Lautaro put his hands in his pockets and walked over to the three prodigies lying on the ground. They layed in their blood, their clothes painted scarlet. All of them looked up at the bright gym lights and panted hard. Eyes focused on Lautaro as he came into frame.
"Congrats. You guys made it."
Lautaro said with a smile on his face. He swiftly threw cards at them and they all sat up to catch them. Inside was Lautaro's number and a message for them to meet him here tomorrow at the same time.
As Lautaro walked off he gave them a question.
"Grey hair, big man, what's your names?"
They responded to the order. The boy in all grey went first. His voice was monotone and lacked emotion, it was empty, reminded Lautaro of Hana and to some extent, Alto as well.
"My name is Jin, Jin Dovix."
'I would not wanna fight a guy with the last name Dovix.'
Whilst Lautaro looked away, hands in his pockets, he heard the shout of the boy who was like the animal kingdom.
"My name's Manta! Last name, don't have one!"
That was interesting. Manta didn't have a last name. Lautaro looked back at the beast with newfound curiosity.
"Why don't you have a last name, Manta?"
"I don't know. I just was never given one."
"Why weren't you given one?"
"My family says I'm too weak to bear their last name and I have to prove myself to earn the right to their last name."
'I guess completing this quest will take longer than usual, but I don't care, it's kinda fun.'
"And what's your family's last name?"
"My father says I don't have the right to say their name unless I am strong enough."
Lautaro nodded and turned away towards the exit.
"So I'll be seeing all three of you tomorrow, right?"
The question sounded more like an order, the inquiry an interrogation. But no matter the way he asked Lautaro was answered. Simply because of the fact that he was stronger than them.
Lautaro walked out of the gym and said his goodbyes to Salvey. He was met by Kinger at the gate of the school. They walked side by side and there wasn't a word said between them.
Lautaro put in his pass code and opened his gate. He walked into his lavish mansion and Kinger tugged on his clothing and spoke to him.
"Lautaro. Training we both know you're going up to see your crush. Lock in."
"You caught me. I'll do as you order, King."
Lautaro sighed as he walked down the stairs. Who knew how Lautaro's effective Lautaro silver tongue could have been. Something could have happened. But Kinger was right he had to lock in.
Lautaro made his way to the biggest room in the entire mansion.
The dojo.
Kinger's orders echoed clearly.
"Today you are going to perfect that spinning kick and improve your power."
"My power?"
Lautaro's face was confused. His kicks were strong enough to break down trees. He did not need more power, if anything he'd think that he needed to better train his stamina, his posture or his balance. But not his power.
"Why are you so confused about training your strength? You're kicks and punches are weak."
Lautaro thought there was a misunderstanding between the two of them.
"This morning I was holding back so the guy wouldn't die."
"You think I don't know that? Just because you can break down a wall doesn't mean that others aren't stronger than walls. For example, kick me don't hold back this time."
Lautaro wasn't scared of injuring Kinger. Kinger was a grown adult who had never had a successful ambush performed on him. A record of nearly 400. He wasn't strong, he was invincible. But that didn't mean that Lautaro could not hurt him.
Lautaro stayed a fair distance away from Kinger. He then did a combination of spins and rotations each one increasing his velocity until he landed a wrecking ball-like kick straight to Kinger's head. Lautaro thought Kinger would at least flinch, but there wasn't even a scar.
There wasn't a sign that Lautaro had even kicked him.
Lautaro tries harder, rapid and strong kicks. Capoeira, Taekwondo, and the little boxing he picked up from his fight with Macell. Not even a flinch.
Kinger was truly a king. An invincible one.
"Now you see. Your kicks are weak. I will train you to be stronger."
Lautaro's ego was shut down. His kicks were truly weak.
"The first thing we are to do is perfect the spinning counter you performed. If you always use it as a counter it will be easy to counter. You have to use it as a surprise or as a distraction."
"As if I didn't know that alr-"
Lautaro was punched to the floor by Kinger. Once he finally realized what had happened he looked up at Kinger. He saw a look that said don't ever interrupt me again.
"As I was saying you practice the spinning kick and perfect it. Understand?"
"Yes."
Standing up from the cracks in the ground Lautaro scratched his head. He walked over to were Kinger was. Which was the spinning punching bag.
Kinger told him to get in a state where the punching bags rods were spinning.
Lautaro first started with a quick low lick to the lowest part of the punching bag. He punched the middle section and quickly jabbed the rod just above the middle one. The low rod came quick.
Lautaro kicked it using it as a stepping stone. He kicked all six rods of the spinning punching bag and pushed off each one and at the top, doing a backflip.
Upside down he attacked the punching bag in multiple ways. Each one strategically adjusting the wooden rods order to not get hit.
He was punching and kicking when he landed. He dodged and countered every rod that came his way not letting one catch him off guard. In his flow state Kinger waited and at the perfect moment he shouted out.
"Now!"
Lautaro dodged a rod coming at him and jumped into the air. Evading each spinning attempt at ruining his perfect run. Then he spun fast in the air. He kept his eyes on the target and his hands near his body.
Lautaro kicked the highest rod and it broke off.
"Good enough. We'll have to do this some other time because you broke the wood off. But now we need to strengthen your kicks."
Kinger pointed him to a cage that wasn't there before. Inside the cage was a gorilla. It's hair was as silver as the moon. Its face was calm and even prepared. It was well trained. Its arms were bulky and massive.
It looked almost like a copy of Manta. But this gorilla was more intense. It's legs were probably powerful enough to scale buildings.
Kinger finally drew his attention away from the gorilla that had been mysteriously transported to his basement.
"Those bars are reinforced steel. Nothing too overwhelming but tough enough to make you struggle for a while. Break open the bars and beat the gorilla inside. If you break open the bars and don't beat the gorilla its smart enough to not come upstairs. I'll leave you here."
Kinger left up the stairs, as he said he would, and he left Lautaro to his own devices.
"I swear this cannot be happening. Why is there a gorilla in my basement?!"
Lautaro sighed and scratched the back of his head. He was going to have to fight the gorilla sometime so it was better to start now.
Lautaro tested out the durability of the reinforced bars, attempting to see what sort of challenge faced him. He placed his leg against the bars and gave it a light kick.
Lautaro's face grimaced. These bars were hard. How could Kinger call these light? It was like every achievement Lautaro made crumbled up to this point, set back to point zero. Lautaro wanted to go to sleep, try another day or just give up.
But it refused.
'When you fight for something bigger than yourself, that's the worst time to ever give up.'
The words that Jae had told him kept him going. He wasn't just breaking metal just because of highschool gangs, he was breaking through it for Genesis, Jae, Sephina, Noel, Smugde. For something bigger than himself.
The only sound that could be heard was Lautaro's deep breath. Then the first rattle of the cage, the second, the third came quicker than the second and it was louder. Gunshot after gunshot, Lautaro attacked the bars.
The gorilla inside had a look of excitement or a look of pity. Which ever one did not matter now. Lautaro dashed back quickly.
He ran towards the bar, he jumped higher than anyone had ever seen. Spinning once whilst leaving the ground. The second time while airborne. The third time he spun at the apex of his jump.
He was struggling in the air. Struggling on orienting himself. Struggling trying not to ignore his bloody legs. Struggling to keep his mind on the right things. He managed one more quick spin. Just after the peak of his jump.
The fourth spin. The peanut in the peanut butter and jelly. The bread in the burger. The finish to the perfect run. The 1440° kick.
The gorilla eye's widened slightly. Just enough for Lautaro to notice, not enough for him to think that they gorilla was impressed. It was more like realization. Like the gorilla remembered the fact that Lautaro was supposedly strong.
Lautaro was incredibly dizzy. Chromatic and monotone flashes across his field of vision. But one thing remained pristine. One thing remained the same.
The singular metal rod.
He aimed. He timed. He spun. He kicked. He hit. The sound could be heard from the other end of the basement and the basement was bigger than any other room in the house. The sound of bone breaking.
However, Lautaro was different he only heard a singular sound. The sound of metal bending. The singular metal rod. He had bent it, he had made progress. He just had to kick it a few more times. But with progress will also come regression.
Lautaro could see the muscles in his foot. The skin had peeled off completely.
"Oh. I guess that happened."
The adrenaline wore out. Pain came.
Howls of grotesque languages bounced off each and every wall. Kinger came running down the stairs to see. Lautaro's foot covered in blood. He looked up at the bended metal bar.
Steel was painted blood red. He could see bits of skin stuck to the bar. He immediately rushed Lautaro upstairs where all the medical professionals already were. Everybody heard the bone breaking scream.
Lautaro's mother rushed down the stairs and midway saw the sight. Her faced twisted at the sight, fear came rushing in. Tears came out silently. She didn't scream, she didn't howl. She just watched silently at the consequences of her son breaking his ownself.
Anniebeth opened her door to see blood all over Lautaro. She was stunned. Anniebeth didn't think Lautaro was the type of guy to push himself that far. She hadn't known him for long but she was still worried. Was he okay?
***
Lautaro stayed in his room. His leg hung with a heavy cast over it. It had been two days. Since the incident. He was healing quickly due to some medicine the doctors gave him.
The pain had faded two after a few hours but he still couldn't move his leg. He was in a bad situation because he pushed himself to far, but he was glad he did because he did it for the right reasons. For something bigger than himself.
Lautaro looked up at the blinding lights in the ceiling. He took off the cast by himself and looked at his foot.
"Looks good enough."