Football Frenzy by Alex Ko

around. He caught the fake monks hard on the sides of their ankles. They toppled and landed in a groaning heap in the
centre of the room.
    But as Josh stood up, they were getting to their feet too. Jessica sprinted up to his side, and they faced the three Yakuza-monks in a defensive stance with their feet apart and their hands
raised, perfectly balanced for any attack.
    “We won’t let you harm any of the players,” Josh said.
    The monks didn’t answer. A hard wood tonfa arced through the air towards Josh’s head and he leaped back, almost stumbling, as one of the deadly weapons passed a few centimetres from
his chin. Jessica lunged forward with a series of fast-swinging kicks, high then low, but her target raised his arms, with the tonfa shielding him, and deflected her blows as fast as she could
strike.
    The other two monks advanced on Josh and he scanned the room, trying to think fast and avoid their vicious blows. He ducked under an arm and landed a satisfying, heavy punch to the man’s
stomach, but he paid the price as a tonfa smacked down on his back. It was a weak blow, but it burned with the intensity of a hundred bee stings, and Josh had to drop and roll to avoid the next
strike splintering his jaw.
    ... Splintering . That gave him an idea.
    “Aim for the tonfa!” he yelled.
    “I – can – hardly – avoid – them!” Jessica cried back, punctuating her words with sweeping kicks that mostly connected with nothing but thin air.
    “No, really go for them.” Josh ducked again to avoid one of the swinging sticks. “Like the boards we used to break in class, back in London, remember?”
    “ Oh ...” Jessica danced back a few steps, a faint smile of understanding lighting her eyes.
    Josh sprinted forward, right at his attackers, and threw himself into a somersault that took him right between them and left him standing behind their backs. He landed a punch on one of the
monks’ necks, making him stagger and let out a stream of Japanese that was very un-monklike indeed.
    Beyond, Josh saw Jessica kick out at the monk she was fighting, making him raise his arm once again to deflect her with one of his tonfa. But she pulled back and before he could move she leaped,
and with a yell of “ Haiiiiya! ” drove the side of her foot into the wooden stick.
    “ Yaaaow! ” The monk cried out in pain and dropped the tonfa. It fell to the floor and lay there, one end of it splintered and now close to useless. The monk staggered back,
clutching his arm, and Jessica pressed her advantage, bringing her other foot up and then down in a smashing kick onto the man’s other arm, breaking the second tonfa clean in two and reducing
the monk to a whimpering heap on the floor.
    “ Aieee! ” One of the men attacking Josh twirled his tonfa in his hands and drove the ends forward in a cruel, stabbing motion.
    In one smooth movement Josh ducked his head and lunged forward. The tonfa brushed through his hair, much too close for comfort, and slid into the collar of his Team Japan jacket. He unzipped it,
twisted his body free, and at the same time caught the man’s hands and his tonfa up together in a knot of blue fabric.
    “What...?” The monk stared at him in surprise before Josh tore the bundled tonfa out of his hands and threw them towards the Japanese team. Shini caught them effortlessly, and
the players cheered.
    One to go , Josh thought, kicking out and catching the still-surprised monk a heavy blow to the ribcage.
    “You...little...” the man gasped, and then collapsed in a heap at Josh’s feet.
    The last armed man was running towards the players now, letting out a scream of rage and twirling his tonfa so fast they were a solid circular blur around his hands.
    “Jess!” Josh cried. “Get him!” Jessica tried to throw herself into the path of the monk as he passed, but he dodged round her. The world turned to treacle as Josh saw the
monk getting closer and closer to Shini. He looked around for something,