Chapter 53: Father

As Zaheer walked out of the mat with his head held high, Anil looked at him with displeasure. He rushed towards Zaheer and pulled him by the collar. "What the hell was that?" He asked in a really menacing voice.

"What?"

"The stunt you pulled out there. That was a direct defiance of my orders." Anil rumbled.

"What stunt? I just had the fight of my life out there. What do you have against that?" He asked.

Anil sighed. "Are you stupid or are you acting like one? Do you remember what I told you before you step foot into the mat? I asked you to destroy that fucking guy's leg. Instead, what did you do? You had your 'little fight' and lost miserably. Ah, why the hell did I even expect you to do something? Useless idiot." He mumbled.

Until that moment, Zaheer tolerated everything that the prick had to say. However, there's a limit to tolerance. With his display, Anil had finally placed a dent on his tolerance. "You know what? Fuck it. I quit." He replied with a straight face and tried walking off.

Anil was shocked by this declaration. However, he did stop Zaheer by grabbing his hand. "What did you just say?" He asked.

"Did you lose your hearing, old prickly bastard? I said I'm getting the hell off your dojo." Zaheer didn't mince his words.

The sharp tone of his words surprised Anil. He was flustered. He didn't expect the loyal dog to growl at him. The greedy bastard wanted to stop Zaheer from exiting the dojo at all costs. After all, he was the cash cow. "But… but… our relationship as teacher and student! How could you cast that aside?" He asked out of desperation.

"Are you kidding me? Student-teacher relationship? Between you and me? Why are you lying, old man? At most, you thought of me as your cash machine. It's not like I was oblivious to that fact. Since you didn't value our so-called relationship, I won't value it as well. I gotta thank you though! Because of your behavior, I got a chance to experience what a real master-student relation feels like!" Zaheer smiled.

"You sound like you got a master already." Anil replied.

"Already? It's been going for a long time!" Zaheer replied as he waved towards his real master with a bright smile in his face. Realizing that his pupil finally broke the news to Anil, he smiled and waved as well.

"That guy! Isn't he my student?" Anil looked shocked.

"Sheesh, at least remember the name of your pupil, dude! Why would you, right? After all, he's one of those people you sacrificed for someone else to get over. In his case, it was me. I went to apologize to him and to my surprise I noticed that he was a much better teacher than you. Even though you didn't teach him much, he self-taught and honed the art. If you ask me, he's at least ten times better than you!" Zaheer shrugged.

Anil laughed. He laughed so much that he almost looked like a maniac. "You do know that I can destroy your career, right? I'll make sure that you could never join this tournament!" He replied.

"Do I look like I care? What I'm looking for isn't these tournaments, I'm looking for the exhilaration that practicing martial arts gives me. I don't even need to join some random tournament and win trophies for that. A dojo and a caring master is enough for me." Zaheer explained.

"Caring master, huh? Well, I'll inform you that I have the powers to permanently revoke your dear master's license. And after that, your master can't teach martial arts to anyone. How would you feel about that?" Anil asked.

This time around, Zaheer started laughing like a maniac. "Haha, since when did you have that amount of power? As far as I know, the most you can do is meddle with the results of a state tournament. Fuck it, let's just imagine that you got some influence or you know a certain someone who could do that to my master. Do you really think I'll stand still while you do that? To your kind notice, I do have a superpower that could trample over any sort of power you have. I'm rich—filthy rich! You really think that you're meager influence can triumph over a fat stack of money? Keep dreaming, old man!" He replied and then heaved a sigh of relief. "I don't get it. Why was I even following you? Well, one could say that I respected you. However, not anymore, you filthy mongrel." With that said, Zaheer walked away. On his way to his master, he was stopped by Jai.

"What a disgusting performance! You sure you're Master Anil's pupil?" Jai asked.

For a moment, Zaheer didn't say anything. Instead, he flipped his middle finger during that time. After calming himself down, he finally opened his mouth. "Look, you didn't like my fight? I'm fine with that. So, fuck off and console your pathetic master. By the way, don't look down on Sadanandan. He might just surprise the heck out of you." Zaheer warned.

Jai scoffed. "As if! Just because you lost, that doesn't mean that I'm going to!" He replied.

"Whatever, dude! Do your high and mighty shtick. I just thought of saying it out of goodwill." Zaheer spoke and wasted no more time there. He knew that trying to convince Jai of something was pointless since he was a muscle head.

After Zaheer left, Jai walked towards a nearly devastated Anil. "Did you hear him? He… he left the dojo!" Anil screamed. All he could think was all the money he could have exploited if Zaheer stayed a bit longer.

"Don't worry about that idiot, master! I'll fulfill your wishes!" Jai proudly proclaimed.

"You'll be my cash cow?" Anil asked.

"What? No! I'll beat that Sadanandan guy, head to the nationals and make you proud! That's my promise." Jai explained.

Useless. Everything I did felt useless because of my perfectionist father. Nothing I did seemed enough. He always found flaws in it. I still remember it clearly. I showed him a drawing I made in kindergarten of him. The next day, he gave me a detailed report of where I went wrong with the drawing. I was four, what did you expect off of me? A picture-perfect portrait of you? Hell, even if I did, he wouldn't have been satisfied with it. How do I know that? Because I tried doing that once and he still pointed out the minute faults.

It was during this time of turmoil that I was introduced to martial arts. Well, I already had a basic idea of fighting since my early days, since my perfect father thought that it was a good idea to instill that in a young child. He said that since I'm his bloodline, I should be able to do the things that he was able to do.

Anyway, he sent me to Master Anil's dojo because it had a good review. He did not spare an effort to even look further into it. Hell, he didn't even come with me to the first day in the dojo, because he wanted me to man up and do everything myself.

I couldn't care less though. That man made me walk to kindergarten by myself since the beginning, therefore this wasn't that big of a deal. Once I enrolled myself into the dojo, I made sure not to mention my father's name since he banned me from doing so. He wanted me to pave my way or so he said.

Even though the master didn't particularly care about me in the beginning, he noticed it when I started absorbing all the techniques relatively easily. The early training helped me in that, I guess. Once he noticed me, I was kinda afraid that he'd start judging me like my father.

However, it was quite different. He started cherishing me instead. He called me a prodigy and all. It was like… I finally got the long overdue praise that I should've received from my father. If you ask me, he was a much better father figure than my actual one.

The first thing that master did was to pit me against the black belt students in the dojo. When I beat them easily, he praised me more and more. He trained me every day and took care of my needs. I was happy around him. Within a few years, I became a black belt master.

However, my real father was still disappointed about me. He said that I was nowhere near him, which seemed true when he destroyed me in a mock fight. Therefore I continued training. I made a promise that until I get the approval of my father, I won't enter a tournament. And after all these years, I got the acknowledgment this year. I fought him and lost this time around too. However, he did say that I got a bit strong, which he never said all these years.

Even though I made him wait all these years, the master never complained about me not entering the tournament. Instead, he praised my commitment. I feel like he's part of the reason why I was finally acknowledged by my father. I respect my master. I like him very much. When I felt down, he cheered me up. Now, it's my chance. Zaheer disappointed him. And now I can make him proud by winning the state tournament and the nationals. I don't care what others call him. For me, he's a father-figure and a person I respect. And I'll make sure to do anything to make him happy, just like he made me happy.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
The_Chimp

It do be like that sometimes, eh? No matter what, chase your dreams, even if you don't get acknowledged for it in the beginning. Smile! You are not perfect. None of us are. Maybe that's what make us living beings to begin with.

Cheers!

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