Chapter 12

Visualization

‘Visualization: One of the most important parts of casting a spell. Without clear visualization, the magic becomes blurred and will not do what you intend. Without clear thoughts, the spell will fall apart. Visualization is part and parcel of a vivid imagination. With clear visualization, a weak spellcaster will outperform a strong practitioner of the arts who is not able to clearly visualize the outcome of a spell.’_

Monday came almost immediately. Back to school, I went. As I went from class to class, I was greeted by one student after another. I was high-fived by boys and hugged by girls all day long. I even had a few of the teachers congratulating me. Coach Boggs, the boys’ coach, came up to me in the hall.

“Simpson, you did us proud Saturday.”

“Coach, I did not see you there.”

I wasn’t, but after I was told about it, I found a video on the internet of the tournament. “ You’re a good girl, maybe even great: keep it up.”

That was the overall consensus; a couple of girls who could not even work up a sweat in gym just blew it off.

The girls in my PE class were all asking Ms. Higgins about learning self-defense. So she had me talk to the girls about how I got interested. Then about how I had found my Sensei.

Later that evening, I walked into the dojo carrying my gear duffle bag. Before I made it to the locker room, the assistant instructors started clapping as they saw me. I looked around, then saw they were applauding me. I bowed to them, then one of them pointed toward the office.

When I looked that way, I saw that a table had been set up near the door. There were some trophies sitting on it. The first was a large one with a person doing a front kick on top of it.

My name was on that trophy: Katherine Simpson, Mixed Martial Arts in Weight division 110-125 lb, 1st place, Belts under Black. It was a nice trophy. The next trophy had a man with two sticks in his hands: Katherine Simpson, Mixed Martial Arts with weapon co-winner division 110-125 lb, 1st place. Now that one surprises me. I thought I would get something after the director talked to me, but 1st place. Of course, I was a co-winner. I then turned to the real big one: Katherine Simpson, Overall champion division 110-125 lb, Mixed Martial Arts.

Now I was really surprised. I went to the locker room and got dressed. Back on the dojo practice floor, I saw Master Genwa standing in his doorway. I went over to him.

“Sensei, that big trophy, how did I win it?”

He bowed to me. So I returned his bow.

“When the scoring was all through, you had more wins and places than any other person in your weight division. So you won the overall, which is both weapons and belt fighting.”

He turned his bow to the photo and then walked to the supply room. He went into it and brought a plastic-covered package out, then walked to the center of the practice mats.

“Attention, Gakusei!” Everybody looked at him.

“Gakusei Simpson competed this last Saturday in the Mixed Martial Arts tournament in Austin at the University. Those are her trophies on the table over there. Simpson, I would like to request that you leave them here for a week. I would like to get some photos of them.” He paused

“Anybody interested may go to the internet and search for her name. There is a video of all her fights in both belts and weapons.”

“Here, Gakusei Simpson,” I went to him and bowed.

He returned the bow. Then he opened the package and handed the plastic to one of his black belts. He opened the black belt he was holding and handed it to me. I stood there speechless. I had gotten my black belt.

I removed the brown belt and replaced it with the new black belt. All the other black belts came up to me and congratulated me. Then it was practice and more practice. I noticed that the black belt instructor was the only one I sparred with. Master Genwa brought out some practice short staffs to practice.

He took apart my weapon matches piece by piece. Why did I do this? Was there a reason I did this? Finally, he called all his instructors over and asked me the big question.

“Simpson, why did you use the Waki-gamae stance in that one match? I heard a couple of instructors nodding.

“It is really simple. That stance is never used in competition in Kendo. He was a pure stick fighter and probably never studied it. It did the job that the stance was originally designed to do. He could not see my cane. He could not tell where it was pointed. When I attacked, he never saw the cane until it was almost on top of him. Then it was too late.”

“The test of a move is whether it succeeded. In this case, it did. You will never be able to get away with that again.” He told me then that we would stay with the cane training for a couple of more weeks, then start on the BO or quarterstaff. I knew that the BO came in basically two sizes: the five feet and the six feet.

I hope to have both a training one and a real one. I had enough black walnut left to do at least two of them.

From that day onward, the training at the dojo became routine. It was just a lot of practice. Sansei Genwa told me that it would take about two to three years of regular training to get my next promotion to 2nd Dan. And that I really needed training and practice in jujitsu.

I was not worried about it. I just needed to put in my time in the dojo. It would come.

But now it was back to my lab. I had a staff to make to join my cane and wand. My street staff would be like my cane. It would have silver spiral down its length. A silver cap with symbols engraved on it. The heel of the staff would have a brass cap also with symbols engraved on it. It too would need a full moon to finish it.

I had heard Mom and Dad talking about money. Mom was worried about our college. They hoped they were ready for Tom but were still worried that they might be strapped to carry the whole four years at a good college. They had obviously not talked to Tom and his plans. By the time in four years when I would start if the economy did get better; they would not have enough saved to pay for a good college. Then just three years later Jenny would need tuition. College was expensive but the colleges that you wanted to go to were really based on what you wanted to study.

I mean if you were looking for a BS in a technical field then MIT would be a good place to go. Tom had luck out he had his eyes set on a nearby State college that specialized in his field of study that would likely offer him a football scholarship. That was not for me. While I like science and had knowledge of the fields I was not head over heels in love with it. I knew my love of knowledge was aimed directly at Magic. So I would be looking at a good Liberal Arts College, literature, history, anthropology, and folklore maybe psychology. That is what I needed to find.

I knew that Mom and Dad would be disappointed, these were not the Money degrees. I had been thinking about money. Money is the mundane Magic. With it you can move mountains. I thought I could get money. I had been trying out some things just testing the water.