The Karate School

Copyright 2003, 2003, 2004 Jeri

Yohko was coming out of The Karate School when...

Yohko jerked awake. Her face was smarting, obviously from a slap she had just received. She also heard dying echoes of the blow, confirming her hypothesis. She had a tremendous throbbing in the back of her neck. She had obviously been knocked out by a well-placed karate chop to her neck. What wasn't obvious was the reason for this. She learned within seconds.

“Well, it looks like ‘Teacher's Pet' has finally woken up.”

Yohko had heard that voice before. It was one of the girls in her karate class. She didn't remember which one.

“Well, we're gonna teach you to be the Teacher's Pet in OUR class.”

“I'm not the Teacher's Pet,” said Yohko. “I'm just the best student in the school.” That last she just thought. She knew what would happen to her if she said it out loud.

“Well then, let's see if we can take you down a notch. Girls, hows about some dummy practice?”

Yohko winced internally at the implied threat, a threat that she knew the girls would soon be carrying out.

Yohko had been raised in Japan. Born of a Japanese mother and a military father stationed in Yokota Air Base, she had learned many different martial arts when she was growing up. So she wasn't boasting when she said she was the best martial arts student in the school. And as the only one who could give her any serious competition, the teacher spent more time with her than with any of the other students. It was because of this, of course, she was known around the school as the Teacher's Pet. So when the other girl talked about her, she knew immediately what they meant.

Yohko jumped as a hard, straight punch buried itself deep into her relaxed but still taut stomach. She hadn't been expecting it, or it would have done a lot less damage. It wasn't particularly hard, but it knocked the wind from her, but only for a minute. Her gasps quickly gave way to her normal, steady breathing.

Yohko had to take anything they dished out to her. She was blindfolded. Her ankles were tied together and the rope was anchored to something on the ground. Her wrists were tied together too, and were tied up high, probably on a pipe jutting out of the brick wall she felt at her back. The ropes were pulled very tight, stretching her whole body taut.

Another punch attempted to bury itself in the middle of her stomach. And this time she was ready. Whoever it was let out a whimper as their stiff-fingered jab collapsed on her hardened stomach muscles. But after a brief pause, this was followed up by another punch combination, another set of straight punches, a hard right-left combination, with both punches impacting a little above her navel. Again, they were stopped by her hard muscles, and didn't penetrate too much. But they did sting quite a bit as they impacted. After another brief pause, this was followed by another set of punches. But this time, they were a lot harder and actually penetrated her stomach. It hurt a lot, but Yohko was able to contain her reaction. She didn't want to show that the punches were actually getting through. Maybe if they saw they couldn't hurt her, they would give up.

Yohko did not have the protection of her stiff, thick Gi to help deflect the blows. Besides being tied up and blindfolded, the karate uniform shirt and pants she had been wearing when she left the school had been removed. She still had on her panty briefs and her sports bra, the only other clothing she was wearing, but they provided no protection at all from the girls' attacks.

“Let's try some more of that. Let's try out those moves the instructor won't allow us to use in the school. He said they were too dangerous for someone as unskilled as we were to try on each other. But he let HER use them. Well, let's try them out on HER. It only seems fitting.

“And, lets keep targeting that hard little tummy of hers. I'd really like to hear her squeal some. She hasn't done any squealing so far.”

So far, Yohko had been able to deflect all their punches. Her stomach was hard from years of training. She had been training in the martial arts from the age of three, and by now, had a rock solid body. With her Japanese ancestry, she was shorter than most of the other girls. But with her incredible flexibility, again learned through those years of practice, she could still out-kick and out-punch the tallest of them. And because of her training and her body's toughness, she had been able to receive and shrug off blows that would have incapacitated any of the other students. She knew she could take any blows to her stomach that they could dish out. But she also knew she couldn't take them forever.

The girls lined up in a ragged line behind Nancy, the ringleader. She walked up to Yohko and looked her over. Stretched out tight like that, their target, her stomach, should have been concave and flat. But it was just as firm and solid and rounded as when she was in the school. And Nancy could still see her wonderfully solid and sculpted stomach muscles that flexed and writhed as Yohko breathed. Nancy decided it was her Mission that night to change that solid, tight stomach into a quivering, quaking mass of jelly that sloshed around with every one of those breaths. That would teach her to think she was so much better than they were.

And with that, Nancy set the pace for the rest of their “training” session. She started off with a front snap-kick to the middle of Yohko's small, hard stomach. The kick didn't penetrate too much. Yohko's taut stomach muscles stopped it. Yohko gasped a little, but was able to suppress the rest of her reactions.

But Nancy didn't stop. Immediately after the kick, she followed up with a methodical, cadenced set of left and right, straight punches, just like they practiced on the dummy bag in the school. Even though Nancy was a little taller than Yohko, all of her straight punches landed in the middle of Yohko's stomach.

Yohko grunted as each punch landed, grunting a little louder on each punch. These punches were pretty hard, but not the hardest she had ever taken. But with her back against the brick wall, she couldn't bend her body to absorb the punches. And they kept coming. Each one penetrated a little more than the previous one, crushing her hard stomach muscles between the penetrating fist and the solid brick wall backstop. And the rapidity of the punches gave her no time to recover. Fortunately, the punches became weaker and the cadence slower the longer they went on. It seemed that her tormentor could not keep up that level of punching for long. So eventually the pain spikes she was feeling actually receded to a level she could tolerate. The punches slowed, then stopped.

Nancy's arms were tired from the exertion she was not accustomed to. In class, they would usually spar, with a sudden flurry of punches, but no sustained punching like she had just done. She threw one final, hard punch, but knew it was not as powerful as she was capable of. And the fact that Yohko didn't even wince at the blow showed that it wasn't a good punch at all. So Nancy stopped, knowing she would have all night to continue her Mission of Destruction.

“Well, that's enough from me, for right now at least. I'll let some of the other girls try their hand at my practice dummy. I'll take a few more turns later.

“OK, it's your turn,” said Nancy as she pointed to the next girl in line.

By now, Yohko had recognized Nancy's voice. She actually didn't know her name, but she knew her by sight, and by her manner in the class. She had been able to take the punches thrown by Nancy with a lot of difficulty. She had not thought about the magnifying effect of being punched when you are tight against a solid wall, and can't give with the punches. But she still thought she could withstand the rest of the punches.

When Yohko concentrated, she could hear the girls walking around in the leaves. So when the next girl came up, she was ready for her. This girl was not too strong. She threw only weak punches that Yohko was able to deflect with only a little pain. She was aiming at the wrong places and was not punching with her knuckles, but with the flat of her fist. She was also not holding her wrist straight, so it was flexing with each punch, losing most of the punch's power. Yohko thought about how she could help this girl to throw more effective punches. And she almost laughed out loud at that idea in her current predicament. Unfortunately, Nancy also saw the weaknesses in the girl's punches.

“Stop! You're doing it all wrong. Here, let me show you. Hold your fist like this and your wrist like this, and punch straight like this.”

Yohko jumped at the sudden punch to the middle of her stomach. The sudden spike of pain overwhelmed her resolve. She gasped and groaned as the pain dissipated to a dull ache. Evidently Nancy had recovered.

“See, that's how to do it. Now you try it.”

Yohko had to admit that the other girl's punches were better. But they were still mostly ineffectual. And she tired quickly and finally gave up.

“You're still pretty bad. Let HER show you how to do it,” said Nancy as she pointed to the next girl in the line.

And Yohko hardened her stomach for the next girl she heard approach.

Yohko gasped in an explosion of air as a heavy, hard, strong fist buried itself deep in her upper stomach, and it stayed there for what seemed like an eternity. A punch that powerful, left deep in her stomach like that, it just had to be Betty. She had fought Betty before. Betty was half again Yohko's weight. And almost all of that was in muscle. But Betty was slow. Only a couple times had Betty been able to land a blow on Yohko. But for those few times, Yohko had barely been able to recover in time to deflect Betty's next blow. Betty also had a bad habit of not snapping her attack back out of range of her opponent. So Yohko was usually able to grab her wrist or ankle, then control the match from there. But there was no stopping her devastating punches now.

She had been ready for that first punch, but it had still penetrated into her muscles, crushing them against her spine. She was awash in pain from the punch. She couldn't breath, as it had driven all the air from her body. And the pain would not let her take in another breath. She didn't cry out, though she wanted to. She didn't have the breath to do that. Her whole body was frozen by the pain. Her muscles were frozen solid. She didn't have the ability to even move. And this was her undoing.

Betty, seeing what looked like no reaction to her first punch, threw another punch just as hard. But this time, she aimed higher, an uppercut deep into Yohko's solar plexus.

Yohko had not thought the pain she had been experiencing could get any worse. But when Betty's strong punch impacted on her frozen muscles and drove through them, crushing the nerve center that was her solar plexus, she knew a new level of pain that made the previous pain pale by comparison. This time she cried out in a yell, almost a scream, the new spike of pain having released her paralysis.

“Now THAT'S what I wanted to hear. But punch lower. We don't want to knock her out. At least not yet. Aim lower.”

Yohko was dazed from the punch to her solar plexus, so the next punch to the middle of her stomach met little resistance. There was only the natural firmness of her muscles. This, of course, did not impede Betty's strong fist much at all. The punch dove deep into her abdomen like a sledgehammer, compressing her stomach muscles and burying itself in the middle of her stomach. And Betty held her fist there, pushing it deeper into Yohko's small intestines, deeper into her guts.

Yohko let out a yell, though it was attenuated quite a bit by her lack of breath. The punch hit right where she was sore from the previous punches, adding exponentially to the aching soreness that was already there. It wasn't the spiking pain that had occurred during the solar plexus punch, but a deep, throbbing pain that seemed like it would linger forever.

There was another burst of pain as Betty withdrew her large fist rapidly and Yohko's stomach muscles snapped back to their accustomed shape. But she didn't have time to even think about this rebound pain, as Betty buried an identical punch to her stomach. This time, the pain came in waves, penetrating every part of her body. This time she didn't scream, she couldn't. She couldn't think about anything but the pain in her stomach. The pain dug deep into the rest of her body, as deep as Betty's fist was digging into her stomach. And this was followed by another identical punch.

Betty continued to pummel Yohko's stomach with hard left and right punches. She aimed each punch at Yohko's navel, but frequently missed her mark by a couple inches. She was treating it like a workout. With each punch, she would look at the results, where her punch had landed, how deep it had gone, how hard it had been, and then try to improve the power and placement with the next punch. When she was satisfied she could not improve on her technique, she stopped.

Yohko was in agony from the hard punches Betty had driven into her stomach. When Betty stopped, the pain went on as her tortured stomach muscles spasmed from the abuse they had been receiving. Except for those first yells, she had been silent, grunting slightly as each punch landed, and groaning a little between the punches. As the spasms of her stomach muscles died down, she whimpered and groaned at the pain in her stomach. Tears ran down her cheeks. She wasn't crying. They were tears caused by the pain her whole body was still enduring.

“Well, that was successful. We'll have to see if we can improve on that some. You're next, but try something different,” said Nancy to the next girl in line.

Yohko had been enjoying the respite from the punches, by comparison. The pain had gone from an excruciating, pulsating pain all the way down to just an intolerable, fiery, burning pain. She even tried to tighten her stomach muscles, even though this caused the pain to go back up to the previous level. She knew that her only hope of getting out of this without major internal damage was to make her stomach as hard as she could to help ward off the punches. She now knew she couldn't stop them or even deflect them. She could just cushion them, so they didn't do as much damage as they would have. Of course this meant that her outer stomach muscles would be taking the brunt of the onslaught, leaving them bruised and maybe even shredded and broken. Of course, all her planning went out the window on the next blow.

Yohko gasped as a heavy booted foot crushed forward into her stomach, just a little below the navel. But the boot was so wide, it covered a large percentage of Yohko's tiny stomach. It was a side-kick to the stomach, meant to knock your opponent backward and give you some breathing room to mount an attack. But of course since Yohko was tied tightly against a solid brick wall, the full force of the kick was delivered into her stomach.

The heavy boot dove deep into her stomach. It covered so much area that her internal organs weren't pushed out of the way like a punch would do, but were compressed under the wide expanse of the boot. Yohko could feel her organs being squeezed against her back by the boot.

The girl was obviously an expert. The kick had a lot of momentum behind it, and all the momentum was expended in Yohko's stomach. But the girl snapped her kick back just as rapidly, leaving Yohko's stomach muscles spasming from the shock. Then, the surge of pain hit her. The wide boot had covered most of the areas where she had already been punched, so these places reminded her of their soreness, all at the same time. And added to that, of course, was the new pain from the kick itself.

Yohko gasped at the pain. Once again, she was having a hard time breathing, as the heavy boot had pushed out the little remaining air from her lungs. Once again, she gasped for breath, each small gulp causing a new spasm of pain, cutting short the breath. And she didn't have time to recover, as a second kick landed in her stomach.

The second kick was a roundhouse kick to the middle of her stomach. It landed directly in her navel again. She thought they must all be targeting her deep, narrow innie of a navel, as it was the most prominent feature of her stomach. It was nestled deep between the halves of her stomach muscles, in the middle of one of the rolls of her hard, pronounced six-pack abs. It went deeply into her, splitting her stomach almost in two. The deep cleft between her abs added to this impression, so it was hard to tell where the middle line of her stomach ended and her navel began. Stretched out tightly as she was, it was a long, narrow, deep slit that looked more like a stab wound than a navel. And the deep cleft between the halves of her stomach muscles made it look like the wound went from her ribs to well below her panty line.

The second kick was precisely placed and hard. The toe of the girl's boot impacted deeply into Yohko's stomach. Yohko realized the toe of the boot was pointed, as it drove itself deep into her navel, splitting her muscles apart and impacting on her spine with a thud that Yohko both heard and felt. Yohko knew she could at least protect her stomach from most blows by tensing her stomach muscles. But there was no defense from this tactic. No matter how hard she made her stomach muscles, her navel had no protection. Any sufficiently focused attack on her navel would slide between her hard muscles and allow the attack to succeed.

Yohko screamed from the pain of the hard kick. Her stomach was still on fire from the previous devastation, but this new pain was different. The pain clawed and gnawed at her, deep in her stomach. This was the deepest pain she had ever experienced. It was not the overall pain that the other blows had caused. It was a very personal pain, centered just at the point of impact. It didn't spread over her whole body as the other punches had, but kept right where it had started. It went away quickly, but it left Yohko with a dread of this intense pain that would clutch her stomach, twist, grind and pummel it, then go away, all within seconds, leaving only its gnawing memory to keep her company.

The girl threw another kick, again to Yohko's navel. Like the first, it sunk deep into her navel, again impacting on her spine. And like the previous one, it left a trail of destruction and pain.

Again, Yohko screamed at the pain. But this time, as the pain ebbed, it was replaced by another, different feeling, a feeling that Yohko had never felt before. For the first time in her life, Yohko felt fear.

Yohko was afraid. She knew there was nothing she could do to stop the pain from those deep, hard punches. She could harden her stomach like a rock, but those pointed boots would still dive deep into her stomach, sliding easily between her hard muscles, delivering its payload of pain as if her muscles weren't even there. And this loss of control, knowing that she had no way to fight this, frightened her more than any opponent ever had. She would have begged for mercy if she had the breath to say anything at all. She would have cried, if she had any tears left. But all she could do was wheeze and gasp as the pain died down.

The girl threw another kick, precisely where the other ones had landed, with the same results. Yohko was in a panic now. She couldn't take any more of these kicks. They were tearing at her very soul. She cried out to them to stop, but all that escaped her lips was a little gurgling sound and a couple grunts.

When the next kick came, Yohko decided she was going to die. The kick buried itself in her navel, crushing and bruising her, by now, most sensitive part. The pain came in a rush, paralyzing her. It was worse than during the previous kicks. She didn't even have the strength to yell or scream as she did after the other kicks.

“I'm going to die,” she said to herself.

“You can't die from a stomach kick!” she replied.

“But it hurts so much, it feels like I'm going to die.”

“Have you ever been hurt so much before?”

“Well, there was that time I got into that fight with those boys. They beat me up pretty good.”

“And did you think you were going to die then?”

“No, I was just concentrating on the fight. I never even thought about the pain. But that was different.”

“How? They were just as set on demolishing your body as these girls are. There is no difference.”

“So?”

“So, think about what is happening to you. Think about each punch to your stomach. Savor the pain and analyze it. Think about how you could use the same tactics yourself. Try different ways of countering the blows, and determine the best ways to take each of them. This won't be the last time you'll be kicked and punched in the stomach. Use this as a training session to determine how much you can take. And once you know what it feels like, you'll be prepared for any such punches in the future. You aren't going to die. You're just practicing for a future fight, with some very tough opponents.”

“Thanks,” she said. And her fear was gone.

The girl kicked her again in the navel with her heavy boot. Yohko screamed again, and whimpered. The pain from the kick peaked deep inside her stomach. She could feel the toe of the girl's boot grinding against her backbone. The boot tip was a little rough, as if it had been scuffed. It was very pointed, but had a slightly rounded tip. The best Yohko could determine was that it was like a heavy western riding boot, with a pointed tip and a heavy heel. She didn't remember where she had seen that type of boot before, but she was sure she had seen it on one of the girls in the school. She'd have to look around after she got out of this. Maybe she could identify this girl, too.

Yohko was absorbed in trying to identify the boots and to analyze her pain of the continuing precision kicks. So the first indication she had that the girl had stopped kicking was when Nancy said, “OK, who's next?”

There was a pause, then, “Well, it looks like we've lost some of the girls. I guess they weren't that keyed up on getting their revenge as they said they were when we planned this thing. That just leaves the three of us then. OK, I guess it's my turn again.”

Nancy walked up to Yohko, hanging on the wall, still stretched out tight, her stomach an inviting target. Even with all the damage they had done to her stomach, it still looked hard. Yohko's muscles still held their shape even when they were completely lax from the torture they had been undergoing. Nancy would have to think about what she was going to do next to crush those magnificent muscles further.

Yohko jumped as Nancy's knee drove deep into the middle of her stomach. Every place she had been punched previously screamed out, as the knee re-invigorated their pain. The unexpected blow stunned her, so she only let out a grunt. And Nancy kept her knee there, twisting it and grinding it in Yohko's, by now soft, stomach.

Yohko could feel her guts squishing and sloshing as Nancy's knee twisted in her stomach. She hadn't made much of a sound as the knee landed, but she was groaning and whimpering as the knee twisted and ground into her stomach. She was relieved when Nancy withdrew her knee. But this didn't last.

Nancy aimed her next attack lower, in a region they hadn't explored so far. She lunged forward, thrusting her knee straight into Yohko's exposed, wide, flat, taut, inviting, lower belly, with all the momentum and weight of her whole body behind it.

Yohko gasped as Nancy's knee entered the weakest and most sensitive part of her body, well below her navel and just above her crotch. She had been kicked there once before when she wasn't ready for it, and that kick had incapacitated her. Though her lower stomach muscles were strong, they were much weaker than her upper abs. And in the state she was in, with her once-strong stomach muscles little more than jelly, her muscles provided no protection from the battering ram of Nancy's knee.

Yohko had long since lost the ability to cry out. She could only whimper as Nancy stood there thrusting and twisting her knee in Yohko's lower guts, trying to grind her feminine organs to a mushy pulp. The pain arising from her pelvis was so far beyond anything she had known that it wasn't really registering in her mind as pain. It was blanking her mind. With every spike of pain, her mind closed down, leaving her with little blank gaps in her memory. When Nancy removed her knee, the pain continued, as her whole body spasmed from the pain. Her stomach muscles contracted involuntarily in strong, wracking contractions that tried to bend her double, even though there was no chance of breaking the ropes to allow her body to do so. Eventually, the spasms died down to the point where her body would just convulse in a single spasm every so often. Her mind was very hazy, but was slowly clearing.

“WELL. That was pretty good. I'll try one more thing before turning you over to the next girl.”

The air burst from Yohko's lungs as Nancy drove her knee again into her stomach, but this time up under her ribs, into her solar plexus. Yohko couldn't get any air into her lungs. She could only hang there with her mouth open, trying to get her body to suck in some much-needed oxygen. But her body would not comply with her wishes. So from the lack of oxygen and the pain from the last two knees, Yohko slowly passed out.

Over the next few hours, Yohko drifted in and out of consciousness. She would usually awake to a strong stomach punch of some kind, indicating they were continuing their torture even while she was unconscious.

She didn't remember too much of what occurred. She remembered that Nancy had been up to bat at least seven times. She remembered a couple more punches to her lower stomach. She remembered many punches, kicks and knees to the middle of her stomach and many more to her upper, stronger stomach. She distinctly remembered the two punches to her solar plexus because they both put her out again. She didn't remember the possibly hundreds of punches hey had thrown to her stomach while she was unconscious.

Yohko wasn't feeling the punches individually any more. She had a general pain all over her stomach, the level of pain making her mind cloudy. Her stomach was on fire. But each new punch only raised the general pain level a fraction. She was able to tell that she had been punched, but not where or how hard.

Nancy and Betty were panting and sweating as much as Yohko was. They had been going at this for hours, much longer than any of them were used to in The Karate School.

“Well. I guess it's about time to end this. Vana, put her out so's I can untie her and take her blindfold off. That way, we can get away before she sees us.”

Yohko marveled at Nancy's denseness. There was no Vana in the school, so she must be from outside, possibly from another school.

Vana stepped up to her. She snapped a hard punch straight to Yohko's solar plexus. The punch dove deep into her stomach, compressing her softened muscles, flaming organs and pulsating nerve clusters against her spine. If the punch was any weaker than any of the other punches Vana had thrown that night, Yohko couldn't feel it. The punch made her mind a little cloudier, but did not put her out. Evidently, Vana had been expecting this, as she immediately threw another punch to the precise same point with her other fist. She continued this with a practiced cadence as Yohko got weaker and weaker.

Yohko had been studying Vana's technique throughout the night. She was strong. She was practiced. She was precise. She was athletic. She had endurance. She had a wicked punch. She seemed professional.

Yohko's last thought before passing out was, “I'd really like to fight her. I wonder how I can get her into The Karate School?”

By Jeri