Haruo raised his hands. "Are you willing to spar with me?" Haruo challenged him. As Tatsuyoshi changed into his martial arts garb, Haruo waited. "Are you brave enough to spar with a master?" Brianna groaned audibly, "Daaad..." she protested. "You're not going to hurt him, are you?"
"Oh...no...just a few bruises..." Haruo replied to his daughter. That didn't sound very reassuring for poor Tatsuyoshi. But he agreed, regardless of the consequences. This was after all a challenge to his manhood.
...and so the fight was on...in the upstairs music/games room.
There were a few testing punches and kicks as each tried to feel out the other's abilities. And of course, Haruo didn't want to go hard on him. After all, if the guy was going to become his son-in-law, he didn't want to put him in the hospital after all.
In the end, Haruo won 2-1 although Tatsuyoshi had put in a good showing. The last kick to the side of the head had pretty much rattled Tatsuyoshi's teeth in their sockets. It must have been a warning shot of "Don't you ever hurt my daughter." And insofar as Tatsuyoshi was concerned, the last thing on his mind was ever to hurt Brianna.
Haruo nodded as he stood in front of Tatsuyoshi. "Anata wa yaru (You'll do)"...he said simply in Japanese.
Gee...thanks. Tatsuyoshi thought after massaging the bruise that was raising on both his wrists. If his father-in-law-to-be had thought he had gone easy on Tatsuyoshi, the bruises proved otherwise.
"Get your black belt...Tatsu..." Haruo said. "You need to be able to defend yourself, not have my daughter defend you."
"Is the peeing contest over now?" Brianna's voice was dry and sarcastic.
"For now..." Her father replied, "I'll test him again when he gets his black belt."
Brianna shook her head sighing. "And here I thought you were mature...Dad..."
As River walked by she let out a laugh...and a rather sarcastic, "HA HA HA HA". Haruo gave River a rather peeved look and then turned back to his daughter "Nope...don't intend to grow up..." He replied. "If I grow up, then I have to expect to get old, then eventually...I end up kicking off this mortal coil. If I don't grow up...then everything's a surprise."
Brianna shook her head; her dad was an enigma. In the end...she just said, "I love you, Daddy." and hugged him tightly.
It could have been the light in the room, or the way the reflection of the lamp caught his eye, but for a brief moment, Brianna caught a mist of emotion in the eyes of her father, as he stepped back and whispered just loud enough for her to hear...
"You've grown up way too quickly, baby girl."
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