Page 20 of Allure

I nod.

“You must crawl before you can walk, let alone run. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sensei.”

He grunts, which I take as a dismissal, but I linger a bit, noticing a picture on the wall.

“That’s from when I lived in Japan,” he says. “I stayed there for two years.”

“Oh, wow.”

“I’m a Swede, but I moved here when I was eighteen. I didn’t much know what to do with my life, but karate had always been a part of me, ever since I first started to train, and when I had the idea of starting a dojo, I knew I first had to train under the masters.”

“That’s when you went to Japan,” I guess.

“Yes. I am a black belt in three different karate disciplines, and I still practice and train myself. Karate is about learning first and foremost, even more than it is about self-defense. Not that wanting to learn self-defense isn’t a good reason to start your training. It most certainly is, but there is more to karate than just that.”

“I understand,” I murmur.

“Good. Now, hit the mat!” he calls for everyone to hear.

We go out, and Declan, of course, leads warm-ups. He's not too terrible tonight. Maybe he's more mellow as the night starts?

But Sensei seems like he’s on the warpath when he comes onto the mat. Tonight, there are two black belts, including Declan, two reds, a purple, a green, and then me.

“We have been doing a lot of ground work so far this week,” Sensei says. “For today’s class, you are going to free roll.”

“Free roll?” I blurt out, not sure I like the sound of that.

“That is when you grapple your partner for three minutes, trying to get a submission. Now, you don’t know any submissions yet, so you’ll just try to get into positions. Into guard, mount… Do you remember those?”

I nod.

“There’s also side mount.” He waves Declan over, having Declan on his back. “You take control of their side. One arm slides beneath their neck. The other has the far arm underhook. Do you see?” He waves his hand. “You then clasp your hands together. This is a gable grip.”

Sensei draws back away from Declan and holds up his hands so that his fingers are perfectly straight. Then, he lines up his hands so they're touching before shifting his palms without moving his fingers. His hands are still touching but are now pointed at a right angle. Keeping his thumb by his fingers, he curls his fingers over his hands.

“Gable grip.” He gets his arms back into position with the underhook and beneath Declan’s neck with the gable grip secured. “Butt down. One knee in the ear, the other in the hip. You want to be low. The lower you are, the more weight on your opponent.”

He gets down as low as he can, maybe too low, and Declan’s face is a bit red, not that he complains.

“There is also reverse mount.” Sensei slides around so that his chest is over Declan’s face. “Both underhooks. Be sure that you aren’t too far down on their body. You want your nose and face above their belts. And stay low, of course.”

I nod. “Understood, Sensei.”

I’m paired up with the green belt, who is told to fight for positions too. We go at it after having our right knee down, our left knee up. We bump fists and then roll, but it doesn’t take long for the green belt to get mount on me despite my best efforts.

“Avoid having your back flat on the ground,” Sensei snaps at me.

“Yes, Sensei, but…”

“But what?” he growls.

“How else can you get guard?”

He snorts. “Try for mount or side mount.”

“Yes, Sensei,” I mutter.

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