Old Masters 2.4
"So, you met the old man, huh?" The tone in Fae's voice was unexpectedly cold. I looked up at the woman and cocked my head to the side, questioningly.
After my humbling from Master Roshi, we hadn't stuck around his island for much longer, and had returned to headquarters about half an hour ago. I had tried and failed to resist the rumbling of my stomach, and was slowly picking my way through my forty ninth plate. Hungry as I was, I didn't take much pleasure in the act.
The events of the day had been weighing too heavily on my mind, and I was anxious about tomorrow. Master Roshi seemed like a very nice if cooky old man, and I was willing to take whatever help I could find. But a not so small cynical part of me was convinced that I was just wasting my time, and that the anger inside of me wasn't something I could just train away. Whether I liked it or not, I was stuck with it. That's how it felt anyway, and Fae's tone of voice did not help ease that feeling in the slightest.
I debated putting my forkful of food down and addressing her question, decided against it, and took a bite before finally answering her. "Yeah, Weld took me to see him. I wasn't aware you had met Master Roshi."
She pulled a chair out and sat down stiffly; her entire demeanor was so unlike the bubbly chatter mouth I had met, that I was half convinced she and Erica had switched places or something. Obviously, something was up.
"Master Roshi is basically Weld's legal guardian, for all intents and purposes," Fae explained. "He's the one that found him and convinced him to come here. I've met him a few times as a result. I was just wondering if you noticed anything… odd about him?"
I shrugged, "A few things. One, he's absolutely ancient. Two, he seems as crazy as a cuckoo bird. Three, he is a lot stronger than he looks; probably a cape and doesn't even realize it."
Fae looked at me hard for a moment, her lips tight. "That was it? Nothing...else?"
"No," I shook my head slowly, "Why do you ask?"
My answer seemed to put her at ease, as I saw that familiar energy return to her. "No reason, just curious. Roshi is a weird guy, and you've had a rough day. I was just checking on you."
I poked at my food with my fork and pressed my lips together. This was weird, this was so weird to me. My skin was bubblegum pink, I was a Ward of the Protectorate, people in authority actually seemed concerned about my well being, and to top it off, I had an exercise regime being managed by a cooky old man living on an island in the middle of a Boston River. If it weren't for the fact that I was as squishy as clay, I'd have been worried about all the whiplash.
Of course, I wasn't ungrateful. Compared to my old life, my time since joining the Wards had been heaven. Aside from the morning's incident and the bizarre nightmares, I had felt far more peace from leaving Brockton Bay behind than I had ever expected. Maybe it was disorienting going from one extreme to another, but I certainly had no desire to return to my old status quo.
It didn't take much effort to relax and put on a thin smile. "Thank you Fae. I appreciate that."
"Oh I'm happy to help!" She chirped, wearing a smile a mile wide. "Just say the word and I'm there! Which reminds me, before I forget…"
My smile faded and was replaced with cautious curiosity as she fumbled around with her pockets and pulled out a small notepad and pushed it across the table toward me. "I saw that first costume Glenn put together for you. It's not bad, but I was brainstorming as ya do and came up with some variants, in case that's your kind of thing."
I flipped through some of the sketches and quirked my lips. Conceptually, Fae had a big imagination, which was good because her art skills left a lot to be desired. More than a few of her ideas caught my eye, which made her smile even wider and make a noise that I can only describe as the bastard child of a squeal, a giggle, and a scream.
"Oooh, you like them, good! Look, this one's my favorite!" she flipped a few pages over, and I felt sheer horror at what she presented.
"Fae, there's no way in hell that I'm wearing that." I declared.
Her smile remained fixed, "Oh come on, you'd love it! You could totally make it work!"
I glared at her with utter seriousness, "Fae, that's a dress. I am not wearing a dress, you cannot make me wear a dress."
"But it would fit with your figure perfectly, and it would be easier to carry spares in case you… um…" she trailed off and looked at me with sheepish guilt.
"Blow up?" I finished. Fae nodded silently.
I snorted and laughed, "Fair point, but I'm not wearing a dress, you can't change my mind on this."
"Oh can't I?" she said, a dangerous grin returning to her face.
My stomach filled with a pit of mock dread. To be completely honest, even if she somehow managed to get me into a dress, if that was my biggest issue to worry about living with the Wards, I certainly didn't have much to complain about.
-M-
I had much to complain about.
To start with, Weld had kidnapped me. Oh sure, he claimed that I had 'slept in' and acted 'completely immature and an embarrassment to capes everywhere' when he tried to wake me up. My sleep addled brain saw it that way anyway, as I stared grumpily out the car window. The grey early morning sky perfectly reflected my mood towards Weld at the moment. I could practically feel the guy looking at me helplessly, unsure of what to do while he drove.
"Master Roshi said at the crack of dawn." He offered weakly. When I didn't respond, he sighed, "Taylor, you were the one that wanted to do this. You knew what to expect. I'm just trying to help."
I closed my eyes and sighed; he was right of course, and didn't deserve my wrath. Or my grumpiness I suppose. I turned around in my seat to face forward with my arms folded, still scowling.
"I'm sorry. Last night I was sleeping really well and you woke me up from my first good dream in ages."
Weld arched a brow, "You've been having nightmares?"
I remained silent and he nodded, "Okay, right. So… what were you dreaming about?"
Sigh. He was persistent.
"Food." I said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Clouds of ice cream, cotton candy and donuts…"
I salivated at the thought of it and started to blush. Weld smirked, "Oh, donuts huh? You mean like these?"
He reached forward and opened the glove compartment, really a bag of still warm donuts. My eyes shot open and I snatched them as soon as I saw them and started stuffing my face. Chocolate cake donuts, jelly filled donuts, and classic glazed, Weld had not skimped out on me. I couldn't help it, I let out a happy giggle and wiggled in my seat.
"I phukin wuv u eld!" I tried to say over a mouthful of pastry.
Weld showed his silver teeth in a smug grin, "I had a feeling you might be grumpy this morning. I was saving those as my secret weapon."
"Nuth 'air." I complained half heartedly.
He continued grinning and jerked a thumb to the backseat. My delight was multiplied tenfold when I saw several boxes of breakfast pastries waiting for me. It took all my effort not to rip off my seatbelt and dive into the seat and start chowing down. I grabbed one box, set it in my lap, and got to work. Rinse and repeat for most of our drive; Weld thankfully let me eat and peace for that time.
As I was finishing the last box, he finally spoke up. "Enjoy it today Taylor. I won't do it in the future. Your first day with Master Roshi is going to be difficult, so I wanted to take the edge off."
I swallowed a custard creme donut and frowned. "Weld, what am I in for exactly?"
He thought for a moment, and I wondered if Master Roshi had forbidden him from telling me what to expect, or if it was so out there he didn't expect me to believe him. After a minute, he finally asked me, "Have you ever seen the Karate Kid?"
"No."
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?"
"No."
"Drunken Master?"
He was silent for a moment then said, "Star Wars?"
"Yes."
Weld let out a sigh of relief. "He's like Yoda. He'll seem odd and quirky, and you won't always take him seriously. But his training works wonders and you will start seeing results fast. Especially since you seem to adapt and learn faster than most people."
The more I learned about what I was in store for, the more I was convinced my life had turned into a bad kung fu movie. But I had super strength and speed, enough to match if not surpass Weld. Yes, Master Roshi clearly knew more about fighting than me and was stronger than his frail appearance would suggest. That didn't mean I couldn't handle the training he'd throw at me, right? The silence that filled the cabin for the rest of the drive did not fill me with confidence.
A few minutes later, we were back on the boat rowing towards Master Roshi's island. I had offered to row this time, something that surprised Weld. While I didn't tell him, I had been on my fair share of boats and yachts when I was younger, and dad had taught me how to row. Those were happier times, and it felt good to get back into the steady cycle of rowing again. It kept my mind from wandering until we finally ran aground on Master Roshi's island.
It was just about sunrise when the dinghy scratched against the shore, casting a pale light over the serene island and stretching the shadows into distorted parodies of themselves. The front door of his house was wide open and I could smell something delicious calling for me inside. It took a concentrated effort to ignore that impulse and focus on the beach, and my salivation. The old man himself was asleep on a lawn chair, a cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit editionswimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated draped across his face as he snored loudlyloudly snored.
Classy.
Weld made an exasperated noise, and in one fluid motion, snatched the magazine off Master Roshi's face, rolled it into a tube, and gently but firmly thwacked the old man over the bald head with it. Master Roshi yelped and rolled off the chair, landing face first in the sand dune.
"Ah, a good morning to you as well, Weld, Djinn." Master Roshi mumbled into the a mouth full of sand.
Weld closed his eyes and let out a sigh, "Good morning master. You didn't forget about today's training, I hope?"
With a grunt, the old man pushed himself up into a sitting position and took his sunglasses off, cleaning them with the edge of his shirt while looking up at us with narrowed eyes.
"No of course not. But you were taking so long, I thought I might take a little nap while I waited, hehehe!" he replaced his glasses and grinned at us.
He hopped to his feet with a surprising amount of ease, and folded his arms behind his back. His grin turned into a more stoic expression, his full attention on me now. My back straightened, and I felt a pit form at the bottom of my stomach. It was unnerving watching Master Roshi switch from cooky old man to serious teacher in an instant. This whole situation was throwing me for a loop.
After grabbing his walking stick from where it rested behind his lawn chair, Master Roshi walked around it and poked me a few times with the end of it while he walked around me. I straightened up further when he smacked it across my upper back, not hard but enough to startle me.
"Keep those shoulders straight, and those feet squared. You slouch like that, you'll wind up like me one of these days!" he let out that rough laugh again and finished circling me, stroking his beard while he did.
He nodded his head, having come to some kind of conclusion. "Well, you're dressed well enough, I suppose, and you can listen to instructions. It's a start. But you hold yourself like a frightened animal when no ones looking, and you freeze like a deer when they are."
The end of his walking stick was waggled nervously close to my face as he spoke and I remained silent. I had no desire to provoke the old man's wrath.
"As a student of the Turtle School, you must unlearn this habit. When you are not fighting learn to relax and lower your guard. If your tense like this all the time you'll either break your body or your mind, and that's my job!" he laughed again at that, though I wasn't sure if he was joking.
So I just nodded my head and said in a stern tone, "Yes, Master Roshi."
He arched a bushy brow and shrugged his shoulders, "Eh, we'll work our way up to it. Today, we start with the basics! But before we do, let me make one thing perfectly clear."
Again, his seriousness surprised me as he held up a finger and spoke clearly and concisely to me, "We do not learn martial arts to pick fights or impress others. We strive to master the art of peace in addition to the art of war. We achieve victory through the art of war, but victory is won through strategy and strategy is derived through the art of peace."
Weld, who was leaning against the house, nodded in tone with Master Roshi, obviously familiar with this speech. I did the same, though I was a bit too jittery to take what he was saying entirely to heart.
Master Roshi held a balled up fist, "However, if someone threatens you or any good innocent people with unethical force, it is your duty to defend. Do you understand?"
I nodded, but said, "Yes Master Roshi, but… I kind of already do that?"
"Your duty right now is to the Protectorate. You defend others as a duty to your superiors. We learn to fight so that we don't have to. To maintain peace within and without, that is our way. Is that clear?"
"I think so, yes." I said. The speech seemed unnecessary, I was a Ward in the Protectorate, protecting people was my job after all. But, it was at least good to know that our morals were similar.
Master Roshi let out a sigh, "Very well then. We'll start your warm up with a nice swim. Weld my boy, if you would be so kind."
Weld grunted and headed inside where the food was waiting; my stomach rumbled with approval, I was already hungry again. So I was disappointed when I saw Weld come outside with a large purple turtle shell similar to Master Roshi's slung over his shoulder. He walked up to me and offered it. I took it, making no effort to hide my disappointment, and surprise. The thing had to weigh as much as a person!
"My training would mean nothing to someone with your natural strength and endurance." Master Roshi explained, "And even normal training weights would have no effect. So when Weld began training under me, our mutual friend Fae churned out this little gizmo for us. Normally that shell weighs about two hundred kilograms. But thanks to her, that weight can be increased by up to a factor of three!"
The pit in my stomach widened even as I did the math. At the max that stupid shell could weigh up to 8,000 metric tons! I looked at Weld with an expression of horror, and he regarded me with sympathy.
"Don't worry, we're going to start you out low. It should be a little below your current record." he assured me.
I didn't bother reminding him that at ten tons, my arms had been ripped off the moment I had gotten distracted. My fate was sealed, and I grimly accepted it, slipping the turtle shell on until it hung comfortably from my shoulders. Then Weld flipped a switch on the inside of the shell, and it began to vibrate.
The straps strained against my shoulders, pulling me down as the weight began to increase. I staggered forward, spreading my legs to support the sudden increase. Sand rolled up around my feet as I sank a good six inches into the beach before finally stopping. It took some effort to pull my feet free, and I sank two inches into the dirt almost immediately again. The weight itself was a lot, but it felt no more than an overloaded backpack really.
I grabbed the straps and nodded with a smile, "Alright… I think I can handle this."
"Well good then! Let's get started!" Master Roshi strode on by me, walking stick in hand. Weld pushed the boat out onto the water and helped Master Roshi in.
Once he was settled, he waved at me, "Get swimming slow poke! The sooner we finish your training, the sooner you get to eat!"
Pro-tip, belly flopping excitedly into the water while you have ten tons of weight on your back is not a good idea.
A/N: I LIVE! So this chapter was going to be longer. Much, much longer. But I really did feel like the actual training itself needs a chapter of its own. This chapter was cursed; with the whole pandemic starting while I was writing it, my life becoming more busy as I picked up more hobbies and just me generally trying to hold myself together, Majin kind of fell by the wayside. Not that I don't love this story, I just had trouble focusing. Hopefully with this chapter 'finished' the next one will come easier.
I'll say now, I took a lot of inspiration from Roshi's original training of Goku and Krillin for what's to come, but if anyone has ideas for modernizing it, I am always open for them. After all, I crave your feedback :P
Anyway, I hope this chapter was at least somewhat worth the wait, and I hope to see you guys next time!
