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Soul of a Fist
Chapter 2 - The Spar

Chapter 2 - The Spar

A cheerful sound surrounds the classroom. They students are excited, others are curious and others are expecting something not ordinary.

“I hope the transfer student is a pretty girl.”

“I hope so too!”

They got excited because of the news that there is going to be a transfer student in the middle of their semester which is very rare for an elite high school.

“I bet the new transfer student is strong, I mean he transferred this time of the year.”

“Yeah, I bet. There’s also Ichiro right. He just transferred a month earlier.”

“He also got rack a lot of points since he transferred.”

“What’re you talking about guys?”

A punk looking guy approached the group of students who’re talking about the transfer student. He has muscular build while looking thin, and has a hair that you can compare to that of the red at the chicken’s head.

“Oh Ichiro, nothing much.”

“We’re just talking about a transfer student that will be attending this academy this time of the year.”

“Hmmm, a new transfer student.” Ichiro was curious. “I wonder what does the transfer student doing before transferring here.”

“Maybe he is just a rich kid and paid his way to the academy.” The boy said while smirking.

“I doubt that.” Ichiro disagrees. “Well, a rich kid or just a strong individual, I’ll be sure to test him this coming Friday.”

“Woah Ichiro, don’t get too cocky, you know? Hahaha, maybe you can’t face the transfer student and get eliminated before facing him.”

“That’s right Ichiro, remember this past month, you always get beaten by Miss Mira every time you face her.”

“I guess so, hahahaha. Okay, I better up my game this Friday.”

After a while, a sound of a door sliding reach the ears of the students and immediately taken their sits. A pretty woman in her late 20’s just entered the room and stood in front of a table facing the students. The woman has a long black hair that can be described like the night curtain, long eyelashes and mean looking eyes that doesn’t destroy her image as being beautiful. She is the homeroom teacher of the class 1-2, Laura Vanberk, practitioner of the Three-fist style and renowned for being an excellent teacher of the academy. She is also the oldest daughter of the Vanberk Family, an influential family in the martial art world that discovered the Three-fist style and continues to expand their power in the country.

“Today, I am introducing a new student transferring here in this class. Come in.”

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“Welcome, to the Martial Art Association Academy. My name is Ben Zelwegger, the chairman of this Academy.”

“Uhm, Mr. Chairman you already said that like 3 times now.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that my old friend got me excited over a call and requested me to enroll you here.” Ben then asks a serious question. “By the way, what’s your relationship with Serge, I doubt that you are his son, that’s what he told me. Are you adopted? Or perhaps-“

Sin then interrupted. “I’m just a disciple of Mr. Serge, he let me enroll in this academy because he told me to learn things that I can’t learn in Master’s Dojo.”

After Sin’s statement, Ben’s tiny eyes widened and smiled from ear to ear.

“Oh, is that so. That Serge, I didn’t expect him to be this kind for a mere student with no ties in the Elreich Family. Well I hope you learn the things that your Master have expected you to learn here.”

“Yes, I will definitely.”

“First let us visit the Faculty office.”

“By the way Mr. Chairman-“

“Ben is fine.”

“Well then, Mr. Ben, why did you decide to stand in the front of the gate? Are you waiting for someone?

“Yes, I thought I can see my old friend Serge again, so I decided to welcome both of you. But to my surprise he didn’t come. Does he hate me or something?” Ben asked while stroking his chin.

“I doubt that Mr. Ben, he said to me to send his regards to you and thank you for letting me in. By the way Mr. Ben, where did you met Master?”

“We first met when I am still attending this school, we met at my first Master of Fists Tournament and we face each other in the finals, I thought he is just lucky and that he is weak compared to me, but when the match start, I didn’t even saw his fist hitting me right into my gut the pain was so intense that even the body armor can’t block the pain it inflicted to me, after that I collapsed immediately.”

That must be the ‘Gwiara Style:Iron Gauntlet Fist Technique: Flow Strike’. Maybe father used it because of Mr. Ben’s body structure, well I can’t blame him for using it, but still, using a master technique in a tournament is overkill isn’t it. Sin thought.

“And then when I woke up, I immediately asked my late master, what kind of style beat my ‘Iron tank Style’ and my late master knew nothing. That’s why I approach him first in my second tournament, I ask him what style he used in our match, and told me about the ‘Gwiara Style’. That style is unfair you know, branching hundreds of different techniques, it is very complex and flexible style and is feared by many in this world. Every time we meet is a disaster for me you know, hahahaha, he has no equal in that tournament, yet he is not bragging every time he won, for 27 years your Master is undefeatable and attained the title ‘God Fist’, while I do have a title for facing him many times in the finals ‘Fist of Perseverance’, it’s not really worth mentioning, that’s why I’m proud to be his friend and sending one of his students here at my Academy.”

“Is that so?”

“Well enough talk about the past, tell me, did you learn ‘Gwiara style’ under him?”

“Yes, a little bit.”

“I see, hope I can see your skills in the academy for the next 3 years of you staying here.”

After a while, they arrive at the Faculty office, it has a normal looking door and a small glass window at the upper part of it. Ben opens the door and called one of the faculties.

“Miss Laura this is the new student that will attend this academy, he will be in your class, I will handle his paperworks, but for the meantime, explain to him the rules and regulations, and also accompany him in the dorms, he will be living at the dorms.”

“Understood, but is it a little late now for a new transferee?”

“Well, he is a ‘special case’, I hope you understand.”

“I understand chairman, well then, state your name young man.”

“Yes, my name is Sin Reichel.”

“I am your Homeroom teacher Laura Vanberk.”

“An honor to meet a Vanberk here, Miss Laura Vanberk, the ‘Ice Princess of the Ring’.”

“Stop it. It’s a thing of the past. I will about to explain to you the rules of the Academy and how things work here.”

“I understand Ms. Laura.”

A few moments later.

“And that is all for the rules, as for the grading system, you will be graded by your performance at your classes, you have to earn points by attending the weekly Class bout. You can also earn points in the Inter-class Challenge course as a Class, it is held twice a year, and it’s one of the biggest events here in the Academy. The points system don’t determine your rank in class, you still need to learn academics not just martial arts, you can earn perks if you have enough points though, there are at least 5 perks in earning high points one of them is free meals, if you’ve got the lowest point you have no perks at all, points are recorded every week, if you have the highest points racked up you can obtain the 5 perks and if the lowest, no perks at all. Well that is most basic information I can give you, I will not entertain any further questions, ask your classmates tomorrow, so that you can at least socialize with them. Now follow me, I’ll take you to the dormitories.”

“Okay Ms. Laura.” The fact that the Class bout is weekly; it really is a big deal to earn points huh, I wonder what the other perks are except for free meals.

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“Today, I am introducing a new student transferring here in this class. Come in.”

A boy entered the room, he has a calm face and has brown hair, and his eyes are black. He has a body build of an average teenager. He took a chalk in the chalk box and writes his name in the board.

“My name is Sin Reichel, nice meeting you.” Sin saw a familiar fidgety girl among the students.

“He came from Praqqal, and transferred here, I know you’re wondering why he was transferred here, the chairman said that he is a ‘special case’. And no one will question him about being a special case transferee. Understood?”

“Yes, Ms. Laura.”

“Okay, Sin, you can sit beside the empty desk beside Ichiro, Ichiro I hope you can help him if he has problems, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Now let’s begin the homeroom.”

As Sin took his seat, he heard someone speak.

“Sin, I’m Ichiro Ken, you can call me whatever you want.”

“Okay, Ken.”

“Ooooh, you’re the first time to call me by my first name.”

“First name? I thought that is your family name, is it not?”

“No, I’ve come from a country called Sorran, And when I registered here, I forgot that the way you write your name here is different from ours. So I wrote Ichiro Ken instead of Ken Ichiro. Silly me.”

This guy is friendly even though his appearance is like a punk. Sin thought.

“Okay Ken, nice meeting you.”

“Nice meeting you too, Sin.”

The room was silent as all the student listened to their teacher speaking at the front-. Sin is looking around the room and spotted the familiar fidgety girl, the girl felt his gaze and turned to see whose gaze is it. She saw a smiling boy waving at her, and she also waved back, even though she did not expect to meet him again, she felt glad to see him again.

Then suddenly-

“Ms. Lael, you’re the one that scored the highest point last week, come to the front and receive your special pin here.”

“U-Understand Ms. Laura.”

Mira stood up, and walk up front to get her pin from the table, Sin expected that Mira got the high score in the last week’s Class bout, he has a very keen sense on how strong an individual is, and saw Mira as a strong person, so it didn’t surprise him, but the next name mentioned surprised him a bit.

“Ichiro Ken, you received the 2nd highest score, get over here and receive your special pin.”

“Okay Ms. Laura.”

Sin did not saw Ken’s potential. This person is interesting, all I can sense from him is a wild nature, like a beast, and here I thought that he is just some average martial art practitioner with a wild aura, maybe I judge a book by its cover.

“Gaj Jonrei, Kate Wolchstein, Brandon Pierre you three also got in the top 5 last week, receive your special pins for this week’s perks.”

So the pins will help them to get acknowledge that they have the special perks, Mira has a gold one, so that means she receives 5 perks, Ken has silver so that means he has 3-4 perks, and the three others has bronze pins meaning they get 1-3 perks. Sin concluded.

“The others that haven’t been called will receive no perks this week. That’s all, now proceed to the gym we will begin our first class, gather there in 10 minutes, class dis missed.”

After the homeroom, the students stand up and start preparing; the women went to the dressing room to change into their gym uniforms, while the men stayed in the classroom to change.

“Sin, let’s go, I’ll show the way to the gym.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“By the way, you seem to know Mira, are you two friends or something?”

“No, we just met yesterday.”

“Hmm, how did you meet?”

“Well, I kinda misunderstood something yesterday and I apologized for it, something like that.”

“Oh, okay.”

The two went ahead and walk together to the gym, many students not just from their class are going also to the gym. The first subject was a joint class, that’s why there are many students going to the gym. The two arrived at the gym and saw Ms. Laura preparing something for the class.

“Okay, today’s class is about a martial art style that is known for having little practitioners. We invited Master Han a Master of his Dojo, the ‘Neja Style’, it is a style that focuses on blocks and looking to shift the balance of the opponent, it is also used by one of the students here, Mr. Jonrei. Master Han will now start to lecture about the ‘Neja Style’ and why it has few practitioners.”

“Thank you for your introduction Ms. Laura, much appreciated, now then, as you may know-“

The first class is all about studying martial art styles and learning them through a specific Master that is invited by the Academy. This time around the Master that was invited is Master Han. He started his lecture on ‘Neja Style’, some students got interested and want to learn a few moves, while others doesn’t seem to care, they still study the moves that Master Han showed them to familiarize them when they face such opponents.

“And now as I end my lesson, some of the faces I see right now are the faces that they understand why ‘Neja Style’ has very few practitioners, it’s not because that this style is boring but it is old, learning old martial arts takes time so that’s why just few people wants to be practitioners of ‘Neja Style’, I don’t blame you young’uns, I am just here to lecture you about the ‘Neja Style’, it’s up to you if you want to be a practitioner or not.”

Ms. Laura walks up front after Master Han finished his lecture. “Alright this time, Master Han will show you the basics of the ‘Neja Style’, It can’t hurt to learn few moves, also Mr. Jonrei, will you help Master Han?”

A young dark-skinned man stood up, he is tall in comparison to average teenager, he has white hair, deep yellow eyes and narrow eyebrows, his body looks like it can withstand multiple punches without getting hurt because of how his muscles are visible through his clothes. His name is Gaj Jonrei one of the students that got into to the top 5 in the last week Class bout.

“Understood, Ms. Laura.”

Gaj approach Master Han and shake his hand out of respect for him, the students started to gather in front of them. After lining up, Master Han showed the first move, ‘Neja Style: Shield stance’ The most basic stance to start blocking an opponent’s strike in ‘Neja Style’, it uses the strength of the legs to work like an immovable object locking it soles to the ground and using the arms to block high and middle blow from the opponent. Gaj also showed it to other group of students to learn too. After a few trials many of the students mastered it already, Ms. Laura volunteered to hit Master Han while in Shield Stance to demonstrate on when to use it. She strike Master Han with a mighty force, and Master Han successfully block Ms. Laura’s explosive strike. After the demonstration the student’s tried this for a few times and had done successfully.

Next, Master Han demonstrated the ‘Neja Style: Double Line’ and ‘Neja Style: Knee Bash’, by combining this two, one can create a momentum of attack, Double Line uses the arm and elbow to do the trick, the user throws a straight punch near the solar plexus and transitioning it to a devastating elbow strike at the solar plexus, making the opponent to cry in pain and can hardly catch their breath, then grabbing the head and jumps knee raised using it to strike the opponent’s head, this is one of many combo’s in the ‘Neja Style’, then Gaj demonstrated the combo at a rubber dummy, the execution was flawless, and the students were awed from the demonstration.

After the demonstrations and masteries of the moves, Ms. Laura speaks.

“Okay, the demonstrations are finished, we still have time before the class ends, you may use this time to master the moves or spar with each other, the body and head armors are in the gym storage room, feel free to use it.”

After Ms. Laura’s announcement, Ken approached Sin.

“Hey Sin, want to spar with me?”

“Sure, why not.” Okay let’s see if my intuition is right. Sin thought.

The two of them borrowed the body armors and head armors to prepare for the sparring; they placed a mat on the floor. Few students heard about the sparring and start gathering around the mat.

“Hey Sin, let us make this interesting, if I win tell me about your ‘special case’, it’s okay right, I mean I’m not questioning about it.”

The audience of the sparring gained more students because of the bet.

“It’s okay though, what if you lose?”

“Then I will be your servant for the rest of my high school life.”

“I don’t that kind of relationship you know. Just friends is enough I think.”

“Okay then, get ready.”

“The rules are simple, if you get out of bounds you lose, and you lose if you think you can’t fight anymore, is that okay to you?”

“It’s fine, I guess.”

“Then let us start, can somebody start us off.”

The interested Gaj suddenly appear.

“I will start you two off.”

The air in between the got heavier, the audiences feel the tension and pressure. Gaj put his right hand at the center, and a few seconds later, he raise it swiftly signaling the start.

“TIGER!”

Ken suddenly shouted after the signal, his moves are fast, Ken dashes to where Sin is barraging him with explosive punches, Sin received his punches effortlessly using the ‘Neja Style: Shield Stance’, the crowd goes wild after seeing this offense and defense.

“ELEPHANT!”

After Ken shouted the specific animal, the audience was surprised, they were surprised because for the first time they saw Sin knock backed a little bit from his original position. The force in Ken’s hits got heavier but slower. Ken continued barraging Sin some of his Heavy punches while hitting Sin’s Shield Stance.

Sin was near the line where he can potentially be out of bounds, the heavy hitting Ken didn’t stop his barrages until suddenly he felt a chill, and he saw Sin smiling. Ken retreated immediately, while the crowd didn’t know what happened why he retreated, Sin spoke.

“Amazing, you’re self-taught, are you?”

“Basically, yeah.”

“Well, I now understand why I can’t see your potential, thanks for the information you gave me.”

What information is he referring to? And what potential he can’t see? Is he underestimating me? Ken asked himself.

“Please don’t misunderstand, I am not underestimating you or anything, it’s just that, I have interests what your potential look like.”

“Are you a psychic?”

“No, it’s just my intuition. Well, that’s enough for the break, time for a counter attack.”

The student were confused as Ken is.Sin stretched his arm, when suddenly Ken shouted again.

“PANTHE-“

A sudden pain struck Ken’s abdomen, when he looked at the spot where he was feeling pain he saw Sin’s hand touching his abdomen with an open palm.

“’Neja Style: Open Palm Core Breaker’ is that right? I think it is, yeah.” Sin agreed to himself. “Well you’re quite fortunate, this armor absorbed more than enough pain to knock you out.”

Ken fell to his knees while touching his abdomen where Sin struck him. The audience was silent, they were confused because there’s no such move Master Han demonstrated in his lectures, Gaj however is surprised, he was surprised not because he learned that Sin can use other ‘Neja style’ but he was surprised because the move Sin used is very tricky to land and he can’t do it without enough preparation during a sparring or a match, a person needs to be fast enough to land this to the opponent, because the target of this move is the abdomen, it is hardly used in matches because they are easy to block, but what he saw was so fast that it is not problem for Sin to land it into Ken’s abdomen.

Ken was laughing despite still feeling unwell; the winner of the sparring is without a doubt Sin. Ken forcefully raises himself up. He then took off his body armor and look at the abdominal part, there he saw a bit of Sin’s hand mark. Ken was amazed that the new transfer student was indeed strong and felt relieved that he is not just some rich kid that wants to enter the Academy.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay Sin, wow that was some nasty move. Where did you learn that? Are you a Neja Style Practitioner?”

“I guess you can call me that way.”

“I’m relieved that you entered the academy for being strong, I thought you were really just some rich kid that paid his way to the Academy.”

“I guess so, promise is promise then.”

“Hahaha, well I am interested to you as well, we will get along just fine Sin.”

“We will, and by the way, your technique is amazing, how many animals do you have in your Original Style.”

“That’s a secret, hahaha, I won’t tell a potential opponent my arsenal.”

“Seems fair.”

After the sparring, Sin and Ken returned the equipments and the crowd dispersed. Gaj on the other hand ask a few questions to Sin regarding the fact that he is a ‘Neja Style’ practitioner.

“Not bad.”

A boy whispered to himself, he watched the sparring earlier and observing the new student, he wears glasses and has a blonde hair, he is the same as the height of Sin, he has an aura of an elite person surrounds him and his build is thin. He started to walk and get back to his class room.

“Just who is that transfer student, well I hope he can satisfy my thirst for battle, until then I’ll wait to battle him face to face.”