Wow this is my first story to ever hit one hundred followers. Thanks really are in order for everyone who has followed, favorited, reviewed, maybe even told a friend or two. Seeing as how One Punch Man season two is coming out later this year expect to see a lot more updates. Once again thank you everyone!

Chapter 9: Power Through!

"Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. So many stairs." Cerci hacked and pulled herself up the final length of the stone staircase. "Why did Grandpa have to put his dojo all the way up here?" She pushed open the gargantuan red doors to her grandfather's home, looking all around for any other souls. The courtyard was quiet. The many students that once filled every inch of this once famed training ground where nowhere to be found. "Maybe in here? Ah."

Bang set his sup of tea down and glanced over at his granddaughter. "About time you made it up here. It's almost eight o' clock." She sighed and dropped her bag near the entrance. He offered her a cup. She took it and started drinking with him. "So are you ready to begin?" The girl nodded jumping up from her place and getting into a fighting stance. "No you're not is the answer."

Her head snapped down in disappointment. "Why not?" She asked.

"Proper training equipment is required. Follow me." He lead her to a closet. It was filled with white training gi and weights. "First go change and put on these weights underneath your clothing." She did as she was told and found the nearest room to change in.

"How much do these things weigh?" Cerci slugged her way back into the main hall sporting her new uniform. "Ok Grandpa I got everything...who's this guy?" She asked.

The elder man pulled him to the front. This boy was muscular from the looks of it and had brown hair atop his head. "This young man's name in Charanko. He's another one of my disciples. He just arrived actually, late I might add."

"What!? But I started at six."

"Hey that's the same time I started." She smirked. "We must have missed each other on the way up. I bet we could have talked and made the walk up a lot less strenuous." Trudging over to her fellow student she put out a hand. "I'm Cerci nice to meet you." Her arms snapped back the moment he let go. "How heavy are these things?" She gurgled.

"Nice to meet you too. Glad to see someone else see's the wisdom in Master Bang's teachings."

The old man ignored both their banter. Bang felt along her back loosening the series of connected body weights. "Looks like I made it a little too tight on you." He nodded. "However you will be keeping those on." He told her. "They will be a very essential part of your training today."

She nodded. "Ok." She pumped her fist. "What are we doing first?"

"Both of you get on opposite sides of the arena. I want to have a quick assessment of both of your capabilities at the moment." They stood on opposite ends. Charanko glared at her and got into his master's stance. Cerci just put up her fist. She did not really know anything. "Begin!"

Bang's disciple skirted across the ground aiming for her legs and kicking Cerci off her feet. She rolled over dodging his next attack. She stumbled to her feet. The attacks continued. "Get a hold of yourself." Bang said. "Take a breath and analyze the way he moves." She grit her teeth and jumped as far back as she could. The boy closed the gap and tackled her to the ground.

She barely managed to ward off any strikes. "Dang it." She muttered. "Think think. The weights are slowing me down but I can't take them off. I'm not strong to begin with but if I can just hit him I can maybe hurt him. Maybe if I wait for an opening?"

Bang sighed. "Looks like we'll have to start even further down than I anticipated. Alright you to call it-"

"Hyah!" Cerci's arm jet up from her side smashing into Charanko's chin. He staggered backwards rubbing it. In that moment she ran as fast as she could and used the momentum of herself and the weights and used both arms to chop into his collar bone. To finish she wrapped her arms around his neck using her full weight to keep him down. "I think I-oh no I don't."

He stood back up. Her personal weight was nothing. It was what she was wearing that made it difficult for him to get back up. He did nonetheless however. "Good think you aren't heavy." He pulled his fist back.

"This is gonna hurt." She covered her face.

"Enough!" Bang concluded the match. He nodded. "That was surprisingly good. No doubt Charanko would have won if the fight continued but for not knowing anything she did fairly well." Silverfang thought to himself. "I'm sure you both will want to cool down after all that. Come on we're going for a little walk towards the waterfall."

"Ow!" She got dropped. "Are we going to go swimming?" Minutes later she discovered what he meant by a little walk. He had filled two buckets to the brim with water and commanded them to not spill a drop. A bamboo shoot laid across their backs connecting the buckets. Bang stayed a few steps ahead of them so that he could properly lead. "Do you do this everyday Charanko?"

"Hm? No not everyday." He said picking up the pace to keep at the same level as her. "Master said we were going to do some special training tomorrow. He probably wants me to show you how it's done so he's bringing out the big guns."

"Whoa really!? Then how strong are you!?"

"I'm Master's number one disciple!"

"Really!? Out of how many then!? If there are more people that'll be so-"

"Out of the two of us at least."

"...Oh. Guess Garou did a lot more damage to the school's reputation than I thought." She thought. "But at least there's still one brave person who wants to learn from Grandpa. He must be really something if the Silverfang kept him around for so long. I bet it'll be a real blast to learn along someone who's not already super strong."

~Cerci's Apartment~

"Achoo." Genos rubbed his nose. "That's strange. I suppose the Doctor must have added a new feature. Rover," He called. "Lunch is ready."

~Waterfall~

"Well that wasn't so bad." Cerci heaved the heavy load off of her back and rolled her shoulders. "Maybe without all this stuff to weigh me down I might have been able to keep up with Grandpa. How about you Ch-charanko?" He was doubled over on the ground gasping for air. "Hm. Maybe Saitama's training has helped my endurance at the very least. That's good."

"Ok," Bang whispered. "Charanko get up. Cerci come over here." A set of pillars stretched across the lake at the base of the waterfall. "Both of you must get over to the bottom of the waterfall by only using the pillars. You can take any path that you want but helping one another is absolutely forbidden. The one who fails to get to the end before the other will be forced to carry all the water pales back home by themselves. Understood? Then go."

Charanko threw off his sandals and leaped. He steadied himself on one then jumped from one to the other with seemingly no problem. "Aw man." Cerci took a path to the right of his. "And jum-wah!" She fell into the water. Bang ushered for her to try again. She did and fell back into the water. "How the heck can I do this?" She whined quietly.

Halfway across the lake Charanko had to stop. He placed both feet down on the pillars and breathed in. He felt his stomach, nodded, then kept jumping? "His stomach?" She tightened her own and jumped on. "Whoa! Whoa! Hey I'm doing it." She took a breath. "Deep breathing and keeping my core tight?" She jumped again. "Oh my gosh I did it! And again. And again. And a-whoa! I-I-I still got it!" She shouted and went.

She slowly closed the lead from Charanko. "Almost there." Here eyes grew brighter with each step. "I am almost."

"Gah!" Her fellow apprentice fell from the pillar, barely holding on. Cerci observed the scene. She could win right now. "Hm. Granpa said we shouldn't help each other but...is this a trick?" The old man silently watched. "I'm probably going to get in trouble for this but uh," She quickly jumped from each shoot to shoot over to her rival's side.

"Aw man there's no way I can go off losing to the-newbie?" She extended a hand down for him. She could hardly hold herself up. "What are you?" He took a handful of her outfit and got back up, but obviously at a price. "Sorry but I ain't losing." He finished the race. Bang groaned. Of course this was going to happen.

He jumped into the water. There was something red. "What in the-" Death blinked through Bang's mind. A warping, unending darkness. He sucked up water in fear and rubbed his eyes. It was only Cerci. She waved to her master and patiently waited for him to bring them both back to the surface. "Thanks. Thought I was going to drown there for sure...why are are you staring at me like that?"

The white haired man stared her down. Was he imagining things? "What did I say about helping one another?" Silverfang shook his head. "Always with you. You're too kind at times. Alright that's enough for that. Get back over here boy." On the side of a cliff face. Bang pulled his arms together at his sides. "Breathe in."

They obeyed. "Follow my moves exactly." Bang extended his arms. His students copied him doing exactly as he did. Punching the air, kicking the air, touching their toes, and getting in a variety of stances. "Charanko you're stiff loosen up." The young man gulped his master's advice caused him to tense up even more so. "Cerci you're slow. Speed up."

"I'm trying." She whimpered.

"I don't want you to try. Do." She was silent for a moment. "Cerci. We're on the next step now stop doing that."

"But I-"

"Don't talk back." She growled. "You're brother could do this far easier. He may have forgotten the style already but at least he knew how to copy like a monkey."

"Sorry I'm not Amai." She muttered.

The small dojo continued like this for twenty more minutes. "The next step is simple." He showed them a pair of boulders. "All you have to do is break these with the styles that I showed you in the previous exercise."

"But h-how are we supposed to do that Master?"

"Master...well I suppose you should call me that in front of another student. What you just observed were motions to Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist. Albeit in slow motion. Take what I have shown you and apply it to these rocks as if they were opponents. I will say this again do these exercises alone. No helping one another. Go!"

"How am I supposed to do this? This is a boulder. A full on boulder! I can barely move already and he wants me to break these. No. Calm down. I can do this! I bet if I just cheat off Charanko a little bit I can-" The smack of meet on rock filled the air. The other apprentice was rolling on the ground writhing in pain. "Ok...just try to do something." She lightly tapped it. "Hm." She tapped it again then pull on punched it next.

She got into a proper stance hitting the same place over and over again. "Feels wrong." She shook herself. "Maybe..." She aimed for other places waiting for the feeling of weakness throughout her rocky enemy. "Is that all you can do? I expected more." He went over to Charanko. Mumbles. "What was that?" More mumbles. "Speak up Cerci. I can barely hear you."

"I said I'm trying old man!" Cut through him. There it was again.

Cerci covered her mouth in fear. She bowed to her elder seconds later rapidly apologizing for her outburst. She went back to her boulder. "Hahaha." She huffed. No headway had been made. There were small cracks around the front of the boulder but no damage had been made.

Bang looked over their shoulders. "Still a little too much for you I believe. Alright that's enough for today. Cerci as per you losing the race you have to carry Charanko's share of the water back. Also as punishment for not listening you will carry mine back as well. Meet me back at the Dojo when you've collected everything." He started down the trail.

"Ok." She moped. Cerci gathered the buckets, shoots, and filled them with water. "Super heavy." She groaned. "Huh?" Charanko put one on his back. "What are you doing?"

"Helping out duh. I get the feeling I would have lost if you didn't help me out." He admitted. Charanko looked down at the ground as they began their walk. He felt a bit ashamed taking advantage of her like that but all the same he wanted to impress his master. "She's his granddaughter she might pass me up in no time but still...Why did you help me?" He asked.

"What?"

"Why did you help me?"

"Master said it was forbidden to help each other. So why did you?"

She thought for a moment. "Well...I-I-" He looked at her intently. His ears tuned to her every 'um' as if he was about to hear some grand revelation. "I don't know really."

"What do you mean you don't know!? You think you can just go against the Master like that?"

"No it's not that it's more like...helping people's sort of in me you know? I can't explain it anymore than that." She snickered. "Sorry. I know I'm weird."

"Tch." He picked up the pace. "We're gonna be back soon. I'll give this back to you when we're almost there."

"Hm." Bang rubbed his chin from the bushes and moved backward. The boulder Cerci had beat on was still there. He rubbed the place she had hit the most. It crumbled away. "Interesting." When they returned to the dojo he pretended as if he had heard nothing. "For the final training of today we will conclude with the same way we began. Use everything you have learned today and fight one another. Begin."

Charanko swept for her legs but this time Cerci was prepared. Using as much force as she could she fell backwards and landed on his leg. With them both on the ground she snatched the other and pulled him in. She raised her elbow prepared to sock him in the stomach. He blocked the attack and pushed her off. "No way I'm gonna let her get me again." He charged.

"He's gonna tackle me." But it was a feint. As she reached out to try to prevent his tackle he dodged around her and put the girl in a choke hold.

"Give up." He told her. Her face started turning red, blue, purple. Tap out.

"I won't." She choked. She clawed at his back seeing if there was any way she could get free. She felt along his shoulder. "His shoulder? His shoulder. His shoulder!" She dug her finger into the muscles causing him to flinch. She did the same with her other hand. Now free she palmed him in the stomach making him double over. "Got ya."

Charanko recovered quickly. Cerci could only grit her teeth as he returned drop kicking her and sending the blue haired girl down. The match was over. He coughed. "What the heck was that?"

"Good the both of you." Bang helped her up. "Charanko you're doing well. If we can just get your style together we might just make a fighter out of you. As for you Cerci. You failed every test today. I'll have to ask you to stay a little longer. Charanko go ahead and head home." He left with a quick goodbye. Now that he was gone Bang brought his descendant into his home.

It was a small area a little ways away from the main training grounds. He flicked on the television and brought a plate of sushi for her. "Eat up. Where to begin? Where to begin? He sighed.

She started fidgeting. Bang knew what was about to come. He knew what she was thinking right now. "A-are you mad at me? Because you wasted your time trying to train someone who can't even follow simple intrusions." She teared up. "I understand if you don't want to-"

"Sweetheart," He began. "Even though you failed everyone of my tests today I'm still very proud of you. You could have done better but remember I limited you by those training weights. You're speed is still something astounding even with them on. Saitama must have been doing something right if at least one of your natural aspects shines through. However...you will forever be inhibited because of one thing."

"One thing? What are you talking about?"

"One thing. That darkness inside of you." He pressed her chest. "Something lingering in you. Long forgotten. It needs to be purged. If not you will never become stronger than you are right now. "