Uzai Mevinterach stood in the center of a dusty clearing in the woods. Hanzo stood with him, unable to bear the grating continuity of his stupid voice as he went in depth on certain philosophies about the water element.

It was a yawn inducing, one sided rambling from an old narcissist who didn’t know when to shut up, especially when it came down to his personal experiences that had nothing to do with the topic.

Hanzo twirled his black sword in one hand, watching it make a full circle around his fingers. He noticed an emerald radiance slithering along the fine edge with each revolution and started to wonder why that happened.

Big as the black sword was, it was odd that he was able to wield it so freely.

He also noticed whenever he held it, a natural energy singed his soul like a flame and spread through his limbs as though his blood were gasoline. It was easy to mistake for adrenaline but adrenaline didn’t have the same vibrating resonance that he felt from awakening his spiritual essence.

And he could hardly recall a time when he’d awakened it to such a degree that he could hurl power slashes and decapitate scores of thick trees without being near them.

It was all too strange.

Hanzo looked up to find the old man staring at him like a deer in headlights.

The sword stopped twirling.

“What...?” Hanzo arched his brow.

For a moment, Uzai stood there, blinking his eyes. Then his face brightened and he pounded his fist as if a good idea struck.

“Aha! That’s what I was gonna say, pal! Thanks for helping me remember!”

“What the hell are you talking about??” Hanzo scowled. “Are we gonna get started or are you just gonna keep rambling like an idiot??”

“So first thing’s first,” Uzai continued enthusiastically, “I’m going to create a water barrier around myself and I want you to try and break through it and land a hit on me!”

Hanzo shifted the grip on his sword to a more comfortable position and raised the blade slowly.

The old man noticed his motions and frowned. “Well, normally I’d let ya use a sword but for today, fists will do.”

Almost immediately, the killing glare faded from Hanzo’s eyes and he went off to set his sword against an oak tree along with his dragon leather jacket.

He returned, stretching and cracking his knuckles while the old fool grinned and nodded agreeably. Who he was agreeing to, Hanzo didn’t have a single damn clue.

“Alright, Hanny!” he sang.

“Stop calling me that.”

Ignoring the boy’s protest, the raggedy old man lifted his wood-like arms and flexed his fingers.

There came the sound of a breeze, then a roar as he waved them in a circular motion. Great swirls of water appeared out of thin air and began revolving around Uzai’s frame, distorting his appearance.

He pulled more in, summoning a gyrating mass that stood taller than he.

Hanzo was awed by the spectacle.

“Now, Hanny boy,” Uzai rose his voice, “All you have to do is push through this here water barrier and give me a real good knock in my noggin, okay pal?”

That was a pleasant surprise.

“Say no more, pal.” Hanzo snickered. He took several steps back.

“Alrighty, then…” Uzai sang, preparing himself. “On my count…”

Hanzo bunched his leg muscles and bolted forward with the speed of a gazelle.

In one mighty splash he burst through the liquid barrier and socked the old man in the jaw with enough force to shatter his bones.

The scrawny fool bowled over on his neck and somersaulted out of the watery mass and crashed into a tree head first.

The barrier collapsed and splashed all over the ground with Hanzo crouched in the middle of a swirling pool soaking wet.

“HAHA!!” He jeered, “EAT THAT, YOU SOGGY SANDWICH!”

After a couple of moments, the old man got up and cracked his neck and massaged his dangling jaw back into place.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, pal!” he chuckled lightheartedly, “I forgot to say go!”

The two returned to their original positions and the old man summoned the same water off the ground until the barrier rose strong once again. He even drew out the water in Hanzo’s clothes until he was completely dry.

Hanzo watched the glimmering mist float off of him. This old punk is really that good… he thought.

“Alright, pal!” Uzai called. “Ready...get set…”

Hanzo shook his leg irritably.

“Go!” The old man cried. The water barrier picked up speed immediately after, roaring like a typhoon.

The wind of its acceleration pumped off at rapid speeds and Hanzo began to doubt his ability to get through the thing.

Here goes nothing.

He rocketed forward, executing a flying kick at the final moment. The barrier caught his thigh and launched him across the clearing.

He hit the ground tumbling and veered into a thornbush. He grit his teeth, tearing away from the piercing contraption and fell backward.

What the mess… he huffed. As he tried to stand, his leg buckled but he managed not to fall again.

Once he regathered his strength, he went in for a second attempt. The barrier ruthlessly swung him off course and he went bowling into the dirt.

His third attempt, he tried a flying super punch—whatever the heck that was—and nearly got his arm torn off.

His fourth attempt, he also failed.

His worst attempt, he rocketed forward and slammed into the violent twister with all of his body weight.

The barrier swallowed him and spun him around and around at sickening speeds, then hurled him into a rock solid tree with an aching thud.

The warrior collapsed on the ground dead for about ten minutes before waking himself and dawning on a new solution to his problem.

Nobody ever swam upstream in a raging river. Only an idiot would. Same could be said about this situation except this river was basically standing up and flowing sideways.

Guess I’ll have to go...sidestream..?

He dragged his feet, gritting in pain, barely able to stand but the tree gave him support.

Once the pains ebbed away, he resumed.

The barrier spun counter clockwise, so he charged in at a slight clockwise angle. He was thrown off balance easily and launched into the woods again but the impact was a bit lighter.

He kept at it for some time but the twister was a resilient foe. No matter how well he thought he flowed with the barrier, it repelled him away without fail.

Curse that old man. Hanzo thought. Got me stuck on some island trying to punch some water.

He readied himself like a racer.

Stupid giant.

Summoning his spirit pressure, even though he knew it probably wouldn’t make a difference, he flexed his limbs and took off like a homing missile.

He plunged into the twister with a sharp cry and got swept around in circles again.

He spun himself clockwise, shoved against the impending current and spun again until he was thrown free. His feet hit the ground with a splash and his fist was aimed tight like he’d thrown it.

The world was warping so badly he was seeing double. Triple. Maybe even quadruple.

He must have been spinning for a while.

He wobbled, skipped then fell on his back about to pass out when he came to an astonishing discovery.

He made it inside the barrier. It seemed like a hallucination at first but the mass had him fully surrounded. A raging cylinder glistening under the beaming sun.

Ignoring his nauseating dizziness, he sat upright and looked around. The old man was nowhere in sight.

Too exhausted to bother looking any further, he lay back down and shut his eyes, listening to the sound of water splashing around him.

Stupid, old fogey.

He huffed.

Hope he chokes on a chicken bone and dies.

On the bright side, Hanzo finally breached the water barrier.

So as the minutes dragged by and the old man still didn’t appear and the twister continued to gyrate like a washer, a new problem dawned. Hanzo was stuck inside.

Not for long, he hoped.

“Hey, stupid old man!!” He yelled. “Are you gonna drop this thing or what??!”

No answer. He had no choice but to go for another nauseating spin.

So he did. He dove into it and got washed around in circles then tossed flat on his back.

He snorted water out of his nostrils, coughing furiously but when he looked up, he found himself still trapped.

Are you kidding me??

He wheezed angrily and dove again but again he was rejected.

“Real funny, old man!!!” His voice was drowned out by the roaring waves turning about.

What the hell am I supposed to do? He looked up to see if he could jump out through the opening.

Try as he might, he still failed.

The barrier didn’t seem that tall from the outside. What was he doing wrong?

Paying closer attention to the anomaly, he started to suspect that it had in fact grown in height as well as depth. It couldn’t have possibly done that on it’s own.

Hanzo was growing frustrated. That old man must have trolling him.

This is unbelievable.

He dived yet again and still, he got spun and swung back in the same spot.

Shouting words of blind rage, the boy threw himself over and over, each time getting the same result.

Uzai had another thing coming when he got out.

Hanzo had yet to manipulate the element so there was little hope that he could call it down.

It wouldn’t hurt to try though. Channeling his spirit pressure, he stood in meditative silence, holding his palms together. He knew something about matching his spiritual frequency with the nature of the element but it would be pure luck if he did strike a connection. He knew that everything in the universe spun in a counterclockwise direction so perhaps he could swing his essence clockwise but he definitely didn’t know how to do that. Probably made that idea up on his own.

Besides, did water even have its own spirit pressure? How was he supposed to control it?

He did away with the growing number of questions in his head and decided to just let his body and spirit naturally resonate with the universe or whatever.

Take my mind, take my body, take my soul…

For a glimpsing moment he thought he felt himself spinning. Or probably not.

Either way, he gave up, being a total novice in this field and looked up to the opening of his watery prison.

He started walking. Walking circles in the direction of the twister. Then he picked up the pace.

Then he jumped as high as he could and kicked along the wall of the barrier.

Gaining insane momentum, he started running along the spiral, barely keeping balance until he made it to the top. At that moment the current swept him off his feet and took him for another great spin.

He screamed as it launched him into the air like a rag.

He crashed into a bushy tree top and dropped down the thick branches, hooked his bootlaces on one of them and wound up dangling upside down.

Stunned, he gazed at the cylindrical river churning at a distance. He was out.

Insane laughter escaped his drowned lungs and water trickled out of his mouth but at least the kid was alright.

At least until the branch his foot hung on snapped and he landed flat on his head.

He curled into a ball, clutching his aching skull.

After a slow recovery, he rose to his feet and started lumbering around for his sword and jacket.

He found both within a short span and armed himself, trying to clear his boggled brain for the next course of action. But something wasn’t quite right.

It was quieter than usual. The roar of the super hydro twister was suddenly absent.

The lad whirled around, expecting to find Uzai but instead he found the worst being imaginable.

Skeeter.

The spirit stood immaculate, like a cat focused on some inconceivable thing in the distance. Like a mountain waiting to collapse at the first blow of dynamite.

Hanzo stood just as still. His logged fingers folded around his sword’s handle.

His pounding chest was the only thing affecting his stature.

Skeeter burst into action. He was on Hanzo like a bullet but he swerved out of the way and shanked him in half.

The spirit regenerated in no time and started commencing further attack but Hanzo tore him to shreds with an insane flurry of slashes and tourettes that he learned in the Academy.

The spirit was momentarily overwhelmed by the black slayer sword, blowing his figure out of proportion and cleaving deep gashes in the forestry nearby. A great wind of spirit pressure erupted from the youngster, causing the birds to flee on sight.

“Die, you savage!!” He seethed, fury sparking in his green eyes.

The spirit suddenly burst into a mist and vanished, quickly reappearing above the warrior’s head with a giant fist that pummeled him into the ground like a nail.

Then he grabbed him by the ankle, slammed him repeatedly with an elongated arm and launched him fifty meters into the air.

Somersaulting at dramatic speeds, Hanzo gripped his sword tightly as the spirit skyrocketed toward him.

He reeled into a spinning frontflip and the vicous black blade tore him in half like paper. The warrior plummeted earthward like a bolt of lightning and split a humongous oak tree right down the middle.

The gemstone flared brighter than ever before and let off an appalling explosion. The forest was set on fire, trees torn from their roots and blown to smithereens as the blast expanded, obliterating everything within radius until all that remained was a large, smoldering crater and a blackened oak tree smothered in emerald flames.

Hanzo recovered hours later cocooned inside of layers of thick fuzzy blankets.

It was dark outside except for a sky showered in stardust. A beautiful sight. Calming atmosphere.

Hanzo was usually a big fan of nature but at the moment his senses were too busy colliding with each other. He felt imprisoned, so he started rolling around and shoving himself out of the annoying blankets but stopped when he heard voices.

“He’s a real good kid, y’know.” Uzai’s voice was lowered but recognizable. “He’s got talent too. I’m looking forward to training him.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get too carried away.” The giant’s voice reverberated in the shadows.

Hanzo felt a chill shoot up his spine. Odyssey!

“We wouldn’t want this one to get pulverised like the others.

“Oh don’t you worry, pal.” Uzai replied. “We’ll take extra good care of him. You can take my word to God. Besides, I already know how you are, big boy. Ain’t nobody wanna train with you.”

“Only because I don’t want to train with them.” Odyssey corrected. Hanzo’s mind was spun but he hoped to hear more from these two oddballs.

“Well, by the looks of it you ain’t too fond of the kid. You’re only doing it because he’s—y’know—one of them suckers.“ Uzai grinned knowingly.

“Don’t get the kid all excited. You old bastards seem to get off on making people think they got something special going on for themselves…”

The old man sniggered. “But even so, you and I both—“

“I’m one of what suckers??!” Hanzo steamed.

“Hanny? Is that you?” Uzai chirped.

The youngster ripped free of his cozy prison and started towards the origin of the voices.

“Listen, you goat…” he grinded. “And where the hell have you been, you damn...king sized mattress?” He directed half his anger at Odyssey who mused over the unusual insult.

He’d been called a gorilla, an ape, a bull, a muscle-brain, a demon, a dragon, even an ultra masculine, womanizing overlord but a king sized mattress was indeed something to ponder about.

Perhaps, he was just a mattress.

But only Uzai would take that seriously.

“Hanny,” the old man checked his invisible watch, “It’s past your bedtime. You’d better get to sleep!

Hanzo reeled his sword. “Shut up, you dipstick. Yo, Odyssey, what kind of training is this?? You got me out here playing teleportation games with this stupid old man!”

“Now, now, son.” Uzai wagged his finger. “Odyssey is a very busy man. He’s got family to take care of and he works a twenty four hour job. Be nice!”

“I said, shut up!!” Hanzo raved. He turned back to look up at the titan but his sillhouette was replaced by dark trees leaning in the howling wind.

Dumbfounded, he slowly turned to face Uzai and found no one there as well.

These people were outrageous.

“Alright, well screw you too, then!!” He yelled. Grumbling to himself, he lumbered back to where he slept, picked up his collection of rolled blankets and marched around through the dark forest until he found a more suitable place to sleep.

He stumbled onto the beach, still cursing at whoever crossed his mind and laid his bed out, plopped on it and went back to sleep with a scowl on his face.