We walk away from the crowd. We all have happy faces, and we were overjoyed. But our stomachs said otherwise. Our stomachs growled and we immediately went out to get some food. With all the items we had sold we made a lot of money. Enough to feed a family for years. We quickly decided to get FRIED CHICKEN! I was looking forward to it very much... I hadn't eaten any junk food in 2 years.. so I was CRAVING fried chicken. We set foot into the restaurant and see our faces on the news.. with the headline "A THREE MAN SQUAD CLEARS THE FIRST FLOOR 1 OF THE TOWER IN CENTRAL DISTRICT SINGLEHANDEDLY" all of the people in there clap for us. The restaurant owner even agreed to give a free meal for our big achievement. It felt bad, but I couldn't resist. I just HAD to eat some fried chicken. We ate and ate SO MUCH FOOD. "THIS CHICKEN IS SO GOOD," said Haru and Mayumi. We were full beyond our stomachs could ever eat. Out of pity, seeing how much we ate, I paid for our meal and left. We quickly make our way to our Dojo to visit our Sensei. We knocked on the door but nobody answered.. so we barge in and find him lying on the ground. His health condition had gone worse over the period we weren't watching him. We quickly run and carry him to the nearest hospital.. he was still breathing. But his breathing was heavy. After we got him to an emergency room.. he was losing grip.. grip on life. Slowly, but surely. A few hours pass, nurses hook up some insulin for him. The doctor comes out with his report. We were all curious about how his health was. We were in complete despair after hearing his health condition was fatal. He would die soon. We were devastated. And decided to make the best of our time left with him. The doctor told us not to give him surprises often, it might trigger his heart attacks. We listened to him and took him home, along with some medicine for him. We took him to his room and gave him some food to eat. He opened his eyes and smiled. "You all are back from the tower?.. how did it go.. what kind of enemies did you face.. did you get hurt?" With tears in our eyes.. we answered all his questions. We were heartbroken that he was more worried about us, his students than his own life.
Dinner was silent and gloomy, but the food was good. I washed the dishes and took the teacher to his bed. I watched him as he got comfortable on his mattress. Showed clear signs of discomfort and having trouble, which showed me the reality. The teacher was sick and yet worried about us. I promised to never forget about the things he had done for me. I and the two sat down at the spar area and discussed our plans, what we would do and how. Haru suggests "Let's continue our training and go to the tower once every month" to which I and Mayumi agree. Mayumi says "Yeah, with that out of the way.. what are we going do for teacher? What if his health becomes worse." All of us frown.
We swore on our names we would do something for him before he passed on.
Our training took a big head-start. We were all motivated with a burning flame of passion in our hearts. We increased the training and spar time five-fold. Every day after our training. We'd get extremely worn out. But still decided to keep going. "Hu.. hu.. hu.. must keep tra..ini..ng" I said to myself. Exhausted, I continue my harsh training. 2 weeks had passed. Haru had signs of height growth and Mayumi had tough fingers and signs of bicep muscles. And as for me.. my all-over body got strengthened. My speed, my strength, and my quick decision-making. But as for old man Sato. His health was still getting worse by the day. We were taking care of him well over the days. But we had to leave every last week of the month. After days of thinking. Haru came up with a solution "Hey, what if we just get a caretaker for master?" Simple, but brilliant. I laughed, that we hadn't thought of this idea yet. "Haha, simple but brilliant how come we hadn't thought of that yet?"
after looking for a caretaker for a few days, one finally turned up. A tall blonde man, who looked like he was a foreigner. He introduces himself "Hello, my name is Ron, I was looking for a job. But nobody seems to want a foreigner to work for them after the tower incident. Would you perhaps like me to work here? We can discuss the pay and time once I see the job. I invite him inside, and he's surprised after seeing the Dojo, "Wow, this place is so clean from the inside. This really is the embodiment of "Don't judge a book by its cover" I laugh and give him a pat on his back. I had taken a liking to this guy. We show him around, and the person he would be taking care of, "I would be more then happy to take care of your teacher, Akita. And I am grateful that you like me to have this job."
I tell him his salary which would be 100,000 YEN a month. He jumped with surprise. Only did he know we were tower climbers, 100,000 isn't even 1/10 of what I had gotten from the first floor.
He happily takes up the job.
"Starting tomorrow, you're our masters caretaker!" He laughs and gives me a thumbs-up to show me his approval. But he says "Hey, may I ask a silly question?" "Go on." I say
"I don't have anywhere to live.. can i.. live here?.." I look him dead in the eyes and take a long awkward pause. "Haha! Ofcourse, you don't have a foul energy coming from you so I expect good work and trust." He jumps and bows to me. "I can't tell you how happy I am.
Our days with Ron were great, but it was the last week of the month, which meant we had to leave the Dojo and go prepare for the next floor. And so we leave for the Tower. Ron questions where we're going "Hey, what's the hurry today?" "Oh, yes I forgot to tell you. We're Climbers." I say
"HUUUUH??" He was so surprised. He tells us to take care on our adventure. "In that care, please stay safe. May the god's blessing be with you" I say "Thank you, please take good care of master"
And so we were off to the tower in central town.
Only to find thugs hoarding the entrance.