Time passes in a blur. I can feel it but I don’t wake up. Not really. The dreams change but they’re just dreams or fog. Something’s wrong. I can feel it, deep inside. Something is wrong with me. I can’t tell what but it’s bad. The deadly kind of bad. It’s not a wound on the surface but one deep inside. Something broke me.

  With that uncomfortable thought, light shines down into my eyes.

  I blink awake, feeling mostly numb. Slowly, painfully, I sit up. I’m relieved to see the frog people here don’t immediately shove me back down. That must mean my healing is over. They all watch me cautiously and… sadly? I don’t understand.

  I sit up and try to look over my body-

  W-What the…

  My arm. My arm is gone.

  I try to move my left arm, feel it, do anything with it but it’s useless. It’s not there. The entire thing is gone. I can still feel it, as if it’s right there! But it’s, not. It’s just gone. It aches in a way I could never have imagined. It’s not the only loss. My right hand… it’s barely any better off. Still there but, no dexterity. It’s fully wrapped in bandages and I get the feeling these aren’t the type to ever be removed fully, only replaced. It’s like my hand has turned into a mitten and below, I can feel that it's actually far worse than that.

  What the hell even happened to me?

  The memories move like lightning. The fight, the brutal fight, the arrogance of us leaving here to fight them so underprepared, seeing Ragual moments away from death and…

  Ki. I used Ki.

  It only cost me an arm to do so. It was worth it. I’d saved Ragual’s life. I turn, my body feeling like ash. Ragual is still there, alive, but looking like he had been dropped out of a horror film. His whole body, even his head, is wrapped in bandages.

  The healer croaks at me and then makes such a simple but meaningful gesture that I nearly break into tears.

  She points at Ragual and then makes a thumbs up. The casual gesture clashes with the absolutely dead serious look in her eyes.

  “He’s going to be okay?”

  She doesn’t even need gestures from me to know what my obvious question was. She simply nods, croaks, and starts helping get all the moss, herbs, and bandages off me. Whatever plants they use down here is absolutely not normal. I’d thought that before but I’d only reinforced that now. A dedicated healing tank should’ve been needed for Ragual. He should be dead, a hundred times over. I’d seen him fucking eviscerated, torn open till I could see his organs.

  I frown.

  The fact that it took me nearly four weeks to heal the first time means I had some serious underlying issues huh?

  I shake off those thoughts. I don’t know what to feel. I’m hurt and down an arm, but I actually used Ki for the first time. Ragual and I nearly died, but he’s alive right now and going to get better. We were alive but I felt like I’d made us go into a fight we should’ve never survived. There was still one turtle left and if it seriously tried to attack the village and get revenge before Ragual was up, they’d be in trouble. The problem wasn’t even it’s power level, simply it’s stealth.

  There was a lot of good but always as a result from bad.

  The result was clear, I needed to stay here until Ragual was healed. I had to. Even before the turtle or protection of the village got into play… I couldn’t just leave him like this. No way.

  It seems like I’d be spending some more time in this village.

  *****

  The weeks passed and soon a month had passed.

  The whole while, the village was the unhappiest I’d ever seen it. The mood was dark and dour, waiting to see if their champion was going to make it despite the healer's reassurances. The worst part was not knowing if he was fine and just finishing his healing or if his life was in danger. The frog people tried to comfort me, they seemed to understand the bond I had with Ragual, our friendship, but it was a cold comfort. They practically forced me to stay in his house after I tried to just sleep on a lilypad alone. Food came in the form of swimming and grabbing the water plants that Ragual had fed me before.

  In all ways, it sucked.

  Not the least of which was the lost arm. It made every single aspect difficult. Swimming, moving, even breathing felt different. My weight was off, the constant ache and phantom feeling of it being right there, it was a thoroughly miserable existence, especially at the beginning. I’d like to think I got used to it. That would be a lie.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  In comparison, the loss of my right hand was… well, awful. I couldn’t pick anything up, only awkwardly press it against me. Having only one barely functional hand was one of the most brutal things I’d ever experienced and I hated every single passing moment of it.

  I tried training but honestly… what was the first thing I knew about really training? I could barely remember any of the things I’d been taught from the first dojo I’d been at and the second one had just had me punch a bag before throwing me into hell. I at least tried going for runs around the village. Which led to a new understanding. My stamina was, terrible. Absolutely terrible. I was dead on my feet before halfway around the village. It didn’t seem normal either.

  Which led to the worst realization of all. I decided to look at my power level and-

  [6]

  “D-Down? A power level can go down?!”

  I was weaker physically, sure, but a power level wasn’t just your body's strength. It was deeper. Even a half blind, deaf, old man on his deathbed could still throw a punch that could kill me if his power level was high enough. Power level didn’t go down. No matter how destroyed my body got, my power level wouldn’t go down. It was related to a far deeper inner strength that spread to the outer and reinforced each other as one. You could cut up a piece of steel as much as you want, it was still steel.

  This was a qualitative downgrade. I ran slower, I had less energy, I had less strength in every ounce of my body. It made no sense, no physical problems can do that.

  The only thing I could think of… was my Ki. I’d felt weaker than normal but I just thought I was still healing. But something deep inside me had been injured somehow. That old man, master, had been pretty firm about me not worrying about Ki right now. Maybe this was why. Hopefully he could help fix me after I finally left. Because otherwise…

  Am I going to be stuck like this? I can’t believe I got weaker. I need power and strength. Will I forever be stuck like this? No. No way. I’ll find a way to heal this. I’ll get the power I lost and more back. I’ll-

  My thoughts spiraled over and over. It hit my mind and soul like a bomb. A power level was everything in this world. It was like… losing pieces of yourself. Perhaps that’s what had happened. The idea of going back in progress… it made me shiver in horror. I’d worked like a mad broken animal to try and gain even a .01 increase and now I’d lost a whole number at once. I didn’t dare look at my vambrace, too terrified to see the results. I tried not to think about it. But with the loss of what felt like a piece of my soul, the loss of my arm, my hand, the dour mood in the village, and Ragual still healing, I’d rarely felt so terrible in my life.

  I wanted to drink again. Really bad. I missed it, the numbness. Just something heavy, to take the edge off. I knew they had alcohol here. I could just-

  No. No, that was, I couldn’t slip that far again. Never again. How would I even lift the bottle? I just had to wait.

  Three days later, Ragual woke up.

  *****

  I’d been outside, trying to shadow box with one arm and doing poorly, when one of the assistants burst out of the water, grabbed my arm, and dragged me in. The moment I touched it, I was already speeding ahead of her, kicking and swimming for all my might and outpacing her. There was only one reason they’d be this serious.

  I burst into the healer's hut, sopping wet, and ran inside as fast as possible until-

  “Ragual!”

  He was sitting up, mostly still bandaged, but with only one going over his head. He smiled a pained smile at me. It took everything in my power not to throw myself into a hug as it felt like the stars had finally come out and the sun had finally broken through. It was like a light I didn’t realize had destroyed the darkness in me. I was racked with emotion, wanting to scream, cry, hug.

  I apparently chose to do all but the last.

  “You’re alive!”

  “Mutai.” He said via croak.

  “Do you need anything? Are you okay? Do you need food, or water? I was pretty thirsty afterwards. You saved me! How did you even move or get back after that fight? I was out like a light. I…”

  I couldn’t stop myself from rambling, my joy and happiness overflowing and bouncing off each other like energy balls. It was like every moment of seeing Ragual up, alive, and smiling was a new radiating explosion. I couldn’t stop and just said everything I could and wanted to say and had been thinking about for over a month, even knowing he couldn’t understand me.

  “And…and… and I’m sorry Ragual. I’m so sorry. This would have never happened if you didn’t-”

  He croaked, anger in his tone. He might not have been able to understand me but he could understand the tone. I looked at him and he simply shook his head no.

  “But-”

  No.

  I wanted to scream at him for that. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have done what I’d done, I should’ve gone alone, I should’ve-

  He simply kept shaking his head no. He raised his arm, pointed at me, then him, and made a fist. I felt the words despite none having been said, shaking me to my core.

  “We won.”

  Tears glistened in my eyes.

  “...Yeah. Yeah we did you damn Battle Toad. We won.”

  I tried making a fist back, only to realize one arm was missing and the other hand was incapable of it. I laughed at Ragual’s dumbfounded expression even as his face crumbled like paper. There was a lot in those eyes but I just couldn’t stop laughing at the look he had a moment ago. I was just too happy.

  My friend was alive!

  I tried to reassure him as he clearly seemed horrified at my injuries, but my joy and laughter kept winning out. Ragual was alive, how bad could things really be? That was how I learned that the middle finger transcended cultures and laughed even harder at Ragual.

  He stood, mighty as a mountain, and walked out with me.

  We didn’t even make it out the door before the crowd outside screamed in joy and rushed him.

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