Chapter 16: Execution

With her left sole on Deng Sai's face, Wong Yazhu used her face like a 'wall' and pushed off it, jumping back, before performing multiple backflips with her hands to increase the distance between them, then performing a high backflip with no hands, and landing atop the 100 cm tall and 3-meter-wide tree stump of the dead spirit tree.

She looked up to see Deng Sai now standing tall, dusting the sand off her face. "That was rude, girl," she commented, seeming impressed.

"You haven't seen much," Wong Yazhu said, clapping her palms in front of her face, drawing Deng Sai's attention. "What you are about to witness is the footwork honed from a hundred years of practice, one that would cause you to see double of me, one that would shatter everything you knew about martial arts!" she roared as she started performing multiple hand signs that Deng Sai didn't recognize in quick succession after each other. "Martial Art: Ghost Perplexing Serious Side Double Step!" she declared, clapping her palms once more.

There was a long silence, and Deng Sai was sure she saw a tumbleweed blow by between them. Then suddenly, Wong Yazhu started jumping from side to side, her red eyes locked onto Deng Sai. 'Ah, an illusion,' Deng Sai realized.

'Let's see what you got,' Deng Sai thought as she watched Wong Yazhu's side steps quickly become faster, turning into a blur until it looked as if she was standing in two places at once. "Impressive illusion," she murmured under her breath.

"But who is the real me!" Wong Yazhu roared. As the words echoed, two figures of the little girl leaped off the tree stump, soaring more than four meters into the air before landing on the ground and sprinting towards Deng Sai at an astonishing speed of 20 m/s. They crossed the short 5-meter distance between them in just a quarter of a second, their movements a blur to human eyes.

In what seemed like an instant, the two Wong Yazhus appeared 1 meter on each side of Deng Sai, shocking her with their speed as they immediately dashed at her. Both figures used the momentum of their breakneck sprint to leap towards her feet first, their bodies straight like arrows fired from a bow, aiming directly for each side of her head.

Deng Sai's instincts kicked in as she immediately focused on the one flying from the right, raising her right hand to grab the legs. However, when the feet slammed into her palm, the force she was expecting didn't come. In fact, no force came from the one on the right at all.

"Uno!" Wong Yazhu suddenly roared from behind her. Like before, she launched herself from a plank position, her heels slamming onto Deng Sai's lower back, right below her left hand folded behind her back, causing her to grunt and arch her back, her head coming behind her.

Before Deng Sai could recover, Wong Yazhu landed on the ground with her palms again, launching herself up. "Dos!" she roared as her heels slammed into the back of Deng Sai's head, which had come behind her due to her arch. The force of the hit sent Deng Sai's head up and forced her back straight, as if she was standing still, while the momentum from the hand launch sent Wong Yazhu 2.5 meters into the air.

She immediately spun in the air, using the centrifugal force of the spin to bring her right leg down on Deng Sai's head like a whip. "Tres!" she roared as her right heel slammed onto the top of Deng Sai's head, forcing it forward, with the centrifugal force also bringing down her left leg. "Cuatro!" she roared as her left leg slammed onto the back of Deng Sai's head, forcing her into a bowing position.

The centrifugal force brought Wong Yazhu to the ground as she landed in front of Deng Sai, crouched with the tips of her fingers on the ground before launching herself up with her legs. "Cinco!" she roared as the top of her head slammed onto her teacher's face.

The force sent Deng Sai's head flying back once more, her body arching back as the momentum carried Wong Yazhu 3 meters into the sky. In the air, she spun, using her upward force to send herself down to the ground, her body straight as an arrow, her arms folded across her face, her legs straight with her feet together, her soles leading her fall. "Seis!" she roared as both of her sandals' soles slammed onto Deng Sai's face.

The force sent Deng Sai falling back, the back of her head slamming onto the ground, with Wong Yazhu's feet still on her face. "This is the end." She then jumped up, clenching her right fist and clasping it with her left palm. She landed on the ground, her feet slamming onto the ground beside Deng Sai's head, raising dust. "Execution!" She then brought her right fist down onto Deng Sai's head like a catapult, slamming into her forehead as dust rose from the ground.

Deng Sai's right hand slowly fell to the ground as Wong Yazhu grinned, staring down at the woman. "I won," she breathed.

As Wong Yazhu stood straight, her fists on her waist like a superhero, she proudly asked, "How was that, teacher? Incomprehensible, right?" But there was no response from Deng Sai. Looking down, she saw her blank face, blood flowing from her nose. Her heart raced as she slowly kneeled down, placing her ear against Deng Sai's chest. After a few seconds, she noticed.

There was no heartbeat.

"She's dead," Wong Yazhu mumbled in shock. "I killed her." Her heartbeat quickened as blood rushed to her head, and her breathing became ragged as she scrambled away from her cold body, crawling away on her butt. "She's really dead..."

This was her first kill, and no matter how many times she had thought of killing someone, actually doing it was terrifying, especially since it was her beloved teacher. However, at that moment, a dark thought crossed her mind:

'Is this enough trauma to unlock the second tomoe of my Sharingan?'

She noticed that thought, causing her to grab her head, her fingers interlocking in her hair. 'What the fuck? I knew I was messed up, but what the fuck!?' She quickly shook the thought from her mind and returned to Deng Sai's body to check her pulse again.

She was definitely dead.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to lighten the mood, albeit awkwardly. "I think I went a little overboard with my 'Siete Deadly Wombo Combo Sin Execution!' attack," she chuckled, trying to avoid looking into the dead eyes of her teacher. "I should have stopped at one."

She glanced around the silent backyard—the dust, the sand, the spirit tree stump, the neighbors' houses, and her parents' house. 'Ok, what to do.' She bit her thumbnail, a habit she picked up from Wong An when deep in thought. 'Confess my sin? Hide my sin? What to do.' Her mind raced as she tried to decide on her next actions. "I can't just leave her lying here."

She decided to take Deng Sai's body inside for now. After a few attempts at lifting her, she finally managed to put her on her back, carrying her. Despite Deng Sai weighing around 180 lbs, it was now manageable for Wong Yazhu even with the body of a little girl after three months of intense training. She started walking forward, Deng Sai's legs dragging on the ground due to her tall frame and Wong Yazhu's short stature being the only sound.

Quickly reaching the back door, she used one hand to pull open the door with a grunt of struggle before walking inside the hallway. She glanced at the three doors leading to her room, the bathroom, her parents' room, and the living room down the hall.

"Where to?" she mumbled before quickly deciding, "My room is closer." She walked past her parents' room and pushed open her door, entering her room, throwing Deng Sai onto her bed with a little creak. "Old fucking bed," she mumbled, looking away from the body.

She then walked out of her room, looking at the little sand dragged into the hallway from Deng Sai's feet. She took the broom, sweeping it out. 'Gotta keep it clean,' she thought as she swept it onto the backyard.

Looking at the backyard, she noticed signs of fighting and the stain of blood on the sand. 'Too ugly.' Leaning her broom on the wall, she walked into the backyard. She then used her legs to scatter the signs of fighting, hiding the drop of blood below millions of grains of sand.

After standing back and nodding at her handiwork, she noticed the blood on her shoulder. "I need to get rid of—" She froze as she heard the front door open.

"Wong Yazhu! Deng Sai! You here?" It was Wong An calling from the front.

Wong Yazhu sprinted into action, entering the house like a blur, then into her room. She quickly pushed Deng Sai's body onto the ground; her body hit the wooden floor with a loud thud. This caused Wong An to hurry. "Wong Yazhu!?" she called out, entering the room to see her daughter standing with her hands behind her back, a big smile on her face.

"Hi, Mommy," she greeted, kicking her legs back nervously. "Why are you home so—"

Wong An suddenly cut her off, her voice sharp with concern. "Your eyes!" Wong Yazhu's mind raced—'Two tomoe?' But then Wong An's next exclamation derailed that line of thought. "WHY ARE THEY BLEEDING?!"

'Mangekyō Sharingan!!??' Wong Yazhu's thoughts spun wildly as her mother rushed over and kneeled in front of her, her hands cupping her daughter's face. "Oh, my goodness, why are your eyes bleeding, baby? Are you hurting?"

Panic rose in Wong An's voice. "Can you see Mommy? Are you going blind?"

"Do my eyes look different?" Wong Yazhu managed to ask, trying to gauge the extent of the transformation.

Wong An shook her head, her eyes searching her daughter's face. "No, but can you see me? Are you in pain? What can Mommy do?"

'No change!?' Wong Yazhu roared internally. 'I just went through the trauma of killing a loved one, and NO CHANGE!?' She didn't show her emotion as she replied, "It's just because I had it on for so long. I didn't notice because I was sparring with Teacher Deng," Wong Yazhu explained quickly, closing and then reopening her eyes, which returned to the normal brown. "See, nothing. I can see well, just a bit blurry, and my head is ringing."

Wong An's worry morphed into anger. "Where is that woman, leaving my daughter bleeding?" She started to stand up, but her daughter pulled her back down with surprising strength—a reminder of how strong Wong Yazhu had become.

"Please don't blame Teacher," Wong Yazhu breathed. "She left before my eyes started bleeding because she saw someone suspicious sneaking around the neighbor's house."

This made Wong An freeze. "Suspicious?"

Wong Yazhu shrugged. "I didn't see the person, but Teacher said I should get inside while she quickly checked something."

"She must be paranoid," Wong An muttered, not believing anyone in their peaceful village could be suspicious. She then noticed another issue. "Oh, look at your shirt. So much blood."

Before Wong Yazhu could respond, Wong An quickly said, "Remove your shirt; you need a bath," and began helping her daughter with her clothes.

"I can do it myself," Wong Yazhu said with a smile, shocking her mother before she smiled back.

"Look at my girl becoming big!" Wong An chuckled, lightly pinching Wong Yazhu's cheeks. "Okay, go bathe while I make something good for us."

Wong Yazhu grabbed her mother's hand, leading her around and walking towards the door while pulling her mother along, who let herself be dragged. "Okay, I'll give you privacy, Mrs. Grown Woman." The older woman laughed lightly, causing Wong Yazhu to giggle.

Standing in the hallway in front of her daughter's room, Wong An asked one last time. "Are you sure your eyes are okay?"

"Yes," Wong Yazhu assured her. "I just need a little rest."

"Okay, quickly bathe and eat so you can get some rest," Wong An said, patting her daughter's head. She walked away with a smile, saying, "I'll boil hot water," heading to the kitchen.

Once alone, Wong Yazhu closed the door and gripped her head. "Did I just 'unintentionally' hide the truth?" she chuckled darkly. "Damn." Her back slid down the door until she sat on the ground. "I done fucked up," she muttered.

She sat there for a few seconds, then stood up and rushed to the other side of her bed, where Deng Sai lay in an indescribable position. She thought nothing as she quickly arranged the body, then slowly adjusted it and quietly moved it under the bed. Thankfully, there was space under the bed due to the drawers being there.

Though it wasn't long enough to fit Deng Sai completely, "Just a bit," she grunted, and with some maneuvering, she managed to hide her so that no one would see her unless they came to this side of the bed, and even then, they'd have to squat down and look under.

Sighing, she sat on the ground, her back to the wall below her window, staring at her teacher's dead eyes under the bed. With a deep sigh, she reached out and gently closed Deng Sai's eyes.