Two weeks had passed since Dash had been attacked. The recovery had been good, but it was certain, at least for him, that he wouldn't participate in the tournament.
"Well, now everyone is wondering, will you fight or not?" Victor looked at Dash, who was observing the training inside Sakura Bushido.
"I must focus on recovering to think about the next Del Valle tournament and be ready for the national karate tournament. Everything has aligned for it to be progressive," said Dash, feeling slightly better than before. He had healed from the rib injuries; now, he could do light exercises but not push himself too hard to avoid complications in the recovery.
He knew his condition better than anyone, so he wouldn't return seriously to training until he felt he was in perfect condition. The only thing he would focus on was maintaining his body's condition a bit.
"Do you want to send him into a fight when he barely survived one?" Devon approached with a couple of cold water bottles and glared at Victor.
Dash, who received the water bottle, muttered, "It wasn't that exaggerated; I won the fight."
"But he won the fight; that's why he's the dragon warrior."
"The whole school trusts you; they believe you are the strongest, followed by Dash, so you must maintain that confidence very firmly," Devon said as she sat down.
Dash nodded at this; it was well known that, at least in terms of experience levels, Victor was the oldest member. "You all know I joined the Dojo because my mother wanted Mr. Kim as a husband; after that, everything flowed, and here I am."
"How can you say that without being ashamed?" Devon couldn't understand the level of Victor's audacity.
"What do you want me to say? In the end, we'll all die, and something like shame is absurd if you think about it," Victor said as he walked away.
When Victor went to train because the responsibility of defeating Jack now rested on his shoulders, he had to make the most of it.
Now that they were alone, Devon looked at Dash and asked, "Are you going to participate in the tournament?"
"I'm not sure." Dash's response was very ambiguous because he neither denied nor accepted anything.
It was true that he wanted to fight against Jack, but in his current state, he would only make a fool of himself. Sometimes it's better to know when to step back from fights you know you will lose.
Devon studied Dash's expression. She knew perfectly well when he lied or told the truth, so she concluded that he was still considering it.
"What do you want me to do?" Dash asked, leaning back on Devon's legs.
A silence fell between them, and when Devon didn't respond for a long time, Dash smiled very expressively and said, "Don't worry; even though I want to lose at times, I won't give away my victory. Anyone who wants to beat me must do it on equal terms."
"In the end, you always decide to change the things you want to do. You've been like that since the time you fainted at school," Devon said, stroking Dash's forehead and pushing away his hair.
Dash's clear eyes looked into Devon's, and he asked, "Do you still remember it?"
"My father always says that the most impressive moments are never forgotten."
"That makes sense. I still remember our first kiss.
Devon smiled slightly, and just as she was about to say something, an unpleasant voice was heard in the distance: "My dear golden trophy, I have the solution for you."
Looking towards the dojo's door, Santiago appeared holding a rifle on his shoulder as if he were in a war against enemies in the surroundings.
"What is he doing?" Devon widened her eyes, seeing that old man, who now worked as a security guard, walking around with exposed weapons.
"Santiago, we've talked about the weapon." Dash never thought anything wrong about Santiago's behavior. Many believed he was a war veteran who would protect them, and everyone gave him gifts.
"I'll kill any bastard who wants to come and cause problems. Everyone knows a lot about Karate, but we all know that gunpowder causes damage," Santiago said, smiling slightly.
Dash ignored this and asked, "What was the solution you were talking about?"
After that initial impression, everyone returned to their training. Santiago was like an expert guerrilla warrior, ready to go to war against anyone who wanted to harm this place.
"As they left you worse than a caught thief, I considered pulling some strings and brought you a good guy who's willing to train," Santiago said, pointing to the door and shouting, "Don't be shy; I might have hit you when you were a kid, but I'm not resentful."
When Dash looked at the guy at the door, he was a bit surprised and asked, "Could you tell me who that guy is?"
"Hmm, you don't know?"
Devon asked, "Do you think we know?"