Tayte stayed in her usual spot in the back of the van, staring out the window, but was unfocused throughout the long car ride. Her vision was repeatedly obstructed by violent flashes of the past.

The grimy content of a dark alleyway. Bruises, blood, and tears across a mangled face. It popped up over and over. Every time she dared to wander to another thought, the unsettling imagery was flung right back at her. As if her own brain was working against her.

The racing of her heart was alleviated just a little whenever bits of Ryder’s conversation with Chris reached her ears — some folktales about Mount Muhabura in the town of Kisoro, which was where the next Tombstone Checkpoint was located. Right on the summit.

As soon as the van stopped, marking the end of the grueling six-hour-long car ride, Tayte grabbed her brimmed cap and backpack and jumped out. She drew in the warm air of the summer afternoon and looked around the Mgahinga National Park Headquarters. The sights of a couple of dusty SUVs and small office structures dotted across the parking lot were nothing special, but it was enough to keep the memory flashes at bay.

Two doors shut from behind her. She turned back to see Ryder and Chris approaching her.

Ryder wore an even gaudier outfit than the day before — a matching flame shirt and swim shorts while Chris was equipped with a backpack, gloves, and two long, broad sticks.

Chris proffered a stick to Tayte. “Here, we are going to need this.”

“You two kids be good now,” Ryder said, smiling.

“What will you be doing?” Tayte asked Ryder.

“Distracting the wildlife authorities while Chris takes you through the shortcut.” He said as he legged his way to one of the offices. He gave the two an overly animated blow kiss using both hands.

Chris pointed over at the mountain that was visible in the distance. The cone-shaped elevation overlooked all of Uganda, hiding parts of a puffy cloud behind it. “That’s our goal. 4,127 meters. It’s not an easy hike. The path gets really steep. I know because I practiced.”

“‘Practiced’?” Tayte asked.

“I’ve been preparing for these Trials for a long time,” Chris said, turning away from Tayte. “It’ll take us about six hours to reach the top.” He started walking and she followed. “Obviously, I couldn’t visit every Checkpoint beforehand. In comparison reaching the top of that mountain was the most accessible Checkpoint to visit before the Trials began. I haven’t actually seen it but I have a good idea on where it could be and that area might be accessible now that the Trials have started.”

Chris led Tayte through a forested path, on their way to the mountain.

###

Tayte and Chris were three hours into their great ascension. The different melodies of birds singing blended nicely with the winds rushing through the thickets. The fresh, pollution-free smells made the grueling hike all the more serene.

Tayte faltered in her steps as her joints gave out their first cry for attention. She was surprised by how quickly her joints started to ache, it wasn’t anything she wasn’t used to, though. She stopped, clenching onto her stick, and her eyes swept over the dark green vegetation as they made their way over to her companion, who was allegedly much more familiar with the steep path.

Chris still had a long way to go to catch up to Tayte. He slogged up the terrain while clenching onto the walking stick with both hands.

“Aren’t you supposed to be faster than me?” Tayte said, looking down on him.

Chris halted with a straight face, eyeing her. “I’m conserving my energy, okay? Hiking has nothing to do with speed. I’m going to need that energy when the terrain gets even rougher.”

“Is there anything you do without planning ahead?”

“No, and it is the reason why I am still alive,” Chris said sternly and resumed walking. “Look, you don’t understand how hard it is to be me. I have to be vigilant at all times. It’s pretty exhausting.”

“Then, stop.”

Chris growled. “We’ve been traveling together for almost a week. Haven’t you been paying attention? If I slip up. I die or we both die!” He let out a sigh as he caught up to Tayte. “You don’t understand how it feels to live with a curse.”

“Maybe I do,” Tayte mumbled.

“What?”

Tayte held his curious glare, just as curious as he was about what she muttered, but she didn’t allow herself another slip-up, she made sure her expression didn’t contort in any way and maintained her unreadable, stony look. She spun back on one foot and trekked up the forested path.

“Really? You’re just going to pretend that nothing happened?”

Tayte ignored Chris’s pestering and allowed for her surroundings to continue their job of stealing away her attention.

A thwack coming from her stick brought her to a halt and forced her to fix on Chris.

“Damn it. Look, what you made me do, you made me run and waste precious energy,” he said, panting, and then hit her stick with his again. “Are we going to talk about it or not?”

Tayte gave him a look that clearly said ‘no’, but that wasn’t going to be enough to get him to back off. Not Chris of all people. She sighed, dropped her stick, pulled her backpack to the front, and pulled out a bag of chips.

Chris’s expression twisted in despair as he dropped his stick. “What’re you doing? Don’t tell me you’re going to eat that.”

“What, are you a health-nut, too?” Tayte said as she popped open the bag.

“Are you insane!” Chris shouted with a crack in his voice. “You’re going to attract animals! This is a path that the guides don’t go through. This is a completely improvised path where gorillas, buffaloes, and huge birds can pop out of anywhere.”

“Oh, I’ve never seen a gorilla up close.” She said and then slowly ate a salty chip staring blankly at Chris almost as if she was mocking him.

‘You weren’t supposed to bring any food!” he shouted. “Only water!”

“Hiking for several hours without any food?” Tayte replied.

“That’s why I said to eat as much as possible during breakfast. I explained all this already during the trip to Kisoro…” Chris squinted at Tayte. “You didn’t listen to a damn thing I said during the trip, did you?”

“Sorry,” she said with one hand over her mouth as she chewed.

“Tayte, get rid of the food before Donkey Kong shows up.”

“We’ve got Relics, it’ll be fine, and besides, I’m hungry.” She ate another chip.

“Dammit, Tayte! Gimme the chips!”

Chris reached for the bag and Tayte weaved away from him. “You’re going to have to catch me.” She said as she raised the bag up in the air.

“What’s that gonna do? I’m taller than you,” Chris said.

“Then, it shouldn’t be hard for you to take it away from me.”

They stared silently at each other. Chris showed his acceptance of the challenge by jumping at Tayte. She easily dodged.

“That wasn’t as unpredictable as you thought it was,” Tayte criticized and grabbed another chip from the packet.

“Stop acting like a kid! I’m trying to save our lives here.”

Tayte calmly watched Chris charge right at her again, and kicked up her stick from the ground. It struck him right in the face. “Oh…” Tayte chuckled, staggering back.

“You happy now?”

“I thought you were going to catch that. With reflexes like that, you were trying to take down Adisa?” Tayte said, swaying to her sides.

“It wasn’t because of bad reflexes, okay? It’s just my luck.”

Tayte stared back at him.

“Don’t give me that look! It’s real! Why do you think I’ve never said “could this get any worse” in my life?” Just as he finished saying that white gloop fell onto his shoulder from above. Chris stiffened all over and closed his eyes, visibly having a raging episode inside of him as his forehead formed all kinds of wrinkles.

“Hey, isn’t bird poop falling on you good luck?”

“No, it’s not!” Chris snapped back. “And whoever spread that belief ought to be shot!”

“Maybe, I could teach you how to fight. It wouldn’t hurt for you to learn how to be more limber. You’re just so tense all the time.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” he said, stretching his hand forward. “Just give me the…” Chris tripped over the stick.

As Tayte moved to dodge, the back of her foot hit the other walking stick on the ground, losing her balance just like Chris.

Chris lied on top of her, post-impact. Their bodies were pressed against each other, sharing heat.

Tayte found herself unable to speak and her heart pounding. An odd warmth began in the center of her chest and spread across her body. Despite the rising temperature, she couldn’t move a muscle like she was frozen from inside. He was so close. His hot breath brushed into her face. His face was so close to hers that the slightest move in that specific direction could make that happen. She’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit she was curious to experience it.

The electric signals in her head firing off were prompting her to do it. As soon as she felt that she could move again, she slowly began to lift her head.

Chris planted his hands onto the ground to his sides and pushed himself up, but stopped halfway to gaze into her eyes.

Something about his look made Tayte feel weak. In a way, she was unfamiliar with it, but there was also a want to explore this new feeling. Once again, her body’s conflicting desires locked her in place and all she could do was map out the features of Chris’s face that she had never taken notice of before. Now up close, she could see the pleasant color in his dark brown eyes and a single mole below his right eye.

Chris got on to his feet in an instant. “Sorry,” he said, looking away.

Tayte sat up, watching him pick up his stick off the ground. The warm feeling was fleeting and she tried her darndest to clench onto it. Maybe, she should say something… anything.

Chris froze in place staring towards the top of the mountain. “Here we go…” he said.

She turned her head towards the top of the mountain, and a tall woman wearing a light blue floral kimono with wide sleeves was walking down the slope. She walked with an upright posture unwavered by the steepness of the terrain—or gravity, apparently.

Tayte rose up to greet her baby-faced opponent. “So, how long have I kept you waiting?”

Tatsunori stopped and flashed a smile, looking down. “Far too long, Enberg.”

“Tatsunori,” Chris called.

“Chris, I heard you took care of the twins all by yourself,” Tatsunori said, without taking her eyes off Tayte. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“I didn’t kill them though… that was Adisa.”

“Oh, that makes more sense. So, are you here to be Enberg’s backup?”

Tayte pulled her gaze from Tatsunori for a moment to exchange a look with Chris. His face reminded her of mothers at the infant funerals she helped arrange. Just absolute sorrow, but a faint belief that somehow everything will be okay.

Chris gave his usual groan and used his stick to walk up the slope. He reached Tatsunori. And walked right past her.

Tatsunori turned back to him. “If you decide to wait for her at the Checkpoint keep in mind that all you’ll really be waiting for is a fight with me,” Tatsunori’s smile grew wider as Chris stopped and lowered his head. “I’m not going to lose. You better light the skull and run off when you have the chance. She’s a dead woman walking.”

Chris looked at Tatsunori and then back at Tayte. He remained silent for almost half a minute and then said, “Nah… Tayte’s not going to lose.” He continued trekking up the rough path.

The girls began to analyze each other’s gear.

“Really? You come to fight me dressed like that after seeing what my Relic does?” Tatsunori smirked, already celebrating her checkmate.

“What you’re wearing doesn’t seem appropriate either,” Tayte said. “You look like you’re on your way back from a Naginatajutsu demonstration event.” Her eyes moved down to Tatsunori’s sneakers. “Well, except for those.”

Tatsunori raised her brows. “Yuki-Onna,” she called softly. Her thigh emanated a cool blue light and blew out icy air as a white pole extended out of it. She pulled out her weapon and held it up horizontally with the tip of the frosty blade pointing behind her.

Tayte studied her perfect stance. “So, that’s what you changed to after leaving bojutsu. I was thinking about changing to that as well, but I lost interest when I learned they don’t let you use actual blades. “So disappointing…”

Tatsunori’s stance broke for a moment as her mouth fell open. “Wait, you…”

“Yes, I do. Tatsu. Looks like your growth spurt never stopped.”

Tatsunori smiled sadly with tears welling in her eyes.

She took off without warning.

Tatsunori ran down the slope, coming at Tayte like a bullet. Once she was close enough she changed stances quickly, moving one foot back, she had the blade’s tip pointing downwards.

The blade swung upwards with incredible speed.

Tayte evaded the attack and then, she weaved to the right and to the left as Tatsunori struck with two more upward slashes. Every time she swung her blade it left behind a stunning trail of tiny snowflakes in the air.

Tayte sprinted away from her opponent, and looked over her shoulder — Tatsunori was going to easily catch up to her at any second. She spotted the walking stick on the ground and slid down to the dirt, Tatsunori whizzed past her, sending up chunks of green and brown into the air.

Tayte launched the stick at Tatsunori and then summoned, “Kamaitachi!”

Tatsunori sliced the stick in half as Tayte pulled her Relic out of her chest and went in for the kill.

Tayte swung her scythe rapidly at her opponent. Tatsunori dodged the barrage and retaliated with her own flurry of attacks. The girls moved in sync. The only hits they managed were onto each other’s weapons.

Tatsunori changed strategies in an instant, flipping over her weapon with the blade pointed downward. Gripping onto the end of the pole with both hands, she thrust the tip towards Tayte’s foot.

Tayte pulled her foot back and watched the blade stab into the earth. She gave her defenseless opponent a smile and swung her foot up her chin.

As Tatsunori’s head knocked back, her body followed, and Tayte jumped back. She spun her Relic a couple of times and hurled a wind slash at Tatsunori.

She took the wind slash to the chest and went flying, leaving her weapon behind.

The familiar excited tremors and jolts took over Tayte leaving her wide-eyed and with a bloodthirsty smile plastered on her face. She moved up to Tatsunori’s naginata implanted into the ground and reached for it.

“Yuki-Onna!” Tatsunori shouted.

The Relic vanished. Tayte looked over at her opponent pulling herself back up while pulling the Relic out of her thigh.

Now, this was a fight and Tayte couldn’t be any happier. It was even more exciting than the bamboo sparring she had with Tatsunori back at the Kampala bar. Her opponent wasn’t trying to flee or resort to cheap tricks, or even talking all that much. She was aggressive, and agile with just the right amount of unpredictability to keep her senses awake and not to the point where it got tedious.

Tayte charged at her opponent who stood still. Elated. Hungry for more. Ready to see how far they’ll push each other.

A blitz of needling pain onto her face forced Tayte to stop and drop on one knee and give out a cry. As she lowered her head, blood sprinkled the ground before her. She raised a hand to his cheek, and was hit with a shock of pain.

Tayte looked over at her opponent and she remained still, staring back at her with a blank stare. Did she even move? Tayte had to ask herself, doubting what she saw just a couple of seconds ago. Tayte was moving fast enough and her opponent was wide open, so what happened? She passed her hand across her face and felt the field of tiny cuts all over, and then she blinked, hissing in agony afterward. There were fresh cuts on her eyelids and the corner of her eyes.

Tatsunori ambled up to Tayte as she sucked in a deep breath, pulling her head back.

Tayte rose to her feet, receiving another shock of pain, and jumped as Tatsunori expelled an icy stream of air.

The air blew out from Tatsunori’s mouth like she was an exhaust pipe. She chased Tayte with her icy breath, slowly turning her head in the direction her opponent was running in.

Tayte stopped just when Tatsunori did. She looked back and a feeling of horror and intrigue took over Tayte upon seeing all the vegetation frozen solid; she ran towards it and planted one foot on a frozen bush.

She spun in the air horizontally, harnessing the power of her Relic to wrap herself in a cyclone. Tayte gyrated down to Tatsunori with the blade of her Relic stretched out to cut.

Her eye, ankle, arm twinged violently making her lose grip. The Relic flew off to the side and Tayte tumbled onto the ground, rolling past Tatsunori. She sat up and passed her hand over the new bleeding cuts that spawned on her body. Upon scrutiny, her body twitched and she clenched onto her chest as she had a coughing fit. Somewhere between her upper back and the back of her throat was burning and she could feel her body doing its best to remediate the situation by trying to push something out.

She raised a fist to her mouth and it was covered in blood in seconds.

“Like I said…” Tatsunori started as she walked towards Tayte and held up her weapon to the side. “Dead woman walking.” She swung the blade at Tayte’s neck.