Post by Mr. Moon on May 21, 2020 9:06:06 GMT -5
Eric #8
The two days that came afterwards were rather eventful for Eric, who had to split his time between his own training, time spend with Hana ad supervising reconstruction of their new building, that went surprisingly smoothly, thanks to two fighters who used to be bricklayers before going on the sea.
After two days, their daily routine was interrupted by Anya, who finally summarized her plan for their promotion.
“Hmmm, yes that can be done.”
Nodded Gabriel as a response on her request, while Eric took a little more time before answering her question.
“Alright.”
He growled after whole minute.
“But only because it´s important for our dojo.”
Not a single muscle moved in his face, but for the people who already knew him better, like Anya, it was obvious how disgusted he is about the idea of showing off his skills like some trained monkey in circus.
With that another three days passed. During this days both Michael and Gabriel were only rarely seen in the Dojo, as both of them were carrying out their duties outside. While Gabriel was dealing with the offices in preparation for their promotion, Michael was in the city looking for the man named Thomas Starrk without much success.
When the time finally came the majority of the crew moved to the plaza which was assigned them by the city officials. Fortunately it was the one close to their building so they didn´t have to work too hard to prepare their place. While Michael was still absent, Gabriel took his men to the place earlier to prepare everything for their exhibition, while according to the plan, Eric was supposed to arrive a little bit later. Dressed in traditional gi uniform with black belt and he was almost unrecognizable with his head shaved and his now way longer beard dyed black.
As he arrived at the place, he noticed that Anya and her men managed to gather pretty large crowd of curious people, mainly boys and girls in their late teens, together with some full families and even several marines.
“Better than expected...”
Muttered Eric for himself as Gabriel was finishing his welcome speech and he entered the ring created by the curios crowd.
The preliminary events were pretty simple. Eric was breaking things with his fists, while his assistants were breaking things over his body, than few sailors dressed in the same silly uniforms as him, only with “lower ranked belts” showed of some impressive looking “katas” that Eric and Gabriel put together for them and taught them during the last week. In hour or so they finished and moved to the main event that was expected with the great anticipation from the whole crowd.
“And now, to prove the true worth of his style, master Lee Sin”
Gabriel pointed to Eric
“Will humbly accept any challenges from the crowd. Anyone who wish to measure their strength against our master please raise your hand and...”
Suddenly, without rising his arm as asked, bulky man in his early thirties stepped forward. Similar to Eric he was dressed in white gi with black belt wrapped around his waist.
“Alright, I had enough of this show!”
He yelled boastfully.
“I am Matsumura Toguchi, holder of 5th Dan Black Belt in South Blue Karate Style. And I claim that this man is no master, but a simple fraud! And I am willing to prove it in combat!”
Silent, Eric grimly smirked. Five days without any proper fight was way too long for the beast that was hidden deep inside of his soul.
“Eric...”
Gabriel silently addressed his captain aware way to well about the meaning of his smile.
“This guy is one of the people we scouted. He has good technique, but lacks any battle experiences, so…don´t kill him.”
Eric´s smirk spread.
“Don´t worry.”
He muttered just as silently as his second in command, before turning to his challenger.
“I humbly accept your challenge master.”
He said with polite bow that was mainly a way to mask his smile. Once he straightened his backs again, his face was completely serious again as he took a random fighting stance he remembered seeing somewhere in the North Blue when he was traveling around it.
Without returning his bow the Toguchi raised his fists and dashed towards him.