2-21

I took a pull from my kiseru as I sat in the back of the dojo, it tasted of a watermelon strawberry mix. I looked up and blew out a ring of smoke as Jacob’s car pulled around the side and into its parking place. He stepped out and gave me a stunned looked before jogging over to me, “Glad your back. Where have you been?”

“I was helping Owl when we got teleported across the galaxy.” I let out in a sigh.

“That sounds like a wild ride. Glad I am not you.” He reached out and patted me on the shoulder, “Welcome back though. Did you get everything set up inside?”

“Yeah its all set up. The mats and everything.”

“Thanks.” He gave me a nod and headed inside.

I took a pull from my pipe and watched a small rabbit run across the back lot and squeeze through one of the openings between the fences. Anthony pulled up and parked next. He stepped out and gave me a grin when he saw me, “Yo Suneya!” He started walking over, “Welcome back!”

“Anthony.” I nodded to his approaching form, “How have you been?”

“Pretty good. I think I almost felt my chi the other night.” He replied.

I leaned back against the chair I was sitting in, "That's good. You are probably pretty close, give it a few more days and I will be able to teach you.”

He nodded to me, “I will keep working on it.”

He stepped inside through the back doors. I grabbed my pipe and looked at the bowl before lowering it down and tapping it against the leg of the chair, knocking the ash out of it. I was glad to be home and helping at the dojo. A few minutes later Victor shot out of the back of the dojo like it was on fire. I turned to him and met his eyes, he took one look at me and collapsed in on himself. “Sensei you are back! Thank god!”

I gave him a slow nod and he flopped down onto his knees, “Yes. I am back. How have your studies been?”

His spine straightened and he gave me a grin, “I have been trying to learn to run on water.”

I scrunched my nose, “How?”

“I filled up a pool of water and I was attempting to run across it.” He replied.

I let out a sigh and palmed my face, "that's not how you learn that but.. Good effort.”

“Then how do I go about learning it?”

I looked him up and down, “Before that.. Why are you bald?”

He ran a hand over his head, “It helps me cool off. Summer has been getting hotter, you know.”

I felt like something was wrong with what he was telling me but didn't feel the need to push him on it. If he wanted to shave his head for some other reason it wasn't my business. I tapped my chin with my pipe, “Well.. If you want to learn how to run on water I guess I can teach you.”

I focused on him and he suddenly paled, “How about you teach me something else.. Like.. How to jump far or something?”

I shook my head, “No. we can work on that next.”

He slouched back down and looked at the floor. Jane stepped out from the corner of the dojo followed by a few of the ninjas. She looked pretty happy to see me and the rest of her little group soon followed, “Sensei.”

I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms, “What have you all been up to?”

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“Victor has been trying to teach us.” She answered.

“How has he gone about doing that?” I asked her.

Victor started looking a little nervous and I didn't know why. Jane gave him a glance before answering, “He had us all wear blindfolds and fight each other with foam clubs.”

I furrowed my brow, “Foam clubs?”

One of the ninjas darted off to the side and came back with what looked like a rod of wood covered in a chunk of a pool noodle. I took it when he handed it to me and gave it a good squeeze. “I see what you were trying to do Victor.” I gave him a slow nod, “Good effort.”

I set the foam club to the side, ignoring Victor's sigh of relief, and met Jane's eyes, “So how have you been on learning from the piece of wood?”

She straightened up and pulled her arms behind her back, “I can start getting my chi to take on aspects of it. It's a very hard to do.”

“It will get easier with practice.” I looked to the rest of the ninjas standing around, “Is learning to see through your chi something all fo you want to learn?”

I got periodic nods and shrugs. That was enough for me, “I will show you how to learn it later after my work in the dojo is done.”

That got me nods and sounds of agreement. I stood up and entered the back of the dojo, followed by Victor, Jane and a few of the ninjas that like to teach. The day slowly rolled past as I walked from person to person teaching them fighting styles and helped them advance themselves. I chatted with Anthony, Victor and Jacob about things that happened while I was away. That lady who was freaking out in Owls lab was right, things had gone crazy. It hadn't traveled to Swivel City but It looked like that was a close thing. Jacob had been watching the news, waiting for something bad to happen.

Victor had been selected to train a class of enhanced. I guess that was a big deal, he was worried about my reaction to it. I felt it was the same as him teaching in the dojo, just a different area. The day rolled past and we started packing things up. I turned to Jacob, “Is there a ladder that will let everyone else get onto the roof?”

“On the other side of the building tucked away. Its a storm ladder hanging off the roof. Why do you ask?”

I waved at the gathering ninjas, “They want to learn how to see through their chi and spirit. I would normally bring them to a forest but the nearest one is like twenty miles away and I am not doing that every day.”

He shrugged, “I will stick to learning from my block of wood for now.”

“Thats fine. Everyone learns at their own pace.” I told him.

We closed up the dojo and started to walk to the side of the building when a thought hit me. I pointed at a few of the ninjas, “Go grab enough towels for everyone here.”

They scurried back into the dojo and the rest of us walked to the side. The storm ladder was hanging from the side of the building, a quick leap took me to the top of the dojo and I gave the ladder a jerk, it fell to the ground with a clang and the ninjas started climbing the ladder with towels on their shoulders with Jane in the lead.

I walked over to the ledge that wrapped around the building and pointed down on it, “Lay down your towel so you are not sitting in bird crap and take a seat.”

Jane laid down her towel and took a seat, still facing me. I waited for everyone else to do the same, when everyone was sitting down I gave a nod, “Ok. your going to wrap your blindfolds around your head and try predictings the wind.”

The wind was blowing slowly up here. It was light but I could still feel it touching my skin every few seconds. To me it was very predictable. I watched them wrap the blindfolds around their eyes then walked into the center of the dojo. I glanced between the ninjas and Jane before reaching back and grabbing my coiling dragon staff. A quick snap, I flipped it around my body before catching it again. The wind from my staff snapped out and some of the ninjas pinwheeled their arms to stay on the roof. I snapped over and grabbed one by the front of their shirt when it looked like they were going to fall off backwards, “Predict the wind.”

I watched them return to trying to predict the wind. I crouched down and every ten or twenty minutes I would throw my staff out making the wind go wild. This was something you would learn at the top of a tree. The wind would threaten to blow you off and you had to predict it and brace against it. It would be a few weeks of this before they got it, I was fine with teaching them like this. I got ready to twist my staff again when Victor poked his head up from the storm ladder, “Sensei!”

I stopped and gave him a look. He finished his climb and came over to me with a piece of paper in his hand, “I almost forgot about this. The people from Pirest sent a letter to the dojo. I think it was meant for you.”

I frowned and took the letter. I thought I had put that to rest. I started reading it and asked, “Why do you think it was meant for me?”

Some of the ninjas had pulled off their blindfolds along with Jane and were watching our interaction. Victor let out a sigh and ran his hand over his head, “I think I ran into one of them. They were looking for you.”

“What did they look like?” I asked him.

He started pacing, “It was an old lady with a sword. She didnt look like she was doing well and was kind of freaking out.”

“What happened?”

He let out a sigh, “She attacked me with her sword and I slapped her side when I got a chance, like I was slapping the barrel.”

I glanced at the top of his clean shaved head then back to his eyes, “The fight must have been pretty close if you had to do that.”

He nodded, “She was fast.”

Jane spoke up from the side, “Tell her about the ash that came with it.”

I gave her a look then turned back to Victor, crossing my arms. He had a look of realization, “Oh yeah. That! They sent that letter with a bunch of ash. It's supposedly a test or something. If we fail they will burnt he dojo to the ground.”

I looked at the letter in my hand, “Are you serious?”

He nodded and Jane answered, “It is a very serious endeavor. They will do it.”

“Oh… I think I scared them pretty badly.”

I folded the letter up and handed it back to Victor. He took it and meet my eyes, “Why do you think you scared them?”

“That lady you ran into. I beat her and a few of her friends up pretty badly. Knocked them around and gave them a lesson in martial arts.”

He gave me a suspicious look before looking around at all the people on ledges. He turned back to me and took a small step back, “What type of lesson?

I gave him a slight smile, You are getting smarter every day Victor.” a twist of chi and a flick of my wrist, my staff slapped out and brushed his chest. He let out a woosh of air and cartwheeled off the roof. I heard him hit the ground with a groan then a little shuffle as he stood. I looked around at all the other ninja, “Are you not trying to learn something?”

They quickly pulled their blindfolds back on and went back to the lesson. It seemed they were learning too. It was always good to have eager students.