2 Boom and an encounter

"Again." Bang said to the 18-year-old Boom, who was lying on the floor growling in pain.

He stood up with difficulty and got to a stance for Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, facing his master and adoptive grandfather.

Bang had gained wrinkles all over his face during the last decade and his posture had become hunched. However, it still didn't change the fact he was an absolute master in martial arts and that his still lean and muscular body was capable of doing incredible feats at any moment.

Over the years Boom had grown to have a perfect body for the technique he practiced. He had very low body fat percentage, revealing his muscles. He was 15 cm taller than the 165 cm tall Bang and weighted 75 kg, and was already equal in physical strength with the old man, not counting the use of martial arts. And that was actually a pretty ridiculous feat. He had an above average face, at least that's what he'd like to think. His current spiky black hair was copied by his grandpa, only it was cut shorter.

Bang was facing his student with a stance of his own waiting for him to do the first move. After a moment Boom approached his master with rapid and smooth flowing footwork. River-like, light blue aura was following his hands and feet as he attacked.

What followed was a barrage of precise attacks on both sides. It consisted of feints, fist attacks, palm strikes, piercing attacks with fingertips and occasionally even kicks. They deflected each other's attacks back and forth with twice the power. To the untrained eye, they seemed even.

After a few seconds, however, Bang lands a fist to Boom's gut, who almost gets knocked out, keeping consciousness with pure will and slides through the floor to the other side of the training room on his back.

"Okay, I think that's enough for today." Bang gets out of his stance, hunching his back again and putting his hands behind his back.

"Damn! I thought for sure I could at least somewhat compete with you this time." Boom smiles after managing to get back up on his feet and said while scratching the back of his head, his whole body all sweaty.

"I think you did extremely well today and I can see that you've improved yet again. You've already mastered Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist to a great degree but it still needs a lot of refining. But what you lack the most is experience, and that is understandable given your age." The old master gave his opinion. "For now, go take your after-training-run."

"Okay, grandpa." Boom obliged and started walking out.

***

While doing his run, Boom started to reminisce his life so far.

He had been abandoned on the streets by his parents when he was only 3 years old. To his incredible luck, however, Bang had found him on the third day and given him a home. He honestly didn't remember much about the time before that. Nothing about his biological parents or the name they had given him, if they even had given him one. He only remembers his current name given by Bang.

Since then he had had a normal life... not counting that all his free time was used for practicing different kind of martial arts, culminating in his currently practiced fighting style. It was all done under the guidance of his grandpa.

He was never particularly good at school but enough to pass. After junior high, he had stopped going to school once and for all and gave his full concentration to martial arts. He would've wanted to do this much earlier, but Bang had insisted that this was the minimum he needed to have the basic knowledge of the world and so that he wouldn't end up as a complete dumbass.

Bang had become somewhat of a role model for him and he had worked hard to be worthy of inheriting his dojo. Recently it had finally paid off in that he was stronger than most martial artists already at his age. This wasn't enough for him, however, since his skills still fell immensely short compared to the white haired old man.

His grandpa had always praised him on his great learning speed in martial arts, a genius. But also reminding him all the time that there was always someone stronger, and that he should never become conceited. He had been pretty surprised about the possibility of his grandpa not being the strongest there is. So far, however, Boom had yet to meet anyone stronger than him.

In his Boom's opinion Bang would never be wrong, though. So it was only a matter of Boom not being lucky or unlucky enough to meet someone of that degree yet.

"Kyaa!"

His jog was suddenly interrupted by a scream followed by a commotion by other citizens trying to flee from the scene.

Following the sound, he turned the corner and saw something weird laughing. It was a 4 meters tall, green, michelins-like humanoid creature with an evil grin.

"Hyahahahahaha! I am Peastro! I loved peas and I ate them so much that I turned into a pea monster! Let everyone taste the greatness of peas through force!" The monster introduced itself.

"Damn, there seems to be more and more of you monsters nowadays." Boom said loudly to gain its attention and got ready to battle.

It had been a long time since he last bumped into a monster so he couldn't help but be a little excited. This was the real battle experience he was in need of. In the past he had run into many kinds of monsters and some of them even gave him a bit of a challenge. He even had a feeling that this one was going to be the same. He couldn't wait to find out how strong it would be.

"Heh! You, a mere human, think you can beat me? Taste my beans!" The monster then pointed Boom with his finger. "Pea sho-! *splat*" It was suddenly crushed to the ground and turned into a pool of blue blood.

"..." It took a while for Boom to process what happened.

'Never mind then...' He thought as he looked behind him to see the culprit for the anticlimactic ending.

What he saw was what seemed to be a floating, green haired and green-eyed petite girl with a green aura surrounding her. She was wearing a form-fitting black dress with long sleeves, and four high-cut leg slits that revealed her legs and black shoes with low heels. She had her arms crossed and was wearing an arrogant expression.

The moment he saw her, he froze. He didn't know why, but Boom got the gut feeling that this girl was hella strong despite her physical appearance. So strong that he was but a bug compared to her strength. The way she had dealt the monster added to somewhat confirm that. But that wasn't why he froze.

'Aaaaahh!!! What am I thinking? There's no way this girl is even close to being of age yet! And here I am, getting a crush at first sight. No, it couldn't be... Am I going to become a pedofile?! This is a serious flaw that needs to be removed! I need to go get mental training from grandpa, immediately!' These thoughts went through his head.

"What are you staring at, weakling?" She said, waking Boom from his trance.

"Uhm, sorry. I didn't mean to do that. And thank you for your help. Now, I need to get going so... goodbye!" He thanked her and like any normal man would do when his crush talked to him, he ran away from the scene.

'What the heck was that? Freaking weirdos, everywhere...' She thought before rising to the skies and started flying to the other direction.

***

Boom slammed the doors open and went on to kneel on all fours in front of Bang.

"Hm? What's gotten into you?" He asked confusedly.

"Grandpa! I need your guidance!"

"Ok, sure. But please, stop with that overdramatic nonsense."

Boom then proceeded to tell Bang his encounter with the girl and how he felt about her both in terms of power and emotionally. "...so please, so that I wouldn't go to the horrible path of pedophilia, I need some serious mental training! You are my only hope!"

Having patiently listened to his grandsons story he rubbed his chin for a while before speaking. "So you've bumped into Tatsumaki, huh."

"Y-you know her?"

"Indeed, I do. Putting aside your ... emotional reactions toward her for now, your gut was right about her strength. She is one in a very short list of people that I know would beat me in battle."

"So even you'd lose to her in a bout? Have you guy's fought before or did you feel the same feeling as me when you encountered her? How much stronger is she?" Boom seemed to have plenty of questions.

"I have seen her multiple times bring down monsters that would have given me a somewhat hard time. And all she had to do is twirl her finger a little. Honestly, even though I've witnessed her fights many times, never once was she brought to a point where she had to get even a little bit serious. But yes, I do have that same feeling as you every time I meet her but you can feel the same way against a strong monster too. I'm sure you've felt the same kind of feeling in some of your encounters with a monster too, right?"

"Mm, true. But I've never felt it to that extent. I always thought it was just my instincts telling me that there was a slight possibility of me losing, a slight danger. But her presence told me to not even try, that the difference between us was just too massive. That still didn't equal to fear though. It's hard to describe." Boom tried remembering the feeling.

"Thats right. Every time we encounter a monster stronger than us we feel that way. And the extent depends on how much stronger they are compared to us. It isn't the same as fear, but it will cause an unnecessary amount of fear if we don't have a great enough mentality."

"But how come I don't feel that way when I'm with you, grandpa?"

"Because that gut feeling doesn't take martial arts skill into account. And that's one of the great things about martial arts. It helps you overcome opponents much stronger than you with technique. And, heh, that's especially true with my Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist." Bang said with a little smugness.

"As expected of grandpa's technique! And I must have gained this instinct only in my later years since I never felt it when I was little and weak."

"Yes, all respectable martial artists develop it after having trained enough." The old man nodded.

"But why have you not taught this to me before?" He wondered.

"... The topic just never came out." Bang looked the other way.