It was a nice sunny Saturday, and Sora was laying on the soft grass of the park, enjoying the warm rays of the sun on his face. Seated in a semi-circle beside him, his friends were chattering about work, flatmates, and plans for the following weekends. Sora was not really following all of that; he was feeling like he was floating on a primordial sea, getting closer and closer to doze off and slip into oblivion … until suddenly he heard something that woke him from his slumber
"The military should be abolished, it's a complete waste of money…"
That was Kai's voice. Of course it was Kai's.
"Why do we even need soldiers?" the man continued "No matter how hard someone trains, it is not possible to defeat three or four enemies anyway…"
Sora opened his eyes "I disagree" he said
Kai raised an eyebrow "You think that it is possible for a single person to defeat four?"
Still laying down, Sora nodded. Kai looked at him, incredulous
"So, you think that you can defeat all of us at the same time?" he asked sarcastically, while gesturing at all of the presents.
Sora also looked around; there were seven of them that day, meaning that it was going to be a six vs one fight. Five of them were going to be no problem at all, but he was not sure that he could beat Sven.
It was only because of Sven that Sora did not simply say 'Yes', and decided for a more diplomatic "Maybe" instead.
In Germany, his home country, Sven had practiced Karate when he was in his teens, finally conquering the blue belt in traditional Karate. He also participated in some competitions, and apparently won some minor trophy. For his part, Sora had managed to reach black belt first dan, but it was not something he bragged about. After all, he had not been training in many years and he had lost his edge.
Sven was the only person he ever met that shared his passion for military things, although Sven was focused on military history while Sora was more into tactics and technology. Sora did actually attend the military academy of his country, unlike Sven, but the German knew pretty well both Sun Tsu and Carl von Clausewitz, two authors that Sora had never even opened. The former soldier was well aware that that was an inexcusable gap for a military nerd like him, but so far he had done nothing to rectify the situation.
Kai blinked "You are kidding!"
Sora was unphased "Not at all"
"You think that you can defeat us all?"
"I think it is possible"
Kai made a spiteful smile "Oh, yeah? Then why don't you give us a demonstration right now?"
Sora's face remained emotionless "OK" he calmly said, and quickly stood up to sit
"What?" almost shocked, Kai looked around, as if to make sure that everybody was hearing what he just heard.
Beside him, Kaede chuckled nervously "And… how are we going to test it?"
Sora smiled "Certainly not beating each other up until only one can stand"
The girl laughed "That's a relief! Then… shall we shoot each other?" she asked while bending both her ring finger and little finger, turning her right hand into a gun.
Sora shook his head "No, that's also not good, because we could never know which bullets hit and which missed"
Kaede nodded "Well, that does make sense…" she conceded "… but then, how can we do it?"
"I have a proposal" Sora said calmly while his puzzled six friends exchanged glances
"What is the proposal?" Asuka chimed in
"A knife fight" Sora replied
The girl did not seem to understand "Please elaborate"
Sora showed to his friends the back of his right hand. The index and middle fingers were held straight together, while the thumb, the ring finger and the pinky were bent on the palm.
"This… is a knife…" Sora explained "The index and middle fingers form a double edge blade, and of course you can stab with the fingertips. The plate of the blade does not cut though… as in a normal knife"
"That's reasonable…" Asuka said "…so when you are touched by the blade you are dead, right?"
Sora did not seem to like the idea
"Well… I was thinking about something more realistic, if possible. I would say that if you are glanced by the blade, that is only a scratch and has no effect. If you are stabbed in an arm or a leg, then you are injured, and you cannot move that limb anymore. Let's say that you will have to drag the injured leg, or hide the arm behind your back… You die only if you are stabbed in the belly or throat… because that will be a deadly injury"
There was a general murmuring of approval, and lots of nodding
"That all seems reasonable" Tatsumi summed up for everyone.
Sora grinned "Great! So let's do it!" he stood up with a single, fluid movement, and started to walk away from his now six enemies.
"I will give you a few seconds to come up with a plan"
"Very nice of you" Kai mockingly replied
Sora walked for about twenty meters, before turning around. The first thing that he noted, was that Sven was sitting at the border of the battlefield
"Not playing?" he asked
"Not this time" the German said
the former cadet smiled internally
I have got this
Clearly, the coalition of the willing was in no hurry to move against him. The only one that seemed to be taking the battle seriously seemed to be Asuka, while Kai was all boast and bravado.
Sora shook his head in disapproval
Underestimating the enemy is the worst mistake that a commander can do…
He started to advance against the enemy. Not a run nor a charge, just a slow, deliberate walk. They didn't even notice it at the beginning, but there was some commotion when they finally did
"Wait, is he attacking us?"
"Is he crazy?"
"Obviously he knows that he has no chances and wants to finish it quickly"
Tatsumi seemed to become pensive, then started to walk toward the attacker. Sora quickly assessed that they were of similar stature, meaning that they had the same reach with the knife. He also noticed that, like everybody except Sakura, Tatsumi was holding the knife with his right hand.
From the outside, he seemed cool as ice, but on the inside his heart was throbbing with excitement in anticipation for the fight. Into his mind, he was already calculating how many steps were separating him from his enemy, where was the point in which his attack would start and how to adjust his motion in a way that his walk could seamlessly morph into a lightning thrust once that point was reached.
"One on one?" Sora asked when he was still a couple of meters away.
"Yes… I felt sorry…" Tatsumi smiled kindly and chuckled
"I appreciate it…" Sora said "… and now: en garde!"
Tatsumi raised his right hand, the one holding the 'knife', and assumed a very approximate fighting stance, with the right leg forward.
From outside Tatsumi's reach, Sora launched his attack. As they were about the same size, that meant that Sora could not hit Tatsumi's body… but it was not the body that Sora was aiming at. Too quick to be seen, his knife dashed forward, stabbing Tatsumi's right arm.
His eyes went wide "Oh! Am I dead now?"
"No… but you lost the knife…" said Sora, that in the meantime had kept advancing and was now close enough to hit Tatsumi's chest
"That makes sense" Tatsumi said, not realizing how quickly his position was deteriorating
Sora's knife dashed at the throat and abdomen of his enemy, hitting multiple times and inflicting many lethal wounds… had the fight been real.
"Now, you are dead" Sora said matter-of-factly. Tatsumi calmly agreed, and left the field.
As Tatsumi was 'dead', Sora decided that he had all of the right to get his knife as well to upgrade his weaponry, so he made sure to signal the others that he was now equipped with two knifes.
Double wielding… nice!
As he kept advancing, while wearing on his face a carefree smile, the enemy army assumed battle formation. From Sora's left to the right, Sakura, Kaede and Kai were lined up against him. Asuka formed the reserve, right behind Kaede. That was a pretty advanced formation, and the best way of using it was of course to have the first line to engage and fix the enemy, while the reserve would take position at one of the flanks to deliver a decisive blow. Sora was impressed; he would have expected that from Sven, but not from anybody else.
Because he had just used his right arm, he was feeling it warm and ready to hit again. For this reason, he wished that Asuka would try to flank him on his right. But how to motivate her to do that?
Military history was full of examples in which a crafty commander had convinced an enemy to concentrate their forces in a certain position by increase reconnaissance activities around that same area. Believing an attack to be imminent, the enemy would concentrate their forces to defend that position leaving others relatively undefended… and it was against one of those undefended positions that the real attack would take place. That was the theory, but how to translate it in a mock-battle with only five people involved?
Sora decided that the best course of action was to make everybody believe that he was going to attack on his left, so that Asuka would move to his right to take him by surprise. The left wing of the army was represented by Sakura, and so he simply started to stare at her. A few seconds later, Asuka started to slowly move away from Sakura, and behind Kai.
Bingo!
But he had to be careful. Staring too much at Sakura alone was going to make the others suspicious that maybe it was all just a ruse. And so, every now and then, he threw some quick glances to the center as well, towards Kaede, and less frequently to the right wing that was Kai.
But while his eyes were scanning the first line, all of his brain power was focused on Asuka. He intentionally averted the gaze from the woman to make her believe that he was not paying any attention to her. In reality, she was the only one he was actually paying attention to. He was keeping her at the border of his field of view, roughly 70 degrees right from his nose. In that position, he was unable to see her clearly, but if he concentrated enough, he could make out the general outline of her stance.
He absolutely did not care if he was unable to see the details of her hair or clothes, the only thing he was interested into was to visualize the position of her knife – because that was a matter of life and death – and to understand which leg was in front of the other – because that was going to give important information on the way her attack would come. Or so his experience as a black belt was telling him.
Right, left, right … glance at Kai… left, right … she stops … look at Kaede … Knife still on the right … keep staring at Sakura …
The effort was more than he thought at the beginning, and he was about to get a headache
… turns around Kai … left forward … almost there …
Sora bent forward, as if he was preparing to lounge at Sakura. Hopefully, Asuka would notice it, and arrange to strike a little forward, to compensate for his expected motion. In reality, he was preparing to jump backward, to dodge her attack.
But again, he could not be too obvious, or they would notice that it was all a ruse. And so, he bent his legs in a neutral way, so that he could easily jump both forward and backward; it was going to be slightly slower, but hiding his actual intent was more important. Now he really had a headache!
Right forward … crouching … she is ready … Do NOT look at her! … this was such a bad idea … she will kill me! … And … GO!
Still smiling seraphically, Sora feinted an attack and Asuka lounged at him. He jumped backward. Her knife missed his side by mere centimeters, and he stabbed her right arm with his left knife.
A feeling of triumph washed upon him. In a real fight, had his left knife really stabbed the arm of the enemy, he would have simply yanked it forward. Ideally, his opponent would have lost balance and it would have been easy to finish him off with a stab in the neck with the right knife. But it was a mock battle, so he just jumped to the right himself, and stabbed Asuka's neck. Three times.
"You are dead Asuka" he said calmly
"YOU ARE DAMNED RIGHT THAT I AM DEAD !" she proudly declared as she straightened herself up.
She stopped moving, but remained where she was. That was a welcome development for Sora, because in that way she was acting as an obstacle for the enemy main line, that split into two. Kai moved to Sora's right, while Sakura and Kaede moved to his left. However, Kaede moved in front of Sakura, so that they could not attack him at the same time. Sora moved to the left to meet them.
With his left knife, he blocked Kaede's attack, while at the same time he stabbed her throat with his right blade. Then he stabbed her again five times, with both of his weapons, twice in the throat and thrice in the abdomen.
"You are dead, Kaede" he said calmly
She whimpered while nodding her agreement, but remained where she was, providing a shield for Sakura. Sakura was the only left-handed one, and that could have been a problem for Sora. But she made a mistake. By trying to use Kaede as a shield, she sandwiched her knife between her own body and Kaede's, effectively disarming herself. On top of that, Kaede's figure was covering only the left part of her body, leaving the rest exposed. Sora quickly stabbed her six times.
"You are dead Sakura" he said calmly
She smiled gently and nodded calmly "I guess that I am"
By this point, Kai had finally managed to walk around Asuka, and was almost close enough to attack Sora's right side. Sora realized that, and quickly jumped to his left before turning around, in order to face Kai frontally. Kai, for his part, did not seem to have realized at all what just happened.
"Come on, let's get him!" he said to Kaede
"He killed me" she said, ashamed
"Oh, Ok… let's get him, Sakura!"
"I am also dead" she said apologetically.
Kai was dumbfounded "Y-you too?"
He gave Sora a look of utter shock, while Sora just kept smiling seraphically. Kai swallowed hard, and very carefully approached his enemy. On the sideline, the fallen were cheering him on.
"And so it comes down to the two of us eh?" Kai said showing a confidence that was far from actually feeling. His attitude had completely changed from the beginning of the fight.
"Well, not really… I have two knifes" Sora replied calmly, his attitude completely unchanged from the start of the fight. What Sora was actually hinting at was that Kai should also get a second knife from one of the fallen to have a double-wielding duel.
Kai did not get it. Instead, he said: "Why? Are you afraid of fighting me fair and square?"
Sora thought that that was absolutely adorable, and decided to change his plans
He laughed "I want to be very clear Kai: if this was a real fight, there is absolutely no way that I would get rid of one of my weapons for such an obvious provocation..."
Kai lowered his eyes as his gambit had been uncovered so easily
"… But we are just playing…", Sora continued "… and so I'll give you a chance of winning" this said, Sora motioned as if he was throwing his left knife away
"Done, from now on I have only my right knife. Ready?"
Sora raised his left hand and challenged Kai to attack him
"Come" he said with a predatory grin
Kai did come. Twice. And both times Sora just dodged, without even trying to counter-attack
"A-are you playing with me?" Kai asked angrily
"Kinda" Sora said calmly
"Fight me seriously!" Kai shouted
Sora still had not decided how to finish the fight, but that last exchange him the right idea
"OK" he simply said
Sora changed his position, bringing his left leg forward. Like before, he was keeping both legs bent and compressed. By doing that, he was lowering his center of gravity for a better stability, but it also turned his legs into springs ready to snap, capable of producing much quicker movements. That's how he had managed to simply dodge Kai's attack.
Kai attacked for the third time: a thrust from the right, like the previous times. Sora brought back his left leg, grabbed Kai's right arm with his left arm, and then lounged at Kai, thrusting his own knife forward. Kai's position was already almost untenable, but he compounded it by making a huge mistake… he pulled back his right arm. Sora was already in full acceleration to deliver the coup the grace, and now Kai was pulling him closer, providing even extra acceleration. Sora was moving so fast that even he could barely register what was happening. Sora's knife hit Kai's throat. And that was the end of it.
"Shit" Kai said, completely deadpanned. Everybody else had stopped cheering, and were looking at Sora in absolute disbelief
"So, are we done playing?" he asked nonchalantly. He was met by complete silence.
"If so, then let's go back to the serious stuff… beer!" he cheerfully declared. His friends exchanged glances, and then slowly nodded
"Yes… let's do that!"
As Sora turned his back to them, his ears could nonetheless pick up a few extra words
"Did you even see him moving?" Kaede was asking Kai
"No… no I could not" he said
Sora smiled, but pretended not to have heard.
Later that evening, with lots more people around the table of a pub, the topic of workout was raised.
"Sora, what do you do to train yourself?" somebody asked him. He shrugged
"Well, I walk to the office every day… walking as fast as possible… but I really do not do anything serious"
"You are lazy!" the other jokingly said.
Sora smiled in agreement and nodded with conviction "I have to train harder"
Kai was outraged "You have no idea what he is able to do" he said seriously
All of those that did not participate in the mock battle grew attentive "What does that mean?"
"Come on, Sora, tell them what I mean…" Kai pressed, clearly implying that Sora had committed some horrible crime.
"Ehm… I really would not want to brag … " said Sora. And he was not lying, that was the only reason why he was feeling uneasy.
Kai went into full holier-than-you mode "What's the matter? Problems justifying the ethics of your actions?"
Sora blinked "Eh?"
"Your actions have been very unethical" Kai stated very priest-like "Take responsibility for it"
Sora laughed "Sure, why not? That's a funny one" and took a swig
Kai looked around, incredulous that he was not being taken seriously "I am serious!"
"Sure, and I am Santa Claus!" Sora laughed in his face, making Kai even more outraged
Most of the people around the table were confused
"What did he do that was so bad?" somebody asked across the table
"Nothing!" Sakura said, equally confused
"Yeah, what are you talking about Kai?" Kaede asked him
Kai shrank under Kaede's lost gaze.
Asuka decided to chime in "Sora, please tell them what we did in the afternoon. And please tell us everything that you thought while you were doing it, because it was incredible and I am really curious!"
"Uhm… Okay…" he said, and told his version of the story. Everybody was amazed, and asked many times to all of the witnesses if Sora was telling the truth or if he was exaggerating. He wasn't exaggerating. If anything, he was downplaying himself.
"So, do you understand now what you did?" Kai pressed again, still acting as the enforcer of morality.
Asuka burst into laughter "He kicked our asses!"
Everybody laughed
"That was very unethical!" Kai kept preaching, undeterred
"Because you lost?" Sora asked
Kai looked away from him
Bingo! Sora thought
"That has nothing to do with it" Kai said, fooling precisely nobody
"Do you know why that battle happened?" Sora asked. He did not wait for the reply, and offered the answer himself
"It happened because you believed that it was impossible for a single person to defeat four enemies. I disagreed…"
Everybody confirmed
"… So you challenged me to defeat all of you. And I accepted…"
Everybody confirmed
"… and I won. And now you are whining because you have lost…"
Everybody confirmed
"… You have done it to yourself!"
Kai lowered his eyes, and did not raise the issue again.
Asuka decided it was time for her own revelation
"Sora, what did you think of our disposition?"
He gave her an approving nod
"It was very good; I would have expected that from Sven but… oh, wait…"
"Yes…" Asuka grinned, while elbowing her German boyfriend "…that was Sven's plan all along!"
Kaede was embarrassed "I didn't even know that!"
"Me neither!" Sakura whispered
"That was a very good idea Sven! Where did you get it?" Sora asked
The German smiled "Both Sun Tsu and Klausewitz put a lot of emphasis on the style and preferences of the commander of an army, so I figured that if you did not know that I was directing them it would have been more difficult for you. But I have to say, what you told us was really impressive… I think that even if I had been in the field, you would have killed me very easily"
"So… can I consider this a six on one battle?" Sora asked
Everybody agreed that he could