The Traveler: Martial Druid

“Kazama-kun I… I love you”

Standing under the cherry blossoms Kazama felt like the time stopped for him at that moment. He couldn’t comprehend what he had just heard. Aino? Love him? What?

He looked at Aino’s pink lips, almond green eyes, snow-white skin and slightly flushed cheeks. Maybe she really confessed to him? No, no he shouldn’t get ahead of himself. Today was windy so she might have just felt a little cold and it might have been the wind playing a trick on his ears.

*Thump*

Still, all this self-rationalization couldn’t stop his heart from beating furiously.

“Kazama-kun?” Seeing Aino fidget nervously in front of him while waiting for his answer made Kazama’s heart beat even more furiously. So this was all real and he wasn’t imagining anything?

*Thump* *Thump*

Oh no! While he was making her wait Aino must have been dying from nervousness. He needed to give his answer as soon as possible. As Kazama opened his mouth he still couldn’t believe that his springtime of youth had finally arrived.

*Thump* *Thump* *Thump*

Kazama opened his mouth to say yes but no sound could be heard. That was when Kazama finally noticed that the world around him started to spin.

*Thump* *Thump* *Thump* *Thump*

Kazama watched Aino rush towards him while the world started to go black. As he was fainting there was only a single thought on his mind.

Fuck… why now of all times?

“Have you done any strenuous physical activity lately?”

A stale air that smelled like antiseptics, white-lifeless fluorescent light hanging in the ceiling and a leather bed that burnt skin. He was back at this cursed place once again.

“Not one. Just walking to school as usual”

As Kazama answered the old rugged doctor he was checking Kazama’s patient chart and frowning to himself. Both of them were aware that they were just going through the motions and he couldn’t find anything.

After all, they already knew the answer to Kazama’s predicament.

Congenital Heart Deficiency

CHD for short.

This was the name of the curse Kazama had been afflicted with since his birth. Without going into details too much when he was still in his mother’s womb his heart had developed poorly so now his heart could stop working at any second.

“Well, with this we should be able to apply for a request to up your priority for a heart transplant”

Kazama just smiled in a self-deprecating manner. He knew that it would get rejected again anyway so why should he bother getting up his hope? In this country, doctors only cared about having clean records. This meant they would never do surgeries which they felt could fail. This way they could boast about how they had the best doctors in the world while in reality, they wouldn’t have as many surgeries under their belts as western doctors.

He didn’t know if this was the correct approach but at least to him, this was something terrible. He didn’t even know if he could wake up tomorrow morning but the doctors kept refusing his request for heart surgeries with excuses like he was still underage, or that his heart could still hang on for some time so they should focus on more urgent cases bla bla bla

“Kid, you listening to me?” asked the doctor seeing as Kazama was daydreaming.

“Hm? Oh yeah, I think you said something about upping my medication?”

“I don’t believe you did but who cares. You are right, now with this dosage you shouldn’t have any troubles with your heart for the time being but it will damage your heart even further in the long term. That’s why we need to get you a new heart as soon as possible”

“Yes doc, I got it. So when can I leave?”

“You should stay under supervision for the night but you can get discharged tomorrow morning. I got a call from your parents they said they were going to leave the convention as soon as possible and get on a flight home.”

“Then do I need to wait for them to arrive before I can get discharged?”

“No worries, I have a stack of release forms with their signatures on them. I also got permission to use one from your parents over the phone and recorded it. So you guys can’t sue me if something goes awry”

“Pfft, like hell we would ever sue you” Kazama laughed at the rugged doctor's antics.

“I know but just in case” the doctor also started to laugh with him.

He was just trying to relax Kazama and set his heart at ease. Doctor Aizawa was a long-time friend of their family and even if something happened to Kazama his parents would never blame him.

Certainly, Kazama didn’t even know if he could wake up tomorrow morning but the doctor was acting like it was already a given, trying to instil confidence in Kazama.

Thinking about it like that he had really come along a long way. He was already 16 years old so there were only 2 years left for his heart surgery.

In fact, him living right now could be called a miracle. When he was just born, doctors didn’t even expect him to live past two weeks. That was also the reason why his father had postponed naming him till he was six months old when doctors finally told his parents that Kazama should be able to make it to adulthood if he took care of his body along with some medication.

Hearing that his father had named him Katsuo which meant victory. His reasoning behind that was he wished that Katsuo could keep winning against his fate and live a fulfilling life. He was cheering him on his own way.

So this was the story behind his name Kazama Katsuo.

As Kazama thought about random stuff he slowly started to fall asleep unconsciously.

Kazama walked out of the pharmacy with a white plastic bag in his hand. It contained his new medication. His parents still haven’t arrived home yet. Due to the martial arts convention, there weren’t any empty seats on the flights.

Oh yeah, is it a bad time to mention why his family was at a martial arts convention?

It was because the Kazama family was one the last proper martial dojos left in this country with a complete heritage. His father was the disciple of the previous family head who was Katsuo’s grandpa from his mother’s side. So he was basically a live-in son-in-law and took his mother’s surname.

Both his parents were reputable martial artists and the oldest child of the family was born disabled. Such a cruel trick of the fate isn’t it?

At least they had his little sister who could inherit the family, or at worst her husband could but Katsuo had no doubt that she would be the one inheriting it since she was a prodigy when it came to using her body.

Katsuo couldn’t help but envy her. That was supposed to be him. If only it weren’t for his heart he would be the martial genius of the family. This wasn’t just some form of self-denial either.

Once when he was a wee little kid he had seen his father train in their martial arts style Shin-ryu karate. At the time he didn’t know about his heart so he had copied his father’s moves as they seemed fun and he could. But his heart acted up and he was rushed to the hospital. Ever since then, Katsuo had been banned from getting close to the training hall. But he could still remember those moves to this day. If only his heart was strong enough.

Some days Katsuo just wished he would get hit by a truck and die. That way he could get reincarnated in a different world with a healthy body. Then he could bring down any evildoer with his fists of justice. He could even marry a princess and become a king.

While imagining his life as a royalty something at the corner of his vision caught his eye.

In the middle of the road, there was a girl with jet-black hair in a white one-piece dress. She was just standing there and looking around.

It was weird because one, it was early spring and she didn’t seem cold despite her clothes. Secondly, she looked like a foreigner.

What was she doing here?

Her white dress looked like it could belong to a patient so she might have escaped from a mental institute?

Probable.

The fact that she looked around curiously like a newborn fawn didn’t help her case either.

Or she could just be a weabo who came to visit his country and was in awe of its beauty.

This was also probable.

Well whatever the case, it was better to stay away from her. That was when she and the weird girl locked eyes.

*Hoooooonk*

Katsuo saw a sports car speed through the street towards the weird girl. But the girl didn’t seem like she had any intention of moving and instead she had started to smile at him like she had just found a treasure.

“What are you doing? MOVE!!”

Seeing the girl not move an inch Katsuo couldn’t take it anymore. He dropped his medicine and dashed towards the girl.

He jumped at her and the duo rolled on the asphalt road while the car rushed past them.

While they were rolling around Katsuo’s life flashed through his eyes. He was only a 16 year old virgin. He was going to die without even holding a girls hand!!... Wait? He was hugging a girl right now would that count?

*THUD*

Katsuo secured the girl in his embrace as they crashed into a lamppost.

His back was hurting but he looked at the girl in his embrace and she still looked fine. Maybe just a little bit of disoriented.

*Thump*

Oh no!

Katsuo started to despair. He recognized this beat.

*Thump* *Thump*

“Call… an ambulance…”

As he gasped for air Katsuo managed to utter these words before collapsing.

While his vision was disappearing, Katsuo could hear the girl mutter something. Even though the words sounded foreign he could somehow understand them.

“Black star of the void?… he should do just fine”