4 - The Beetle School Dojo

Jesse awoke once again, but this time, to a much better sight. A nice clean white roof with a blue tinted light stood above him. A pleasant smell was in the air, like that of flowers. He was laying down, tucked into a nice comfortable bed.

As he got up, he grasped his head in pain, but as he did, he noticed a large bandage wrapped around it, which seemed to of stopped the bleeding. It seemed whoever had found him last night had cleaned him up, taken care of his wounds and clothed him. He got up from the bed and looked around.

Quickly finding a large mirror, he took the time to inspect his new body, he didn't even know what he looked like yet. His hair was a dark, jet black color, grown to a mid-length. It was also quite spiky and seemed hastily cut. His body was skinny and seemed emaciated, but that was expected for how this body lived before. His face was decently good-looking, well as good looking as a 10-year-old could look.

He was cute, but slightly chiseled, showing potential to be handsome in the future.

"I was kind of ugly in my old life, not that it mattered when I didn't talk to anyone, but I guess I got kinda lucky with this new body..."

He thought to himself as he continued inspecting his body. He was about 4'10", maybe less maybe more. And lastly, he noticed a small but quite visible scar through his left eyebrow. There were probably some more scars around his body, but he didn't have time to inspect that right now. Instead, he noticed a faint noise coming from far away in the building. The sound of grown men yelling in unison.

Opening the door, he ran over to where the sound was coming from, and what he saw, was quite surprising. A school-gym sized room full of grown men (and some younger people), all punching and yelling in unison, seemingly training.

Up high on the roof was a symbol, the kanji for beetle, the same symbol was sported on all of the men's clothes. In front of it all was an old man wearing a black gi with the same symbol as all the rest, it seemed he was the teacher. His grey beard was short, and his hair was long, reaching down to his back. He almost immediately noticed Jesse when he entered the room and greeted him.

"Ah, you're finally awake!"

He waved at his students, signaling them to stop and take a break for now.

"So how are you feeling? Does your head hurt? Are you hungry?"

He said in a caring voice, acting like a worried parent.

"Uh, I'm fine, I guess. Where exactly am I?"

"You're at the Beetle School Dojo, my prestigious martial arts school!"

He said proudly, clearing wanting to show off.

"My granddaughter found you collapsed, covered in blood, what exactly happened to you?"

Jesse responded rubbing the back of his head.

"It's uh, hard to explain."

Suddenly, the sound of rumbling could be heard. Not a heavy rumble from the ground shaking, or anything of that sort, rather, Jesse's stomach was rumbling.

"Well, you can explain it all over some food, my granddaughter has some food cooking."

He said before beginning to walk over to the other side of the room, waving at Jesse to follow. He did and they went into a large dining room, the table filled with some of the most delicious food Jesse had ever seen. Placing one last dish down was a small young girl, she seemed about 13. Her hair was straight, long and light brown with straight bangs covering her forehead. Her face was reasonably cute, and she was surprisingly tall, standing at around 5'8.

"Oh, you're finally awake! I made a feast for you!"

Both Jesse and the old man were salivating in front of the food, ready to dig in. Both of them sat down and began to dig in. Immediately Jesse began to devour the food in front of him, he was starving after all. After all of them had eaten their fill, the old man coughed into his hand and spoke up.

"About time to introduce ourselves. My names Orzo, and this here is my granddaughter-"

He was interrupted by her enthusiastic voice.

"My names Truffel!"

"Yes yes."

He said coughing, slightly embarrassed. Jesse replied.

"My names..."

He decided to just go by his normal name.

"My names Jesse."

"A little odd of a name."

Orzo said before being interrupted by his granddaughter again

"I think it's cute!"

She exclaimed, grabbing and squeezing Jesse's cheek. Orzo lightly smacked her hand away from Jesse's face.

"Can we keep him pretty pretty please grandpa!"

"We can't just keep some random kid. We've got to find his family and find out what happened with him."

"Oh, come on gramps, you never let me have anything!"

Jesse just watched awkwardly as they argued over him as if he was some kind of pet or piece of candy. After watching them for a bit, Jesse made a decision of what to do. The squeeking of a chair could be heard as he got off and got on the ground. In a bowing position, Jesse exclaimed.

"Please let me stay and teach me to fight!"

"Eh?"

Orzo was surprised at his sudden exclamation, and his face had an awkward expression right out of an anime.

"U-Uh well, what about your fami-"

"I don't have any family! I have no home or friends either! So please, let me stay!"

Jesse couldn't miss out on this opportunity, this seemed to be at least a somewhat decent dojo, so getting a martial arts master to train him this early would be incredible for his journey.

Orzo sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Fine, fine, we have spare rooms..."

"Yay! We're gonna have so much fun!"

Truffel yelled out while suddenly hugging Jesse.

"Thank yo-"

He was interrupted by a now serious faced Orzo suddenly speaking again.

"Yes yes. Just know, training under me is no easy task, and I won't go easy on you just because you're a child. Here at the Beetle School, we train like hell. So you need to promise to heed my every word and train with all your might!"

Jesse had a happy, understanding smirk on his face and nodded.

"I promise I will. I'll do everything you say, please make me strong."

A similar smirk was worn on Orzo's face. In Orzo's head, he thought this child seemed surprisingly mature, and he believed he saw some potential in him.

"Alright then! You're now a member of the Beetle School. We'll start your training once you get a little more meat on those bones of yours."

Orzo said with a laugh before continuing.

"I expect good things from you. Oh, and Truffel, show him to the empty room next to yours, that's where he'll be staying."

"Yes gramps! Follow me, Jesse!"

She answered with a happy smile across her face before suddenly grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the room, leading him to his new room. All Jesse could feel was pure excitement. This was truly the beginning of his great journey, his journey to become the strongest.