One Wednesday afternoon, approximately a year before I moved back to New York, a clean-cut man in his early thirties with a thin, but very muscular build entered our dojo. He walked up to one of the sensei and asked him if he wanted to spar. This man then proceeded to manhandle the sensei, he was as fast as lightning. He joined the dojo and was easily the best fighter in the dojo. That is except for Sensei Karurosa of course.

The man went only by the name Nakamoto. Nakamoto joined the dojo and became very friendly with Sensei Karurosa. A few months later, Nakamoto asked Sensei Karurosa if he'd like to go on a family fishing trip on Nakamoto's boat. Karurosa said yes.

Saturday morning of the trip, Karurosa received a phone call from Nakamoto. There were some problems with Nakamoto's boat and they would not be able to take it out that day. Karurosa offered to take them out on his boat instead, to which Nakamoto agreed.

A few hours later they were many miles off shore. Karurosa and Nakamoto were joined by a fifteen year old Melissa and Nakamoto's six year old son Izumo. The weather was perfect and the fishing was quite good. They seemed to have the Pacific Ocean all to themselves. Karurosa was resting, watching his daughter reel in a big fish when he saw a boat on the horizon. Kurorosa's boat was about forty feet long, this one looked maybe a little longer.

As it got closer, Karurosa started to get a little worried. It carefully pulled alongside Karurosa's boat. Three men were aboard. One man jumped to Karurosa's boat and pulled out a gun. He pointed the gun directly at Karurosa, while the other two men secured the boats to each other and hopped aboard Karurosa's vessel, guns drawn as well. Karurosa had battled ninjas and now he was met with Pirates of the Pacific!

"Yarr!" said the youngest looking pirate, "we've come for thee treasures!" The two other pirates scornfully looked at the younger pirate, obviously tired of his "pirate talk".

"Shut up Kobo!" said one of the other pirates. "Every fucking time" said the other, shaking his head.

The pirates forced the fishing foursome into the cabin. They took Karurosa & Nakamoto's money and completely looted Karurosa's boat of any valuables.

Just when they were getting ready to leave, Kobo said, "Yarr, we've got one more treasure to plunder!" Kobo had grabbed the arm of beautiful young Melissa. "She's coming with us", said one of the other pirates. Stealing Karurosa's yen and fishing lure was one thing. No one would take his daughter.

Karurosa looked Melissa in the eyes, communicating with her. He then managed to flash Nakamoto a wink without the other pirates noticing.

When Karurosa had first noticed the pirate ship he had taken a fishing knife and placed it in his jacket pocket. His strong right hand was now gripped tightly around the knife.

Karurosa yelled "Now!" as he removed the knife from his jacket and swiped the closest

pirate's wrist. The pirate dropped his gun but not before Karurosa had already buried the knife in his chest.

At the moment Karurosa yelled "Now!", Melissa grabbed Kobo's arm and drew him in, sidestepping the gun. As she grew Kobo closer she elbowed him square in the nose and twisted his wrist, forcing Kobo to drop his weapon. She then grabbed Kobo by the hair and slammed his shattered nose into her knee. Kobo fell to the ground, blood spewing from his face.

The third pirate was close to Nakamoto. Karurosa was confident that Nakamoto would make fast work of this cowardly pirate. Yet when Karurosa looked at Nakamoto he saw that he had done nothing. The last pirate was positioned between Karuruosa and the pirate that Karurosa had stabbed. The remaining pirate aimed his gun at Karurosa but didn't have clear shot. As the stabbed pirate fell to the cabin floor, Karurosa maneuvered around him. He kicked at the remaining pirate's gun as the pirate let off a shot.

All this time, young Izumo Nakamoto was sitting in the back of the cabin. He wasn't scared at all. In fact he was quite fascinated and excited at the action unfolding in front of his young wide eyes. "Like a movie!" he thought, probably wishing he had some popcorn to munch on. The bullet from the misdirected weapon tore through Izumo's skull, splattering blood along the cabin wall.

Karurosa finished off the pirate with his gutting knife as Nakamoto screamed "Tashiro what have you done!"

Nakamoto raced to Izumo but there was obviously nothing he could do. Karurosa returned the boat to shore and Kobo, the lone surviving pirate was arrested.

The pirate that had fired the weapon was in fact, named Tashiro. However, his name was never uttered that day until Nakamoto screamed it. Karurosa realized that the pirate raid was setup by Nakamoto.

Karurosa never saw Nakamoto again. Melissa and I always thought that the attack on Sensei Karurosa by Robutaku and Sutebe was revenge for their banishment from the dojo. We realize now that it was so much more. They were certainly sent by Nakamoto.

After Nakamoto lost his son and younger brother Sutebe he gave up practicing the martial arts. Instead he took up eating, smoking, drinking and gambling. By the time he had visited Robutaku at Melissa's home he had gained over one hundred pounds, lost much of his hair, and grown a beard. The few distant glimpses Melissa caught of Nakamoto were not enough for her to recognize him.

It wasn't until that night in Nakamoto's mansion that Melissa was able to put all the pieces together and realize that the two Nakamotos were the same person.

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Once Melissa realized just who Basho Nakamoto she was hit with an enormous amount of guilt over the death of her father and abduction of her son. She couldn't help but feel that had she simply gone with the pirates it all could have been avoided. When she said this to me, I grabbed her by the hand and brought her to our son Colin's room. Colin was fast asleep, cuddled up in a fetal position and looking safer than ever. No more words needed to be spoken to ease her guilt.