"Just Doing Our Jobs"

Johan gazed down at his cuffed wrists speechless.

"I am fighting in the tournament tomorrow," said Johan, "I can't be in prison for a week."

"You are not fighting anymore," said the solider as he shone a flashlight in Johan's face, "For all we know you're one of the people killing off fighters to get an edge. You can fight next year."

"Please make an exception," said Johan, "you can escort me home. The city is in danger and I heard news that some mercenaries are planning to mount an attack to destroy this city."

The soldiers exchanged glances at each other with humorous expressions. They were clearly holding back laughter.

"That is the most far out excuse I have ever heard from a person who has broken the law," laughed a soldier. "You people are sure getting creative with your curfew excuses! But, the law is the law. You broke it and your reasons don't matter. Take this as a life lesson. From now on, you should be more aware. You know what we deal with yearly, it is as dangerous for us pre-tournament as it is for you. Being trained as a soldier doesn't make us invincible to guns. For all we know, you are one of the killers, especially, since you are in the tournament."

"Jim," said another soldier, "Tell Corporal Jade that we got another night prowler, she wanted to deal with and personally interrogate everyone who breaks the rules independently this year. Send a message out to the real killers."

"Serious?," said another soldier, "She is getting almost as micromanaging as Armyka. I pray that I never have to report directly to either of them ..."

Things had just gone from bad to worse.

Jade had tried to kill Johan, chances were that she would if they met again.

"Kid," said a soldier, "don't take it personally, we are just doing our jobs ... it is just one tournament and you are still young. I know how much this tournament means to many for getting a better life and obtaining opportunities."

CRACK!!!!

Johan clasped his handcuffed hands together and slammed it into one of the soldier's jaws, while ripping himself free from the grasp of the soldiers who held him. The soldier's head snapped to the side awkwardly as he collapsed onto the floor.

"UGhhHHHH!!!!," Johan grunted in pain.

Johan's fists was still partially broken and the strike had made it worse. His broken fist began to swell.

Johan grunted his teeth and worked through the pain.

[Five soldiers ... One down, four to go,] thought Johan.

Johan used the momentum of his strike to twist his torso to throw a spinning kick.

SWOOSSHHHHHH!!!

CRACK!

Johan's leg flew through the air at lightening fast speed striking the side of another soldier's neck, instantly rendering him unconscious.

Simultaneously, Johan let out a giant flash of light, using his mana to blind the remaining startled soldiers.

SWwwOOOoSH!

He again used the momentum of his first kick to throw another spin kick at a soldier with pin point accuracy on the side of the head.

CRACK! FLOP!

The solider fell to the floor as his entire body instantaneously went limp.

In less than five seconds, Johan had knocked out three soldiers.

[Three down], thought Johan, [two to go.]

"What happened!?," yelled the first solider.

"Get reinforcements!," yelled the other soldiers. "I'll hold him off! He used a mana technique!"

"I can't see!," yelled the first soldier.

Johan was no fool, he knew that the only reason he had knocked out three soldiers in a row was because they hadn't expected him to attack. However, these were men trained for combat, he didn't know how powerful they'd be if they actually got pre-emptive and used what they had learnt.

Johan did know they were feared and respected even by higher level fighters because of their unique training, supplements, and strength.

Johan took the soldiers temporary blindness as an opportunity to run away. He leaped off the ground, towards an alley wall caving in the ground where he had been standing.

He bounced from wall to alley wall quickly scaling the building and creating as much distance between him and the soldiers as possible.

Tap!

Johan's feet lightly hit the walls, as he carefully made sure that he didn't use more strength than was necessary to climb the walls. This way, it wouldn't cave in from the force of his leaps.

"I have to get out of these hand cuffs," muttered Johan to himself.

Umph!

With a grunt, Johan ripped apart the chain connecting the handcuffs. His training had been paying off, and his raw strength was back now that he wasn't in earth's realm anymore. He then bit off the cuffs with his teeth.

Johan's heart beat like a machine gun and adrenaline rushed through his veins.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEP!

Horns began to blare throughout the city.

"RED ALERT!," boomed a male soldier's voice on city wide speaker, "AN ACTIVE KILLER IS ON THE PROWL! ARMED, SKILLED AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! SOLDIERS HAVE BEEN KILLED! BE ON YOUR GUARD, SHOOT ANY NON-SOLDIERS OUTSIDE ILLEGALLY ON SIGHT PAST CURFEW HOURS UNTIL THE ENEMY IS FOUND, APPREHENDED OR DEAD! THE KILLER KNOWS MANA TECHNIQUES! BEWARE!"

Johan jumped to a ledge of a building and stooped down, crouching and staring down at the city quietly.

BANG!

Johan heard gun shots going off in the distance.

Spreading out his perception, he realized that there were several non-soldiers out at this time, he hadn't been the only one. Many were being shot, more people were running to find shelters frantically.

Johan's heart wavered as he realised people were being killed because of him.

Furthermore, he sensed that all the solders he had struck were dead. Their necks had been broken.

Once again, he had killed ...

He had killed three innocent soliders who were only following orders.

Guilt creeped into Johan's mind, but he quickly put it in a mental box and locked away the feelings inside him. Their deaths were not his fault or intention.

"I had to do it," whispered Johan to himself, "It wasn't my intention ... or my fault. Worse things will happen if I just followed their orders. It was either them, or me, and everyone in this city. They were sentencing me to death with their actions. I tried to talk it out, but they wouldn't listen. I tried. I must have gotten stronger during my time in Athelion's realm ..."

Johan gazed into the darkness out of Looking Glass City and saw the glimmering shadow of Silverblade's giant turtle approaching ominously. By his estimate it was still at a week away from getting to the city.

His heart hardened with resolve and determination.

"First, I'll go get dad tonight, tomorrow morning I'll hide Luisa and the others in the pits. It should be safe there from any bombings or attacks. Then, I will let everyone know during the tournament that they have to leave," muttered Johan, "everyone will be watching. I can at least save the people that listen ... I don't know what I am going to do about the Athelion ..."

Johan decided to head to Kru Bu's gym because it was closest to him.

-- Ø --

Johan made it to Kru Bu's gym.

The door was unlocked and walking in he found Kru Bu alone kicking the heavy bag.

BOOM!

Seeing Kru Bu kick with perfect technique made Johan pause. His movements were beautiful, elegant and natural.

In the mirror, Kru Bu took notice of Johan standing behind him and spun around stunned.

"Johan!," Kru Bu gasped. "I thought you had perished with the others. Jade told me she saw you die!"

"I am fine," said Johan, "things went terribly wrong in the training grounds, but I managed to survived."

"Thank the Buddha that you are alive ... But how did you get back without me?," asked Kru Bu. "How come you weren't transported out with the others?"

"I don't know," said Johan.

Johan felt like he could trust Kru Bu, but he thought explaining his entire adventure would be complicated and difficult to grasp. For now, he was here to train and impress at the tournament in order to get the support of an upper realm sect and get strong enough to protect his friends and take out Armyka. Keeping things to himself and making cover stories had simplified many complicated situations, often saved time and even gave Johan an advantage at times. In this situation, he decided that being straight forward with Kru Bu could turn troublesome. So he quickly came up with a cover story to minimize questions from Kru Bu.

"I was transported back directly here," said Johan, "But there was a time delay. So I think I returned after everyone else."

Kru Bu nodded thoughtfully.

"On occasion in the past," said Kru Bu, "I have been transported to other locations, but to think there was a gate from that realm to here. What happened was unfortunate and unexpected, no one has died there in the past. It saddened me deeply, and filled me with guilt, if I had known, I would have never taken you. So many of my dear students perished because of my folly."

"My fight is tomorrow," said Johan.

"I see," said Kru Bu, "are you here to train?"

"Yes," said Johan, "Can you help me? One on one training for your favorite student?"

"Of course," said Kru Bu with a smile. "Lets hit some pads. You must win in respect to those we lost."

"I left my fight card at home," said Johan.

"I looked on the fight schedule," said Kru Bu. "They'll send a transporter ball here to take you to the fight location at nine in the morning tomorrow. I hadn't informed them of your or the others deaths."

"Transporter ball?" asked Johan.

"Think of it as a flying teleporter," said Kru Bu, "but they look like floating tennis balls. They recently started using them in the last seven years. They army still uses high level technologies because arrays and many mana techniques and technologies don't work predictably here."

"Okay," said Johan.

Kru Bu paused a moment and said, "You don't have anything to do with the city alarms, do you?"

"Me?," said Johan. "Of course not."

Kru Bu smiled and picked up some hitting pads and said, "Alright, put on your hand wraps and gloves and hit some pads. Lets refine your technique!"

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