Martial Arts Worlds

75 years ago, Earth.

Within the deep mountains, a dojo was built inside the thick forest with tall, wooden walls that echoed with the sounds of training warriors.

At the yard of the dojo, the white-clothed students punched air, their teacher observing their every move with a watchful eye.

The teacher was carrying a wooden staff, and at that moment, one of the students had a slightly wrong punching stance.

"Wrong!" The teacher smacked the staff at the student's knee. "Fix your form. Your form is ugly!"

"Y-yes, sensei!" The student breathed heavily, pain radiating from the spot where the staff had struck.

Inside the dojo, while others trained diligently, a young man used a cleaning brush and scrubbed the tatami mats until they glistened under the harsh fluorescent lights.

"Kiernan!" A senior student stepped over the tatami mats, his expression angry. "Where is my bokken?!"

"Huh?" Kiernan looked up at the senior student and smiled innocently. "I don't know. Did you misplace it?"

"You little shit!" He grabbed Kiernan by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the ground. "I know you've been taking it without my permission!"

"I wouldn't dare, senior brother!" Kiernan exclaimed with an innocent look. "I swear, I have no idea where it is!"

"As if!" The senior brother tossed him down to the ground and pointed at him with a shaky finger. "If you don't return it by tonight, I will use you as my punching bag!"

"Tch…" Kiernan watched as he left and then tossed the cleaning brush away. "If I told him where it is, he would kill me…"

A couple of hours passed, and when the orange sky passed, the night fell over the mountains, and the dojo turned silent as the students finished their evening training session.

Within the darkness, Kiernan jumped over the dojo's walls and ran deep inside the thick forests, the branches cutting into his skin like knives, but he didn't care.

After running for what felt like hours, he reached the entrance of a dark cave. It seemed abandoned, and there weren't any wild animals near the place.

It was like they were all afraid of coming here.

"Alright then…" Kiernan gathered his courage and entered the dark cave.

The dark cave wasn't that long, and he soon reached the end.

However, when he reached the end, he saw a sleeping creature there—it was a massive, brown-furred bear, with sharp claws and loud snores emanating from its mouth.

Behind the bear, a wooden bokken, looking like an ordinary sword, was leaning against its bulky body.

"You dirty thief…" Kiernan licked his lips.

For the past month, Kiernan had been stealing his senior brother's bokken to learn swordsmanship.

With the bokken, he'd retreated deep in the forest to train, but yesterday, he encountered this heavy-looking bear.

Frightened, he ran away, but he happened to drop the bokken.

This morning he went to look for it before his senior brother had woken up to retrieve it but found out that this bear had stolen it!

Kiernan carefully neared the bear. He didn't dare to breathe as he attempted to grab the bokken back from the bear.

However, when he reached his hand towards the bokken, the bear turned sides and accidentally collided into him.

The bear's eyes jumped open, and it immediately started snarling like there was no tomorrow.

"Oh shit!" Kiernan gulped.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The bear swung its heavy-looking arm and slapped Kiernan across the face, sending him tumbling to the ground.

The slap left a burning sensation on Kiernan's cheek as he scrambled to get back on his feet.

"I am sorry, senior brother, but fuck your bokken!" Kiernan roared and turned around to head out of the cave.

However, after one step, he let out a deep annoyed sigh.

"However, if I don't bring that shit back, I will be his punching bag. The last time I was one, he broke my ribs."

Kiernan rolled his eyes, but he feared his senior brother more than this angry bear.

Thus, he turned around again and looked at the bear in annoyance.

"Why don't you give it back to me? You can't even use it with your big, clumsy paws!"

"ROAR!"

The bear didn't seem to like his words and started to growl even louder.

After another growl, the bear started running on all fours towards him.

Kiernan jumped out of the way, propelled himself off the cave's wall, and slammed his feet at the bear's side.

"Sidekick!"

"Growl!" The bear swung its arm at Kiernan, but he ducked underneath it and jabbed his hand into the bear's side.

While the bear's body was durable enough to take the hit, it still caused it to stumble back a few steps.

"You're not too bad of a training partner, I must say!" Kiernan complimented with a grin.

"Growl!" The bear roared loudly and attacked yet again.

The moon shone over the mountains, and the hours flew past.

After many hours, the sun peeked behind the horizon, casting a warm glow over the mountainside.

Inside the cave, the bear was sprawling on the ground, fast asleep with disheveled fur.

"Huff…"

Leaning against the cave wall, Kiernan held the bokken in his hand with deep claw marks across his right arm.

"Claws…" Kiernan looked at his injured right arm and then looked at his hand.

"Wouldn't it be cool if I were able to cut through human flesh with my fingers just like the bear? I haven't heard about such a style of fighting before.

"While the bear was clumsy with no technique behind its strikes, it was still able to cause catastrophic damage to me with its claws.

"If I had those claws and my techniques, I could be deadly as hell."

Kiernan looked at his hands and laughed.

"Yeah, I'll make my body into a weapon."

…

"So, that's your story?" Johan laughed.

"Barely." Kiernan shrugged his shoulders. "That's where I got the idea of my style from. Back then I was just a junior student of some shitty dojo in the mountains.

"I was there another couple of years before I moved out from that mountain."

"I see. You wanted to make your body into a weapon." Johan scratched his chin. "You must've started very young then. Why did your parents allow that?"

'I can't possibly tell him that story happened in another world.' Kiernan wryly smiled. "A family-owned business, you could say."

"Hmm, I see." Johan nodded.

"Well then, why don't you tell your story now?" Kiernan asked, and checked the time on his phone. "We have another forty minutes to waste."

"Sure."