Black Memory: Part 2

Saikyo sat outside with Seicho in his arms as they blew raspberries at each other.

"Alright, alright, you win dude." Saikyo said as Seicho laughed in victory.

"Hey, pay attention!" Loah snapped.

Saikyo and Seicho both turned their heads quickly in a cold sweat.

Standing near some trees by the cabin Loah was in a fighting stance. 

"This is a prominent technique on my side of the family. We are the only ones that hold this precious technique along with many others, which were passed down by our ancestors." Loah said.

"The idea is to let your body flow like a steady stream of water and strike like a ragged rock." 

As she explained, she demonstrated by doing some movements that correlated so well together it was almost like a dance. Nearing the end she striked hurriedly in a rough and ragged movement completely contradicting the dance's flowy nature, this left the tree with a crater that was deep, ragged, and twisted looking.

Both of the boys stared at each other and looked back at the tree, they were both fascinated.

"Back home they called this technique 'The Ragged Fist of The Juroklet Family', it is a famous move and some even tried to replicate it, but none could."

Wow, I really have gotten weaker. If my core was stable and I was back at my original strength I would've been able to destroy that tree by accident with only the tap of my finger, not to mention using one of my family's special techniques. Loah thought.

"Saikyo, your turn."

"What, me?"

"Yes, you."

"What?! I won't be able to do something like that."

"Oh please, traditionally us Zenoikian start training when we're only one years old, Saikyo, you're already four years behind."

"So every other Zenoikian my age is stronger than me?"

"By a lot."

"Ok then, I will try." He said with no hesitation.

Wow, his Zenoikian pride is starting to show already.

The Zenoikian race are beings that pride themselves on strength, that strength led to pride, the race has evolved so much that pride is a natural trait that every single one of them have. 

Their society has been a united one, so much so that there is no concept where the strong overpower the weak, simply that being weaker than any other being hurts their pride so much that they will train to be stronger, there is no Zenoikian that has went against this way of life since the birth of their race.

Saikyo got up and repeated his mothers movements to perfection; at the very end he switched the nature of the flowy water into a ragged rock, hitting the tree. After the punch landed nothing happened, there was a small dent put into the tree Saikyo hit but it was evident that the mark was due to physical ability and not technique.

"It didn't work." Saikyo pointed at the tree.

"That's because you didn't do it right." Loah smiled.

She brought him closer to the tree to analyze the technique more while explaining it to him.

"While you're doing these movements pretend as if you are gathering the air around you into your body, completely synchronized with the wind, and at the end exert all that imagined air into your fist. Upon making first contact with the target imagine the air twisting to the right, and at the deepest point of contact imagine the air twisting to the left, like a key." Loah explained while demonstrating, leaving yet another tree in a twisted mess.

"Woah…" Saikyo exclaimed in amazement.

Saikyo started to begin the technique.

"Remember, imagine the air as if it were your entire being, feel it with every part of your body, strike with your whole fist not just your knuckle."

As she explained, Saikyo felt more and more like a feather, falling gently through the air, never to be touched or bothered, if you tried to touch him right now, he'd slip right through your fingers... right now he felt as if he was the air itself. The next instance the all the energy he had gathered around his body went into his fist as he changed from a feather into a heavy boulder.

The tree twisted and turned in a violent nature along with some of the trees in the area behind it.

"Yeah! I did it! Mom, look at that!" Saikyo danced and pointed.

Loah looked at the area and her eyes couldn't have been spread any wider, this was so surprising that she was genuinely left speechless.

On the second try he got this good of results, man, if my Dad could see this he would never let Saikyo breathe sheerly because of the fact that he'd spoil him so much.

"Mom, Mom! Did I do it good, are the other kids still stronger than me?"

"Huh, uh, yeah you did perfect, right now, I'm sure you're leagues ahead of the other kids in terms of core energy."

"Core energy?" 

"Yeah, the whole thing about surrounding your body with air was just me trying to get you to understand how to gather energy into your core and exert it too, right about now you should be feeling a kind of vibrating in your stomach, that's your body becoming assimilated with your core."

"Oh, well, my stomach is feeling kind of tingly, it's weird." Saikyo said.

Loah laughed as she turned around only to see Seicho trying the technique that was taught to his big brother, but since he was still young he wasn't really paying attention and got the order of the steps mixed up doing the technique.

He started the technique by doing ragged movements as if he were a heavy rock, his movements didn't seem like a dance at all, every way he moved looked like it didn't fit the previous move he made. After that the chaotic nature of those ragged movements came to an end by his body suddenly becoming coordinated and his movements became loose and flowy.

 He striked, and at the deepest point of impact he twisted the energy right and left hurriedly, making a small dent in the tree resembling a marble in size and shape.

Loah and Saikyo looked at the boy in shock, they didn't think his chubby little legs would make it to the tree but completed the move. Nothing happened though, even though the small marble sized mark was still in the tree, nothing special had happened.

Seicho's eyes started to tear up as he sat down. Loah went to go pick him up.

"It's ok Seicho, you'll get it sooner or later, do you want me to teach you later?" She said as she rubbed his nose with hers.

"Mhm." He replied.

Loah looked at the mark Seicho had left on the tree, and reach her hand out to touch it. Upon feeling the tree her eyes dilated.

The tree... it's hollow. 

Loah ran out behind the tree hurriedly and what she saw was something that even she couldn't believe.

The tree behind the hollow one a huge dent in it that had looked ragged and twisted.

What...The…F-

Seicho started playing in Loah's hair, distracting her from what she had just seen.

Seicho, not only did he use core energy his first time trying, but he also made a new technique, he made… a Juroklet family original… at one years old, a genius, could he be a golden member?

A golden member, no matter where you go in the universe there are always creatures that are born in the same year, in Zenoikian culture, they call whoever is the strongest of all people born in the same year, a golden member.

As they walked back to their cabin, they saw Jin standing outside waving awaiting their arrival.

Saikyo looked up to face Seicho who was resting on his mothers shoulders.

"Did you really think you could beat your big brother?!" He teased as he flexed his muscles.

Seicho's eyes teared up and he dug his face deeper into his mother's shoulder.

Woah, did I go too far or something. Saikyo thought as he scratched his head nervously.

Loah felt the tears on her shoulders as she looked at Seicho and then at Saikyo. The boy broke out in a cold sweat as he tried to avoid eye contact, he looked to his Dad for help who was standing just feet away. 

Jin noticed his son's plea but instead he whistled while walking away as if he didn't see anything at all.

Saikyo's eyes twitched at the betrayal yet again.

How could you betray me a second time?! Scum. Idiot. Old man. Traitor.

Loah chased the boy around as Saikyo felt like he was running for his life, the whole Jin was laughing so hard that a tear could be seen falling from his eye. Saikyo quickly ran to his room and closed the door.

Loah, out of breath, had stopped chasing and went to put Seicho in his own room.

She slowly walked to her own room after. Jin looked at her as she walked in.

She was wearing a jacket around her waist, her beautiful purple hair was tied up into a ponytail, and she was wearing a sports bra. 

How am I supposed to hold myself back at this rate… Jin thought while looking away.

Loah walked over to him, and turned his face to look at hers. She kissed him as they both fell back into the bed.

Jin rolls her over and they continue kissing each other.

"Wait." Loah exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Jin said as he hurriedly stopped.

"My core, I think I may have used too much energy today."

"We could stop If you want-"

"No!...no. I'm okay, we can keep going." She said, touching his cheek.

They continued on as the night came to an end. Approaching midnight a voice can be heard ringing out in the distance.

"Fire Mages, Attack!" 

Like clockwork, fireballs were raining through the air near the cabin.

Boom!

The crashing of the fireballs could be heard for miles and the incinerating flames were burning violently spreading quickly throughout the forest.

Loah and Jin both woke up to the sound of it.

Saikyo ran in their room holding Seicho.

"They're people outside!" He said.

"Stay here!" Jin told them.

"No! I'm not letting you go alone-" Loah exclaimed.

"I wasn't asking." Jin said as he ran out of the cabin.

As he ran out, he saw a man floating in the air.

"Xavier..." He grumbled.

"Hey now, is that any way to treat a guest, old friend?" Xavier smiled.

"Mom, what's going on? Is dad ok?" Saikyo asked.

"I don't know, but, we're going to be ok, I know we are." She said, avoiding Saikyo's gaze.

Mom… If you're going to lie to me, at least stop trembling so much.

"Come on, let's go hide somewhere while your dad handles this." Loah said.

"But what about Dad-" 

"It's what he'd want." She turned around with tears in her eyes as she smiled.

Saikyo teared up as he dreaded what was about to come.

Pang!

The sound of them clashing was like metal banging against metal.

"Wow, it seems like you've gotten the hang of soul energy pretty well if you can make an energy shield now, then again, you never were good at using it." Jin taunted as he punched Xavier out of the sky.

"Come on buddy, it's simply that my support system has upgraded into a persona, something even you weren't able to do yet." He said as he rose from the ground.

As Jin rushed down to Xavier a purple bubble encompassed his body and he started to slow down.

"Though… I never said you were wrong, I have gotten better." Xavier whispered in Jin's ear.

"Aaron, search the house… bring me the Zenoikian." 

A man kicked open the door and started tearing up the house. Seicho was about to start crying when Saikyo quickly covered his mouth.

"Seicho calm down, it's just dad playing around again, he probably just knocked over a table or something, it's ok."

Seicho quieted down and Saikyo removed his hand as he nodded to his mother. The man entered the room and stood there quietly.

"I can see you."

Him saying this made Loah flinch a little.

The man started laughing aloud.

"Ok I admit, I didn't see you at first but my wind magic is more than capable enough to sense a shift of movement in the air, come out from under that bed."

Loah did not move even after hearing the man say this.

The man's face changed.

"I'm serious, come out from under that bed or else I'll conjure winds so violent they'll rip you to shreds, you and the little ones."

"Alright!... Alright… we're coming out."

As they crawled out she stood before him, he was huge, his belly was bulging, the man was not a pleasant sight to look at.

He grabbed Loah's face as he licked his lips.

"You're a real beauty… I've never had a Zenokian before, much less a princess."

He licked her face while saying this, making Saikyo angry. 

"...fist." Loah mumbled.

"What was that dear?"

"Ragged fist!" Loah yelled out as she punched the man in the stomach with the technique.

He flew out of the cabin, Xavier, who was still waiting for the man to bring out the rest of the family, was left in shock. The same man he had sent in to capture the family had been sent flying towards him along with a shockwave of wind.

Xavier looked down at the man who was now in his hands and could not be more terrified. The state of his body was gruesome, his belly was wide open and his guts were out for everyone to see.

"Aaron…" 

Loah walked out of the cabin with blood leaking from her mouth, she was holding her stomach in pain, but even still she confidently said aloud.

"You can threaten me all you want, but when you try to hurt my children… that's a line you should never cross."