The next morning, Motoko awoke in her room wondering about just what happened last night. She had begun to think it was only a dream, but as she began to look around her room, she found a letter sitting next to her from Kiba.
The letter simply read, 'This will be our little secret :-).'
Motoko smiled as she sat the letter back down next to her. She soon got up and began getting ready for the new day. All of a sudden, she realized she and Kiba were supposed to be sparring today! She rushed outside to their usual spot and found Kiba there waiting.
"Sorry," she apologized, "I over slept this morning."
"Is that supposed to be your excuse?" he retorted coldly.
Suddenly, Kiba began to lunge for her with his Kwan Dao. The swift attack took her by surprise, but she quickly regained her composure and was able to block his onslaught of jabs and swipes. Despite her excellent blocking, she would always get pushed back by his superior strength and reach. She soon found herself backed into a tree where she narrowly dodged one of his Kwan Dao's jabs. The blade sunk deep into the tree, and Motoko saw the opening. However, before she could ever launch an attack, Kiba delivered a solid kick below her jaw. Motoko was flung backward like a rag doll for a few yards before jumping up and regaining her stance. She looked back to where Kiba had dug his weapon into the tree and found him crouched on the long pole arm with a cocky smile on his face. A similar smile began to spread across Motoko's face. It was now time for her to take on the offensive. She brought her sword down to her side and began a dead sprint toward Kiba. She had gone over it many times in her head. She would beat him in one swift slash. Just as she came close enough to hit Kiba, he jumped high into the air barely dodging her first slash. Nevertheless, she had become far quicker than she had used to be and lunged into the air after him. He was finally unarmed and helpless in the air. Now was her chance! Her heart raced as she readied her sword to finally defeat Kiba. As she began to swing, she could see Kiba's face. He still had the same cocky look he had had before. Instantly, he disappeared into thin air and her sword met with nothing. Where had he gone and how?
"Nice try!" he shouted behind her.
She began to try and turn within the air to strike back at him, but it was far too late. He placed his palm flat into the middle of her chest and poured chi deep into her body. Motoko could feel her body plummeting back down. It was far too late for her to regain herself and land on her feet. A fall from this height at this speed would surely kill her. Is this what he had been planning all along: to kill her in order to hide his secret? Finally, she hit the ground, but it wasn't the hard, brutal landing she had expected. It was soft and comfortable. She opened her eyes and found that Kiba had caught her.
"You weren't scared were you?" he said smiling.
SMACK!
Motoko slapped Kiba clear across the yard.
"You idiot!" she screamed at him, "You could have killed me with that stunt!"
Kiba picked himself up off the ground and swept himself off. With the exception of the still smoldering handprint on the side of his face he seemed unharmed.
"Well you were late this morning, so I thought I'd give you a bit of a scare to punish you," he countered.
"You didn't have to threaten my life!" she said angrily.
She was quite angry at Kiba for what he had done, but as she went over the events of what had happened, her mind began to wonder about something else.
"Hey!" she yelled out, "How did you move so fast in the air earlier? No amount of speed training could make you that fast in the air."
Kiba had already started walking toward Motoko and was only a foot or two in front of her now. He raised his finger and pointed at her forehead.
"Chi control," he answered.
As he answered, Motoko could feel a warm, invisible finger gently push against her forehead.
"Normally, chi is used to bring force into a blow, or even in some cases to pull a weapon toward the person who needs it. However, it is possible to exert it through other parts of the body and bring about a push force without the person ever even supplying the push. When I was in the air, I forced my chi through the side of my body to move myself behind you. However, using a move like that requires a large amount of chi because it's against the flow of your body."
As Kiba explained, he began to brush the invisible finger against Motoko's forehead who seemed to be enjoying it.
"Do you think you could teach me how to control mine that well?" she asked.
"Well it's really not as easy as I may make it sound, but with enough training you may be able to do some of the things I can do," he replied.
"Hey, Motoko!" yelled out Shinobu as she ran out to meet Motoko and Kiba. "Motoko, you got a letter in the mail."
"Thanks Shinobu," said Motoko as she took the letter from Shinobu.
Motoko turned the letter around to see who it was from and began to freak out…………..
To be continued…………..in pt.9
