nothin

You mean, you won't do it.

Indeed. I am quite keen on not dying.

Hahah, hah. I may have a chivalrous heart, yes, but I'm not quite that able.

*Sigh*. That's too bad, then. I thought you were some traveling hero too, always holding that fan.

'Too'?

Er, we are in the modern age, are we not? Do people still pronounce themselves such things?

They do. A young heroine came through town two years ago. She loved fighting for others, upholding justice every day. She could knock somebody out with just her fan.

But I hear she got foiled by one of the Chis. *Sigh* She's been missing ever since.

...There's a shame.

So you really don't have any... amazing kung fu techniques, or self-taught Originium Arts, or whatever?

Hardly. How could I? If I did, I would've gone to be a Tianshi in a heartbeat, no?

So all your geomancy skills...

*cough* More knowledge than skills, really.

But I do have some small faith in my calligraphy—how about I decorate a fan for you? Would you like 'Riches by the day'? Or maybe, 'Friendship is wealth'?

No thanks. It's winter.

Hahah, quite right.

Proprietor, where would I go were I to seek these Chi henchmen?

Alas. The car is bought, my Messenger identity perfected, and a letter to my parents on its way. Let's have no mess despoiling this vital juncture.

While the Chi may have enmity for my master... two thugs harassing a tavern proprietor shouldn't know me by face.

Even if I am rustled, that's just one more escape to make.

...If only I knew whether my schoolsister was alive or not. Finding my fellow disciples' whereabouts would at least afford me some support, traveling about these lands.

Ahem. Excuse me, the two of you.

What are you doing here, fortune-teller?

I'll be forthright. Yesterday, and while I do think he ought to heed, you taught that poor boy at Ju-i Tavern a lesson in place of your good Miss, and I happened to be present.

...No one was there.

The rear kitchen. I was in the rear kitchen.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think of you as welldoers, welldoers of particular note, and that boy really has no tact.

Hmph. Get to the point.

Er, here it is then... the proprietor's silver bracelet. The thing I notice you're using to cover your instant noodles on the table. Might you be willing to let it change hands?

As I see it, were you to give it to the Miss of the family, it might only further prove her irascibility.

Besides, it's of poor purity, and not particularly treasurable by any means, so it wouldn't suit your noble statures either, I fear.

...I'll be honest with you two, I'd like to buy this bracelet as a present for my mother in her fine age. She's not keen on whatever's making waves back home; it's rustic designs like this she's about.

Well. I'll just put the money here, and if you give me a nod, I could certainly never thank you enough. The both of you would be great benefactors to me, yes.

That's right, how about a divination? Free of charge—

Er?

Is it right that this tavern suffers power outages?

—Erk.

(Are those hidden weapons?)

My, now! I hardly thought myself so poor a portent that'd we'd have an electrical failure... Apologies, then, for inconveniencing you two!

(How very peculiar. Why capture me all of a sudden? Was my intent to retrieve the proprietor's goods too obvious?)

Seize him.

(There's a partition behind the wall...?)

Well, excuse me, you two! I'll be off to the front desk to report the fault now!

...No one's still tailing, by the looks of it.

A fair enough outcome. I didn't lose my life, and the dark let me filch the bracelet in the process.

*Sigh* Not that the proprietor will be able to remain here for long, it seems.

This disaster is of my own making, yet once again I've drawn others into it... A shame I am to the Ch'u name.

But that voice behind the partition can't have been a trick of the ears, can it...?

...An umbrella-maker?

Mm. It's that Ch'u boy, there's no mistake. I still recognize him, even if he's not using his fan or kickboxing.

No wonder none of them could touch him.

I'll follow the goods.

Alas... I suppose I needn't even seek my schoolsister, really.

The path here is a dead end. Once I return and make reparations at the tavern, I'll scarper in the night.

Proprietor, if I could have a word—

Oh, Mr. Chasteberry, you came at a just the right time. Look, this is the heroine I mentioned to you earlier. I didn't expect—

—With such a fortuitous coincidence, I simply must ask you allow me to read your palm, good heroine. Come, place down your fan for now.

Mr. Chasteberry, was it?

Er, he's always like this, sorry. Please put up with him.

By the way, your palm-reading sucks. Nothing you said last time was even close to right.

Come, now, at least I didn't have you pay for it.

Not a worry, heroine, my first sight of you is of fine significance; this fortune's free of charge. If you require, I can bring out the hexagram for a momentary divination as well.

Go on, sir.

Judging by your palm, you must have lived in Kou-wu City in the springs of your youth.

Mm-hm, true.

But I can say you belong to Kou-wu City too. I knew it at a glance.

We must always from the shallows to the depths. Allow me to continue—there is a benefactor in your life.

Many have shown me kindness.

This benefactor is not a parent, yet has impacted your life for ten and some years—you must have had some eminent teacher, I presume?

Surely, this teacher spoke that, in our realm of such human wrongdoing, someone must be there to remedy. Hence why you became a savior to the folk of Yün-shui.

...In general, true.

That's still just an educated guess though, isn't it? Who hasn't gone to school before? Who hasn't had a teacher tell them how to be a good person?

This was born of no conjecture, I tell you.

Heroine, truth be told, inauspiciousness lies in these lines. May I take the liberty to ask, have you returned to this benefactor of yours to call on them, in recent years? ...Do you still dwell on her?

...She died.

She died? That's awful to hear.

She was old by that point, but still as determined to wade through as when she was young. Once it came high tide and the waves rose up, she lost her footing, never to stand back up again.

Man, what a way to go.

To adopt both feng and shui, to seize upon the currents when they're right. Is that not what marks the smartest of us?

What's smartest is not going near the water at all. Spring tides have been ticking high these past two years. People who keep watch on them have even gotten swept in, gone missing.

Even when someone actually finds them, all that's left might be a body.

*Sigh* And the authorities keep repeating the warning every year, but there's always some kind of accident every few days.

Indeed, a shame, a frightful shame. I've angled by the waterside in my everyday, heard of people falling in, and been unable to resist rushing to fish them out. Never caught a single one.

You never seemed so kindhearted to me.

Here now, life and death is no trifling matter.

No, I do trust in your loyalty, sir.

Divine through my future for me, please.

Ah, yes, yes, let me see...

Your future is difficult to pin down. There's a bump in your way, but it shouldn't be difficult to surmount.

Don't say anything about going broke or avoiding whatever. Make it nice this time.

Heroine, you are chivalrous first, and graceful to many second. I imagine the fine Heavens shouldn't want to blight you any—hear, now, I'm not charging for these auspicious words.

Aren't the chivalry and grace the same thing?

*Sigh* Not quite.

Here, we've been chatting for a formidable while. Perhaps this calls for a spot of wine?

Oh. I've been so preoccupied with this, I forgot to even treat my guests.

Sure, this is perfect. I've got something I want to tell you too, heroine. Let me get some good wine.

I'm to let go, then?

We haven't compared our kung fu in a while, schoolbrother. More guidance, if you will.

Pardon me, then, schoolsister!

Master, I've finished cooking. Gloompincer glass noodle pot. I learned it from the head chef while part-timing. Would you try it?