Chapter 19

Meet the Teach

“You!” Stephen and I both said in unison.

It was Kenzo, the group leader from Statistic Anomalies.

“You’re a combat teacher?” I asked, eyebrows raised.

He nodded. “I am indeed. Surprised?”

“Fuck yes,” Stephen said. “I’ve been going to those groups for a while, you always struck me as an anti violence person.”

“Hm, I wouldn’t say I’m not like that.” He gave us a wink.

“Oh no, are we in for some Mr. Miyagi level stuff?” I asked.

He grinned. “I wouldn’t say that either.”

Stephen groaned. “The mind games have already started.”

Kenzo gave a hearty chuckle at that. “I have my own style. You’ll see.”

“First, I gotta ask: what are your qualifications?” I said.

He pointed at the walls. “Look for yourself.”

I got up, slowly, dreading to leave the comfort of the couch. But I eventually got moving. I looked at the diplomas, one by one.

“These are all doctorates and stuff.”

“Yes. I’m a therapist.”

“What the hell does therapy have to do with combat?” Stephen asked.

“A lot, actually. I can teach you to control your mind and emotions. Bend your thoughts and feelings to as close to your own will as possible. Make you understand yourself. To guard and strengthen your mind. As well as your body. Look at that one.”

I walked over to the diploma he pointed to, “It’s a fitness professional certificate.”

He just smiled, his fingers crossed on his desk.

Stephen laughed. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am, Stephen. I know it’s asking a lot, but if you are willing to trust me… I can prepare you for this coming tournament.”

“Maybe you can,” I said as I plopped back down on the couch, it welcomed my butt in its sweet embrace. “But we are kind of out of time already.”

“What do you mean?”

I brought up a replay of the final moments of the match while Stephen threw him articles of everything that’d been going on the past few hours.

“I see. So things are starting already…”

“It’s more than that. Every day at 4:44 we have to face that psycho monster girl. If we can’t beat her in seven days we all lose and she is the only one that walks away with the advance pass.”

Kenzo nodded along. “So we have a bit of a time crunch. This changes little. If you both are willing, I can help you vanquish the beast. Or, at least, give you the tools to do it. The finer details are up to you.”

I shared a glance with Stephen. I saw my own uncertainty mirrored on his face.

And so did Kenzo.

“I get it. It’s a big ask.”

“Yeah, kind of,” I said. “Do you have maybe, like, a resume of past students you could show us?”

“No, being a therapist as well, my services are between my clients and myself.”

“What about us?” Stephen asked, thinking he had a gotcha moment.

“Group sessions are very much a thing, my dear Stephen.”

He nodded–that checked out.

“But, there are aspects of what we do that can be secret to the both of you. It’s up to you if you want to share the finer more personal details of what we discover.

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“And with that in mind: who would like to go first?”

“We can’t go together?” I asked.

“The first lesson I want to dig into who you both are. Explore your past, go over your current Stat focuses, and set out your goals.”

“Haven’t we done the past talk in group?” I didn’t really want to go into anymore detail than I already had.

“Yeah, you know like every detail of my life with how long I’ve been in group.” Stephen said.

“Yes, but that was in a group setting. One on one you might both be more comfortable to share further details. Or, maybe not, maybe we won’t dig up anything new there. That’s okay. But if you want my services you must be okay with exploring your mental side.”

“I mean, I’m fine with that,” I said. “But what’s the point when we want to learn to fight?”

“You’ll have to wait and see.” He winked.

“You know, you’re skirting the line between Karate Kid stuff and creepy possible old pervert.” I said with a smirk.

He got a good laugh from it. “No pervert here. And you'll just have to wait and see what my training is like.” He winked again, making a bigger show of it.

I didn’t know about Stephen, but I was sold.

“I’m in.”

“Darcy,” Stephen started. “We need to boost our combat abilities. We only have seven days. We can’t waste our time on this.”

“It’s not going to be a waste. I have a good feeling about this.”

“How? I’ve been talking to him weekly forever. Like, sure, he helps, but… I don’t see how it’s going to translate to combat.”

“Does Darcy know about your starter Skill, Stephen?”

“Uh, yeah,”

“Do I have your permission to give you a sample of what I can do in front of her?”

Stephen shrugged. “Sure?”

“When you first joined the group, you were very set in your ways. You wanted to distance yourself from any Stat that dealt with sitting. It took me a very long time to convince you but you eventually started writing. And what did you find there?”

He glanced everywhere but at Kenzo’s eyes. “A purpose.”

“You did that by facing your fears of being what your Starter Skill laid out for you. You decided that you would try something new and not close yourself off to a possibility that was in line with something you hated about yourself. Let me do that for you again. Let me take you to heights you never thought were possible.”

Stephen looked up then and met his eye. “How? Yeah, I’ll admit, you pushed me to write and I found something. But what is there for me like that for combat?”

Kenzo smiled and tapped his temple. “The mind. Your mistake is to put too much focus into the physical abilities. We would explore the mental aspects of combat. Have you heard of Magic?”

“Hard to avoid it,” I cut in. “So many of the older Earth stories deal with characters with Magic powers."

"What if I told you not every story with Magic was that way on Earth?" When both of us just stared at him blankly he continued. "The Admins made changes to the stories and our history, erasing the true names for some of those powers and the people who practiced them."

"Even if that were true... why would they do that?" I asked.

"Because it would be very bad for them if the masses discovered that there was power within their minds. I'm sure you've noticed, but the Admins love power and control. So they limit what power we have access to."

"How do you expect us to believe any of this?" Stephen asked. "How would you know about it?"

The man seemed undaunted by the question. "Sometimes people fall through the cracks and discover it by accident, awakening to their power on their own. My teacher was one such person. He saw it happening to me and guided me through it."

My eyes went wide. "So, that means theres like a whole network of people out there that know?"

He nodded.

"But people who practice Magic aren't always one of them, right?" I asked, really getting excited. I'd somehow fallen into a rabbit hole of secret knowledge.

“Correct," Kenzo said. "The difference is true powers come from the mind. Traditional Magic in the Interverse is not a natural occurrence. They come from the Interverse itself. Just codes and numbers.”

“Isn’t that what we all are in here?” I asked.

The more he talked, the more he reminded me of my mom. She was always talking about things like this, about the hollowness of the Interverse and the deep meaning of anything human and natural.

Which was almost impossible to find here. I long wondered if she died trying to return to the realness she so longed for.

“No, there are aspects of the Interverse that are human. Much of it is, honestly. The Interverse takes humanity and destills it and classifies it so it can be easily seen and measured by numbers. But you all know that there are quite a lot of things that the system can not so easily quantify. Those things are the most human of all.”

“So, if you teach us this true Magic stuff, there won’t be any Stats to increase? That seems… scary.”

Kenzo smirked. “Do not worry. There will be numbers. What I am going to teach you is different, but the Interverse will classify what you are learning in the ways that make sense. So, you may be getting Stats in some ‘normal’ Stats, such as Fire Spells. But the way you are learning it is a real way–a human way.”

That just confused me even further.

“How is that possible?” I asked. “To level Stats in a way not designed by the Interverse?”

He tapped his temple again. “The human mind is so much more than the Admins would have us all believe. Let me teach you.”

“I’m in,” I said again, no hesitation.

“Me too,” Stephen said, but far less sure about it.

Kenzo clapped. “Fantastic! We will get you both in fine shape in no time. Meet me here again, tomorrow, at noon.”

“Noon? That will only give us like four hours before the second match against psycho girl. Can’t we start now?” I asked, almost pleading.

“Four hours will be enough. But I have to tell you, if you can beat the monster it's going to come down to the wire. And both of your strengths may not be enough. I suggest you reach out to your fellow strugglers. Divided you’re all sure to fail. But together you may have a fighting chance.”

“You've probably noticed this about us but, uh, we are not the most social of butterflies. You want us to reach out to strangers?” I turned to Stephen. “Is that something you think you could do?”

He shook his head vigorously. “The two of you are the people I’ve talked to the most since graduating from school.”

Kenzo found our social anxiety amusing. “In the battle royale mode, the last Match you participated in, there is a list of all the people that competed. Work out a message to them all that states your case and asks for their help, and then send it out in mass. That’s your homework assignment.”

We both groaned at that. Kenzo took great joy in our reaction, smiling like a kid on Christmas.