Torn Between Worlds

Combat and Secrets

Yuki jolted upright in bed, panting heavily and sweating from the nightmare she had. Noticing she was in the dark and not feeling anyone near her, she began to cry and whimper. She heard footstep and heard the sliding door open, causing her to jump and yelp in fear. She felt large arms wrap around her and realized once he began to speak, that it was Sanemi.

"Hey what's the matter? I only walked away for a second," he said in a gentle tone. She began to cry louder and buried her head in the crook of his neck. Sanemi flinched for a moment, before he sat on the futon with her and pulled her closer and into his lap. He placed one of his hands on the back of her head to stroke her hair softly. "Im sorry, I didn't mean to scare you...man I go for a drink of water and you turn into a crying mess...." he scolded himself. After a few moments, she slouched in his lap. He turned his head to look at her and heard her snoring softly as she had fallen back asleep. He looked at her in the dark worriedly, "what could she find that terrifying...." he whispered into the dark as he laid them both back down to sleep.

She awoke a few hours later to see Sanemi gone again. She proceeded to get ready and dressed for her first day of combat training. Lucky for her, she knew how to fight so she didn't expect to be training for too long before moving to her swordsmanship training. When she walked into the living area she found them all sitting there waiting on her. She sat between Uzui and Kyojuro so she could face Sanemi.

"Good morning Yuki! How did you sleep?" Kyojuro asked beaming with energy like the morning person he was.

"Not very well but I am here and awake," she said with a yawn as she poured herself some tea.

"Nightmares again?" Giyu asked.

She sighed, "every night. Just had a bad one last night is all."

"Wanna talk about it?" Uzui asked, as he did every time she had a nightmare to which she replied the same, a silent shake of her head.

Sanemi stared at her for a long time before speaking, "your combat training begins today. What is going to determine whether I pass you or not is if you can beat us all in a fight of hand to hand combat. Should you lose your sword, you need to be able to fight to run away or to the death. I will teach you a few things first before we start with the actual fighting."

Yuki nodded as she rubbed her forehead, feeling the usual headache there as she often did when she was woken up by her nightmares. One of the female Kakushi, which she learned were named Megumi and Hanabi, handed her some medicine for her to take. "Thank you Hanabi," she said with a smile as Hanabi patted her back in a friendly gesture.

"Why do you get headaches after bad nightmares?" Sanemi asked, breaking the silence.

"I am not sure to be honest....it's like if I get pulled from a nightmare or a dream too soon, then it hurts. It's probably from that stupid 'gift' my great grandmother always talked about," she said with a shrug. "More like a curse..." she muttered with a scoff.

"What gift?" Uzui asked her.

She sighed, suddenly remembering that they didn't understand the conversation she had with Oyakata-sama a few months back. "I come from a native american family. My great grandmother was pure Powhatan and I have some Cherokee on my dad's side too. I'm the palest person in my family yet everyone else looks like the crawled off a reservation. There is a thing in my family that we are descended from Shamans and I was 'lucky' enough to be born with a 'gift'. My great grandmother would say that's why I was so pale compared to everyone else, my gift took my skin color away. She would also say that's why all the women in the family had bright colored eyes."