As usual, Ryu woke up to the sound of his buzzing alarm clock. Fighting the urge to go back to bed, which was very strong, he got up and did his morning routine.
With that he said hello to his mother, who was home from work that day, and proceeded to head over to school.
Wham, he got slapped upside the head, by who he could only assume to be Kenzo.
"Damn, I thought Kenji took care of that jack wagon," Ryu thought to himself as he turned around to see Kenzo's familiar face. Although today he looked a lot rougher than normal, surrounding both of his pupils were black eyes, and his right eye was so swollen it almost looked as if it wasn't open at all.
All Ryu could think seeing Kenzo's face was, "Wow, good job Kenji you really showed him up." He was filled with admiration for his friend, who had demonstrated that he clearly cared about Ryu.
Because he had gained so much confidence, he retorted back to Kenzo's slap, saying, "Damn, looks like somebody rocked you yesterday, your eyes look like they hurt, buddy."
"Yeah, as a matter of fact I did get rocked, and I heard from a little birdy that you're the reason why, so when we have our bathroom meeting, you're gonna pay the price," said Kenzo.
"Well actually, you'll have to postpone that meeting indefinitely, I'm not showing up to your stupid bathroom conferences anymore, I hate to hurt your feelings, but I prefer to attend meetings held in a more, well clean, space," said Ryu.
"Alright then, I guess I'll just have to catch you outside of school," Kenzo said with a chuckle. "It might not be today or tomorrow, but one of these days when you're least expecting it, I'm going to give you a surprise," said Kenzo ominously, which was followed by him departing to class with a smile on his face.
"Well, that wasn't creepy at all," thought Ryu, "am I sure my bully isn't a serial killer?"
With that Ryu headed towards class, he realized that dealing with a bully was a lot easier and less frightening than he thought, but something told him that the incident in the bathroom over a week ago wasn't going to be the last time he felt one of Kenzo's punches.
As he entered class, he noticed that Kenji hadn't arrived yet. "Classic Kenji, he never misses a day but is always tardy," Ryu thought to himself. "I wonder what makes him tardy every day, I'll have to ask him sometime."
Waiting around a bit for Kenji to arrive, Mr. Ito stood at the front of the classroom standing and checking off attendance.
After about 5 minutes, Kenji still hadn't arrived, Mr. Ito, recognizing he had a job to do wasn't waiting anymore and started class.
Class went by for the day and Ryu tried to stay focused, but his mind couldn't help but wonder where Kenji was. Then he thought a little harder, "I wonder if he got suspended for the Kenzo incident, if so, that's horrible, I can't believe he risked his scholarships and grades for me."
With that Ryu stopped putting as much thought into it, as Mr. Ito was assigning homework and he had to pay attention.
After classes had ended, Kenzo didn't bother Ryu, which was odd, Ryu headed straight to the gym, following his normal routine. As he was about to cross the threshold of the gym's entrance Ryu thought to himself, "Quests". With that a system window popped up in front of his face.
[Quests]
[Daily Quest]
[Complete exercise requirements (incomplete)]
[Rewards: Stat Point]
[Time Limit: 1 Day]
"It seems as though the system has given up on creativity," Ryu thought to himself. He followed as the system commanded and did his daily task and proceeded to claim his singular stat point and invest it into agility, making that stat rise to 8.
After he finished with his workout someone started approaching him. It was a man that stood at around 5'10, had bulging muscles but they weren't big enough to hinder mobility, had a short black buzzcut, and was lined with tattoos.
"Hey, I go by Karasu or Raven, I just wanted to talk to you about something as I've seen you in the gym recently, and it seems you know a thing or two about fighting," said Raven.
"Sure, shoot your shot," said Ryu in response, his tone was inquisitive.
"So, I'm a recruiter for a, hmm…, let's call it a fighting team," said Raven. Raven continued with, "I wanted to see if you were interested in being recruited, if you join us, you'll have the chance to make a lot of money, and we'll take care of you as one of our, uhh…, fighters, yeah let's go with fighters."
Ryu felt that the man was acting sort of suspiciously, and asked him, "What type of fights will these be?"
Raven replied, "Man, you weren't supposed to ask that question, but they are underground cage matches, I know it sounds frightening, but barely anyone dies in them."
Ryu, allowing his ambitions to overrule his cautionary mindset, replied with a short and simple, "Sure, I'll do it, just tell me the time and place."
"Alright, tell me your number and I'll be in touch," said Raven, smiling as if he just got a golden goose egg, the man exuded a shady aura, but Ryu pretended as if he didn't notice.
"My number is XXX-XXX-XXXX," said Ryu, "Just shoot me a text and I'll be there."
"Alright, cya'," said Raven and he proceeded to walk out of the gym, not even finishing his workout.
"Well, that was shady as hell, but you know maybe having real opponents and an opportunity to lessen my mother's stress isn't such a bad thing," Ryu thought to himself as he cleaned up the last machine he used and started walking towards the entrance of the gym.
He left the gym and proceeded to return home to his apartment.