>>5786422A lot of questions. No answers. You open your eyes back up and continue observing the water. The water didn’t care, it just flowed. It bent around any obstacle, moved forward, did what it was supposed to do, no more, no less. When there was change, it adapted. When there wasn’t, it obviously did nothing.
Except that wasn’t always the case. You spot another aberrant ripple with no discernible cause. Your head cocks to the side as you peer around aggressively for an explanation. A bizarre thought occurs to you.
“Mom?”
“...”
“Is the water alive?”
She slowly turns to look at you once again, her hands drifting towards yours. She takes them and begins carefully moving your fingers together in different formations.
“Tora. It’s the hand seal of the tiger.” She says, placing your hands in one position.
“Ushi. It’s the hand seal of the ox.” Another position.
“Tora.” And your hands go back.
“Ne. The hand seal of the rat.” And your hands go together in a new formation. I want you to repeat those motions and think about what you just said to me. I also want you to think that, if there is some kind of life in that water, what other life might exist within yourself. I want you to think about that and focus the sensation of your thought on your stomach.”
You do what she tells you, fumbling your hands together. It’s hard to remember where exactly your fingers are supposed to go so you start muttering the names of the signs under your breath.
“Tora Ushi Tora Ne, Tora Ushi Tora Ne, Tora Ushi Tora Ne…”
You keep doing that with nothing happening until it slowly becomes second nature and your mind can drift without actually focussing on it. If there was life in the water, what other life must exist within you that you’re not aware of?
All at once, it happens: You feel a surge of power coming from your stomach, blasting into your mouth. You bolt upright in surprise as that power transforms into water, your mouth overflowing with so much that it comes splashing out all over the place in uncontrolled buckets. You gasp for air, staring at your mom in abject shock.
She slowly rises and begins doing the hand signs herself before letting loose a high pressure laser of water, thinner than a pencil, flowing hard as fuck. It beams out of her whistling lips and obliterates a rock jutting out from the center of the river.
