literature

Battle Dragon part18

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The remaining days till new years eve were somewhat chaotic and rushed. Between me moving to the new place, my parents calling for explanations about why my cousin had a Battle Skin, and the whole mountain of paperwork and the like I had to go through, mixed along the fact that I was actually trying to keep up with the scheduled training and had to go through two to three fights a day to earn some money so I could save up some cash... I was beat up, tired and sore in more ways than I had thought even possible.

"Don't be such a wuss." Jade stared down at me as I lay lifeless on the new couch in our new flat. "Who doesn't celebrate new year?"

"I do." I replied, all too tired to actually do anything. "I wanted to go with my family, but it would risk me having to reveal about my Battle Skin." I sighed in frustration. "I had to make up a lame excuse about finding a new job to be able to pay rent."

"I heard." she simply commented. "You still seemed mad about something."

"They want me to visit before vacation's over." I tried making the words seem more dreadful, but it wasn't possible. "Insisting that I lend a hand in the farm before class starts over and I get too busy." my frustration was building up bit by bit. "As if I'm not too busy already... GOD, I don't want to imagine how it'll be once class starts."

"Geesh, it can't be that bad." I handed her my training schedule when she said this, which made her open her eyes with some shock in them. "...Or it can be worse..." she handed it back. "Just what're you trying to achieve with such strict schedule?, and who made it, by the way?"

"A friend of mine knows his stuff when it comes to training people." I rushed to answer, trying to avoid her from wanting to meet him. "He said this would be needed for me to reach a good enough level to survive the championship."

"Interesting..." she eyed me with a sly grin; I didn't like that sly grin. "You think he could coach us to work better as a team?"

"I doubt it." was the only thing I could say, the words felt somewhat heavier than intended. "He told me it'd be impossible to contact him until I had finished that schedule." I continued, half sure about my own words. "Besides, the way I figure it, all we need right now is to have some more matches so we can gain some experience as a team."

"Fine, I get it." the look in her face clearly told me she wanted to insist further. "Have you at least found a way of using the bonus cloth without hating the result?"

"Nope." what resulted more depressing than the answer was the fact that I had actually tried several doze different possibilities, all ending as something Play*** would have made a poster out of. "Though there aren't many combinations left to try out, something's gotta turn out decent." pausing for a second, I looked up at what I was supposed to do today. "Besides, I have a ton of stuff to do today."

"If you insist..." she paused while taking the paper from my hands again. "But since you got the evening free, you'll have to come here for a bit." she scribbled something on it before handing it back. "Make sure to be there before eight."

And with that said, she left without even giving me the chance to wonder what she was talking about, which only made me somewhat frustrated, curious and nervous at the same time; last I had been told to go somewhere without any other details didn't end too well.

Still, I had a schedule to keep, so I took the piece of paper and read the first thing to do today; seemed I had to spend the next hour making hand-stands... again.

I can't begin to describe how unnerving it is to spend most of the time training upside down; I'm not really sure what kind of strength it was giving me, but I wasn't noticing much different than usual, plus my arms, sides and abs were in a near perpetual state of hurt.

On the plus side, at least I was getting good at it; I nearly didn't need as many attempts to get to balance myself, and I managed to keep it up for longer, my record now being a full fifteen minutes longer than it had initially been.

Either way, it resulted easier to deal with when I had started to find new ways to work about while hand-standing; it was rather crude and still not too useful, but cleaning with a broom held by your feet is a lot more thrilling and fun when you've got nearly a full hour's worth of blood rushed into your brain.

I eventually went through eight hours worth of various arm, abdominal and back-muscle training; and since my hands were so numb I'd be unable to even cook well, I decided it best to take a walk since my legs seemed to be the less tired part of my body and I wasn't supposed to continue the schedule until I regained normal functioning of my upper half.

I was relieved to some degree since it was one of the few chances I had had to go out in my actual body, moving required me to keep my BS activated most of the time since it was easier to move things that way, but feeling normal was still something I hadn't done in quite a while.

But it felt somewhat depressing to realize how much my views about those around me changed since this whole debacle had started. Before, when I saw two guys going on a battle, I'd just ignore it or watch for a while and then leave; now, however, I'd analyze as much as I could about it, from what their fortes seemed to be, to what strategy they used and what would be the best way to defeat them.

The other major change was that I avoided people with their BS more than before, hiding my own to avoid anyone asking for a challenge and making sure there wouldn't be anyone with that *forced battle* sticker the weird dude had used on me before.

And most likely because of that new trend of *watch but don't get close* I had going on, I went for the nearest park I could find, taking seat in one of the lonelier benches and just looking around a bit, trying to figure out if there was anyone that seemed about to start a fight.

This occupied most of my time, and I really didn't see anything that caught my attention, and I was careful enough for no one to spot the bracelet; so by the time I had begun to feel hungry, I had wasted nearly a full hour just sitting around and waiting for nothing.

Considering my source of money had been mainly reduced to the battles (half of which was automatically sent to my *teacher*), I was having a hard time cause it had gotten a bit more complicated to find anyone willing to have a fight with, seemed this weird rumor about my other half had begun spreading about, I wasn't sure what it was about, but for what Jade told me, the general crowd was now avoiding fights with anyone who matched the *dragon girl with white hair* description.

That alone was making me re-consider looking for a job, but that brought somewhat of a dilemma. Either I did so as the normal me and get five-day jobs and then get fired, or I did as *the other* me, which could actually lead to something I wouldn't want.

Being in deep thought for far too long, I noticed I had reached a rather nice looking restaurant. A closer inspection revealed it to be reasonably cheap and rather empty, so I took the shot and went inside to eat my meal and head back to my self-imposed torture.

"Welcome to the First Battle, how may I help you?" the chirpy voice was from a young man, his grin was more irksome than what I had originally expected it to be. "Do you come alone or will you be waiting for someone?"

"Table for one, please." I was trying to be as cordial as I could, no use getting angry at someone who just seems to be high.

"Sure thing, right this way, sir." the *sir* remark was more irksome than his grin, but then again, realizing I wasn't the one wearing a orange tux made me feel a bit better. "Here's the menu, sir."

And much to my relief, he left me alone as I read the list of possible meals, their prices, and at the same time check out the place from within.

It was rather lonely, me being the only customer to be more precise; it had space for at least a hundred more customers, and even though I couldn't see the kitchen from where I sat, I could certainly smell the food, which only made me hungrier.

Aside from that, the style the place had been decorated in was a bit interesting, using dark wood to cover everything from floor to roof, and with a few paintings in between the large glass windows.

I came to a halt as I read the last page of the menu (I always read them whole in case there's some kind of special discount menu), rather than plates and desserts, it had a photo of two guys going on a fight on their BS, and there was a short text underneath.

In short, it described that the first tournament ever held for BS had its finals in the same place the restaurant was today; which was somewhat impressive considering (if I remembered what I had heard correctly) it was no more than twenty years ago.

"I see you've taken interest on the story." the voice was almost behind me, but I didn't feel as startled as what I had expected myself to be. "Lately no one reads that."

"Is it actually true?" I wondered out-loud while turning back at the one who spoke, it was a middle aged woman, wearing the same orange tux the guy at the entrance had.

"All true." she grinned with confidence. "They took down the stadium and I got the chance to build a restaurant here." she paused with a sigh. "It's almost frightening how fast things get built and taken down nowadays." she looked me over for a moment, she seemed intrigued. "You here by chance or were you a fan of the place?"

"I had actually never heard of it before." I stated. "I was just walking around the place and found it when I was feeling hungry."

"Training hard?" she commented while taking the seat in front of mine.

"How could you tell?" I wondered, the glint on her eyes was somewhat curious.

"Let's just say I've seen my fair amount of users." she replied. "Plus it's easy to tell when someone moves about with limp arms."

"Yeah, I gotta go around doing handstands." I sighed in frustration. "The guy who's training me said it'd help me *balance my abilities* or something..." I looked around a bit, the waiter was nowhere to be seen. "...for a guy wearing a red tight-suit, sure as hell knows how to fight."

"Red tight suit?" she now seemed intrigued, though let out a laugh soon after. "Ha!, I never thought he'd actually do it." she stood up and began walking away. "Kid, take it from me, make sure to listen to the guy, he knows what he's talking about."

"You know him?" I asked her, somewhat surprised, and fearful of the fact that she might actually talk to him about me.

"Let's just say I fought him." she replied. "The bastard has this idea ingrained into his skull that he can beat anyone without having to level up." she chuckled a bit. "Let's just say I was the one who ended up forcing him to level up so he could actually get a fair fight."

"Nice." I grinned back. "Good to know someone was able to kick that zappy powered ass for once."

"Well said." she stood up and began walking away. "Meal's on me today, I'll give you a discount if you ever find your way back here."

"What about the living smiley?" I asked.

"Not much I can do about him, he's our only waiter." she shook her head. "Not many wanna work on this place, overcrowded one day and empty the next, it's somewhat chaotic."

"You hiring?" I asked.

"Sure." she looked me over for a moment. "As long as you come with your Battle Skin activated, some clients tend to get too hipped and too drunk, you'll need it."

"Great." my tone of voice showed eagerness and joy rather than the sting of fear and depression my chest had just gone through. "When do I start?"
No real emotion nor excitement on this one, but somewhat plot developing for a change.

Since I really didn't put anything specific with the festivities (like Halloween TG or x-mas TF or the like) I just thought it best to post something sooner than usual to make up for it.

Maybe I'll actually do something like that, but I'm not even sure if it'll come or not, I need the right kind of *ahem* "sexual connoisseur" (pervert) sort of inspiration that makes all those fan-service stories that boost the pageviews for a day or two.

Either way, enjoy; next up, Red Sky part 2!


part 1 [link]

part 17 [link]

part 19 [link]
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reaperion's avatar
when it said the living smiley, i just lol'd