Two days had passed since my attack on Dabir in the courtyard, and only one student had been attacked since then. And I thanked Kami every moment since the attack that she had survived. Edana had been coming to class yesterday and I felt her ki shoot up in anticipation of a battle. It was fortunate that I had been scanning for her energizing yet centering presence, for when I went outside I found her lying on the ground. Kami must have been watching out for me because the shrouded figure had not finished the horrifying deed and fled instead. I hadn't bothered giving chase, choosing rather to make sure Edana was going to survive.
The first thing I notice when I walk into the main academy building is the hallway leading to the hospital, which has become Edana's new place of residence. This time I don't get to visit her unconscious body, and I make a left heading into the classroom area. After nearly a week of navigating through the school I had learned the way, and soon found myself entering Master Essam's office.
"Tell me Déshawn," Master Essam was sitting at her desk expectantly. And I had arrived exactly on time. "Are you sure that you do not fear the power within you. If you have one inkling of doubt, I'll have to train you to suppress your potential for you will not be able to control it with fear in your heart."
"Master Essam, whoever did this has hospitalized Edana." I walk into the middle of her office, a black aura of battle exploding around me as my anger rises. "I crave nothing more than to bring out my power, so I can get my hands on whoever did this to her!"
"Then you should know what you truly are." Master Essam gets up and walks calmly around the desk. "I have hidden this from you for too long, but I have known it since the first punch you threw at me."
"You don't mean 'who' do you?" my aura fades as confusion takes over.
"You're not from this planet," she looks me in the eyes steadily at this revelation. I can almost feel the denial rising before something else replaces it, and my shoulders relax as if I'd tensed up for a physical attack: relief.
"Your ancestors come from a planet called Vegeta, which housed a brutal race called the Sayjins. This is what you are, a Sayjin. Most Sayjins have a tail as their most identifying feature, but I had to…remove yours." She explains. "You see, when a Sayjin looks at the full moon he transforms into a huge ape-like monster. The night you attacked me, after I'd knocked you out the first time, you awoke that night only to look at the full moon and you transformed. The only way to take you back out of that form was to kill you, destroy the moon, or cut off your tail."
"I'm glad you chose the latter," come my first words since her announcement.
"Well it wasn't easy but I managed to bring you back." She smiles a bit as if the memory tickled her before she continues her explanation. "Sayjins are a proud race which explains why you get so…riled…when challenged. They base their principals, goals, government, values, morals, and even mating rituals around combat and dominance."
"That does define a lot of my past experiences for me," I say leaning against the wall as if the information tired me out. "And brings me to reconciliation with many of my poor choices."
"Anyways, the planet Vegeta was run by King Vegeta but he was eventually lorded over by a changeling named Frieza. This changeling was the most powerful figure in the universe for a long time, and he made the Sayjins wipe out planets so that they could be auctioned off to the highest bidder." Master Essam began, and I could almost see where the story was headed.
"I bet they didn't like that. A race of proud fighters being used as planet janitors."
"You've just made the understatement of the millennium. Of course they couldn't really do anything because anyone who challenged him was killed before they even got to fight with Frieza. This changeling was so powerful he could destroy planets at the wave of his hand," she paused for a moment as my disbelief set in. "Or so the legend says."
"No wonder it's legend, to destroy a planet so easily is impossible." I say in shock.
"Well, that's what happened to the planet Vegeta."
"It was destroyed?" I feel my hopes of visiting my true home crushed.
"Yes, well you see there is another story, this time amongst the Sayjins. They say that every one thousand years a Sayjin is born, who has astounding power and strength. They say that this Sayjin eventually ascends to the level of the Legendary Super Sayjin, and his power is unsurpassed by any sentient force in existence." She explains.
"Which of course scared Frieza out of his bowels."
"And he destroyed the planet in an attempt to stop any possibility of him being overthrown." She bows her head in mourning. "Of course, when the rumor of his plans to destroy the Sayjins got out, several of parents tried to send their children off of the planet in a desperate attempt to save them."
"And I'm one of the few who survived…" I slide to the ground in despair.
"My research leads me to believe that you are one of 3 pure blooded Sayjins who survived the devastating attack." She explains solemnly.
I stand up determination now burning in my body more than ever.
"Master Essam, you're the only mother I've every truly known. The only person I've felt a connection to, as true family. Even Edana can't claim that part of my heart. But I want to find this monster that killed my entire race and ancestors!" I clench my fists with this pronouncement.
"Déshawn, he could destroy entire planets…"
"And he still feared my people. He was truly a weakling in the end, and I will break him with my own hands! Right after I track down this coward that decided to try and attack this school." I flex my entire body as another aura explodes around me, although I try to suppress my power a bit so as to keep Master Essam's office in tact. "So let's get started."
My mind is an anxious entity. This training that Master Essam has devised for me goes against every instinct it's learned from years of existence. She's making me wait. Plain and simple, with absolutely no reason, waiting.
"Déshawn your mind isn't clear," Master Essam lightly reminds me. And again I swear that she can read my thoughts. "You must remain completely focused on one goal, and with as turbulent a past as yours, it will prove to be one of your greatest challenges, but most rewarding."
Not bothering to answer her, I clear my mind once again and focus on trying to feel out my surroundings through my mind.
"Are you ready?" She asks.
I give her a silent nod and she places a thick black bandana around my eyes effectively blinding me. Then she fastens the special belt, that Adisa customized for me, around my waist and I walk to, what I hoped, was the middle of Team Halima's training room and waited. A moment passes and I hear a snapping sound surround me. I quickly realize that it was the panels in the wall opening so that I couldn't hear where the attack would come from, and I tense my body in preparation. Suddenly I feel something plushy but firm slam into the back of my head forcing it forward in a snapping motion.
"You're not focusing Déshawn. Clear your mind of the inevitable distractions and think only of your obstacles."
Nodding silently I expand my aura to fill the entire room, which turned out to be a smart move as I sensed something press through from the rear. However my reaction was too late as I'd hesitated in amazement that I'd sensed it coming, and I was rewarded with another smack to the back of the head.
"Are they all coming from the back?" I growl to myself.
Then I feel another one coming from the back-left side of my body. I lean my head slightly to the right and hear the whizzing of the foam ball past my ear.
"Good!" comes the praise.
Feeling one head straight towards my face, I twist to the left just as I sense another one coming from behind me. Dropping my height slightly I quickly duck the next offending foam ball. And snap back up to my height, only to feel two more attack from either side of my body. I take a step back and the balls slam into each other and I feel another aimed for the back of my knees. A backflip neutralizes its "threat" and I suddenly feel something smaller and faster moving enter my aura and I catch it out of curiosity. Feeling its rough, hard surface I turn my head blindly towards Master Essam.
"Rocks?" I ask.
"Speed up," comes the simple reply.
I soon realize she intends to test my limits.
Lying on my bed without a shirt I grimaced Abrihet laid the final ice pack on my back. There was a hiss as the frozen liquid meets with the hot blood seeping from my body, and I would have bet the Lookout Tower that steam was probably pouring off of it.
"So, I guess that your training went well," she says.
"I know you have a problem with me pushing myself, but these things can't be helped," I intercept her line of comments.
"Pushing yourself is great, but your recovery time tends to overshadow your workout availability." Edana scolds gently.
"I'll be back in another half hour. I have to be, tomorrow we have the first scheduled matches of the year, and the team fights are on Sunday." I inform her.
"Oh yeah, can't forget about the important stuff lest we get caught up in concerns about your health."
"Exactly." Comes my firm answer. "How's Edana?"
"Well, she's gonna live for two reasons only." Abrihet's sigh sounded tired from the emotional stress I knew she was going through. Between me running the gauntlet of Dabir, Aliikai, Kale, Master Essam's training, and Edana's near death experience, I knew she had already put up with a lot more than she should have to already. "The first reason is that her natural healing abilities also work to repair her body. But the main reason is you sensed her in trouble."
"Well that would be thanks to Samantha. I only try and locate Edana's essence when I need to focus my mind, and she was distracting me from whatever it was that I had been doing." I say. "I guess it's true what I say: 'Luck favors those in my favor'"
"When have you said this?" I can almost see Abrihet's eyebrow rise, even though I'm lying on my stomach.
"From now on," I smirk.
My mind was on fire. It felt as if my logic functions had shut down, and my brain was simply operating on pure instinct and the need to survive. Right now, every instinct built into my cerebrum was being tested. To a bystander, seeing someone almost completely tear the strongest person you know in two with a single blow should give a child very little problem making a decision. But a child of Sayjin descent had better priorities than to live: vengeance being the most upstanding of them. As my father's blood poured off of my face, and rage boiled, almost painfully, in my veins, a man of unspeakable proportions was steadily stomping towards me. I drew myself up to my full, even if modest, height and let out a yell of anguish. Energy was pouring off of my young body in waves and, to my luck, pushed the large man away. But my actual power seemed unable to pass a certain point, the point I knew I must pass if I were to gather the energy needed to destroy this demon. But my age, size, or generally low power kept my body from reaching that point, and my power was contained.
I felt a sudden spike of ki and my eyes snapped open preparing to defend myself. As my vision came to me, I see Janiko's large form standing over me holding a ki blast in my face. I can feel the heat pouring off of it and roll out of bed quickly, landing on the ground in a pushup position. I flip onto my feet and turn to see the ki ball still waiting for me, still aimed at my face. Thinking about my training session with Master Essam, my shoulders relax as I realize that she'd sent him to test my reflexes. Her words of "a true Sayjin could fight his way out of bed" ringing momentarily in my mind as I turned out of the bedroom and walk into the kitchen.
"She told me to start letting it go after the first 5 times," Janiko tells me as he walks out of my room.
"Do it next time," I pour myself a glass of water. "I'll learn faster."
"I prefer Master Essam's way." He declines.
"Why are you always up before me?"
"You slept in, tired from training I suppose. Matches start now, you have a one on one fight." Janiko calmly tells me.
If he said anything else, it was lost in my split-second trip from the room to the top of the stairs. I zipped down the stairs in the air, past the now forgotten Nani, and out into the courtyard where I hear the echo of Master Essam calling my name against a Ray Treal. I land in the ring and shake my head to try and rid myself of cobwebs from being fresh out of bed. Ray is an average looking fighter. Lean, lightly colored skin, with white hair and blue eyes that seem to plaster his face with a hard stare. I roll my neck as the crowd bubbles up in the anticipating excitement of the next match, or possibly the excitement of the match before mine, it didn't matter to me. I was just focused on my current target and observing his movements. He was shaking his limbs out, bouncing on the balls of his feet, so I assumed him to be a quick fighter. From the way he was hopping on his feet, my guess was that he was a fast kicker, but then again, he was shaking his wrists out with a particular focus also...
"Ready?" Master Essam's voice pushes into my unsure thoughts. "Fight!"
He simply stood his ground, waiting patiently, still shaking out his wrists and bouncing on the balls of his feet as it nothing had changed. Wondering whether this was a ploy or he truly hadn't heard the loud shout, I let off a ball of ki at his body. His mid-section curves out to the side as he twists his body to only move what was necessary for him to avoid the attack. Then he went right back to what he was doing. Annoyed I move in cautiously and swing a right cross at his jaw. Leaning under the punch he lifts the opposite leg and slams it into my face, snapping my head backwards painfully. Then he twists his mid-section awkwardly again and manages a flip forward kicking me with the leg he'd had on the ground, and follows up with his leading foot again. I fly backwards and slam into the ground, my mind reeling from the blows he'd landed almost as much as I was dazed by HOW he'd landed them. The sheer defiance of physical limits he'd just exhibited caught me completely off-guard. Shaking my head as I stood up, I cleared my mind and remembered Master Essam's advice when the first rock had hit me: "A wise fighter is never impressed, and rarely repeats movements." He rotated his body through the air on a vertical axis as he launched another unorthodox attack at me. Smirking because I'd realized why Master Essam had chosen this fighter to go against me, I decided to use impressive attacks too. As his body spun towards me, I dipped low and slammed an uppercut into his mid-section, tossing him backwards and up a couple of yards. As he was dropping back towards the ground, I let a ki blast loose into his falling body, throwing him across the white fighting ring.
"Not limber enough huh?" I taunt as I stalk towards the downed student.
A black aura of ki explodes around my body, as I extend my mental aura so I can sense any movements in his body and can respond appropriately. I feel him breathing heavier; at least I'd supposed that as his upper body was expanding wider. How wrong I was. He twists his head towards me letting a beam of ki fly from his mouth. In my astonishment that he'd found yet another way to impress me, I catch the full brunt of the attack and get thrown across the ring also. Laughing, Ray bounces to his feet quickly, as if I'd never damaged him in the first place and rushes over slamming a foot into my ribs, tossing me further across the ring. I yell in pain as I slam into the ring again. Growling, I get back to my feet, as he aim's another kick at my face. I whip my head to the right, dodging the blow, and pound my fist into his stomach. Then spinning, I snap a back fist across his face, following up with an elbow to his face again. Leaning into a back stance, I cup my hands for a moment before I rock forward and thrust a beam of ki into his chest. He yells as the beam pushes him for a moment, then detonates in a fiery explosion that chars the ring's surface and burns Ray Treal's chest.
"Done playing possum?" I taunt again, this time readying myself for another quick move from the tricky fighter.
This time he simply leaps into our battle with gusto, and the fight reaches new heights of ferocity as we exchange hundreds of blows in mere seconds. He seems to be able to twist his body at points where nobody else would be able to turn. I soon learn to anticipate his attacks and as he ducks a cross from me, I open my palm and let a ki blast fly down on top of him, blowing him face down into the arena. I step on his back and press down hard as I zip into the air. And then I cut loose with everything I have. Ki blasts fly from my hands at blinding speeds as I pound him into the ground repeatedly. Then it all halts for a moment as I gather a substantial amount of energy to myself again. And with a last yell a huge blast of energy whipped into the back of Ray, whose energy finally withdrew as he lost consciousness.
"And Déshawn is the winner!"
I drop to the ground and let my energy level drop to its normal level as I see Team Halima cheering for me. I quickly float over towards them and between Edana and Samantha.
"And the next fighters are…Darren Kalil of Team Larson and Chafulumisa Adofo of Team Halima. Please report to the ring immediately."