A small problem arose when Honoka and her friends had defeated those middle schoolers. The leader of the group was a junior member of a gang called Snake, a small gang that was starting to gain notoriety quickly, and as a gang member his reputation was in line since he spread that he had lost through trickery to Kenichi, since admitting he had lost to three primary schooler girls was beyond humiliating.

Thus the bullying of her brother started to escalate inside his school. Her brother would grit his teeth and endure it, previously because he didn't think his parents could help him with it other than transferring him to another school, which would simply change the location of his problem. Now however he endured it in order not to worry his parents as they were still worried about their daughter, and he wanted to project an image of strength to his sister in order not to worry her.

He was always terrible at keeping secrets however, so of course both parents and her sister knew what was going on soon enough while he remained clueless about their knowledge.

Lost about what to do, Honoka went to consult with her sunsengnim.

The answer she got wasn't what she wanted.

"I really can't help much there. What do you expect me to do? Beat up the kids myself? Unless they cause trouble near our school again I can't do much about it. If I were a teacher of his school, then perhaps I could try something but since I'm not my hands are tied. Besides, I'm of the opinion that you should deal with your problems yourself. If he let others fight his battles, he will never get away from the umbrella of bullying even as he becomes an adult, and trust me things get worse as an adult if you are being bullied."

"But he doesn't know how to defend himself!" Said Honoka, distressed at the bit of information her sunsengnim shared. To be bullied until adulthood? What kind of madness is this? "He's not very good at fighting and father don't let him learn martial arts until he turns sixteen due to an incident when he was younger!"

"And yet he also get into this kind of trouble due to his own twisted sense of justice I take it."

"Twisted?" Honoka asked, not really understanding what he meant with that remark.

"Somehow he believes that he must be the target of bullying instead of letting others be picked on, or at least he makes himself a target by trying to help those being picked on with no regards to himself, even if he might potentially regreet it later."

Honoka slowly nodded since that was an accurate view of what her brother did. Sure a lot of the bullying he suffered was nothing more than the bullies singling him out as a target, but sometimes he would attract heat from other bullies while trying to defend the weak even if he was the weakest in the room. Not only that but he never, ever actually asked for help against the bullies. He learned to run away from them, but Honoka never saw him involve other people, even her parents or teachers, into his problems.

"Besides, even if I wanted to get involved I can't because I need to stay low key. And neither can you unless you want to deal a blow to your brother ego and sense of self worth. I know the type of people your brother is, he would be devastated if his young, cute, harmless little sister took out his problems for himself."

Honoka winced at that, knowing that it was spot on. "Then what can we do?"

"It's about time I teach you something practical anyway if you're going into fights this early. How to throw a punch, how to block, how to dodge, how to kick and not injure yourself in the process." He stretched him back before turning to the teachers room. "Since it's quite basic, generic stuff, I wouldn't be against other people watching it."

As Honoka watched her sunsengnim retreat, she had a small smile on her face, once more the opinion of her sunsengnim rising.

~~O~~

"In this exercise you clench your fist this way", he shows his audience how to form a fist and how to perform the necessary movements not to injure yourself while going all out. "Don't forget the steps, they're simple but you will need to mix and match them later once you get used to it."

"That's incredible Wu-san, what are those?" Honoka mother asked with her usual demure tone, "they look kind of familiar..."

It was a good thing that Chun-Woo Han was an experienced smooth talker. "You probably saw it on documentaries or ads. It's a dance form from a Korean circus performance called Southern Yard Play."

The new nurse, Shiho Lee, explains further. "Wu-san proposed and volunteered to oversee some extra physical education to his students after the school hours, and the parents can also participate if they want."

Alongside Honoka was her mother, her brother, Sakura and Hinata with their families alongside a couple more kids that often stayed late at school to play and were curious at what was going on.

Sakura parents were kind looking adults, her father having a thin build with a goatee on his face, while her mother had a figure that could be called stunning and kind green eyes, and her younger brother was with the other male students trying himself to follow the movements. Hinata came with her uncle, which was the twin of her father, and he had long smooth jet black hair and had a somber expression, though he often smiled at his niece as she did the movements, while her little sister watched in rapt attention at her sister performing the steps, sometimes stumbling on her feet as she couldn't both watch her sister and pay attention to what she was doing at the same time.

"Maybe", Honoka mother allowed, "but somehow those forms look familiar in a different way. I wonder why?"

"I'm sure it's just a weird case of Deja vù." Said Honoka's sunsengnim with a smile.

~~O~~

More privately Honoka was taught Ancient Korean Martial Arts, more specifically one of the many branches of the Taekkyeon he was taught by his own sunsengnim. While the Black Heaven and Earth is essentially a formless martial art, each new master would incorporate it with another existing martial arts system, effectively creating many branches of her style even if there was always one master and one successor to the Black Heaven and Earth.

Chun-Woo Han sunsengnim had learned ancient korean martial arts and taught them to his apprentice, while Chun-Woo Han himself learned various styles and incorporated into his own, though he kept the foundation in taekkyeon he learned from his sunsengnim.

Combining both Southern Yard Play and Taekkyeon Honoka had the start of a solid grounding in martial arts techniques, and as time went by she would become a fearsome fighter know by her graceful acrobatic movements inherited from those two styles.

For now though, she went from 'a danger to herself' to 'novice' in terms of skill.

If it was the Honoka of three months ago she wouldn't be contemplating her next move, but then again as her sunsengnim so eloquently said before, she had already snapped and was a bit out of there.

At least that's what her sunsengnim thought when found out the stunt she pulled out next.

~~O~~

Walking with her white, generic looking hoodie concealing her face she wandered into the know territory of the snake gang, more precisely the one where the leader of the group of bullies that targeted her brother spent his time. It was a simple affair to get the location of their hideout, and she used the time she usually spent on her own school training to do this stake out.

'Accidentally' she bumped into a mean looking teenager near their hideout, and to her luck he sported gang insignia, meaning she hit her mark.

"Hey brat, apologize for that!"

Lightly bowing she made to continue her walk, triggering the predictable reaction of the teen when he went to grab her.

Dodging his feeble attempt with great speed and countering his attack with strength no nine year old girl should posses unless they're on steroids, she hit him directly on the solar plexus making him lose all air on the lungs, doubling him over. She finished him off with an uppercut on the jaw, sending him to sleep. The other gang members that watched this happen where shocked for a couple of instant before the leader snarled. "Get him!"

Not being a fool, she retreated while muttering how sad it was for them to assume she was a boy just because she beat them up, but the fact that she did beat them up already lifted her mood.

While she could run faster than then due to ki enhancement they knew their territory well and were quick into her heels. Fortunately for her the Southern Yard Play training gave her ample acrobatic proficiency, and as she passed through crates, fences and stairs, she remembered what her sunsengnim said before.

Don't be afraid and don't break concentration, the results will show themselves.

While they all went after Honoka, they each had different speeds, and she made sure to pick the fastest and the straggler often enough, beating them with hit and run tactics behind obstacles, not staying still for long and always restarting the chase, making her pursuers both tired and frustrated. At some point they stopped chasing her even if she wasn't going that fast, and she knew she won.

This state of affairs would repeat itself for the next few days, with Honoka bloodying them over and over, and starting the a new legend among the delinquents in the city.

The legend of the White Ghost.