The blood rushed to my head. “Die, lolicon! Die, you erotic game otaku!”

I swung my right fist as hard as I could, smashing it into Yamazaki’s stomach. He groaned, charged, and tackled me, still groaning as he did. Tangled up together, we fell to the ground. Yamazaki straddled my head; I could see the moon behind him. I would be beaten to a pulp if I stayed like this.

Hooking my leg around his neck, I somehow managed to get out from under him. We were both breathing heavily. Yamazaki glared at me; then, he looked down, giggling. Finally, he sighed loudly, “Ah, that was great.”

I sighed, too.

“It’s not even close to being over yet. Let’s keep fighting until we die”, he said. We kept fighting: Wild kicks and limpid punches, the passionate battle between two weak men. It hurt. It really, really hurt. Yet it was fun—fun and empty. A punch sank into the pit of my stomach, raising bile and making my eyes overflow with tears, and I was happy. Having just been kicked in the groin, Yamazaki looked cool, jumping up and down.

Jeez, what in the hell are we doing? I transferred this doubt into my fist—punched and was punched.

Suddenly, I remembered that it was already July. It wouldn’t be long. Something had to change soon. Likely, I would decide something before long. I was sure I’d be laughing then, laughing and smiling. You agree, don’t you, Yamazaki…?

For now, we were covered in scrapes and bruises. Everything hurt. Our entire bodies ached terribly. One of my front teeth felt loose. Yamazaki had a perfect black eye. My right fist was raw and bleeding.

We had just had our first little fight.

For good measure, I gave Yamazaki one more punch to the face. As I did, he caught my arm, and I tripped and fell. Following up, Yamazaki went on to lock my joints and twist my arm.

“Ow, ow, it’s gonna break, it’s gonna break!” I tried to tap out on the ground.

“I’ll break it, I’ll break it, I’ll break it with a snap!”

I bit down on Yamazaki’s calf as hard as I could. He screamed, “That’s against the rules!”

“Shut up, what do I care? Death to Yoyogi Animation!”

“Like I said, when I hear talk like that, I get really pissed off!”

It appeared that our fight was about to become increasingly, emptily escalated.

Then, we heard, “Officer!”

Eh?

“They’re over here, Officer!” It was a young woman’s high-pitched shout. Yamazaki jumped up immediately and ran for dear life back to the apartment.

Leaving me behind, he had run away alone.

Several minutes later, I found myself being hit by Misaki. They were only so-called “girl punches”; because of my fight with Yamazaki, though, I was already a bit beat up, and her blows jangled my bones. Bellowing at the top of her lungs, with what no longer even resembled a human voice, Misaki continued hitting me.