Chapter 4 Broken Mirror

The entire crowd cheered as they listened to the instructor's announcement, but it couldn't compare to the satisfaction that was welling up inside Bill himself, "I was controlling my strength so that this trash could suffer more, but I guess he's even weaker than I thought."

Bill snared as he looked at Mako's badly beaten body without a hint of remorse. Bill still had the Earth bat in his hands so he thought to give a final bow that Mako would remember for the rest of his life.

The Instructor noticed Bill's intention and crushed the earth bat with his bare hands before he could do anything.

"Bill Johnson! Stand down, or we will permanently reduce your merit points this is your last warning!" The Instructor threatened.

Amazed by the strength of the instructor, Bill decided to let go and leave the gymnasium hall with a bunch of students that followed behind him like faithful servants.

The instructor carried Mako's barely conscious body over to the nurse's office. He couldn't understand much of what was going on but he heard the nurse say that since Mako was on an educational scholarship that didn't include any healing pills, so she would just have to bandage him up and administer morphine to help with the pain.

Mako was in a lot of pain, but as soon as the morphine kicked in, he immediately fell asleep.

*************

[Inside Mako's Dream]

A young version of Mako was walking back home while wearing a school uniform, or at least what was left of it. His pockets were ripped out, there wasn't a single button on his shirt, and multiple tears were all over his clothing. His body was badly beaten with bruises and a purple eye.

This was Mako when he was still in middle school where there was also no shortage of bullies who loved to abuse their brand new powers.

Mako walked as fast as he could back to his house, but this time someone was waiting for him at the door.

"Oh, my dear boy! What have they done to you?!" Mako's Grandmother shouted as Mako couldn't hold back his tears anymore as he rushed into his grandmother's loving embrace and started crying his eyes out.

Mako kept complaining and complaining, but his grandmother just kept hugging him while stroking his head and kissing his forehead. After a few moments of this Mako calmed down a bit and his grandmother took him inside.

She gave Mako a healing pill from her medical cupboard, told Mako to take a nice hot shower, and while he did that she set up the table for lunch. After Mako came out of the bathroom with fresh new clothes on, his grandmother bandaged up all of his wounds that needed a day or two to heal.

Finally, Mako could have been seen happy as he was munching down a feast that his grandmother had made for him as if nothing had occurred and it was a regular day.

Mako would find out later after his grandmother died that her grandmother actually had an ability that was also pretty rare. His grandmother had the ability of Love as she could produce certain chemicals that would be able to soothe a person's brain and take away their pain.

In the autopsy done by the hospital which had every detail about the person; under the ability box, it was written in bold words 'LOVE (Level 2)'.

His grandmother couldn't do anything about the pain and suffering that Mako went through almost every day as she was financially stable enough to buy Mako his own Ability Book, but the least she could do was to soothe away his pain and still teach him the lessons which would stick with him for life.

She always had a saying that Mako could never forget,

"Always remember Mako, I named you this because I know one day you will a great man with strength and wisdom, but.... never treat any harshly no matter what. Always respect your own morals and standards. Live by a code of life, but make sure that it is one that does more good than harm. You are my greatest achievement, Mako, my dearest grandson."

***************

"Gran-Gran?" Mako suddenly voiced out as his eyes were still closed, but slowly starting to open.

It had almost been an hour, but Mako finally woke up having a terrible headache, and blurry vision. He noticed that he was bandaged everywhere, and currently lying on one of the patient beds in the Nurse's office.

"Took your damn time, mister!" The nurse mocked from her desk which was a few feet away from Mako's bed.

"Huh, what...?" Mako said while tightly gripping his head.

"I said, took your damn time waking up! I had to sit here and wait for you to wake up just so I could discharge you and be done for the day. It's been fifteen minutes since the school closed, and I have to get home before my boys finish their martial art lessons so GET UP, AND GET OUT!"

Mako was already expecting this type of response, so he quietly got up from his bed and made his way out of the Nurse's office.

Mako was still injured, but he was now strong enough to walk. Not wanting to piss off anyone else that might still be around like that old watchman near the school gate, he quickly got his things from his locker and silently made his way out of the school.

It was around 3:30 pm in the afternoon to the point that the sun has sunken enough so that there was a coolness in the air, but still visible enough to light up the surroundings pretty well. Small kids could be seen playing different sports on the side of the street as Mako slowly walked by them.

Mako remembered all those times when he used to play with his grandmother all day when she was still alive and had a bit of strength. This memory plus the dream he had in the nurses' office was enough for Mako to tear up again, but he stopped before making a fool of himself in public.

"I love you too, Gran-Gran, and I will never let you down, You can count on that," Mako said to himself before resuming his walk back home.

He couldn't run home since it still hurt due to his injuries. It eventually got to the point that it was unbearable for Mako, so he decided to stop by a pharmacy to purchase a healing pill.

[Low Tier Medical Healing Pill] [Quantity: 1]

[Cost: 200 Credits]

After buying a healing pill from the pharmacy, Mako quickly took it so it would ease out the pain just enough for him to reach home. Since it was only a low-tier pill, it took longer to finish healing all of his wounds, but it did instantly relieve some of the pain.

"Well, there goes my one month's worth of savings!" Mako cursed internally as he made his way back home.

****************

[9:00 pm]

<BEEP!><BEEP!><BEEP!>

Mako snoozed the fifth alarm while still being in half-sleep mode. After another twenty minutes, he finally woke up and decided to freshen up a bit. As soon as Mako had arrived home he immediately went to bed as he was still exhausted from his night-time job, school, and of course the beating he took in the combat class.

While he was sleeping, the healing pill did its job and healed a lot of the injuries, but not all of them since it was only a low-tier pill.

Mako took off most of his bandages and washed his body as he was still covered in dust and dried blood from the duel.

Mako was worried that he wouldn't be able to finish his school assignments today as he got home so late that all of his free time was consumed by his sleep, and he had to leave for work at the bakery by 11 pm.

Usually, Mako would be home at about 3 pm and he would sleep for about 5 and a half hours before waking up and completing his assignments, eating dinner, and making his way to Sir Derek's Bakery by 11 pm.

As Mako finished washing his face, he looked up to see his still messed-up face in the reflection of the mirror, and all he could feel was anger and disappointment within him because this wasn't the only time that events such as today's duel occur, in fact; they were quite common.

Bill's repulsive taunts and the cheering crowd kept ringing in his ears. His brain kept on finding new tactics to defeat bill as they were a lot of mistakes in Bill's fighting style, but they were only thoughts as in real life even though Bill's fighting style was sloppy and unrefined, it didn't actually matter since Mako wasn't strong enough to take advantage of it.

Mako kept repeating the words that bill said to him in his head over and over again and in the end, he agreed with him because in reality even though it was harsh, it was true.

Anger started to well up inside him like no other as he kept staring at his face in the mirror.

In an attempt to vent his frustrations, Mako punched the mirror with all his might.

*GLASS SHATTERING*

"AHHHH!" Mako screamed in pain from the glass shards cutting his hand all over, even though it was his fault.

"Stupid...stupid...stupid!"

"Huh...?"

Mako noticed that there was something on the backside of the mirror.

"What's this doing here?"