Childhood Backstory
Part 4Near Shotoken Dojo, Japan
Late spring of 1974
Somewhere upon a field of blue, red and yellow flowers, the sound of two kids sparring fill the air. After a week or two of searching they eventually discovered the entrance to this place (but that’s another unwritten story).
The result of which made ChunLi helped Ryu with whatever chores that Ryu was assigned to just so they could get chores over with and come here to spar. And sparring became the main activity over kite flying and searching for that hut which may or may not exist out of a certain well known (to RCL at least) story (Legacy’s Tale).
Today was no different from any other day except the sparring sessions had gotten faster and more furious. ChunLi had been pushing herself harder in the fight against Ryu. All because the older boy told her not to hold back in her attack.
And so as he shoots towards her with a flying fist, she mustered all the strength that she had and responded with a roundhouse kick. And that caught him with a bone cracking ‘whump!’ in the chest and sent him flying some distance over the field.
ChunLi screamed and rushed towards the unconscious boy, holding him close, calling out his name and begging him to answer her. After a tearful minute or so, the boy’s eyelids flutter open much to the frightened girl’s relief.
"Gomen! I’m sorry!!! Gomen gomen gomen! I’ll never kick anybody so hard again! Gomen!" She wept, clinging to the mildly groggy boy who thought he was seeing double. Holding him so tight had made his bruised chest ache, he suspected that she probably cracked one of his ribs or two. The only other thing he could think of was the strength of that kick.
"Kick hard." He managed to cough out, garnering her attention.
"Always kick hard. Kick harder and become stronger."
She was looking at him as if the kick had damaged his head instead. But he smiled in a goofy manner at her to assure her that he was only hurting in the ribs. With her help, he limped over to their picnic basket.
"Never hold back if you want to be stronger. You have strong legs. Kick hard!"
"Even against you?" she asked in disbelief. He answered seriously with a nod. Even drinking water was hurting him.
"You sound like Daddy." She wiped the perspiration off his forehead.
"Is that so?"
"Daddy said that because I’m a girl, there will be people who will want to bully me. And because my legs are trained to be strong I must always kick hard because my life depends on these legs." She told him, even though she was not sure what her father had meant. The boy was silent and thoughtful in consideration of her words.
"True, true. Much wisdom in those words." He nodded like a martial arts sage and it made her laugh.
"Becoming stronger is the way to improve oneself. In becoming stronger we honor the effort put in by our opponent. That’s why you must not hold back. Because when you hold back, you limit yourself and may get hurt as well. I want to see you at your full strength so never hold back." The boy said with wisdom beyond his age and she was watching him with a certain kind of admiration . As if somehow his way of saying makes more sense to her.
"I will be become the strongest woman in the world when I grow up!" she said kicking the air.
"And I will gladly accept her challenge." He winced, still unable to get up.
"Then you too must not hold back or I will kick your butt then like I kick your butt today." She laughed, unleashing a few kicks just mere inches away from his face as if to prove her point.
The thought that those legs to her are like these fists to him. He can’t wait to grow up and challenge the might of those legs (ignore the pokes). But now these fists need to get back to the dojo as these ribs are hurting very much.