The living room was actually split in two. One of its halves was the dining room, with a rectangular, darkened, and polished wooden table and padded blue chairs, making a nice blend with the house's blue walls.

The kitchen was right next to it, divided by a marble counter, likely used as a cutting board. It had orange tiles covering some of the walls, the uncovered parts being yellow. The pieces of furniture that stored the kitchen utensils were red and were hanging on the walls.

Everything felt warm to look at. It also had a faint smell of cooked meat lingering, probably from a recent lunch.

After welcoming Magatsu to sit on the dark orange couch, on the other half of the room, and said couch with its side facing the Tv, Disarm sits on the one in front of him, also orange but also larger. A small glass table was between them.

– I don't think I need to – Disarm starts. – , but it would be rude not to, so introductions are in order. My name is Disarm Aliodi. Pleased to meet you.

– Mine's Magatsu Astarosa. – He offers a handshake with a polite smile.

Magatsu didn't know why, but Disarm did a surprised face by raising both his eyebrows in astonishment. It only lasted a second before he leaned forward and gave him a strong, manly handshake. Magatsu shakes his hand with a pained smile.

– Ouch.

– Yes, sorry about that.

As he says that, Juno timidly sits next to him, almost going unnoticed by Magatsu.

– So – Magatsu starts. – , I heard you wanted to talk to me. What about it?

– I did indeed. – He smiles deeply with whatever thoughts he might be having about now. – And it might interest you as well.

With that, Magatsu raises an eyebrow. Disarm chuckles.

– Yes. So, my daughter kind of liked how you protected her from those randoms yesterday, and... – He is interrupted by Juno, who pushes his side with an embarrassed face.

Magatsu snorts quickly, struggling to not laugh.

– Anyway. – Disarm continues. – And she eventually found out about your training with Dedalus. Basing myself off of that, I figured I could offer you something.

Magatsu's interest in the conversation was immediately increased, now all of his attention to it. He nods, gesturing for him to keep going.

– Naturally, I'll gain something from this as well, but we'll get to that eventually. What I want is to accept you as one of my students once you graduate from the old man's academy. What do you say?

Magatsu wanted to say yes right away, but he somehow managed to control himself and take a deep breath. He had to show some professionalism.

Mainly to himself.

– Turns out I already graduated. Heck, I just did that yesterday.

Disarm blinks once, surprised with the news. He smiles deeply.

– If that's the case, we should go and take a look at everything you'll need to know and have from now on, and...

– But I didn't say yes. – Magatsu politely interrupts him. – At least not yet. I have things I need to sort out before starting anything, and one of those things is to talk with Master D. as well as my mother.

Disarm scratches his beard with a somewhat downed face, but nods regardless.

– That makes sense. Yes, yes, of course you do. In any case, do what you must and return here tomorrow. If anything, call me.

He tells Magatsu his house's phone number. After he notes it down on his cellphone, Magatsu keeps conversating with him for a few more minutes about various trivialities before standing us.

– Thank you for everything, Mr. Aliodi. You can be sure I'll consider all of this when I get home.

– No formalities are needed, Magatsu. – Disarm raises his hand in a friendly manner. – There are no issues with you calling me my first name.

Magatsu nods and offers another handshake. After that, he walks to the exit, Disarm and Juno right behind him.

His walk back home would take a lot of time, so he used the opportunity to train his speed and stretched his body.

His backpack would get in the way, but he looked at it as just another handicap to help him improve even further.

After leaping once, Magatsu starts sprinting with incredible speeds, faster than anyone he knew. Faster than even his own Master, who was too old to run around as he did.n

It barely took him sixteen minutes to get back home as he sprinted and dodged several obstacles, such as people, cars and bicycles, dogs and cats, and even some dudes moving pieces of furniture for someone. His backpack was bumping back and forth on his back all the time, but he didn't care much.

Once home, he greets his mother as usual. She, however, took note of his late arrival, even if it wasn't a big time gap.

– Did something happen? – She asks him from the kitchen while doing the dishes. He loudly answers without stopping walking to his bedroom to grab a towel.

– I'll explain to you in a bit!

After leaving his backpack in his room and taking a bath, Magatsu lays down on his room's net and waits for his mom to come. Once in, she sits on his bed.

He then explains to her everything he went talked about with Disarm, about the invitation and about how he wanted her opinion on the matter.

She does a thinking face for a solid thirty seconds before opening her eyes with a serious expression.

– Is this what you want? So long as you grow strong, I don't really care how you get there, so I'm fine with it. And since you finished Dedalus' trial, you're no longer his official student, so I think that it would only be natural if you wanted to learn with someone else. After all, it all culminates to the same goal...

– Defeating him. – Magatsu finishes for her. She nods, still with her serious expression, but shortly after lets it go and smiles.

– Well. If that's what happened, you have my permission to train with whoever you feel comfortable with. I trust you'll make the right choices and grow really strong. – She stands up and prepares to walk outside the room. – If you need me for something else, I'll be in my room.

About a minute after the conversation, Magatsu goes to Master D.'s dojo to talk with him about the news.

Once there, he sees that there are not as many students as yesterday, but some of those that earned their diplomas came back for some reason. He doesn't pay that much attention as he walks straight to Dedalus, who's supervising a quick spar between two girls.

– Oh, hello Magatsu.

– Yes! – Magatsu instinctively answers the way he learned how to before faking a cough. – I mean, good afternoon. I came here to talk to you about something.

At some point during his explanation, Shinda comes from nowhere with a spin-kick aimed at Magatsu's back head. He reacts to it in time by ducking and immediately aims a straight kick to Shinda's chest, who blocks the attack with both his hands. They both smile challengingly.

– You need to work on your greetings. – Magatsu says. – People don't like to be assaulted with random kicks like this.

– Yeah, I love you too. – Shinda sarcastically says while pocketing his hands inside his camouflaged black jeans. His white shirt was sleeveless and his shoes were green, but also camouflaged.

Sometimes, Magatsu wondered if he ever wanted to enter the army, but he would always shrug him off with a laugh and a "that would never happen". He just liked the style.

– Ahem. – D. clears his throat, gesturing for Magatsu to keep from where he stopped. Shinda was interested in it, so he stood there and listened.

– I see. Well, I see no issues with you training with someone else. In fact, I'm actually very happy with the news. Knowing that you won't just slack off all day or just come here and do the same thing again and again like a certain someone.

Dedalus looks to his son, who looks away while whistling.

– In any case, go and grow as much as you can, Magatsu. Be strong and make both me and your mother proud of you!

– Yes!

After a few minutes of looking around, Magatsu calls Disarm to ask him if he can go there now since it's not even 3:00 PM yet. He says "of course", so Magatsu doesn't waste time in going home and sprints straight to there.

– Already reaching for something else, huh? – Shinda talks to himself as he sees his friend run to Disarm's house. – Not that I'll let you catch up to me this easily, though.

After a couple of minutes, Magatsu reaches Aliodi's property and stops for a bit to catch his breath.

After knocking the door a few times, Juno opens for him with a welcoming and even satisfied smile. Magatsu doesn't see much in it and smiles back.

– Come in. – She welcomes him in while backstepping to give him space to enter.

Once there, he notices that Disarm had changed to his normal attire.

He had an incredibly athletic upper torso with muscles in shape coming from the sides of a red tank-top. Funny enough, his belly was still somewhat visible from where Magatsu was standing, making an odd but interesting contrast with his muscular arms.

He had dark orange shorts over large (but not necessarily muscular) legs and green slippers.

All and all, he was a fairly old, strong man that had became a father and shifted his focus from training to family, but still kept some degree of working out.

– My dojo is in the building next to here, the one you saw before entering. – He says to Magatsu while pointing to his left side. – Let's say hi to my students.

They go outside and walk a few meters to a large, one-story light brown building. Inside, almost everything was made of wood with its main color theme being a dark one.

Disarm's dojo had, at least, 70 students doing various things such as running in circles, doing stretch sequences, or sparring. Their uniforms were either dark brown or dark red, while Magatsu's was black.

– You sure have a lot of students, huh? – Magatsu says with a whistle. Disarm stands proud.

– Most of them just come to learn the basics, which are taught in roughly a year, but at least 10% come to stay. The two biggest examples are those two over there.

Disarm points to two persons, a boy and a girl and both around 18, that were instructing the other students with commands, and finger snaps. Their uniforms were of a lighter tone, hers red and his, brown.

Both had similar sizes and body builds, as well as the same hair color, green (likely tinted. It was growing in popularity to do so). Hers was lighter and was tied in a ponytail for practical reasons while his was darker, short and shaggy.

– Those are Ramon and Vanessa, my currently two top students. After they graduated, they liked being here so much that we came to an agreement where I would pay them as my assistants. They've been doing it for a year now, and I must say, it saved my life.

– More like killed your size. – Juno taunts him between teeth before quickly looking to somewhere with her hands behind her back, an innocent smile on her face. Disarm straightens his eyes while looking to her, but contents himself with a short and audible hum.

– Sassy. Just how I like it. Anyway, let me introduce you.

He screams their names, gaining instead the attention of the entire dojo. Ramon and Vanessa quickly run to him and greet at the same time.

– Good afternoon, Master Aliodi.

– I already said you can call me just Disarm. Geez... – He scratches the side of his beard. – But that's not important. What is important is who is aside me, because he'll be joining us, starting today.

They both look at Magatsu with wide-open eyes (likely from the rush they were just in). Magatsu introduces himself.

– Nice to meet you, Mr. Astarosa. – They both say in unison. Magatsu nods.

– Just Magatsu is ok.

– He came from Dedalus' dojo, so he already knows a thing or two, but you still should show him how things work here. – Disarm says. – Especially you, Ramon.

– Right away, Master. – He answers before looking to Magatsu with a smirk. – Come, we'll show you how things work around here.

Before the tour starts, Magatsu asks them something.

– Are you two siblings? I mean, I could be wrong.

– Yes, we are. – Vanessa locks Ramon with her arm while rubbing his head hard. – But this little bastard here is adopted. Doesn't stop me from doing things like this.

– Knock it off, you. – Despite sounding annoyed, he can't stop smiling and chuckling.

At least they have a strong relationship as siblings.

– Anyways. – Ramon struggles free from her grip and wipes some nonexistent dust from his brown gi. – Wanna change into a gi? We could borrow you one.

– First, I want to see what you guys are made of. – Magatsu answers while rubbing his chin with his index. – Care to give me a demo?

They look to each other with raised eyebrows before nodding.

– We won't fight ourselves, nor you, so you'll have to content yourself with them.

They both point at the students, who were now back to doing whatever they were doing. Magatsu looks at them with puzzled eyes, analyzing their strengths and skills as best as he could.

– I don't think I'll have to change into a proper fighting attire for this. Bring it on, I'll fight any of them. – He smiles joyfully while cracking his knuckles. – This will be fun.

– Calm down, boy. – Vanessa places a hand over his shoulder. – Here, we don't fight randoms just because they asked us. You have to prove yourself first. Here, I'll show you what you have to do.

She takes him to further inside the dojo, where he is greeted by some of the students that were sparring.

Magatsu wasn't seeing it, but Disarm was looking at him with heavy thinking eyes. Inside his head, he was wondering if his last name was just a coincidence or if it truly belonged to the man he thought it did.

He was a bit nervous with this thought, so he decided to shrug it off to a corner for the time being. It wasn't important right now.

Astarosa...