Chihaya stared out into the blood red sky. Sunset was approaching again. He sighed, Shammaya…or, rather, Kazure, was balanced with her past. He had completely bent his past and folded it so that he could become what he was today. He closed his eyes and tried to recall small memories of when he was younger, and when Kazure was Shammaya…

"Come now, my little girl, we have to get home…" Chihaya, only about 12 years old now, said quietly to the young ten-year-old girl who refused to come in from practicing, even though the rain was tumbling down on both of them.

"Chihaya…why do you call my your little girl? I'm not that young and hopeless anymore," Shammaya turned to him, a strange look on her face, a smile that had sadness consuming it.

Chihaya smiled a genuine smile back. "Because I think it's good for you. I'm supposed to be your protector, Shammaya. Don't you think it would fit?"

Shammaya blinked and got onto Chihaya's back. "Fine then. Now please take me home."

Chihaya smiled and stood up, "All right. Let's go home, little one."

"'My little girl' AND 'little one?" Shammaya asked. Chihaya did nothing else but smile and nod.

Once they were home, Chihaya let Shammaya off of his back, and she ran over to Kazuhiko.

"Oh, Shammaya, you're soaking wet!" Kazuhiko said at the sight of her and shook his head.

"Well, I was practicing! I even perfected the time cascade technique you tried to teach me earlier!"

Kazuhiko smiled. "Did you now? Shammaya, that's great."

She smiled at him and hugged his waist. He put his hand on her shoulder and they walked inside together.

Chihaya looked back at them, going inside, happy as ever. He just sat out there, being drenched in the rain.

'Shammaya…the ideals of the Firefeather style will never be carried out if you keep acting this way. But then again, those are only ideals,' he thought. Although he couldn't help what he felt for the young girl.

Finally, he picked up his sword and went into the back. There he started cutting down wooden statues apart with techniques he had learned, using all his force, and getting out all his anger.

"My little girl…" Chihaya said, a little anger in his voice. Though Shammaya wasn't there, he talked to her as if she were the wind. "You're in love with your master, and he loves you back. But what about your protector? What's his role in your life? Is protecting you all it is?!"

Then he looked up, and a cascade of his shadow showed wings on his back. It was the first time he could remember ever having that façade of shadows. The very first time…

Kazure awoke suddenly. "Black angel…" she whispered. Seikei was obviously quite a light sleeper, turned over, and whispered,

"Don't think about what is to come, Kazure. Don't do that just yet."

She smiled at him and nodded. She lay back down next to him, and put her arms around him. He gently put his arms around her, and they just let themselves be that way for awhile, just enjoying the other one being near.

"Master Kazuhiko! Chihaya!" The girl called out to them. "Look, my balance isn't off at all!"

She walked across the top of the roof, balancing the sheath of her sword on her head.

"That's great, Shammaya! Now try turning and going back!" Her master called out to her. She did so, and the only thing the sheath did was wobble slightly, but it did not fall off.

"You're great! Good job…Shammaya," Chihaya called up to her.

Shammaya smiled at the both of them, then took the sheath off of her head, held it in her hands as if it were her sword, and pushed off of the house. She landed on the ground perfectly.

Kazuhiko hugged her. "You've mastered that. Now just put the two together, and you've got it!"

Shammaya smiled and nodded. "I can do that!"

Kazuhiko smiled and said, "I know you can."

Chihaya sighed and said quietly, "Of course she can. She could do anything." He sighed and then walked away.

Kazuhiko and Shammaya looked over at him.

"Protector? Chihaya?" Shammaya asked, confused.

"Chihaya! Where are you going?!" Kazuhiko called out, but Chihaya didn't respond.

"And that's when I met that girl Saurieon. I only saw her once after that, didn't I?" Chihaya was reminiscing on what he, and unbeknownst to him, Kazure, just remembered.

"Two days." He said. "Two days, and then the battle will begin." Chihaya sighed.

Then softly, he added,

"Two days until the final score is settled."

Kazuhiko was dead. He knew it, and Shammaya knew it. He just hadn't been there when it happened. But there was no lie in the statement. Kazuhiko was dead…and Shammaya was devastated.

"Chihaya!" She yelled his name at him as if it were a plague now.

He turned, "Shammaya…"

"I am no longer the one who used to be Shammaya!"

He raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"

"Chihaya, if you were there, maybe he wouldn't be dead." She had to hold back her tears. Chihaya saw a change in her. She never wanted to go back to being even remotely sensitive at all.

"Oh? So now you're blaming me for his death?!" He questioned back, drawing his sword.

"Yes, I am!" She responded, drawing her own.

And the two young sword-handlers fought. The forests seemed to part, each side nearly cheering either Shammaya or Chihaya on.

Finally, they both stopped and pulled back.

"I'll better you, Chihaya."

"I highly doubt that."

"I will!" She shouted, and took out the ribbon that used to tie around Kazuhiko's hair. She tied her own hair in it, high on her head, so now her hair only hit about the top of her neck in the back.

"Well, I'll be one who'll be able to wield a common sword and a thin sword, and at the same time!" Chihaya yelled out. He'd always wanted to do that, and now h could take it to an advantage.

"No one can do that! I'd just like to see you try to beat me. My name is now Kazure, and I will be the greatest assassin ever known to the island Elyllis!"

"I think you have our titles mixed up, Kazure." The name sounded dangerous coming off of his tongue in a threat. "We'll see, in time, who the greatest one is."

And they both turned in their opposite directions, leaving the woods. Only to find that they would only be fighting, eight years after that pledge, on the exact ground where Kazuhiko Iceriver, the man who made them allies by his life and enemies by his death, was murdered.

A/N: Ooo! Finally the new chapter is done! And a cliffhanger! I'm going to try to put where Kazure introduces Seikei to Saurieon and the battle between Chihaya and Kazure, but I'm not promising the battle. I hope you liked this chapter!

Bye!