The Life Of Normal-Taro

Chapter 12: Martial Arts

Martial arts is a way of living. The people residing in martial planet were the living example of this. They remain neutral no matter what the circumstances were.For argument's sake, we could say that Wados remained neutral too, but they did send their mercenaries at pinchso that's wasn't exactly neutral. However, the Martial planet was in every way, shape or form, neutral. Contrary to the myth, the people there did not yearn to fight. Rather, they wanted to live in peace and harmony. They used their martial arts and the power they cultivated for various everyday applications. It was really peaceful back there.

So, when Taro travelled to the Martial planet listening to all the rumors of it being a lawless planet, he was pleasantly surprised. He wasn't shunned but was accepted by the mass to be a part of their culture. He was helped throughout his stay and he was invited to join them to wherever they went. Somehow, the stay which was originally scheduled for a month or so, changed to a year. Eventually, the one became two. Meanwhile, he succeeded in forming a relationship based on trust and he learned martial arts to its very basic and beautiful form.

After a two year stay back in the Martial planet, he was called back to Wados to join the disaster management squad. When he returned, he learned that his strength grew exponentially. Rather than any other martial arts he learnt around the universe, the one from what people called the 'Home of martial arts' was well refined and immensely powerful. However, he did not grew complacent. He followed the path of martial arts and diligently followed it as time went.

However, upon reaching Earth, he couldn't do so. An unplanned and unexpected journey caused all sorts of confusion in his mind and things were hectic. And in the end, he skipped his morning training. What brought him back to it was the strike the other day when he pushed the barricade slightly ahead. It was not a blood thirst to fight or things like thatit was much more of a simpler reason. He felt exhilarated when he used his power for the smallest of things. He wanted to do more; he wanted to make use of his way of living. And it directly coincided with what Lonappan said the other night. He had to control his power and he felt martial arts is the way to do so.

Early next morning, Taro got out of his bed and headed straight towards the small lawn that the Holy Land had. Taro bowed deeply towards the rising sun as a sincere apology for not practicing the art, since the bright Sun resembled the Martial planet, not because the Martial planet's a starit's a planet made of one of the hardest substance to be discovered in the universe, lithargenbut because the Martial planet shone as bright as the Sun did.

Taro found a spot in the lawn and sat there to meditate. His focus during this meditation was solely focused on strength displacement. The denizens of the martial planet developed this form of meditation when they realized that there's a chance that they could destroy the planet they live in too, even though it was supposed to be the hardest substance. They'd displace their strength according to their will and minimize the power output to the very least. Later, they found out that this technique would not only allow them to reside in the Martial planet, but also in literally any other planet. However, the most of them decided not to shift anymore to respect their ancestor's decision.

The thing about Taro is that he never had to use this technique in his life. Ten years ago, he left Wados in his late teenage years yearning for power. However, his return was too quick. Two years as a martial artist doesn't even compare to the years of training by the Martial planet inhabitants. So, he was weak if we are to consider strength alone. Even as times went by and his strength grew exponentially, he never had to worry about destroying a planet or something along that lines, because he resides in Wados. The planet in and off of itself was not as hard as the Martial planet, however, noticing the increasing trend of casualties and destruction of monuments and buildings due to their increase in population, battle hungry maniacs and rebels, the Wadorian government had fortified their entire planet and established the disaster management squad, where Taro worked, pretty early on.

But now, two things changed. One; ten years flew by and his current strength is stronger than ever. Two; he isekaid into a planet that's neither made of hard materials like in the Martial planet nor fortified like Wados. So, he had no choice but to meditate. As he closed his eyes, he could sense the flow of power through his body. He strengthened his will so that he could forcibly shift about ninety five percent of his power towards his abdomen, thighs and shoulders.

"Shit!" He muttered. He couldn't control it entirely, so the power displacement got fucked up. Instead of equally shifting the ninety five percent of power to those three places, he ended up shifting it entirely on his shoulders. With this, he could tackle an entire horde of Rugby [1] players.

"Well, it is what it is!" He said as he got up from his seat. He decided to practice Wu Long [2] planet's backhand technique, which solely composed of using one's backhand for all the attacks. It did not look impressive, however the technique was the sole reason some people consider the Wu Long planet as the heroes of the Galaxian War.

"What the hell are you doing?" Thankappan, who unnaturally woke up early that day, asked.

"Can't you see? I'm practicing my martial arts." Taro replied as he continued with his strikes.

"No! Martial arts' supposed to be flashy! Where's the high speed dashes and high pitched screams? That's the real stuff!" Thankappan spoke as he imitated a bunch of moves he saw in some iconic movies.

"Well, that's very stereotypical of you! Look, martial arts is about protect and defend, not attack and retreat." Taro preached, even though he was a bit intrigued about the martial arts of Earth, of which Thankappan spoke so highly about.

"Whatever, man! But this is not my martial arts!" Thankappan screamed as he walked off.

"Whoa! What's happening right now?" In comes Lonappan, serenaded into the Holy Land with Thankappan's tantrum.

"It seems like your junior does not appreciate my way of martial arts." Taro replied without interrupting his motion.

"Hey, don't disrespect someone else's culture and practices!" Lonappan smacked Thankappan's head and the junior agent writhed in pain.

"I'm sorry!" Thankappan apologized and ran away from Lonappan.

"So, does this have something to do with what I said yesterday?" Lonappan asked.

"I guess? It did lit a little flame inside me!" Taro replied.

"So, how is practicing martial arts and gaining more strength gonna help you control it?" Lonappan asked.

"Look, if martial arts can increase one's strength to an exponential level, then martial arts could also teach one how to control the power that he attained." Taro replied.

"So, right now you're learning how to control rather than attain, huh?" Lonappan continued his questions. He could only imagine a massive catastrophe if Taro were to attain more power.

"Yup." He replied.

"Hey, I just woke up and saw Thankappan crying. Do you guys know something about it?" Gibli asked while walking down the stairs.

"Well, I just gave him a smack in the head. Nothing big." Lonappan explained.

"Oh." Gibli stood there for a moment before staring at Taro's actions. "Wait, isn't that Wu Long backhand? That's some cool stuff!" Gibli exclaimed.

"You know of it?" Lonappan asked. He did not expect such a reaction from Gibli.

"Know of it? I've felt it first-hand! Like, literally everyone who steps foot into the galaxian civilization has heard of it at least once!" Gibli continued like a fan boy.

"I did not expect such a celebratory status for this martial art!" Lonappan was in awe.

"They are legendary guys! By the way, how did you even learn it?" Gibli asked to Taro.

"Isn't it just some backhand strikes?" Lonappan asked, in a blunder of a moment. It was like if someone said Karate is just a bunch of strikes and muay-thai is just a bunch of kicks.

"How dare you! It's all about precision strikes that one could never achieve through a mere glance." Gibli got angry, real fast.

"Chill, my man!" Lonappan tried to calm Gibli down and failed. However, as Gibli was about to continue his rant, Taro interfered.

"I learned it from a rogue Wu Long citizen." He explained.

"What? He went rogue? Against Wu Long? Whoever it is, they sure like to court death! But, why would they go rogue on Wu Long in the first place? Those guys are heroes, right?" Gibli wondered.

"Things are never as it seem, my man!" Taro spoke as he stopped his practice. Upon seeing that, Lonappan jumped into the conversation yet again.

"Now that you're done with your practice, call everyone else down." He ordered.

"What is it?" Taro asked.

"What else? We got the job we're looking for." Lonappan replied.

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[1] No, I'll never call it football! That would be stupid.

[2] For some reason, all I had in my mind was the Wu Tang Clan when I wrote it. Thus, the name. So, I'm just gonna go listen to them.

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