After the school ended Ichiro led Kenshin towards the gym. As Kenshin already told about becoming a pro boxer and his parents agreed to it, so Kenshin asked Ichiro to let him join his(Ichiro's) gym. Ichiro said that a newcomer had come a few days before Kenshin and he has a lot of potentials to be his rival in the future and they will have a match in 6 months.
Hearing this Kenshin thought, "It must be because of my interference that Ichiro is a level above that he used to be in the manga or anime, so Boss asked the rematch to be in 6 months rather than in 3 months". In these few years, Ichiro had fought with Kenshin sometimes as Kenshin always teased him saying "shorty" and all. So, in these fights, Ichiro always looses badly even though Kenshin fight with him seriously. So to beat Kenshin, Ichiro trained harder than usual.
"Don't underestimate anybody Ichiro. Remember your father's career also ended due to a small underestimation", Kenshin gave Ichiro a piece of friendly advice.
"I know, you don't need to tell me that you manwhore. His punches are really hard if a few of those hit me, then I will be out cold", replied Ichiro.
"Okay, I can give you the advice to increase your strength in 6 months. Wear metal bracers of about 1kg in your arms and legs and do the normal practice. By the end of 6 months you will see a substantial increase in power and speed", said Kenshin.
"Okay, I will see to it. Now let's enter the gym", said Ichiro and they entered the gym.
When they entered the gym, it was full of people who were punching sandbags or doing various other things.(As it is the evening time- the busiest time of the day).
Even though Kenshin's face was calm and emotionless as he has been fighting life and death battle in the underground among huge crowd, underneath the emotionless face, various emotions were bubbling as he was a fan of the anime and always wanted to see a gym like this. But soon he controlled his emotion and followed Ichiro towards the Boss's office.
"Who is that guy behind Miyata"
"I don't know, but he seems to be pretty arrogant for a newcomer"
"He didn't even greet us"
"Hehehe.. we will have to show him some discipline then"
"But he is tall, he is taller than Takamura-san"
"Being Tall is nothing to show off.
Few people in the crowd began discussing Kenshin after he left with Ichiro.
"Kimura do you know, who that guy is", Aoki asked Kimura.
"Who knows, Boss will probably introduce him to us", said Kimura.
"Miyata-Kun knows him?", said Ippo.
"Hehehe, he is taller than Takamura-san, probably stronger than", said Aoki.
"You shouldn't say something like this Aoki-san", said Ippo.
Kimura was about to say anything when Aoki and Kimura heard a voice behind them.
"Who is stronger than me. Come on speak up you two", said Takamura while choking Aoki's and Kimura's neck.
"No no, Takamura-san, Ichiro brought a guy who was really tall. And he seems to be pretty strong", said Kimura while struggling to break free from Takamura's clutches.
As this was going on, Ichiro and Takamura entered Boss's office. Kamogawa-san and Yagi-chan looked at Kenshin who was behind Ichiro.
"Is this the guy you talked about Miyata-Kun", said Yagi-chan.
"Yes, he is the one I talked about", said Ichiro.
"You want to join this gym kid", asked Boss.
"Yes Boss, I want to enter pro boxing through your gym. And moreover, I am a big fan of you as I heard you defeated some American boxer during your time", said Kenshin plainly.
"No need to flatter kid, Tell me in which category do you want to fight", said the Boss
"I want to fight in Super heavyweight category", said Kenshin.
"Oooh, kid dreaming for super heavyweight from the get go. Yo sure have guts but it's very difficult" , said Boss Kamogawa
"I still want to try and I have confidence to win it" ,said Kenshin with a confident face.
"Okay kid, get ready and come to the ring in 10 minutes.We will see how much ability you have to back your confidence", said Boss Kamogawa.
After about 10 minutes Kenshin came out wearing sports pants and T-shirts along with Boxing shoes in his feet and Boxing gloves in his fist. He was also wearing 6kg bracelets in both arms and legs, but he covered it with bandages so nobody will notice it unless they pay attention to it.
As soon as Kenshin came out of the locker room, every person in the gym was looking at him. In the center ring, Takamura was wearing his gloves while looking at Kenshin's direction. (It is worth mentioning that every person looks the same as in the anime). Kenshin thought, "So, Boss Kamogawa wanted to use Takamura to measure my strength. That's fine by me".
"Old man, is he the one I will fight with", said Takamura while looking at Kenshin as he was trying to guess his power.
"Yes Takamura, don't underestimate him. My instinct tells me that he is stronger than you, so fight well or you might lose your winning record to a newbie", said Kamogawa smilingly.
"I will lose to a newbie? Old man if you want to make me angry then you have succeeded", said Takamura.
"Oye Oye it's bad. Takamura-san is angry now. The newbie is in trouble", said Kimura looking at the stage.
"It will be nice if Takamura-san loses. I will be sure to make fun of him", said Aoki while laughing evilly.
"You shouldn't say those things behind Takamura-san's back Aoki-san. Miyata Kun, who is he? Will he be okay? He is fighting with Takamura-san you know", said Ippo.
"Yes Miyata, who is the newbie", asked both Kimura and Aoki at the same time.
"He is my classmate from High School", said Ichiro looking at the ring.
"Ooo, so he is a High School student like Ippo and you, then he is dead for sure", said Aoki.
"That's not sure, Kenshin is practicing boxing since he is 5 years old. I am not sure but he is going to underground fights to gain experience. So I am not sure, who will win", said Ichiro. (Ichiro may be stronger but his personality is still the same).
"Underground Fights?", said both Aoki and Kimura at the same time. They both have a shock written on their faces. Looking at their shock, Ippo got confused and asked, "What is an underground fight?"
"Underground Fights took place in almost all around the world, where many dangerous people come and fight for money. They don't even hesitate to kill their opponents. It's like a life or death match. SO you see, it's very dangerous", said Kimura while Aoki nodded.
"Then doesn't that mean Kenshin-san is very dangerous", said Ippo.
"He must be strong. It will be a nice match", said Kimura. Ichiro didn't say anything and kept looking at the ring.
In the ring, Kenshin looked at Takamura who have not worn protective wear in his head, so out of politeness he said, "Please wear your protective helmet otherwise you will not last long".
"You said I am not going to last long. I will sure beat the hell out of you. You newbie", Takamura who was angry got even angrier. Hearing this Kenshin just nodded and said, "Okay".
Hearing the conversation, the crowd was going mad as they have seen Takamura's power. Now they were pitying the arrogant newbie.
"Oye Oye Miyata, isn't your friend pretty arrogant to say that to Takamura-san", said Aoki.
"Hmmmm… No. For Kenshin this was politeness", said Ichiro while sighing.
Boss Kamogawa looked at this and instructed them to start the match while one of the trainers act as a referee. The referee went inside the ring and asked them to take a fighting pose. Takamura took a normal orthodox stance while Kenshin was just standing there without taking any pose. Then the referee started the match.
As soon as the match began, Takamura dashed towards Kenshin and punched him with a barrage of Jabs and crosses (one-two). But Kenshin easily dodged all of them. Takamura continues to punch Kenshin and led him to a corner.
"Newbie's is dead now"
"This match is finished"
The crowd began discussing among themselves. In the entire gym, only two people didn't believe that the match is over as they looked at Kenshin's calm face.
Beyond the expectation of the crowd when Takamura punched, Kenshin dodged that punch by bending his body in an unimaginable angle and then used his quick feet to dash to the center of the ring. Takamura was about to punch when he saw that there is nobody in front of him. He quickly turned around and put up his guard.
Takamura has just put on his guard on his face when a quick jab fell on his body. Kenshin then turned around and walked towards the corner of the ring.