My father arrives about nine o’ clock the next morning. He walks in like it’s his house. I introduce him to Jet and they shake hands. My father looks at him a little funny and just looks over to Furrock. He sits down in the living room talking everything over. Compliments Furrock on how the place looks. I’ve never seen my father look so patient. Seems like Furrock has something to do with his new state of mind.
“I had no idea the blade had a Shard in it son”. He says.
I can tell he didn’t know that the sword had the Shard. He tells me he also got the letter that I sent him. Furrock ask my dad what the letter was about. My father points at Jet and ask if he would tell Furrock what it was about.
“It’s about the city of Pokera, it’s under siege by the Apocalypse Unit”. He says.
“That’s a shame, it’s one of our biggest cities. Shinsaga, did you mail a letter to Hiraski”? Furrock asks.
I hear a glass drop to the ground. It was Sounni, she lets out a gasp. Furrock asks her what’s wrong.
“Rikki”. She says.
Furrock tells us about his cousin who went to Pokera a couple of years ago. They haven’t heard anything from him in a while. I feel bad for them, and even worse because this would be second time they’ve lost someone. It was ten years ago tomorrow come to think of it. Twelve years ago my family and Furrock’s lived in Shiran. It was a Thursday morning, I was woken up by bombs. I went outside to watch but my dad pushed me back inside. The AU (Apocalypse Unit) attacked and my father and Furrock fought them off Sounni’s house was one of the first to be attacked. She lost her mother that day. Furrock fought as hard as he could and so did my dad. It took until three in the afternoon to kill them all. When it was all said and done the town was reduced to practically rubble. Furrock never forgot that day, he hasn’t been the same since that day. Twenty three people dead and no homes for the survivors. My father packed up what little stuff that we had, and moved to Renamorcen. Which at that time was nothing but people flocked to the city to be under my dad’s watchful eye.
It’s noon now and my father tells me we should head to the school. I’m really nervous and my father can see that. He puts his arm around me and tells me not to worry. When we get there, there is a whole bunch of young Psychian’s. Trying to sign up for classes I suppose. Furrock walks up to a young but still older Psychian, than the rest. It takes me a second to realize that this Psychian is the master. His name is Ikeya, he has a pair of small glasses. A formal uniform and a weird symbol on it. I can see by his uniform that he is a very tidy person. He takes us to a back room, when he turns on the light I can see it. The twenty first Shard of the Triple Psychian.
“When I ask you pull your blade out. The energy in your blade will go from yours to this one and back to your blade again. If it does, I will accept you into my school immediately”. He says.
I notice that Jet is kind of hiding in the back for some reason, but I ignore the weird behavior.
“Classes start in two days you have till then to bring your stuff”.
“My friend Jet would also like to join your school”. I tell him.
“Well the friend of Shinruga, why not”. He says. “See you in two days, be prepared for some intense training”. He says.
Ikeya nods and goes into a different room. I tell Furrock to tell me everything he knows about Ikeya. He tells me that Ikeya is one the six royals. A royal in our world is someone who has completed a mission and done many things to help our kind. They’re family is also one of the six who came up with our way of life. Who also showed us how to rebuild our world.
We leave the school, my father asks me if I want to go into town and look at some stuff for sale. Furrock takes Jet back to his house. My father goes into the market, he’s like a kid picking everything up and looking at everything he possibly can. He picks up a pair of fighting boots and hands them to me.
“What’s special about these”? I ask.
He tells me that they’re Rock boots. When you’re about to get hit if you add energy to them it puts a shield around your feet. I buy the boots and they actually look quite dashing on me. We enjoy the rest of the day shopping and looking for stuff. I buy a very nice looking necklace for my mom and tell my dad to give it to her. I also pick up something for Sounni. My dad ask who it’s for and I tell him that I’m going to ask Sounni out for a date. The necklace is encased in silver and has a stone on it that has an emerald color to it, on the back of the silver part it has writing that says “Kryptonite”. My father goes to the end of the town and tells me he has to get back home. He tells me good luck and gives me a small hug.
“Love you my son”. He whispers.
Just like that he’s gone, and I miss him already. I walk back to Furrock’s and come inside, Furrock is at the kitchen table. Eating some food, Sounni is in the living room reading a book. I ask where Jet is at, Furrock tells me he’s outside doing something to his new blade. I rush outside to see what he is doing to the blade.
“What are you doing to the blade”? I asks.
He holds the blade up to me and shows me a part of the blade. I examine the blade and see a part of it has a knick in it. Whoever forged this blade wasn’t that good. The Phercon in the blade could have escaped. The last time that happened the Phercon was twenty times stronger than when it was put in there.
Furrock comes outside a few seconds later. He asks us what we’re doing we tell him.
“Do you two want to spar with me”? He asks.
“Sure”. I say.
I and Jet stand in ready for him. Furrock is calm and cool, he looks at us both with a conceited look on his face. He starts building up some energy, but Jet and I know what he’s about to do. He’s trying to summon and energy wolf. Jet acts quickly and slaps the ground and makes a piece of earth fly up at Furrock’s ball of energy. Furrock’s ball of energy disappears, he jumps over to us striking us with hard and fast blows. Jet manages to block a few but I’m not so lucky. It takes me a second to get up but Jet is able to hold his own for a little bit. When Jet falls from Furrock’s barrage of attacks, I pick up right away. I shoot out a couple of energy blast at Furrock. He dodges one and cups another one in his hands, spins and fires it back.
“How did he do that”? I ask.
Furrock is vicious he’s not like my father. He is straight to the point and accurate with his attacks. I have to wonder how my father ever beat him. After a few more minutes of sparring Furrock says that he has some business to attend to. Jet and I go back into the house and see that Sounni is still in the living room reading. She looks up for only a second and then goes back to reading. I ask Jet how he was able to block so many of Furrock’s attacks.
“I don’t know, I guess being imprisoned at Pokera made my reflexes above average”. He says.
I nod and go to our room and wait for Furrock to return. I’m meditating when I hear a noise in the kitchen. I walk into the hallway, I look in the living room and I see Sounni holding a fireplace poker out. There is a man standing in the living room. His chuckle tells me of what his intentions are.
“Jet get out here now, leave now ”. I yell at him.
“Furrock should have taught you to mind your own business”. The man says.
“She is my business”. I say.
“Nectoris is the name”. He says.
He goes on to tell me that he was the one who targeted the city ten years ago. Jet comes out of the bathroom, he immediately senses the man and is on guard. How he got into the house I don’t know the house door was never opened. I would’ve heard it open, so how did he get in. All the windows are closed. Jet is about to make a move I can see it. If this guy gets Sounni we’re at a stale mate. I can see Jet getting more and more anxious but before he makes a move. That would otherwise put Sounni in harm’s way, I think of something.
“Sounni, could you tell me if you know where your father keeps a set of kunai”? I asks.
She looks to the right of her and so does her opponent. When he does I throw
one of my own kunai and it hits Sounni’s weapon. Her weapon bounces off the wall behind her and stabs Nectoris in his arm. Knowing that fighting with one arm would be hard for him he bolts out the window. Glass goes flying out everywhere I push it with energy towards Nectoris. The glass misses him and Jet and I follow him. I jump in front of Nectoris to cut him off.
“You think we’re going to just let you go I don’t think so”. I yell.
Nectoris is about to head to his right, but Furrock is there. I’m guessing he sees that the fire poker in Nectoris’s arm is his.
“There you are Furrock. You going to fight me to kind of unfair don’t you think”? He asks.
“Unfair would be fighting a little girl like you do”. Furrock says.
Nectoris pulls the fire poker out of his arm and throws it at Furrock. It misses by a long shot of course.
“Nectoris I won’t fight you frankly it would be too easy, these two will though”. He says.
“Well then come on, let’s see what you got”. Nectoris says with a bead of sweat going down his face.
Jet charges as fast as he can. He attacks with such a ferocity I’m almost too stunned to move. Something he probably picked up from being in Pokera, don’t stop attacking till you have no energy left. I finally start after Nectoris and fire a bunch of energy blast. Jet has him so distracted that he doesn’t even see them. He’s hit one after another, they hit him so hard he falls to the ground. Jet is over top of him ready to stab him, but Furrock stops him.
“I want him alive Jet”. He yells.
We drag him back to Furrock’s house and tie him up to a chair. It’s hard to keep a Psychian held hostage because their hands can use energy. We use what’s called a Hand Tazer. Every time the user uses energy it zaps them. He keeps asking what Furrock wants, but Furrock doesn’t seem to mind him at all. Soon a mail person comes to the door and Furrock hands him a paper. Furrock tells Nectoris that he is going to stay there for a couple of days.
“What do you want”? He asks.
Furrock tells him that he will find out in a day or two. Also that he would be stupid to try to escape. With three Psychian’s to hold him from escaping.
“Plus not to mention my daughter and a fire poker”. Furrock says with a chuckle.
Nectoris lets out a little chuckle and as Furrock is in front of him, opens his mouth and lets out a mouthful of energy. Furrock barely evades the blast and punches him across the face. I think he punched him because it destroyed half of his kitchen.
“Hook a hand tazer to his mouth as well Shinruga”. He says.
We wait and about four hours later a group of men come to Furrock’s door. There is four of them, they are all in white and have a weird symbol on their uniform. When they walk in one of them talks to Furrock for a little bit. They untie Nectoris and walk him outside. I remember the look in Nectoris’s eyes, it alarmed me down to the bone.
“Who are those guys Furrock”? I ask.
He just nods, goes outside and starts cutting down some trees. Sounni tells me that he is collecting some wood to fix the house. I get up go outside and start carrying in the wood. Jet starts cutting it into a certain length for the missing pieces of the house. Something he probably learned from fixing and building stuff at Pokera. Furrock comes in sees Jet and gives a smile of approval. He notices that I’m not doing anything, he tells me to cut a perfect square right down to the ground. Furrock gives Jet a bag of nails, he starts putting the wall together. It only takes us twenty minutes to put the whole wall together. Furrock uses his energy in the wall. Psychian’s put energy in their walls so in case they are attacked from the outside, the energy will defend the house. Finding some sheet metal lying around the wall is put together in an hour.
“Good work you two”. Furrock says.
We go back to the living room and start reading books. A couple of minutes later ask Furrock if I could use the shower.
“Sure, Jet and I need to go to town, to pick up some stuff for dinner”. He says.
Jet nods and they go out the door. Going into the bathroom there is the toilet and the shower. To start a shower in our time there is a place below the pipe that you add some fire to. Using your energy you pull water from a lake. Which the pipes lead to, when the water passes through where the fire is it warms the water. It takes a few minutes to pull the water from the lake. It also takes a few minutes for the water to warm up. The shower is warm and soothing, considering what’s happened to us all in the last few days. The door opens softly and I can see the figure of Sounni outside the curtain. She tells me there is a towel on the back of the toilet. I spend some amount of time in the shower, it’s one of my favorite things to do. I get out and get dressed. Walking out Sounni ask if I can help her out. She needs help with the shower, Sounni is not Psychian so she can’t work the shower. Normally Furrock has it set up so Sounni doesn’t need his help.
“He does something with that knob down there but I never pay attention”. She says.
I have to keep feeding the water or else she won’t be able to take a shower. The curtain shows Sounni’s outline as she’s undressing.
“Shinruga”. She yells.
Thinking that she’s seen me looking at her outline in the curtain, I about fall off the toilet.
“Where is the water”? She asks.
“Oh, right. Sorry about that”. I say.
The waters already pretty warm from the last time. When she’s done I hand her the second towel on the back of the toilet. She steps out of the shower with the towel covering her breasts and private area. She gives me a funny look, it takes me a few minutes to understand what she wants. I go out of the bathroom and into the living room. Sounni comes out in a low cut white halter top and some black slacks.
“You look nice”. I tell her.
She says thank you and goes to do the few dishes that are there.
We wait for Furrock and Jet to come back from their day of shopping. When they do get back Sounni and I mention nothing about us being in the bathroom together. They brought back some meat from the market and Furrock puts it in the freezer. Psychian’s can manipulate any element, by using old freezers we make a block of ice and freeze everything. I’ve wanted to ask Sounni out to dinner since I met her, this last time especially. I notice that Furrock is in quite a good mood. While mopping the floor Sounni looks up to notice me looking at her.
“Sounni would you like to go to dinner sometime”? I ask.
Furrock’s eyes dart to mine, then to Sounni’s. I’m about ready to say it’s all a joke.
“Sure, when and where”? She says excitedly.
Furrock is about to stand up but Sounni walks over to him. They whisper, when they’re done Furrock stands up walks over to me.
“Take care of her and be good”. He says.
After that Sounni walks over to me and tells me that we’ll go to a place called Bickery’s. First though she wants to go to town and look around before we go.
“What time”? I ask.
“Seven thirty”. She says.
It’s about four o’ clock; she wants to go about five. I go to my room and spend time, getting ready for our date. I’m a little excited I must admit. Noticing Furrock’s reflection in the mirror, I tell him he can come in.
“That is my daughter, hurt her…Well you’re just lucky Shinsaga is my best friend”. He says. “Have fun on your date. I’m glad though it’s you, couldn’t ask for anyone else than the son of my own best friend”. He says.
It’s about four thirty. We’re all sitting in the living room. Sounni comes out in an all red dress thatgoes just above her knees. Her hair is completely straightened but the top is put into a rubber band in the back. I like this look it makes her look so beautiful. My eyes go wide but I catch it in time to look natural.
“You look nice Shinruga”. She says.
I’m dressed in a white button down, nice looking slacks and some dress shoes.
“It complements the red in
your dress”. I blurt out.
She giggles a little and grabs me by the arm and drags me out the door practically. Furrock stops us right as we’re about to get out the door, puts out his arm for a hug from Sounni. She gives him a hug tells Furrock that she’ll be all right and we go.
We’re just at the edge of the city; Sounni sees some shoes that she thinks would go perfectly with her dress. The shop owner tells me that they’re a few chanks, so I hand them to him. She immediately puts them on, she lights up in satisfaction. We walk through the city till we get to the restaurant called Bickery’s. We get into Bickery’s and it’s filled with people eating, the food looks spectacular. I can tell it’s a formal restaurant. The lady who works at the restaurant comes over to us. She tells us that the special for the day is steak and potatoes. She asks us what we would like to drink. I order us both a glass of white wine and some water.
“Shinruga, why did you want to go out with me”? She asks.
My emotions start to talk for me, I start saying random things.
“I get it”. She says.
We enjoy the rest of our dinner, pay for it and leave. Going down the street there is everything from demonstrations of different attacks, people dancing to music. A slow song comes on when we are going by the other people. Sounni grabs my hand, pulling me back to her. Placing my hand in hers and the other on my shoulder. The man in the song is singing about never letting go of someone. We get lost in each other’s arms, Sounni gets closer and closes her eyes. We dance till that song is over, never letting go of each other through the whole song. Walking down the street we see a light, as we get closer it moves further back. Immediately I sense them, two figures from the right. Pushing Sounni back I’m able to dodge the two men’s energy blast.
“My name is Dart”. The man says.
I tell him I could care less, and ask him what his intentions are. He smiles and tries to attack but I just knock him down. They aren’t that strong but two on one are never good odds.
“You’re the kind of scum that sneaks up on a person, knocks them out and steals their stuff”. I say.
Those kinds of people make me sick. The ones who can’t even fight like a real man. With honor the main moral of a Psychian.
Dart comes at me once again, I knock him down again. Making sure that the other guy doesn’t sneak up on me or Sounni either. Two city guards come over they both charge up some energy. Realizing who I am they point their hands at Dart and his friend. They ask us who they are and what they wanted with us.
“Just a couple of thugs”. I say.
Sounni grabs my arm again. She is trembling I can feel it. We go to a place by a lake, Sounni sits down by a big tree. Sitting beside her she tells me about when the city was attacked ten years ago and how she misses her mother. I grab her around her arms and we sit there. We accidentally fall asleep under the tree. When I wake the sun is bright in my eyes, Sounni is laying in my arms still. I shake her, when she wakes up, she lets out a gasp.
“Dad”. She yells. “He’s going to kill us both”.
We run back to her house, when we get inside Furrock is sitting at the table tapping his fingers. He points his finger to the chair, he wants me to sit.
“Baby girl go into your bathroom the shower is ready for you”. He says with a killer look on his face.
I sit in the chair he’s pointed to, Furrock says nothing at first.
“…Shinruga, that’s my little girl if anything happened”. He starts to say.
“The truth is nothing happened, we sat under a tree and accidentally fell asleep”. I say.
He gives and a sigh, I ask him what’s wrong. Furrock puts his hand on a mirror, he gets the image in his head. Adds some energy to the mirror, I get up to look. The image that he has on the mirror is of a picture of him and his wife. They’re under the same tree that Sounni and I slept under.
“I and Sounni’s mother stayed under that same tree, it’s one of the only things in town that wasn’t destroyed ten years ago”. He says. “Sounni will go to that tree every year on the day her mother died, she misses her so much”.
“I see”.
Furrock tells me that I can go. I stay instead asking Furrock many questions about Sounni’s mother and the attack on Shiran.
It’s not too long until Sounni comes out. She asks me if I want to go into town again.
“Daddy is it all right”? She asks.
“Yeah, sure”. He says.
We get into town and the city streets are bustling with people. The hours go by quickly while we’re together. Furrock greets us when we get back to his house, food is strung out along the table.
“I’ve been through all the forms of training. The food is not the greatest. So for your last meal here I’ve prepared a big dinner for all of us”.
The dinner is fabulous Furrock tells me that Sounni’s mother came up with all the recipes.
When everyone is done with dinner, Sounni brings out all the deserts. When the dishes are done we all go into the living room and watch a movie. Something about people skipping some holiday of old earth.
Psychian’s can use their power to repair or make any electrical device work again. When the movie is over we go to the school. When we’re about to go in to the school Sounni grabs my head and kisses me like she never has.
“See you when you get out”. She says.
I nod and Jet and I go into the school. Into our room and unpack a lot of our stuff, we both drop onto our beds and turn in.
“Night Shinruga, tomorrow we start our classes”. He says.
“Did you even go to classes to get your Shogun training”? I ask.
He tells me that it was something he worked on when he could.
“Good to know”. I say.
I turn over and drift off to sleep, waiting for the morning. Some Psychian’s despise me, because of my father. I met someone in my training who wanted me dead, my father killed his father. Since that day he vowed revenge.
My teacher Sochajo watched out for me, when he tried to kill me Sochajo stopped him. Since that day he left me alone.
I lie there waiting for the nightmares to come but they never do.
Chapter 6
Kimoshiran Training Starts