Ancient History

I put each of my hands on each of the doors and started to concentrate. A small but constant stream of air started to enter my lungs, and with it, golden sparks started to form on my hands.

I pushed forward. The first step was the hardest, but with the gathered momentum I continued to push. For the first time in a few weeks I felt my body being pressured, and the feeling wasn't bad. Seeing the results of one's training in such an obvious way really fuels pride. But I will not relax, I will not put any less effort into it. I will achieve much greater heights than this. I want to see all of the wonders in the multiverse.

With a final push the doors were opened, but they didn't stop at that, they continued moving until they hit a pair of weights hidden behind both doors.

/CLOOONG/

-Feww. I expired all of the pressurized air in my lungs.

I clearly used more effort in this but I am sure I can push myself further.

/CLAP CLAP/

The people around me started to clap their hands.

-HOHOHO! Congratulations kid! You hit the ancient bells!

-...What does that mean?

-It means you are qualified to become a "Protector"

-What is a protector?

-It's the second-highest honor that can be given to someone. The first is the City lord position.

-Wait. Aren't you the temple master?

-Yes I am, the city lord position deals with most of the bureaucratic problems of the city, from disputes between clans, to the necessities of the common people.

-I am the master of the temple, it's more of an honorary position but… No one would brush off my opinions just like that. Now, come inside. We can talk more about the city itself when we settle down, Protector Flying Snake, HOHO...

He burst laughing while leading the way inside. On the side, some of the disciples were left with their mouths opened. There were many stories about geniuses, and there are even some in the current generation, but it was never to this extent. Even the strongest disciple currently only managed to do the same when he was 16, after many years of training.

(I should already say that this world is slightly different from the original, some things will happen while others will not.)

-Let's start by talking about this place itself. The city is divided into three main areas. The living area, the training area, and the ancient hall. The living area has all of the stuff you would normally find outside. From restaurants to people's houses. The second area houses our training facilities, it's also the area where we hold most of our competitions. The final area is where the council is held, together with where most of the big clans and masters live. There are also many ancient areas there. You will know more about them later.

-As you passed the trial of the doors, you are qualified to become a protector, a position way above that of an average master. And to top it off, you are my disciple.

-So you will live together with me in the Ancient hall. Let's see… Oh yeah. See that big building over there? That's the library, we keep all of our techniques and information there. Most people are allowed to enter the first floor, we store mostly novels and informative books there, like almanacs. That over there is...

He kept talking about all of the features of the city, and… It was rather impressive, it shows what a group of Hamon users can build over time when working together.

-The only problem is that less than 1% can be considered KI disciples…

(That's over 400 trainees, even if only 3% of them become masters, that would still be more than the ones shown in the series.)

-Isn't that good? We had barely that amount in Tibet.

-But we could have so much more… Even after centuries of living together there are still many people who can't practice Hamon, not having the talent even when their parents are practitioners. Most can only become what we call "Carries", people who will practice their Hamon their entire lives, but won't be able to become a master, they will eventually pass it on to the next generations in the hopes they are better than themselves.

-But we are getting better with every passing century. The number of "Carries'' is increasing and, last time, over 30% of the city's population was confirmed as a Carrier. And that is excluding children who can't practice yet and old people who don't practice anymore.

-They might not be capable of using KI in big quantities, but they can use it in their day-to-day life.

-What do you think, kid? Isn't this old man's place better than that forgotten temple in Tibet?

-...It's certainly impressive, but in Tibet, we had to fight against a series of cataclysmic events that took the lives of many masters throughout the ages. What do you guys fight against?

-... I will tell you later, but there is a reason why we hide in the mountains.

Finally, we reached the place that will be my home. It was a rather big house in the woods. I could see several people working on the garden and cleaning the ground of leaves.

-Here. It might be a bit big, but it's the only house fitting your current status.

-Can't I simply have a room near yours…

-It's the rules. If we can't even give a child the most basic rewards for what he accomplished then no one is going to take the rules seriously.

-But… Now that we are settled, why don't I tell you exactly what we are fighting?

He brought me into a meeting room in the middle of the house.

-The walls of this place are reinforced and stuffed with a material that can muffle most sounds. Our conversation needs to be kept secret because most of the population doesn't know the finer details of it.

-So. Let's start from the beginning. 2 thousand years ago, the pillar men came into our continent in search of the so-called "Red Stone of Aja"...

-How do you know about that?

-Don't interrupt me! Do you think that after 2000 years the Hamon masters around the world didn't share any knowledge?

-Continuing from where I stopped, they came in here in search of something. The pillar men didn't cause any trouble for the humans living in Europe for many years, but that was mostly due to the fact that they didn't care about them. Eventually, they "discovered" that the stone was under the care of the Roman Empire.

(They did cause mass murder in the Americas in order to experiment on humans, which was around 5000 years before part two, and was this experimentation that made Kars realize that they needed the Super Aja to complete their plan. They left Santana in the Americas while they traveled.)

-They went after it, but what they found wasn't the stone, they found a giant Hamon clan. For the first time in millennia, they found something that could hurt them apart from themselves. And worse, they couldn't wield such power, as it was similar to the sun, their greatest weakness.

-And so they decided to kill everyone. But they were but a few, in order to wipe all of the Hamon clans while searching for the stone mask, they created an Immortal army.

-Europe suffered fighting the Pillar man for many years, while the rest of the world fought against their army.

-At the start we in particular suffered many losses against their army, they were just too many, and we weren't ready to fight against them yet. But it was the news of their leader's demise that made them rogue, they started to fight against each other, for freedom, power, whatever the reason. We took this opportunity to strike them.

-And that leads us to today. We defeated the "vampires" as the westerns call it. But not all of them, some survived, procreated, and so on. Our biggest problem currently is the "Forgotten tomb"

-Deep in the mountains there used to be ancient civilization. We don't know who they were, but they created a magnificent city. The army remnants occupied the place, and every few decades, they would march outside of the city in order to set chaos in the world. Thus that place is now called the Forgotten tomb.

-We decided to seclude ourselves from the rest of the world in order to fight against them. But a decade ago, we were approached by the Speedwagon corporation. They gave us information on the Hamon clans scattered around the world, allowing us to have a better understanding of the world.

-That's all of it. You are still a child so don't worry about participating in the battles. We aren't so desperate that we need a kid to win the war. Every time they attack us, they lose a few of their members, and since they can only replenish their numbers by reproduction. They will eventually lose.

-That's our history… What do you think? Do we deserve to be proud of our past?

(As you noticed, they have different terms for many things, but it was the Speedwagon corporation that allowed them to have a common ground. At least in my novel. I will still have the Chinese call Hamon "KI" since I think it adds a bit of character.)