Author's Note: Okay, here it is. It took a while and a lot and I mean a LOT of proof reading, but I've finished the next chapter. I've had to bump the rating up because of a little bit of violence that I didn't really expect to have.

To remind every reader... this is a fic based on Mulan... sort of... I took the concept of Mulan and then in a way twisted it into a whole romance mushy stuff thing... but it's not a pointless romance mushy sappy stuff sort of story... At least that's not how I see it.

Another thing, I don't know much about military tactics and stuff like that, so the training part... I'm going to try to do my best with. Please don't flame me for anything like that.

Disclaimer: I really don't know what the point is to these, but... I don't own Digimon, I don't own Mulan... The only thing I might own are those made up characters in this fic who aren't from Digimon... So there...

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"Your very first exercise for training will be preparatory warm ups," Tai said to the group, "We will do a series of these exercises each morning for warming up. Since this is your first day, I decided to go easy on all of you. But I'm warning you now, that tomorrow, you will be pushed to train to the limit. Got that?"

"Yes, Sir!" After donning the appropriate training attire, all of the trainees of the camp were all lined up once again to await the instructions of their commander. Fortunately, for Sora, the clothing that the trainees were to wear, consisted simply of a shirt and pants, which easily hid her feminine figure.

"Good," Tai said, "First off, courtesy of the nearby trail going up Mount Mihiroshi, we will jog up to the end point, and then come straight back here. You'll know that you're at the endpoint when you see one of the girls. I will lead you today. Let's move out!" Without so much as a hesitation, Tai took off running toward Mount Mihiroshi which was only a couple feet from their training grounds.

Immediately, the trainees followed behind, many groaning at having to actually scale a mountain, some scoffing at how easy the exercise sounded and others wondering if something else would happen.

Izzy and Sora exchanged glances and followed, both running at a steady pace so that they wouldn't wear themselves out before the end. They both thought that the exercise sounded very simple, but both also figured that there'd probably be some sort of surprise, though neither really cared what it might possibly be. They would take what was thrown at them and do their best.

This will be a cinch, Davis Motimiya thought about how he and Tai used to do exercises like this each day just for fun. He, Tai and a group of friends would often jog one of the many trails around Mount Mihiroshi and then afterwards swim in the glistening lake at the base of the mountain. Taking one glance around before entering the trail, he noticed one of Mount Mihiroshi's lakes nearby. He'd probably take a nice dip in it after this exercise to cool off.

What have I let Matt talk me into? TK groaned in anger, This had better not be too bad. He sighed, Oh well, I can take this... I'm not weak or anything. Boy is Matt going to pay... He glanced over at his older brother, who didn't even seem to care too much about the exercise. Sighing, TK looked back ahead at Tai who had disappeared up the mountain trail already.

"What's the point of us being up here?" Mimi asked for the second time. She slumped down next to a pile of large rocks.

"Well," Kari tossed an oversized bag onto the ground and then began to open it up, "We're supposed to point out the endpoint for them. And Tai decided that he wanted to give those new recruits a bit of a surprise. So we told him we'd come up with something. It's not much, but..."

"They're not going to be too happy about this," Yolei chuckled. She bent down next to Kari and helped her pull out a huge bundle of rope.

"What are you doing?" Mimi asked.

Kari giggled, "They should be here any moment." She handed Mimi the bundle of rope, "When the first person arrives, hand them one of these and direct them further up the mountain and tell them to find me."

"But won't Tai be the first to arrive?" Yolei asked.

Kari shook her head, "No. Tai said that he was going to start by leading them up this mountain, but he's going to drop behind them to make sure no one is slacking. So he's going to be the last person to come up. Plus, he doesn't want to be the first to get caught up in whatever we have planned." She and Yolei began to head up the mountain.

"Where are you two going?" Mimi asked.

"We're going to prepare the next part of this 'simple exercise,'" Kari grinned mischievously, "You'll see when they head back down."

"I'm going to be here by myself?" Mimi asked.

"It'll be alright," Kari assured her, "The boys will arrive soon. Unless you want to switch with Yolei..."

"Nah," Mimi smiled, "I'll stay here. I don't feel like walking anymore."

"I didn't think you would," Kari giggled, "After passing out this morning, I didn't even think you'd really want to come with us up the mountain, but since you insisted..."

"I just felt that it'd be a good idea to help out around here, you know, since you're letting me stay," Mimi smiled, "But what are you going to be doing up there?"

"You'll find out," Yolei said. She turned to Kari, "We better hurry before they get here first." Kari nodded and the two headed off leaving Mimi behind with nothing but the huge bundle of rope.

"Now what?" Mimi stood from where she had sat, but sat back down again, "I wonder when they're going to get here." She looked up at the sky. The sun seemed to have begun moving toward the west. She sighed and stood up restlessly and almost feeling impatient.

So much for rest and relaxation, she thought, But this isn't too bad. At least I'm not being suffocated by servants and guards, or locked in that big palace all day. I don't like the part where I have to work, but at least I have friends to talk to now... unlike back in that huge palace where the only thing I can talk to is my puppy. Hmm... I miss my puppy...

She began to wander toward the trail just as the first couple trainees peeked up from the lower part of the mountain. Mimi, however, seemed to be in dreamland thinking and comparing her pretend commoner life, with her life of royalty. I can't wear anything pretty anymore, she thought, these stupid rags really clash with my hair... but they are quite comfortable... I have to say that the food is great, I never thou-

Mimi cried out as she unknowingly tripped over herself as she stepped downward on the trail. A pair of strong arms grabbed hers and steadied her. Instead of immediately pulling out of the stranger's grip, she hung on, feeling suddenly, safe and warm.

"Gotcha," a male voice said to her, "You alright?"

"Yes, I am," Mimi looked up into the blue eyes of a handsome blonde young man who looked slightly familiar to her, "Thank you, Sir." She looked down to see that he was still holding her.

"No problem," Matt said, reluctantly dropping his hands. He could feel how delicate this beautiful creature was just by one touch and he could almost swear that he had been holding an angel, "You may want to be a little careful when walking around up here."

"Matt, why'd you stop?" TK was the next to arrived, "Is this the end point?"

"I don't know," Matt said, "Tai- uh, Captain said that we'd know when we saw one of the ladies."

Mimi suddenly recalled what Kari had told her before and snapped out of her little daze of staring at this handsome young man's features. She lifted the rope up and then handed one to Matt, and another to the younger blonde just as the next trainee began to show up. She pointed up the mountain, "Take this and keep going until you see Kari. She'll direct you to where to go."

"I knew something was up," TK groaned, "Matt, I hate you." He headed up the mountain followed by a chuckling Matt.

Yet confused at the young boy's words, Mimi laughed at the two brothers. Remembering her duty, she turned back to hand rope to the next trainee who was just showing up. Who knew a princess would have to work at all? she mused to herself.

"Thank you there, Sweetie," the next trainee said taking the rope Mimi handed him and purposely brushing up against her, "What do you say we head off and have some fun tonight?"

"I, uh..." Mimi felt a little taken aback, but also at the same time, repulsed, "No... I-" She took a step back hoping to put some space between her and him. He advanced toward her. Angrily she thought of letting this man know what he was getting himself into. You are hitting on the crown princess of Tachikawa, she thought, I could have your head for this. But she decided against it. For one, it may attract too much attention to her... more than she wanted. Second of all, since nobody had ever seen the Royal Princess of Kingdom Tachikawa, he would undoubtedly not believe her.

"Come on," he smiled slyly at the poor girl, "You know you want to." He took another step forward bringing his face closer to hers.

"N- no, not really," Mimi stuttered. One more step and I will show you how unladylike a princess can be, she thought. She stepped backward again and then craned her neck toward the trail hoping that the next soldiers weren't too far behind. If someone showed up to her aid, then she wouldn't have to end up doing something she knew she'd regret. Fortunately for her, her prayers were answered as an auburn haired trainee and a red-head showed themselves jogging at a constant pace up the mountain.

Sora furrowed her brow at the scene in front of her as her eyes met the pleading ones of the lady being harassed. Immediately, she could see that this trainee, who she recalled being introduced as Joey Miyota, was acting very inappropriately toward this cinnamon haired young girl. Sora glanced at Izzy who saw the same thing, but she took action first. Sora ran ahead of her younger friend and braced herself as she "accidentally" rammed into the unsuspecting young man.

"Hey!" Joey went sprawling onto the ground in less than a second after Sora shoved him. He scrambled to get up, "Watch where you're going, punk!" He glared angrily at Sora.

Sora held up her hand in defense and, not even trying to sound innocent, said, "Sorry."

He huffed angrily and then headed up the trail mumbling angry comments about how he "almost had the girl." Looking back, he saw the auburn haired "boy" and Mimi talking to each other. He muttered a vow of revenge and then turned to finish up the rest of the jog.

"Are you okay?" Sora asked. Mimi blushed and nodded.

"Thank you very much," Mimi said in her sweetest voice, "That wasn't a very comfortable situation." She looked up at the ruby eyes of this trainee. He's kinda cute, Mimi thought to herself, and he helped me out too. That's a plus.

"Some people can be quite barbaric," Izzy said. He looked around, "Is this the end of the trail?"

On cue, Mimi handed them both rope and pointed up the mountain, "Head up until you see Kari. She'll direct you to where you're supposed to go next."

Sora and Izzy nodded and headed off. Mimi sighed inwardly to herself and turned back to do her thing. Saved in one day by two different guys, she thought, Wow. And they're both cute too. She almost felt like giggling as a happy tingling feeling began to overtake her. Maybe this running away from the palace thing isn't so bad after all. I should do it more often, Mimi giggled to herself again at the thought.

~*~*~*~

"Where could she be?"

Her Royal Highness, Queen Kiya of Tachikawa sat on her bed crying her eyes out. It had almost been a full day since and still there was no sign of the young princess who had disappeared many hours before. She roughly dabbed her handkerchief at her already tear swollen eyes as more tears began to pour down the poor woman's face.

"Crying isn't going to help," King Kai of Tachikawa paced about their royal chamber, practically leaving a burn in the rug beneath him.

"I don't understand," the queen sniffed, "Why would Mimi be so impudent and run away like that? I just don't understand. She's never been like this before. She's never done anything as... as... irresponsible as this before!" As those last couple words were spoken, the woman broke down into harder tears.

His Majesty stopped the pacing and circled the large bed in their chamber around to his wife. Sympathetically, he wrapped his arms around the delicate body of the queen and hugged her tightly. He rubbed her shoulders lovingly in an attempt to quiet the wild wails that could be heard all the way down the corridor of the palace to the servants' quarters.

"There, there," the king reassured his spouse, as he suppressed his own need for comforting. He reasoned that it would be best for at least one of them to remain clear headed and calm. And as the husband and the king, he would have to take on that duty. He squeezed the woman's shoulders succeeding in calming her emotions just enough so that people around wouldn't hear them, "I'm sure Mimi is alright. I've already sent a few of our best men to search for her. They'll bring her back safely. I assure you, dear."

"Really?" Kiya wiped at her tear streaked face with the palm of her hand as her cries became less hysterical.

"Have I ever lied to you?" King Kai smiled, "They'll find her. And she will be safe. Don't you worry." But though he sounded confident for his wife's sake, deep down, he was having many doubts. He knew his own daughter well enough to know that she would not be able to survive on her own outside of the palace, having been raised with all the luxuries that royalty was given. And even if she were to find herself a place to stay, her stubbornness would never allow her to be found, not even by her own father, if she chose to keep herself hidden.

He looked down at the fragile woman lying in his arms, now asleep from being worn out by her tears. Mimi and her mother were identical in personality and physical stamina. They were both delicate creatures who were to be given the land's finest and most luxurious things. He sighed with only the hope that Mimi would be able to fend better than he expected.

~*~*~*~

"What is this?" Joey asked angrily arriving at the final endpoint. He looked around and saw Matt and TK both walking back toward the trail. Both had around their necks the rope that Mimi had handed them... plus two huge logs tied to each end.

"This is a part of your training," Yolei said. She pointed at the huge pile of logs on the ground, "Get yourself two logs, tie them to the rope and carry them back down. You will receive further directions when you return back to camp."

Joey shook his head, "No. Captain Kamiya didn't say anything about hauling logs back down to camp."

"He didn't say there wouldn't be logs to haul back to camp either," Yolei countered, "Just be happy these logs are only a foot long and a foot in diameter, weighing no more than thirty pounds. You can carry thirty pounds easily. But since you have to carry two, I'm sure sixty pounds won't tire you out that easily either. Having them tied to rope and draped around your neck will make it all the easier." She folded her arms over her chest and then gave him a look as if asking him to challenge her assumption.

"Why should I do this? You're not Captain Kamiya," Joey asked arrogantly.

"Now what?" Sora whispered to Izzy as they arrived at the endpoint. Taking only one glance at the area, Izzy proceeded to tie the logs to his rope. Sora shrugged and followed.

"Just do it," Yolei ordered Joey. She looked at the other two, "I didn't tell you what to do yet."

"It's not exactly a mystery as to what we are to do," Izzy answered without lifting his head, "Judging from this pile of logs and the rope that we were supplied with, one can clearly conclude that our task is to tie these logs-" he pointed to the pile "-to the ends of this-" he held up the heavy rope in his hands "-rope and carry it back to camp." He tightened the knot around the two logs and then draped the rope around his neck.

"I'm impressed," Yolei complimented.

"Let's not forget the fact that we saw Matt and TK heading down the trail just a while ago with logs tied to their ropes," Sora smiled and stood up next to Izzy.

"Uh, yeah, that too," Izzy said smiling sheepishly. Sora nudged him and they headed back toward the trail.

"And you almost had me fooled to think that you were one of those really smart guys too," Yolei sighed, but smiled at the red head.

"On the contrary," Sora spoke, "Izzy does have a lot of brains."

Yolei just smiled and turned back to Joey, "Well, are you going to or not? Or am I going to have to resort to doing something I know you'll regret?"

"What would you do to me?" Joey glared angrily at her, "I'm shaking in my boots."

"Just do what she says," Sora chimed in before taking an extra step. Izzy nodded in agreement, "It'd be the smart thing to do, you know." They headed down the mountain, Sora in front of Izzy.

More trainees began to reach the endpoint, while Joey still stood his ground. Along with him, some of his little friends sided with him refusing to take orders from a simple young girl. "Captain Kamiya said nothing about hauling logs."

Yolei rolled her eyes just as Kari approached. "I think that's all of them," Kari said as she passed one of the boys. She took one look at a group of five who seemed to hold and air of egotism, "What's going on?"

"They're refusing to complete the exercise," Yolei explained.

"Reason?" Kari asked more to the boys than to Yolei.

"Because 'Captain Kamiya didn't say anything about logs,'" Yolei imitated the boys, "Geez, it's like they think we made this up just to torture them, which I'd happily do so." She turned to the boys, "Do you think we'd be telling you to do this if Captain Kamiya didn't plan it? How ignorant can you be?" She rolled her eyes.

"Well," Kari said to the five boys, "I'm only going to say this once. This exercise was planned by Captain Kamiya and we were asked to carry it out for him. He will be up here in a matter of seconds. I'm going to give you a chance to get over there and complete this portion of the exercise. If you do so, I'll not mention this to the captain. You give me more trouble and I'll see to it that he hears about this."

The boys exchanged skeptical glances, but then heard the sound of running steps coming closer. With only a moment's hesitation, they put their lightning speed to work and immediately hopped over to the logs, tied them to each end of their rope and then scurried down the mountain trail passing by the cheery Captain Taichi Kamiya.

"I see everything went well," Tai nodded at the girls. The two exchanged glances and nodded giving the older boy a smile each. He looked at the remaining logs, "So this was what surprise you had planned. Better than nothing, I guess."

"Hey, it's their first day," Kari said shrugging, "Even the surprise extra should be easy on them. Besides, we only had so much time to plan."

"Correction," Yolei chimed in, "I only had so much time to plan."

Tai nodded, "That's true. I did say that I'd be easy on them." He walked over to the pile of logs, "I'll grab the rest of these. You two go ahead and-"

"You can grab two and head down to finish off your portion of this warm up exercise," Kari said, "Yolei and I have the rest taken care of." She walked among the shrubbery and heaved out a flat barrow with the help of her friend.

Tai nodded seemingly impressed, "So you do have everything under control, squirt. I guess having you around isn't that bad of an idea after all."

"It never was," Kari said smirking, "I told Dad that you'd need help. Actually, Joe might be the one who'll need help in a little bit. I hope he can handle all those boys."

"We found all these logs already cut up in the camp building," Yolei said, "And we found ourselves a barrow to heave it all up here. You wanted us to give the new recruits a surprise for their very first exercise, so here you are."

Tai nodded.

"Yeah," Kari said, "Next time, though, I think you should have them all cut down their own firewood. Oh, and tell them about any impending surprises. Just so nobody gets confused."

"You better get back to camp," Yolei said as she carried the logs onto the barrow.

Tai nodded, "Yeah." He tied two logs onto the last rope that Mimi had handed him and then headed back down. He stopped in mid jog and turned back, "I'll send someone up to help you out. Oh, and that girl, uh, I don't think I ever caught her name, but anyways, she'll be up in a little bit."

"Okay, Tai, but you don't have to send-" Kari called back to him, but noticed that he was already out of earshot, "-anyone."

"Should we wait?" Yolei asked, "Cause he doesn't know about that other smooth trail that we can wheel this thing down on."

"That's Tai for you," Kari said, "Clearly clueless. We might as well wait for whoever Tai decides to send. Don't want one of those poor boys wandering around here and getting lost. Not even Davis."

"Maybe that other boy," Yolei giggled, "I think his name was Joey Miyota. I'm sure we can all do without him and his little punk gang." The two girls laughed aloud.

"The next part of your exercise," Joe Kido said nervously, "is to split the two logs you have into fours. As easy as that. Then you take your pieces into the mess hall and place them near the kitchen."

There seemed to be a chorus of groans as each trainee picked up the small axe supplied to them when they had arrived back at the training grounds.

"This is quite an exercise Captain Kamiya has thought up," Councilman Jujo stepped up next to Joe, "I'm impressed. The first day and he already has these future soldiers working."

"Yeah, some idea," Joe nodded pushing his glasses up on this nose. He decided against telling the councilman that this idea should be part credited to the girls. He'd leave that up to Tai to say anything. He turned to the older man, "I'm going to head back into my bunk. He'll be back soon to supervise." He bowed slightly in respect to the councilman and then left the training area.

After a moment, Councilman Jujo turned and headed back into his own bunk. But not before taking a quick suspicious glance at one of the trainees. That Takenouchi boy, he thought. He was determined to keep his eye on him. Something just didn't seem right about that boy.

"I don't get what the importance of this exercise is," complained one of the trainees.

"There's gotta be some reason," someone else groaned as he brought his axe down onto the log at the same time others did, creating an echo of the sound of splitting logs.

"After this, we might be able to take a nice long swim in that nearby lake," Davis pointed out toward the mountain. He could just feel the coolness of the water against his skin already.

"That's a good idea."

"It's so hot out here, I'd like to take a swim now."

"What lake?"

"You mean the one south of here?"

"Let's get this done so we can go."

"What if there's more to our training today?"

Another chorus of groaning was heard.

Sora chuckled. "What?" Izzy asked her. He raised his small axe and then brought it down barely splitting the log into perfect halves. Having grown up on the outskirts of Mount Mihiroshi Village like Sora, his family couldn't rely on the market place all the time for daily necessities such as firewood. Splitting firewood came easily for him.

Sora shook her head and in a soft tone whispered, "I've never seen such a big crowd of babies before."

"Hey," Izzy tried to defend, "Just because you're enjoying this, doesn't mean everyone else is."

"Who said I was enjoying this?" Sora said, "I'm actually fearing for my life every second right now, but I'm not complaining about it." She chuckled at the other trainees who were angrily chopping away at the wood they brought down from the mountain.

"Well, you kinda-" Izzy began.

"Yeah, yeah," Sora cut him off, "I brought this on myself. Go figure. You try to do something good and you get someone else nagging you day in and day out." She rolled her eyes and brought the axe down swiftly onto the log chopping it smoothly in half. Though she was a young girl, soon to be lady, she often took it upon herself to take care of the daily house chores which included anything from feeding the livestock to tending to the garden to... splitting wood for fire. Because she was her family's only daughter, her father, though disapproved, didn't mind the extra hands to help with work. Like Izzy, splitting wood wasn't a difficult task.

"Well, don't complain and no one will nag you," Izzy joked, "Besides, I promised your parents that I'd look out for you."

"Since when did you start looking out for me?" Sora retorted, "As far as I remember, I'm the one who is always gets you out of tight jambs."

"Remember a certain incident this morning involving your identity?" Izzy brought up. He smirked knowing that, though her expression didn't show it, he had her in check.

"Okay, so I faulted a little."

"A little?" Izzy raised his eyebrow, "You were practically stuttering and shaking in your boots."

"I could've handled it."

"Handled what?" Sora and Izzy shot their heads up to see a blonde standing above them with eight pieces of carelessly chopped wood in his arms.

"Wha-?" Sora began with an unnoticeable look of panic on her face.

"The exercise," Izzy chimed in immediately, "He, uh had a little problem that I had to help him with."

Matt shrugged at the two and headed off toward the mess hall with his younger brother following. Sora glanced at Izzy as he gave her an "I told you so" smirk and then walked ahead of her. Sora twisted her face into an angry expression and then proceeded to follow, but upon taking her next couple steps, she found herself sprawled on the ground, the firewood in hand flying out in front of her.

Sora looked down toward her feet, then her gaze traveled up to face the devilish grin of Joey Miyota and a couple others standing around him. He had tripped her and was now basking in his notorious action.

"S- uh, Nick!" Izzy turned and ran to his friend, "You okay?" He bent down and helped Sora to her feet. Matt and TK stepped up next to the two.

"What did you do that for?" Matt asked angrily.

Sora held up her hand to indicate to Matt to back off. She bent and began to pick up her pieces of wood as Joey spoke, "And eye for an eye." She took a deep breath to suppress her anger. The last thing she wanted to do was lash out at this jerk and tear his head off, which she would've gladly done so, if not for the fact that it might end up in consequences she'd rather avoid.

"So I guess we're even now," Sora said coldly, "I sent you flying to the ground earlier, you send me to the ground now." She proceeded to turn and walk away.

"Nuh-uh," Joey said shaking his head, "You don't get off that easily."

"What do you want?" Sora asked feeling irritated, "I already apologized and you already got me back."

"You got in the way," Joey said, "Don't think I'm going to let you off that easily." From where he was from, nobody ever messed with him. Joey was one of the tough guys of one of the smaller villages outside of the Tachikawa Market Square. It was known that he always got his way no matter what.

"What's going on?" Tai jogged over to the group after he dropped his two logs onto the ground, "There isn't going to be trouble now, is there?" He glanced from Joey's devious smirk over to Sora's slowly fading cold glare.

"Nothing's wrong, Captain," Joey said innocently, "We were just getting acquainted. Weren't we Takenouchi, was it?"

Sora nodded, "Yeah, we were just getting acquainted."

"Good," Tai said, "I don't need there being any problems in my camp." He then turned to Sora and seemingly smiled, "I need one or two of you to head up the mountain and help the girls bring the rest of the firewood down. Don't worry, they have a barrow. You won't have to carry anything." He then walked off and announced to every trainee that they would take a quick break and continue the next exercise later.

Sora handed Izzy the firewood in her arms, "I'll go. You stay around and get a quick rest before the next exercise." Izzy felt like protesting, but he decided against it. Once Sora decided something, she wouldn't change her mind. Besides that, he knew he wasn't exactly as physically strong as Sora was. After that long scale up the mountain, he knew resting a little would be better than tiring himself out before anymore vigorous training.

"I'll come with you," Matt tossed his firewood into TK's arms and followed behind before TK had a chance to protest. The young blonde sighed and turned to follow Izzy into the mess hall as he angrily plotted ways of hurting his brother.

"It totally bites being his brother," TK muttered.

"It's no picnic being Sora's friend either," Izzy chuckled at the younger boy who suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"What was that?" TK asked raising an eyebrow.

Izzy's jaw almost dropped when he realized what he had just said. Gulping, he turned to TK and chuckled, "Uh, I mean, yeah, Sora... um, Nicolas's half sister... She and Nick are always getting into trouble a-and... I have to get them out of jambs all the time." Izzy felt himself sweating bullets and tugged at the collar of his shirt.

TK nodded. He couldn't help but feel a little skeptical of Izzy's explanation, but he decided that there was no reason for this red head to lie to anyone... or was there...? "Yeah," TK said. He tossed Izzy an unexpected skeptical glance, but then shook his head and continued to walk into the mess hall.

Izzy let out an inaudible sigh of relief. He felt like bursting into laughter. Lucky Sora didn't see that, Izzy thought.

~*~*~*~

The aftershock of the cold stinging slap to her face remained as she rubbed the too familiar bruise that began to form. Her angry eyes pierced through the darkness as her glare remained stationed on one thing, or rather one person. Neither tears nor a look of sadness could be seen in the anger engulfed eyes of the young fourteen year old Kit Li. But if one looked close enough, anyone would've been able to see the loneliness embedded deep within the rage that had been there since the beginning of her lifetime.

She would've made a plan to betray him already if not for the fact that she had vowed an oath of loyalty toward this horrid man. She could remember vividly that he was the one who had taken her in as a young child. It was he who had sheltered her and raised her... but it was also he who had tortured her since the day they had met. He had beaten her and treated her no better than the scum he saw her as.

But on the upside, he had thought her useful for the rest of his plan to take over the peaceful kingdom he planned to invade soon enough. To the horrendous leader of the Kirik Clan, this young girl proved far more efficient than many of this horrendous clan's strongest man. She was intelligent and this fact could be used to outwit the inhabitants of this continent, whom he already saw as inferior to himself.

Though she had been a member of this infamous clan for nearly ten years since her childhood, there still remained a goodness in her heart that lashed out at evil and cruelty. It was this warmness and goodness in her that often caused the painful beatings and it was because of her pity and sympathy for the helpless villagers that brought on the stinging slap she had just received only seconds before.

The clan had already succeeded in raiding many of the small villages that lay on the barbarians' way toward the vast Kingdom of Tachikawa. Each and every one of these villages had endured the doom of being scorched to the ground into a heap of ashes. Many of those villagers came to untimely ends.

Kit had unwittingly took pity upon some of the children and women of their most recent pillage and set them free to escape to the nearest village in which she was sure Kahn did not plan to scorch to the ground. One of her fellow clan members had witnessed this act and in a matter of seconds, the Kirik Clan leader had punished her with a slap to her face and some beatings to the stomach.

Kit raised herself from the rock she had been sitting at. She glared angrily at anyone who dared question her actions. She may have been just a young girl, but even many of the clan's strongest men dare not to get in her way. So snitching became a regular act of the clan's men to Kahn. He was the only one who showed no mercy and no sign of fear for the young girl. He was the great Kirik Clan leader who feared nothing... Why would he show any sign of fear to anyone at all?

The young dark haired girl left the clearing that the clan had chosen to rest at. She turned her back on the group and was almost sure that the second she left, one of these rascals would go off and report to Myotis Kahn about her temporary departure. She didn't care. It had become a daily routine for her already. No matter what she did, Kahn would find a reason to punish her severely.

She could try to get away, but she had nowhere to go. Her clothing were those of a barbarian. The people would only see her as a vicious pillager of the Kirik Clan. One of the barbaric thieves who stole and killed. Though many times, she was the one who had kept many of the villagers alive by warning the villagers ahead of time via her most trusted feline friend Gatomon and also by holding the men of the Kirik Clan back without their knowledge.

If it was something she didn't like, it was seeing the horror of people dying and families being separated in the most horrible ways. She would know of the suffering of being separated from loved ones... She herself had experienced the same pain before she met Kahn...

But those were memories of the past. Memories she had forgotten long ago. She had forsaken any memories of the warmth she used to feel... She had become accustomed the life of the Kirik Clan which was mostly bullying the helpless and committing evil deeds... There were only those rare times when she'd take pity upon those unlucky victims. As the years passed by, she had become less caring about what happened to the people the Kirik Clan chose to torture... but her goodness was beginning to show once again as she watched the helpless victims in each village...

Expressionlessly, she called upon her friend, a small white cat-like creature as she stared blankly out at the lake, with her whistle. No more than a second after she let out the high pitched sound inaudible to the human ear, did a rustling in the bushes catch her attention. In a split second, her friend appeared rubbing against her legs lovingly.

Gatomon had been with her since she was a young girl. That was a reason why one small kitty was her most trusted friend. Her only friend. The cat had appeared to her the day she was separated from her family... which was also the fateful day she had met up with the terrible Myotis Kahn. But the Gatomon was kept secret from the dark leader... Something had told Kit that letting this horrible man find her only friend would prove fatal or maybe something worse than death...

Kit bent down and nodded at the creature. She didn't know how to describe it, but this animal who she had entrusted many errands in, was no ordinary cat. To her, this kitty was very mystical. With the help of the little feline, Kit had succeeded in saving many of the pillaged villages' inhabitants.

Kit glanced around the area before slipping a sheet of paper into the gloved palms of this mystical kitty. This would be another group of villagers saved if Gatomon succeeded in delivering the message.

"You know what to do," Kit nodded as the kitty purred and then turned to scurry away. Satisfied with her work, the young girl raised to her feet and turned to head back to the clearing ready to brace herself for more beatings. Her only hope was that Gatomon would get to those villagers soon enough...

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And that's the end of that part. Again, I'm sorry it didn't come out sooner, I just didn't have enough confidence that it would be presentable, so my paranoid self was forced to proof read it over and over again. I even changed it a couple times.

So, who is this mysterious girl, Kit? He he... she doesn't exactly play a big role, but her role in the story is equally important to the rest...

And I know that Gatomon belongs to Kari, but in this story, Gatomon is a kitty who is a good friend to my original character. Maybe in the end, I'll give her back to Kari. I don't even know how the rest of this story will end up...

I don't know how it happened, but I just had this stupid idea to put Gatomon into the fic... At first, my idea was to make Gatomon Myotis Kahn's little animal friend, like how that bird was that bad guy's pet in Disney's Mulan or like how she was one of Myotismon's little people... but I decided against it and instead had her kinda working for Kit, who is one of the big bad guy's little people. Flame if you must, I know it was a bad idea, but I wanted to test it out. I just hope you like it.

So please review. And thank you so much for your reviews before...