The Martial Unity

It was truly an odd sight.

Unlike any other he had ever seen.

She continued scrubbing with even greater vigor, immersion, and dedication than before.

Ordinarily, Rui would have shrugged with confusion and moved on with his tour of the Gen Temple.

And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to move on this time.

He squatted before her, gazing into her eyes.

“You say that I’m right…” he continued with an intrigued tone. “And then you go back to scrubbing the ground. Something seems a bit amiss here, lady…”

She smiled at him brightly. “You are right. That’s why I’m training as hard as I can!”

She returned to her task with even greater vigor.

Rui stared at her, mystified.

He was lost.

There was a disconnect between them so fundamental that he wasn’t even sure where to begin.

“When I say training…” Rui began with a slow and steady tone. “I mean training your Martial Art. Not training to be the best cleaner in town.”

“What’s the difference?” She tilted her head, gazing at him with a pure and innocent curiosity.

Rui stared at her like she was from another world.

She simply giggled at his dumbfounded expression. She returned to finishing her task while he continued staring at her with a stupefied expression.

“Alright, done with scrubbing the ground,” she enthusiastically exclaimed, diligently putting the rag and bucket away. “Time for the next task!”

Rui did a violent double-take at that. “Next… task?”

“Mhm, would you care to join me?”

He just stared at her, trying to discern if the people of the Gen Temple had an elaborate sense of humor or not.

“Come, let’s go to the next task!”

CLASP

His eyes widened as she caught his hand before he could even react, pulling him away with an immense physical power. “Woah!”

She was strong.

From then on, she dragged him around the Gen Temple as she went about her tasks across the entirety of the compound. From washing the walls to scrubbing more grounds to even unpleasant jobs like cleaning the sewers and breaking rocks into smaller rocks with a hammer.

Worst of all, she pulled him into doing them too!

“Here, let’s both train.” She handed him a bucket with wax in it and a scrubber before pointing to some carriages. “Shine these carriages until they’re glistening!”

And thus, Rui became a menial laborer for the Gen Temple before he even realized it.

“What the hell am I doing?”

He didn’t have an answer.

He had absolutely no idea why he was here and why he joined her on her spree of manual labor.

He simply did.

There was something magnetic about her.

Something gravitic.

He simply couldn’t help himself but relent to the warmth of her innocent enthusiasm. After a long day of work that pushed his Martial Body to the brink of exhaustion, he panted, lying flat on the ground.

“Huff… A long day of training is complete!” She joined him, lying flat beside him with a sigh of satisfaction.

“This has got to be the strangest day of my life,” Rui muttered to himself with a baffled expression. “I was dragged around the Gen Temple by a crazy girl who thought manual labor and menial tasks were Martial training.”

“I’m not crazy!” she complained with a pout. “I really was training! And so were you!” “No, I wasn’t,” Rui scoffed, getting up slowly. “And neither were you. I don’t know if you’re just trolling me or if the Gen Temple is filled with crazies, but I’m done.”

He walked away from her, complaining under his breath.

And then, Primordial Instinct tingled with warning.

BAM!!!

He just barely managed to turn around to redirect her attack with his elbow. And yet, the sheer impact of her power sent him skidding several meters away.

The two locked eyes as his sharp gaze pierced into hers. “What do you think you’re doing?”

And yet, he couldn’t detect the faintest hint of malice or hostility from her with his mind

sense.

He only detected innocent goodwill.

She smiled at him warmly as she pointed at the redirection maneuver she had chosen. “Do you recognize that movement?”

Rui raised an eyebrow as he glanced down at his guard.

His eyes widened with a hint of surprise.

He did recognize those movements. They were among the several tasks that he had dedicated hours to alongside her. Even his fingers were shaped the way they would have been had he

been doing the task.

“See?” Her enthusiasm grew as she explained. “You did train Martial Art.”

“…I literally just trained some manual labor. The fresh memory of the movements must have still lingered in the surface of my mind, making my guard take its form,” Rui realized. “Exactly.” She smiled. “So you trained in Martial Art. Everything you did with me today was part of Martial Art. It doesn’t matter if it was scrubbing the floor, cleaning the walls, breaking rocks, or waxing the carriages. All of it is Martial Art. In fact…”

Her enthusiasm grew as she directed her gaze to the dark skies. “…Everything is Martial Art.”

Rui’s eyes lit up with fascination. “Everything… is Martial Art?”

She nodded with a wise smile. “Everything you do. Every moment from the moment you were born to the moment you die. All of it is Martial Art. Everything in this world is Martial Art according to Gen philosophy. We don’t treat Martial Art as a separate set of actions entirely different from other actions and movements in our lives. We believe that they are all one and the same. We believe that Martial Art flows through all sentient beings. It is everything and everywhere. You just need to harness it.”

She smiled at him with a warm enthusiasm. “As you just did.”

Rui gazed at her with a hint of wonder and curiosity.

“Who are you?”

She giggled at the question, turning away from him as she gazed at him from the corner of her

eyes knowingly.

“My name is Amare, and I am the Omni Martial.”