Enlightenment Through BDSM

“Monks with direct combat skills aren’t too common from what I here, certainly not in the Altris sect, but chi works relatively the same for everyone,” Edelin said.

“Wait, you said my chest?” I asked.

Edelin cocked her head, purple bunny ears flopping to the side. “Yes, but I can do your arms first you like.”

“Uhm, yeah, let’s do that.” 

“Alright, extend your arm up please.” I obeyed, lifting up the limb as she took it in her hand, looking at me with more intense eyes than I’d seen on her in the short time since I met her. “Chi comes from your core, picks up energy as it moves in a straight line, loses energy as it curves and turns. For me, it’s a stream, so the intensity isn’t too important unless I’m dealing with a life threatening injury, but your skill sounds like it’s delivered in quick bursts, so intensity probably matter a lot.”

She placed the tips of her fingers across my inner forearm, seemingly in some pattern, and then there was warmth. It wasn’t heat at all really though, just a lovely sensation of comfort, safety. That thing I’d felt draining before, my HP, was also restoring, slowly but surely.

“That’s all for that arm. Lift the other, and face your palm towards me please?”

“Sure.” I did as she asked, staring at the arm she’d just “healed” as I brought it back down. It didn’t look any different at all, hadn’t really felt too off before, but it was definitely more whole now, in some way.

“Try and notice the difference here,” Edelin said as she turned, facing my arm while sideways and extending her arm straight out, one continuous line from her heart. She touched my arm with just the tip of her middle finger, and I almost jerked my arm away from the shock of it. It wasn’t painful, just intense, the same comforting feeling flowing into me in almost an instant. I could see what she meant about it not being necessary for her skill, at least, especially as she kept lifting her hand and moving to different parts of my arm and wrist.

“Most patients find my more dulled flow a bit more relaxing, so I’ll stick with that for your chest, but I wanted to show you the concentrated version,” she continued. “I just thought it’d be a good demonstration for how your skill will probably work best.”

“So… I need to extend my arm out like that, and stand sideways?”

“You don’t have to just to use it, but it will be at its most effective that way. When you’re fighting monsters though, I imagine you can’t always go for the most powerful attack. I don’t want you putting yourself in danger trying to do that.”

“Makes sense…” 

“And then there’s one other thing to keep in mind, or two if you count the direct contact thing, but I already mentioned that.” She pushed my arm down and then placed her hands directly on my chest. I let out a small gasp from the suddenness of it, but I realized pretty quickly I was overreacting. Sure, she was very attractive, especially with those bunny ears that I wasn’t sure why I liked so much, but there wasn’t really anything sexual about it. One hand was barely on the top of my right breast, the other directly on my sternum. It really was like being at a doctor, just like getting your pulse taken.

Except it did feel good, really good. That same warmth was washing over me now, bathing my torso in the feeling. It was a much more muted feeling though, even more so than the first time, almost like… “It’s leaking out?”

“Yes,” Edelin responded. “The path of your chi, the amount of resistant materials between you and the target, and the pointedness of the contact are the three things that affect energy transfer. It’s almost an oxymoron, but when my palms are flat on you like this the flow of chi doesn’t have a solid direction to go even though there’s more contact, so when I try to transfer it it’s not as efficient; some will get lost and escape into the air. When you mentioned bursts of pressure when you were striking, that’s probably what was happening, and it you were hitting with the gloved portion of your hands that would only make it worse.”

“The one time it really worked was when I kicked, hit the monster directly with my toe.” Had my years of failing to learn to kick a soccer ball right actually paid off?

“That’s probably why. If you can’t find a suitable sparring partner before your next mission, I’d recommend taking another small one like rabbits and messing around with different forms.”

And then it was over, her hands coming off of me and her turning around back to her desk. I felt complete again, full HP and everything, whatever that was. “Uhm, thanks,” I said. “That was nice, and useful too.”

She turned around at that comment, smiling. “I’m glad. Thanks for not being scared of me, by the way, after the rabbits and all. Most people around here haven’t seen rabbits in person, but they all know about them, so I’m not usually regarded warmly.”

“What, no? Your ears are just cute. More like, uhm, a bunny than a rabbit, I’d say.” I’m not sure what it was exactly I said that did it, but she froze at that comment, blushing as we made eye contact and then rapidly turning around and starting to scribble away again. “Sorry! Did I say something bad? I’m still not used to things here, and—”

“You’re fine!” She offered, still not looking at me. “I just kind of forgot myself for a moment there. The head monks tell me I’m not supposed to look at men a certain way, and I’m really good about that, but then sometimes I feel like maybe I’m looking at women that way instead? And they never said anything about that being bad, but it feels weird when I’m doing it with a patient, so I try not to do that when I’m working, and I’m okay at that but not as good as I am with men, and then…”

I waited for her to pick up the trail of thought as I sat up, covering my chest with my hand again, but she never did, just continued writing like she’d never said anything at all. “Edelin?”

“Yes?”

“Uhm, I kind of get what you’re saying, I think. And I’m… okay with it. We’re done with the healing, so I’m not really your patient anymore, right?” She paused at that, neither speaking nor writing. “And they didn’t say anything about girls, just boys, right?”

“I mean, that’s true, but I’m not sure if they really meant that it’s okay with women.”

“If it was important, they probably would’ve mentioned it though.” Was I lying? I didn’t know how religion worked here.

“I guess that’s true,” she said, spinning around on her stool once more. I was still covered up, but that didn’t really make much sense after what I had just said, so I lowered my arms again, baring my breasts to her once more, this time to far more interested, far more lustful eyes.

I was embarrassed again, of course, but I also liked it in a way? I was happy with myself now, and showing it off made me happy too, gave me a lot of good, if strange, feelings, in my head, across my body, down below.

“You’re cute too,” she eventually said. “I like your ears, and uhm, the rest of you…”

Yup, too much right now! I realized, blushing myself and looking away. “Thanks. I, uhm, should be going though. Kalia is waiting for me.”

“Right, and I have more work!” Edelin said, furiously writing away again after breaking her gaze. 

I did my best to put on my clothes as she finished up that. I’m sure my bow wasn’t as pretty as the one Elash had tied, but following her instruction of tying it in the front then sliding it around worked enough to secure my shirt at least, and the gloves and guards came on easily enough afterwards.

“I’m surprised my clothes didn’t get damaged,” I said as Edelin closed up her book and stood from the desk.

“Your HP protects them, to an extent. Not armor like your arm and leg guards of course, but your clothes won’t start to take any damage until you reach the fifty percent mark and start taking cuts and bruises yourself.”

“Fifty percent? Oh, that means that Dreck…” I’d barely lost any in the fight, maybe ten percent? But he had lost at least five times that. “One of my partners on the job started getting bloodied at the end.”

“Then he went below half his hp, yes. He still wouldn’t take the full brunt of it like someone who doesn’t have a class or Job at all, but it’s less effective at that stage. Do you not know all this already though?”

Ack! “Uhm, it’s my amnesia, I guess… It’s apparently the worst case Kalia’s ever seen, or heard of even.”

“Oh, that does sound bad,” she said, tilting her head again, cute, long ears flopping again. “Well, you’re always welcome to come back here for more information services. I can teach you about Jobs, anything you need to know. I’ll try and look up some martial arts texts too to see if there’s something I could show you.”

“Cool, sounds good.” She opened the door and started leading me out towards the main library again, but things didn’t quite feel finished, not fully. 

“Hey, are you, well, free, sometimes? Like, do you have days off?”

She looked behind at me, and I thought I saw her blushing again. “Uhm, yes usually one or two days a week I am off duty. I mostly just spend them reading though.”

“Maybe we could hang out? I could introduce you to Kalia, she’s really nice and stuff. And you could maybe show us around town?”

“Well, I don’t know too much about the town proper, but I suppose I could come by the Guild, check if you’re there. You think you’ll be staying a while?”

Good question. “I think so? But if we leave, I’ll be sure to come by and tell you.” 

“Alright. It’s a date, then?”

One of us had to be misunderstanding that word, I was pretty sure. A date with three people? “Sure,” I said anyway, trying not to smile too much as we entered the library again.