The World We Do Not Know - 159 The Art Of Vital Points

Faust did not know what to tell to his brothers. “Um… Tim, I’m really sorry for going towards the dens, even after you told me not to.” Faust tells Tim with a hint of guilt in his tone as he lowered his head not daring to look at Tim in the eyes.

“It’s ok, we know you won’t be able to hold your excitement anyway haha. That’s why I came to play with you, knowing you will be either feeling sad or bored because I told you not to go there, but who would have imagined your little butt would go there already, hmphhhh.” Tim pout and says to Faust as a big brother who is scolding his small brother, but also showing love and caring side at the same time.

“Ah, how is my grandpa? How is Bella? Let me get up and walk now.” Faust deeply reflect on his action and that’s when he remember something and ask his friends and as he tries to get up from the hospital bed.

“No! It’s ok, you need more rest Faust. And your grandpa is ok you know….” Nick holds back Faust not letting him get out of the bed and looks a bit gloomy, same with the rest of the friends. It seems they are all sad and hesitant to tell Faust about the well being of his only family, that is his grandpa and Bella.

“Well your.. ..  ” Nick hesitates, ” Well..they said that grandpa Gus needs to take a 7 month bed rest, his muscles have been cut- slashed and many broken bones, but it’s not life threatening. Where as Bella….” Nick who is talking about Gus suddenly stops talking when it comes to Bella.

“We don’t know if Bella can make it, she is getting operated now and lost lot of blood. Chances of her making out alive are less.” Roy continues for Nick and breaks it down to Faust, being a noble he knows how to control his emotions and feelings very well unlike Nick.

“I see, thanks for letting me know. I want to sleep now. I will come meet you guys later when I’m recovered.” Faust immediately lays back and covers himself in the blanket as his tears roll down. Tim and others leaves the room knowing what Faust is going through and they sadly leave even when they don’t want to.

*”I need to become strong, I need to figure a lot of things out first”* Faust keeps saying to himself while he digs his thumb nail into his point finger trying to suppress his hate and anger towards his own self as a way to punish himself.

A few days later, Faust is recovered and he go to meet up with Gus who is still on the hospital bed “How are you doing grandpa?.” Faust says with a low voice standing at the door as he tries to control his tear from rolling down from his cheek.

“Oh Faust,” Gus mumbles as he could barely say anything as he sees Faust. Faust looks tired and black shade can be seen under his eyes.

Gus realizes that Faust is not sleeping at all. “Faust, I’m doing really good now, I hope you take better care of yourself, don’t spoil your health because your grandpa is not there to feed you forcefully and take care of you, I will be up and running in no time.” Gus says to Faust to try to ease his worries.

“Ok grandpa, I will be going home without you and take care of the animals and keep our house clean and do the works for you.” Faust says with calm tone, but you can see he’s trying his best to not sound sad and want to make up to Gus.

“You don’t need to do that Fausty, I asked Tim’s mom to take care of our house while we’re here, so don’t go doing adults work kiddo just sleep with me here. Me, you and Bella can go home in 6 weeks.” Gus says to Faust with a smiley and goofy face to make Faust feel like everything is back to normal and that he don’t need to be hard on himself with his feeling of guilts.

“Ok grandpa.” That’s all Faust says and heads back to his room without mumbling another word.

Faust collects his belongings and greets the doctors that helped him and leaves out to his house not listening to what his grandpa told him before.

For the next 6 weeks Faust stays at his house. Everyday Faust does every work needed in his house before Tim’s mom visits to do her works and eventually she stops coming after realizing that Faust wants to do it himself. He goes into the forest and eats fruits and whatever he finds since he doesn’t know how to cook.

Most of Faust’s daily routine included him waking up before sun rise, running around the village which is daily exercise for guards to circle the village for 10 times. Faust too decided to join the guards and run around the village for three complete times as best as he could.

He then comes home, cleans the whole house, takes the sheep’s and other animals to the area of good forage. He keeps an eye on the animals while he himself punches a tree over and over harder each time as he keep blaming himself for what happen to his grandpa and Bella and also as a way to make himself strong. Until the animals are done grazing. He brings them back safely to home and works on his body for hours.

Faust also is practicing moves that looks similar to hand combat martial arts used long time ago. He collected some sand, heated the sand in a pot and collected all the heated sand in a bag and started training his wrists, forearms, shin and foot by hitting the sand bag. He put the sand bag on the ground  and threw few punches and tied the bag to a pillar to kick and make his feet and shin strong.

The martial art that Faust is practicing is “The Art Of Vital Points” it is an ancient martial arts which has its origins in “Hodu”, one of the most ancient country with rich tradition and history, also known to be the birth place of “Buddha” a human who reached higher state of all beings and was even worshipped as a religion and God in ancient times.

How did Faust got his hands on “kyusyozyutu”

( The art of vital points) which is depicted as a secret art of body knowledge and vital points. It has no concern of an opponent’s well being, the sole purpose of this style is to inflict as much pain as quickly as possible, which often includes deliberately ending a life with no remorse.

*One year ago before the wolf incident*

In the past, Faust came across the sight of Yang teaching something to Tim which seemed to be some kind of move that involved in Tim charging at Yang and trying to land a hit on Yang in close combat. Faust is very much impressed by the style and the way Tim moves in this martial arts.

“Grandpa Yang! I also want to learn with Tim. Will you please teach me along with him?” Faust storms into the training place and asks Yang eagerly while he is training Tim.

Yang is struck with displeasure, the face of the grumpy old village chief turned really ugly. “Faust this art only passes down in my family, I would never even in my dreams think to pass the art of kyusyozyutu to an outsider. Don’t ask me again.” Yang scolds Faust sternly and asks him to leave from the door that he came from.

Faust despite being rejected by Yang, peeks into the training and the movements that Tim is practicing, and that day later he goes home to practice the moves he saw from Tim. Yang who is aware that Faust is peeking on the training of Tim everyday, doesn’t seem bothered as he knew that the art is extremely tough to learn on one’s own without a proper guidance under a well versed master. Without the knowledge of vital points, pressure points and meridians of one’s body, this martial art is just like throwing random punches in air and so later on Faust lost the interest in practicing and training alone and stopped going to the training grounds of Yang and Tim.

*Present*

After the incident with the wolves, Gus, who is still recovering in hospital reveals to Yang that Faust is somehow special in his own way. Gus mainly tells Yang about Faust landing a hit on the wolf as if he teleported, it also piqued the interest of Yang however, he is still not convinced as to teaching his martial arts to Faust.

Yang wanted to test Faust himself and take him in if he feels like if Faust could be a good successor to the martial arts he is trying to pass down to Tim, maybe Faust could be a  better one than Tim as Yang thought to himself carefully.

And so Yang and Tim visit Faust after he was out of hospital.

“Faust, Gus want me to teach you the martial arts form that you were fascinated with a year ago.” Yang told Faust.

“I see.” Faust sadly thought to himself *”even after all this, I’m still being defended by grandpa.”*  He looks down to the ground and tries to stop himself from crying in front of Tim and Yang.

“But I’m not convinced with what Gus told me, I need to see your talent with my own eyes or I cannot train you.” Yang coldly states the bitter truth and doubt.

“So after six weeks from now, you and Tim will have a spar against each other while me and Gus will watch your fights and give you our results. A martial art using hand combat is equal to an eternal treasure. It is not something you can learn easily. So to gift you such powerful skill, I’m going to make sure that you have what it takes.” Yang says to Faust and Tim.

This  leaves Faust with lots of doubts in his head as to why he have to spar with his own friend,Tim? Him and Tim are good friends and he doesn’t want them both to fight and end up with either of them getting hurt. The feeling is mutual for Tim as well.

“So for basic, train your body and harden your wrists, knuckles, legs and shin.” Yang continues telling Faust about his deal and he ignore the feelings of the two boys as their eyes appear with doubts and sadness.

“Uh, huh? Ahh grandpa Yang! Oh I have a question to ask you” Faust pauses for a few minutes and he wonders how to exactly ask the questions he just said he need to ask. *”How the hell am I supposed to train my body and make it strong?”* Is the question that Faust have in his mind for Yang.

Yang realizing what was in Faust’s head says “You can try punching a sand bag filled with heated sand which makes your skin harden and your arms stronger.” Yang gives him an advice.

“Thank you both.” Faust says while he bows his head low and heads back to home to start the training as soon as possible once Yang told him what to do.

And so Faust has been training his body for 6 weeks straight to make himself stronger and each day his determination grow as he continues to thrives.

After 6 weeks, Gus is finally discharged from the hospital, but is not able to walk without the two clutches and people from the hospital assist him and Bella to their house.

Both Gus and Bella are covered in bandages in the areas they received fatal wounds in. Faust with enthusiasm comes running out of the house after he realizes who the old man and the dog are as they continues toward his house. And he rushes to hug Bella and Gus whom he met after the first time in 6 weeks.

But Gus is in loss of words as he is shocked to see Faust looking so different then he last saw him.

Faust has become so thin than he normally is. His eyes are decorated with dark circles around them and you can also see the puffiness under each of his eyes causing his eye bags to swell . It is as though Faust has not eaten or slept from these past 6 weeks and his bones are clearly visible through his fragile body.

“What have you done to yourself Faust!?” Gus asks Faust with disbelief and grief. Gus is not taking this well as his only grandson, who he had nursed ever since be was a tiny little baby, is looking so bad like he hasn’t been taking care of him as a good grandpa should. He was bitterly heartbroken.