When the five of us get to Furrock’s house, I knock on the door. He answers with a surprised look on his face.
“What are you kids doing here”? He asks.
He invites us in to his house and offers us something to eat and drink.I fill him in to what has happened at the school. The fact doesn’t startle him too much, I suspect that he’s had people check up on Ikeya. I’m only in the house for a few minutes till I can’t contain myself anymore.
“Where’s Sounni at”? I ask.
Furrock tells me that she’s gone to the market and won’t be back for a while.
There’s a knock at the door, all of us are on guard. When Furrock opens the door Hiraski is standing there with his hands behind his back.
“May I see Shinruga and the other four”? He inquires.
Furrock gives him a puzzled look but before he can ask who he is Hiraski introduces himself.
“Excuse me Shinruga, Jet, Sorona, X, and Sange you left before I could tell you this. School is still open for another two days till my troop gets here. Just bring enough stuff for two more days. My second mastery is the Kimoshiran form. You can come anytime just be there by tonight”. He informs.
We nod our heads in approval and start packing the little stuff we need. I’m walking out and yell to Hiraski but the sight of Sounni distracts me.
“Yes Shinruga can I help you”? Hiraski ask.
I wave him away hoping that he won’t get mad. He politely nods and goes about his business.
Sounni comes running over to me and leaps into my arms.
“I missed you so much”. She says.
It’s the only thing she says to me till we get into town. We browse the market looking at all the shelves but nothing is to appealing. Before we head home we stop at the tree that we spent the night sleeping together. Seeing that it is nearly dark I remind Sounni that I have to go she grabs my arm tighter as we’re walking. When we get back to Furrock’s house Sounni kisses me and tells me not to die in the next couple of days. I’m about halfway there when Jet yells my name. When I turn to look Sorona is draped over his arms, she looks lifeless.
“What happened”? I ask running over to them.
“I’m not sure. I was coming here and I saw her lying on the ground”. Jet replies.
We both agree to get her to Master Hiraski as soon as possible. When we get to our former school we can see about ten guys standing outside of the school. We approach but one of the guys puts his hand out, more than likely a guard of Hiraski’s.
“Shinruga Deshreneto, you may proceed. Who are these and what happened to the girl”? He asks.
The guard is enormous, his whole body and face is full of scars. He bears Hiraski’s mark though so I know we can trust him.
“I am Jet and this is Sorona we both attended this school, now if you don’t mind we need to get through to take her to Hiraski”. Jet says angrily.
The guards let us through we run as fast as we can to Hiraski. He asks us both what happened to Sorona. Jet puts his head down and almost starts to cry but before he can Hiraski grabs his arm.
“I will fix her don’t worry”. He says.
Hiraski puts his hands just above Sorona’s and adds energy to his hands. He goes up and down her body several times and just before we think he’s done his energy pulls out three needles from her side. I pick up one of the needles and realize who’s they are.
“I recognize them anywhere, its Ikeya’s”. I say.
Hiraski gets up and waves his hand, the shadow on the wall begins to take form. Yamasaki is standing in front of us all.
Yamasaki leans over and Hiraski tells him something, in a flash he’s gone. Hiraski tells us that the whole town will now be on guard watching for Ikeya. Sange comes bursting through the door he cradles Sorona in his arms begging that she’ll be all right. Hiraski assures Sange that he has done everything he needs to, to save her life.
“Now all she needs is some rest and her wounds will be healed by morning”. Hiraski says.
Jet asks Sange if it would be all right if he could sleep with her tonight. Sange nods and they take her to her bedroom. Hiraski reminds them that a nurse will be in the next room so as nothing will go wrong.
“Why, if he stabbed the needles in her why beat her up like that”. I ask.
“To make it look as though it was just a robbery or a thug attack. Ikeya’s smart if those needles had been in there much longer she would’ve died. It’s late you should be getting to bed now. After all you have a fight tomorrow”. He says.
Did Yamasaki tell Hiraski of our fight? Is our fight still going to happen, why does he want to fight so badly? These questions plague me all night, who is Hiraski, why is he so interested in me? I stay up for several hours but the questions keep coming and to no avail does an answer arise. When I finally do get to sleep it’s filled with the same nightmare of Kita and me fighting.
Shoving from my left side awakes me from my slumber. My eyes open to see Jet’s familiar face. He reminds me that Yamasaki and X’s fight is in about an hour. It takes me some time to get ready by the time I finally get to the training center most of the students are already there standing in a circle. X and Yamasaki are standing in the middle of them. Hiraski grabs my shoulder and explains the rules.
“There will be nothing above a mid level attack in this fight”. He says. “I want to see what the two of you are capable of without using your highest level attacks”.
Hiraski walks into the middle of Yamasaki and X. He explains the rules one more time to the two of them, X and Yamasaki both nod their heads in acknowledgement.
Looking around the room I can that there is almost nothing left of the training center. Most of the roof is gone and a lot of the support beams are scarred. By looking though I can see that there are quite a few advantages to the new landscape.
Hiraski steps back a few feet and calls for them to fight. X as usual uses all his speed to get right up to Yamasaki. Before X can manage to throw more than a few punches Yamasaki’s knee connects to his gut. He stammers backwards and powers up some energy. This time it’s Yamasaki who charges X punches the ground sending an earth wave at his opponent.
“He’s already lost”. Hiraski says.
“How”? Jet asks.
“X always relied on his anger to power him through his fights now that it’s gone he’s off of his game. He needs to find something else to fill the void of where his anger was. When two people are fighting and one of them is off their game it’s very easy to tell who is going to win”. Hiraski explains.
I turn my head back to the fight, X is getting pounded. All of his attacks are just sloppy to say the least. Hiraski nudges my arm to remind me that I’m up next to fight.
Turning my attention back to the fight I can see that X is away from Yamasaki. He is rapidly firing off energy blast, the sure sign of a Psychian’s desperation. Yamasaki simply avoids the blasts, jumps into the air and rains fire upon X. X focuses his energy into a shield, when the fire dissipates X attacks. He throws an onslaught of punches and energy blasts. Yamasaki merely blocks and deflects his attacks. Yamasaki gets close to X and before X can use another attack Yamasaki puts his hand on the ground. A piece of earth comes up from the ground; it’s in the shape of a dragon.
“I wouldn’t say that’s exactly mid level”? I say.
“For Yamasaki it is. It’s one of my attacks I found a new way to manipulate the earth making it easier to conjure up animals”. Hiraski explains.
X forges a few of his power patches but before he can even plant them on his hands, Yamasaki’s dragon knocks him to the ground. X summons all the energy in his body to blast the dragons face. The dragon turns to dust.
“Where are you”? X yells in rage.
X turns his head every way to see where Yamasaki is located. He finally senses Yamasaki’s presence, it’s too late. The tip of Yamasaki’s blade is at X’s nose.
“This fight is over”. Hiraski yells.
X steps b
ack I can see that his anger is growing. The look in his eyes the same look that he gave me when we fought. His hands charge up with energy. Hiraski steps in the middle of the two of them. He tells X that if he attacks he will chop his arm off. X finally backs down and starts walking back to the school. Hiraski grabs his shoulder and says something below a whisper. X continues to walk into the school.
Hiraski turns his attention back to the students. He points to me and directs me to fight.
“Hopefully you can present me with a better challenge”. Yamasaki says.
“Don’t worry that won’t be a problem”. I say.
Hiraski once again steps in between and reminds us of the rules. He tells us both to get ready to fight.I charge my hands with energy and wait for Yamasaki to attack.
A single leaf from a Maplech tree falls signaling for our fight to begin. Yamasaki shoots at me like a bullet I block his oncoming kick to my side. Grabbing his leg I throw him onto the ground. Shooting several blasts Yamasaki dodges them, and fires back with a dagger of ice. I draw my sword and slice it in half. The two pieces turn to water Yamasaki comes to fight once again. My feet won’t budge, when I look down. There is a sheet of ice sticking me to the ground. By the time my eyes catch Yamasaki’s figure he’s only a few feet away. With my sword still in hand I hold it up to defend myself. His attack is vicious, when our swords connect sparks and lightning starts shooting out. The crowd is going nuts with excitement. It doesn’t take too long before the lightning is hitting the ice to which has encased my feet. When Yamasaki finally backs off, I hit the ice off of my feet. We lock swords again for a few seconds I’m winning but with a quick maneuver, our swords go flying. Yamasaki leaps forward tackling me to the ground. He tries to punch me in the face but I put my hands to the ground putting a shield of earth over me. Lunging onto Yamasaki I pin the earth to his body, trapping him there. I fill my hands with energy punching Yamasaki’s face as many times as I can. He powers up and his power is so incredible it breaks the earth and I off of Yamasaki.
“Simple moves like that won’t work”. Yamasaki says panting.
“I hope not”. I say.
Yamasaki stares me down for a few seconds but this time I charge. I use my arm to fake an attack but sweep his leg with mine. He falls to the ground, before I can land another hit he’s already up. With a concentrated energy blast it barely misses my head. He’s too quick for my eyes to follow Yamasaki lands two good hooks to my cheeks. The punches send me to the ground I roll backwards and am quickly on guard. Yamasaki’s coming at me once again; he fills both hands with energy and fires a fury of blast. Thinking quickly, I duck behind a piece of the debris left over from the training centers roof. I can feel that the piece of debris is crumbling with every blast. Yamasaki appears in front of me firing some more blasts, the blasts are still coming from behind as well. I jump to the right and take refuge behind another piece of stone. I notice that my sword is stabbed into the ground right beside me. I take a peek my assumption was right a blast sitter.
Blasts sitters are a common trick by Psychian’s, by focusing your energy and leave it one spot. As much energy as the Psychian puts in it the blast sitter will fire.
I stand charging at the blast sitter deflecting the blast coming out of it. Yamasaki tries to intervene but I send an earth wave at him. I slice the sitter in half the remaining power explodes in my face. I take cover within the smoke. Giving Yamasaki no time to think I fire several blasts at him. They go whizzing by his head. After his confusion has kicked in I strike with my sword. He of course is on guard and blocks the strike with ease.
“Petty attacks like that will have no effect”. Yamasaki says with a smirk.
Yamasaki and I are still gridlocked when my energy blasts come back. Yamasaki somehow senses them and jumps backwards. I can’t move out of the way in time and hold my hands out; I slide backwards for a few seconds and use my hands to send them flying upwards. I shake my hands of the heat but before I can take a second to relax Yamasaki is already closing in. He pulls out his sword once more and holds it over his head. Yamasaki’s handles his sword so easy and fast that I cannot keep up. The last swing of his sword catches my chest cutting my shirt and leaving a small slice on my chest. The crowd falls silent as I sink to the ground on my right knee.
“Easy Yamasaki this is only a sparring match”. Yells Hiraski.
“Sorry sir won’t happen again”. Yamasaki says.
After taking a few seconds to apply some energy over my wound, I finally rise to my feet. Yamasaki is staring me down; I decide it’s ready to show my full power.
“It’s time Yamasaki you saw what I’m really capable of”. I say.
His usual smirk disappears as I put my hands into fist. Then the dark purple energy starts flowing out of my body. The grass below my feet starts to rise from the intensity of my power. Yamasaki is now on guard and waiting for me to attack. When I’m done everything and everybody can feel my new power.
“Do you think that stand a chance now Yamasaki”? I ask.
“We will see”. He says.
I put my hands into fighting position and charge. The first few hits connect with Yamasaki’s face, leaving him dazed. He quickly recovers and blocks the next few.
“Did you really think the power that I was using, was the extent of what I’m capable of”? Yamasaki asks.
Yamasaki and I are now gridlocked with our hands. He also powers up, I can feel the intensity. The power that he is emitting is pushing on my chest. I flip backwards adding energy to my boots, the shields from the boots hit him square in the chin. Jumping forward I tackle him to the ground but Yamasaki quickly frees himself from my hold. The next thing I can feel is his foot landing on the side of my face. I regain my footing and put my hands out. Yamasaki does the same and we both fire off a blast of energy. When the two connect sparks go flying, for a few moments it appears as though the two are equal. Once again we both power up and the blast continues to grow in strength.
“Give up Yamasaki it’s over”. I yell.
Even though I know Yamasaki and my blasts are the same I try to make him doubt himself. We both try to put more energy into our blast but instead of it continuing to grow, the blast explodes. My vision is unclear from all the smoke around. Twisting my head from side to side my eyes still can’t locate Yamasaki. To become clearer of my surroundings I close my eyes. It takes a few seconds but I finally pick up his location. Firing a blast from my hand it scares Yamasaki out of hiding. Yamasaki comes out from the smoke and slashes what he thinks is me. After he realizes it’s only a stone figure, he looks every which way but it’s too late. My right foot lands to his left temple. Yamasaki falls to the ground wrenching the left side of his face. By manipulating the wind I blow all the smoke away.
“I told you to give up”. I brag.
Yamasaki powers up once again, his energy surging through his body. He bolts towards me I use my energy to create handholds in the air. When I get to the final hold, I jump to a railing of what use to be the roof of the training center. My climb is stopped short by Yamasaki, who somehow found a faster way up. With the look of rage in his eyes he fires off one blast after another. At first my thought is that he’s trying to hit me but his plan becomes apparent. The blast hit above me hitting the cracked ceiling. Soon the ceiling and ladder start trembling, next they break apart. Now free falling through the air I push off of the ladder. The second my feet touch the ground I change into my Kimoshiran form, I form my hands into the necessary position for Kimoshiran gateway. My body sinks into the ground a second before the debris hits the ground.
“Yamasaki this is a sparring match”. Hiraski yells.
“He’s not finished”. Yamasaki responds.
I can see Yamasaki looking around, now is the time to strike. I run out with my sword drawn, Yamasaki unsheathes his sword to block. Our swords connect with enough force to imprint the ground at our feet.
“You can’t keep this up forever Shinruga”. Yamasa
ki says.
“Neither can you, I can feel your power going down”. I reply.
Yamasaki powers up his energy enough to fend our swords off of each other. We stand staring each other down, his dragon blade and my Monkey blade. I put out my sword and call out my attack.
“A dozen monkeys”. I yell.
A dozen monkeys appear from the ground, they start circling around me. Their faces are cute and look as though they couldn’t harm a fly. Once I point my sword to Yamasaki the monkeys faces change from cute and playful to horrific and evil. They charge at him climbing and jumping on anything and everything. Yamasaki’s eyes are having a hard time focusing on all of them. He fires a few blasts from his hands and manages to hit a few but most of them are already by him. He puts his hand to the ground and summons another dragon made of earth. The dragon and monkeys fight for a little bit and I wait for them to get closer to Yamasaki. When they do I light them on fire, by making my hand into a fist the monkeys explode. I wait for the smoke to clear to locate my opponent. I stare into the smoke waiting for him but still nothing. My eyes catch a shadow I run towards it but instead of it being Yamasaki it’s another earth dragon. When the dragon puts its head down I jump onto it. I can see Yamasaki with his hands full of energy. Pushing off of the dragons back I pull out my sword targeting Yamasaki.
“Now you’re finished Shinruga”. He says.
I’m about to put my sword into Yamasaki’s chest, when he makes his blast bigger.
“Take this”. Yamasaki says.
He fires his blast, before it can hit me I put out my left hand. Shooting energy to the ground I use it to swerve to the right. When I touch ground I put my sword to the back of his neck.
“You think that I’m done. I can just go forward”. Yamasaki says.
“Try that with him on your chest”. I say.
Looking on his chest Yamasaki can see the last monkey staring him down.
“What but how”? He says.
“This fight is over”. Hiraski says.
Hiraski walks over to me from the sidelines. He congratulates me on winning the fight. He pulls a sword from his back and hands it to me. I accept the blade its hilt is made of a single wing and the handle looks as though it’s dragon skin. The dragons head is at the bottom of the blades handle.
The students come over and shake my hand and pat my back congratulating me.
“All right Shinruga”. Jet says.
I see Yamasaki walking away into the school. Catching up to him I grab his shoulder, he turns around asking what I want. He tells me that he was hoping that I would win, that the dragon blade will be of vital use to me.
“My sister was the same way, never could lose a fight”. I say.
“Your sister, what happened to her”? He asks.
I tell him the story and he only says one thing, that he will look into it and he walks away.
Somehow my body lingers back to my room and into my bed. It doesn’t take me much time to get to sleep, seeing as I just got out of a fight. I wait for the next day to come so that I can see Sounni again.
Chapter 11
Graduation