Shaoling Showdown [Mura, Shaoling]

After over 10 years, Mura was finally heading for the destination that his Head Master had intended him to go to from the jump. It… it brought back very unpleasant memories to him once China came into view from the plane and land – or rather, once the mountains began spiking up from the ground, and the greenery disappeared. These ranges were supposed to be spiritually open areas, a land where one could relax and be one with the wind, the air, and the sky itself. There was something special about Tibet that made the human mind, body and soul so free, and the area had given birth to a myriad of human martial arts.

But… unrest still lingered around. He was naïve the first time, and he paid a hefty price for that.

Mura had mastered Niten Ichi-ryū before he traveled here for the first time… but he was one arm less now. He had to expand his skillset, somehow, or the one-armed sword style he wielded now would become more and more of a burden in the long run.

…

Even when walking along the silent mountain path, he spotted here and there the occasional group of people camping here - a few of which even possessed notable Spiritual Pressures. A handful of inspiring martial artists liked the vastness of the Himalayas, but his destination was still a while away. From what the Head Master explained, the dojo had been moved to a more secluded place to stay clear of the growing conflicts, and he only had a physical map on hand to guide him to the place.

That Hannah girl had irked him quite a lot, so it was nice to know that these Tibetan heads could help him manipulate his stuff even better.

“…” He was still on edge, the memory of the Hollow mauling his arm off still lingering faintly in his mind. He never quite got over it, so he was still carrying the sheathed tsurugi on his back. Although, he prayed he didn’t need to use it this time… he’d prefer if he just didn’t use his sword at all while here. But fate was a funny force of nature, constantly weaving his path forward, never telling him where he was going until he reached the end of the road.

Shaoling had already heard what had happened in Soul Society. But she couldn't do anything about it right now. Nor, for that matter, did she necessarily want to. Rushing back would do little good for anyone. Not her, and not Yuujin. They would simply be two more pairs of hands to lift rubble, and even if her kaido was more than sufficient, she had little doubt that Kuchiki's division was handling that just fine.

That was why she was remaining here, in these distant mountaintops, holding herself in a handstand as she had so often done in her youth. But what she'd once considered a useful method of practicing restraint and discipline now only felt foolish, childish. It was an act of boasting, and that did Shaoling no good. So she simply pushed herself up, flipping away from the mountaintop and landing on the path below.

Only as she landed did she note the traveler there, who seemed to be having far more of a time of it than she.

"Lost?"

It was unlikely that anyone would be in this part of the world on accident, of course. But she was certainly willing to put that particular question forward anyway. If nothing else, she found it almost a bit funny.

Now, Mura didn’t want to remember Hannah’s slaughtering words of advice to him that seemed to all stem from a sickening sense of superiority on the basis of being a Shinigami with, God knew what, centuries of experience in the field of Hollow problems et fuckin’ cetera… but she sure wasn’t impressed by his ability to distinguish racial Spiritual Pressures. Oh, boo hoo, he thought she was a very powerful Human at first – how do you even tell the difference? Pressure was pressure! Sure, he could recognize identical signs, and if the target went out of their way, he could measure their Reiatsu’s mass, but that was all just… natural shit and all. Racial differences?

The only racial pressure he knew he could pick up at this point came from Hollows – creatures that didn’t go out of their way to visibly fool those who encountered them. It was pretty damn easy to tell a Hollow apart from a human!

Stupid… huh? He picked up a silhouette, leading to the almost jumpscare-worthy descent of a short-statured… martial artist. Oh, even with his widened eyes of awe, look at him now – spiritual stuff and all was subsided by his strong familiarity with those who dedicated themselves to martial arts, so he could tell from a glance… also, like, who else would be in these parts but seasoned martial artists?

“… I- yeah, a bit, thanks,” he tried to inform her, holding the rolled map up, “I’m looking for the- well, I was looking for the Yunnan, and I only got their previous location here. But they’ve moved away… now I’m just looking for a place to stay. I can’t hope to find their new place today.” The Shaolin temple of Yunnan was the temple that took Mura in during his nomadic escape from the Chinese government, and they taught him Fa Jin. He was… dismissive of actually mastering their art to the fullest back then, seeing himself solely as a swordsman.

With Kyūken gone, Mura was over that delusion. However, unrest increased in this land, so the temple had decided to move to a much more seclusive location… without telling anybody outside. Then again, last time, he did cross them by chance – they only gave him this old, old, old, old… old map after he decided to travel back to Japan. That was why he just wandered around now, hoping that his luck would let him find them again. If he did it once, he can do it again, and he packed his backpack for the possibility of spending at least a week out here. More, if he could find a river.

… She was on top of that peak earlier. Given how utterly little he knew about her, he decided to ask: “Hey, are you… a Shaolin monk too?” His eyes squinted with images of Hannah’s rebuke passing through his retinas – this certainly wasn’t a repeat of that event, was it? Certainly, he wasn’t mistaking this lady for someone or something else, eh? No way it could happen twice in a fuckin’ row.

Shaoling looked over the map as the man held it up, studying it only briefly as she tried to compare it mentally to what she knew of the area. She didn't know what the term he was saying meant, but it was easy enough to understand that it was a location, especially given the nature of the map itself.

"I see. I'm not familiar with whatever it is you're looking for, but I know the area well enough from my training. It's a few days away from here. Longer if you're slow, shorter if you can fly."

Admittedly, Shaoling herself suspected she could be there in relatively little time, but she'd gotten used to speaking in terms of what the average person could do, more for her student's benefit than anything else. It always seemed to take some wind out of his sails if she spoke about her own metrics for things.

"No, I'm no monk. Just a teacher."

It had become more natural, as time passed, to use that title for herself. Shaoling had come to terms with the fact that it was what she'd done with her life; that it was what she wanted to do with her life.

She… must’ve trained for a while around here, knowing the distance with confidence. Perhaps she’d already been there before. The monks at the Yunnan were surprisingly welcome of strangers who actually managed to find their temple, seeing their mere arrivals as completion of a hard test. It wouldn’t be a challenge this time, hopefully – not with the sheer absence of a nagging, old, proud ghost pinching his ears with rebuke and scornful ‘back in my day’ attitudes all day long.

He smiled faintly upon realizing that he shouldn’t be too slow to get there in more than a few days, but his smile faded away just as quickly when she mentioned that it’d be faster if he could fly. “…” There was something strangely ominous about how she said it. Medeia could fly, and last time he checked, Akira was capable of flight too… so was Meninas… and by extension, Stella…

All the humans with spiritual powers that he knew could fuckin’ fly, and here he was worrying about KUNG FU??? His disappearing smile was quickly exchanged with a grey-scaled face as he tried his best to hold in the embarrassment that he felt for himself. Evidently, he didn’t want to say that he couldn’t fly, but… it was written all over his face. And he could manipulate wind of all things-

Should he even say anything? It was way too embarrassing now… wait, she was a teacher? That brought colors back to his face – he didn’t want to comment on her height, since that’d be extremely rude and uncalled for to point out to a person he’d just met for the first time, but in all accounts, she was… a young woman, right? No, no, not that damn Hannah echoing in his mind again- fuck off! He knew what he was looking at, okay?!

“I see… in that case-“ A teacher of any age deserved due respect, so Mura made a formal bow with a raised palm in greetings, “My name’s Ekashiba Mura, from Japan. Either is fine – Ainu tradition dictates either’s my first name, so call me whatever. Now, I’ll have to find a place to set up a tent – then I’ll have time to reevaluate my fuckin’ life.” A bit of a tone shift, but what he’d learned or concluded from her words visibly upset him, causing him to clench his one and only fist down with a pouting face.

“Apparently, everyone and their mother can fly nowadays. I guess jumping good just doesn’t cut it anymore…” What a painful realization.

"Flight's simple enough, if you take the time to learn."

Shaoling's assessment was relatively cutting, but she was the last woman alive who would think to speak in a way that might be considered supportive for its own sake. If the man wanted to learn, he was certainly free to ask, but she was never going to offer it up on her own accord. Teaching those who didn't want to be taught was a waste of time.

"You can call me Shaoling. If you need a camp, I've already set up a camp in the area for me and my students. Feel free to use the fire."

Yuujin might have been potentially outmatched by this man, but Shaoling highly doubted that she would be. It was the closest to an 'offer' that she would be making.

Ouch. She doubled down on just how trivial it was, instantly making Mura regret- wait… maybe the shame in his flightless arms and legs was merely making him forget what she introduced herself as earlier – a teacher! If she found it so easy to learn, she must 110% be able to fly herself, and if it was as easy as she made it out to be, then there was no way in hell that Mura would let this chance slip! Sure, he often visibly suffered from shameful things such as being patronized, scolded, ridiculed, or belittled, but the drive to learn always overpowered stubborn pride, and Mura wasn’t the proudest person around to begin with.

“… O…”

Unfortunately, he was also visibly cut off by her name. “Like Shaolin(g) Wushu… woa. I didn't even know it was an actual name you could have.” Was she named after the entire school of kung fu??? Like Shaolin(g) Kung Fu? She wasn't joking, was she? It wasn't just an alias 'cuz he was a stranger, was it?

… No, those eyes didn't lie. Could Mura tell liars from those who told the truth? Not really, but-

Okay, she was definitely a big deal, and he was unable to hide the stars sparkling in his irises, which only rose in glow when she suggested her camp nearby where her and her students settled. “Really? I… thank you, I really appreciate it!” he bowed again to her in gratitude, a mixture of unease from possibly inconveniencing others and a desire to live up to her will of offering this company to begin with. There was honor in accepting other people’s invitations, after all, and so he was raised.

“Perhaps before I meet up with the Yunnan monks, I should take the time to learn how to fly… as you just suggested,” he decided. His initial plan was unarmed martial arts to begin with, but… why such a rough border? Let his child heart beat again, desiring to learn everything he could. “I know I may be inconveniencing you, and you already have students to look after, but…”

Man, he sure felt less rigid after Kyūken decided to Hollow himself away. It felt weird not to be interrupted in the middle of his own words by the stubborn spirit. “Please teach me how to fly. Please…” His head only lowered further. He hadn’t felt this desperate to learn something new since he was a preteen, and honestly…

Nostalgic.

"Written as 'treetops' and 'pattern.' It isn't the same, even if it's pronounced as such."

It wasn't as if Shaoling had ever heard of that particular school until she'd come to the world of the living, after all. She couldn't necessarily say that the school resembled anything she had trained in, either, so there wasn't much else to assume than that it happened to be a strange coincidence.

"If you want to learn, I'll teach you. But don't expect any relaxed training. I expect effort."

She didn't say that she necessarily expected results, however. To expect results was what had made her the woman she'd once been. Shaoling had no desire to ever live that life again, and so she had tempered her own expectations for others into something more reasonable, more appropriate.

Yay! Mura genuinely wanted to jubilate a bit, feeling his bubbly, inner child flowing up to the forefront of his mind, but he was still, y’know, an adult and all, and manners and other forces held his excited expressions back. Still, if she expected effort, then she was a clean and cut teacher like few others.

Sure, back in the day, Mura might’ve gotten scared of the notion due to how tough his Niten Head Master’s training had been, but he’d trained himself to the bone countless times before – he could do it again. Was this the hubris before his nemesis? Who knew?

Though, the trivia of her name… well, it was Chinese, right? Even if she wasn’t named after the literal school? Was it spelled as 梢凌? He hadn’t learned that much Chinese back in the voluntary courses he took, but it was worth thinking about, even if only a little.

Still, he requested to learn how to fly, and he was fully ready to commit to the cause. It was always exciting to learn new things under new senseis – Mura wholeheartedly believed that it was the most optimal way for a martial artist to live and grow. There was always something new to learn.

“I’ll give you all the effort I got, Shaoling-sensei,” he reassured her with a rising smile, already granting her the due deserved honorifics. He was ready to follow her, even unable to stop himself from tiptoeing a bit on the way.