People who say "ignorance is bliss" seem to forget that "confusion is a headache".

Do you know how hard it is to do anything with a headache?

Or how much better you get at things without one holding you back?

That was what happened to me after my Kurohyou friends freed me from Konoha's brainwashing.

My dance was fantastic.

Despite barely practicing, I aced every class. Before I knew it, everyone was looking at me like I was a celebrity.

Wait, I lied. I did practice.

I spent many, many hours dancing with Jii. But that was fun and easy. We were goofing off, so it didn't feel right to call it "practice".

But it was practice. Like how kids learn to speak by chatting with friends, or learn to run by playing tag. I just grew up in a gloomy, doomy place that told me learning had to be boring and repetitive, hard and miserable, and it was the misery that made us better.

I got so good at dance, one day Teacher Ekkusu ended our private lesson early and said:

"I'm pushing up your debut. You're competing in the New School Expo."

I nearly dropped my props.

"The Expo? Me?"

The New School Expo was my friends' competition, not mine. I had a front-row ticket inside my wallet. Jii had been super excited when he gave it to me.

"I-is there even time to enroll?" I asked. The Expo was next week.

"Registration ended last month."

My shoulders lowered slightly.

Teacher Ekkusu wasn't bothered, continuing, "I'll tell the committee to grant you an exception."

I sweated. Oh right. Teacher Ekkusu could just do that. I kept forgetting how much power my teacher had.

Before coming to the Fire Capital, I had been really naive. Not anyone could have brought me out of Konoha. It would have been considered impossible, until Teacher Ekkusu came, bearing the stamps of the biggest noble families in Fire, including the royal family itself.

"The point of the New School Expo is to push the frontier of dance. It is about evolution and revolution, forging a path forward for others to follow. A groundbreaking style like yours is exactly what the future needs," Teacher Ekkusu said. " This is your opportunity to introduce yourself to the world stage."

I couldn't help but be moved by his words. Teacher Ekkusu really believed in me.

"Which dance do you want me to do?" I asked.

"Whichever one you want." Teacher Ekkusu looked me dead in the eyes. "Whatever you choose to do, you must win."

My eyes widened.

Oh… right.

Teacher Ekkusu had a reputation. It was my responsibility as his student to defend it. He had never once sent out a protege who failed to take first place.

But…

I looked at my props again and thought hard.

Finally, "Yes, I can do that."

Teacher Ekkusu looked pleased.

"But only if you talk to Teacher Wai first," I said.

"About what?"

"Me registering under her team for the Expo. My friends are on her team." Jii was on her team, I thought, sweating. "They're really good. If you want me to win, Teacher Ekkusu, you have to get me on the winning team."

Teacher Ekkusu no longer looked pleased.

He looked proud.

.

Teacher Wai was less impressed.

"Can she breakdance?" she asked.

Teacher Ekkusu glanced at me.

I nodded. "I can!"

Skeptical, Teacher Wai asked for a demonstration. She and her Expo team stepped back to make room for me. My friends perched by the windowsill. Catching my glance, they gestured in encouragement. They looked beyond ecstatic that I could be joining them.

In the center of the room, I breathed. I began.

I had danced with Jii so many times, I had memorized their routine. I was confident that whatever role the team wanted me to do, I'd do great.

I got lots of enthusiasm from the team.

"Woah…"

"Holy cow, that—!"

I spun up from my drop. Finished, I looked at Teacher Wai, expectant.

Teacher Wai looked approving. She pointed to Jii, gesturing for him to step forward. She wanted to use the team's best dancer to test me.

Jii and I both hid our smiles as we stepped up to face each other.

We didn't even need the music.

At this point, every member of the team had jumped to their feet, whispering madly.

"Gods, if we get Teacher Ekkusu's protege, this competition is in the bag."

"Damn, that's a perfect sync…"

"Wow, that's smooth."

"Alright, that's good," Teacher Wai said. "You can stop. That's enough. I said, enough."

Jii and I snapped out of it. Sheepishly, we let each other go and turned to face Teacher Wai's judgment.

Teacher Wai exhaled.

"You're good," she admitted to me. Her smile was genuine. "You're not on the team."

Everyone's cheer was cut short. They thought they misheard.

"Wait, what?" Jii said, recovering first. "You just said she's—"

"She's excellent," Teacher Wai corrected herself, deciding "good" was underselling me. She stared pointedly at Teacher Ekkusu. "We should have expected no less."

To the team, she said, "Now that y'all have a sense of your competition, I recommend you get back to it."

I was dumbfounded. Teacher Wai rejected me.

The door to their dance room closed, leaving me in the hallway.

.

"What the hell!" I screamed on my walk home. "Teacher Wai doesn't like me. I knew it. I knew it!" I kicked a pebble.

Jii just laughed.

"I don't think it's personal. She probably thinks putting us together will make us too OP."

"OP?"

"Overpowered," he said with a grin. "Gotta give the other teams a chance."

I grimaced.

"Worried for us, babe?" he teased.

Caught, I shrunk. It was starting to get unfair how well Jii knew me.

"That's the reason you want to be on our team, isn't it? You don't want to steal first place from us?"

"Jii, you guys have been practicing for months. I don't even have a dance in mind."

"Yeah, crazy how much X needed to handicap you. One week prep time is extreme, even for me. And taking on everyone solo? Damn."

"Jii!" I gave him a little push. "You don't need to compliment me anymore. I already like you. I like you so much I can't like you any more even if I tried! I can't live if every moment you're making my feelings explode."

"Well that's a problem then, babe," he said easily, "because I've already picked up the habit."

He dropped the tease.

We stopped in front of my building.

"Jii, so you really wouldn't be upset if I took first? It's just… Teacher Ekkusu has done a lot for me, and I really owe him and—"

"Babe."

Jii was holding back a face-splitting grin.

"I'm with the best girl in school. I'll get to see her on stage. I'll get to see whatever incredible, insane thing she's going to pull off. If you're going to worry, worry for the others. But me, I've already won."

I buried my face into my hands. "Jii?"

"What's wrong?"

"Tell Jei to dress you in uglier outfits."

He blinked.

"Handicap," I whined into my palms, waiting for my bubbly feelings to pass. "You also need a handicap."

.

The following week ended up being hell.

Fiiru had some bad milk, which made him sick. He threw up, and then kept throwing up, which of course freaked Saimon out. With medicine from the apothecary, Fiiru thankfully got better, but the incident caused a rumor to spread.

The rumor reached my landlord.

When the landlord discovered all the people living in my apartment, he got angry and said that wasn't allowed. When I pointed out nothing in my housing contract—and if Tomoe taught me anything, it was how to read contracts—said that wasn't not allowed, he pointed to some stupid law.

So then I had to go talk to government officials about their stupid law. Paying for housing was already stupid enough, but now they were just being assholes, saying you can't even give housing?

The talk went nowhere. I stomped out, wishing I could burn the entire office down.

Another storm was coming. If everyone couldn't stay with me, then we needed to set up a better camp. Everyone's tarps were still ripped from last time, so we also needed to find new tarps.

All to say… it was now the day before the competition, and I still had no dance prepared.

But that was fine! Because today, today I could finally—!

In the middle of the road was a body.

Frantic, I looked around. Everyone just walked around the body. One mister, in a rush, even stepped over the arm.

Sweating, I crouched down. "Um. E-excuse me, are you okay?"

I poked.

There was a reaction. I jumped back. They were alive!

Not being able to hear what they were saying, I leaned closer.

"... food," the stranger cried weakly.

.

In the restaurant, I warily eyed the increasing stack of empty plates.

"So, uh, what's your name?"

The girl was too busy eating to reply. She grabbed a chicken leg and ripped it apart with her teeth. When she spat it out, the bone was sparkling clean. She shoveled rice into her mouth, before grabbing another chicken leg.

She finished with massive chugs of water. She set down the empty cup and breathed.

"Hi!" she said, sparkling.

I fell from my seat. Her face totally changed!

The girl was very round and cute, with straight bangs, short brows, and puffy cheeks. Her clothes were some fancy green silk with very long sleeves that trailed to the floor.

"Hi," I said.

"I'm Midoriko. Call me Dori! I'm twelve!"

"Oh, I'm also twelve!" I excitedly pointed to myself. "My name is Ayae!"

Dori clapped together her hands in gratitude. "Thank you, thank you, Ayae! I was so lost before you. I am not from here."

"Oh! Where are you from?"

"Land of Sound!"

My eyes widened. "Wah! That's so far!"

"Yes, the trip was soooo long and bumpy. My butt still sore," Dori whined.

Despite the bad trip, Dori was excited to be in Fire. She said everything was so different here. The buildings were so big and colorful. The roads were so fancy and smooth. And the people! There were so many people!

She leaned in, whispering, "The boys here are very cute too."

Dori and I went on to chat lots and lots, mostly about boys. Dori really, really liked boys—big boys and small boys, pretty boys and handsome boys, city boys and farmer boys, boys with cat ears, boys with bird wings, boys with fish tails…

"Seeing one just drives me crazy!" she squealed. "I feel warm and dizzy, and my heart goes wild, and I'd like to just jump on them and… and…" She made a big munching gesture, like a snake swallowing a mouse whole. She looked at me, wide-eyed and uncertain. "Do you feel like that too?"

"All the time with Jii!"

"Jii?"

I nodded. "My boyfriend."

Her eyes sparkled. "You have a boyfriend?"

I nodded again.

Leaning on the table, Dori looked at me with starry wonder. "Ooh, I want, I want! But my family would kill me if I did."

I sweated. "My family too. They don't know."

She cupped her cheeks with both hands. "Forbidden love is my favorite!"

I cupped my cheeks. "Me too!"

"Ooh you're so naughty, hehe!"

"Thank you, hehe!"

We giggled. It was decided. Dori and I were friends.

"So who's the boy you like?" I asked, curious.

"Hm?"

"The one that drives you all crazy."

She tilted her head. "All of them do."

I fell.

"ALL—!" I stopped myself, forcing a polite smile. "Even the annoying ones?"

Dori blinked. "Annoying? What do you mean?"

I sweated. "You know. Like. When they talk."

Dori jumped in her seat. She became fidgety. "Right, when they… talk. A-about…" She glanced around. "Chairs."

I stared at my new friend hard.

As it turned out, Dori never actually spoke with a single boy. Ever. That was because she grew up in a special house with many other girls like her. Boys were not allowed in this house. So the only times she saw a boy were the rare times she went outside, but even then, there were strict rules against speaking to them.

I didn't have a chance to learn more, because just then, the restaurant curtains opened.

"There you are!"

It was an older girl, also wearing long silk but hers was white. Angry, she grabbed Dori. Dori struggled and whined back, and the two shouted at each other, but they had switched accents, which was too different from mine to understand.

Before long, I was forgotten, and they had stomped off.

… leaving me with the bill.

I took one glance at the numbers before smiling sheepishly at the restaurant boss.

Fortunately, all my time in domestic arts taught me how to do dishes very well. Unfortunately, by the time I paid off the debt, it was already dark. And at that point, I decided, ah screw it, I'm off to bed.

The next morning, I walked with my Kurohyou friends to the building where the Expo was being held. You couldn't miss it—it was the biggest building in the entertainment district, with a large round dome. There was a crowd outside the doors, including the rest of my friends' team. I guessed there were about sixty people in all.

To my surprise, I saw green robes. It was Dori, standing with the older white-robed girl. Dori saw me too and waved, her long sleeves trailing down.

"Ayae!"

"Dori! Wait, are you here for the Expo?!"

"Yeah! I'm a dancer! Are you also…?"

"I'm competing too!"

What a coincidence! Well… maybe not. I did find Dori, an international visitor, in the dance district, the day before an international dance competition.

"Who's this?" Emu asked.

"New friend?" En asked.

"Ah, this is Dori," I told my friends. "I met her yesterday!"

"Hey," Jii greeted.

"Sup," Emu and En said.

"What's good," Jei said.

Dori had her mouth open, but didn't say anything. She looked overwhelmed.

The door opened.

We all turned. It was the Expo staff, ready to escort us in.

We followed them to the stage where we'd be performing.

Inside the theater, I grew wide-eyed. I turned and turned, spinning. I felt like I was ten years old again, walking into the Konoha arena.

The staff then showed us backstage. Dressing rooms. Makeup rooms. Props rooms. There was a series of stairs that led us to the contestant's balcony, where we could watch the other performances. Opposite the contestant's balcony was the instructor's balcony.

The staff explained the DJ booth and all the lightning fixtures above us. They introduced us to the technician team, who gave us thumbs up, ready to take our instructions.

By the time we finished our tour and returned to the stage, there was the competition host waiting for us. Behind her were our team instructors.

Seeing Teacher Ekkusu, many of the dancers froze.

"Alright, and lastly, the rules!" the host said. "Three rounds, each with three judges. After each round, the bottom half is always eliminated. The scores of the last round decide first, second, and third place. We recommend you all strategize well, and decide which dance to perform for which round, to prevent elimination and secure final placement. First place wins 25 million ryou."

I wheezed. DID SHE SAY TWENTY FIVE MILLION?

"Any questions?"

Someone in the back raised his voice. "Yeah, one of our members fell sick on the trip over. Are we allowed subs?"

"I'm assuming this is Matsubochi's team? Your instructor and I just had this conversation, and I regret to inform you that anyone who is not registered for the Expo cannot sub in. And the substitute you are requesting has missed the registration deadline."

At the cries and groans, the host raised her hand for peace. "We understand this happens. If you absolutely need an extra, you can always borrow someone from one of the other teams. Obviously, that's a negotiation between you and them. But no one who is not registered for the Expo is allowed on stage, including audience members."

Here, she looked pointedly at Teacher Wai, who pouted.

"Hey, that's never been a rule before!" Jei complained.

"It is now," the host deadpanned.

My friends' team looked disappointed at the news. This was going to mess up one of their routines.

The other dancers whispered.

"... pulling in the audience?"

"... thought to do that?"

"Anything else?" asked the host.

I raised my hand.

"Are props okay?"

"What kind?"

I glanced at the wrapped swords strapped to my back. "Weapons?" I laughed nervously.

"No rule against them," the host said.

Phew.

"Alright, if there are no more questions, we request all instructors leave for your balcony. The competition has officially started, and instructors are not allowed to provide any more assistance or guidance to their teams."

I watched them leave. Teacher Ekkusu and I locked gazes. Many eyes were on my teacher.

The host turned our attention to a box.

"Will every team pick their leader. Each leader please take a button pin from this box."

We did.

I pulled out a button pin. There was a number on it. 10.

Jii got 7.

The older girl with Dori got 4.

"The number on the pin is now your team number. It is also the order of the performance. If you would rather go earlier or later, you may negotiate with other teams to swap time slots."

The host told us we had the rest of the morning to ourselves. Performances would begin at noon.

And that was it. She left, leaving all the dancers to huddle with their teams.

The backstage was open. Most people went there, to put down their equipment or get dressed.

"We're going to talk to tech to get our sounds set up," Jii told me, jerking a thumb. "See you in a bit?"

"Yeah, go!"

The twins waved.

"Meet up later!"

"Good luck!"

I waved back.

The backstage was full of chatter and gossip.

"... just our luck, and here we thought we avoided Lightning."

"You don't think those are Kurohyou kids, do you?"

"Lord, hope not, otherwise we're screwed."

"... Ekkusu AND Wai entered their students?"

"So much for an easy year…"

"Ah! What use are informants if all their information is wrong!"

"Look at those losers," someone told me.

I blinked. Next to me was a boy. He wore an oversized jacket over a tight shirt. I was mesmerized by his lips, which were coated to look very wet and glossy. His skin was amazing.

He was wearing a button pin like me. 8.

"Arashi Oosumi," he introduced.

"Ayae!" I shook his hand.

"I'm pleased there's another solo dancer this year. You're Ekk's protege, aren't you?"

"How—?"

He snorted. "It's not hard to guess." He turned to the rest of the room and pointed to each of the teams one by one. "Flashy. Trashy. Weak. Meek. Please. And oof, my grandmother wouldn't be caught dead with that." He made a disgusted look in Dori's direction. Dori sneezed at the powder the older girl was patting on her. Arashi returned to me. "The only real competition looked like the one with the Lightning kids, but that troupe was clearly Wai's. Which, by process of elimination, leaves… you."

He eyed me up and down.

I waited for the worst.

But he just complimented, "I love your style."

I beamed. "Thanks! My friend Jei is a designer. He helped put this together for me."

"Well, pass him my compliment," he said, studying my outfit. "Very in vogue."

He stepped back.

"I did notice you were close with the Lightning kids," he said. "You also from Lightning?"

"Eh? Oh no, no. Do I look… Lightning-ish?"

"Not at all. I just figured it was a safer guess than Fire."

"Why?"

He wrinkled his nose, as if that was obvious. "Because Fire sucks at dance."

"Where are you from?"

"Fire."

Silence.

"Pft…" I broke into a full laugh.

Arashi made a small, tight smile. "Well, I'm glad there are some people who aren't going out of their way to misunderstand me."

I wiped away a tear. "No, no, you're good!" I hiccupped. "I grew up around misunderstood people. And yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, I'll be your friend."

Arashi's cool act fell apart like glass. He stammered.

My lips were wobbly. "You're all alone here, and you saw I was by myself too. That's why you came over to talk to me, right? Yes, we can be friends." Honestly, I would have tried befriending him myself, if he hadn't reached out first.

"You're right, I am from Fire," I said. "Are we really that bad?"

Arashi recovered.

He scoffed. "Without the Ekkusu-Wai School, we're nothing. Our dance is in hell. And why wouldn't it be? No one in this country can dance anymore unless it pays. And no one can pay except rich perverts who only want to see one thing." He scowled. "After I get the prize money, I'm starting my own school."

"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt."

Arashi unfolded his arms. Another dancer had approached us, a big man with half his face covered in tattoos. I recognized him as the one who asked about the substitutes earlier.

"Is there any chance either of you are a popper or locker?" the man asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Arashi sneered.

"What for?" I asked.

The man looked back and forth between us and decided to go with me. He clapped his hands together in a beg.

"If you're willing to sub in for our routine, we'll share the prize money with you after we win. One-tenth!"

My eyes widened.

"As if," Arashi said. "You want her? Half."

The man was too shocked to even be angry.

Arashi wasn't backing down. "Actually, I take that back. Nine-tenths," he said, still offended by the earlier number.

I sweated. My new friend was going to make us an enemy of everyone, wasn't he?

"I'd take it, if I were you," Arashi said, pretending to file his nails. "You're asking Ekkusu's protege. It'd be your only shot of any prize at all."

At this, the man froze. His eyes bulged. "It's you?" he asked me. "And you can do popping or locking?"

I nodded. My friends had shown me plenty of cool moves with popping and locking. I loved them a lot. They were fun to do. "I can do both. They're not my speciality, but if you show me what you need, I can try my best."

"What's your name?"

"Ayae."

The man held up a finger to say wait for him. He ran to his teammates. They all came back as a group. Their leader, wearing the 1 button on her jacket, stepped up. She was bald and just as tattooed as the rest of her team.

She studied me quietly.

Then, she threw her head back.

"CHALLENGE!"

The effect was immediate. Every single person in the room turned their heads, dropping what they were doing to form a circle around us.

Seeing the sea of faces, the twinkling eyes and wide grins, I immediately knew what this was. I had been here before, when Jii first locked eyes with me, when I had been pushed into the circle. It wasn't just some fun thing my school made up… dancers from around the world did this.

And no dancer could ever ignore the call of a dance-off.

The 1st leader took the first move.

The last didn't end with either of us.

Team 12. Team 3. Dori and the older girl in white. Even Arashi could not resist flipping out his dance fans, showing off to the crowd.

The dance-off was just what everyone needed. The coldness and tension in the room was completely gone. Everyone agreed to reveal their skills, cheering and congratulating, slapping hands and wrapping arms around each other like old friends instead of strangers.

"Well, Ayae, we need a locker and you've definitely got it," the 1st leader told me, extending her hand. "Half."

"Half," I agreed.

.

Team 1 was up first. We had less than an hour until stage time, and we squeezed every last second of it to make me their new locker.

Their choreography was intense. I broke into a sweat trying to learn it. The team had been internally debating if it was even worth teaching me the whole thing, or to use the time to change the choreography into something simpler.

About ten minutes in, they began plotting how to reduce my role.

About twenty minutes in, they scrapped those plans and focused on perfecting my role, tweaking the dance to my size, since I was much smaller than their previous locker.

About thirty minutes in, they began plotting how to expand my role.

About forty-five minutes in, they rearranged me to be centerstage.

Watching from the sidelines, Arashi had a stiff smile. There was a whole crowd next to him watching too.

"Damn, Ekkusu's students are really next level."

Arashi snorted. "You think?"

About fifty-five minutes in, we completed a perfect rehearsal.

Leaving five minutes left for costume and makeup. I didn't even have time to greet my confused Kurohyou friends, who came back to find me looking completely different, trying to get a sip of water in while five people frantically looped jewelry around me and painted my face.

And the next time I danced, it was in the light, on stage, in front of three thousand people.

.

I cracked open an eye to see Jii's smiling face above me.

"I didn't think anything could wear you out."

I made a weak gesture for water. Jei handed me his water bottle.

"That was an insane first performance," Emu said.

"That was an insane debut," En said.

We were in the contestants' balcony.

Team 2 was now performing below.

Seeing the empty arena was one thing, but to see it filled with people was another.

"Wow," I whispered.

"First time performing for this many people?" Jii asked me.

"In You-Know, there'd be a hundred people at most." Well, a hundred and one. You could always count on my dad to bump up the audience size by one.

Suddenly thinking of him, I felt sad that he missed this one. My debut.

"I'm surprised You-Know has dance competitions at all," Jei said.

"They're all organized by my old instructor. She'd invite other dance schools from outside the village. And judges from the outside too. She really cared…"

I thought of the makeshift stage and folding chairs. A single wooden table for the judges. A bunch of awkward parents clapping for their kids.

Seeing what I saw now, I couldn't help but wonder… was this what Ms. Hyuuga had been trying to recreate? Was this what she had been trying to show us, when she returned to Konoha, bringing with her the precious three dances she had been gifted?

"Ayae."

It was Team 1. The 1st leader was grinning ear to ear. "We wanted to say thanks again. You didn't have to go that hard for us, but you did." She threw me something.

I caught it. It was one of the jewelry pieces I wore for the performance.

"Keep it."

I beamed. It was a little clip-on earring.

"Ayae!"

It was Dori, approaching from the other direction. In her hands was a bowl of… grilled eel?

"You were so cool!" she said. "Have you eaten yet? Here! You should eat before you have to go on stage again."

Behind me came an "ahem".

I turned around to see Arashi with my old clothes and props.

"You left these behind," he said, avoiding eye contact with everyone else.

"Damn, we left you alone for like two minutes," Jei said. "How are you already friends with like half the contestants?'

"You guys disappeared for longer than two minutes," I said, pouting. "How long does it take to talk to the sound crew?"

"Hey, lights crew too!" Jei said.

"And props crew," said Emu.

"And cleaning crew," said En.

Together, we watched more of the performance below. I ate my bowl.

Team 2 finished, and Team 3 started.

Then it came time for Dori and who I learned was her sister, Shiro.

The sisters huddled in the middle of the stage. Then the music began.

Arashi raised an eyebrow.

"Lyrical. Interesting choice."

I learned that lyrical dance meant dances that were slower, softer, and more fluid. Right now the opposite was trending—fast, hard, sharp—so lyrical had mostly faded away from competitions.

"They can be hella beautiful," Jii said. "It's often used for more complicated emotions."

"Like love," said Emu.

"Or heartbreak," said En.

I thought Team 4 was indeed very beautiful. The way their bodies fell into each other and twisted reminded me of rising vines or intertwining snakes.

They had the entire audience captivated.

They had me captivated.

Until I blinked.

And blinked again.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.

When I reopened my eyes, I was no longer looking at the stage, but at the opposing balcony where all the instructors were.

Without a doubt, the instructor of Team 4 had his hands in a seal.

He was using genjutsu.

.

I was quiet as everyone gave Team 4 lots of compliments.

I glanced again over at their instructor, frowning.

Growing up with Itachi, I knew what good genjutsu felt like. It felt like nothing. You can spend a lifetime trying to figure out if what you're looking at is real or fake, and you'd still have no clue.

This man's genjutsu was bad. It smelled overly sweet and tasted yellow. It felt like someone throwing fake flowers and glitter on stage to look romantic. It shattered under the slightest doubt.

It was so bad, I relaxed my grip on my swords. He probably wasn't a ninja.

Just… someone desperate to win, even if it meant cheating.

Teams 5 and 6 went, and then the lights dimmed again. It was my friends' turn.

In the dark, I could feel the restlessness from the other contestants. Word had gotten out that the "Lightning kids" were indeed from Kurohyou, and dancers from Kurohyou always got instant attention from the dance community.

They always got instant attention from the audience too.

The lights flashed on, and I saw why they needed to spend an hour just setting up.

The audience didn't just gasp. They cried.

The curtain. The stage. Even the ceiling. Nothing was recognizable anymore, obliterated by insane, mind-bending color.

Spray paint.

Rolling quietly on the stage was a single can of the paint.

Yelping, someone in the audience pointed up.

Crouched on the lighting scaffolding were the dancers, masked and geared.

One by one, they dropped. And with them, the beat.

I laughed, enjoying the vibrations ripple through me.

The thing is…

Locking, popping, krump. House and vogue. Jazz. All of these dances came from Lightning.

And by the time the rest of the world caught up, picking up the pieces of their legacy, Lightning had already moved on.

The gap in skill was as clear as day and night.

By the time Jii took centerstage, the other contestants in the balcony looked resigned. They knew a master b-boy when they saw one.

Jii was so impressive, so good, in between my awes and sighs, I felt a tiny, tiny squeak of panic.

How was I going to beat him?

But then, the show was over, and in between breaths, he was looking at me, and he was smiling at me, and my panic poofed out of existence.

The applause for Team 7 was so loud, the ceiling nearly collapsed.

I might have applauded the loudest.

.

There was only one bad thing about Team 7's performance: it doomed whoever had the misfortune of going next.

And that was Arashi.

Team 7 had shaken him up so badly, he dropped his fan mid-performance.

It was a moment so painful, all the other contestants shared the pain with him, wincing.

It was also the moment his chances were completely over.

He never returned to the contestant's balcony.

Halfway through Team 9's performance, I found Team 12, asking if they'd like to trade time slots. I didn't want to go next, not yet.

Usually it was always better to go earlier than later. Less time with the jitters and nerves. And you'd never know if someone ahead of you would be doing something similar to what you're doing, which would ruin the whole "wow" factor of your own performance.

Unless, of course, you needed more prep time or had some killer ending in mind.

Team 12 didn't.

They accepted the trade.

I used the extra time to look for Arashi.

Backstage, I noticed one of the doors was locked. It was one of the makeup rooms.

Thankfully, I knew how to pick locks.

"I'm not accepting pity," Arashi said coldly, not turning around when the door creaked open.

"I, um, accidentally bought an extra milkshake?"

I held up the two milkshakes to the mirror. I had picked them up on my way over.

"They're… vanilla," I said.

"Oh." Arashi blinked fast and straightened his chest. "I suppose I can take that off your hands."

I took that as permission to come in.

The inside of the room was… well. I carefully stepped over all the tossed powder and makeup brushes. I took one of the stools thrown on the floor and plopped it upright.

I sat next to Arashi while we drank our milkshakes.

His eyes were still a little red and his makeup was wiped off, but he refused to cry anymore.

"It was a long shot anyway," he finally said. "Sometimes you're just… outclassed."

He turned to me.

"Your Lightning friend. The handsome one with the earrings? Neither of you are subtle, you know that? If you like him…"

"I do."

Arashi raised an eyebrow.

"Then I hope you know that he's dead stupid in love—"

"—with me, I know."

His other eyebrow followed.

There was a moment of silence. I could tell his brain was working overtime, so I made it easier for him:

"He's my boyfriend," I said.

And so, his brain broke.

"You're already together?" he screeched, annoyed that whatever good-friend advice he had so perfectly prepared was now perfectly wasted. "Then why are you here!"

I looked at Arashi like he was stupid.

"Because I'm your friend. And you need a friend right now. So here I am."

Did he think the reason I wanted to see him… was to get dating advice? About a boy who was part of the reason he was so miserable right now?

Did he really think I was so mean?

Arashi stammered.

He noticed the time.

"Aren't you up next?!"

I waved lazily. "I switched with Team 12."

He stammered some more.

"It's tough being a kid all by yourself in a new place," I said softly. "I wish I had someone when I first came here."

Arashi stiffened. "I don't need you to feel sad for me," he scowled, aggressively poking the straw in his milkshake.

I looked around the wrecked room.

"What about angry?" I offered. "I feel kind of angry too."

He looked at me suspiciously. "About what?"

"That you couldn't show us your real dance." What happened on stage was not it. "I saw what you could do during the dance-off. You're talented. Definitely a level above many of us."

Arashi was quiet.

Finally, he unstrapped his fans from his waist.

"Be careful," he warned sharply. "They're heirloom."

I accepted them delicately into my hands.

His fans were unlike anything I'd seen before, big and heavy, full of colorful feathers and threading.

He explained to me that each of the threads belonged to a person. He pointed to one part of the pattern at the very edge and said that was him. And if you traced it, there were his aunts and uncles, and his grandparents, and great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents.

I realized I was seeing a tree, but while my clan used writings on a wall, his clan used threads.

And just like my clan's tree, his was also… dying.

Arashi told me he came from a family of shamans. They were supposed to lead all the dances for the village ceremonies. Those dances were important. Those dances had meaning. They were the result of generations after generations of people coming together to create someone beyond any single person. Something that stored all the history and wisdom and dreams and happiness of a community through the flow of time.

The dancers were supposed to be that vessel.

Arashi was the last dancer left in his village.

They told him he was the best dancer anyone had seen for generations, better than anyone in living memory. He was supposed to pick up the project that all his ancestors had left behind. Make it bigger and better than anything that had existed before.

But genius or not, how was he supposed to do that when the baby was crying and the stove was burning and the debt collectors were knocking, and everyone was so very tired and exhausted.

Growing up, he watched people dance less and less. The village square, which once hosted all their annual festivities, got turned into a business center.

Their last temple was about to be turned into a hotel.

Arashi threw his empty milkshake onto the ground with everything else.

"If you want anger, I'll give you anger. I refuse to become some pet, doing cheap tricks for a bunch of businessmen and tourists."

"No, you've got to build your own school," I whispered.

He had to build a school like Ms. Hyuuga had to build a school. He had to forge a path forward, find some way to bring dance into the future, even if it meant signing up for some competition hundreds and hundreds kilometers away, traveling there alone with nothing but his fans, his courage, a single bag of clothes.

I handed Arashi his fan back.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

I had unstrapped the swords from my back. I stored them in the corner. They'd be unwrapped eventually, but not today.

"I'm ready," I said.

"Ready for what?"

"To learn your dance."

.

I asked Arashi to be a sub on my team. Or maybe I was his sub. It didn't matter. We were dancing together on stage, and we'd share the prize.

Arashi's fan dance was better as a duet. It was finally danced as it was meant to be danced.

Lightning had only twenty percent of people. Yet they contributed to eighty percent of all dance.

Fire had forty percent of people. Yet we contributed to less than five percent.

That was not fair to Lightning. Their dancers fought so hard, we had to fight hard too. Keeping dance alive was all our responsibility.

To learn that Fire had been so bad…

Really pissed me off…

Because Fire…

For thousands of years…

Brought some of the most beautiful movements to the world.

I flapped the fan shut.

"Another round of applause for Team 10!" the host shouted to the cheering crowd.

Arashi and I bowed to the standing ovation.