Chapter 2, a very much shortened one but I just wanted to lay out some background before I got started.

Training with her tutor, aged 14. Hopefully the next entry will be 19.


"Don't just let the water use you, use the water!" The beast within Mizuko snarled; she was currently 30 feet up a tree, which in itself was perched precariously over a rocky overhaul that tumbled down to a lake.

Honestly, Mizuko felt like snarling – she had blisters in places she hadn't thought possible to get blisters, and she wasn't even past lunchtime yet. The voice of her mentor, who had always remained masked to her, echoed from some hidden site that she was meant to be discovering. "Control the beast, don't let it control you."

She had heard this instruction repeated at least ten times daily for the past three years, and was beginning to wonder if perhaps remaining in the small village where she had been known locally as 'fish-girl' would have been less tiring than this. At least then the death threats would have been fairly insignificant and easily defendable.

But she couldn't, after all. Her aunt, whom had cast her out so pitilessly, had hooked up with one of the 'head honchos' of town, and as a result, after the suspicious death of her grandfather, was living a life of luxury, probably having forgotten all about miserable Mizuko.

"He's in the tree to your immediate right." The beast whispered inside her. It was using its soothing tone today, which Mizuko usually assumed to mean that the beast wanted something. The beast was a tempest; as stormy and ever-changing as the seas. But Mizuko could not live without her beast; it was a constant bodyguard to speak, always protecting her and aiding her in any attack she attempted.

A quick tiger hand seal was made, and within moments a water clone was perched beside her. But this was more than simply a water clone – she had learnt to partly free the beast into her clones, so that her clones as a result were more powerful, even if it did mean they became unruly and had the attitude of a PMSing diva.

The clone smirked at her, something she still couldn't get over the strangeness of, before darting off to face the enemy head on. Mizuko clambered upwards into the foliage, scurrying between branches until she was directly above her tutor.

Her clone launched itself directly at her tutor, water spiralling outwards like hands, shuriken racing through the air, even as the Mizuko in the trees dropped downwards, slamming onto her tutor. As soon as she contacted, her mentor melted into water, leaving Mizuko to swear lightly under her breath. Another water clone.

Her tutor launched himself at her, using his weapon of choice of the day, which was a kusarigama. He liked to use a variety of weapons to make sure that she was widely trained against any opponent she was likely to come up against. The chain wrapped around Mizuko, the scythe biting into her flesh, even as she disappeared into water.

Mizuko, victoriously, leapt down from the tree, light as a spider monkey as she landed on her tutor's back, kunai at his throat. "Dead." Her tutor grabbed the wrist holding the kunai, flipping her off his back and onto her own, one foot lightly at her throat. "Dead."

She grinned like a Cheshire cat, disappearing into water.

But that was when she was fourteen.


Chapter 2, complete. Questions/reviews/concrit welcome.

Katya c;