Like before, this is stuff cut from parts of 3 and 4.
I think this fits better out, and side arc one fits better in, but I'm not sure, so.
C&C please.
Disclaimer: The playground is by Rumiko Takahashi, I'm only
swinging on the monkey bars. Remember to leave the grounds
cleaner than you found them and please don't feed the
Trolls.
This is where I put the talking heads pieces of exposition.
Just so you know.
This story is archived at http://www.kawaiikunee.com/slp/
Release 0.1 (Sept. 24, 1999)
------------------------------------------------------------
Ranma and Akane: A Love Story
Side Arc 2: Training Sequence
Part A: Feeling Her Way
------------------------------------------------------------
Author's note: this section occurs around about chapters 3
and 4. That is, on the third day, and those immediately
following up to the initial part of chapter 5. It therefore
covers about a week and a half of time.
Scene divisions indicate considerable periods of time.
------------------------------------------------------------
Tendo Akane circled, frustratedly. It wasn't so much that
Ranma-sensei was better than her. One _expects_ one's sensei
to be better, after all.
It wasn't that she could not come close to beating Ranma,
either. She had received a demonstration of just exactly how
good Ranma was earlier that day, in the terror and
exhilaration of the attack by the monster Ranma had called
Jei.
It wasn't even that she was getting thumped. No, the reason
was, she knew she could do better, but she couldn't even
make Ranma block her attacks. Frustrating.
Akane narrowed her eyes and launched a series of feints,
testing the extent of Ranma's defense. She detected a
pattern (she knew that Ranma was purposefully allowing it,
but that wasn't the point) and moved to engage it, only to
find herself upended before her last feint had been
launched. Akane *whuffed* as she hit the floor on her back
and rolled upright, then sagged as she saw Ranma's upraised
hand.
"Hold up, Acchan, this isn't working."
Akane nodded glumly, "I'm sorry, Ranchan, I just can't seem
...."
"No ... no, I don't think it's you. I think I'm trying to
tell you to do something that's wrong for your inherent
style."
"Inherent style, Ranchan? What's that?"
"That's the ... the style of action, call it, that you are
most capable of. The one you go back to if you're pushed, if
you see what I mean."
Akane nodded and Ranma continued. "I was thinking that your
style was Water, and that you were Malleable; but now I
think that you must be a Fire stylist instead, and Static
besides."
"Is that bad?" Akane asked worriedly.
"No, the styles are equal if you know what you're doing.
It's just that _I'm_ a Malleable and I'm not absolutely sure
what the priorities are for a Static form."
"Malleable? Static? I don't understand, Ranchan."
Ranma appeared not to hear, pacing back and forth with her
arms clasped behind her, looking at the ground, and
muttering. She paced and muttered for five minutes or so
before Akane asked again, "Ranchan?"
Ranma started. "Uh! I'm sorry, Acchan. Did you say
something?"
"What is Malleable, Ranchan? Or Static?"
Ranma had the grace to blush. "Errr. Hehehe. Malleable is
.... Umm. Okay. Let's start from the beginning, shall we?"
Ranma sank into seiza, putting her back to the dojo wall and
indicating that Akane should do likewise.
Akane chose a spot within arms reach of Ranma and likewise
sat. Ranma cleared her throat, and began to speak.
Okay, Acchan, let's categorize fighting styles for
a moment here. First, there are two primary
divisions between types of styles. Now a
particular person's style will rarely if ever fall
absolutely into a single category, alright? But
certain factors will predominate.
The first factor has to do with whether your style
relies on perfecting a certain set of moves, such
that ... okay, let's say that you can do a
particular punch. Say that you can do an
eagle-claw to the upper body.
Now, if you perform that move the same way against
_every_ opponent you face, and only change the
target you aim it at, say, then you are being
Static. If you vary the _way_ you perform the
attack, change it to fit your particular opponent
with every fight -- sometimes go in from
underneath, say, or put power into the strike at a
different point each time -- then you are being
Malleable. With me so far?
Akane nodded with the beginnings of understanding on her
face.
Okay, now, there are four main classifications of
methods; what are called the Classical Styles.
These are Earth, Air, Fire and Water. And Void,
but that's a special case. Each classical style is
marked by its own particular approach to
opposition, meaning that each style moves in a
particular way and chooses attacks and defenses by
a particular method.
Earth is unsubtle -- it relies on its power and
resilience to either put its opposition in an
untenable position and smash it, or simply to wear
it down by attrition.
Water is gradual --it takes its time and flows
through its opposition, finding weak points or
creating them by erosion, and then building
strength to exploit them.
Air is indirect -- it stays out of the way and
draws its opposition into making a mistake, or
simply overextends it by forcing it to cover more
than it has resources for.
Fire, lastly, is focused -- it gathers all its
strength into a single burst that cannot be
withstood.
Now, most people, of course, don't follow a single
style alone, just as the differences between
Malleable and Static get a bit blurred in real
life; but the differences are real, regardless,
and you need to respect them.
Akane nodded again. "You're an Air stylist, aren't you."
Ranma nodded in her turn. "Mostly, yes."
Now the _other_ thing to remember is that, just as
each style has its own methods and strengths, each
also has its own weakness. Earth bets it all that
its opponent can't hit harder than _it_ can; Water
bets that it _has_ time to spend; Air bets that
the attack _can_ be evaded, that the defense
_does_ have a hole somewhere, and so on.
Fire, in particular, is an all-or-nothing
proposition. It concentrates its power, so if the
attack hits, if the defense blocks, it packs more
power than anybody else; _but_, at the same time,
if it _doesn't_ work then the warrior is left
overextended, without any reserve. Also, it
doesn't generally have a lot of endurance, so it
also has to win _quickly_, before it runs out.
"Okay, I can see that. So what's the fix, Ranchan? What do
we _do_ about it?"
"There isn't a _fix_, Acchan, exactly. Nothing's _broken_,
it's just that we -- that is _you_ -- have to consider a
different range of things when you're training.
Specifically, in your case, _control_ and _restraint_."
"Saying that I'm uncontrolled, are you?" Akane quirked an
eyebrow teasingly.
"It's nothing that anyone else wouldn't tell you, Acchan,"
Ranma patted her on the knee. "But, to return to being
serious, what you need to concentrate on is the _control_ of
your strength."
You need to hold yourself in check until you
_know_ that your attack will hit; until you _know_
where the other guy's attack is coming. Then, you
need to only use the right _amount_ of strength;
keep as much of yourself as you can in reserve,
centered, so you can move in any direction to
match any opportunity. Also, you need to
concentrate on controlling the actual strikes and
defenses you use; on not letting them over-commit,
and on bringing them back into center as fast as
you can.
And also, I think, I'd better start your training
on the paths of Breath and Spirit. I think, for
you, that _integration_ of all the paths you
travel will be a key thing. ( She frowned, looking
down. ) Which, come to think of it, I could have
deduced from how good you are at Void naturally,
if I'd thought of it. *Sigh* My fault.
"It's not as if you've ever done it before, Ranchan."
"What would _that_ have to do with it, Acchan?"
"Umm, err." Quickly, "But, about control ... how am I
supposed to use my strength if I have to _not_ use it all
the time?"
"You don't want to _not_ use it, Acchan. You want to use it
_precisely_. After all --" Her hand shot out, suddenly
appearing at Akane's throat holding a knife just touching
the skin. "-- you only need to use enough strength to break
the _defense_. After you get through, you've got any number
of options that don't need strength at all." The knife
vanished into jacket space, and Ranma quirked an elegant
eyebrow, "Ne?"
Akane gulped. "Ahh. Yeah. That's right."
------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, I've started you working with what we're
going to be doing in the realm of external
training; strategy and tactics, and kata and
moves, and such. Now it's time for me to tell you
about the _internal_ part.
Specifically, there are at least four major areas
in which a warrior must be accomplished. These are
divided into Mind and Body along one axis; and
into External and Internal along another.
External and Body gives you the category of
Martial Practice; that is, kata, the maneuvers
that make them up, and general training in
physical capability. External and Mind gives you
the category of Strategy; which also includes
tactics and military theory, and also the mental
exercises like meditation.
Now _Internal_ and Body give you the category of
Breath. This is Ki, of course, but many people get
confused by it, because the word itself only
refers to _one_ of the many types of energy that
you have to learn to use here. Finally, Internal
and Mind creates the category of Spirit. This path
involves growth in several areas: moral inquiry,
the worlds of ghosts and spirits, the celestial
courts and the supernatural balance, death and why
-- and why not -- to avoid it, alchemy, and magic.
The internal areas are the tough ones, because, by
their nature, just what's _happening_ in any given
area of them is terribly obscure. Normally, you
would have to go through years and years of
failure and perseverance before you gained
entrance to them, but we don't really have the
time, so I cheated, a bit.
"Remind me to kill you for that, later. So how'd _you_ learn
about these things, anyway, if it takes 'years and years'?"
"Oh ... I cheated. A bit." (Grin.)
"Why does this not surprise me?"
"It's because you've become old and cynical, Acchan."
Anyway, to start at the beginning, both the
Internal Paths involve the manipulation of
energies. These energies exist throughout the
world, and because all the forms of these energies
are pretty similar, it is possible to use one kind
of energy to affect another. For instance, you can
use your own energy of motion to grab onto and
drag in the energy of motion in your environment,
thereby enhancing your own supplies.
"You're confusing me, Ranchan."
"Alright, take a look at my hand," Ranma held up her hand,
and drew power into it. "Now, carefully, look at, and then
_into_ the hand. See the energy fields, the glowing shapes?"
Cautiously, Akane attempted to regain the distancing of
perception she had felt earlier. "Yeah ... kinda."
"If you look closely, you'll see that there are two types of
energy there. First, there is the inherent energy that makes
up the _reality_ of the physical structure of the hand
itself. You should be able to see it lurking _inside_ the
skin."
"Okay."
"Next is the energy that allows the hand to live and move.
It pools and flows through and around the hand, depending on
how the hand itself moves. See it?" Ranma turned her hand
around and about under Akane's gaze.
"Ye-ees. Is it supposed to look sort of like a glowing
liquid?"
"Yep."
Now the best explanation of what you're looking at
comes from Chinese Classical Alchemy. Basically,
the energy of any given object is divided into
Ch'i or 'stable energy' and Shih or 'motion
energy'.
Now there's also another way to classify physical
energies, and it doesn't help that one of the
words you use for it got stolen from the Chinese
and then had its meaning altered. Chi, of course,
means 'earth' and refers to the energies of
_everything but you_. Ki means 'breath' and refers
to those energies that are specifically yours.
The reason that this is important is that _your_
energies are influenced by your spiritual and
emotional state, so that what you can use your ki
_for_ gets set by what kind of influences you've
given it. And everything else's ki gets influenced
by its spiritual balance too, of course.
"What does that mean in plain Japanese, Ranchan?"
"Hmmf. Unenlightened slacker."
What it means is that you can use one type of
energy to manipulate another. You could use your
own shih, for instance, to pull in shih from the
area around you. Then you could transform that
shih into ch'i which you could then move into,
lets say, your hand.
"Watch how I do it here." And, indeed, Akane saw flowing
energy spread out from Ranma's hand to touch energy flows in
the dojo at large. These, then, flowed back into Ranma,
gathering around her upraised hand, to coalesce into a
complex shape of rod-like structures, glowing brightly to
the inner sight.
Now you've got a power source. The ch'i here will
stay in this shape for some time without effort on
my part, because it is _static_ energy. Now,
remember that I said that the Path of Spirit also
affects this process. This is because energy that
you have made your own, that has become your ki in
other words, is affected by your _spiritual_
state.
Ranma moved her hand to just in front of Akane's face, so
that she could see closely. "What I mean by that is that
magic, which is what you're doing when you use energies
outside yourself, is absolutely defined by the purity of
soul of the person using it."
"You mean, like, evil people can't use magic, then?"
No. I mean that _unfocused_ people can't use
magic. Magic depends on focus; focus not just in
mind, but in soul. Your soul must be pure from
distractions to speak clearly enough to the
universe for what you say to be heard.
This is what meditation and the like is for; to
remove or suppress pieces of your soul that don't
fit what you are trying to say. What is going on
when you do magic, you see, is that you are taking
an amount of energy and speaking to the universe,
telling it to treat that energy as something else.
The more pure your soul is, the more softly you
can 'speak' and still be heard. The more softly
you can 'speak', the more complex and precise a
change you can create. Also, the more the universe
'likes' you and so the more 'real' the changes you
make are.
"That doesn't really make sense, Ranchan."
"Look at it like this: when you do magic, which is what this
is, you have to start with your ki. You use your ki to
'speak' to the ... to the Tao, I guess, and the Tao
responds. Okay?"
"Okay ... I guess. Still sounds weird though."
"Can't help that. It _is_ weird. But you see that your ki is
influenced by what you're doing inside, right? That is, if
your soul is angry, your ki is angry."
"O-Okay...."
"Now, you're trying to use _your_ energy, your ki, to
'speak' to _something else's_ energy. _Or_, you're trying to
tell some _part_ of your ki to do something it wouldn't do
naturally."
"This is where you're losing me."
"Ahh. Ummm .... Okay! Start from the top, and look at the
hand.
"Now, _first_, I take some shih from my ki. See it?" A
glowing fluid seemed, to the inner sight, to gather itself
in Ranma's hand.
"Okay."
Now this shih is a part of my ki, which means it
is attuned to the state of my soul. Which means
that if my soul is angry then the shih will take
on the characteristics of anger; that is, it will
be aligned towards anger or to things _like_
anger.
The fluid changed color, and seemed to begin to fizz, then
calmed.
"Okay."
And if the shih is 'angry', so to speak, it will
affect what it can do, and how it acts. Likewise
if I have any other overriding emotion or need in
my soul when I gather it.
Now, if my soul is _muddled_, that is, if it's
like _most_ people's souls, and concerned with
many things at once, then it will not be able to
do _anything_ easily. Whereas, if it is _tranquil_
then it will be _responsive_; it will obey more
easily and can do more.
"Makes sense so far."
Now, even if I have a strong emotion, or a strong
calmness, in the, the foreground, so to speak, of
my soul, so that my shih gains the influences I
want, it doesn't mean that there's nothing else in
my soul at all. And this 'background' in my soul
still has an effect on the shih; in a sense it
creates static, like on a radio.
"Still okay."
Furthermore, all the influences in your ki
multiply themselves as you express them.
If your ki is angry, then what it affects will be
angry too, or will be influenced towards anger.
This, in turn, will rebound on you, and make you
angrier yet, and so on. If your ki is staticky,
that interference will show up in everything it
influences, and will feed back into your soul and
make it harder to retain concentration ... you get
the picture. So the more _pure_ and free from
contradictory impulses your soul is, the better
you do.
"Okay. I get it now."
Now this influence extends to all facets of your
being, and it goes both ways. That is, if your
soul is troubled, it will rebound throughout your
body and mind. Likewise, if your body is damaged,
or if your mind is uneasy, it will rebound onto
your soul.
You can keep them separate, of course, but it
takes effort and energy; and even the best don't
have an infinite amount of that. If you're using
energy on maintaining your soul's tranquility, you
can't be using it to get yourself out of jams.
This is why honor is so important, and why the
most successful people are simple.
"Huh?"
Simple. Single, in a sense. Dedicated to one end,
or one condition of being.
If one thing is most important to you, then that
thing must be the center of your existence. Which
is easy if you're only talking about _one_ thing.
_One_ thing you can handle.
But if _two_ things, or more, are most important,
then inevitably some of them are going to come
into conflict. That is, to improve one thing you
must sacrifice another. This destroys tranquility.
Again, honor implies singleness. If you have
honor, then you know _why_ you do things; you have
a framework to act on. But again, the best honor
is the simple honor: the one that has _one_, and
only one, clear goal, and that sets how everything
else falls into place underneath that goal."
"What if you make a mistake?" Akane leaned forward,
concentrating."What if you think that one thing is most
important, but then you find out that something else is,
instead?"
Then you need to adjust your thinking. If you
discover that you have mistakenly attached your
loyalties, or that you have put something into a
priority that it does not deserve, then you need
to take the time to meditate and consider where
your priorities rightly lie. Then you simply
follow the correct way, since now you know what it
is.
Really, the only times you should have trouble are
if you are acting on incorrect information or if
you yourself are mistaken in what you think to be
important. The first simply requires you to react
to the correct information when you realize that
the information you were previously acting on was
in error.
The second is more difficult, because you have to
know yourself well enough to know what you really
value. This is a matter of sorting out what your
soul values; which, of course, is easier if your
soul is tranquil, so it all circles back on
itself, really.
"I was right," Akane grumbled, "it is Zen."
Getting back to the initial subject of discussion,
from which, I note, we have digressed: using one
kind of energy to influence another. Also, the
kinds of things you can do.
The easiest things are to enhance or degrade
things that are already there; aiding someone's
ch'i for instance, to help them heal, or aiding
your own shih so you can run faster or hit harder.
On the spiritual side this involves removing
unnecessary influences from your wa, or someone
else's, and aiding tranquility. And damaging
tranquility in other people too, of course.
( Dryly ) Reducing your own tranquility is not
something I recommend unless you're _trying_ to go
berserker. Which is not something _you_, in
particular, _ever_ want to do.
"I wouldn't be a good berserker, huh?"
"No, you'd be a _much too_ good one. You'd be so good at it
that I doubt you'd ever stop. Which is not a fate I want for
my best friend." Ranma punctuated this statement with a very
stern look.
Akane looked down. "No. I don't want it either. I'll
remember, Ranchan."
"Particularly since _I'd_ probably get the job of taking you
down." Akane shuddered, and Ranma patted her on the
shoulder.
Now, more complex manipulations involve things
like _changing_ energy into something that's _not_
there, or calling things from nothingness. And the
better you get the more complicated the things you
can do. But we'll get to that later.
The final goal of all this is to gain in skill in
all four categories at a balanced rate. Because,
if you climb the ladder on all four poles at once
you go up faster, and farther too. And at the top
of the ladder lies zanshin.
"Okay, _that_ I'm _really_ confused about."
"Not surprising. Even the master couldn't speak about it
easily. It's a lot like making love in that regard, really.
'Those who speak do not know. Those who know are silent.'
... Why _Acchan_, you're _blushing_."
"You _hush_, you." Akane mock-threatened with a raised fist,
and Ranma grinned.
But to make an attempt; you could say that zanshin
is like the heart of the Tao, it is a balanced
melding of opposites, leading to a state of higher
wa. If you wanted to you could speak of three
stages between the lowest manifestation and the
highest.
The first is called Heijoshin, to fight 'Without
Attitude'. This stage reflects the 'attitudes' of
combat, or the 'attitude' in which you hold a
sword. It deals with reaching the point at which
you are always ready for combat, and always ready
_in_ combat, so that you never are made unready or
unprepared for any eventuality. You've already
shown flashes of this stage, by the way, so it
shouldn't prove to be _too_ difficult.
The second stage is Munen Muso, the 'Mind Without
Thought'. This means expanding your consciousness
to such an extent that you don't need to think
about what you're doing in combat, instead you
just _react_. Or, rather, _act_; impressing the
desires of the will directly onto the world
without the interference of conscious thought. You
showed this one too, that one time.
The last stage is the hardest and the most
profound. It is Shinku Ki, the 'Will of the Void'.
When you reach this stage you will achieve satori
in combat. Instead of attempting to impress your
will on an opponent, who is also attempting to
impress _her_ will on you, you will perform
Zeiteki. You will cause 'the arrow to exist in the
target'.
When the arrow exists in the target, the fighter
_becomes_ her victory and her opponent's defeat.
Thus the basic intention of strategy is given
perfect form, and, since its form is perfection,
it _already exists_. Thus, the victory is won
before the conflict occurs.
------------------------------------------------------------
Now, ( Ranma said ) I think we ought to go into
the more spiritual side for a while. To keep your
balance, as it were. First, a philosophical
question; what would you say was the most powerful
force in the universe?
"Oh, Kamis. Philosophy. I knew there hadn't been enough Zen
yet. I could just tell. Well ... philosophically I'd have to
say Love."
Well, you _are_ young, ne? But did all your
father's love for your mother save her from death?
Could it bring her back now? Could my love for
Kai-oniichan save him? And love itself is often
pretty fragile, too. Sometimes one word will kill
it. It's _a_ powerful force, true, but ....
Akane narrowed her eyes. "Are you making a case for Death,
then? The old 'Everything Ends in the End' koan?"
Ranma slouched over to the open dojo door, looking out on
the yard and its garden. "I don't think that actually
qualifies as a Koan, Acchan." She extended a hand and sent a
delicate thread of shih wafting into the yard and carefully
drew a butterfly to light on her hand. "And as for 'most
powerful'," she turned to Akane, extending her hand, "even
something as fragile as this butterfly can defy it. Does
defy it, every second of every day. Most _patient_
maybe...."
"Ki, then? No, wait, that can't be right. Honor?"
Ranma simply raised her eyebrow.
"Alright, sensei, your humble student awaits your most wise
clarification."
"Trick question." Ranma shrugged.
There is no 'most powerful force'. Power does not
reside in force; power resides in the
relationships between forces. Nothing has power in
isolation, only in relation to the rest of the
universe.
Akane blinked slowly. "O ... Kaaay. Which means what?"
"When I 'opened your eye' the other day," Akane scowled in
remembrance, "did you feel something like a blanket? Like
something wanted to protect you, and when it did, you saw
ghosts?"
"You know I did." Akane said crossly, "You were there. You
got me out of it. After putting me into it, I might add."
Ranma grinned at her crookedly.
That 'blanket' was you invoking sight in the
celestial plane. What you could call 'spirit
vision'. What you were seeing was a visual
representation of the meanings and relationships
imbued in your surroundings. That is, the
spiritual environment of the dojo itself.
"Explain the part about 'meanings and relationships' please,
Sensei. Whose meanings, _what_ relationships?"
Anybody's. Everybody's. Take the dojo. In here, (
she waved her hands around at the surroundings )
people have learned the art, made friendships,
made enemies, changed their lives, lived their
lives, done their jobs, laughed, loved, lived, for
what, fifty years, a hundred? And all that is
still here.
Everything that has ever happened here has had
meaning, everything has left strands of itself --
and all the thing it was related to -- in the
spiritual structure of the dojo itself.
Now, what that means. First, everything that ever
happened here is still here, in some sense. So
there's a link, if you're good enough. Second, all
that meaning floating about has attached some of
itself to this place, and has given it a meaning
of its own.
The old texts would say that this meaning has
become a Word. That is: the expression of an
Active Concept, one that affects the world around
it. Call it 'Tendo dojo'. And that Word has
relationships of its own, too.
For instance, 'Tendo dojo' is a subset of 'Dojo'
isn't it? So this place has a relationship with
the _idea_ of a dojo itself, you see, and through
that relationship it also relates to every other
dojo that's ever been built.
_And_ 'Dojo', as a word, is related to the larger
word 'Training place', isn't it? And 'Training
place' is related to 'Training', which is related
to 'Wisdom' as the state of being trained, and so
on.
Up at the top, you get a small group of concepts
that have a _lot_ of things related to them. These
concepts have a lot of power, _because_ so many
other things draw on them for _their_ power. And
_your_ ability to access that power is determined
by A) how pure and uncluttered you can make a call
on that power, and B) how closely related to it
you are.
"When we talk about 'accessing their power'," Akane said,
scratching her chin, "just what do we mean?"
Well, for example, take the dojo itself. Now, just
on the most basic level, you can See things that
went on here in the past. Or that are likely to
happen in the future. Or you can See what the dojo
means to someone, and what relationships it has
attached to it.
At a little higher level, you can Imbue something
with the spirit, and the power, of the dojo. You
can cause that thing to exhibit some of the
characteristics of 'Tendo dojo'-ness, so to speak.
Or increase the characteristics already manifest
in the dojo itself.
A little higher again, and you could Manifest
'dojo'-ness directly on the world, and, let's say,
make yourself a roof and walls and floor in the
middle of the wilderness.
At the highest level I know about, you could
Transfigure something to be more 'dojo'-like.
Change its nature permanently.
Now, just what happens with any of this depends a
lot on just how good you are at embodying the
virtue of the word you're trying to call upon;
which is why having a soul that's uncluttered
enough to do that is so important. _But_ ... the
other thing that determines what happens is how
much relation _you_ have to what you're doing.
You, for instance, are closely related to this
dojo; _which means_ that anything _you_ do about
it, or to it, will be easier _for you_. And the
more of you there is in it, the more you can do,
and the easier it is. And also, the more that
things that happen here will reflect _in_ you.
"So," Akane said worriedly, "if someone tore down a wall,
say, it could hurt me?"
If they did it right, yes. This is _another_
reason to have a simple soul: it simplifies the
things you have to keep track of.
"So, how do I look and see what relationships might be that
strong?"
Well, first you go back into trance and empty your
mind. Now you invoke that feeling you had, and you
Look to See what's there. Remember that you're not
going to See anything you're not looking for, so
keep you're intentions focused.
"Okay, now what?" Akane mumbled absently.
Now, Look at something. Then See what it relates
to strongly, then Look at _that_. Then look at
_that_ thing's relationships, then ....
------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, now let's look at the basics of Imbuing and
Manifestations. First, what you're doing in both
of these cases is taking the essence of a Word and
imposing it on the world. In the first case, you
put it on top of something that's already there,
and in the second you just call it directly.
Now I said earlier that Imbuing was easier than
Manifesting something, but that's not exactly
true. More precisely, it is easier to Imbue the
complex, and easier to Manifest the simple. That
is, simple concepts -- like, say, Fire -- tend to
be difficult to over- lay on complex things like
real life, but they are easy to just call up and
let go. On the other hand, complex things like
'Tendo dojo' don't really have enough relevance to
affect anything else _unless_ they have something
to anchor to, as it were.
"So, what do I start with?" Akane queried.
"Let's start with your element, Acchan. First, remember that
you've got to clear your mind and spirit. Then slip into
Sight and think about Fire. Don't try to get it to _do_
anything yet. Don't push it, just relax and call, like it
was a friend."
Akane relaxed, as she was already practiced in, and tried to
empty herself while contemplating Fire.
Warm fire, crackling in the fireplace, leaping from the wood
yellow and white, giving off heat and light, flickering and
dancing, you can see anything in the fire, she'd always
liked fire, loved the smell of smoke, the crackle and pop of
the flames, she could hear it now, smell it like a breath of
Autumn in Spring, see the dance of the flame in her hand ...
in her hand?
"Hey! Ow!" Akane jumped up shaking her hand violently to put
out the
fire held there.
Ranma put her face into her hands and shook her head. "Why
me?"
------------------------------------------------------------
After: More to come, probably.
Next: Tomorrow, Chapter Five. Yeek.
Yours very respectfully,
Eric Hallstrom, CC, PhD, UBIP,etc.
--
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kawaii@kawaiikunee.com