by Unknown
"Who told you that I would be here this early in the morning?"
Narumi asked a bit concerned. The boy didn't say anything. Constantly looking at the wooden floor, without realizing that Narumi was staring at him and frowning a little bit.
The soft sound of a cicada filled the silence of the hall, probably wafting in the wind.
[055]
During the last five minutes, that was the only thing you could hear in the room.
Hikoroku Hashiba was looking at them with his arms crossed, slightly amused by this weird interaction between them. "He's not going to bite you, even if you ask him for a date." He smiled.
Because both men were laughing, Kikuchiyo relaxed a little bit and uttered some words, almost whispering.
"An old lady told me..." as if he was talking to the floor.
"An old lady? I think he means Otake-san" Narumi thought to himself.
"Anyway, can you tell me why are you here?” Once again the boy got silent and Narumi felt that the conversation was going nowhere with these questions, so before waiting for another moment of silence, he asked:
"Do you want to learn Karate, don't you?"
The expression of the boy got excited and he nodded his head quickly.
"If you come in the afternoon, you can register for the main instruction. There will be plenty of friendly people that can help you, don't worry."
The boy frowned and shook his head. That wasn't what he wanted.
"Don't you want to join the Karate Dojo?"
The boy shook his head.
"I thought you wanted to learn Karate, right?" The boy nodded.
"Well, why won't you join then?" The boy shook his head.
"Toshio, hear me out" Hikoroku spoke from behind the boy, as if a shadow of a mountain suddenly had appeared behind Kikuchiyo.
"I think the boy wants to learn your Karate style directly from you" Uncrossing his arms, Hikoroku's tone of voice got serious. Maybe the boy saw that Tai-chi technique, heard all that stuff about how dangerous it was and wanted to snatch it for himself too.
"Is that what you want?" Narumi asked kindly.
The boy's attitude brighten up and he started nodding intensely.
He looked at him and thought that this kid was like one of those strange child actors that are a little odd at first, but completely dedicated to their beloved craft once you get them on stage. Kikuchiyo was shaking but he was definitively committed in learning the particular style that Narumi forged for himself. That wasn't an easy task, Narumi remembered....
[056]
Yes, he remembered those old days. He was about the same age as Kikuchiyo when he started practicing Karate for a simple reason. He wanted to be strong.
Abusive kids were always around messing with people, but he didn't want to be taken for a fool.
He wanted to have the power to punch them really hard to show them that nobody was going to mess with him or his friends. He started Karate and loved every minute of it. It was never too hard, it was never boring, it was always exciting!!
He dedicated himself to improving his skills and looked for fights with anybody all the time for any reason to the point that bullies disappeared from his whole school during those years because of him. He had tons of friends and Karate gave him glory, made him champion, made him destructive.
But also saved his life and gave him the direction and discipline necessary to succeed.
"You want to be strong too, right?" said Narumi.
Kikuchiyo's body was quivering while he was still looking down. He was making tight fists and his face had some water drops running down from it. Narumi knew how the boy felt, he had experienced it first hand too. Been there, done that, Karate was needed.
"Sure, if that's what you want, I will teach you my Karate style" Narumi asserted. He was Kikuchiyo's age back then and he also found somebody strong that wanted to emulate, this was his turn in life.
"Alright..." Kikuchiyo said with a resilient voice.
"Alright!!" Like an echo bouncing inside his mind, heart and soul, he kept repeating inside of him.
"Alright!!"
"Alright!!"
[057]
~ ACT 7
Toshio Narumi started training the young Kikuchiyo Akuta in the fighting arts of Karate.
They'd always start very early in the mornings. They made an agreement before starting.
"I will train you only if you show up in the hall while I'm here. When you don't, then I won't either."
With that condition, Narumi would train Kikuchiyo in the special Karate that he forged for himself.
Everyday. No matter how early Narumi show up in the hall, Kikuchiyo would be always there waiting for him anxious for morning practice.
The first thing Narumi did was to measure Kikuchiyo’s physical fitness.
[058]
He didn't resort to any machines or systems to do so. He would simply observe how many squats Kikuchiyo could perform, How flexible he was or how much he could run around the block without getting exhausted. Before starting the lessons, he wanted to see his natural potential.
Unfortunately, compared to kids his age, he was way below the average mark.
Doing squats---- By standing and crouching constantly, you push your body to a movement that is unnatural. It's certainly harder to do than it looks, but still the boy did them poorly. Definitively this wasn't a good start, his flexibility was mediocre for a boy his age.
Then, it came the time to test his resistance, he sprinted for a short distance but he ran quite slow and he was instantly out of breath. To build up some resistance, he and Narumi would go jogging for a distance close to a decent marathon run. Kikuchiyo started poking his chin forward and started lagging behind.
But not all of his characteristics were lackluster, there were a few traits that Narumi noticed about this boy that made him quite unusual. there were two most noticeable ones that he started observing.
"Don't push yourself so hard!! You're overdoing it!!"
He would often call Kikuchiyo about his push up sets. He suggested a "soft level" 3 sets of 8 push ups to begin, but while he was doing something else, Kikuchiyo had done 127 push ups in a single set.
Narumi figured that, because of his skinny arms, the soft level may leave him exhausted. He was expecting that Kikuchiyo would give up after 10 or so, but never expected those skinny arms to do more than ten times what it was expected of him. The kid looked fine and in good spirits after that. The average athlete's arms would have been gone after a stunt like that. There are experts at push ups that can pull off 300, 500 and even 3000 in a single hour. These are remarkable athletes with years of constant training and dedication. A kid from the street with hardly any training pulling this number was not normal!!
But the explanation for this was quickly caught by Narumi's keen observation.
Kikuchiyo's right arm was strangely strong. Almost three times stronger than the left. He made him do push ups with only one arm until he felt he couldn't go anymore. Kikuchiyo did 37 push ups with the right arm but when it was time to use his left arm, he did only one and he was done.
[059]
Kikuchiyo noticed how impressed Narumi was with his push ups that he started focusing in working even more on them and he felt good. To the point that he was doing them all the time. It was hard for him to do two or three with the left, but if the motivation was there, He could do 100 or maybe 200 with his right on a good day, and almost twice the amount of regular push ups when in reality, it was the right arm doing most of the work.
The second thing that Narumi noticed that startled him a bit was his freak endurance during a marathon. He would get tired really fast when he ran with Narumi around the city, but when he ran by himself in the hall, he showed his unbelievable resistance.
One time Narumi ordered him to run around the training hall without stopping or taking a break to measure how long he would keep at it. He told him just to run at his own pace. When one can run at one's lei
sure, It is imperative not only to have a good physical condition but also a strong mentality.
It is known that morale will fade faster than physical strength.
That morning, Kikuchiyo ran from 6:30 am to 8:00 am, looking down all the time. Narumi felt tempted to call in from work and ask permission in the Dojo to see how much more he would endure.
The psychological resilience of Kikuchiyo Akuta was simply unbelievable. In a battle against himself or his tolerance against pain made Narumi feel even a little uneasy. If he were to tell him "do squats, run around and punch the bag until I come back" and didn't return, he would stay there doing that until the next morning.
"He's that kind of person." Narumi thought to himself.
As he was discovering Kikuchiyo's unusual talents, he started wondering if it might be a good idea to teach him the lethal techniques from the ancient styles, "The Yoh Rokka style" Narumi feared.
"He saw it once, what if he gets obsessed with that?"
"We're sending them home with dangerous knowledge to kill any person..."
[060]
~ACT 8
Kikuchiyo Akuta, The frail and silly kid as we know him, was about to be reborn into a lethal human weapon.
Practicing Karate was fun for him. He loved it dearly, dedicating all his time, energy and money to it. He started seeing the positive results that his hard work brought in his own body.
That only fueled the intensity of his practice and the harder he pushed himself, the better the results were. He was truly happy for having Karate as an integral part of his life.
His resistance to running got much better from the beginning and he felt proud running toe to toe with his master. He'd never tried to pass him, just running at his pace relaxed him.
Also his push ups increased. After a month, he could do 300 push ups with both arms, a hundred in 4 sets with his left only but a single set of 300 with only his right arm.
[061]
He was glad to have found something exciting and rewarding to do while he was alone. Rather than just doing Karate for practice's sake, he was glad to be left alone with his Karate.
He finally had a reason to cherish his loneliness.
Karate provided constant excitement but once he started reaching the next level, he felt hungrier for more power and knowledge and practiced more intensely.
Religiously, he would learn Karate from Narumi in the morning. After he'd leave for work, he would practice by himself. Repeating the drills and methods hundred of times, the ones that Narumi taught him and a few others that he researched himself.
To enhance his character and psychological resilience, meditation would follow after each intense practice. "To control an immense power, first you have to be aware of yourself." that was Narumi's coaching principle. Narumi taught him many practical methods such as how he could effectively gain mass in his muscles, how to properly make strong fists with his hands and how to properly react when fighting against a bigger and stronger opponent. He also taught him an exercise where he would grip a newspaper with arms stretched and he had to fold it only with his fingers and hold it tight with his fist to make it almost like a golf ball. When he did it the first time with his right hand, his fingers felt numb and his arm's muscles got hard as a rock. Nowadays, he could successfully achieve the exercise with two sheets of paper on the right arm and one with the left.
The only actual fighting techniques Narumi taught Kikuchiyo were a few practical kicks, some jabs and the basic karate stances. Narumi emphasized that he needed to obtain more power, make his body more flexible and master the basics as second nature to be able to continue to the more advanced techniques.
He also mentioned that Kikuchiyo didn't need to perform Kata or engage in "Kumite" for the time being, there would be plenty of time for that later.
Kikuchiyo wasn't in a rush for anything, he didn't seem annoyed by the repetitive drills and exercises that seemed to continue endlessly. Sometimes, he would practice the same kick for six hours until the blisters on the sole of his feet would gradually break off and were bleeding.
[062]
He made a post with some wood and straws and started striking it for half a day. The skin in his knuckles cracked and his blood colored the post red almost immediately.
Narumi got infuriated at Kikuchiyo for such a reckless move. Once he saw his injured knuckles he berated him for not knowing when to stop. That was nothing to be proud about.
By the evening, Kikuchiyo started jogging the same trail that Toshio Narumi used to run with him,
the road with the pine trees with the breeze of the sea on the left. These days though, Narumi wasn't jogging. He was training in Burinkan for the national Karate tournament that was about to happen in the fall. Kikuchiyo had not talked to Noriko Izawa since the library incident of that day, many months ago.
When they did come across in school, they would exchange a small greeting and that was it.
Greeting and slightly smiling was a great achievement for Kikuchiyo since he wasn't a person that was used to talking to girls or women without feeling weird about it. This time it was different. There was a confidence in him and a look that sent a message. Noriko didn't bring up any conversation about the experience of that day but she started looking at him in a different way.
It wasn't favorable at all though, but she didn't hate him or wanted to ignore him either. He was just a weird guy that was different from the other men at school, That was her simple perspective about him.
She still remembered him carrying a box with legless creatures with him. How weird can you be to be doing stuff like that? Gross.
But it was one of the handful of times he saw her after the incident. He saw her once walking towards school on summer break and a few other times while he was jogging before his evening Karate session.
It was around this time when Kikuchiyo's mother, Saeko, disappeared from his life.
It was the last day of school before vacation time in Isogahara junior high school.
When he returned home from school, the house was strangely clean and straighten out.
[063]
It definitely appeared that it was someone else's house. He called his mother's name as usual, even though he knew that she wasn't around. The weird silence that followed answered his call.
He checked her closet, but none of her clothes were there. All her things were gone.
Finally, a thought crossed his mind.
"We are all alone!!" she screamed that night....
"I won't be fooled!!" Her face looked ghastly that time.
He pictured her shattering the jaw of the dog's corpse. Her voice sounding terrifying and unearthly
that night. A beautiful woman like her, doing things like that.
He entered his room, so clean and neat, when was the last time he was here?
Between all his things, there was his bank account book and a seal with it.
The account name was his name and the amount that was there was around 300.000 yen.
There wasn't a single message, letter or note telling him of her whereabouts.
Just the amount she left for him and her missing things was clear enough to realize that she left and she wasn't going to return. They were not going to see each other again.
But there was no indication that she left today.
If she left, it was the day that he got attacked by the dog, she was drunk and cut the dog's neck and shattered his skull screaming that all of us are alone in the world and have to fend for ourselves.
She never left any messages before, why would it be different this time?
But it was...She kept saying that if Kikuchiyo someday would leave but she'll follow him,
the day finally arrived.
[064]
But she was the one that left that day, and Kikuchiyo wasn't going to follow her, why for?
She hugged him, cried and promised things but in the end. she forged her own path that freed her from her problems, just like
when he found Karate and a better life because of it.
He felt that a woman has the right to choose to live the way she wants. Her problems weren't his concern. He felt that the woman that left wasn't his mother at all, just some passerby that offered some help before leaving as many people do.
"Surviving alone....Living alone...."
That concept rolled into his heart like a little stone rolls down from a mountain.
[065]
~ACT 9
Kikuchiyo went out jogging that very evening. The weather was pleasant and without school for the next few months, he could dedicate more time to practicing Karate. The idea made him happy and what better time to kick off the school break than right away.