Chapter 22 - Self Examination
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"Ummm, pardon me, but… Who's that?"
Turning in their seats in response to Tara's sudden question, Bonnie, Monique and Kim caught sight of the figure that the blonde was pointing at, at which point they gawked up at it in their total surprise.
Ron, on the other hand, took in the luminous green but translucent and insubstantial female figure that was standing in the aisle directly behind their backs, and he nodded his head in instant understanding… He felt it. He knew it…
"So… What should I call you, Shrine Of Self spiritual power?…"
"For the purposes of convenience, I shall let you name me, Master," the spirit replied in a vaguely feminine voice that was obscured by how thin and insubstantial it was. "I do not have a strong sense of self at the moment, as under normal circumstances, I'm merely the smallest fraction of a much larger collective…"
After glancing aside at Kim, Tara, Monique and Bonnie and receiving nothing but shrugs in return, Ron turned back towards the green spirit again and nodded his head as if to himself. "From this point forward, your name will be Clare, short for clarity, which is the primary theme of the shrine that you originate from…"
"I appreciate the name, as well as the fact that it has significance to me," Clare replied, her lack of substance making it hard but not impossible to see that she really was satisfied with the name.
"I imagine you'll be pleased with me if I recruit more of you from the Shrine of Self," Ron asked, as he wasn't oblivious to the importance of the word 'collective' and its impact on Clare's state of being. Ron didn't think that the word lonely would be completely accurate, but he figured it was the best way to describe the spirit's current situation.
"That would indeed please me, Master, as while I am far more… aware… than I normally am within the shrine, there is a feeling of wholeness that I am currently missing." As if to underscore her current state of ultra-transience, the spirit's body ebbed and wavered in the air.
"The Shrine of Self will be the only shrine I visit from now on, so I will be fleshing you out in the days to come," Ron announced with a nod to himself.
"Thank you Master," Clare replied while circling the row of theater seats and hovering in the air in front of everybody. "Now… Do you have a task for me, Master?"
'Before we can get to that there are many things I must know about you," Ron pointed out with a shrug and a smile. "Do you think you can answer some questions for me, Clare?"
"Yes, of course, Master," Clare immediately replied.
Nodding his head, Ron drew in a deep breath and then began with the basics. "How much of my knowledge, back-history and current circumstances are you aware of?"
"As soon as I came to being inside of this mindscape, I located this theater," Clare began with a gesture around the room. "My shrine focuses primarily on introspection, so I am gifted at looking deeply into people. To use your words… I downloaded your collected experiences into myself and am aware of your life and knowledge up until this point. To answer your next question, no, I have no idea why I'm tenuously a female."
All of the girls in the theater rolled their eyes and ruefully shook their heads, as if the spirit being female was a result of Ron's perversion and womanizing ways.
Ron rolled his eyes in return, because if he was a pervert womanizer, then it was THEIR freaking fault.
The girls smiled as they saw Ron's thoughts on the matter expressed upon his face.
Ron smiled, because this spirit was obviously good.... people? Well.. whatever… Moving on, he asked a follow-up question that would be quite a bit more practical. "Then you understand that I'm currently struggling to restrain an extremely abundant mass of spiritual power?"
"Yes, Master, I am aware," Clare immediately replied, her voice containing traces of what would normally be both urgency and alarm. "As a spirit who was once part of a much larger collective, I do not know exactly HOW you dominated such an intense mass of power, but I do know that doing so is a feat beyond anything I ever would've imagined possible."
Ron felt the girls worrying about him on his right hand side, but since he didn't have anything to say that would make them feel any better, he merely nodded his head and waited for Clare to continue.
"In answer to your unspoken question, I can and will incorporate myself into the container holding that spirit mass in check. I am nowhere near powerful enough to control the MMP alone, but I can assist in maintaining your container's structural integrity," Clare added while turning in the direction of the distant mech. "I can also create the HUD (Heads Up Display) system that you desire superimposed over your eyesight."
"Wait… you can actually do that," Ron asked, excitement and enthusiasm leaking into his voice.
"Self-awareness is the intended purpose of my shrine, thus, keeping you informed about yourself and your surroundings is a task I'm well-suited for," Clare confirmed with a subdued sense of satisfaction in her voice. "I can and will show you how the container fares, how much power you're using, where it's being used and myriad other things just like in one of your video games."
"A user interface like in an RPG or first person shooter," Monique mused before smiling in amusement and leaning in Clare's direction. "What kind of information will you allow Ron to see?"
"If Master desires that I do so, I can do the following," Clare began before rattling off her list in a way that proved she didn't need to breathe. "I can display the time relative to your location and a mini-map of any area that you know of in your subconscious mind. On that map, I can point out your estimated coordinates, true north and your current elevation by checking the world's magnetism, oxygen levels and the topography around you. I can also show you facts like your nutrition levels, level of dehydration, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, your different hormone levels, number of red and white blood cells, platelet count, whether or not you are sick and with what, if you are poisoned and with what, pinpoint damage to your body, etcetera. I am also capable of showing you whether or not any of your ladies are present inside of your mindscape. I can also display whether or not you are alone in a room by monitoring sounds and temperatures to the extent of your body's senses. Needless to say, all of this information will take up space in your vision, so it will be up to you to customize your display…"
In the wake of Clare's words, Ron, Kim, Monique, Tara and Bonnie stared open-mouthed at the spirit, as she just described waaaay more information that a normal human should be able to amass with their five senses…
"In conclusion, Master, I have learned about video games through your life experiences, and I have arranged to serve a similar function as a user interface," Clare concluded with a ghostly nod of her head. "The exceptions should be obvious, but I will list them anyway. I cannot summon or dismiss weapons or gear for you, I cannot pause time, and I cannot respawn you if you die... I'm merely a spirit, and those feats would require a God…"
By the time Clare was finished explaining her limitations, Ron's face was split into a massive toothy grin. Clare was both interesting and funny, and holy hell was she helpful…
Off to the side, Kim was completely floored by how versatile this spirit was about to make itself, because information was life or death on missions and she couldn't even begin to count the number of times that they were forced to go without it... Over and over again, she and Ron ended up without any means of communication or method to discern just where the hell they were going… and now… Ron's HUD vision was going to essentially negate that problem.
As Ron slowly came down from his nerdy enjoyment and enthusiasm, he turned his attention back towards Clare, and he gave her a full-faced smile. "Clare, you're already proving yourself to be a hero of productivity and I'm very grateful to have you on board. I promise to recruit more of you so that you'll have a stronger spiritual presence to work with."
Clare's body appeared to bounce around and it may even have been in excitement. "I understand and thank you in advance, Master. My shrine is painful to use and is only for the most disciplined. I understand from your experiences that you have a strong resolve, but I appreciate it anyway."
Even as Ron nodded in response to Clare's words, his right hand rose up to cup his chin, and a thoughtful expression grew across his face. "Clare, can you be superficially present with us here while the bulk of you is working on the container? I imagine there isn't much of you to spare right now…"
"Master, space is relative in this place," Clare corrected with a small bob of her body in the air. "Mindscapes are such an impossibly intimate form of existence, even if you created another continent in this space and then sent me to the farthest reaches of it, I would still be simultaneously touching, inside of, and one with you at all times... To answer your question, Master… yes. I can effectively be in two places at once in here, because in actuality EVERYWHERE in here is one exceedingly specific place. Do you understand?"
For the second time in less than five minutes, Ron felt all of the ladies looking at him, and for the second time, he didn't know what to say. The girls were his soulmates, they knew it, he knew it, and as ludicrous and schmaltzy as the word sounded at face value, he wasn't going to chafe over its use anymore.
Instead, Ron forced himself to focus on his more immediate goals… "Okay then, Clare, I understand that distance is effectively not a factor for you. In that case, If you haven't already done so, Please incorporate yourself into the MMP container while maintaining an avatar that I can communicate with."
"Yes, Master, I am bolstering the power core as we speak," Clare assured.
"Excellent," Ron enthused. "Now, I'd like to begin superimposing the HUD system in all of our eyes, so how about we add one thing at a time so that we can organize it in the way that we prefer…"
At the sound of multiple surprised gasps, Ron looked aside at Bonnie, Tara, Kim and Monique, and he arched an eyebrow at them all with an amused grin on his face… Then he was grinning even wider, as all four women rose to their feet, crowded the aisle around his seat, and planted a series of kisses on his mouth, cheeks, and neck.
In the moment's that followed, Ron's lap was very thoroughly occupied by Tara and Monique (it was Monique's turn, and everyone silently decided to give Tara some extra consideration), Bonnie was leaning against Ron's side from the seat on his left, and Kim was rubbing his other shoulder on his right.
"That was a very thoughtful thing you just did for us," Kim pointed out, with a smile. "I never even thought of having a HUD in my eyes too, and I should have because I already KNOW Clare can affect my body…"
"Oh? Care to elaborate," Ron asked, his voice slightly husky due to the two ultra-affectionate women that were squirming sexily in his lap.
Over the following two minutes, Kim explained the goings on back in Middleton, how Connie and Lonnie met with Camille Leon, how the woman was operating differently than normal, how she allowed Debutante to be mutated, and how Kim channeled supernatural powers when she saved the oversized cat from hanging itself…
Off on the sidelines, Clare nodded that, yes, she did intervene on Kim's behalf with as much spiritual power as she could spare, because she knew that her Master would want her to do so if she were to ask him.
Even as Ron beamed a grateful smile at his newfound spirit companion, a stylized blue HUD system started coming into being upon the lens of everyone's eyes, showing them all several different pieces of information about the MMP container, including the fact that the container was at fifty-eight percent structural integrity until just a few moments ago, when Clare got involved.
As if to supplement the information being provided by the HUD, Clare's avatar floated closer to draw everyone's attention. "I will be able to boost the container from fifty-eight percent up to almost sixty-four percent structural integrity with my current powers, but I will need much more of myself from the shrine if your goal is a hundred percent. That is not to say the core is in danger of exploding, but you must keep your power usage below a certain range for safety's sake in the meantime. I am now adding a dull red range in the power usage area of your HUD. It is best if you keep your power usage below that range for now, which means you must either avoid a huge burst of power or many, many small bursts over a short period of time…"
"I understand, and I appreciate you," Ron immediately conveyed.
"We appreciate you as well," Kim added, before everyone else started nodding a calling out thanks of their own.
"I appreciate the praise, Ladies Possible, Johnson, Strongwell, and Rockwaller," Clare replied with just a hint of pride in her voice.
"Can you call me Kim or KP like Ron does," Kim asked, as she was having trouble with the Lady Possible stuff (as cute as it was).
"Oh yeah, you can call me Ron as well. Sorry for not mentioning that earlier…." Secretly, Ron was getting a kick out of being called Master, but he didn't want to be a dick about it.
"I can call Lady Possible, Kim, yes, but Master is Master and I refuse to call him anything else," Clare quietly asserted.
After turning towards Ron to see the man shrug his shoulders in a very 'helpless' fashion, the girls grinned their amusement and volunteered to be spoken to using only their first names.
Over the next half an hour, Ron and his 'ladies' added to and altered their HUD vision to their own satisfaction, as they all had their own ideas of what they wanted, and they all wanted to keep it small to preserve their normal human vision.
Another matter that they needed to choose was whether or not the HUD interface was still visible when they closed their eyes. Ron, Kim and Monique opted to have everything visible at all times, while Tara and Bonnie decided to have it all go dark.
With her task apparently accomplished for the moment, Clare floated out of the theater in the direction of the bridge area.
"With as little as a mental prompt, I can release specific percentages of my spiritual power to specific places in my body using an ocular HUD system to keep it all organized and within iron-clad safety limits," Ron breathed out to himself, as he reclined back in his seat and smiled lazily up at the ceiling. "Not bad for a day's work, but I think I need an hour or two to simply… exist…"
Nodding their understanding, the girls all leaned into his chest or shoulders, doing their utmost to relax their host, with a memory of visiting the Grand Canyon playing in the background.
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Immediately after slapping the shit out of the alarm clock the next morning, Kim sat up in bed, shook the sleep from her head, and then smiled like a loon when she saw a highly personalized and stylized HUD in her vision, informing her that she was currently healthy, well-rested, and located on the second floor of her home in Middleton.
"Ron CAN and really IS sending me spiritual power," Kim whispered to herself with a fist pressed tightly to her chest and a manic smile growing across her face… "Clare… can you hear me?"
In small green letters at the bottom left side of Kim's vision, the word ~YES~ appeared, exactly like it would in an instant messenger app.
Drawing in a deep breath to calm her rapidly accelerating heart rate, Kim asked a follow-up question that had her squeezing her upper thighs. "Can you connect my and Ron's HUDs so that we can send messages to each other in real time?"
Several seconds went by and then once again the word ~YES~ showed up in little green writing on the bottom left of Kim's vision
"Clare… Can I enter the text on my screen sub vocally and then send it with a thought," Kim asked, her enthusiasm causing her to bounce from her bed and pace around the room.
Several seconds went by and then the word ~DONE~ appeared on Kim's HUD.
"Can you inform Ron that I have a working HUD in physical reality, it now has a messenger app and I'm about to send him a message," Kim breathed out, as she loped across her room to her vanity, slapped her hands down atop its surface, and then stared at herself in its mirror.
Several seconds went by and then once again the word DONE appeared on the screen.
A split second later, Ron beat Kim to the punch, when the word ~FIRST!!!~ Populated at the bottom of Kim's brand new messenger field, followed by the letters ~LMAO!!!~
Damn… He got me…
Over the following half an hour, Kim and Ron chatted over messenger, before sending Tara, Bonnie and Monique similar messages, and uncorking the floodgates. Then the bottom left of everyone's HUD vision became messy with messages to the point that Kim was forced to minimize it within the field of her vision.
Just like texting while driving, sending empathic text messages distracted away from everyday tasks, and everyone needed to keep that in mind…
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Three weeks Later…
After waking up at four in the morning, changing into his clothing as quietly as possible, and sneaking out of his dorm, Ron silently jogged across campus to the tori spanning its front gate, where he found a black silhouette perched elegantly across a nearby boulder.
For the last eight days. Ron and Yori had been running the mountain valley together (at extremely high speeds), and if you want to do anything in secret with Yamanouchi's most sought after kunoichi, then it must be done at extremely early hours. Unlike Reo, who was teaching Ron to use his powers in the midst of life or death struggle, Yori was teaching him how to contact, circulate and manipulate spiritual power for smaller feats that require more finesse.
A daily tutoring session that was incredibly helpful, DESPITE the fact that Ron's HUD based power manipulation was a little less fluid than Yori's, and required quite a bit more care and consideration.
For example:
Yori was teaching Ron how to control how his spiritual power saturates his soft tissues, muscles, tendons, etc, once it's free of his container. She was also teaching him how to use his head in regards to spiritual power, in a very literal sense, because Ron could, to a certain extent, offset the rag-doll effect that high speeds cause his movements and coordination by saturating his brain with power and speeding up his cognition of events.
But doing so wasn't a simple or risk free process…
Using too much power inside of your brain is bad for you. The human brain likes the speeding up effect, so if you're not careful it will begin to take damage as it builds a tolerance to increasing amounts of power, and then it will rely on spiritual assistants to accomplish normal activities and thoughts. It's also an addictive feeling and therefore not to be casually messed around with. Then, there's the fact that spiritual powers amplify your emotions, which requires you to remain in extreme control of your mental state the whole entire time.
In a similar fashion, Ron could also bolster his senses even more than his newly bio-engineered ears, nose, tactile nerves, etcetera could pick up, but supercharging any one part of your body for too long causes it to take damage, which requires even more spiritual power to heal. Of course, Ron wasn't concerned about running out of power, but he figured he should very carefully find and explore his limits by using Yori's methods as the benchmark for peak level efficiency.
After forty minutes spent leaping and dashing through the twilit landscape of pre-sunrise Yamanouchi, Ron and Yori were done sprinting up and down the mountain slopes as twin blurs of inhuman speed, and they were returning to the school with smiles upon their faces. Ron was getting good at running and doing simple things at impossibly fast speeds, but he was far, far behind when it came to performing complex body movements. Case and point, Reo was still having a grand old time beating the living hell out of him every single afternoon after lunch, and Ron was no closer to defending himself against the man than when he started.
Reo sensei just laughed when Ron brought up that fact and said just because he isn't winning doesn't mean he isn't improving. Reo was a very hard teacher to impress and yet he claimed that he was satisfied with Ron's daily growth. Yori was even more complimentary, mostly because she was hinting that Ron was ready to move on to a higher level of training… She didn't say the words, not so definitively, but instead she kept testing Ron on the skills that he'd need to demonstrate in order to graduate to the next level.
One thing that Ron never spoke of with Reo and Yori… were his reservations. While Ron was well-aware that he didn't have the time to sit around in Kobayashi's class achieving nothing at all, the idea of joining the ranks of the Journeymen class and having to spar with dark-gray level trainees such as Fukushima and Sato wasn't something that he was looking forward to.
Yori appeared to understand despite Ron's silence on the matter, but as it turns out, she was extremely strict and uncompromising in his training, and she fully intended to accelerate his training someday very soon...
Reo would merely call Ron a pussy if he said anything, and would ride his ass even harder for the rest of the day.
After saying his goodbyes to Yori and sneaking back into the quiet hostility of his dorm room, Ron sent all of the girls a message on his HUD, letting them know that he increased his movement speed again today, and that he managed to complete the tree-hopping obstacle course in less than a quarter of the time… He needn't bother telling them that he was alive and well, because with the HUD system in place, the girls could monitor his health and MMP power levels with just a few mental prompts, and he could check their health and well-being in return...
In the moments after Ron sent the message, a tidal wave of messages flowed up the peripheral vision of his left eye, as everyone responded with jokes, flirty comments or genuine encouragement.
Soon enough, Ron was showered, changed and ready to eat the extra-massive breakfast that he'd prepared for himself the night before. But then, when Ron entered the communal area, and turned towards the kitchen, he found several of his classmates sitting down at the dining area table with nearly a dozen well-prepared sandwiches held up in their hands.
Sons of bitches…
Needless to say, the sandwiches that Kobayashi Junior and his minions Tanaka and Matsumoto were currently holding were taken from a tupperware container labeled 'Ron's breakfast', and sitting at their sides, all of the other kids in his class were grinning as if the theft that they were watching was comedy gold.
Oh HELL no.
Recruiting about ten percent of his available spiritual power into and throughout his body, Ron completed a split-second circuit of the room, grabbing all of the sandwiches just instants before they could reach the mouths of Kobayashi and his goons. All of the sudden, Kobayashi and his thugs were sitting there with empty hands held up to their mouths and dumb expressions upon their faces, and Ron was staring at them all from the kitchen with the collected food resting atop a plate.
"Theft is an extremely dishonorable pastime, unsuited to prospective ninjas, but since it's you Kobayashi… I'm not surprised," Ron coolly observed while depositing the newly soiled sandwiches into a nearby trash can one after another. "You really are completely irredeemable, aren't you… Not only that, but you're WEAK. I could've killed you just now, and yet you never even flinched in self-defense. You're lucky you're too far below me to bother..."
With a spluttering howl of mixed outrage and embarrassment, Kobayashi scrambled to his feet and slammed his hands down atop the table. "I'm more of a ninja than you will EVER be, gaijin!"
"Really," Ron asked, genuine curiosity in his voice. "I had no trouble taking back my food just now… no trouble at all. Truly, getting up close and personal with all three of you was quite a bit easier than any of the sparring I do with my beginner level class… Are you sure you're even strong enough to train at this level?"
In the split second that followed, Kobayashi proved that he does indeed have spiritual strength, when he moved faster than Usain Bolt in Ron's direction, his right arm cocked back in a punch. By the time he slid to a stop in the kitchen however, he'd lost sight of Ron's body and he frantically looked around in a silly looking half-pirouette.
Whump!
All of the sudden, Kobayashi felt a rising knee sinking deep into his stomach from below, lifting his feet clear off of the floor to scrabble in the air, forcing an explosive gasp from his mouth as all of the air was knocked out of his lungs, and then dropping him to the floor on his hands and knees.
"I see… You're just that hungry, huh," Ron all too casually remarked, as he began shoving a newly filthy sandwich straight out of the garbage into Kobayashi's wide open and gaping mouth. "Here, let me feed you, since you're far too STUPID and USELESS to cook for yourself."
Moving at speeds that could hardly be followed with the eye, Ron calmly shoved another two garbage covered sandwiches into Kobayashi's mouth and then held the man's jaw shut in a choke hold from behind, at which point he saw movement from the direction of the dining area, and his eyes snapped in that direction. "Stop right there," Ron demanded of Kobayashi's minions. "One step closer, and the rest of the sandwiches will be YOURS!"
The two minions looked at Kobayashi who had a mouth full of trash-strewn bread, then at each other… and then they sat back down.
"Thought so," Ron breathed out, even as he abruptly released an increasingly red-faced Kobayashi from his chokehold, slammed the flat of his hand down into the man's back to knock free the dirty bread in his windpipe, and then cast him to the floor with both garbage and drool spilling free from his mouth.
Cough! Cough! Hack, groan…
Stepping away from Kobayashi's body, Ron didn't watch as the man wobbled back up to his hands and knees and then threw up into the garbage. He was beyond the man. Instead, his eyes were trained on the rest of his class with a look of purified SCORN upon his face.
"This class is the sorriest gathering of failures I have ever met," Ron loudly announced with a look of absolute disgust upon his face. "You all swan about all damned day, convinced that you'll someday acquire the vaunted title ninja… and yet not ONE of you is even trying to be the least bit WORTHY OF IT!"
In the wake of his words, Ron saw that at the very least Watanabe, Saito and Mori san looked ashamed of themselves… but he didn't care anymore. Not once since Ron first joined this group had they ever shown the slightest amount of backbone.
They were too far gone…
Shaking his head, Ron abruptly turned in place and walked out the door. While it wouldn't kill him to eat in the hall with his friends from the Apprentice level class, he resented the wasted time that doing so represented.
Ron was in a huge hell of a hurry to get stronger… and it felt like he was running out of time.
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In the wake of Ron's words, Watanabe, Saito and Mori felt nothing but self loathing and disgust for themselves and there was just no denying it anymore.
Every single day, Stoppable san pushed himself to the limits both physically and spiritually under the collected scorn of Kobayashi senior and junior, Akiyama sensei and the rest of their class… and he never bowed down, he never submitted.
And in Ron's defiance, lay their ruination.
In watching from the sidelines, Watanabe, Saito and Mori were beginning to see just how much they'd fallen both as trainees and as people. They saw in Stoppable's undisguised contempt just how lazy, undisciplined and craven they'd become.
And the boy wasn't wrong…
Over the last couple of days, Watanabe, Saito and Mori had begun training themselves in their free time, and were startled by just how much speed and strength they'd lost while training under Kobayashi.
Things could not remain the way they were, and yet the three pre-Journeyman trainees didn't know what to do…
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Kobayashi senior was NOT a happy man.
During breakfast, when his younger brother approached him looking rattled and upset, Kobayashi figured the boy was merely stressing over nothing, but he listened as the boy told him a story.
Then he seethed with growing rage, and he began plotting the reckoning… because the methods that they'd used up until now simply weren't enough…
Over and over again, Kobayashi tried to break Stoppable's spirit by shoving him into that deathtrap cave shrine, but to his astonishment, the boy looked more and more determined with each passing day. Not only that, but Kobayashi was beginning to hear rumors that Yori and Reo senpai were arranging for Stoppable to test out of his class with a third-party proctor.
Kobayashi knew one thing for damn sure.
Stoppable wouldn't be testing out of his class.
Kobayashi was quite grateful that his younger brother had the current training group cowed and under his control. They would need that much control in order to keep the circumstances of Stoppable's 'untimely' and 'accidental' death from reaching the wrong ears…
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After breakfast, Ron barely reacted when his class walked into the courtyard that they mustered in and formed into a group about seven meters away from him. Most of the class wouldn't even look Ron in the eyes. Kobayashi junior, on the other hand, was staring at him with intense levels of hatred twisting his mouth into an ugly little scowl.
Ron sent the girls a HUD message, explaining how he lost his temper earlier that morning, and forced Kobayashi to eat a sandwich straight out of the garbage.
Most of the girls laughed.
Kim reacted differently, by demanding that he test out of his class ASAP because he needed to be free of such a hostile environment.
Ron agreed, but he also had concerns. While his current class hated him, they were all so weak they didn't pose an actual threat. This distinction was important, because when Ron joined the Journeyman classes, he would need to start sparring again…
Then Ron was receiving an empathic hug from all of his women, a feat of spiritual power that he didn't even know was possible when they weren't present in his mindscape, and he smiled back at Kobayashi junior as if the man's anger and outrage was completely adorable.
Of course this exchange happened with the worst possible timing, as Kobayashi senior chose that exact moment to finally walk out into the courtyard, where he caught Ron smiling in his little brother's direction, and then he grit his teeth hard enough to strain the muscles of his neck.
Two things were crystal clear to Ron in that moment. Kobayashi junior went crying to his big brother, and Ron needed to test out of this class ASAP…
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Gasp, splash, splutter….
For just a single instant after jerking free from the newest memory that the monk unearthed from his childhood, Ron floundered in the frozen water surrounding the shrine. The memory was from his childhood, and depicted a night where he awoke from a deep sleep to find a large and hairy spider perched directly atop his face… The memory was awful, and frightening, and it was unsurprising to Ron that his brain noped that entire moment from his memory…
But it was also no big deal, so Ron's breathing quickly regulated and returned back to normal.
"Good work, Stoppable san," the spirit monk offered with a nod of satisfaction and a pair of hands steepled atop his thighs. "Now, as you come to terms with that memory, I want to discuss your tendency to hoard behaviors from your youth, claiming that they're a part of your 'intrinsic Ronness'... While I actually do appreciate your ability to be yourself in the face of adversity, I don't want that resilience to come at the cost of your self-improvement. Your character defects are NOT part of your essential Ronness, they are merely weaknesses that you've failed to address…"
Ron could only nod, as he'd come to sense what the monk was talking about even before arriving at the school, and his more recent experiences were bringing that matter home again and again. At the exact same time, growing stronger from a mental standpoint was painful, and it came as a struggle every single time.
Over the last two weeks, over and above addressing his failures as a person, the Shrine Of Self forced Ron to confront and dismiss his fear for the following things:
-heights
-small spaces
-monkeys
-clowns
-faceless mannequins
-popping balloons
-moths (big ones)
-dolls (the ones with just a little too much realism)
-geese
-the dark
-isolation
-failure
-Monkey Fist (understandable really)
-abandonment
-rejection
-many, many more
The shrine didn't just force Ron to relive memories involving these fears, but it could also create extraordinarily vivid and convincing illusions that forced Ron to live them, interact with them, move beyond them, and grow. It was extremely heavy stuff, but it was also helping Ron develop a strong foundation, a solid mental fortitude that he could rely on when things got tough…
And yet… just that morning, Ron lost his temper on his dorm-mates, which just went to show that he still had a long way to go...
"Stoppable san, today is the day we face the fear you hold towards your spiritual power," the monk pointed out in a serious voice. "I have seen the memories of your confrontation with the MMP and how close won that was, thus I understand the respect that you hold towards that power. On the other hand, you MUST continually commune with it if you ever hope to make it truly yours, truly a part of you, truly an extension of your will…"
"I understand," Ron replied with a nod and a deep indrawn breath. This… was going to be intense…
For the next half an hour, Ron could be seen twitching and clearly uncomfortable in the icy pool ringing the Shrine of Self, until finally his face went slack and he visibly started calming down. A few moments later, his eyes abruptly snapped open, he shook out his head, and then he waited for the monk to comment on what he just experienced.
The monk merely nodded his acceptance, as while Ron's actions just now in the illusion weren't perfect, he was definitely heading in the right direction, and didn't require any input… "Now I will bestow upon you some more spiritual power, and make Clare a happy woman. Truly, you have no idea why she is a woman and has such a distinct personality?"
"No, and I'm as surprised as she is," Ron replied with a shrug and a grin. "Clare had the vestiges of a personality right from the beginning and I had nothing to do with it. I suspect she's being bolstered by the strength of the MMP even as she works to contain it."
With yet another nod, the monk raised his hands up above his head, and yet another transparent cloud of green-tinted power descended upon Ron's body.
Ron saw the greenish spirit particles settle around him and infuse itself inside him, at which point he instantly saw green text on his HUD say a quick 'Thank you, master' and his container's structural integrity rose by three percent. Ron and Clare had achieved a lot together over the last couple of weeks, as his SPC (spiritual power control) system was now sitting pretty at eighty-nine percent strength.
Then Ron rose to his feet, before bowing in the direction of the shrine and centering his thoughts. I expect that I'll be graduating to a higher class soon enough, so I may not be able to come here with the same regularity."
"I understand, Stoppable san, but I expect you to understand in return that the process of self improvement takes a lifetime," the monk replied with a stern expression upon his vaguely transparent face.
"I will return whenever time and geography allow," Ron agreed, while straightening up to his full height, dragging his hands along the ceiling, and stepping free from the calf-deep water.
"Yes, you will… Over time, a portion of your spirit will draw you back to where it originated from," the monk explained with an almost smug quality to his smile. "You shall return to cleanse all of your newest, most interesting flaws, Stoppable san… as has always been the case with those this shrine deems worthy…"
This was news to Ron, who didn't know much about how a person's spirit can compel them to action, but he had no reason to disagree with the monk, so he merely nodded, bowed politely, backed away from the shrine, and then allowed his body to begin shivering as he ascended out of the cave.
Soon after, Ron arrived back in the branch chamber of the cave system, where he was reunited with the rest of his class, and then leaned against a nearby wall as his core body temperature rose back to levels that a normal human could survive. During this time, the last members of the class entered the main cave system and stood in a ragged line.
Finally, Kobayashi Senior returned to the cave (he usually waited outside in the sun), stood in front of the class, and then crossed his arms in front of his chest in a self-important manner… "Come… Today, we shall be doing something new, something different, something… important."
Instantly, alarm Klaxons started going off in Ron's mind, because Kobayashi NEVER does new, different or important, and the fact that he WAS could only mean that the man was acting in his own self-interest.
And considering what happened earlier that morning, Ron didn't have reason to believe that the Kobayashi clan's desires would benefit him…
Without another word, the class began running for the very first time since Ron joined up with them two weeks earlier, and to his horror, some of the goons in the class were sweating merely from having to jog through the forest. For his part, Ron had no trouble at all keeping up with the class, but he ran at the back nonetheless, because he was on the lookout for traps, ambushes, or other tricks that might be laid out in their path.
Eventually, Ron's class arrived at the edge of a cliff-face overlooking some raging rapids hundreds of meters below, at which point, Ron concluded he was most likely going to be disposed of off the cliff. Sure enough, when Kobayashi turned towards the class, he began extolling the virtues of the school, its long history of honor and virtue, and how outside influences were beginning to besmirch that honor.
By this point, Ron was backing up slowly so that he'd have the entire class in front of him if/when this finally went down.
"This morning, we will take part in a rather special spar, in celebration of Stoppable san, who sees himself as your better and is attempting to test out of this class," Kobayashi explained with a voice dripping acid. "Imagine that..... Kobayashi continued with incredulity in his voice. "This useless gaijin, who doesn't even recognize his betters, believes he's fit to test out to the next level of training. Well… What I think… is we should prove that he's... not... worthy."
Off on the sidelines, Kobayashi junior and his goons watched their sensei verbally abuse Ron with stars glowing in their eyes.
"Kobayashi, Tanaka, Matsumoto, you three will be sparring against Stoppable kun and you will be using these." Kobayashi senior pulled out three kunais and underhand lobbed them to the increasingly happy boys.
"So I am to fight both unarmed and outnumbered," Ron asked, forcing his voice to remain both cool and calm.
"Yes," Kobayashi senior replied as he took a seat on a nearby boulder. "If you think that you're so much stronger than my students, then I will have you prove it."
For a brief moment in time, Ron considered making a run for it, but in the end, he didn't. While Kobayashi was considered a failure by the Master level ninjas populating the school, he was still a fully trained ninja and he was wearing a brace of throwing knives that he wasn't even attempting to conceal. If Ron tried to run, he'd end up with a kunai embedded in his back.
Ron's only hope was to steal the weapons from Kobayashi junior and his goons before Kobayashi senior could interfere, and then fend the ninja off… which wasn't a prospect that Ron was looking forward to.
In defiance to the fear that was sending chills up his spine, Ron began stretching, mostly to stall for time, but also because he needed his body at its best. At exactly the same time, Ron glanced aside at Saito, Watanabe and Mori, and he wasn't surprised by what he found.
Fear, anxiety, submission and obedience… Ron wouldn't be receiving any support from that direction, which was bullshit, because all it would take to completely defang Kobayashi would be for them to object to his actions. Kobayashi couldn't justify the murder of all his students as being an 'accident' after all…
Cowards.
While shaking his head in disgust, and stretching out his hamstrings with his palms placed flat on the ground, Ron prompted his HUD controls to unlock ten percent of his power and had Clare monitor the situation to unleash even more over time. Ron needed to be able to move like lightning with no warning at all, but he also needed to prevent his core from taking damage, which meant he needed to use his power very, very wisely.
In the seconds that followed, as Ron's body temperature rose and his senses sharpened, he suddenly realized that Kobayashi senior would attack him as soon as his brother failed. The man's heart rate was elevated along with his norepinephrine and adrenaline, and all of those things were physical tells of anger and barely restrained aggression. Ron NEEDED to get his hands on at least one of those kunai if he was going to defend himself.
Slowly, seemingly calmly, Ron straightened to his full height again and looked at the three henchmen that were lined up in front of him. Then he smiled when he realized that he just rebranded his classmates as henchmen in his mind…
If there is one thing in this world that Ron was good at, it was fucking with henchmen.
Kobayashi junior and his goons noticed Ron's grin, and they scowled because they expected him to cower…
Kobayashi senior developed a feral smile of his own, as he raised his hand in the air and prepared to start the 'spar'.
"HAJIME!!"
With their muscles bulging with an outpouring of spiritual strength, Kobayashi junior, Tanaka and Matsumoto instantly dashed in Ron's direction, kunais raised, aiming to encircle the boy and stab him from all sides.
A little over three weeks ago, the speeds that Ron's attackers were moving would've had him in a panic of frantic back-stepping and waving arms, as they were the exact same speeds that he was moving at before Yori's involvement in his training. As things stood however, Ron spent the moment it took for his adversaries to reach him figuring out just who was the strongest and developing a plan of action. Despite their preturnatural strength, KP could easily take on all three of these boys, and she was the person that he sparred with for hours and hours every single night.
Ron outclassed all three of his attackers, which is why his primary focus wasn't actually on taking them out, but making the most of Kobayashi senior's ignorance on the matter…
Ron needed to get a lot done within just the first few moments of the fight.
At the tail end of that thought, Matsumoto finally slid into place on Ron's right with his kunai blurring in towards his neck, and in response, Ron dropped to a knee and swiveled left as Matsumoto's kunai slash blurred by a few inches above his head, he snaked an arm around Matsumoto's neck and then he pulled the man's body in a circle to use him as a shield.
A split second later, when Ron hurled Matsumoto towards Kobayashi junior, the man's kunai was sliding up the right sleeve of Ron's gi, his back was torn open by a deep and bloody kunai slash, and Tanaka was yelping in alarm over stabbing his closest friend. A distraction that Ron made the most of by rolling under a wild kunai slash from a newly unbalanced Kobayashi junior, slamming the heel of his left hand into Tanaka's throat to bruise his trachea and drop him to the floor, and then knock free another kunai from the floundering boy's grip.
Then Ron was leaping forward into a one arm handspring, and he was turning in the air to face Kobayashi junior's newest attack. Kobayashi junior's kunai was raised up above his head in a lethal downward stab… and off to the right in Ron's peripheral vision, his older brother was bouncing to his feet…
Ron didn't hesitate in the slightest. Even as Kobayashi junior's attack careened down towards the top of his head, Ron whipped out his right arm, hurling one of his two kunais directly at Kobayashi senior's face, because he NEEDED Kobayashi Junior out of the fight before his brother got involved. A ploy that worked, because Kobayashi senior definitely had NOT been expecting Ron to attack him out of nowhere, forcing the man to juke to the side… And in the split second of time that Ron just bought himself, he needed to accomplish two very important things. He needed to take Kobayashi junior out of the fight, and he needed to make sure that Kobayashi senior would lose his Godsdamned mind with anger in the process.
And within Ron's mindscape, Clare increased the level of MMP that he was currently channeling up to sixteen percent, causing his muscles to burn with unspent power, and his movement speed to nearly double. A level of speed that allowed Ron to sidestep and avoid Kobayashi junior's sluggish looking stab to deliver a hard right-cross into the man's ribs followed by a full strength haymaker punch directly to his chin. Then, in the split second that followed, even before Kobayashi could finish falling onto his ass, Ron pulled his right knee up into the air and he performed the coup de grâce of unforgivable moves. After recruiting even more spiritual strength down into his legs, Ron viciously stomped his right foot down into Kobayashi junior's balls, crushing the man's reproductive organs down into the ground in such a brutal and merciless fashion, it could be a finisher move in the video game Immortal Combat.
Needless to say, Kobayashi junior released a broken, shrill and guttural scream, followed by a squeak like a mouse, before throwing up all over himself, and passing the hell out…
Three down, one to go, and the man was coming in hot… A trio of kunais were just a foot away from piercing the right side of Ron's face when he managed to catch one up his sleeve and then leap backwards to dodge the rest. Then Ron deflected aside a pair of kunai swings that he could barely even see, before sliding into a crouch in the grass, lifting his unconcealed kunai up in front of his chest… and smiling in apparent amusement. "Why are you so angry, sensei? Your little brother doesn't need those balls anyway… Women find him repellent."
With a scream of pure unadulterated rage, Kobayashi senior launched in Ron's direction again, only for Ron to give the man a smile of maxed out amusement, because the plan was working like a charm. Reo always said that an angry ninja is a sloppy ninja, and it's especially bad when they use their spiritual powers. Right now, Ron imagined that Kobayashi's spiritual power was reflecting his rage right back at him, and he was becoming a red-hot furnace of purified hate and thoughtless aggression.
And in the man's berserker rage lay Ron's salvation.
Even as Kobayashi screamed at the sky like a feral animal, and whipped both of his kunais towards Ron's body like a STOD (spinning top of doom), Ron did the exact opposite by becoming cold, calculating and ultra-efficient. This would be Ron's one and only chance, because under normal circumstances, Kobayashi would be the more experienced fighter by a significant margin.
By being an unforgivable asshole, Ron managed to level the playing field, and now he needed to strike while the iron was hot.
But then, Kobayashi arrived at Ron's side in a blur of ridiculous speed, Ron instantly picked up the pace in order to evade his stabbing blades, he rapidly backpedaled as Clare released more power, and the structural integrity of his core started decreasing at a noticeable rate.
Now. Ron needed to win this now… not just because his power core was taking damage, but because with every blow that he received he was being pushed back towards the cliff.
In his insane rage, Kobayashi moved through a wild barrage of Tai Shing Pek Kwar movements, and only the fact that Ron knew these movements intimately allowed him to bob, sidestep, backpedal and deflect all of the cuts, punches, and kicks. But then, when Ron attempted to sweep Kobayashi's newest attack aside with his kunai, a red-hot, bloody line was cut into his hand.
Kobayashi was speeding up, which meant Ron needed to disrupt his composure and stun his movements. He couldn't back off this time, so he did the opposite. Even as a spray of blood splashed free from Ron's hand, he pushed forward to land a hard, deep, and seemingly ineffective punch into the man's kidneys…
Nothing… The man didn't even flinch.
Fuck.
Kobayashi's counter attack came fast and it came hard, as an immensely powerful medium height kick that Ron almost managed to leap over, only for his ankle to get caught in the air, sending him cartwheeling in the air in a way that SHOULD have completely destroyed his composure.
Thankfully for Ron, Kim Possible always, ALWAYS sends him flying every single time they sparred, making him uniquely qualified to react to his sudden ragdoll status. Even as Ron's body was upside down in the air, he performed a rising kick that connected like a hammer blow to Kobayashi's temple, and for the first time this fight, the ninja's movements were brought to a halt.
The ninja staggered back, felt hot blood streaming down his face, and then he screamed his insane rage to the sky. At exactly the same time, Ron rolled out of his kick just a foot away from the cliff edge, and then frog-leapt free to square up at its side.
Clare increased Ron's MMP use again in the face of Kobayashi's ever increasing speed, even as Ron attempted to side-strafe away from the cliff. Two meters, three meters, five. Ron thought he was clear, only for Kobayashi's body to blur in front of him, a Kunai to swing towards his eyes, and when he managed to deflect the blow aside, a foot slammed into his ribs, launching him through the air.
For the second time in less than a minute, Ron was flying towards the cliff face, but once again, he was able to remain calm. There was a straggly tree near his flight path, which Ron just barely managed to grab like a gymnast before swinging in a tight circle in the air and landing a hard two footed kick to Kobayashi who had followed him closely.
Kobayashi careened backwards before rolling through the grass and bouncing back to his feet.
Ron staggered as his feet hit the ground, because Kobayashi just managed to stab the outside of his thigh…
By this point, Ron's gi was a mass of destroyed cotton but there would be no cool shirtless fighting because he still had a Kunai concealed up his sleeve. The concealed Kunai was his trump card because even though Team Possible frowns upon such matters, this was clearly a fight to the death. If necessary Ron WOULD end this man rather than die himself.
And with that resolve, Ron dashed in Kobayashi's direction with more speed than he'd ever used in his life, and he struggled to control his body, to tighten up, to prevent his limbs from ragdolling out of control…
Kobayashi did the same in Ron's direction, his body jerky and mechanical, his eyes wild with hate.
Ron's body closed with Kobayashi's, Ron's unconcealed kunai held up in front of his face, Kobayashi duel wielding in a similar fashion.
Ron saw the second kunai that Kobayashi was holding and he knew the name of the game. Kobayashi wanted him to dodge the first swing and get gutted by the second… but Ron had no intention of playing ball. Instead of moving right or left to avoid the man's leading attack, Ron let his legs widen as they crashed together and he dropped into a Van Damme style slide under Kobayashi's attack.
Kobayashi's first kunai slash blurred over Ron's head with just an inch or two to spare, his second attack was deflected away by the kunai in Ron's hand, and then Ron was shoving his concealed kunai up and into the man's guts with as much power as he could muster. Then Ron was sliding free from under the ninja's legs, he heard a guttural moan groan and a huff of air from the man at his back, and he bounced back up to his feet just in time to see Kobayashi drop to his knees.
But Kobayashi didn't know the fight was over yet. Ron leapt to the side to avoid a Kunai thrown in his direction, even as he ran over with every intention of trying to administer first aid. As he closed with the ninja, the man swung his second kunai at him, forcing Ron to jump back and clear of the danger.
Turning aside to look at Watanabe, Saito and Mori, Ron gestured at their teacher. "If one of you could show some courage for ONCE it would be appreciated! He needs medical assistance and he's too blinded by rage to let me help him!"
Watanabe looked terrified as he quickly replied, "I have no medical experience. I don't know what to do!"
Watanabe's companions both looked equally afraid and useless.
Even as an explosive huff of disgust and frustration leaked from Ron's mouth, he suddenly felt something… and he knew… Looking up and into the nearby trees, Ron saw them staring right back in his direction.
Reo sensei and Yori sensei were observing them. They just watched… everything… from a spot of concealment in the trees.
As if Ron's notice was a cue of some kind, both Yori and Reo suddenly blurred down into the clearing and slid to Ron's side. Yori began inspecting Ron's right thigh and hand, while Reo approached Kobayashi.
"My, my, my, Kobayashi kun," Reo began with a look of sadistic amusement twisting his features. "You've failed in so many ways today, I'm almost impressed…. Truly, I can't make up my mind what's more shameful. Your dishonorable intentions towards a student in your care, or your profound incompetence and failure in execution. I honestly don't think I've ever seen a more sorry sight in my life… Do you want me to let you die, Kobayashi? Do you want to end it all?"
Now that Kobayashi was being confronted by ninjas that were vastly superior to him, the rage slid away from his face, and terror immediately took its place. "NO! No please, Akiyama senpai. Don't leave me here to die! ! I need to make an accounting of myself to Master sensei!"
"Why then did you not allow Stoppable san to tend to your wounds," Reo asked as he walked a slow circle around the badly gutted man. "I'm under the impression that your honor demands you die in this botched conflict of yours, but perhaps our standards are… different. Does your honor not demand that you stick to your principles and bleed out where you sit?"
"I..... am..... without honor.... and I would live with that," Kobayashi said in a newly broken voice. "I will go to the stockades and live my life in shame."
"You already were living an honorless existence, Kobayashi kun," Reo corrected with a gleeful little laugh. "The only difference now is you cannot claim that it is otherwise… Fine, I will save you, but I have no desire to converse with you."
In a movement so fast, it was almost invisible, Reo suddenly lashed out and knocked Kobayashi unconscious with a hard chop to where his neck meets his shoulders. Then he wrapped some bandages around the man's torso and picked him up in a sloppy fireman's carry.
While all of this was happening, Ron drew off his gi and started wrapping his thigh up with some gauze… "Yori san," he prompted while turning towards the nearby woman, only to find her protecting his modesty by looking away. "How long were the two of you watching?"
"We arrived as Kobayashi senior was extolling everyone with the honor of the school and the danger that you represented," Yori san admitted with a sigh. "I wanted to immediately intervene in what was clearly a trap for you, but Reo san stopped me. He conveyed that you were ready, so we should only intervene if there is need. Truly, this attack will guarantee your graduation to the next level, but I didn't enjoy watching it. Reo, on the other hand, just had the time of his life watching you utterly destroy someone he considers an eyesore…"
"I... understand, Yori sensei," Ron slowly breathed out. "I do, even though it wasn't a pleasant experience. If you don't mind, can you tell me how I stack up against the other trainees that I'll be encountering at the next level? How did I do just now, Yori sensei?
"You're far from the best, but you're certainly one of the most unconventional and hard to pin down," Yori determined with a smile and a shrug. "I've never seen you do a cartwheel kick like that before and it was a perfect example. You turned a disadvantage into an advantage, which is a very Stoppable san thing to do."
Both Ron and Yori grinned and turned to the rest of the class. The three of them were all just standing there looking shell-shocked and afraid.
"You three," Yori snapped at them. "Pick up the unconscious group members. We will be running back to the school to receive medical treatment and get this all sorted out."
Watanabe, Saito and Mori all nodded quickly like triplet bobble heads and then ran over to the unconscious students littering the grass.
As Ron threw Watanabe gauze and gestured for him to wrap up Matsumoto's wounds, he sent the girls a HUD message that he just graduated from his current level under interesting circumstances. Then, as they ran back towards the school, he had a very long messenger conversation, describing 'almost' everything that happened.
By the time Ron arrived back at the Tori denoting the entrance to the school, he was being empathically hugged on all sides, which made him smile until he looked back over his shoulder and saw the cowardly trio breathing hard and having trouble keeping up.
Suffice it to say, Ron was having a LOT of trouble feeling any sympathy whatsoever…
Soon after, everyone was filing into the medical wing of the school, where their wounds and injuries were scrutinized by the staff. Ron still had a gash on his thigh and hand but both wounds looked like they were inflicted a week ago rather than just an hour prior. The medical staff member took this in stride and just gave him a knowing look before moving on to everyone else.
Ron sat in the room with everyone else drinking an orange juice-box and eating an Oreo cookie, until he saw Master sensei enter the unit. Then he rose to his feet as the elderly wiseman spoke to Reo, Yori and the professional healer.
In the end, Matsumoto had a concussion, a dislocated shoulder and a long gash down his back and leg, so he was expected to make a full recovery, but his time training as a ninja was over.
Tanaka had a bruised trachea and was only semi conscious because he was having trouble breathing. He was put on oxygen and would recover. He would also never be trained in the ninja arts again.
Kobayashi junior had a trio of broken ribs, a broken jaw and his testicles had been completely destroyed by hard blunt force trauma. The medical staff here at Yamanouchi could assist him in repairing his testicles using his spiritual powers but they would never operate at full efficiency. He would also never receive ninja training ever again.
Kobayashi senior had broken ribs, a concussion and an open gut wound that was in danger of going toxic… and yet he would most likely live… which was a problem. The man was ninja trained and had betrayed his oaths, which meant he would spend his life in the stockades attempting to regain his honor. Apparently, the stockades were anything but fun, but the exact details weren't shared.
As Ron listened from the sidelines, he wondered if he was liable for anything that he'd done. It goes without saying that he regretted shoving a filthy sandwich into Kobayashi junior's mouth, but the event was already something that he discussed in the Shrine of Self, so he was already attempting to move on…
Finally, Master Sensei walked up to Ron, which meant it was time to clean his conscience. Ron bowed while drawing in a breath. "Master sensei, you have my apologies. I mistreated Kobayashi sensei's younger brother earlier today and this attack was in retaliation to that."
"Yes, I heard you shoved a sandwich into his mouth in front of his peers," Master Sensei said slowly and seriously.
Behind Master Sensei's back, Reo's smile was from ear to ear…
"Yes, Master Sensei," Ron admitted. "I lost my temper, and I acted without thinking."
"I agree, Stoppable san," Master sensei slowly replied. "You did NOT, however, do anything worthy of summary execution, which is what Kobayashi senior had in mind. I will remind you that you need to be excellent in character, rather than merely good… do you understand? You are not going to be judged by the same standards that the rest of the school enjoys. It is unfair, but it is also true. I expect better from you in the future…"
With that much said, Master Sensei's countenance abruptly brightened and he patted Ron on the shoulder. "I'm quite pleased with how you comported yourself when the fighting came to an end. You moved to assist Kobayashi even though he tried to kill you, and it speaks well of you. In light of that, you will be forgiven your actions earlier this morning."
Ron wilted a little in relief and then looked back up at Master sensei. "I'm grateful to be given another chance, and I will do better in the future."
"Yes, you will," Master Sensei agreed with a knowing smile on his face. "With that in mind I have a problem to solve. I find myself without a sensei for the interim class of trainees. That means that I'm currently in a bind regarding Watanabe, Saito and Mori. They have dishonored themselves today by allowing the attack, but they are also not guilty of attacking you. What would you suggest, Stoppable san?"
Ron put a hand to his face deep in thought. Soon after he brightened and looked at Master sensei. "I'd suggest you have them join Reo sensei's physical conditioning in the mornings and then a routine of strict meditation in the afternoon. They've become soft and cowardly under Kobayashi and they're in desperate need of literally every form of discipline."
Off to the side, Ron saw the cowardly trio flinch, and once again he didn't have any sympathy to offer.
Even as Master Sensei nodded his agreement, he also held a hand up in the air. "I have one stipulation. You will oversee their improvement as the summer progresses, and they will act as your vassals if and when they are required."
Ron would admit to being stunned by that and he didn't know what to say. "I'm a guest here, Master Sensei, and not a figure of authority."
"Watanabe san, Saito san and Mori san will obey you because doing so is the ONLY way they can begin recouping their honor," Master sensei said with extreme seriousness in his voice. "In their cowardice, they would've allowed you to be gutted like a fish, so I will have them repay that debt no matter how long it takes..."
Once again, Ron saw the cowardly trio flinch and look down at their feet. Once again he didn't care.
In fact, It was time for some brutal honesty...
"Master sensei," Ron sighed while drawing in a lungful of air. "I don't like them, I don't respect them, and I seriously doubt that they'll ever be of use to me…"
Master Sensei nodded his understanding but then he held up a hand. "I've been in charge of Yamanouchi for a very long time, Stoppable san, so I know when an unpopular decision needs to be made. By having Watanabe, Saito and Mori answer to you, you shall act as a constant reminder of their ABJECT FAILURE as ninja trainees. It should also be a reminder to you not to act on impulse. Your actions are always going to have large scale consequences, so I think this is a valuable lesson."
Ron understood where Master sensei was going with his idea, albeit grudgingly, so he nodded his head in assent. "Yes... I can see how my involvement would accomplish both of those goals…"
"With that much said, you have officially graduated from pre-Journeyman training, and are a Journeyman ninja, so you will be training with many different people from this point forward," Master sensei enthusiastically described. "You will meet with different sensei's every single day, while working on a wide variety of different skills… but since Reo would never forgive me if I didn't, I shall appoint him as your handler."
"I enjoyed every second of that fight," Reo called out from the background, not even trying to conceal the fact that he was eavesdropping.
"Yori san told me as much," Ron admitted as Master Sensei departed back to his office and Reo walked up. "Anything specific you approved of?"
"I liked it when you drove that kid's balls down into his body with extreme prejudice in order to drive his brother insane," Reo explained with no signs of mockery in his voice. "I thought it was inspired, and it worked like a charm. I almost started clapping from my spot in the tree."
Ron winced just remembering that, as it was bar none the douchiest thing that he'd ever done... "And what do you think about having to teach the wonder trio?"
"I'm a sadist, Stoppable… I love torturing the weak and helpless," Reo conveyed with a smile at the newly petrified threesome in the distance. "Speaking of torturing the weak, don't we have a spar we've yet to do today?"
"I suppose we do, but I have a question first," Ron mused as he drew Reo aside. "Kobayashi was a piss poor fighter. A fully trained ninja shouldn't have lost to me no matter how gifted I am at the mind games… How was he even a ninja let alone a sensei?"
"Yamanouchi doesn't waste manpower, Stoppable," Reo replied while leaning back against a wall. "After Kobayashi froze up a few too many times fighting the big baddies, he was made a teacher… Since then, he's become self-indulgent and weak… but at one time, he really did have potential."
"That information made Ron pause before asking the obvious question. "Just how scary are the big baddies, really?"
Reo thought about Ron's question for several moments before nodding to himself and drawing in a breath. "Well, you're tough mentally, so maybe I will tell you… later. For now, just keep in mind that they're the stuff of Steven King's nightmares and they use innocent people like sock puppets. That should suffice for now. All this teenage drama, oooh nobody likes me because I'm a foreigner, high school, angsty, bullshit that you're dealing with… means literally nothing in the face of the big baddies…"
"Hey! I've never complained about any of that," Ron protested, albeit with a grin on his face.
"No, no you haven't. It's one of the reasons you're worth training," Reo conceded. "Well… that and I just REALLY like the sound that your head makes when I punch it. It's like a metallic ting noise and I start feeling like I'm kicking the crap out of a robot."
"It's a calcium, collagen composite material," Ron answered idly. "It's still technically bone, just stronger."
"No kidding," Reo mused with a look of genuine interest on his face. "I might ask for some reciprocity from now on. You do know that we're square now that you've fought a life or death battle and won, right?"
"The thought had crossed my mind," Ron admitted.
"I want to know how your construct works. Stoppable," Reo admitted as they walked towards the gym. "I'm not the best of the best from a spiritual standpoint, so I'm always looking for an edge."
Over the next ten minutes, as they walked across the campus, Ron explained the avatar that symbolized him in his mindscape, and Reo geeked out like a shameless Japanese otaku. At the same time, Ron sent another HUD message to the girls. ~It appears the resident sociopath and I have become best friends~
After a few moments some text appeared in Ron's HUD. It was a message from Kim. ~I'll take Reo senpai over no friends at all. We both know that he tries. What super violent and bloodthirsty thing did you do to win him over?~
Ron had no intention of sending back the words, I completely destroyed a boy's testicles, so he just sent back, ~I'll show you later….~
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Two hours Later…
The highly vaulted room that the kunoichi found herself kneeling in was shaped like an octagon at ground level, only to widen in size on the second level, where a series of bays contained flat cushions on the floor. The Yamanouchi Council's receiving area was low, it was small, it forced the person occupying it to look up at the Council surrounding them on every side, and it was hardly ever used by the entire council because it was intimidating in the extreme.
Under normal circumstances, for a Yamanouchi ninja to find themselves within the center of this room, meant that Yamanouchi's Elder Council was deliberating your fate, and the kunoichi could almost FEEL the amassed fear and anxiety that those people felt in her place.
"Thank you for coming," a shadowy figure up in one of the bays began, his low-toned voice smooth, his words noticeably sardonic.
The kunoichi didn't respond, although she did understand the irony in her Master's voice. She was a ninja, after all. She came when she was ordered. She did as she was bid…
"Earlier this afternoon, I pressed Council member Hurioka for answers regarding one of our more… irregular students," the voice continued, deadpan now, stripped of all humanity. "I asked my colleague why the boy's body contains trace amounts of multiple souls, and why his body is leaking spiritual power Westward in the direction of North America… and he was evasive. I threatened to get the entire Council involved in my questioning… at which point, Hurioka san explained something that came as quite the surprise…"
The Kunoichi didn't move, she didn't respond, she knew her place below the Master before her.
"Stoppable san has amassed a collection of… soul mates… as it were… There are several women over in America that he's been 'intimate' within the recent past, during which time his spiritual power connected their bodies soul to soul," the shadowy figure explained, his words both judgmental and thoughtful, disgusted and intrigued.
The kunoichi didn't move. She didn't respond… although her downturned face turned slightly pink, and she was certain her Master could see as much with his advanced senses…
"Yesss… this will do…," the Master mused to himself while staring down at the kunoichi kneeling below him, and writing out a series of words upon a small slip of paper. "Here are your new orders…"
In the moments after the slip of paper drifted down onto Yori's outstretched hand and she unfurled it to look at its contents, the woman's face started burning a brilliantly bright red, and her mouth gaped open in shock…
And at exactly the same time, a small formation of ancient Kanji words glowed just enough to be visible within the skin of Yori's neck… HONOR BOUND…
""It would… be… my honor," Yori slowly breathed out, her words very quiet, but her expression set in stone…