Intermission: The White Sensei I

Shortly after YeeYee embarked on her journey into the wild west, she had a chance encounter with an old man dressed in a pure white robe.
YeeYee threw rapid punched. With each punch she would let go of a petal and grab another out of the air. Currently there were five petals, including the two in her hand. 
Sweat flew from her face as she kept punching the bamboo. 
How the bamboo made its way to Aemarich is unknown to her. 
"That's enough." An old man, known to YeeYee as Sensei, shouted at her. 
She was glad that was over. 
It has been less than a month since she departed from her mentor's place. 
When she met the old man, she initially tried to take him out for talking down on her. But something changed his mind and he offered to train her in his martial arts. 
He called it Divine Hermit style. YeeYee wasn't aware people used martial arts in the wild west. As far as she knew, the wild west was occupied by gunslingers, magicians and monsters.
"You've progressed a lot over the last eight months, young one."
"That's YeeYee." This exchange happens almost daily. 
She eyes him again. He was sitting on that same tree stump every day since she met him. She brought him water and food, but he'd sleep sitting on there. 
When she asked an explanation how he did it before meeting her, he said something about focusing mentally on your body to delay suffering from... You know what, forget it. YeeYee didn't understand it either. 
His training was harsh, but he was gentler than her mentor. 
Sure, he was annoying from time to time, but half of the time he could justify it. The other half was some sort of S'ai wisdom. 
"There aren't many gunslingers who have a well developed body. Even less so when it comes to magicians." He stroked his white beard. "They're too reliant on their tools. They forget that the fastest way out of a sticky situation is often punching your opponent."
That was the fun part of sticking around. He had a way of appealing to YeeYee's energetic side. 
Aside from that, YeeYee knew she only would get six bullets each day. 
Her mentor could kill multiple enemies with a single bullet. But YeeYee never figured out how to do that. 

After training she was allowed to do whatever she pleased. This usually came in the form of wandering around the bamboo grove. 
She only knew this was bamboo because her mentor hated it with a passion. When YeeYee tried to push for more information, she got scolded and punished with more training.
If YeeYee got bored of wandering the bamboo grove, she could always ask for Sensei to tell her a story.
As mentioned before, the old man originates from S'ai. He was part of the second expedition that headed to Aemarich. The latter he would spare only scarce information about. 
YeeYee did not know if she was an expeditioner or native born.
She was too young to remember, and her entire life up until now she was holed up at her mentor's hideout. She was sure that she wasn't her mother either. 
YeeYee had decided. She would ask Sensei if he knew her mentor by chance.
She headed back to the clearing. There she saw her mentor stand up on the stump. 
That's a first.
He was stretching. YeeYee was shocked to find out he was even more flexible than her. 
"I knew you'd return. But I expected you a bit later. I haven't even finished stretching yet."
"I always thought you were immobile."
"Only if I value my life."
He jumped off from the stump with incredible speed and agility. In only one pace he was near her.
YeeYee wanted to pull her gun, but he was too fast. 
"What did I teach you?" He yelled at her as he kicked towards her hand reaching for Six-Shot. 
He followed that up with a flurry of rapid kicks from the same leg. A few landed, but most she was able to dodge. 
She vaulted over him. It did not catch him by surprise. Instead he grabbed her arms and took her in the air with her. 
He flung her towards the ground. "Remember your training!" And like a cat she regained her posture and landed on her feet. 
Within another pace he was in front of her again. This time he was throwing punched. 
YeeYee was backing off, but she was managing to block all the punches he threw at her.
She went in for a kick herself, but he just jumped over it. 
In the air he was defenseless, or so she thought. But every punch and kick was just a way for him to extend his airtime. 
He landed. And this time there were a series of hard and aggressive kicks. 
Five kicks were delivered before he made another pace towards her. Then three more kicks landed before he finished his next pace. 
YeeYee brought his foot down by stepping on his knee. This was followed by a somersault of her own. It landed. 
But Sensei landed on his hands and flipped himself on his feet again. 
He lunged forward, striking YeeYee with a very powerful double punch. This did not just fling her, it shot her backward. 
The bamboo wasn't hard, but that wasn't a good thing. She got assaulted by multiple stalks of bamboo when she passed over the previous ones.
Eventually she was outside of the grove. She was sure she fainted a couple of times while being airborne. 
She could flee now while he was out of sight. Then she noticed Six-Shot missing. She knew he took it while he was on the offense.
With determination she looked at the bamboo in front of her.
She was getting it back!