I stared, mouth agape at Master. My mind was in turmoil as I saw Master slump like a truly defeated old man for once. There was too much, I just, what? What on Vega was even going on? I was…

  “I’m…” My mind tried to put it together, the words into meanings. “Talented?”

  “Talented he says!” Master huffed. “Do you also call a rocket a little fast or the moon a little big? Talented. I’ve met a few people like you before, but never to this extent! You freak. It activates all the warrior pride and blood in my body. Just looking at you…”

  Master stared at me and I felt a pure and unadulterated wave of killing intent. It nearly brought me to my knees.

  “Is starting to piss me off.”

  That was… I…

  My heart beat like a drum but I tried to understand, to think. Master was saying I was… really good at… at what exactly? Learning? No way. I wasn’t stupid but I still remembered growing up, struggling to learn math. Still remembered getting annoyed at trying to make a proper vegetable farm and ruining it the first few times I tried, before realizing that gardening just wasn’t for me. So, I wasn’t good at learning, I was good at-

  “Martial arts? Wait, fighting? Wait, wait Master. I’m trying to understand. I’m, I’m good at learning martial arts or, no, I, I’m good at fighting?”

  At those words, Master looked ready to strangle me and I shut up immediately.

  “You ignorant piece of shit. You’re so talented that it makes me want to spit a mouthful of blood and you don’t even realize it?”

  It took Master a moment to calm down. During that moment, neither I nor Vincent moved a single muscle. It was like being inside a cage with a Monster beyond all reason. One that was truly angry. All of my senses were not only screaming that I was in danger, but that I was in front of something that was going to kill me at any moment. Remembering how Master had destroyed half my chest in one move, logic agreed. Cold sweat poured down my body. I felt sick to my stomach as I waited for this Demon to decide not to kill his students.

  Finally, Master breathed out a calm breath.

  “Yes.” He said, voice still tinged with annoyance. “You are ‘good at fighting’. Specifically, you ignoramus, you learn quickly and the quality of your learning is… fucking insane. You, ugh. Imagine it as if I taught you that one plus one is two. Then, you figure out that means that one plus two is three, without ever hearing about three. So you keep adding, getting to ten. Then, you figure out that you can ‘add’ numbers more than once and figure out multiplication. Then division. So then I teach algebra and you come back knowing geometry, with early knowledge of calculus. Are you getting it yet?”

  “I-”

  “Oh no, you aren’t. Because it doesn’t end there. When we first fought, you were a weirdly whole mess. You were clearly pulling from multiple things. I simply thought someone trained you in the sewers but that's impossible. If someone had, I would’ve known immediately given your unreasonable talent. You simply saw, copied, and learned on your own. Do you think that's easy? For God’s sake Mutai, you were copying my blood flow. That’s not a concept you should even be able to learn. The only literal way is you must’ve seen my veins pulsating at different intervals and heard my blood moving and simply tried and it worked. Your comprehension of things relating to combat is obscene, and you’re able to combine things with only some thought and tinkering. Half the Master’s in this city would’ve already run out of things to teach you.”

  “But that’s-”

  “No, shut up. It’s like you’re a ten thousand year old monster who learned all of Martial Arts, only to forget it. Really think back to every fight you’ve had Mutai, do they seem normal to you?”

  I wanted to, I don’t know. Sit down, flee, do anything but have my worldview repeatedly shattered. Was I… really so different? I thought about my fights and… the rats had taught me aggression. But those were just, wild animals. I wasn’t a good fighter then and copying a wild animal was nothing special. Then Ragual… I had learned quickly in our fight I guess? I’d fought well against him and, well, won. But was it, really that strange? I’d simply blocked and moved and well, copied him. Then the turtles-

  I grimaced. I remembered the turtles. So dangerous we’d had to flee and go back for armor and more. How I’d had to light myself on fire-

  Hand. Burning. Death.

  I shook as I remembered, how I’d seen my death playing out, how I’d known I was about to be disembowled. How I knew what the one with the staff would do right after, how I’d known how many hits were left on my armor. But, but that wasn’t the only time was it? When I’d known things that had felt nearly like future vision. I hadn’t even thought about it but, but how was I even doing that? How did I know those sort of things? And they… they were almost all related to combat in some way. Like… like I knew more information about combat than I should.

  Memories of fighting flooded into me. Of the sewers, my fight with Vincent, my two weeks with Master.

  Separate, it all had felt so natural. Even now, it still did but examined together and taken apart…

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  How did I know when to block, how to dodge, how to fight? How did I know to copy Ragual’s gut punch or kicks? How did I know what my opponent's next moves were going to be like, like they were obvious? How did I copy Master’s footwork or breathing or bloodflow apparently?

  Nothing about any of those moments felt special. It all just… felt so natural.

  I looked down at myself, staring in awe.

  Was I… really that talented in Combat?

  “Look at you. Like a baby finding out it has legs for the first time. Ugh.” Master said.

  My eyes snapped back to Master. My thoughts evened out but, something was strange. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at first but-

  Actually, wait a minute.

  “Master…” I said slowly. “...isn’t this a good thing?”

  He glared at me.

  “I-I mean, you want me to kill your mysterious enemy right? And I, uh, want to kill Vega. So, isn’t me being good at learning combat, good?”

  He stared at me, deadpan. He spoke like all emotion and life had been sucked out of him, monotone.

  “Yes. It’s great, amazing even, woo. You’re going to be my best student yet if you survive, so great.”

  He huffed.

  “Mutai, you dedicate your entire life to something and see someone learn in seconds what took you years and perhaps you’ll know a fraction of my pain. In fact, I don’t even want to look at you right now, your face pisses me off. Go away.”

  My mind stuttered to a halt.

  “What?”

  “You heard me, I’m tired of you. I need a break. I’ll train Vincent here alone for a while. Go, get an ice cream or something. You can sleep in the tank or one of the random rooms I guess. I’ll train you again in a week.”

  “WHAT???”

  A week?! A week of, of what? What was I supposed to do for a whole week? I, I needed to train! What, what was I even supposed to do? I didn’t even have a proper room! Or any money or, or, anything to do. Training, fighting, that was my whole life these days. I literally didn’t have anything else to me.

  …that was kinda sad actually.

  “I’ve transferred you money via your Vambrace. Just pay with that if you want food or something. I don’t care. Just get out of here for a while. Now, go on. Shoo.” He said.

  In a daze of information and forced expulsion, I left. I passed by Vincent, who looked just as surprised as me but… he was looking at me like I was a monster. No, even more than that. He was looking at me like the mightiest dragon in the world had arisen personally just for him to slay and like it had smacked him in the mouth.

  “Vincent I-”

  “Get out of here Mutai.” His voice was, odd. Almost, confrontational. “I have a whole lot of work to do.”

  Right. Vincent just heard I learned fighting like, well, unlike almost anyone Master had met. This was still a competition to Vincent and not only had he been losing, but now he had learned about why he fell to two to three blows and I stayed standing. He must be feeling… a whole lot of pressure.

  I said nothing as I walked up the stairs, feeling like I was lost and confused.

  The moment my foot touched the last step and I stood in the dojo, my mind had only one gleaming thought in it.

  “What on Vega… am I supposed to do now?”

  *****

  Finding an empty room with a bed was, weird. It wasn’t made of leaves, it wasn’t a hospital bed, it was just a bed.

  I found it, strangely uncomfortable. I missed my tank.

  Sleeping felt wrong. It was the middle of the day. Next, I tried to think of things to do and decided to try browsing Booble. It was, boring. I spent maybe an hour learning about the different races in the city on the internet and learned Master had far understated it when he said that calling an android a robot would get me killed. There’d been whole wars over that kind of thing apparently…

  What a vast world.

  But sitting there and just learning… it had never been my strong suit. And when I had, it had been from books and people teaching me, not technology. I’d barely used any growing up and I’d been forced to use it during the years I got here, right after my whole village had been wiped out. It was not fun or relaxing to do so.

  That left me just… sitting there, alone, staring at the ceiling. I felt like I could hear the fighting between Vincent and Master right now. Of course, I couldn’t. Vincent would already be in the healing tank while Master, did whatever Master did. Maybe just stand there, waiting.

  It gave me time to think. I was… I was amazing at combat! That was, great. Master’s poor attitude about it had dimmed the whole thing but that… that was incredible.

  ‘You learned three years in two weeks!’

  I’d already started to fall in love with fighting. With training. Every moment was another experience for me of growing and becoming more. In every way. Like I was a child growing into an adult or an egg breaking out of its shell into a bird. The knowledge, the skill progress, my own power level, being able to do things I could never have dreamed of doing before.

  I could probably crush and destroy rocks with my bare hands right now.

  [32]

  It was an insane level of progress and, it wasn’t just power level I had.

  I could imagine it, learning all sorts of Martial Arts over the years and perfecting myself, making my own, constantly improving it. Master said… it took him over five hundred years. What could I make in that time?

  But more than anything…

  I felt my heart beat harder and harder, faster and faster. I was growing stronger, but I was also growing more skilled. This, this talent of mine… it was a gift unlike any other. Master seemed to think I was an almost impossible kind of creature and he’d lived for a very, very long time. I was… unique? If I could learn combat and fighting that took three years in two weeks…

  I could beat Vega. I could do it. In only a few years… I could gain the skill to beat him. Not just Master’s style, which was beyond anything I could ever imagine, but everyone’s style. I could…

  I could make the Ultimate Martial Arts. And then…

  I could beat him.

  I could kill him.

  A grin split my face as my hand clenched into a fist.

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