Neal woke up from his short nap, and as he looked around the infirmary, he noticed that Kiernan had disappeared.
With a frown, he sat up, got off his bed as the healing medication had done its work, and left the infirmary to search for him.
Since the match hadn't been too far ago, there were some people lingering in the hallways, and as they saw Neal, they nodded to him and congratulated him.
Neal replied to the strangers, feeling odd, as this was the first time that strangers would go out of their way to greet him.
He brushed past the strangers, and at that moment, he saw one of the infirmary rooms opening, and from there, Travis, with his friends, walked out.
At that moment, they saw Neal walking towards them, and they all had different reactions to seeing him.
Travis' friends looked away and wanted to just leave, but Travis, on the other hand, stood still, and even while Neal walked past him, he didn't do anything.
Neal's heart beat rapidly against his chest, hoping that they wouldn't suddenly attack him, but as he walked further away, he turned back and saw them walking in a completely different direction.
It was like they didn't want to deal with him.
'That way doesn't lead to the exit. Do they just not want to be anywhere close to me?'
Neal thought to himself in surprise and realized that they were actually afraid of him!
After they all saw his final blow that was capable of exploding his boxing glove, they didn't want to have anything to do with him!
His phone buzzed out of nowhere, and he saw that the notification was from his school's app. When he looked at it, he noticed that the ranking had changed!
[4. Travis Lukansmith]
"I… I am ranked third?!"
Neal couldn't believe his eyes and forgot that they were also fighting for the third-ranked position in the rankings.
He pocketed his phone and continued his search for Kiernan, wanting to show him the current rankings.
However, when he arrived at the arena, he noticed that it was empty, as all the matches had concluded for today.
"Where could he be…?"
"Are you looking for someone?"
A sweet, heavenly voice came from behind him, and with wide eyes, Neal turned around to see Katherina looking at him, blinking gently with a soft smile on her face.
When she blinked, her long eyelashes fluttered gracefully, and after opening her eyes after the short blink, her ocean-blue eyes sparkled like a beautiful ocean.
Neal's throat turned dry, but after gathering his courage, he said.
"I… I am just looking for Kiernan, my coach. Have you seen him anywhere?"
"Him? I saw him leave the arena in quite a hurry. I don't know where he went after that."
Neal frowned in confusion and hoped that he would've at least waited for him, but he expected to see him back at the boxing gym.
Katherina bashfully smiled and took her phone out with its bunny-eared case that looked cute with its pink color scheme.
"May I get your number? My parents wanted to ask what baked goods you'd like to eat, but since they didn't see you after the match, they asked me to ask you."
Neal gave her his number and felt like he was on cloud nine, but he also wanted to ask.
"Why would they ask that?"
"They really liked your fight, so they'd like to congratulate you in person and give something to you as well. Would you be interested in meeting with them?"
Neal answered with a smile.
Katherina sweetly smiled and then skipped away with her blond ponytail swaying behind her like a golden silk ribbon.
Neal calmed down his racing heartbeat and then looked out of the window towards the bright sun that filtered through the Redwood tree's enormous branches.
With sweat falling down to the gravel ground, nearly a hundred martial arts students punched the air as if it was their only purpose.
"Punch! Punch! Punch!"
The crude, scar-faced instructor of the dojo smacked his wooden staff against his hand and watched his student's punching stances.
He smacked a student's shoulder and corrected their form. Despite the smack hurting, the student swallowed the pain and kept punching.
The dojo behind him was five stories high, with traditional Japanese architecture and a peaceful garden in the back.
It didn't have walls on the bottom floor, only open doors and sliding screens. From the second to the fifth floor, the walls were lined with wooden paneling thatechoed the sounds of fists hitting punching bags and feet shuffling on the mats.
It was open to the sky, with a large skylight at the top providing natural light, and had a lot of space to have all students living there comfortably.
It was Yokai Dojo of Dusk Town.
With a sweeping brush in hand, Junior Instructor Tanaka swept the ground diligently of all of its leaves.
This was one of the few chores that he had to do, but they usually made the students do it.
However, they didn't have enough time in these next few weeks, as they were practicing for a tournament held between several dojos.
Dusk Town was a town of dojos, and it had about ten different ones, with people from all around the country coming here to learn.
They were going to fight for the title of the strongest dojo!
At that moment, someone knocked on the gate.
"Who could it be this late?"
Tanaka, with the sweeping brush in hand, walked over to the gate and opened it wide enough to see an unfamiliar face staring back at him.
"I am Junior Instructor Tanaka of Yokai Dojo. Who are you, and what do you want?"
"My name's Kiernan Hunter. I heard you're looking for someone to do all the chores around here, and I'd like to get the job."
Kiernan said with a smile.