Amamiya Brothers: LIVING STRONG

CHAPTER #11

[Some Violence]

For the next few days, they worked on getting into a routine. The days turned into a week and no thugs came. It was possible that no one knew where they were. But they couldn't become complacent, because that would leave them vulnerable if threat did come. The game room and theatre were popular areas to relax in. The brothers and twins also used the gym and pool often. For the Chiba Twins it was paradise, after living in the slums for so long, prior to meeting the Amamiya Brothers. Eventually Saigo let them interact with the two they were protecting. The snitches were shy and overly paranoid, still mostly keeping to them selves.

To relieve boredom Masaki trained the twins on gun and knife defence, which also supplemented their moves for dealing with bats or metal bars. Hiroto was usually the attacker, but he also helped explain the moves. Noriko knew more about the book techniques, but not real life implementation. When it was their dad teaching, Asuga rarely was able to remain motivated to stay focused and learn or practice. Saigo lent his gun to Masaki, after removing the bullets from the clip and chamber, so the girls weren't accidentally injured.

"For all types of defence against weapons there are two key rules to remember: stay out of the way and expect the unexpected. As you know Noriko, just because you know what to do, doesn't mean it will happen that way. Stay calm. Expect to be cut a few times, when trying to disarm a knife." Masaki attacked Hiroto with the butter knife they were using as a prop.

"Can you slow it down? It seems like this kind of training is like you're on autopilot Hiroto." Asuga complained, unable to follow the movements.

Masaki scolded, "if you can't see it, you can't defend against it." Still he went at his brother slower. "Each time Hiroto first gets out of the line of danger. The best way is controlling your attacker's arm. Don't try to do too much at once, handle the problem at hand, which is the knife."

"Strikes to the throat, when you are close enough, can damage their trachea and disrupt their breathing. This means you need to be arms length away and they might still be able to cut you." Hiroto didn't hit Masaki, but demonstrated the move. "Use your elbow, it's one of the hardest parts of your body and solid bone. The most power is striking forward with it."

They continued and the sisters practiced on each other, switching up who was defending or attacking, so both could learn the movements. Masaki and Hiroto would stop them and either correct or explain a more efficient way to fight. Once the knife defence became fast and smooth, they diverged into gun defence.

Hiroto explained, "most guys who use knives, guns and bats or iron pipes, don't know how to actually fight. If you take their weapon away from them, you've got a good chance of beating their asses."

"Just for the record, when I got shot, there was no other option available, except to protect Hiroto with my body. His life is more important than mine," Noriko stated simply.

Masaki stopped the training immediately, almost angry at her for saying that. "That's not true, everyone's life matters. You can't help someone else, if you can't help yourself. I thank you saving him, but it was stupid."

Hiroto had once tried to talk to Noriko about this thought before, and knew how stubborn she got. "We all should wear the vests Saigo got us, all the time, especially on patrol."

"Yeah, I bet most of the thugs aren't expert marksmen. " Asuga agreed, trying to defuse the situation between her man and sister.

It was during their practice session, that Saigo came and advised that in two weeks, the court date had been set and the witnesses would be transported to the courthouse. Once they'd been delivered safely, the job would be over and they would get paid.