Grimm Tales: Rise of the Yokai

Chapter 5 Glamour

Before I could get more than a few steps, Nick came marching into the arena. With the look on his face, I wouldn't have been surprised to see him breathing fire. Sure, I mean, he could always do that anyway, but... oh, you get my point.

"Both of you," said Nick through clenched teeth. "With me. Now."

His tone left no room for debate. I followed Nick over to stand below a less crowded part of the stands. David staggered up a few steps behind me, cradling his broken arm.

"Look," said David. "Whatever it is, it's going to have to wait until after I get my arm fixed."

I shuffled over a few steps to make some space between us. If Nick decided to turn him into a charcoal briquette, I wanted to be out of the line of fire.

"McHale, if I were you, I would be very careful about the next words out of my mouth," said Nick. "Bad enough the way you wasted your mana. That should be simple enough to fix. But using such powerful attacks against other recruits during a training session? Do you have any idea how much damage you could have done with spells like that?"

David didn't say anything. He just stared at his feet. Then I noticed the look on his face. Was it the pain from his arm that had him looking like that? Or was he actually embarrassed to get chewed out like this?

Nick watched David for a few more moments, then sighed.

"Other than your arm, your injuries don't look too serious. You were lucky. It could have been much worse." He motioned to the exit. "Head to the infirmary and get patched up. I still need to have a word with young Mr. Grimm."

David never looked back as he shuffled out of the arena and up the stairs. Once he was gone, I looked at Nick, and was greeted with a flick to the forehead.

"Ow!" I said. "What was that for?"

"What do you call what happened out there?" asked Nick.

"I don't know about you, but I call that winning a match," I said.

He flicked me again.

"Would you stop that?" I said, rubbing where he'd hit me. "You're going to leave a mark."

"Zane..."

"Okay. Let's be reasonable, yeah? Just tell me what rules I broke. Did I use an attack that was too powerful?"

"No," said Nick.

"Oh," I said. "Did I attack while he was down?"

"Well... no, but..."

"Were any of his injuries life threatening?"

"Alright, alright. You've made your point," said Nick. He grinned and shook his head slowly. "You are definitely your parents' child."

"Thank you," I said.

"But Zane, really? Using water boxing to break his arm—"

"And his hand."

"—and his hand, thank you," said Nick. "What was going through your head?"

"I was thinking he deserved it," I said flatly.

"Deserved it? You'd already flattened him twice. You saw the damage to his face. I know you two haven't ever exactly been close—"

"That's an understatement."

"—But what in the name of Harry Houdini could he have possibly done to make you think breaking bones was a good idea?"

I looked Nick straight in the eye and said, "He called Jason a Mutt and a Mongrel."