“Today is the day, Brother!” Jao Fuu said with excitement to her twin Jao Cong.

“The day for what?”

The Jao twins looked at the one who said it. The figure walked towards them, their face hidden behind a mask and on their shoulder was a Scorch Ape.

““Wang Zen?”” the twins said.

“Aw, how did you guys know?” Zen said.

“You are kind of famous as the only person with a Scorch Ape.” Jao Fuu said.

“Shibi, we should’ve gotten you a mask too.” Zen said to the Scorch Ape.

“Sure, that would have hidden you.” Jao Fuu said sarcastically.

“See? Even Jao Fuu agrees.” Zen said.

“What are you doing here, Brother Zen?” Jao Cong said. “I mean… so soon… well…”

“I was getting rusty sitting at home.” Zen said, rotating his shoulder to warm up. “And anyways, I heard the Academy Tournament was close.”

“You’re entering too huh?” Jao Fuu said. “That’s what my brother and I were talking about earlier. I’m entering too.”

“Just you?” Zen said, glancing over at Cong who simply smiled back at him.

“Well, I’ll show you both where to enter.” Cong said. “Follow me.”

They arrived at the tournament entrance site. There was an old man sitting cross legged. In front of the man was a swirling mass of black energy. On either side of the man was a bowl of black balls and white sticks shaped like quill pens but with no stubs at the end.

“How do we enter?” Zen said.

“You write your name on the white ball using the quill and put the ball in the black energy.

“Uh, seems easy enough.” Jao Fuu said.

“It’s not.” Jao Cong said.

“Well well well, I heard you had gone away.” Jian said as he approached with his entourage. “Sad to see that you’re back.”

“Jian,” Zen said bitterly.

“Hiding your face in shame?”

“Shame? I have nothing to be ashamed of but if you need something for your own shame, I have plenty of masks.”

Jian tilted his head in confusion. “And what do I have to be ashamed of?”

“For being a sell out!” Zen said. “For being a commoner but being to cowardly to stand with your own people, so you worked to have them killed.”

Everyone gasped.

“Zen, don’t!” Jao Fuu hissed.

Zen raised his hand to silence her. Everyone, including the old man who was seated on the ground were surprised to hear that from him. Most commoners did not even dare utter speak a word about the commoners in fear of the Empire.

“What?” Jian said with a smile, as if what Zen said was ridiculous. “I owe nothing to the commoners; I don’t have any reason to stand with them.”

“Right…” Zen said before glancing at one of the black balls. “Are you entering the tournament?”

“No, entering is what you will be doing.” Jian said. “I will be winning it.”

“Then when you write your name, don’t write, Jian Chen.” He said before pointing at him. “Instead write your new and true name, Coward!”

Jian Chen’s smiled vanished and his ki roiled. His entourage of popular students also stood at the ready in case a fight broke out. The Jao Fuu raised her arm, gesturing her brother to get behind her in preparation for a fight also.

Zen let his ki roil, his power level leaking out. Of the group, he was ranks above all the kids there, making him the strongest. Chen Jian’s entourage began shying away from the fight, their ki getting smothered by the power they sensed coming from Wang Zen. Even Jian Chen was surprised to feel the power coming off him.

“The Wang Zen standing before you scum is not the same Wang Zen you knew from the past.” He said, adding a tinge of killing intent with his words.

“Damn it,” Jao Fuu cursed under her breath.

“No,” Jian said, calming his entourage down. “We will end this soon enough, Wang Zen.”

Everyone calmed down and Zen withdrew his killing intent.

Jian reached for a quill and Zen did the same.

A second after Zen picked up the quill, he could feel his ki rapidly being drained away while the quill turned black. The amount of ki leaving his body almost made his legs buckle. One of the black balls flew from the bowl and shot at him.

Zen caught it, before it could connect with his face. The black ball, though it fit neatly into his palm, weighed heavily. The weight forcing him to a knee. He grunted, both from the weight of the black ball and the quill which rapidly was depleting his ki.

Zen could feel the ball also absorbing his ki but it was much less, it was trickle compare to the river of ki the quill was taking. Closing his eyes, he focussed his ki, trying to slow down how much the quill was taking. He then had a thought and redirected more ki to the black ball. He could feel the ball getting lighter, allowing his to return to his feet.

Opening his eyes, he saw that the black ball had grown a darker shade of grey. He fed it more ki and its colour became even lighter while turning a more faded grey.

“Zen’er, you need to write your name!” Jao Cong said.

Zen gritted his teeth and directed more ki into the ball, making it light enough for him to write on it. He quickly wrote his name, his ki, coming dangerously close to finishing.

Walking towards the black spinning energy before the old man, he saw that Jian Chen also had his ball in hand with his name written. However, unlike his, the ball in Chen Jian’s hand was pure white with his name written in bold unbroken black line while Zen’s name was written in broken lines on his light grey ball.

They both dropped their balls inside the swirling black energy and twin geysers shot up from the swirl before dying down.

The two boys looked at each other in silence for several moments before Jian turned on his heels and began walking away. Jian suddenly stopped and looked back at Zen.

“Remember what I said last time we had a proper fight? The promise I made?”

Zen remembered it well, Jian had promised that the next time they fought, Jian would kill him.

“Pray that we don’t meet in the tournament because if we do, I will be keeping my promise.” Jian said before walking away.