Chapter 17

Arrian sat outside his home, sitting on the front steps. It was a cold night three days before the tournament. He was feeling sad; he had agreed to give Sam her space, but it was hard for him. He did love her, but he couldn't give her what she wanted.

Easier said than done.

He had kept his wind checking on her during lunch hour, just to be sure she was okay. His wind! That idea still seemed a bit foreign to him. At times he couldn't believe he had powers, other times he was grateful for them, like when Sarah was kidnapped.

He shuddered at the memory. That had been the night things had changed, well not true. Things began to change the day his father was murdered. He left his home and came to a new place and things just got weirder and weirder.

He had to admit he was glad for the change, he still felt the pain of losing his dad. However, now the pain was still there, just not as bad.

That brought his mind to the present and more importantly the tournament. He had been summoned to the office during class Tuesday.

There he was led to see Principal Gerry.

"This is Arrian Michaels, he is one of the participants in the tournament this Friday, Ms. Gerry"

"Thank You Joan, please leave him with me."

With that Joan left the office.

"Arrian please have a seat while we wait for the other seven participants to arrive."

He nodded and took a seat closing his eyes as he sat back.

The Principal Gerry looked at him with a curious gaze.

Arrian was lost in his thought, though he could feel the Principal's stare.

A few minutes later he opened his eyes. Moments later the door to her office opened and seven other individuals in walked —one was Greg Foster.

"Thank you all for being timely. Now, the reason I called you all here is because, the organizers of the tournament have informed me that the 'Expert' class participants must use some form of weapon during the set match against one of the organizers. "

The boys kept their eyes on Ms. Gerry, most of them hardly heard a word she said, they were too busy staring at her beauty.

Ms. Gerry was a certified stone fox plain and simple. At 48 she had the taunt trim body of a 30 year old. Her black eyes matched her short black hair perfectly. Not to mention that her bra and blouse did a poor job of restraining her womanly assets.

"If you wish to not participate now, it is still okay.If not, I need some information from all of you..."

The boys looked among themselves. Greg had been staring at everyone in the room, most of them seemed to be pretty inexperienced, and just one individual seemed to be a real threat— just by his posture.

Arrian was looking around the office as well, and he noticed one guy looking very intently at one of the bigger guys with a gaze he would describe as a predator sizing up his prey.

"What I need to know is what weapon would you like to use? Can you supply your own weapon? If not, one can be arranged for you."

Arrian wasn't the only one who knew how to use a katana, but he doubted any of them had ever held a Muramasa.

Arrian would be wielding the only Muramasa; others would use regular katanas.

Two of the participants would use katanas, one would use Nun-Chaku, two would use Bo's, one would use Kamma's, and the last would use a Naginata.

Greg would be wielding the Kamma.

Of the eight participants in the office only three actually owned the weapons they requested: Arrian, Greg, and the boy who said he would use a Naginata owned their weapons...

Having made a note of the weapons being used, the principal continued.

"The weapons are to be checked in, Friday morning at the main entrance, unless it will be brought by your parents in the afternoon before the tournament."

She continued her speech stressing the consequences if the weapon was not checked in.

After leaving her office, Arrian made his way to back to class.

The shivering body next to him awakened his mind from his past week's activities. Sarah had huddled next to him and held on to his arm to help keep herself warm.

"Sarah, you shouldn't be out without a sweater." Arrian admonished the little girl.

"But... da-daddy... you... don't... have a sweater ei... either!" She said shivering.

"Let's go inside honey, I don't want you getting sick. If you get sick you can't come and see me this Friday."

He led her back inside, and after informing Cindy of what their little girl had done; he put her to bed and kissed her forehead. He couldn't help but feel how cold her room was.

He got an idea. He ran downstairs for a medium sized bowl and walked back into Sarah's room.

He closed his eyes and allowed himself to feel the wind around him. Arrian could feel each air particle, as well as move it as he wished. He focused more and began to condense the water particles in the air, into his palm.

Slowly, the water formed a small sphere in his palm. As the room began to warm the sphere began to grow larger and larger, until finally Arrian held a sphere just a bit larger than a baseball. Then he placed the condense sphere into the bowl he had brought up, when it was released it pooled in the bowl.

Finally the room was much warmer than before.

"Daddy, how did you do that?" She asked awe clearly in her voice.

Arrian smiled at her, "Daddies can do many things sweetheart. Especially to keep their little girls safe and warm."

Sarah's eyes beamed an immense amount of love for her Daddy. She jumped out of bed and flung herself at him, her legs trying to wrap around his waist and she buried her head in his chest.

"I told the kids at school I had a Daddy and they didn't believe me. They always say I'm lying, that I don't have a Daddy." She sobbed against his chest.

Those fucking bastards! I'll kill every last one for hurting my Sarah!

Arrian's head snapped back, he couldn't help but smile at Kyori's outburst.

See, I told you, you cared Kyori; you love this little girl as much as I do, maybe more. There is nothing wrong with that.

Shut Up Arrian! I... I...

Hey, it's okay to care. Even monsters have feelings, even if they don't show them.

Fuck you! I'm not a monster, just cause I enjoy a good fight every now and then.

Well then you will enjoy this Friday.

Like you would let me out, I'm out of here Fuck Off!

Arrian chuckled as he felt Kyori retreat into his mind.

Sarah was still holding onto him and crying.

"Sarah honey, why don't I pick you up at school tomorrow then we can go with Mommy and get ice cream, that way those mean kids can see your Daddy."

"Promise?" She asked wiping away her tears.

"Cross my heart baby, cross my heart." He said making an 'X' over his heart.

The next day during lunch Arrian went to find Cindy.

As he turned a corner, he got a surprise he hadn't counted on, a surprise that made his insides churn.

Cindy was being held against some lockers by a couple of senior boys.

"Come on teach, have a little party with us, you know you want to." One said.

"Hey!"

Cindy and the three boys turned in the direction of the yell and Cindy was relieved to see Arrian was standing there. He didn't look too happy.

"Get your fucking hands off her!" He said as he approached them.

"Fuck off!" The biggest one said; he seemed to be the leader.

"I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you don't let her go." Said Arrian.

Then the big one did something really then, he pulled a small knife from his pants and held it towards Cindy.

The other boys nearly shit their pants.

As soon as the knife was pointed at Cindy, Arrian moved faster than they had ever seen anyone move and stood in front of them.

Without warning, he struck all three with kicks, all three went down before they knew what happened.

He took Cindy in his arms and held her against him.

"I'm sorry, I should have been sensing if you were alright."

She just squeezed him a bit harder.

"I came looking for you so you and I could pick up our little girl at her school, it seems she has been teased."

Cindy's head shot straight up at those words.

"First, call the Principal and ask her to send security here so we can deal with these losers; then we'll go get Sarah." He suggested.

Cindy went to call the principal, and Arrian took the moment to look at the knife. Unbelievable, it was a fucking steak knife!

Cindy came out of her room a moment later and said security was on its way.

A few minutes later Security and Ms. Gerry arrived.

After the campus police had handcuffed the three perpetrators, they informed Cindy and Arrian that they would need to go to the police station to press charges.

With that, the campus police left with the three youths.

"Alright, what happened here?" Ms. Gerry asked.

"I came looking for Ms. Masters, I had something to tell her regarding Sarah." Arrian said.