Chapter 9: Taboo

Takumi and Zhi walked into the cafeteria of DWMA for breakfast, and were soon joined by Naomi and Florence, who brought with them two people they did not know.

"Who's this?" Zhi asked Florence.

"Ah, this is Elea and her partner Narz. They're a couple of friends of ours." Florence answered.

"Nice to meet you two, Takumi Watanabe and Zhi Xiyan." Elea greeted them, surprising the two that she already knew the names. "Naomi spared me no details about when she tested you for the EAT class." She noted, being sarcastic about the fact Naomi over explains everything. Zhi laughed at Elea's joke. "And since I brought it up, me and Narz here are the ones who tested your 'good friends' Nolan and Dalibor for their early graduation."

"And they passed?" Zhi joked, as she and Takumi had defeated them so many times it seemed embarrassing.

"They're stronger than you give 'em credit for. If Nolan just learned how to channel his anger more, he'd be golden." Elea said.

"So, Narz, what kind of weapon do you transform into?" Zhi asked the young boy, having figured out he was a weapon using her Soul Perception.

Being asked this question, Narz looked up and made a child-like grin. "Do you want to see?" He asked, to which Zhi nodded her head. "Would you mind sparring?" He asked.

Since he requested a match, Zhi would have accepted, but she wasn't sure if Takumi would want to, so she looked back at him for some kind of confirmation.

Swallowing a sip of water, Takumi put the glass down and answered. "Alright." He agreed, although he sounded unenthusiastic about it.

Even still, Zhi smiled happily and then turned back to Narz and nodded. When she did, he stood up and looked over at Izola, who had been sitting a few tables down. "Hey mom; come supervise our match?" He requested, and she turned and look at him with a smile.

"Of course Narz." She answered.

"Eh, Ms. Izola is your mother?" Zhi questioned.

"Yeah," Elea answered for Narz, who ran over to hug Izola. "And since I'm Narz's partner, she holds it over me to keep him safe. Anything happens to him and I'm dead meat." She said, moving her finger across her neck and cocking her head to the side with her tongue out as if she had died.

"Well, shall we get started?" Narz asked, and then the group all stood up to go to the hall for their match.

Once there, Naomi and Florence sat by the wall near Izola to watch the match. "So, who do you think will win?" Florence asked her sister.

"Hm, well…" Naomi began, giving it some thought. "I'd like to say Elea and Narz will win; they've certainly got more experience under their belt. But of course we know firsthand how much natural talent Takumi and Zhi have. Zhi could pack a punch even without transforming with a Meister, and her special ability to take control of a Weapon by striking the Meister only makes things more difficult for their opponents.

"Of course I already told Elea about that power, so she'll be on guard; but this match could go either way."

While Naomi was talking, Zhi had transformed into her weapon form and Takumi waited for Narz to do the same. Zhi watched as Elea held out her hand to Narz and he transformed, becoming a sword that looked too big to actually be held up.

Zhi was a bit surprised that the young little boy turned into something that looked so menacing, but regained her composure for the fight to come. "Ready to go?" Elea asked.

"Go ahead." Takumi stated, allowing Elea the first move.

Smiling, Elea shifted her weight onto one foot and then used it to suddenly burst herself forward and got next to Takumi in a matter of seconds, already swinging Narz at his throat. Her movements were much faster than one would have expected possible while wielding such a huge blade, but evidentially that did not matter in this case.

But Takumi still had the time to make his move. As soon as Narz's edge was in front of him, he began bending backward and got his head under the blade. Once Narz flew over his head, Takumi twisted himself around while he was straightening himself out and basically flung his fist into Elea's back, making her stumble forward as he stepped back an put distance between them.

"Alright, now if we can get our hands on Narz this match is as good as ours." Zhi whispered to Takumi. Since Takumi landed a punch on Elea, he could now utilize Zhi's special ability to control any Weapon that she would be compatible with; which naturally included Narz.

"No," Takumi muttered, surprising Zhi.

"Eh, really?" Zhi asked, sounding curious.

Without answering, Takumi put up his fists and waited for Elea to make her next move. However, Elea did not approach, and instead took her own stance by holding her Weapon's hilt with both hands, keeping his blade extended right in front of her.

The two Meister's peered into the other's eyes while just waiting for each other to make the next move. As they did, Izola, Naomi and Florence watched from the sidelines, having to guess at what the combatants' plans actually were. Then, Takumi finally made his move.

He started running toward Elea in a zigzag as if trying to throw his opponent off. When he closed the gap between them, he suddenly threw his hand forward toward Narz as if making to grab him.

But when he did that, Elea smiled. "Predictable!" She told Takumi while at the same time shifting her Weapon to the side before Takumi could grab it.

Elea had him, she had planned for Takumi to attempt to take Narz from her, and intentionally let him get that first strike on her to make him feel like he had the upper hand. Now, with his rhythm disrupted by the sudden shift in her position, he was left wide open.

Since this wasn't a death match, Elea swung her Weapon with the flat end of his blade facing Takumi, sure she would hit unlike her first attack where she intentionally missed. However, when she swung Narz from the side, it was suddenly stopped short by Takumi's second hand, which was protected with Zhi's metal glove.

Takumi gripped Narz tight as to not let Elea get away unless she planned to leave Narz in his hands. As he did, he curled the fingers of his hand that had originally been outstretched to grab Narz into a fist without any hesitation as if he had planned it that way. "My line," He told Elea, telling her that she had been the one who was predictable.

Takumi had not charged straight in intending to simply grab Narz out of her hands like stealing candy from a baby. The moment Elea initiated her first attack it became obvious to him what her plan was. Takumi had noticed Elea pull back on her first attack to allow him room to dodge, but that had been her biggest mistake. She had actually overestimated his ability; if Elea had used the flat end of her sword for her first attack and not held back, Takumi would have unfortunately been unable to duck completely in time. And even if he managed to stay in the fight after the first strike, if she had continued on without holding back, with her speed this battle would have already been over in her favor.

But because she had overanalyzed her strategy, Takumi had a shot at victory. He punched Elea's face and let go of Narz, which sent both of them flying back. There were two reasons for Takumi's 'no' to Zhi earlier about taking Narz. One was his knowledge of Elea's plan, and Zhi had been surprised that was the case. The second reason however was because he wanted this to be a fair fight, if he won because he had stolen her Weapon, it would not have been a victory in his eyes.

That kind of desire was something Zhi understood entirely. Her competitive nature had always prompted her to beat her opponents at their best while also fighting at her best. She would normally use every tool at her disposal to achieve victory, but with the way Takumi had put it, she no longer wished to win like that either.

Elea got to her feet and rubbed her cheek where she had been punched. But instead of a scowl on her face, she held a satisfied grin. Seeing her expression, Zhi smirked inside her soul. She was already beginning to really like Elea and Narz, and let herself be engulfed in the excitement of their battle.

"Not bad, you're every bit as good as Naomi said you were." Elea told Takumi, holding Narz up to go for round two.

"Too much," Takumi replied, meaning that Elea was giving him too much credit, as he knew he could have already lost.

Takumi and Elea had another stare down. Elea wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, and Takumi knew it, so this time he would wait for her to attack. And this time he would be prepared for her speed.

Zhi breathed in deeply and focused herself on their opponents. For a moment, she began to use Soul Perception to identify the exact strength of Elea and Narz. Their souls were in perfect sync with one another and it only made them both stronger as a result; and Zhi was impressed with the growth their souls had already gone through together.

But suddenly… %##&*$^&#%^

A disturbance blew through Zhi's mind like static on a radio that completely blurred her perception. Her mind fuzzed over and she couldn't focus on what was in front of her. (What the-) Zhi thought as she attempted to regain control of herself.

Slowly, her mind resettled into its proper state, and when that happened she noticed something abnormal and dangerous moving toward them from the other side of the wall. Takumi and Elea were still having a stare down, so neither one had moved an inch, but the dangerous wavelength was approaching fast from the side, and obviously had the intention of ramming through the wall to get at them.

In haste and confusion, Zhi shouted out. "Takumi, look out!"

Her shout broke the concentration of both combatants as they had no idea what had prompted the reaction. When she shouted, Zhi reverted to human form and jumped up, kicking her foot toward the wall as the dangerous wavelength was about to crash through. Surprising everyone but her, the wall she was kicking toward was broken down in an instant, and a figure came crashing through with its arm outstretched.

Zhi attempted to hit the figure with her foot, but the instant the dangerous person noticed her, its outstretched arm moved and grabbed her leg. The figure, which Takumi could see now was a boy a few years older than he, swung his arm around and flung Zhi into the ground, and she yelped in pain upon hitting the ground.

"What-" Elea stuttered at the sight and her voice caught in her throat.

"Oh no…" Izola was left nearly speechless upon seeing the boy and then turned to the side and whistled loudly as if trying to call someone over.

"Oh crap!" Naomi muttered as she and Florence stood up but kept back to the wall.

The boy who had suddenly and violently come crashing through the wall had pale, sickly skin and razor sharp teeth. He wore a blue sleeveless V-neck shirt that had a high standing collar. He had dark brown fingerless gloves on his hands with long cuffs and baggy white trousers with a black sash around his waist and had blue shoes with metal padding on the toes. His hair was grey and spiky, and although Takumi couldn't get a good look because of the fast pace of the scene, he could see the boy had some kind of tattoo on his chest where the V-neck parted.

However, despite the suddenness of it all, Takumi did not hesitate to throw a punch at the person who had just thrown his partner into the ground. But when he did, the boy took notice of him and then moved with wicked fast reflexes. He crouched down and circled around Takumi in an instant, and then hooked his arm around Takumi's neck, flipping him over and sending him crashing into the ground.

The monstrous boy then stood over Takumi and raised his foot as if preparing to crush his head under it. However, before he brought his foot down, Diego suddenly came from the side and tackled the boy away from Takumi while holding Izola in his left hand in her weapon form. "Soul Resonance!" He and Izola shouted together and almost instantly, four shadows of Izola's blade form appeared in the air around them.

Without hesitating, Diego pointed Izola's tip forward and sent the four shadow blades stabbing down on the boy. "Bind!" He shouted as two of the blades stuck into the mystery boy's legs near his feet and another into his right arm.

However, the boy managed to move his left arm out of the way before it was pierced and stuck to the ground, and he used it to grab and crush the shadow blade in his right arm, and it didn't even leave a wound. He then crushed the blades at his legs which also left no wound on him, which had likely been the cause of the 'bind' command Diego had used.

The boy immediately got to his feet and hurled himself at Diego, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a monster. Diego was about to counter attack when suddenly Takumi got back to his feet between them and caught the boy mid jump over his shoulders and then tossed him into the air.

"Zhi!" Takumi shouted, and Zhi got back to her feet and jumped toward Takumi, transforming to her weapon form on his command.

Takumi ran toward where the boy would fall and pulled his fist back to strike the boy mid fall. However, when he struck his fist forward, the boy managed to use his hand and grab Takumi's wrist and keep him above the attack, and then used Takumi's arm as a fulcrum to shift his body around and swing his leg at Takumi's head.

Takumi reacted just in time and bent his head backward to just narrowly avoid the attack and pull his arm out of the boy's grip. The boy landed on his feet as Takumi flipped backward to put distance between them. When Takumi stopped he finally got a good look at the tattoo on the boy's chest. He had thought the blur had played a trick on his eyes the first time, but now he realized that what he saw had been real.

But before he could do anything with that information, an odd sensation filled the hallway that every person felt. It lasted only an instant but felt like they had all been swallowed in a perpetual blackness that Zhi recognized as the same type of sensation she had felt just moments ago when she used Soul Perception.

But more importantly, when the instant past everyone suddenly noticed a new figure that had come out of nowhere; he was standing behind the mysterious boy with his right hand, which was wrapped in bandages, resting on the boy's shoulder. He was lean and tall and had long dark hair tied at the back of his head. He wore an almost too tight sleeveless black shirt and navy blue pants with black Chinese style shoes and a ninja tool pouch was strapped to his left forearm.

Takumi and Zhi had no idea what just happened, but when the new person put his hand on the boy that had just attacked them, the boy seemed to freeze in place as if immobilized. However, Zhi did not seem to care what was going on, and she transformed back to human form and jumped at the monstrous boy with her leg stretched to kick him in the face, but instead of her usual expression of pride, her teeth were clenched in fear as she was covered in a nervous sweat.

She attacked the boy out of a fear Takumi had never seen on her before and wondered just what was wrong with her because of it. However, before Zhi's kick connected, the odd feeling of perpetual blackness returned for just an instant, and when it was over, the boy who had frozen the monstrous boy was suddenly in front of him, holding Zhi's foot to stop her attack.

But unlike the boy behind him, he instead opted to simply pull Zhi down and set her feet on the ground without harming her. "You'll have to forgive my partner; he gets a little excited when he feels strong souls in mid-combat." He told Zhi and Takumi, speaking in a monotone voice with a stale expression on his face. "But you understand I'm sure." He noted, motioning to Zhi. "Not much to be done about a Kishin's bloodlust."

The term Kishin caused Takumi unrest. Was this person actually trying to say that the boy that had just attacked them was in fact a Kishin inside DWMA? But that was not the only thing on Takumi's mind, the tattoo on the supposed Kishin's chest was one he recognized from his studies in Japan his father had taught him. It was a star tattoo that signified him as part of the Star clan.

The Star clan was a lethal family of assassin's that were notorious for doing anything for money. And the boy's strength had certainly lived up to the clan's reputation, even he had been overpowered. However, that left a vital question to be answered.

"And you…" Takumi spoke to the boy who had somehow stopped the supposed Kishin Star Clan boy, asking him who he was.

"My name is Muramasa Nakatsukasa. I am this boy's partner, Weapon, and handler." The boy answered Takumi.

Nakatsukasa; yet another name Takumi was familiar with. The Nakatsukasa was an ancient family of Weapons that were directly descended from the first Weapons from over 700 years ago.

"I see the two of you are quite rattled from everything that has just happened, and I do not blame you. But if you would come with me, I will explain everything to you clearly." Muramasa told Zhi and Takumi.

However, Takumi realized that he was only referring to them. He did not seem to be worried about everyone else's reactions, and when he looked around he noticed that no one else had moved a muscle except for Diego and Izola, who had stepped in to protect them. He realized they all must have known what was going on and knew not to get involved, which left the important question: Just what was going on?

"That's quite alright Muramasa," Diego said, stepping up to them with Izola following behind. "You just worry about BlueStar. I'll take care of explaining the situation to Takumi and Zhi."

"Understood," Muramasa nodded to Diego, and then turned back to the Star Clan boy called BlueStar. "Let's go, BlueStar." Muramasa told the boy and put his hand on his arm, and suddenly BlueStar began to walk away, as if he didn't have any more interest in fighting.

But then, as the two of them began walking away, Zhi suddenly began to move again. Her fear had apparently overridden the revelation that these two were not enemies and she made to attack BlueStar yet again. But once again the hallway was eclipsed in blackness and then Muramasa was suddenly beside Zhi and grabbed her arm to stop her, where she froze.

"I'm impressed, no one has ever broken my control so quickly before." Muramasa told her, although he continued to speak in a monotone voice that went against his statement of being impressed. "Perhaps it is because your ability so closely resembles mine?" he speculated, but without waiting for an answer began walking away with BlueStar beside him again, and they vanished around a corner by the time Zhi began moving again.

She was still covered in a nervous sweat and now was breathing heavily like her lungs had stopped working for a moment. In midst of all of that, there was a moment of unrest and silence in the hallway except for Zhi's breathing.

Where Elea stood, Narz changed back to human form and then ran over to his mother Izola, who then picked him up and held him in her arms. "It's okay Narz, it's okay." Izola assured her son; apparently he had been even more scared than Zhi.

"Sorry about all of that." Elea said, her usual sarcastic tone gone. "Well… I'll be going now Ms. Izola." She told her teacher, who nodded to her to give her the okay to leave Narz with her.

"Are you both alright?" Florence asked Zhi and Takumi as she and Naomi walked over to them, both with uncomfortable expressions.

"Fine…" Takumi answered, but looked at Zhi and couldn't be so sure about her, who was still looking after where Muramasa and BlueStar left with her eyes peeled open in fear, as if they might come back and attack again.

Finally, Diego spoke up. "Well, you two had best sit down for this." He told them, making it almost sound morbid.

Zhi went over to a wall and pretty much collapsed onto the ground and hid her eyes behind her hand, still shaking from everything that happened, but Takumi opted to stay standing next to her, placing his hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down. "What?" Takumi asked Diego to start explaining.

"Those two are the strongest students of DWMA, Muramasa Nakatsukasa and BlueStar." He began simple.

However, when he said that, Takumi noticed Zhi stop shivering in fear. "Did you say 'students'?" She asked Diego without removing her hand from in front of her eyes and her voice sounding like she was angry at the term.

"I know what you're thinking," Diego sighed. "'How could a Kishin be a student at DWMA,' right?" He asked her rhetorically. "Well, I'll tell you the story, so just listen. It was a few years back; BlueStar was an infamous Kishin back then who had become so strong, he came and directly attacked DWMA." As Diego went through what happened, Takumi and Zhi listened to the story quietly, waiting to understand the story of how BlueStar came to be a student.

The attack had come without warning. Out of nowhere, a figure crashed through the ceiling of DWMA; that was BlueStar. He roared and began running through the hall of students who weren't sure what had just happened or how to react.

BlueStar attacked anyone who tried to attack him, but as he continued past, he wasn't killing anyone. How difficult it may have been to believe, BlueStar was not on an indiscriminate killing spree. In truth, he was here to try and personally kill Lord Death.

That was just how strong BlueStar thought he was. He believed he would be able to overpower and kill Lord Death all on his own. He was certainly proving himself powerful by rampaging through the halls, taking down anyone who dared try and harm him, but even a full blown Kishin would have been defeated by Lord Death, so surely he had had no chance from the get go.

BlueStar made it all the way to Lord Death's chambers. However, when he arrived, Diego was there to protect him with Izola in his left hand. "Not one move Kishin." Diego warned BlueStar.

But being a Kishin, Diego's threats meant nothing to BlueStar. BlueStar immediately charged Diego and fought him on his own. The fight had been difficult for both combatants, even after Diego and Izola used Soul Resonance. But finally, Diego got his chance and use 'bind' to pin BlueStar to the wall.

But that had been a mistake; BlueStar was too quick to fall for something like that unless it had been a surprise attack. Being clearly in front of him, BlueStar easily ran and jumped out of the way and got his chance to knock Diego down.

"Your turn!" BlueStar yelled at Lord Death and charged him.

However, before he had even taken 3 steps, Lord Death attacked him. Firing off a shockwave of his Soul Wavelength from his hand, he immediately threw BlueStar into the ground, and making him bruised all over in an instant.

It was amazing enough that BlueStar had survived the attack, but what was even more amazing was what he did after that. Diego started pulling himself back to his feet when he suddenly heard laughing. He looked at BlueStar to find him flat on the ground, laughing at his own utter defeat.

"Oh man, that wouldn't even work as a bad joke!" BlueStar said, mocking himself. He looked at Lord Death without moving up from the ground and saw the anger in his eyes as he prepared to finish him off. "Hey now, wait a minute before deciding to kill me, huh? I got a proposition for you."

"Proposition?" Diego muttered to himself, the idea that a Kishin was trying to negotiate for his life with Lord Death himself sounded preposterous.

But despite the insanity of the idea, Lord Death appeared to be holding off his attack until hearing what BlueStar had to say. "How's this: if you don't kill me, I'll work for you as a student." He told Lord Death. "I'll partner up with one of your Weapons and go around hunting other Kishin and Witches, and I'll swear not to kill another human as long as I work under you."He explained the bargain.

At least to BlueStar, that must have sounded like a pretty good deal. There was no denying his incredible strength after fighting off Diego and Izola, so he must have thought that offering to do this would have given DWMA a powerful asset.

However, he looked back at Lord Death again and saw that his expression had not changed in the slightest, although he had not moved to attack him either. "No deal." Lord Death said at last. "You promise not to kill another human if I accept this deal, but you and I both now that a Kishin will not be able to ignore the bloodlust in his soul forever. You'll break that promise soon enough if I let you live, so there's no point in accepting your offer!" As Lord Death said this, he raised his hand and prepared to kill BlueStar in one fell swoop.

But just then, a voice stopped Lord Death in his tracks. "Then pair him with me." The voice said, and when it did, Diego, BlueStar, and Lord Death looked to the door to see one of DWMA's students, Muramasa Nakatsukasa standing there. "I'll pair with him and keep him out of trouble."

"What do you mean?" Lord Death asked.

"My 'Uncanny Sword' transformation." Muramasa answered, which let Lord Death realize exactly what he planned to do. "With the Uncanny Sword's powers, I can control this Kishin should he ever attempt to kill a human.

"This is beneficial to me as well." Muramasa added. "Because of the Uncanny Sword's properties, anyone who wields me in this form is liable to have their soul deteriorated and fall into the path of the Kishin. But if I pair with someone who is already a Kishin, that will no longer a problem in the slightest."

"After that, Lord Death made BlueStar Muramasa's personal responsibility. Since then, the two have become the strongest pair in DWMA, and an unbelievable asset to us." Diego finished his story and became silent, waiting for Takumi or Zhi to say something about it all.

Finally, Zhi inhaled deeply and stood up. "I understand. Wish I had known about it sooner though, I wouldn't have been as worried had I known." She told Diego as she wiped of the remaining sweat on her face away.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Florence asked, worrying about Zhi's condition.

"I'll be fine," Zhi assured Florence with a soft smile. "Well, if that's all, we should probably get to class, right Takumi?"

"Oh that's right," Naomi sounded surprised. "That fight took such an unexpected twist I completely forgot the time; we should get moving."

"That's quite alright since you're all with me." Diego said with a chuckle. "We'll all just go together."

"Good, let's go Takumi." Zhi said, finally seeming to be back to her usual self after everything that happened.

After that Izola put Narz down, who also seemed to have calmed down, and they all went to class. Class went by smoothly, and Takumi realized that Muramasa and BlueStar had never been to a class. He wondered if they didn't have to attend classes because of how strong they were or if it was the fact BlueStar was a Kishin that the school did not put them in usual classes and maybe gave them private lessons away from the other students.

Takumi didn't worry about it much and after class he and Zhi went to the cafeteria for lunch. But while eating, the people they wanted to see least at this point began walking past the other students toward them: Muramasa and BlueStar.

Takumi noticed Zhi's breathing become heavily when they noticed them; she was obviously still worked up over everything that had happened. When the strongest pair came up to them, BlueStar put his foot up on the table and spoke to them. "Yo, I wanted to apologize for attacking you two like that earlier, but like Lord Death told me, Kishin can't just simply suppress their urge to kill." He told them, although his tone gave the impression he was just apologizing as formality and he didn't mean a word of it.

"Fine," Takumi said, telling him he had stopped caring about it already, although he couldn't say the same for Zhi, who looked up at BlueStar with obvious frustration.

If BlueStar caught the look, he didn't care about it, because he continued speaking regardless. "But either way, I do want to fight you two if you've ever got a spare moment, on fair terms this time. What d'ya say?" He asked them and held out his hand to shake on it if they wished.

However, to answer him, Zhi stood up and stared BlueStar straight in the eye. "Not a chance." She said with disdain. "If I were to fight you, I'd kill you. So thanks but no thanks."

"Wow, I know I gave you a bad first impression but still…" BlueStar said, but had an amused tone from hearing Zhi's threatening voice.

"That's not it." Zhi corrected him. "I'd kill you because you are a Kishin, and that means you have killed many people in cold blood for no other purpose but to increase your own power. So you should just remember that the only reason I'm not killing you already is because Lord Death lets you live." She said, her tone and expression becoming so menacing she almost seemed like a different person.

Takumi had never seen Zhi get angry, not genuinely angry at someone. She would yell at people, but that was normally to scare them into doing something she wanted. But here she was showing a genuine loathing for BlueStar that she was just barely containing.

In response to this pure hatred of him, BlueStar cracked his smile wide and looked at Zhi. "Ho~ that sounds like a challenge to me." He said, now glaring into Zhi's eyes as she glared into his. "I like you girl; what was your name?" He asked, as he never asked for it earlier, but Zhi didn't dignify it with a response. "Not talking eh? Well, that's fine; maybe someday we'll get the chance to fight anyways." He proposed, half-sounding like a threat to Zhi.

The two of them continued to glare at each other until Muramasa cut in and put his hand on BlueStar's shoulder. When he did, BlueStar scowled back at him for stepping in on his fun but stepped back behind him anyways. "Sorry to disturb you." Muramasa told Zhi with his same monotone voice as always.

Muramasa gave Zhi a respectful bow, possibly in an attempt to better Zhi's opinion of them and then lead BlueStar away. However, before they had left, BlueStar stopped as he realized something extra. "Oh yeah, what about you?" He asked, directing his question at Takumi. "What was your name?"

Takumi looked over to the Kishin from the Star Clan, and then gave an answer. "Takumi," He said simply, but doing so made Zhi look back at him as if asking why he had given a Kishin his name at all.

"Takumi, huh? Hee, guess I'll be seeing you two around." BlueStar said and then turned away, walking out of the cafeteria along with Muramasa.