Jiu-Jitsu

After a bit of time, Kenichi finished training with Shigure and was hobbling painfully down the walkway.

"I think I'm bleeding internally." Kenichi breathed out through the soreness. "If that was Shigure's way of taking it easy then I can't image what would happen to anyone who had to fight her for real."

Kenichi heard something and then stopped as he looked to his right. What he saw was Sakaki in the courtyard. He was currently in the middle of his own training and stood there in a Karate stance and without his jacket—Thus showing off his Herculean muscle frame. Sakaki breathed in, built up his strength, and finally punched a nearby wooden training pole so hard that it broke into pieces. Kenichi looked at him and felt impressed.

"Bet you he's not afraid of a knife, guys his size probably never give it a second thought." He said to himself thinking of all the muscle mass Sakaki, and Apachai for that matter possesses. "With muscles that thick I wouldn't be surprised if most weapons didn't just bounce right off them." He slumped before trying to flex the muscles on his own arm, only to see that there wasn't much. "I've been training for what seems like months now and I haven't gained a single ounce of muscle. I'm starting to wonder if all of Akisame-sensei's weird training techniques are really working."

"Oh, there you are, Kenichi."

"Akisame-sensei?" Kenichi turned to see Akisame walk up to him. "Are you done training Ohma already?"

"Haha, no, not at all. I'm just having him stretch for a bit." Akisame explained. "Once he's done with that we'll begin with some light roadwork."

"Uh, his idea of light always means insanely intense." Kenichi thought with an uncomfortable expression. "Well, at least it's not me."

"But don't worry, I've prepared some light exercises for you to do until we get back." Akisame pleasantly informed him.

"How does he always know what I'm thinking!?" Kenichi thought with a cringe.

"You looked like you were thinking about something before I showed up." Akisame noticed. "What's on your mind?"

"Oh, well I was just wondering, I've been doing your training exercises for a pretty long time now but my body doesn't look like it's gotten any different." Kenichi pointed out. "How much longer do I have to flip statues and run marathons?"

"You don't have to run marathons necessary but you have to maintain some kind of training routine," Akisame explained to him. "Back in the old days, it was very rare that people did any separate muscle training."

"What? So why am I getting the special treatment?" Kenichi asked more curious than upset.

"They sparred a lot back then, so they really didn't need muscle training," Akisame answered.

"So then sparring was their strength training?" Kenichi understood.

"Sparring is a great way to build muscle, mostly because it focuses on all the muscles needed for fighting without unnecessary bulk in places that would slow the body down." Akisame continued with his explanation. "However, there's definitely one drawback to that method of training—High risk of bodily injury. Out of every 100 or so Disciple, only a handful ever made it through training alive." He then looked to the now quiet Kenichi. "So how does that sound to you? We could skip muscle training and spar instead?"

Kenichi thought about his offer and he considered the unimaginable strength and savagery of the Ryozanpaku Masters and hastily shook his head. "No! No! That's not a good idea!"

Akisame chuckled a bit. "Hahaha. Well, you aren't quite a Master yet, I suppose you have plenty of time to work on your courage."

Kenichi honed in on a keyword in that sentence. 'Me a Master? Yeah, why not? You train with Masters to become a Master right?' He thought before saying aloud. "Can I ask you a question, Sensei? How come your body's not built up like Apachai's or Sakaki's?"

"Ha, I keep an eye on my figure." Akisame vaguely told him.

"And because he doesn't need it."

Both Kenichi and Akisame turned to see Ohma approach them, he looked like he was sweating a bit but he wasn't out of breath. He stopped in front of them and looked at Akisame with an annoyed expression.

"Ah, Ohma, have you finished stretching?" Akisame asked as though nothing was wrong.

"Yeah, I just finished "stretching" a minute ago." Ohma sarcastically replied.

"What kind of stretching were you doing?" Kenichi asked, wondering why Ohma looked winded.

"Oh you know, the ordinary kind," Akisame answered him.

"And by that, he means he had me hold one of his statues with one hand while using my other hand lift another statue over my shoulders, and had me doing squats while I was at it." Ohma clarified, irritated by it.

"You call that stretching?!" Kenichi now also became irritated at the Jujitsu Master.

"Well, it loosened his joints and prepared his body for training." Akisame reasoned, defending his actions. "Aside from that—Ohma, explain what you meant before."

Kenichi looked up as though he just remembered. "Yeah, what did you mean when you said, "he doesn't need it"? Doesn't need what?"

"Akisame or more to the point—Any true Jiu-Jitsu Master doesn't need a large muscular build." Ohma clarified. "Karate and Muay Thai are Hard-Style Martial Arts so they need strength, power, and durability, the overall point is punching or kicking the other guy until they're beaten so being huge is a must if you want to be a Master, but Jiu-Jitsu is the opposite, it's more of a Soft-Style."

"Soft-Style?" Kenichi repeated. "But does that mean it's weaker?"

Ohma shook his head. "It depends on your definition of weak. For example, Judo was made to be the Art of complete self-defence, unlike the others, it highlights making the second move instead of the first, counterattack instead of attack. And to do that you need skill, focus, and knowledge, the opposite of Karate. That's why you don't necessarily need big muscles to Master Jiu-Jitsu, if anything they would get in the way."

"But doesn't that mean they'll be at a huge disadvantage against bigger opponents?" Kenichi pointed out. "Without strength, it'll be much harder to use throwing moves on guys that are too big and heavy."

"That's what most people believe is a limitation of Jujitsu, but that's also why experts know ways around that," Ohma told him. "A saying in Judo is—Technique can only make up for weight difference up to twice your weight—Meaning if you're fighting someone who's three or more times heavier your techniques will fail." He explained. "That's why true masters of the art base their muscle training on definition instead of mass so they can increase their weight while keeping their builds. By doing that, the greatest Jujitsu Masters started being called Iron Masters."

"Is that true, Akisame-sensei?" Kenichi asked, seemingly impressed by what he had heard.

Akisame stood there and merely listened to their conversation, interested in hearing how much knowledge Ohma possessed on the Art of Jujitsu before he answered. "It is true for the most part. Personally, though, I believe the part about technique only being able for twice the amount of weight needs a second opinion." He claimed, though not sounding upset. "That's only true under ordinary circumstances."

Both of them looked up at him as Kenichi asked. "Then, can you overcome that limit?"

"Well, I can't say for certain since I've never had the chance to try. On that note, I wouldn't really call myself an Iron Master or anything like that." Akisame said good-naturedly as he rubbed his hair. "Still though, I am surprised you have such detailed knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu."

"My Master gave me a crash course on it back in the day. A large section of my Niko Style is entirely based on Jiu-Jitsu." Ohma confessed.

"Is that so? I am interested in meeting him one day." Akisame admitted before walking away. "But for now, we have the training to do, let's go."

Ohma followed after him as Kenichi watched them go. "Come to think of it, I don't much about Ohma, his relatives, friends or anything. But Ohma brings them up anytime he talks about the training he did when he was younger."

After they left the Dojo, Ohma was running a long-distance while Akisame was sitting on a tire that was tied around Ohma's and Kenichi's waists. After running for quite a while Akisame made him stop at a small shopping district as he walked into a small store that said Chinese Medicine on it. Apparently stopping to buy medicine was what Akisame had planned to do before they left.

"Normally, I come here with Kensei, but he said he had to pick up something very important at the bookstore today," Akisame told him as they walked away from the store.

Ohma thought about what it could be before muttering. "…Too easy." He then spoke up. "Anyways, you do know there's a bus stop nearby right? Why do you come here back and forth so often on foot?"

"In case you've forgotten, our finances at the Dojo are pretty lacking." Akisame reminded him. "We can't afford to use the bus that often."

Ohma narrowed his eyes. "So your solution is having a Human-Pack mule carry you here on a tire."

It was then that they both heard an unfamiliar voice suddenly shouting nearby.

"Let go! Or you'll be sorry!"

They saw that a few feet ahead of them were two female students from Koryuu High School and surprisingly one of them was Izumi—The only other member of the Gardening Club besides Kenichi. The other was a girl in her uniform with brown hair, she was Makado, one of Izumi's friends.

Surrounding them were three dangerous-looking adult thugs who also looked familiar. The three of them were the same three that were defeated soundly by Miu the time Kenichi met her. Three of them, one with a moustache, one with a scar, and one with sunglasses. Izumi was standing fearfully behind Makado while Makado was standing firmly and protectively in front of Izumi

"Calm down little girl, we're just gonna ask you some questions." The thug with a scar said mockingly.

"That's Izumi." Kenichi noticed, seeing the bad situation they were in.

"School friends?" Akisame asked, also knowing they were in trouble. "They look like they're in trouble."

"We're trying to find a girl that goes to your school." The thug with a scar told them. "Looks just like you, except she's taller, and her hair and eyes are different, and she's not so scrawny." He finished as if he had just realised what he was saying.

"How is that 'just like her'?" Ohma though.

"So, you're looking for a girl that wears glasses, is that it?" Izumi asked, still frightened.

That's what I said!" He snapped, scaring her.

They all looked to see Akisame, Kenichi and Ohma approach them. The thugs immediately recognized Kenichi. "Hey! You're that punk who was with her!"

As they were confronting each other, Izumi took a closer look and saw the person the thug was staring off against was someone she knew. "Wait, isn't he Kenichi's friend—He is?"

"Go home, girls!" Akisame called out to them reassuringly. "Your friend will be fine!"

"Come on." Makado grabbed Izumi's arm and led her away as the two left the scene.

As they were leaving, Izumi looked back one last time with a concerned expression. "I hope he'll be okay."

With them gone, the fighting was all but ready to begin, that was until Akisame stepped in and placed himself between his disciples and the thugs.

Ohma raised a brow. "Hey, you're blocking my path."

"Relax, just let me handle this." Akisame requested.

"Move old man." The thug with a scar warned him while grabbing his collar. "I got some business with the kid there."

Akisame gently grabbed his hand. "Oh is that so? I'm afraid I don't quite understand, have my Disciples caused some sort of trouble?"

As Akisame stared directly into his eyes, the thug suddenly felt intimidated under his gaze and pulled back his hand.

"W-Watch out boys, he's tricky!" The thug with a scar warned the other two intimidated. "Keep both your eyes on him!"

They both looked shaken as one of them muttered. "Hey, uh, dude?"

"Yeah, what is it?" He questioned.

"Um… Well…" The thug with a moustache just glanced toward his friend's hand.

"What the heck 'you blabbing a—?"

The thug with a scar froze as he looked at the hand that he pulled back and just now noticed it was bent over at a different angle. Turns out Akisame dislocated the wrist joint without him even noticing.

"Gugh!" The thug with a scar cried out in pain and horror.

"Wow, I barely saw that," Ohma said to himself.

Akisame raised his hand apologetically. "Sorry, that's my fault, dislocation is an old habit of mine." Akisame then appeared behind the thug and grabbed his broken hand before popping the joint back in place, easily fixing the damage. "There you go, but you should think where you stick that thing."

The thug with a scar quickly backed away from him. "You're completely insane!" He then looked to the other two. "You two, get some weapons or something and hurry! Get the boss while you're at it!"

"Yeah, right." The thug with a moustache nodded before walking off.

"Now that's just rude, I'm not completely insane," Akisame complained. "Isn't that right, Ohma?"

Ohma rolled his eyes. "Then tell us how insane you are."

Suddenly, the door of a nearby van opened up, and out from it came six more thugs with weapons the likes of metal pipes and crowbars and each of them looked ready for a fight, or in this case to kill.

"Okay boys, I'm guessing this freak is with that punk and the glasses girl and that makes him fair game." The thug with a scar said before turning back to the van. "Come on out boss! Let me introduce ya!"

Coming out of the van this time was a towering hulk of a man who was towering over the rest. He was several inches taller than even Apachai while his body was as muscular and bulky as Sakaki's. He was wearing a clean white suit with a light blue undershirt, black leather shoes, and a red bowtie. Strangely enough, on his head was a red, yellow, and purple wrestler's mask that covered everything above his neck except his mouth and nose.

The thug with a scar ran over to his boss. "That's the guy. You take care of him and we'll deal with the kid."

The boss didn't respond and instead marched up to Akisame.

"Oh my, you're certainly a big fellow aren't you?" Akisame noted, unconcerned.

Ohma just looked at the boss and wondered. "Hmm, maybe one day I should wear a suit to a fight?"

The thug with a scar now seemed sure of their victory. "Looks like we got ourselves a bonus. We were just trying to hut down that brat girl from before but now we found our main target, and since you're a friend of his we can take you out while we're at it."

"I hate to rain on your parade, but things don't always go the way you expect them to," Akisame commented while stroking his chin.

The boss now stood directly in front of him but looked back at his gang. "What, you called me for this?" He asked, clearly unimpressed. "He's smaller than anyone here, next time make sure he's at least your size before you think about wasting my time."

"Ah, excuse me if I may?" Akisame spoke up. "I take it that you're the leader of these men. We seem to have a bit of a misunderstanding, whatever the problem is I'd rather not have to cause any trouble for you or your goons. Perhaps it would be best if we went our separate ways? At least if we all walk away right now, you won't have to dirty that fancy white suit that you're wearing."

The boss just smiled like he was told a funny joke and looked at a stop sign that was right beside them before he reached out and grabbed it with his hand while using his leg to push it forward while using his arm to pull it back the other way. The result; the sign bent over until it was facing sideways.

The thugs all smirked with satisfaction. "Yeah, you show him, boss."

Ohma didn't look impressed. "I've seen worse."

"What did you do that for?" Akisame asked disapprovingly. "That's government property, paid for by your hard-earned taxes." He raised his hand again. "It appears I may have offended you in some way, haven't I? Again, I'd rather not fight you but if that's the case, I am willing to take back some of what I said earlier."

The boss crossed his arms. "Yeah, that's more like it, not feeling so cocky now are you?"

"I take back the part about not wanting to cause you any trouble." Akisame clarified as he placed a finger on the bent sign.

Then to the surprise of every thug present, Akisame easily pushed the sign back into its original position using only the strength of his index finger. Even Ohma was momentarily taken aback.

"Okay, wasn't expecting that." Ohma thought, honestly impressed.

Akisame smiled. "Truth is I don't care much for people like you, you're overbearing, rude, and always trying to intimidate people. And know something about me, I hate rude people."

"What are you going to do about it then?" The boss huffed angrily.

"Ohma." Akisame addressed him without looking.

"Yeah, what?" Ohma asked, responding to him.

"I know this seems redundant but I'm going to give you a quick Jujitsu demonstration," Akisame told him as his eyes started glowing. "Pay attention and you just might learn something new."

"Sure…Why not?" Ohma replied, somewhat interesting in where this was going.

"Should you find yourself in a situation where your opponent is bigger than you are—" Akisame began.

"Gah! Shut up and fight already!" The boss lost his patience and went in for a tackle.

Akisame continued. "First, here's what not to do."

Akisame reached out both his hands and caught the boss' hands as they were locked in each other's grips and were now in a power struggle. But while the boss seemed to be struggling to move even an inch forward, Akisame seemed to be as unmovable as a mountain and turned to look at Ohma as he continued.

"You should never face your opponent directly like this because you'll eventually be overpowered." He explained though the result was the opposite. Not only that, his strong grip overwhelmed the boss as he screamed in pain and released Akisame's hands before stepping back. "Okay, now I'll show you the right way to do it."

"That's it! Now I'm MAD!" The boss snapped.

He went in for a kick but his leg hit nothing as Akisame instantly appeared at his side. "What you'll want to do is make your opponent think you're moving forward. Then what you're really doing is moving sideways into his blind spot." He went on, doing just that. "Then, in an actual Jujitsu fight, before you do anything else—" Akisame gave him a small punch to his temple. "You attack one of his vital points."

"Augh!" The boss was rocked by that punch.

"But that's only a preparation move so you can get your opponent off balance." Akisame clarified as the boss tried punching him this time. "Now, before your opponent's punch gets up to speed, you move a half-step forward and deflect its power away from it." He explained before knocking the punch away and gripping his forearm. "And then…

Akisame stepped in and swiped the boss' legs which knocked him off his feet and using his free hand, Akisame held the boss by his face so he could push his already falling body down with greater speed and force as he finished the job.

"You throw him."

THUD!

To the surprise of all the thugs present, the boss hit the ground hard with that powerful throw. After landing head first on the solid concert ground, the boss twitched a bit before slumping over, completely unconscious. Ohma was impressed by what he had just witnessed but didn't let it show.

"Okay, I'll say it—You're pretty good," Ohma admitted.

"Let's see you deflect some bullets you freak!" He shouted desperately.

As if moving on some unheard signal, before the thugs could react, Ohma rushed in with an explosively fast speed that made him immediately appear in front of the thug holding the gun, the shot fired but was deflected off to the side after sliding by the back of Ohma's hand.

'Redirection Kata: Flowing Edge.'

Ohma then used a kick that knocked the firearm out of his hand and followed up with a vicious uppercut to his chin that knocked him off his feet before he hit the ground out cold.

The other thugs gasped while Akisame inspected his performance. "That was pretty good striking and counters, both your personal and Apchai's training is really paying off. Though, I'd of preferred if you had used the Jujitsu move I just showed you."

"Doesn't make much of a difference to me," Ohma told him as he picked up the fallen gun. "Y'know, I always wondered what it would be like to use one of these, but now I see…" Ohma merely threw it away. "It's not my style."

"And I've had just about enough of this." Akisame looked at the rest of the thugs with a cold stare. "You idiots are far too reckless for my taste, what if you had hit an innocent bystander?" He walked up to them while letting out strong pressure as he grabbed one of them by the hair and dragged him toward a nearby alleyway. "Come on, it's time someone taught you some manners."

"Let go of me!" The thug demanded in pain.

"Oh and Ohma…" Akisame stopped for a second. "Give me a second won't you? This won't take long."

The rest of the thugs ran after him and they all followed him into the alleyway.

"Let's get him!"

"He can't take all of us!"

As they all went in, Ohma decided he might as well look to see what Akisame planned to do. On that day, Ohma saw human bodies bend at an angle he thought was only possible in smash-and-stretch cartoons.

****************

The sun had set and Ohma had just finished telling Kenichi the events of what had happened with Akisame earlier. Though had both finished training for the moment and were taking a breather as they sat in the training hall with Sakaki after explaining all this, Kenichi could only gasp in astonishment.

"That's crazy." Kenichi breathed out. "I can't believe you ran into those guys again. And how did you deflect that bullet?"

"I'll tell you what I can't believe." Sakaki joined in. "You were facing a guy with a gun yet you handled it like no one's business, didn't know you had it in you, punk."

Ohma shrugged. "I just calculated the bullet's angle of incidence and pushed it away at the moment of impact, pretty simple. Guns might be rare in Japan but it's pretty common to see thugs with them pretty much anywhere else. That wasn't a first for me."

Kenichi cringed. "If it were me, I think I would have freaked out." He thought before looking to Sakaki. "But, did you know Akisame could do that, Sensei? I mean, it sounds like he's got some kind of superhuman strength, especially for a guy his size."

"Well, it's because of the mad training he does. Let me explain - According to him, the Human-body is made up of three different kinds of muscle." Sakaki began as Miu entered and sat with them. "White-muscle that's good for fast sudden moves but lacks the endurance, Red-muscle that's got endurance but not much power, and in-between those two is a bit of Pink-muscle that's supposed to have both those qualities combined. They say the ratio for those three muscle types stays the same your entire life. But old Akisame. He ignored conventional wisdom and followed his own theories, he believed that muscle type could be changed, after more than a decade of bizarre training, he had converted all his Red and White muscles into Pink. So, while he may not look all that strong, what you see is 100% muscle, he's like a rock, I doubt that guy has a milligram of waste on him."

"You mean, he might even be strong than you?" Kenichi asked curiously.

"Did I say that?" Sakaki smirked. "Don't be stupid, kid. I don't do all that freaky training but I'm no slouch either. Tell you this though, he's one of those guys who if I never do have to fight him that's just fine by me. If we ever did get into it one of us would wined-up dead."

"I disagree." Ohma shook out. "If there was someone like that who was that close to my level and right next to me, I'd say that's the reason why I'd want to fight him. Regardless of what might happen."

"Ha!" Sakaki grinned before opening a sake bottle. "Well, feel free to do so when you find someone like that."

"I may have already found someone like that."