Fred POV

(WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING:

-  Violence

-  Cursing)

Man, I love my sensei. I love his kindness, his comprehension… He’s the best man in the world, but there’s a LITTLE problem. In one minute, he can go from the kindest to the strictest, the most horrible and the most terrifying sensei in the world. I’ve known that ever since I turned 5 years old. It’s also on this day that Samado made me notice the power and the strength hiding inside of me. He wanted to show me that I was old enough to start practicing, but he ended up cut in half. Even today, I don’t remember how I used this power. I thought that it was the end, that I killed him. I was crying so much, my vision was blurry. I wasn’t able to see my sensei regenerate from my accidentally strong attack. It really impressed me seeing him get up after an attack this strong. That day, I admired him so much, I wanted to be just like him, just like my sensei, this was and will always be my objective. I’m telling all this because today, I’m finally turning 16 and he made a promise to me. At 16 years old, he’ll allow me to get out of the house’s perimeter and I will finally be able to explore the rest of the world. But the real reason why I’m so excited right now is because I am standing in the backyard, face-to-face with Samado, ready to honor our other promise. The promise in question was…

“Ready for the duel?” Said Samado. “You should be scared , I won’t hold back!”

“Aha! I’ll give it my all!” I answered.

When we were all set, the battle started. He started to move incredibly fast, he ran so quickly that it looked like he teleported. I checked my surroundings. Not in front, not on my right, not on my left, not below me… ABOVE! I quickly made an acrobatic move and hit him in the face with my foot. It was actually a clone that I hit. I should’ve known it was a clone because of the gray smoke that was coming from the… OH NO, THE SMOKE CAUGHT ON FIRE! It was already too late when I realized my sensei casted a spell on me. 

“FIRYO: PROJECTYLIO!”

His spell hit me directly on the torso and the smoke made it worse, with the flames just getting bigger and bigger. I felt like it cut my whole body in half…  After the fire was extinguished, I fell on the ground, hurt. When I looked at my body, I realized there weren’t any cuts, not one injury. I suddenly saw a weird mark appear. I felt like this mark was protecting me, like it healed me. My sensei looked at me, he was troubled.

“WAIT, WHAT? YOU’RE NOT EVEN INJURED AFTER A SPELL LIKE THIS?!” Said Samado.

“No, the weird mark protected me.” I explained.

“This is very strange. Maybe it’s your de…” He started saying before he stopped, visibly confused.  

“My what?” 

“Nothing…” Said Samado, still lost in his thoughts.

“WERE YOU ABOUT TO SAY DEMON?!” I realized.

“NO, NO!!! ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Said my now panicked sensei.

“Hum, hum…” I replied, knowing something was off.

“NOW, LET'S FINISH THE BATTLE THAT WE STARTED!” He said.

“Yeah, yeah…” I answered. 

Samado then disappeared, I looked everywhere but I didn't find him. I then saw his foot pointing straight at my head, it was arriving at full speed. I dodged with difficulty. I then tried to punch him but it didn’t work. He dodged my attempt with incredible ease. He was just too fast, he was overwhelming me with his speed. It was like he caught me in a corner and I couldn’t move without being punched. I then fortunately remembered something that my sensei used to always remind me of. 

“Focus really hard on your objective and you’ll find the weak point of your opponent.” 

So I focused really, really hard until… I was actually able to see his movements clearly. Finally, I managed to escape and hit him right in the face with a breathtaking punch. PAF! The punch was so strong that he went flying directly to the other side of the yard. Usually, he wouldn’t even react to my punches. Is it also because of this mysterious mark? I feel like my sensei owesme an explanation after this battle. 

“Damn! I didn’t think it would make you that powerful!” He said.

“ WHAT!? WHAT IS THIS MARK!? WHAT IS IT!?” I screamed at him.

Instead of answering my question, my sensei just got up and pulle out his sword. Just by the cold and concentrated look in his eyes, I knew this wasn’t a friendly duel anymore. It was going to be a real one and a tough one. I was super scared. He looked like he wanted to kill me.

“It’s becoming serious now…” He said.

Even though my sensei was really scaring me right now, I hid my fear and simply smiled at him. I didn’t care how hard it would be, I felt like winning this duel was going to be fun! I always wanted to see how strong I could be, and it probably goes the same way for my sensei. Yeah, after all, he trained me for years and he never really saw what I was capable of. Of course, this mark would help me, and that’s what made me so excited that I could finally be like him!

“Pft, yeah, it is starting to be more serious! This time, you will lose!” I said with confidence. 

We looked at each other and both immediately rushed toward the other, I was determined to win against my sensei.