Benimaru didn't stop running until he could no longer hear Hibachi yelling after him. His lip was still bleeding badly from where it busted open, and his ribs ached from the kicks he'd receive, stressed worse by his running. Finally slowing down he sighed, rubbing his chest absentmindedly. There weren't many places he could go unnoticed by the townspeople, everyone was always bothering him about training, wanting to know how it was going for Hibachi's new heir. He hated it. He'd never even wanted to be adopted by him anyway, he'd rather just be back on the streets alone. He especially felt that way when they trained, when Hibachi would knock the living hell out of him in a sparring match. He wiped his face with his sleeve and looked around. He wanted to run; be on his own. He wanted to be responsible just for himself like he had been after his parents died but there was nowhere he could go now to avoid his duties as the next leader of the Hikeshi. He'd tried to convince Hibachi he wasn't the right choice but the old man wouldn't hear it. As much as Benimaru wanted to be free of his duties, he was Asakusa born and raised and he wasn't going to leave, at least not for long.

It was still early in the morning, kids rushed past him to the schoolhouse. Screaming and playing, yelling at one another to hurry up. A boy threw a ball past his head and Benimaru ducked his head to the left, just enough for the ball to zip past moving his shaggy black hair as it flew by. He frowned at the boy and watched him shy away, hurrying his friend along, whispering him a harsh warning, "No come on, that's Benimaru…"

Benimaru sighed and pressed his back to the wall around the school grounds. He sighed and slid down and stared up into the sky. It felt like he was never going to get the hang of iaido, especially the sun wheel. Maybe it wasn't so much a matter of him being willing to take up the leadership of the Hikeshi, maybe he just wasn't the right fit for it at all. Watching the kids rush past laughing and smiling with their books tied in furoshiki, he felt a twang of guilt. He didn't want to go back to formal school, he'd always hated it after all, but he missed feeling carefree. When his parents were alive he hadn't had big responsibilities, he would spend all his time walking around Asakusa and playing in the Sumida. He wasn't dragged to burning buildings with a flag slung over his shoulder. Forced to train morning to night, getting bashed, bruised, and berated.

Despite the difficulties, and his issues with his new father or even the terror of watching someone be swallowed by flames he would leave. Not from some foolish heroic ideals, but because he knew he was strong. Incredibly so even though he was only a boy. And that must mean something, he just wasn't sure what exactly.

He wasn't able to give it much thought, in the schoolhouse grounds screams started to echo. He heard the familiar crack and pop; an infernal screaming to life among the students. He leaped to his feet and rushed around the gate. There in the middle of a screaming crowd was a teacher, fire still licking at their clothes. They looked wrong, their fingers had stretched into long jagged claws, fangs hung from their mouth dripping with magma. He shrieked, fire-spitting into the sky threatening to rain down on the children that had yet to scramble.

"Shit," Benimaru gritted his teeth and swiped his hand in the air, batting the molten heat from the sky but sending it flying to the schoolhouse instead. He rushed forward, pushing younger kids out of his way as he went, "Get out of here, go! Someone run for the rest of the Hikeshi. Now."

The schoolhouse had caught fire, but he didn't have time to put it out. The infernal slashed at him and he twisted, dodging swiftly and slashing back as he fell down. They were strong. That was going to be a problem, especially alone, especially with all the children still around crying and scared. It seemed to notice his glance toward a huddle of students, suddenly looking back at him with a grotesque smirk. It stomped and then breathed a heavy hair of fire toward the children who shrieked and hunkered down in terror.

"Damn it!" Benimaru screamed, rushing to try and get between the fire and the children. He wouldn't make it in time and trying to dispel it would only shoot it off in other directions. He could try and extinguish it, a skill he'd been working on but hadn't quite mastered. He lifted his hands, trying to focus as his feet moved swiftly forward but as he began to pull the fire contorted twisting into a small stream and shooting off to a girl, standing on a tree branch not far away.

The girl looked to be about Benimaru's age, long light brown hair tied in a ponytail on the back of her head that whipped around her head in the wind caused by the temperature differences. Her kimono ripped desperately, singed all over the collar and hem. She braced herself with one hand against the tree trunk, the other helping to guide the flames into her mouth. Suddenly it was once and she claps her free hand over her mouth, eyes pinching shut. It seemed like she was struggling to swallow it down and the Infernal noticed.

It lunged forward but this time Benimaru was able to get between them. He kicked the monster hard and slammed his palm into its face. He shot off a fireball sending the Infernal crashing into the ground cracking the dry earth below its head. When it tried to get up fire ripped past Benimaru, hitting the infernal in the center of its chest, cracking open its chest plate. Benimaru pointed his fingers and drew back and before the creature could move again he slammed his hand into the Infernal's chest and set off an explosion that finally extinguished its core. The creature groaned terribly for a while, falling back from him and clawing at its chest desperately. Then it went still, and its body began to break down into pieces of ash.

The silence after an Infernal was extinguished was unique. Almost beautiful. Benimaru stared down at the smoldering corpse until the noises around him faded back in, kids still screaming, people rushing to throw water in the small fires scattered around them and in the building, and the girl from the tree coughing loudly behind him.

He turned and realized she was looking at him, but unable to talk from her violent coughing. Her mouth was black all over; chin, cheeks, lips, teeth, and tongue. Practically the entire bottom of her mouth. She spit a black smudge onto the earth, rubbing her face on her pale blue kimono sleeve as they stared at each other.

"Good job," Benimaru finally spoke, looking over to the kids she'd saved.

She coughed again, "Back at ya." She grinned slightly, still furiously rubbing her mouth even though she was only succeeding at dirtying her kimono.

"Who are you?"

"My name's Atsuhi. You're Benimaru, right?"

Of course, she knew who he was, he'd yet to meet an Asakusa citizen that didn't know who he was since Hibachi took him in. He'd grown used to it even though he didn't like it very much, "Yeah that's me."

She looked around the yard and then the smoldering body, "You did good, for just a kid on your own especially."

"Well I wasn't," he frowned, was she looking for some compliment for jumping in? "You joined in on the fight, after all."

She shook her head violently, causing her bangs to fan out, "No, no. You did all of this on your own."

Benimaru frowned, raising an eyebrow at her, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You seriously don't understand what I mean?" she frowned back at her, eyebrows crinkling in confusion.

Benimaru groaned, "Just say what you want to say, ya dumb girl."

"Hey!"

He rolled his eyes, he didn't have time for this. He needed to go ahead and return to the Hikeshi to tell them what happened. He turned but before he could walk away the girl reached out and grabbed his sleeve, "Wait okay? I just need you to tell them you did all this on your own, okay?"

He glared suspiciously, "Why?"

"Because…!" he pouted, looking away from him and staring instead at the last pieces of ash from the Infernals corpse, "look I promised my Obaba I wouldn't use my ability since I didn't want to join the Hikeshi bu-"

"But you lied and you want me to cover for you."

"Yes, obviously."

"Why not just join the Hikeshi?"

She frowned, "What, you lonely? I don't wanna join and I'm not going to do something I don't wanna, okay? So just take the credit an-" her eyes widened, staring off behind him, "do I still have soot on my face."

"You have soot on everything, you're a damn mess."

She frowned at him quickly but turned anyway and ran toward the tree, climbing it swiftly and only looking back to give him a brief pleading look before she jumped down to the wall and dropped off the other side.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise, it was impressive to move like that in a kimono and geta. When he turned he saw what had run her off, Hibachi and the rest of the Hikeshi had finally arrived. Konro already rushing off to help secure the schoolhouse and Shinbeita guiding children out to their families. Hibachi, however, marched toward him, "handle it on your own, huh, brat?"

Benimaru thought for a moment. He didn't like taking credit for everything, as annoying at Atsuhi had been for the two minutes they spoke, she had helped and he wanted to give her credit. On the other hand, she'd helped and all she'd wanted was to get away without being noticed and he figured he should honor that request as a way to thank her without ever having to say anything, "Yeah. It wasn't so hard."

Hibachi scanned the area. He'd been in the Hikeshi his whole life, his father had been the leader before him and his grandfather before that, and all that knowledge had been passed to Hibachi who was able to look around a fire scene and immediately tell what happened and Benimaru knew by the clench of Hibachi's jaw that he knew he wasn't being told the whole truth, "All right...fine."

Benimaru glanced at him from the corner of his eye, suddenly remembering the welt on the side of his mouth that Hibachi had left earlier that morning during training, "What do you want me to do."

"Go help gather the supplies, we've gotta patch the damage to the school, can't let the rest of the brats be as much of an idiot as you."

Benimaru huffed, "Yeah, sure," and quickly ran back out the schoolyard toward the storehouse. He glanced up the side streets, wondering where the girl had run even though he was sure he didn't really care.

She'd managed to keep it a secret for nearly three weeks. Her sleeve definitely hadn't cleaned her face off but the river had. Her sleeve however hadn't come clean no matter what she'd done and she'd hidden it in a rarely open drawer during the day between attempts at cleaning it. When she'd gotten home from school it had been waiting at the table, folded so the blackened sleeve was on display, Obaba sitting behind it and staring with a cold anger that made Atsuhi sweat.

Before she could think of anything to say, the small old woman grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out the door and to the Hikeshi guardhouse, "Obaba I-"

"Not a word, Atsuhi," Obaba spoke sternly, but Atsuhi could tell she'd worried her. That her tiny grandmother wasn't so much angry with her as she was frustrated and scared. No one else in the family had an ignition ability and Atsuhi's ability to breathe fire had been a terror when she was a small child. She'd singed families' eyebrows off by accident numerous times and given her father a bad scar on her neck. Her lack of control over her already powerful fire production was the reason Obaba had suggested joining the Hikeshi in the past. But Atsuhi didn't want to be a soldier, in all honesty, the idea of killing infernals and getting in firefights terrified her, even if she felt guilty for having an ability and still not enlisting but if Obaba's silence was telling her anything it was that she no longer had a choice.

Obaba didn't wait at the guardhouse door, instead, she pulled back the curtain and shouted inside, "Shinmon! Are you around?!"

Atsuhi heard a grumbling voice from the back, then silence, and another calmer voice. The first, Hibachi, she realized, yelled something, and then moments later, Konro appeared. Konro was a tall handsome man with a short ponytail, he had kind droopy eyes and an awkward smile as he faced Atsuhi and her grandmother.

"Miss Myōjin, what can we help you with?"

"Oh not me," she frowned back at Atsuhi, "my granddaughter though, I think she could use your help."

Atsuhi swallowed, looking at Konro's confused expression only made her feel worse. More awkward and apologetic for getting him involved when he was probably already busy all the time as the second in command.

Konro tilted his head, a soft smile on his face, "How's that Atsuhi?"

"I-"

"She made a promise to me not to use her ignition ability when she refused to join you the first time but she didn't keep it. Seems she's been practicing on her own and using it when she feels like it. I won't have that. It's deceitful enough to lie, but it's dangerous and-" suddenly Obaba's voice broke. She stood still for a moment, her face cast away from Atsuhi making her expression unreadable, "my son is already gone off and put himself in danger, if Atsuhi insists on using her ability I want to know she's been trained and that she's not alone," finally she turned to her her eyes glimmering, "you'll learn to properly use your ignition ability so you can do some good with it."

"Seems like she already did," Hibachi's voice came from the doorway, where he held Benimaru by the scruff of his neck, "it was you, right? The one that helped this idiot deal with the infernal at the schoolhouse."

Obaba gasped and wheeled around to look at Atsuhi hard once more. In her panic at the kimono being found, Atsuhi had lied again. She didn't want Obaba to know she'd fought an infernal and she figured since no one had come looking for her Benimaru had kept his promise. At least back at their house it had seemed she'd get away with the lie, but Hibachi's small eyes glimmered at her intensely, an awful half-proud, half-amused smirk on his face, "I've been to thousands of fire scenes, shrimp. I know how to read 'em and it was dead obvious Benimaru wasn't there alone, f'it makes ya feel any better this one didn't tell the truth either."

Konro sighed and looked between them, "I didn't even know you two knew each other."

"We don't!" Benimaru protested suddenly, glaring at Konro.

"And yet you're already a little crime duo," Konro shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck, "still...this seems a bit-"

"Oh no. Miss Myōjin wants the brat here; she's gonna be here," Hibachi spoke strongly, walking over to Atsuhi and looming over her. He was a tall man with broad shoulders and skinny legs. The tattoos that swirled around his close shaved head like horns only amplified the menacing look on his face, "quite a lot of firepower this little one's got for having no training. You'll be a real terror once we get some lessons into you and maybe," he glanced at Benimaru who was glaring at him so intensely Atsuhi was sure he might leap forward and attack Hibachi at any moment, "and since you two are already a little criminal unit like Konro said, you can work together. Chores, training, and whatever I god damn ask."

The rage melted from Benimaru's face and he locked eyes with Atsuhi in confusion, "What? She doesn't know anything and-" Hibachi kicked him swiftly, causing the boy to sputter and drop to his knees holding his stomach.

"She knew enough to keep your sorry ass out of real trouble and enough for you to lie on her behalf," Hibachi looked to Atsuhi again, "to be clear, I'm not asking. I'm telling you. You're in the Hikeshi now."

Atsuhi pushed her lips together to keep them from trembling. Hibachi was truly a terrifying man when he wanted to be, and Benimaru still struggling to right himself not feet away only made him more frightening.

"Take her home, for now, Miss Myōjin, we'll have everything ready for her induction tomorrow when she's done with school. I'll even send Benimaru along to walk you to make sure you don't get lost. Understood?"

Atsuhi swallowed hard, glaring up at him, "Yes, sir."

Hibachi smirked wider at her determination, then straightened and headed from the room. Konro put an arm around Benimaru and squeezed his shoulder when he tried to shrug him off, "And...we're really sorry Miss Myōjin for the trouble Benimaru caused with this. I'll talk to him too, about lying and I'll make sure Atsuhi is safe as she learns her ability."

Obaba popped Atsuhi on the back of her arm, a familiar signal for her to bow, "thank you, Konro," they said together and then stood. Obaba grabbed Atsuhi's sleeve once more, surely preparing to yell at her the whole way home and if Konro's grip on Benimaru's arm meant anything it looked like he was headed for the same fate. Obaba dragged her back through the indigo curtains and Atsuhi caught Benimaru's eyes one last time; tired and down turned like a sad puppy but not a single ounce of regret.