"With this win it becomes Gyun Sungs 200th victory giving him an unprecedented 200-0-1 kendo official match record, truly deserving of the 7 year reigning king of world kendo championship"
As he walked off stage despite all the cheers and spotlight Gyun Sung felt nothing. No happiness or exhilaration that he used to feel, 'I feel empty' he thought.
The interviews passed as a blur, he kept just thanking everybody for their support. And got in his car and left.
It wasn't until he was walking into his own apartment that he relaxed. It was almost time for dinner as he looked at his phone. As he walked he took the medal and hung it on his wall alongside his others he felt nostalgic for the days when he was still an up and coming competitor.
"Maybe I should pick up another sport he muttered" he muttered. After considering it he decided against it 'there's no need to waste time'.
While it sounded arrogant he felt that it was correct he was a genius and his lack of competition made him lose all desire to learn.
After all he had quite the resume, currently Gyun Sung was a national competitor for 2 different martial arts and world champion for 2. He'd been born into a family with his father a province champion and of Judo, so of course he learned it at a young age and became national champion at age nine for his age division until 12 when he gave it up. After he discovered his passion for Kendo and weapon based martial arts he quickly showed his talent for martial arts and within 1 year he became a national champion. Not long after using sponsorship money he began to take up Kali and fencing as well. While he shined in all these sports what he was especially good at was Kendo. Throughout his high school years he was undefeated nationally and after graduating. Felt he should learn something else after feeling he'd stagnated in his other martial arts so after convincing the prestigious college he'd joined on scholarship they allowed to go and take a gap year to improve himself. Naturally they couldn't turn down a 3 sport national champion.
His first destination was Thailand where he learned Muay Thai for 8 months where despite his lack of conditioning he excelled and even competed in some amateur completions. Not long after he felt he learned everything he should and left for Europe and with his qualifications became a member of HEMA or Historical European Martial arts where he learned how to use many of the European swords and weapons.
After his gap year he returned and took his courses he was studying history. Since he had a passion for historical martial arts he thought it fit better than studying something he had no interest then after 1 year at college at age 21 he got bored and decided to serve his military service ahead of time.
During training he absorbed all things to do with armed and unarmed combat at a frightening speed. Gaining him intense favor from his instructors . Not long after finishing training was he recommended to become an instructor due to his qualifications. So he finished his service as an instructor at age 23 and shortly after dropped out of college.
He then decided to compete internationally, and now 8 years later he had picked up some new martial arts. As well he has 2 international current championships, a 7 year reigning champion in kendo 3 year in fencing 1 year for kali. Nationally he also was competing in Judo, Muay Thai and Karate of those he was champion of none but good enough to compete on the national stage. Recently a year ago he'd picked up boxing but for once he didn't immediately excel at it but his experience with other martial arts drastically helped and boosted his learning speed he was nowhere near his proficiency at Kendo or Fencing but he was good enough to boast a 8-1-2 record in the amateur level.
Despite all this accomplishment he felt sad he had been caught up in his youth trying to learn everything he could that now that he had accomplished everything he wanted. And as his body began to slow down and his progress began to stagnate and he felt himself becoming more aged which was accentuated with the intense exhaustion and injuries he'd accumulated in his harsh training sessions and long martial career.
His lifelong accomplishments had started to feel hollow and empty. He broke of his long stare at his wall of medals at the sound of purring.
He turned to see his car with its black fur and yellow eyes walking down the hall to greet him. "Nagi!" his face lit up as he picked up Nagi and held him ' yes this is true happiness' he thought .
A few hours later while sitting on the couch watching tv he thought maybe he should consider going on a vacation since he'd recently one his last international completion of the season. 'Yes maybe I need a vacation like my kendo coach recommended I just need to relax and correct my mindset'. He though about places he wanted to visit but they all had their roots in martial arts he was interested in so he felt he should leave it to the assistant his most recent and wealthy sponosor Pepsin had assigned him. He set a reminder to ask her in the morning before his meditation before sleep.
He woke up to the sound of his alarm going off. It was 4:30 in the morning but he still got up and got ready for his morning jog. 'It's just another step in the process' is what he reminded himself every morning when he had to go through his grueling training schedule.
After all his morning trading and meditation at 9:30 he finally had time to call his assistant to ask her to make plans for his vacation by the end of the week and to clear his schedule for a month. He got off the phone excited that maybe he could he relax a bit and get out of his depressed mentality. 'Maybe I should bring some friends along , though I don't have any and it would be awkward if I invited competitors or my coaches'.
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He woke up to the sound of his alarm except now it was 9:30 since today was the day he'd be going on vacation for the first time since his gap year in college. He'd already packed the day before and talked with his coaches and nutritionist and they said a light workout for an hour every day and relatively healthy eating in reasonable portions would be allowable for his vacation.
As he got out of bed and got dressed he thought of the excitement he felt about the trip. While Gyan wasn't particularly excited about sightseeing he was on the verge of tears when his nutritionist told he could have a cheat day every day for the next month. His nutritional and extremely bland diet had slowly eaten at his soul over the years which many had suggested supplemented his depressed mindset. As well as him not taking proper time to grieve for his parents dying in a car accident due to solving a legal dispute between him and his relatives over the inheritance which included stocks worth 47.8 billion won. "Ugh just thinking of those slimy aunts and uncles who used to look down on my dad for investing everything on an up and coming company. But it's all in the past now". He said as he began to calm down at the anger that rose. 'Yeah a few weeks ago the court ruled in my favor anyway and those greedy fucks can't touch my parents money unless something happens to me' he soothes hims self as he walked with his suitcase out the door and got in the elevator he checked his phone and scrolled through the news, some articles were about him. They were all needlessly overdramatized
-Gyun Sung "The last swords master" triumphs again for his seventh consecutive year as international Kendo champion-.
He walked out the elevator and out the building doors where a car was waiting to take him to the airport. The driver was a tall and burly man who greeted Gyun and spoke with a gruff voice "are you mr.Sung?" "Yes I am" Gyun replied as he got into the car. 'He's a different driver then my usual one and the cars different' Gyun noted but didn't find anything out of the ordinary
It's only when he got in the car did he realize that he didn't even have his tickets since his assistant said she would handle everything and pick the locations. Gyun panicked internally 'wait actually where am I going anyway ?!' He thought 'I didn't even receive a schedule! Did she forget to tell me ?! No! That's not possible ! Her only job is notify and handle these things maybe she'll meet me at the airport' after comforting himself and calming himself . Gyun thought since based on how bad traffic was currently he might as well take a nap so he silenced his phone and slept
He woke up in the car but as looked around expecting to be at the Seoul airport he saw only that the car was parked in a secluded alley. Gyun looked for the driver but noticed he wasn't in the car Gyun pulled out his phone to check the time. He noticed he'd gotten a message from his assistant and read it immediately after he did he dropped the phone and tried to open the door but since it was locked and would open he decided to take his chances and looked for a hard object to break the window.
Miss Seokhyun just got off the phone with Mr. Gyuns driver. "Ugh why today of all days did you get into a car wreck" she glanced at clock on the wall it read 10:28 guess I'll have to reschedule a flight since his plane takes off in 20 minutes." She quickly sent Gyun a message saying his driver had been in an accident and there would be no one picking him up today and his flight would be rescheduled.