It wasn't even funny as I went to visit the brats in the hospital, that little monster Minato Shirahama was too much, I should go complain to his parents, but little Red stopped me. Did his brains get damaged or something, he was beaten so hard that he was sent to the hospital, sueing those people wouldn't be out of the question and all I was going to do was compain.
Of course the brat didn't want his precious Jill to know how pitifully her brother wrecked them, it was a 1v4 fight and he beat them up as if they were nothing.
Once again I was wrong, the kid was probably right to stop me, because not too long after, the Shirahama family came to the hospital to appologize and Akisame and Kensei did their best to fix them up.
If it was up to me I would have just sued them for this, turning kids into killing machines couldn't be called good parenting. Their monster brat will at some point kill someone, there's no doubt about it, since he's already too strong for a child, even adults would have problems facing him not to talk about children.
To tell the truth even if they healed the children I didn't know how to help them, although I could probably train that Pierre kid, since he's rather talented, but what's the point, to begin with I just wanted to help little red get some self confidence, not turn him into a little monster.
Nether the less, their training went on, after their defeat, the bullies stopped bothering them, but the four of them were now out for revenge, finding trouble for themselves and brewing chaos.
The Shinpaku Alliance was on edge as well, the main reason was because their Assault general was not interested in fighting losers, people that were weaker than himself and nobody other than Kuro and Jill were left whom were able to take them on. But little Jill had no interest in doing so and Kuro wouldn't move unless there was something to gain from doing so and Minato had already proved that the guys were weak and not worthy of little Jill's attention.
Of course part of the reason why Jill didn't care was because the injuries they did to the bullies were rather insignificant, most of the bullies were training at Ryozanpaku under her father's guidance, it would be really difficult to cause them any serious harm.
All this however changed one good day, it was the day Little Pierre achieved his next breakthrough and was now able to use Dou to boost his strength and speed. It was a disaster as he didn't control his strength and sent a guy flying into a wall, the poor idiot nearly lost his life, the kid had promised that he wouldn't use it against people, but it seems kids are kids.
This event signaled the end of their training under me, if they can't keep a promise, why should I trust and train them further. Little Red seemed excited for some reason, but was really disappointed when I told him that I won't be training the other three anymore, he even threatened me that if I didn't train them all, he wouldn't train as well. "See if I care" was my answer to him.
The next day they went to Ryozanpaku for further training, now that the bullies weren't a problem anymore they could return to training. As for the kid that was sent to the hospital, an apology from Pierre's father seemed to have completely silenced the family of that kid with money.
The Ryozanpaku people weren't too happy with the four new students, but they wouldn't turn them away, they tried their best to influence them and make them understand the fault of their ways. Of course that was just wishful thinking, it would take years for someone to change, this act of training the kids was probably similar to throwing oil at a fire, I can't even tell what those Ryozanpaku people are thinking anymore.
One month passed and other than some scrambles, nothing significant happened. Every time anyone got too cocky, little monster Minato would come and put them back in their place, even Kuro whom was dating his sister wasn't an exception to this rule.
It was only at the time of their winter vacations that anyone remembered I existed, that anyone being little Jill, whom asked Little Red to ask me if they could come over for vacations.
I had a really bad feeling, but I couldn't reject it, even more so since Kisara and Ukita were the ones asking this favour of me and Kisara insisted on coming since their work will end at around that time and they would be back in the country for a whole year of vacations.
The problem was that winter on the island was unlike summer, the cold winds and rocketing waves made the sea shore resort useless and to tell the truth the mountain villa was never as popular.
Winter to me was more of a coultivation time period, since I disliked to coultivate in a frozen world with no sound or variables, the normal timeline is a lot more to my liking.
The kids and their families came for winter vacations, this time, the families of the three foreign exchange students came as well. It was rather strange, seeing two familiar faces. One was Odin, the guy whom used to be Ragnarok's leader, the other was the Loli from that time, I owe her geezer this irritating nickname that has stuck with me for all this time, fucking "Tiangu". Well, that was what I though until I learned that the old man was no longer among the living and one can't keep grudges againt the dead.
Odin and his wife looked at Kenichi and the people from Ryozanpaku with some hostility, I didn't know the reason for that, since I wasn't exactly spying on them or anything. They probably had their reasons, but Odin calling his son Kenichi, that was rather weird. Of course their little monster beating up Odin's kid might be one of the reasons for this hostility.
The kids' training this time around was overseen by Akisame, but seriously I didn't care, although the kids glare at me for some reason with tons of hostility.
The adults just had fun skiing, drinking or training, to each his own. The problem arose when in the middle of the night one little girl came to find me at my room.
-What matters do you have little Jill?
-I wish to learn martial arts under you, please accept me as your disciple!
-...
I was genuinely surprised, but there was something that I had noticed even when I had used my seals to cure her problem, this girl was talented in both Dou and Sei, maybe she could follow the same method I had to become a coultivator, but I can't accept her before consulting with her parents.
-Never! I won't let my little Jill be your student!(Miu)
-Mom, I've made my mind, I wish to be Master Soryu's disciple!
-Him healing you is one thing, but teaching you his deadly martial arts is another, you have to stay put and learn from our Ryozanpaku masters, that way you will be both Strong, Brave and Kind!
-But didn't Grand Grand dad lose to Mr Soryu?
-Winning and losing is part of learning, once Grandfather trains some more, even Mr Soryu won't be his opponent!
-But Mom, Mr Akisame has already said that I have reached the limit of physical training and have to wait until my body develops before continuing
-Then you can just learn mind's eye and how to use Ki, here I'll teach you
-But...but...I want Mr Soryu to teach me!
-Mr Soryu isn't good at teaching, how about we ask your grandfather to teach you, I know he will be happy to do so
-Grand dad and Grand Grand dad are boring and...and...Mr Soryu isn't bad at teaching, he's kind and generous and...and he taught little Pierre, so...so...
-Don't trust those people from Yami, I'm sure those kids are just pretending to be weak, they are probably already elite disciples, you can't be so naive as to believe that they are sticking to little Akai, in order to be his friends?
-But Mr Soryu, he's my Idol! the girls at school even asked me to bring them his autographs, Grand Grand dad, Grand dad and Father can't compare, he even has his own Island!
-This...and...That are two different things, I'll ask him myself for the autographs for your friends, but becoming his disciple I won't allow it!
-I hate you Mom!
This was a scene as if taken out of a drama, the girl begun to run away from "home" well she just run to the sea shore mansion. Normaly I wouldn't interfere in other people's matters, but it was too interesting to do nothing about it.
I was also interested in whether this child could follow through my footsteps, if she could, that would prove that my method of training is possible for other people as well, although it would feel a bit bad that I'm not unique and special, but it would open the door for others to become coultivators. Although the main problem of my method is that there's a high chance of dying on the path to achieving it, I myself almost died twice.
I went to find her sobbing at the beach, the waves were so high that they covered the entire beach, the girl looked really sad, I could feel Kuro was taking the skyline down to comfort her, but by the time he arrives she would no doubt have gone up the mountain again, It takes around half an hour to go up or down.
-So I was right?
-You...Mr Soryu, mom won't allow it, but I really want to be your disciple!
-Are you sure about that, because I don't feel that's your real purpose for approching me, little brat, I'm a lot older than you, I can see through your little whims, seriously if little Red didn't like you so much, maybe we could have something, in a few year
-I...
The girl's face turned into a tomato, her real purpose for approaching me being blatantly exposed, made her embarassment to reach a new level, it even caused my seal to activate as she was about to faint from embarassment.
"I like strong Guys!"
The girl confessed her true feeling as if throwing a weight from her shoulders, I really don't understand teenagers, she's so young and her mind is so muddleheaded, pursuing love before studies and training, well we all used to be like that long ago, was it 20 years ago that I was crazy in love with a girl, to the point of becoming what I'm today.
"Little girl, once you become a woman, I won't turn you away"
The girl was shocked as I dissappeared in front of her eyes, in the distance a small figure of a boy was rushing towards her, it was Kuro whom had made a beeline towards her by jumping from the skyline, the kid really has gut.
Once however he reached Jill and went to hug her, he was made to watch the blue sky with a single punch. Till this point little Jill liked him because he was strong, but now that she was stronger than him, her affection for his care and words had disappeared, she really was a cruel girl.
The next few days she was having spars with her brother and the other monster brat Kai Ma, the brat was strong, but the girl was stronger, she was simply insane and with my seal she was tireless, only her brother could handle her, but he was too bored of playing with her, she was too boring, someone whom learned the same martial arts as himself, was too weak against him, he was too far ahead of her and she would need a few years to catch up with him, truth was that he had no rival in his own age group, in a year or less he might even become a master himself. I even saw him trying to challenge some of the masters from Ryozanpaku out of boredom, but they played him like a child, mostly due to his inexperience, rather than his physical ability.
It was late at night when the kid came to my room dressed like some sort of ninja to challenge me. It was funny seeing him moving in slow motion, his attacks were sharp and decisive, if I didn't know it was him, I would have thought it was some sort of assassin, whom was trying to kill me.
I decided to play with him a little, I attacked a paper talisman on his back and then threw him out of the room.
The boy was rather disappointed, but he didn't notice the talisman, he begun to run back to his room, but suddenly he felt really tired, it was as if he had run for days, but he had only taken a few steps, he opened the door and fell on his face, causing Miu and Kenichi to be frightened.
They quickly ripped the talisman from his back and sent him to Akisame and Ma while both were sure to come nag me the next day.
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The next day Akisame came to my room with the paper talisman, I was expecting something like a repriment or arguement, but all he did was ask me to put these talismans on all the kids, double the amount on little Minato.
I blatantly refused and then we begun to argue about child threatment and human rights, the debate was so long that today there was no training, seriously if Akisame didn't have the need to eat and sleep, we would have been at it for days, I really hate this guy.
The next day he came again, the debate lasted longer as he came prepared with food and drinks, only leaving late at night to sleep, the children were getting restless as their training had stopped for 2 days strait.
The third day Akisame came with the stupid rascals, this time it was them asking me to be tortured, these brats were really determined, they had no idea what Akisame was asking me to do, but since they wished for it, I wouldn't deny them. Truth was I didn't even need paper to use seals, the reason why I used one on that brat was because I wanted them to know what was wrong with him, in a way it was a small punishment for a mischievous child.
It wasn't even an hour later when the children came to regret their choices in life, Akisame asked me about talismans and I answered the limits of my abilities, when Akisame heard what I could do, he was ecstatic, he begun to make plans for vicious training that even I wouldn't want to undergo.
Now that I think about it, I felt funny, because after this day, not only the children, but even the adults had joined the training, my talismans suppressed their strength and senses, even the masters of Ryozanpaku were training, only I couldn't join, as to why? It was because someone had to look over these people, otherwise they would kill themselves with their crazy training methods.
I think in just one hour I have saved more than 20 people, whom had fainted in the snow, were about to fall down the mountain and even one almost asphyxiated due to his weak constitution.
The ones however whom were the happiest were the masters of Ryozanpaku, because with their strength sealed, they could fight to their heart's content, since even their deadliest moves couldn't kill the other, since their defense was far supperior to their strength. By the end of the day, they were all laughing while breathing haggardly, lying on the floor of the training room.
One of the Guests Little Pierre's father had to suddenly leave the island, since he tried to kill someone in my estate. How stupid can one be, I can't understand, did he think that I didn't exist or something.
I looked at his stupid face as he found himself in the middle of the city as time resumed its flow, I heard him curse out loud as he punched a wall and left dejected, his brat wasn't responsible for its father's stupidity, thus I let him stay, informing him that his father had to go back on some bussiness trip. The Ryozanpaku guys begun to laugh when they heard it as if I was acting stupid or something, of course I had no idea that little Pierre's father was some sort of big shot martial artist assassin, he looked more like an actor of sorts.
The other people that had similar ideas to his, after hearing my words had to change their plans, of course I didn't care, I had to use most of my time to make sure non of those brats died on me, once more I had become a babysitter. "Akisame, you bastard, couldn't you make a more reasonable training for them?"
The winter vacations were fortunately approaching their end, everyone had a qualitive increase in their strength, of course some were stronger than others, but it was almost time for them to leave my island and leave me in peace once more.
Before they left however the little brats decided to have a tournament, this made me remember that weird tournament on Dispair Island. How good would it be I could go back in time, but I'm too old for this, I have to let the youth have all of the fun.
I now sort of understand how the elder felt, when there's no one to fight with, everyone is just so frail, there's no excitement in fighting if you can't use even 1% of your strength, after all loss or victory doesn't matter it's all about the excitement and the feeling you get from fighting.
There were 12 brats, meaning that it would be either teams or a knockout style tournament.
I was for the second, but the masters of Ryozanpaku insisted on teams of three.
When I saw the teams, I wanted to stab them in the eye, how on earth did they come with such teams, of course there were four teams, but out of the four one was there only to fill the spots, Little Red, Mao and Ken, these brats were just there to get beaten, even worse their opponents were an all girls team, with Jill, Shirayuki and Izanami, the three beat them up and the boys wouldn't even touch them. Mostly because they were the girls they liked, in all honesty if the girls told them to fight for their amusement amongst themselves, those brats would have done just that.
The next fight was between the Shinpaku Alliance's strongest and the Yomi brats. The fight was rather one sided as the Shinpaku Alliance was being crushed, but that was only because little Minato let them fight 2v3, the Yomi brats ganged first on Kuro whom was the weakest and then followed to beat up Kai, whom struggled for a time until he admited defeat, then Minato proceeded and wiped the floor with all three of Yomi brats, Liu was the last one to faint as non of them admited defeat until they lost conciousness, it was rather brutal.
The finals were little monster Minato harassing the girls, he was just toying with them, the brat was too abnoxious, even Jill couldn't hold a candle to him if he got serious.
For the finals I had decided on what I would do, I used my seals to turn my body back to how it was back then during the duel with the elder, I wish to see how strong the brat really is, I also want to teach him a lesson for the time he took good care of little Red.
To my surprise however Shirahama Kenichi came forward, saying that I shouldn't bully a child and to fight with him instead, I was a bit reluctant, but this could be fun.
Kenichi stood like a statue in the middle of the arena, all the kids were looking forward to this duel. I however had to do it, I disappeared before everyone and reappeared wearing the Golden Hannya mask and clothes, in my hands were two daggers, which I hid inside my sleeves with a flick of my palm.
Everyone looked in terror as the mask seemed to smile, the children were rather interested as to why I would wear this mask, but there was no reason to it other than good old nostalgia.
I approached and the first encounter begun, my fists and kicks were useless against the Kenichi of now since I had sealed my strength to the level of my childhood self. Kenichi probably felt strange as he felt no damage from my attacks, the speed at which I attacked grew faster and faster, but this time it was different than with the elder, Kenichi could follow through till the very end.
I jumped backwards and looked at him, it was to be expected, maybe I should get a little more serious, but how much of my strength should I use, at the moment I wasn't even using 1%. I undid the seals and begun to use 1%, the kids from the audience could no longer follow my movements, but I wanted to make this interesting for them, thus I still left afterimages, otherwise they would just get bored.
Kenichi was good, he could keep up even with 1% of my real speed, should I go even faster? But that might make this too easy. should I take out a weapon instead?
Shigure's eyes begun to shine as I took out the daggers I had crafted, Shigure's knives might have been masterpieces, but they still couldn't be compared with ones crafted with super human strength.
Kenichi seeing the daggers drawn for a moment panicked, the reason was because he had forgotten his arm guards back home. Seeing the expression of loss and the familliar color of desperation I sighed. To everyone else however it seemed as if the Hannya was staying at one spot and laughing at him.
Kenichi was confused, he had to use all his focus to keep up with my speed, but he couldn't understand at all what I was trying to achieve, was this supposed to be the end of the battle, why had I taken back my daggers, was I trying to mock him?
"Fight me with all you've got!"
Kenichi shouted at me and this time I seriously begun to laugh, but for some reason my laugher sounded more like weird Cackling due to the mask, which sounded rather creepy when I moved at high speed. After discovering this interesting thing, I unsealed 2% of my speed, recreating the floating masks from that time.
The audience could see masks floating around and every time a mask appeared close to Kenichi, he would get blown towards another mask by some sort of invisible force, the audience was shocked.
Little Minato charged at me thinking that he could do something only to pass through the mask he was trying to hit. At that moment all the masks disappeared and a kneeling Kenichi could be seen in the middle of the arena, with Minato in front of him, as if trying to protect him.
I looked at the brat but for some reason he seemed frightened, how would I know that the mask looked as if it was angry, I didn't stay longer and went to change.
Everyone was shocked when I returned, I was smiling as if nothing had happened, as if I hadn't beaten up their teacher just now.
-Don't you think you went a bit too far?(Kenichi)
-Is it my fault that you can't even take 2% of my strength, at first I just wanted to exchange notes with the brat, thus I had reverted my stats back to the time I was a child, but you wanted to have a go, I think I was quite merciful for not using weapons against you, If it was the elder I wouldn't even bother to be so courteous(Yashin)
-You're just lucky that I wasn't prepared!
-It Will probably take around 50 years for you to be prepared to face me and at the time I won't even be in this world anymore, I would have ascended to a higher plane of existance
-You think that I'm as weak as I was before, I didn't even use my best skills
-Is it getting knocked unconcious?
-Not that one!
-So how is it called?
-Mubuoshi
-No beat? is it like saying I surrender or something?
-Fight me again!
-I'm more interested in fighting the little guy, he seems stronger and more competent than you, at his age you were still hiding behind Violent Miu's skirt
-Miu is not Violent!
-Oh, shut it Brute Kenichi of 1-E!
-That, that's Niijima's fault!
-Yeah sure, as if you didn't go around beating up people
-It was self defense!
-You sent more people to the hospital than your little brat
-That wasn't intentional!
-You have no talent for martial arts
-Hard work is a talent!
-Talent and hard work however still wins in the end, how about I help you understand it?
-What are you trying to do?
I sealed Kenichi's strength and defense to the level it was back in the day he fought against Ponytail.
-What have you done to me?
-Now fight with little Minato, if you can still defeat him, then I admit that hard work can win against talent
Kenichi looked at his little brat and then they nodded to one another, moments later Kenichi was groaning on the ground and little Minato helping his dad to get up.
The idiot didn't even know that I had sealed his strength and tried to use high level techniques, defeating himself in the process, little Minato didn't even get to attack as Kenichi dislocated his own leg and then tumbled towards him. I undid the seal and master Akisame put him back in one piece, then I sealed him again.
-This time take your time to get accustomed to your own weakness, this is the level you were at when you were his age(Yashin)
-Em, can't it be a year or two stronger?(Kenichi)
-How on earth should I know how strong you were a year later?
-Doraemon!
Kenichi run towards Akisame, I don't know why he called him Doraemon, but I didn't care. Akisame then told me to simply make Kenichi's physique similar to that of Minato, that way we could tell if my theory was right.
-I disagree, because Kenichi here had 20 years of life experience, while the child has only lived for how long? 12-13 years?
-Then what do you propose?
-Simple, I'll seal one of the masters or Ryozanpaku and Kenichi to the level of this child, if Kenichi wins then it's as he said
-But any of us has more life experience than Ken-chan
-Then how about Violent Miu comes down to beat some sense into this idiot husband of hers?
-Master Yashin why don't you seal yourself to the level of this child, that would be more entertaining
-Do you think I don't dare?
-I would love to see you try
-Alright
The second round was going up, I disguised myself as the Golden Hannya once more, my daggers were at the ready. At that moment Miu jumped on the stage, shouting.
-No weapons allowed!
-Akisame? is this how it's going to be? So I have to seal myself to his level and then I'm not even allowed to use my best skills? What's the meaning in this then?
-Are you trying to Kill my son!
-If he's so weak as to die, then I don't care
-You're being unreasonable!
-Am I? My greatest proficiency is in Muai thai and weapons, if I can't use my speed, then I have to use what I'm best at
-So you're saying you're only good at killing people?
-Oh, spare me the drama, I have sealed my strength to that of this brat's, I probably won't even be able to hit him and you're making a huge scene out of this
-Go die you pervert!
Miu dared to attack me, her speed was insane, with my sealed perception of time I nearly got hit by her, I don't doubt that if she had hit me I would have been in real trouble. Well that's violent Miu for you, unreasonable and violent as always. I froze time just in the nick of time and put Kenichi where I used to stand and resumed time.
Violent Miu crushed right into him and in his already weakened state I'm sure I heard a bone crack or something. There was a huge uproar as everyone went to see if Kenichi was still alive, Miu begun to apologize to him, while glaring at me like a wild animal.
-Violent Miu, Sneak attacking no longer works on me, try learning something new, something a bit more creative, like Kenichi-san
-You bastard, Kenichi is twice a man you will ever be
-I don't know about that, I think you've just turned him into half a man
-You bastard!
Miu tried to attack me once more, This time I put her father in my place, well this one was a bit surprising, the man simply dodged her attack in a matter of seconds.
-The next one will be your grand father!
-I'll kill you!
Suddenly however she became somewhat confused, as another question suddenly downed upon her, where was her grandfather?
It wasn't the first time he left them for days, but she was really wondering if I could find him. Thus she did a stupid thing, trying to attack me once more, I went to fetch her Grandfather from the top of my roof, but as I was about to touch him, he moved and grabbed my hand.
"Little Brat, I'm not done yet"
This was quite shocking to me, the guy could move in frozen time, the question is how long has he really been meditating in this state. Maybe it's been Aeons.
-Elder, can I ask if you need help in returning to real time perception?
-Oh, can you help?
I facepalmed myself, it seems that the elder was up here all this time because he had reached "that point". The point where moving was really dangerous, I went and brough back a few paper seals for him. Ones for Power, Speed and Time Perception.
What shocked me however was that he needed 5 paper talismans to return to normal time, meaning that he had already caught up to my own level of achievement.
"Elder could you stand over here for me?"
I told him and not understanding what was going down there, he just stood where I told him, once time resumed Miu came flying with a kick to his face, only to hold her own leg in pain, as if she had just hit a wall or something.
After a moment of pain everyone seemed rather happy to see the elder being well, although he seemed malnurished and weak, like a rather buff old man, but everyone knew that he was as strong as a bull. Before they left I gave the elder some extra talismans and told him to come back in case more were neaded.