My own sweat was pouring down my face. Why does Kou want me to clean the floor anyway? I bet he's just using me as a maid! I silently pouted while running down the hallway with my rag. I have to stay here until Kou finishes training me...
"Yo! Akira, you're done cleaning the hallways?", Kou's annoying voice echoed through the empty, yet clean halls.
"Yes I'm done. What is this all for anyway?", I was definitely running out of patience.
"I'll tell you later. Do you see that tree in the backyard? I want you to climb all the way to the top, stand on one foot, and slowly and carefully tear each leaf on the tree in half. If you loose your balance and put both feet down, you have to start over on another tree...", he said with a very serious face.
"Kou, quit screwing with me. That has to be impossible. Anyway, what kind of lunatic would want to have all their leaves on the tree to be ripped in half? I'm not going to do it.", I said while turning to leave.
"Your going to stay here Akira and do as I say." I didn't even see him run up behind me, all I felt was the wind brush my neck and the cold fingers that wrapped around my arm in a painful snare.
"What the hell Kou! Let me go!", I couldn't get myself free from his grasp.
"Until the day where you can escape me in a fair fight will I let you leave the training grounds.", he said this as his hands grasped my arm all the more tighter.
"Geez! Okay, I'll do it! Now get your hands off me.", as soon as I said this I felt his hands loosen their grasp on my arm.
"Then get to work.", Kou turned around and waved his cigarette above his head almost like he was saying good luck. Great. Now how am I going to do such a crazy task? I soon got to work, climbing up the tree was simple enough. But the highest branch was so thin that if I were to stand on it then it would break... I lifted myself onto it anyway, feeling the wood groan beneath my weight. Standing up shakily I tried to put one foot up. -SNAP- I went falling all the way to the ground. Great. Now I have to get to another tree. I went through five trees before I found one that could hold my weight. Balancing on one foot was difficult, but as time went by I got use to it. I began to slowly rip each leaf in half with my fingers. Once I had all the ones in reach another problem arose. How was I going to move down the tree to get to the other leaves without putting both feet down? Do I just hop down? It sounded like a stupid idea, but I wasn't willing to start over on another tree. I put my arms around my head (preparing for the worst of course), and jumped to a lower branch. Too bad the branch wouldn't hold. I woke up two hours later with a mouth full of sand and dirt. For hours I worked on this stupid task. I was hungry and called to Kou to get me something, but he just smiled and waved. What a jerk.. It was just about nightfall, I could hardly see the leaves or the branches anymore. By now I was getting desperate. I was wheezing, my breath ragged and hoarse. Both of my hands were bleeding from splinters. The moon began to be covered by the clouds and no stars were visible. I give up. I can't do this. The feeling of defeat came over me as I slipped into unconsciousness.
I awoke laying against the tree. I grunted and sat up and looked around. So many leaves on the ground! The tree I was beneath had all of its leaves cut in half! But I don't remember doing this... It was even weirder when I saw that all of the trees around were in the same condition. I rubbed my eyes with my swollen hands to make sure this was real. I got up and went to go find Kou.
"Kou! Were you the one who did that to all of the trees?", I said while thinking that he probably did this to mess with me.
"Akira... You amaze me sometimes with your stupidity", he said while laughing like he saw the whole thing.
"What's so funny? I'm not the one who did that to the trees!". Kou confuses me...
"But you did. And now I'm sure of it..", he said while wrapping my hands in bandages.
"Sure of what? Your're not making any sense Kou.." He only smiled sadly and told me of my next task. "You must dip yourself in the waterfall, then run into the hot-springs and back again 28 times. You must try to do this without loosing consciousness or falling.", he said while setting a tray down by me with food on it. "The task starts at 12:00p.m. prepare yourself before then..."
So I began this task shortly. I ran into the waterfall, it's icy water making my skin feel as if it was zinging then I ran to the hot-springs and jumped in and came out. It burned! I could feel the tears well up into my eyes as I ran back to the waterfall. This continued, the shocks of the cold and hot water were affecting my brain. My vision began to blur and I began to fight for breath, each one I took felt like a slice to my lungs. This is my last time running to the waterfall... I could see the ripples in the water coming closer into view as I ran. My foot slid on the slick surface and my face landed first into the water. It seemed like my muscles were rubber, I couldn't move, I felt no desire to either. I drifted lower and lower into the water letting the cool folds of the waterfall envelope me into a dream-like state of mind. There I saw myself in three different mirrors. One had hair as black as night, another was my ordinary self, and in the last I had almost white hair and blue eyes. The one with black hair was silently weeping, my ordinary self was smiling to himself, and the one with the white hair looked up at me, smiled, and bowed. The one with the white hair came through the mirror, took my hand and kissed it. His eyes... Or should I say my eyes were filled with confidence as he slowly started to diminish, with only a shimmering light remaining. It seemed that I had just breathed for the first time, the white light assured me, almost comforted me, if that was possible...
I gasped as I awoke, spitting up the remaining water in my mouth. My head felt fuzzy and groggy. I slowly got up to leave. White mist was everywhere, a cold breeze ruffled my hair. The waterfall... What the... I touched the surface. It's definitely frozen. I have to get to Kou. I have to ask him what the heck just happened. But as I turned to leave I couldn't help but hear whispers. "He's finally awakened...", the first voice whispered. "Not yet he hasn't, not yet. But he will soon". The second voice made me shiver because of how familiar the voice sounded.
Authors note: Sorry I took so long to update!( _) I hope you guys like this chapter! Keep up the reviews! I know there are some people that have been reading each and every one of my chapters and I thank you for that! *The next chapter is going to be awesome!*
