"Why hast thou summoned me, puny mortal?" the pangolin summon demanded in a booming voice, gazing balefully into Kei's eyes as it flexed its claws in a gesture of intimidation.

Kei snorted in a very unladylike fashion. "You can stop standing on tiptoe now, Pandā. You're still shorter than me."

"Oh," Pandā said, sinking back into his habitual semi-upright slouch. "Well, fine, take all the showmanship out of being a summon, why don't you?"

"Pandā," Kei decided not to respond to that one, "would it be realistic for me to find and make a pact with a stealth specialist who can detect pursuit and conceal tracks within the next twenty-four hours?"

"Twenty-four?" Pandā did not have eyebrows, but Kei was certain that he'd be frowning if he had. "That seems pretty arbitrary. What's happening in twenty-four hours?"

"Inoue-sensei wants us to leave this time tomorrow at the latest."

"This time tomorrow..." Pandā repeated. "Oh, right. Humans measure time in twenty-four-hour days. Oh, and sixty—seventy? Eighty? No, I think it's probably sixty—minutes in an hour. And then there are the months, which are some weird length as well. Man, you guys sure are good at making stuff complicated for yourselves.

"Well, anyway, no chance. Between tracking down someone with the right skills, and making sure you're strong enough to summon them, and making sure they're available, and the negotiations? I wouldn't risk it if you're on such a short time limit. I'm assuming you don't want to get, uh, reverse-reverse-summoned back here way after everyone in your team is gone.

"But forget that. Was everyone impressed with my amazing analysis last time? Are they all in awe of Pandā the Summoner Liaison? I just finished painting my new insignia over my burrow, by the way. Hey, I don't still have red paint on my back, do I?"

"You were wrong in every particular," Kei said emphatically. "None of us are related by ties of blood or romance."

"Huh," Pandā said. "Are you sure? Because—"

"Yes, I'm sure," Kei snapped. "Kurosawa Hazō and Wakahisa Noburi—the two boys—and I were ninja from the village of Hidden Mist, and we only know each other because we were on a mission together. After it ended in betrayal and disaster, Inoue Mari, the woman you called our matriarch, saved our lives and guided our escape, despite merely being a fellow Mist-nin who did not owe us anything. Later, it became necessary to permit Ishihara Akane, the older girl, to join us. Finally, we persuaded Kagome Yū, the adult man, to join us for the purpose of safety in numbers and in order to have access to his skills."

"Huh," Pandā said again. "That's embarrassing. I usually have pretty good intuition about this stuff. Anything else I should know so I don't get sap all over my snout?"

Kei considered this.

"Be extremely respectful towards Inoue-sensei. She is a very special person, and if you do anything to offend or hurt her, I will tie your snout shut with your tongue and set it on fire." Keiko was not skilled with intimidation, but she knew a good threat when she heard one.

"Hazō spends an extraordinary amount of his time observing and planning. He rarely makes errors, though they tend towards the catastrophic end of the scale when he does, and as a rule his advice is worth listening to. Do not ask him about his family, as thinking about his mother's present situation upsets him.

"Noburi's judgement is sometimes questionable, but he has an enviable understanding of interpersonal interaction. If you are unable to understand some element of human communication, he is a better person to ask than I, although naturally Inoue-sensei is superior to all of us. He has recently been forced to end a romantic relationship, and I understand under such circumstances one is meant to avoid any reminders of same.

"Ishihara is delusional when it comes to the realities of shinobi life. She is not deceitful, in fact to a fault, so you may trust any factual statements she makes, but her interpretations are often flawed and to be taken with a significant amount of salt. Which is a metaphor indicating scepticism. She is also fanatically devoted to an obscure philosophy she calls 'the spirit of youth', which again is poorly adapted to life in the shinobi world and not something you should seek to emulate.

"Finally, Kagome suffers from extreme paranoia and you must take care never to imply in his presence that you are a threat to him or the rest of the group, even in jest. He is also a sealcrafting expert, and mention of sealcrafting experimentation is a trigger for his paranoia unless very carefully phrased, though this is unlikely to be relevant to you. He is Hazō's mentor in the art."

Pandā scratched behind his ear thoughtfully. "That's a lot to take in. Don't suppose you have any clay tablets so I can make notes?"

"I'm afraid not. Humans normally use paper."

"Well, whatever. The Elephant Clan's got nothing on me when it comes to memory anyway. You sure about that Noburi guy, though? 'cause the vibe I'm getting off him..."

"As I say, he is upset because he cannot be with the one he loves. If I were in his place..." Kei hesitated. "If I were in his place..."

She made a decision. It was a decision that filled her with anxiety, but her anxiety intensity scale had recently been recalibrated by a giant murderous warrior pangolin. "Wait here, Pandā. Alert us if any unfamiliar ninja approach."

"You can count on me!" Pandā gave a bounce. "Yay, my first mission as a summon! I'm going to be the best lookout you've ever had!"

o-o-o-o

"Ishihara, you're back!" Noburi gave her his best attempt at a friendly nod. "Where have you been?"

Her smile was as genuine as his wasn't. "I was just visiting Yuno."

"You what." Noburi's mouth fell slightly open. Of all the members of their little squad, Akane was the last one he'd figured to be suicidal.

"We spent some time hanging out by the river," Ishihara explained, "eating dango and sharing the last of my chocolate supply, and talking about how awful boys are and promising we'd stay friends no matter what. It would have been unyouthful to do any less for a friend in need."

Ishihara's smile faded. "And don't take this the wrong way, Wakahisa, but you're a complete idiot. All that diplomacy training from Inoue-sensei and you had to break up with her in the most insensitive way in recorded history? Do you realise how much she's hurting right now?"

A sharp kunai went through Noburi's heart, its serrated edges twisting, leaving the hole gaping open. He remembered Yuno's face. The way she'd spoken to him, at the end. The raw pain in her voice. "I'm... I'm sorry," he stammered. "I didn't mean..."

Ishihara sighed. "Sorry. I know blaming you isn't going to make anything better right now. Just... she deserves a better life than this, you know?"

Noburi nodded mutely.

"I wish we'd spent more time here," Ishihara added. "I could have taught her how to embrace the spirit of youth, and let it give her strength to overcome this kind of suffering. And I wish I could do more to help you. I've never been good at this sort of thing."

Moving unexpectedly close, she opened her arms and gave him a hug. Noburi sank into it.

"It's going to be okay, Wakahisa," she said softly after a few seconds. "Sooner or later, one way or another. As long as your heart stays youthful, it will heal any wound in time. I believe in you. And I believe in Yuno too. She's endured so much, and it's made her strong. Both of you are going to be all right."

Then she stepped back. "I can see Mori coming. She probably wants to talk to you, which is my cue to get back to packing. I'm always here for you if you need me, okay?"

"Thanks, Ishihara," Noburi said quietly.

"Call me Akane," she replied, the smile back on her face. "I think it's about time, don't you?"

o-o-o-o

"Noburi," Keiko said. "May I sit next to you?"

Noburi nodded, wondering why she was here. It wasn't like Keiko avoided him or anything, but she didn't exactly make a habit of starting conversations with him either—or with anyone, really—unless she had something practical to talk about. And they'd had their group briefing already.

"What's up, Keiko?"

"I was wondering..." Keiko said in an uncertain, stilted voice. "How are you feeling?"

Noburi gave her a shocked look, then realised he was being rude and quickly wiped it off his face. "Not great. I mean, break-ups suck. It's one of those fundamental laws of the universe.

"Maybe Kagome and Hazō can make some kind of seal that exploits it," he made the world's most feeble attempt at a joke.

Keiko nodded with her usual serious expression. Noburi privately wondered if she'd ever broken up with anyone, and if so, what gender they had been. But it wasn't something he felt he could ask, and in any case part of him suspected he'd rather not know.

"If there is anything I can do to make you feel better, please tell me," Keiko said.

She looked at him, then down at the ground. "I am... unlikely to discover a suitable means of assistance on my own," she admitted awkwardly.

Noburi blinked at the rare display of vulnerability. He couldn't begin to guess what it meant.

It did make him realise something, though. He and Yuno had got closer over their weeks of dating, spending time alone together, talking about village traditions and other random crap, and, however tentatively, about a few things that mattered too. But he'd never tried to get to know Keiko in the same way. She made his heart beat faster when he looked at her, but when it came down to it, after all this time he still didn't know the first thing about what made her tick. Maybe he should start learning.

Or maybe he'd just end up hurting her the way he'd hurt Yuno. Agh. Why couldn't anything in life ever be simple?

Keiko was looking at him again as she waited for his response, her expression one of concern.

"I apologise," she finally said. "I should not be requesting that you do my thinking for me. I am probably distracting you from utilising your own coping mechanisms. I will go now."

"Wait, Keiko," Noburi called out as she began to move away. "I don't know if there's anything you can do, and there probably isn't. But thanks for caring. That does make me feel better."

It might have been the first time in Noburi's life that Keiko smiled at him. Then she left, moving so fast she had to have been burning chakra.

o-o-o-o

"Careful, Noburi," Inoue-sensei admonished. "A single root-induced faceplant and your disguise pops, and then we lose time while you pull together the concentration for another one. That's not a thing we want in the middle of a forest full of chakra monsters. Plus for all we know there we're being chased by an army of disaffected villagers—the Aida spring to mind, now they've lost their raison d'être. 'Oh, it's so sad. The summoner and her friends must have been killed and eaten by wild animals, leaving no remains. Lucky the animals happened to spit out the scroll unharmed. I guess we'd better put it back in the shrine until the next heir.'"

"Wait!"

The team screeched to a stop as a familiar figure emerged from the treeline behind them. A quick scan of the area established that if there were other ninja waiting to attack, they were skilfully concealed.

"Takahashi... Kenji?" Inoue-sensei recalled.

"Yes," the man said. "And I suppose I don't know your real name. But that doesn't matter."

He turned to Kei. "Please, you have to come back. We need you."

"I apologise," Kei said. "But we have a mission handed down by the Pangolin Clan. We cannot allow ourselves to be delayed."

"You don't understand," Kenji replied, his eyes wide. "You've taken away the village's reason for existence, and now you're leaving, just like that. Do you have any idea what will happen to us? Already, they're talking about restructuring the Elders' Council. Everything is going to be plunged into chaos, I just know it. You are our messiah, Mori Keiko, and Father's star pupil. I know he'd ask you for the same thing if he were here. We need you."

"Are you here alone?" Inoue-sensei asked carefully.

"Yes," Kenji nodded fervently. "I'm not here to threaten you. In fact, there are probably a lot of people who would be unhappy with me if they knew what I was doing. But there are also many, especially in the younger generation, who need to know what comes next, now that the prophecy has been fulfilled. If you leave now, if Ui's heir abandons us, then what has all this been for? Why have we spent hundreds of years guarding this scroll if its destined wielder is a stranger who wants nothing to do with us? Please. You have to come back."

Kei felt a wave of guilt wash over her, leaving behind a clinging sense of taint. It was true that, from the beginning, they had treated Isan as a means to an end, a challenge to be overcome in order to earn a reward. In the process, they had completely altered the course of the village's politics, cast down multiple major clans, and inflicted great suffering on at least one innocent. True, many of these things were not directly their fault—they hadn't asked Kannagi to use his adopted granddaughter as if she were a hollow shōgi piece—but their actions had been the catalyst for every change, and their plans had been laid with benefit to themselves as the exclusive goal.

Kei still believed, on an intellectual level, that taking the scroll would lead to a brighter future for the village. Hiding away from the world in order to protect yourself could never be an effective strategy, because there was nothing you could do to avoid being hurt in a world like this. At least if the village took the initiative in reaching out, it would have some measure of control over the outcome, for good or ill. And besides, their single-minded devotion, their belief in a future that even they seemed to know deep down could never be realised... to Kei it could be nothing but tragic.

Kei knew all of this to be true, and yet...

"Inoue-sensei," she said, "I would like to speak with this man in private."

Inoue-sensei studied Kenji. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Inoue-sensei," Hazō spoke up suddenly, "why don't you move out of hearing range but have the Substitution Technique ready? You've got taijutsu master reflexes—I'm sure you can kill him before he can do anything hostile."

"Very well," Inoue-sensei said reluctantly after a second. "But the rest of you be ready to Substitute in as well." She gave Hazō a sideways glance, indicating that she understood his plan. They'd use her for the intimidation factor, but Hazō would be the one to swap in if necessary, with his strong taijutsu skills and lack of injuries.

o-o-o-o

"Thank you, Mori Keiko," Takahashi Kenji said to her. Looking closely, Kei could see he had his father's grey eyes, and a certain familiar determination in the set of his cheekbones. Her debt to Takahashi-sensei felt like a debt to him as well.

"Will you come back with me?" he asked.

Kei breathed in slowly, then out again. She could do this. She had to do this. No matter how hard it was to find the words. This had been her mission, her quest, and it was her responsibility to give it its proper ending.

"I am not who you believe I am," she said. "Being a summoner gives me power. It gives me a... a place in the world, one I would never otherwise have. It places me within a lineage of great shinobi, and compels me to prove myself worthy to be counted among them.

"But what it does not give me is wisdom. I am no politician. I am no sage or divinely-guided champion. Look at me, Takahashi Kenji. I am a thirteen-year-old girl."

Kei stopped to think, deliberately not looking at Kenji's face because she did not want to know what was written there.

"I know that I have taken something precious from all of you. You may believe that was my destiny as Ui's heir in some mystical sense. You may believe that I am a thief who exploited your village's sacred traditions to my own selfish ends. Maybe both. I know which I believe.

"I have taken something precious from you, but I cannot give you what you expect, what you deserve, in return. I am simply not that person. Do you understand?"

Slowly, very slowly, Kenji nodded. "You're saying that our fate only takes us this far. That with the prophecy fulfilled, we are on our own. You were our purpose, but not the other way round."

"I will return," Keiko said, surprising even herself. "I will not always be a thirteen-year-old girl.

"You may take this as a new prophecy if you so wish. I will return, and as the Pangolin Summoner, I will repay Ui's debt to Isan, and my own as well."

There was a profound silence, as if her words were sinking deep into the world, into an oyster's heart where they would either one day form a pearl or be expelled like so much dust.

Kenji gave a low bow.

"I will carry your words to those who seek hope in you, Summoner."

o-o-o-o

The journey was finally over. They'd managed to evade an assortment of monsters, they'd successfully hidden from any additional pursuit, and now they would crest the last hill and behold their old base from on high. Inoue-sensei had insisted that they make a cautious approach—just in case. And she may have been right.

"Hey, kids," Inoue-sensei said as she looked down. "Which one of you left the lights on when we went out?"