Novel Full Chapter 625 - 625 Real Flashbacks Part 2
"Back to the flashbacks?" asked Kat.
Lily sent a feeling of confirmation down the link, quite happy to see of the world from Kat's perspective.
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Day 3 Morning
Mai had redone her form for this next day. Now she stood at seven feet tall with wire thin limbs and a Fu Manchu moustache and eyebrows so long they could be ripped off and turned into a goatee easily. "Yesterday, I taught you to stand, and to punch," Mai said with a slight accent. Kat wondered how Mai changed her accent around considering she was hearing a translation. It sounded vaguely Chinese. "Today I will teach you to run."
*That's the one thing I'm confident in already. I don't know if I'll be running to your standards but I'm certain I can run well.* Kat was about to say as much before she looked at the small courtyard they had been using for practice. "Um… I can run quite fast and I personally think I run well. This area is quite small though… will we be practicing here?" asked Kat.
"I don't want you using any of your demonic energy for this Kat. Just the basics. One must learn to walk before you run. So to must you learn to run unaided before running with an outside power," said Mai trying to sound more mysterious then she was.
Kat would be willing to play along… had the assumption been correct. "Um… I can run a lot faster then a human without any demonic energy. I can run even faster with it of course, but trust me, running fast is easy with or without aid."
"Well… I wasn't going to break out the stairs just yet but if you need a way to test how fast you can run, and properly at that… they might be the best option…" mumbled Mai in such a way it was obvious she wanted Kat to overhear.
*I'm not sure climbing a staircase will be a proper way to establish I know how to run… but I suppose if that's what we have to work with I can deal with it.* "Sure thing, lead the way," said Kat.
Kat was led, not towards the mountaintop, but away from it. This garnered a frown as Kat knew that running down these stairs at any reasonable speed would be practically impossible. Her wings wouldn't even be the issue her speed would be.
When Kat saw the stairs, a sheer, uncomfortable looking set, she knew there was going to be an issue. "How am I supposed to run down this?" asked Kat
"Too hard for you? I thought you were confident in your running," retorted Mai.
"Mai… if I run down this I'm likely to go flying off the edge at the speeds I run at. That's not even getting into the fact I can just fly down if I really need to…" grumbled Kat.
"I thought you said you were fine with this?" questioned Mai.
"Mai… I thought I was climbing UP stairs. I don't know how you expect me to run down these without taken it slow. Unless of course I'm allowed to skip steps… but then what's the point of using a staircase instead of just using the side of the mountain?" asked Kat.
Mai grinned. It looked quite scary on the face they'd chosen to use. All sharp lines, framed by that thin moustache. "Exactly," said Mai confidently, "your first instinct when confined to the courtyard was 'it would be too small to reach your max speed'. Now, I admit I assumed you'd require the use of higher energy to get up to decent speeds, but the fact that your first instinct was to simply run as fast as you could and not to go at a decent pace says a lot. I want you to run down these stairs, taking every stair, as fast as you can. This is a lesson in control, and in running"
*You don't have to look so smug about it. Sorry if I don't pace myself because my body can regenerate past muscle fatigue so running isn't really an issue of my body getting tired. I'll get tired from overuse of energy or from simple time passing before running unaided does me in.*
Kat debated bringing this up with Mai, but something held her back. Perhaps it was her competitive drive, or perhaps it was the heartfelt request Grace had made pushing her to do things properly. So in the end Kat held her tongue and got running.
Of course she was smacked after only a few steps for neglecting her breathing. At least it was a long way till the bottom…
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Day 3 Afternoon
Mai had hidden their lunch in her robe so the pair had eaten a little picnic lunch at the bottom of the stairs. Mai had been pleasantly surprised with Kat's progress. After a few false starts and more than one set of missed stairs Mai thought the girl had gotten things down well. It wasn't perfect yet, and Kat did mess up her breathing a few times but it was much better then Mai had planned for.
Originally Mai had planned of asking Kat to fly back to the top of the stairs before running down again, but Mai was willing to give her a pass when it came to control. When running at least. So now it was time to for Kat to run up as fast as she could.
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Day 3 Evening (Mai's Perspective. Unseen by Lily and Kat instory)
Mai gulped as she stood next to Kat at the top of the staircase. Kat was standing nearby relaxing slightly and waiting for a verdict. *I did not imagine she had so much power. No wonder demons are feared everywhere. Three runs up the staircases and she isn't breathing hard. I don't think she used any demonic energy either. It's hard to tell but I trust her enough not to cheat for something like this. She requested this, nobody is forcing her. If she is cheating already then there is no hope for her. Still… this power in such a normal looking body.
I didn't understand how fine her control already was. How she can manage to interact with us mere mortals and not break anything is beyond me. I suppose technique is what we need to work on next…*
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Day 4 Morning (Kat's Perspective)
Mai had completely forgone a silly transformation today. She was the spitting image of Kat and had two fans in her hand. Before Kat could get a good look at them though Mai had put them away. "We are nearly at the stage where we start to look at your fans. Before that, I need to teach you one of the core stances for Tessenjutsu. This is more for defence, but it is still the first stance to learn. It's in some ways a combination between the stance you take when punching and horse riding stance, yet it is quite different to them as well.
Mai first moved into the stance she showed Kat for punching before turning her back foot ninety degrees to the side so that the foot was facing out and slowly lowered herself, bending just the back knee so that her full weight was resting on it. Instead of fists Mai's palms were both open. "Copy me to the best of your ability please."
So that's what Kat did… for the full 4th day.
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Present
[Woah. That… that was a long time for just that one stance. Why does it work though? It feels like it could never actually work. Too much weight on your back leg…]
"That's because it's a very different stance to the other two. It's designed for use against swords. You let the attacks flow around you. Plus, you can spring off your back foot surprisingly quickly. I'm surprised you didn't see it but Mai took me through the variations on that form and how to move form one to the other.
"It was all about redirecting the force from attacks and sneaking in strikes from the edge of your fans as attacks slide past you. It isn't the best to deal with groups, apparently that requires a lot more movement. This is more a one on one fighting stance, but is still considered the main resting stance for the weapon. It's sort of like… hmm… it's like… when you don't know what's coming next that's what you should always fall back to," explained Kat.
[It still looks a little wonky to me. I don't think I have the leg strength to even try a stance like that. Well… actually… with my knew body I might be able to.. I'm not sure? I'll have to see how my muscles turn out in human form. If it's the same as Memphis then I could probably do without issue but not for more than like… five minutes]