Brooklyn's Baddest: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance (7 page)

“You must stay in the water and continue the kata. You will remain there, doing the kata until you can do it without splashing one drop of water. Then you will be water, and your movements will be as fluid as that in which you stand.”  Koichi looked at him as if there was no other option or way, and Jake knew that he meant it.

As Jake went back to the place in the sand where he had been standing, he sighed heavily and began the kata again. Over and over he lost his balance and splashed, or he moved too fast and too hard, and he splashed, and it seemed as though no matter how slowly or carefully he moved, he could not help but splash.

Koichi watched him for a long while, saying nothing. Then he stepped back up on the platform and sat on his mat again, folding his legs around him and preparing to meditate once again. His eyes stayed on Jake and before he closed them, he spoke again.

“I feel confident that you know who Bruce Lee was. He spoke of water, and it was the element he found himself in the most. He said,
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water.”

Koichi breathed in slowly and breathed back out again, just as slowly. “He could have said that specifically of you. Remember it, and think on it as you do your kata. Focus on the water, and focus on yourself, and let everything else go.”

Jake did the kata again, and he could feel his muscles begin to tighten and ache as he moved. He looked at Koichi, who had closed his eyes, and he spoke. “How many times do I have to do this?” he asked, hoping that the end was somewhere in sight.

Koichi answered him without looking at him. “Again, I will quote Master Lee: “
“
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
It is repetition and practice that make your form so that it is more than second nature to you. It must be part of you; it must be like your heartbeat, like your breath, like every part of you that exists.... the same way that your body functions without you thinking about it, so too must be your kata; like breathing, like living.... it is a part of you.”

Jake hesitated for a moment, but then as he watched Koichi and looked around himself at where he was, he realized that it might just be possible that he didn’t know all that there was to know, and that he could actually learn something from the old man. He took the kata water training as a challenge, and he told himself that he would do it, just to prove to the older man that he could do it, and that nothing was going to get in his way and stop him, no matter how crazy and ridiculous it was.

After three hours, Koichi rose up and looked at him. “Continue. You are still splashing.” He said before turning and walking away. Jake watched him go, and he continued his movements, feeling frustration course through him again as he wondered how crazy the old man really was.

Do kata in the water without splashing. It was impossible. There was no way to move in water without splashing. He thought about how he would like to tell the older man to get in the water himself and show Jake how well he could do kata in it without splashing.

The more Jake thought about it, the angrier and more frustrated he became, and the more determined he was to use that anger and frustration to show Koichi that he could fight with fire in water and win. He continued to repeat the kata, over and over, each time growing more tired and sore, and each time vowing that he was going to do it without splashing.

Koichi walked to a doorway behind the water garden, where Lisa was standing silently watching Jake from the back. He joined her. They watched together in silence for a while and she finally spoke, though she didn’t turn her eyes away from Jake.

“Do you think he’ll be able to do it?” she asked, trying to keep the concern in her mind from reaching her voice.

Koichi sighed lightly and tipped his head a little to the side. He did not answer her for a long time, and finally he spoke quietly. “He won’t be able to do it until he learns to let go of the past and focus on the future. That will be his own choice and it will not come until he changes it. Today, the answer to that question is no. He will not be able to do it.”

She sighed and frowned in disappointment and Koichi looked at her and placed a light hand on her arm as he turned to go. “Ask me again another day. There may be another answer.” She smiled slightly at him and touched her hand to the top of his as he left her. Looking back at Jake, standing in the water, doing the kata he had learned, splashing water all over the place, she drew in a long and patient breath, hoping that her instinct had been right about him, and that with some focus and determination, he would be able to reach the incredible future that she could see ahead of him.

When the light began to grow pale, Koichi returned to the water garden and watched as Jake continued his kata, though much more slowly from soreness and weariness, and he stepped up to the water’s edge.

“Jake, you may stop for today.” He said quietly. “Come back at nine in the morning and begin again. Get some rest tonight.” He gave Jake a nod as the younger man looked back at him incredulously, and then Koichi walked away.

With slow and painful steps, Jake emerged from the water and gasped at the sight of his feet; his skin was pruned and shriveled from having stood in the water for the full day. He felt completely waterlogged, and he sighed heavily as he looked up and saw Lisa standing before him with a towel.

She looked like an angel of mercy to him just then, and as much as he wished that he could flirt with her and try to turn her on, he was far too exhausted to do it. He took the towel from her gratefully, and began to try to dry himself.

“Come to my office. I made hot tea for you.” She said with a kind smile.

He wasn’t sure what good hot tea would do, but anything hot sounded good, and he was starving from not having stopped to eat all day. He followed her silently, and sank onto the sofa in her office, feeling the pain and tenderness of every movement he had done that day as it burned through him.

He groaned as she handed him the hot cup of green tea. “Here, this will help,” she said sympathetically.

“You didn’t tell me I was going to have my ass handed to me on the first day,” he said grumpily as he lifted the cup to his mouth. “Thank you for the tea, though,” he added, as the steam from it curled around his nose and mouth.

He closed his eyes and breathed it in, and when he drank it, it seemed like the best thing that had ever crossed his lips and rolled down into his body. It began to warm him right away, from his core outward, and he felt better as it heated him.

“Oh… Jake. This is only the first day. You haven’t begun to have your ass handed to you.” She gave him a half-smile.

He looked up at her in shock and saw that she was serious. Lisa felt her stomach clench at the sight of his panicked blue eyes. She worried that he would give up, and that was the last thing that she wanted to see happen.

“Jake, you can’t get to be a champion competitor and fighter without going through every stage of training. Think of it as boot camp. Everyone starts on the bottom rung… everyone begins with the rudimentary basics and then grows from there. Like seeds… everything has a humble beginning. You must know that. You’re strong enough. I saw it in you the day that I met you. You have what it takes, and I know that, or I never would have brought you here. I’d have walked right out of that gym and gone to look for someone else, but you have it. I saw it.

I know I saw it, and no matter if you can see it right now or not, it’s there, and you will succeed as long as you don’t give up on yourself. Believe in yourself, Jake, just trust in yourself, and trust me. I wouldn’t waste my time or the Master’s time if I didn’t know without a doubt that you could be a great fighter.” She smiled at him encouragingly, and he gazed back at her in wonder.

For the first time in his life, he realized that someone was genuinely trying to help him because they saw potential in him, and he felt the unfamiliar strains of friendship budding inside him for Lisa. He had no other real friends besides Evan. There were people he knew;   acquaintances and people who were friendly to him, but no real friends. No one who spoke to him the way that she just had, except for Muldoon, who was most often yelling at him and lecturing him. He guessed that they were saying the same thing in different ways, and he sipped his tea in thought about it.

When the cup was empty, Lisa reached toward the tea pot. “Would you like some more?”

He shook his head and handed the cup back to her. “No, I think all I want right now is a long hot shower and my bed.” He stood up slowly and stretched a little, giving her a real smile as he turned and headed for the door of her office. Looking back at her, he gave her a nod.

“Thank you for the tea, and for the talk… and most of all for believing in me and thinking that I can do this.”

She shook her head gently. “I know you can do this. You just have to make your mind up to do it,” she replied with a smile in return.

“Oh, I’m going to do it. I’m going to be one of the best this dojo has ever seen; even if it kills me in the meantime,” he answered quietly. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

He left and closed the door behind him, and she let the deep breath she had been holding in her chest leave her slowly.
Something had changed between them, and it was subtle, but it was definitely
real,
she thought. There was something like an understanding between them; something true and genuine, and it felt, much to her surprise, almost like friendship. She laughed lightly, and turned to clean up the tea she had made for him.

There was a knock at the door, and after she called out a welcome, the screen slid open and she turned to see Masahiro coming into the office. He looked at her in concern, and she walked to the sofa and sat down on it, waiting for him as he sat down beside her.

“Lisa, I want to talk with you about Jake,” he began in a soft voice.

She looked at his old dark eyes and listened to him intently. “What is it?”

He looked around her office and then back to her. “I am taking a big chance on Jake, bringing him in to the dojo and using Koichi’s time to train him.”

She saw the line furrow in his forehead; the line that meant he was thinking deeply. She drew in a long slow breath and waited. She knew that there was more to come.

Masahiro held her gaze with his. “This dojo must have a champion who cannot be beat. We have a lot of competition, and we must have a winner. We must have someone who is as dedicated to this dojo as they are to themselves.”

She nodded and looked down at her hands, folding them in her lap before looking back up at him again. She knew just how vital it was for them to produce champions consistently. It was their livelihood. It was their success and their future, as well as the future of their fighters.

He breathed in and let the air out in a long slow sigh. “I wasn’t going to accept him. Not at first, but I saw how much you hoped for him to make it and be taken in here.” He narrowed his eyes and looked at her keenly. “That is the only reason that he is here, because it is what you wanted. Why did it mean so much to you?” he asked, peering at her as though he was able to look directly through her.

She looked straight back at him. “I believe in him, and I trust my intuition that he is going to be a success. He’s going to be a great champion, if he is given the chance to do it. I knew it when I saw him fighting at the old gym where I found him. I believe that he is going to be one of the best champions this dojo has ever seen, and that’s why I brought him here.

That’s why it means so much to me to see him succeed. He has what it takes, and it would mean everything to him to reach that, and that would mean a great success for us here, as well. Anyone with drive and determination like he has, coupled with skill and talent, is going to make a good match.” She knew her voice conveyed the confidence that she felt inside about the whole situation, and she hoped that the man before her was able to hear it and see it in her.

He pressed his lips together in a line until they disappeared behind his white moustache and beard. Giving a nod, he looked back at her and placed his hand on hers. “I do not see a success when I look at him. I believe he lacks commitment. He has drive, and he has determination, but I do not see commitment. I see him walking away from his responsibilities, and giving up when he is most needed. That I see in him very clearly.” He sighed. “He has much anger in him; anger that stems from disappointment, and I believe that as a means of avoiding disappointment and pain, he does not commit.”

Masahiro gave his head a slow shake. “I hope I see that change in him, or he will not succeed here, and he will not succeed in his own life. He has potential, yes, but he has potential for both success and failure, and he is walking the narrow edge of that line right now. He could go either way, and I am concerned that your faith in him is misplaced, that it is only the hope that you have for what you think he could be, rather than insight into who he is.”

He stood up then and she rose up to stand beside him. “Time will tell,” he said in the same soft tone, looking at her tenderly.