The Lost Scroll of Fudo Shin (16 page)

“He nearly did that anyway,” said Jimmy, remembering the kicks to his head.  He brought one hand up and winced at the touch of the bruise growing on his temple.

Hideaki held up a hand.  “Sorry about that."  He paused.  "I hope it didn’t hurt too much.”

Jimmy shrugged.  “I’m really sorry about your eye.”

“It’s nothing.”

Jimmy shook his head.  “No, really.  I think I might have gone too far with that move.”

Hideaki’s face grew serious.  “You went exactly where you were supposed to go, Jimmy.  You were, in your mind, fighting for your life.  When it comes down to that, there’s no such thing as going too far.  If you hold back, you might die.”

“Yeah, but your eye – I mean, I didn’t know that you were a good guy.  I thought you were trying to kill me.”

Hideaki reached up and pulled the bandage off his face.  Jimmy saw the gauze come away, stained red.

But Hideaki’s eye was fine.

A red streak scored Hideaki’s face just below the eyelid to mid-cheek.  Jimmy breathed again.  “Your eye is okay?”

Vanessa smiled.  “Chalk it up to the fact that Hideaki is far more experienced that you, Jimmy.  He knew you’d go for his eye and when you struck, he turned just enough to protect himself.  But it was a good strike anyway.  As you can see, you nailed him pretty well all things considered.”

“Are those stitches?”

Hideaki grinned.  “Never had them in my eyelid before.  That’s some kind of new painful sensation.”

“Oh man.”

Hideaki laughed.  “Forget about it.”  He held out his right hand to Jimmy.  “I hope you can forgive me for being a real scumbag to you these last few weeks.”

Jimmy grabbed his hand and shook it.  “As long as you can forgive me for almost tearing your eyeball out of your head.”

Hideaki glanced at Vanessa.  “Seems like a fair trade, what do you think?”

“Fine with me.”  Vanessa glanced around the tiny cluttered cabin.  “We’re going to have to get you moved up to a proper cabin now that this charade is done with.”

Hideaki frowned.  “What – you don’t think much of my interior decorating?  I mean, it’s a little cramped and all, but-“

“As soon as you’re feeling up to it,” said Vanessa.  “You should be up top with us.”

“All right.”

Jimmy’s stomach grumbled impatiently.  Vanessa looked at him.  “Sounds like you’re ready for that meal now.”

“I’d say so.”

Hideaki nodded.  “Always good to get some food in.  You’d be surprised how much fighting takes out of you.  Gotta be sure to replenish the stores you exhaust, otherwise the ol’ engine won’t run.”

“You coming?”

Hideaki looked at him.  “Me?”

Jimmy nodded.  “Yeah.  If I’m hungry, you must be, too.”

“I could eat,” Hideaki admitted.

“Good,” said Jimmy.  “In that case we can all eat together.  Only this time, we do it as friends.”

Chapter Seventeen

It was as if Jimmy had passed some sort of turning point in his training.  Not that he knew everything that he needed to know, but Vanessa started treating him a bit differently.  She no longer drilled him for countless hours, but trusted that Jimmy would continue to train on his own until he had gotten the techniques down that she wanted him to work on.  Interestingly enough, Jimmy did just that.  Deep down, he felt as though the confrontation with Hideaki had proved something, not just to himself, but to Vanessa as well.

Maybe she was looking to see if I had what it takes to do whatever things she has planned for me, he thought one day as he worked out in the fading sunlight.  Already the westward sky was streaked with red and deep purples as the night drew closer.  Jimmy found he liked this time of day best.  He could see the lengthening shadows and almost imagine himself disappearing into them.

The hanbo had become almost second nature to him now.  It was an extension of his body and he moved easily through a number of practice movements over and over again.  The more he practiced, he told himself, the more his body would be able to pull the techniques out without thinking about them.  He would respond as he was supposed to, depending on whatever situation presented itself to him.

Hideaki spent a lot more time with him now as well.  He didn’t study the same martial art that Jimmy and Vanessa did, but Vanessa stressed the importance of getting Hideaki to expound upon his various experiences.

“You’ll come up against a lot of skilled fighters.  And each martial art has its advantages and disadvantages.  The more widely you study fighting, the better off you’ll be.  Those who seek knowledge in only one area are doomed to be one-dimensional fighters at best.”

“So you want me to study the other styles as well?”

“Only enough to know what they’re capable of.  The style I’m teaching you has more knowledge contained within its nine families than any other art.  But even still, you need to know what a Muay Thai clinch is like or how a mixed martial artists bridges the gap and goes for a takedown.  If you don’t then you’ll never be able to combat them effectively.”

And so every evening after dinner, Hideaki would show Jimmy techniques from his playbook.  Hideaki studied the Indonesian style Pentjak Silat.  Jimmy found his perspective fascinating and took pains to ask him tons of questions.

Hideaki was generous with his knowledge, showing Jimmy the key elements of his style and then exposing him to some other arts that he knew a little about.

“Most people disregard western boxing as nothing but a sport, but if you know how to throw a jab and a cross effectively, you’ll set yourself apart from most of the world’s fighters.  Knowing how to impart massive amounts of power behind your strikes means that when you hit someone, they will go down.”

Jimmy rubbed his head.  “I think I recall a few of those strikes.”

Hideaki smiled.  “And you know now that I wasn’t even using the majority of my skill when we fought.”

“Thank god.”

They continued talking and training nightly, but again, Hideaki never pressured Jimmy too much.  To Jimmy it seemed as though they trusted him to do what was expected and if that meant studying all night, they knew he would.

He felt different now.  All of the training and the experiences he'd had in a relatively short time seemed as though they'd happened years previously.  He felt more comfortable each day, despite the fact that he still pushed himself harder than ever.

Vanessa had caught him staring out to sea one evening soon after Hideaki had shown him some of the Silat knife fighting.  The roar of waves from far below and the crisp night air had made Jimmy pensive.

Vanessa was her usual quiet sneaky self as she approached, but Jimmy sensed her coming toward him.

“It’s a nice night.  Just thought I’d take a moment and appreciate it for a bit.”

Vanessa made no comment on the fact that he’d detected her.  She merely nodded as if confirming something she already knew and then sat next to him.  “So, what are you thinking about?”

“Things.”

Vanessa smiled.  “Things.  Indeed.”

“It feels different now.”  He looked at her face partially in the shadows of the night.  “Is that how it’s supposed to be?”

Vanessa shrugged.  “How does it feel different?”

Jimmy told her about the fear he’d felt before.  “It’s not that I’m not afraid anymore – I mean I know I’ll always have fear in my life depending on what I do, but-“

“-but now you know how to deal with it.”

Jimmy nodded.  “I know I can’t defeat it.  I have to accept it.”

Vanessa smiled.  “Courage isn’t the absence of fear, Jimmy.  It’s doing what you have to do in spite of the fear you feel.  The bravest people are often the most scared.  But they don’t let that fear stop them from acting or doing what they have to do.  That’s the difference between warriors and other people.”

Jimmy said nothing.  Was he a warrior?  He wasn't sure he felt like one yet.  

Vanessa continued.  “Other people let fear control every aspect of their lives.  From what they do for work to how they act and even who they marry.  It’s a common comment these days for people to say silly things like, ‘well, I’m this old now so this is what I’m supposed to be doing.’”  She smiled.  “Can you imagine giving up the freedom to choose your own destiny?”

Jimmy frowned.  “Well, actually, yeah.  I kinda feel like I don’t have any control over my destiny right now.”

“I know it’s felt that way,” said Vanessa.   “Given everything that you’ve been exposed to.  Everyone who wants to harm you.  You feel like all you’re doing right now is running, isn’t that right?”

“Yeah, exactly.  I mean, here you are telling me that I’m part of this warrior thing and yet I feel like I’m a prisoner because other people want to kill me for being someone I've never even known I was.”

“They want to kill you because of what you represent, Jimmy.  And that is the notion that a person can live and truly be free.  Those in power are in power precisely because they oppress others and keep them from realizing that possibility.  Being what you are – what you’re being trained to be – you represent a serious threat to that control they have.”

“But you’re a warrior, too.  So is Hideaki.”

Vanessa nodded.  “Indeed we are.  But you are something we are not.”

Jimmy sighed.  “The last in the lineage, I know.”

“Your bloodline runs back many, many generations, Jimmy.  And every ancestor you’ve had has been just as you are now.”  

"So, how did they handle it?"

Vanessa shook her head.  "I have no idea.  Probably about as well as you're handling it."

"That well, huh?"

 
You will learn to embrace it in time.

Jimmy jumped.  “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“Never mind.”  Jimmy stared out at the ocean.  All this talk of being a ninja warrior and he had weird voices in his head.  Now Vanessa probably thought he was going nuts.

We will speak more when you arrive in Japan.

Jimmy perked up and saw Vanessa staring at him with a searching look in her eyes.  “You all right?”

“I guess so.”  

“Good, because we’ve got things to discuss.”

“We do?”

Vanessa stood and ran a hand through her hair.  “Been a long trip, hasn’t it?”

“In some ways, yeah.  But in others, it’s been nice, I guess.  I mean now that Hideaki and I are friends and all.”

"Are you friends?"

Jimmy frowned.  "Well, yeah...I mean, I guess so.  He's not being a jerk anymore."

Vanessa nodded.  "Good."  She stared out at the ocean.  “We’ll be in Japan in two days.”

“What happens then?”

“We leave the ship and hit the ground running in Tokyo.”

Jimmy sighed.  “Great, more running.  I imagine there will be lots of people there who want to kill me as well?”

“I’m not sure yet.  I’m hoping we’ve given the majority of them the slip for the time being.  We’ve hopefully vanished off their radar and they’re scrambling to find you.  That should give us a little bit of breathing room.”

“That would be nice.”

Vanessa shrugged.  “In any event, you won’t be doing much running.”

“I won’t?”

But Vanessa was looking skyward.  “Ah, right on time...this should give us some much needed information.”

“What will?”

Vanessa pointed up at the inky sky.  Jimmy frowned but could make out nothing up there that seemed out of the ordinary.  What was she looking at?  The stars?  “Vanessa-“

But in the next moment, he heard the sudden
fwop
of something like a giant wing opening and then in the periphery of the ship’s lights, he thought he saw a pair of boots that gradually materialized into the form of a someone dressed entirely in black wearing a helmet and oxygen bottle strapped to their chest.  Jimmy saw now that it was a woman.

She dropped easily onto the deck and the parachute folded in around her.  She flipped it off and then unbuckled the oxygen feed and helmet.

Jimmy stood up.

Vanessa folded her arms.  “Fair one.  A bit noisy on the final approach and all but overall, I’d give it about an eight.”

“An eight?”  The woman off her parachute rig and then took off her helmet.  “Some people just can’t be impressed.”  She turned and smiled at Jimmy.  “How ya been, Jimmy?”

Jimmy caught his breath.  “Merlin?”

She bowed slightly.  “The same.”

“Where’d you come from?”

Merlin pointed skyward.  “A friendly lift from an unassuming commercial airliner.  They dropped me at thirty-five thousand feet and I shot down here.”

“Just like that?”

Vanessa grumbled.  “She makes it sound so easy.”  She pointed to the oxygen bottle.  “She’s got oxygen so she doesn’t pass out above thirteen thousand where the air’s too thin.  On her left wrist is the altimeter so she knows when to pull the ripcord.  And then she’s got the GPS locator strapped on her as well so she can guide herself on to the drop zone.  Plus, in case she blacks out because there’s a problem with the O2 bottle, she has an AOD – automatic opening device that will pop the chute and save her life.”

Merlin sighed.  “Talk about taking all the magic out of it, sheesh.  I still had to make sure I didn’t land in the drink.  And it was a HALO drop.  I should have just HAHO’d instead.  Would have been more impressive.”

Vanessa shrugged.  “Oh, I don’t know.  There’s something about shooting down at terminal velocity before popping the canopy at 1500 feet that’s rather majestic.”

Jimmy frowned.  “HALO?  HAHO?”

Merlin held up her hand.  “Sorry, HALO means ‘High Altitude Low Opening’ and HAHO means ‘High Altitude High Opening.’  When you HALO, you jump high and pull low.  HAHO gives you the option to jump high and open your chute high up.  From there you can guide yourself onto target without making that sound I made when I popped the chute lower to you.”

Vanessa sighed.  “All this technical jargon is nice, but at the end of the day, they’re simply two options for inserting into an area.”

“Again with the raining on my parade,” sighed Merlin.  “I swear I don’t know why I tolerate it.”

Vanessa smiled.  “Well, it’s nice to have you back with us.”  She raised her eyebrows while Jimmy examined the parachute.  “Am I correct in assuming you have some news for us?”