The highly polished wooden floor was cold against his bare feet, but he didn't seem to mind. Sweat was rolling down his face and would have wound up stinging his eyes if not for the sweatband he wore. The front and back of his loose white karate uniform were also soaked with sweat due to his exertions and he stood controlling his breath while waiting for the next test segment.

Craig had just run through all one hundred and eight of the movements that comprised this discipline of the martial arts that he studied non stop. He had been a student since he was twelve years old and less than six months later his Sensei asked him to join the advanced adults class. He told Craig that he had never seen such dedication in one so young. He was now one week shy of his seventeenth birthday.

He loved all aspects of training but embraced the part of the discipline that focused on internal energy. It was a long and lengthy process to learn, but learn it he did.

"If done right, the force behind each strike will be increased tenfold," Sensei said one evening and that convinced him to learn all he could.

Sensei barked a command and the students sitting on the outside began to don their fist, foot, shin and chest protections. He was then told to don his equipment as well. Next would come the attack portion of the test. The more advanced students would attack him one at a time and he had to defeat each attacker. This would be at full speed as this was not a touchy feely art, none of that crap of stopping once your foot or fist made contact with the opponents uniform.

History: He was enrolled about a week after his first fight at school when he came home with a black eye, fat lip and a bloody nose. It was the usual group of bullies that jumped him. Why? Because he was not a fighter and they knew he was too chicken shit to run to the principal's office.

His parents saw his condition and took him to the emergency ward where he was treated for the above mentioned injuries and a few cracked ribs too. The next day his parents went to school and lodged a formal complaint and a meeting with the aggressor's parents was scheduled for the next evening. His father had the principal inform them to bring their lawyer as he was bringing him.

The bully's parents were apologetic and offered to pay Craig's medical expenses and Craig's family lawyer gave them less than 10 days to submit the money.

The father of the lead bully made an off handed comment about Craig needing to toughen up and that brought Craig's father to his feet. The principal saw that the knuckles of the man's hand were callused and the sides of his hand looked like wood. He played the peacemaker and diffused the situation and the bullies were suspended for a week.

It was the next day that his father took him to the karate school located one flight up from the street. Craig was surprised to see his father bow and hear him father speak Japanese to the man he would soon call Sensei. He was even more surprised when the old man left his place and came over to give his dad a hug. He had read that the Japanese were not big on hugging. 

Craig was cautioned from day one to keep his training a secret. He came home from classes many nights with bumps and bruises. After dinner his father always wanted to see what he had learned. He would always nod as though he understood all that Craig was going through. That was four years ago.

Present: One by one the advanced students attacked and they were defeated. Oh they managed to land a few punches through his defenses, but they were not strong strikes. Then it was two attackers at a time and he managed to defeat them. Next came his demonstration of the weapons he had been taught. The long staff and nunchucks katas were performed. Kata was moving the weapons in response to an attack.

Finally the two-hour testing was complete. He made a few mistakes and they weighed heavily on his mind as he was asked to exit the floor and take a seat on one of the long benches and drink some water. His Sensei and his assistant instructors had a brief meeting away from the students range of hearing.

They stood talking for the longest time and doubts began to creep into his mind. It seemed like hours before he was summoned to the center of the floor where he knelt before his Sensei.

"Never has one so young learned so well, and never have I awarded this to one of your age, " Sensei intoned.

Today he had earned the highly coveted first Dan rank or first degree black belt. His instructor was very old school and normally did not award this rank to anyone under eighteen. The white belt presented to him on his first day was never washed, age and sweat turned it from white to off white to almost black in color. It was a matter of pride to have a belt such as this.

He was given a nice new black belt but it would only be worn at tournaments, in class he wore his original white belt. He was now a senior in high school and in three months summer vacation would start signaling the end of his school days. He looked forward to college was thinking about it as he was walking through the lunchroom.

Then by an accident of design he was bumped into by Jimmy, the leader of the tough guys and the impact made Jim drop his empty tray.

"Hey stupid, watch where you're going," Jimmy snarled.

"You watch where you're going," Craig responded.

Jim was momentarily surprised by Craig's response.

"Pick that shit up, " Jim ordered.

"It's your tray, you pick it up."

Jim scanned the room as did his friends that were still seated for the presence of the lunchroom monitor and they were not in the area.

"Man, I am gonna beat the shit outta you like I did when you were twelve," Jim growled.

He noticed that there was no fear in Craig's eyes and that this stupid kid just stood there staring. Sucks to be him, he thought as he threw a punch toward his face.

Jim's arm had not fully extended when suddenly it was no longer heading toward Craig's face but instead was up toward the ceiling. Three rapid hard punches landed in his stomach and when Craig finally moved forward he placed one of his legs behind Jim's ankle. Then he landed two open hand strikes on his chest and Jim fell backwards and unable to catch himself because he had Craig's leg preventing it. He went down hard.

Jim's right hand man Donzi left his chair and grabbed Craig by the shirt lapels and intended to pick him off his feet and slam him into the wall. Somehow Craig's hands snaked around his wrists and grabbed each of his thumbs and pull hard and his grip was broken. A hard knee was slammed into his lower abdomen and the side of Craig's foot raked the length of his shin causing him a lot of pain before the heel was stomped into his instep and he too went down hard.

The third member and largest of the party, Rufus, upon seeing how his friends' attacks were defeated, decided to take a different approach to this person who'd just embarrassed his buds. He lowered his head and attempted to tackle him and use his body weight to pin Craig down and pummel his face. He had to move fast as he was sure the teachers were heading their way.

He felt his head make momentary contact with Craig's body and he felt it moving backward, but it was moving too fast, as though Craig wasn't fighting it. Craig simply began to move backward as soon as he felt the contact had dislodged Rufus's attempt to grab him and using the forward momentum of his attackers body simply added to it and he was flung about one foot away.

He recovered quickly and charged again his arms wide open. Once again the same thing happened and he crashed into Jim that was attempting to stand and they both crashed into a table. Craig was not even breathing hard when the teachers finally arrived. Time lapse was about one and a half minutes.

He was escorted to the principal's office and his attackers went to the dispensary. His father arrived shortly after being telephoned and picked him up. Nothing was said until he was in the car and they were headed home. His father started his line of questions.

"Are you hurt?"

"No."

"How many attacked you?"

"Three."

"Heavy or moderate contact."

"Moderate until one charged and grabbed me."

He saw his dad smile.

"You know you will probably be suspended," he stated.

"Yes, I know."

Nothing more was said.

The school began an investigation and almost every student that witnessed the event told them how Jim had started it and attacked Craig first and how Jim's friends jumped in when Craig defended himself.

There was another meeting in the principal's office, but this was senior high and this principal did not know the history behind the attack. He did know that the attackers were among the least desirable students enrolled there and they were a constant pain in the ass to the faculty and student body.

"So you are going to let his kid get away with beating up my son?" Jim's father yelled.

"Perhaps your son need to toughen up," Craig's dad replied.

The father glared at Craig's dad. He recalled the incident years ago when he said the same thing to him and decided to remain silent. The principal looked at Jim's school record that was on his desk and scanned it for a moment before he spoke

" This was the last time for a suspension as they didn't seem to work.Next time I am expelling him, the principal."

 The remainder of the school year passed uneventfully, oh there were threats and taunts but nothing more. Jim's father had made it clear that if he was expelled we would attend night school and work at his cement factory during the day and there would be no time for hanging with his friends.

The last day of school finally arrived and as Craig hooked up with his friends to walk home and talk of the graduation ceremony and prom was the hot topic. Then he group was confronted by Jim.

" Someday I will pay you back for this", he threatened.

" Pick a day," was all Craig answered.