Past Life Hero, ch 7

When Max woke up, he enacted his plan, heading out early to the Jiu-Jitsu dojo. He got there two hours before his class was supposed to start, and Ethan actually had four students there. That was fine with Max. He got the handful of stuff he brought with him out of his car and stowed it against one wall, then sat down to play on his phone and watch Ethan's teaching. For the next hour, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that Ethan was actually an excellent instructor. The four adult students, all at different levels, seemed to have fun learning too. Based on what he'd seen, Max was curious why the dojo seemed to not be doing very well and wondered if it was truly just the location.

Ethan went in the back, to the staff-only showers and came back ten minutes later. He began cleaning the dojo, and Max wordlessly joined him, grabbing rags and bottles of sanitizer, wiping everything down. When that was done, the room smelled faintly of cleaner. It wasn't a bad smell.

Max sat down in the waiting area again. Ethan went behind his desk, and the two began to chat. Max was surprised to learn that before running the dojo, Ethan had been a car salesman and he hated his job. So even though times were tough right now, which Ethan admitted, he would still rather be in the dojo than anywhere else. Max's respect for the man skyrocketed after their chat.

After a while, Max’s potential new students began to trickle in. He'd invited ten, and nine showed up. He already had a good idea of who everybody was and why they were attending throughout the week.  This group of ten had been the most likely to actually be interested in lessons and be dedicated to taking lessons.

Melissa Smith hadn’t made it, and he wasn’t too surprised. She was a mom and had a lot of other commitments, so she was the candidate most likely to have time and financial constraints.

Max met the rest of the nine, and even though he didn't know what they looked like before seeing them all, he was able to figure out who everyone was almost just based on their voices.  There were three women and six men. All of them were of various ages and from every walk of life. But one thing Max had not compromised on was that all of them were adults. He'd felt a little bad about it but had refused to seriously consider any minor students or any parents that wanted to attend with their children.

He knew that he was being narrow-minded and probably leaving money on the table, but he didn't want to do anything that he felt wasn't ethical. After all, no matter what he did to make extra money, he still needed to live with himself.  It probably also helped avoiding biting off more than he could chew with too many students, too.

The first class was going to be extremely basic and it was more to set expectations than anything else. Ethan watched from the front desk, but Max ignored the other man out. If he thought about it too much, he knew he'd get nervous since he'd already seen what a good teacher Ethan was.

"All right," said Max, "I know why all of you are here. And you're all here for different reasons. That's okay because the martial art I'm going to teach you, Albion Western Wind Style, is a discipline with multiple paths, including structure for everybody, for every circumstance." He held up a finger and said, "That might sound too good to be true. And if you were to say so, I would understand why. However, Wind Style is a different type of martial art than any you have ever seen or heard about."

Max tensed.  This part was tricky because he wanted to be as honest as possible, and there were certain claims he couldn't make without being challenged on. After all, this was a martial art from another world. He just needed to avoid specifics or outright lies.

Max said, "Albion Western  Wind Style is a discipline that combines empty-handed martial arts with weapons. If you learn one, you learn the other. In this way, it's very similar to Filipino martial arts. At the same time, there are submission holds like Jiu Jitsu, there's throwing like Judo, and there's hard striking like Muay Thai. And incorporated in all of that are circular motions and redirections like Chinese martial arts. But, the Style is not a simple amalgamation of other martial arts thrown in a pot and mixed around with a crazy spoon." His delivery of this line got a few polite chuckles.

"I know you've seen my videos and I know you know that I bill a lot of this like Western martial arts.  That’s true. I've seen the books and arming manuals." This was a slight lie because although he’d read a few websites and studied some HEMA stuff over the last week, he definitely was not an expert on it. "But I don't agree with how most HEMA or Western martial arts schools train using foreign languages or techniques with foreign words. It doesn't make any sense to use the German word for overhand cut when we can just say in English 'overhand cut'." This time there were more chuckles.

Max crossed his arms and said, "As for my credentials, which I know some have asked about before and might be an issue in the future, I can't give you a long list of my master's master's master. The reality is that nobody else on this world knows this martial art that I am going to teach you. However, Jeet Kune Do began with Bruce Lee. And while I don't want to be arrogant enough to compare myself to Bruce Lee, if he could do it, why not me?" And he held up a hand. "But it’s not all talk.  I can honestly say that one week ago I challenged Imperial downtown and I won both of my spars versus instructors there."

This was something he hadn't told any of his prospective students yet and he was pleased to see a handful of them perk up at this. The rest didn't seem to know what Imperial Dojo was or didn't care. Max grabbed a stick that he'd brought from the wall. "Now then, I want to show you what I mean by weapons and empty hands being trained at the same time. At the end of the day, a weapon is just a force multiplier, but your body is the common denominator regardless of how you fight.  Could I get a volunteer?" Three people raised their hands and Max picked a young-looking guy from the bunch, a student named Ramon.  Then with Ramon’s help, Max showed the group a demonstration.

The next hour and a half or so flew by. Max had told everybody that showed up that this first lesson would be free. He paid for this time at the studio out of pocket using the one thousand dollars he'd won from Imperial Dojo. At the end of the lesson, all of his potential students trickled out, some more slowly than others. Some wanted to have a word with him first. But after they were all gone, it was just him and Ethan left.

Max said, "Ethan, tell me the truth. How do you think that was?"

Ethan gave Max an appraising look, scratched his chin, and said, "Honestly, I think," he dragged the time out and said, "that was great."

Max scowled and said, "Did you have to have such a long pause, jerk?"

Ethan laughed and said, "Honestly, I think you're a good teacher, especially for being so young. But more importantly, your martial art fascinates me. I have been a martial artist my entire life, and I've been teaching for almost ten years. I’ve seen a lot of fakes and frauds, but I can tell that you're the real deal. You really know your stuff. So how about this?" He tapped the counter a few times and said, "You're going to be teaching when I don't have anything to do anyway. How about if you let me participate in your classes? If so, we can lower your rate that you pay me and my brother a little bit."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm serious," said Ethan. "I think I'd really like to participate, at least for a while."

Max grinned and shook the other man's hand. "You've got yourself a deal, Sensei-slash-landord-slash-student."

Ethan laughed again and said, "Hey, everybody's gone but we're here. You want to do some drills really quick?"

Max smirked. "You gonna pay me for it?"

"No, but if I have enough fun, maybe I'll buy a few more training tools to keep at the dojo."

"Don't have to tell me twice," said Max. "Let's do it."

***

The next few days were a combination of Max’s normal job, planning classes, and answering more emails. Of the original nine that showed up to the first class, six stuck around and decided to become legit students. Max’s requirement was that they all be full-time students for at least the first month, and then after that, they could change to part-time if they wanted. Ethan also became a student. So in total, Max had seven students. After the first week, one more dropped out, and the number went down to six.

For the next two months, this was Max’s life. He worked at his regular job and taught martial arts three days a week.

Over the next two months, Max ended up really enjoying teaching. Je also rediscovered his love for martial arts in general.  Maybe he wasn’t killing monsters on Earth, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still train.

He got to know his students pretty well and was proud of their growth. Only two months wasn't a lot of time, but he was seeing his students, most of them anyway, for two hours a day. Not all of them came every day, but most did. They were doing great.

Max actually made a new friend, too.

One of the students was named Blake. He was around Max’s age, just a couple of years older.  It turned out that they knew some of the same people, most still in college.

Max ended up spending a lot of time with Blake.  Unlike Max, Blake's parents were solidly middle class though and he'd been blessed with some interesting opportunities in his life. And being a good friend, he was eager to share some of his other hobbies with people he knew.

Blade got irritated with Max sometimes, in a good-natured way, when they'd try something new and Max immediately ended up being too good at it. They went axe throwing once at a trendy hangout for groups of friends. Of course, throwing axes was no big deal for Max.

Usually, he didn't even notice, but sometimes he would clue in on the fact that Blake was surprised that he hadn't struggled more at something, probably because of missed comedic opportunities.  He seemed to eventually get used to it, though.  Blake’s girlfriend, Becky, was a super good-natured, outgoing person and Max enjoyed whenever she came along, too.

Teaching became one of Max’s new joys.  Of the five students that stuck around, plus Ethan, they were all very focused and passionate about Albion Western Wind Style.  Somewhat surprising to Max, he also managed to find some new insights into Wind Style, to, which he’d thought was almost impossible by this point.  He’d figured if he did, it would take decades, not just a couple of months.

One thing that he was most amused about regarding his lessons was how his six students were learning a martial art that was designed to not only incorporate the accumulation of mana, but also to utilize it. Back in Avalon, this martial art was considered a state secret. On Albion, teaching Western Wind Style willy-nilly to a group of random people like this would be similar to treason.

Even though Max thought the situation was funny, his conscious did lead him once to have a conversation with Ethan, asking him to never teach Western Wind Style to any other students.

The man had actually gotten a little offended.  Apparently, he already believed teaching without Max’s permission would have been some sort of martial arts instructor taboo anyway.

Max’s new lifestyle change had made him start reflecting on his life on Earth in general.

He didn't have too many regrets, and his second life in general hadn't been bad, just a little disappointing since he had memories of an entire, exceptional life.  But almost nothing he knew or could do could have really helped with this life…until now.  The only problem was, now he wished he’d tried something like this sooner.

After about the first month, Max realized he could have started a martial arts club in high school and maybe even had more friends. Maybe he' would have even been able to make some of the friends like poor kids in movies did. Friends with mansions, with helpful older siblings, and good food that he could eat whenever he went over.

Whenever that train of thought cropped up, Max would indulge it for a few minutes, but no more.   He was too mature for it and knew where it could lead.  Wallowing in the past wasn't moving forward into the future. Besides, even though he'd been born poor in two lifetimes, he'd also experienced being rich already, and he knew for a fact that wealth didn't magically make one happy. In fact, what was probably making him happiest these days was all of his hard work, focus, and new friendships.

After waking up for work, Max looked at himself in the mirror with his shirt off.  "Has it already been two months?" He admired his body. Max had never been a really vain sort of person, but he had to admit it felt good to actually notice strangers reacting to him differently now. Max didn't really want to stand out, and he didn't need too much attention–he'd already had enough of that in his first life–but the situation that had played out at Imperial Dojo still played through his mind sometimes.

Thinking about his escapades at Imperial almost made him chuckle.  He almost half-expected people from Imperial to find him at his dojo and challenge him to a duel like in the movies. They took themselves way too seriously…but in reality, they’d probably forgotten about Max.  Even if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t be worth chasing him down. At least that's what he figured.

Max got ready for the day and packed some extra clothing.  This was one of his Dojo Days, as he had been starting to call them. Max left the house without even glancing at the kitchen table.  Today after work he’d be teaching.

On his way out the door, he glanced at the kitchen table–cleaned off.  No bills left there to stare at him and remind him of his problems.  He’d stopped that habit a month ago.  Now that he had more money coming in every month, he didn't feel he needed it anymore.  He still wasn't exactly ready to be spending money on extravagances, nor could he help his parents buy a house, but at least now he didn't have to worry about food. His habits of buying near-to-expiration-date pastries at the discount grocery store probably wouldn’t change, not right away, but now he didn't plan his day around it anymore.

I'm moving up in this world! Max thought.

Max was in a great mood.  So like all of his coworkers seemed to always do, he made a stop on the way to work.  Max dropped by a coffee shop and got an overpriced, overly sweet, coffee-flavored caffeine delivery system. It was delicious and made his eyeballs feel like they were shivering.

His day of work went the way it usually did, which was not too great, not too bad. If there was one advantage to his job, it was that if he didn't feel like using his brain during the day, he didn't really have to. He could think about other things. That day, he was thinking about new things he could teach his students.

There would usually be four or five people there. That was pretty good attendance, at least Max thought so. Blake and his friend Ethan were always there, as were the two ladies, Linda and Sarah. It actually worked out great that way because Max could float around between the two groups if there was any sparring or drills that day. Or he could practice by himself.

Sometimes when he'd practice, the others would stop and watch, and he wouldn't even notice until he was done with his work. Blake had told him that this random exhibition had become something of a meme. At least that's what Max took it to mean when Blake said it was “legendary.”

Finally, the day was done and Max was excited about heading to the dojo.

He finished what he needed to do, punched out, hopped in his car, and checked his gym bag next to him with his change of clothes for Western Wind. He started to drive off, but the car had barely begun rolling when suddenly the sky overhead turned red.

A moment later, the entire world took on a red haze.  Max slowed the car, staring out the windshield, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.