It would have been very appropriate to spend some of your Rupees to make the Circle, but it also wouldn't have been quite as financially sound.
Besides, technically, you DID "spend" some Rupees in the project, buying a few Green Rupees that were fresh from Hyrule and more strongly attuned to the kingdom's energies than the ones that have been riding around in your pocket for weeks and months now. These now adorn the cardinal points of your Circle of Mortal Summoning, giving it a nice splash of color in addition to helping focus it on Hyrulean natives.
*Reverse cha-CHING!*
Spent 6 gold and 70 silver
Gained 40 copper
While you are confident in your work, there is something to be said for quality control. There isn't really enough room in your workshop to properly set the finished Circle up for use, but that's easily worked around; you just open up a Mirror Hideaway, step through the old security glass, and set the shrunken Circle down on the floor in the center of the small pocket in the Mirror Plane, commanding it to grow to full size.
Ten minutes later...
*Poof*
Dekon the Deku Scrub looks at you.
"This isn't the usual delivery or pick-up time, pi," he notes. "Has something happened, pi?"
You explain that you were just giving a magic item for summoning a trial run, and he was the first Hyrulean that came to mind.
"Aw, shucks, pi." Dekon's body bobs forward as he kicks the ground, which gives him a good view of the Circle and its currently glowing spell array and inset Rupees. "Oh, is this it, pi?"
"It is."
"Guess you got tired of constantly setting up summoning circles and then clearing them away when you were done, huh, pi?"
"Actually, the Circle is for a client," you reply.
"Oh, you're taking commissions, now, pi?"
The hopeful gleam in the Deku Scrub's eyes is obvious, but you have to dash his hopes - at least temporarily - as you'll be going on vacation shortly, have a few other orders to fill after that, and various appointments and financial matters that need sorting out before you can take on any more serious projects.
"Deku nuts, pi."
That having been said, you COULD improve Dekon's day in another manner. While it would be unprofessional of you to discuss the details of one client's orders with an unrelated third party, you could offer to give the Deku Scrub's name to "a party interested in acquiring Hyrulean potion ingredients."
"I'll tell you what, Dekon," you say. "Because I can definitely empathize with your desire to get a new magic item being frustrated by production issues, and since you've proven reliable in matters of inter-planar trade, I'd like to offer your name to an acquaintance of my who is interested in acquiring Hyrulean potion reagents."
Dekon leans forward with a rustle. "I'm listening, pi."
"I thought you might. Now, in good faith, there are two things I have to warn you about with this person. Firstly, and probably least importantly, they live in Faerie."
...
"...and, pi?" the Deku Scrub asks.
"I had a feeling that wouldn't be a big deal for you, but I had to be sure."
Leaves whisper and wave as the leafy little fellow nods in understanding.
"As for the second matter, this person is part-Vire-"
"PI?!" Dekon exclaims, hopping far enough backwards in shock and alarm that some of his back leaves brush up against the interior of the cylindrical barrier projected by the Circle, causing a fuzzy whitish glow to blur into view for a second before the Deku Scrub pulls away.
"-and that was the kind of response I was expecting you to have," you continue, "which is why I figured it would be better to tell you about it ahead of time, rather than send you in blind and potentially ruin the deal."
"A VIRE, pi? Seriously, pi?"
"Only half," you repeat. "And for the record, I have my own ongoing deal with the lady in question, which included a Communion with the Goddesses to clear up some questions. They didn't have any particular problems with her or with the arrangement that the two of us reached, although I did get the distinct impression that the lady's FATHER was another matter entirely..."
"I'll just bet, pi," Dekon says with a shiver. Still, your mention of divine approval - or at least a lack of divine DISapproval - of Vira's character seems to have brought him around to considering the offer.
It is, after all, another opportunity to make money.
After some thought, Dekon takes you up on the offer, and says he can have some samples of simple potion reagents ready to go by the end of the day.
Considering that Vira mentioned already being able to produce standard grade potions using substitutes sourced from Faerie, you suggest that your partner try to get his roots on some of the higher-quality materials.
"That's harder, pi," Dekon muses. "Still, if I limit it to small samples, just enough to prove the quality of the goods, I think I can be ready by tomorrow - the day after that for sure."
You scratch down a note for Vira, which shortly expands to include a list of materials and prices.
Since you've already got Dekon here, you go ahead and place an order for another batch of the mushrooms you used to make the ointment for your Spell of True Seeing. You used up the last of the previous batch during the Silbern Raid, and it would be a good idea to have more prepared against future need.
The last time you placed this order, you also tried to get the necessary Bullbo fat, but Dekon explained he doesn't deal in that stuff, so you'll have to send the Postman to get some for you.
While your magical power and growing understanding of metamagic effects allow you to extend the duration of the Spell of True Seeing and affect multiple targets per casting, getting that much more out of the spell and each dose of the ointment meant to be smeared under the recipient's eyes, it's a sufficiently powerful effect to begin with that even your grasp of Divination Magic only allows you to enhance the spell so far.
With that in mind, it makes sense to get enough mushrooms for multiple castings - albeit not so much as you got from your first deal with Dekon for the magically charged fungi, as you aren't offering a whole new world's markets for him to break into this time around. Faerie is already reasonably well-known to Hyrule thanks to the Great Fairies and their kids, after all.
Also, the price of these mushrooms has apparently gone up a bit?
"We were just at the end of one of their growth cycles the last time you asked me for some," Dekon says with another body-bobbing nod, "and there hadn't been too much demand ahead of you, pi."
A bit scarcer this time around, then?
"Yeah, pi."
Eh, fair enough. You've got the Rupees to cover the cost, although considering that gold is a lot easier for you to come by at the moment - to say nothing of the windfall you have to look forward to once the non-magical elements of the Silbern loot are fully sorted - you ask Dekon if he'd be willing to take some of his pay in shiny metal rather than shiny rocks.
"Well, you ARE introducing me to a new client, pi," the shrub replies thoughtfully. "I suppose I can take SOME coins in consideration of that, even if she does sound a little creepi."
You might be tempted to take offense on behalf of the Mistress of the Dark-
HAIL!
-but she does have something of a Morticia Addams aesthetic going.
That aside, you spend a couple of minutes arguing with Dekon over just how much "SOME" coins adds up to. In the end, you reach a deal that doesn't dissatisfy either of you.
Spent 65 Rupees (15 Green, 2 Blue, 2 Yellow, 1 Red)
Spent 3 gold coins
Gained 20 silver pieces
"I can have the mushrooms for you in a few hours, pi," Dekon says, as he makes his payment disappear. "Pleasure doing business with you, pi!"
With that, you deactivate the Circle.
*Poof*
While you're conjuring entities from beyond, did you want to call up the Postman to order some more Bullbo fat, and to take Vira her new Circle of Mortal Summoning?
Honestly, it's probably better to call the Postman up yourself. You aren't worried about accidentally getting a living Hyrulean postal worker with a summons specific to the celestial being you've worked with before and have an ongoing deal with; if the Circle couldn't reach such a precisely designated target, the attempt would just fail.
No, the thing that has you shrinking the Circle of Mortal Summoning to its portable form and setting up one of your mana-based Magic Circles in its stead is the fact that, if you're going to have the Postman deliver the item to Vira today, leaving the disposal of the two remaining daily uses to her would go over better than using another of them up yourself.
Ten minutes later...
*Poof*
"How can I help you today?"
"Two points of business, my good messenger. For the former, I am in the market for more Bullbo fat."
You specify the amount you need, and fork over half a dozen Rupees, just in case the cost of the fat has gone up from the good deal you recall getting the last time.
Spent 6 Rupees (1 Green, 1 Blue)
Gave up Clay Bottle (Empty)
"And the second matter?" the Postman asks.
You hold up the shrunken Circle. "I need you to deliver this, and a short letter, to a lady in Faerie."
As with Dekon, you decide it's for the best if you warn the sometimes nervous Postman about the nature of your client-
"SHE'S A VIRE?!"
"But only half!"
"And the other half is FAE?!"
"She lives in a Great Fairy's territory! And the Goddesses don't disapprove of her!"
"You couldn't use a more reassuring argument?!"
"Not without lying!"
-tell him not to freak out about the swarm of talking bats-
"THERE'S A SWARM?!"
"They're friendly and silly!"
-and eventually manage to calm him down and convince him to take the job. You write out a short missive to Vira on the reverse side of Dekon's list of goods and prices, explaining that deal and also your trial run of the Circle. Whether she takes advantage of the former is up to her; the latter, you will see repayment for in due course, when she starts-
!
-hang on a moment. While it'll be some weeks before your agreed-upon potion-making lessons with Vira can begin, the matter of transportation needs to be worked out. The Circle of Mortal Summoning is neither powerful enough nor properly attuned to call you, and your tutor-to-be doesn't have the capability herself, and while you could ask Navi to help you out again, that's an unnecessary expense for you and a waste of time for her. You've already learned the Gate Spell, you just need a planar key attuned to Lady Chloe's domain to make proper use of it. Vira can make such a thing for you, even if she can't use the Gate Spell herself, and its cost will easily be covered as part of the debt she owes you for the Circle.
"Actually," you tell the Postman, "I need you to deliver one other letter as well."
After all, you really shouldn't plan to create Gates into somebody else's territory without getting their permission first. Especially not when the somebody else is a deity in her own right.
The Postman takes your request to run a message to a Great Fairy much better.
Did you have any other matters to discuss with your friendly extraplanar mailman?
Once the Postman is on his way, you clean up the leftovers of your crafting session and then spend a couple more hours taking it easy, before returning to your basement to re-call Dekon and the Postman.
*Mirror!*
*Summoning!*
*Poof!*
"I got 'em, pi!"
Gained Magic Mushrooms (x5)
*Dismissal!*
*New summoning!*
*Poof!*
Gained Clay Bottle (Bullbo Fat, x6)
One more dose than you need.
"That's how they were selling it," the Postman replies with a shrug, as he hands over the Blue Rupee.
Before letting the Postman depart to visit the Castletown market again, you offer him an apology that so many of your requests require him to visit people he's uncomfortable with; even though you have no intention of sending him to anyone that would seek to do him harm, you can appreciate the fact that, after living through one of Hyrule's numerous dark ages, the Postman would have certain difficulties just being around dark powers and monstrous beings.
"Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable with that?" you offer. "A Spell to Remove Fear, maybe?"
"Would it last long enough?" the Postman wonders.
Normally, that spell only persists for ten minutes, but you could fiddle around with its other parameters to free up some mana and extend its duration easily enough. That said, if the Postman is going to the market first, there's not much point in applying the spell now.
"I'll have it ready to go when I call you to deliver the Bullbo Fat."
"Thanks, I REALLY appreciate that."
The Postman's usual rates are 1 Rupee per delivery, 5 Rupees for hazard pay, and 10 Rupees for threats to life, limb, soul, and other mail. One harmless run to the market, a safe but probably slightly intimidating trip to see a Great Fairy, and then visiting a Fae sorceress with the blood of one of Hyrule's lesser lords of darkness running in her veins? Yeah, even factoring in the cost of the Spell to Remove Fear, there's room for you to pay the Postman for his troubles.
After all, he'll be navigating a swarm of young fairies shortly. Dangerous creatures, those.
"Oh, yes," the Postman fervently agrees, as he pockets his "hazard pay." "They're absolute menaces where sealed letters and packages are involved! And don't get me started about fragile objects!"
...
Okay, you WERE making a joke, but you can see how that might be a legitimate problem.
Briar just laughs.
You cast the spell, cranking it up to last several hours, and see the celestial messenger off on his next run.
"Once more unto the box, dear friends," he states.
*Poof*
Was that a quote?
Regardless, when the next morning rolls around and the sun has been up for an hour or so, there comes the ring of the doorbell.
"Igottit!" the Zelda Missile exclaims, leaving the breakfast table with a clatter of chair and hastily set-down cutlery as she flies for the front door.
Your parents trade glances of wry amusement.
"Remember not to invite them in, Zelda," you call warningly, even as you focus on the morning's bounty of bacon.
Mmmm, bacon.
"I know, I know."
There is a pause.
"Alex! It's for you!"
You regard your breakfast for a moment, then stand with a sigh and head to see what's what.
The Postman hath returned, none the worse for wear after his trek through the fairy realm, and bearing a missive from its fair lady.
"How'd the spell work out?" you ask, as you accept and unfold the letter.
"Worked like a charm!" the Postman replies, beaming. "Thank you, again."
"Not a problem."
The letter is Lady Chloe's response to your request to be allowed to have Vira create a Gate key for you. The Great Fairy is willing to allow this, in exchange for one of three considerations.
First, you could simply trade in kind, and make a Gate key to Earth for Chloe to use.
Second, you could agree to pay a small fee each time you visited the domain. Chloe was thinking a silver piece or its equivalent in Earthly goods, be they grown things or manufactured ones.
Third, you might do her an equivalent, teensy-tiny favor the next time you visit, which the letter does not go into detail about.
You're honestly tempted by all three options, but after some thought, paying the tax is probably the easiest to deal with.
That said, you are rather curious about what sort of favor Lady Chloe had in mind, and so you quickly write a response, politely informing her that you would rather not make a Gate Key - sparing an aside for how the local supernatural politics don't exactly make for a welcoming environment for travelers from other planes of existence - and are inclined to go with the monetary payment plan instead. You also note that you might yet be talked around into taking the third option, if you but had a few more details...?
Missive done, you hand it off to the Postman.
"It'll have to wait a bit," he apologizes. "I've got some other deliveries that need taking care of first."
"That's fine by me," you tell him. "Just so you know, though, I'll be leaving for a trip tomorrow, so if Lady Chloe's response isn't sent in time to reach me he can leave the response here."
The divine messenger tips his hat, turns, and heads off on the first leg of his return trip.
As it happens, you do not see the Postman again before you report to the School of Five Elements for the trip to the Other School of Five Elements. You've brought along a week's worth of clothes, both for general wear and training, in a couple of suitcases stashed in your dimensional pocket. You're also carrying Briar's stuff, which is a mix of fairy outfits and human-sized stuff she's acquired since manifesting that alternate form. You're coming here because it's a bit less memorable for the student to visit the master than vice-versa, and will be departing by using a Mirror Hideaway and then opening a Gate back to Earth from there.
Was there anyone in your class that you suggested inviting along on this excursion?
Lu-sensei has been cagey about where, exactly, the training hall that he wanted to introduce you to is located, but you are reasonably certain that it's either in Japan or in China, with the latter being your best guess. Between what you know of your master's personal history and the stories you got from Grandmaster Wen, the School of Five Elements has pretty clearly been involved with the supernatural side of things from its founding days, so there's a very good chance that a major school is going to have wards on it more comparable to the sort of work Ambrose did on HIS residence than the simpler defenses he provided you, or the similarly modest protections on your master's dojo and residence.
You would rather not put the Postman in danger of being caught by any such wards or annoying high-level martial artists. His main defense is to run or fly away from danger, and while he's got a good turn of speed, it wouldn't suffice against guys who know the Body Flicker.
With that in mind, you tell him that he can leave Chloe's response with your parents.
...but not with Zelda. Much as you adore her, it'll be a while yet before you trust her to hold on to any of your mail.
To your mind, there were good reasons to bring the rest of the Sunnydale squad along on this trip.
Cordy's shown herself to be something of a prodigy when it comes to martial arts - if not to your admittedly ridiculous level of development - and an opportunity to demonstrate and practice her abilities under different teachers and against new opponents who follow the same style would do her some good. It'd be particularly helpful if this larger training hall can provide a trainee or two who are closer to her skill level than the rest of your class, where Cordy's stuck in the position of simultaneously outclassing most of her would-be sparring partners and BEING outclassed in turn.
Larry's progress has been more modest, closer to the skill average that people like you and Cordelia skew, but for that very reason, visiting the larger school would likely do him almost as much good. He's not at the point where he needs to face off with a diverse range of opponents to continue growing, but doing so would probably help to reassure him that, even if he hasn't rocketed ahead like you and Cordy, he isn't falling behind, either.
Plus, Larry IS pretty much the designated "normal" member of your little group. You think it might reassure the other school and avoid hard feelings if Lu-sensei didn't JUST turn up with exotic prodigies to style all over his fellow masters' teachings and sensibilities.
And then there's Amy, who is the only one of your quartet not to have unlocked her ki yet, a situation undoubtedly resulting from her physical skills being more comparable to Larry's, while her personal FOCUS has been more oriented towards learning magic. You aren't sure what a bunch of more traditionally dedicated martial artists will make of her relative lack of passion for their art, but if they're smart, they'll take advantage of the chance to face a friendly spellcaster under controlled conditions - and if they're wise, they won't be jerks about it.
And if they're NOT wise... well, Amy IS a witch, and one who could honestly use more practice hexing people in an environment that isn't likely to magnify the negative effects.
You expressed your thoughts to Lu-sensei, who generally agreed, and it was a simple enough matter to get Larry to agree to join the trip and convince his family to let him come along. And when you arrive at the dojo, he's already there with his bags - and also, somewhat surprisingly, his grandmother, who appears to have packed a few things herself, including a nondescript round tote bag long enough and with the correct interior volume to be holding her shotgun.
"Lu suggested that some of the advanced students and teachers could use some lessons on dealing with explosives and guns," she explains.
...
...
The girls were a bit trickier to arrange invites for, as both of them have already left Sunnydale for the summer. Your magic made staying in touch a comparatively simple enough matter, and since Amy's folks are well aware of the magical side of things, they didn't mind too much about you showing up to take their daughter off their hands for a week or so.
Actually, the Madisons seemed kind of eager to get some time to themselves when you talked to them about this through a scrying spell, and THAT had Amy suddenly looking disturbed and even MORE eager to join you.
Anyway, the issue is Cordelia. Her parents aren't read in on the supernatural, and having met them, you must acknowledge that they're the sort of people who would need to have magic and monsters shoved in their faces repeatedly before they'd deign to acknowledge them as anything other than remarkable costume work, tricks of the light, or bad dreams brought on by undigested bits of beef - and when they DID know, they wouldn't stop trying to exploit the supernatural to their own advantage.
Considering they're both about as mundane as humans can get, that wouldn't end well.
You would prefer not to start a Missing Persons Alert by spiriting Cordelia out from under her parents' noses and the security of whatever resort they've ended up in, nor are you keen on resorting to Enchantment Magic to keep the Chases from wondering about where their daughter was for a week, much less how you were involved, whatever form you might take during the pick-up.
Cordy's not exactly thrilled at the notion of having her parents mind-controlled either, not unless the alternatives were worse - and even then, she'd prefer to avoid it being made necessary to begin with, which is the main reason why Mr. and Mrs. Chase remain ignorant of mystical matters.
"Well, of course," Lily Blaisdell replies with a nod. "Beanbag rounds, some wax slugs, and a FEW rounds of actual shot, which are strictly for demonstration and will NOT be fired at any cocky kung fu masters, and CERTAINLY not at any of their students."
"Why are you looking at me when you say that?" Lu Tze wonders innocently.
Lily snorts. "Take a guess."
The adults break off in the middle of their routine and look back at you as you ask this.
"I didn't," Larry's grandmother replies. "Lu couldn't give me a definite answer on whether or not they'd be legal to use where we're going, and they ARE a fire hazard, besides."
Disappointing, but fair.
You'd like to bring Cordelia on this trip if it's reasonably possible, and thanks to your mastery of magic, your definitions of "reasonable," "possible," and "reasonably possible" tend to be broader than most other people's.
You rule out mind control almost at once. You don't particularly want to use it, Cordelia would prefer you didn't use it on her parents without a good reason, and this definitely isn't the sort of situation where the alternative to being brain-jacked is death or fates worse than.
Using the Heart of Courage is an option that takes a little longer to dismiss, but not by much. For one thing, you've never tested it on Cordelia and have no idea how well she and her Dark Self will get along. Cordy has never had an issue with speaking her mind, regardless of the audience or the topic of discussion, so there's a fair chance that she and her Shadow would be on similar wavelengths - but you aren't SURE of that, and this doesn't strike you as the best way to test that.
Also, you'd like to have Shadow Alex available over the next week. You aren't sure how popular a prospective sparring partner you're going to turn out to be for the other students of the Five Elements Style, but being able to call your doppelganger out to take some of the heat off is an option you'd prefer to keep available, just in case.
That leaves the option of calling up some sort of stand-in. You've discussed this possibility with Cordy, and she's agreed to pay to "hire" her "stand-in," provided you can find a creature that's capable of mimicking her to her satisfaction AND that you can be reasonably sure won't get her in trouble with her parents, start eating people, or otherwise cause problems.
You have a couple of ideas, but first, you'll need to link up with Cordelia so that the body double can get a chance to see what it's supposed to look like.
On that note, while Lu-sensei locks the door and makes sure everything in the dojo is turned off, packed away, or otherwise prepared for a week's absence-
"What about the garden?" Briar asks.
"A couple of my older students have agreed to come by to check on the plants," Lu Tze replies.
-you raise a Private Sanctum, then cast a very short-lived Greater Spell of Scrying to confirm Amy's position. From there, a ritually cast Greater Spell of Teleportation carries your group of five and luggage to the private little corner of a park in Colorado that the Madisons picked out to meet you in, so as to avoid drawing attention to themselves by having a teleportation spell go off in their hotel rooms.
While everyone else exchanges greetings, you quickly raise another Private Sanctum and get on with casting another Greater Spell of Scrying, this time looking for Cordelia.
You find her on a tropical beach, wearing a light shirt and skirt over a swimsuit and looking reasonably by herself, at least within the limited area your spell reveals.
"Hey, Cordy!" you greet your friend through a Message Spell.
She jumps in surprise and is in a defensive stance before she fully registers who the Voice From Nowhere actually belongs to.
From there, she needs a few minutes to find a place that's out of sight from the other beachgoers; fortunately, she's been looking for such a location for the last couple of days, easily disguising it as exploring the beach, and has a good spot in mind that should be able to hide half a dozen people and your usual magical lightshow.
Sure enough, Cordy soon ducks into a sandy-floored tidal cave, and from there it's a matter of goodbyes and a quick teleportation on your end.
The cave is a very good choice on Cordelia's part. Not only is it large enough for your group and then some, but the thick stone walls and ceiling will muffle the aura of your spellcasting in almost every direction, with the only possibility of someone getting unobstructed scans being if they're standing directly in front of the mouth of the cave.
Also, it's a bit cooler in here than it is out in the tropical sun, which is convenient for those of you who just popped in from the Rockies.
You start setting up a summoning diagram and then make with the Lesser Spell of Planar Ally. You don't recall any shapeshifters in the Goddesses' service, however...
Off the top of your head, you can't think of many beings in Hyrule with the ability to convincingly disguise themselves as other individuals over extended periods of time, and most of those that come to mind were either distinctly NOT in the Goddesses' service - like that Wizzro creature Lu-sensei faced in the Ring of Trials - or else members of the Sheikah tribe.
You wouldn't exactly object to the idea of summoning a celestial ninja, except that the Sheikah have been associated with the Royal Family in general and Princess Zelda in particular since time immemorial. Even if the Goddesses could locate a member of the Shadow Tribe that wasn't a blood-descendant of some incarnation of the Princess, the presence of a Sheikah still might be problematic for you just from the strength of their association with the Goddess Reborn and the sheer number of times they've made themselves thorns in Ganondorf's side.
Still, for all your education over the past year and more, your knowledge of the ranks of the Goddesses' servants is hardly exhaustive, so you can't rule out the possibility of them having someone who could handle this particular assignment without screwing you over on some level. You'd much prefer the surety of dealing with an agent of the Golden Goddesses over calling up a random creature from the wider cosmos, and so you go with the Lesser Spell to Call a Planar Ally.
Quick, help me find a Sheikah that won't light the fuse that destroys the world!
I'm looking, I'm looking...
It's not like there's that many of those sneaks up here any-
Oh, yeah? NINJA! APPEAR!
*Ninja appear!*
Cordelia reaches into a pocket hidden somewhere in her outfit and pulls out a selection of Rupees, which you insert into your diagram to cover the up-front cost of the spell.
-wha-what the hell?!
Sneaky ninja gonna sneak and ninja, now quit staring and help!
Not you, not you, not yo- YOU!
*Summoning*
*Poof*
If you disregard the sense of presence denoting a celestial being - which in this case manifests as an aura of shimmering Shadow that makes the edges of the new arrival's figure blend into the dimness of the cave - the young lady who has appeared in the circle before you could have been plucked from the streets of almost any town in Hyrule, even the Castletown itself - although if that were the case, you'd guess that she was visiting from elsewhere, as her clothes aren't quite on the level of quality that would denote a resident of the royal capital. She's pretty, yet not so beautiful as to stand out in the moment or in memory, and if her skin is closer to the tan of a Hylian farmhand than a townswoman, well, people keep gardens, right? Mid-length blonde hair that leans towards pale yellow rather than gold isn't particularly remarkable, either.
It's the eyes that give her away, as not only are the irises ruby-red, they're also wide with surprise for some reason.
"Ah..." she manages, before catching herself. "That is, did someone ask for a body double?"
Given the circumstances, the Sheikah - who identifies herself as Kayah - is perfectly willing to waive further financial compensation. You are, after all, merely asking her to stand in for a girl on vacation for a week or so, and if the ease of the assignment weren't reason enough to cut you a deal, the opportunity to scout out a whole new land is something that the spy is very much looking forward to.
Actually, the fact that you can tell that much has you a little concerned about Kayah's ability to pass for Cordelia. In her favor, she's not much taller than your friend - you'd put her at five feet, maybe a little less; that Shadow aura makes exact measurement a little tricky in this light - but she IS a grown woman being asked to pass as a child from a completely different world.
"Do you doubt the skills of Sheikah? Very well! Behold!"
*Handsign*
*Poof*
And like that, there are two Cordelias standing in front of you.
"How long can you keep that up?" Briar asks.
"A few minutes," Kayah admits, voice unchanged. "However, I am perfectly capable of creating a proper, lasting disguise of similar effectiveness, given a little time."
"And the voice?"
"Two points: children of the wealthy are generally expected to be seen and not heard, correct?"
"Sounds about right," Cordelia agrees. "And when you aren't playing dumb?"
"I have some skill as a mimic," the Sheikah replies in a voice MUCH closer to Cordy's than it was a minute ago. "Of course," she goes on, in her normal voice, "the more I know of how you speak and act, the better I can manage."
"On the topic of things you need to know to pull off a more convincing act," you interject, "I don't doubt your skills as a Sheikah-"
"But?" Kayah guesses.
"-but you're about to walk into a culture you've never heard of, on a planet that has technically never been visited by any Sheikah."
"Only 'technically'?" she wonders.
"I set up a Ring of Trials a while back," you explain. "A Sheikah was called in for one of them."
"Ah. How'd they do?"
"The challenger won."
Kayah nods, neither pleased nor displeased by that answer.
"Anyway, rather than send you blind into a society you literally can't have studied or prepared to deal with, I can and would prefer to provide you with a few spells to help you carry yourself as one of the locals and just be better at passing yourself off as my friend."
Kayah frowns at that, visibly torn between the practical appeal of the offer and embarrassed annoyance at the fact that at least parts of it are necessary.
"While it is somewhat inappropriate to accept aid from one's employer in completing a mission," she says at last, "it would also be unbecoming to ignore good advice. Under the circumstances, then, I will accept your magic. Two spells, you said?"
"And a third to conceal their auras against detection," you note.
Kayah nods, clearly approving of that last one. "Then please, proceed."
Well, first you set up another Private Sanctum, because cave or no cave, you're going to be calling on some major magic in a moment. Kayah takes advantage of the time you spend spellcasting to start quizzing Cordelia about herself, her usual schedule, and her family life. Ten minutes is hardly enough time to get a complete picture, of course, but waste not, and all that.
Once your shroud against scrying is in place, you start with the lesser of your intended spells, Cultural Adaptation. While Kayah does speak English, she does so with an accent that doesn't match to any you've heard on Earth. It's not an unpleasant one, but some of the pronunciations are... annoying, as you can hear echoes of common Hylian, and past them, something murkier.
Gained Sheikah F
Anyway, getting rid of that particular issue by smoothing out Kayah's speech is a good reason to cast this spell all on its own, let alone the benefits to her disguise.
Then comes the big one, which you really needed the Sanctum's detection-defeating measures for. As you begin the ritual casting of the extensively modified Spell to Channel Vigor, Kayah takes a minute to test out her newly modified accent, speaking in her "Cordy Voice" with the original herself offering commentary-
"Do I actually sound like that?" Cordelia wonders.
"Uh-huh," Amy says.
"Yup," Larry agrees.
"Very close," Lu-sensei agrees.
"Don't take it too badly," Lily advises. "Nobody's voice ever sounds quite the way they're used to hearing it."
-and then going back to the question-and-answer session. That begins to die down a couple of minutes on, however, as Kayah starts looking your way with a certain amount of nervousness as the aura of your spell continues to build.
"Didn't believe the warnings, did you," Briar states with amusement.
"I... had my doubts?" the Sheikah woman admits uncertainly.
"He has his own warnings, now?" Cordelia asks.
Once you have completed the spell, you take a moment to observe Kayah acting as Cordelia, and are pleased to see that the deception is a fair bit harder to penetrate now.
After that is the straightforward addition of a Greater Spell of Magic Aura, and once that's done, you, Larry, and Lu-sensei are booted out of the Private Sanctum-
"Hey!"
-while Kayah changes clothes into a more permanent sort of disguise. She doesn't attempt to pass herself off as Cordelia yet, because Cordy is going to have to show her back to the rooms the Chase family are using; instead, the young woman who steps out of the cave a few minutes later wearing a sundress, a hat, and a pair of dark glasses, looks like she could be a teenager on vacation. This, while still being recognizably herself.
Briar has also taken the opportunity to take on human form and change outfits to something suitable for the location, and Amy has joined in. The small crowd helps Kayah to blend right in, and there's little risk of the Chases seeing through the ruse: Amy's costume change, which carries traces of Transformation Magic, involves a veiled hat, a hairstyle change, and some cosmetic applications that have her looking rather unlike herself; and Cordy's parents have never met "Cousin Briar."
"We'll... just wait here, then?" Larry ventures.
Yeah, you have a cave to clear out of residual spell energies...
That aside, is there anything more that needs doing here?
The girls are away for the better part of half an hour, and after you finish clearing out the residue of your up-cast Spell to Channel Vigor, you spend some of that time with Larry and Lu-sensei, polishing your technique for sparring on a wet, sandy, and uneven surface.
Because you never know when you'll need to know how to fight on different surfaces, and who knows just what sort of training facilities this Other School of the Five Elements has in store for you?
Well, Lu-sensei obviously knows, but he's being cagey on the subject.
Lily Blaisdell watches you practice for a bit before wandering back inside the cave. She's only in there for five minutes or so before she emerges from the still-active fog-like haze of your Private Sanctum.
"Nothing worth exploring?" Lu-sensei guesses.
"Oh, there's a niche at the back that looks like it might open up into a passage, maybe even a network," Larry's grandmother replies with a shake of her head. "But it's half-flooded even with the tide out like this, not to mention low and dark enough that I wouldn't care to risk it without a helmet and a light source."
Huh.
"Do you suppose the people who own this property are aware of that?" you wonder.
"There weren't any signs," Lily replies with a frown as she looks back over her shoulder, first at the mouth of the cave and then deeper inside, as if trying to peer through the barrier of your ongoing spell. "No 'Warning, Danger, Do Not Enter, You May Die' boards, no ropes strung up to keep people out of that tide-pool or the gap in the wall behind it, and no litter or defacement, at least not that I recognized." She shrugs. "Then again, what do I know about tropical tidal caves?"
Hm. While Mrs. Blaisdell's account certainly doesn't make for hard proof that the owners of the place are ignorant of the cave's existence and extent, it doesn't paint the best picture, either. Particularly when you've had four kids under ten and an effective teenager wandering in, out of, and around the place for the last twenty-plus minutes without so much as a peep from local security.
Since you aren't done using this cave just yet, you aren't going to alert the managers right away. However...
You didn't see or sense anything unpleasant about the cave or coming from its deeper corners, and after taking a quick pause in the seaside kung fu lesson to scope out the back of the chamber more closely, you reaffirm that. If this hotel or resort or whatever is pulling in clients like the Chases - who you know are far from the wealthiest people in the world or even within your social circle, but are certainly among the richest in Sunnydale - then there are certain standards of service and security that they would have to uphold and have BEEN upholding for some time. Bad press, even a rumor of people getting injured or going missing on this property, could potentially ruin a place like this, depending on who was involved and how well the situation was handled - or wasn't.
Given the above, it doesn't seem terribly urgent that you warn people about the presence of the cave.
That said, you can't quite shake the concern that somebody your age or younger is going to find this place on their own and get into trouble. Maybe it's your overprotective big brother instincts talking or maybe something is setting off your supernaturally honed trouble sense on a subconscious level, but you'd like to take some precautions before you skip town.
Assuming that there IS a town around here...?
Anyway, you fire off a telepathic message to Briar, asking her to let Kayah know to keep the cave in mind as a potential trouble spot, in case anybody goes missing while she's here or there's an earthquake or something like that.
Aside from that, you'd also like to set up a warning sign of some sort. You have some paper in your pocket - it's one of those things you never leave home without - and while it wouldn't last long in this sort of heat and humidity, you don't need it to.
Alternately, you could try to scrounge up a piece of driftwood from the beach and use the Spell of Wood Shaping to turn it into a proper sign, and scrawl a suitable message on it: "The way is shut"; "Abandon hope"; that sort of thing. That assumes you can FIND any wood, though, the beach looks fairly bare...
Using Stone Shape to alter one of the cave walls directly, or maybe just one of the rocks, would be more certain, although that feels like it's getting into the territory of vandalism.
Using the Spell of Minor Creation to whip up a wooden sign directly is also an option, but it's one you're leery of, as you'd have to raise the level of the spell by a tier to get it to last until your return. While your still-active Private Sanctum would hide the casting of the augmented spell, the sign thus created would retain the spellcasting signature you've gone to some trouble to keep from becoming widely known. Even though you could drop a Spell of Magic Aura on the board to hide that information from casual notice, a determined investigator could still uncover it, and that has your survival instincts speaking up against the idea.
Also, what sort of content did you want in this warning?
A warning written on paper would potentially get washed away the next time the tide comes in, unless you stuck it up somewhere high, which would make it too difficult to see and read to serve your purposes - so that's out.
Wood would be nice, but a quick glance around the cave and the nearest part of the beach doesn't reveal any to you, so you have to rule it out as well.
Since you would really rather not conjure anything, that leaves altering the shape of one of the rocks around here.
You're leery of messing about with the structure of the cave itself - as much for reasons of structural integrity as concerns of defacing private property - but fortunately, there is a usefully-sized rock sitting next to the entrance that you can make use of. Doubly fortunately, the Spell of Stone Shaping is within your means to conceal the casting of even though the rock is just outside of your Private Sanctum, so you go ahead and get to work.
A simple danger sign didn't feel like enough of a deterrent, so as you manipulate the structure of the stone - drawing its mass up from the base like surprisingly pliable clay until it's more of a five-foot upright pillar than a rock, with a flat face about the size of a sheet of paper at the top, angled to be visible to anyone entering the cave and to get as much sunlight as possible - words begin to form. Due to the limits of the Spell of Stone Shaping, you are forced to keep the text to simple, blocky letters of considerable size, but if you flatter yourself, you think the results are smoother and neater than a typical caster of this magic might manage.
While the message is hardly machine-precise, it does seem like the sort of thing somebody could have done with a hammer, a chisel, steady hands, and some patience.
"'Tidal cave ahead'," Lu-sensei recites, reading the warning. "'Extreme risk of drowning. Stay out.'" He pauses, and then half-nods and half-shrugs. "It works. I'm not so sure about the skulls, though."
You look from the admittedly cartoony stone skull that "sits" atop the sign, of a suitable height to menace most anyone who reads the warning, down to the one that rests "before" the base, tilted back to stare endlessly upwards, its pate visibly cracked and its lower jaw gaping wide.
"...what's wrong with them?" you wonder.
"I would suggest that you ask the girls when they return," your master replies, "but I fear your partner would only approve."
Sure enough, when Amy, Briar, and Cordelia return about ten minutes after that, Briar takes one look at the sign and laughs.
Now carrying a suitcase but otherwise dressed as she was when she left, Cordy sighs. "Really, Alex?"
Amy just shrugs. "I've seen worse. Heck, I've bought worse."
"Not helping, Amy."
"So, then," you ask, as everybody shuffles back into the foggy cave. "I take it our secret agent is all settled in?"
"Oooh, yes," Amy drawls. "We had a chance for her to spend a few minutes talking with Mrs. Chase, with me and Briar on standby in case we needed to put her to sleep and call for help. It didn't come to that, or anywhere near it, really, but it was kind of spooky how well Kayah managed to pass for Cordy after only knowing her for twenty minutes."
"Shadow Lady knows how to ACT," Cordy says, sounding impressed. "I want to ask her for pointers - or lessons."
She gives you an expectant look.
"We can try to find you an acting instructor later, Cordy," you reply. "I can't promise anything, though - not about WHO might agree to teach you, or how well their lessons might help you. At least, I'm pretty sure actors from other worlds aren't going to be trained quite the same way actors on Earth are these days..."
You've yet to hear of another plane that has widespread audio/video technology, much less a demand for recorded productions that make use of the medium. Live performances are still the order of the day as far as you're aware, whether they be the efforts of a soloist busking on the streets, a wandering theater troupe's performances under a pitched tent or on a temporary stage, or the combined efforts of actors, orchestra, and stagehands bringing an opera to life.
There's also the influence of magic to consider. Special effects that cost millions to do on Earth could be done... not trivially, perhaps, but certainly a great deal less expensively and more frequently on worlds where magic exists in the public eye. The Spell to Disguise One's Self is a quick and easy costume change that would last for the length of your average movie scene even in the hands of a novice, or when delivered via a wand; the humble Ghost Sound cantrip is almost every sound effect you could care to name made available through a single spell (if only one sound per casting); and a good Illusionist might portray an entire character via the Spell to Create a Major Image, provided they had outstanding discipline and plenty of practice.
And that's just a few obvious applications for bog-standard spells from a single school. You don't doubt that there are worlds out there where "the magic of the theatre" is not only a literal statement, but has gone past the refinement an re-application of old spells and the development of new ones to give rise to whole schools and philosophical movements of effects wizards, who even now do battle on stage and behind the scenes as they strive for supremacy in the hearts and minds and money pouches of their audiences...
Cordy could potentially learn a lot from people like that, or even just from your average bard, but you aren't sure how applicable any of it would be to breaking into Hollywood.
"Not everything is about magic, Alex," Cordelia says. "But even in your weird magic movie world, actors would still have to know how to act, right?"
Well, yes.
"Then that's enough for me. For a start."
Alright, but not today. You have an elsewhere to be, if Lu-sensei was planning to FINALLY let you in on that?
The old man reaches up one sleeve and pulls out a photograph of a traditional martial arts hall, with a red-pillared façade and a courtyard of paved stones. There are three people visible in the shot: in the foreground, a boy about your age has been caught in mid-stride as he runs past the camera, either laughing or screaming as an older boy with a look of great frustration reaches for him; and in the background, a man somewhere past middle age calmly ignores the antics in progress as he sweeps the tiles.
"How old is the photo, Sensei?" you ask with a frown.
"It was taken just a few weeks ago," your master replies. "I had it sent after I realized that I didn't have any photos of the school more recent than about thirty years ago."
Good call. Greater Teleport doesn't risk you ending up off-target like its lesser version does, but it would have been embarrassing to have the spell fail because the target destination had changed too much from the image you were working with.
You study the photo for a minute, mentally editing out the presence of the three individuals it shows. Once you're prepared, everyone gathers around, and you begin your spellcasting...
At your birthday bash on Bali Ha'i, you heard an account of the founding of the original School of Five Elements from the mouth of the founder himself. As a consequence of Grandmaster Wen's description of the place where he established his training hall, you've been picturing the destination of your summer trip as being tucked away in a mountain valley full of streams, pools, and cherry blossoms almost since Lu-sensei proposed the visit.
As your teleportation resolves, you find that you have NOT traveled to some timeless mountain retreat in mainland China, for though the ground is rocky in places and there are some mountain peaks scattered about, the air is nowhere near cool or thin enough for the sort of altitude you were picturing - it's almost tropical, in fact, if a bit cooler.
Also, you can see the ocean. It'd be a decent day's hike at ordinary human speeds, but Body Flickering could get you there in an hour or less, depending on the terrain.
Another obvious difference is that this School of the Five Elements is not crammed piece-by-piece into whatever usable space a series of chasm-like valleys eroded out of the side of a mountain had to offer. Instead, it sits in a shallow bowl located roughly between the feet of three peaks, two of them side-by-side and the third more off by itself. Nor are these the sort of snow-capped crags of otherwise bare rock that the Grandmaster described; their slopes are covered with green, growing things, and you can see some birds flying about.
For a further point of thwarted expectation, there is the noise. You were anticipating a relatively quiet place, somewhat akin to the respectful hush of various shrines and temples you've visited, perhaps broken by the sounds of martial arts under practice, testing, and/or development.
Instead, there is an honest-to-Goddesses SIREN going off somewhere, and a lot of yelling from voices that range in age from childish to fully mature. Some two dozen students - the owners of most of those voices, you expect - dressed as if for a lesson, are just turning their collective backs to you and running for the main building, while a man and a woman wearing the colors of masters and three younger adults are facing your group with distinctly unwelcoming stances and intent.
Amy, Cordy, and Larry look bewildered by all of this.
Lily Blaisdell is regarding Lu-sensei suspiciously.
Your master appears chagrined.
Briar just kind of sighs.
You join Mrs. Blaisdell in giving your martial arts instructor a suspicious look.
You WERE expected, right? Your master DID tell his peers, old acquaintances, and possible rivals that your group would be stopping by via magic, correct? He couldn't have decided to pull an Ambrose and have you show up on the wrong day or even completely unannounced to create this sort of reaction on PURPOSE, could he?
Lu Tze catches your expression and reads the suspicion there, and his own look of chagrin morphs to one of mild affront. / Of course I told them! /
You quirk an eyebrow and nod at the screaming crowd. / Then what's all this? /
He shrugs. / That's what I'd like to know. / Then, shaking his head, the old man turns to the other instructors present, radiating an air that says, / Let's find out. / Raising his hands high enough to be clearly visible, Lu Tze calls out in Chinese, "We come in peace!"
His ki-enhanced raised voice doesn't have the mildly ear-ringing impact of a loud shout or a sound speaker being cranked way up, but it cuts through the noise of the panicking crowd all the same.
Gained Ki Shout E (Plus)
"Identify yourselves!" the male master returns, not having dropped his guard.
"I am Lu Tze, Master of the School of Five Elements, graduate of this very school and now operating out of Sunnydale, California," the old man says. "Who are you?"
"I am Wu Dong, Master of the School of Five Elements, and I have never heard of a Lu Tze OR a Sunnydale, California!"
"Never heard of-!? I am a student of Master Lo Hai! I have represented the honor of the Five Elements Style in multiple events at national, international, and global levels, most recently at last year's World Martial Arts Tournament! I spoke with Master Ng Da just last week concerning this visit!"
"Master Lo Hai passed twenty years ago, and none of his students remain at this school!" Master Wu responds. "Anyone could claim to be of that lineage! And Master Ng Da is on a spiritual retreat on the mainland! He left last week, and said nothing of visitors before departing!"
At that last bit, the lady master - who had been acting supportively of her comrade the whole time - suddenly frowns and casts a puzzled, sidelong glance in her peer's direction.
"And as for our representative at the last Tournament," Master Wu continues, either not noticing or simply preferring not to respond to the unspoken inquiry, "Master Nielson was attacked twice and hospitalized! He said nothing of a 'Lu Tze,' either, unless you are claiming to be in cahoots with those disgraceful ninja, or perhaps the bloodsucking witch that threatened the Tournament Masters?"
...
Oh, yes. Miss Akasha DID get angry at somebody in the tournament management, didn't she?
That aside, the mention of the name "Nielson" made your teacher stand up a little straighter. You don't doubt that the other two masters spotted the reaction, but given their obvious lack of familiarity with Lu Tze, you suspect they may not have been able to see through his facade of "mildly offended and genuinely puzzled master" to read the real reaction underneath.
Whoever this Master Nielson is, Lu-sensei does not like him very much, and is at least mildly amused to learn that he was one of the people on the receiving end of Miss Akasha's displeasure.
"What are they saying?" Cordelia asks with some frustration.
A glance at Amy, Larry, and Lily reveals similar expressions.
Maybe you should have cast a Spell of Tongues before you came...?
You pulse a request to your partner.
"Right, so, the guy being unfriendly is called Wu Dong..."
"To which disgraceful ninja are you referring?" Lu Tze returns. "Because I am aware of at least three groups that were in attendance at the Tournament and who did not exactly cover themselves in glory with their performances there, as well as practitioners of two other styles of ninjutsu who conducted themselves respectably enough, whether socially, competitively, or professionally."
That seems to throw Master Wu slightly. "...the bombers," he continues after a moment. "And also the ones that kept trying to knock competitors out before and between rounds of the Tournament, assuming that they were different groups."
"Ah. Then no, I was definitely not in cahoots with either group - and I'm fairly certain they were separate schools."
"What makes you say that?" the female master interjects then.
"Well, Master...?"
"Song Reyes."
Lu-sensei nods. "Master Reyes. As I was saying, I spent a couple of nights moving about the neighborhood where the Tournament was held, dissuading some of those ninja bent on reducing the competition from following through on their plans. I also had the opportunity to cross fists with some of those working for the man who set off the bomb. I found their styles to be quite dissimilar. Their uniforms were also entirely different, but... well. Ninja."
The three masters and the oldest-looking of the assistants all share a mutual sigh at that, even if Master Wu follows it with an immediate grimace of annoyance at empathizing with an intruder.
"Backing up slightly," your teacher says then, "Master Reyes, you reacted with slight surprise when Master Wu stated that Master Ng departed without mentioning any expected guests. Did you happen to hear something different?"
Master Wu blinks and turns to his counterpart. "Song?"
"I was told that Master Ng said we should expect friendly visitors," the lady replies calmly, to her companion's clear consternation. "However, the name 'Lu Tze' was not mentioned, and I heard nothing about people appearing out of thin air and tripping the teleportation alarms."
Lu-sensei hums thoughtfully. "Did you happen to see Master Ng before his departure, or hear what he was behaving like at the time?"
"...Master Bo did admit that Master Ng seemed very amused about something, and that he refused to share the joke, except that he was going to 'take a sudden vacation somewhere out of the blast radius'."
At that, your teacher huffs. "Ah. So in other words, Da arranged things to cause a little mischief for me, and then took himself out of range of easy retribution. Well, that definitely fits his sense of humor..."
"You DO know him," the two local masters state, the man with some annoyance, the woman purely resigned, and both of them distinctly exasperated with their absent peer.
"Oh, yes. And while as a fellow master and former training partner, I am pleased to see that the old dog has learned a new trick, I'm a little annoyed that the one he picked was how to be out of my reach... actually, wait a moment." Lu Tze looks at you. "Alex, if I could get you a picture of Master Ng-"
-you could scry the man, yes.
Lu Tze beams at your response.
"-and now Alex has just agreed to help Lu-sensei use scrying and teleportation to prank another master," Briar says.
"Really," Cordy drawls.
"Really?" Larry wonders.
"Really, Lu?" Lily sighs.
"Does he have it coming?" Amy asks frankly.
Cordelia and Lily look at her.
Briar just starts laughing.
"Did... I hear that correctly?" Master Wu inquires of Master Reyes in a hushed tone that you're quite sure you weren't supposed to hear. "The BOY offered to find and provide transport to Master Ng?"
"That's what it sounded like to me," the lady instructor replies in the same low voice.
"But wouldn't that mean-?"
"It might."
"But he's just a kid! Unless... he isn't?"
And now you have two martial arts masters singling you out for SPECIAL suspicion.
What a way to start a vacation.
The possibility of further discussion or sidelines are halted as a number of adult fighters - around a dozen in all, most of them visibly armed with staves, spears, and slender blades, several of which are enchanted and the rest thrumming with ki - finish crossing the courtyard from the main hall and the surrounding buildings. They're spread out in a loose arc, each member close enough to provide support to his neighbors and yet far enough apart for them not to interfere with each other's movements if a fight breaks out, the formation angled to prevent any of your party from having an uninterrupted path towards the school proper and already partially encircling your position.
It's only been a couple of minutes since you popped up, and given the minor distances involved, that might be taken as a poor showing for the response time of a bunch of ki adepts. That having been said, they had to drop whatever they were doing, probably make sure that at least a few students stopped doing whatever they were doing and didn't run off in the direction of danger, grab their weapons, get to the courtyard, make sure the fleeing group of students made it to safety - you saw them doing that much - and then form up and advance.
That's quite a bit to have done in the time available, and some of it wouldn't be helped by ki-based speed enhancement techniques, so maybe it's not such a bad showing after all?
Then, as the response force gets closer, one of its older members double-take. "I know that face," he declares, before peering closer. "Or at least, I think I do... is that you, Lu Tze?"
"Tucker, you old dog! Come vouch for my existence to our juniors, will you?"
"Who are you calling an old dog, you wrinkled prune? And why am I vouching for you?"
"Da's been playing silly buggers again-"
Tucker sighs. "Again?"
"-and Nielson needs another kick in the ass."
This time, the other man groans. "Lu, please, you JUST got here. Can we NOT have a schism for at least the first day?"
"He started it," your master huffs.
"Also," Tucker continues, ignoring that remark, "what the hell did you DO that had the alarms going off like that?"
"Oh, for goodness' sake... as I told Da over the phone last week, I'd planned to arrive via teleportation. He was SUPPOSED to have warned people-"
"He did!" Tucker replies.
Your master blinks. "He did?"
"He did?" Dong and Reyes exclaim.
"What he said was, 'I spoke to one of our old wayward friends,' as if THAT even remotely narrowed things down. Da also said, 'He said he'll be arriving by magic; probably hired a mage in Taoyuan or Kaohsiung.'"
"I said nothing about hiring local talent," Lu Tze says.
"Obviously not, because I doubt there's anybody on the ISLAND who'd set off that alarm! Seriously, Lu, what did you do, call in a favor with an entire arcane brotherhood just to show off?"
"...not as such," your teacher replies, carefully not looking in your direction.
"I have no brothers."
Several heads turn your way. Most of them quickly start giving you wary looks, similar to the ones Masters Dong and Reyes started directing at you when they began to suspect you were more than you appeared to be. The main difference is that there is a fair bit of "blink and you'll miss it" squinting going on, which you're able to notice due to the number of eyes involved - and also the number of ki signatures that briefly flare around said gazes.
Looks like your Mind Blank is working.
"But I do have the cutest little sister," you add with a smile, trying to appear harmless.
"Not the kind of 'brotherhood' I meant," replies Tucker, who you're going to go ahead and assume is another master, based on his age and the style of his outfit. He's one of the few that didn't seem too concerned by your lack of a presence, but he's regarding you oddly for another reason, his expression the sort that says he's trying to put a name to your face and a place to both of them. "That is, unless your sister helps you cast spells...?"
"That would be a no, sir," you regretfully admit.
It's a nice idea, but Zelda has a lot of magic lessons ahead of her - and almost certainly more than a few years' worth of growing up to do - before she'll be capable of meaningfully contributing to most of your arcane activities.
"Definitely not what I meant, then." The man's gaze drifts over to Lu-sensei, turning momentarily inquisitive.
"May I present one of my most gifted students-"
Heh.
"-and easily my most bewildering-"
Eh, fair.
"-Alexander Harris, Champion of the Under Tens Division of the World Martial Arts Tournament."
Tucker snaps his fingers. "I knew I recognized you from somewhere - although didn't you used to have a tan and hair that was more red than brown, or was that some kind of problem with the tapes?"
"That was actually due to some unwanted magical influence that I later got help in cleansing, sir," you reply.
Master Tucker frowns, semi-sympathetically and semi-cautious, as he looks between you and your teacher. "I've heard things about magical influences in Sunnydale, Lu."
"Good to know you've been paying attention to my letters," your teacher replies. "Bizarrely enough, however, the influence in question was not actually related to the Hellmouth or any of its unpleasant denizens. It was purely a product of the boy's own magical nature."
"Hm. And the one that did the cleansing?"
"A minor deity that I helped get back in touch with her daughter."
Master Tucker stares at you.
Somebody in the crowd scoffs.
"I could call her, if you'd like the confirmation?"
"By phone or by magic?" Tucker inquires in a level tone.
"By magic," you answer. "She's not a terrestrial deity."
"Then how did- no, wait, don't tell me. I probably don't want to know."
"It's honestly not that bad," Lu-sensei interjects.
"I've heard you use those words before, Lu," Tucker sighs. "It usually WAS 'that bad', when it wasn't worse." The resident master shakes his head. "Anyway, if there's an offer of something like an invocation of a deity on the table, we should put it to a vote of the masters and elders whether we accept or politely decline."
"Master Vincent," somebody in the crowd interrupts then. Looking away from the aforementioned master for a minute, you find the source to be a man probably in his early to mid-twenties. Although he is wearing the same training uniform as those individuals you've already pegged as senior students-slash-assistant instructors, the speaker's outfit is of visibly higher quality than his peers', and he has a light silk robe thrown over that, displaying dazzling coiled lengths of what you presume is a dragon. He's also wearing a headband, necklace, and armbands or bracers of some sort - you can't see most of them due to his shirt and robe covering them, but all the pieces register as imbued with energy, some of it ki, some of it spiritual, some of it magic. The headband, at least, has a small piece of polished green stone you're fairly sure is jade set right over the third eye.
"Are we SERIOUSLY going to entertain this... this boastful nonsense?" the young man asks sourly, sparing you and your teacher disdainful looks.
"Tell me, Disciple Su," Tucker replies. "Can you sense a thing off of this boy? Can you detect his presence with anything other than your eyes and ears?"
The disciple scowls at the question and turns his attention to you more fully. You can sense his ki thrumming, some of it reaching in your direction, more just staying in his system and enhancing its functions - and he's not the only one, half the other student-ranked members of the crowd are taking the opportunity to do the same thing.
You simply smile politely and "endure" the attention.
"I cannot, Master," Su responds grudgingly.
"Good, because neither can I, and I would be willing to venture that none of the other masters here are having any better luck." He pauses. "Unless you can, Lu...?"
"No, I have yet to find a way around or through that particular spell myself, despite some months of trying."
Tucker nods, accepting his friend and fellow master's statement for what it is. "So, we have here a boy of about twelve "Nine, actually."
Master Tucker does a double-take. "Wait, what?"
"I'm only nine, sir. Under Tens Division, remember?"
The man pauses, considering that.
"...right. I knew that. In my defense, you, uh, really don't look your age, you know?"
"I am aware, sir."
And that's just on the purely physical side of things...
"As I was saying, we have here a NINE-year-old-"
"-that might as well not be there as far as the ki sense of masters is concerned. Not a weak or untrained signature, not one that's simply been suppressed or concealed, and not even one that's been blurred by the sort of spells that we've had guests lecturers in here to demonstrate and suggest countermeasures for - he just isn't there. This is a level of stealth that I, personally, have never heard of and would not have considered possible up until two minutes ago - and yet, there it is. Is it so difficult to think that a person displaying proof of one improbable feat while claiming another might not be telling the truth? Is it not one of the teachings of the School of Five Elements to accept that the things you see before you did not exist until the moment you saw them? Do the words of Grandmaster Wen not encourage us to greet each moment with wonder, and accept that existence is full of countless surprises that we have never known?"
"I am not sure this is what the Grandmaster meant by that, Master Vincent..."
"I ask only that you contemplate the possibility, Disciple - and also that you see our guests to the quarters that were arranged for them, despite Master Ng's troublesome habits."
Disciple Su sighs. "Very well, Master."
Do you have anything to say before leaving this group?
Or perhaps there is something you'd like to speak of with the slightly too-well-dressed Disciple Su, while he sees you to where you'll be staying? Or, if not him, perhaps one or more of your companions?
The offer to summon Grandmaster Wen to settle the question of doctrinal interpretation is there on the tip of your tongue, but doesn't get any further than that. It's pretty obvious that you've already dropped quite a bomb on the worldview of students and masters alike, just by being yourself and doing what you can do; there's no need to push further and potentially shatter their sense of reality altogether. Better to give them a chance to see proof of and start coming to terms with your previous claims, before you hit them with another impossible thing.
Besides, Lu-sensei is the one with the quick and easy means of calling up the Grandmaster, and you expect he'll want to use it at some point during this trip. Why would you steal your teacher's thunder like that, when you could instead coordinate the reveal for maximum effect?
As Disciple Su leads the way to one of the side buildings, you quickly ask Master Tucker - using his surname, Vincent - if it would be acceptable for you to cast a translation spell on your friends, most of whom aren't fluent in Mandarin. Even your own grasp of the language is only so-so...
"That would be fine," the man says. "But please refrain from casting other spells without giving notice and receiving permission, unless it's an emergency."
"...just to be clear, sir, would conjuring up some very nice but temporary silk uniforms to change into for Certain Reasons count as an emergency?" you ask quietly, glancing at the departing figure of Disciple Su.
Master Tucker looks where you're looking, covers a laugh with a cough, and says, "Unfortunately, no."
Drat.
Well, it was just a thought - and even if you can't make them right now, you can still ask Cordelia for advice on stylish kung fu uniforms. Maybe a quick project of sorts for when you go home...?
Two quick questions about the Spell of Tongues: how long do you wish it to last?
The only benefits of leaving the Spell of Tongues with its default duration are that it would be easier and mystically quieter to cast. The former isn't a concern for you, and as for the latter... well, your fellow practitioners of the Five Elements Style would probably prefer a single disturbance to one that reoccurs every day for the length of your stay, let alone every few hours.
If everybody else apart from Lu-sensei is getting their linguistic facilities touched up, you figure you might as well go ahead and improve your own. It's a chance to improve upon your command of Chinese on a permanent basis, and who's to say that the Mandarin dialect is the only one spoken here?
It would be unfortunate if someone tried to speak with you or one of your companions in a different form of Chinese and misunderstandings ensued, particularly when you could have easily avoided the matter - so you'll just take care of that.
It does occur to you to warn Master Vincent that you're going to be using a fairly big spell to attend to the matter.
"How big?" he asks.
"Seventh circle," you reply.
He blinks. "...right. Let me... let me just alert a few people before you do that, okay?"
Seeing as how you're not particularly eager to have a bunch of jumpy kung fu masters dropping on your head, you're fine with waiting a bit, and turn to rejoin your companions and follow Disciple Su to your room.
The chambers you are directed to are in a building that feels a bit unused compared to the other structures that make up the School. It's not dusty or overgrown with vines or anything like that, but where you can see people moving around or inside most of the other facilities, this one proves to be empty of anyone other than your group. There's also a certain blandness to the residual ki in its halls, a sign that the members of the school don't come in here very often - probably just to clean and handle the odd bit of heavier maintenance.
The Disciple directs you to a pair of rooms on opposite sides of a particular hall. Rectangular in their layout, each chamber is big enough to account for three or four normal-sized bedrooms on its own, but has very little in the way of furnishings. There are a couple of plain dressers and wardrobes, as well as bedding mats and blankets that give off a certain sense that they've recently been unpacked and aired out after a fairly lengthy period spent in a storage closet somewhere. You also spot a low table with seating cushions around it, and some wall scrolls quoting some of the sayings of Wen at you - aside from that, it's pretty bare.
There's a restroom at one end of the hall, with multiple sinks and toilet stalls like a public facility. The baths are adjacent to that, and fortunately, everything has modern plumbing, so you won't have to haul buckets or light fires just to get a hot bath.
You ARE expected to clean up after yourselves, both in the bathroom(s) and the bedrooms, but you think Lily Blaisdell would have insisted on that anyway.
Besides, you have Unseen Servants. It really won't be an issue.
The building has no kitchen, food stores, or dining area; the School maintains a single hall for that, where everyone is expected to join for meals at regular times. Given the number of staff and students and the busy schedules set by the teachers, the cooks provide six meals each day: an early breakfast at six; a mid-morning meal at nine; lunch at noon; dinner at three; supper at six; and the last meal of the day at nine. This isn't an excuse for gluttony, just a means to keep the dining hall from getting over-crowded.
Again, it is customary for staff and students to take turns working in the kitchens in some capacity, though as honored guests, that much is not required of you.
Disciple Su gives a certain impression of wanting to be done with his assigned task and on his way as soon as possible, but he doesn't let his personal feelings get in the way of fulfilling his master's instructions. You can respect that much about the guy, at least, and you do your best to let him discharge his obligation and be off.
Is there anything you want to do while you wait here?
A little additional work isn't going to hurt you, it would help you to fit in with the other students a bit better, and the opportunity to brush up on your Chinese culinary repertoire kind of appeals, even if all you end up doing there is being around while other people handle the actual cooking part.
You're good at learning via observation.
Disciple Su blinks at that. "I can... certainly inform the Masters of that. If the rest of you do not mind, that is?"
"I'm good with helping out with the dishes, anyway," Larry said. "I'd probably burn any actual food."
"I could cook," Amy says.
"I see where this is going," Cordy sighs.
"I'm terrible at cooking Chinese," Lily Blaisdell says frankly. "But what's your policy on butter cookies?"
The senior student blinks and, in serviceable English, replies, "I have no idea what those are."
Everyone who's had some of Granny Blaisdell's homemade cookies spares him a look of deepest pity.
"...please don't look at me like that."
Lily just starts flexing her hands. "Well," she says. "I guess I know what I'M going to be asking permission to do..."
"From what I remember of the kitchens, Lily," Lu-sensei offers, "I don't think they keep enough sugar in stock - probably not enough to make a full batch for the entire school, and definitely not enough for your usual icing sugar."
"I'll pay for the ingredients, if we need them," Cordelia offers.
After Disciple Su has gone on his way, you pick a mat in the boy's room, set your luggage down, and then cross the hall to hand Briar HER stuff. In the process, you let your partner know that you're going to explore the rest of this not overly large structure, just to see if there's anything interesting that your brief tour didn't turn up.
"And since I've already taken on translating for everybody else, you'd like me to stay with them?" she guesses.
"I am planning to cast the Spell of Tongues in a bit," you reply. "I'm just waiting on the okay from the head master or council of elders or whoever it is that's ultimately in charge here."
"Alright. I'll stay here and interpret, and let you know if somebody shows up to give you permission to make with the magic-"
You nod.
"-or to challenge you to single combat to prove your claims about knowing Mom," she adds.
You nod again, because you could see something like that happening. Turning, you amble off down the hall, heading for the bathrooms first, mainly because you think it makes the most sense to check out the area you're actually going to need to make use of first.
There's nothing particularly interesting to see in the restroom proper, although the layout of the place does reinforce that earlier impression that this dormitory was originally built to handle a large number of occupants. You do find a closet full of towels - ranging from hand-sized to the full-body variety, most of them on the thin side - and storeroom that has some mops, brooms, dustpans, and assorted cleaning supplies. There's also a stairwell that goes down to whatever this place has for a basement.
Mrs. Blaisdell is surely used to using specific brands of ingredients when she cooks, and you can't help but suspect that the odds of finding the stuff she prefers in an overseas market are not great - and that anything you DID find would be marked up.
Not that her cookies wouldn't be worth every last cent or yen or whatever the local equivalent is-
"The local currency is the yuan, or New Taiwan Dollar," Lu-sensei offers. "Technically, it has one-tenth and one-hundredth denominations called 'jiao' and 'fen', but those are almost never used."
-okay, then, but like you were saying, you'd have to convert currencies, which would probably lose you some cash in the exchange-
"Actually," your master interrupts, "the American dollar has somewhere around thirty times the buying power of the yuan right now."
...what, really?
"Yes, really. I'd have to look it up to be exactly sure of the numbers, though."
Huh. You may have been dealing with mystical currencies a little too much...
ANYWAY, for reasons of maximizing cookie quality, it would be best if Larry's grandmother had the ingredients she was used to working with, and it would be easiest to be sure of getting those - especially in the quantities necessary to provide the whole school with a share of the snacks - if you popped back Stateside to do your shopping. While a round-trip teleportation back to Sunnydale probably isn't the best idea, due to the distance outside town you normally prefer to be to avoid problems when you don't have a shielded location to land in or leave from, you could visit the grocery store in Oxnard pretty much directly.
Disciple Su looks a bit bewildered by all of this. "Are these cookies THAT good...?"
Everybody nods, except for Lily, who just looks proud of herself.
"...I will... let the masters know of your offer...?"
The basement isn't going anywhere, and since you're expecting a messenger shortly, you probably shouldn't wander too far from your assigned room. With that in mind, you turn about and head back up the hall, past the occupied rooms towards the middle of the building.
The way this dormitory is set up, there are four of those converted bunk rooms along the same hallway, which runs through a small central lobby that is currently little more than bare walls and hardwood flooring. Facing it from the courtyard, the girls' room would be at the right front of the building, while your own is to the right rear.
As you pass back into the foyer, your gaze is drawn to the door at the back. Judging from the positioning of the rear wall in this room and what you've seen of the building's actual size, there's enough space for a small room back there, maybe a single-person bedroom; when you walk over to give the handle an idly curious twist, you find it to be locked.
After dealing with the locked private room, you head further down the hall, past the doors for the other two group rooms. These are also locked.
Finally, at the far end of the dorm is another short corridor with a set of non-residential rooms. There are no bathrooms on this end of the building; instead, you find more storage rooms: the smaller ones contain janitorial equipment that has been used recently enough to keep the brushes and bottles from gathering dust themselves; and the larger ones are, again, locked.
It would be the mark of a poor guest to go breaking into locked rooms on your very first day - or, you know, at all - and there's nothing about these rooms in particular that suggests they'd be worth forcing an entry to. Maybe if you sense an unexpected aura or hear something that sounds like someone moving around in them at night, you can revisit the idea and seek permission from your hosts to check them out.
For now, though, you decide to hit the basement. There's another stair going down on this end of the building, so you go ahead and make use of it, ending up in a small concrete-walled and -floored landing with a couple of old boxes piled in one corner and a door in the middle of the wall. While it does have a lock, a quick check proves the door to not have been secured.
You go in expecting to find a larger version of your home basement, with more bare walls and flooring and various components of the building's heating, plumbing, and electrical systems competing for space with laundry and storage, and probably a few load-bearing columns or walls - and you're not exactly disappointed on any of those counts, although there's quite a bit less stuff boxed away or left in piles than your family keeps around. Probably a consequence of this building not seeing a lot of regular use.
What surprises you are the large open areas with actual flooring: the largest one of wood, similar to a gymnasium; another padded, like a permanent set of crash mats; a third filled in with sand; and then the fourth a tiled depression which looks like it's meant to be filled with water, although not to the depth of a swimming pool or bathtub, and possibly not even a wading pool.
Obviously, it's some sort of training area, but why is it underground, and why does it look like this?
The basement level is all one big room, and you wander across it at a walk, looking this way and that to see if there's anything else worth seeing. The interior of the foot-bath or whatever it is seems perfectly dry, the sandy area is not marked by footprints or anything so obvious-
!
-but when you look a little closer, you notice that the sand has been disturbed recently, and with enough force to send at least one plume of sand spraying out of the pit. An effort was made to clean everything up, but there are a few gritty particles wedged between some of the boards and mats in the neighboring sections, and if you look at the sand-pit closely, it's a bit bumpy in places, as if several divots were hastily filled in and not smoothed out quite so neatly as you'd think stern martial arts instructors would prefer.
Has somebody been playing around where they shouldn't, or just training privately and not doing a perfect job of cleaning up after themselves?
Reaching the door at the far end, you find it unlocked and head back upstairs to the corridor outside the bathroom area.
"Back already?" Briar asks, leaning out the door of the girls' dorm as you approach. "Was there nothing to see, or just nothing interesting?"
"I found a few locked doors, but I didn't really feel like forced entry was the way to go."
She nods.
"The basement's kind of huge, though," you add, just outside the door to what will be your room for the next week. "Most of it's been converted into a training area of some sort. I'm not not entirely sure why or what for, when they have all that space outside."
"The 'why' would be 'in case of typhoon'," Lu-sensei advises from in front of the dresser that he's hanging the last of his clothes up in. "They happen year-round in this part of the world, and Taiwan will see ten of them annually, on average. Whenever one hits, it's easily a few days' worth of outdoor training lost for most people - one or two for the wind and rain, a couple more for the cleanup - to say nothing of the issues that can develop when you have a few dozen young ki adepts confined to their dorms while waiting for the latest storm to pass."
"So you built sparring rings and stuff in the basements," you conclude.
"Not me personally, but yes."
"Are we going to get caught in a storm while we're here?" Larry asks.
"It's entirely possible," Lu-sensei admits. "Typhoon activity typically peaks in August and remains elevated through October, which is one reason why I wanted to take this trip now instead of waiting a few more weeks, but storm activity does spike in July."
Which you're halfway through.
Something to look forward to, then. Lucky you.
Still, worse comes to wet, you can always cast the Spell to Resist Water on everybody.
"Going back to the subject of the underground training area for a second," you say then, as you set your first suitcase on the table and begin opening it up, "what's the policy on using them? Because the sand-pit downstairs looks like somebody was practicing in it and didn't completely clean up after themselves."
"If the doors were not locked," your master muses, "then we should be free to make use of the basement level. That said, I should probably go take a look for myself..."
You nod and get on with unpacking your stuff, making use of one of the unclaimed dressers. You don't exactly rush through the process, but you only brought a week's worth of clothes - and that with the expectation of doing a few loads of laundry - so it doesn't take very long regardless.
Even so, by the time you're done, there's no sign of that messenger.
It's been about a quarter of an hour, now; you wonder what could be taking so long. Did Master Vincent get tied up in an argument with his peers, or is somebody being stubborn about not giving you permission to cast a simple translation spell?
Lu-sensei has come back up from his trip to the basement, and agrees with your conclusion that somebody was making use of the training area without a master's direct involvement. He advises you not to muck around in the sand or mess with the (currently empty) pool until he's had a chance to speak with his fellow masters on the matter and see if there's some discipline in need of administration - and if so, to whom - but if you want to work out or spar on the floorboards or the mats before then, that would be fine.
Since you're kind of on the subject already, you ask Lu-sensei if there are any differences - official or not - between the set of rules he enforces for training and sparring back in Sunnydale and those that the local School of Five Elements maintains.
"Officially, no, there aren't," your master begins, before stopping himself. "Actually, let's get everyone together so I only have to go over this once."
Fair enough.
You follow him out of the boys' dorm and spend a couple of minutes finding everyone, as while Amy and Briar are in the middle of meditating in the girls' room - trying to get a better handle on how the local environment affects their respective magical abilities, which are more sensitive to ambient influences than your own - Cordy and Lily wandered off to explore the rest of the dorm, eventually ending up investigating the small flowerbeds in its "backyard", while Larry went downstairs to have a look at the basement with Lu-sensei and didn't come back up at the time.
You eventually get everyone assembled in the yard, where your teacher recounts your question for the rest of the group and then gives his answer.
In short, there aren't any differences in the actual RULES that the two branches of the School conduct matches by, but due to certain cultural differences, the locals are apt to interpret those rules a bit differently from your American selves.
For one thing, this isn't a small-town training hall run by the same master who founded it a few decades ago, where students show up for lessons in hour-long blocks several times a week and mostly just train for personal enjoyment, fitness, and occasionally for competitive reasons. This place has been around for generations, is overseen by multiple masters, and is a home for many of its attendees, some of whom have chosen to dedicate their lives to the pursuit and perfection of their personal martial art and its attendant philosophy.
They're more formal, here, and place a greater emphasis on showing respect - which is something the language barrier could complicate, and Lu-sensei is glad to hear that you already asked Master Vincent for permission to deal with that.
"Not that I think that MOST of the students or teachers would try to seize on that sort of misunderstanding as a pretext to start a fight or otherwise make trouble," he clarifies, "but every class has its prize idiot, arrogant fool, or spoiled brat."
"Which one is Master Ng, which is Master Nielson, and which am I?" you ask.
Lu-sensei gives you a dry look. "YOU are a special kind of frustrating, such as I have not encountered in all my years as a practitioner of the martial arts and, with luck and the blessing of the gods, will not encounter the like of again."
A couple of heads bob in agreement at that statement.
"It's tough being this awesome..."
That remark gets you a round of dry looks, ranging from unimpressed to resigned.
Tough crowd.
"As to my peers... Master Ng's sense of humor leaves much to be desired, but I would never have called him an idiot, a fool, or a brat. He was not the most naturally gifted student, but he was as diligent as any in training and study, and if it took him longer to earn his mastery than some, the experience made him a better teacher than at least a few who gained the rank sooner than he did - and perhaps sooner than they should have."
You wonder who your master is talking about there. He doesn't sound like he's referring to himself, and his words lack the biting tone you would have expected to hear if he was alluding to Master Nielson.
"As for Master Nielson," Lu Tze continues, some of that controlled distaste creeping into his voice, "before today, I would have described him as a competent master who could have been better, if he did not insist on spending so much time playing politics."
"And now?" Lily asks.
"Now, much as it irritates me, I think I had better step into that arena myself," your teacher admits. "Because if two accredited masters of the School where I was trained didn't recognize my name little more than a year after I placed second at the World Tournament, and if they didn't recognize Alex after he WON his Division in his first-ever showing, then somebody is playing silly games."
And according to Master Wu, Master Nielson was the official representative of this branch of the School of Five Elements at the Tournament and the one that SHOULD have informed the rest of the school that you and your master participated and placed. The lack of recognition of your achievements, then, makes Master Nielson the chief suspect in the aforementioned silliness.
Granted, the man DID come out on the wrong end of Miss Akasha's annoyance with the Tournament Masters, so there might be a concussion or something involved, but if he's genuinely suffering from memory loss, that would be an issue all its own, wouldn't it? And SOMEBODY should have checked the Tournament's records anyway.
Well, that's a matter for your master to sort out. In the meantime, Lu Tze gives everybody a few pointers on how to better conduct themselves around the more traditional sort of martial artist, so as to try and avoid the obvious pitfalls of cross-cultural interaction.
One of those pointers is aimed at you, Briar, and Amy, being a reminder to hold back on the magic unless your opponent and whichever master or instructor is overseeing the match have both agreed to it.
"And even then," Lu-sensei says, turning squarely to you, "blowing up the ring is bad form."
You and your friends are going to end up sparring with some of the local students eventually, and while you could just try to stay loose while you wait for somebody to extend an invitation, challenge, or insult, you think it would be better if you got in a bit of light exercise ahead of that, as much to get a feel for the local conditions as for the stretching and warm-up.
Ideally, you'd spar outdoors, but that would give your opponents-to-be a chance to observe and measure your skills while keeping their own secret, an advantage you'd rather not just hand to them. And you DO have access to an underground sparring chamber, so why not make use of it?
You express your thoughts to your friends, and Larry is all for a bit of a workout before dinner, or late breakfast, or however that works out. Cordelia is not so obviously enthusiastic, but does agree that being ready to put your best foot forward when the inevitable martial artist bonding starts is a good idea. Briar mostly just shrugs, while Amy sighs and goes along with the rest of you.
"Yes, Sensei."
While repairing a damaged ring is well within your abilities at this point - provided proper allowances for work-time and mana reserves are made - you do get where your teacher is coming from. Any actual damage to the School is going to annoy the masters, and the prospect of having it repaired promptly would only reduce the hard feelings involved, not eliminate them entirely. Better to sidestep the issue and just not blow anything up to begin with, even if that does promise to be the less exciting approach.
Once in the basement, you and your friends go through a round of warm-up exercises and then pair off, you against Larry and Cordelia against Amy, with Briar taking a pass on the first round. Even limited to pure physical technique and only light-contact sparring, you and Cordy win your bouts, but the margins of victory are much narrower than they would have been otherwise.
For the second round, you and Cordy face off, while Larry wins a quick round of rock-paper-scissors with Amy and tags out, letting Briar take the grumbling witch in his place. You and your partner take your respective matches, after which Amy rotates out, Larry goes up against Cordy, and you face off with Briar.
Larry pulls off a technical win when Cordelia gets overconfident and a little too aggressive, allowing him to flip her out of bounds of their marked area.
You and Briar keep going for a minute after that, your unusually large build and her teenaged proportions making for a closer physical contest, while your familiar's knowledge of your style and preferred tactics lets her draw things out as long as you aren't breaking out the ki moves.
You've just finished that round - a win for you - when an unfamiliar teenager in a student's uniform comes downstairs, with Lu-sensei and Mrs. Blaisdell following a short ways behind.
"Alex Harris?" he asks, looking from you to Larry... and then to the girls, which makes you think he's familiar enough with American culture to know that "Alex" is sometimes a girl's name.
"That's me," you say. "How can I help you?"
"I am Zhang Zhen," the older boy says with a slight bow that you return in kind. "Master Vincent sent me to inform you that your request to cast translation spells on your companions was approved."
Oh, good. And hey, you're underground; that should make things a little less noisy for any sensitives in the school, especially if you use a ritual.
Once you and your companions have the language barrier dealt with, what would you like to do next?
The ambient magical energy levels around the School of Five Elements aren't anything to write home about compared to some of the places you've been: the Hellmouth itself offers considerably more energy, as long as you don't mind it being corrupted and corrupting; Faerie was similarly rich in untapped power; and Bali Ha'i was an unspoiled paradise in more ways than one.
Still, there is plenty of mana floating around this place, and aside from sustaining that alarm ward on the grounds - and probably a few other things you haven't been told about, set off, or otherwise discovered yet - there doesn't seem to have been any recent use made of it. Certainly not in THIS building, anyway.
Since you have permission to make with the magic and won't be inconveniencing anybody by tapping the local flows, you go ahead and do so.
It takes you seven minutes to finish the ritual, during which your friends work with Lu-sensei to get a better feel for how the new environment impacts their ki use - though in Amy's case, that's still a theoretical exercise, and Briar is of course working with her Fae energy. Can you call that Fae ki? Faeki? "Yousei" is the Japanese term for "fairy," so "youki" should be the correct term in that language, but that could make things a little confusing when comparing to monstrous energy...
While you're working magic and contemplating martial arts vocabulary, you note that Zhang Zhen is splitting his attention between keeping an eye on you, watching what Lu-sensei and your friends are doing, and trying not to appear too nosy OR too sneaky. There was a certain implication of "the masters want me to watch and report back that you only cast the spell you said you would" when he delivered his message to you and didn't immediately scarper, and there is a certain respectful interest in his manner as he glances at your peers - who aren't actually sparring at the moment - so you're willing to let the not-exactly-spying pass.
In due course, you have the spell ready and call a pause to the ongoing lesson so that you can reach out and apply the magic to all the intended recipients.
"How will you know if it worked?" Zhang Zhen asks curiously.
"I have confidence in my magic," you reply, in much better Mandarin than before. "But being able to converse with natural speakers of the language does help."
"Ah. In that case, would you- actually, wait. First of all, will you be joining us for the mid-morning meal, or have you already eaten?"
It's getting on towards supper time by your internal clock, and from a look at your friends, they could eat, too. So that's definitely a, "Yes," which you give.
Student Zhang nods. "Then, as I was about to say, would you like me to let the masters know to tell the students that asking questions during the meal is fine?"
"...we touched off a lot of talk with the arrival via teleportation, huh?"
"Half a dozen mysterious foreigners showing up unannounced would have done that anyway," the older boy admits without shame.
Lu-sensei sighs and mutters something about re-introducing the back of Da's head to his hand.
Zhang Zhen nods and excuses himself with your answer.
Gained Chinese D
You aren't worried about Zhang Zhen seeing you cast a spell. Honestly, you've rarely been worried about ANYBODY doing that, and then mainly at times when you were trying to avoid detection in general, rather than out of any particular desire to hide details of your magical style.
You're also a lot less worried about one local student seeing your friends perform their current exercises than you were about him seeing them spar, because at most, that will just tell him how far along they are (or aren't) in their individual training, and not how well they can actually apply the skills in question in the ring.
Plus, you have serious doubts that Zhang has ever seen a fairy martial artist before - and the slightly baffled expression that crosses his face when Briar starts pushing a bit of her energy around seems to bear that out.
Anyway, it's cool. You don't need to warn Zhang off as a snoop.
"Would telepathy be acceptable at the table, Lu-sensei?" you ask.
Zhang Zhen does a double-take.
Your teacher scratches his chin thoughtfully. "If memory serves, we DID have a telepath in one class who did that at meals-"
What, really?
"-but that young fellow was also mute, and allowing him to 'speak with his mouth full,' as it were, was a special concession in light of his condition," your master continues. "I don't recall that it was ever made an official policy for psychically gifted students in general."
"We could ask, though."
"Some of us can't talk to other people in their own minds, genius," Cordelia says.
You were going to say more, about how you couldn't originally do anything with psychic powers either - and still really aren't anything to write home about, if you're being honest - but the moment you finish the first sentence, Cordelia's expression goes flat and her ki aura tenses.
"Permission to punch him, Sensei?" she asks.
"Permission granted."
"Hey!"
On the positive side, you DID want to get a few ki-assisted spars in.
On the negative side, you probably could have worded things better... or at least sounded a little less smug when you said the thing...?
...
Nah.
Gained Trolling C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Anyway, now that ki is on the table, the matches that were already a bit weighted in your favor now become unfairly so. Cordy is getting pretty good with Ki Enhancement herself and has her, uh, current intense focus giving her some extra kick - and punch, and stomp, and "when I get my hands on you" - and you're only using the simplest form of Ki Enhancement yourself as you get better-accustomed to the local environment so the performance gap isn't that great. But it IS there, and you had an edge in physical capability to begin with.
After you've flipped Cordelia out of the "ring" a couple of times, she cools down enough to let somebody else have a turn. Larry takes a shot, but while he gives a solid effort, you've just got too much of a lead on him with ki use right now for him to push you even when you're holding back.
Amy spends that match sparring with Briar, and subsequently bows out of further bouts. You get in a quick round of practice with your partner, who does about as well as Cordelia.
All told, the practice bouts don't last more than ten minutes, and once they're concluded, everybody agrees that it's time to go join the School for a meal.
"Seriously, though," you say as you're heading up the stairs, "I could cast the Spell of Telepathic Bonds to let us talk to at least SOME people with our minds."
"Oh my god, Alex," Cordelia groans.
"I'm just saying-"
"Isn't that the spell you had your Shadow use to try and coordinate all those little Earth Elementals?" Briar asks, frowning.
"Yes?"
"Didn't it give him a headache?"
It did...
"And that was with a couple dozen of the little rockheads," your partner notes. "Whereas this school has a few hundred students."
You weren't planning on plugging the ENTIRE school into the spell - you COULDN'T even if you wanted to, there are limits on how many individual minds the spell can accommodate per casting, and you weren't about to fire it off multiple times.
"Just give it a rest, will you?" Cordelia demands. "Maybe give these people a chance to get over you being a walking transporter room and all of us having universal translators before you break their brains with something new?"
...
Okay, you'll skip the Spell of Telepathic Bonds for now.
The "climate" of this basement sparring area really isn't that different from what you're used to in Sunnydale, but once you get topside, the combination of tropical summer heat and humidity, rocky elevation, and a location fairly close to the sea makes for an environment that is, if not new to your experience - thank you, Bali Ha'i - then not something you've had to deal with for a while.
And even at your island birthday bash, you didn't have any spars or fights under these precise conditions. It was all friendly matches in the Ring of Trials down by the shore, live combat in other-dimensional locations reached THROUGH the Ring of Trials, and a certain amount of volcano-climbing.
With that in mind, you go ahead and activate the second ki technique. It's not like you don't have the energy to spare on it, or that Environmental Adaptation will give you some unfair advantage in these friendly spars.
"Come here, you-!" Cordelia demands.
Mostly friendly, anyway.
The bouts eat up a bit of your technique's effective duration, but that's fine. You can always renew it if it lapses when you really need it.
That said, you dismiss your Ki Enhancement technique once the test bouts are over. Even if nobody could sense its presence through your Mind Blank spell, the boost to your physical parameters could still draw attention. Lu-sensei certainly knows you well enough to tell when you're moving around under Ki Enhancement, even at the low level you were just using, and you aren't about to bet against some of his peers being able to discern the same sort of thing by dint of experience with their own ki-using students.
You'd rather not offend anybody by walking around with a combat technique active, as if you expected to be jumped at any second. That would just be rude.
Maybe a good tactical call, if you were visiting a martial arts school that had reason to distrust or dislike you and/or a reputation for sneakiness or aggression, like wherever that Raidou guy hangs out, but not here.
"Alright, alright," you sigh. "No telepathy at the breakfast-dinner table."
"THANK you," Cordy drawls.
"At least not yet," you add.
"I'll take what I can get," she replies without missing a beat.
The dining hall is located behind the School's main training hall, on the opposite side of a small park-like area that contains half a dozen obvious locations for fighting: level, grassy turf; another sand pit, its edges of a more natural design than the one in the basement; a small section of raised tiles; a grove of trees with narrow trunks, planted at the intersections of a five-by-five grid; a pond so clear you can make out the bright grey sand along the bottom; and other places besides.
The first thing you notice about the dining hall is that it looks a lot more obviously modern than the other buildings of the School of Five Elements you've seen so far. Some of that is due to the exhaust vents you can see on the roof, which remind you of various restaurants and - arguably most pertinently - the Sunnydale Elementary cafeteria, but there's also the fact that this building just forgoes the whole "traditional Eastern martial arts school" style that the other structures in the compound at least pay lip service to. Masonry and metal siding rather than a wooden façade, the sort of doors that have been clearly designed to swing firmly shut and have weather-stripping besides, and other, smaller touches.
"No truck with traditional cooking?" Lily ventures as you walk up the path.
"Oh, the cooks do plenty of that," Lu-sensei replies. "But as a former master pointed out, ignoring tradition and adapting to and overcoming new or changing conditions are among the core principles of our school - so why, exactly, should we be forcing our students to adhere to same bland, boring diet during their time here? Should we not, instead, be showing them how different foodstuffs impact their digestion, training, and overall health, so that they will know how to adjust their diets and training regimens when they venture out into the world? Does it not make more sense to introduce them to foods from all over the world, that they might avoid hunger, stomach distress, and wasted money in foreign lands? Has a master not earned the right to enjoy a nice juicy steak every now and then, while he still has his teeth?"
Your remark draws a general murmur of agreement from the rest of your group, indicating that none of your companions were particularly interested in eating like ascetics for the next week.
That said that last part sounded a little personal... you regard your teacher with some interest and perhaps a bit of concern over the tone he took when talking about steak and teeth.
Lu-sensei sighs. "I am getting on in years, and all the exercise, clean living, and ki techniques in the world cannot hold back the march of Time forever. And while I have been twice fortunate to have had regular access to good dental care for much of my life and to not have had any of my teeth broken in a fight, my doctor has nonetheless been recommending some dietary adjustments-"
Wait, a doctor can tell people not to eat meat?
"It's more that they're happier if you're eating certain kinds of meat, or eating less of others..."
Sokka would be horrified. You're kind of put off yourself.
"In any case," your master continues, "while I've not been barred from enjoying the occasional steak, I can at least empathize with my senior's complaints on the matter."
And on that note, you've arrived.
The dining hall has a foyer that is about half-full of those shoe cubbies you've seen in Japan, as well as coat hangers along the walls, rubber flooring underneath both to catch runoff, and - somewhat unexpectedly - a little footbath off to the right, with lockers holding many small towels standing nearby.
"Some members of the School go barefoot," Lu-sensei explains, "whether out of personal preference, as part of their current training, or just because they forgot to put their socks and shoes back on in their hurry to get here before the kitchens started cooking a different meal or shut down for the night."
You didn't see one of these at the dorm, though...?
"People are responsible for keeping their own residences clean," your master replies, "and there's less traffic to any given dorm, besides. This is a much more public space, so a bit of pre-emptive cleanliness is called for."
Ah.
When you enter the dining hall proper, you see that it is divided into five major areas. The central section is where the tables are located, lined up in three rows of four that run perpendicular to the approach from the main door. Rather than individual seats, each table has benches laid out along two sides, providing enough table-space and seating for forty or fifty people per row, depending on their ages, builds, and how much crowding they were willing to put up with.
Wrapped around the pillars that define the main seating area is a stretch of floor that's simply been left open, providing a few of meters of unobstructed space for diners to move about the room, rather than having to slip through the gaps in the rows of tables. Or possibly, to jump over them...
The third area is off to the left side of the room, where another row of tables and actual chairs sit atop a slightly elevated platform. That's clearly meant for the teachers, if not the masters, in order to keep an eye on students during meals and head off any food-fights or other silliness before it gets started.
Fourth is the serving counter that starts at the right front corner of the room - where trays, plates, bowls, and utensils wait to be picked up - and runs around to the rear left, displaying a buffet. There are a few members of the staff keeping an eye on some of the offerings, but for the most part it appears to be self-serve.
Last, and anything but least, there is the kitchen area in the back, behind the counter.
The room, incidentally, is packed with people. Students, disciples, and instructors line the tables in the main area, while the "high table" has had a couple of benches that you think aren't part of its usual layout set up in front of it, providing space for another twenty masters at the expense of them having to either crane their necks back and forth between you and their meals or sit astride the benches. More seats have been set at the far ends of each row, squeezing in another three or four bodies to a side, and there are even people standing about, leaning against the walls, or sitting on the floor.
Normally, you'd guess the dining hall seats somewhere around a hundred and fifty people, but like this, it has to be close to two hundred and fifty, maybe more - and then there's the kitchen staff, who easily add another twenty!
Your next move will be to get your food, of course, but once you have it, where will you sit?
About the only thing that comes to mind in the face of the combined attention of so many martial artists is, "Bwuh," and fortunately, you have more than enough self-control not to give voice to that.
"So," Cordelia says after a moment, "are we THAT interesting, or are you folks just THAT desperate for something new to talk about?"
"Can it be both?" someone in the crowd offers.
"Lee," somebody else murmurs disapprovingly.
"Tell me she's wrong, man."
One of the masters at the head table clears his throat in that meaningful, "may I have everybody's attention" way, and proceeds to (re-)introduce, "Lu Tze, Master of the Five Elements Branch School in Sunnydale, California," to the room at large. He mentions your teacher's "lineage" within the greater School as a disciple of Master Lo Hai, his previous showings at the World Martial Arts Tournament, and names a few international-, national-, and regional-level events that he's also competed in. Lu-sensei's guardianship of the Jade Dragon is NOT mentioned, and after that, the speaker hands off the matter of introductions to Lu.
Your master goes "in no particular order," starting with the Blaisdells, then Cordy - whose own showing at the World Tournament is recounted - then Amy, and then Briar, whose status as a fairy was briefly conferred about through unspoken inquiry and the familiar bond, and subsequently mentioned openly.
"And this is Alexander Harris," you master concludes, "Under Tens Division Champion of the World Martial Arts Tournament-"
"He's really only ten?" a new voice asks.
"Younger," somebody corrects them.
"-sorcerer-"
There is a LOT of muttering at that, and numerous keen looks, some of simple curiosity, others suspicious, and a couple unfriendly.
"-and a number of other things best summed up as 'ridiculous,' 'unbelievable,' and 'nonetheless, true,'" Lu Tze concludes.
That gets a lot of the attention that was on you directed back at him, mostly in confusion.
"Please, hold all questions while we sort out our meals and seating arrangements."
You don't think you've ever had quite this much attention on you and yours while picking out food before. Sure, you've eaten in the middle of crowds that had reason to be watching you - at the World Tournament, at Kahlua's ninth birthday, at YOUR ninth birthday - but outside of your "welcome to my tropical island party" speech that first evening on Bali Ha'i, you don't think you've been the SOLE focus of quite so much interest while you were deciding what to eat.
It's a weird feeling.
Given the hour, the dishes lining the buffet are a mix of breakfast and lunch specials, both traditional and modern. Everything is remarkably untouched when you arrive, which has you casting a glance back at the tables to confirm that everybody here has apparently held off on filling their own plates so that the guests may have first pick.
Once your tray is filled, you look about for a good place to sit. There is, (in)conveniently enough, space at all three main tables, but you rule out the spot at the seniors' table out of hand. Lu-sensei might sit there, and maybe Mrs. Blaisdell by dint of being an adult guest, but whatever your achievements in the ring, you are but a student of the Five Elements School, and should seat yourself accordingly.
That said, the middle row probably has the best acoustics... but you walk past it to the front table, to sit with those closest to you in physical age.
There is some cheering from the youngest members of the School at this, as well as some good-natured grumbling from their older counterparts. Your friends join you, and Larry's grandmother takes a seat just past him, while Lu-sensei nods and carries his own meal up to join the rest of the masters.
While the layout does make it clear this is a matter of etiquette, you also suspect your teacher of wanting a good seat to watch the impending show...
You don't see a need to hide Briar's actual nature from members of a School whose founder once trained a yeti, and which still recalls said yeti's eventual mastery - even if at least some of them DO think it was made up.
Also, you just kind of want to see their reactions.
Hence, you go ahead and give Lu-sensei the all clear to announce it.
"Eh?"
"She's a fairy?"
"No way."
"Do fairies get that tall?"
"Shouldn't she have wings?"
Briar definitely heard that last one, because she turns to the person who asked the question, and a moment later, has wings.
"Oooh."
"Okay, fairies DO get that tall..."
Of course, it's not a physical transformation. Turning into a human is one thing, but turning into a human-sized FAIRY would be courting actual adulthood, which is something your partner has made her objections to clear in the past. That said, using a little Illusion Magic to make it LOOK like she has giant luminous butterfly wings is something well within Briar's comfort zone and magical abilities, at least in a peaceful environment like this.
Also, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. She pretty much HAD to either grow wings or turn back into a fairy to answer that question, and since the latter might have rendered her invisible to a bunch of the crowd, wings were the best option.
Once everyone in your group is seated, you look around at the rest of the tables. "So, how are we going to do this? Are you guys going to talk while we eat, or are- ah, never mind," you correct yourself, as most of the masters get up and head to the start of the buffet. "Guests get served first, and then it goes by rank, huh?"
"At least for formal meals," one of the older students at your table agrees. "Which this... kind of turned into, I guess?"
"Usually it's first come, first served," another student adds. "Of course, the masters are normally the first to get here ANYWAY, so..." He shrugs.
"But if you can get in line ahead of them, you go first!" somebody else chimes in. "I saw it happen once!"
Some of the boy's schoolmates seem disbelieving of that claim, but others nod in agreement.
Wondering if it's fine to start eating or if you should wait, you glance up to the table where your master sits, and find him already digging in. Noticing your attention, Lu-sensei gestures for you to go ahead, and so you do. Your friends follow suit, and the resident students don't make a fuss about it, instead taking the opportunity to begin asking questions.
"So, what's this Sunnydale place like?"
"Is it really sunny?"
"What's a 'dale'?"
You have to turn to Lily Blaisdell for help with that one, because you're not quite sure yourself.
"It's a word that means 'valley,' specifically a wide, open one."
You think about Sunnydale's geography and decide that it fits. Most of the town does lie within a bowl between some of the local hills, whose lower, gentler slopes have also been developed.
As to what it's like... "It's a Hellmouth."
Gained Chinese D (Plus)
You see no reason to sugar-coat the truth, and plenty of reasons NOT to - toothy, unholy reasons, many of them bloodsucking.
"What's a Hellmouth?" somebody asks - not the same person that asked about dales, incidentally.
"Demon central," Cordelia mutters.
"All kinds of bad news," Larry agrees.
"Evil," Amy says firmly.
This leads you into a more detailed explanation about the nature of the dimensional weak-point between Earth and one or more Hell-dimensions - nobody in the crowd comments about the existence of multiple Hells or Hellish realities, incidentally; that may be the influence of the School of Five Elements' Chinese origins at work - and how its existence causes the surrounding region in your world to be more hospitable for demonic life-forms in general and corpse-demons in particular.
"WHAT demons?"
"Vampires," a number of voices reply, and not just from your group.
You give a brief account of how there are many different creatures in the world that are called vampires, and how most of them differ quite drastically from the rest, aside from their blood-based dietary requirements - the specifics of which are hardly any more consistent between species than every OTHER trait.
Leaving that cryptozoological and necrological tangle alone, you circle back around to Sunnydale, explaining how despite being a town whose recorded population hovers around the forty thousand mark, it nonetheless leads the United States in the annual number of "deaths by barbeque fork to the neck" - at least according to information you read on Demons, Demons, Demons and some of its affiliate sites.
An instructor passing your seats on his way to the buffet line overhears this and stops to stare in disbelief and dismay. "...was that per capita or in absolute numbers?" he asks with some concern.
"The former," you reply. "Or at least that's what the websites said."
"I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter, as well," Lily Blaisdell adds sourly. "It's a good day when the Sunnydale Press DOESN'T report a disappearance or a violent death."
"...that... that can't be right," the man protests.
You look up from your meal, recalling the thirty-plus corpse-demons that your Shadow took out during his Independence Night stroll - and for that matter, the demons you saw taking part in the festivities and NOT trying to eat people.
"Anyway," you conclude, "life in Sunnydale is kind of stressful, once you know what's really going on behind the scenes and all, but if you keep your head down, avoid strangers and dark alleys, stay in after dark, and never invite someone into your home, it's not so bad. Mostly."
The number of qualifiers in that statement do not appear to reassure any of your audience.
You can't blame them, it all sounded a lot better in your head.
"Why would anyone LIVE in a place like that?" comes the baffled inquiry.
"Well, except for Briar and Lu-sensei, we were all born there," you begin. "Briar only lives there because I do, and Sensei said he originally moved to town because he needed to lay low for a while. If you're asking why other people MOVE to Sunnydale in the first place, I couldn't really say; my family's lived there pretty much since the town was founded."
"Property values are what bring most of them in," Lily says promptly. "The constant turnover means that whether you're buying, renting, leasing, or building, properties in Sunnydale go for a fraction of what similar places would cost in other towns, much less in Los Angeles. A lot of newcomers are having a little financial trouble, hoping to stretch their budget, or think they've gotten a really good deal on a very nice home, so once they're in town, they usually don't want to leave again soon, and most can't easily afford to. The sort of contracts the local realtors offer don't exactly help with that last part."
That remark sounds like it's pertinent to your interest in getting your parents to move, and you ask about it.
"Most of the people I've talked to about it mentioned a minimum occupancy period," Mrs. Blaisdell explains. "That means that once you've bought the place, you can't rent or sell it to someone else until you've lived there for a certain amount of time - five to ten years seemed to be the average from what I heard, but don't quote me on that. Anyway, if you move out before the full term, you're still responsible for the upkeep and the property taxes, and even at Sunnydale's rates, most families couldn't afford to own two houses at once."
You are reminded of the Harris family cabin, and how all the various branches of the family tree have a claim to it at different times of the year. If they were all paying for the place together, that would explain the arrangement...
Anyway, you should probably check with your parents to make sure they wouldn't be invoking the wrath of some lawyer by selling the house, once you have the funds to buy a place in a safer town.
Seeing as how Mrs. Blaisdell's talk about home ownership has lost half of your young audience...
You nod to yourself.
"Okay, so, as some of you probably know, the Fourth of July is the American Independence Day."
There are some nods of agreement and looks of recognition at that, but you also see expressions of surprise from people who apparently didn't know, and others who are just confused at the apparent change in topics.
"And I'm sure it comes as no surprise that when a nation is celebrating its birthday, there will be festivities in cities and towns all over the country."
The agreement is more universal this time.
You describe the crowds you saw at the festival in Sunnydale, from the cheering throng that lined up along the sidewalks to see the parade to the smaller groups that seemed to fill up every tent, event, and attraction at the fairgrounds - whose own spread you make sure to make clear.
You speak of the high school students hastily recruited by the university's marching band, and what likely caused the "absences" they were making up for.
You describe the demons you spotted in the parade itself-
"Bowser's REAL?!"
"I think it was just a fire-breathing turtle demon, actually..."
-their various disguises notwithstanding, and also paint a picture of the historical re-enactment of a small battle between British and Colonial forces, which had almost no purely human participants and yet had the numbers to fill out the ranks of both sides, many of whom you suspect were either veterans of the war in question or close relatives of those that were, due to the passion they displayed.
"How long ago was this war?" you are asked.
"This year was the two hundred and twenty-fourth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence," you state. "The actual WAR of Independence had started a year earlier, and lasted for eight years in total."
Thank you, historical brochures. You probably wouldn't have remembered the dates on your own if you hadn't read them so recently.
"Some demons can live a very long time," one of the older students tells her junior, "and some of them don't ever die of old age."
You nod, and move on to what you observed of Sunnydale's nightlife that evening, before finally getting to Shadow Alex's night on the town.
"As all my friends can tell you, I know a spell that lets me create a clone of myself."
There are some doubtful looks and a lot of questioning glances at your companions, who nod.
"He shows up dressed in darker colors and looking like hasn't been getting enough sun," Cordelia says.
"He's kind of grumpy, too," Amy adds.
"But the rest is definitely Alex," Larry agrees.
"And seeing as how my Shadow-"
"Wait, wait, wait," comes a sudden interruption. "You're saying you can make SHADOW CLONES?"
"Anyway, my Shadow was kind of annoyed that I'd run into a pair of corpse-demons on the way home from watching the fireworks and not introduced THEM to some magical fireworks-"
"Why not?"
"My almost four-year-old sister was right there. I didn't want her to have to see things that at least LOOKED human being set on fire at that age if I didn't have to."
"Ah."
"-so when I suggested that he take a walk and correct my oversight, he was quite happy to."
And from there you recount Shadow Alex's night on the town, the almost forty vampires he destroyed with the elements of Fire and Surprise, and the handful of other demonic threats that he dealt with in addition to the corpse-jacking parasites-
"Evil GRASS?" Cordelia blurts out, not having heard this before. "Are you KIDDING me?"
"I wish I was, Cordy."
-although you don't go into detail about the grave-infesting worm-things.
You are in the middle of a meal, after all.
That instructor whose protest about the impossible nature of Sunnydale listens to this all with growing bewilderment, a kind of fascinated horror at the picture you're painting of life, unlife, and death on the Hellmouth.
After that little sideline about property values, ownership, and evil real estate dealers, you shift back to talking about Sunnydale in general, offering up a quick run-down on safety tips and sights to be seen, should any of the students of the Taiwanese School of Five Elements find themselves in the neighborhood for some reason.
You can SEE people resolving to never go anywhere near the Hellmouth, which is honestly just as well.
You can ALSO see people who are seriously considering the idea, which...
It's not like Sunnydale couldn't use a visit from a few dozen ki adepts with detailed knowledge of the local hazards and how to kill them, but at the same time, a lot of the people who have that, "At last, a worthy challenge!" look on their faces are teenagers.
You know enough about your hometown by now to know that Sunnydale tends to EAT teenagers, and you aren't sure if they have enough martial arts to overcome that disadvantage...
"But enough about our awful hometown," you declare. "What are things like around here?"
"...nowhere near as horrible?" somebody offers.
A promising start!
Gained Chinese D (Plus) (Plus)
"Honestly, my spell is pretty different."
"For starters," you say, "my spell only creates one copy at a time, and differences in color palette aside, that copy is basically an exact physical duplicate of the target. It reacts to being hit just like a living body would, instead of poofing into smoke."
Not that your Shadow CAN'T disappear like that, but it's not something that you've seen happen when he takes a solid hit, and you've sparred with him and observed him sparring with others often enough by now that if that was a possibility, it would have happened already.
"For another thing, the spell wasn't originally created to help people out in fights or general work. It was supposed to be one of those mystical trial thingies where you face the parts of your personality you don't like or don't acknowledge and either accept them, overcome them, or get beaten up by them."
"How do you lose a fight with yourself?" one of the younger students wonders.
Some of the kids your age scoff at that question, as do a number of the teenagers, all of them clearly certain that THEY would never lose such a confrontation, but you see a few others wincing or shaking their heads. Whether they're reacting to the scenario you described, the question, or their peers' responses, you can only guess.
"Mostly by not being honest with yourself about who you are," you state aloud, "and then refusing to accept the truth even when it's literally staring you in the face. But the spell also taps into the Element of Shadow, which is a whole lot more than just one person's dark but not actually BAD side, so the results are always a bit MORE than expected, whether that's being creepy or mean or just plain different in ways that keep the Shadow and the original from getting along. Because of that, the spell has a fairly high rate of them attacking each other on sight, which wasn't really what the creators were going for and makes it a bit unsafe for general use."
You consider mentioning the Spell of the Dark Self's usefulness as a tool of therapy, but that seems like it might be a little much for this kid to grasp, and somebody might ask for more details on the subject.
Bringing up Lady Takara's business to a bunch of complete strangers without her prior agreement is a DEFINITE no-no, so it's probably for the best if you don't even allude to the incident.
"If the spell's so dangerous, why do YOU use it?" the same kid asks, frowning at you in challenge.
"Well, for one thing, I'm fairly honest with myself, so my Shadow isn't angry with me, even if he does think there are things I could have done better. I also practice magic, which means dealing with a lot of weird stuff on a regular basis, so when the old man I learned the spell from" - for a given value of "learning," admittedly - "originally cast it on me, I wasn't so freaked out by suddenly having a twin that I decided the world wasn't big enough for two of me. And, of course, I beat him in a fight, so he agreed I must be doing something right and that he'd be okay working with me."
You pause at that, hearing the word "Persona" uttered somewhere in the background, but it doesn't mean anything to you, so you continue.
"If you're interested, I can show you my Shadow-"
There are a number of interested looks, as well as a few throats suddenly clearing.
"-but not at the table," you conclude.
After your moderately detailed Tourist's Guide to (Surviving) Sunnydale - a full account of what you know would take more time than this meal is likely to allow, and still wouldn't come close to COMPLETE coverage of the Hellmouth's many dangers - it takes your fellow students of the Five Elements Style a minute to recover their thoughts and figure out how to reciprocate with information about the local environment.
Gradually, however, a picture emerges.
The School of the Five Elements isn't quite as isolated as it might have appeared upon your arrival. There's a small town just a couple of miles away, tucked out of sight behind the hills that define this shallow valley, and another settlement on the coast. You're told that the position of the School relative to those communities was a deliberate choice on the part of the founding master: the nearer settlement is close enough that even students who've yet to unlock their ki can walk there in half an hour or so, making it convenient for grocery and mail runs and whatever other chores-disguised-as-training the teachers can think up; and yet, having thirty minutes' travel time and a great hunk of rock between the School and the town helps to maintain the illusion that absolutely nothing supernatural is going on at this humble little martial arts school.
As for the coastal town, it's a fishing community, the School's traditional source for that particular staple and the rest of the bounties of the sea. Too far to walk, as you already noted, but close enough for ki adepts to reach and return with the catch of the day in good condition - which is another of those "exchorecises" the masters have been assigning pretty much since day one. Even the addition of modern kitchen facilities complete with refrigeration hasn't killed the custom, it just helps to ensure that the rest of the School doesn't have to go without fish for a meal or a day if somebody miscalculates their speed or endurance, or how quickly fish can spoil on a hot day.
In fact, the "Fish Run" seems to be something of a rite of passage among the student body...
Aside from fish, the coastal town also provides a place for the older and/or more skilled students to visit when they want to get out from under the eyes and ears of the masters. You're told that there's a nice beach, a couple of places that rent boats or offer rides, a local pirate museum-
"What was that about pirates?" you join most of your friends in asking.
"Mm?" Larry adds, in the middle of a bite of breakfast/dinner.
You're informed that the pirates in question lived and died about four centuries ago, and were never internationally (in)famous or even all that well-known in Taiwan (or the various realms that preceeded it). They're just a local legend that folks have always been a little proud of, in that "local boy makes good" sort of way.
Might be something worth checking out.
-and some other fairly ordinary sights to see.
When it comes to the supernatural, you're told that there isn't anything particularly "exciting" to be found locally, just a bunch of training grounds set up higher among the hills where the ki adepts and masters go to practice various techniques or do all their boring meditation exercises.
Somebody swears they saw a master talking with some macaques once, and another kid claims she spotted a senior student training with a bear. You don't get the impression that they're lying, but whether they're describing genuinely supernatural incidents or just martial arts weirdness is another question.
On the subject of animals, incidentally, you're advised to watch out for snakes, as there are a few varieties that live locally and occasionally turn up in unexpected and unwanted places. Most aren't venomous, but the coral snakes and pit vipers are.
A passing senior student notes that, "You should also be alert for pigs-"
The beast in your soul rumbles curiously once more.
"-and don't freak out if you see a flying squirrel or some bats."
If this practice of fetching fish from the market is indeed a traditional training method of the local School of Five Elements, and moreover, one that your master, a student and graduate of said School, has taken part in before you-
A questioning glance to the high table is answered with an amused nod.
-then it seems only right and proper that you should follow in his footsteps and undertake the test yourself. If doing so would not pose an inconvenience to your hosts, that is...?
Your declaration sets off a flurry of responses.
"Instructor Guan!" one boy calls out, standing up from his seat so that he can be seen and heard more clearly two tables over. "We have a volunteer for the next Fish Run!"
"Is that so?" a twenty-something woman replies.
The boy points at you.
The instructor looks your way.
You wave, nodding to confirm the statement and your status.
"Well, then; I'll be sure to check the schedule to see where we have an opening, and get back to you."
"He can have my spot!" a teenager at the second table calls quickly.
Instructor Guan smirks at him. "Nice try, Wei, but no."
Wei sighs and shrugs. "It was worth a shot."
"Punishment duty, or just your turn in the chore rotation?" Briar wonders.
"Fish Run sometimes FEELS like a punishment," Wei replies in a philosophical tone, "but it is never assigned as one."
"No?"
"Yeah, the masters know better than to let novice ki-users with a history of poor behavior run around unsupervised for a couple of hours..."
Ah.
Well, punishment or not, you figure you should make an honest try of things and stick to bringing back however much fish is normally expected, rather than go for a cartoon gag and use magic to pull a huge amount of fish out of thin air... or your pocket...
...hm.
Is he talking about escaped livestock or genuine wild pigs?
"The latter," the senior student replies. "There's a pack-"
Sounder.
"-what was that?"
In the category of Odd Names Given to Groups of Animals, the one used for pigs is a "sounder."
"Really?"
Yes, really.
"Huh. Learn something new every day... anyway, there's at least one group of wild pigs living somewhere in the area, and while they're not aggressive, they are big enough that they could be dangerous if they were surprised or scared."
You inquire as to how big, and receive a description that is at once reassuring and disappointing, as it paints a picture of animals about the size of domestic hogs, and not of a particularly large or well-fed breed.
If you were hoping to hunt another porcine powerhouse like Hinana, you're out of luck.
"Why are you asking about pigs, Alex?" Cordelia wonders with a hint of suspicion.
You're slightly torn on the matter, leaning ever so faintly towards using your Arcane Pocket for the simple assurance that the fish you pick up won't spoil, and also for the chance to see the looks on people's faces when you pull the catch of the day out of nowhere.
You decide to ask Lu-sensei about it later, to see if it would be considered inappropriate for the challenge - and if that isn't all the more reason to go ahead and do it anyway.
You shrug at Cordelia's question. "A few reasons. I like pigs enough that I named a move after them, my spirit animal is the Boar, and I like bacon... but mostly I was just curious."
She frowns at you, still mildly suspicious, but nods. "...well, then; that's good. For a second there, I thought you might be plotting to go on another pig hunt or something."
You'd be lying if you said the idea hadn't occurred to you at ALL, but the circumstances are pretty different-
"Wait, you've hunted pigs?" one of the students interrupts. "Like, WILD pigs?"
...yes?
"Whoa! You're allowed to use a GUN?"
What? You didn't-
Before you can finish that statement, the table has erupted in noise.
"Guns? At our age?"
"I mean, they ARE American," somebody else comments, as if that explains everything.
"Well, yeah, but-"
"Can you show us?"
"So unfair," comes a complaint. "My Grandpa owns a rifle, and he won't let me NEAR it..."
"It'd be so cool!"
"Of course he won't, he'd lose his permit-"
"We could learn- no, we could CREATE Gun Fu!"
"I wouldn't tell anybody!"
"A whole new branch of the school!"
"The noise is kind of a giveaway."
The explosion of childish babble reminds you of the various times you've encountered groups of fairies, just noisier - a whole LOT noisier, actually. Then again, considering any one participant in this storm of chatter is bigger than all the tiny fairies from those crowds COMBINED, that makes sense. Still, you're able to follow most of it.
Gained Chinese D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
You are considering taking your Conjured Book out of your pocket for a warning slam when somebody beats you to it.
"Students," Instructor Guan says calmly, a ki technique allowing it to sound as if she were standing right next to each of the noisy kids at the table, and not sitting on the other side of the dining area. "Remember your manners."
"Sorry, Instructor Guan," all the locals sitting with you chorus.
"That is better. Now," the lady continues, "I believe one of our guests was about to say something...?"
Huh? Oh, right!
"Thank you, Instructor Guan," you say. "As I was saying, I didn't use a gun when I went hunting."
You register surprise, disappointment, and confusion.
"In point of fact, I don't have a gun-"
Technically true, as the Drakes are still holding onto Cowboy Lake's six-shooters until you have time to soothe Arthur's parental conscience by passing those gun use and safety lessons.
Also, you aren't currently using the Spell to Summon a Weapon: Shotgun Edition.
"-nobody in my immediate family owns a gun-"
Completely true.
"-and the only American I personally know who owns a gun is Mrs. Blaisdell." You gesture at Lily.
Many of the kids blink in confusion at that, obviously having trouble putting "grandmother" and "gun owner" in their heads. A few, however, just nod, while others are visibly impressed.
"But, if you didn't use a gun," the student who originally leapt to that conclusion asks, "then how did you hunt the pigs? Because I haven't heard of any techniques for that..."
Neither have you, or at least not SPECIFIC ones, but a number of the Five Elements Style's ki and spear techniques are easily adapted for hunting.
"Indeed they are!" a master says, as he passes your table on his second trip to the buffet. "We cover hunting, both mundane and ki-assisted, as part of the intermediate classes on wilderness survival," he adds, talking to the students. "If you're interested in signing up, speak with your instructors!"
That gets some of the kids interested.
As you were saying, you've only hunted boars the one time, and that was with a number of hunters with proper experience in the traditional methods involved, to say nothing of people who knew how to process the carcasses afterwards. That isn't the case here and now - or at least not to the best of your knowledge, you add, with a deferential nod towards the adults in the room - so you weren't actually considering a hunt.
The discussion about local sights to be seen and hazards to be avoided doesn't last too much longer after that.
After hearing about the local area, it's only natural that you'd ask about the rest of Taiwan. None of your party other than Lu-sensei have ever visited the island nation before, and between the fact that it IS an island and that you DO have teleportation magic, there may be places, people, or events here worth taking the time to see during your stay, or conversely, that need to be kept in mind if you go wandering.
Your inquiry gets a lot of responses, although thankfully, they're not all being spoken at once this time.
A majority of what you hear is just the ordinary bluster and boasting of young kids who are proud of their hometowns, their favorite hangouts, and "the best" sports teams that "you GOTTA go see!"
On a related note, baseball is apparently considered a national sport in this country, too. Let's hear it for common ground!
There's also plenty of talk about places the students would like to go themselves, ranging from the stadiums where their favorite non-local teams play and amusement parks to a hot springs resort at a place called Wulai and the decidedly colder but much more memorably named Sun Moon Lake.
When it comes to the supernatural side of things, you quickly get the impression that the younger students are mostly just repeating fairy tales, playground stories, and things from popular culture, rather than talking about stuff they have real experience with. Not only that, but a fair bit of what you hear lines up with stories of Japanese youkai and even some Western monsters.
Still, there are a few new bits that you pick out from the familiar or questionable that either sound like they could have some truth to them, or are interesting enough that you're willing to take them under consideration.
One of these involves the District of Yingge of New Taipei City, which was apparently the domain of a giant demonic bird about three and a half centuries ago. The story claims that Koxinga - a historical general and national folk hero who was subsequently deified - whose forces were normally based in the southern part of the island, once ventured into the northern region that would become Yingge on a campaign. Unaware of the giant bird's existence, a number of Koxinga's men were lost to its hunting, their disappearances unexplained until the soldiers questioned some of the locals and learned of the monster. After that, Koxinga ordered the creature tracked back to its nest, ringed the site with cannons, and proceeded to bombard it until the demon's lower jaw was blown off, rendering it incapable of consuming any more of his men. Defeated, the giant bird turned to stone, becoming the Yingge Shi or "Oriole Rock" that still stands today and is the source of the district's name.
Another tale, which gets Briar's attention, involves the mo-sin-a - trickster entities of childish stature who dwell in the more remote and undeveloped parts of the island. You are told that the mo-sin-a usually do not harm people directly, preferring to play pranks on them; unfortunately, one of their favorite tricks is to cause a person to lose their sense of direction and guide them to the middle of nowhere, and their favorite targets are typically the very young and the elderly.
This definitely sounds like these creatures could be some sort of Fae, which explains Briar's interest.
Then there is the tale of the hoo-koo-po, or "Tiger Aunt," which starts with a family of four - father, mother, and two young daughters - living in a remote region. The parents are forced to travel on business for a couple of days and leave their daughters home alone, warning them not to open the door to strangers - but no sooner have the parents left than the titular villainess appears, a tigress that had lived a very long time and trained very hard to become a witch-
Amy twitches.
-one who specialized in eating children!
Amy twitches again.
The tiger lady introduced herself as the girls' great-aunt and claimed that their parents asked her to mind them. She also brought candies-
"They didn't," Amy says flatly.
"They did," the boy telling the story replies.
"Wow," Cordelia says dryly. "Just... wow."
-so, yeah, Tiger Aunt got in, and that night, the older girl woke up to see her sister being eaten in one big gulp. Managing not to scream, she pretended not to have seen anything or to have noticed her sister's absence, and asked her "aunt" if she could go to the outhouse; once outside, she climbed a tree until she was high enough that the tiger could not reach her.
This time, you join Amy in twitching, because even if the tree couldn't support a tiger's mass, what kind of a lousy excuse for a witch couldn't float up and grab the kid? Or even just climb up and break the branches to make her fall?
Sometimes, these stories are just too unbelievable to be taken seriously.
Of course, Tiger Aunt was furious and demanded that the older sister come down from the tree. Instead, the girl said that if she was going to be eaten, wouldn't she taste much better with seasoning?
The tiger agreed and heated up a pot of peanut oil, and even threw a rope up to the girl so that she could haul the oil up to apply it to herself, sparing Tiger Aunt the effort.
And as soon as she had the pot of boiling hot oil in hand, the girl poured it all down on the witch below, who died!
Amy gives up and facepalms.
"Nobody in this story is very bright, huh," Cordelia observes.
"Nrrrrgh..."
Anyway, even though Tiger Aunt is long since dead, some people say that her evil spirit still haunts the island, looking for children to eat. Others believe that evil witches can call upon her to empower themselves, naturally repaying her assistance with "meals" of children.
So, if a strange woman asks to be let into your house when your parents are away, don't let her in!
Oh, and there may or may not be giant subterranean buffalo that cause earthquakes when they roll over in their sleep.
Gained History (Taiwan) F
Gained Local Knowledge (Taiwan) F
Do you have any comments about this information?
Figuring that you should try to steer the conversation away from the subject of incompetent evil witches for a while, you build on the tit-for-tat information exchange you have going and ask if anyone's curious to hear about some of the other, generally less horrible than the Hellmouth places that you've been to.
"Only generally?" you're asked.
"I have been to a few major cities," you reply. "The supernatural badness might not be as frequent, as nasty, or as frequently nasty as it is on the Hellmouth, but they have their own problems."
There is some interest in the topic - there's always a few kids in a crowd that like hearing about creepy things, at least when they're far, far away - so you decide to start with Tokyo, on the grounds that it's the closest of your regular travel destinations and the one that these kids are most likely to visit. Maybe for a regional tournament?
...actually, that reminds you of something. It's been over a year since the Twenty-First World Martial Arts Tournament, and you can't recall hearing about where the next one is due to be held. Thinking on it, you find it likely that the Announcer was supposed to declare the location after the last match of the master-level Finals, but if so, the violent interruption of the Under Eighteen Division Finals put paid to that - possibly just the planned reveal, but it's not unlikely that whichever city originally won the right to host the next Tournament had second thoughts after everything that went wrong with the previous one.
Ninjas running around attacking contestants, a giant demonic shadow running loose and draining a bunch of the security, a bombing, ninja attack, and general panic - not the sort of thing you would expect most civic officials want to welcome to their towns.
Putting that aside for later, you start talking about Tokyo, beginning with the Tokyo Tower and what you've learned about its importance as a point of arrival for supernatural travel, in addition to its status as a mundane tourist attraction. From there, you branch out... at least to the modest limits of your knowledge of the greater city.
You may have name-dropped a few locations such as the Higurashi Shrine and Gen's, the latter drawing a Look of Mildly Amused Disapproval from your master.
He probably doesn't want you talking business at the table...
You also cover Karakura Town, advising everybody that the place is haunted by Hollows - which requires some explanation beyond just "very nasty ghosts," as well as several assurances that no, you are not making this up, there really are multiple entire towns in the world where horrible monsters go around eating people - and that putting on displays of spiritual strength and/or wandering around after dark are strongly discouraged.
Figuring that Ishida Ryuuken would prefer not to have his personal or family name dropped without his knowledge, you state that help for spiritual injuries can be found at Karakura General and the Kurosaki Clinic, while a more general sort of assistance is available at Urahara Shop.
From there, you cut to Hawaii, a brief segment since you've only been there a couple of times and not for very long in any case. You do recommend the volcano tours, though.
You don't even have THAT much to offer about Los Angeles; thankfully, Cordelia takes over, having visited the city pretty frequently due to her family summer vacations and parentally-related trips. All of what she says is ordinary stuff, though.
After that, you resume talking, moving the conversation all the way to New York. You admit it's unlikely that too many of the kids you're eating with will visit the Big Apple in the near future, if ever, but there's nothing wrong with sharing some stories, like the one about the Polite Troll in Central Park, the Beany Meanies, or a certain little magic shop.
By the time you get that far afield, quite a few members of the crowd that have been not-so-subtly eavesdropping on your discussion have cleaned their plates - in a few cases, for the second time - and are, however reluctantly, starting to drop off their dishes and move towards the exit. They linger as much as they can, but it's getting on towards half an hour since you first sat down, the School's meal time seems to run on a relatively tight schedule due the number of people the kitchen has to feed, and the habit of obeying that schedule is clearly well-ingrained in most of the older students and teachers.
You had been planning to talk a bit about your experiences in Antarctica and on other planes of existence, but perhaps those are tales best left for another time?
Bali Ha'i is a place for family and friends - and family OF friends, and a few mystical acquaintances that don't fit into either category - and you don't know any of the residents of the Taiwanese School of Five Elements well enough to even call them "passing acquaintances" yet. Perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, you will have sufficient trust with some of them to discuss the island's existence openly, or even to invite them there for your next big tropical bash, but here and now, you prefer not to bring it up.
You make a mental note to talk to your companions about that as well, nudging Briar with the thought as well.
This is your first meal of your very first day at the School of the Five Elements. Even if you had the time to do so, there is no need for you to try to describe every major location of interest you've personally been to - and indeed, there are good reasons for you NOT to.
For one thing, you could easily overwhelm your audience with too much information, ruining the experience. This is especially true for the younger members. Much as it was with your decision not to further upset their worldviews after showing up by means of a Greater Spell of Teleportation, you could and arguably should give them some time to absorb and reflect upon what you've already told them before you start recounting more stories of travel to even stranger and more exotic locales.
Also, assuming nothing comes up to force you to return home early or just be elsewhere for extended periods, you have a whole week's stay planned. Even if you get shanghaied into a mystical tournament for the honor of the School, sent on a martial quest to decide the fate of the island, or drawn into some other time-consuming affair of that general nature, there will still be plenty of opportunities for storytelling ahead of you, meaning you don't need to and really shouldn't use up your material right away. You can afford to take your time and find a suitable moment to reveal them, so as to enhance the impact and raise the audience's impression of both the tale and the one telling it.
And since you do have that option, you shall exercise it.
You wind up your stories of New York, clean the last bits of food off your plate, and then wait a minute while your companions - mostly Cordy and Larry, really - catch up.
"One of these days," Cordelia half-promises, half-threatens, "I am going to figure out that trick you use to eat so fast even when you spend half the time talking."
There isn't really a trick, there's just hunger, determined eating, and practice.
"And then there is Sokka," Briar notes.
...
Okay, yes, there is also Sokka.
"What's a 'Sokka'?" comes the question.
Once everyone is done, you get up from your chairs, walk over to where the dishes are collected, and set your dishes, cutlery, and glasses down in the waiting bin.
"What now, Sensei?" you ask your teacher, who has descended from the masters' table to join you.
"We have a few options, in fact," Lu Tze replies, before laying them out for you.
"Sokka is a friend of mine," you reply. "He is a man of meat and sarcasm."
The first half of that statement prompts some nods, but the follow-up leaves most of the younger kids baffled.
One of the older students seems to have gotten the gist of it though, as she says, "I'm guessing he's very hungry and very determined?"
"Where meat is concerned, yes. If you've ever seen a cartoon where one of the characters picks up a bone with a big hunk of meat on it and just tears a strip off with their teeth, which look like fangs in the moment...?"
You pause for a reaction.
There is a round of nods.
"Well, I have actually seen Sokka do that."
"...do you mean you've just seen him eat meat like that, or-?"
"No, I meant the fangs, too. His family are shapechangers, you see - but that's a story for another meal-time."
"Awww," some of the kids complain.
"Come on!"
"Just one more?"
"Please?"
There aren't so many kids so much younger than you that you can't resist their combined pleas, although the fact that a lot of them are significantly smaller than you DOES tug at your big brotherly instincts a bit. Still, you stick to your guns.
While you do want to see what's involved in one of the classes here, physical activity right after a meal is not a great idea. Likewise, while you should definitely go see what the School's masters want sooner rather than later - partly for the sake of being a good guest, partly because they ARE masters of the style in which you are but a humble student, and partly out of curiosity as to what's up - if Lu-sensei says that the matter isn't urgent, then you don't have to rush off right away.
And really, depending on what the elders of the School mean to discuss, it might be better for you to have digested your meal a bit before you meet up with them. There could be a request for a display of your skills in the works, or some traditional challenge that members of other branches of the School of Five Elements are expected to face when they visit a different training hall.
With that in mind, you decide that you'd prefer to find a quiet spot to meditate for an hour or so.
You state your personal preference - speaking not only in favor of meditation, but of the group sticking together for the time being - and there is general agreement that taking it easy for a bit is fine.
After speaking with the other masters briefly to sort out your meeting time, Lu-sensei leads you out of the dining hall and gestures around at the park-like section of the grounds before you, with all the sparring areas. Some of the people you were just eating and talking with have spread out and claimed spots for their own use: some are obviously meditating; some are performing slow katas; and plenty are just hanging around talking quietly.
"This would be the quickest," he says, "but obviously, also one of the least private."
You WERE planning to use a couple of techniques that aren't exactly subtle. You almost have your Ki Overload to the point where you can use it without the telltale glow giving you away, but "almost" isn't "entirely", and your Spiritual Overload is still quite obvious.
Mind Blank or no, using either technique here might draw attention, comments, and/or questions, which could interfere with your desire to meditate.
All else having been said, it's probably ALSO a good idea not to make your hosts wait on your presence any longer than you really need to. That's just not how the master-student arrangement works, and they've no doubt got other things they could be doing with their time.
So, yeah, you'll take an hour: to contemplate the beauty of a place half in unspoiled nature, half on a field where blood has been shed through acts of human violence - even if scrapes, nosebleeds, and other training accidents make up the bulk of that, and aren't the sort of injuries people USUALLY have in mind when talking about bloodshed; to give your stomach a chance to work through your meal; and to see if you can get yourself more in-tune with the energies of the School.
Once that's done, you'll be prepared to speak with the masters about whatever they have in mind.
You would rather not have a whole crowd around to start asking questions about why you're glowing. You know that Lu-sensei maintains dojo etiquette about not bothering people who are meditating, and you can infer that the wider Five Elements Style would have similar customs, but you aren't clear exactly where "people who start glowing in public" fit into that practice.
Even if nobody were to intrude on your meditation, you're pretty sure that rumors would spread and questions be asked later on - and since you ARE trying to keep people guessing about your ki capabilities a bit longer, why give them any freebies?
Also, you think some of your companions would do better meditating somewhere a little less noisy.
Lu-sensei nods and leads the way around the back of the dining hall, and then up a short distance into the hilly, lightly wooded area beyond it. Just a couple of minutes later, you find yourself in a circular clearing that looks just irregular enough to make the question of whether it's a natural or artificial occurrence tricky to answer-
"It's mostly natural," Briar says, eyeing the trees and other plants, "but they have done a little groundskeeping. Also, there used to be a few more trees, there, there, and there," she adds, pointing at an area extending from one side of the not-quite circle towards its center.
-or at least, difficult for anyone who doesn't have a connection to nature or a friend so connected handy.
The grass in the clearing is oddly thick, almost fluffy, and there are a couple of smooth-topped stones - two rounded, one flatter - and some leveled-off logs sitting around. The place has obviously been quite literally cultivated for exactly the use you mean to make of it, and everybody picks out their preferred seating, with Amy and Cordy claiming one of the logs, Lily taking the third-
"You don't spend as much time around someone like Lu as I have without picking up a few things," Mrs. Blaisdell notes.
-and Briar going straight for a patch of green. Lu-sensei sits himself down on one of the rounded rocks, and Larry considers for a moment before plopping down on the grass next to his grandmother.
You aren't bothered about getting grass-stains on your clothes when a simple Prestidigitation will be enough to wipe away the green, and half the point of this exercise is to try and get yourself more in-tune with the local environment, so why not make the attempt while in contact with a living, breathing example of said environment? The wooden "benches" have clearly been altered by intelligent action, and while the stones seem natural enough, you'd rather not sit on something quite that hard for the next hour.
You pick out a promising spot and sit yourself down, crossing your legs, straightening your back, and closing your eyes as you focus on your breathing.
From there, you settle into meditation for the next half hour or so. You start with just a normal level of Spiritual Attunement, in addition to the Environmental Adaptation ki technique you already had running, but the results are pretty bland in both cases. You may be in a country you've never visited before, but the environment really isn't anything you haven't run into before, so all you really end up doing with the basic forms of these skills is speeding up your natural adaptation to the change of location - and that was at least half-done already.
Once it's clear that the simple method isn't going to accomplish anything, you get up and spend a couple of minutes doing quick exercises to limber up. In the process, you check on your companions.
Amy, Briar, and Lu-sensei are all still going strong. The girls have moved about a bit - even as you watch, Amy shifts a bit uncomfortably on her wooden "seat" - but your teacher doesn't seem to have so much as twitched since you last laid eyes on him.
Cordelia either gave up on or declared her personal meditation session done and is talking quietly with Lily, who obviously also considers herself finished with the exercise.
Larry is laying back in the grass, napping.
You don't recall him eating enough to trigger a food coma, but then again, you eat more than most other people your age. Regardless, his aura reads as normal, if subdued.
Once you have your blood pumping again and the slight stiffness of sitting still for half an hour worked out, you resume your meditative pose and focus your energies anew.
First, your ki.
Then, your spirit.
And then, a sigh from Cordelia. "Why are you glowing, Alex?"
Setting aside your distractions, you focus on your energies and how they interact with the environment. You spend a few minutes doing nothing with either, just holding the techniques and observing how the power tied up in them reacts to this location, hoping to see some resonance between the echo of the power of the Triforce that you carry and the relatively unspoiled natural beauty around you.
...
Lo and behold, something IS happening. You wouldn't call it "resonance," though; rather, it seems that the energy of one or both of your Overloaded techniques is pushing the natural energies of this site AWAY from you. It's not a dramatic effect, not even to the level of the grass being pushed away from you, as if by a faint breeze emanating from or simply surrounding your person, but your twice-reinforced aura is nonetheless defining a space that is "Alex" and forcing every tiny wisp of spiritual energy that registers as "not Alex" to stay out of that zone.
Well. That's almost the exact OPPOSITE of the results you were hoping to see. Apparently, trying to supercharge your attunement techniques to make them work faster doesn't work - or maybe they're interfering with each other? The effects of Spiritual Attunement and Environmental Adaptation are similar in that they're meant to help you to adjust to different conditions, but the former is intended to help you blend in with the spiritual environment, whereas the latter just helps you to function comfortably at your usual level of performance. Those aren't the same thing, and more than that, you're using two different power sources to fuel the techniques. The spiritual component of your ki is likely interfering with your Spiritual Attunement, and even the physical and mental elements could be doing so, particularly when they're all tied together and Overloaded like this.
"Imperfect technique," you reply shortly. "I'm basically trying to learn Super Meditation-"
You hear a sigh from Lu-sensei's direction.
"-but it's a work in progress."
Cordelia stares at you for a moment. "Super Meditation."
"Yes."
"...well, be sure to let Sensei know how it goes, and, you know, try not to melt your brain or anything."
You're pretty sure there is no chance of that happening!
Now, if you were working with psychic powers, then maybe, but probably not.
...
You think, anyway.
If your active techniques are clashing, one of them has to go, and since your main objective in this exercise is of a spiritual nature, the technique focused on physical acclimation is the one it makes sense to discard.
So, you do.
Almost immediately, that disturbance you were registering starts to die down. It doesn't go away immediately or completely, but gradually, you feel MOST of your spiritual aura start to mix with the local flow. The Overload still seems to be interfering with the process, as every now and then a wisp of spiritual energy will come into contact with one of your more energetic emanations, at which point the incoming spiritual ribbon gets deflected in a relatively obvious manner-
Zap!
-which isn't remotely what this technique is supposed to do.
That said, when there aren't any of those brief flashes and bursts of spiritual interference, you can feel your aura expanding much more quickly than it normally does, thinning out as it goes in a way that should make it less obvious - or that would, if not for the uneven, ragged spread of your energies.
What you've accomplished with this exercise is starting to look like a way to rapidly diffuse your spiritual aura, such that individuals with limited spiritual awareness might be unable to pick it out from the background noise - but anyone who can actually see what they're doing, so to speak, would be able to spot your presence all the quicker.
So, not really a USEFUL ability, at least not at your current level of skill. Maybe once you've improved your basic grasp of Spiritual Attunement or honed your Spiritual Overload enough for it to not glow so obviously, this combination will be more practical as a stealth technique.
But as far as getting in tune with nature goes, you're currently genuinely uncertain if an Overloaded Spiritual Attunement is EVER going to be useful.
More practice will be needed at some point.
Gained Spiritual Attunement D (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Overload D (Plus)
By the time you're done "Super Meditating," everybody else has given up on the regular stuff for a while. Amy and Cordy are chatting about some of the people you talked to earlier, Lu-sensei seems to be giving Lily Blaisdell a few pointers on meditative technique, and Larry and Briar are... discussing the merits of grass and other all-natural substances as bedding material?
Okay.
"Any luck with your meditation, Alex?" your master inquires.
"If nothing else, I have learned that trying to speed it up by using more power doesn't really work," you reply.
"Who would have thought?" Lu Tze shakes his head. "In any event, we have a meeting to get to. Will you be glowing for the duration?"
No, of course not. Like you said to yourself earlier, no sense in giving away hints of your capabilities before a spar if you don't have to.
That said, you do still have Mind Blank up.
You reduce the flow of spiritual energy to your Attunement technique and allow the excess power to start bleeding away. As it does so, your luminous glow fades to nothing.
"Still running the technique?" Lu Tze guesses.
How'd he know?
"For one, I know you and your tendency to overdo things fairly well by now."
Ah.
"For another, if you'd just canceled the technique, the glow should have cut out all at once."
Attention to detail is one of those things that distinguish a master from someone who's just very good at their art.
Anyway, since Lu-sensei isn't saying anything against you having Spiritual Attunement going while you meet the other masters, you leave it running.
Your teacher leads you out of the grove, back past the dining hall, and then around to the front of the central hall. The building is divided into three sections, all lined up alongside each other.
To the right is the main training area, a mix of traditional and modern architecture and equipment which spills out of the structure and onto the surrounding tiled courtyard. It didn't appear to be occupied when you first arrived - although that could have been because of the general alarm you set off - and it definitely wasn't in use when you went to the mid-morning meal, but there's a class in session now, with a couple of instructors and thrice as many assistants working with a good forty or more students. The class has been divided into three groups that you can see: one lot, standing directly in front of the hall, are practicing their forms; the second bunch, off to the right, are instead paired off for an exercise that involves them sitting back-to-back, standing up using leg strength and the support of their partner's back, and then sitting back down, all without use of the hands; and the third group, inside the hall proper, seem to be sparring.
To the left side of the hall is what appears to be a fairly modern single-story office, more in the vein of the front desk at school than one of the buildings in downtown Sunnydale. There are no students to be seen here, just movement beyond the windows suggesting that somebody is attending to the School's administrative requirements.
Lu Tze leads you to the central part of the hall, a rather traditional Japanese dojo, the likes of which you've seen on your trips to Tokyo and Karakura.
"I thought the Five Elements Style was Chinese," you note.
"The roots are, but Taiwan was under Japanese rule for half a century," your teacher explains. "They went to some lengths to instill their own cultural values into the population, not the least of which was mandating the construction of Shinto shrines and martial arts training halls in every prefecture. Evidently, the masters of the day felt it was best to play along rather than invite attention."
Gained History (Taiwan) F (Plus)
After everyone has set their shoes aside at the door, Lu-sensei ushers you in.
The dojo isn't too large, a single room probably only half the size of the newer training hall that adjoins it to the right, and the rear third of the chamber is taken up by a memorial shrine. Most of the rest of the room is occupied by the assembled Masters of the School of Five Elements, slightly over a dozen men and five women, whose ages range from "probably in their thirties" (Masters Wu Dong and Song Reyes, and a couple others) to "firmly middle-aged" (about a third of the room) to "well into seniorhood" (Master Tucker Vincent, and one European-looking fellow whose distasteful regard for Lu Tze makes you think he might be the Master Nielson in need of a kick).
"Masters," Lu Tze says with a polite half-bow to the room in general.
"Brought the whole group, Lu?" Master Tucker inquires.
"It seemed the most efficient approach," your teacher replies. "Also, the others can provide testimony to the boy's ridiculousness."
"Fair enough. Well, take a seat."
You end up sitting in two rows, with yourself front and center, Lu-sensei to your left, and Briar to your right. Amy, Cordelia, Lily, and Larry make up the back row, in that order.
Introductions are made, and there are enough names flying about that you suspect you'll have forgotten half of them before the day is out.
"Now then," Master Tucker begins. "The purpose of this meeting is so that we can ask, quite simply, how in the world you, Mister Harris, managed to set off our School's security wards like that."
"Is the concern about the teleportation specifically, sir, or... more general?" you venture.
"The latter," Master Tucker agrees. "Teleportation alone? A bit of a worry. Teleportation from some ten thousand kilometers away? Rather more of one. And then there is the matter of that sort of power being in the hands of a boy not yet ten years old, which is... basically unprecedented, outside of myth and legend."
Oh, you like the sound of that.
"As your abilities are obviously known to a fellow master in good standing and just as obviously not considered a danger by him," Tucker goes on, stressing the words for some reason cutting a glance towards the side of the room where Master Nielson sits, "our main concern is how you've come into this much magical power at such a young age."
Ah, so they're worried about the possibility of you having pacts with demons, otherworldly creatures, and other such entities?
...well, TECHNICALLY, you do.
Of course, your various tutors have really only helped you to develop and diversify your talent. The actual SOURCE of your magical potency is your being Ganondorf's reincarnation, but that's not something you're about to share with a bunch of strangers, much less the fact that it's a semi-conscious reincarnation. That said...
The masters take being told that you are favored by a trio of deities they've never heard of before pretty well.
"I mean, it's miles better than anything involving demons," one of them observes frankly.
Faint praise, that.
"As long as they aren't demon gods, anyway," another notes dryly.
There is a concerned pause at that.
They'd better not be thinking what I think they're thinking.
"They aren't," you reply hastily. "I mean, they really, REALLY aren't - and with your permission, I can summon up a few of their priests who've been acting as my tutors to prove that."
"That would be very reassuring," Master Tucker agrees, "although I'll have to ask how powerful a spell you would need to use for that."
If you were going to call all three of them at once, it would have to be quite potent, but if he's concerned that you might set off that alarm ward again-
"I am, yes."
-you could use a series of much less powerful spells to call the priests up one at a time. It will take a lot longer that way, though.
"Even so, that would be preferable," Master Tucker says, rising to his feet. "Shall we step outside?"
Guessing that the masters are not about to give you permission to throw magic around in what is more or less consecrated ground for a school of martial arts, you nod and get up.
Once out the door, you glance at the students in the middle of their exercises, some of whom are sneaking glances in your direction, while others openly stare as you emerge with most of the School's assembled leadership behind you.
"It's fine," the resident master says in response to your unspoken inquiry. "After all, a student of the Five Elements Style must know how to work through distractions-!"
And like that, there isn't so much as a stray thought being cast your way from the class.
Setting up the Magic Circle required is but the effort of a few moments-
"Is it supposed to be made of energy?" one master wonders.
"Oh, wow, cool!" one of the nearby students says.
"Ssshhh!"
-after which you get on with the ritual.
Elder Terok is arguably the least human-looking of your tutors, and his typically gruff, cranky attitude isn't a great choice for a matter such as this which calls for some diplomacy.
Koron, meanwhile, looks very human - unless you get very close - but he also looks and acts like he's around your physical age, which might not be the most helpful thing. Also, if memory serves, Kokiri were fairly isolated due to living in the Lost Woods, so dropping him in front of a crowd of dozens of strange humans might not go over well.
That would make the choice of who to summon first obvious, even if you didn't still have that deal to introduce Madam Lanora to priests and magic-users. Sure, ki isn't exactly magic or spiritual power, but it's a supernatural force that offers many remarkable abilities to those that learn to harness it, and there almost have to be a few scholars and philosophers in this crowd. That's just how these traditional martial arts schools WORK, isn't it?
Appearing with a burst of golden light and a sudden scent of the ocean, as if a breeze just blew in from the coast, the Nayrian priestess looks around, taking in the presence of the students - who are making no attempt to hide their fascinated regard - the masters - who are a bit too distracted themselves to threaten discipline and Enlightenment upon their pupils - and your fellow Sunnydalers.
Then the Zora woman looks at you. "Vacation plans hit a snag?"
Because of course you let your tutors know you'd be away from home and probably not calling on them for a week.
"The masters expressed some concerns about my magical abilities," you explain. "They wanted to make sure I wasn't getting my power from demons or anything like that."
"And you need character testimony," she finishes, nodding.
"Do you mind?"
"Not at all."
And with that she steps out of the circle.
You let Briar handle the introductions while you get on with calling up-
"What are Koron's feelings on crowds?" you think to ask.
"He would be a little nervous around this many people," Lanora admits, looking around again. "Although the fact that most of them are children might help."
-Elder Terok, who might be grouchy at being called on but at least won't be uncomfortable being one of the centers of attention.
Plus, you know, Dinnite representation.
The ten-minute ritual gives Madam Lanora plenty of time to be diplomatic and informative, and by the time the Goron priest appears with another burst of golden light - this one accompanied by a sudden sharp increase in the local temperature - she's answered a number of the masters' questions and addressed several concerns.
To hit the highlights, yes, she's dead. No, she's not a ghost. No, she's not from Earth, nor is she descended from the Water Tribes. No, the Goddesses don't have designs on invading or otherwise trying to take over the planet, although like any other deity, they won't exactly pass up a chance to welcome new faithful. Yes, the boy is ridiculous.
As the flare of the calling fades, Elder Terok inspects his surroundings with a flinty squint, and then turns to you with a nod. "Good call on having Lanora handle the chatter."
You live for the old stone's approval.
Rumbling with what might be amusement, Elder Terok leaves the summoning circle.
To date, whenever you've called upon the Hyrulean priests, you've either done so as lone individuals - Vert's accompanying Koron aside - or as a trio. It's an established habit of yours, almost a tradition, even, and it's one that you don't see a good reason to break now.
Rather the opposite, really. This is the first time the wider School of Five Elements will be meeting representatives of the Goddesses, and you certainly don't want Farore thinking you're leaving her out of something like that!
Thank you.
Some minutes later-
"You practice SUMO?"
"Well, not me personally," Elder Terok grumblingly admits, leaning a bit more on his staff. "Not anymore - but when I was younger, yes. It's a tradition of my people."
"But... you're from another world, right? Did your people have contact with Japan at some point, or...?"
"I'm not sure even the Goddesses knew that this world existed, before the boy started summoning people and things here," Terok replies.
Yeah, if they had, they probably would have found you a lot sooner...
"Then how-?" The master in question stops speaking, collects himself, and then says, "I could understand that two different cultures, even on two worlds, might independently create their own versions of the same thing. But for them to come up with a complete martial arts style, and for the rules, the stances, and even the very NAME to be the same- the odds against such a thing..."
The old Goron shrugs like a small avalanche. "I can't explain it, either. There's probably a reason for it, somewhere, but it strikes me that there are much more important questions in need of answering."
"...such as?"
The Elder grins. "Like how well your sumo stack up to ours."
"...okay, that is ALSO a question I would like an answer to..."
-with a golden flash and another gust of wind, this time smelling of a forest, the last of your priestly tutors appears.
"Hey, Alex, what's- WOW, that's a lot of people!" As the Zora and the Goron did before him, the Kokiri looks around at the crowd; unlike his predecessors, Koron shifts uncomfortably as a lot of the collective attention turns his way.
"Is it too many people?" you ask.
"It's... a lot," Koron replies. "But, uh, as long as you don't expect me to talk with ALL of them..."
"Just some of the scary adult martial arts master types," you assure him.
"...that's not very reassuring, Alex," the druid replies bluntly.
"Gather your Courage?" you offer.
He huffs. "I don't WANT to gather my Courage. I do trees and green things and sometimes small animals-"
"Humans are animals, too," you point out.
"And most of those students are just kids," Vert adds helpfully. "Meaning, small animals."
"You," Koron says, pointing up at you, "stop confusing me with your logic. And YOU" - he points at Vert - "stop helping him." Then, sighing, he musters his resolve and marches forward to meet the masters of the School of Five Elements.
By this point, it's been twenty minutes since you first summoned Madam Lanora, so a lot of the outstanding questions have already been asked and answered. A few of them get repeated anyway-
"What are your goddess's domains?"
"Do you practice martial arts?"
-and Koron fields a couple of unique ones-
"Why do you look so young?"
"And why does your ki... not feel like ki?"
"Does anybody else see a little glowing ball with insect wings hovering over him?"
-but by and large, the stress Koron has to endure by interacting with all of these adults at once is greatly reduced before it could ever be a problem.
Also, the masters seem reasonably assured that your tutors are, in fact, NOT demons or demonic cultists in disguise.
The faintly shining auras and quasi-divine presence of mortal priests raised to celestial status definitely helped, there.
Do you have any further statements to make on this matter?
Talking to the masters is, as you've already noted, basically just another part of your ongoing deal with Madam Lanora. As a consequence, you don't see her being particularly fussed if you excuse yourself from the group conversation.
You were a little worried that Elder Terok's usual gruff, grouchiness might cause some friction, but he seems to be fitting in quite well. Maybe it's the presence of some other actual elders, or maybe it's the opportunity to talk about martial arts? You aren't quite sure, but whatever the reason, the old Goron can certainly look after himself in a peaceful dialogue.
Koron's nervousness is a bit more of an issue, and a somewhat surprising one, as you don't remember him behaving like this back on Bali Ha'i. The crowd he had to face at your birthday was bigger than this one and included a lot more adults - unless you count the older teenagers here and now as "not kids," but even then, you think the presence of the Memorians and the islander ghosts still made for a greater ratio of "old people" to young ones.
...then again, maybe the ghosts, or today's lack of them, are the issue? Your birthday guest list included undead, monsters, and a bona fide nature spirit, and Bali Ha'i was a pretty strongly supernatural location besides; here, the overwhelming majority of the audience are human - or mostly so, there are a few whispers of not-quite-normal ki on the air - and while the School of Five Elements is a pleasant enough location, it's not a particularly mystical one. Certainly not enough to compete with Bali Ha'i. One or both of these factors being the cause of Koron's uneasiness makes a fair bit of sense.
Even so, he's got Vert to encourage him, Lanora and Terok to hide behind - whether literally or just as conversational distractions - and the option to dismiss himself in an instant if things prove too awkward.
All in all, you think leaving the task of convincing the Masters of the School of Five Elements of your better nature and intentions in your tutors' hands would go over well enough on the Hyrulean side of things. As for the Earthly side...
You glance at Lu-sensei, gesture a couple of times to catch his eye, and then once you've got his attention, you silently inquire if it would be okay for you and your friends to drop out of the discussion and let the adults take care of it.
He signals back that it's probably fine, but that you shouldn't wander too far.
Hmmm... you were hoping you could go sit in on a class, and maybe take part in the exercises-
!
-and fortunately, there's one such class in session right in front of you, where the masters would easily be able to see and call for you, if they have a mind to.
Isn't that convenient?
Before you "slip away" to join your fellow students, you make a mental note of which of the masters first saw Vert, and which of his peers not only didn't give him funny looks, but appeared to be relieved that they (probably) weren't seeing things, or at least weren't the ONLY ones seeing them...
You probably ought to ask the students if any of them saw or are seeing anything odd around the little wooden boy, but...
Yeah, it'd be a little rude, or at least a distraction from the lesson, for you to start asking questions about fairies right now.
You turn to your Sunnydale friends and ask them if they'd be interested in joining the lesson with you, provided of course that the instructors don't object.
"Anything that doesn't involve sitting around for another half an hour would be great," Cordelia replies.
"I think it's been long enough since lunch that I could move," Larry agrees.
"I suppose," Amy sighs.
"Excuse us, Instructor," Briar calls. "Room for five more?"
"Uh... yes, there is, although I have to ask where you all are in your training..."
It takes a couple of minutes to sort that out. The partner exercises you saw being performed before - at least before everybody got distracted by your calling rituals - looked normal enough, but it turns out that the students were not only working as each other's physical training partners-slash-exercise equipment, but also as ki training partners. Rather than using Ki Enhancement to boost their performance in some regard, they made use of a mild application of Ki Projection - or maybe specifically the Ki Aura technique? - to exert a mild but constant pressure against their partner, who was doing the same thing in return. The idea wasn't to overpower your partner or be overpowered by them, but to keep the ki pressure as steady as you could.
You personally might be a little far along to be taking this particular class, but Cordy and Larry are both in about the right skill range for it. Briar has access to your skills, but is still a bit shy on the associated physical conditioning and experience, putting her in a good place to join in as well - provided her Fae energies can be utilized in the same manner, which she seems quite confident of. Amy is in the opposite situation from you, where the lesson might be a little advanced for her current skill level, but the instructor is willing to allow her to join in with the rest of you, as long as she gives it her best effort.
Mrs. Blaisdell sits this one out, partly from an honest lack of ability and partly from lack of interest.
Do you have a preferred partner for this?
Cordy can handle this exercise without any real problem, and Larry's got a decent shot at it as long as he focuses on doing only what needs to be done, rather than trying to compete with or show off in front of the other students. Briar likewise has the skills; her only real issue will be how well her partner handles the realization that she doesn't run on human life-energy, and whether or not they can adapt to the differences in how Fae essence expresses itself when projected in this manner.
That leaves working with Amy or working with a complete stranger, and given the choice, you'd rather practice with a friend. Plus, you aren't going to call attention to Amy's lack of awakened ki, as some students might do out of surprise, carelessness, or a certain childish cruelty - and on THAT note, you dismiss the idea of suggesting that Amy attempt to substitute her mana for ki for this exercise.
If you were to use your basic Ki Projection skill, you could probably maintain a relatively solid skin of ki around yourself for the duration of the class.
You take a moment to picture yourself sitting back-to-back with Amy, either with your back wreathed in a glowing field of concentrated vital energy that glows more brightly where her back presses against it, or with your entire self surrounded in glowing ki, as if you had become a luminous being altogether.
Given the lack of obvious glows among the class, either approach is undoubtedly too flashy, so you decide to use the derived technique of Ki Aura instead. It could honestly use the practice, anyway.
You and Amy find a clear space on the courtyard tiles and sit down back-to-back, arms and legs extended forward. You feel her shift slightly as you activate your Ki Aura, after which the pressure of her presence remains steady. Pushing firmly against each other and keeping your hands away from the ground-
"Right legs first?" you offer.
"Sure. On three?"
"One. Two. Three!"
-you begin to rise. There is some wobbling as the two of you adjust to the differences in not only ki pressure but also body mass, figuring out how much force you need to exert to match your partner, but if she hasn't yet got ki use down, Amy is in otherwise excellent physical condition, and you're shortly on your feet. Sitting back down again involves a bit more uncertainty, as while all the same muscle groups are involved, this time you're not working against gravity so much as you are trying not to let it get ahead of you.
The second rep goes a bit more smoothly, and third better yet; before long, the two of you have found a steady rhythm.
While you work, you note that all of your other companions got paired off with local students. Cordelia and Larry seem to be doing alright with their partners, but the girl in her early teens that was selected to work with Briar is clearly getting a bit more than she bargained for-
"Why is your energy GLITTERING like that?" the girl wonders, head craned to one side to regard the thin, sparkling layer that billows out from between her and Briar's backs.
"I think it's an 'as above, so below' thing," Briar replies. "You've heard of fairy dust, right? Well, this is the same sort of thing, just with life-force."
"...this isn't going to leave any weird stains on my uniform, is it?"
"...probably not? I don't know, okay? I've never done an exercise like this before!"
-if not precisely in a BAD way. Probably.
As the exercise continues, you note that having a significant level of non-violent force applied against your Ki Aura over an extended period of time is quite a different experience from your previous uses of the technique. Perhaps due in part to your own rudimentary understanding of the ability, you burn through the energy invested into this reinforcement skill almost as quickly as you would amid the stresses of live combat; as such, by the time that you have finished your required number of repetitions, your aura has largely exhausted itself.
In other words, good practice!
After giving the class a breather, the instructors announce that they'll round out the lesson - which you did come into mid-way - with a free spar.
Every head in the class turns to you and your friends.
You give a moment's thought to the possibility of letting someone else step up first, and then dismiss it. You're just too eager for a match to wait.
Raising a hand, you declare, "I volunteer to spar."
"Of course you do," Briar agrees.
"Naturally," Cordelia chimes in.
"No surprise, there," Amy says.
"None at all," Larry concludes.
The eagerness of the other students doesn't exactly diminish when the physically largest stranger steps up, but a fair portion of the crowd don't volunteer to be the first ones to face you, instead turning to-
"I nominate Akio!"
"Hey!" the boy in question protests.
"Seconded!"
"HEY!"
"I nominate Yin!" someone new says, pointing to a girl.
"Thank you," Akio sighs.
"I say Akio!" Yin says quickly.
"Oh, come on!"
"Are you saying you don't want to spar with him?"
"I didn't say that, but nominate yourselves, already!"
-or supporting other members of the class.
Although you're pretty sure the lead instructor intended this to be a general spar, it's quickly made clear that everybody wants to SEE you fight without distraction, and so an allowance is made for a single one-on-one match before multiple groups are called up. One clear advantage of having several teachers per class is that you can run a lot more students through exercises like this that need direct supervision.
Anyway, despite that initial run of votes for this Akio guy, three more students rally similar amounts of support. The instructors let them sort out for themselves who's going first, which is settled with a few quick rounds of rock-paper-scissors.
Akio ties with his opponent twice, rock-to-rock and paper-to-paper, before smashing their scissors in the third attempt.
Yin's rock beats her opponent right off, and then she throws paper to Akio's scissors.
The boy sighs and bows to the inevitable.
The rules are much as they are at Lu-sensei's dojo: full-force hits and shots to the vitals are not allowed; ki use is permitted as long as it won't violate the previous rules; and when the instructor-referee says stop, you stop.
Akio's maybe fourteen, medium build, and carries himself like he's been practicing martial arts for quite a while, although without that dangerous edge you've seen in fighters who have faced lethal threats. His aura is ki-active, of course, to a level that suggests... maybe three years of experience with the related techniques? It's a little hard to tell, given most of the people around this age that you've previously had a chance to examine this closely were either civilian trainees - albeit a few of them living on the Hellmouth - or talented and/or dedicated enough to compete in the World Tournament. Akio seems to be firmly in the middle of that range, good but not truly great.
He's also cycling some of that ki around his eyes, and frowning. "Why can't I read you?"
"Fight well, and I'll tell you."
Akio takes that in with a frown. "How well is 'well'?"
"You know: don't be sloppy; don't get frustrated; don't give up; put on a show and get the crowd cheering - that kind of 'well'!"
Your opponent lets out a relieved sigh. "Oh, good. For a second there, I thought you were going to say I had to beat you or something."
"You don't think you can?" you inquire curiously.
Akio shrugs. "I mean, ONE of us got to go to the World Tournament last year, much less placed in the Finals, and the other didn't. Even if we are in different age categories-"
Good on him to have noticed and/or remembered that you're not as old as your size might indicate.
"-and the entry qualifications for the Under Tens Division ARE the lightest ones, they're not THAT much lighter than the Under Fourteens. I think that says a few things."
It does, if you're being honest, and that's without getting into the admittedly absurd rate at which your skills have developed since the Tournament.
Anyway, the two of you adopt your opening stances and wait for the referee-
"Begin!"
-to do that.
As Akio hasn't activated any ki techniques aside from his thwarted Ki Sight yet, you leave your own skills alone for the moment, both to keep your secrets and to make the match a little more even.
The older boy shuffles forward, circling to your left as he studies your form, looking for-
!
-an opening!
Greater height and mass, longer reach, and a more developed, longer-trained musculature allow Akio to move and strike faster than you're used to seeing from most opponents in the same age range, especially the human guys, and even more so when it's just physical power and skill at work. He comes in with a high kick, forceful enough that you need to evade or block - you do a bit of both - but controlled enough that he's already pulled his leg back out of your reach and begun to rebuild his guard before you can try to get creative. It was clearly a probe, meant to start getting that measure of your abilities that his Ki Sight was prevented from obtaining, and Akio follows it up by rushing forward, hands flying fast and forcefully enough that you need to treat them seriously, but again, not with so much power that he risks over-committing and exposing a weakness.
You're able to fend off this level of percussive investigation easily enough, but these are just your sparring partner's opening moves.
Staying on the defensive isn't really your style, but you don't want to break out the Body Flicker blitz just yet, either. Moving to counterattack in a more mundane fashion feels like a good compromise.
And so, rather than simply continue to dodge and deflect Akio's strikes, you watch for an open-
!
-ing, and take a shot of your own.
The sudden attack is easily deflected, but it does slow Akio's next attack by a few fractions of a second, giving you time to line up and deliver another blow of your own - dodged, this time - which further interrupts the momentum he had been building up, giving you more space to act and more opportunities to press your counters, forcing your opponent to put more effort into his defense.
In short order, the spar has gone from almost pure defense on one side and equally pure offense on the other to a mix of both, hands flying, forearms blocking, the occasional elbow striking, and even a knee or two getting in on the fun.
You almost feel like you should be yelling some nonsensical kiai with every strike, but at the same time, you are aware that your hands aren't flying fast enough to really do justice to the noble spirit of ORA ORA ORA!
Gained Flurry of Blows F
After maybe ten seconds of this exchange, it's clear that you aren't making much headway. You'd say you're a bit stronger and more skilled than Akio, but his hands are slightly quicker and more accurate than your own, and it's clear that he's more used to fighting opponents of your size than you are.
Downsides of being bigger than your usual sparring partners, while also being dwarfed by the giant monsters you keep running into...
You won't swear to it yet, but you think Akio might also have the advantage of experience in non-ki-enhanced spars, and just with pure unarmed combat in general. He's got half a decade of practice on you, so he'd almost HAVE to have a lot more such matches under his belt than you do, particularly when you take into account the fact that his ki doesn't appear to be particularly exceptional. Trained, without question, and built up from years of use, but even so, you can see a lot of your friends meeting or surpassing him in this regard by the time they're his age. Kahlua and Altria already do, and by quite a bit.
Your circle of friends have kind of ruined your sense for the ordinary, haven't they? More so than your own abilities already had, anyway...
Eh, whatever. "Ordinary" is just another word for "boring," and it's not like you aren't going to have lots of opportunities to face more regular martial artists over the course of the next week.
Your idle thoughts are interrupted as Akio suddenly draws both hands back until they're level with his chest, and pushes forward with a swift, sharp kiai. You see it coming in time to counter!
You aren't quite sure what Akio is going for with his latest move. He might be attempting a double palm strike, crossed with a lunge, but that seems like it's leaving him much too open to yours counters. Alternately, he could just be trying to shove you to open up some space and get you off-balance, but that seems kind of... inelegant?
Not that Lu-sensei has ever spoken against you or any of his students using such "graceless" techniques as bodychecks, tackles, or just pushing the other guy around, saying that in a serious fight, you should use whatever works - as long as it DOES work, which is the tricky part.
He does firmly discourage biting, though, as not only are human bodies kind of terrible at it, you have to put a great many vulnerable spots within your opponent's reach to even make the attempt, you're likely to damage your teeth in the process, and of course, you can never be sure just where your enemy has been.
Though even then, there are exceptions... but this is not one of those times.
Even as that idle thought passes through your head, you are dropping into a crouch, putting your hands to the ground for extra support as you extend your right leg and pivot-!
Akio sees the sweep coming, but he can't overcome the forward momentum of his pushing lunge fast enough to try falling back out of your range, and being caught in mid-stride besides, he's certain to have to have his leg pulled out from under him-
!
-and so, with a surge of Ki Enhancement that speeds up his movement, he forges ahead, taking one more swift step and then throwing himself into the air just ahead of your sweeping kick. You feel your foot graze the fabric of his uniform's leg before you adjust your attack into a roll, dropping face-down onto the courtyard stones to avoid any opportunistic downward strikes from Akio as he leaps over you.
As soon as your sense of the body whooshing past overhead is out of the way, you curl your legs, push off with your hands, and do a reverse roll so you're at least back on your feet, even if in a crouch.
Thanks to his enhanced speed, Akio has already landed and come about by then, but he's not quite in position to strike.
Seeing as how he's already used ki, you see no need to hold yourself back on that front any further.
If Akio's escalated to using Ki Enhancement, it's only fair for you to do the same - and while you could go all-out from the outset, based on how much faster Akio is moving and what you can passively sense of his ki signature, you think you can dial back the technique enough to pretty closely match his level of enhancement.
Keeping things close to equal, as it were.
On that note, as your ki technique resolves, you rise from your defensive crouch into a more stable and proper stance.
Akio takes in your posture and moves to strike - but he does so with a frown and a certain hesitance in his body language, which is reflected in the faster, but-not-as-fast-as-it-COULD-be approach.
You intercept his probing high strike very easily, and the instant you do - before that, even - you see realization, relief, and chagrin cross the older boy's features, which reminds you that he can't sense your ki signature through Mind Blank and thus didn't know for sure whether or not you'd started using ki in response to his employment of it.
Maybe you should have added a visible flare of your aura to make that clear? Lu-sensei makes a point of training such a tendency out of any of his students who display it, as it's a needless expenditure of ki that doesn't offer any real benefits in a serious fight, instead simply giving away that you have done something - and possibly an idea as to what said something was - but in spars like this, it might be merited.
Then again, Akio and his classmates probably shouldn't get too used to always being able to read their opponents. Sure, the odds of them running into somebody with Mind Blank are really low, but Nondetection is much more common and can provide similar concealment, while there are undoubtedly ki adepts with their own enhanced forms of Ki Concealment that offer comparable stealth.
While you're considering that, you've also delivered a counter-punch that Akio managed to block, but not quite as well as he could have. Your follow-up strike is handled more correctly, and then he gets in a shot of his own, which soon leads you to another exchange of blows all but identical to your previous flurry of thrown hands - and leg strikes - save that this time you're both moving with ki-assisted speed.
The urge to "ora!" rises-
Gained Flurry of Blows F (Plus)
-especially since you are, once again, basically matching each other blow for blow and block for block.
Akio doesn't drag that out as long this time, nor does he attempt to repeat his double palm strike-slash-lunging maneuver, whatever it was supposed to accomplish; instead, once it's clear that the two of you are starting to deadlock each other again, he starts channeling more ki to his limbs.
His very next blow hits harder and leaves a sting that goes beyond bruised flesh and jarred bone, confirming the older boy's use of a Ki Strike, one that you think is better trained than your own.
Gained Ki Strike E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Yeah, even if the addition of some special visual effects would make this match more of a spectacle for your audience, you wouldn't really be doing your fellow Five Elements practitioners any favors by giving them cues on your use of ki powers. Like you thought just a moment ago, they do need to be able to deal with opponents capable of fighting under this sort of concealment, or at the very least to know that it exists.
Not to mention that you don't want Lu-sensei ENLIGHTENING you for developing and/or encouraging bad habits. You've managed to avoid meeting with the Stick for quite some time, now; it's a streak you'd like to keep unbroken...
It feels most appropriate to keep on matching whatever techniques your opponent pulls out with your own applications of the same, and so your first move in response to Akio's activation of Ki Strike is to focus some of your own energy into your limbs to reinforce your own blows.
There's no visual telltales, but from the way Akio winces the next time he counters one of your blows and subsequently starts making greater use of evasion and redirection, he knows exactly what you just did.
Even with that, a couple more stinging exchanges are made before your ki has cycled and you're able to raise your Ki Armor, once again dialed back to match your best estimate of your opponent's strength, at which point the remaining blows... well, they don't completely lose their impact, but with two focused applications of ki surging around and through your body - one meant to match Akio's Ki Strikes, the other to counter them - the extra bite is stopped cold before it can register. Much of the purely physical force of your opponent's attacks is absorbed as well, which gives you the opportunity to forego some of the defensive nature of your current stance and shift to a more aggressive one.
You score one, two, three blows, the first surprising Akio, the second pushing him to use his own Ki Armor, and the third drawing another look of surprise, this time touched with chagrined amusement.
From the way the residual ki of your enhanced strikes is lingering for a second where his isn't, you would say that this is fair evidence of Akio's Ki Armor not being as developed as your own. Even if you ARE holding back from expressing the full force of your own technique, you can't exactly unlearn the skill involved - or rather, you really, really shouldn't - and that has an impact.
Once again, Akio's ki rises, but this time, instead of trying to break through your defenses, he throws himself backwards, energy surging towards his hands with the obvious signs of a Ki Blast.
As soon as you register the flow of ki around and through Akio's hands for what it is, you bring your own hands up, cycling your energies swiftly as you strive to match your opponent in this spar move-for-move. Yet again, you hold back your full strength, trying to hit Akio with as much force as he's brought to bear against you, but you only have fractions of a second to read the signature of his forming Ki Blast before your own takes shape, which makes it difficult to be sure if you measured out the correct amount of power or not.
"HA!" Akio exclaims, as he pushes forward with both hands, releasing a yellow-tinted beam of translucent white energy whose leading mass is about size of a bowling ball in your direction.
"HA!" you shout at almost exactly the same moment, releasing a red-tinted beam of more solid white energy whose leading mass is about the size of a basketball in HIS direction.
From the way your Ki Blast punches through Akio's and still has enough force to smack him in the chest and send him staggering backwards, you think it is safe to say that you miscalculated slightly.
"Hold!" the referee interrupts.
You hold.
"Akio?" the man asks. "Can you continue?"
"Just give me a second, Instructor," Akio replies, as he straightens up from the half-crouch he was in, taking a slow, deep breath and pushing his chest out a bit. A moment later, he nods, relaxing. "Alright. Okay, I'm still good to go."
"You're sure?"
"Just got the wind knocked out of me, sir. I can continue."
"Very well." The referee steps back, looking between the two of you. "Resume!"
And you do.
With the clear defeat of his Ki Blast by yours, Akio comes on in a more conventional all-out assault, foregoing defense in favor of a wild flurry of strikes, kicks, and other martial maneuvers as he tries to completely overwhelm your guard through sheer number of attacks. It soon becomes clear that it isn't going to work, and moreover, that even with ki boosting his stamina, he can't keep this up for long.
You've been holding a certain lead throughout most of the match, one which might have been subtle enough at first for only the senior students and instructors to catch it, but which has only become more apparent as the use of ki techniques has escalated, with your victory in the beam-battle making it pretty obvious that you're just better at this level of the Five Elements style than your opponent. Restraining your use of techniques to match your opponent's on near-equal footing is one thing, but there comes a point where such behavior crosses the line from good sportsmanship into needless showing off, and you think you've come close enough to that line for one match.
In other words, it's about time to end the spar. With that in mind, you wait for Akio's stamina-draining offensive rush to flag, and in that moment when you see his flurry of blows falter and before he can break off to try and recover.
Your hands shoot forward, snaking through momentary gaps in Akio's guard to seize the front of his uniform. Almost immediately, the older boy grabs your arms and leans back sharply, trying to use his mass and strength together to break your grip, only to find it holding fast as you ramp you Ki Enhancement up to its normal level of performance. The sudden jump in your augmented strength visibly alarms your opponent, at least until you lose sight of his face when you step forward, put your shoulder to his chest, lean forward-
"Whaaaa-!"
-and give him the old heave-ho.
"Hold there," the referee advises you.
You do as requested.
"Incoming!" somebody in the crowd yells, as audience members who drifted a little too close to the spar in their eagerness to observe the proceedings now scramble out of the way.
Akio manages to reposition himself in mid-air so that he lands on his feet, but he's got no balance and too much momentum to stick the landing; instead, he turns it into a forward roll, grunting as he tumbles over the ceramic tiles once and then twice before he slows down enough to get his feet under him and stand-
"And hold!" the ref calls again.
-and Akio stops where he is, turning his head to look at his teacher. "Instructor?"
"One moment," the man murmurs as he steps forward, eyes on the ground. When he stops, it's right next to the spot where Akio came down from your throw, and the instructor turns to look at where you are still standing, visibly measuring the distance between the two points. After a moment, he nods. "In formal competition, that would be a ring-out, or close enough for judgment calls."
The crowd starts cheering, groaning, and chattering.
"But we're not in formal competition?" Akio offers, even though his heart really isn't in it.
"Do you REALLY want to continue, Akio?" his teacher asks in a quiet, empathetic tone that most of the class probably don't even notice over their own noise, much less interpret correctly.
Akio glances at you for a moment.
You'd be fine with resuming the spar, but it's best to leave it up to him to decide whether he wants to "escalate" again.
"...not really, no," the other boy admits, turning back to his elder. "There's losing to a World Champion, and then there's getting schooled by one."
The instructor nods and raises one hand, as well as his voice. "Winner, Harris!"
And that is that.
You and Akio exchange bows, and when you rise, the older boy asks, "So, how'd I do?"
Ah, yes. You did make a promise. In your opinion...
Also, did you want to spar with someone else?
"I think you fought well enough to earn an explanation," you reply.
"But before I give that," you add, turning to the instructor, "I should mention I'm still good to spar for another round or two, in case anybody's interested."
"I'm sure you are," the teacher agrees. "As to interest..." He looks around at his students.
"Pass!" one of the guys who played rock-paper-scissors for the chance to face you says quickly.
The girl, Yin, shoots that one a disappointed look before saying, "I wouldn't object to a match."
"And if she loses," somebody shouts from the crowd, "I will avenge her and Akio and the honor of our School!"
"Wait your turn!" the last of the four original nominees for your first bout says. "And show a little more support for a classmate!"
"I mean, he's not exactly WRONG," Yin admits.
The teacher raises a hand and calls for silence. "While I am mostly pleased with your responses, we WOULD like to have a little more general sparring for most of the remainder of class. So, if everybody other than these two would kindly pick a partner, we'll do a few rounds of that, and then finish class with a spar between Yin and Mister Harris."
That sounds fine by you, and you join Akio in moving out of the way as the instructors select half a dozen pairs for supervised sparring.
"So," you say, "how much do you know about magic?"
"Mostly, that it exists and can be helpful, dangerous, or weird," he replies.
"If not all of the above," you agree. "Well, then..."
You start by explaining how magic is generally broken up into Schools, these being general groupings of kinds and uses of power as opposed to whole educational facilities or styles - though the latter definitions can also apply, particularly when wizards or magi are involved and given a chance to get themselves organized.
Akio nods, following that easily.
From that opener, you narrow the field a bit to the School of Abjuration, describing it as spells meant to defend, restrict, or remove entities, objects, and forces, highlighting force-fields, debuffing spells, and banishment as major examples.
Akio continues to follow.
Then you get into the Spell of Nondetection and its variations, be they higher, lower, or lateral, and how they're all about restricting the information that other people can pull off of the target of the spell.
"So you've been using that spell this whole time?" Akio guesses.
"Actually, no," you admit. "Nondetection's slightly unreliable in that a sufficiently powerful, skilled, or lucky caster can bypass it - that, and you normally have to shell out diamond dust to cast it. The spell I'm using is called Mind Blank, which is more powerful and reliable."
"How much more powerful?"
"Nondetection is a third-circle spell. Most experienced, adult magic-users have access to magic of that level, whether as quick-cast spells or through extended rituals. Mind Blank is eighth-circle, and that doesn't actually mean much to you beyond 'bigger numbers', does it?" you conclude with wry realization.
Akio shakes his head. "Sorry, but it doesn't."
Eh, not his fault. You cast about for an easy example... ah, that'll work. "Okay, so a third-circle spell you might have heard of is Fireball."
"Ah," Akio says, nodding. "Yeah, some of the masters have mentioned that one. 'You can dodge it, if you're quick and paying attention; the building you're in is not so fortunate,' as Master Ng put it."
"A typical Fireball will gut your average two-story house pretty effectively," you admit, "or at least leave it in need of some serious repair and redecoration. Anyway, there's an eighth-circle spell called Sunburst which is... broadly similar to Fireball, except that instead of Elemental Fire, it releases a blast of Elemental Light-"
Akio nods.
"-it has a blast radius four times WIDER-"
He blinks.
"-and while it's normally only a bit more damaging to most targets than an entry-level Fireball would be, it's super-effective against anything vulnerable to bright light, even MORE effective against the undead in general and a few kinds of creatures that are vulnerable to ultraviolet light, and has a tendency to make any corpse-demon vampires it hits just stop existing."
...
"...four times the blast radius of a Fireball, you said?"
"And anywhere from two and a half to five times the damage, depending on how you count and what you're using it to blast," you agree. "It's a situational spell, to be sure, basically an 'in case of undead army, break glass' sort of thing, but it gives you a sense of the scale involved."
"I guess," Akio replies, "but how many undead armies are out there, really?"
And Akio was doing so well, too...
"I can think of three, off the top of my head," you reply frankly.
Granted, the Memorians aren't a HOSTILE army, there aren't that many of them in absolute terms, and they're all getting ready to go to their long-overdue rest, but they ARE an organized force of well-trained soldiers who've retained their skills and reason despite the transition to undeath. As if that weren't enough, they also have access to arcane and divine support.
After your not-Roman allies, there are the denizens of Hueco Mundo. It is perhaps a stretch to refer to Hollows as an army, as what you know of the cannibalistic spirits suggests that they're far more likely to operate independently or in small groups than as part of a hierarchical command structure - but a horde of giant soul-devouring spirits is the sort of thing it TAKES an army to deal with. Witness the existence of the Thirteen Divisions.
And then, of course, there is Sunnydale. The town's infestation of corpse-demons aren't much more unified or organized than the Hollows, but their numbers are a concern, some of the local demons would undoubtedly join them if an open conflict got going - if only for the entertainment value - and they are, after all, a problem very near and dear to your heart and a lot of the people important to it.
And these are just the undead forces that you know for SURE exist on Earth, or directly adjacent to it!
In response to your short remark, the older boy does a double-take. "Wait, what?"
"And for the record," you add, "if we get invaded by zombies, I'm blaming you."
"Why is it MY-?"
"You taunted Murphy!"
"I don't even know a Murphy!"
While that conversation-turned-argument is going on, the rest of the class get through three rounds of sparring. Cordelia wins a bout against a boy maybe two years her elder, although she has to work for it, while Larry puts up a good fight before finally being outdone by a boy his own age who has a better grasp on ki techniques and a little bit of luck. Amy is outclassed by her opponent, but manages to force a tie by dragging the other girl out of the designated sparring area.
And then there is Briar, who takes on the girl she was practicing with earlier and, well, kind of gets the stuffing knocked out of her. The sudden flare of pain and surprise through the familiar bond drags you out of your argument with Akio and has you at your partner's side in a few heartbeats.
"What happened?" the girl in the otherwise empty portion of the courtyard demands, looking around with concern and unease. "Where'd she go? I didn't hit her THAT hard - and what is WITH all this DUST?"
"She's, uh, still here," you say slowly, glancing at Briar, who is back at fairy-sized and hanging there in mid-air, at the far end of a trail of fairy dust leading away from the heart of a cloud of the stuff several feet across. Of your partner, you quietly ask, "Briar? You're still here, right?"
"Ow, my head," comes the groaned answer.
"Still here!" you declare more loudly. "So, what happened?"
After Briar has popped back into visible existence at human scale, as well as some halting explanations on both sides, the name of the game appears to be "unexpected interaction between incomplete ki technique and familiar-enabled fairy magic transformation, with deviations in the former resulting in the disruption and collapse of the latter."
In plainer language, Briar's opponent punched her out of her human disguise.
The potential existence of a ki technique that can force disguised or transformed beings to revert to their natural appearances is interesting, but it's also not something you have a particular need for. If you were a pure ki-user, you might be more excited to learn about such a thing, but your mastery of magic gives you tried-and-true options in that field, such as Dispel Magic and Baleful Polymorph, both of which you can employ without needing to get close enough to touch your target. The possibility of a ki-based equivalent is kind of a novelty, particularly when this happened entirely by accident.
In any case, looking after your partner comes first. Fortunately, aside from the spent mana and a bit of a headache - Briar's opponent didn't punch her in the head, that's just the backlash of the disrupted technique and the unfriendly interaction of the two fighters' energies - she seems to be fine.
A little embarrassed at suddenly being shrunk like that, but physically undamaged.
Briar's sparring partner is also visibly relieved once the fairy resumes her human-sized and human-perceptible form-
"Seriously, though, what is UP with all this dust?"
-and is back to talking with her normally pretty quickly.
Not too long after that surprise, the instructors decide to move on to your match with Yin.
It goes more quickly than your bout with Akio. Partly, that's because you still have your ki abilities going, and Yin doesn't get the chance to warm up by facing you at mundane levels. You do warn her and the ref about this before the fight begins, and neither of them are surprised or disapproving - Yin just asks for a moment to activate her own Ki Enhancement, Ki Strike, and Ki Armor before you start, and comes at you with everything she's got from the outset-
!
-which includes an offensive use of Body Flicker, you're pleased to note.
Though that, in turn, is another reason why this spar doesn't last. Even dialed down, your Body Flicker is just WAY too good for Yin to keep up with-
"Wow, am I glad I didn't pull out the super-speed," you hear Akio observe from the sidelines.
-and though she seems to be distinctly better in terms of ki usage than your first opponent, you've got more of a size advantage this time around, which adds to the impact of your Flicker-assisted strike in the most literal way.
You don't send her flying out of the sparring area, knock her clear off her feet, or render her unconscious with the strike, but wrecking her balance and defense just means you need to hit her a couple more times to end the match.
With that, the instructors have everyone set up for a final round of exercises before sending them off to hit the showers and change clothes before lunch.
For your part, you're not terribly hungry, as it's only been a couple of hours since your mid-morning meal ended. You could return to the dining hall anyway for the company and conversation... but you should probably check in and see how your tutors' discussion with the Five Elements' masters has been going, before you make any plans.
The class breaks up rather slowly, with a lot of people standing around in small groups, glancing at you and your friends with varying degrees of subtlety as they chatter. A few look like they're trying to get up the courage to come talk to one of you, but the only ones that actually do so are Briar's training partner-slash-sparring opponent and the guy that beat Larry: the former is being introduced to Cordy and Amy - her name turns out to be Xiuying, incidentally; and the latter is in the middle of giving your bud some pointers.
Leaving them to that for the moment, you walk clear of the "class" to see what's going on over by the dojo. You weren't sure if Elder Terok would have stayed out in the courtyard - half to enjoy the sunny day, half to avoid damaging the dojo's wooden floor by his not-inconsiderable mass - or not, but the lack of a boulder-shaped presence in the courtyard answers the question.
Going back to your friends for a moment, you let them know that you're going to see how things with the masters are going, and if there are any pressing demands on your time. Already well into their conversation, the girls wave you off Offer a Prestidigitation cleanup before you go.
and you're not about to interrupt Larry when he's working on improving his skills. You just let Mrs. Blaisdell know where you're going, and then turn and head off.
When you're in position to look back inside the dojo proper once again, you find that the masters have split up.
About half of the group have returned to the places they were originally sitting when you first came in, and have been joined by Lanora, who is currently recounting some of Hyrule's history from the Zora perspective - she seems to be describing the schism that gave rise to the River Zora.
Another approximate half are seated apart from the first group, engaged in an energetic discussion of fighting styles and famous practitioners with Elder Terok, who is sitting cross-legged on a section of floor that has been reinforced to handle his weight with a little druidic magic.
The source of that magic is standing right next to the door, apart from everyone else except his fairy partner and one of the oldest masters, who is just sitting there next to the fidgety Kokiri with a pleasant, patient smile, eyes closed as he meditates - or possibly, naps.
Lu-sensei is discussing something with Masters Vincent, Reyes, and Wu. He makes a gesture that's mostly a swat to something or someone that isn't there, a move that has both him and Master Vincent chuckling with vaguely vengeful-sounding anticipation, while the two younger masters just look concerned.
"Please and thank you," Briar replies immediately.
"Same here," Amy agrees swiftly.
"Might as well," Cordy adds.
"A press to what, now?" Xiuying wonders.
"Allow me to demonstrate," you declare, rubbing your hands along your forearms as if pulling back the fabric of a shirt or coat. "Nothing up my sleeve," you declare, as you add a little extra energy into the magic, so you can just handle the entire set of requests in one go. "Presto!"
You reach out and tap Briar, and like that, the dust and sweat of a good half an hour's intermittent exercise are ever so lightly blown away.
Amy and Cordy follow suit, and you give yourself a tap while looking questioningly at Xiuying.
She wavers for a moment and then holds out one hand.
Tap.
The older girl twitches as the spell washes over her. "That feels... very odd."
"Takes some getting used to," Cordelia agrees. "And it doesn't compare to a nice hot bath."
"Still way better than walking around smelling like gym class," Amy notes.
"Oh, no question."
You've got just enough left from that casting to cover Larry as well, and you give him a tap on the shoulder as you leave.
"Thanks, man," he says in an aside to his ongoing conversation.
"You're welcome," you reply, before a thought occurs that has you reaching out to Briar, mentally. / Oh, and Briar? /
/ ? /
/ Would you mind asking around to see who, if anyone, could still see you when you accidentally shrank? /
Her reluctant mental sigh says it all.
/ Think of it as making sure that none of the class are freaked out about seeing things their friends didn't, / you say. / And saving the instructors some headaches as well. /
/ Well, when you put it THAT way, I suppose... /
You look at Koron and nod towards Lu-sensei's little corner, your expression inquisitive.
The Kokiri grimaces, apparently not entirely thrilled at the prospect of trading the slightly uncomfortable presence of one strange old human for a small group of them. His current company is at least being quiet and not obviously paying attention to him or intruding upon his space - accompanying you over to Lu-sensei's bunch might involved getting talked to.
Then you see the small druid visibly gather his resolve, nod, and signal for you to lead the way. You do so - and Koron immediately falls in behind you, using your greater size to shield himself from as much attention as possible.
Not remarking on Koron's use of you as a living blind, you step up and wait for the four masters to acknowledge your presence.
"Ah, Alex," Lu-sensei greets you at once. "I take it class is over?"
"It is, Sensei."
"Any casualties?" he asks frankly.
"Briar got knocked out of her disguise at one point," you admit, "but aside from that, I think we managed not to break anybody."
"What's this about a disguise, and why would it involve break people?" Master Vincent asks with a frown.
"I did tell you the girl was a fairy, Tucker," Lu-sensei replies.
"Well, yes, but I'd thought you meant she was one of the Fae that looks relatively human - you know, aside from the sometimes-there, sometimes-not wings."
"She does, sir," you state. "It's just that her normal form is only a few inches tall."
Master Vincent blinks, and then an expression of dawning realization appears on his face. "Oh, so she's THAT kind of fairy... and you say she got knocked out of her disguise?"
You recount the incident, brief as it was, and add that Briar will be checking to see if anyone in the class was able to perceive her tiny self. After that, you ask your teacher how things have been progressing on his end while you were elsewhere.
"Pretty much as you see now," Lu-sensei replies, waving at the two larger groups in the dojo. "Madam Lanora has been giving an abridged account of the history of that fairy kingdom, starting with the creation myth you shared with me - minus the visual effects you provided that one time."
You nod. It's a bit of a shame from the angle of presentation, but priests generally aren't illusionists.
"I fully expect that some of my peers will reciprocate with the local legends once she's finished," your master adds. "As for Elder Terok, I am not quite sure if he is content to trade stories, or if he is genuinely trying to coax my colleagues into agreeing to some sort of inter-planar challenge match...?"
"Has he mentioned the Ring of Trials?" you ask seriously.
"Not that I have heard," Lu-sensei replies in the same tone. "At least not YET."
"The Ring of what, now?" Master Reyes wonders. Her tone of mild interest is matched by the expressions on the faces of the two male masters that make up the rest of this group.
You and Lu-sensei trade glances, wondering if you should explain and risk stealing Terok's thunder - or just encouraging the idea.
"I think we should let the Elder explain that," you say to your sensei. "If he wants to, that is."
"I tend to agree," Lu Tze replies, nodding.
"But if he doesn't," you add, turning back to the other masters, "we can always explain later."
"...just so you know," Master Reyes tells you after a moment, "this is going to bug me until I get an answer."
You know that feeling, and you aren't unsympathetic, but you're going to have to come down on the side of not spoiling whatever plan or simple conversational momentum your Goron instructor has going.
Anyway, seeing as how things here seem to be progressing smoothly, you inquire if your master has any instructions for you and the rest of your group.
"Not yet, at least," Lu-sensei replies. "I would say amuse yourselves for another hour or so, maybe have lunch if you're feeling hungry-"
Not really, no. It's only been about three hours since your last meal, which was the third of the day from your perspective.
"-try not to wreck the place or get it invaded by forces from beyond," your teacher continues, "and check back again in another hour."
You nod.
"If zombies turn up, it's not my fault."
To his credit, Lu-sensei doesn't so much as blink at your apparent non sequitur.
The other three masters either do double-takes or just stare at you.
"What's this about zombies?" Master Vincent wonders with an entirely appropriate tone of concern.
"Okay, so, I got into a discussion about magical capability with one of local students, and when I was comparing an eighth-circle spell called Sunburst-"
None of the three seem to recognize the name, although at the mention of the eighth tier of magic, Master Vincent's eyebrows started gaining altitude.
"-to the third-circle Fireball-"
Okay, they've all heard of that one.
"-to give an idea of how things scaled up, I mentioned that Sunburst was a bit of a situational spell, probably best suited to dealing with an undead army. Then HE asked, 'how many undead armies are out there, really?'"
All four masters either facepalm, roll their eyes towards the ceiling as they entreat the heavens beyond for strength, or audibly groan.
You nod. "So, yeah, I said I could think of at least three examples-"
"Wait, what?" Master Wu asks.
"-and that if we got invaded, I was blaming him for taunting Murphy. Who he apparently had never heard of?" you add, glancing at your teacher.
"The saying is more of a Western one," Lu-sensei replies. "Not that most cultures don't have their equivalents, or that the boy shouldn't have known better than to tempt Fate..."
"Indeed," Master Vincent sighs. "How old was he, this unwisely spoken peer of yours?"
"Around fourteen or so, I think." You're starting to wonder if you've gotten Akio in trouble, or just in danger of extra lessons.
"Hmmm. If he were a few years younger, it would be an entirely forgivable error, whereas if he were a few years older, he'd be in need of a remedial class to remind him that really ought to have known better. Being right in the middle, though..."
"A review wouldn't hurt," Master Reyes notes. "Though we should probably check with the instructors and see if any of the other students that age have been making similar remarks and need the reminder."
"Can we go back to the part about undead armies?" Master Wu asks. "Because I have concerns about that part."
Such concerns are very reasonable, you feel, and you explain about the three concentrations of undead activity that you can personally confirm. Lu-sensei backs you up about Sunnydale's corpse-demon infestation, the Memorian presence, and how the latter are both remarkably sane and stable for a bunch of ancient undead soldiers, and due to go to their eternal rest in the not-too-distant future in any event.
"The problems of the Hellmouth, I can understand," Master Vincent says slowly. "At least, on an intellectual level. But when did you meet undead ancient Romans, Lu?" He sounds mildly disbelieving of the claim, but also... is that jealousy? It couldn't be, could it?
"Just this spring, actually, and it was entirely the boy's doing," your teacher replies, throwing you under the bus without a moment's hesitation.
"...alright, then," Master Vincent says, as he turns to you, "how did YOU meet undead ancient Romans?"
"Making a long story very short, I needed a magic item that was hidden in their old base," you tell him. "Somebody gave me, Briar, and a couple of priests a lift there and back, and we ended up helping the not-evil ghosts retake the place from their evil counterparts - and a subsequent invasion of giant demonic spiders," you add.
"Good riddance to bad Gohma," Koron mutters.
At that, you have to stop and wonder if there is such a thing as a "good" Gohma.
You're sure Koron would say no, and you tend to think that way yourself, but then again, you DID once try conjuring Gohma webbing with the demonic essence stripped out and replaced by conceptual Goodness...
Eh, a matter for another time, and possibly for someone who likes spiders a lot more than you do.
"While we're on the subject of magic, undead armies, and unusual beings I have run into," you say then, "would you be at all interested in my summoning copies of some of my previous opponents for the students to spar with?"
The three masters goggle at you.
"You are NOT thinking of calling up those monsters from the Ring, I hope," Lu Tze says with controlled calm.
"No, no!" you quickly assure your master. "At least, not the ones that I fought that time... well, except for maybe Arrogante - but only for the older students! Mostly, I was thinking along the lines of the creatures that some of my friends fought," you explain.
Lu-sensei considers that, no doubt recalling that, while your human friends mostly fought lesser Hyrulean beasts, most of your monstrous guests who tried their luck in the Trials faced off with larger or otherwise more dangerous opponents.
"My questions about this mysterious Ring just keep increasing," Master Reyes murmurs.
"I have more than a few myself," Master Vincent agrees. "Still, Lu? What's your opinion?"
"Many of the lesser creatures that Alex is referring to would make for reasonable challenges," your sensei admits. "At least for students at certain levels of ability."
Yeah, pretty much anyone who knows how to fight can handle something like a Bot or a Keese, but a Moblin or Goriya might be a bit much for the average student your age, or even a couple of years above you, and some Hyrulean beasties, like the Poe, could just have unusual defenses or attacks that most young martial artists probably aren't going to be equipped to handle.
"What sort of creatures?"
"It was a rather varied selection," Lu Tze admits. "The ones we're discussing included jelly-like slime monsters, land-going rock-spitting octopods, spinning cacti-"
"A plant?" Master Wu wonders.
"-and a few types of monstrous humanoids, armed and armored but not obviously magic-users," your teacher concludes. "To name a few examples."
"I'm just bringing the idea up now to give you some time to consider," you add helpfully.
"That is appreciated," Master Vincent replies. "We'll discuss it with the others and get back to you... at some point."
You nod, appreciating that it may take a while to get an answer. "Moving away from that topic, then, and still kind of related to ghosts... Lu-sensei has admitted that he's not the best with the spiritual side of the Five Elements Style. Who would you recommend I speak to about improving my understanding of that aspect of things?"
Master Vincent tuts and shakes his head, glancing at his peer. "All those years on the Hellmouth, and you still haven't thought to shore up that weakness, Lu?"
"Sunnydale is NOT the sort of environment in which one should attempt to advance one's spiritual strength and understanding," your teacher replies firmly. "Not unless you're a literal demonic cultivator, or aiming to become one."
"Eh, fair point." Turning back to you, Tucker Vincent explains that there are a few masters who could give you pointers, depending on what exactly your interest is.