Surpass

One month after the translator debacle, everything returned to normal in the Holy Land household. Few days after that event, Francis actually called them up, since they finally had a construction job ever since the RKD gig. Things were finally stable. The squad did their job from morning to evening and had a good sleep at night. Although, things were slightly different in Taro's case. 

For the guy who rarely sleeps, the schedule was tightly packed. In the early morning, he heads to the dojo and attends the training session. After that, he goes to the construction work alongside his housemates. Moreover, he never fails to attend the evening session at the dojo too. The dojo master was surprised by this tenacity. Taro had already talked about his job, so he thought that Taro might probably be slacking off at his job since this amount of stamina was impossible for a 'normal human being'; little did he know about Taro's real identity. 

After the training session, he heads back home where he ends up watching all sorts of midnight television programs. Except, this time around, he could understand the content he was watching. This changed his perception towards certain programs. For example, the most favorite television show of his which he thought was a comedy show ended up to be a serious soap opera about a dispute between daughter and mother-in-law, which was so bland that he wished to watch it like before. In such cases, he turns off his translator and enjoys it just fine. Although, some stuff, like the late night news debate continued to be funny even after the context. 

A random morning; Taro was getting ready to head to the dojo. He thought of wearing the dojo uniform that the master gifted him pretty early on, however, he remembered the master's words of not to wear it outside. He did wear it beforehand once and the master was not pleased. Hence, he placed it in his bag, which he bought with his money from a local street vendor. He didn't dare go to the Koma mall alone after all that happened. 

"Guys, I'm heading out!" Taro announced as he headed out. Although, he did say everyone, only Kunjan wakes up early. So, he might as well have meant it towards Kunjan. 

"Okay! I wish you a safe journey!" Kunjan, in his plankton form, greeted him with a smile and waved goodbye with his tiny hands. 

Taro smiled and headed out of the Holy Land. He looked up to the sky. It had a slight orange hue. It was beautiful. The weather was great too. He could sense it-that sweet feeling one might get when there's a great day waiting for him ahead. 

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Few hours later; at the dojo. One could see two people inside the dojo. It looked like the two of them had a practise bout. One was relatively fine while the other was sweating profusely. Anyone could clearly predict the outcome considering the state of the two fighters. As expected, the really tired man lost as he fell flat from exhaustion when he tried attacking the other guy. 

"Whew, that's enough!" The dojo master cried as he turned himself around to his back. Upon hearing this, Taro bowed deeply and helped the master up. "It seems that I've got nothing to teach you now." He chuckled. Although, he laughed, Taro could clearly see the disappointment in his eyes. The master was disappointed in himself as he felt that he wasn't equipped enough to teach the prodigy before him; the prodigy he once longed to be. 

Taro shook his head. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have reached this level, master!" He humbly replied. Even though the master was multiple levels beneath him in terms of power, he was still his master and deserved the respect that Taro gave him. 

Taro could feel the difference ever since he came to the dojo. Rather than being able to control the flow of his power like he did while doing the meditation or using the opponent's strengths like the Wu Long planet's technique, the martial arts here gave him the much needed stability. Once he got a complete grasp of the stability, along with his meditation techniques that he practised almost everyday, he could exert the right amount of strength on his punches. 

The dojo master smiled at Taro's remark. "As if! You're plenty by yourself. However, I really didn't expect you to learn everything within a month. Consider me surprised." He said. 

"That's because I got such a good teacher." Taro replied with a bright smile of his own. He still had to suffer from the glitches of his translator, however, he learned to live through it and the dojo master didn't mind it either. 

The master sighed. "Enough with the flattery! Nothing's gonna come off it." He took a deep breath before he tossed something towards Taro. 

"Master, this!" Taro looked at it and exclaimed. It was a black belt; the same color that his master wore. 

"Well, I wasn't joking before. This is the extent of what I could teach you. As of now, you've officially surpassed me." The master spoke. He couldn't even believe his own words. However, he was happy that he ended up with such an amazing pupil. 

"Master. Does that mean I'm not your pupil anymore?" Taro asked, looking down to the mat. 

The master could sense the sadness in his voice. He scratched his head. "Well, that doesn't mean you couldn't come back here and practice and stuff. This dojo will continue to be your home." He smiled. 

"Master…" A nearly teared up Taro hugged the dojo master. This was the second time an Earthling talked about home when it came to him, which would mean that this is the third time in entirety that someone offered him a place that he could consider as his own home if he considered Park Sinyim. This reminded him of his dear friend from Wados. He wondered what might've happened to him. 

"Enough with this!" The master tried pushing away Taro who had been tearing upon his uniform, however, he found it hard to do so since Taro's grip was so strong. "By the way, why don't you join the municipality's martial arts tournament? That could commemorate the culmination of our teacher-student relationship!" The master spoke out, desperately trying to get away from Taro. 

Upon hearing this, Taro let go of the master and got into thinking. "When is the tournament?" He asked. 

"Three days from now! How convenient, right?" The master chuckled. Well, he didn't expect himself to register his pupil to this tournament since there was no chance in hell that one would be able to prepare for it within one month. However, since this special pupil of his defied his expectations, he put forth the notion that he kept away previously. 

"And how long will it take?" He asked. 

"Well, depends on the number of participants who register into the tournament-or your category at least. So, it might end up early, however, it could also take an entire day to complete. Hence, you might have to take a day off from work. If you ask me, you might as well take two days off since I don't want you to get fatigued before the tournament." The master answered. 

Yet again, silence filled the dojo as Taro got into a deep thought. Few seconds later, Taro finally opened his mouth, getting rid of this awkward silence. "Hmm, as much as I want to jump in and give you my word, I have to think it over. Taking a day off could mess up my work schedule. So, I gotta get the permission of my mates too!" Taro spoke. 

The dojo master understood his concerns. "Makes sense! I can't blame you if you're busy. And I placed this before you with limited time too. So, if you can't make it, let's just participate in some other tournament!" He smiled. 

"I'll try my best to make it to this one." Taro replied. The master nodded his head. 

The next few moments were filled with silence. Taro and his master changed into casual clothes. Normally, they chat about something while doing so. But this time, it was just pure silence. Maybe, it was because of it was the final class. 

Upon changing, Taro quickly picked up his bag and was ready to head out. "I'll be going then." Taro proclaimed and stepped out before he got stopped by the master. 

"Taro, did you still think that the pupils taking off from this dojo is your fault?" He asked, reminiscing about the time when Taro blamed himself for his pupils exiting the dojo. 

"Well, since the kids left your classes more rapidly than before upon my arrival, I do believe I'm partly in fault in that!" Taro replied. However, the master didn't actually hear Taro saying 'partly' since it was in some other language. 

"If that's how you think, then you're wrong! As I said back then, they were the victims of their parent's mindset. I still stand firm with what I said over a month ago. You've proved your worth as a martial artist in this one month. And that's all I wanted from my pupils. I'm proud of you." The master patted his shoulders. This time, 

Taro sighed. "Did you just stop me for this? Stop being so emotional, man! It's not like we're not gonna see each other again!" Taro shrugged, giving out a cheeky smile of his own. 

"You cheeky bastard! You were the one who started it!" The master screamed and chased Taro who had already started running. They both had smiles in their faces. They were happy. 

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