"Quint !!"
"Help !!"
"He can't breathe !!"
"SHIT!! You kill him !!"
In an instance it was chaotic. The huge boy's face was getting paler as he found his lung was not functioning. Quint was standing in his spangle, ready to receive any attack from one of the boys.
A boy angrily stood up, ran and about to attacked Quint, when suddenly a man appeared in between them. He pushed the boy away until he fell back to the ground. He then went to the huge boy to check his condition. His face turned a little tense to know the huge boy couldn't breathe. He turned into Quint with a dagger sharp glare.
"You stay there," he hissed in anger.
"Yes, Master," Quint said obediently.
His master then shifted his gaze to the little girl, "His lung is crushed. Can you save him ?"
The girl shrugged her shoulder reluctantly, "I suppose so.." she said in lazy tone.
"Heal him. It's an order!" His master said. He then turned his gaze to the boys, the huge boy's friends, who were about to run. He grabbed them all with one reach, then puncture a point somewhere around their jaws and one by one the boys dropped their bodies on the ground and slept.
The girl opened her bag and took out some kind of red ginger or other tuber. She sighed and shook her head. "What a waste," she murmured, then cut a tiny sliced of it, crushed it until smooth, and put it on a handkerchief. She did all of them very calm and slowly, almost like she was dragging the time.
"Hurry up, Miss.." Quint's master warned her.
The girl pouted, but obeyed him. She then approached the huge boy and squeezed the handkerchief that had the ingredient in it on to the boy's mouth. A thick red liquid was dripping from the handkerchief until finally dropped on to his mouth. She let few more drops of the liquid fell before pulled out her hand and stood. "Done," she said.
The man sighed in relieved. No longer worry about the huge boy's safety, the man took his two ways radio and gave order to the one across, "We need Miss Mila here. Emergency."
After that, what left was silence. All attentions were on the huge boy who painfully moaned incessantly. However he was able to breathe. His pale face slowly turned pinkies as his blood had sufficient amount of oxygen again. It was obvious that the liquid drops were working.
About fifteen minutes later, another man came. Quint recognized him as one of bodyguards in his home. A preteen girl walked rashly behind him. She gapped a little to see the scene before her. A second later she turned her gaze toward Quint and while smiling she gave him a thumb and winked.
Quint's master could only shake his head to notice it. "Miss Mila, please help to erase this event from their memories," he requested in respectful tone.
"Must I ?" The teen girl asked teasingly.
The man inhaled heavily to thicken his patience. "Yes, Miss. You must."
"Okay.. okay.. Leave them to me," she said unchantantly.
The man sighed in relieved. "Thank you, Miss." He then grabbed Quint and the little girl, each on his hand then disappeared from the venue in a blink of eyes.
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What happened in the woods was certainly not spared from his mother, thanks to his master's incapability of lying to her when she asked the reason they were being late. Quint's mother didn't burst into anger though. She remained calm but clearly disapproved with Quint's act.
"Why ?" she asked in solemn. Her gaze laid sharply on his eyes.
"He threatened to harm sister," Quint said truthfully. He didn't feel annoyed with all the mocks. But once he heard the huge boy planned to ask his cousin to hurt his sister, Quint in instant attacked him. His goal was only one. The boy must die so he couldn't execute his plan.
His mother's lips moved a little. so little that it could barely to form a smile. She patted Quint's head. "You may not murder anyone.. unless you are ordered to. Understood ?"
Quint stared back at his mother for a second, seemed like trying to understand her words. He then nodded. "Understood, Mom."
His mother straightened her stand and talked to his master, "Punish him."
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For the umpteenth times, Quint woke up when he felt his body was being lifted. Without opening his eyes, he knew that his master was the one who carrying him from his dojo back to his own room. It was nearly 10 PM when Quint finished his punishment, worth of a month strength training. He didn't have energy to move a muscle, not even to open his eyes.
"His killing intention is almost bursting out," his master said with a very low tone.
"Is it not because he was angry ?" his mother asked in the same volume.
"No. It is actually because he is lacking of emotion that his intent quicker to burst," his master replied. Quint could feel the man was stepping up the stair to the second level.
"How is his progress ?" his mother asked.
"He is much better than I expected. Still, he is far from ready," his master answered.
"He is also way below the accepted age," his mother responded.
His master nodded. "Yes, the youngest contestant the competition would accept is 12."
"Should he do camping ?" his mother asked, this time there was a slight worry in her voice. Somehow that worry warmed Quint al though he didn't know why she worried.
"Hmm.. I think so," his master said then laid Quint's body to his bed. Quint unconsciously sighed to feel the comfort bed. "But I must train his senses first."
Not saying any word, his mother covered his body with a thin blanket and kissed his forehead before turned the light off and closed the door.
Defying his willing to sleep, Quint opened his heavy eyes. His mind was disturbed to hear his master's words. Was his killing intent really bursting ? Was it because he almost killed that boy with one punch ? If it was not bursting, wouldn't he be able to kill with one punch ? Then.. wasn't to have a killing intent a good thing ? Why they wanted him to control it ?
His door knob was turned. Before the door was opened, Quint immediately closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. He heard few steps were approaching him. Then he could feel a hand was tidying his front hair gently.
"Hi, little brother," a whisper was heard near his ear. It was his eldest sister's. "Thank you for protecting me today. I am so proud to have you as a brother.. " Then Quint felt a kiss was planted on his forehead, followed by a pinch on his nose.
"You don't have to worry about me, Brother. I assure you that no one can harm me," his sister continued. She planted another kiss on his forehead. "Now, you better go back to sleep. Don't think too much. Everything's gonna be fine."
Quint opened his eyes to hear her words, only to see her smiling a second before stood up and walked out from his room.
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The next day, his senses sharpening training was begun. The main goal of this practice was, of course, to multiple the sensitivity of his senses to stage that they could replaced the function of other. So, Quint could see with his hearing or touch, hear with his sight or smell, and taste with his smell, sight or touch. In short, the next seven and a half months would be training of hell.
The first step was the harmless one, which was to hear with sight. Mainly, he was trained to be able to read lips, body language, and smells that surrounded him. Al though harmless, it was the longest step to be full filled. The calm Quint was almost frustrated trying to 'hear' a man's conversation toward his body language.
The second step was to see with his hearing and touch. The method was simple. Quint only placed in the center of dojo, blindfoldedly. His goal was merely to avoid his master's attacks, whether it was pain bullet shots, arrow shots, or knife throws. After nearly two blood-full months, the little boy was finally able to not only see where the attacks about to come, but also could describe things or persons based on the sound they made.
The third and most dangerous step was tasting with smell and touch. To be worsen, Quint only had a month to master it. His master used a cruel method. After being introduced to numerous poison, including their smells and how they felt, Quint was being blindfolded once again. He was then presented several options of foods and drinks, and must choose one that he thought was not poisonous.
The second method of this step was even more dangerous, as the poison absorbed by inhalation. Quint lost count of how many times he chose wrongly. Fortunately, his master had antidotes of all poison there. Still, the antidote only given to him after he felt their effects, started from itchiness and reddish skin up until nerves and breathing system failures.
It was saved to say, by the end of this training the merely seven and a half years old Quint had experienced numerous ways of die.