CHAPTER 2

Kirei gave Nariko another tight squeeze before letting her go to greet her father. After a small bow, she gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek. "Where did Ango head off to?" she asked.

Her inquiry was immediately answered by two voices shouting furiously at each other from the front courtyard. Hakai and Kirei sweat-dropped. "Er... you'll find out later." There was a loud clang and a crash. Pressing a toe against the door to make sure nothing would come flying through, Hakai grinned. "Your mother..." he said uncomfortably, "...does have a... 'surprise' for you..." Bang! The doors thudded violently, but didn't open.

"Dammit!" said a voice from the inside. "That was my spine!"

"You don't have any proper armor on!" reprimanded another voice. "You shouldn't slam into things recklessly like that."

"Shut up! Keep fighting!"

Kirei paused in her sentence for a moment. "...Maybe we should take the back door instead."

"Mom," said Nariko dully, "the back gate is nearly a mile away."

"...Then we'll just go to the Keep instead. It's only half a mile away!"

"Mother!"

Hakai slapped a hand over Nariko's mouth before she could continue to whine. Kirei gave him a stern look, but shook her head instead and took her first daughter's hand to lead her to the Keep entrance. Watching them leave, Hakai sighed as another violent force collided with the courtyard doors. Finally, purely out of curiosity, he flung the doors open and looked inside.

Ango and Kamidake were ten feet apart, crouching, and facing away from each other. Two swords lay abandoned in the corner of the courtyard, both with black marks and dents in each blade. Panting and sweating, both of them simultaneously rose and charged at each other, obviously ready for some hand-to-hand combat.

Hakai took the opportunity to observe his training effects on Kamidake, and how his second daughter had improved on her own. Indeed, he was impressed with both. Ango kicked over Kamidake's head, as he caught her foot and flipped her over. But catching herself on her hands, she retalliated and managed to hit his shoulder. Although, a new punch she threw was unsuccessful as he grabbed her fist and spun her around, locking his arms under her shoulders so that it was near impossible for her to escape.

Ango looked furious, trapped in his grasp like a mad bull in a pen. She struggled and kicked, which amused Hakai, discovering that she had inherited stubborness from Kirei. And interestingly, Kamidake whispered something in her ear, and she stopped thrashing.

Sweat-drop... blush.

She stumbled to her knees as Kamidake finally released her and walked to the far corner of the courtyard. Picking up his sword, he cast the other blade back to its owner, who caught it by the hilt, but dropped it back on the ground again.

But standing again, she turned to face her opponent, who had approached her to check for serious wounds. She gave him a rough push away from her. "You," she grunted, "will pay for that." And she grinned. "I'll find you in the fencing yard. I want a rematch."

"What'd be the time?" Kamidake asked.

Ango paused for a moment, then nodded to herself. "...Dusk. Tonight, an hour after dinner." She dusted her knees and arms off, running a hand through her long, black hair, scalp glazed with sweat. "You better be there, and in full armor at that. Your choice of blade."

And with that, she picked up her sword and headed west for the females' showers, flicking her hair at him as she gently opened the sliding doors. Kamidake watched her leave, until she slammed the doors shut. Hakai leaned against the frame of the front courtyard door, the same, amused expression on his face.

"She likes you," he chuckled to his apprentice. "She doesn't request a rematch from too many men. Just from her sister. ...What did you tell her?"

"Nothing offensive, Master," answered Kamidake. Then, he bowed his head and turned east for the males' showers.

~*~

Nariko popped through the sliding doors to find Ango propped upsidedown on her bed in a black shirt and shorts, headphones on with a manga in hand, a bowl of crackers on the side. Nariko sighed as she yanked the headphones off Ango's head and grabbed the manga.

"You've been raiding my bookshelf, again," she muttered into her younger sister's face. Ango smiled back. "I don't understand. Why do you have to come after my stuff," at this point, she walked over to one side of the room and pulled a white sheet off of a tall box. It was a book case as tall as the room and eight feet wide, overflowing with books. "When you have your own collection of stuff?" She pulled out a random book from the shelf. It read 'THE ODYSSEY BY HOMER' in brown lettering. "Though, a lot of your books are probably really boring."

Ango didn't have much of a reaction, still smiling happily up at Nariko. Nariko sighed again. "Alright, happy-girl. What's got you turned on?"

"There's a dude!" she giggled in reply. "And he's... yeah!" Nariko looked bored. "Well, there's obviously something wrong with you... well, more wrong than you and I already are!" She flipped over on her stomach as Nariko flopped down on the clean sheets. "What troubles you, onisan?"

"I'm gonna' get hitched," she muttered in reply. Ango raised an eyebrow.

"Did mama or papa find him for you?"

"Mama."

"Then he must be fairly gentle," justified Ango.

"He is, but he's... just..."

"He ugly?"

"No! Not at all. He's kinda' cute, actually, but just... well..."

"Not your type?"

"Yeah! Exactly!" Nariko turned on her stomach, also and put her head down in her arms. "But I don't wanna' hurt his or mama's feelings."

"So," said Ango in a professional tone, "you're getting married to a politician of some sort?"

"Yeah."

Ango cackled, "HA! Daddy got me a soldier! And a good... hot one at that!" She looked outside the window, where the blood red sun was begning to sink into the black outline of the mountains. "Which reminds me," she leaped up and jumped into the small bathroom on the far left, "I'm supposed to meet him at the fencing yard so that I can kill him."

"It's not a wonder why you aren't my helpful big sister," moaned Nariko. "But what should I do?"

"Simple, dear," she said nonchalantly, buckling a leather belt across her wrist. "What is one thing that got in the middle of every single love triangle you've been in?"

"The stupidity of the man."

Ango paused. "Well... what was the other thing?"

Nariko didn't answer. Ango groaned, as she paced over to the window. Nariko noticed that she was clad in her formal black armor with the iron wings. Taking to the window sill, Ango whistled outside and extended a hand. A tiny, black and brown hawk came to her. It squawked. "Hush, Mishi." Letting Mishi the hawk rest on the window sill, she took a brush and scroll of parchment, jotting down a few characters, then rolling it up and tying it to Mishi's foot.

"Find them in the West," she instructed. Mishi squawked and took off into the sunset, heading into the west until she faded out of sight.

Picking up a massive spear in a cedar wood cabinet near her bed, she told Nariko, "Tell mama that we're having more guests... three more guests."