Prologue.

"Be strong when you are weak."

Every fiber in her body ached with pain, desperation clouded her mind, and weakness fell upon her spirit. In every sense of the word, she was exhausted. Her sensei kept coming at her, blow after blow, barely giving her any time to block. She was close to giving up, but she knew that wasn't an option. She kept moving, trying to analyze each attack as it came, but she was too slow. Eventually the hits stopped and she stood across from her sensei, the old man looking at her with a cold eyes. Her legs gave way underneath her causing her to collapse onto all fours. She looked up at him, waiting for the next indication that he was going to attack.

"Get up." His voice was stern, holding no emotion. With shaking arms and wobbly legs, she forced herself to a standing position, her breath coming out heavy. The excruciating pain caused black dots to appear in her line of vision. "Take one step." The seemingly simple task was like trying to climbing a mountain. Her legs felt as if they were pumped full of lead instead of blood and the black dots only multiplied as she lifted her leg and set it down in front of her. It came down with a heavy thud, her whole body shaking. Determination set into her mind as she pushed past the pain and took another step toward her sensei causing the world to sway underneath her. On the third step, she finally lost consciousness and fell. A proud look graced the old man's face as he stared at the crumpled form of his student on the ground.

"Half of being smart is knowing that you are stupid."

Her eyes darted back and forth across the page of the book that lay in her lap. She had read the particularly boring book at least five times, essentially memorizing it word for word. It was a non-fictional text about the different types of rocks and metals that could be found in the world, explaining where to find them, how they are used and the properties they hold.

"Your turn." The voice of the middle-aged man across from her brought her back to reality. Her attention turned from the book to the intense game of shoji that lay in front of her. War tactics that she had learned about raced through her mind as she played out every possible outcome that could happen from her making a single move. There was a long pause before she finally picked up a piece and set it in down in its desired spot. The man made a face of somewhat annoyance before also plotting his next move carefully as the girl turning back to her book. They continued like this for hours on end until finally the man made the winning move.

"Check-mate. I win." His voice wasn't prideful, but satisfied. The girl, his student, looked at the board in disappointment going over her seemingly perfect strategy in her mind, trying to find where she had gone wrong. A somewhat frustrated sigh found its way out of her lips as she tiredly got up and placed the one book she had been reading the entire game on top of a nearby stack and picked up a different book. "Do not get upset that you lost."

"But sensei, I always lose. I'm not smart enough." The look on the man's face was one of sympathy and understanding.

"That is true, but what you don't realize is by losing you are learning far more than you would if you were winning. Winning makes you forgetful, but losing makes you wise."

"Hai, sensei." She replied before stepping out of his prison cell and making her way down to her own to spend the night reading in silence.

"There must be chaos before you can find peace."

The sky was a canvas of brilliant hues as the sun's first ray burst over the sea and shown onto the world. A pair sat on the edge of the cliff, one a young women and the other a young man just ten years her senior. Both their eyes were closed as their breathing was slow making them appear at peace with the world and themselves, but that was far from the truth. The girl's mind was racing with worry, panic, fear, nervousness and countless other emotions as she tried, and failed, to focus on her meditation. Not even the calming sound of the vast ocean before her could calm her chaotic mind.

"Something is troubling you." It wasn't a question, but a statement that came out of the man's mouth. Her eyes fluttered open as she looked down to the ground following the trail of an ant that was weeding its way through the few blades of grass.

"I-," she stopped short of her explanation. "It is nothing, sensei." The man beside her finally opened his eyes and casted his gaze upon the girl beside him.

"Nothing is always something." Her gaze shifted from the ant that her eyes were still following to the sunrise that reflected beautifully upon the swaying waves.

"I'm scared. I'm nervous. I'm feeling so many things that it's difficult to explain." Her calm persona never cracked as she explained what was going on inside of mind and soul.

"You are leaving your norm so feeling these things is completely normal. We need to feel these things at least once in our lives to survive. We experience them so that we can grow stronger." A small rare smile graced her lips and she watched the sun rise completely out of the ocean and ascend into the golden sky. Her sensei's words gave her a small quantity of peace that she would hold onto for as long as she could on her journey outside the Hoozuki Jou prison gates.