Going Beyond

Under Gracie's instruction Johan did a variety of high intensity drills and exercises. He skipped, did push ups, squats, interval sprints, hit the heavy bag, hit pads and much more. The workout pushed Johan and he learn't many new ways to use his hands while hitting pads. Furthermore, he learn't the names of strikes he'd used before, but didn't classify, such as jabs, straights, hooks, and uppercuts. In addition to this, Gracie introduced him to how boxers move, the purpose of stances, and importance of keeping his hands up protecting his face.

"Hombre," muttered Gracie, "you got potential. It is clear to me that your physical conditioning ain't bad. You still look fresh and we just finished our first session. You do good work."

Johan wiped sweat from his forehead.

"Thanks," said Johan, "I learn't a lot."

Deep down, Johan knew what Gracie dubbed as 'potential' was the result of years of hard work and time he'd put in with Neil exercising while they were in the pit. It wasn't raw talent, but the results of unseen training and consistency.

"You deserve to rest," said Gracie, "you worked hard today. Tomorrow we will pick up the intensity. You are going to feel that workout tonight. Especially, since we use gravity generators to increase workout difficulty and better condition our fighters."

It suddenly made sense to Johan why he'd felt heavier at Chris's and this gym. In this world they had devices that could control gravity.

Gracie turned and walked away.

"Hey," said Johan, "when do I get to start sparring to apply what I learn?"

Grace stopped walking and without looking back, said, "Eager hombre? Give it a week. First lets see how you feel after a week of my training program. If you can keep up, this was just a taste today."

Gracie then continued to walk away as Johan watched him thoughtfully. At the same time, Guang Chong came out of a back room, walked to Johan and tossed him a bar and bottle of water.

"That's your first meal for today, I'll leave your lunch and dinner in your room later," said Guang Chong, "good job cleaning. You earned your food."

Johan nodded, and decided it was time to check out the other gyms.

Johan went into the storage room closed his eyes and spread his perception, he found a gym close by that interested him. At this gym, they had a large room with many students grappling. Johan left the gym navigating the alleys at a jog and soon came to a gym called,

LGK MMA

Upon entering the building, he felt the strength of gravity increase and realised that gravity generators were the norm in most gyms in Looking Glass Kingdom.

He walked into the lobby and and saw several people wearing gis, rolling on the floor inside an open door behind a lobby counter. A man sitting at the counter was staring at a computer screen. He looked up at Johan and said, "I haven't seen you around here before, interested in Looking Glasss Kingdom Ju jitsu?"

"Yeah," said Johan nodding, "but I've never tried it before."

"That's fine," said the man, "I'm Justin. You're lucky because we are new and there is a program going on. As long as you have no criminal records, the government of the Looking Glass Kingdom is trying a crime and health care cost reduction program. All law abiding people gain free memberships this month to gyms. It is government paid."

Johan couldn't believe it. His luck seemed to be picking up.

"I want to join," said Johan.

Justin smiled and said, "put your hand on this scanner pad so we can check your record."

Johan put his hand on a green hand print on the table, and there was a beep. Justin looked at his computer screen and said, "Your record is clear and have been registered by your mana print! What's your name so I can associate it with your mana signature?"

"Johan Flint"

Justin typed Johan's name into the computer and took out a blue gi, from a box under his table.

"Here is your gi and your white belt," said Justin, "we provide one for all our members, but it on and feel free to join in the orientation class in an hour. Drop it off at the end of class, we will wash it."

Johan nodded, went into the room where people were grappling and changed into his gi.

Watching the people grapple, he saw numerous submissions that he and Neil hadn't thought of during their training sessions. However, he was able to understand what they were doing because his grappling foundation had been formed naturally, through trial and error.

Soon, Johan experienced his first real grappling class. A black belt led them through a series of warm up exercises, and soon they were rotating with different grappling partners sparring. Johan found himself being dominated and constantly submitted. But by communicating and getting tips from his numerous partners, he learn't the names of moves, some of which he'd used before, and some of which he'd never heard of:

Americana, kimura, omoplata, rear naked choke, bow and arrow choke, sleeve choke, guillotine, x choke, knee bars, bicep slicer, calf slicer, and different ways to apply them and more ... (Author Note: Google this to learn neat moves from Brazilian Ju Jitsu! It is cool stuff!)

Slowly, within the two hour long class, Johan learn't more and more from his various partners and felt that his grappling had benefited a lot from the class. Yet, he didn't manage to get a submission on any of the grapplers. But, he was able to remember the moves clearly. Absorbing copious amounts of mana in the labyrinth had improved his memory.

Johan stayed for the class after which consisted of kick boxing. Here he was able to apply some of the things he'd learn't from Gracie. They did light sparring, much like he'd done when sparring with Neil. In this class Johan learn't the names of more moves he'd used without classifying in the past, like push kick, round house kick, side kick, and more.

By the time Johan left the gym, he was exhausted. He had worked out for six hours that day going at a consistently high pace. His muscles were screaming in agony, but he knew he still had to clean the gym before going to sleep. Apon getting back to Slum Gym, he found it empty. He quickly cleaned the gym and went back to his room. To his pleasant surprise there were four meals left for him. Two small meals seemed to be from Guang Chong as payment for cleaning the gym. The other two were medium and were from Gracie, and on them was a note. The note read:

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Hombre,

to get strong, eating right and resting well are important. I prepared these meals to make sure you get everything you needed in order to get stronger for tomorrow's training. Eat well, and sleep, I'll wake you tomorrow and we'll start the day with running.

- Gracie

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Happily, Johan gobbled down all the food, yet after he was done, he still felt hungry. He felt that although it was a lot of food, it wasn't as nourishing as the food he'd obtained in the labyrinth. Johan opened a food box that he'd had in his bag from the department store in the labyrinth and ate half of the food cubes in it. Eating it in combination with meals from Gracie and Guang Chong seemed to increase their effectiveness and he felt the food nourishing his muscles.

Johan collapsed into a slumber after finishing his meals.

That night Johan dreamt. The memories from his future self were trying to order themselves. Make themselves clearer to him. He saw himself climbing out of the pit, being taken to Slum Gym, and training with Gracie, sparring and eventually fighting Kimura's chosen fighter. He got badly beaten to the point of being hospitalized. The opponent had been quick, ruthless and Kimura had laughed at Johan's inability to keep up. In his dream Johan trained every time he'd lost after he healed and sparred countless hours in order to improve relentlessly, each time getting stronger and stronger, and after ten years became one of the strongest people at the gym because of shear willpower and determination.

"Johan!," yelled Gracie.

Johan rooted for himself to fight more. He saw the years of blood and sweat invested by his future self to become strong at this gym. Johan felt himself being shaken. Johan opened his eyes to see Gracie kneeling over him.

"Hombre," said Gracie, "Now the real training starts, we can't slack, we only got a month to prepare, 29 days before the fight with Kimura's much more experienced fighter. You cannot slack, or you will be hurt."

Johan jumped to his feet and shook off his exhaustion. His dream had been a warning and if he was going to avoid the outcome he saw in his future, he'd have to train twice as hard.

"I'm up," said Johan.

"How are you feeling?," asked Gracie. "Sore?"

Johan stretched to find he wasn't sore at all and was feeling surprisingly stronger. He realised the food from the Labyrinth must have accelerated his recovery. However, in order to not rouse suspicion, Johan nodded, saying, "I am sore, but it isn't unbearable. Let's work and beat this guy."

During training, Johan realised something different had to be done, because, even with his experience in the Labyrinth, he knew a win was not guaranteed. But now he knew three things in advance about the fight:

1) He knew who the person was that he'd be fighting

2) He knew how they would fight

3) He knew with his current approach he'd lose

He finished his training with Gracie without issue. This time they'd trained three hours. Gracie bid him adieu and Johan headed off to the MMA gym.

Today he did a kickboxing and Ju Jitsu class again. In the Ju Jitsu class they were taught submissions that involved using a person's gi to strangle them. It was something Johan had never seen or thought of before.

"Using your environment and what your opponent is wearing to your advantage," muttered Johan thoughtfully.

Johan had come up with an idea that would help him win the fight.

Day after day Johan consistently push himself to the limit and it became clear that he was improving as he started to get more and more submissions during grappling sparring. When Gracie was holding pads for him to hit, periodically, Gracie'd strike out with the pad in order to get Johan accustomed to being hit back. Progressively Johan was anticipating the strikes and blocking, parrying or dodging them and hitting back after.

You improve fast," said Gracie pleasantly surprised.

A week passed with Johan diligently doing boxing, BJJ and kickboxing. Some days he'd double up and do twelve straight hours of classes instead of the usual six. His improvement was rapid.

"Hombre," said Gracie one morning as he walked into the storage room where Johan was sitting on the floor eating breakfast, "are you ready for your first spar?"

Johan smiled, looked at Gracie and said, "Of course, it is about time ..."