Heat, Stress, Burns, and Cuts Ch. 04

*All characters are over 18*

*****

I opened my eyes, the time passed fast last night, meditation is good for the mind and soul, especially for someone who doesn't sleep. Megan's head resting on my chest, and the sun just starting to peak in through the blinds. I hopped up and walked out into the living room. The room still dim lit with orange sun starting to rise above the mountains. The light to Hiro's office was still on, I walked in to find him on his laptop typing away.

"Good morning, how are you?" I ask.

"I am good Daniel. I just got finished with some business. You seem like you want to talk, correct?" He asked.

"Yes, I have a few questions. I take it Mae informed you about what happened in Paris?"

"Yes, Well done Daniel. The first time I was chased by The Society of Assassins, I just barely escaped. That time in the kitchen must of taught you to stay very calm under pressure."

"Yes, that is what I wanted to talk to you about. What do you know about The Society of Assassins? They worry me, then appear and then vanish, like cockroaches."

"Ah, but do they Daniel? We have many safe houses all over the world, why would you expect anything less from them? They are very powerful, and have many resources at their disposal."

"Who leads this group?"

"He is a man by the name of Raul Larson. I last tracked him to high in The Andes, roughly 60 miles north-east of Calama, Chile. Past that, none of the operatives I sent to follow him ever returned. Some say he is immortal... Now you might ask if I believe that? Yes I do."

"Why would you believe that?" I asked, intrigued now.

"I fought him once, the way the he fought was like nothing I have ever seen. There were notes of Mayan, Samoan, french, Israeli, and American in his fighting, there was ancient arts combined with modern fighting styles. In order to become that good, one would need to train in that time, not out of a book. When I tried one attack, he would quickly evade and counter attack with an unknown move. I just barely survived that encounter." He said, lifting up his shirt to show a large gash across his abdomen.

"But how did he do that? If you took the same drug I did then you should heal fast, right?"

"Indeed I do heal fast, Daniel. However, the drug we took; Tarrzia, has a counter acting agent know as Culha. The blade that Raul used was coated with Culha. I was hospitalized for months. My ability to heal was gone for years, eleven to be precise. I have been working, for years now to make a healing agent for Mae, I am getting close to getting it. You and Mae seem to get along, correct?" He asked.

"Yes, I think she is intriguing" I tried to stay as vague as possible, this was her father after all.

"Please Danny, I know you are either sleeping or have slept with her, I was young too, once upon a time." He said smiling "You seem to make her happy, I will make sure to pass along a dose of anything that works to you, I want you alive for a while. You still have much to learn, however, I see wisdom behind your eyes, you aren't power hungry. You will do good for the collective. Was there anything else you would like to talk about?" He asked.

"A couple things, yes." I started "My sister Samantha, she would like to move to Budapest. Will it be safe there for her?"

"Yes, it will be. Daniel, The Society of Assassins was hired to eliminate you, not your sister or girlfriend, or anyone else. Only yourself, she will be fine. If you would like, I could get in contact with Jean Luc and get guards for you, however it might be best if you go and visit him in person for the help. He currently lives in a home, high above Menaggio, a town right on Lake Como, Italy." He said.

I was relieved when he said this because I didn't mind Samantha moving, however I feared for her safety if I wasn't there. This could be solved with a trip to Italy. After I sat relived for a second, I explained my concept of the Rohdum alloy with him. He seemed very intrigued with the concept. He excused himself to go and fetch a file. He quickly found it and returned, handing me the file while going to sit down. I opened the file; it was a profile of a meteor that fell in the 1500's, it was called Starstone. The file showed the experiments that they did throughout the years with the Starstone, including melting, freezing, hammering, sawing, nothing ever broke it. The current theory is that it needs some sort of material to control it. I think, and apparently Hiro thinks that Rohdum could be that material. I read further and saw that the only piece of this Meteor was in Hiro's possession.

"Well, as I told you before, I have a lot of hobbies," He started "forging swords happens to be one of those hobbies and it just so happens that I have a forge on the next floor up from this apartment, along with a very small amount of Rohdum. What do you say, wanna give it a try?" He said, seeming excited.

"Why not!" I said hopping up.

We made our way to his forging room, man was it cool. The room was large. Straight ahead; the exterior wall consisted of fans to take the smell out. To the left was a wall filled with beautifully crafted swords on the ground sat a drill press, miter and table saw, along with a belt sander for sword handles. To the right, two pallets full of metal and wood, enough to make hundreds of swords. Sitting right in the middle of the room was his amazing sword forge, the amount of propane he must go through is mind-blowing.

We walked into the adjacent room and that was where all of his sharpening equipment was. A full size belt sander, grinder, epoxy, everything you would need and more, along with leather for the sheaths. He walked past all of his equipment and opened a camouflaged safe. He retrieved the meteor and Rohdum from the safe. We headed back into the forging room, he fired up the forge, dropped the Rohdum into a crucible, and melted it down . We placed the meteor in a good position, pulled the Rohdum out with tongs and poured it over the Starstone. The effect was immediate, the Rohdum was practically sucked into the Starstone, nothing happened after that.

"Well, that's that." He said.

"Wait..." I said "The Starstone needs to be controlled right?" He nodded his head.

'Vitur, try and communicate with the Rohdum inside the Starstone.' I requested.

That did it. It became pliable by my mind, I picked it up and made it a bracelet, then I slowly made objects bigger and bigger until I could reach a full sized Katana! The metal had taken a beautiful deep purple coloring. I made it look like a bracelet again and kept it on my right hand. Hiro was stunned.

"You helped me with making this," I told Hiro "I would like you to have this." I said, giving him the bracelet. "Upload your AI to it and you can control it." I said smiling.

"I can't take it all Daniel," He said, cutting it in half. "This is my gift to you for all of you help and concept that went into this." He said, as I took the half and stretched it back into a bracelet again.

"Now that you have your weapon," He said walking across the room, "It is time you learn how to use it." He finished, throwing a Shinai toward me. A Shinai is like a sword but made with bamboo instead of steel.

He started to walk and I followed behind him. We stepped into the elevator and went up another floor. When the elevator opened there was a Japanese-style mudroom. I was asked to take off my shoes and strip down to my boxers. I was gifted a Gi by Hiro. It was an article of clothing worn by students of Kenjutsu I got into my Gi and slid open the Shoji. Upon sliding the Shoji I saw a traditional Dojo of wooden construction. It was a large room, twenty feet wide, and thirty feet in length. The room had three wooden beams on each side, in the middle of those beams was sparring area, sunk down about a foot and a half. Diffused lights hung down from the large, fifteen foot tall ceilings.

I continued to follow him over to the sparring area. He knelt down, back facing toward me, and told me to do the same. I laid my Shinai over my knees and started to deep breath as he did. I herd him stop and stand up, I did the same. He took a position, bracing the Shinai with his gut, the end of it pointing towards my nose. I opted for a different position; I stood with my Shinai up, holding it near the level of my neck, with my arms extended. Hiro was a master swordsman, so my prerogative is to keep him at bay for as long as possible. To my misfortune, Hiro was as smart as myself and quickly realized what I was doing.

He lashed out, breaking my guard by going immediately for the legs, this made me lower my Shinai, which gave him the opportunity to land a crippling blow to my neck. Then a blow to each side of my ribcage, and to finish it off, he swept my legs. I was hard pressed to find a weakness to exploit with this man, he was incredibly talented. We kept at it, each time I became a bit better, blocking one of two of Hiro's attacks but still inevitably, a finishing blow was doled out by Hiro. He stayed silent throughout the whole match, not a smile, not a hand when I fell, nothing. If I stayed down for a few minutes trying to recuperate, he would just go and kneel in the corner.

I replayed all the fights in my head and that was when I saw it. Every time he tried to sweep the legs; he would leave his right shoulder open to a blow. I got up, he did the same, I took a deep breath and tried to deduce what came next. He hammered at my ribcage, blow after blow, until I felt one of the blows have less power on it, I knew this was my chance, he drew his Shinai high in the air, about to sweep the legs, he began to bring the Shinai down as I rose mine, before I knew it a gave an earth-shattering blow to his shoulder. This disoriented him, I quickly jumped on it, I gave a blow to the neck, two to the ribcage, and three to his right leg. I then did a sweep to his right leg with my left, putting him on the ground. That just shows how fast a fight can be changed in favor of one or another. This was the first time he cracked a smile.

"Ha! Well done Daniel, it was the damn shoulder, I knew I should of tightened up my sweping technique!" He said laughing. He stood up and gently put a hand on my ribcage, it was only now, when all the focus and determination was lost that I could feel how much pain my ribcage was in, I lifted up my Gi to find my whole abdomen black and blue. I tried to take step forward and one of my legs gave out. Thankfully, Hiro caught me before I face-planted on the ground. I was confused now because of the supposed ability of healing that I thought I had. Hiro spoke just before I got lost in my mind.

"Don't worry Daniel, bruises heal slower than cuts..." He said, helping me limp to the changing room. After we got dressed, Hiro helped me downstairs, however we passed the floor that our rooms were on...

"Hiro?" I spoke, "Where are we going?" I asked.

"Don't worry, this will help you get better." He said, walking off of the elevator.

As I walked out myself I saw a full spa. I walked through the door and it opened to a large twenty foot ceiling, in the middle of this room; there was a large octagonal hot tub. All of the room was designed with beautiful navy blue and white tiles. To the left side of the hot tub was a door that led to a steam room. The door on the right side of the hot tub led to a sauna. However Hiro walked over to what looked to be a wall, but there was a fingerprint sensor on the wall. Hiro put his finger to it and the whole wall slid back and to the right, giving way to a brand new room. This room was a very traditional Japanese-looking room, with bamboo walls and beautiful teak floors. Instead of having one hot tub in the center of this room, there were four bath tubs that were filled up with some substance that has the consistency of maple syrup, however it was absolutely crystal clear. Hiro told me to get in, he did the same and go into the tub next to me.

As I sank into the tub, the effects were immediate. There was a small tingling everywhere that touched the water. It was as if I was main-lining serotonin, I just felt good. We didn't talk much at all, we both just sat, it seemed like Hiro was meditating and I was playing some chess in my head with Vitur, while working on some small trigonometry questions. It felt like the longer that I have had Tarrzia in my system, the smarter I got, I started to get slightly concerned at the idea that I can't slow down this progression. However, what scared me more is the unknown, about how this would effect me emotionally, you can't learn emotions again, they are natural, but what is happening to me isn't natural. I could imagine that in my line of work that a bit of Stoicism would be good, however I don't want it to effect my personal life.

If I was going to turn into something that I didn't want to be because of this drug, then I should go and be with the ones I love until something changes. I eased slowly out of the tub, not wanting to subject myself to more pain then needed. However, as I eased out, there was no pain, I looked down and there were no bruises either. I looked over to Hiro who had his eyes open with a little smirk on his face.

"It is similar to the water that you have back at your place in Boston, however, where yours was in the arctic, mine was in Africa, hundreds of feet under the hot desserts. There was a process that took thousands of years that turned the water to this syrupy consistency. Your water works the same way at home, yes?" He asked.

"No," I responded "You don't tingle when you are in my water." I said.

"No matter, I will have one of my men in Boston drop some off at your place. I single drop with add that effect to your tub or tubs." He said, closing his eyes and going back into meditation.

As I returned upstairs I saw that both Megan and Samantha were up, it was about 8:00am now, Hiro and I have been working since around 4:00am. They were both sitting on the couch and chatting quietly. I was silent on my feet as I walked into the room, I was going to make some breakfast and I didn't want to disturb them. I started by making some pancake batter. Thankfully, Hiro has a griddle built into the range so pancakes were a breeze. After the pancakes were on, I grabbed some eggs, bacon, and peppers out of the fridge. I slid the cutting board towards me and grabbed my knife roll from the counter. Aldrich had sharpened them for me perfectly. It felt like a blast in the past to have my knife back in my hand. I had used it so much that it was like an extension of my hand by now. As I chopped away, I herd two sets of foot steps coming from opposite sides of the house. It was Mae walking in from my left, and Ed from my right. They both sat in the living room next to Meg and Sam. As I flipped the last omelet, the buffet was all set up, and all of the knifes, pots, and pans were clean and away, I herd the elevator door open, it was Hiro. I called everyone into the kitchen to dig in.

It seemed like everyone was hungry because I just barely made enough food. Everybody was happy in this moment, smiles and laughs filled the room. It is in moments like this that I truly realize how happy I am to be here and with those who I love. I swear, almost everybody at the table must of been able to see the way that I looked at Megan, head over heels in love, riding the contagious high of happiness. I haven't given her the ring yet, the moment is going to be perfect, and I think I have just the place to do it. I made sure to slip the ring into my pocket before we did anything else that day.

We finished up breakfast and everybody seemed to have their own plans; Ed, Mae, and Sam were going to go shopping, and Hiro had to get back to some work. That left Megan and I to go and do something, I think I had the perfect plan. Megan and I both like to ride on motorcycles, on the off chance that we ever got a day off from work we would always rent a bike and go on a road trip.

We hopped on to a bike that was waiting out side and started the 75mi journey to Irohazaka, one of the best driving roads in Japan. We sped down the freeway, using Vitur as the ultimate cop-detector. We were cruising at about 110mph the whole way there. We had some really nifty helmets that Hiro provided which let us talk to each other the whole way there. Before all of this happened, we normally didn't have many people over to our house or to stay the night. It used to just be Megan and I, so when we aren't able to talk or to just have some alone time it can get stressful for her and frustrating for myself. It was good that we both had this time to talk and bring things back to basics. We finally arrived at the mountain-hugging road and proceeded to ride it aggressively, normally, any of the past girlfriends I had would freak out, but Megan wasn't just a past girlfriend, she was on the back of the bike giggling and enjoying every minute of it. We kept riding this beautiful stretch of road, twisting and turning our way up the mountains until we found a turn off spot.

We pulled down the road to be greeted by a breathtaking view of the small towns and cities that surrounded the mountain that Irohazaka led to. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Period. This was the type of healing I was in desperate need of, the soulful healing that comes by seeing things that are so spectacular with the ones you love. Its a very humbling thing you know, the fact that the earth has been here for billions of years, and I have only been here for twenty two of those years. It makes you realize how small you are, that's for damn sure. I looked over to Megan, I figured now is as good a time as any. I psyched myself up, looked over to her, and started to talk.

"Megan, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. If all of the wealth we had was gone tomorrow; It wouldn't matter to me so long as I had you by my side. You are intelligent, beautiful, and have one of the purist souls that I could of ever met. I couldn't imagine a life spent without you at my side. With that being said," I pulled the ring out of my pocket and got onto one knee. She was already tearing up. "Will you marry me?" I asked.

I almost didn't feel her in my arms as she so quickly flew into them, repeatedly screaming yes. It was a beautiful feeling to know that she was so happy, almost as happy as myself! I brought her in for a kiss. A long and passionate kiss later, we were walking hand in hand down the trails, looking at the great views. We found a bench to sit down on. Looking out, seeing sprawling greens, and long stretches of tarmac, some that would certainty see the wheels of my motorcycle very soon. Megan was leaning against my shoulder, then she stood up.

I was curious as to what she was doing, but I soon knew when she dropped to her knees in front of me. She unzipped my leather pants and took my semi-hard cock out of my pants and gave it some strokes. I was growing in her hand by the second, and soon I was fully erect. She took me into her warm and moist mouth. Bobbing her head up and down while massaging my balls. She would swirl her tongue right over the glands on my head, that induced a shiver down my spine. She seemed to like that because I felt the vibrations of a small giggle that reverberated through my rock hard dick. She took her mouth of my cock and spoke.

"Damn that motorcycle gets me horny, it was vibrating my clit the whole way over here!" She said as she started to unzip her leather pants, revealing her cute purple and lacy panties. "I need your dick in me now Danny!" She gets what she wants most of the time, however it helps when I am a willing participant.

I eased my rock hard dick into my Fiance. With Vitur patrolling for any people, we were free to fuck. I had a good pace going, she was already mumbling incoherently as I continued my relentless assault on her womanhood. Her moans kept driving me to fuck her harder and harder. The heat between us could of started a fire as I continued to lay into her. It was as if we were together for the first time again.