Chapter 7: Accomplishments
"Things never go the way you expect them to. That's both the joy and frustration in life. I'm finding as I get older that I don't mind, though. It's the surprises that tickle me the most, the things you don't see coming." - Michael Stuhlbarg
———
Yamamoto bowed his torso 90 degrees and then hanged his dao up.
Han turned, saw the bow and acknowledged it with a nod. He gestured to the practice dummy. "Now, we'll work on your hand to hand. Let me see you against the dummy. Now that sometime soon, attacks from me will come at random. There's a warning you'd not get from a real enemy."
Yamamoto stretched up on his toes to relieve his muscles. He felt solemn with the sudden realization that his life had become filled with swift changes. He crossed to the dummy, and entered his stance.
Niciao Jiao or, armor wrestling is the use of the legs to kick and off-balance opponents, and the use of arm locks to slam heavily armored opponents into the ground with their own force and mass.
"Attack!" Han called, and he pressed the dummy. His arms smoothly transitioning from forearm locks and leg sweeps to guillotine holds.
Han watched as Yamamoto effortlessly he manipulated his hand placements and body structure to achieve the most devastating locks and hold. 'He gravitates heavily to martial arts it seems.'
His mind seemed to be in two parts: one alert to the needs of the training fight, and the other wandering in fly-buzz.
'I'm the well-trained fruit tree,' he thought. 'Full of well-trained feelings and abilities and all of them grafted onto me - all bearing for someone else to pick.'
For some reason, he recalled his younger brother, his elfin face so clear in his mind. But he was dead now - in a pleasure house by newly captured slaves. He wasn't even there to partake only to deliver a message. . . 'He always loved white steed or was it black?' He couldn't remember. It bothered him that he couldn't remember.
Yamamoto mentally countered a slow swing of the dummy, brought up his left hand entretisser .
'That clever little devil!' Han thought, intent now on Yama's interweaving hand motions. He's been practicing and studying on his own. That's not Hanma's style, and it's certainly nothing I've taught him.
He watched as Yamamoto snaked his hand around the dummy's neck and with a subtle step to place his hips above the area where the dummy's hips would be, he slammed it into the ground and landed with his body weight.
'Somebody the same body weight would be devastated.' Han observed the technique. "Follow me." Han led Yamamoto away from the training grounds.
——
"Do you see that?" Han pointed to a glass case above his desk. For the first time, Yama had been allowed to enter his private study. "Its the 'Wuxia Xiongahua'. The Book of Eternity."
"Its name-"
He interrupted Yama. "Its a book full of ancient spells, said to be created in the time of the Pearl Emperor by his right hand man." Shock at the possible implications of that statement flew through his entire body.
"I-its so small." The only thing He could comment.
"And yet it has eighteen thousand pages."
'Eighteen thousand??? What the hell!'
"Because of its age it is too delicate to touch, that is why it sits like that. Can you see it's lettering?"
'Perhaps it was my imagination playing tricks on me, but I could make out a-'
"-c-" He said out loud.
"What was that?" He asked me in a hurry. "What was that you said?"
"-C-…."
"Y-you can r-read it?" His voice hushed with panic. "Wait!-" he takes a few seconds to recompose. "-dont tell me."
He continues on, "If one were to be able to read it, that person would immediately be seized by the Bloodstone Emperor's personal sorcerer troupe and taken to the capital and tortured beyond human capabilities to reveal the books secrets. Let us hope this fate befalls no one." He stares into his soul as he relays this to Yama.
*KNOCK*KNOCK*KNOCK*
"Father? Are you ok?" A distinctly feminine voice echoes from the other side of the door.
'He has a daughter?'
The General forced himself to the casual gesture, sat down on a corner of the table, smiled. A whole pattern of conversation welled up in his mind - the kind of thing he might use to dispel the vapors in his men before a battle. The pattern froze before it could be vocalized, confronted by the single thought: 'This is my daughter.'
"Come in." From his voice, A beautiful asian woman came from behind the door with visible worry as she looked at her father. "What are you doing here, Huan? You should be at the Alchemist compound."
"I came to try and surprise you, but I heard you yell-" she drifted her attention to the younger child in the room. "-Him."
"This is my…..apprentice, Yamamoto." Han comes up with Yama's 'position' on the spot.
"You can just call me Yama, lady Huan." Yama bowed to her as he spoke.
"Ohh, how respectful."
"You are only 16 years old, don't let this go to your head young lady." Han interrupted.
A fake innocent look came on her face. "Im I your big sister? Call me big sister."
"...No."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone