Chapter one:

The first teacher.

When Thomas opened his eyes, he was floating. It was if he had turned in a spirt, in front of his eyes, a scene was unfolding.

Thomas saw an older version of himself, with an expensive suit and longer hair in the same tonality of blonde that the “original” version had. The suit did not hide the muscles of that man.

This Thomas was in the front of a two-store house. Even looking so cool and wild, he also looked a little… nervous, as if he was waiting for something to happen, this impression reinforced when the older version sighed.

That man opened the front door of the house. Thomas gave a command for his body to enter too, for some reason it worked; the house was dark, and he could not see anything in front of his eyes.

“Darling”? The older version of Thomas asked in the dark.

Something turned the lights on. A very attractive woman appeared in the room. She was using a shirt with some open buttons and a dark skirt. Her blonde hair made in a ponytail.

“Yes”? She replied, wrapping the arms around the body of Thomas´s alternative version, and getting closer to him.

Thomas only could watch astonished.

“I was thinking that we need to talk”…

“About what”?

In a quick move, Thomas turned to the woman and pushed her in the direction of the wall, he got closer to her almost touching her lips.

“Kaori, do you love me”?

The blue eyes of the woman widen open, and she opened her mouth to say something, however, something occurred so she closed it, and sighed.

Thomas for some reason smiled a wild smile. In less than one second, he pulled a knife form his pocket, and tried to stab Kaori.

Kaori reacted quickly, she hit the wrist of Thomas, the knife flew thought the room, and stopped in the sofa.

She had a vicious smile too.

“Oh honey, you are cheating using a tactic like that”… Kaori said she gave that Thomas a kick in the right knee, the man contorted his face in pain, and fell on the ground.

“What is happening here”…? The younger Thomas, watching the scene, unable to do anything, was confused with the strangely situation.

The woman named Kaori tried to hit her probably husband in the face, however even on the ground, Thomas managed to escape of the attack, he rolled close to the sofa, when he got up, took the knife.

However, he did not attacked again, because Kaori narrowed the distance almost in two steps, she was whit a gun in her hands!

Thomas widen his eyes before jumping outside of the way, the first shot burst one of the windows.

“Why they are trying to kill themselves”? Thomas was distressed with the non-sense of the situation, and on his disembodied form, he couldn´t do anything.

A flash snapped in front of his eyes. The Watcher appeared with a smile on his face.

“Hey little Thomas, enjoying the view”?

Thomas denied with his head.

“What in the world is happening here”? He asked for some guidance.

“On this universe, you and Kaori grown in the same orphanage… but, you are an assassin of a certain organization, and she on the other hand, was in the rival group, so you two are trying to solve this little problem”.

While he explained the situation, the fight between Thomas and Kaori continued. The man was on the defensive, using the furniture to hide of the shots; he threw his knife at certain point. The weapon hit the gun with a millimeter accuracy.

Thomas threw himself at Kaori, the two rolled on the ground. She ended up on the top of him, with her little hands in his throat.

“What Am I supposed to learn here? How to kill my future wife”?

Thomas watched stunned while the Watcher seemed to consider the idea for a few seconds, before weaving his hand in discordance.

“You are here to understand the Multiverse and to learn to fight”,

“Fight”?

“Yeah… you know, I thought that you really need to defend yourself against the guys who are spanking you at that school”.

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“You know even that”…?

“I know a lot of things, but after this meeting I will not enter in contact whit you anymore, because you have everything you need now, look at the fight”.

Thomas almost forgot about that. He looked and saw his older version free with a cut on his cheek, a tinny line of blood running down your cheek, but fine.

Kaori had his nails covered in a little of red.

“Now darling, sorry in advance”…

The fight was over in one second.

Thomas only had to catch the pulse of Kaori, he twisted it lightly making the woman fall in knees, prepared his fist and delivered the fastest punches that Thomas ever saw in his life. For some reason, Kaori didn´t look hurt, but she blank out.

“She died”?

“Nope, you are the only saying that, she is alive… now, I will give you to your teacher, have a good learning”!

The scenario blinked, Thomas was back to the cube, but now his older version was in front of him, whit a grin on the face and crossing his arms. Kaori was behind, seeing well.

“Hello me”. The older Thomas said with a smile.

“He”…

He did not completed the sentence, because Kaori threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. Her eyes were frozen; as if she was in pain seeing the cuts and marks on her, husband´s disheveled face, only in a much younger and less savage version.

The hug was so warm… Thomas sniffed trying to hide his sadness with a mask of indifference, again.

“This is terrible”. Kaori said running her hand through Thomas's hair in a comforting way.

“Yeah, when The Watcher said me to help you, I did not expected this scenario, and stopping hugging him Kaori, I will get mad”!

Thomas perceived that was a joke, (and hoped to), he tried to smile a little, Kaori released him.

“I thought you two were fighting”… Said Thomas, seeing Kaori going to the side of her husband.

“We were, but half of that was over exaggerated, I never tried to kill my wife for serious”.

For some reason that didn´t calm the heart of the younger Thomas enough.

“We were doing that to show you something”. Continued Kaori. “The Watcher said that he gave you the ability of learning for watching something being executed by the other versions of you, so we are here to reinforce what you saw”.

“You are very lucky”… complemented the older Thomas.

They gave Thomas time to reflect on the implications of that. So, was he able to learn just by watching his other versions doing anything? Thomas wide open his eyes in that strange space.

When the two other people inside the cube saw that the realization hit Thomas in the right place, they started the training…

*

“My muscles”… Thomas whispered with the head on his table.

He was now at school. The Saint Michael, the school of the elites of Japan… for what Thomas had heard, since his great-grandfather, all of the family studied there, but Thomas doubted that someone in his family was so hated there like him.

The training in his head gave results. Thomas was with a bit of pain, but at the same time he felt recovery, he never slept better in a long time.

The abuses was at the point to start…

“Hey, Thomas”. Bingo, he heard a voice in his right and rose his head in that direction seeing a boy with dark eyes and hair, Tatsu. “Where are the money”?

Tatsu reached out to receive something. Thomas looked at his hand, gave him a grin and spat on his fingers.

The expression of Tatsu changed three times. First he looked astonish, after he realized what happened and his expression only got worse, lastly his cheeks flushed with anger, and his face contorted in a frown.

“Since when you became a clown”?

Thomas was burning with the desire to destroy Tatsu's face, but he knew he needed to wait.

“Shut your trap, daddy´s little boy. You think I would be forever a slave of you only because you have friends and bullies me”? The expression of Thomas was sarcastic, as if he had only mercy of Tatsu´s misery.

“My father would hate to know that you are disrespecting me, I think you forgot that your shitty father works in my company”…

“Your father´s company. So, what do you think about a little challenge, Tatsu”?

“A challenge”?

“Yeah, a fight, to be more specific. I will fight in your terms if you accept, but if I win, you will stop all this nonsenses abuses, if you win, you can do anything”.

Tatsu smiled. He was the semifinalist of a tournament of Karate in the province, he didn´t need any help, but Thomas knew that when Tatsu heard: “your terms” he was thinking in call the people of the karate club.

“Okay, meet me in the karate club, after school”…

He gave Thomas a look of pity and left.

This would be funny, Thomas thought.

*

After the class, Thomas went directly to the dojo of the school. The doors were open, the insides dark.

Thomas didn´t hesitate on enter the dojo immediately; even in the dark he could fell something close to bloodlust.

Someone turned the lights on, probably one of Tatsu´s henchmen; the inside of the dojo was full with… some prisoners, or they were students?

Tatsu was in the middle of the guys, with a smile in his face.

“You really came”.

“Of course, I would not miss the chance to of clean the floor with your face”…

Some of the henchmen of Tatsu, laughed a little with the sarcastic comment. Thomas was remembering the movements he learned on his “dream”, before the fighting started.

Tatsu gave a silent order to his mans, six in total. They all went towards Thomas direction at the same time, but something strange was happening in the mind of the blonde: he was seeing the movements as if they were in slow-motion.

Thomas dodged a punch that was millimeters of his face, and applied the first technique he learned. He grabbed the arm of his opponent, closed his eyes for some seconds and when opened again, felt his enemy squirm in pain.

“This techniques are dangerous, little boy, it´s a martial art of this world so, use with wisdom”. He remembered the words of his older version.

“Fist of the god dragon”. This was the (exaggerated) name of the art that Thomas learned, a special style of fight. The style had some strange concepts, but the focus was in cause internal damage to the enemy.

The enemies started to attack again, for Thomas the dodges seemed very natural, but for people outside, he looked like a yellow flash. He prepared his fist again, punching the jaw of other opponent.

Other two, seeing what was happening, only surrendered.

It was when Tatsu went in the fight.

“You bastard”! He screamed in anger, like an old-fashioned enemy of the protagonist.

His movements was in a much higher level of the other guys. Even when Thomas dodge, he took some damage on his face, nothing much serious.

He only didn´t expected the kick in his waist. That hurt.

Thomas ground his teeth to hold back a scream; Tatsu saw the opportunity to finish the fight with a punch on Thomas´s nose, but…

He was waiting for that.

When the punch approached, Thomas grabbed the pulse of Tatsu and twisted a little, in a perfect imitation of his dream, he returned the balance, and Tatsu fell, Thomas took a deep breath.

“Sweet dreams”!

He applied all the strength on those three punches, and felt the bones of the nose and the jaw of Tatsu cracking, as expected, the poor Tatsu passed out.

Thomas left the dojo, before feeling all the muscles in his body tense, an excruciating pain assaulted him… Thomas tried hard not pass out on that place.

In the distance, blue eyes watched him, with interest.