Training

Standing in a dark alley of the slums was a man who didn't fit in, glancing at his watch frequently, his irritation obvious.

"He's late, I really don't like late people."

He muttered taking out a cigarette, bringing it to his lips. Searching himself for a lighter, he muttered in increased frustration.

"Tch! I dropped my lighter too."

Still he covered the cigarette with palm of his hand as if to light it, and when he did remove his hand, it was lit and he took a long drag, his tense and irritated nerves calming slightly.

Taking another drag, an old man dressed like a beggar in tattered garments with dirt and grime over his body, smelling like he hadn't had a bath in days, months perhaps, appeared at the entrance of the alley and collapsed weakly, taking a break.

"You're late, as always."

He added that last part in an annoyed tone.

"Mehhh, it isn't easy to move around here."

The old man replied with a sharp voice that in no way matched his appearance.

"I looked around, it wasn't through the normal means."

"Hmm, okay!"

Contemplating what the old man had just said, he sank into a deep thought before taking a long drag from the cigarette like it would rid him of all his worries.

"Cough! Cough! Even the cigarettes here suck." He said out loud throwing it to the ground, killing it with his leather shoes.

Moving away from his position, he paused at the old man's position for a moment before taking his leave, his steps sounding lighter.

"Keep looking."

"Sigh! He really doesn't give up. I wonder why he's so into it in the first place."

The old beggar thought out loud looking at the back at the direction the young man had vanished before rising to his feet, resuming his act of a beggar.

...

CRANE CITY

SCARLET MANSION

The Viscount in charge of the city, Viscount Hawkins, sat behind his desk going through the large pile of files. Crane city had been going through some turbulent times lately, the cooperation between his family and Glactious corps. Had attracted the presence of the Zexters and some other external forces, resulting in the piling paperwork in front of him.

The door of his office opened and his butler, Zod, came in.

"I've gotten a report sir"

Without looking up from the papers he was reading, he asked,

"As good as hers?"

"The young master did quite well…"

The butler started, but paused before he could go any further, interrupted by the look he received from the viscount who had paused his work to stare at him.

"Zod, is it as good as hers?"

"Unfortunately not, my lord!"

The butler said, bowing his head.

"Hmm, I see he's still a disappointment."

Viscount Hawkins said, returning his attention to the huge pile of paperwork in front of him, silently dismissing the butler.

Taking another deep bow, the butler thought to himself.

'The lord should really go easy on the Young master, he has always had things hard...sigh!'

Remembering something, he almost spoke out, but managed to control himself, taking one more glance at the lord's office before making his way back to his duties in the house.

The moment Zod left the room, the Viscount paused and sank into his chair, looking a little deflated. Looking at a corner in the room, he called out,

"What did you find out?"

A masked figure emerged from the corner of the room and made his way to the front of the viscount's desk, before reporting on a knee.

"Whoever they were, they aren't from this city and are rather good at concealing themselves. We wouldn't have known of them if not for the incident."

"Their intensions are unclear for now, and they have once again gone into hiding once again."

The figure said, his head bowed.

"Hmm…. Contact the chief of this city's security corps. It's time we met and had that conversation."

Viscount Hawkins said, leaning on the table, a strange flame burning in his eyes, the temperature in the room going up, the flames in the fireplace fluctuating slightly.

"Yes, my lord."

The figure replied, moving back to the corner before vanishing like he was never there.

.........….

PLANET: KIRSHOF

LOCATION: SKY REACH MOUNTAIN

RANGE, BASE OF THE ORIGIN MILITARY CAMP

"Are you sure about this?"

Ruby asked Kieran outside the sports centre where they had classes with the masked instructor, deep down, Kieran had marked him as someone to avoid.

Without answering, Kieran stepped into the lobby of the centre leaving Ruby no choice but to follow him. Moving to the counter, he inquired from the recruit stationed there,

"One empty room, 30 square meters, no add-ons, an hour."

Looking up from whatever he was doing, the recruit replied, silently appreciating Kieran's direct approach.

"A hundred and fifty CP for an hour."

The price made Ruby frown, but before she could interject, Kieran accepted without hesitation.

"I'll have it"

He said placing his watch on a scanner that automatically deducted the said amount.

"Alright. Room C24 is available, you can head there."

He replied, returning to whatever he was doing previously.

Moving into the centre towards his allocated room, Ruby asked him with her gentle voice which expressed slight worry,

"Isn't that too expensive? I could have paid a part of it, you know?"

Taking a deep breath, Kieran explained,

"It isn't much, I didn't need your assistance."

Understanding that this was him going out of his way to explain to her, she kept silent and followed behind him.

Unlike during classes, all the facilities of the camp required a fee. The only thing that didn't were their rooms.

Arriving and stepping into the room that automatically lit up upon their entry, a holographic panel came up with a mechanical voice similar to the one during the combat test.

«LEVEL THREE FIRST YEAR RERUIT DETECTED»

«WOULD YOU LIKE TO APPLY DISCOUNT?»

"No,"

Kieran replied.

«UNDERSTOOD»

The cold mechanical voice disappeared and the hologram shifted to the side, becoming a countdown, showing how much time they had left.

"Let's get started."

Kieran said, turning to Ruby.

Keeping the questions she had to herself for now, she moved on to their objective for coming there.

"According to the old books passed down and in other recorded history, martial arts which was considered to be one of, if not the best form of fighting styles, emphasised mainly on, self-control, mental focus and discipline."

She started with a graceful voice, captivating Kieran's attention

"Over the years though, it evolved to adapt to the requirements of the users, leading to the several types of martial art styles with each one having completely different, same or similar functionality."

"For reasons still unknown, during the expansion of humanity in the universe, martial arts rose up once more. It was said to be more effective, leading to the military and the Nobles adopting it."

"They, with the immense resources they had managed to gather several old and forgotten records and forge martial art techniques specific to each family, which they passed down to their descendants."

She said.

"Can I get the history lesson later? We don't have the time to waste."

Kieran said before she could continue.

"Sigh…. Alright, let's get to it then. Since you've decided to take up a weapon as complicated as the scythe, I can't really be of much help to you. The only thing I can do is to teach you a basic martial art you can use right now as a foundation for more advanced scythe-based martial arts"

"For that, you might have to consult the army's database later."

She commented, getting a short nod from Kieran.

It turned out that she didn't know the name of the martial art, but it was good enough to give him a solid foundation.

Looking in surprise as the calm and gentle aura around her vanished, as she reverted to the person she was on the first day they met, Kieran tilted his head slightly.

'Does she have split personality or something?'

Pushing away the random thought, he focused on the stances she had started to explain. There were three basic stances for the movement and positioning which they had decided to focus on.

"For the first one, you maintain the standing position with your feet shoulder-width apart, slightly bent."

She said, watching him assume the position with ease.

"The second requires one knee on the ground with the other foot forward and the last move we'll save for later."

She concluded and instructed him to switch between those two moves flawlessly.

Starting off by maintaining the two different poses for familiarity sake, Kieran attempted to move from the first into the second and discovered that it wasn't as simple as it seemed.

"Wrong!"

Ruby pointed out on his first try before proceeding to demonstrate it to him. Executing it flawlessly.

"Now try again!"

She said in a strict tone.

Taking a deep breath, Kieran tried again.

"Wrong!"

"Wrong!"

"Wrong!"

"Wrong!"

He tried and he failed. It almost took him the whole hour before he successfully performed one Ruby considered good enough, but not perfect.

'She's a nightmare'

He thought, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

Just then, before they could continue, his watched beeped and the timer came to an end notifying them to vacate the room.