Today Mang Tou announced the three's participation in a local tournament for children of the ages 11-12. They would be three youngest participating. Usually, they would participate in the tournament for the ages 8 to 10, but their mentor was adamant about it.
Obviously, Leo was excited to finally fight for real in the ring. Sparring was all good, but he thought it was about time to get into a real fight and beating up bullies in the school was hardly satisfying.
After they trained and Mang Tou spoke to the three, Leo started to change into his normal clothes. In the changing room Lenny approached him after hesitating. He had his head down and it looked like it was difficult for him to say something.
"Hey Leo before you go, I need to tell you something." Lenny finally looked up. "Go ahead." Leo responded. He had never seen Lenny this hesitant before.
"I don't want you to participate in the coming tournament!" He said with conviction in his eyes. Leo was a bit surprised by the emotional look Lenny gave him.
"Can I ask why?" Leo finally asked. Lenny shook his head.
"I can only tell you that someone in the tournament will be targeting you." Leo didn't think that Lenny had any ill intent. It was a while ago since he read about manipulation techniques, so he couldn't tell for certain, but it felt like Lenny was lying about something.
"Do you know why?" Leo decided to dig a bit deeper, maybe he can puzzle it out himself if Lenny doesn't want to reveal the truth. Honestly, it was the first time Lenny had lied to him, exaggerated to brag perhaps but never outright lied to him, so he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"It seemed like somebody found out about your progress and doesn't want you to grow." Lenny answered without hesitating. 'At least, he made up a narrative.'
"What about you? I wouldn't say that there is much difference between us."
"My brother has some connections to the martial arts underground which is why they are hesitant to attack me."
'Hmm, that makes sense. Maybe I could ask why they aren't hesitant about attacking a student of Mang Tou, somebody who is renowned in this city but that could be easily countered by saying that they are targeting Mang Tou.
Still, Mang Tou should be more formidable in combat and in connections than Lenny's brother. I doubt he would stand by when his student, the son of a friend, was attacked.'
"So, they don't care about Mang Tou's retribution?" Leo finally asked.
"No, that's what I am trying to say. They are targeting mentor's students!" Lenny seemed anxious in the possibility of Leo participating, but… "What about Shunlei?"
"Her brother has some connections to the national Chinese martial arts organization here in Canada."
*Sigh*
"Even if what you say is true, I will still participate. If someone is targeting me because they fear my progress, then so be it. I can't stop improving just because somebody doesn't like it. There will always be people that will try to stop me, and I can't doubt my decision because of fear!"
Lenny's jaw clenched in frustration. "Why are you always so stubborn?! I am trying to help you!"
"If I back down now, will I have to back down the next time as well? What about in 10 years, do I have to keep giving in, so others won't feel threatened? If I give in once it will make me weaker and I will be more likely to give in again."
"Just sit this one tournament out, please!" Lenny pleaded with pain in his voice. Leo eyes hardened and frown formed at this. He glared at Lenny.
"I have said enough! Don't stand in my way!"
Lenny seemed surprised before he sighed. "I-I am sorry. I overstepped my boundaries. I can't force you to do something that you don't want to."
Leo's face softened again as he patted Lenny's shoulder. "It's alright. You meant well and you can't blame yourself for me being stupid."
Lenny only had a helpless smile on his face as he looked at the ground. Leo had already packed his things and stepped out of the room.
The tournament would be in six weeks, so Leo only had a bit of time to prepare. He would be refining his techniques instead of learning new ones. He needed to be steadfast and able to lash out with any attack under any circumstances.
A fighter shouldn't only practice one kick a thousand times under perfect circumstances, he must be able to kick even if one is off-balance, injured, tired or even sick. Only after being able to use their techniques under any circumstance, the fighter will have mastered it.
That is something he always believed in and besides there is only so much Leo can learn in six weeks and a complex move won't be it, so he continued his normal routine with his meditation, physical training, and his martial arts.
As for apparently being targeted by some bad guys, Leo wanted to talk to his dad. Obviously, if he really was targeted, he won't just accept a beating. He wanted to prepare in case something really goes bad. He had signed up for a tournament not to be cornered by dozens of people to get beaten to death or whatever.
Leo went home and told his father about the warning Lenny gave him. John will pass on the warning to Mang Tou, who will be alert on the tournament.
Maybe Lenny didn't want anyone to know of this but frankly Leo didn't care to keep it a secret.
Additionally, Leo made sure that John didn't pass on from whom he got the information from. If he passed on everything else to Mang Tou, Mang Tou would only know that there might be a threat but wouldn't know where John got that information from.
Either way, Leo's life continued normally with increased intensity. He was hyped to officially step into the world of martial arts finally.
He wanted to know where he stood compared to other schools. Since Mang Tou was adamant about them joining the older children, he was confident that he was at least above average. Obviously, Mang Tou had told them that the three were geniuses but Leo didn't know how accurate that claim was.
Mang Tou might just say that to boost their confident and we are in fact just slightly above average. Maybe Mang Tou didn't know how talented the average kid in the other school was or couldn't classify talent accurately, which was unlikely since he was an expert, but the possibility was there.
Obviously, Mag Tou's assurance of their talent, him applying them for the older division, Lenny's warning about being targeted for his progress all indicated that they were exceptional, but he couldn't get that feeling off that they might not be that great.
That they were underestimating the others or overestimating themselves. Ultimately, how likely is it that there are three geniuses in the same school of the same age? But maybe that was just his doubts making themselves noticeable.
The six weeks passed by quickly and everything seemed in order except for Lenny. In those last few weeks, he had a bit of a change in his style. Of the three Lenny's style would be the closest to that of a traditional Lethwei fighter.
Usually, he used his legs way less but now he willingly attempted to block most of Leo's kicks with his own shin. It was only a small change, but it didn't get unnoticed by Shunlei and Leo as they had to adapt to it.
Lenny also helped Leo with toughening him up. Leo felt like Lenny prepared him to take a beating. His shins and hands had hurt regularly for the past weeks. A week before the tournament they dialed down their training quite a bit.
Only technique, stances and meditation were trained. They didn't want to be injured or exhausted before the tournament. The last 2 days, they were completely free and had met up in Sarah's house.
At first, she was annoyed that Leo had brought the other two with him. She even asked him why he had bothered to take them to her.
After saying that he needed to talk to them about the tournament but still wanted to spend some time with her, it was no wonder why she looked happy to have them there.
She also looked smugly at Shunlei, who was confused by her demeanor and just shrugged it off. After all, it was clear that Sarah wasn't a fighter and therefore couldn't steal her sparring partner.
"Why don't you just spar with Lenny? It is not like it will kill you to not spar with him every day." Sarah said as she hugged Leo's arm who had a wry smile on his face.
"Because he can take a lot more hits than Lenny and doesn't dodge as much. It is more fun to feel your attacks hit." Shunlei explained.
Leo's face froze as he thought about her statement. 'Am I being treated as a living sandbag??'
"Ahem. Alright, Lenny you had some information about the other participants." Although, he thought it was a bit too try hard as the numbers of the participants was in the 200's and they couldn't possibly know about everyone, it was still a good idea to gather some information.
For starters, he would know who he should pay attention to, so he wouldn't get surprised midst combat, and he could maybe figure out who might target him.
For the next hour, Lenny introduced them to some talented children, who might beat them if they aren't careful. Nothing really stood out to Leo. There were some that sounded a bit exaggerated, but it might be just away to scare the competition.
"Man, your information is detailed. Does your brother have an intelligence network or something?" Lenny froze for a second before he scratched his neck.
"Or something. Hahahaha" He deflected. Shunlei was deep in thoughts. Probably mulling over the information, she got. It was just a shame that they got this information this late. Maybe they could have adapted their routine a little better.
Sarah was bored out of her mind and at one point fell asleep. At least she pretended to fell asleep to get herself a lap pillow from Leo.
Sarah's mother also came into her room and brought them some sliced apples which they happily accepted. Sarah's mother was another reason why Leo wanted to spend some time here because she was very nice...
Sarah's mother gave off a gentle motherly aura, coupled with that sinful body was captivating to say the least. If Leo went by her mother, Sarah would become a bombshell in the future.
Fortunately, Leo had a child's body, so he could appreciate her beauty without his body reacting. If they were teenagers with Sarah's current position it would have spelled disaster.
Eventually, they had drifted to other topics, mostly about tv series and comics before it was time to leave.
At the end Leo shook his head to Lenny after he hesitated to say something again. Leo knew that was Lenny's last effort to talk him out of it, but he wasn't having it.
Leo and his family drove to the tournament in the early morning. The drive didn't take long. They parked on a busy parking lot. Many people were heading towards the stadium. The spectator stand that could hold a few thousand people surrounded the separated areas for the individual fights.
Leo had learned that there were group fights as well but only in the adult divisions, so he wouldn't be able to watch any group fight live soon.
They headed towards the spectator stand and joined with the others, who already arrived and claimed an area as their own by placing their bags there.