by Drew Lindsay
‘Ben.’ Akira put a very large hand on his friends shoulder and pushed him gently towards the woman on the patio. ‘This is Yana.’
‘The lawyer,’ said Ben as he approached.
‘Akira tells me you hate lawyers.’ Yana stood and held out her hand. Ben shook it, squeezing hard. Her grip tightened and now Ben was in trouble. This woman was very strong, despite her extremely feminine appearance. Ben guessed she was in her mid 20’s. The top of her head reached his chin, which put her around 5’7”. She had shoulder length brown hair, tied back in a short pony tail. Her body was amazingly proportioned and fitness oozed from her every movement. She had large brown eyes with long eye lashes and high cheek bones. Her skin was white. This girl kept out of the sun. Ben noticed a small white scar on her left cheek. Otherwise she was unblemished.
‘I hate most lawyers. I’m a cop and lawyers delight in chewing me up.’
Yana Gibson stepped back and examined Ben closely. ‘Well I’m not going to chew you up. I may cause you some pain. I gather Akira has partnered us and you are in a bit of a hurry to get back into condition.’
Ben glanced at the girl’s pony tail. He thought to himself, ‘dopey bitch. You’ve left a weakness to be exploited if I can get hold of that.’
‘Yana is keen to lift her skill level Ben,’ said Akira, smiling. ‘There will be mutual respect for the safety of each other but as you know, sometimes things go wrong.’
‘I’ll try not to hurt her,’ said Ben. Yana stared back at him emotionless.
‘The training schedule will last five weeks and we do three evenings a week and one hour a session. Is that satisfactory?’
‘Yes,’ said Yana.
‘OK,’ said Ben.
‘Six thirty to seven thirty. I know Ben won’t have a problem with that. Yana. ‘Times suit you?’
‘Yes. I’ll adjust my diary. I often have to work late.’
‘Alright, so for the next 30 minutes we do a warm up so you can both get to know each other better. How does that sound?’
‘You got my suit?’ asked Ben.
‘Yep. Hanging in the change room.’ Akira walked left from the patio and into a passage way which led to a large gymnasium. Ben and Yana followed.
Ben entered the male change room and took the Karate suit off its hanger. He noted the white belt and cursed softly. He had been a black belt and had worked hard to earn it. He had been rated second dan. This was extremely embarrassing.
He dressed quickly and wrapped the white belt firmly around his waist, knotting it tight. The combat and training area remained unchanged from his last visit over a year before. The lighting was low. This was something Akira insisted on. In competition bouts, the lighting was almost blinding so the judges could see clearly what was happening. Akira’s training was for a totally different style of Karate. Personal protection fighting usually occurred in the darkness of night. That was when the gangs and hoodlums developed courage. Daylight exposed them to detection.
‘You got emotion Ben?’ said Akira.
‘What do you think? I’ve been screwed by the department and my wife.’
‘Not good. Not a good way to start. Yana. You got emotion?’
‘Some.’
‘The meditation?’ Akira folded his hands across his chest.
‘Sort of run out of time.’
‘Alright you two. We do some simple blocking and call it an evening. Ben, punch at her and I want you to mean it. Yana. Block.’
Yana tightened her black belt and bowed to Ben. He bowed back.
‘Ben,’ said Yana softly. ‘You even touch my pony tail and I’ll break your wrist. Got it?’
Akira laughed.
‘Are we using the three step style to start?’ asked Ben.
‘Of course,’ said Yana.
Ben swiftly launched a straight punch to Yana’s face; at least he felt it was swift. He hesitated slightly because of her amazing beauty and that was a bad error. Yana executed a perfect fore fist upper block with her left arm, revolving it in a well trained and perfect move. Ben’s punching arm felt as if it had collided with a brick wall. It went nowhere near her face. She then dropped onto her back and kicked him off his feet so quickly that he didn’t know his head had smacked the straw matting until he felt the pain.
Yana stepped back, her hands in a very defensive position. Her breathing was slow and steady. Ben stared up at the ceiling. Akira was chuckling as he stood over his friend and extended a hand. He pulled Ben to his feet. ‘What have I always taught you Benjamin?’
‘Don’t call me Benjamin. I hate that.’
‘OK Ben. The first rules of combat training.’
Ben looked at Yana. She smiled and relaxed her arms.
‘Never underestimate the opponent. Never trust the opponent.’
‘Good boy. I think that’s enough for today. You got a fair way to go to regain form eh?’
Ben moved close to his friend and whispered, I hate lawyers.’ He then looked at Yana. “I thought we were supposed to be practicing blocking?’
‘You needed a lesson smart cop.’
Ben stormed into the change room.
For the next five weeks each Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, Ben and Yana sparred, punched, thrusted, kicked, blocked and generally wore each other out for an hour under the watchful eye of Akira Misaki. Both scored some degree of injury on the other. Ben suffered a black eye in the first week and multiple bruises to his legs, arms and torso. Then he decided that she may be a beautiful woman but she was hurting him and that had to stop. In the second week he gave her a black eye and fractured one of the fingers on her left hand.
Yana’s respect for Ben grew as they fought together. She found herself attracted to him in a strange way. Ben considered her irresistible but there was no way he was going to let her use her femininity to pound him into the mat again.
Both developed lightening reflexes beyond their previous capabilities.
Akira insisted both practice striking techniques to break hard objects such as boards and tiles for 10 minutes prior to each sparring session. Initially pine slats were used. These were increased in size over time until in week three, a cement tile was substituted. Ben found the board and tile breaking reasonably easy although painful. Yana struggled from the outset. Akira never pushed either to beyond what he felt was a safe practice.
He reminded them from time to time that the word ‘Karate’ meant fighting with empty hands, but did not just involve the hands but rather every part of the body. He reminded them that the art of Karate took years for a suitable person to master and only ‘suitable’ persons would ever be able to master Karate no matter how many years they trained.
On the last scheduled evening of their training, Akira summonsed them both to the patio. The summer heat had diminished but it was still warm. Bell served green tea in her silent, efficient manner. Akira watched her with pride.
When she had left them, Akira sipped his green tea and put the small white bowl back on the table. ‘Ben. You have a great willingness to progress and you have.’
Ben bowed his head to Akira.
‘Yana, you have earned advancement to third dan.’
Yana put her hands to her mouth and stared at Akira. ‘I do not deserve….’
‘Yes you do. You know what I expect from my students as they progress. Respect for each other is paramount. You have both the utmost respect for each other and yet when you started I don’t think you liked each other very much.’
‘You’re a lawyer,’ said Ben.
Yana beamed at him. ‘And you’re a copper.’
‘And now,’ said Akira, ‘if I sent you both into an affray, you would move as one powerful force together. Unified. Your moves Yana, and disciplined approach to this project, notwithstanding being partnered with an opponent of dubious fighting fidelity, has earned you the honour of third dan.’
‘What’s this dubious
fighting fidelity crap Aka?’ Ben folded his arms.
Akira picked up his green tea bowl and sipped. Yana looked puzzled.
‘When you came to me 4 years ago Ben, you had a goal. Karate was a means to an end for you, right?’
‘I guess so.’
‘And the end?’
‘To subdue an enemy and get fit.’
‘Exactly, and of most importance?’
‘What?’
‘Of most importance to you?’
‘I’ve just told you.’
‘Getting fit was an optional extra.’
Yana moved uncomfortably in her chair.
‘What are you saying Aka?’ said Ben.
Akira sipped more green tea. He was completely relaxed and his eyes almost twinkled with amusement and challenge. ‘To a very large degree, Yana trains and fights according to strict rules.’
Yana nodded.
‘Even with all the physical damage you did to each other in the last 5 weeks, there was always respect. No-one broke accepted rules. A bit of cheating here and there but always respect and that built into what you two now have as a special relationship.’
Ben sat forward on his chair. ‘Well I wouldn’t go exactly that far….’
‘No, he’s right,’ said Yana. ‘We do.’
Ben looked at her. He looked closely into her large brown eyes. They were glistening slightly. She held his gaze.
‘There’s a generally accepted psychological reason for this behaviour in opponents, particularly of the opposite sex, but I won’t go into that now,’ said Akira. ‘The point is that you two have formed a bond. Accept it and get over it.’
Ben and Yana were silent.
‘In your case Yana, you have to understand something about Ben that he won’t ever explain to you, but I need to.’
‘You back on those blood pressure pills Aka?’ Ben got up and walked to the edge of the patio. ‘And by the way, what rating have you given me?’
Akira sat back in his chair and clicked his huge, swollen knuckles one at a time. If he had suffered from arthritis, the exercise would have attracted only mild attention. In this case however, Akira’s knuckles were huge from breaking 20 tiles in one massive strike, or dropping an opponent in seconds with a blow to the head. At the same time he could also extinguish the flame of a candle with a lightning strike that was well ahead of the air flow that followed.
‘You don’t get a rating Ben. You got fit. That’s what you wanted. You’re not in this for Karate.’
Yana looked at both men. Confusion was written all over her face. She addressed Akira. ‘Would you mind telling me what this is about?’
Akira held out his huge right hand to Ben and Ben walked to him and put his right hand in the large, outstretched palm. ‘You go home now Ben. I’ve done all I can do. You’re a ship without a rudder. Go get a rudder.’
Ben bowed to his friend. Akira released the grip on his hand. Ben glanced awkwardly at Yana and left the house.
‘And?’ said Yana.
‘And the dish ran away with the spoon.’ Akira chuckled.
‘There is a bit of a cruel streak in you Akira.’
‘You don’t know that man at all.’
‘I know lots about him. I’ve done some research.’
‘Why?’
Yana hesitated for a moment, but it was that moment that left her as a very experienced lawyer, and a student of Akira, vulnerable to more intensive interrogation.
‘Nothing.’
Akira leaned back his chair and pushed his large fingers across his cheeks. ‘So you’re checking him out eh? Doesn’t matter really. Have some more tea.’
Yana sipped at her green tea.
‘I am going to tell you something about Ben that must remain confidential.’
‘OK Akira.’
Akira watched her closely for some time. ‘Ben came to me to learn how to quickly and totally immobilise an opponent, or kill him or her if the situation demanded.’
‘Oh?’
‘That is not what Karate is fundamentally about.’
Yana remained silent.
‘I taught Ben how to react with rather grim brutality when fighting. It’s ancient Japanese soldier fighting. It’s not conventional. It’s often fighting just to remain alive. It’s not like what you two have been doing for the past five weeks.’
Yana pushed a wisp of hair from her eyes. ‘What are you saying?’
‘Unlike what I have taught you, I taught Ben to kill with the thrust of a finger, a slice of his hand, a knuckle blow to just the right spot on the head or throat or a kick to a specific part of the body. He is extremely good when he trains, and he has been training. I was watching him very carefully as you sparred. If he had gone too far even once, I would have terminated your partnership.’
‘Why didn’t you grade him?’
‘He doesn’t need grades darling. His desire was to learn the ways of Shin Obi Ninjutsu. He has come a long way to achieving that and yet has no idea why. He’s a bit lost I’m afraid.’
Yana walked to her Volvo. Ben was sitting on the bonnet of his car staring at the tree lined street. The late summer breeze ruffled the leaves and blew scraps of paper along the gutter.
Yana approached him. ‘What are you doing sitting on your car?’
Ben looked up. ‘I have no idea.’
Yana moved to the front of the car and faced him. ‘Where are you going?’
‘Home I guess,’
She moved closer. ‘Where is home?’
Ben squirmed a little. ‘Roseville.’
‘And what’s there?’
‘You’re nosy.’
‘You married?’
‘Yes.’
‘Happy?’
‘Jesus, is this the Spanish inquisition?’
‘Happy?’
‘I want to go now. I’m not feeling well.’
“You could have gone a while ago. I think you were waiting for me.’
‘You’re an idiot.’
‘Grab my pony tail.’
‘What!’
‘Grab it.’
‘You said you’d break my wrist if I ever…..’
‘I want you to grab it.’
‘And when I grab it, what is going to happen, other than my wrist being broken?’
‘Wait and see.’
Adrenalin surged through Ben’s body. He looked down at the amazingly beautiful face before him. He knew the hidden power this woman possessed.
He moved his right hand to the back of her head and gently grasped her pony tail. At the same time he was imagining himself lying on his back in the car park with a broken wrist. Instead, she pushed up close to him and kissed him openly on the mouth with such passion that he almost fainted. She moved her face back and looked into his eyes. ‘You want to pull it some more and see what happens?’
Ben was about to call her a sick bitch but she stopped him by pushing her tongue deep into his mouth.
Morning sun streamed through the curtains. Yana’s arm was draped comfortably across his chest. Her breathing was slow and even. Her brown hair was dishevelled but she looked stunning. Ben concluded that their bedroom workout equalled anything that happened in Akira’s training room. He was overwhelmed by her passion and stamina.
Ben suddenly realised that he was looking into her large brown eyes.
‘Morning copper.’
‘Morning lawyer.’
She propped herself up on one elbow. ‘Wow is all I’m going to say.’
‘Wow is hardly the word.’ Ben smiled at her.
‘It was all bottled up inside. Never thought a copper would bring it out of me.’
Ben looked around the huge bedroom. Now that it was daylight he could see they were in huge timber four poster bed with bright red sheets and matching pillows. The bed was a mess. The room was furnished with two large upholstered chairs and a timber writing desk. A large doll sat in a lopsided po
sition in one of the chairs.
‘I have to get to work.’
‘In the city?’
‘Downing Street Centre today.’
‘Big case?
‘Workplace bullying. I love them. I love watching the smug cocky smile wiped off the bully’s face when I get them out of their comfort zone and into my comfort zone.’
‘Mostly men?’
‘Yep, but some women too. I still don’t get why some CEO’s allow these inadequate individuals to get into positions of power where they are allowed to bully and intimidate those under them. It’s at almost epidemic proportions in some parts of the business world.’
‘Lots of wins for the victims?’
‘Lots. I usually nail the companies as well. If they allowed the bullying culture to exist, I hit them where it hurts the most. In the pocket.’
‘Where did you get the scar?’
Yana slipped out of bed and draped a kimono around her shoulders. ‘I got too close to a prisoner with handcuffs at front.’ She touched the scar on her cheek with slender fingers. ‘Was a nasty cut. I thought I was safe in the court room. I got too close and he was very fast.’
‘What happened?’
‘He was in for AOABH, (Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm) which wasn’t all that serious. His attack on me got him bumped up to Grievous and the Judge gave him an additional 8 years. Best witness I’ve ever had!’
Ben laughed. ‘And the Karate?’
‘I went to see Akira after the wound healed. Started training. I’m never going to allow another man to hurt me like that ever again.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Ben.
‘Now I’m really late. Can you run me into work? The bus would take forever.’
‘Where are we?’
Yana smiled. ‘You did get distracted last night.’
‘Distracted is hardly the word.’
‘Leichhardt. I’m showering.’
Ben flew out of bed. ‘I better help now that we’re such a good team and all.’
Yana laughed and headed for the bathroom.
“****”
Chapter Fourteen