The Struggle Of Floyd Banks - Chapter 2

Chapter 2


The Second Week


Floyd pulled his head back in time to escape the foot of his sensei which was aimed for his face.

"That kick could've ended this thing before it even started,..." Floyd thought to himself while going back into a defensive stance. Shotokan karate was a form of karate which took a toll on your body. Speed and power were two crucial parts of it which Floyd realised in his first class. He didn't expect a karate class to be intense as this. This was only his second class and already his sensei picked him out of the seven beginners to fight him. Why? Floyd had no idea. Two days ago In his first class Floyd learned how to go into a defensive stance, three basic blocks (high, chest level and low) and the correct way to form a fist and punch. Now, he was in front of everyone facing off against his sensei. Floyd's karate class was made up of twenty people. There were seven beginners in the class, which were referred to as white belts (Floyd being among the seven). The other thirteen ranged (in order of rank) from yellow, orange, green, purple, brown and the infamous black belt.

"Prepare to defend!" Floyd's sensei shouted. Floyd's sensei was named Hasan Musashi, but requested to be only referred to as simply Musashi. He was strict, but still kind. Musashi only wanted the best for his students and pushed them to the extreme, so that they could achieve their full potential. Focusing, Floyd stamped his foot and prepared for the attack. He had evaded his Muashi's first kick, how long would he last before he was injured? Musashi taking long strides forward closed the gap between them, so now they were almost arm's length between each other.

"He can attack from three ways, he can punch or kick me in either the head or the chest or he can aim for my leg" Floyd thought scanning the distance between them and Mushashi's size. He was a little taller than Floyd, which would be either 5'7 or 5'8. Mushashi was a direct descendant of the founder of the Shotokan school, the Juriya Musashi. He was half japaneese and in his face Floyd could see that when it came to karate, his sensei did not joke around. He was built, but not too top heavy. Musahsi definitely knew how to use his speed against an opponent as Floyd realised when he almost received a kick to face not less than two minutes earlier. Gritting his teeth, Floyd prepared himself for Mushashi's attack.Uttering a loud cry, Mushashi's left hand shot out aimed for Floyd's chest.

"I saw that one coming..." Floyd thought to himself parrying away the punch with all of his might. Even though Floyd predicted the blow, the speed at which it came was incredible. The speed and force which it carried would've definitely knocked the wind out of Floyd for the entire class. He head the other students who were sitting watching them gasp. Out of the corner of his eye, Floyd saw a fist aimed for his head incoming. Remembering what they learned two days earlier, he did a high block with his left hand locking his sensei's hand.

"What do I do now?!' Floyd thought, straining to remember under the circumstance. Everything happened in under ten seconds. He had blocked Musashi's second blow and held his right hand in the air locked into place. He would only be able to hold it for at most three more seconds before it would be pulled out of his grip.

"I must attack! But, I don't want to hurt him." Floyd thought. This same exact situation happened when he was learning blocking in his first class. When Mushashi was teaching them blocks, he also explained counter attacks.


************************* Two days ago ***********************************
"After you block your opponent, you will have a brief chance to strike your attacker and that one brief chance you get will be your chance to inflict maximum damage ." Musashi said while delivering a kick to the empty air to emphasize his point.

"Excuse me sir, but maximum damage? Why are we trying to injure people? Aren't we NOT supposed to harm people?" Floyd asked from his sitting position on the floor.

"Young one, if someone is attacking you, then the principle by which you stand by would be outruled." Musashi said, still kicking to the wind.

"But, sir. Why must we damage our opponent? Why can't we simply disable them somehow in a less painful technique? You're teaching us how to harm people! Don't you see something wrong with that? You're supposed to be showing us how to defend ourselves, not how to inflict harm on others!" At this point, Floyd was nearly shouting. In his mind, he couldn't understand what his sensei was trying to teach them. This was supposed to be a self-defence class, but the green belts were learning how to break someone's arm and the black belts was learning how to break a person's leg with one kick.

"Young one, you cannot always use peace to defend, sometimes you need to attack to gain peace. Your attacker will not be coming at you peacefully, he will be coming at you to harm you. At that point you will have to damage him to stop him." Musashi said, still focusing on his kicks.

"I disagree sir!' At this point all the other white belts were following the conversation intently, some nodding their heads in approval to Floyd's argument, others shaking their head in disapproval. 'You do not have to damage someone to stop them! Damage implies permanently damaging someone or crippling them!"

"Young one' At this point Musashi stopped his kicks and turned to face Floyd, 'In some situations... damaging an opponent is necessary for them to be stopped."


*****************************************************************


"I must disable my opponent..." Floyd said to himself. Sliding forward to Musashi's face, Floyd punched him with his left to his sensei's chest, followed by a right.

"Fight over!' Musashi's voice boomed. Floyd was sweating profusely at this point and happy that his sensei had called for it to stop. '"Young one, why did you not damage me?" Musashi asked regaining his posture and fixing his karate gi.

" Because it was unnecessary sir. I disabled you." Floyd replied through heavy pants.

"How did you disable me?" His sensei asked, a little smile on his face.

"Those two punches I did, if I had put half of my strength into it, it would've knocked you out." Floyd said.

"Good. You have learned how to damage an opponent. You attack appropriately depending on the situation you are in. You do not critically harm someone unless it is necessary. When you blocked my attack, you had a decision to make as to how much power you would use in your counter attack. Every time you face someone, always be aware of your attacking power.' Musashi said walking up to Floyd. Placing a hand on his should, he leaned forward and whispered to him a tone so that no one else would here, ' Young one, in you I see much potential. You possess great strength and speed. Always be in control of both."

"I will." Floyd said. Behind him he could hear the rest of the class clapping and cheering. Walking back to his fellow beginners, they cheered him upon his arrival.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?!"

"I thought you said you never did karate before?"

"You looked so calm! Wow!"

"Floyd! You need to teach me some of those moves!!" Many people were talking to him at once and Floyd was trying his best to keep up with all of them. He didn't understand what all of the excitement was about. All, he did was use what he learned in class.

"Floyd I recorded everything on my camera phone, check it out!." Everyone huddled around the phone to watch it. Floyd watched himself go into a stance, then almost a second later, he saw himself pull his head back from Musashi's kick.

"Did sensei really move THAT fast?" Floyd asked the boy next to him.

"Yeah and you dodged it! Half of us didn't even realise he did a kick!" The boy replied. Floyd then saw when Musashi shouted, 'Prepare to defend' to him and he stamped the ground.

"How did you see that punch he was going to do Floyd?" A girl behind him asked.

"What do you mean? It was a straight punch he did" Floyd responded. Watching the phone, he saw Musashi take three steps forward, then Floyd blocked downwards parrying the first move.

"Can you rewind that? I didn't see the punch." Floyd said. Watching the recording he didn't see Musashi's punch. As it played again, he barely saw it and Floyd was even more surprised to see himself block the first punch, then the second one aimed for his head.

"You were great! You were almost as fast as him Floyd!" someone shouted next to him. At the time it was happening, it appeared to Floyd as if his sensei was moving at a normal speed. He was able to see all of his movements and even predict them. But, watching back the recording the actual pace of the fight was much faster.

"Am I really that fast?' he wondered to himself. 'No.. its probaly just how it looked from that angle.. it really wasn't anything spectacular." Looking up, he saw Musashi was facing off against a green belt boy.

"Fight start!" his voice boomed. In one swift movement, he was in front of the boy and he hit him an elbow to his chest. The boy doubled over in pain and fell on his knees. Musashi took some steps backward to put distance between them until the boy caught his breath. Floyd did a low whistle underneath his breath.

"Was this what I was facing?" He thought to himself. Musashi instead of going directly towards the boy, started to walk around in a circle The boy, struggled to keep up with his sensei's pace as Musashi was moving much faster than him and always seemed to be behind him, no matter which way he turned. As Musashi advanced forward. the boy turned around to see him moving towards him. In a panic the boy threw a punch, Musashi grabbed his fist and forced his arm behind his back applying pressure to it. The boy cried out in pain and slumped to the ground to avoid breaking his arm and to release some pressure off of it.

"That boy there is a green belt and could not even stand up to him for three seconds. How were you as fast as him Floyd and you never did karate?" A girl next to him asked.

" I don't know... I honestly don't know."



After several sparring matches, the karate class ended for that night. As Floyd pulled his jersey over his head, he glanced at a clock behind him and saw it was eight o'clock. Folding his gi as neat as he could, Floyd then put it in his bag and left the locker room. Most of the others were either changing or hanging around the gym trying out a move or two. It was dark outside and it wasn't safe to be walking around by yourself, every day in the papers you would always see a story about someone getting kidnapped, murdered or raped. Stepping out of the gym, Floyd was greeted by a blast of cold air. Shaking it off, Floyd started towards his destination, the bus route. In order to get to the bus route he could either walk through campus which would be a fifteen to twenty minute walk or he could walk down a lightly dim road which was a five minute walk. The five minute walk being the quicker way, Floyd decided to use that path. Starting down the path, Floyd kept his focus on anything that looked peculiar or anyone looking suspicous. Within two minutes, the lights of the bus route became visible and Floyd increased his pace a little. As he was passing a corner, he looked down a road into an alley and saw a group of people. From the first glance he realised there was nine of them. Some were sitting against the wall looking at the sky, one was lying on the ground and the others were standing holding something. He looked again and almost stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a familiar face. It was Aalyiah. As he stared harder, he confirmed it was her, she was one of the people sitting on the ground looking at the sky. She was high on drugs.


****************************************************************************


Present day: Ten months later


'Its good to see you again Floyd' Musashi said while still in his meditative position. He sat cross legged, hands stretched out open-palmed with his eyes closed.

'I want to come back...' Floyd said, his head hung low. He felt ashamed being in the presence of such a great man.

'But, you never left my student.' Musashi opened his eyes slowly and gazed at Floyd. He looked at him up and down and sighed. Rising slowly, he began walking towards Floyd. Then, he placed a hand on Floyd's shoulder and said in his ear, 'You've just been lost. Now let's resume your training.'