The key to Kendo

As sweat pours down my face, I reach for my phone, checking the time.

"6:26 In the morning. Damn." I say with a groggy voice.

Putting my phone on charge, I open the doors on the back of the van and exit them.

I look at the dojo and see that the lights are on, so I go ahead and make my way there. Opening the door, I hear the ding sound.

"Why are you here?" A voice asks me.

Looking to my left, I see Taylor sitting behind the desk. A laptop lay's open in front of her.

"I want to train a little earlier than everyone else. I would say I'm far below everyone else, in terms of Kendo." I answer her question.

"Well, yeah, I know that. I mean, why do you want to train in Kendo?" Taylor asks.

"Well... I suppose I just want to defend myself better."

"Nah. You have your ability. Which is to shatter whatever you touch, correct?"

"Yes."

This was obviously a lie. I knew if I put my actual ability on the paper, they would figure out who I really was. Luckily, it wasn't that hard to lie because they simply made us fill out a paper online. The paper asked for name and abilities, and that was it.

"You also have incredible physical abilities. The best I've ever seen, father even said the same thing." Taylor continues

"What are you getting at?" I ask her with a slight hint of darkness in my voice.

"Well, to be honest, I'm interested in you, fascinated you could say."

"Really. Why is that?"

"First, your missing eye is very intriguing. Second, your physical capabilities are unheard of, of course that's excluding any abilities that enhance your physical capabilities. And finally, I think you're kinda..."

Taylor's cheeks turn a bright red, and she starts to rub the back of her head.

Realizing what she's hinting at, I also start to blush. Taylor is a really good-looking woman, so nobody can really blame me.

Suddenly, someone claps their hands three times. looking to my right. Standing in the center of the dojo is Kaminari.

"I do not like the way you two are looking at each other. Straighten up!" Kaminari yells out. He seems to not actually be mad, but more so disappointed.

"Yes, Sensei!" I say, bowing my head.

"Daniel. I'm interested. Why are you here so early? Class doesn't begin until 12:00. You still have six hours to do what you want."

"Well, I want to train. I'm far behind, and I want to catch up."

"I like your spirit."

Kaminari starts to play with his goatee. His eyes enter another world. He must be thinking incredibly hard.

"Fine. I want to teach you something that if you master, you will become as strong as anyone else in this dojo." Kaminari says, coming out of is deep thought.

Kaminari then speed walks past me. My eyes trail him. Then they stop at Taylor.

"Good luck." Taylor says, winking at me.

"Thanks." I say nervously.

"Are you coming or not?" Kaminari asks.

"Of course, sensei."

I jog out the door.

"That's your van?." Kaminari says. Pointing at the van across the street.

"Yes, sensei." I answer back

"Good. You will drive. I'll tell you where to go."

After driving for what feels like hours, it only turned out to be an hour and forty-five minutes. We got to our destination.

Looking around, we are in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful mountains scale around us and dried up dirt beneath us.

We stand in the middle of completely flat land.

"Okay, before we do anything, we must walk away from the van. I would say about a hundred feet."

We both walk a hundred feet away.

Looking at the van standing so far away, I started to wonder what I had just gotten myself into.

Kaminari hands me a ribbon. Examining it, I notice it's a normal blue ribbon that's about 30 inches long.

"Tie it around your eyes." Kaminari demands.

"Is that necessary? I mean, I already don't have a left eye." I ask

"Yes. Now, put it on."

"Okay..."

I put the ribbon over my eye sockets, tying the ribbon tightly around my head.

"Now, I'm sure you remember the conversation I had with Zero about overcoming your own weaknesses. That's what you need to do, and that's what we are going to be overcoming today, or we are going to try and overcome them today, but it might take longer than just today. Now, let's start with your main weakness that I have noticed, and now that I say it, everyone notices. You're missing left eye, so to combat this disadvantage, you either cover up your missing eye with a mask so other people can't see your blind spot, or you can focus on being free. Moving as if your vision was a part of the earth. Moving as if you never even needed eyes. You see, the thing about missing one of the five senses is the fact that when you miss one, a different sense gets stronger, so in conclusion, you need to focus on hearing more, and sometimes you can rely on touch, but I wouldn't focus too much on your sense of touch." Kaminari says.

"Okay, so what am I meant to do?" I ask.

"Well, I want to see how good your hearing is right now, so I'm going to attack you with my fists only. I want you to dodge. Do not attack back. Just dodge. Got it?"

"Yes, sensei."

Immediately, I hear footsteps rapidly running at me. Once they have gotten close enough, I dodge to the right. A fist comes into contact with my stomach. I wince in pain, but continue to back away, trying to add distance so I can hear Kaminari.

"You're not lissoning. You're trying to use your judgment to calculate where I'm going to be, but that's not good enough." Kaminari yells.

Suddenly, I get punched in the jaw. The attack sent me flying backward. I hit the dried up ground, rolling until I stopped myself.

Quickly, I get back up.

"That's enough. I got the information I needed." Kaminari says

"But-" I try to argue.

"That's enough. You won't be able to dodge anything. Your hearing is not there yet."

I let out a long sigh.

"It's frustrating, I know. Not to be as good as everyone else because of something you never had any control over. That's why I decided to train you like this because I see myself in you, someone who had all the power in the world, but was let down by one factor. I won't let that happen to you.... Now, let's begin the true training."