Academy of Misbehavours

Chapter 10

A Mouse At Work But A Beast At Training

Kisho Kimoti walked to The School of Fist dojo after another long day at his job, working under his tyrannical supervisor Yae. He stopped in front of the door of the dojo. Previously, he had been moved to another, inferior class because of his recent bad performance. He found out that the instructor of this class is his former, fellow martial arts student, Fang Yin, the girl who also beat him in a sparring match.

He wondered what kind of lowly skilled, lazy and uninspired students he would have to attend this class with and he got his answer as soon as he opened the door. Kids! He was going to be in a class of kids. He walked up to Fang Yin who was stretching her legs.

"Mr. Kimoti! Nice to see you." She said straightening up. Even standing at her full height, she was still half as tall as Kisho.

"Hello Fang Yin. I'm sorry but I must ask, are these the students I'm going to be attending with?" Kisho said with a worried look on his face.

Fang Yin looked around the assembled students. "Almost, there is one more student who hasn't arrived. Why don't you change before class begins?" She said giving him a friendly smile.

Kisho sighed before walking off to the bathroom to change. When he came out in his training suite he found the students already assembled in a line from highest ranking student to lowest. Kisho stood at the end of the line, thinking he was most likely the highest ranking student of the bunch.

"What is this?" A girl Fang Yin's age, standing next to Kisho asked outraged. "What trick are you trying to play on me, Fang Yin?"

"I am not playing any trick, Jess Lo." Fang Yin said confused.

"Then who is this man standing at my position? As your number one rival and best student in the class, I should be standing at the first position!" Jess Lo said with fires of passion burning in her eyes. "I deserve that spot as the highest and best student of this CLAAASSSS!"

Fang Yin made a look of annoyance and looked at Kisho pleadingly. "You both are the same rank but I guess since Jess Lo is the best student of this class, she should have the first position."

Kisho willingly exchanged positions with Jess Lo and was now standing in the second position. He heard a few of the other kids snicker and he felt embarrassed. His fellow martial arts students were aged from five to eleven, eleven being the age of both Fang Yin and Jess Lo.

"Good!" Jess Lo said before pointing her finger at Fang Yin. "This is where I belong, close to you. I want you see my progress, so that when I reach your rank and finally surpass you, it will not surprise you!"

"But I want you to reach my rank Jess." Fang Yin said casually looking at her nails. "That way, you'll have fewer excuses the next time I beat you."

The comment infuriated Jess Lo and made the fire burning in her eyes turn into an inferno. "I...!"

"I don't want to hear it. Training has begun." Fang Yin said cutting her off. "I want to see the three combo basic punches from the higher ranking students and one punch from the lower ranking students, ten times, now!" And with that the training began.

They did all the basics Kisho had come to know from the advanced class. They did a combination of punching, blocking and kicking drills. Whenever Fang Yin was not satisfied with the effort shown by the higher ranking students, she made them do push ups and sit ups. Jess Lo was obviously fired up as she sped through the training exercises.

The training was so intense and Fang Yin pushed Kisho and Jess so hard that he had already begun to forget that this was a class for kids until Master Cong entered the dojo. He disappeared into the bathroom before emerging having changed into his training suit. He watched Kisho and the rest of Fang Yin's young class as they trained while he stretched and warmed up. Kisho did not mind the master watching him as he trained with the kids, in fact he worked harder to show him that he deserved to be in the advanced class. However, he soon felt embarrassed when the other students from the advanced class began walking in. He felt like they were judging him and whenever one of them laughed he thought that they were laughing at him.. He had never felt so humiliated in a long time and began wishing that the class would end before any more people walked into the dojo. To his relief Fang Yin called an end to the training. He had worked up quiet a sweat and had to force himself to not collapse on the floor.

The kids were being fetched by their parents, except for Jess Lo who walked home on her own after wearing a green light jacket and matching pants over her training suit. She gave her teacher, Fang Yin, an ugly look before she left the dojo. Kisho went to Master Cong before the advanced class began.

"Master," Kisho said bowing and placing a fist to his open palm.

Master Cong returned the gesture.

"I was wondering if I could come back to the advanced class now that I've gone through the inferior one."

Master Cong thought for a second before calling Fang Yin over. "Master Fang Yin, Kisho wants to move up to the advanced class. Since you are his current instructor, I'll let you decide whether he should do so. Do you think he should come back to the advanced class with us?"

Kisho looked at Fang Yin hopefully, waiting for her answer. "No," she said after a moment of thought.

"What? Why?" Kisho said before he could stop himself.

"Well, Master Cong said that if I were to promote anyone into the advanced class, that person should have improved significantly enough to merit their promotion. They must show promise that they would be able to survive the advanced class." She said. "Although I don't doubt that you would be able to handle the training regime of the advanced class, you have not shown any improvement." Upon seeing Kisho's disappointed and frustrated face she added, "Sorry."

"Okay." Kisho simply said before bowing and leaving the dojo as the advanced class began. He felt crushed and very disappointed but he hid it behind a calm face.

/

Kisho was working diligently as usual and simultaneously dealing with an increase in work load. He began to suspect that his Supervisor Yae, was shifting his own responsibilities to Kisho, however he did not complain as he wanted to avoid conflict. After work, he made sure to quickly leave in order to avoid Yae giving him any more work.

He got to the bus stop and waited. The bus that he would usually take to the dojo appeared and stopped in front of the bus stop. People got on while he waited on the sidelines. He was having an internal struggle. He wanted to train but he did not know if he could take the humiliation and disappointment that came with training with children again. Especially after last time when he worked hard and still was told that he was not good enough to get into the advanced class. He waited as the last people got on the bus. The bus driver waited while looking at Kisho. It was obvious that the bus driver recognised Kisho from previous trips and waited, expecting for him to get on. He looked at Kisho with a confused look when he did not get on and closed the air pressurized doors before driving away.

Kisho sighed to himself as at that moment he decided to quit his martial arts training. He waited for a bus that would take him straight home.

/

A week had passed and Kisho had begun to get in a normal routine of everyday life without training and an ever stressful working condition at work. Sadly, his work load had not lessened. With his accounting company having gained two big businesses from two big companies, his life consisted of nothing more than sleep, eat, work and repeat. He would usually come to work early, have shorter lunch breaks, all in hopes of lessening his work load so that he could have relaxing evenings at home but Yae kept mercilessly piling it on. It seems the faster he got done the more he would be given.

On one such afternoon, Kisho was sitting at his desk, with his back hunched over while looking at the laptop screen in front of him. He was slightly aware that his lunch break was coming up but as usual, he was willing to work through it to get the piece of work he was busy with done. His concentration on his tasks was broken by a familiar voice.

"Hello, Mr. Kimito." Kisho swivelled around in his chair to look at the source of the voice. Before him stood Fang Yin in her navy blue school uniform; her black hair neatly cascaded on the sides of her face with a peach ribbon keeping it from her face. She smiled at Kisho as he straightened his thick prescription glasses on his face to ensure that he was seeing who he thought he was seeing.

"Fang Yin? What... what are you doing here? How did you even get here?"

Fang Yin crossed over to the other side of the table to get an idle chair. "I told the security guard that I was looking for my father, who happens to be you." She said with a wide smile on her face as she moved the chair to the other side of Kisho's desk so that she could face him once she sat down.

"Wait but I've never met your mother. Or have I?" Kisho said with his eyes going wide with fear. "Was she at the company conference of 1999?" Kisho said slightly panicked.

"It was a lie, Mr. Kisho, you're not really my father." Fang Yin said, trying to calm him down. She leaned back on the chair and crossed her arms before she said, "What happened at the company conference of 1999?"

"Uhm... nothing!" Kisho quickly said before clearing his throat. Kisho looked at the girl sitting across from him. He noted her clean school uniform. He looked at the clock and saw that schools were still in. "Why are you not in school?"

She dug out something from the pocket of her navy blue dress' pocket. She produced a yellow piece of paper which she handed to Kisho.

"Please excuse Ms Fang Yin from the rest of day of school," Kisho began to read the little yellow note in his hands out loud, "as she has family problems." Kisho raised his eyebrow at the last part. "Family problems?"

"Yes, I had problems with my father... my fake father." She said with a twinkle in her eye as she looked at Kisho. "I figured if I'm going to lie, I should do it completely and thoroughly. So I used the same lie to get out of school."

"You don't look like the lying type, Fang Yin." Kisho said, slightly shocked.

"And you don't look like the quitting type, Mr. Kimoti." She said. Fang Yin leaned forward over the desk, like she was going to share a secret with Kisho. "I'm guessing that is what you did, considering I haven't seen you in a week. Why did you quit?"

Kisho was quiet for a while. He opened his mouth to answer but Yae came by his desk. "Kimoti!" He said in a commanding tone. He looked at Fang Yin with a questioning look. "You brought your kid at work?" He said to Kisho in a disgusted tone. "I thought you had a son." Kisho opened his mouth to respond before Yae interrupted him again by waving away whatever he was about to say with is hand. "It doesn't matter. Are you done with the reports I gave you?"

"Not yet." Kisho said softly as he was expecting to be interrupted again but this time he was not.

"We need that done by today, Kimoti!" Yae said raising his voice. "Look! You came here to work, not to socialize with family." Yae said gesturing at Fang Yin. "Get it done now!"

Kisho could feel his blood boil at having been spoken to in such a manner in front of his daughter, well Fang Yin was not really his daughter but he imagined how much more embarrassed he would be if she really was and what she would have thought at seeing her father being so disrespected. "I am on my lunch break and as such I will socialize with my family for as long as my thirty minutes of lunch are not up. You big headed fool!" That is what Kisho wished he could have said but instead he said, "Okay, I'll get done."

Yae left in a huff looking for his next victim. Fang Yin wrinkled her nose in disgust while looking at Kisho's supervisor walk away. "I don't like that guy." She said.

/

Kisho continued working while trying to ignore Fang Yin who patiently waited on the other side of his desk. The longer she sat at her place while he worked the harder it became for him to ignore her. All she did was swivel side to side in her chair but her presence was becoming more noticeable.

He sighed before pulling himself free from his work. "Fang Yin, what are you still doing here?"

Fang Yin had crossed her legs like a little business woman while quietly and patiently waiting for Kisho. She was happy that she had finally been addressed. "I'm waiting for you to answer my question."

"What question?" He said closing his laptop to give her his full attention.

"Why did you quit?"

Kisho folded his arms over his chest as he sighed. "I don't think martial arts is for me."

"You're kidding right? Martial arts is for anyone willing to learn and you, Mr. Kimoti, have shown great willingness to learn." She said leaning forward again. "You have come so far, learned so much, worked so hard. Don't give up yet."

"I don't know how you can say that and tell Mast... Cong that I've not shown any improvement."

"When I said you did not improve I meant..." Fang Yin began but was interrupted by Yae.

"I caught you not working, again?" Yae shouted. "I told you we were under pressure and you're still not working? The boss is going to hear about this!" Yae shouted before storming off into the boss' office.

Kisho and Fang Yin exchanged glances.

"Why do you allow him to speak to you like that?" Fang Yin complained.

"He's my superior."

Fang Yin slowly shook her head. "No. Even so, there is a certain etiquette that you have to adopt when speaking to someone, subordinate or otherwise. Master Cong has never spoken to his pupils like that, even the really young ones. You should call him out on his behaviour."

"I'd lose."

"Because he's right? Because you are not working?"

"No, because... because..."

"See? You have done nothing wrong or at least you've done little wrong. You should speak to him and your boss. I mean the worst they can do is fight with you, at which case they'd lose because you're my former student."

"Yeah! You're right!" Kisho said feeling a fire being lit beneath him. He stood up and followed Yae to the boss' office.

He got to the door and was about to knock but then figured that he would look more serious if he just barged in. He pushed the door open causing a breeze into the office that displaced a few paper's n the Boss' desk. "Boss, I must disagree with whatever Yae is saying?!"

Yae and the Boss looked at him with questioning looks on their faces. "You don't think we should order more toilet paper the toilets?" The Boss asked. They were sitting at the Boss' desk, with the Boss in his big chair and Yae on the other side on the smaller swivel chairs. He had to turn to look at Kisho when he entered the room.

"Uhm... No. We should definitely get more toilet paper." Kisho said slightly going pink in the cheeks. Clearly they were not talking about him.

"Do you have anything to add?" Yae said annoyed.

"Uhm... No."

"Then get back to work." Yae said dismissing him with a shooing gesture before he swivelled back around to face the Boss.

Kisho turned around. He took a step to go out but then stopped. He thought about what Fang Yin said and realised that she was right. Yae had no right to speak the way he did to anyone least of all him. "No."

"What?" Yae said turning his chair again.

Kisho turned around, "I said no. I'm here to complain about your attitude. You have been treating your workers badly and I want it to stop, or else..."

"Boss, please ignore him. He's bitter because I caught him not working and told him off for it." Yae said.

"But you tell me off even when I am working. You are mean, disrespectful and... and stupid!"

"Mr. Kimoti, you are out of line. If you have grievances with Yae then you should go through the proper channels." The silver haired Boss said.

"I'm sorry but I am tired of working hard and having Yae not only taking all the credit but also insult us."

"You have gone too far, Mr. Kimoti. Leave or you're fired!" Yae said.

Koshi was quiet for a moment, as if he would back down but to everyones surprise he did not. "Then I'm fired but I will remind you that I have done a majority of the reports for the two new big businesses and I have yet to finalise any of it. If I leave, I am not obligated to hand over any of the work I have already done the work that I have done will be wasted and your progress will be set back a few months." Kisho said turning around.

The Boss looked at Yae with a worried look on his face. "Is this true?"

"Uhm... n-no" Yae said.

"Then ask him what progress made over the past few weeks." Kisho said before he left.

Kisho walked quickly to his desk. He wasted no time in grabbing his things before almost jogging out of the door. Fang Yin was caught by surprised by how suddenly he grabbed his stuff and walked off. She got on her feet and followed behind.

"Mr. Kimoti, what happened?" Fang Yin asked once she caught up with him.

"I... I don't know." He said as he began hyperventilating. He nervously flattened the thin strands of black hair over the top part of his bald head. "I went in there, defended myself and then I came out unemployed!"

"They fired you?" Fang Yin exclaimed.

"I'm not sure if I was fired or if I quiet." He said with his thick, square rimmed prescription beginning to fog over. "I can't believe it! How am I going to support myself now?"

"I'm sorry." Fang Yin said sadly.

They were already pout of the building, walking down the short cement steps when they heard someone call Kisho's name. They both stopped in their tracks. They looked back to see who had called Kisho and saw The Boss' secretary running to them.

"The boss says he wants to see you." The secretary said.

Fang Yin and Kisho exchanged nervous glances.

"Your daughter can wait inside for you." The secretary said.

Fang Yin shook her head. "I'll wait for you out here." She told Kisho.

Kisho nodded and followed the secretary back into the building. He eventually reached the office. He took a deep breath and entered the boss' office. The Boss gestured for him to sit on a chair next to Yae. He cautiously sat down and waited to be spoken to.

"I have spoken with Supervisor Yae." The Boss began. "It seems you have done invaluable work here and Yae has admitted that if you leave us now, it would adversely affect us." The Boss said giving Yae an ugly look which caused him to squirm in his chair. "We cannot afford to lose you, Mr. Kisho. Therefore, we would like you to stay."

Kisho involuntarily smiled. He almost jumped for joy because he had his job back but then wondered if he could somehow benefit a little more from this. "I am willing to come back," he began, "but I have conditions."

/

Fang Yin was sitting on the cement steps while looking at the people who walked by. When she heard Kisho call her name she shot to her feet. "How... how did it go?"

"I got my job back!" Kisho happily said. "Thank you."

"I don't see why you are thanking me. I'm the one who almost cost you your job."

"Yes but you have also helped me make my working conditions much better so, again, thank you."

Fang Yin smiled at him. "You're welcome Mr. Kimoti."

"Please, call me Kisho, Master Fang Yin." He said putting his fist and palm together before bowing.

The gesture made Fang Yin's smile wider as she returned the gesture. "Welcome back, Pupil Kisho."