Unexpected

"Hi dad, so… presents?"

He looks around, searching for something.

And runs towards the house.

Five seconds later he appears with a small book and hands it to me.

Clearly, he forgot to bring a present since this appears to have been written moments ago, but I digress.

I open the book, and color me surprise, it reads-

-The beginnings of the Fūrinji Style-

Seems that mom has been telling him about my training. Nice, something to look for.

I smile toward him,

"Thanks, dad, can`t wait to finish it so you can properly train me" I give him a hug.

The smug look on his face almost made me regret the hug, almost.

"Bahahaha, son if you believe that what's written in there will be easy, you´ll be quite disappointed."

"I wouldn't think so Hayato, if something Azuma has shown an incredible talent for martial arts" Mom mentions, still seated in the garden.

"Huh, so you are a talented little guy eh," Dad says surprised, Mikumo is not one to lie or overpraise someone.

I shout "YES!" And run to one of the multiple large rocks in the garden.

"Look!" I punch the rock while releasing my ki. The rock dents and breaks a little, while not masterful, it is the best I can do, for the moment.

The look in dad´s and Saiga´s faces was worth it. Starting in surprise and amazement, morphing into incredulity, and ending in a thoughtful look from dad and a dumbfounded look from Saiga.

"Ki no Kaihō" Dad whispers and turns his head in mom's direction, his face asking how.

The small smile on mom's face is the only hint of how proud she is. She looks at dad and says.

"Told you Hayato, he´s a little monster."

Dad only slowly nods his head, still processing what happened in front of his eyes.

As I´m walking back to mom and dad Saiga intercepts me and whispers in my ear.

"Hey little brother, let fight sometime soon okay" Is that rivalry I hear in his voice?

I just nod my head and keep walking.

._._._._._._._.

The rest of my birthday was normal, after talking with mom, dad, and Saiga, we both left to play, he really is dad´s child, any other thirteen years old would have stormed of if he had to play with an eight-year-old, but Saiga was quite understanding, sometimes showing that he was enjoying himself.

We tried to not get too close to my parents, they seemed to be having an important conversation, so we just let them be.

By the time they left, I was dead tired.

._._._._._._._.

Nothing interesting happened for a couple of years.

I have not seen dad nor my brother since my birthday. But we do talk frequently over the phone or write letters to each other.

Training, training, and training. That pretty much all I did.

Dad wasn´t lying when he said the contents of the book would not be easy. It´s as the book title says, simply an introduction to the Fūrinji Style, however different from the Kushinada style, that comes from jujitsu, the Fūrinji Style is a hybrid martial art, created exclusively by dad, so no preexisting style in this one.

The physical requirements are nightmarish, good thing I started with jujitsu, if not it would have taken me at least double the time to learn mom´s style.

Clearly, this was planned, no way there is such a happy coincidence, I will probably need to learn the style to the high disciple stage before advancing to the expert class in both styles.

While the increase in physical strength due to the Fūrinji Style will affect my jujitsu, with some time I could probably adapt, however, if I advance the Fūrinji Style to expert class before my jujitsu, the increase in strength will be too drastic to overcome in a short period of time.

Meanwhile although in theory, I could advance my Kushinada style to expert class and then the Fūrinji Style, that would simply risk my life and mess up my foundation. Expert class is the limbo for martial artists, not a disciple but not yet a master.

Mom took notice to drill in my head that this may be the most dangerous period for a martial artist, your master stops holding your hand, so now is your job to go out there as master what has been thought to you, thus the danger.

Yeah, I will wait until I can advance to the expert class in both styles at the same time.

._._._._._._._.

Life is good, in a couple of months I will be ten, and the best part I finally convinced mom to go out.

Ten years it took me to achieve this, yes, I live in a giant ass mansion, but still, ten years to be able to leave the house.

We left the house in one of mom's cars, and let me say, she drives like a maniac.

Although to my complete horror, her bored expression almost seemed as if she was pushing the car instead of driving it, I was sweating bullets here.

It took us one hour and a half to reach civilization, never thought we were so deep in the mountains.

The city was, average, if not outdated, but hey seeing more than five people in a group did bring a smile to my face.

I seem like a puppy with how jumpy and excited I feel, as mom finally parks the car, I practically jump out the window.

"Azuma!" I hear mom shout, whoops.

"Sorry, mom I was excited."

"What were the rules?"

"To not leave your side and do not talk to strangers," I answer tiredly.

Ughh, I mean I get the rules, would implement them myself, okay breath, you are ten and are acting like an angsty teenager. Stop.

"Good, now let's go, I want to show you a couple of places." If I had a tail it would be waging at this moment.

I got to see quite a lot of the city, I think we are in the late, late seventies, or the early eighties, never thought getting a newspaper would be so hard.

We went shopping for some stuff for the house, clothes for mom and me, we even ate in what seemed to fancy a restaurant for what we were wearing but a glare from mom to the receptionist and problem solved.

A couple of hours later and I am dead tired, curse young bodies, and their limited energy.

"You seem tired sweetie." I hear from behind.

"Yeah mom, it was fun, but I need my sleep, right about now."

"Okay, let's look for a bench, rest a little, and then walk back to the car." She grabs my hand and starts walking to a bench in the distance.

"Yesssss please," I reply, thinking about sleep, and how I want in my life.

Once we reach the bench, I simply melt in it, we´ve been out for almost thirteen hours, and I want to die.

"Excuse me, madam?" A voice says, I stop melting on the bench, and see a middle-aged man in front of mom.

"Yes?" She dryly answers. Mom is not expressive with anyone except me and sometimes dad, if you are not one of us two, you get a poker face and zero emotion.

"Could you help me with my wife, she seems to be ill." The man asks exceedingly nervous, I get it, that is the usual response to people near mom.

Her whole aura was saying that she couldn´t care less, and the small twitch in her eyebrows was from annoyance, starting to become anger by the presence of the man. I knew I would learn to read her micro-expressions.

I simply nudged her with my elbow, my face telling her that she should go and be done with it.

"Fine, where is she?"

The man signals to a bench around six meters from ours.

As she starts getting up, she states.

"Stay here okay, I'll be back in a minute."

"I know mom."

After a couple of seconds, I get up and walk toward a trash can, the city is squeaky clean, would not want to dirty it.

I feel a tap on my shoulder, while turning around I see a man in his forties.

"Yes, sir?" I ask politely.

He askes me. "Hey kid, that's your mom."

Uh, why would he ask me if that my mom, was our previous interaction not obvious enough?

"Yes, why?" Before I can think anything else, I hear a whisper.

"Sorry kid"

"Wha- "

Pain

As I look down, I see a knife, in my stomach.

I hear a guttural scream and pass out.