Chapter 5: Endorphins

It had been about five years since that incident and only two major catastrophes related to Dark Matter had happened in that period, both of which were easily dealt with by Kirby, Dreamland's so-called "Hero of the Stars". Unfortunately, all of this happened when Meta Knight was off-planet. The first time was because Kurabe wanted him to come visit and that was when the supposed leader of Dark Matter, Zero, attacked Dreamland. The second time was, again, Kurabe's fault. However, this time was for a more urgent reason, being to clean up of some stray Dark Matter on a few far-away planets. During that time, Kirby went on his own adventure in what would later be known as the "crystal shards incident". This was due to Zero being resurrected again, only to be taken down by the pink hero once again.

Currently, Kirby and Meta Knight were having their usual scheduled training session.

"Our next lesson is proper etiquette on the battlefield."

Upon seeing his student's confused look, Meta Knight quickly elaborated. "Simply put, I'll be teaching you about respect and its place in battle."

This time, the meaning of his words did the trick as Kirby's face lit up in understanding. "You mean like how you always give me a sword before we fight?"

"That's correct. That's just my way of doings things, though. There's plenty of ways of displaying respect and honor."

"Oh, really? Like what?"

"For starters, as much as I dislike using him as an example, Dedede."

Kirby paused for a moment to think about what he was talking about. "Oh, is it because he always insists on a one-on-one fight, right?"

"That's correct. He has his own code of honor that stems from his pride."

While he still wasn't fond of the monarch, Meta Knight couldn't deny that his pride was the real deal.

"Excuse me, Meta-sensei, I have a question."

"Go ahead Kirby."

"Well... um... I understand the need for honor, but what if my opponent doesn't fight with honor?"

"Then use whatever means necessary. I've seen many good warriors fall in battle because they expected everyone to fight with honor. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. Mindless creatures or beings of pure evil like Nightmare or Dark Matter, for example, don't care about honor."

This took Kirby a moment to think. "Hm...so, I should only treat good people with honor?"

While normally a question like that would be easy to answer, in this case it was quite tricky.

"That's actually a difficult question to answer. Sometimes a good person will fight without honor, using any dirty trick they can use to win. Sometimes a villain will fight with honor, usually for the sake of pride."

Kirby paused to think about what he was just told. "So, if I show someone respect and they show respect in return, then I should fight with honor?"

While a bit simple, Kirby wasn't too far off from what Meta Knight was trying to teach him.

"Correct. Of course, if an opponent shows you respect first, then I expect you to be respectful in return."

"What if they're younger than me? You said I should always respect my elders."

"Regardless of age, they show you respect, then you should also show them respect."

Honestly, the knight hoped that Kirby would never have to seriously fight anyone younger than him. Last he remembered, all the friends he tended to hang out with or spar with were older than the child.

"And if they don't show any respect or honor?" The child asked.

"Then do whatever it takes to win. Those who lack honor don't deserve any honor."

"So, someone like Marx." Kirby said, uncharacteristically serious. While the hurt of betrayal has healed since then, the Milky Way incident was still a sore subject for Kirby.

"Yes, like Marx. Now, here." Meta Knight tossed a fishing rod to Kirby, who stared at it in confusion. "You've worked very hard today, so I figured we could do something a bit more relaxing."

The knight motioned to a nearby lake. The puff nodded and quickly followed after him in a burst of excitement.

Not too long after they began fishing, Kirby was already fidgeting on the ground. At first, Meta Knight attempted to ignore it and focus on his own efforts. That was when the child gave a slight pout at the lake. At this point there was nothing but silence.

"AHHHH WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG!?" the sudden shout nearly startled the knight.

"Kirby, keep quiet! You're going to scare the fish away!" he whispered in a slightly scolding tone.

His student nodded with a pout. In addition to being a relaxing activity, Meta Knight also wanted to teach Kirby patience, but it seemed to be easier said than done at this point. It was then he noticed that the young puff appeared to be looking at something in the distance. Tracing the child's gaze, he saw that it was a group of butterflies in a nearby field. Before the knight could even react, Kirby bolted towards them, causing them to scatter as he chased them.

"Ah! Kirby! Get over here!" he quickly reeled in his fishing rod, transformed his cape, and flew after him.

Before the child knew it, he was being held off the ground by his head.

"...I understand you have little patience right now, but please..."

"Ah! Meta-sensei!"

"Do not interrupt me while-"

"My fishing rod is gone!"

The knight turned back towards the lake to see that; indeed, the fishing rod Kirby was using was no longer there.

"...did someone steal it?" Meta Knight questioned, carrying his student back to where they were sitting. "There aren't any signs that someone else was here though..."

Without any warning, Kirby then jumped into the lake.

"What are you-!?"

"I'm gonna go look for it! I think a fish took it!" the child then dived into the water and out of sight.

At this point, the knight could only sigh in frustration.

A few moments after Kirby jumped in the water, he came back up, holding up a fish that had the missing fishing rod in its mouth.

"See, Meta-sensei! I knew a fish took it!" He yelled with enthusiasm, proud that he was right.

While still a bit annoyed, Meta Knight noticed something that caught his interest.

"Kirby, you wrestled with the fish, correct?"

"That's right!"

"Why didn't you just take the pole out of its mouth?"

"Well, you told me to fight with honor and respect, right? I challenged the fish to a fight, it accepted and now here we are!" Kirby replied, as if what just happened was completely normal.

Meta Knight was both slightly amused and impressed. While he wasn't expecting a situation like this, he was also happy that his lesson stuck with Kirby.

"So, now what?" The child asked.

"That's a good question. You might have scared all of the fish away with your noise." The knight then sighed as his student pouted.

"Then I'm gonna try to catch something and prove you wrong!"

The puff tossed the fish back in and got out of the lake, sitting back down in the spot he was before. As much as Meta Knight wanted to comment that this all started because the child became too impatient and got distracted, he decided to stay quiet about it.

Fifteen minutes passed and no fish were biting. Despite this, Kirby was much more focused than before, not taking his eyes off from the water.

"It appears that if he has something he wants to prove, then he can do anything..." Meta Knight thought to himself.

While the reasons as to why Kirby was so focused were extremely sigh-inducing, the knight couldn't help but feel a small amount of pride for his student.

After a few more minutes of waiting, he was about to tell the child to give up before a sudden yank on the fishing rod nearly dragged Kirby into the lake. With quick thinking, Meta Knight grabbed the child, and he felt another massive yank on the fishing rod.

"Meta-sensei, I think I got something! It must be super big!"

There was no doubt about it, the puff had hooked a massive catch.

"Kirby, can you handle this on your own?!"

"I dunno!"

Upon saying that, the child nearly slipped, but was caught just in time by his mentor.

"Then...let us do this battle together!"

"Yes, sir!"

With great effort, the duo tugged and pulled on the fishing rod, slowly stepping backwards to gain the upper hand. Quickly, the knight grabbed his sword and planted it into the ground to help anchor them as they attempted to reel in whatever it was on the end of the line. The duo was now on stable footing.

"All right... on the count of three, we're going to pull it in, understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

They both gave a ready stance.

"One."

They braced themselves.

"Two."

They focused their energy into this one reel.

"Three."

With a sudden burst of strength, Kirby and Meta Knight pulled back on the fishing rod, not expecting what they ended up pulling out of the lake. It was a giant blue whale in a sailor outfit, which landed on the ground with a loud slam.

"Fatty Whale!?" Kirby exclaimed in surprise.

"You know this whale?" The knight turned to his student in questioning.

"Um... sort of. I fought him when I was trapped in that one cave. Never thought I'd see him again..." The puff rubbed the back of his head.

"Of course, one of his past foes was a gigantic whale..." Meta Knight thought to himself.

That was when another thought occurred to him. If Kirby defeated this whale back when he was still fairly inexperienced, what would happen if they fought now? The whale itself flopped for a moment, as if realizing what had just happened.

"Huh? Hey, it's you!" Fatty Whale shouted, recognizing Kirby. "This time I'll crush you!"

Fatty Whale jumped high into the air and then started plummeting straight towards Kirby. However, Kirby didn't look concerned about it at all.

"How will you handle this, Kirby?" Meta Knight thought to himself. He briefly debated taking care of this whale himself, but after seeing Kirby's confident expression he decided to leave things to his student.

The child then pulled out a blue headband and put it on, becoming Suplex Kirby, jumped up to meet Fatty Whale in the air, grabbed him, and pile drived the poor aquatic mammal into the ground headfirst, knocking him out cold. Kirby then effortlessly threw the whale back to where he came from. The knight could only stare in surprised silence.

"Well, that was easy!" Kirby said with a smile as he looked back to Meta Knight.

He then noticed that his mentor wasn't saying anything.

"...are you ok, Meta-sensei?"

That brought him back out of his thoughts.

"Ah, yes I am. That was quite amazing." He uttered.

Honestly, he also had a tinge of pride, as this was no doubt the results of their training. Suddenly, Kirby grabbed one of his hands.

"What is it, Kirby?" He asked.

"Hee hee! You're really happy, aren't you?"

The knight quickly took his hand away as he wrapped himself in his cape.

"...perhaps. Now what is it?"

"I wanna make lunch to thank you for today!" The child gave a smile.

At first, Meta Knight wanted to question how, but then he recalled that Kirby had a Copy Ability that could do that.

"Very well. I'll leave it to you."

"Yay!"

With that said, the child got to work on their meal.

While Kirby was busy cooking, Meta Knight was looking over his student and saw just how happy he was at the moment. Being honest, a part of him felt guilty about training an innocent child like Kirby to become a warrior, but he also understood the necessity for both this planet's sake and the child's own sake. Besides, it's better that he does train him. Knowing Kirby, he would throw himself into danger regardless of skill level.

"Meta-sensei, don't worry! I don't mind cooking really." Kirby jokingly whined, causing Meta Knight to blink in surprise.

"He's getting better at sensing my emotions..." He thought to himself.

While Kirby misunderstood it, it appeared that he did sense the knight's guilt. There was no way that the knight's guard was beginning to lower.

Thanks to Kirby's Cook Ability, lunch was ready in no time. Upon completion, the child was already downing what he had just made while Meta Knight took his time with eating. Then he felt a stare directed at him.

"...what is it?" he questioned as he turned to his student.

"Wouldn't it be easier to eat if you took your mask off?"

The knight had raised his mask just enough to uncover his mouth to keep the rest of his face covered.

"This is how I normally eat." The reply he gave was blunt.

"Hmm..." Kirby then went back to his meal, which he finished quickly.

Then he looked back at his mentor. "...if it's okay for me to ask, why do you wear a mask?"

Admittedly, Meta Knight knew that question was coming at some point, but it caught him somewhat off guard regardless, especially with the innocent tone that was used.

"It's for protection in battle."

That was the answer he always had prepared whenever it came up.

"Oh, that makes sense!" The puff replied with a smile.

Despite that answer, the knight had a gut feeling that Kirby somehow knew that wasn't the true answer but accepted it so as not to offend him. Especially considering that he wore it even outside of battle, it was too easy to poke holes in that answer. Shortly after that, Kirby spoke up again.

"Hey, Meta-sensei, you've been to a ton of different planets, right?"

"That's correct."

"Do you know how many?"

Meta Knight had to stop and think about that. Honestly, he had lost count. After years of traveling from world to world and galaxy to galaxy, one tended to stop keeping track. It also didn't help that most of those planets were brief visits, mainly for missions he was on.

"At least thirty."

"Wow, really!? I wish I could visit that many places..." Kirby said, an expression of wonder on his face. "I mean, I did travel to other planets while tracking down the crystal shards, but I didn't get to really experience everything that those planets had to offer."

Hearing that last line gave Meta Knight an idea.

"One day for training we can go to Rock Star." He said simply. Words could not describe the amount of joy Kirby was emanating. The knight then felt it was time for him to ask the child his own questions.

"Kirby, I appreciate having you as my student, but I do have one question I'd like to ask."

That instantly drew the puff's attention.

"What exactly made you want to become my student in the first place?"

His student furrowed his brow, as if that question made him concerned and he was unsure about how he should answer it.

"Um...it's 'cuz..." he hesitated. "It's cuz you seem to know a lot about my abilities!"

While that was indeed true, there seemed to be another reason behind it.

"Is there any other reason?"

"Because you seem to know a lot about me as well!"

Meta Knight knew it was because of how open Kirby was with others, but he didn't say it aloud.

"Alright. Any others?"

The child hesitated again and averted his gaze for a moment. He mumbled something, but the knight could barely make it out. "...like me..."

The knight only responded with a silent nod.

"I have another question. Why do you like hanging around with someone like Dedede?"

To Meta Knight, the king was nothing but a bundle of problems and the manifestation of everything he loathed about royalty. It was to the point where he legitimately questioned why Kirby would want anything to do with him.

"Oh... that's because Dedede's a good person!"

"How?" Admittedly, the knight could have said that with a bit less of an ordering and hostile tone than the one he used.

"Well... yeah, Dedede may still be a big jerk at times, but he's actually a really good person! Like you remember what I told you about the incident with the Crystal Shards? He was a really big help during that! Like he joined us on our trip to all the planets and he even helped me find some of them!"

Meta Knight only gave a slight chuckle in disbelief.

"That lazy king? Doing something without a reward? I'll believe it when I see it!" he thought.

But in the back of his mind, he remembered how innocently honest Kirby could be when it came to talking about others. Not only that, but there was no reason that the child had to lie about the king.

"Perhaps...I may have been wrong about that foolish king..." he thought.

Shortly after that thought, Kirby asked the knight yet another question.

"Sensei, I've noticed that I'm able to sense the emotions of others, can you tell me about that?"

This was another conversation Meta Knight knew was going to happen, but unlike the topic of his mask, he had no problem talking about this subject.

"To begin, it's an ability that every member of our race possesses."

Hearing this seemed to instantly grab the child's attention.

"I myself don't fully know why, but it might be connected to our ability to sense positive and negative energy."

"Ah...like the... um... creepy and scary and dark feeling I got from facing Dark Matter and Zero?" the child asked.

"Exactly. While feeling evil presences is normal, we feel them at a much deeper level. We feel the anger and hate that come from them."

"Ah...that makes sense. And what about positive emotions?"

"We can feel those as well. In fact, our own emotions tend to influence those around us."

"Isn't that how emotions normally work? One of my friends told me that happiness is contagious."

"That's true. However, it is doubly so in our case."

Kirby nodded in understanding.

"Um...is it normal to have a hard time reading certain people? Because... sometimes I have a hard time reading how you feel..." The child asked with a bit of a nervous tone.

"...I tend to hide my emotions better than others." The knight uttered.

"Is that why you pulled your hand away from me earlier?"

Meta Knight hesitated for a moment before speaking. "Perhaps. Physical contact with another person heightens your ability to read their emotions."

He could have sworn that he saw Kirby give a pout for a brief moment, as if the child was annoyed at the fact that his mentor appeared to be thwarting any attempt to get a proper reading. He shook it off as Kirby asked yet another question.

"Is there a way to get better with this ability?"

"That's a difficult question. There's no way to directly influence it. However, from my own personal studies and experiences, it grows with us due to being a natural part of ourselves."

The child hummed as he thought about that answer. "So, the older and more experienced I get, the stronger it will be?"

"Precisely. As you grow older and your skills as a warrior increase, so will your ability."

The child nodded in understanding. "I can't wait until I'm good at it as you are!" he smiled.

"I appreciate the compliment, but mine is not nearly as strong as others I've met."

"No, you're really good at it, I think!" The child gave a laugh as he said that. It was then that Meta Knight noticed that the sun was beginning to set in the distance.

"Well, it appears to be getting late, so that's all for today."

Kirby then appeared to give him a slight pout when he said that, causing the knight to internally sigh.

He just ignored it and continued. "We'll meet back here in two days. I'd like for us to practice using your Bomb Ability, as I believed you've mentioned that you have been using it quite a lot recently."

"Fiinnneeee..." Kirby continued to have the pout on his face.

"Do not complain. We'll also have time for something else on that day as long as you behave."

"Ok!"

The child ran quickly to hug him, but he managed to stop him at arm's length and flick him on the forehead.

"Ouch!"

"We'll also learn about personal space as well..." he uttered under his breath.

After saying goodbye to his student, Meta Knight returned to the Orange Ocean base. Upon entering, he was greeted by Captain Vul.

"Ah, good. You're back, sir." His second-in-command said.

Meta Knight noticed how tense the avian sounded as he spoke.

"Has something happened while I was out?"

"Potentially, sir. The scout group led by Axe Knight came back from that Mirror World place we were told about."

Meta Knight knew what Vul was referring to. A few weeks ago, his mentor told him about a sudden surge of an evil presence in a world high in the skies above Dreamland known the Mirror World. Because of this, he tasked a group led by Axe Knight to investigate what was going on.

"I see... where is Axe Knight and his group?"

"...the infirmary."

Honestly, I'm slightly surprised with how quickly this chapter was complete. Though I think it's fine because of how heavy the previous chapters were. I thought it'd be a good idea to have a bit of a pallet cleanser before the next big chapter.

Don't expect the next one to come this quickly, though.