I was in sitting on the couch in Rodrick's room dozing off till he said "Greg I think I got something", I jumped at his words, because he had been searching for about an hour now and I was hoping to get to the dojo today, I stood up and walked over to Rodrick and his old blocky computer.
"So what's the Dojo's about," I said with enthusiasm, "Well since you are only 5 I had to find a dojo with no age restrictions, and I don't have a lot of cash so it would also have to be cheap, so I landed on this one they haven't disclosed any information about what they teach, but it's our only option", I looked at the reviews and it was pretty shabby.
Most said things like 'master is weird and barely teaches anything and some said the dojo is nearly about to collapse on you', point is it was awful looking. I knew it wouldn't be top tier but I didn't think it would be bottom of the barrel.
I need to make more progress in my Hone and if I want the power in this world I've been craving this is the path I can feel it, "This looks pretty good Rodrick so can we go now" I lied, "Yea in a little bit just let me explain to mom, we're just going to the park and by the way don't tell mom alright", "I won't big bro you can count on me", we fist bumped and both made our way upstairs out of Rodrick's dungeon, I went to grab some red cike shoes and a cike jacket from my room gotta represent, and went to the front door to wait on Rodrick.
'So far this world's Rodrick likes me because I suck up to him and I do chores he's supposed to do, but not only that I act like I'm interested in his type of music and talk random facts about it with him, I don't know why likes talking metal with a 5-year-old but he loves our talks but in my neet opinion metal isn't that good it's anime intros that get my gears going.
While I was waiting I heard Rodrick's excuse to mom for why we're leaving together, "Hey mom me and Greg are gonna head to the park and play for the day", "Alright hun just be back before sundown" she said like a mom, Rodrick walked up to me giving me the thumbs up, he was wearing a black t-shirt and some blue jeans with white shoes, while his brown hair was ruffled but not as long as mine, he lead the way to the dojo.
As we were making our way through sidewalks and as cars passed by we talked about some random shit, "Greg how come Dad's always on me and not you.", "I don't know I think he's just tough on you because he wants you to be successful and maybe you are making some mistakes he wants to fix", 'I don't want to mess up the future and have Rodrick be a goody-two-shoes, I still want the emo rock roll Rodrick we get in the books so I don't really wanna influence him too much right now or the timeline in general.
Soon we made our way in front of a dilapidated house that looked like a homeless den, me and Rodrick took a deep breath and we walked in, Rodrick pushed open the dojo doors, and the inside looked just as bad as the outside if not worse, leaky ceiling, weird smell, and not only that creaky pillars that do indeed look like they could collapse at any moment, but I didn't let that dissuade me, it sure dissuaded Rodrick though.
"Hello we're here for martial arts lessons I made an appointment online" Rodrick yelled, which the yell echoed through the dojo, a door creaked open, It was a man who looked like the most generic martial arts teacher, long grey beard, long grey hair in a ponytail and with a martial arts clothing, "Hello I've been expecting you" the man said with an old raspy voice but with a hint of wisdom in it, but you could tell he wasn't expecting us because he had toilet paper stuck to the bottom of his "Kung fu shoe".
"ehem..... so Ummm when can we start the lessons," Rodrick said awkwardly, The man just stared for 10 straight awkward seconds till he said "Alright throw a punch", at first me and Rodrick were confused but Rodrick just played along, Rodrick threw a punch it was weak and didn't have much to it, "You boy, throw a punch" the man said pointing at me, I did as I was told and threw a punch much in the style of Rodrick so I don't draw attention.
"Hmmmm" the man stroked his beard he walked up to both me and Rodrick, and pointed towards Rodrick, "Unfortunately I can't teach you" Rodrick was visibly very annoyed at the words, then the man pointed towards me, "You boy, I can teach you", Rodrick was even more annoyed that he picked his brother and not him, "But he doesn't even have money!" Rodrick yelled, "That is.... fine I will teach him for free," the man said stroking his grey beard.
Rodrick sighed at the man's words, "At least you got in Greg just try to be home before sundown like mom said, imma go hang out with my friends," he said as he walked out of the dojo, strangely enough, Rodrick wasn't worried in the slightest to leave his 5-year-old brother with a strange old man who seemed to be very interested in him. I turned my attention back at the man who was still stroking his beard, he just stared at me like he was scanning me, as he could see through me, this went on for 30 straight weird seconds, "So umm... what are you going to teach me Master" I said bowing to try and so some respect and break the creepy silence that went on and on.
The man kept looking at me for another 30 seconds and then started to open his mouth, "Boy you are very strange, you have quite a bit of Hone in you for your age, and you're going to tell this old man how you got this much Hone in you at the age of five, because unless you're some boy sent from the god's it would be impossible" the man said as he was still scanning me.
'I was surprised, I had thought the world was unknown to Hone but he knew it and just looked at me and could tell I had Hone', I started to back away out of nervousness, the man instantly appeared behind me holding me in place by gripping my shoulders almost strong enough to break them into pieces.
I tried to turn around and retaliate with a punch and push through the pain to attack him and then escape, but he twisted it as well twisting my entire body in the process and fell face-first into the dirty ground.
"Foolish boy, you think you can take on a professional user of hone like me, now get up boy so I can see if you are worthy of having hone because if you don't wield it with absolute discipline it will be a mercy for me to kill you," the man said with a harsh tone.
I got up to my knees because the aura he had was too strong, "How... I thought there weren't anymore hone users in this world".
"FOOLISH BOY!! that's what the rich and powerful want you to think so they can stay rich and powerful," He said with a rage-filled but disciplined voice. 'The thought never occurred to me that hone would just be kept out of the public's hands so to keep the power the only powerful, this is
one hell of a conspiracy theory, I looked up to the man and stared straight into his Piercing gaze.
Hand on my knee I lifted myself to stand straight but even so, I was 5 feet tall and he was a little above 6 feet tall, but my gaze didn't waver, sunlight peeked through a broken window shining
down on both of us in this dilapidated wooden dojo.