Karate Heat

At the beginning of this chapter, we are introduced to the protagonist, who is fifteen years old. He is a student at a school in the town of Kawasaki, in the northern part of the country. He asks to be excused from class because his clothes are dirty and he is too old to participate in the school's karate program. He tells us that he has a younger twin brother, and he has always been shorter than his twin sister. The protagonist explains that he does not like karate because he feels that it is too hard on his body. He feels that he is not strong enough to compete in the karate tournament, which is held in Japan every year. He says that he will try to do his best to rest, but he knows that he cannot compete against his teacher, who has trained him for six years in a row in the national karate tournament. He explains that his teacher has called him a "cham-pion" , which means "all junior." The protagonist is amazed at the number of times he has been competing in the tournament. The teacher tells him that he can keep his karate uniform, but that he must keep a secret from himself. He also tells the protagonist that there are many different kinds of seiken punches, which the teacher calls "fist punches," and that the teacher called them a "match like fight" . This chapter ends with the protagonist apologizing to his teacher for not being able to compete at the tournament because of his age.