The Singing Bone [Erchanhardt/Yugiri]

She watched him, better but this time she would be a bit more hands on rather than watching when she appeared next to him and waited until he proceeded to repeat. This time Yugiri followed along, without any actual use of shunpo or blinking. She was just following his steps initially before she swapped the leader around.

She became the leader and slowly increased her pace until she was getting a bit far out of his range of speed but not getting too much faster. She had to build him up slowly. This continued for about thirty minutes before she stopped and gave a stretched.

"How was that? Beginning to follow along? You'll still need to do a fair bit of practice and consistent too, kind of like conditioning your body but once you've got that down I can possibly try to teach you some shunpo."

It was definitely no stretch to say that Erchanhardt had not had this much trouble in learning something in a great many years. This was all well beyond his area of expertise, this degree of finesse in such high speed movement totally alien to him. He loved it. This struggle, this genuine effort, it was something he had not faced in such a very long time.

"I am beginning to understand, yes. Well enough, at the very least, that I will be able to practice without needing your correction, I think. Though of course I will always welcome it if you feel so inclined."

He gave her a small smile at that, stretching himself as was simply the natural order in these things.

"I suppose it is my turn to take the role of teacher, hm? It would be quite rude of me to simply go home now."

Chuckling quietly to himself, Erchanhardt took a seat on the ground, crossing his legs and gesturing to the spot across from himself. While martial arts and techniques were of course vital, it was as he had told Yugiri before. Fundamentals were crucial in all things, and he simply could not teach her anything in the realm of the physical until the metaphysical, the philosophical, had been conveyed first. When she did sit, he would simply look into her eyes, a steely gaze conveying the seriousness with which he took the lessons he was to impart onto her.

"Tell me what it is you fear, Yugiri."

"Mhm. Yeah."

Just making sure to affirm his sentiment of it would indeed be rude to not reciprocate. She was kind of glad to be able to train with someone though, it felt a lot more enjoyable than when she had spent so many decades doing it alone.

Without a question she sat with her legs crossed while looking at him with as much seriousness as he had but curiousity also in her eyes.

"Well. I'm scared of dying--"

She stopped herself as she was about to finish her sentence. That was wrong, an unintentional lie on her part. There was always something that drew more fear out of her than death.

"I'm afraid of being unable to walk, like I'll wake up and have to be in a wheelchair again."

"I see."

Erchanhardt considered that for a short moment, how best to approach this given that answer. It was not a difficult one, per se, he simply did not have some catalogue of ready-made responses for every possible answer she could have given him. So he was silent for a short while, and then eventually, he spoke once more.

"Why do you fear this? What is it about that inability which causes you fear beyond even death?"

There were several answers which he suspected could be true, but this was not yet the time for him to simply pry open the heart of the issue. It would come in time, as it always did in the course of this learning. But not yet.

She sat and waited, that was all she could do in her sitting opposite him and thinking about her answer as he was by the looks of it. When his answer came she was not slow on the words she spoke in response.

"I'm scared of it because I felt alone. I felt helpless and reliant on others. People looked at my useless legs before they looked at me."

After a deep breath she finished.

"I would rather die than go back to living like that, not again."

"The fear of inability to act, then. Of your agency being taken, your fundamental independence. That is a valid fear, Yugiri."

His gaze hardened then, as he steepled his fingers in thought.

"All living things are slaves to the Will. The drive to act, to fulfill our basest needs. To eat, to reproduce, to socialize. There are countless more urges which our bodies demand of us, but those of the most basic degree, those which keep us alive, must always be sated. Ultimately, it is this will to live which enslaves us. Only in death do we escape it, and yet to die runs counter to the very nature of our life. In this, life becomes suffering, an endless struggle to sate unsateable needs."

Erchanhardt's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Tell me, Yugiri. Would you sacrifice the life you have lived if it assured you would never lose your mobility again? Could you cast aside your identity, your memories, your everything for that promise?"

Yugiri listened with more intent than one would expect, the philosophy of a martial art was just as important as its practical moves. Just like with Hoho, there was a philosophy. One of these days she would create her own style, it was a goal.

"If I was faced with losing my life or my legs I would lose my life. If I had no choice in the matter then once I woke up, if they could not be fixed I would sooner break my neck than continue living. I lived that life for twenty years... I never want it again."

"It is said that the only path to enlightenment is through the denial of the Will. That one must be able to gaze upon even the basest of needs and ignore it. Few I have met have the resolve to truly do so, however, for they inevitably see it only as a matter of asceticism. They do not understand the truth of it, that one must be able to accept death in a singular instant, without hesitation. Not to seek it out, but to simply have the capacity within themselves to deny the Will so completely that they might even starve to death."

Erchanhardt was quiet again for another moment or two. He thought about his own life, about what he knew of Yugiri's. It occurred to him that not enough had likely been made apparent for him to truly know her.

"Do you regret those twenty years? If given the chance, would you change them? Go back in time and allow yourself to walk?"

"No. That's stupid. I wouldn't be the person I am now if I walked. I did what I did to overcome that barrier and without it I would never have developed my dreams or envies. I wouldn't be me."

Once upon a time Yugiri might have cursed it. Hated it, she did but accepting it was also something she had come to terms.