Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-18812574-20150120153532/@comment-2089817-20150120154734

I remember discussing this at one time with Epzi, so I'll just post what I sent to him that time.

The four Zankensoki are different ways of approaching flow. Like hard and soft. They can't best each other nor outright neutralize each other, because they look at flow from completely different angles. One manipulating the form of flow and another manipulating the behavior of flow, if you could cancel out the former with the latter, then the opposite would also be true, but that depends upon the user and their skill with it.

Besides, when it comes to the form of flow, that can also determine its transition, just like manipulating its behavior can do the same. It's approaching the same effects, the same result, but from different viewpoints, do you understand? Seireitou, with his Hakuda, could manipulate the air as well to some degree, but it would be for different reasons than how Mukei does. With Hakuda, Sei imposes his own form to the flow of wind around him, altering its course and its nature, whereas Mukei with Hohou is, in effect, making the wind "change its mind", making it move and transition another way then originally intended. See, these sound different, but actually achieve the same result. That's why it is pointless for any individual to seek becoming a Grandmaster of more than one craft, because whatever one at the Grandmaster level attains in one craft, can be translated into the other three crafts. (ie. how Sei uses Hakuda through the other three fields).

I can even translate wind manipulation to the other two fields too. Kidou can influence the wind around the user and turn it into a storm. Zanjutsu Grandmasters can use anything as their sword, even the air itself, which could also allow for air manipulation. Four fields, four different approaches, all of which reach the same effect.

Void or Nanja could probably describe this way better though, but I figure I'll just throw in my two cents.