Month 12: The Dawn of the New Year
[QUOTE=Miburo;5720666]"Liberated, eh?" Held asked with a smirk, "One of my favorite types of acquisition."
It took a moment for the Nevadian to register that he was being spoken to. The display of combat prowess the two had displayed was positively breathtaking. The two had managed to evolve their skills in such a short time, to the point that they might as well have been different fighters compared to the duo Held had fought alongside a year ago.
[I]Oh. Right. I should say something.[/I]
The Nevadian rubbed his head nervously as his exhausted ally rose to meet him.
"Would you believe I lost track of time?" Held asked his friend sheepishly.
It would take some time, getting used to having his hair so short. In the back of his mind, he missed the long braids that adorned his head....If nothing else, they kept his skull warm.
Held considered his response to Zaofans query. His first instinct was to tell his great friends of all that transpired: Whis, Vados, his training in the afterlife, and the torment Crazy Horn had inflicted upon him. It would have sounded insane to the universe at large, but stranger things had happened to those he fought alongside.
It also was too much work. Even now, the Nevadian was still tired, the fatigue of his body still making itself known.
He also couldn't resist being a smart alek.
"I mean...Open bar, Great food." Held replied with a smile, "I figured if Jack's always so non-nonchalant about dying, I might as well see what it has to offer."
A loud laugh escaped the Nevadians mouth "Although, I think I might have ended up taking the VIP suite, so it's hard to compare."
He shivered slightly as the blistering cold of the locale stroked his head. Of course these two would think to take up training in such conditions.
"But enough about that! It's good to see you both. I'd ask if you've been well, but just taking a look at you answers that. "[/QUOTE]
Ochazuke looked back and forth between Held and Zaofan, who just shrugged in response.
"Forget Jack for a moment, that guy's been through a lot for a young man," the chef sighed, "the way you and Totoma have been going on about it, seems like you punched your ticket for a luxury cruise, sheesh! Food, liquor..."
Stepping down from the platform as the gravity ceased, the snow that fell on the temple grounds receded by the collected aura of both the military personnel and the on-site trainees, disciplined students all that parted as their teachers stole toward the new arrival.
"...The Judge had you figured all wrong, if you went to Heaven. He owes me big now," Zaofan smirked as he pinched his fingers, "the lucres of justice, how terrifying."
"It was a rigged wager after the incident on Nevada Prime," Ochazuke said, "Last I heard Captain Ulysses made sure his team of Navigators made sure to operate under your name. Every lightyear crossed to other worlds, he would never stop griping about the paperwork you left him. But we'll catch up inside, and get you out of the cold."
_____
Quite opposite to its aesthetic, beneath the lacquerware columns and conjoined intersections that held up the great tiled roof was a rather modern facility. Sections of the live-in facility of the New Dragon Temple seemed far less intimidating than a dojo. Though this was a place of martial education, the walls of the place spartan, it seemed much more like the open residence of the heroes sworn to the code of the old Jianghu, welcoming all, but only those who knew the custom could see what was hidden in plain sight.
At the core within a hearth warming water that coursed through the walls, a great flame that burned without kindling lit by Master Balon himself stood in remembrance of the continuity between his lost order and the new era ushered in by the rediscovery of the Ten Schools.
"Fire, burning with intensity, will lose its substance sooner or later, but the spirit shall endure," Ochazuke said, grim and fatalistic as usual, "It should stand to reason nobody forget."
Since this was a training ground, there was no real hard liquor in the place, the one artifact from the age of priests and monks which became an unspoken law here. However, the tea flowed hot and freely, and Zaofan had always kept the food moving.
"Speaking of not forgetting," the chef said between bites of takuan pickles and rice, "we [I]were[/I] looking for you, but when we came back it seems Hilda stole you away. Even wished on the Dragonballs, and Tiamat said you were alive."