[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 18 ~The Art of Self Defense~
Title: The Things We Can't Control
Author:
prettyorianna
Pairing: Akame. Others to be added later.
Rating: NC-17.
Genre: crime drama au
Beta by: my cat Gemma. okay, seriously, nobody
Disclaimer: I don't own KAT-TUN, any of its members, any other JE people. I write this for fun and for other fans of these fine folks. But don't steal my plots, mmkay? I put a great deal of time into them except for when I'm randomly spastically spitting words onto a page. But I value those too...
Summary: Two criminals with vastly different styles meet by chance one day. Can they work together or will they end up destroying each other?
Author's Note: Teenage Kame learning to defend himself. To be honest, I think this came out a bit tedious and I'm not sure I got it all right. But I figured I'd just go ahead, post it, and move on. I only had to go so detailed because it was the beginning. After that, I can cover much of the training by summary instead of full narration.
BANNER BY DESHISORABA!!
Warning: This gets graphic often occasionally, containing at the very least foul language, character death, nefarious crimes, rape, etc etc.
The Master Posts:
On my journal - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_ Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the je_kamenashi Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the kattun_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the jin_fics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
Chapter 18 ~The Art of Self Defense~
“Well, the number one rule of defense is this - don’t be there,” Yoko said. “Fighting out here is about survival and safety. There aren’t really any rules to it so you should always expect your opponent to fight dirty. If you can keep moving then you have a better chance of evading anything your opponent throws at you. It takes more energy to recover from a miss than a hit so the more he misses, the quicker he’ll tire out.
“That’s worst-case scenario though, because for the majority of what you might run into, you don’t want the fight to last that long. You want to bring down your attacker or just escape from the situation quickly. You shouldn’t be worried about ‘the win’ so much as getting the hell out of there alive and unharmed.
“But I don’t care how fast you are; you can’t dodge it all. Some blows you just have to take. So the trick is mostly making sure you can keep your balance even if you get hit and turning your body with the blow so the hit isn't as bad.”
Kame watched as Yoko eyed him up and down. So much information! How was he ever going to remember all of this? But then Yoko started to speak again. “Okay, spreads your legs a bit more, heels about even with your shoulders.”
Kame obeyed.
“No, no, don’t lock your knees or you won’t be able to keep moving… ah, yes, that’s better. The way you’re standing right now, you’re gonna want to remember that. It lets you move quicker and still keep your balance.” Eyeing him up and down once more, Yoko nodded approvingly.
“Okay, I’m going to throw a punch. Or, well, not a punch. I’m going to make a fist and very slowly come at you with it so that it really doesn’t ‘hit’ so much as it makes contact. This will be to your stomach. I’ll aim for right here-” and Yoko pointed to the center of his abdomen, “-but you don’t want it to hit there full force. You could get pretty hurt like that.
“You need to tighten your muscles there, but make sure you don’t suck in your gut. That’ll just make it worse, understand?”
“Un.” Tighten the muscles… don’t suck in the gut… it felt weird. He definitely wasn’t used to doing that.
“As I come at you, shift and turn your body while simultaneously stepping in closer with half of your body, preferably the side with your stronger punch. If you do this right, instead of hitting you spot-on, your opponent will instead hit your side and at an angle… not to mention, since you increase the time of impact doing this, the force behind it will be more spread out and that’s good. Also, as you step in, you can use force behind your own movement for a counterstrike. But don’t worry about that yet. Just worry about the blow coming at you. We’ll do this really slowly, okay?”
And it really was slow. The fist Yoko made was coming at him at about the same speed as if he’s merely reached out to shake Kame’s hand.
Okay… keep the muscles tight… Step to the side, turn away and boom! Contact, not where Yoko had been aiming but to the side.
“Right, just like that. Try it a bit faster or do you want to do it just like this a couple more times before we step it up?”
Truth be told, Kame didn’t have much faith in his ability to do this. So many years cowering when his dad would hit and kick him, the way he’d been unable to stop Ryuichi that first night on the stroll or Hina yesterday… He just wasn’t a strong person.
But he needed to learn this fast because he needed to be able to defend himself. He didn’t have the luxury of taking his time. So he finally said, “No, we can go a bit faster.”
And so they did. And the faster they went, the harder Yoko’s blows landed but as Kame discovered, they weren’t exactly the end of the world. Using the techniques Yoko was teaching him, he could handle a punch or two.
After a while of learning to take punches to the gut, the two of them moved on to head shots. Useful stuff to know, like how you’re supposed to keep your jaw shut and your tongue well out of the way so you don’t end up with a broken jaw or a bitten tongue, or how, if you have to take a hit to the face, the forehead is a bit better and to make sure you do roll with the punch. Then they practiced that for a while.
Then a break to go get something to eat for lunch.
After lunch, Yoko stepped things up even more. He’d covered evasion and taking punches; what came next was dishing out his own damage.
“Make a fist for me, like you would if you were gonna hit me and then come at me, slowly like I did. Since my arms aren’t up to block, my face is vulnerable. Sometimes you only get one shot so, if you think you can land it, the face is a good target,” Yoko said. Kame did, slowly just like Yoko wanted. “Ah, okay. There’s a few things you’re doing wrong. Firstly, you don’t want to put your thumb inside the fist like that. You’ll just end up breaking it that way. Also, lock your wrist. Keep your arm as straight as possible. And don’t swing the punch from the shoulder like that. It should come from the hip. Here, try again.”
Lock the wrist… thumb on the outside… from the hip… okay, he could do this!
“Good, that was better. Again, but a little faster this time.” Done and done. Yoko started nodding in approval. “Alright, we’re going to keep doing this, getting faster each time. And when you get fast enough, I’ll try to block it. But I’m not going to tell you. I’m just suddenly going to try to block it. Which I probably will. And when I do, I’ll throw a punch of my own, at the same speed, in response and I want you to either evade it or roll with it.”
And things continued like that for a while. By the end of the afternoon, Kame was incredibly sore and stiff but Yoko looked pleased. “You’re a fast learner! I’ve taught maybe five other people and not one of them picked this up as fast as you are. There’s one more thing, though. Don’t be afraid to use your surroundings. Broken bottles, anything you can swing or stab with really. It’s for survival, right? You do what you have to.”
“I’m just worried I’ll forget something. I mean… that was a lot!” Kame sighed.
“Oh, I have a solution for that.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to randomly attack you during the next two weeks. Not during work hours, mind you. And not every time I see you. But I’ll attack and we’ll fight till one of us is down. Nothing deadly, so no broken bottles or anything. And if I end up knocking you out, I’ll watch over you so you don’t have to worry about that.
“Why? Why not just fight like this more?”
“Well, you’re so nervous still… you’d probably panic if you really got attacked and then you wouldn’t remember a thing I taught you. But if you get used to me randomly attacking, you’ll stop panicking. And we can go almost all out, scrap for real, because we’ll both know that we’re not actually trying to kill each other. We’re just trying to get each other to drop. As soon as one of us is down, the fight’s over. And getting full-speed practice like that, it’s really the best way to learn to roll with whatever situation you find yourself in. Once you know the basics, how to give, receive, and avoid hits, the rest is situational and you often don’t have long to make decisions. You need to learn to think on your feet to survive here,” Yoko explained. It really did make a lot of sense, but Kame couldn’t help but be nervous. Just knowing Yoko would be out to get him… sort of, anyway…
“And once we’ve done that for two weeks, we’ll turn it around and you’ll attack me randomly for two weeks. Being on the other side of it takes a different sort of attitude, but you’ll be able to see how I respond to what you do and that can only help you. Plus, well, all of this will help you toughen up. Give you some strength.”
Kame couldn’t really argue with any of that. And since Yoko wasn’t charging him for the lessons (he told Kame that spoiling Ryuichi’s fun was payment enough; there was some serious rivalry between those two it seemed), he didn’t want to turn him down. Though Yoko did look a little over-eager at the thought of brawling…
Nodding, Kame finally said, “Okay, we’ll try it your way then"
++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 19 ~Two Arguments~
A/N: So... I hope that wasn't too boring. And for those of you who actually KNOW how to fight, I apologize for anything that's wrong. Willing suspension of disbelief and all that jazz.
Well, once I figure out how to tell the story of what the street kids do (it's amusing enough that I want you guys to get the whole story and not just have the kids show back up with information) while keeping to either Kame or JIn's perspective when neither can actually be there... then I'll have chapter 19 for you guys. I have a few ideas, so I'm hoping to resolve this puzzle soon.