章 51: Zaheer

"Hmm, looks like that guy's pupil knows how to fight!" Anil spoke as he observed Taro's fight.

"You're right, master." The prodigy pupil of his agreed with the assessment.

"Eh, really? I can't believe it! It seems like he can't even attack." Zaheer, the other black belter in Anil's squad exclaimed.

The prodigy scoffed. "Idiot. There's more to this than meets the eye. How the hell did you even get to the nationals?" He said and walked away since the next round was on the way.

"Sorry for not being as intelligent as you!" Zaheer mumbled in quite a mocking voice.

"Jai is right, Zaheer. It's not the lack of attack we're talking about. Don't you think it's strange that he's still scoring points even when he's on defense?" Anil asked.

"Isn't that since his counters are good?" Zaheer asked back.

"Exactly! For getting a pin-point counter, one's defense has to be really good; good form and all are essential in that case. Even if the person's really good at defense, have you ever seen such a defense? Sure, a wide stance helps in defensive maneuver. However, this guy hasn't even leaked out a single point. That's some inhuman defense. Which means he's skilled. Hence, I want you to do one thing." Anil replied.

"Don't worry, master! I'll make sure to defeat him thoroughly. It will be exciting." Zaheer said. His face was brimmed with excitement.

"What? No! I want you to destroy his leg so that he won't participate in the finals. Although, I'm pretty sure Jai can overcome his defense, I just don't like taking risks." Anil ordered.

Zaheer looked perplexed. "Master, I can beat him. It's no big deal. The I can face Jai in the finals!" He tried convincing Anil.

"Didn't you hear what I just said? Are you going to defy my orders? Have you forgotten what I did for you? Have you also forgotten what your senior did for you?" Anil asked.

Zaheer gulped. He couldn't defy his master's orders. "Yes, master. I will break his leg." He said in a low voice.

Almost ten years; I've been under Master Anil's tutelage for almost ten years. I still remember those days of glory like yesterday. I was the star of the dojo. The prodigy. People had high expectations of me; at least it seemed so back then. If you ask me now, I'll just say that everything was a lie.

However, back in the days of naivety, I really believed that they were all hyped about me. With that in my mind. I hastily reached the black belt, reaching the promised land that was waiting for me.

Well, at least I thought that would be the case. Few months into getting in the black belt category, I learned that they were fucking with me. They hyped me up because they wanted to leech off money from me. Even Anil sir lied to me. How did I know that? Because my seniors started destroying me in spars every chance they get. Well, if I was that good, shouldn't I be the one winning?

When I pointed it to the master, he said that my seniors had learned advanced techniques that required extra pay. Listening to the bull shit he spewed, I spent the money that my uber rich parents earned and learned the techniques. Surprisingly, I won the following spar. Therefore, whenever I lost in a spar, I paid money to earn a new "technique" and won the following spar.

With the confidence I gained from these encounters, I entered into the municipality tournament of Palakkad, which had a fair share of competitors. I lost. Hell, I was wiped out in the first round pretty convincingly.

That's when I caught drift. However, Anil master quickly wiped off my doubts by saying that I still had a lot to learn and said that I'll learn the next year's tournament if I listened to him. Hence, I listened and learned.

The next year, I won the municipality tournament through a bye since I participated in the Wayanad district, since it usually had less competitors. Guess what? I won the state tournament too. It wasn't that difficult beating my competitors. And I automatically won the finals since my opponent's leg was destroyed by one of my seniors. Well, I thought it was stupid of him to do that. I saw him crying in the locker room. I felt no remorse. He brought it to himself. Had he beaten his opponent instead of disqualifying himself, we could've faced each other and I could've defeated him… or so I thought.

The next year too, a similar thing happened. I won easily and one of my seniors got disqualified. I noticed the pattern but I didn't give a damn because I was an idiot back then.

Funny thing is, I always lost in the very first round in the nationals. And when I confronted him about it, he always said that I lacked experience and leeched more money. Now that I think about it, it might just be that he doesn't have the influence on the national sector as he had on the state tournaments.

Anyway, I remained the ace of the dojo for the longest time. Until one day, when the master asked me to spar with a kid quite younger than me; a kid named Jai. He looked nothing special. He also had a white belt, so I didn't quite get why the master asked me to fight him.

However, I learned exactly why after the spar. It was my defeat. My complete defeat. The kid destroyed me, the guy who won two state tournaments back-to-back. That day, I learned my place; I was the foolish cash cow. I never felt helpless before.

Everything I learned was a lie. Every fight I had was fake. The so-called legacy I had was nothing but bought by money. The pain of knowing this was unbearable. Just think about it. Everything you staked your life into, all turned out to be a big fat lie.

Upon making peace with it, I decided to leave the dojo and start anew. However, the prick named Anil was one wily guy. He blackmailed me saying that once I leave the dojo, he'll make it sure that I won't win a single tournament even if I won through hard work. Well, that kinda sucked. I didn't want that to happen, so I continued on as his cash cow.

Meanwhile, I met up with the senior who disqualified himself from the tournament in my first year. I learned that he had a dojo of his own. I told him about everything, about how I wanted to start from the scratch. He listened and asked me to swing by his dojo after Master Anil's classes. I did. And thus, I began from the basics.

For the next few years, I lost all the tournaments I participated in, even though I competed under Anil's banner. Not that he cared. As long as he got money, he was satisfied. Such a fucking prick! Well, I didn't care for his classes either. I practiced what I learned from my senior's dojo in Anil's dojo, hence my time was productive, at least.

Fat forward to last year, finally after many years, I won the state tournaments. It was an amazing feeling. The first time I did it with my strength. My master; my actual master was present in the attendance too, which made the victory more sweet. Even though I won the state tourney, I still lost the nationals in the first round. However, I was content. I was ready to take one step at a time.

That's when I learned that Jai was participating this year. Anil's favorite pupil; the one he believes will conquer the nationals. When I heard that, I practised twice as hard. I wanted to enter the finals. I wanted to beat him and get revenge for what happened that day. Well, revenge is a strong word. What I really needed was to achieve peace about the fact that I'm finally better than my previous self. Winning or losing didn't matter. Hell, he defeated me back when he was a white belt, I didn't want to imagine what sort of monster he currently is. However, I wanted to test myself out.. I wanted to prove to my master that I've gotten better under him. He swung by this time too, which made me pretty happy and nervous at the same time.

However, Karma is a bitch, isn't it? Just like my first two tournaments, Anil wanted someone to take a hit so that his favorite could win. Although, this time the sacrifice ended up being me. My master was looking at me all excited, however he didn't know that I'm going to suffer the same thing that he did back then. I now understand why he cried back then. I feel like crying now. But, I gotta do this now, don't I? Fuck, this is what I get for allying with the asshole. An ally, huh? Just like my name. And now I have to put up with it and do the cliche villain's sidekick things. Like seriously! I feel like I've seen this done in a martial arts movie! And now I'm gonna screw over poor Sadanandan guy just like those movies. He seems like a good lad. Wonder what would've happened if we were to fight for real. However, that's not possible now, is it?

クリエイターの想い
The_Chimp

Yo! Interesting/not so interesting tidbits behind the names: Jai means victory in multiple languages. Zaheer means ally in multiple languages too, although I primarily focussed on Urdu in that. This is how much I want to use the ally line in Zaheer monologue.

Anyway, cheers!

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