Jei and I found the twins. They were with Dori, who was very overwhelmed by the envelope of money they were giving her.
"I— I— are you sure?" Dori squeaked.
"Ayae told us you're trying to free your friends," Emu said, hand on her hip.
"That makes your fight our fight," En said, crossing her arms.
Dori stared at all the extra prize money. "But don't you need it…?"
"Fire money ain't worth much in Lightning."
"But a life of difference in Sound."
"Gotta move it where it matters."
"Work smart, not hard."
Dori's lips wobbled. She bowed. "Thank you, thank you!"
The twins exchanged a look.
"Thank us by freeing your country."
"Then help us free ours."
Dori surprised them with a big hug. Dori then saw me and Jei, and went to hug us too.
"I will, I will!" Dori sobbed.
Dori waved, before running off to find her sister.
The twins turned to us.
"Where's Z?"
Sweating, Jei and I pointed to the massive crowd surrounding our boy. We had been hoping the twins could help us push our way through it. I had a plate of food for him, knowing he hadn't eaten yet.
Unlike me, who squeezed out at the first opportunity, Jii was happy to entertain the guests. He had even sat on top of a table to make himself comfortable.
Jii had been raised to be a celebrity. He was not modest. The more attention he got, the more lively and charming he became.
"... ruin the surprise, right? Although in retrospect, it was a bit mean of us to not loop her in."
Jii noticed us. He jumped down.
"Hey, there you guys are!" he said, as if we disappeared for a minute and not a whole hour.
Seeing me join him, one of the patrons said, "Hey, my favorite dance had been what you two did! In that last act there. What is it called, again?"
Jii saw my panic and held back a chuckle.
He faked a thoughtful expression. "Let's call it… martial break."
There was a round of happy murmurs.
"You both studied at the Ekkusu-Wai School. Were you dance partners before the competition?"
"Caught us!" Jii laughed cheerfully.
More murmurs.
"Makes sense…"
"Very well done, the pairing…"
"I told you it was all staged! And you wouldn't believe me."
"Have you considered switching over to Fire?"
Jii looked at the person questionably.
"I know people who can make that happen, you know," the patron said smugly. "Make you a citizen. You belong where the future of dance is."
The crowd was fully excited by the idea, buzzing with agreement.
Jii's expression slowly changed.
I just stared at the patron like she had two heads.
Switching citizenship was… possible? Jii could live here… permanently?
I blinked.
I nearly dropped my plate.
There was no reason why not! I realized.
Jii wasn't made of Lightning, and I wasn't made of Fire. Fire and Lightning didn't even exist until a bunch of people came together and drew some lines on a map.
It was all made-up. All our papers were made-up. Some official put a stamp on us, and if the officials wanted, they could put a different stamp on us.
I thought back to my visit to the government buildings, their list of stupid rules and their even stupider defense of them.
Suddenly, Teacher Ekkusu wasn't so mysterious anymore. My brain could finally stop hurting, trying to think of what element was a cross between fire and lightning, how an element like that even got created. He just moved here and changed a few papers.
Jutsu wasn't so confusing anymore.
I had once asked Gin, if we were the Land of Fire, why could my cousins do water or wind jutsus. Weren't water jutsus for the Land of Water and wind jutsus for the Land of Wind?
Gin had laughed at how silly I was, to not even know something as simple as that. Then he opened his mouth and realized he didn't have an answer either.
The next day, he told me, our ninjas were made of fire, so we're naturally good at fire, but because we were so badass, we could learn to do what ninjas of other countries do too.
I said, but we had plenty of ninjas who couldn't release fire.
He said, well, they were just weirdos then.
I said, but besides my clan and the Sarutobi clan, other clans didn't seem to prefer fire.
He said, well, sometimes when you get too badass, you get even better at things you're not good at.
I said that sounded stupid, he said I was stupid, and then we got into an argument about whether or not a ninja from the Land of Water could release fire, and I said yes, and he said no, and I said yes, and I didn't remember what happened after that but we were probably rolling down a hill.
Now I stood in a kimono in a fancy building holding fancy food, stewing because my question hadn't been silly. None of it was supposed to make sense.
Konoha ninjas weren't supposed to be the most powerful…
They were supposed to be the most versatile, Itachi had answered.
They used techniques from all over the place…
Because all trade routes went through this land, Emu and En had answered.
Konoha was only known for fire…
After the Uchiha shared their technique with the village, Hana had answered.
One of the three great gifts that rewrote history.
The best clans had at most a hundred capable soldiers. Konoha had created tens of thousands…
Of children…
Raised to die.
The same memory came back, and with it, my splitting headache. The two of us on a couch, half in light, half in shadow. He was telling me something, but I couldn't hear, the words lost over the noise of the stadium.
I tried to get closer, but he had already pushed me out.
Out of the school.
Out of the village.
"Sorry."
Jii's voice snapped me back.
"I'm only here for this competition," Jii said apologetically. "I need to head back home."
The patron noticed Jei and the twins stepping closer to him.
"Oh, is it your friends? No no, we wouldn't want to break this team of yours apart. Of course they will be granted citizenship too."
Pausing, Jii looked at us, his gaze lingering on Emu and En. The twins shot him a look back.
Assured, Jii returned with a smile.
"Sorry," he repeated.
Now the patron was getting frustrated. "Oh, don't underestimate us like that. What does your little mountain there have that we don't? Food? Entertainment?"
"Our home," Emu deadpanned.
"Our people," En deadpanned.
Ten thousand lives, I knew was what they really wanted to say.
The Fire Capital was only a vacation for them, a place to catch their breaths before returning to the battleground. They were still kids of Kurohyou. As kids of Kurohyou, they were very proud of their city. Their ancestors built that city. And they weren't going to stop until the city belonged to them again. Belonged to all of them.
The patron didn't understand. None of the patrons did, I realized.
She was about to say more when another patron, impatient and drunk, bumped her aside.
"Stop hogging the kid! I want to see him too. Where is he, oh there, oh wow, what a sight you are."
This new patron staggered forward, very enthusiastic to see Jii. Too enthusiastic. My skin crawled.
"Lovely, simply lovely. I've never seen anything so exotic, are those gold—!"
A hand gripped the patron's arm.
It was Teacher Wai.
She had been watching. She was faster than I thought.
"Touching any of the dancers is strictly prohibited."
This time, it was Teacher Ekkusu, standing behind the patron.
Seeing him, the whole crowd backed up.
The patron grew red and angry. Turning around, he stammered, "I wasn't trying to touch him, just the—"
"Including anything on their person," Teacher Ekkusu said calmly. "If there are any items from the night that interest you, Mister Motoshi, we do have a catalog in the back for your browsing."
Teacher Wai dropped his arm, letting Teacher Ekkusu escort the gross man out. She looked over at Jii.
"All good?" she asked, making a foreign gesture.
Jii returned her gesture. "Thanks, Teach."
Teacher Wai then turned to me, who had moved in front of him.
"Should probably put that down before you accidentally stab someone in the eye," she joked.
I wouldn't accidentally stab anyone, I wanted to say. Instead, I pouted and dropped the chopstick back on the plate. I handed Jii his food.
Teacher Wai was fast. So it had not escaped her notice when I had been faster. Under her curious gaze, I grew slightly nervous.
Thankfully, my friends got me out before my cover was entirely blown.
We decided we had enough fancy for one night.
Instead, we snuck outside. The streets of the entertainment district were always lantern-lit and filled with people. There were kids on the street dancing to music. We couldn't resist joining.
Seeing all the awed faces around us, we kicked off our shoes to put on a real show.
The crowd we gathered wasn't as big as the one in the auditorium. But their cheers were louder. They clapped along. They were eager to come dance with us, trying out our moves for themselves. Some of the faster learners began teaching them to everyone else. People began adding their own twist or style to it.
Before we knew it, martial break had become real. It was born right then, at the heart of the Fire Capital.
It was too good of a night to end.
Back at the hotel, Jii and I ended up staying late, chatting quietly way past our bedtime. We were both in our pajamas in his bed, Jei fast asleep on the other side. The twins were slumbering in the other bed.
"Did you know it's our monthiversary?" I giddily asked Jii, hugging a pillow.
Jii grinned. "You don't say."
He was holding a box out to me.
I blinked.
A gift!
It was a box of candies, unlike anything I had seen before. The candies looked like glass beads of a dark-brown color. I popped one in my mouth and found it bursted into sharp fizz.
The taste was…
I didn't know how to describe the taste!
"Like it? It's from back home. I made sure to save our last box for you." Jii winked.
"What is this?!"
"Koca-Kola."
Jii explained it was from something called the kola nut, from a tree that was native to their country. It was then mixed with a bunch of local and imported spices and oils to give its unique flavor.
The flavor was very popular in Kurohyou. They had in their drinks, popsicles, and even gummies.
"I admit, I had to think a bit," Jii said, taking a piece of the candy for himself. "I didn't know if we had anything that'd taste better than chocolate."
I watched him put the candy on his tongue.
"I'm sure there's at least one thing," I said, warmly hugging my pillow.
Jii had to check he heard me correctly. He stared back.
He laughed. "For real?"
My face went hot. I panicked.
"We don't— it's okay if you think it's gross, I mean, it is kind of gross, I don't—!"
"Babe."
I shut up.
"Nothing with you is gross. And if it is, then I guess I like gross."
Jii dropped down on the bed and smiling, leaned in halfway. He waited.
Heart pounding, I leaned in bit by bit. Then snapping shut my eyes, I went all the way and bumped our lips together.
I felt…
It felt like…
Our lips had bumped.
"Well that's disappointing," I grumbled to myself.
I could feel Jii holding back laughter.
"Is that all you wanted?" he asked.
I broke apart, blinking.
"What did you think I wanted?" I asked.
"A kiss."
My brows furrowed. "Wasn't that it?"
From the way Jii bit his lips and the way his shoulders shook, no. No, that really wasn't.
"Would you like me to give you one?" he asked kindly.
I nodded furiously.
And so, he showed me.
And that was when I learned the world wasn't pranking me on this one. Kisses are magical, and it tasted like Koca-Kola. I didn't know I could float and faint at the same time.
When it was over, I was a pool of melty feelings.
Jii was a very bad boy. He had no shame, his tongue rolling the candy still in his mouth.
"Waah," I sighed.
Jii straightened when I bounced back to life.
"Can I get another one?"
Or three. Or five. Or twenty.
We might have lost count. We might have woken up our friends and embarrassed them. The door might have closed. We weren't paying too much attention.
After getting enough kisses, I started figuring out how to give kisses back. I got very smug when it was Jii's turn to be melty.
Then I learned something really upsetting. Which was that we could have been doing this THE WHOLE TIME. A whole month of kisses!
"Yeah, I would've been down from day one." Jii chuckled. "I just thought…"
"Thought what!"
Jii had this look that asked me not to kill him. "That you'd prefer it after… marrying?" He peeked open an eye.
I stared at Jii like he was crazy.
"Jii, we can't get married until we're eighteen. That's like…" I counted. "A bajillion years away!"
Jii was staring at me.
"What?" I asked.
"You'd want to marry me?"
My blush reached my neck.
Before I could stammer and just die of embarrassment, he said, "Aight."
Startled, I looked to see Jii had leaned forward. He smiled softly. "If you still like me after six years, come back here. I'll do the same. And if you still want me then, we can marry."
He held out his pinky.
It wasn't until after we already made our promise that he remembered something important.
"Oh. Right, I should probably give you my name," he said, sweating.
"Isn't it Jii?!"
He laughed. "Z is just the first letter."
"Huh?" I said, confused.
He explained that while most countries used kanji for trade, not all countries used the same phonetic system. That would be impossible given the amount of dialects out there. They used something called an alphabet.
In Lightning, it was common to call a person by the first alphabetic letter of their name. If there were two people in the room with the same letter, you'd add a nickname to tell them apart, like "Big B" and "Little B".
"Anyway, my name is Zayden."
"Zai… ei… den. Zeiden?"
Jii blinked in happy surprise. "Hey! That's pretty close! More aey, less eih."
"Zayden."
"You got it!"
"Zayden… zay…. zi. Z." My tongue finally got the sound. "Z! Why do you say it with an ii if it's been an ay this whole time?!" I demanded. I could have gotten that so much sooner!
"Alphabet, remember?" Z teased. "And while we're at it, J, M, N, want to give Ayae your names?"
There was a collapsing sound on the other side of the hotel room door. Our friends sheepishly cracked it open.
"Jamal."
"Micah."
"Nia."
They rejoined us. The twins plopped stomach-first on our bed, while Jei dragged a blanket around himself like a long cloak.
I practiced with them on the pronunciations. They beamed when I eventually got it. I got all of it, the sounds I've heard a thousand times finally clicking in my head.
"Z, J, M, N. N, M, J, Z!"
"Pay up losers," J smugly told the twins, "told you she'd get it."
The twins threw him their pillows instead.
"Micah, Nia, Zayden, Jamal," I said proudly, pointing to each of my friends.
"Good, now never use it again," M said grimly.
"Full names for official business only," N said seriously.
Z chuckled. "Yeah, still Z. Save Zayden for my funeral. Or when you really need to yell at me, I guess."
He caught my expression.
"What's wrong?"
I knew Z meant it to be funny, but the mention of funeral had my world suddenly falling under my feet. I knew my friends were only here for the Expo, and now that it was over, they had to leave. But it only hit me now, like really hit me, exactly what they were going back to.
The words from our first night came back. The fate that awaited M and N. The fate that J and Z were risking everything to try to prevent.
I was not the only kid who had escaped a slaughterhouse.
"Z?" I whispered.
"What is it?"
"You know… votes won't matter, right?"
The room went dead silent.
Finally…
"I know."
Everyone turned to Z.
He had whispered it like a secret.
If he had thought votes mattered, he wouldn't have given up his so easily. Traded it and everything else he had for a single statement, a single scream into the void.
Genocide had nothing to do with right or wrong, love or hate, truth or lies. It had nothing to do with how many silly voting games you win or lose either. Even if my friends flipped every vote in the city, how were a few pieces of paper going to stop murderers, with an army of enforcers ready at their call?
My friends thought I was going to persuade them to stay.
I wouldn't disappoint them like that.
Their eyes widened when my summoning scroll expanded across the bed. Ever since the roof incident, I had not let it leave my side.
I found my Military Strategics textbook. I pulled out a few other of my old books too. My hand paused over the weapons. Decided, I took them out. I took almost everything out.
My friends were very smart. They taught me about how the world worked.
But at the end of the day, they were art students.
It was my turn, I realized, to also teach them something.
There was the surface, and then there was the underneath. And then there was what was under the underneath.
The fate of Kurohyou was not decided by Sayuu or Jouge, this party or that, some pieces of paper in a box. It was decided by the real controllers of the city.
"You know Kurohyou is going to end up in whichever way benefits Kumogakure, right?" I whispered.
If a person gets inconvenient, assassinate them.
If a government gets inconvenient, coup them.
If a population gets inconvenient, brainwash them.
These were military basics. So basic, we had learned them alongside arithmetic.
If Kumogakure hadn't been doing this, my own village would have. If there weren't already Kumo ninja patrolling every part of the city, I saw no reason why mine wouldn't have infiltrated at the first opportunity. All those glass towers with big televisions. Sending one of my family members alone, we could have all their citizens demanding an end to the Lightning military, we could have them praising Fire in all their cartoon and idol shows, giving us all their money and giving it happily.
My school had lied to me about many things, but there was one thing they had not lied about:
The ninja ruled this world.
Beneath the illusion of democracy, there was nothing that was happening in Kurohyou that Kumogakure didn't know about and wasn't okay with. Anything they weren't okay with would have long been crushed silently in the night.
"If you fight for equality, you know who you'll really be fighting, right?" I whispered shakingly. "If you want to take power back, you know who you'll really be taking the power from, right?"
If my friends were going to fight, they had to know how their enemies fight.
They better be smart and be three moves ahead at all times. They better not die stupidly.
I better not get stood up in six years, or I'd be really, really angry.
Alarmed, Z watched me bite my thumb until I broke skin. "Ayae—?!"
I handed them the finished paper tag.
"You've given me your full names. You should have mine too. If you're in bad trouble… you find me, okay?" I croaked. "Promise you'll find a way to reach me."
On the paper tag was my signature in blood.
Uchiha Ayae.
