Current Training: Internal Alchemy (Complete!) You can all thank deadlyhamsandwich for the Omake bonus that helped complete this!
Fully realizing that your Master can be somewhat implacable when she wants something hard enough, and also being deeply uncomfortable with her unhappiness, you step forward and sweep her up into a hug.
She trembles in silent anguish as you hold her, firming your decision yet further.
"Okay. Sit." You tell her once you release her from the hug, gently prodding her to step back and then taking up a position on the floor with your stubby legs as close to 'crossed' as they can manage.
Taylor complies hesitantly, sitting down across from you and shakily reaching for Inner Peace, her face, tight with worry slowly going slack and the tension in her shoulders falling away. The anguish is still there of course. Inner Peace doesn't mean you turn your emotions off like some kind of psychopath. It just means that you accept them for what they are, and are focused on the now more than on the past or future. And in this moment, your Master is training, so she is calm.
"Okay. What I'm about to teach you, is the final component required for awesomeness. You ready?" You ask, crinkling your eyes at the girl who, like it or not, is the center of your entire world. Rather than answering, or even commenting on your somewhat excitable delivery of the statement, your Master merely nods firmly once, the motion precise and quick.
"Awesome! Okay, close your eyes, and sort of let your mind wander." You explain, settling in to watch your Master struggle with yet another power that the portion of you that is, in fact, an alien computer, cannot even begin to understand. You have a feeling the Data you'll be bringing back to the collective will be fairly revolutionary for the rest of your species - at least, once you can actually explain any of it.
You patiently wait for your Master to ask you what to do next while ruminating on all of this.
And wait.
Aaaaaand wait. Hm. It's entirely possible that your Master has grown so accustomed to just doing whatever ridiculous thing you say will give her new powers that she no longer questions your commands in this respect. That is simultaneously very admirable, and hilariously dangerous considering the kind of people that exist in the Multiverse.
Most of which is human.
Seriously, you're beginning to think that Humans might have some kind of innate potential that separates them from every other species you've encountered before this.
"S-so once your mind has settled, you need to search for your Chi. Your life energy. It doesn't exist in a naturally useable state. You have to grasp it, mould it, and then will it into a form that you can use. Chi is just a building block. How you use it, why you use it, when you use it. It's different for everyone. You need-" You start explaining, perhaps rushing a bit in your slightly agog state, only to be immediately flattened to the floor by Taylor's Spiritual Power flaring.
"N-not that! That definitely isn't it!" You yelp, only barely managing to push yourself to your knees without the assistance of your very limited energy pool. The pressure quickly stops.
"I thought that was my soul though?" Taylor asks you hesitantly, opening her eyes.
"Your life and your soul are different things. I think." You say with a shrug.
"You... think." Taylor asks you incredulously.
"Hey! You're basically an exotic car that I'm trying to attach six extra engines, to using the wrong tools and no workshop! Throw me a bone!" You complain. And it's true. The fact of the matter is, the laws of physics as they apply to your Master have already been heavily warped by her acquisition of powers from universes where the physical laws are slightly, or potentially vastly different. You know you can work through it - that's kind of your entire shtick after all - but that doesn't mean it's easy, especially when you're trying to distill the relevant information down to a level a human can understand.
"Sorry..." Taylor mutters, slightly taken aback by your outburst.
"No, sorry, my bad. A-anyway! Chi is like... potential energy!" You try again, when your Master shoots you a quizzical look at the outburst.
"So, imagine a stack of wood right? If you set that wood on fire it'll burn for a while. How long the fire could burn before you actually set the wood on fire is 'Potential Energy'. That's what Chi is. Not just life, but the pure potential of life! The infinite number of possibilities possessed by the person named 'Taylor Hebert'!" You say excitedly, and not just because your Master is nodding along like she actually understands what your saying.
You actually understood that. You the shard, the alien entity, were actually able to parse that information. With just that alone you could pioneer entire fields of research into energy harvesting and... and...
Harvesting people for potential energy definitely sounds evil... and your current Emulation is feeling horrified by the mere notion of it but...
Maybe you can just... not report that part? Sighing, you pause to consider everything you've learned about humanity in the process of pretending to be a part of it, and then make the heavy decision to erase that part of your own memory. You still know that you learned... something... but you couldn't quite explain what if you tried anymore.
You spend the rest of the night, into the very early hours of the morning, watching Taylor meditate while you consider the subject. Your distraction is such that you almost don't notice when your Master shifts from 'meditating on the energies of life' to 'sleeping in an awkward sitting position'. You smile at her as she begins to slump over, and gently lean forward to steady her. Then you rise to your feet and pick her up, content to carry her to her bedside.
The halls of the PRT are oddly silent for a crisis situation as you carefully trundle your way to the accommodations you were provided. The only noise you can hear as you move about is the soft shuffling of your own feet.
When you finally lay your Master down in her tiny PRT issue foldout cot, you are immediately treated to the sight of a blade trying to pierce through your eye and out the back of your head.
Having vaguely expected this, you lean out of the way of the strike, and then step away from the bed, where Mini-Taylor is crouching over your Master with her tiny sword in hand.
"Don't." She tells you gravely.
"I'll be right back okay? Just this once." You say gently.
"Don't please." The Mini-Taylor says, slightly forlornly.
"I've done what I can. There's just a bit more left." You explain, stepping towards the door and turning around when Mini-Taylor fails to follow you or attack.
"She won't want you to go you know." She says petulantly.
"But she needs me to." You answer before stepping out the door.
You end up spending the next fifteen minutes simply trying to locate a sufficient amount of paper for your needs, then eventually give up and simply steal a notepad and a pen from one of the office desks upstairs. Task finished, you return to the room you left your Master in, and find Mini-Taylor angrily snuggled under the blanket next to her, glaring fiercely at you.
You put your finger to your lips in the universal sign for silence, and then take a seat with your back to the cot. Then you begin to right, using the too small writing utensil on the too small notepad to begin writing... everything really. You write about the life of Master Po Ping, from beginning to end, keeping things mostly abbreviated, but expanding into great technical detail wherever you recall Chi being used. Your ability to heal, the Golden Lotus Clap, the Wuxi Finger Hold, the Mongolian Fireball, you list them all, explain their origins, their uses.
And then you write about the time you spent with your Master. The continuation of a story you never lived. You write about how proud you are of her. Of how much you loved seeing her grow in confidence and strength. Of how much you value her force of will and refusal to compromise on her ideals.
At some point during the tale, you reach the end of the notebook, and realize that your Master has tilted herself in her sleep, hanging half off the bed with her head on your shoulders and one arm slung over you in a loose grip.
You smile, and lean into the familial touch. Then close your eyes, and allow the last of your energy to drain from you, completing what your Master started that night. In 'Your' last moments, you feel your eyes flutter shut, and blessed sleep take hold of your destabilizing form.