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The forests of Japan often served as ideal locations. Whether one traveled to them for sightseeing purposes, to explore the wonders that wait within, or to simply find a peaceful retreat to rest, one could hardly find a more suitable location in the world.
The tranquility and serenity of the forests also made them a prime location for a temple to be buried in. Much like the trees surrounding it, the temple was usually calm and quiet. The most noise that could be heard was often the sounds of young men, training their bodies and minds in the way of combat.
Such was this occasion, where a young man let out shouts and grunts of effort as he perfected his techinique. His long, blonde hair, tied into a ponytail at the end with a ribbon, swung behind him as he trained. The cloth of his red gi, and that of the grayed belt tied around his waist, snapped with every kick. He let out a shout each time his shin struck the pole in front of him, the rope wrapped around it unmoving with every blow.
Behind him, sitting on the temple’s porch, his master watched with interest. He stroked at his long, white beard as he observed his student’s training.
“Turn your hips more!” he called to the teen in front of him. The young man didn’t respond, but the temple’s master, Gouken, was able to see as his student took his words to heart, and the sounds of his strikes became sharper than before. He nodded in approval before standing up.
“Good. Continue practicing. I will come for you when your time is done.”
“Yes, Sensei!”
Gouken walked into the temple, leaving Ken alone to toughen his shins against the pole. He winced with each strike, alternating the legs he kicked with to both strengthen them and try and get a little bit of time to relieve the pain he felt with every kick.
He started to slow down after a while, the pain and exhaustion of the repetitive exercise quickly taking its toll on the young man. After one last kick, he brought his leg down, panting and bending over to carefully rub away at his shin.
“Damn…”
He sat down on the ground, letting out a hiss of pain and effort as he did. “Sensei won’t mind if I take a short break…”
As soon as he finished his thought, he noticed movement coming from the trees at the corner of his eyes. He felt himself tense up as he turned to see what, if anything, was there. It wasn’t all too uncommon for one of the forest’s more dangerous animals to wander onto the temple grounds. Ken pushed himself to his feet, glaring intently at the treeline.
Animals wandering in wasn’t very rare, but what would happen next was always a mystery. Sometimes, Gouken would handle it himself. He would typically drive the animal off. Other times, he’d have either him or Ryu take care of it.
Often with disastrous results.
Ken winced as he shifted his legs, taking up his fighting stance. He pushed the pain out of his mind as best he could. He needed to be focused, in case it was one of the bigger visitors they got. He watched closely, feeling himself tense up in preparation. Moments of silence passed as he watched…waited…
A snap of a twig got him to flinch. He let out a growl in response. Another couple of quiet seconds passed before anything else happened.
“Relax, Ken!” a familiar voice called out from beyond the trees. Ken blinked, instantly feeling all the tension he’d built up fading away. The familiar voice was soon followed by a sight he wasn’t expecting to see. A young Japanese teenager, about the same age as him, emerged from the trees.
“Ryu? What the hell? I thought you might’ve been a bear or something!”
The teen shrugged, the fabric of his white gi rubbing against the ropes of the fish net draped over his shoulder.
“Sorry. One of the fish I caught managed to squirm out of the net, so I had to go back and get it.”
Ken slumped over, the adrenaline that had begun to fill his veins fading out to remind him of the pain in his legs. Ryu, seeing this, set the net down and walked over to his training partner and friend.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Ken gave a pained chuckle. “Yeah, just some hard training. You know how Sensei loves that.”
Ryu offered a chuckle of his own. “Yeah. I remember tearing my knuckles up on a branch Sensei had me practicing my leaping uppercuts against a few days ago.”
Ken winced at that. “Don’t remind me. They still look pretty ugly.”
“They’re getting better, though,” Ryu said as he looked at his hands. Ken did the same, seeing the skin was indeed healing, “Sensei said I’m getting the form down, though. It shouldn’t be too long before I can use the Shoryuken without injuring myself.”
With that, Ryu offered Ken a hand, which the American took without hesitation. As he was hoisted to his feet, Ken groaned slightly as the pain began to fade.
“Yeah, and maybe I can throw this kick without thinking I’m gonna snap my shin in two if I hit something.”
The two shared a small laugh together. After a few seconds, Ken stretched himself out.
“You know, we haven’t been to the city in a while.”
Ryu shrugged. “Yeah, but I’m not exactly complaining.”
“I am,” Ken said, frowning, “I could use some time to rest or something. We train pretty much every day. I could use a day to, like, unwind or something, you know? Don’t you want some rest and relaxation too?”
Ryu gave Ken a puzzled look for a moment.
“Come on, Ryu,” Ken added as he threw an arm over Ryu’s shoulders, “You know we can’t just be about Karate every day. We need some time off.”
Ryu stood silent for a moment, letting Ken’s words guide his thoughts. It wasn’t long before Ken grinned, seeing his friend slump ever-so-slightly.
“Yeah, I guess you’ve got a point…”
“I’m telling ya,” Ken said, “We deserve some time off, and I think I’ve got a good idea on how we can get it.”
“I’m listening.”
“So, you know how Sensei is all about earning and working for things we want, right?”
Ryu nodded. “Yeah, that’s why we usually don’t go into town to begin with.”
“So,” Ken said as he tightened his grip on Ryu’s shoulder, “Here’s the idea…”
An hour later, Gouken re-emerged from the temple, a small bowl in his hands. He took a look outside, the words he was getting ready to say suddenly caught in his throat.
Ken sat atop the pole he’d been kicking before, a smug grin on his face. Beside him, Ryu stood, his expression far less confident than his partner’s.
“Ken,” the older man said, giving the American teen a raised eyebrow, “What is the meaning of this. You were meant to continue your conditioning training until you were told otherwise. Why have you stopped?”
“Because, Sensei, we have a proposal for you.”
The older man raised an eyebrow at that. “Go on.”
“We want some downtime,” Ken said as he hopped down from the pole. He crossed his arms over his chest when his feet hit the ground, “We’ve been working really hard all this time. We’ve been training for years without much time to relax, and honestly, we deserve it.”
“Do you, now?”
“Yeah. We’re still young, Sensei! We’ve been training for so long, and we need some time to unwind!”
“And do you feel the same, Ryu?”
The Japanese teen looked sheepishly at Gouken, but nodded slightly.
“I see. And what do you propose?”
“Well,” Ken said, “Here’s the thing. Like I said, we’ve been training hard, and since you’re about earning what we want, we’re gonna do just that. Me and Ryu versus you. We win, we get a couple of days to relax and do whatever we want.”
Gouken gave Ken a stern stare. The blonde teen, for a brief moment, wondered if the idea would even work. Before long, the master of the temple turned around. Ken’s smirk faded, and his shoulders dropped at the action.
“The two of you,” Gouken called, causing both of them to snap up straight, “Meet me in the main hall.”
The two teens traded looks with one another. Ken’s grin returned in full force, while Ryu gave his friend a worried look. The two followed their sensei into the temple. They made their way to the temple’s main training hall, where the older man stood. The two bowed in respect before entering the room. The sounds of their bare feet padding over the wood of the floor alerted the man to their presence. He slowly turned around, bowing to the two teens before taking up his fighting stance.
“If you are so determined to test your training for such a reason, then I am willing to provide that test. Come.”
Ryu set a hand on Ken’s shoulder. “Maybe we should reconsider…”
“Nah, it’ll be fine,” Ken said, stepping onto the main floor, “We’ve been working hard as hell. We can do this.”
Ken then took his own stance, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet. Ryu watched for a moment, unsure of what to do next. He took a deep breath, then followed Ken onto the floor and fell into his own stance.
Nobody moved an inch for what felt like an eternity, instead each side eyeing the other carefully, looking for any openings that they could take advantage of. Even as they began to slowly circle around one another, none could find any sort of chink in the armor.
Unbeknownst to the teens, Gouken mentally acknowledged their seemingly-impenetrable defenses. He would have to tell them how proud he was of them another time.
Something else he’d have to work on was Ken’s patience. As long as he’d been training them, that was the toughest nut for him to crack. His lack of patience cropped itself up again, as the American boy launched himself forward with a shout. Ryu followed behind him, the two quickly closing the gap between them and their master.
Gouken, however, did not budge. His eyes snapped back and forth between the two fighters charging him, picking up on the slight movements of their bodies as they approached. He shifted himself slightly in response, just in time for the two to be upon him.
In a flash, he struck. He brought one knee up to block the low roundhouse kick from Ryu while his arm came up to deflect a haymaker fired by Ken. The two teens only had a brief moment to realize what happened before things went horribly wrong. With practiced ease, he whipped his blocking arm around to catch Ken in the jaw with a quick uppercut. As soon as he saw that the blonde had been knocked off balance, he snapped his blocking leg up, burying his foot in Ryu’s midsection to push him back as well.
The Japanese teen stumbled back, wincing in pain. As he did, Ken recovered from his hit and leaped forward, launching another punch at Gouken’s jaw. The elder fighter leaned back, allowing the fist to pass by harmlessly. He then wrapped his own arm around Ken’s before the young man could pull it back, then lashed out with a quick backfist across the blonde’s nose. The strike sent Ken reeling back, leaving him open for Gouken to step forward, grab him by the lapels of his gi, and slam his knee directly into the teen’s gut. Ken doubled over, dropping to his knees as he struggled to reclaim the air that was forced out of him.
Ryu, seeing his friend go down, sprang into action. He darted forward, throwing a short uppercut at Gouken’s chin. Again, the master weaved his head to safety, snaking his arm around Ryu’s and twisting it harshly around. The arm twist forced Ryu to turn away from Gouken, giving the experienced fighter the ability to bring his knee up and slam it into Ryu’s face. He released his pupil’s arm, allowing Ryu to freely snap his head back as he cried out in pain from the knee strike. The master then, with a quick hook of his foot, swept Ryu’s feet out from under him and let him drop heavily onto his back.
Once he was done, Gouken took a step back, looking down on his fallen students with a stoney expression.
“Now then,” he said as the two groaned and writhed in pain, “The two of you should take this as a lesson learned. We do not learn to use our fists to take what we want. We train ourselves to act in defense of ourselves and others.”
Gouken then made his way out of the dojo. “Take the time you need to recover, then prepare yourselves for dinner.”
A few seconds passed after Gouken left, with the two young men still reeling from what had just happened. Ken pushed himself into a more stable sitting position, though he still clutched as his midsection. Ryu slowly sat up, wincing in pain as his eye swelled to the point of being unopenable and rubbing away at his agonizing shoulder. He slowly turned his head to Ken, who he was thankful was on his good eye’s side. Ken turned to him, locking eyes with his friend.
“...I’m never listening to another idea of yours.”
“Shut up, Ryu.”