Akaya hadn't slept well, and she really could have used all of the sleep she could get. Today was supposed to be the toughest day of her life. As she sat up in bed, she felt the throbbing headache take over. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but she could have felt worse. It was nothing compared to some of her headaches caused by her recent training and recent drinking. She stood up slowly while rubbing her temporal. The pain was spreading quickly underneath her forehead, and as she glanced at the wall, she noticed that something was different about her shadow.

It was not the extended shape of her body's frame but rather the shape of Himeka. It was the shape of Akira's former master. Akaya then remembered the occurrences of that past night and came to the realization that it wasn't a dream like she hoped. It was all too real, and she was now the official owner of a shadow demon. She had become more powerful virtually overnight.

Akaya rubbed her eyes as she looked out the window to see that the sun had barely touched the horizon. She heard a few little clatters and crashes in the kitchen. Aircirret was awake. Akaya sighed as she opened the door. With her luck, Shin Ryu would be here already. As she twisted the knob and pushed the door open all the way, she smirked. Shin Ryu was nowhere to be found.

"Good morning, Akaya!" Aircirret sing-songed her voice perfectly. Akaya pictured Aircirret as a morning person, but she no longer had any doubts about it. Aircirret flashed her pearly whites at Akaya and went back to trying to find something in the midst of the kitchen cupboards. Akaya briefly noted that she had wolf fangs on the top row of her teeth.

Aicirret continued, "So, I'm surprised that Shin isn't here yet. I could have sworn he'd be the kind of person that would start training off at the break of dawn." She scratched her head and kept looking, searching cupboard after cupboard.

Akaya covered up her mouth with her hand as she yawned. She felt so light-headed that she thought she might just retire to her bedroom and sleep all day. She smiled at the thought, but she knew that could never be a possibility. Not with Sesoni. Not with Aircirret. Especially not with Shin Ryu. A clash broke her strings of thoughts. "Aircirret, what exactly are you looking for?" Akaya rubbed the back of her neck. It was tense and overloaded. That feeling was not new to her. No ache or pain ever was. "Whatever it is, I'm positive that it won't help you. I really don't have anything to eat in this place. Well, anything that would require any type of pot or pan, anyways."

Aircirret just kept looking. "Ah, Akaya, my uncle stopped by earlier to check up on me and brought us everything we'll need for breakfast." She pulled out a tiny skillet from the back of the last cupboard she had searched. "Here it is! This one will be the perfect size."

Akaya walked into the kitchen and pushed herself up and onto the counter top. It was cold as it hit her bare skin, but it was refreshing. She needed something to wake her up. "Guess I have to thank him the next time we meet then."

There was a knock at the door. The noise made Akaya's senses run wild. The pounding on the door mirrored the pounding vibrations already in her head. She jumped down from the counter and advanced toward the door. She grabbed her windmill shriken that she had leaned against the couch in the living room. She knew never to be careless. You never know who would show up at your doorstep.

She approached the doorknob and opened it. As the door creaked open, no one was there. Akaya knew something was odd and walked outside to survey the area. Suddenly, shriken landed at her feet. On one of them, there was a scroll. A deadly explosion scroll.

"Crap!" Akaya sprinted back inside the house, slamming the door to prevent severe damage to the house by the blow.

The fire rose outside of her front door from the explosion and scorched the front door. Unfortunately for whoever was out there, Akaya loved fire attacks. In fact, it was her specialty. She held a firm grip on her windmill shriken as she flung open the door to stand face to face with Tajek. He looked older and tired, but it was him nonetheless. He looked emotionless at her as he obtained a grip on her shirt collar and pulled her closer to him. "You know, I never really loved you."

He whipped her around and threw her against a tree trunk.

Akaya was in momentary shock. She never thought that their reunion would involve a one-on-one battle. As Tajek came after her at full force, she quickly rolled away and managed to get to her feet. She backed up into an open area near her house. If she was going to have to face him, she might as well have the upper hand. "You didn't? I never would have guessed."

She knew that he wasn't the same and that she had to participate in his mind games in order to buy time and spark a nerve. Verbal confrontations were the easiest way to do both at the same time.

"You wouldn't be able to see that back then. You are stupid and will never understand how I played you." He chuckled as he threw two kunai at her, "Good luck against me, dumb ass."

She smirked. "Fine then." She unleashed her windmill shriken. "Flaming shriken jutsu!"

The shriken lit up as flames covered the edges. The kunai hit the shriken and immediately fell to the ground. She tossed the shriken at him, and she bent down to pick up the kunai. She put one in her hand and one on her hip. It was cold against her skin, and it would probably make her bleed; however, she needed every advantage she could get against him. Even if it were something as simple as a couple of kunai.

Tajek grabbed the windmill shriken effortlessly by an edge and threw it back at Akaya's feet. "You forget that I prefer fire and lava attacks too, don't you? Do you even know me at all, Akaya?"

He stood there, only about a hundred feet away. Did she know him at all? Sure, she knew he was talented in fire attacks, but she could match him. She was sure of it. \

Tajek smirked as he proceeded to do hand signs, "Tradushin."

She knew that technique. He did that before he ever started attacking his foes. It increased his chakra almost instantly. "You really think that that technique scares me, Tajek. Ha, you must not know me at all, as well." She had one chance to get her technique right. Hopefully, her training would help from removing all of her chakra. "That's nothing. I bet you don't remember this."

She threw the kunai in her hand aside, and she focused all of her chakra toward her feet. She brought her hands to the center of her body. She spread out her legs slowly, and as she did so, one of the auras around her feet was red while the other one was blue. She suddenly shot out her arms as far as they could reach. Both auras twisted around her arms, each on their respective sides. Akaya smirked. "Ying-Yang Dragon Blaster jutsu."

She moved her hands slowly up into the air. As she did so, the auras twisted into each other and formed into the figure of a dragon. Normally, before her training that she did after Tajek's disappearance, Akaya would have struck Tajek with the blast or had started out with its protective barrier to build up the dragon's power, but she figured out another way to use this technique. "I bet you have no clue what I'm capable of."

The dragon became tangible. It flew between Tajek and Akaya, preventing Tajek from making a drastic attack against her. Tajek sighed as the Tradushin unleashed as much chakra as he was going to get. "Neither do you, Akaya."

Tajek went after the dragon, but the dragon flung its tail at him and wrapped Tajek into itself. Akaya walked up to both of them. "Tajek, why are you doing this?"

She was pleading to him to have some reasonable explanation. She knew there wasn't one, but she wasn't ready to kill Tajek yet. She doubted she ever could get to that place.

Tajek smirked. "Because I hate you."

At that moment, Tajek kicked at the dragon, and the dragon's power exploded into a huge burst of fire and ice. It hit both Tajek and Akaya. Akaya slid into the house while Tajek hit the ground, only meters away from the massive explosion.

Akaya tried to stand up but realized she was hopeless. She had a sufficient amount of chakra, but her ankle shot pain up her leg. She thought she had broken it, and she was sure that Tajek had won this battle. She sat up, ready to face her end. She saw him approaching and looked into his eyes. They were a dark purple.

His actual eye color was a light blue. She knew that color by heart. The person that stood before wasn't Tajek.

"You're truly pathetic, Akaya. I hate every detail about you."

She couldn't look him in the eyes, so she looked at the ground, at his feet. At his shadow.

She smirked. Akira was there, waiting to be called on. The element of surprise was the best element anyone could have, and seeing that she obtained Akira last night, no one knew of their bond. Tajek was right above her, his shadow swam over her. "Now Akira!"

The demon pulled Tajek back off away from Akaya, and she took the form of a snake, wrapping itself around Tajek. Akaya knew Akira would come in handy. She just was lucky to remember her. Akaya slowly lifted herself off of the ground. The pain was more manageable than she thought it would be. She walked toward Tajek and charged chakra into her left index finger. As she passed Tajek's left shoulder, she whispered into his ear. "You have no idea what I'm capable of, Shin. Penetrating touch jutsu."

She slammed her finger into Tajek's throat, and there was a poof of smoke. The next thing Akaya saw was a log at her feet.

Someone started clapping behind her. Akaya twisted around to see Shin leaned up against a tree. She took a second to look at him. He was definitely a demon: long silver hair that flowed down his back, long nails that could cut someone if they ever came in contact with them, and a tall overbearing body that could make a grown mortal whimper. But there was something that separated him from how Sesoni looked. Although they looked very similar, Shin stood wider than Sesoni, who looked nimble and almost lanky. Shin Ryu was extremely muscular, and Akaya knew that helped when trying to intimidate someone. However, she wasn't going to be easily intimidated.

"You are better than I thought. I guess you pass your first lesson. Opponents will use anything against you in a battle. Whether it is on an unfair fighting ground or disguising themselves as someone you would never want to face. That's why paying attention to details can save you in the midst of a battle." Shin sternly said, "I made my clone look exactly like Tajek, except for his eyes. That was no accidental mistake, Akaya."

Akaya felt a nudge down at her hand. It was Akira. Akira had turned back into her favorite form of a dog. Akaya scratched behind her ear as a reward. Shin continued, "I guess you were the one with the element of surprise this time." He chuckled as he turned to head inside,"That'll be all for today. Let's go inside."

Akaya nodded, and they walked casually inside, Akira a few steps behind Akaya.

Aircirret sat at the table, expecting both of them. She had set four place settings that were surrounded by a table of great smelling food. Sesoni sat in the chair across from her. Akaya smiled. She had forgotten that Aircirret had been here. Her child-like wonder and amazement was always welcoming, "How'd you do Akaya?"

Akaya could tell that Aicirret already knew the outcome, but she decided to answer anyways. "I did just fine, Aircirret. I'm not dead,so that's a plus."

The whole place came alive with laughter, and for once in her life, Akaya felt that there was somewhere she belonged. Well, it was the second time. She belonged in his arms, but this would have to do for the moment.