"What was the bet ?" Shura asked as he arrived back at the hut, the world around it and the giant Gargan leaning against it still smoking his pipe were turning ever so darker with an orange tint as evening encroached on day.

"Harhar you skip some strange beats kiddo" answered Gargan eyes a twinkle before the enigma of a child before him "Yer smile, you've met me you know of my cheery personality eh ? Well Needle, whom you met briefly, she don't have much humour. Imagine her shock when she saw ya all bloody but still a smiling ! Harhar "one of my kin" I said you must be and we made a bet that you'd never loose that smile throughout yer treatment. I won"

Shura nodded, he'd surmised as much but his simple world had suddenly drastically been torn open with new encounters and the questions that come with them. Might as well start with the easy questions he thought.

"Here I prepared these for ya" Gargan tossed a bundle at Shura "I thought ye might have forgotten when ya ran off earlier" The bundle contained Shura's old tunic roughly patched up and a leather overcoat. Shura instantly realised what he'd forgotten, he had been running around in his bandages all day. No wonder mother Petal's welcome had been even worst than he'd imagined. He graciously accepted the new clothes, the overcoat felt tougher and more supple than any leather he'd encountered before.

"Is this demon hide ?" He asked, Gargan simply nodded and with Shura finishing to adjust the clothes he tapped the contents of his pipe out on the ground and stamped the embers out. With a stretch that brought his height above the hut's he stepped away from the frugal building and faced Shura. With a slide of feet he crouched slightly into a fighting stance.

"Yer want to know about yerself, well so do I. Yer might learn and yer might teach me some. Before anything else martial artists have their own form of communication. Fightin'. Crossing blows. Aye most of the time they fight to prove something over their opponent but, at least in the guild, we fight each other to spar. To have a feel of one another and this is yer first lesson, always be ready!"

With that Gargan rushed at Shura swinging downwards with a trunk like arm, Shura jumped backwards just in time he had been taken by surprise he was frustrated to admit. The old giant of man moved fast and a lot more gracefully than his bulk would make you think. "Enough thinking more fighting" Shura thought to himself and with a stamp of his feet postured himself to meet Gargan's onslaught. Gargan noticed the change in Shura and smiled, with a couple of steps he closed the distance and threw a powerful straight the impact of the fist against his crossed arms shook Shura but did not break his stance, thrilled by this new opponent Shura's smile widened and he further dug into the waves of ki he was learning to feel within himself more and more. A sweeping kick from Gargan demanded a shift in stance, Shura slid a half step to better face the force of the kick and met it with a double palm strike, again the force shook the young fighter but the shaking excited his ki blazing it alive and he shifted into offence, using his skewed position Shura shifted to strike Gargan with a spinning elbow strike bam it impacted a hand, blam Shura blocked a hook, crack Shura hit with a low kick, blow after blow giant and youngster carried on, the spar not being about defeating but simply unleashing strength and receiving the opponent's. Shura unconsciously felt the benefit of this sparring, he had to control the flow of his ki for every attack, keeping some always ready to shift to defend thus allowing him to feel the ebb and flow of his energy more acutely. Blow after blow was exchanged, time passed around the two fighters but they did not seem to notice, not before the moon was high above them did they stop. Shura exhausted bowed before Gargan.

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"Thank you, I Shura respectfully ask elder to take me as a disciple" with those words Shura kneeled before Gargan.

Gargan was a little taken aback. From the moment he had started to examine the mystery that was Shura's strength he had been interested in the orphan. Talking to him made him want to spar with him to have a first hand feel of his mettle. Sparring with him had in fact made him want to take the young martial apprentice under his wing. No... Not apprentice this was a budding warrior if ever he saw one. But before he had said anything and even though Shura was clearly panting for every breath he had exerted himself so, the young man had bowed before Gargan in deep respect.

"Gargan accepts Shura as his disciple and with the sky as their witness our bond is forged" always a paria himself, Gargan was deeply touched by Shura's earnestness. To hide his embarrassment he quickly drew from his tunic his trusty pipe.

"Second lesson ki can be manipulated in countless ways and martial artists can summon it in myriad forms, for example" his left hand holding his pipe to his mouth Gargan gave a flick of his right hand that suddenly lit up in flame. He used a finger to light the pipe that seemed to always have some herb or other ready to be smoked. "Normally martial artists train through effort and meditation to form and learn to draw from their ki center or core. However as I told ya yesterday you don't have one, yet you have more ki in ya than I have ever seen in someone yer age. Every day you will learn the ways of a demon hunter, every afternoon you will return to the orphanage to be with your siblings and so that mother Petal doesn't go after me head har har. Come evening we will spar. The more you learn of yourself and the more I learn about you the likelier we will be to figure out what you are capable of. Now rise Shura my disciple !"

Shura rose and managed to catch just in time something Gargan tossed at him. "Lets go find something to eat eh?" the master said walking away without looking back. Shura's smile widened. In his hand was a token "Free Hunter warrior" it said. Carefully attaching his new token to his inside vest Shura happily followed his master.