The next part of the Ninja story will be posted shortly, however this is a story that Sensei Karurosa told us many times throughout my years at the dojo. It will help you prepare for the third part and provide a little more history on the katana.

Sensei Karurosa said there were many lessons that could be learned from it, including patience and decision making. The most important lesson of all though, was "Don't touch the katana in my office."

Sensei Karurosa was a large man by any standards, especially among the Japanese. He stood at 6' 4" and possessed a thick chest and immensely broad shoulders. He wasn't one to discount the benefits of free weights in addition to work inside the dojo.

By the age of twenty seven he was already a sensei. He had completely mastered the martial arts, he was at the point where he trained simply to maintain his incredible level of skill. Reaching this point actually left him desiring more out of his life. Almost by chance, life was thrust upon him.

One night he was walking home after a night out with his friends. He had drunk a glass of sake but that was it, he never got drunk because he knew that would dull his senses. Suddenly he heard a woman scream. He turned and looked through the large window of a small house on his right and saw a young white woman with long, flowing blond hair. Charging towards her was a huge bellied white man. The man slapped the woman with an open hand, but apparently as hard as he could.

Sensei Karurosa did not hesitate. Within ten seconds of that slap, the man was unconscious on the floor and Sensei Karurosa was helping the woman to her feet. He said they should call the police but she refused, she said it was imperative that they leave immediately.

The woman's name was Melissa. Her left eye was pretty swollen, but she was still a knockout. She explained that the man in that house was called "Big Joe". Big Joe was from NY and was a member of the mob. He had been in Japan for about a year now working with The Yakuza, the Japanese mob. Melissa had started dating him a few months earlier but when she realized the kind of person he was she tried to leave him but he wouldn't let her. Big Joe was heading back to NY the next day, the Yakuza alliance firmly in place, and Melissa was coming with him "or else".

Melissa pleaded for Sensei Karurosa to take her somewhere safe until Big Joe was gone for good. Sensei Karurosa took her up north, to his uncle's place. There they stayed for three weeks until Big Joe had indeed left the country. By the end of the three weeks they were in love. 2 months later they were married. One night, about ten months after they were married, Sensei Karurosa had the "night shift" at the dojo. At six AM he returned home to find that the front door was unlocked. He unsheathed his ten inch wakizashi sword (not the katana) that he carried everywhere and entered his house. He slowly searched his house, making his way towards the back where his bedroom lied.

When he entered the bedroom he saw his wife, lying on the floor next to the bed. She had been brutally beaten, her face was almost unrecognizable. She was still alive, but barely breathing. He of course rushed her to the hospital.

There he had to make the toughest decision of his life. For his wife was 8 months pregnant and the baby was in grave danger. The doctors said that they could almost guarantee that his wife would live if they terminated the pregnancy. The only other option would be to induce labor to attempt to safely deliver the baby. If they waited both would die. If they induced labor, there was only a fifty percent chance that either the baby or the mother would live.

Sensei Karurosa chose to induce labor, he could simply not kill his baby, he knew that Melissa could never forgive him for that. The baby, a girl, was safely born. Melissa however, died a few days after the birth.

These were obviously tough times for Sensei Karurosa. He spent six straight nights at the hospital. He knew at some point though he would have to return to his house and prepare a home for his daughter. He also knew that Big Joe was behind Melissa's death and that they were coming back for him. He would be ready.

Sensei Karurosa brought home a dummy from his dojo. Every night he would place it under the covers of his bed. He even attached some bags of pig blood to it. Karurosa would not be sleeping in his house until they returned. Instead, he slept out back in a small shack in his garden. This shack was not even visible from the house. He rigged an alarm that would alert him if his house was entered in any manner. One night after about ten days of sleeping in his shack, the alarm went off. Not in the house of course, but in his shack. Sensei Karurosa was ready. He grabbed his katana, which normally resided above his bed. He figured whoever entered would head straight to his bedroom, so he entered the house through a small window in his baby's bedroom (the baby was still at the hospital).

This bedroom was adjacent to the master bedroom. Upon entering the baby's room, Sensei Karurosa heard gunfire, then laughter. There were at least two of them. Karurosa wasn't sure if they would bother checking the body, either way he knew they were coming out of that room soon. Just a few seconds after the gunfire, two tall thin men left the master bedroom and entered the living room, heading towards the door. One of them had actually lit up a cigarette. There was no smoking in Sensei Karurosa's house.

In an instant Karurosa was upon them. He took two steps and lept straight at them. The blade of the katana was drawn behind his back, over his right shoulder. At the moment he hit the ground the katana sliced through the rear man's neck from right to left, decapitating him. In a continuous motion, Karurosa brought the blade from his left side and sliced downward, as his hands were quite high after the first strike. The second man was turning around and hit flush in the center of his thigh, the weakest point of the femur bone. The blade sliced right through the thin leg and the man fell to the floor. He must have passed out due to the shock or pain because he was unconscious. Karurosa knew that this man would bleed to death in seconds.

Karurosa was now close to the front door of his home. He heard the faint sound of a car engine idling. None of the human pieces in his home belonged to Big Joe and he wondered if it was Big Joe himself who was waiting outside like the coward that he was.

Karurosa went out the back and circled around his grounds. He approached the car through the wooded area of the driveway. He was now about forty feet away and he could see Big Joe, smoking a cigar in his shiny new convertible. He had a big smile on his face, he no doubt heard the gunfire. He must have been wondering where his buddies were though.

A convertible would make this quite easy. Karurosa decided that he would drive the tip of the katana through Big Joe's fat neck, as the windshield and seats would make it tough to swing the katana accurately. Karurosa charged. He would probably hit Big Joe before Joe could discern exactly what had happened. But when Karurosa was about fifteen feet away from the car, about a second or two from impact, he heard a baby's cry. Karurosa kept charging but threw the katana to his side, leapt over the passenger door and delivered a kick to Big Joe's neck. Karurosa grabbed the gun out of Big Joe's hand and threw it aside.

In the back seat of the car was his daughter. The bastard! Karurosa would not bring death so close to his baby. He pushed Big Joe out of the car. He grabbed his katana, Big Joe's gun, and brought him inside. Big Joe knew he was a goner even before he saw his friends dead on the floor. He started pleading, offering anything. Karurosa told him to shut it. "You know", Karurosa said "We could play baseball with your buddies here. We got a bat and ball, now all we need are the bases." Big Joe was hysterical.

"I bet you like baseball, don't you Big Joe? You probably prefer watching over playing though, right?" Karurosa said as he poked Big Joe's stomach with the katana. "You're extremely lucky. I simply cannot kill an unarmed man, it's without honor." And with that, Karurosa flipped Big Joe's gun high in the air at Big Joe. Big Joe looked like that fat rightfielder in Little League who waited six innings for a fly ball and finally had his chance.

Big Joe wouldn't miss this one, there was no sun to blame like he used to when he was a kid. However, as he reached for the gun a glint of moonlight hit his eyes. It had deflected off the whirling katana which then sliced through Big Joe's belly like butter. Big Joe did catch the gun though, with a right hand that would soon join the blood pooling on the ground from his belly.

Big Joe fell down, flat on his back, blood spouting from his wrist and belly. "Nice catch" Karurosa said as he walked past Big Joe and out his front door.

Karurosa went to the car. He scooped up his baby girl and drove to his dojo just a few short minutes away. There he entered his office and called the police.

Karurosa laid his baby on his desk. He removed a picture of his wife from his office wall and replaced it with the katana. The katana was never once removed from that wall until I removed it that fateful night.

Karurosa sat at his desk, holding his baby for some time. Melissa would be her name. He promised to always protect her. And unlike his wife, she would train to protect herself. Unfortunately though, there are some things you simply cannot train for. Melissa would learn this soon enough.