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| Part Three: The Shadow in a Student's Past | |||||||||||||||||
| By Richard LeBlanc | |||||||||||||||||
| Along the rooftops - an ecstatic Happosai was bounding around with a new batch of freshly stolen undergarments. On the road below - an angry mob of girls tried to keep up but had little chance against him. | |||||||||||||||||
| "Panties - bras - what a haul! What a haul!" he exclaimed. From the corner of his eye he saw the pursuing mob falling further and further behind. When would they learn that they were no match for someone of his - talents and masteries? | |||||||||||||||||
| He pounced around from rooftop to rooftop until he had lost his pursuers. He would have continued doing so - but something sent a chill down his spine. | |||||||||||||||||
| He stopped. He looked around. | |||||||||||||||||
| "Who's there?' he demanded - but got no answer. "Mind must be playing tricks on me," he muttered as he got ready to continue on his way. | |||||||||||||||||
| How can you squander your skills in such a fashion? A voice screamed in his head. He stopped and looked around again. He quickly looked around - hoping to see one of his disrespectful students - but no one was there. | |||||||||||||||||
| "I know that voice," he muttered. | |||||||||||||||||
| His mind flashed back. He looked around and saw a place he had once been. A place he had spent ten years of his life learning bits of what he now mastered. It was a lost city he had heard about as a child - a place where a supposed master martial artist dwelled. | |||||||||||||||||
| "Talon," Happosai muttered. He tensed up as he saw Talon step out from behind two large Onyx doors. The expression on his face was cold and unforgiving. "This must be a dream - you're dead," he muttered. | |||||||||||||||||
| "When you came to me so many years ago - I saw promise in you," Talon began. His hand shot over as he grabbed the large bag of undergarments from him. "But instead of growing - you chose to bastardize your gifts and my teachings by chasing women and stealing underwear!" he shouted. | |||||||||||||||||
| "I can explain," Happosai began. Talon lashed out at Happosai sending him up and arching down the mountain path. | |||||||||||||||||
| "Spare the excuses! When you came here to study with me - to learn the secrets to the Anything Goes martial arts style - I thought you would be able to put aside such trivial things!" Talon said as he threw the sack over the edge of the mountain. Happosai watched as the sack hit a rock causing undergarments to rain down the side of the mountain. "This - goes against my better judgement - but - I will give you - one - more chance. But if I catch you wasting your time - and my teachings in such a fashion - I will overlook the potential I see in you," he began as he leaned forward - glaring at his student. "And - if it comes to that - you will learn first hand - how foolish - such a thing can be," he hissed. | |||||||||||||||||
| "There he is!" a female voice shouted. | |||||||||||||||||
| Happosai blinked. He was now in an alley surrounded by the girls whose underwear he had stolen. The girls mobbed him and relentlessly pummeled him. | |||||||||||||||||
| After they had gathered back their stolen garments they left the battered pervert in the alley. Slowly he staggered up to his feet. | |||||||||||||||||
| "Why - am I remembering this now? That happened almost a hundred years ago," he muttered hesitantly. A chill froze him where he was. Slowly he looked over his shoulders into the shadows of the dark alley behind him. "Talon," he muttered. Then - like an image from a horrific nightmare - Talon stepped out and smiled. | |||||||||||||||||
| "I do not know - whether to be amused at the fact that you lived and survived after doing what you had to me - or disgusted that you actually had a hand in taking me down," Talon stated seriously. He looked down and saw the sack that had carried underwear. "You haven't changed a bit - how disgustingly pathetic," he added. | |||||||||||||||||
| "This is not possible," Happosai muttered. Talon squatted down before his former student and smiled at him in a way that sent a shiver down his spine. | |||||||||||||||||
| "How so student? Because you thought me dead? You merely stunned me," he replied. Happosai blinked as his mind flashed back. He remembered that last day all too clearly. He had run off to steal more underwear and peep at the neighboring Amazons. | |||||||||||||||||
| But Talon - caught him in the act! | |||||||||||||||||
| "You give - and give and hope that the child will learn. But sometimes - even the parent - must cut his losses - to keep the family strong," Talon remarked. Happosai leaped back - avoiding an arching strike so potent that it cleaved through the marble table he was on. | |||||||||||||||||
| "If you think I'm just going to let you hurt me you have another thing coming!" Happosai retorted. As he bounded around the large temple-like room. Talon quietly laughed as he watched his student running like a craven coward. | |||||||||||||||||
| "You think to escape?" Talon asked. He clapped his hands together. All of the windows and doors slammed shut. For a moment the entire place was engulfed in darkness. Then all of the wall torches lit. Happosai was gone. "Such a clever pervert," he began as he stalked around. He stopped by a statue of a demon warrior. His arm shot out - smashing through the statue's chest. Happosai leaped away unscathed. "You are only delaying the inevitable," he pointed out. | |||||||||||||||||
| "That has yet to be seen," Happosai retorted. | |||||||||||||||||
| "The student - after ten years - thinks he can beat the master? Child - you have much to learn," Talon mocked. | |||||||||||||||||
| "You are the fool Talon! You think I have been learning only here? While out of your watchful eye I have been training on my own," Happosai retorted. Talon laughed at his student. | |||||||||||||||||
| "I can imagine what you call training! What are you going to do? Throw underwear at me? Dress in drag?" Talon remarked. Happosai leaped over and took on the stance to a technique he had learned. | |||||||||||||||||
| Never actually got to try this. He thought. Talon slipped his hands into the sleeves of his robe and made no effort to move, dodge or block. | |||||||||||||||||
| "It is time that you learn a trick or two from your student! Happo-Fire-Burst!" he shouted as he threw a small fuse-lit projectile at his master. | |||||||||||||||||
| "What the?" Talon began as the thing exploded - knocking him off balance down the staircase behind him. | |||||||||||||||||
| "Now to finish you off!" Happosai declared as he pounced down the staircase. Talon at the bottom - shook off the effect of the attack and the fall and glared at the student that was foolishly going to try the same trick twice. | |||||||||||||||||
| "You surprised me with that - credit given when due. But that - like you life - is where this will end! Breath of the Death Dragon! He shouted he craned his neck backwards. Happosai produced and flung dozens of fuse-lit bombs at his master. Talon spewed a noxious breath at his student. As soon as the two attacks intertwined - a violent explosion - the likes of which that time had never seen engulfed the place. Talon was buried as the mountain grounds his temple stood on gave way. Happosai - was blasted like a flaming projectile up the staircase and threw the Onyx doors and rolled halfway down the mountain. | |||||||||||||||||
| Happosai staggered to his feet and watched as a pillar of smoke rose up from the temple and surrounding city where his master lived. | |||||||||||||||||
| He watched as it began to sink - fall into the depths of the mountain it once sat on top of. Within minutes there was no trace that the evil place existed - save for the place it had in his memory. | |||||||||||||||||
| He blinked and was in the presence of his former master. | |||||||||||||||||
| "Oh yes - you merely stunned me. As did the mountain of debris that fell upon me. But one thing that kept me alive I think was the knowledge that at least you were there - that you had perished. Imagine my surprise when I learned that you had the unmitigated audacity - to still be alive," he remarked. | |||||||||||||||||
| "Then how?" Happosai began. | |||||||||||||||||
| "How come I was gone for so long? It seems that your filthy little habit lured an Amazon elder to my front door. She saw the damage that you had caused - and used that moment to place a ward on my fallen city! For a hundred years I lay trapped and docile - as that old woman's charm sapped my strength - kept me weak!" he shouted - causing Happosai to scurry away. But the escape was cut short when Talon seemingly appeared before him. "Going somewhere student? There is still much to teach if you are to become - a true master," he added with an evil grin. | |||||||||||||||||
| "I have no desire to learn any more from you," Happosai replied. | |||||||||||||||||
| "And here I thought you had the stomach to - handle - the power. I would deal with you here and now - but - you aren't worth the devotion of mental energy - yet. But - know that - I will be there shortly. I will find you - a true master can always find his student. And then," Talon began as a dark aura began to pulse around him. "And then - my student - your true lesson will begin!" he shouted. | |||||||||||||||||
| "No!" Happosai shouted. | |||||||||||||||||
| He blinked. | |||||||||||||||||
| He was back on the rooftop he was on before. Over his shoulder was the sack of underwear he had stolen. It was all a dream? The sack slipped from his fingers - causing underwear to rain down from the rooftop. | |||||||||||||||||
| "It - it couldn't be him - it couldn't have been real," he reassured himself. It was then - in the distance of the approaching night that he heard an all too familiar evil laugh. | |||||||||||||||||
| "He lives - he's free - and he is coming here," Happosai muttered as he looked in the direction that faced China. | |||||||||||||||||
| To be Continued... | |||||||||||||||||