44 Ty Lee (Part 1)

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Golden eyes squint, looking out at the seaward reaches of the ocean. Doldrums, the sound of the ship's engine running can be heard. A moment, maximum concentration! The internal Qi energy separates into positive and negative in the stomach. A moment, the muscles of the abs contract to the point of pain. Energies of different polarities rush upwards through the body. I lean forward. Two intertwined beams lightning burst out from the centre of my forehead, travelling hundreds and hundreds of metres, flying far away until they came into contact with the water. Everything happened in a matter of seconds.

A flash of bright light was accompanied by a deafening rumble. A moment, and the wind of the blast wave blows across my face. Waves appeared in the calm ocean current and began to rock the ship gently. In places, fish stunned by the blast began to surface. It was the magic of the explosion. Colossal destructive power that would crush any defence of this era.

- Hr... - I heard Berkrut's surprised wheeze nearby, and soon I heard his rare voice as well: - Bad. Again. One.

"Not bad for the first time, but he knows better. I disagree with the mercenary, while reassuring the worried Azula.

The girl, whose body I was controlling, was feeling a lot of excitement from my first training. Despite her desire for more power, she was well aware of the risks. Unlike healing, in this training, a mistake could be very costly. The one-armed and one-legged mercenary was a perfect demonstration of the dangers of this magic.

But never mind the risks of being crippled, we must keep practising.

- Hoo-uh... - I exhaled the accumulated tension and went back to repeating the magic that was new to me.

Concentrating once more, I repeated the explosion magic with effort, but still. And then again and again, until I understood its workings in detail. It took more than two dozen repetitions, with a few rest breaks, which were spent in thinking and discussing with a not particularly pleased mentor some issues.

As I thought, conquering this magic was both easy and difficult. The essence is exactly the same as with the conquest of lightning, but at the same time the requirements for control and concentration are much greater. And, as practice showed, for this magic is not necessary to open chakras, even closed they work quite well. The hardest part was to set up an explosion at any point in the path of the Qi rays, not at the moment when the rays hit the material object.

Soon, thanks to my monstrous energy control, I was able to do that as well. The main secret was to control the rays and make them crash into each other, which caused a powerful release of all the energy in one point in the form of an explosion. By the way, to use magic in any other way than through the chakras on the forehead, was fraught with the explosion of limbs. Tested personally Berkrut, and specifically his limbs. The chakra channels in all other parts of his body were too thin. These were the conclusions the mercenary had come to after paying an arm and a leg for it.

I think it won't be a problem for Azula to learn this magic, especially with my help. After earning an approving silence from Berkrut, I rested, having mastered explosion magic quite quickly. The mercenary must have been well informed of Azula's genius. Or he has such a temperament, it's quite difficult to surprise him. Learning a very complicated and dangerous magic on the thirtieth attempt didn't affect the formidable man's facial expression at all. Unlike the other crew members, that while doing their jobs, they unwittingly witnessed this miracle. The ordinary soldiers were shocked not even by my progress, but by the fact of existence of a sub-species of fire magic - the magic of explosions.

- The silent mercenary looked at the acrobat approaching us with a menacing look. Not that he was angry, just that with his appearance and size any action seems formidable.

- Good morning, ingenious Princess Azula," the acrobat jokingly falls down as a greeting.

At this time, I felt the princess' desire to regain her body. I had no reason to hold on to it, so....

- Tai Li, how do you like my ship? - Azula answered, while my consciousness faded into the background.

- My quarters are so spacious and your maids are so polite. I had a little talk with them before I went on deck. I was awakened by a noise, was it training in conquering fire?

- Yes, Berkrut is helping me with that," Zula agreed, throwing a glance in the man's direction. There was no point in denying the obvious in front of her optimistic friend.

- Well..." the circus girl looked round at the huge man, "he looks very imposing.

- Hmm... - a quiet sound came out from the big man's side, reminding him of the necessary training. I've spent too much time creating magic, but practice was all that was needed here.

- I'm busy now, but if you don't have anything else to do, you can stay and watch," the princess suggested to her friend, returning to her previous position to resume training, but with my minimal help.

- Good, then I'll sit aside, and I won't disturb you, - answered Tai Li already standing on her hands. Finding a comfortable spot she changed her stance to elbows and then put her feet on the deck in front of her, still standing on her elbows. Lee was in her own style, trying to develop her flexibility with acrobatics at every convenient or inconvenient opportunity.

Azula, meanwhile, was concentrating on her training. I tried not to help her much, just to protect her from accidents, but she didn't need much help. Being inside her body she watched all my actions during the training, and now she could repeat the magic of the explosion without any problems. Not perfectly accurate, but repeat it. I only helped with a little advice, and my understanding of the energy and the essence of the technique, which I had quickly grasped thanks to being a spirit. The same Berkrut was a little wordy, so much so that instead of a speech with explanations, he wrote all the nuances of the technique on paper, and then only voiced whether I was doing so or not.

In any case, after less than a hundred attempts, I was finally convinced of Zula's ability to replicate the mercenary's magic without injuring myself in the process. On the one hand it was monstrously fast, but on the other hand, in achieving such a result very much influenced by the experience of conquering lightning. During this entire training session, Tai Li was really being quiet, which was different from her character. The girl was also, one could say, practising her flexibility by meditating in extremely interesting poses. I didn't realise that the human body could be so flexible. Involuntarily, I even imagined how one could use such flexibility in another matter....

Ahem. It's best not to think of such things, they only tempt you more.

While resting between repetitions of the technique, the circus girl asked curiously about this magic. The girl had never heard of explosion magic before, so there was nothing surprising in her curiosity.

After a while, the acrobat left the princess, asking about me last. Azula said to wait in her quarters and Lee went deep into the ship. The girl didn't want to tell me I was in her body, for reasons unknown to me.

Soon after that I left her too, leaving Zula alone with the mercenary, so to speak, to gain a hand in a new conquest with a man who in case of anything can back me up. The girl wanted to learn as quickly as possible to control the explosion at any point in the path of the rays of Qi, in this she only needed experience, after all it was the most difficult moment of conquering the explosion. Lastly, I supported the training princess, saying that I believed in her success. It was a small thing, but it felt good.

Leaving her alone I headed towards Tai Li, the girl had wanted to talk to me for a long time and now was the time. After flying through the deck, I headed for the right cabin, but before breaking through the wall, I decided to observe some decorum and enter through the door. Thanks to this decision, I was able to hear part of the girls' conversation.

- ...changed! She used to be all reserved and tense, like a steel statue, but now... now she's different," I heard Tai Li's emotional voice.

- You know better," May's phlegmatic voice answered her.

- Come on, we've both known her since we were kids. And you're the one who brought it up," Li replied confidently.

- 'Yeah. I wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one. Congratulations. You got me.

- It's true, I think it has something to do with Yoaru!

- I think so too.

- Do you think it's for the best or not? - the gymnast's voice radiated thoughtfulness and reflection.

- Only time will tell.

- I think it's for the best. Azula's aura became brighter, bright spots began to appear in it. Like rare stars in the night sky! It's so beautiful," Tai Li said dreamily, probably remembering the said picture.

- Lee, I can't see Aura, like the vast majority of people in the world.

The girls' conversation was informative, and while Tai Li's voice felt emotionally uplifting, Mei, as usual, spoke in a phlegmatically calm tone. But I had no desire to eavesdrop on other people's conversations. Having realised the gist of their conversation, I was about to join them as if nothing had happened.

- Knock, knock," I knocked and with pathos-like grandeur, I walked through the metal door, immediately getting the attention of both beauties.

"Hi Ty Lee, May," I greet the girls, walking confidently into the cabin and looking around.

The room was generally tidy, only the bed was a little crumpled, the girls were just sitting on it. They were sitting on it, Tai Li had habitually twisted into a pose unfamiliar to me and was sitting on her hands practising her flexibility. I guess it was this kind of training that made the bed look so wrinkled.

- Yoaru? Good morning. You showed up rather... unexpectedly," Tai Li said in surprise, a little stammered at the suddenness of our meeting or the way I had appeared.

- He's here again? What a shame," Mei's cold tone was full of disappointment, or was it just me?

"You mentioned repeatedly wanting to talk, so here I am. To talk. Azula will be training for the rest of the day, we have plenty of time for any purpose and no one is going to stop us from doing so," I tell the girl confidently, moving closer to the bed.

- Oh, yeah, that's right, there's so much I wanted to ask you," she said with a little awkwardness.

- Brrrrr. It was so cold. Did he sit next to me? - May interrupted her friend's speech, and I sat down next to her.

- Oh, that's right, I keep forgetting you can't see or hear him. Yes, he's here. He came to talk to us, - the acrobat explains to her friend kindly and with a smile.

- With you. I'm not going to be a part of this. If you need me, I'm in my quarters, throwing knives at the wall, - rising from the bed, May quietly heads towards the exit of the cabin.

- Huh? Okay," a surprised Tai Li replied in the back of her head.

- You must have hurt her a lot," the acrobat added when we were alone.

"Maybe, or maybe she just didn't want to feel left out of our conversation?"

- Superfluous?

"I am invisible to her gaze and my words do not reach her ears. I think she would be at the very least uncomfortable with our conversation. Or maybe you're right, and she's a little more offended than I realise. Is the fact that I saw her naked so horrible? I would offer to wash away that shame with my blood in a holy duel, but I don't have blood, nor do I have the rest of my body parts," I tell the girl with feigned sorrow, ending with a joke of sorts. Successful.

- Well, no. I don't think that's necessary. It's undoubtedly unpleasant, but not that unpleasant, especially given your nature of spirit. It's not your fault at all, except just a little," Lee, a kind soul, tried to console me, for the sake of it she even stopped practising her flexibility, adopting her usual sitting position.

"Anyway, you can discuss it with her later, right now I'd like to talk to you," I told the girl a little more seriously, at the same time getting a little closer to her.

- Me? Why me? What's so special about me? - The interlocutor was a little embarrassed. - Oh, I'm sorry, that was probably a very stupid question. It's not like the others can't see you.

''That's partly true, but even if all people could see me, I would still want to meet a charming girl like you. You're beautiful, sweet, and most importantly, very intelligent. In other words, you're the most beautiful girl I've seen in my entire existence," I declare to her, looking her straight in the eye.

But my gaze travelled up and down the young girl's body against my will. Although, if you think about it, she's fourteen years old by the local calendar, and over sixteen by the one I'm used to. Look at her breasts. Not exactly baby breasts.

All the matter was that the planet was different, the number of days in a year was different, and accordingly there was one extra month and some other understanding of age and adulthood. In general, according to the laws of the world, fourteen (sixteen by the standards of my past world) is the age of majority. Children are considered full adults after surviving that many years. And Tai Li had it most vividly expressed. A girl who can already be... ahem, it's been too long since I've had a woman. Yeah, that's what it's all about.

- Really? - The acrobat was embarrassed. I, remembering the local laws and the time difference, smiled even wider, embarrassing my interlocutor more and more.

"Just between you and me, I want to tell you, as far as I'm concerned you're much prettier than Azula," I lean closer and share a secret with her in a whisper. The girl blushes even more, averting her embarrassed gaze.

- Oh, you flatter me. Azula is so much better than me at all things. I can't even compete with her, let alone stand next to her," despite saying that, she was definitely enjoying my compliments and attention. I wondered where she got her insecurity from.

Either way, I liked her genuine embarrassment. It was impossible to get such emotions from Zula, or rather you could, but they were completely different, and the princess was used to being restrained. Whereas Tai Li was just living her emotions.

This wasn't the first time I've noticed such a reaction, did she really get so few compliments? I don't believe it, she's too beautiful, and her eyes are so expressive..... not to mention her other virtues. Although I remembered that she was the seventh daughter, could it be the lack of attention during her childhood? That could explain a lot of things.

"There is still plenty of time, you can ask anything you want, I'll do my best to satisfy your curiosity..." - I declare to her with a smile, making myself more comfortable on the bed.

Soon the girl's curiosity took over and there was no trace of shyness left. At least until I started showering her with compliments, which the girl had a big weakness for. In general, the girl behaved quite playfully, flirtatious, joking and clearly enjoying my company. Her sense of humour was excellent, and the number of anecdotes and funny stories was colossally huge, it was not for nothing that she travelled with the circus for a couple of years.

I myself enjoyed the conversation immensely, who knew I would miss so much the simple, completely ordinary conversation with another person. I didn't know about this need for socialising myself, I thought I was above it. Of course, I had only had Azula before, but... she wasn't the best and even less pleasant conversationalist, I always had to be careful with her. With Tai Li, however, it was different.

Having found in each other pleasant interlocutors, we talked about completely different topics.

The girl was mostly interested in everything that had to do with the spirit world, me and my existence. I told her what I knew or guessed. I was a very young spirit and there was a lot I didn't know, so I told her, but that didn't dampen the girl's enthusiasm. She asked me all sorts of questions, some of them embarrassing.

- No, Lee, perfume does not need to go to the toilet, and they do not reproduce in the usual sense, - I answer the confused girl to her question.

- Then how do new perfumes appear? - with crimson cheeks continued to speak acrobat.

- I don't know, I'm too young for that, I need someone much older and more experienced than me.

- Then, tell me more about the spirit world!

I didn't have much to say about it, but what I knew, I told the girl in confidence. The Spirit World is difficult to describe in words and terms that I know. It's a volatile, incomprehensible, and rather creepy place. I had no desire to go back there. The spirit world is full of the unknown, strange, incomprehensible, abnormal and illogical, with constant change and creepiness. But at the same time, there are also nice islands of small and cute natural spirits.

Tai Li had a way of putting people at ease, I didn't notice how I started to trust her more and more. However, I was not only answering questions, but also actively interested in the girl, her past, family, reasons for actions and even life in the circus. She was much more willing to tell me about the latter, almost as much as about her six sisters. At the same time I did not forget to laugh with her, to give support and understanding.

In a word, we became closer, telling each other about ourselves, flirting and flirting. The girl's behaviour was very infectious, and I began to like Tai Li more and more.

Time flew by rather quickly. I found myself thinking that I wanted much more from her, but it was too much even for me to ask her to do something intimate. I wasn't sure she'd say yes. And then my mind flashed back to a long ago information about a certain box that I had purposely hidden from Azula. A plan instantly popped into my mind and I decided to start a slightly different topic.

- Tell me Lee, you're of legal age, but have you ever drunk sake, a drink for adults only?