Jien's Addition

The topic had come up during a number of his training sessions with Emily. He was supposed to add something to this fencing style and make it his own before passing it on to the next student of this school. That being said Jien was not motivated by the idea of building onto the style at all, nor in the idea of having to pass it down to someone else once he was done. He considered learning the art of fencing as something useful in a fight where spells would cause an issue or were restricted, but other than that he still didn't care for the use of the martial path. To him it was no more than a means to satisfy his father and mentors, as well as to prepare for the military academy and nothing else.

That being said, Jien took his role as a student of this school of fencing seriously, despite his lack of care for the martial path. This led him to think about the issue on many occasions. He felt that the style was fairly well refined based on what he had learned of it. The movements were swift, fluid, simple and yet precise enough to subdue if not defeat most opponents, especially when mixed with a variety of spells. It wasn't until he came back from the expedition to eliminate the bandits that he came to an answer, though it seemed very low hanging.

Jien before his most recent fencing lesson pulled Emily aside before they started for the day and stated his thoughts. At first Emily was slightly baffled, not quite sure how to make it work for one and secondly why he would choose something so odd. Jien had been made to train with his off hand while his dominant shoulder was healing. This process brought about the thought of incorporating the offhand in the style permanently.

One would then think that Jien wanted to perhaps dual wield, perhaps two rapiers or perhaps a rapier and a secondary weapon, maybe a knife, maybe a thrown weapon, the options were almost endless. Emily would have accepted such an answer and assisted him in forming a dual wielding version of the style for himself. However, Jien had chosen a completely different path to the use of his offhand that was completely different. He stated that unless absolutely necessary he wished to have one hand open at all times to better cast spells. This would allow him to cast using runic casting like his father had during the unsealing rite if needed, have a free hand to access potions among other things.

Jien's solution for this was simple in terms of words but would be extremely difficult in execution. He wanted to juggle his rapier between his hands depending on the situation. His first statement was that it would add greater variability to the style and allow for one to attack and block from what would be odd angles from the opponent's perspective. While this was a true statement it almost made Emily want to cry with how difficult a path he chose. Sure, her path of precision was difficult because you had to take a flowing style and make it stop at specific points, but what Jien wanted to accomplish would add many different layers of complexity.

First off one would have to have a way to pass the blade between your hands without being disrupted. Secondly, to make the style the best it could be you would likely have to learn how to reverse movements after passing the blade. The first piece was perhaps the most difficult. Though the second piece was also difficult the use of spells and mana manipulation could assist if completed accurately.

Though Emily felt that this may be biting off more than he could chew she didn't stop Jien from trying to forge his path. After all that was the foundation of the style, each student would need to take a step forward past what their teacher had provided them. Emily immediately decided to start Jien on some specific training routines to at least get him to the start line of his addition to the style.

From that day forward Jien was told that during every exercise he would have to consciously switch his blade between his hands. He didn't have to do anything fancy and definitely wasn't demanded to have thought it out entirely. This was less to get him used to switching hands and more to get his off hand to be as decent as his dominant one. Though he had trained with his off hand while he was still healing that did not make him truly ambidextrous. His off-hand use of the rapier was sloppy at best, and he had a long way to go.

Emily also made a point to state that whether it was writing or eating Jien was now required to use his off-hand just as much as his dominant hand. Between the demand to use both hands while sparring and for everything else Jien ended up in a world of hurt in the beginning. Every time he sparred with Emily or Mark, he would more often than not be disarmed as he would try to transfer the blade. When eating for the first number of days when using his off-hand he looked no different from a toddler trying to use silverware for the first time. Though this did not last too long as he was a quick learner, whether in terms of books or general skills.

After the first couple of days his use of silverware improved, though still not matching his main hand by any measure. His sparring sessions however became daunting. Neither Emily nor Mark took it easy to try and learn what he was trying to learn. Instead, they upped the pressure put on him during each bout. While this was rough on him, and Emily knew it to be a bit cruel she still did so because while under the pressure his success would mean so much more than if he was doing things halfheartedly.

This was how things continued for a time until Jien finally had a spark of inspiration hit him during one of his spars with Emily.