While it might be funny to mess with people's heads by flying around at tiny size - and perhaps under a Spell of Invisibility? - it would also make it difficult for you to participate in this exhibition, at least beyond the level of a simple spectator.
After all, you aren't likely to find a lot of suitably-sized sparring partners in that crowd, the booths you can see going through their last checks before opening for the day - some selling souvenirs or food, others hosting exhibits of an educational and/or entertaining nature, and an information kiosk in the middle of the parking lot-turned-fighting fairground - aren't set up for customers under four feet tall, and you JUST got done dealing with being too small to be clearly heard on the bus. A crowded, noisy event like this promises to be would be even worse.
And there's also that whole thing about not revealing the supernatural to normal people, or at least not TOO much of it. Martial arts weirdness that has a (somewhat) convincing vaguely scientific-sounding explanation is one thing, tiny people flying around without the aid of wings is another.
With that in mind, you zip over to where your friends are sitting, land in the middle of the aisle, and just will your Spell to Reduce a Person to end. With your Spell of Mind Blank to block outsiders' sense of the magic, all anybody is likely to have seen from the outside is you "standing up" from one of these seats. Perfectly normal, nothing to draw a second glance.
It'd be a little crowded if Briar also assumed her human guise right away, so she waits a few minutes while the bus gradually empties out, only popping into her teen form once you and the others have started moving towards the door.
As you exit the bus, the teacher minding the door gives you a nod and a look of unspoken thanks for not complicating things.
Once everybody from the School is off and clear, the bus starts taking on passengers for the return trip, most of whom look like martial artists in at least one way. Some are dressed like the more traditionally-minded masters, but most move like they have training. There are a few "civilian" types who lack that particular awareness of their surroundings and control over their movements, suggesting they're either REALLY good - unlikely, but not impossible - practice very stealth-oriented styles - more probable - or just tourists.
In all, only a dozen or so people pile onto the bus before the driver closes the door and begins the return trip to the School. It's probably the hour, and the fact that this is the second bus - you saw the other one going the other way a couple of streets back, and it looked a bit more full.
Wishing those folks and the crowd remaining at the School well, you turn your attention to the teachers, who are giving the "class" some last-minute instructions to behave themselves, to not start any fights-
"But if you do get into one, be sure to finish it," one instructor notes.
"Tang!" his counterpart hisses.
-and above all, to have a good time.
With that, the group disperses.
What do you want to look at first?
This convention center isn't big enough for you to be worried about possibly getting lost in it, even if you didn't have magic to help you find your way or people you'd gotten separated from, but even so, you'd rather know the layout of the place and the schedule for the various events. If you can get a handout or something...
As you approach the kiosk in the parking lot, you admit to another point of interest - namely, why do they have the place people go for information set up outdoors like this, instead of behind or just next to the front desk of the building?
There are a couple of people in line ahead of you when you arrive, reminding you of your first non-dream visit to the library, but not nearly so many that you're unable to get a good look at the map of the exhibition grounds set up next to the window. The plastic board shows the floorplan of the convention center in two sections, the second floor above the ground level: the latter with a "You are here" arrow added in red ink in the large and otherwise empty space to the left of the building; and numerous other characters have been marked down on the map. A legend is provided on the right side of the map, as a sheet of laminated paper taped over part of the board - probably covering the legend for normal day-to-day offices and activities - but there's enough written down there, in comparatively small letters, that you have to squint to make any of it out.
"Good morning!" the young man staffing the kiosk greets you, with bags under his eyes and the sort of energy found only in the caffeinated. "How can I help you? You aren't lost, I hope?"
"No, and I mean to stay that way," you reply. "Do you happen to have copies of the map, or schedules for the day's events?"
"We have both, how many do you need?"
"And is there anything about the rules for sparring or the like?"
"Tournament rules are in force for free spars and other events allowing that level of participation," he says, handing you another sheet with the specifics. "If you have questions about specific events, you'll need to go and talk to their attendants or organizers, and as for just walking around and getting into fights or challenging people - basically, don't."
Ah.
Glancing at the sheet that's been handed to you, you see no mention of supernatural stuff. Judging by the lack of a particularly impressive ki signature from the man in front of you, he might be generally clueless on the matter.
With that sorted, you finally ask the guy why he's set up in the parking lot instead of inside.
As it turns out, they DO have another informational kiosk set up at the convention center's front desk, and a third on the second floor. The reason this one is outside is simply because it's more convenient for everybody, as people who find themselves in need of direction amid the booths in the lot don't need to walk as far to get, and it reduces the traffic to the main desk.
You briefly consider getting copies for everybody, but upon reflection, that seems like a little too much. Briar is more likely to spend the day following you around than not, you dobut that Mrs. Blaisdell is going to let Larry wander too far, and Cordy will probably stick with one pair or the other as the mood takes her.
Two sets of map and schedule papers should be fine, then - one for each pair (and their potential third), should your group split up.
Or maybe just one for Lily and one for the rest of you to fight over?
Whatever.
"And what about ki techniques?" you ask.
"There's a seminar on Qigong this afternoon and again tomorrow," the young man replies promptly. "It'll include demonstration of a few techniques like Iron Shirt."
"...good to know, but I was asking about the use of ki techniques in fights."
"...I knew that." He clears his throat, trying not to look too embarrassed. "Uh, breathe steadily, keep the energy moving, and maintain a confident mental attitude, I guess? Not much more to it, you know?"
...
He seems to really believe what he's saying.
Nodding, you thank the booth attendant for his time, take your papers, and move to rejoin your companions. As you do so, you wonder how in the world an official martial arts exhibition being held just a few miles from a place like the School of Five Elements could have somebody with such a limited understanding of ki working in a position of authority, even one as modest as this.
Did the young man get put there to keep him out of the way, or are his masters hoping or planning to use this event to introduce him to the truth of ki?
You hand one set of map-and-schedule to Lily, and then open up the other map so that Larry and Cordy can read it with you, while handing the schedule over to Briar.
"Not a whole lot going on just yet," your partner notes after looking through the list.
Yeah, it's not much past seven-thirty; most of the day's events don't start for another hour.
You'd like to have a definitive answer on this matter before it comes up - because knowing your luck, if you leave it alone, it WILL come up, and most likely at a bad time - so you start looking around for one of the instructors, asking your friends for help.
...
"Over there," Lily Blaisdell says a moment later, nodding towards one of the stands.
You look where she's looking, and the morning traffic opens up enough for you to see Master Song Reyes talking to the older lady seated at the booth. You don't recall seeing the teacher aboard the bus you came on, but that just means she either took the first bus, got here by car, or just made the trip under her own power. No big deal.
Walking closer, you call out, "Excuse me, Master Reyes?"
From the way she turns towards you, she heard that, and from the slightly puzzled look on her face, she didn't recognize your voice. As soon as she catches sight of you, however, the mild frown clears up.
"Did you need something, Mr. Harris?" she asks.
"Yeah, I had a question about the rules for the day, and the guy at the information kiosk was... not entirely helpful..."
"In what sense?" she asks, glancing past you to the booth where - you look back over your shoulder - the somewhat ignorant young man is just cooling his heels, waiting for another visitor in need of guidance.
He notices the two of you looking and waves, smiling in a polite sort of way.
You return the gesture and then look back at the instructor.
"What are the rules about using ki here?" you ask.
Song Reyes blinks and glances at the kiosk again, before shaking her head and answering you. "The rules vary a bit depending on the time and place, but in general, if you're out here where the general public can see you or up in front of an audience with a lot of tourists, you should try to limit yourself: levels of physical enhancement that won't shock or frighten ordinary people; non-visual manifestations of ki; no Ki Projections unless they're very subtle - that sort of thing."
You frown. "They didn't worry about things like this at the World Tournament."
"The World Tournament Committee has the budget, the influence, and the security to deal with a certain amount of public awareness," she replies frankly. "This little affair is a lot more modest in its means, and it's very close to the School, besides."
...
Huh.
"Is that part of the reason why the World Tournament was held in a public arena?" you ask.
"One of them, yes. It used to be that the Championship was always held at a temple in Indonesia, but they discontinued that when registration was opened up to demonic participants - apparently, holy ground would have been an 'unfair advantage' for the non-demonic contestants."
...
...
A part of you is giving thought to the idea of consecrating the grounds of the next Tournament.
Another is remembering that time you saw Gyokuro enter the Hakuba Shrine, only for the hallowed ground to visibly protest her presence.
And while you don't exactly object to the idea of various demonic or undead entities being subjected to a similar unwelcome - it would make for a decent deterrent against another case of "rampaging shadow giant," assuming Beryl summoned another one and was careless enough to lose control of it again - it's too easy and in no way pleasant to picture Kahlua in her mother's place. There are other monsters who'd be affected by such things as well, if perhaps not as intensely as living vampires, and even plenty of humans would be subject to a Hallow Spell's interference.
Not people you'd particularly care for, admittedly, but even so, it would skew the results of any fights they were involved in, and from the martial purist perspective, that's not desirable for a Tournament meant to determine the best fighter(s) in the world.
"Yeah," you grudgingly agree, "that's fair. Possibly not SMART, but... fair."
Master Song's expression says she rather agrees with you.
"Getting back to your original question," she continues aloud, "if a situation does come up where you have to offend some people's sensibilities by using ki to do something they think is impossible in order to protect your own life or save someone else's, do it, and we'll deal with the fallout."
Hopefully it won't come to that, you carefully do NOT say aloud, knowing that the Dark Lord Murphy is always listening.
"Same sort of thing for magic?" you ask.
"More or less, yes," Miss Reyes agrees. "Although given you're much better set up to handle the consequences of things like that than most of us, you can expect to be tapped to clean up any messes of that sort that you make."
With the matter of using ki (and other exotic energies) cleared up, do you have any further questions Master Song might be able to answer?
"Duly noted."
It's a simple case of cleaning up your own messes, which is entirely fair.
Besides, Spells of Mending, Prestidigitation, and Enchantment would make such work go much more quickly and smoothly for you than for most other people. So, really, Master Song is entirely correct - you ARE the person best-equipped to deal with such things!
...not that you admit this out loud, of course.
You're here to have fun, not to spend the day running around playing Maintain the Masquerade with hundreds of martial artists on one side and a few thousand tourists on the other.
Thanking the lady for her time, you rejoin your group and voice your preference for taking a look at whatever is going on inside the convention center.
Larry and Cordy look around at the stalls and stations outside, about half of which are still in the process of making their last-minute preparations; you can see a number of the older Five Elements students who were on the first bus helping out at some of those stands, trading remarks - some of them barbed - with similarly-aged individuals working at a couple other places.
Turning back to you, your friends nod and agree with your idea.
And so, you make for the door.
The energy that dominated the outdoor portion of the exhibition is also present within the community center, the same sort of contained and channeled "I am not panicking, I am NOT PANICKING-!" that you've glimpsed in other students who were racing against a deadline for homework or projects. Said not-panic is decidedly lesser in concentration, however, as most of the rooms earmarked for use in the event seem to be fully prepared and staffed.
You'd venture that the difference is down to the fact that the indoor events could be set up in their entirety over the weekend - or nearly so - simply because this place has walls and a roof capable of keeping the weather off, and doors and windows that could be locked to prevent thieves or other nocturnal wanderers from messing things up.
The first order of business, naturally, is to get your name down for the free spars, which will begin after lunch today and continue into tomorrow. The rules you picked up at the kiosk mentioned that there is an element of "first come, first served" to the places available, so it only makes sense for you to sign up immediately.
Cordy and Larry both agree with this, and after a moment, Briar shrugs and joins in.
Of course, you aren't the only ones to want to join, so there is a significant line ahead of you...
While you're waiting in line to sign up, you notice another booth not far from the ones handling the spar volunteers. It's seeing much less traffic, but not none, and rather than a bunch of enthusiastic kids and teens, those you see approaching the counter and speaking with the operator have all been adults - fairly serious-looking ones, at that.
You speak to the older boy in line ahead of you and ask if he knows what's up with that.
"First time at the event, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I hope you enjoy it. Anyway, to answer the question, the Challenge booth is how the organizers of try to keep a bunch of old grudges, new arguments, and the meaner sorts of rivalries from spoiling the mood of the exhibition," he explains. "They've got some smaller rooms set aside, out of the way of the general traffic, where two people who have serious beef with each other can fight it out without distraction or loss of face, with a neutral party to oversee and step in if things go too far."
You blink at that.
"The staff LIKE to get all of that scheduled in advance," the guy goes on, "but there are always a few heated disagreements during the exhibition itself, folks who manage to get into nasty arguments the night before, and others that just don't think to phone ahead to air their grudges - so the organizers have that booth to arrange additional fights while the exhibition is going on. People can go there to issue a challenge to someone they don't like, or to confirm that they'd been called out - or so the story goes."
"Never had to fight a grudge match?" you venture.
"Not once, and I am quite happy with that."
You nod. Honest competition and good-natured rivalries are one thing, and fighting various evils that are largely indifferent to you as an individual are another, but somebody who wants to rearrange your face out of pure, personal ill-will is something else yet again - because THOSE are the ones that will go to extremes to get their vengeance or "justice" or whatever they want to call it.
You speak from (inherited) experience on the matter. Ganondorf hurt a LOT of people over the course of his supernaturally extended lifetime, but the lives he incidentally ruined in his rise to power and subsequent periodic rampages were largely just window dressing. He'd cast a spell or send out an army of monsters, the people of Hyrule would flee for their lives, fight, suffer, and/or die cursing his name, and that was pretty much the end of his interest in them.
But the Sages? Zelda? LINK?
THEM, the old monster made a SPECIAL effort to deal with, and received the same sort of attention in turn.
So, yeah, NOT having people personally out to hurt you would not be a bad way to go through life.
Sadly, you've already upset quite a lot of people and things in this lifetime, and have plans in the works to throw a wrench or two in the machines of other powerful entities, so a nice, quiet, vendetta-free life is not for you - but honestly, you can live with that.
A quiet life would be so dull... and it's not like the jerks didn't have it coming.
Anyway, you don't have any particular challenges to issue, and you're... pretty sure you haven't offended anybody in the martial arts community, at least not since Raidou sent you that polite threat to keep out of his business in the future, so unless there's something else you want to investigate...?
Yeah, at the moment you can just leave the Challenge booth alone.
As the line to the sparring registration moves up, your gaze tracks over to some of the stalls dedicated to the history of the various martial schools. It might be worth taking a look at those in a bit.
You already know the history of the School of the Five Elements, both from books and from the horse's mouth, as it were, so as interesting as hearing a third take on it might be, it also isn't really necessary. Also, while you can't say that you aren't curious about the School of the Five GREAT Elements, and how it might be similar to and/or different from Grandmaster Wen's brainchild - for one, the name is a pretty clear reference to the traditional Five Phases of Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire, which you have some passing familiarity with - the way the guys sitting at that booth keep casting sour glances at the one dedicated to your own style is a bit off-putting.
The other attendants, at least, seem fairly neutral to both of the Five Elements Styles, and to one another...
Eventually, you get to the front of the line, where you're given the choice of which age division you wish to take part in. Cordelia goes ahead and signs up with the Under Tens and, after some thought, also throws her hat in the ring for the Under Fourteens. Larry wishes her well on that, only signing up for the former.
"Two of us were in the finals at the World Tournament, and I wasn't either of them," he explains.
Very reasonable.
As for Briar, she waits to see what you're going to do before signing up.
You go ahead and put your name down in the Under Eighteens Division.
"You are not eighteen," the lady behind the desk says frankly.
"I am not," you agree. "But I like a challenge, and I also placed first in the finals for my age group at the World Tournament."
She blinks, and then gains that look of dawning recognition - at least until it's covered by a confused frown. "Wait, weren't you in the Under Tens Division?"
"I was, and technically, I still am."
She is not the only person in earshot to look at you - specifically, your height and overall build, which are quite above average for your age even by American standards - with more than a little doubt.
"You can see why I'm not signing up for the Under Tens," you say simply.
"...yeah, that seems like it would just be... really unfair. Still, I'm going to need some identification and a teacher to vouch for you..."
The former is easily sorted out, since you have your ID on you. The latter takes a little longer, as they have to track down somebody from the Five Elements School who can speak for Lu-sensei in your stead. Fortunately, Master Song isn't too far away or unwilling to do so.
While that's being taken care of, Briar goes ahead and signs up for the Under Eighteens Division as well. And after it's all taken care of...
While you do want to check out those history booths at some point, you feel the pressing need to do something FUN and more physical in nature, to make up for the boredom of standing in line for fifteen minutes and then dealing with paperwork for another five.
It'll be hours before the spars start, so that's out, and checking the schedule again just reminds you that none of the combat demonstrations or technique seminars will begin for a while yet, either - and even those would leave you sitting or standing in the audience.
You want to MOVE.
But there is a room that's marked as open right now, which seems to have something interesting going on, and so you suggest heading in that direction to see what's what.
The room in question is... well, if you were in a typical school building, you'd say it was a large classroom where all the desks had been removed and a lot of gym and playground equipment brought in to replace them. You aren't sure what purpose it normally serves, but today, it's been converted into an obstacle course, one which winds back and forth across the length of the room and includes a few box horses of differing elevations, a balance beam, three sets of bars - one parallel, one uneven, and one monkey - a couple of springboards, some open-ended boxes that have been fitted together as makeshift "tunnels" - one that goes under the balance beam, another under the parallel bars, and a third out in the open - other boxes that are just sort of there, and crash mats and other forms of padding that cover every otherwise unused square inch of the floor and some of the obstacles besides.
Perhaps a dozen kids are moving through the course, some of them faster or slower than others, all clearly just enjoying themselves. There are several teenagers in the mix as well, a couple of whom are at least trying to treat the course as a serious training exercise, while the others are going along with the younger bunch and simply having fun. Four adults are also present, none of whom you recognize: three are spread out through the room, either keeping a close eye on certain parts of the course or on certain individuals running it; and the last (or perhaps more correctly, the first) stands by the door, welcoming you and asking if you have any questions about the course.
"Is there a time limit, or a record?" you ask right away, your competitive nature raising its boarish head.
"Not as such, no," comes the reply. "You're free to race each other, of course, although running - or otherwise moving at high speed - is not allowed for safety reasons, and you can certainly challenge the course more than once and try to beat your own times, but nothing official."
You look at your friends.
They look back.
You could challenge your friends to a race. You could give them a head start, see what they can do, and then crush them, or you could forge ahead, draw the proverbial line in the sand, and dare them to cross it.
...
Nah.
For this first time, at least, you think you're going to take it easy and just enjoy yourself and the obstacle course.
And so, after taking a moment to limber up and stretch out, you start towards the first of the box horses, building up just enough speed so that-
"Hup!"
-you can kick off the ground and leap over it-
-without breaking stride.
Upon recovery, you take a few steps and come to a section of the mats that has had white masking tape laid out across it to form a hopscotch court. There's a box just to one side with a number of beanbags sitting atop it, and you pluck the red one and give it a toss before hopping through the little "obstacle."
This brings you to the balance beam and the "tunnel" of boxes that lead under it, which have been covered by a number of mats in case anyone takes the "high road" and then falls off.
Which route do you wish to take?
For a moment, as you approach the box horse, you consider just leaping clear over it horse in a hands-free cartwheel - or maybe that should be a somersault? Probably depends on which way you spin in the air - but while you're confident in your ability to get the vertical clearance necessary, pulling off the mid-air maneuvers involved is... less certain.
Or perhaps it would be better to say, it's almost certain to fail. For as much effort as you've put into your speed and agility, that's mainly been with both feet on the ground, or with a magical force to provide lift and thrust while in mid-air. Pure aerial gymnastic maneuvers are another matter entirely, and something you should probably have a LOT more experience with before you try showing off to that extent.
With that in mind, you settle for planting both hands on the box horse and using their support and the momentum of your jump to lift the rest of your body almost upright - but tilted slightly to one side - as you go over it-
!
-and then you miscalculate and fumble the landing, which really just ends up as a fall.
Briefly thanking Lu-sensei for all his lessons on how to fall safely, you touch down, tuck into a roll, spin back to your feet, and keep moving.
You even manage to make it look like you MEANT to do that the entire time!
...probably, anyway...
Gained Gymnastics F+
Gained Rolling E+
You aren't particularly keen on getting down on all fours and crawling through a small, dim space if you don't really have to, and so instead you step up the series of smaller boxes that have been piled, stair-like, next to their larger cousins, providing easy access to the balance beam. There, you pause for a moment, considering your footing, your balance, and how best to advance.
Then you smile, turn about so that you're facing backwards-
"What is he doing?" Larry wonders.
"Briar?" Cordy asks.
"Showing off, somehow," your partner replies.
"Well, duh, but I meant..."
-and proceed to backslide down the length of the beam.
"Are you KIDDING me?" Cordelia bursts out. "That is so Eighties!"
You have to take it slow to make sure you don't fall off, the narrow surface working against the width of your normal stride. If you were much bigger, you don't think this would be possible, and as it is, you still end up having to stop a couple of times when one foot threatens to slip over the edge, but you make it to the end of the beam without stumbling.
At the top of the "hill," you stop for a moment, raise both hands high and look towards the ceiling as you let out a yell of triumph. Then you hope, skip, and jump back down to the ground, resuming your run of the course.
You take the rest of the obstacles in the same spirit: swinging energetically on the monkey bars; climbing across the top of the parallel bars; and sort of spinning your way across the uneven bars, feet on the lower pole and hands on the upper as you advance, turning steadily over and over.
When it comes to the next tunnel, you dance your way across the top of it.
And when you reach the other elevated "peaks" of the course, you take a moment to let the world - or at least the nearby rooms and hallway - know of your modest triumphs.
The rest of the kids start joining in on the second one.
Part of you wants to keep the Michael Jackson homage going, but you aren't sure if you're practiced enough in that form of dance to really do it justice.
Another part considers hip-hop, but while you're more familiar with that style due to its popularity in current music videos and such, it is, once again, not something you've really attempted for yourself.
Ballroom dancing, while downright antiquated compared to the moonwalk, is something you at least have proper experience with, and would be able to give a more convincing performance of - and so that's what you go with.
The "roof" of the tunnel of boxes is wide enough that you don't have any trouble dancing along it, even with the turns and the odd back-step that you whimsically throw in. You might have been in trouble if you actually had a partner, but as you're on your own, it works out fine.
Cordelia doesn't complain about your even more old-fashioned dance moves, but then, why would she? Ballroom dancing has never gone out of style.
Your singing, meanwhile...
Actually, what DID you sing?
Eventually, you come to the end of your run of the obstacle course, doing a final pose-and-yell-
"OOOOAAAAHHHH!" most of the other kids join in.
-and then turning to see who's coming next.
?
Your friends are all still at the starting line, and while a couple of people went ahead of them, all of those have stopped to watch your performance.
A few possible songs fly through your head - before your mind's ear, maybe? Is that even a thing? - but the one by Weird Al is too fast-paced for the dance you're already stepping into, and that one instrumental piece you've heard in association with vampires a few times just seems inappropriate.
Now, if Kahlua were here, it'd be good for a chuckle at least, but as it stands, not really.
...you also have to spare a moment to wonder why these particular songs are even coming to you right now.
In any case, you end up humming a few bars of something you think was Hyrulean as you turn through your ballroom dance.
When one finishes giving a performance, it's customary to take a bow - and so you do, in that style particular to actors, musicians, and showmen of all kinds, as opposed to the Eastern gesture of respect more associated with martial arts.
Some of your audience applaud.
"Do it again!" somebody calls.
"Yeah, on-core!" another adds.
"Maybe in a bit," you reply. "But there are plenty of other people who have turns to take, first."
That causes the clapping to quickly die off as people scattered about the obstacle course do a few double-takes and quickly resume their own runs.
Perhaps feeling fired up by your display, Cordy hits the first box horse leapfrog-style, landing easily, moves through the hopscotch section with a few twirls and flourishes, and then crosses the balance beam-
"Hup!"
-with a few handstand flips.
...you could have done that. Probably.
Anyway, Cordelia seems to have misjudged the distance her maneuvers would cover, relative to length of the beam, such that the last one leaves her doing a brief handstand at the end. From there, she half-falls, half-dismounts, landing easily enough and continuing on to the hill.
She does NOT yell out at the peak, but does strike a pose of her own.
Larry is coming on by now, taking a less showy approach as he vaults over the horse, legs lifting to one side. He continues that at the hopscotch court, simply making the jumps as small and as quick as he can, and when he reaches the balance beam, he actually opts to drop and crawl through the boxes underneath it instead. Even then, he's moving pretty quick.
This basically sets the tone for how your two friends take the course, Cordy half-dancing and half-cheerleading her way through - you think you detect Catherine Madison's influence at work - and Larry mostly going for speed and practicality, though still slowing down here and there to have a little fun with things.
And then there is Briar. She jumps right over the box horse, the combination of borrowed skill, actual training, the longer legs of her teen form, and a certain lingering Fae lightness of build allowing her to get some impressive clearance even without her equivalent of Ki Enhancement. She takes the hopscotch section in a manner similar to how Cordelia did, although with different stylistic maneuvers - you aren't quite sure if she's showing off bits of Hyrulean dances or Fae ones there, but to be fair, there IS some overlap.
And when she reaches the balance beam, Briar goes over the top in more ways than one, doing a leaping cartwheel that carries her most of the way across the beam, before leaping off in a high spinning jump.
That your fairy partner is comfortable with and good at aerial maneuvers is not really a surprise.
Also, when Briar reaches the top of the hill-
"Da-da-da-DAAAA!"
-of COURSE she does that.
As for yourself...
One run is good enough for you, for now, particularly when some of the supervisors have been giving you unimpressed looks since about halfway through your first turn on the obstacle course. Your friends are starting to get the same, to differing degrees, so once Briar has finished her turn - with one last triumphant, raised-hand pose and musical cheer - you suggest heading out to check out some of the other attractions.
"Actually," Larry says, "I think I'd rather stay here and make another run."
"Me, too," Cordelia agrees, even as she heads towards the end of the line-up to do just that.
"Hey, wait for me!" Larry protests, hurrying after her.
As those two take off, you glance at Briar, who shrugs. "I'm fine going for a walk. Just be sure to let Lily know where we're going first."
You do that, and shortly afterwards, you and your partner are down the hall at the first of the booths.
You spend the next half hour and more listening to summarized and, you suspect, slightly sensationalized accounts of the histories of several schools of the martial arts. The broad strokes of the oldest of these are similar, with some master- or near-master-class practitioner coming to the island nation - which had different names at the times in question - to get away from troubles encountered elsewhere, although one style claims its founder washed up on the coast after getting lost at sea, while another supposedly got his start by vacationing here several years in a row. The guy telling the latter story calls these trips "pilgrimages," but you aren't sure if that's quite how that works...?
Whatever their reasons for making the journey to Taiwan, the various old-school founders are all purported to have done much the same thing afterwards, challenging established halls, being challenged in turn, gathering students, fighting the odd bandit gang, oppressive authority figure, legendary icon, or mythical creature, and eventually establishing a permanent school of their own.
Two of the styles claim that their founders were born on the island, went around learning from the older schools, and eventually came up with their own spin on the arts. They seem to have a bit of a rivalry going with one another over that point, though it's not as obviously unfriendly as the looks the members of the School of the Five Great Elements were shooting at the booth dedicated to the Five Elements Style of Grandmaster Wen.
There's also a booth that isn't devoted to any style of the martial arts in general, instead talking about other fighting forms that have made their way to the country over the centuries and which don't have more direct representation at the exhibition for whatever reason.
All of the attendants, even the guy from the karate school, agree that the almost sixty-year Japanese occupation was not a fun time for anybody.
Gained History (Taiwanese) E
Gained Knowledge (Martial Arts) E
Gained Local Knowledge (Taiwan) F+
Checking the time, you note that you've got about ten more minutes before the main events get started, so you and Briar go in search of the others, who didn't catch up with you at the history booths, and also aren't still at the obstacle course, once you get back there to check.
"I believe a group of young ladies from the School of the Five Elements made off with the girl about fifteen, twenty minutes ago," one of the attendants informs you. "I think I heard something about getting seats?"
They've probably gone to one of the upcoming performances, then. Hard to say which one. As for the Blaisdells...
"Bathroom," you're informed.
Ah.
Thanking the attendant for the directions, you head for the bathrooms. Part of your reasoning is that they're closer than the rooms where the presentations will be starting up, but it's also because Cordy and whoever she went off with were planning to get seats, which implies that they mean to stay put for longer than a few minutes.
As a rule, trips to the bathroom don't take that long, unless you're planning to have an ACTUAL bath or something. It's entirely possible that Larry and Lily have already moved on, but in the time it would take you to find Cordelia and then go back to look for them, they DEFINITELY would have - so really, it's just easier if you find the party most likely to be on the move.
With that in mind, you look over the modest crowd in the hall outside the bathroom, looking for your fellow Sunnydalers.
Seeing no sign of the Blaisdells, you gesture for Briar to wait a moment while you check out the boys' room.
"Larry?" you call, entering. "You in here?"
One of the stalls is occupied, and there's a guy washing his hands at the sink, but you don't recognize the latter person, and what you can see of the shoes and pants of the other are equally unfamiliar.
To the guy at the sink, you ask, "I don't suppose you've seen an American boy, about yea high?"
"I think I passed him on my way in, a couple minutes ago," comes the answer. The man helpfully describes a few features, and yeah, unless Larry's got a secret twin running around who just happened to decide to visit this one location today, it's him.
You're not going to say it's impossible that Larry has a doppelganger out there, somewhere, because it's entirely possible even WITHOUT getting into the realms of the supernatural - though said person showing up is rather less likely. With magic... well, you have a Dark Self. 'nuff said.
Thanking Sink Guy, you turn and exit the bathroom almost as soon as you came in, calling up your passive Ki Sight and Ki Sense to try and get a lock on Larry's signature. Aside from his ki training, there's nothing about your friend that makes his aura stick out in a crowd, and even being an active ki adept is less helpful right now than it would normally be, given that about a fifth to a quarter of the people attending this event hold that distinction, while also lacking the skills to hide the proof of it from you. That said, you know Larry's signature a lot better than most people's, and you're reasonably familiar with his grandmother's presence, so it shouldn't be too hard to track them through a couple hundred people.
...
At least, not since you got here soon enough to pick up their trail. If you'd gone after Cordelia, it would have been broken up by the presence of all the other event-goers, which probably would have forced you to resort to active ki scans or magical detection methods.
...or you suppose you could have gone to the front desk and asked if they could alert the Blaisdells over the intercom or something.
Eh, just as well you didn't have to do any of that.
Larry and Lily's trail leads you to a proper gym, which has some bleachers set up - the sort that fold out of and into one wall - and occupied by close to two hundred people, with as many more standing or sitting around the perimeter of the gym. Your Ki Sight makes it a simple matter to pick out where the Blaisdells are sitting - the bleachers, second row from the bottom - but there's no sign of Cordelia.
Larry notices you and Briar at the door, and waves briefly.
As you wave back at Larry, your other hand reaches into your pocket and pulls out your Magic Cellphone. Making it look like you're dialling, you cast the Message Spell and indicate the Blaisdells.
"Hey," you whisper into your phone. "Just making sure I know where you are. I'm going to try and find Cordy, next."
You wait a moment to see if Larry or Lily have anything to say in response.
"Alright, Alex," Larry replies. "Cordy should be just down the hall."
"Thanks, man."
"Any time."
"...does he use this in class?" Lily wonders then, her attention - and suspicion - aimed more at her within-reach grandson than at you.
You don't hear Larry's reply, but the quick shake of his head is obvious.
With that settled, you end the "call" and then "re-dial."
*Ring*
...
*Ring*
...
*Ring*
...
*Ring*
...
"This is Cordy, but I'm out of town for the summer, so I wouldn't bother leaving a message unless you don't mind waiting a couple months-"
*Beep*
...
Huh. She didn't take her phone with her? You wonder why.
Still, it's not like it's going to be THAT hard to find her. You have directions, and supernatural resources on top of that.
Putting your phone back in your pocket, you nod to Briar and head down the hall in the direction you hadn't previously come from, glancing into rooms as you pass them.
Empty.
Supply closet.
In use-
You pause and study the crowd, but pick up nobody familiar.
"-the General of Weapons, it is the spear-"
Doesn't seem like the sort of thing Cordelia would be interested in, either.
-but not the right room.
"Found her," Briar calls from across the way.
Trotting over, you look into the room, which at first glance, seems to have a lot of training dummies set up in rows, with visitors moving along, pausing at this or that target to point and murmur, while passing others by. For a brief instant, you wonder why this would have drawn Cordelia's attention - because she's right over there, talking energetically with a crowd of girls her age and a bit older, some of whom you do recall seeing at the School - but then it occurs to you that all of the targets have training uniforms or ceremonial robes draped over them, showing off the colors and styles of the different schools.
In other words, they're mannequins, not dummies, and this is an equivalent to a fashion show - though perhaps more of a historical one than the latest trends.
After a moment, you shrug and enter the room, setting a roundabout course and easy pace that will give Cordelia plenty of opportunity to see you coming, without interrupting her ongoing conversation.
In the meantime, you're curious to see what the School of Five Elements has in the way of formal wear, and how it compares to their peers and rivals - for there are more ways to style on another school than by force alone.
Not that there's anything WRONG with using force, of course, but looking good in the process is a plus.
The outfits are arranged by school, mostly in groups of three: a training uniform; a ceremonial uniform; and a set of casual clothing. The first two types are very similar in most regards across all the schools, so much so that, to the untrained eye, the only things that would seem different about them are the colors and patterns woven or dyed into them.
Your eye is a bit better trained than that, allowing you to pick out subtler differences like the type, thickness, and cut of the fabric, the placement of the seams, the stitching, and so on. Some of these speak to the nature of the style - a school that emphasizes strikes and mobility, like the Five Elements, tends to have looser uniforms made of lighter material, to maximize movement, whereas one that focuses on grappling utilizes somewhat thicker, coarser, and stronger materials, to allow for better grip when practicing holds and throws - others, perhaps, to funding.
There are some silk outfits in the bunch, but only for the ceremonial suits - and even then, the material is not the highest quality you've ever seen, nor is it particularly adorned.
You aren't sure how Lu-sensei would react if somebody showed up to practice in something that looked like it might have come straight out of the wardrobe of Hong, SORCERER OF LIGHT, all gold thread, color-shifting rainbow hues, and sparkling gems, but you suspect it would be instructive on several levels.
One might even say it would be an enlightening experience.
Gained Tailoring D+++
It's in the informal wear that the schools show the most variety. Some of them display almost entirely ordinary street clothes, distinguished only by the patches or patterns proclaiming support for or allegiance to a given martial style. A few pieces don't even have that much to mark them, apparently having been chosen entirely on the basis of what looks good, or even just normal, while still allowing for effective use of one's hard-earned skills.
You have to spare a moment to wonder if the schools espousing those particular fashion choices have anything to do with ninjas...
Other outfits are more traditional in nature, the sort of thing you might expect to see someone's old-fashioned adult relatives wearing around the house, and which you HAVE seen equivalents of at the School over the last couple of days, mainly on the older masters.
One school's even gone so far as to set up a dummy with a formal Western-style business suit, with a diagram showing how the basic pattern was altered in places for more comfortable movement in a combat situation. There is also a name and number "for those interested."
After a while, Cordelia wanders over.
"Alex," she greets you, during a natural pause in her discussion with the other girls.
"Cordy," you reply.
"Briar," you partner declares.
A couple of the other girls snicker.
"I don't get it," one of them admits.
You have a clear moment to say something to Cordelia while that old gag is being explained.
Focusing your mana, you reach out to the suit-clad dummy, adjusting its arm as if to see how the material moves in order to cover the arcane probe you extend through the material. As you work on that, your gaze drifts to some of the other outfits on display, which you're thinking you should grab templates of as well-
"Excuse me, young man," someone says, coming closer.
-when you are interrupted.
Turning - and keeping your scan going - you find one of the exhibition staff. "Yes?"
"Please don't touch the displays," he says.
"...ah. Sorry. I was just- well, it's very nice work, and I was just curious..."
"I understand. And if you're interested in acquiring a suit of that particular style, or even just trying one on to see how well it moves and breathes, you can call the shop that made it and arrange an appointment." He nods at the placard. "In the meantime, though..."
"No touchy, got it."
Gained Conjuration Template (Fighting Suit)
"Although," you add, before the attendant can turn away, "is that a local business, or is it based in the city? I ask because I'm a guest at the Five Elements School, and travel..." You trail off meaningfully, and the attendant takes the hint and winces.
"I'm afraid it's the latter," he admits with some sympathy. "I believe there ARE a couple of local tailors that do business with the Five Elements School, but this particular piece isn't their work."
Troublesome, but hardly an insurmountable obstacle for someone with your grasp of scrying and teleportation. You'd need a map, though...
Leaving that aside for the moment, you get your cellphone out again, check the number, and then dial.
*Ring*
...
*Ring*
...
*Ring*
...
You're starting to notice a pattern with phonecalls today.
*Ring*
...
"You've reached Sing's Suits, Formalwear for All Occasions," a man's voice replies in the particular tone of someone speaking for a recording. "Our business hours are nine to five, Monday through Thursday, and the first and second Fridays of each month..."
Whoops. Still a bit too early for them to be open, then.
The recording goes on, asking you to leave a message if you're interested in (re)scheduling an appointment.
"Seen anything interesting?" you ask Cordelia.
"A few things," she replies, not giving any indication of which ones. "You?"
"I did like the look of that suit," you admit, nodding towards the outfit in question.
"Tried to steal a copy?" she guesses, no doubt recalling that time you made templates of some writing paper, envelopes, and a fancy pen in her dad's study.
"MADE a copy," you reply lightly. Shaking your head, you then ask Cordelia if she's planning to hang around this fashion display, or if she and her current crew have other plans.
"Larry and his grandmother are at one of the demonstrations, and the seats were filling up," you explain.
Cordy asks which demonstration, and since it hadn't started yet, you have to get your copy of the map and schedule out to check. It turns out that she and the girls she's with were not planning on attending that particular event - which will involve representatives of the different schools showing the basic forms and discussing the philosophies of their respective styles - instead meaning to kill some time and enjoy themselves with the clothing show, before going to meet some people and attend another event that starts at quarter to nine.
"Actually," she adds, checking her watch, "we should probably get on that..."
"Please leave a message at the tone."
*Beep*
"Hello," you begin, trying to sound professional. "My name is Alex Harris, and I am interested in scheduling a future appointment regarding the suit you contributed to the martial arts exhibition in Changdu. You can expect to hear from me again-"
There's quite a bit more you would have liked to talk about, like the possibility of selling some of Liantel's silk to this Sing fellow - assuming that the store's owner was the one speaking in the recording, which is by no means a given - but you have to leave that for now.
For one thing, you aren't sure how much time the message was going to give you to talk.
For another, business deals like this are the sort of thing that should be discussed directly, and preferably face-to-face.
And on a third point, you don't know a Sing about this guy, nor he, you. Better to get an idea of who and what you're dealing with, and how far into the supernatural their awareness extends (or doesn't), before you try shopping around Fae spider-silk.
You wish Cordelia a pleasant time with her current companions.
"Oh?" Queen C grins. "Not going to hang with the girls?"
Cordy goes on her way, and shortly after that - with a final glance at the outfits you aren't going to be able to copy right now you do the same, looking at the map and schedule again as you consider your options.
The easiest thing to do would be to return to the gym and join the Blaisdells in watching the presentation, whether by actually grabbing a seat on the bleachers or sticking with the Standing Room Only crowd. Your other options at the moment appear to include...
You don't want to leave this matter too long, since it could take a few days for Sing's Suits to find room in their schedule for a meeting with you, and you're only here in Taiwan for the week - not that you couldn't teleport over later, but it would be more convenient to meet with them while you're here, at least for the first time.
That said, you also don't want to give a bad first impression, and saying you'd call back as soon as possible could make you come across as entitled or demanding, or perhaps overeager. You've seen Gen take advantage of a few clients like that, and would prefer not to hand another merchant the opening he needs to charge you extra.
Granted, calling as early as you did may have already marked you in that regard, but aiming to follow up later in the day rather than at the earliest possible opportunity may help to offset that.
Anyway, you finish your message, wait a few seconds, and then - when it's clear there's still some time left on the recording - you hang up.
If you have to leave another message this afternoon, at least you'll know that you can make it longer than this one.
"I was thinking I'd go back and join Larry and his grandmother," you reply. "I'm kind of curious what sort of show the demonstrators are going to put on."
Cordelia nods at that. "Enjoy the martial arts dance program, then."
...
...
No sooner has the thought of turning invisible crossed your mind than you recall that you picked up a Ring of Invisibility as part of your share of the Silbern loot, and have been carrying it around in your pocket since.
Invisibility is just so useful an asset, and having a means to obtain it that doesn't require you to cast a spell - or that could be handed out to an ally who'd otherwise lack the ability entirely - even more so. And if you were to don it now, with your Spell of Mind Blank already shutting out most extrasensory methods of detecting you, all it would take to avoid notice entirely would be to mind your footing and not bump into anyone or anything.
...well, unless there's a monster with heightened sense of smell in the clothing gallery, or somebody happens to be using a ki technique for enhancing olfactory awareness, but even then, there are enough people moving around that you'd expect such things to be less reliable.
In any case, you can't just put that Ring on right here - there are too many witnesses who'd startle if you just up and vanished. Fortunately, there's another bathroom not too far away...
"What are you doing?" Briar wonders.
"Need to find a place to disappear," you reply, half aloud, half over the familiar bond.
"...going to steal some more copies?" she guesses.
"MAKE some copies, what is it with you two today...?"
You get Briar to agree to stay by the washrooms to await your return, duck into the men's washroom, and wait in one of the stalls for a couple of minutes while the only other guy in the room finishes his business. After he's left, you slip the Ring on and start making your way back to the room with the clothes, trying to keep to the wall as much as possible to avoid the bulk of the foot traffic.
As you have to step out of someone else's path for the third time, it occurs to you that the longer you stay like this with so many other people around, the more likely it is that someone will bump into you. That won't disrupt the Illusion Magic keeping you out of sight, but it could cause problems all the same.
Perhaps you should keep this brief?
Obviously, if you're going to update and expand the martial arts side of your wardrobe, you'll be looking at getting copies of the outfits promoting and promoted by your School. That's just common sense. But aside from those, you'd still like to see how the other outfits compare: partly because it's not unimaginable that some of them might be better-made, whether in terms of materials, technique, or both; and partly because you just want to see what sort of adjustments are made for different fighting styles.
You've already made some efforts towards outfitting your family, friends, and allies with personalized equipment, and have plans to do a bit more in the future - Zelda's promised training uniform immediately comes to mind. In the long run, having a better idea of what other people are doing when it comes to combat clothing would only be helpful for your projects.
Still, even if you limit yourself to the best-looking examples, there's quite a selection in there - lots of copies to make, lots of chances to get caught. How best to...
!
...oh, that would work.
You spent the bus-ride earlier doing a reasonable imitation of a fairy; you could do it again now, with added invisibility for greater authenticity. Granted, being smaller technically gives you more ground to cover even as it gives you more room to maneuver, but the turn of speed granted by a Spell of Flight will help to make up for that - and if you descend on your targets from above and then fly straight back up to a height of, say, seven feet, before you start moving horizontally, you'll be well out of range for any accidental collisions.
Unless somebody tries a mid-air acrobatics routine, which you think you can largely rule out.
You cast your modified Spell to Reduce a Person first, shrinking down as before, and then dash the objectively short, but subjectively rather longer distance to the wall as you wait for your mana to cycle. Even though none of the people walking about really come near you, you can't help but be aware of all the feet coming down on the floor with suddenly louder steps, or the seemingly much larger forms they're holding up and carrying about the place.
Ducking into a space between the wall and a sign set up for the exhibition, you're able to cast the Spell of Flight without being kicked or stepped on. From there, you take to the skies-
One passerby pauses as a poster flutters in the faint wind of your passage, and then glances up at the ducts of the air conditioning system.
-and travel the rest of the way to your destination.
With the door to the room wedged open, slipping inside is quite easy, and from there, you start dropping in on each of your preferred targets.
Nobody notices you, and nobody tries jumping into the air.
Gained Conjuration Templates (Martial Clothing)
With that out of the way, you exit the room and fly back to the bathroom where Briar is waiting-
?
-and has been approached by a couple of guys about the age she appears to be. They're talking about something you can't quite make out at this distance and over the noise of the crowd.
Wait.
You're currently fairy-sized.
Briar is currently human-sized.
The two of you have a familiar bond.
There is a right and proper order of things in such a situation, and you should honor it.
As such, you fly over and go in for a landing on Briar's right shoulder.
You touch down-
!
-and have to use the thrust of your Flight Spell to maintain your footing as Briar unexpectedly starts in surprise.
"Whoa, are you okay?" one of the guys asks, while his buddy turns and looks in the general direction Briar was facing, probably trying to spot whatever spooked her just now.
"I'm fine," Briar answers smoothly, following up with, "I just felt a shock all of a sudden." Even as she says that aloud, you receive an annoyed pulse from the familiar bond, to the tune of, / Warn me before you do that! /
The boys, meanwhile, seem to have taken Briar's explanation at face value, although one of them is looking down at the floor with clear confusion - you can almost see the question wandering around his head, of how a tiled floor could build up enough of a charge to give someone an electric shock.
"You were saying about the World Tournament?" Briar says then.
What's this?
"I was saying that my friend, here," the guy in the lead begins - or resumes - gesturing at his puzzled companion, "happens to be one of the finalists for the Under Fourteens Division."
"Huh?" Mr. Puzzlement looks up, realizes what his friend just said, and quickly clears his throat and tries to look impressive. "Uh, yeah!"
Ho? You join Briar in studying the other boy's face for a moment, but his visage completely fails to stir any sense of recognition in either of you - you can tell that from the lack of any "ah-ha!" or "oh, right" feelings coming from your partner's side of the bond.
Then again, thinking back, you DID miss the first round of the Under Fourteens Finals, due to that meeting with Kasumi's family regarding Altria's dragon-spirit, and then the business with Beryl's summoning-gone-awry.
/ Hehehe. Sorry. /
/ No, you're not, / Briar returns.
/ No, I'm not, / you agree.
You suppose you shouldn't jump to conclusions, even if they're as well-founded as this one. After all, your memory isn't perfect, and it's entirely possible - however unlikely - that the martial artist before you actually did advance beyond the first round of his Division's Finals, and you're just not remembering him due to the more interesting matches that were fought at the time and all the other stuff that was going on outside of the ring.
Also, it'll be a little funnier if you (or Briar) give him and his friend a chance to build up their sense of accomplishment, before yanking the proverbial rug out from under them.
So it is that your next signal to Briar is one of general curiosity, along with images of yourself and various peers from the Under Tens Division.
"Really, now?" Briar replies, affecting a tone of some interest. "How did you place?"
The guy who's been doing most of the talking falters at this. "Oh, uh..."
"Oh, I got knocked out in the first match of the second round," the competitor admits easily enough. "I was up against a guy with a bokuto, and it gave him the reach advantage." He shrugs, as if to say, 'and that was that.'
You're still not recalling seeing this guy, but you DO remember a swordsman-in-training fighting and winning in the third round, against a maybe-ninja boy.
"You don't seem too bothered by losing," Briar notes, honestly curious now.
"Well, for one thing, it WAS over a year ago-"
Your partner nods at that.
"-but even at the time, I wasn't too bothered by it. I mean, yeah, I would have preferred to win, and yeah, I was fighting barehanded against a guy armed with what amounts to a nice stick, but the rules would have let me use a pair of guai or a staff, if I'd thought to bring them - and hey, at least I didn't lose to one of those creepy kids with the, uh, facepaint."
He's talking about the demonic or monstrous participants, there, and from the way he shifted from a normal speaking tone to a suddenly uncertain one, you think it might have just occurred to him that he doesn't know if Briar is aware of who and what were participating in the World Tournament.
It might be funny to draw that uncertainty out...
You send Briar a mental nudge that can be summed up as, / Play along. Funny. /
The response that comes back is something vaguely along the lines of, / Teach a fairy to steal honey. /
...what?
"There WERE quite a few of those guys in masks and paint and such, weren't there?" Briar says aloud. "Especially in the later matches, like that one where all the ninjas popped up. Are they related? Some kind of psychological warfare thing practiced by different styles? Or was it some kind of Prism Rangers promotional event?"
"Uh..."
"Um..."
"Maybe?" the two guys offer uncertainly.
Exactly which of those options they're replying to is unclear.
Briar shrugs. "Well, it made for some interesting-looking matches, anyway. Though I will admit I was paying more attention to the Under Tens Division, due to knowing some of the kids taking part."
"Oh, really?" Mr. Made It To the Second Round manages to find his conversational footing. "How'd they do?"
Briar takes a breath. "Two of the girls had a mutual ring-out in the first round-"
"I remember that..."
"-another lost a match with one of those facepaint-kids in the second round-"
"Oh, bad luck."
"-and a fourth made the mistake of getting into a headbutting match with a boar that walks on two legs."
"..." The two guys give Briar a weird look, like they're not sure if she's being literal or what.
You just frown at your partner.
"The last two were the finalists, though," she concludes.
Both boys start at that.
"Wait, the ones with all the glowing-"
"-the broken tiles-"
"-didn't he turn into a GIANT-"
"-and the near-double knockout and simultaneous recovery?"
The guy who was doing most of the talking earlier stops at that and blinks at his friend. "THAT'S what stands out to you about that match?"
"Picking yourself up after nearly getting your lights punched out is HARD, man," comes the reply. "And doing that at the same time as your opponent, in a title bout that you would have lost if you'd been even a second slower?"
"Bai, my friend, my brother in kung fu - he turned. Into. A GIANT."
"...it's just training?" Bai offers weakly.
"A GIANT," his friend repeats.
Your partner doesn't appear to have any real need of your assistance in this situation, and between this little conversation, checking up on Cordelia, and not-robbing the clothing exhibit, you've already missed a good fifteen minutes of that demonstration you were planning on attending.
Also, your spells of shrinking and invisibility are going to wear off soon, so unless you want to make a public spectacle and get in trouble with your teacher and your hosts, you should probably be moving along.
With that in mind, you mentally signal Briar that you'll be going ducking into the washroom to return to normal, and then suit actions to, uh, thoughts?
You ritually-cast the Spell of Opening and Closing, trying to unlatch the door and push it open just far enough for your fairy-sized self to slip through, as that would be rather less noticeable than a human-sized invisible person going in.
Once again, you experience a brief but unsettlingly keen awareness of your own smallness as you navigate through a space meant for people of proportions much larger than yours currently are. If the force generated by your spell were to waver for a moment, you might end up with a concussion or even broken bones from the door half-closing on you...
Fortunately, that doesn't happen. Even if Open and Close isn't a spell you've bothered to master, your command of magic in general and kinetic spells in particular is more than sufficient for keeping its basic functions consistent.
Nobody out in the hall seems to notice the door opening or closing seemingly by itself, and when you look around, you find that the bathroom is currently empty.
Returning to normal size and visibility is the work of but a second, and as you pocket your Ring of Invisibility, you make sure to set your Spell of Flight to a "neutral" state, wherein it will provide no real lift.
As you're about to leave, you pause, think for a moment, and then turn to the sink to quickly run some water over your hands and then apply a quick spell to dry them.
Little details are important for disguises.
Exit quietly. "..." Maybe you can sneak up on the two guys?
Prankish impulses compel you to consider it.
Briar was standing with her back to the wall, just to the right of the little alcove where the bathroom doors are located, and the two guys were of course facing her, which would give at least one of them a fairly clear view of anyone going in or out of the bathrooms.
On the face of it, the conditions are not great for trying to sneak up on them.
That having been said, the pair did seem to be paying more attention to Briar and to one another than their surroundings, particularly after she dropped the fact that she knows "the Under Tens Division Champion of the World who turned into a giant" on the two of them. Throw in the lack of obvious reaction when you snuck into the bathroom, and it's at least worth trying, isn't it?
You carefully push the door open, just far enough that you can peer out at the hall-
"-are some pretty strange techniques out there," the one named Bai is arguing, in a tone that says he only half-believes what he's saying himself.
"We're not talking about a yogi contorting his body into positions nature never intended or a ki adept hitting things five feet away with compressed air, Bai," the other boy replies. "We're talking about a kid who pulled five feet of height and probably a thousand pounds out of thin air."
-and take the clear opportunity that is presented to you to slip out through the door and sneak up alongside the pair.
"It's almost like magic, isn't it?" you ask brightly.
Gained Stealth C+++
"What the-?!" the guy you're standing behind jumps and whirls around.
Bai also starts. "Where did you come fro- wait."
"Bathroom," you reply, pointing over one shoulder.
"Wait," Bai repeats himself, as his eyes continue to widen with recognition.
His friend's expression is starting to take on a similar cast, although the shock of your initial announcement is still quite strong.
"And for the record," you add, "it was only around six hundred pounds, not a thousand."
As a rule, the Spell to Enlarge a Person doubles the target's height and increases their size proportionately in other dimensions, which results in an effective eightfold increase in one's overall mass. You can't recall your exact weight at the time of the World Tournament off the top of your head, but you weren't yet a hundred pounds at the time - closer to eighty, if you're remembering rightly (and not accounting for clothing and recent meals). Subtract your original weight for a sevenfold increase, and the result is a lot closer to six hundred pounds than the half-ton offhandedly suggested.
The second guy doesn't seem to be able to find his tongue.
Bai, meanwhile, has started to point one finger in your general direction, only to swivel until he's pointing at Briar instead.
"You knew," he says simply.
Briar smiles. "I knew."
"But then why-?"
"Well, we ARE in public," your partner replies mildly.
"That," you add, "and it was fun to watch you fumble for a cover story."
"...wait, how did you know that?" the other guy finally manages to say. "Weren't you in the bathroom?"
"A sorcerer never reveals his secrets."
You cycle a bit of mana through your eyes as you speak, a movement of energy so minor that it can't really even be called a cantrip - more like a side-effect of having and using magic.
"...right," the guy replies uneasily. "That."
There is a sensation from the familiar bond that registers as, / Liar. /
/ I am n- okay, yes, but only when it's necessary for security purposes, or amusing, /
you try to project.
"Anyway," you say aloud, as you let your eyes return to normal. "We're running late for one of the demonstrations. Would you guys care to join us?"
"Actually," Bai begins.
"Thanks for the offer," his friend says quickly, "but we've got some people to meet."
Bai blinks at this. "...you sure, man? It's only" - he pauses to check a watch - "about twenty-five after, we've still got time."
"Better to get there early, right? Especially in this crowd."
It's not an unreasonable line of thinking, and yet the boy's manner tells you that he is rather eager to be gone.
Bai either misses that or decides not to call attention to it, as - while still looking puzzled - he accedes to his buddy's reasoning and turns back to you and Briar. "We'll see you around, then."
"Likewise," Briar says.
You just nod, and the two older boys turn and walk away, one of them a bit more quickly than the other.
Curious as to what's going on there, you signal for Briar to give you a moment, and focus your hearing on the departing pair.
"-up with you?" Bai is saying. "One minute you're encouraging me to talk to a cute girl, and the next-"
"And the next," the other interrupts, "I'm telling you to put some distance between you and her weird younger brother, or whatever."
"Are you still on about the giant thing?"
"I'm actually not. What I'm on about now is the creepy glowing-eyed, spying on you from other rooms thing..."
...
Whoops?
"Nice going, Alex," Briar says wryly. "You scared them off."
Ah, she was listening in on your listening it.
"Sorry if I ruined your fun, there," you apologize to your partner. Then you pause. "...did I?"
"Maybe a little bit," Briar admits, holding up one hand with thumb and forefinger slightly apart. "Nothing I won't get over in, say, five minutes."
"Good to know. Still," you go on, "if the guy can't take a little glowing, we're probably all better off not dragging him along."
"There is that," the fairy agrees.
"And on a related note, it proves that my eyes aren't pretty when they glow."
"You just keep thinking that, Alex."
"They're not," you insist.
Briar just smugs at you.
Shaking your head, you turn and head for the gym where you left the Blaisdells and the show.
You arrive to find two of the participants in the presentation - you hesitate to call them actors, exactly - engaged in a light spar, while a third delivers a fairly energetic dissertation on the nature and methods of the fighting style being displayed. All three individuals are wearing the colors of the same school, and as you watch the pair on the mats move, you quickly pick out commonalities in their technique that not only reveal the similarities in their training, but also the fact that they're holding back - and not just in terms of force, but also of technique.
It's the little things that give it away: subtle shifts of stance; the brief contraction and sudden release of muscles trained to act in a particular way under certain circumstances, instead being told to do something else; a certain accent in body language which says they're capable of quite a bit more than they're actually doing.
To most of the civilians and less-experienced or naturally gifted martial artists in the audience, this probably looks like a fine demonstration, at least halfway to being a live bout.
In actuality, it's two reasonably skilled students who are actively limiting themselves, and in slightly different ways, at that.
The fighter who's farther away from you seems to be something of a purist in this style. His moves are neater, more practiced and efficient, and all carry the same particular intent. When he pauses, it's because there are openings he's deliberately not pursuing and moves he's purposely avoiding, because they wouldn't fit the overall show that's being put on.
His opponent, on the other hand, while no less skilled, shows elements of at least one, maybe two other styles in his technique. Watching him is a bit like listening to someone speaking in your Californian dialect of English, only for them to drop a phrase in Dave's New Yorker accent and then a word of Altria's proper British - you can understand the "words," both individually and in context, but you know they come from different places.
And there might be some German in there, to extend the metaphor a bit.
You'd have to push past at least a few people to get to where Larry and Lily are sitting, but while a part of you is considerate enough of others to be reluctant to to that, the rest would prefer to sit down.
It's less that your feet are tired after an hour or so spent walking around - especially with that ten-minute break where you were floating around on the metaphorical wings of a Spell of Flight - and more that sitting next to the Blaisdells would make a number of things more convenient for you. You could let them know you spoke with Cordy without having to resort to magic that might draw attention, you'd have a somewhat better vantage point from which to observe the remainder of this presentation, and you could simply take a load off for a while.
So, keeping one eye and an ear on the proceedings on the mats, you walk along the edge of the audience observing from the gym floor, and then head up into the bleachers to join your companions.
"Excuse me... thank you... ooh, good thing this is just a demo, that looked like it would have hurt..."
"Any problems?" Larry greets you, as he shuffles along the bench slightly to make some more room for you and Briar.
You shake your head as you sit down, and quietly let him and his grandmother know that you found Cordelia easily enough-
"A kung fu clothing gallery? Seriously?"
-and where she's gone.
As you're doing that, the current demonstration comes to an end, the narrator and the two performers taking their literal bows and clearing the "stage" for the next act. Larry quickly names the schools whose performances you missed, with the Five Great Elements Style apparently having been the first to show their stuff, while the School of the Five Elements has yet to make an appearance - and in fact, you don't see them until the end of the demonstration, which has you wondering if this was a case of the host school going last, or if the organizers decided that the two "rival" styles had to be separated.
Given that the fighters chosen to represent their respective styles in this event are holding themselves back to the levels of mundane students, you don't learn anything new about actually fighting from watching their fairly scripted performances. You do get a better idea of how each school approaches the business, though, and watching several advanced students restraining themselves to a particular level of skill and set moves does provide you some pointers for how to better hide your own fighting skill.
Gained Martial Concealment E+++
You also pick up some more academic details from what the various narrators have to say, bits about the history of the various styles, famous individuals who've practiced them, and where they're located. A lot of it goes over your head, given your relatively limited grasp on local or regional history, but there are a few tidbits that match up to what you DO know - particularly when it comes to the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, which every speaker makes at least a passing reference to.
Gained Chinese History E++
Gained Japanese History E+++
The last ten minutes of the presentation are given over to a general question and answer session, which has several reasonable questions-
"How long does it take to train to the level we saw?"
"Where do you get those uniforms?"
-a couple of genuinely insightful remarks-
"How much does this sort of training help you against someone with a knife, or a gun?"
-and a lot more that are, well...
"Can you really break cinder blocks with your bare hands?"
"Is there ACTUALLY a Touch of Death?"
"Which style is the strongest?"
That sort of thing.
Although nothing was said during the presentations that you personally found particularly thought-provoking, as you listen to some of the other questions being asked, one comes to your mind anyway. You've had at least a partial answer to it thanks to your training with Lu-sensei and your visit to the School of the Five Elements - as short as it's been - but hearing how practitioners of the other styles reply could be illuminating, or at least a confirmation.
So you raise your hand.
...
It takes a couple of tries, but eventually, one of the speakers calls on you to speak.
"From what you said in the presentation, most of these styles have been around for generations, if not centuries," you begin. "My question is, how have the schools adapted to changes in technology, materials, and culture in that time?"
"On the whole, I would say rather well," one of the men assembled before the bleachers replies. "Once upon a time, most people wouldn't have had the time, coin, or social freedom to dedicate themselves to training in the martial arts, and even among those that could manage it, many couldn't or wouldn't travel too far in pursuit of such an education. As a result of that, operating a training hall was generally not a highly profitable endeavor - not in financial terms, at least. Sure, you could make a living at it, but there are plenty of stories about masters in the old days having to work other jobs to make ends meet."
Yes, you recall Wen's account of financial difficulties.
"These days, with food and wealth being so much more abundant, travel far easier, and society less restrictive, more people are able to afford lessons in the martial arts, or even to make a career out of it," the speaker goes on. "That's allowed styles to grow, spread, and diversify in ways that wouldn't have been possible a few centuries ago."
"The shift from martial tradition to general self-defense, competitive sport, and exercise regimen has been helpful as well," one of the other presenters notes. "It opened the art up to a much larger pool of potential trainees than those that just wanted to learn how to fight or pursue personal development."
"That's also true," the first man agrees. "And of course, more students with more money means the master gets paid more often and in greater amounts, which in turn means he can afford to spend more - such as on those modern amenities that help to make his business more attractive and successful."
The narrators and some of the fighters offer up a list of modern items that they personally find very useful for martial arts training.
"Proper training gear, to keep injuries down."
"First aid kits, not only for accidents, but just for the reassurance of HAVING them."
"A ready supply of training uniforms."
"Electrical washer and dryer for CLEANING those uniforms."
"Air conditioning and heating, to make year-round training possible."
"Indoor. Plumbing," the lady from the School of the Five Great Elements says firmly.
Everybody stops, looks at her, and then trades glances among themselves.
"I think we have a winner."
There are some chuckles from the audience at your remark, several nods of concession among the presenters, and a slight smirk from the lady from the Five Great Elements School.
You have to admit, the sheer convenience of flush toilets and hot running water IS pretty hard to beat, and you're speaking as a sorcerer when you say that. Sure, you could use the Spell to Create Water to (mostly) fill a bathtub, but while the resulting water would be clean, it would also be cool - lukewarm at best - and the tub would be filled all at once. Heating the water or setting up a constant flow like a shower would require an additional investment of time and energy, and while that's well within your capabilities, many magic-users don't have access to the basic spell; even among those who do, most would need more than one casting to get that quantity of water, and as for adding heat or changing the rate at which the water manifested?
Yeah. Difficult, at best.
Waste disposal is at least as inconvenient, and while you could make the enchanted equivalent of showers, sinks, and toilets to deal with all the issues - and will likely end up doing so, when you start setting up your private planar retreat in the coming months; all jokes and serious statements about the Hellmouth aside, even Sunnydale's water and sewage system doesn't ACTUALLY connect to other dimensions! - modern civil infrastructure has made daily life SO much less troublesome for you than you know it could otherwise have been.
The unpleasant aspects of Ganondorf's memories are not, after all, limited to warfare and supernatural dread.
There are a few more questions after that, before the presentation wraps up.
"So where to, now?" Larry asks.
"Well..." you begin.
"Might want to put a hold on making plans," Lily advises. "I think I just saw Lu in the crowd."
You look where she's looking, and sure enough, your master is waiting over by the door, looking reasonably well-rested. You do not see Amy with him, but she could have stayed at the School, met up with Cordelia, or gone off with some of the other students.
Given the traffic, you whisper up another Message Spell and murmur, "Is there a problem, Lu-sensei?"
"Hm? Oh, no problems; I just thought I'd offer to give Lily a break and take some of you off her hands for a while."
You convey that.
Larry's grandmother shrugs. "I have no problem doing either, unless you kids want to split up."
You opt to accompany your master, and Briar immediately chooses to go with.
Larry thinks about it, but decides to stick with his grandmother for now.
Leaving the Blaisdells once again, you link up with your teacher and inquire after Amy's whereabouts.
"Oh, she's around, somewhere," Lu Tze replies, glancing about in an unconcerned manner. "A couple of the other students in your age range invited her to join their group, and they seemed to be getting along well enough, last I saw."
Good for her, then.
"Would you happen to know where Cordelia is?" the old man asks then.
"As a matter of fact, we do," you reply, before recounting your earlier meeting in the clothing gallery. While you're speaking, you get out your map and schedule again, to refresh your memory of where Cordy said she was going with the other kids and to point it out to your sensei.
Lu Tze looks at the map, nods, and murmurs about checking in on Miss Chase before the event she's attending ends and she wanders off with her current companions.
As you make your way towards that room, Lu-sensei asks you what you've seen of the event so far, and what you think of it.
"So, Sensei," you begin, as you pass through the crowd.
"Yes, Alex?"
"There have been a few times over the last couple of hours where I've noticed a certain tension between practitioners of our martial style, and adherents of the Five Great Elements Style."
"Saw the way their booth attendants were glaring at ours, did you?"
"Among other examples, yes," you agree. "What's the story, there?"
As your master explains it, the tension has a few sources.
The most obvious of these is, of course, the similarity in the names of the schools, which apparently isn't unusual in martial circles. It is one thing to achieve the rank of master in terms of skill, and another to be the master of your own training hall - and paralleling what was said in the style presentation you just left, a single hall can only support so many teachers, which means a certain number of disciples always end up going off on their own to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
Some such individuals eventually establish their own branches of their parent school, but others seek to found entirely new schools. At times, the latter are motivated by the simple desire to make their mark on the world on their own terms, without claiming the support or legacy of an older style, while at others, they have heavily modified or outright abandoned the teachings of their original school, and now seek to promote and spread a new form.
Whatever the reasons behind their founding, these new schools need names, preferably impressive ones that will draw in prospective students, and human nature being what it is, certain names and themes keep getting picked. Animals, colors, elements, dragons - the possibilities are many, but inevitably, two founders pick similar or even identical titles, and then in the years that follow, the two styles encounter one another and start arguing over whose is the "true" School of Whatever.
Though this sort of thing can also happen within older schools, when two or more rival students achieve mastery over their own branches, and either fail to keep from passing their training ground grudges on to the next generation, or else fail to temper those feelings into a HEALTHY rivalry that will spur both sides on to greatness, as opposed to a bitter feud that has either side seeking to undo the other.
"Are we branch schools?" you wonder. "Or is it just a case of similar names?"
"The latter," Lu-sensei replies. "Though as I said, that was only one of the reasons..."
The second issue is one of philosophy. The Five Great Elements that the other school is named for are the Wuxing, the Five Phases of Chinese thought - Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood - and the differences between those and the Five Elements that Grandmaster Wen pursued led to a whole slew of differences in the physical, mental, and spiritual approaches of the two styles, which in turn have given rise to any number of debates, arguments, and fights between them down through the years.
"Our relations have tended to wax and wan over the generations, and between regions," Lu-sensei recounts. "There's usually a major worldwide shift when one or both of the styles gets a new grandmaster, for example, whereas two quarreling masters who teach at neighboring branches can cause issues on the local level, but have little impact internationally. And of course," he adds, giving you a wry look, "when one style places better than the other at major tournaments, it can provoke some envy."
Ah.
"Huh," you exclaim.
"Indeed."
"Anything I can do to help that if and when I bring back the belt again next time?" you inquire further.
"If you happen to face a member of the Five Great Elements School in one or more of the matches leading up to that hopeful day," Lu-sensei replies, "try to be a good sport about it."
"Don't crush them instantly, don't draw things out so long that it seems like I'm toying with them, limit the magic use so it's as close to pure martial arts as can be, and don't be a sore winner?" you venture.
"As you say," your master agrees with a nod.
Reasonable, and doable.
"Also, if at all possible, don't go dragging them into any of your outside-the-ring adventures - and if THAT proves unfeasible, make sure they come back in one piece and with as little trauma as can be managed."
...tricky, but probably not impossible? You'll be competing in the Under Fourteens Division at the next World Tournament, and based on what you saw of last year's event, most of the people you'd be up against should have at least a passing familiarity with the stranger side of life, to say nothing of having the greater-than-normal resilience - be it physical, mental, or spiritual - that comes with having ki reserves built up by training (even when the user is still not fully aware of what they have or what they're doing with it). By that measure, your theoretical opponents should hold up better in the face of the weird and the dangerous... or maybe they'd just come pre-traumatized?
It... kind of works out to the same thing, in the end.
Between navigating the crowd, having to go up a flight of stairs, and a couple of pauses where Lu-sensei either points something out to you, pauses to answer an inquiry, or sees someone he recognizes and gets pulled into a brief greeting and conversation, it takes you a few minutes to get to the room where Cordelia was going. When you do arrive, the presentation has already reached its own question and answer section; if you didn't have the schedule with the "Fight to Dance" header listed.
Some of the presenters for this are dressed in the same manner as the ones from the event you just left, but others are wearing obvious costumes, such as ruffles, wide sleeves, and skirts meant to billow and swirl, particular colors and patterns that will draw the eye when in motion, and an assortment of handheld instruments, some musical, others not. More of the outfits have a certain traditional Eastern style to them, but there are some exceptions, such as the quartet of baton-twirlers that look like they just stepped out of a marching band, or the guy dressed up as a ballet dancer that one of said twirlers is quietly talking with.
You could see somebody using a baton in combat - a stick is a stick, and these ones look to be a bit on the large and heavy side for things meant to be spun and whirled about - but you're pretty sure ballet is not and never has been a form of self-defense. More the opposite, really...
Confronted with a conundrum that is at least ostensibly connected with the martial arts, you naturally turn to your master in search of guidance.
"Are you confused by the connection of dancing and fighting, the association of specific KINDS of dancing with combat, or why Cordelia was interested?"
"Mostly the second one," you reply.
You know of styles like capoeira - disguised as seemingly harmless dances to conceal their practice from the eyes of hostile authorities - through conversation with your martially-inclined friends and fellow students, as well as playground rumor. Even if you hadn't heard of those, there's a certain dance-like quality to a well-executed kata, much less performative spars like the ones you were watching earlier, so it wouldn't be hard to make the connection there.
Cordelia's interest in this topic is likewise unsurprising. She's never made a secret of her interest in cheerleading, and dancing is a part of that; that she might try to take pointers and inspiration from other styles only makes sense.
"And mostly because of the ballet dancer," you add. "It's not really what I think of when I picture 'dance battling'."
"Fair," your teacher agrees. "I will say that I've never met or heard of more than a handful of fighting ballerinas or ballerinos; their art is demanding and damaging enough, without adding the risks of combat injury on top of it. That said, that same intensity of effort calls for and helps to develop excellent leg strength, overall flexibility, and general bodily control."
Any of which would be helpful for various forms of combat, you know. Ballet's use of jumps - and landings! - would also contribute to more martial applications, as well as other non-performative uses. You recall a scene in a movie your parents were watching, where a woman escapes a pursuer by leaping across a wide gap using a ballet move; when the man tries to follow, he misses the landing and falls to his doom, with the lady shouting down after him about "years of lessons."
You never caught the name of the film, you just saw the scene in passing.
Anyway, aside from the ballet dancer, Lu-sensei points out a few of the other performers, identifying their styles and how they could contribute to self-defense. Being more physically fit is rarely a bad thing, and your teacher notes that many of the eye-catching aspects of dance could be used to distract an opponent, cover a strike, or make a move look more impressive, and thereby intimidate the "audience."
"That's actually one area where a combat-trained dancer often has an advantage over a more typical martial artist," your teacher notes. "Not that we can't make ourselves look scary, but when it comes to projecting OTHER impressions, especially to large numbers of people, well, it's not something we specifically train for. Dancers, on the other hand, are all ABOUT being seen by others, and conveying a very particular message in the process."
Interesting point, and one that leads back into Cordelia's interest in cheerleading...
"It does, doesn't it?"
Speaking of Queen C, the Q&A session seems to be wrapping up, and Cordy has noticed the presence of your trio by the door.
Do you have any particular questions for her?
"Good morning, Sensei," Cordelia greets your teacher as she joins you. "Rest well?"
"Almost disconcertingly so," the old man replies amiably. "I can honestly say that I now have a much better appreciation for why Alex likes to use those blankets, and why almost everyone he's tried to gift them to has returned them."
"What of yourself, Miss Chase?" Lu-sensei says then. "How are you finding the exhibition so far?"
"Well, I'm looking forward to the spars-"
"Signed up, did you?"
"We all did," she replies, before quickly recounting who joined which Division.
Lu Tze frowns at you for a moment after hearing you're signed up for the Under Eighteens Division.
"I can handle it, Sensei," you assure him.
"Oh, you most likely can, if it's for a few spars and with the usual crowd they get at this thing," your teacher replies, stroking his chin. "It's just that there will be those who see your decision to square off with those twice your age as arrogant, disrespectful, or otherwise improper."
"Not knowing my place?" you venture, borrowing a line you heard Moka use once.
"Aptly put."
"And if he wins?" Cordy asks. "What then?"
"Then they get to eat humble pie," your teacher replies. "Where it goes from there will depend on who Alex was facing, how badly he beat them, and whether or not we're dealing with any young master types or karate parents..."
He trails off with a look of annoyance at the latter prospect.
Leaving that aside for the moment, you turn to Cordelia and ask her if anything about the dance presentation caught her eye.
"A few things, here and there," she says. "I was hoping they might have a few members of a cheer squad, but no luck." She shrugs, not seeming particularly disappointed. "I knew it was kind of a longshot to begin with, and from what the other girls said, they don't really have cheerleading over here, at least not with the focus on acrobatics. It's more about the cheers and chants, music, banners, and just making noise."
Huh. You did not know that.
"Any thoughts about dance battles, then?"
"It gives new meaning to the word 'breakdancing'."
Ha ha.
"There are a few points," Lu-sensei says in response to your query. "First is the strangeness of taking a two-hour nap and waking up feeling completely rested. It simply goes against a lifetime of experience, however long or short that may be, which is decidedly disconcerting."
You frown. "Isn't that just the unfamiliarity of doing something new?"
"Some of it definitely is that," your teacher agrees, "and I would expect the uneasiness to diminish in the same manner, as someone got used to using the Blankets over time. But that feeling is not one I, personally, ever expected to associate with SLEEPING, which makes it rather more impactful - and even accounting for that, there are other issues. Tell me, do you remember what it felt like to use a Restful Blanket for the first time?"
You think back, and wince. "I do, but I should probably mention that the first time I made serious use of the magic involved was that first night we spent at Castle Shuzen. You know, the time when I had the weird dream about Dracula?" you prompt.
"...ah," your master says, clearly recalling the incident that followed.
"Why does it not surprise me that you had a nightmare about Dracula the first time you visited Miss Blood and Sparkles' creepy home?" Cordelia says rhetorically.
"Well," Lu Tze interjects, "that rather biases the evidence I was hoping to obtain, but... Cordelia, do YOU happen to remember your first use of one of Alex's magic blankets?"
"Yes, and it wasn't much different from the other night," Cordy answers.
"And did you have any dreams?" your master inquires.
Eh?
"Actually, yeah," your friend replies. "I don't remember much about them, but they were weird."
"That would match my own experience this morning," Lu-sensei notes. "We may have to check with Amy and Larry to see if it's universal, or just a coincidence."
"What about Briar?" Cordy asks.
"I'm linked to Alex, and I was back when he used that spell for the first time," your partner explains. "Any evidence I might give is a bit suspect - plus, you know, fairy."
Yeah, even if you can trust Briar to be honest, the fact that she's not human would still affect the data.
Still, among the human users, you're three for three so far on "weird dreams" during the first use of the Spell of Nap Stack or magic items based on it - and judging by Cordelia's account, on at least one subsequent occasion as well.
You can't really speak to that, as you were having weird dreams on the semi-regular well before you started using magic to try and cram more sleeping hours into the day and/or the night.
You are tempted to ask for more details about these dreams, but Cordy just said she doesn't recall much, and if you're going to be scientific about it, you should gather the eyewitness reports separately, to avoid them influencing each other.
"So, Sensei," you say instead, "aside from doing something new and maybe having weird dreams, are there other issues with the Blankets?"
"There are," he answers, "or at least I can see there being some. Having upwards of twenty hours to fill in a single day is something of a daunting prospect, especially if it were to become a regular thing - most people just don't NEED that much time, much less have any idea what to do with it - and the fact that most of those 'extra' hours would be gained at night limits what could be done with them. Especially in Sunnydale," he adds, grimacing, "which is a whole other nasty kettle of demonic fish."
Okay, yeah, now that it's been pointed out to you, you can definitely understand how THAT would be an issue. It's a lot easier for people to ignore the nastiness of the Hellmouth during the daylight hours, but once the sun starts to go down, anyone with a working survival instinct gets off the streets. Being able to chuck eight hours of darkness and everything that happens during them into the bin of unconsciousness every day would be a part of that, and yet the Restful Blankets could easily strip up to six of those hours of blessed ignorance away.
Thinking on it a bit more, that MAY be part of the reason why you "oversleep" as often as you do...
"Granted," Briar agrees, "but this was back before it woke up and started wandering around seeking hugs and trying to be helpful."
Cordy was giving you a funny look at first, but when Briar reminded her of the existence of the spirit and its typical behavior - at least in your presence - she concedes with a smile.
You consider mentioning that your Dracula-dream didn't really have anything to do with Castle Shuzen's intimidating appearance or atmosphere, just its location over monster-Dracula's sealed tomb, but you realize that you probably shouldn't bring that up without permission from Kahlua's family - and certainly not in public like this.
Likewise, you decide to leave off mentioning anything about your sometimes prophetic dreams. The Dracula-dream wasn't one of them, and you're reasonably certain that your Restful Blankets aren't triggering the phenomenon - if only because if the Blankets WERE responsible, you should have dreamt of at least a few more such events by now, even if they were on a smaller, more local scale.
...at least, you would HOPE they'd be less wide-reaching than the Averted Quincy Apocalypse was shaping up to be.
The idea that the World Might Be Doomed on a regular basis is depressing, and THIS is coming from the guy who remembers BEING the End of the World more than a few times!
You spend the next couple of hours walking about the exhibition, seeing what sights it has to offer, taking part in various activities, and speaking with people you either barely know or have never met at all before today.
Quite a few of the latter recognize you from your victory back at the World Tournament - you hear several variations on the phrase, "Your tan's faded" - and Lu-sensei gets at least as much attention; even if he took second place in his division rather than first, you would say that being acknowledged as "Second Best in the World" still counts as a win by a lot of measures.
Cordelia is rather pleased when people recall her performance as well.
You also link up and then part ways with your Sunnydale companions a couple of times. When you bump into Amy at one of the exhibits, Cordelia and Briar spend some time talking with her, leaving you and Lu-sensei to your own devices - and though your partner returns to keep an eye on you, Cordy stays with Amy for a bit. The Blaisdells turn up later and accompany you for a couple more displays before you, Larry, and Briar - but most you and Larry - get invited to join another group for a while, leaving the old adults to do boring old adult things.
That's the other kids' words, not yours. You're sure some of them will learn better once rumor of Lily's cookies and shotgun-handling have made the rounds. Others, alas, are probably doomed to ignorance.
Regardless, you all meet up for lunch at the cafeteria area.
Is there anything you want to talk about over the meal?
The Under Tens spars start at one-thirty, and in light of that, all three of your classmates limit themselves to a relatively light lunch. As you're only taking part in the Under Eighteens round, which doesn't start until tomorrow, you indulge yourself a little more, but not so much that anybody gives you annoyed or envious looks.
Everybody has enough spending money on hand to cover their own meals, although you also pay for Briar, who ends up eating a bit more than the other kids, if not so much as you do.
Spent $20
Even taking your time to enjoy the middling quality meal - which is about one-half the Eastern equivalent of carnival food, and one-half typical cafeteria cooking - and engaging in light conversation that mostly focuses on the events of the morning and anticipation for the upcoming matches, you've still got a good amount of time before the spars start. You briefly consider getting your Magic Cellphone out and calling Sing's Suits, but while it is technically "the afternoon," you suspect the shop's employees are probably taking their own lunch break or coming back from it; either way, you feel like you should wait a bit longer before getting in touch with them.
During the Under Fourteens Division would probably be a reasonable time. Cordy's the only one of your group scheduled to take part in that, so you'll have more time to work with.
Anyway, even though it's still a little early, your party end up heading down to the gym where that presentation on the different martial schools participating in this exhibition was held this morning. When you arrive, you find that the bleachers have been pushed back into the wall, and the increase in space has been used to set up several more sets of mats, while still leaving a decent amount of room for the officials and an audience - even if it does look like it'll be standing room only.
The final list of participants can be found on the wall next to the door. Although Larry and Cordelia both signed up relatively early in the day, there were quite a few names down ahead of them - possibly pre-registered, or maybe the result of a big rush before you got here - which has pushed their scheduled matches back a bit. Amy, who signed up later, is in the lower fifth of the names, and probably won't be fighting for an hour or more yet.
Due to the "last minute" nature of the registration, the way these spars are set up is not an elimination style like the World Tournament used. Instead, the winner of a match is permitted to choose whether or not they wish to continue; if they do, they'll immediately face the next available registered participant, with the winner of that bout again being given the choice to advance. Each win is worth one point, while a loss is worth no points, and a tie is worth half a point. When someone stops fighting, whether because of a loss, a draw, or the decision to stand down after a string of wins, their name moves to the bottom of the list, forcing them to wait for another chance to spar.
Whoever has the most points after a couple of hours of this will be declared the winner.
Larry and Cordy signed up at the same time, and their names are right next to each other, but a quick count of the number of names ahead of them suggests they won't be sparring with one another.
Whose match did you want to watch, if it comes to that?
Under different circumstances, you might use the Spell of the Dark Self to watch both of your friends fight at once, but since that's not an option, you'll have to make do.
This will be Larry's first time taking part in an event like this, so it seems appropriate for you to watch, offer encouragement during the match(es), and provide constructive criticism afterwards.
Besides, Cordy's scheduled to take part in the Under Fourteens Division later on; you can always cheer for her then.
You think your reasoning is practical, but Amy and Briar both state that they're going to cheer on Cordy, leaving you with Lily and Lu-sensei.
You spend the next ten minutes or so waiting for the event to officially begin, and when it does, one of the officials gets up on a small stage to give a quick recap of the rules for anybody who wasn't already aware. No full-force strikes, head shots, or hitting below the belt, ring-outs or being pinned for ten seconds counts as a loss, a review of the specifics on scoring-
"And no showing off," he says. "If you want to impress the audience, do it the old-fashioned way, with hard work and determination."
-and a broad hint about limiting the use of ki techniques that you think probably went over the heads of a lot of the younger kids, and no few of the untrained civilians.
Hopefully, everybody else got it...
It takes the officials and the assembled young fighters a few tries to get a good rhythm going. Calling up the first dozen competitors goes smoothly enough, and you spend a couple of minutes looking from match to match, seeing a certain amount of commendable effort, a lot more less impressive work, a small bit of undignified flailing, and nothing that's particularly noteworthy. It's when the first matches end and they start calling off the names of the next few participants that things hit a bit of a snag, as the kids in question have to make their way through the crowd to whichever ring just had a spot open up.
In an ideal situation, the kids would be lined up around the rings, waiting for their turns and moving to the end of the line or back of the crowd after finishing their turn, but with all the families, friends, and random tourists wandering around, that degree of organization is basically impossible - if it wasn't already doomed to begin with, given the martial artists are all less than ten years old.
Still, the exhibition officials move through the crowd - with big armbands that have the characters for "Official" on them declaring their authority - talking quietly to people and encouraging the audience to organize themselves more helpfully. Kids who reach the end of their turn in the ring take their personal cheerleading sections and move towards the back, sometimes leaving the gym entirely, while those whose turns are coming up move closer to the mats, and the designated aisles of traffic - marked off by bright tape on the floor, you note - are kept open as much as possible.
Things gradually pick up, and maybe ten minutes on from the start of the event, "Blaisdell, Larry!" is called.
"Any advice?" your pal asks.
You glance at the sparring ring where he's expected. The victor of the last match has opted to stay in for a second round, and while your attention was a little too divided among the various matches to make a definitive statement, you would say the boy is either on the same level as Larry in terms of technique, only slightly below it, or possibly outright better and holding back. His ki aura is certainly more refined, but given the terms of the spars, that's not as big an advantage as it could have been, particularly when Larry is somewhat larger than the other boy to begin with.
Do you have any advice for your friend's first match?
"Remember to enjoy yourself."
There's no big trophy or cash prize on the line here, no threat to life, limb, or liberty - the whole free spar session is about testing one's skills and endurance against the field, meeting new people in an interesting place, and just exerting yourself for the heck of it.
...and also giving various parents and guardians a break by giving their kids an outlet for their energy, but MOSTLY it's the other things.
So what's the point if you aren't having a good time?
Larry considers that for a moment, then nods and relaxes - slightly - as he turns and hustles over to the ring.
"Fighters ready?" the observer asks.
Larry nods, entering a ready stance.
His opponent does the same.
"...begin!"
And they're off.
Within a few moves, it becomes apparent that your earlier estimate was pretty much spot-on: the two boys are fairly evenly matched in terms of physical technique, with Larry's somewhat greater size - a couple of inches in height, at most, with proportionate reach and bulk - giving him an advantage. With the other kid also being a little tired from his previous match(es?), your friend takes an early lead in the bout, putting his opponent on the defensive and gradually backing him into a corner.
The other boy's ki signature intensifies at that point, the opening stages of a speed-focused Ki Enhancement technique readily apparent to your senses and experience, but almost immediately, the kid stops himself from following through - whether he was going for the foundational technique or a more advanced variant like Body Flicker or Substitution, he clearly realized it would have been too obviously supernatural for the regular folks in the crowd.
This restraint results in the boy taking a one-two combo from Larry, before he manages to redirect the accumulated energy into a more general boost and uses his heightened reflexes, strength, and durability to block the third strike in the series. For a moment, it looks like the tide of the battle has turned, but then Larry brings up his own Ki Enhancement, counters the counter, and regains his momentum.
Larry's opponent takes one, two, three more hits, wavering at the edge of the mat-
"Out!"
-before taking just a little more of a hit than he can properly absorb, and getting pushed into taking a single step off the mat.
Larry backs off at that point and has a brief, polite exchange of nods and words before his first opponent withdraws.
The next kid who gets called up is smaller than the first - not shorter, just skinny. He groans when he sees how much of a size advantage Larry has over him, but gathers his courage and steps into the crash-mat ring all the same.
"Begin!"
Smallness proves something of an advantage this time, as between speed and (lack of) size, Larry's new foe is hard enough to hit that your friend doesn't score more than glancing blows for the first minute or so of the bout. At the same time, however, the other boy's arms aren't quite long enough to strike past Larry's guard, and he's too reliant on his mobility advantage to risk using his legs as often as he probably should.
And when Larry does finally connect, smaller size ceases to be beneficial, as the other boy staggers backwards from the hit. In that moment when he's off-balance and unable to dodge, Larry rushes forward-
*Thud*
"Whaaa-!?"
*Wham!*
-and tackles the other boy, dragging him to the mat and into a grapple where he has the absolute advantage.
About fifteen seconds later, Larry is declared the winner for the second time.
"The first part of that looked like a proper football tackle," Lu-sensei observes.
"His father will be happy about that," Lily replies.
"Go, Cordy!" you hear Amy call from a couple of mats down.
"You call that a cheer?" Cordelia calls back.
"Let's go, Larry, let's go!"
Spurred on by Amy's example - and a certain amount of puckish amusement at the idea of entertaining yourself at Cordy's expense - you utter a simple cheer you've heard at some of the home games back in Sunnydale, and occasionally on broadcast sporting events.
"Let's go, Larry, let's go!"
The sound of his name gets your friend's attention, and he gives you a quick glance-
*Clap-clap*
Grandma Lily and Lu-sensei join in for the second verse: "Let's go, Larry, let's go!"
*Clap-clap*
-which is followed by a laugh.
You also get a few looks from the crowd for this, but you're slightly surprised to see that none of them are disapproving or confused.
Then again, Cordelia did mention earlier that cheerleading in this part of the world does involve chanting, cheering, and otherwise making noise in support of your chosen team. If you didn't have that Spell of Tongues going, some people might have missed the exact meaning of your WORDS, but even without that, the INTENT behind your chant probably would have come across perfectly clearly.
As it is, there's no misunderstanding at all. If anything, a number of the other kids - and some of the older people - start repeating the chant and clapping their hands in time. Most of them call out to their favored fighters instead of Larry, but you DO hear his name spoken a few times, and from the double-take he does, Larry heard it as well. There's also some foot-stomping and whistling thrown in, although the event's presenters step in before the audience has a chance to get TOO rowdy.
It's with a slightly red face that your friend goes into his third bout-
"Aaaa!"
*Wham*
-which ends VERY quickly when the other kid tries to flip Larry and goes for a short, low-altitude flight himself. He comes down squarely on the mat, but still gets the wind knocked out of him, which makes the follow-up pin pretty easy.
The fourth bout runs longer, partly because this competitor is closer to Larry's size and has the skills to offset the difference, but also because even with the boost from being supported by some of the crowd, Larry has now had three matches back-to-back, and is starting to feel the exertion.
He still wins, in the end, but his opponent makes him work for it and draws the spar out to almost five minutes. When all is said and done, Larry considers his condition and decides to bow out with a four-match winning streak.
"Yah!"
"Wha-!"
Cordy, from the sound of things, is still going strong, and the Blaisdell Cheering Squad heads over to get a better look...
Is there anything you want to say to Larry?
You greet Larry with an arm-clasp and a grin. "Four straight wins, and then retiring undefeated? Nicely done."
"Thanks," Larry replies with a grin of his own, "but don't pat me on the back just yet."
"Sweaty?" you guess, shaking your freed-up hand as if to cast off clinging liquid.
"...okay, yeah, sort of," Larry admits after a moment. "But also, we have to wait and see if I get a chance to come out of retirement, and if I do, what happens after."
You nod.
Lu-sensei joins in then, and the three of you briefly discuss Larry's performance in his bouts - what was done well, what could have been done better, that sort of thing. Given the rules of the event limited what he could do with ki, there isn't a whole lot to say on that front, even though it's the main area where he needs work; when it comes to pure physical condition and skill, Larry's doing as well as anybody else in his class.
You know, anybody that isn't you.
Cordy is in the middle of a spar. Her opponent seems to be a reasonable match in most respects, a boy about the same height and maybe slightly heavier than she is, on par in terms of technical skill and with enough of a grasp on his ki to keep up with the general-purpose Enhancement she has going - though perhaps not the low-end Ki Strike she's using enhancing her blows.
"How many matches does this make?" you ask Briar and Amy over the noise of the crowd.
"This is number five," your partner replies.
"One win by ring-out, one by pin, one by concession, and one by disqualification," Amy recounts.
Going at about the same pace that Larry was... wait, disqualification?
"Yeah, her third opponent was a spoiled brat," Briar says. "He was too well-dressed for something like this, he walked into the ring with his nose so high in the air he could have smelled a Peahat in flight-"
The rest of your group give her some odd looks at the Hyrulean metaphor.
"-and he threw a fit when Cordy committed the apparently unforgiveable twin sins of dodging his attacks and hitting him back."
...
"What," Larry says.
"See, that's what I said!" Amy complains.
"What did he think was going to happen?" you wonder. "Did he expect her to just... stand there and let him hit her?"
"Probably," Amy sighs.
"Maybe not stand STILL," Briar adds, "but the kid definitely seemed to think he was allowed to hit his opponent whenever he wanted."
...hoo, boy.
Lu-sensei mutters something uncomplimentary about "young masters."
"Anyway, the official told the kid to continue the fight, and when he didn't, gave him a warning that he'd be disqualified if he kept arguing and holding up the match - and when the kid got insulting about having a GIRL in charge of a match, she booted him."
"Literally?" you ask, glancing at the woman overseeing Cordy's bout, which looks to be winding up, with Cordelia having backed her opponent into a corner AND tripped him.
"Sadly, no," your partner sighs.
"He deserved it," Amy grumbles.
As Cordy gets her fifth win and opts to go for a sixth, you consider how to proceed.
Ask Lu-sensei what he was saying to himself about "young masters."
"Hm? Oh, that." Your teacher sighs. "I suppose I should warn you about the type, now that you've encountered one, so to speak - but would you mind if we waited until Cordelia was finished? It's something she should hear as well, and it's not so interesting a topic that I want to repeat it."
That's fine by you, and you focus your attention on Cordy's sixth match, which is against an energetic, sport-looking girl who all but bounces into the ring and then goes dangerously still as she takes her opening stance.
When the official starts the match, the girl all but explodes into movement, a clearly ki-assisted charge that - speaking without any bias in Cordelia's favor - you have to say comes close to breaking the facade of normalcy the organizers have been trying to maintain. She doesn't start glowing, thankfully, or even pull off a Body Flicker, but the sudden acceleration still draws some shouts of surprise from the crowd and a brief, quickly-hidden wince from the ref.
Cordy moves almost as quickly as her opponent, but also somewhat more "realistically," as she merely sidesteps-
"Wha-"
-sticks out a foot-
"-AAAAAAAA-"
*Wham!*
-and watches as the other girl trips over it and goes flying head over heels onto, along, and finally off of the mat-
*Whump*
-flinching slightly at the end.
"...owie."
"...are you alright, Miss?" the attendant calls.
The fallen girl raises one hand, thumb up. "Somehow."
"Alright, then. Winner, Chase!"
Maybe it's the shock of somebody nearly breaking the rules and coming at her at such high speed, maybe it's a consideration that winning six rounds straight without a break might look suspicious, or maybe it's something she was planning to do from the outset - whatever her reasoning, Cordy takes the win and the opportunity to take a breather.
"And are YOU alright?" Lu-sensei asks his other student.
"I'm fine, Sensei," Cordelia replies. "My foot's a little jarred from tripping her, but nothing I can't walk off."
"Hm. If you're sure, then. Well, by my count, we have ten minutes or so before they get to Miss Madison's turn, so there is something Alex asked about that I should explain for all of you..."
He proceeds to enlighten all of you about the strange creatures known as "young masters," which haunt the world of the martial arts.
In short, a young master is someone who has somehow gained a degree of favor in the eyes of a more powerful individual - be it a relative, a master, a patron, or something similar - and subsequently let it go to his head.
The reasoning is approximately thus: "If this great person who is so respected by all holds me in high esteem, then should others not show me the same respect? Would doing less not be questioning my patron's judgment, and thereby doing him insult? In fact, should not those lesser than my patron regard me with GREATER respect than my patron does, due to the differences in position?"
From there, the favored son, once-in-a-generation genius, or blessed-by-Heaven individual proceeds to go off the rails, abusing his position and his patron's good name to take what he wants - what he believes he is owed - and to force others to fall in line.
"...so, basically spoiled children," you sum up.
"They have much in common," Lu-sensei agrees, "right down to the tendency to threaten people with their backer's disfavor and running to said individual to beg for help, after reality has punched them in the face a time or three."
"Should I be worried?" Cordelia asks with a frown and a cautious glance at the crowd around you.
"Unless an overprotective parent has already showed up to scream accusations and threats...?"
The girls shake their heads.
"...then no, I wouldn't worry about it too much this time. A typical spoiled brat has to learn a certain degree of self-control, creativity, and smarm before he can really be called a young master - that tends to take at least until the teen years."
"So they're also like evil Pokemon, then?"
Everybody stops and stares at you.
"How do you hear 'spoiled martial arts brats' and get 'Pokemon'?" Cordelia exclaims in bafflement.
"It seemed pretty clear to me?" you reply with some confusion of your own, as you look around at the group. "Did nobody else make the connection?"
"Walk us through your reasoning," Lu-sensei advises.
You start counting points off on one hand: "They're strange young creatures who wield fancy powers to fight others like themselves; they have trainers to help them learn and grow; they eventually 'evolve' into a larger and more dangerous form; they can be a hazard to ordinary people; it sounds like their main form of communication is repeating a name; and on top of all that," you add, gesturing at the gym around you, "they even take part in regional tournaments."
...
"...Sensei," Larry asks, "is there anything like a Pokeball-?"
"I'm.. pretty sure there isn't?" your master replies uncertainly. His voice grows more assured as he continues, "At least not within the realms of pure martial arts. I'm also not familiar with any single spell or enchanted item that has all the functions of one, although I suppose that almost anything would be possible with the right sort of magic."
He's not wrong, but no magical equivalents to a Pokeball come to your mind, either. The Spell to Summon Monsters and the Spell to Summon Nature's Allies come closest, with their ability to call out a roster of creatures to fight for you at a moment's notice, send them away afterwards, and even to let you sort-of "catch" interesting beings you encounter. That said, entities called up with those spells don't have the sort of existential continuity that a Pocket Monster would: many of them can't remember what happens to them while they're summoned, which makes it impossible for them to learn and grow from the experience; and even those that do retain their memories can't carry things like the benefits of physical training or improvements to their equipment between summonings.
There are also limits on just what sort of creatures you can "capture" using the basic Summoning Spells, whether in terms of their power (which must always less than your own) or their basic nature. A Pokeball wouldn't care if a Pokemon was an animal, a vermin, a plant, a magical beast, a dragon, an elemental, one of the undead, or even a construct, just that it WAS a Pokemon, whereas Summon Monster could only call up a couple of those types - and a couple of others that Pokemon doesn't really have equivalents for, admittedly. Summon Nature's Ally has a somewhat broader range, but would still fall short of the entire range.
Anyway, you're getting off track, and since nobody seems to have anything to say in response to your first thought, you quickly move on to another one.
"You mentioned punching them in the face three times... does it usually go that quickly?"
Lu-sensei blinks again, but doesn't hesitate to take the conversational opening you've offered him.
"In my experience, most young masters won't go running back to their patrons after a single defeat," he explains. "Many are too proud, others are afraid of what their masters will say if they don't at least TRY to save face on their own, and some just get too angry to think of anything but revenge. Whatever his personal motivations, handing a young master two clear losses in a row is usually enough to shake his confidence, and one more solid beatdown on top of that will humble most of them enough to admit their failings to their superiors - as opposed to the thugs, lackeys, servants, dupes, threatened victims, and paid-off or honor-bound peers they tend to try throwing at the problem before that."
...that is... quite a list. He's COMPLETELY sure Cordy doesn't have anything to worry about?
"As I said, a spoiled brat hasn't yet had the time to build up the personal skills and resources to be a proper young master, and if the parents or guardians of the one she fought haven't turned up by now, they're not likely to."
Lu-sensei's opinion counts for a lot with you, particularly in his area of expertise. That having been said, you would rather not lower your guard completely, if only because that "youngest master" is probably still walking around the exhibition, and might cause trouble if he runs into Cordy again, or even just spots her at a distance.
For that matter, there may be others of the type present, in which case being on the lookout for them just seems like a good idea.
You're not sure what happens when two or more young masters encounter one another, but based on what Lu-sensei said, it's probably the sort of thing best observed from a distance.
While you and your companions have been discussing matters, the matches have been ticking steadily along in the background. Soon enough, you hear Amy's name called, and the young witch takes a deep, steadying breath before heading for the designated ring - and pausing on her third step when she catches sight of her opponent.
If you weren't present, the boy in question would probably be the largest participant in the Under Tens Division, although his size is expressed less in height - in which respect he's only got a couple of inches on most of the other boys, though that puts him a good half a head above Amy - and more in girth; you'd swear there's enough of him to make two of her, and while some of that is childhood pudge - which has undoubtedly gotten the guy teased - at least as much of it is muscle, and that on top of the sort of frame that is just built bigger than most.
Looking at him on the supernatural level, the boy is more average, with a ki aura that is... probably not active yet, or else has only awakened. Aside from that, he registers as a normal human.
Amy seems to have noticed as much herself, as she starts walking again after only a moment's hesitation.
Do you have any advice for her?
"Stay out of the corners."
He may not be made of earth and stone like certain elementals of your acquaintance, but this guy is the next best thing to being a walking wall, and if he gets Amy into a corner, odds are that the only way she'll be leaving it is if she falls or is pushed off of the mat.
Under other circumstances, she could potentially jump or even levitate herself out of such a tight spot - you haven't seen her using a Spell of Flight as of yet - but pulling magic out of her proverbial pointy hat likely wouldn't go over any better with the referee than using an obvious ki technique.
Amy nods at your warning as she walks away.
"And remember," you call after her, "the bigger they are..."
"The harder they hit," she concludes, speaking back over her shoulder.
"I'll accept that answer," you return.
You were one of several fighters in the "exceptionally large for your age" category back at the World Tournament, and unfortunately, you were the only one who you'd say had a friendly temperament. Othrym the young frost giant was quite cold, his buddy William the half-troll seemed to have been channeling the spirit of a football hooligan, and that Berserker fellow Altria fought lived down to his name.
While you aren't sure if you should expect similar behavior from this big fellow, when he frowns at Amy's entrance into the ring, you find yourself expecting him to mock her size or gender.
Instead, he looks to the official and says, "I just want to be sure: it's NOT against the rules for me to be so much bigger than she is?"
"Everyone has their own advantages," is the reply, "and knowing how to adapt to different situations and opponents is part of being a martial artist."
The big guy nods and turns to Amy. "Are you okay with this?"
"I spar with that guy in class," she replies, pointing at you.
Her opponent and the ref look at you.
You wave.
"...huh," the big guy says. He looks back at Amy. "Have you ever won?"
She laughs. "Not even once. He's not JUST big, he's fast, too."
"...that actually makes me feel better about this," the kid replies, as he settles into a stance.
Amy does likewise, and the official commences the spar.
You soon see why the big guy might have felt better after learning about Amy's fights with you - he's not fast. He's got reasonable speed for his size, and could undoubtedly move faster in bursts if he wanted to, but he seems to prefer taking measured steps that help to keep his footing stable, so that he can fully leverage his weight on the offense and the defense.
And if he's not fast over distance, he's pretty quick within the space he occupies, having no issue blocking or redirecting Amy's probing strikes or forcing her to dodge some shots of his own. Her hits don't really seem to affect the big guy, at least not until she delivers a middle kick that gets a grunt when he takes it on his arms; thereafter, when Amy goes for another kick, her opponent makes a point of avoiding it rather than taking the hit directly.
Size against speed and durability against skill, it could go either way, but then you notice that Amy is muttering as if to herself while her fingers move through the gestures of a spell - not concealed, by any means, but seemingly subsumed by the kata she performs in the same moment, as if the wiggling movements are all part of the form.
Clever girl. And you're pretty sure that's the Spell of Bull's Strength that she's been working on...
A modest strength boost not only makes Amy's speed advantage even greater - muscle, after all, being the body's method of generating thrust - it negates a good part of the strength advantage her larger opponent should have, while also reducing his ability to take hits from her. Given that this seems to be a core element of his style, the unexpected force of Amy's next kick puts the guy decidedly off balance for a minute.
He recovers and goes more on the offensive, using momentum to enhance his blows and forcing Amy to dodge more and attack less. Maybe if he'd done that sooner, it would have helped him more, but after the hits Amy was able to deliver earlier, the big guy has used up a chunk of stamina, and now he's burning through even more - and this without conscious control of his ki to support him.
He doesn't fall over wheezing or anything like that, but that burst of aggressive speed soon burns out, and when Amy resumes her previous kick-based attacks, her sparring partner can't keep up.
After about three minutes, he breaks contact, backs off, and signals to the ref that he's conceding the match.
Aside from the normal disappointment at being defeated in his first spar, the big guy appears... pretty content with the outcome of the match. Amy, in turn, does a little skip-and-twirl as she punches the air victoriously.
"Winner, Madison!"
Many a martial purist would object to Amy's use of arcane magic in the middle of a spar.
Most witches would laugh at such a notion, admittedly not always for the same reasons.
Some would say that magic is just another skill Amy has worked hard to develop, and so free game. Others would repeated what the referee said at the start of the match about everyone having their own advantages, and adapting to unexpected challenges. Many would point at the boy's size advantage, and declare that Amy was just evening up the odds in that area.
And then there are those witches who would say that using magic to bring defeat and despair to one's opponents is precisely the sort of thing that a witch SHOULD be doing, with any failure to be heckled mercilessly at the next coven meeting.
For your part, you are mainly happy that Amy won and proud of her for pulling off a new spell, particularly in a way that didn't look obviously magical to the uninformed. She's not the first person you've seen today showing off a fancy form or just posing impressively, and you doubt she'll be the last.
...you do spare a moment to wonder if that was also the influence of Mrs. Madison, the former cheerleading captain, but then shrug it off as not really a big deal.
Amy's second match is against a more normally sized boy, and one who actually does have a handle on his ki. That's the bad news; the good news is that her first bout ended quickly enough after she called on her magic that the Spell of Bull's Strength is still going strong when the next spar begins.
This visibly confuses and frustrates the ki-using boy, particularly after he focuses his energies on his eyes in an attempt to see what technique Amy is using to keep up with him. That frustration in turn makes him careless, which is enough to tip the otherwise pretty even match in the American girl's favor - at least until the two-minute mark, when her spell starts to fade.
The sudden weakening of Amy's defense spurs her opponent into an all-out assault, backing her up against the edge of the mat, but a moment later, that proves to have been a mistake on his part - or perhaps a bit of clever thinking on hers - as Amy suddenly recovers her "lost" strength and speed, sidesteps one swift strike, seizes the extended arm, and, before its owner can do more than cry out in surprise, turns herself about and drags the boy along for the ride, sending him stumbling just three steps forward and out of the ring.
For her third match, Amy faces off with a girl, in what is easily her fairest fight yet. Neither participant has a real edge in size, reach, or skill, both girls have yet to awaken their ki abilities, and Amy makes no attempt to call on her magic, which is her only significant advantage that you can see.
The choice to fight fair proves... not wrong, perhaps, but not optimal. This is Amy's third bout in a row, meaning that her endurance has taken a hit - several hits, even, some of them quite literal - and without magic or active ki to shore up her stamina, she gradually proves unable to keep up with a fresh, peer opponent.
It doesn't come to a pin or a ring-out. After about two minutes, the first of which sees a solid effort from both sides, while the latter has Amy struggling more and more to keep up as the match goes on, your friend breaks contact and calls to the official that she forfeits.
Do you have anything you wish to say at this point?
"Congratulations, my student!" you greet Amy upon her return.
Lily, Larry, and Cordy join most of the bystanders in earshot in giving you funny looks for that remark - although Cordy and Larry's expressions quickly shift to looks of recollection that basically say, "Oh, right, he teaches her magic."
No few of the others follow up by glancing at Lu-sensei in silent inquiry, their lack of comprehension not helped by how completely at ease and unoffended the obvious kung fu master in your group appears in the wake of your statement.
"Yes, that bit with the strength-focusing form was well done," your martial master agrees easily.
"Thank you, Senseis," Amy replies with a half-bow and a suitable amount of cheek.
She HAS learned well, hasn't she?
You give some thought to seeing to that prospective business deal, but a quick check of the time tells you that it's still shy of one o'clock, meaning that the clothiers are probably still out to lunch. No sense in calling for another hour or so, and if you're going to wait that long, you may as well see the entire division through.
And that's what you do.
There are a lot of kids signed up for this thing, such that even with six different mats set up for the spars and a general lack of delays, it takes over an hour for them to work all the way through the original list from start to finish. After that, however, vaguely familiar faces start appearing for their second go round, and it doesn't take too long after that for you to hear Larry and Cordy's names being called up once more.
Larry's first bout ends... kind of embarrassingly, really.
"What happened, man?" you exclaim.
"I don't know! He wasn't that big and he didn't seem that good, so I went for a pin, and the next thing I know we're BOTH out of the ring?" He finishes that with a look at Lu-sensei.
"I believe your opponent specialized in grappling, rather than strikes," your teacher explains. "However, he wasn't quite prepared to deal with someone capable of using ki..."
Cordy wins three more matches in a row, the first one fairly closely - or so Briar and Amy tell you - the second by a more comfortable margin, and the third by the skin of her teeth-
"Let GO of me!"
-having to resort to a more intense use of ki to break the grapple-turned-pin her opponent managed to get her in. There are some surprised reactions from the crowd when she manages to force her way out of the hold, but the fact that it clearly took an effort and saps her performance for the remainder of the fight seems to convince the audience that it was a normal (if significant) achievement, which in turn eases the official's concerns.
All the same, Cordy bows out from trying for a fourth round.
"Overdid it?" you ask.
"Yeah," she admits, holding her arms gingerly as she turns to Lu Tze. "How long does it take for your arms to stop aching after a move like that, Sensei?"
"That depends on how much you've strained them..."
He proceeds to give Cordy a quick once-over, before declaring she'll be fine in a few minutes, although she should avoid doing something like that again for a few hours - or for preference, a day or two.
Amy's next turn eventually comes around, and she manages two wins - one very good, the other absolutely crushing.
"WHOAAAA!"
"Sorry!"
"...fortunately, he's not the first person to go flying at this thing," you observe, head turning to track the trajectory.
"She definitely needs more practice with the strength spell, though," Briar notes. "Particularly how to hold back against tiny people..."
Yeah, there is that. In fairness, Amy cast the spell against her PREVIOUS opponent rather than this one, but...
Anyway, the slightly problematic magic has worn off by the time Amy's third bout gets started, and that one ends up a draw.
It doesn't take as long for Larry and Cordy to get called up the third time, and when you check the board of names that's been set up to one side of the rings - and which is being constantly updated by no less than six more officials - you realize that a number of the contestants have dropped out.
Some people probably withdrew after losing two or three times, or perhaps because they only wanted to spar the one time - or one series. Others probably had inconvenient schedules catch up to them - whether their own or other people's, it amounts to the same thing - and you know there was at least one disqualification, so that's precedent for a few more, especially if there were some other "youngest master" types attending the event. Injury might have taken a couple more, although to the credit of everyone involved, there's been no serious harm done as far as you've noticed.
You're torn between encouraging your friends to keep fighting even if it gets rough, and refraining from being pushy to instead let them make their own calls.
The ability to endure hardship and perform well even in a less-than-optimal condition is important for a lot of things besides martial arts, but so is the ability to recognize one's own limits and make appropriate judgment calls.
In the end, you prefer winning and seeing people you like win to the alternatives, so you decide to give your friends a helpful push in that direction if it seems like they're wavering.
It proves unnecessary when Larry's next turn comes around. His previous first-bout ring-out, as well as Cordy's considerable lead in number of bouts fought (let alone won) seems to have galvanized him, and he goes into the first match of his third "round" with a determined air.
That spar ends with a clear win, and Larry goes into his second match in good spirits-
"What the-?!"
-only to pretty much get demolished by a rather more practiced ki adept, who finally forces your friend to concede.
"Thinking of calling it quits?" you ask him after that.
"...I'm tempted," Larry admits, as he glances at the clock up on one of the gym walls. "But I think there's enough time for maybe two more rounds before they announce a winner, and if I've gotten this far, I should try to go the distance, right?"
"Right," you agree simply.
Cordelia, meanwhile, either needed more time to recover from her previous overexertion, or is just feeling the fatigue after ten matches, because she turns in easily her worst performance thus far. Her opponent doesn't do much better, but the difference is just enough for the other girl to scrape out a win. This understandably leaves Queen C in something of a funk, although you recognize the signs well enough not to suggest that she's considering quitting.
Amy gives Cordy some hesitant looks while waiting for her next turn to come up, and by the time it does, she's clearly resolved herself to make a good effort.
*Wham!*
Her first bout is an outstanding win, and this time she didn't even need to use magic to do it.
Amy's performance in her second match is decidedly less impressive, perhaps due to the effort of her previous win catching up to her, but she pulls off a win - mainly because her opponent trips over the seam where the mats are joined together and isn't able to recover before Amy knocks them over and down, resulting in a pin.
In her third bout, Amy gets a second wind and just crushes her sparring partner, but her winning streak ends there, as the fourth match puts her up against another ki adept, and whether due to lack of energy or being too pressed to cast, she isn't able to get another Spell of Bull's Strength up to level the battlefield. She makes a good effort despite that, but soon enough, is forced to admit defeat.
Given Amy is the least interested of your group in competitive fighting, you're a little surprised when, upon rejoining your group, she smirks at Larry and says, "I'm up by two and a half."
Some martial mathematics ensue, and yeah, with seven wins, one draw, and one loss to Larry's five wins and two losses, Amy's count is correct. Of course, Cordy's nine wins and one loss still give her the clear lead...
Being in last place clearly sparks something in Larry, because in his next match, he fights brilliantly - but so does his opponent, which results in a whirlwind two-minute bout that actually has the other spars slowing down or stopping altogether to watch. When Larry manages to ring out his opponent, there's a general round of applause.
Larry manages two more wins - the first of these is less showy, but still demonstrates clear dominance of the ring, while the next shows a distinct loss of energy - before finally getting knocked down and pinned in his fourth match.
Cordy's next match ends in a draw, and Amy follows that up - almost literally, thanks to the ongoing reduction in numbers - with a win and a draw.
With only a point and a half separating the leader (Cordy) from last place (Larry), your friends are sufficiently fired up that they hardly need any encouragement.
You give it anyway.
Larry's next match is a draw, Cordelia follows that with a superb win and then a draw, and Amy takes a loss - and then the officials call a halt to the matches, as they begin counting up the victories.
Eight wins apiece sees Larry and Amy placing reasonably well, although Cordy's ten wins make her the winner of their little in-School competition. She does quite well overall, sharing Third Place (eleven points total) in the event with two boys, behind a boy and girl who tied for first (at twelve and a half points).
Almost everybody in the winners' bracket is an obvious ki-user, incidentally, the only exception being one of the guys Cordy tied with on points, who has monster blood of some sort, although the influence is faint enough that you can't pick out exactly what his ancestor was.
The "prizes" are simple paper certificates, and the fact that the end result was two sets of ties - one of them between three people, at that - means that one of the officials has to head down to the office to get a few copies printed off.
Applause and accolades are given, and when Cordelia rejoins your group with her Third Place certificate in hand - because like heck was she accepting a copy - there are some more personal congratulations, as well as a pair of, "I'll get you next time!" challenges.
You obligingly pocket the paper so that it doesn't get folded, stained, or torn, and the girls disappear to the bathroom for a bit to freshen up, with Briar wanting to give Cordelia a once-over and perhaps a spot of healing before the Under Fourteens Division gets underway.
While the girls are away, you get out your Magic Cellphone and the number you got from the clothing display.
"What's this, now?" Lu-sensei wonders.
You briefly explain about the suit you saw, as well as the other outfits, and your desire to speak with the people who made the former.
"Out of curiosity," you ask, "do you know anything about the shop in question, or the people who work there?"
"The name 'Sing's Suits' does not ring any bells," your teacher says, "but that's not saying much, as I was hardly a devoted follower of fashion when I lived here, nor have I exactly bothered to keep up on the subject. Eh, don't mention that to Miss Chase, though," he adds.
"My lips are sealed, Sensei," Larry assures him.
Cordy signed up for the Under Fourteens Division spars, which are due to begin in a few minutes - though as with the Under Tens Division, it'll be a while after the commencement before she gets her chance in the ring. Considering that she'll already be at a disadvantage due to her size, and possibly her training and experience as well, you really don't see the point of imposing a further handicap and making Cordy fight through the accumulated fatigue and (minor) injury of her previous bouts, when you have very reasonable alternatives.
Since Briar was already considering healing Cordy, you suggest that she go all-in and use some of her daily supply of fairy dust to be thorough about the job.
You're prepared to defend your reasoning-
"Oh, good idea," Amy says.
"Yeah, I was not really looking forward to going up against the older kids like this," Cordy agrees.
"Then why did you sign up for it?"
"I wasn't expecting to strain my arms or be quite this tired, okay?"
"I'll do that, then," Briar finishes over their conversation.
-but it doesn't appear to be necessary.
"So I should tell Cordy to get you a wardrobe makeover for your next birthday, then?"
"Please don't," Lu-sensei sighs. "I'd have nowhere to put all the new outfits."
"Isn't the idea to throw out the old clothes to make room for the new ones?"
"They are perfectly serviceable, and many have sentimental value!" your master defends.
"...are we talking 'I got this from a friend' or 'I wore this when I won the tournament' type sentiment, or is it more the 'This rip is from that one guy with the knives' and 'Those purple stains are demon blood' sort?"
"Six of one, half dozen of the other..."
You get on with making your phonecall.
*Ring*
...
*Ring*
...
"Sing's Suits, Formalwear For All Occasions," a young man's voice says with a bright but rehearsed-sounding tone. "How may I help you?"
"Good afternoon," you begin. "My name is Alex Harris, and I left a message this morning regarding a suit I saw at the martial arts exhibition in Changdu..."
"One moment, please..." You hear the faint sound of paper rustling. "Here we are. It says that you wished to make an appointment, and the suit in question would be the business formal with the Fighter's Fit package." He describes the cut and color of the outfit for a moment to be sure that you're both talking about the same thing, which you confirm. "I can get you in for a fitting two weeks from now..."
"Oh, if only you knew someone that could magically increase the space you have to store things," you say dryly.
Lu-sensei's expression and tone are just as sandy as he returns, "Be careful about throwing blunt reminders like that around, lad."
...
"...I don't quite follow?" you admit.
"Making a threat-"
"Offer."
"-making a statement," your master corrects himself, "about magically-expanded closet-space in conjunction with a threat-"
Okay, it's a valid choice of words this time.
"-to unleash Miss Chase on a clothes-shopping spree."
...
Oh.
Oooh.
"She'd take it as a challenge," you realize.
"And as an opportunity," Lu-sensei continues.
"Because if you can make ONE magic closet," Larry chimes in, "you can make MORE."
Yeah, you made a few Bags of Holding earlier this year to hand out as reverse-birthday presents. A "Closet of Holding" - or maybe a Closet of Containment? A Sideboard of Storage? A Locker of... Lots? Anyway, creating something like that would mainly be a matter of scaling up the enchantments you put on the Bags, and applying them to something bigger and sturdier than cloth or leather.
...
Thinking on it, you're actually a little surprised that Cordy hasn't approached you about something like this already, as that Spidersilk Purse you gave her was one of the expanded Bags in question.
Maybe she was more impressed by the glamor that allows the Purse to always match whatever outfit she's wearing, and just hasn't given the spatial expansion magic that much thought?
A fitting would be fine. You can talk in the process, right? You can teleport. Coming back in a couple of weeks is no hassle.
Not for the last time, you muse upon the convenience of space-time magic when it comes to the matter of long-range travel, although it doesn't resolve everything.
Two weeks from now would be the thirty-first of July, and there's nothing on your calendar that will prevent you from taking a couple of hours to make the trip. The time zones are less helpful, given there's about seven and a half hours' difference between Sunnydale and Changdu: if you went in for a fitting "first thing" that morning - which is to say, nine o'clock local time - you'd only have to be out of Sunnydale around four-thirty or five in the afternoon, depending on how much time you wanted to allow yourself to look around. Even allotting a couple of hours for the actual fitting and the trip home, you could be back well before dark, particularly at this time of year.
Unfortunately, Sing's doesn't have any openings for nine in the morning on July 31st. They're booked until four in the afternoon that day, which is half past midnight by California time. There IS a nine am opening the next day, though.
Which do you prefer?
"I mean, if she's willing to pay..."
You're a little concerned that you may be tempting fate by offering to provide magically expanded closet space to Cordelia, but the prospect of doing something nice for a friend AND getting paid for it is too tempting for you to ignore.
Really, you blame the influence of the various supernatural and/or supernaturally-involved shopkeepers and deal-makers in your life.
That said, the middle of a busy public venue like this, right before a series of matches in which Cordy will need her full focus, seems like a lousy time to present that offer to her, so you make a mental note to bring it up later.
Yeah, given the choice, you would much rather wait a day longer to get a fitting than to have to rearrange a chunk of your schedule or be out wandering the Hellmouth after dark. It's just less hassle all around.
"Tuesday, August 1st, at 9:00 a.m.," the employee says, after you've stated your preference. "Name of Alex Harris - how is the family name spelled?"
As you spell the name out for him, you muse that this is the first time anybody has ever asked you that question, at least that you can easily recall. Then again, while Harris is a pretty common name in the States, it's probably not one often encountered in this part of the world - and aside from the World Tournament and today's exhibition, both of which had registration forms, you do believe this fitting is the first appointment you've made for yourself ahead of time with someone who didn't already know you.
"Thank you. And that will be a fitting for a business formal suit with the Fighter's Fit modifications?"
Sounds good.
"Excellent. We will see you then, Mister Harris."
"Until then," you reply, before ending the conversation.
While you've been talking, the event staff have been making their preparations for the next set of spars. The names from the Under Tens Division participants who made it to the last "round" have been removed from the board and replaced with a larger set of names, the mats have been inspected and given a quick cleaning in a few places, and a few people are going around calling names and checking with those who respond - when one of them calls out "Chase, Cordelia!" Lu-sensei steps in on her behalf, which leads to a discussion between the official and the master to confirm, again, that the latter feels his nine-year-old student is both willing and able to compete in this higher age and skill bracket, without putting herself at risk.
You catch your teacher quietly assuring the younger man that Cordelia's mundane technique and ki skills are both up to the task, even if her experience and size may *ahem* come up short.
As it happens the girls don't get back from the washroom until after the Under Fourteens sparring matches have started, but that's fine; Cordy isn't up for a while yet, anyway.
To pass the time, you...
You're pretty well-versed in the techniques of the Five Elements Style at this point, if you do say so yourself, and you'll have further opportunities to observe it in the coming days. These spars are your first opportunity to see some of these other styles - and the Under Fourteens Division, the first rank where you're likely to pick up really USEFUL insights, whether those are in how to counter techniques or how to perform them for yourself - and you think you should take advantage of that.
On that note, while you'll undoubtedly end up doing some back-and-forth observation of the matches in general - with a certain bias for competitors demonstrating the most developed ki signatures, be it in terms of raw power, honed skill, or more unusual qualities - you'd probably be best served by getting a look at the moves of the School of the Five Great Elements. They're the only organized group attending the exhibition to have demonstrated any sort of unfriendliness, which tends to make you think it's more likely that you'll end up fighting one of them for real than you will any of the other visitors, and if that proves to be the case, knowing what their style looks like would be a good thing.
As it happens, none of the first six bouts have a student of the Five Great Elements taking part, at least not that you can tell. Not everybody taking part in this thing is wearing a uniform, after all, and even among those that are, not all are wearing the colors or symbol of their school.
Nobody too obviously impressive seems to be part of the first group, either, which leaves you looking from one match to the next-
"Winner!"
-and then back again. Even with your passive Ki Sight going, the constant change in targets and some relaxed or downright unimpressive first round performances mean that you don't see anything or anyone really noteworthy until about three bouts in, which is when somebody who IS visibly affiliated with the Five Great Elements Style steps up to take his turn on the mats.
Almost as soon as he takes an opening stance, you start seeing parallels between his style and yours that go beyond the names. Both appear to emphasize maneuverability and strike-based attacks, and judging from the age of the fighter in question - going on twelve, to your eye - teachers of the Five Great Elements are willing to start in on ki techniques just as early, if the student is up to it. As for differences, this boy's stance is a bit more grounded than what you'd consider normal, and some of his movement suggest a greater level of flexibility, but whether these traits are down to his style or are instead personal qualities is unclear at the moment.
You'll need to observe some other Five Greats... Great Fives? FiGrEs, maybe?
Do you have a preferred name for members of your school's apparent rivals?
Oh, yes, and what will you do if one of THEIR matches is taking place at the same time as one of Cordy's?
"Out of curiosity, Sensei," you begin. "Is there a recognized shorthand for 'member of the School of the Five Great Elements'?"
Lu-sensei blinks, and then asks, "What brought this on?"
"I've been running that full title through my head on and off since this morning," you reply. "It occurred to me that it's a little cumbersome for conversational use, and I just wondered if someone had come up with a nickname or abbreviation or something that was more convenient."
"I see. Well, there's never been anything official, and as your master, I would of course frown on unnecessary rudeness to fellow practitioners of the martial arts who are in good standing-"
"Of course, sir."
"-however frustrating they occasionally may have been, historically," he adds. "That said, I have heard the terms 'Great' or 'Greats' used among students, as well as 'Great One,' 'In-great,' and 'Xinger'."
You consider those names for a moment.
"'Among students,'" you repeat, before adding a half-question, half-statement, "but not among masters."
"No, of course not," the old man agrees with a tone of airy superiority. "After all, a true master is always very formal and polite when addressing his rivals, even in the privacy of his own thoughts."
Uh-huh.
"And of course," you say dryly, "you never used those nicknames yourself, even when you were a student."
"Indeed not."
Cheering for the only one of your friends taking part in this Division is more important to you than observing people who aren't actually enemies, particularly since you'll have had at least some opportunity to see what they're capable of before then, and will most likely have more chances after Cordy's turn on the mats is over.
With that decided, you settle in to watch the rest of your first Five Great Elements bout-
!
-which just went from an exchange of strikes, blocks, and counters to a grapple. In the process, the stance of the guy you've been observing changed considerably, and rather more so than your own style calls for in such a situation where near-complete freedom of movement is no longer a possibility. It's not a complete abandonment of the Five Great Elements' form - the stylistic similarities are still clear to see - the shift was dramatic, if not especially fast.
"A classic Water Nourishes Wood leading into Wood Restrains Earth," Lu Tze notes. "The Five Great Elements' basic Water Stance is a decent all-rounder, but the Wood Stance is superior for grappling..."
"Then why does it look like he's only breaking even with his opponent?" you ask.
"He was too slow changing changing stances, and gave his opponent time to adjust," Lu-sensei admits with a shrug. "The Five Great Elements Style utilizes the cycles of the Five Elements to build up the user's power and erode that of their opponents, but where a master sees the style as a whole and can exploit maximum advantage from minimal changes in stance, this boy is still at the stage of thinking of his stances as separate techniques that he needs to transition fully between before use. He used up too much time and energy just getting himself into position, and that gave his opponent a chance to break his rhythm."
Hm.
"Then I shall strive to follow in your footsteps, Sensei," you reply dutifully.
"Good lad."
"At least until I hear a really good nickname for them, or come up with it myself," you add.
"That is entirely fair," Lu-sensei concedes.
Does this style have actual elemental techniques, or is it mostly a matter of philosophy and physics?
"The Five Great Elements Style includes elemental techniques at the higher levels of skill, just as our own school does," your master replies. "In fact, due to their emphasis on the phases and cycles of power, elemental ki tends to manifest more easily and more often among their ranks than our own. That said, the phenomenon is a topic of some debate among their masters."
Oh?
"The Five Elements exist in a cycle of generation and consumption, balancing one another," your teacher explains. "The general thrust of the Five Great Elements Style is to emulate that balance in one's own art, and in one's wider life."
You're with him so far.
"When it comes to elemental ki, some of the masters hold that the best way to pursue it is to maintain an approximate balance on the individual level. As I'm sure you're aware, this is easier said than done."
Oh, yes. Your ambition to cultivate your own elemental affinities has given you a good idea of the difficulty involved in such things, and while students of School of Five Great Elements would be working with a smaller number of concepts, they wouldn't have access to the sort of magic that you do. Indeed, if they're similar to the School of Five Elements, where you've sensed only a handful of rudimentary talents and a larger crop of unremarkable potentials over the last couple of days, most wouldn't have any magic to fall back on at all.
"Other masters feel that, while individual balance is a worthy goal, a lack of it can be compensated for with assistance from others," Lu-sensei goes on. "This has given rise to a trend of organizing classes of demonstrated elementalists, or those nearing the realization of their potential for such techniques, into groups of five - the idea being that each member will focus on developing the element they are most naturally in tune with, and that by training and socializing together, the group can collectively balance and empower all of its members."
...
A five-man team of mystically-empowered martial artists, each one aligned with and specializing in wielding a specific element, and meant to work collectively.
You can't help it. You HAVE to know, and in order to know, you have to ask.
And so you do.
Lu-sensei winces. "It... has been known to happen."
Oh, boy.
"And some of these teams have also been known to color-code their members."
Oh, man.
"Before you inquire further," he says quickly, "I will note that the School of the Five Great Elements does not teach or finance anything involving robots, let alone GIANT ones."
"Leaving that aside," you continue, "were these guys somehow the inspiration for the Prism Rangers franchise?"
"You are not the first person to ask the question," your teacher sighs. "For better or worse, the answer remains elusive. I can say that I'm not aware of any masters of the Five Great Elements ever having claimed credit for the idea, tried to take the Prism Rangers to court, or something else that would support the notion."
Well, that's... something.
You aren't sure WHAT, exactly, but it's definitely SOMETHING.
While you've been discussing this, Five Great Elements Student Number One has won his initial bout. Thanks to the limits on the fighters for this event, you didn't see anything really new in his use of ki, but his physical technique - slow and imperfect as it might be - combined with your master's insights, was at least a little instructive.
Gained Knowledge (Martial Arts) E+
In the brief pause before the subject of your attention begins his next match, you look around to see if any of his Schoolmates are fighting in the other rings-
!
-and there's a girl a couple of mats down whose movements are similar to the bout you just watched, although she's using another stance as she works to keep a distance from her larger opponent. Actually, the distance between the two is such that the shorter girl can't really hit the taller boy, except for where their respective reaches overlap, which leaves you wondering what her game plan is...
Lu-sensei gives you a VERY worried look.
"Alex, no," Briar interjects.
"Alex-" you begin.
"NO," Briar repeats, not overly loudly, but with clear emphasis. "You're not going to claim credit for my big brother's work, even if you did help source some of the materials."
You pause for a moment, blinking in surprise, before saying, "I wasn't actually considering that, Briar."
"...no?"
"No," you assure her. "I was honestly just thinking that I might make a golem or something myself some day, for bragging rights between the schools."
Briar winces, and projects a certain feeling of, / Whoops, sorry, / down your bond. Before she can speak aloud, however...
"You mean, like, a GIANT robot?" Larry asks, with no small amount of disbelief, but also the inklings of a wondrous hope.
"Probably not," you admit. "I mean, I could install a device to make something like that grow larger for a limited amount of time-"
Lu-sensei facepalms.
"-but making a golembot that was ACTUALLY as big as a building, all the time, would take a whole building's worth of raw materials, some of them very expensive, as well as more work than I want to think about."
It's really that last detail that concerns you the most at this point. Given your skills in the Schools of Conjuration, Transformation, and Summoning, you have a pretty wide range of options for acquiring crafting-grade materials, certainly well beyond what any other nine-year-old - and most ninety-year-olds - could hope for, whether that involves someone travelling a few thousand miles or to another plane of existence to engage in trade, altering an existing but less-than-ideal material into something more useful, or just outright creating some stuff from scratch. You've also come into a lot of money and material assets of late, and have plans for tools and facilities that will greatly enhance your productivity in the not-too-distant future - but in the end, one person can only craft so many magic items, particularly at one time.
Technically, building something like a proper Armos is quite likely to be within your current skills and means, but it would require you to delay any and all other projects for... most of two years, you'd venture, not to mention how it would eat up a lot of the funds that would otherwise have been directed TO said projects, and all of that simply makes the idea a non-starter. Even with a properly appointed workshop and the sort of enchanted tools you're planning to buy or build, constructing something like that would still take a few months, and costs would still be painfully significant.
What it would take to build GIANT construct on your own is just unthinkable without a sizeable crew of proper minions to handle a large portion of the labor, probably a whole dedicated factory equivalent besides, and a steadier stream of high-end income than just raiding enemy strongholds can bring you - partly because every hour spent pillaging is an hour NOT spent enchanting stuff, and partly because, sooner or latter, one runs out of rich enemies.
...not that the latter ever seemed to stop a certain green menace, but then, only one of the Links in your recollection ever engaged in serious enchanting, and THAT one had the Royal Treasury AND the complete Triforce at his disposal.
Some people are just plain cheating.
"What was that?" Lu Tze wonders.
"You said that the School of the Five Great Elements wasn't involved with robots," you clarify. "Advanced technology is probably the most traditional power source for Prism Rangers, with mystical martial arts being another, but their abilities coming from some sort of alien influence is fairly common, too."
Your teacher frowns. "I thought the aliens just handed out the advanced technology."
"In some of the series, they do, but in others there's stuff like the heroes being aliens, or being humans with alien ancestors, or being humans who were raised on other planets and got powers from the alien environments-"
"Sort of like Superman," your teacher notes.
"Basically, yeah," you agree with a nod. "Anyway, it comes up often enough that I wondered if this was another case of truth in television."
"I haven't heard anything to suggest that it is," Lu-sensei tells you. "That said, it's entirely possible that somebody saw one of those five-man bands fighting some monsters or demons and decided that, since the supernatural doesn't exist, the inhuman beings must have been aliens." He pauses, and then adds, "Or mutants."
Yeah, you're pretty sure there's been a mutant theme in a Ranger series or two...
You're curious enough about what the young lady has in mind that you keep your attention on her match, even as your first subject of observation begins his second bout.
After some quick dodges, a couple instances of thrown hands that get batted aside, and several moments of the two competitors cautiously shuffling from side to side or walking a slow circle as they read each other's stance for an opening, you start to get the impression that the girl is taunting her opponent. Not vocally, certainly, and not even with a rude gesture or smug look; it's in how she carries herself, how she avoids or deflects his attacks with an almost casual indifference, and how her expression remains flat, lazy, and almost bored the entire time.
If you're right, if she IS trying to provoke a response, then...
!
Whether because he got angry or impatient or just thinks he found an opening, the taller boy goes on the offensive again. He seems to have picked his moment well, as the circling of the two fighters has put the girl closer to one of the corners of the mat, reducing the room she has to work with to avoid her foe and giving him a chance to better leverage his size advantage.
A moment later, it's made clear that the girl was waiting for this, because she flows from that evasive stance into a more grounded one as she steps into her opponent's advance, catching one of his arms, turning, pulling-
"Whaaaahhhh!"
-and giving him a lesson in assisted takeoffs.
"Ring out!" the observer declares. "Also-"
"Ooof!"
"-are you alright?"
Still in the middle of rolling to his feet, the boy reluctantly nods to the official. Then he turns to his opponent and gives her a slight bow.
She returns the gesture with a genuinely pleasant smile.
With that over, you turn to the other Five Great Elements match in progress-
"Winner!"
-and find that you missed most of it, only seeing the boy from your rival school tap out from beneath his somewhat smaller opponent with a look of clear chagrin.
"Chase, Cordelia!" somebody calls.
And here we go again...
Cordelia's opponent is nobody you recognize, though from the symbols on his gi, you're able to identify him as a student of one of the other schools in attendance today. This is his first bout in this division as well, so he's just as rested and ready to test his skills as your friend is, a fact that makes you glad you had Briar help her recover from the fatigue of her previous matches, because the boy waiting on the mats to face Cordelia is about as big as that guy Amy had to pull out magic to beat - a reminder, as if any of you needed it, that this IS the Under Fourteens Division.
On that note, the guy does a double-take upon seeing his rather smaller opponent enter the ring, and quickly checks with the official to make sure this has been approved. When he's told that Cordelia does have permission, however, her opponent gives her a look of respectful approval.
"Testing your limits?" he asks.
"Depends on how well you fight," Cordy replies.
He laughs at that, and takes his stance. "Then I will do my best not to disappoint!"
Cordy does likewise-
"Fight!"
-and they're off.
There are a few probing exchanges, and it quickly becomes apparent that Cordy is indeed outmatched here. In terms of technique, you think she's actually pretty close to her opponent's level, close enough that it could honestly be anyone's fight if that were the only quality under consideration, but the older boy also has size and reach on his side, not to mention a more developed reserve of ki. He was doing a pretty good job of keeping it restrained at first, but as the match starts picking up, his hold on his energies slips enough for you to get a better read on the state of his reserves, and how they generally outclass Cordelia's.
Then there's the X-factor of experience. Cordy has only been practicing martial arts for a couple of years, but in that time, you've seen her spar with spellcasters, ninjas, and monsters, as well as genuinely fight several more creatures, and then there's her encounter with the mermaids that you've heard about. Fighting for your life, even in a simulated environment like the Ring of Trials, is a very different beast from a spar in the training hall, and lessons learned from those incidents would be to her advantage.
But either the boy has been training since he was old enough to walk or he has some real-world fighting experience himself, because he's not only keeping up with Cordy, he's starting to pressure her.
After thirty seconds, you can her starting to have trouble holding her ground.
After forty-five seconds, Cordy has to start falling back - but her opponent pursues, keeping her in his range, himself largely out of hers, and the pressure on, pushing her towards one of the corners.
At the one minute mark, Cordelia has basically given up trying to score hits in favor of dodging, as she tries to get out of the space she's been boxed into-
!
-and then the boy drops low and swivels about with one leg extended in a sweep, which takes Cordy's legs out from under her with a yelp of protest.
He pounces, going for a pin, which Cordelia actually manages to roll out of the way of, but she can't get far enough fast enough to escape the follow-up grab at her legs, which keeps her in place long enough for the second attempted pin to take.
A quick strike at the stomach forces the air from the boy's lungs, but doesn't suffice to make him release his target, and shortly thereafter, the ref calls it.
Do you have anything to say to Cordelia after that bout?
There isn't much to say that wasn't either self-evident or potentially condescending, so you don't bother saying it, instead just applauding both fighters for their efforts and good sportsmanship.
Of course, just because you've decided to hold your tongue, that doesn't mean the rest of your group don't have things they want to say.
"So, you've fought someone older than you, and you lost," Amy says frankly, once Cordelia is done exchanging post-fight courtesies and has rejoined you. "Are you good with that, or do you want to wait around to try again?"
"I'm going to stick with it, of course," Cordy replies. "Giving up after one spar would be taking the easy way out, and I might get luckier with my next opponent."
She might, at that. The guy she just fought isn't the biggest one here, but he's above-average for the age group, and there are plenty of others who'd be much closer to a match for Cordelia in that regard - as well as a few who SHE would have the size advantage over, if not by much. Of course, she could always end up facing off with someone just as big as her first opponent, if not even bigger, but that's a risk she was aware of when she signed up for this Division.
"Plus," she goes on, looking around, "there's plenty to see in the meantime..."
This is also true, and you spend the next three-quarters of an hour watching various fights. In that time, several more members of the School of the Five Great Elements have their turns on the mats, one of them racking up an impressive seven-bout winning streak before he bows out to take a breather. The members of your supposed rival school only count for a portion of the competitors in this event, however, and a good half of the time you're left observing other styles, usually going for the person with the strongest ki signature. On two occasions, that ends up being a member of the Five Elements Style.
Given the rules of the free spar and the level of development of your own ki skills, there is only so much you can really pick up, but that doesn't mean you learn nothing. Numerous fighters at this rank are using ki to augment themselves in various little ways that can slip past the injunction against "showy" techniques, and some of those overlap with areas you could use a little more polish in.
Gained Ki Aura E++
Gained Ki Reinforcement E
Passively weaving your aura into your clothes to strengthen them against "battle damage" and general wear and tear is perhaps not as impressive a technique as throwing Ki Blasts or pumping your strength up to superhuman levels with Ki Enhancement, but you have to admit that it's a practical skill. It might also make them a slightly better form of "armor," although the layers of Ki Armor and Ki Aura you see various people using seem more practical in that regard.
You also pick up a few things on the more mundane side, such as how well these teenagers can (and can't) hide the results of their training, tips and tricks and the odd "don't try this" for various techniques, and of course, what the various styles actually look like when they're in use. In a way, watching students spar is more instructive than seeing a demonstrative performance, partly because they're acting in a dynamic fashion rather than within the limits of a pre-determined script, and partly because most of these fighters are less skilled than the people who were putting on those shows earlier, which makes their stances and moves easier to read.
Gained Feint E+
Gained Flurry of Blows F++
Gained Knowledge (Martial Arts) E++
One other thing you note is that a lot of these spars end much more quickly than the ones in the Under Tens Division did. Cordy's ninety-second bout is not the shortest - that dubious honor goes to a boy who's probably ten at best, finds himself facing down a girl who looks like she could be in high school, and doesn't quite manage to last a minute in the ring - but it's also a long way from being the longest - you catch one fight that lasts almost four minutes, and several more around the three-minute mark.
You didn't see this kind of rapid resolution in the Under Fourteens Finals at the World Tournament, but there was something similar going on in the Under Tens preliminaries, as the better fighters took down opponents who weren't so skilled, and possibly not ready for that level of competition. Even then, though, most people who didn't enjoy obviously overwhelming advantages AND who weren't drawing things out for whatever reason - cough, cough - needed more than a couple of minutes to overcome their opponents; you suppose that the difference must be down to how many more kids in this age group are starting to really come into their own as martial artists, leaving behind the ranks of mere students to become proper disciples.
As a consequence of the relatively rapid pace of so many of the fights, Cordelia's second bout comes up sooner than you were expecting. This time around-
"Are you KIDDING me?" Queen C blurts out.
-her luck has taken a turn for the worse, as she's up against one of the biggest guys in the event!
"It may be stating the obvious, Cordy," you say, "but agility is your friend, and so is leverage. The other laws of physics..."
You pause and glance at the young man in the ring.
Cordy does likewise, as do the rest of your group.
"...not so much," you admit. "But still, as long as you keep your head and keep moving, you've got this."
"...really?" she asks you.
You look at her opponent again, and then back to her, admitting, "...being lucky wouldn't hurt."
She huffs at that, but there is no more time for talking.
The last couple of times your female friends have stepped onto the mats with boys significantly larger than they are, their opponents proved not to be the sort who like to throw their weight around and bully smaller fighters, or to have issues with girls being fighters.
If the way this guy smirks at Cordelia's approach is any indication, he's cut from a somewhat less admirable cloth. For better or worse, though, he doesn't say anything, instead simply giving her a (mocking?) salute and settling into a ready stance.
Cordelia takes a breath and does likewise.
"Begin!"
There is a surge of ki as the big guy goes from "unmoving rock formation" to "oncoming train." You hear some gasps of surprise from the audience and a couple of protests about somebody that big moving that fast, but he still seems to be within the bounds of believably human-normal ability to you, and from the lack of any whistle-blowing, the official seems to agree.
Cordy quite sensibly doesn't even try to block the punch that comes out of that, or the one that follows it, OR the quick kick which comes next. The first blow, she dodges cleanly, the second she partially redirects, and then she ducks under the kick, plants both hands on the mat, and whirls around in a kick of her own-
"Ha!"
-which connects with the leg still holding her opponent upright. To her credit, the blow is forceful enough to stagger the older boy and force him to bring his other leg back down more quickly and awkwardly than he was planning, so as to regain stability, but it isn't nearly enough to topple him - and since he's lowering his foot anyway and Cordelia is right THERE, he decides to take advantage of it by stomping her.
Birar and Larry let out wordless yells, as do other members of the crowd, but Cordy either anticipated the danger or just reacts fast enough to get out of its way, throwing herself into a forward roll that - because she was largely facing away from her opponent already - carries her out of his reach. The moment she's back on her hands and feet, Cordy turns about and springs from the mat in a rising uppercut that visibly surprises the big guy, but not so much that he isn't able to bring his arms together to block the hit that could have taken him in the face.
In that moment, when her opponent has cluttered up his own field of view and has both arms invested in a high guard, Cordelia shifts her stance and brings her right leg up in a kick-
!
-but not one that's as low as it could have been - and arguably should have, were this a real fight - connecting above the belt rather than below it.
Even physically braced and reinforced by ki, such a blow would sting, particularly since Cordy is using ki to enhance her ki enough to cancel out some of her opponent's defensive augmentation. For all that you see the older boy recoil from the strike and hear the air escaping him in a pained exhalation, it doesn't disable him; instead, even as he bends forward, he brings both hands down in a hammer-blow that clips Cordelia's head even as she backs away.
Despite that glancing blow, Cordy retains the presence of mind to keep moving; having brought her right leg back down, she now raises the left-
"Ha!"
"Guh!"
-and thanks her opponent for so obligingly lowering his head by kicking it from that side.
As the crowd lets out an, "Oooh!" of surprise, shared pain, and/or approval, you have to take a moment to wonder what happened to agility and leverage...
Cordy's kick sends her opponent into a sidelong tumble, but even as he hits the mat, you can see that the guy is not just still conscious but largely in control of his movements - not to mention how, even if he couldn't react in time to block the hit, he DID have enough warning to focus his ki to his head, neck, and shoulders to help soften the blow. Factoring in the momentum that he bleeds off in his fall-turned-roll, the teenager didn't take nearly as much damage from that hit as he could have, but it was still more than enough to get him angry, as can be plainly seen when he's back on his feet and glaring at where Cordy-
!
-was standing a moment ago. As soon as she had both feet back on the mat, she moved as fast as she could, trying to get around behind her opponent and STAY behind him as he righted himself.
In the instant that you see the realization on his face, the older boy turns-
"Ha-?!"
"Gotcha."
-and intercepts the kick Cordelia was trying to deliver to his back.
"Nice try," he says sharply, as he holds her right foot off the ground with both hands.
"Thanks," Cordy replies. "How about this?"
And then she jumps into the air, bringing her left foot up to once again kick the guy in the head-
"Son of a-!"
*Bam*
-only for him to get one arm in the way in time. Due to her awkward take-off and mid-air position, Cordelia's newest kick doesn't carry as much force as the previous two, but the way her body twists around in response to it does manage to pull her right leg free of her opponent's now single-handed grip. Dropping to the mat, Cordy manages to roll and catch herself with both hands and her knees-
"No you don't!"
"Ooof!"
-but then, despite her attempt to get out of the way, she gets caught along the side by a low, sweeping kick, which sends her into a roll. She makes one, two, three complete rotations before coming to a stop close to the edge of the mat, making choking sounds and visibly trying not to double-up where she got hit. Her opponent steps closer-
"Hold!"
-and stops mid-stride to shoot the official a startled look. "What?"
"That last kick was close to her ribs," the man replies, his tone explanatory rather than accusatory as he moves to check on Cordelia.
"You didn't call a halt when she kicked me in the head," the boy protests.
"Because you handled it both times," the official answers. "Miss Chase? How does your side feel?"
"Like I - agh - got kicked there," Cordy manages to find the breath to snark.
The attendant doesn't quite smile or snicker as he helps her slowly turn over and investigates her side for damage. After a few moments-
"Do you wish to yield?"
"Heck, no."
-Cordelia is back on her feet and ready to continue, even if her movements are a bit more awkward than before.
A look crosses her opponent's face that might be a touch respectful, but which is mostly annoyed. When the fight resumes, he doesn't hesitate to take advantage of Cordy's injured side, attacking it directly to force her to guard it - as the pain compromises both her mobility and her ability to think clearly - and then striking from several different angles before she can recover.
Two barely-deflected blows, three glancing hits, and one solid strike later, Cordelia takes her next fall of the match. This time, the ref doesn't intervene, and her opponent closes in to pin her.
And that makes two losses for two attempts.
You don't want to seem like you're casting doubts on your friend's abilities or determination, but neither do you want to come across as pushing her into a match she may not want to fight. It's easiest, then, not to say anything on the matter of Cordelia's next fight, and instead just applaud her efforts thus far.
"Going for a third?" Amy inquires.
"Well, FIRST I'm going to see if the first aid guys have an ice-pack I can borrow for a bit," Cordy replies, one hand held gingerly over her stomach where that kick caught her.
"But after that?"
"After that, yeah, I think I'll try one more time. And if I run into another oversized guy," she adds, "I'll complain to the officials."
You notice Briar squinting, muttering, and pointing in Cordelia's general direction. From the Divination-based, Necromancy-touched aura of the magic she's using, it's a simple analytical cantrip, not even intense enough to make her eyes glow - well, not for any longer than the brief, faint flare around the irises as the spell takes effect.
You wait a moment, and then ask your partner, "Everything alright?"
"As right as it can be, anyway," Briar replies absently. "Pain and the first stages of bruising, but nothing worse than that."
Good to know.
As you settle in to wait for Cordy's third turn, you note that fewer of the fights are ending in a minute or less. From the look of things, most of the less skilled competitors have decided to drop out of the event, while those that remain are starting to fight more cautiously and conservatively as they come up against proper peer opponents.
Cordelia isn't the only fighter under ten still in this thing, but there weren't that many of your age-mates taking part in it to begin with, and only a handful appear to still be going - unless those are shorter than average ten and eleven year olds that you see in those matches.
Even with the slower pace of most of the matches, enough people have withdrawn that it's only another twenty minutes or so before Cordy is called into the ring for her third bout. And this time-
!
-luck is definitely with her, because not only does she not go up against somebody who looks like he might outweigh her twice over, her next opponent is a boy who's actually shorter than she is. Not only that, but this is at least his second fight in a row, so while Cordy's coming in with an ache in her side - iced or not - her sparring partner has to deal with fatigue and various bumps and bruises of his own.
This ends up making for a fight that's actually in Cordelia's advantage for once, and after about two minutes of back-and-forth, her opponent concedes the match.
Cordy smiles, looking like she's got her usual confidence back-
"Oh, come on!"
-and then her next opponent steps out of the crowd. He's not as big as the guy who beat her in her second bout of this division, but he's at least as big as the first guy that defeated her, and more than that, he looks older and carries himself with a more practiced and natural air.
If most of the kids here were developing the skills of disciple-ranked martial artists, this guy has almost certainly BECOME a disciple.
Befitting her earlier statement, Cordy does, in fact, lodge a protest with the official overseeing that bout, but the man seems unsympathetic to her complaint about facing significantly larger opponents in three out of four matches; she's told that the newest boy - who goes by the name Zhi - is still some months shy of his fourteenth birthday, and so a valid participant, and that if she doesn't want to fight him, she's free to forfeit.
Scowling, Cordy proceeds with the match.
A little over a minute later, she receives her third loss.
"And with that," she grumbles, as she rejoins the group, "I am officially done."
Since you're here and have already seen this much of the Under Fourteens Division Free Spar, you float the idea of sticking around to see it through to the end.
Most of the rest of your group are fine with that, although Amy's agreement is slightly grudging, while Cordelia's is just grumpy.
Your offer of a pain-relieving spell is graciously accepted.
"Zap me, already."
You know, for Cordy.
As you settle in to watch the remaining matches, you try to keep an eye on the three bigger guys that Cordy fought, as well as that one ref, because you aren't quite convinced that her coming up against those three and ultimately getting knocked out of this event ISN'T the result of somebody playing games with the roster. The two of you ran into that very problem back in the World Tournament preliminaries, and while you were both able to fight your way through it - even making a few friends in the process, at least in your case - it still left a mark.
As you look on, though, nothing really jumps out at you to support your suspicion. Cordelia's first opponent appears to have been taken out of the spars himself by this point, and what you can see of the other two - and the little guy she fought as her third - doesn't suggest that anybody is switching names to put the obvious heavyweights up against specific individuals.
The disciple-rank Zhi wins four of his next six spars, forfeiting a couple of rounds after beating Cordy in order to take a breather, and then outright losing in the last one when fatigue catches up to him - partly from having fought one match immediately before that, and partly from keeping up a steady level of performance throughout the event. While his skills clearly exceed those of most of his opponents, two could likely have beaten him if they'd been a bit less tired or a bit more lucky, and his edge over three of the others weren't so great as the combination of advantages he had on Cordy.
One of those three, incidentally, was the big guy with the unfriendly attitude that beat Cordy in her second bout. He only gets three more matches in that you see, losing the first to Zhi and then only having time for two more before the event clock runs out.
Incidentally, the little guy that Cordy beat is still in it at the end, though he doesn't place. Zhi takes second overall and appears a little embarrassed by his failure to secure first, though he's friendly enough to the guy that did win, beating him by half a point. Third place goes to a young lady.
The big guy just turned and left after the event was called, looking annoyed.
As for that ref, you heard him make a couple more sharp-ish calls in subsequent bouts, suggesting that he's not crooked, just kind of blunt or not great with kids.
...probably no cheating, then. Maybe?
You check with Lu-sensei, and he doesn't think anything of the sort was going on, just some bad luck.
For her part, Cordelia seems pleased that two of the guys she lost to didn't place - mostly the big one; the guy from her first match was quite good-natured - while the one that pretty much completely overwhelmed her COULD have tied for First Place, if he'd taken a forfeit for half a point instead of fighting and losing in his last match.
As far as techniques and styles go, you don't see anything that you hadn't already noticed over the last couple of hours.
With the Under Fourteens Division Free Sparring event done, what will you do next?
It's been a long day, and with the free spars over until tomorrow, dinner approaching, and nothing remaining on the schedule that really grabs your attention, you decide you're personally fine with heading back to the School.
There's no objections to this idea when you voice it, and about twenty minutes later, your group is back on one of the buses and heading out of town.
This evening's meal is the first one in the dining hall since your arrival - that you've attended, anyway - which doesn't see you being asked to tell a story. Everybody's too busy talking about their experiences at the exhibition, whether regarding the people they met, the displays they saw, or the spars they had.
You don't overhear any mention of actual FIGHTS breaking out, which is... objectively a good thing, although how much of that is down to the absence of such violence and how much to the fact that the stories are being shared by kids in a room where adult authority figures are easily in earshot is another matter.
Still, nobody seems to have picked up any injuries they didn't already have this morning, and while there are some absences around the tables - or at least a lot less crowding than you've begun to get used to - due to people having taken their dinner in town, no one is acting like they're bothered by the empty spots.
So it's probably fine.
You decide not to dreamwalk tonight. This is partly because you don't feel like there's much to see or do in the local dream-realm, but mostly, it's because you have a series of spars tomorrow and want to be at full strength, just in case.
The ban on obvious ki techniques means you'll have to throttle back your Ki Enhancement to avoid coming across as a superhuman, and your usual strategy of Body Flicker speed-blitzing your enemies isn't going to be available to you - in fact, Flicker-based skills in general are probably best avoided. Most of your Ki Projection techniques are similarly a no-go.
Most, but not all: a Ki Aura should still be fine; and you could probably get away with a Ki Shout if you wanted to. That's about it, though.
A lot of your magical repertoire is similarly off the table. Combine that with the advantages in size and pure hand-to-hand technique that most of the participants should have on you because of their age and experience, and you may be in for a surprisingly hard series of fights...
On that note, do you want to use your magical, spiritual, and/or psychic powers in these matches, or do you prefer the purity of unaugmented combat?
While there is something to be said for not getting magic mixed up in martial arts, particularly in an environment that, while competitive, doesn't really have anything except bragging rights on the line, you're not that much of a purist.
Really, when it gets right down to it, you're much more an adherent of the martial philosophy of utilizing all of the resources at one's disposal in order to achieve victory. That's something the Ganondorf, Dinnite, and Sunnydaler in you can all agree on, even if their definitions of "victory" are a bit... different.
Sunnydale Alex is a lot more concerned with making sure nobody gets eaten than the other two are, for example, but that's a motivation which is... not really relevant to the proceedings. Or at least almost certainly not.
You DO live in a world where a gang of man-eating martial artists showing up to the exhibition uninvited and causing trouble is an actual possibility, as opposed to the stuff of pure comic book fantasy. It's just that, between the number of ki adepts in attendance and the various monster-blooded individuals you picked up on who were content to respect the rules of the event, most of the aforementioned would-be troublemakers would not only be in serious danger of getting their heads handed to them, they'd KNOW that, and hence generally wouldn't seriously consider showing up.
Plus, you know, if something of that nature DOES happen, you've got All the Magic and no compunctions about using it to help resolve the matter, supernatural masquerade or no. It's certainly preferable to deal with people freaking out over having their worldviews flipped than it is to have to deal with a bunch of dead bodies.
After all, you haven't learned the Spell to Raise the Dead yet, and even when you do get it down - say, some time next year? - there's the cost in diamonds to consider, let alone the potential trauma the target(s) would suffer after dying and coming back to life.
Putting that aside, you take some time after dinner to discuss your thoughts on using your non-ki abilities during tomorrow's matches, and get his thoughts.
"Speaking as A master," he says, emphasizing the one word, "I would encourage you to not use your other exotic abilities, or failing that, to use them as little as possible. Your rare combination of talents gives you a versatility that's difficult to match, but it has come at the cost of missed opportunities to develop your ki-based skills and pure martial arts, whether that's due to time spent training in other areas or challenges overcome - be it in whole or only in part - by casting spells instead of using your other skills."
Noted, and something you were sort of considering already, at least on the "as little as possible" front. Though it was more like, "not until I need them," but six of one, half-dozen of the other.
"Speaking as YOUR master," Lu Tze goes on, "I would recommend the same approach, if for slightly different reasons. Mainly that you've gotten used to sparring with a relatively small and select circle of partners over the last year, most of whom are either pose no real challenge to you or are exceptional - and even then, you tend to win more often than you don't, once you pull out the magic or that Power. Facing fresh opponents who aren't quite so concentrated at far ends of the talent pool would do you some good, especially if it helps you get a better idea of where you rank in terms of pure martial arts ability. There is also the fact," he adds wryly, "that fighting people who have tangible physical and skill advantages over you, and not being able to 'cheat' your way out of it, would be instructive all by itself."
You squint at your teacher. Is he saying-
"Are you saying Alex should know what it's like to get his butt kicked in a fair competition?" Briar interjects, grinning.
Your squint slides sideways, into a glare. "That is NOT what he-"
"No," Lu-sensei interrupts, nodding, "that is pretty much what I meant by that last part."
Et tu, Lu-sensei?
"How you deal with defeat is at least as important as how you deal with victory," he replies. "Quite aside from all of that, though, part of the point of this exhibition - indeed, of this whole trip - was for you to RELAX, lad. Throwing yourself into a competition with your usual full-force approach is kind of missing that point."
It is with these words of... encouragement?... in your mind that you call it a night.
Your dreams that night are a bit wierder than usual.
By themselves, scenes from the life of Ganondorf are pretty normal for you, even the ones that involve the images of battle. The guy did a lot of fighting in his time, whether with sword, spell, fist, or strategy, and those battles account for a substantial portion of the memories you've inherited.
Dreaming of a modern-day martial arts event is less typical, but hardly unfamiliar, and not unexpected under the circumstances. Leaving aside your recent dreamwalking exploits, you're kind of surprised that you hadn't had a kung fu dream of some kind since coming to the School of Five Elements, or even in the days leading up to the trip.
Even dreaming about food is nothing out of the ordinary.
But all three at once?
That's definitely odd, and when you awaken the next morning, you have to stop and wonder at the images rattling around in your brain.
Ganondorf in a gi, a fancy bandana struggling to hold back his voluminous mane as he fought his way through round after round of opponents, who ranged from ordinary human kids to giant monsters.
Ganondorf in between rounds, stopping to visit a buffet table that seemed to stretch out into infinity, its surface laden down with an endless variety of inexhaustible snacks.
Ganondorf again, fending off the surprise assaults of a horde of ninjas, some of whom would jump him in the middle of a bout, others while he was trying to get a snack - and some of the latter attacking in the conventional manner, while others challenged him to eating contests or food-throwing battles.
Most of the Thief-King's shinobi assailants were the stereotypical "black pajamas" sort that Ayane and Kasumi would have uncharitable things to say about, distinguished only by the pointy ears poking out from their headgear - some of them light skinned, others tan, and some (mostly the tallest of the bunch) brown. Others were more diversely shaped, with fins, rocky bulk, leafy bits, or even wings sticking out here and there, and then there were the COLORFUL ones, who wouldn't have been out of place in a Prism Rangers lineup, throwing energy blasts around.
The most dangerous of those, naturally, was wrapped in green and had a sword...
And all of that was going on in the BACKGROUND, while your viewpoint self struggled through your own series of challenges, fighting physical exhaustion, loss of power, pain, and even some degree of injury, but more than anything, laboring against an unfamiliar weight that threatened to drag you down to the mat and keep you there.
Ganondorf and the Hyrulean ninja army disappeared at some point without you ever fighting them, which left you facing a towering fighter that kind of looked like Grack, and which piledrove you into the floor a couple of times before you barely managed to half-flip, half-drag him out of the ring. You fell to the floor together, and only by dint of having surprised him did you manage to ensure your opponent touched down first - even then, the panel of judges that popped up spent a worryingly long time taking measurements of your positions and your builds and then conferring over the results before handing you a suit and declaring you the winner.
And then Dark Beast Ganon and the Raging Boar smashed through one of the gym walls, trying to gore each other while covered in ninjas.
That's about where you woke up.
The amount of Hyrulean imagery makes you pretty confident that this dream wasn't of a prophetic nature, but all the same, the memory sticks with you for a good part of the day, and has you periodically checking for ninjas and huge guys in gis.
You don't see anybody with anything approaching Gerudo features or Ganondorf's sheer size, but there are enough well-built people going around in traditional martial arts attire that you experience a few worried moments over the course of your second morning at the exhibition, before the mistaken identities become fully apparent. It kind of saps your overall enjoyment of the morning activities, but honestly, you were mostly there for the afternoon spar anyway.
On that note, after another cafeteria-style lunch and some time to let it settle, you duck into a nearby washroom-and then proceed to the gym.
While there were plenty of people wearing regular clothes during yesterday's two series of spars, it feels more appropriate to you to wear your uniform. This isn't a formal event like an actual tournament, but it's not entirely casual, either, and given you'll be one of the youngest fighters taking part in the Under Eighteens Division Free Spar - and quite possibly THE youngest - a visible show of respect could save you some trouble with certain people.
Plus, the number of people who were wearing gi the Under Fourteens Division was somewhat greater than those from the Under Tens Division, so there's a decent chance that more people again will be doing the same thing today.
Anyway, while you scanned some high-quality outfits yesterday, and even ones in the colors of the School of Five Elements, the uniform that you pull out of your pocket after ducking into one of the bathroom stalls isn't a conjured copy of one of those templates - instead, it's the same one you've been wearing to class at Lu-sensei's for some months now. In part, your choice was made so as to avoid drawing suspicion upon yourself by turning up in one of those "not actually stolen" outfits, but it's also because this gi is properly broken in and familiar to you, whereas a new set of fighting clothes might need to be stretched and washed a couple of times and have a few seams popped to achieve that ideal mix of comfort and performance.
You change quickly, stowing your regular clothes in your pocket, and then exit the stall-
A guy washing his hands at the counter frowns into the mirror as you walk past behind him, his expression momentarily confused before he shakes his head.
-and rejoin your companions, before proceeding to the gym.
The crowd that's gathered for the Under Eighteens Division event is somewhat smaller than the ones you saw before each of yesterday's events. Looking at the list of names, you see that there aren't quite as many competitors signed up for the first round, but that's only part of the matter; when you turn to study the crowd proper, you start to notice that there are fewer family groups. Not none, by any means, but where the Under Tens Division saw the majority of the contestants accompanied by a parent or two, and perhaps some siblings or other relatives for good measure, and the Under Fourteens had more such arrangements than it didn't, the Under Eighteens set falls on the other end of the scale. Some of the fighters appear to be here by themselves, and more are in the care of individual masters, as many of whom are giving preliminary pep-talks to small groups of students as there are others whose attention is reserved for individual disciples.
Which isn't to say that there aren't family cheering sections or non-participant friends assembled to watch and support their favored competitors, just that there aren't as many of them overall.
Anyway, your name is about as far down the list as Cordelia's was for yesterday's events, so you've got some time to wait-
"Are you sure you didn't miss yesterday's event, Shorty?" one guy asks you a bit snidely.
-and to sort out any questions or concerns about your registration, before you'll be up for your first spar.
Whose matches will you focus on while you wait?
You spare a moment to consider memorizing the face of that one rude guy, but decide that he's not worth the effort. If you run into him in the ring(s) later and he's still talking smack then, you'll deal with him appropriately; and if you don't see him again, you've lost no time or energy on the matter.
Putting the annoyance from your mind, you turn your attention to the fights getting underway, looking for the most developed ki auras in the interests of furthering your understanding of the associated techniques.
Immediately, you run into a not-unexpected issue, this being the sheer number of individuals in the crowd - whether as prospective competitors or just audience members - who have well-developed ki. Not everybody that you can see or sense has the telltales of an active ki signature, and this includes some of the teenagers wearing fighting uniforms or workout clothes, meaning that even with the rules of the event, those individuals will be at a disadvantage against most of their prospective opponents; then again, it also means that any success they find today will be down to their mundane physical abilities and skill, which is an interesting thought.
In any case, the sheer number of ki auras in relatively close proximity, combined with the lessons in self-restraint and aura concealment that a lot of them have obviously been taught, makes picking out the "strongest" aura in any given round a task of some difficulty even for you.
Gained Ki Sight A+
Not that you CAN'T do it, it's just worth noting that even the sparring classes you've observed or joined in on at School of the Five Elements don't bring this many near- or actual disciple-level ki-users together in a single space, much less with the eager, competitive edge to their presences that so many are showing - or the aggression that's present in a fair few.
Of the dozen teens that are called up to fight first, most have auras that fall into a reasonably average range for their skill level. One's a little lower than the majority, a couple more a little higher, and then there are two guys who are clearly among the handful that haven't managed to consciously access their inner energies yet. One of those is weak enough in this respect that you're a bit concerned he's going to get himself hurt, particularly given that his opponent is one of the ki-users with an "average" aura for this crowd.
There is a clear stand-out "strongest" for the opening set of matches, this being a young lady who seems to be around sixteen and who isn't wearing the colors or emblem of any of the schools formally represented at the exhibition. Her opponent is another of the "average" ki adepts, and from the cautious look on that guy's face, he's aware that he's facing an uphill battle in at least one respect.
He's not backing down, though, so credit to him there.
It occurs to you that the guy with the frail-seeming aura might actually be stronger than he seems, and simply using some method of suppressing his signature to throw off his opponents and keep some things hidden. If that was indeed the case, it would make him more skilled than his peers - at least in this one area - meaning that keeping a metaphorical eye on him could be particularly beneficial for you.
Alternately, his ki abilities may legitimately be as limited as they appear to be, in which case he's likely to take a beating in this match, an outcome that will be made apparent to you in short order. If things go that way, you can just ignore him thereafter and focus your attention on the more interesting fight.
He could ALSO be using magic to conceal his skills, but you'll hold off on probing him with Mage Sight until later, if it proves likely to be needed.
Aiming your Ki Sense at the older boy, you turn the rest of your attention to the young lady-
"Fight!"
-and just in time.
The girl's opening moves are an excellent mix of speed, aggression, and control, and when combined with a swift and efficient use of Ki Enhancement, she manages to catch her opponent off-guard in spite of his prior caution. That shock delays him from activating his own strength technique for a second or two, and the girl exploits her advantage in power and speed well, landing one blow against a hasty guard made even weaker by its lack of readiness, and following up with an off-hand strike that bypasses the boy's defense and connects cleanly with his side. While the initial rush of his channeled energies will have taken some of the sting off of that hit, the fierce jolt that pushes him off-balance is another matter, and a third hit punishes the boy's improved but still awkward defense while he's trying to recover.
The girl doesn't give him the chance, hands flying in a punishing combination-
Gained Flurry of Blows F+++
-which leads into a surprise kick that blows the guy backwards and onto his backside. He lays there for a moment, as if stunned, and the girl moves in to pin him-
!
-but her aggression betrays her as her opponent's posture proves to have been a ruse. Timing it well, the young man rolls into the girl's legs, knocking her down and moving to use his somewhat greater size to offset her superior ki technique.
"Wha-?!"
From the way she goes for a chokehold, you think this may be about to become one of those cases where size doesn't matter, or at least not as much as it could have.
Your Ki Sense has been telling you that nothing unusual is going on in the other ring, save perhaps for the fact that the boy with the faint aura is still giving off that particular feeling of focused aggression that denotes a fight. Glancing his way to confirm that, you are surprised to see that he's trading blows with his opponent on almost even footing, even though the lack of ki means his strikes should be a bit slower and less forceful.
Is the other fighter holding back-? No, that one is using Ki Enhancement, although he's either not very good at it in general, or just bad at judging exactly how much he needs to dial it back.
Does the guy with the limited ki signature have really high physical specs, then?
That's about all you have time to take in with that one glance, before you bring your full attention back to the grapple that's developed in front of you.
Though taken by surprise for a second time, a desperation-fueled surge of ki allowed the boy to break the girl's attempt to get him in a headlock, but he wasn't able to get away from her otherwise, and now the two of them are rolling from side to side as they try to pin one another-
"Kyuk!"
-and now the girl just got the guy on his back and is moving into an armbar.
Shortly thereafter, she's declared the winner.
The other fight... is still going on, with that same surprising evenness, which appears to be getting very frustrating for the guy who SHOULD have the advantage.
Although you don't wish to ignore the fairly impressive fighter in front of you, the mystery of how the guy with the weak ki signature is doing so well in his first match is one that you find you can't let go of.
Turning your attention to the bout still in progress, you shift your Ki Sight over from passive mode to active - and after a moment's thought, you do the same for your Mage Sight, just in case there actually is something magical involved.
...
From the way the older boy's aura gets more clearly defined without actually becoming any brighter, as well as how his ki moves - and doesn't move - when he's exchanging blows with his opponent, it LOOKS as though the guy's apparent lack of active ki use is genuine. There is still the possibility that he's got a natural talent for control and concealment, but you tend to think not; his aura just looks too much like that of a regular, unawakened student.
Your Mage Sight, meanwhile, doesn't register anything out of the ordinary: no active talent; no spell matrix; no rigidly structured array denoting a magic item; and none of the blurring or outright absence of mana that would suggest a Spell to Mask Dweomers, a Spell of Nondetection, or similar low-end concealment magic. He could still be under a Greater Magic Aura, but that's getting into the realms of serious magic, such as even a group like the masters of the School of Five Elements don't have easy access to. For a (near-)disciple-class fighter to get his hands on such a spell seems unlikely, then, though it's certainly not impossible.
Still, in the interests of not borrowing trouble, you're going to go with the notion that this guy is nothing more than he seems to be - which is someone blessed with exceptional physical prowess, the dedication to bring out his potential with training, and technique and instincts worthy of a disciple. He is simply strong enough and skilled enough that his lack of active ki is ONLY a disadvantage in his current match, rather than a crippling weakness.
While you can't exactly copy somebody's strength or endurance the way you can their trained techniques, you CAN take pointers from how they employ their physical abilities in order to make better use of your own - and you do, in a number of areas.
Gained Breath Control F+
The young man in question - you don't think you can really call him "weak" at this point, regardless of what his ki looks like - eventually manages to win his opening spar, due in part to his physical abilities but also because his opponent finally lost their patience and temper and made a mistake, which the other guy was able to capitalize on. It's a good showing, but with the fatigue and bruises the guy picked up from his hard-earned victory, you have your doubts he'll make it through a second round, particularly when you see his second opponent is another of those exceptional talents, his ki aura even more developed under your active Ki Sight than the fierce young lady you were watching a minute ago.
Sure enough, the underdog takes a moment to measure his new opponent and then gracefully concedes, no doubt hoping to rest, recover, and do better when his next turn comes around.
You wish him luck in that, and turn back to the matches in progress.
The girl with the aggressive tendencies is halfway through laying her second opponent out when you resume your observation of her, and she goes through two more opponents before she takes a breather. Considering how fighting styles like hers can take almost as much out of a practitioner as they do out of said individual's opponents, and how the young lady's speed and striking power were starting to decline by her third back-to-back(-to-back) bout, she probably should have stopped there, but it's clear that the girl's personality is just as aggressive as her chosen school. While this undoubtedly makes for a good fit in some regards, it cost her a bit this time, as her fourth match saw her taking more significant hits than what you saw of the previous three combined; none of them were serious, but she will be feeling a few of those blows going forward, which could impact her future performance.
When you aren't watching the girl fight, you check out the guy with the impressively developed ki aura. There was a chance that he might have been showing off to bluff his original opponent, or that his other skills weren't up to par, but from what you see of his matches, at least the latter is not true - while not so aggressive as the girl, he demolishes his first opponent with similar speed and ease, and then gets into a drawn-out slugging match with a guy who doesn't have such deep reserves, but is probably using what he has better, and has the edge in speed besides.
While you're able to grasp a number of pointers in the use of subtler Ki Enhancement techniques and a bit of Ki Infusion besides - mostly for strengthening clothes and how to not get knocked over - you find yourself seriously regretting that more obvious uses of ki aren't allowed. What sort of opportunities are you missing because of that rule?!
"Harris, Alex!"
And then you must put that annoyance and your ongoing observations aside, for your time has come.
As you walk towards the indicated set of mats, you recall your concerns about the lineup and take the chance to examine your opponent with your still-active Ki Sight, to see if he's a ringer.
...
On the whole, you're thinking "probably not." He's a pretty reasonable representative of fighters in this age category, certainly not weak in any particular regard, but not really exceptional, either. Of course, you suppose somebody might have been thinking ahead and arranged what APPEARS to be a reasonably fair fight, age discrepancies aside, only for this guy to turn out to hit like a truck (before Ki Enhancement) or have sublime technique, neither of which would really show up to your enhanced senses in advance.
Guess you'll see in a minute...
Even if nobody has fiddled with the roster to put you up against an ostensibly superior opponent, you are still going into this match with a number of age-related disadvantages. With that in mind, as well as your resolution to hold off from using magic and such until you're reasonably sure that they're required to win, you quickly run through your list of ki techniques.
Ki Enhancement is a no-brainer for the first thing you'll use, though you remind yourself to dial it back to believable levels - and then you repeat the message a couple of times, in the hope that it will stick in the face of your usual tendency to go for full Power.
Your second technique probably ought to be either Ki Armor, for greater resistance to strikes, or Ki Step, to reinforce your footing against attempts to physically push you around. After that... hmmm...
Ki Strike is probably not a good idea, at least not until you're sure your opponent is using a sufficient level of Ki Armor to merit it, and also to not get hurt when you use the technique against them.
The benefits of your Sensory Boost skill are fairly minor, and currently limited to a single sense, besides. You'd arguably get better results, or at least more comprehensive ones, by using Brain Enhancement to shore up your awareness of what your senses are telling you.
Ki Aura would give you a little extra defensive boost, but possibly not enough to matter, and Ki Grip's only real benefit in a spar like this would be if you got into a grapple, which is not really the best idea against an opponent who both outweighs and (at least potentially) overpowers you, and knows how to make use of those advantages.
Pretty much everything else in your martial repertoire is either too obvious to pass muster, too ineffectual to bother with, or - in the case of Ki Generation and Ki Perception - always working by default.
And then there's Ki Literacy and Ki Paging, which... how would you even use either of those skills in a fight?
It is with such thoughts in your head that you take up your position across from your opponent-
?
-who is giving you a look of puzzlement, tinged with honest concern.
"Are you sure you're ready for this, kid?" the guy, who is probably sixteen or so, asks. "It's just that... well..." He hesitates, glancing from you, to the ref, and then to the crowd.
"Fighters, ready?" the official calls then.
"Ready," you reply, taking a stance.
Your opponent replies similarly.
"I know, my age puts me at a disadvantage. But I'm confident in my skills, so don't worry."
The guy frowns, looking more confused now. "That's... not what I wanted to say, but... if you're sure, and if the officials are okay with it...?"
He glances sideways.
The ref nods.
Your opponent lets out a breath, and nods. "Right. Let's do this, then."
You're kind of torn.
On the one hand, it's nice to see teenaged martial artists whose drive to hone their skills in the art of applied violence has taken them this far, yet hasn't led them to forget their manners or their compassion for their fellow sapients.
On the other hand, you feel a little bad for the trick you're technically playing on this guy, what with how your Mind Blank Spell is no-selling his attempts to read your ki.
And then again, he IS kind of assuming that just because you're younger than him, you can't still kick his butt all over the mats, so in THAT regard, he kind of has it coming...
Definitely some mixed feelings, there.
"-FIGHT!"
You immediately trigger your Ki Enhancement, controlling the surge of energy to avoid any outward signs beyond the tensing of your muscles, and to keep the boost down. You try shifting some of the energy that would normally be going into augmenting your physical prowess towards boosting your mental functions instead, but while ki techniques are more flexible than magic spells, you can still only shift so much of a skill's energy away from its intended function before you start having problems - and the foundational Ki Enhancement technique is meant to boost all of your attributes to the same degree, at the same time.
There are reasons why you had to come up with Brain Enhancement as a whole technique unto itself, rather than just running around adjusting a basic Ki Enhancement on the fly, and this is one of them.
That's not to say that you can't shift some of the energy over, but you really aren't sure if the resulting increase is worth the effort-
!
-and then your opponent blitzes you, and the unpracticed imbalance you'd induced in your Ki Enhancement slips back to overall equilibrium as you're forced to defend yourself AND crank up the degree of physical augmentation to try and better match the older boy's technique and the larger, more fully developed frame that it has to work with.
From the startled blink as you manage to register, deflect, and not get your footing disrupted from the impact of the opening strike, he really wasn't expecting you to be this strong.
And he DEFINITELY wasn't expecting the palm strike that hits him in the chest a moment later, although his slightly delayed reaction does manage to get a hold on your forearm for a moment, before you seize his arm in return - and then get your OTHER arm seized, which leads to a brief sequence of rapid-fire catch-and-squeeze-and-release motions as the two of you work to begin and resist a grapple.
Ki Step might be more useful here in a second, but between the sting of that first blow, the strong grip you're alternately breaking and getting snared by-
!
-and the knee you just deflected, Ki Armor still feels like the better bet, so you activate that technique next.
One advantage of being the proverbial little guy in a fight is that you have less surface area and volume to protect, and can generally get into any given position that little bit faster than someone significantly larger.
...two advantages, then. And of course, if you're small enough that your opponent has to look down to see you, which this one does, he can't always see everything you're doing, let alone in time to do anything about it-
!
-like, for example, when you hook one leg around his ankle and sweep that foot out from under him, just as you're breaking his left hand's grasp on your right forearm for the second or third time. A little extra push in the motion has him leaning backwards, and with only one leg properly under him, even his right hand's grasp on your left isn't enough to keep him stable.
A shock of realization runs through the older boy's aura, and immediately, you can see that he's going to move to do three things at once: getting his leg back into position, so that he stops falling; reaching for you with his left hand again, to reinforce his grip and use you as added support; and tightening the grip of his right hand, to drag you down with him if the other two fail.
You respond by getting your own extended leg back under you, swatting away the incoming left hand, and running ki to your feet to more firmly root your stance.
Being able to read your opponent's ki in this much detail when he can't even FEEL yours is really starting to feel like cheating.
"How are you-?!" he exclaims.
"AN OPENING!"
You see a chance to land another blow, and do so.
Surprised, confused, and already on his way to the mat, your opponent just barely manages to get his free arm in the way of your strike, and even then, all that he really accomplishes is to not take another shot to the torso. The force of the blow is nothing spectacular, but with his balance already ruined, it suffices to force your sparring partner backwards with greater speed, and a well-timed yank of your right arm in the other direction is enough to pull it free of his grip.
As you shake out the slight soreness in your now-free arm, you consider the effects of the attacks you've connected with so far in this bout, and conclude that your opponent must not be using Ki Armor yet. Did he think it wouldn't be necessary, or is he not able to use it?
Given the level of skill on display in the previous matches in this division, you think it's more likely to have been the former. With that in mind, you should probably try to hit him a few more times - as many as you can, in fact - before he gets that technique up.
As you step forward to keep within effective striking distance of your fallen foe, you reflect that another benefit of being the smaller fighter is that you don't have to reach down as far to hit somebody when they're on the ground.
Not that the older boy is laid out on his back or his belly or something like that, having rolled onto his knees and one hand right after he hit the mat, but he IS a lower target right now.
One-
Clean hit!
-two-
Blocked!
-three-
Glancing blow!
-fo-!
Blocked again! And this time, you can see the guy's ki helping to absorb the force of the strike.
Gained Flurry of Blows E
"You do it," he says.
Wha-?
"-like this!"
Oh, cra-!
"OraoraoraORA!"
Block!
Deflect!
Blo-HIT!
HIT AGAIN!
THIRD HIT!
And then you manage to back out of the range of those flying fists, rather relieved that you used Ki Armor earlier, because you were feeling those hits more than you like to admit. If he adds Ki Strike to that, your current defenses may not be enough.
Taking a moment to steady your breathing-
Gained Breath Control F++
-you consider your options.
You were planning to activate Ki Aura next, but its current defensive benefits are minor. It's doubtful that they'd make much difference against this guy as-is, much less if he uses Ki Strike to enhance his blows.
You could instead use Ki Strike yourself, go back on the offensive, and try to wear your opponent down before he can do the same to you. He's a little off-balance from you stepping out of his striking range just before that last punch could connect, you've got a chance-!
And of course, there is the magic option, if you feel the situation merits it. You're not desperate or anything, but you could be about halfway through a spell in the time it'll take your opponent to get back on his feet, so you could take the opportunity - and open up some distance, besides - to slip something in.
Unseen by all, ki surges around and through your limbs as you activate your strike-enhancing technique and prepare to go on the offensive.
You're sorely tempted to add the Greater Spell to Empower a Magic Weapon on top of that technique for even more punching power, but three things hold you back.
Most pertinently - and painfully - your older opponent has already managed to respond to your use of one technique with a combination of his own, and that was when you were on your guard. You are NOT confident in your ability to cast a spell in melee with this guy without leaving enough of an opening for him to sock you a few more times in the process, and that could very easily be the end of the fight right there.
You could back off for a couple of seconds more to cast the spell while out of your sparring partner's reach, but that would give him the opportunity to get back on his feet AND get his own Ki Strike technique up and running, and considering how much those staggered punches of his hurt already, you don't want to see what their further augmented form feels like if you can help it.
Secondly, and somewhat less urgently, you've been encouraged to hold back from using magic, and generally agreed with the idea unless the situation dictated otherwise. Your current situation isn't great, but it isn't that bad, either.
Finally, you're a bit concerned about the damage output of Greater Magic Weapon. It's not the kind of spell whose effects you can dial down the way you can some others - its output is much more fixed, and while certainly less damaging than your average Fireball on a single attack basis, the fact that it would apply to every blow you connected with would see it rapidly adding up.
You don't want to actually HURT your opponent, nor are you interested in getting disqualified by breaking the rule about "showy" techniques.
With all of that in mind, you limit yourself to just your Ki Strike, and push forward to renew your attack.
The older boy moves to block your opening strike, his expression and posture radiating self-assurance now that he's got his Ki Armor up and has taken the measure of your Ki Enhanced strikes-
"Gah!"
-and that certainty vanishes like fog in the wind as your Ki Strike cancels out his defensive technique, enabling you to strike just as hard as you did before.
Gained Ki Strike D++
He immediately shifts to using deflections rather than hard blocks, but the shock - and the sting - of realizing that you just matched his skills again has taken some of the wind out of his sails, and combined with your ability to read his ki while he's blind to your own-
*Bam!*
"Guh!"
-you're able to slip another strike past his guard, this one leaving him momentarily gasping.
As you said a moment ago, AN OPENING!
Jumping into a grapple seems like a poor idea, given the size and augmented strength difference, and trying for another rapid-fire combination of blows doesn't strike you as much better - at least partly because of how your first attempt at such an attack prompted a response in kind, the sting of which you're still feeling.
The thought of winding up for a power-blow is dismissed almost as soon as it crosses your mind. The natural choice for that would involve a hit to the head - maybe a somewhat-less-high kick, maybe a hammer-blow - which is a no-go by the rules, whereas a heavy blow to the torso is made rather awkward by the older boy's kneeling position.
That leaves going for a weak-spot - one that ISN'T above the neck or below the belt. Not that you could easily hit the latter with your opponent already down on his knees...
Anyway, there's one location on the body that's frankly ideal for your purposes, and you quickly line up your arm, palm forward, and deliver a quick strike to the older boy's solar plexus.
Even when delivered with a level of force appropriate for a spar, this attack can be painful and debilitating - and indeed, your opponent obligingly chokes and doubles over as the nerve cluster beneath that spot fires in distress, causing his diaphragm to have a momentary freak-out.
"And hold!" the ref calls.
You pause. After what happened with Cordy getting kicked in the ribs yesterday, as well as some other scenes, you aren't surprised that the official would want to check and make sure you didn't overdo things with that attack. It IS possible to knock someone out that way, and the older boy COULD have some pre-existing condition that would result in a worse reaction than usual.
Better safe than sorry, as far as the exhibition organizers are likely concerned, and you can't really blame them.
"Still conscious?" the man asks your opponent, who is still bent over.
There is a non-verbal groan, and an unsteady, inverted nod.
"Do you wish to continue?"
There is another groan, and a more recognizable shake of the head.
"In that case - winner, Harris!"
Your friends aren't the only ones who cheer or applaud. People do enjoy seeing an underdog triumph, and you DID appear to be at a disadvantage initially - and even later in the match.
As your next opponent is called up, you consider the first, who is gingerly uncurling himself. He doesn't appear to be angry or particularly distraught over his loss, instead looking somewhat chagrined but accepting - however, when his gaze turns your way again, that look of curiosity from earlier returns, now more intent.
Yeah, he definitely wants to know what's up with your lack of a ki signature.
Your second opponent is one of the smaller guys in the Under Eighteens Division. He's still a bit bigger than you are, but only by a couple of inches in height and maybe a dozen pounds in weight, so not a bad match-up. On the mystical side, his ki is active, but fairly weak, and you note that when he tries to read your aura and gets a big old nothing for his troubles, his curiosity is mingled with resigned frustration - almost like he expected the results?
Though it is tempting to cultivate an aura of mystery and leave the older boy wondering how you're hiding your aura so completely, you decide that his good conduct, earnest effort in the match, and lack of complaints about the outcome have earned him some answers.
Reaching down to offer a hand, you help your opponent to his feet, taking the opportunity to offer a quiet, "My friends can answer your questions in more detail than we have time for."
The older boy looks at you.
You half-turn and point in your companions' direction, which gets you some puzzled looks from most of them-
/ Question? /
-and a mental inquiry from Briar.
/ Answers, / you send back. / Also, painkillers? /
There is an affirmative response.
The boy follows the line of your finger, and slowly nods.
"Thanks," he says, giving your hand an actual shake. "That's been bugging me..."
You can imagine.
In what universe, you wonder, would you not take on this new opponent? It would be a strange place, where Alex Harris backs down from a friendly match he has at least even odds of winning, even before bringing magic into things - and probably distinctly better than that, given the things your new opponent's aura and behavior hint at about his proficiency with ki.
Mostly, that he's not very good at using it yet.
...okay, MAYBE Xander would have bowed out from the prospect of fighting two bouts back to back. You don't know him well enough to say for certain, one way or another.
As the next guy enters the ring, you make a point to dial back your various active ki boosts so that you're running as close to baseline as is practical. This likely still gives you a modest advantage in the fight, but the rules don't forbid it, and you're nowhere near the first person in this division to have done it, let alone the first since the free spars started.
This, too, is simply another challenge to be faced and overcome - or not - by those who walk the path of the martial artist...
"Fighters ready?"
There are two nods.
"Begin!"
Rather than power up further, you-
Go on the offensive right away.
Seeing no need to hold back so far as to concede the initiative to your opponent, you advance into striking range and launch a probing blow-
The older boy deflects it readily enough.
-and then a faster follow-up strike from a different angle-
He blocks that one.
-and then a palm strike to the stomach, which slides over and past ribs as the guy turns to one side to avoid taking the hit square in the gut.
Having your first measure of your opponent's skill and technique, you start to up the pressure, attacking faster, alternating between different strikes, different points of contact, and different limbs, and with each blow that is countered, avoided, or able to slip past his guard, more details emerge.
In terms of mundane strength and speed, the young man is in pretty good shape, although you're pretty sure you'd be his superior in both respects even without your throttled back Ki Enhancement. Maybe not by a huge amount, but enough for it to be noticeable, particularly given the minimum five-year age gap.
Which, really, speaks more to your own ridiculousness than it does to any failings on HIS end.
In terms of technique, the older boy is decent, although there is a certain lack of polish compared to some of the other Under Eighteens fighters, which gives you the distinct impression that this guy hasn't been formally training for as long as a lot of his peers. His style also lacks that particular edge of a soul that's had to fight for their life - which is, again, not exactly a BAD thing - although if facing death remains a mystery to him, simple VIOLENCE is definitely not. He doesn't flinch when struck or hesitate when striking in turn, his offensive and defensive moves are all on point, and the force he uses is well-measured, even though between your natural resilience, the boosts of your Ki Enhancement and Ki Armor, and now the extra "padding" of your Ki Aura, you register his blows mainly as contact and pressure rather than actual pain.
It's in the area of ki where his abilities genuinely let him down. As you start raising the level of your Ki Enhancement, your opponent activates his own, briefly evening the playing field - but his output remains constant thereafter, while yours keep going up, meaning you've soon surpassed him once more. You don't have to break or even bend the rules to do it; while there is some ooohing and aaahing from the impressed crowd, you know that you aren't fighting at a level that other participants haven't already shown off a couple dozen times by now just in this division. It's merely your ability to fight to this degree in spite of your youth that's got people's attention, and the novelty of that is going to wear thin soon enough.
As you're considering that, your opponent seems to be considering his next move-
"Ref, I forfeit!"
-which, wha-?
"Hold!"
You pause, somewhat less than gracefully due to your surprise.
"Winner by forfeit, Harris!" you official declares.
...
As your second opponent bows and steps off the mats, you look for your third challenger-
!
-and experience some concern.
The young man who comes forward this time is definitely closer to eighteen than fourteen - if he's less than sixteen, you'll be genuinely surprised - and while he's not huge for his age, he's still pretty much a grown adult in excellent physical condition. Mystically speaking, he's similarly above-average, with a strong, well-trained reserve of ki that he's able to conceal pretty well, to the point where if you didn't have your Ki Sight active, you wouldn't see... okay, no, you'd still be able to see it, but he'd look a lot less impressive.
This could get painful...