Chapter 01

An Odd Meeting

One Saturday in January, a few weeks after coming back from Japan, I’m sitting in the mall finishing my lunch when Lia, my lead girlfriend, returns from the rest rooms with another girl. I smile because it’s like Lia to make new friends. Lia is giving me a sweet smile while they walk over, so I know I’m in for some sort of trouble. She nods at her new friend while saying, “This is Meredith, you’re taking her to her high-school dance in three weeks’ time. But you have to ask her father for permission first. She’ll take you to where he is so you can ask him this afternoon.” I glance at Meredith and notice she’s a bit concerned about all this.

I sometimes wonder if my life would be better without a girlfriend, and this is one of those times. Knowing the way of the world I take the simple way out. I stand up, smile at Lia, and give her a nod yes. I look at Meredith and raise an eyebrow. She gives me a lopsided grin in reply and starts to walk off with me following her. Lia calls out, “Kira will catch up with you there.” Which leaves me wondering why she will. I just wave to Lia and the bulk of my entourage while I leave them. Two of the security guards go with me while the rest stay with Lia and the rest of my ladies going to the hairdresser today. The ladies go in two or three groups now; it varies with how many staff the hairdresser has at work. The rest of the ladies will be getting their hair done tomorrow.

About ten minutes later we’re standing in the entrance to a fencing club while Meredith signs us in after we show identification. A member of staff escorts us to a medium sized training room on the next level up.

The five of us stand to watch while two of the club members finish a match on the special mats they have. I try not to laugh at the way the two men look in their safety gear with cords running out of their suit backs. The staff member tells me the suits they’re wearing have sensors in them to feed the information on contacts back to the umpire to assess when they score a point. This is literally a case of touché where a single touch with the sword scores a hit to win the point for that bout in the match, regardless of it being a good enough hit to hurt or kill, or not.

A few minutes later the one nearest us scores a hit and the match is over with his five hits to his opponents three. I guess the match was the first to five. They lower their swords, remove their masks, and shake hands before returning to their end of the mat to be unplugged. After a little more work to disconnect the man at this end walks over to us. The man hugs Meredith while he nods at the staff member who then leaves us. I guess visitors must be with a member or staff while in the club. The man glances at me while he says, “Good to see you here, Meredith. I thought you were shopping! Who is this young man with you?”

She looks embarrassed so I step forward while I hold out my hand and say, “Al Adams, Sir. I’m here to ask for your permission to escort Meredith to the school dance.”

He shakes my hand as he says, “Well, you’ve passed the first test I set for anyone to take her to the dance: to politely ask me for permission to do so. That leaves only two more. Let’s get the last one out of the way first. Will you get her a corsage and go in a nice car?”

I smile, “Certainly. A beautiful stretch limousine with driver. I’ll even buy her a nice dress to wear if she wants a new one.” She spins around to look at me in surprise. I don’t think Lia told her much about me. That leaves me wondering about what did they talk about in the ladies.

He smiles back, “I’m forgetting my manners. I’m Joseph Martin, Professor of History at Hood College. Please call me Joe. Your accent gives away your country of birth. How long have you been a student at Frederick High School, how old are you, and how long have you known Meredith, my daughter?”

I grin at him as I say, “I don’t go to Frederick High School. I’m seventeen years old. I’ve known Meredith about half an hour.”

Now he’s very surprised. He asks, “Has she told you what the other condition of taking her to the dance is?”

“Well, actually, Meredith has told me nothing. She and my number one girlfriend, Lia, had a long talk a little while ago. Then Lia told me I was taking Meredith to the dance and I had to come here to formally ask you for permission to take her. So, here I am, as commanded.”

He glances at a very red faced Meredith then he starts to laugh. After a minute or so he calms down and asks, “How do you feel about swords? Do you know how to use one?” Now I know why Kira will be meeting me here as she’ll probably be bringing my swords here to me.

“Swords are good tools that have their uses. Not only do I know how to use one I own a couple. I suspect Lia arranged for someone to bring mine to me here.” He grins, and so do many of the members.

“Good, because that’s the last part. Being prepared to meet me on the mats with a sword and having to score two points against me.”

I laugh as I shake my head no. “Do I have to score against you within a set number of scores on me by you?” He shakes his head no. “Good! As I’ve never used a suit like you use. I’d find it restrictive.” I stop when I see a staff member escorting Nadia, Kira, Tora, and two guards in. They have my sword case, Tora’s sword, and my suit-bag with my combat gear. Joe is giving me an odd look, so are most of the club members. “Good, here’s my swords. Is there a table I can put the case on?”

The staff member showing the girls in changes direction to head to a table against the wall. Tora had carried her sword in a blanket and she’s unwrapping it while she crosses the room. She now places the blanket on the table, and Nadia places my sword case on it.

I cross to the table, open the case, remove my katana, take it out of its shirasaya (storage sheath), and hold it out for Joe to look at.

He walks over and his eyes light up, “I see you follow the Japanese sword arts. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes against our blades.”

“Yes, it would be fun to find out. The only trouble is your blades are blunted for safety reasons, this is a fighting blade and it’s razor sharp.” His eyes go wide, and he waves to another man.

The other man walks over while he pulls out a piece of cloth as he says, “Oh, I doubt it’s razor sharp. Do you think you can cut this in half?”

I know his game and it’s clear he knows nothing about real Japanese swords. I nod as I say, “Yes. I know how very fine silk is hard to cut. But all these fighting blades are kept honed to a razor edge that’s sharp enough to do the job.” I smile as I nod at Tora and Kira. Tora has also taken her sword out to show them while Kira is standing beside the case.

The man with the cloth grins as he tosses the cloth in the air. I let it rise, and when it starts to open up while it falls I step forward as I swing my blade at it in an upward stroke. They all gasp when I cut the cloth clean in half then step back. When I do Tora steps forward to slice across one half to cut it in half again. Turning while Tora strikes I hand Kira my sword then I draw my wakizashi she’s holding out for me. After cutting one half Tora steps back and I’ve room to step up again to cut the other half with the shorter sword. All the members are shocked to see we carry three swords that are sharp enough to cut fine silk in the air.

The man who owns the cloth looks at me while saying, “I’ve tossed that cloth out and had hundreds of swords try to cut it, but none put a mark on it. Yet you just slice it to pieces. How can you do that?”

I hold the sword up, “These are true combat swords and are made in a special way with an extra hard cutting edge. It takes a lot of work to keep them in good order, but they are, literally, razor sharp, as sharp as medical scalpels. You won’t find a sharper edge anywhere.”

I return the wakizashi to its sheath and I take my katana back from Kira. Moving out toward the centre of the room I nod at Tora and she smiles while she follows me out. We take up positions several feet apart and bow to each other. I say, “Standard training rules.” She nods yes.

Demonstration

Some of the members start to move closer, until Kira says, “Give them room to move or you may get hurt by accident.” They stop the movement toward us and some back away a few steps.

For a moment we stand still, then Tora attacks me. For over a minute she attacks using the range of moves she knows while I defend myself. After giving her a chance to demonstrate each attack I respond with some attack moves as well, so we’ve a good bout. At one point I’m just starting a new attack when Tora calls, “Still.” We both stop.

I smile when I ask, “Why?”

“Master, I’d noticed a pattern in your last several moves and got set to deal with the next expected move in the pattern. However, I moved too early. You saw I was ready for it and changed your attack to one I couldn’t move to deal with. I saw my error so I called a halt.”

“Good. Nadia, what have you learned from this situation?”

“Master, I too saw the pattern and saw you shift your attack. From this I’ve learned not to commit myself to a move that will only work if my opponent takes the expected action, because this leaves me open to a new attack while they’ve the initiative.”

“Good. Tora, that error’s worth four points. However, you gain two bonus points by calling a halt to admit the error so fast. A lot of the students at your level would try to adjust instead of admitting an error. Good, let us try two blades. You take my wakizashi and go through the attack moves while I use my tanto as the second blade to block you.” She nods yes and we get the other weapons. When I do this I notice most of the members have shocked looks, but Joe is smiling.

Joe asks, “Do you always train with live blades?”

“No, most training is done with wooden or bamboo swords. But we do some training with live blades to fine tune control as the practice swords don’t move exactly the same as a real sword.” Joe smiles at me.

We spend a few minutes with Tora attacking me with both swords while I use my knife and sword to counter her attacks. After she’s gone through each of the usual attacks, and added a couple of the new ones I’ve taught her, I start to attack using new moves which give me the maximum opportunity to use the knife to my advantage.

After a few moves I call a halt and we move to the sword case. We both put our second blade down on the case and remove a sharpening stone from amongst the ones in pockets in the case. When Tora and I start to run the stones along the edge of our blades to ensure they’ve a sharp edge Nadia picks up the third stone and the wakizashi to hone it as well. While we return the fine edge to the swords I look at Joe and say, “As you can see, from the demonstration, the way I use a sword is very different to what you do here. Your fencing is based on a touch anywhere on the torso while I train to kill. Many blows that would win me a match in my art would lose me a match in fencing as I can, and will, accept a mild cut to the arm or side to create an opening for a killing blow. The mild cut would register first on your system and I’d be denied having killed you in reply.” Joe laughs as he nods his agreement. “In a real fight I’ll use hand blows and kicks to gain me an advantage as well.”

Another member says, “I can’t believe you just did that with sharp blades! Isn’t that dangerous?”

I turn to her, “Yes, it can be dangerous. However, Tora trusts me to not let her harm me, and if I let her harm me I deserve the cut for being so slack. She also trusts me to stop any attack from actually hitting her. She’s my student and still has a lot to learn, but she’s doing well. There are many more strikes which we didn’t demonstrate as she hasn’t been taught them yet.”

Joe half frowns, “Your student, but she’s older?”

“Although I’m physically younger and we both started training at the same young age I’m a bit better physically and my training’s been much more intense than hers was. Thus, I’ve reached a point where I can train her, and others. So I do, because it helps in their protection.”

Permission Fight

Joe nods, “OK, we’ll just have to fight free form using two of the other swords we have here in the club, and we’ll have to use the remote sensor suits. Since you seem to be so good I want to see if you can score twice before I make five touches.”

“That should be OK. Let’s look at what you’ve got, but let me finish this first, please.” He smiles and nods yes, then he watches us put the fine edge back on the weapons before we oil them. It only takes me a few more minutes to do my katana. While the girls take a little longer because they aren’t as experienced with sharpening swords as I am. I hand the stone I have over to Kira and she starts sharpening my tanto.

Leaving the girls Joe and I go to look in the other rooms for suitable swords to use in our match. They’ve a very extensive collection of swords from across all the ages and cultures, including some good US copies of Japanese swords. We settle on the use of a pair of Roman short swords for our match, mainly because they’re nothing like what we’ve used in today’s sword work. One of the staff promises to bring them from the display case for us. Of course, these are high quality copies and not originals. We return to the first room to get ready for the match.

A few minutes later we both don slightly different suits to those they use for the main fencing matches. These use a wireless unit stored in the protective helmet to send signals to the umpire. Also, they cover the chest and back in a set of zones so the umpire can see where the strike is. Ground rules are agreed upon and we get set. I’m allowed to be athletic in avoiding hits, but I can’t use my feet to kick or strike with. The girls have the swords packed away so Nadia holds the case while Tora holds the unopened suit bag.

The umpire gives us the command to start and we both stand there waiting for the other to attack so we can assess them. After a minute we both laugh at the situation. Since I’m technically the supplicant here I decide to start the attack, and I’m careful to keep my balance on my back foot while I take small sliding steps toward Joe. He smiles when I move forward. I swing my sword in front of me before we get close and I turn my wrist to make a powerful swing back across my body when we close. He has no choice as he has to bring his sword up between us to protect himself. My move forces his sword back at his torso, but he holds the strike from making contact with him.

When we break I move back and turn my wrist to flick the tip of my sword back across his stomach before he can react to block it. The point touches his left side before he can knock my sword out of contact. The umpire calls a halt to assess the contact in light of our ground rules, as they’re enough different he has to check them with care. He declares a no score touch to me: a nick but not restrictive. Joe nods yes and we get set.

This time Joe is more aggressive and he attacks. I settle for countering the first few strikes then I step forward when he’s expecting a retreat by me. I use my left arm to block his forearm because his sword is now behind me and I turn my right side a little away so I can have enough space between my right shoulder and his body to bring my sword in to make contact just above his heart with a thrust. The umpire calls a halt and we part. He soon declares a death stroke by me. Joe nods again.

The restart has us both move around in a circle while we look for an opportunity. Joe has ceased underestimating my ability while I now know he’s very skilled and he’s able to adjust to new situations. The circle tightens and we clash blades several times while we continue to move. Then Joe uses a fancy little twisted wrist move that catches my sword near the tip to push it aside to leave him with an inside track. He lunges. I can’t avoid the hit so I dive down and to the side to minimise the contact while I toss my sword from my right hand across to my left hand. I catch it and reach up to stab at his chest. Both swords make contact just before I hit the floor near his left foot and roll away. The umpire declares I gave Joe a severe cut while he gave me a disabling blow. If the fight had been real and back in Roman times we both would likely have died from the wounds. As it is I get my two touches while he gets one. We smile at each other while we start to take the gear off.

I bow and say, “I’ll pick Meredith up to go have dinner at Pat’s Place before the dance on the night.” He nods agreement, so I turn to Meredith. “You have Lia’s phone number?” A nod yes. “Good, call her to arrange to go get you a new dress at my expense. Choose well as I can afford it.” She looks surprised when she nods her agreement. I can see Joe giving me an odd look while I finish wiping the sweat off then I hand the towel to one of the staff. With my clothes straightened I go to shake hands with Joe then I turn and start to leave.

I’m facing the door, in mid-step toward it, when it opens to let Mr Benson walk in wearing a set of fencing clothes. I didn’t think fencing was that popular here in the USA, but I must be mistaken. He stops, looks at me, blinks, and smiles. He walks toward me while holding out his hand, “Mister Adams, I’m glad I finally get a chance to meet you in person. Please accept my apologies for the problem with that quote and your visit to my office. Things have changed. And thank you for allowing Small and Little to sub-contract all that work to us.”

I smile while I shake his hand as I say, “I never held you or your company responsible for the problem, and you should thank Mister Little for the sub-contracting work. I’ve not checked, but I think he currently has some sort of work sub-contracted out to just about everyone working in the industry in the county.”

“Yes, there is that. However, it’s all your work and work that’s well needed at this time. Most of us were reviewing who we’d have to lay off, not if we had to, but who to lay off. Then, bang, you have us all working at a good pace for some months. It also looks like you’ve shamed the County Commissioners into getting a lot of their overdue work done too. So we should be right for a few years, after your work ends.”

“I know the delays with the county work were due to funding. But the work I’m paying for is generating a lot of income and thus taxes, so they now have the money to get on with the work. I struck a deal with them to not get billed for increases for ten years if I paid ten years in advance with the back taxes on the land I bought. They worked out an estimate for the land as developed and gave me a bill for ten years, so I paid it. I think we almost lost a couple of commissioners when I did that. They were very shocked to see it all paid as a cash transfer. But it’s given them the funds to get some things done that needed doing, and it’s kept many local businesses in good shape too.” He smiles and he moves past me to his appointment for fencing.