Striking in the shadow (solo)

Three weeks. Three weeks of heavy rock lifting. Three agonizing weeks of sore joints and muscles. Three very long weeks. The only rest he got between those weight lifting sessions was practicing long katas. After a fashion the lifting got easier. There was no doubt that he was getting stronger. Not only that, but he had a great increase in stamina. Those four weeks of inactivity melted away in the short time on this rigorous training. Arawn could only figure that was the point. He didn't think it, but the attack had done alot of damage. He was healthy, but just not fit. Master Sung was getting him back into condition and perhaps beyond. During this time he was forbidden from using his reiatsu. It was a simple feat for a shinigami to fortify himself with his inner energies. In doing so the task of lifting rocks would have been hardly anything to bother him. But that was the point wasn't it? To work his body.
"Even if you have massive amounts of inner power, it's nothing if your body can't handle it. If the gap between them is too great you'll never fully control it." Sung told him during a period of rest. "You have some power, but now your body needs to catch up."
It did make some sense both literally and figuratively. Relying on inner strength alone would make him unprepared for more physical confrontations, and vica-versa. Having only physical skills wouldn't be enough when taking on more spiritual attacks. Just like Miyazaki's trinity it required a balance. A perfect balance. But that was impossible by all means, there would be always be a disharmony. Nothing could be perfect.
Arawn even told the old man as much and Sung had laughed "One can certainly try." his eyes shined in the sunlight.

As he lay panting on the ground Sung rose from his seat on the ground. He approached the mountain side that made the wall of the quarry. Arawn sat up. He knew what was coming, but he didn't know what was going to happen. The old man had done it before. After a long work out he would reveal what he wanted to student to know. The purpose of all the training. Master Sung faced the wall and stretched his arms. With a couple of twists of his waist he then relaxed his shoulders. Arawn watched all of it quiet anxiously. Finally the warm-up ended and the old man took a simple fighting stance. That wasn't a surprise, all the techniques he and learned started from such a easy stance. And just like that he lunged forward and punched at the wall. There was an explosion as rock and dirt went flying. Arawn flinched even though he was several feet away. The cloud cleared and Sung stood frozen in place his fist held out. Slowly the young shinigami rose and to give himself a better view. Upon closer inspection the old man's fist was several inches from the stone. Despite that, there was a large hole in the wall several times the size of said fist. The old man locked eyes with Arawn.
"Hyun-Mu." he whispered "The most powerful of the four I have taught you. To fully use it your body must be ready. A balance of strength and power. The two must be as one, and then you'll tame this fearsome beast." The man lowered his fist and Arawn examined the wall. It wasn't a deep hole, but it looked as if someone had carved it with a great metal tool. "Tomorrow, you will be back to lifting rocks." was the last words the man said as he left the quarry.

In the coming days Arawn replayed the scene that had played out before him many times. The rock lifting once again became an nearly automated action as his mind wandered. Despite how many times he viewed imagined it, the results were the same. It was just a punch, a simple punch. Master Sung noticed the glazed look on his student's face. The fact he could afford such a look mean the physical activity no longer drained him. The old man nodded it was time to teach him at last. Already the young man's hands and feet were rough and callused from the heavy rocks. That was also good he had to toughen up his hands and feet to properly as well. Arawn had built up some muscle on his arms and legs as well The old man grinned as he prepared for the day's lesson. He called to the young shinigami to stop his exercising and to meet him in the middle of the quarry. Dropping his burden the shinigami quickly followed his master's command.
"I want you to throw a punch." he simply stated. Arawn raised an eyebrow skeptically. This response made the older man laugh. "Please."
With a shrug the younger man complied. Taking a simple back stance he snapped his hand out and retracted it. A swift jab with his left hand.
"Punch with your right." Arawn now threw a punch with his other hand.


Master Sung studied his movements and shook his head. Arawn looked confused once more. "It was a perfect punch by all standards, but it's lacking power." The old man mirrored his stance and then jabbed with his left hand forward and then with his right hand from the rear. Arawn could hear the swish as his hands cut through the air. "Such speed is essential in a fight, but I want you to bring out power in your punch as well." He punched again, but the time slower. Arawn observed how he now turned his foot and then his body as he punched from the right. Before when he had punched he had barely seen any motion from the old man. The punch ended with the thumb of his fish pointing down. A vertical punch? But the hand would stop thumb upwards. Strange as it seemed Arawn could hear the air snap once more. Master Sung returned to the original stance and nodded to Arawn. It was his turn to try. He tried to tighten up his stance and then copied the movement. First the foot. He turned it slightly and tensed the muscles of his leg, next he twisted at the hip and shifted his body, and during all of this he extended his fist and letting it turn til his thumb was pointing down.
"You timing was off." Sung spoke as Arawn tried to concentrate on what he had seen and what he must do. "Try again." As his master commanded he tried again. "Still to fast." his instructor spoke. "Focus on not just on the motion." For an hour he repeated the motion, over and over again. His master always correcting him. One would thing the rock lifting was hard, but this motion worked just as many motions. Arawn's arm felt numb, he was afraid it was going to fall off. Just when he thought it was over Master Sung had him switch hands. Groaning the student complied and thus began the second round of slow punches. When that hour ended the man stood panting. His arms fell limp at his sides too tried to move them.
"That will be all. Don't forget the motions." Sung chided him. Arawn nodded and happily left the quarry. Slowly he could sense the feeling returning to his arms. He quickly packed and made his way down the mountain. As he had been instructed he thought about the motion he had been shown. It was just a punch, but required all of his body. A regular punch used in martial arts relied on speed; very little motion was required. What Sung had shown him was like a throwing a baseball pitch. A telegraphed punch like that even an amateur could avoid. Shaking his head Arawn made his way down the steps heading home.

The days following now included the concentration punches as part of his workout regime. Lifting rocks, kata, and then punches. Slowly Arawn could pull off the strike with no comments from Master Sung. Although that didn't mean he could stop. It just meant that he could do it without his master's supervision. And that's how it went. The next week he was instructed to continue said exercise while his master stayed indoors. Complaints were pointless, Arawn was already used to this odd method of teaching. Even without his master present he kept true to his study. The old man wasn't there to critique him, but he tried it best to correct his own movements. He tried to remember the feeling of how he did it the time before. Muscle memory he remember looking up the term. When a movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems. Almost all martial arts made used it. Sa Shin Mu was no exception. Every day for three weeks he kept up striking an invisible opponent. His foot tensed, next the leg, his hip twisted, shoulder twitched, then the arm and wrist shot out. It wasn't long before it was one fluid motion. One hundred times with the left, then another hundred with his right. By the fifth week Sung finally rejoined him out in the quarry.

He watched him in silence. Then with a nod of approval he smiled. Arawn gave a small grin. All his hard work, and he only gets a nod. It was better than nothing. But still the old man had praised him in his own way. Master Sung held up his right hand for Arawn.
"The first head is tamed, now let us work on the other." he spoke. "You've gotten the form, now the spirit." The old man took a fighting stance and took a deep breath. "Remember to start from the foot." as he spoke he pointed to his rear foot. Arawn saw the air around the man's shoe start to waver. He was releasing reiatsu? The distortion of the air raced up his leg then into his body. Sung's arm shot out as he punched and a ripple raced out his chest and along his arm. The nearly invisible force snaked over his arm like a corkscrew and then vanished. He could hear a hiss of air as it twisted on his limb. And then it faded. The man turned to face his student. "I've taught you everything. Now you must learn it for yourself." Arawn's mouth hung open, but he slowly nodded. He hadn't seen that the first time, but looking upon it closer he could understand the technique better. Since he knew the new the motion he now had to focus on the exertion of his inner power. Master Sung was already retreating from the quarry. He wanted to stop and ask him something, but thought it best to leave it at that. Arawn had to remember what he'd seen. The questions could wait for later.

Later indeed. He didn't see Master Sung again after that demonstration. Yuki would be the one to greet him when he arrived and the old man was nowhere to be found. He did try to ask, but she wasn't one to talk. While it was possible his master had given her orders not to say anything. The fact remained that she detested him completely and wouldn't speak to him even if he was the last male on earth and they were in the desert and he had a canteen of water. The woman's glare spoke in volumes. As did his master absence. With the techniques he was left to figure them alone. It would be stupid if the last didn't follow the same suit. So he began his practice like all the other days. It was a decent warm up to lift rocks. While the body worked his mind once again drifted replaying what he had seen the day before. The movement of his body he knew well enough. Arawn had been performing the same strike for so many weeks now. The real challenge was the reiatsu the older man had focused through his body. The other techniques of Sa Shin Mu required focus of the bodily energy. So far they varied in intensity. Beck-Ho used all energy into one place effectively enhancing the body to increase damage. Ju-Jak applied a gentle stream of energy to created a thin shield. Chung-Ryong used a heavy burst of energy to create a vortex. But this one seemed a simple explosive strike. From the way Master Sung was speaking it was if this was the most powerful of the four, and yet it didn't seem all that complex. Still the way the reiatsu rippled along his master's body puzzled him. Pushing that thought aside he returned to the task at hand. The rock pile had been moved and now he performed a few practice katas. He began with simple punches into the air. He spun in place as if an invisible attacker had appeared. His leg shot out into a roundhouse. As his foot landed he dropped and spun his leg into a sweep. He rose into an uppercut and followed up with another punch. He focused his reiryoku Sa Shin Mu: Ju-Jak A soft red glow grew across the palms of his hands. Now he swung his hands about open blocking strikes from various angles. The light from his hands faded as he refocused his energy again. Sa Shin Mu: Chung-Ryong From his feet a burst of force pushed him off the ground as twin blasts of reiatsu made him spin like a top. Faster and faster he spun and rose into the air. He was sure no to rise too high and slowly fell back to the earth. He stood there and took a deep breath. Again his reiryoku heeded his call and flooded his arm. Sa Shin Mu: Beck-Ho He struggled to keep his arm up right as the all of his energy made the appendage feel impossibly heavy. With a grunt he slammed his right hand into the ground and released the contained reiatsu. The shockwave raced across earth and rattled the rocks and pushed dirt aside. Three of the four, and the last within arm's reach. Taking fighting stance he began to practice the large punching motion. The warm up was done it was time to unravel the puzzle put before him.

"Let's see." he muttered as he went through the slow motion strike. He could do this in his sleep, so he let his body strike while he stirred his reiatsu. Punching and releasing his power at the same time was tricky business. While one would think just to releasing your power then striking would be enough they would be mistaken. The concentration of energy would be more than enough to further telegraph the strike. He had to exert the energy at the last moment. His reiatsu radiated outward as he punched, his hand wavered. The effect was similar to Beck-Ho his arm felt too heavy to keep up. Too much pressure around his arm. "I need to evenly distribute it." he said aloud. Easier said than done. The other techniques he had learned all focused energy to certain points. But in theory balancing all his force across his body shouldn't be as hard. Putting the punching motion aside Arawn put his mind towards complete control. Releasing all his power was one thing, containing it was another. Despite all this training his control was finite. He had learned to focus on his arms and legs so had little trouble consolidating power. For the rest of his body it was nearly impossible to get the same amount of concentration. Something didn't feel right about it. Master Sung hadn't released that much power when he gave the demonstration. Maybe he was thinking too hard about it. There had to be an simpler solution. Arawn looked at large rock wall which his master had struck. Now he would try to do the same

Arawn took a step away from the wall. He slowly punched again and again, barely tapping the wall. Finally he took a deep breath and focused his energies. With a shout he punched and thrust his hand forward. The reiatsu rippled around his body unrestrained as his fist make contact with the stone. The rock crumbled under the pressure of his fist and spiritual power. When he withdrew his hand there was a hole in the wall just bigger than his fist. The hole wasn’t very deep, but striking through stone wasn’t something to laugh at. He went to look at the hole made by his master. There differences were obvious. For one Master Sung’s was much larger in size. It was many times bigger than his fist. The second difference was that the hole looked carved. There were no cracks or jagged edges of the hole. It smooth to the touch.
“How could the man have done that?” he asked the small crater, it gave him no answers. Arawn sat there thinking it over. The power broke the stone, but the shape had to be different. Controlling all his power at once over his body wasn’t necessary it was controlling the power he brought to his hand. He hadn’t been taught such a skill yet. Was this his final trial; to teach himself? He grinned. Arawn wasn’t about to fall short. There had to be a way or his master wouldn’t have left him alone to do it.

For 18 days he toiled and made little to no progress. His efforts to shape his reiatsu had gotten nowhere. It was obvious from the start it wouldn’t be an easy process. Still a small part of him wished it had been. His waking days were a blur of working in the lab, working out on top of the mountain retreat, and then sleep. One would think sleeping would bring him some comfort, but it wasn’t so. Arawn relinquished true sleep in favor of romps through his inner world. While his body rested, his mind continued to tackle the challenge of Hyun-Mu. He knew Haung Long would be less than thrilled for Arawn to be intruding upon tranquility of the inner realm. Arawn wanted to dispute that it was as just his as the golden dragon, but didn’t feel like arguing. For the most part the dragon ignored him like usual. So in the endless space he stood among the floating rocks. Most times he would stand on the empty space and think, other times he’d spend time batting the meteors away like an insane version of Whack-a-mole. It helped him to think, but not this time. Nothing made sense. He tried to shape his reiatsu, but with no success. Punching slowly gave him some time to properly shape his energy, but he such timing wouldn’t be available when punching quickly. Just because he could do it in seven seconds didn’t mean he would be able to pull it off in one. There wasn’t enough time. The more he thought the worse it got. Doubt and confusing assailed Arawn. He had seen his master’s attack and for the most part copied the form, and yet lacked the final step. He replayed the image of of the demonstration over and over in his head as he drifted in the black abyss.

Over and over he saw the man strike, there had to be a clue. Arawn suddenly remembered that there was more to the demonstration. The old man had said something. Remembering the image was hard enough, but to recall words was beyond taxing. What had the old man said.
“… start from the foot.” The foot yes, the strike began from the foot. Little help that was, but there was something more. Dig deeper, he told himself. It felt like his mind was on fire as his thoughts tried to zone in on the lost words. “….taught you everything..”
“No you hadn’t you old goat.” Arawn wanted to yell, but feared waking the dragon who was prone to ejecting him from inner dimension. All he had was a bunch of piece and with only a vague clue how to put it all together! As powerful as the master was would it hurt to give him proper instruction rather than leaving so much to self discovery!? After all this time couldn’t….” Arawn stopped mid rant. Struck by an epiphany he was stunned into silence. Complex simplicities was the recurring theme with Sa Shin Mu. The answer was staring him in the face the whole time and yet he failed to grasp it. Or merely deemed it too silly to acknowledge. His master had taught him everything, and now he had only to apply it. Arawn laughed, he couldn’t hear Haung Long mutter “Took him long enough.”

It wouldn’t be until three days that Arawn could put his idea into practice. Some business in the lab couldn’t wait and he was forced to cancel his next days off. He wasted no time climbing the mountain four steps at a time. Barely winded he made his way through the mansion to the rock quarry. Arawn skipped his exercises he body was already warm from his sprint up the stairs. There was no need to lift the rocks back in forth. During those extra days of work he had spent his what free time he could manage visualizing what he needed to do. At night he once more entered his zanpukto inner realm and practiced as well much to the dragon’s chagrin. Still the mind knew what to do, now it only came to trying it with his body. He dared not try it in his confined living quarters, no this was the only place he was willing to attempt it. Arawn began by doing slow punches even if he didn’t exercise first, it didn’t hurt to stretch a little. Twenty minutes later he put his hands at his side and took a deep breath. He let the wind be the only sounds as he tried once more to mentally prepare himself for what he had to do. Arawn took a fighting stance his left hand forward his right hand in back, it was now or never.

His master had indeed shown him everything both literally and figuratively. His master has said as much, and that was his final hint to his student. He had twice demonstrated the powerful strike, but that was just the finishing touch. The last piece of the puzzle. Hyun-Mu took elements of the other three stances and combined them. He began at his foot he pooled his energy there first, as he braced the rest of his body. Then he released the reiatsu. It was like an explosion went off in his leg, the ground beneath his foot cracked. The explosive force traveled up the leg and torso as his hip twisted. The force of the reiatsu seemed to intensify as it shifted through the length of his body. It rushed through his chest as his shoulder rotated and arm started to extend. The pulse of energy was vented via his arm as it rotated. The current twisted and along his arm and met as his fist fully extended. With half squinted eyes he saw the cyclone of whip around his arm and then vanish. He jumped into the air with excitement cheering himself on. The next instant he collapsed to the ground in a heap. His whole body was numb, his right side was twitching with pain. It would seem the current was too much; it had dislocated his shoulder and nearly twisted his arm off. His energy felt completely drained. Channeling everything through like that had some definite consequences. How had the old man managed to pull it off? With much effort he pushed himself into a sitting up position and groaned. Was he successful? If not that would explain the amount of pain and damage he had just done to his body. Otherwise it wasn’t a technique he would readily use. Shakily he rose to his feet his right arm limp at his side, his left holding the shoulder. Slowly he made his way out of the quarry and stumbled back into the mansion.
“A little help!?” he called out. He knew Yuki and Master Sung were somewhere. He slumped against the wall hoping someone would come. Ha-Rhang arrived and was quick to order Yuki to assist in setting his shoulder and treating his arm. After their treatment he sat down at the table Master Sung usually sat at.
“Well I’m sure my husband would be proud you finished the technique, but you need to be more careful.” the white haired woman chided him. Arawn smiled, he was glad he had done it right at least. “Just be sure to control your power better the next time. I recommend you refrain from using that arm for awhile. Let the Fourth squad take a look at it.” Arawn saw it as a minor setback, but when he got better he’d work on controlling this new strength.

Sa Shin Mu: Hyun-Mu - A thrusting punch that creates a tornado of reiatsu around the user’s fist as they strike.