---

Freyja smiled when she saw the redhead regrouping with her teammates, no doubt with the intent of formulating a plan. Finally, she was starting to learn how important teamwork would be in this match. It would be like that in the real world too, as a team of channellers had to compliment each other's abilities.

Meanwhile, another pair of students was locked in a melee combat, with one of them holding a broadsword in his hand. She noticed how he just created it out of thin air. Most likely he would be an Architect then, she thought. Maybe he would be in his class, so she paid extra attention to him.

Hmm, so far the broadsword he summoned seemed to be an ordinary one. So his mastery was still at a basic level, she thought. She guessed he only had learned the structure of a broadsword, without really understanding how you could improve on it. He still had a lot to learn. If he were to be in her class, she had to start learning about swordmaking herself. There were a couple of books talking about that in the library, if she remembered correctly.

Her gaze than fell upon a boy charging towards one of the flags, his body glowing brightly. She saw on the other team a boy who looked like a panda ninja throwing some shurikens at the boy in an attempt to stop his charge. Ignoring the obvious oddness of his outfit, she wondered if those shurikens would be effective. Well, it turned out that they were, somewhat, as it halted the boy, who gave a flipping off to the ninja in response before running again, slower this time. She didn't understand why he had to be angry. It was a competition after all.

Back to the swordsman, she saw the blade connecting a bit against the opponent, making him cringe in pain a little. It didn't stop him however, as he still went for his tackle against the swordsman. It failed to bring him down, which made Freyja sigh in relief. Without her knowing, she had been rooting for the swordsman, perhaps thanks to the fact that he was an architect like her.

She looked back at the glowing boy, and now he had fell down to the ground. That meant he was out, and he had to return to the other side, to his team's flag. The ninja really did get him now, it seemed. But his opponents weren't finsihed, as the redhead went in, aiming for his head. Oh boy, she was pretty sure that was against the rules. And if her hit were to connect, the boy would certainly take major damage, enough to even make him lose consciousness, she presumed. And if that were to happen, the teachers had to stop the match momentarily to carry him away from the field, with his team losing one player.

The boy didn't just give up however, as he sent a heat beam towards the ninja as a counterattack.

One boy on the opposing team quickly realized the incoming danger and dragged the ninja and the girl with him down to dodge the beam. However, it seemed the beam was nothing more than just a warm air. Nothing dangerous at all.

Freyja sighed in relief. She had reflectively made an ice bomb in response but she was unsure she could throw it fast enough before the heat reached them.

Well, the institute was no stranger to wounds caused by battle. Even if the wave had been actually dangerous, the students affected could be cured handily thanks to the healing abilities of Asa and Alexis. And it would be a good thing for the new students to realize just how dangerous fights between channelers could be.

But now, they had to learn why it would be a bad idea to disobey the rules.

"Stop! Stop this match now!" Freyja shouted as she approached them.

She glared at the redhead before saying, "What were you thinking? He was out and you still attacked him?"

She then glared at the fallen down boy. "And you! You're already out! You're not supposed to attack anymore!" Even with him being down there didn't deter Freyja from bestowing her wrath upon him.

Freyja then pulled the boy up in his arm, cringing a bit at the sight of puke and mucus on his face, before asking, "Are you alright? Do you still want to continue?" Here, she was back to her usual tone, as if she hadn't been angry just a second ago.

"If you still can, then we shall continue the match. But you and you--she glared back at the redhead girl--will receive punishment for disobeying the rules."

@CondorTalon@Azereiah@tipssyCalibrator

---

Things weren't going nearly as bad as Shinichi thought they were going to. His opponent had managed to use his sword to stay on his feet, and shoved Shinichi back. Shinichi stumbled, feeling the pain from the injury on his shins. He managed to catch himself in a crouch, and immediately moved his energy to his wound. As it wasn't a serious injury, it healed very quickly. Shinichi stood up straight and gave his opponent a small smile.

"You're not going to beat me with a dull sword, you know."
@CondorTalon

"Yeah, you're probably right," Ryousei said shrugging, "But I don't really feel like hacking a fellow student to bits, you know what I'm saying?"

Ryousei rolled his neck, before demanifesting Terremoto.

"Listen, you seem like a nice guy," Ryousei said, "But I could grant your wish. You want a sharp blade?"

This time, he summoned Pergélisol, fully sharpened, and pointed it at the boy's chest.

"Here you are, then. Happy?"

@Western Robot

@Azereiah@13org

Mina returned from the girl's bathroom's, face washed and calmed down after her humiliating giggling fit. She snuck out the front entrance and avoided where Jonathan was standing. No offence to him, but he was the last person she wanted to bump into right now. She needed a new place to stay and start taking notes. That's when she spotted the new trainee teacher, Meilin Hua. Eastern Martial Arts sounded like a very useful class for somebody with a power they couldn't yet use offensively, plus her prior training in self-defence MMA might give her. Getting top marks in that class too was definitely in her capabilities, and it would be best to start off on the right foot by taking an active interest in the subject outside of the classroom. She was also taking to Daler. Mina, as last year's class rep, had helped out with detention multiple times, so Daler could vouch for her behaviour and work ethic if need be.

She approached the two faculty members, smiling brightly. She had being a teacher's pet down to an art form. "Hello! You are the new trainee teacher of Eastern Martial Arts, are you not?" she asked Meilin as she approached. "I'm interested in taking that class this year. My name is Kasuke Mina." And with that, she offered her hand in a dignified manner.

@Azereiah

There was a knock on the Security Room door, and the familiar, high, saccharine, ""friendly"" voice of Mako rang out from the other side. "Helloooo~ Is anybody in there? Because there shouldn't be~!"

She was enjoying herself too much. It wasn't every day she got to chew out a fellow teacher.

---

---

Jonathan wasn't entirely engrossed in his notetaking anymore, but was rather bewitched by the spectacle upon the field. Cheap shot to the groin, bad sportsmanship, and anger all around? It was just like the previous year. Still, what had just happened before that with Kasuke was lingering in the back of his mind. He curiously glanced around the entire field, wondering how the other upperclassmen and staff would respond this time around. Normally this would be where Daler used his telepathy to chew everyone out, but... Oh. The old teacher was asleep again, and Professor Leden had taken up the slack.

When he shot another look towards Daler and the rest of the staff, he noticed Miss Kasuke chatting away with them. That told him all he needed to know -- he'd screwed up again somehow. It wasn't like the CTF event mandated attendance for upperclassmen, so Jonathan packed his gear and wandered off to the Institute's north wing to hit the gym. That usually helped him think and clear his head.

---

---

The big guy near the flag's shouting set Brock off even harder. Cheap shot to the groin, a blow towards the head, and now taunting? He saw red. He didn't see Freyja approaching him and Akiko, and shouted towards Zeke, Panda, and the other girl. "C'mon, then! You want a piece of me? I'll take all of you motherfuckers on!"

Just then, while he was fumbling in his rear pocket for his switchblade, he was pulled back up off the ground by the teacher he hadn't seen. She was chewing him out for defending himself? "I don't give a shit what the rules are, lady. Last time I saw someone take a hit like that while he was down, he died, so I'm 'gonna god damn well defend myself," he said. He jerked his arm away from Freyja and, with a cold wind and a flood of anger, he charged himself to a moderate glow even faster than before. When he tried to raise his hand to roast Akiko for her assault, the glow flickered. Instead of firing off a second beam, the grass in a two foot ring around him burst into a short puff of flame, and he just barely caught himself from falling over again.

"...Fuck. Fucking god damn mother of fuckin' shit. You guys had better have a doctor, or I won't need to get that vasectomy I've been thinkin' about."

@Hammerman@tipssyCalibrator@Zero Hex@Dblade26

AKIKO

Akiko was about to move onto the other side of the arena when she suddenly heard the words of a teacher stopping the game. Wait, she was complaining to Akiko about attacking scary guy when he was already out? But he was obviously about to attack the teammates anyway, what the hell was she supposed to do? "But I was ju-" Akiko tried to say, but was cut off by the teacher scolding scary guy for the exact reason Akiko had to attack him. Akiko scoffed in frustration and crossed her arms, even in a school where you're supposed to start fights, she was getting in trouble for fighting. She could never win

Just as Akiko was about to walk away from the situation, she saw scary guy struggle out of the teacher's grip and held his hand up straight at Akiko, clearly trying to throw some kind of attack at her. This took her by surprise, but instead of getting scared and trying to get out of the way, Akiko simply held her arms up in defense and gave the guy an angry glare, as if saying "Bring it". She had seen this type of kid before, she had dealt with them all the time at her old school, she wasn't even remotely scared of him. Luckily the guy wasn't able to do anything and so she quickly dropped her guard, but from that point on she knew she was gonna have to keep an eye on him. Jeez, punk kids trying to fight her and getting scolded for fighting? It's like she never left her old school

@Azereiah@Hammerman

Skyblue couldn't believe his luck! Normally when people had their shoes barfed upon, they freaked out, went on a tirade, and generally made the puker's life miserable until they felt their anger had been satisfactorily communicated. Instead, all he'd gotten was a half-assed anger-laced greeting.

Now, Skyblue wasn't a complete idiot, so he made good on Asa's suggestion that he go away. However, he decided that his current dress necessitated a heroic outfit swap, so instead of going to the rest of the staff he disappeared from whence Asa had come. Through the halls he scampered, moving for a locker room where he kept a couple spare changes of clothes at the ready. After a speedy shower he jumped into his clothes and headed for the roof, stopping briefly at a storage closet to pick up a bit of equipment.

Upon the edge of the roof sat Skyblue, a seat cushion pilfered from storage under him and a pair of heat-vision binoculars likewise pilfered and active in his hands. His mask's long-distance hearing function switched on, and from afar he began to monitor the capture the flag event.

Not much of interest happened at first. One of the kids called Asa "Miss Pukeshoes", which earned side-splitting laughter from Skyblue - he was glad he'd opted to sit away from the game - but everything else simply proceeded as it had in the past. Skirmishing, rushed plans, and simple fights. Nothing was of specific interest to Skyblue.

That is, until a kid faceplanted at high velocity, then began spewing something hot from his mouth. The vomit club gains another member, huh? The kid's next action surprised Skyblue: the kid fired off a heat ray mid-crash. The binoculars suddenly lit up in a straight line, burning a temporary line across Skyblue's vision. He watched one student grabbed two others and threw them out of the way. Those two kids, they're something special, Skyblue noted. He'd ask Mako or someone about them later. For now, though, Skyblue had a show to watch and a retina burn to blink away.

---

Shinichi was panicking. He took one hit and got cocky, and now he was going to be stabbed again. Except this time he was going to be stabbed with a sword, not a dinky pocket knife. The knowledge that he would probably be fine in the long run didn't help. Being stabbed hurt. It hurt a lot. Shinich put his hands up in the air.

"Hey man, maybe I was a bit hasty. Why don't we go back to the other sword?"

Then, hoping he had put the other boy off guard, Shinichi tried stepping to the side, and aimed a kick at the back of his legs. If he could just knock him down, the fight would be over!

@CondorTalon

---

How did she know he was in here? Oh well.

"You might as well come in, the door's open."

Shin turned back to his notebook. Having the Institute's barebones notes on the new students was one thing, but seeing them in action was another entirely. While there was of course the usual Augmenters hitting each other and Architects throwing things at each other, there were also some more interesting abilities at play. A girl controlling electricity, with the control to create a field at range. A boy who could shoot some form of beam attack. And a girl who said she could enhance the abilities of others. This was looking to be a promising crop.

@Silver Carrot

Meilin Hua

The moment Meilin stood up, Freyja was already taking care of the situation, giving a severe sermon on both of the students.

"Glad that someone stopped them. Freyja is already there, there is no need for me to go as well." she said to both Daler and Jun-Sang, sitting down again and continuing to drink her tea.

"I still think its a good idea to stop the test. Some of them might be injured."

Before she could take another sip on her tea, a very cheerful girl came nearby talking to her.
"Hello! You are the new trainee teacher of Eastern Martial Arts, are you not?"
"I'm interested in taking that class this year. My name is Kasuke Mina."

"Y-yes! I am! I'm surprised that a new student knew my status as a trainee instructor." Meilin said. She was caught off guard by the girl's introduction, not noticing her hand extended to her.
"My name is Meilin Hua. Its a pleasure to meet you, Mina." she said, giving her a slight bow, only then noticing her extended hand.
"Oh sorry... Cultural habits." she said with a smile, shaking hands with the girl.
"Glad to hear you are interested!" she said with a smile on her face.
"If you don't mind, could you answer me one little question? Why exactly do you wish to learn eastern martial arts?" The second Meilin made that question, Mina would surely knew that she was being evaluated. Meilin was studying the girl's posture, body, answers and her intentions.

"Don't worry, its just a question so I can know you better." Meilin said, trying to make her a little more comfortable. Easing the atmosphere a little bit.

@Azereiah@CondorTalon@Silver Carrot

Yasu Hirabayashi

With the girl's charge stopped, it looked like it was finally time for a straight fight. Funnily enough, in spite of raising her fists, the other girl did not seem intent on throwing the first punch. Yasu was about to make some snide comment about that when she heard someone yelling to stop the match. "Ugh. Hold up a sec." She told the girl as she looked past her to see what was going on. Of all things, it was Brock having been taken down and overwhelmed on the other side that had incurred a staff intervention. It was almost a bit pathetic to see him stumbling around desperately trying to fight back. To no great surprise, it seemed violence girl was involved in the incident yet again. At this rate, the little redhead was going to be better known for causing trouble than she was. But that suited Yasu just fine; in fact, it was hilarious.

However, no matter what would truly come of Brock's little mishap, the fact of the matter was that the momentum had been killed and they were almost certainly down a member. "Ah, screw this. I'm going to chill out until this is sorted or something." She openly declared, though mostly to the girl that would have been her fight partner. She then proceeded to try and leave the field and sit down somewhere. She didn't care what the others did, but she wasn't going to have a bar of it if they were hoping to start something with her in spite of this interruption. She didn't really care for this capture the flag nonsense either; all she wanted was to see if she could have some fun with it, and now the buzz was killed.

@VitaVitaAR

@13org

Meilin had thrown Mina a curveball. If she goes too far in one direction, she'd come across as a sycophant. Too far in the other would make it seem like she doesn't really care. The best thing here would be to focus one of aspect of the actual truth and expand upon it, and that she did.

"I'm a wavecaster, and my power is control over light. This natually, doesn't have very many combat applications by itself, which is why I also need to learn how to fight. I have some basic self-defence MMA training but that's not really enough to keep up with people with super speed and strength, or the power to shoot flames from their hands."

As she spoke, memories of last year's Tournament flashed in her mind. She lost the first round to a fire wavecaster who went on to lose in the semi-finals and then graduated at the end of the year. This year, things would be different. If she could get competent in eastern martial arts, she'd stand a much better chance of winning, or at least getting far enough to bump her grade to top marks.

@Western Robot

Mako opened the door, and her grin grew when she recognised Dr. Maxwell, her superior in a certain regard. This was getting better and better. She'd start off on a subject that wasn't him being where he shouldn't be for now, just to lull him into a false sense of security.

"Goodness, the first years this year sure are an entertaining bunch to watch, aren't they? Not just their powers, but their behaviour and attitudes."

---

---

Daler's narcolepsy had gotten the better of him again. The sunlight was almost scorching to him which made him more tired than usual, even with the shade of the golf cart's roof overhead. As such, he almost missed it when Freyja had taken charge, when Jonathan had wandered off to the northern end, and when one of his previous 'assistants' arrived. In his rest, he noticed a conversation going on right next to him and opted to join in, but not before giving out some quick instructions to the other staffers from across the field. A short message was sent to those he felt were most relevant.

"Freyja, if your intent is to mete out punishments, I suggest keeping those two separate for now. Mako can deal with the girl. Given his outburst, I'll take the boy myself later."

"Alexei, your old student needs a spotter and advice at the weight room, I think. I'd do it myself, but you know him better than I."

"Alexis, wake up. You're needed on the testing field."

That business finished, he turned his attention back towards Meilin, Mina, and Jun-Sang. Jun was staying out of the conversation for the time being, so Daler didn't bother speaking to him and rather addressed the other two. "I feel this may be a good match, Meilin. Kasuke here was a great help with seating unconscious students during detentions last year. I'm surprised, though, Mina. I hadn't thought of you as the sort to take part in elective martial arts classes," the old man thought towards them. He decided not to comment on the tournament failure he saw (and remembered well).

@Silver Carrot@13org@Mercurial@Hammerman

---

---

"Alexis, wake up. You're needed on the testing field."

BZZZZZZZT.

Alexis fell off of her bunk bed and crashed to the black and white linoleum tile floor at Daler's wakeup call. That old bastard had sent her a buzz tone again! Didn't he know that she never got up before 2:00 PM? He probably did, he just didn't care. The smell of smoke hit her like a train and she scrambled to her feet. She'd accidentally left the stove on low, and her ramen was charred to a crisp after eight hours of steady burning. She'd have probably died of carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation if she weren't effectively immune to that sort of thing.

A mad dash under the kitchen countertop provided a small handheld fire extinguisher. She sprayed it at the pot. Nothing happened. She threw it away and grabbed the second one to try again. Also nothing. She threw that one away and got a third, which worked just fine, and suddenly remembered that she should be turning the stove off, too. She made a mental note to replace the smoke alarm and promptly forgot it, then satisfied with her wakeup routine she trudged out the door in nothing but a night gown, looking like some sort of horror movie hag.

Doctor Cartwright slammed the door to her room shut as fast as possible, lest the smoke damage her lab equipment, and wandered towards the exit past dozens of cages full of rodents, vermin, and other small animals. On the right side, a frog croaked in surprise inside its container, sending a small jet of flame upwards and promptly exploding all over its fish tank. Cartwright quickly scribbled 'nope' next to 'cage 23' on a clipboard hanging on the wall near the exit, then grabbed her fire axe medical access axe and put on her bunny slippers.

Whoever'd gotten hurt this time around would pay for waking her up. At least, unless it were actually severe. Then she'd have to rush back, get dressed, take a shower, and... Er, take a five minute shower, then get dressed, and come back to treat them. The hag that was Alexis Cartwright waddled out of the building and slowly made her way towards the CTF Event, looking like some sort of creature out of hell. It probably didn't help her appearance any that she was nearing two hundred pounds at the moment.

"Now you w-" Ryousei started, but he never got to finish as the other boy suddenly moved, throwing his leg at the back off his knee.

"Oh f- ahh!" he cried as he fell to a knee, only his free hand stopping him from falling fully to the ground.

Ryousei quickly stood and turned, jabbing at the other boy twice. Once in the shoulder, once below the knee.

"Shame," he said, any semblance of joviality gone from his face and his voice.

Then he turned and walked away.

He hated dirty fighters.

@Western Robot

---

Jun-Sang politely declined Daler's offer of tea. It just wasn't his type of drink. He simply continued to watch. He was particularly interested in the two kids on the Red Team. Jun-Sang found that kids tended to be harder to teach; even though the material was easier, getting younger students to catch up with his way of thinking more than offset.

The boy then caused an incident, and Jun-Sang watched as one of the teachers step in to resolve it. Jun-Sang didn't move from his spot. After all, when it came to breaking up physical altercations, Jun-Sang wasn't the person to turn to.

Jun-Sang broke away from the field when Mina came up to the group, introducing herself to Meilin. He raised an eyebrow as she talked about joining the martial arts class. Mina didn't strike him as someone to take such a class, but when she explained herself, Jun-Sang supposed it made sense.

Light was harder to modify into a pure offensive force, when he thought about it. It wasn't like his power to manipulate density, which could be used in conjunction with other objects to create some powerful weapons.

Jun-Sang still didn't say anything, though. There was nothing he could add, after all.

Alexei Pavlov

While the others were attending to their own business or watching the CTF game, Alexei had been tending to a small task of his own. It was nothing big; he had simply chosen to take time to pen a letter to his folks back home. He made a point of writing back to them about his time at the institute, and he had kept this up for all the yeas he had been there. The letter read as follows;

"Dear mother and father,

I hope you are still well. I am A-okay, as I said I was in just about every letter before this one. Recently, I returned to the institute from a trip to Japan to pick up a new student. She was a colourful one, to say the least. In fact, her hair was especially colourful; it was a bright pink! I'm not sure she really suits the colour pink, but you know me, I'm not the type to go telling people that stuff. She gave me quite a bit of trouble on the journey over, but I'm sure she'll settle down and become another good student here. The semester is off to a rough start though; there was an assault on the very first day! We stopped the situation from escalating, but I fear it may take some time to reconcile the students involved. I am confident we will sort it out eventually--"

It was in the midst of considering what he would write about next that he received Daler's communication. He was fairly certain he was referring to good ol' Johnathan. "Ah, I'll be down there in a moment!" He called out. Then he remembered Daler wasn't actually there. 'Ah, I'll be down in a moment!' He thought in his head. He always forgot exactly how Daler's powers worked. In any case, he made tracks for the gym.

When he arrived in the gym, he greeted Johnathan heartily. "Ah, Johnny! I heard from Daler that you may require a spotter. Might I offer assistance?"

@Azereiah

---

Shinichi had been stabbed. While this wasn't the first time something like this had happened to him, it wasn't a feeling he could see himself getting used to. He was vaguely aware of his own blood pooling below him. It was warm.

After a few seconds, Shinichi directed his energy to his injuries. If he just left things as they were, he would still heal, but actively regenerating made things faster. He could see the stab wound on his knee close after a few seconds, and his shoulder was feeling better. Then, he got to work regenerating the blood he had lost. After a minute had passed, Shinichi finally felt good enough to stand up and walk back to his team's side. Hopefully that had been enough fighting for the day. His clothes were already ruined, with the blood and having been stabbed.

---

"I don't particularly care about the children's behavior and attitudes. What I care about is if they can advance our understanding of Channeling. In that regard, there is certainly some promising subjects."

Shin smiled and looked back to the monitor, switching between various cameras and surveying the situation. Freyja had stepped in just as the fire girl and the boy with the heat beam were going to attack each other. Shin's smile turned to a frown. He switched on the speaker on a camera near Freyja and spoke into a microphone sitting on the security desk.

"Miss Leden, this is Doctor Maxwell. You shouldn't end things right when they become interesting. How are we supposed to assess their abilities if we do not see them?"

@Silver Carrot@Hammerman

Rustle...Rustle...Rustle..Clink! Clink! The shadow haired boy walked through the grass already annoyed by the distance and location of the school. Why the hell is it so damn far away? His katana strapped to his back,!hilt gleaming from the top of a hill, if you looked in that direction you could see a bright light being reflected. Roy saw people on a field, they seemed to be around his age, and they seemed to be fighting though they didn't seem impressive.

Roy soon closed in on the institute and a closer look on the fresh meat and they looked even less impressive then before. "Insects" he said under his breath as he walked passed the field, someone probably heard him but he really didn't care. Roy saw some people off the the side enjoying the battle but the way those kids fought was rather reckless in a way.He saw an elderly man in a gold cart wearing a turban, that must be him. Roy heard of the great telepath Daler, he was probably the only one who would get some respect out of him. He is pretty mysterious to be honest

"The powerful telepath, I have heard stories of your abilities" Roy said with a smirk "I've only come here to learn the basics of my new abilities, after that I am gone" He said with a regular tone, Roy knew only one ability he was fairly comfortable using, he wanted to fully grasp the power of his ability and learn how it works.

@Azereiah

@Western Robot

Mako put her fingertips to her mouth and chuckled. Even she wasn't as open and honest about her perverse entertainment from watching students bury their own graves, as Dr. Maxwell was about putting his Channelling research over the students' well-being.

"I'm all for ignoring the moral and responsible standpoints that we teachers are supposed to have in favour of our own suspect agendas. Trust me, I'm with you. But when they're about to kill each other, that's when the fun stops, and that's when it's time to break it up. Speaking of suspect agendas, I'm going to get more enjoyment out of this than I should..."

Mako then placed her hand on the corner of the chair where Shin was sitting, and leaned in. She opened her eyes, and her smile became a toothed grin and with that gesture, started to use her power. She suddenly felt like she was taking up twice as much of the small room as she actually was, and those teeth were still looking like teeth, but they were starting to feel like fangs.

"You should really stop coming in to rooms you're not permitted to be in. I won't stop you, but I might be inclined to tell somebody who will~"

Meilin Hua

"Interesting." Meilin said, after hearing Mina's answer.
"You recognize your own weaknesses, and you seek to make up for them using training and techniques." She said to her, satisfied with her answer.
"Knowing your own weaknesses, limits and accepting them is a very important step, Mina. Its something that many people struggle with."
"I can teach you what I know, but how much you will be able to learn and how well you will be capable of applying this knowledge is up to you."
"Eastern martial arts, unlike western ones isn't just about the fighting. Its teachings and lessons are far more than just about combat. That is one reason why they are so lethal. If you keep your mind open to their teachings, you will learn to know not only yourself and your body better, but help you to achieve balance within your own body and the energies that surround you." she said, gently grabbing the girl's arms.
"You will know not only how to harm," she said, carefully pressing two acupressure points, one on the cubital crease and one just below the end of the axillary fold, making her arm become numb, paralyzed and making her feel a sharp, but brief pain.
"But also, how to heal." she said, pressing another point, this time on the outer surface of the forearm, below the elbow crease and massaging it for 3 seconds, making her arm go back to normal.
"Balance, equilibrium, Tao... The base of every eastern martial art."

"I feel this may be a good match, Meilin. Kasuke here was a great help with seating unconscious students during detentions last year. I'm surprised, though, Mina. I hadn't thought of you as the sort to take part in elective martial arts classes," She heard Daler speaking, interrupting her small lecture.

"That is good to hear. You must be a very responsible girl." she said to her.
"Before I can start to teach you, you must understand that above everything else, you need to strive for emotional and physical balance. The things you will learn are dangerous. You need to be responsible on how to use them."

@Azereiah@Silver Carrot

---

---

Jonathan was in the middle of loading plates onto a bar at a bench when Alexei entered. Two hundred and seventy-five pounds were on it so far, and he wasn't quite finished, given that the weight room only had a few fifty-pound plates available. The bench was saddened by the uneven load, but it'd hold up anyway. It always had. He responded with a cheerful façade, though he wasn't really the greatest actor in the world. "That'd be great. Thanks, Professor. I'll have to thank Daler too, next time I see him. How's the family?"

One last plate went on the barbell as Jonathan listened for Alexei's response, bringing the bar up to three hundred pounds total. "Starting off a bit lighter than usual today, since I've been out of it all summer. Not sure how much I've slipped since then," he said as he lay flat on the bench, gripping the bar widely. He'd wait for Alexei to get into position before pushing it up off the rack -- form was everything, including waiting for the spotter to get ready. Even if he was a little out-of-it from the events of the day, he trusted Alexei enough to go to the man with his problems and for advice. It felt more natural than going to Daler or any of the other counselors, who Jonathan felt usually tried to solve problems with brute force.

"I've been thinking about what happened earlier. Seems like I can't connect with people today, if that makes sense."

@Mercurial

---

---

Daler nodded sagely as Meilin demonstrated her talents to Kasuke. Pressure points were valuable knowledge, and would permit even a frail student to drop a larger attacker with some finesse. Daler's preferred points to strike had always been the carotid sinuses, though, since that was a surefire way to put someone down even if they had nerve damage. It had the drawback of being potentially fatal to opponents with heart problems or aneurysms, so he tried to avoid it where possible in his older age.

"Of course, the most dangerous knowledge comes later. While Eastern Martial Arts technically encompasses most arts of Asian origin, there is a lot of knowledge that's nothing like what most schools teach. It's one thing to throw and snap a straight punch. It's something completely different to know your own body and your opponent's like the back of your hand," Daler thought towards the two. He'd taken a similar course in the past, though he no longer remembered most of the specifics. The only things that still came naturally to him were blocking and striking with his cane, as in the past two decades, it had fallen out of use with his arthritis. There was some certainty in his mind that Kasuke would do well in the class after some months, but it would be a little difficult pushing her away from her purely academic goals and towards a martial artist's mindset.

The approach of a new student interested him. Roy, one of the more 'troubled' new students, had finally arrived. Daler would let Asa or another instructor deal with his tardiness, though. He spoke using his mouth this time around, responding in kind to the boy's two statements, and his earlier near-silent insult. "I'm sure you have, and I'm sure you are. Welcome to the Institute, Roy, and watch your tongue around here. I'm mostly harmless myself _(mostly), but there are a few real fireballs around."

@13org@Silver Carrot@pkken

@Azereiah@13org

Mina had been expecting the resulting spiel about eastern martial arts about being more than just combat. That was why she wanted to learn it. She was hardly the strongest, fastest, fittest or more athletic student around, but she had drive, and she had discipline, and she had the time and patience to learn something properly no matter how long it took. This seemed like a perfect fit for her.

It was the practical demonstration that caught her out, though. By only pressing two pressure points, Meilin had completely disabled her arm, and by pressing one more, it had healed. Her eyes grew wide. Suddenly, getting top marks in all competitive classes felt very achievable. Of course, first she'd have to take a few lessons of this and gauge if she could get top marks in this one also. What she had just witnessed today was not physical power. It was not Channelling. It was weaponized knowledge, and it was exactly the compliment her power needed.

She stopped this train of thought, and repressed it. She forgot she was standing so close to Daler. She'd have to be careful...

@pkken

Mina's eye was caught by a new, fashionably late student arriving, and also sharply dressed. Could he too be from a rich family? She didn't recognize him, so he wasn't from her social circles. He was very open about only being here to learn more about his powers and nothing else. At least he wouldn't be another academic rival for her.