Blasting Up The Ranks

Trouble

After his successful first fight Yamato always follows the rest of the kids whenever there's a fight. He is always matched with kids around his age, as the unsaid rule dictates; Which could actually be anyone a year or two older or younger than him. After all wouldn't it be unfair to pair a kid with an adult?

However Yamato usually fight kids older than him anyway, since he was too small to find anyone his age that fights, not to talk of someone actually younger. Because of his strength, matching him with older kids wasn't a problem though. That later became a precedent; even when Yamato grew old enough that kids his age were common in Street Fights, no one his age would dare to face him.

Yamato won and won and won every battle, dismantling any opponent that dared to face him, that they'd have to be far older to give him any competition.

At first the opponents underestimated him, thinking they could destroy this smaller kid, but later on they fought with everything they had. Still it changed nothing, and Yamato always ended up winning.

Though it was not like the fights were easy. After the first guy he beat, the other fights were close calls where he got hit as much as he hit the other person. Usually he got hit more. But one advantage he has over his peers is his tenacity; Yamato always gets back up no matter how much he was pummeled. No matter how hard he got kicked or punched he never stays down.

Furthermore he managed to form his Astral weapon soon after he started fighting and it made him even tougher to take out. He can tank his opponents hits as if his skin is made of metal. Thus the kids in the street started calling him Yamato Armor.

When Yamato manifested his Astral weapon he was very happy and wanted to showoff. It was after a very hard fight, battered and broken he'd trudged home. His wounds were very bad, making his parents panic, but at that moment his Astral weapon appeared and healed some part of his injuries.

At fist Yamato was ecstatic and wanted to showoff to his peers, but his mother warned him not to show anyone his Astral weapon no matter what. She said he's gifted and better than every other genius in the world, for that reason he must be more careful.

At first Yamato didn't understand what his mother was talking about and felt stifled, but later on he'll come to understand the benefit of not standing out. As it turned out, manifesting an Astral weapon at his age was an abnormality, for lack of a better words.

But that's later on, at that time he just obeyed his mother without knowing her reasons.

Years passed and the name Yamato Armor spread all over the streets of Kreal city. It carried awe, it carried fear, it carried disgust. Kreal city might be a big exporter of Fighters but most parents don't want their kids to become Street Fighters. Street Fighters are after all delinquents. Becoming a pro fighter or a reasonable strong martial artist didn't require being a delinquent.

For some parents their kids insists on becoming fighters they'd send them to a martial art school which could be a dojo, a sect or guild. But in Kreal city there are no guilds or immortal sects so - besides those that don't mind sending their kids to faroff places - they could only send their children to dojo's where they are trained by qualified 'instructors'.

In these times, gyms of different kind of martial arts schools filled Kreal city. In these gyms kids are trained by qualified teachers who will minimize any danger they might face and also keep them out of trouble.

Meanwhile the Street Fighters are ruffians with no training whatsoever. They learned how to fight by throwing punches and kicks at each other. Most of them ended up crippled, or even worse, dead before adulthood. Suffice to say the dojo fighters - or traditional martial artists - disdained these Street Fighters, calling them a stain on martial arts.

Yamato never bothered about the supposed rivalry between Street Fighters and traditional martial artists though. Because despite the traditional martial artists disdain, he found it funny that most good fighters that had come out of Kreal city both past and present are Street Fighters. The so called traditional martial artists have never thrived in the city, only recently were they gaining some foothold that they started barking.

Anyway Yamato Armor was fourteen years old when he decided he's old enough to not cause suspicion and finally revealed his Astral weapon to the public. And a week after that, he used his Astral weapon in a fight for the first time.

The day started like any other day. Yamato woke up early as usual, and left home quickly to avoid his crazy parents. He was in school uniform but he didn't head to school right away, it was too early for that. He first ran errands for people in the neighborhood to earn some money before heading to school.

Band E's Fourth Highschool was where he attended. It was a sprawling grey facility, horrible in the way public schools in the slums usually are. Cracked walls, unmaintained bathrooms, expired furniture.... It was all here.

After school he gathered with the other Street Fighting delinquents and headed towards the center plaza where Fourth High had a scheduled fight with another school.

The center plaza was not in Band E, the slums, but in the city center itself so there's some distance to it, a long walk. Though that did not bother the boys and girls walking towards the city center chatting and laughing with their respective friends.

Yamato and Shandy were at the end of the procession. Shandy could be Yamato's best friend if she wasn't an attractive beauty, the kind one couldn't stand the thought of being just friends with. In the immaculate white shirt and black skirt of the school uniform; Her dark brown hair held in a pony tail and her purple eyes partly covered by her bangs, she looked stunningly gorgeous, the most pretty girl in school.

"Would you fight today, Yama?" She asked suddenly. Her voice soft yet lacking the slightest touch of emotions. This friend of his had a cold personality making others find it hard to approach her.

"Why are you asking?" Yamato asked reflexively.

Shandy's face was unchanged, the same expressionless face as always... But being familiar with her Yamato thought he sensed a slight irritation? Annoyance? Perhaps even hesitation on her brows. Yet with Shandy you can never know, so Yamato stopped bothering to read her.

Shandy replied, "Because of your Astral weapon. If you fight, even if you beat them they'll just use it as an excuse to bad mouth you for bullying the weak,"

"I don't plan on using my Astral weapon though," Yamato shrugged.

"Even so,"

Hearing Shandy's deadpan reply Yamato thought of it; even though he'd had his Astral weapon since he was nine years old, that fact had been hidden hasn't it? Most people only manifest their Astral weapons at the age of sixteen or older. Imagine the fuss if people knew such a young boy had created an Astral weapon right? Some might even decide to experiment with him! So he always had it, but never dared to use it.

However after he revealed his Astral weapon last week everyone naturally thought he'd just created it. Still it shocked a great deal of people and everyone called him a genius. Yamato felt odd, because what if they knew the real truth, about how long back he'd manifested his Astral weapon for, would they still call him a genius or would they outright name him a monster?

Anyway fighting his peers when he was hiding his strength is one thing, but now that people know that he has an Astral weapon, even if he fights without it he'll still be labelled as a bully for fighting those - weaker than him - without Astral weapons. After all Astral weapons aren't just about the weapons themselves but also come with some physical boosts at times. Yamato suspects that that boost is one of the reason he'd dominated his peers all these years. Hopefully not the only reason.

Regardless now having his Astral weapon revealed placed Yamato in an odd position that he might not find anyone willing to fight him. And even if anyway dares, they'll be no respect gained from it for Yamato. In truth Yamato didn't care much about respect but he didn't want to be disdained by other Fighters.

When revealing his Astral weapon Yamato never thought of the implications, if he did he would have delayed revealing it for some time. Now he only felt regret, at this rate finding a good opponent would be difficult.

"Fine I'll not fight," Yamato sighed and said.

Beside him Shandy said nothing. Her expression unchanged as if she didn't care about it eitherway. Yamato was a little annoyed with her but he knew that's how she is. Plus he appreciated her advice.

Shandy is not a Street Fighter herself - though she has some degree of martial arts training - but she knows the ins and out of the Street rules, as much, if not more than most Fighters.

Yamato decided not to fight and so he arrived in center plaza in a bad mood. The kids from Sixth Highschool were already waiting for them, since their school was closer to the area the arrived faster. Yamato studied them in boredom. They were standing and sitting around the fountain in the middle of the fancy plaza. They uniforms were white shirt, red tie and red trousers, or skirts, for the girls.

"I'll not be fighting today," Yamato said to Ronald, the leader of Fourth High's Fighters.

Ronald gave him a serious look then nodded. He was an older guy of seventeen, in his final year of highschool, but he has all the leadership of a community chief despite being a delinquent.

A modest crowd had already gathered, Yamato crouched down in the edge of the crowd of spectators with his school mates and stared at the roughly round space surrounded by the crowd. Unknown to him Shandy stared at his changing expression that flickered between contemplation, sadness and calculation, lost in her own thoughts.

Soon the first fight started.

It was a boring thing. The two guys clashed throwing punches and kicks at each other sluggishly, each person too wary to commit fully to an attack but quick to defend. Yet Yamato didn't take his eyes off them even for once, studying their movement, trying to understand how they thought and why they made those decisions.

The fight ended with Fourth Highschool's defeat, when the opposing Fighter managed to surprise his opponent and take him with a well placed chop to the throat. His victim fell to the ground wheezing for breath and Yamato's group quickly rushed to him. They feared for his safety but were otherwise not too worried about the result.

This is a five round battle, and there's four more people left to fight still. The fact that the other guys won the first battle just boosted their morale but gave them no real advantage in the grand scheme of things. Though if they win another, making it two in a row, it'll become troublesome; in a five round battle you only need three wins to claim victory. Winning another will take the opposing group to the threshold of victory.

'But that's unlikely to happen,' he thought.

Yamato hoped his school win the next round as he'd be forced to fight if they lose that, if only to boost his sides moral. But he'd rather not fight, not because of Shandy's warning particularly, but his instinct told him that things wouldn't go smoothly today.

It's like that with him, he can sometimes sense trouble, he just didn't know what the trouble will be.