The Red Nights - Volume 1 Chapter 18 Where Is He?

Early in the morning when Natasha woke up she firstly thought to go saying goodbye to Jamal, but after meditating on it she concluded that it would be better if she didn’t go as she knew that seeing him leaving would make her emotional side taking the lead , she would beg him to let her accompany him or she would just decide to sneak and follow him in secret in case of rejection.

Instead, she made up her mind, jumped out from her bed and she started her morning practice ; some push-ups and abs . After she finished her workouts she went to the bathroom. In additional, it took about 45 minutes to be fully prepared, she was wearing her usual sport clothes, sleeveless Tshirt, mini legging and sport shoes. She took her knife which was laid on her table and put it in its pocket.

[ Well , time to go ] she said to her reflection on the mirror .

She passed by Matteo’s room and seeing that the door was still locked she didn’t insist. The day before Lina mentioned that starting that day it would be assigned to him a lot of work, so it was better for him to have a good rest as she knew the hell it was to work with Lina .

At the kitchen she took an apple and her special drink a cup of ginger tea . After she finished her quick breakfast she left the house . As she left the motorbike at the factory , she didn’t have other choice but to walk to the factory, there she would take the motorbike and head to the city barrier and some minutes after she would reach it .

She was convinced, when she arrived, that there would be no any case of crossing however as Jamal taught her to always be prudent and cautious , so she decided to not overlook it . She took a little while to inspect all the barrier but as she had thought along the whole barrier there was no sign of crossing.

She went back to the control post and she restarted the security system , then she moved outside to start her training of the sword.

She picked her knife , held it before her with her two hands, she slowly took a fighting stance . It was what Jamal called ‘ the opening position ‘ , the one fighters would take to show to their opponents that they were ready for the fight , then she focused and transformed the little knife into her long katana. As its usual flames firstly appeared on the blade of the knife , they grew slowly along it until the shape of the knife changed into the katana.

On the first half of her training time, she was repeating the basics and other techniques she already knew in order to heat her body , then on the other half she tried to reproduce some complicated moves and combos Jamal showed her.

There were more than one hundred moves and more than 80 combos . He told her that once she would improve more her mastery of the sword , she would be able to create her own combos but before that she should firstly get in her mind the series of basic techniques and let her body get use to them.

That was what she did, for a about three hours she repeated again and again the sword techniques Jamal showed her, and after those hours she found out that she had already assimilated almost all of them. It remained a dozen other moves , the most complicated, that needed a little more time for her to be able to reproduce them . But at that moment she decided that it was enough and it was the time to pass on the other the other part of the training, the combat simulation.

The last time they trained together Jamal started by the combat simulation and he didn’t take the time to show her some moves, however at the end he confessed to her that normally they should have done the opposite , because it’s during the simulation she could unleash herself and test all the techniques she learned .

So she held her Katana straight, took again a combat stance, the opening position and closed her eyes to start the visualization. In fact the combat simulation consisted to create a situation of duel , but since she was all alone for that training without any partner, she had to imagine almost all the situation like the form and the equipment of her imaginary foe to the way that foe would fight. From the outside it might look like she was fighting against the air , but within her mind it would look like an intensive combat against a formidable opponent.

Since it was her imagination which was working the moves of her foe were more expended and might look faster than hers and her body was finding difficulties to follow the rhythm and there was all the benefit of that training, which was somehow better than to train with a real partner. She had to make her body being able to respond quickly to her mind and being able to move exactly in the way she had been visualizing in her imagination.

When Jamal explained to her that concept of the simulation she thought that, with the help of her exceptional body , it would be easy to respond no matter whether it was in terms of speed or execution . But at that moment she was on practice , she didn’t feel like it was easy at all . After one hour and half she was already totally exhausted, [ I have to work on my stamina to improve it too ] she noted for herself .

She rested a little while, then she went to lock the control post and she headed back to her home. When she arrived at the core of the city she realized that she didn’t have much time left before the course she had to give to the other youngsters, [ I certainly a bit overdid it what I am late ] she concluded [ well , I didn’t want to go there dressed like this but it seems that I don’t have any choice ] . She continued so on the direction of the gymnasium.

As she expected, she found that everyone was already there . She also noticed that they took the initiative to start the warmups in waiting for the teacher.

Karen was the first one to see Natasha coming in, she immediately stopped what she was doing to run toward her by screaming her name . She jumped on her arms and hugged her while all the sights were turning toward them.

” I missed you ” Karen said to Natasha.

She was a bit embarrassed as she disliked being the center of the attention, ” you don’t think you are overreacting, we saw each other yesterday ” she responded kindly to Karen .

” But it doesn’t change the fact that I missed you ” she replied, when she released her from the hug she started to look here and there behind Natasha as if she was looking for someone, she was about to ask the question when someone in the crowd overtook her .

” Hey Nat’ , where is Jamal? It’s not like him to be late ” said a boy in the crowd, about 17 years old.

All the others beside him started to blab about where was Jamal and few seconds later the gymnasium became too noisy. Natasha stepped forward and shouted loudly ” shut up! ” and immediately the calm returned , she gazed at one to another before she resumed ” I have an announcement that I would want to share with you . First of all…” she paused “… Jamal won’t come today either tomorrow, to say the truth you will not be able to see him before one week ” .

The noses of the crowd were returning when Natasha quickly rose her hand to calm them down, she pointed a girl who was rising her hand as to ask the permission to talk, she stepped forward and asked ” where is he ? Did he get injured? ”

” Don’t worry, he just got a mission to do from our mayor and he was obligated to momentarily leave the city but as I have said he will be back the next week ” Natasha responded , she gave the talk to another girl in the crowd.

” So should we consider that from now on you will be the one who will replace him in his daily tasks… even patrolling the barrier? ”

Natasha nodded ” yes it’s exact ” .

” Will you be alright ? I mean … we all know that Jamal’s job is far to be easy but he still finds some time to care about us ”

[ but during this little period it will turn out to be easy though , as no one among the outlaws will come over here until the next week ] Natasha said to herself.

” You don’t have to worry, anyone of you. I will try my best to fulfill all his duties and to take care of you and this town until he comes ” she responded loudly, however she knew that mere answer would not be enough to satisfy them and they would remain worried until the town’s guardian in whom they believed so much came back.

However Natasha didn’t intend to give up just because she was not the one people reclaimed, she would anyway do her job in the best way she was able to do ” if you don’t have any other questions, we would start the training” she paused and seeing that there was no other objection she said ” So here we go, start by taking your position, we will do as usual “.

It was obvious that some of them were slightly reluctant to obey, but she couldn’t help , however after a moment of hesitation, at the final they all obeyed to her order to take their marks what made her smiling in her heart.

[ Now the course can finally begin ] she thought .

She gave her the lessons and even though it was not as dynamic as when they were with Jamal, she still managed to make them work and reproduce the techniques again and again in order to suppress their mistakes on the executions until they finished the course.