An Incomplete History

Chapter 9 - Ordinary.

Aquila is standing on the left side of the training grounds, the walls slightly cracked, the blue punching bag hangs in front of him as he wraps some bandages around his wrist. His mind is currently running faster than he could keep up with.
As long as I can remember, I've just been ordinary, just a person who's destined for another mundane life, a person whose only purpose is to work another 9-5. The Archdemons... Why us to fight them..? I agreed without much thought..
Aquila punches the bag, continuously, some blood from his knuckles leaking through the bandages.
I feel like this is the way to redeem myself, the way to get Gale to forgive me, the way to right my wrongs. Is it worth it...? If I die can I say I died for a correct cause...? Tomasi... His loyalty to Gale pulled him into this situation.. Does he fear death? Does he know how dire of a situation we're in. He won't leave Gale.. I know Tomasi, he wouldn't ever leave Gale. I left Gale at one point... After I woke up that morning, after what I did, I couldn't handle it.. I told Gale immediately but his girlfriend got to it first, I was the bad guy for the first time in my life I felt like a villain. I want Gale's forgiveness, though this feels like too much, this feels like it's not worth it. Is it too late? Credell already saw my face, I'd be killed if I ran.
Pearls of sweat run down from Aquila's face, as he continuously attacks the punching bag.
No... Stop thinking like that, you're at no place to run away. This is the way you can stop being so ordinary, this is how you make changes that matter. I won't run away, I can't run away.
Ryuma grabs Aquila's shoulder with a gentle smile. "Mind if I can teach you some things?"
"Y-yeah sure" Aquila smiles. "Alright watch closely, I'm not one for hand to hand combat as I usually use a blade but I have some experience." Ryuma proceeds to accidentally kick through the punching bag.
"Fuck." Ryuma just stares and Aquila slightly smiles due to the absurdity. "I'll go grab another one give me a second." Ryuma picks up the destroyed punching bag and leaves to return a few minutes later hooking up a new one. "Alright I'm sorry for that" Ryuma cracks his knuckles. "You're strong Aquila, you need to focus on your perception a bit more. I want you to close your eyes, I'm gonna move the punching bag  and you need to try and hit it okay?" Ryuma picks up the Punching bag and Aquila closes his eyes. "Now." Ryuma signals for Aquila to start attacking. Aquila throws punches and kicks out to no avail missing every single attack. "Listen Aquila, focus on your surroundings to try and notice what your ears hide from you.... And now." Ryuma once again signals, Aquila tries to hear Ryuma's movements but it's no use, he can't hear anything. "I'll try to make this a bit easier then." Ryuma slows down with his movements, allowing some noise to be made, Aquila starts to track onto the small whistles, noticing every small movement and every sound it makes, and finally landing a strike on Ryuma. A feeling of accomplishment fills Aquila's face. "Impressive, you're a fast learner I have no doubt you'll get to my level soon enough." Ryuma smiles. "Thank you Ryuma.." Aquila trails off, his mind starts racing again about the dangers of this journey. " Aquila. What's on your mind, whatever's distracting you, you need to say, a fighter needs to have a clear mind." Ryuma trys to sound as understanding yet firm as he can, though Aquila's fear stops him from giving an immediate response.
Did I come off too strong?
Ryuma's thoughts are replaced by trying to figure out what's wrong with him.
"Alright Aquila, since you aren't seeming to want to talk, do you want to continue training?" Ryuma asks and Aquila nods. Before they can continue a lour rumble runs through the building as Aquila and Ryuma turn to the other side of the stadium to see Gale pushing himself further than before, repeatedly throwing strikes at P almost completely overtaking her. Makya watches on with a smile and Tomasi looks on confused by Gales ubrupt strength.

Aquila pauses and looks at his hands and forearms, a look of shame appears on his face. Ryuma looks back at Aquila, finally understanding why Aquila feels this way. "Aquila... I get it's hard to feel left behind, or like you aren't going as fast as everyone else. But-" Ryuma gets ubruptly interrupted by Aquila. " It's not exactly that, compared to them I'm nothing. Gale's always been stronger, Tomasi has always been sharper and smarter. I'm just a person, compared to you guys, I don't have much." Aquila avoids eye contact with Ryuma. "I- uh listen.. you are here for a reason. When I asked if you two wanted to come it was because I knew you would be helpful. You don't need to be extremely strong, you don't need to be incredibly smart. But just know that I think you have the potential to pass everybody here, Aquila you are strong enough." Ryuma stares into Aquila's eyes with determination to get his point across. "Thank you Ryuma.." Aquila's expression turns to a warm smile and Ryuma smiles back. "Well we got no time to waste, want to continue training?" Ryuma asks, "Sure, but this time go a bit faster." Aquila requests. "You sure?" Ryuma asks for reassurance. Aquila just nods, Ryuma shrugs. Aquila gets into position ready to strike the second he hears something, his mind now cleared allowing him to put all his focus into his training. Ryuma starts to move, moving around Aquila at such a fast rate it's almost impossible to see him. Aquila takes a deep breath and focuses everything into hearing even the smallest noise from Ryuma, then a sudden dash comes by his right ear, Aquila can now pick out every sound ryuma makes, closing his eyes and jolting towards the next sound Aquila punches Ryuma into the ground. An immediate expression of victory appears on both Aquila and Ryumas face as Ryuma stands up. "I'll go faster now, see if you can catch me then." Aquila nods and grins.

On the other side of the field, the ground shakes as Gale's aura is still strong, a purple fog emanating from him as he mercilessly swings his blade at P, the fight becoming more and more one-sided as P cannot keep up with Gales rapid growth. Makya sits on the sidelines seeing the fight grow, P finally lands a kick on Gales stomach that sends him backwards. Gale starts walking back towards P holding his blade out to his side, P starts to panic dispute the fact it's a friendly duel. "Alright alright that's enough for now." Makya stands up and stops the fight. "Gale you've gotten strong, good on you but you have to know when to stop a fight to prevent hurting people that don't deserve it. P you did great, go sit." Makya walks over and stands in front of Gale, "you'll fight me now, if you can beat me I'll say your ready for the mission, if you can't I've lost hope for you." Makya says with a smug look, purposely trying to aggravate Gale. "Fine." Gale braces his sword again trying to use his the stones power to make himself stronger once again. The purple fog surrounds Gale a second time, as he bolts towards Makya at such a speed that breaks the sound barrier itself. Gale swings his sword to get a hit on Makya but right as he gets to her she vanishes. Gale looks around and sees that Makya is behind him now. "Really I thought you would be smarter than trying to use a direct attack." Makya once again teases Gale. Gale grips his sword and runs at her once more. Makya continues to vanish from sight and appears behind him, "are you dense? I just told you that wouldn't work." Makya giggles to herself. Gale thinks to himself, attempting to figure out how Makya seemingly teleports, unable to figure out the reason for her insane speed Gale finally settled on an idea. "Well you gonna do anything Gale?" Makya teasees again but Gale wastes no time in rushing at Makya again but she vanishes like she's continued to do. But that wasn't Gales plan, Gale digs one of his feet into the ground and swings himself around throwing his sword and cutting Makya's cheek. A grin appears on Gales face. " Not bad, not bad at all. You've got alot to learn Gale but you really do live up to the hope Ryuma has." Makya smiles too.

Tomasi positioned in the middle most area of the field, he throws wooden targets into the air and can hit all of them at once. Feeling like he isn't able to learn anything here, Tomasi closes his eyes and throws 4 targets into the air and misses majority of his shots. Tomasi tries it against, only hitting it once, then again, then again, then again. To no avail, Tomasi can only hit one. Looking over to Aquila and Ryuma training he sees the technique Aquila is using of focusing everything into hearing the targets. Though he tries to do this but it doesn't help in the slightest. Tomasi begins to get annoyed seeing how he is making no improvement. Tomasi turns to Gale and Makya fighting, Seeing Gale using patterns to strike his enemy when they least expect it. Though it's still nothing that can help him Tomasi is impressed with Gale's improvements. The ground starts to shake as Gale collapses to the ground, holding his eye once more. Gale starts to yell, pictures of the Archdemon flood his head. A feeling of urgency shakes up everybody, as they run towards Gale. The pain becoming so strong Gale passes out. Ryuma's eyes widen as he realizes this means his plan must start earlier than he anticipated. Tomasi crouching by Gale laying on the ground. "Alright, we need to leave now. It's earlier than I thought it'd be but if we don't fight Gulosus soon Gale will die." Everybody's expression goes into shock, as Ryuma begins walking to the door, everybody follows, the atmosphere is intense, not a word muttered from anybody. As they all grab their gear and head to the elevator.

Gale wakes up in a very similar plane to the one he was in when the initial attack of Gulosus happened. Infront of him stands the same being, the same aura that would strike fear into any other being. Gulosus's mandibles salivate as all 8 yellow eyes focus on on Gale. "Isn't this exciting, you don't have anybody to wake you up Gale, what is your plan now." Gulosus questions him.
" My plan... I guess that would be to kill you right here and now." A smug smirk appears on Gales face.

[Chapter end]