At this, Yori gave Kim a small smile, a hopeful smile. "It concerns your friend, Ron Stoppable, and his future in this world."
Kim was expecting something else, something profound or some hidden truth that life held to make all of this better, but she was not in the mood for some stupid and hurtful game that this girl was playing. She let a scowl cross her face and let Yori know of her displeasure. "You know as well as I do that Ron has no future in this world."
Yori knew that this was not going to be an easy task, even if she had the other girl's trust. It was evident that Ron-san had kept his word in keeping the secret of Yamanuchi, even from his closest friend. Explaining Ron's part in the prophecy was going to be difficult enough, but at least he had seen Yamanuchi and knew of the mystical monkey power. Explaining Kim's part in the same prophecy was going to be near impossible.
But, impossible or not, she still had a mission to complete and a school to save. And she needed to get started as soon as possible. "I understand that in your culture, death is seen as the final act of the living, a passing from this world to the next. Not all cultures believe that such a fate awaits us beyond the veil of death. All I am asking is that you allow me to show you that there is another possibility in this world."
Kim listened to what the strange girl was saying. It was evident that she was not playing some sort of cruel game with her, but rather that she grew up in a land that viewed death in a different way than she did. She knew that Ron was gone and wasn't coming back, but she decided that she would hear what Yori had to say. It was the polite thing to do for a friend of Ron's and there was a part of her that was curious to know what the other girl thought had happen to her friend.
"Okay, I will grant your request. What is this other possibility that you are talking about?"
Yori heaved a sigh of relief. She was confident in her ability to persuade Kim of the truth of the situation as long as the redhead would be willing to listen to it. Having accomplished that much, her predicament seemed easier all of a sudden.
"Unfortunately, it would take too long to do so now and there is something that I must show you that will convince you that I am right. If I am not mistaken, there is a festival this Saturday that the entire town will be at? Then, I suggest we meet at the cafe in town, eight o'clock this Saturday. That will give me enough time to tell you the full story and answer all of your questions."
It seemed like a reasonable plan to Kim. And it had the added bonus of giving her a good excuse to give to her parents as to why she wasn't going to the fair in the first place. Having made her decision, Kim nodded at Yori, "Sounds like a plan. I will see you there."
Yori bowed to Kim once more, thanked her, and took her leave.
SaturdayKim looked up at the sign outside the small coffee house. It was almost eight o'clock, the time that she had promised Yori that she would meet her here but the nagging reservations made one last stand to get her to back out of this. This part of her was sure that no good could come from this, that she would just end up even more hurt and possibly in a fight with this girl. But the other part of her wanted to know just whom it was that she was dealing with and what role she had played in Ron's life.
It was an argument that wasn't unfamiliar to her, as she had been having it ever since she had met the girl in the Middleton cemetery that day. Both sides were equally persuasive and she found herself liking both options, but in the end, it came down to the fact that she had given her word that she would be here, and she wasn't about to break her promise.
Her mind made up, she opened the door to the cafe and entered. It was very quiet and there was almost no one in the place, as everyone else was at the Fall Fair. She looked around the sparsely populated room and noticed that Yori had taken a seat at a table in the far back of the establishment, well away from anyone else. It ensured, if nothing else, that they would be alone for what Kim was sure was going to be a difficult conversation.
The redhead began walking over towards the Asian girl when Yori noticed that she had entered the cafe. The other girl stood up from her place at the table and greeted Kim, motioning for her to take the seat opposite her.
"I am glad that you came, Kim-dono. I was not sure that you would."
Kim, who already had mixed feelings about this, did not take kindly to Yori's last statement. "I promised you that I would. That alone should have been enough to ensure you that I was coming."
Yori gave Kim an apologetic smile. "I am sorry if I have offended you. I beleive that we have, as your culture says, 'Started off on the wrong hand'?" Yori, who had been schooled in London for several years, knew the correct use of the expression, but decided to use the wrong word in the hopes that it would ease the mood.
It worked. Kim smiled back at the girl sitting across from her and corrected her gently. "It's foot. 'Got off on the wrong foot'. But it's no big. I'm just a little on edge because I'm not sure what to expect out of this meeting."
The mood at the table now seemed much more relaxed, which was good because she needed for Kim to stay for the entire legend to be told, otherwise her mission might be a failure. "Before we begin, I must inform you that I am a member of a secret society, one charged with the protection of a great and awesome power. And I must ask that what I tell you tonight be kept in the strictest of confidence."
This revelation had peeked Kim's interest. Secret societies? Great powers? And just was Ron doing mixed up in all this? Already she wanted to know the full story behind the exotic beauty in front of her and was thankful that she had taken the meeting. "I give you my word that I will not reveal anything that you tell me tonight."
Yori looked at Kim carefully for the next few moments before she decided that the redhead was telling the truth. "That is good, Kim-dono. For what I am about to show you has not been seen by the eyes of an outsider in over a thousand years. Well, no outsider except for Ron-san."
The Asian girl then reached down to grab something that was resting on the floor next to her chair. She pulled the object up and placed it with great reverence on the table in front of Kim. It was a wooden case that had been stained black and was varnished, with immaculately polished brass hardware holding it together. To Kim, it looked like it had been recently purchased in a fine luxury items store, but upon closer inspection, the cheerleader could tell that there were minor imperfections in the case that revealed it to be much older than it looked.
But however impressed Kim was with the case, she was absolutely speechless when Yori disengaged the clamps and opened the top. There, resting on royal purple velvet, was a sword. It was about three feet long with a slight curve to it. The metal that it was made out of was like nothing that she had ever seen before. It was almost as if it was glowing a faint blue in the dark lighting of the cafe. It also looked like it had never been used before, because, try as she might, she was unable to detect any signs of damage to the weapon.
Kim reached out hesitantly to touch the intoxicating sword, but before she could get close enough, Yori closed the case and returned it once more to its place beside her chair. Once the case had been closed, the spell that had surrounded Kim seemed to be broken and she looked back at Yori with a thousand questions on her mind.
But the other girl cut her off before she could get out a word. "I see that you have many questions, and I will try to answer them all in due time. The weapon that I have shown you is called the Lotus Blade and it is with its heir that I shall start my tale about the legend of this sword."
"The first heir of the Lotus Blade was a famous warrior named Toshimu. We have no information as to whom his family was except to say that he was born in the year 318 AD in the jungles of the African continent while his parents were on an expedition at the behest of the emperor of Japan. Shortly after his birth, the entire party that had traveled from Japan was all killed by a plague of some kind. No one knows for sure what happened, except to say that only Toshimu lived."
"The jungles of Africa are not a nice place to be in for a fully grown and trained warrior, but a child that was alive for only a few short days without any protection was sure to have a painful and short future. As legend has it, a rather poisonous snake had found its way to where the babe laid. It was at this moment that our founder's destiny began to assert itself. At the same time that the snake was entering the ruined camp, a group of monkeys were to be spotted overhead, safely out of the reach of the serpent. Normally, the monkeys would have kept moving without giving the human baby a second thought, but there was something different about this child. So, instead of leaving him to his fate, the monkeys took him and raised him as their own."
At the thought that the founder of whatever order Yori had pledged herself to had been raised by monkeys, Kim began to become very skeptical about what she was hearing and, in fact, began to wonder about the sanity of the young Asian woman across from her. Yori picked up on the redhead's body language and raised both her hands in front of her. "Yes, I am aware that the tale is somewhat.... farfetched, but the beginnings of our founder are both the part of the story that is least believed and the part that is least important. Please, indulge me a little while longer."
Kim gave Yori a disbelieving look, but remained quiet and listened as the other girl continued her story. When she was sure that Kim would allow her to continue, she gave her a thankful smile and begun again.
"Toshimu remained with the monkeys for a number of years until he was about twelve-years-old. It was then that he happened upon a monk that was praying in the jungle where the boy had lived his entire life. The monk, whose name has unfortunately been lost to history, was a disciple of a unique off shoot of Buddhism that believed that the last step a soul must take before ascending to the afterlife forever was that of a monkey. It was known as Ti Shing mysticism, and one of the prophesies that this branch of Buddhism held was that a boy who had lived with the monkeys would bring the power of the monkey to the world. And so, when the monk ran across Toshimu in the jungle, he remembered the prophesy and believed that this was the boy that it was talking about."
"So, the monk decided that he would teach the young boy the ways of Ti Shing mysticism. It took some time, as the boy did not speak any language, but the monk was a very patient man who had a lot of time on his hands. And over the course of the next seven years, Toshimu was able to tap into a source of power that had before been only reserved for the gods. I believe that you have had some experience with it. Mystical monkey power?"
Yori could see that Kim gained a look of understanding. "Yes, I have had a few encounters with the mystical monkey power."
The other girl smirked at her guest. "I see that you have been on the other end of the power at times. And have lived to tell the tale. My admiration, Kim-dono, I was aware that you were an accomplished warrior but I was not aware that you were up to fighting against such a force."
If there was one thing in this world that the girl who could do anything had an almost impossible time doing, then it was dealing with praise. She had always believed in modesty but deep down, a part of her wanted to jump up and shout to the world, "You're damn right I'm good. I'm Kim Possible and I can do anything!" So, she usually just compromised between the two and gave Yori her traditional, non-committal "No big."
The Asian girl nodded and continued with her story. "By the time he had reached his nineteenth year, Toshimu had become an accomplished martial artist, but also a great philosopher in the ways of Ti Shing mysticism. He had surpassed the old monk that had become his mentor and his father. It was in that same year that the old monk passed on to the next life that awaited him. Our founder knew at this point that he had to make the journey to Japan to further his training in Ti Shing mysticism, and now that his master was no longer with him, he had nothing to stop him."
"It took him almost a year to traverse from the jungles of central Africa to the island of Japan. He gained much strength from the time he spent with other Buddhists in India and various mystics in China. In the year 338 AD, he crossed the Sea of Japan where he headed south towards the present day city of Kyoto. Since it had been a long journey, Toshimu decided to take extend refuge on the Mount Yamanuchi, where he could recover from his trip and redouble his efforts in meditation."
"He had been on the mount for but a few days when his destiny once again asserted itself. It was a day like any other, starting at 4:30 in the morning for a few hours of meditation. Only on this particular day, Toshimu was able to reach a new level of spiritual awareness and take his consciousness to a new level of connectedness with the world around him. It was then that he received the vision."
"In his vision, the old monk that had been his mentor and teacher for so many years came to him as an avatar of the gods. He explained to Toshimu that there is a power within all living things, a power that can be tapped into and used by those who are attune to the true nature of the world. The most powerful of these is the mystical monkey power."
"Because of the nature of the mystical monkey power, the gods allowed that only those who were most worthy, those who had proven themselves capable, would be granted access to it. And the gods had decided that Toshimu was the first such person to be granted this gift. Through his many years in the study of Ti Shing mysticism, he had been able to gain an understanding of the true nature of the power and it had been decided that he would be the instrument of the gods to bring that understanding to mankind. At that moment, our founder was infused with a power and insight that he had not known existed. Things that had previously been impossible for humanity were now at his fingertips, able to be called forth at a mere thought or word."
"The monk then informed him that it was now Toshimu responsibility to bring the insight that he had achieved to the rest of humanity. Only those who were worthy enough, those who were gifted and talented would be allowed to know the secrets of Ti Shing mysticism. The determination of who was worthy and who was not was left to our founder."
At this point, Yori paused in her story to take a sip of the tea that she had ordered. The brief moment of silence from her host allowed Kim to break the spell that the story had worked on her. It was, if nothing else, a very entertaining tale, even if Kim didn't believe a word of it. But, whatever her misgivings about what she was being told, it did allow her to take her mind off her sorrow. If only for a moment.
The moment passed, and Yori began her story again. But before she did, she once again grabbed the black case at her feet and placed it on the table in front of her, only this time she did not open it. "Before the vision ended, the monk gave our founder one last gift. He told Toshimu that there would be many in this world who would want the power for themselves, to corrupt it's purity and twist it to their own whims. So, the gods had decided to give him something with which to protect the mystical monkey power."
She tapped the black case in front of her twice. "The Lotus Blade. It was the instrument of the gods that was given to Toshimu to defend mystical monkey power from the evil in the world."
"After the vision had ended, our founder continued to meditate on Mount Yamanuchi for an additional forty days and forty nights. When he was finished, he decided to create a school to teach Ti Shing Peck Quar and Ti Shing mysticism to the next generate as the gods wished. He used the Lotus Blade to carve the school out of the very rock of Mount Yamanuchi, as a memorial to the location where he received his vision. And that is the story of the founding of my school and how the Lotus Blade came into being."
After a moment passed in silence, Kim began to realize that this was the end of the story. She just sat there for a little while longer, watching Yori sip at her tea and wondering just what in the hell all this had to do with Ron and she voiced her question.
"Do you remember, Kim-dono, about two years ago when Stoppable-san was chosen to come to Japan for a week as an exchange student? Did you not wonder why he was chosen over so many others in your school?"
Kim had to admit that she was puzzled at the time, but after the trip, she had put it out of her mind. After all, Ron had told her that nothing had happened. What was it that he said? 'Same ol', same ol''? "Yes I remember."
"After the passing of Toshimu, the Lotus Blade was kept at the school until its heir made himself known. There have been thirty-nine heirs of the Lotus Blade, including our founder. The last heir died on the same day that Stoppable-san was born. This in and of itself was not extraordinary, given that millions of people were born on the same day. But when Ron-san came in contact with the four jade monkeys, they were able to infuse him with a small measure of the mystical monkey power. Only the true heir of the Lotus Blade could have been given such a gift from the statues, and once we learned of it, we were certain that we had found the fortieth heir of the Lotus Blade. And it was Ron Stoppable."
This was a lot for Kim to take in. To find out that your best friend had a hidden destiny that he kept from everyone, that somehow her goofy, blonde haired friend was connected to a seventeen hundred year old prophesy had stunned her into silence. But, even if what Yori was telling her was true, what did it matter? Ron was dead, and so the Lotus Blade would pass to the forty-first heir.
"Yori, you have shown me and told me much that you have kept secret for almost two thousand years. Why share this with me now, when nothing more can be done? Even if Ron was the heir of the Lotus Blade, he still has no future now. You should be searching for the next heir."
The Asian girl sighed deeply. "Kim-dono, you are correct. Normally, the master of Yamanuchi would begin the search for the next heir as soon as the death of the last one was confirmed. However, as Ron was the fortieth heir, we do not have the luxury of waiting for the next reincarnation. There is more to the tale of our founder, but unfortunately I cannot relay the rest of it here."
Kim shook her head. She was getting a little tired of getting only bits and pieces of a story that was little more that an entertaining bit of fiction that had been passed from one generation to the next. "Look, why can't you just tell me now? I mean, where do we have to go for the next chapter in this story?"
Yori smiled, hoping that if Kim had been patient enough to listen so far, that maybe she would be willing to take the next step of the journey. "To continue the story, we must head to Japan, to the school at Mount Yamanuchi."
***
Author's Notes: I hope everyone enjoyed the first piece of the legend. Next up, Toshimu is introduced to his lover and his mortal enemy. And Kim begins to discover that there may be more to the story then just fiction. Until then, enjoy chapter two.