Kisa fell through the darkness, turning so that her feet were pointed towards the ground. Being the feline tiger did have it's advantages when she was falling, especially since cats, of all kinds, always landed on their feet. That was the story anyway, and tigers were no exceptioin.

Of course, she was expecting a rougher impact when she landed. Instead she landed softly in a pile of cloth that was probably uniforms.

She sank into the fabric, greatful that she had fallen on something soft and happy that she hadn't gotten stabbed by Kenneth. What had she done to irratate him anyway? She had just agreed with him, hadn't she?

It really wasn't her fault that she was a member of Frost's Cell and his teammate. She hadn't picked the course events were taking; she rarely had a say in what happened during her life. The current course of events had been decided by her father and Briar.

Although for the life of her, she couldn't understand why she had been put in what was obviously an advanced cell. She was only a thirteen year old girl, and in spite of pretending to be a boy, she was still a beginner at all ninja arts. Actually, she was a beginner in all fighting arts.

The boys in her cell, Frost and Kenneth, were obviously really talented. They had to have been training for a long time to get to the point they were at, even if they were older then her.

It really didn't make any sense why a beginer of any sort would be placed in an advanced cell. Silently, she promised to ask Briar the reasons for being placed in an advanced unit.

She started crawling foreword in the sea of fabric. She still had to get her uniform and show up for her first day of training.

"Area is cleared; there's no one here," a semi-familar voice announced, causing her to pause before creeping foreword even more caustiously. "That idiot, Briar is really starting to piss me off. Why can't I just kill him?"

"You had your chance in the swamp and blew it. Didn't you nearly get gutted as well?" a harsh woman's voice demanded. "Briar is too sharp not to notice if you get injurred again. What I want to know is which of the teachers attacked you - or was it one of the advanced students?"

Kisa peeked out of the large bin used to catch the uniforms. Ryu, the leader of Cell Two was standing with his back towards her. He was facing a wall with a strange symbol on it; a black rose entwined with a silver sword. They symbol was glowing softly.

"I. . . . . ." Ryu's voice trailed off. "It was a student. . . . . . a beginner at that. Briar has put him in Frost's cell, but I don't think that he suspects anything about the identiy of his assailent in the swamp. I changed my form too much - "

"And yet you let a beginner stab you in the stomach?!" The symbol on the wall pulsated at the woman's voice filled the room.

"I was careless. The boy just got lucky, and it won't happen again," Ryu snapped. "When do I get to kill Briar? That is my whole purpose of being here, isn't it?"

"A ninja is always quiet and patient - you are neither. If you really want to beat Briar that badly, then I suggest that you practce harder before attempting to attack him," the woman snapped.

"What would a teacher at the Black Rose Academy know about it?!" Ryu hissed. He lowered his voice. "If I can't kill Briar, can I at least eliminate Frost's new cell member? He's not snoopy like the last one, but he really pisses me off!" He was silent for a couple of moments. "I want to kill him," he stated flately.

"If you can find him alone and do it before he makes - " the woman began to say.

"He is pathetic! I could kill him in the dark before he can tell that I'm there. He made a lot of noise going to bed last night, distrupted the curtains and everything. I was really humilated that he had drawn blood on me." Ryu sounded really irratated.

"Do you really think that it's wise to kill him then? If he's as inept as you claim, then it is to our advantage if he lives, don't you agree?"

"No, like I said. I want to kill him. He pisses me off and then there is my honor that he damaged although I can't let anyone here know. . . . . " Ryu glanced around, his eyes lingering for a long moment on the bin Kisa was hiding in.

"Very well, permission granted. However, unlike when you killed Sou, this time I don't want you to be enemies. Befriend the poor idiot and then when the moment is right - strike. It would be too susupicious if two of your known enemies turned up dead and your presence was unaccounted for, do you understand?"

Ryu smiled cruelly. "Thank you. I'll complete my assignments as previous stated, and in return, Ki Souma will die before the end of the month."

Kisa's blood ran cold at his words. She had been trying to pretend that he was talking about someone else, but he had mentioned her directly. He was going to kill her unless she found someway to stop him.

"Don't you think that it will take longer to establish a friendship?" the woman asked.

"Are you joking? He's got, 'I wish I had a friend here that I can confide in,' written all over his face," Ryu laughed.

Kisa resisted the urge to sneeze at his cold words. She also resisted the urge to cry. Was it that obvious that she didn't have any friends?

Ryu stopped laughing, glancing around quickly. "That idiot Kenneth is coming," he hissed. He moved his fingers and the symbol on the wall vanished from sight. The room fell completely silent, and Ryu vanished from sight, nearly walking over Kisa as he headed up the laundry chute. Luckily, he missed her by a couple of inches.

"Yo!" Kenneth said coming into the room. "Ki? Are you still down here?" He peeked into the bin, eyes searching for movement.

Kisa almost stood up, but then she thought, 'What if he mentions that he found me down here? Ryu would find out and then. . . . . . . . ' She didn't let herself finish the thought. Instead, she grew absolutely silent, like a tiger ready to pounce.

Kenneth cursed angerily. "Frost's not going to like this," he muttered and headed up a staircase. "Stupid boy! Why'd he have to go and dissappear?" she could hear him say as he opened the door and left.

Kisa waited a moment then started up the shaft, emerging before Kenneth reached the top of the second flight of stairs.

She quickly found clothes that fit her, relying mostly on what Ayame Souma, one of her older cousins, had told her about picking clothes that fit.

"Kenneth," she said, keeping her voice quiet. He jumped in surprise, an an angery snarl replaced the concerned look that had been on his face.

"Ahou!" he muttered. "Did you get a uniform?"

Kisa nodded quickly, forcing the thoughts of Ryu from her head.



"Well put it on!" he exclaimed. "We only have ten minutes before opening ceromoy!"

Kisa went behind a curtain and quickly stripped out of her clothes. She realized that she was going to have to be extrememly careful about changing. "What do we do at opening ceromony?" she asked.

If she was going to survive then she was going to have to adapt to the school quickly.

Kenneth groaned. "Don't you even know that much?" he murmured.

"No, what do we do?" Kisa asked. She tightened the belt of the black uniform and started lacing up the long folds of fabric that wound around her soft souled sandles.

"We hug and kiss," Kenneth said off-handishly.

"Nani!" Kisa squeked. That would be bad. If any of the boys hugged her, then she would turn into a tiger.

"Don't be retarded! Of course we don't hug and kiss. We're ninjas, not girls," Kenneth snapped back at her. "Don't you know anything?"

"No. . . . .not really. . . . ." Kisa said. She stepped out from behind the changing curtain after making sure that her chest was sufficently wrapped. She was fortunet to have small breasts, but they were still a little too noticble if she didn't wrap them down tightly.

"Then how the hell did you get put in our cell!" Kenneth exploded. "Tell me - what are your rating numbers?"

"Rating numbers?" Kisa repeated. Kenneth had begun to hand her an assortment of strange weapons that she didn't recognize.

He sighed heavily. "Okay, for example - I'm a year 15, which is how old I am. My rating is 32, which is basically an evaluation of skills; you gain ratings for completing tasks. Then my last numbers are related to my cell - and what the hell do you think your doing with those weapons!"

Kisa blinked as he took the pile of weapons that was accumulating in her arms and started fastening them in their proper places on her uniform.

"I'm in Frost's cell, which is 1 for our division. My ID number is 75, which basically means that I graduated from year 14 as the 75th best. . . . . " He ran his fingers through his hair. "That meant nothing to you at all. . . . . tell me, when Briar keyed you into the door system what numbers did he say?"

Kisa thought back. "Year 13, rating 5 - "

"What the hell!" Kenneth exclaimed. "Rating 5! Just how long have you been here!"

"Less then 24 hours. . . . " Kisa said. He had just handed her a sword and was helping her tie it to her back.

"What the hell did you do?!" Kenneth demanded. "Rating 5. . . . . . . .Do you know what this means?"

Kisa shook her head.

"It means that you got what takes most recruits one month to achive. . . in one day! Just how did you manage to pull that off?" he demanded with something close to awe in his voice.

Kisa kept silent. She had thought the numbers were fairly low. It was surprising that Kenneth thought they were impressive.

He shook his head. "Come on. . . . opening ceromonies await us. I'll give you a run down on what they are as we head towards the Main Hall. . . . "

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Author's notes;

I like Kenneth. I wasn't supposed to like him because he is supposed to be mean to Kisa, but. . . . . . . I like how he's shaping up.

Anyway, I'll be getting to why Kisa is in an advance cell in the next chapter (I hope -_-)

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. \_/

Kissa-chan