Motivated to be lazy

Chapter 53

A/N: Thank you megadonkeykong for reading over this chapter and giving feedback. I've been taking a break from writing and enjoying reading other stuff at the moment but decided to finish off this chapter, hope you enjoy it.

You think it's impossible to be a passive fighter. Well, sometimes fighting just means existing. Existing, not going away, and quietly biding your time...

I'm a firm believer that there's a time and place for everything. From love and affection all the way to cruelty and punishment. People mistake doing nothing for surrender. Too many people do things pointlessly because they feel as though if they're doing nothing, they're achieving nothing.

The truth was that if the Sports Festival was only a couple of days from now, I'd be far more assertive with my plans. The reality is that at this time there really isn't much to do.

Quietly assessing the landscape and making moves based on your opponent is one of the fundamentals of chess. If there was one strategy that steamrolls every advisery then there wouldn't be a need for theory-crafting. When dealing with someone with an offensive mindset, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be defensive. Blind offense is meaningless, every strike must be tactical. Every blow has to hurt. Otherwise, you're mindlessly committing resources in places that didn't matter. You must be decisive, you must be calculating.

I could already see into Nagumo Miyabi's mind before he'd made a single move. History tends to repeat itself, leaders tend to fall back on a crutch when it comes to strategy. Falling on previously proven tactics in the face of a strong opponent because they don't have the courage to try something new and different when the old playbook never failed before.

This is a common fallacy.

Every strategy, every move. Every decision must be tailor-made to your opponent. It's the only way to maximize attacking their weaknesses. It's why I approached this fight with Nagumo the way that I did, my plan of action is to pull guard.

Nagumo thinks he wants to win no matter the cost. However, a win for him isn't as satisfying without embarrassing his opponent. He wanted to humiliate me. He wanted to prove himself. So the best course of action was to show that it wasn't affecting me. I wanted to frustrate him, make it seem like I'm not taking this seriously so that he'd act more recklessly.

Nagumo's insecurities are his weakness. He needs validation, both from his contemporaries and his opponents. He longs for admiration and popularity. Nothing infuriates him more than not being taken seriously, being belittled, or being labeled as unworthy. It's why no matter the circumstances, I will not allow him to see me in that state.

Every weapon has a purpose, every tool has a use even when deciding not to use it.

Getting me suspended from my gym was just the tip of the iceberg, he was waiting for me to go to the gym to put this into motion while keeping the second-years on standby. I only realized today how much thought he'd put into that plan, every single gym had suddenly had an influx of membership sign-ups since the day before. He'd signed up to every single gym with every second year he could and backed up their waiting list for new memberships. No matter where I went, I was knocked back. Asked to wait until after the sports festival to sign up again. All because of the sudden lack of manpower with BUDDY down, all of those sign-ups meant that I was without options.

Aside from it being annoying, the move did little to me. I don't like to have my routine broken but the effects would be minimal. I was merely going because it was part of my everyday life. My specialized training would be done outside of the gym. I didn't need to reach new heights, in my current condition I could very easily win every event. My PR's may as well have been Everest for them, they wouldn't reach those heights in a thousand lifetimes. My focus would simply be working on preventing injury and losing the unnecessary bulk Honami had been making me build.