Chapter 4: The WMAS
"Whoa! This is your dojo?" A young boy with pale skin and dark hair asked his much larger companion.
The six and a half foot tall giant of man looked down at his two new disciples and grinned. "It sure is, this is Ryozanpaku! Where you two will be staying if the other masters decide they like you too."
The man had long, blonde hair and a magnificent blonde beard and mustache. He wore a tight, green martial arts gi that had it's back and sides long enough to reach his knees (like a coat), with chainmail underneath, just barely showing under the opening of the gi near the neck. He wore white kung-fu pants with Japanese sandals. On his arms he wore white, rope wrappings and red wrist guards.
This was Callum, the Invincible Superhuman, "The Elder" (as nicknamed by his disciples because of his awesome beard), and Ryozanpaku's grandmaster.
And he was giddy. Four disciples! Of course, he hadn't been trying that hard to find disciples for the past two years, not after he got Carter and Leo, so he probably could have had more by now, but that doesn't change the fact that he had four disciples now! Four people that he could pass on his art to who would improve it! He couldn't wait to start their training.
"Why is this door so heavy?" His other new disciple asked, her face turning red as she strained herself to open the door.
Callum smiled at her. "Perhaps because it's locked," He then pulled a key out from... somewhere and unlocked it.
"Oh..." Bianca blushed and looked at her feet, embarrassed.
"Hah!" Nico laughed at his sister before he strode forward, casually pushing on the door as he looked back at his sister with a smug face.
The door didn't budge.
Confused, Nico turned back to the door and pushed harder, yet it still didn't budge.
He frowned and slammed his body against it, pushing with all his might, determined to not look like an idiot, while coincidentally ending up in the same position as his sister, red faced and straining to open the door.
After about ten seconds he gave up and looked back at his new teacher with a scowl on his face.
"You lied! You didn't unlock it did you?" He pointed a finger accusingly.
The superhuman just tilted his head, "No, it's quite unlocked, see?" He then took one finger and pushed the door gently, causing it to slam open.
Both of the children stared at the door in bewilderment, even as it slowly swung shut again. Then they turned back to Callum, looks of confusion and awe on their faces.
"Wha-But how? No, you couldn't... HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" Bianca said, not believing it to be possible. She had been told about the superhumans when she left the hotel, but there was no way she was just going to believe that.
Nico on the other hand, immediately believed it. He looked at his teacher in awe.
"Are you going to teach us to do that? Can you throw a car? Will I be able to throw a car? Can you teach me to throw a car? Like Superman!" Nico asked rapidly, but before he could ask more questions, the door swung open once again, to reveal a young woman casually holding it open.
"Callum?" The woman asked upon seeing their new teacher, "I thought you weren't coming back for another month?"
She was much shorter than The Elder and much smaller in general. She wore a very baggy dark-brown martial arts gi with chainmail underneath, weird, woven sandals, and a red scarf that she wore like a hood, covering her brown hair that was barely visible on the sides of her face. Her orange-red eyes glowed gently in the shadow cast by her scarf.
This was Tia, the dojo's manager and Master of Aikido, Judo, and Jiujutsu (both Japanese and Brazilian).
The giant man chuckled, "Well that was the original plan, since I hadn't found my old friend yet, but when I was there I came across these two and since they thought my martial arts were 'cool' I decided to teach them."
Tia turned her attention toward kids, her gentle, fire-like eyes seeming to glow a little brighter as she looked at them with a warm smile. "Oh? You two want to learn martial arts? It's been a while since anyone wanted to join our dojo."
"Yep!" Nico replied excitedly, "Mr. Callum beat up a monster that was in our hotel and then I asked if he could teach us how he did it and he said he would!"
Bianca nodded along with her brothers statement, still a little shaken by the five hundred pound door.
Her gaze snapped back toward Callum, her eyes narrowing slightly. "You didn't kidnap them did you? Because I seem to remember that happening before."
Callum looked a little sheepish. "What? NO! Nooooooo... maybe." He held up his hands to stop her as she seemed like she was about to go on a rant, "Look, I found them in a hotel where time was moving differently, and thought that it couldn't be healthy to stay separated from their native timeline that long. I looked for their parents or guardians but couldn't find them, even after asking everyone in the hotel. So I took them and left. Is that really kidnapping?"
"YES!" Tia yelled, "Yes it is! You can't just go around promising to teach kids martial arts and then taking them without permission Callum! We barely got off with a warning when you did that with Leo, what are we going to do this time?"
Callum waved it off though. "Don't worry so much. Like I said, time wasn't doing it's job there. These two are from the forties! They're probably presumed dead."
"That's not GOOD damnit!" She turned her attention back to the kids and knelt down to their level. "You poor dears! How did you get stuck in a place like that?"
"Um... A lawyer lady took us there. We thought we were only there for a month though, not seventy years!" Bianca explained, finally regaining her voice.
"Yeah, but it's okay! We get to learn to throw cars now! Mr. Callum said so!" Nico added, only getting a little embarrassed at the raised eyebrow from the older man.
Then he realized that Tia was also holding the door open. "Wait, can you throw cars too? That door was super heavy, so you have to be super strong to hold it open like that!"
Tia chuckled. "I don't know if I can throw cars, I never tried, but I am pretty strong." She stood back up, "Well, I guess since Callum already brought you here, we'll just have to deal with the consequences if they show up. For now, why don't we go inside, and I'll show you around. But first, our other two disciples are about to spar, and I think watching them will give you a good idea of what we teach here. Does that sound good?"
They both nodded their heads rapidly, excited to see a martial arts fight. Nico especially though, as he thinks that it will be like a superhero fight due to the superhuman strength.
Smiling, Tia held the door open for them as they walked in (though she glared a little at Callum when he followed). As she closed the door and made to follow them, she shook her head and laughed a little to herself. 'And that's three for three. I'll need to have a talk with my brothers some time soon about keeping their promises.'
-o0o-
In a small dirt clearing between the buildings in the Ryozanpaku compound, two children, who looked to be around eleven or so, faced each other in martial arts stances.
One had tanned skin, clearly of Latino origin, with wild, curly-black hair that reached his shoulders and brown eyes that screamed mischief and laughter, while also having a strange fire-like glow to them, something he had somehow copied from Tia. He wore a white, sleeveless gi as his top, with chainmail underneath and traditional kung-fu pants and shoes. On his hands he wore white, rope, arm wrappings with red wrist guards on top of them.
His most notable feature, however, were his pointy, elf-like ears. Originally they were noticeable but still mildly human-like; but for some reason, the more time he spent with Callum, the pointier they got, and the more ominous Deja'vu Callum experienced.
This was, of course, Leo Valdez, Ryozanpaku's first permanent disciple.
The other was a dark-skinned kid of about the same height. He also had curly hair, but it was much shorter - barely half and inch - and brown. He had brown eyes and angular facial features that negated the effects of baby-fat on his appearance, making him look slightly older than he was. He wore the same uniform as his opponent, though he lacked shoes due to a prank earlier in the day that his rival was responsible for.
This was Carter Kane, the second disciple by only a week.
Overlooking their match was another giant man, though, not as big as Callum. He was built like a brick wall, having massive muscles all over his body. He had dark skin with black hair styled in dreadlocks and gems woven into them. He wore a variant of the disciples uniform (much like Callum and Tia did), his being a sleeveless, black vest with chainmail underneath and the lower parts being the same as a disciples. He also wore a black fedora and white, rope, arm wrappings.
This was Amos Kane, the dojo's Master of Muay Thai and Boxing.
They had all gotten these uniforms about a year ago, when Callum was off on a trip to China and came back with them, insisting that his dojo had to have it's own uniform because their rival dojo, Yami, also had uniforms. The disciples liked them, thinking they looked cool, but Tia and Amos refused to wear them at first, one because she didn't like fighting and didn't want to look like a fighter, and the other because it wasn't his style. They later changed their minds after he said they could customize them.
He did insist on the chainmail staying for some reason though, even though he knew that it didn't really help either of the masters much. When asked, he just said that it "felt right".
The disciples also asked if they could customize theirs, but were refused when Callum got the idea that a customized uniform should be a symbol of mastery in his dojo. As both were still only Mid-Class disciples at the time, they had to wear the normal one. Tia didn't really like the idea of having status symbols in a dojo, but Callum was stubborn so she eventually gave up on trying to dissuade him.
"Alright kids, remember, no maiming or killing, we don't have the money to fix that. Other than that, you can do what you want so long as you don't leave the circle." The two disciples nodded at Amos's words. "Start!"
Leo dashed forward with excitement, reaching his opponent in just over a second and throwing a punch. Carter though, calmly blocked it, a blue sphere-like forcefield seeming to appear around him. Leo just smirked and dropped to the ground, bringing his legs up in a half kip-up and spinning, kicking out as he did so.
The attack was unpredictable and fast enough to make it through Carters Seikuken, and strong enough to force him to dodge it. By the time Carter had jumped out of the way, Leo was back on his feet and jumping, intending to drop-kick his opponent.
Carter, unable to dodge this time, raised his arms just enough to block it but was sent flying a couple meters back. Quickly, he turned and rolled into it, managing to get back on his feet almost the instant he touched the ground. It didn't last long however as he immediately jumped again, backflipping over Leo's next attack, and landing behind him.
"Ha!" Leo turned the second the attack failed, and threw a spinning kick, but that was blocked as his turning motion had taken just long enough to allow Carter to focus on his Seikuken once again.
Bouncing off the "shield", Leo turned again and attacked with his fist. The second Carter went to block it though, it was revealed to be a feint as Leo used his other arm to grab Carter, pulling him forward and down. Leo then brought his knee up, intending to knee Carter in the face, but the older fighter ducked, instead turning it on him and bringing his own elbow up, landing it in Leo's stomach.
Even so, he was still knocked off balance and fell over. By the time Carter could reorient himself though, Leo was on top of him and punched the ground next to his head, eliciting a loud *Thud*, and showing that he had won.
Leo grinned. "Ha! I win. Just goes to show you why you shouldn't challenge your seniors. I've had way more training than you after all, and am just better in every conceivable way."
Carter rolled his eyes, only mildly disappointed in his defeat, as he stood back up. "Your only my 'senior' by a week, so get off that high horse!"
"It's not a high horse if it wins!"
"What does that even mean?"
"Why do I have to tell you. Not my fault you're to stupid to understand!"
"You're just saying that because you don't know either!"
"Hey!" Amos shouted, "Since your fights over already, get over here, the Elders back!"
The two rivals stopped their bickering and looked over, only to find their gaze full of excited twelve year olds.
"That was so cool!" Nico yelled excitedly as he stood in front of them. "You were moving so fast and jumping around like ninja's!"
He turned his attention to Carter, "And you were doing magic! You made that magic shield thing whenever he punched you! And you!" He looked back at Leo and pointed, "You teleported! How did you do that?"
""Uh."" Both of the disciples said at the same time, confused.
"Amos, Leo, Carter, these are our two new disciples, Nico and Bianca Di Angelo." Callum said, apparently already forgetting to ask if the other two masters were cool with that.
"Oh? New disciples? That's weird, I didn't think anyone would want to join us anymore with our reputation. Where'd you get 'em?" Amos asked, examining the two.
"He kidnapped them from a hotel." Tia said as she walked up to them, still glaring at Callum.
Amos sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Damnit Callum! The government people were already mad enough when you promised to teach Leo martial arts without asking his guardians at the time first. Are you trying to get us shut down?"
Callum held his hands up placidly. "Calm down. Like I told Tia, they were living in a hotel where time worked differently, so while they thought they were only there for a month, they were actually there for over seventy years. These two are from the forties!"
Amos looked only mildly surprised, and raised his eye brows. "Well if that's the case, then we'll probably be fine keeping them right? We were starting to run out of things to teach Carter and Leo anyway since they'll be expert level soon, so having two new disciples would be nice."
"Exactly! Even if the social workers didn't like it, I can just change the records to say it's fine and that we're supposed to have them. It may require a little hacking, maybe some breaking and entering too, but it'll all work out. And if worse comes to worse, I can just put an illusion up, or use the shockwave of forgetfulness. That's all IF they find out these two still exist mind you." Callum explained, wanting to make sure Tia didn't have a reason to deny their new disciples.
Said women simply sighed, smiling just a little. "Fine, I guess you're right. Just be more careful next time, please. You shouldn't get children's hopes up just to crush them later if you can't fulfil them."
Callum nodded, having already known that. He knows how much Tia values children and their happiness, so he doesn't do things without considering that first. Of course, he would never say that out loud. He had to maintain his image of being irresponsible after all.
Children needed to know when to be responsible, and when to loosen up, and they wouldn't learn that if they didn't have both a responsible and an irresponsible figure in their lives to teach them. Callum decided that he would take on the latter role, and Tia would take the former. Amos was more of a neutral, changing between both sides once in a while.
He wanted to make sure his disciples grew up more psychologically healthy then he did after all.
Meanwhile the two disciples looked at the two newbies in awe.
"You two are from the forties?" Carter asked eagerly, "What is it like traveling through time like that? Did anything happen to your bodies because of the slowed ageing? Was it slowed ageing at all? Exactly how messed up was your internal clock when you left? Did you experience jet-lag? How was the-"
"Move out of the way Carter!" Leo said as he kicked Carter, sending him flying into a wall. Then he turned to the two, now wide-eyed Di Angelo's. "How did the time dilation work there? Was it caused by a machine? Did someone who's not me invent a time machine already? Tell me where they are, I need to beat 'em up!"
*Crack*
Before Leo could grab the siblings shoulders and start shaking them for answers, his head was Karate chopped with enough force to leave a large bump and knock him out. A disgruntled Carter stood over him, a scowl on his face as he dusted himself off.
*Crack*
Carter was then also knocked out by a chop from an amused Amos. "That's enough you two. You can nerd-out later. Right now we need to get these two situated and start their first day of training."
Amos grinned at the thought, causing the two slightly-scared siblings to become VERY scared upon seeing the light in his eyes. Literally, they looked like menacing flashlights.
That fear turned to confusion though, when he walked off for a second and came back with two large tires, some rope, and two whips.
Seeing this, Callum chuckled as Tia walked off, grumbling something about 'torture' and 'treating children like horses', whatever that meant.
-o0o-
Exposition Dump Incoming
-o0o-
"So, can you tell us how you did that magic thing now?" Nico asked Carter excitedly, somehow appearing bright and happy despite having gone through his first day of training-from-hell just the day before.
This amazed both Leo and Carter as they both remembered their first day of training VERY vividly, and the subsequent day after where they had to train and do things while all their muscles felt like they were competing to see which could cause the most agony when they walked. It wasn't their fondest memory.
Bianca had a more normal reaction, that is to say, she was laying in bed groaning and threw her shoe at them when they tried to make her get up. Because of this, they just decided to have their conversation in her room, so she could still hear it and they wouldn't have to repeat anything later.
Leo and Carter were currently sitting around a table, Leo tinkering with some scraps and Carter was reading a book. Nico was sitting on the end of his sister bed, much to her displeasure.
"If the Seikuken is what you're talking about, then it wasn't magic." Leo replied instead after noticing a confused look on Carters face.
Nico turned to Leo, confused. "What was it then? Only magic can make blue force fields like that! And what does Seikuken mean?"
Carters eyes widened in understanding, before he started to explain. "The Seikuken is a Ki technique the Elder created. It basically is just the art of controlling every part of a fight that's within your arms reach, or if you have a weapon, it's reach. The reason a blue force-field showed up is because it uses Ki, or more specifically, Sei Ki."
Nico looked excited, but before he could ask his next question, his sister groaned out her own from under her blankets. "What do you mean Ki? Isn't that just some religious mumbo jumbo?"
Carter chuckled, "No, Ki is the physical manifestation of a martial artists willpower and mindset, and there's two types. There's Sei Ki, the kind I use, which involves having a clear and calm mind while fighting, and relies entirely on skill and intelligence. Then there's Dou Ki, the kind Leo uses. It involves using instincts and emotions, typically anger, to fight. Leo prefers to use passion, excitement, or humor instead though. Whenever Ki is used it normally manifests as some type of light, unless the user is purposefully trying to hide it, but that takes a lot of concentration so I don't do that. That's why you saw that force-field."
"So only martial artists can use it? Is that how these superhumans started popping up? Will we be learning it?" Biance asked, her excitement overcoming her pain and exhaustion as she finally poked her head out from under the blanket.
"Normally, mostly, and not right now." Leo said, amused as he remembered when he was first shown Ki. "You only need to learn about it when you reach the expert and master levels, before that though you only really need to understand the basics. You two aren't even low-class disciples yet, so I wouldn't worry about it to much until you've had a few more months of training."
Carter nodded in agreement to that but Nico looked even more curious. "And what does that mean? You and Master Amos were both talking about high-class and experts and masters. What does that mean?"
Leo then started to explain, remembering that it wasn't common knowledge, and that even if it was, these two still wouldn't know it due to the time travel. "It's the World Martial Artist Standard, or WMAS for short. It was created by the Elder ten years ago and standardized alongside the Minds Eye technique. It was created specifically for the Desperate Fight tournaments - but is also used everywhere else - , so they could have separate tournaments for fighters of different levels. They did this because one of the main reasons people attended the tournament was to show off their disciples skill, but they couldn't do that if a master level was in the same bracket as them. It would make the disciples look bad in comparison, and make the master look petty."
"There were originally nine levels, but it's been expanded to ten after the Elder fought with someone and realized that the ranking still didn't encompass everyone. The first level is Low-class disciple. These are just people who are either just starting out, or who don't work hard. They normally have the power of the average athlete and know the basics of their chosen art. You two would be just below this, but should be able to reach it in three or so months with the Masters training." He told them with a nod, causing the siblings to wince as they remembered the training, and therefor the pain.
"Next is the Mid-class disciple. They have the power of the average Olympic athlete and could have held a few world records back before superhumans showed up. It only took Carter and I ten-ish months to reach this after we became Low-class, so you two should also reach it quickly. You can also start learning about the basics of Ki, invoke, around this level."
"Third is the High-Class disciple. That's the level we're at now and have been at for a little under a month. We have world-record strength in every category and superhuman strength in a couple of them. We also have a pretty good understanding of our chosen martial arts. I'm focusing on a Shaolin kung-fu and Muay Thai while Carter here is going for Karate, weapons, and Jujutsu. We also learned the next level of Ki recently."
"The next level is Expert-class. This is the most dangerous level because you don't have a master to protect you like a disciple does, and you don't have the power of a master yourself, so a lot of martial artists get... stuck here." Leo said, not sure if he should talk about martial artists dying to new disciples. He might drive them off and he didn't even want to think about how the masters might react if that happened.
Carter noticed his hesitation and decided to take over. "Anyway, Expert-Class people have superhuman strength. They have a very good understanding of their martial arts, and they are normally so strong and fast that they can create sonic-booms if they tried really hard. This is normally where you would learn the next level of Ki, release, we only learned it early because we're a special case."
"After that is Low-class master. They are also superhuman and have nearly mastered their martial art. People don't stay here for long however, and typically reach the next class rather quickly."
"The sixth class is Master and they have actually mastered their martial art. They are really strong and can easily move faster than sound. This is where most of the superhuman activity comes from, because disciples normally aren't strong enough to catch the medias attention, and those that are rarely show off in public, and experts spend most of their time training to reach the next level. People are normally satisfied at this level and instead of focusing on their own training, move onto training their own disciple."
"If they do continue their training, however," Carter grinned in pride, "They reach the Grandmaster Class, like my Uncle, Master Amos. A grandmaster has enough speed to move at many times the speed of sound, throw around train cars, I know that because I've seen my uncle do it as a training exercise, and survive a bomb to the face. Grandmasters are called that because they have not only mastered their martial art, but have improved upon it, creating their own sub-style of the art. My uncle has done that with Boxing, and created the Kane-style Boxing. People of this level also learn the final stage of Ki, Ki-holding, but they normally don't master it."
By this point both of the new disciples were in awe. Bianca normally wouldn't have believed it, but after seeing Master Amos stop a car with his bare hands while she was pulling him on the tire and almost got run-over, she decided that it wasn't that far-fetched.
"The eighth level is Advanced-Grandmaster. They are basically people who have become a grandmaster in multiple martial arts instead of just one. They are also a lot stronger and faster too. This is where Master Tia is. Apparently she didn't know any martial arts before Carter and I joined, but The Elder managed to talk her into learning afterward so she 'wouldn't set a bad example'. Imagine everyone's surprise when she mastered everything almost instantly and reached the Advanced Grandmaster level for four separate martial arts in just a year. It was a little demotivating to be honest." Carter chuckled.
Leo laughed too, "Yeah, sometimes we're pretty sure she's secretly a goddess or something. No way a mere mortal could learn something that fast right? Even thought Carter and I are genius's even we couldn't do that." It was a joke the two rivals made often because they liked to tease her and knew it would make their teacher blush due to her humble nature.
Though, they never noticed how she tensed slightly whenever they made that joke.
Bianca, meanwhile, was blinking in disbelief as she recalled the nice lady that opened the door for them. No way that tiny woman was stronger than the giant man with the fedora that was literally three times her size. Nico on the other hand...
"So she could throw cars! And not just that, if she's as strong as you say she is, then she could probably throw entire houses! That's so cool! Do you think she's stronger than superman?" The pale child asked excitedly.
Leo grinned, "She definitely could be! I think the only reason she's not stronger than the Elder already is because she stopped training after that, saying that she learned enough, even when The Elder literally begged her on his hands and knees to keep training so they could have a fight. Master Tia really doesn't like fighting, and The Elder REALLY does. He still tries to get her to train every once in a while, sometimes he even tries to trick her into doing it."
Leo, Carter and Nico snickered a bit as Leo recalled the time Callum tried to trick Tia into training by replacing all the clothes, dishes, and other things in the house with super-heavy weighted versions that she would HAVE to lift and move around in order to do things. It was hell for the two disciples of course, because they could barely even lift the toilet seat, which weighed almost 1,000 pounds at the time, let alone everything else. But it was worth it in the end because they got to see The Elder apologizing profusely to Master Tia (even bowing) in order to stop her from quitting.
They would have continued with the story, if not for Bianca cutting in with a question. "What about The Elder? What level is he?"
Nico, also curious, also looked at the two questioningly.
Leo grinned again. "He's at the tenth level. The level after Advanced-Grandmaster is called Legendary Master. They have the strength to destroy buildings with a single punch, move faster than lightning, and have mastered their martial arts to such an extent that they created their own original art. This is the level that The Elder was at about ten years ago, before he updated the WMAS. At the moment I only know one person who's at this level, and he's The Elders self-proclaimed rival. He's also the grandmaster of Ryozanpaku's rival dojo, Yami."
Carter snorted. "It means darkness in Japanese. I know, super edgy. The Elder says that the guy's apparently something called a 'Chunibyo'."
"The tenth and final level for the WMAS is called a World-level Master. The Elder named it this because it represents someone who has the strength to effect the entire planet by themselves. There isn't supposed to be a definite strength level for them as anyone stronger than a Legendary Martial artist is classified as one, but seeing as The Elder is the only known one of this level, we'll go off his strength." Leo continued.
"The Elder is a literal walking nuke. His strongest attack could blow apart mountain ranges if he tried, and he can move so fast that the only thing faster than him is light itself. He is said to have taken an actual nuclear bomb to the face before and walked away unscathed, but I'm pretty sure that's just a rumor. Other than that he has over three-hundred self-created techniques, all of which are incredibly strong. The Seikuken, and it's next level, the Ryuusui Seikuken, being just one of them. He's also rumored to have found a new level of Ki control, but if that's true, than he hasn't told us about it."
Bianca and Nico didn't know what a nuclear bomb was, but based off context clues, it must be pretty strong, and if The Elder is as strong or even stronger than that? Bianca suddenly felt like she had long way to go, and Nico felt like starting his training for the day right away.
But before that, Bianca had one more question. "You mentioned the Desperate Fight tournaments earlier. What are those?"
Suddenly the temperature of the room rose as both Carter and Leo gained a fire in their eyes, litteraly, in Leo's case.
"The Desperate Fight Tournament is a martial arts tournament that started about fourteen years ago." Carter began, "Fighters from all over the world gather to beat the tar out of each other. One is held every four years, though, they're changing it to a three year schedule now so the next one is just a year away!"
"It takes place on an island in the Pacific Ocean," Leo continued, "And it has top-notch security. There are three separate brackets. One for disciples, one for experts and masters, and one for grandmasters and above. There are only a few people in the last one since there are only about a hundred or so grandmasters in the entire world, and not all of them attend, but it's definitely the most exciting."
Carter picked up from there. "Leo and I are going to be participating in the Desperate Fight of Disciples Tournament next year, and if we make the top three, alongside some other requirements, we will be deemed Expert-class officially!"
"We'll be the youngest in the world! It'll be so awesome! The masters also said they would teach us Ki holding if we actually manage to win!" Leo finished.
Nico had stars in his eyes. "Will we be able to join too? That sounds so cool!"
Carter looked thoughtful for a second. "You should be able to. If you put in the effort you should be able to reach Mid-Class disciple by the time the Tournament roles around. Carter and I were kind of Lazy at the start of our training after all, that's why it took so long. The DfoD is mainly between Mid and High-class disciples since the Low-class ones are picked off quickly unless they're super talented."
Bianca looked slightly terrified. "Will we really be able to fight people like the superhumans in just a year? You two were moving so fast earlier that I couldn't even see you! How are we supposed to fight that?"
Leo waved it off though. "You two should be fine. You'll be receiving training from The Invincible Superhuman himself after all. You'll already be powerful compared to the other disciples of your class, and even some of the High-class ones. Nobody would expect you to preform as well as us though, when we'll have had three times the amount of training."
Suddenly the two also looked determined. Bianca wanted to put the training to good use, especially since it's coming from the man who saved her and her brother from the magic-hotel and the monsters in it. She didn't want to disappoint him.
Nico on the other hand, just wanted to fight like a superhero. This was his chance!
And with that, the four disciples began their daily training, all of them putting more effort into it than they've ever put into anything, in preparation for their Tournament Arc.
-o0o-
And so ends the Prologue chapters.
Also, if you couldn't tell by the new chapter, this isn't dropped, if that's what you thought. I've just got no discipline and am extremely lazy so my update scedual is REALLY shitty. I'm thinking that I might be able to fix that by switching the books I update every time I release a chapter. I'm thinking of switching between CROOKSHANKS and this book until at least one of them reaches eighty thousand words. I released a chapter for that last month, and now this, and I plan to release another chapter for CROOKSHANKS next, and after that this again, and so on.
It might be enough to fix my laziness and lack of motivation, it might not. I don't know. I'm willing to try anything at this point.
Anyway, like I said, that's the end of the Prologue arc, topping it out at an even 20k words split between four chapters. I'm thinking that I will try to stick to about 30-40k words for the next arcs, which should translate to about eight or nine chapters each.
Also, sorry about the exposition dump this chapter. The point of the prologue arc is to establish characters and the basics of the world building, which includes the tournament, Ki, techniques, backgrounds, rankings, ect... That's why there was a massive time skip every chapter. That won't be the case for the next arcs, but I had to make sure that everything was established by the end of the Prologue so the people reading this who haven't seen Kenichi understand what's going on.
(Kind-of spoilers ahead. I don't consider them spoilers, but some might, so here's your warning)
I'm planning to do the tournament arc now because the four disciples need to be at least master-ish level by the time they're thirteen-fourteen and I feel like it would a missed opportunity to not include them in the disciple tournament, something they couldn't join if they weren't of the disciple level.
I need them to get that strong quickly because they still have their own main-plots to deal with. Nico and Bianca have to join Percy's adventure in just three or so years, Carter has to fight an Egyptian battle god after he turns fourteen, and Leo has the biggest challenge of them all. He has to be strong enough to fight primordial deities by the time he's sixteen. No way any of that's realistically happening if they're not all super-genius's.
This was easy to solve for Bianca, Leo, and Nico, since they're demi-gods. It's not to plot-armory to say that they learn fighting-related things faster due to their godly blood. That's also why Hestia became so strong so quickly. Carter was a little more difficult to deal with, and his excuse it a lot more convoluted, but I won't say anything here as it's a major spoiler.
My plan is to write a 30-40k arc for each of the major plotlines in this order, Prologue (already done), Tournament (this is next), Percy Jackson books with the Di Angelo's, Kane Chronicles, Training arc involving some SDS and OPM stuff, and finally the Heroes of Olympus arc. Very basic outline and it's subject to change, but if it goes according to plan this should end up at about 200k words or about 40 chapters by the time it's finished.
Anyway, with all that said, thanks for reading. Leave lots of comments, especially paragraph ones, because the interaction with and thought on my work is what motivates me.
— New chapter is coming soon — Write a review
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone