"That's great form, Harper," Rudy said as he watched her going through her kata. "I think we should start getting you ready for a new belt."
"Really?" she asked in surprise, stopping her exercise.. "Already?"
"You're making great progress. You work hard, you take correction well." He smiled. "And of course you have an amazing sensei."
Pleased with the praise, Harper resumed her kata as Rudy turned his attention ot his other students. He thought the two newest additions to his dojo were both working out quite well. The young women got along with everyone and both showed real potential, though Alex's skills were a bit of a puzzle.
Where Harper was a model student who showed great enthusiasm in class, Alex wasn't quite as dedicated. Rudy sometimes got the feeling that the young brunette was just doing enough to justify staying in class, only to periodically demonstrate some truly impressive ability. The sensei had no way of knowing that Alex had a fair amount of wizard combat training in her background. Such knowledge had proved useful to her in the past, such as the time she'd had to fight hand to hand with an evil duplicate of herself, and it was proving just as useful now in Rudy's class.
At the moment though, Alex's skills weren't enough to stop Kim from taking her to the mat.
"Let's see you get out of this," Kim said as she applied an arm lock on her fallen sparring partner.
"Ow! OW! That hurts!" the downed brunette cried out.
Kim released the hold immediately. "Alex, are you okay?"
"Just fine," Alex said with a smile as she sprung back to her feet. "And I got out of your hold."
"What? You? Ugh!" Kim sputtered in exasperation, but then began to laugh. "You are such a cheater!"
"Yeah," Alex replied nonchalantly. "That's sort of my thing."
Rudy shook his head. "Well, you can't cheat at katas," he said as we walked up to the two girls. "Go practice by Harper. I need to talk to Kim."
Once Alex walked away, Kim turned to her sensei. "What's up?"
"I wanted to see how your shin-du practice is going," he explained.
"Pretty good," she answered brightly. "I really feel like I'm getting it."
"Show me."
The blonde dropped her arms to her side and a calm, serene look came to her face. She was seemingly meditating.
Rudy launched a quick kick to her side. She stood and continued looking straight ahead as she moved only one arm to block it.
The sensei took a step back and then turned as if to walk away, only to spin around and leap at his student. Kim stepped to the side, dodging the attack almost casually. The calm look on her face remained unchanged.
Rudy smiled. "Excellent." He walked closer to the girl as her meditative look morphed into a bright-eyed smile. A smile that lessened at the sensei's next words.
"You and Jack are still practicing together?" he whispered.
She nodded and replied in an equally quiet voice. "It's not helping."
A small frown appeared on Rudy's face.
"I don't understand it it," Kim continued. "He's never had a problem with a new style before. It's really getting him down."
"He shouldn't let it bother him," the sensei said. "I'll talk to him."
Rudy then called for a break for his class.
******'******
As the other students relaxed and Rudy took Jack aside, Harper sat down next to Alex.
"What are you looking at?" the redhead asked, noticing that her friend was seemingly staring at a point on the dojo's far wall.
"Trying something I just thought of," the wizard answered. "I'm looking for magic."
"What?"
"It's sort of complicated," Alex explained. "Wizards draw their magic from the power grid in the Wizard World and have for thousands of years, but it wasn't always that way."
"It wasn't?"
"Magic comes from the Wizard World and it used to cross over to Earth naturally...but randomly. If a wizard concentrated hard enough, they could see the crossover points and draw the magic to them. But then the power grid was created and wizards could draw magic to them automatically. I was hoping that I could find a natural crossover point even with the lockdown in place." She sighed. "But there's nothing. The Wizard World is sealed tight."
Harper saw her friend frown but then a thought occurred to her. "So, if you concentrate hard enough, you can see magic?"
"It's not easy, but yeah."
"Molach is magical. If you concentrated could you see which one of our friends he's hiding in?"
Alex's eyes lit up. "Harper you're a genius!"
Taking a deep breath, the wizard concentrated once again and turned her gaze to the nearest potential host in the room, Milton. She gasped as she saw invisible energy swirling all around him.
"It's Mil-" she began, only to have the words die in her throat when Jerry walked into her line of sight. The young Latino was also surrounded with a nimbus of energy, moreso than Milton.
Alex shifted her gaze to Kim, and suddenly felt the urge to shield her eyes. The young blonde was blazing like a star. And glancing over to Jack and Rudy as the stood together talking was like staring into a supernova.
"Crap," Alex said as she realized what she was seeing.
"What's wrong?" Harper asked.
Alex turned to answer her only to be surprised at what she saw. "Wow!"
"What?"
"You're shining."
"No, I'm not," Harper protested. "I haven't even broke a sweat."
"That's not what I mean. All of you are shining." Alex paused. "It was a good idea, but I can't find Molach. You're all too bright. You know how Rudy talks about us focusing our chi in class?"
"Yeah."
"Chi isn't just a martial arts concept. It's real energy that flows through all dimensions. Earth, the Wizard World...anywhere that life exists."
"Really?" Harper said. "Like the Force in Star Wars ?"
"Yes, young Jedi," Alex answered sarcastically. "Unfortunately, all our friends here practice martial arts so much, and are so good at it, that they have chi all around them. So do you, by the way."
"What? Seriously?"
"Almost as much as Milton and Jerry," Alex continued. "I know you're doing well in class, but for you to have so much chi focused around you after a few weeks...that's impressive."
"But they know much more than me about martial arts."
"You having so much chi doesn't mean you're as good a fighter as they are. It's just that you got so much so quickly. That shows you have a potential to be as good as them if you keep at it. Maybe someday you could even work up to Kim's or Jack's level."
"Wow," Harper replied in an excited tone. "So instead of becoming a best-selling author, maybe I should become an action movie superstar. Or a best selling author AND an action movie superstar!"
"Either way, make sure your mansion has plenty of room for me. Oh, and hire some extra maids. That way you won't have to clean up after me anymore."
******'******
Jack listened to his sensei's pep talk and thanked him for it.
"I'm going to keep working at it," he said, attempting to sound upbeat. "I'm determined."
"I have faith in you. But you know, if you don't get the hang of shin-du, that doesn't make you any less-"
"I'm going to master it, Rudy," Jack interrupted. "I am."
"You and Kim can go ahead an practice right now, I'll have the rest of the class spar."
******'******
Frustration!
Molach pushed harder, hammering away at his host.
Envy!
Jealousy!
******'******
Jack swung at Kim who dodged the blow easily, staying in her shin-du stance all the while.
He reversed his movement suddenly and attempted a spinning back-fist, moving faster than he ever normally would during a normal sparring session.
Kim caught his arm and flipped him to the mat. He didn't get back up immediately.
"Let's switch," Kim suggested as she helped her boyfriend to his feet.
"Sure." His tone was flat and subdued.
Planting his feet firmly, Jack dropped his arms to his side and took a deep breath and tried to focus.
Kim waited for some time before launching a basic kick towards him. A kick that wasn't particularly fast.
Jack blocked the attack, but the look on his face was far from calm or serene.
"Kim, don't throw softballs at me."
"That was not a softball."
He stared at her.
"I was...just warming up," she offered in an unconvincing tone.
The young man returned to the shin-du stance once again. "Now let's do this for real."
The blonde waited once more before throwing a punch. Jack blocked it instinctively, but not using the shin-du technique.
"Damn it," he muttered.
"Why don't we just get into the stance and meditate?" Kim suggested. "We'll save the sparring until later.
"I've done enough meditating." The volume of his voice began to rise. "I'm sick to death of meditating."
"Jack, don't-"
He turned abruptly and began to walk away. By this time, the rest of the class had noticed the drama and were paying more attention to Jack and Kim than their own sparring practice.
"Jack...hey," Kim said in gentle tone as she raced after him. "It's okay," She reached out and touched his arm.
He spun around, moving faster than he did during sparring sessions.
Faster than he did during most tournament matches.
As fast as he ever had during a real fight.
He spun around...and punched Kim in the face.
To be continued...