“Feel any different?” I heard the voice come from behind me as I was still eating my breakfast.

“Different?” I replied. Tyfoonica came in the kitchen from the hallway and went around me on the other side of the breakfast bar I was sitting at.

“Yeah, do you feel any different?” He repeated, leaning in a little and raising his eyebrows in anticipation as he awaited my response.

“Umm…should I?” I was genuinely puzzled. I yawned and rubbed my eyes a little, still trying to wake up.

“It’s your first day as an adult! How does it feel?” I had completely forgotten that it was my 18th birthday. I usually didn’t get very excited for birthdays. What was the point? There wasn’t a bunch of kids that came to a party for me, or a big birthday celebration with lots of toys. Just…another year of my life passed. Although, Tyfoonica was right. This was a special occasion, because it marked my milestone of adulthood. It meant that my adolescent training with Tyfoonica was very nearly to a conclusion. That also meant that I would soon be free to leave the dimension, even permanently, if I chose to. It’s not like I had never been out of it before. I had left the dimension, with Tyfoonica, of course, on several occasions. But never alone, and almost always with a serious political agenda that Tyfoonica had to tend to. Still, there had been times I was able to see friends and just have a good time. These instances were few and far between, however. The vast majority of my time was spent in the dimension, learning and training, learning and training. I didn’t mind that life though. It’s all I knew. But, the idea of going out into the big great galaxy and doing anything I wanted…I can’t lie, that sounded pretty awesome.

“Oh yeah, I forgot. Well, I feel…pretty much the same.” I chuckled, as did Tyfoonica. He put his hand on my head and rustled my hair a little.

“You are the only boy I know that consistently forgets his birthdays. Even despite several reminders that it was coming up!” We both laughed. “I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that your adolescent training is almost complete.”

“You definitely don’t! I may have forgotten about my birthday, but I’ve been counting the days down for this. Having freedom to leave and do what I want is going to be liberating!” I donned a half crooked smile and leaned back in the stool I was sitting in and wondered at the idea.

“You make it sound like you are prisoner! I haven’t been keeping you here for no reason, you know?” Tyfoonica sounded a little hurt in his tone of voice.

“Of course, I know. Believe me, you’ve told me plenty of times the importance of staying here until my training is complete and you feel confident I can be safe on my own.” I said it with a gentle tone. Tyfoonica was as tough a person as they come. But when it came to topics that reminded him of the death of my parents and the war, it didn’t take much to sadden him. I smiled at him, reassuredly. “I’m grateful for all you’ve done. I’m just excited to experience life outside of this place.”

“I know…and I’m excited for you.” Tyfoonica’s eyes brightened some, and he smiled. “Finish up your breakfast and get yourself ready for the day. Troy and Drake are coming by in a little bit to wish you a happy birthday.” My eyes lit up at that. Troy and Drake were like family to me. Troy was one of the last Peacekeepers in the galaxy, and strong beyond belief. Drake was his son, and a good friend.

I finished my breakfast and got myself washed and dressed. I went outside and breathed in the morning air. It was about 8:30am, and plenty late compared to most mornings. On training days, I would get up about 1 hour before sunrise for morning training. Tyfoonica trained me in several hand to hand fighting disciplines, and I spent a considerable amount of time focusing and controlling my ki in different ways. On Saturdays, though, it was more relaxed. I still trained, but as I got older Tyfoonica gave me space to do my training alone on Saturdays. I looked around at the animals grazing in the fields. It was boring, and a lot of the same…but it was still nice, and it was home.

I walked further into the field next to the river bank. I walked down the bank until I got close enough to the waterfall to feel the mist on my face. I closed my eyes and concentrated. I brought my hand to my chest and pulled out a small crystal from under my shirt attached to a chain around my neck. It was the necklace my mother had said she wanted me to have before she died. It gave me comfort anytime I held it, and it always helped me to have peace and control my ki. I channeled my ki and moved my hands around as though I was rubbing an invisible ball. As I concentrated, I formed a small ki ball, about two feet in diameter. I had been able to make ki balls like this since I was a small child. You can use them for a variety of things. You can use them as a light or heat source, you can use them as a blunt object in a fight, or you can make them explode for a more devastating effect on an enemy. I was working on manipulating the ki in more unconventional ways. The uses of your ki are nearly unlimited. I was training myself to use my ki in ways no one had seen or thought of before. Anything at all that would give me the edge in a fight.

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After I had the ball formed, I flattened it out by concentrating my mind and visualizing the object. As I visualized it changing, I pushed out from my core and tried to “will” it to flatten. The ball flattened just as I wanted it to. I experimented with some other shapes, including a start shape. This was much more difficult to do given the many sides of that shape. This would have been used similarly to a throwing star, but one that could be controlled and moved however I wanted, instead of just being thrown in a straight line like a traditional throwing star. I formed the ki back into a ball, and with a big throwing motion, I hurled the ball out into the air. Using my mind, I moved the ball this way and that, maneuvering it around obstacles like rocks and trees, trying to get it as close to them without touching as possible. The branches on the trees swayed as the ball flew past them. I then aimed the ball at myself and concentrated hard as I transferred more of my ki to the ball while it was in midair. The ball grew to twice its original size and sped at me even faster. I braced for impact just before it hit me.

BOOM!!

The ki collided with my like a freight train and exploded. Shockwaves blasted out from me and shook the nearby trees. Various animals ran away, startled by the explosion. I channeled my ki when it collided to contain the blast from expanded past a couple of feet from me, kind of like a force field. I bent over and coughed, waving my hands back and forth, trying to clear the smoke. I had been trying, for some time, to reabsorb the ki back into my body. To the best of my knowledge, no one had every accomplished it. It was easy enough, with enough training, to get the ki out of your body and form it into something. But getting it back in your body had never been done. It isn’t really known why this is, or even if it is possible to do it. Despite the fact people have been manipulating their ki for thousands of years, there is still a lot about how it works that isn’t known for sure. But as long as I could get it out of my body, I was convinced I could get it back in my body to reabsorb it and regain the ki I expended to make it.

“I bet you felt that.” Came the voice of Drake from behind me.

“Yeah…a little.” I coughed again, still trying to dissipate the smoke from the explosion.

“You know, normally a person would dodge that kind of attack. If you get into a real fight, I wouldn’t suggest that tactic. It’s likely to get you killed.” Drake smiled and shook his head. He took his hands and formed a ball, then he shot his hands out made an explosion sound with his mouth. We both laughed.

“Apart from the kaboom at the end,” Troy chimed in from next to Drake, “That was pretty remarkable. You have gotten very adept at moving your ki around obstacles. And your ability to increase the energy in the ki ball while it’s moving around...” He seemed at a loss for words. “It’s astounding. I’ve never seen it done with the ki so far away from the origin. Your ability to manipulate your ki incredible for your age.” Troy patted me on the shoulder in approval.

“Thanks. Now if I could just fix the explosion from happening at the end, I’d be in good shape.” I rubbed my chest where the blast had hit me. I was going to have a sizeable bruise from the impact.

“You are still convinced you can reabsorb it, huh? You’ve always been ambitious. No one can say otherwise, that’s for sure.” Tyfoonica said as he flew and landed beside us.

“Well,” I began. “The theory is sound. If it comes out, it must be able to go back in…” I trailed off in thought.

“That big black mark on your chest begs to differ.” Tyfoonica said with a laugh, pointing at the char marks on my chest from the explosion. “Glad you two could make it down to our humble abode.” Tyfoonica said, shifting his focus to Troy and Drake. Tyfoonica had left the enchantment open temporarily so they were able to come. That was the only way to allow access to our dimension from outsiders.

“We wouldn’t miss it! It’s a big day, we get to celebrate Tyfoon becoming a big boy! No more training wheels for you.” Troy said with a chuckle.

“Almost, his training is not quite finished.” Tyfoonica corrected.

“You know, you have been very vague in regards to the remainder of my training. I think you’ve been avoiding telling me what the actual requirements of ‘graduation’ are.” I replied. Tyfoonica had been mentioning for months that my training was nearly complete, and he had told me for years that my training would conclude once I was 18. He had been careful not to give away any details, though, of what that conclusion would look like. Our training never really had an end, or even a goal. It wasn’t like any of the things I learned were a means to an end. There really wasn’t an end. I may take a few years learning how to fly, but once I learned how to, I wasn’t done. We never moved on from a lesson, once I learned a technique, I continued practicing it to get better and better, stronger and faster. So the idea of “completing” my training seemed like an abstract idea to me. I suppose it would have meant there weren’t any other techniques to learn, but then that couldn’t be it either. It was impossible to learn all battle techniques in 18 lifetimes, let alone 18 years.

“Yes, and that has been intentional.” Tyfoonica smirked. “You’ll know soon enough. Don’t worry.” He patted my roughly on the back. “You’ll know soon enough.” He turned to go back to the house, and the rest of us followed. I was eager to know what in the world he was hiding. It sounded like it was going to be a lot more than just a normal graduation to training, it almost seemed there might be some kind of a grand finale to conclude my training. As it would turn out, I was exactly right.