At 9:00 PM, David decided to walk down to the gym to see if the scores were posted. To David's surprise, no scores were posted On the walls of the gym. There was a large note on the wall that said an emergency had occurred and the scores will not be posted until the next day. At this time, the tournament is also postponed until further notice.

Not knowing what is going on, David started to look for Mr. Lester but did not see him anywhere in the Gym. Since he knew where Mr. Lester lived now, he walked down the hall on the side of the gym to hisroom and knocked on the door.

Mr. Lester opened the door in pajamas with a bowl of icecream in his hand.

David was slightly startled at the image and had trouble getting words out.

"What do you want, kid?" Mr. Lester asked, "I knew that I shouldn't have showed you where I live. I'm in the middle of watching TV."

"Oh....I...I wanted to know what the emergency was that caused the tournament results to be delayed," David said caught off guard by the old man's appearance.

"Ha ha.....you didn't know?," Mr. Lester said taking a bite out of his ice cream, "Carmine and Gauge died in a plane crash tonight."

"WHAT???," David screamed trying to comprehend what Mr. Lester had just said.

"Quit screaming in the hall, you idiot. Don't you know that their deaths needed to be faked so that they can leave for The Other?.....Why does this surprise you?," Mr. Lester asked while looking around to make sure no one was coming down the hall.

"Come in....don't linger in the doorway," Mr. Lester instructed while ushering David inside.

Once inside, Mr. Lester began narrating the events this afternoon.

So.....David finally received news of an horrific accident. William Carmine and his brother-in-law, Steven Gauge, had both died tragically in an small airplane crash while headed from a business meeting back to the Carmine Estate for the tournament tomorrow.

Of course, David understood the truth of the situation. The entire accident was staged so that the two figures could privately disappear off to the Carmine Family in The Other. Regardless, the entire event was like a large stage production and was way over dramatized. They even seemed to cancel their own tournament with the show.

After explaining everything, Mr. Lester said, "The wreckage of the plane crash has been all over the news this evening. Don't you watch TV?"

"Not really...I have been immersed in your brother's journal all day. Another hour of reading and I should be done with my first reading.....and now that the tournament is canceled...I'll probably read it again tomorrow just to catch the spots I missed the first time," David responded to his question.

"Oh....good, good.....when are you going to start training with the knives?...and the tournament isn't canceled....it is just delayed for two weeks for mourning," Mr. Lester stated.

"That was a problem that I was going to talk to you about," David said, "I don't have any knives to practice with....."

"That's it?," Mr. Lester said while setting his ice cream down and walking over to a box that was sitting by the toilet across the room.

Mr. Lester pulled two wooden daggers out of the box. He tossed the two fake daggers to David.

David looked at the two wooden daggers. They were both identical in size and weight and mimicked actual daggers pretty well. They were quite long for daggers with symmetrical blades that were around 12 inches long. The handle included a guard and cord wrapping for grip. The point of the wooden daggers was dull and protected with a piece of rubber at the tip. The butt of the wooden daggers also had a rubber pummel on the end. They looked extremely well made for practice weapons.

"You can use these to train for now," Mr. Lester said, "I can't have using real daggers to train in the gym....you'd be destroying all kinds of shit. You can practice your form with those wooden knives on the punching bags or spar with others using wooden weapons. When you get a chance, go over to the wooden weapons rack near the exercise mats and wait around.....someone will show up to spar with you in no time...those weapons idiots love to beat up newbies.... and most of those guys will have wooden swords, so you will have a chance to fight other weapons users."

Mr. Lester looked at David and sighed in aggravation.

"Alright, kid. Go back and continue reading the knife information. There will be all sorts of activities over the next couple of days because of these fake deaths. Memorials and funerals...it will all need to take place to make the deaths seem convincing..... so take advantage of the extra time between now and the new tournament finals date....that is if you actually managed to qualify.....those scores should be posted tomorrow," Mr. Lester said.

After exchanging a few more word jabs with Mr. Lester, David left and went back to his room. He needed to finish up reading the knife skills book.

__________________________

When David got back to his room, he decided that it would be better to get updated on current events instead of finishing off the knife skills book.

After about an hour of watching television and reviewing company emails, David had a pretty good understanding of the situation. Per the news report, the wreckage from the plane crash was so destroyed that only traces of the bodies were found. Because there were no whole bodies for a funeral, a joint memorial service was going to be held for the two men in two days at the Carmine Family Meeting Center at the Carmine Corporation's main headquarters in Three Rivers City.

In private, the family and business members that knew of the truth of situation would be holding a 'going away' ceremony at the Carmine Estate tomorrow night. The ceremony only involved those people that knew the actual truth of the situation so attendance wouldn't be that large or formal. Because David was somewhat of a disciple of Mr. Gauge, he received an invitation to the event. He wasn't quite sure that he wanted to go, but he figured why not show his face.

————————————

Early the next morning, David went down to the gym to see if he had qualified for the tournament finals. The gym had its usual amount of people as David walked towards one of the new posters to read the results.

First, the tournament competition will be held on the weekend two weeks from now. David had already anticipated this new schedule, so he moved on to the qualified name list.

After finding the Level Zero class, David reviewed the names on the list. Then, taking out his phone...he called Chaz.

"Hey man, what you calling me for so early....it is the weekend you know?," Chaz said sounding like he had just woken up.

"I just wanted to tell you that we both qualified and that the finals of the tournament will be held two weeks from now," David said into the phone.

"Oh...Great!," Chaz said, "Do you want to train together this afternoon? Having an extra two weeks is going to be beneficial."

"No man.....I am going to take the day off. I have somewhere important to go this evening," David said, "I'll call you later to setup a training scheduled."

____________________________

Later that night, David borrowed one of the cars from the guards facility and drove over to the Carmine Estate for the celebration party.

As he pulled up, the guards stopped him at the gate.

"Sir, may I ask why you are visiting the Carmine Estate tonight?," one of the guards asked David as his car came to a stop.

"I am here for the family gathering of Mr. Gauge....I was one of his students and was invited to attend the gathering this evening," David said in detail since he didn't recognize the guards face.

"Alright sir, I will need to see an identification card to go check the register of attendees," the guard said very appropriately, "Could you please pull to the side for a moment?" And

David handed the guard his drivers license then pulled over to the side.

After waiting about twenty minutes, the guard returned to the car and handed David back his drivers license.

"Apologies sir. Your name was not included on the list of attendees provided by Mr. Vincent Carmine. I can not let you through to the house unless you can get someone to vouch that you were invited," the guard said to David's bewilderment.

Taking out his phone David began calling everyone that he knew would be in attendance. Mr. Lester. Karine. Sonia.

After trying everyone he could, David called Karine and left a message, "Hey Karine. It's David. The guards won't let me through the gate for the family gathering this evening. I really wanted to give my regards to those two good men....but it seems that won't happen. I hope you are holding up well through all of this. Call me back if you can. Bye."

"Sir.....Since the gathering was a formal family affair, Mr. Vincent Carmine instructed that no cell phones would be allowed into the meeting. If the people you know are already inside, you will not be able to reach them. I suggest you leave and return to your home," the guard said after he finished eavesdropping on David's voice message to Karine.

"Alright.....I get the point. Tell Gabriel that I said hello," David said as he turned the car around and headed back to the apartment. He had just wasted half the afternoon getting ready and driving over here only to be turned away....he knew that it was Gabriel's doing...he wanted David out of Karine's life so he was going to keep doing stupid shit like this at every opportunity.

'Well...let's just hope that I get the opportunity to fight him in the tournament,' David thought as he stewed in his anger on the ride.

By the time David got back, he was really pumped up and ready to fight.

Instead of going up to his room, he went down to the gym to hit the bags. He didn't even change clothes. He just walked to the bags and started hitting. He hit the bags for hours....Until his knuckles and shins were raw.

Eventually, he heard a muffled grunt over his shoulder and turned around to see Mr. Lester.

"You know....it is a pain in the ass to get blood stains out of those bags," Mr. Lester said as he looked at David.

"Sorry....I just needed to release some frustration," David said. His bloody hands had already stopped bleeding and started to form scabs.

Noticing the rapid healing in David's hands, Mr. Lester said, "Missed you at the party tonight. So did Karine and Gauge. It was a nice gathering with the exception of a few attendants."

"I'm sure it was. They refused to let me through the gate. That prick, Gabriel, thinks he is some kind of special doesn't he? Fucking spoiled and entitled bitch," David said venting some more of his frustrations.

"Ya.....what time you coming tomorrow so we can practice? You really need to get in some sparing time with those knives," Mr. Lester said.

"Whatever time you are ready for me, old man. I can start practicing right now....I have a little more frustration to let out," David said seriously.

"Nope, go to your room. Get a rest. Meet me here at 8 AM....you can come meet me in my room. I need to start packing my things to move. I can train you and you can help me pack boxes," Mr. Lester said.

"Move? Where you going old man?," David said with a bit of concern in his voice.

"With William and Gauge out of the picture, there is no one strong watching over Karine and Sonia....I am moving into the mansion to live near them and help them get through this transition," Mr. Lester said.

"Good," David said, "I am glad that someone is going to be looking out for them two."

But then he thought, 'But who am I going to have looking out for me now...'