Darkness surrounded me. I was asleep but capable of thinking, maybe it was a dream of darkness. It didn't really matter much to me; I had just taken so much in at once I didn't really understand how to handle all these feelings. It wasn't just thoughts anymore; it was genuine anger and genuine pain, my body really hurt; my head was throbbing. That was the first time I had ever felt strong in my life, yet I was defeated so easily. I faded back into consciousness slowly, when I finally was back, I jumped up and looked at my surroundings; I was clearly back in my yard, but my body was perfectly fine, not a scratch on it, the pain was completely gone. It felt like I was falling into a flame of lies, what was even real at this point I thought. All that I knew is the fact that I needed to become a lot stronger if I wanted to beat this trial I needed to become a lot stronger. The problem is, I couldn't, with the condition I was born with, my stomach would cramp under any intense stress; I couldn't become stronger because I wasn't able to push myself as hard as I wanted to.
My choice was to return to the dojo to train, maybe my family would've been there, waiting for me to arrive. After fixing myself up, I grabbed my stuff and ran for the dojo; It was only a 10-minute walk. The way there was nice, you saw the green leaves growing in with a fine mixture of the pinkish white cherry blossoms in full bloom, with the blue sky it was a sight you wouldn't want to miss. The rain had cleared up when I was knocked out, but it remained gray and dull in the sky. I continued to walk the dirt path, avoiding roads and streets. As much as I tried to block it out, I wanted to see if taking an alternative path would lead to her. Each crunch my foot made in the dirt had me more and more anxious about returning to the dojo, I would only train on weekends, but it's a Tuesday now.
After my walk on the path, I saw the dojo ahead; I walked anxiously towards the door, the silence it filled every step I made with the fright of rejection. Everyone looked at me from the window, they had a confused look on their face, why was I even here? As I got to the door, I walked right through and saw my family, waiting there for me.
Me : Dad?, Brother?
When I said this, tears ran through my eyes, dripping outside of my moistened eyelids, I immediately ran up to them and bawled my eyes out, I screamed with sorrow and anger. They instantly knew where I went.
Dad : You took the trial, didn't you boy.
Me : yes, I'm sorry I failed you, I'm sorry I'm weak, I'm sorry for being such a disappointment. I hate myself for it, I'll never forgive myself, ever, I failed mom.
I said this so fast, my word slurred, my father looked at me with complete understanding, it was like he already knew everything.
Dad : Hachi, I'll put money on it she's not dissapointed in you, she loved you even though you may not be the same as everyone else. I get a feeling I know what you saw in there, Just know no matter what, I love you, I'm proud of you.
These words are something I never knew that I needed, even though I have these feelings of vast disappointment about myself, someone knew I was trying, someone was proud of me, that's something I couldn't give myself. I ran towards him and gave him a bear hug, and he gave one back. I didn't realize all I had to do was talk; I thought keeping everything to myself would avoid problems, but there was never a problem to begin with.
After a long needed talk proceeded these events, I had asked my father to train me, and I told him about the spirit powers. My father told me that there was a group of people in our family called spirit warriors, they used the power of spirits to gain a strength boost for a certain period. It was my ancestors' way of obtaining power. I was the only one in the family with a white mark though, everyone else had Neon marks according to my father. My father then offered me a one-on-one match, I instantly accepted, I needed to know where I stood in our family ranks. Luckily it was just him and his brother there that day, so if I lost, I wouldn't have to be embarrassed about what everyone else had to say.
After putting my uniform on, I stood on the matt and glared at my dad; I would not try to activate this power yet, After a long glare between father and son, He went in pursuit for me; I jumped forward and ducked right as he got in my face. He gave me a surprise look and then threw a punch downwards; I could catch it with relative ease. After realizing how bad catching that punch hurt, I tried to activate the spirit; I looked for the same tingle I felt when I lost the form for the first time, after I did everything around me went black.
UNKNOWN: So you're trying to use me again I see?
Me: Who the?
UNKNOWN: I'm your spirit, my name is Reighard, I'll make a deal with you, If you will allow a consequence to be placed on your body when you use me, I'll allow you to use me whenever needed.
Me: Tell me what this deal comprises and we might have ourselves a little deal.
Reighard: You have 5 minutes to use me for now, When I determine your ready to use my power more, I'll allow a more flexible use of me.
Me: Deal, just let me back into that fight already.
Reighard: Remember that you agreed to this, goodbye.
As he said that, the darkness turned into light and my spirit activated, I could feel the full potential flowing through my body, was I finally becoming stronger? I soon realized I had to move quick, I was only talking to that spirit for a split second; It was finally my time to show my father how strong I've become.
With all of my might, I threw a punch that pushed my father back a few feet. He looked at me confused, but he fixed his facial expression and put an excited look on his face. He seemed like he was actually going to fight back for the first time in my life. My body brewed with nothing but excitement. This new power enabled me to fight to where the strongest man I knew was taking me seriously. We went back and forth with blows for a few minutes, each of us holding our own, I could clearly tell he was using close to half his full strength, but this was better than the tenth he used to use against me. It was cutting close to five minutes; I was sweating bullets, and I knew my time was coming to It's end. My punches became as weak as an ant, my movement became sloppy, I needed to put everything into a punch and finish this. I charged my fist and focused on my movement; I Looked at him and saw my opening. That's when I ran up to him as fast as my frail body would allow and swung my fist past the place where he usually blocked and landed my final blow. This blow knocked my father to the ground, the damage to me was much worse, I fell to the ground and coughed up blood. My body not being adjusted to the spirit wasn't able to handle the aftermath of losing the power, with a combination of that and my sick body caused mayhem in my stomach, even though on the outside, I only had burn from the matt we sparred on.
Dad: are you okay, Hachi?
Me: Yeah, I should be fine.. I'm sorry for still disappointing you, I lost pretty bad.
Dad: Don't say that, you got me pretty good; I wasn't expecting your final blow to have that much power behind it, you're almost as strong as your mother.
Dad: I'm proud of you, son.
When he said this, it reminded me of what my mom said during the trial. Was she really proud of the new heights I've reached? Suddenly my body hurt, with the same throbbing pain I felt after I got home with the girl. I still didn't know where she was. I didn't really want to stop; I felt something charging threw my body telling me to keep going, yet I couldn't move. My mind was slowly getting clogged up, it hadn't hit me I still had so much I needed to do. This was where my stress amplified. My body shook, the pain was catching up, something was really wrong with me. I blacked out and faded back in. This cycle repeated for a few minutes. I could see myself in my father's arms, he was carrying me home. Something that has never happened before. This confused me, but I closed my eyes and finally gave into the torment my body was causing me.
I woke up in my bedroom, My pastel purple walls, white sheeted bed and the ceiling fan spinning like one of the roller coasters I used to ride made me feel okay, Nothing was wrong now. When I sat up, I saw my father looking at me with an extremely serious face; I knew something was up.
Dad: I need you to promise me you'll never repeat a thing I tell you to the rest of the family, What I'm about to say stays between you and me.