...
After the incident with the psychopath passed, I continued to walk for a bit with the old man while he dragged the unconscious body of my teacher through the ground without a problem. Planning to hand him over to the police later on.
As we walked, he told me a few things about his identity, and what he did for a living. Although, he was a bit ambiguous while talking about it.
He said that his name was Sawaya Tatsuo and that he had been a Martial Arts master for quite a long time by now. However, he retired a while ago after he stopped getting students in his dojo, and because of that, he decided to go on some kind of self-discovery trip that I didn't completely understand.
It seemed that he was still traveling when he entered this city, and while he looked for somewhere to eat, he casually stumbled upon that scammer's dojo and decided to give it a look since he was curious about how we did our training.
Which led to this situation, with him saving me, and now with both of us walking back toward the Dojo.
Honestly, it seemed like a badly written script because of how coincidental it was. However, knowing that coincidences were not impressive in the slightest when comparing them to the other things that I had seen so far, I just accepted it.
It has already happened. What's the point of thinking about it?
"You did well in managing to run away from him, kid. Who knows what he would have done if he managed to catch you"
"I think kicking him in the nuts was a good idea, then. He ran a lot slower because of that…"
"Hahaha…"
As he continued to talk with me while we walked next to each other, suddenly some of the words he had said when he saved me passed through my mind and made me look at the old man with a curious expression.
It was something that at first I didn't think too much about since I was busy worrying about my life among other things. However, now that the danger had passed, and I could think about it a bit more calmly, I couldn't help but feel curious.
So I asked him.
"By the way, how did you notice that my body was stronger than others? I don't think I did anything extraordinary for you to have noticed it"
Hearing me, the old man Tatsuo raised an eyebrow in surprise before he closed his eyes as if reminiscing something.
Then, opening his eyes again, he turned to look at me and made a punching motion to the front as he talked.
"Hmm? That? I watched you while you trained at the dojo. You know, punching the air and all that... Your movements caught my attention at first, so I decided to watch a little longer after you began doing the exercises since something seemed off in them. However, what truly gave away your abnormal physique was when this guy began chasing you"
"At that time? Why?"
"Because I was able to see clearly how fast you could run despite how short your legs were, which for a normal person would require a big amount of strength and resistance in the leg's muscles, as well as good flexibility... Something that you as a child, should not have... At least not to that extent"
He scratched his beard for a second, before looking at me with squinted eyes.
"Not to mention the amount of time you were able to run continuously. That amount of stamina was comparable even to that of an adult"
Hearing him, I raised an eyebrow for a moment, before then I squinted my eyes and looked at him suspiciously.
"... Hey, say... For how long were you watching while I was running away from him...?"
"Ahem... Don't mind the smaller details!"
'This guy...'
Feeling my eyebrows twitch faintly while looking at the old man after I got to know that he had been probably watching for a long time how my teacher chased me up, I shook my head and sighed in defeat seeing that he wasn't willing to continue talking about that topic any longer.
'Well, he saved me in the end. So I guess it's alright...'
Thinking that, I then looked at the old man once again, and this time I began checking his appearance more carefully.
The last time I had only given it a quick look since he was kind of far, so it was a good opportunity to see more carefully what a strange old man like him would look like.
Appearances were, after all, a way of knowing a lot about other people just by looking at them... or so I had read on the internet.
'Hmm... Maybe I should stop believing everything that is on the internet... One day it will be my downfall'
Anyway, leaving that aside, by looking at the old man I was able to notice that he was indeed wearing something like a martial arts uniform like I had thought when I saw him from afar at the dojo. However, it was completely ragged and dirty, as if he had been surviving in the jungle or something like that.
'Did he fight a pack of wolves, or what?'
His beard was very bushy as well. So much that it made me wonder just how much time had passed since the last time he had shaved.
As for his hair, he had it tied into a long ponytail that extended through most of his back and reached his waist. However, it was dirty and slightly grassy, as if he had not cleaned it in a lot of time.
Fortunately, he was not smelly. I guess he at least kept that aspect in check.
All in all, his appearance had nothing to do with the strong guy I had seen earlier. He looked more like a beggar than the martial arts master that he supposedly was.
Though, if one paid attention, I guess he indeed had a little bit of the appearance of your cliché martial arts master that appeared in every martial arts movie. Though, as I said, you had to pay a lot of attention to notice that.
"Hey kid"
Suddenly, as I was still glancing at his figure and gathering information from it, the old man glanced at me and raised an eyebrow as if he was curious about something.
"Yeah?" I answered.
"I've been wondering for a bit... But why do you talk so... formally? Did your parents teach you to talk like that?"
"Eh? No, I've always spoken like this..."
"Really? I guess you are very mature then..."
Smiling slightly at his compliment, I puffed up my chest and glared at the front with a proud expression.
However, because of that, I missed how he muttered in a low voice. "... I feel like I'm talking to an adult... What a creepy kid"
It took us a few minutes more to finally arrive back at the Dojo. I had run quite a long distance while escaping, after all.
However, eventually, we managed to get back.
As soon as we arrived there, I saw my father looking around frantically while talking to the parents of the other kids with an extremely worried expression on his face. It seemed like he was asking them about me, or if they had seen me.
Some of the adults talked to their kids and inquired them about me, and after hearing what had happened from their mouths, most of them widened their eyes with horrified expressions and seemingly told everything to my father. Something that did not alleviate the stressed expression on his face.
However, it was when he began to look around to see if he could guess in which way I had run away, that he suddenly saw me, and rushed toward me.
-Rustle-
However, unlike the angry words that I expected, what came was a tight hug as my father suddenly pulled me into an embrace.
"You little brat. I thought something bad had happened to you!"
"..."
Watching as my father hugged me with a slightly awkward face, I looked at the old man who was a little bit away from us and saw how he waited patiently for us to stop hugging.
He had a smile on his face while he did that though...
'What are you looking at, you damn old geezer...'
Maybe it was because I was kinda embarrassed to be hugged by my father out of nowhere, but I wanted to punch the old man's face a little bit.
As I continued to let my thoughts run, suddenly my father sighed in relief, and then let go of me as he stood up while looking at me with a wry expression.
"Seriously brat, I almost died of a heart attack there... Are you hurt anywhere? Where is that asshole of your teacher? I will make sure to teach him some manners myself...!"
Tightening his fists as a pissed-off expression appeared on his face, my father began looking around frantically, before he suddenly noticed the old man dragging my teacher's unconscious body, and let out a confused "Huh?"
Seeing that, I knew that it was time to introduce them to each other.
"Dad, this old- Ahem, this grandpa here saved me from my teacher earlier when he cornered me into a dead end..."
"Huh?"
"Nice to meet you, I'm Sawaya Tatsuo. I was passing by and decided to help your son once I noticed that he seemed to be in trouble... As for this troublemaker..."
Lifting my teacher in the air with only one of his arms, old man Takeo... Ahem—old man Tatsuo then pointed with his head in a certain direction as he spoke.
"... I need you and your son to give a testimony about everything that happened here. This guy has to learn a few lessons in prison, and your testimony will be really grateful to achieve that"
"O-oh"
Nodding his head with a serious expression, my father then looked at me with a curious expression for a moment before he sighed and told me to follow as he and the old man began walking forward.
'Well, this ended better than I expected...'
Sighing in relief as everything had ended in a good way, I started following them without saying anything.
After that, we walked up to the police station a few streets away from where we were and began telling them all that had happened.
We were there for quite a few hours.
...
°
°
°
|A few hours later...|
...
"Be careful next time~!"
""Hmm""
As the three of us left the police station while a police officer waved at us, my father immediately turned to look at the old man, and began bowing to him while expressing his gratitude repeatedly.
"I'm really grateful sir. If not for you, who knows what would have happened to this little brat... If there's anything I can do for you to pay for your kindness, just tell me"
Thanks to the interrogation that we went through, my father had gotten a gist of what had happened with my teacher.
It was left to say, he got pretty angry when he heard that I kicked him in the balls. Though, he almost laughed out loud at first when he heard it.
It was only when the police and the old man looked at him with a deadpan gaze that his mood changed and he began scolding me pretty harshly.
'Such a bipolar man... -Sigh...-'
"I don't like the way you are looking at me brat! Come on, bow your head too! It's your life that was saved back then"
"Urgh... Alright. Thank you, Tatsuo-san"
Having my head pushed down by my father as I thanked the old man, suddenly an embarrassed cough came from the latter before he began talking.
"Ahem. It's alright. I just did what I had to do... As for what you can do for me... Well, there's one tiny thing. Though I don't know if it should be called a favor, as it's more like a proposal"
"Tell me, I will do anything I can!"
Yelling excitedly at the chance of repaying the savior of my life, my father lifted his head and took a step forward while opening his arms as if trying to reassure the old man.
His face changed completely when he heard what the old man wanted to say, though.
"I want your son to become my disciple"
"Huh?"
...
-To be continued...-
(A/N: You know the rules, and so do I)