That one Mook: Mr. Yamada

It's a funny thing when you are resolved in your failure. When you know you've given it all you can and that the only thing left to do is to stand up so you can be struck down one last time. Once your death is imminent there is no longer reason to fear it and without that fear comes a certain clarity.

That's the only way to describe where my second wind came from, somewhere deep inside of me shouted that if I was to die then Yamada was going down with me.

His fist swung, ogre-like and seemingly slower then before as I casually dodged it and rammed right into his pressure point. He was caught off-guard for a moment and I used the time to loop myself over his shoulder and hit the second point. Shaken, he began gathering energy for his power attack, the unsurvivable one that had hitherto sent me running for cover.

I knew better then fall for that this time. There was no more running away, there was no place safe to run to, this was going to end now.

In the slow motion aftermath as the lights blurred and Yamada fell I dropped the controller, my hands throbbing from the tricky stick work I'd just performed. Somewhere in the back of my head I think I heard singing, though it could have been the onset of a headache. The title screen came up again, inviting me to play the coveted second season, that was basically the whole game over again, but with the bonuses I'd won this time around. I reached for my PS2 and turned it off.

I never played the game again. Maybe I will someday, its one of the few games that is short enough that even I can finish it, but perhaps it would be better to just hold onto my hard won victory. I don't have many, and Kenichi Yamada was a worthy opponent until the end.