28 -「 Ki 」

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Break thyself asunder,

Until you are pulverized into fine powder,

Then be remade into purified power.

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"Starting today, you'll be doing more than jogging for your training," Grisia proclaimed as the two had been going around him in circles for half an hour.

The three of them were once again in the powdery, white-coated pastures of Grisia's land. Only this time, things were changing up a little. 

"Today is your last day of pre-training, as well as the last day of your job at the bakery. This marks a whole new slew of activities for you two. You've already proven your will and capability by mustering through hours of repetitive jogging for two weeks. From here on out, the warm-up will only take a few minutes. Because that is what it's supposed to be, a warm-up."

"Finally! I've grown weary of this menial exercise," Aisia exclaimed cheerfully.

"It was necessary, but it sure was bland," added Kairo.

"You've built up your endurance enough. If you keep going at this rate, I believe your bodies will be more than capable of handling these powers. At the start of next week, your focus will be on hand-to-hand combat, weapons handling, and the powers. Especially the power I hinted at yesterday."

Their eyes sparkled in anticipation as they continued their jog with ease.

"When you've done your jogging for today, I will finally introduce it to you two."

Once they had finished their warm-up, they stood in front of Grisia to catch their breath and hear his lesson.

Grisia started, "I rarely use this power in actual combat because it is inconsistent compared to the others. I'd rather rely on my swordsmanship and the aforementioned powers, but it may prove useful to you two to at least have another option at hand. Let me introduce you to the power,「 Ki 」."

"Key?" Kairo uttered in an inquisitive tone.

Grisia manifested floating letters with his fingertip using a spell as he uttered, "「 Ki 」."

"Why does it have those... shapes on each side?" Aisia asked.

"Before that, as per usual, I must include the origin in our lesson. Let me tell you about a god named, Ki Ra. Founder of the power「 Ki 」, this bruiser god sought mastery of the self and of his immediate surroundings. He was described in the legends to have possessed a lean yet toned body, proof of his discipline and virtues that centered on his mental and physical form. Ki Ra's teachings and power were spread unto the world through the art of combat. It is used in swordsmanship, brawling, other hand-to-hand and weapon martial arts, meditation, and ranged forms."

"So, what does that have to do with those shapes at each side of the word?" Aisia repeated her query.

"To be perfectly frank with you, I myself am unsure, but my master theorized that it may pertain to the fact that we are certain about the origin of「 Ki 」, unlike the other powers I've taught you two. A symbol of certainty."

"Your probably-dead master?" Aisia asked crudely, to which Grisia responded without paying mind to her tone.

"Yes. Among all of the venerated and feared gods and demons, Ki Ra was the last sighted god to walk on this world. We don't know if the other gods are still alive and roaming about, but there are accounts of Ki Ra's death. He died with witnesses, or at least I'd like to believe that only his physical body did. If he had lived a few hundred years more, maybe the three of us could have met him."

The two's faces sparkled in wonder and curiosity. They were trying to wrap their minds around the fact that if they were born generations earlier, they could have spoken with or befriended a god.

This revelation caused them to start acting out a role play.

"I am Ki Ra, god governor of the power「 Ki 」!" Aisia declared with a pompous attitude. "Prostrate yourself as you are in my most holy presence!" she raised her hand as if holding a sword and pointing it to the sky.

Kairo followed along and kneeled, "I am most humbled by your presence, O Great One! But do forgive me for pointing out the snot dripping from your nose."

"Ah!" Aisia clumsily wiped her snot with her shirt. Grisia told her to refrain from using her clothes to clean her nose. 

"Amusing portrayal, though it is quite inaccurate, as that god was known to be quite virtuous. Healthy in mind, body, and spirit," Grisia explained.

Aisia clicked her tongue at Grisia for ruining their fun while Kairo nodded and made a mental note.

"Continuing on. Another possible reason why the power's name has those shapes is because its source of power and the manifestation are all called by the same name, 'ki' but without the '「 」'," he once again used a spell to materialize the symbol in his explanation.

"So, in the power「 Ki 」, you charge and use ki to form them into... ki?" Kairo repeated for clarification.

"Precisely. Just think of both the raw and processed forms of ki as being essentially the same, unlike chakra with chakra techniques and mana with spells. It will make more sense when you actually try it out for yourself."

"Erm, what's the difference?" Aisia crossed her arms and closed her eyes as she tried to process Grisia's explanation. "If it has a source and an effect that's manifested, why does it have the same words for those unlike chakra and magic?"

"I speculate that it's because of how Ki Ra himself decided on those terms. While it may be considered arrogant to try and understand the thought processes of a god, I myself endorse such questions. It does seem not entirely convincing for me as well, but thinking of it that way worked for me anyway and I got used to it, so ultimately, there was no harm done. You can choose to name it however you want in your head, so long as we are still clear on what we are actually referring to moving forward," Grisia replied.

"Fine, whatever. I'll just get used to it as well," she grumbled, shrugging with a sigh. Kairo simply smiled at her.

"Then let us continue," Grisia said, resuming his lesson. "It draws its power from within the self," he pointed towards his own chest with his thumb. "A being's character is their ki: the measure of one's principles is directly proportional to the measure of one's ki. This means that only sentient beings that are morally awakened can access the power「 Ki 」."

"Morals, huh? What's so dangerous about it if only the righteous can awaken and wield it?" Kairo asked.

"You might be mistaking morals with ethics," Grisia replied.

"Ethics?"

"Basically," Grisia explained. "It is not the righteous who use it, but those who consider themselves righteous," Kairo pushed his lips upward with his finger on his chin and thought about Grisia's explanation.

In the meantime, Aisia asked, "Is it possible for animals to use ki?"

"That is a complicated question, Sia. This touches upon the argument that the animals we kill for food are sentient, or possibly even intelligent. As far as I know, no animals have been recorded or observed to use ki. Even for intelligent creatures such as us humans, it is quite rare for someone to know about「 Ki 」, as it is a secret art."

"A secret art... Grisia, is that why it's troublesome to make「 Ki 」known? Because if morality depends on one's own views of right and wrong, and「 Ki 」depends on that instead of ethics, which is a group's view of right and wrong, that means... if someone is considered to be evil by society, as long as this certain person believes themselves to be right and just, they are still able to amass and wield powerful ki?"

"Yes. The more you are sure of yourself, the more potent your ki is. But since you reached to that thought yourself, I would trust that you have the self-awareness to keep yourself in check."

"C-Certainly, but doesn't that mean my ki will be weaker than someone who is blindly ignorant and stubborn?"

"No. The more you grow as a person, the more your character develops. This process of molding oneself is how your ki becomes stronger. Without confrontation of your ideas, there will be no growth. I said that the more sure you are of yourself, the greater your ki, but I meant that as having a solid stance after being challenged consistently with an open mind. I didn't mean it as dying on a hill due to disregarding everyone else's thoughts."

"Should've said that first," Aisia snarkily whispered, which the other two heard anyway.

"I see... I guess that makes it somewhat more fair."

"Hey, hey, pops, can you show me your ki?" Aisia asked excitedly.

"Sia, you must first learn how to awaken it before being able to clearly detect it," Grisia turned her down.

"Well, it'll be like a 'before and after' kind of thing. I wish to get a feel of it now so I can compare it to when I'm more used to it," she asserted. "Also, I think the foreboding vibe I felt in the past was Kairo's ki, no?"

She had a point. And so, Grisia acknowledged it and replied, "Certainly... fine, but don't start treating it lightly like a toy," Grisia then charged up ki and intensified his aura, enough for Aisia and Kairo to be pushed back a step from the pressure it made alone.

This made her trip and fall onto her butt. "Yeowch! That is a similar feeling, but it's much less frightening than Kairo's," she commented. "And it doesn't smell like an old man surprisingly."

"Mine is scary...?" Kairo mumbled.

"Mine has an old man smell...?" Grisia became dispirited for a moment, but he bounced back to teaching mode immediately. "Earlier, Sia mentioned animals using ki. I said that there hasn't been a case where that happened. While that is true, when you're able to use ki more proficiently, you'll be able to see ki and notice that animals do have it, though it is very faint. It being almost negligible works in our favor though, it makes it easier to detect other sentient creatures around us."

This made Grisia think about Remi. That was how he knew that Remi had been tailing them from the start, and how he pinpointed her location in the alleyway amongst the common folk. If Kairo were to suddenly learn how to control his ki and detect others' ki, would it be possible for them to cross paths? What would happen then?

For Grisia, he could sense Remi easily with her distinct ki aura using his trained and greatly improved ki sense. He knew that she was currently hunting for her own food in the forest nearby as he detected a ki aura that resembled a boar fading away.

Since Kairo has already used ki, albeit unknowingly, Grisia wouldn't be able to ascertain exactly just how early Kairo would be able to detect ki and by how far.

The question is, does he continue to teach Kairo now and see what happens?

As if to answer the question, her ki suddenly vanished. This startled Grisia and so he focused his area of detection squarely around the area where he last felt her.

There it was, among the ki of small animals, an extremely subtle ki aura could be felt, but it was definitely hers. It felt like the elegant silver he saw last time, although remarkably muted.

Then, there was a repetitive flickering. He noticed that it was a code that was simple enough to decipher. It said, "O K - O K - O K" in five-second intervals. It ended after a while.

"What a shrewd kid," Grisia muttered under his breath. "She probably found out that I was going to teach them about「 Ki 」when I raised my aura earlier to entertain Sia. I guess that's a load off my back."

"Alright!" Grisia raised his voice to grab their attention as they started to play around while he was focused on Remi.

"Listen up, this is how to awaken your ki."