{Chapter 14: The Master}
The sliding door opens, revealing a yellow portal. When Denji steps inside, the scenery changes.
Now, he found himself in a traditional Japanese Dojo, with red tatami on the floor and a wooden structure supported by elegant massive wooden columns. There were also shelves holding various stored weapons.
(Wait, this feels too... extravagant? The System can autocomplete a lot, but why not everything?) - He thought, admiring the place.
(And where are my useless clones? No way I'm doing this alone!) - Then, closing his eyes and forming a hand sign with two fingers pointing up, he released the clones outside.
"Ah, those bastards! Were they playing UNO?!" - He muttered aloud, irritated with his 'brainstorming' team. - "At least the exploring clones were useful, but as expected... there's nothing!"
He sat at the center of the tatami, frustrated. He needed allies as soon as possible and a fixed base that wasn't his house. Kamui had absolutely nothing except the advantage of being a separate dimension. He didn't even know what the cubes were made of or if they could be used for anything, which frustrated him even more.
But as if to interrupt that feeling, he was alerted purely by instinct, hearing the sound of wind slicing through the air, indicating something was approaching. Before he could react, he had to dodge an attack quickly, tilting to the side.
He saw a staff lodged into the ground, and atop it stood a yellow-skinned man wearing a traditional Japanese hat and a white martial artist's kimono.
"What the...?!" - Denji exclaimed as he quickly stood up, surprised.
(Why the hell is a Sensei Wu attacking me?!) - He questioned himself, entering his often-used amateur fighting stance.
The man seemed to show a small hint of dissatisfaction on his face but wasted no time, attacking again by creating flames in his hands, then launching a whirlwind of fire toward his opponent.
The large wall of flames rushed toward Denji as fast as it was released. Without delay, the young man attempted to use the Airjitzu air bubble to defend himself.
It wasn't as effective as he had hoped, but it shielded him from the main attack, though he still took some damage, mostly from the heat radiating around the flames. That damage was already healing simply from Denji's breathing.
However, he was caught off guard when ice kunai were thrown in his direction, forcing him to dodge quickly with some acrobatics.
Seeing this, Wu spoke for the first time.
"Too amateurish." - Immediately after, his body was enveloped in electricity, and he dashed toward Denji, hitting him with both legs after the boy landed on the ground.
Sent flying, the Spinjitzu Master appeared behind him, spinning into a tornado and striking Denji hard enough to slam him into the ground painfully, pushing him across the floor with the repulsion force.
"Tch... damn it" - Denji groaned as he stood up slowly.
He entered his attack stance again, rushing toward Wu, attempting a spinning kick at the old man.
The man blocked with his right arm, and Denji used the block as support to swing his left leg toward the man's face, but Wu defended it with just two fingers.
Seeing this, the blonde-haired boy backed away and spun in the air, creating his new and improved Airjitzu spheres, launching them at Wu with two kicks.
"Creative, a good point." - The master said as he easily dodged the attack, closing the distance toward Denji.
Denji remained silent, forming a cross symbol with his hands, creating five clones of himself. The movement surprised Wu slightly, but he quickly accepted the situation and continued advancing toward the blonde.
The clones rushed at the Master, who knocked one down with his staff, then dodged a kick and hit another in the jaw—two down.
Then, he spun the staff in his enemies' faces, striking the stomachs of both remaining clones with thrusts, and finally, encasing his feet in earth and kicking both in the chest.
Finally, the last clone created a cutting Airjitzu bubble around itself and launched at the elder, who, noticing something wrong, slightly surprised, used an ice shield to defend himself.
(He's only using the four elements… I don't blame him; I'm not an opponent that requires the creation element to be defeated.) - Denji thought to himself as he created a tornado beneath him, jumping into it to gain a speed boost and activating his super strength. He attempted to break through his opponent's shield, causing a crack in it.
Starting a sequence of attacks, Denji began punching faster and faster, to the point where only afterimages of his arms remained.
Wu watched the scene, impressed, and before he could throw Denji back, the shield shattered, leaving him slightly dazed.
Seeing this, Denji landed a rising right kick to the old man's jaw, followed by another rising left kick to the same spot. After launching Wu into the air, Denji spun once more, kicking two Airjitzu spheres toward the elder, hitting him head-on.
As Wu fell, showing pain in his expression, Denji used the tornado to leap toward him.
Seeing this, Wu smiled and dodged the attack, grabbing Denji by the legs and throwing him straight into the ground.
Denji crashed down, and Wu landed on top of him, with both hands cupped, aimed at his face, and a strong flame in them.
"You were... decent." - He said, threatening to burn the blonde. Just the combination of the phrase and the flames was enough to frighten Denji. But suddenly, the flames went out, and Wu stepped off him, stopping in the middle of the room.
"Huh? Weren't you going to... kill me or something?" - The blonde asked, still confused and scared.
"Never be certain of anything... until you're truly sure." - Wu said, leaving Denji even more perplexed. - "Let me introduce myself. I am the Spinjitzu Master known as Wu, but call me Sensei from now on."
"I'm a bit confused, but... thank you? Sensei Wu." - Denji corrected himself at the end.
"Before you ask, no, I am not a creation of what you call the system. What stands before you is real, and this place... is based on my old Dojo."
Denji couldn't help but gape in surprise that the System hadn't created but instead brought a real Master Wu from some universe. He found it odd mainly because he had expected him to be a LEGO being, but contrary to his expectations, he was just a human with very yellow skin, like a Simpson.
"I can't say much now," - Wu kneeled to meet Denji's eye level and looked at him - "but I can say that you surprised me. Using Airjitzu for offense was truly unexpected, and I can tell you make good use of it, especially considering it's your primary form of attack, judging by the fight."
Then he sighed, closing his eyes.
"However…" - He opened them again, now a bit sterner - "You need to improve a lot in your hand-to-hand combat style. You're a complete amateur in that area, relying solely on your powers with no technique at all."
"I admit that mistake, but my life is such a mess that it's hard to find time to learn martial arts or a proper fighting style, even with the clones, since I can gain their memories."
Wu absorbed the new information quickly and responded with a smile.
"Time is something you won't lack here, young one. When I came here, I gave this room some perks—the time flows differently in this place, which will make your life easier. I did this so I could train you faster, for my duty is to guide you on your journey toward balance." - With that, Denji smiled in gratitude.
"Thank you very much, Sensei Wu! Ah! I forgot to introduce myself; I'm Denji."
"Pleasure to meet you, Denji." - Wu said, helping the boy to his feet.
Sensei Wu walked to the center of the Dojo, then, resting his staff on the ground, he said.
"The foundation of your learning starts now, young one... and soon, you will become a master of Spinjitzu!" - Wu said with a smile.
To be continued…
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Yoooo, next my dear readers, this is the last chapter of the story before a hiatus even longer than the last one, maybe one day I'll come back to it? Yes, but at the moment I'm working on a original story called: "Tokusatsu Academy", so I have my priorities.
Thank you for reading this, as a Brazilian kid who started this out of curiosity in 2020 with horror stories and evolved over time, I am really grateful that my first story on Webnovel it got so many views, even if they weren't so many by the site's standards (I think)
Bye and see you soon!
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