Naruto had left her, but she couldn't recall how long ago that had been. It must have been close to dawn now.
He had opened up a dam.
Tsuyoi couldn't sleep. Ghosts of memories filled her head, ones that she had lost to the fog. Ones that had been buried deep, never expected to resurface again.
Naruto had proven that something had failed, her inner clockwork really wasn't doing its job, that they were still there, hovering just below the surface, waiting for the right moment to pounce and cycle through the bittersweetness of their existence again.
As much as she had longed for them for so long, now she saw.
Memories were a plague.
Tsuyoi lay on her bed, the blanket pulled up to her chin. The candles had blown out, but the bright white moonlight was filtering through her window. Her bedroom walls were now decorated with a fresh layer of scorch marks, from the moments when her anger and pain was too much to handle inside. Tomoe and Fukuo had learned long ago to not try and prevent her from ruining the walls, because the only time they'd enforced the "no breathing fire inside the monastery" rule, their prized kaneshon flowers had been burned to a crisp.
Tsuyoi held in an unexpected giggle at the memory. She felt a deep pang of remorse for snapping at her patrons. When it had happened, it was like a completely different person had took control. She sighed.
I'll apologize properly tomorrow. Or maybe, she thought again, looking at the light creeping across the floor. Later today...
She wasn't sure what time it was.
Her eyes slipped closed for the briefest of moments, but yet she still found herself in a dream.
She would come to see, dreams were a plague as well.
***********
Tsuyoi slid down from the tree's branches and onto the thatched roof. Crouching in the shadows, she pricked her ears, waiting for her opponent to emerge. She tightened her grip on her tekkan, her pulse pounding in her skull. This was what she lived for--the thrill of chase and the hum of anticipation, the clash of blades in battle. Heavens above, this is fun.
Wait. There it was. Her tiny muscles tightened, trembling with energy. Her adversary had arrived. He stepped hesitantly, knowing she was nearby. C'mon, just a little closer. He stepped again; the wood creaked beneath him. One more step...
Now! She shot forward, her small feet moving too fast for the naked eye to track. She swung her tekkan down in a power arc; her opponent could barely unsheath his hachiwari before she was upon him. She strained for a moment longer, then sprung back, slashing at his ankles in one fluid move. Then they rushed each other. Their blades clashed; sparks flew as the steel screamed against one another. Tsuyoi pressed him closer to the edge of the roof, taking in his stance, his sword stroke, his reach, all at once. He's tiring, she analyzed. His left arm is weakening. Tsuyoi knew her oppenent well. He was a good two inches taller than her and was dominant in his left arm, but could still fight with his right. He was favoring the left now as he was focusing on parring her attacks. If I suprise him, I can shatter his focus.
She tossed her tekkan over her head, letting go of the hilt and spinning with the blade across her palms. He started to move to take advantage of her opened weak spots, but he stopped short. His eyes widened in surprise. There!
She grabbed the blade, ignoring the bite of pain as she cut her palm deeply. She swept a foot behind his left leg, keeping herself out of range from his now stronger right hand. She slammed the hilt of her sword onto his chest, knocking the wind from him and sending him pinwheeling backward. She grabbed his collar and spun her blade into her hand again, closing her fingers around the roughened hilt. She pressed the tip of her tekkan against his throat. It was over. She had won.
"I got you, Takumi," she rasped, breathing hard. The older boy hung precariously on the edge of the roof; the only thing keeping him from tumbling to the ground was her grip on his shirt. If he moved forward, her sword would pierce his throat, and if he leaned away from it, he would fall off the roof completely. Stalemate.
"Okay, okay, you won," he conceded, mildly irritated. He tried wiggling his hachiwari, but Tsuyoi had dug her elbow into the inside of his, rendering him immobile. He grinned at her. "You got me good."
She stepped back, pulling them both upright. She squatted, trying to slow her breathing and her racing heartbeat. Her vision swam.
"You get too excited, josuke sonyeo." He crouched beside her, laying a hand on her back. "Even if you did go to war, you could kill everyone on the battlefield without getting a scratch and then die from over-excitement. Does such a condition even exist?" Takumi teased, trying to make her laugh.
"Shut up," Tsuyoi snapped at her friend. "Or you and I can have a punch-up when I get my breath back."
Takumi lifted one shoulder in a shrug, halfheartedly.
"Hey, you michin ai! Get off my roof, gaichu!" An old lady with gray wisping in her green hair came out of her house with a broom.
"Did she just call me crazy?" Tsuyoi stood. "Who're you calling vermin, you old hag? Take a bath!" She shouted down at her.
The old woman erupted in cursing and threats. "I ought to report you to the Headman!"
"My father is the Headman, you crone!" Tsuyoi spat, angry. She leaped off the roof. "So leave me alone!"
"Tsuyoi. Takumi. What are you doing? Come away from there at once!" Masashi Himekawa, Tsuyoi's father and Headman of Liodito and Master of the Golem Guild, walked toward them, seeming to appear from the shadows. In truth, he had been watching them train the whole time.
"M-my apologies, Headman Himekawa," the woman said as her eyes bulged out of her head. She bowed and scraped before the leader of the village.
"No worries. In fact, it is my daughter who should apologize," he said, giving Tsuyoi a pointed glare.
She crossed her arms and poked out her bottom lip. "Gomen'lal" she apologized in Lioditan. She spun on her heel and stalked away, Takumi following her hastily.
"Sorry, miss." Tsuyoi heard her father add his own apology behind her, but she didn't stop to look. She brushed past Takumi when he tried to stop her.
"You stop right there." Her father called after her.
She obeyed grudgingly. "You need to calm down, Tsuyosugiru," he ordered, using his nickname for her. It meant "too strong", a play on her original name. When Tsuyoi didn't respond, he gestured to Takumi. "You may go home."
"Yessir." Takumi scrambled away. While his back was to her, she watched him pull his dark green scarf away from his face. The one that concealed everything but his eyes most of the time. Tsuyoi felt a sudden ache in her chest.
Warm blood ran down her hand. She clenched her cut fist tight around the hilt of her tekkan and turned to face her father.
CRAAACK! Masashi planted his fist on the top of her head. Hard.
"OWWW! Noroi, Father! Gomen'lal," Tsuyoi yelped, gripping her head with her free hand.
"Let's go home," Masashi said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. As they walked down the street, he hummed the song that Nanao, Tsuyoi's long dead mother, had made for them before she passed. "...and just like our bond, you can't outrun the moon."
Tsuyoi never showed Masashi the cut in her hand. She was sure he noticed, but he didn't say anything. She sowed it up herself when she got home and that was the end of it.
*********
Tsuyoi woke with tears in her eyes. She thrust the cover away and sat on the edge of her bed. She started to lift her hands to lean her head into, but she paused. Across her left hand was a thin, faint scar. It was barely visible.
Even in the dream...I couldn't see their faces. Not the old lady, not Dad...and Takumi had his scarf on....
She sighed. She reached out, and her fingers brushed a kite string. She could almost see it in front of her, even though she knew it wasn't there. In her mind's eye, it hovered. My inspiration...is my father. And Naruto was the one who woke it up inside me. Rekindled the flame. He opened a dam.
But since I can't see his face...it will do nothing but hurt me if I held on to it. So...
Her arm drifted down to her lap.
He would want me to let it go.
A little breeze pushed the kite away, and it was lost to the gray of her mind.
She'd forgotten it. What had happened in the dream. She only knew her father was with her now, as sure as the swords beside her on the bed. And Mother, too...
Naruto brought my parents back to me.
And what astounded her was the fact that something told her to look for the swords that brought all this about.
She ran her finger down the length of one. It was about time to shake of this sadness. Time to get up and do something. If Naruto thought there was a way to fix this, she had no choice but to believe him.
Now she had a new goal.
She was going to defeat the Earth Dragon King.
With these swords... I will put an end to this cycle of death.
Without getting a scratch.