"Yeah it's me, Ayumi." Ryong said while looking at his daughter. He had appeared just like how he had appeared the first time he met Zenil.
"Dad, what are you doing here?"
"Well, I sensed some discrepancy, some fluctuation within his pressure, and then yours. So, I rushed here from the other side of the city."
"You can sense my pressure from that far away?"
"No, I can sense Zenil's pressure." Ryong told his daughter while pointing towards Zenil, who had no clue what was going on.
Zenil couldn't quite comprehend that his saviour's daughter is his attacker.
'The fucking fuck?'
"How can you-" Ayana said but was interrupted.
"Sir, are you going to make him your-" Glynn said but was stopped mid sentence by Ryong's response.
"No, not yet atleast." Ryong said with a sense of authority in his voice and demeanor.
Hearing this Glynn respectfully nodded and then gave Zenil a scrutinizing gaze.
"Alright sir, now that you are here, I'll leave this skirmish between them to you." Glynn said before he walked away.
After Glynn left, Ayana said, "Dad, how do you know him?"
"Calm down, I'll tell you later." Ryong replied, his eye contact with Ayana signaled her to stay quiet.
"So, how have you been, Zenil?" Ryong asked as he looked towards the youth with a warm smile on his face.
Zenil didn't respond, but instead walked towards Ryong and bowed down on his knees with his head on the ground.
"What are you doing?"
"Please make me your disciple!" Zenil said, "I want to become strong."
"Wait, stand up."
"Please teach me!" Zenil said as he stood up.
"It won't be easy to become my disciple." Ryong said with a smirk on his face, "Give me your phone."
"Uhh, here." Zenil handed his phone to Ryong.
Ryong typed some stuff and gave the phone back to Zenil. "Come to this address tomorrow morning."
"Are you accepti-"
"You'll see tomorrow." Ryong said, "Now, why don't you tell me why were you bullying this young lad?" He asked Ayana.
"Why are you even considering taking him as your disciple?" Ayana inquired, her voice was filled with frustration.
"Oh, Zenil you can leave now." Ryong said ignoring his daughter.
Zenil nodded and left. Before leaving he coldly glanced at Ayana.
'Short-tempered brat.' Zenil thought to himself as he looked at Ayana. Her outer shell was that of an elegant young lady, but her true nature was of an bitchy ill-tempered girl. That's what Zenil had made out of her from their short meeting.
"Considering? I have already made him my disciple." Ryong said.
Hearing this, Ayana's eyes widened with shock. "What do you mean."
Ryong sighed.
"When he threw a punch towards you, his fist was shrouded by shadows, like mine." Ryong said as raised his hand, and a black flame ignited in the palm of his hand.
"He will…" Ryong said but didn't continue. His face had a serious expression, unlike his usual calm yet uplifting mood.
"Well, why don't you tell me what made you strangle him?" Ryong said with a smile on his face as he curled his fis extinguishing the flame in his hand.
***
"Bloodthirsty devil!" Ryong said as he tried hard to control his laughter, "Isn't that exactly what I want in my successor."
Currently, Ryong and Ayana were sitting in a restaurant waiting for their meal to arrive.
"You are laughing even after I told you everything? At first, I thought he was a weak fatty, but he was a maniac." Ayana said.
"Last week he was being bullied by these wannabe gangsters, but now it seems it's his turn," Ryong said after finally stopping his laughter. "Do you know why I have decided to teach him?"
"No."
"Because he is someone who can give up for himself."
"What do you mean?"
"When I first met him, I understood that he had been getting bullied regularly, in that state a normal person would have his eyes closed forcefully, with fear written all over his face, but that child, had a calm expression, and his eyes were calmly shut as if he just didn't care. He had strength even without me lending him my marma, yet he chose the easy way out. He had accepted his fate."
"How is giving up any good?"
"Well, you see those who abandon themselves have nothing to lose, and facing someone like that, is facing the ultimate adversary," Ryong said with a melancholic tone. "Only those who can accept their fate can fight it with all their might."
"I don't underst-"
"You'll soon. Anyways tomorrow is gonna be a turning point in the life of our little devil."
"So, what are you going to do tomorrow?" Ayana asked.
"I'll test him."
"How?"
"With your help."
***
[Zenil's POV]
I stood in front of a two-storey house, in a residential district. The houses all looked similar to each other in this district and had a small front yard and a moderate-sized garage. This was the address Ryong gave me. I walked to the main gate and looked for the doorbell, but there was none. So, I ended up knocking on the wooden door a few times.
Soon the door opened and a man who appeared to be in his early twenties came out. He looked at me with a questioning gaze. He had short black hair, brown eyes, and a handsome face. His frame was thin as compared to Ryong but was wider than most men, he was around six feet and had a light amount of facial hair. His hair was disheveled and his eyes looked sleepy, it looked like he had just woken up."
"Hey, I was told to come here in the morning," I said with a smile.
"By whom?" He said before yawning.
"Sir Ryong told me," I replied.
"He told you to come here?" He asked with an irritating look. For some reason his expression reminded me of Ayana.
"Wait here." He said as he went back inside.
"Dad! You told someone to come here at six in the morning!" A shout, which was mumbled down came from inside the house.
So, he was his son. Well, it is kind of shocking, looking at him he looks to be at most thirty years old yet he has two children, and one of them is even older than me.
Soon Ryong came out, he too looked sleepy. "Why the hell did you come this in early in the morning?"
"You didn't specify a time, and just said morning. So, according to all the fiction I have read up until now, I thought you meant like super early in the morning."
"This is not some anime, kid. I slept at one yesterday, why would I- Well never mind, come on in."
"Kairos, wake your sister up," Ryong said as he walked deeper into the house.
***
There was a toolshed in the backyard of this house, and a hidden ladder that led to the basement. After climbing down, I saw a huge room no, an arena. It was about half the size of a football field, and the floor and the walls all were made up of hard concrete.
I could spot a few cracks and small craters through out the walls and the floor of the arena.
Normal humans, no matter how strong they were couldn't do something like this, and only someone like Ryong could hope to achieve something like this.
Though I wasn't quite sure what was happening, and what was this "Marma" and what the "Cores" are I know for a fact that these terms were important and the reason behind the strength I felt that day. Ryong, Ayana, and that other person from yesterday keep talking about stuff like this, yet I have no idea what it means.
"You'll have to strike Ayana at least once." Suddenly Ryong's voice disrupted my train of thought.
"What do you mean?"
"Make contact with her body once, and I'll teach you."