Each of us were assigned to perform distinguished combat techniques.
Due to our different forms of strengths and titles- as gran suggested.
And to the amazing enchantments and witchcrafts of Gran, the peculiar training transferred furniture- well training objects and vanished those into thin air as well and transformed into whatever she wished.
"For Joey, L'Armement -Jujitsu. It is a Japanese fighting style, made as an adjunct to the samurai arts of weapons."
"For Clayton, Le Maillet Mortel- Savate."
"For Austin, garçon-rasoir- Kendois ; a modern Japanese martial art, descended from swordsmanship, that uses bamboo swords and we'll follow the technique until you master it. Then we'll start with you actual weapon."
"Travis, Archer Sournois- geometrical studying and self-defence."
"Lastly Rebecca. Muay Thai; its widely known as the world's most effective striking art. It's not impenetrable but rather inexpedient."
I knew what the future held for me and a wave of nausea at the thought of violence made me wanna puke.
But at the same time, I felt an uprush of mixed emotions from apprehension to enthusiasm ran over my veins.
Something was strange but I rather not mention it.
"You are gonna drive astray and definitely it's no picnic."
"Consider us warned. But you know you could make a great teacher if there was a fit of motivational like hey-you-do-it-kids quotes instead of do-it-but-remember-you-can-open-the-doors-of-death. Haha you know." Clay muttered, and I actually awaited gran's answer.
"Am I your science teacher?"
"No. Not really."
"So why would I ask you to go participate in the science fair if I know you can boot up a bot just right then?"
"Maybe cause the fair's more friendly...?"
Her explanation was not very reassuring hand on my shoulder nor was enough to make Clay go speechless but however small chuckled reverberated between us before pursuing our training.
It commenced with Joey oscillating her nunchacku with a reduced chain length.
Accordingly, she twirled them around slow and steady until- as gran said, "Until you get the feel of them."
Being unaware of the combat skill, I sat down and chatted with Clay and Casper , taking pause breaks by also glancing over the training session.
Suddenly it was all absurd, weird but somewhat scary. Kinda scary that how you could just be living your same old typical life one second, and the next you realize you just can't see your path, your road ahead of you anymore.
I mean hey- I was a nobody, an outcast who would never be hanging out, let alone training in a team with teens like them- I was far away from their league.
I wouldn't guarantee we were friends who went camping in summer and partying in winter but I was never open to them. Inside jokes, ice and wine- I guess that was it.
For the whole week next, after school we surely were determined to spend at least 5 hours practising . The question also came to my mind, about the actual importance of practice, taking this much time but she reminded us how one day we were the ones salvaging treasures at sea and extricating the humans from entering the doors of death.
(({Training song} it would be awesome if you actually put the song in 1.5x speed))
As I watched, she practice passing from hand to hand and doing figure of 8's, like gran mentioned, walking back and forth around the empty room whilst we sat on the bleacher-like chairs far away.
Joey seemed confident in the first steps and pleaded for the 'next level.'
Anyhow, gran considered her choice and said to speed up what she did.
Following the techniques of the figure of 8, she strived to pass it underarm, striking left and right - which she did well until it came to the point where she had to stop it by wrapping it around her waist : the chains somehow increased its length and enwrapped Joey's abdomen.
Her head thrusted forward and the hair swaying forwards.
Her shriek was enough to tell how much pain assaulted her, thus allowing a time of rest while Clay went on for the first punches of savate.
As a boy, he said in a fit of haughtiness about his ability to punch and being conceited was not a great sport accepted by gran. She smirked and shrugged but it was I who knew savate's is not going further than a hot minute.
The first punch : the direct bras avant also known as the jab punch included him to at first lean forward with his elbows in. Also not to forget to keep the right hand a little higher than your left right which is basically protecting his chin from the attacker leaving the left up, waiting to strike.
After taking positions, gran put a bouncy plastic-leathery mannequin in front for Clay to strike.
Overall, he did great- simultaneously shifting off his righr back foot, restraining it to leave the ground, thus putting his weight onto his left. Then was time he threw a powerful jab.
"Along with your hand, your body's weight should come forward at the same time." Gran reminded.
Clay was at ease practicing the same thing over and over and gran decided it was time for self defense aside the attacking mode.
Hah funny.
Gran began chanting something in foreign language and the mannequin moved. Wow it just did.
After her enchanting session she demanded Clay to defend himself besides attacking.
The mannequin's hand stroke a blow to Clay stomach slowly, and he easily moved aside.
"You could have moved you left hand downwards and let the knuckles hit your forearm. That's a stronger position."
"C'mon I just defended myself from this magical...bot."
Gran just rolled her eyes and Clay forced a smile tilting sideward, which restrained him from noticing the next arupt attack.
It was a punch to his cheek which definitely made him grit his teeth and seethe with anger.
"Never get distracted in a fight. That's a weakness point."
Clay pretended he didn't hear her and overlooking his steps of the training session, he randomly stroke for the mannequin's face but instead got hit in the chin.
"Told you to keep the right hand up for protection." Gran said in a sing-song, "And beating in the butt is gonna be common thing for you, Mr.Prince so you better don't use shock with rage. That just worsens."
"This is bullshit!" Clay took off away his boxing gloves, throwing it on the floor and stomped away to the bathroom.
"2's out. Come along Austin. No time to waste." She messaged her temples, "In swordsmanship, the first thing to know is that a strong-side turn is simply turning to the side that will make you use lesser amount of effort comparatively. If your right foot is forward, move round back to your left, and vice versa. At first, right foot in front and left at back."
Slowly but effectively, he studied all of the eight directions within 30 minutes .
Surprisingly, he seemed to be lost in his training quite solemnly and I couldn't help but notice his hard work.
I got adrift in a sea of emotions in which hatred was not included. Definitely not. It was more of a admiring streak, something between the line of cutesy and wild.
I was too lost in thoughts that I didn't realize I was smiling- until Casper faked a cough.
"So I was saying...."
I looked up to him, as he appeared visible, "Yes, you were saying...what?"
"Did you ever fell in love?"
That questioned reddened my cheeks ; I knew the answer was positive but too afraid to think of it. Or maybe, confessing once won't hurt...?
"Yeah. Maybe."
"Yeah first sight loves don't really last, in my opinion, so it's cool that we were only kids."
I chuckled lightly, sinking deep into his words. Indirectly, he did say right.
Next came Travis. His work was already into his field of talent but I believe it wouldn't take months for him to complete.
"Archery is a work of mathematics and physics, which I believe you are already mastering. But the trouble is your capability, speed and possibility of the right shoot." Gran explained.
And that was right. As for a nerd to step into a mystical world of fantasy just on a normal earth-day, his hands were quivering while holding onto the bow and arrow.
He pulled his specs backwards anxiously and inwardly tugged the arrow but even from far away I could see him sweating in dread and hands consistently shaking, eyes nervously pointed at the dart board.
As soon as his finger left the arrow, it flew over- far over the board.
"Confidence and patience Trav sweetheart."
Travis nodded, forcing a smile and continued to strike for about 45 minutes, nearly- almost hitting the board. And for the arrows that hit it were mostly at the edge or at the half of midpoints.
The leftover time he had was spent with Gran filling in details with him about some chants and spells that he could vocalise in order to change the elemental state of his arrows. But were those a child's play.
"For the last and final, Beca." I gulped, fidgeted my fingers before getting up to the stage of combat. She mentioned my one to be one of the most dangerous- which also meant it included hours of distress.
Take a chill pill Reccy, you can do it. I mean you led a whole bunch of mini team into defeating one of the most sly devils. C'mon how hard could this be?"
Oh well.
I was ought to keep a loose fist, but let your hand, shoulders and arm, slightly relax before punching.
"Here goes nothing."
As I tightened up the fist, I went in for the strike.
"HOLY SHIT- Jeez, that-"
Somewhat like Clay, I became eager- for my first ever punch but I forgot to however, make sure your thumb was not wrapped up in my other fingers, so while doing that , it nearly broke.
I exhaled sharply and gulped while shaking my hand.
Everyone rushed towards me and getting all the attention from every single one was a cringy matter.
But what most hurt was the fact that giving a simple punch in my first training lesson I had to screw up. The others did as well but right after the basics. And here I am, ruining whatever motivation I had left.
"It's alright Reccy. Because the others didn't doesn't mean you won't. It's not simple. And don't you ever think how I learnt all these just at age 8? That time failure was a daily success for me- until I switched gradually." Casper reassured, rubbing his thumb over my hand.
"Oh trust me girl. You'll fly higher than Hinata's jumps." Joey chuckled.
The room was filled with a jubilant essence and I would never want otherwise.
Next time, I gathered some courage and requested Gran to continue to training- maybe not with my hands but I'd there's anything to do with legs .
As for today, she said, only 2 kicks apart from the classical roundhouse kicks, was necessary- the Kao Dode aka jumping knee strike and Kao Loi aka flying knee strike.
It was a sweaty, dodgy hour but it reached its end anyway.
***
At around 8, we intended to leave but unfortunately Casper was gone for some 'spirit business' again, so there was no one with teleportation potency.
Gran suggested we take her old car and since none of us wanted to stay any longer, we thought it would be a good idea to live on the 'normal' line for once on that day.
We squeezed in quietly and hit the road. With majority winning, I was the driver and I couldn't find any problem with that either.
I gazed at the stars up front arraying themselves in black, as if accepting the darkness of nightfall- so unlike and like me.
Since it was an abandoned road beside the hills, I enjoyed the tranquil ride beside the inside jokes of the group.
At times when Clay became a chatterbox, we challenged him to speak words with no more than 4 letters, and we knew his stories won't contain sentences with 4-letter words only.
"Yeah, once I pranked Clay into eating frozen mayonnaise- which he totally hates - saying it was ice-cream. I was L.M.A.O., like his expression was priceless man." Austin laughed and Clay scowled, looking offended.
"Yeah, he also put that- that shit that is ...you know...long and hard and has cum in it." Clay muttered casually.
Just as sudden, I rammed on the brakes so hard that we all rocked in back and forth.
Everyone knew why I did that and moreover each of us turned to Clay with a menacingly earnest look, shocked over his dirt.
"Ho-how...? And did you really eat that? That's so disgusting!!"
"Gross, Clay. Didn't you vomit?"
"And Austin that was so cheap!" I blamed him with a shout, but he looked at me as if I fell from the sky.
"I swear I never put that! " He protested and gazed at Clay, "Why you lying man?"
"You did. I mean, though I didn't know everyone of you disliked that food but_"
"You call that freaking food?" Joey accused.
"Yeah. I mean people eat cucumber right? Oh wait hypothetically speaking, that's a veg, but still we eat?"
Still in shock, we exchanged confused glances and creased up loud and deeply. Joey waved her hands in the fit of the confusion we got into and when Travis snorted, we laughed even harder.
"Wow...didn't know that would be so funny...hahaha..."
Clay forced a chuckle and even his face brought happy tears.
"God that was hilarious."
We explained him somewhat awkwardly but I could guarantee he was abashed as heck.
I twirled the key and pressed it inside. As the engine roared, I got suspicious about the car's ability to run but left he thought.
As I was about to plunge the pedal, I witnessed the grimy fingernails of an ivory-skinned skeletal hand creeping up and down my window pane.