Jingyi Bo had been dragged along to Izumi’s martial arts lesson, on both Elder Ienaga’s advice and Izumi’s insistence. Bo had expressed a desire to start tackling more elements, and the topic had wound its way towards the element of Gravity. For some reason, Izumi had insisted that they would be able to witness Gravity in action during the sparring in Ienaga’s class, but as per usual she forgot to elaborate. Considering how well it went last time, seeing Lee Jia’s Lightning, Bo had only confidence in her friend.
However, this class was full of people well and truly more powerful than her. Jingyi Bo was already on the bottom rung in terms of combat potential amongst her own group - here, she was only really threatening as a tripping hazard. Just what do they feed Yamato girls to make them so much taller?
At the same time, Izumi sat at a much different social standing in this group than she did amongst Bo’s friends - where she was undeniably the strongest among them, she was walking amongst giants here - in more ways than one. Still, the sparring between them ranked amongst some of the most terrifying things Bo had seen in her life, if only for the fact that her imagination kicked into overdrive as she thought about how instantly she would die if any of these people wished it to be so.
When they arrived, Bo had hoped to simply take a seat and watch from the sidelines - instead, Izumi introduced her to the scariest person there - Elder Ienaga aside. Tall, fierce, an aura of pure menace and gorgeous red hair, this could be none other than Lady Hayakawa. Even in her own thoughts, Bo thought to make sure she showed the proper deference, just in case.
“Izumi. Who is this?” Hayakawa was currently overseeing a spar between two of her allies, her eyes turning the absolute minimum required to look at the pair. Izumi gave a small bow - Bo hurriedly made her own bow, dropping to a neat ninety degree angle. Hayakawa’s face betrayed the slightest hint of disdain that Bo did not manage to see.
“This is … a friend of mine. From that other group I told you about. We’ve been play- working on spiritual and mental disciplines together. I promised that I would help her with a cultivation roadblock - she merely wishes to observe.” Bo couldn’t help but notice that Izumi explained all of this largely to Hayakawa’s shoes. She couldn’t blame the girl for being meek - Hayakawa’s glare alone was likely enough to destroy mortals, let alone lesser cultivators.
With both of them gaining a fine appreciation for Lady Hayakawa’s choice in footwear, Bo only noticed the tiny nod she gave in response.
“Fine. She can watch. Now that you’re here, you can spar with me.”
Izumi looked up at Bo with a smile, but all Bo could feel was dread. What if Lady Hayakawa squashes her flat? I can sense the sheer level of ki radiating off this woman - how is anyone meant to stand up to her? With all of her worries clear on her face, Izumi gave a comforting grin and gave Bo a gentle pat on the back. It was her way of saying, ‘Don’t worry! I’ll be fine!’
The resulting spar was less a battle between two equals and more of a struggle to survive for Izumi Makoto. Hayakawa was at once impossibly fast and terrifyingly strong, floating about like she was weightless before slamming down like a boulder off a cliff. Meanwhile, Izumi’s martial arts showed her progress - she was able to turn herself mostly invisible, projecting copies of herself around nearby. To a mage’s mana sense, the copies would be obvious fakes - something she was working on - but to Hayakawa, they were as good as real. Izumi’s fight to survive involved trying to convince the fearsome red-head to slam into something that wasn’t her real body, with no real room for counter-attacking.
Sitting as close as she dared to, Jingyi Bo extended her aura to more closely observe the fight. Her reach with her awareness and mana sense was growing by the day, as she had plenty more time to meditate on it with her spiritual technique at its limits. Looking closely, Bo closed her eyes and simply concentrated on the elements. There was something here that Izumi wanted her to see.
The first thing to be noticed was an abundance of Mist. Izumi’s martial arts were growing more refined by the day, but spreading out all these copies left a lot of extra Mist ki floating about in the air. Doing her best not to disturb any of it, for fear of disrupting Izumi’s illusions or incurring Hayakawa’s wrath, Bo turned her attention to the other element swirling about here - Gravity.
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It clicked immediately - Hayakawa’s martial art used Gravity somehow, and that was what Izumi wanted to show her. The way the Gravity ki moved around reminded Bo of how a boat might look with more or less cargo. When Hayakawa wanted to float around with ease, leap high into the air or move with great speed, she threw some of that Gravity ki overboard - or repelled it somehow. When she wanted to stop a blow, strike hard or come crashing down, she took on more and sank like an overloaded barge. It was like the Gravity element was acting as a kind of weight that Hayakawa could grab or retrieve to alter how harsh the ground’s pull was on her.
Bo considered Gravity from a more theoretical standpoint. It was the Yang expression of Earth, plain and simple. It wasn’t a tangible object, nor could one really sense it. Except, she realised, that was wrong. Everyone was always aware of Gravity - it was all around them, perpetually acting upon them. While Bo didn’t understand the intricacies of the physical manifestation of the element, she did have an idea of what Gravity was doing here.
It was heavy, in a way that no other thing could be heavy. Attached to the ground, it clung at all things and pulled them down. Bo supposed that bigger things, or things she imagined were heavy, weren’t so because of their size but because there was more stuff contained inside for Gravity to latch onto and pull. Looking closely, really closely, Bo could see the minute, trace amounts of Gravity that filled the air. She looked where it touched other objects, grabbing them and tugging on them.
Looking back to the fight, she saw how Hayakawa was using Gravity. When she wanted to hit harder, her fist became heavier, causing Gravity to speed her up. It pulled down faster than it should have, giving the illusion of being heavier - there wasn’t suddenly more stuff to be pulled, there was just an unusual concentration of Gravity. On the opposite end, Hayakawa was capable of shedding that same pull to allow her to leap unimpeded. She wasn’t lighter in some material sense, she was just less burdened than everyone else.
One thing that escaped her was an emotional connection. Mist was protective, Heat was passionate, Lightning was overwhelming and too honest, but Gravity was merely ambivalent. It pulled on everyone and everything equally, giving no concern for good or evil. It just pulled and pulled … That’s it! Gravity is persistent!
It all suddenly made sense. Gravity never slept, never stopped, never gave a modicum of quarter to anyone. Despite her unfamiliarity with Hayakawa Kaede as a person, the way people spoke of her reminded Bo very much of Gravity. She didn’t get her way through ridiculous scheming like the average man from Qin, and she didn’t stress about some optimal solution like a Goreyon mage. Instead, she tackled her problems head-on, never relenting. For every illusion Izumi projected, Hayakawa knocked it down. Eventually, misdirection and trickery would fail, and her attack would make contact.
Like, right now. “Argh! Y-Yield!”
Having feinted in towards Hayakawa, working on the assumption that she would always see such a reckless move as being from an illusion, Izumi had her legs kicked out from under her by a sweeping blow, followed up by a punch that stopped inches from crushing her rib cage. The sweep itself hadn’t been a particularly powerful one, but a weak blow from Hayakawa was still more threatening than anything Bo could have dealt out. Unable to help herself, she began to run towards Izumi to help.
Hayakawa watched like a hawk as Bo scrambled in, but didn’t deign to stop her. Extending her aura, Bo noted that there were a few breaks in the bone, but nothing serious. Still, she put her hands on Izumi’s legs and used her transformation abilities to coax the fractures together. Of course, it helped that Izumi’s natural regenerative capabilities were doing half the work, but it made Bo happy to be useful.
“A qi healer?” Hayakawa’s question was simple and to the point - she didn’t mess around.
“Something like that … I’m, uh … not sure how much help she would be to you, Lady Hayakawa. No offence, Jingyi.”
“None taken!” It almost felt like she had dodged an arrow there - if Hayakawa wanted her, then it didn’t seem like there would be anything to do but submit. As soon as Bo finished that thought, a blush crept to her face as she pondered double-meanings. She tried her absolute best not to look up at Hayakawa, who was - now that she was thinking about it - as beautiful as she was deadly. Before she knew it, Izumi’s legs were healed. Makoto reached up and gently pried Bo’s hands off her legs - she knew when Bo was stuck in her own little world.
“So, Jingyi - did you get what you came for?” Izumi smiled at her as the pair stood - Bo blushed again.
“I didn’t co-- uh. Yes! Yes, I did. All thanks to Lady Hayakawa.” She gave another obnoxiously low bow, earning an eyeroll from the martial artist. “I’ll need to meditate on this further. See you later, Izumi!”
Unwilling or unable to meet either of their eyes, Bo put her head down and ran for it. Hayakawa and Izumi watched as she vanished around a corner, nearly running into someone as she made her egress.
“I hope they aren’t being a bad influence on you, Izumi.”
“N-No, Lady Hayakawa!”