Gift for: imaginary_dragonling From: seedling-lotus Title: Learning Curve Characters: Hakkai, Gojyo Genre: Gen Rating: T
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Trying the qi blast had been an experiment of sorts. He hadn’t really expected it to work. Not really. It had sort of been a joke.
It shouldn’t have worked.
But it had.
Hakkai couldn’t help but toy with it. The very concept of it was fascinating. Using qi as a weapon. Pure spiritual energy manifested as a destructive force.
Spiritual energy in and of itself wasn’t destructive, however. Hakkai frequently used his sense of it to keep track of his companions. It also made detecting threats a bit easier even if it was mostly unnecessary.
Of course, on the other end of the spectrum, fiction loved to play with using spiritual energy to heal. Hakkai had a passing familiarity with the concept, but he didn’t know how…
How could spiritual energy be used to heal a physical wound? Did it simply encourage cell growth and regeneration to close a wound? Or was it more along the lines of using it as some form of glue to hold wounds closed until the body could heal them itself?
By the same token, how did spiritual energy cause physical wounds? Was there something in the act of manifesting it that allowed it to react with the physical world? Did it just react with normal, molecular energy, or could it only affect other living beings? Or did it not matter entirely? Did manifesting qi make it inherently volatile? Could it be harnessed more delicately? More sharply?
He wanted to spend hours studying all of it. To take the process apart to it’s simplest core and figure out exactly how he’d done it instead of just accepting that he could. Could he change the power level and only stun their opponents? Or did the amount of spiritual energy an opponent had at their disposal effect how well Hakkai’s own attacks would work against them?
Trying to analyze all of it in stolen minutes during the day was difficult to say the least of it. It made him almost miss his days at University. That academic environment would have been perfect for this sort of study. Would have been a place he could have safely experimented with the different aspects instead of riding by the seat of his pants.
He didn’t much like the feeling of having so little knowledge or control. But Hakkai supposed that he never would have had this opportunity during university.
Hakkai did his best to concentrate on his own qi. He meditated on it while he made them dinner in the evenings they were out camping. He tried to notice the way that it felt when he summoned a blast to buy them a couple seconds of breathing room during an attack. He tried to hone his attacks into something less draining. Something he could use more than once or twice a fight. Something that didn’t leave him light-headed and woozy
And in the quiet hours late at night, he tried to use his qi to heal. The qi orb he used to attack burned when he pressed it into his own skin. But it didn’t cause him harm, which had been interesting to note. Trying to direct his own qi internally to heal a wound took many hours of intense concentration to even heal a small scrape. It wasn’t efficient in any sense of the word, and only left Hakkai exhausted.
Maybe with a couple hundred years of practice he could hone the skill into something he could use in a practical manner. For now, it simply took too much concentration. It was something to entertain himself with in the quiet hours, nothing more.
But the others.
Hakkai couldn’t quite help but notice that the better he got at sensing with his own qi, the easier he could feel theirs. Sanzo’s was something soothing and quiet, flowing smoothly. Almost like the gentle eddies of a breeze or a calm creek. Goku’s qi felt like something deep and old, but with an added layer of frenetic energy on top. It felt like the way everything seemed to come to life in spring, slowly and all at once. It reminded Hakkai keenly of a wellspring. Gojyo’s qi was a at once dark and burning. It twisted around itself, almost at war.
All of this was infinitely more obvious when he was tending to their wounds after one skirmish or another. Especially when he got their blood on his skin. It felt like their qi was brushing up against his skin then. Leaking slowly out in their blood. A fizzing electric sensation along Hakkai’s senses that never quite reached his nerves.
At first, he hesitated to bring his own qi into the equation. He could only manifest it as a ball of destructive force right now, and burning their wounds into something larger would not help them heal. Especially since it seemed more like an acidic burn than one cause by heat.
It took Hakkai three days to figure out how to manifest his qi differently. It welled in his hands kind of like water, but never spilling over. Soft orange light glowed through, against, above his skin. And when he pressed that qi to his own arm, it felt… soothing. Cool and at the same time warm, like a breeze on a summer’s day. Or something like that.
“The hell is that, ‘Kai?”
Hakkai jumped, light fading from his palms as Gojyo sat down next to him. Hakkai sighed, frowning slightly before he offered Gojyo a polite smile.
“Just practicing,” Hakkai said.
“What, you gonna slap people to death now?” Gojyo snorted. A crooked smirk pulled at his wide mouth and Hakkai laughed quietly.
“Practicing control,” Hakkai explained. “Maybe if I can control it I can heal with it.”
“Heal? With qi?” Gojyo said, tipping his head. He frowned at Hakkai’s hands for a moment. “Well that’d be mighty convenient, wouldn’t it?”
“So far, no,” Hakkai chuckled. “It takes too much concentration.”
“You’ve done it?” Gojyo asked.
“I’ve used it on myself,” Hakkai admitted.
“Like that?” Gojyo asked, gesturing vaguely towards Hakkai’s hands with a cigarette. Hakkai watched him light it out of the corner of his eyes.
“Yes,” Hakkai said. “It takes too long to be worth the effort.”
“Maybe it’ll be easier on someone else,” Gojyo suggested. “Like stitches. Way easier to do to someone else than yourself.”
“That sounds like the voice of experience,” Hakkai teased. Gojyo just shrugged, smirking around his cigarette. “Shall I practice on you, then?”
“I’m not hurt,” Gojyo scoffed.
“Don’t lie,” Hakkai chided. “I saw you get scratched back there.”
“It’s not worth the energy,” Gojyo said, waving Hakkai off.
“But it is worth the practice,” Hakkai pointed out.
“Fine,” Gojyo snorted. “Be my guest.”
Hakkai smiled and Gojyo rolled his eyes but obligingly shed his coat. Hakkai unwrapped the sloppy bandages that Gojyo had covered the scratch with, tutting. Gojyo just watched him, smoking silently.
Letting the qi pool in his hands like he had before, Hakkai carefully pressed the light to Gojyo’s arm. He could feel the wound so much more clearly on Gojyo than he’d ever been able to on himself. His qi almost seemed to… to coax Gojyo’s qi.
Gojyo hissed quietly, frowning. Hakkai mumbled an apology, making to pull away. Gojyo’s free hand caught Hakkai’s wrist and Hakkai’s head snapped up. Gojyo shook his head once, pulling Hakkai’s glowing hand closer to the wound again.
“Try again,” Gojyo said.
Hakkai nodded slightly, turning his attention back down. He tried to gentle his qi, using it more as a guide than anything else. Closing his eyes, Hakkai tried to feel it out. Gojyo’s qi pressed up against his, and Hakkai could feel hot blood welling against his palm. Maybe if he just…
Hakkai directed Gojyo’s qi with his own. It took a long moment, or perhaps many, to tame Gojyo’s turbulent qi into a careful mesh over the wound. He tightened it, pulling the edges in like stiches, slowly but surely.
When Hakkai pulled back, he frowned. The wound was still there. Smaller, yes, fresh pink skin along the edges of the red line. But still there.
“Well, it’s not bleeding anymore,” Gojyo pointed out.
“True,” Hakkai frowned.
“Take a break for tonight,” Gojyo said, shaking his head. He tugged his coat back on. “You used a lot of qi today.”
“When did you get so observant?” Hakkai said, glancing at Gojyo as me moved to sit next to him again.
“You’ll figure it out, ‘Kai,” Gojyo said instead of answering. “Don’t worry so much.”
Gojyo was right of course. Exhausting himself was no good to anyone. And there would be plenty of opportunities to learn on this trip of theirs. Sanzo’s great mission to stop Gyu Maoh.
For now, this was progress. For now, he was learning.