The Red Nights

The day after the improvised meeting , as it has been discussed, Jamal woke up than usual and got prepared for the patrol. He went out from his apartment and head to meet up with Natasha , who was as her usual already there at the rendezvous point , waiting for him .

" Hey , good morning " She started.

" Hi , how are you today ? " Jamal asked.

" Honestly, I don't know. I'm very confused in my head . A mix of worry , excitement , laziness , anger and some other feelings I'm too ashamed to reveal them to you .

Jamal smiled " From now just focused on your anger we will start with that and then we will see about the other feelings after " He stepped toward the direction of the barrier " let's go, we should not lose our time " .

So they headed to the limit of the city. They made their daily check along the barrier however , since the sun did not rise yet , they noted that there was not a single person who crossed. " I thought that since they were transformed into super humans by a mystic person, they would have no fear to come here by the night " Jamal said .

" It does not proceed like that " Natasha explained " if you remember well the dream of Matteo , he said that when he was being chased. The men were not in their form of monsters but he said they turned out to be human . Don't also forget that we had to chase the criminals through all the city , capture them and kill them before they transformed ".

Jamal wondered " so it seems like the virus , which enables people to transform, acts like a bomb which needs someone to activate it "

Natasha nodded " Yes , and even if we decide to not kill them in order to avoid their transformation , in their human condition they would still want to fight us . So in the two cases we are trapped. That f.u.c.k.i.n.g mysterious shadow played well , we are in total checkmate "

" That what this f.u.c.k.i.n.g mysterious guy thinks, but there is something he didn't take in consideration " Jamal paused and smiled " You . He miscalculated that there would be someone able to destroy definitively his indestructible minions. "

" But at this time he surely knows about me " Natasha replied. Jamal shook his head " it doesn't matter whether he knows or not , the crucial point is that you are actually his weak point, the factor which may end up all his plans " .

Natasha after she considered his words, her face became gloomy, she asked with a low voice " do you really think I can do it? I mean... you put all your hopes on me without being very sure that I'm able to do it "

" We are " he immediately said " Everyone among us doesn't doubt about your capacities. We know you that is why we all trust you " he stepped toward her " being my best student, you should not ask yourself whether you would be able to achieve it, you should instead ask yourself how you would achieve it "

Natasha didn't have any reaction, so Jamal got an idea . He stood beside her and asked her " well , summon your katana right now " . She was a bit surprised however she didn't object. She pulled out her little knife, held it in her two hands and tried to transform it into the katana. However it did not work, she concentrated more but there was still no reaction, the flames refused to appear , even after she tried again and again for more than one minute.

She lifted her head and looked at Jamal confused and worried. " I don't know what happens... it doesn't work. I don't why " . Jamal smiled " it is simple, the sword itself refuses to appear in your hands, it refuses to obey to you . You know why ? Because your heart is full of doubt and someone who is full of doubt could never be able to hold a katana. That is how noble is this weapon which is more than a simple weapon, it is one of the symbols of the determination . That is what you felt the day you save my life, that is why the sword came at you at the first time ".

Natasha closed her eyes and tried her best to throw off all the doubts which weighed on her heart [ focus on what you have to do and nothing else] she said to herself and and the flames appeared at once after. They grew slowly along the blade , drawing the shape of the katana until it appeared completely. She, then , opened back her eyes and discovered her habitual self through her sword, Natasha the audacious and fearless woman she used to be. She put her guard on , held the katana high and got ready as if she was going to fight .In her eyes Jamal could see the ferocious tiger hidden in her waking up.

" You finally came back to your senses " Jamal said to Natasha " How do you feel now? "

" Better, I apologize for acting so dramatically I promise you that it will never happen again " Natasha said still holding her sword in a fighting position .

" Never mind it's not a big deal, I would even say that actually it was beneficial for your training. Now your resolve would be even more stronger " He replied serenely .

He left Natasha there with her katana high forward her and moved for the control post . He took about five to eight minutes to reactivate all the security system. After he finished, he headed into a room and came out three seconds later with a wooden katana in his right hand. He went out to meet up with Natasha and stood four steps before her , he held the stick high in a fighting position too , the difference was that his posture was looking quite better than Natasha's.

" Shall we start then ? " Jamal asked to her who just nodded to show that she was ready ." Don't you think I should also use a wooden sword for the training like you do ? " she asked before they started to move. Jamal looked at her and smiled " only if you managed to break this one " .

" But it will be too easy though " she replied. Jamal didn't stop smiling and he he whispered " do you really think so " . He took support on his right leg which was his dominant member, he propelled himself ahead so quickly that Natasha couldn't be able to see him , even with her super reflexes she was too slow to react . Jamal appeared below her guard and hit on her left side of her abdomen, the hit was so strong that she fell on the ground.

" Are you still so confident about breaking this wooden stick? "

Natasha took few seconds before taking her breath, she sat on her the floor, she lifted her eyes toward him " seems like you put all your love for me in this strike " . She did realize that she said something awkward only after Jamal said while he was laughing " watch out your mouth, you start to speak like Lina " . She quickly hid her face behind her hands to not let Jamal see her blushing.

She jumped and stood up on her feet. She held again her sword more tightly, and attacked him. She put a lot of her energy into her sword swings however, Jamal dodged them all . At a moment she threw a strike on his left but he just jumped aside and kicked her on her belly and she fell one more time on the ground.

" Stop moving like it is a hand to hand fight . It's different from when you used to fight with your fists " Jamal said " Didn't you notice a difference in the way I'm moving ? "

Natasha tried to remember the previous trainings and to compare them to the actual sword training. She wondered and then responded " compared to when you used your fists , you don't move your entire body all the way when you're using the sword , right? "

" Exactly you have to be softer and use your super strength more wisely " he said " if you got it then get up , we will continue "

They spent all their time in the training until the sun was high in the sky. That day there was no body from the other side of the barrier who tried to cross it, what it was more suspicious. Even if they both noticed it, Jamal and Natasha didn't talk about it as they were too focused on the training .

What made Natasha the best of the Jamal's students was not her powers, it was beyond that . It was her natural talent when it came to learn , she had a particular skill which permitted her to assimilate in only three to four hours something which would normally take four to five months of course to totally memorize. In fact her body, after one or two repetitions, was able to completely assimilate a movement and reproduce it at the same manner , what was easier for Jamal to teach her.

Combined with her super strength, that skill made her a formidable opponent. Besides her , Jamal met two other girls with similar talents and before he discovered that Natasha had such capacity, he had never imagined that he would meet a third one again . It was a very shock for him when he noticed, during one his public fighting trainings, that particular and skillful student that he didn't figure it out immediately .

At the beginning he only had some little doubts , however one day when he decided to clear definitively his suspicions, he showed to his students a very complicated move that his sister taught, and asked them to reproduce it. This move was so complex that beside him or his sister no one could ever do it again but in only two essay Natasha copied it at the exactly same way as Jamal .[ How can it be possible ] he thought at that moment. After that , when he was fully sure about her potential , he especially took her as his apprentice.

" Well , I think it's enough for today. Let's go back " Jamal said after they finished to practice.

" You tell me that only now I manage to crack your wooden sword " Natasha complained. " You are such a sore loser ".

" For more than four hours I have been kicking your a.s.s, I'm just tired of winning. I even let you break it in purpose " He replied

" You are a liar , you just don't want to admit that I progressed " Natasha while they were already in the way to go back in their homes.