The Grandmaster

A smile lights up Yasuken’s face as he realizes the advancements he’s made towards the mystery of his grandfather’s involvement to Champions. Quickly, he performs the Seiza bow position. “Toshiro, I’ve come in peace. I have a proposi—" “Silence!” The nameless man interrupts. “You must leave this place at once.” “What... Wh-why! Hear me out!” The man raises up Yasuken and begins to drag him by the arm. “Wait! What have I done wrong? Tell me... please!” “You’ve trespassed amongst sacred premises. This stronghold contains elements that vastly exceed even your imagination. An adolescent of your caliber won’t be able to comprehend the deeper depths of this world yet,” the man says. Yasuken’s face softens, then he speaks. “You don’t know anything about me. Sure, I’m desperate, weak, frail, young. But that’s not enough for me to be counted out. I’m sick and tired of being left out of this, left out of that. I’ve been held from enough secrets already. How much longer before I’m acknowledged as someone!” Yasuken exclaims. “Exactly,” the man said. “I’ve heard all I’ve needed to hear. You’re nothing but a half-witted child who ventures into the unknown seeking validation and attention. You can’t just go waltzing into random areas in search of something. Every one of your actions so far has led me to believe you’re a kid on the outside… and by heart.”

Yasuken begins to grow annoyed. “Is that so? If I truly am just some lowly kid that has coincidentally made my way here, why are you still talking to me? Why is it that I wasn’t kicked out the moment I entered here?” Yasuken smirks as he believed he refuted the man. “Well for that exact reason. Not just anyone makes their way into this forge. The first question I asked of you was a test. A measure of your maturity. And you failed. You’ve successfully proven to me that you’re no different than an intruder within this home. You’ve spent your time here and now you must leave.” “I’m not going anywhere. I came for your help and I need information.” Yasuken responded. “My help, you say? For goodness sakes where are your parents?” The man asks ridiculing him. “I could care less about them. I was raised by my grandfather… Until he was—” “Well someone needs to let him know how horrible of a job he’s doing. Well, I’m not surprised. Knowing you, he probably lived as crappy a life as you.” Yasuken became furious. Immediately, he throws a punch at the man out of anger. In one motion, the man catches Yasuken’s fists and pins him to the ground. “I won’t allow you to include me in your childish tantrum.” Yasuken wiggles away and enters a combat stance. “And I won’t allow you to get away with your words,” he says.

“As effective as it may seem, this sword is too heavy for me to lift and it'll do me more damage than good. I have to resort to straight hand-to-hand combat,” Yasuken thinks to himself. He drops the sheathed sword to the ground and rushes towards the man. The man evades Yasuken’s blow and parries around him and strikes Yasuken to the ground. Here Yasuken fully acknowledges the combative skill gap between him and his opponent. Repeatedly over and over again, Yasuken sprints toward his opponent only to get knocked down each time. “Is that all you’ve got trespasser?! You disappoint me.” Every blow thrown by Yasuken is countered effortlessly by the man. After multiple knockbacks, Yasuken is hit to the ground. This time dazed and lies there. “I give in! I surrender. You’re right. I’m just a loud, annoying little kid that tries too hard to get what I want and when I fail turn to anger. I concede.” Yasuken says in seeming defeat.

He lifts up his arms in a show of forfeit. The man approaches Yasuken and crouches down to be met at eye-level with him. “You’ve finally come to your senses kid.” “I sure have, haven’t I?” Yasuken sarcastically says with a cheeky grin. In a hopeful attempt, Yasuken tries to sneak a hit with his raised arm. In one motion, the man pins his wrists together holding up Yasuken’s body in the air. He punches Yasuken in the face, elbows him again with the same arm, knees his stomach, then uppercuts his chin with an impact hard enough to blow Yasuken out of the man’s grip. The man laughs. “You were right... You are frail. All your feeble moves are as readable as they are weak.” He walks to Yasuken lying injured on the ground and says, “You’ve forced my hand.” “All I needed was answers,” Yasuken replies with no strength. “Please just give me what I need, and I’ll be off.” “I’ve noticed you’re not just weak in strength but you’re also very conceited. You walk into this fortress and you don’t even have enough say to properly say the correct name of Grandmaster Toshiku. All the more reason you have no spot in this place,” the man says. “Oh, I’m the conceited one? Says a lot coming from the man addressing himself in the 3rd person.” Yasuken fires back. “3rd Person? Heh. Foolish child. I don’t know what impression you’re under, but I am not Grandmaster Toshiku.”

Yasuken is bewildered. “Wait. Wh-wh... What do you mean?” The man responds back “I am but an apprentice of his great workmanship. I come nowhere close to the vast scale of power and knowledge Grandmaster Toshiku has at his expense.” Yasuken backs down not knowing where or what to question. “Who even are you, and what are you doing here,” Yasuken asks the man. “I owe no explanation to you child. Now that I know the disrespectful, malicious intent you approached me with believing I was Grandmaster Toshiku, I’m fully justified to expel you from this forge. Don’t resist kid, you’ve seen the strength difference between--” Yasuken interrupts, “You think I care about your strength?! That crap doesn’t matter to me anymore! I’m not going to run from anyone just because they might be stronger than me!” Yasuken gets a flashback to the man’s eye prowess that knocked him unconscious. A tear runs down his face and he bitterly turns away from the man. “I’ve lost everything! I’ve lost everyone! You don’t know a thing about me! Trust me... the last thing on my list…” The image of the group of thugs who destroyed his town pops up in his head. Yasuken looks up at the man with ignited eyes. “...Is to run.”

The man stares at Yasuken then smiles. “I see,” he says. “I’m sorry but the Grandmaster is a high man of high status. He wouldn’t allow just anyone of any caliber into this forge. You’ve overstayed your welcome here.” “High status?” Yasuken asks. “How is that so if the entire region of Metal believes he’s dead?” “The death of the grandmaster is a fabricated truth to keep the reins of war fastened,” he replies. “How could some lousy blacksmith’s life or death status affect a war to break out?” Yasuken asks the man. “As I said before, a kid like you couldn’t understand the weight behind the history of the Grandmaster or even the power held in this assembly alone. I have no time for your play, and I have no answers to your little questions. You must leave this place at once.”

The man picks up Yasuken by his coat and drags him toward the entrance he came in from. With shouts and struggles of Yasuken trying to break free, he exclaims,” How many times must I tell you!” “Eh?” the man says confusingly.” “Stop treating me like I’m some dumb kid who can’t understand anything,” Yasuken says moments before he maneuvers out of the man’s grasp and enters a fighting stance once again. “So, you still have the strength to fight, huh?” The man laughs then keeps walking. “Follow me,” he says. A smile emerges on Yasuken’s face. “Where are we going?” Yasuken says now jollily and full of excitement. “Are we going to the secret storage room with all of your special weapons? Or a deeper magic dungeon with hydra head wolves chained up to a wall? Or, or Toshiku’s fancy throne room of jewels and all of his gorgeous mistresses?!” “No,” the man says underwhelmingly. “We’re going to the exit.” The smile once on Yasuken’s face quickly dulls out and he stops walking. “Are you serious?” The man says nothing back to him.

Yasuken, out of anger, charges toward the man full throttle. Putting all of his energy into his fist, Yasuken leap punches the man’s back. The man smirks and right before contact, a wave of illumination flows around the man’s back. Yasuken’s punch connects, but not with the outcome he wanted. “AGH!” Yasuken yells in pain at his now red knuckles. “Oughta teach you to respect your elders,” the man says mockingly. Rolling on the ground in agony, Yasuken asks,” What are you?! You’re not human!” The man turns around. “When I said this place has many elements that exceed your imagination… this was one of them,” the man says. ‘What the hell! His body was literally like metal. He probably didn’t even feel my attack. What is this?!’ Yasuken thinks to himself. ‘If I can’t even beat this proverb-obsessed maniac, how will I ever be able to face those thugs.’ Yasuken, remembering the decision he made after his last visit to Sukira, gets up and stares down the man.

After around 10 dramatic seconds of Yasuken’s determined face and the man’s maniacle grin, Yasuken charges towards the man once again. “Are we still doing this futile charade? The man says scornfully. ‘It's obvious none of my bare attacks would have any effect on this man, I have to extend my arsenal,’ Yasuken says to himself while dashing towards the man. Digging in his pocket, Yasuken finds a couple of pebbles he kept after trying to crack open the forge’s entrance. ‘Perfect!’ A couple of meters away, face-to-face to the man, Yasuken jumps up. The man closes his eyes insultingly and chuckles under his breath. Yasuken flings the tiny rocks at the man’s head. As expected, they do no damage to the man. But as he opens his eyes in confusion, he notices Yasuken is gone! He looks up to be greeted with the sole of Yasuken’s boot as he launches himself off of the man's now supernaturally hardened face. “Argh!” The man says angrily in a late attempt to reach and grab Yasuken’s legs. “Heh!” Yasuken says after the hardest part of his plan succeeded. With the space created between him and the man, Yasuken darts toward the sword and unsheathes it. “It can’t be!” The man says.

Remembering the note his grandpa slipped him with this forge’s emblem on… Remembering this still-mysterious group of bandits who annihilated his hometown… Remembering the troubles he went through to find this forge… All of these images passing through Yasuken’s head fills him with enough courage to forget even how heavy the sword was in the first place. The man's previously confident face dissipates and is now replaced with a stunned, borderline fearful expression. ‘N-no! This can’t be possible! Who is this kid?!’ The man thinks to himself. Yasuken leaps up pushing with all the remaining strength in his legs. The man’s body grows an aura of gray light around him with a disc of energy in front of him defensively. Coming down with gravity and all of Yasuken’s strength, and the man standing ground with this mysterious force Yasuken has never seen before, the two close closer and closer in. Inches before impact… An explosive repel of black and blue energy bursts forth.

Yasuken ricochets away, and the man is blasted back tumbling uncontrollably leaving a trail in the ground. ‘Did I—lose?’ the two say in their heads as they draw farther from each other. As Yasuken feels himself falling back to the ground, he peers down at the man to see another man in a hooded black robe. ’Who is that?’ Yasuken rhetorically asks himself. The new mysterious man appears to halt the first man (who faced Yasuken) from tumbling any further. ‘Will I survive this fall?’ Yasuken thinks. With only a few feet away from the ground, the hooded man appears beside Yasuken in the blink of an eye. ‘He’s fast! I didn’t even see him travel over here.’ Yasuken thinks to himself. The hooded man grabs Yasuken before he makes contact with the ground. He then lays the two next to each other before him. “Grandmaster!” The first man says.

Yasuken eyes widen as he believes he’s in front of the man he's been in search for. The first man bows, but not without hitting Yasuken’s head down to enter a bowing position as well. “Ow ow ow!” Yasuken exclaimed. The man proposes “Forgive me on the behalf of this imprudent child Grandmaster Toshiku. “Hmph!” Yasuken bitterly frowns. “So, you really are Toshiku the Blacksmith?!” Yasuken asks cheerfully. The robed man takes off his hood and reveals his face. He appears youthful and kid-like. “Eh?” Yasuken says in disbelief, “YOU’RE TOSHIKU?!” Yasuken looks at the man beside him and screams,” HE LOOKS YOUNGER THAN YOU!” The man hits Yasuken again. “STOP SCREAMING! AND STOP DISRESPECTING THE GRANDMASTER YOU FOOL!”

“Ahh, well this is awkward…” The robed man says with a smile scratching his head and a bead of sweat running down his face. “Toshiku senpai, I hate to bother you, but this situation escalated farther than I would’ve ever expected,” the first man says. ‘He even calls him senpai???’ Yasuken thinks with a squeamish look on his face. Toshiku looks at Yasuken then at the sword resting on the floor behind them. “Yes… I am aware,” Toshiku says aloud with a now serious look on his face. Looking at the man (one beside Yasuken), Toshiku states, “Naoto, it appears we have some important business to get down to.”