The night was crisp. The air was clean. The hour was late. As tired as she was, Reinaka couldn't sleep. She had spent too many nights sleeping, too many hours resting and relaxing without a care in the world. But not tonight. Tonight she would be awake and alert and ready. Her companion was sleeping peacefully, regaining his strength. That amazing strength that came wit hsimply being who he was, coupled with the severity of the Fishman Karate style.

But for her, it wasn't like that. She was born with grace and beauty and wings and that's all anyone would ever expect from her. Her family was by no means impoverished, love was abundant in her life, no one would except her to go the extra mile, to stay up at night honing skills that she would never need because of her station in life. That was why she was here, on this roof, under he moonlight, wrapping her hands and forearms in bandages.

She would have to fight for her power, she would have to train for her strength. She took a deep gust of air into her lungs, exhaled slowly and smoothly then prepared herself. Her hands were a blur, her strikes were precise--still they needed to be quicker, more precise than they were. She moved in circular side steps, dodging and aiming for an invisible target. A leg went into the air and paused, a halted roundhouse kick kept vertical and airborne. This was what she had to do to be better.

Next, she moved to a collection of brooms that she had fastened together with rope in the crude shape of a human body, wrapped with pillows from her bed. The vixen circled the stick figure, breathing purposefully and with intention. Chi Blocking was only possible when the user was able to afix the output of their own chi to that of their opponents, matching the ebb and flow of their output and then ceasing that flow. Chi Blocking was an art form more so than a martial art, but just as deadly as any in existence in the hands of the right user.

She remembered when she first learned of the style, watching the monks endlessly striking at wooden figures with precise and exact movements. While other styles taught their students to break through those figures, the Chi Blocking instructors taught them to strike within them. The body is armor and a chi strike is the blade needed to cleanly dispense of that armor. Chi Blocking was not for the destructive or power hungry, it was for the patient and intelligent.

With each strike at the pillows, she felt herself growing closer to the harmony that was the chi of the wooden figure. Everything exerted energy, everything could be in tune with everything else. Most people plowed their way through obstacles, overcoming walls and opponents with the force of their own chi, negating the effects of the opponent's chi. It was a classic style of fighting, and one that should not be disrespected. But Chi Blockers didn't need to exert so much energy because attuning your chi to an obstacles disrupts their chi and crumbles its defenses from the inside out.

Body...

Sword...

Spirit...

The mantra of the Chi Blockers, chanted time and time again in unison to the Blocker's strikes. The mantra relates to the growing power of a Chi Blocker. First the body, meaning a Chi Blocker's strikes can cease the output of a human body, immobilizing it and in extreme cases cause death. The Sword refers to an advanced Chi Blockers ability to attune their chi with that of inanimate objects, finding the weaknesses of said objects and destroying them with ease. The Spirit, the strongest form for a Chi Blocker to attack refers to the use of a secret energy emitted by strong people.

The final form of Chi Blocking is a secret to all but the strongest of Blockers and Rei-Rei had no idea what it was, but that didnt mean that she strive towards that goal still! She attacked the broo fighter with finesse and skill that she hoped to develop over time. If she stayed determined, and strove towards perfection, she could be an asset, too! She could be strong, too! Her form of strength would be different from others but it would be strong all the same.

Her final strike exploded the pillows attached to the broomsticks and the feathers inside went spraying into the air. Her breath exhaled in loud swoops as she stood their, surrounded by feathers, recalling the site of Skypieans floating around the air, laughing at her, pointing at her. She would get stronger. She would become the strongest Skypiean there ever was!

See, there: yet another reason not to stop the dance.

Oh, but she did have to stop at one point though. When her breath became hitched, and her heart was pumping just a little too fast for her liking - and not nearly in the right way, nor for the right reasons, she might add – she decided that maybe, it was best if she stopped. Not for long. Just enough to catch her breath for a few seconds, that’s all. So, sliding her down carefully down to her sides, so they could rest on either one of her thighs, she ended her little attack hunched over an pleading for air, almost falling over before she caught herself, though not nearly as gracefully as she’d have liked. Her side rammed hard against the ledge of the roof and her nose scrunched up almost instantaneously as the ache sank in. They may have broken her fall as they scraped along the ledge, but they hadn’t quite managed to save her entirely from any pain.

“Shit!”

She sucked in her cheeks before rolling up her sleeves, so she could have a better view of the damage, or the possibility of any. Sure enough, the pale skin of her forearms was scratched, dotted with ugly red splotches, streaked with peeling skin. She let out an exasperated sigh, as she gently traced one index finger along a trail of mottled skin on the opposite arm. It stung, and she was now highly displeased. She’d only just yesterday bought the cutest little lemondrop-yellow dress: short, with a black lace overskirt, a sweetheart neckline, and absolutely nothing in the way of sleeves. She couldn’t wear that with those, not by Saturday, anyway. An indignant look came over her, and she shook her head defiantly, to no-one in particular except herself.

No. No way. No way in hell was she going to let a stupid fall keep her from getting stronger, or wearing that dress. All she needed to do was…was…was something she wasn’t quite sure of for the moment. She considered this for a second before coming up with a solution so obvious, she hadn’t the foggiest idea why she hadn’t thought of it earlier: keep going! She lifted herself upward on wobbly feet, ready to resume her training. There. Much better. Both pleased and exhausted by this, a smile crossed her face once more, and, fickle little thing that she was, she was almost feeling so very much better now that she was most seriously considering resuming her dance. She straightened up, and made the slip into her stance so she could go back into her groove thing...except…

Her arms were really aching. She needed a Band-Aid, no doubt about it. Only, in typical Rei-Rei fashion, she hadn’t thought to bring a items of any kind with her. Still, it was worth a try to see if she had anything on her. Alas, after much exploration, she found that all she had was a few beli pound notes stuffed into one of her short-short pockets, and a lip balm, a rubber band, two paperclips and some scotch-tape, all having been haphazardly thrown into the pockets of her pants at one point or another, only to have been forgotten not too much later. Fine. If she was going to get stronger she had to understand that sometimes she was going to bleed. A lot. And there'd be no band-aids of any kind of to make the boo-boo's all better.

She wiped her face with her arm then resumed her stance. She would get stronger and tougher no matter what she had to do, no matter how much pain she had to endure, no matter how much blood she lost.


The girls arms began to rocket at the stick figure's torn pillow body, willing herself to remember her training and attack only the vital areas where pressure points would likely be. Chi Blocking was not about aimlessly hitting an opponent, it was about disabling them immediately, efficiently and permanently, if need be. Reis attack ravaged the stick figure and suddenly, the sticks burst into a cloud of saw dust! Yes, she was getting closer to her goal. She had to get stronger, she had to unfold the power of her Chi Blocking. As it stood, she wasn't going to be good to anyone in a fight. She had to make herself valuable, and that meant perfecting what she brought to the table!