I followed Sakaki inside the dojo and saw another master at the dojo training Kenichi. The guy training him was Akisame and he was forcing Kenichi to hold a heavy looking Buddha statue in each hand as well as balance one on top of his head. Kenichi was moaning about how heavy the statues were and that the statue on his head was going to crush his skull.
"Oh hush. They aren't that heavy, and if the statue does crush your skull, you will need some harder training," Akisame said, sitting down and sipping his tea.
"Monster!" Kenichi complained.
"Um, is that really safe?" I asked, as we passed through the room. I pointed at Kenichi.
"Hm?" Sakaki asked. He glanced over at Kenichi and just laughed. "Oi, Kenichi! Did you piss Akisame off or something?" He laughed.
"Yes, he did," Akisame said, taking another sip of tea. Sakaki walked over and stood next to Akisame who was still sitting.
"So, what did our little disciple do?"
"He insulted my mustache," Akisame stated, causing Sakaki to laugh even more.
"Well, you're on your own, kid," Sakaki said. He walked out of the room but I stayed put.
"Uh," I muttered. Akisame noticed me.
"Oh, don't worry about Kenichi. He's endured worse, and he'll go through even worse if he ever dares to insult my mustache again," Akisame said. I briefly nodded and followed Sakaki to some room that I saw him entering. When I walked into it, it looked like a typical dojo room. Mats on the floor, those punching things that could be stood up straight on a floor, and the master standing in the middle of the room with his arms crossed.
"It's about time you got here. Anyway, let's get started on the training right away," Sakaki said. I nodded and went to the middle of the room where he was. "Alright! Stand straight with your feet shoulder width apart!" I did as he said. He uncrossed his arms but kept his fists in balls.
"Now form your hands into light fists and place them on either side of your hips," Sakaki said. I once again did as he said. However, for some reason he sighed and walked until he was standing right in front of me. He put his hands on my shoulders and pushed them down gently. "Relax your shoulders. You'll want to make sure you're nice and loose when you fight someone. If you're not, then you'll have some serious problems later on."
"Oh, okay," I said. I had to trust that he knew what he was talking about. After all, he was a very famous karate master. I waited for a while to hear his next instruction. That, and for him to let go of my shoulders. I looked up to see him just staring at me. I blinked twice. "Um, are you okay?" He blinked twice and a small blush appeared on his face. He quickly covered it up by letting go of my shoulders and stepping away.
"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. I just noticed how puny and frail your shoulder bones are, that's all," he said, facing away from me. I was so insulted that I forgot about my current karate lesson and put my hands on my hips and leaned forward in denial.
"Hey! My shoulders are not that tiny!" I yelled. He turned around.
"Yeah, they are. And who told you, you could get out of the pose?" Sakaki yelled. I yelped and immediately got back into the pose, mentally protesting and complaining the entire time. "All right, next we need to get some more muscle on your arms and legs. First we'll start with your legs since they're your body's support system for pretty much everything you do." He held up his hand in front of him, not saying anything else.
"Uh, what are you doing?"
"The question is what are you supposed to be doing, and you're supposed to be kicking my hand," Sakaki said.
"What? Um, no," I stated, not letting myself get out of the karate pose again.
"Why not? Are you a wuss or something? Come on! Even if you kick with all your strength you won't be able to hurt me, so just go ahead and kick my hand!" Sakaki said.
"Now that's just rude! And I can't kick it because your hand is too high for my foot to reach!" I said.
"Then jump."
"No!" I yelled. Sakaki glared at me.
"Who is your master again?" he asked. I felt like I was shrinking under his glare and he was getting bigger.
"Um, you," I whimpered.
"You're damn straight I am, now shut up and do what I tell you. Jump and kick my hand!" Sakaki demanded. I nodded and did as he said. It ended up the same as when I tried to kick Apachai's hand. I fell on my face and this time I landed on the hard floor instead of the slightly softer earth outside.
"Ow," I muttered.
"Again!" he yelled. I sighed and stood back up.
"Fine," I said. I kept jumping and kicking, and after landing on my butt and face about 5 times each, he finally let me take a breather. I just sat down where I was and sat cross legged. He sat down across from me.
"Alright Haley. It's really clear that you lack hand eye coordination. So we will work on that. Now, instead of attempting to kick my hand, we'll just have you kick the wooden post outside in the courtyard. It's something a shrimp like you can reach so we'll just do that for now until your hand eye coordination improves. We'll see what to do from there," Sakaki said. I nodded. He stood up and declared that break time was over.
"What? It just started!" I complained.
"Tough shit. I only called it so I could tell you what we were doing next! Now get up and follow me to the courtyard!" Sakaki yelled. I sighed, stood up, and followed him. We arrived at our destination less than a minute later. I saw about 4 thick wooden stakes stuck to the ground.
"Alright! Go to the post in the middle and start kicking it!" Sakaki said. I nodded and walked up to said post. I did as he said and my leg immediately hurt.
"Ow!" I yelled, holding my foot.
"Hey, genius! You don't side kick with your foot! You do it with your shin! Now do it again and this time hit the post with your shin!" Sakaki yelled from the porch. I had a few things in my mind to say to him but I kept them to myself. Instead, I did as he said and that hurt even worse. "Now do about 50 more of those!" I put my foot down and spun on my heel to face him.
"What?" I yelled. He waved me off. I saw Akisame and Kenichi coming out the room behind Sakaki as he sat down. I sighed and turned back around. "Fine, whatever." I kept side kicking the post with my shin even though it hurt. After about 20 kicks my shin felt like it was on fire. I stopped, sat down, and rubbed my shin. Kenichi came up next to me and stood at the post that was next to mine.
"Hey," Kenichi said, trying not to scare me by suddenly saying something.
"Hi," I said.
"Your shin hurting?" he asked. I nodded. "Yeah, that happens a lot to me." He looked to his left and right then knelt down and whispered to me, "You want to know a secret?"
"Sure, why not?" I said.
"The trick is to kick the post as hard as you can, then bring it back really quick so the air can flow around it and cool your shin down, making the pain more bearable," he said. I nodded, not really knowing what he meant. He sighed, seeing that I would need a demonstration. "It's like this." He stood up and got in position to kick the post.
"Kenichi! Make sure you don't kick it too hard! You might break it!" Akisame yelled.
"Yeah! But make sure you show off so Haley can see the difference between your skill levels!" Sakaki yelled, laughing. I growled and glared at the Karate master behind me.
Jerk. I thought. Kenichi sighed.
"Sorry about them," he whispered. I nodded. He again got prepared for the kick. After a second I heard something collide with the post but didn't see Kenichi move. He turned and faced me. "Do you understand?" I turned my head in confusion.
"Understand what? That you kick so fast that I can't see it?" I guessed. He had a surprised expression on his face and I guessed that he didn't know how fast he had become.
"Huh? Wait, I was so fast you couldn't see me?" he muttered. I nodded and a smile broke out on his face. He leaped with joy. "Masters! Masters did you hear that? An ordinary person can't see my kick!" My happiness for him quickly faded as his unintended insult hit me in the face.
"Ordinary?" I muttered, looking down at my hands. Was I just an ordinary person? Will I always be one? My hands clenched tight as I remembered all the times that I couldn't see people move.