I squint. I sharpen my eyes and look around: it is all green, but for the dummy right in front of me. I clench. I tighten my fingers around my swords' tsuka, my kodachi dangling along my skimpy body. I brood over. I repeat in my mind, as a mantra, the movements I am longing for on my training.
"Run... jump... cross... cut... run... jump... cross... cut... Run. Jump. Cross. Cut. Run, jump, cross, cut, runjumpcrosscutrunjumpcrosscut..."
I scream, I am partially kneeling on the ground, my arms are stretched back. Behind me, the dummy falls apart in four straight pieces. I am not alone.
I hear a muffled gasp from behind a bush. I recognize this gasp, as well as its owner's ki. There is someone else with her, whose ki I feel as well, but I do not know who. "Misao-chan?"
She appears in front of me and giggles. "You'll never stop calling me like this, will you, Aoshi-anata?". I smirk. Her eyes have a strange deep-green look, mixing joy and a strange fear that I have never seen before.
"Are thou affraid?"
"N-no..." she stutters, prooving to be an awsome liar. And despite this fright of hers, she smiles.
I look around: that weak ki is still bothering me, for I do not know who is it from. "Are thou alone?"
She giggles once again and I understand nothing. "No, Aoshi-anata." she answers and looks down to the ground.
Affraid of what it could be, I scrutinize all the corners, all the bushes, al the possible hide-outs: nobody but me and Misao. She gets closer and places her small hands on my shoulders, trying to reach for my neck. "Were thou going to tell me anything?"
"Hm, no... Nothing for the moment..." she embraces me, snuggling her head on my chest. Awkwardly I try to caress her hair, yet a bit annoyed with her stillness -what was it after all?
Some minutes we spend like this and she walks away. I pay attention to the ki: hers goes fading away, and the weaker one does too, the same bit as hers. It takes me some minutes to realise she did not look to the ground: shee looked to her stomach.