Chapter 8 - 6- Progress

Three months later. School started again. Really boring. Nothing interesting is going to come out of going to 6th grade again. I mostly spent my time idly writing up plans in my coded notebook.

Then after school, instead of going home, I would go with Rachel to a park. After the second month of having me exercise, she finally decided to teach me techniques. After that we found the park for more open space so that we could both go through the forms of her family kung fu. I was starting to be able to follow her.

I couldn't say that I was doing exceptionally well, but I was doing far from badly. I was finally starting to reap the benefits of practice both with her and on my own. After the first month, I had noticed a couple of things with Resonance. First, my uptime was increasing. Slowly- just a couple of seconds- but definitely doing so. Second, there were some lingering effects. I was starting to retain some of the skills and memories of the people that were in my standard routine. The best was from Genji and Hanzo. The Shimada family qi cultivation technique I learned from both of them became something for me to do even as school went on.

Today, I decided that I would change things up a little bit.

"Hey Rachel, can we spar today?"

"Are you crazy? What makes you think that you are good enough to go against me?"

She did have a point. Normally, it would be absolutely mad to try to go against an experienced martial artist on just three months of training. However, I was determined. I had to start getting used to actual combat, and I had to see exactly where I was starting. And, though I was less excited about this part, if I was going to fight, I had to be able to take a beating. And Rachel was more than qualified to give that beating.

"I want to see you in a real fight. I want to see how this all comes together. It'll be a good experience for me, don't you think?"

"A real fight? You think you can give me one?" Rachel chuckled.

"Point taken, but still. I think I don't fully understand what I am trying to do here. I get that I should 'flow like water, strike like thunder,' but I don't think that I get it with my motion. Maybe if I see you go all out, it will make more sense to me."

Rachel thought about it for a little while as we walked into the park. For a little while, her face was quite contemplative. If I had to guess, I would say that she was considering the fun of beating the heck out of me. I wasn't quite sure how she felt about training me after school every day, though she did seem to enjoy criticizing me and the… superiority, perhaps? of being my teacher. Then her face darkened in a way that suggested to me that she felt some downside was not quite worth the trouble of fighting me.

It was nice that her face was so easy to read.

Since she seemed on the verge of denying my request, I tried one last push.

"If I never see what it's like to be strong, how am I ever going to be like that? I need more experience."

That was my last argument. Anything else was going to get repetitive. Rachel's face turned back to contemplation. Hopefully, I had her. If not, there were going to be more opportunities, right?

"Alright. Let's do that."

I narrowly dodged her fist flying towards my face. For a split second, my eyes followed it, then they snapped back to her face. She had a smug smile as she continued to attack, stepping forward and thrusting her other fist toward my ribs. In response, I shrugged off my backpack so it slid down my shoulder and took the blow and took a step back. Rachel's grin widened. Before my bag hit the ground, she swung her leg up and hit my ċhėst with her foot. I fell to the ground and rolled backwards. As I stood up, I finally put my hands up, taking the stance that I had been taught.

Seeing this, Rachel advanced, kicking again with her other leg. I put up a half ready guard and took the blow across my arm. I stumbled, almost falling to the ground again. Before I was fully recovered, I found her fist just a centimeter in front of my face. A chill went down my spine thinking about the control that she had to be able to stop so accurately. Then she quickly opened her hand, flicking my forehead with all of her fingers.

As my hands went to my head, Rachel spoke up with a bright tone.

"Well, you've gotten better enough to be capable of getting lucky. But you took too long to get ready and couldn't keep your balance. You simply don't have enough skill yet to call this a fight, and…" Slowly she trailed off as she realized that she was being a little harsh.

"No, please, don't hold back. Is there anything else I should work on?"

Rachel gave me a funny look. I guess she thought I was crazy for being so cheerful after being kicked in the ċhėst and losing so miserably. Although now that I thought about it, my ċhėst did hurt from that kick.

"Anyways," she continued, "you still have a long way to go before you can spar with me and really call it a fight. Just keep at the pace you've got. You're actually doing really well for a total beginner."

"Well, at least you're saying there's progress."