The image of Samouki grabbing onto Nya in his bony grip hurt. Watching her slowly vanish over the horizon on those skeleton trucks probably hurt more. It stuck in his mind like a tinted photograph, or like a big bulletin board for him to look at day and night.

He's gotta get her back.

He's gotta.

She was the last family he had. If she left too…

Her frightened eyes appeared again and he scrubbed his face where he sat on his bunk.

Nya was never the helpless little girl everyone thought she was. She may have been small for her age from not getting enough to eat as a kid, but she was scrappy, smart, and had a temper that put Kai's to shame.

...But that didn't mean she didn't still need her brother once in a while. And right now, she definitely needed her brother. And he wasn't there for her.

Throwing the sheets off, his bare feet hit the bamboo mat as he crept hastily out of the room and out onto the monastery courtyard, wrenching the lever that activated the obstacle course. The wooden dummies sprung to life above the jagged stones.

Kai's hair billowed in the night's icy mountain breeze as he stepped onto the course, rolling up his pajama sleeves. He squared up to one of the dummies and wound up for a punch, hitting one of the rotating torsos as hard as he could.

He growled and winced as the shock rammed through his entire arm and shoulder, the old burns on his hands flaring up.

Kai shook himself off and swung again. He didn't know the correct form, or any safe way to hurt this dummy, and he didn't really care. He just needed to hit something. Anything.

The pain ricocheted off his nerve endings and rattled his teeth as he felt the wood splinter, shards jamming into his knuckles.

He cried out and hit it again.

And again.

And again.

He wasn't sure if the red in his vision was from anger or from the blood staining the wood in front of him. It didn't really matter. As long as it kept the images out of his head.

By the time he felt his muscles give out on him he was panting and slicked in a film of sweat, blood was trickling down the broken wood dummy and staining the dirt at its base.

"Nya," he hiccuped, squeezing his eyes shut. "I'm coming. I swear I'm coming. Please don't–"

"Kai? What on earth are you doing out here?"

Kai scrambled to his feet and turned to face his new sensei, very proud of how subtly he wiped his eyes. "Wu! I was just training for tomorrow." He forced his face to contort into a cocky smirk. "I'm gonna totally demolish you and your teacup."

Wu stared at his newest pupil blankly before quietly raising his orange lantern up to his face. "what is on your face?"

Kai blinked, he wasn't expecting that question. On impulse he swiped at his cheek and internally cringed when he felt something being smeared from his bloody knuckles onto his face.

For a second his gaze cut to and away from his new teacher with a look of guilt and contrived innocence waring on his features.

"... It's Jam," he offered after an eternity, making sure to keep his hands behind him. He nodded to add credibility.

Wu frowned and raised a hand out, stopping when he saw his pupil recoil. Instead he straightened and shrugged, keeping the concern out of his voice. "Very well. With all your energy to train in the middle of the night I'm certain you will have more than enough energy to clean up this mess tomorrow morning."

Kai's shoulders sagged and he wasn't sure if it was from relief or dismay.

Nah, it was definitely relief.

"Yes sir," he said more quietly than he meant to. He took his opportunity to slide past his teacher and practically race down the hallway toward his room throwing a "g'night, sensei seeyatomorrow" over his shoulder.

"Kai wait-" Wu began but was cut off by the door thudding shut. He sighed and rubbed his temple, shaking his head.

Little did he know that his student was leaning against the door doing the same thing.