Order of the Lost Samurai

Chapter Three

The small arena literally vibrated with the steps of the crowd as they made their way to their seats. Dust trickled down from the ceiling like sparkles of a misty rain where Nicky waited in a basement-level room below the stadium. It was clear the arena hadn't been used in some time. Either that, or it hadn't been cleaned in ages. He, his mom, Kai, and of course Mr. Nakamura had arrived well before the sun crested the horizon. Kai wrapped Nicky's hands, wrists, and ankles in fighting tape while Mr. Nakamura had gone to find out the schedule for the three bouts.

"Nervous?" Ma Devore asked Nicky as she bounced in place where she stood in front of him. "Sorry. Stupid question. Of course you're nervous. Then again, I'm nervous enough for the both of us so why don't you just calm down and concentrate on staying alive, yeah?" She sniffled and wiped her nose. "All this dust is messing with my allergies. Couldn't they have at least cleaned the room properly before we got here? They knew we were coming, after all. It was the least they could do."

"Ma," Nicky said, stopping the tirade that was forming on the agitated woman's lips. "It's going to be okay."

"Don't you lie to me, Arthur Nicholas Devore," she reprimanded. "I taught you better than that."

"Arthur?" Kai asked with a smirk.

Nicky rolled his eyes. "Nicholas is my middle name, though I go by Nicky. My given name is Arthur, after my grandfather."

"AND?" Kai asked.

"And what?" Nicky shot back a little defensive.

"No. I mean A-N-D. Your initials. I never noticed before."

"Yeah," Nicky with a sidelong glance at his mother with a roll of his eyes. "Mom thought it would be funny."

"No, I didn't, you little shit," Sally protested with a smack to Nicky's arm.

Kai was wise enough to let it go after that and changed the subject. "Come on," he said to Nicky. "Get limbered up. Get loose. Do a little shadow-boxing. Stretch those muscles. You don't want anything cramping up in the middle of the fight."

Nicky did as he was told, adjusting his boxing shorts. He bounced in place for a few seconds as he stretched his arms. He stopped and bent at the waist with his legs straight and palmed the floor, stretching his back and leg muscles. When he felt he was limber enough, he began to pace around the room. Any seasoned fighter would tell you the waiting was the hardest part of any match. He decided to occupy his time by performing his Kata. No sooner had he completed it than Mr. Nakamura came back into the room. He looked at a sweating Nicky with a slight scowl for a moment before speaking.

"Okay," the old man said. "Tanaka is first, followed by Yamamoto, and finally Yamada."

"They're not going with the heavy hitter first?" Nicky asked. He wasn't breathing overly hard like he used to when performing his Kata. His training had definitely paid off. He was still sweating, though, and this concerned his mentor.

"They drew straws, so to speak," the old man said. "To make it more random. You shouldn't over-exert yourself. You're going to need all your available strength today."

"I'm good, Sensei," Nicky said, taking a deep breath. "How much longer?"

"Twenty minutes," the old man answered. "Why don't you meditate until then?"

Nicky did as he was told while his mom took a towel and wiped the sweat from his body. After fifteen minutes of meditation and focusing on his upcoming daunting task, the old man broke the silence.

"Come on, kid," Mr. Nakamura said. "Time to get the low down on your opponents."

Nicky looked up from where he sat on the floor but didn't move to get up.

"Goro Tanaka, as I said yesterday, is an ex-Sumo wrestler," Mr. Nakamura said. "While he's been training just as long as you have the last couple of weeks, he's nowhere near your level of agility, stamina, and martial experience. That doesn't mean he's going to be an easy win, however," he said when Nicky smiled encouragingly. That smile immediately fell. "He's all of three- to four-hundred pounds, and even though he's retired, he'll still crush you like a bug if he gets a hold of you. Don't let him do that."

"So, dodge and weave; don't let him corner me; stop just short of landing a killing blow," Nicky said.

"You make it sound so easy," Sally said.

"It'll be anything but," the old man replied. "I'm just hoping he can get lucky and end it quick. Now, for Ichiro Yamamoto. You're not going to have any choice but to trade blows with him. He's proficient in Jiu Jitsu and Aikido. He's also a Karate Master and has been teaching successfully for over ten years. Your limited variations style in Muay Thai are going to help you best. Get inside his guard so he can't pummel you with his karate, but don't let him grapple with you, either."

"Take a few hits;" Nicky said, "get inside his guard; don't let him grab me."

"Son, are you sure that's safe?" Sally asked. "You seem to be over-simplifying everything."

"The less he has to remember the better," the old man replied. "There won't be a break between fights."

"No break?" Sally, Kai, and Nicky said in unison.

"No," the old man said. "Unless they decide to allow you to catch your breath, you're gonna have to go from one fight right into the next."

"Fuck," Nicky groaned. "This is gonna suck."

"Big hairy donkey dicks," Mr. Nakamura replied. "Now, for Kenji Yamada. Honestly, I don't know a damn thing about him. He's not from the area so I know very little. What I do know, however, well, suspect is more like it, is that he has ties somehow with the Yakuza."

"The... what?" Sally asked. "What's that?"

"The Japanese mafia, Ma," Nicky said worriedly.

"Not good," Kai commented.

"Not good at all," the old man replied. "When you beat him, there could be repercussions from his defeat."

"But you don't know anything about him?" Nicky asked. "Nothing at all?"

Mr. Nakamura shook his head. "Like I said yesterday, he's an unknown; an enigma. I got connections, kid. I'm not boasting. I have connections in upper Japanese society. I made calls. I made formal inquiries and called in favors. Nobody is talking."

"Wow," Nicky said. "He must be important if even your favors aren't talking."

"Now you see how serious this is," the old man said. "The only thing I can suggest is to hit him fast and hit him hard. Wait for the first two to come to you. They have to anyway. With Yamada, because we don't know how good of a fighter he is, maybe the element of surprise is the way to go."

Nicky gulped and took a drink of water. There was a bang on the door to the room, making all of them jump except for Mr. Nakamura.

"Time to go," the old man said. "Ready?" he asked Nicky.

"If I said no?"

"Then I'd say you'd better get ready," his mentor said. "Because this is happening. Now."

Nicky sighed but stood. He bounced in place for a couple of seconds before taking a deep breath and nodding. "Let's get this over with."

The four of them walked onto the arena floor and conversations ceased almost immediately. The sudden cessation of the buzzing din jolted Nicky's senses, leaving him momentarily disoriented. An eerie feeling washed over him that sent shivers up and down his spine. He looked around before taking in the small arena floor. The floor itself was only about forty feet wide by sixty feet long filled with about a four-inch thin layer combination of dirt and sawdust. In the center of the arena floor was a mat that looked to be made from three separate fifteen by fifteen foot platforms in a line. The center platform was level with the ground while the outer platforms were angled up at about fifteen degrees on each side.

Nicky saw no one in the middle of the platform from the side entrance they had just come from. He expected some sort of referee or someone, but it was empty. He looked at his Sensei but the old man just shook his head slightly.

From the opposite side of the arena floor three figures emerged. He recognized them as the men who had accosted him the day this all started. He recognized Goro Tanaka right away. The big man was only slightly shorter than Nicky's six-foot-three frame, but he outweighed Nicky by close to a hundred and fifty pounds. He wore only a satin-blue mawashi. He had a round face, slightly inset brown eyes, and a wide nose. His hair was pulled up into the traditional topknot of the typical sumo wrestler. His eyes bore into Nicky not with malice, but determination.

The middle man could only be Ichiro Yamamoto, because his mom confirmed it with a small wave to the man. He nodded slightly in her direction. He stood at about five-foot-seven with a muscular frame and a barrel chest. He reminded Nicky somewhat of Bolo Yeung from all those Karate movies he used to watch when he was younger. He wore a simple white Karate Gi with a blackbelt tied around his waist. His dark eyes looked almost kindly in his direction as they approached.

The last man, Kenji Yamada, looked for all the world like he wanted to strangle Nicky with his own entrails. He was a lean, wiry, dangerous-looking man. He wore a purple dress shirt with charcoal gray slacks and polished black dress shoes. He had a narrow face with a hook for a nose and a sneer that looked to be surgically grafted onto his face. He stood slightly apart from the other two men and crossed his arms haughtily over his chest when they came to a stop at the outside edge of the platform.

"Thank you for coming, Nicky Devore," Ichiro Yamamoto said in a deep voiced, heavily accented English accent.

Nicky bowed at the waist to the man but didn't otherwise comment.

A large microphone was lowered into the middle of the arena and only then did Nicky notice the cameras on the upper levels of the arena. There were four of them. They were affixed to a support column at each corner of the arena floor and manned by two people each.

"Those aren't news cameras," Sally commented.

Mr. Yamamoto smiled at Nicky's mom and a blush creeped up her cheeks as she quieted. "No," he said. "They are not. We did not want news crews to witness the match, considering the possible outcome." He looked at Nicky as he finished that last line. "No, this fight will not be on live television."

Nicky sighed with apparent relief at that bit of news. "Thank you, Mr. Yamamoto, for that, and for your help getting my mother here."

"You are most welcome, young Nicky," the man replied. "We know what happened is not your fault. I apologize for trying to strike you on the street that day. We did not know what was happening, only that it was necessary to kill you."

Nicky chuckled slightly. "In retrospect, Yamamoto-san, no apologies are necessary. You aren't the only one who was confused that day. I'm just glad that cooler heads finally prevailed and we could make sense of what was happening, even though the outcome was already set in motion."

"Wise words for one so young," Kenji Yamada sneered from Mr. Yamamoto's left. His voice was nasally high-pitched and annoying. He reminded Nicky of the bad guy's lackey in every Asian martial arts film he'd ever seen. "Are we going to stand here flapping our jaws all day or are are we going to get to the killing?"

Nicky ground his jaw and swallowed his retort. "In a moment, if you will permit me, Mr. Yamada." He looked at Ichiro Yamamoto. "The cameras. They're recording for future viewing?"

"Hai," Mr. Yamamoto said. "Should you die today--"

"You mean WHEN he dies," Kenji Yamada interrupted with a sneer.

"Should you die today," Mr. Yamamoto continued, ignoring the other man's interruption, "your mother will have two weeks to honor your life as she grieves. After that, the tapes will be released for the world to witness. They will not be edited, but given to the world as is."

"And if I succeed?" Nicky asked.

"The world will see the outcome of your success when the sun rises tomorrow."

"May I ask one more question before we get started, Yamamoto-san?" Nicky asked. The man nodded. "What happens next? If I win, I mean?"

The man sighed. "We do not know. All we know is that we must kill you, or you must defeat us in unarmed combat."

Nicky sighed. Kenji Yamada raised his left hand to straighten his hair and Nicky caught sight of a familiar tattoo on the inside of the man's left wrist. He narrowed his eyes at the skinny man. "You know something," Nicky said. It wasn't a question.

Kenji paused and looked at Nicky skeptically. "What makes you say that?"

"Your left wrist," Nicky said. "I recognize that tattoo. Your daughter has the same tattoo on her left wrist, doesn't she? What do you know?"

"I know nothing," the man protested.

"Lies," Nicky said through gritted teeth, stepping onto the platform toward the man. "Your daughter told me yesterday she wasn't going fuck me. Now why would she say that out of the blue, huh? What do you know?"

The two other combatants looked at the weaselly man. Kenji Yamada shot Nicky an angry look. There was an audible gasp from the stands behind the three men and Nicky looked up. There, in the first row, was the spiky-haired girl from the cafe the day before. Her face turned even paler than its usual complexion, a deathly shade that accurately conveyed her shock and horror as she shifted her gaze back and forth between her father and Nicky. Next to her were the sisters Nicky spent the day with two days prior. They had huge smiles on their faces as they looked at him with hope in their eyes.

On the other side of Kenji Yamada's daughter was a gorgeous, slender Japanese girl who looked for all the world like she could win the Miss Universe contest just by walking on the stage. He could only see her from the breasts up, obstructed by the railing, but even that bit was enough to confirm that she was stunning. She smiled shyly at him behind gorgeous milk chocolate brown eyes. Her light brown hair was pulled back into an intricate ponytail that fell in ringlets around her shoulders. He gave her a small smile in return and nodded at her.

Nicky looked back at Mr. Yamada with a cold smile. "So be it," he said. "I may not be able to physically harm you, but you'll tell me what comes next and anything else you know."

"Honor, Nicky Devore," Goro Tanaka spoke up for the first time. His accent was as thick as Mr. Yamamoto's, though his voice was only slightly higher in pitch.

With a tremendous effort, Nicky calmed himself and bowed to Mr. Tanaka. "Thank you, Tanaka-san. I am ready to begin if you are."

The big man stepped up onto the platform and stood to one side in the middle just at the incline. Nicky moved to the opposite side.

"Remember," Mr. Yamamoto said from the side of the platform. "We have no rules. Your only rules, Nicky, are you cannot kill or permanently maim either one of us. If you do, even by accident, your life is forfeit."

Nicky nodded. "I understand."

He looked at Goro Tanaka and bowed low, never taking his eyes off of his opponent. The big man bowed back, then bent low in a ready crouch indicative of the sumo wrestler. Nicky assumed a ready stance, placing his left foot forward and shifting his weight to his back foot. He balled his hands into loose fists and held them in front of him.

The men nodded to each other. Then, the big man exploded into movement, bum-rushing Nicky with his arms wide. At the same time, the crowd abruptly exploded into cheers and encouragement for the two fighters. Nicky expected the big man's move and danced backward to halfway up the incline behind him before jumping forward when the big man approached. Goro's hands swung from his sides, hoping to grab Nicky around the waist, only to grasp empty air as Nicky sailed over his back in a mid-air crouch. Nicky's right foot came down, slamming into the big man's back, and he crashed to the mat with a loud thud. Nicky used that blow to step off of and behind the big man. He landed on his feet and blindly jumped backwards onto his back, landing an elbow drop with his full two-hundred and fifty pound frame into the big man's middle back.

Goro had planted his hands to get up when Nicky's elbow slammed into his spine. His chest hit the mat again and he cried out in pain as he arched his back. Nicky rolled backwards across the big man's back and landed with his knees to either side of the sumo wrestler's head. Before Goro could do anything more, Nicky had a grip on the man's topknot and his elbow came down with a vicious strike to the back of the big man's neck.

Nicky's elbow gently rested on the skin of the back of Mr. Tanaka's neck and the sumo wrestler froze. The crowd went abruptly silent with an audible gasp. The older man lying facedown on the mat slowly raised his left hand to pat Nicky's elbow. With the other hand, he gave a shaky thumbs up. Just like that, Goro Tanaka had been bested and the crowd exploded in cheers.

Nicky stood up and held a hand down to the big man, helping him to his feet. Surprisingly, Mr. Tanaka was all smiles in Nicky's direction. His smile faltered though, as something seemed to occur to the big man. He walked toward the other two men with a couple of speculative looks over his shoulder back in Nicky's direction. Finally, before he stepped down from the platform, he looked up into the stands where his daughter sat with an uncertain smile on her face as she looked down at her father.

Ichiro Yamamoto waited until Goro stepped off of the platform before stepping up onto it. Nicky stood at his ready position taking deep breaths to steady himself. Ichiro took his position opposite Nicky as the crowd quieted once more.

"Do you need a moment?" the older man asked.

Nicky smiled. "Thank you, Yamamoto-san, but no."

"Very well," Ichiro said and bowed to Nicky.

Nicky bowed back then both men got into their ready stance. Nicky had no illusions that this fight would be anywhere near as quick as the first. That thought was validated when the older man cautiously made his way forward with his left hand leading and in the shape of a blade. His right fist was tucked neatly into his right hip. Nicky met him in the middle of the platform and the older man threw the first punch. It was a jab, lightning fast, as the bladed hand took the shape of a ham-fist and aimed for Nicky's jaw. He barely had time to dodge the viper-quick strike. Even so, the blow still grazed the side of his cheek and he danced back on instinct.

Remembering that he was supposed to stay close to the karate master, Nicky quickly darted back in and delivered a standard double jab with his left hand followed by an uppercut with his right. He didn't expect his blows to land but he still delivered them with force all the same. Ichiro dodged the first jab, blocked the second, and narrowly stepped out of the way of the uppercut. Still, the wind from the passing fist tickled his nose as he nimbly stepped outside Nicky's right and attempted a backwards elbow to Nicky's jaw. Nicky barely saw it coming and had just enough time to duck under the blow and deliver a half-blind, half-hearted left hook to the older man's right kidney.

Ichiro Yamamoto grunted when the blow landed and he quickly disengaged the younger man. Nicky let him go and the older man held his hand out for a quick pause. Nicky agreed and stepped back. Mr. Yamamoto held his right hand to his kidney and winced.

"Are you okay, Yamamoto-san?" Nicky asked with concern.

"That was... I admit I am not as accustomed to taking hits as I was in my youth," the older man said as another spasm of pain caused him to stumble before he regained his balance. He looked up into the stands where his daughters were now standing. He gave them a timid smile as they looked down at their father with concern. He looked back at Nicky. "From what you said about what Sakiko Yamada said to you, I can conclude what comes next. There is an almost irresistible urge in me to kill you, young Nicky, though the love of my daughters far outweighs that desire. Before we continue, may I ask that, should you win today, you take care of the both of them to the best of your ability?"