A year later.
Ivory kicked up, her slender leg and small foot swinging through the air like a whip; her beautiful white hair shining in the light of the sun. She was like a small battle angel.
Koji crouched down at lightning speed, although he may have been slow before this was not the case anymore; his white hair swayed with his movement.
His eyes narrowed into slits and he sent his pale, slender hand out at her and grabbed her whole face; he then pushed down trying to ram her head down into the into the soft, green grass that covered the ground.
But right as he was doing that Ivory braced herself by positioning her hands behind her head, and in a swift, graceful motion launched herself back up and used the momentum to kick him right in his nose. Koji's straight, flawless nose was now covered in a red hue and was slightly swollen.
Koji let out grunt, his nose was in an extreme amount of pain; however he did not yet admit defeat.
'She's still so much better than me! Stupid girl, she's only a child but can fight this well. It shouldn't be possible!'
The trees leaves swayed in the wind: the birds chirped, the grass elegantly flowed in a single direction together, the sounds of insects could be heard, and there were two small figures engaging in combat on the grass field; the aura from their fight heavily contrasted with the peaceful nature around them.
Koji tried to make space between them, and eventually he got enough to catch his breath.
But right as he was breathing, Ivory launched at him again; this time her elbow was aimed at his neck. Obviously, she didn't intend to land that attack. Instead it was a feint, and she suddenly launched her knee towards Koji's stomach.
He managed to dodge to the right, and then sent his hand in a sideways motion straight at her side, hitting her soft flesh with all the strength he could gather up.
Ivory let out a pained groan as he hit her in her side, it burned with pain. In fact, she fell to the ground in defeat.
Although she may be good at fighting, she was still only nine years old.
That's right, although Ivory's height may be rather short, she was actually older than Koji by two whole years.
She frowned in pain and grunted as she got up, looking at Koji with an unimpressed and indignant expression.
"You got lucky! If I wouldn't have used my knee and instead swiped your legs you would be on the ground and that stupid face of yours would have my foot all over it!"
Koji sighed as she started making excuses, she always did this after losing a fight. Of course, the rest of the time she was actually fairly nice to Koji.
"Relax, I only beat you once today anyway. Why are you so ashamed?"
Ivory's eyebrows furrowed at his response, but she just made a sound that expressed her stubbornness, which was a "Hmph!" and didn't respond.
Koji was now fully aware of the pain in his nose; it was rather troubling.
'Well, if this was six months ago I would have been on the ground in a couple seconds; now at least I can beat her once a day.'
Lin walked up with a smile, clapping his giant hands together.
"Good job Koji! You finally won!"
Koji frowned as Lin 'praised' him and didn't respond; instead walking back to the house and through the door, where he found Mei and Ivan.
Lucy was gone, she was going to be back in a couple years to visit. Currently, she was at the Academy.
The Academy was where Transcendents would go to actually start learning a specific Mantra, and they would also learn about the history of the world, participate in contests, and more.
But that was only a concern for the future; currently Koji needed to focus on the now.
'Throughout this past year all we've done is fighting, which is great and all but I need to learn how to nurture a new Xin core and get some Relics! I can't just stay weak like this if I truly want to be strong.'
Even though Koji was a young man, he was still set on one goal; this may seem weird considering his young age, but Koji had his reasons for staying dedicated to this.
He never wanted to be remembered after his death, he never wanted to help others, he never wanted to invent anything, he never wanted to please others, he never wanted to be better than others, he never wanted to leave any sort of impact on the world.
All he wanted to do was do what he want and be happy.
This may make him unlikable, but he didn't care. In fact, he recalled a memory from his time on earth where he talked to a guy online about his beliefs.
The guy, who Koji met through a video game, said that due to life having no meaning, creating meaning through other people and having an impact on them was actually a good thing, just because life has no meaning doesn't mean that everything else has to have no meaning.
It's not as if Koji didn't get his point, but it didn't align with him at all. What did having an impact on the earth grant you? Nothing.
When you die, the universe ends from your perspective and your impact no longer matters.
Therefore, the best way to live life is to please yourself instead of others. At least, for Koji it was. This did not mean he looked down on other people's perspectives, quite the opposite actually.
'I'm sure that my goal may be boring to others, there is no over arching meaning or deep goal I want to achieve. In fact, if someone was to write a book on me, they may just fall asleep while writing!'
Koji dispelled these thoughts and resumed his action of entering the house, instantly the light of the sun drowned out and was replaced with the light of a chandelier.
But as he walked in Mei instantly ran up to him, her beautiful pale face twisted in utter concern.
"Koji! Your nose, are you okay?"
She frowned slightly, lifting up her delicate, slender hands and examining how bad the bruise was.
"I'm fine mom..."
He sighed internally, every time he would come back from training with Ivory, Mei would have these ridiculous concerns about him.
"Okay, but if it starts to hurt you more then you better tell me."
She was still slightly stubborn, but she dropped the topic after a bit of resistance.
Koji, as a seven year old was still short but taller than before; now being 135 centimeters tall.
Koji noticed a smell, which was obviously food. This aligned with the usual time they ate dinner, so he wasn't surprised that it was ready.
So he walked over to the dinner table, crossing the big living room into the room where they ate; the 3 windows still standing tall and allowing sunlight to enter the home.
His sister was now 10 years old, her black hair being even longer than before and she now had a relatively tall stature for a girl her age.
The mood of the dinner was not unlike any other, besides the fact his mom still had some worries about his nose.
"So, Koji. Did you win any fights today?"
Ivan asked with a smiling expression, he knew Koji usually lost but he was always proud whenever he won a fight.
"I did! I won one today."
Koji was not proud, as he really didn't care; but he still voiced it as if it was a proud moment in his life.
"Really, well I'm proud of you. Ivory is definitely not your average nine year old girl."
Even Ivan had his own thoughts about this girl, she was definitely a prodigy in fighting specifically.
"Yeah, but I'm getting better and better at holding my own!"
This was true, Koji was developing better fighting skills every day. One day, he may even rise above Ivory in certain aspects of fighting.
Of course, fighting talent was not the only thing Ivory was proficient in.
Her talent was astonishing, she had a 90% open Xin core!
Koji couldn't help but feel a little jealous about this, Ivory for sure had a great future ahead of her. Not that his was bad or anything, but a 90% open core was extremely rare.
A talent of 90% was rarer than a 33 inch 5-step Kohaku Koi fish back on earth!
Thinking of this, Koji remembered how much he enjoyed fishing. It was such a peaceful activity if you weren't trying to catch some monster fish and were just doing it for fun.
Some may compare life to fishing, but really life was only one type of fishing. Which was fishing alone in a chaotic sea, not a peaceful time where the sun is out shining brightly, the waves are calm and the only sound to be heard is the birds chirping and the waves crashing.
In life, many unaccounted for variables could pop up, a lot of inexplainable things could happen.
The only way to escape the rough sea and enter the peaceful, quite sea where you can fish to your hearts content without worry was to stop the waves yourself. Yes, there was no escaping this sea; the only way to leave it was to transform it.
But right as Koji was finishing his thought, there was a scream heard outside!