Fighter's Brew – S2: E9 (Audio + LMA Transcript) (Patreon)

Alexander Buckner's final recording.

• Fighter's Brew

[Note: Read the manga images from right to left.]

"Fight!" the ref shouts.

After the glove touch, Maki immediately fires a jab and a teep.

"Good! Make her straighten up!" Maria yells.

"Watch those punches!" shouts Take.

[By throwing a front kick, Maki forces Ayako to straighten up from her crouch. Standing tall, Ayako has less of an ability to charge forward or generate power in her hooks.]

Ayako circles to her left and avoids Maki's kicks.

[Rather than backing up and changing her height, Ayako circles away from the same kick. By doing that, she bypasses Maki's weapon and gets close to her body. Consider a spear user; once you get past the tip of the spear, you gain access to their body.]

She throws a left hook to the body, but it's blocked. Maki grabs the clinch and throws a knee to the body.

[Hooks travel from the outside, making them harder to see. Clinches are about gaining access to the inside of the body. Since hooks exist on the outside, they leave the inside of the body exposed. Maki seizes that opening with a clinch.]

Ayako takes her down.

[Different clinch rules allow for different actions. In shooto, body lock takedowns are permitted. However, in Thai-boxing, they are not.]

The referee warns Ayako that takedowns are not allowed.

They're back to standing. Maki throws a left kick, but Ayako counters with a right straight. Maki barely got out of the way.

[Even when a counter to a kick misses, it makes the kicker hesitant to throw more kicks. Counters don't have to land to be effective.]

Ayako shows a left hook to the body. Maki drops her guard to block, but Ayako comes up top with a left hook to the head.

[Since Ayako has been throwing hooks to the body, she misdirects Maki's attention to the body and then throws the hook to the head. It's not about about the immediate setup. This is the payoff from all the previous body shots.]

Maki is down.

Maki gets back up before the ref can count to three. She wants revenge. Maki abandons her reach advantage and engages in a brawl. Ayako catches her again with a left hook to the face. Maki grabs a clinch and throws a knee, but Ayako takes her down again.

The referee deducts a point from Ayako.

"I knew it," Maria says. "She's an MMA fighter."

"Let me guess," Maki thinks, "you wanted to work on your striking so you thought you'd try your hand at kickboxing, right? That kinda shit pisses me off more than anything!"

"I know that look," Maria says. "Maki-chan is up to no good."

Maki fires off consecutive left body kicks. Ayako charges in for the hook, but Maki is waiting. Maki throws a right elbow, but Ayako lands a left to the body.

They both go down.

"That was an elbow!" Ayako's corner protests. "Ref, that's illegal!"

The referee waves his hands and signals the end of the fight.

Maki has been disqualified. Ayako wins the match.

"I understand not wanting to lose," Mochizuki says, "but what she did was both dangerous and illegal."

The rest of the event continues, but Maria is scolding Maki in the waiting area.

The Fighter's Brew Head Coach apologizes to Ayako's head coach from OST.

"I owe you for this little mishap," Head Coach tells him.

"Don't mention it. No hard feelings," the OST coach says.

They bow and walk off.

"Unbelievable, Uncle," Maria says. "You two set this up?"

"They're both short on opponents in their weight class," Coach tells her. "I heard that girl's gonna enter the National Shooto Championship. Let them settle the score there."

"Says the man who won't even teach MMA."

Ayako is with her teammate, packing up.

"It's lucky you didn't get cut, but it's still gonna swell up," the teammate says. "Better ice it tonight."

"I will. Ma's gonna tell me to quit again, tho."

Maki appears as they look up.

"Excuse me," she says. Maki bows, "I'm sorry." She runs off before hearing Ayako say, "Me too."

Back at Fighter's Brew gym, Meguru is lifting weights with Watanabe.

"Meguru," Furuya says. "How'd you like to enter the Kanto Jiu-jitsu Open?"

"But I only do gi practice once a week," Meguru says.

"You've got a month to get ready before the regionals," Furuya says. "Nabe's going, too."

Watanabe nods.

Momoko also raises her hand.

Meguru puts on the gi and joins the jiu-jitsu class. 

He spars with Momoko.

"She's so light!" Meguru thinks. "I've only been sparring heavy dudes lately."

Momoko grabs him, yanks him into guard, and then flips him over her shoulder. She follows him to mount and secures an armbar. Meguru bridges to get on top but ends up in a triangle. Meguru resists, but Momoko transitions to a triangle armbar. Meguru taps.

Momoko gives Meguru the peace sign as Meguru cries to himself.

"Momoko's like a sponge," Tamiya says. "She masters everything we teach her. But the problem is, she has no stamina. She's always exhausted by the second half of practice."

"She's entering as a white belt, right? She'll probably win," Urasawa says.

"She'll get her blue belt if she does," says Tamiya.

Momoko pulls Furuya aside.

"Has Kitamura-sempai been coming to the MMA class?" she asks.

"It's been about three weeks," Furuya says, "but I guess he's still not ready to come back."

Momoko is concerned.

In the city, Yudai is hanging with his friends. His arm is still in a wrap. He gets a call and has to leave.

He meets up with his brother Saidai's fiance and helps her carry her groceries. When they arrive at her place, she invites him in for tea, but he refuses.

"Wait here a sec," she tells him.

She comes back out with a gift.

"What's this?" he asks her.

"Your birthday's in two days, right?" she says. "Congrats on turning 18."

Yudai leaves with the gift in his hand. As he walks home, he thinks about Saidai. "In the spring of his senior year in high school, my brother injured his judo clubmate and left him paralyzed from the neck down. The victim's family sued both the prefecture and the school over the incident, and my brother quit judo."

"When I looked up judo-related deaths in middle and high school, I found 114 cases in Japan between 1983 and 2010. No cases in the US, UK, Germany, France, and only 2 cases in Canada in 1988."

"After my brother graduated, he started working for a shipping company. Right now, he's doing volunteer work in the Tohoku region. But he'll be back soon. And he's getting married to his childhood friend. They started living together recently."

"A few months back, a huge earthquake shook the Tohoku region, which resulted in the deaths of over 10,000 people and a nuclear meltdown. Ever since, radiation's been leaking from the reactor with seemingly no way to stop it. Amidst the constant stream of news surrounding the reactor, I caught a tiny article about a grade-schooler who died in a judo accident. I guess some things never change."

The next day, Yudai calls up some friends, but they're all busy working. He walks around and then comes back home without anything to do. From his place, he can see his brother's place. He looks to see if the lights are on and if anyone's home.

"Sempai!"

Yudai is startled. He turns around to see Momoko.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he says.

"I asked Furuya-san for your address and came looking for you," she answers.

"Why?!" he laments.

"Can I have your number?" she asks.

"Answer the question, damn it!"

"Yudai-kun, who's she?" 

Yudai is startled again. It's Saidai's fiance.

"Pleased to meet you! I'm Momoko Aikawa!"

"My, aren't you lovely. I'm Azumi Iida."

Back at Azumi's place, the three of them are having tea. Yudai is sweating.

"Yudai-kun, you smooth devil. I didn't know you had such a cute girlfriend," Azumi says.

"You've got the wrong idea!" Yudai protests.

"So you go to the same gym?" she asks.

"Yes, I do jiu-jitsu!" Momoko answers.

"Ahh, so that's how you two started—"

"—Stop right there," Yudai interrupts.

"Yudai-kun is as stubborn as a mule. He must be a handful, huh?" Azumi asks.

Momoko nods.

"What are you doing here in the first place?" demands Yudai.

"Sempai!" Momoko replies. "Will you do jiu-jitsu with me? When your elbow's better?"

"Why do you want me to do jiu-jitsu?"

"It'll cheer you up! Please come back to the gym," Momoko pleads. "Everyone misses you."

"What good would taking up jiu-jitsu do? What does it matter? Who knows what'll happen to this country in the next ten years. The radiation is reaching all the way to Tokyo, you know. Everyone might have cancer a decade from now!"

"Then what do you want to do, sempai?" Momoko asks.

Yudai is silent.

"I'm entering a tournament. If I win the adult galo division, please do jiu-jitsu with me."

"No way. There's a good chance you'll win, anyway." Yudai says. "It'd be one thing if you won the open weight division."

"Ah!" Momoko gets up. "I heard that, sempai!"

Momoko points her finger at Yudai. "If I win the open weight division, do you promise to do jiu-jitsu?"

"I'm the witness," Azumi says.

"How the hell did it come to this?" complains Yudai.

Back at the gym, word got out that Momoko also signed up for the open weight category. She's training harder than she ever has.

Momoko told the instructors that it was because of a promise Yudai made to her.

"Now that I think about it," Meguru says, "I've never talked to Yudai outside of the gym. I don't know his number or email address."

The next episode is the season finale, and though it won't be the same without Lex, I'll finish it in his memory.

Rest in power and grace, Lex.

And like Momoko, check in on each other. Sometimes, you realize too late you never really talked to someone outside of where you first met them. That you don't know their number or email. It's easy to take little things for granted. So don't.