"Dude, are you crazy?"

Dusty wasn't too amused by my idea.

"What, it seems like fun."

"Fun? A no-frills, no-rules Festa seems like fun to you?!"

"The Great Western was like that."

"Well, the Great Western was also an America-only Festa, too. You have never fought outside the Area, let alone on another continent."

"So what?"

"What if you get hurt?"

"Well..."

"Or worse, huh? You know how many people die from these?!"

"Yeah, but... I don't know... can't say I didn't die trying?"

He hit me over the head with his book.

"You're insane."

"And you're just scared."

"Oh, I'm not scared; just reasonable."

"Yeah right."

"Go on and get yourself killed. I have better things to do here."

"Fine! Just cower behind your books."

"Fernie. It's a stupid idea. Do you realize how stupid of an idea this is? You just got here, and you're already throwing yourself to the wind!"

"Well, not just yet... It's in December."

"Oh, great. Like 3 months away."

"Just watch. I'll get at least to the quarterfinals."

"Really shooting for the stars, aren't you?"

"Don't sass me!"

Seidoukan was one of many great academies of Asterisk, a city renowned for its international Genestella population. Families risk everything to get their special-little someone into any of the schools here.

Me, I got in just fine. The Great Western Festa was a fine way to make myself noticed by the scouts for schools. The hardest part was peeling my mom, dad, and grandpa off of me to get on the plane.

My mom has always been supportive of my ambitions. While not a fighter herself, she feels like my abilities can serve our family for the better. After all, she grew up pretty comfortably because of how much money my grandpa won in local and regional Festas.

Papa, on the other hand, has none of it. He hates that instead of focusing on getting a job, I'm out here. I've heard him call my grandpa a 'bum' and 'washed up' many times, which really upsets my mom. He was the only thing standing between me and Asterisk, and he wouldn't budge. Hell, it took countless arguments and my grandpa threatening to tell the family that he was ruining my future to make him break. And even then, he'd say 'you know, Fernie, you don't have to go' and then show me the Help Wanted ads in the morning paper. I understand where he comes from, being Normal and all, but I feel like he thinks he knows me better than myself. I'm my own man now; I don't need daddy to hold my hand anymore.

Grampy, well, he's Grampy. Mama tells me that he was bouncing off the walls when she said he was going to have a Genestella grandson. As my teacher, he taught me everything he knew, even letting me name his sword technique; the Zephyr's Decree. He was such a unique fighter back in the day. Revered by all (well, most), he had an illustrious career, highlighted by a long list of gigantic upsets in tournaments. He was put on the map in 1974 and made waves until about 2005.

The Great Western Festa is a North American-regional tournament. On the grand scale of things, the Great Western isn't the most important in the world, but most academies send scouts to it to find their next star.

My time in the Great Western wasn't all that bad, all things considered. Some of the toughest fights of my life were actually the qualifying matches. From the opening brawl to the quarterfinals, I didn't break a sweat in the fights. Most were over before they even started, not lasting any longer than my opening flurry.

The finals weren't too notable. What was notable was what happened afterward.

There were rumblings from the Festa commentators that I was on par with some of the better swrodfighters out there. People like Wilhelm Genscher, the "King of Europe," or even to my own grandpa. But, I remember very specifically that there was a back-and-forth between two commentators if I deserved to be compared to the Toudous. Grampy suffered his most one-sided beating in the finals of the 1982 Old Knight's Festa from Yoshino Agatsuma, a relative of the old Toudouryuu masters. To this day, he still watches that match to learn from what he did wrong and hope I don't make the same mistakes.

I'll always remember what he told me.

"Son, if you're ever fortunate enough to meet a Toudou, worship them. They are the true masters of their craft."

To say I'm a Toudou is unfair to them. The Toudouryuu style is very tight and concise; every step, attack, and posture has a purpose. I'm a very free-flowing fighter, as was my grandpa, so it's such a harsh clash in styles that makes for intense duels. Grampy can upset the perfect discipline of a Toodouryuu master while they can capitalize on all the openings he'd leave for them.