Wiro Sableng - Volume 1 - Chapter 9

Wiro Sableng Book 1 Chapter 9

“Why were you surprised….?” asked Granny Sinto Gendeng. “Afraid?!”
“You want to harm your students again right?!” asked Wiro Saksana in vigilance. And the Granny just laughed in her shrilly voice. She stepped back 7 tumbaks to the back.
“Close your eyes, Wiro!” ordered Granny Sinto Gendeng again.
“But…. What are you going to do?!”
“Eeee…. you little brat! I told you to close your eyes and yet you keep on babbling asking questions!! Close your eyes quickly!”
Wiro doubtfully closed his eyes. Thus, his eyelids didn’t close fully.
“Shut ‘em all!” yelled Sinto Gendeng. And Wiro reluctantly closed his eyelids shut.
“Open your cloth!”
Wiro got undressed and put his cloth and put them on the ground. Both his eyes are still closed.
“Open your right hand, raise it and face the palm to me!”, Sinto Gendeng further told him. Wiro obeyed the order. Granny Sinto Gendeng held the hatchet’s blade with her right arm tightly. One of her fingers then pressed on a secret part made of ivory near the white steel hilt.
“Whatever happens don’t you dare open your eyes and don’t move even a single inch. Unless you wish to die!”
“Granny….”
“Shut! So annoying!,” yelled Sinto Gendeng. Wiro had no choice but to stay quiet. The old lady pressed on a secret instrument near the blade of the hatchet, and then from the mouth of the dragon head carving at the hilt, thirty six white needles flashed with a rumbling sound.
Those 36 needles landed and stabbed onto the right chest of Wiro Saksana. Those needles stuck orderly and constitute an array of numbers “212”. The youth screamed hoarsely. His body fell onto the ground! Once more Sinto Gendeng pressed on the secret instrument near the blade, and now twenty four black needles flew and stabbed onto the right palm of Wiro Saksana! The youth screamed once more, although unconscious from the previous stabs of 36 needles!
Before Wiro Saksana came to, Granny Sinto Gendeng had taken off the white needles on the chest of the youth, as well as the black needles on his right palm. And while Wiro woke up he could see that on the skin of his chest there were now numbers of 212 with its blackish blue color. The same numbers also existed on the palm of his hand. Just that the one on his palm was a bit small and white in color, making it a bit faint and hard to see.
“Stand up Wiro!” ordered his master.
Wiro Saksana stood up. He actually didn’t know what his master had done. All he knew was that there was a rumbling sund, and then he screamed, fell down and… nothing else.
“Have you seen the 212 numbers on your chest and right palm skin?”
Wiro nodded.

“It means inside you, I have embedded the elements of the worldly dust and also the elements of mindfulness to the God. It is so that you wouldn’t forget that you are living in this world to help others. But also so that you would not forget that you have a God that you must obey every single of His commands and must stay away from all that He forbid. Do you get it?”
“I get it Granny. But… why does my body feel three times lighter than before? Even I feel that my power is increasing a lot!” laughed Granny Sinto Gendeng.
“That was from the needles of the Fire Dragon Hatchet 212” said Sinto Gendeng. And then the Granny explained what she had done to him. Wiro felt that he had been blessed by an additional might and quickly kneeled in front of this master of his.
“No need for all the ceremonies. Stand up! There are still a lot that I need to talk to you,” continued Sinto Gendeng. Wiro then stood up.
Sinto Gendeng took out the hatchet and the black stone again. She handed over the items. “Wiro…. I named this hatchet the Fire Dragon Hatchet 212. I spent ten years to forge it and it has been more than 20 years that this weapon is in my hands. It appears that you are a match with this weapon. Accept it….”
In a daze and almost disbelieveing, Wiro Saksana heard what his master was saying. He couldn’t have thought that he would be bestowed such a mighty weapon. He instantly froze in disbelief.
“Get on it Wiro! Why are you hesitating? Accept it. This Fire Dragon Hatchet 212 is for you!”
Wiro Saksana reached out with both hands. When the mighty weapon touched his hands suddenly a weird wave of coldness flowed into his body. And at the same time he felt that his body was strengthened up by two levels, even when he felt that his level of inner power that he had before had already reached the utmost perfection!
“Slip it on your waist Wiro, and wear your clothes again!”
Wiro did what was told by Granny Sinto Gendeng. The hatchet and the stone which contains the 212 numbers were slipped on to his waist.
“The Fire Dragon Hatchet 212 is not an ordinary weapon, Wiro. Therefore you must not use it recklessly. Use it only when you are at a severe disadvantage or when your life is in danger. You have also seen the might of this weapon, but there is still another one of its trick, that is if you press on one of the parts under its blade, then white needles will scatter from the dragon carving’s mouth… To make the 212 numbers on your chest and palm, I have used such needles before. It was just that those needles were filled with a kind of strong poison, so now your body is immune against any kinds of poison! Your right hand also has some poison hidden in it, Wiro. Don’t use it wantonly as it is deadly against your enemy!”
Wiro Saksana was about to kneel again, but he was yelled at by his master.
“Thank you, Granny…. thank you,” the youth could only say so.
Granny Sinto Gendeng only let out a laugh. She sratched her head that only had sparse hair and now only could have two hairpins. And then she started singing the song for the third time: Pitulas taun wus katilar…. (seventeen years have passed by…….)
When Sinto Gendeng finished singing that song, Wiro asked. “Granny what are you trying to say with that song….?”
Sinto Gendeng laughed. This laugh was very peculiar. And her face looked so sad and vulnerable. And then she started speaking, with a clear tremble, signifying that she could no longer hold something that had burdened the deepest part of her heart.
“I have told you that today will be the last day that you are staying on this Gede Mountain with me….”
“Why does it have to be so, Granny….?” Wiro scratched his head in confusion.
“Because I have passed down all my arts to you. Because this will be the day for you to go down the mountain, to enter the world outside, to draw your own line of life as it was determined by God….”
Sinto Gendeng fell to an abrupt silence. And then she continued, “But before you leave this peak of Gede, there is one task that you must do….”
“What task is it Granny?” asked Wiro Saksana. Again, he scratched his long-haired head.