Season 1, Episode 4 - The Microwave VI - "The Electric Kite"
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Reed blinked.
“What?” she barked at Domino.
“It took you slightly more than a second to unsheathe your sword and bring it to a ready combat position,” Domino explained from the wooden walkway. “That’s equivalent to a century in combat time.”
Reed looked at him dryly.
“Did you forget the first lesson I taught you?” Domino asked. “Not even the first lesson. It was more like a prologue lesson.”
“Efficiency this and iaijutsu that,” Reed said. “I like to be a little flamboyant occasionally. Combat is about aesthetics sometimes, something you in that ratty jumpsuit wouldn’t know two squats about.”
Domino held up the yellow fabric of his clothes. “Talk shit about this jumpsuit one more time woman, and I swear, I’ll erase you from existence right where you stand!”
“What’s iaijutsu?” Isaac asked, standing next to Domino.
“Some old man thing,” Reed told him.
“It’s much more than that,” Domino corrected. “It’s an ancient technique, developed by the samurai of yore, and still relevant today...”
As Domino rambled, Reed sent a sigh in Isaac’s general direction. “See? This is why you don’t ask questions.”
“As your friend and future lover, the boy has a right to know,” Domino said.
Reed rolled her eyes.
“Iaijutsu is simply the art of the quickdraw applied to swords,” Domino explained. “And it works incredibly well with the Domino Sword.”
“How come?” Isaac asked.
“When Reed uses the Domino Sword, she can send a wave out with each slash. So, that first quickdraw, which can be performed in less than a second, can also come with a wave. Essentially, the unsheathing of the blade itself becomes the opening move. But when the scabbard is on your back, you have to spend precious time getting your sword out, and you pull it out in an angle that renders a wave useless. Pull it out from your back, you wave goes aimlessly into the sky. Now, if you have the scabbard at your side, and then withdraw the sword...”
Isaac understood. “Then the withdrawal itself can send a wave at the enemy.”
“Precisely," Domino confirmed. "Unfortunately, the woman over there is too focused on ‘looking cool’ or whatever you kids call it to understand that the opening move in the great game of chess we call life can often make or break you.”
“I’ve never had an issue with it,” Reed said.
“Yet, woman, yet. When the war comes, I want you prepared so you don’t end up losing my sword in the opening salvo.”
“...thanks.”
Domino shook his head. “Well, are you going to practice iaijutsu or not?”
Reed, who once seemed so excited, looked at the training dummy, looked at the sword, looked at Domino, and scratched her arm for a moment. She loosened her grip on the sword, and to Isaac, she almost looked disappointed.
“You got a snowball’s chance in hell, sensei.”
Domino jerked his arm. “Then step out of the training session. I’m here to train people who take war seriously.”
Isaac raised his hand. “I take war seriously.”
“Then step into the ring.”
Reed put her sword away and eyed Isaac. She slouched over like usual and wandered off, disappearing around the wooden corner of the dojo.
Isaac and Domino watched her go.
“Women, amiright?” Domino sighed. “Can’t live with em, can’t live without em.”
“...uh, ok.”
“Alright, let’s get down to business!” Domino proclaimed. He gestured for Isaac to take Reed’s spot on the training grounds. “Show me what you got, boy.”
Isaac grinned and stood in front of the training dummy. “Alright, here goes nothing.”
Isaac inhaled deeply yet calmly, feeling the Rddhi course up his right arm.
A raising heart...and a tempered mind.
Isaac punched straight and true. His strike took the training dummy’s head clean off the rest of his body.
Domino remained silent for a moment, doing a quick, mental summary on his observations.
“Not bad,” Domino admitted. “When it comes to offense, that fist of yours can deliver one hell of a punch. But it could be even stronger.”
Isaac looked down at his hand. “How?”
“Right now, you’re making the punches heavier by increasing the mass behind them. Your blows become heavier that way. But force isn’t just about mass. It’s mass times acceleration.”
“Is that a math equation?”
“You mean you didn’t know?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Isaac shrugged. “I just sort of willed my fist to strike harder. Didn’t really do math behind it.”
“Magic and science go hand in hand. For every bit of magic, a math equation can explain it. And for every scientific explanation, there’s a mystical element to it as well. You made your fist stronger by willing it and training it to use heavier blows. But if you forget math, you forget that you can increase force by accelerating your fist as well.”
“Did you use math to make yourself strong?”
Domino stepped down into the training grounds. “When my will reached its limit, I sought scientific methods to make myself stronger. When science reached its limits, I used will to push myself farther. As Walt Whitman wrote, beyond the doctor’s surgery, anatomy, beyond the chemist with his chemistry, it’s the entities of entities – eidolons. Human desire and will and emotion, that collective unconsciousness, unseen on the surface but certainly there, existing just as much as hard fact, can be just as strong as math. And vice versa. The rational and the emotional in their interplay and mixture. Strange times we live in, huh? Neo-Romanticism and the Neo-Industrial Revolution. The best results from a balance between them.”
Isaac thought about that. He didn’t understand most of it, but he did understand that he didn’t really like polynomials or geometry. But if it had to he done, it had to be done.
“Alright, so try this.” Domino brought over another training dummy. “Think about how hard you want to punch, then use the Rddhi to increase both mass and acceleration.”
Isaac closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Math’s math. Sure, I know the equation…but the only way to apply it is to incorporate the soul. A raising heart can only go so far on its own...but the math of a tempered mind, combined with that heart...
Isaac struck the dummy. It’s head came clean off and smacked Reed in the face as she opened the sliding door from inside the dojo to the wooden walkway.
Isaac smiled cheekily.
“Very good, Isaac," Domino complimented. "That punch was faster. Keep it up.”
Domino looked back at Reed, who blankly rubbed her forehead. “Bonus points for hitting a target," he joked.
Reed rolled her eyes and took a seat on the wooden steps to the dojo.
“Well?” Domino asked.
Reed looked blankly at him. “Well what?”
“This is the part of the story where the girl brings the sensei and the young man cups of refreshing water. It also introduces a romantic element for the hero.”
Reed rolled her eyes. “Why should I have to get you and the Wonderboy over there anything? We’re you’re guests here, after all. If anything, you should be getting me water. I’ll actually take one of the soda's I left in your kitchen last week.”
“Woman, order me around again and I’ll harpoon you.” Domino gestured to the training ground and the tone in his voice relaxed. “Your friend here is making great strides.”
Isaac nodded. “You should join us.”
Reed looked away, then leaned back on the steps so she was essentially laying on them. “Nah...it feels like a summer day, almost. Little too cold, but I have that familiar feeling of laziness.”
“You’re always lazy,” Isaac pointed out.
Reed kept looking at the sky. “There’s a difference between normal laziness and summertime laziness. Summertime laziness is an activity in of itself. Laying around is frowned upon the rest of the year, but laying around in the summer, that’s what summer’s made for.”
“It’s late October,” Isaac said dryly.
Reed rolled over, trying to find a comfortable spot to nap on the stairs, a rather tall task considering they were stairs.
She shooed him off with a hand. “Just go train. Don’t let me hold you up.”
Domino eyed her. “Have you tried the special technique I specifically showed you so it wouldn’t be lost to the ages?”
“I’m not calling out my attacks, Sensei.”
“But the channeled emotion of calling your attacks is what powers it.”
“What attack?” Isaac asked.
Reed sighed, knowing what Isaac had inadvertently gotten himself into.
Domino smiled widely. “Oh, you’ve heard of the legendary Diàn Fēngzhēng?”
“Just say it in English, Sensei, you’re not even Asian.”
“But being in Chinese is what gives it that exotic appeal!”
“Uh...” Isaac interrupted. “I don’t know what that means.”
“You don’t have to know what it means,” Domino explained. “You just have to know what it feels. Now, take a step back.”
Isaac took a seat on the wooden walkway next to Reed, who laid on her side. At Domino's prodding, Reed handed over the sword.
Domino stepped back onto the training grounds and closed his eyes; Isaac watched with excitement.
I can feel it...I can feel the movement of the Rddhi, Isaac realized. He’s gathering energy, storing it, letting it run through his whole body, to every extremity. Like a dam gathering water, until it explodes in a controlled burst-
Domino’s eyes opened.
“Diàn Fēngzhēng!”
The sudden light almost blinded Isaac. As his eyes adjusted, he saw a stream of lightning flow in reverse, exiting the sword tip and heading straight upwards, striking the sky.
A column of light...the whole city can see it...this is what a Rddhi master can do?
Domino exhaled softly, and just as quickly as it appeared, the reverse lightning disappeared, leaving a hole in a cloud it struck.
“Sensei, you know you’re not allowed to just send Rddhi bursts into the sky anymore.”
“Quiet, woman.”
As if to follow her up, a patrol plane circled around the cloud, then flew in low over the dojo. The pilot came close enough for the trio to see his face; upon recognizing the source of the lightning, the pilot shook his head and flew off, back to his regular patrol route.
“A free firework show,” Domino said nonchalantly. “They oughta give me my own goddamn holiday, the way I provide opium to the masses like this.”
With the legalities out of the way, Isaac felt a rising tide of awe inside him.
“That was incredible! I’ve never seen anything like that! Are you saying Reed can do that?”
“Of course. Well, not Diàn Fēngzhēng, but something similar in concept. My Diàn Fēngzhēng-”
“For Christ’s sake, just call it the Electric Kite,” Reed said.
Domino ignored her. “My special move works as a overwhelming burst that can both overwhelm lesser enemies and stagger stronger ones. In war, you need to have as many options as possible. Reed, as of now, can only send her waves just as waves, thin slashes that can be avoided. She needs an attack that can cover a wide area, and that’s what Resonate can do.”
“Resonate?” Isaac asked.
“He named a move for me,” Reed explained from the steps. “Send a burst of sound out. Of course, he forgets that a strong enough burst will affect me too.”
“I didn’t forget,” Domino corrected. “That’s a risk. But the only way to overcome risks is to train.”
“Another time.”
“Take it from an old man. Time goes by faster than you know it.”
“Days seem plenty long enough to me.”
“The days are long, but the years are short,” Domino said. “There’ll be a time when you wonder where the time all went.”
Reed thought about it. “That’ll be the day.”
Isaac wanted to know more about the move. “Did you ever use the Electric Kite-”
“Diàn Fēngzhēng.”
“Uh, sure. Did you ever use it in the war?”
“The war?” Domino laughed. “I invented Diàn Fēngzhēng during the Restoration! Do you want to hear a story?”
Reed rolled over to find a better spot.
“Of course!” Isaac answered.
“I’ll have to tell you my life tale so you can write my autobiography,” Domino said.
Isaac raised an eyebrow. “Then it’s not an autobiography.”
“...ghost write my autobiography. Anyway, my life is much like history. I can’t just start you off in the war. And...well, I don’t really like talking about the Restoration. So let me regale you with the story of the springtime of my youth, when I became a wanderer in the years following it...”