***
Chisai always had a creative personality, and today was no exception. As she drew in her sketchbook, trying to drown out the dullness of her instructor and the pointless concepts of math lessons, detailed figures that she kept seeing in her dreams started to take life from simple drawings and rough outlines. The details became finer with each overpass. It helped that the jeweled glove she wore on her right hand was a good luck charm she received from her older brother before his passing, but in this case, it helped prevent smudging while she was drawing. Even she was amazed at how easily her drawings seemed to take life. Everything seemed perf-
"Psst!"
A slight moment in lost concentration, and a stray line crosses across the whole image, which causes her latest piece of work to turn into an irrecoverable scribbled mess. Chisai starts to cringe, knowing that the piece that she just worked on, the piece that she spent the latter half of math class trying to complete, was now nothing more than a mere doodle.
"Psst!" Nakafumi leans over, trying to get Chisai's attention.
Chisai slowly turns her head in Nakafumi's direction, trying to glare with all she can muster. "What?" she says grumpily, but softly, trying not to disturb the class, yet again.
"Are we still seeing the movie this weekend?"
Plans of the weekend were nowhere in Chisai's memory. She was purely focused on her art, trying to make sure that all of the details she could recall could be transposed into her drawings, and making sure to keep a low profile in class. After sorting through all of her thoughts, it occurred to her that she made plans with her best friend to see the latest action-thriller of the season, Sword Titan 4. Realizing that the plans that Nakafumi asked about were, in fact, planned, Chisai starts to become relaxed and responds. "You bet! I wouldn't miss it for anything. I...." her cheerful response trails off as a shooting pain goes through her chest. Her eyes open wide as she looks past Nakafumi, and starts to bend over her desk, looking slightly dazed.
Paying close attention to her expression, Nakafumi reaches over to help her friend. "Chisai?"
Something was obviously wrong, and Chisai knew it, but she didn't know what it was, or what to do about it. She faced her desk, hoping to hide any issues from her best friend. Her long brown ponytail wrapped around her head and blocked part of her face. Noticing herself shaking uncontrollably, she grabbed the edges of the desk, hoping to stabilize herself. As the sweat starts to pour off of her face, the overhead classroom lights reflected onto her desk. She couldn't pin-point the exact issue, but something inside of her was making her feel worse than any pain she had ever experienced. At this point, the jewel that sat in the middle of her glove started glowing, then dimming, almost pulsating continuously.
Trying to gain her best friend's attention, Nakafumi repeated herself as she inched closer to her. "Chisai? Is everything okay?" Moving to get a better view of Chisai's face, Nakafumi wasn't prepared for what she saw.
Chisai's eyes were blank. Completely white - void of life.
Nakafumi quickly shuffled back to her chair, scared of the sight of her best friend showing extremely odd behavior and not having the slightest clue of what to do.
CRAAACK! The desk that Chisai was holding on to was now split into two pieces. The grip that she had on the edges and the pressure she was putting on those areas was enough to break the desk in half.
The loud sound gained the attention of the instructor, who was continuing his writing on the front board. He whipped around to see where the loud noise originated from. The sight of a broken desk in the middle of the classroom would alarm anyone, but not this instructor. The previous encounters with Chisai had left him skeptical of any attempts for attention, including long restroom breaks, throwing paper airplanes across the classroom, stacking chairs into a pyramid, writing messages on the windows, her cell phone going off with a distracting ring tone, etc. A broken desk was on the list of "inevitable things" that this instructor knew was going to happen some day.
He closed the textbook he was holding and places it on his desk. Pulling up his desk chair, he grudgingly sits in it, expecting this charade to take its time as it played out. Previous antics had taken up to near thirty minutes to complete, so he knew it would pass eventually. Any resistance he gave would engage the outburst and it would usually not end in his favor. At this point, he learned to just sit back and let it happen.
Seeing that the instructor really didn't care anymore, Nakafumi loudly spoke up, "Sensei! I think that Chisai needs to see the nurse!"
The instructor disregarded Nakafumi's notice. Instead, he pulls out a personal digital tablet from a desk drawer and turns it on. The reflection of the tablet's display is faintly reflected in his square glasses.
"Sensei!" Nakafumi calls out again.
The instructor lets out a large sigh. "Konami-san, you can't fool me this time. End this foolishness before I send you to the Principal," he says without any emotion.
"I-I-I......" Chisai starts to say with a raspy-like voice. Noticing this, Nakafumi turns her attention to getting Chisai to the school nurse, regardless of how the instructor acted. She stands up, moving closer to Chisai. She bends over and starts to wrap her arm around Chisai's waist, hoping to get her moving.
"I....feel......" Chisai tries to continue.
"It's okay, Chisai. I'll get you some help." Nakafumi stands up holding Chisai, who drops the pieces of desk she is holding on to. As soon as they walk around the pieces of broken desk, Nakafumi gets pulled downward to the floor. Chisai is now balled up on the floor, still shaking and sweating.
"This is getting old, Konami-san." The instructor, who could care less at this point, puts his feet on his desk and gets comfortable in his chair.
"Sensei! I don't think she's kidding around. She looks like she's in some serious pain!" Nakafumi yells out. The other students around her look worried, but don't want to help.
"I....feel....." Chisai tries to say again.
Outside the classroom window, a small squirrel is running back and forth on a branch. Most people would think that this squirrel is trying to find some nuts around, or is being chased by something. It pauses every few moments to look into the classroom through the windows. It even looks like a normal squirrel, except for the blue vest it's wearing. "Oh no. OH NO! It is not time yet!" it says, then runs back and forth quickly on the branch. "Oh no! OH NO! It cannot happen at this time!"
One minutes and forty seconds into the round, and it seems that Niko and Tsuyoki are evenly matched. Kicks are swung, punches are thrown, and not one point has been scored yet, which means that the score is still 3-2 in Niko's favor. If a point is not scored in the next twenty seconds, one of the judges will throw in a yellow flag, meaning that the two-minute round ends and they must begin again.
"Fifteen seconds," one judge calls out.
Niko and Tsuyoki are too busy analyzing each other, attacking and defending, and avoiding strong blows that they don't even realize that two minutes is almost up.
"Ten seconds," the judge calls out again.
A strange feeling is building up inside of Niko, but it doesn't get his attention. Tsuyoki throws a punch, he parries and returns with a jab. He throws a kick, Tsuyoki moves and throws his own.
Dark marks start to appear on either side of Niko's face in a large scratch pattern, which means only one thing: his hair will change color from the fiery red to sleek silver, and his ears will move to the top of his head and become pointed. He's transforming into his demon cat form, something that he has the power to control, but not this time.
What the....? Why am I changing NOW? Now is NOT a good time to be doing this! He thinks to himself. Luckily, his helmet blocks any views of his ear transition and a good portion of his hair changing.
"Five seconds."
Caught up in his transformation process beginning, and the amount of time left in the round, Niko's focus is lost for a mere second. In the amount of time that he lost focus, his teeth clench into his mouth guard, and
his head is forced backwards, causing him to fly upwards, then fall backwards onto the ground.
Tsuyoki is standing upright, with one leg upward in the air in Niko's direction. He saw that Niko was slightly distracted and threw a front kick directly at Niko. Expecting Niko to move back, or at least parry it, the kick should have landed squarely on Niko's chest. Instead, it slid up and impacted Niko's neck and chin, transferring all of the power from his kick into the bottom of Niko's head.
Two red flags go up in an instant before the center judge can call out the score command. "Judges...." he starts to say.
Niko falls onto the ground, and bounces slightly, then becomes motionless for a bit.
The audience hushes, expecting the worst. The whole convention center is so quiet, the sweat from Tsuyoki can be heard hitting the ground. The red flags slowly lower.
Thinking that she can still help her best friend to the nurse's area, Nakafumi wraps her arms around Chisai once more and tries to help her up. Chisai tries to move her arms to help herself up from the floor, but her legs don't want to respond.
One student at the far end of the class runs up to the digital alert system by the door, ready to press the "Medical" button as soon as they can.
"Hold up!" The instructor snaps.
The student freezes, only a few centimeters away from the button to call the nurse.
The instructor clears his throat, then follows up. "Don't you dare press that button. This will all be over soon."
Nakafumi tries her hardest to prop Chisai up, but to no avail. With this unknown illness affecting Chisai's every system, her strength is pretty much shot. Against all of her might, Nakafumi's grip loosens, and Chisai falls onto the ground.
Worried that her friend is in a worse condition than before, Nakafumi rushes to Chisai's head, trying to get any response. Tears that formed in her eyes from the amount of care that she has for her best friend, fall onto Chisai's head. Chisai is completely unresponsive, however, her hair starts to change hues until it becomes bright orange, a nice complementary color to her blue school uniform accented by white outlines.
Pushing through the tears, Nakafumi's attention is pulled towards Chisai's orange hair. "*sniff* What? How did that happen?" She pulls up some of Chisai's hair off from the ground, and some dark marks on Chisai's face become apparent. "Where did those come from?"
The squirrel outside the classroom notices Chisai falling. "Oh my! I must warn Master!" he says as he scurries down the tree and away from the school.
Where am I? Why am I here? My mind feels like it's going a million miles an hour. What's happening to me?
Feeling slightly exhausted, Chisai pushes herself up off of the ground. Looking around at the kaleidoscopic surroundings, she tries to figure out exactly where she is.
Another figure in the near distance sits up slowly and looks around. He looks about as confused as Chisai is.
Wait! Don't I know him?
She rushes over to his location. By the time she gets there, he has stood up. His silver hair lightly reflects the multiple colors of the room. He looks down, up, and side to side at all of the multicolored areas around them, then at Chisai. He opens his mouth, but words do not come out. She does the same, with the same result. To her surprise, she reaches up for her throat, wondering where her voice went. She looks down, then back at him, slightly embarrassed. All he does is give a slight smile.
Realizing that voices were not a method of communication in this....wherever they were, both of them started reaching out to each other with their hands. As they get closer and closer to each others hand, there is a strange feeling in the air.
This feels......right. I don't know why, but it does.
The moment their hands touch, a bright light flashes from the center of their touch and quickly grows outward, making Chisai and the other person flinch from the brightness.
The center judge rushes to Niko's side and checks his vitals. He reaches down and picks up Niko's head. Dark marks are barely visible on Niko's cheeks. Thinking that they are just marks from the match, the judge disregards them. A bit of hair has escaped the helmet's holding and is now right above Niko's eyes.
Niko slowly opens his eyes, then blinks a few times.
The judge, only a foot above Niko's head, asks "Can you continue?"
Niko looks around, then pulls the back of his hand to his mouth, wiping away any blood he thought may have been there. "Yeah...I can."
"Everything is alright!" the judge yells out. A slow clapping is heard from a single person in the audience. As Daisuke stands up clapping his hands in a slow pattern, others gradually join in, until the whole audience starts clapping and cheering again.
Niko stumbles back to his starting position. Tsuyoki is standing on his position, acting like nothing happened.
The center judge returns to his spot. "Judges: Score." The two red flags go back up, each judge holds up two fingers, and the center judge raises his right hand with two fingers extended. "2 points: Konkura."
The audience cheers loudly as the large digital display updates Tsuyoki's score from a 2 to a 4.
Tsuyoki gets in a ready position, ready to end this match. Whatever just happened better not happen again – this should be a fair fight, and if he's not giving me his all, then it will be worthless.
Niko is just standing on his position. His hands are down by his side, and his head is facing downwards.
The center judge goes through his starting sequence once again. "FIGHT!"
Tsuyoki comes in with a strong punch, hoping it will make Niko pay attention. He is only a few inches away from making contact with Niko's unguarded chest, but he stops. He looks up at Niko's face.
As soon as Tsuyoki's glance met Niko's stare, Niko's eyes turn from dark navy to bright red, almost the same color as his hair is......was. Niko changed. Tsuyoki does a quick scan around to see what other changes had been made. The tuft of hair that escaped his helmet had turned silver, the dark marks on his face are more prominent, his teeth are longer. Even his presence seems stronger.
Knowing that something was wrong, Tsuyoki pulled back his punch and returned to his ready position, making sure that his guard was strong for whatever was about to come his way.
Confused by the recent events, the judges try to get closer for a better view. The master instructors up stage are confused and try to lean in for a better view.
"STAY BACK!" Tsuyoki yells out.
Stunned by the command of a participant, the judges stay where they are.
Niko's head rises to see Tsuyoki. One eye is covered by the tuft of hair that escaped, meanwhile the other stares directly in Tsuyoki's direction. In one look, Tsuyoki could tell that this stare had a sense of determination, dire passion, certainty, and maliciousness.
Before Tsuyoki can blink, he can already feel Niko's glove approaching his chest. Tsuyoki parries, but more punches follow. Trying as fast as he can, Tsuyoki parries every one. After the barrage of punches ends, kicks start coming one after the other. Each kick is increasing in complexity and power, and Tsuyoki is unsure how much longer he will be able to defend. There doesn't seem to be any openings in Niko's attack, as his offense is extremely strong and fast. He tries to move out of the way, but a series of Niko's kicks blocks him from moving in that direction. The only option he has is to do the worst thing in a sparring match: back up in a straight line. If he crosses the edge of the ring, Niko will get a point, and with the score already at 3-4, he doesn't want Niko getting any more points than necessary.
Niko's vigorous kicks progressively raise from Tsuyoki's chest area and aim for his head. He puts his arms up by his head to block the kicks, knowing that his chest is completely ope-
A jump reverse side kick hits Tsuyoki in the chest with enough force to destroy a wall. He flies out of the ring and soars thirty feet horizontally, right into a stack of extra floor padding. He lands on his feet, then slowly loses the strength in his legs and falls to his knees.
Niko lands on
his non-kicking foot and keeps the foot that kicked up, but tucked in.
"Judges: Score!" The center judge says.
Two white flags go up, and each judge holds up two fingers. The center judge holds up his left hand and extends two fingers. "2 points, and the match, to Sakuna."
The large display updates the match's score to 5-4. Tsuyoki's picture fades away and Niko's picture moves to the center and doubles in size, becoming the primary focus of the screen. The audience's cheer doubles in volume.
The center judge walks over to Niko, and grabs his left hand. Niko, still focused on Tsuyoki, resists as much as he can. The judge tries to bring Niko's hand upwards to declare him the winner. As soon as Niko's hand starts to raise, his determination, his dire passion, his maliciousness all go away and he is left very weak. His kicking leg falls to the ground and the leg he is standing on starts to wobble. He looks around, trying to figure out what just happened. He sees Tsuyoki on his knees on the far side of the main event area. "Oh crap. Tsuyoki...."
The cameras on the floor zoom in to Niko's face with the judge. He can see the broadcast on screens nearby. His large picture on the digital overhead display shows his hair returning to his regular red shade, and the marks on his face are gone. What just happened? Why did I transform?
"The winner of the tournament: Niko Sakuna" The judge calls out across the overhead intercom system.
The master instructors behind the banquet table start to stand up and clap. The audience follows suit. Suddenly, the whole convention center is filled with cheers, clapping, and rooting – all for Niko.
"We will begin the awards ceremony in ten minutes, followed by the closing ceremony." One of the master instructors says from the stage.
Daisuke, jumping the safety barrier again, runs over to Niko.
The judge holding Niko's hand puts his hand down and starts walking away. Niko starts to remove his helmet, hoping to get some fresh air. Moments later, Daisuke has his arms wrapped around Niko in a big hug. "DUDE! YOU WON!" he yells.
Niko regains his balance, but continues looking at Tsuyoki kneeling on the ground.
Daisuke grabs Niko by the shoulders and turns him around. "DUDE! Did ya hear me? You won the tournament!"
"Yeah, I heard. But I'm worried."
"About what? What could you be worried about?"
Niko looks back in Tsuyoki's direction. To his surprise, Tsuyoki was no longer there. He drops his helmet and dashes over to the stacked practice mats. Frantically looking around for any clues of Tsuyoki's whereabouts, he falls to his knees and searches the ground. A large darkened triangle on the ground is the only remaining mark from Tsuyoki's travels to the practice mats.
Daisuke walks over. Holding Niko's helmet, he asks "Where'd the other guy go?"
Niko stops his search. "I.....don't.....know." He looks perplexed as to Tsuyoki's whereabouts.
"You must of kicked the wind out of him if he couldn't even face you again."
"Yeah.....maybe." Niko thinks back to the last move of the fight. Where did that power come from? How did I kick him this far?
Daisuke offers a hand down to Niko. "Look, you have an awesome award ceremony coming up in a few minutes. Let's get the rest of this gear off ya and toweled off for the ceremony."
Niko, realizing that looking any more would be pointless, looks up at Daisuke. "You're right." He grabs Daisuke's hand and pulls himself up off the ground.
One of the master instructors, dressed in a formal suit, walks up to the podium on the stage and starts to announce the end of the awards ceremony. "At this time, we now present the tournament Grand Prize to the final victor: Niko Sakuna. Please come on the stage."
All of the high-ranking students were sitting in a evenly spaced grid formation at the front of the main event area. With his gear packed back in his bag and all toweled off, Niko stood up, walked in front of his row of students to the floor's edge, and turned to approach the front stage. He walked up the steps on the side of the stage to reach the podium in the middle, and met with the formally dressed instructor, who bowed to him and walked backwards, away from Niko.
Looking a little unsure about the upcoming events, Niko looks around thinking that he is supposed to give a speech or something.
A small squeak behind Niko causes him to jump a little. He turns around to see Grand Master Li pushing his chair back to stand up. This was something that Niko never expected to experience: a personal interaction with the Grand Master – the only 9th degree black belt in the whole sport.
As Grand Master Li approached Niko, Niko quickly bowed in respect, expecting the interaction to be extremely formal. Seeing the Grand Master's feet walk past him, Niko was questioning the possibility of the interaction. He slowly stood back up, looking in the direction that the Grand Master went – away from the podium towards the back of the stage.
The Grand Master stopped before the display of the grand prize. He yelled out "JUN BI". A few high-ranking students appear from behind the curtains with wood boards. Each set of 4 stacked boards were supported by two students each. Each group stood in predesignated areas: two groups on each the left and right side of the Grand Master holding the boards vertically, two groups at 45-degree angles on the left and right side holding their boards high but facing the floor at a slight angle, and two students placed a series if 10 concrete slabs separated by thin wood spacers in front of the Grand Master, right below the grand prize.
Each of the students holding the boards held their positions like they were bracing against a wall – they knew the amount of power coming and had to be prepared for it.
"SHI JAK," the Grand Master called out. Like a well-rehearsed play, each sequence of events happened one after the other, and all within a few seconds. The Grand Master reached to his left, punching through the 4 boards being held with ease, yelling as he plowed through. He then reached to his right and, with the palm of his hand, went through another 4 boards, yelling again as he went through. He faced forward and jumped a little, bring both feet up in the air at once, and ended up kicking both sets of the 4 boards at the 45-degree angles, yelling once more. Finally, he faced the concrete slabs and sliced through them with the outside of his hand – all ten of them. Nothing but crumbled pieces were left in the middle of the slabs. Once again, he yelled through the process. The Grand Master pulled his hand back, slowly stood up, faced the audience, then bowed.
The master instructors were shocked for a moment, then slowly stood up and started clapping. The audience followed the example.
Niko was in awe.
The Grand Master turned back towards the concrete slabs. The velvet-lined leather box that held the grand prize lowered from its raised display location to the Grand Master's height. The Grand Master reached over and grabbed the box by the base. Holding the box firmly in his arms, he turned back to Niko and started walking his way.
Awe doesn't cut it – Niko was petrified.
As the Grand Master approached the podium, he placed the leather box into the hands of the formally dressed instructor, then finished his trek to the microphone on the podium.
The audience's clapping rapidly decreased.
In a low-raspy voice, he announced "This is the dawn of a new day. The sun breaks through the darkness. In my many journeys across the world, the experiences I have gained have crafted me into who I am today. I may only be 78 years of age, but my training has kept me young in many ways. It makes me proud to see so many young people practicing this martial art, knowing that their first lesson was only the beginning of a great journey.
"Many people can think of their lives as branches of a tree – the decisions made here and now, the decisions that may be made, and the choices made in the past. Today, the tree has reached maturity and has overcome the darkness. It must now begin to plant seeds for the future.
"Therefore, as a sign of progression from the old to the new, it gives me great pleasure to award this okatana to the winner of this tournament: Niko Sakuna." he said as he swings a
hand towards Niko.
The audience's clapping and cheering resumed.
The Grand Master picked up the leather box from the formally dressed instructor, then turned towards Niko. "Niko Sakuna: please accept this okatana as a sign of a new beginning. With your noble character, you will develop a new permanence in life."
The term "stage fright" doesn't even start to describe what Niko was feeling. Embarrassment, nervousness, excitement, indecisiveness, overjoy, scared beyond reason to what was to come.
Given that the only choices he had at this point were to accept the prize with pride, or wet his pants from embarrassment, he reached both hands down slowly to accept the okatana in a formal manner. Once he touched the okatana's sheath, a spark went through Niko. His eyes opened wide, a chill went down his back, and he jumped a bit. Suddenly, all of his nervousness vanished.
He wrapped his hands around the sheath and lifted the okatana out of the box. Lifting it over his head, he faced the audience. The volume became deafening again, but died down quickly.
Niko faced the Grand Master and bowed. "Grand Master Li, I thank you for this prize. It was a pleasure to compete in this tournament, and I will accept this okatana with the greatest respect." He placed the okatana back in the velvet-lined leather box. The Grand Master removed the box top from the bottom of the box and placed it on top, covering the okatana, then handed it to Niko.
Niko accepted the box, faced the audience and put a hand up. The audience cheered again and he walked off the stage.
After the celebrations of the closing ceremony, the spectators and participants left the convention center. At this point, only a few cars were left in the parking lot.
Outside the convention center, Niko and Daisuke start walking back to the parking lot. Niko, dressed in the khakis and black shirt that he arrived in, had his gear bag and uniform over one shoulder, and the okatana box under the other arm.
Daisuke put his arm around Niko. "Dude! That's a freakin' sweet sword you got. Think I could take a look at it?"
Niko gave Daisuke a sarcastic glare. "Sorry, but this is going in a display case. I don't want to take it out unless I absolutely have to."
"Aw, man. Really? Are you sure?" Daisuke pleaded.
Niko added, "Plus, I felt something really weird when I grabbed it. I don't want you to go through the same thing."
Daisuke seemed puzzled. "Whoa – what's that mean?"
"I'm....not really sure how to explain it."
A gust of wind blows stray leaves across the parking lot. Along with the leaves floating by, a squirrel in a blue vest quickly dashes across the semi-empty parking lot towards Niko and Daisuke.
Seeing the blur of blue out of the corner of his eye, Niko turns towards the oncoming squirrel.
"Seyogi! Long time, no see!" he calls out.
The squirrel runs up to Niko, sits up. "Master!...... Master..... at last...... I have...... I have found..... you" he says panting between each phrase.
Seeing that the squirrel is obviously tired, Niko asks "Is something wrong?"
"It.....is.......time." Seyogi says trying to grasp for air.
Chapter 2