2. Oxcart Town
'Jin' was almost happy to accept the otherwise sad clay tag. He shook his head no but that was a lie. He had a dozen questions at a minimum. He had hoped diligence would pay off and he would be able to get dual markings on his silver token upon leaving here. He had a quiet burning ambition, "Thank you sir," he said accepting it with both hands carefully and a greater than 90 bow. It would look silly perhaps, childish. That is what they would expect of him. He hoped it would distract from what his previous teacher and few acquaintances here called a 'sinister undertone' that had made them uncomfortable upon first meeting him. His teacher had struck him any time he got to intense as that tended to amplify the aura some considered unsettling.
He would likely celebrate acceptance with his local acquaintances Ba Yan and Li Misano. Misano was a local boy who's father worked at the clinic, he himself had aspirations to become a town guard- not out of a sense of loyalty or desire to protect anyone but out of laziness. It was well established historically that an attack on Oxcart Town tended to go poorly for aggressors. Guards were thicker than most people around here often in more ways than one. Ba Yan was almost a drug addict with how hard she worked before she began studying with Xier. She was a year in the pharmacist training and with little formal practice of internal energy she was still considered as doing well. He circulated energy through them while she read aloud.
He would meet up with them later if he could. He had brought his belongings from the Hise home where he had stayed since helping Misao recover a badly pulled back muscle. His mother had said, "Little Jin is practically a physician already!" and Xier had taken the title with a grain of salt as he knew the woman meant well. Her husband asked what technique he had learned and Xier played it off as the others merely exaggerating the extent of the injury since there was almost no way the father could have known about it while he was at work... Was there? The man seemed to be content, even happy to have him as long as he didn't cause trouble in their house.
Most people seemed to like him, he made a point to be likable. Respectful and kind things that were not generally appreciated so much by the clans over his own.
"Mudgrass!" The butchered clan name of his assumed identity greeted him, as he set his two backpacks down in the apprentice quarters, could only have been said like that from one of three people. The feminine qualities narrowed it by one more, "The Triplets of Torture" they were known. Their mother was disenfranchised from a powerful clan for marriage to a merchant, the man and woman were kind themselves but they had spoiled their triplets. Surnamed Yao Sai, Min, and Bo... the girls had honorary apprenticeships as it was popular here to work in either harvesting, manufacturing, or application of medicine and they would not do to actually labor but needed exposure to skilled men to provide for them later in life in order to win them over.
They were annoying most days and some days flat out hazardous. The latter we're easily identified though if you had seen Sai that day. Xier thought he would be a good guy if his sisters hadn't caused him so much personal suffering he took it out on the world around him. Maybe those demonesses thought it was cute? He hadn't seen Sai. He likely wouldn't see Sai from now on unless the young man needed treatment or was overseeing a shipment of medicine being loaded up. He imagined Sai an entirely changed youth, free from the chains of misery that the others had forged over him.
Xier sighed and turned, "What can this one help you with now?" he had to put on a shocked face as Zheng Jin would be embarrassed or horrified at what he saw when he turned to address the girl or girls (in his head he was already anticipating a moment akin to The Shining) but while he was not expecting what he would see... He had seen... better... worse... More yes, he had seen more... training back home.
He was almost impressed Yao Bo gathered a bucket of blood... Oh there was dirt and grass in it too. He inwardly smiled at her play on Bloodgrass. At home this would have been an almost traditional greeting if they weren't just as likely to maim someone to leave them bleeding out in a patch of grass for the irony.
Being a member of the Blood Tiger demon clan, he crushed his first slaves heart and meridians into a warm soft core when he was eight. The rest of the man crumbled into ash. They all did that when Demon Hand Technique was used. When he was twelve he mastered Devil's Finger technique and at fourteen he had the dream that changed the course of his life.
Back to her though, he knelt to the floor and bowed his head to hide his face. He imagined he would have a hard time keeping it together. For better or worse, she couldn't see his face as he licked his lips, focused and whistled a single unwavering tone.
What are you doing you frea- but she made a startled noise as she fell to the floor, it was an unnerving feeling as he had experienced first hand many times. One second more of the note and he cut it off. He didn't want to effect anyone else, he rolled her in the mess and wiped his face off, mostly before calling out, Help! Someone help she slipped and spilled this bucket! With a thump he knew they would find bruising to show it hit her head and he had struggled to get her to a place where someone else could find them. He made sure to straighten out her energy flow again so she was coming around when someone found him dragging her toward the clinic proper.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:10, Sat 30 Oct 2021.