Narrated by John
The games were fun, but I had other things in mind, which kept me from enjoying them fully.
Things like the tournament.
I walked back to the room, and went to my desk. I pulled my gi out from my bag, and changed into it. I looked out at the stadium from the balcony. Tomorrow, I had to fight there, and I had no idea who I would be facing.
I turned, and saw Anne entering the room too.
"Hey," I said as I walked out to the main room,"Got bored of the games?"
"Not at all." she said,"Just exhausted."
She looked at me, and said,"Wearing your training clothes?"
"Uh, yeah. I'm gonna train for sometime."
"But it's just the first day! Even you could take a break, you know..."
"I know, but I guess I'm used to training every day. And the tournament's starting tomorrow. I'd need some warm up before that."
"Yeah." She shrugged, and said,"Okay then. See you later."
I nodded, and went outside. I went to Mira's Bender school, and asked the man at the counter,"Excuse me, do you know if there's a place for the tournament participants to train?"
"Yes, there is a training area. Go to the orange colored building."
I looked around, and there was only one building that was orange. I went inside, and it looked like a pretty good place to train. There were three rings for sparring, and various training and exercise equipment.
I began my warm up, when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned, and Anne smiled and said,"Hey. I was feeling lonely and bored at home, so I decided to train with you! You wouldn't mind it, right?"
I smiled back at her,"Why not? I'd love a training partner to help me out!"
She grinned, and we did the warm up together. We talked about the tournament while exercising.
We were doing crunches, when she said,"You look pretty tensed since yesterday. Did something happen?"
"Nah, nothing happened."
"Then why the tension?"
"Oh, you know, just a tension whether I'd win the tournament or not."
"Why worry about it? I'm sure you'll at least do good, if you don't win."
"You believe in me way more than I do."
"Come on, just don't worry about it. Stay relaxed, it will help you in the fights."
"I'll try."
We finished the warm up, and then trained for two hours. We then had a few sparring matches, and I won all of them, but Anne put on a good fight, and nearly won a couple.
Finally, we came out of the gym, not feeling very exhausted. We could probably train more, but Anne didn't feel like it. I stopped too, and decided that I'd go even harder from tomorrow.
I looked at her, and said,"Today was a good training session. You've grown pretty strong!"
"But you have grown much stronger than me! Don't worry though. I'll get even stronger, and will surpass Benji too!"
"Not before me."
We laughed, but suddenly, a tingle ran down my spine. I sensed a cold presence behind us. I darted my eyes towards Anne, who'd turned serious. She'd sensed it too.
She nodded, and we turned and took our fight stance.
"Why so aggressive?" A toned voice said,"Relax!"
The owner of the voice stepped out of the shadows, and out came a boy of my age with black hair, and glinting black eyes. He had a warm smile, and wore a black shirt with rolled up sleeves, and light blue denims with white sneakers. His hair was messy and reached up to his eyes. He had a handsome jawline, and it added to his smile. He seemed calm and relaxed.
However, something seemed off about him. A cold feeling radiated out of him. He looked kind and generous, but he definitely had a different side too. His smile looked like it could turn into a frown any second, and he'd decimate us.
I clenched my fists. I could sense the power he had inside him. It wasn't much, but I was sure he was hiding it. I couldn't figure out how much his actual power was. He could be weaker than me.
Or stronger.
He held his hand out,"I'm Collin. Nice to meet ya!"
I nodded and shook his hand. His hand felt cold, and a chill ran up my arm.
"John Will." I said.
"John Will?" He mused,"So, you're the one who defeated Ethan? I'm pretty shocked. You must be very good! And who's this with you?"
"I'm Anne." Anne said, eyes narrowed.
Collin nodded,"Glad to meet you, John. I'm sure you have a good fighting spirit within you, because Ethan is one of the best that Class A has to offer, and defeating him is a hard thing indeed. But, he's just one of the best. You wanna know know who is actually the best?"
"Who?" I asked, knowing that he'd call himself the best.
He flashed an evil grin"Well, you're looking right at him. It's me. I am the best Bender of Class A. In fact, I'm the best in the entire school, or even the eight cities! And no one, absolutely no one, will ever take that title off of me."
He switched back to his cheerful smile,"Well, I look forward to seeing you all in the tournament! I'd love it if you all qualified. Same school, you know. Anyway, I need to go now. Bye!"
He waved to us, and walked outside the campus.
I exhaled a breath of relief, as Anne said,"Who is this guy?"
"Chris' other student. I never imagined him to be like this....."
She shook her head,"I don't know. He doesn't seem to be that strong."
"No. I'm sure. He is much stronger than he seems to be. And that, is what had me tensed since yesterday. And now, I've met him. And my tension has now increased even more."
"But, you don't know if you're even gonna face him! What if he gets defeated?"
"That would be worse, as I would have to face someone even stronger than him."
"Oh, yeah."
I shook my head. I knew that I'd have to face someone very good, but this guy? He gave me the chills, and didn't want to think about facing him.
Anne placed her hand on my shoulder,"Look, don't panic. Let's go back, talk to Benji and the others, and it'll be alright."
I never liked physical contact, but this time, I was too..... freaked out, I guess. So I didn't react, and simply nodded. We went back to the hotel.