Academy of Misbehavours

Chapter 7

A Touch of Perseverance for a Lifetime of Work

The instructor of the School of Fist was called Master Cong by all the students. Cong did not expect Kisho to last long under his training regime. Kisho was old for someone starting out at martial arts; he was slightly overweight, as evident by his pot belly; most people his age were of a higher rank than the one that he had to start in and he looked the he had never done any training before. Cong did not expect Kisho to last longer than two weeks. However, to his surprise Kisho lasted longer than that. He came in every week, struggled to keep up but never gave up.

After one such training session, Kisho left exhaustedly after bowing to Cong and his fellow students.

"What do you think of him?" Cong asked Fang Yin, surprising her.

"About who, Master?" Fang Yin asked. Fang Yin was the youngest student in Cong's class. She was 11 years old but was one of Cong's best students, being even of a higher rank than some of the older students. She had grey eyes and kept her shoulder length hair in a ponytail tied with a purple gutter.

"Kisho," Cong said gesturing to the exiting Kisho, "I haven't seen someone work as hard as he does since... you."

"I heard, other than training with us here four times a week, he also trains intensely on weekends at home." Fang Yin said. "I've seen dedication like his before, amongst new practitioners. But it usually never lasts. They seem to lose their resolve."

"I've that happen too.," Cong said, "hopefully, Mr. Kimoti is an exception."

/

In two months, Kisho had come far in his martial arts training. However, his progress in his training was mirrored in the amount of work he received on a daily bases from Supervisor Yae. Yae kept on piling more and more work on him after noticing how efficient Kisho was at doing it. Yae began to secretly rely on Kisho more so gave him the most important and labour intensive task.

Soon everything began catching up to Kisho. The work began affecting his training. Training twice a day, every day became training once a day every day. After some weeks, he began missing a few martial arts classes here and there every week. His determination was slowly being beaten by the exhaustion created by the work load he received. Master Cong noticed it and soon Kisho's fast improvement quickly slowed down, until he did not improve at all.

/

Master Cong was conducting another training session, he kept an eye on Kisho. He constantly had to correct his form, tell him to watch his stance, command him to punch harder. Master Cong had finally had enough of Kisho's shoddy training. It hurt him to see such a formerly hard working student degrade so much. If he did not do something drastic, Fang Yin would be proven right and he will have lost Kisho.

After the training, Cong asked to speak with Kisho.

"Yes Master?" Kisho said when he was speaking to Cong. The gym was not completely empty as the students had just finished training and were either talking to each other or were in the process of getting ready to leave.

"Kisho. What is going on with you?" Cong asked. "You have not improved; in fact I think your getting worse. What is wrong?"

"I'm sorry. I'll... I'll try harder."

"Tell me what's wrong and then you can try harder."

Kisho looked down at his feet. "Nothing is wrong, Master."

Cong sighed. "This is your last training session. There is no need for you to pay gym fees this month." Cong said turning to walk away.

Kisho was shocked by what he heard. "I'm... I'm sorry Master. Please don't do this. Don't chase me out." H e said walking after Cong.

"I can only see two ways that will change my mind." Cong said turning around, causing Kisho to back away.

"Yes, I'll do anything." Kisho said nodding vigorously.

"I will give you a test. If you pass then you may continue training with us. If not, then I will place you in a less advanced class and if you can successfully do the less advanced class then you may return to training to this class again."

"Agreed." Kisho said bowing.

"Fang Yin!" Cong called out.

Fang Yin came running to Cong halfway through her struggle to put her pants on, on top of her training suit. "Fang Yin, today you will be in a sparring match with Kisho."

"What?" Fang Ying and Kisho both said simultaneously.

"Yes," Cong said looking at me. "This is your test."

Kisho could not believe it. Fang Yin was just a 11 year old girl. "But she's just... just a little girl."

"Than it should not be that hard to win this match. You should prepare yourself." Cong said.

Kisho sighed and left to prepare himself, even though he was not sure what that entailed.

Fang Yin only dared to speak to Cong when she was sure Kisho was out of earshot. "Master, I don't know if I can beat him. His older and bigger and..."

Cong placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and leaned down, so that he could be at her eye level. "You'll be fine. Have confidence in yourself and you will beat him."

Kisho tilted his head side to side while warming up. Blue mats had been placed on the floor for the match. Kisho stood at the end of one side of the mat, waiting for the match to begin. His heart began to race. This was his first sparring match and everyone was gathering around to see the match. Everyone who was about to leave postponed their trip to see the fight.

Fang Yin stepped up to the other side of the mats. Cong stood in the middle, just outside the mat. Being the instructor of the class, he would act as referee to the match. This would be an interesting match: the oldest low ranking student versus the youngest high ranking student.

The combatants bowed to each other before taking a fighting stance. Cong raised his hand slowly then dropped it quickly while yelling, "Start!" This was the first fight Kisho had ever been in. It was time for him to test his skills. 'Just grab her and push her to the floor,' he thought to himself. All he needed were three points and he would win this match. 'Grab and push three times. Should be easy.'

Suddenly Fang Yin charged at him. Kisho raised his hands to protect himself against the attacking girl. Fa Ying got under his defences and kicked the side of his leg, causing him to bend it slightly, bringing him closer to the ground. Kisho opened his hands creating and opening for Fang Yin to punch his right cheek. Cong stopped the round and said "Point to Fang Yin!"

They prepared for the next round. Cong gave the word and the match began. Once again Fang Yin attacked first and quickly. Kisho was ready for her this time and grabbed her forearm with both hands before she could do anything. Now all he needed to do was finish this by throwing her to the floor. To his surprise, she twisted her arm and turned her body causing in him not only lose his grip on her forearms but also made him to lose his balance. He stumbled forward and past the girl in a desperate attempt to stay on his feet but he had exposed his ribs to Fang Yin which she took advantage of by elbowing his ribs with her weight behind the attack. Kisho grunted from the pain and finally lost his balance as he fell to his side. Cong stopped the round and said, "Point to Fang Yin!"

Kisho got up rubbing his ribs as Fa Ying returned to her starting position at the other side of the mat. Kisho realised that he was one point away from losing. He would have to not hold back with the coming round if he wanted to survive. He returned to his respective position and waited nervously for the next round to begin.

The gym's audience were looking at the match with lsser interest. This match turned out to be surprisingly one sided. They knew of Fang Yin's skill but they thought that Kisho would at least put up a better fight. They all had the same predictons about how the next round would go, already.

Cong prepared to start the next round. Kisho waited in bated breath. He predicted what would happen in the coming round and planned his actions accordingly. He told himself that he would win not only the next round but the match itself.

Fang Yin stared at him in anticipation to get this match over with. So far the speed and fury at which she attacked with was enough o keep the older man off balanced. All she had to do was keep it up for the next round andc she could end it.

Cong raised his hand slowly then dropped it shouting, "Start!" Fang Yin moved forward but Kisho, seeing her coming, stepped back out of her range. He was out of her range but she was not out of his, so he threw a thrusting kick but she deflected it with both hands while she advancing closer. Kisho jumped back again getting away from her. He looked back and noticed that he was at the edge of the mat and if he went beyond it he would lose a point. He was cornered so he began moving to the side with a plan to escape but Fang Yin blocked his escape. He took the opportunity to test her with another kick. It was an ill executed kick as she blocked it without much effort. Although the kick was ill executed, it gave him an opportunity move to the side, away from the edge of the mat.

Kisho was now at Fang Yin's side and he took this opportunity to unleash a powerful attack. His powerful attack started and ended with his first punch. Fang Yin blocked the punch and grabbed his wrist with one hand. She twisted his wrist, which straightened his arm and exposed his neck. She placed the fingers ostraight, like the blade of a knife, then her hand shot out speedily heading for the man's neck. Cong ended the round just as the attack was a few centimetres from Kisho's neck. Kisho was confused. The attack never went through so why had the round been stopped? "Point to Fang Yin!" He heard Cong proclaim.

Fa Ying let go of his wrist as he sank to his knees. Kisho had felt cheated. He had not been hit and yet he had lost the round and the match. Cong congratulated Fang Yin while helping pick up Kisho.

"Master, I don't understand. Her attack never connected and yet you gave her the point." Kisho said.

"That last strike would have ended the match and made it harder for you to breath for a while. You would have lost there and then." Cong said. "I just saved you the pain and the need to consult a doctor after the match."

Kisho sighed as he felt disappointed in himself. At least he could still stay in the gym but he would now have to take a less advanced class. "I guess I'll be demoted into the less advanced classes now."

"Yes," Cong said. "I should tell you that the less advanced classes begin and end before this one."

Kisho looked at his master questionably. "So you'll be here earlier teaching me."

"Oh no! I don't give the early class she does..." Cong said pointing to someone.

Kisho looked at where Cong was pointing and his heart sank when he realised that he was pointing at Fang Yin.

"Meet your new Master." Cong said as Fang Yin bowed to her master and new pupil.