Girl Fights Back (Go No Sen) (Emily Kane Adventures) (25 page)

“The Chinese are here,” Connie told
her matter-of-factly.

“How many?”

“I’m not sure, maybe seven or
eight. I think they are still uncertain who they are looking for.”

“They won’t be for long,” Emily
muttered.

“What are you planning?”

“To compete.” Connie knew exactly
what that meant.

“What do you need from me?” Emily
hesitated before replying, looking directly into her face. For the first time
Connie could look into her eyes without fear or shame. It felt as if she was
undergoing some sort of catharsis, an almost spiritual purification, and could
now just begin to imagine measuring herself against this strange girl. Emily
gestured to the ring across the room where her friends were watching the
sparring.

“Do what you can to keep them out
of danger.” Connie nodded and walked off, quickly disappearing into the crowd.

The next morning after breakfast,
they all went down to watch Wayne take part in the adult
kata
competition. There were about fifteen other brown belts in the
adult division. Most of them performed very elaborate
katas
, some of their own devising. At Sensei’s suggestion, Wayne
chose to do a traditional
Shotokan
kata
called
ninja
shiho
. His
performance was very precise and quite forceful. But the judges preferred a
flashier
kata
done with a good deal
of verve by another competitor. Wayne came in second place. He was thrilled and
took the result as an affirmation of all his hard work.

Later, Billy and Danny competed in
the brown belt
kumite
and, as Emily
had predicted, they did quite well even though they did not possess a profound
sense of
sen
. They were stronger and
faster, because of their athletic training, than most of their opponents. Billy
did particularly well by attacking first and unsettling his opponents, forcing
them into ill-judged counters. He won several matches in a row with this
tactic. But in the final match, his opponent was as aggressive as he was and
attacked his attack. Billy lost the advantage his aggressiveness had given him
in the earlier matches, and was unable to regain his initiative through
counters. He ended up with the second place trophy. Danny came in fourth. Wendy
cheered them on from the side, along with Wayne and Emily, and she was
crestfallen when Billy lost his last match.

“That was so unfair,” she
protested. “The judges missed at least two points Billy should have gotten.”

“You are really into this, aren’t
you,” observed Wayne. “I had no idea.” Wendy blushed a little, feeling she had
been caught out.

“I guess I’m just a fan-girl,” she
said half defensively.

Emily couldn’t resist using the
occasion to teach something to Danny, who was standing next to her watching the
match. He’d been cheering Billy on and was especially impressed by his
aggressive control of his earlier matches.

“You saw why he lost, didn’t you?
It was the same reason he won the earlier fights.”

“Something about
sen
, I suppose.”

“Not something,
everything
,” Emily replied. “He didn’t
really control any of those matches. When he met someone as aggressive as he
had been, he had nothing else to respond with.”

Danny knew what she was going to
say, that initiative was not the same thing as aggression. He had heard it many
times before from Sensei. Maybe he even saw the way in which Billy had failed
to control the
sen
of the last match.
It was harder to see how that could be so in the matches he had won. But Danny
knew he had not felt in control of the matches he himself had won. He had taken
chances in them, and they had paid off, until finally they didn’t. He had a
pretty clear idea of what
sen
was
not. It was just a lot harder to see what it was.

“Em, I feel like I am so far from
really knowing what you and Sensei mean.”

“Good. That might mean you’re on
the way,” she said with a smile.

The black belt kumite wouldn’t star
until after dinner. Wayne was hungry, so they went out to a Lebanese falafel
place around the corner. The conversation was all about the boys’ triumphs, and
full of praise and congratulations for them. Wendy was particularly effusive in
her praise for Billy’s sparring, and still a little miffed at what she
perceived as an injustice in the scoring of his last match. Wayne was curious
about what sort of clothes Emily was planning to wear in her competition, since
she didn’t appear to own a
gi
.

“Yeah, Em. What
are
you gonna wear,” Danny asked.

“I guess one of my running
outfits,” she replied. “I haven’t really given it much thought. Why? Does it
matter?

“Well, you know, the tournament has
a rule that all participant have to wear some sort of uniform,” Sensei said,
trying to conceal a sneaky smile. “The judges might make a fuss if they think
you’re dressed too informally.”

“Oh,” she said. “That hadn’t even
occurred to me.” She began to look a little flustered, something none of her
friends had ever seen before.

“Well, the thought had occurred to
us,” Wendy announced with unconcealed glee. “That’s why we all pitched in and
got you this!”

With a grandiose flourish, Wayne produced
a package wrapped in shiny foil. Emily was genuinely surprised. She didn’t
really care about uniforms, but she cared deeply about her friends. She was
practically moved to tears by their thoughtfulness.

“I tried it on to make sure it
would fit you,” Wendy piped up, “since we’re about the same size. It feels
fantastic, all soft and smooth. Open it.”

“Yeah, open it,” they all cheered.

Emily tore it open. It was a jet
black kung fu style outfit with dark red clips on the jacket. It was made of
some sort of performance synthetic, like rayon, only much tougher. And it did
feel really cool, just as Wendy had said. “Oh my God! Thank you so much, guys.
This is wonderful,” Emily gushed. She had to wipe away a little tear. “I can’t
wait to try it on. Let’s go back to the hotel. Are we all done here?” Wayne
stuffed what was left of Wendy’s gyro into his mouth and mumbled “all done.”

When they got back to the hotel,
Emily rushed up to the room to change into her new outfit. It fit her
perfectly. By the time the rest of the guys got up to the room, she was already
leaping off the couch doing flying kicks over the coffee table, tumbling around
on the floor and out into the hall, springing up into what looked like a
spinning double side kick. She was like a kid on Christmas morning. Wendy and
Wayne were astonished by her form on a leaping, spinning kick.

“Whoa! I’ve never seen you do
that
before,” Wayne burbled. Wendy was
speechless.

“How do I look, guys.”

“You look fantastic, Em,” said
Danny, and they all chimed in: “Fabulous,” “Amazing!”

“Smokin’,” shouted Billy.

“Absolutely marvelous,” Wayne
pronounced with all the authority of a fashion designer.

“We better head
downstairs,” suggested Sensei, herding them all toward the elevators.

Back to top

Chapter 21:
A Foot in the Door

As it happened, there were no other
women in the black belt division who had signed up for the
kumite
. The tournament organizers were in favor of simply giving
Emily the first place trophy for the women’s division and proceeding to the
men’s division. She protested and insisted on being allowed to compete in the
men’s
kumite
. Sensei and her friends
made a big fuss about it, much to the consternation of the officials. They
finally relented after devising a special liability waiver for her to sign,
which she did without hesitation.

There were about twenty or so other
competitors, most of them from karate dojos, and about half of these came from
the Norfolk naval station. These men were exceptionally fit, and looked very focused.
They had an impressive intensity about them. The judges decided it might be
simplest just to put Emily up in the first match against one of the tougher
looking sailors. They undoubtedly hoped she would be eliminated in the first
couple of rounds and be out of their hair. Her opponent was unimpressed by his
first pairing, and may even have felt the judges had slighted him. Emily had a
notion that he would attack her with special ferocity. They met at the middle
of the ring where the referee reminded them of the rules: five points, no
full-force contact to the head, no strikes to the back of the head, spine or
kidneys, and any strike that draws blood results in a penalty point. They bowed
and looked each other in the eye.

“I hope you’re ready, girly,” he
said with a sneer. Emily smiled. He stepped back, shaking his head.

Emily’s friends couldn’t hear that
last remark, but they could guess from his facial expression what its import
had been. Danny was especially concerned. Even though he knew first hand how
formidable her skills were, he couldn’t help but be alarmed by how much bigger
and stronger her opponent was. His heart seemed to be thumping against his ribs
and pounding in his ears. He wasn’t sure he could bear to watch, and yet he
couldn’t bring himself to look away. Connie was also watching discreetly from
the far side of the room as she scanned the room. She was concerned for Emily
as well, but less from the threat posed by her current opponent than from
another danger that might be lurking in the room quietly observing the match.

The referee began the fight with a
vertical hand gesture. Emily seemed unprepared as she stood and watched her
opponent launch a front kick, three quick straight punches and a round house
kick. He meant to force her back with the first few strikes to place her in the
proper range for the roundhouse kick. Danny was aghast at what he saw. He
thought she was dazed, like a deer with its eyes caught in the headlights of an
oncoming car. Emily wasn’t stepping away from the onslaught. Instead, she
twisted away from the first kick, then leaned back under the three strikes.
When he tried his final kick, her opponent was stunned to find that she was too
close, right up against his chest. By the time he realized his error, she had already
hit him three times in the head and shoulders. As he tried to stagger out of
her reach, she planted a side kick firmly in the center of his chest.

He lay on his back on the mat
fuming. Emily knew he would think he hadn’t been aggressive enough. She
disabused him of that error in the next two points, beating him to the punch in
each case. In the fourth point, she blocked a series of strikes back across his
body, completely locking his arms up until his upper body was immobilized. By
the time he realized what had happened, they were nose to nose and she was
staring into his eyes. He saw for the first time what he was really up against
and recoiled. She released his arms just in time to deliver a double palm heel
strike to his chest, sending him stumbling backwards. One last side kick laid
him on his back. The final point was almost an anti-climax. Emily simply
punched through a feint he had hoped would lead to an opening for a quick front
kick. Match over. He stood across from her, looking utterly bewildered, and
bowed grudgingly as the referee announced his defeat. She nodded her head
slightly. He slouched over to the side of the ring and sulked in the row on the
floor reserved for competitors. He knew he had been eliminated from any
possibility of a first place finish.

Emily walked over and sat next to
him. She knew he felt humiliated by this unexpected turn of events. He grumbled
and muttered as she sat down. They watched the next couple of bouts together.
Eventually he came out of his funk and turned towards her.

“How did you do that,” he asked
incredulously, as if the meaning of the result was still somehow a mystery.
Emily just smiled at him. Finally, he gave in to the truth that was trying to
work its way into his consciousness and said: “It wasn’t even close, was it?”

“No,” Emily replied with a kindly
expression on her face. “You were pretty damn good, maybe as good as any of
these guys,” she said, tipping her head to the rest of the competitors in the
row next to them.

“What am I not doing right?” he
asked with genuine and uncomprehending sincerity.

“
Sen
,” she said. “We can talk about it some time, if you like.” He
was stunned by her generous, open spirit. She was willing to talk to him, to
teach him. Just then, it dawned on him that she was beautiful.

Danny had been half hiding behind
Wayne throughout the match, peeking around his shoulder, at one point digging
his fingers into Wayne’s arm. No one in the whole room seemed to be expecting
her to win, and when she did the crowd sat in puzzled silence. Danny punctuated
the moment with a loud yell of exultation. Wayne and Billy roared next to him,
and Wendy let out a little shriek. Sensei just smiled at his girl, and thought
wistfully of her father.

Connie walked out into the parking
lot behind the hotel to make her plans. There was a white van with tinted
windows off to the left, about fifty yards from the back entrance. Suspicious
Asian men came and went. The Chinese strike team was using it as a base of
operations. She looked for lines of sight, fire lines, and generally scoped out
the positions she might take later. They were unaware of her presence, she had
been very careful. Satisfied, she went back into the hotel.

The first round of matches ended,
and twelve people had lost once. The level of skill of this field was very
high, and her first opponent was indeed about as good as most of the others.
Emily studied them as they fought, and saw that most of them relied primarily
on speed, strength and aggressiveness in their fighting. Two of them had something
more, something that might even turn out to be
sen
. One was a young man, not much older than her, or much taller.
He was wiry and had long black hair pulled back into a pony tail. He may have
been of Asian descent, though it was not entirely clear. He was very quiet, and
didn’t win his first match through mere aggression. He had countered his
opponent’s attacks effectively and worked through a long sequence of blocks and
parries until he found an opening to deliver his strike. He approached his bout
like a chess match. It was clearly an intellectual process for him. This left
him vulnerable to a couple of quick takedowns, as he appeared to be too
hesitant on a couple of occasions.