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yi-dashi-a · 7 years

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Flashback

The water ran fast in the river, always eager to reach theocean from the not so distant mountains. And Yi had to wonder, as an over exuberantteen catapulted himself from the dock, if the ripples from his students wouldbe felt all the way down to the Lowlands.

“|Ow! My balls!|” The Student cried as he stood within the current.

“De!” Another stern teen pouted, hands upon her hips, “|What did I tell you? Did you break yourtailbone on the bottom of the river?|” But to that, the boy’s only responsewas to kick up the water all the more, soaking anyone who hadn’t been gameenough to submit to the chill.

“|De, stop!|”

“|The river’s mine,idiots. Try harder if you want to claim it… even if it hurts your ass.|”

“Yi Dashi!” Called a shorter boy with the beginnings ofscruff to his chin. Yi himself only paid a passing glance with his shimmeringlavender eyes, the uncanny parting of the water slowing the flow just enoughfor him to sit cross-legged in the shallows.

“Shuang, don’t complain.” He called mindlessly, “Sort itout. Da-Zan?”

“Master, c’mon!” The girl shouted, but before she could getanother word in edgewise he raised his hand,

“Zan. Sort it out. De? Do you need to speak so rudely toyour peers?”

“Fight me for the river, Master!” He sighed, hearing the boy’sshuffled approach through the water for miles, “Or I’ll be forced to call you Papafor the rest of my days here—”

Without even a flinch, Yi’s hand darted through the waterand directly for De’s ankles. Though a Wuju Disciple of note even at seventeen,maybe the bruise to his rump or the ambition in his eyes had him unprepared forbeing upturned into the water, and held a moment by his foot.

“I am not your father, so I really don’t have any reservationsin drowning you right now.” Once again, De gasped for his breaths when emergingfrom the waters below, floundering a moment as if he expected the water to bedeeper than what it was, “Everyone behave though, else we are going back to thetemple and training for the rest of the day!”

“Jeez Yi Da-Hui. I’m sorry.” Said the boy, but he wasn’t sorry.Not at all. Yi’s own guard fell, and instantly he found both mud and waterbeing kicked up at his face, “Aha!Come and swim in the deep water already, Papapa.”

“By the Stars, boy.”Yi sighed, wearing the muck rightly for a time before washing himself clean, “Youare lucky I don’t beat your ears in!” But his student was already preparing tolaunch himself from the dock again. He readied his stance to use his Wujutraining for such a minuscule thing… but stopped. There on the dock was anotherof Yi’s students, and all eyes who cared to focus on De eventually followed hisgaze towards his companion.

He was a complicated boy, the one who held the title Da-Luo.At eighteen he was the oldest of all the disciples, and wore his facial hair asproud as he held his sword. But his expression was notably meek behind hissharp features and general aloofness, so much so that even the cocky De thoughtto put a hand on his shoulder.

“What’s up, Luo?”

“Master..?” His low tones called out, his posture tensingwhen Yi gestured for him to speak freely, “… Do you not care that we execute people in this river?” Even thefisherman prepping for their day’s catch arched their eyebrows as the young manspoke. The rest of the disciples, too, stopped in their swimming to truly keeptheir focus, “Master, do you not care that we tie people down and drown them in this river? I don’t understand why you’deven joke about it, and I don’t understand why we can’t just be training rightnow.”

“Luo…”

“Master. We’re wasting our time. I can’t train on my own.”Yi shook his head softly as his student grew more agitated in time, “I don’twant to swim here. I can’t.”

“Da-Luo, hang on.Just wait a moment…” It was as simple as a thought, and he was up and out ofthe water. His levitation brought him gracefully up and onto the pier, one soft foot after the other, thoughit did a good job of scaring off some locals in the process. He payed them nomind as Luo expression darkened, and he wore his most charismatic smile to contestthe gloom, “… Sit a moment, alright?”

“If you wish, Master.”

“Come on now…” The man let out a half sigh, but came to situpon the rickety wooden structure anyway. He hung his legs clumsily over theedge of the thing, though his student chose an unfaltering posture instead, “Listen…You’re not wrong. This river holds a lot of significance to this place. It’sthe way we get down to the Lowlands quickly, and it’s the place some of the best fishcomes from. It is also the most honorable justice in these lands, and I willnot deny you if you find this unsettling. However,” A hearty hand slapped tothe younger man’s shoulder, though he flinched not an inch, “what is the mostimportant principle of Wuju? What is the underpinning foundation of this art?”

“Absolute spiritual Awareness…” He parroted, as he had somany times before.

“Indeed. Awareness.We must be Aware of all things, correct?”

“I’d like to think I am the best a human can be.”

“What is a river?” Luo’s brow furrowed, so Yi continued instay of an answer, “A river is a body of water, sourced from the mountains thatcarves through the land. Unless we were executing someone today, the river’swater washes away to elsewhere. The blood of Master Qiu is long gone in any event. The river, as a construct in this world, isnothing more than that. It’s water, rocks, mud, and a few boats here or there.”

“O… Okay?”

“So, while I understand that you might feel somereservations,” His smile lost it’s goofy beginnings and warmed somewhat as hetilted his head and looked into the Disciples deep black eyes, “you need to askyourself why you ascribe these meanings to something that is nothing more than…”

“… Water, rocks, mud, and boats.”

“You don’t need to swim, but you can’t let this associationstop you from swimming in all rivers, do you understand what I’m saying? Even if you think this of only this river, you’re stepping down a road of making associations where there might otherwise be none. There’slessons to be had even here, whether you swim or no.”

“I… I-I’m going to have to meditate on this, I think.”

“Truly, I encourage it…” He said as if it were the end ofthings, but his smile warped back to its old ways, “And I’m going to push you innow, like it or not.”

“Wh—”

The look of abject betrayal almost made Yi feel bad for Luoas he hit the hip high water below, but he stuck to his jesting ways and stoodtriumphantly above all his students,

“Another lesson, just take the day off when I give it toyou, Luo. You need to rest, else you will grow into my Grandpapa—”

It seemed to be a day for cutting people off, because beforehe knew it a blunt force took to his back. De’s open arms clamped around him athigh speeds, and sent both of them tumbling into the river as well.

“River Lord!” He proclaimed when Yi’s ears emptied of water,“River Lord, River Lord! Don’t wastemy time with all this Wuju on my one day off, Da-Hui.”

“Oh no. You don’tdisrespect me like that!”

The water fight that ensued was great enough that Yi almostthought to immortalize it as ‘The Balladof the River Lord,’ though the continued glares from Luo when he driedhimself off and stormed away from the river bank had him decide against it.

#WUJU THRIVES IN STORY NOW 『Drabbles』#WHY DO YOU FIGHT 『Memories』#Yi has fun with his students while also scarring one for life looooooooooool #this is my content for today #hope its okay because I can't type well #muh fingertips are numb >.<#long post #ironinquisitorr

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