"Donahue, John - Sensei" - читать интересную книгу автора (Donahue John)

off.

"Mitchell Reilly, Sensei." He bowed, properly this time. Ken caught
my eye. Mitch Reilly ran a notorious jujutsu school, pretty much
specializing in combat arts of the
one-hundred-ways-to-pluck-their-eyeballs-out variety. He was a
mainstay of the non-traditional African-American martial arts
community. He was built like a refrigerator and I could see his
knuckles were enlarged from the damage too much board breaking creates.
Mitch Reilly had the reputation of being a really savage competitor, a
fair technician, and a guy staggering under the weight of a giant
ego.

"So, Mr. Reilly. I must assume that there is a reason for your
presence here. The school is hard to find and only a man in need of
something would make a journey through such a dangerous
neighborhood."

Reilly looked contemptuous. "No problem. I can take care of
myself."

"And," Yamashita continued, "the obvious care with which you have
selected your... charming costume tells me that you are, perhaps,
interested in ... ?" He let the question hang in the air.

I sat and watched the steam start to come out of Reilly s ears. I have
to admit, he got it under control fairly well, which was a sign that he
was probably a dangerous man. When the faint trembling stopped, Reilly
finished Yamashita's sentence.

"A match," he said. "I'm challenging you."

You had to admire him. The guy pulled no punches. He was probably
five years older than I was in his early forties and had been banging
around the martial arts for at least two decades, and now felt he was
ready to take on the closest thing the New York area had to a bona fide
master. Most people don't even know Yamashita exists. He came to New
'fork years ago from Japan for reasons none of us can fathom and hones
our technique with a type of quiet brutality. The senior Japanese
sensei send their most promising pupils to him, but he's never appeared
in Black Belt, hasn't written a book divulging the ancient, secret
techniques of the samurai elite, and doesn't have a listing in the
Yellow Pages. Which was why Reilly's presence and his challenge was so
odd.

You could see Yamashita's quandary. Reilly was fairly dangerous in a
savage, commonplace kind of way. Yamashita was a harsh teacher, but he
never needlessly put any of us in danger of serious injury. It was
beneath Sensei's dignity to accept the challenge, but you could almost
hear the clicks in his brain as he weighed various other options. Would