Chapter 1 : Graduation

Gao woke up, sweat covering his face, probably enough to fill the bathtub. He had had the 'dream' again.He lumbered down the stairs.

"Morning Gao,"His mother called from the kitchen.

Gao gave no reply but his mother could see how downcast he was on his face.

"Don't tell me you had the 'dream' again?"

"...As usual you can read me like a book...Yup"

"Oh dearie…" Gao's mother passionately hugged him.

"Don't worry about me Ma I'll be fine. Heading out now."

Gao's Mom looked at the opened door with an empathetic look on her face.

"The poor boy..."

Gao walked across the street. It was quiet, eerie for even five in the morning. However, It was time for the final test.

When he got to the dojo he saw Yue standing outside.

"Hey Gao, Roshi has already gone in."

"Yup"

Gao face was sunken

"Why are you.. wait did you have the dre…."

"Yes I did! Why is everyone reading me like a book for Goodness sake!"

"Ahh sorry".

"No no nooo, I'm, I,"

"It's okay Gao. I know..."

Gao felt an intense heat towards himself. Why was he constantly holding onto the past and always making people worry. All the people in the town new about this quirk of his. Why!?

But more than anything he was sad he had offended Yue.

Roshi came out, a stoic look on his face.

"It's time to enter Yue"

"Understood."

"Hope your prepared, all I can say is that it's brutal,"

"Thanks I've got this"

"Go get em tiger,"Gao remarked.

Yue chuckled and walked in.

Gao hoped she had forgiven him, but wasn't to worried about that anymore. He wanted to know what happened to Roshi.

"Sooooo, what happened inside.

"That, my friend, is a secret I intend to keep."

"I'll give you a double lollie,"Gao pointed out.

"Wow man why are you blackmailing me, you're so mean..... FINE!"

Gao laughed hard. Wiping a tear from his eye, he gave a sweet to Roshi.

"What happened then?"

"Stuff," Roshi spitted out while licking on his double lollie. " To get a more specific answer you will need to deposit more into the consuming machine."

Gao looked at Roshi, eyes blazing like the sun.

"You what now! Uhhhhhh here is another sweet but before I give it to you I need exact details on what happened in there, and I need a prior payment of information first."

"Wow. Going all business man on me, your best friend?"

"A prior payment!"

"Sheesh dude okay, you're sounding like Aich.."

Seeing Gao's face, and how it was about to be engulfed by the tears of pure anger and misery, he stopped and said.

"The whole thing is basically an intense fight with Sensei Hirokoshi."

Gao's mouth dropped open. A fight with the Sensei. Gao suddenly noticed many bruises and scars on Roshi, head to toe.

"Endless sword strikes…"

One of Sensei's strongest moves (Endless sword strike was a frightening technique that utilised perfect accuracy to create many scars on someone's body to slowly weaken them). These attacks would be used at certain intervals to utterly destroy a person's determination and temporarily stop their resonance flow.

"All I can say dear Gao is that it is one hell of a fight."

"I can tell."

They waited outside, Gao reading a martial arts book(oh boy the meta) about the power of determination and focus in a fight, while Roshi was goofing around in his notebook. Suddenly a wound reopened on his forehead.

"Uhmm your head dude."

"Oh? Ah my head. Thanks."

Gao was worried for Yue and himself. How would they fare against Sensei Hirokoshi. And what in the world was the win condition? None of. Them could beat him.

"Hey Roshi, what's the win condition?"

But before he could answer Yue walked out.

"It's time to enter Gao."

Yue looked flushed, weakend, as though Sensei

had thoroughly taken her life away. Her eyes were dim, but she had a wry smile.

Gao noticed her demeanour nodded, and entered.

...…..

The dojo was as clean as usual. The floor shining, the mattress without dust, the spare kimonos sharp and ironed as ever. Sensei Hirokoshi sat in the middle, straight backed, eyes inflamed, his hair combed perfectly. Of course, all of this would change in a fight and Sensei knew it. But he did it anyway.

" Gao, number one in the Endless Dojo. Take your place in front of me."

He stepped forward, and noticed that his Sensei had a hand behind his back. Further observing this, it seemed to be tied on.

" Let me explain the graduation condition. To graduate you will need to make me fall over.That's all you have to do. As you can see

I have limited myself to one arm to make it more fair. Prepare yourself."

Gao knew he had to utilise the primal instinct that Hirokoshi had had drilled into himself to win. Because apart from that, their was no way on Falta (the name of the planet) that he was gonna win. Be prepared.