Disclaimer: Did anyone get the joke about the name of the resort?

Chapter 3: The Sword

What the hell was Rikuo playing at? Why did he always have to tease him. Kazahaya asked himself this question over and over again and didn't realize where he was walking. He accidentally found himself bumping into the same receptionist that was downstairs.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." Kazahaya apologized politely.

"OH, no..." She looked up at him and he distinctly saw her trying to suppress a giggle again, "It's okay,"

And she walked away, her hand over her mouth, but Kazahaya made out a "He's so cute!", before he went off in the other direction towards the pool area, where he might find some trace of the old sword.

Damn Bitch...

-

Rikuo was thinking about how he should wake Kazahaya up the next morning, when he bumped into the odd receptionist from downstairs.

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry..." He apologized.

She looked up into his face, and turned red. Rikuo knew she was suppressing and giggle again.

She said, "OH no, it was my fault!" With that, she walked away. Down the hall a little further, Rikuo could hear her laughing her head off, with some other people, presumably other women (by the sounds of their voices) nearly screeching, "SO CUUTE!"

Women...

-

It was cold outside at this time of night. Kazahaya shivered as he stepped outside to the pool deck. He wrapped his arms around himself.

There was another person out there. A man standing against the cold. He looked up when he saw Kazahaya and beckoned him closer to him.

"Here kid," He said throwing him a dry towel.

Kazahaya blinked, and then took it, "Thanks," he said.

"What are you doing out here at this time of night kid?" The man had an Osakan accent and wore a straw hat on top of his head.

"I...um, lost something."

"Oh really? What are you looking for?" The man asked curiously.

"Um..." Kazahaya hesistated, maybe the man knew something about the sword. "A sword..."

The man raised and eyebrow, "A sword?"

Kazahaya casted his mind around and the only thing he could think of was Kendo, "Yeah, a Kendo sword. I'm in a club at my school. We're here for a little getaway camp. Boys and girls."

"Really?" The man asked not sounding completely convinced, but he didn't ask anymore questions about it. "You know, there used to be a training ground here for soildiers."

"Really?"

"Yes, it was well hidden. But there was a man here, he was the best of their league. Maybe your instructor came here for good luck?" He asked.

"Um, maybe, he didn't specify."

"Right, well back to the story," He cleared his throat, "In the middle of battle, the soldier went to the medical tent for a check-up, but then they discovered, the 'he' was a 'she'. When the masters found out, they sent her to the Emporer and he bestowed a curse onto her." The man paused and lit a cigarette.

"Well...then what happened?" Kazahaya asked eagerly.

The man took a long drag and continued, "He said that 'No women can be in the army' and decided that she would be cursed to bad accidents if she ever went onto the battlefield again. And what did she do? She went back on, not believing him and kept fighting. She had a fair few injuries, but nothing life threatening until the Emporer heard about it and decided to kill her for disobidience."

"Oh wow, so what did she do? Excape?"

"No, but she was aloud one more visit to someone. Anyone she wanted. Well her family had all died in the war anyway, so she went to go see a wizard. She begged him to take the curse off of her, but he couldn't-"

"WHAT! HE COULD TAKE THE CURSE OFF OF HER?"

"Calm down now, I didn't finish. He couldn't take the curse off of her, without putting it somewhere else. She she asked him to put it in her sword. So he did. Before she died, she wanted to put the sword in the ground under the training ground, where all the flowers were the freshest and cherry blossoms grew plentiful. She buried it, in hopes that no one would ever find it and be cursed. And then she died and no one knows where the sword is, but here."

"Why doesn't anyone look for it?" Kazahaya asked him, still amazed with the odd story.

"Well, they're afraid of the curse. It's said that whoever touches it, will be doomed to the swords decision."

"What do you mean?"

"Well the curse decides what kind of curse you'll have. Whether you'd kill your best friend or fall in love with someone completely unexpected. No one wants to touch it (Superstition mostly) because they don't want to see what curse they might have."

"Wow."

"But hey, that's just an urban myth. The elders around here like to tell it to misbehaving kids to get them scared and threaten them to find it and touch it."

It was time for Kazahaya to go. He thanked the man for the story and the towel and took off.

That's got to be it! Kazahaya thought to himself running back to his room, That has to be the sword! But where to the flowers grow the most beautiful? And the cherry blossoms...

He entered their room finding it empty.

Big surprise.

Kazahaya undressed and put on bedclothes, fell back onto the bed and went to sleep instantly.

He would have to tell Rikuo the story in the morning.

Liked it? And no, I wasn't making a reference to Mulan. It just kind of sparked in my brain and I liked the sound of the idea, so I wrote it down. IMPROVISE! R/R (More Rikuo stuff next chapter!)