I yawn and run my sleeve across my bleary eyes, before cracking open the window to be greeted by a light breeze and a soft sunrise.

  I close my eyes for a moment in bliss as I feel the wind caress my face.

  A quick stretch and a rapid dress-job ter, I'm set to go.

  “I'm heading out, Miss Xiao!” I call to the back before stepping outside.

  The dojo is only a few houses down from the soup shop. The business district isn't all that rge. I'll make the trip an exercise.

  I hop in pce for a moment. Once, twice, then sm my foot down and burst into an instant sprint. 1 to 10 in a moment.

  My feet pound the cobblestone walkway as I pass by neighbors who wave hello, and call out greetings. I haven’t been here long, but the sense of community has always been apparent to me.

  I measure my breaths in each quick stroke, crushing gravel beneath my heel as I turn down an alleyway for a shortcut, and leap over a small dog who was a little too friendly.

  Hey, it was either stop and pet him and end up te, or halfheartedly slow down without stopping and run him over instead.

  Better to keep the pace and pet him ter when I head home.

  I burst through the sliding doors of the dojo startling the life out of an instructor and several other students.

  The body tempering stage is nothing to mess around with. I’m lucky The doors didn’t leave their hinges.

  Instructor Xaio says nothing. Merely tossing me a practice sword and sending a weary gnce toward the door I had burst through.

  “You’ll be practicing with a partner today. A new member of the dojo.” “As my best student, I believe he’ll catch up faster with you there to follow.”

  A small head of bck hair, with striking electric blue eyes suddenly peeks out around the instructor's leg.

  My heart pounds for a moment. Just who is this cute little rabbit?!

  “This is Zhi Long. He’s the youngest son of The Long Cn. The current patriarch of the Long cn is an old friend of mine, and he requested that I train his son in martial arts. Now close your mouth, if you assault him I’ll get quite a lot of fck from his father.”

  … so they noticed.

  I clear my throat and compose myself.

  “What are we learning today, Instructor?”

  Xaio reaches into his desk and pulls out a thin booklet, bound in leather.

  “Up to now I’ve trained you in the basics and common sense of martial arts. Hit hard, Hit fast, Hit from where the enemy cannot see. However this is merely the common sense of martial arts that’s applicable no matter what style of fighting you use.” “Today, I want to do a quick spar while Zhi Long watches. He’ll learn quickly, and it will also let me test your understanding of the basics.”

  I bow my head in understanding and take my pce across the room. My heels bounce lightly on the tatami as I narrow my eyes.

  In this town, instructor Xiao is somewhat known for his unorthodox teachings. He’s always taught us the importance of misdirection and the importance in understanding that if you hope to win a fight, that fighting fair is an active detriment, and you should be prepared for your enemies to show that same seriousness.

  “Are you ready Daoist Yi?”

  Something reminiscent of a dry desert wind blows across the room as Instructor Xaio takes his pce across from me.

  I can’t help but shiver as the Instructors usual carefree smile fades away repced by absolute seriousness.

  “I’m ready instru-”

  Before I can even finish my sentence Xiao has already crossed the room in a single leap-step arriving in front of me with his arm lowered for an uppercut.

  My brow furrows as I lift my knee and sm my foot down on his fist, using his punch to springboard myself back out of range of his deadly punches.

  “That’s cold instructor.”

  Before he can close the distance again, I pull a blunted practice knife Off the wall and fling it his direction. While he’s occupied with leaning out of the way, I close the distance with a heavy kick towards his midsection.

  He grunts as he catches my kick with one hand and knocks the knife away with the other quickly shifting his weight backward.

  I narrow my eyes.

  “As if I’d let you, instructor!”

  I let the length of my practice sword make up the difference in distance and drive it forward with my palm on the hilt.

  As if in slow motion the instructor falls backward and turns. Avoiding the bde and nd a kick to my stomach in one move, before catching his weight on both of his hands and continuing to cartwheel back to a standing position.

  But it’s already too te. Having recovered from his kick I haven’t missed the opening he’s presented so clearly.

  While he’s cartwheeling he’s still in the air. There should be no way he can dodge now.

  Slowly but surely, I bring my sword to my hip and drive it forward in a thrust that carries all the structured force my body can muster.

  Unfortunately my aim was just slightly off.

  Or perhaps I let my internal anger from taking that kick to the stomach get the better of me, as I realized at the st moment that my sword was too high to hit him in the back, but rather, was just low enough to stab directly between his cheeks.

  Zhi Long lets out a squeak as Instructor Xiao falls to the floor, drooling.

  “M-my sweet purity!?”

  I run to my instructor and help him to his feet.

  “I’m so sorry Instructor! I didn’t mean for that to happen! I promise it was an accident. I”ll be careful so this never happens again!”

  “MY SWEET PURITY!”

  After taking a half hour to recover the Instructor composed himself and attempted to continue the lesson, only to find that someone was missing.

  “Where did young master Long go?”

  “Umm… I watched him leave while you were rolling on the floor.”

  “... truly unfortunate.”

  We never saw Zhi Long in the dojo again.

  SorisBckwinter