Chapter 2

Yena and Yuri moved as one as they swarmed on Hitomi. Yena moved with a slow deliberateness as she tried to box the younger girl into the corner of the room. Yuri, meanwhile, covered her partner’s openings with lighting fast attacks that kept Hitomi from countering. The Japanese girl could feel the power behind of each of Yena’s punches even though none of them had landed. She could only dodge and use her hands to block Yuri from gaining any advantage.

Yuri felt proud of her student as the fight went on and on. They had declared that the winner would be Hitomi if she managed to survive a hundred moves against her. “Keep it up, Hii-chan!”

Equally impressed was Yena. She’d never met a ‘learning’ genius like Hitomi before. The girl seemed to be able to memorize new techniques as soon as she saw them. As impressed as she was however, she decided that it was time to throw a little swerve. “Super Yena Low Blow.”

Hitomi tried to jump and was immediately hit with an overhead smash. She managed to bring her palm up and deflect part of the blow, but it still sent her flying towards the floor. “Oww! That’s not fair. That was the fourth punch of the Eighteen Yena Punch skills, the Super Yena Smash, not the fifth.”

“Your opponent won’t always play fair,” Yena scolded Hitomi as she relaxed her battle stance.

“You’re still thinking too much,” Yuri added. “A true Formless style practitioner does not react to words.”

“Still, you did pretty good. I think that was ninety moves?” Yena guessed as she went over how the fight went in her head.

“You two went easy on me. Neither of you used your full internal energy,” Hitomi said ruefully, wincing, as she shook her hand to regain some feeling in it. She then pushed herself up off the ground and had to hold still for second as the earth seemed to wobble beneath her. Yena’s strength was no joke.

Yuri’s expression changed to one of concern when she saw Hitomi slow to get up. “Are you okay? Are you? Are you?” She rushed to the battered girl’s side and pulled her into an embrace.

Hitomi found it hard to wave her mentor off as Yuri went into full puppy mode. “I was, but now I’m suffocating. Oof,” she wheezed as Yena also came to join Yuri in hugging her to death. However, the pain quickly subsided, and she felt a sudden warmth as an outside wave of qi entered her body.

“Hitomi, keep still. We’re using our power to help you get better faster,” Yena whispered, her eyes closed with concentration.

Hitomi, coming from a school that specialized in qi arts, happened to know that while this kind of healing was better with direct skin to skin contact, it didn’t really require this kind of closeness. “Thank you,” she said simple instead of correcting them.

Yuri pressed her cheeks against Hitomi’s cheeks as she sought a closer embrace to transfer the energy. She’s so squishy! Yuri screamed internally. More and more she found herself seeking excuses to touch her student’s soft skin. Normally, Chaewon was there as Hitomi’s self-appointed protector against unnecessary contact. “Where’s Chaewon? I thought she said she was wanted to learn the Formless style too.”

I still think this is stupid, Minju projected towards Chaewon. The two of them sat cross-legged face to face with each other. Beads of sweat appeared on her temples as she pushed her will against Chaewon’s.

I’m no help to her as I am now, Chaewon thought back. Minju, while being the weakest in terms of physical arts, excelled in this particular skill. It took all of Chaewon’s concentration not to succumb to Minju’s powerful force of will.

You can just give her moral support, Minju pressed further. She could feel the other girl begin to give way.

In Chaewon’s mind’s eye, she could see a giant toad that loomed over a buzzing little fairy. The immense toad seemed to think of the fairy as a mere annoyance as it lashed out with its tongue. The fairy was soon overcome by the sheer power difference and was swatted to the ground in a lifeless heap.

“Chaewon!” Minju dispelled the toad and rushed to her friend’s side.

“I’m fine,” Chaewon said weakly as she got up, swaying side to side with exhaustion.

“You’re still going to train?” Minju asked incredulously.

“Yeah, thanks to your help, I’ve cleared my head. I’m already way behind Hitomi in learning the Formless style.”

Minju backed away as Chaewon started moving around the room in seemingly erratic fashion. Chaewon was similar to Hitomi in that she specialized in many different physical martial arts forms. The difference was that Chaewon’s skill came from years of training and polishing while Hitomi’s skill came from natural talent.

Chaewon did not think of anything at all as she weaved around the room mixing different moves from different martial arts seamlessly. Her head felt woozy as she started to forget everything she learned. What came next after each technique was lost to her. Instead, her body moved instinctively, creating a style that was chaotic, yet beautiful to behold.

Despite originating from the same school as Eunbi and having one of the best mentors in the Formless style on hand, Chaewon had not really been interested in learning it. She was somewhat of a perfectionist and a style where one could never be ‘perfect’ at was not interesting to her. Yet, that all changed when she met Hitomi. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t concerned about her own progress, but felt an overwhelming desire to help another person.

“That was extremely reckless,” Minju said when Chaewon finally finished. She grabbed a towel and soaked it in a basin of cold water before bringing it to her friend. “Psychic damage can take longer to heal than physical damage.”

Wonyoung wrapped her long arms and legs around Sakura like a koala as the other woman explained the different martial arts. To others it looked as if the younger girl was slacking off and was barely paying attention. In truth, she absorbed everything like a sponge.

Sakura was seemingly completely used to clingy girls and did not skip a beat as she continued her lecture. “There are many kinds of martial arts and most of them can be categorized into physical arts, qi arts, and divine skills. While most practitioners in this part of the world tend to specialize in physical arts, there is quite a bit of overlap with the other categories. In Japan, I think we were probably looked down upon for our physical arts, but we made up for it by being proficient in the other two categories.”

“How would you rate our martial arts?” Wonyoung wondered aloud. Although Wonyoung, had come in first during the final examination, she knew that there was a lot for her to learn from each of her sisters, Sakura, especially. While she knew her sisters were great, she didn’t really have the experience necessary or the objectivity to gauge each of them like the teachers had done.

“Eunbi Unnie’s qi power is low, but she is extremely strong physically. In my old school it was said that someone who trained physically for one year could beat someone who trained their internal qi for one year. But a person who trained their qi for ten years could easily beat someone who trained their strength for ten years. Eunbi is the first person to make me doubt that. I think that she could have beaten both Hitomi and Nako even before they lost their qi levels.”

“But she would have lost to you?”

“I’m not sure,” Sakura answered honestly. “If she only had the physical arts, then maybe, I might win. But our Unnie has also trained in the divine skills for many years. People tend to lump everything that’s not in the physical or qi arts into the divine skills such as psychic abilities or seeming magical abilities like her ‘orange’ summoning power. And you’ve seen how large an orange she could summon.”

Sakura was always so modest even as famous as she had been. She behaved with the decorum befitting one of the top students of her old school. Wonyoung found herself often mimicking Sakura’s behavior or thinking how the woman would react in certain situations.

“Yuri, Yujin, and Chaewon are the most even overall. You can tell that they’ve put in a lot of training in becoming good at everything. They’ve all managed to develop strong qi arts which is really amazing for someone born over here to do. Yuri’s ‘Puppy Roar’ is ridiculous. Yujin’s ‘Energy Sap’ is equally strong. I don’t even know where to begin with Chaewon’s ‘Death Glare.’” Sakura was on a roll now. Once she got into talking about her fellow group members she couldn’t be stopped.

“Hitomi and Nako would be like them had they been born here. Hitomi’s a genius at picking up new physical arts. Nako is able to learn divine skills just as fast. Prodigies, both of them!” Rather than make her sad that her two juniors were so amazing, it drove Sakura to work even harder in order to live up to their expectations as their former senpai.

“Yena is the strongest among us in both strength and qi arts surprisingly. The fact that she created her own style is amazing.” Sakura always suspected that there was something more to the happy go lucky girl than met the eye.

“Chaeyeon is the fastest. She possesses the ability to use her qi to make herself lighter and faster than any person I’ve ever met, including in Japan.” Sakura was most proud of Chaeyeon’s growth after the exams, but she felt that something was still causing the girl to hold back her true abilities. “I think she still lacks confidence in everything other than her physical abilities.”

“Kang-chan… is the only person that I can’t read very well. Every time she does something, I find myself surprised. Just the other day, she beat all of us up the mountain and down when the teachers offered food as a reward.” Hyewon was another person that Sakura felt whose true abilities were yet to be unveiled.

“Minju’s divine skills are already at a goddess level. While she is still lacking in both physical and qi arts, she more than makes up for it with her divine skills. I’ve never seen anyone able to calm rampaging emotions with a few whispers like she can. Or freeze an opponent completely still simply by smiling at them…”

Wonyoung rolled her eyes as Sakura always seemed to gush about Minju even more than the others.
“Unnie, what about me?”

“Yes, you’re amazing too,” Sakura said gently to the whining baby girl.

“What do you think of me?” Wonyoung repeated, craving some praise after hearing the other members being fawned over by Sakura.

“Well, obviously, you’re a genius too. Even though you’re born here, your qi levels are still amazing for someone your age. Your physical arts surpass mine even though I’m nearly seven years older than you. Divine skills are the most diverse, but you don’t have any trouble learning from Eunbi Unnie or from Minju. You soak it all up just the same,” Sakura was shaking her head as she listed all the things that amazed her about the youngest of their group.

“Your eyes are pretty,” Hyewon whispered.

Yujin had thought she was building a tolerance to the older woman’s natural playgirl ways, but she still blushed all the same. “Are you drinking again?”

“Just a little,” Hyewon said with a slight slur.

Yujin often found herself seeking this mysterious woman’s company despite the two them never really interacting until after they both made it into the school. There was a sense of familiarity between her and the other ‘prince’ of the school as they started spending more time with each other. They had seemed so different from one another at first. Yujin was ambitious and energetic while Hyewon was content with how things were and lethargic.

“Good food,” Hyewon said pointing to the spread before her and then looking up at Yujin, “And now good company are always a cause for celebration. Would you like some?” Hyewon poured Yujin a cup of wine without waiting for an answer.

Yujin took the offered cup, sipping it slowly, and feeling it burning down . “Bleh. I don’t know what you find so good about this.”

“You’ll find out when you get older,” Hyewon said with a twinkle in her eye, smirking as if she really did know something that Yujin didn’t. “What brings you here? I thought you would be busy with your little friends or training.”

“Wonyoung has her usual tutoring session with Sakura. The others are all training somewhere. I thought I’d take a break and I knew I would find you here in the garden if you weren’t training yourself.”

“Sakura’s with Wonyoung?” Hyewon didn’t really like it when Sakura spent time with girls other than herself, but she did make an exception for Wonyoung. “Are they… are they doing anything difficult?” she asked hesitantly.

It was only at times like this when Hyewon was thinking of Sakura that she gave off even more of a princely vibe than she normally did. Worrying over Sakura was probably the reason the two them had started seeing each other as true comrades. “Don’t worry. Sakura’s just explaining things to her.”

To Nako, it was always a sight to behold when Chaeyeon and Eunbi fought each other. It almost seemed as if they were dancing as they moved in sync with each other. Every attack was dodged or parried with ease followed by a counter-attack that was also effortlessly avoided. It was difficult to see which girl had the upper hand.

I’m losing, Eunbi thought as Chaeyeon’s last kick ever so lightly grazed her thigh. She was reacting slower and slower as the fight went on. When two masters of the Formless style battled, it usually came down the qi levels which Chaeyeon was definitely stronger in. In this fight, however, both of them had suppressed their qi, but Eunbi was somehow still losing. She flipped backwards and held up with her hands together while bowing her head, showing acknowledgement and gratefulness for the fight.

“Thank you for the sparring match,” Chaeyeon said, holding her hands up together and bowing like Eunbi.

“It’s over?” Nako asked as she came over, bringing towels for her two so-called moms.

“Yes, Chaeyeon would have won eventually,” Eunbi conceded.

“I couldn’t tell at all,” Nako said, shaking her head. It had all been a blur to her by the time the fight had finished.

“With all things being equal like strength, speed, and inner qi levels, a Formless style fight is usually decided by the user who has ‘forgotten’ the most moves,” Chaeyeon explained.

Nako has prided herself on being able to learn many different martial arts quickly, but the Formless style was still beyond her ability to grasp. The idea of mastering a move set to the point of forgetting them was mind boggling.

“Chaeyeon has been spending a lot of time with Sakura lately. I suspect that Chaeyeon has already mastered most of the moves from your previous school and incorporated them into her own repertoire.”

“What’s wrong, Unnie?” Chaeyeon asked as she could hear a hint of sadness coming from the older woman.

“Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to complain. It’s just that with your improvement and both Hitomi and Chaewon trying to learn this style now, I feel like I’m the only one at a standstill,” Eunbi admitted with a slight bitter tone.

“It’s because Unnie has been spending all her time helping me,” Nako said quietly.

“Now, don’t you get sad too, Nako,” Chaeyeon admonished the younger girl. She then turned to Eunbi and reached out to grab both of her hands. “The Formless style is just one of your many skills. If this was a real fight and you could have used all your abilities, you would have destroyed me. I am ranked last among us twelve after all.”

“Oh, now you stop it. I didn’t mean for us to all go gloomy,” Eunbi let out a laugh at the sudden awkwardness. “Nako, without you, I think I would still know very little about the qi arts. Chaeyeon, don’t be so quick to admit loss when we haven’t fought each other for real.”

Author’s note:

I think I’m a lot like Sakura. I had a one pick and a few favorite pairings, but I am constantly getting bias wrecked by each girl and new pairings that seem to pop up out of nowhere. I think you can see this reflected in each chapter.

As always, let me know what you thought.