During the afternoon drill class, the sun blazed overhead. The beasts on the training field had already rapidly formed their drill formation as soon as the bell rang, each waiting for the instructor on the command platform to give the signal with his flag. Yet after class began, the platform stood empty. After everyone held their breath and waited for two minutes, a figure finally appeared—but it wasn't the drill instructor they all knew. It was the most feared man in Black Flame City: One-Eyed Dragon. His cold, powerful presence left every formation below the platform silent as mice, unsure what was going on. Especially when they saw the black leather whip in his hand. Some of them were already trembling in the knees.
As a school run under a semi-military system, it dealt extremely harshly with students who broke its rules. The lightest physical punishment might be making a student run dozens of laps around the field; something more serious meant a whipping. The most serious cases were sent directly to the Black Flame City court for trial.
The moment they saw the whip in Captain Colin's hand, everyone knew someone was in for a bad time—an exceptionally bad time. During their years at the school, whenever One-Eyed Dragon held a whip, it meant some self-important fool was about to get what was coming to him. That rule had never failed.
Zhang Tie stood in a formation near the command platform. Looking at One-Eyed Dragon's face, cold as steel, he knew that what was coming had finally arrived.
Did he regret it? Zhang Tie quietly asked himself.
To hell with that! That was his answer.
"Gelis, Sha Long, Jia Naier, Zu Haier, step forward!" Captain Colin called out the names of the school's most notorious foursome. The moment Gelis's name rang out, everyone waiting for a show couldn't help but erupt in an uproar. Shock replaced their anticipation. Gelis? Gelis? It was actually Gelis and his crew?
"This is going to be good!" The chubby Barry beside Zhang Tie was practically buzzing with excitement. He nudged Zhang Tie lightly with his foot.
Yeah, this was going to be good. First, those guys would get what was coming to them, and then it'd be my turn! Zhang Tie thought silently...
Under everyone's gaze, the four students called out stepped from their formation, their faces pale with apprehension. Sha Long was the last of them to leave the line. He was the one who had tossed the plates at Zhang Tie. As he walked out, he seemed to realize something and turned his head, searching for someone in Zhang Tie's formation. His eyes held a dangerous gleam.
Zhang Tie merely watched Sha Long coldly. Even now, he didn't regret the choice he'd made earlier. That choice might have been difficult and painful for some, but it had been simple for Zhang Tie. What choice would make his parents proud? He had asked himself only one question, and the answer had come.
As soon as the four of them had stepped forward and lined up, several members of the school's disciplinary squad came over without a word and stripped off their training leather armor, leaving their upper bodies bare. Any lingering doubts vanished. Captain Colin was here to deal with them.
"Captain Colin, I think I have the right to know why!" Gelis shouted, his temples bulging as two disciplinary squad members twisted his arms behind his back.
"Rule twenty-seven: Every student must wash his lunch tray after eating and return it to the cafeteria. Violators will receive two lashes. Rule six: No student may deliberately damage school property. Violators will receive four lashes. Gelis, Sha Long, Jia Naier, and Zu Haier failed to return their clean trays after lunch today and deliberately abandoned them in the Small Woods, thereby violating both rules. I have therefore decided to give each of you six lashes. Any objections?" One-Eyed Dragon's sharp eye held no emotion as he stared at the four. They looked as though they'd been struck by lightning.
From his formation, Zhang Tie carefully watched the four of them. When Captain Colin finished speaking, he saw that Gelis and the other two weren't looking at Sha Long. Instead, they were turning, intentionally or otherwise, toward Zhang Tie's formation. In an instant, Zhang Tie understood: what had happened at lunch hadn't been a coincidence. Those guys had planned it, hoping to humiliate him. They'd grown used to throwing their weight around at school. After lunch, they usually got some timid, unlucky student to wash and return their plates, and the school had never made an issue of it. Sha Long had apparently tossed his tray down and walked off without even considering that Zhang Tie might refuse. That was how things had ended up like this.
Once he understood, Zhang Tie felt annoyed, too. He couldn't even figure out how he'd offended these guys. He'd kept a low profile at school and gone out of his way to avoid them.
As Captain Colin weighed the whip in his palm, the four boys' faces turned not merely pale, but green. Yet Sha Long still seemed to want to make one last attempt. "Captain Colin, I have something to say..."
Watching Sha Long swallow nervously, Captain Colin simply said, "Speak!"
"After lunch, I gave my tray to someone else..."
"Where?"
"In the Small Woods!"
"How?"
"I... I put the tray in front of him!"
"In front of him? On the ground or in his hands?"
"O-on the ground!"
"Why did you put it on the ground in front of him?"
"I... I... told him to wash our trays and take them back!" Perhaps he'd been used to throwing his weight around for so long that admitting to bullying his classmates in front of Captain Colin left him sounding rather unsure of himself.
"What did that person say?"
"Nothing... He didn't say anything!" Sha Long knew Zhang Tie was in the formation nearby, ready to come forward and expose any lie. Faced with such simple questions, he didn't dare lie at all. He could only answer honestly.
"Then what?"
"Then..." Sha Long looked at Captain Colin, bewildered. "Then I walked away..."
"I see what you're trying to say. You mean that because you left a few plates in front of someone today, and because that person refused your unreasonable demand and didn't bother with the plates left over from your meal, he should be standing here now taking your lashes for you. Is that it? You feel wronged? In your eyes, he insulted you by refusing to let you humiliate him, so he should bear all the consequences? If you'd left your dirty plates in front of me today, would you expect me to whip myself now to get you off the hook?" One-Eyed Dragon's face remained expressionless, but his even words left Gelis and the others gaping. Their faces darkened further, and they couldn't utter a word.
"That's some powerful logic. Unfortunately, you aren't powerful enough to turn your rotten logic into Black Flame City's laws and rules!" A trace of a cold smile appeared on One-Eyed Dragon's face. "So those six lashes will still land on you!"
Then the beasts standing in formation spent the rest of the session admiring the terrifying art of punishment practiced by Black Flame City's most fearsome man. One-Eyed Dragon's whipping was the darkest, most dreaded punishment at Black Flame City's Seventh National Boys' Middle School. His skill meant that the whip could make you writhe in unbearable agony without damaging your bones or internal organs. Even more remarkably, whether you were sentenced to one lash or ten, he could always make the last strike knock you completely unconscious.
That day, all the beasts felt as refreshed as if they'd just had an ice-cold drink as they listened to twenty-four screams, then watched the school's disciplinary squad carry the unconscious Gelis and the others off the field.
That was so satisfying! It was the unanimous thought of the many graduating-class beasts who'd suffered under Gelis's overwhelming strength.
Though his body still hurt terribly, Zhang Tie gritted his teeth and finished the afternoon's training after a morning of rest and recovery.
With Gelis's punishment fresh in everyone's mind, his shouts were nowhere to be heard on the training field that afternoon. Instead, all the beasts trained with even greater enthusiasm. Between drills, they kept asking one another who had been so gutsy as to make Gelis and his crew suffer so badly. Ever since Gelis had advanced to a Level 2 Battle Soldier, he'd thrown his weight around at school, and nobody had dared cross him. They hadn't expected him to finally meet his match.
The guys from the Airplane Brotherhood were excited, too. Zhang Tie and Barry were the exceptions. Zhang Tie wasn't excited; he was thinking about how to face Gelis and the others' revenge. The pain of those twenty-four lashes would surely make the four of them look for a way to pay him back twice over.
Looks like I won't have to worry about going hungry for Iron Fetus Fruit anymore! Zhang Tie thought with wry resignation.
The chubby Barry wasn't feeling particularly excited either. Ever since he'd heard Sha Long's account of what happened in the Small Woods, his expression had gradually grown serious.
Everyone in the Airplane Brotherhood knew that Barry had been in the Small Woods after lunch. And Barry was far too good at reading people. From Zhang Tie's expression that afternoon, he might already have guessed that Zhang Tie was the "gutsy guy"...
When school let out, Zhang Tie asked the guys from the Airplane Brotherhood to wait for him in the classroom. Then, in the nearly empty room, with only their group left, he calmly announced his decision.
"What... Big Head, you're leaving our Airplane Brotherhood?" Doug stared at Zhang Tie in shock. "Why? What's wrong with our Airplane Brotherhood? Next week, everyone's supposed to help you have your first taste and become a man!"
Sista and Shavin were just as shocked as Doug, while Baghdad was furious, his fists clenching on their own.
"Maybe I've gotten used to keeping to myself, so please respect my decision..." Zhang Tie said nothing more. He merely smiled, then walked out of the classroom, leaving the Airplane Brotherhood members staring at one another.
"That bastard! I should've punched him in the nose one more time!" Baghdad slammed his fist into the classroom wall, shaking a patch of plaster loose...
"After all the trouble we went to treating him like a good brother, and he just spits on us..." Doug spat toward the doorway through which Zhang Tie had disappeared. "He never wanted to be our brother!"
"What's going on?" Shavin looked from one of them to another, bewildered.
"How can someone be so stupid as to quit before enjoying the Airplane Brotherhood's coming-of-age ceremony?" Sista wondered aloud, deep in thought.
Light rolled his eyes and watched Barry without saying a word. Barry lowered his head in silence. Then everyone noticed his silence and fell quiet, too. Only after everyone stopped talking did Barry raise his head and look at them.
"I started to suspect this during afternoon training. Big Head's decision just now confirmed it. You've all got him wrong. Big Head doesn't want to cause trouble for everyone, so he's leaving our brotherhood of his own accord!"
"Trouble? You mean..." Shavin seemed to understand.
"Big Head is the gutsy guy—the one who refused to wash those plates for Gelis and the others today, and got them into so much trouble!" Barry dropped a bombshell. Everyone's mouths fell open in shock. "Gelis and the others will definitely retaliate against him. He doesn't want to drag us into his feud with them, so he chose to leave!"
Barry looked at each of them seriously. "It's easy to foresee that Gelis and the others will retaliate against Big Head viciously. If Big Head remains a member of the Airplane Brotherhood, we'll have to face their revenge alongside him. That affects every one of us, our personal interests and our safety. Nobody can make this decision on another person's behalf. I didn't stop Big Head just now because I wanted to explain this clearly and let you decide for yourselves. If we choose to let him stay, then we'll face Gelis's revenge together. If we let him go, then the rest of us will be safe. Think it over. Take five minutes, then we'll vote!"
In the classroom, every member of the Airplane Brotherhood sank into thought...
Five minutes later, Barry looked at them solemnly. "Those who want Big Head to stay and are willing to face Gelis's revenge alongside him, raise your hands!"
They looked at one another, but no one spoke first.
"All right. Since everyone's keeping quiet, I'll vote first. Big Head did break my nose and get me saddled with the disgusting nickname Slime Monster, but I think he's a pretty loyal guy, so..." Doug pinched his nose. "I want him to stay..."
Doug raised his hand...
"Gelis is a Level 2 Battle Soldier. So what? I'll surpass him sooner or later!" Baghdad coolly raised his hand, too...
"If we give up on our brother over such a small obstacle today, then when we run into something harder, are we just going to announce that we're disbanding? What's the point of having a brotherhood?" Sista said, raising his hand as well.
"I think that guy always manages to do the unexpected. And I don't think someone who'd turn tail without hesitation when he ran into the Red Scarf Bandits would drag everyone into a fire pit. Just like today—maybe Big Head has another card up his sleeve. I'd be glad to have a guy like that as a brother!" Light shrugged, then raised his hand, too.
"Since everyone's decided to face this together, I don't have a reason to back down. Besides, don't you think today was satisfying?" The slightly bashful Shavin smiled and raised his hand, too.
When he saw every eye turn toward him, a brilliant smile finally spread across the chubby Barry's solemn face. He raised his hand, too. "If the Airplane Brotherhood wants to establish itself in Black Flame City, Gelis and his crew will be our first whetstone. Are they really brothers if they don't share hardship? Are they really brothers if they don't face trials together? In fact, we should thank Big Head. I've always hoped we'd get a chance to prove what the Airplane Brotherhood is made of. Who'd have thought that chance would actually come?"
The guys in the brotherhood looked at one another, their eyes gradually brightening. After weathering this crisis and facing the choice in their hearts, they felt closer to each other. A wordless warmth flowed through everyone's chest, a warmth filled with courage and trust...
"What's the Airplane Brotherhood's motto?" Seeing their fighting spirit rise, Barry shouted.
"No cavities!" Doug yelled. Then, seeing everyone glaring at him, he realized the joke hadn't landed and shrank back.
"Let's try that again. What's the Airplane Brotherhood's motto?" Barry shouted again.
"Whoever messes with our brother, we'll all mess with him!" The beasts howled in unison...