Chapter 1099: Trials and Tribulations
Out of all my “students”, I felt that JP had the most aggression held within himself that needed to be let out, and this was one of the healthy ways to do so.
And right as I gave him a warning, I saw how he abruptly clenched his jaw to brace for the coming attack so instead of faking him out—and also to build a little more trust between us—I delivered on his face my own version of a crisp one-two.
It probably looked like a double punch from his perspective—due to how I sprang and retracted my attacks—but he had never been so confused by two quick attacks that felt this heavy.
But yeah, excluding his initial attack and his finisher, I followed up my one-two with the same combo he tried to hit me with but he never managed to dodge a single one.
At this moment, his arms were shaking due to the damage they sustained from trying to block each of them because if he tried to do it with his face, it would’ve been night-night for him with the step-in upper.
It’s just that when he was about to get his bearings, I showed him the kick I used when I welcomed Tatiana to my fold, and 99.99% of the time, the first time I would use my shifted frontal kick to someone who hadn’t been hit by it before would not only guarantee a hit but also a knockdown.
“What the fu…”
‘Oh?’
To my surprise, JP saw it coming but he was still a little late to do something about it and just like Tatiana, he tried to take a step forward but he just slowly collapsed on himself before completely falling unconscious.
Then I said loud enough for everyone in their cubicles to hear:
“I know you’re still awake, Seb. Come on out.”
“…”
“It’ll be way worse when I start pounding you on that bed—”
“ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! I’M COMING OUT!”
Kaley quipped from the side, “He’s got to be doing that on purpose…”
But yeah, as Seb slowly emerged from the cloth partitions, Kaley was already taking care of JP so it didn’t take long before Seb took over JP’s slack. But this time, he never ran so fast when he saw me unsheathe my wakizashi from Kaley’s hips.
“WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?!”
“I THOUGHT WE WERE SPARRING! THIS IS FIRST-DEGREE MURDER, SIR!”
“WHY CAN’T IT BE BOTH!”
“I’M UNARMED!”
“YOU HAVE TWO ON EACH SIDE!”
“I MEAN I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO DEFEND MYSELF WITH!”
“WE WERE JUST IN BUILDING 34, WHY DIDN’T YOU PICK ANYTHING UP?!”
“I PICKED UP THIS CHANGE OF CLOTHES!”
“YOU SHOULD’VE PICKED UP ONE OF THOSE SHIELDS HANGING ON THE WALLS!”
“WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, SIR, I BELIEVE THOSE AREN’T ENOUGH!”
“True.”
“THEN WHAT’S THE POINT?! IS THIS EVEN TRAINING?!”
“YEAH! WE’RE TONING JP DOWN AND YOU GOTTA RISE UP TO THE ADVERSITY! I’M THE ADVERSITY! RISE UP AGAINST ME!”
“I VERY MUCH KNOW THAT PART, SIR! I’D RATHER FACE A HUNDRED BITERS OUTSIDE THAN YOU WITH YOUR KATANA!”
“FIRST OF ALL, IT’S A WAKIZASHI AND DID YOU JUST SAY A HUNDRED?! I’M THAT LOW?! NOW I’MMA REALLY KILL YOU!”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
In any case, after making sure that everyone that was trying to sleep was disturbed, I easily cornered the son of a bitch that compared me to a hundred or so deadheads. From all his all-out sprinting, it was admirable that he wasn’t as out of breath as I expected him to be because I was pretty sure that James#1 was unmatched in that certain category.
But to be fair, when one’s life was perceived to be in danger, people would be able to pull out shit from their ass and emerge victorious.
It’s just that he was against me and I was holding something that I could easily lop his head off.
Before anyone thinks otherwise, I wasn’t really gonna chop his body into pieces from a small provocation but color me surprised when he showed me the same expression when I brought him with me to that lesser family from the Rivas territory because he ripped off his t-shirt and wrapped them on his hands.
There was only one particular way he thought out of this situation and it was to somehow catch my blade and avoid getting cut down.
‘Good enough.’
But yeah, I still knocked him out with the back of my blade before throwing him in with JP who was still figuring out how he got knocked the fuck out.
If surviving was the goal of this exercise, I would’ve given him a failing grade but this training exercise was for him to choose a way out instead of giving in. Granted what he chose was still suicide—especially against me—but that’s a step in the right direction regarding his decisions in life.
I know that his situation with JP was called off ages ago and even if he was somehow consenting to the supposed assault, what if there ever came a time when he was in the same situation and it was life or death?
This may sound stupid coming from me because I would always advocate life above everything else—even if someone got ruined mentally and/or physically—but in this case, he would’ve died either way so the best course of action was to try and gamble it all in the 1 in a million chance that he’d succeed.
But yeah, despite my two students getting knocked out senselessly, there was still one other with a brand-new tachi who still wanted to do this old-age tradition of swinging it on a random passerby just to test its sharpness.
“I’m really~ feelin’ good, bro! I feel like I have a chance while you’re using that wakizashi!”
“The reach advantage?”
“Yeah! For some reason, this thing feels lighter too! It feels like a part of me already!”
“Trust me, you need more than a day—”
“Trust me, bro! I can handle it!”
“You really sure?”
“Yeah!”
And long story short, the motherfucker couldn’t handle it.