Flaws

The exchange between Ohma and the girls was brief, after the fight, they just left while giving him glares, then so did the injured thugs and then Kenichi. Only Ohma was left, he didn't go back to the manor instead he just kept walking around the city, not even tending to the wounds, wandering until the night came and the streets turned empty near the port area. He thought about the fight over and over again, it came to the same conclusion. If the girl had a real Katana, Ohma would probably be dead and that pissed him off.

'Raging on problems won't bring solutions.'

Then he closed his eyes taking in a deep breath as his mind drifted into the realm of memories.

*****************

-Days ago

-Horinji island

Ohma sat shirtless under the great tree in a meditative position, the Elder sat behind, each of his palms on either side of Ohma's middle back, guiding the flow to Ki to achieve equilibrium. With force, he pushed Ohma's Ki back into his tanden.

"Focus on that heavy cold feeling." The Elder said. "Exhale hard and focus on pushing the blue energy out of your tanden, leave the red the one. Just place your attention on the blue one."

Ohma followed, he exhaled hard all the air while simultaneously pushing the Sei Ki out from the taden. It enveloped him in cold water, yet it felt so serene like he was drowning but not out-breath. Just peace without a care for the world.

Ohma asked, "Why did you start with Sei Ki instead of Dou Ki?"

"It's the safer option." The Elder said. "Beginners are much more prone to losing control and turning mad and violent when using Dou Qi."

"What if I were to use Sei Ki and Dou Ki at the same time?" Ohma asked.

"Never do that." The Elder said, his voice stern. "Sei Ki and Dou Ki are opposite in nature, letting them run inside you at the same time will make them inside you, you could end up paralysed permanently if not dead. I know the kids today want to experiment but take heed to my words."

"Then what should I do next?" Ohma asked.

"This is just the first stage of the Life-Giving Breath." The Elder said. "Practice it twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Attune yourself to the Ki, and develop better control over it. Then after a few days, we'll progress according to your development. Also remember, that you could expedient and test out your new strength, but never mix the two."

************************

Ohma opened his eyes, finding himself back on the street and visualised the red and blue swirling in his tanden, making a yin-yang pattern. Then exhaled the pushed the red energy out into the rest of his body.

[ Dou Ki ]

Then he ran. His face was burning. A sudden surge of heat and energy ripped through him like an electric current. He reached

the wide, curved road near the waters, where a truck was passing by. Ohma rushed forward, steeping on the truck's top edge with a jump, clearing the entire expanse in two bounds, with just his toes making the contact. Ohma's

surprise burst into ecstasy. He threw his head back to laugh. He never felt this much light on his feet ever before.

The night air blasted him, tingling against his skin. Below, the expanse of

gleaming water beckoned irresistibly. Waves of delicious heat seemed to be

coursing through Ohma's veins. The water looked so cool, so refreshing. It

would feel so good but the fence was between them. Ohma's then tried to stop but found out that his feet wouldn't. He crashed through the barrier like a charging bull. The metal bent and Ohma stumbled through the broken metal

with a mad shout of exultation. He felt no pain at all and crashed into the cold waters. At that moment he realised his flaw, something he had been ignoring for a while now.

"Balance."

**********************

-Next morning, Ryozanpaku

"Balance, huh?" Akisame muttered beside Ohma whose hands were wrapped in bandaids and a cut on his cheek was taped. They sat on side of the Ryozanpaku training grounds while Sakaki and Apachair stood beside each other feet away, watching over Kenichi's training with Miu. Practising basics punches, kicks and blocks from karate, then shin blocks, roundhouse kicks and elbow from Muay Thai. It looked like his basic training in martial arts was coming to an end.

"Stop!" Sakaki said and the trainees immediately halted their movement.

"What did I do wrong?" Kenichi asked.

"You are the angles of your fist wrong," He replied, "you have to align your fist to the maximum effect from the punch, alight your arms with shoulder joints and draw power from the hips. Also, keep your fist a bit loose and tighten it upon impact. Start again, keep practising until you get it right."

Then Sakaki turned towards Ohma, "Your turn, you wanted to tell me about something."

Ohma stood up with a stretch. "Finally, I have been waiting for a while."

"Ohma has been issues with keeping himself balanced." Akisame chipped in.

"Balance?" Sakaki mattered scanning Ohma with his eyes and said, "Your posture seems quite good, you don't seem to have no imbalance."

"It's just when I use this technique I have been working on or use draw excess power," Ohma explained and he walked to one of three makiwaras in the training ground. "Let me just show you."

Ohma took his low stance, keeping his fist an inch away from the board. Then he drew power from his body.

[ Ashura Shot ]

His fist rammed through like Makiwara, breaking it in two as fell forward and slammed his feet to keep himself from falling as he did. Then he turned back towards the others.

"You see that."

Kenichi spoke in awe, "That was awesome, how did you do that?"

"Sunkei." Sakaki remarked, "You are right, you do lack the balance when using excess power."

"That's not the only thing." Another voice spoke.

It was Kensei near the wall walking towards them with a porno magazine in one of his hands.

"What you also lack is Anjin," Kensei spoke stopping and placing his other hand on the wall and shifting a bit then removed his hand, revealing an inch-deep imprint of a hand. "Anjin is called Hidden Power. It's an explosion of striking power from a relaxed position. Because it is executed from a short range, it's also called Duanjin which means short range power. With this, you could use that technique without the three-second lag you have now - five seconds if you count getting into a proper position."

Ohma's eyes were glued to the handprint while Kenichi looked to be lost in deep thought then came back shouting, "Now I remember, Sunkei. That's what that girl said."

"Sunkei is an advance technique along the lines of Seiken-Tsuki, it uses the movement of 17 joints to draw power for one of the strongest strikes in Karate." Sakaki plainly stated coming forward, "Where did you hear of Sunkei?"

"The girl Ohma fought yesterday mentioned it," Kenichi replied.

Sakaki looked over to Ohma, "Some girl did that to you? I thought you fought an entire hundred men gang to have that kind of injury."

"She was stronger than 100 men gang," Ohma stated, "and she may have mistaken my Ashura Shot for a Sunkei."

"But how did she put a tough brat like you in this state?" Sakaki asked.

Kenichi chipped in, "She had a Katana."

"Katana..." A low voice spoke as Shigure appeared in the middle of the training ground out of nowhere. She turned her gaze towards Ohma and asked with a blank expression, "How did you fight her? What style did she use?"

"First of all it was an iaito, not a real Katana," Ohma said. "About her style, she called it Itsuka Style."

"Itsuka style! You say!" Just then door nearby slid open and the Elder entered through with his humongous frame. "Then she must be Isshin Itsuka's granddaughter."

"Who is Isshin Itsuka?" Kenichi and Ohma asked in unison.

It was Akisame who stood up to answer, "Isshin Itsuka is one of those few who have earned the title of Sword Saint, placing him with the same status as the likes of Tsukahara Bokuden, Miyamoto Musashi and Kamiizumi Isenokami Nobutsuna."

Kenichi shouted at Ohma, "You defeated the granddaughter of such a legendary figure."

Ohma snapped, "Kenichi you were just training with the granddaughter of another legendary figure." He then looked around him feeling something ominous. "And why are you all surrounding us?"

The masters had surrounded them from all directions then the Elder replied, "Because this seems like a good time to present you with the plan of the next training phase."

"MORE TRAINING!" Kenichi cried as he backed off but there was nowhere to run.

"Harden your hearts for the future, young boys." The Elder laughed, "From next week Ohma would be training with me every morning and then...."

Sakaki came forward first, "I will cover all the basic techniques in this phase along with teaching you both two Katas. Naihanchi for Balance and Sanchin for Defence."

The Akisame, "I'll be teaching you throwing techniques and techniques on how to counter throws. Techniques such as the famous Nekosunzun."

Then Apachai, "Apachai will teach how to dodge and counter."

Then Kensei, "I'll teach about short-range techniques."

Then Shigure, "I will teach about surprise attacks."

The Elder grinned, "Fights are going to be tougher from now on."

*************************

-Meanwhile at the girl's school

-Student Council Room

Rin Itsuka was resting on a couch, Misa beside Tsukuyo Seigen, she was shorter than the two granted she was also a year younger, with long silver hair tied into twin tails and crimson eyes which she mostly kept close. Sitting on the opposite side of her were the other two members and one pet. Satori Tamaba, a girl around her green hair and wide hazel which always seem to be looking nowhere, Warabi Hanasaka a blonde girl with violet eyes and the same size as Tsukuyo with more than a six-foot brown Japanese bear Tobu with a red blunt spike collar around his neck and had taken a large portion of the couch for his sitting. They represented the five virtues of benevolence, justice, courtesy, wisdom and sincerity even though none of them were stunning examples of the said virtues.

"This guy's fangs were quite big," Misa said.

"He defeated and used Ki, he obviously practises some kind of martial arts," Rin added, "Karate it seemed judging by the fact that he used Sunkei on me."

"He defeated one of us with bare hands," Warabi remarked, "he seems quite the menace to me. But I think you lost because you go sloppy, am I wrong?"

"Graaaaaa!" Tobu growled in agreement.

Satori's eyes lit up for a moment, "Hey, Warabi, can I pet him one more time."

"No way," Warabi rejected, "you are too excessive with him."

"Really..." Satori looked down with a monotone voice.

Rin interjected, "Can you please focus on the task, please?"

"What was the boy's name again, Ōmagatoki?" Warabi asked.

"His name is Ohma-" A voice said from the other side of the council room door as it slide open and the Empress entered. She was tall, with a slender body, long limbs, a pretty face, raven black hair and crimson eyes. The Empress, the student council president, Amou Yasuru.

"-Ohma Tokita, emphasize on the 'To', he'll love it."

"Oh, how unusual for the empress to grace with her presence," Tsukuyo commented.

"It's nothing compared with having Miss Seigen here," Amou said.

Tsukuyo sighed, "You are stirring up the hornet's rest, how disappointing."

Rin then interjected, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

"Well, an interesting name came into discussion, so I thought I'd give you a warning," Amou said, "if you don't want to lose again, attack him in a group like you and Misa attacked me - but then again you both lost in two moves."

"Bitch..." Rin cursed under her breath.

Amou continued, "Also, his style isn't Karate, it's an obscure martial art called Niko Style."

-----------------------------------

- Authors Note ( spoiler )

For those who wanted Harem and Romance, it is here. Amou is the main girl, she is a mix of two characters from different mangas with the fighting style I'll reveal in the future of this volume. Just one thing I'll reveal now is that she is an even more naturally gifted fighter than Ohma.