The Martial Unity

POW POW POW!

Siera grimaced as Rui’s attacks found themselves on her vitals, cleanly dodging her guard. He usually used a combination of the algorithm’s predictive prowess in conjugation with his superior speed, agility.

Phantom Step made it overwhelming.

He didn’t even think about using Blink or the Stinger. That would just be bullying, at that point. He didn’t enjoy tormenting his opponents beyond what was necessary or warranted.

He only went so far as to push her to her limit, allowing her opportunities and avenues to fight back and limiting himself to a portion of his techniques so that the spar would beneficial to her.

Frankly, Rui could already see small improvements across the fight. Compared to their first round to their final round, she had grown to be able to last much longer. Her raw combat ability, of course, did not improve in the span of merely several hours. However, a shift in her mind-set caused her to take more solid and apt approaches to her predicament. That alone was worth the sparring session.

BOOM!

Rui flipped her flat to the ground from a grappling position.

“Let’s put an end to the sparring session for today, I’ve filled my weekly quota.” He sighed before consuming a rejuvenation potion. “Goodbye.”

He left her as he gathered his belongings before making his way out of the sparring facility. Yet, just before he could;

“Umm, excuse me!” He heard a girl call out to him.

He paused, turning around wordlessly. A bunch of girls had approached him, waiting for when he was done.

“Can you spar with us as well?” One of them asked.

Rui shook his head. “I was commissioned to spar her specifically, my time is up.”

“Th-then if my family commissions you, will you spend time with me as well?” She blushed, averting her eyes.

Rui paused, staring at her until he finally understood why she was behaving strangely.

(‘Ah, I see…’) He scratched his head awakwardly, Rui had been so far detached from anything resembling popular in his school days that he almost failed to understand that the girls were probably interested in him.

Or he could just be misreading them, he was no player.

Rui shook his head. “I’m afraid I won’t be accepting anymore commissions for the timebeing.”

He turned around immediately, leaving the facility.

Still, the incident made him think. He realized that he couldn’t even remember the last time he seriously thought about romance. It was almost a shocking realization.

(‘How long has it been? Decades? In this life I had been extremely focused on cracking the Martial Entrance Exam with everything I had. After I did, I was then focused on discovering my Martial Path, and now I’m eternally focused on traversing it deeper.’)

And in his previous life, he had long given up on romance. He had given a shot at looking for a partner when he was a younger and more energetic man, but as he grew older, he grew increasingly consumed with his work. Furthermore, his health declined increasingly. He had completely given up on relationships, blocking them away from his mind. Not just with women, but he grew increasingly isolated from any meaningful relationships at all. He had had ‘friends’ among his fellow research team twho would coax him to join them in the occasional meal at the local steakhouse, and he would often oblige, pleased with the many research successes that Project Water got initially.

However even those relations cooled down once the research team had hit a hard dead-end with the viability issue of the VOID algorithm. He died without it ever changing.

In his new life, the sheer positivity he felt as well as all the affection and support he had received had warmed him up again, but he hadn’t thought about romance.

He was too young for it most of his life of course. But he was already fifteen now, and his body was undergoing through the familiar process of puberty, and annoying hormones were increasingly starting to plague his brain with annoying urges. Of course, his conscious mind was not weak to them, specially since he was an old man mentally with a mind that had grown twice.

Still, they were there. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing to engage in relationships some day.

The circumstances of his second life were far better than of his first life. He was perfectly healthy, maybe even a tad bit attractive. Who knew, maybe he would one day enter into a long-term relationship with a woman he would come to love.

He shook his head. He didn’t think it was likely. He was far too single-minded in nature for this to be realistic. He spent all of his energy on his Martial Art and his Martial Path. Relationships required a lot of time, energy and investment into, and they were yet very fragile with no guaranteed success.

Rui just didn’t feel the need to get into one in a spectacular world such as this.

Even if he did, he would likely end up neglecting her and the relationship, which was genuinely a bad thing to do.

Or his relationship would end up in a conflict of interest with his Martial Path. And that would not be a pretty conflict. Especially when he would never forsake his Martial Path for his relationship, or anything.

Ultimately the Martial Path was an extremely personal and lonely inherently. It was a path that only one person could walk on. That very nature made it difficult for a committed relationship. Even if his partner was a Martial Artist. Hell, his partner being a Martial Artist could perhaps make things even worse.

Since both of them would be walking their own individual lonely Martial Paths. Or maybe that shared experience would make it easier?

Rui shrugged, he didn’t know. He was neither experienced nor an expert at all. He was just having random thoughts about the matter as he went back home.