After cornering her old Master to a wall, Rosetta used the face of her shield to bash towards him using the momentum she built up from her previous extremely sharp attacks. The overall power and momentum she had been borrowing from twisting and turning her whole body throughout the fight all focused into her final strike!
Of course, no matter how angered or frustrated she felt, she would never use any actual lethal moves when sparring with her Master, so he would probably be okay even after breaking an arm or a rib to this attack. The previous sharp strikes with her shield were all leading up to this one attack that would definitely knock Alex off his feet!
To her, this shield strike would end their spar without any surprises. However, how could Alex allow her to win against him so easily? His arms also showed a familiar kind of 'fluidity' as he forcefully redirected her strike with his hand.
He didn't try to recklessly use his fist to parry her attack to the side, but instead used his palm to execute a kind of 'slapping'-like technique that allowed his hand to stay stuck onto her wooden shield like glue. The suction force of his palm stopped her from escaping his grip even after redirecting the force of her final body strike, which had been aimed towards the centre his chest!
"Hah... What happened to all that self-praise about your personal techniques being created solely for self-defence? You'd just showed a lot of unusually large openings just now." The old veteran spoke casually as he used his large body and stronger frame to exert enough pure physical prowess to hold onto her shield. His Gecko-like palm was something even she was unable to shake off.
A sigh left her lips as she realised how she had been acting out of character as they fought.
She took a few steps back after letting go of her shield and sat where Alex would usually meditate in his time off. She didn't continue attacking as she wiped the sweat off her head with a towel prepared for her at the side. Rosetta ignored her master as he also stopped the intense spat to rest a little, putting her shield to one side before approaching.
"As usual, even your normal 'Vacuum Palm' is hard to escape from." Rosetta spoke about him wistfully.
"Don't sell yourself short. As someone who has taken my martial arts to new heights, isn't it only natural for you to have sufficient pride in your achievements?" Alex shook his head in response before praising her for being able to create her own interpretation and 'modern style' of martial arts after taking in his own... Her praise was too much!
The Vacuum Palm technique he demonstrated at the end of their spar might sound like a move straight out of an eastern fantasy novel, but the reality was that this skill undoubtedly existed.
This technique wasn't anything mystical like being able to pull a person from far away using airflow with merely one's hand. However, the fact that this technique allowed one to create a small sized 'vacuum' on the user's palm was true. The highest level of Vacuum Palm could even allow a Master martial artist to stick on a frictionless surface.
He felt it was a little strange to be praised about his Vacuum Palm when his disciple has already taken this basic level 'elemental' technique and upgraded it to a level where she could grab air itself...
The reason why she gave her martial arts the name of 'Mist Shield' was due to how she was able to incorporate the qualities of wind and water into the hybridised fighting style she had made herself...
When her soft hands moved, they brought with them a gust of sharp wind. When her 'weak' body (compared to other Grandmasters) moved, she was like a flowing river which borrowed worldly power like a stream, effortlessly nullifying his 'strength'. The only reason he was able to use force to subdue her was due to her mental state.
This was the origin of her 'Mist'.
If she was to be pitted against anyone else, there wouldn't exist that many in the world who could immobilise her movements so easily even if she did reveal a few openings. However, her Master was a different beast altogether compared to 'other martial artists'. He was a fighter who had mastery of borrowing worldly power and unleashing his own sometimes boundless physical strength intricately.
One may wonder why the person who taught her his own style wasn't able to mimic her despite being the man who taught her all she knew. After all... there was no reason he couldn't mimic the 'Art' of someone physically weaker than him, right?
To everyone who had ever asked him this kind of question, Alex would only have one answer: "Weakness itself is the greatest attribute and requirement of my disciple's 'Mist-like' technique."
Returning to reality once more, a wave of regret rushed through Alex's heart as he thought of his own physique's 'weakness' of having too much strength. The density of his flesh didn't make him happy, but only served as an obstacle to acquire the same technical quality in techniques achieved by his oldest disciple... He body was now too heavily leaning on pure and flawless 'strength'.
He despised his own body for obstructing him, but knew his body's state was desired by many...
"What I wouldn't give to change my past..." Alex murmured unhappily as he thought of his brother.
Will he ever be able to beat that 'Demon'?
"Master." His disciple spoke out in order to wake him out of his stupor. Which he snapped out of...
"Hmmm...?" He blinked a few times as he broke out of his daydreaming state to pay attention to her.
Then started speaking again:
"Oh yeah, we aren't done yet. I will not accept you abandoning your son like this." Alex became benign again as he spoke after suddenly remembering what he was talking about. A middle-aged man like him who was already past his prime wasn't able to concentrate as greatly as he was able to in the past. Age was also an opponent he'd never beat...
"Are you not even going to ask why I came to this decision...?" Rosetta asked while sitting down in a corner where her Master kept a small drawer filled with different martial art manuals.
'Mechanical Aeon Reincarnation Art', 'The Five Elemental Technique Paths', 'The Four Fundamental Internal Force Theory', and many more... There were a lot of books she recognised as she nonchalantly went through his personal belongings. She knew her master wouldn't mind, of course. It was not like he was hiding a secret stash of... inappropriate magazines underneath the combat manuals. So there was no problem at all!
(͠≖ ͜ʖ͠≖)
He wasn't some high-schooler after all...!
"Then please enlighten me. I thought you were being stubborn after blaming yourself for what happened to your husband even though it was completely out of your control.
No one can catch bullets easily..." Even as he spoke those words, a wave of sadness overcame him as he sat down besides her. His hands clasped together as he thought of the pain she was in.
The old man had always been one of the more antisocial kind of Grandmaster martial artists due to his upbringing as someone with a martial arts lineage (just remember his school life).
He had never met his disciple's husband before and had only heard a few about him from the times she would praise his cooking or something unrelated to martial arts. The thing he understood most was how his disciple really cared a lot about her 'ordinary yet caring' husband... Her heartbreak was only a natural result of this tragic incident.
"There's that as well, but that's not exactly everything. The biggest reason I want to want leave him is because I'm a little... scared of what the future holds if we stay together." Rosetta shook her head. A special person would be 'targeted' like her.
She continued with a downcast gaze:
"I don't want him to have no choice but to become part of this 'secret world' hidden in the shadows of modern day society. I want him to live safely and never have to worry about my circumstances."
"Please... just tell me the truth. What was the point of me joining the modern pugilistic world all this time? Is it worth it to train for so many years in order to enter our current era's version of 'Jianghu'?" Rosetta asked, throwing the secret manuals she held onto the floor in frustration. The woman could see no reason to involve her son...
(On a side note: Jianghu is basically a world of martial arts most Wuxia novels take place in.)
Now this may seem like the backstory of a generic martial arts protagonist, but that's only because it was. What would drive Alex's grandkid to grow stronger more than the prospect of finding his mother, who was thinking about running off?
Alex wanted to avert this trope as he didn't want his grandkid to turn into a Wuxia protagonist...!
However, she made a good point:
"Was there anything to gain from it other than a life where everything hangs in the balance? Why did you even introduce me to this violent world where people are killing each other left and right...?!" She grabbed onto his collar and interrogated him.
"I..." Alex was at a loss for words.
It had never really occurred to him that joining the modern pugilistic world of wasn't without its disadvantages. As a man who didn't have relatives or any family members to speak of other than his adoptive parents, he didn't have to worry about people of the pugilistic world taking revenge against him for personal matters. It was only now did he realise that his insistence on making her part of 'this world' had caused this situation.
He was about to respond with some excuses regarding how he wasn't able to predict such a thing would happen to her, or that it was her own fault for marrying someone who didn't have the ability to protect himself, but he started to feel shame, and hesitated. His mouth opened, yet no words left his throat after he made eye-contact with Rosetta. He couldn't say those words...
The anguish, the pain, the anger, the regret, and the resentment in her eyes was clear for him to see. He couldn't think of defending his careless actions after feeling the brunt of her emotions.
"I... just felt lonely." A look of surprise appeared on Rosetta's face as she heard her Master speaking such soft words. The old man remembered the days of his youth where he was ostracised...
The dark emotions in her heart calmed down as she, for the first time in her life, heard her master speaking such rare words of 'weakness'... The kind of words he would usually never speak...
"Lonely?" She asked while remembering the strong hand that helped her up when she was having a hard time pursuing her dreams in those optimistic and youthful days. The gentle yet unimaginably powerful figure of her Master in her mind from that time had never shown a hint of any emotions similar to loneliness... not until now, that is.
"The pugilistic world had always been an integral part of my daily life and 'reality'. Its existence and affect on the world had never been something that I could just ignore. To acquire absolute strength and ingraining my father's teachings into my heart has always been my goal in life." Alex spoke in remembrance to his childhood where his OWN Master had put him in the boundary between life and death to increase his power multiple times...
He never knew what a 'peaceful life' was even at school where he'd be bullied by gals and only knew how to train. The only people he would befriend in his life were either great Masters with varied skills or scheming politicians trying to recruit him.
When he finally broke away from his sadistic father who taught him everything he knew... When he finally reached the summit where those known to the world as 'Grandmasters' could reach... When he finally had the chance to live peacefully...! That was when he felt the solitude of having no one to look after him when he no longer had a 'goal'.
"It's true that I decided to teach you out of a whim. However, that was not the case after had I gotten to know you, my dear disciple." He continued while gently removing her trembling hands off his collar.
He looked at the manuals she threw onto the floor and picked them up one by one. Rosetta was unable to look at her Master's old and melancholic figure as she turned her head away from him.
Tears finally started to emerge from her sky blue eyes as Alex's words had a large affect on her. The filial affection she had towards her Master was more than what she had for even her own father.
Who was it that helped her in times when she was in need? Who was it that guided her when she felt lost? If it wasn't for the fact that she had always had a hard time controlling her emotions and had finally let her negative emotions run loose without any restrictions, she wouldn't have dared to treat her oh-so-dear Master so disrespectfully...!
"Stop it. I don't want to hear any more of this." She stood up and was about to leave, but a hand grabbed her wrist and stopped her from going any further. Even without gripping her strongly, she couldn't find it within herself to shake him off.
"Rosetta, my disciple." Her Master called out to her in a consoling voice, then he continued with:
"I remember back then: You had never treated the pugilistic world as a place with 'advantages' or 'benefits'. At first, you too trained to achieve a goal just like I did. You worked hard and put in the effort to show everyone that becoming a businesswoman was possible for you to achieve." She pushed away his hand yet refused to turn around to face him.
Her expression looked thoughtful as she wiped away the tears streaming down on her face...
He continued to speak:
"You even became the CEO of your own company... but there was something more to it than that which pushed you further than everyone else, and that was your love for martial arts. I know you'll regret this choice of yours after a few year... I know you well enough to understand that. You are too affectionate for this cruel society... That's why I'll-"
"You'll what?" Rosetta interrupted with a serious expression after gaining control of her chaotic emotions. Her eyes sharpened as she finally regained her bearings and stood firm.
"That's why I've decided: I'm coming over to be his Grandpa!" Alex said as he clenched his fist in determination. His eyes were on fire as he displayed his conviction to travel to where she lived! This answer left her complete stunned...!
"...Huh?"
Rosetta emotions were like this: �(ﾟ□ﾟ*川
She understood all his words separately, but had no clue to what he implied when all together.
"You're most likely scared that something would happen to your son if you left him alone with an ordinary nanny by himself. That's why I've decided to become his personal bodyguard twenty four hours a day and seven days a week!
It's a better way to keep him safe than cutting all relations with him and pretending you never gave birth to this kid of yours." Alex was on a role as it seemed like he thought everything through.
Alex's cartoonish excitement translated weirdly in his body language as he looked like this: ᕕ༼✪ل͜✪༽ᕗ
His eyes were burning with enthusiasm as it had been a long time since he'd done anything difficult.
Rosetta went silent for a moment as she seemed moved by his proposal, but she still asked:
"Master, are you sure about this...?" A mix of excitement and anticipation ran through her heart as she believed that everything would be fine now that her master was going to accompany her!
The reason she never thought about the possibility of asking her master for help was due to how she couldn't imagine her technologically challenged Master becoming a 'nanny' to her son.
In fact, he actually seemed to hate going to cities in general. Even his Dojo was located far from where she lived in a part of town that was more rural than anything else... He even had a box-like TV in his living room instead of a HD flatscreen despite having money for it! It was to the point that she was a little worried about how he would adapt...
"No worries~!" The old man patted his chest with pride and lifted his nose, feeling like a genius!
His atmosphere was like this: (ノ´＿ゝ｀）ノ
Alex was so proud of himself as he lifted his arms up like he was the winner of a boxing match.
"You're son will be safe and sound in thse old but powerful hands of mine. I promise that as long as I am breathing, no one will ever be able to bring your son any kind of harm!" These words were like a soothing breeze that calmed her down.
"...Thank you." She responded to him gratefully.
She may never be able to overcome the despair of her husband's death, but with her powerful Master watching over her son, she was sure that such a tragedy will never happen again!
After all, Alex was still considered a monstrous freak of nature even though he was not at all in his prime anymore... Don't forget: Alex is a Super Badass! How could modern society daunt him?!
But what both Alex and Rosetta were unaware of at this moment was the fact that their decision today would lay the foundation for the future expert who would one day throw another world into chaos.
Well, that's a long story for another time... What's more important is that today would be the day he would actually raise the child who would become his final disciple. A powerhouse of the future...
This boy with great fate was named Jack Solomon!