“I don’t have time for this! I need to be somewhere!” I said as I tried to free my arms and escape. The ninja holding me only tightened their grip. Their fingers felt like iron rods jabbing into my flesh. Helios picked up my sword and led the way towards a grimy alley.

“Well, you should have thought of that before you burned down half the city,” Helios said as he examined my weapon. “The only place you’re going is to the Halls of Judgment.”

I dug my heels into the pavement. “You don’t understand. There’re people I need to make sure are alright! Can’t you just let me check on them and then you can take me wherever you want?”

“That’s not my concern.”

“Helios, please, it’s my family. My mom. My sister. I have to know if they’re okay. I’m begging you!” I said. Helios stopped and turned around. I hoped that for a second he would show a moment of real compassion.

He came closer to me so his face was only mere inches from mine. “Your punishment should be the only thing that concerns you right now,” he said. Even though the lower portion of his face was hidden underneath a mask, I could tell he was grinning from the gleam in his eyes.

I growled and tried to shove my foot into his back as he turned around. The other ninja pulled me back so that I missed. Helios approached two odd looking telephone poles. Their wires weren’t hooked up to any buildings. If you looked at it closely, the poles and the wires formed the shape of a Japanese arch.

Helios took out a glowing piece of glass from his belt and held it up to his ear. “Requesting Harukan access for gate 88953,” he said. I heard an automated voice respond but didn’t catch what it was saying.

Helios stepped through the arch and vanished as if he’d suddenly become invisible. I tried to wiggle free, but I was pulled through the portal against my will. The second we passed through the threshold, my body felt like it ripped itself apart into a million tiny atoms. Then they were flung through the air at a break neck speed. Some unseen force dragged my consciousness along for the ride.

I soared up over the clouds, gaining more and more speed the higher I went. Then, like wiping away the dirt from a windshield, the atmosphere faded away and the beauty of the universe unfolded before me. The sheer size always left my brain scrambling because it just seemed impossible for so much space to exist. I knew I was hurtling along at lightspeed, but it felt like I wasn’t moving at all because there was nothing close by to show me that I was moving.

Suddenly, everything appeared almost out of nowhere and it came in a quick flash. The asteroid belt, an Earth-like planet surrounded by orbital mirrors, clouds, a chaotic ocean, a platform, and then nothing at all.

My head felt like it was taking a ride on the world’s fastest merry-go-round while the rest of me remained still. The effect made my head lurch forward and my heavy, clumsy legs tried to keep up. The ninja grabbed my arms before I could flop over. I peeled my eyes open as the dizziness subsided.

We stood on a stone platform that hovered some eight hundred feet above a roaring ocean. Surrounding us were a thousand more platforms with scarlet Japanese arches, all hanging in the air like a horde of gnats attached to a rugged cliff by flimsy rope bridges.

Ninja were always coming and going, but today every platform was jammed with people trying to leave. Long lines stretched all the way down the rope bridges and they looked ready to snap under the weight. I wondered if that was normal for this time of day.

At least it wasn’t dumping rain. The sky was violet with a bright streak of yellow on the horizon. The last rays of daylight made the clouds look like they were set on fire.

We crossed our rope bridge and started hiking towards Harukan. With the light fading quickly, everything on the ground was practically black. I kept stumbling as my feet fell into every dip or I tripped on a rough patch of grass. Large groups of ninja rushed past us.

“Does anyone have repellant on them?” Helios asked.

“I forgot it. I thought we’d be back before dark,” the guy on my right said.

Helios cursed under his breath. “Brace yourself. They’re out already.”

I looked around in confusion. Besides the people leaving, I couldn’t see anything else moving in the dark except for the glowing mist up ahead. As we got closer to the mist, I heard a crowd of tiny singing voices and miniature instruments playing. I realized it wasn’t mist at all, it was a bunch of small winged people no bigger than my fingernail. They glowed softly with different colors.

The second they noticed us they came towards us. Helios waved his arms and tried to swat them out of his way. The tiny things only laughed. They flew right up to my eyeballs and made goofy faces and farted at me. Some of them took their torches and tried to burn our clothes. A couple landed in my ears and played obnoxious flutes. Others landed in my hair and started dancing on my scalp which made me itch like crazy.

“What’s your problem?!” I tried to shake them off, but they kept coming back.

“Don’t waste your breath trying to reason with them. Fairies like annoying normal sized folk,” Helios said. A good handful of the throng blew their tongues out at Helios. “That’s right, I said it, I am normal sized and you’re small.”

I guessed that was the wrong insult to throw at them, because they raised their spears and charged at Helios. I imagined the spears felt like being stuck by sticker thorns. He growled and picked up his pace as fairies jabbed him repeatedly. I would’ve enjoyed it, but I was too busy being harassed myself.

At last, we made it to the elevator that lowered us down into the ground. The fairies didn’t follow us. Maybe they didn’t like going underground. We passed through security, which was pretty beefed up. Usually the guards sat around lazily on plastic lawns chairs. We went through the underground marketplace before coming back up to the surface, this time within the massive wall surrounding the city.

Harukan was the most confusing city that ever existed. All of the buildings were a dangerous mismatch of modern and ancient architecture, stacked like a poorly put together cake. They sagged over the streets below and I swore that someday, if anything else was piled on top of them, they were going to fall over. The walkways, bridges, and roads were lit up by an assortment of lights. I recognized Asian lanterns, string lights, industrial lights, street lights from the Victorian era, and hovering orbs that emitted different colors.

The city was always crowded but today it seemed more hectic than ever. We were almost trampled by a mob of people speeding towards the entrance. We squeezed through, but away from the entrance was no better. As Helios led us through the maze-like streets, people were shouting as they ran to and fro. Most of the windows were shuttered closed. There were no ninja relaxing at the game shops to take a breather from duty. Even the usual smell of stir fry was burnt, like the cooks had been rushed.

Holographic screens were all over the place, replaying the hacked message the Betrayals broadcasted. “Lincoln now under fire…Baltimore now under fire…Bakersfield now under fire…” a calm voice echoed in the air. “All active genin must respond immediately.” The screens changed to show a map of North America. It was lit up with red dots, places I assumed were being attacked. The number of people it would take to mount such an attack was so large it made me shake my head.

The people that weren’t scrambling to respond to the emergency huddled around the screens with wide eyes. I caught bits and pieces of their conversations as we walked by them.

“There’s so many of them.”

“Do you think it’s her? Do you think she’s back?”

“Who else could it be? Look at the video. It’s her.”

“It’s too soon. We aren’t ready for this.”

We went by several other crowds all speculating the same thing. I heard them all whispering with utter dread the name Genevieve over and over. I only knew the name because it was plastered all over the city on Wanted Signs along with a picture of a beautiful but angry face of a woman with amber eyes.

“Are you sure now is a good time to be having a trial?” I asked. “I should be out there helping.”

“Nonsense, we have the numbers to handle the crisis. If we waited to uphold our laws every time the Betrayals created a little disorder, then no one would be held accountable,” Helios said.

We got onto a bus that took us to the heart of the city. When we got out, we stood in an empty courtyard surrounded by the headquarters for each of the divisions.

The Black Guard’s headquarters was the smallest building in the circle. It seemed to be in the last stages of a renovation, parts of the walls were still hidden behind plastic sheets and scaffolding. The rest of the building looked like a freshly unwrapped present. The enormous curving roofs were given new solar panel tiles, the exterior walls were frosted glass panes, and instead of wooden columns they’d been upgraded to steel.

The people going in and out of the headquarters seemed to be the only calm ones in the entire city. Most of them were clad in armor, but the few that weren’t wore black kimonos and small conical hats. I wasn’t the only one being led inside with their hands bound.

As we went through the front doors, I expected to have to pass through some sort of security. After all, that was kind of the Black Guard’s thing, but there were no guards waiting for us. We walked through a roomy atrium that hadn’t been renovated since it was built. The stone floors were worn down and polished by the many feet that crossed them every day. The wooden columns and guardrails of the upper level’s walkways were so old they’d lost their luster. The place smelled like papyrus and dust. The only light came from hovering orbs near the ceiling.

We turned left and walked down a short hallway. A loud humming sound vibrated the walls and floor. I was led into a room with random benches. They tossed me onto one and a golden force field surrounded me.

“You are to be detained until your commander arrives to speak on your behalf. It shouldn’t be long now,” Helios said, then he left. I stood up and tried to kick the bright transparent wall. An invisible force shot my foot back.

“Let me out!”

Helios was already out of sight and I doubted anyone else would release me. I growled and kicked the bench. I did not want to be contained at the moment. I wanted to be with my family. All I could picture was my mom and Hannah lying on a hospital bed alone somewhere, drawing their last breaths, and thinking that I abandoned them. What was I going to do if the doctors couldn’t get them stable? What if they had too much internal bleeding? What if seeing them on those stretchers was the last time I’d ever see them alive?

I collapsed onto the bench and buried my face into my knees. My body was shaking as fear and anger battled to be my dominant emotion. I wanted to break Helios’ face for denying me the chance to check on my family. I worried that I was never going to hear another one of my mother’s ridiculous speeches about the dangers of standing too close to the microwave, or find my sister sleeping in a full-on sniper’s disguise in the backyard. Both of them drove me nuts, but I couldn’t imagine my life without them.

I don’t know how long I stewed in my toxic bath of anxiety. It could’ve been twenty minutes or it could’ve been several hours. Any amount of time felt like an age to me.

Then I heard the unmistakable voice of my commander. It was the sound of heaven touching earth. “Kaine!” she said. I jumped to my feet and huddled close to the force field wall. Katherine came around the corner, pushing off the guards who tried to stop her.

She wore a metal conical hat, a long-sleeved green shirt that had hints of yellow and teal depending on how the light hit it, a red cloth belt, and black pants with her shins wrapped up in white like a mummy. A katana hung from her back. She wore the same black mask as me with the ninja’s symbol embroidered in gold on the cheek. It hid the lower half of her face, but her stunning green eyes were exposed. They caught the little bit of light in the room and shone like leaves in the sunlight. She had long, wavy chocolate colored hair that fell past her shoulders. She looked no older than her early twenties, but that didn’t mean she was. Ninja stopped aging after that point.

“Katherine!” I said as she came up to the transparent wall. “My mom, my sister—”

She held up her hand to stop me. “It’s okay. They’re going to be okay.”

“Did you see them?”

She nodded. “I saw them as their memory was being cleared. They’re sleeping from the exhaustion.”

The heavy weight that was sitting on my shoulders fell off, leaving me with a feeling of weightlessness. My crumbling world finally stabilized. “How did you know they were in trouble? I thought you were halfway across the planet?” I asked.

“I came back right after I saw the doomsday message. I checked your house first. When I saw that it was gone, I went to the nearest hospitals,” she said.

The tension in my muscles eased. “At least they’re okay.”

The concern in her eyes evaporated and she glared at me. “Yes, but you’re not. What were you thinking?! Did you see what you did? A lot of people were hurt,” she said. “I don’t think you understand how serious this is.”

I lowered my head. “I was upset, and I just wanted to catch the Betrayal.”

“That’s not going to be a good enough reason to get you by this time. Before, we could say you were still new to all of this or that it was an accident. What am I supposed to say now?”

I swallowed hard. I thought Helios was just saying I was going to be banished because that’s what he wanted. I didn’t think I was in actual danger of being kicked out. “Are they going to exile me?”

She pinched the top of her nose. “Thankfully, no fatalities, so they shouldn’t have to go to that extreme, but you will get a severe punishment. They could decide to remove you from the combat division—”

I felt like my chest was stabbed with an icicle. “They’re going to take me off of the team?!”

“I don’t know! This is why you should’ve listened to me when I told you that you needed to be careful!” She turned away from me.

“I’d hate to break up this happy reunion, but the court is waiting,” Helios said. He brought an entourage of armored ninja with him who stood a foot over everyone else.

The force field dropped and the armored giants surrounded me. Did they really think I was this dangerous that I needed over a dozen guards? They nudged me towards the hallway. I glanced back to make sure Katherine was bringing up the rear. She tried to give me a reassuring look, but I could see the doubt in her eyes.

My family was okay, but the only other thing I cared about was now in jeopardy. Why had I been so stupid? I knew I needed to be aware of my emotions at all times. I couldn’t afford to be reckless.

I wanted to walk next to her because I was afraid, but the guards around me wouldn’t have it. I had to settle for brief backward glances. I couldn’t even bear to entertain the thought of being separated.

Ninety percent of my time was spent with Katherine, either on missions or recovering from our battle wounds on her couch watching the latest Real Lions of the African Savanah episode. She was always right there to remind me that the world wasn’t just a bunch of violence, heart break, and terror.

She was the reason why I was doing all of this. I became a ninja to be closer to her, because I’d fallen for her harder than asteroids crashed to the Earth. I didn’t ask to feel this way and my heart certainly picked the most inconvenient girl in the history of girls to fall in love with. Not only did I have to survive this dangerous job just to see her, but Katherine had sworn off romance forever. So even in the remote possibility that she did feel something for me (highly doubtful), as long as there were enemies, she would never agree to being anything more than friends.

It was hopeless and tragic but I loved her despite it all. Being her friend was all I could have and I gladly took that little bit. Because having any piece of her was as precious as gold.

And now, I might’ve screwed everything up.

We climbed up a few flights of creaky stairs to the top floor. The other bound ninja who were in trouble seemed to be heading in the same direction. We passed by a handful of people I assumed had just gotten out of their trial – most of them were in tears or looked like the will to live was sucked right out of them.

Our group approached a hallway that was guarded by two obsidian statues. One had their sword drawn with a halo of fire around their head, while the other held a scroll and stood on a cloud. Neither of them made me feel welcome.

The hallway they guarded had glossy walls with symbols etched into every available space. Occasionally, there would be a door. I could hear arguing coming from the other side. Suddenly, the air felt thick and stale.

We came to an open door and stepped into a courtroom. The room was circular with four columns holding up the ceiling. A large paper lantern hung in the center and provided as little light as possible. A tall semi-circular table rested on the far wall where three judges in funny triangular hats sat. In front of them were two tables and behind those were long benches hiding in the shadows.

I was shoved into a chair at one of the tables while Katherine took the seat beside me. Helios and one of the guards sat at the other table. Everyone else filled up the benches.

Now that I was sitting in front of a panel of judges, my shoulders grew heavy and my veins filled up with jittery worms. This wasn’t like my usual screw ups where Katherine would lecture me or slap the back of my head and that would be it. My fate was no longer in her hands and I did not feel good about what kind of punishment the three stone-faced judges would come up with.

I looked at Katherine. She sat bolt upright with her hands clasped together on the table. Nothing about her posture declared she was comfortable. She was as stiff as twig a in winter. I couldn’t blame her. It was all on her to defend my stupid actions and if she failed…who knew what would happen.

I bumped her shoulder with mine. “Don’t worry, you’ve got this,” I said.

She gave me a half-hearted laugh. “At least one of us believes that.”

The judge sitting in the middle pounded a heavy staff against the ground. Everyone’s whispering ceased. I couldn’t help but wince. The fate of my career was about to be decided.

“We have summoned this trial at the request of the accuser, Helios, Chief of the Department for Damage Control, concerning a member of squad one hundred and twelve, Kaine. Helios, you may speak first,” the judge said.

My mouth was growing drier by the second. I felt like I’d swallowed a bag of cotton balls. I wished I had a glass of water as I watched Helios stand up.

“As head of my department, it is my duty to organize and disperse the clean-up crews under my command. Everyone in this room is aware of what we handle: disposing debris, restoring damaged areas, and erasing any concerning memories from mortals’ minds. It’s a job many easily overlook, but if it weren’t for us the secrecy in which this organization operates would be impossible. Now, I understand, in the heat of things that sometimes it is difficult to avoid mishaps and creating a mess. I am very lenient in that area, but it’s also my job to ensure that a ninja is not being lazy or irresponsible,” Helios said.

The center judge waved his hand. “Yes, yes, get on with it.”

“Kaine has only been with us for a short time, but within a mere week after being sworn in he jumped onto my watch list. A full crew had to be sent out after every single assignment given to Kaine. This includes even the simplest of tasks. If he had been trained properly, he would have been in and out of those scenes without anyone seeing him.” Helios threw a shady glance at Katherine. Her nails dung lines into the table as she struggled to keep herself from getting angry. “Yet, he was caught on multiple cell phone videos, uploaded all over the internet, and for goodness sake there were memes. The amount of work he creates for my people is utterly exhausting. He leaves behind dozens of witnesses and ruined property strewn for miles in every direction.”

He reached into his belt and pulled out a glass ball. He tossed it into the air and it hovered in place. The ball projected holographic pictures of crushed cars, busted up buildings, and thousands of pictures of my blurry image leaping out of frame for everyone to see. I felt my ears growing hot with embarrassment.

“The sheer volume is what put Kaine on my list in the first place. I wrote a warning letter that he needed to pay closer attention to his actions and that the amount of destruction he left behind was beyond acceptable levels. I assumed at the time that he was just a young genin simply unable to grasp the concept of thinking before acting. But he seems to have ignored my letter. The destruction continued, growing worse by the day. I finally had words with his commander, hoping she could put him in line. Apparently, she doesn’t understand the meaning of discipline because the following day, Kaine left this behind.” A picture of a huge crater in the middle of the city appeared. “That is when I gave Kaine his third and final warning. I really hoped he wasn’t stupid enough to disregard it, but as you can see, he lacks any sense of good judgment.”

My teeth started grinding together. I wanted to get up and tell Helios to shove his insults up his butt. I understood that I was in trouble, but I didn’t need to be ridiculed or treated like a three-year-old.

“I wanted to report Kaine’s latest incident to you immediately because it is the most concerning of all his mishaps. If it could even be classified as that,” Helios said. The pictures of the wreckage flashed through the air.

The only thing I remembered was chasing the Betrayal and doing everything I could to stop him. The pictures that were being shown seemed like they’d come from a completely different incident, as if I hadn’t been there. There were children crying as they watched their homes burn. People huddled up next to charred loved ones, not knowing whether they were alright or not. It reminded me of the footage of terrorist attacks on the news, except it wasn’t intentional, and it was all a result of me not paying attention.

I felt like someone pumped black sludge into my organs. My body grew heavy and sick. I had become blinded in my rage and innocent people suffered because of it. How was I any better than the Betrayal blowing up houses for fun? At least he made a conscious choice to destroy stuff, but me? No, I’d burned it all down without even noticing, without even caring.

What made it a billion times worse was the look on Katherine’s face when she saw the pictures. Her eyes filmed over with moisture, sad for the victims but mostly disappointed in herself…and with me. She’d trained me for one purpose: protect those who can’t protect themselves, at all costs. I could see the sense of failure weigh her head down until she couldn’t hold it up any longer. She put her face in her hands.

I wished she didn’t have to defend me. Why would anyone want to stand up for someone who could unleash so much misery? I knew I deserved punishment. I had to make up for what I did. I wanted to plead guilty just to spare Katherine the shame of having to speak up for me.

“Kaine’s power to create and harness fire puts him in very small category of absolutely lethal abilities. Every time he summons his gift there is a potential for someone to be hurt. To exercise it all would require that he knows at all times where that power is being directed. This is clear, irrefutable evidence that Kaine is unable, or perhaps unwilling, to be that responsible. He’s been given many chances to turn his behavior around, but I draw the line when people start getting hurt. Especially, when so many were hurt. Fortunately, we were able to ensure that no one died, but I’m worried that next time, we won’t. And I can assure you that it will happen again if we do not act now and remove Kaine from his current position,” Helios said and took his seat.

I felt like he hammered the last nail into my coffin. The room was quiet while everyone absorbed the weight of Helios’ words. After a long minute, the judges whispered to one another. Then they gazed in our direction. I was pretty sure they already knew what they wanted to do. I could see a hardness in their eyes that meant whatever Katherine said would bounce off like arrows shot at a stone wall.

“We are prepared to hear Commander Katherine speak on behalf of Kaine,” one of the judges said.

Katherine did her best to steady her shaking hands. I tried to understand what the swirl of emotions in her eyes meant. She looked like she’d been backed into a corner and she knew there was only one way out, but she was terrified of the outcome. She managed to get to her feet.

“I cannot argue the evidence or the valid concerns Helios has presented. I’m aware that Kaine has yet to master the art of staying in control under duress, and he lets his emotions get the better of him.” Katherine shoved the words between her teeth, something she did when she was upset. She took a deep breath and this time her tone was softer. “Kaine has a passionate heart. The things he cherishes most, he will defend to his last breath. Helios showed you the wreckage of Kaine’s actions without telling you why it happened. Kaine was responding to a Betrayal attacking people’s homes—homes in the neighborhood he grew up in. His family was among the injured. He wanted to protect what he holds dear by apprehending the Betrayal as quickly as possible. But because he rushed, he lost his focus—”

“Objection!” Helios jumped to his feet. “Are you saying that it was right for him to burn innocent strangers for the sake of getting justice for his family? Do the ninja not forbid such favoritism for this very reason?” I really wanted him to sit down and stop talking. He’d already made his point.

“I’m not endorsing favoritism. I am saying Kaine is willing to act with all his might to defend what he cares about. Today it was his family, yes, but eventually he will care for all people in the same manner. And when he does, our enemies will pay dearly for harming civilians,” Katherine said.

Helios rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Nonsense.”

One of the judges narrowed their eyes at Helios. “Silence.”

“Your honors. In light of all that has happened in the past few hours, we will need Kaine on the front lines. We cannot take one of our best defenses off of the field at a time like this. I understand that because of his warnings and the seriousness of his actions, he must receive a punishment. All I ask is that it is a momentary punishment and that after he serves his time he will return to his current position,” Katherine said. Her hands curled into tight fists, bracing for the final verdict.

“Objection!” Helios punched his table. “The Black Guard must uphold justice and do what is right for the majority. Your judgment in the past has always been tough, not soft. Need I remind you that when I had been in Kaine’s shoes my irresponsibility was not taken lightly. I was never offered the chance to return to my squad, even to this day. We do not forgive when lives are on the line.” Helios pointed his finger at me. If he weren’t wearing a mask, I imagined his mouth would be frothing at that point. “If that boy goes out, ignites another city, and people die, their blood will be on your hands.”

I never thought I’d live to see the day when Katherine lost an argument. If she managed to convince the judges to go easy on me, Helios shattered that possibility. I was so sure that Katherine would win. I felt like I was standing on unstable ground during an earthquake.

I knew there wasn’t much more Katherine could say. She’d made the few points she could, but still I hoped she had something up her sleeve…some magic speech that would convince them that I deserved another chance. She kept quiet.

The judges turned to one another. They scribbled their thoughts onto a piece of paper before nodding in agreement. Surely, they hadn’t come to a decision so soon. Weren’t they supposed to talk it out for a few hours in private? Didn’t they need time to reflect?

“This panel agrees with the accuser. We find Kaine guilty and unfit for duty in combat and operations. He is to be stripped of the title genin and transferred to the Unnamed Division upon leaving this courtroom. We have also decided that he will be barred from using his fire abilities for one century and three days, should he live that long,” the center judge said.

I was left in a state of shock. Had the judge really said all of those things? Had my whole future just slipped out of my hands? I jolted as the judge knocked his staff against the ground. That was it, this was real, no more arguing on my behalf. It was over. Everything I loved about my life had been taken away.

I looked at Katherine. She stood frozen in place with her eyes shut. What was going to happen to me now that I wasn’t on her team?

I was probably going to be put on the clean-up crew like Helios and spend the rest of my days sweeping glass. The only time I’d see my teammates was whenever we happened to be in the same place at the same time. Something I imagined would be rarer than spotting Hailey’s comet. We’d turn into strangers passing by on the street, memories of a past life with no hope or chance at having a future together.

It was a fate worse than exile. At least in exile they removed all memory of ever having been a ninja. But now I’d have to live with the memory of everything I had lost and the only way out of the misery would be death. This wasn’t supposed to happen, I thought.

“But, no…there has be something,” I said, each word sounding more desperate than the last. I tried to catch Katherine’s gaze, but she couldn’t look at me. “There’s got to be a way to appeal, right?”

She shook her head. “All judgements are final.”

Everyone started getting to their feet to leave. I looked at the entrance, as long as I stayed in this room I was still on Katherine’s team. I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want a life without her.

The door to the courtroom burst open. A man stormed down the aisle between the benches. He had brown skin, long, curly black hair, and a neat beard. I imagined he could’ve been a Persian king in the old days. He wore magenta robes and about a thousand gold rings and earrings. Half of his neck was covered in a tattoo that looked like a mandala. The second he walked in everyone dropped to their knee.

“Forgive me for being late, traffic was a nightmare. It’s a good thing we decided to make these trials available for streaming,” the man said as he lifted his phone for everyone to see. “I heard both arguments on my way here.”

“Master Ramin, have you come to speak on behalf of someone here?” one of the judges asked.

Ramin came to a halt a few feet from the judges. “Actually, no.” He turned to face the room. “I’ve come to declare this trial as unnecessary and invalid.”

I lifted my shoulders. I wasn’t familiar with this master, but right then I didn’t care. He was like an angel swooping in to save the day.

“Erm, excuse me, Master. Did I hear you wrong?” Helios said. Ramin ignored him and came up to Katherine. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“I apologize for this inconvenience, commander. I understand you were in the middle of something far more important,” Ramin said. He smelled like jasmine tea and crushed hibiscus. His voice was soothing like soup on a cold day. Even though he looked youthful he carried himself with the assuredness of old age.

“Inconvenience? Master, that boy must be removed—” Helios stopped talking as Ramin spun around to face him.

“Did I not say that I already heard the arguments? Let me be clear: Kaine’s position in this organization is not up for discussion. He is a ninja and he is on Commander Katherine’s squad because that is precisely where the ruling council wants him,” Ramin said.

“So, it’s okay to hurt people as long as you have friends in high places now? Is that what the ninja have come to stand for?” Helios crossed his arms.

“Kaine will not be removed from his team, but he will face punishment. I will see to it myself,” Ramin said. I gulped because that couldn’t be a good sign. Masters didn’t get tangled up in the day to day affairs unless it was something no one else could handle. “Everyone is dismissed.”

“How is this fair?!” Helios started going off on a rampage about the crumbling values of the ninja. Katherine grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the exit. As we passed Master Ramin, he leaned over.

“Wait for me in the hall,” he whispered. Katherine nodded and Ramin went back to trying to soothe Helios.