Mental Training is Round 1126 of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo manga series.
Details[]
- Characters Introduced: Agata Suttan, Tetsuo Fujigawa
- Title Page Character(s): Mamoru Takamura
Summary[]
Takamura goes to the Pension Yoshio to see Nekota. Outside, Takamura is chopping wood for mental training as Nekota approaches him. Takamura explains how his meeting with Yamaguchi showed him that despite his combat capacity knowing no equal, the temptations still gets to him, revealing what happened to him while at her clinic. Takamura stays for dinner, while expressing how he doesn't get enough respect. Nekota sympathises with him, and asks how Kamogawa is doing. Takamura instead comments on how Nekota's seasoning on the wild boar makes it taste better. After Nekota reveals it as a special ingredient he made by feeding different things to animals around the mountain and collecting their faeces to dry and grind it up for seasoning, Takamura becomes grossed out before admitting it tasted good. Takamura goes and answers Nekota's earlier question that Kamogawa is doing good. At the Kamogawa gym, Ippo hits the sandbags when Aoki asks if he is in a rush to get back in the ring and Kimura asks what's wrong since he looks worried. Ippo claims he isn't worried, and he can't get too ahead of himself since Kamogawa is gone. Aoki notes how after a big match, Takamura and Kamogawa go missing. Yagi enters the gym and gives Ippo the two tickets he asked for. Ippo explains to Aoki, Itagaki, and Kimura how he got the two tickets for the night's match because someone asked for them. Ippo runs to the Kōrakuen Hall and meets up with Sendō outside. Sendō tells Ippo he can go inside the venue since he is waiting for his middle school teacher to come, so he wants to wait at the entrance for them. Sendō informs Ippo that he can't wait for the main event starring Miyata, because he might fight him or Alfredo next for the fastest way to a world title shot. Sendō claims Ippo's loss made his plans change, and he is done holding back for him, so he is moving ahead. Sendō asks Ippo if he has a come-back match coming up, and asks why he looks worried. Ippo thinks how people keep asking him why he looks worried, wondering if he looks like he is worried about something, then remembers how he couldn't draw a straight line at Umezawa's place.