Mech slayers part 12
Gakumon
[Learning]

	Dan frowned as the ninja girl stood watching him with her sword
drawn. She watched him for a moment, then she stuck her sword in the
ground and kneeled. "I am Yamichisai, and I would like to be your student
Ryo-samma." she said bowing her head.  Dan looked at her, he had not been
expecting this.

	"Huh?" he said dumbly. He sat on the ground and looked at her.
"Get up." he said with a sigh. She did and smiled at him. "I have no need
of a student I'm still learning myself."
	"But your style is unlike anything I've ever seen! Its amazing!"
cried Yami. 
	"Its just Tai kwon do. Not really all that great of a style. I've
gotten my third Dan in it so I probably could teach you a little, but to
be honest I was only a mediocre student at best myself. My real skill is
Kendo." said Dan more to himself than to her.
	"Tai kwon do? Kendo?" said the ninja looking very confused. "What
is that? Please teach it to me!" she begged.
	Dan looked at her and blushed, he hadn't realized he was speaking
out loud. "Well Tai Kwon do is unarmed combat and Kendo is a form of
swordsmanship. But really girl I don't have time or need of a student."
said Dan as he started walking off. 

	"Unarmed combat?!! There's no such thing." thought Yamichisai.
"He must have some sort of invisible weapon	or a cloaking device."

	"You aren't getting rid of me that easily." she cried following
after him. 
	"Great." muttered Dan turning to face her. She stared at him with
determination and fear in her eyes. He looked at her and frowned. He knew
she would follow him for weeks, possibly months until he finally agreed.
He had that look before in his own eyes, when he discovered Kendo. "Don't
do it we don't need this." said a warning voice in his head.
Unfortunately it was the voice he had come to ignore over the past few
weeks in this strange new world. "I have no need of a student, I do
however need a guide, I have lived outside this world all my life I don't
really know anything about it." he said finally.
	"And in return you teach me your style?" said Yami with a
confident look in her eyes.
	"Very well." said Dan with a resigned sigh 
	"Thank you Ryo-sensei! Wow did you really live outside training
all your life? I couldn't do that. Was it difficult to learn? Why don't
you use a real sword?" 
	"Yamichisai?"
	"Yes Ryo-sensei?"
	"How old are you?"
	"Fourteen years sensei. Why?"
	"Just curious."

	Commander Alek Hunter sat in a large chair by a rustic fireplace
with a strong drink in his hand. It was the middle of the night and he
had allot to think about. Being alone and drunk in the dark helped
somewhat. He sighed and looked up at a large portrait hanging over the
fire. It was of him and another figure that could not be seen in the
shadows. 
	"You brought such shame to our family, why do I care at all?" he
muttered sadly as he stared at the painting with tears forming in his
eyes.
	"I wonder where you are often, What you are doing now? Why
couldn't I stop you?" he sobbed as he spoke to the shadowy figure and
hung his head.
	"I should have seen, I should have known. Damn you." he said
before he finished his drink and tossed it into the flames.
	
	"Where is the commander?" said Sonkei as he sat on his throne
idly. It was the first real break he had since his mother died the day
before and he simply sat somberly in his chair. 
	"In his chambers sire." said one of the attendants. "Would you
like me to fetch him?"
	"No, leave him to his thoughts. I understand his obsession now,
even if I still do not condone it. I never would have thought a single
day could make you understand so much about a single man." said the newly
crowned king somberly.
	"We all would be better off without some lessons my liege." said
a tall man on the young man's right.
	"Stop trying to comfort me. My mother is dead." said the king
quietly to the man. His tone told him it was a warning.
	"As you wish." said the man with a slightly surprised gaze.
	"My sister...how is she?" said Sonkei with a slightly better look
about him.
	"Sleeping, she is still very upset as I'm sure you understand.
She seems to take comfort in the fact that your doppleganger is out in
the world tonight." said the tall man with a small smile. 
	"I wish I could be so comfortable with him. I don't trust him, he
is a danger to me and my crown. He may be an Atama decoy as well. He also
saved the life of my sister and my city..." said the boy with a
thoughtful look. He seemed relieved to be on another subject.
	"A danger you cannot avoid out of honorable gratitude. A most
peculiar situation my lord." said the Advisor.
	"I suppose, if he was not so powerful I suspect it would not
worry me nearly as much. I can trust Hunter to see to him if he is indeed
an enemy." said Sonkei with a heavy sigh. He rubbed his temples and hung
his head in his hands in thought.
	"And if Commander Hunter proves unfit for the task?" said the man
with an expressionless face.
	"Then we find someone who is." was the king's reply.

	Dan sat by the fire and gazed into it thoughtfully. He had talked
with the girl for quite a while today and had learned a great deal about
this new world. She was sitting near him and had a small contented smile
on her face, she looked very young to him at the moment. He did however
realize that it would be foolish to just trust her at the moment. He
frowned and closed his eyes for a moment as he thought about the danger
in bringing her along. To both himself and her, trouble seemed to find
him where ever he went here. "Leave her." said the familiar cautious
voice in his head. Fortunately he had come to ignore it and it spoke less
and less to him. He liked that. He sighed and felt a strange sensation
around his neck.
	His eyes snapped open and he turned to see the young girl sitting
nude behind him with her arms wrapped around his neck. "Wh-What? What are
you doing?" he said as he stared at her for a moment.
	The girl smiled seductively. "Paying for my lessons sensei." she
said cheerfully.
	"Well you don't have to! Put your clothes on!" cried Dan as
quickly covered his eyes. 
	"But I have to give you something!" said the girl with a confused
look on her face. "You don't find me attractive?"
	
	Dan sighed and stood. "That isn't it."
	"But this is all I have to give you, I've always paid for my
lessons this way." she said looking hurt and confused.
	"When did you start taking lessons?" said Dan as his throat grew
tight.
	"Since I was ten..." said the girl proudly.
	"And you've done this..." he said with an angry look.
	"Of course, If I'm old enough to kill, I'm old enough for this."
said the girl flatly with an angry look in her eyes.
	"Enough. If I ever meet your old master I'll hand him his heart
for this, I swear it. You -never- kill unless it is absolutely necessary.
Anyone who would teach otherwise is my enemy." growled Dan bitterly.
	Yamichisai backed away from him with tears flowing from her face.
She didn't understand any of this.
	"I'll start your training now. First lesson, your body is a
temple, treat it like one." he said as he tossed her a blanket.
	"What?" said the girl now more confused than ever.
	Dan slumped down on the ground with his legs crossed and a
wizened look on his face. "You will treat it with respect, reverence, and
dignity. You will not give it away as payment or easily, it will become
your most valuable possession as of this moment. If you decide to share
it, the other person will have to earn it. I don't expect you to
understand or change overnight but you will change.
	Lesson two. As of this moment when I say jump, you jump with no
questions or delays. Immediately. This isn't going to be easy and your
going to work hard for what you want. I'll make you the greatest fighter
alive.
	You will learn Honor, dignity, and self respect. You will live by
these principles for the rest of your life." said Dan sagely. Basically
he was repeating the speech his instructor had given him on his first day
of Kendo, the man was the reason he had become so interested in the
sport.
	Yamichisai just about broke down crying and turned completely
pale. "B-but I have already been dishonored. I cannot live like that I
must leave you, then. Please don't send me away." she said softly.
	"I don't care what you've done, only what you can become matters
to me." said Dan simply.
	The girl calmed a great deal and slunk back in her blanket
eventually dozing off.
	Dan cursed himself for his rash actions as he watched her. He had
no idea about the morals of this world or it's customs. "That's why you
need her fool." he told himself. 

	Sonkei woke early and looked out at the garden that the room that
his room now overlooked. It had been his parents room long ago, his
mother moved to another room after his father died. He decided that he
should stay here now because he was king. That was all the reasoning he
would need. It would be a hard week for him. In three days they would
bury his mother, he would stand by his sister's side and try to comfort
her while looking strong for the people. He had to mourn alone and
isolated. There was also the problem of this 'double'. He was grateful to
him but the fact remained that he was a very dangerous man, possibly a
trap. The Atama had magic and technology far beyond any of the Joseian
peoples. Only the strength of the half breeds had kept them at bay this
long. He wondered how long it would last. They had already conquered the
eastern continent of Azora and renamed it Akama. The ocean kept them at
bay a great deal and the lands to the west were still free. The ocean was
to large and dangerous to the east of them. No lands lied between the two
continents in that direction save a few scattered islands. At last he
came to a decision.
	
	"Sir, the prince request your presence..." said an young soldier
as he entered the doorway to Alek's chambers. The boy pulled back in
surprise, it was obvious that the Commander had been up all night
drinking. The man looked up sullenly and stood from his chair. He
staggered towards the door and passed the boy wordlessly. 
	
	Sonkei frowned as his most trusted friend staggered into the room
looking worn and drunk.
	"I apologize for my state my lord. I wasn't expecting to be
called so soon." he slurred.
	"Alek, you couldn't have done anything to save those people. You
did well..." started the young king.
	"Not well enough to save your mother." replied the drunken man
bitterly.
	Sonkei stared the man down. "I will not hear such words from you
again. There was nothing you could have done. She was dead before we
arrived." he snapped.
	Hunter reacted as if he'd been slapped and simply stood silently.
"I have made a decision on our double. It was not easy, but he is too
great a risk to the crown in such a dangerous time in our kingdom...I
want an anonymous price placed on his head. No posters posted within this
city, I don't want my sister finding out about it. A million en to the
man who brings me his head. Keep it quiet."
	Hunter seemed to sober up instantly. "Y...yes my lord." he said
bowing.
	"Kami, forgive me for what I've done." said the king as he looked
out over the balcony again.

	Yamichisai looked at the pegs in the ground reluctantly. "What is
this?" she asked. There were small wooden stakes jutting from the ground
about three inches out of the earth. They were set up about a foot apart
over an eight foot square. Dan smiled.
	"This it a training exercise I've always wanted to try. Stand on
the pegs and don't let your feet touch the ground." The girl did it
easily balancing on the wood. Dan handed her his bokken and stood back.
She fell immediately forward with the weight of the wooden sword. 
	"This thing weighs a ton!" she cried in shock. She strained to
lift it with two hands. "He swings this thing around one handed?" she
thought in shock as she glanced at her new master in awe.
	"Now let's get started. Try a few swings until you get the hang
of it." he said smiling.
	She strained and found that she could lift the sword and move it
about, but her movements were slow and clumsy. 
	"In a week or two we'll have you swinging that around like your
short sword." said the man cheerfully.
	Yami growled at him between her teeth. This was going to be a
long day.

	An hour later she sat on the ground between some of the pegs
breathing hard and glared at Dan angrily. He had not slacked in her
training and she was already sore.
	"Well, you did well. Your techniques a bit sloppy and your moves
are easily readable." he said as he looked at her from a nearby log.
	"This is too difficult. How can you expect me to do this on my
first day?" she complained. "Besides, I was following the patterns
exactly! How can you say that was sloppy?!"
	"Patterns?" said Dan looking interested. 
	"You know. The training exercises." she said looking at him
oddly.
	"Ah, a kata. I see we'll have to break you of allot of those
habits. I'll fix you up girl don't worry about that." said the man with a
laugh.
	Yami stared at him in disbelief. Those techniques were passed
down for generations, the exercises took thousands of years to perfect in
some cases, and he was telling her he would fix them? 
	"Besides, what do you mean 'too hard'? You did it didn't you? I
hope you don't whine this much all the time." said Dan. He chuckled and
slapped his knee grinning cheerfully.
	"What?!" said the girl in shock.
	"When this exercise becomes too easy we'll move on to something
more difficult. You'll never have it easy as my student I'm afraid." said
Dan with an apologetic look.
	Yami just slumped back on the ground and groaned. "Harder? I'd
like to see you do that." she grumbled to herself.
	"Watch then, I didn't set this up for just you ya know." he said
as he took the boken from her and stood on one of the pegs a little more
clumsily than she had.
	"This ought to be good." she said with a smile as she moved back
out of the square.
	Dan controlled his balance and smiled lightly. He glanced at her
one last time and tossed a small block of wood into the air. He jumped
from post to post keeping it in the air for almost fifteen minutes. 
	Yami was impressed but she didn't show it. "I could do that if
that sword wasn't so heavy." she muttered.
	"Don't you have a blade as well?" said Dan as he finally stopped
and caught the block.
	"Yea! I'll show you!" she grumbled. She stood and jumped up to
Dan with a wicked smile as she unsheathed her short sword. He stepped off
and watched her as she used the flat of the blade to keep the block in
the air easily.
	"Well now that you've gotten your second wind I'll leave you
alone for a few minutes, don't stop practicing." said the man with a
smile. He disappeared into the woods. 
	"Hey! what are you doing?! No fair!" cried the girl as she
realized she had been tricked. She almost lost the block but caught it at
the last moment.
	"Don't let it touch the ground." said Dan's voice from the woods.

	A half an hour later Dan returned with a small rabbit looking
creature slung over his shoulder. He grinned at what he saw. 
	Yamichisai was standing on one peg lightly, and was bouncing the
block up and down in place with a board and lazy expression on her face.
"About time you got back." she muttered.
	"Well, that is enough warm up. Practice for another half an hour
and we'll eat." said Dan cheerfully as he tossed five more blocks at the
girl.
	She screeched and frantically worked to keep them in the air
moving as fast as she could. To her credit only two had fallen to the
ground by the time he allowed her to stop, which was fifty minutes later
because he added ten minutes to her time each time one dropped. He did
let her leave it on the ground though seeing as it was her first day.
	"I hate you." she said bitterly as she grabbed the plate he gave
her at the fire.
	"Well if you want to learn my style you have to become stronger.
Tomorrow we start Tai kwon do." said Dan with a smile/
	"That's the hidden weapon style right?" asked the girl.
	"What? No, it's an unarmed style." said Dan lazily.
	"Come on, there is no such thing." she said with a laugh.
	"Really?" he said in genuine surprise.
	"Your serious?" she gasped.
	"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" he asked with a frown.
	"How can you have skilled combat without a weapon? It must be
totally useless in real life. The only thing you could do with it is
fight in a bar." she said looking disgusted.
	"You know, every time I think we might be done for the day you
open your mouth." said Dan with an evil grin.
	Yami started to sweat.

	He stood across from her and held up a roughly square board of
about a foot wide, it was about an inch and a half thick. There were
several others lying next to him on the ground, he had spent the last
twenty minutes working on making them from a tree he cut down with his
boken. it wasn't difficult to cut the tree down, he could do it with a
single stroke from his bokken even though it wasn't sharp. Using the dull
blade to cut the wood exactly the same length each time was a little
tricky.
	"Break it." He said simply.
	Yami reached for her blade and Ryo frowned. "With your hands." he
said calmly.
	"What?" she said and walked over to him. She picked up one of the
slabs of wood and broke it across her knee with a little effort.
	Dan sighed again and looked at her. "Do it like this." he said
and tossed three of the boards into the air. They came down and he
punched two of them one after the other snapping them in two, the third
he broke with a quick side kick.
	Yami's jaw dropped like it was made of lead. "H-Howdidyoudothat?"
she gasped.
	Ryo smiled and stood in front of her. "Throw a punch at me." he
said simply. She got a cold look on her face and did nothing.
	"I told you earlier, don't question just act." he said with a
frown.
	The girl let out a battle cry and swung at Dan as hard as she
could.  He caught her hand easily and put his palm on her stomach
straightening her arm out. He motioned for her to stay and pushed her
other hand back so that it was tucked into her side. He then used his
feet to spread her feet apart and shoved her shoulders straight.
	"Now copy me." he said and did a punch slowly for her moving his
body so that all of his weight was concentrated into the blow.
	She moved and repeated his movements exactly. "Good, again." he
said firmly. She did it a little sloppily the second time and he
corrected her wordlessly. This went on for about an hour before she
started to do it correctly every time. 
	"Faster." he said and she started punching more quickly
occasionally doing it wrong and begin corrected again. Almost three hours
the pair worked on just punching. The sun was setting when he stopped her
at last.
	"Now, break the wood." he said simply as he held out the board in
front of him again.
	Yami charged and punched the wood cracking her knuckles on the
hard surface painfully, she cried out in pain.
	"Now, can you tell me what you did wrong?" he asked.
	"I'm not strong enough!" she said glaring at him an nursing her
hand.
	"NO!" he roared. "Never tell me that, I will never tell you to do
anything I don't think you can do." 
	"Then why didn't I?" she said bitterly. She was on the verge of
getting up and leaving him behind forever.
	"Because you needed to learn this lesson, the only way to let you
see the mistake was to allow you to make it. I didn't spend the last
three hours drilling you for nothing girl." said Dan with a hard gaze.
	"What did I do wrong? Sensei." she spat. 
	"Never punch at your opponent. Punch through it. Your goal must
be just behind the target not on the surface of it." said Dan with a
small smile. "Try again."
	Yami stood and glared at him and did nothing. "Do not question
girl, do." said Dan simply, there was no emotion in his voice but his
eyes were pleading with her.
	She reared back and punched the board with her uninjured hand
snapping it in two. 
	She didn't smile or laugh when she did it she simply stood and
said nothing with the angry look being slowly replaced by calm. The girl
looked up at Dan and said nothing.
	"Very good, lets get some sleep we have to start traveling again
tomorrow." said the boy finally.
	"Ryo-sensei...Thank you." said the girl as she looked at the
boards on the ground with no emotion in her voice. She had never felt a
greater pride in her life than she did at that moment.
	"Come on, we have a long day ahead of us." said Ryo as they
walked back to the camp.
	"Yes sir." she said simply and followed him. Her mind and heart
raced as she realized that she had begun to learn a style unlike any
other in the world.
TBC....

	Ryo starts getting into trouble again next time with a strange
swordsman appearing on the scene. Yamichisai has her own problems to deal
with as well. But first we have to deal with the other group as they
approach the large city in the desert. They have a long way to go yet and
a menacing form moves about in the sand after them. They also have to
deal with the �Caravan�. Will the locals be as friendly as they hope?
Find out next time!


_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]