Garrett - While The Expedition Watched

While the expedition watched water erode alluvium, and cooks prepared to serve the evening food, Garrett found a corner, did his pushups, and started practicing tai chi. Jade Wall Iron Fist's forms flowed fluidly again. That supported his hypothesis that Renjie was the root. Possibly, Garrett's belief that Renjie was the root – was the root. Those two things weren't exactly the same. But they were close to being the same. 

Even wondering about the nature of sameness did not prevent Garrett's from making all the right moves. Making moves without thinking was the point of intuition. If Garrett could make the moves without thinking, then he could think about things other than the moves.

Like thinking.

Of course! That was how masters who used animation techniques fought so well even while thinking about controlling a separate entity. Garrett wondered why he experienced that insight. There were no animation or companion techniques in the mhoddim interfaces his component referenced. They were certainly not part of Jade Wall Iron Fist. The Royal Guard's style was related to the "Dragon Turtle" forms Bon Bao practiced. Rather than manifest external shells and projected telekinetics, however, Jade Wall Iron Fist used force to reinforce the practitioner's own body.

That made it a lot more painful to take a hit.

Garrett's instructors insisted that the pain from taking hits gave insights which could not be acquired any other way. Garrett used to consider those rationalizations cool stories. But that was because he could never think about anything other than remembering each move. But if he could practice without thinking about the next move, then he could think about the insights gained from taking a hit.

One of Jade Wall Iron Fist's forms included open palm strikes on his own body.

Garrett used to believe that was for creating dramatic sounds. Dramatic sounds were mostly about sounding good at tournaments, but they could also distract opponents and therefore had legitimate value. Thinking about it now, however, Garrett realized that he could feel his own motivations when he hit himself. Whenever he hit himself to make a good sound, his motivation was superficial fluff and the strike meant nothing. When he hit himself to cause pain, not only did he feel pain – he felt the intention to make himself feel pain.

Meaning that he felt that he meant business.

Feeling the intention behind one strike gave insight into what was coming next. That was so blindingly obvious, why hadn't he realized the purpose of making himself feel pain sooner? Why hadn't the instructors just come out and said it? No. That wouldn't have worked. Garrett wouldn't have understood even if they came out and said it. He never had time to understand before, because he was putting all his thoughts into making the next move correctly.

Jade Wall Iron Fist's reinforcement techniques were not limited to taking punches. Garrett couldn't bounce an arrow away with a turtle shell, but he could slow it down once it started to penetrate his skin. He could also toughen his skin to keep it from tearing. That part was pretty important. It still hurt, though, and he never wanted to slow down a crossbow bolt with his beautiful, fuzzy testicles. The Fourth Prince didn't want him to do that, either. But several of Garrett's instructors had allowed themselves to be shot in the torso or abdomen with crossbow bolts to illustrate the technique. 

The bolt tried to get into the body. Watching that always made Garrett wince. The full technique involved not only strengthening the skin and slowing down the bolt, but moving internal organs around to get them out of the way. Garrett had not yet been tested with real crossbows. But now he better understood the purpose of forcing his intestines to move as if he were a belly dancer. It wasn't just to amaze the guests at Rangiku's parties.

Garrett was experiencing epiphany after epiphany.

Then the Fourth Prince started squealing. The squealing got so loud, Garrett feared it might create sympathetic vibrations in the rock overhead and crush everyone. Jade Wall Iron Fist's most advanced practitioners could set up vibrations in the bodies of their opponents. The vibrations were so subtle, the targets wouldn't know they existed unless some effect was released. 

Corporal Resk could set up vibrations that fractured bones. He often demonstrated on Garrett without following through and fracturing bones. Garrett had no doubt that his arms, or even his hip, would have fractured though. Fortunately, the dirty old corporal never used the threat of fracturing bones to coerce favors. After all, he could just use disabling finger strikes.

According to Resk, Captain Sennue could cause people's hearts to stop just by brushing their chests or backs with his palm. The Captain never used Garrett as a demonstration dummy. According to Captain Sennue, Jade Wall Iron Fist's most advanced practitioners could stop hearts by touching any part of a person's body with any part of their own bodies.

"Dragon Turtle" techniques favored manifesting force over subtle vibrations. But watching Renjie squirm and squeal under the influence of that hulking barbarian's fingertip, Garrett thought some variant of the internal vibration techniques might exist within the Turtle's toolbag. It wouldn't do for Bon Bao to vibrate Renjie too much.

Garrett stopped practicing and intervened.

The muscle hulk's finger was deep inside a perfect belly button by the time Garrett arrived on the scene. It was a good thing Resk never thought of that. Garrett put a hand on Renjie's shoulder. There were no internal vibrations. It was the muscle hulk's own finger doing all the shaking. Once Renjie consented to the request to redeem the prisoners, Royal Guard Garrett ran dutifully up the Mound to ask the Fifth Consort for a bond.

Yes, it was irritating. But it was also a good cause. Bon Bao was fundamentally lovable – and running up the Mound was great exercise. Also, Plum Terrace Palace's staff idolized Garrett because of his ability to control the Fourth Prince. They insisted on giving him sashimi nibbles and mochi treats. When the Sixth Princess greeted him unexpectedly, Garrett forgot all about having ever been irritated. Not only was Rangiku cute, she would double the number of sashimi nibbles and mochi treats.

But why was she there? With all the ropes and pulleys in place, there was no need for her to stay in the tomb the whole time, so she came up to take care of palace business.

"Why did you run all the way up the Cut?" she asked. "Do you want a bath?"

"I do," said Garrett. "But first, your brother wants your mother to redeem the prisoners."

He presented the paperwork. Rangiku looked the documents over, and then decided that the request was small enough for her to handle without troubling the Fifth Consort. When the documents were finished, she handed them to Plum Terrace Attendant and took Garrett to the baths.

The Fifth Consort swooshed in unexpectedly. Garrett stood up in the tub and saluted. Then he sank back down in the water. Then Rangiku slapped his butt and he stood up again.

"Garrett, you're so thin," said the Fifth Consort. "Did they give you enough sashimi? I hope so. There isn't time now. We have to go."

Garrett tried frantically to get dressed along the way to wherever they were going. He began to suspect that Renjie's compulsion to be naked was the result of never being given the time to get dressed when he was tiny. Garrett was still buttoning his pants when the Fifth Consort pushed him into Plum Terrace Palace's teleportation array. Garrett did not care for teleportation arrays. Upon reappearing in the real world, he was never sure which way was up.

Whichever way was up, the surroundings were opulent beyond common decency.