Chương 32: Book 1, Chapter 32: Refinement

It took a while for John to come back to his senses, and by that point, they were already walking back to the fort to "plot their next move." Yuki had stolen his notebook a while back, writing down what were presumably all the spots where the kappa had seen armed people fishing. Now that he thought of it, he could have brought his self-drawn map along for the yokai to mark, but he suspected it wouldn't have been too helpful.

No, what little of the kappa's instructions he heard were all based around the landmarks in the river, and he suspected that even if they had a decent quality map, it would have been impossible for him to mark down everything. It was easy to forget how much worse maps used to be before the advent of satellite imagery. Soon enough, they were back at the fort, and he headed toward the workshop.

If they were to do this, it'd be a lot faster if he managed to get the flying disc, which he should really come up with a name for, working a bit better. Being able to just fly up and look for a building poking through the sea of green was a hell of a lot easier than trying to scan at ground level, potentially falling for traps or ambushes.

"Sensei John!" he turned to see Rin speed up to follow him, almost bouncing on her heels once she caught up. He stood outside the door of his workshop, hand on it, about to swing it open. Obviously, he couldn't show Rin his workshop. That'd give away the game immediately, and there was no guarantee she'd not run back to her family or whoever she's loyal to with that information, whoever they may be.

"Yes?" he asked, voice perhaps a bit more tense than it should be.

"I would ask for your aid in processing this!" the dragon-blooded exclaimed, holding out the… jar which he knew contained a kappa finger, and John had to hide a shiver of disgust.

"I…" he trailed off while he tried to come up with an excuse that gave up nothing.

"I'll aid you myself," Yuki, his angel, cut in.

"He will be nearby, of course, as his role as sensei demands it." Yuki, you absolute devil!

"Right." John tried to keep the annoyed venom out of his voice, and when he glanced at Yuki, all he saw was faux innocence. She was a good actor, certainly, but he believed he was starting to grasp how she thought.

"Just one second, I have to grab some… things."

"Would you mind grabbing a table while you're gone? It'd be greatly appreciated," Yuki requested as he turned away to his workshop, and he idly shot her a thumbs-up as he walked away. If she didn't figure out what it meant already, she would soon… Perhaps it was a bit informal to do so in front of Rin, but as far as she knew, it was a sign of grand respect in his culture. Unblocking the lab, he grabbed various measuring equipment, a series of sensors rigged to various meters and dials.

Some were rigged to give precise moment-to-moment readings, and others averages. A scattered few were tuned only to certain types of energy. Others were set to measure total maximums. Regardless of his misgivings, he'd be remiss not to use this chance to get more data. He still didn't understand how the Unbound worked. How did they extract power from yokai material? Was it something he could replicate? Yuki said that he couldn't without much bed rest…

but what if he could find a way around that, or even figure out how to optimize the process? Grabbing the last of his tools… and a table, he headed back out to his fate. If he was going to have to watch an unhinged woman eat a turtle-person's finger, he was going to get something out of it, damn it. Rin knelt before the table that Sensei John had levitated outside on Yuki's request. Quietly, she was glad that her mysterious teacher had something else properly waterproofed.

Although she could certainly use that strange table with the raised seating attached, the dragon-blooded couldn't imagine it comfortable. Maybe there was some benefit to sitting that way? She could see it as beneficial to the flow of blood or even ki, even if she couldn't see someone meditating like that. There were many things about her sensei that were incomprehensible, even if they were a bit less now. Guilt gnawed at her. To think, the fact that she was so close to attacking an innocent man…

her heart could hardly bear the crushing weight. Of course, he probably would have won, but her honour was like tarnished silver nonetheless. She would make up to them—both Sensei John and Lady Yuki were too kind to a lowly wandering blade. Her path, no, her sacred duty was far, far too close to being cut short! Rin would never forget her father's words.

"Grow strong. Become the blade that splits the clouds. Only then shall you return." She took a deep breath, centring herself as she withdrew the blessed pot from her robes, placing it in front of her and keeping her hands on it.

"I'm ready, Lady Yuki," she looked at the kitsune who sat across from her, trying not to linger too long at all the inscrutable devices that Sensei John had set up, which were pointing at the two of them. She's sure there's some good reason for them, and he seemed eager to set them up. The kitsune glanced over at the man next to her, and when he nodded, she said, "Let us begin, then." The kitsune reached out, covering Rin's hands with her own.

The kitsune's soft, fuzzy grip positively oozed with power, and although it scared the dragon-blooded a tiny bit, she softened her Aegis and lowered her defences. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she carefully shaped the energy within herself, reaching out into the sealed pot like lightning tracing a path through the sky in slow motion. Plucking at the very edges of the Essence of the kappa, she weakened the ties that bound it in short, precise strokes, like a skilled doctor.

She reached for the next spot, and—her ki pulled to the side, away from where she had her attention. Yuki's might easily overwhelmed her own, and she likened the experience to having a hand around her throat correcting her, even if not roughly.

"No, that will waste much of this. It'll unravel much of the Essence from something aligned with Flowing Rivers to Bodies of Water in general," she gently stated.

"You're primarily aligned with storms of all types, aren't you?" Hesitantly, she nodded.

"A complicated thing to embody," Yuki mused, "and one that normally demands difficult to get materials. You can't afford to waste anything. Here. Let me show you. Close your eyes, and feel how your energy is flowing." She was quick to obey, plunging herself into darkness as she shut the world out, focusing inward, on herself. Her spirit strained against the limits of her physical form. She felt the stirring storm pump through her veins.

Yuki carefully guided her focus, with firm yet gentle pulses of power not touching the kappa's finger yet influencing Rin's own ki, which carefully drilled in a few spots. It was a masterful display of control if she had ever seen one. It was always difficult to picture one's own energy moving in directions that were more like feelings than anything tangible, but Rin thought she had always managed decently. It was humbling to see how far she had to go.

The kitsune moved her with poise, precision, and speed far beyond even her best days. Yuki moved her in several directions at once, focusing on particular spots in core concepts she'd personally never look at breaking. They felt strong, and every bit of training she had was screaming that she'd destroy the densest, most valuable parts of the kappa's Essence like this.

"Now strike," Yuki commanded, and Rin blanched. Was this a test? A way to see if she'd follow her, even if she was being ordered to do something wrong? She had heard kitsune were strange, often beyond mortal comprehension due to the weight of eons they carried on their shoulders… But Yuki wasn't that old. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. But she would repay trust with trust regardless.

Rin attacked like the storm she aimed to embody, focused strikes obliterating Essence where she aimed, even if she winced at how much evaporated into nothing. Wait. It was doing something! She felt the flowing water start to break and disintegrate, turning hazy around the edges as it merged with the heavenly elements of Motion, Flowing Water, and Cleansing Change… but all the energy released was making them volatile, ready to break apart further.

Sweat beaded on her brow as she tried to keep it together, but it was— It was then that Yuki ground a small yellow and a tiny black crystal, previously unnoticed between her fingertips, into dust, releasing Air and Chaos-aligned energy into the mix, which she shoved into the pot with reckless abandon. It churned, soaking up the two amidst the maelstrom of unstable energy and forming… Lightning? No, that couldn't be. How?

There were many ways to call it, but to summon it as a heavenly element required something far more complex… Rin watched in awe, maintaining the mixture's stability only through years of ingrained training. Yuki guided her again, little strands of power slipping in as she grabbed the pieces of Motion and remaining Air before shoving them against the Flowing Water, turning it into Rain. Rain, Cleansing Change, and Lightning all danced among one another, the remaining energy fighting to have them destabilize.

She fought to keep them as is, keep them stable, but then the kitsune gently pulled her grasp back. She was ready to watch it break into decoherence, watching with dread as instability wracked it… But then, it almost seemed to dance around itself, flowing inward as it mixed. It was immensely tough to combine elements together. Some may practice with simple combinations for years to acquire what their Unbinding needed to progress, having to invent methods and combinations from scratch!

Yuki had transformed much of the piece of a kappa into Lightning Storm in a bottle, with little waste. She hadn't even been paying attention to the other elements, like what came from his reptilian nature or his temperament, but it was somehow exempt from the chaos, the same as every other element, except that it was melted and mixed in. She… had heard tales of what was kept in the vaults of the great clans; ancient, powerful techniques that could propel one to great heights. Was this one of them?

Yuki released her hands, and Rin let out an undignified, shuddering breath as she leaned back, finally opening her eyes. Sweat ran down her form from the sheer focus and effort, and not for the first time, Rin was glad she always got clothing made of a material that repelled it.

"And that concludes my part in this," Yuki said, casually drumming her fingers on the table.

"Tell me, did you see what I did there?" How could she not have? That was a profound display of control and knowledge! There was no way she'd be able to replicate that for decades, at the very least!

"I'm sorry, Mistress Yuki, I believe this humble Rin might be a waste of your skills," she intoned.

"I was akin to a grasshopper watching a poetry recital."

"Perhaps, but you being able to immediately replicate this was not the point." Yuki leaned forward, and her eyes glinted with something that looked almost conspiratorial.

"Do you recall John's lesson about breaking things into smaller parts?" She glanced over to her sensei, who was hurriedly writing down many notes in a language she didn't recognize, writing implement flying as he jotted down numerous notes. He didn't even seem to register the fact that Yuki said his name.

"Yes, Lady Yuki."

"Keep it in mind, heading forward, as trying to replicate what I did all at once is a fool's errand." She paused, taking a sip of her tea. Wait, where did Lady Yuki get tea from? Glancing down, Rin saw a steaming cup in front of her as well, and after writing it off as just kitsune things, she took the cup and sipped at it as well.

"A given heavenly element can be composed of many things," Yuki continued, "although it all leads back to the prime eight, the material four and immaterial four. You may have heard John call these 'aspected mana' in the past, with the higher order elements being 'compound magic'. These were the original terms, which fell out of favour a few hundred years before the modern day, but the idea remains the same; it's just a difference in how they're perceived. Tell me, Rin, how do you see the heavenly elements?"

The dragon-woman shifted uneasily, trying to figure out what answer Yuki was trying to get. She could find no answer that best fit her understanding of the kitsune.

"I was taught that the heavenly elements are what define the world. They're what the first kami, the greatest of kami, defined what is and is not, giving meaning to the meaningless." A faint frown etched itself on Yuki's face, and Rin feared she had said something offensive.

"That's a passable answer of what they are, albeit lacking greater understanding, but that's not what I asked you. I asked what they were to you." The kistune's gaze turned intense, almost seeming to blaze with inner flame in the morning light.

"I…" Rin began, pressed to action by the kitsune's sheer force of personality, but fell short. What did they mean to her? She meditated on what storms or dragons were to her, of course, but the elements as a whole? It felt like asking for her opinion on everything. It was too big to look at, as if she had her nose pressed against a mountain trying to see all of it.

"I can't rightly answer, Lady Yuki," she truthfully responded, gently bowing.

"I need to gather my thoughts on that." Whatever annoyance was on the kitsune's face disappeared, replaced once more with a gentle smile.

"Good. That's all one can ask for," the kitsune said, gesturing to the sealed, blessed pot.

"It is time for you to drink up, I think." Rin had almost forgotten; she'd gotten so sidetracked! She reached over, trying not to be impolitely eager as she hefted the container. The thick liquid within sloshed, rendered down and… reshaped by Yuki. She pushed her Aegis out from her body, manually extending it into a thin skin over the entry before she uncorked the lid, unwilling to let even a wisp escape.

The mixture within was a blue and black mass, shifting and turning as the fresh air hit it, almost as if it felt the weather and was trying to reconnect with it. It burbled up, burbling, trying to escape, but it reached the sheet of her Aegis and stopped dead. Electric resonance shot through her, and Rin shivered at the contact. With shaking hands, she set the lid to the side and hefted the jar before tilting it back and pouring its contents into her mouth. Everything faded away as she drifted into her own world.

For a moment, she was the storm. She tasted lightning striking down from the sky, she smelled all the impurities of the world being washed away, she felt the weight of ages, of an endless cycle upon her tongue. She shivered, thoughts slipping away. She drank it all up as her thoughts began to haze, becoming one with the elements… but a thin strand of herself held on, forged through iron discipline. The roiling seas threatened to overturn her, but she pulled her will back together.

The energy threatened to flood through her, begging for her to be one with it, to become one. Rin, the Storm of Steel, She of Thunder, Wrath of the Wind, refused. She claimed dominion over it instead. Breathing deep, she pulled the energy deep into her core, into her spirit! She felt her very soul fluctuate, straining against the energy as it tried to tear its way through her, abiding by its natural inclinations, but she was stronger.

Bit by bit, moment by moment, the pressure abated, and she grew into more than she was. Will sharpened into blades met a storm, parting it. Dizzy-headed elation flooded her as she finished absorbing the energy, and when she opened her eyes, the world was in a new focus. She could feel freezing rain pump through her veins, muscles pulsing with lightning-driven power. She leapt up, a broad grin on her face as she landed on the dirt. Her legs quivered, but that couldn't dampen her mood!

"Behooold!" she slurred.

"I am the—the storm itself!" Her vision wavered as she staggered, but she still managed to strike a pose, pointing to the sky with all the fitting gravitas.

"I haaaave conquered the kappa's essence, and taken it for myself! Thank you, La-lady Yuki, Sensei John!" She took a step forward, but she tripped, sprawling face-first on the ground, albeit not painfully.

"Rin!" she heard John call, and a few moments later, she found herself being pulled to her feet in his arms.

"Rin, are you with me? Are you okay?" She flopped in his grip, and she must have caught him off guard with how he almost tipped over with her.

"I'm greaaaaaat, Sensei! That was some strong stuff!" She giggled.

"I'm not used to eating so closely aligned to me. I think I would like to…" She trailed off. What was she going to say again? She kept her eyes closed.

"Right," he replied, sounding strained.

"Yuki, is she… safe to lie down somewhere? I worry a bit." Worry? She was fiiiine, why would he worry? She just had to take a little nap to sleep this off and… Rin hoped she wouldn't start drooling on him as she faded into unconsciousness.