Pain is Gain

Ten Years Later...

~

'It is a sin to be born. Regardless of how unbearable or heart-breaking your final goodbyes may seem, you have to open your eyes wide and watch your loved ones die one by one. You keep asking yourself why life gives you so much pain and misery, but you never get the answer. The heart gets toyed repeatedly without a break until you finally overcome it all and then the cycle begins to repeat itself. So much hurt, comfort and sadness in this world, I don't understand why they say life is beautiful.'

~

The sky darkened, and the moon slowly arose from its slumber to take the sun's place. This was an episode that played itself out every single night like a rule. Not only the moon, but it was also more like the entire universe followed a particular phase: night and day, the changing of seasons, the rotation of the earth; those were always constant and never changing. But then, why were humans so stubborn? Why do humans hate rules so much? Why do they rebel so much? All the time beating each other up and killing each other to reach the top, but what was it that defined this very top? What was so tempting about it that people were willing to throw everything away to reach it? Happiness? He didn't know.

It was the world that made him twisted.

It was the people he encountered that turned him into someone like this.

Reality is saddening, but what's more saddening is when you can't find an excuse or a way to escape from it. Because when the loneliness kicks in, it's almost impossible to endure everything that comes along with it.

His life had always been at rock bottom. Love, hope, trust, friendship, happiness, were all lies to him. Nobody would take the time to help him if life shitted on his face in the middle of the road somewhere. The world was evil and so were the people in it. In this crazy never-ending game of chase, he was the victim. Every obstacle he crossed was like a level won, yet he never reached the victory line. Why? It was simple — the victory line didn't exist, at least not in his lifetime. It was as if he was playing a battle game where he was both the fighter and the escapist. Quite a shitty game it was.

---

Piles of dirt layered the dark, narrow alley. A foul-smelling odour hung in the air, giving off a powerful, unpleasant aura that felt rather nauseating to the senses. Sounds of footsteps could be heard somewhere from within the uninhabited areas of the alley. Loud, angry voices echoed through the walls of the surrounding structure.

A gang of boys threw themselves over a lone boy, swinging their fists and continuously attacking him as if he was some kind of criminal. This was a fight where the dominant ones prevailed. He was up against four of them. Cuts and bruises covered his body, but it was too soon to feel any pain. The rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins kept him up on his feet even when more and more violent attacks were thrown at him. His body moved back and forth in a fluid-like manner, dodging quite an awesome number of their flying punches and kicks.

An aimlessly thrown fist almost collided with his face before he managed to evade it just in time. He knew he couldn't keep evading attacks forever. If he kept being on the defensive side, he was surely going to get hit. His train of thought was interrupted when a sudden, forceful uppercut to his jaw almost knocked his teeth out. He felt his body crash onto the hard, dirty ground again. A trail of blood ran down the corner of his lips, and he quickly spat out the dark red liquid from his mouth as if it stung him. The lingering metallic taste of blood was something he was already familiar with. This was not the first time he'd had his blood spilt.

"What's wrong, K? Is this how you really fight? I didn't know the person everyone referred to as 'the lion' would be this weak and retarded?" one of the gang members shouted at the person named K.

Looking up, K could easily guess that the person who spoke to him was a gang leader — an extremely annoying one at that. He was taller than him, and possessed a hard, sturdy body, while his underlings looked quite thin and fragile. No wonder they followed him like a dog.

"Come on, even a girl can do better than you?" the gang leader mocked him.

"Heh. I'm just warming up," K replied in a sarcastic tone. He was panting heavily, but so were his supposed enemies; they weren't having a good time either. Earlier, he had managed to throw in some kicks and punches of his own, but he was outnumbered, which led to them easily gaining the upper hand. But this didn't mean he was losing. K smirked in satisfaction as he stared at their tired, sorry states. This was precisely what he wanted.

"Save your excuses. You're already in this state. Who are you trying to fool?"

"So then, if I threw a stick at you, will you leave?"

"Nope. Sorry, we're not dogs and we're not going anywhere before we make a pancake out of you." The gang leader grinned devilishly. "But before we finish you off, we'll tell you our names so you can remember them for the rest of your pathetic existence-"

"Names?" K cut him off. "I don't need to know your names. How about I give you names instead? You're familiar with numbers, right? So, you..." Pointing a finger at the gang leader, K continued, "I'll call you 'one' and the rest of your pets as two, three, and four. Sounds good?"

"You bastard! Still putting on airs when you're the loser here."

"Four seconds."

"What?"

"It'll take four seconds to finish you guys off. I thought you understood what I meant. Well, I guess the bigger they are, the stupider they will be," K taunted.

"I'll kill you!"

"Ah. Big words from someone who needed three more side chicks to manhandle me, I see. Pity." Wiping off the remaining stain of blood from the corner of his mouth, K slowly got up from the ground and readied himself. "I don't get all day. Come on."

"Get him!" thundered the gang leader.

When the whole gang charged at K, K was exceedingly calm. The world inside his mind turned black, his eyes cold and serious, searching for an opening where he could execute his moves and take them out one by one. Their movements were slower than before. K had been waiting for this moment. He had been stalling for time all along, engaging in short conversations with them, and secretly taking enough time to build up his energy in the process. This was the perfect time to let strategy come into play. He pretended to have lost. He had dodged all their attacks before, only using a tiny fraction of his energy while they came at him with full force, tiring themselves to the point of exhaustion. This was the perfect time to finish them off.

It was him versus the four of them. K analysed his situation. From his perspective, everything was in slow motion as the gang rushed towards him. His eyes roamed meticulously, searching for their weak spot. That was when he spotted it — one of the gang members limping on his left leg. K had decided. He was going to be the first target.

Swiftly avoiding all of their attacks, K strode to the side, heading straight for the one with the limping leg. He would eliminate the weakest one first and then go for the rest. K skilfully ducked the guy's fist and took that chance to grab his arm, and twisted it before unleashing a full, vicious kick to his injured leg and then elbowing him on the neck, knocking him out on the hard ground all in one second. "Four," K counted. Wasting no time, he turned to the other members, searching for his next target. K stepped back, dodging another punch thrown at him. He could sense that they were desperate, their minds going haywire by now.

K ducked and blocked another heavy kick coming his way with his arms crossed over his head. Before the attacker could put down his leg, K sprang up to him in the blink of an eye, giving him a harsh, painful headbutt to his nose. The attacker staggered backwards, clutching his bleeding nose before he, too, landed with his butt on the ground. "Three." K had gone easy on him. He prepared his next move. This time, it went fairly easily. When the third member was distracted by the sight of his fallen comrades, K rushed in. He flung his right leg high up at him, giving him a lethal, well-placed strike to his jaw; his body instantly crashed to the ground unconscious.

"Guess it's just you left now." K grinned, enjoying the look of pure terror on the last person standing — the irresponsible leader of the group.

The gang leader stood in shock, his legs visibly shaking. When he glanced sideways, there was no one beside him. He was the only one up against the beast now. Yes, a beast. This person was not normal. Such insane speed and agility, he was seeing it for the very first time. It seemed as if K had changed. This was not the weak person he thought he could beat before.

The gang leader watched in horror and fear as K lunged at him. One blink of his eyes and he found himself on the ground with K sitting on top of his belly. Blow after blow, his face was ruthlessly pummelled by K's brutal fists to the point where he could no longer feel any pain as though all his senses had gone numb. When his swollen, black eyes gazed up at him, the feeling of dread that instantly crawled up his bones was truly indescribable.

This was not K. It was not possible. This was someone else entirely. The aura of darkness that surrounded this person was excruciatingly maddening, yet suffocating at the same time. K's dark, hollow eyes were unreadable as he planted himself on top of him like a sinister creature of the shadows devouring his prey after a wild hunt. This person was no doubt a force to be reckoned with. It was his mistake to have provoked him.

Feeling seemingly satisfied after what he had done to the poor gang members, K got up to leave, but a hand latched onto one of his legs prevented him from doing so.

"H-How?" the gang leader breathed out, his hand still holding onto K's leg.

"Tsk," K spat in disgust. "You've got a long way to go if you want to defeat me. What you lacked was strategy. Having more people by your side doesn't always guarantee victory. Learn that first," K said to him.

"My name... is Gil," he croaked, looking up at K's towering figure.

"And so?"

"Just... I wanted to let you know. I won't bother you anymore. Now I finally know why everyone calls you that name," Gil said to K, freeing his leg.

"I don't care." With that said, K walked away without throwing a glance back at him, not even once.

So, this was it? This was the feeling, Gil thought. When you've done everything you could to defeat someone, when you've given your all to crush that person, yet, in the end, you still lost; when you've regrettably suffered a painful, humiliating defeat at the hands of that foe, it was not the feeling of hatred or vengeance that came soon after losing. It was something else. Respect.

All Gil had for K now was respect.

'His real name... what was it? Ah... Leyon. He really is the King. I will remember you.'