Ki Times...By Senshi Rohnan
The Stage Sets, the Preparations Begin, and the Players are Assigned...Part 2
Earth...761 A.D. Three years later
It was a cool day in the forest. The wind was calming and the dew on the grass would be dry within the hour. The sun was rising and the night animals were withdrawing themselves from the oncoming sun, into their caves and burrows. The new fresh day would only mean one thing to Vahn; training, and lots of it.
The amount of training Vahn would force upon himself to today would be a massive undertaking. The reason for all this training is because Vahn made an appointment with Capsule Corp earlier in the week, to go have a power-level reading today. And he had a goal to reach. His father's power-level being 250; Vahn told himself he must have at least 2 times as much. So today was the last day to train on, and he was going to make the best of it.
The sun rose into the early morning sky around seven. The stores in the town opened about an hour before hand, to set up for the day's customers. The town's people were awake and some were already walking or biking the streets to get to their jobs. The cars had already filled the streets from the larger cities to come to this one to do business with the store and shops owners here. Today was just another day for everyone, except for Vahn.
Vahn awoke with a tremendous yawn and a great scratch. Then, after his morning stretches, Vahn, pushing his shaggy black hair out of his eyes, walked out of his room the take a bath.
The warm water felt great on this cool morning. Filling up his bowl and dumping it over himself again, Vahn thought, 'I have to push myself today, its...7:19 now and I only have until 3 o'clock to train. I can't stop to take any breaks...no wait...I won't stop to take any breaks.' Again dumping steaming hot water over his body, letting the water soothe him, Vahn relaxed, clamed himself and prepared for the torture he would put himself through.
"AHH, man do I feel GREAT!" Vahn yelled jumping out of the bath and into his new skintight black suit and his blue Gi. "I am gonna blow those Capsule nerds away!" Then tightening his belt around his waist, brushing back his hair with his hand, and smirking at himself in the mirror, Vahn bolted out to the kitchen for breakfast.
When he got to the kitchen, his mother and father were sitting at the table eating some sausage, fried rice and oranges. Vahn merle opened the fridge, grabbed two oranges, a banana and then poured himself a glass of milk and took off outside. Leaving his parents trying to go through what just happened with Vahn and his incredible speed this morning.
"That boy, always in a hurry. ShinHan you must teach that boy not to fly in the house," Clara said, popping ShinHan on the head with a frying pan.
"Hey, Vahn hit my head last night, it's still sore," ShinHan snapped while taking a large gulp of grape juice.
"OH hush up you..."Clara yelled, slamming ShinHan with the pan again.
Vahn stepped outside, and took in a big breath. Releasing it again and tasting the cool bite of the morning. He made a sweeping radar look on the yard, noticing the animals running around partaking in their morning food gathering or other activities. He also noticed the air-traffic of birds, and other flying creatures, which would soon become targets for Vahn's training.
Vahn walked over to an old tree trunk and took of his nap-snack and sat down. Drawing in another breath and letting it go with a quick puff. Vahn then took out the two oranges he grabbed from his fridge and started to peel the thick, orange skin from one of the fruits. He easily tore off the skin and begun to eat the sweet fruit with a very large, loud bites which after ripping the fruit from its original shape, would send trails of juice down Vahn's chin and down his neck.
After finishing each of the oranges within five minutes, he stood up, wiped his neck free of the sticky juice and walked across the yard. He then stopped walking after he got fifty feet or so from the tree trunk. Then Vahn stepped back a bit, pulled his arms to his sides and leaped forward. Then, springing off his forearms, turning off his legs and bounced over to land at a handstand on the trunk. Then he pushed himself straight up into the air, doing this only using his hands to push himself up. Then Vahn floated over to be in a standing position in the air.
"Hmm..."
Next, Vahn pulled his legs into his body, wrapped his arms around them, and let himself go.
He fell with breathtaking speed right down to the ground. The force of the air pushing against his body was tearing some of his Gi off. Then, about three feet from the ground, Vahn opened his body up and lashed out his arms and shot a body sized blast of energy straight into the ground. This leaving Vahn at a dead stop inches from impaling himself upon the ground.
"Yup...I could do it. Hahaha. Man can I not believe my power or what!"
The inside of the Dojo was all to quiet. It was usually filled with students training or sparing with each other. But today there was no such activity going on.
There was a weird sense to the room. There were only three lit candles flickering in the slow breeze that the one window in the whole room let in. There was also no banners hanging all over the walls. Usually the wall couldn't be see because of the number and mass amount of banners and other flags and wall garments.
Ryi walked into the room with a sort of pride and knowledge of himself. He knew too well that today he would be graduating from this place of his second birth. He would leave here as a fully trained and totally changed fighter. His appearance was not the only difference with him. Even though he had the full Tolken effect and honor with him. This meaning that you must dye one half of your hair black and the other totally white.
Over the years Ryi had lived, trained and grown up here, he had leaned to show no mercy, do as he was told and only yield to anyone if your life was at steak. He didn't care much for anyone but himself. Besides his great master and his two best friends who would also be leaving with him today.
Today was the best day of his life. He knew it was and would always be from here on. But one thing laid heavily on him. He still remembered the kid that humiliated him so dearly three years ago. He had yet to forget a worthless, little hick to defeat a Tolken. He knew that after today that there would only be one thing on his mind. Fixing a mistake that was never supposed to happen.
"Yo Ryi. Where are ya man?"
"Oh...hey Ken. I'm in the Dojo!"
"Oh, he what's up man?"
"Nothing...just a little nervous, I think." Ryi answered turning and walking over to the window.
Ken, of course along with Ryi, had changed. And a change that was definitely with benefits.
Ken's overall size in the past three years, had at least doubled over. His shoulders, now wider than half of Ryi, and almost twice as thick, was not his only powerful feature. He had grown a full head of hair that was totally died red. This to symbolize the power within him. Ken's face had shifted from a little short pudgy one to a more concise defined grown up face. He chin stuck out past his nose and he had a very large overbite. This only amplified the fact that Ken had a very hard and stern personality.
"Well," Ken started, following Ryi over to the window, "Our leader can't be all nervous before our big day. That makes the entire group look bad if their leader isn't acting according to the rules. You know what will happen if you stutter at all when giving your final speech in front of all Tolken."
Ryi merle gave Ken a smug scowl and turned away to the other side of the room.
"Hahaha..I can barely imagine what ShinH--"
"EERRAGH!" Ryi grunted as he spun around on his heels and caught Ken's shirt, "Okay enough Ken. I get your point. I know too. Its just, after I...er, we graduate today, I will have to engage in my first ever real, for life-or-death fight."
"Ohh, okay its cool man. Chill out." Ken said brushing his shirt off fixing his neck rap.
"Yeah, I'm cool, just, collecting. I don't know how strong this kid is. But, the first time I fought him those years back, you remember my power reading that morning right?"
Ken watched Ryi walk over to a stool and sit down, "You mean at early morning mandatory preps and all?"
Ryi shook his head, "Yes yes, go on."
"Oh, well I know I had somewhere round 200 and you were a hell of a lot higher then me. But...I forgot what you were at." Ken walked up behind Ryi, and oddly, felt a weird release of energy within him and then stepped back some.
Ryi clenched his fist together, letting every knuckle and joint in each hand snap and crack under the pressure. "I...I Had!...errr...I had my power at..." Ryi spun around and looked at Ken, " 335!...and that...little...yarie, kuso...just wiped away all of that in one...freaking hand wave. He canceled out that much damn power with one hand sweep like he was trying to catch a fly! Hell man...WHATS WITH THAT KID, BY KAME, WHAT IS HE!!!"
"One, two, up, down and aaiiee YAAH!. Hehe...YoooHAI!"
It was almost noon and Vahn had almost ripped off all his cloths in his training today. He was down to his under shirt, after he got too hot in his Gi and pants, and his boxers. He knew he was doing great because his father, (After he had recovered from his daily dose of iron), had already come out and tried to pull the Rohnan Speed Flash, but, to ShinHan's totally astonishment, Vahn blocked the attack with the greatest of ease. He actually stumbled into it and had to block of Vahn would of lost his arm but he merle played it along as, 'Oh, I meant to do that.'
After that, still with amassment in his eyes, and bewilderment running throughout his entire body, ShinHan was pushed back into the house by Vahn, who, there after, continued to train. Which, from there on after, ShinHan sat inside at a window watching Vahn very contently. Watching his every move.
Once again regaining his balance from another long drop, Vahn pulled over and sat down for a second to collect himself. also to survey the yard, which by this point, was horridly scared and torn up. Trees were not whole anymore. Huge chunks of the land were missing. There were, now, no more birds flying around. Mostly were either used as target practice or flew off after Vahn toasted a dozen or so in a blast.
Letting out a long, slow breath, Vahn looked up to the sun. "Man...it must be close to one or maybe even one-thirty. Hmmm...So I got a thirty-minute clean up session I gotta do. Well, might as well get to it and stop wasting my time. Yup, haha."
Popping up from his sitting position, Vahn turned to the house and hollered, " Otousan, I will be right back. I am gonna go over to the plains okay?!"
"Oh, okay. You have thirty minutes Vahn-son. Hurry back."
" Yes sir!" Vahn shouted back.
Taking a quick look over the house, and making sure all was fine. Vahn turned, let out a bit of a yell, and boosted up into the air. Then soon after takeoff, Vahn was shooting across the sky in a light blue ball of fire heading off to a open and uninhabited place to train with his energy blast on a level ground.
"Ryi, Yo Ryi!...Hey man its time to go!"
"...Ken?...You ready too?"
"Yeah...but come on come on. ShinHiLien is gonna be there in like five minutes and all grads have to be in the front line." Ken yelled walking into Ryi's room and pulling on his arm, "Got your speech?"
"Oh...uh huh. Right here man." Ryi stuttered and tried to say with Ken tugging on his arm.
"Wells lets go then!"
Ken and Ryi exited the room, and started a sprint to the mess hall, which was a far way across the whole compound.
"Ack, man am I gonna shoot the man who made the plans for this damn building." Ken snapped, as they turned a corner.
"Haha...yea only if you knew who made the plans for this place?" Ryi smirked.
"Who?" Ken said, turning his head to Ryi.
"ShinHi himself..."
Ken turned pale, swallowed hard, and continued to run.
They turned the final corner and entered the hall. There were 4 straight lines of students, all dressed in red GIs and black pants. Then there was the leader of each row, dressed in a blue pull over robe, holding Tolken staffs.
In the head of the hall, there was a small altar, which was covered by a black sheet and on top of that, 4 candles. the walls adjacent to the alter, were also covered in the black sheets and had candles implaced into the walls. There were also 2 long blue banners hanging over the altar. Which both had Tolken symbols on them.
Ryi walked in, chest out, chin high. Ken followed looking the same. They both walked to the front of the hall, stood in front of the alter, bowed, turned, faced each other, bowed again, then stepped back. They stood in front of the rows of students in the center of the hall, about seven of eight feet from the altar. the other student leaders being a couple feet behind them.
A bell sounded from the back of the hall. The row leaders let out a short yell, which when heard, all students turned to the side, to be sideways with the isle. Ken and Ryi turned around, moved back a few steps to not be in the way, and back up.
First, two men walked in totally dressed in Ceremonial Tolken Armor. Following them, came four Tolken priests, holding canes, waving them back and forth. Then a procession of Tolken graduates who were in second class. This was known because of the sash they wore from their shoulder to their waist. Then, finally, following the students, came ShinHiLien himself.
ShinHi was dressed totally from head to toe in black. The only feature visible on him was his eyes threw a thin piece of black cloth. The only other visible thing on him was his bare feet, which, of course, were painted black.
Then the procession lead to the altar, the guards walked to the sides of the altar, the priests to their sides, the students beside Ryi and Ken, and ShinHi behind the altar. He stood for a while, then placed his hands to the altar, let a red glow from them, and then returned his hands to his side. He then looked up, and began to address the class.
"Students, trainees, warriors, graduates, servants, and guests. Welcome to the longest day of your lives!..."
As he continued, Ken turned a bit, and out of the side of his mouth asked another student, "Yo, where's Zio?"
"Oh, you mean Lord of Armors, Sir Zioths. He is the guard on the right side of the altar."
"What the hell?...how'd he get to be Master of Armors?" Ken asked, with a bit of anger and excitement in his voice.
"Ahh, well he took the training class, that's why he was gone for a couple days. And now there he is. He can do anything with a sword."
"Oh man...intense. Wow...okay...I guess I gotta have a talk with him after this....OH, here comes ShinHi." Ken spit out as ShinHi left the altar and started to come to the second class graduates.
He stepped down the few steps that surrounded the altar. He turned past the armored guards, and walked around the priests. He stepped in front of the man who was standing beside Ryi, He placed his hand on his forehead, and said a small prayer of some sort. After he finished, he moved to the next student and proceeded to say the prayer again.
'Oh, man.' Ken thought to himself, 'No wonder he said welcome to the longest day of our lives. God, we're gonna be here forever.'
"Ahhh, that looks like a nice place." Vahn said as he flew over a totally disserted old farm.
Setting down, and looking around, Vahn puffed, "Oh, yup. This will do nicely. No one around, no animals, and plenty of targets to practice with."
Vahn spun around, took sight of the old, dark barn house. At one point he thought it would have been a historic monument. Showing the toil people had to go thought to bring money, food, and a life to work. But now, it would merle be a target for Vahn to test his power upon.
"Hehe...this should be fun." Vahn said, pushing his hands straight out to his sides. "Say good-bye to piece of crap."
Next, Vahn formed a ball of energy in his right hand, brought his left in front of himself, put his right on top of his left and extended the ball of energy around his hands.
"FFFIINNAALL......FFFLLLAAAIIIRRR!!!" Vahn yelled pushing his right hand out and over his left and shoving the ball of energy toward the barn.
"Alright...now..." Vahn said, watching closely as the ball of energy flew at the barn.
Suddenly, about three or four feet before the ball hit, Vahn took his right hand, leaned forward, extending 2 fingers and shout out, "Now FLASH!!!"
Instantly the ball exploded in a blinding flash of light that would of blinded anyone or thing in front of it. Then, after the light cleared, Vahn's reaction said everything.
As he opened his eyes, and brushed the dust out of his hair, he looked on to where the barn was, but he was only looking at barren, flat, dead section of land. At first glance it must have been an acre or two long by another couple of acres wide.
He stood for a minute, observing his work. He looked around at the areas around the explosion path. Everything else outside the zone of impact, was totally intact. His blast had only an area effect and would only destroy what Vahn had his sights on.
"Oh my gosh...look at that...OH MAN!!!" Vahn spun around and jumped into the air waving his arms frantically, "Oh yes, yes, yes...HAHAHA...wow I...I can't even ima--" Vahn was cut off.
He then turned abruptly after hearing a large explosion in the distance. He starred for a moment. Saw nothing, and then just thought to himself that it must only be the Tolken Graduation Ceremonies. Then realizing that all was fine, he floated back to the ground and continued to finish up his training.
"YOO-HOO!! Yea all right!"
"Ah man I never thought this day would come. Oh YES!!!"
The cheering and yelling around the Dojo, inside and out, rang out over all of the city. Tolken graduates were running around, waving their graduation certificates and hitting other Tolken members who still had more years left in Tolken to train. They pitied the ones who had just started this year. They had no idea what lie ahead of them.
"Hey!..Hey Ryi!...what's wrong man?" Ken asked finally finding Ryi in the corner of the Tolken Grounds behind a tree, looking out over the tall brick wall.
"Oh..." Ryi said, jumping down from the wall and looking at Ken. "Nothing wrong man. I just can't believe that its over you know."
Ken smiled, "I know, me too. But you know, we still haven't gone in for confirmation and all. We need to be in there in like ten minutes man."
Ryi's lip curled, "Confirmation?"
"Yeah you know" Ken punched Ryi's arm.
Ryi looked down at his arm, then looked back at Ken with a bit of irritation in his eyes.
"Its like, all the final power reading and all. You can get to know you full power man. Come on!"
"Ken your acting like a kid. Knock it off!" Ryi snapped, slugging Ken in the chest.
The larger man tipped backwards, grabbed d his chest and knelt down on one knee. "What the hell man? You alright?" Ken said, looking up at Ryi who was now walked away.
Turning around, spitting, and pushing his hair to the side, Ryi grunted, "Yea, I'm fine. Just, you don't get it do you? You don't have this battle coming up like I d--" Ryi was cut off.
"YO KEN, RYI!" A very large, armored man yelled, running full speed over to Ken and Ryi, which, looking at how fast he was coming, Ken laughed and stood up to face the man.
"Zio!...what's up man? Where have you been?"
"Oh...umm..." Zio stuttered as he bent over and placed his hands on his knees, "I have been running all over the damn place looking for ya two. An' I come to find you two in the very back of the place. My god, what you two doin?"
Ken laughed, walked over beside Zio and slapped his back. "Man, you have changed. Look at you man. Haha, The Master of Armours. Pretty intense stuff man. How'd you come by getting pro--"
"Excuse me, but if its not too much to ask. Umm, I would like to get out of here. So can we get going to our final confirmation crap already!?" Ryi snapped, coming around behind the two men.
"Oh, hi Ryi!...How've you been ma--."
"SHUT UP! Gosh, can't we just go. We can talk and catch up on all that after we leave this hellhole. Come on." Ryi said, grabbing Ken and Zio's arms and wanking them across the yard.
Upon entering the Dojo again, they were greeted by ShinHiLien, and three priests. ShinHi gave a quick speech about how great they were and how fun it was training them. Then afterwards, the priests all took the shoulder of one of the men and lead them off to a room.
"Ah, you boys, ya, very good. I not see 'others like you t'ree before." One of the priests said, after Ryi, Ken and Zio had sat down on the floor as they were told.
"Yo, umm... not trying to be rude but...eh...how long is this gotta take?" Ken said, scratching the back of his head.
"Eh it only, like, sometime past two, an' you be outta here in, probably, 15 minutes." A priest answered back.
"Oh, okay fine. But it better be 15 minutes." Ken smirked.
"So eh...who first?" One priest asked, walked over from across the room holding a small, box that had a little, what looked to be a sensor, on its side.
"I guess me..." Ryi answered, standing up.
"Okay boy. Follow me this way please." The priests said, waving his hand at Ryi.
Ryi exited the room, followed the priest out the hallway and out another door. Then, next came a long hallway then finally the priest opened a door that Ryi saw, led outside.
"Oookay, now. You go however far away you think will be far enough away from me you will need to power up. You hear me boy! If I get blasted with a gust of wind or if a boulder hits me, I don't care for either one, because neither will happen. You got that boy!"
Ryi turned to face the priest, "Yes sir, I got that."
After walking a good 30 or 40 feet, Ryi stopped, turned to see the priest, and then stepped back a few more steps.
"Alright old man!? Ready?" Ryi shouted stepping back into a crouched stance.
"Fine fine, I just don't want none of that stuff hitting me. You got that!?" The priest yelled back.
"Hehe, fine old man. Say whatever you wish." Ryi mumbled, "Just be ready! I ain't holding back anything!"