Chapter 3 : Scales

The tournament was a success, unfortunately for the Xiaolin monks they did not win. Rhea wound up fighting the champion as extra prize: if they won against her, they would win an extra sixty-four thousand yen. He didn't win.

Rhea was sat crossed legged on the tatami mat of her dojo at home: her Grandmother 'Haruka' had converted it into a dojo for her. First thing in the morning was the only time Rhea got to herself at home. 'Silence before the storm' she mused, glancing at the clock on the far wall it was only six o'clock, her father would soon see the news.

TICK TOCK TICK TOCK TICK –SLAM-

The dojo door was slammed opened. Her father was stood there looking just as angry as she thought.

"Do you think this is funny?" He shouted.

"What?" Rhea was unfazed and stayed crossed legged on the floor.

"That stupid tournament! Do you know how hard it will be to marry you into a respectable family now?" her father was obsessed with his image, to the extent that chose who his children would marry. Rhea's older sister was married with twins, her brother had married then divorced by his father's demanded no less.

Rhea sighed intolerantly "Oh please, I don't need to marry some stuck up little twerp you try to flog me to."

"How dare you talk back to your father."

Rhea moved from her meditation position, to stretch her legs and back. "I'll do what I like."

"And as long as you live under this roof, you'll do what I say and I say you have an omiai meeting at 5pm." Her father stormed out making sure to slam the door on the way out.

"I'm so glad to be out of that house." Rhea groaned, finally being able to spread her wings properly.

"Yeah, your dad is a git."

"Understatement of the year, Rayne-chan. "

"Still am really sorry that I couldn't make it to your tournament." The fashionable pink haired woman apologised for the umpteenth time.

"It's fine, Rayne-chan, I understand." Rhea smiled at her old school friend. They reached their destination, a little coffee shop cutely named 'A little slice of England' and ironically owned by an English woman. They ordered their beverages and some cake then sat down at a table by the window with very comfortable arm chairs.

"Let me tell your fortune. Things can only get better." Rayne reassured, producing a deck of tarot cards from her bag and began to shuffle them.

"You know I don't like knowing about those sorts of things." Rhea preferred not knowing her future.

"It won't hurt."

"Fine." Rhea gave in and shuffled the cards her friend handed her. The girls thanked the waitress who brought their ordered over and Rayne laid out the chosen cards.

"Let me see." Rhea looked from Rayne and then down to the cards. How could a few pieces of card possibly predict her future? She breathed deeply as she slurped her warm drink. "A change. A big change no less. It will involve lots of travelling. A new friendship." Rayne hummed as she glanced over the remaining cards.

"That's what I do anyway. I travel everyday from Uenohara to Shibuya. I met one of Jack-chan's friend yesterday." Rayne frowned at her sceptical companion.

"Be a bit more open minded for once." At this moment in time all Rhea was bothered about was the piece of chocolate cake sat on the plate in front of her. "How about some karaoke after this?" the pink haired woman suggested sipping her earl grey tea.

"We haven't done that in ages. Deal!" they both chuckled. Rayne and Rhea got along quite well; she was the only friend from school since for some reason the other girls in their class just didn't like either of them.

Some hours later they finally left the karaoke bar and decided that some more food was in order.

"I fancy ramen." Rhea loved spicy ramen.

"I want yakisoba."

-beep beep-

Rhea held up a hand to say she was going to answer it. "Hello?"

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"

Rhea held the phone at arm's length "Shibuya-"

"You should have been at your omiai two hours ago!"

She glanced at her watch: seven pm. "O yeah." She was far to nonchalant about it for her fathers taste.

"I have had it with you! Get back home right now!" he snapped and hung up.

Rhea looked at Rayne but she stopped her from talking " I heard everything. He was pretty loud."

"Let's get ramen." Rhea announced marching off to one of the nearby Ramen stands.

"You're in a lot of trouble and you want ramen?" Rayne looked at her quizzically.

"Well I might as well. I can't possibly get in anymore trouble can I?"

"I suppose so."

The hum of Rhea's motorbike died as she pulled up to her large house. Switching the lights off and plunged herself into darkness, staring up at the blanket of stars for a while before made a move. 'I can't be doing with this' she took a deep breath before unlocking the front door.

A harsh slap across the face was the warm fatherly welcome home. "You impudent little brat, I ask you to do one tiny thing and you can't even do that right!" Nori –her father- hit her again. She couldn't be bothered to dodge and it would make matters worse. If that was possible.

"Yeah I forgot." She huffed and sauntered around the angry business man.

"I wouldn't be so angry if you hadn't held that tournament." He snapped.

"And perhaps I wouldn't be this way if you weren't such as ass." She glared back. The way her father was had nothing to do with Rhea's niche for wandering or her love of martial arts but she could argue that it was.

"Don't shift the blame onto me young lady! Would it kill you to settle down like your sister?"

"Yes it would! Like my name says I need to go with the flow. Being here is a like a god damn cage!" Rhea chose the wrong words.

"If that's the case then GET OUT! You won't last ten minutes out there on your own! You'll learn the hard way!"

Rhea ran up the stairs and gathered the necessary things she needed: a change of clothes, her black blade, a golden fan with a dragon shape, money etc. Reappearing downstairs with her stuffed bag, she didn't even look back at her father as she stormed past exiting the house. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she revved her bike back into gear and zipped off into the night her headlights guiding her way.

After some hours of constant driving another large house came into view. A familiar house she knew all too well. She felt awkward as she shut the metal fence behind her and carried on the drive up to the house. Rapping on the door she waited anxiously, finally becoming aware of the pain in her cheek. The door opened allowing a warm light to spill out into the overwhelming darkness.

"Hi, Mrs Spicer."

"Rhea, dear what on earth are you doing here at this hour? What happened to your face it's all red?"

"Erm...yeah, I got kicked out..." those words did it; Jack's mother grabbed her wrist and pulled her in.

"That man needs some restrain. You can stay here as long as you like. You're always welcome here." She smiled "I'll go set the spare room up for you. Jack is in the basement tinkering on his toys." She sighed and disappeared upstairs.

Rhea crept down the basement stairs, to find Jack in his adorable all in one pyjamas with a little Frankenstein head on the front, momentarily moshing to some metal music before he carried on with a new robot.

"Nice pyjamas Jack-chan." The young genius jumped and looked petrified as he turned towards his guest.

"Rhea! What are you doing here?" he noticed the heavy looking bag hanging from her shoulder, "O your dad?" she nodded.

"Your mother said I could stay a while." She looked at his sleep attire "Honestly Jack-chan, a bit old for those aren't you?"

Jack blushed "They're comfy."

"So is my leather jacket but you don't see me sleeping in it." She joked.

"Jack, Rhea! I've made some supper." Mrs Spicer hollered.

"Okay!" they chimed in sync.

As she headed up the stairs, she felt relieved: she had finally managed to leave the gilded cage of a home behind her.