DOJOLAND (Elementary)

Chapter 4 - The Monkey Boy

Upon resuming normal life, Hei sighed in his desk.

"What's up, Hei?", one of his classmates asked.

"Ah, it's nothing, really. I mean, it's not a complaint but... isn't it too quiet lately?"

"Grandma says quiet and boring is preferable to constant warfare", a girl volunteered.

"Yeah, but your grandma's polearm style is dead, and used mostly to till the ground for wheat plantations", a mean girl quipped. The first girl threw a very sharp glare at her. They would probably go to a nearby lot after class to "argue further".

Presto Ponche, always trying to be on the nice side of girls agreed with the first one, saying "We really got lucky, Hei. When I reached 3rd grade, I heard that there's an ongoing tradition that 6th graders get to bully everyone below before they go back to being first-year students when they reach Middle School".

Hei recalled the attempt at "ambush" on his first day of school but realized that there hadn't been any other attempts at attacking him outside of his year and wondered why.

A couple of months later, Hei and his classmates figured out what happened.

Apparently, the 6th graders, looking to "expand their territory" had quite literally brawled across every street against anyone who looked younger than 12 to "show who's boss" but then they ran into that kid.

His large ears, his flat, wide nose and his uncommonly hairy arms and sideburns, along with his long arms and legs would have made anyone look twice at a monkey-human hybrid but there he was, eating a banana while Hei's school's 6th graders surrounded him with hatred in their eyes.

"You've been a thorn on our side all year, you Monkey, it's time we give you what you deserve!"

"Deserve? I deserve a bleepin' halo and wings for putting up with yer crap all year long!" the monkey boy snapped.

Before Hei could even begin asking what was going on, several boys and girls with mock weapons attacked the target. The monkey dodged deftly and stroke the attackers with the palm of his hands and sent the boys flying while lifting the girls' skirts. He went "tsk".

"it's been so boring since you girls started wearing those dumb spats...", the monkey boy said with a sigh.

Every girl grew red with both embarrassment and rage. The ones with staves rushed him and were sent flying.

Hei sat on the curb along with other boys and watched the show.

The monkey slid, slipped, dipped, swooped, parried and fluidly moved away all while knocking or kicking the opponents off their feet, palm-push striking them away, grabbing them and throwing them away using their own momentum and sometimes spanking the girls or unbuttoning their tops when possible.

"That monkey sure is good at it", Hei smirked while feeling uncomfortable at the blatant sexual harassment.

After being tossed against a wall, falling and recovering, one of the boys roared in anger. "I'll get you for the black eye I got earlier this year, I caught hell for that!"

The monkey snorted. "You? ya should 'ave seen what the Monk did ta me when 'e found out! I've spent tha harshest year of mah life 'cause I fought back!"

Hei was curious, he wasn't participating in the fight but asked the monkey anyway, unafraid of distracting him enough to take a hit: "what did the monk do to you?"

The monkey boy looked in Hei's direction, glad to hear a reasonable voice for once. "it's horrible! he makes me stay still at a wooden seat, grab a thing that can stain in a line and makes me repeat these ridiculous symbols over and over! If the symbols are even slightly crooked, he makes me do a whole page all over again! now I see the symbols all over the place now!"

The fighting continued while Hei pondered upon this. Then he pounded his palm in realization. "oh, I get it, he's making you learn to write. He probably wants you to go to school, like all the other kids"

That froze him in his tracks. He received a dropkick but he rolled smartly upright and got really angry but not at the boy who had kicked him. "What!? that old geezer is making me what?!".

As if the monkey wasn't in the middle of a melee, Hei explained that, after one of the boys was hurt at the start of the year, it was very likely that the father could have been angry at the "defeat", of his son, punished the boy and complained to the school about "his son being attacked". Then, Hei reasoned, the school figured out it had been done outside and found this boy so they complained to his guardian. After apologizing, the guardian might have figured that the boy's upbringing until then might bring more problems and tried to instill the boy with some common education but hadn't done a very good job at all.

"But I like my life at the temple the way it is now!", the monkey boy moaned as he slapped a boy with a heavy club, knocking him down. Every other kid was already on the ground, too tired to move or too sore to try. The girls were on their knees, crying in defeat.

"Don't feel too bad, I lived in the mountain until the start of the year and it's been swell", Hei attempted to comfort him.

The monkey boy stopped after the last 6th grader fell, exhausted. Then the monkey boy began crying and sobbing on his knees. "I dun wannaaaa!!! WAAHHH".

His sorrowful cries gave Hei an Idea and searched for the boy who had raged earlier and searched his pockets. He found a smartphone and luckily was set to slide to unlock. He went over to the crying monkey boy, his face disfigured by the crying and snot flowing out. Hei took a picture and then handed him one of the many broken weapons which the monkey boy took unconsciously. Hei took another, full body picture, making sure that none of the other 6th graders were in the picture. He then returned the smartphone. with that, the boy could return to his father and show "evidence of victory". It should let the monkey boy and his guardian rest for what remained of the year.