Our Place in the Food Chain: Part XXVI
"They…said…I…was…nothing…but…a…normal…teenager…they…lied." Ron wheezed as he crested the ridge at a dead run. He had already passed the bulk or the students on the Dragon Course that morning and only two remained ahead. Gulping the thin mountain air he pushed on, once more testing the limits of his endurance.
If Sensei wasn't training him to be a ninja, he certainly couldn't tell the difference. For eight straight days he had been up and ready, dressed in a white training gi identical to every other student there and sent running on a course that would give a collegiate cross-country team pause, all while wearing tabi socks and sandals instead of running shoes.
While also making as little noise as possible.
His body twisted and turned as he made his way past obstacles, only this clothing lightly brushing them as he passed as silent as a whisper. Brown eyes narrowed as he spotted one of the students remaining ahead of him. He was already closing the gap. He could feel every fiber of muscle in his body protest as he poured even more speed on, trying to catch up.
Even though he was rapidly becoming accustomed to the thin air at this elevation, he knew he was getting dangerously close to the limit of his abilities. There was only so much a body could do, so much power and speed muscles could produce and only for a certain amount of time before the buildup of lactic acid and the lack of energy would bring him to a halt.
Knowing who it was ahead of him drove him to find that limit. For perhaps the first time in his life he wanted to know exactly what he could do. He wanted to know what God had given him to work with. He had seen what a normal human being without any kind of artificial enhancement could do and he wanted to know if that was possible for him.
He had seen a hundred and five pound cheerleader leap twenty feet into the air while doing gold metal level gymnastics!
Running like this made him feel like the hero in that space opera, the one sent to the jungle planet to train as the galaxy's ultimate warrior.
At night, as the other students were in weapons training Sensei would take Ron aside. The very first session he led him to a large, empty room, sat down on the floor and said nothing. Ron stood there for a while, waiting patiently for the master to say something, to give him the instructions on what he must do. Nothing happened. He sat there on the tatami floor like a living statue, his breathing so smooth and regular he seemed not to move.
First Ron thought it was a test of his patience, so he politely stood there for a while, his mind wandering all over the place, questions forming in his mind he knew would be out of place at the moment, like why he had not seen Yori at the school yet, or why Bonnie Rockwaller had been selected to come there in the final week.
Bonnie still perplexed him and that was compounded by the fact he somehow never managed to ask the question of Sensei. He would think long and hard about it while he was alone, or in moments like that one, but when he had the chance to actually ask questions of the old master it was like the question was swept away from his mind by the gentle breezes of the mountaintop school. He began to reflect that it might not be important after all.
Maybe half an hour passed, maybe more. He wasn't quite sure since he had left his watch in his backpack. The school operated on it's own schedule, it's own rhythm that had nothing to do with the man-made marking of time.
If this was a test of patience he could feel he was about to fail.
Just as he was about to open his mouth to speak he realized just how peaceful Sensei looked. It wasn't a trance, or at least it wasn't the way he was used to seeing him enter such a state. He was simply staring straight ahead, his small eyes still open. Something else was going on.
As carefully as he could, Ron sat down on the floor in front of him. Still there was no response so he continued to wait, all the way to the point where his legs started to complain about being in such a position. Not wanting to upset Sensei he tried to find some relief without getting up or squirming around. A slight sheen of sweat started breaking out on his forehead, then the rest of his body even though the temperature was somewhere just above freezing in the unheated chamber.
He started concentrating on the pain itself, relaxing what muscles he could without falling out of his position. Slowly the pain started subsiding, though it did not disappear completely. Once he reached a point where he could live with it, he started noticing other things.
It was cold, cold like sitting in a large freezer, cold that could literally be dangerous if he did nothing to conserve his own heat. His sweat did not help, with the cool breeze reaching in though the large, uncovered window looking out on the valley below. The temperature was almost like pain.
It was pain.
Pain, he learned before, was just an illusion created by his mind. Sure, pain was the body telling you that something was wrong and must be corrected, but sometimes such sensations must be endured when it could not be cured. Trusting that Sensei would not let him freeze to death sitting in the chamber, he embraced the pain and examined it. It was not so bad that it made him desperate to get up and stamp his feet or seek out one of the braziers set about the school to warm the rooms. Instead of fleeing it, he embraced it, concentrating on it and reflecting on what it was and what it did.
His shivering stopped.
Setting aside the pain he went into the exercises the instructors had taught him about meditation. It was far harder to do with his eyes open, but he forced his mind to relax. Images floated by at random, trying to capture his attention. He let them all go, trying to force his mind's eye to see nothing. The image that helped him the most was pretending all he could see was a television screen filled with snow, the sound turned off, concentrating on the visual white noise. Finally, as that vision filled his mind he 'turned the TV off.' Leaving his mind clear.
He stared ahead, the window open before him. Even in the faint starlight he could start making out details of the valley. Tiny points of light, each one an isolated home or perhaps a tiny village became visible to him, every so often obscured by the mists or perhaps some snow blowing down from the higher elevations.
It was incredibly beautiful.
"Stoppable-san. We are done for this evening. It is now time for you to rest." Sensei said, rising without another word and departing.
"Yes, Sensei-sama." Ron said quietly, still sitting there, looking at the valley. He had no sense of how long he sat there then but he finally rose and headed for the baths. Later, waiting in his room was a tray of food left there by Nooni. Strangely enough, it was a hamburger that tasted precisely like one from Burger Prince. It was piping hot and fresh so it was obvious it had been prepared there. The closest place to actually buy such food was hundreds of miles away anyhow and would very likely be prepared differently than he was used to.
He dreamed that night he was curled up with Kim at home, snugly cuddled on her couch.
The exercises he had been put through to deal with pain were starting to reach their limits as he ran. He was pouring so much speed on he knew he would soon 'hit-the-wall' but he wanted to pass the next runner. The desire to find just what he had in him was burning him up, driving him onward. The burning in his legs and his chest was becoming unbearable. He has seen videos of tri-athletes stumbling toward the finish line, not even having enough left to reach the ribbon and knew precisely what they were feeling at that point. Parts of his body, even parts of his mind were starting to shut down.
He would not stop. He didn't care if they had to carry him back to the school he was not going to stop. The next runner was so close he could reach out and touch her. All he needed was just a little more but the pain was becoming almost blinding.
The gates of the school could be seen in the distance. He could see the first runner there, standing like he had just had a casual stroll across the campus. It was now or never, if he was going to catch the next runner he had to make his move…
..but there was nothing left. He pushed and pushed and he could not make his body run any faster. Out here on the open ground he could run without worrying about stealth, though his opponent had the same advantage now.
The pain was just so bad!
His body was starting to freeze up. He started dropping further and further behind. He needed more and he just didn't have it. The bitter taste of failure pushed the pain aside in his mind.
It was just like pain.
Pain that cannot be avoided must be endured. When it must be endured, it can be set aside.
The pain left him as a strange blue mist seemed to settle over the entire world. He wondered if his whole mind was starting to shut down though suddenly he was making up ground as they closed on the gates. He passed his opponent taking great strides, crossing the threshold maybe a dozen feet in front of her.
The next thing he remembered was Yori helping him get up from the ground. The sun was now fully over the horizon, the morning light starting to chase away the cold that clung to his sweat soaked body.
Then his eyes met hers.
He had never seen so much open admiration in anyone's face before.
"What happened?" He said, feeling oddly good after pushing himself past the breaking point.
She didn't get a chance to answer. "Stoppable-san, you must come with me." Sensei said. He hadn't even been aware the old master was anywhere near them.
As soon as they were out of earshot of the other students Sensei spoke. "You have done something I had not expected so soon. You have discovered on your own what I hoped to teach you over the coming weeks. Your training in the use of Tai Xing Pek Kwar has turned a new corner."
"I don't understand, Sensei."
"You have found that, at the limit of what your body can do, there is a way for the soul to find new sources of power when it is necessary to go on. For you, that source is your Mystical Monkey Power. For the first time, you have consciously willed it to serve you."
"Is that how I beat Yori back? Wow…and I think I should feel really tired, but I feel like I just got up from a good night's sleep."
"Indeed. You collapsed the moment you stopped, your body still spent and left without the support of the power that sustained you the last steps of the run. We allowed you to rest until you recovered naturally, which I am pleased to say happened far more quickly than we expected. You rested for most of an hour, Stoppable-san."
"That long? Shouldn't I feel sore?"
"Oh, I think things will be quite difficult for you the next morning, though once you fully master your power, I think you may even beat Hirotaka."
Ron frowned just slightly. "Yeah, but he doesn't have any monkey power. He's just a normal guy. Isn't it cheating if I use my power to win?"
"Stoppable-san. You are about to fight for your life against an opponent who is a master of his chosen weapon. If you fight him fairly, you will die, yet you are armed with a weapon he cannot counter. Is it then cheating that you use that weapon and survive?"
"Uh, I guess not, though it just doesn't sound right."
"The power you have you did not ask for, yet it is a gift which you may use, which one day you must use."
Ron shook his head. "I did sort of choose it. I didn't have to go to the statues and tell 'em to 'hit me.'"
"Did you? If you had not, what would Monkey Fist have done?" He glanced at his student with a raised eyebrow.
"I think he would have killed me." He said, realizing where he was going.
"Then from your point of view, you had no choice. Some say it was your fate to become what you have become today. Though it seemed like you had a choice, would your death have served any purpose that day if only to say you had not wanted to take part in the power?"
"No. I guess then the only person in the world with it would be Monkey Fist."
"Precisely."
They walked a few minutes more before Ron spoke again. "Sensei. You said there might be a way I can pass my monkey power on, to share it. You don't mean like when Kim and I…"
"No, Stoppable-san. That might be an interesting fantasy, but it takes a much deeper connection than just the act of physical love to pass it on. As I said before, we do not yet know the way this might be accomplished. You will have to be patient, though I think it is you who the power truly sought out."
"Huh? You mean it wasn't by accident that Kim was called to help him find the final statue?"
"No more so than it was an accident that you had to confront him alone."
"How could that happen. I thought it was because Wade was just a little to eager to try out one of his new gadgets. Do you mean he was conspiring with somebody the whole time."
"No, Stoppable-san. That is not how fate works. You have no need to distrust your friend. Possible-san simply had obligations to her family and your other friend was a child with a new toy, no more. Yet in the greater scheme of things, you were still brought to the point where you accepted your destiny."
"Wow. All this destiny and fate stuff is making my head hurt."
"Do not feel badly. These are questions that I have pondered most of my lifetime. You are just now at a point where you can learn to accept such things. Understanding may come much later. Now, I would suggest this would be a good time for your meditation exercises. Concentrate on what has happened today. I will send for you when it is time for your mid-day meal."
Ron started to walk back to the dormitories.
"Oh, perhaps I should pass one bit of wisdom for you today." Sensei said.
"What's that?"
"It would certainly be wise to go take a bath first. You smell like a rutting yak."
The thought of a bath was extremely pleasing to him, especially this early in the day when the bath house would be empty. It may have been perfectly normal for the native Japanese to use a communal bath facility, but that was just a little too far beyond a high-school locker room for him. All the fantasies of sharing the large, extremely hot tub of water with Kim were dashed away when he was joined by half a dozen male students. After all, the men outnumbered the women here by more than ten to one.
He quickly stripped down to his boxers. Sensei was right, he was beyond ripe and the Japanese respected cleanliness. He tossed the gi into a bin to be laundered and went into the scrubbing room. He chuckled a little as he took his boxers off. They really weren't supposed to wear them with the outfits, but he knew better, at least as far as he was concerned. It was embarrassing enough the time he was trying to demonstrate his skills with a bo-staff and managed to rip almost all his clothing off.
He doused himself with the lukewarm water and lathered up. He couldn't help but think about Kim and wondered what she was doing. He missed her so much his heart ached, but he knew it was a good ache. He was finally understanding what the old saying about absence making the heart grow fonder meant. He likened it to winding up a spring, release coming when they were reunited. As he poured another bucket of water over his head to rinse off the soap he thought for the thousandth time it might have been a good thing to take Kim up on her offer before he left.
No. That wouldn't have been right, for the same reasons they had already decided to wait at least until they were eighteen. They weren't yet adults and each of them had at least one parent who didn't want them taking that step quite yet.
The separation from Kim was also had another thought starting to form in his head. To him, there was no doubt they would be together the rest of their lives and Kim had all but commanded him to propose to her when they were old enough. If waiting these few short weeks to be reunited with her promised so much, how wonderful would it be to wait until their wedding night. Images of her in a beautiful white wedding dress flitted though his head, making him smile all the more as he lathered up for a second scrub. How many people in this day and age went to their wedding night as virgins? Sure, lots of folks didn't hold to the old meaning of a white wedding dress but there was a bit of an old-fashioned streak in him.
He was also thinking about the image of that spring winding up. If they could wait that long, just how wonderful would it be when all that pent up energy was released?
Grinning from ear to ear he doused himself once more and headed for the tub, planning a nice, long soak. Meditation could wait, or perhaps he could meditate there while the growing stiffness in his muscles was eased by the hot water.
He stepped through the screen and looked at the tub. Sitting there in water up to her neck was Yori. Her head was tilted back and her eyes were closed.
He was about to turn away and finish rinsing himself off with bucket water when she opened her eyes and looked at him…all of him.
There was that same look of admiration on her face she had earlier after the run.
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