Outside of Edge Master's Home

Rei's Current Residency

There were a lot of things that Rei and Xiba didn't talk about, some things important and other things that they knew not to ask about because neither would answer anyways. Even so, he knew her better than any other male in the village and vice-versa. Edge Master called them complicated and unable to relate to others, only to each other-and themselves.

While neither one liked being told that , neither one refuted the cold, hard facts. They were born alone and would die alone. Just the same, no one knew them for who they were when they were brought out of the womb and they will die, going back into the darkness with no one knowing the true them.

Rei stared at the moon, wondering if she and the red-haired boy would ever talk about what had happened a few months on a night like this.

Probably not... but why did she think about it so much? Why was he so dang hard to read-always in his own thoughts, a world where she could never connect-didn't he even care?

Of course, she never talked to her 'papa' about what had happened, just as she had promised the handsome young man. Rei had never told anyone about that night, but then again, she didn't really have anybody to talk with besides him and gossiping with the gossiped about their gossip wasn't exactly the most thrilling thing.

Getting up from her spot, she turned to the left and began to stretch her legs, still restless from the four hour training session that Xiba convinced her to join in after their dinner. "Why do I even bother with him... jeez..."

Looking up the hill, she had almost expected to see him come down with that tired expression that doesn't want to talk, the expression that only she knew. It felt like she saw a mirror into his soul-a mirror that saw the sadness, the loneliness, the goof ball that saw the good in others but never in himself.

She waited for a moment, wondering if she should stay out later, just in case Xiba came up and around-with his father coming home that night. Scratching the nape of her neck, she frowned and decided to just give up.

No one was worth losing sleep over, not even him.

oOooOoo

Chai Xiba's Home

"Monkey Boy! Monkey Boy!" Kong called out, dancing around the kitchen in his drunken blunder, his eyes so glossy that it looked like he may have glass for an eye. "Orphan boy, whatever the hell your name is, come in here!" he shouted, a sly smile on his lips.

Xiba sat in the other room, pretending to be sleep, hoping that he would forget whatever that was wrong with him. He couldn't lay down for fear of what the man would do tonight if he really did fall asleep.

He could hear the sound of clay ceramic dishes being thrown again as the old man scream profanities. "Stupid ass Monkey boy, where's the money! Where'd you hide it? We need money to take care of the taxes that the government proposes!" Xiba bit his lip, fighting the urge to tell him that he had spent it all as he always did.

There was money in the house, but not for him to spend. Heck, Xiba couldn't even spend it until the time came to pay for the land they were using.

The sound of more pots being broken filled the air, the drunk man's shouts sending shivers down Xiba's spine.

"You little ass wiping Orphan, is this how you repay me?" Kong sent Xiba's room door crashing to the floor. The light of the moon only brilliant enough to see his cruel dark eyes, glossed over and cold. "Where is it?"

Xiba sat in the back of his bed, paralyzed in fear. "I-I'm trying to sle-" His mouth was covered by his father's hand who, with his other hand, grabbed him by his hair and pulled him up. Using the thumb of the hand that covered his mouth, he covered his nostrils.

"Wh-wa-what are you trying to do?" His tone was cold and dark, the moon's light shining fully on him. "Answer me!" He slammed the boy's head into the wall then threw him across the room. The old man walked to his position, leaned down, and in his most threatening voice, he whispered, "where is the money, Orphan little Monkey Boy... daddy wants his money. How can I train you without money to care for the house, eh?"

Xiba stared up at his attacker, his father by adoption and Master. The man he'd grown afraid of more and more with each year, the man who attacked him just enough to keep him from bleeding when he was in a drunken rage, fear in his eyes-and the only thing he could think of why was it not Kong who he was standing over in his dreams.

"Master," He coughed, hacking from the earlier attack. "Get some sleep; you don't know what you're doing."

Kong stared at his face, disgusted by the young man before him. "They didn't think I could be Krita-Yuga successor, but the master of all weapons thinks you can be successor to the Kali-Yuga, eh?"

Kong sat in front of him, his face so close that their noses were touching, eyeing the spear that Xiba had forgotten to put up before he got home. "Because of that, you're like the villagers, thinking you're better than me, that you can tell me what to do." He looked like he wanted to kill him and as much as Xiba wanted to prove his strength, to fight back, he couldn't.

He had only fought back once, and because he did, the young man hadn't seen the outside for a month until the wounds were healed. Xiba remembered that day clearly, he remembered being so scared that he was going to die.

The old man sat on his legs then grabbed Xiba's face and with a smile, he slammed the back of his head into the wooden floor with so much force that the young man screamed, swearing that it would burst on impact. He pulled it up again and was about to do it again until he fell sideways into a drunken slumber.

The world froze for a moment. The older man was still partially on his legs, his mouth wide open on the floor, slobber on the floor. Xiba couldn't move, but his hands were shaking along with the rest of his body.

Was he afraid or happy to still be alive? He wanted to leave and see if Rei had been waiting up for him, but he was afraid of what he looked like. His head was somewhere between numb and throbbing, but his neck felt like someone had taken a knife and tried to cut through it.

It took him about an hour and a half to get his mind on right and finally move from where had been thrown. The young man walked out and brought back in a lantern, his heart somewhere between beating and burning him with it or using it to be useful-whatever that meant.

He moved his father to the bedding on the side, wanting to believe that his father didn't know what he was doing. It was just another drunken rage; he didn't mean it. Of course, he didn't because otherwise, he wouldn't have kept him for so long. Kong only called him those mean things because he was drunk, that's it. He was sure every parent did the same thing.

Kong was his father who just happened to express anger more expressively than others.

The sky was still dark, but the moon was fading. It looked like the sun would be up in a few hours. He hadn't slept and wasn't planning to, still unsure what was worse: his father or his constant dreams.

He had to go to school so he had to smile. Work on it. C'mon, work on it, because he wasn't a sad little orphan boy. No, he was Monkey Boy, the over excited and happy kid who was hyper and hungry all the time. Xiba was the teenage boy that guys wanted to hang out with and girls fawned over.

He had to be strong.. because that's who he was, because if he wasn't then he'd go back to being Orphan Boy-he couldn't do that. He just couldn't.

OoOOooOoOOooO

Training School of the Pure Hearted

Zhen Hang Mountain

Leixia couldn't believe her sights when she finally arrived. Even more so, she couldn't believe that her father had let her come to this far away land-in this mountainous region of the Ming Empire.

Of course, it would have been better if she didn't have to bring Leixin with her along for the ride or if her father hadn't requested, by her mother's doing, that she would have a team of protectors with her at all times by next week if she were to stay at the school for the next few months. Apparently, her mother couldn't understand why she couldn't continue training under her and her her father.

Leixin looked around the school grounds, a look of disappointment evident on his face. "I imagined a school of ninjas or something," the thirteen year old boy moaned as he read the book that their mother prepped for them on their adventure. "Do you think that we will meet any real heroes-like the kind mom talks about in her stories?"

The older girl's eyes brightened at the idea but didn't actually reply. Finding a real hero and training under one, that had always been her plan... that way, there could be stories about her being told to future generations.

She looked around and saw nothing but children, no different from her, sitting in the courtyard-conversing and only a few paired up in a training match before their classes would begin. If this were her competition, this would be an easy win for her to become the next hero of the people. There were rumors that a special weapon, a staff that could eliminate darkness, was being passed down soon to the most powerful and pure-hearted warrior.

Laughing aloud, she startled Leixin, the thought of using her parent's power and superb fighting skills to become the hero-would make everything a piece of cake. "I'll show them!" She pumped her first.

Leixin sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Talking to yourself again, eh?" He swore that his sister did that way too often to be healthy.

"Oh.. no.. I was talking to you," she lied, smiling sneakily, thinking she had him fooled.

"Fine. Sure," Leixin resigned, "Let's go with that." He'd rather let people believe that than the truth that he feared. He continued reading his book while following Leixia from behind until his attention caught a dark-haired girl and red-headed boy arguing by the doors of the school's entrance.

"Chai, what do you mean that you fell on your head?" the girl screamed, cupping his head the way that his mother, Xianghua, did whenever he got hurt after playing, checking for marks.

"I just did," the handsome boy responded, folding his arms, looking away.

Leixin fumbled with his book, trying not to be nosy, but the way he responded reminded him of himself when he was lying to his mother, trying to ease her pain.

"Can I take a look at it, please... or will you keep that..."

The young man scowled. "I don't need anyone thinking that we're going out because you're touching my head, Rei."

The girl whose name was apparently Rei sighed. Before she could anything more, the boy jumped from his spot and ran over to where Leixin and his older sister were standing. "Nǐhǎo!" the boy greeted, a smile on his face that almost read as rebel.

"N-N-Nǐhǎo..." Leixin stepped behind his sister, not really good in social situations.

"Nǐhǎo," Leixia returned the greeting, excited to meet a boy from the mountain, himself.

Xiba's eyes widened, excited. This was so awesome! She actually spoke Mandarin... and looked almost exactly like the woman that came to see him once a year. "Sorry, I don't mean to get ahead of myself..."

Leixia backed up. Get ahead of himself? Was he about to ask her out without asking for her name? How would she respond to this kind of invitation or what f-what if-no, it couldn't be that! Could he be one of those perverts that her father warned her about that lived outside of the mainland of the empire?

"Let's do it..."

Leixia's face turned completely red. "Do it? Right here, right now..." Sure, he was cute, but she was a virgin-and although she wasn't ready for marriage yet, there were plenty of suitors who were willing to wait long enough to ask her father for her hand in marriage at least.

The girl that had been yelling at him before walked over. "Xiba, you sound like a pervert with your shirt all open, and you run over without explaining what you want, just that you want to do it..."

Leixia looked up at the girl. She wasn't much taller than her, but she had this air of aristocracy that suggested that she came to China, wanting to do the same thing she did. "Mr. Xiba, I don't know if I'll be good..." She continued to say, looking away, biting her fingernail.

Leixin's mouth dropped wide open. "Why didn't you just refuse?" He exclaimed, wondering what was going through her mind.

Rei turned and giggled at the new girl. "He wants to train with you." Staring at her clothes, it was evident that she was of a higher society than the people who trained here, "For now, Princess, I'll fulfill his request."

Xiba's mouth went up, and a dark smile came over him. "Are you sure about that, Scrawnz?"

Rei put her finger to his lip as if to shut him up. "Right now, she knows nothing of your monkey boy traits, Chai," she whispered into his ear, "make yourself a name while I make it even worse when I beat you, okay?"

The two jumped back a few feet, their auras pressing Leixia and her brother back. These two-they weren't normal-even in her father's army, she had never felt so much pressure between two people training.

One wrong move and they could kill one another.

Maybe they were the heroes that she and her brother came to this mountain looking for, after all.