Chapter 624 - 624 Real Flashbacks Part 1

[Sorry about that…] 'mumbled' Lily in her head. The fact it was still clearly mumbling a slight surprise to them both.

*It's fine Lily. It was quite the experience and… I don't know exactly what to make of it but you shouldn't need to apologise for it.* 

Kat's insistence everything was fine did not stop the small flow of embarrassment Kat could feel coming from Lily. In an effort to try and distract her, Kat said, "Do you want me to use the mental connection to show you what happened during my training? That should be interesting. It'll be a real life flashback!"

Lily saw the question for what it was, a distraction… but it was a distraction involving Kat and she wanted to know. So despite a part of her wanting to wallow in embarrassment she sent an affirmative to Kat and got ready. She wasn't truly prepared for the experience.

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Day 1 Afternoon (Some time after Kat met Mai but the same day)

"Now" said Mai with a rickety old voice. It was appropriate because for some reason she'd decided to pretend to be an old man. She had a robe, and it was clearly a robe not a kimono, at this point Kat was familiar with the differences, that was tattered and used. It had stains all around the edges and a few other stains in random places. They were all different colours as well. The ones that touched the ground were mostly brown with a few splotches of green but one of the stains on the shoulder was bright blue. It was clear that Mai was being mostly authentic but having a bit of fun with it.

On her feet, which showed occasionally when she walked, were large wooden shoes with stilts on them that gave around half a metre of height. It didn't help too much because Mai was currently still shorter than Kat, but considering that was a choice, it was clearly intentional. In her hand Mai had a gnarled wooden staff with a few slight chips in it. It shone slightly in the light indicating it had been varnished… then again considering it was just as likely to be made of Mai as the rest of the outfit that might have just been for appearances.

"What I'll be teaching is how to breathe. You might think you know what breathing is, but your wrong. We need you to breathe like a fighter not like a civilian. So when raise my arm, you breathe in, and when I drop it you breathe out."

Kat nodded and got ready. On the signal she breathed in slowly and carefully at a steady pace… only for Mai to appear next to her in a flash and smack her on the stomach with her staff. It didn't hurt, not because of Kat's defences but because Mai softened the stick to slime form allowing it to bend around Kat's midsection.

"You breathe well for a civilian but it is still wrong. You need to breathe with your stomach. You are pulling open your lungs when you breathe with your diaphragm. As it stands, you only use half the technique. You breathe deep, but do not allow you stomach to expand alongside it limiting yourself. AGAIN!" Mai said sternly, still with an old man's voice.

Kat breathed in for a bit before getting smacked a second time. It was a long afternoon…

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Day 2 Morning

This time, instead of an old man, Mai was an old woman with a face so wrinkled it was starting to droop past her chin. The phrase 'baba yaga' would come to mind if Kat actually knew the legend in question. Mai retained the same clothes though Kat's eyes noticed that all of the stains had been changed. Mai's had no facial hair, not even eyebrows but the hair on her head was so long it spilled onto the ground… though considering this time she was only about seventy five centimetres tall it wasn't that impressive.

"Yesterday you learned how to breathe. We will come back to that lesson if need be. And I suspect there will be a need. Still, you at least have the knowledge on how to breathe. Now you need to learn to stand," whispered Mai. It sounded like the air leaving her mouth was going to be her last every time. Yet more air continued to come out. Kat noticed, however, that she wasn't breathing.

"Wait how are YOU breathing?" asked Kat.

Mai smirked, something that looked very strange on her current face. "Unlike you, someone who needs to rely on lungs to breathe, I breathe everywhere. I can take in practically anything with oxygen through my entire body. I breathe like a human when in disguise but I don't need to. So much less efficient." Mai said shaking her head 'sadly' as if Kat would never be able to recover from the tragedy that is having lungs.

*I want to point out that there is nothing wrong with having lungs… but Mai doesn't really have brain so why would not having lungs stop her? Though that does make me wonder if the bodies she makes are functional? Like does the brain she makes work like an extra brain? What about the lungs? She said she can breathe like me, but it is actually getting her oxygen? I'm suddenly interested in the answers to these questions.* 

Which of course meant Mai smacked Kat over the head. "No distractions. We are learning how to stand. First, take the stance you would use when you punch"

Kat moved so that her right leg was back slightly with both bent and her two arms bent at the elbow in front of her face at equal height. Mai smacked the left elbow at the bottom moving it up. "Close. Very close for a civilian. This is just one way to punch but you nearly have it. You either stand like this, or if you want to block bring both fists to just in front of your face, still with one slightly above the other but only a slight bit. Now PUNCH!"

There was a lot of small corrections and even more punching to follow.

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Day 2 Afternoon

"So you've taken to the first stance quite well. This is good… but don't get a big head it is only the most basic of basics. It's so basic in fact that it isn't truly part of learning to use the fan, it is part of learning to fight. Something you seem adept enough at but clearly need a few corrections" said Mai still in her wheezy old woman form. She did change back to eat lunch, though now she was back in mentor form.

"I have a few more stances like that I want to show you. This next one might look a little silly but it can be considered the base for the main stance you will use with your fans so don't mock it." Mai glared at Kat's perfect posture. "You clearly get to cheat in regards to posture and strength so maybe not. Still, I agreed to teach you and I will do so properly. Now, Horse Riding Stance."

Mai changed into a copy of Kat and demonstrated the pose. It looked much like it sounded. Feet two shoulder lengths apart with knees bent at around a forty degree angle. Feet forward with the rest of the body following. Back perfectly straight and arms palm up tucked in close to the sides. Kat mirrored the stance, though imperfectly, her knees were slightly too bent and her tail was assisting her remain in place. Mai glared at it and said, "Hmm, I forgot about that tail of yours. I don't train many individual with access to a tail that can be used for more than balance. Hmm… I'll need to think on that. For now tail UP! No cheating. You probably won't feel the burn like a normal person but we want this stance perfect!"

Kat let out a long slow breath. She wasn't sighing of course, simply using the breathing she learnt on the first day. Obviously.

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Back in the present

*So how did that work?*

[It was a little weird actually… I think it sort of skipped over things. It's hard to get into words… but I suppose that it just sort of… I don't want to say skipped because I still know pretty much exactly how long you spent training those first few days but I didn't really experience it. I DID experience most of the starting chats with Mai but the rest… feels maybe a bit like a dream? As I said hard to describe.]

*That's fine I guess. You don't really need those memories anyway. Maybe your mind was automatically skipping them? Or maybe I marked them as unimportant? Certainly something to test in the future. Do you want to keep going?*

[Oh yes. This is fascinating for me. It's almost like I'm in your shoes. It's a little different to my own memories but it's pretty close.. This is such a unique chance to see a martial artist learning the craft in… almost real time without actually doing it myself.]

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