The morning of the next day was slightly cloudy and wet. But even so, Tustra was beautiful. This place, this planet, has always imbued me with some strange strength, ever since birth. Perhaps because it was on it that I was reborn. An old man died there, on distant Earth. I was born anew, received what I never had. A family... The Force... Friends, like Rivi. And an opportunity – to live a new life. And I intend to use everything I have. To live a new life to the fullest, trying to avoid needless regrets. I have everything for that... Taking a deep breath, I emerged from meditation. Meditations were so easy here...
"Pleasant meditation?" a caustic voice was heard. I was in the middle of my room and clearly felt when its integrity was violated. Opening my eyes, I saw the horned face of my Mentor, Knight Lorm Dezer. "I see you are ready for today. So, first – we will continue the meditation course. We will continue to form Force bonds, and then we will move on to lightsaber practice. I've been finding out, you have training grounds on Tustra. Show me your progress in your beloved Soresu first, and then we'll start learning Ataru. Well, and in the evening, I will teach you Force techniques. More precisely – train the ones you already know. Today, we'll start with telekinesis."
"This is..."
"This is approximately your schedule for the future, larva," Lorm grinned, sitting opposite me. "You remember how to form bonds, and you just came out of meditation, so you'll get back into it quickly. Come on."
And I wanted to have breakfast. The open door carried the smell of breakfast from the kitchen, which my mother was definitely working on. But, apparently, I had to stay here. I definitely couldn't object to the Teacher now. Besides, Force bonds will help me in my training. Without even getting up, I plunged back into meditation. The mentor also closed his eyes, sighed, and, judging by the sensations, entered a meditative state. The door closed, apparently so that nothing would distract me.
Again, I felt the touch of my mentor's mind. He seemed to be helping me form lines to himself. The mentor's Force... He didn't have more midi-chlorians than I did. It was immediately obvious, his potential was weaker... But there is something that can outweigh potential – experience. It was thanks to him that Lorm's Force was impressive. It was clear that he was strong, strong due to his experience. Unlike me, a sentient being who took everything solely on his talent. While my talent determined my successes, Lorm's successes were determined by hard work, experience, practice.
"Good," Lorm suddenly interrupted our joint meditation. "Not a bad result, although I expected more."
"When will they form, mentor?" I asked him.
"The Force bond, my negligent future student," Lorm said importantly, "is a special technique. It can form absolutely spontaneously. It can just appear, linking two sentient beings. Or it can appear gradually, between a teacher and a student, for example. So that you understand: a teacher and a student live together, meditate together, fight, discuss the nature of the Force, train in swordsmanship... What don't they do together until they come to understand each other. It is precisely this kind of understanding that I am looking for with you. You will have to understand me, my motives, feelings, goals, just as I will have to understand yours. It is a long, painstaking process. But a 'teacher-student' bond, linked by the Force bond—they are invincible, absolute. The teacher gains an excellent assistant to help him in his activities as a Jedi, and at the same time shares knowledge and skills with his student. The student himself learns faster and better, gaining knowledge through the bond. The Force cannot replace physical training, however, through the bond, I can try to transfer some of my skills. You will learn and understand something faster. Do you understand now?" the mentor asked. "But according to the law of the universe—what helps you is always learned extremely slowly. The formation of bonds artificially is a complex process and depends entirely on the two of us. Each of us must accept the other as they are, agree to accept their knowledge and views. Do you understand?"
"Well..." I drawled, "Partially."
"Even so," Lorm nodded. "Alright, I feel that you wanted something else. Most likely, your mother's breakfast. Go, and afterward, we will proceed with our plan..."
"Okay, mentor," I said, delighted, and shot out of the room. During our joint meditation, my stomach seemed to have already begun digesting itself.
Going downstairs, I almost collided with my father, who was just coming out of his workshop.
"Light!" he exclaimed, slightly surprised. "Be more careful. You could kill someone! So."
"Everything would be fine with you," I remarked. "You wouldn't die from colliding with me."
"Oh?" my father asked. "My, look how much you've grown! And it's fine, your height has always been a relative parameter for you. But you're trained like a Jedi. Look at your body—all muscular, strong. I guess I'll have to pay attention to my body too, your mother made that clear to me."
"What did you say, dear?" Myla asked as we entered the kitchen.
"See, she heard everything," Dennis grumbled. "Well... That I'll have to go to the gym, right?"
"Correct," Myla smiled. "And you'll take Ziri with you. She needs somewhere to channel her boundless energy. They're already complaining about her at kindergarten, let alone Light," Myla said with some sadness.
"Complaining?" Ziri's voice asked sharply. "Tell me who! I'll talk to them personally... Or I'll ask Light. Right, Light?"
"Uhh... What's right?" I asked.
"Talk to those who complain about me, so they don't complain!" Ziri said, putting her hands on her hips.
"I'm afraid that's impossible," I smiled slightly. "They're complaining for a reason, most likely..."
"Correct," Mom chimed in, "for a reason. And you, young lady," she pointed at Ziri with a ladle, "have repeatedly violated kindergarten rules, started conflicts with children. I promised I'd send you to your grandmother for upbringing."
"They're to blame themselves!" Ziri exclaimed.
"Oh?" Myla asked. "Well, the evidence says otherwise. In any case—Dennis, you'll take Ziri to the gym too. It's better to maintain your form from childhood, otherwise, according to Uncle Gadji, you might get a belly by a hundred years old. Not the most pleasant thing."
"And you yourself," Father began.
"What?" Mom squinted at him.
"Nothing," Dennis turned his head away. We sat down at the table, and I distinctly heard a whisper of "henpecked." I just couldn't figure out where from.
Mom served us our portions, and my breath caught. I had missed her cooking so much. Of course, they cook with excellent ingredients in the Temple's dining hall. But the problem is, they cook for all the Temple residents. Here, at home, you can feel the personal touch. Mom took off her apron, which covered part of her signature maid uniform, and sat down next to Dennis.
"You smell of oil," Myla remarked. "Wash up after breakfast."
"Yes, wash up," Ziri chimed in, not understanding why she was joining the conversation.
"You too," Myla glared at her.
"But I yesterday..."
"A girl and a young lady should always be clean!" Mom declared. "Boys can afford to wash well if once a day. We must wash at least twice a day! I don't want to hear anything, young lady. And don't forget—you have lessons with Grandma today."
"Understood," Ziri grumbled.
The family dispersed. Ziri was sent to kindergarten, Mom and Dad went to their workplaces. Lorm, after everyone had left and he himself had breakfast, by the way, separately from the whole family, ordered me to follow him. Together, we took a taxi-speeder, which drove us to a park on the outskirts of the city. The forest park area was quite far from the city itself, so he even decided to walk deeper into the forest with me. We walked, and the pleasant scent of coniferous trees filled my nostrils. It was obvious that it had rained here today, a light, weak rain, but it had rained. Lorm brought a substantial briefcase with him, which he hadn't explained to me before.
"Here," Lorm said, looking around the clearing, "This will do."
The clearing was decent, about thirty meters in diameter, quite suitable for training. The grass was short, slightly yellowish. Dewdrops were visible on some blades of grass, sparkling in the light of Tustra Prime.
"So," Lorm said. "We fight at full contact, anything is allowed, I want to see your combat skills. We'll use training swords," he showed the briefcase. "Here are the parts for a training sword. Naturally, the material of the hilt cannot be replicated, but the shape of your combat sword's hilt can be. We will use this. Now, replicate the hilt of your lightsaber, creating a training one, and we will begin."
I opened the briefcase. Lorm took out a copy of his lightsaber, activated it, and began to warm up his wrist. I found the necessary parts and quickly assembled a finished hilt, as similar as possible to my combat sword's hilt. Activating the sword, I assumed the classic Soresu stance, "I'll poke your eyes out." I placed the sword above my head, showing my readiness for battle. Lorm immediately raised his sword above his head—Shien, no less. However, he didn't give me time to be surprised, immediately breaking into an attack and striking with a simple overhead blow. I used my sword to deflect the blow aside, but he didn't intend to slow down after one parry, immediately delivering a second blow from the side. From the very first seconds, he tried to overwhelm me with physical strength. I parried attack after attack, not seeing a gap in Lorm's defense myself. Although... there it is. In an instant, I lunged, hitting him precisely in the chest, and at the same time... Lorm unexpectedly disappeared... No! He jumped over my head, using an element of Ataru!
I reacted quickly, turning around and blocking his blow directly from the turn.
"Not bad," Lorm smiled. "You managed to react. Your mastery of Soresu is indeed worthy."
"I was told that," I smiled, jumping back, performing a somersault.
Lorm continued the pursuit, this time returning to Jjem So. He attacked, again trying to break through my defense... Trying? No! One of his blows was too strong, and my sword couldn't deflect it properly. The blow hit my shoulder, burning through my clothes.
"However, you can't deceive the body," Lorm smiled, jumping back after the blow. "Or yourself. It would have been easier for you to dodge. And before this, you showed elements of Ataru, which would have helped you greatly now. Soresu is an excellent form, I don't argue, but in your case—when dueling, rather than deflecting blaster shots, it's better to use Ataru. If I were hitting with a combat sword, I would have cut off your hand!"
"Ataru, then," I assumed a stance that I had practiced from Yoda's holocron. I had managed to train with him a little and continued my lessons.
"Interesting," Lorm smirked, this time assuming the Niman stance. "Well, show me..."
I jumped, landing right in front of Lorm, and immediately attacked him from the side. He blocked my blow and simply, without any flourish, attacked me in return. I dodged... Another parry. He attacked very quickly this time, delivering three blows from different directions at once. My body acted on autopilot, changing my stance to Soresu and quickly parrying all three blows. And now, I jumped over Lorm, finding myself behind him, and delivered a powerful thrust to his back. He ducked... Damn it, that thrust put me into a state of inertia, and now I was at a disadvantage. My right hand with the sword was above Decer, my left to the side. The mentor himself, with a smile, was already preparing to deliver a counter-thrust to my stomach...
Well, no! I can't give up so easily! My left hand pointed at a tree, and I closed the contacts in my bracer. The grappling hook shot out, hit the tree... The line shortened, and I was pulled off Lorm's attack trajectory... His eyes widened in surprise... A second of concentration, and the grappling hook returned to the bracer. I landed on the ground, performing a backflip to cushion the landing... I couldn't stand still; as soon as I stopped, I used the Force again for a dash, instantly closing the distance to him...
Side attack, dodge. Now it's my turn, I attacked Lorm's legs, he jumped up, I used telekinesis, throwing him back, and jumped myself. Lorm landed about five meters away from me and immediately blocked my overhead attack. I used the momentum and rolled behind him... He immediately attacked with a wide swing, I ducked, letting the sword pass over me... Counter-attack... Ow! He stepped on my foot! Taking advantage of my momentary pause, he attacked my wrist, knocking the sword out of my hand.
"Phew," Lorm sighed, watching my sword fly out of my hand. "Well done."
"Mentor," I looked at him in surprise, rubbing my wrist. "Are you alright?"
"What do you mean?" he asked. "Are you surprised I praised you? But why, larva, tell me? What did I tell you before the fight? 'Show me everything you can do.' We weren't training Soresu, or Ataru, or improvisation now. I wanted to see who I would be working with, and I am satisfied with your initial skills. Seeing you fight children is one thing. You were the best in your age group and even better than many older ones. But to test you myself is a completely different matter. You showed yourself in all your glory and quite well. You didn't forget about improvisation when you used that device of yours, but the most important thing I saw was your swordsmanship. When I forced you to go beyond your beloved Soresu and show what you had learned in terms of Ataru—do you know what you did? You did what you need to do to achieve true mastery—you applied two fencing styles at once. First, you applied Ataru, and when it was more convenient for you—you applied Soresu, and all the transitions, let's call them that, you made in fractions of a second, right in the fight. I won't hide it—I wasn't fighting at full speed, for the first couple of seconds," he said with a bloodthirsty smile. "I didn't use anything more serious against you than enhancing my body, but even so, the result is higher than my expectations. You are accepted..."
"Accepted? But mentor! I was assigned to you much earlier..."
"Don't quibble with words," Lorm smiled. "Now you are a larva. By the end of our training, I will call you by name. Although I would like to call you by name when you teach me something. Yoda said that a student also teaches the teacher something, and I want to know what."
"As soon as I find you worthy material, I will teach you," I said through clenched teeth, pulling my sword to me.
"Don't be angry," Lorm said, activating the ice-white training blade again. "Better prepare yourself. We will fight for a long time. And I expect the given pace from you. This time—I will attack, and you will only defend using Soresu, after that—we will switch, but before 'your attack'—you will perform the exercises that the holocron will provide you with..."
Three hours of continuous training later, I, barely alive physically, covered in scorch marks and scratches, stood before a holocron from which Yoda was broadcasting.
"Your device, you can use it in maneuvering too. As well as knowledge of form three for situational defense. Your main mistake is that sometimes you make incorrect jumps. You jump monotonously, trying to get behind. Your opponent gets used to it faster. Ataru is a style that has the greatest amount of improvisation. Each attack should copy the previous one less, otherwise, you will lose quickly."
"Then..."
"To master Ataru, you have everything," Lorm interjected. "Your body, your potential. You are an ideal master of Ataru in the future. But your problem is that the 'deaf defense of Soresu,' built on the use of standard combinations—played a cruel trick on you."
"Your mentor speaks the truth," the holocron supported him. "You attack conventionally, like from a textbook... Dodge, somersault behind, wide strike. You maneuver according to this one scheme. This is weakness and ossification."
"Only training can fix this," Lorm remarked. "When we go to the Outer Rim, we will visit wild planets where I will give you obstacle courses, and you will complete them. Using elements for Ataru maneuvering. This way, you will learn to move less stereotypically, to use different maneuver elements. A master of Ataru breaks the opponent's combat picture—through improvisation in maneuvering."
I closed my eyes, recalling Sidious's battles against the four masters. He used Ataru then... But most of all, Yoda used Ataru. He shows it... His movements, even now, replaying the memory of Yoda's battles in my mind and overlaying it... No matter how I look through the prism of my Jedi upbringing—I cannot predict most of his movements. A master of Ataru must be able to maneuver so that his opponent cannot guess the trajectory... Lorm easily calculated me... Soresu is indeed excellent for defense against blasters. And it helps in fencing... Although... in a pure duel, Ataru is still better, at least for me. Was I foolish to only pay attention to Soresu? I don't know... At least, I can only duel with Lorm in the near future, or in the Temple... But I will encounter blasters very soon. By the time I might need a duel and, naturally, victory in it—I will master Ataru to a decent level.
And if I combine the ideal defense of Soresu, which even the Chosen One almost died from, and the quick attack of Ataru, with which anyone can be cut down, then the resulting individual style... Mmm... What did the mentor say about combining Ataru and Soresu in one battle? Yes, if I create such a style, I will enter the top ten fencers in the Galaxy! Such a person is very difficult to defeat!
"However, it's too early for you to think about combining these two styles," Lorm's voice came, removing the illusion of the defeated Sidious before me... Damn! How did he guess... "Everything is written on your face," the teacher replied. "In addition, I received some of your emotions, the Force bond is forming as it should."
"For your style of creation," Yoda's hologram interjected, "you must master Ataru. For now, you only wield Soresu well, but without Ataru, you won't achieve anything."
"Yes, I know," I snapped back.
"Don't be rude," Lorm gave me a smack on the back of the head. "The Master, for your development, gave you a holocron with his knowledge of the Ataru form, the way of the sword! Da Roan would have killed for such a thing during his padawanhood! Patience will help you, larva. Gradual development in the future will make you a great Jedi, do you know the most important thing?"
"What?" I asked Decer.
"That you don't get lazy!" the mentor declared in a stern voice. "Laziness—that's what ruins talented beings. You may have talent, so what if you don't develop it! If you try to get by solely on talent, rather than developing it, you will quickly lose. You are in your golden age now. A time for painstaking work, my promising young student. So I hope you won't be lazy. You will work hard, to the limit. And then I will be able to be proud of you. Believe me," the mentor said arrogantly. "One who is proud of Lorm Decer, a student of Teym Cerullian, who once taught even Dooku—will be a great Jedi."
"I understand, I won't let you down, mentor."
"We'll see," Decer nodded. "Alright, let's go home. We'll rest, and then we'll continue—in the evening, you have a Force training session..."
And, no matter how much I thought Lorm wouldn't come up with anything new for Force training—I was wrong... This unique individual dumped a Lego constructor on me, which he bought at the Tustra Shopping Center... Lego, which he forced me to assemble with telekinesis. I thought that after drying clothes, which I had to hold telekinetically by Yoda's order, nothing more perverse could be invented... But, according to Lorm, this is necessary for controlling telekinesis and the Force, thus I will better control the Force... I feel like the next couple of years will be extremely fun for me...