Chapter 146: Stalemate

"Mr Sadanandan! You're here!" Harish jogged towards Taro and shook his hands.

"Yup!" Taro nodded his head.

"And you're in your gi today as well! Nice to see that you're ready for a fight!" Harish sounded excited as he said that.

"A spar. Not a fight." Taro corrected him.

"Yes, yes. You're quite right." He smiled as he agreed with Taro on that.

"So, let's go in, shall we?" Taro asked.

"Yea!" Harish let Taro walk before him and followed right behind him. "By the way, the gi-"

"What about it?" Taro asked.

"Don't you think it's too bland? I thought you'd have got a better one, with the symbol of dojo and stuff." Harish shrugged.

"Well, that wouldn't be possible since I learned martial arts from a police managed self defence class." Taro replied nonchalantly.

"Police class, huh?" Harish mumbled his words. He knew Taro was lying, however he couldn't outright put it out since he might get screwed by the light emitting rid then. So, he was looking for making the person reveal it instead. That's when he realized a flaw in Taro's plot. "Wait, police self defense classes… Aren't they only for girls? How come you were able to practice there?" He asked.

Harish was sure that this one would be the one that makes Taro reveal his secrets. Ever since he saw the punch from Taro in the tournament, it enamored him. It made him believe that humans can be even stronger than they currently are.

This misconception of considering the alien Taro as a human was the one making him do all the stuff. He wanted the knowledge and wisdom that Taro possessed to better his martial arts. And for that, he'll grab on every leverage that he might get on Taro.

"Ah, about that. 2015; they did a mixed session back then. I took part in it." Taro answered.

"Ha, is that so?" Harish looked suspiciously towards him, but Taro didn't care.

While Taro talked with the kids there, Harish took out his phone and searched for the 2015 session of the self-defense classes and it was indeed true that it was a mixed one which in turn meant that Harish yet again didn't have the vantage point in Taro's case which ticked him off.

Taro had seen Harish searching it up and secret and was thankful to Kunjan since he's the one who brought up this point to him.

Anyhow, since gathering some useful information seemed kinda impossible at this point, so Harish brought up the spar. "So, Mr Sadanandan. Shall we spar today?" He asked.

"Hmm, wait a minute. I'm waiting on someone for that." Taro replied.

"Someone?" Harish was confused. He did not know about someone else's arrival.

"Ah, yea. The one who's gonna referee our spar." Taro replied.

"Well, why don't we make one of the students do that? It'll be simpler that way, right?" Harish asked.

He did not know who this person was, but something definitely smelled fishy since the said person actively asked to be the referee. He simply didn't want that person to be one at this point.

"Oops, sorry I'm late!" A voice was heard from the audi—dojo's entrance. It was Thankappan.

"Oh, hello!" Harish was all smiles on the outside, but his insides were literally churning from tension.

He remembered him well, since he was by Taro's side in the tournament that day. And seeing him here made him feel weird. It was as if the guy was always there once Taro got in a fight, as if waiting for something to happen.

Anyhow, even with all these thoughts in mind, Harish still invited him in to referee the match.

"So, we're doing standard Karate rules, right?" Thankappan asked.

"Not really." Harish replied. "We're doing a spar. So, I don't think we should consider the point system here." He spoke.

"Then?"

"We'll do a few rounds of fighting. Just testing each other out." Harish replied.

"Hmm, we don't really need a ref then, huh?" Taro wondered.

"Not really." Harish nodded his head as he stared at Thankappan. "See? You are not needed here! You can go now." He thought as he stared.

However, Thankappan thought otherwise. "Well, I'm already here. So, I really wanna see how my friend fares against a black belter like yourself." He smiled.

"Ha, really?" Seeing Thankappan's persistence, Harish's smile was twitching like crazy.

"Yup!" Thankappan nodded his head.

And thus Harish and Taro got ready to spar with Thankappan in the audience. The kids were hyping it up like crazy that even the kung-fu group came to the dojo to witness the epic fight.

However, what they got was two men standing still in defensive stances, hoping for the other one to do the first move.

"Are you kidding me? Is this why we came?" Someone shouted.

"Dang, if I wanted to see two men standing against each other, I would've just watched…. Something! I'm not getting a witty remark right now." Someone else shouted.

"Sensei! What are you doing? Fight!" A disciple cheered. And soon enough the rest of them gave chorus to his cheers.

Harish sighed. "Ha, seems like they want us to fight physically rather than mentally." He spoke to Taro.

"Well, we weren't exactly fighting either." Taro shrugged.

"We were fighting against our instincts." Harish replied.

"Hmm… Let's just give them the fight they're looking for, shall we?" Taro asked, but received a glare from Thankappan as he proposed doing so.

"Sure. Who's gonna deal the first swing then?" He asked.

"Since you asked, you can do it." Taro replied.

"I'm not particularly interested, though. So, you do it." Harish spoke.

This back-and-forth dialogue went for about a five minutes until the viewers started booing them.

"Okay, look. You got Karate to teach. Are you gonna waste your time like this rather than spending that valuable time on your disciples and the betterment of their techniques?" Taro asked.

"Well, they know the basics. They can train with those in this session. And even now, I'm teaching them a lesson on how to be patient. So, you don't have to worry about my disciples." Harish smirked as he spoke.

This stalemate continued on to the point that the onlookers slowly left the premises. It seemed as if the fight was neither gonna start nor end anytime soon.

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