The Story of Konran

“........AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

There was enough acupuncture needles in my leg to trick a porcupine into thinking I was his brother, and Master Acas has assured me that he was very versed in healing arts, with enough experience and lessons that could have made him into a qualified doctor. Despite all that, pushing my ankle back into place and casting it with only Ki was still a painful….PAINFUL experience!

“Why does it hurt so much!!!!” I shouted.

“You broke your ankle,” Master Acas said, “Do you need anymore explanation than that?!?!?”

“I thought you were going to lessen the pain with the needles and Ki!”

“I did,” he replied, “and trust me, it would have hurt more if I hadn’t. But a broken bone is still a broken bone, and the truth is…..They hurt!”

He proceeded to wrapping my legs in some cloth, layers upon layers until my leg was stiff and unmovable. He then applied his hands on, and I began to see the shimmer of Ki around my legs. My leg began to heat up quickly from the Ki. It felt like my leg was on fire but not burning, as if I was near a campfire during a cold night. This felt better than earlier on.

When he was done he pulled his hand away, and my leg quickly became cold. He reach down to feel the wrappings, and found them hard as rock.

“What did you put on my leg?” I ask.

“Nothing special,” he replied, “those are the same cast wrappings that they use in the hospital. I used my Ki to superheat them so that they can harden quicker.’

‘Now hurry up and get off the table, we have a guest to take care of.”

Master Acas walked off to another room, and I slowly got off the medical table with extreme care. I grabbed a couple of crutches that were waiting for me by the side of the table.

As I was walking to the next room, I had some time to think about tonight. First thought about tonight, breaking bones hurt like hell. My second thought, which had more depth, was the excitement that I had felt as we took down the thief. For a few moments, I felt like a hero doing some good, putting myself into harm’s way to protect the public from a potential threat. I was feeling a rush that my past passion could not compare to. Maybe people call it being alive, or call it destiny. All of those phrases of immense gladness and exhilaration could all be applied to tonight. In fact, I could use all of them and still would not be able to accurately describe the happiness that I felt now. Not even the word happiness could truly describe how I felt now.

Ki, what an amazing thing. The doors it can open, the passion it can fuel, the experience that it can give, are all endless. It was on another level of existence that I could not describe. No words or past experience could ever describe what Ki is, and what it can do.

Even Master Acas had shown some pride in what I had done, and that was also a joy that seem to extend far greater description, if not equal to my joy for Ki itself.

I couldn’t help feel like I was finally floating on cloud nine…..so it confused me when I remembered that Master Acas called this Hell.

I paused for a long moment, thinking about that particular thought. Why would Master Acas call this life a living hell? With Ki, anything can be possible. Any goal, any dream, any desire could be achieved with Ki, through hard work. Tonight felt like it proved that concept of Ki.

So why call this hell?

I could not come up with any conclusion. Maybe as time goes by, I will be able to piece together what Master Acas had meant on that night. I will wait for details to come up to help me solve this mystery in the dark.

I decided to put this thought aside for another time, and instead open the door to the next room now.

I walked into a concrete square, an empty space with only a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Underneath the lightbulb was the thief, tied down and blindfolded with a senbon needle poking her neck, which I guessed was what was keeping her sedated at the moment. Her bag of gears were a few feet away from her, being expected by Master Acas. When he saw me come over, he gathered up the things and threw the bag at me.

“Here,” he said, “I want you to try and look at this stuff. Try and see if you can figure out her plans, and possibly see if there is a hint of who her employer might be and what he would want with this stuff.”

“Understood,” I said, “and what are you going to do?”

Master Acas walked over to the thief.

“Do you really have to ask?” he said.

He pulled out the needle from her neck, and immediately she woke up with a start. The thief began to wildly get the blindfold off, while at the same time trying to break her bindings. At once I began to see the shimmer of her Ki build up, and I rush over to try and secure her bindings tighter. The thief heard me, and slowly relax and turned towards my direction. Master Acas gave me a stern look that told me to freeze. Slowly he gestured towards her hands, and I notice that there were senbon needles in her wrist.

So she wouldn’t be able to use her Ki. I had a feeling that I should have known that, so I got worried for nothing. Master Acas motion his hands back to the bag, telling me to slowly go back to examine it.

I tried to do so, quietly so that the thief would not notice me. Yet, as I walk back to the bag, I notice that she was following my every movement.

“There’s no need to act like you are not there,” she said, “I heard you, I found you.”

I paused for a moment and looked over to Master Acas. He simply put he’s head in his hands. I guess there was no reason to be quiet anymore. He motion me to keep going, so I went back to the bags and began to look at the gear that she had.

“I’m going to guess what you were planning,” she said, “You tried to get me to feel like I was all alone in this room, to try and disorient me or even make me feel desperate for any human interactions again while you look through my bag and try to guess what I am up to.’

‘I will be honest, I could give in to that type of trick. I like to talk to people, and the silence just has a way of driving me crazy. But….I know you’re there, so I don’t have to worry about going nuts now.”

Master Acas walked over to her while I began to look through her bag.

“Well now,” he said, “you must have gone through a lot of these little interview sessions then. I have to admit though, a thief that is caught all the time is not a very good thief at all.”

“You can bite me,” she said, “or burn me, or cut me, or even pull my fingernails. I’ll admit that I’ve been captured a bit more than I would like, but every time people try to get me to talk, they would fail. I don’t move for anyone, nor do I said anything no matter what they do to me.”

I had to admit, though she claimed that would not tell anyone any information, she was still talking about a storm that was making my ears bleed.

“I think I like her better when she was punching my gut,” I blurted out, “at least she wasn’t talking this much.”

She laughed when I said that stupid remark.

“What a rude thing to say,” She snapped back, “didn’t your mother teach you about manners.”

My body reacted before I could think. I was at her neck, my hands grabbing around her entire throat, squeezing as hard as I could. Master Acas was surprised at my speed, and was standing stun for a few seconds.

Her mouth was open, but she was finally quiet. And yet, her voice was still saying ‘mother’ in my head. It was stuck, floating around in her annoying pitch, raving again and again, and the more I heard her stuck voice in my thoughts, the harder I squeezed her throat.

Master Acas finally pulled me back, and he did it with surprising force. He had me pinned to the wall, causing it to crack under the pressure of his push.

“The hell!!!,” he whispered into my ear, “cut that shit out right now!”

Back in the chair, I could hear the thief get her breath back, and with each gasp she would laugh. It was like hearing rusty claws scratching a chalk board. It was the type of sound that was so irritating, it builds an urge to smash it and shut it up.

I had the urge to rush at her again, but Master Acas shoved me back to the bag.

“Go check the bag again,” He said.

“Not like that will do you any good,” she said, “Even I don’t understand why I had to grab my employers request list.”

“She has a point,” I blurted out, “can’t make heads or tails of it.”

“Why?” Master Acas ask.

I walk back to the bag and gathered up all the medical syringes, blood bags and test tubes that were inside; all of which were empty.

When I threw it back at him, I said, “Everything is empty. If they were filled, then I can guess that she was trying to find an experiment to mix around with. But all she has is rubbish.”

“What is trash to some is top dollars for other,” she said, “and you ought to know, your whole life is a trash pile that is some use to your master.”

She was pushing every button that I ever had, every one that I built up and every one that I was hiding. I rushed at her again, and Master Acas had to grab me yet again. She must’ve heard the scuffle between us, because she began to call out with her insufferable laugh again.

“Feisty and hot headed!” she called out, “he would be perfect on our side!”

“I would not join any side that you are on!” I shouted.

She turned her head back to us, and gave a small smile that gave me a chill. All this time her voice was making me burn with rage, but her small made me feel cold, as if she froze me in my place.

“You have no idea who you are?” she asked, “I would have thought that you have some idea of what you are, what with that attitude that you have. I can’t believe that your master didn’t tell you.”

“The hell are you talking about!” I shouted

She smiled again and said, “You will see soon enough. Eventually you will know who you are soon enough, and when you do, you will be on our side.”

She chuckled again and settle back into her seat. Finally she was quiet, but my head was still bubbling with rage, yet I could not move. Her smile kept me still, making me stuck like a statue. I wanted to thrash her, break her apart, but her gorgan smile would not let me move towards her.

I finally broke from her smile, and from Master Acas grip, and turned away. It took some surprising effort to do that though.

“Well, what should we do now,” I ask Master Acas.

“How about duck,” she said.

I was really starting to hate that voice, and it made me turn around quickly again, a renewed dash to her neck building up inside me once more. But I stop in my tracks. This time, it was not her smile that made me still, but a circular disk between her teeth, and it had a blinking red light.

She spit it towards us, while she kicked her seat up and tried to slide close to the wall. Master Acas quickly rush over me before the explosion went off and filled the whole room in a chaotic furnace.

I could feel Master Acas’s Ki enveloping us for his teleport technique, pulling us out of the room. In mere seconds we were outside, safe from the blast.

I turn back and saw the abandoned gas station start to fill up with smoke. I was a bit relieve that the explosion only took out the basement. If the whole place was set ablaze, it would definitely attract the attention of the police.

“What a shame,” Master Acas said, “that was one of my favorite safe houses.”

The place did have an appeal. It was once a gas station for the interstate exit, so it was a fair distance away from the city. It had a very lonely, empty appeal that made it have an air of unpopularity and meance. It certainly made a great safe house to hide a Martial Artist fugitive, or it had been.

“It is a shame,” I said, “but at least she’s finally gone. I couldn’t stand her.”

“She’s not dead,” Master Acas said, “or at least we can’t assume that she is dead.”

“What!” I shouted.

Just as I said that, the grounds within the station collapsed in. The whole building began to sink into the ground, as if a creature from below began to suck up the station into its gaping maw.

“Woah,” Master Acas said, “I honestly didn’t expect that.”

“Yeah,” I said, “that was unexpected, and yet you expect me to believe that she could still be alive? She was in the middle of that explosion, and now a whole building would have collapsed on top of here. How could she still be alive?”

“Do not forget the possibilities that Ki can allow a person,” Master Acas said, “and whether the have Ki or not, never assume an outcome.”

“Well, aren’t you assuming that she could still be alive?”, I said

“A very good point,” He said, “In all honesty, I am only assuming that she is alive. However, I do believe that she survived because I have seen a Krav Maga martial artist do something like this before.”

“....Really?”, I ask.

“Never forget, A Krav Maga artist are willing to do anything,” He explain, “if an explosion can cause an escape, then they will do it. The last time I experience that, the Krav Maga Artist used the explosion not only to distract us, but to also burn his bindings. Once he was free, he used his Ki to heal a few wounds and fled before we were able to regroup ourselves.”

“Wow, I never imagine they can be that intense,” I said.

“It can be surprising,” Master Acas replied, “but in the future, be sure that you keep yourself ready around her, and not lose your focus.”

That was a good advice, but I knew that it was also a backlash comment. I knew he was also referring to how I reacted so easily to her comments. I was not thinking straight throughout the whole interrogation. I wasn’t focus as I was looking through her bag, and when I lost my composure I did not pay attention to what she was planning.

I knew very well that she escaped because I did not focus.

“I’m sorry,” I said. It came out so silently, so natural. Afterall, what else could I say at that moment.

Master Acas looked back at me when I said that. I looked up in order to receive my portion of glares and lectures. Instead, he looked at me with a blank stare, taking in small breaths that helps with his thoughts. He took another breath and relax his face. No glaring, no hits, only a stare of agreement. It was neither a supporting look nor a condemning look, and yet the feeling of acceptance had an air of support in it.

It felt good.

He let out another breath, and had a look of thought again, then ask, “Why did you get so riled up when she mention your mother?”

Somehow I knew he was going to ask that. Afterall, I lost control when she mention my mother, and I should not lose focus ever again if another person tried the same thing.

Unfortunately, I did not have an answer for that. It was a grinding annoyance whenever people mention my mother in any sense, but I could not understand why it bothered me so much.

I had only one explanation to this hurt that I have.

“I guess, it’s because I never had one,” I said.

He looked back at me, and I expected that he was going to ask for more questions. Instead, he had a thoughtful look, as if I gave an answer that helped him with his thought process.

“Before I accepted you as a disciple,” he finally said, “I ask if you could answer me some few question.”

“I remember that,” I said, “in fact, what is it that you wanted to ask me?”

“Question that I realize you cannot answer,” he said, “You have accomplish more in your few weeks of training that would have taken other Masters years to achieve. I had hope that you had a secret for me to learn someday, but I realize now that you have no idea why you are able to do what you can do.”

Funny how you had just realize that now.

“I ask you to become my disciples so that you can help me understand why I can do all these things,” I said.

He looked back at me as if in agreement and said, “Don’t worry, I will help you understand what is happening, and we will find out more about you.’

‘And I believe a way that I can help you discover who you are is by teaching you some styles that you seem to have a natural talent for.”

“A...a style?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, “after watching how you move, your natural tendencies and choices, I finally now know what Martial Art styles to teach you. And, I have a guess that it might have been something that you had learn in the past. So, if we study it more, than maybe we might find answers to your question, and mine.”

I heard him, and I understood his plan, my heart was pounding with a rush of excitement. At long last, I was about to learn Martial Arts. And just as Master Acas said, if I can master what he will teach me, then perhaps I will at last find out where I came from, and what I am.

“Master,” I said, “What style are you going to teach me?”

He looked at me with a smile.

“I believe you are ready to learn Wing Chun and Danzan Ryu Jiu-Jitsu.”