Shugorei
Chapter Four
by Shadou-sama

Tyson was hungry. By the exasperation of his teammates and Kai's rolling of his eyes (unseen by his male teammates), Ka-Shoku guessed that this was happened a lot. But Ka-Shoku was glad, for she hadn't eaten since back at the Bathhouse and that was a long time ago.
They were in a popular restaurant, one that practically everyone recommended. Gasha's, it was called. Five stars in most magazines.
Ka-Shoku didn't know what she had been expecting—no wait, she did. She had been expecting at least decent food. The meal set in front of her didn't meet those expectations. In fact, she doubted it even came close to those expectations.
There was rice, no surprise there. Beside it was steam carrots. She could handle that. What she couldn't was the meat-ish looking slab and some sort of tiny dumplings and the fluffy white gunk. She looked to either side of the plate. There weren't any chopsticks! Just some imitation silver things.
She allowed her mind to wander while the boys were talking about an 'anime'. She didn't know what it was, nor cared. She had been mildly surprised that they wanted to dine with her. The yuna at the Bathhouse had always avoided her. But maybe she should be more concerned over why she had known their names. Practically straight off the bat she had been able to identify them. Possibly Yubaba's magic had given her this as well. Guess she shouldn't complain; it made things easier for her.
Max looked over. Something wasn't quite right. While the boy's meals were mostly devoured, Ka-Shoku's looked relatively untouched. "Aren't you hungry?" he asked.
Sure she was, Ka-Shoku thought, but not for this--whatever it was.
"You have to eat." Kai said gruffly. His arms were crossed and his eyes cold, his perfect 'I don't give a damn' look.
"I'll eat lat—" She was interrupted by Kai shoving a piece of the strange meat into her mouth with a fork. The others widened their eyes. Kai never did this! Tyson kept on eating, but with his eyes glued to the two.
She chewed and swallowed it. She supposed it was cooked meat, and while it was sort of good, raw was better. But that wasn't the issue here. "You won't do that ag—" she was interrupted again as Kai shoved a second piece into her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise. He had done it again! After she had told him not to.
Kai took it cool like; his eyes had remained closed the whole time. "If you don't eat, you'll become weak. And if you become weak, you can forget about being on this team."
Ray frowned. "Don't you think that's a bit—"
"Yes sir," Ka-Shoku interrupted, and started eating the rice. She was a bit clumsy with the silvery things, this was her first time using them, but she caught on by imitating Tyson, but slower.
He had made several good points, but he didn't even know the meaning of them as she did. Obeying her superiors, even if he was just a human boy, was programmed into her. The general attitude superiors she had known was 'Do it or die.' Second, staying on the team. She had to or face her Sensei in failure. Yubaba didn't take kindly to failure. This sort of tied into the 'obey your superiors' category. But one point hit home harder than the others did. 'You'll become weak.' Ka-Shoku couldn't allow herself to become weak. Weak meant she wouldn't learn Yubaba's magic. Weak meant she'd be prey to other spirits. Weak meant never finding her home. She couldn't let that happen. This is what she told herself.
Kai had been surprised when she just gave in to him. He never thought it would happen that quickly or easily. He had been prepared for a stubborn fight. But then, he did make himself very clear. She must not be as stupid as he had thought. He turned his mind to other matters, more important things.


Three beds six people. It looks simple enough. But that equation doesn't count for the fact that one is a girl and another snores loudly. After an hour of deliberation, they decided on a solution. Kenny and Tyson would share a bed, Ray and Max would share another, and Kai and Ka-Shoku would share the last one. Tyson had nudged Kai. "Nice arrangement, eh?" Kai ignored him.
They shared their plans for the next day. Max said something about meeting his mother and Ray mentioned something about a square. Nothing was mentioned about training. Ka-Shoku was concerned about this. She had expected Kai to say something, as he was their team captain, but he hadn't. It was like he didn't care about winning the Championships, Ka-Shoku thought. He was distracted, which he couldn't afford to be with the Championships just a few days away.
"Be back here by noon," Ka-Shoku ordered them. Someone had to. "Training," she explained.
"We've been training since we left America. Why shouldn't we take a day to check out the city?" Tyson challenged.
"Two words: World Championships."
"A day won't hurt us," Max said, "and we'll be able to concentrate better after."
"Don't worry about it. It's not like they're lazing off," Kenny tried to re-assure.
"Geez, she's as bad as Kai," Tyson whispered to Max.
"Fine," she gave in grudgingly. The problem was she didn't know much about being a leader, and less about the actual training. Yubaba's magic had given her great beyblading skills, but little else. Maybe if she learned more… but how?
The others turned in and fell asleep. Tyson's snoring, which was rumored to be quite loud, was in reality quite peaceful and soothing this early in the night.
Where could humans go to find huge amounts of information for free? A memory tickled the back of her mind. It was a place that had lots of books, a friendly staff, and allowed people to read their books for no charge. What did they call them… libraries? She'd ask about it downstairs.
Quietly she packed a small bag with her magical items and hefted it onto her aqua colored shoulders. She grabbed her room key, and was about to leave when she spotted Kenny's laptop. She didn't get along with technology. But if humans used them, and she was trying to learn to lead them, shouldn't she use one too? She weighed the problem out in her mind, then packed the laptop too. The last thing she did before leaving was to leave a short note to Kenny explaining that the laptop was safe and that she had it.
She asked the receptionist if there were any libraries around. The receptionist wrote down some instructions, and handed them to Ka-Shoku. "But it's closed now," the receptionist informed her.
"Thank you anyway," Ka-Shoku said, before leaving. Closed to humans, but open to any spirit who wanted to break in.
The night street was lit only by the beautifully carved lamp posts and the gentle glowing of recently deceased souls drifting on to the spirit world. A few would be changed into the shadow spirits that haunted towns like the one near the Bathhouse. Most would be reborn.
"Must be a spirit gate close by," she mused. There were so many, more then if there wasn't. It was a good thing that the souls were invisible to humans, or they would really freak out. She walked quickly, following the instructions. A few of the souls followed her, until she shoed them off. She wasn't going to the gate, so the souls would get lost. Sometimes she flew, but not very far or fast. It was difficult to without using the fan on this foreign ground. She was very young so she couldn't fly or transform without one on her. When she grew older, she would.
The library was a quite large building and from the name Ka-Shoku decided it must be the center library. Dark and closed, no signs of life even of a security guard. Good.
She jumped up to the roof and the awaiting skylights. Carefully, to avoid any alarms, she opened one up.
Nothing.
She took out her black opal and dropped it. "Tomeruaraamu."
Waves of black energy went through the building. The opal hit the floor with a sharp clink. Any alarms that had existed were now off.
She dropped gently to the floor. She held her hand up, closing the skylight by magic, and picking up the opal. She looked around. The place was dark except for the moonlight streaming in through the glass above. Her eyes were like cats, meaning she could see perfectly fine.
She walked to the closest table, sat down and opened up the laptop. She dropped her bag sloppily, and some items spilled out. It took her a few minutes, but she managed to turn it on and it booted up.
"Who are you?" a voice coming from the laptop demanded. "And where am I?"
"My name is Ka-Shoku. I'm the Bladebreakers' new team member. You're at a library."
"Why?" the voice asked. "I'm Dizzi, by the way."
"I need you to help me learn how to be a leader and to train the boys."
"Why?" Dizzi asked, curious.
"Because if I don't, they will probably lose the World Championships."
"And how do you know that? Those boys are tougher than they look."
"I hope they are," Ka-Shoku paused. "And it's better safe than sorry."
"One more question. If we're at the library, and it's ten o'clock at night, how did we get in?"
"Skylight."
If Dizzi had had eyebrows, she would have raised them. The new girl was definitely more lax than Kenny was. But who was she to complain? Being trapped in a laptop crunching numbers all day didn't allow for much excitement.
"So let's get to work. Leadership, huh? Just let me hack into the cataloguing system." Dizzi whirled and beeped for a few minutes. Ka-Shoku diligently kept watch, just in case. "Let's start with this book. Chief read it, didn't do him a whole lot of good, but it's as good as any place to start."
Ka-Shoku copied down the dewy decimal number and went off to search for it. The place had practically a thousand different bookshelves. One doesn't have to be told that it was hard. When she had finally found it, she let out a little victory whoop. Very unlike her. Her first book quest was over and the results were good.
"Finally found it?"
Ka-Shoku dropped the book in question and spun around into a defensive position.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." A teenage boy leaned against the bookcase a few paces away from her. With his red hair, white and orange clothes and the lantern he had, she wondered how she could have missed him.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Tala, and you are?"
"Ka-Shoku."
"I can teach you what you want to know," Tala said. "Leadership."
"Why would you want too?"
"Bored, I guess. I've already read all the classics here. That's why I come here," he added, under the misconception that she cared. He paused before continuing, "and when I was told I was to be team captain, I came here too."
"That's all? Nothing in return?" Ka-Shoku asked, suspicious. No one did anything for free.
Tala thought for a second. "That Japanese fan in your backpack, where did you get it?"
"Sunset Shrine near Tokyo," she replied. She didn't know why she was being so candid with him or he with her, but it didn't hurt either one, so she shouldn't worry.
"A fan blessed by a Shrine deity," Tala said. "That's what I want in return."
"Then you won't want mine," she was trying to discourage him. "It was stolen from a miko's hands."
"I'm sure she would forgive you."
Damn, the miko would. But how did he know that? And should she give it to him? She didn't have another, and she could work a lot of magic with it to help gain the Bladebreakers' victory. But if he taught her how to lead them, then she wouldn't need it for that and it would help her mission. The mission always came first, so "Deal."
Tala grinned. "Let's get back to that laptop of yours."
And so the three of them worked together. When the staff came to open up, they hid until the library was officially open. Tala left around noon, he had to get back, he said. That was when she gave him the fan. Dizzi and Ka-Shoku left hours later.

To be continued...