Title: White Reflections

Author: Sephira jo and Cap'n Dampel (contact: )

Series: Soul Calibur

Pairing: Hwang/Mina

Rating: R

Disclaimer: We Don't own, well, other than the our own little copies of the game, the franchise belongs to Namco.

Archive: with permission only.

Author's Note: Sorry it took so long to update, but Cap'n Dampel moved, and I've been workin' my butt off, hopefully it will be a quicker fix from here on out, but we can't promise anything.

Chapter Five

Mina awoke well rested in the room of a Chinese inn. She stretched, naked skin glowing in the day light that filtered through the screen. She was glad of many things, the beating of Ivy, the acquiring of three small shards. And this morning, her favorite outfit would be fixed and back in service. No more of the frumpy green and white thing.

She rolled out of the futon and dressed quickly, tying the green sash with ease. She pulled the screen open, revealing the morning light. She didn't speak, it seemed childish to cloud the day with such nonsense as 'hello morning!' or 'what a beautiful day!'. But she couldn't deny she has slept better the previous night than she had since she had started this journey. Since before she had thought Hwang dead.

He's alive! She thought jubilantly for the millionth time since finding out. She turned away from the window and braided her hair, keeping herself from giggling. Barely. Like a woman awakened, she went about her morning business, ate, paid and left the end. The first stop, the tailor's.

Mina entered the small shop and made her way to the old Chinese woman who sat hunched over a pile of silk and other fabrics. "Morning," Mina greeted, in easy mandarin. The older woman looked up, slightly annoyed. She squinted already wrinkled eyes at Mina.

"What do ya want," She asked, rudely. Mina almost couldn't understand her.

"Um, I dropped off some clothes yesterday," Mina explained, "The red silk top and split skirt?" Mina pointed out quickly.

The old woman glared at her for a moment, as if she might be lying then nodded shortly. She reached into a basket and pulled out two pieces of clothing and handed them to Mina. Mina smiled, then she noticed something, "Um, wasn't my top a lot bigger?"

"There wasn't enough silk to fix it, you have a problem with that?" The woman said, holding out her palm as if expecting something, "That will be five yuan, please."

"I already paid you!" Mina pointed out, holding the next to nothing top between her hands, half mortified and half glad that Daddy wasn't here to see it, he would throw a fit, she stretched out the fabric, there was less than half of it left, "Besides, this isn't repair, it's butchery! There aren't even any buttons, how am I supposed to wear this?"

"Tie it in the front?" The tailor suggested dryly, "How isn't my problem, and you didn't cover the extra silk I used."

"What extra silk!?" The woman looked irked, "If you want any more, please add a clasp in the front," Mina demanded dryly. Tossing the top back to the tailor who looked pleased and nodded.

Fifteen minutes and five yuan later, Mina had a somewhat wearable top. Trying to find the bright side, she conceded that the hot weather of the upcoming summer would be a lot more bearable.

She changed behind a screen provided, poking at the new top. Yes, it was most definitely a good thing that Daddy wasn't here to see this, he'd have an aneurism. The top only covered enough to be considered decent, without the clasp, she would've had to resort to tying it. Her entire stomach was bared, as well as the upper curves of her chest. She sighed slightly. Well, I'm not wearing the other one, and it's not like Daddy's here. And if I run into Hwang again... I don't mind him seeing me like this... She blushed wildy and feeling extremely under covered, left the tailor.

The rest of the day was eventful only in the way of information gathered. Rumor had it, Yun Sung has totally destroyed a bandit group near Bordertown. How much of the rumors were true, Mina had no idea, but it was a better place to start than none. Not the town itself, but making that quick jump to the west would allow her to pick up his trail once again.

Information on the blade itself, told Mina that he would be traveling in the direction of Europe, was he still in search of it. Which knowing Yun Sung and his thickheadedness, he still would be. Rumors pointed towards a country called Greece. The farthest Mina had ever made it was a place called Germany. Maybe, I'll make it all the way this time. Wouldn't it serve the little bastard right, to get there and have me standing there with the sword already. Mina smirked at the image.

The information made for a good day, the other thing was interesting in itself, Mina wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She was younger than Mina, of that she was sure. And Chinese, of that Mina was also sure. She was about her height and dressed vividly, like a member of a preforming troupe.

I wonder what she wants, I guess I'll find out if she follows me out of town, Mina thought. As she paid for the care of Kung and left the gates of town, she knew the girl wasn't far behind. Mina was hardly irked by this, after days of being stalked by Hwang in a darker form, it seemed nothing to be followed by a Chinese girl, who was almost definitely her junior in years.

Mina made a big show of looking like she had no idea she was being followed, it surprised her that it was easy to do. She traveled until nightfall then set up camp. She made herself a tempting target, though she was never more than a couple inches from Scarlet Thunder. When she made the pretense of bedding down for the night, her weapon was still a hand's grasp away.

She didn't have to wait long, the soft padding of footsteps entered the camp. When the younger woman stood over her, Mina opened her eyes and leveled her weapon at her, to be greeted by a shining Chinese sword a spilt second later.

"Hello," Mina said in Mandarin.

"Hi there," The other woman answered back in perfect Korean.

"May I ask, what you want?" Mina said, sticking to Chinese.

"You may," Korean, "but I might not answer."

"Okay then," Chinese.

"Alright then," Korean.

"What do you want?" Mina asked again, still speaking Chinese.

"To see if what you have is what I want," The woman answered, still speaking perfect Korean.

"Oh, and how do you plan on that?" Mina asked, carrying on as previous.

"Well, I was just going to take it from you, but since you woke up we'll have to do this the old fashioned way," the woman responded, likewise.

"It seems so," Mina said simply, "If you'll move then, we can get this started and over with. Then I can go back to bed, and you can run along home."

The other woman made a tuting noise, "I don't think that will be how it plays out," but she did back off, "You'll be sleeping alright, but it won't be a sleep you chose on your own."

Mina stood up and grinned, holding Scarlet Thunder in a fighting pose, "We'll see about that, won't we?"

"If you think you can keep up," she grinned, Mina grinned back. There were about to speak a language both could understand without words.

The younger girl lunged. Mina dodged easily. "Not bad, for an old woman," The girl taunted, using Korean still.

"For a child, you handle that stick well," Mina returned, unfazed. The child students of her father called her the ogress. Old and fire breathing. Age taunts no longer affected her.

"Why thank you," She lunged again, her style so fast that Mina had to turn quickly to side step the lunge. The woman was aiming at the pouch that rested on her sash.

"Oh, don't mention it," Mina lunged in return, and they're blades met with a clang and flash of silver. Metal singing in the moonlight. Both smiled.

"Don't worry, I'll never tell anyone how badly I'm going to beat you," she said in a sing song voice.

"Because you won't," Mina returned just as evenly. They kept up the dancing, swinging, jumping, slicing, missing, taunting. After about fifteen minutes both were breathing heavy, "How long to you plan on keeping this up?"

"Good question, until I win?" She returned, but sounded winded herself, "you're good, a lot better than most people I've fought."

"I try," Mina put down her weapon, and the girl did the same, "You're very good too."

She snorted, "I'd better be," she sat back on the ground with a thud panting, Mina did the same, "Or those years of training were all wasted."

"Who are you?" Mina asked again.

"Chai Xianghua, circus acrobat," She said playfully, "You?"

"Liar," Mina returned easily, "acrobats don't fight like that." She sat down too, using Scarlet Thunder as leverage, "I'm Seung Mina, of the Seung dojo, and I want to know why you wanted these," She said, smiling, holding up the pouch from her belt.

Xianghua pouted, "You're right, it's a lie. I'm actually from the Imperial Guard. And I want to see if it's true, if I think you have actually exsits..."

"The first story was more believable," Mina said, ignoring the second statement for now.

"I know, really I do, which is why I use it." Xianghua replied, an easy candor to her speech. It was then Mina realized they both were speaking their own natives. When they had changed off, she didn't know. Still breathing heavily she decided it didn't matter a bit. Xianghua shook her head slightly, "So, may I see them?"

"See what?"

Xianghua smiled, and in the moonlight she looked absolutely wicked, "The shards," she leaned forward, "I want to make sure I'm not chasing a rumor. You have some don't you, you took them from the foreign woman. Soul. Edge. Shards." She accented each word and leaned forward a bit.

"Yes, I do. But I need them, and I'm not giving them to you or anyone for any reason."

"Oh, I never wanted to keep them in the first place," Xianghua explained easily, waving off the statement with her hand, "I just wanted to make sure. I was going to lift them from the white haired woman, but you kinda beat me to it."

Mina shrugged, "Winners luck," she said, smiling, and took out the three shards and held them in her hand, they burned, she showed them to Xianghua for a second then put them back in the pouch and put the pouch back in it's place.

Xianghua pressed her lips together as if thinking, "Well, damnit, I thought I destroyed all of it. This certainly blows."

"Excuse me?" Mina asked, suddenly both confused and intrigued. Xianghua shook her head quick, holding up her hands defensively.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Why do you need to keep those by the way, they aren't exactly user friendly," She noted.

Mina smiled sadly, "To help a friend."

Xianghua leaned forward her look knowing, "A friend? Or something more?"

Mina blushed and looked away and thought of Hwang. She smiled softly, her thoughts were no longer sad, no longer doubtful, she would save him. "Yeah, kind of," she muttered.

Xianghua sighed, "We're in the same boat then," Mina looked up to see the other woman staring at the sky. The sword now resting on the ground, her look was wistful, "I haven't seen him for...well a long time, he left without a word, to 'cleanse the evil in his soul'. What he doesn't understand is there isn't any. Well, he thinks there is... and I guess that makes the difference, he chases demons that only he can see. Leaving me here." Xianghua sighed.

Mina smiled, "We're in the same boat," she echoed, and smiled, remembering, "Mine... he avoided me for years, like he was afraid of me, even turned down my father's offer of marriage. Then one night, he announces that he's leaving for the army a second time. I thought... until just recently, that he had died. But he's alive, just...sick." Mina looked up with a gaze of steel, "Which is why I can't let you have the shards, I can't explain it, but I need them to make sure he finds me so I can get him back."

Xianghua smiled, "I understand, I think, if I carried some, he wouldn't come within an arms reach of me. He'd be terrified," She smiled wide, "So I'll let you keep them, can't find Kilik to have him run away again. Kind of counterproductive, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do," Mina smiled back. They sat in silence for a moment.

"You don't mind sharing camp for the night, do you?" Xianghua spoke up, "You wore me out, we can go our separate ways in the morning."

"I don't mind at all. If I find my pouch gone..." Mina threatened, half jokingly.

"You won't, Guard's honor."

"Hope you have your own bedroll."

"I'm covered." Xianghua said, and moved to the trees to come back with a traveling pack. Mina nodded.

"Well then, bed time it is." Mina pushed her self back up and wandered back to the dying fire, flopping over in the bed roll exhausted. She saw Xianghua do the same on the opposite side of the fire. She was more tired than she thought, as the image blurred quickly, fading into the shadowed world that was sleep.

Mina looked around, the first thing she noticed was the setting was odd. Underground, it seemed on a platform that rose from nothing. Her dress was strange as well. Heavy and white, not normal. It struck her a moment later that the dress was like those she had seen women wear in Europan towns. Only white, an ill-omened white, like that of a corpse. A man, clothed in black robes with eyes of fire stood stoically in front of a strange table, on which rested a white cloth, candles and a sword that wasn't a sword. It looked like a pulsing piece of a human body.

Mina shuttered and looked down at the ground. Something shining on the palms of her hands caught her attention. She lifted up her hands to look at them, not sure if it was real. Imbedded in the center of each hand was a blood red shard. The light caught them, and they shone like ruby or bloodstone. Mina was entranced. So beautiful, she thought absently, like she was looking at something that adorned a god. A sudden sharp pain over her heart caused a hand to go to her breast on reflex, a small sliver shaped bump could be felt there as well.

She glanced down and saw it peaking over the low collar line the dress presented, she poked at it curiously watching it waver in the light. Footsteps moved toward her and Mina reflexively moved back and looked up. She stopped in mid step.

Hwang stood before her, dressed only in loose fitting pants, the kind he was wearing when he last saw her. The rest of him bared to the world, bronze flesh catching on the light of the fire. She caught her breath as she stared at him. On him two, in two places she could see, were the blooded ruby shards, over his chest and in his wrist. He moved and stood in front of her, smiling down upon her. He seemed happy, normal, and Mina rejoiced, taking his hand and for a reason she couldn't define kissed the shard embedded in it, a slight burn grazing her lips as she did so.

The man in the black robes with fire eyes spoke, "Seung Mina, will you take Hwang Sung Kyung to husband according to the rite of our holy mother?"

Mina not knowing what to say simply nodded.

The fire eyed man repeated the same thing to Hwang, who responded simply with, "I will." Hwang gazed on Mina and smiled like she hadn't seen him do since before he left the dojo, "'Till death do us part, Little Mina," He brushed a hand across her face.

The man with the fire eyes seemed overjoyed by this and said in a voice so even and steady it seemed unnatural to Mina, "That which the shards have joined may no man rend asunder."

At that moment Mina's world exploded in a red haze of pain. Her hands were bleeding, the beautiful stones in them were no longer so. They were twisted, strange. Her breast was bleeding also, so much blood. It was then she registered that Hwang had also made a noise somewhat like a strangled scream. Mina looked up, blood was running down his chest, running down his neck and flowing down his wrist. He held his weight on one knee, his expression pained.

Mina managed to move slowly over to him, the man with the fire eyes was laughing, blood stained the living sword on the alter. "Hwang..."

Assassin awoke from fitful sleep to find himself within the subterranean ruins once more. He stood up from the dusty floor, angry that the shards had somehow guided him here while he slept. As he came to his feet, however, he noticed that something was fundamentally different about the place. An altar on a raised dais rose from the center of the ancient chamber. Blood coated the floor in violent splashes, too fresh to have been spilled in his battle here. Also, he was not alone within the transformed ruins.

Ghosts filled the chamber, their insubstantial forms pressed close together to make a tight ring around the dais. He turned slowly, tracing the ring with his eyes, and suddenly found himself within their circle. Their cold, ethereal bodies brushed against him and they moaned softly. Then one of them stepped inside the circle to join him, its form becoming more concrete as it approached him.

She wore a long, white dress. Lace draped her entire body. Even her hands were covered with white, lace gloves and a thick lace veil covered her face.

"Hwang," she called, and he recognized her at once. Mina had come to him. The chase was over at last. She held out her gloved hands to him and he saw that a piercing wound marred each palm. Another open wound gaped across her left breast. Had he done this to her? He pulled her close, bringing her veiled face just inches from his. The pursuit was over and he would finish what he started.

He tore off her veil and bit into the soft flesh of her lips. His Mina, all his. He tasted the coppery flavor of blood and she began to struggle. He growled and pushed her against the altar. The wounds in his neck, chest and arm reopened and his blood intermingled with hers, staining the white cloth as he devoured her.

All the while, some hideous shape atop the stained altar cloth pulsed; a man with flames in his eyes laughed; the ghosts moaned in disharmonic delight.

Assassin awoke, the laughter still echoing in his ears as the dream faded away. He clenched his fist in fury. So it had been a dream and nothing more. The veins in his arm rose to the surface, tightened with tension. The wound on his arm split open, dribbling blood onto the hard dirt ground and staining it black. He yelled in pain and rage and scrambled up to his hands and knees.

Assassin did not know for how long he had chased the scent of his prey. She seemed to grow more distant each day, progressing with a speed that even his shard-enhanced body could not match on foot. Then there were the dreams. Last night's was not the first one, but it was the most vivid. They had come in increasing clarity each night, even as his prey drifted further away.

She's doing this, he told himself. She's sending me the dreams in order to taunt me.

It was the only cohesive thought he had that day. As soon as he had packed up his tiny camp he transformed into a beast, an animal with a single mission in mind. And he did not waver from it until the scent of his prey's trail became so mingled with other smells and paths that he drew back.

Once more he wore the mind of a human. He had come to a large city. He spat in distaste at the throngs of people who moved in and out of the city along a wide thoroughfare. They moved as if possessed of one mind, a herd of cattle with listless eyes, some pulling carts like the beasts of burden they resembled. His prey was a wily fox, and he would not find her among these people. He loped through the shadows, trying to make sense of the myriads of crisscrossing trails of tracks and scent. He clutched at his bleeding arm.

Shards, guide me!

They were silent. He had broken free of their enchantment, tore away from their whispering half-life. No longer could they guide him to their purposes. The entity of the shards, if one truly existed, could only hope that Assassin would overcome others who possessed the metal fragments or be devoured himself by such a creature.

He closed his eyes and for a moment saw a line of footprints, dark and clearly impressed into the hard ground as if they had been formed in the softest black loam. Before the image faded away, Assassin was already bounding after them. They led out from the city, and he was relieved that he would not have to search among crowded streets and throngs of people for the one he desired.

Several miles later, he realized that another scent was following Mina's. The two had mingled for too long to be a coincidence. Another person was hunting her. Assassin growled in fury. Mina was his to hunt, and his alone. The other would come to understand this in a very unpleasant way. He chased after the commingling scents until well past dark, eager to catch up with his competition.

He came upon an abandoned campsite when the sky was beginning to lighten to a wintry blue. Here, the two scents separated. He loped about the old campsite anxiously, puzzling out what had taken place. There was evidence of a struggle, but both combatants had escaped from each other unharmed. He shook his head. It did not really matter what had occurred to the other. It was Mina he sought. Her scent was at least a day old; he appeared to be no closer to catching up with her. But he could not continue the pursuit anymore today. His body was spent and he needed to rest. He collapsed upon the worn ground of the campsite, inhaling the scent of his prey. As he lied down to rest, he imagined that he could feel the warmth of her body….

Assassin awoke a few moments before dawn, his instincts raising his body to alertness. His first thought was that his competition had returned to its old campsite, and he immediately chided himself for staying here. His second thought was to prepare for an attack. He leaped to his feet, Blue Storm glinting a dull blue color in the early morning light. He acted not a moment too soon.

The creature abandoned its attempt at a stealthy attack, its prey now fully aware of its presence. It leaped out of the sheltering trees, a graceful cat-like motion that defied its enormous bulk, and lunged toward Assassin. Assassin reacted in time to avoid the attack, but was stunned when his counterattack glanced harmlessly off the round shield that the huge lizard-like creature carried. Was his opponent man or beast? The lizard man took full opportunity of Assassin's confusion, slashing at him with two deadly, quick motions of his short sword. The first one made contact, opening a wound across the man's bare torso.

Assassin stumbled back, clumsily blocking the second blow. The lizard man was not only armed, but also moved at a lightning quick speed that even Assassin could barely match. And barely masking the stench of wet, leathery skin was the odor of the shards.

Delighted by this discovery, Assassin launched into the battle with renewed energy. Although both combatants were armed with bladed weapons, the fight took on the feeling of two enraged beasts locked in a battle for territory. They taunted each other with snarls and growls. Their lithe, muscular bodies glimmered with sweat in the faint, rosy light of dawn and threw violent shadows across the sheltered campsite. They relied on their claws and teeth as much as they did their weapons of steel. And when it was over, one stood victor while the other lay prone in the blood-soaked earth.

Assassin let out a scream of triumph. Then, while the body of the lizard man was still warm, he searched it for the precious black shards. He felt them pulse in the thick, leathery tail of the man-beast. With a final blow of Blue Storm, he severed the giant tail and extracted the dark metal shard. He held it up to briefly examine it in the weak morning light, then plunged it into the fresh wound that gaped across his lower torso. The blood that seeped from the wound immediately curdled and dried up. The new shard pulsed to life, reacting with the others embedded inside his body. Assassin wiped off this blade, cast one last glance at his handiwork, and embarked out into the new day on his continuing search for his betrayer, his fiend, his Mina.

Mina blinked in the afternoon light, smiled to herself, and blinked again. It had been a day and half since she and Xianghua parted company, each wishing the other luck in their endeavors. Both hoped the other would find the love she was so desperately seeking.

"How anyone could think that the Patriot Sword could save people?" Mina wondered aloud, fingering the three shards through the burlap of the bag she held them in; even through the fabric they burned, "All it does is tear people apart. I was right the last time—this sword is evil. I just wished Hwang would've listened to me, then we wouldn't be in this damned mess."

Her little rant to herself finished, Mina scanned the ground again. Hopefully, she was on the right trail. But it was odd. She knew Yun Sung had a horse and a bear, and there was evidence of both, but another set of human footprints, too small to be a man's, was also mixed with the rest.

Mina laughed a little, "Don't tell me, Mr. Pure 'I fight you' Yung Sung has found a girlfriend! I don't believe it! If this wasn't near where he was last seen, I'd think it was a joke." Mina scanned the trail after she regained her composure. She had been moving very quickly the past couple days—she couldn't be any more than a week, maybe a week and a half behind them. She'd know for sure when she caught up.

Let's see, Yun Sung's tracking the Soul Edge (I wonder if he knows that it's broken), I'm tracking Yun Sung, and Hwang's tracking me. My, what a party we have. It will be very interesting when we all get together, Mina thought as she mounted Kung. She spurred him off in the direction of the tracks. She felt like laughing. This whole situation was perfect for her. She was hot on the thief's trail and she had Hwang on a leash, as she often wished she did when he left the first time.

A pull here, A yank there, and the set-up will be ready. I'll get Hwang back and White Storm back, and Yun Sung will carry all my luggage all the way home. And to make him suffer even more, I'm going to go on a shopping spree in the first town I hit after this. Mina snickered, the air in her face, as she rode toward her quarry. Let Yun Sung do all the hard work, and he gets close enough to touch the sword, I will swoop in. It will only take a couple months to travel the path to Greece, if he got correct information.

She rode off into the distance, her mind thoughts drifting to Hwang. Lately, she had been having vivid and strangely beautiful dreams of him. She hoped that they'd stop being dreams soon. She missed him. Desperately.

"Sir Hong!" called Ling Mei. Yun Sung stared straight ahead, blushing furiously at the nickname she had adopted for him, refusing to acknowledge the embarrassing title. Ever since the night three days past, when he had camped inappropriately close to his worldly companion, Yun Sung had tried to place a bit of distance between the girl and himself. He restricted himself from looking into her eyes or brushing against her. He even tried not to touch her while they both shared the saddle, but that was not quite possible. He attempted to be the perfect gentleman that he was raised to be. Ling, however, thought he was playing some kind of game.

"Sir Hong!" she called again. Yun Sung sighed. It was rude to ignore her but, whenever he spoke with her, she always made a fool of him. She had decided to act the part of a damsel in distress and cast him in the role of her chivalrous protector. He sighed again, then finally paused and turned to face her.

"What?" he asked impatiently.

"We're being followed," she said simply.

"What?" he repeated. He knew Mina would be on his trail, but she could not have caught up with him this quickly.

"We are being followed!" she said again, more slowly this time.

Yun Sung glanced back across their trail. "How do you know?"

Ling sighed impatiently. "I know these things. It's a sense I developed while traveling with Yoshimitsu's band of thieves." Yun Sung did not reply for a moment; he debated telling her that Mina had most likely pursued him since the beginning of his journey.

"Someone is…" he began. No, he did not want to bring up the subject of Mina with Ling. The ex-thief would taunt him endlessly and he would never hear the end of it.

"Yes?" Ling prompted.

"I mean, you're probably right. You know these things," he muttered.

"Well?" she said, not placated by his response. Well? What else did she want? Yun Sung felt a bead of sweat trickle down the back of his neck. If Mina had indeed tracked him this far, he had no chance of evading her now. She was by far the superior tracker.

"We have to push on," he said tersely, nudging Kiri with his heel. The mare snorted and sped up for a few paces before slowing to her usual gait.

"You know who's following us," Ling stated coolly. Yun Sung startled, jerking the reins involuntarily and bringing Kiri to a halt.

"How do you…?"

"I know these things," Ling said calmly.

"Well it… it's not like it matters. If she… no. I'll get to the Patriot Sword, even without White Storm!" he said hotly, digging his heels into Kiri and urging her into a quick trot once more.

"Are you sure?" Ling asked. "That band of our men who died in the mountains—I know you didn't kill them. But someone following quickly on your trail did. I don't think we stand a chance against that person, whoever she is."

Her words drove a stinging fear into Yun Sung's heart. Seung Mina killed those men? No, it wasn't possible.

"She would never kill anyone unless defending her life. And she would never deliver death so cruelly as those men were rumored to have suffered," he argued, before realizing that he had almost given the name of his pursuer away.

"I know that she's important to you. But… I've seen what our quest has done to people. Not everyone can withstand the worldly temptations of the Patriot Sword. Even those who think they would only use it for good… like Yoshimitsu…."

"No! Don't pretend that you could possibly know her heart!" Yun Sung began, deeply angered by Ling's suggestion.

"What choice do I have but to make conjectures when you refuse to share the truth of your situation with me?" Ling demanded angrily. Yun Sung opened his mouth to make a response, but found his voice failing him. I didn't have to take you with me. I never asked for your help, he thought, but he could not make himself speak these words aloud.

He did not speak for a long time, fearing that whatever he said would be worse than silence. The discomfort between the two travelers increased as the rode. Meanwhile, the sky began to darken overhead. Unspoken anger crackled between Han Yun Sung and Ling Mei as the clouds turned from gray to black, and at last burst into a showering downpour. Yun Sung pushed Kimiri on determinedly, glaring angrily at the sky through the wet hair plastered onto his face. Ling gripped onto his wet clothing, her fingers clenched and shaking in anger.

No, she's shaking with cold, he realized some miles later. Anger roiled inside him—anger at himself for being so bull-headed. He steered Kimiri toward a large, rocky outcropping that proved spacious enough to provide a dry shelter. Ling glowered at him as he helped her dismount, but he thought he detected relief behind those angry, dark eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said as he sank down against the far wall of the shallow cave.

"Don't look at me," she replied. Her words stung, but he held back any response and looked away from her miserable, drenched form. He watched Kmiri snuffled the ground within the shelter for dry grass. She flicked her tail in frustration, the wet hair lashing Yun Sung across his face in the tight confines of the cave. He muttered to himself and covered his stinging face with his hands.

"Well?" said Ling after long moments had passed.

"Well, what?" he mumbled without looking up.

"Are you going to stay in your wet clothes and catch a cold?" she demanded, not completely unkindly.

"Huh?" He looked up, confused, and saw that the girl had removed her clothing and was wearing the travel blanket as a robe. He blushed in embarrassment. Bear moved over to Ling protectively.

"Oh, honestly. If it weren't for me, you'd be dead three times over before your Mina ever found you. Once in the tavern, once in this rain, and…" she trailed off, noticing that Yun Sung had turned his attention to the sword that hung at his waist. He removed it from the scabbard and stared at its bright white blade.

"She's not after the Patriot Sword. She's after this. If I'd never taken it from the dojo…."

"Oh, put the thing away," she said with a sigh. "It's your business, after all, and you never asked me to get involved."

"But you are involved now, and you have the right to know," he admitted.

"Yes, but not right now. I meant what I said about getting out of your wet clothes." To his surprise, she seemed embarrassed to have to repeat herself. Certainly she had seen the male form before! Ashamed at the thought—so she wasn't pure, but it was hardly her fault—he accepted the blanket she handed him and attempted to transfer into it without revealing any of his skin. They spread out their wet clothes by the entance of the cave and wished ruefully for a fire.

"It's all my fault," he sighed and he slumped down against the far wall of the cave.

"But if I'm correct in my guess, you stole the sword so that you would be able to obtain the Patriot Sword. It is a fine weapon to defend yourself with," said Ling.

"Oh, that. I meant about the lack of a fire. But, once again, you are right in your assumptions. It is sacred to the dojo, said to possess qualities beyond its finness of blade, its sharpness and its balance," he explained, once again removing White Storm from the blade to examine it. "Qualities that a child like me cannot understand. I was a fool to think I could accomplish great good with its stolen power. Now it doesn't seem that it will be in my possession for too much longer."

"You're giving up?" asked Ling. "You're just going to let Mina steal it back and abandon your quest?"

"I did it for her. I just wanted her to see me as a man. I've only succeeded in proving how much of a child I am," he said solemnly, staring at his dim reflection in the white blade. His face was soft, his eyes round and filled with fear.

"Then be a man," Ling asserted. "Return White Storm to her to take back to your dojo. Then continue your quest, this time using only your own resources. And of course, I'll be there to help you. You can still achieve the Patriot Sword for your country."

Yung Sung looked up, and saw in her eyes the sincerity of her words.

"You're right," he said. He lifted White Storm to take one last admiring look of it. He could maintain his dignity if he returned it to Mina, but not if he waited for her to claim it from him. As he contemplated what he must do, he realized that the blade reflected a strange mark on the wall behind him, just behind his right ear. He turned his head, but could not locate it. He glanced again at the blade and touched the strange mark that seemed so clearly reflected.

Suddenly, the wall shifted behind him, moving slightly to reveal a long seam. A doorway.