Thug King

Silence reigned in the dojo for a full minute after Kenji's departure. It was a sacred, stunned silence, the kind that follows a miracle or a natural disaster. The twenty members of the judo club remained in their seiza positions, their faces masks of disbelief. Their god had been toppled from his pedestal, not with disrespect, but with a terrifying, gentle precision that was more soul-crushing than any brutal defeat.

Finally, Maruyama Jiro, "The Bear," pushed himself into a sitting position. He stared at his own hands, then at the empty space where Kenji had stood. He had dedicated his entire life to the pursuit of strength through Judo. He had believed, with absolute conviction, that on the mat, his power was supreme.

In less than a minute, a boy in a school uniform had dismantled his life's philosophy.

"Captain!" one of his senior members finally broke the silence, rushing to his side. "Are you alright?"

Maruyama didn't answer. He was replaying the "fight" in his mind. The sinking evasion. The tap to his knee. The effortless foot sweep that had used his own power to launch him. And the most unbelievable part: the catch. The feeling of falling, expecting the bone-jarring impact with the mat, only to land on something that was as solid as the earth, yet yielding enough not to harm him.

He had been utterly, completely, and gracefully dominated. It wasn't a defeat; it was a lesson. A brutal, ego-shattering, enlightening lesson.

Maruyama slowly got to his feet. He was not angry. The rage and frustration had been washed away, replaced by a profound, humbling awe. He walked to the edge of the mat where Kenji had placed his shoes before the match.

Then, in front of his entire club and the stunned onlookers still crowding the doorway, Maruyama Jiro, the national-level champion, the pride of Seiryu High, dropped to his knees. He bowed, his forehead touching the tatami mat in the direction Kenji had left. It was the deepest, most sincere bow of respect a martial artist could give.

"I was the frog in the well," Maruyama's deep voice rumbled, thick with emotion. "I saw only my small piece of the sky and thought it was the whole world."

He remained there, bowing, a fallen giant paying homage to a force he could not comprehend. The message was clear, and it would shake the school to its core.

The Bear had been tamed. More than that, he had been converted.

In the shadows, Akari and Rina watched this display with starkly different reactions.

Akari's mind was racing. This was a catastrophic shift in the power balance. Maruyama was not just a club captain; he was a pillar of the school's unofficial authority. His public submission was not just a personal act; it was a political one. He had, in effect, just pledged the loyalty of the entire Judo Club to Kenji Tanaka.

"This is how it starts," she thought, a cold knot tightening in her stomach. "He defeats them, but he doesn't humiliate them. He shows them a greater power, and their pride as martial artists forces them to acknowledge it. He's not conquering them. He's earning their fealty without even asking for it."

Her strategy of letting the other powers wear him down was backfiring spectacularly. Instead of weakening him, every fight was making him stronger, surrounding him with powerful, now-loyal allies. He was building an army by accident.

Rina, on the other hand, was practically vibrating with excitement. A wide, predatory grin was plastered on her face.

"Did you see that, Ice Queen?" she purred, forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be hiding from her rival. "That's what a real man does. He doesn't just beat his rivals. He makes them kneel."

Akari shot her a freezing glare. "What are you doing in my school, Sato?"

"Same thing you are," Rina retorted, her amber eyes gleaming. "Watching my future husband collect his followers. You should have seen the look on the big guy's face. It's the same way I felt. Like I'd been living in the dark and someone just turned on the sun."

Rina pushed herself off the wall. "Well, this has been fun. But I have research to do." She gave Akari a mocking wink. "Don't try to claim him for yourself. You're not his type. He needs a woman with fire, not a calculator with a heartbeat."

With that, the Crimson Oni slipped out of the dojo as silently as she had entered, leaving Akari alone with her thoughts and the faint, infuriating scent of Rina's cheap, spicy perfume. Akari's hand clenched into a fist. The rivalry was no longer just about school territories. It was becoming personal.

Kenji walked home, completely oblivious to the monumental events he had set in motion. He was slightly perplexed.

"The grappling ritual was very strange," he mused. "The objective seemed to be to make physical contact. Once contact was established, the larger man ceased his aggressive maneuvers. Perhaps it was a form of greeting, like a handshake, but for the entire body."

He concluded that he needed to study social customs more. They were far more esoteric than he had anticipated.

As he turned onto the quiet street leading to his apartment building, he felt a presence behind him. It was a heavy, deliberate footstep. He stopped and turned.

It was Maruyama Jiro. He was now dressed in his school uniform, which looked two sizes too small for his massive frame. He was carrying Kenji's worn-out school bag. He must have run to catch up.

Maruyama stopped ten feet away from Kenji and bowed deeply from the waist.

"Tanaka-senpai," he said, his voice full of a new, unwavering respect.

Kenji tilted his head. "Maruyama-senpai. You should not call me senpai. You are in a higher grade than me."

"Grade level is irrelevant in the face of true strength," Maruyama stated, his conviction absolute. He stepped forward and held out Kenji's bag. "You forgot this."

Kenji realized he had left his bag in the dojo. He had been so focused on leaving the "ritual" that he had forgotten it. "Ah. Thank you." He took the bag.

Maruyama did not leave. He stood there, his gaze fixed on Kenji, his eyes burning with the intensity of a zealot.

"Tanaka-senpai," he began, his voice dropping lower. "I have been arrogant. I have pursued only one path to strength. Today, you have shown me that the world is much larger than I knew. My judo is powerful, but it is a rock. You… you are the ocean. The rock can do nothing against the tide."

Kenji listened patiently, though he didn't fully understand the metaphors.

"I ask only one thing," Maruyama said, his voice thick with humility. "Please, allow me to follow you. Allow me to observe your way. I do not ask you to teach me. I only ask for the privilege of walking in your shadow to better understand what true strength is."

He then dropped to one knee, bowing his head in a pledge of fealty, right there on the residential street.

Kenji Tanaka stared at the kneeling giant before him. The first challenger he hadn't immediately incapacitated. The national champion. The Bear of Seiryu.

He now had his first, and most powerful, follower.

And he had absolutely no idea what to do with him.