If that thou hast the gift of strength... (Ulv, Hanako)

“Yes, sure, I wasn’t planning on really digging my toes in when I try it. It was just hyperbolism to show which bodypart I meant...” Hanako said with an apologetic wave.

“Which was pretty dumb in hindsight since you are the one who explained this technique in the first place and you can’t read thoughts...so, yeah.”

Hana felt a wave of anger about herself washing over her. That definitely was not the impression she had wanted to give Ulv. Even Hanako knew, that it was stupid to burrow yourself into the ground if it was your intention to launch yourself away from it. Totally the wrong direction.

Hanako went a few steps to a side of the clearing and took a stance. It was much like her usual Aikido-stance, relaxed-looking to the outside but the stand was very stable.

Now, what did Ulv say? Drop your body into the ground? Without asking -which was probably another mistake on Hana’s part- she assumed that Ulv didn’t mean that literaly and that it was not required to bury the own body before launching. Instead Hana tried to metaphorically drop her body into the ground, the feeling as if the center of gravity sunk deeper, your stand becoming more and more stable, as if you rooted into the ground. It was, at it’s core, a simple exercise, that normally didn’t involve any spiritual energy at all. It was just the feeling that, as you moved your center of gravity lower, you send energy into the ground, let it rebound from there and back up into your body to use it. It was a visualization technique to help guide the body in it’s movement. And it had meditative qualities, which was why Hanako used these exercises often for relaxation.

Just this time it was for real. Not only the visualization, but also the transfer of energy. She tried as Ulv said: maintain a stable posture, dump force into the ground, use the rebound to launch yourself.

Well, visualize was one thing, doing it was another. Hanako certainly was no Wunderkind, no genius that got things right the first time. Whatever happened, if she messed up the energy vectors, didn’t release the force equally or just hesitated a tad too long, she tried to take off and stumbled immediately. Instead of a high speed movement she jumped in a series of comical contorted movements, trying to regain her balance, towards Ulv, a collision imminent.