Chapter 16: A Master's Annoyance
I woke up the next morning, again feeling exhausted from my body having to fight off the poison all night. 'I remember at the start I couldn't even get a good night's sleep due to the pain, but looks like I've adapted to it.'
I got ready to meet Master Kaku at the foot of the mountain to begin my training with him. I looked at the over 2000 stone steps below me and let out a small smile while getting a very fun little idea. 'Let's do it.'
I ran down the stairs, and when I say ran, I mean ran. I used all of my strength to dive my body headfirst down the staircase, copying the idea from Baki in the future. I was picking up momentum, getting ready to stop at the nearing end of the staircase.
A step before the staircase ended, I used my legs to push my body vertically into the air, spinning around and using my training in Xiaoli to disrupt the momentum of my body, thus landing safely on the ground.
"Looks like you're having fun, young man?" asked the fossil, seeming displeased that I had used the ultimate technique to play a little game with myself.
"Of course, master, I love training like this." I replied, using my words and passion to dissuade the elder's anger. It seemed that I was somewhat successful, though not completely, by Master Kaku's next words...
"Hohoho, if you consider that training, young man, you're in for a truly fun time," replied the Grandmaster, putting extra emphasis on the word 'fun.'
Before I could respond to his threat, he continued his instruction.
"Let's stop wasting time, young man. It's time for your first lesson."
I instantly stopped my thinking and turned serious, paying full attention to the Grandmaster's next words.
However, instead of teaching me like a good elder, he decided to give me a demonstration instead.
"Don't try to avoid it," was all the old man said before striking my head from the side with full force.
Before I could even register the pain from the hit, my vision started getting distorted due to the impact of the strike to my brain.
The scenery started melting around me. Everything except me—the trees, the ground, even Master Kaku's smiling figure—it all started melting.
"Can you hear me? Effective, isn't it? You can't even see me properly, yet you still know I'm here."
My brain was currently ricocheting in my skull, like a bowl of tofu in water, jiggling because of an external impact to the bowl.
The same bowl of tofu I saw Master Kaku hiding behind his back with his hands, ready to teach me a lesson like a great and knowledgeable elder once I recovered from the attack.
'I'm not gonna give him the satisfaction,' I resolved myself, before striking my head with a punch of the same intensity as Master Kaku's, while keeping careful track of the movements of my brain.
I was precise and quick with my jab to my head, and successful it seems, as the previously melting scenery became solid once again.
"Hohoho, and who taught you that, young man?" asked the Grandmaster, quickly throwing away the teaching utensils he had kindly prepared for today's lesson into the surrounding bushes.
"A great martial artist," was my only reply, choosing to tell a half-truth as I couldn't reveal the actual source of my knowledge.
"Hmm, seems that Ryuu was right. You're more of a 'hands-on' learner. That's fine, these old bones can use a good workout." The Grandmaster seemed a little mad that I had thrown off his carefully prepared lesson plan and started a battle with me to let of some of his frustrations.
[7 hours later]
I was on the ground, breathing heavily, recovering from the beating that I had just recieved at the hand's of the old fossil.
"Hohoho, you're pretty fun to play with young man. Let's do this tomorrow today m'kay?" was all the man said before walking away, back to his wooden hut in the forest.
I gave myself an hour to rest before making my way to Master Shikai Bun's dojo in the city. I slide open the shoji, only to find a serence tea room instead of the deadly training room I was expecting.
At the front, I saw Master Shikai Bun sitting cross legged on a pillow, providing instructions to two disciples while occasionally sipping some tea.
One of them, as I had expected, was his granddaugther Xiao Li. The other one, however, was my little sister, sitting on a pillow with a tea cup in hand, listinging attentively to Master Shikai Bun's every word.
'Really Melissa, you've never shown such a serious face when listing to me.' was my only thought before I made my way to the trio.
"Look who finally decided to jowin us." Master Shikai Bun was the first on to acknowdlge my presence, already facing me as I entered.
To other two she-devils on the other hand, turned their bodies before giving me small waves, pretending it was all normal and was just another day. Melissa went back to her supposed 'training', closing her eyes and taking a sip of her tea, like a great elder meditating after a hard training session.
I was having none of her shenanigans and picked her up from the back by her collar, making sure her tea didn't slip in the process.
"And what are you doing here?" I asked my little sister.
"Training, duh!" was the only response I got from her, before I decided to turn my head and ask the more responsible of the two.
"So?"
"I invited her to train, I saw how quickly she was able to learn my techniques and told grandpa about it. He was interested so he invited her to train under him as well." spoke the girl matter-of-factly.
"Did you at least tell Aunt Elizabeth or Uncle Albert about where you are?" I asked my sister, hoping she wasn't both stupid and dumb.
"Of course I did, I even introduced Xiao Xiao to them. Aunt Elizabeth loves her I'll have you know!" I let go of my screaming sister and directed my attention towards Master Shikai Bun, with none of the playfulness I had with my sister.
"Ok young myan, let's go start your training." I followed the man to the courtyard, entering a tunnel from a hatchframe that was embedded deep into the ground. We slowly walked in silence through the tunnel, waiting to reach the training room.
"No danger for her, do we have that clear?" I spoke to the man, breaking the silence, and letting my killing intent ooze out of my body. The man was obviously surprised by my words.
"Ok" it was only a one word response, but it was enough to alleviate my concerns.
We walked to the empty stone room and began my training. There were 3 things in total that I hoped to learn from Master Shikai Bun. One was obviously mastering Iai Kenpo and all the techniques that came with it including common ones such as the Nukite.
The second was learning the Hand Pocket technique to the 'master' level as described by the system. I had already received the skill as a 'learned' one, however I hoped to reach it's full potential before leaving Master Shikai Bun's tutelage.
And the third was to gain more real combat experience. Judging from the backstory that Mr. Unchained had given about Master Shikia Bun's other disciple, Shobun Ron, during the Raitai Tournament, the old master must have deep connections to the underground tournaments hosted by the Taiwanese mafia.
I had already had a discussion with Master Shikia Bun about my participation in the underground tournaments once I reached an acceptable level of tutelage under him. He was happy to agree with my request but warned me about hiding my identity while participating.
I had him secure me a strong skin-tight ski mask that wouldn't fly off my head in battle, the only unfortunate side effect of the mask being that I now looked like a burglar at night.
'Well I am gonna steal something during the matches.' I thought to myself, grinning about the future fights I would partake in while blocking a blow from Master Shikia Bun.
'He take's on a completely different persona while training, I can see where Shobun Ron gets it from.' I continued training under the man, learning more from his movements with each passing second.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
The_HonorableGhost
The_HonorableGhost I know this chapter was extra short, but it was a good place to end it off. I still have atleast 2 chapters left in me to write today, so I'll release them as soon as I finish them.
I also wanted to let all of you know that I'm gonna play around a bit with the timeline of events, since I have no idea how long after the Maximum Tournment the Death Row Inmates came to Japan, and I'm too lazy to research it incase I don't like the answer. So, I'm just gonna cheat a little and give Kuzan enough time to train and do everything he needs to do before getting caught up with the inmates. With my current plan of events, Kuzan is going to have an interaction with only 2 of the inmates, and he is going to seriously 'fight' only one of them (in the beginning of the book atleast). Hopefully you like the 2 I've picked when I reveal them!
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