Chapter 16 : Tears Of Joy

[Duri and Marshy's house]

[Living room]

The 80 inch TV was sticking to the wall, and Duri was sitting on the red couch, watching the news, in which the news was showing Duri's fight against Yoshida.

Duri complained, "Aww! Why do they have to show THAT part? I got my ass rocked in the face!"

Walking into the living room with a plate of food, was Marshy.

Marshy replied, "He punched the hell out of you."

"You don't have to remind me."

Marshy sat beside Duri, and handed him his food. 

Duri said, "Thank you, time to eat."

"I'm glad you were able to form the shadow dragons from your arm. That shows improvement."

"Oh you like that, huh?"

"Ew don't be weird."

"Haha! Imagine. But, these news people could've just shown the parts where I hit him and transformed, not Yoshida hitting me!"

"Yeah, they want that damn revenue. Every news station is filled with money and story hungry reporters like that."

"I don't like it."

"Get used to it. They're everywhere."

"That's like, an invasion of privacy."

"It is. I'm glad you agree. Now, I haven't asked you anything about your day before the incidents that occurred. How was your first day of school?"

Duri took a bite out of his rice, and replied with a full mouth, "It was alright."

"Anything interesting happen?"

"Gym class. I guess that's what it's called. But we played a game of intense dodgeball, the teacher taught us how to use our power energy to manipulate objects and the dodgeballs."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. The exact same thing me and you did years ago when you were first starting to train me."

"Oh really? And how did you do?"

"I did awesome as always. The other kids were nerds, doing the same tricks I was doing. I didn't win because the girl Seven used a thin force field, and tricked me and another kid into thinking she was out but she really WASN'T."

"Hoh? Seven?"

"Yeah, she's…interesting."

Duri started to think about what happened between him and Seven in the bathroom.

Marshy said to Duri, "Seven is probably more popular and loved than the most famous pop star in multiple states. And she is the daughter of a former host. Both of her parents were hosts. One of the strongest."

"Why'd they quit?"

"They hate my ass! Hahaha!"

"A lot of people do, Marshy. And then there's those that worship you."

"Oh yeah yeah, I know. But, me and Seven's parents are rivals. Literally. Are you interested in Seven?"

"She's pretty as hell, acts boyish, has cool tattoos, and her attitude is pretty dope."

"You like HERRR?? OOOOOO…"

Duri blushed, "N-No! I don't! What a foul thing to say!"

Marshy made a jokingly seductive face, and said, "Haha! Here's some advice: grab Seven's hand, and say, 'Hello…SEVEN. Wanna go out to the arcade sometime?"

"EWWWWW. NO. NEVER. And…why are you encouraging me to be involved with the daughter of your rivals? Rivals that hate you?"

"Hm? I'm not scared of their asses. If you like a girl, then you go get her. The hell?"

"You're too cool, Marshy."

"Hehe, I know right."

The news continued to show the fight, and Duri sighed.

"How many times are they gonna play this shit?"

Marshy answered, "As many times as they want. The videos are going crazy on Bloggerz too."

"Lame."

Duri had finished all of his food, and he sat his plate to the side, and he leaned back on the couch, sighing again.

"Oi…Marshy."

"Yeah?"

"Can I see your Excalibur scythe?"

"Haha, what made you think that?"

"Just having flashbacks of that Conan guy. Been thinking about your weapon. So can I see it or what?"

"If I take it out, you could die."

"...I don't believe you."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah pull it out. That sounded…so weird."

"HAHA! Hold onto that band around your forehead."

"Why?"

Marshy stuck her arm out, and she used her fingernail to place a small cut on her arm, and her blood began to turn black.

Duri felt immense pressure, his head and chest began to screech in pain, he held his chest in pain, saying, "What the…?!"

Marshy stopped the bleeding, and smiled, "See? Told you."

Duri's pain went away, and asked, "What the hell kind of power is that?"

"That was me almost bringing out the full Excalibur scythe."

"It's in your blood?"

"Yep. To make it easier for me to carry. Mifu said he made it for me, but I call bullshit on that. The Excalibur is like it's own person, I heard it talk before, but the voice is faint, it sounds like multiple voices. It's like it likes me or something."

"What exactly will happen if you take it all the way out?"

"It could decimate half this side of the state."

"Whoa..that's overpowered as hell."

"THAT'S WHAT I WAS THINKING!"

"What about your parents? Do you remember anything about them?"

"...Sadly, no. All I know is that I came from another realm. And Mifu was somehow charged to train and protect me at all costs."

"Oh."

"I never got to ask you this, Duri, but what is that band around your forehead for?"

"Um…I don't remember. Oh, nevermind. One of the guardians of the Shadow realm, Band, made this for me. He said I should never leave it off for more than 4 hours."

"What will happen?"

"He never told me, but something bad will happen if I take it off."

"Mmm. Wanna take it off for 4 hours to see what happens?"

"I'm not scared of anything. But this is one thing that gets me anxious."

"Mhm, alright."

Marshy thought, 'When Mifu showed me Duri's past and memories, I didn't see where Band have gave Duri his band. I'm gonna take a guess and say that the band around Duri's head is sealing his true power. Is that why it's so hard for Duri to learn moves and perform them? He's been training hard for years, and the answer is behind the band around his head?'

Duri stood up off the couch with his plate of food, and said, "Thanks for the grub, Marshy."

"Ew. Grub?"

"Yes. The grub. I'm about to go to the training room and train and stuff like that, the usual method of training until I pass out type deal."

"Duri, that's something else I wanted to talk to you about."

"Lemme guess, I'm training too hard."

"No. Well, yes. What I'm trying to say is that you should rest your body instead of straining it so hard every night. I know you want to be the strongest ever, I know you want enough power to kill Zabel and the entire Arcane realm, I know you wanna find out more about your real parents…trust me, I know all of this. But if you train too hard, you'll hurt your body. That's why rest is an important feature in our lives."

"...How did you know?"

"About you wanting to kill off the entire Arcane realm?"

"Yeah, explain."

"Your journal was left wide open while I was cleaning."

"YOU LOOKED THROUGH IT????"

"Only that one page. I wanted to look through the entire thing, but that's an invasion of privacy."

"Laying your eyes on it is an invasion of privacy."

"No it's not. Looks like you're running low on pages too. So I got you something."

"Got me what?"

Marshy walked back to the couch, reached inside of it, and pulled out a black and grey journal with Duri's name on it.

Duri said, "You got that for me?"

Marshy replied sarcastically, "Nah it's for me. Of course it's for you, duuuuumy. Now you have more space to write all of your strategies down, training regimens, sets and reps of your weightlifting routine, and your combo and meditation techniques."

Marshy placed the notebook on Duri's head, and continued, "Get rest tonight, Duri. For me."

Duri looked Marshy in her eyes, then looked towards the kitchen area.

"Fine. Alright."

"Yay!"

Marshy hugged Duri tight, squeezing him hard.

"Thank you, Duri."

Duri rolled his eyes, and embraced the hug. 

(45 minutes later)

[Training room]

Duri was in the 40 foot tall and 60 foot wide fully white training room at his and Marshy's house. 

He was doing upside pushups in the middle of the floor, his feet were tied together as well, and blood rushed down Duri's head.

He has his journal open right under him, and he was reading it.

He read :

"Rituals. Rituals I learned here are a religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed and applied in a decorative order. Marshy told me rituals done right with the right ingredients and chants can do the impossible, and they hold tons of power. Our powers come from the sun, earth has a sun, and each realm has a sun. The sun is filled with radiation, modified radiation that makes the grass, trees, and flowers grow faster. Our cells and our blood absorb that same insane radiation, which allowed us to inherit the abilities of our ancestors, in which each sun was modified through a dark ritual to bless everyone with powers according to their bloodline and future."

Duri kept reading it over and over, he remembered when Warhol had mentioned that knowledge was power. Duri wanted to know everything about the origins of history.

Duri blew on his notebook, and the page turned.

The music in the training room played hip hop music, the base was bouncing off the walls, and Duri continued to read what he had written.

The journal said:

"I want to join the tournaments so I can beat people up. But I join to win rewards that will help me get stronger. Rewards that will allow me to get enough power to beat Zabel, giving me a boost. I can't slack. Shit, I can't rest. I'm never bored. I know what I fight for, I know what the hell I train for. Fuck anyone who gets in my way."

Seconds later, Duri was jump roping at insane speeds, with blood and sweat running down his face, dripping off of his chin.

As he jump-roped to the hip hop music, sharp silver discs were shooting from the walls, headed straight for Duri.

Duri started to dodge the discs, he was moving around while jump roping, the discs were sticking into the floor, and almost taking Duri's head off.

Duri was moving around and jump roping fast, his head was constantly strafing and leaning in different directions to avoid getting hit by the discs.

'Faster…faster…faster…faster!'

(11 minutes later)

Duri was in the middle of the floor again, and these all red target dummies began to jump from doors inside of the walls, and they were made out of strong steel. They had swords attached to their arms, and guns attached to their back, they had four robotic legs, and they had faceless red circle heads.

Three of the training bots turned their bots to Duri, and bullets began shooting out at him.

Duri flipped to the right, stuck his fist out, made his arm turn into a black shadow, and a shadow dragon came out, devouring the bullets, and then ate and crunched up the practice bots.

"Haha! Yes! Take that shit! Dumb bots!" Duri exclaimed happily.

Behind Duri, two practice bots came in hot, swinging with their sword arms. Duri turned to them, placed one hand on the ground, lifted himself up, and started spitting with his legs out like he was doing a breakdance move.

Wind and black energy surrounded Duri's legs, and the practice bots were kicked away, slamming into the wall and blowing up. 

Duri was breathing heavily, and his rib was hurting.

He held it, and said, "Can't stop…gotta get strong. Too damn strong."

More practice bots charged at Duri, and Duri was confident and ready. He couldn't get rid of the grin on his face.

He began to remember his training all the times when he was younger, he remembered practicing for hours, not being able to perfect his craft. In those times, he would cry himself to sleep, thinking he wasn't good enough, and thinking he wasn't meant to be strong since his progress felt like it was taking an eternity. He would get broken bones, and have a bruised, battered, and super bloody body after every training session. 

Duri was jumping over the practice bots, he would jump on their heads, grab it, and smash their heads into the floor, breaking it.

Duri turned around with shadow and wind energy around his arms, and he punched a horde of practice bots running at him, knocking them back and making them explode into the wall.

One 7 foot tall practice bot had eight arms with swords on its arms, and it had four cannons on it's back.

Duri said to the bot, "Come on! I'm ready for you. Bring it, weak ass."

The bot was running at Duri, and Duri kept a grin on his face.

Duri ran forward, and the bot was swinging all of its sword arms at Duri, aiming to kill him.

Duri was dodging them easily, rolling and sliding on the floor, jumping over the arms and everything.

"That all you got?!" Duri yelled as he jumped and kicked the bot in the chest, and that kick made the bot hit the wall hard.

The bot got off of the wall, and ran towards Duri once again.

Duri picked up a practice sword off the floor, jumped up in the air, and landed on the bot.

The bot swung quickly, Duri was standing in front of the bot, and was deflecting all of the sword attacks with his sword.

They moved back some, while swords collided and banged.

Duri did a backflip, then he did a 360 flip on top of the bots arm, and did a kickflip up the bots chin, sending it into the air.

Duri started running up the wall, spinning his sword behind his back. The sword started to spill out a black aura, and Duri was going to use the technique he used in school with the dodgeballs, controlling objects with his power energy.

Duri used his power energy to make the sword fly upward to the bot in the air.

The sword started slashing giant holes in the bot, making the bot spin and spin like a top.

Suddenly, Duri was above the bot, catching his sword that he threw.

Duri twisted the sword around his body, did a front flip downward, and split the bot in half.

"Haha! So weak!" Duri laughed.

Duri landed on the floor feet first and kneeling, and the two split halves of the bot landed on each side of him.

Duri stood up all the way, and he dropped his sword.

Duri knew what was coming next.

Out of the walls, 30 seven foot bots with eight sword arms came out of the walls and floors, rushing over to Duri.

Duri chuckled, and he raised his arm up.

His entire arm turned into a black shadow again, and wind surrounded it. 

The bots were closing in on him fast, their steel feet pounding into the floor hard. They were inches away, and Duri slammed his fist down into the floor.

Once Duri slammed his fist down into the floor, ten 30 foot shadow dragon snakes came out of Duri's arm, and they expanded quickly, stretching out far rapidly, blowing up and destroying all of the incoming practice bots that came at him.

Duri was breathing heavily, he was holding his rib, and he was still grinning.

"I did it…I'm getting…stronger. Too FUCKING STRONG..haha!"

Duri dropped to his knees, and he peered at all the destroyed bots around him, smoking and in flames.

Duri had tears in his eyes, but he didn't sob or cry out loud.

He clenched his fists on his pants, watching his tears hit the floor.

He kept getting flashbacks again, remembering when he couldn't make a single part of his body turn into a shadow, watching Jae easily do it, Duri was envious at times.