The World We Do Not Know - 203 Master

Gus realizing the way Bella acted, comes and holds Faust in his chest. ” let’s go inside, grandpa.” Faust calmly tells Gus as if he is avoiding any hugs or love from Gus as he still feels he is responsible for everything that happened and he thinks he is being hated by his family too now.

As soon as Gus enters inside the house, he sees his  house has changed drastically. The wall paper on the pillar comes off at some spots as the result of countless kicks Faust have done and the floor too seems to has multiple places that have been broken and renewed with pieces of planks placed on top of the broken floor. Gus really saw through the amount of hard work Faust has put in and so did the people from hospital, who came to accompany Gus to his house.

“Is the spar with Tim tomorrow grandpa? I’m all ready for it ” Faust says to Gus as Gus is observing the shape the house is in thoughtfully.

“Faust, let’s not do any sparring, you barely look alive to me. Let’s not do this for a while.” Gus worriedly tells Faust as he couldn’t bear watching his skinny grandson take another beating from Tim as Faust clearly looks like a malnourished boy and he seemed to be lacking sleep and Gus can definitely tell that Faust has been  completely taken over by depression.

“if I cannot prove myself now, I will never be able to return to my normal self anymore.” Faust replies with determination, ignoring the despair in his grandfather’s look. He wanted to really take this as an opportunity to vent out all his anger and sadness that he has been locking up inside and he is all set for the spar no matter what.

*On the day of sparring*

Faust seems to be searching the wardrobe restlessly for something. “Grandpa! Where is my  cape I used to play superhero with? I’m not able to find it.” Faust asks Gus while his head ducked into the wardrobe.

“Huh? Why do you need the cape Fausty? We are going to a spar with Tim not to play heroes.” Gus seems to be puzzled, this kid just said yesterday that he is serious about getting strong and moving on. So what took over his head to be searching for a cape now?

“Oh I found it… Heh heh heh. I did not use this cape all these days while training… If only I did I would have been more strong, heh heh heh.” Faust says to himself while laughing with an evil laugh.

Gus is jaw dropped listening to Faust… Is this kid really grown up? What’s he talking about? Gus is blown out of his worries. Maybe Faust is Faust after all by thought and continued.

Faust did not stop there, while leaving the house with Gus, he took the thread with two small bells from the neck of Bella and wears it around his neck. Like it was a charm or maybe he was preparing himself for a sacrificial activity  !

Bella is giving a rather displeased look while pouts and looks away but Faust just smiled and moved on.

“Faust! That is Bella’s collar replacement… What are you doing?” Gus is getting tired of how Faust is behaving. He really wanted to give Faust a good beat up and put some seriousness in his head.

“This is good luck charm grandpa, just watch. I will beat Tim with the lucky cape and lucky bells.”

Gus gave up on Faust at this time when he wears a cope around his neck and wears the thread with bells that made sound for every step he took .

Yang invites Gus and Faust to the place to test the capabilities of him after he is immersed in training for 6 weeks.

The training grounds of Yang are below the ground level in Yang’s place, the floor is made up of concrete and tiles which seemed to be spread out to four corners to form a rectangle ground totally for the purpose of practicing hard blows and free falls with a one feet small Dias with two chairs in the middle for Yang and Gus to sit and observe the spar.

“Oh hello.. Fa-Faust!” Yang is caught off guard seeing Faust. First his in natural way of dressing and then his very gloomy face, his body muscles looks like they’re twitching and his knuckles are painted in red.

“Faust!! What is wrong with you Bo….” Tim says while he runs towards Faust to treat his wounds, but was interrupted by Yang who asked Tim to go back to his position.

Yang realizes that Faust wants to change himself and his coward heart by working hard and so he did not pity Faust or show him mercy, rather than that Yang showed his respect to Faust.

“Hello grandpa Yang, hello Tim” Faust greets them both. His face doesn’t show the signs of any happiness or cheerfulness even though he was invited to spar and train and have a big chance to learn from Yang .

“Faust, try to land at least three hits on Tim. If you succeed, I will let you train with Tim.” Yang tells Faust.

Faust seems a little interested in this, as his face glow up a little because of what Yang says. But Tim seems to be concerned about Faust.

“Grandpa, you said our style doesn’t have defense only moves, if I were to defend myself I would land blows on Faust. I don’t wanna hurt him.” Tim says as he is concerned with the present condition of Faust.

“Did I say you are supposed to show mercy to your opponent’s? When I say fight you both need to show me what you got.” Yang says with cold eyes. A master needs to be strict at times in order to make their disciples succeed.

And so the time to spar each other comes by

“Start!!! “Yang starts the fight with commanding voice as both Tim and Faust gets ready in place for their spar.

*Swoosh!!!~~~* Faust starts off by dashing towards Tim at great speed.

*”Woah fast!!”* Tim compliments Faust in his heart, but smirks from the corner of his mouth as if he is confident enough to counter Faust’s speed.

*”Hmm.. decent speed but charging forward naively, this shows the lack of combat experience.”* Yang and Gus thought to themselves.

Tim is buckled up anticipating Faust’s move which is straight on punch.

*Whiff!!~*

*”Huh? What happened? What is this?* Tim is confused by what he is seeing. The cape of Faust is right in his face.

Faust did not just recklessly charge towards Tim. He removed his Cape in the way and flung it over onto Tim as soon as he approaches Tim.

Tim’s vision is totally blocked off as of now. He puts his hands up and takes his guard. He knows Faust is going to kick him from outside the cape while blinding Tim using the cape.

*”So this is why he was carrying the cape? Did he calculate all of this already?”* Yang and Gus feels as though Faust is not a kid anymore.

*Cling clang!*

Tim heard Faust running towards him from his left side. *”Hmm my eyes sight may have been blocked but my ears are still working.”* Tim focuses smirking to himself and dashes towards his left but suddenly lost his balance and falls down.

“One hit” Yang yells loudly.

Tim was confused and petrified, he did not even know what happened. As soon as the cape falls off from his face. To his surprise to his left are two bells and Faust is actually in front of him.

As soon as Tim was blinded by the cape. Faust threw the bells which he had taken out along with the cape and throws to the left side of Tim. Tim turns left trusting the sound blindly while Faust lands a hit on Tim’s feet making him loose balance and fall down. With this Faust already earned his first hit on Tim.

Before Tim snaps back from the shock he sees Faust again trying to land a kick on him from below.

Time rolls back and gets back on his feet before Faust’s kick can reach him.

“Hehe, that was good Faust. I never expected you would be doing your comical trickery fights. But ok I will respond back with the same passion.” Tim says while taking his stance. “But you won’t be able to reach me anymore.” Tim is finally serious.

His stance itself is pretty impressive. His left legs was behind him and slightly bended while his right foot is in front. He was focusing his balance on his left foot, his right feet slightly float in air easy to move around or attack. In addition to his two upper limbs which can already attack and block. His right arm also acted like his hand in defending moves or punches from below.

Faust again, dashes forward and throws punches which Tim blocks easily using his wrists and elbows, deflecting Faust’s punches.

The martial art moves of Tim looked very well crafted than Faust’s, whose standing stance itself is unbalanced and there is no change of power from his lower body to upper body when landing a punch. Yet Yang’s eyes are wide open and are glittering with admiration for Faust.

*”Is it a coincidence or did he really just aimed for the heart meridian of Tim?”* Yang quietly whisper to himself.

Every punch from Faust is not a clean hit, but he is aiming his punches in the central line of point that is on nose, on throat and on heart. Only central focused punches. If one punch if  made a contact, it would definitely close the heart meridian of Tim.

Yang seemed more focused on Faust to see if Faust just is just throwing punches or is he targeting the meridian.  *”Is it just a coincidence luck or did he figure out the martial arts.”* Yang is getting excited to see Faust’s moves, expecting him to do some uniqueness.

Faust tries to land more blows on Tim who is just evading all the punches with ease without having a need to fight back. And Faust tire fully falls forward while stretching his legs trying to reach Tim.

“Heh, I thought you said you want to prove yourself and get rid of the guilt, but guess you were all talking and no work huh?” Yang mocks Faust with his words intentionally

*”Dammit!!!!”* The words really hurt Faust to his core. He balls his fist in fury and gets back up on his feet to try and land a hit again.

Faust keeps failing to land a blow and Yang keeps mocking Faust. Faust looses his focus and foot on every insult Yang throws at Faust.

In the end, Faust just lays on the ground with his face covered with dust and his head buried in the ground and cries.

“Faust! The fear you feel makes you brave if you can overcome it and the pain you feel will make you stronger if you endure it. Learn to fail, make new mistakes and learn from them” Gus shouts to Faust in a cheering tone.

Faust gets up on his feet slowly while wiping his tears. Those tears were not tears of cowardice or helplessness, this time they were the tears of not being able to do anything and feeling worthless.

*”My element of surprise has been used up already in my first attack. I don’t have any more aces up in my sleeves. Nor am I as fast as Tim to evade. But I have seen most of the moves now. I might be able to do this.”*Faust muddles to himself determinedly.

Faust carefully recalls the foot movements of Tim. The way he was moving fast, the spins, the body balance and the defence and strike at the same time.

*”This time, I’m going to do it”* Faust thinks to himself and charges forward towards Tim once again.

Blocking and evading Faust is easy until now for Tim, but this time somewhere in his head Tim is having a feeling that Faust is catching up to him. The round house kicks, hand movements, blocking every move of Tim’s with his wrists and blocking and guiding away the punches of Tim with the back of his fists and with every move, Faust is looking as if he is imitating Tim. It’s is almost Tim is fighting himself in the mirror, perplexed.

*”What is this? Is this really someone who doesn’t know the martial arts? His moves are suddenly sharp and matching Tim’s. Did he just learned those moves while watching Tim move on the ground just now? This is Impossible yet miraculous!” Yang thinks in his head loudly as he keep getting more surprised by Faust’s abilities.

*Bam!!~~*

It’s a hit on Tim.

“This is bad, Tim has got hit on a particular meridian of the heart, his meridian will be closed and it is life threatening! His all working meridians will be closed now!” Yang’s face becomes creased with a sense of tense and danger in his voice. He’s worried for Tim, but then at the same time he still want to know what Faust got with his skills.

“Huh? Hahaha You got me Faust.” Tim laugh and smiles at Faust naturally.

Faust did not hit the meridian, he just tapped Tim after getting close to Tim. This is what his intentions were all this while. To just touch Tim as a tap after getting close to Tim.

“I don’t want to hurt those that I meant to protect.” Faust says and withdraws with a sense of relief and happiness.

He doesn’t wanna continue spar anymore, he reached his goal and that was more than enough for Faust to prove himself. A satisfactory smile graced his lips as he accomplished his goal.

“Gus! Did you notice it too? The level of understanding and grasping everything after witnessing it for just his first time is amazing and he implemented them in a minute. Your grandson turned out a genius!” Yang makes an excited statement in astonishment.

“Faust, please become a student of mine and let me teach you.” Yang walks up to Faust and requests him politely as if he could never get a student like Faust and teaching this style to Faust.

“Please take care of me master.” Faust agrees and  willingly nods with a bright smile.

Gus, Tim and Yang are more than delighted to see Faust smile for the first time in a while.

Faust is smiling all the way while going back to home.

As soon as Gus and Faust reaches home. Faust sleeps beside Bella in her little bed “Bella, I swear I will never abandon you again and will protect you with my life.” Faust quietly whispers to Bella eventually falling asleep with a smile still on his face.

The next day, Gus calls for Faust who just finished his rounds around the village.

“Faust, I want you to help me with finding a book for me.” Gus says to Faust.

“Sure grandpa, where did you keep it?” Faust is all ready to help his grandpa and make himself useful.

“It’s in the attic, in a black wooden box. Take this key to open the box and bring the book down here.” Gus tells Faust as to how to do his little errand.

Faust goes ahead to find the box and unlocks it, he is caught off unguarded with what he saw, a book with a drawing of a long katana on it.