Unable to move in his shocked paralysis, Koe made a strangled sound that came from the depths of his tight throat, while his bouncing teeth mangled his tongue again.

The fighting had stopped, and the remaining rebels had given a large cheer of victory, their voices creating a sort of nationalistic acapella that rang through the forest, startling the birds hidden in the branches. The commotion they made reminded him of the flares he had seen the night he met Nariko; the noise, the flying, dancing, singing things in the sky.

Nariko laughed at the expression on his face and put her arm around the woman, Attakai. She had to jump in order to get her dirty, bloodied left arm around Attakai's left shoulder. Koe was slightly worried that she would get mad at Nariko, but she surprisingly did not seem to mind Nariko's cut-up arm bleeding all over her white dress.

"Don't ye worry yer indestructible head about 'er, Koe-kun. Attakai-san's a genius, she is. Whether it be fightin', or stratagem, she's me second-in-command. I'd trust her wi' me life."

Attakai swiveled her head around to look at Nariko.

"Speaking of which, Nariko-hime, are you entirely certain that you trust this boy? Who is he, and why is he here?"

While she spoke, her one eye fell upon Koe, who tried not to shiver under her gaze. Surely Nariko's eyes were scarier than hers.

Koe did not respond, and instead returned Attakai's stare with his own gray eyes. 

His head and heart felt light. Nariko had called him 'kun'.

He still could not believe the events that unfolded around him. He had to struggle to meet Attakai's eyes, because he wanted, so badly, to witness these unbelievable occurrences. But he was afraid that Attakai might not trust him if her were unable to meet her gaze. That, somehow, avoiding her blood-red eyes would show this woman that he was a coward.

Nariko laughed again. She seemed to have forgotten that she was just about to die before the rebels had come to the rescue, the fact that her tunic and trousers were torn, and the cuts and bruises she had obtained while crashing through the shrubbery not too long ago.

Koe's head slightly shook in disbelief as Nariko smiled and reassured her second-in-command, whatever that meant. He had been losing sleep nights prior to this occasion, considering whether or not Nariko or her story could be trusted. He had lain with his back on the rough ground, listening to singing night insects and Nariko's snoring as he stared up into the night sky, pondering. Nariko had scolded him in the mornings for being too slow to shake off his sleep when it was time to continue on to their destination. And now the tables had turned, and his own validity was questioned.

So many things were happening that Koe wanted to just curl up on the ground and cover his head with his arms, but he was trapped, mesmerized by those blood-red eyes.

"Don't ye fret neither, Attakai-san. I recruited Koe-kun meself. His story an' intentions be true, they be. In fact, I near had ta drag him from that dusty ol' cabin he been attached ta. Actually did have ta drag him when he took the guards ta be his family. He be truthful, Attakai. Saw the guards searchin' fer him meself, he be one of us. C'mon, Attakai, ye sense his chakra, don't ye?"

Nariko kept chattering on, and Koe lost track of the conversation until he heard her say something that tore his gaze away from Attakai and made him stare at her instead.

"Besides, Koe-kun saved me life. I done give him the chance ta run away, and he threw it away, prepared ta die wi' me if it came ta that."

Nariko's grin grew bigger as Koe felt something inside his chest swell with-could it be?-pride.

"Koe-kun," Nariko chuckled and gave him a slap on the back that knocked the air out of him. "You flyin' maniac, you!"

It was almost too much for Koe, the pride, the confusion, the fear, the irony of not being trusted. Everything.

That's when he finally remembered.

"The, uh, um, th-the s-sword!"

Attakai's eye narrowed as she echoed his words. "The sword?"

Nariko rolled her own eyes as she explained, "It be that fish-forsaken katana Koe-kun nabbed when we were ambushed by the guards. Nearly got us killed tryin' ta retrieve it. Not sure why he become so attached, he could barely even hold it right when we tried ta fight 'em off."

"You don't-don't-don't under... understand it. Th-the sword has, uh, power. It made-made me strong."

Nariko and Attakai shared a look that worried Koe. Their faces were serious, and although Attakai's expression was more imposing, it was Nariko's face that frightened him the most.

It was the same look she had when she told him that his parents were dead.

"Oi. Koe-kun."

He started to tremble, forgetting about Attakai and the multitude of rebels around him, watching. 

That voice Nariko was speaking with... it was the same one she had used when she told him about the Seven Massacres. About Sheiri, who had commanded it. That same tone, so different from her regular speaking voice; it was grim, foreboding, austere, and with a tinge of—? Uncertainty? Fear?

Or could it be wonder?

"That sword...wasn't magic." 

His eyes went wide. There was no way it couldn't have been... He had taken out too many guards to have done it without some sort of magic power. It had to have been the sword.

"B-b-but..."

"Ye did it all on yer own, Koe-kun. Not sure how ye did it, but I know ye did, cos' every samurai sword be made of the same like. Even if one were special, there be no way that ye got it out of chance. I saw ye pick it randomly from one of the many guards ye clocked wi' that head a'yers. Not ta mention that I wasn't nearly thinkin' when I used ye ta hit the guards. Can't believe ye survived doin' it twice, an' ye still standin' here, fit as a flyin' fish."

Koe was swaying, and his vision blurred as he stammered, "But-but that... that means... what?"

"It means that yer Kekkei Genkai's been awakened."

Koe fainted for the second time that week, out of shock and  exhaustion.

--

Koe awoke to something pecking at his lips, and he grumbled, turning away without opening his mouth or eyes. There was a high-pitched noise in the background, repetitive and annoying.

It must have been a bird that had swooped down the chimney and out the fireplace that had the ugly badger on it. It must be hungry, Koe reasoned. Hungry enough to approach a sleeping creature nearly ten times its size.

It was beyond him how some creatures seemed ignorant of how dangerous the world was. Or why the floor seemed so warm, and what his clothes were doing on top of him. After all, it could not have been real. The magic, the fighting, the power he had felt and wielded when he and the girl had been threatened. The girl must have been part of the dream as well. It was all just so unbelievable, it was—

Koe felt something lightly slap his face, and he tried to swat the bird away, falling onto his face as he stretched his arm out and fell off of something soft and onto something cold and hard.

"Ow," Koe groaned as he rolled onto his back, massaging his poor nose.

He heard someone laugh, and so he opened his eyes to the crazy world that somehow, amazingly, wasn't a dream.

Perhaps the part about the dangerous loud girl was a dream, since he saw a boy standing over him scratching the back of his head with a sheepish look on his face. Behind the boy was a monitor with glowing red lines that moved in strange, slopelike patterns.

"Sorry 'bout that, I honestly didn't mean to wake you up like this, I was just trying to, you know, nudge you into peacefully waking up in the magic that is the Branch Rebellion Hideout. Heh."

Koe just stared, taking in the boy's appearance. The new boy had yellow hair that was slicked back and brushing the back of his neck, wearing a blue shirt and green cargo pants. From his position on the floor, Koe was able to appreciate the cleanliness of the blue sandals that adorned the boy's feet. His own were worn out from walking for so long to—Wait. Could he already be at—?

With great effort, Koe pushed himself off of the floor and fell back onto his face when he tried to walk. My poor nose...

Then he noticed that there was a clear tube attached to him. Frowning, he pulled it off and looked at it. What the Kami could this be for?

"Heh, I wouldn't try that too soon, not until you've recuperated enough. You've lost a lot of chakra."

Koe felt himself being lifted up off of the floor. He tried to nudge the boy off so that he could get himself into the soft bed without unnecessary help, which resulted in him dragging the boy to the floor with him when he stumbled.

"Whoa! Heh heh, you sure don't know when to quit, don't you? Here."

This time, Koe let himself get lifted off of the floor and onto what he now recognized as a bed. The boy pushed his body into the middle of it and pulled the sheets up to Koe's neck.

"There you go, now then."

Koe glanced curiously at the boy, who still seemed to be in good nature even after being subject to Koe's screw-ups.

"Who... who are you?"

"Huh, me?" The boy pointed at himself, and Koe looked around for anyone else that the boy could have been confused with. Koe only saw white walls, a white floor, a white ceiling, a white door, white bed sheets, a white cabinet with white handles, and a small white table on which there sat a white paper pad and a white pen.

"Is this... the afterlife?"

"What? Oh, no, no, no!" The boy laughed and shook his head. "You're in the hospital. This place was going through modifications a few years ago, to turn it into a Hidden Village. But the project was abandoned midway because it went against a treaty with the Land of Grass. But the hospital and a few buildings were already completed by the time the Grass found out, so we the Rebellion are just taking advantage of it. By the way, it's nice to meet you."

Mangusu Kiiro stuck his hand in front of Koe, then seemed to remember that Koe couldn't move.

"S-s-sorry..." Koe regretted not being able to shake his hand when he had treated him so nicely.

"Ha, it's alright, I forgot about all that chakra they said you lost. Is it true that you took down sixty of Tamaka's guards all by yourself? Did you really save Princess Nariko's life? Oh, I almost forgot!"

Smiling, the boy shoved his hands in his pockets for lack of anything to occupy them for the time being.

"My name's Kiiro, Mangusu Kiiro. I'm a volunteer at the hospital, and I've been assigned to watch you and take care of you when you finally woke up. It's been four days since you came in, so I nearly died of boredom!"

Koe looked at Kiiro in alarm. Koe was unaware that one could perish for lack of entertainment, and that greatly unnerved him. He had spent a great chunk of his life staring out of a window, after all. Would it have taken one more day of nothing to do for him to finally succumb?

The white door opened, and Koe saw Attakai and Nariko enter. Upon seeing Nariko, Koe's heart leaped and he felt the corners of his mouth twitch. 

Maybe he was going into shock again.

"Attakai-san! Nariko-hime!" Kiiro bowed when they entered, and Attakai glanced briefly at him.

"You have been relieved of duty, Kiiro-kun. Nariko-hime and I require time alone with the boy to discuss his fate."

Kiiro nodded before vacating the room. Right before he passed through the doorway, he shot Koe a thumbs-up and mouthed: Good luck.

Koe was not encouraged.

Attakai went right to business. "Koe-san, in order for us to guarantee your safety among the Owl Branch Rebellion, you yourself must abide by several... conditions."

Koe did not like the sound of that.

"Con... conditions?" he squeaked, and looked at Nariko.

You never said anything about conditions!

Nariko shrugged. "'Twas the best I could do meself, Koe-kun. You be different from the other recruits. Ye healed faster then ye should've, that's fer sure. Didn't even need the IV. The only thing keepin' ye down be the chakra loss. The others want ta make sure ye an' yer power can be trusted, is all."

Attakai smiled kindly at Koe. "Do not worry, our conditions are not as hard as they may seem. All that you must do in order to find haven among the Branch is to attend our training program for new recruits, swear an oath of loyalty, recognize the authority of myself and Nariko-hime, and submit to our interrogation methods."

Interrogation methods?!

"Attakai-san, his heart rate's spiking!" came the voice of a panicked Kiiro as rapid-fire beeps peppered the air.

Koe fainted again.

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