"Oh well, it's getting late. You should go home now, same time tomorrow?" Ares' Grandpa asked. "Of course, I need to train," Ares answered. He walked home with a heart full of hope and excitement.
He arrived home to see his parents laying on the couch, asleep. Ares sneakily tiptoed up the stairs into his room where he saw a handprint of blood on his wall, along with a few words which said "5 and a half months left."
After Ares saw this, he realised that time was going unexpectedly fast. Minutes felt like seconds. Hours felt like minutes. Months felt like days. Ares realised that he had to train and help his brother as soon as possible.
He dozed off and fell asleep until the morning. Ares snuck out of his house again the next morning and made his way to the building where he gets trained. He realised that he wasn't tired when he arrived.
Ares' Grandad greeted him with a hug and gave him a glass of water. Ares drank this glass of water before he started training. He started off by doing his laps with only the ankle bracelets this time. Ares did 7 laps before becoming tired. "That's what happens when you train, you become stronger and faster on your feet" Ares' Grandad mentioned.
Ares was then told to try and cut through an ingot. He gripped the sword and sliced at the ingot with all of the force he had. When the sword made contact with the ingot, the sword tip broke off but the ingot was still in perfect condition. His Grandpa informed him that it wasn't a normal ingot but it was made of the strongest metal in the world. Ares was shocked as his swing was strong enough to break the katana but he wouldn't be pleased until he could break things stronger than that metal.
Ares was having his break for lunch when a fellow student sat beside him. "Hey, who are you? I've never seen you before."
"My name is Ares, Ares Myoga" Ares replied
"Nice to meet you, my name is Jinn Sato"
When Ares actually looked away from the food and to the person sitting next to him, he saw a tall figure with baby blue eyes and black hair. He had pale skin and his voice was deep but calming. Jinn was warm-hearted and never wanted to hurt anyone in his life but was forced to become a samurai to fight in the war to protect his village. They carried on talking and eating their lunch until it was time for them to start training again.
Ares and Jinn made their way to the training room and they saw Ares' Grandad surprised that they became friends. "So you new students both became friends?" His grandad said.
They were both told to duel with bokkens' and wooden armour. Ares threw the first strike and Jinn perfectly blocked and threw a counter strike, the strike perfectly landed on Ares' stomach. Jinn followed it up by striking the side of Ares' body. It landed perfectly. Ares coughed up blood and his grandpa stopped the fight. Ares realised that he was still not strong enough to rescue his brother. He was filled with rage, his eyes turned purple and his sword broke. Pieces of the ground rose up and the ground shook. Ares lost all control of his body.
After he regained control of his body, Ares fell unconscious. When he woke up out of his slumber, he had a roaring headache and the first thing that he realised was the excruciating pain that he was in. Ares tried to figure out what had just happened but the last thing that he could remember was him on his break, speaking to Jinn. Ares saw Jinn looking over him and talking to the nurse. "So he can't get out of here for another week?" Jinn asked the nurse.
"I'm afraid so, when he was struck he was hit on a vital organ, causing him to almost die from blood loss, he's lucky to even be alive." The nurse replied
Ares heard this and had thoughts of escaping but he could hardly even move. Jinn was with Ares for the whole week, never leaving his side. During the week, Ares told Jinn about what happened to his brother and they both agreed to help each other. Ares also told Jinn that his parents hurt him and made him starve for days. After hearing this, Jinn offered Ares a spare room but Ares refused as something just felt off about Jinn.
A week passed by, when Ares arrived back at the building where he got trained, his grandad was shocked to see him again. Ares wanted to get right back to training but his Grandad refused because Ares was still not in good enough condition. As he was walking back to his house, he couldn't help but eavesdrop on His Grandpas and Jinn's conversation.
"Jinn, didn't I tell you to finish him off, he's just a mere weakling." Ares' Grandad said to Jinn
"I am sorry, Master Kuro, I promise to finish the job next time." Jinn replied.
Ares ran home with a tear running down his cheek, he thought that he just maybe found a real friend and people who actually cared about him but his heart was crushed and Ares decided that he would never trust anyone ever again.
Ares arrived home with bloodshot red eyes when he was greeted by his parents with his mom giving him a slap on the face and his dad giving him a punch on his stomach. "So you sneak out of my house, get hurt and then have the audacity to return? Get out of this house, now!" his dad shouted. Ares was thrown out of the house and slept on a hard, uncomfortable and wet bench in the rain that night.
Ares woke up and let out a groan as he struggled to get up off of the bench because of his injuries, he heard birds chirping and beeping of cars. Ares woke up drenched with mostly rain but also a bit of sweat because of the nightmares that he faced.