The Life Of Normal-Taro

"Dude! You're in the finals!" The dojo master exclaimed as he hugged Taro tight. Although he knew Taro was pretty good in martial arts, he never expected him to reach the finals, especially when he had to face Zaheer in the second ever match he fought. With every passing moment, he could see the way to the nationals more clearly. However, he did notice a big boulder at the end of the path—a boulder named Jai.

"Finals, huh? Don't worry. I'll beat that prodigy!" Taro replied, as if addressing his master's concerns.

The master scoffed. "There you go with your overconfidence yet again! You gotta be wary against a guy like that—well, against any guy, if you ask me." The master replied.

Taro shook his head. "It's not overconfidence or something like that. It's just my belief on what I learned from you. I know for sure that I can beat him." He assured.

The master sighed. "There's no helping you, huh? Fine, if you're that confident, don't you dare lose!" He replied.

"Believe me, I won't." Taro smiled.

"I feel like I should say something. However, since they made this emotional kinda atmosphere, I don't wanna butt in." Thankappan thought, as he heard their conversation, reminiscing about the one time he actually witnessed Taro's one-percent of power.

"Hell of a fight, man! Hell of a fight!" Zaheer interrupted the master-pupil moment, after he broke off his relationship with Anil.

"Ah, yes. It was a pretty interesting fight, especially the first half." Taro replied with a smirk in his face.

Upon realizing what he meant, Zaheer bowed deeply. "Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't want to do it. The circumstances—well, I could say it's because of my circumstances, however I don't feel like pinning the blame on anyone else, even on that prick Anil. After all, I did listen to him and tried injuring you. What I did was stupid and I shouldn't have done that. I'm truly sorry for my actions."

"Ah, don't worry! I quite enjoyed our fight. So, don't apologize. At least you came into your senses in the second half. And even if you didn't, it's not like you would have broken my leg anyway." Taro meant every word he said. The Wadorians had abnormal bone strength from birth and combining that with Taro's extreme training all these years, Taro's bones won't break even if he was hit by a tank.

"Haha!" Zaheer scratched his head. He felt as if Taro was mocking him with those words, however, his face and tone said otherwise. He was confused.

"Well, since you're familiar with that prodigy-guy, got some tips for me?" Taro asked, trying to deviate the focal point.

Zaheer thought for a while. "Hmm… I don't think you can score any point if you continued doing what you did with me. You might have to actually attack this time around. The guy's an all-rounder. He got excellent defense and attack. So, he can do all three—defend, attack and counter, unlike you who does two. So, attack!" He explained.

"Ha! I don't think that's the way I wanna go. Nevertheless, thank you for the tip." Taro replied.

Zaheer sighed upon hearing Taro's reply. "Well, it's your fight! So, you do you. The most I can do is wish you luck." He shrugged.

"Thanks. Seems like it's time to head to the mat then!" Taro said as he jogged towards the mat.

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The finals between a prodigy from an esteemed dojo and an unlikely underdog from a random dojo. One focused primarily on attack and won the matches within seconds, while the other focused on defense and dragged all the matches to its absolute limit. Both talented, however one seemed to excel at everything. Naturally, the experts sided with Jai in terms of skill. Although that was the case, everyone in the arena including these experts wanted Taro, the ultimate underdog, to go rags to riches.

Unlike all the other category finals that happened that day, everyone was excited when the two black belt competitors stepped foot on the mat. While one bowed his head deeply as a sign of respect, the other completely disregarded this, even though he knew that he might lose a point for that. However, it wasn't a point game for him. What he was looking for was complete dominance.

The fight began with thunderous roars. Yet again, Taro wasted no time and took the wide stance. Jai, who notoriously started and ended the other matches within a blow or two, stood still. "Tch, you're boring!" Jai clicked his tongue in disappointment.

"You sure you wanna drop your guard like this and talk whilst fighting?" Taro asked with a smirk on his face.

Jai sighed. "It's not like you're gonna pull off an attack against me or something. And you're the one who talked to your opponent in the last fight weren't you? So, why can't I do it?" He asked.

"You're right. Talk all you want. After all, I'll be the one winning the tournament!" Taro replied.

"Ha, pretty mighty words for someone who only knows how to defend and pull off a random counter. You can never defeat a perfect package like myself with just those two things." Jai spoke.

"Well, you might be someone who could do a thousand moves, however I'm the one who could do the one move I know perfectly. So let's see if your moves work or mine does." Taro replied as he waited for an attack.

Jai smiled. "You know what? I'll play your game. But, you'll still lose." He said as he went for a few kicks to the side. Taro anticipated it and blocked them. Seeing this Jai smiled more violently. His attacks went on getting sharper. He continued attacking on both sides and as usual Taro blocked the attacks. These attacks contained a pattern—Jai attacked his left side once then the right side twice. This pattern engulfed Taro in that he instinctively went to defend his right side after Jai attacked the left. This momentary blunder was taken advantage of, as Jai went straight to the chest. Taro took a step back after receiving the hit. "See? What did I tell you?" Jai laughed. Finally, he did something that the other two weren't capable of—breaking the defense on the first go. He was sure that this would crush his hopes.

However, what he saw was Taro viciously smiling. "I'm sorry. I acted like an idiot. This will never happen again. You'll never score again!" He assured.

And it was as he said. Minutes passed but Jai couldn't break his defense. Taro blocked every attack like a pro. His stance was wider than any other time. Jai was honestly fed up with this. "Look, we both know you're not going to win if this continues. So, why don't you attack me? It'll be more fun that way!" Jai spoke.

"Nah, I'll pass. I'll beat you just as it is. Besides, I made a promise.' Taro replied.

"A promise, huh? To your dear master, I believe? However, are you in a position to keep your promise? You're losing; you know that, right?" Jai spoke while nonchalantly throwing out some punches.

Taro noticed this lax and countered into a punch to the abdomen and scored a point. "See? A few more hits like this and it would be my victory." He chuckled.

Jai remained calm. He felt like it wasn't a big deal, since he noticed something peculiar about his counters. To test his theory out, he intentionally let him counter his moves and score some points, before finally confirming his suspicions. "Bastard? Why are you holding back?" He asked furiously.

"Huh?"

"You're holding back with your power. I don't like that!" Jai replied.

"Why are you pissed off? It's based on points, after all. Who would care if my punches are a bit soft? Although, I would like to give you a solid punch though!" Taro spoke.

"Then what's holding you back?"

"Well, I did make a promise." Taro replied.

"Fuck, no! You know what? Screw it. I don't like this at all. I'll make you fight me at your full power and then triumph over you!" Jai proclaimed.

"That's a bit… impossible!" Taro thought as Jai relentlessly attacked him. It wasn't about wins or losses for him anymore. He felt humiliated by Taro's actions. It was hurting his warrior pride. And he wanted to heal that.

However, it seemed almost impossible at that point. None of the punches riled Taro up enough to pull off an attack. Jai sighed. "You're a tough nut to crack. If you won't attack me like this, then I'll have to seek out something different. Geez, I never thought I would steep so low." Jai took a deep breath. "YOU MOTHERF*CKER!" He screamed.

Taro looked at Jai with disappointment in his face. "Now, why would you say that about my dead mother? That's really bad!" He asked. He didn't like how Earthlings always use one's parents while speaking profanity.

Jai didn't expect that. "Oh, I'm sorry! What about your father?" He asked.

"Dead."

"You got any girlfriend or lover?"

"Nah. Not interested!"

"Sheesh… Who shall I use as a verbal weapon? Wait, how can I forget? You adore your master, don't you?" He asked.

"Yea?"

At that point of time, Jai lost the dignity of a so-called prodigy. He wanted to get acknowledged by his opponent, who deemed him as not worthy to fight him in his full power. His father ruined him into an acknowledgement seeking dog that he wasn't afraid to hurl curses to get what he wanted. "That bastard can go suck a d*ck!" He said.

"Look, what he does is not my concern or problem. If he's fascinated with men's genitals, let him be fascinated by it. It's not something to be ashamed about." Taro replied.

"Curses don't work against him, huh? Then threats it is!" Jai thought. "You know, if you don't attack me, I might just ruin your master's Karate career." He shrugged. It wasn't a hollow threat. He had Anil on his side, someone who could do stuff like that with enough money.

Taro knew this very well. "Please refrain yourself from doing something like that!" He replied as he remembered how he ruined his master's business when he stalked him around and how much it pained him. He didn't want his master to suffer any longer because of him.

"Oh, is it working?" Jai smiled and continued with his threats. "Well, I can just make the people revoke his license. And I believe his life is solely based around the dojo, right? With that gone, he'd have nothing left and would've to beg on the streets. And what would be the reason? You and your stubbornness to attack me. So, what's your choice?" He asked. He was sure this worked pretty well.

Taro took in a deep breath. "You brought it on yourself." He mumbled.

Jai was delighted. His plight was successful. "Right! Come at me with your full for-" Before he could say anything else, Taro closed the distance within a second and a punch almost faster than light landed on his face, which hurled him to one of the walls of the arena and almost past it. Cracks formed on the wall from the punch. Jai was completely out.

"What the!" Thankappan couldn't believe what just happened. He was dumbfounded.

Although for different reasons from Thankappan, the others were dumbfounded as well. It was as if they saw a monster. They couldn't believe it. No one spoke; no one moved… Well, except for one.

"Shit! This is certainly a mess that's gonna piss a lot of people!" Someone spoke as he effortlessly passed everyone around him, who stood like dolls and headed towards Taro. "Hi!" He waved at him.

Taro didn't recognize the guy before him. He was slightly different from the people around him for some reason. He couldn't pinpoint what exactly that was. "Who are you?" He asked, as he checked him out.

The guy thought for a while. "Hmm, if you're to ask me… I guess I'm your impending doom?" He smiled.

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