When Kay entered the living room, her eyes almost bulged out. She quickly covered her mouth, stopping the scream that almost came out. Master Shifu had pierced Kyle’s palm with a sword. Kyle’s palm was upwards, and the sword in Master Shifu’s hand had struck it, and she could see the blade protruding all the way through.

Strangely, there was no blood, and slowly, Master Shifu pulled out the blade. She cringed as she watched Kyle’s skin being pulled along with the movement of the sword. Once the sword had been taken out fully, Master Shifu went up to Kyle and inspected his palm. He looked at it palm up and started poking it, then turned it over and felt around the bones.

“Good,” Master Shifu praised him, “You managed to twist your hand in time and avoid directed the blade to go through the bones. Your control is much better, but you need to practice your speed. At this rate, you’re not even at David’s level.”

“David? Who’s David?” asked Kay curiously as she walked over to them.

“David Blaine,” answered Kyle, “You know, that master magician who levitates and such. He’s actually a descendant of the branch family.”

“Using the sacred art to do magic,” scoffed Master Shifu, “At least he doesn’t have the full legacy. Otherwise, who knows what he would be doing.”

“So you’re telling me that you would be able to do all that David does? THE David Blaine?!” Kay gasped out.

“Yes … and no,” said Kyle, flexing his hand, “I would be able to do more than what he does. He can have an ice pick pierce his palm, but I can have a sword do so. And not only on the palm, but on any part of the body.”

He twisted his shoulders around while wincing, “Still gotta work on the shoulders though. Still hurts like Hell when it pierces through.”

Kay shuddered, “But how do you do it? I’ve always thought it was mere illusions but it really looks like it goes through!”

Kyle smiled, ruffled her hair, and said solemnly, “Sorry, Kay. Trade secret.”

“Yeah, yeah. Okay. Don’t worry. I understand,” Kay said.

Kyle stroked her right cheek, then produced an earring, seemingly out of nowhere. She looked at it, then touched her left ear and found her earring missing. “How …”

He took her hand, put it in her palm and kissed her cheek, “Trade secret.”

**–**–**–

That’s how the two weeks went for Kyle and Kay. They used the time to catch up on MIB matters, keep tabs on Kyle’s past life kids, while Kyle also had to train his sleight of hand, sharpen his illusionist skills and control the Zen State. Master Shifu was slightly worried over the exhaustion that would befall Kyle each time he entered the said state, and had taken the time to experiment on Kyle properly.

They needed to know how long he could be in the state, and how long it took for him to recuperate. There were no data on this aspect, and even calls to the other Ninja Clans yielded no results. Of course, they also had to be careful and not reveal that their query was because of Kyle. Rather, they stated that it was for Kyle. That is, being a ‘new’ ninja (and not born into the family), he had a lot of history to learn. Master Shifu did not want anyone to know, as Kyle was still in the ‘infant’ stage and thus, would be vulnerable and weak if someone decided that Kyle was too dangerous to let grow.

Master Shifu had, admittedly, become a bit paranoid and had a tendency to be a ‘conspiracy theorist’. Not that you could really blame him, considering how trusting he had been before. Kyle found it funny sometimes, but he felt that being cautious was far better than not. The ninja world was something that he had absolutely no idea about, and thus, had to tread carefully. He relied on Master Shifu for this, and put up with being a guinea pig. It was for his own good, after all.

The testing and experimentation were extremely tedious, however. It’s like the situation when you’re trying to find out what sort of food you are allergic to. It’s entirely a process by elimination: he would go into the Zen state for 5 minutes, then increase it for 1 minute each time. Same with the recovery process. He would also need to explain and record what sort of feeling he felt when in a weakened state.

Master Shifu even attacked him when he was in such a state, so as to know what were the weaknesses and capabilities. As such, the two weeks that passed by was filled with LOTS of aches and pain, but at least he had a better idea of what he could – and could not – do.

As for the others?

Ali had to go back to Country SA and spend the entire 2 weeks with his potential brides. 12 days, 10 girls (Not taking into account the 2 days of traveling he would do to go from campus to house and back). He had to go on dates with 2 girls a day for five days: for brunch and dinner. For the remaining 2 days, it would be group outings with the entire family : 5 families each day.

They were staying at his parents’ house, so as to enable the ‘fostering of ties’ between the families. Ali seriously felt like he was in ‘The Bachelor’, and would occasionally think there was a hidden camera somewhere. How he wished things were simple, like back in school. With simple yet interesting girls like Sophia.

The girls that he had to entertain were all pretty nice girls, but somehow … there was just something lacking. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was. Perhaps it’s because they were not truly listening to him when he would tell them things about school? Not like Sophia, who would always be laughing or responding to whatever he told her. She was truly interested in what he was saying, and would talk about her own experiences as well.

Or maybe it was because they only asked about the company, or what they expect from the marriage but never did they actually ask him … about him. Not like Sophia, who was fascinated with his thoughts and dreams. Her eyes would sparkle with excitement, her lips always curved into a smile and her head tilted slightly as she listened. He found it utterly fascinating.

Ali thought that the girls here were just … boring. Beautiful, intelligent, yes. But boring. Felt so one dimensional. Not like Sophia, who was so lively and bright. She was like a shining star in a dark night, and although Ali never quite realised it, he always had a wisp of a smile each time he thought about her. Silly fool.

As for Xing Han – he had to sit through 2 weeks of his parents being on his back the entire time. His mother kept criticizing him on his weight and had him on a diet. He could cry when he thought of roast meat and burgers and nasi biryani. Instead, it was high protein and low carbohydrate diet, with lots of fluids and fruits in between. He was also forced to jog each morning with his mother, who would shout at him to hurry up as he struggled to keep up with her pace.

His father would drag him to the company and he had to work there like a dog everyday. He would need to follow his father to all the meetings and learn from it; then he had to give an overall report of the meeting and his impressions. He would be given files and told to settle it, and he struggled to figure out its contents. Each night, before bed, he would be severely reprimanded by his father who would point out each and every one of his mistakes for the day.

He endured it all, for he knew that he needed to be better in the company, sharper and more efficient. It would have helped if people actually showed him what was needed but he never blamed anyone. Kyle had always risen to the occasion, and would never blame other people. He’d look at the situation, find ways to improve and just did it. Xing Han wanted to emulate his role model, and thus, would never complain. Little did he know that this act of his impressed his father immensely; but of course. His father never showed it. He was the Head of the Household and could not afford to show favouritism or any sort of emotion, really.

Perhaps Sam was the only one that had a ‘normal’ break. He didn’t stay in the dorms, so it just meant he didn’t go to school. His mother was happy to have him around the whole day and basically just pampered him senseless. So he just did things that he liked, such as building stuff and continue to do his experiments. Sam quite enjoyed his two weeks of complete rest and relaxation.

During the entire holiday period, the Elite Five never called up each other as they knew that (other than Sam), their hours were pretty unpredictable. So, rather than accidentally disturbing anyone, they felt that it was best to just keep to their texting instead. All of them missed each other and couldn’t wait to get back to school.

Principal Dobbins couldn’t wait for them to come back to school either. She felt that the best time for her to drop the bomb was when the school results were announced. Looking at the results in her hand, she wasn’t surprised to see that Kyle was nearly at the bottom. Not just of his class, but in the entire school!

So his popularity meant nothing here at Sakura Academy, Principal Dobbins thought proudly. It made her job so much easier and this was going to be the most epic moment of her life. All those other kids that she managed to get rid of, were just small fries. Other than the occasional one or two close friends, no one really thought about them after they had left.

Kyle was a big shot. So people WILL talk. Principal Dobbins smiled at the thought causing Kyle’s reputation to be shattered.

She couldn’t wait for school to reopen indeed.