The cold blade neared the side of her neck.

Tatsunori was more than confident in her speed. She swung it quicker than she ever had before.

But even that was not enough to take down the Tayte Enberg.

Tayte pulled back with near-perfect timing and escaped with only a nick on the side of her neck. The cut was meager compared to the ones that marked her face.

Tatsunori calmed herself with the thought that every movement Tayte makes with those needling wounds mixed in with the cold air has to make her succumb and unable to continue moving as quickly at some point. She just needed to wait for that moment to come, but not make the ability seem too obvious. If Tayte figures out how it works, it could be over for her. Tatsunori was gravely aware of this.

Tayte sat up and clenching her Relic in one hand.

Tatsunori put her guard up and shot a glare at her opponent. What’s it going to be? Another wind slash? Tatsunori started panting, the exhaustion of that ability was catching up to her.

Tayte stretched her Relic forward and expelled a gust of wind, pushing herself backwards and disappeared into a dense thicket down the slope.

Tatsunori kept her guard up as she slowly approached the evergreen thicket.

Fwoosh! Bits of wood and leaves exploded out of the thicket as a large white slash broke out and sped at Tatsunori.

Tatsunori swung her Relic upwards, sending forward a cold slash that collided with Tayte's wind, creating a small pressurized burst in the air before disappearing. Tatsunori’s expression twisted with worry. She couldn’t help, but to wonder if Tayte had already figured it out.

Another wind slash came her way and she whipped a cold slash back at it. The burst caused by the collision vanished just as quickly as it appeared.

No, it’s possible that she’s just stalling while trying to figure out what’s going on. Tatsunori’s smug smirk returned as she easily took care of yet another wind slash her desperate opponent sent her way.

This is beneath you, Enberg.

Yet another wind slash charged at her.

Tatsunori launched a downward slash at the attack with no effort. “How long are you going to do this, En—?”

A whirling scythe appeared just a little to the left of the wind slash and zipped towards Tatsunori as she was finishing her move. There was no time to dodge or deflect, but she tried to anyway.

And she failed.

As the slashes collided and burst, the blade of the rogue scythe cleaved right through the side of her torso, ripping part of her kimono and splashing a good amount of her blood into the air. Tatsunori gave out a shriek and kneeled as the Relic hit the ground before her. “Fuck!” she exclaimed, veins bulging off her neck. The black blade missed the vital organs of the upper quadrant, but it still hurt like hell.

Tatsunori clenched her jaw and forced herself up knowing that she couldn’t stay still for too long, not with Tayte as her opponent. There was no point in saving moves for later, she had to switch strategies immediately. In immense pain, she took her hand off her fresh wound and raised her Relic in the air with both hands and started to spin it. “Naginatajustu-tsumetai-moya!” she shouted.

A white mist gathered above her and spread across the area, growing thicker by the second until the entire battlefield was blanketed in pure white. Tatsunori’s wound called her attention, making her hunch over and put her hand over it, hissing at the pain. Thanks to her Relic, Tatsunori had a clear view of Tayte in the fog, through the thicket — she appeared to her as an outline. She was looking around confused.

Tatsunori allowed herself to relax and slogged backwards while keeping an eye on Tayte. After bumping into a tree, Tatsunori dropped her weapon, and climbed up until she had an overlook of the sea of fog she made. She perched onto the fork of the tree and took in deep breaths, battling her exhaustion. Now in the calmness, she took notice of the distress her heart was going through.

As her heart rate was skyrocketing, she looked down at her dangling legs and they were shaking, and then she put a hand over the back of her neck, feeling the erect hairs.

It was just as scary back then fighting her. No, it was scarier back then. At the Shinko Dojo. The star of the dojo who’d show up during summer and dominate everybody. That girl was on another level…

###

“You want to spar with me?” the girl, clad in kendo armor said back to a young Tatsunori while looking off to the side.

Tatsunori sucked in her lips, finding her botched Japanese pronunciation amusing, she wanted to avoid getting punched in by the foreigner by laughing in their face. She had heard that westerners tend to be hopelessly violent.

A loud groan forced Tatsunori to turn back to her fellow Shinko Dojo students as they gathered around a girl lying on her back, groaning and complaining about being too dizzy to get up.

“Even after seeing that fight, you still want to spar with me?” the foreign girl asked.

Tatsunori nodded.

The foreigner turned to her, now facing her like she just approved of her importance. “Okay,” she said.

Tatsunori ran off to grab her armor, ecstatic. This was her chance to show everybody her skill. There’d be no better of doing that than taking down the foreign girl that everybody was so afraid of in front of the whole dojo.

Today was the day she was going to be famous.

But it turned out that day was much further than she anticipated.

Tatsunori had never had her ass kicked so hard and fast in her life. It was like all the years of intense training evaporated instantly seconds into the fight. The sensei announced the victor before Tatsunori could process that the fight was already over. Spending a few seconds on the mat, the pain from the strikes she took on various places on her body started to spread.

She could hear the other girls murmuring amongst each other and the sensei reprimanding the foreigner for being too violent again.

Tatsunori got up on her knees as the foreigner moped away, sighing.

“I’d like to fight you again, tomorrow,” Tatsunori said.

The foreigner stopped and looked back at her. Silence filled the air after the death wish proclamation.

“Please,” Tatsunori begged, bowing her head slightly.

The foreigner took off her helmet revealing a wavy head of black hair with a hint of ash in its color making it all blend into the darkest shade of gray. The girl’s mixed northern european and oriental features made for an interesting face. She looked down at Tatsunori with her sleepy eyes and the corner of her lip twitched a bit — possibly her strongest attempt at a smile. “Okay,” she said. “What’s your name, by the way?”

Tatsunori told her her first name.

“Hm. Nice to meet you, Tatsu.”

This girl. She was the same age as her. A sixteen-year-old tiny thing like her, but struck so much paralyzing fear into people of this dojo, her sensei, senpai, and kouhai. She had even defeated the boys many times and won competitions for the dojo. If she was old enough for the competitions for those of higher rank, she would’ve dominated, her skill was on par with them. Tayte Enberg remained undefeated for years now.

Tayte turned away. “See you tomorrow, then.”

Tatsunori’s mother, Reiko, picked her up after training as usual, and once again, Tatsunori babbled about the best bo-stick fighter at the dojo during the car ride. Her mother faintly smiled listening to her daughter.

Their stop before reaching home was a healthcare facility. It wasn’t one of those premium nursing homes, but assuredly, Tatsunori’s grandmother seemed comfortable enough.

The health care worker accompanied Tatsunori and Reiko to the bedroom where they found the bespectacled old soul in her wheelchair by her desk.

Chitose’s wrinkled face lit upon seeing her daughter. She stretched her arms out for her. “Reiko! Come here!”

Reiko moved up to her shaky mother, hunching over with her incredible height, as she spread her arms wide apart.

“Mom, I see you got yourself a new hairdo, you look nice. I bet you're a real hit with the men around here.”

“Of course I am,” They shared a laugh and hugged.

As they pulled away from each other, the tremorous woman looked over at Tatsunori and the light from her expression faded in an instant. Leaving just a hollow look of confusion. She pushed up her large, round glasses up the bridge of her nose. “And who is this?”

“That’s my daughter, mom, remember?”

“You… have a daughter?” Chitose squinted at Reiko, and then glanced over at Tatsunori. “You mean, Honoka! She looks different.”

“No, no. That’s Saeko’s daughter. This is—”

A loud thud came from the hallway followed by some groaning, making the nurse go into high alert. “I think someone fell… excuse me.” She ran off.

“Good luck, Eri!” she waved to the nurse with a smile that dissipated as Reiko told her Tatsunori’s name. She pressed on adding details about her training in Okinawa Kobudō, her being the shortest amongst her cousins around the same age, how they used to stroll around the city with her when she was a baby, and all the times she would babysit.

Chitose focused on Tatsunori. “She looks like Jin,” she said.

“Jin is dead.”

“I know. I remember that. How is Naoto, by the way? Did he win that chess competition?”

Reiko looked over at Tatsunori for a moment, stammering.

“Grandma,” Tatsunori said, abruptly. She allow herself the comfort of showing the pain she was enduring. She stood firm and made her announcement. “There is this girl at my dojo. She is from America. I am going to beat her some day. There’s an inner dojo tournament coming up. The winner will go off to participate in a national tournament. I am going to win both of those tournaments. Mom is going to be there and she’s going to film it. After you watch it, you’ll never forget, I promise.”

“Okay, whatever you say, dear. And your name was…?”

Tatsunori stood in place, holding back the tears and feeling the heat grow in her chest, cheeks, and throat. She wanted to scream.

She opened her mouth.

“Kaze-no-saikuron-hakai!”

###

Tatsunori snapped back to the present and was staring at a cotton white whirlwind, sending off violent winds in every direction, pushing away the thick icy fog. Tatsunori rose to her feet on the fork and wrapped her arms around the branches as the rumbling winds tried to send her flying off.

The whirlwind stopped and vanished. Tayte stood in the center of where it was and smiled up at Tatsunori at the tree. The girls locked eyes for a moment until Tayte made a slight movement.

Tatsunori jumped off the tree as a wind slash sped her way. She hit the ground and the wind collided with the tree stem. Tatsunori cursed at herself as she got up and bit her lower lip internally berating herself for using fog on someone with the ability to manipulate wind.

A gale blew in Tatsunori’s direction, she grabbed onto the stem of the bifurcated tree to stay in place, and watched what her enemy was doing.

Tayte was crouching while clutching onto her Relic as its blade glowed menacingly, blowing out winds.

She took off like a rocket and was high into the air.

Tatsunori gaped up and her eyes followed her opponent as she propelled to her right, then to her left and then up and down, and then right at her.

Tatsunori blocked her opponent’s attack as she zipped past her. Tatsunori turned back and saw Tayte only for a second before she whizzed into the air in an explosion of wind.

Tatsunori understood that her opponent was someone using her Relic’s wind manipulation to propel herself through the air at supernatural speeds — flashing around almost as if she was teleporting. Tatsunori prepared herself, keeping herself calm as she heard the thunderous sounds Tayte made whenever she zipped to another spot.

Tayte blasted past her again with a vicious attack, and Tatsunori deflected the attack with her cold blade. This went on for a while.

Tatsunori didn’t let her enemy land any attacks.

Tayte dashed up to the sky and started zipping around until Tatsunori could no longer keep up. It seemed like Tayte was everywhere at once, filling the forest area with a canopy of fast-moving images of herself, and then she blinked out of existence as if she turned invisible. All Tatsunori could see were bursts of wind in random places in the air.

But Tayte didn’t attack.

Tatsunori let out a grunt. She’s moving way too fast for her to try that again. Her eyes widened after the thought popped into her head.

Is that it?Did she figure it out? She shook her head. No, it can’t be! She’s just stalling. She’s just stalling! She wants me to make a move, and get close to her. I won’t fall for it!

Tatsunori stayed put enduring the trepidation her body was giving out. She tried to remedy the anxiety telling herself that every move counts. Tayte is just baiting her to make a premature move.

Tayte reappeared in the air and nosedived like a plane flying into an air pocket.

Tatsunori stared vacantly for a second and then let out hysterical laughter. Looking at her opponent down on the ground on her side, out of breath, reminded her that Tayte was in fact a human being. Made out of flesh and blood just like her, and has to obey the laws of the stamina her body lets her access. No matter the ridiculous amount of stamina she has, it will run out eventually just like everyone else. Tatsunori was with the advantage, and she failed to contain her excitement. She took a step towards her opponent as she chuckled.

“I’m kind of disappointed,” Tayte said, panting.

Tatsunori’s expression went blank as she halted.

“I thought you weren’t going to resort… to… to any cheap tricks,” she continued and got back up. “Oh, well, it’s just… a matter… of figuring out how the trick works.”

“What is this?” Tatsunori asked. “You’re trying to get in my head?”

“No,” she said and dropped to a knee. “I… I… I was just commenting—”

“You’ve got a Relic, too, okay? And I don’t know all of the abilities of the Kamaitachi. For all I know you’ve got hundreds of cards up your sleeve that could turn this fight in your favor at any moment. This is still a fair fight.”

“Okay.” Tayte zipped open her fleece jacket.

Tatsunori bared her teeth. “What’s with that ‘okay’? You think you’re better than me, Tayte?”

“I never said that.”

Tatsunori held her opponent’s stale look. There was no life in her expression. She concentrated harder and noticed that her eyes were unfocused and her eyelids were dropping. When did this stop being exciting for her? Unable to hold back her insecurities, she asked.“Are you bored?”

Tayte stayed silent.

“You don’t even know how to beat my Relic, how is this boring to you—!”

“Can we just go back to fighting?”

Tatsunori felt a pang in her head, like a blood vessel burst. She’s lost Tayte’s respect… or maybe it was never there. “What’s my first name?” Tatsunori asked in desperation.

“Tatsunori,” Tayte answered immediately. “Wait, no. Right, sorry. That’s your last name. Your first name is… is… is… is… ” she became quiet and looked down on the ground, searching for answers.

Tatsunroi’s face was heating up and the back of her eyeballs throbbed as tears pooled. “What’s my first name!” she asked again, this time stomping one foot forward.

“I… don’t remember.”

Tatsunori’s eyes darted over to a tree. Her head now pounding as much as her heart was, she began to let out shaky breaths, and with every breath her eyes became more glossy. “As in… you don’t care enough to remember. Even after what happened…” Tatsunori looked over at Tayte and she still had her eyes on the ground. “Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?” she shouted, her voice getting feeble.

Tayte didn’t respond.

Tatsunori's vision began to blur. At least… look at me. Please… She said to herself in her head, hoping it would somehow reach Tayte.

Tatsunori sniveled and found her Relic on the ground. She picked it up.

She doesn’t remember because you weren’t worth remembering, an icy, feminne voice ringed in her head in Japanese.

Tatsunori groaned and doubled over as the voice continued.

You need to give her a fight that she’ll remember. Not a pathetic one like last time.

“You okay over there?” Tayte asked and rested her Relic over her shoulder. “You need a bathroom break or something?”

Tatsunori looked over at Tayte but just for a second as her attention was pulled back to the Relic.

Let me help you get what you want.

“What do you mean?” Tatsunori said aloud.

Let me take over.

A look of terror took over Tatsunori’s face. “No!” She said, screaming. “No, not that!”

I’ll be quick. And for sure, she’ll never forget. It’ll be her last memory in the world of the living and will stay with her for the rest of eternity in the afterlife. Let me fulfill your wishes. Let me help you make this the fight of her life.

“No! I will defeat her!”

The front of her head started to ache like it was being frozen.

Don’t resist.

“Get out of my head!” She screamed and started swatting her Relic around while shaking her head. “Stop talking! Stop talking! Stop talking! Stop talking! Stop talking!” The tantrum wasn’t enough. She could feel herself losing control to something else. Something cold and evil…

An intense chill swept over the left half of her face that forced her to halt and groan as it extended downward. One half of her body felt like it was being frozen from the inside, but after a few seconds it started to burn. Tatsunori shrieked and twisted to the agony as the left side of her body underwent mystical changes — her skin on that side turned snow white, her lips and eye became a cold blue, and her brown short hair lengthened, reaching elbow-level and shifted to pure white.

Tatsunori scowled at Tayte with her new inhuman look.

“Oh, things are getting exciting again,” Tayte said.