn’t seem to notice that Alex’s body, and eyes were now glowing. Alex noticed this and soon concluded that people who don’t have powers can’t see it. He didn’t look at his friends for too long though, after a few seconds he shifted his attention back onto Toroma.

Toroma smiled as he saw Alex use his aura, he instantly did the same and just like Alex, the aura covered Toroma’s body, but instead of the parts of his eyes turning black they turned white, in addition to that his aura that was surrounding his body was not black and was white. It had been a long time since he used his aura in a sword fight. A wooden sword just like Alex’s was in the left hand of Toroma, he then slowly began to run at Alex. He was fast, the wind blew fast as the air pressure in the room suddenly seemed to shift, and before Alex could react Toroma was by the side of Alex and began to slowly whisper in his ear.

“That was just a warning, next I’ll go for real.”

Toroma said a sinister smile as he slowly backed up a bit from Alex. It was a good enough distance and was equal to where he and Alex were standing.

“You ready?”

Alex was somehow shocked by Toroma’s sudden increase in speed, the people watching the fight were also shocked. But Daizen, Hiroto, and Fuzumi weren't going to ruin the fight and interrupt, but Daizen was smirking for a brief second but it quickly disappeared. Alex took a deep breath in, he was amazed by how fast he was. His facial expression turned into mere shock, but after a few seconds, he let the shock go and held his sword position once more.

“I’m ready If you are!”

Toroma nodded, as he then spoke.

“3,2,1 and NOW!”