10 years passed by, in a blink of an eye.
Alex was now a fine grown-up man with a job, he used to daily visit Sensei Tatsuo at the dojo and did dinner together with him.
***
It was evening, and Alex was driving his car to Sensei Tatsuo's dojo.
It was a very special day for both Alex and Sensei.
Alex was very excited because it was sensei Tatsuo's birthday today, Alex had many plans regarding how they will celebrate and where they will go for dinner. Today sensei Tatsuo turned 75 years old and he promised Alex that from today on he will not run the dojo because of his age, it was one of the reasons Alex was happy because sensei Tatsuo never listened to Alex when he asked sensei to shut his dojo due to his age.
When Alex returned to the dojo and saw what happened in the dojo shivers ran down his spine, he saw the lifeless body of sensei Tatsuo on the floor with a puddle of blood forming around his head. The whole dojo was looking like a storm struck the place, everything was destroyed there, the furniture was in pieces and all the trophies and medals were broken and scattered all around the place. The place where something was written on the wall in Japanese was covered by a huge spray-painted wolf.
Alex was just standing in front of the dojo staring at the floor, his mind was in a plethora of emotions, he was feeling that life cheated on him again. Alex started shouting "Not again, not again, it is not fair why god why you are doing this to me", Alex started crying and cursing his life and world. After some time he reported police about this whole incident.
The next day, after sensei Tatsuo's funeral Alex went to the police station to check what the progress of the case was, police told Alex that a gang was behind what happened to sensei Tatsuo and dojo, but they haven't figured out which gang was responsible for this incident. After coming out of the dojo Alex was getting angry and started thinking "What is up with the police, why they are unable to figure out which gang did this."
Days, weeks, and months passed, but the police had no lead on the case, and Alex was getting hopeless daily. One day when Alex revisited the police station he found out that the case is closed because there was no lead on the case.
In the following days, Alex lived by going through the motions. He kept following his routine as if nothing had happened, his brain still refusing everything that happened in the last half year.
The only thing that made him feel alive, was that constant headache that had started shortly after Sensei Tatsuo's death. According to his doctor, it was a stress-related symptom so, with all that had happened, Alex had just been swallowing aspirins and paracetamol like they were candies.
But the pain never did go away, instead, it was getting worse. Alex finally found the strength to get a serious check-up, and once again bad news was waiting for him.
According to the full body scan and the follow-up biopsy, he had a brain tumor.
"But I never had a brain injury!" Alex exclaimed more amused than scared.
"Indeed, it's odd." Doctor Messily was also puzzled.
He was a good-looking young man, maybe four years older than Alex.
"Wait I remember something, eight months ago there were four people who were causing problems in front of the dojo and when I started talking to them they suddenly attacked me, being a world-class martial artist it was easy to handle them but suddenly one of them struck my head with an iron rod from the back?" Alex said.
"Yes, that can be the reason" the doctor messily added
"We need to start your treatment as fast as we can" Doctor messily said in a concerned tone
"But I refuse any treatment. I'll just take palliative care." Alex stated
The doctor jumped from his chair.
"Do you realize that without proper treatment you have six months, a year at best to live? Also, as I have already said, your tumor is very big. We need to start as soon as possible if we want a chance to beat it." Doctor messily exclaimed
The situation was dramatic, but Alex found all those "we" words hilarious, so he could not refrain from chuckling.
"We barely know each other, doctor. So, we have nothing to do if not go separate ways." Alex said to him with an icy tone.
"What do I have to live for? I have no family, no loved ones. My sensei's memories are left to keep me company. I could die tomorrow and I would not give a shit!"
They parted on bad terms, but he still gave him his number, in case he changed his mind or simply needed to talk.
Alex had kept tabs on him, just in case. He had now more grey hair than before but was still a first-class shark.
Alex stopped going to work and started spending his money without much care. He would go to all the fancy restaurants he had always wanted to try, buy the suits he always dreamed about, and only eat his favorite foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Alex would spend most of his days playing games on his brand-new gaming PC and revisiting all the spots that held significance for him and sensei Tatsuo.
Then, twenty-four days after the diagnosis he had an epiphany.
Alex was in deep thinking about what he is doing, "instead of using my money and living my life in despair and sadness I should find that gang who murdered sensei Tatsuo" Alex thought.
Alex remembered that spray-painted wolf on the dojo's wall, "can this be a logo or flag of an organization or gang" Alex thought
After this thought came across Alex's mind he started investigating that spray-painted wolf. Alex started visiting suspicious places where he got information on gangs, he also made some good connections. Six months later his hard work paid off, and he found the gang he was looking for.
As soon as he found out about that gang, he immediately reported it to the police.
When Alex told the name of that gang, the police started disagreeing with him, but Alex wasn't backing down and kept on arguing with the police. "There is no gang like this, if it existed we surely knew about it" the head officer stated. Still, Alex did not listen to the police and soon started shouting "I know you are with that gang, that's why you are refusing that gang's existence. You all are corrupt." After saying this the police officers arrested him.
While he was in lock-up he was thinking of ways to deal with that gang alone, after hours of thinking he finalized that he will go to their main hideout with sensei Tatsuo's katana and kill each one of them to avenge sensei Tatsuo's death.
A few days later when Alex was out of lock-up he, headed to the dojo for the katana, while he was on his way to the dojo Alex realized that it's been way long since he used a katana so he decide to do a one-week training to handle katana well and regain his prime.
"Just wait you fuckers I am coming for you, to kill every one of you." He muttered.