"Af-af-af. Fyrk, fyrk.
Quietly sneaking through the corridors of their night dojo, where the warriors of Kioshi had lodged their strange new companion, who was engaged in surprising but at the same time strange tasks of educating spiritual values, conveying information about the situation in the world, and telling in great detail about the dangers of being on a small piece of land located as close as possible to the patrols of the people of fire. All this time, Suyuki had been suspicious of the newcomer — sure, they had seen a couple of iron ships with large ballistae on board, and Unagi had destroyed them all; sure, some soldiers had landed on the island, and they had all ended up as food for Unagi, but was it really worth getting involved for that? But Suyuki understood that this was precisely the way of thinking that their guest disliked. And the wisdom of the people, valued more on the island than anywhere else, did not allow them to ignore his opinion and throw everything away to Unagi: every time he spoke about Kiyoshi or even other Avatars, he gathered an audience of listeners and immersed them in a fairy tale of well-crafted stories; when someone was feeling uneasy, he would approach them with advice and, without asking for anything in return, lighten their emotional burden; most importantly, he did not focus solely on spiritual practices, like the self-righteous gurus who considered Kioshi's warriors to be somewhat weak. Dagoth only talked during breaks, while the rest of the time he worked just as hard, if not harder, than his female friends.
Suyuki wanted to know how one person could combine so many qualities. He was like a philosopher, but he went against the most popular trend, which literally all the Avatars adhered to. He was like a mage, but he spent just as much time developing his body, and his magic was also at an excellent level. Once, she managed to observe the strange movements of his sand spheres, which flew so fast that they stripped the bark from trees and pierced the trunks themselves. And then there was his knowledge of history and his tactical skills, in which Dagoth always outdid her. Suyuki was literally incapable of winning a single argument. With every military decision, her arguments crashed against the rocks and sank to the bottom, where her opinion could be devoured and spat out by Unagi. Therefore, she decided to take a desperate step - let her shift the responsibility onto the fact that the guest was in a restricted area, which meant he could not be left to his own devices, and he was just a guy, what was he supposed to be shy about? - Suyuki stopped at a wooden partition behind which was the guest's room, and made a tiny hole with a small needle and began to peek through it.
What she saw... could only have been a dream. Dagoth was hanging from the ceiling, flexing his abs, while scooping water from a vase on the floor, carrying it in a small bucket to another vase under the ceiling, and pouring it all in there without spilling a drop. The exercises reminded her of the practices of monks from the high mountains. Kiyoshi had retained certain knowledge from her training, so she knew that such tasks were tedious, difficult and extremely demoralising. By pouring water, you learned to maintain absolute concentration. If you lost focus even for a moment and spilled a drop, you would have to start all over again. You renounced the whole world, all your problems and worries, concentrating only on the strength of your spirit. Suyuki glanced at the boy's bare torso, saw beads of sweat rolling down his scars, and imperceptibly moved her nose — nothing could shake her self-control... or so she thought for a second, until she saw a fox sitting at the table, peering at a map of the area.
At first glance, it was an ordinary pet that occasionally appeared next to Dagoth and wrapped itself in a scarf around his neck. It moved its paw across the map, gesturing actively and making all sorts of expressive sounds. Suyuki pressed her body against the wall to try to see what the fox was doing, and at that very moment... the wall collapsed inward, just like a door opening at the most unexpected and unfortunate moment. Only it was a wall! Relatively sturdy and certainly capable of supporting her weight!
"W-what... um, it's not what you think!" Suyuki blushed when she saw the dissatisfied look on Dagoth's face as he hung from the ceiling in front of her.
"...Well, what a room you've given me - it creaks, it's falling apart, and girls appear from the walls. Ugh," he said sadly, looking at the curling iron with water in his hands, putting it aside, and getting down on his feet, wiping the sweat from his obviously tall, muscular body bound in ropes.
"Yeah, yeah, it's just a rotten wall - I touched it with my finger and it all fell apart. We'll move you to a new room, and this one will have to be repaired. Why did I come in here... - she coughed into her fist and glanced quickly at the fox, who was now sitting with a condemning expression on her face, grinning painfully in a human way at the attempts to get out of the situation. so much so that Suyuki clenched her fists and wanted to kick the moustached creature in the butt. "Dagoth, I'm surprised by your knowledge of history. You're even reviving the training of a once-exterminated people. Maybe you could share some of your knowledge with our warriors?"
"Hmm... you want me to strengthen their spirit with nomad training? Wiping his sweaty forehead with a towel, Dagoth moved closer to Suyuki, whose face was frozen, and stared into her rapidly moving eyes. Compared to the girls, he looked like a real rock, he stood out in every way... but that didn't mean they were afraid of him. On the contrary, they wanted to test his fighting skills and prove that muscles meant little. "This isn't working out very well. I'm telling you about the world, and I'm even teaching you, and all you give me is a rotten room?
"It was an accident, we didn't know what the room would be like...
"I want to learn your fighting style," Dagoth reached out to the girl, making her hold her breath. He put his bear-like hands behind her back and moved them down to her waist. But at the last moment, he grabbed the fan and opened the last one in front of his face. "It's sturdy, can withstand heavy loads... I'd like to know how Kioshi used it in battle — all for my research, of course."
"...You want to learn how to fight with us?" Suyuki blinked. Until the last moment, she was sure that the guy wasn't interested at all — he was a mage! Why would someone like him waste time on martial arts? But the guy answered very quickly. To study Kioshi's legacy. And once again, the same question popped into her head: "How do you fit so many useful qualities into yourself?
"Hmm. I think I just train more than you kids.
Oh, and of course. Dagoth didn't know the meaning of modesty. Suyuki raised an eyebrow and clenched her fists, wanting to make the guest answer for his last remark.
***
"Heh heh, we'll see about that.
"Martial arts can even take down a Goliath.
"That big guy is going to hurt when he falls.
The girls gathered in the dojo were eagerly preparing for the long-awaited day - the gorilla, as some of the girls had nicknamed me, had finally plucked up the courage to challenge them, or rather, to learn their style. Literally everyone had come to watch the show, eager to see how Suyuki would teach me a lesson. In a normal situation, they would all have spoken out against it — after all, teaching a stranger, and a guy at that, was stupid and risky, but since yesterday evening, their leader had been running around like a headless chicken, from her room to the training hall, returning sweaty and groaning with exhaustion, but at the same time surprisingly happy. You could say she hadn't even slept, and all because I had passed on the wisdom of some peoples, aimed at testing the basic principles of girls through training. Willpower, courage and the rest, Suyuki was so enthusiastic about the new exercises that, after thinking about it for a while, she agreed to my training.
"You know, they're all smirking for a reason," Suyuki said, standing straight in front of me, smirking inwardly. "No matter how powerful the enemy is, the warriors of Kioshi can turn the enemy's strength against them. This is just a demonstration, but after it, you'll understand that there was no point in becoming so powerful.
Looking dryly at Suyuki, who had taken the fan, I stretched my shoulders. I hadn't been given any fans yet, nor had I been forced to cosplay their idol, because, as they said, the fight was only a demonstration of combat skills. Afterwards, I would decide whether I wanted to spend so much time learning the basics or give up and continue to dwell on my shame in order to get closer to opening my third chakra.
"Why did I become such a musclehead? It's obvious to me... Fine, let's make a deal. If I beat you, I won't wear Kioshi's scary mask," I stared at the girl, letting her know that my eyes alone were much scarier than any makeup.
"Ha, if you win," she nodded confidently, sealing the deal. Finally, she spread her fan, signalling the start of the battle. The warriors around her immediately began to cheer and shout for their leader, chanting the name of the young and inexperienced girl who thought you couldn't be both agile and strong. After all, if you have the ability to literally read your opponent's movements and, like Tof, strike faster than your opponent can react, and use magic to move around and strengthen your armour, it doesn't matter how agile you are. Everything works in tandem — body and magic are inextricably linked, so I possessed literally everything that Suyuki didn't see in me.
Top*
At that moment, the girl took a step forward. Vibrations spread across the floor, immediately reaching my head and transmitting the exact position of her fans, her feet, and the speed at which she was moving. Two steps, and she would catch up with me and start the fight - I had roughly memorised her movements, knew some of her combinations, and could tell when she would be off balance. On the first step, her foot lost contact with the floor, putting her in a weak position. Waiting for the perfect moment, I simply lunged forward with my leg, tripping Suyuki. The girl lost contact with the ground, her eyes widened, and she tried to wriggle free, but I immediately pressed down on her back and slammed her to the floor with a crash. I put her arms behind her back and sat on her legs so that she couldn't get up.
Suyuki, squinting from the painful blow, tried to twitch until she realised she couldn't break free. She didn't have enough strength. The girls around her stopped shouting their leader's name, staring in shock at the scene before them. Some even rubbed their eyes, unable to comprehend how someone could be defeated just a second after the fight began.
"Maybe your martial arts skills are only effective against idiots with no special abilities who can only brag about their muscles. But I'm not like that. Instead, I'll gladly become even more educated by learning all your techniques," I said with a stern look that made everyone shudder. As I said, I don't need any intimidating makeup.***
Standing in a row with silent girls dressed in rags, in front of Suyuki, who was frowning slightly, trying to find flaws in my stance, I brazenly kept a satisfied smile on my face and, echoing the coach's techniques, practised movements with fans. My perfect footwork made the girls who had been training for a long time jealous, and my perfectly executed pirouettes made even Suyuki frown.
After just one day of training, I had already become the subject of all kinds of rumours. The girls didn't want to accept the fact that with sensory perception, which, incidentally, no one knew anything about, it was very difficult to make a mistake and take the wrong position. The most difficult part was handling the fan, but I hadn't spent all that time watching the girls from afar for nothing — I'm not some kind of imbecile who would spend half a week just socialising and practising something completely foreign to me. Every day, while no one was watching, I copied the girls' movements with artificially created fans made of crystals and corrected mistakes in my ability to handle such a delicate and unique weapon.
I could have continued observing from the sidelines without even mentioning training, but it was impossible to learn all the amazing magic of martial arts without working with a trainer — it's like copying moves from a scroll. You can repeat them, but only the number of movements you see.
"Okay, now here's a difficult move. Remember how much we practised it, girls, and show me you didn't waste your time," but because of their passive magic, the girls' emotions failed them, and they wanted to show that they were better than me at least in something, so they dug their feet into the floor. Spreading their fans to the sides, they made a couple of unfamiliar lunges, heavy steps, strongly reminiscent of the movements of earth magic, and quickly spun their fans, wide and circular movements completely transferring the energy to the fans, as the air nomads did with their accumulation technique, making the technique a mixture of earth and air magic.
Finishing this flight of fancy, the breathless girls turned to me, standing still, and grinned.
"What, can't you repeat that, Dagoth?" Suyuki asked sarcastically, while I was just repeating the movements in my head, using an incredibly clear picture of how the dance had been performed to study each movement separately. Amazing... Kiyoshi had passed on the legacy of the nomads - and this was their fighting style, albeit in a modified form. And although these movements would clearly be well suited even for close combat fighters, the source from which the movements needed to be repeated was two types of magic - surely gusts of wind were used here to accelerate the thrown stones. So the question in my mind was: what would happen if I repeated the technique using something between earth and wind - rapidly accelerated sand.
"…Suyuki, I'd like to ask you something. Can we move our training outside?
The girl was confused and tilted her head in confusion at my request, but after thinking about it, she nodded calmly. They were used to training anywhere, but they still needed to get used to the less than ideal conditions and uneven ground.
"This technique is very similar to trying to create a sand tornado," I whispered, looking at the fan. I closed my eyes so as not to disturb my concentration, and with my first movement, I felt the fan accumulate energy and transfer it to the ground. Trenches formed around me, and the earth was cut into perfectly even pieces, as if I had run a sword through it, and began to split into grains of sand. The fluttering of the fans gave the sand an amazing acceleration. Using the right passes, I could reduce the waste of my own strength, accelerate more strongly and control smaller particles.
The latter was the main feature - training alone, I learned to feel the lowest level of my strength, which became wider and wider, as if you replaced a poorly functioning part - your palms - with something that was created for control - a fan. Yes, I didn't learn to feel the grains of sand better, that still depended on other qualities, but I could interact with large volumes at radically different speeds. And most importantly, I could allow the particles to collide with each other more often.
Dz-dz-dz*
At that moment, quiet bursts of electricity began to sound on the edge of my hearing - perfectly echoing the reception, without a single mistake in any of the movements, causing the girls to stand in complete shock. Finally, opening my eyes, I saw a super-fast whirlwind of sand, across which long bolts of electricity ran - the technique carried enormous pressure, like the sphere with which I had defeated Unagi. Without experience with it, as well as the skills to interact with particles, it would have been difficult to combine such heavy techniques. As I said, everything is interconnected in magic. But were these lightning bolts as big as the ones that drove Unagi away? No. The technique was not fully optimised, because Kioshi did not know that in over three hundred years, I would be creating lightning bolts with earth magic, so she did not make the movements suitable for a sand mage. After all, I don't control the wind she uses in her movements, I only parody it by accelerating small particles, which is why the quickly scattered sand created a strangely running, thin lightning bolt, for which I quickly came up with a name.
"It's like some kind of electronics.
"Y-you..." Suyuki opened her mouth, looking incredulously at the result. Yes, creating a new element always causes a flurry of new emotions. A brief silence hung in the air, interrupted only by Afka's tail flapping.
But all good things must come to an end, and now several girls ran into the clearing, breathing heavily.
"Captain! Iron ships on the horizon.
Not a good time...
***
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