Scene XI

Solar Year 189

Tokyo Empire, Asakusa

. . . . . .

Market Day was exhausting and crowded and loud.

Benimaru hated the noise; not even the twins caused this much racket. Usually. They were still babies after all. Somehow, they had taken a liking to him, of all people. Shinbeita said it was because his strength attracted people to him and that even babies, like Hika and Hina, could tell how strong he was. Benimaru wasn't entirely convinced by that, though. If the little things really knew how strong he was, they'd be scared stiff and cry the moment he came anywhere near them. The fact they'd climb all over him every chance they got and would nibble on his hair (that bit was rather disgusting) was a testament to the fact that Hika and Hina were . . . weird.

After all, it wouldn't be nice to call 'em dumb.

'Cause they weren't.

They were just . . . weird.

Beni supposed he couldn't blame them for it either 'cause they didn't have a 'normal' family to take care of them. They had the hikeshi and they were anything but normal. Also, Konro often worried if it was a good thing that a bunch of rowdy, foul-mouthed thugs were now in charge of raising a pair of little girls. None of them knew anything about being one so bringing up not one, but two, seemed a bit out of their wheelhouse of expertise as he put it. But, the Master had insisted everything would be fine and that there wasn't too big of a difference in the long run.

After all, it was better than sending them off to some orphanage were their names could be changed and their lives placed under the weight of that nonsense religion of the 'Holy' Sol. An orphanage run by the Church often became a convent and they'd be damned if little Hika and Hina grew up believing in that sort of crap. Not only that but there was also the fact that the two girls wouldn't have the kind of love and care that the community of Asakusa could give them. Orphans were well cared for in a town like theirs, especially ones who's parents died by fire. Of which, not even hikeshi were invulnerable against. Poor Hina and Hika were all their mother had left before her husband died in a house fire gone wrong and she turned Infernal.

So, it made perfect sense to Shinmon Hibachi that he bring the twins into the fold as a silent favor to their father who had served and died under the hikeshi name. The old geezer was always going on about doing 'the right' thing and honoring the living and the dead. Maybe this was one of those ways he thought he could do it. Either way, as long as the twins didn't bother him too much, Benimaru didn't mind them.

Even if they were weird.

"Got the list?" asked Konro casually over one shoulder as they struggled through the chaos of the crowd.

"Yeah, right here." Beni nearly took an elbow to the eye (the right one) trying to avoid a rather rotund woman and her shopping basket laded with goods, only to walk straight into Konro's back and knock him into a man trying to lift a heavy sack of rice onto his shoulder.

"Watch it, Kon-san." The older man groused irritably through clenched teeth as he unexpectedly dropped the load to the cobblestone. "This is hard 'nough as it is."

"Sorry, Batou." Konro offered sincerely, hands raised in peace. "This mess is a nightmare."

"Yer tellin' me," Batou grunted, finally able to gain enough strength (and room) to lift the burden. "Kiki's sick today, so Fu is staying with her. Which left me ta do all the shopping fer the week. How the hell Fu does it and not come home bloody is beyond me. Some o' these wives heckle worse than we do when it comes ta food."

"Any Asakusa woman worth her salt knows how to get a good price for rice, fish, and miso," Konro grinned wickedly. "Best not to get in their way while they do it."

As if on que, a woman began screaming in outrage to the merchant of one of the stalls about the uptick in the price over tofu.

Beni winced; women were scary sometimes.

. . . . . .

The whole ordeal took a great deal longer than Benimaru would have liked. Two hours of nothing but screaming and shoving; a fistfight or two which Konro had to break up before it got real nasty, and three incidents in which a couple of teenagers were trying to be funny by nicking a few pieces of fruit from some vendor's cart. Benimaru thought he recognized one of the boys from a previous fight but quickly realized something else about him. Not only had Beni beat the living shit out of him for getting in his way, but the older boy was also in the process of becoming a martial artist . . . and not just at any dojo either.

In fact, Beni had seen him yesterday sitting off to the side when everything went to shit quicker than you could say the six tenants of the Shobu Style. Which meant Old-man Shobu had a student who really wasn't taking his lessons to heart after all.

And Beni was the one who was supposed to be the problem disciple.

He tried to rack his brain for the boy's name but came up blank. 'Sides, what the hell was he supposed to do about it? By the time he recognized who he was (kinda), the boys were gone and Konro never noticed them due to the fact he was too busy trying to break up his second brawl of the day. Honestly? As long as Beni wasn't drawn into their schemes, it wasn't his problem.

"Here," Konro tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention and held out a few coins.

Benimaru blinked, surprised by the offering. The hikeshi didn't have much in the way of spending money usually, let alone enough to fork over to him for personal use. "Huh?"

"For all your help today," The older man explained nonchalantly, still holding out the money for him to take. "You've earned it. No fights for nearly two whole weeks and don't think I didn't see you and Tsu yesterday. The two of you were actually getting along. I told you if you just apologized and swallowed your pride for once, she'd respect you."

"Yeah, yeah." Beni grumbled, choosing to look down the lane rather than face Konro head on. He took the money and stuffed it in his sleeve pocket, too embarrassed to do much else. "She's not . . . that bad . . . I guess."

Konro merely grinned wolfishly at him, thin pupils alight with a look Benimaru didn't find comforting in the least. "Go on and get out of here. Find something else to do while I lug this home. Just stay out of trouble, if you can managed it, alright?"

"Yeah, sure." He answered uneasily, still wondering if this was some sort of trick or test in which his future rode on.

Then he bolted before the older man could try to pull a fast one on him.

. . . . . .

Quickly, Benimaru had a new dilemma.

What in the hell was he supposed to spend his new found reward on?

He wasn't into sweets (he really only liked the stuff Kaede made and that was because she tried not to make it overly sweet to the point he gagged) and he certainly was too big (age wise anyway) for silly things like toys. There wasn't enough to buy a battery operated device like a basic portable music player (Asakusa had a limited supply of electricity due to the fact the town actively chose not to rely on Amaterasu for power, so battery operated stuff was the only thing the average person could afford to use) and the guardhouse already had a wireless radio anyway. As far as clothes were concerned, the Master was pretty decent at making sure he had all that. He had two other sets of hikeshi style happi and matching pants, an extra pair of zori, plenty of tabi, and a winter coat and scarf.

There really wasn't much he needed in the way of material things and, honestly, he never had any money to spend on himself before. He supposed he didn't have to use it right away and save it for another time. Then again, maybe he didn't have to spend it on himself in the first place. Hina and Hika hadn't had anything new to play with for a while and even though Kaede had accepted his apology (not to mention the fact she had practically gushed over the tea set he and Konro bought for her), he could always buy her some kind of little knickknack to make up for the shit that happened yesterday.

Yeah, that wasn't too bad of an idea.

"Get down, ya moron."

Benimaru froze out of pure instinct. The whisper came from off his left, down a small narrow alleyway he had yet to pass.

"Someone's gonna see us." A different voice from the first and mostly likely the accused 'moron'.

"Not if you don't stay down and outta the damn way," Came the first one.

Two voices and, by the sound of them, a pair of idiots up to no good.

"Cut the whining. Any sign of 'er?"

Make that three.

Beni sighed and crossed his arms inside his sleeves, thinking hard. Konro had just given him a reward for staying out of trouble and the last thing he really wanted was to disappoint the man. Not too mention the lecture he'd get if immediately after receiving praise for his improved behavior, he'd fallen right back in the hole again. Then, there was Kaede's newfound faith in his ability to be better than his current self. Unlike the Master and Konro, who he was afraid of to various degrees (the old geezer hardly made him fear anything but Konro was a different story; the man was big and strong and down right scary at times with his quiet voice and icy glares), Kaede, on the other hand, believed in him in that gentle, unassuming way which made it almost worse. 'Cause Kaede didn't want him to be better because it was expected of him.

She wanted him to be better simply because he could.

"Not yet," whispered the second.

"I thought I told ya ta keep track of 'er?!"

Judging by the agitation in the newly spoken third voice, it was clear he (all three of them were some shade of teenage boy) was the ringleader of the tiny group. The trouble they were up to now, apparently, included a girl of some sort but, whether or not the girl was apart of the group hiding in the alley or their intended target seemed to be the next biggest question. Either way, Beni wasn't entirely liking where this was headed. Deciding, for now, to keep quiet, he carefully took a few steps forward toward the mouth of the alley before making himself comfortable against the wall.

"We lost her around the tofu cart," offered the first, voice timid.

"Did ya see where she went?" Inquired the third hotly, obviously losing patience with his coconspirators.

"Nah, lost her in the crowd," the second added quickly.

"Dammit!" The third swore colorfully. "How the hell - ? Never mind. Guess we'll have ta wait some other time. Shobu can't avoid us forever."

Shobu?

Wait -

Benimaru felt the blood in his veins run cold. No, there was no way Shobu Tsubaki had the time (let alone will) to run around with a group of stupid punks like them. Which could only mean she was their intended target. His hands balled into fists beneath the fabric of his happi. If one of them had a beef with her, there was nothing he could really do. Shobu took care of her own problems and he didn't care to get involved in them. Still, even if he wouldn't go so far as to call her a friend, that didn't mean he could let a group of jackasses go around trying to . . . do whatever it was they were going to do to her.

Because a three-on-one was a coward's move.

And Beni despised cowards above all else.

So, he took a deep breath and focused. Three Breaths of Life and all of them filled with the intent to do harm. Well, that settled it. There was no way he could walk away, now. If he did and they found Shobu . . . He gritted his teeth. Damn, that girl was always putting him in positions in which there was never a clear way out.

"I don't know. Maybe we should just let it go, Jin."

He stopped; they were talking again.

"And let 'er get away with it?" The third growled and this was followed up by the sound of something muffled hitting the wooden wall of the alley. "Dammit, Sanji, do you want all o' Asakusa ta know ya get yer ass handed ta ya by a little girl?!"

"No!" Answered 'Sanji', voice angry and desperate. "It's just . . . she's strong. You couldn't even win yesterday!"

"That's why there's three o' us, ya moron!" Insisted 'Jin', tone mocking. "She might be able ta take us on one at a time, but there's no way in hell she can beat the three o' us at once."

Wonderful.

Not only were they a bunch of stupid punks, but they were also a bunch of sore losers.

Say what you wanted about Shinmon Benimaru: he was a stunted brat, a little menace, a bite-sized terror, ect. But, he knew how to take a loss. He might bitch about it under his breath where no one could hear him and grumble about not keeping his guard up like he should, but even he lost against Shobu Tsubaki more than he won. Yet, with every fight he had with her, he learned something new. How she liked to approach in the first beginning seconds, how she favored using her opponents clothing as a means against them, how spitting insults and barbs was a good tactic to get under people's skin, and so on and so on. Every altercation with her forced him to look at the fight differently and why he lost.

How he could be better.

These punks couldn't even be bothered to understand why they were losing.

Ha! And they wanted to be martial artists. They wanted to be strong.

Goddammit, he hated cowards.

"Fat load of good it'll do us if we can't find her, Jin." Piped up the second voice.

"And ya won't either." Benimaru sniped, stepping into the mouth of the alley, his arms still crossed inside his sleeves.

. . . . . .

They were older than even Shobu was, about sixteen to seventeen, and thus, far old enough to understand the Shobu Style and what it stood for. They were also the teens he had spotted earlier in the day stealing fruit at the market as a prank. Perhaps, now that he thought about it, they used the stealing as a cover for their actual goal. Which, apparently, was to ambush their Master's daughter because she continued to beat the crap out of them during sparring lessons. Either way, Benimaru wasn't impressed. In fact, he was annoyed bordering on pissed.

"Well, well." The one called Jin snarled, lip curling as if he smelled something rancid. The voice barely matched the actual physical representation of him; the older boy was average in height, weight, and literally everything else. His short, black hair was wind-tossed and his grey eyes were filled with anger and resentment. He was also the boy who Beni had gotten into a fight with on one previous occasion and lost . . . badly. "Beni-chan. So, ya made a friend. That's cute."

Beni didn't react, knowing full well what the boy's aim was. The name calling, however, was not welcomed. He glanced between the other two, a heavier set boy with longer hair than Jin and the shortest out of the lot who had the unfortunate luck of having a nose broken far too many times. All boring and all not worth his time.

He shrugged one shoulder, remaining as impassive as possible. "S'more than I can say fer you lot."

All three narrowed their eyes at the slight against their appearance and Benimaru inwardly smirked. Of course, they would take it personally. He had to hand it to Shobu, her use of barbs came in handy.

"Gotta admit," Jin smiled and it was not a friendly one. He crossed his arms and leaned casually against the wall of the alley while the other two formed a small semi-circle around Beni's left. "Bit outta the norm fer ya ta be makin' friends. Especially with the Shobu girl. Word is, ya don' really get on with 'er."

As true as that was, yesterday had changed a few things. While he still didn't really like her much, he couldn't deny that so much of what had gone wrong between them had been because he'd been a jackass to her sister. Now, he understood her anger. Kaede was kind and gentle and everyone else had better consider themselves damn lucky for it because Benimaru sure as hell never wanted to see her kick ass for real. Anyone who was an jackass to Kaede deserved to get the shit beat out of them.

And he sure as hell deserved every shot Shobu had ever thrown at him for it.

"She's a snob, sure." Beni admitted evenly, careful to keep anything that could be used against him on a tight leash. "She's loud an' annoyin' an' gets on my nerves. She thinks she's the best 'cause o' her old man."

The three older boys nodded, each offering their own small verbal exclamations of agreement; then their postures relaxed, one of them even going so far as to sit down on an old crate. Benimaru made a mental note of his position.

"She's arrogant an' fussy." He continued on, sounding bored and slightly annoyed. "Must be nice, havin' a miso spoon made o' silver to eat with every night."

"You got that right, Beni-chan." Said the boy on the crate, his voice indicating that he was the one called 'Sanji'. "They got everything. A nice house, lots o' family, they even got a phone for the stupid flower shop! Plenty of money to waste and a stupid Style to throw around and pretend how much better they are than everyone else!"

"Yeah," Benimaru agreed slowly, eyeing all three boys with care. "See, there's kinda a problem . . . "

"What's that?" Jin asked, sounding interested.

"Shobu's high and mighty an' all," he trailed off, letting the moment hang in the open air for a brief time. "But she ain't a coward."

Then he moved.

. . . . . .

Benimaru ran.

He could hear the shouts of the three behind him, spitting curses and calling for his head. He wasn't stupid enough to stop but, he did chance a quick glance behind to see how close they were at gaining on him. All three boys were bloody in one way or another. Jin sported a blackening eye while Sanji was clutching at the elbow Beni had nearly dislocated. The third, and still mostly unknown to him, had the unfortunate luck of having his nose broken . . . again.

"Shinmon!"

His only response to the roar of his name was to pump his arms harder and to push his legs a little bit faster. He ducked and weaved between the gaps in the crowd, still dense with families and friends buying supplies for the coming week. Several innocent bystanders cried out in shock when Beni sped past, so caught up in his escape that he nearly knocked several women to the cobblestone. He called out a half-baked apology over his shoulder at them, not willing to stop in fear of being caught by the older boys who, to their credit, he still had yet to lose. Several men yelled for all of them to stop, angered at the fact their womenfolk had been almost hurt by their blatant disregard for the safety of those around them.

Beni continued to lead the older teens on a merry chase through the market, trying every trick he knew to shake them off his tail. Yet, for all his cunning and cleverness, they remained mere steps behind him. He swore colorfully under his breath in frustration, lungs burning and limbs tiring, but he dared not cease his flight. Instead, he turned down an alley, leaping over several supply crates in the process, in the effort to lead them away from anyone else who had the possibility of being hurt. If there was any chance that Shobu was still there, he needed to make sure his pursuers keep their sights set on him. This whole mess would be pointless if he ended up leading them . . .

He turned the corner far too fast, his straw zori nearly tearing as he slid across the rough stonework and he waved his arms wildly in the effort to prevent himself from falling. He managed to regain his balance but, in the process, collided unknowingly with another person trying to round the same corner. This time, Benimaru fell backwards and landed hard on his tailbone while almost whacking his skull against the street's cobblestone. He managed to roll out of the fall and came up swiftly on his knees, pissed at being caught unawares.

"Stupid!" Beni spat angrily. "What the hell are ya-!"

Oh shit.

He stopped, horrified at the person struggling to sit up amongst the crushed basket of foodstuffs which had been flung all over the alley's street. The girl was thin and scrawny and taller than him. Her long black hair was tied up in pretty blue ribbon and her green eyes winced in obvious pain as one hand immediately reached for her ankle.

No, no, no, NO!

This couldn't be happening!

"Who the hell are ya calling stupid, Shinmon?!" Shobu Tsubaki half-growled, half-choked. She managed to stand, abet, rather shakily and carefully tested the joint for injury. She must have found everything to be in working order because then she began the task of gathering what could be salvaged of her supplies.

Benimaru shook his head, still struck dumb by his sheer stupidity and luck; or, rather, his lack of luck and more of the stupid. "Why the hell are ya in a goddamn alley, Shobu?!"

She offered him a fiery glare over one shoulder and her subsequent tone matched the expression dead on. "Because I was tired, dumbass. What? A girl can't sit down without askin' ya fer permission, now?"

"In an alley?!" He exclaimed, near hysterical.

"All right!" She admitted with heat, spinning on the ball of her foot to face him; her ponytail sailed over her shoulder and smacked her in the mouth. She spat out a few hairs and threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine! Whatever! I'm so sorry my feet were sore an' the damn basket weighed a ton! Anything else ya want ta-?"

"Shinmon! Where the hell are ya, ya little shit fer brains?!"

Shobu stopped and blinked, in a painfully slow fashion, at him with the most uncomfortable 'you've-got-to-be-kidding-me' expression he'd see in a very long time.

"Ya've gotta be kiddin' me," she stated, deadpanned.

Crap.

"What did you do, Shinmon?!"

It was a testament to how feed up she was that she dropped all use of slang entirely.

"No time!" Benimaru quickly rose to his feet and sprung forward, grabbing her by the hand and practically dragging her down the back end of the alley. "We gotta move!"

"Let go o' me!" She cried, pulling back on her hand and trying to dig her heels into the cobblestone. "What in the hell're ya-!"

The sound of pounding feet interrupted her as Benimaru's pursuers finally caught up with him and rounded the corner. All three boys wore various expressions of 'piss raving' mad.

"There he is!" Sanji yelled, pointing in their direction. "And the Shobu girl's with 'im too!"

Dammit!

He was out of time.

He pulled Shobu behind him and shoved her back, hoping to encourage motivation. "Run! Go!"

Luckily, she didn't need telling twice.

The both of them turned and booked it down the rest of the alleyway, leaving behind Shobu's basket and kicking away a few stray vegetables which still lay scattered about the narrow street. The small gang didn't waste any time either. Beni could hear them coming up from behind and, without missing a beat, turned and sent a small crescent of flame via roundhouse kick to discourage any further pursuit. The boys cried out in shock and fear, but Beni had made sure the heat of the fire wouldn't amount to much pain higher than a first degree. After all, his Master had taught him better than to use his flames in an actual fight unless he had no other choice in the matter. Which is why he never used it in any of his rounds of fisticuffs before now.

Besides, himself he could handle.

Shobu, on the other hand, was a completely different story.

He couldn't let them get a hold of her now, not when this whole mess was his fault to begin with. Briefly, he debated about splitting up and leading them away from her but immediately rejected it. There was no sure fire guarantee that all three of them would chase after him instead. Not to mention that if he did and only one of them followed after him, that would leave her in a two-on-one scenario and he wasn't entirely certain that Shobu could take on more than one opponent at a time. No, it was better he stayed with her in case they were caught. Three-on-two were much better odds than two-on-one or three-on-one no matter who it was. But, goddamn this whole thing was a cluster.

"Ya . . ." Shobu took a ragged breath mid-run, sounding borderline exhausted. ". . . ya want ta . . . tell me why . . . the hell . . . they're after ya?"

Not really, if he was brutally honest with himself.

"Jus' . . ." He huffed, feeling his lungs scream. ". . . keep runnin' . . ."

They rounded a corner at breakneck speed, nearly losing their footing altogether but they managed to get clear without falling over themselves (this time). Shobu was doing everything she could to keep up with him, which was a testament to how little experience she had with actually running for long periods of time. Or it could be Beni had far too much personal experience with getting into trouble. Yeah, probably the later.

Konro was going to murder his ass when all this was over with.

Down another street, across one other intersection, and Beni noticed they were headed towards the Sumida River. Good. It would swing things a bit more in his and Shobu's favor if they had more space to move around. Not to mention they wouldn't risk getting any innocent people, or property, involved in the process. Having Shobu in the mix was bad enough; the last thing he needed was someone else potentially getting hurt because of this stupid situation. If they could make it to the riverbank, it was a done deal.

"Ya can run, Shinmon!" Jin shouted after them and, from the sound of it, was steadily catching up. "But ya can' hide!"

Wanna bet? Beni snarked to himself.

'Cause he loved a good dare.

"We can't . . ." Shobu gasped off his left, arms and legs pumping as fast as she could. Sweat was pouring down her face which was red from exertion and her hair was threatening to come lose from her ribbon. ". . . keep this up . . . fer much . . . longer . . ."

"What's wrong . . . ?" He jibbed, knowing full well the danger he was putting himself in by trying to rile her up. ". . . a little run . . . too much fer . . . ya?"

"Really, Shinmon?" She growled, or, at least, that's what he thought it was meant to be. It was kinda hard to tell, what with all the huffing and puffing she was doing. "Yer the one . . . who . . . pissed 'em off . . . in the . . . first place!"

Well, shit.

Nothing he could really say to that, was there?

So, instead, he responded by running faster. If sending verbal barbs at her wasn't going to work, then surely the age old 'I'm-better-than-you-cause-I'm-stronger' would be a much better motivator. He had to keep her moving so they wouldn't fall behind and if he had to piss her off to do it (even at his own expense) then he was going to take any and every opportunity he could find.

"Don' . . . wimp out . . . on me now . . . Shobu." Beni shot back with as much heat as he could muster.

She fired a scalding expression of pure loathing at him, but he wasn't intimidated in the least by it. Making her angry was always far too much fun, even on a normal day. Right now? Well, the Master did say at times that anger could be the best kind of motivation.

They made another turn . . . and skidded to an abrupt halt.

Shit!

Dead end.

"Dammit, Shinmon!" Shobu screeched and he had to cover his ears from the sheer high-pitched nature of her cry. "Ya goddamn moron!"

"How's it my fault?!" He countered, just as angry; but it was directed at himself rather than at her, though he didn't want her to know it.

"'Cause I thought ya had a plan!" She responded, throwing out her arms in wild abandon at the empty space around them. Well, almost empty. There was a sad looking woodbox near the back left corner which had all the appearance of something that hadn't been used in months. "Ug! This is what I get fer actually listenin' ta ya!"

It's what she got for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, that was for certain.

"Yeah?!" He barked, fury rising in his veins. "Well, how 'bout ya stay the hell outta alleys next time?!"

"How about you," she hissed, dropping all use of slang, and Beni found himself genuinely terrified by how low her voice had dropped. "Stop fighting for once. It's all you know how to do. Fight and be so damn pissed at everybody and everything. I hate that about you."

Beni gritted his teeth in frustration. Fine, she wanted to make it personal? They could get personal.

"Says the one with the silver miso spoon in her mouth!" He fired back defensively. "Ya got everythin'! A family, a dojo, money . . . ya think yer better than everyone else 'cause yer old man's big! Ya've never had ta struggle fer anythin'!"

With a strangled cry of sudden anger, Shobu shoved him in the effort to knock him over and he retaliated by grabbing her wrists before she could release him. He twisted them roughly in his hands and sent her stumbling to the side, where she nearly fell but managed to stay upright. Again, she launched herself at him and, again, he rebuffed her. On and on their struggle went, each angry at the other for various reasons and both acting out due to the frustrating situation of being caught up in the other's problems for yet, another time.

It wasn't until one of Shobu's strikes actually caught him unawares, Beni realized he'd been forced to the back of the alley. He especially didn't realize there had been a method to her abrupt desire for a personal one-on-one with him, despite the current situation of being chased, until after that particular moment of realization.

By then . . . it was much too late.

"You really are an idiot, Shinmon." Shobu frowned but, even worse, was the resigned look of cold resolve and determination on her thin, dirt smeared face.

Then, she twisted about and threw him off balance, catching one of his ankles in her grip while completely upending him entirely into the open woodbox. He cried out, at first in shock at the sensation of falling and then at the sudden pain blooming across his left brow as he landed solidly against the planked floor. He blinked, dizzy and disorientated, trying to remember how his limbs worked and which end was up.

"For once in your life," Shobu's voice sounded above him with a kind of steel and desperation he'd never heard before. "stay down. And, for hell's sake, don't you dare open your mouth."

There was the creak of wood, the squeak of rusted hinges, and then the world went dark.

Timeline

SY = Solar Year

SY 195 (current year, as of now): Benimaru age 19; Konro age 35; Tsubaki age 20; Kaede age 28

SY 189: Benimaru and Tsubaki become friends through a rather unfortunate incident. Benimaru age 13; Konro age 29; Tsubaki age 14; Kaede age 22

SY 188: Benimaru and Tsubaki meet for the first time. Benimaru age 12; Konro age 28; Tsubaki age 13; Kaede age 21

SY 186: Benimaru is adopted by Shinmon Hibachi. Benimaru age 10; Konro age 26.

SY 184: Shinmon Himawari dies. Konro age 24; Kaede age 17; Tsubaki age 9.

SY 180: The Shobu Matriarch, Shobu Ryoko, dies. Konro age 20; Kaede age 13; Tsubaki age 5