Ryan's eyes fluttered open, and he saw that he was inside the medical bay. The medical staff was just walking out of the door.
It looked like he was only knocked out cold for a couple of minutes.
"I lost…" Ryan looked at his broken wrist and wryly smiled. "It felt like I was trying to punch through a steel wall. What an amazing person he is…"
"You awake?" Nathaniel knocked on the side of the door.
"Yeah…" Ryan sat up, rubbing his eyes and suppressing a groan.
"You did well…" Nathaniel took a chair and sat right next to him. "To push Kiernan to such an extent, I don't think many could do such a thing."
"In the end, he was going easy on me," Ryan said with a sigh. "He had a chance to break my fingers, and if he had, I couldn't have used my last attack."
"Yeah, I know." Ryan chuckled. "I am not sad about my loss or anything. I knew I would lose, but I just wanted to challenge him once, and I am now satisfied."
"To think this will be our last time seeing these walls." Nathaniel said while looking around the medical bay. "It makes me emotional."
"I wish I was a year or two younger; I can't lie." Ryan wryly smiled. "With Kiernan, Karuza High might become champions."
"Yeah, if we were born earlier, we might've become national champions." Nathaniel laughed. "Oh, well, it is what it is."
"Yeah…" Ryan scratched the back of his head. "I happened to join a very powerful college. I might not even become a reserve fighter, but I am sure to become stronger to have a chance at nationals again."
"Maybe we will see each other in the nationals." Nathaniel stood up with a smile. "Maybe we will fight each other."
They shook hands and then departed to separate ways.
Their high school career was over, and they would now move onto the college chapter of their lives.
It was a bittersweet time.
A car moved slowly down the street, following a couple of cars ahead of it.
At the driver's seat, Karma had two hands on the steering wheel, silently focusing on driving.
Beside him, Kiernan looked out of the window, lost in thought.
The fight proved something to him.
The Bottleneck of the Weak was something he couldn't break in Irio. He had to find new challenges.
'I was pushed to that extent, but the martial soul didn't show any signs of peeling.' Kiernan clicked his tongue.
'The school is now over for a couple of months, and after the holiday, I will start my second-year.'
"Are you sure you didn't want to join your classmates?" Karma asked. "They went to the Party Hall, didn't they? That cute girl asked you; maybe you should have."
"I didn't feel like it after that match." Kiernan said. "I am exhausted."
"Oh, should I take you to the hospital just in case?" Karma asked. "Whether you have some injuries you aren't aware of."
"I am not injured; it is just that…" Kiernan sighed. "I have encountered a bottleneck."
"Well, that is common, no?" Karma said. "Bottlenecks are the bane of the existence of every martial artist. It can be frustrating and annoying."
"I know I can break through this bottleneck; I know so!"
"What bottleneck is it actually?" Karma asked.
After his martial soul shelled itself, he couldn't sense anyone's strength properly. Thus, he didn't really know Kiernan's true strength.
"I am trying to reach Martial Champion!"
"Cough!" Karma coughed and almost turned the car to the opposite lane. "You're High Stage Martial Fighter already?!"
"That is… insane." Karma nervously laughed. "Gotta say, I was not thinking about becoming Martial Champion during my high school days."
Kiernan looked out of the window, annoyed about the bottleneck.
"You shouldn't think about it too much." Karma said. "You should take your time with it. You haven't reached the Age of Growth yet."
"…" Kiernan turned to his father and said. "Mind telling me about mother?"
Karma's smile froze, and he then turned slowly into their driveway before taking the keys from the ignition.
"That's a sudden question." Karma said and stepped off the car.
Kiernan followed him out of the car and slammed the door shut.
"You haven't mentioned her as long as I remember, and I haven't asked, but I want to know now."
Karma didn't answer; instead, he opened the house's door and entered, with Kiernan following behind him.
They took off their winter boots and jackets.
Karma tossed the keys to the bowl on the entryway table and went to the kitchen to have some leftover cake from Kiernan's birthday.
Kiernan leaned against the kitchen's entrance doorway and said, "You can't keep quiet about it forever. I am basically an adult already."
Karma sat on the kitchen table with a plate of cake in front of him and started eating in silence.
"Now that the school is over, I'd like to go meet my mother." Kiernan said.
"Absolutely not," Karma said firmly.
"First of all, she isn't living in New Rakuya." Karma said. "I am not comfortable with you traveling alone to a whole different city."
"I am tired of Irio and New Rakuya!" Kiernan slammed his hands on the table. "I might sound like a brat, but I want to see the world."
"You have time to see the world when you're older!" Karma said and took another bite off the cake. "End of the discussion."
Kiernan sat down on the chair and said,
"Just tell me why you're so against me meeting my mother? If you think I won't come back just to be with my mother, you're mistaken.
"You've taken care of me while she hasn't, and I love you for that. I just want to know."
"Sigh…" Karma put the spoon down.
"You're the child of a one-night stand. I met her at Nightingale, had one intimate night with her, and she was gone by the time I woke up in the morning.
"Then, nine months later, she appeared at my doorstep with you in her arms. She left you here and left, never coming back.
"Your mother is a horrible person, and I don't want you to meet her."
"Nightingale…" Kiernan muttered. "Can't I just take a plane there, be there a couple of weeks, and then come back?"
"You can't," Karma said.
"Nightingale is an island in the middle of World Seas. It's a pirate-infested sea, and very dangerous.
"Thousands of people go missing in World Seas every year. The pirates are infamously known for their slave trafficking practices, and the only way to go to Nightingale is with a ship.
"A ship that has a high chance of being attacked by pirates."