The city smelled different at night.
During the day, Z-City carried the usual stench of exhaust fumes and food stalls, but at night, the air shifted. It was sharper, tense, as though every shadow carried a threat. Tonight, the tension was real.
We followed Bang through the streets, his gi fluttering lightly in the wind. The few civilians still outside hurried into their homes as a loudspeaker blared warnings: "A Tiger-level monster has been sighted in the southern district. Citizens are advised to evacuate immediately."
My throat was dry. Until now, my battles had been inside the dojo controlled sparring, predictable drills. But this was the real thing. A monster. Flesh and claws and strength far beyond an ordinary man's.
Garou walked beside me, his expression calm, almost eager. "Don't slow me down," he said.
I forced a breath through my lungs. "Just don't get cocky."
He smirked.
We found the monster near the abandoned market district. The building had collapsed inward, and in its place stood a hulking creature. Its body was like twisted stone wrapped in muscle, arms as thick as tree trunks. Yellow eyes glowed in the dark, and when it roared, the windows around us shattered.
A dozen police officers were trying and failing to hold it back. Their weapons barely scratched the beast's hide. One car was already crushed into scrap metal, and two officers lay unmoving on the ground.
Bang stepped forward. His voice was calm, almost gentle. "Stay back. This is not your fight."
The officers didn't argue. They pulled the wounded away as Bang turned to us.
"Kaizen. Garou. This is your trial. Do not die."
Then he blurred forward, moving faster than my eyes could follow.
Bang's strikes were fluid, effortless. Each punch and kick carried the weight of decades of refinement, redirecting the monster's massive arms and countering with bone-shattering precision.
But the monster was no weakling. It swung its arm like a wrecking ball, smashing through walls and sending shockwaves through the ground. Bang avoided the blows with perfect steps, but even he couldn't finish it in one strike.
"Go!" Bang shouted.
Garou didn't need telling twice. He dashed in, weaving past falling debris. His fists hammered against the monster's torso, rapid and relentless. The beast snarled, swiping at him, but Garou twisted and ducked like water slipping through cracks.
And then there was me.
I froze. My body screamed at me to move, to fight, but my legs felt like lead. This wasn't sparring. One hit and I'd be crushed.
You wanted this, I told myself. You wanted to live in this world. So prove it.
I forced my feet to move.
The first time I closed the distance, the monster's arm swung down. Instinct screamed for me to block, but Bang's voice echoed in my head: "The stream must never stop."
I stepped sideways, palms tracing a circle, guiding the massive arm past me. The impact cracked the pavement where I had been standing. My heart thundered in my chest.
"Not bad!" Garou shouted, grinning as he ducked under another swing.
The monster roared, turning its attention toward me. Its hand lashed out, fingers like spears. I barely managed to redirect the thrust, the motion jarring my entire arm. Pain shot through my shoulder, but I stayed standing.
Bang's voice called out. "Control! Don't resist flow!"
I tried again. The next strike I guided with more care, letting its force slide past me. My body turned, my steps light. For a fleeting moment, I felt it the current of battle, the flow of stone and water.
But theory only went so far.
The monster's backhand caught me across the chest, sending me sprawling through a fruit stand. Wood cracked, and I hit the ground gasping, air torn from my lungs.
"Kaizen!" Bang's voice snapped like a whip.
I forced myself up, coughing, ribs screaming in pain. The beast loomed above me, its hand raised for the killing blow.
Time slowed.
I saw the arc of its arm, the weight of its swing, the inevitability of impact. And then something inside me snapped not fear, not despair, but a single, sharp thought: Move like water.
My feet shifted without conscious thought. My hands rose, tracing the curve of the incoming strike. The monster's arm slid past me, the force redirected into the ground. I pivoted, using its momentum, and drove my palm into its side.
The impact wasn't strong enough to topple it, but the beast staggered a step.
I was still alive.
Garou appeared beside me in a blur, his grin wide. "Finally figured it out, huh?"
"Don't" I gasped, catching my breath, "don't expect me to keep up with you."
He laughed, charging back into the fray. His movements were sharp, hungry, every strike testing the monster's limits. I followed, not with his speed, but with steadier steps. Where he attacked head-on, I moved to redirect, guiding the beast's strikes away from him.
For the first time, we fought in rhythm.
It ended with Bang.
As the monster staggered from our combined efforts, Bang stepped in. His fist blurred, striking once, twice, then a dozen times in flowing succession. The beast roared, body convulsing under the assault, before finally crashing to the ground in a broken heap.
Silence fell.
My chest heaved, sweat and blood mixing down my arms. Every muscle screamed, every breath was fire but I was standing. I had survived.
Bang's eyes met mine. For a moment, I thought I saw the faintest hint of approval.
"You did well," he said. "You are still clumsy. Still weak. But you moved. And that is enough for now."
Garou snorted, wiping blood from his lip. "Not bad for an amateur."
I almost laughed. Almost. But exhaustion swallowed me whole.
That night, as I limped back to my room, the city felt different again.
I had touched real battle. I had seen the gulf between myself and true monsters and between myself and masters like Bang.
But I had also felt the stream. For just a heartbeat, I had been water.
And I knew then: the dojo was only the beginning. The world out there was vast, dangerous, and filled with fists waiting to be mastered.
This was only the first step.