The sun stood high in the majestic blue sky, its golden rays separating through the cotton field of clouds above. Down below, the bright light reflected all across the towering skyscrapers. Bouncing between one glass to the other. Bringing life upon the breathtaking scene on the streets.
People rushed to their respective destinations, children with their school bags, and business people with their suitcases. The crosswalks were a blur of constant, never-ending motion. Crowds and crowds of people flooded all over the town, each guided by destiny and with their own canvas to paint.
Inside this huge entanglement of busy streets were two friends. Both nearly the age of adulthood, but just a year short. One with ego as vast as the sea itself, and one whose interest was determined by his mood. Sure, they didn't make the best of a duo, but together, they'd be the definition of inseparable.
Ace and Kaiser were often together rather than separate; one tended to pull the other into trouble, and the other just followed. Today was no exception. Ace, the mischief and hot-headed menace, had pulled Kaiser along for an act he had no doing in, and Kaiser, being the guy he is, just followed behind.
"Aaahhhh, refreshing," said Ace, sniffing at the flowers in hand. His face painted with a devilish smile as his eyes following the rustling leaves of the calm park.
The birds chirping beautiful melodies along with the whistling cool breeze of the wind, it was a very peaceful day, to say the least. However little did Ace know that things would soon be going south for both of them.
"Hurry up," Kaiser said looking back at the day-dreaming Ace. "We wouldn't want to be late," he added looking fiercely at Ace.
"Dude, calm down, would you," retaliated an amused Ace as he caught up to Kaiser.
"We're going to a hospital. Plus It's not like the guy is going anywhere, you know," Ace said, sipping at a plastic cup he had in hand.
"And who's fault you think that is?" Kaiser asked Ace, looking at two fighting squirrels nearby.
"How was I supposed to know he was that weak?" Ace whispered slowly sipping on his beverage.
You see, Ace had a thing for fighting, his whole reasoning stood for fighting.
Wherever he heard the call of a battle, he would rush like his life depended on it. Needless to say, his whole spirit depended on whether or not he was fighting that day.
Thanks to that, everyone had kept their fair distance around him, knowing full well of his demeanor. Locals even gave him a saying, it went something like "wherever he goes, trouble follows."
Ace's love for fighting had led him to many things, but out of the good things were two. One was the meeting of Kaiser. As a child, Kaiser was the kind to stay quiet, so as you'd expect, he started to get bullied. That was when little Ace stood up for him and made him his friend.
Who knew over the course of a decade, the two would become very close and good friends. And Kaiser, knowing full well of the capabilities of Ace and his reputation, would still stick around him. After all, he was the only one who knew the real Ace hiding behind the tough mask.
The second person who knew him better than himself would be an old legend of the world of martial arts.
Before his 15th birthday, Ace met him on the street; the old man, without needing help, carried 2 full bags of groceries.
"Huh? Old man, are you sure you'll not break your back carrying that many bags at once?" asked a curious Ace, almost mocking the old husk that stood beside him.
"No, no, I'm well aware of my strength, kid," answered the old man, smiling.
"You know that I'm not a kid, right?"
Before the old man could answer, a burglar snapped past them, running full speed, with a purse in his hand, wearing all black clothing.
"OUT OF THE WAY, OLD BASTARD," he yelled hitting the old man. Ace was ready to go all out but wasn't really prepared for what he saw next. The old 'husk' who stood beside him took the hand of the burglar and in a lightning of a second, swung him down.
"Ahhhh," the burglar cried. But he wasn't ready to let that slide. He stood up, his legs shaking and started throwing heavy punches.
With one slide, the old guy dodged all the punches and then sent him flying 2 meters away with a simple kick. The burglar literally lost consciousness as blood flew out of his face. "Respect your elders," the old man bickered picking up his staff on the ground and started walking.
Ace stood there like a log, unable to believe what his eyes just witnessed. His brain refused to comprehend the possibility of it even happening, yet it all had unfolded before him.
"Hey kid, why are you still standing there?" Hearing this, he snapped back to reality. 'should I even be calling this man old?' he asked himself still confused by the whole scene.
What followed next was history, as Ace became one of the students of the old man's small dojo. However, everything must be strived for, and before Ace became his student, the old man beat the hell out of him every day.
The old man had just one condition for Ace to join the dojo and become his disciple, and that was to defeat him.
Ace wanted to take the easy way but fate decided otherwise. Every day, after school, he had a special session with the old man, and he would get his ass handed to him.
Every day, the neighborhood would be blasted with screams of agony.
"Ouchh,"
"Gahhh"
"eeek"
Day by day, Ace came up with a new way to express his pain. Whether it was screaming loud gibberish phrases, or cursing at his own limbs.
Meanwhile Kaiser would just follow him and start watching, analyzing, and observing every move. Paying zero attention to the beating Ace got.
Eventually, the two came up with a plan, or more accurately put, Kaiser came up with the plan, and all Ace had to do was execute it.
But, even before they could go with the plan, the old man gave in. And when they asked why, the old man replied, "You might've not defeated me in battle, but you won with your resilience."
Kaiser wasn't happy with this, he'd rather see a one-sided massacre than a family friendly show of Kung Fu. Even if it meant the screaming terror of his best friend.
Training under the master, both Kaiser and Ace had become Blood-borne warriors, though even after 3 years, they yet hadn't defeated their master. Try as they might, all their plans had failed miserably.
Almost 3 years later, their dojo grew more and more with the popularity of Ace, who brought in very many students. According to him, the more competition he had, the better.
Occasionally students would spar with each other to prove their comprehension of the lessons. These moments were when Ace would hit the spotlight and show off.
However, things went really wrong when he faced off with a new student, Lynn, to test his abilities.
Ultimately 'never hold back' didn't turn out as a good strategy against newbie students. Lynn put on a nice fight, almost too nice which made Ace nervous and made him hurry to finish the battle. Fast enough to put, Lynn in the hospital after his very first spar.
Back to the present, the master wasn't happy with Ace's behavior so he sent both him and Kaiser to go to the hospital and apologize. Even though Kaiser had no hand in all of it to begin with, he was still getting punished for 'not holding back Ace.'
It was absurd, but to Kaiser, it was justifiable as the truth stood; he just stood by and did nothing during the fight. The master had high hopes for him, and one of those was babysitting big old Ace, his totally psycho friend.
'ding ding ding' Ace's phone rang. Looking at his pocket, he pulled up the phone only to spit out his drink, looking at the name. 'shit,' he thought, his hands shaking.
It was the master calling to make sure whether they had already reached the hospital or not. He quickly picked up the phone. Lowering his tone, he spoke through the phone like a mouse squeaking.
"Have you reached the hospital?" asked the master with a concerned tone.
"uhhhhhh not quite."
"Then what are you waiting for?!" The master yelled through the phone.
" We, uhhh," Ace said nervously, looking at Kaiser, who was In front of him. "Were just picking up some apples for him, you know. Can't let the injured go hungry, right?" He added signaling to Kaiser to say something.
"Yes, Got the apples right here," said Kaiser sarcastically holding up a basket with fruits.
"Alright. At least you're thinking is good, now hurry up and get there already," the master said as he hung up the phone.
"Ok, ok, Kaiser, let's get there already; got to hurry up," Ace assured the master not knowing that the call was already cut off.
'Ohh, he hung up!' his inner voice called out, Surprised. Looking to his front, he was expecting a mad Kaiser, but he was met with dry air. "Kaiser?!"
"Pickup the pace, we're nearly there," said Kaiser, speeding ahead.
"Hey, wait up," replied Ace picking the pace to match Kaiser.
"You know," Ace began, letting out a huge sigh. "I really don't understand how that guy lost."
"Yea, it's strange," agreed Kaiser, "With the way he was fighting in the first few seconds, Could it be that it was intended?"
"Not just that, during the fight, it was like he was hesitating against something. Don't know what, but I just can't put my finger on it," Ace complied looking at his arm.
"Doesn't matter, What happened has happened. Better to let it go than to relive it." Kaiser said as he sighed.
"Says you!" Ace angrily called out. "Thanks to this, I'm pretty sure everyone will be villainizing me like I'm some kind of psychopath."
"Vilianizing you? I thought you liked villains," Kaiser replied with a tone of sarcasm in his voice.
"Yeah, I mean I like villains. If I got reincarnated in another world, I'd probably become the ultimate villain." Ace answered with a Cocky look on his face.
"Yeah, I'm sure you would, quite the ultimate failure of a villain." Kaiser smiled as he teased Ace. Hearing this, Ace's cocky smile immediately disappeared.
"Are you serious right now?" Ace glanced at Kaiser, his eyes dull. "You know you're talking to a villain expert, right? I could probably destroy the whole world with my eyes closed if I wanted to." Muttered Ace as he looked at Kaiser, awaiting some kind of praise.
Kaiser sighed, as he looked at the confident Ace. "You're impossible, you know that!".
Ace smiled as he looked back. "Harsh, but I'll happily take it," he answered, his smile immediately fading as he saw the big hospital walls. "Ohh, I guess we've arrived, huh," he said with a hint of disappointment.
"Yep," assured Kaiser. "Now come on, let's go to the entrance; staring at a wall wasn't our objective, now was it?" Kaiser added as he started to walk off to the side, going to a nearby crosswalk leading to the hospital entrance.
Ace looked at the wall, guilt painted all over his face, he looked at the flowers at hand and the hospital In front of him. 'Let's just get done with it,' he said to himself, holding the flowers in hand tight.
Suddenly, a screeching sound broke through his senses, his face jolted to the left part of the road. It seemed like a rushing
ambulance had lost its brakes, and worst yet it was heading to the right for the crosswalk that was a few meters away. It was aimed directly at Kaiser, who was in the middle of the crosswalk unaware of the disaster on his way.
Ace's heart started to throb faster and faster, as his nerves screamed at him to move. Without a single word, his legs started to race. Side to side with the ambulance, both matched in speed,. However, Ace was not about to lose a friend.
With one huge leap, Ace overtook the ambulance, and shouted to Kaiser as loud as his vocals could go, "KAISERR."
Kaiser immediately got the call from Ace, but needless to say, it was too late. The ambulance was only a meter away from him, the two face to face; Kaiser had no time to respond, his reaction frozen. But then suddenly, a hand came out of nowhere and threw him to the side.
Kaiser hit with the impact, flew to the side as he hit the ground hard. For a moment, everything went dark. The noise of the scene faded to the screeching in his ears. His head aching hard, yet with his tough resilience Kaiser stood up, holding his hand to his head.
His blurred vision was getting clearer and clearer by the second; finally, Kaiser had recovered his sight, but what he saw was not pleasant to the eyes. Before him was a pool of blood, overflowing down to his legs, and lying inside it was none other than Ace.
Subconscious and bleeding all over, Ace lay on the ground, broken. Before the ambulance could get to Kaiser, he had intervened. Now it was he, who had to put up with the consequences.
The blow was fatal, the whole surrounding area littered with the broken petals of flowers and his blood. His belongings were scattered all over, one in particular laid down below Kaiser's feet. His phone, which kept jerking around from the calling of the master but it fell to no ears.
Kaiser looked at the dead body of Ace lying on the ground. His heart throbbed as he became overwhelmed with guilt and shock.
"ACE!" He called out as his voice faded to the abyss. His best friend was now dead before his eyes, and it was his FAULT.