The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

226 Damn Witch

“That’s right.” Rachel nodded. “Even, I who always rely on fists, sometimes have to use my legs strength if the opponent is physically too big. It’s the same as my experience when fighting Troy last time. His body was like a cloak of armour that my fists couldn’t penetrate. I almost died at his hands.”

“That.. sounds terrible,” Poppy said with a worried expression.

“We should always avoid danger, but that doesn’t mean danger can’t touch us. When that happens, we must have the ability to save ourselves. That’s the goal of martial arts.” Emma said.

Ballet did look graceful. But basically, it took some inner strength to do it. What made ballet dancers able to move and jump as if their bodies were as light as feathers? In fact, a very thin person was not always able to jump as high as them. That was because they had huge strength packed in a pretty shell.

The body that had been trained made Poppy and Kathy easily passed the first stage. Emma was not surprised by the abilities of her two friends. It was because she had mastered both: Ballet and self-defence. Both of them needed internal power to do it. Holding your own body weight was not an easy thing if you were just an ordinary adult who rarely trained your muscles.

“Do you know the similarities between dancing, playing musical instruments, and martial arts?” Emma asked.

“Equally tiring?” Kathy answered with her hands on either side of her waist. Sweat dripping down her forehead.

“That’s right,” Emma replied. “But there’s more than that. It was your brain’s ability to focus on more than one activity. That’s what I call body awareness. When you dance, your legs and arms have to make different movements while your brain focuses on the music playing. When playing music, your hands or even your feet have to do different things at the same time. That’s also what happens when you do martial arts. Your feet and hands do different things and you have to focus on each part of your body. Plus, all your senses have to be alert and your brain must think fast on the incoming attack.”

Kathy nodded approvingly. “I remember the first time I learned ballet. I had a hard time following the movements. When I focused on the feet, I forgot about the hands. When I focused on the hands, I forgot about the feet. Who says that dancing is easy, anyway? It’s not easy at all when you have choreography to follow,”

.....

Emma snapped her fingers. “You got my point, Kathy. Martial arts aren’t just about hitting or kicking because everyone can do it. Martial arts are both a technique and a skill. Therefore, people who can only hit will be easily defeated by the opponent who masters martial art techniques.” She explained while pulling out a large wooden doll that looked like a tree trunk in winter that had lost its leaves. It was Mok Yan Jong.

With that tool, Emma taught the basic techniques of Kung Fu to her three friends. After that, she taught some basic Taekwondo techniques.

Kathy and Poppy were able to keep up with all of Emma’s training because they already had the three basic things needed. In the future, they only needed to increase their strength and speed.

In that gorgeous building, without anyone noticing, not only ballet developed inside. It was the martial arts that made the masked girls strong. It was a building that secretly would change the future of Handway City.

***

A girl was dancing alone in a ballet classroom. She was still wearing a crop tee and black leggings. Each time she raises her hands, a little abstract tattoo that formed a swan symbol appeared on her back hip.

Suddenly, the big door of the classroom opened, followed by three girls who entered with rough steps. Their faces looked displeased and one of them looked about to cry.

“Bitch instructor!” The girl with a red face and teary eyes growled.

Emma, ??who was practising, then stopped what she was doing and looked at the three girls with a confused face. They were Britney, Linda, and Cecil. Emma approached them.

“Hey..” She greeted them with a confused face.

“Oh.. You’re here, Emma?” Britney replied.

“Did.. something happen?” Emma asked carefully.

Cecil nodded. “That Ms. Tania threatened to void Linda’s extra class grade because she refused to do that woman’s too much work.”

Ah.. Emma didn’t even know that now it was a girl named Linda who had become Poppy’s replacement as Ms. Linda’s assistant. No wonder that in the end, they got into a fight. Of all the people Emma had met, she felt Poppy was the most patient creature in the world.

“You’ve always been with Poppy, haven’t you? Was Ms. Tania abusing Poppy before?” Linda asked with an angry face.

Emma rubbed her neck before nodding. “That’s the reason Poppy was eventually fired as her assistant. Even since then, Ms. Tania has always given the four of us bad scores,”

“Damn it! If I had known that she was a rogue instructor, I wouldn’t have accepted her offer to become an assistant. I think that by becoming her assistant, she’d add value to me.” Linda muttered.

“You guys have come?” Poppy’s voice made the four girls turn their heads.

Unbeknownst to them, Poppy and Kathy had entered the classroom and approached them. But the happy look on the faces of the two girls immediately changed when they realized the tension that was in the middle of their classmates.

“What happened?” Kathy asked directly.

Then Cecil explained what happened between Linda and Ms. Tania.

“That damn witch is acting up again,” Kathy shook her head as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“That’s the exact same thing she did to me,” Poppy said with a long sigh.

“Can we make a petition to change instructor? I’m fed up with that bitch. Her ballet skills are average too. I wonder how someone like her could become an instructor at this university.” Britney said.

“I heard she was able to do it because of her ties to one of Jardin’s officials,” Cecil replied.

“That’s right. That’s why we can’t get rid of her from here either,” Kathy nodded.

“I’m really fed up with her. If she’s not going to give me grades, I’d better get out of this class!” Linda growled.

“Linda.. But you love Ballet, don’t you? You even persuaded us to choose this class as an extra class,” Britney said.

“If you leave, then I will too. Let that woman feel this class has no students because of her bad personality!” Cecil added.

“Hey.. hey.. are you guys seriously going to do this? If this class is short of students, then the class will be closed.” Kathy said.

“Like I care,” Linda replied.

“We’re only three girls. It wouldn’t have any effect on this class, would it?” Britney shrugged.

“Imagine if thirty people thought like that. This class would be empty because of it.” Emma answered with a worried face.

“There has to be another way, girls. Don’t just because of one instructor like her, this university will lose its ballet class,” Poppy said slowly.

Linda looked straight at Poppy with narrowed eyes. “Of course, there is another way. You have a Ballet studio, don’t you? I’ll continue my Ballet training at your place. You’re much more talented and professional than that damn witch.”

“It’s not that, but..” Poppy suddenly stopped her sentence when the classroom door opened and revealed Ms. Tania from behind it.

The woman with the peevish face walked over arrogantly. She sarcastically glanced at the group of girls and chuckled. “The rebels are gathering. How funny,” She muttered to herself in a voice a little louder for the girls to hear.

“Prepare a space for us in your class, Poppy,” Linda said as she stood up.

“This class will lose three students,” Cecil added with a weak shake of the head.

“This is bad news,” Emma muttered as she looked at her two friends in turn.

Poppy nodded. “This is what you’re afraid of, isn’t it Emma?”

“At least you got three extra students for your tutoring place, Pops. Congratulation,” Kathy said by taking a deep breath and exhaling furiously.

“I never thought of teaching my own classmate,” Poppy looked doubtful.

“You’re very talented, Poppy. You have to believe in yourself. A teacher shouldn’t hesitate.” Emma rubbed Poppy’s shoulder.

Poppy smiled as she looked at her best friend. “Thanks, Emma.”

“By the way, where’s Rachel?” Kathy asked, looking around.

“She’s taking a nap in the infirmary,” Emma answered.

“She’s doing that again? Did she overwork again?” Kathy asked.

Emma shook her head. “She said she helped her grandma last night with the cake orders for this morning because the oven was broken.”

At the last minute before class started, the figure of a tall girl finally appeared. Rachel walked casually while glancing at Ms. Tania sarcastically. The woman couldn’t argue with Rachel’s arrival because she wasn’t late. Everyone knew that the witch had a wish that Rachel would be late. She was like a crocodile waiting for its prey to drink by the river.

“Thank goodness you were on time, Rachel,” Poppy said with a sigh of relief.

Kathy laughed and patted Rachel on the shoulder. “Good job, Rachel. I know you did it on purpose to piss off the witch,”

Rachel laughed lightly as she nodded once. It was true that she did that on purpose. She did have her own way of expressing her annoyance.

“You know what. Just now, for the first time, I saw Marcel Douglas sleeping in the infirmary.” Rachel said as she opened her locker door.

“Really?” Kathy and Emma said at the same time.

Rachel nodded. “I didn’t say hello. And he didn’t seem to notice I was there either.”