Description: Kentou's world has become a land of uncertainty. While Kentou worries about Hotaru-sensei's behavior, the boy does not let his anxieties keep him from his mission. The training of Hotaru's apprentice continues, and Frei has a few new tricks and insights for the youth to learn. And, perhaps, vice versa? What brings a Monk to shame?
Everything's unsure. That's probably the best way to describe Frei's take on events lately, a pithy magic 8-ball like comment: outlook uncertain. Whatever can go wrong, has, after all; watching Hotaru's peculiar madness grow by the day and being certain of Kataki's involvement in it. Hearing that Zach had gone missing, though the Center's handyman exists on the periphery of Frei's daily life, it's still something a little unusual. Spring's coming, and it should be a time of rebirth, when the world throws off the white cloak of winter and seems to come alive again. However, rather than the promise of rebirth, the monk is entering the season with a sense of dread. Where are things going? What should he be doing?
Realizing that since their last meeting, he'd let Kentou's training slip, the monk once again sent a card to the shop at the harbor, requesting his presence... though this time, at least, it was a little less cryptic and formal, no doubts. For himself, Frei could easily have done the next step in the center, as it's not particularly 'private'... but it may be that the location indicated on the card -- a forest clearing just outside the north side of town, accessible by bus and a short walk -- will help him focus. Maybe.
As it stands, Frei himself is dressed normally, enjoying being able to wear his customary wooden sandals again, though he's returned to the black shirt he wore when he first came to Southtown, rather than the russet orange-brown he normally wears. He debated leaving off his headband, but that morning dressing, he espied the scar on his forehead that Kentou 'accidentally' gave him... and decides to wear the bandana over it for now.
Having had all day to get to this spot, he's currently sitting on an overturned log, eating onigiri from a large lacquered, old-style Asian lunch box, as well as sipping green tea from a cup, with a large bottle of it sitting on the log as well. He seems placid enough, but somewhere in that head of his, he's trying to psyche himself up for this. After all, what he really needs isn't to train Kentou, but to distract himself, perhaps...
Life is uncertain.
A factoid that Kentou has only recently clued in on over the last year. It wasn't always thus, in his mind. Before the possibilities of the future were always crystal clear.
Bring honor to his family or die trying.
A comforting view of the world when everything is so black and white. So easy and neatly understood.
That was before he met Hotaru.
%Before Kentou came to understand that there are other things to gain, and other things to lose. Things he had no idea the true import of; until it fell into his hands.. And started to teeter over the abyss.
Frei is not alone in being lax over Kentou's training, but it is not a matter the boy has any intention of needling Frei on. The youth fully and completely understands that his instructor has heavy, heavy matters to worry about. One's brother going all darkside is enough to preoccupy anyone! Kentou wouldn't dream of putting his own concerns ahead of Frei's. If anything, the boy would insist upon making sure Frei solves his own problems and would offer to do anything he could to help.
Especially as those problems are linked to his Sensei.
Regardless, Kentou is too well-trained to ignore an invitation from Frei. If the Monk wishes to continue his training, Kentou isn't going to insult that decision by being tardy or second-guessing the man's resolve!
Bus? Bus!? HA! Kentou runs the entire distance. A half-marathon the youth manages in a brisk, if leisurely pace. Sweat rolling down his brow while his long braid sways in the breeze. His constant endurance training and running across the whole of the town itself every day has certainly started to pay off. Even this distance isn't much of an issue to the boy now.
He may not have had specific direction of the last week or two.. But he's still been hard at work! Every day, exercising and rehearsing move after move. Medicating and focusing on the smallest snippets of insight that Frei and Hotaru both had given him.
"Instructor Frei!" Kentou calls out from the distance. His voice coming in a rush as he waves his hand, running across the grass in his Chinese slippers. His ubiquitous training uniform worn as always. He may be learning to extend himself to other styles.. But the boy is hardly ever seen without his Ondori-Style Wushuu jacket and pants.
Catching his breath while slowing his pace, the boy takes a few slowing steps before bouncing to a halt near the log. Fist clapping to his palm with a deep bow, "Ondori Kentou has arrived!" He declairs in a rush, huffing and puffing hard.
The monk actually has an onigiri in his mouth, as Kentou arrives, and in surprise he keeps it there, blinking. He's... well, bright and energetic. But also sweatin and out of breath. Doesn't take Mr. Wizard to figure this one out. Slowly, he takes a bite of the riceball, chews it thoughtfully for a moment, then tilts his head to the side a little, glancing at Kentou. "...you ran the whole way here, didn't you?" And then, of course, we discover why Kentou has two masters in the first place, as Frei just shakes his head and offers Kentou the bottle of cold green tea, the only liquid around. "Why exhaust yourself right before I train you, goofball?"
If Kentou wants to drink, Frei lets him; if not, he finishes his riceball and has some of his own tea out of the cup he was sipping from before stretching and standing up, arms arching over his red-haired head, fingers locked together. "Saa... I suppose it's not too big a deal. This isn't going to be a physical workout, per se, anyway..." Shaking out his arms, Frei's fingers make a snapping noise as he pulls them into his palms in the process, before letting them settle at his side. Just *seeing* Kentou is bringing back memories of their last encounter, one that was full of surprises... not the least of which was, to Frei's eyes, the idea that he really COULD teach somebody something and have it stick... that he wasn't just wasting his time... or worse, 'damaging' Kentou's ability to learn from a 'real' teacher.
Turning to the side somewhat, Frei scratches his cheek with one finger. "Hotaru's become pretty popular, lately... looks like everyone wants to snap her out of whatever the hell's wrong with her." Oswald, Roberto, just a few names... Neo League fights, conveniently available for viewing. And Frei's been watching them all since this began. "They're welcome to try, I guess... It's not like I did a very good job." There's a note of genuine resignation, even uncharacteristic frustration, there... though whether it's over Frei's failure to make Hotaru see the light, or his ultimately getting 'killing mad' and ambushing her in SNF is up for debate.
As Frei calmly states the somewhat obvious, the youth can only offer a wide, sheepish grin and a mischievious chuckle in his defense. The boy may be sweating, but its all part of his plan! The youth accepts the cold green tea with a quick little bow, hands clamping onto the bottle and very quickly guzzling its contents. Tossing his head back until the vessel is vertical then catching his breath yet again, "Aaaah!" ^.^ Wiping his lips with the back of his hand as he lets the refreshing chill spread within and revive him.
The boy has come to realize that he only seems to really learn the important stuff at the very edge of his endurance. Just when he's practiced and practiced or fought and fought s'more: just when it seems like there's nothing else left... A revelation. Perhaps borne out of raw desperation or drunken with exaustion or some combination of both.
A lesson Hotaru taught him. 'Run as fast as you can and then we can start!' He only recently began to understand the wisdom of those words.
Still, as Frei comments that this isn't going to be a physical workout.. Kentou's expression hardens. His goofy, jovial nature gaining an edge of seriousness as he nods once more in understanding.
Physical training has always come naturally to the boy. The metaphysical training... not so much. Still, while the culmination of Frei's technique did not physically scar the youth as it did himself.. It did leave a lasting and powerful impact. One of the greatest the boy will ever realize. For the first time, he can look forward to this training with -confidence-. He knows, he knows he can do this now. He's seen it work once, he's FELT it work once. Kentou can do it again.
As Frei brings up Hotaru, Kentou's amber eyes drift. A shadow of worry falls over his gaze. His worry for Hotaru is.. all but boundless. Matched only by his feelings of powerlessness to do anything about it. Merely 'talking' to her.. Has not seemed to work. Frei himself said that he could not convince her of her of the wrongness of her current path. What hope does her little pupil to tell her what she should do with herself? That is not his place.
But there is one thing that Kentou has that even Hotaru herself doesn't have. The boy suddenly looks back to the Monk with a genuine smile. That moment of worry dissolving as unclouded, sincere eyes look back to him, "Hotaru-Sensei will be fine. With friends like Instructor Frei and Mizuki-san thinking about her, I know she'll come around. You did great, Frei. Hotaru-Sensei is lucky to have you as a friend."
Kentou's faith in his friends is unshakable, even when their faith in themselves is shattered to their very foundations.
Although Kentou's words are intended to be reassuring, the green eyes dull with self-directed disappointment, cast toward the ground. He means well, Frei's inner voice says. He means well, and he's right in that this might have been much worse if you had done nothing, and yet... and yet... "Mizuki might have better luck. I, uh..." Why lie to the boy? The monk's head comes up, eyeing Kentou with speculation, as if thinking it through. "I lost my temper. No, that's not even right. I got angry, Kentou. I've only been that angry in my life once, and that was..." He pauses, then shakes his head. "That's private. I don't do angry. I've never felt so helpless in my entire life, because I was just... consumed with it. The need to do her actual damage, to hurt her somehow as if it would fix the situation in some way..."
Waving a hand dismissively, Frei shakes his head, then his hand, then shrugs. "It's not really important. But you're right. People are noticing, people are trying to do something. We're reflected in the people around us, Kentou," he says, with a sudden air of gravity to the statement. "Remember that."
He looks somewhat amused as the rest of his tea comes to a violent end, helping quench Kentou's deep down body thirst, and indeed Frei himself takes his cup and drains the rest of that himself. Well fed, rested, prepared. Quite the opposite of Kentou's experience with Hotaru, but then, they're very different people. Hotaru's pushing physical limits, but Frei's pushing mental and emotional ones. It doesn't bear distractions well.
"I'm going to start teaching you a very basic attack," he says simply, brushing off his hands on his slacks and setting his sandal-ed feet apart slightly. "It doesn't require much. You concentrate chi in the air to a single point, and then you let it explode outward naturally. It's really easy, once you master the concept." Concentrating for a moment, Frei brings his hands toward his chest, and gathers an orange-gold sphere of light, like a sunbeam compressed into a ball, between his hands. It glows and roils for a moment, before he thrusts his hands out. The ball, predictably, bursts into a larger, expanding sphere of the same energy before dissipating entirely.
Turning back to Kentou, Frei looks him over. "It's like a spring. When you press a spring down, the kinetic energy is 'stored' in the coils, so when you let go, it leaps into the air when the energy is released, right? Well, with this, you're using your will like the coils of a spring to squeeze down chi energy instead of kinetic energy... and then letting it go, making it burst outward." He pauses, taking a deep breath, then grins a little at his young protege. "You with me so far?"
As Frei begins to reveal the true source of his anxieties, the youth seems puzzled. His glistening brow furrowing as he tries to follow the Monk's somewhat mumbling confession. Kentou remains puzzled as it seems the crux of it is that he got mad.
What.. Thats it?
Kentou slowly begins to smile once more as a dismissive comment is at the very tip of his tongue before clamping his mouth shut and giving the unspoken reply a second thought. Sometimes, because Frei is so worldly and casual, its easy to mistake the man for just like anybody else in the crowd. Something the Monk strives for ardently in a way that Kentou.. Just can't even begin to understand. Everybody gets mad, especially when friends do stupid, frustrating things.
But then, Frei lays out the concern in flat terms. The Monk isn't like everyone else. He's in a state of mind that the average person doesn't grasp by necessity for his Old Chinese Magic to work. Having that knocked out of alignment is a huge deal, especially when he needed to maintain that alignment to heal Hotaru.
With the gravity of that sentiment understood, Kentou nods slowly. He has no intention of judging Frei, even if the Monk is seeing fit to judge himself. At least he can respect the man enough to understand him and know where he's coming from.
With that, Kentou tries his best to clear his mind of these worries. He's going to need every scrap of brain-power he has to wrap his mind around what the Monk is going to teach him. Minute distractions, such as worry, are going to make something already impossible even more.. impossible-er.
The boy straightens, shoulders squaring as Frei gets down to business. Absorbing the information dutifully as his eyes follow the Monk's every movement. The light of that man-made sunrise reflecting in Kentou's widened gaze as the young man completes his technique as if it was the easiest thing in the entire world. Trying not to let the beautiful, expanding glow distract him too much he nods hastily. Bangs bouncing about with the motion as he replies, "Hai!"
A coiled spring of energy. Gather it, compress it, then let it go. Dirt simple. Easy peasy.
Uh.. How?
Perhaps to let him stew, or perhaps for his own amusement, Frei lets Kentou sit there and mull that over for a while without saying anything. If this were a martial arts drama -- and indeed, by crossing his arms over his chest and watching, wordlessly, this is the effect Frei is consciously trying to reproduce -- then the apprentice would be expected to reproduce this simplest of techniques without fail. If he were a real bastard, Frei would of course cut the silence by saying that if Kentou cannot perform this most simple of techniques, then why is he bothering to train at all?!
Aren't we lucky he's a nice guy?
Eventually the facade cracks and Frei grins at Kentou, uncrossing his arms. "But how, you ask. Well, or didn't ask, but you should have. There's no shame in asking how to do something you don't know how to do, after all," he adds, deciding today is the day to be full of quippy wisdom. Pausing, Frei turns and sweeps his arm up, to include and encompass the surrounding trees... all dead, with spring not entirely arrived just yet, but soon to be full of rustling green leaves. "Why do you think I brought you here, Kentou, to teach you this? Think about it for a second."
Putting up a finger, he steps backwards and picks up the box, getting two onigiri, and walks back. One he keeps for himself; the other he hands to Kentou to munch on. After all, eating can stimulate the brain sometimes. "Even this riceball has a clue if you think about it. It's like coiling a spring, and chi is the energy of life itself, remember. Think about it."
The sound of crickets chirping in the primeval forest.
For long moments Kentou stands there, completely resolute and totally serious. His jaw set and his eyes intense as he fully understands the instructions given!
A largish droplet of sweat sloooowly rolls down his brow.
As Frei speaks up and asks the unspoken question, Kentou tries to disguise his exhale of relief as best he can. The boy's shoulders slumping only a fraction as he visibly seems to relax just a little. But only a little.
"H..Hai.." Kentou sheepishly replies after a fashion, the corner of his hasty smile quirking at the gentle reproach. True.. The boy doesn't tend to question his teachers much. Almost by definition Frei and Hotaru are, well, above question. He'd do whatever they asked as.. well.. Most of the stuff they teach him never seems to make sense on a surface level. It isn't until doing what they ask over and over again does the meaning become clear. As such, the boy is always eager to give their methods a go without fretting over the whys and wherefores too much.
Perhaps a bad habit that may be particularly hard to break..
As the boy is directed to think, only then does he start to put his own thoughts to work. Biting his lower lip as Frei gestures to the grand vista around them, the boy's attention moves from his Instructor to the wilderness around. Slowly taking in the beautiful scenery, on the very cusp of spring time. His thoughts drifting about so wildly over the question, he doesn't even notice the onigiri held before him.
Only when Frei speaks again does his attention return with a snap, blinking at the ball and hastily accepting it with a tiny bow, "Hai!" Just about to consume the morsel unthinkingly, the boy hesitates with his mouth wide.
"...." closing his jaw with an audible clop, the boy continues holding the ball of rice in his hands. Perhaps beginning to appreciate it's culinary engineering with a bit more discern at Frei's guidance. "....Huh.."
"Maybe I overdid it, bringing in the onigiri," Frei admits, polishing off his with gusto. Fry him, torture him, kill his friends... the monk's legendary junk food appetite will not be abated by any force, natural or otherwise. Licking some sticky rice from his fingers, he looks down at Kentou for a bit, and then decides to move things along for the heck of it. "Picture all these trees full of leaves. They've been barren for months, sleeping, waiting, biding their time. Circumstances weren't right for leaves. But now the weather is warming up and they're going to grow soon." Bringing his hands up, he holds them parallel vertically, palms inward and downward, and pushes them together without touching, like he's compressing something. "Like a coiled spring, waiting to leap upwards. The rice in these riceballs was probably planted, oh, last June... and in November someone harvested it when it did the same thing."
Bringing both hands up, Frei runs them through his hair. "I noticed the color, green..." He can't be referring to anything but the emerald brightness of Kentou's chi, brought out at long last by the strange 'ritual' Frei tried. "Depending on which culture you ask, green can be associated with the earth, or more specifically with plants... in China, green represents Wood, one of the five elements." There's a pause to make sure Kentou is following him, and once he's satisfied that his student isn't off in dreamland or too puzzled to keep going, he continues. "Wood is a yang force, just like that little burst I showed you... it's active energy, positive, the power of growth. It's the ability to create, though it..." He pauses, faltering for a moment, and when he finds his voice it's somewhat airy, as if remembering something said a long time ago. "...it also rules our anger," he says at last. Turning to Kentou, he pauses, eyebrows going up as if at some internal comment, but then he smiles. "I think that represents you... so I brought you here, surrounded by your element."
Holding out his hands again, Frei closes his eyes and concentrates, and between his extended hands, as if holding something, a glow flickers into being, shapeless and amorphous, of pale green aura around a darker green core. "Don't worry about coiling the spring right now. Just concentrate, think about that energy you saw, the energy you know is part of you... and envision it appearing in your hands." He pauses, and says with some emphasis, "You have to *believe*. Kentou, you're rewriting reality when you do this... convincing it that the way you see things is the way *they are*. Will is the most important thing. It's not easy. But give it a try."
Oh.
Oh yeah..
Kentou stares at the compacted ball of rice with perhaps a too much intensity. There is great wisdom there.. but it also looks delicious.
Mmm...Forbidden wisdom..
Not to allow his appetite to wreck his concentration, Kentou tears his gaze from the morsel to survey his surroundings once more at Frei's bidding. This time specifically elaborating on the connection between this place and the lesson being taught. This location was not arbitrary or chosen randomly for its seclusion and serenity.
There is a deeper meaning here than the surface suggests. A meaning that Kentou did not fully grasp until Frei explains the truth of the boy's revealed breath. Mousy eyes turning to the monk as he listens very intently now. The boy grasps the connection readily as he nods with growing understanding.
Kentou is, after all, half Chinese by blood. Their philosophies are deeply embedded within his family arts and some of their spirituality has come to his attention. He just.. didn't make the connection between the color and what it might suggest.
As Frei concentrates, the boy again witnesses the wonders dancing at the Monk's fingertips. His head tilting in a half-shake, unable to believe how -easy- he makes that look. At the request the boy nods intently. Taking a step back and lowering himself to the ground, legs folding beneath him as his hands are held together on his lap. Fingertips touching as if cradling some invisible something.
"Hai.." Kentou murmurs before taking a deep, cleansing breath and slowly exhaling. Eyes closing as he tries to bring himself to stillness.
Before, there was trepidation at this moment. Countless hours and lessons where he had sat down and meditated in the exact same way.. coming up with nothing. This time is different. THIS time.. He knows it isn't easy.. But he knows its -possible-.
There is something to this place.. as Frei mentioned it. Something he can just barely feel. Perhaps its the lingering confidence coloring his thoughts, but the boy swears he can feel something right now. Something in the air. Something from the trees, from the grass beneath them. A boldness. The courage of leaves yet to be born, to unfold proudly into the world and embrace their brief time on Earth.
The boy can remember that feeling. That moment of complete agony, mixed with the faintest hint of another emotion. The key he had been looking for.
He believes it. He wills it. He knows it. That feeling, that peace of mind, that way of life.
A subtle thing.. One wouldn't notice if one was not looking.. But the darkness between Kentou's palms begin to color. A faint, misty illumination. Dilute.. ethereal.. emerald.
Yet on the other side of the ledger, Frei doesn't tell Kentou that he's being... tricked, in a way. Certainly, the chi dancing in Frei's hands is green... but it's not the energy of Wood, and it never has been. For some reason, it is element that conceptually he has never been able to really use. He's never understood why, particularly since a power that the Chinese ascribed to wood -- lightning, the rage of the sky -- is within his grasp. But the true 'power of creation' is elusive, the faded green around a core of earthier chi, energy he uses in another way. It's not lost on him that this youth can do something he can't, but it is something he keeps to himself... not out of self-consciousness, but in a desire not to confuse him any further.
With a breath, he lets the energy in his own hands and watches Kentou closely, as if he could divine the boy's thought processes simply by watching him work. In a sense, though, he can... or at least, get a sense of the strength of Kentou's will by how successful he is at making this happen. The aura responds, flares, reaches out. The energy Kentou saw before was his own, but using that is impractical unless you train to do it, or it's part of your specific style... much more efficient, in the long run, to use what's around you. But it's a process that's nothing like the logics of force involved in martial arts.
"Good!" Frei encourages, but keeps his voice low so as not to shatter Kentou's concentration. A part of him wishes he could merge with that energy, bolster it, walk him through this... but that wouldn't work, and even if it would, what would Kentou learn? "I know I made it sound like you're forcing things to change, but that's a ham-fisted way to go about it. Think of it as... covincing someone." The monk actually brightens at that, as if he just thought of it (which he likely did). "Yes. Convincing. Chi around us in the air is formless, shapeless. You're giving it a chance to be something, giving it shape."
The energies radiating betwixt Kentou's palms could be called cohesive only generously. More of a wispy, vaguely luminous radiance not unlike the aurora borealis. A localized section of his aura has begun to harmonize with the world just enough to interact with visible light. Nothing more.. But nothing less.
To put this achievement in proper perspective, 99.99999% of the Earth's population is completely incapable of managing this feat. Of the remainder, only a fraction of them have had the years of training required to manage it. A fact so easily forgotten with Southtown being home to so many wonders. With mere children able to lob this spirit-stuff around like water balloons.
And now Kentou can be counted amongst those children.
As Frei speaks up, the boy's eye cracks open. Peeking to see just what seemed to get the Monk so excited..
Only to have that energy vanish the moment he looked for it.
The boy's lip press firmly in a small pout. He knew he had felt -something- going on there!
The youth looks up from his moment of frustration to take in Frei's further explainations. Wetting his lips and closing his eyes once more. Breathing in and out and just focusing on that feeling yet again.
Kentou has already convinced himself he can make this work. In some ways.. The hardest part is over. Hard work and practice? Those things Kentou can do without fail. Improvement comes in small increments and with results warming his fingertips.. The boy has learned to be patient.
And patience, yields rewards sooner or later, as the renewed emerald glow between the boy's fingers demonstrates.
Unable to resist, Frei laughs and reaches out to ruffle Kentou's hair... something the young fighter is forced to endure, if he may recall the conditions of his training so many months ago. Besides, considering Frei is short for an adult, the years in which he can do such a thing aren't going to be many in number regardless. Despite his goofiness, though, his smile and pride are genuine. He's getting it. Little by little, he's getting it. "It takes these trees months before they're ready to debut, remember," he adds, bringing the nature metaphor back around. "All things in due time. But that's a good start."
Stretching, once again making an arc with his arms as is a characteristic gesture, Frei lets out a long slow breath. "Let's call it a day for now. Practice doing that, when you have time and energy. Don't try it when you're tired or thirsty or exhausted, at least not at first. Eat something nice, take a deep breath. It's not like learning to throw a punch, where pushing your limits helps build strength. Trying to do this while you're exhausted will just burn you out."
Walking over, Frei stows the now-empty boxes and bottles and cups inside a backpack, which had been sitting behind the log out of sight, and slings it onto his back. "Just focus on making a coherent form for now. It doesn't have to LOOK like anything. Just... start at the beginning. Now..." He dusts off his hands, and points toward Southtown. "I'm going to get some ice cream. Coming?"
Log created on 00:09:31 04/03/2008 by Kentou, and last modified on 03:27:08 04/03/2008.