"Good," Kyrie praised as I finished my tenth kata in as many minutes. My shito-ryu training came in handy for more than keeping my lean form strong. "What belt did you get to, Khareesa?"
"Brown," I replied as I lunged deeply to each side to stretch my legs. "My sensei told me that I was one of his better students, and I ended up showing new senpai a thing or two about teaching!" I grinned at the memories of the last two and a half years. My first year of lessons had been my sixteenth birthday present from my parents. After the first year of lessons ran out, I decided to continue my training. The money I had saved up working part time as a server at a swanky restaurant paid the way for that dream. Nine months later, I was glad I had already started being independent. After my parents… well, let's just say they left me enough money in various forms to live on, and then some.
I focused back on my karate as Kyrie tossed me a double-edged wooden sword. She held its twin. The sword looked like hickory, and probably was. I familiarized myself with the weight and balance of the sword, then faced Kyrie with my sword in my right hand, knowing full well her intention.
We saluted, then I drew back in a cross-guard. That was my usual opening move in weapons kumite matches; contrary to what sensei had taught about kumite, that defensive move had not yet lost me a match. Kyrie lunged with an overhead cut, and I moved to block. After answering with a feint to her midsection, which she blocked, I followed through and came back for a sweep. She wisely jumped my sword, then aimed for a thrust to my left side. She thought that was my weak side, since all my attacks had been with my right hand. A mistake; sensei taught me long ago to be able to fight with both hands equally. I tossed my sword to my left hand and blocked her thrust. Knocking her sword to the side threw Kyrie off balance, and my following leg sweep finished the job of knocking her to the floor. Springing up, I switched my sword back to my right hand and pinned her stomach lightly with my foot, stopping the descent of the blade's point a centimeter from her jugular. Then, in a throwback to a set of novels I'd been reading lately, I asked her, "Do you yield?"
This only got a questioning look from her as she rolled out from under my pin and leapt lithely up from the floor. I looked at the sword as I handed it back to her. There was the tiniest nick in the edge of the blade, near the cross guard. I wondered if I had caused that or if it had been there from previous use.
My stomach rumbled, but knowing the shock my eating habits had given Zero, I decided against mentioning anything involving food. Instead, I excused myself with the tale of going to talk to Dr. Cain, which wasn't entirely a lie; I made a beeline for his lab as soon as I exited the training room. The lab was easy enough to find; the white-haired man I had been searching for was working at a console in the middle of the room, with a small desktop monitor for reference. The door slid silently shut behind me.
I didn't wish to startle him, so I stood quietly just inside the lab. I wasn't even sure he'd heard me enter, so it was all the more shocking when he said, "Come here, Khareesa."
Made me jump a little; the guy must've been psychic. I obeyed him and walked over to the console. "I'm sorry, Dr., I didn't want to startle you…" I trailed off in my apology as the screen caught my eye. It held a schematic layout for some type of knife… the complete schematic below it had a faintly glowing blade, a deep blue hilt with silver wire inlay, and a dark silver cross guard. "Wow," I whispered in awe. "That's beautiful." I ran my hand across the screen, imagining the feel of the hilt in my hand, the inlaid wires biting into my palm, the heat of the blade lying against my forearm… I shook my head, thinking I was delusional for a brief instant.
My rumbling stomach brought me full-bore back into reality. "Dr. Cain, where could I go to get something to eat?"
He looked at me for a second, then waved me toward the kitchen area in his office. "Wait a second," he then said, and jotted down a string of characters on a torn corner of flim-plast and handed it to me. "I think you'll like this idea better. Those are some new codes I installed in the system just for you, coded to your voice and touch. That way, you can get in and out of the complex at will. You can find something to eat wherever you like, then you can come back here any time."
I marveled at his trust in what to him was almost a complete stranger. "Thanks, Doc." I looked at the flim-plast and its three sets of characters.
"The first set is for access to the building proper," Dr. Cain informed me. "The second is for the stairway and elevator passages, which you need to access this level. The third is my personal cell number; just in case you feel you need to call here for anything." I immediately made a mental note to put that into my cell as soon as possible.
"Cool, thanks!" I hugged the fatherly figure before grabbing my purse out of his office, where I'd left it when Kyrie had taken me to the training room.
