Alex felt like his memories were expanding rather than being rewritten. Like a completed puzzle...

There wasn't another consciousness from somewhere else trying to take him over.

It was almost like these memories had been a part of him all along. That was how 'natural' it felt...

He started to 'remember' a different world...

In the modern era of Earth, there were many who considered Martial Arts to be fossils of warfare.

This fact became proven. Especially now that artillery and explosives had entered the picture.

Who would want to increase their physical strength diligently? What was the point in 'fist techniques'?

Couldn't they just pick up any random firearm in the sticks and learn how to shoot with it instead?

Even a child can beat an adult with a gun!

It was unquestionable that firearms and nuclear bombs had alleviated humanity's war tactics to a new level. One where one man's prowess in martial arts meant nothing. It was a more 'rational' world...

However, although martial arts created by ancient grandmasters of the past were now ineffective against those wielding firearms, the 'modern' masters of the current era had never given up!

Their 'Arts' only grew stronger...

There are many grandmasters hidden throughout the concrete forest of the modern era, but this story will be focusing one man in particular... He may sound familiar, since 'he' was the protagonist!

A freakish, shockingly powerful genius among revered grandmasters. A man who shocked the world of martial arts with his absurd combat instincts in his prime. (You definitely already know the person I'm going on and on about, right?)

This one particular old 'Dragon' was the only well-known and famed as an 'External Practitioner'.

In much simpler terms: He was a Super Badass!

In the wooden architecture built to form a dojo, one aged old geezer, with wrinkles on his face, sat in from of his disciple. She was peacefully positioned opposite him while sitting down formally in seiza.

A square table separated them. They casually drank tea and relaxed on this fine, sunny evening.

The sun was shining and flowers were blooming...

...but the tranquil silence was what made the meeting between them more meaningful.

"Hah... It has been a long year..." The woman, who seemed to be no older than twenty, spoke with a smile towards the 'Alex' in this memory. She was someone closer to him than his own family...

The silence between them was broken, but the atmosphere they gave off was as calm as water.

"Indeed, isn't it nice to just sit down and relax once in a while...?" Her master, who was none other the older version of the teenage 'Alex Stuman' in the first chapter, asked with a slight smile on his face.

He still remembered the time when he first met the blonde-haired woman before him. To him, she was the daughter he never had... Someone who he had taught his best martial arts to out of a whim.

You readers probably have no doubts now...

'He' DIDN'T die from bullying from in his youth.

Alex actually survived that incident...

Rather than a tragedy afterwards, he just woke up in the infirmary. Like a normal day at his school.

Regardless, there was something more to his past life's 'death' that meets the eye, and it was tragic.

Even if he lived to the latter years of his life...

Was death the end of his previous life's true memories? Of course that wasn't it.

Alex had lived a far more exciting life!

Anyway, his first realisation upon regaining his memories was survived until he became an oldie...

Considering his past frailty, this fact surprised him.

But let's get back to my main point: The 'oldie Alex Stuman' never expected that the young girl he had taken in; the one who was once bullied by her peers at school... would one day grow so strong.

She turned into a Grandmaster who rivalled, or may even have surpassed him onto a high sub-rank.

He couldn't believe it...

Not in his wildest dreams...

This disciple of his was the pure definition of a freakishly talented 'monster' of a fighter!

"It is..." The woman who inherited both his last name and teachings in Martial Arts, Rosetta Stuman, nodded her head with a similarly nostalgic expression. The smell of the dojo was familiar...

Her hand traced over her cup. Almost like she was trying her best to remember the good times they had when she first started training. She tried planning her next words as she was sitting there.

The oldie didn't interrupt her.

He opted to keep his silence at this moment...

An ominous cloud engulfed his heart...

He could tell there was something wrong with his disciple... His strong intuition was alerting him.

That 'something' hidden in the way she acted felt unsettling to him. A big secret Alex wanted to pry.

He didn't rush though and brought up his thoughts.

It was to make it seem like he wasn't trying to sink his hands too deep into her own personal life.

"Do you have a purpose for visiting this place after leaving my tutelage for so long? I'd almost thought you had forgot this old master of yours." The benign old man asked after she had finished.

The tea was made with his own hands...

The aroma of the simple tea leaves of eastern origins helped to calm her mood. The man carefully tried to not trigger the rage she bottled up. The dark clouds in her heart started to move around...

"My husband had been killed in a shootout a few days ago. I had given him a proper funeral before coming here..." The cup in Alex's hand hit the ground; the tea he carefully brewed spilled onto the floor after he heard her sorrowful voice.

"What happened...?!" He ignored all decorum and stood up as soon as he heard her words. There was anger and despair in his eyes. He kneeled down to hold his disciple's shoulders in confusion.

"Tell me who they are. I'll massacre them without exception! Whoever did this will pay with their-"

"No need." She interrupted him with a cold voice.

"I've already killed them all." There wasn't a trace of joy in her eyes. She turned her head to look at the infant child besides her with a melancholic expression. The woman was unable to make eye-contact with her own mentor after stating this...

The old man calmed himself and let her go.

A wave of sadness enveloped his heart.

He was unable to find the right words to express his sympathies to her. None of them felt right.

Alex had never expected that his disciple would one day experience such a tragedy in her life...

There was nothing he could do. The old man could only be there for her in these hellish, dark times...

"I thought revenge would make me feel better, but all I feel now is nothing... I find this funny..."

"Surely you still feel love for the only family you have left, right?" He tried to cheer her up.

"..." Rosetta didn't answer him.

Her eyes looking at the infant in a little cot besides them with a hint of unbearably intense coldness.

He had never seen from her before...

The small child himself didn't seem to understand her expression. He still reached out towards his mother cutely. One day, would this baby leave her side the same way his now deceased father did?

Alex also looked at her sweet infant child and found that the young baby boy had slowly fallen asleep...

"I have always believed that all children are born innocent... Why is it that the look in your eyes seem to beg a differ?" The benign old man wasn't able to hold back in his emotions. The man spoke without caring for her whatever feelings were right now.

He couldn't help but feel disappointed in her after she stared at her child with such a dreadful gaze...

"I don't blame him..."

"Then what's with that look you're giving?"

"Like I've already said: I don't blame him."

"Then why...?"

"I... I just have no idea what to do with him anymore, alright!? Shouldn't I just give my baby away so he can be raised by someone else? He'll have a better life than staying with me anyway... I am not qualified!" She tried to speak emotionlessly.

All while still keeping her eyes on her son...

Alex could feel the turmoil that was going on in her heart. She wasn't acting with a rational mindset.

The grief had already seeped in too deeply...

"...He's the last living memory of your husband. Do you truly believe you'll be able to find happiness if you let him go?" He couldn't help but ask her disapprovingly. The child was her flesh and blood.

She'd gone through labour to give birth to him.

As an orphan who knew what it was like to not have a family, he didn't want the child to be lonely too.

There was no way Alex would be able to accept such an outcome. As a man who once a motherless child himself, he could never bring himself to see his 'grandchild' be like him in his youth!

He wanted this kid to also get a motherly figure no matter how different his life was from the norm.

"Than what do you expect of me!" The anger and frustration she had pent up burst out like a broken dam. Rosetta smashed the tea cup she held on the ground. There was a hysterical look in her eyes...

"Waaaah!" The child, who was only a few months old, cried in response. The sorrowful cries of her child seemed to awaken the maternal instincts. Her expression went from being ice cold to caring in moments, then she gently held her little boy close.

"Sorry, my baby~ Sorry~ Please.... please go back to sleep my little, sweet boy~ Mama won't be going anywhere. Please, please just go to sleep...!" She forcefully smiled and comforted her baby in an almost crying tone. Her emotions were unstable...

The infant child seemed to have instinctively understood her words. He yawned and went back to sleep obediently. Alex called over someone who could take care of the child in their absence.

He then held her by the hand and quickly got up to take her to another room. There was something he had to do in order to get her usually strong state of mind back to normal, like the her of the past.

The old man couldn't bear to see her in this state...

His Dojo might not have any students...

Especially after his first batch of disciples left to live their lives on their own terms, but there were still hired hands who were professional in taking care of this place he used as his residence.

The old man didn't lack cash. He had a lot of money saved up from 'jobs' he took years ago.

An Internal Martial Artist was well rewarded...

Rosetta has always been the cheerful and strong individual. Even when she was in her youth, there was not a single time she complained about the extremely rigorous training he put her through,

He did everything to increase her survivability in this dangerous world of modern martial arts, firearms and science... A place where many people invented their own paths to obtain strength.

"Stand!" Her master strongly shouted in her direction despite knowing of her depression. This resulted in her instinctively back straightening by reflex after hearing such familiar words of the past.

"You seem to be unable to think straight after what happened... so let this be my last lesson to you in order to help you stand up in life by yourself." The old man got into his 'Mentor Mode' to help her out.

"Don't worry about your son.

I had already prepared for this training session by hiring someone capable to babysit in your absence.

It will be absolutely fine if you leave your child with that woman for few hours, no problem.

I even prepared everything needed to take care of him until we've finished our session. Now: Let's skip all the basics...!" He didn't give her time to drown in her grief. Going fast was how he wanted to make sure his disciple was healthy mentally.

"Catch." He said before throwing a wooden buckler shield over to her, which was her standard weapon.

She caught the shield and used it to block the punch the benign old man threw at her face.

He did it straight after she gained a proper grip on the shield.... A loud bang resounded, but the strong impact didn't scare her child. The training room was a little far from the Dojo's guest area.

She also didn't seem to feel tension after blocking that fist... This was just the way she was trained...

It'd take more than that to throw her off.

"What are you trying to do?" Rosetta asked calmly.

She wasn't amused by how her benign master was practically forcing her into this 'training session'.

The punch he threw was only blocked by pure reflex... not one bit done consciously by her will.

She was a young Grandmaster martial artist of the pugilistic world... with feats that rivalled her master.

In fact, she could be counted as one of the highest ranking geniuses in martial arts of this era.

This was considering how she reached the level of a Grandmaster in strength roughly ten whole years.

This was a lot earlier her master did in his life!

"You seemed too depressed, and also looked like you were about to make a decision... one that you'd regret." Alex spoke while hammering down on her shield with a few more powerful fists without delay.

His movements were both explosive and fluid, but as someone on the same level as him, Rosetta didn't feel pressured even as the cannon-like fists landed down with a bang. It was like rain...

However, she wasn't really moved...

Rosetta trained in defensive techniques her whole life after coming under his tutelage, after all...

Even as he continued to strike at full strength, she was still able to block and parry anything he threw at her with ease. He punched, she blocked, he punched, she redirected, he punched, she redirected, he punched, she parried...

It was like a choreographed fight scene...

Her defence was absolute, and something that not even his strikes like cannonballs could break...!

"I wouldn't regret anything at all." She shook her head while trying to counter his flurry of fists.

The old man's arms boxed like a machine gun!!!

Her shield whipped around to hit his shoulder while 'reflecting' the force of one of one punch. Alex was caught off guard. He tried to block her counter in vain... and took a few steps back after being hit.

That swift strike felt like he was hit by a boulder...!

This is the first time the once benign-looking old man had actually been injured in a like while.

This was especially after crawling his way up to becoming a Grandmaster martial artist himself.

The counter she threw was more graceful than anything he had ever experienced in his life....

He glanced at his bruised shoulder quietly...

This was the first time she actually ever hit him.

It looked a lot like she was venting...

"You taught me martial arts, but what you failed to teach me was that all my hard work would be for nothing in the end...! I couldn't protect anything at all! Nothing could be saved!!" The burning rage she suppressed once again exploded with fury.

She went on the offensive towards him.

Her shield was like a circular blade. She grabbed its edge and swung it towards him like a sharp frisbee.

Rosetta wasn't holding anything back!

This was part of the style she used to enter the realm of Grandmasters. Her arms were like water.

The friction from the edge of her shield acted as a sharpened blade that could injure her enemies.

Like a certain superhero's shield...

The old man knew for a fact that defending against her while she went onto the offensive would be counterproductive. He could imagine how she'd be able to rip into his flesh and tendons with ease.

His shoeless feet grabbed onto the floor.

The world was grasped...

Then redirected her by slapping the 'cuts' away with pinpoint precision only he could produce.

"What do you mean...?"

"He was right next to when it happened. We were finally able to find time to spend with each other after I cleared my working schedule and delayed some important meetings. I was right there... but he still died!" She started shouting in derision.

"You were still able to protect yourself, weren't you? And what about your child, weren't you able to protect him by yourself? Can you really consider your strength to be useless?" Alex wasn't aware of what transpired, but he knew the 'other extreme'.

The old man knew weakness from a young age...

...but he'd never felt the despair tainting her heart.

However, the Grandmaster was able to understand some of what she spoke of through her shouts.

He imagined things she had went through...

From what he could tell, there seemed to be a shooting that happened while she and her family were finally spending time together. The tragedy happened on the happiest moment in her life.

As a working woman; one who provided living expenses for her family, he was aware that it must've been hard for her to interact with her husband much. She had a lot of responsibilities,

Her positions was of a CEO of a large corporation.

He could just imagine the pain she must have gone through after succeeding to kill the perpetrators of the shooting. She succeeded, but failed to protect the man she loved most... It must've been hard...

It was only natural that a person as strong as her would some doubts after going through that.

"It's not enough for me...!

I'm so strong that killing the shooters only took a few moments, but what was the point of learning something as useless as martial arts? Did it help me save him, or was it what caused him to die?

What's the point if I couldn't protect my husband who was standing right next to me?" Although her voice sounded calmer the more she spoke, the despair in her eyes only grew while venting.

She completely cornered her master to a wall!

Her wooden shield almost seemed to be much sharper than any blade. It actually sliced through the wooden wall, revealing the other side of the dojo wall using a gap without slowing down at all.

This was the 'Mist Shield' style Rosetta was so proud of, a martial art so complex that even her experienced Master was unable to imitate it whatsoever. That was despite his great talent...

Unlike Alex, who was only able to use the flexibility of muscles to parry strikes, his disciple was someone who was practically able to turn her body into 'mist' by relaxing her muscles and joints.

The human body had a natural tendency to quickly tense up in response to physical damage.

This was the innate self-preservation instinct inherent to many life-forms in order to deal with damage. However, the 'Mist Shield' style Rosetta created took using flexibility to strike and take damage to a new level. Inspiring a new 'branch'...

It took inspiration from various 'soft' martial arts in China to produce a technique. One that could allow those with weaker physical qualities... to have the power to rival or even exceed those with stronger physical capabilities. A dream come true for many.

A form of martial arts Rosetta created which was suitable for even children. It had no limitations.

Even without physical superiority, she was a scary girl...! There was no doubt about that whatsoever.

The fact that she was considered a true 'Grandmaster' at the young age of twenty meant that she was no pushover. Who was it that taught her when it came to head-on close-combat?

Even if her Master was to throw the strongest strike he could muster with all his physical strength, the end result would still be either having it nullified by her absolute mastery over borrowing force.

She used her flexible and 'weak' body to 'grasp' force. Even having it thrown right back at him...!

The experienced old man couldn't help but admire the beauty of her devilishly strong techniques...

This was despite being cornered by her attacks!

However, this feeling quickly passed...

He knew the first thing he had to do was find a way to make her accept the reality of what happened.

As her one and only teacher in life, this was his responsibility alone! No one else could do this...

And so, Alex showed why he was called a 'Dragon'!