Neriman Newbie
Chapter 1
Hellooooo Nerima.
All comments and criticisms would be welcome. Send all praise and flames to:
macleodrichard@hotmail.com
Be warned though, flames will be read then used as kindling.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, most of them belong to Rumiko Takahashi and others and the rest left over I would like to own but I can't get copyrights for them, their ownership kinda floats around in limbo. So crap.
"Anybody got them mothers that hit you with a shoe? I had a mother that, she was, she was a mother f*ckin shoe artist. F*ck you up with her shoe and was accurate, hit you anywhere she wanted to hit you anyplace anytime. By the time I was ten my mother was like Clint Eastwood with her shoe." - Eddie Murphy, Delirious.
Note: [] denotes words spoken in the english language.
{} denotes thoughts.
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In Nerima Ward, Japan, people enjoyed a nice, warm, clear summer day. Oh sure, the weatherman had predicted there would be rain today, but who believed him?
Most everyone apparently. Umbrella's were a common sight among the people seen in the streets.
Nerima wasn't a big city like Tokyo, no way, it was after all just a suburban part of it. The hustle and bustle of city life just didn't seem to be there.
But that didn't mean it was quaint either.
On most days some strange and random thing was usually happening. Like that girl who was always getting chased around by a 300 year old samurai and fought ninja's everyday. But nothing like that was happening today.
Today the chaos of Nerima had randomly decided to take a day off to prepare for the new toys that were coming.
A car drove itself from the airport to one of the homes in Nerima. The car was of a Japanese make, a '98 Acura, painted grey. Out of it stepped five people. The two in the front were a forty year old Japanese couple. The first out of the car's back seat were a seventeen year old Japanese boy and sixteen year old Japanese girl. The last person to exit the vehicle was a North American teenager of seventeen years carryng wth him a large gym bag that looked loaded to the brim.
"I am glad that you have come to stay with us and I hope that you find your stay pleasant." The Japanese man informed.
The North American boy bowed formally. "Thank you." Then he paused a second to gather his thoughts. "I'm glad you all allowed me to stay with you." He added in broken japanese.
Jason Reaver is a seventeen year old Canadian from Victoria, B.C. recently come to Nerima as a transfer student for the first and second semesters. He stood five feet eleven inchs tall, was of a rather muscular build, broad shoulders, had light brown hair that was cut short, and bright green eyes. Currently he was wearing a white muscle shirt and baggy jeans.
The family he was staying with, the Sakawa's seemed nice enough. The parents had greeted him with kindness, the son with awe, and the daughter with intrest.
Mr. Sakawa was a construction worker for a local company. Mrs. Sakawa was a home maker. The son, Shigefumi was currently attending high school at Furinkan High. The daughter, Kei, also attended school at Furinkan, this was her first year while Shigefumi was on his second.
There were no guest rooms in their home so Jason would be sharing Shigefumi's room. As Shigefumi set down an extra futon Jason opened his only suitcase and removed it's contents. A skateboard with a well drawn picture of a panther striding through a forrest clearing with a setting sun in the background. A few cases of CD's which he had carefully packed so that none would fall out. An antique two foot two inch long broad sword his elder brother had sent him for Jason's birthday only a month ago. And lastly was a few translation books Jason could browse through to polish his rough japanese.
Shigefumi looked over all the articles. The skateboard looked to be quite new because Jason had touched it up on more than one occasion. The CD's ranged from the Final Fantasy IV sountrack Celtic Moon to Linkin Park. The sword sent a jolt through his spine though.
"Quite the Selection you have there." Shigefumi stated wonderingly as his gaze took in all the objects.
"Thank you. Is there anyplance I can put my clothes?" Jason asked and unzipped the gym bag.
Shigefumi showed Jason to the second dresser in the room and Jason began to put away all his clothing. Shigefumi noted that the gym bag held a deceptively large amount of clothes in it, not to mention other essentials such as toiletry and a slim portable CD player.
Once done unpacking Jason looked around Shigefumi's room. Two futons, two dressers, a few wall scrolls decorated the room and not much else was in there. {Let's see, Evangelion, Rurouni Kenshin, Slayers, Bastard, and Gundam Wing. Quite the collection.} He noted mentally.
"Nice place you got here." Jason commented, stumbling over his pronunciations. In reality he knew how to speak japanese but pronunciation of the words often left him miffed.
"Thank you." Shigefumi replied, bowing curteously.
Jason took a second to gather his thoughts, he was going over a few japanese words in his mind. "I don't mean to sound rude, but what exactly do you do for fun around here?"
A gleeful smile spread itself across Shigefumi's face. Jason suddenly found himself being pulled into the living room where the T.V. lay with an N64 hooked up to it.
A while later when dinner was called Jason went to do the dining table almost positive that he should be sweating. Shigefumi proved himself to be absolutely unscrupulous at Smash bros. Jason himself had been very good back in the day, but it took a while for him to come up to par with Shigefumi's skills. {I think I'm gonna whip everyone around when I get back home.} Was all Jason could really find himself thinking.
Dinner consisted of rice and fish cakes with a side of various vegetables. Jason listened to the family chat while trying to get the hand of using chopsticks. Mr. & Mrs. Sakawa asked Shigefumi & Kei how they felt about Jason coming to stay for a fwe months.
"I think it's great." Kei replied immediately.
"He's got a lot of interesting stuff with him." Shigefumi answered second.
Mr. Sakawa turned to Jason. "What do you think of Japan so far Jason?"
"I think it's nice. I admit I'd like to go around a little, see the sights, meet new people and all that stuff before I make an analogy." Jason stated, absolutely sure he'd pronounced at least a few words wrong.
The family didn't say anything about his language and simply nodded thoughtfully to themselves.
"So what exactly is school here like?" Jason asked to relieve any tension that might have been in the air.
Shigefumi and Kei paused in their eating. Kei had her chopsticks in position to pluck a fishcake ahd Shigefumi's had just put some rice in his mouth.
"You'll find it... very memorable." Kei answered finally.
Jason wasn't quite sure what to make of the look she gave him.
The next day Jason woke up a mite too early. Infact it was barely past dawn. This he concluded aferwalking around the house and checking every clock he could find.
"[Damn]." He cursed. Going back to his room he wrote a note saying he would be out for a while and took himself and skateboard outside.
After a few minutes of puttering around Jason found a park with a childrens playground in the middle of it. Being that he didn't want to risk doing any tricks on the playground equipment or park benches Jason decided to go somewhere else.
He circled around the playground while doing a few small tricks and stopped suddenly as he caught sight of a young girl sitting on one of the swings that he hadn't been able to see earlier.
Slowly he made his way to the swings once he'd stopped his placed his board securely into the sand and got on the swing next to the girl.
At first glance it was obvious she was down, she hadn't even looked up at him yet. Her appearance was something he wasn't quite used to either. She looked to be about his age, seemed to be fit, her breasts were what Jason considered to be of average size. All in all if it wasn't for her long dark-green hair she would have seemed normal.
For a few seconds Jason just watched her. She didn't seem to notice him, she was just too busy watching her feet scrape a small ditch in the sand.
"How old are you?" Jason asked wonderingly.
The girl jerked and almost fell off her seat, she was most definately looking at him now. "Wh-what did you say?" She replied almost as if scared.
Jason held up his hands apologetically. "Sorry, I know I don't speak japanese properly but I'm trying."
"I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone right now." The girl stated then looked down at the ground once again.
Shrugging to himself Jason got up and retrieved his board. Taking one last look at the playground Jason noticed the slide. It was flat, made from steel or iron, and near the end it began to bottom out. The side walk was just far enough away that kids couldn't hurt themselves but close enough that he might be able to jump it.
"Might as well do something while I'm here." He commented quietly and climbed the playground to the slide. He put the board down and stepped on the back end of it. Taking a few seconds to measure the distances Jason finally nodded his head in assurance to himself that he could make it and began rolling down the slide.
At first all he did was keep his balance on his skateboard and duck low, but when he reached the end Jason jumped high. Keeping his wits about him allowd Jason to spin a 180 in the air and do a kickflip before he landed on the hard pavement with his footing switched.
Swerving away from the grass Jason took a moment to bow to an imaginary audience before he turned towards the Sakawa home and headed back.
Upon stepping through the door of he Sakawa household Jason was greeted by the sweet smell of cooking. Taking off his shoes and tucking his skate board under his arm Jason walked through the house to the kitchen.
Kei stopped Jason before he reached the kitchen though and asked. "Are you ready for school yet?"
Jason replied by simply nodding his head.
"Are you really sure?" She pressed, leaning slightly closer and tilting her head.
Jason's eyes became droopy as he studied Kei's face. "I'll check." He replied suspiciously and walked to Shigefumi's room.
Gathering all his materials into his gymbag Jason wondered about bringing his sword with him.... {What in the name of god am I thinking?!} He wondered to himself. It was only the second week of the school year. Bringing a sword to school would be pointless and stupid. Not to mention he didn't even know how to use it yet.
Shaking his head once again at his stupidity Jason put the Japanese-English books in his gymbag and zipped it up.
"Breakfast." A voice called in melodious tones.
Jason had the comfort of hearing his stomache speak of it's hunger to him. Various gurgling sounds seemed to make up a whole language as Jason clutched at his stomache in pain.
"Food...." Jason droned.
Jason, Shigefumi, and Kei were off to school with plenty of time to spare. Shigefumi walked calmly, Kei skipped along, and Jason glided along on his skateboard.
The school seemed normal enough to Jason once they'd arrived. Even though it was virtually empty at this time of day. Shigefumi showed Jason to classrom 2-E where both Jason and Shigefumi would be taking lessons.
"Now, there are two people in our class to watch out for. Tatewaki Kuno and Nabiki Tendo. Kuno is a rather weird guy and doesn't have any friends. Try to make sure you don't get on his bad side, he's a master at kendo and always carries a bokken with him.
"Nabiki isn't as violent but she's just as dangerous to your wallet and Kuno is to your body. She'll do almost anything for money and has many connections all over the school, possibly even all over the city." Shigefumi warned.
Jason considered the advice. "I'll keep that in mind. I don't want to get in a fight in school so I'll avoid Tatewaki. And I really want to watch my funds while I'm here so I'll be careful around Ms. Tendo."
"We just call them Kuno and Nabiki. And trust me, you can't take on Kuno. No matter how good you are."
"I'll avoid it."
"Hey, aren't you supposed to see the Vice-Principle or something?" Shigefumi wondered.
Jason blinked confused. "Isn't it the Principle I'm supposed to see?"
Shigefumi shook his head and explained that, "The Principle, from what I hear, is off in America studying some new teaching methods. From what I've heard though he's been doing that for years."
Jason shrugged. "Meh, it don't matter. I should be done with him by the time school starts. See ya in class."
The Vice-Principle seemed like a nice guy, perhaps a little uptight but nice. After a short talk to make sure Jason knew the rules he walked Jason down to his classroom and introduced him.
"Class, this is our new transfer student from Canada-"
"Ooh, Canada." A female student with short hair interupted.
"Quiet Nabiki." The teacher silenced. Nabiki just grinned evily.
"- so I'd like you all to treat him with respect." The Vice-Principle finished. He turned to Jason, "Introduce yourself."
Jason bowed formally to all his classmates. "Hello, my name is Jason Reaver, and I think I'd better warn you all now that my pronunciation sucks." With that everyone in the room bursts out laughing except the teacher, Vice-Principle, and Jason. They just chuckled.
When the laughter died down Jason smiled warmly and added, "I'm from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. And if you have any questions feel free to ask."
A girl with long black hair in the back row raised her hand high. Jason pointed to her and she burst out "Where have you been all my life?" in that 'Love at first sight' way. Once again, the whole class burst out laughing. None noticing how Jason's expression turned sour.
Once everyone calmed down the teacher told Jason to sit in the rooms only empty desk and the began teaching the days lesson.
Jason looked around the classroom from where he sat. Shigefumi was one seat to the left and two back. Nabiki was right behind him. To his left was some guy that was rather tall for a Japanese person. Infront and to the right of him were two other girls.
The girl infront of Jason turned around in her seat and looked right at Jason. "Hi, my name's Megumi." She greeted and held out her hand which he shook. "So, what did you do back in Canada Jason?" She asked.
"Besides school? I split my time between skateboarding, swimming, boxing and kickboxing and other stuff." Jason answered.
"Boxing? Kickboxing? Are you any good?" Megumi asked.
Jason nodded as a grin spread across his face. "I won the Middle-weight Provincial Boxing Champion-ship during summer vacation this year." He boasted.
The girl to the right leaned close to Jason as well as Nabiki. "So you're pretty strong then right?" The girl on Jason's right asked.
"Ye-ah."
The girl turned to Nabiki and said, "I wonder if he's stronger than your sister Nabiki. What do you think?"
"I wonder if he's stronger than Kuno." Megumi stated.
The boy to Jason's left jumped out of his desk and pointed an accusing finger at Jason. "You dare to sully the honor the great Kuno Tatewaki, The Shooting Star of Furinkan High?!" He demanded.
Jason only had a few seconds to look dumb-founded as a chalkboard eraser was thrown at each of their heads.
"Kuno, Jason, stand in the hall."
"Huh?" Jason replied smartly.
"[What the hell was that about?!]" Jason shouted in his native language at Kuno.
Both were stuck outside class holding pails of water for no good reason other than 'the teacher said so.'
"Silence knave. The great Kuno Tatewaki will brook none of that tone from a commoner."
"Commoner!" Jason shouted, "[Oh now it's on.] Where can I get some bandages? [I'm gonna beat the shit outta you.]"
Kuno found himself confused. The transfer student (whose name Kuno had already forgotten) was switching between two different languages and he couldn't tell what was a threat and what not. But he quickly recovered. "Alright then. We will go our sperate ways and gather what we need. Then we will meet in front of the school in fifteen minutes. There the great Kuno Tatewaki, the Shooting Star of Furinkan High shall mete out your destruction." He replied then stalked off through the school to find a bokken and his kendo garb.
Jason sneered at Kuno's back muttering "[Let's hear you make fancy speechs and after I knock out your teeth.]" Then he ran off to get the supplies he needed. All that remained of their prescence was the four buckets of water that they'd left behind.
Fifteen minutes later both Jason and Kuno stood infront of the school. Kuno was dressed in his traditional kendo garb and carried his bokken at his side.
Jason was dressed as he was earlier in a white T-shirt and baggy jeans, but was now carrying a bunch of bandages in his right hand. Casually Jason took off his shoes and socks then wrapped a bandage around each ankle and heel. Then he wrapped a bandage around each set of knuckles down to his wrists. And finished the effect with putting the last strip on his head like a headband simply for effect.
Taking a ready stance with his hands and feet shoulder width apart, his left foot and fist forward and his right side back he said, "Let's do it."
"Hey look everyone, a fight!" Someone from school shouted. "Hold on a sec you two! Give us time to get down there!"
Bam! Both Jason and Kuno facefaulted at this. Kuno because honor duels were not post-poned simply because someone wanted to see it. Jason didn't know why he fell but his face didn't hurt too much. Who the hell asked "Don't fight yet!" these days?
By the time the two fighters got back up a crowd had gathered around them. Nabiki could be seen taking in bets from the crowd. "Just a little longer you two." She stated.
"No!" Jason shouted then turned back to Kuno. "[Jesus I'm in trouble now.] Your move Kuno. I'll not strike first."
Kuno raised his sword high above his head and charged forwards, "Have at thee Knave!"
Jason barely had the time to pull his fist back then throw a punch right into Kuno's face. {Shit he's fast.} Jason thought as Kuno flew back a few feet.
When Kuno got back to his feet the only thing that stopped Jason from instantly losing the fight was reflexes trained by years of skate boarding.
"Strike, strike, strike, strike, strike, strike." Kuno chanted as he began a devastating assualt against Jason.
"[Holy-]" Was all jason could say before he started dodging around Kuno's random stabs.
Despite Jason's expert manueverings he found himself being hurt even when the bokken didn't touch him.
"You call this fighting!?" Jason taunted then rushed forwards through Kuno's guard to punch him straight in the face, then a less powerful left handed punch to the stomache, and finished with a right handed uppercut to the chin. Jason danced backwards slightly and brushed his right thumb across his nose a couple times to clear it. A cold wind passed as Kuno got back up and Jason noticed an unusual draft brush itself across his chest. Looking down at himself he saw why. "[My shirt!]" The said shirt was all tattered now and was barely fit for a beggar.
"Your lack of awareness shall be your downfall!" Kuno cried. Jason looked up to see Kuno finish performing a jumping slash and strike Jason on his right shoulder. Hard.
Jason began to curl towards his injured shoulder but turned it into a clockwise spin and performed a rather flawless roundhouse kick to Kuno's head. All the while emitting a deep voiced cry of pain and clutching his injured shoulder.
Before Kuno could get up Jason removed his hand and looked at it. The bandage convering his hand had a blood stain on it that covered his palm. Quickly Jason unwrapped the clean bandage from his right hand and properly apply it to his shoulder before Kuno got up.
"Ha ha ha. Now you know the wrath of they great Kuno Tatewaki Shooting Star of Furinkan High, cower in fear knave." Kuno bantered and struck a pose. Strangely though, people thought they saw a shooting star pass in the high sky. But they dismissed it.
Jason snorted indignantly. "Wrath? You call that joke of a hit wrath? I've been hit harder by lightweights!" With that said Jason ran forwards with his right fist pulled back as far as it would go, then struck Kuno in the jaw with a powerful right cross. "I'll tell you now in case you haven't figured it out yet poetry boy. It's not a good idea to fight a boxer if he's going bare knuckle."
Kuno staggered on his feet and began to say something, then realized he couldn't talk properly because his jaw was out of alignment. Instantly Kuno jumped into a flurry of savage slashes.
Jason struggled to keep up his guard and found that it continually got harder. Kuno's attacks only increased in intensity and Jason could only dodge and block so much.
Finally Kuno broke through and struck a blow to Jason's left side, then followed up with a slash to Jason's right bicep. The intended finisher was a strong overhead strike, but as the bokken descended Jason's injured arm lashed out and caught the bokken in mid-air.
Twisting his body to the left Jason lifted his right foot, then he twisted as fast as he could to the right and lashed out with the raised foot.
There was a wooden crack and Jason realized he'd just broken Kuno's weapon. "[Eh? Ah crap.] It's a draw Kuno."
Kuno cried out something indignantely and began trying to give off some speech. Unfortunately though he couldn't talk so everyone guessed that he was declaring that he doesn't accept defeat.
"You did a good number on me and I broke your weapon. It's a draw." Jason said then brought his hand to his shoulder. "I better go to the infirmary." Picking up his shoes Jason began to walk back to the school.
Once again Kuno tried to say some kind of flowery speach that would make everyone think he was the true victor. Of course though he couldn't speak.
"Kuno-baby, you might want to see a good doctor." Nabiki pointed out.
"Hey, why don't I take them to Doctor Tofu? He's the best around here, surely he can patch them up." A girl who was standing next to Nabiki piped up.
Jason paused before he walked back to the school and examined the girl. She was slightly shorter than Nabiki, seemed better built, had long dark blue hair, wore a school uniform, and didn't look to be the most endowed person he'd ever met. She was kinda cute.
"Akane this isn't the time to go galavanting off to Doctor Tofu's. We've still got school." Nabiki stated without looking up from the money she was now counting.
Kuno seemed to try to say something but since he couldn't and apparently didn't realize it, he bowed formally and walked back to the school.
"He should see a Doctor Nabiki."
Nabiki looked up at the sky while considering something, then said. "Well, I suppose he'll need to be in better condition for tomorrows fight."
"Tomorrow?"
"Oh, Kuno-baby will definately challenge you tomorrow. Trust me. I suppose you should take him then Akane. After all, I've got bets to set for tomorrow." And with that, Nabiki walked away.
Akane tugged at Jason's arm. "C'mon, that wound could only get worse."
"Ow! That's the bad one!" Jason cried out as he was dragged away.
After being painstakingly pulled towards this Dr. Tofu's Jason finally got to meet the man. Jason's first impression was that Doc Tofu was a pretty nice guy. He engaged in a short conversation with Akane while Jason sat down on the operation table.
"Anyways, let's take a look at your friend here." Dr. Tofu said and brought his attention away from Akane to check Jason. After Dr. Tofu instructed Jason to remove what was left of his shirt he began to examine Jason's upperbody. "Oh my, these are some pretty nasty bruises you've got here Jason-san. The shoulder looks like it was nicely tended though. You two must have a good nurse at school this year." Dr. Tofu commented.
Jason had been trying to keep an eye on Dr. Tofu's movements but the doctor somehow kept on disappearing and reappearing somewhere else while examing Jason. "Actually I did it myself." He said as he tried to trace Dr. Tofu's movement.
"Hm, so are you trying to become a doctor then? I could give you some training while you're here. My, you got more than your fair share of old injuries now don't you? Some of these bones look misaligned. I'll have you fixed up in no time. Just give me a second to get something for those bruises." And with that Dr. Tofu began going through a few cabinets looking for something.
"Actually I'm not training to become a doctor. Although my parents would like me to be. I just do a lotta physical stuff." Jason explained as he watched Dr. Tofu shuffle through the cabinets.
"Ah here it is." Dr. Tofu said triumphantly and turned around holding a small jar of green jelly. "When you get some time later speard this on your bruises, it should make them go away faster. But right now...." Dr. Tofu paused to put the jar down. "We've got to fix up all those misaligned bones you've got and all those old injuries you've kept."
"Injuries? Waagh!"
Dr. Tofu began to work his chiropractic wonder. Jason found his body contorted into many a strange position and despite all the pain he was beginning to feel he was unable to cry out.
"So I hear you're an exchange student huh? It must be nice to go to another country and meet new people and stuff. I would have liked to have gone to other countries when I was your age you know. You should maybe try it sometime Akane. You'd be surprised what you'd learn in other countries." He suggested.
Akane bowed her head and blushed, "Maybe I will sometime Dr. Tofu. But for now I'd just prefer to be with my family."
Dr. Tofu nodded sagely at her words. "So, are you two in the same class then?"
Akane shook her head. "Actually I think he's in my sisters class."
"Oh really? Ah, there you go Jason-san, all better."
Slowly Jason sat up on the bed. "I'm... alive. I'M ALIVE!!"
"Of course you are silly, Dr. Tofu's very good at what he does." Akane berrated.
"Thank you Akane. Ah, could you leave us for a second Akane? I need to talk to Jason alone for a second." Dr. Tofu requested politely.
Akane nodded and walked out of the room.
"Jason, when was the last time you saw a doctor?" Tofu asked when the door closed.
"Uh... years ago I think. Never needed to really."
"Well I suppose it wouldn't have made much of a difference anyways. You see, many of your joints had an unusual stiffness in them from half-healed strain. What I did mainly was remove the stiffness from all the affected joints. Try to avoid doing anything really physical like running or fighting for a few days. I'd like to give you time to ask questions but I'll have to have you come in tomorrow. I've still got other patients waiting." Dr. Tofu explained and shooed Jason out of the operating room.
Akane stood up from one of the chairs that were in the waiting room and walked over to them. "Well, we should be going now Jason, we have school still remember." She stated.
Dr. Tofu smiled kindly at Akane. "Well, I'll you see you tomorrow then Jason. And Akane, take it easy. We don't want you coming in with new injuries now do we." He said.
Akane smiled and nodded. "Thank you Dr. Tofu. But right now we really must be going."
Jason and Akane left quickly and set a fast pace to reach the school.
"Thanks for taking me there. I can't even feel the cricks in my neck no more. And hopefully this green jelly'll help the bruises go away." Jason thanked gratefully.
"You're welcome. It's always nice to see Dr. Tofu when I can." Akane said nodding.
"Got the hots for him ay?" Jason guessed and recieved an angry stare. He smiled back and laughed before saying, "Ah, don't worry about it. I would suppose he's a hansome guy. Of course though I'm a guy as well so I'm not the best source of information." She was still glaring at him. "I won't tell anyone neither if that's what you want."
Akane looked up at Jason and let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I really like Dr. Tofu. But he already loves someone else." Upon hearing that Jason made a face as if sharing her pain. "Do I look lady-like to you?"
Jason blinked. "In that school outfit you look your age I'd say. Why?"
Akane only seemed to become more depressed. "That's what I thought. I'm simply too young." She said solemnly.
"Maybe you should try to date someone your own age."
"All the boys in school are so immature. They all flock to me and keep on asking to date me then Kuno would come by and make them all go away to ask me himself. Even though I keep telling everyone no."
"Aw well. I'm sure you'll find someone else." Jason amended.
"Well, I don't know. No one at school is really interesting. You're the only person who's really been nice to me other than my family." Akane said.
"Uh, I'm not really looking at dating anyone. I'm trying to avoid romance while I'm here really." Jason supplied. "My parents would have a really big problem with me if I did."
The school came into view, then they entered the gates, then they entered the school. Then the school bell rang to signify that class had just started. "Seeya later Akane, I gotta be gettin to Phys Ed. right now." {Gotta find a way outta that.} Jason thought to himself then touched his shoulder. {Oh yeah, I really need an excuse. Better head to the nurse first so that I have a written excuse.}
Because of the short trip to the nurse so she could look him over he got to Phys Ed. class late. Jason was damn glad that he could take off the tattered shirt that he was wearing now and put on a muscle shirt he used for whenever he worked out. Jason walked out on the field just in time to hear the teacher say, "Alright class, today we're doing some track and field. We're gonna do three warm up laps around the track then I'll tell you what you're doing next! Got it?" He said loudly so that everyone could hear. Groans were the common response.
Doctor Tofu's words rang clear through Jason's head, {'Try to avoid doing anything really physical like running or fighting for a few days.' Thank god.}
"Hey teach, the nurse says I shouldn't do anything this class." Jason said as he walked up to the teacher.
The teacher turned his gaze towards Jason. "Get out on the field." He ordered.
"..." Jason started open mouthed at his teacher. "Uh, maybe you didn't hear me. I'm not supposed to do anything physical this class. Both the school nurse and a doctor told me so." He said.
"You think you have me fooled? I can see right through that phoney bandage you're wearing. I know for a fact that the nurse didn't do that, it's not her work. Now get out on the field!"
Jason blinked slowly. "The nurse didn't bandage this. I did. Here's the note she gave me to give to you." Jason said and handed the note over.
The teacher perused the note. Then glared at Jason through slitted eyes. Then read the note. The glared at Jason through slitted eyes. "Alright then. But you had better be ready to run tomorrow then student." He said suspiciously.
"I was told by the doctor that I shouldn't be doing anything physical for a while. So I don't think I'll get to participate for a few days sir. But I suppose I'll find out for sure when I see him tomorrow."
"We shall see." The teacher said and handed Jason a stopwatch. "You'll be helping me when we start doing runs."
The next day.
"I don't feel too good...." Jason moaned after he woke up.
"Oh quit your whining. I don't feel too good either you know. You didn't even run yesterday. I still feel like I've pulled all my muscles." Shigefumi replied from his cot. "You at least have something for your bruises."
"I think that's what's making me feel bad. I feel like I'm burning up."
Shigefumi reached over and felt Jason's forehead. "You feel normal."
Jason sat up on his futon. "(Sigh) I guess I'll go outside for a short walk or something. Hey man, sorry for waking you up so early. I still gotta get used to the change in time zones." He apologized and stood up.
"Don't worry about it. Just get used to it quick please. It's still dark out for... argh." Shigefumi said and laid himself back down on his cot.
Jason dressed and crept silently through the house and went out the front door. The stars were still out for cryin out loud, the moon was full that night, and sunrise seemed far off. "(Sigh) Shouldn't a woken him up." Jason muttered as walked along the street. The cool night air cooled his skin down somewhat and the cold breeze did it even better.
The park he had gone to yesterday came into view. It was completely empty from what he could see. Somehow he doubted that the girl he had seen yesterday would still be there. Jason remembered just how sad her expression had been. He wondered idly what could have been her problem and absently rubbed his injured shoulder.
His shoulder didn't ache so much as it had. Jason had always healed rather fast and that was mainly what made him so good at what he did. Sure he'd taken his fair share of beatings and falls, but he could always be back in action faster than anyone else would. He sat on a park bench and thought about his victory in the Boxing Championship that summer. Yes, that was what started his problems. He'd taken a beating from one of his opponents and his parents had begun to worry about his health when he couldn't even remember their names after the fight.
Oh sure he'd won. And sure, he wanted to keep on fighting. But they'd strictly forbidden him from fighting in the tournament anymore especially since he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. Like that would stop him.
His only supporters were the fans of the crowd. His coach had threatened to stop helping because of Jason's parents.
{No point thinking of them now. They're a million miles away.}
Turning his thoughts from less sad things he remembered his day of school. When Phys. Ed. was finished with the teacher had convinced to Jason in a civil manner to at least try one run with everyone else. If had taken a whole five minutes for him to get Jason to agree, but that was the way things worked. "[Shouldn't have run that.]" He murmured to himself.
The run had gone like this. First off the run had gone well enough. His body hadn't felt right though, after a few seconds he'd tripped over his own damn feet and caused almost the whole class to fall over as well. In the end everyone thought it was rather funny and seemed to have had alot of fun. None of the laughter was really directed at him thank god. He would have died of embarrassment from that. The teacher was rather enraged though.
The rest of the day passed rather well though.
Jason snapped out of his thoughts as a very chilly wind passed him by. His muscle shirt did little to keep the cold out, but that was how he'd wanted it. "Better be getting back now." He muttered to himself and stood up again.
Just before he set off he heard a deep throated growling behind him. Slowly Jason turned around and looked at the dark shape behind the park bench he'd just been sitting on. "[Ohhh shit.]" He swore as he laid eyes on what recognised as a large Bengal Tiger that now confronted him. "[N-nice kitty. Nice kitty.]" He said frightened as he held his hands out. Quickly he turned around and bolted the other way from the feline while letting out a cry of fear.
The tiger let out a roar of challenge and chased after him, making much better time that Jason was.
Jason ran through the playground, past the swings, jumped over the large fake turtle, and ducked under the slide as his feet plowed through the sand. Soon the sand was replaced by concrete, then that by grass as he dashed madly in a straight forwards direction from the animal. "[Please don't kill me!]" He shouted as he continued on. A feline roar was his reply. It seemed almost right behind him.
The tiger pounced the last few inches it needed and brought him to the ground. Quickly it sank it's teeth into Jason's left side and tore a chunk of his flesh off. Jason's voice raised to a tormented roar and struck out blindly. His hand connected with something and then he realized just what it was he'd been trying to strike. Placing a hand over the wound he began to run out of the park.
Jason couldn't be sure because he wouldn't risk looking over his shoulder and ran almost blindly through the streets. {What in gods name was a tiger doing in the park? Did it escape from the zoo?} Jason thought as his feet began to slow and eventually came to a stop. Looking up Jason saw he was standing infront of Dr. Tofu's. Despite the fact that Jason could feel no more strength in his body he managed to make his feet shuffle forwards to knock on the door to Dr. Tofu's clinic.
At first nothing happened, it was still rather dark out but Jason thought that he could see a hint of dawn in the sky. Looking down at his wound he could see blood going all down his leg. {I'm dead.} He thought dispirited. Slowly his consciousness faded as he knocked on the door once again.
"Oh God!"
"Jason are you alright?" Jason heard.
Jason opened his eyes to see that he was floating around in a black void.
"Jason are you alright?"
"[Who's there?]" Jason replied as he tried to turn around and look for where the voice was coming from.
"Jason wake up. You've been injured Jason. You need to wake up Jason." The voice continued.
A light appeared infront of Jason. It looked like some kind of door or gate that had opened up to him. Jason was just about to approach it when he suddenly felt cold and wet all over.
Dr. Tofu was glad to see Jason had woken up when the bucket of cold water had been dumped over his head. After springing to awareness Jason began to sputter and trying to speak. "Sorry about that Jason, but if you can stay awake your chances of survival are greater."
"[Huh? Aargh!]" Jason said as he tried to sit up, and quickly remembered about his injured side. "[God damn it!]" Jason looked down at the wound. It was bandaged at least. Then Jason noticed just how deep the depression in his side was. "[Jesus Christ.] How bad is it doc? How long have I got?" Jason began saying extremely stressed.
"Jason, I'm gonna be honest with you. The only thing keeping your alive right now is a few pressure points I pressed that slowed down your metabolism. You have maybe ten minutes before there will be no blood flow to your brain. I'd give you a blood transfusion but we don't have your record and I don't have that kind of equipment here. So I'll have to try something else." Dr. Tofu said. Taking in a deep breath he looked at the clock above the door he took in a deep breath. "Listen Jason. I've got to make this explanation quick. You have an immense amount of stored Ki in your body. You know what Ki is right?" Jason nodded his head. "Good, I'll need to show how to use it in a few minutes. Please tell me you have experience at least touching your Ki."
Jason shook his head. "I only know about it from language lessons and watching anime. I wouldn't know how to use it."
Dr. Tofu seemed dispirited. {His chances are non-existant to none} "We'd better start now. I've got to speed this up and put you in a meditative state." Dr. Tofu said and touched a few pressure points on Jason's skull. Jason quickly slipped into a different kind of unconsciousness from before, at least, that was what Dr. Tofu hoped.
"Okay Jason, you should be surrounded by total blackness. Am I right?" Tofu's voice asked from all around Jason.
Jason looked all around himself. He was indeed surrounded by a black expanse. He himself looked ethereal and partially see through. He was standing on nothing wearing nothing, he could easily see his wound as it wasn't bandaged in any way. {God I hope nothings in here that's female.} He thought embarrassed.
"Don't worry, if you talk in the trance you should also talk in the real world."
"I'm here." Jason replied.
"Good, now, we need to search for your Ki. Can you see any source of light anywhere around you? You should be able to see a white ball somewhere. You need to find it and only now should it be revealed to you." Dr. Tofu explained.
Jason twisted every which way to see this ball but he could see nothing out of the ordinary in the expanse. "I can't find it."
"Hurry Jason. Your time is almost up." Dr. Tofu rushed. Then his whisper could be heard. "Oh god I hope that he can see it."
{I'm gonna die. God couldn't I at least have died in comfort?} Jason thought to himself. {Damn it damn it damn it!} He shouted in his mind. Cursing out loud right now wouldn't have helped Dr. Tofu's conscience very much. {Face up to it you coward! You will die!} Jason found himself thinking. {Where are you? Where am I might be more appropriate if I remember what Ki is correctly.}
"I'm sorry Jason. I guess that I just wasn't good enough." Jason heard Dr. Tofu. He was just about to say 'Don't worry, at least you tried' when he heard someone clap their hands together and say. "Rest in peace."
{... Umm... damn.}
{... where's the white door I saw earlier?} Jason wondered and looked around suspiciously. {C'mon damn it. If I'm dead and the white door ain't here then what the hell is going on?} Jason began twisting his body around again. {... Door? Door? Where are you door? Ah crap. I'm stuck in limbo. I'm probably gonna be buried alive when Dr. Tofu warns the authorities. That is. If I'm alive. Blagh, this is too damn confusing.} "Hello? Anyone there? Damn it someone answer me. Am I dead? Can someone tell me?"
Jason's ethereal form sat down on nothingness in the black expanse. "[Stupid ball of energy. Some Ki I've got. To think for one second I had hopes I was gonna live after that attack. If I live after this I'm probably gonna need someone to punt around damn it. Hope Kuno's feeling frisky.]"
Infuriated Jason stood up. "[Some music would be nice at least. I wouldn't mind hearing the Stones right now. Something good to listen to as I depart from this world.]" Unfortunately nothing replied. "[This blows ass.]"
A feline growl came from behind Jason. Slowly Jason twisted around to see a large white tiger behind him. A large white Siberian Tiger, the biggest there are, and of them this one was as big as they get. It easily came up to his hip and from head to tail was probably thirteen to fourteen feet long. "[Crap. I'm going back to the moment of my death first. You want a nice meal? Well I'm right here.]" Jason said confidently and held his arms wide open.
The big cat didn't seem interested in Jason though. Instead it sat on it's haunches and tried to swat at something above it playfully. {What are you doing?} Jason thought to it in his head blandly. Just to humor it he looked up to see what it was pawing at and saw a white ball twice the diameter of a basketball above his head. Streams of white energy whisked from the ball and were connected to his own body.
Jason looked from the ball to himself. {Ack. I've now entered the Twilight Zone. This just looks freaky.}
"[Just what was I supposed to do once I found the ball?]" Jason wondered and cocked his head to the side. Just then the White Siberian jumped high and pounced on the ball and brought it down to their level. The cords of energy strained as the ball's position was changed but at least now it was easily within Jason's reach.
Jason walked around the ball and examined it. There were various patches on the ball that had different colorings on it. "[What does all this mean?]" He wondered aloud then turned to the feline. "[Can you tell me?]" Jason was surprised that he thought he saw the cat shrug.
Slowly Jason reached forwards and touched the sphere. It felt cold as his hand plunged inside it. Slowly he drew his hand out and saw a stream of energy was now connected to his hand. {Cool. Wonder if I could use this stuff as hair gel?} He smirked at the humor. It looked like it was gooey when he wiggled his fingers. Slowly, so as not to break the connection he brought his hand to his injured side and wiped his fingers across the wound. It didn't hurt at least and the stream seemed to connect to the injury instead of his hand.
{Would that be enough? The stream doesn't look any bigger than any of the other connections. It should be bigger.} He thought and drew his hand through the cold ball once again. He attached maybe five streams to the injury and stopped only when he began to feel lightheaded. {Now then, how do I get outta here?}
Looking around Jason noticed he could no longer find that tiger that had actually helped him. He walked around the white ball that was his Ki and took note of all the little colors that he could see. By poking them he identified anger, happiness/excitement (He wasn't sure which), confidence, and depression. Some of the feelings were more intense than others depend on how big the spot was and each had it's own color code. Anger was red, happiness/excitement was yellow, confidence blue, depression green.
"[What's this?]" He said as he saw a small black spot that seemed almost insignificant. As soon as he touched it though a pair of jaws extended from the ball and tried to bite his finger off. Jason pulled the digit back just in time.
{Wait a minute. Now I know my tigers, and I was sure right away that the one that attacked me was a normal colored Bengal. And that was a white striped Siberian. If this isn't a near death experience why is the feline still here?}
"[Maybe I should focus on waking up.]" Jason muttered to himself. Like he'd really find the reason to why a tiger was hiding itself in his Ki. {I can't believe I'm being so calm about this.}
The world seemed to collapse around Jason though and the blackness and the white ball disappeared from view. "[What the?]"
Jason woke up under a white sheet. He could hear a voice saying something in the distance. Probably around the corner. Or just outside the room. Sitting up Jason pulled the sheet off him body and realized that his wound still hurt. {I'm going to the hospital.} He thought solemnly.
Lying back down on the table Jason thought he heard the receiver get put back down. "Hello? Dr. Tofu?" Jason called out softly. He was met with rather stony silence. "Doc?"
Once again Jason tried to get up and cried out in pain. "[Goddamnit. Pain....] Someone help me please. I can't move."
Slowly Dr. Tofu came around the corner with a phone in hand, the reciever to his ear, and looked at Jason, his face white as an egg.
"Doc? You okay?"
Dr. Tofu swallowed nervously. "Ah, sir, nevermind about that. It seems I've misdiagnosed the patient. Sorry for the trouble. Yes, I apologize, I wouldn't have called this number unless I considered it a real emergency. Good bye." Dr. Tofu said then put the reciever down.
"Did I... well, you know, die?"
Dr. Tofu shook his head sheepishly. "I thought you had. I'll admit now that I didn't really check. After the pressure points I'd used wore off you should have passed away immediately. At least, that's what I thought. I'm sorry that I gave up on you." He said solemnly then turned to a lighter note. "You seemed to have done it though. You found your Ki. That's quite a feat Jason. It takes most martial artists years to learn to use theirs and they usually have to use it subconsciously before they make any real progress." He explained.
"Doctor. I'm a bit disturbed by something. I didn't find my Ki. A giant [friggen] Siberian White Tiger did. I just fumbled around with it before I found out what I had to do, then I woke up." Jason informed and watched Dr. Tofu intently.
Dr. Tofu frowned. "That is rather strange. Very strange indeed. It must be a part of you though, otherwise it wouldn't be there." He explained. Then something occured tohim. "Jason, do you like tigers at all?"
"Yeah, I thought they were pretty cool back in elementary and junior high. Although actually being attacked by one was rather disturbing."
"That could be it. Since you can't touch your Ki your subconscious used a guide to show you where it was. You probably don't have to worry about it then." Tofu guessed.
"Um. I guess. But wouldn't I have to use my Ki subconsciously first?" Jason wondered.
Dr. Tofu nodded. "Yes."
"And I don't use my Ki subconsciously, so something about that just doesn't fit together."
Dr. Tofu let out a sigh and walked over to Jason to check the bandages. "Jason, the key word here is 'subconsciously'. Would you say that you heal faster than others?"
"Uh... yeah I suppose so."
"Would you say that you have more stamina than most others?"
"Kinda."
Dr. Tofu carefully loosened the wrapping around Jason's side to check the wound. "Well, I think you'll make a full recovery by tomorrow. It should leave a rather nasty looking scar though." He said and retied the bandage. "Now Jason, I'm going to tell you now. Those are signs of when people naturally tap their Ki stores. And they often won't know about it. Of course though, you have to have a lot of Ki to do it."
"Which I do."
"Yes. Should I call the family you're staying with and tell them you'll be staying here for a day?" Dr. Tofu asked.
Jason nodded his head. "Yeah, and the school too. I don't think the gym teacher believes me when I say I shouldn't run so...."
Dr. Tofu seemed to try to smile. "Don't worry about it Jason. You should be up and fighting in no time. You just have to get used to feeling less friction in your bones than usual."
"If you say so. When does the news come on? I'd like to know if that tiger that attacked me was caught." Jason said.
"Later tonight. Until then I have to get ready to open. I'll explain some more things about your Ki later today Jason." Dr. Tofu said then began to walk out of the room.
He stopped at the door. "Oh, I almost forgot. Have you had breakfast yet? I'm sure that you'll be hungry since you've used up so much Ki. People who use up large amounts of Ki often need to sleep a lot and have voracious appetites."
Jason shook his head. "I haven't eaten yet. Thank you Dr. Tofu." Jason said then laid back on the bed as Dr. Tofu left the room.
{Something in my life just doesn't fit.} Jason thought to himself. {A tiger attack? In the middle of the city? That's just weird.}
Time passed slowly for Jason after that. Dr. Tofu only came up to bring Jason some food for meals and occasionally tea while he wasn't busy with patients. During those short visits Dr. Tofu explained a few things about Ki and speculated at reasons why Jason would have such large reserves. Apparently Jason was no where near the level that he should have been able to generate such a massive amount of Ki.
The Sakawa's came by after school and work was over. They stayed for a while and Shigefumi gave Jason some homework from school, but eventually had to leave so they would be able to have a decent dinner.
One large dinner later with Dr. Tofu the chiropractor went downstairs to close the clinic. Jason listened to the silence when he heard a pair of voices begin conversation.
"Hello Dr. Tofu." A feminine voice greeted cheerfully.
"Ka- Kasumi. How are you doing today?" Tofu replied nervously.
"That's a skeleton Dr. Tofu. I came to bring back those books you lent me and I brought you something to eat to show my appreciation." The woman replied.
{Food...} Jason drooled in his mind.
"Oh, why thank you Kasumi, it looks delicious."
"Ah, Tofu, that's the napkin."
{The napkin?} Jason thought skeptically.
"Oh, so it is."
The woman giggled and said, "That's the plate Dr. Tofu."
A powerful feeling of foreboding came over Jason.
"I hear that you have a patient staying the night here Dr. Tofu. Maybe you could give some of those to him as well." The lady suggested.
"Why that's a great idea Kasumi, I'll bring them to him right now. " Dr. Tofu said then Jason heard something bang into a wall. "Oh, I didn't realize the wall was there. Now where are the stairs?"
The feeling was now overpowering Jason. {Get me outta here!}
"Ah here we are. Hold on Kasumi I'll be right back."
"Oh, don't worry yourself Dr. Tofu, I've got to be going back home anyways. It was nice seeing you. Good bye." Kasumi said then walked out the front doors.
"Good bye Kasumi." Dr. Tofu called out.
Jason watched as Dr. Tofu walked into the overnight room and drop the plate of cookies on the floor. "Uh... Doc?" Jason said as he took note of how Tofu's glasses were fogged.
Dr. Tofu picked Jason out of the bed and began dancing around with him despite Jason's cries of pain. "The wound's not healed!! THE WOUND'S NOT HEALED!!!"
Dr. Tofu dropped Jason back on the bed and looked down at Jason. "Oh, Jason. Hurt again are you? You shouldn't make a habit of it you know. Well let's see what we can do." Dr. Tofu began and by some miracle (Or curse) of chiropractic wonder that would win him an oscar (Or some kind of award) made Jason's knee's seem to naturally bend backwards instead of forwards.
"[OH MY GOD!!! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?!?!]" Jason shouted as he saw just what Dr. Tofu did to his appendages.
"Oh, I don't think they go like that. Hold on." Dr. Tofu said then once again worked his chiropractic misery.
"[AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH-]" Then Jason blacked out from the pain.
Jason woke up feeling rather not well the next day. No wait, make that night. He was still waking up early. Looking down at the bed Jason realized that it looked virtually undisturbed other than the few bouts he's had with Dr. Tofu yesterday. But... where were his legs?
{Holy shit.} Jason thought as he felt a toe twitch, somewhere above his head. Human pretzel style. {Just kill me now God. Just kill me now.}
Jason got back to school just in time to get to the Vice-principles office to be told that they were going to an assembly in which Jason was supposed to be introduced to the school as an international exchange student. Well, that seemed normal enough.
After having spent a few hours putting his legs back in position, albeit not correctly because he wobbled as he walked, and replacing the bandage across his stomache Jason had somehow made it back to school on time. How he did it was beyond him but then again he'd had plenty of time because he'd woken up early once again.
The Vice-Princible brought Jason to the gymnasium and having realized just how much trouble Jason had had walking around brought out a chair for him on the right side of the stage. Gratefully Jason sat down and looked out at the crowd gathered before him. All of them stared at him and the Vice-Principal intently. It was rather creepy.
The Vice-Principle walked up to the podium, brushed the mike off, opened his mouth to speak... and was interupted by Kuno jumping up infront of him on the stage.
"Students of Furinkan High. I, Tatewaki Kuno, have an announcement to make. If you wish to take Akane out... defeat her! I will permit no other terms!" Kuno shouted out loud enough for everyone in the gymnasium to hear.
The Vice-Principle stared at Kuno slack jawed. Jason wondered if he should really say anything. Akane stayed sitting, but her expression showed her outrage.
"What makes you think you have the right to do that?" Jason asked quietly, looking at Kuno's back.
Kuno turned around and looked at Jason. "It is the right thing to do to keep the beauteous Akane Tendo safe from this rabble." He said and waved his hand at the crowd for emphasis.
"Did you ask her?"
"My heart knows what she longs for."
Jason stared at Kuno in silence. "You idiot."
Suddenly the tip of Kuno's bokken was right infront of Jason's nose. Staring down at the wooden weapon crosseyed Jason began to worry. "Be warned foul Street fighter Jason Reaver. I have taken the time to practice hard for our next fight, and it shall surely be your last." Kuno stated arrogantly.
"If you think that I'm scared then-" Jason said as he tried to grab the weapon out of the air. Kuno on the other hand probably expected the move and swung the sword around over his head then down and hit Jason in the left side. Jason could feel the wound open up again and blood began soaking the bandage still wrapped around his chest giving it a warm wet feeling. He didn't notice that his body felt airborne as he fell from the chair and hit the ground.
Kuno turned back to the crowd of students. "This is what fate has in store for any who dare to ask out the beauteous Akane Tendo without my acceptance." He stated clearly and the students became a buzz with noise and talk.
Jason curled in on his injured side. "The wound, it's open." He muttered to no one other that himself. Gaining a little strength from his growing anger he stood up on wobbly feet and faced Kuno. "You bastard, I was healing rather nicely and now you've reopened the wound."
Kuno turned around towards Jason and lifted his weapon into a ready position. "Have at thee knave."
"Just... just shut up! Agh!" Jason said then clutched at his side with his right hand.
Kuno apparently took no notice of Jason's wound and the growing bloodstain on his pants and attacked in the usual manner. "Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike!"
Nothing could be done to repel or deflect or avoid the assualt as Jason was busy doing something else. Once again Jason found his shirt reduced to little more than scraps of cloth that was somehow held together by strings of cloth.
Being that he was by now suffering blood-loss and had just gotten over a serious case of blood-loss Jason's consciousness faded and he fell on his left side, the bandages covering his chest now merely shredded gauze.
A bunch of people from Jason's class climbed onto the stage and gathered around Jason. They began muttering to each other before they saw the pool of blood spreading across the floor.
"Hurry, someone get him to the nurse, fast!" The Vice-Principle ordered and a bunch of the students began dragging Jason off the stage.
The next day Jason was sure not to make ANYONE mad at him. From what the nurse had said he had barely survived that encounter. Dr. Tofu saw him again and said that maybe Jason should wait awhile before stressing himself in a fight. The wound was an obvious weak point which should be given more time to heal.
There was one good thing that came out of this though. He managed to coax out of a few students the location of a dojo where he could go train when he got out of infirmary. Of course though, according to Dr. Tofu Jason would have awhile to wait before he could be sure that the wound wouldn't reopen.
School seemed to come to a rather normal state for Jason. He had a constant excuse the get out of Phys. Ed and when he played his cards right he could even get out of class when he wanted.
There could only be one real problem with this. He couldn't do anything. No skateboard, no running, he wouldn't risk the early morning walks, no practicing at boxing. So all that left him really was video games and reading.
Jason found himself walking through the library long before school started. Dr. Tofu mentioned that Jason should try to expand his martial arts horizons and that any kind of manual or training guide would be good.
Like he was really gonna find some martial arts training guide in a school library.
Jason realized soon that the library's size was rather deceiving and he walked around through all the shelves for what seemed a long time and the lighting seemed to become even more dim.
The atmosphere became more ominous, the darkness, the shady bookcases. All Jason needed now was to begin hearing footsteps and he would probably freak out.
Wow, guess what... a slight squeaking could be heard from somewhere, Jason couldn't identify the direction. Something put a hand on Jason's shoulder.
"AAAHH!" Jason cried and spun around. He saw the librarian flash a flashlight in his eyes and go 'Shhh'. "Sorry. " Jason apologized quickly. "It's kinda spooky back here."
The librarian smiled. "You got that right kid. The lighting back here doesn't work and hasn't since I began working here. Frankly any books that are lent to students from back here I let them pretty much keep them. This part of the library is almost never tended, the books collect dust, they have nothing to do with school work, and I think this part of the library is in some kind of pocket dimension." He explained.
"Uhhhh... sure, yeah, I see what you mean... pocket dimension?"
"I measured the distance from my desk to the back of this place and it goes right through the back of the school somehow." The librarian exlained.
"Um... can I just look around? Preferably with your flashlight so I can read the titles." Jason requested.
The librarian looked down at the flashlight in his hand. "Oh, sure. I'm sure I can find my way out myself." Then he handed the light to Jason and walked back the way Jason came.
"[Some real fruity people around here.]" Jason muttered and began looking at the titles of some of the books.
More pointless searching, he found a lot of titles that he wouldn't expect to see in a school library though, quite a few were in english even. "The Necronomicon, Merlins book of Spells - Do Not Touch, Vampyre's, Tales of Phantasia, Webster's New World Dictionary Third College Edition, Magic for Dummies, The Sin War, Manual of the Planes, Magic made simple, Tales of Sanctuary, Stories of Rokugan, White Pages, Neriman Newbie? Nothing here too interesting. Maybe further in."
Jason finally found a book he found interesting. Blade Singing. After flipping through a few pages Jason figured that it looked like some kind of manual for training in advanced sword techniques. Well, he had a sword, so it seemed all good. Now he just had to learn how to use it.
Jason took the book off the shelf and made his way back through the library. Surprisingly, after he got back to the front desk he realized that only five minutes had passed since his excursion to the 'pocket dimension' and he still had plenty of time to get to class.
But he dismissed it with little more than a laugh.
Finally the good doctor gave the okay for Jason to do physical work. Jason gave a powerful 'Whoo Hoo' and ran out of the office with a large bound to his step. All week Jason had been spending his time watching Kuno and everyone else in the Kendo club trying to learn as much about sword play as he could visually. But now that he was free he could test his unknown skills all he wanted. But first, he needed a good solid punching bag. Maybe that dojo he'd heard about might have one. It was a dojo after all. But that would be for tomorrow, a non-school day.
'Tendo Dojo.' The sign read. "[Hm... Nabiki's house?]" Jason wondered aloud, then walked up to and knocked on the door.
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Now I'll admit this right now. This is damn well the first fanfic that I've ever written. And I'm still getting used to the format that most fanfics are written in. Originally I had begun writting this in novel format until I caught onto the mistake.(There is a difference between the two.)
I would like to know just how good I'm doing with this story so far so please post reviews people. Maybe if enough people post good replies I'll work up the confidence to even try to publish a few novels I've been writing for the last few years. And then I'll have money!
Chapter 1
Hellooooo Nerima.
All comments and criticisms would be welcome. Send all praise and flames to:
macleodrichard@hotmail.com
Be warned though, flames will be read then used as kindling.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, most of them belong to Rumiko Takahashi and others and the rest left over I would like to own but I can't get copyrights for them, their ownership kinda floats around in limbo. So crap.
"Anybody got them mothers that hit you with a shoe? I had a mother that, she was, she was a mother f*ckin shoe artist. F*ck you up with her shoe and was accurate, hit you anywhere she wanted to hit you anyplace anytime. By the time I was ten my mother was like Clint Eastwood with her shoe." - Eddie Murphy, Delirious.
Note: [] denotes words spoken in the english language.
{} denotes thoughts.
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In Nerima Ward, Japan, people enjoyed a nice, warm, clear summer day. Oh sure, the weatherman had predicted there would be rain today, but who believed him?
Most everyone apparently. Umbrella's were a common sight among the people seen in the streets.
Nerima wasn't a big city like Tokyo, no way, it was after all just a suburban part of it. The hustle and bustle of city life just didn't seem to be there.
But that didn't mean it was quaint either.
On most days some strange and random thing was usually happening. Like that girl who was always getting chased around by a 300 year old samurai and fought ninja's everyday. But nothing like that was happening today.
Today the chaos of Nerima had randomly decided to take a day off to prepare for the new toys that were coming.
A car drove itself from the airport to one of the homes in Nerima. The car was of a Japanese make, a '98 Acura, painted grey. Out of it stepped five people. The two in the front were a forty year old Japanese couple. The first out of the car's back seat were a seventeen year old Japanese boy and sixteen year old Japanese girl. The last person to exit the vehicle was a North American teenager of seventeen years carryng wth him a large gym bag that looked loaded to the brim.
"I am glad that you have come to stay with us and I hope that you find your stay pleasant." The Japanese man informed.
The North American boy bowed formally. "Thank you." Then he paused a second to gather his thoughts. "I'm glad you all allowed me to stay with you." He added in broken japanese.
Jason Reaver is a seventeen year old Canadian from Victoria, B.C. recently come to Nerima as a transfer student for the first and second semesters. He stood five feet eleven inchs tall, was of a rather muscular build, broad shoulders, had light brown hair that was cut short, and bright green eyes. Currently he was wearing a white muscle shirt and baggy jeans.
The family he was staying with, the Sakawa's seemed nice enough. The parents had greeted him with kindness, the son with awe, and the daughter with intrest.
Mr. Sakawa was a construction worker for a local company. Mrs. Sakawa was a home maker. The son, Shigefumi was currently attending high school at Furinkan High. The daughter, Kei, also attended school at Furinkan, this was her first year while Shigefumi was on his second.
There were no guest rooms in their home so Jason would be sharing Shigefumi's room. As Shigefumi set down an extra futon Jason opened his only suitcase and removed it's contents. A skateboard with a well drawn picture of a panther striding through a forrest clearing with a setting sun in the background. A few cases of CD's which he had carefully packed so that none would fall out. An antique two foot two inch long broad sword his elder brother had sent him for Jason's birthday only a month ago. And lastly was a few translation books Jason could browse through to polish his rough japanese.
Shigefumi looked over all the articles. The skateboard looked to be quite new because Jason had touched it up on more than one occasion. The CD's ranged from the Final Fantasy IV sountrack Celtic Moon to Linkin Park. The sword sent a jolt through his spine though.
"Quite the Selection you have there." Shigefumi stated wonderingly as his gaze took in all the objects.
"Thank you. Is there anyplance I can put my clothes?" Jason asked and unzipped the gym bag.
Shigefumi showed Jason to the second dresser in the room and Jason began to put away all his clothing. Shigefumi noted that the gym bag held a deceptively large amount of clothes in it, not to mention other essentials such as toiletry and a slim portable CD player.
Once done unpacking Jason looked around Shigefumi's room. Two futons, two dressers, a few wall scrolls decorated the room and not much else was in there. {Let's see, Evangelion, Rurouni Kenshin, Slayers, Bastard, and Gundam Wing. Quite the collection.} He noted mentally.
"Nice place you got here." Jason commented, stumbling over his pronunciations. In reality he knew how to speak japanese but pronunciation of the words often left him miffed.
"Thank you." Shigefumi replied, bowing curteously.
Jason took a second to gather his thoughts, he was going over a few japanese words in his mind. "I don't mean to sound rude, but what exactly do you do for fun around here?"
A gleeful smile spread itself across Shigefumi's face. Jason suddenly found himself being pulled into the living room where the T.V. lay with an N64 hooked up to it.
A while later when dinner was called Jason went to do the dining table almost positive that he should be sweating. Shigefumi proved himself to be absolutely unscrupulous at Smash bros. Jason himself had been very good back in the day, but it took a while for him to come up to par with Shigefumi's skills. {I think I'm gonna whip everyone around when I get back home.} Was all Jason could really find himself thinking.
Dinner consisted of rice and fish cakes with a side of various vegetables. Jason listened to the family chat while trying to get the hand of using chopsticks. Mr. & Mrs. Sakawa asked Shigefumi & Kei how they felt about Jason coming to stay for a fwe months.
"I think it's great." Kei replied immediately.
"He's got a lot of interesting stuff with him." Shigefumi answered second.
Mr. Sakawa turned to Jason. "What do you think of Japan so far Jason?"
"I think it's nice. I admit I'd like to go around a little, see the sights, meet new people and all that stuff before I make an analogy." Jason stated, absolutely sure he'd pronounced at least a few words wrong.
The family didn't say anything about his language and simply nodded thoughtfully to themselves.
"So what exactly is school here like?" Jason asked to relieve any tension that might have been in the air.
Shigefumi and Kei paused in their eating. Kei had her chopsticks in position to pluck a fishcake ahd Shigefumi's had just put some rice in his mouth.
"You'll find it... very memorable." Kei answered finally.
Jason wasn't quite sure what to make of the look she gave him.
The next day Jason woke up a mite too early. Infact it was barely past dawn. This he concluded aferwalking around the house and checking every clock he could find.
"[Damn]." He cursed. Going back to his room he wrote a note saying he would be out for a while and took himself and skateboard outside.
After a few minutes of puttering around Jason found a park with a childrens playground in the middle of it. Being that he didn't want to risk doing any tricks on the playground equipment or park benches Jason decided to go somewhere else.
He circled around the playground while doing a few small tricks and stopped suddenly as he caught sight of a young girl sitting on one of the swings that he hadn't been able to see earlier.
Slowly he made his way to the swings once he'd stopped his placed his board securely into the sand and got on the swing next to the girl.
At first glance it was obvious she was down, she hadn't even looked up at him yet. Her appearance was something he wasn't quite used to either. She looked to be about his age, seemed to be fit, her breasts were what Jason considered to be of average size. All in all if it wasn't for her long dark-green hair she would have seemed normal.
For a few seconds Jason just watched her. She didn't seem to notice him, she was just too busy watching her feet scrape a small ditch in the sand.
"How old are you?" Jason asked wonderingly.
The girl jerked and almost fell off her seat, she was most definately looking at him now. "Wh-what did you say?" She replied almost as if scared.
Jason held up his hands apologetically. "Sorry, I know I don't speak japanese properly but I'm trying."
"I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone right now." The girl stated then looked down at the ground once again.
Shrugging to himself Jason got up and retrieved his board. Taking one last look at the playground Jason noticed the slide. It was flat, made from steel or iron, and near the end it began to bottom out. The side walk was just far enough away that kids couldn't hurt themselves but close enough that he might be able to jump it.
"Might as well do something while I'm here." He commented quietly and climbed the playground to the slide. He put the board down and stepped on the back end of it. Taking a few seconds to measure the distances Jason finally nodded his head in assurance to himself that he could make it and began rolling down the slide.
At first all he did was keep his balance on his skateboard and duck low, but when he reached the end Jason jumped high. Keeping his wits about him allowd Jason to spin a 180 in the air and do a kickflip before he landed on the hard pavement with his footing switched.
Swerving away from the grass Jason took a moment to bow to an imaginary audience before he turned towards the Sakawa home and headed back.
Upon stepping through the door of he Sakawa household Jason was greeted by the sweet smell of cooking. Taking off his shoes and tucking his skate board under his arm Jason walked through the house to the kitchen.
Kei stopped Jason before he reached the kitchen though and asked. "Are you ready for school yet?"
Jason replied by simply nodding his head.
"Are you really sure?" She pressed, leaning slightly closer and tilting her head.
Jason's eyes became droopy as he studied Kei's face. "I'll check." He replied suspiciously and walked to Shigefumi's room.
Gathering all his materials into his gymbag Jason wondered about bringing his sword with him.... {What in the name of god am I thinking?!} He wondered to himself. It was only the second week of the school year. Bringing a sword to school would be pointless and stupid. Not to mention he didn't even know how to use it yet.
Shaking his head once again at his stupidity Jason put the Japanese-English books in his gymbag and zipped it up.
"Breakfast." A voice called in melodious tones.
Jason had the comfort of hearing his stomache speak of it's hunger to him. Various gurgling sounds seemed to make up a whole language as Jason clutched at his stomache in pain.
"Food...." Jason droned.
Jason, Shigefumi, and Kei were off to school with plenty of time to spare. Shigefumi walked calmly, Kei skipped along, and Jason glided along on his skateboard.
The school seemed normal enough to Jason once they'd arrived. Even though it was virtually empty at this time of day. Shigefumi showed Jason to classrom 2-E where both Jason and Shigefumi would be taking lessons.
"Now, there are two people in our class to watch out for. Tatewaki Kuno and Nabiki Tendo. Kuno is a rather weird guy and doesn't have any friends. Try to make sure you don't get on his bad side, he's a master at kendo and always carries a bokken with him.
"Nabiki isn't as violent but she's just as dangerous to your wallet and Kuno is to your body. She'll do almost anything for money and has many connections all over the school, possibly even all over the city." Shigefumi warned.
Jason considered the advice. "I'll keep that in mind. I don't want to get in a fight in school so I'll avoid Tatewaki. And I really want to watch my funds while I'm here so I'll be careful around Ms. Tendo."
"We just call them Kuno and Nabiki. And trust me, you can't take on Kuno. No matter how good you are."
"I'll avoid it."
"Hey, aren't you supposed to see the Vice-Principle or something?" Shigefumi wondered.
Jason blinked confused. "Isn't it the Principle I'm supposed to see?"
Shigefumi shook his head and explained that, "The Principle, from what I hear, is off in America studying some new teaching methods. From what I've heard though he's been doing that for years."
Jason shrugged. "Meh, it don't matter. I should be done with him by the time school starts. See ya in class."
The Vice-Principle seemed like a nice guy, perhaps a little uptight but nice. After a short talk to make sure Jason knew the rules he walked Jason down to his classroom and introduced him.
"Class, this is our new transfer student from Canada-"
"Ooh, Canada." A female student with short hair interupted.
"Quiet Nabiki." The teacher silenced. Nabiki just grinned evily.
"- so I'd like you all to treat him with respect." The Vice-Principle finished. He turned to Jason, "Introduce yourself."
Jason bowed formally to all his classmates. "Hello, my name is Jason Reaver, and I think I'd better warn you all now that my pronunciation sucks." With that everyone in the room bursts out laughing except the teacher, Vice-Principle, and Jason. They just chuckled.
When the laughter died down Jason smiled warmly and added, "I'm from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. And if you have any questions feel free to ask."
A girl with long black hair in the back row raised her hand high. Jason pointed to her and she burst out "Where have you been all my life?" in that 'Love at first sight' way. Once again, the whole class burst out laughing. None noticing how Jason's expression turned sour.
Once everyone calmed down the teacher told Jason to sit in the rooms only empty desk and the began teaching the days lesson.
Jason looked around the classroom from where he sat. Shigefumi was one seat to the left and two back. Nabiki was right behind him. To his left was some guy that was rather tall for a Japanese person. Infront and to the right of him were two other girls.
The girl infront of Jason turned around in her seat and looked right at Jason. "Hi, my name's Megumi." She greeted and held out her hand which he shook. "So, what did you do back in Canada Jason?" She asked.
"Besides school? I split my time between skateboarding, swimming, boxing and kickboxing and other stuff." Jason answered.
"Boxing? Kickboxing? Are you any good?" Megumi asked.
Jason nodded as a grin spread across his face. "I won the Middle-weight Provincial Boxing Champion-ship during summer vacation this year." He boasted.
The girl to the right leaned close to Jason as well as Nabiki. "So you're pretty strong then right?" The girl on Jason's right asked.
"Ye-ah."
The girl turned to Nabiki and said, "I wonder if he's stronger than your sister Nabiki. What do you think?"
"I wonder if he's stronger than Kuno." Megumi stated.
The boy to Jason's left jumped out of his desk and pointed an accusing finger at Jason. "You dare to sully the honor the great Kuno Tatewaki, The Shooting Star of Furinkan High?!" He demanded.
Jason only had a few seconds to look dumb-founded as a chalkboard eraser was thrown at each of their heads.
"Kuno, Jason, stand in the hall."
"Huh?" Jason replied smartly.
"[What the hell was that about?!]" Jason shouted in his native language at Kuno.
Both were stuck outside class holding pails of water for no good reason other than 'the teacher said so.'
"Silence knave. The great Kuno Tatewaki will brook none of that tone from a commoner."
"Commoner!" Jason shouted, "[Oh now it's on.] Where can I get some bandages? [I'm gonna beat the shit outta you.]"
Kuno found himself confused. The transfer student (whose name Kuno had already forgotten) was switching between two different languages and he couldn't tell what was a threat and what not. But he quickly recovered. "Alright then. We will go our sperate ways and gather what we need. Then we will meet in front of the school in fifteen minutes. There the great Kuno Tatewaki, the Shooting Star of Furinkan High shall mete out your destruction." He replied then stalked off through the school to find a bokken and his kendo garb.
Jason sneered at Kuno's back muttering "[Let's hear you make fancy speechs and after I knock out your teeth.]" Then he ran off to get the supplies he needed. All that remained of their prescence was the four buckets of water that they'd left behind.
Fifteen minutes later both Jason and Kuno stood infront of the school. Kuno was dressed in his traditional kendo garb and carried his bokken at his side.
Jason was dressed as he was earlier in a white T-shirt and baggy jeans, but was now carrying a bunch of bandages in his right hand. Casually Jason took off his shoes and socks then wrapped a bandage around each ankle and heel. Then he wrapped a bandage around each set of knuckles down to his wrists. And finished the effect with putting the last strip on his head like a headband simply for effect.
Taking a ready stance with his hands and feet shoulder width apart, his left foot and fist forward and his right side back he said, "Let's do it."
"Hey look everyone, a fight!" Someone from school shouted. "Hold on a sec you two! Give us time to get down there!"
Bam! Both Jason and Kuno facefaulted at this. Kuno because honor duels were not post-poned simply because someone wanted to see it. Jason didn't know why he fell but his face didn't hurt too much. Who the hell asked "Don't fight yet!" these days?
By the time the two fighters got back up a crowd had gathered around them. Nabiki could be seen taking in bets from the crowd. "Just a little longer you two." She stated.
"No!" Jason shouted then turned back to Kuno. "[Jesus I'm in trouble now.] Your move Kuno. I'll not strike first."
Kuno raised his sword high above his head and charged forwards, "Have at thee Knave!"
Jason barely had the time to pull his fist back then throw a punch right into Kuno's face. {Shit he's fast.} Jason thought as Kuno flew back a few feet.
When Kuno got back to his feet the only thing that stopped Jason from instantly losing the fight was reflexes trained by years of skate boarding.
"Strike, strike, strike, strike, strike, strike." Kuno chanted as he began a devastating assualt against Jason.
"[Holy-]" Was all jason could say before he started dodging around Kuno's random stabs.
Despite Jason's expert manueverings he found himself being hurt even when the bokken didn't touch him.
"You call this fighting!?" Jason taunted then rushed forwards through Kuno's guard to punch him straight in the face, then a less powerful left handed punch to the stomache, and finished with a right handed uppercut to the chin. Jason danced backwards slightly and brushed his right thumb across his nose a couple times to clear it. A cold wind passed as Kuno got back up and Jason noticed an unusual draft brush itself across his chest. Looking down at himself he saw why. "[My shirt!]" The said shirt was all tattered now and was barely fit for a beggar.
"Your lack of awareness shall be your downfall!" Kuno cried. Jason looked up to see Kuno finish performing a jumping slash and strike Jason on his right shoulder. Hard.
Jason began to curl towards his injured shoulder but turned it into a clockwise spin and performed a rather flawless roundhouse kick to Kuno's head. All the while emitting a deep voiced cry of pain and clutching his injured shoulder.
Before Kuno could get up Jason removed his hand and looked at it. The bandage convering his hand had a blood stain on it that covered his palm. Quickly Jason unwrapped the clean bandage from his right hand and properly apply it to his shoulder before Kuno got up.
"Ha ha ha. Now you know the wrath of they great Kuno Tatewaki Shooting Star of Furinkan High, cower in fear knave." Kuno bantered and struck a pose. Strangely though, people thought they saw a shooting star pass in the high sky. But they dismissed it.
Jason snorted indignantly. "Wrath? You call that joke of a hit wrath? I've been hit harder by lightweights!" With that said Jason ran forwards with his right fist pulled back as far as it would go, then struck Kuno in the jaw with a powerful right cross. "I'll tell you now in case you haven't figured it out yet poetry boy. It's not a good idea to fight a boxer if he's going bare knuckle."
Kuno staggered on his feet and began to say something, then realized he couldn't talk properly because his jaw was out of alignment. Instantly Kuno jumped into a flurry of savage slashes.
Jason struggled to keep up his guard and found that it continually got harder. Kuno's attacks only increased in intensity and Jason could only dodge and block so much.
Finally Kuno broke through and struck a blow to Jason's left side, then followed up with a slash to Jason's right bicep. The intended finisher was a strong overhead strike, but as the bokken descended Jason's injured arm lashed out and caught the bokken in mid-air.
Twisting his body to the left Jason lifted his right foot, then he twisted as fast as he could to the right and lashed out with the raised foot.
There was a wooden crack and Jason realized he'd just broken Kuno's weapon. "[Eh? Ah crap.] It's a draw Kuno."
Kuno cried out something indignantely and began trying to give off some speech. Unfortunately though he couldn't talk so everyone guessed that he was declaring that he doesn't accept defeat.
"You did a good number on me and I broke your weapon. It's a draw." Jason said then brought his hand to his shoulder. "I better go to the infirmary." Picking up his shoes Jason began to walk back to the school.
Once again Kuno tried to say some kind of flowery speach that would make everyone think he was the true victor. Of course though he couldn't speak.
"Kuno-baby, you might want to see a good doctor." Nabiki pointed out.
"Hey, why don't I take them to Doctor Tofu? He's the best around here, surely he can patch them up." A girl who was standing next to Nabiki piped up.
Jason paused before he walked back to the school and examined the girl. She was slightly shorter than Nabiki, seemed better built, had long dark blue hair, wore a school uniform, and didn't look to be the most endowed person he'd ever met. She was kinda cute.
"Akane this isn't the time to go galavanting off to Doctor Tofu's. We've still got school." Nabiki stated without looking up from the money she was now counting.
Kuno seemed to try to say something but since he couldn't and apparently didn't realize it, he bowed formally and walked back to the school.
"He should see a Doctor Nabiki."
Nabiki looked up at the sky while considering something, then said. "Well, I suppose he'll need to be in better condition for tomorrows fight."
"Tomorrow?"
"Oh, Kuno-baby will definately challenge you tomorrow. Trust me. I suppose you should take him then Akane. After all, I've got bets to set for tomorrow." And with that, Nabiki walked away.
Akane tugged at Jason's arm. "C'mon, that wound could only get worse."
"Ow! That's the bad one!" Jason cried out as he was dragged away.
After being painstakingly pulled towards this Dr. Tofu's Jason finally got to meet the man. Jason's first impression was that Doc Tofu was a pretty nice guy. He engaged in a short conversation with Akane while Jason sat down on the operation table.
"Anyways, let's take a look at your friend here." Dr. Tofu said and brought his attention away from Akane to check Jason. After Dr. Tofu instructed Jason to remove what was left of his shirt he began to examine Jason's upperbody. "Oh my, these are some pretty nasty bruises you've got here Jason-san. The shoulder looks like it was nicely tended though. You two must have a good nurse at school this year." Dr. Tofu commented.
Jason had been trying to keep an eye on Dr. Tofu's movements but the doctor somehow kept on disappearing and reappearing somewhere else while examing Jason. "Actually I did it myself." He said as he tried to trace Dr. Tofu's movement.
"Hm, so are you trying to become a doctor then? I could give you some training while you're here. My, you got more than your fair share of old injuries now don't you? Some of these bones look misaligned. I'll have you fixed up in no time. Just give me a second to get something for those bruises." And with that Dr. Tofu began going through a few cabinets looking for something.
"Actually I'm not training to become a doctor. Although my parents would like me to be. I just do a lotta physical stuff." Jason explained as he watched Dr. Tofu shuffle through the cabinets.
"Ah here it is." Dr. Tofu said triumphantly and turned around holding a small jar of green jelly. "When you get some time later speard this on your bruises, it should make them go away faster. But right now...." Dr. Tofu paused to put the jar down. "We've got to fix up all those misaligned bones you've got and all those old injuries you've kept."
"Injuries? Waagh!"
Dr. Tofu began to work his chiropractic wonder. Jason found his body contorted into many a strange position and despite all the pain he was beginning to feel he was unable to cry out.
"So I hear you're an exchange student huh? It must be nice to go to another country and meet new people and stuff. I would have liked to have gone to other countries when I was your age you know. You should maybe try it sometime Akane. You'd be surprised what you'd learn in other countries." He suggested.
Akane bowed her head and blushed, "Maybe I will sometime Dr. Tofu. But for now I'd just prefer to be with my family."
Dr. Tofu nodded sagely at her words. "So, are you two in the same class then?"
Akane shook her head. "Actually I think he's in my sisters class."
"Oh really? Ah, there you go Jason-san, all better."
Slowly Jason sat up on the bed. "I'm... alive. I'M ALIVE!!"
"Of course you are silly, Dr. Tofu's very good at what he does." Akane berrated.
"Thank you Akane. Ah, could you leave us for a second Akane? I need to talk to Jason alone for a second." Dr. Tofu requested politely.
Akane nodded and walked out of the room.
"Jason, when was the last time you saw a doctor?" Tofu asked when the door closed.
"Uh... years ago I think. Never needed to really."
"Well I suppose it wouldn't have made much of a difference anyways. You see, many of your joints had an unusual stiffness in them from half-healed strain. What I did mainly was remove the stiffness from all the affected joints. Try to avoid doing anything really physical like running or fighting for a few days. I'd like to give you time to ask questions but I'll have to have you come in tomorrow. I've still got other patients waiting." Dr. Tofu explained and shooed Jason out of the operating room.
Akane stood up from one of the chairs that were in the waiting room and walked over to them. "Well, we should be going now Jason, we have school still remember." She stated.
Dr. Tofu smiled kindly at Akane. "Well, I'll you see you tomorrow then Jason. And Akane, take it easy. We don't want you coming in with new injuries now do we." He said.
Akane smiled and nodded. "Thank you Dr. Tofu. But right now we really must be going."
Jason and Akane left quickly and set a fast pace to reach the school.
"Thanks for taking me there. I can't even feel the cricks in my neck no more. And hopefully this green jelly'll help the bruises go away." Jason thanked gratefully.
"You're welcome. It's always nice to see Dr. Tofu when I can." Akane said nodding.
"Got the hots for him ay?" Jason guessed and recieved an angry stare. He smiled back and laughed before saying, "Ah, don't worry about it. I would suppose he's a hansome guy. Of course though I'm a guy as well so I'm not the best source of information." She was still glaring at him. "I won't tell anyone neither if that's what you want."
Akane looked up at Jason and let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I really like Dr. Tofu. But he already loves someone else." Upon hearing that Jason made a face as if sharing her pain. "Do I look lady-like to you?"
Jason blinked. "In that school outfit you look your age I'd say. Why?"
Akane only seemed to become more depressed. "That's what I thought. I'm simply too young." She said solemnly.
"Maybe you should try to date someone your own age."
"All the boys in school are so immature. They all flock to me and keep on asking to date me then Kuno would come by and make them all go away to ask me himself. Even though I keep telling everyone no."
"Aw well. I'm sure you'll find someone else." Jason amended.
"Well, I don't know. No one at school is really interesting. You're the only person who's really been nice to me other than my family." Akane said.
"Uh, I'm not really looking at dating anyone. I'm trying to avoid romance while I'm here really." Jason supplied. "My parents would have a really big problem with me if I did."
The school came into view, then they entered the gates, then they entered the school. Then the school bell rang to signify that class had just started. "Seeya later Akane, I gotta be gettin to Phys Ed. right now." {Gotta find a way outta that.} Jason thought to himself then touched his shoulder. {Oh yeah, I really need an excuse. Better head to the nurse first so that I have a written excuse.}
Because of the short trip to the nurse so she could look him over he got to Phys Ed. class late. Jason was damn glad that he could take off the tattered shirt that he was wearing now and put on a muscle shirt he used for whenever he worked out. Jason walked out on the field just in time to hear the teacher say, "Alright class, today we're doing some track and field. We're gonna do three warm up laps around the track then I'll tell you what you're doing next! Got it?" He said loudly so that everyone could hear. Groans were the common response.
Doctor Tofu's words rang clear through Jason's head, {'Try to avoid doing anything really physical like running or fighting for a few days.' Thank god.}
"Hey teach, the nurse says I shouldn't do anything this class." Jason said as he walked up to the teacher.
The teacher turned his gaze towards Jason. "Get out on the field." He ordered.
"..." Jason started open mouthed at his teacher. "Uh, maybe you didn't hear me. I'm not supposed to do anything physical this class. Both the school nurse and a doctor told me so." He said.
"You think you have me fooled? I can see right through that phoney bandage you're wearing. I know for a fact that the nurse didn't do that, it's not her work. Now get out on the field!"
Jason blinked slowly. "The nurse didn't bandage this. I did. Here's the note she gave me to give to you." Jason said and handed the note over.
The teacher perused the note. Then glared at Jason through slitted eyes. Then read the note. The glared at Jason through slitted eyes. "Alright then. But you had better be ready to run tomorrow then student." He said suspiciously.
"I was told by the doctor that I shouldn't be doing anything physical for a while. So I don't think I'll get to participate for a few days sir. But I suppose I'll find out for sure when I see him tomorrow."
"We shall see." The teacher said and handed Jason a stopwatch. "You'll be helping me when we start doing runs."
The next day.
"I don't feel too good...." Jason moaned after he woke up.
"Oh quit your whining. I don't feel too good either you know. You didn't even run yesterday. I still feel like I've pulled all my muscles." Shigefumi replied from his cot. "You at least have something for your bruises."
"I think that's what's making me feel bad. I feel like I'm burning up."
Shigefumi reached over and felt Jason's forehead. "You feel normal."
Jason sat up on his futon. "(Sigh) I guess I'll go outside for a short walk or something. Hey man, sorry for waking you up so early. I still gotta get used to the change in time zones." He apologized and stood up.
"Don't worry about it. Just get used to it quick please. It's still dark out for... argh." Shigefumi said and laid himself back down on his cot.
Jason dressed and crept silently through the house and went out the front door. The stars were still out for cryin out loud, the moon was full that night, and sunrise seemed far off. "(Sigh) Shouldn't a woken him up." Jason muttered as walked along the street. The cool night air cooled his skin down somewhat and the cold breeze did it even better.
The park he had gone to yesterday came into view. It was completely empty from what he could see. Somehow he doubted that the girl he had seen yesterday would still be there. Jason remembered just how sad her expression had been. He wondered idly what could have been her problem and absently rubbed his injured shoulder.
His shoulder didn't ache so much as it had. Jason had always healed rather fast and that was mainly what made him so good at what he did. Sure he'd taken his fair share of beatings and falls, but he could always be back in action faster than anyone else would. He sat on a park bench and thought about his victory in the Boxing Championship that summer. Yes, that was what started his problems. He'd taken a beating from one of his opponents and his parents had begun to worry about his health when he couldn't even remember their names after the fight.
Oh sure he'd won. And sure, he wanted to keep on fighting. But they'd strictly forbidden him from fighting in the tournament anymore especially since he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. Like that would stop him.
His only supporters were the fans of the crowd. His coach had threatened to stop helping because of Jason's parents.
{No point thinking of them now. They're a million miles away.}
Turning his thoughts from less sad things he remembered his day of school. When Phys. Ed. was finished with the teacher had convinced to Jason in a civil manner to at least try one run with everyone else. If had taken a whole five minutes for him to get Jason to agree, but that was the way things worked. "[Shouldn't have run that.]" He murmured to himself.
The run had gone like this. First off the run had gone well enough. His body hadn't felt right though, after a few seconds he'd tripped over his own damn feet and caused almost the whole class to fall over as well. In the end everyone thought it was rather funny and seemed to have had alot of fun. None of the laughter was really directed at him thank god. He would have died of embarrassment from that. The teacher was rather enraged though.
The rest of the day passed rather well though.
Jason snapped out of his thoughts as a very chilly wind passed him by. His muscle shirt did little to keep the cold out, but that was how he'd wanted it. "Better be getting back now." He muttered to himself and stood up again.
Just before he set off he heard a deep throated growling behind him. Slowly Jason turned around and looked at the dark shape behind the park bench he'd just been sitting on. "[Ohhh shit.]" He swore as he laid eyes on what recognised as a large Bengal Tiger that now confronted him. "[N-nice kitty. Nice kitty.]" He said frightened as he held his hands out. Quickly he turned around and bolted the other way from the feline while letting out a cry of fear.
The tiger let out a roar of challenge and chased after him, making much better time that Jason was.
Jason ran through the playground, past the swings, jumped over the large fake turtle, and ducked under the slide as his feet plowed through the sand. Soon the sand was replaced by concrete, then that by grass as he dashed madly in a straight forwards direction from the animal. "[Please don't kill me!]" He shouted as he continued on. A feline roar was his reply. It seemed almost right behind him.
The tiger pounced the last few inches it needed and brought him to the ground. Quickly it sank it's teeth into Jason's left side and tore a chunk of his flesh off. Jason's voice raised to a tormented roar and struck out blindly. His hand connected with something and then he realized just what it was he'd been trying to strike. Placing a hand over the wound he began to run out of the park.
Jason couldn't be sure because he wouldn't risk looking over his shoulder and ran almost blindly through the streets. {What in gods name was a tiger doing in the park? Did it escape from the zoo?} Jason thought as his feet began to slow and eventually came to a stop. Looking up Jason saw he was standing infront of Dr. Tofu's. Despite the fact that Jason could feel no more strength in his body he managed to make his feet shuffle forwards to knock on the door to Dr. Tofu's clinic.
At first nothing happened, it was still rather dark out but Jason thought that he could see a hint of dawn in the sky. Looking down at his wound he could see blood going all down his leg. {I'm dead.} He thought dispirited. Slowly his consciousness faded as he knocked on the door once again.
"Oh God!"
"Jason are you alright?" Jason heard.
Jason opened his eyes to see that he was floating around in a black void.
"Jason are you alright?"
"[Who's there?]" Jason replied as he tried to turn around and look for where the voice was coming from.
"Jason wake up. You've been injured Jason. You need to wake up Jason." The voice continued.
A light appeared infront of Jason. It looked like some kind of door or gate that had opened up to him. Jason was just about to approach it when he suddenly felt cold and wet all over.
Dr. Tofu was glad to see Jason had woken up when the bucket of cold water had been dumped over his head. After springing to awareness Jason began to sputter and trying to speak. "Sorry about that Jason, but if you can stay awake your chances of survival are greater."
"[Huh? Aargh!]" Jason said as he tried to sit up, and quickly remembered about his injured side. "[God damn it!]" Jason looked down at the wound. It was bandaged at least. Then Jason noticed just how deep the depression in his side was. "[Jesus Christ.] How bad is it doc? How long have I got?" Jason began saying extremely stressed.
"Jason, I'm gonna be honest with you. The only thing keeping your alive right now is a few pressure points I pressed that slowed down your metabolism. You have maybe ten minutes before there will be no blood flow to your brain. I'd give you a blood transfusion but we don't have your record and I don't have that kind of equipment here. So I'll have to try something else." Dr. Tofu said. Taking in a deep breath he looked at the clock above the door he took in a deep breath. "Listen Jason. I've got to make this explanation quick. You have an immense amount of stored Ki in your body. You know what Ki is right?" Jason nodded his head. "Good, I'll need to show how to use it in a few minutes. Please tell me you have experience at least touching your Ki."
Jason shook his head. "I only know about it from language lessons and watching anime. I wouldn't know how to use it."
Dr. Tofu seemed dispirited. {His chances are non-existant to none} "We'd better start now. I've got to speed this up and put you in a meditative state." Dr. Tofu said and touched a few pressure points on Jason's skull. Jason quickly slipped into a different kind of unconsciousness from before, at least, that was what Dr. Tofu hoped.
"Okay Jason, you should be surrounded by total blackness. Am I right?" Tofu's voice asked from all around Jason.
Jason looked all around himself. He was indeed surrounded by a black expanse. He himself looked ethereal and partially see through. He was standing on nothing wearing nothing, he could easily see his wound as it wasn't bandaged in any way. {God I hope nothings in here that's female.} He thought embarrassed.
"Don't worry, if you talk in the trance you should also talk in the real world."
"I'm here." Jason replied.
"Good, now, we need to search for your Ki. Can you see any source of light anywhere around you? You should be able to see a white ball somewhere. You need to find it and only now should it be revealed to you." Dr. Tofu explained.
Jason twisted every which way to see this ball but he could see nothing out of the ordinary in the expanse. "I can't find it."
"Hurry Jason. Your time is almost up." Dr. Tofu rushed. Then his whisper could be heard. "Oh god I hope that he can see it."
{I'm gonna die. God couldn't I at least have died in comfort?} Jason thought to himself. {Damn it damn it damn it!} He shouted in his mind. Cursing out loud right now wouldn't have helped Dr. Tofu's conscience very much. {Face up to it you coward! You will die!} Jason found himself thinking. {Where are you? Where am I might be more appropriate if I remember what Ki is correctly.}
"I'm sorry Jason. I guess that I just wasn't good enough." Jason heard Dr. Tofu. He was just about to say 'Don't worry, at least you tried' when he heard someone clap their hands together and say. "Rest in peace."
{... Umm... damn.}
{... where's the white door I saw earlier?} Jason wondered and looked around suspiciously. {C'mon damn it. If I'm dead and the white door ain't here then what the hell is going on?} Jason began twisting his body around again. {... Door? Door? Where are you door? Ah crap. I'm stuck in limbo. I'm probably gonna be buried alive when Dr. Tofu warns the authorities. That is. If I'm alive. Blagh, this is too damn confusing.} "Hello? Anyone there? Damn it someone answer me. Am I dead? Can someone tell me?"
Jason's ethereal form sat down on nothingness in the black expanse. "[Stupid ball of energy. Some Ki I've got. To think for one second I had hopes I was gonna live after that attack. If I live after this I'm probably gonna need someone to punt around damn it. Hope Kuno's feeling frisky.]"
Infuriated Jason stood up. "[Some music would be nice at least. I wouldn't mind hearing the Stones right now. Something good to listen to as I depart from this world.]" Unfortunately nothing replied. "[This blows ass.]"
A feline growl came from behind Jason. Slowly Jason twisted around to see a large white tiger behind him. A large white Siberian Tiger, the biggest there are, and of them this one was as big as they get. It easily came up to his hip and from head to tail was probably thirteen to fourteen feet long. "[Crap. I'm going back to the moment of my death first. You want a nice meal? Well I'm right here.]" Jason said confidently and held his arms wide open.
The big cat didn't seem interested in Jason though. Instead it sat on it's haunches and tried to swat at something above it playfully. {What are you doing?} Jason thought to it in his head blandly. Just to humor it he looked up to see what it was pawing at and saw a white ball twice the diameter of a basketball above his head. Streams of white energy whisked from the ball and were connected to his own body.
Jason looked from the ball to himself. {Ack. I've now entered the Twilight Zone. This just looks freaky.}
"[Just what was I supposed to do once I found the ball?]" Jason wondered and cocked his head to the side. Just then the White Siberian jumped high and pounced on the ball and brought it down to their level. The cords of energy strained as the ball's position was changed but at least now it was easily within Jason's reach.
Jason walked around the ball and examined it. There were various patches on the ball that had different colorings on it. "[What does all this mean?]" He wondered aloud then turned to the feline. "[Can you tell me?]" Jason was surprised that he thought he saw the cat shrug.
Slowly Jason reached forwards and touched the sphere. It felt cold as his hand plunged inside it. Slowly he drew his hand out and saw a stream of energy was now connected to his hand. {Cool. Wonder if I could use this stuff as hair gel?} He smirked at the humor. It looked like it was gooey when he wiggled his fingers. Slowly, so as not to break the connection he brought his hand to his injured side and wiped his fingers across the wound. It didn't hurt at least and the stream seemed to connect to the injury instead of his hand.
{Would that be enough? The stream doesn't look any bigger than any of the other connections. It should be bigger.} He thought and drew his hand through the cold ball once again. He attached maybe five streams to the injury and stopped only when he began to feel lightheaded. {Now then, how do I get outta here?}
Looking around Jason noticed he could no longer find that tiger that had actually helped him. He walked around the white ball that was his Ki and took note of all the little colors that he could see. By poking them he identified anger, happiness/excitement (He wasn't sure which), confidence, and depression. Some of the feelings were more intense than others depend on how big the spot was and each had it's own color code. Anger was red, happiness/excitement was yellow, confidence blue, depression green.
"[What's this?]" He said as he saw a small black spot that seemed almost insignificant. As soon as he touched it though a pair of jaws extended from the ball and tried to bite his finger off. Jason pulled the digit back just in time.
{Wait a minute. Now I know my tigers, and I was sure right away that the one that attacked me was a normal colored Bengal. And that was a white striped Siberian. If this isn't a near death experience why is the feline still here?}
"[Maybe I should focus on waking up.]" Jason muttered to himself. Like he'd really find the reason to why a tiger was hiding itself in his Ki. {I can't believe I'm being so calm about this.}
The world seemed to collapse around Jason though and the blackness and the white ball disappeared from view. "[What the?]"
Jason woke up under a white sheet. He could hear a voice saying something in the distance. Probably around the corner. Or just outside the room. Sitting up Jason pulled the sheet off him body and realized that his wound still hurt. {I'm going to the hospital.} He thought solemnly.
Lying back down on the table Jason thought he heard the receiver get put back down. "Hello? Dr. Tofu?" Jason called out softly. He was met with rather stony silence. "Doc?"
Once again Jason tried to get up and cried out in pain. "[Goddamnit. Pain....] Someone help me please. I can't move."
Slowly Dr. Tofu came around the corner with a phone in hand, the reciever to his ear, and looked at Jason, his face white as an egg.
"Doc? You okay?"
Dr. Tofu swallowed nervously. "Ah, sir, nevermind about that. It seems I've misdiagnosed the patient. Sorry for the trouble. Yes, I apologize, I wouldn't have called this number unless I considered it a real emergency. Good bye." Dr. Tofu said then put the reciever down.
"Did I... well, you know, die?"
Dr. Tofu shook his head sheepishly. "I thought you had. I'll admit now that I didn't really check. After the pressure points I'd used wore off you should have passed away immediately. At least, that's what I thought. I'm sorry that I gave up on you." He said solemnly then turned to a lighter note. "You seemed to have done it though. You found your Ki. That's quite a feat Jason. It takes most martial artists years to learn to use theirs and they usually have to use it subconsciously before they make any real progress." He explained.
"Doctor. I'm a bit disturbed by something. I didn't find my Ki. A giant [friggen] Siberian White Tiger did. I just fumbled around with it before I found out what I had to do, then I woke up." Jason informed and watched Dr. Tofu intently.
Dr. Tofu frowned. "That is rather strange. Very strange indeed. It must be a part of you though, otherwise it wouldn't be there." He explained. Then something occured tohim. "Jason, do you like tigers at all?"
"Yeah, I thought they were pretty cool back in elementary and junior high. Although actually being attacked by one was rather disturbing."
"That could be it. Since you can't touch your Ki your subconscious used a guide to show you where it was. You probably don't have to worry about it then." Tofu guessed.
"Um. I guess. But wouldn't I have to use my Ki subconsciously first?" Jason wondered.
Dr. Tofu nodded. "Yes."
"And I don't use my Ki subconsciously, so something about that just doesn't fit together."
Dr. Tofu let out a sigh and walked over to Jason to check the bandages. "Jason, the key word here is 'subconsciously'. Would you say that you heal faster than others?"
"Uh... yeah I suppose so."
"Would you say that you have more stamina than most others?"
"Kinda."
Dr. Tofu carefully loosened the wrapping around Jason's side to check the wound. "Well, I think you'll make a full recovery by tomorrow. It should leave a rather nasty looking scar though." He said and retied the bandage. "Now Jason, I'm going to tell you now. Those are signs of when people naturally tap their Ki stores. And they often won't know about it. Of course though, you have to have a lot of Ki to do it."
"Which I do."
"Yes. Should I call the family you're staying with and tell them you'll be staying here for a day?" Dr. Tofu asked.
Jason nodded his head. "Yeah, and the school too. I don't think the gym teacher believes me when I say I shouldn't run so...."
Dr. Tofu seemed to try to smile. "Don't worry about it Jason. You should be up and fighting in no time. You just have to get used to feeling less friction in your bones than usual."
"If you say so. When does the news come on? I'd like to know if that tiger that attacked me was caught." Jason said.
"Later tonight. Until then I have to get ready to open. I'll explain some more things about your Ki later today Jason." Dr. Tofu said then began to walk out of the room.
He stopped at the door. "Oh, I almost forgot. Have you had breakfast yet? I'm sure that you'll be hungry since you've used up so much Ki. People who use up large amounts of Ki often need to sleep a lot and have voracious appetites."
Jason shook his head. "I haven't eaten yet. Thank you Dr. Tofu." Jason said then laid back on the bed as Dr. Tofu left the room.
{Something in my life just doesn't fit.} Jason thought to himself. {A tiger attack? In the middle of the city? That's just weird.}
Time passed slowly for Jason after that. Dr. Tofu only came up to bring Jason some food for meals and occasionally tea while he wasn't busy with patients. During those short visits Dr. Tofu explained a few things about Ki and speculated at reasons why Jason would have such large reserves. Apparently Jason was no where near the level that he should have been able to generate such a massive amount of Ki.
The Sakawa's came by after school and work was over. They stayed for a while and Shigefumi gave Jason some homework from school, but eventually had to leave so they would be able to have a decent dinner.
One large dinner later with Dr. Tofu the chiropractor went downstairs to close the clinic. Jason listened to the silence when he heard a pair of voices begin conversation.
"Hello Dr. Tofu." A feminine voice greeted cheerfully.
"Ka- Kasumi. How are you doing today?" Tofu replied nervously.
"That's a skeleton Dr. Tofu. I came to bring back those books you lent me and I brought you something to eat to show my appreciation." The woman replied.
{Food...} Jason drooled in his mind.
"Oh, why thank you Kasumi, it looks delicious."
"Ah, Tofu, that's the napkin."
{The napkin?} Jason thought skeptically.
"Oh, so it is."
The woman giggled and said, "That's the plate Dr. Tofu."
A powerful feeling of foreboding came over Jason.
"I hear that you have a patient staying the night here Dr. Tofu. Maybe you could give some of those to him as well." The lady suggested.
"Why that's a great idea Kasumi, I'll bring them to him right now. " Dr. Tofu said then Jason heard something bang into a wall. "Oh, I didn't realize the wall was there. Now where are the stairs?"
The feeling was now overpowering Jason. {Get me outta here!}
"Ah here we are. Hold on Kasumi I'll be right back."
"Oh, don't worry yourself Dr. Tofu, I've got to be going back home anyways. It was nice seeing you. Good bye." Kasumi said then walked out the front doors.
"Good bye Kasumi." Dr. Tofu called out.
Jason watched as Dr. Tofu walked into the overnight room and drop the plate of cookies on the floor. "Uh... Doc?" Jason said as he took note of how Tofu's glasses were fogged.
Dr. Tofu picked Jason out of the bed and began dancing around with him despite Jason's cries of pain. "The wound's not healed!! THE WOUND'S NOT HEALED!!!"
Dr. Tofu dropped Jason back on the bed and looked down at Jason. "Oh, Jason. Hurt again are you? You shouldn't make a habit of it you know. Well let's see what we can do." Dr. Tofu began and by some miracle (Or curse) of chiropractic wonder that would win him an oscar (Or some kind of award) made Jason's knee's seem to naturally bend backwards instead of forwards.
"[OH MY GOD!!! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?!?!]" Jason shouted as he saw just what Dr. Tofu did to his appendages.
"Oh, I don't think they go like that. Hold on." Dr. Tofu said then once again worked his chiropractic misery.
"[AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH-]" Then Jason blacked out from the pain.
Jason woke up feeling rather not well the next day. No wait, make that night. He was still waking up early. Looking down at the bed Jason realized that it looked virtually undisturbed other than the few bouts he's had with Dr. Tofu yesterday. But... where were his legs?
{Holy shit.} Jason thought as he felt a toe twitch, somewhere above his head. Human pretzel style. {Just kill me now God. Just kill me now.}
Jason got back to school just in time to get to the Vice-principles office to be told that they were going to an assembly in which Jason was supposed to be introduced to the school as an international exchange student. Well, that seemed normal enough.
After having spent a few hours putting his legs back in position, albeit not correctly because he wobbled as he walked, and replacing the bandage across his stomache Jason had somehow made it back to school on time. How he did it was beyond him but then again he'd had plenty of time because he'd woken up early once again.
The Vice-Princible brought Jason to the gymnasium and having realized just how much trouble Jason had had walking around brought out a chair for him on the right side of the stage. Gratefully Jason sat down and looked out at the crowd gathered before him. All of them stared at him and the Vice-Principal intently. It was rather creepy.
The Vice-Principle walked up to the podium, brushed the mike off, opened his mouth to speak... and was interupted by Kuno jumping up infront of him on the stage.
"Students of Furinkan High. I, Tatewaki Kuno, have an announcement to make. If you wish to take Akane out... defeat her! I will permit no other terms!" Kuno shouted out loud enough for everyone in the gymnasium to hear.
The Vice-Principle stared at Kuno slack jawed. Jason wondered if he should really say anything. Akane stayed sitting, but her expression showed her outrage.
"What makes you think you have the right to do that?" Jason asked quietly, looking at Kuno's back.
Kuno turned around and looked at Jason. "It is the right thing to do to keep the beauteous Akane Tendo safe from this rabble." He said and waved his hand at the crowd for emphasis.
"Did you ask her?"
"My heart knows what she longs for."
Jason stared at Kuno in silence. "You idiot."
Suddenly the tip of Kuno's bokken was right infront of Jason's nose. Staring down at the wooden weapon crosseyed Jason began to worry. "Be warned foul Street fighter Jason Reaver. I have taken the time to practice hard for our next fight, and it shall surely be your last." Kuno stated arrogantly.
"If you think that I'm scared then-" Jason said as he tried to grab the weapon out of the air. Kuno on the other hand probably expected the move and swung the sword around over his head then down and hit Jason in the left side. Jason could feel the wound open up again and blood began soaking the bandage still wrapped around his chest giving it a warm wet feeling. He didn't notice that his body felt airborne as he fell from the chair and hit the ground.
Kuno turned back to the crowd of students. "This is what fate has in store for any who dare to ask out the beauteous Akane Tendo without my acceptance." He stated clearly and the students became a buzz with noise and talk.
Jason curled in on his injured side. "The wound, it's open." He muttered to no one other that himself. Gaining a little strength from his growing anger he stood up on wobbly feet and faced Kuno. "You bastard, I was healing rather nicely and now you've reopened the wound."
Kuno turned around towards Jason and lifted his weapon into a ready position. "Have at thee knave."
"Just... just shut up! Agh!" Jason said then clutched at his side with his right hand.
Kuno apparently took no notice of Jason's wound and the growing bloodstain on his pants and attacked in the usual manner. "Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike!"
Nothing could be done to repel or deflect or avoid the assualt as Jason was busy doing something else. Once again Jason found his shirt reduced to little more than scraps of cloth that was somehow held together by strings of cloth.
Being that he was by now suffering blood-loss and had just gotten over a serious case of blood-loss Jason's consciousness faded and he fell on his left side, the bandages covering his chest now merely shredded gauze.
A bunch of people from Jason's class climbed onto the stage and gathered around Jason. They began muttering to each other before they saw the pool of blood spreading across the floor.
"Hurry, someone get him to the nurse, fast!" The Vice-Principle ordered and a bunch of the students began dragging Jason off the stage.
The next day Jason was sure not to make ANYONE mad at him. From what the nurse had said he had barely survived that encounter. Dr. Tofu saw him again and said that maybe Jason should wait awhile before stressing himself in a fight. The wound was an obvious weak point which should be given more time to heal.
There was one good thing that came out of this though. He managed to coax out of a few students the location of a dojo where he could go train when he got out of infirmary. Of course though, according to Dr. Tofu Jason would have awhile to wait before he could be sure that the wound wouldn't reopen.
School seemed to come to a rather normal state for Jason. He had a constant excuse the get out of Phys. Ed and when he played his cards right he could even get out of class when he wanted.
There could only be one real problem with this. He couldn't do anything. No skateboard, no running, he wouldn't risk the early morning walks, no practicing at boxing. So all that left him really was video games and reading.
Jason found himself walking through the library long before school started. Dr. Tofu mentioned that Jason should try to expand his martial arts horizons and that any kind of manual or training guide would be good.
Like he was really gonna find some martial arts training guide in a school library.
Jason realized soon that the library's size was rather deceiving and he walked around through all the shelves for what seemed a long time and the lighting seemed to become even more dim.
The atmosphere became more ominous, the darkness, the shady bookcases. All Jason needed now was to begin hearing footsteps and he would probably freak out.
Wow, guess what... a slight squeaking could be heard from somewhere, Jason couldn't identify the direction. Something put a hand on Jason's shoulder.
"AAAHH!" Jason cried and spun around. He saw the librarian flash a flashlight in his eyes and go 'Shhh'. "Sorry. " Jason apologized quickly. "It's kinda spooky back here."
The librarian smiled. "You got that right kid. The lighting back here doesn't work and hasn't since I began working here. Frankly any books that are lent to students from back here I let them pretty much keep them. This part of the library is almost never tended, the books collect dust, they have nothing to do with school work, and I think this part of the library is in some kind of pocket dimension." He explained.
"Uhhhh... sure, yeah, I see what you mean... pocket dimension?"
"I measured the distance from my desk to the back of this place and it goes right through the back of the school somehow." The librarian exlained.
"Um... can I just look around? Preferably with your flashlight so I can read the titles." Jason requested.
The librarian looked down at the flashlight in his hand. "Oh, sure. I'm sure I can find my way out myself." Then he handed the light to Jason and walked back the way Jason came.
"[Some real fruity people around here.]" Jason muttered and began looking at the titles of some of the books.
More pointless searching, he found a lot of titles that he wouldn't expect to see in a school library though, quite a few were in english even. "The Necronomicon, Merlins book of Spells - Do Not Touch, Vampyre's, Tales of Phantasia, Webster's New World Dictionary Third College Edition, Magic for Dummies, The Sin War, Manual of the Planes, Magic made simple, Tales of Sanctuary, Stories of Rokugan, White Pages, Neriman Newbie? Nothing here too interesting. Maybe further in."
Jason finally found a book he found interesting. Blade Singing. After flipping through a few pages Jason figured that it looked like some kind of manual for training in advanced sword techniques. Well, he had a sword, so it seemed all good. Now he just had to learn how to use it.
Jason took the book off the shelf and made his way back through the library. Surprisingly, after he got back to the front desk he realized that only five minutes had passed since his excursion to the 'pocket dimension' and he still had plenty of time to get to class.
But he dismissed it with little more than a laugh.
Finally the good doctor gave the okay for Jason to do physical work. Jason gave a powerful 'Whoo Hoo' and ran out of the office with a large bound to his step. All week Jason had been spending his time watching Kuno and everyone else in the Kendo club trying to learn as much about sword play as he could visually. But now that he was free he could test his unknown skills all he wanted. But first, he needed a good solid punching bag. Maybe that dojo he'd heard about might have one. It was a dojo after all. But that would be for tomorrow, a non-school day.
'Tendo Dojo.' The sign read. "[Hm... Nabiki's house?]" Jason wondered aloud, then walked up to and knocked on the door.
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Now I'll admit this right now. This is damn well the first fanfic that I've ever written. And I'm still getting used to the format that most fanfics are written in. Originally I had begun writting this in novel format until I caught onto the mistake.(There is a difference between the two.)
I would like to know just how good I'm doing with this story so far so please post reviews people. Maybe if enough people post good replies I'll work up the confidence to even try to publish a few novels I've been writing for the last few years. And then I'll have money!