Sunset's Isekai
Side by Side (Hajime no Ippo — Ongoing Manga)
By Wanderer D

(Note: Not quite up to date, but still past the anime.)

'Damn, this stings.' Genji Kamogawa muttered to himself as he drifted around the streets of the Nerima ward well past what BCOF would be comfortable with. He had, in fact, walked past two officers who regarded him with distrust until one of them had, wide-eyed, recognized him.

Apparently Anderson hadn't been much loved by just about anyone else, Japanese or otherwise, and Genji's—admittedly desperate—win against the American boxer had spread pretty quickly. The soldier had insisted on shaking his hand and buying him a beer. Not too comfortable with the idea of spending time with their invaders, Genji had shaken his hand, but declined the beer, citing his health.

And now his hand stung again. "I should have taken him up on that offer…" he muttered. He slowed down and glanced at his hands, gently folding them into fists. The mere motion set his nerves on fire, sending a jarring stab of pain through his whole system. They were not healed yet.

"A victory." He snorted. "At the cost of my career. My fists." He gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to smack his fist on the wall in frustration. 'I'll never box again.'

"Che." He spat. Closing his eyes and turning away from the wall he had been about to punch. He forced his shoulders to relax. "I really need a drink."

When he opened his eyes, he blinked. Had that been there the whole time? He was sure he would have noticed the stone archway and glinting symbol on it if it had when he walked in. But… "I must've been too distracted…" he muttered. Approaching the door carefully. It had a small blackboard on the side. "Sunset's Other World," he read aloud. "Huh. Strange name."

He looked down at his stinging hands, then, wincing slightly, slid one into his pocket to check for change. He looked up again. "I guess one drink couldn't hurt." He glanced at the sky and ran his hand through his thick, brown hair before shrugging. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

Ippo Makenouchi stopped in his tracks, the voice snapping him from his thoughts replacing them in an instant with respectful attention for his trainer, Mr. Kamogawa. "Yes, coach?"

"Hey, you sure you guys are staying behind?" Takamura called back over his shoulder. "If you miss the party I can't be blamed for it."

"Just get going, you big lug!" Coach Kamogawa snapped, making the champion grunt and shrug. "Whatever. I'll see you both at the gym tomorrow."

He watched his friend and sometimes-mentor walk away and catch up with his friends before turning expectantly to the coach. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Makenouchi," the coach growled, "I know something is bothering you. Spit it out."

Ippo sighed. "It's just from discussions I've had with the others." He glanced back down the street towards the Korakuen Hall, which had all but faded in the distance. "About boxing, about what it takes to win the World Championship."

Ippo bit his lip, unwilling to acknowledge the coach's almost imperceptible hint of hope. "I don't know."

"Tch." The coach looked around, his face showing his irritation clearly and making Ippo feel much more guilty about the thoughts that had been crossing his mind as of late. "I wish you could just open up to some—"

The coach stopped and chuckled, pulling out his wallet and from within a… credit card? No. It was too small to be a credit card. A business card? "What's that, coach?"

"This?" Holding it between his fingers, Coach Kamogawa waved it gently in front of Ippo's face. "An old story."

"Oh?" Ippo leaned in, thoughts about how to dodge questions about stepping back on the ring firmly out of his mind. "What type of story? Is it a boxing story?"

"Heh." The coach started walking, and Ippo followed. "Yes. And no… it's more of a ghost story."

Ippo's eyes went wide, and he felt a chill go down his spine as they turned into one of the many alleys down the street. It was one they took often when they were headed back to the gym from the plaza. "G-ghost?"

Coach Kamogawa nodded, his bald head reflecting the few sources of light around them. "Yes. You see, after my fight with Anderson, I had little hope or even an idea of doing something… anything with my life. Nekota was… well, he had just left for the mountains, and I was on my own, trying to figure out what to do now that I couldn't pursue my dream of boxing… that's when I saw it."

"The bar." Coach Kamogawa stopped and turned to face Ippo. "A bar I had never seen before. A bar that was where there was no bar before. I… thought I had been too depressed to notice it at first, so I figured I could use a drink and stepped in."

"And?" Ippo asked, expecting the coach to bring up some sort of crazy, scary image. Perhaps the bar was destroyed inside, with dead bodies rising to eat his soul and he had to fight his way out with broken fists.

"It was." The coach looked down at the card. "I talked to someone there. She… helped me sort out my ideas, figure out that even if my fists were broken, it was not the end for my dream of taking Japanese prize-fighting into its natural evolution and bringing us into the international boxing scene. If it hadn't been for that bar, in the right place, at the right time…" He trailed off, bouncing his staff on the floor a couple of times, humming as he was lost in thought. "... Kamogawa Gym might not exist."

"Oh!" Ippo nodded in understanding. "So, what happened to the bar? Where is it? Is that where you were thinking of going?"

"Heh." The Coach turned and gave Ippo the silver card. "When I came back a week later, after filing the paperwork for the gym and wanting to celebrate… the bar was gone. There was no door. Only a wall, and when I asked, all people would tell me is that there had never been anything there at all. In fact, the other side of the wall was nothing more than a garden."

"The only proof I had was that card," he said, "which was given to me by the owner. She said to come back when I needed a drink, but I guess I was too excited to try… and now I'm too old to believe in fairy tales." He reached over and patted Ippo's shoulder. "You need to think. That never worked for me… I never needed a drink that bad again, so I never tried. But maybe you can… maybe it can come to you, as it did to me."

"I thought the same thing when I saw the first part in English and the rest in Romanji, but… no, it's not exactly an American bar. Or anything from this world, I suppose." The coach shrugged. "Maybe it was an elaborate prank, or maybe I did step into another world. Maybe I was in the wrong street and wasn't paying attention." He poked Ippo on the chest with the tip of his walking staff. "Either way it helped me figure out what to do. Maybe you'll get lucky and learn a thing or two." He yawned. "Anyway, you should either try to find the bar or head home. I'm too tired to hope for a drink, and too old to argue about your future, so I'll leave you to it."

Ippo bowed as Coach Kamogawa waved and walked alone towards his house. He stood there for some time, holding the card in both hands. The last few weeks hit him then and there, and he felt heavy, as if the whole weight of his decisions was suddenly on his shoulders again.

For once he wished ghosts were real. He turned to face the nearest wall, then pressed the card to his forehead, eyes tightly shut. If there was a place where he could really relax and clear his mind, he would go there in an instant. No questions asked. The coach was right… he had too many thoughts in his mind, too many questions and insecurities.

'There's no way that would happen,' he thought ruefully and chuckled. Maybe this was one of the coach's weird, roundabout lessons. Maybe it was his way of saying not to get hung up on dreams. Yeah, he should go home.

"Relax, Sunset," Lena said, looking over her shoulders at the sunkissed stairs of a large library a small distance away from the bar. Several creatures of different shapes passed behind them, ignoring the bar for the moment. "It'll be fun. I'm just going to use the library. Nothing will happen to me there. Besides, you need the bar right now, right? Chill. I'll be fine."

Sunset crossed her arms, looking at her younger charge. "You know saying that is basically challenging the multiverse to prove you wrong."

Sunset sighed. "Well, I taught you enough to kick ass. Just… be careful, alright?"

"Sure thing!" Lena punched her on the shoulder before skipping out into the bright, sunkissed morning outside the bar.

And she was gone. Sunset sighed. "Being a teacher is tough," she muttered. Usually she'd be more worried, but they'd visited the Boiling Isle's Library enough times together to know it was relatively safe, and as stated previously, she hadn't been a slouch in training Lena, who was a magical powerhouse as it was.

She walked into her bar proper, letting her fingers trail on top of each table as she walked down, studying the pictures and decorations with a gentle smile on her face. Each of these people—these friends—had come into her bar with heavy hearts and sometimes inescapable problems, and it had been her honor and pleasure to be able to provide what little help she could; what little respite she could give from the world out there when heavy hearts needed to borrow hers for just a bit.

She had barely walked around the bar to stand behind it when the bell chimed, and a gentle male voice drifted in. "H-hello?"

Sunset leaned over the bar, smiling at the young man standing there at the entrance. He couldn't be much older than twenty. She waved her hand. "Come on in!"

The young man blinked at her in surprise, then slowly made his way into the bar, staring in awe at everything around him.

"Welcome to Sunset's Isekai," she said as she pulled out a drinks menu and set it on the bar for him. "I'm Sunset Shimmer, and this is my little bar in the multiverse."

That seemed to snap the young man out of his stupor, and he stared at Sunset with a pale face. "It was true! What the coach said!"

"My coach, Mr. Kamogawa," the young man said, "he gave me this card and said that this ghost bar—"

"Let me see that card…" Sunset said, and the young man carefully did as he took a seat at the bar. She studied it for a few moments. "This is the one I gave to Genji," she said slowly. "I wondered when he'd come back. Seems he decided to send you."

Sunset rubbed her temples. "Not a ghost. Seriously. So how is he doing?" she asked. "Last I heard he was going to start a gym, and since you called him 'coach'..."

"Oh. Oh yeah," the young man said, "he's doing well! He told me he got the paperwork done within a week of meeting you, and he's been training boxers ever since."

Sunset smiled, leaning on the counter. "That's good to know. He was so depressed, you know, when he came over?"

"R-right." The young man blushed. "Um. I-I don't know what to order." He glanced around the place, his eyes going wide at every new thing before turning to face her again. "Um. What d-did Coach Kamogawa order?"

Sunset leaned back, tapping her chin in thought. "I… think, yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a Sidecar."

Sunset raised an eyebrow, but nodded, turning around to reach for the brandy. "So, what's your name?"

Realizing how rude he had been, Ippo immediately stood up. So sudden was his action, that the woman behind the bar seemed almost amused, but he pushed that aside as he bowed. "Makenouchi, Ippo, ma'am. Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine," she said, grinning and motioning for him to sit down. It was very odd, speaking perfect Japanese with her, and yet noticing how different she was culturally-speaking. Her tone was respectful, but much more casual than the formal approach he was used to from people in Japan.

'But I'm not really in Japan, am I?' he thought to himself with a small, accompanying wince. The truth was that he was stuck between being terrified, awestruck, and comfortable. There was an aura to this place, something that just calmed his nerves. Something that seemed to whisper his worries away and made him feel… safe.

'She's really pretty.' Ippo shook his head and looked around, rather than let his eyes stray over the bartender's body. He had no intention of being rude, besides, he had a girlfriend, and it wouldn't do well to antagonize either of them by being disrespectful. Instead, he focused on studying the bar.

It was different. On the one hand, he could see why his coach would have liked it. It had a sense of an old style bar, like the type you'd go to to drink whiskey or even smoke a cigar, although it didn't smell like people smoked in here. However, there were many things that just clashed in an oddly charming way. The underlying design seemed more somber, but the wall with pictures and the posters and guitars, the pet spider in the back, within its little plastic home, the flowers on the corner, slowly growing there… it just made the place more cheerful. It was almost like the new things were mellowing down the old. Even if some of those things were incredibly strange to look at.

The sound of something clinking regained his attention, and he turned to see Miss Shimmer pouring a golden liquid into a martini glass for him. It definitely looked like something the Coach would order.

She smiled warmly, resting her elbows on the bar and motioned at the room around them with her hand. "People here come when they have problems they need to talk about. Sometimes I can help… sometimes I can't, but I do my best to at least let my guests leave with a lighter heart. When Genji came in here, he told me about how much he loved boxing, and how he had lost his chance for a career as a boxer. If he gave you the card, and the bar appeared, then you needed that drink, and more importantly an ear."

Ippo sighed, relaxing his shoulders and reaching up to gently pick up the glass, taking a sip of the bitter drink. It went down smoother than he expected. "I… I've retired from boxing."

She raised an eyebrow, her light green eyes prompting him to continue, so he took a deep breath. "I've been working on improving my fighting ever since I lost to Alfredo Gonzalez." He clenched his fists in frustration, the match had been vicious, and he had been so close! "I've been training since, but… I promised Kamui to retire if I lost again."

Ippo felt his face go red. "I-uh, y-yes, my girlfriend." The last he said with almost a whisper, and hid his sudden self-awareness with a deep drink of the cocktail, grimacing when the strong alcohol hit.

"Well, that's nice..." Miss Sunset said, making him smile gently at the thought of his beloved Kamui.

"W-well, she said I was going to get injured, and for a while we thought I was Punch Drun—" he stopped, eyes widening and covered his mouth, but it was clear from Miss Sunset's widening eyes that she had caught on immediately.

There it was. He looked down. "I-I don't know." He sipped his glass, looking up at her warily. "There's no medical way of knowing, and for a while I was showing symptoms... "

The world seemed to stop for a moment. It was like he had just lowered his guard and received a punch straight to the gut from Sendo. He felt chills running down his back, a tingling at the base of his neck. "Y-you can?"

"Sure, I'll need to figure out the right spell but…" she waved her finger and a book floated over to her. "It wouldn't take long."

She set down the book, and Ippo glanced at it nervously. He looked down at the table, not wanting to look at her in the eye. "What if-what if I'm Punch Drunk?"

"I don't know if I'd risk curing it," she said gently. "I'm not a healer, nor a doctor. Magic can do a lot of things, but only if you know what you're doing with it… and reasonably sure is not the same as absolutely certain, so I wouldn't cast it."

Miss Shimmer pushed the book aside, and Ippo looked up. "You're not going to tell me I have to?"

"Not at all," she said. "Not when you don't want me to. Talk to me, why don't you want to know?"

Ippo snorted softly. "I have good things in my life, you know? I made it really far. I became the JBC Featherweight Champion, and I got a cute girlfriend. I've been thinking of training the next batch of boxers. Isn't being the Japanese Champion enough?"

"I-I was aiming for the World Championship." He shook his head violently. "It's-not something I can do. I'm not Takamura-san. I'm not Sendo-San, or Gonzalez-san. I can't cross the line."

"The line." He looked up at her, his thoughts back on Takamura drawing the line on the dirt and giving him a challenging look. "The line between human and monster. If I can't commit to it, I stand no chance."

"But do you want to fight?" the bartender pressed. "Why aren't you even thinking about it?"

Ippo closed his mouth, frowning. He was content, working at the boat, wasn't he? He was happy with Kamui, cheering for Sendo and the others to go beyond. To go where he couldn't… 'but can't I?' The treacherous thought shook him almost as much as Miss Shimmer's offer from earlier. 'I made up my mind!'

'Then why are you having this argument with yourself?' his own voice challenged in his mind. 'Take the offer. Find out once and for all if you really have Punch Drunk Syndrome. Give up on the excuses!'

His thoughts were interrupted by the cool, delicate touch of Miss Shimmer's hand on his arm. He looked up at her in surprise.

"Relax," she said. "You have time to think, and make a decision. There's nothing wrong with retiring and training others, if that's what you want," she said, "just make sure you are happy with that, and it's not because of someone else forcing you to do it in some way. That is not healthy and will only end in resentment."

"Toxic relationships are not always overt," Miss Shimmer said gently. "This might not be it, but you need to communicate with Kamui and let her know how you feel."

Ippo gulped. Kamui could glare just as intensely as—if not more intensely than—her brother. And he was called the Grim Reaper for a reason. He knew she didn't like boxing, but would Kamui really stop him just to satisfy her own needs?

He looked up to meet Miss Shimmer's warm smile. "What pushed you to become the JBC Featherweight Champion in the first place?"

Ippo leaned back, slightly confused by the question. "I was being bullied, and Takamura-san saved me… then I grew to love boxing. I fought many strong fighters and I carried their will with me into every fight."

"Look, maybe you'll be a great trainer, and I'm sure you can be one of the best out there. But if you're constantly battling yourself about it, you won't ever be happy, and Kamui won't either." Sunset shrugged. "Talk to her… if she loves you, she might not agree, but she will listen at least. And maybe talking it out properly with her will either get rid of your own doubts, or hers."

Ippo smiled a little at that. "Do you really think she'll support me if I chose to go back?"

"I don't know her," Miss Shimmer said, squeezing his arm gently, "but I know that really loving or caring for someone and letting them do what they love comes hand in hand… but when you care, you support them, and you stand by them. I'm sure that if she cares, she'll find a way to support you, whatever your choice is in the end." She took a deep breath. "Just make sure you communicate, and that she understands what you want, and you really understand what she wants too."

Ippo nodded eagerly, standing up. "I will, Miss Shimmer! I'll go talk to her right now!"

She gave him a quizzical look. "Isn't it around midnight back home? You might want to wait until tomorrow. And Sunset's fine, really."

"Oh." Ippo rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling self-consciously and sat down again. "That's right." He couldn't help however, feeling a little bit better. He smiled a bit more calmly. "T-thank you. Kamui-chan's attitude has been eating slowly at me, and I want to please her as best as I can, but I keep wondering if I should bring it up. Takamura-san and the others—" he grimaced. "Well. They have not been helpful. I feel like Takamura is just disappointed, and Aoi and Kimura well… they're not much better."

The thoughts about his friends made him feel odd. Happy, and yet disappointed in himself. "They've been supportive. Even my opponents, but I keep feeling like I'm failing all of them. Particularly the Coach and Takamura." He shook his head. "I think Takamura is the most disappointed one of all."

There was still a little bit of the drink he had ordered. It was an odd one, considering that's what Coach Kamogawa had ordered. It had that bitterness from the brandy she had used, and an odd, familiar fruitiness from the other one, a hint of orange? The sugared rim was definitely a surprise that balanced it incredibly.

If he was honest with himself, it was unlikely he'd be going to bars that served it anytime soon, but if he ever came back to a bar that did… well, he might ask for one then.

"Takamura is the one that found me," he explained to his host, who had remained quiet while he contemplated the drink. "Saved me from some bullies. He's the one that saw promise in me first. He's the one that challenged me to cross the line."

Ippo chuckled. "I'm still not sure Mis—um, Sunset-san," he corrected awkwardly. "I'm not sure," he repeated, looking up at her, "but I will talk to Kamui-chan. Maybe I'll go back, and maybe not, but I won't quit. I'll become a coach too and learn."

Coach Kamogawa opened the door to his house, blinking when he saw the interior of Sunset's Isekai. Huffing in amusement, he stepped in, carefully closing the door behind him. He stepped into the busy bar, nodding at familiar faces before taking his favorite seat.

He glanced to the table behind him, where Danpei Tenge was having a wrestling match with Wrex. Well. Calling Wrex watching Danpei struggle to move his arm an inch a 'match' was a very generous thing, but he was willing to give a little respect to his fellow trainer.

The duck girl gave him a nod and went back to sitting with a couple of human girls while Sunset rang out a couple of customers then walked over to him. "Nice kid you've been training," she said as way of greeting.

"He's a special one, yes," he agreed. "Did you manage to talk some sense into him?"

"But I think I got through to him a little," she continued, making him look up hopefully. Had she been able to… no she was shaking her head at him, but smiling nevertheless. "I can't guarantee he'll jump in the ring again, but his passion for boxing hasn't died. And it won't. It's a matter of him getting over his hang-up at expressing what he really wants. Encourage him to learn and you might see him fight again."

He snorted, taking a sip of his Sidecar. It was still the best damn Sidecar he had drank. "Well, I've been thinking about letting him train someone if he can bring more students in."

"Good." Sunset smiled and nodded with her head at the wall. Genji turned around and blinked. He couldn't help the smile. "Trust in him. He is a lot like you."

She had put the picture of Ippo and herself right next to the one of Genji himself, much younger, and her. "Yeah. I think I will."

End Chapter

Sunset's Isekai

by Wanderer D

Side by Side (Hajime no Ippo — Ongoing Manga)