Haunting Memories

Another bolt of lightning forced me on my heels and I racked my brain for ways to end this confrontation quickly. The woman sent a barrage of lightning bolts at me, and I raised a small wall of fire to cover my body as the woman closed in to my side. I formed the wall into a whip and lashed out at the woman, forcing her to halt her advance as my fire began to spread across the ground.

I made the flames on the ground chase after the woman from the left while I took the right. It was a risky move that rendered my left arm useless in a fight, but the outcome was well worth it if I could get it just right. The woman was about to flee into the surrounding trees, but I knew that she had other plans. She vaulted over my line of fire and I immediately sent it out to surround her, however, she was all ready charging toward me.

I let my control over the flames slip as I called them back to me, narrowly beating the time it took for the woman to attack. Her fist rammed into my forearms, sending a jolt of electricity through my body before she kicked off of me and shot out a bolt of lightning toward my feet. I knew what she was going for, but I couldn't stop it in time unless I wanted to risk getting incapacitated.

The bolt struck the ground and caused the exposed dirt to explode, setting up a cloud of smoke to obstruct my vision. I could hear the woman's giggles and peals of laughter like we were in a large cavern, where echoes and reverberations were the only things you truly heard. My eyes darted in all directions as I concentrated and tried to discern her location, however, it seemed she was all ready a few steps ahead of me.

"This is fun..." A voice came from behind me as the woman licked my ear before punching me in the ribs and tripping me. As I was falling, the woman blasted my chest with a bolt of lightning, crippling my ego more so than my body. She bent over and ran a finger down my jaw before stopping at my lips and saying "My, you sure have grown into a handsome guy, Kenji. Say, how about you come with me, and I'll make sure to give you whatever it is you want..."

My face contorted into a mask of rage as I spat and said "You can take your words and shove them up your ass!" through clenched teeth. The woman laughed as she began to run her finger down my neck and over my collarbone with a trance-like expression on her face. Suddenly, ten men and women appeared in the clearing with a blinding flash of light before activating their powers. The woman stood up and adopted a pout.

"I was just getting to the good part...oh well, I'm sure we'll meet again, Kenji-kun..." The woman disappeared with a loud thunderclap, causing more than a few of the professors to click their tongue in annoyance. I sighed and released my flames, allowing them to wash over my chest and heal the burn from that woman's lightning bolt.

I stood up and brushed my pants off as Lydia rushed over and asked "Are you okay...?" with a concerned expression. I nodded my head and said "Yeah, I'm all good." as I began to walk back toward the academy. A man tried to call out to me so I could tell him what happened, but I was too lost in my own thoughts to hear him.

'That couldn't be...she's dead...it's impossible, I refuse to give in to these lies!' I was seething internally as I thought about the mastermind cruel enough to trick me using a familiar face. I clenched my hands into fists as my eyes burned with a black flame, almost as if it was reacting to my rage with its own. I left the forest and immediately went to my personalized training room. I needed to work off some steam.

My body was scalding hot and steam was billowing out from my pores as I began to throw out a flurry of punches. The ground beneath me trembled as I yelled out in frustration. I was so absorbed in letting loose that I didn't even notice the door to the room was left wide open. "That's more like flailing than training..." Lydia remarked as she walked in.

"Get out. I told you I'm fine, I just need to workout for a bit." I took a deep breath to calm myself as I willed my flames to cover my arms, shoulders, neck, and eyes. I expected it to cause me a lot of pain, but there was no pain. Time began to slow as the flames filled my eyes, and a newfound strength filled my arms as the flames covered my shoulders.

I knew that my strength was enhanced when my arms were covered in my flames, and I could only guess what would be next if I could get them to cover my entire body. The air around me changed completely as I closed my eyes and released my breath. Steam rushed from my body as I drew my fist back and executed a full power punch.

The earth in front of me shattered from the force of the shockwave and debris went flying as my hair broke free of its restraint and billowed down my neck like a mane; a large smile plastered onto my face as I gazed at the destruction I had caused. "So this is the power of the new generation, eh? Man, now I really feel old..."

I turned my head and saw the same man from the clearing. He had short, ear-length blond hair with crystal clear blue eyes and a thin beard that covered his jawline. "Mr. Takehito, was it? Are you doing all right?" The man laughed as he walked over and said "Please, if I got terribly injured by a single kick then I wouldn't be much of a retired S-Rank now would I?"

I sized the man up, and he did indeed have the presence of a strong warrior, but it was too masked for me to accurately gauge his power. "You're pretty sharp." Takehito said with a grin. I nodded at him and replied "And you as well." Takehito glanced back at the line of devastation I had caused before asking "Hey, how about we spar for a second?"

I glanced over toward Lydia, who was all ready moving toward a large boulder in the distance, before saying "I do not deserve the honor of sparring with an S-Rank Explorer." Takehito slapped me on the shoulder and said "Cut the crap kid, it's not like you're in a dojo and your sensei asked you to a life or death duel. I want to see the new generations power with my own eyes."

I blinked a few times before responding. "Wouldn't it be better to get the number one ranked student instead of me, who's number four?" Takehito shook his head with a smile, making me even more curious as to what this man really wanted. I took a few steps back before lowering myself into a stance and saying "All right then. Let's get this ov-" Before I could finish my sentence, Takehito was behind me with his arm over my shoulder.

"Again." He said as the image of himself in front of me slowly faded away before being replaced by the real him. My guard was up to the maximum now, and I thought I was ready for what he was about to do, however, I was severely mistaken. Takehito dashed forward at a speed I could easily follow before throwing out a punch with subpar strength. I immediately thought it was a decoy and tried to predict his next move, however, it wasn't.

At the last second, Takehito sped his punch up and slammed it into my chest, knocking me back a couple of meters. "Your guard is too high. You'll never win a serious battle if you're too aware and self-conscious. Again." I ground my teeth together in frustration as I got back up to my feet and relaxed my body. These "lessons" repeated for hours with me on the receiving end. I was always too relaxed, over-guarded, or wary.

But now...now I was getting the purpose behind this spar.

As Takehito was rushing toward me for the fifteenth time, I began to follow his movements and observe rather than try to predict his movements. I had been doing this all along, but I was more focused on other things than just simple watching his movements. Takehito feinted a left hook before delivering a spinning elbow.

I moved my head and watched as the strike passed by before using my open palm and striking out at Takehito's exposed stomach. However, all I caught was an afterimage. My instincts began to scream out at me and I turned to deflect a series of jabs and hooks before retaliating with a knife-hand into an uppercut.

Each of out hits barely grazed each other, but never truly hit their mark no matter how hard we tried. Our strikes generated shockwaves that increased in power as we began to put our full strength into our attacks, generating an ever-expanding crowd since the door to the training room was left open. The flames on my body began to slowly crawl up my neck and head until they began to form small pointed horns, however, I began to feel incredibly weak before collapsing to the ground.

My body was too fatigued to go on.

Protests from the crowd began to echo through the room as they demanded for me to get back up and continue the fight. Takehito sent a cold smile toward the crowd as he said "Now now, this wasn't a show for the public. I'd suggest you all go back to your rooms so I can bring my pupil to his without interruptions..."

Murmurs of protests were heard here and there, but no one dared to voice their objections loud enough for Takehito to hear after they experienced his monstrous power. Even after hours of fighting, his looked like he was in perfect shape. "Lydia, was it?" I heard Takehito call out, but my hearing was beginning to fade as I drifted into a very uncomfortable sleep.

When I woke, I was back in my dorm room with an unfamiliar warmth pressed against my chest. The first thing I noticed was I just so happened to be in the bedroom, couple that with the warmth on my chest and it wouldn't be hard to realize what was going on here. 'Sly bastard is using me as a damn pillow since I passed out...' I thought as I looked down and saw a mane of red hair billowed out across my chest.

Thankfully, I had a shirt on, however, that meant someone had to of put it on me. I began to mentally panic as I tried to figure out a way to get out of this situation without waking Lydia. As I frantically began to look around the room, I saw a not on the nightstand with a very ominous looking plastic bag on top. I focused my flames into my eyes and began to read the note.

"Since you worked yourself half to death, I went ahead and brought you two a little something. Don't get too carried away that you forget to come train with me tomorrow morning. Wink wink :). From the best and most handsome professor around, Take."

My face darkened as I realized that Lydia's previous words about the arrangements of the dorms must be true. This was not my primary concern though, for my uninvited guest was waking up.