“Indeed,”
Suzana agreed quietly. “And particularly baffling, since she has a lot of
natural grace and control. And from what I’ve heard, she isn’t a coward. I
heard she went after those Ninjas without so much as a pause. Which just makes
her lack of hand to hand prowess that much more mysterious.”
“Maybe. . .” Junzo corrected
him, “maybe not. Ito-sensei, would you go back two sets?” The sequence reversed
itself. “Stop. Pause. See her expression? I’ve seen that expression several
times.”
“Oh?” Tolman prompted.”
“I
usually see it in Psi who have a particularly effective defense mechanism,
which they can’t use for one reason or another. See? It’s a combination of
frustration, worry, and – for want of anything better to call it – ‘what the
hell do I do now?’ I think that on some level she’s thinking she should be
doing something completely different, but the situation won’t allow her to do
it.”
“Such
as?” Kasai asked. “What you’re talking about
would only develop if she’d had this defense mechanism long enough to know and
come to rely on it. And what might that mechanism be, that she relies on it so
completely, so soon?”
The penny
dropped for Suzana. “Glamour.”
There was
a general ‘Hunh?’ around the table.
“Westmont
told me that the girl projects a ‘glamour’, a sort of mental projection, one
that makes her seem more attractive ... more compelling ... more desirable.
Now, aside from pure vanity, what value might such a compulsion have? Well, it
strikes me that it would gather protectors around her, the more macho and
aggressive, the better. Her reactions seem to be equal parts frustration and
instinctive calling out for protectors.”
Junzo
nodded. “Oh, this is bad. If that’s the case, then teaching her to defend
herself will not only be counter-intuitive for her, but might actually undermine
a very effective defense mechanism.”
Suzana
gave a confident, ‘There will always be an England’ smile. “No, we just need to tweak it in another direction. Change it
from ‘Protect the delicate little princess’ to ‘Serve the Warrior Queen’.
Besides
being Politically Incorrect, depending on valiant knights to protect you is a
good way to become dead.” Then Suzana gave an amused snort, “Though it does
give me a rather unique problem.”
“Such
as?” Ito-sama cradled his cup of tea.
“Well, I
have to devise a martial arts style that is both graceful enough and flamboyant
enough, so that that ‘inner tuition’ will feel that it is attracting champions,
while maintaining decorum.”
She
placed her cup to her lips. “Speaking of champions, I understand that she’s already
gathered a rather formidable body of them. What can you tell me about them?”
“Ah, yes
...” Ito-sama sighed, “ ‘Team Kimba’. We would have had to talk about them at
length, anyway. He keyed the remote, and the scene on the screen changed. “First,
the most obvious ‘champion’, Hank Declan. Age 15, five-foot- six, one hundred
and thirty-five pounds. A level Three Exemplar, and a non-ranged psychokinetic
capable of lifting five tons with effort. He can levitate, fly at speeds of up
to 45 miles per hour, and he projects a force field that, it is reported, will
completely protect him from the near miss explosion of a tank cannon’s round.”
“Your
basic ‘superman’ package,” Sergeant Bardue murmured. “Army brat, grew up with
lots of environmental cues as to how to handle himself, and a hodge-podge of
introductory Karate, Aikido, Boxing, Mhuy Thai, Judo, Combato, and generalized
Self Defense classes. Grew up watching dogfaces get drilled, too.”
Lillian Dennon,
the ‘brick’ instructor, gave a low groan. “Oh, like it isn’t hard enough
teaching these girder-benders. This one, I gotta un-teach all that garbage, and
start from scratch ”
Suzana
nodded. “I can imagine. And he’s a flier, too. After all, how do you throw
someone who can just float away from it?”
Wong Ah
Lam grunted a laugh. “Simple! You don’t throw them TO the ground, you throw
them INTO the ground! You don’t release your hold until you feel contact. It’s
my personal favorite technique for dealing with fliers. It really knocks the
starch out of them.”
The
assembled teachers watched the footage of Ito-sensei’s sessions with young
Declan, and made various comments.
Suzana
was agreeably impressed with the way that the Whateley instructors went at
their analysis, with each teacher offering decidedly different approaches, from
Junzo’s rather esthetic Aikido approach to Bardue’s ‘kick ‘em in the nuts’ way
of combat.
Finally,
they finished with young Mister Declan. Ito-sama keyed the remote again. “Next,
is Ayla Goodkind. Of the lot of them, she will doubtlessly be the least
troublesome for us. She has the ability to shift the molecular density of her
body and certain other objects. She can become completely intangible, or
achieve the density of lead. So, her powers aren’t particularly problematic.
And, best of all, she has had absolutely ‘NO’ previous Martial Arts training,
and precious little experience fighting.”
Dennon
gave a sigh and relaxed as she watched Ayla Goodkind being thrown around the
mat. In a job over-loaded with challenges, it was nice to have a break or two.
“Goodkind?”
Fitzgibbon asked. “Any relation to Herbert Goodkind, the git who assembled
those idiotic ‘Knights of Purity’ a few years back?”
“Her
uncle. Her family disowned and disinherited her when her mutant trait
manifested itself.”
“Oh,
wonderful ...”
“Any chance
that she can fine tune herself so that she’s transparent to light?” Bardue
asked. “If she can shift herself so that light passes right through her, while
she otherwise remains solid, well, bein’ invisible is a ‘DAMN’ good way to kick
some serious patootey ”
“First,
catch your rabbit. Pass the suggestions along to her Powers Theory instructor,”Junzo replied. “If she can pull
it off, I’ll make room in my ‘Invisibles’ specialty class.”
Ito-sama
keyed the remote again. “Next, we have Jade Sinclair.”
This time
the image showed a delicate Japanese girl even smaller than the girl facing
her, who was obviously no titan herself. She moved with the studied precision
of a practiced newcomer to Aikido. “Jade herself offers few problems. She
studied Aikido, and is mildly proficient with it. The problem is called
‘Jinn’.”
Ito-sama
keyed the remote again. The blonde girl sparring on a mat with a boy looked
vaguely familiar. Her moves had the same studied precision as Jade’s, but there
was something about the way she moved ...
“Contrary
to appearances, there is only one person on the mat in this shot- the boy. What
appears to be a blonde girl wearing a black bodystocking under her gi, is
actually a self-aware packet of psychokinetic energy that Miss Sinclair
imprints with her psychic template, thereby ‘budding’ herself. The PK being
refers to herself as ‘Jinn’ and shows all the signs of being self-aware during
her time apart from Jade. ‘Jinn’ is as strong as a full-grown man, can levitate,
doesn’t tire and can’t be hurt by physical means. This ‘Jinn’ wishes to be
instructed separately from Miss Sinclair, but I won’t, for two reasons. First
of all, she learns whatever Miss Sinclair learns as soon as they merge again,
and secondly she has no Ki, so I have nothing to work with.”
“Maybe..Junzo
said. “ ‘Can’t be hurt by physical means’, eh? Well, I think that I have a few
tricks to show her. I wonder why she manifests as an Anglo?”
“She
doesn’t. That ‘face’ is a mask and wig. Jinn herself is quite invisible to the
unaided eye.”
“Interesting.
And she wears the outfit in order to ‘play fair’? We’re going to have to wean
her from that.”
“You’ll
have to take the matter up with Miss Sinclair.”
Ito-sama
keyed the remote again. The image of a rather odd looking Asian girl with
oversized ears, feline looking eyes appeared. Her very strange looking blue
bluish hair swept back from her brow in wave-like spikes. She was doing Aikido
throws with another girl, and seemed to have a distinct advantage; when the
other girl threw her, the blue haired girl just floated in the air and settled
to the ground.
“This is
Billie Wilson, who prefers to be called ‘Tennyo’. Her mutant profile defies
analysis. She is very strong, and has a healing factor that rivals some comic
book characters that I don’t care to name, and she out-guns some TV starships
in the energy projection department. She has a firm grounding in Aikido. I also
understand she has a rather short fuse. I am informed that after the match
between her teammate and the boy ‘Montana’, she had to be physically restrained from attacking him with the
intent of killing him.”
Ito-sama paused
the picture. “I think that Amanda and I should handle this one. There is a fire
inside this one, a fire she doesn’t know how to control. The fire must be
mastered, but not quenched.”
Dennon
shook her head. “No, Ito-sama, I think that she should be moved over to my
class as soon as possible. My gym is triple-reinforced and fireproof, and the
students- well, let’s just say that the students aren’t delicate.”
Ito-sama
shook his head in return. “No. I don’t doubt your abilities, Lillian, but
simple damage control isn’t what’s called for here. This girl needs to be
reminded, several times, that raw power doesn’t solve problems. That is my
specialty. After all, why found an entire school of Martial
Arts theory, if you
don’t test it out completely?”
Dennon
shrugged. “Maybe. But remember, Ito-sama- she’s a student, not a guinea
pig.”
“English
makes such ‘trivial’ distinctions.” Ito keyed the remote again. The TV
showed a lovely young Asian girl moving with the sure grace of either a dancer,
a gymnast --- or an experienced martial artist. She was practicing with a
simple, unadorned blade in the Chinese style. The blade still showed all the
signs of being an exquisite piece of craftsmanship. “This is Chou Li, a.k.a.
‘Blade Dancer’.”
Wong Ah
Lam made an amused snort. “Did you say ‘Chou Li’?”
“Yes, I
know. It’s obviously an alias. But the girl refuses to elaborate any further, though,
she did mention something about her father being ripped apart by a Demon.
“Blade
Dancer is not a mutant. She appears to be a remarkably fit young woman for her
age, and her control of her Ki is even more remarkable for her age. She has a
noteworthy magical talent, and she appears to have the beginnings of true
discipline. Administration has tacked on a few classifications that don’t
really mean anything. What is remarkable about her, lies mostly in the realm of
the mystical.”
“Oh,”
Lord Fitzgibbon moaned, “I HATE it when things get mystical. Aren’t things
complex enough around here without bringing in the mumbo-jumbo?”
“The, ah,
‘Mumbo- jumbo’, as you put it came in all by itself, Chet, as it has a habit of
doing,” Ito-sensei calmly informed him.
“She has
lovely form,” Beaumont murmured. “Pity her style doesn’t
mesh very well with Kendo. Maybe we could wean her away from the Chinese
blade?”
“That
would be a remarkably BAD idea, Genevive,” Ito-sensei informed her. “According
to Miss Chou, the sword she is carrying is a rather famous blade called
‘Destiny’s Wave’.”
Wong Ah
Lam blurted out something in Chinese. Then she whispered, “Destiny’s Wave?” Her
eyes were wide in equal parts wonder and fear.
“You’ve
heard of this sword, Miss Wong?” Suzanah asked curiously.
“Have YOU
heard of Excalibur?”
“It’s
that famous?”
“It is
said the blade was made from the heart of a metal dragon, then imbued with
living spirit of one of the greatest Taoist swordsman- a sage of the Warring
States period. It is said to have been carried by a mysterious Taoist sage, who
gives it, or rather, loans it, to one who is chosen to the Handmaid of
Balance.”
“Oh? Does
this Handmaid do windows?” Beaumont
quipped lightly.
Wong Ah
Lam pierced Genevive with an icy glare. “The Handmaid of Balance is a virgin
girl, who becomes the means by which the Tao preserves itself. She is a slayer
of Demons, Emperors, Armies and even Gods on occasion. She holds no life as
sacred if it threatens the balance of the Tao.
When the
Handmaid of Balance appears, the Tao is safe- but nothing else is. When the
Handmaid of Balance has fulfilled her mission, Destiny’s Wave disappears into
the obscurity that is its haven.
If
Destiny’s Wave has returned to the world, it means that the Balance of the Tao
is imperiled. If the Sage has chosen a girl who would come to Whateley, then it
means that the balance of Tao is threatened here. And to safeguard the Balance,
Destiny’s Wave would level this school down to the foundation and kill anyone-
even, EVERYONE.”
Fitzgibbon
cocked an eyebrow at her. “So, you’re saying that when this ‘Destiny’s Wave’
appears, a major crisis is in the offing?”
Wong Ah
Lam shook her head. “No. Only that the Balance is in peril, and it will be
remedied. The Handmaid has come forth before and the only ones who died were
monsters, either human or inhuman.
But
Destiny’s Wave has also struck down the pure of heart, the saintly. Good and Evil
are irrelevant. Only the Balance of the Tao is important.
Once,
during the Han Dynasty, Destiny’s Wave devastated the entire state of Yueh. Liu
Pang, the First Han Emperor, who was afraid that he was being too soft and
forgiving, took the credit, and deported the populace, but it is known by those
who would know, that it was Destiny’s Wave.”
“And it’s
always big?” Bardue asked.
“No.
Sometimes, the Handmaid appears, and only a few people die before she fades
back into obscurity. But who knows the perspective of the Tao?” She looked
around her with frightened eyes. “Think of the power that flows so carelessly
around this school! When the Balancing comes, there could be nothing of this
school left but rubble!”
The
others turned their eyes toward Ito-sensei, who bowed his head slightly. “It is
even more complex than that. Our esteemed Headmistress informs me that this
Chou Li’s tuition is being paid by no less than the Eight Taoist Immortals.”
“And the
Eight Taoist Immortals are?” Bardue asked.
“The
Eight Taoist Immortals are eight mortals, seven men and a woman, who, by
following the path of the Tao, have reached a form of immortality. Classically,
they each embody a principle of one of the Eight Permutations of Tao, but they
were definitely originally historical personages. Whether these eight beings
are indeed those historical persons, I can’t say. With such beings, such things
become unclear.”
“I don’t
remember the legends of Destiny’s Wave saying exactly how the sword was
connected with the Eight,” Wong Ah Lam mused. “Exactly which of the Immortals
are interested in this Chou Li?”
“From
what I’ve heard, all eight,” Ito-sensei responded. Wong Ah Lam visibly
flinched. “AND, according to He Xiangu, the Monkey King is also interested.”
Wong Ah Lam grimaced and clutched her breast.
“And this
particularly knotty problem becomes even knottier on several levels.” The
sequence showed a slender pale skinned girl who appeared to be wearing ‘Goth’
makeup, sparring with a rangy boy in a gi. “This is Sara Waite, whom hasn’t
chosen a code-name as of yet. Even at this school, she is remarkable, even
unique. You see, despite appearances, she isn’t human.”
“What IS
she,” Fitzgibbon asked, as tendrils appeared from the girl’s hands to ensnare
one foot? “Some devisor’s pet project? Another one of those damn near-human ETs
they try to slip in here every so often?”
“No,”
Ito-sama said gravely, “she is a demon.”
“A
‘DEMON’?” went around the table.
“I know
that this is Whateley,” Beaumont said acidly, “but we DO have STANDARDS!”
Ito-sama
waved the noise down. “It is more complex than that. This child is a
human-demon hybrid. Her cell structure is closer to cancer cells than anything
else. However, there is the question of her Soul.”
“We’re
not priests,” Kasai said sharply. “We don’t save
souls! We teach ‘human’ children how to defend themselves.”
“But she
IS half-human,” Ito responded calmly. “How do we deny the half that is demon,
without endangering that half that is human? And, if in saving the half that is
human, may we not be bringing the other half out of the darkness?”
“Doing
Missionary work?” Bardue asked. “Doesn’t Whateley’s policy of strict neutrality
forbid that sort of thing?”
“And
doesn’t that exact same policy of neutrality demand that we do what we can for
Miss Waite?” Ito said with the air of perfect logic.
“Hold
on,” Suzana cut in, “they put a Demon and a demon- ‘HUNTER’ on the same team?”
“Makes
perfect sense to me.” Bardue said rationally. “This way, ‘Blade Dancer’ knows
the demon’s capabilities, habits and weaknesses. But if this demon-girl goes
off the deep end, she won’t be thinking clearly and won’t be able to use what
she learned in training with ‘Chou Li’. If anything, if this sword is all that
Wong says it is, the big problem is gonna be keeping the demon-girl alive long
enough to make up her mind which way she’s gonna flip.”
Ito-sama
sighed, “Since we are ethically bound to train her, shall we focus on HOW to
train her?”
“What’s
the problem, Tetsuo?” Bardue asked. “Aside from the smell of brimstone, that
is.”
“Her Ki
is unique. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like one of those ‘black
holes’ that astronomers talk of. A great dark maw, sucking in everything. Ki
normally flows in cycles and channels. Hers just draws in. We will try to teach
her what we can, but I believe that the best we can do is allow her to develop
her own style, as we study her progress, just in case. If nothing else, it
should be educational.”
“ ‘Keep
your friends close, and your enemies closer?’ ” Suzana asked with a wry smile.
“Let us
hope that it doesn’t come to that.” Ito-sama keyed the remote again. “And
finally, we come to our _real_ problem. . . ‘Team Kimba’.”
“WHAT?”
“You tell
us that we have a team with a Faerie Queen, a super-brick, a living ghost, the
daughter of a family of mutant-haters, a blaster-monster, a demon-hunter AND
her own in-house demon, but THIS girl is the real problem? What does she do,
shit anti-matter?”
The scene
on the monitor now showed a well attended dojo where a lithe young
African-American girl in a gi was faced off against what appeared to be a dirty
blonde yeti in blue exercise pants. The hairy boy gave every impression being
incredibly strong and his overlong arms apparently gave him a great reach
advantage. He was also remarkably fast- not that it helped.
The girl
started off by breaking his nose, and the fight didn’t go any better for him.
The girl made a jabbing punch at his left shoulder, and his arm went limp. He
began jumping around, apparently trying to stay away from her while he
recovered, Before that could ahppen, the girl got an unbreakable hold on his
good arm and wrestled him to the mat. Unable to use his other arm, she easily
pinned him.
“That is
Antonia ‘Chaka’ Chandler, the final member of Team Kimba,
in action.”
Fitzgibbon
made a dismissive noise. “So what? She looks like your average ‘daredevil’
type. She’ll have to train with other ‘daredevils’ in order to learn any decent
discipline, but other than that, I don’t see the problem.”
“The problem,
is that Toni Chandler’s mutant power is a natural ability to generate and
manipulate Ki.”
The table
exploded. “WHAT?”
“Are you
‘JOKING’?”
“But
that’s IMPOSSIBLE!”
Bardue tried to shout them down. “HOLD ON! C’mon, people,
Settle down! Now, would you pajama-types please tell this old leatherneck
exactly what is so incredible about this girl bein’ able to control her Ki?”
“I agree.” Suzana’s voice was calmer. “If anything, I’d
think that a natural ability to manipulate one’s Ki would be one of the more
fundamental mutations. It’s an amplification of a natural ability that anyone
should be able to learn, given time and discipline. As a matter of fact, I
rather have to wonder why a Ki mutant hasn’t come up before.”
Ito-sama held up a restraining hand. “That is precisely
the point, Miss Hagarty. For the nearly forty years that preter-humanmutation has been an accepted scientific fact,
scientists and Martial Artists have been wondering why no ‘natural Ki master’
mutants have been discovered. As you pointed out, it is just an amplification
of a natural ability, so it should just be a rather minor systemic adjustment.
For years we have wondered why no Ki mutants have surfaced.By the 1970’s, when the concept of Ki became more widely
known in the West, scientists began fielding theories as to why. The most
prevalent school is that for one reason or another, mutations tapped into the
flow of energy that would normally be used to develop Ki, to power their
effect.”
“Which is complete rubbish,” Wong Ah Lam interjected,
“since several quite powerful mutants have also learned Ki skills along with
their natural abilities.”
“What about Hiro Kyoji’s ‘Lethal Mutation’ theory?” Genevive
Beaumont asked. “Of the various theories, it always made the most sense to me.”
“Yes,” Ito-sama nodded, “there is that.”
Suzana cleared her throat. “Excuse me, would you please
inform those among us who haven’t spent years studying Variant Human Genetics,
exactly ‘what’ the ‘Lethal Mutation’ theory ‘IS’?”
Ito-sama took a deep breath and began. “In 1986, a
Japanese geneticist published a paper in which he claimed to have followed
reports of children in Japan, Korea, China and the Philippines who exhibited powers that were
remarkably like those of legendary Ki masters. But every time that he managed
to track one of the children down, he discovered that the children had all
mysteriously died within three months of first manifesting their powers. Mind
you, they weren’t ‘killed’ by others or die in accidents, they all just ...
died. ... Some died in their sleep; some felt tired, sat down and never got up
again; and some literally dropped in their tracks.
From this, Hiro postulated that Ki mutants do arise,
possibly on a regular basis, but because Ki is so intimately tied to the basic
life processes, the mutation causes deadly disruptions in the flow of Ki, that
eventually kill the mutant. He further theorized that Ki mutants in the East
are considered great treasures, to be hidden from outsiders, and so they only
come to the attention of scientists after they’ve died. In the West, the
children have no traditional context for it, and his theory supposes that they panic
when the mutation manifests, so they Burn Out.”
Junzo commented, “Depressing as it is, it’s still the most
logical theory.”
Suzana gave a gusty sigh. “So, the question really isn’t
‘why only one Ki mutant?’; it’s ‘why hasn’t Toni Chandler died yet?’.”
That seemed to sum it up rather well.
“Maybe she’s ‘Ki Mutant 2.0’,” Kasai Tetsuko fielded the
question. “Maybe she has some kind of ‘emergency Ki flow regulator’ that
prevents those fatal Ki disruptions.”
Ito-sama pondered this for a while. “OR, maybe it doesn’t
prevent them- indeed, they may not be preventable- but externalizes them, so
that her own Ki flow isn’t compromised.”
“What do you mean, Ito-sama?” Fitzgibbon asked.
“During that incident with the Yama Dojo ninjas,” Amanda Tolman
answered for Ito-sensei, “Chandler
was doing very well. She took out the team leader in single combat, and was
holding her own by her herself against the other four. Then, she had some sort
of fit. It was sort of like she’d thrown a rod or something, and she spun out
of control. I asked an Esper who witnessed the scene firsthand, and she said
that Chandler exuded a strange invisible
darkness as she spun out of control. Given the very Yang oriented moves that
she was making, I think that she lost her balance of Yin and Yang.
You see, part of her power is that she can heterodyne her
personal energy field with the Earth’s. She spent all of her Yang energy
fighting the Ninjas, and kept drawing on the Earth to replenish her reserve of Ki.
She wasn’t spending Yin energy anywhere near as quickly as she was Yang energy,
so it backed up on her and overloaded her system.
That may be what happened to the other Ki Mutants. But, Chandler somehow expelled her excess Yin
energy. Not enough to keep her from crashing, but enough to keep her alive. Her
former Aikido sensei reports that this has happened a couple of times. When I
spoke with the Ninjas after their capture, the girl mentioned something about a
strange chill. I think that they were too focused on their mission and a little
too far away to be adversely affected.”
Fitzgibbon nodded. “Yes, until she learns to automatically
monitor her balance of Yin and Yang, that’s going to be a problem.”
“No, Chet,” Ito-sama said sadly, “it’s not. We are the
problem.”
“Come again?”
“Come again?”
“Miss Chandler is a paradox; one that we must solve or the
opportunity of several lifetimes may be lost.”
Bardue scoffed and said, “Heck, Tetsuo, we’ve seen
hundreds of kids with lots of potential come and go ...”
“No. Not like this. She poses three levels of problem,
each of which seem to make the others impossible. First, she controls Ki. I
have learned many Ki skills, but she ... for her ...the things that I must meditate for hours to do, are as
simple as picking up a pencil. Every Asian Martial Art is based on discovering
one’s Ki, and allowing it to guide one’s movements. All the Katas, all the
exercises, all the forms are ways of awakening one’s Ki and putting it to use.
But Chandler starts at the end, where great Ki
masters wish to go; but she has no foundation for her skill. She must travel
backwards, like someone trying to building a house by starting with the roof,
and building the house under it. Her reflexes and instincts in combat are
exemplary, but we must somehow give her form and context for those reflexes
without crippling them.”
“Her Kung Fu is good, but she needs discipline?” Suzana
quipped. The instructors around the table gave her an icy glare. “Well,
‘someone’ had to say it!”
Beaumont ignored the joke. “I see what you’re talking about, Ito-sama. It’s
like teaching Mozart music. You have to get her to understand the rules without
placing artificial limitations on her.”
“I just hope that she doesn’t run into a Salieri,” Junzo
grumped.
“And that is the second level of our problem, Harry. There
are many ‘Salieris’ out there who are just waiting for their opportunity. You
see, my friends, Miss Chandler is unique in yet another way. She is the only
one of our students who can TEACH what she does to baseline humans.”
“What? You can’t ‘TEACH’ a mutant trait!”
“You are right- a mutant Telepath couldn’t teach a
non-mutant non-telepath how to read minds; nor could an Energizer teach a
baseline human how to throw energy bolts, nor any of the other mutant traits.
The simple reason is that baseline humans simply don’t have the physical
equipment for it. BUT, ‘everyone’ has Ki! She can’t teach them her genius for
it, or her ability to tap into the Earth’s field, but she ‘can’ teach them how
to manipulate their Ki.”
Fitzgibbon’s eyes went wide and he looked at Bardue and Kasai. “Oh, I do NOT like where this is
going.”
“There are many people who will be vitally interested in
her. There will be devisers and even mainstream scientists who will want to
analyze her to try to isolate, identify, qualify and maybe even synthesize Ki.
There will be Mages and Wizards of every tradition who will see her as a power
battery. Worst of all, there will be Martial Artists who have studied Ki their
entire lives without coming as far as she has already gone. Incredible jealousy
aside, there will be those who will want to study her to learn secrets of Ki
from her. And there is the unfortunate matter that the schools and societies
most interested will be Asian, while Miss Chandler is not only American and
Female, but of African descent. The concept of racism being an evil is a
comparatively new one, born of the excesses of World War II. I’m afraid that
that lesson hasn’t penetrated the more conservative mindsets of Asia. And the Ki schools and Secret
Societies are nothing if not conservative, even reactionary. Since she is the
descendent of slaves, then most likely they will regard her as not only a
slave, but the female slave of barbarians.”
Amanda nodded sadly. “Ito-sama is one of the more ... ‘liberal’
teachers in Japan, and you should have ‘seen’ what I had to go through to
get this old goat to look past my skin and actually SEE me!”
Ito gave her an embarrassed apologetic smile. Amanda
returned a forgiving smile.
Suzana chewed on this for a while. “What are the chances
that these Martial Arts secret societies will have heard of her?”
“ ‘Well ...’ Bardue drawled, “as of this moment, kinda
small. But once word gets around campus of what she’s capable of- the stories
are already starting- I’d say that the odds of the word leaking out are hover
about 100%. Y’see, we don’t have a security problem, only ‘cause we accept that
word is gonna slip out as part of doin’ business.”
“What? But your security-”
“Miss Hagarty, Whateley is an open secret to the Police,
Intelligence, Criminal and even Terrorist communities,” Wong Ah Lam explained.
“And they ALL want to know what’s going on. Every one of our security guards is
getting a second paycheck from one Police or Intelligence service or another.
We ‘know’ this, and let it happen; after all, it’s one way of letting them know
what’s going on here. After all, would YOU want to write a periodic report on
this place? Besides, it means that we get top rate security guards at
reasonable rates, ones who really want to keep their jobs. Scha, some of them
get two or three paychecks, which are paid to offshore bank accounts. And, this
way, their reasonable paranoia is soothed so they don’t do anything stupid. But
it does mean that keeping someone like your Miss Reilly or Miss Chandler a
secret can be a real chore. After all, look at how quickly those ‘Crystal
Wavers’ showed up. By the way, I wonder what happened to them?”
Kasai snickered. “I heard that they checked into a private sanitarium en
masse, to ‘work out interpersonal difficulties’.”
Fitzgibbon made a grunting noise. “I’ll talk with Security
and have them put a Tell-Tale on the window of Chandler’s room.”
“Don’t bother,” Suzana told him. “According to the report
on Nikki Reilly that I read, Nikki and Toni are already roommates. I expect
that after that ‘Crystal Waver’ episode, Security put a Tell-Tale on her
window, SOP.”
Beaumont shuddered. “I don’t envy the girls who live on either side of THAT
room.”
“Hold On!” Suzana interrupted, “What about Chandler’s parents? Shouldn’t they have
some kind of security upgrade? After all, grabbing friends and family is one of
the oldest tricks in the book!”
“Not to worry,” Bardue assured her. “Our security may be a
little odd, but it’s some of the best. All reports are filed under code names,
and the files regarding students’ families are under security that the NSA
envies. Besides, we got ‘procedures’ for dealing with that kind
of thing.” {29}
Genevive Beaumont smiled icily. “The last time that anyone
tried to lean on a Whateley student’s family was back in 1987. A bunch of Serbo-Croat
Nationalists tried to grab a kid’s parents. They became a Senior Class
project.”
“What happened?”
“Let’s just say ... they aren’t around anymore.”
Junzo turned to Ito. “Ito-sensei, you said that there were
‘three’ levels of difficulty. What’s the third?”
Ito sighed. “I wondered when anyone would remember that.
... The third level of difficulty is not what Miss Chandler is, or what she
might do, but fear of what she might NOT do.”
Bardue shook his head. “Oh, lovely. ... It’s Zen time
again.”
Ito keyed the remote again. This time Chandler was alone, or at least by herself
on the practice mat. She was proceeding smoothly through a Tai Chi Chu’an
routine.
“So what? She’s doing Tai Chi,” Kasai said.
“Watch again.” He replayed the sequence.
“Again, so what? So she made a mistake in her sequences!”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Hunh? But she went from ‘White Stork Spreads Its Wings’
to something else and then onto the proper sequence and only ...”
“And only a Tai Chi master can alter the sequence to fit
changing conditions and expect it to flow properly. Now watch again.” Ito
replayed the sequence in slow motion. “You see? It flows. ... Not only does it
flow properly, it flows ‘gracefully’. It flows with ‘harmony’. Only a master of
Tai Chi can manage that kind of improvisation. She does it four times.”
Ito-sensei took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I
fear ... and hope ... that Toni Chandler may be the Soke-no-Do.”
‘Soke of Do’? Suzana puzzled that one over a bit. She knew
that a ‘Soke’ was the founder of a school of Martial
Arts. But ‘Do’?”
Then she looked around the table and saw that most of the instructors were
almost dumbfounded.
Bardue asked the question before Suzana could. “Do? What kind
of Do? Hapkido? Aikido?”
“No,” Kasai
almost whispered, “Not Aikido. Not Hapkido. Not Judo. Not Huarang-Do. Not Tai Kwan
Do. Just ... DO. ...”
Wong Ah Lam took over, as Kasai Tetsuko was obviously
still reeling from the implications. “In every field of endeavor, there is a
great Quest, a sublime height that artists can pursue all of their lives, fail
to achieve and still count their lives as being well spent in the pursuit.
In Physics, it would be the Unified Field Theory. In
Medicine, it would be the Panacea, the cure for all diseases. In Diplomacy, it
would be World Peace. In Music, it would be the ‘Music of the Spheres’. In
Painting, it would be ‘The Single Stroke’. In Philosophy, it would be The
Truth.
“In Martial Arts, it is ‘Do’. The ‘Sun Source’ Martial Art,
of which all other schools are fragments, or pale reflections. Some Xiao-Lin
styles mimic the strengths of insects, birds, snakes, cats, monkeys and even
dragons. But ... Do ... would flow only from the absolute strength of being
human, without wasting strength on puerile imitation. Do would be perfectly
flexible in its application and perfectly suitable to the dynamics of the human
form. And Do wouldn’t be limited to hand to hand combat ... or even combat. Do
would apply to EVERYTHING!
There is a Do of walking, a Do of writing, a Do of taking
a bath, a Do of weeding a garden. All forms of Human Endeavor, no matter how
exalted or trivial, have a Do, a ‘proper’ way of being done, if we only knew
what it was.
“And beyond even THAT, ‘Do’ is believed to be the means of
finding by way of the Marital Arts, the Tao. The Tao, the Way of All Things.”
Amanda Tolman sputtered, “Ito-sensei, that can’t be! I’ve
‘MET’ this girl! She’s no philosopher! She’s your basic mediocre kid who’s
suddenly good at something! Anything! She charges into everything without
thinking about it, and hopes that her power will take care of everything!”
“Not completely true.” Ito keyed the remote again. The
screen replayed the fight with the Little League Bigfoot. “She went into this
fight with a carefully laid plan.”
“Yeah- AFTER she walked into a fight with someone bigger
and stronger than she was! And I don’t see her changing her spots any time
soon. She’s going to be charging into one disaster after another face first,
for a long time.”
Ito-sama smiled. “True, but who says that that’s a bad
thing? I think an image from the Western Tarot deck is quite illuminating- the
‘Zero’ card of the Major Arcana is called ‘The Fool’. Who would be the one to
find Do? The wise man who carefully watches each step, or the Fool who steps
off the cliff with his eyes fixed on Heaven? We know that Do cannot be found by
rational inquiry, so taking foolish choices might be the only way.”
Bardue fixed Ito-sama with a hard eye. “Tetsuo, you’re
making this kid sound like some sort of ‘Chosen One.”
Ito gave a rueful laugh. “You’re right, I am. But there
are no prophecies, only potential. She could be the Soke-no-Do. Or she could
not. Maybe I’m being selfish, wanting to see the realization of Do in my
lifetime.
“And that is the most maddening thing of all. In order for
her to have a chance at all of realizing Do, we have to NOT teach her. Any
answers that we would give her would only impose our preconceptions of Do on
her. The only way that we can help her realize her potential without forcing
her to be the ‘Soke-no-Do’ on one hand or shutting her off from that
possibility on the other, is just to throw one unexplained exercise after
another at her.”
Kasai raised an eyebrow. “You mean, sort of like ‘Zen Loan’ exercises?’
Ito shrugged. “As good an
analogy as any. But what I was going to ask you was- Do any of you have old
Jackie Chan movies on DVD?”
since 02/08/05