Mac drove us around campus in a golf buggy and we stopped in front of a traditional Japanese-style building, "This building is new, one of our pupils uncovered a fraud involving fake medicine, she saved hundreds of lives and billions of yen for a Japanese drug company. The Japanese thanked us by paying for a new dojo," He nods at the building, I opened my mouth, "Ooooh, and that's the training hall I'm guessing?" I ask, he nods, we stepped inside, thirty kids were wearing white robes tied with a black or brown belt, they were sparring, twisting each other into painful positions before spring effortlessly back up. A Japanese lady walking along, inspecting each one of them, criticising them in a combination of Japanese and English, he took me into another side room with springy blue matting. A small kid was standing in the middle stretching, around five foot eight, much taller than me. "Take your shoes and socks off," Mac said, "Have you done martial arts before?" He asks, I shake my head, "None at all, I'm kinda rubbish when it comes to throwing hands," I chuckle a little, "This is Bruce, he's going to spar with you," He walks up to me, bows and holds his hand out, "Nice to meet you, you're too pretty for me to hurt, you're kidding right Mac?" He leans down a little to my face, I flinch and lean back a bit, "Rules, the first to win five submissions is the winner, an opponent can submit by speaking or tapping their hand on the mat, either opponent can withdraw from the bout at any time, you can do anything to get a submission except hitting the testicles or eye-gouging. Do you both understand?" Mac's voice boomed, we both nodded, "Here, you're going to need this," Bruce hands me a gum shield, "Wait... what?" I gulp, "And who's is this?" I ask, "Mine," He smirks, I gag and run over to the bubbler to rinse it quickly before putting it into my mouth, "Stand two metres apart and prepare for the first bout." We go onto the blue matting, "I'm sorry dark, I promise I'll make it up to you, Friday night, cafeteria," He smirks, "Wow, so romantic," I force out, slurring the words because of the gum shield, "Fight." Mac says, I didn't even realise, the palm of his hand at my nose, a fine mist of blood sprayed as I stumbled back, he swept his feet from under me, he laid on my back and held my wrist in a painful lock, "Ow, ow, ow! Stop! I submit!" I smack the ground, he let go of me, I wiped my nose with my arm, blood smeared across my face. We stood back up, "Wait, which hand do you write with?" Mac asks, "My right? Why?" I turn to him, "Nevermind, okay. Fight." He says, Bruce lunges towards me again, I felt him pick me up and slam me on the ground again, he got on top of me and grabbed my left thumb, pressing and twisting it until we heard a pop, "AGH!" I scream out in pain, "I really don't wanna mess up that pretty face of yours but if you don't submit I'll bash your nose again!" He spits his gum shield out, "I submit," He gets off me and lets me go, "Ready, fight." Mac says again, Bruce spun me around and made me slam onto the mat face down, he grabbed my arm, "Please submit, I'm gonna break your arm if you don't." He presses my arm more, I wince in pain, I know I can't deal with a broken arm, "I submit, please get off me, I give up." I whisper, he does, we stand back up and he holds his hand out, I look at him with a 'really' face, "You just broke my thumb, how can I shake your hand?" I ask, he gestures for me to give him my hand, "I only dislocated it, it's gonna hurt okay?" He puts his thumb on my joint and pressed down until we heard another pop, "Jesus Christ!" I buckle my knees in pain, he chuckles, "You think that hurts? Once I got my leg broken into nine different parts," He laughs, "You think this is funny?" I pant, "Aww~ Do you want me to kiss it better?" He puts on a baby voice, "Nah, I'm good," I take my hand back and laugh, he pretends to throw a tantrum, "Well, are you ready for your next test?" Mac asks, I slowly nod.
I was passed a few tissues to stop my bleeding nose, "A simple intelligence test, combination of verbal and mathematical skills. You have forty-five minutes," Mac sits at the front of the room and I take a seat in a chair, I looked at the paper, "Begin," He looks at his watch, they started off easy, basic questions, I furrow my brows, usually they wouldn't be too bad but the throbbing pain from my thumb and nose were driving my head in, by the end, I left three pages uncompleted. When my nose finally stopped bleeding Mac took me to the cafeteria, I had a few people say can't talk to orange as I walked past them, it was crowded, I was passed a lasagne block and was asked to head up to Mac's office, "Do you like chicken?" He asks and looks at my plate of lasagne, "Yeah, I guess so, why wouldn't I?" I sit down, there was a small cage with a chicken in it, "Would you like to eat this chicken? Its friend is on your plate," He points at the chicken with his eyes, "No, I'd eat the chicken in the lasagne but I don't wanna kill that one, it's still alive." I protest, "Are you saying you'd go vegetarian?" He asks, "No, that's not what I said," I push the plate away slightly, "Nat, I want you to kill the chicken, I'm not discussing what the tests mean until you finish them all, just kill the damn chicken," He hands me a biro, "You're insane right? How on earth do I kill a chicken with a biro?" I look at the pen and then at the chicken, "Stab it with the tip of the pen just below the head and it should sever the main artery down the neck and cut thought the windpipe to stop the bird breathing. It should be dead in about thirty seconds and point the chicken's bum away from you, the shock will make it empty it's bowels quite violently," He passes the chicken to me, I gulped and twisted the chicken away from me and stabbed its neck, I cringe at the sound it made and I felt the warm blood trickle down my fingers and in seconds it was dead.
