Chapter 5

Things go smoothly for a while. The Soft Master is a very good teacher, and it's a treat to see his smiling face almost every day. I'm so happy with my progress that I allow myself more sleep again, and as much as I hate to admit it, I feel a lot better for it.

- A month later -

My training sessions are scheduled around my missions and so, can be at any hour of the day. Today, the hour-long lesson is scheduled in the early afternoon, right before I leave for a protection mission that will keep me until tomorrow morning. The Soft Master meets me outside the dojo and tells me we are joining the Hard Master and my brother.

My heart accelerates. Students from different teachers usually only train together by sparring, which likely means my uncles want us to duel. I can't say exactly why, but I don't like the idea at all.

I can't do anything about it, however, and I obediently follow my teacher. My suspicions are confirmed when we get to the Hard Master's dojo: my brother has a duelling sword on his hip.

"Young Master, Soft Master, come in," the Hard Master greets us.

My brother bows to us and I bow back. The Soft Master smiles but doesn't bow.

"Young Master, please take a sword. You haven't duelled in a long time, this will be beneficial," the Soft Master tells me.

I get a sword and its sheath, attach it to my belt and place myself in front of my brother. We get into position, swords out. The Soft Master gives the signal and we start.

The Hard Master turns around and starts walking out. Both my brother and I are surprised and stop duelling for a moment. I recover quicker and charge. I hear the Soft Master asking the Hard Master, doesn't he want to see the winner?

My brother blocks and charges me. I hear the Hard Master replying that I've lost the match already.

I block my brother and curse under my breath. My uncle is right, as usual. My brother is better than me. I realize that I'm not surprised - I knew he would be. That's why I didn't want to duel him.

I'm furious at myself: it took me almost two years to stop making excuses for myself and to start training again, and in the past month, I've contented myself with one hour a day more often than not. My laziness has finally caught up with me: a second year student is beating me, and when word gets out, I – and by extension, my clan – are going to be a laughing stock.

Chatterbox charges again with a weird move that leaves his left arm wide open. I react instinctively before my brains catch up with me: I slash at his arm, cutting his sleeve and scraping his flesh. The duel ends with this first hit. It didn't even last long enough for the Hard Master to make his way out of the dojo.

The Soft Master teases the Hard Master on his wrong prediction. He wasn't looking, so he doesn't realize my brother threw the match. The Hard Master chuckles: he didn't need to see the match, he knows. I feel like screaming.

The Soft Master and I leave and go back to our own dojo to finish my hour of training. I know I need all the help I can get, but I still can't concentrate. I go through the exercises the Soft Master gives me mechanically until he stops me.

"Go talk to your brother," he sighs. "We'll bank the last few minutes of this lesson."

I apologize, thank him, bow and stalk off. He follows me.

"They are probably still training, and I doubt the Hard Master will cut the lesson short if you're the one who asks for it," he explains. "I want to talk to him as well, anyway."

We make our way back to the Hard Master's dojo. We run into the Hard Master and his student, who were walking towards the Soft Master's dojo.

The Hard Master barely spares me a glance, but looks surprised to see the Soft Master.

"You too?" he asks him.

The Soft Master nods and walks away. The Hard Master shrugs and follows him, leaving my brother and me alone.

I look at them walk until they enter into the main house of the compound, then round on my brother.

"How stupid do you think I am?" I hiss at him.

"I don't think you're stupid at all," he says evenly.

"Did you think I wouldn't notice that your technique suddenly changed from 'flawless' to 'Hmm. I think I'd like to get my arm cut off!'?"

"I didn't think it was THAT obvious."

I snort. I'm so angry that my fists are clenched and I'd love to sink one into his face.

"Why? Why did you do that?"

"I just…"

"Shh!" I interrupt him. The matter has just been driven clear out of my mind by the voices I hear coming from the main building.

"My uncles…" I whisper, "they're arguing. Yelling. I can barely make it out… they must be in one of the quiet rooms…"

This should tell me to not listen, and in fact, to do my best not to hear, but I've never heard them so much as arguing before, and I'm pretty sure they're talking about Chatterbox and me.

I know I shouldn't, but I strain my ears. My brother stays quiet and looks around, presumably to see if anyone can see us. I take the hint and motion him to follow. I walk to the nearest rock garden, as quietly as I can while looking casual. Nobody will question my sitting quietly in a rock garden, making it a perfect eavesdropping spot.

I close my eyes and concentrate on my uncles' voices. I can't believe I'm doing this: spying on my own family… what is wrong with me? And yet, I can't make myself stop. In fact, I'm enjoying myself: Chatterbox isn't even trying to stop me, making him a partner in crime. I can't understand why I was so angry with him seconds earlier: sure, it's insulting he thought I wouldn't realize he was letting me win, but it's not like he insulted me on purpose.

The voices become more distinct as I make myself ignore all other noises around.

"I will NOT lie to him!" the Hard Master yells.

I don't wonder for long whether he means me. The Soft Master is yelling back.

"Are you implying that _I_ would lie to our only nephew? What you did today was not honesty, it was cruelty!"

"You may stop short of speaking lies, but here you are telling me off for not concealing a truth he would have found out about sooner or later. At least, this way, he was not humiliated in public. Nobody else than the four of us needs to know this duel even took place."

The Hard Master doesn't quite yell this, and I would not have heard it had I not been listening so intently.

"And what was the rationale behind displaying such certainty that your student would win?" The Soft Master has followed his brother's example and is talking a bit softer, although he still sounds just as angry. It's becoming difficult to hear them at all.

"Tommy needed to know today's result was not a coincidence or a stroke of luck for his brother."

"You're just rubbing his nose in it! You heard some people say he was becoming full of himself and you took it upon yourself to humble him!"

"You're being silly," the Hard Master says, forcefully but calmly.

I can't make out the rest. Their voices are down to normal and I can only hear indistinct mumbling.

I sigh.

"What did you hear?" Chatterbox breathes, without turning towards me.

I get up, heading for my room to change into street clothes for my mission. He follows me.

"The Hard Master thought I needed a lesson in humility, and he got you to deliver it," I whisper. "He probably sees it as a bonus that you took pity on me and tried to throw the match. Do you have any idea how insulting that was? I don't need your pity, and I'm not so oblivious that I couldn't tell!"

I turn towards him as I say it, scowling. I'm not really mad at him anymore, I'm too busy being furious with a certain uncle of mine, but I do want to impress upon him that he shouldn't have done that.

He rolls his eyes.

"I gathered," he says. "Are you sure you heard Sensei right? That's not what he told me."

"Well of course he told you something different!" I say. "Would you have co-operated, otherwise?"

"I really don't think…"

"I heard him right," I cut him off just as we get to my door. "I need to get ready. I'm sorry I got so angry with you: you didn't deserve it."

"Listen…" he says.

"I wouldn't expect you NOT to defend your sensei, but there's no need. He's the head of the clan, and if he thinks I need more humility, my job is to figure out why and to work on it, not to complain."

"Don't give me that. You're furious with him."

"That's MY problem. You really have to excuse me; I don't want to be late."

I slip in my chamber and close the door. He opens it back up and lets himself in.

"We need to talk," he says.

"So talk," I say, changing. I'm not actually trying to be rude and ignore him, but I really do need to get going – I should be on my way to my client by now.

"When are you expected?" he asks me, presumably to determine whether I really am in such a hurry. He glances at his watch.

"I'm expected downtown in half an hour," I answer. "It'll take me that long to drive there if there's traffic, and I can't assume there isn't."

"Alright, I'll just go with you and we'll talk on the way."

I blink at him.

"You don't have any more lessons for today? I can't let you keep the car, and you can't run back here in broad daylight. You'd have to walk, or run slowly at best."

"I'm skipping class," he answers. "Am I going to get thrown out?"

I snicker. Fat chance of that when he's the best student we've ever had.

"Go advise someone, I'll get the car."

He nods and runs off.

There's no traffic, and we're at the bank where I'm meeting with my client with twenty minutes to spare. I park the car in the underground lot and we stay in it.

"For someone who wanted to talk, you've been very quiet," I remark. "You have about 20 minutes, you might want to get started."

He crosses his arms, frowning in thought. He looks like he doesn't know where to start.

"Does Sensei know I'm not going to stay here forever?" he asks.

I shrug, doing my best not to show that _I_ certainly had no idea. I choose to assume he's only thinking of leaving eventually, not anytime soon.

"I have no idea what he imagines your long-term plans to be. If you're worried about it, you need to talk to him, not to me."

"How is he going to react when I leave?"

I clench my jaw. So much for my assumption – it's obvious he's already made up his mind to leave in the near future, and he's just trying to get some sense of how my uncle will react.

"After your probation, you swore undying loyalty to this clan," I remind him. He couldn't talk Japanese at the time, but I had translated the whole ceremony for him ahead of time.

"That doesn't mean I can't leave, does it?"

"No," I reluctantly admit. "But you're not expected to. My first teacher faked his death once to make a point of how tedious it was to respect all the normal protocol and to get all the normal permissions and blessings when going away. Students who leave before they have fully gained our trust aren't even allowed to remember anything about their stay with us."

"What do you mean, they're not allowed to remember?"

"We use a mind altering technique to erase their memories."

I glance at him, wondering how he'll react. The practice is a necessary evil, and I usually prefer not to think about it.

"So I'd lose everything I learned…" He sighs. He sags a bit in his seat, understandably depressed at the idea. As much as I'm tempted to frighten him into staying, he looks so down that I can't help trying to lift his spirits a bit.

"I could be wrong, so don't base any decision on this, but I think my uncles would prefer to avoid that. You're extremely good… if they believe they still have your loyalty, they will not want you to go to waste. I think."

I glance at my watch. It's ten minutes to the start of my mission.

"Anything else you wanted to talk about?" I ask him.

"Plenty," he answers. "I think I'll just accompany you on this mission. Would that be all right?"

My eyes widen a bit. He's really full of surprises today – good and bad.

"I thought you weren't interested in going on missions?" I ask him.

"I'm making an exception," he grunts.

"I'm playing bodyguard today. I can't be in the company of someone wearing a gi: people will suspect what we really are."

He grabs the packsack he brought along and pulls out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I smirk and look around the parking lot: there's nobody around.

"All right," I say. "It'll be nice to have someone to talk to, but stick to English, and be sure not to mention ninjas or even my family name."

He nods and changes into his clothes while I listen out and keep looking at the entrance to the lot to make sure nobody walks in on us.

I meet my client at the appointed time, my brother in tow. I bow briefly to the man and introduce myself as his appointed bodyguard without giving a name. He nods curtly and looks questioningly at my brother.

"He's an apprentice," I explain. "If you could permit him to stay, it would be a learning experience for him. There will be no extra charge, of course."

My client looks him up and down and nods again. We follow him to his limousine and we're off to his destination: a cocktail party where his former business partner, who is constantly trying to intimidate him with veiled death threats, will be in attendance. My client hopes he will realize we are actually ninjas and back off.

Because we're also paying close attention to our surroundings, my conversation with Chatterbox unfolds at a snail's pace and lasts all night.

I learn two things. The first one is that my brother is actually still in the army, and simply on a leave of absence. He intends to return to full-time duty, and thus to leave the clan, within the next 6 months… even sooner than I feared.

The second thing I find out from this conversation is that although we usually only manage to talk to each other about once a month, my brother is extraordinarily well informed about me. He explained that he hears a lot from the clan in general and from my uncle in particular. I would never have imagined that my uncle would even spare me a thought when he is with his student, but apparently, I was wrong.

I also asked him about his training, mostly so he wouldn't think I don't care: I do care, but I'm just as well informed about him as he is about me, by much the same means. He stopped me after the second question and made me admit I already knew everything I was asking about.

We get back to the compound at dawn the next day, with nothing more exciting happening on the mission proper than my client's former business associate recognizing me - I recognized him too, he's one of the collectors - and avoiding my client for the rest of the night.

The Hard Master is waiting for us by my chambers.

"Young Master, I hope my student did not trouble you," he says, ignoring said student.

"Not at all," I answer.

He nods, still ignoring my brother, who looks a lot like a schoolboy being given detention.

"Your next assignment is tomorrow morning. The Soft Master would like to see you at 1400, well rested."

I bow.

"As for you." The Hard Master finally gives his student all his attention. "You will do endurance training today. Run the long course three times before breakfast. I will give you your next task afterward."

My brother bows, after the smallest – understandable - twinge. The long course is aptly named: it winds around the whole compound and even at top speed, it takes nearly an hour to complete. My uncle nods, satisfied, and leaves.

I was going to skip out to a secluded part of the compound to train, but the Hard Master just ordered me to be well rested by 1400, so I have no choice but to go to bed. At least, with my next assignment as far as tomorrow morning, I will have most of the afternoon and evening to train. Such a long time between missions is so unusual that I feel like I'm on vacation until tomorrow morning.