Capoeira background music:
Mestre Machado told the group around to make a large circle, and when the music started, Sakamo signalled Shintaro to join him. She almost ran to the circle with her shinai, without worrying about putting the protection gear because Sakamo didn’t have a weapon.
She quickly took her shoes off, and went into her usual stance, with the shinai at middle height, pointing the tip at Sakamo that was swinging while looking straight at her.
He kept on swinging at the sound of the music, with a few changes in the pace and movement to fool her. Shintaro made a slight smile and in a split second, she went forward with a downward slash that Sakamo avoided with a quick change in the direction of his swing.
She backed away the moment she saw Sakamo throwing a kick at her shinai, but she had to keep on backtracking because he didn’t stop there, he threw a series of rotative kicks and put his hands on the floor to rotate his body to throw a side kick aimed at her, that she stopped with the shinai, by aiming at his left foot. Or so she thought because Sakamo changed the direction of his foot in the last moment and put it on the ground, changing his weight to that foot so that he could use the other to hit her chest, hard. She was sent back against a man that was behind her, and he prevented her from falling.
Shintaro rubbed her chest and clenched her teeth, holding the tears of pain and frustration. She went to her stance again, and Sakamo slowed down his swing because the music was slower as well.
Sakamo spoke, and Shintaro almost blew up in rage:
“You are too nervous and angry, Shintaro-san. Focus, remember the meditation. Breathe, focus on you, not me or the music.”
“That’s easy for you to talk, I am not used to fighting with so much noise around!”
Sakamo smiled:
“That’s also the purpose of the music, so that an opponent that is not used to it, loses focus. You were the one that said would knock my head, so, do it! I am right here, just dancing!”
Shintaro increased the grip on the shinai and she kept on looking at Sakamo, trying to predict where he was going to move next. He suddenly jumped forward, and rolled on the floor, throwing a series of kicks mixed with punches to the chest and stomach, that Shintaro did her best to avoid. Sakamo got hit a few times in his legs and feet, but he kept on attacking like if there was no tomorrow. Then, when he was close, he grabbed the shinai with both hands and went forward, headbutting Shintaro’s stomach while he pulled the shinai from her hands.
As she was kneeling and holding her stomach in pain, Sakamo jumped back while pushing the shinai against the ground and using it as a support, and landed two meters from her. He made a few slashes with the shinai to the empty space in front of him, while rotating his body and mixing kicks and slashes. He then returned to the swing while still holding the shinai and waited for Shintaro to recover. She slowly got up and waved her hand with tears almost falling down her face.
“I give. I can’t continue this. Ouch, my belly…”
She took a few slow breaths and forced down her tears. She was too proud to cry just for that hit. She faced Sakamo and he stopped swinging. The music came to a halt, and there was a lot of cheering and clapping as he approached Shintaro Nakaoka and returned the shinai. He asked with a worried look:
“Are you alright? Maybe I was a bit mean, but you didn’t seem to be worried, so I went all out. It has been a while since I faced a strong opponent like you, one that I didn’t need to worry about holding back.”
Shintaro Nakaoka made a forced smile while rubbing her stomach:
“Thanks, I guess. That was so weird, your movements were chaotic, I never faced anyone that moved like that.”
“Actually, I did the same movements they were doing when we arrived. The problem was not that you weren’t used to it, the problem was that you lost focus and got angry. You were gripping too hard, your hands got tired and it was easy for me to disarm you.”
“Yeah, but I hit you a few times at full force.”
Sakamo crouched and rubbed his feet:
“Yeah, I know, it’s still tingling. You have strong arms for someone so small, Shintaro-chan, you really worked hard to get to your level.”
“Thanks, but using a shinai should grant me an easy win because you were not using any weapon and I have been practising Kendo for so many years!”
“But you practice Kendo for points, with a maximum of five or six strikes. With a real sword and defending your life, a sword fight could need a few minutes of continued attacks and defences.”
Shintaro gave her shinai to Sakamo and pointed at a smiling fighter in the circle:
“I want to see you using this against that guy, let me see how you handle those weird movements.”
Sakamo grabbed the shinai and went to the middle of the circle again, and imitated Shintaro’s initial stance while looking at the fighter, the same that fought his driver. Mestre Machado nodded, and explained to his students:
“That’s a good idea, let’s see you using that wooden sword against ‘Capoeira’, now that you showed us how you can defend yourself against it.”
The music started, and the fighter went to the circle and began swinging. Sakamo remained in his spot, only moving enough to keep on facing the swinging fighter. Then, he made a change in the swing and threw a forward kick, that Sakamo avoided by taking a step back. The fighter was expecting that and used the free space that Sakamo gave him to put his hands on the floor, and he threw a sequence of rotative kicks at Sakamo, which defended every single one of them by hitting with the shinai on the same spot of the fighter’s legs. When he was stopping a rotation and returning to the swing, Sakamo went forward, with the tip directly aimed at the fighter’s chest that avoided the blow by swinging left, only to get an elbow push from Sakamo that disrupted his balance, followed by a strike to his forehead by the hilt of the shinai, and a strike to his back, that totally broke the fighter’s momentum and made him fall. Sakamo put the tip of the shinai on the back of the fighter’s neck and said:
“Sorry, you are dead.”
Sakamo then walked back and rested his hands on the hilt while placing the tip on the floor. That leisured pose and total disrespect for her weapon, made Shintaro shout:
“Hey, that’s no way to treat a shinai, you dumbass!”
Sakamo immediately placed the shinai on the left side of his body, and smiled at her:
“Sorry, for a moment I thought I was using a sword.”
The fighter punched the floor and jumped up. He didn’t seem very happy with the defeat, but the ones around him clapped and congratulated him for the fight, while he was standing and rubbing his feet that were red all over. He painfully walked to the edge of the circle, and Sakamo bowed at him while apologizing. The fighter waved one hand with a slight smile because, despite his bruised ego and feet, it was indeed a good fight.
Mestre Machado tapped Sakamo’s back:
“That was a nice one. I wasn’t wrong about you, you move like a fighter, and you have some very nice skills. I still don’t believe you never practised ‘Capoeira’, because you could fool me!”
“Well, I learned a bunch of Martial Arts, I suppose that helps with learning new styles. Can we watch your class a bit more? I still need to talk with your receptionist, and we must discuss the price for the rent.”
“Sure, stay for as long as you like. You can even help as a translator to my Japanese students, sometimes it’s difficult for me to explain what I want for them to do.”
Sakamo smiled and delivered the shinai back to the puzzled Shintaro Nakaoka that asked him:
“How did you manage to defeat him so easily?”
Sakamo poked her nose:
“Because unlike you, I don’t get angry or nervous easily. It also helps that I also know the movements he used and I could guess where he was aiming. I asked the Master if we could stay for a while unless you want to go home already.”
Shintaro Nakaoka answered after glancing at the two smiling boys near her:
“I suppose we can stay, it’s still early, and I won’t mind watching them. The music gets you, and the movements are pretty, now that I got used to them.”
“Yeah, but it’s also tiring. For me, it’s like Chinese Wushu, it’s pretty, but with a lot of movements that you should avoid in a real fight because in a fight, you need to use the fewer movements possible with maximum damage, so that you don’t get tired and get hit.”
Shintaro Nakaoka nodded, thinking that was also the base idea behind Kendo. Few strikes, but pinpoint accuracy for points. Kendo wasn’t aimed at damage, but she understood what he meant.
…
When Sakamo Ryu entered his home again after waving at his colleagues that were in the car, the driver rode them to their homes.
Sakamo locked the door and went to his bedroom, where he took off his uniform and changed to his Azurath clothes. After losing his braid and making the usual high ponytail, he grabbed his pendant, mumbled the command phrase, and opened the closet door.
On the other side of the magical door, his room at the Guild of Adventurers was like he left it after lunch. He used Wind and Water Magic to take a quick bath and dried himself with Fire Magic. He then opened the one shoulder bag that was inside the closet and mumbled as he was looking at the Magical Orbs inside:
“I need to take a few with me, just in case I find one of those weird Dark Mages. Tomoe-chan was right, it would be a strange coincidence, but it could happen.”
Alex Brim went out of his room and walked down the stairs, and looked in the direction of the table where Shinatobe was. She smiled at him as he was approaching, and she caressed his knee when he sat near her.
“You look better. You relaxed for how long?”
“Just a few hours. I remembered that I need to visit Ghar and Mister Gabriel to see how they are doing, can you do something?”
“I suppose I can fly there when they are settled and chose a place with a door that you can use. So, you want to drink or you want to go to your room? Because I wouldn’t mind some action if you know what I mean.”
Alex held her small hand and gently pulled her up.
“The lady wants, the lady gets. It has been a while since the last time we were together.”
Shinatobe nodded as they were walking up the Guild stairs:
“Yeah, now I have to take a ticket to be with you. There are too many women in my way. Talking about too many, what about that girl? You gave her the necklace?”
“Yes, but she had the strangest reaction. She turned pale and I could perfectly hear her heart pumping like crazy. At that moment, she said it was because she was surprised and happy, but I could swear there was something else, like if she knew what that crystal was. Then at School, she got angry with a boy that was flirting with her, and I saw her eyes glowing for a split second as if they were full of Magic. For a moment, she resembled Anika, because she had the same light blue glow in her eyes that Anika has when she uses Magic. Strange, right?”
Shinatobe opened the door to Alex’s room and when he entered, she locked it with a frown:
“Yes, that is strange, especially because a being from Azurath can’t live for long on Earth without Magic. That being would need Magic as sustenance, and since there is no Magic on Earth, that same being would die in a matter of days.”
Shinatobe began to glow, making Alex close his eyes. When the light diminished, Shinatobe’s grown-up form completely naked was looking at him with a kinky smile:
“Now, what about if we stopped talking about other girls, and you took care of me?”
She went to Alex and stared deep into his eyes, and gently pushed him to bed.
…