“If,” Sensei Madame Liao lectures us, “I were to strike the fifth essential meridian point, every bone in her body would shatter if she takes six steps. Thus, she would be locked in an invisible, wall-less prison. For, as ancient Pearlian wisdom teaches us, ‘the steps of an honorable person lead through walls; the steps of a dishonorable person become a prison.’”
Mole Girl freezes.
“It’s all right,” says Sensei Madame Liao. “The meridian points don’t lock if the fifth one isn’t activated right away.” Mole Girl slowly returns to our ranks and appears ready to faint.
I raise my hand and ask, “Venerable and mighty Sensei. What if you had completed the five strikes? How would you remove the Dian Mai?”
“Only the most powerful instruments of Chi retuning can remove the Dian Mai. However, use of Dian Mai moves is strictly forbidden to students and punishable by expulsion. I raise them as an example only to make you appreciate how worthless and completely without qualities your understanding of defensive strategy is.”
Suki follows me after class and says, “Are you worried about how to remove the five-point bone-shatterer hollow fist Dian Mai when they imprison you for attacking Pearl Famous?”
“Suki, why are you so obsessed with me? Get a hobby.”
* * *
In the final week leading up to the luckieth Motivation, I concentrate on my defensive wu liu practice. The pain in my wrist decreases with twice daily Chi practice, but my ability to bear armor with that arm is still compromised. I start to think about the Dian Mai. Could whatever ominous thing Doi is planning for the luckieth Motivation involve Dian Mai somehow? Could she be planning to take down Suki in front of the whole academy in some spectacular way, even if she gets expelled for it?
Maybe she’s planning on not using any torso armor to goad Suki into dropping her torso armor, too, so that she can hit her in the five essential meridian points and perform the five-point bone-shatterer hollow fist on her? I don’t think she’s that rash, but what do I know about her except that everything she does hits me as a surprise.
Then I realize what this would mean for me.
If Doi uses the Dian Mai on Suki during Iron Fan Dance, that would take out both of my opponents again. Doi would be expelled or arrested. And even if Suki weren’t sliced to ribbons while immobilized and they could retune her Chi somehow, she would be knocked out of the Motivation. There would be no way that she could recover and overtake me.
If Doi uses the Dian Mai on Suki, my path to first ranking for the whole year and the lead in the Drift Season Pageant is cleared.
What am I saying? I can’t believe I’m considering this. I want to win. But there’s no honor in winning like this. I consider what Hisashi would think of me using his sister this way and I’m ashamed. He makes me want to improve my character. He would want me to do something to try to stop Doi.
I put the thoughts of trying to capitalize on the rivalry between Doi and Suki out of my mind and concentrate on my defensive practice in the final days before the luckieth Motivation.
* * *
The night before the luckieth Motivation, my emotions are uncollected. As I lie on my bed, I suddenly realize how I can help Doi.
Students can volunteer to serve as attackers to gain extra points during Iron Fan Dance. Most girls don’t want to because the additional points aren’t worth the risk of injury. But it’s too late to sign up. I’ll have to be prepared to jump in and interrupt the Motivation if Doi starts to perform the Dian Mai. I don’t know if I could be punished for interfering with her performance. Also, perhaps if she sees me trying to help her, I can win her trust and get her to tell me why she was talking to someone about a “hostage.”
I don’t know if Doi is my friend or my enemy, but tomorrow, I might have to fight my friend or my enemy for her own good.
I don’t realize I’m asleep until I’m wrenched out of it by the sound of shrieking from the hallway. I wrap my robe around myself and fling open the shoji door. The clatter of metal balls within the walls begins vibrating through the air over cries and the sound of shojis slamming open.
Girls are streaming out of their dormitory chambers in the dark, racing down the hall with their futon-side lanterns swinging, making shadows pitch and yaw like reaching ghosts.
“What happened?” I ask a girl skating past.
“The Palace of the Eighteen Outstanding Pieties!”
“What about it?”
“There’s been another attack!”
When we approach the Palace of the Eighteen Outstanding Pieties, I see plumes of vapor billowing out of the top. We skate into the palace. Sensei Master Bao, Sensei Madame Liao, and other senseis are in furious discussion.
I follow their gaze to the roof.
There’s a hole torn in it, large enough to sail a ship through. Its edges aren’t jagged and ripped. They’re smooth, like rock formations sculpted by drips of water over uncountable ages. The edges steam with tendrils of vapor that rise up into the dark sky through the hole.
Below, rows of rough, featureless mannequins of straw wrapped in white-plastered cloth have already been stationed around the racetrack laid out on the skating court for the boys’ luckieth Motivation in the morning. They stand like a ghostly, silent army.
Parts of several mannequins lie crushed around the track. Straw has burst out on the pearl in front of their faceless plaster heads, sprayed in the patterns of fans.
A great wedge from the ruined ceiling as large as a carriage has fallen with such impact that its point is buried deep in the
