Chapter 23: Punch!Duck!Kick!

After getting accepted as a disciple of Chikara Han, I had a whole day to prepere myself for the first martial arts lesson in this mysterious dojo. I said mysterions, beacuse I couldn't find anything about it on the internet.

I looked at each accesable piece of information, and other than the original annoucment I found, was one article. It said 'Han Family at the verge of collapse. Once one of the great families, now just a shadown of its previous glory'.

The artical itself lacked a lot of information. It had only name of my current master, Chikara Han. No other members of Han family were mentioned, but I knew he had at least daughter, so it didn't add up.

The other part of this article was focused on the collapse of Han family, which was weird. Han family didn't get weaker or poorer or anything that is usually accosieted with a colaps. Han family started to appear less and less publicly, until it stopped appearing at all.

It's weird considering that losing the title of 'Great family' is often linked with shame. No family wants to lose this title, and all wants to gain it.

Currently 3 families have the title of 'Great':

First - Lumanor Family

Second - Lampad Family

Third - Foxerie Family

(Why Han family did it?...I would like to know the answer, but I don't seek it. I have other things to worry about.)

I made my way to the dojo early in the morning, I wanted to learn as much as I can. In this world time doesn't stop, like in Kingdom of Udela.

I made my way there and soon step my foot on the wooden bridge. From it I saw that the broken door already got replaced with a new one. So, I slide them open and took a step inside.

When I crossed this doorstep, I was greeted by the sight of Chikara Han waiting for me. It seemed like he expected me to arrive at this exact hour.

"Ready for hell?" I was taken aback by the way he described it.

"What do you mean, Old Man?"

"Duck!"

"What?" Suddenly I got hit in the side by what I suspected to be a bamboo stick. I can only be so much sure, as Chikara had a stick like this in his hand, but it didn't move.

Throughout this short word exchange, he stood still, but the pain I felt was very real. (Can he move so fast that I wasn't able to see it?)

With this question in mind, I remembered the world I'm in, full of magic and wonders I never seen.

"Catch." I saw karategi flew at me from his direction, similar to the one he had on him. The only difference was belt, mine was white.

I caught it, before it reached my face. "Looks nice. Where is the changing room?"

He didn't reply, instead he pointed at the door, which I assumed lead to the changing room. With no further ado, I gone to change.

With my new outfit on, I returned to the main room and was directed to the middle on it. Where Chikara told me he would test what I already know .

"Punch!"

I started doing shadow boxing, trying to show what I learned, but only couple of punches later, I heard him talk.

"What did you kill so far? Some mindless creatures? Otherwise, I don't see how you survived this far."

"You can say so." While replying to him, I didn't stop punching the air. I knew he didn't ask me to stop.

"Move your hips more. Put your weight in those punches." I tried to follow his advice, but soon I felt pain on my right shoulder. Just when I dealt my punch, Chikara hit me in the same style as previously.

It hurt a lot, but it wasn't unbearable.

"Duck!"

Learning from my last experince, I ducked as fast as I could, which turned out not to be enough. He hit me again.

"Kick!"

My kicks weren't the best to begin with and when you add me just returning to my standing postiotion, it was even worse. He didn't need to hit me, I fall by myself.

"Up!"

I got up.

"Punch!"

I punched and got hit in the shoulder.

"Duck!"

This time I did it.

"Kick!"

And again I fall.

*******************

"You need to hit straight. With the way you move your arms, you wouldn't even hurt a child."

I practised for 4 hours, not feeling I made any progress. The only thing I gain were bruises on my body.

"Why are you standing still? Will you do the same in a fight?...Even my 300 years old grandma has a better footwork that you."

"300?"

"Don't get distracted." This time I got hit on my head. (So that's what he meant by hell.)

"Are you thinking about something?"

I decided not to speak, I thought it was a better choice in this situation. I just tried to improve my technique.

For some time I focused only on that, not realizing that Chikara stopped giving me commands, I was doing then subconsciously.

It lasted, until he said "Enough. We will test your skills in actual combat next."

I looked around, trying to spot my opponent, but the only person I saw, was the unbeatable girl from yesterday.

I pointed at the place she practiced in and asked "Will I fight her?"

"Didn't you see what happened yesterday? You would lose in one or two moves, depending on a mood she's in."

"By the way, who is she even?"

"My daughter. She will be a freshman at Lumanor Academy." I heard a proud tone coming from his mouth, it was the first time I heard it change today. Before that he only spoko in a tone without any emotions in them.

"It's not weird she became like this, with such a formidable father." I smiled, thinking that I wasn't the only one that go through what I did so far with him.

"What do you mean?" He looked at me, turning his gaze away from his daughter's training.

"I think you know, Old Man.... And I will be a freshman at Lumanor Academy, too." I didn't explain my words, I knew understood what I meant.

"Hopefully you will be in the same class." He said it in a way that sounded like something he didn't mean.

"Why?"

"Less competition." I would swear he told a joke, but while staring at his face, it didn't seem that way. His expression was unchanged.

(Let's not bother with it.)

"Who do I fight?" I looked around again.

"Yuri, come here." After his words, door at the side wall opened and from inside appeared a child.

"Yes, Master?" He slightly bowed down while asking his question.

"Yuri. You will fight with Alexander. Remember, don't go easy on him, he needs to learn."

"Yes, Master." He bowed again and moved to the center of the mat.

"How old is he? 12?" I know not to underestimate your enemies, but let's get serious. He's a child.

"He's 13. And he will be your opponent for today." Chikara once again crossed his arms together.

"If you say so."

I moved to the center myself, standing at the opposite end to Yuri. With me in place, he did a usual greeting, which I reciprocated.

With nothing stopping me, I punched out first. (I hope I won't hurt him.)

"Aaaa!" I don't know how, but Yuri caught my fist and throwed me onto the ground. It was like he used my own force against me.

With my back on the ground, I heard a female voice. "Will you let me play with him too, Dad?"

"No, he isn't ready to face you in combat."

I know hearing such things should not bother at all. She was a good martial artist that I didn't stand a chance again, but something about woman saying it, hurt my pride a little.

"Again." I got up, this time waiting for Yuri to attack me. He quickly did it by doing a flying kick, straight into my face.

"Again!"

"Again!"

"Again!"

While I attempted to defeat Yuri for who knows how long, I saw in the corner of my eye Chikara and his daughter watching our fight.

(I need to finally win.)

Each defeat let me study Yuri's moves better. He had couple of his favorites attacks and he wasn't that good. I know it rich coming from a beginner like me, but he really was just relaing on some basics, he didn't think his hits through.

His pattern became quite obvious, throw me to the ground or kick me. It was effective for some time, I'm not gonna lie. Well, it only was, because now I had an upper hand.

In this round, I waited for his attack and saw him preparing to kick me on my side. This is when I tried throwing my punch at him, and when I did, I recalled Chikara's words.

'Move your waist.'

And with it I also recalled the way he hit me, he did it when I throwed a punch, making my body turn from the pain. I thought it was meaningless where he hit me, but now I saw that it wasn't random.

I mimicked the way my body turned when I felt pain. It worked with the advice Chikara told me and soon my punch flew with new power, one I didn't have before.

Yuri tried to put his guard up, but with my superior strenght over him, it didn't stop me. I punched his straight in the face. (Sorry, kid. I needed to repair my pridea little, and you were unfortunate enough to indeirectly damage it in the first place.)

While I celebrated my victory, Chikara had a chat with his daughter.

*******************

Chikara POV

"He's quite talented."

I heard my daughter laugh at my words. "You think so, Dad?"

"He's resiliant." I said those words with a small smile.

"It's one of the qualities you need to have to train in martial arts. In this regard you are correct, but his technique is trash, and I don't want to mention his movement."

I didn't reply to my daughter, as Alexander turned in our direction.

*******************

When I stopped triumfing over my victory, I turned to Chikara and noticed that his facial expression looked different. I saw his eyebrows in a different position, it was almost unnoticable, a detail that meant nothing, but for me it seemed like he was happy for my victory.

"Did you see, Old Man? I won."

"After 35 attempts."

"Was it that many?" I rubbed the back of my head.

"I counted every one of them, 36 attempts, exactly. Dad didn't include the first round. " Chikara's daughter chipped in.

I disregarded her words and thankfully she left this matter alone.

"And you didn't win yet. Kuri, come here."

After those words, I felt the ground shake. From the same door Yuri appeared from, now a huge guy came. He looked like he took steroids even in his mother's womb.

He stayed silent and only greeted our master.

"Meet, Kuri. Yuri's older brother. He doesn't like when someone beats his younger brother."

"Fuck it. Come here, you steroid freak."

I saw him turn to me and I knew the rest in my time in this dojo, won't be easy.