A/N: Again, thank you all so much for my reviews! I hope you will be very happy with this next chapter (and for RunnerNDA when you come back), and though it is short, it is very important. I feel this story drawing to a close now, with only a few ends to tie up after this chapter. Thank you again, my faithful reviewers.

"Something isn't right," Kimi confided to Hatsumomo one morning while they were stretching.

"And what is not right?" Hatsumomo asked.

"I can't seem to find a sword that I really like. Some are all right, but they just don't feel natural. Maybe I'm just being too stubborn. You're a great warrior, right?"

The corners of Hatsumomo's eyes crinkled into a smile. "Some believe so."

Kimi blushed. "Of course you are. You're one of the best. So my question is, does it really matter what kind of sword it is? Or should a great warrior just be able to pick up and fight wonderfully with any weapon?"

"Weapons do matter," Mistress Falcon said seriously as she switched arms and pulled it across her chest.

"That's what I thought," the frown creased her forehead slightly. "Or maybe it's my problem. It's only been our third week of learning it. I guess I'm not used to it."

Hatsumomo nodded to Kimi that they were finished stretching. She studied the girl thoughtfully. "We will try something different today," she said finally. Hatsumomo turned and left. "Stay here!" she ordered and continued back to the palace.

Knowing better than to be caught sitting idle when Mistress Falcon returned, Kimi dropped and began doing pushups. She managed to do forty-five when the Shang Falcon entered the practice courts with two swords in her hands. "Get up," she ordered. "How many did you do?" Kimi told her. "Better. Much better. I am very proud of your achievement, Kimi."

Kimi blushed from the compliment. They were rare.

"What are those?"

"These," Hatsumomo said as she drew the sword from its sheath, "are tsurugi swords, Yamani swords." Kimi took a long look at it. The hilt was rounded and long, and the blade was curved. It was a Yamani's nobleman's sword, and each family owned one and cherished it as their family heirloom. She tossed the other sword to Kimi. "I want to try this today for a different kind of practice," she explained.

Kimi unsheathed the blade and admired it. It was lighter than a Tortallan blade, but only slightly.

"Now, we fight." They each got into their ready stance and the duel began. As Kimi blocked and struck Hatsumomo's blade, she couldn't help but notice the comfort she felt holding and using the sword. It felt right. The feeling evaporated after a few minutes of fighting when her teacher knocked it out her hand and placed her own sword at Kimi's throat.

"Page Kimiko of Queenscove," Hatsumomo said slowly and she lowered her weapon. "You are a natural."

"Oh, no," Kimi said. She sunk to her knees and put her face in her hands.

"What is wrong, are you hurt?" Hatsumomo demanded.

"No!" Kimi cried. "I can't be, I just can't!"

"Can't be hurt?" Shaking her head, Kimi felt panic rising within her. "Can't be a natural with the tsurugi sword?" Kimi nodded. "Of course you are. I said so. I do not waste words if they are not true. You are not accusing me of lying, are you?"

"No, no, I just…" Kimi took a deep breath and got to her feet. She walked over to the fallen sword and knelt before it. It felt good in my hand, she remembered. Like none of the Tortallan blades did. She picked it up and held it.

"I can't," she murmured. Could she?

Flickering across her mind's eyes, she remembered her first kimono as a child and her mother, eyes crinkling with laughter with Kimi's giggle, helping her dress up in the beautiful outfit. She could hear Frantisek's coarse words whispering throughout the happy memory, and on through the next. Princess Shinkokami and her mother were teaching her and one of the princesses how to wield the glaive; then the next image showed Neal finally allowing his daughter to be a knight and the joy she felt. "Half-breed slut," echoed over and over in her mind and she dropped the sword to cover her ears. Kimi was refusing to wear the kimono; Kimi was refusing to speak Yamani; the shrill and sharp sound of glass shattering and a large piece of a waving cat's face staring at her with accusing eyes. Hatsumomo's words, "Knight is your title, Yamani is who you are. Tortallan is who you are. Do not forget who you are." The ground covered in shimmering glass and china, and dark red blood dripping from where a shard of her Yamani past had cut her.

Kimi slowly opened her eyes. She did not know how long she had been sitting there unmoving. She looked down at the beautifully simple Yamani sword; the sword of her people. Her people, and of which had felt so right in her hand.

Something clicked into place, something that should have clicked long ago. "This is who I am." She turned and looked at Hatsumomo. "This is who I am!"

"And this would be?" Hatsumomo asked with a still face.

"Yamani!" Kimi gasped. "How could I be so stupid? This is who I am! I cannot be a great knight without this!" She raised the tsurugi sword. "Without me! Without my Yamani side! I realize that now. Without all your help and Yamani training I wouldn't have gotten this far. And I cannot be a knight without this. This is what it takes for me to be a knight. This is who I am." Kimi paused. She couldn't see to describe it well; words had finally failed to come to her aid. But her emotions rang true: she felt whole like she had never felt before. She understood her future, she understood her past, and her present was aligning into place. She was complete.

"Good. You have remembered. Get your glaive. We must do pattern dances." Kimi got her glaive and performed in a daze. Hatsumomo's reaction to Kimi's revelation startled her, but suddenly she understood that Hatsumomo knew she would accept her Yamani heritage again. She knew.

"How did you know?" Kimi asked when the last stroke of her dance was complete.

"That that second to last stroke was too high? Because you almost cut the rising sun with it, that's how."

"No, no, that I would accept my Yamani heritage again."

"Oh, that," Hatsumomo said dismissively. "Have you not been paying attention these last few weeks? You already had. Your mind just did not know it."

"Oh." Kimi was confused, but she decided to leave it at that. She began trotting up the hill, but then whipped around and looked back.

"Mistress Falcon?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you. For everything."

Hatsumomo inclined her head toward Kimi, but Kimi saw the flicker of emotion. "You're welcome, Kimi."