Our improvements over the past week were astounding. After just a few sessions, none of the students at the dojo were anywhere near the level where they could stand up to us, mostly thanks to the much stronger physical abilities we both had.
Both Gwen and I could take on even several at a time with little difficulty, and to be honest, I felt like it was cheating when the other students looked downhearted as the two new students surpassed them in a matter of days.
By now, only the trainers could put up a fight for us, and even then they were losing most times. I'm pretty sure Gwen had realized I wasn't quite normal either by this point but hadn't said anything about it. At least not yet.
Currently, I was in the middle of a fight with Ryusei as Gwen sat to the side watching along with many other students who had grown a habit of watching Gwen or I spar with the teachers.
Ryusei and I circled each other slowly as his posture was relaxed, hands loose by his sides like he wasn't taking this seriously.
"Come on, Ray," he said, still getting my name wrong, by accident or on purpose as a taunt, I couldn't tell. "Don't tell me you've grown soft and weak after not visiting for just one day."
I didn't answer him and just moved.
The second I dashed forward, his posture shifted instantly. From relaxed to coiled like a loaded spring, his legs moved backwards, and he dodged my opening strike, an elbow which was meant to hit him in the ribs. He responded with a fast palm strike toward my shoulder.
Unfortunately for him, I was faster. My stats hadn't increased from what they were before, but I had gotten better at utilizing my potential power.
My body twisted sideways, narrowly avoiding the strike, as I hooked my leg behind his and advanced forward at the same time. It wasn't a traditional move from any one discipline, but any semblance of rules or technique had long been thrown out the window when it came to our duels.
Ryusei had told me repeatedly to do whatever it takes to win, and followed his own advice vehementally as he cheated whenever I got close to winning by traditional means. Eventually, we both simply started ignoring the rules from the get-go.
His foot slipped slightly, balance breaking just enough. He grinned as he righted himself. "That's more like it, Rio."
He once again attacked me in earnest. He came in with his usual style which was very fluid, a combination of several eastern martial arts. It was hard to read what he was planning as his body shifted from one stance to another in quick succession, giving no definitive sign of where or what part of me he was aiming for with his next strike.
His fist approached at lightning speed, not aiming to do damage, but to just disrupt my own movements. A tactic that might have worked against most people, but something that was almost entirely ineffective against someone much faster and stronger than he was by the pure power of stats.
He snapped forward with a double palm thrust which I simply responded to by grabbing both his wrists in my hands, twisting my body and throwing him over my hip. Naturally, a man as experienced as him didn't go down that easily.
Ryusei tucked into a roll midair and landed on his feet like an agile cat, instantly turning and launching into a low kick meant to sweep my legs. I hopped over it comfortably and twisted my body midair to come down with a knee aimed square at his shoulder.
He caught it, barely, but the impact did push him back and off balance a bit.
"Not bad," he grunted, but I wasn't done.
I faked a right hook and spun, bringing my palm down into the side of his head from the opposite direction. He stumbled, blinking. It didn't hurt him much, but I was one clean hit away from the win.
Ryusei however wasn't the type to give up even if he had taken several hits and was exhausted, so the fight only escalated from there.
He feinted another palm strike, then threw sand. Where the sand came from, I couldn't tell you. We were inside a very clean dojo. But I knew what was coming next.
I was able to move out of the way of the majority of the sand just in time, avoiding being blinded as it didn't get in my eyes. Instead of following up on that, Ryusei instead pulled back, reaching his hand inside his kimono jacket and pulling out… a gun. Not a real gun, of course, just a plastic toy one.
But that was enough to end one of our previous duels. Back then, just as I was about to win, he pulled out a toy gun and shot a nerf dart at me, saying I lost because I let him pull out a gun and should have done something against that.
This time I didn't let him do that, and moved in quick with a kick to hit the gun out of his hand. I succeeded, but…
"It's over." Ryusei said with a grin as I felt something soft hit the back of my head. Turning around, there were two other trainers spectating the fight, both holding up similar nerf guns and both had taken shots at me, one of them hitting.
"What the fu-" I felt my eye twitch in frustration. This was a one versus one fight, for goodness sake. Ryusei of course didn't care about my frustration and only laughed.
"We work at the same place and are friends. It's your fault for thinking you could only focus on me and not pay attention to other potential threats around you, who might take advantage of your lack of spatial awareness and take you down. I baited you into a predictable path as you moved forward to get my gun, giving Touya the perfect angle to hit you."
"Well, I thought we were in a one versus one spar, you crook." I cursed at him.
"And I keep telling you that we are fighting to win, no matter what the rules say. Just like a real life situation." He says, cracking his shoulder and neck. "In all seriousness, though, you have improved at a scary pace since you first joined. I need to find other things to teach you, or I wouldn't qualify as a teacher anymore."
"You too, Gwen." One of the other instructors, who was far better at remembering names, chimed in from the side as she stood up from the bench, stretching. "Honestly, if we didn't know any better, we'd think you two had already been training for years. Of course that would be impossible with how little actual techniques you know."
"Maybe in another life." Gwen laughed awkwardly, brushing off the comment.
Another trainer walked by, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention at that moment. "Everyone, gather up for a second."
All the students, including those who weren't spectating my and Ryusei's fight, came over without making a fuss. Gwen and I exchanged glances and joined in as the head trainer, Yamada, who I hadn't spoken to much since my first day, stepped forward.
"You five." He said seriously, pointing to me and Gwen, as well as three other older students. "You've all made incredible progress. Far beyond what we expect of anyone. It's clear you are talented, or at least, highly motivated."
I wasn't sure what he was getting at, but it seemed suspicious to gather us like this just to share compliments.
"Because of that," he continued, "we'll be reaching out to some of our… associate schools. There's talk of advanced training opportunities for all of you. Scholarships. You could be learning with masters beyond even what we can offer here."
I froze, knowing pretty well what that might mean.
The headbands on the teachers had long made it clear this place was connected to the organization known as The Hand. Not in a million years would I ever believe The Hand would just send talented students away somewhere. If anything, this means they had taken notice of us and wanted to pull us over to their side more.
That "scholarship" was nothing more than a one-way trip to becoming a brainwashed assassin.
I looked over at Gwen for a second, and she looked both curious as well as vigilant, also realizing something felt weird. Especially as we had both said we didn't care about competing or sport and were just doing this for 'basic self-defense'.
I opened my mouth to say something, to make up whatever excuse first came to my head to reject the offer, but didn't even get the chance to let out a sound before the dojo doors swung open with a bang. Not just open but off its hinges.
Two figures stepped into the dojo. Both wore simple but distinct clothing that made them stand out. One wore a green and gold uniform with a serpent emblem across his chest and a cloth mask pushed up onto his forehead, while the other had her hair tied up and was dressed in light, but reinforced armor designed for combat.
What the fuck.
I recognized them immediately, of course. In this world, they might be unknown to everyone else here, but I'd watched them tear through dozens of enemies in comics and TV. Danny Rand and Colleen Wing.
The students murmured among themselves in confusion as the two walked into the dojo like they owned the place, which in many ways they did. The head instructor didn't waste a second, approaching the two directly. He kept his tone low and expression unreadable as he exchanged words with the two new vigilantes.
The rest of us were left standing there in silence, as even the other trainers didn't know what to do in this situation. In their defense, it isn't every day when two costumed weirdos break into your workplace by smashing the door.
The tension in the air turned sharp. One of the other instructors shifted their weight, eyes flicking toward the weapons rack. Not a good sign, but we weren't left wondering for long.
After only a few sentences exchanged between the two parties, Yamada turned back to us, "That's enough training for today. Everyone go home."
There was a pause as nobody moved.
"Now." He said sternly. That got everyone moving. No questions or complaints, everyone moved quickly to grab their change of clothes and bags before moving out. Gwen looked like she wanted to act, still on edge after being unable to do anything about the Chameleon situation a few hours earlier, but I guided her along and we both got out with the crowd.
As Gwen and I moved toward the exit with the rest, we both kept glancing back.
Iron Fist and Colleen hadn't moved from where they stood, watching the instructors like they were waiting to see what choice would be made. None of the teachers had left either.
If my luck is good, these two will take care of The Hand before they even become a problem for me. I could only mentally give a thumbs up to them.
***
Author note: I've been a bit busy with work and upcoming uni exam study, but I still wanted to get something out to not go 2 days without a chapter, so here you go.