Memories

Something about real time stress makes a person long for times when things weren't quite so stressful. The last few months leading up to End Year hadn't been easy, not that living on Hale's Moon, out on the frontier, was supposed to be easy. But add to living on the Rim all the tsway-niou the Alliance was dumping on us, and it just loads it up to fill the brief time between laying down and falling asleep with wistful excursions into my own past.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

The reasons behind the celebration didn't matter much to a 9 year old girl. Something about the Alliance taking delivery of a new KHI built capital ship. What mattered was that someone in the Alliance Ground Forces thought they would try and impress KHI's leader, Ernst Kawanishi, by adding a demonstration of the hand to hand training their elite Special Operations unit received. Martial arts traditions passed down from Earth that Was had been a part of the Kawanishi clan heritage from before the Exodus and Ernst, current clan Patriarch, was the master of those traditions.

None of that mattered to the little girl sitting beside her beloved grandfather on those grounds. The presentation was in his honor and I was there with him, basking in the reflected glory of a man I considered a minor deity.

I payed nearly as much attention to Grandfather as I did to the presentation: reading his assessment of the soldier's performance in his stoic gaze. I had studied the art under that gaze as long as I could remember and Grandfather did not appear overly impressed. He was polite, of course. He was always polite. But he was not impressed. Finally, after one of the more elaborate demonstrations, one of the soldiers - a lieutenant, though the rank meant nothing to me - approached Grandfather, giving him a barely adequate bow, and asked what he thought of the skills his team had displayed.

I was aghast. The soldier's tone, his stance, his expression, all showed arrogance and a lack of respect. Yet Grandfather only looked back at the man quietly for a moment before responding in a cool, controlled, voice. "Your soldiers are well trained for their role, but limited in their art." I looked between them as the Lieutenant took this implied criticism poorly, muttering something under his breath in Russian before giving Grandfather another barely respectful bow.

"Grandfather?!" I said softly, controlled anger obvious in my voice.

He looked down to me where I sat next to him, his own feelings well concealed on his face, but softening as he addressed me. "Yes, Mei Mei?"

I lowered my voice as much as I could, feeling several eyes upon me as I looked up, barely containing my feelings. "Grandfather, he disrespects you."

He smiled faintly, the barest uptick at the corner of his mouth. "Do you wish to challenge, Mei Mei?"

I looked between my Grandfather and the soldier, twice my height and at least four times my mass, and nodded fiercely. This soldier had besmirched my grandfather's honor, and that of my whole clan with it. Now, I'd have called my reaction cliche and immature, but at that moment every fiber of my being screamed out to defend my grandfather's honor.

Grandfather looked up at the soldier with a faint smile. "My granddaughter challenges you, Lieutenant. Do you accept?"

The man managed not to laugh, but his look was condescending, deciding to humor me. "Yes sir. I'll take her challenge."

I stood, giving Grandfather a deep bow before stripping off my shoes and some extraneous clothes and stepping onto the large mat to face the arrogant lieutenant. He gave me the same barely respectful bow he'd given Grandfather and dropped into a half serious ready stance, obviously not considering me a threat. I had been watching him during the demonstration, gaging his center of mass, his agility, speed, strength. I had already weighed my options by the time I returned a shallow but respectful bow, more respectful than he deserved, and settled into my own ready position.

"Begin" Grandfather said softly and I paused, dropping slightly to compact myself, ready to spring. I could tell by his stance the Lieutenant was expecting me to attack straight away. Even at that young age I could read his expression, his stance, and predict what he was going to do. It flashed though my mind that he might be better than I was giving him credit for. That my barely confined rage had made me underestimate this man. Or was Grandfather staging this as an elaborate lesson?

None of that mattered. In my heart, I knew my cause was just and only that mattered. I was fighting for love and honor and would bring every lesson I'd learned to bare. Without further warning, I let the coiled energy unleash and launched myself across the mat at my opponent.

He was caught off guard by the acrobatic leap as I dove into a roll to quickly close the distance. It was a flashy move, but had the intended effect. He paused in a moment's surprise, turning to face me as I rolled past and lashed a kick into the back of his leg, just above the knee, with all my strength.

The impact felt like kicking a tree stump. His legs were muscled like iron, but it was enough, barely, to buckle his knee. As he started to turn to recover I quickly rolled to his blind side and lashed a kick into his opposite ankle. He was much, much, larger and stronger than I was, but I was faster and more agile.

I was moving again before he hit the mat, springing back to my feet with an agility he couldn't physically match. I could see from his reaction that he knew he'd underestimated me, but it was already too late. Without giving him time to fully recover I attacked again, unleashing several swift kicks before he was able to reposition himself and roll back to his feet.

He settled back into a ready stance, this time well balanced and conservative, reassessing me. I knew this time I wouldn't have it so easy, but I was ready just the same. This time he started, launching into a series of strikes, a mix of punches and sweeping kicks. With his huge advantage in mass and strength I couldn't effectively block so I kept moving quickly, dodging or deflecting his powerful blows and mixing in ripostes of my own. I didn't really want to cripple this man, but given our relative strengths it was the one of the few options I had. But not the only one.

After exchanging several rounds of strikes and counter strikes, I moved in close. Inside his effective striking range, I could more easily dodge and eventually grapple, relying on speed and agility to get a solid grip on his left thumb. It was a devious hold. A full arm bar he'd have been able to simply over power me. But take the joint, and the arm would follow. At least with anyone who wasn't willing to sacrifice their own limb. As he tried to twist the thumb free, I used his weight and my body as a fulcrum to lever him over onto the mat, one knee on his back the other on the ground.

"Yield." It came out as more of an order than a question. He spent a moment trying to break my grip, but I twisted his thumb a bit more and better sense overcame him and the Lieutenant patted out before I dislocated the thumb.

With his surrender I immediately released him, quickly rising to my feet and offering him a hand. To my surprise he smiled and let me help him up before bowing to me respectfully. "You're much better than I'd believed, Miss Kawanishi. My apology. You've been taught well." His tone was far more respectful than before, and he turned to grandfather giving him a proper bow before returning to his place by the side.

Returning to Grandfather's side as the Special Ops unit prepared for their next demonstration, he looked at me with a pleased smile. "You make me proud, Mei Mei."

I just smiled outwardly, my voice soft "Thank you, Grandfather." But inside I was trying to resist the feeling of pride that was welling up inside me. The anger I'd felt before was gone, replaced by a sense of accomplishment. I'd challenged to defend the honor of Elder, Guro, and Clan and won against a worthy opponent. The only way I could feel better was if Grandfather took me out for ice cream after the demonstration.

He did. Chocolate. With sprinkles.