Zero Sum

Chiyoko Cleaning Up the Muck and Mire

"Nn'dibe," she muttered. She didn't know how to say not interested in their native tongue. 

Indeed, she even had trouble ordering a sandwich from a deli. That was despite having a genuinely pleasing older couple attending to her, hanging on every syllable she managed to utter to them. 

"Nn'ongkoto?" the gentleman asked in reply. The couple simply smiled as she bumbled her words as she spoke. 

It still irked her that they served dead animal parts to her as food. Seemingly it was in keeping with some sort of their more barbaric customs. Perhaps in some misguided way so as to gain the strength of a defeated animal?

Irked is not how she would describe her current situation though. Not that she was unaccustomed to the feeling that her life was in danger. Seeing that she possessed power enough to topple navy vessels with a wave of her talented hands. 

"Gyn'o'klokla," the gentleman presented her with food on a tray, in an attempt to divine what it was she was trying to ask, without knowing each others languages.

As genuine as the old man was, all she could do was wave her hand as politely as possible, to indicate what she meant, "no thank you."

She walks out of the shop and continues along the foot path along this isolated town.

Forbidden by her superiors to exercise her fighting talent, among other powers, to the natives. As easy as it would be for them to obliterate anything in their path. Their philosophy was that of defeat without the need of exerting excessive physical force on them.

"Killing them with kindness," to use the local vernacular.

Holding herself back though, that did irk her.

With that feeling creeping in, she forced her mind to wander back into a reverie of her training. In the school of the Redirected Path. 

So many training drills, they focused on taking an opponent's attacks head on. In that same instant, redirecting the force of that attack away from herself, and back towards her opponent. Using an opponent's own force against them.

Such training also dictated that she was never to instigate an attack herself. Only in self-defense was she able to exercise her talent. And only with an amount of force was equal than or less than what their opponent was capable of, so as to also never obliterate them completely.

What made this style different than other native forms of self-defense too, is that she was able to redirect and control the kinetic energies of attacks. Without ever directly touching the opponent. Telekinetic kung fu.

Recalling her meditation training though, she shut down this mental loop of memories. There would be other times suited for reminiscence. She chose to focus on the task at hand instead. 

Turning up to face the crowds again, she notice that the mood of the environment has changed.

Evidently the locals are rather a chatty group, either out of habit or boredom. She cared not which. Now she has company, or more specifically, pursuers. Her kind is not immediately welcome throughout most corners of the galaxy.

She grows tired of waiting for these pursuers to work up the nerve to attack. Stopping in a dark corner of some alleyway, she turns around. 

"Well met you unsavory lot. It is Chiyoko of the School of the Twelve point palm that you now face. Have any you lot have the boldness to approach, or will you return to hiding in the shadows like cowards?"

"Mdpijf dkjeke gdsoss..." starts one of the pursuers in an upset tone. But he is stopped with a tap on the shoulder by another of their group.

Chiyoko makes a mental note of that one, since he seems to command authority, among this weak assortment of thugs anyways. "He is their leader," she thinks to herself.