"I can't believe I'm up so early." Jessica groaned sleepily as she and Tiffany made their way through the entrance of the convention center. 

 

Tiffany giggled at her lazy blonde friend. "You're the one who wanted to see those presentations. Maybe you should have checked the time."

 

Jessica meronged her. "I don't want to see them, I have to," she let slip. 

 

"Have to?" Tiffany looked at her confused. To her knowledge, Jessica seemed like she wanted to go to the presentations.

 

"Uh... Yeah. I have to because I'm such a big fan, it would be stupid of me not to." Good enough of a cover. Tiffany was easy to fool. Not that she liked to, but it was necessary right now.

 

Tiffany nodded in understanding. It made enough sense to her.

 

 

 

The protector and her charge watched Jung Yunho's presentation, bored. Tiffany didn't exactly know what he was saying and Jessica kept dozing off. The Kwangjangnim's presentation was actually very riveting if you were familiar with the subject, but for the two girls, it was in one ear and out the other. The presentation was about a virtual reality training program. Jung Yuhno had worked with the designers to make it as real as today's technology would allow. Jessica would have probably paid more attention if it just wasn't so early for her lazy self, though she thought traditional training would be the best.

 

 

Sometime after the presentation was wrapping up, Jessica's ears perked up.

 

"Now, who would like to try the program out?" Jung Yunho asked excitedly to the crowd. 

 

"ME!"

 

"NO ME, JUNG KWANGJANGNIM!"

 

"OVER HERE!"

The crowd of Martial Arts enthusiasts and people who actually trained yelled out. All were extremely up for the chance to use something that Jung Yunho helped make. Jung Yunho is one of the world's top Martial Arts masters, his specially is Tae Kwon Do. So actually getting this chance to use something this world renowned master aided in designing, was the chance of a lifetime. 

 

 

The Kwangjangnim searched through the crowd, looking through all of the people for a certain blonde girl with attitude. When he spotted her, he yelled, "YOU!" and pointed. Everyone turned their eyes, heads, and bodies to look at who the great master had chosen. Some people groaned, some yelled in discontent, and some cursed their luck (and Jessica). None of it helped them though. Jessica was currently in the middle of her dozing and Tiffany had to nudge her. The blonde glared at her charge, but stopped and looked around at all of the people staring at her in envy, then up to the stage where Jung Yunho was waiting with a smile.

 

"Go up and try it out," Tiffany whispered to the confused girl.

 

Jessica nodded numbly and walked to the stage. She bowed respectfully and put on the virtual control helmet. The Kwangjangnim explained to her all the precautionary measures and flipped the switch turning on the program. There was a giant screen where everyone could watch what was going on in the program. Jung Yunho decided to have some fun and put on another helmet, so that he was in the program with the blonde girl.

 

 

 

******

 

 

 

Inside the program now, Jessica approved of the reality of it. Everything in the dojang looked fairly real, but she could still see the digital-ness of it all. Suddenly, while the blonde was perusing the program's dojang, Yunho appeared. He smiled at her and she bowed again, he reciprocated.

 

"Time to prove whatever it was is worth my while," he said, still smiling. Though many would see his smile as kind and warm, like that of a father, Jessica saw it as creepy. It was a smile that held so much behind it; enthusiasm, playfullness, and a little malice. It's the last one that threw the blonde off.

 

Jessica nodded and bowed again. She knew exactly what he meant. The blonde readied herself and waited for the go ahead.

 

Yunho Kwangjangnim just stood there and yawned, the go ahead. The master knew she wouldn't be able to land a single hit, but he thought it would be fun. Especially since this would be shown to all the people at the convention.

 

The blonde wasn't the type to strike first, but realizing the master wouldn't do it, she had to. She leapt forward with a fist pulled back and readied to land, but when she striked, she hit nothing but air. The master looked at her with an amused smile that said, 'Try again.' Jessica is extremely confident in her fighting. It's probably the only thing she could boast about herself to other people, part of the reason she liked her little fighter for hire business.

 

She relaxed herself by taking a deep breath and stretching some. Instead of getting frustrated right away, Jessica took it as a warm up punch. After a little break, she attacked again. With a roundhouse kick aimed at the Kwangjangnim's left side, she thought it would land. It didn't, she hit more air. The master simply took two steps back, smiling.

 

Two times of not landing a blow seemed to be Jessica's limit. She grunted and went for a straightforward attack, throwing her fists at the man. Yunho easily dodged every single punch the blonde threw. He had a hunch she was a reactive girl, but he thought she would've lasted a little longer. 

 

Jessica pulled back, panting. She was even more frustrated. The blonde isn't the type of person to take obvious loss of a fight. She caught her breath and charged again. The master kept his cheery smile as he dodged Jessica. He noted everything pertinent about the blonde girl's fighting style. She's quick, precise, and a powerful. Not saying she's the best, because she could definitely use some more training, but she was d*amn good. Great even. 

 

 

Once Jessica backed off again, Yunho spoke. "Okay!" he clapped his hands. "That's enough. We've reached our time limit."

 

 

 

 

******

 

 

 

 

"You are a very talented fighter," he praised after they had taken off the virtual reality helmet. His presentation was over and he called Jessica over to the back stage area to talk. 

 

Jessica bowed and thanked him. 

 

"What is it you needed to talk about?"

 

"I'm uh... Jung Kwangjangnim, I'm Jung Jessica. I was brought back to life after making a deal with the spirit world's second in command. I am to protect someone. I was told to find you and another master and ask you to train me and my charge."

 

Jung Yunho nodded with a smile on his face. He figured the spirit world would be doing something like this. "Sorry, Jessica. I'm not teaching anymore. I'm just with the R&D now."

 

Jessica's eyes went wide, "But Kwangjangnim! I need you to train me and my charge."

 

"I know, but that's not my problem. There are other masters that are still willing to train students."

 

"But I was told to get you and the other master only. There must be a reason the spirit world told me to look for you."

 

"There is a very good reason, but I don't deal with the spirit world anymore."

 

"But-"

 

Yunho started to walk away from the blonde. "Sorry Jessica. Find someone else. Best of luck to ya."

 

 

 

Jessica trudged back to Tiffany scowling at everyone who happened to look at her. She's failing in everything today. She needs Yunho and the other master. 

 

Tiffany immediately noticed the foul mood Jessica and hugged her friend from the side. The redhead thinks that hugs can fix everything. Jessica's mood did get a little better from the gesture, but it wasn't enough. The blonde let go and gave Tiffany a small smile as a thanks for the hug. Tiffany smiled back. 

 

 

The stayed in their spots, facing the stage. They had to wait and see the other presentation. The next one was late so all of the following presentations were backed up too. Jessica leaned her head on Tiffany's shoulder and complained about how tired she was. Tiffany told her to deal with it since she wasn't going to let the blonde miss the opportunity. 

 

 

The presentation finally started and everyone shut up and listened. The person was a beautiful, older woman, elegant, and rather short. This woman had the ability to make everyone just stop and stare. Her aura was comforting, but one would still get the feeling of intensity. Kwon Boa is the other Martial Arts master that Jessica had to get to train them. World renowned as the 'Big Sister of Kung Fu.' She's both feared and loved in the Martial Arts world. Younger than the other masters, but still a being of immense power. Her presentation was rather dry, but no one could help but listen. It was about the health benefits of practicing the Martial Arts. 

 

At the end of her presentation, Boa made a pretty surprising announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have a small announcement to make. All of you are wearing passes on lanyards over your necks. Some of you may have noticed that there are two different colored passes, blue and white. Those of you with blue passes, I would like you to come up here and have your pass scanned to receive an invitation to be in the running to train with me and Jung Yunho. Once you have received your invitation from these assistants by the stage, I'll be glad to see you on the date mentioned. Thank you very much."

 

 

Jessica and Tiffany looked at each other and then at the passes around their necks. They both had blue passes. Jessica smiled and then took Tiffany's hand to go get the invitation. Maybe this is why the Jung master said he wouldn't train them?They got their invitations and left. 

 

 

 

 

******

 

 

 

 

The red haired charge and her blonde protector stood at the base of a mountain. The invitation they has received at the convention had instructed them to be at this particular mountain, two weeks later, and at 5 am. The blonde was most definitely not happy about neither the time nor the location. 5 am is an ungodly hour for her. Tiffany had much the same sentiments as her friend. Neither of the girls are morning people, especially when they had to travel through the late night and early morning to get here. 

 

 

The girls weren't alone, of course. The others from the convention had arrived earlier than them to attend this once in a life time training chance. It looked to be about a 100 people. They were all instructed to start up the mountain at 5:30. As they waited, everyone seemed to be scoping out the competition. Jessica was more reticent about it. She kept her cold aura and unwavering mask of uninterest about the matter. Tiffany was the complete opposite. The redhead kept snapping her neck around to look in the direction of all the different conversations. 

 

 

Come 5:30, all the participants started their task of trekking up the mountain. None of them actually knew what this was all about. Tiffany had shared her theory of weeding out the weak and Jessica agreed. The duo made their way up for the first 5 minutes without complications. Once they went through the more forested area, that's when things started to get weird. The redhead spoke of some creepy feeling she had as soon as they stepped in. She told Jessica that they would probably have to be more careful from now on. 

 

 

As they hiked, something whizzed past Jessica's face, nearly hitting the tip of her nose. The blonde quickly pulled Tiffany behind her as her shield. Then, something much like whatever the first object was, almost hit Jessica's forehead if she didn't tilt her head back. Jessica looked around in the trees for what it was that was causing all of this. She couldn't make out anything, so she relied on her hearing. Closing her eyes, she focused on filtering out all the unnecessary sound of Tiffany's breathing in her right ear. That's when she heard it, a faint sound of leaves not being crunched, but being stepped on and moved askew. Jessica knew that the person had slipped on the leaves and turned her head in the direction of the sound with a smirk. She made a dash for the tree, picking up a nicely weighted stone and hurdled it at her unseen target. 

 

Jessica smiled as the person fell out of the tree head first. She went over to the dazed person and gasped when she realized it wasn't a person at all. It was a monkey-human looking being. The blonde picked it up by the back of its neck and shook it in attempt to shake it back to equilibrium. the monkey-person groaned and screeched, trying to reach out and attack Jessica's face. She held it further from her face and it started to whine. "Yah, stop whining."

 

It stopped and looked at her with sad eyes to plead with her. "Don't look at me like that either. What were you trying to do?"

 

"My job," it answered snappily. 

 

Jessica shook it again, "And what would that be you little sh-"

 

"Jessi," Tiffany called her friend softly. As weirded out by this situation as she was, she did not want Jessica to get angry. 

 

"Oh, Tiff!" Jessica tried to hide the being behind her. 

 

"Don't get mad at it, whatever it is Jessi. Calm down." Tiffany reached behind the blonde and took the snarky monkey-person. The redhead cradled it in her arms and it snuggled to her. "What are you little guy?"

 

"I'm a monkey demon, nice girl!" it said happily. 

 

Jessica glared at the monkey demon. 'Little b*stard shouldn't be all handsy with Tiffany,' Jessica thought angrily. "What's your job then?"

 

"I won't talk to her," the demon pointed to Jessica. "She's mean!"

 

"Okay, then talk to me. I have the same question." Tiffany said sweetly. 

 

"The masters set me up here as a trial for whomever is trying to go up the mountain. To help get rid of those too weak."

 

Jessica mumbled, "Some trial you are."

 

"Are there more trials?"

 

"Yes, but I can help you avoid them," the demon said proudly. 

 

"Great!" Tiffany exclaimed. Turning her attention to her protector, "Come on, Jessi!"

 

Jessica followed after the two grumbling about the demon that was more like a whiny little kid. 

 

 

 

 

******

 

 

 

The duo and their monkey demon guide arrive at the top of the mountain. They stood at the gate of a great compound that looked like it was a set of a historical drama. Jessica walked through with Tiffany and the monkey now following her. 

 

 

They were not alone, of course. There was 20 other competitors already there. 22 people out of a 100 is a pretty sad number. All those that were there checked each other out, determining if whom they expected to make it out, actually did. 

 

 

After some time of waiting, the masters finally made their long prolonged appearance. All the competitors turned their attention to the two on the deck in front of the courtyard. Jung Yunho had a too-happy-for-this smile and Kwon Boa had a soft smile on their faces. "Welcome!" Yunho bellowed. "I'm glad to see at least this many made it up the mountain."

 

"Yes, welcome to all of you that made it through," Boa said. 

 

 

"Made it through? Were you expecting us to fail?" one of the competitors yelled out. He was build sturdily, like he was ex-military, had a shaved head, and wore his gi. Not a nice looking fellow 

 

"Yeah! I nearly got knocked out by some bat thing!" another added. This one was a woman, built probably just as sturdily as the man. She probably packed one hell of a punch too. 

 

Yunho kept his smile and answered, "Of course we expected some of you to fail. So what? Do you really think we'd simply invite potential students and be done with it?"

 

"Now that you are all here, we'll get on with it. You should know, that only one of you will pass. You have 10 minutes of resting before your next trial," Boa said to diffuse the situation. Sometimes Yunho could be an a**. Before anyone could complain, "If you have anything to complain about, leave now. We're not here to please you." With that, the masters returned back inside the building they emerged from earlier. 

 

 

Jessica sighed, plopped down on the courtyard and sprawled out. Tiffany sat down beside her and laughed at her lazy friend. The monkey demon scampered off from the duo after hugging Tiffany one more time and stepping on Jessica as he left. The blonde girl was too tired to do anything. 10 minutes was more than enough time to rest, but Jessica was worried about the next trial.