Arisa flipped over her much taller male opponent. I should explain me and Arisa train in a karate dojo and frequently enter competitions. My name is Taira. I’m a fourteen year old male. Anyway Arisa quickly did a dragon kick making her opponent stumble to his knees and finished him off with a roundhouse kick. “Winner Arisa!” the referee said. She looked towards me so I gave her a smile. I could tell she was proud of her victory. After her match I knew I was to fight next. Like always Arisa and I made it to the finals. “Next match Taria vs Zei.” The referee said. Zei is a muscular male around 5 7’ with short brown hair. Pretty much the opposite of me. I have long black hair. I’m about 5 10’ and not very muscular. But what I lack in brawn I make up in agility. I can make jumps, dives and some attacks that others can’t. “Ready begin.” The official said. I started off with a palm strike. Just as quick as I attacked Zei dodged it. He threw a punch that knocked me to the ground but I quickly got back up avoiding the loss. I did a side sweep to weaken him to finish him off I did a flip and landed behind him and kicked his head with the inside of my foot. No one can get back up after my kick. “Winner Taira.” The official said. I looked towards Arisa I could tell we were both thinking the same thing. We would have to fight each other next. That was fine by me though. I was looking forward to it. In every tournament we entered we were always the last two. But are matches were always declared a tie because it went on to long. This happened because we always trained together so we learnt each other’s fighting style and how to counter it. Our match wasn’t for another hour so I decided to go to the forest to train. I live in a small town called Kesima. There is a forest that surrounds our little town. There are some rumors that it’s haunted but I don’t believe them. “Taira wait up.” I heard a voice say. When I looked back I saw Sofya. She is the only one who was ever able to defeat me and Arisa. “Congrats on your win.” she said. “Thanks why aren’t you in the tournament?” I asked her. “You and Arisa are brutal in your matches I don’t want to get in the middle of that. Besides you guys need this tournament. Trust me you guys will get out of this town someday.” She said as she walked away. As I walked into the clearing I train at I saw someone in a tree. It was Arisa. She flipped out of the tree and landed perfectly on her feet. Arisa is about 5 3” with long brown hair. All the other boys say she is extremely beautiful. I guess I never really payed attention to the way she looks. I’ve known her life. It just didn’t click in my head. “What took you so long?” she asked me. “I was held up. Anyway you ready?”I said. “Yup” she replied. We always practiced our jumps, flips and flying attacks here. My mind wandered off to one of those times.

We were about five years old when this happened. “I bet you can’t do this Tari.” She said. Tari is what she called me when we were younger. She went to do a flip off a tree but slipped and started to fall. I ran and caught her. She blew her hair out of her face. “Don’t worry I’ll always be there to catch you.” I said.

And I was. No matter what happened I always defended her. Even when she got in trouble with her parents I took the blame. “Taira earth to Taira.” She said. “What happened?” I asked. “I don’t know your mind was somewhere else.” She said. While daydreaming I wasted all my training time. We ran back to the dojo.

“Next match Taira vs Arisa.” The official said. The match started with her going for a kick. As I dodged our eyes met. For the longest time I know how she got the upper hand on many of her male opponents. Her eyes. Her eyes were very alluring and made her male opponents go easy on her. It didn’t work on me though. Somehow while jumping to dodge her kick I kicked her head with my signature kick. Like I said no one gets up after my kick. My inner mind took over and caught her. “WINNER TAIRA!” the judge yelled. For the first time I won. Arisa got up and stormed away. I started to run after her but I realized she just needed to cool down. Just then a man walked up to me. “Taira you’ve been accepted into an elite training school. Your parents already packed your things a ride will pick you up in the morning.” He said. “What about Arisa she is just as good as me? Also I never applied for anything.” I said. “The answer to both of those is we accept winners of tournaments only the best of the best. Good luck and goodbye.” He said as he walked away. He left me with more questions than answers.

Later that night I was sitting on the roof of my house as I do when I have to think about things. I heard a noise in the tree I used to get up. It was Arisa. She sat down next to me. “Congrats on your win. I’m sorry for the way I acted.” She said. “Thanks and I told you I would always be there to catch you. By the way I was accepted into an elite training school because of the win.” I said. “Really where is it. I’ve never seen any elite training school in town.” She said. “That’s because it’s not in Kesima it is in a town called Tatsi. I’m leaving in the morning.” I said “oh.” she replied. She leaned in close to me and kissed my cheek. Then she got up and said “good luck.” As she jumped to the ground. As always she landed perfectly on her feet.

The next morning I picked up my stuff and left my small town of Kesima. I’ve never left Kesima before. I have no idea what lies ahead. But I think I’m up to the challenge whatever it may be.

End of Chapter One