Shadow Boxing

Prologue: The Fallen

"Alright! Looking good!" A voice shouts. In a fairly large city there is a school prioritized for the martial arts, more specifically the art of karate. It's got a notorious nickname as the Harvard of martial arts, but not many people take this seriously. Once a prestigious school, it's now nothing more than a place where parents blow lots of money for their kids to learn this traditional art, whether it be because the kids nagged them to, or for fun, or for sport. With the current master climbing up the age ladder and becoming more limited in showing the way, a younger black belt was put to work in keeping the traditional art of karate flowing; At 19 years old, this person was Jack. "Come on, you guys can do better than that!" Unfortunately for Jack the kids rarely, if ever, listened. Some of the kids have never been disciplined by their parents, much to Jack's shock,  and others just acted like spoiled brats, throwing a tantrum when they didn't get their way.

"Things going well?" Another voice calls out. Jack looks towards the direction of the voice and sees a fellow instructor, just having emerged from the changing rooms.

"Ah, Victoria! Was wondering when you'd get here." Jack calls out. Victoria whips her long brown hair around before tying it into a ponytail and joining Jack in instructing the class.

"Are they giving you any trouble?" Victoria asks, rubbing Jack's short, black hair playfully.

"Some, not too much. We're about to do sparring." Jack replies, making sure Victoria hasn't knocked his glasses off. With that in mind, Jack puts them off to the side to make sure that nobody kicks them off during a match.

"Don't go too rough on them. Sure we have had a few problems but it doesn't give us any right to deck them." Victoria says.

"Ah don't worry I'll go easy on them, maybe." Jack says that last part quickly before dodging a punch from Victoria.

"You better." Victoria replies as she lines everyone up. It then becomes clear that there is one person that refuses to move. "Come on."

"No." She simply replies. "There is no way I'm fighting Jack."

"Oh really?" Victoria taunts. "What gives you the right to say that to your instructor?"

"I don't want to fight him, that's all." The girl replies. It's not long before the master looks up from his desk and glares icy daggers at the girl. "Fine, I'll fight him."

"And for your attitude, you'll be the first to fight him." The master calls out, making the girl groan in defeat. She then looks at her mother, who has a look of disdain on her face.

"Don't worry, I'll end this quick." The girl says to her mother. Chills run down Victoria's spine for reasons she doesn't know as the girl steps up to go against Jack.

"Are you ready?" Jack asks his student. She only cocks her eyebrow and pounds her fists together in response. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Come at me bro." The girl taunts as she gets into a fighting stance, a stance that Jack takes up a second after. The girl charges forward and throws some kicks, but Jack falls back out of range.

"Gotta keep moving!" Jack calls out as the girl wildly attacks Jack fruitlessly. He blocks every single punch and kick she throws until Jack catches her fist, and then her other. "Come on, you have so much potential inside you, you just have to unlock it!" Jack says encouragingly as he pushes his student back and he moves back himself to avoid any surprise attacks. This time, Jack charges forth, unleashing a whole array of jumping and spinning kicks that his opponent barely avoids. It's then that she spots an opening and throws the hardest side kick she can muster.

"Gotcha." She snickers to herself as Jack lets out a bloodcurdling scream of pain and collapses. The class and all the parents can only look on with horror as the master quickly stands upright, clearly startled by Jack's scream.

"What happened?! Are you okay?!" The master shouts.

"She just blew out his kneecap! We need an ambulance!" Victoria calls out.

"On it! Bring Jack over here, fast!" The master quickly shouts back. Victoria then rushes over to Jack before picking him up in a fireman's carry. The parents quickly vacate their chairs as Jack is laid down on them and one of them tosses Victoria an ice pack.

"Can you move at all?" Victoria asks.

"I can't move my left leg at all..." Jack says, his voice awfully strained.

"Master Jack!" A young voice calls out. She almost looks like a younger version of Victoria, save for the fact that her ponytail is held with a scrunchie and wears glasses as opposed to the contacts Victoria wears. A forest green belt is tied around her uniform, matching said uniform's trim.

"Gah... Julie...? ...Is that you?" Jack says as his student hugs him tight.

"Oh my gosh are you okay?" Julie asks.

"...I don't know..." Jack replies. "For all that I know... I may not be able to keep doing karate..."

"But I don't want you to go..." Julie says.

"I know... You've always been a favorite student of mine..." Jack replies. "But how am I going to keep teaching in this condition?"

"Sadly, he's right." The master says as he slowly makes his way to Jack and Julie. "Jack, you're one of my star students alongside Victoria. To lose you as an instructor would deeply hurt us all."

"I'm afraid... That's what will happen. It was an honor being here..." Jack replies, weakly shaking his master's hand as the ambulance stops itself outside the school.