Saga 2 Episode 20: You're Getting There

## Participants

Connor RyojiCho KiriyuZack Rogers
I

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bih0s-DJwTY&index=202&list=PLYNBny7IRlVkbiSVlrNHnbXbgZBIdU3Pl ) 3 o clock in the morning, and good old Cho wasn’t sleeping. The night sky was still up, sparkling and twinkling abroad, but this time of night was his morning one could say. He’d be trucking along up the Kasaihana downtown hill, a steep incline similar to the ones you see in San Francisco. Cho ran up the hill, his usual weighted suit on, and two tires strapped to his back, the cement inside the tires equaling about to about 350 pounds together even. This was luckily the final mile in Cho’s run, the third one, as he’s been running 2 and just finished. His record time was 2 minutes with the weights off, and 3 minutes and 30 seconds with the weights on, however the fruits of his labor paid off as today he’d ran 3 miles with 350 pounds, added to his own 100 pound weight, to clear it in 3 minutes and 15 seconds! Cho’s body was about to die figuratively as he’d fall face first on the ground coated in a thick layer of sweat. Connor would arrive, reading another eating a piece of celery, and dragging Cho by his hair and the tire weights along with him back to the dojo.

Cho’s routines had been getting more stressful, especially considering the properties of the suit he had to exert himself for 24 hours a day just to move or breathe. His body and chi were in a consistent work out now adays. Arriving back at the Ryoji household , Connor would let Cho flop onto the couch, as he had X’s for eyes and made low groans of pain. “Wakey wakey, my precious red fighter.” Connor would spray Cho down with steaming hot water, causing him to leap up rubbing his body in pain and trying to sooth it. “I’M STARTING TO HATE YOU MR.RYOJI!!” “Shuuuuuuuuuuut the fuck up. It’s time for the rest of your muscle routine, get to it. Today I’ll be teaching you more moves to incorporate into your technique.” Cho jumped up and smiled. “OOO! More Chinese Kenpo? A-and muay thai?!” Connor nodded. Cho would fist pump and get right to his other exorcises with no hesitation.  This morning Cho preformed a 3 1/2 Mile Run, 300 Tiger Push-ups, 1 hour in Deep Horse Stance, - 1 hour Iron Palm Bag, striking a metal pillar with the palm of his hand to strengthen the hand bone, and the palm itself ( each palm slap, back hand slap, knife hand, punch),  100 Lunge Steps to strengthen the leg muscles against trips and a more solid stance, Heavy Bag throw- 2 hours with a 400 pound bag,  100 Fingertip Pushups, 1 hour Shaolin Headstand, Practice Jumping at peak height for 10 Minutes, and finally 250 Horse Stance Punches to strengthen the basic one to punch combination.

Before Cho could start learning muay thai moves for the day however, he had to complete his muay thai warm up, which consisted of him doing 150 squats, 100 high knees and elbow crosses against a rock, to strengthen the forearms and kneecaps, and 500 flying knee’s to perfect his jumping distance. Then there was being forced to clench a medicine ball weighing 100 pounds for 2 hours with nothing but his fingertips. This was to tighten his grip in a clench like situation, making it that much harder to escape. After this was said and done Connor would ask Cho to perform the tai chi drill with him. Connor would initiate the drill. Standing beside Cho, Cho would use what he did learn about it, and mimic Connor’s motions, each movement smooth, and sensually flowing together like a queit stream of water “Tell me Cho. Your background confuses me. You say you learned martial arts form your father but I never see him around…what’s up with that??” Connor continued in the drill, as Cho would mimic him almost perfectly, taking in long and drawn out deep breathes. “Well to be honest I’m actually mixed. My mother is of Japanese descent and my father is of Chinese descent. If you want the truth this isn’t even my actual hair color. We move around so much I kind of just died it and called it a day. It’s actually brunette.” Connor would laugh as the two would step in sync, moving to and form each other, their arms flowing, and intertwining with each other ocaisonally, but neither ever touching the other. “Nothing wrong with that. My hair was dyed black for a while to. Just you seem to have a natural nack for the marital arts. I might actually be able to teach you some things and not have you ruin it. I hope one day you find your father if he’s…stil alive.” “Me to. Mom said he just up and left however and he left me with this weird mirror thingy. It’s the only thing I have left to really remember him by…but one day I’ll find him. Til then it’s nice having you around. You’re a dick but I don’t know. You’re pretty cool Mr.Connor.”  Cho shifted his foot, and so did Connor, keeping in their water like movements together. “I…thanks kid. You’re pretty cool to.” Cho smiled, and Connor would stop the drill, only to pat Cho on the shoulder. Connor was honestly used to people hating his guts or wanting to kill him…so to hear someone. Anyone say he was a nice person actually warmed his heart a bit. Even he had to admit the young seventeen year old had grown on him by this point.

Cho would look at Connor, the first time seeing a hint of compassion in his eyes. “I’m not a good person Cho but I’m glad you think so. Take care of your mom no matter what. She’s all you’ve got in this world. And you only ever get one.” Connor speaking from his own experiences, letting his hair shadow his eyes for a second as he whipped them…his mother’s murder still pending in his brain like an ever growing migraine he couldn’t get rid of for any reason. He was a momma’s boy which is why he could relate to cho so well.“You…gonna be okay Mr.Connor?” Connor nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.” He sniffled and popped his neck from side to side.“Tell me Cho, do you know what a Seikuken is?” Cho shook his head. “I’ve heard of it yes. Even seen my mother do it once or twice against many robbers and muggers. She forbade me from practicing it though.” Connor laughed in Cho’s face wiping a tear. “Man your so fucking sheltered. A Seikuken is specifically for a Sei fighter. It is a combat method that involves controlling the entire radius within one's arm length, creating a spherical shield around oneself. It can be used for offence and defense. More experienced fighters can even extend the range with minimal lengths by using air pressure. Besides having a larger radius, having a Seikuken with a very small radius can also be useful too.  It’s something that can be your biggest aid and prevent almost, ALMOST any attack in your radius. It can be broken, so do not think for one second you are invincible. Learning this will take some time, but its well worth it.” Connor took a few steps back form Cho. “ Come on. I’ll demonstrate and you attack me to get a feel of how it’s supposed to go.” Cho would nod, and take his stance. “You sure about this? As hard as I can?” “Don’t worry you’ll see the beauty of it by the time we’re done here.”

Cho would’ve popped his neck from side to side and exhaled a deep taken breathe from his nostrils. In doing so he’d spread his legs a bit, tucking his arms to his sides and looking to his sensei ready to strike and lash out at him…that’s when it happened! Cho began to throw punch after punch in Connor’s direction! Each fist he made, tightly clenched, aimed to impact Connor in some area of his face, his neck or his chest! He wasn’t intent on giving this up, he wouldn’t as he gave it his all to throw these punches at his sensei! The saddest part is that not a single punch did anything close to a decent job. Oh no,  Cho threw punch after punch and Connor’s forearms popped up to delfect every single punch while he stood there effortlessly. “Whats going on?!” Cho looked into his sensei’s eyes. “it’s almost like he’s not even TRYING to block these…he’s just slapping them away like flies!” Cho continued to try and increase the speed and velocity of his hits but it was to little avail as Connor simply looked at Cho with the straightest face he’d ever given minus the addition of his permanent scowl, knocking cho’s arms away every single time.

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s70/mysticdensukez/Martial%20Arts%20Gifs/tumblr\_myak1oAxWv1qcsesho3\_500\_zps5f8e5c71.gif

Finnaly growing tired of this game, the last punch Cho threw, Connor would’ve deflected it before grabbing his wrist and pulling it outwards and launching his opposite hand out to land less than an inch away from Cho’s nose! Cho let a bead of sweat slip down his face and as it did Connor’s fist would’ve started to slowly lower itself down…past his chin…past his neck…then Connor drove his fist into Cho’s abdomen letting his entire hand disappear inside of his disciple and letting Cho’s body collapse in on itself as he hit the ground holding his stomach in excruciating pain! A small stream of spit left his mouth as he struggled and gasped for air! Connor popped his neck from side to side putting his hands on his hips. “That is the Seikuken. It’s kind of like an auto pilot for deflecting attacks. It can also variate depending on your chi base. Me I have destruction chi so I could line my field with it and destroy any punch that came in here. You have I think…fortification. So you could potentially cut whatever came into your range.” Cho finally stood himself up coughing and shaking his head. “I see! How would I even practice doing this?!” “Easy.” Connor would’ve walked out of the dojo for a second and Cho would’ve stood there wating paiteinty. When Connor came back he would’ve been….holding a giant gattling gun in his hands. Cho’s eyes widned in sheer fear. “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?!” “if you can deflect a bullet you can deflect a punch! Don’t worry they’re rubber…I THINK! AHAHAHAHA!!!!” Connor would’ve begun opening fire on cho and cho would’ve began running around the dojo trying to avoid the line of fire until a rubber bullet clocked him upside of the head and sent him tumbling where the rest of the rubber bullets assaulted him not very long after! “HAHAHAHAAAAA!” Connor’s maniac laugh could be heard as it echoed into the room for a few hours.

II
--

A few hours later

In a set amount of time, Connor would’ve fully mounted the gattling gun allowing it to fire more so automatically now than anything else. Cho standing about 20 feet away from it with bloody whelps on his body he’d pant a few times, hunched over and holding his knees with both hands. “Sweet shit I \*pant\* don’t know if I can \*pant\* keep this up to much!” “Well you’ve gotta learn. Remember the seikuken is more than just leanring how to delfect fast punches.” Connor extended his arm. “Look at the length of your arm. All that is in it’s reach is the bubble around you. Your radius. Using the Chi principle I taught you expand your sense of touch…the moment you feel the air pressure shift inside of your seikuken you let  your body react. Do not think about it. Do not anticipate. React cho. React.” Connor pushed the button or was about to until he saw Cho stand straight up looking at the gun. A gleam in his black irises as he exhaled slowly and stood there. “My bubble…my bubble.” Cho took in a breathe through his nose and stood straight up extending his arms out fully with his palms facing away from him moving one arm clock wise and the other coutner clock wise. As he was doing this he’d be staring down the barrel of the gattling gun letting his chi flow from the the pours of his body to help aid in creating his seikuken. Instead of molding the chi itself he’d use it for his senses and make a raidus around himself with his sense of touch. He stared down the barrel of the gun and Connor pushed the button!

The bullets began to fly from the gun ::slow motion:: the rubber piercing through the air, soaring even, as they arrived at Cho’s arms length radius. Cho simply squinted his eyes one time before his right hand moved down catching one of the bullets dead on! His left hand maunvering in the same way to catch the second bullet!...but he was bomabred by the rest of them and sent to his back! Connor winced a bit shaking his head. Cho coughed a bit while on the ground but held his hands up showing he’d caught two of them! Connor blinked one time before smiling. “That’s my boy. Stand back up, you’re getting it I can tell. Don’t try to hit all that you feel all at once. Feel for the first touch, second touch, and so on. It’s about reacting not calculating.” Cho pulled himself up from the ground saluting Connor weakly. “O-OSSU!”

A few more hours passed and the morning was beginning to come. Cho stood there in a  slanted pose staring the barrel down and when Connor pushed the button this time Cho turned his body, letting his right side face forward and his right hand. Reacting with a quick trained eye and hand he’d move his hand from left to right, up and down until he’d caught all six rounds that fired form the gun in his palm! Letting them fall to the floor, Connor would’ve arm pumped. “YES! And THAT is the Seikuken in a nutshell. With this under your belt your defensive skills are going to be mad overpowered. Combine that with your good karate based offense and you’ll be a force to reckon with. Go on home and get some rest.” Cho sighed. “I can’t. I’ve got school today.” Connor waved his hand. “Don’t worry I got leon to fix you up a fake doctor’s note. Take the day off and rest up. Can’t have you going to school covered in whelps. “ Cho smiled wide and nodded. “Thanks Mr.Connor!” Cho picked himself up and went over to the closet, grabbing his clothes and hobbling his way out of the door. The scars rattled on his body were just another symbol of how hard he’d worked tonight and he’d take it in stride, every single last bit of it. Making his way outside he’d hold his broader shoulder as he started his way home. His body going through noticeable changes the entire time as he heads for the house.

## III

Elsewhere

Deep in the cut of an hold warehouse with an undisclosed location a young white haired boy sat on the ground with his back against the wall. A sleeveless shirt on his person, grey in color, with navy blue jeans on his lower half and a pair of combat boots to complement it all. He was panting, sweating as if he’d been repeating a strenuous activity the entire time of the night and the truth of the matter is that he’d had. He sat there, and 40 feet in front of him would’ve been a wooden dummy that had throwing knives impaled inside of it. He’d been tossing them to the thing practicing his shuriken like ranged maneuvers in order to help his ever growing mission to combat the supernatural beast that plague the world. This young white haired male  with silver eyes name was Zack, Zack Rogers a junior Warlock and one of much promise but MUCH to learn about how to do his job properly. His specific tailored Warlock suit resting hanging up on the wall opposite of him, along with his special giant buster blade leaning against the wall beside him. He let one more breathe go before slowing his berthing. “Hmmmm okay. I think it’s safe to say I’m done for the night…gah.” Young Zack pulled himself up, touching the giant blade and causing it to disappear in a flash of light. He’d gotten a text on his phone, picking it up to look at the bright lit screen it read.

“Incident spotted in Kasaihana City High School. Report to location immediately, maidens have been spotted, repeat, maidens have been sighted.” –X

The text was short but sweet as Zack blinked for a moment. “Maiden’s…THOSE maidens? This must be a werewolf thing. Hm.” Zack grunted as he pulled his throwing knives out from the wooden doll and put them in their holster. Reaching back to the back of his waist to make sure his pistol’s were still there he’d nod and smirk. “Never been fond of werewolves. Then again never fought one so this should be interesting. I wonder how many are in a pack. Are they even IN a pack? So many questions and so many things to add to the beastiary. “ Zack stepped out of the werehouse he was in. Looking at the rising sun he’d nod. “Kasaihana City here I come. Hope I don’t miss the good stuff. “ He’d shrug and begin walking towards the giant orange sphere emerging from the ground ahead.