Chapter 18 : Legends (end of volume1)

The news was spreading like a wildfire, every detector in the world had picked up the two errors in their readings. There was an eighth one out there. Nobody had any idea who it was but that someone had defeated the behemoth of China Ye Zhou.

the Hero's association headquarters was in a big mess as they were constantly getting calls from every media outlet in the world to get an exclusive look at the new legend but the delhi office in itself was oblivious to the identity of this man.

Abid khan had been stumped with calls from powerful people and politicians demanding the identity of this person. He had ordered Pooja to not give him any call that is not absolutely important. There were some people that only he could handle but Pooja was feisty enough to outright reject the most influential people in their face, hurting their small ego's but what could they do about it anyway. Abid khan had always sided with his secretary and this was not something over which they would ruin their relationship with the director of the association. Abid khan himself only knew the name of this man he had been trying to find for quite some time.

Rusjeet singh had decided to stay at the hospital with Ye after getting his own wounds treated. It was important that they don't make enemies out of the legend and also he needed some time to think about how to approach this situation. He had been so engrossed in the search and other events that it had never hit his thoughts about what's and how's of when he found that person. No wonder Jia was having difficulties with her sensing after they joined the college, the disruption from that aura would even numb him down if it were him instead of her.

Also Krishna was in the same hospital with Reema so it was a good idea for him to stay there for the time being. It would seem that Reema was in the clear now because of the captain of Lion's guild calling in the healers on time, the same healers also made it in time to the site of the fight when it was finished and managed to give preliminary treatment to Ye Zhou.

Every bone is the man's body had been broken from the fight it was a miracle that he was even alive but his existence was also a miracle of its own. Legends were indeed a breed of their own. How do you compare the people that no ranking machine could quantify. Ye zhou's recovery speed was also unlike others, the scans were already showing signs of healing and at that rate it would take him a week at most to get back to his old strength.

He was sitting next to Ye checking some message boards where almost all threads were concerning the 8th Legend, some were showing a dragon coming out of the sun and disappearing but it was said to be fake that such a thing was just not possible, there were already fans emerging for their unseen legend, some just speculated if it was bakshi saying his fights have never been described by anyone yet.

Then there was this one thread that was catching many eyes. Someone had managed to pull out some satellite image data that was showing a storm leaving the earth's atmosphere and two dots that could be barely seen.

'Did he just funnel out earth's atmosphere, He must be the first man to breath in space without a spacesuit.'

'Are we just gonna ignore that he can just have one bad day and decide to suck the air into one place and kill millions in one go.'

'Ye Zhou would not do that, he is an honourable man.'

'Yeah a man controlled by the chinese government.'

'You think any government will have the audacity to control a legend?'

'Why don't we just go through the gates and kill all the demons, how long will we have to keep depending on this barbaric fighting'

'The two left a part of city in ruins because they wanted to fight? How is that justifiable'

'If they had gone all out it would not have been just a part.'

'Who needs demons when we can destroy ourselves just fine.'

'Finally after all those myths about the end of the world, the end seems more plausible than ever.'

'F'

'F'

'F'

And so the thread went on with trolls and jokes but there was a point that struck with Rusjeet. Who can keep this behemoths in check, A society can set rules but they are only enforceable because the government holds the power. What happens when they don't, do those rules apply on these people. Who would dare to arrest Ye Zhou if he decided to kill 10 people in the middle of a street.

_____

Reema had woken up after many blood transfusions and personal healing from Jia and other top healers from lions. Anika who was herself in bandages had decided to stay there with Reema as her father was not in a condition to take care of her. Reema's father was brought in by Rajdeep daily who himself never came to meet Reema and went away coming back only to get Reema's Father back.

Amit rolled himself to the elevator but that day a familiar face had also joined him in the lift. Abhimanyu Roa was there alone with him on the ride above. There was a profound silence for a few moments then Amit said breaking the ice, "Good to see you again, student."

"Same here, master."

"Those flowers for someone?" Said Amit who had noticed Abhimanyu hiding a bouquet of flowers.

"Ah...yes." said Abhimanyu pondering for a while, "About that...will you do me a favour?"

Amit rolled into Reema's room where Anika, Reema and Jia were talking about something and bonding quite nicely from the looks. Reema hugged her father who had to always try and hide his tears looking at the condition of his daughter. she must have gone through some horrible pain and torture. Reema's eyes fell on the bouquet in his lap and said, "You brought these for me?!"

She picked up the flowers and Anika noticed they were Datura, something that grew on the side of the streets. Why would her father bring her something like that? Then she noticed Reema who was shedding tears slowly. She knew who was the one who sent the flowers and she had also been told by Nandini how Abhimanyu had fought with the leader's of the strykers for her.

When they were young and Reema was just 5 years old Abhimanyu would come to train from her father. Most of the days he would come injured with some bruises to show. He would always get in a fight with people and her father would always punish him for that. Everyday before the class he would also play with Reema in the backyard and hear her stories from the school time which seemed so silly to her today but he would listen and it would make her happy.

One such day he came with a cut on his cheek, Reema was worried her father would scold him too much for this so she went and brought out a first aid kit.

"Sit down Reema will heal your wounds. Teacher had taught how to use a first aid kit today in class so Reema knows her stuff."

Abhimanyu sat down at the porch in the garden lights as the winter evening was already dark. Reema took out a big cotton piece put some antiseptic powder on it and also some ointment, it was obviously not the right way but Abhimanyu played along. As she rubbed on his cut she asked, "Why do you fight? Fighting is not good, right?"

Abhimanyu thought for a while as he responded "It is because I am strong, It is my duty to fight for those who are not."

"What if it is a stranger or someone you don't like, like that khyati in my class?"

"Everyone is strong in their own way, my strength is something everyone can see, theirs is different so when you need help with something you are weak in they will help you too."

"Khyati doesn't help me she is just jealous because Reema has more friends than her."

"But that's because you are just too strong."

Reema laughed as she rubbed harder with the cotton feeling stronger. She applied a bandaid on the cut and sat down with her legs crossed, "Will you protect me brother?"

"You call be brother and you doubt me?"

"Now pay me." Said Reema smiling.

"For what?"

"Reema healed you, you have to pay her."

Abhimanyu had nothing to give her, he was from a poor family that barely paid for his school expenses but Reema's father knew his grandfather and respected him so he taught him for free seeing that he always got into fights. The next day he brought her Datura flowers and said, "Brother can't get you good flowers, I am sorry but please don't eat these flowers they are bad and wash your hands after this."

Reema was happy non the less because as a five year old to her it wouldn't have mattered if Abhimanyu would have given her a stone as a gift, to her what mattered the most was that it was given to her by her brother.

Abhimanyu saw Reema from the little gap between the curtains of the hospital window and left happy with a smile that she remembered that moment but even if she would have forgotten it he would have always kept his promise.

Reema's Father stayed for a while with his daughter but had to leave for physiotherapy soon but he remembered something he had forgotten to ask in the whole chaos, "Who was it again you said saved you?"

Before Reema could answer Anika said, "It was Krishna, I thought I told you about what happened."

He frowned for a bit as he scanned his memories for the feeling of deja vu he was having, "You did, it's just...nothing, just the memory on an old man, never trust it." and he left thinking about that feeling and gave up eventually thinking it must have been something worth not remembering as Krishna was not an uncommon name."

_____

Nandini was changing the bandages in Krishna's hands. The cuts that Ye's storm had given him had mostly healed. After the fight Nandini had taken Krishna to her home as Anika stayed back at the hospital. Krishna had been mostly silent in his thoughts after the fight. At first she thought he was just worried about Reema but even after she woke he had stayed the same.

Nandini applied the antiseptic cream and said, "Why don't you let a healer see this? He would do it faster and better, this might leave some scars."

"That's the whole point, I want to keep them as a Reminder."

"What kind of reminder?" Said Nandini recalling the scars on his body she saw that day. Were they also a reminder for him?

"I gave in to my anger, I would have killed him."

"But you did not."

"Just because Rusjeet came and stopped me."

Nandini tightened the knots of Krishna's bandages and said

"You only stopped because you had it in you to stop, everyone loses their way and it's never a shame to be reminded of the right path."

Krishna kept his head in her lap till the sun went down and he was asleep. Nandini was sifting through his lush black hair and thinking about the look in Krishna's eyes which was so different from the strength he had shown, if she had not witnessed the deed she would have never believed that this man could have brought down a behemoth like Ye Zhou to his knees with only a few cuts to show in return. At times he would sit like he isn't in this world anymore, was she even a part of that world he liked to stay in?

_____

Ye was managing to walk with a stick to support him for now as the bones had healed but his torn muscles still were still painful. Ye decided to give the man who defeated him a visit as he had learned that he was coming to the hospital daily.

To his dismay he had not yet arrived and the room only had the three girls. Anika stood up from the surprise of ye visiting and as did jia who was holding Reema's hand and healing her. Her senses were getting much sharper now staying among some very different foundations than the normal crop and she could feel the totally ridiculous aura and foundation of the limp man. How does such a man lose to anyone was a question she still could not answer because she was still unable to analyse Krishna's foundation, the man could suppress it all, his control over his power was absolute it would seem. She knew of people being able to hide their aura otherwise higher classes would have to be quarantined as only them walking down a street could kill many people. Still she had never had chance to meet anyone that could hide their foundation but then a counter question also came to her mind, if someone could do that, how would anyone find such a person, what if there were more people like him? People nobody knew about

"Don't worry, I am not here for revenge or anything, I just wanted to meet that man Krishna." He pointed to an empty seat and said, "may I sit?"

"Yes, sure." Said Anika as Ye sat putting out a sigh of relief and other two followed in his lead.

Ye looked at Reema who was slower in recovery compared to ye but was making progress, "You must be a very lucky girl."

Reema looked back at her condition and felt truly happy, apart from her current physical condition she now had a brother and some very good friends.

"Yes I am indeed the luckiest person ever."

Ye leaned back on the uncomfortably hard hospital seat as he nostalgically said, "I Remember when I was your age too, the passion of love is just completely different at that age."

There was a poker face on Anika and broad smile on Jia as she realised that both of them had very different meanings behind them. Jia put her arms around Reema's arm whose face was turning red and said, "Oh the young love, it's an amazing feeling, isn't it?"

Ye Zhou shook his head in agreement and said, "Yes, you must cherish your man, the moment the leader of tigers said something about you, he stood up tall and high for you."

Jia was enjoying the look on Anika and Reema as this conversation was getting more and more awkward for them, "Yeah surely nobody in this day and age would challenge someone like you for love sir."

Anika was giving a grim look to Jia as she was stretching out the rubber as much as she could without thinking about the rebound.

Just then Krishna entered the room and everything the mood suddenly changed. The two rivals exchanged looks and that in itself was enough for Jia to stop. Ye stood up with the support of his cane, he raised his hand to shake and said, "The next time we fight I want it to be alongside each other and not against."

Krishna shook his hand and Ye left the room only to turn back and say, "If you ever need anything, just say it and I will do anything in my power to do it."

After Ye left Krishna was met with a pouting face of Anika, A shy reddened face of Reema and a normal sinister smile of Jia. When Nandini came in she was also greeted with these expressions and the atmosphere seemed a lot more awkward. Somehow she felt a little threatened and caught on Krishna's arm. Krishna was oblivious to this, You never know what women are planning. "What is happening here?"

_____

A few moments later Anika took Krishna the cafeteria to talk about something. Krishna brought in a tea and coffee, one for Anika and one for him."What do you want to talk about?"

"I want you to train me."

"But I am already your teacher."

After the talk Krishna walked away with even more questions in his mind, questions he could not answer.

_____

"Why did he deny to fight?" Said Abid khan who was in President Sardar's office who had just had a talk that morning with Krishna about his decision to not fight in the next wave. he made that clear to Rusjeet singh when he approached him.

"He also wants the association to keep his identity a secret."

"Yeah, like that would work. The whole world wants to know about him, in all the five years there have been many high class heroes who have awakened their affinities but nobody came close to a legend and now suddenly a man appears after 7 years of disappearing, Kills the leader of a major guild, nearly kills a legend ,destroys a part of city and says he won't fight. There are very powerful entities out there in the world that are constantly looking for people they can recruit and it will only be a matter of time when they find him no matter how much we try and hide."

"Not just some man he is the son of the founders of this prestigious university." Said president Sardar shrugging.

"Yes, then he should stick to his parents legacy and fight for the people of this country."

"How about you try telling that to him, you think you can force such a man into doing something he does not want to do?"

Abid put his fist down on the table out of frustration and said, "That's the problem, if we can't convince him I am afraid someone else will and I am not letting that happen."

President Sardar leaned back as he said, "get over it Abid, You have more important tasks at hand. You said it yourself the east just lost a major power and as the head of association you need to make sure we are ready for the next wave. all the leaders have returned back to their respective places, even Ye Zhou is headed back to his country. If you keep sulking over things that you don't have and you might lose everything you have."

"You don't need to worry about that, I may be old but I haven't gone senile yet." Said Abid khan as he stood up from his chair getting ready to leave, "it seems that the guilds came to an agreement somehow, maybe they had a civilised talk. Abhimanyu seems to be more interested in east now to compete against the new tigers who are substantially less powerful with their leader's death and the same goes for strykers."

"I heard the Sardar patel stadium needs some repairs after that small earthquake."

Abid Khan smiled at the President who clearly needed no physical strength to be intimidating. The president had seen through his blatant lie. Abid had gotten the reports on the captains of three guilds entering the stadium and only one of them walking out unscathed. The rest was an easily derivable conclusion for him.

_____

Rishi was practicing his attacks to gain finer control over his attacks. It was harder to change states of water on the go and even harder maintaining multiple states as it required a lot of concentration and he knew doing it in training does not necessarily mean he would be able to do that in real life when it is needed.

He had been practicing it for a few weeks and had made a lot of progress and when fighting with anika he somehow managed to change the states on time but managing multiple states wasn't at that point yet, unlike the expression he showed it was much harder for him from the inside.

The recent revelation that his teacher had defeated a legend had indeed shocked him but that also explained how they were so overwhelmed in their daily exercises. There was clearly a massive gap between them, so much so that he could not see himself reaching there even when he looked at the horizon. This was affecting his concentration in practice along with the later feeling that he went over the board when fighting with Anika. He let his desire for revenge on his brother overtake himself and it was eating away at him. The frustration was piling up as with each passing moment he did worse than his daily progress.

He left his practice arena and dropped into his bed after changing and freshening up. It was indeed hard to break through a rank, with every fight the foundation would settle and it would become exponentially harder. How had those three made such big leaps in such a short time. Was it in some way related to what Rusjeet singh said about Anika's foundation.

'If upgrading is so hard how long would it take for one to become as strong as a legend' he wondered. Among legends there was no way of comparison, they were an error, a glitch in the matrix. The S5 rank was quite vast itself. He had read that the last 50% of recordable affinities were all in S5. There was a talk of further dividing that rank but they were rare in themselves, further division would mean each S5 getting their own unique rank and the idea was dismissed as being absurd.

Anything beyond S5 would cause an error in the machine and that's where the legend rank started. So the only way of comparing would be getting them to fight each other and that would be a catastrophic event in itself. It is also said that these seven know who is stronger among each other but nobody has dared to ask that question on their face as there is no data on that available in the public domain.

He stared blankly as the wall that seemed more and more insurmountable to him. what if there was just more gap beyond the horizon. What would be the right way to choose when you are surrounded by nothingness. There was only one way he could think of, one enemy he could go all out against, one man that stood tall across the horizon, if nothing he could at least follow the light of his flames and that man was none other than Krishna.