#joji watanabe

A long time ago in Brazil, there was a Clown named Abilo Watanabe. A Japanese-Brazilian farm hand living in a poor village in Santa Catarina, he took up Capoeira in-between his work and excelled in his lessons.

He participated in tournaments, gaining international fame and fortune, traveling around the world honing his abilities. He took interest in other forms of Martial Arts, namely Savate and Taekwondo. He spent years mastering these two, along with improving his Capoeira, which lead to the creation of his own unique Martial Arts which he called Earth Connection Martial Arts (アース接続).

Eventually he would return home to his village, now a local hero with a wife and child.

This is where Joji enters.

He lived with his mother and father in the same village of his father and on the same farm, living the same life as he did while being the eventual first student of Abilo’s newly created martial art.

And on the other side of the world, a Slav was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. This was Andrei Ivanov. Born into a poor, disgraced Circus family, his life consisted of lying, cheating, stealing and plenty of street fighting which caught the eye of Abilo when he came to Russia to compete in an invitational tournament.

He saw Andrei and his nimble fighting. He would be another perfect candidate for Earth Connection Style.

After the tournament ended, he went back to Andrei’s block and offered to take him back to Brazil to learn his martial arts. Andrei liked the offer and promptly ditched his family and ran off to Brazil.

Then he and Joji met. Joji was kind and opening to Andrei, but Andrei was rude and stoic to Joji, thinking that he was superior,

This rivalry of theirs would continue for sometime before their friendship blossomed via Football. After that they did everything together like they were brothers from birth.

Everything seemed to be going well, that was until their first tournament.

Both entered at opposite ends and climbed their way up the bracket. A one-on-one between them seemed like it was set in stone, but it had been found out that Andrei was cheating. He had be found wearing  chain braces wrapped around his legs and calves.

These chains are apart of Abilo’s training for Earth Connection. Since a large part of EC IS leg strikes, all practitioners need to have strong legs. To help aid in this, students are instructed to wear these chain braces around their legs, averaging about 50 pounds each, which total in a student weighing a 100 pound heavier.

Students are to wear these until they can do 5 backflips in a row without losing rhythm or balance after landing.

By this point the two didn’t need these braces anymore, but Andrei began wearing them again for the tournament because as much as he thought he was the stronger of the two, he knew that Joji was truly the strongest between them.

There was only one way that Andrei knew he could be the ultimate victor. He would have to resort to his old habit of cheating if he wanted to win.

He was only found out after his third match when it was shown that his opponent had been covered with welts resembling chains.

Abilo was furious, and Joji was heartbroken. 

While Joji went on to win the tournament, Abilo disowned Andrei and threw him out into the cold dark night.

A few years go by. Abilo has retired, and Joji has become somewhat of a local hero, just like his father. And on the night of Joji’s 18th birthday, everything would change.

Just as he was asking his father if he was ready to travel the world, an unwanted guest came literally kicked down their front door.

It was none other than Andrei, stronger than ever and now sporting a Crow beak shaped mask. He was back to enact revenge on Abilo and Abilo alone.

Joji attempted to stop Andrei, but a well time and aimed blow to Joji’s chest knocked him unconscious.

Not going to take this sitting down, Abilo got up in a rage and tried to strike back at Andrei. But no matter how hard his blows well, how fast moved in his old age, he couldn’t get a single blow on him.

In-between the time that Andrei had been out on his own, he was found the elusive ‘Court of the Crows’ a secret legion of Clown assassins who were turned away or rejected by society, and now use their powers of evil and chaos.

He was found by their then current leader who saw potential in Andrei and the weak Clown-Po spirit he had in him after Andrei had made easy-work out of his guards while on a trip to Brazil.

He took Andrei in and taught him about Clown-Po, eventually bringing him into the Court when he turned 19. To prove that he was worthy of the Court, he was given one task: Kill whoever wronged you.

And he finally did.

After taking on Andrei for 60 minutes and not making a dent in him, Andrei struck back.

With one swift, mighty kick, Abilo was sent crashing into a wall, stuck to it.

He was in great pain and could barely move a muscle. Andrei walked up to Abilo, put the heel of his right foot up to Abilo’s neck, and kicked downwards, splitting Abilo’s stomach wide open as if he had a knife going through him.

Andrei smiled as Abilo bled out and walked back into the dark and rainy night. Just as he left, Joji came to, only to see the horror Andrei unleashed upon Abilo.

Abilo, slumped against a wall, spoke his final words to his true son.

“My son, listen to me...You are now the true heir to Earth Connection...Go, travel the world and continue to spread the word of my teachings...And if you should find him....Defeat....An...drei....”

And with that, Abilo passed, with his son shedding tears by his side, swearing revenge on Andrei...

After the funeral, Joji set out to find the next big tournament to showcase his skills with Earth Connection while keeping an eye out, all while Andrei continues to wander the world, killing for the highest bidder or just for fun.