As a boy, I remember my father telling me a bedtime story about the day my grandfather was decapitated.

Soothe and sly stamina with a short sword they slice
They are beyond precise making the victim pay the price

His appearance in reality a hidden masquerade

Memories like that help. We all have something like that we can pull upon. Maybe not in a match-play situation, but in some kind of tournament where you did something that maybe you weren't sure you would be able to pull it off. That can become infectious.

He ended up where he should have - in jail, ... The most important faction of the camorra was decapitated - it no longer has its head.

You remembered your friends but what you didn't know was that "friends" are just as close as enemies