6:12pm, Filopappou Hill, on the Outskirts of the Acropolis
Heping stood among the trees and bushes, off the beaten path. From here she couldn't be seen from either the walkway that moved through the park or the streets that surrounded it. In the brush, the only sign of civilization was the Acropolis behind her, barely seen through the waving trees, which reflected the orange light of evening like a second sun over the city.
She set her bag down on a clear patch of rock that poked out of the scattered dust and grass. As she straightened her back, she made out the glowing, ephemeral form of Lancer, Pigsy, emerging from his Spirit Form back into physical reality.
She often had a hard time taking her Servant seriously, he was like a child in both mind and body. In any other context, his pouting face might've been amusing, but she could sense this was no laughing matter. It was easy to forget, but he was a warrior, a general of heaven who must have lived through several mortal lifetimes before arriving in his current form, and it was that wisdom, that military mind, that she saw in this moment.
Right now, he was no longer her Servant, no longer her companion or friend. Right now, he was her teacher.
-He had offered to train her.
She limbered her aching body as well as she could, but anyone who watched her move could see that she was rushing the exercise, and anyone who saw her eyes could make out her excitement in their shine.
"Hey! Slow down -oink-. We're gonna be here a while, so don't waste your energy."
"Ah, yes. How long will these exercises take?"
His stout form compressed with visible frustration, "This isn't a damn exercise, girly! I've seen you move! I've seen you fight! You an' I both know you're done with basic drills."
She kept stretching, this time more deliberate and slow, ignoring the pain in her back from her previous injury, "I thought you were going to instruct me in some ancient arts, yes? Do you not always start with drills before moving to more advanced techniques?"
"Master, this IS the advanced technique."
She stopped in place, half-bent over.
Lancer sighed, "If we had years, months, even weeks, then sure, yeah, maybe we coulda started from the top. But we don't have that kinda time, we might not have any time at all. Instead-" He slipped his small arms out of his robe, letting the two sides fall so that his entire belly was exposed, flexing as much as he could with his plump body"-we're gonna jump straight to application -oink- with the assumption that the skills you already got will be enough."
She straightened herself and began limbering her shoulders, her eyes drifting to the leaves blowing in the breeze, "... Is that wise?"
"Pfft- No. But fake it 'til ya make it, right? If you're able to copy the technique, I figure you oughta be able to work out how to really do it through practice- what feels right and what don't -oink-."
She took a deep breath pushing her worries to the back of her mind, emptying herself to become a proper vessel for what she was about to learn. She widened her stance, straightening her back and placing her arms at her side, forearms out and forward, fists with palms up. "Ready!"
Lancer nodded, and one couldn't help but notice his toothy smirk, barely hidden underneath his nose. "Hehe- Alright! Step One!"
Heping nodded resolutely.
"-Which way is the wind blowing?"
"Huh?"
Lancer manifested his rake with a flash and smacked Heping in the shin with the shaft.
"Ow!"
"I said: which way is the wind blowing? -oink-"
Doing her best to put aside the pain and confusion, Heping let her stance go, licking her finger and raising it to the sky while her eyes watched the swaying trees.
"... Northwest."
"Right!" Pigsy moved to her side, facing northwest, "Face the direction the wind is blowing."
She turned to match him, facing the exact direction the wind was traveling- north-northwest as best she could approximate.
Pigsy moved his stout body with unbefitting grace. With his back to the wind, he placed his left foot in front, and moved his right foot back and behind the first, his torso nearly parallel while he looked forward. His chubby hand moved back, palm forward and upside-down, and shot his arm out, his palm turning upright in the movement. Wind swirled around him and broke, blowing her hair and clothes, but not so much as to move her. He then repeated with his left arm, going back and forth several times before slowing to a stop, freezing in place.
"Now you."
She did her best to match his stance, wondering to herself how close her feet needed to be, or how far apart. As she approximated the position, Pigsy broke his stance, encircling her legs and making small adjustments, a little forward, a little out, a little more to the right, and once he was satisfied:
"Go ahead. Palm forward. -oink-"
She mimicked the initial movement. Waiting for a reproach that never came, she then did the same with her other arm.
"Dontchya worry about strength right now, -oink- we're mostly worried about posture."
She nodded, and Pigsy moved to her front, using the shaft of his rake to make small adjustments, raising her arm and moving her palm out slightly.
"Ya wanna feel like your palm is pushing the wind and being pushed at the same time; like yer movin' with it."
She nodded. "Right."
He smacked her in the shin again.
"Ow!"
"That's 'Yessir' missy!"
She swallowed what was left of her pride, "Yes sir."
He smacked her again.
"Ow!"
"With passion!"
"Yes sir!"
The pig's smug aura could be sensed from miles away, "Better. Now fix your stance!"
Repeating the ritual of entering and adjusting the stance, she performed the movements a few times over, focusing on the sensation of the movement, and searching for the feeling Pigsy had described.
"...How will I know when I have performed it properly?"
He smacked her in the shin.
"Ow!"
-This time, however, she braced herself, and was able to maintain her stance.
"I didn't hear a 'sir'!"
"How will I know when I have done this properly, sir!"
"You won't do it right. What I want is for you to feel it out, making adjustments as you need to."
She nodded.
Pigsy raised his rake.
"Yes, sir!"
"Better."
Lancer moved around the area, pacing in circles around her, examining her, her movements, her posture. As he continually moved behind her and out of view, she became suddenly aware of the stories about Zhu Bajie, his reputation as not just a glutton, but a rascal. A wave of discomfort washed over her, and she briefly wondered if she should've worn less revealing clothes to this exercise but, eventually, she realized there was nothing to worry about. In this moment, he was not a glutton, he was not a coward, he was not lustful. In this moment, he was a military man, a commander of men, and she was his student.
The moments passed, and passed. Sudden jolts of awareness reminded her that the area was darker than before as the sun set below the horizon. Even Lancer eventually retired to a nearby rock, sitting and watching her as closely as before. Her body was well trained, and well used to physical strain far and beyond this simple exercise, it was more the mental stress; the stress of not knowing when it would end, when it would stop, that truly ate away at her. Just as she was ready to stop of her own accord-
"Alright, that's enough! Break!"
She allowed her body to slump as she let the breath fall from her lungs, breaking her stance and moving her body, the muscles that ached from being used so much, and the muscles that ached from being forced to be still. While she stretched, Pigsy moved from his perch to her bag, digging inside and fetching her water bottle, then tossing it to her when she was ready for it.
"Ah... thank you."
"Hmph. Don't thank me yet, we're not even halfway done."
She checked her phone. She had been doing that one exercise for about 20 minutes, did he truly intend to go through the night? An uncharacteristic smirk, a small, subtle lift of her lips, snuck its way onto her face. He was going to put her through the wringer, and there was something exciting about that. She hadn't done any proper drills for ages, having to put away her martial arts to learn magecraft from her family. She was finally getting back to what she loved, what she was good at, and she was getting it in full.
Lancer made his way back to his rock, "Two minutes! Then we move to step two."
She downed her water bottle and continued her stretches for the full time, until Pigsy once again broke from his perch and stood beside her.
"Break over! Back to work -oink-!"
"Yes, sir!"
"We're gonna do something completely different this time!"
"Yes, sir!"
"First," he turned to the opposite direction she'd been facing, "We face the wind."
She matched his turn, facing south-southeast. Her specially trained senses could pick up the slight, subtle taste of the sea in the air.
With the same grace as before, if slightly sharper and more forceful, he entered an entirely new stance. He stood with his legs wide, seemingly braced against the wind which pulled at his hanging robes. He faced fully forward with his arms up and pulled in, palms up as fists. It was a stance she'd seen variants of before, and its familiarity led her to question what it meant, as did its opposite nature to the exercise before. Pigsy punched forward, his fist turning in the air so that it was right-side when extended, and upside-down when pulled in. He repeated this exercise with both arms, back and forth, and the wind blew around him just as it had before. She did her best to try and match his stance until he froze in place-
"Now you."
She repeated the exercise as best she could, back and forth just as he had. After a few repetitions, he adjusted her stance slightly, farther out, lower to the ground, more force-
"Unlike the last one, force is important for this one. -oink- Each punch has to be made with full strength in order for it to work; you hafta feel like you're breaking the air in front of you, the same way you'd break any physical thing."
"Yes, sir!"
She punched over and over, as hard she could. Although the work was physically harder, that was almost the best part. She wasn't lulled into the tiring repetition of the previous exercise, instead, each movement was a challenge, a challenge against herself, and that challenge kept her grounded. That, and the fact that she could reasonably assume a twenty minute time, and so didn't have to constantly guess at when she'd be allowed to stop. Pigsy repeated the same basic actions as before, encircling her, inspecting her movements closely, before moving to a farther position, and sure enough, once twenty minutes had come and gone-
"Alright! Break!"
She let the breath from her lungs again, rubbing at her sore arms. Pigsy fetched her water bottle a second time, and moved back to his perch-
"So, lemme ask: of the two forms, which felt more natural?"
"I... am not sure what you mean."
"I mean what I said. -oink- Surely, you sensed the two forms were opposites, so which felt more natural? More natural in movement, and more aligned with what you want to do?"
Heping scanned her scattered thoughts, her mind still recovering from being effectively turned off, "I am not sure either felt more 'natural', though the second was more fun."
He tapped his rake against the rock he sat on in some sort of thought, or perhaps impatience, "...That makes sense I guess."
"How did I do?"
He waved his tubby hand, "Oh, don't worry about that. Masters of the techniques can perform them from any stance, and with any weapon. -oink- The posture is meant to put you in the proper mental space, acting out the spiritual aspect with your physical body so that you can understand it on a more fundamental level."
"So... this a spiritual technique then, or techniques?"
"Yes," he held up two fingers, "It's two spiritual techniques. The first," he entered the first stance, ''-is the 'Buddha Palm'. A martial art learned and practiced by the Bodhisattva, and by the high celestials. A martial art that destroys evil, and moves heaven and earth for that purpose. The second-" he entered the second stance, "Is the 'Asura Fist'. -oink- An art practiced by only the most powerful demons, which sends all things into disorder. A technique that not only curses its target, but is a curse in of itself. -oink-"
"Ah... I see...I think. So then, if the two are so opposed, then why have you taught me both?"
"I ain't taught ya shit yet! The point was to figure out which you gravitate more towards so we can focus on that one. Besides, ya can't even learn both; it just ain't possible."
For whatever reason, that sounded wrong, "No one? No one has ever learned both?"
"Not without tearing their body and soul in two." His focus drifted off for a moment, as if tasting the words, "...Except for one."
"And who was that?"
"Who else?", His face turned to a vicious snarl, the most animalistic expression she'd seen from him, "That bastard, Monkey! He was so insane that he was able to use the Buddha Palm with his right hand and the Asura Fist with his left, with no issue, and no contradiction. -But no one else ever has, and you sure as hell won't, got that?! -oink-"
Her face twisted into an awkward smile, not quite sure how to respond to his sudden outburst, "Eh...right..."
He swung his rake, thankfully just too far away to hit her, "That's 'eh, right, sir'!
"Eh right, sir!"
"Better."
Pigsy let loose a deep sigh, removing the seemingly unpleasant memories from his mind, "Anyway, so now we return to the first question, which do you want to learn?"
With the context behind her exercises at the forefront of her mind, what could've been a simple question felt so much larger; unthinkably vast, so vast as to crush her under its existential weight. The path of the Bodhisattva. The path of the Demon king. The path...
"I... am unsure. This all seems so beyond me. You speak of wars between Heaven and Hell, am I to take a side?"
Despite her apparent anxiety, her servant, Lancer, could only chuckle, "...That's what most mortals don't understand, Master, no- Heping. All people take a side, the only question is whether they know it or not. Even that damn Monkey- the only creature to ever be so neutral- took a side eventually. The side of Preservation and the side of Destruction." He leaned forward, as much as he could, "So what'll it be? To fight for the preservation of what is, for the natural laws that govern the world, or to fight for the destruction of them? Will you worship the forces of balance, or yourself?"
She looked down at her hands. She couldn't help but wonder what her answer would mean: 'preservation', but of what? 'Destruction', but of what? What 'natural laws'? What did that mean, for her, for the world? Was such a thing even possible?
Seeing her struggle, Pigsy spoke up again, "-oink- Lemme make somethin' clear from the get-go: this ain't a question of right or wrong."
He had Heping's full attention.
"Preservation ain't always good. Destruction ain't always bad. Sometimes, things have to be destroyed so somethin' better can be built. The cycle of reincarnation follows this balance: lives are destroyed and created over and over until they reach a point where they're worth preserving, y'know, Nirvana. The question comes down to whether the world, as it is now, is worth preserving. The path of Asura will always make you a villain, but it doesn't hafta make you the bad guy."
"Pigsy..."
"-Don't call me Pigsy."
"Do you think the world is worth preserving?"
Lancer gripped his rake in his left hand before raising his right in a palm. His expression seemed vacant, empty, almost sad as his hand began to glow with a soft, golden light. In the darkness of dusk, the light seemed to reach out from deep within himself, and it radiated a sense of calm, of pure benevolence. She found herself drawn to it, as if it were inviting her in, as if her home, the true home she'd never experienced, were right in front of her, waiting for her.
As the light disappeared back into his palm, his appearance was that of a Buddha, "I've chosen my side, but I also come from a different time. The fact that you even have to ask that question is- disturbing, and when you reminded me so much of her.... I won't judge ya either way, so just answer honestly. Think only of the war ahead, and if you make the wrong choice, it's never too late to change sides."
She looked up and behind where her Servant sat, the fading light of the setting sun making a purple-grey horizon past the trees, "How could I think just of the war? This question involves the very core of me, how could I answer it so casually?"
"Now's not the time for wisdom, Master, now's the time to act."
The light of dusk suddenly felt too bright, and her eyes drifted to the ground beneath her. Realizing what it was that had to be done, Heping could only nod solemnly.
"Very well."
She turned away from her servant, walking to the edge of the clearing they'd made their dojo, about ten paces. As she'd done a thousand times before, she emptied her mind and her heart, pushing all herself deep inside, so that she could be an empty vessel, an animal reliant on instinct, a machine with only a single purpose in mind. In other words, a warrior.
She turned sharply on her heel, planting herself in a ready position, "Then let us see you act, Zhu Bajie. Show me your Buddha Palm!"
A toothy grin emerged from beneath her servant's snout, a mischievous smile making its way to his animal face, "Reheehee! If that's what ya want, Master, don't come cryin' to me when you get it!"
He jumped to his feet atop the rock, spinning his rake dramatically, "I hope yer ready! Ooiiinn-" He leaped forward towards his master at blinding speed, his rake alight with golden light and ready to strike "-KU!"
....