– 2 –

Yuuto, sweating and twitching, stopped by Hikari's desk as the class prepared to leave for PE. "Could I talk to you... outside?" He blushed as he spoke and his voice shook.

"Eh?" Hikari suppressed a yawn. She had not slept well the night before. Ren's story of Master Zhuang had left her plagued with nightmares. Hikari had dreamed she was in the Jade Lotus' training facilities when Master Zhuang abruptly stopped his instruction. His entire body tensed. He threw his head back and screamed to the sky, fire pouring from his eyes and mouth. The fire became a raging torrent, expanding outward until the world went white. But then the dream changed and instead of the training ground, she stood on a beach and instead of Master Zhuang, Ren threw a column of fire into the sky.

Hikari woke, heart racing, and sat up on her futon. A bright light shone from Ren's room. Thinking Ren had left a lamp on, Hikari looked in on her. The light came from Ren's body, her flesh glowed like a translucent screen behind which a large fire blazed. Hikari woke her and the light faded but Ren looked frightened when she heard what Hikari had seen. Ren immediately returned to her slow-motion meditation.

"Not now! After school?"

Hikari blinked up at Yuuto. "What was this about?"

"I-I just wanted to ask you a question."

Hikari looked for clues in her classmates' surprised expressions. Mizuki's eyes shone with expectation while Tomomi's gasping face struggled between shock and glee. Even Etsuko looked surprised, though her's was a more ironic expression.

Hikari turned back to Yuuto. "OK?"

Yuuto flashed an anxious smile, bowed with a quick jerk and fled the room.

"Sugoi!" The girls squealed.

"That was quick!" Tomomi laughed.

"Are you kidding?" Etsuko rolled her eyes. "A cute and stylish transfer student from Tokyo? I'm surprised they waited a whole day."

Hikari gave them puzzled looks. "What?"

"Kokuhaku!" Mizuki said. "The boys have already started to confess their love for you."

"Are you going to say yes?" Tomomi asked. "He's really not so bad, especially compared to the other boys."

"Of course she isn't," Etsuko said. "She already has eyes for Nobu-kun."

Tomomi shook her head ruefully. "Who doesn't?"

"No. I mean they have eyes for each other."

"Eh?"

"Don't say you haven't noticed their little exchanges?"

"What?" Tomomi turned on Hikari. "Is this true?"

Hikari's blush surprised even her.

"Ah! It's true!"

Was it possible? Hikari wondered. Could I actually have feelings for Nobu? He might be more interesting than the other boys in this school, but that doesn't mean anything does it?

She shot a glance at Nobu. He was bent over a textbook apparently in diligent study. He didn't seem to be listening but...were his ears red? Had he heard?

Hikari jerked her gaze back in an attempt to dodge her rising panic.

During social studies, she wondered what her mother's advice would have been in this situation. The remembered realization that she would never get to ask her, that she would never see her or hear her voice again, returned with gut-wrenching despair.

In almost any other situation there was always some hope, some thing that could be done to improve things—at least a little bit. But her family was dead. Her mother and father and sweet young Daichi were gone... and that would never change.

Hikari lowered her head and hid her face, surreptitiously wiping at her tears. She was alone now. Her old life was over and time was dragging her ever further away from it.

Suddenly her concerns with Yuuto or Nobu or anyone else seemed irrelevant. She couldn't be happy with any of them. She could never be truly happy again. For the rest of her life, even in her brightest moments, the shadow of grief and loss would always hang over her. Hikari took a slow deep breath, attempting to control her emotions, and was surprised to feel the Sacred Fire burn hot inside her with anger.

After the final class of the day, everyone lingered near Hikari while pretending to be busy talking about other things.

"Ah! I have cleaning duty today!" Tomomi wailed when she was reminded to check the class assignments on the chalkboard. "You guys can't go without me."

"Don't worry," Etsuko smiled. "We'll find some way to fill the time until you're done."

"I'll be leaving first," Hikari apologized.

The others left as well, following at a distance, "coincidentally" walking in the same direction as Hikari. They turned aside before reaching the meeting place but their excited whispers drifted back and an occasional pair of eyes peer around the edge of the school building.

Yuuto waited for her behind the school. "I'm sorry," Hikari said. "Did you wait long?"

"No." Yuuto jerked at his jacket collar. "Thank you for coming."

"Not a problem." Hikari waited while Yuuto cleared his throat a couple of times and looked around anxiously, brushing at his fringe of hair with a sweaty palm.

Finally, he spoke in a rushed sentence, "I like you; will you go out with me?"

Hikari hesitated. She didn't want to give a too hasty reply as if she would never consider him a possible boyfriend—even though it was true. Despite having prepared for this, turning him down still felt a little painful. A junior high school friend of hers named Kyoko Fukukui had frequently faced this situation. Though very popular with the boys, she had begun to resent their constantly forcing their kokuhakus on her and continually having to reject them.

Deciding it was best not to make him wait too long, Hikari clasped her hands together before her and gave a deep bow. "I'm sorry, but I can't return your feelings."

Yuuto straightened, scratched at the back of his head and gave a loud jangly laugh. He looked away, wearing a strained smile. "I was afraid you'd say that, but I wanted to share my feelings anyway. Thank you."

"I'm sorry," Hikari repeated.

"Jaa ne." Avoiding her eye, Yuuto left hurriedly with a shaky attempt at a casual wave.

Hikari stood a moment, watching him leave while trying to grasp what had just happened. Did her reply mean so little to him? Why had he put her through this? Rising from their crouch behind the corner of the school building, her friends stepped out bearing questioning smiles.

Hikari restrained her irritation. "What?"

Mizuki glanced at the others. "We were talking about having a welcoming party for you. Would you like to go karaoke with us tonight?" As she spoke, Nobu stepped up behind them and joined the group. It was strange seeing him with the others like that.

Hikari sighed and the fire seemed to go out of her. "I'd love to, but I can't. I have to train with Ren-san."

"Train?" Mizuki echoed.

"Ah." Hikari waved away her comment. "I meant chores. I have a lot of things I need to do for Ren-san."

"OK. Another time, then?"

This time Hikari avoided their gaze and bowed her head. "Yes. I'm sorry."

This situation repeated several times over the next few weeks. It was a routine of sorts. Then one day after school, she arrived at her house to find the front door stood open. She entered and muttered the customary "Tadaima!" with a growing sense of caution. Somehow the atmosphere didn't feel right. She quietly slipped off her shoes then, thinking the extra stability of bare feet on a wood floor might be needed, removed her socks as well.

Perhaps Ren's scolding about stances has been effective after all, she thought with a grim smile.

The fusuma panels had been pushed back and a strange man waited in the middle of the resulting space. He was a short, stocky Chinese man, between 1.6 and 1.7 meters tall with only stubble on his shaved head. He wore loose dark blue workout pants with a white stripe down the side, a green T-shirt with a stylized lotus flower in lighter green and a pair of white Peak brand sports shoes. Hikari froze at the sight.

They stared at each other in silence. Hikari weighed the tension in the air which was heavy with pending violence. Biting back a bunch of questions, she took a long, slow, deep breath and forced her muscles to relax.

The corners of the man's mouth twitched with the faintest edge of a smile and he slowly folded his arms behind the small of his back.

With a stab of intuition, Hikari snatched up the Sacred Fire just as he leaped. He whipped out a pair of "butterfly" swords, seemingly from nowhere. Already like giant meat cleavers, the wide blades seemed to grow even larger as they swung toward her. They crossed each other shooting out sparks where she had stood a second before.

Jumping a little too hard, Hikari bumped the ceiling before landing on a narrow bookcase. A spear hanging on the wall pressed against the small of her back and she yanked it free. She somersaulted away, vaulting over the rushing blades and the brush of air from their passage tickled the soles of her bare feet. The Chinese man chopped two deep furrows in the wall above the bookcase as she landing across the room.

Hikari charged her spear with power and flames burst out along its length. She brought it up into a ready position but her attacker had already leaped within arm's reach. Too close! she thought and gripped up on the spear. She stabbed into the spinning gleam of bright steel and blocked a strike to her head.

His blow landed with astonishing strength. The spear stung Hikari's hands and she struggled to hold onto it. Had she not charged it with the Sacred Fire's energy, his blades would have easily cut through the wooden shaft.

Hikari pivoted, stepping in to block a low follow-up attack with the spear's butt end. She snapped that up at his chin, but the Chinese man was too fast. With a slight backward lean and a small turn of his head at the last moment, the shaft missed him by millimeters. She jabbed again, aiming at his throat and forced him to hop back.

All the fear and frustration of the last few weeks rose up in a furious flame. She released that energy and the Sacred Fire shot out from the back end of her spear.

The Chinese man's eyebrows rose halfway up his bald head. Flames scorched his t-shirt and tracksuit pants as he flipped backward to avoid it. Hikari swung her spear's point around and aimed at the man's heart. She replaced the spent energy and drew up even more.

The stranger spun his swords around with a flourish and placed them in his right hand which he slowly drew back behind him. He made an open-handed gesture with the other, his hand held vertically against his chest as if in some sort of blessing.

"I do not know if her choice of weapons was to deceive me about her skill, an ill-thought decision in a moment of panic, or if it was only stupidity..."

Hikari stepped back, eyeing him warily and kept the spear pointed at his chest.

"Despite that, her reflexes and training are better than I expected. Her ability to draw up the Sacred Fire is also strong, but she's clumsy, using brute force to make up for her lack of control. This will only get her killed quickly. She is not worth training."

"Who asked you anything about training?" Hikari snarled.

"I did." Ren stepped out into the open doorway behind her.

Hikari turned and Ren bowed deeply before the intruder. "Good afternoon and welcome, Hanshi."

The Chinese man returned her bow. "Lìng'ài. Thank you for having me."

Ren answered Hikari's frown with a gesture to the one she called Hanshi. "This is Jingwen Li. He is the head of combat training for the Jade Lotus."

Jingwen bowed to Hikari again. "Pleased to meet you."

"Yoroshiku," Hikari muttered, not quite looking him in the eye. This had all been a test— no, a trick! Had they meant to humiliate her?

Not worth training...

Looking at Jingwen, Ren gestured at Hikari. "And this is my kohai, Hikari Miyabe."

Jingwen acknowledged her with a nod. "She has some talent."

"Yes, I know," Ren answered with the faint sigh of affected disappointment that a mother would have when discussing her child with a neighbor while trying to sound humble. "She's had nearly three months to train since her awakening. I keep telling her she must train harder."

"Not even three months?" Jingwen said. "Did she have martial arts or athletic training before her corruption?"

"No. She was studying to be a doctor. She wasn't athletic at all."

He looked Hikari up and down with narrowed eyes. "Perhaps she has potential after all."

* * *

Later, Ren assured Hikari that Jingwen saying she had potential was high praise indeed. It was a statement Hikari would question often over the next month as he repeatedly forced her to practice neijing waigong—their slow motion meditation—while correcting every tiny detail.

One evening, while in the middle of telling her everything she did was wrong, he stopped and stared upward as if listening to something only he could hear.

Ren hurried from her bedroom, taking small rapid steps due to her kimono, her naginata's long slender bag strapped over one shoulder. "I'm on it. It may be that our suspicions are correct."

Hikari watched her leave, then turned to Jingwen. His mouth was set in a grim line. She hoped it was only because he could not join in the fight since his attunement had grown too great.

"What suspicions?"

"The Corruption has great difficulty entering this world so we are not forced to face it often. But lately, it has begun to appear with increasing frequency." He looked at her, his expression growing even darker. "After ten thousand years, this unending secret war has begun to change."