I heard a stern voice call out. I looked to where the voice came from only to see that everyone was looking at me. Everyone watched me as a student approached me.
The student was large and muscular. He was around 6' 2" and had dark, black hair and green eyes. The student wore a white t-shirt and black pants.
"How may I help you?" I asked the student.
The student's reaction questionable to that question but what confused me was why he even approached me in the first place.
"I heard you lack athletic ability." The student said.
I was never more confused in my life.
"I want you to fight me here." The student said.
Every student in the changing room was also confused. Some didn't show it but it was clear no one knew what was going on. I was part of them. I had no idea why this student approached me and he is now trying to fight me.
"What? You want to fight me even after saying that I lack athletic ability?"
The student's logic confused me and many others. I tried to think of any way this made him feel hostility towards me but all I could think of is that he wants to show some dominance to probably make me afraid of him.
"We will fight later in the lesson." Yamada said, defending me. "If you want to fight then fight me. Tsukamoto-san here is unable to fight due to his lack of strength. There is no point in fighting someone weak."
If I had pride I would've fought this man but, fortunately, I do not. Yamada did insult me but it was to defend me. He knows little of my abilities but knows enough to be confident in the fact that the student would lose against me. He has seen only a minuscule of my abilities such as my reflexes, agility, and grip strength and with that information, he knows that I am hiding something.
"Fine then." The student sighed. "How about we have a fight right here?"
"Now?" Yamada asked.
"Yes."
Yamada sighed as if he was annoyed at the fact that someone wanted to fight him but he did seem confident that he would win.
I knew exactly who would win because it was obvious. A teenager who was adept in martial arts against another teenager who has immense strength.
No matter how strong you are, if you cannot use that strength in a fight you will lose or die. To have little strength but be proficient in martial arts would allow you to be on par with someone many times stronger than you. That is the difference between brute strength and martial arts.
The student didn't waste any time and threw a punch at Yamada with extreme speed. Yamada barely avoided the punch and quickly dodged but the student threw another punch with his left arm followed by another punch with his right arm. Yamada hit both of the student's forearms which slowed down the punches and attacked the student as well.
The student then landed a kick on the side of Yamada's thigh. Yamada struggled to stand but he didn't show it. Yamada endured the pain and threw a punch at the student. The punch was faster than the student's reaction speed and busted his nose. Blood dropped from the student's nose but he also endured it and threw a punch but Yamada held his fist and threw him onto the ground. The student hit the ground on his back as he spat out blood.
The room was silent for a moment until it was broken by Yamada.
"I've won this time Takeshita." Yamada said as he went back to his locker.
Takeshita Takao from Class 1-B. I guess all the violent ones come from Class 1-B.
I went back to my locker and finished changing. We then left the changing room and joined the others. Takeshita could not be seen.
"He must've gone to the nurse." I thought.
"Were you scared?" Akito said.
Akito stood next to me on my right. Harumi was with the girls in another room.
"Are you joking Akito?"
Akito then almost burst out laughing but he controlled himself.
"Your sense of humor is broken." I said to Akito.
We all stood in a circle around who seemed to be our teacher. The teacher was proficient in multiple martial arts such as karate, aikido, taekwondo, judo, and jiu-jitsu. Most of the normal school teachers have at least a black belt in one martial art. A school such as this wouldn't have teachers who cannot defend for themselves.
In this lesson, we were learning judo as the first martial art. In the first year, you learn judo then in the second year you can choose between taekwondo and aikido then in the third year you can choose any martial art to practice.
We were then shown a simple move and asked to practice it with a partner. Without hesitation, Akito and I partnered up but what I thought about was who Harumi was going to partner with.
The move we had to learn about was called Hiza-Guruma. Akito held my arms with him and before I knew it I was already lying on the mat.
"My turn." I said as I got up from the mat.
Akito brought his arms in front of him so I could hold them but I chose not to, instead I grabbed onto his uwagi and pulled him towards me. I then turned around and threw him onto the ground. Akito fell into the mat with a thud and lay down on the mat for a few seconds.
"Hey! That wasn't part of it!" Akito complained.
"I improvised I guess."
"Teach me what you did!" Akito said.
"Fine then."
After a few minutes, Akito got the hang of it. He had mastered both the Hiza-Guruma and the Morote Seoi-Nage in just a few minutes. I now found potential. Akito had the potential to surpass Yamada so if I taught him right he would be more useful than Yamada.
We learned Hiza-Guruma and Osoto-Gari. Those two moves were the only ones we learned and it took only one lesson to master both.
We then changed and left the building. After that lesson was lunchtime: My personal favourite.
Akito and I found Harumi talking to someone. The first thought that came to both of us was 'She finally found a friend'. Akito seemed to be annoyed at the fact she found a friend but the reason why wasn't clear.
Harumi then caught us in the corner of her eye. She then waved at us and also gestured for us to go to her. As we approached them, Harumi wasted no time and introduced us to her friend.
The girl had short blood-red hair, and blue eyes and wore black knee socks and a black miniskirt.
"Guys, this is Asagiri Kaori from our class!"
"Hi, Asagiri-"
"Please call me Kaori." Asagiri interrupted.
"Oh, then you can call me Akito and this is Tsukamoto Tadashi."
"Hi."
I didn't generally like introducing myself as from where I was raised, we didn't call each other by name.
"Would you like to come with us to lunch?" Akito suggested.
This felt as if Akito asked Kaori to discuss important matters over lunch.
We then walked towards the cafeteria. As we walked, Akito, Kaori, and Harumi talked while I stayed silent.
"Oh, Tadashi-kun, where are you from?" Kaori asked.
"We don't even know that yet." Akito mumbled.
"Yeah, where are you from?" Harumi asked.
I couldn't tell them the truth but I had prepared for everything in advance.
"I lived in Japan until the age of six then I studied overseas in Britannia then I returned to Japan when I was fourteen." I replied.
None of them had any suspicions as it was believable. A student studying overseas and then going to Japan to study in a school such as this was common. There were many foreign students in the third and second years but not as many in the first year. The first year only had around a few students from different countries.
The Japanese Empire took over Asia, Oceania, Africa, and some of Europe while the British Empire took over North America, South America, and most of Europe.
The war against the two lasted fifteen years. It started on Wednesday 18th March 1733 and ended on Thursday 6th June 1748. For fifteen years they fought and a total of eight hundred million died. This number significantly affected the population which was only three billion. The Japanese Empire had only lost a hundred million while the British Empire lost seven hundred million.
In the end, Japan had fewer losses and won the war as the British Empire surrendered the Japanese Empire had more technology which threatened the British Empire.
In the past four years, the world rebuilt itself. The population increased to five billion and technology advanced much more because of the Yamada family. The British Empire then split. North and South America joined together as one empire and most of Europe joined together as one empire. The empire of Europe was called Britannia while the empire of America was called Amerannia. The Japanese Empire stayed the same.
The deaths on that battlefield changed the lives of their families. Many lost their fathers, mothers, children, brothers, and sisters.
Death is as natural as living.