Chapter 126: 194. Gravity

The rest of the journey to the capital went by quickly—almost too quickly. After Narae and Ja Yun had awakened, there were too many things to do and not enough time. It had been a scramble to teach them everything necessary to get them started on the path of unified cultivation. Ja Yun had been nearly hysterical about losing most of her cultivation, but Jia could still sense the essence within her—along with a strange sense of familiarity—and reassured the skittish soldier that her efforts had not gone to waste. Jia and Eui had experienced something similar themselves at the start of the second stage—the beginnings of the formation of a soulscape.

Between starting Narae on the basics of martial arts, guiding her in the establishment of her foundation—and helping Ja Yun fix her rather hastily developed one—and working with Ja Yun and Rika on developing soulscapes, Jia and Eui filled every moment of the day. Time flew by in a flash, and before they knew it, the great towering spires of Songdo were visible on the horizon—impossible to mistake for anything else. There was, however, one small snag that they encountered the day before they were to arrive in the city.

“Jia, I don’t suppose you’ve got an attunement rod? It would be good to know what our disciples’ ki affinities are.”

Jia glanced up from helping Eui teach Narae calligraphy and pursed her lips at Rika’s question.

“Mmm, no—I never thought to try to get one. I never really expected to be taking on ‘disciples.’”

Rika shrugged.

“Guess we’ll have to do it the old fashioned way. You’ve got more of those beast cores, right? Actually—low grade crystals would be better, if you have them.”

Jia furrowed her brows and mentally dug through her dimensional ring. She wasn’t entirely certain what its capacity was, but she’d never come anywhere close to filling it up—as expected of an heirloom treasure from one of the Empire’s Great Sects. As a result, the inside of it was...cluttered, for lack of a better word. Between the various valuable parts of beasts, pilfered meals, piles of gold, dresses, robes, and talismans—well, it was a lot to sift through. After a few moments of searching, Jia produced a small red crystal—a low grade fire crystal.

“How’s this?”

Rika beamed at her, nodding enthusiastically.

“That’s perfect! Have you got the other primary elements too?”

Jia frowned.

“Um...maybe? Not Yin or Yang, but I’ve definitely got the others.”

Another minute passed as Jia produced earth, air, and water crystals.

“Rika, what are we actually using these for?”

“You’ll see. Now, how about...I dunno, any crystals with Yin or Yang aspects.”

Jia sighed, but went back to searching. Eventually she found a small Stone crystal—mistakable for a piece of white jade, if not for the way it glowed in her mana sense—and a Light crystal, glowing so bright it was almost painful to look at.

“Will these do? Can you actually tell me what these are for now?”

Rika nodded as she gathered up the small collection of crystals.

“We can use these to test their ki affinities. Hey kid, you wanna take a break from learning characters?”

Narae practically shot to her feet, barely managing to avoid splattering Eui with ink in her haste.

“Yes! What are we doing?”

Before Narae could get too far, Eui’s tail shot out and wrapped around her ankle.

“Not so fast, you lazy brat! You’re not getting away that easily. Let Auntie Yun go first, you can get a turn when you give me two more perfect characters.”

“Aw, come oooon~”

Eui met Narae’s pleading face with a merciless scowl.

“That’s ‘Aw, come on, Master’ to you, and no. Give me those characters first. No complaints.”

Narae grumbled a bit under her breath about Eui not being her mother, but complied—returning to the mind-numbingly boring task of drawing out characters over and over again. Jia’s heart went out to her—she hated calligraphy too—but Eui was adamant about making sure Narae got a proper education. Jia turned back to Rika, grinning sheepishly.

“Well, I guess we should call Ja Yun over then?”

Rika chuckled.

“She’s already on her way.”

Sure enough, Ja Yun joined them in the wagon a few moments later, joined by a second Rika. Ja Yun jumped as the Rika clone accompanying her vanished with a wink.

“Gah! Ugh, Miss Takeda I wish you’d warn me before doing that. Also, maybe tell me whether it’s actually the real you?”

Rika stuck out her tongue playfully.

“They’re all me! Now come here, we’ve got a fun little test for you.”

Ja Yun grimaced as she approached.

“Why do I not like the sound of that?”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad—we’re just going to figure out your ki affinity to help figure out what kind of martial art to teach you.”

Yun’s ears perked up at that.

“Oh! That actually does sound fun!”

After a quick explanation, Rika sat Ja Yun down in front of the crystals.

“Okay, so back home, not everybody could afford fancy attunement rods—those are pretty much just for nobles. But this was an alternative for a discerning merchant’s son or daughter trying to decide which dojo to join. Let’s try fire first—for that orange hair of yours.”

Ja Yun’s face threatened to turn as red as her hair, but she did as directed, placing her hand on the fire crystal and channeling her ki the way she’d been practicing over the course of the last week. The red glow of the crystal began to flicker for a moment before the stone went completely dark and crumbled to dust. Ja Yun pulled her hand back like she’d been burned and gasped.

“Oh! Oh ancestors, I’m so sorry—I-I didn’t mean to—”

Rika held up a hand to stop Ja Yun’s stammering.

“It’s fine, that’s normal. That’s why we’re using cheap ones.”

Jia smacked Rika on the shoulder.

“Easy for you to say, these aren’t your mana stones! You could have warned me!”

Rika just stuck out her tongue playfully and turned back to Ja Yun.

“Negative reaction with the fire crystal means water. Try earth next.”

Ja Yun reached out hesitantly for the brown crystal, touching it delicately, worried that it would meet the same fate as the first. This time, however, the stone’s glow grew slightly brighter. Rika clapped her hands and smiled.

“Great! So you’ve got water and earth, now we just need to figure out if it’s going to be a Yin or Yang aspect. Anyone want to take a bet on it?”

Eui rolled her eyes.

“Isn’t it like a one in a thousand or something that she’ll have anything other than Wood affinity at this point?”

Rika shook her head ruefully.

“Tsk, don’t be so boring. Besides, you say that as if you and I aren’t both exceptions to that. But fine—Ja Yun, try the light crystal.”

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Ja Yun did as she was told, but after several seconds of channeling, nothing happened. Jia, Eui, and Rika all stared at the unresponsive crystal, nonplussed. Ja Yun looked up at them with a worried frown.

“W-what? Did I do something wrong?”

Jia shook her head.

“No, but try the other one—the Stone crystal.”

Ja Yun did, and once again got no response. Rika blinked at the result.

“Huh. Unaligned? Well lucky you, Ja Yun! That’s really rare!”

With a nervous chuckle, Ja Yun started to smile, then froze, her face twisting into a grimace.

“Wait, does that mean my ki affinity is mud!?”

 

---

 

Once she’d finished with her calligraphy, Narae was subjected to the same test. There were fewer surprises with hers, but the end result was still quite remarkable. Rika whistled appreciatively as the light crystal flashed in blinding resonance with Narae’s ki.

“Earth and Yang? Kami, Jia, your little sister’s got a Gravity affinity. That’s uh...”

An awkward silence descended on the group, and Narae frowned.

“Is that bad?”

Jia gave her little sister a hug, ruffling her hair in the process.

“Not at all! It’s really good, actually. It’s just that the only person we know with a martial art that matches it is...Lady Hayakawa.”

Rika sucked air in through her teeth.

“Yeah, and her technique is a family secret, so uh...good luck with that.”

Jia bit her lip.

“Yeah...I guess I can ask, but I don’t see Hayakawa agreeing to teach anyone her Weightless Fist technique. For now, Ja Yun and Narae should just stick to the basics.”

Ja Yun groaned miserably.

“Mud...of course it’s mud. What kind of martial artist fights with mud!?”

Rika gave her a conciliatory pat on the back.

“Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to match your martial arts to your affinity. Our mentor knew martial arts in all kinds of elements. I’m sure you’ll do fine with a Wood technique.”

 

—-

 

“Of course I’ll assist in your sister’s tutoring. I’m quite busy, but I can make time to train with her once a week. Was there anything else?”

Jia stared dumbfounded at Hayakawa Kaede.

“That—that’s it? Just like that?”

Hayakawa huffed irritably, shooing Tae In-Su away as he tried to bring her more paperwork to prepare for their imminent arrival at the capital of Goryeo.

“You needn’t be so surprised, Miss Lee. Have I not already told you that you can trust me with such matters?”

Jia hesitated, shrugging her shoulders awkwardly.

“R-right, it’s just—isn’t your technique a family secret or something?”

Hayakawa chuckled mirthlessly.

“A secret from whom? Master Ienaga already demonstrated her mastery of the technique back at the academy. If my clan’s chief rival has refined the technique even further than our patriarch, what’s the point of keeping it secret any longer? If anything, giving it to you and your sister will only help develop the technique even further beyond its current limits.”

“That’s...true I guess. I just thought you’d be more hesitant about it, I guess.”

With a weary sigh, Hayakawa met Jia’s eyes with an intense glare.

“Miss Lee, as always you view things on too narrow a scale. I have chosen to believe your story about the Sovereign’s Tear, and I have committed myself entirely to assisting your quest for its safe recovery. I believe that this is the best way that I can serve my people, but my father is unlikely to see it that way. Do you understand?”

Jia swallowed nervously.

“Uh...no?”

“Then let me spell it out for you. I can’t predict how our talks with Goryeo will go, but I can predict how my father will see things. My father wants a defensive pact with Goryeo—or rather, that’s what he wants me to try to achieve. He fully expects me to fail and most likely be taken hostage. With me as a hostage, Goryeo will feel safe from assault by Yamato, and have no need to ally with Qin. Then my father can focus his forces on countering Qin’s aggression.”

Jia felt her head spinning, the political intricacies of the situation going well above her head. She did understand one thing, however.

“That’s awful! Your father is basically using you as a sacrifice!”

Hayakawa smiled sadly.

“My father is a shrewd man. He is the type to plan for any outcome, even failure. No matter how our talks go, if I deviate from his plans—to secure Goryeo’s assistance in seeking the keys to Sovereign Chou’s tomb—he will see it as a betrayal. He’ll go along with it—to do otherwise would be a dramatic loss of face—but I fully anticipate that he will punish me for doing so.”

Jia wrung her hands in front of her nervously, her ears drooping.

“What kind of punishment?”

“That depends on a number of factors. In the worst case—death. I can’t exactly plan for that, so I’ve instead decided to prepare myself for the next worst outcome—exile. In which case, I would do well to empower those with whom I am likely to spend my exile, no?”

A cold sweat formed on Jia’s neck as she took in what Hayakawa was saying. She was so calm and straightforward about it, but she was talking about throwing away her entire life—possibly literally—for what?

“Why?”

Hayakawa frowned for a moment, then stood, beckoning Tae In-Su to bring her the documents before offering Jia her answer in parting.

“Because I believe you Miss Lee. Because the world is bigger than you or I, and I’ve spent enough time thinking only of my own selfish means.”

She accepted the documents from Tae before turning to Jia with a genuine smile—an expression that Jia had rarely seen on Hayakawa’s face.

“Or perhaps, Miss Lee, you’re simply a bad influence.”

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