Wrote this on my phone. I'm on a roll I guess? The ideas are just flowing. Thanks for reading.
-Raoul
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CHAT ROOM
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[Panther]
Sorry, guys. Orihime was very worried and pretty much interrogated us.
[Dove]
Too pure. So blinding.
[Joker]
I sold the medal, by the way. 52.5k.
[Dove]
He ignored it!
[Joker]
She is incomprehensible to me sometimes. Such sincerity is baffling.
[Skull]
525 thousand yen?!
[Panther]
Ren, you're pretty sincere too, you know.
[Dove]
There is a decimal you missed, Ryuji.
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"We have to celebrate!" Ryuji exclaimed as he charged into Ren's room.
"Whoa, does Boss know you're here?"
"He was the one who told me to come up here!"
"I think he was just trying to get the loudmouth away from his shop," Morgana grumbled.
"Anyway, celebration! We gotta talk to the girls," Ryuji continued, ignoring Morgana's quip.
"They already talked about this in the group chat," Ren said in exasperation. Why was he so behind for someone who constantly played mobile games and spammed the group chat?
"Oh... I kinda ignored the chat after Shiho pointed out my mistake," Ryuji revealed with an embarrassed chuckle.
Opening the app on his phone, Ryuji skimmed the text thread.
"Huh, the Wilton? Isn't that the fancy-schmancy hotel?" Ryuji furrowed his brow. "Can we afford that even with 52,000 yen overall?"
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Ryuji and Ren decided to hang out and headed toward the gym. Ren bought a membership, and he began to run on the treadmill next to Ryuji.
"Huff, huff." Ryuji was breathing deeply. "You're hella in shape, dude. You might even be faster than me before my leg!"
"Huff. Huff." Ren was also breathing heavily. "Speaking of your leg, how is it doing?"
"Eh. About the same as before," Ryuji revealed as the two stepped off the treadmill and stretched. "I'm gonna hit the weights. Wanna come?"
"If you need a spotter, sure. Otherwise, I was going to use the striking dummy," Ren said. "I've been neglecting practicing my kata. And if my teachers found out..."
Ren suddenly had a faraway look in his eyes.
"You know what? I'm just gonna go use the dumbbells," Ryuji decided. "You... get on that."
'That expression looked really haunted!'
"Oh yeah, before we split up, I need to take you somewhere."
"Sure, sounds good," Ryuji called back as he walked toward the weights.
"HA!" a girl cried as she struck the dummy. "Chesto!"
She punched it very hard with a straight boxer's punch. Ren swore he heard a crack.
"IT'S NOT ABLE TO TAKE HITS THAT HEAVY!" an employee yelled in dismay as he ran up and began inspecting the dummy.
"Sorry," the girl said surprisingly politely. "I'm just in a bad mood right now."
'That was a hell of a punch,' Ren commented internally.
'She's certainly a strong martial artist,' Arsene nodded in Ren's mind. 'Scáthach would like her.'
Ren gave up on the dummy upon seeing the employee begin to panic and returned to Ryuji. He was, however, wondering who that girl was.
---
After the two friends finished their workouts, Ren paused in front of the station momentarily.
"What's up, Ren?"
"Nothing... just had a feeling..."
Morgana appeared and hopped into Ren's bag, and the three descended into the subway tunnel.
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