You Must Defeat My Sheng Long [Shishiyuki, Makoto]

"Pay attention to the flow of energy through each finger, and of course through my hand as a whole."

For Shishiyuki, it was more or less effortless to achieve this result, but even at her degree of mastery this was not something that could be done casually. It was, after all, functionally akin to forcing one's blood to flow in the opposite direction for a brief moment, and for a moment, the whole of her right arm tensed, the extensive musculature generally hidden below her porcelain skin becoming quite obvious. That said, perhaps even more obvious were the myriad scars covering her skin, uncovered as the reversed flow of energy had interfered with the cosmetic kido she generally applied.

"This is to what I am referring. A blow can prove drastically more damaging, and have a much wider variety of impacts on the enemy, if your control over your energy is not limited merely to its position, but to the specifics of its flow."

And then, as if it had never happened, her energy once more began to flow naturally through her, her muscles relaxing once more and the scars fading out of view as if they had never been present. It did not seem as if she had minded Makoto seeing them, however. If anything, she had hardly seemed to even acknowledge their existence.

Makoto stared, a little spaced out because she wasn't trying to utilise her eyes here to see. Her focus was on a more spiritual attunment and her reikaku was keenly focused on the way Shishiyuki controlled her energy. That is to say, Makoto was trying to fathom how Shishiyuki might refer to this as the basics with how unfathomable it came off to see the energy move.

While her focus was mostly spiritual, her eyes didn't miss the display of the arm. How strange, why would Shishiyuki try and conceal parts of her body? Shame, something else?

"Right.. Your display is quite impressive. I did not think that kind of finesse was possible."

The finger stayed there for a little longer while she thought about what she had observed. Then she hastily removed it, her teacher probably wanted her hand back rather than just having Makoto's finger in it for the whole lesson.

"It is not something which comes naturally to the body, nor something that most would think to attempt. Poor form can lead to quite severe injury, even death."

Pausing for a moment, it occurred to her that this probably made the whole affair seem a good deal more dangerous than it actually was, and she offered a small reassuring smile as she continued to elaborate.

"That is not to say you are putting your life at risk whenever you apply this knowledge, of course. When one knows how to properly control their energy and their body, it is no more dangerous than the natural strain of throwing a punch. But reaching this point safely does require one understand the flow of energy through their own body sufficiently to begin changing it, so we will be focusing on this to begin."

Taking a more focused expression now, given this was the beginning of a proper lesson, Shishiyuki gestured toward Makoto.

"Choose an extremity of yours, any will do, and focus on your energy within it. Change nothing, force nothing. Merely attempt to familiarize yourself with it. Not simply what energy is there, but how the energy moves through it."

"I see."

Makoto smiled back, though she didn't care about the warning about using this and how it wouldn't endanger her life. She knew as well as anyone that climbing mountains were dangerous and if you didn't have the gut for it then you'd die before reaching the summit. That was the nature of pursuing the more advanced fields of subjects.

When prompted for an extremity she placed her left index finger out and looked at it, nothing but the energy inside that one finger, huh. She stared at it, trying to apply the principles of jinzen to her finger. Except rather than focusing on the sword and trying to understand it, she simply applied those same mediative practices to her finger.

"I understand, please continue."

Nodding, Shishiyuki reached out once more, touching her own index finger to Makoto's so as to get a better sense of what was occurring within. And, of course, to make any corrections necessary in the event of an emergency.

"Center yourself, and your energy, and simply focus on slowing the flow through this finger by a minute amount. This requires you not only exert control over your finger itself, but also over much of your arm, as well, as otherwise the altered flow will come into conflict with the standard flow of the rest of your body."

She was giving her as many important pieces of information as seemed particularly pertinent, but ultimately, it was very difficult to fully convey the manner in which one achieved this. A good deal of it was simply a wholly kinesthetic understanding.

Taking on the advice and keeping her finger against Shishiyuki's, Makoto gave it an attempt. As an attempt to visualise energy flow she had always used rivers or waterways, this wasn't any different. Without letting her nerves get the better of her and giving it her complete focus of just her body and mind, she might've forgotten Shishiyuki was even there if not for the pressure on the tip of her finger.

While she would explain when she felt like she had done it Makoto didn't want to break her focus and given the purpose of their fingers touching, it was expected that her teacher would know when she had succeeded or failed regardless.

The energy slowed as she imagined the stream of energy flowing to her finger, constantly adjusting like she couldn't make up her mind. The usage of a single stream might not be effective she thought since trying to reduce the flow to one finger like this only made it develop in every finger. It also felt strange to be restricting the flow of power to the extremity, like it tingled to do a new thing like this.

After a few minutes of trying different things she felt comfortable that she had done it. The energy flowing to a single was reduced in comparison to the others and it didn't feel like it was hurting or going to backfire through her body.

"Very good."

Shishiyuki left her finger in place, of course, given it would be rather irresponsible of her to now tell the girl to handle matters on her own. She studied the reduced flow quite carefully, eventually nodding in approval, even if more to herself than to Makoto. After all, her student was presumably far too focused for a nod to even be noticed.

"Continue tightening the flow, very slowly. Do not rush it, simply continue to lessen it until you reach a point where your body does not allow you to go further. Given you have only just begun, that point will come. Do not force yourself past it."

Makoto listened to the instructions and did as she was told. Just keep getting tighter, tighter. All the way until she felt the moment it stopped. She considered going further, a morbid kind of curiousity to see what happened if she went beyond that. Shishiyuki would know anyway and she didn't like making a fool out of herself.

She kept staring at her finger, just thinking about the flow and her finger. Just strangle the flow of energy and hold it. Makoto didn't even bother looking up at Shishiyuki, it'd just make her focus break and suffer whatever consequences this position would put her though.

"What happens if I do?"

It was fairly obvious to Shishiyuki the moment where Makoto contemplated the option of pushing past her natural limit, but she certainly would have stopped it from occurring if she tried.

"Your body and your spirit are not yet acclimated to these shifts in flow, and so forcing them to occur has the potential of serious injury, particularly the shorting of your spiritual flow toward that particular area."

Her focus stayed quite firmly on Makoto's finger, just in the event that she did still attempt to push even slightly past this limit.

"It could, realistically, prove permanent."

"I understand."

Makoto dropped her focus and let her energy flow return to normal, it wouldn't do well to play games. The warning about permanent damage was a good deterrent from wanting to be irresponsible with it. Her finger felt numb, like there were pins and needles from the act.

"May I ask you another question?"

Her eyes shifted from her finger to Shishiyuki.

"Why did you ask me to be your student?"

She settled there waiting for the answer. It made her wonder about the why, she had no reason for Shishiyuki to do what she had done.