(A/N: Edited Chapter)
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After the incident with the psychopath passed, I continued to walk along with the old man while he dragged the unconscious body of my teacher like a worthless sack of potatoes through the ground, not even blinking when the guy's head accidentally bumped into a stone on the road and got rattled.
It seemed that as long as he had a body to show to the police, this old guy didn't care in what condition it arrived.
'Well, he kinda deserved it.' I thought, giving the unconscious guy a pitying glance for a moment, before deciding to ignore him.
As we walked, the old guy began chatting with me, telling me what he did for a living, though not being exactly descriptive about it.
His name, apparently, was Sawaya Tatsuo, and, if you hadn't figured it yet, he was a martial arts master—and an old one at that, both in age and experience.
Though, it seemed he has been retired for a while now from that life. He explained that, after his dojo stopped getting students, he stopped teaching and isntead spent the rest of his years on a self-discovery trip around the world—or something along those lines. I didn't quite get what that was supposed to mean.
He spent quite a good amount of years at it, and had coincidentally been making a quick return to this city to rest today, when he casually stumbled upon that scammer's dojo.
Curiosity had caught his attention, and he decided to give the way we trained a quick glance before going his way.
Which led all the way to this situation, with him saving me, and now with both of us walking back toward the Dojo.
Honestly, it seemed like a badly written script given how coincidental everything was. However, knowing that coincidences were not impressive in the slightest when comparing them to the other things that I had seen so far, I shrugged it off pretty quickly.
It happened. What's there to think so much about? At most, I could think of it as God Among Us above taking care of me, and sending me an actual martial arts teacher.
Amen.
"Honestly, you surprised me a lot, kid. To be able to run for so long and keep your distance from him, an adult with bigger legs and stamina, it's all sort of amazing."
"Well, the fact that I kicked his balls earlier might have helped."
He snorted, brushing his bushy beard with an amused look. "Heh, certainly. Such an injury would slow down anyone, especially with that abnormal strength of yours."
As he chuckled, I couldn't help but recall the comment he made about my stronger body.
The nervousness from being about to die made me not notice it at the time, but now that I think about it, how did he notice it? I don't think I look any different from a normal kid, aside from my bright red hair and my cool eyeglasses.
So I asked him.
"By the way, how did you notice that my body was stronger than others? I don't think I've done anything extraordinary for you to notice it so easily."
Hearing me, the old man—or rather, Tatsuo for a more respectful way to refer to him, raised an eyebrow if suprised I had picked up on that.
-Swish!-
Then, suddenly, he made a punching motion, cutting the air with his quick jab that I almost missed.
"Hmm? That? I noticed it while I was passing by and saw you kids through the window punching the air... Your movements in especial caught my attention at first since something seemed off about them, so I decided to watch a little longer after you began doing the exercizes. But what truly revealed to me the physical marvel that your body is, was when this guy began chasing you around."
I gave him a curious glance. "At that time? Why?"
He smiled faintly. "Because for you to outrun him, despite the superior physique I already mentioned, which includes more muscle mass, longer legs, and a bigger stamina pool, you'd need to have quite the kick in those tiny legs of yours. Which shouldn't be possible for a kid around your age... How old are you, by the way? 7? 8?"
"I'm 6."
"Close enough."
He scratched his beard for a second, before looking at me with squinted eyes.
"Not to mention that you ran the same amount of time as him, which already makes your stamina comparable to that of an adult."
Hearing him, I blinked for a second, before my eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"... Say... for how long did you keep watching while I was running away from him...?"
"Ahem... Don't mind the smaller details!" He let out a fake cough, and averted his gaze. Making me deadpan at him.
'This guy... He was probably watching from the beginning and just intervened at the last second.'
I felt my eyebrow twitch in annoyance as I stared at his fake-ass. Eventually though, I just shook my head and sighed in defeat.
Even if I tried to make him say the truth, this guy would probably just deny it until the end of time.
'Well, he saved me in the end. So I guess it's alright...'
Reaching that resolution in my mind, I let out a satisfied—but not so satisfied—huff, and glanced at him again, this time giving his appearance a check.
Earlier, I had been in the dark alley, and he was a few meters away, so I didn't get a proper view, which meant it was a good opportunity to see his appearance in more detail.
Appearances were, after all, a way of knowing a lot about other people with just one glance... or so I had read on the internet.
'Hmm... Maybe I should stop believing everything that is on the internet... Maybe it'll be my downfall one day.'
As I left behind a mental note I probably wasn't going to follow any time soon, I began giving the old man a proper look.
For starters, I was able to confirm he was indeed wearing something akin to a martial arts uniform like I had assumed earlier. However, unlike the usual clean and neat image of martial arts masters, his uniform was completely ragged and dirty, as if he had been surviving in the jungle or something like that.
'Did he fight a pack of wolves, or what?' I couldn't help but think amusedly, though doing the best not to show that on my face.
His beard was very bushy as well. So much that it made me wonder just how much time had passed since the last time he had shaved.
As for his hair, he had it tied into a long ponytail that extended through most of his back and reached his waist. However, it was dirty and slightly grassy, as if he had not cleaned it in a lot of time.
Fortunately, he was not smelly. I guess he at least kept that aspect in check.
All in all, his appearance had nothing to do with the strong guy I had seen earlier. He looked more like a beggar than the martial arts master that he supposedly was.
But you know, he might be what people in Chinese novels call a "hidden master", and this hobo-like appearance of his is probably just a trick to make people underestimate him, so he gets the surprise factor in his favor.
"Hey kid."
Suddenly, as I was still glancing at his figure from the corner of my eye, he turned his head and gave me a weird look.
"Yeah?" I asked, a bit worried he might have caught me staring.
Fortunately, it didn't seem like that was the case.
"I've been wondering for a bit... But why do you talk so... weird? Did your parents teach you to talk like that?"
"Eh? No, I've always spoken like this..."
"Really? I guess I'm just unused to being around kids... Or you might just be mature for your age."
I smirked faintly at his comment.
Though, my smirk faded a little when I heard him mutter something under his breath.
"6-year-old kids should talk like dumbasses... this kid is freaky."
Regardless of my complaints about those words, the journey back continued as it was for a while more.
It took us 10 minutes to finally get back to the dojo. It seemed I had made quite the long trip during my escape.
As soon as we arrived there, I saw my father looking around frantically while talking to the parents of the other kids, his face a mixture of being scared-shitless and anger.
From the way some of the adults talked to their kids, I assumed he was probably asking about me and where I went during my escape.
However, as we approached, one of the parents finally noticed us and alerted my dad, which made him start rushing towards me immediately.
-Rustle-
However, unlike the angry words that I expected, what came was a tight hug as my father suddenly pulled me into an embrace.
"You little brat. I thought something bad had happened to you!"
"..."
I could only watch as my father hugged me tightly with a slightly awkward face.
I looked at the old man, who now stood up a little bit away from us, and saw how he waited patiently for us to stop hugging while a small, amused smirk showed on his face.
'What are you looking at, you damn old geezer...'
Maybe it was because I was kinda embarrassed to be hugged by my father out of nowhere, but I wanted to punch the old man's face a little bit.
But no, I must remain cordial. This is the man that will be my new martial arts master. I should show him respect from here on!
As I berated myself and decided to correct my behavior from here on, suddenly my father sighed in relief, and then let go of me as he stood up, shooting me a wry expression while at it.
"Seriously, brat, I almost died of a heart attack there... Are you hurt anywhere?" He grabbed me and began turning me around like I was a skewer or something, checking all over me. Eventually, he let go of me, and furrowed his eyebrows as he glanced around, his hand tightening into a fist. "Where is that asshole of your teacher? I will make sure to teach him some manners myself—!"
His angry expression fell pretty quickly when he saw my teacher lying unconcious on the floor, his upper body hanging upwards merely by Tatsuo's grip on his collar.
"Huh?" He let out a dumb sound once he saw that.
Smirking at his reaction, I knew that it was time to introduce them to each other.
"Dad, this old—ahem, this grandpa here saved me from my teacher earlier when he cornered me into a dead end..."
"He what?"
Tatsuo offered a handshake, which my father took with that dumb look still on his face. "Nice to meet you, I'm Sawaya Tatsuo. I was passing by when I saw your son in quite the trouble. Fortunately, I was able to save him before things got too bad. As for this troublemaker..."
Lifting my teacher in the air with only one of his arms, he then gestured with his head in a certain direction as he spoke.
"... I need you and your son to give a testimony about everything that happened here. This guy has to learn a few lessons in prison, and your testimony will be really useful to achieve that."
"O-oh."
Nodding his head with a serious expression, my father gave me a curious look for a moment before he sighed and told me to follow as he and the old man began walking forward.
As we began walking away from the scene, with my father giving some thankful nods to the still-observing parents and kids around, I smiled satisfied at how everything had turned out.
'My teacher on his way to be arrested, and me about to get a new teacher. What better way to end the day than this?'
Afterwards, we reached the police station, and quickly began retelling everything that had unfolded.
However, since the police needed more details about the whole situation to be able to make an arrest, we ended up there for quite a few hours more.
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|A few hours later...|
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"Be careful next time~!"
As the three of us left the police station while a police officer waved at us, my father immediately turned to Tatsuo and bowed deeply to him as he expressed his gratitude.
"I'm really thankful, sir. If not for you, who knows what could have happened to this little brat... If there's anything I can do for you to repay your kindness, just tell me!"
Thanks to the interrogation that we went through, my father had gotten a more profound gist of everything that had happened with my teacher.
It was left to say, he got pretty angry when he heard that I kicked him in the balls. Though, he almost laughed out loud at first when he heard it.
It was only when the police and the old man looked at him with a deadpan gaze that his mood changed and he began scolding me pretty harshly.
'Such a bipolar man...' I glared at him with a deadpan.
-Sigh...-
"I don't like the way you are looking at me brat! Come on, bow your head too! It's your life that was saved back then."
"Urgh... Alright. Thank you, Tatsuo-san." I said as my head was pushed down.
" Ahem, it's alright..." In response, Tatsuo let out an awkward cough and smiled faintly. "I just did what I had to do... But if you're really determined to pay me back, well, there's one tiny thing. Though I don't know if it should be called a favor, as it's more like a proposal."
"Tell me, I will do anything I can!" My father looked up from his bow and pumped up his fist, showing his unyielding determination.
His determined face twisted completely when he heard what the old man wanted to say, though.
"I want your son to become my disciple."
"Huh?"
...
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-To be continued...-
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(A/N: You know the rules, and so do I)