“Doi! I’ve been trying and trying to talk to you and tell you how profoundly sorry and grateful and humbled and—”
“Shut up, please. No one makes my choices for me. I only want to say something about the luckieth Motivation.”
“Yes, I know your performance will be legendary,” I cut in. “As soon as Supreme Sensei Master Jio said we would be doing Iron Fan Dance, I knew that you would excel because the fans are like knives when folded up, but they can be snapped open and thrown, like flying metal saws with the handles weighted on one side so that they arc back to the thrower, and I saw how you handled Suki with the opening and closing of her parasol, and I knew that—”
“Shut up, please. I just wanted to tell you that I’ve decided what my Multipliers will be and—”
“And the Multipliers are so important,” I agree. “Our entire score is going to be based on how many hits each of us blocks and how many we score on our opponents before being disarmed or falling, and they apply one negative Multiplier for every piece of armor, so the less we wear, the more we risk, but the more we score and the higher—”
“Peasprout, shut up! What I’m going to do during the luckieth Motivation will make up for what happened with the third Motivation if I do it correctly, but I’m—”
I stiffen, but I do the right thing and say with dignity, “I will not resent you at all if you take first place. You have my blessing. But just in this Motivation.”
“Will you shut up and listen to me! I’m going to pay a price for what I plan to do. I want you to know that I know what I’m buying with it. And that it has nothing to do with you.” She bows and says, “May we meet here in the New Year.”
“May we meet here in Pearl,” I reply.
As I watch her skate away from me, so hard, so determined, I’m certain that a price that others would call too costly, too desperate, she would call necessary.
* * *
What could Doi be planning for the luckieth Motivation? Iron Fan Dance will be the most dangerous Motivation that we’ve done so far, especially because it’s the Season of Spirits. The thick cloud cover that haunts the ground will hide the flight of the deadly fans. We’ll have to learn to use the clouds as a central element of combat, so our sense of hearing will be critical in predicting and defending against attacks.
Boys don’t do Iron Fan Dance because only girls are lithe and nimble enough to do it. Boys would be cut into ribbons.
At least my knee continues to hold up due to the Chi healing sessions with Cricket, although the exchange leaves us both so drained. As for my injured wrist, there’s no way to deny that it’s bad. Just the pressure of doing the fastens on my skate boots every morning makes it throb with pain. It’s not going to be better by the luckieth Motivation.
I try an additional session of Chi healing on my wrist with Cricket. He almost passes out from exhaustion in the middle of it.
“Cricket, what’s wrong?” He looks like a shriveled husk.
“I just need to rest a moment.”
“We have to stop. You need to save your strength for the next Motivation.”
“It’s all right. We’re just doing Emperor’s Second. It’s just a race and not even for first place.”
“You’re going to be doing ten laps inside the Palace of the Eighteen Outstanding Pieties. Have you seen how big it is in there? And then you’re going to fight a mass battle at the finish line.”
“Everyone will be fighting to push someone over the finish line and then leap for second place. I’ll just stay off to the side and sneak … sneak over … when it’s…” He closes his eyes, and his head begins to hang in utter depletion.
My poor little Cricket. I can’t put him through any more of these sessions to heal my wrist. I’ll just have to work around it.
Thus, it is with great joy that I listen to Sensei Madame Liao explain that the most critical skill in Iron Fan Dance is defensive strategy.
“You think you’ve used defensive moves in the first three Motivations,” she says. “Your understanding of defensive strategy is trash! Defense is more than wearing armor and employing tortoise-school moves and using your skates to block.”
When she mentions this, Suki and the House of Flowering Blossoms girls start tittering and smirking at me.
I can’t afford to use my skates to block. They could get chipped and ruined. Also, the weight of any armor on my arm causes pain in my wrist. It’s even more painful when I receive a blow on my armor. I can’t afford to get struck on that arm with or without armor. I’m going to have to rely on dodging maneuvers for the Motivation.
“Some of the most powerful moves in all of wu liu are defensive,” continues Sensei Madame Liao. “The Dian Mai are a class of moves used to neutralize an attacker through disruption of Chi. I demonstrate for you the five-point bone-shatterer hollow fist. Come here.” She points to Mole Girl, who skates forward slowly.
Sensei Madame Liao makes a loose fist, faces Mole Girl, and says, “If I strike the five essential meridian points on her body with a hollow, not closed, fist, I could immobilize my attacker until I could seek help to bring her to justice. Come. Attack me.”
The poor girl looks at Sensei Madame Liao, then at all of us in a silent cry for help. Sorry, Mole Girl. You’re on your own with this one. With a face full of misery, she cries, “Yah!”
