Disclaimer- I don't own Ronin Warriors, not even a little bit (wants to cry now)

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Chapter Two

Star shoved on her mask and watched as Sage pulled his hair back and put on his mask. His eyes are scary when you see both of them, she thought but no time to think about that. At the signal, Star came flying at him with a punch. Sage quickly blocked and came back with a counter. Star almost sensing his counter, blocked it and threw back a counter of her own. This continued on for ten minutes. Both Sage and Star who were breathing deeply, momentarily stopped to catch their breathes when Sage's Grandfather interrupted.

"Very good, well done both of you. Now, go pick up your katanas."

Star stopping for a drink picked up her practice katana and headed back to the circle. Again they faced off each with a katana in their hands. If Star had been paying any attention to the other four boys she would have notice the one with black-hair and a red aura sit up and lean forward anxious for this fight. This time Sage rushed forward. Ten minutes later, Star hit Sage's hand perfectly knocking the katana out of his hand and sending it sailing into hers.

"Star is the winner of this round, my friend." Gram said mockingly

"Well, we will have to see about the next two then." Was the curt reply.

Star threw Sage back his katana as she turned to find a staff, she could use. Gram was smiling with her water bottle and a staff in her hands. Giving Star the water bottle, she took the katana and put it away. "See Star, I told you I had training for you. This boy seems to like his left side, try aiming there."

Star just nodded and switched the water bottle for the staff before entering the ring. As she walked she tested the balance of the staff, Good weapon, she thought, this should be fun.

Sage and Star faced off again before resuming this fight. This time the two new boys leaned forward interested, Star saw the movement this time but the one with the dark blue aura just sat there seemingly uninterested. Looking back at Sage and seeing he was ready she began to focus on the fight. Wood clanked as they tried to defeat the other. In a desperate attempt to avoid getting knocked down, Star did a back-flip landing on one hand while the other one whipped the bow around almost knocking Sage off his feet. As she regained her stance Sage came at her throwing both of them off balance and landing on the ground. Laughter reached her ears as she got up.

"I see that both of them need to work on the staff some more, let's just call it a tie." Gram said before breaking into laughter again. But Gram wasn't the only one laughing the boys were too!

Particularly the one with an orange aura surrounding him. "Sage, you should train more with me." He mocked. Muttering under her breath Star thrust the staff at Gram while sitting down to pick up the water bottle. After checking all the straps on her gear to make sure they were tight, Star stood up and went over to get the No-dachi from Gram. Star was ready to have this match over with. Sage had given her many new insights into her defense that she wanted to study and fix, also how did he do some of the stuff that he had done? All Star wanted to do was go home and think. But she was almost done, and then she could go and analyze the fight. Hefting the No-dachi getting the balance into her muscles she took stance waiting for the start of the match.

Sage was surprised that the match ended with both of them on their butts. He was a little embarrassed that he hadn't won a fight yet and that Kento was making fun of him. But he wouldn't lose this next match; it was his best weapon he thought with a smile. He gathered his sword and went out into the ring where Starciya was waiting.

Clash of swords went on for several minutes before Sage finally started to see a flaw in her technique. Smiling he began to use complicated patterns before he knocked her sword away from him and had his sword to her neck. He saw her frustration in her eyes as she threw the No-dachi to the ground, a symbol of defeat. He lowered his sword and they bowed to each other, ending the fight. Star went over and picked up the dropped sword and went to put it back as Gram could be heard saying, "Well, it looks like our grandchildren are as evenly matched as we were." Star sat down tired from the long match and began taking off all the pads and putting them in her pack. All she wanted to do was go home and analyze the match in peace and quiet. She looked over to the five boys where they were all gathered around Sage laughing and talking. She caught herself wishing that Meg were there to talk to. Shaking herself of the unwanted memory, she motioned to Gram that she would be out in the car and then walked out of the dojo.

Sage after the fight had been over-run by his friends. With excited comments about the fight. Next thing he knew Star was walking out the door. Beginning to go after her he heard Gram tell him it was useless. Upon questioning Gram told him that she gets this way after fighting. Where she draws into herself thinking about how she could improve and has a tendency to not pay attention to anyone for several hours. If he wanted to try and talk to her he should try tomorrow. Shrugging he went back to his friends.

Arriving early to school the next day, Sage wanted a chance to talk to Starciya about their fight last night. As the room filled up with students he patiently waited for her to arrive. But she didn't. Mr. Aku had just started class when Starciya came flying in through the door.

"Miss Agol, You're late!" said Mr. Aku sharply.

"I'm sorry," came a breathless reply with a small bow.

"I'm going to let you off today, but don't let it happen again." Star nodded silently," You may take your seat." Star hurried to her seat keeping her head down avoiding her classmates' gazes.

At lunch, Sage turned to her and they talked shortly about the match but Star wasn't being very talkative. Finally, he gave up and went to join the others for lunch. Star sighed when Sage finally left, she was hungry, she had missed breakfast this morning. She walked out to the cherry tree and pulled out her sketchbook this time drawing a girl off to her right. She was almost done with the picture when she noticed the girl was walking towards her.

"What are you doing?" she demanded when she got close enough.

"Drawing." Was the only rely she could think to give as she showed the girl her drawing.

"That's amazing!" The girl exclaimed, "I look so cute!" look at Star she said, "Your that new girl in my class, the lucky one who gets to sit by Sage."

Star groaned and relied, "I'll switch you if you want."

The girl burst into laughter and said, "No, Sage is cute but he really doesn't know how to talk to people sometimes. By the way my name is Kaede."

"Starciya, but call me Star."

Star and Kaede spent the rest of lunch together and walked for a short while home. When Star got home she quickly started doing her homework, fortunately she didn't have that much. She wanted to get in some training tonight.