Persona 3 : Two Souls

Part 23 - Way of Life

August 10th

Takuya walked out of the movie theater with Akihiko and Tatsuya, the three discussing the film they had just got done watching.

"I appreciate you kids inviting me." Tatsuya said gratefully "Lucky it was on my day off."

"I assume Kurosawa is at the station right now?" Akihiko asked in response to which Tatsuya nodded. "Of course, it's always either him or me that's there." right as he said that, Tatsuya got a call on his phone and excused himself to answer it. "Officer Suou speaking." He answered the phone. "Oh, Eikichi! What's up." the adult walked a bit away so that the two teens could still talk to one another without fear of getting in the way of his call.

"Akihiko, you've known Mitsuru for a while...right?" Takuya asked.

"That's right..." Akihiko answered "...Why do you ask."

"How do you feel about her?" Takuya inquired casually.

"What do you mean by that?" Akihiko questioned.

"Are you interested in her..." Takuya explained "Y'know...romantically."

"What?!" Akihiko said completely caught off guard "W-Where'd you even get an idea like that?!" Takuya raised a hand slight to signal to the silver-haired boxer to relax "Don't get the wrong idea, I was just asking." "Okay..." Akihiko replied slowly "...Why though?" he asked. "Just curious." Takuya said with a shrug, at that moment Tatsuya's phone call ended and he walked back over to the two teens.

"Sorry about that, old friend called me up." Tatsuya explained "I'm gonna go meet up with him at a ramen place near here, catch you two boys later." he added with a wave before walking off to the train station.

"So what do you wanna do now?" Akihiko asked as he looked at Takuya who pondered the question for a bit. "You got a place you like to train?" Takuya asked, Akihiko lit up at this question "You want to train with me?!" he excitedly asked, Takuya nodded. "Sure."

Akihiko led Takuya through Tatsumi Port Island until reaching his destination of a gym that Takuya didn't even realize was here before. "Come on, I'll even loan you some workout gear." Akihiko said as he opened the door and the two began walking through the public gym, as they were walking towards the locker room, Takuya noticed it was fairly empty with only a few other people here. The two teens got changed into clothes more suited for the gym setting and then both headed to the boxing ring in the center of the gym, Takuya began fastening a pair of gloves to his hands as he looked over at Akihiko who was currently wrapping some sports tape around his hands and forearms.

"So we just gonna go at it?" Takuya asked with a smirk, Akihiko finished with the tape and put his gloves on before looking up at his blue-haired friend with a smirk "You bet."

"Good." Takuya said with a confident glint in his eyes, Akihiko let out a small chuckle before walking over to the center of the ring to face his schoolmate. The two looked each other in the eyes and both lifted up their hands out of respect.

"Three." Takuya said.

"Two." Akihiko followed.

"One!" Both of them called out to start the match, Takuya immediately sent out a right hook that Akihiko ducked under with ease. "What's the matter? I'm right here." Akihiko taunted right before coming back up to deliver a swift hit directly to Takuya's face and knocking him off balance. The blue-haired teen wasn't going to be knocked down that easily as he quickly regained his footing and began to continously try to deliver blow after blow, each one of them being dodged by Akihiko's swift bobbing and weaving.