Young Writers Society

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The Present

“Give it up, Kai. I’m faster than you,” Shun gasped out as he dodged a punch that was flung by the blond Yang. His leg hooked behind her own. He swept her foot out from underneath her. She was able to set up her footing once more, but with greater difficulty than before.

“I’m not going to give up, not after an hour of sparring!" she cried out, striking at him and being deflected. "You’ll get tired! You’ll slow down!” Kai claimed, pounding her fist against her chest to show that she still had the fight left in her. Her forehead, drenched in sweat, glued her hair to the skin in messy and dangerous lines. Her skin was pale. Her breathing was laboured. There was no possible way that she could go on. She was almost sickly looking.

Nevertheless, she came at him again, preparing for a feint blow with her left fist. While he blocked this, she attempted to hook under his arm and hit his ribs with her right. However, his knee quickly rose and blocked her hit before his bent leg struck out and hit her between the breasts, sending her flying to the ground. Gasping for the breath that left her lungs, she floundered about. She'd been lucky he hadn't hit lower. With a kick that forceful, he could have ruptured her lungs.

“Give it a rest. You’ll wear out your muscles. You won't be muscley. You'll be stringy and weak,” Shun said, approaching her side and offering his hand. “Besides, you have to remember that I’m the top runner here at the Academy. There simply isn’t any beating me. I'm here and gone before you could blink.”

“You can’t lift nearly double your weight, can you?” Kai gasped out, taking his hand slowly and beginning to stand with his aid. “I have you beat there.” She nodded her head.

Shun nodded as well, “You sure do.” he smirked slightly. He was a very lanky young man of seventeen. He had thick, long hair that he tied back in a ponytail and that billowed down to the middle of his back in chocolate curls. His muscle was lean, and one could easily mistake him for a weakling for that. His eyes were odd and drooping, but held a wisdom in their umber depths. There wasn’t a single person that questioned any of his suggestions as his eyes gave off the aura that he always was certain of what to do.

Kai smiled to him and gripped his hand more firmly for a few seconds longer. She could always trust in him to believe in her. She turned from him, toward the two onlookers that were sitting atop the hill next to the sparring grounds.

“How was my form, Pualani?” Kai called out, cupping her hand around her mouth to amplify her words. This really wasn't needed, as anyone could tell you that Kai's voice could reach nearly a quarter-mile even when she didn't yell.

“Your left foot needs to be more grounded!” Pualani called in return, holding her place in her book with her thumb. Pualani was an aspiring Hana diplomat, with her nose constantly to a book or her pen to paper. Sometimes she would find herself in a daze, but she would always brush it off whenever Kai would say anything to her. Needless to say, Kai was worried for her friend, but to honour her wishes, she said nothing about it.

“What do you think, Kenichi? Am I improving?” Kai called out to the dark-skinned male that sat beside Pualani. He straightened his jacket slightly before answering. His jacket was always heavy with what Kai never knew. It was as if he were constantly smuggling something.

“Not really.” He answered, his speech garbled by his usual mysterious and foreign accent. No one was ever sure where he came from, exactly. He was reluctant to reveal his origin, as if it were a deep and dark secret. Of course, this made people quite interested in him. He was about as wise as he was perverse, which was both a compliment and an insult. He would always have a woman on his hip to flirt with and he was always the first to assume an innuendo over the literal meaning of a thing. It was an fascination of his to involve himself with women, even if he didn't become romantic or sexual with them. It was foreign. Rumour had it that he had fifteen women under his belt. Kai wasn't sure how she felt about this rumour, but she could believe that he had even a fraction of those girls.

“Damn,” Kai hissed. “Again,” she said, turning toward Shun once more and raising her fists and spreading her knees in a horse stance.

“No, Kai. I’m not sparring with you again. I gave you a bruise on your shoulder already." he said, backing away. “Give it a rest. Relax and let your muscles heal.”

Kai’s lips fell open for a good five seconds before she lowered her fists and slowly rose from her stance.

“Fine.” She sighed before turning and beginning the trek up the grassy hill to join her friends. Shun did the same, his long legs carrying him up the hill more quickly. The four of them folded their legs and began to relax in the soft, smooth grass, while their eyes looked out over the terrain that existed beside the Academy and beyond. One could watch as the well-kept and beautiful meadow began to evolve into steppes, then immediately behind the steppes were steep grey crags. A breeze swept across the hill and each of the four breathed in a collective breath and they each cherished that clean air as if it had been ages since they had smelled the fresh smell of meadow.

“Exams are in two weeks.” Pualani said, placing a bookmark in the spine of her book and setting it down beside her with a sigh. She seemed to be very much interested in her book, yet far more interested in conversation. Indeed the cover was colourful and depicting a battle, but other than that, Kai found little interest in the vast amount of pages. She failed to grasp what Pualani could find so interesting within the pages of a book that she couldn't find in life. True there were no battles waging, but if she waited only a few days... “We have to compete in a debate competition. The winner of the debate is guaranteed a position within the ranks of the Hana after graduation.”

“At least you don’t have to perform in a physical competition.” Kai argued, crossing her arms. “We have to compete in a ladder match. The losers from the bottom three tiers don’t graduate.”

“The winners and losers of the top three tiers are guaranteed an internship with any of the active soldiers of Osorezu. The winner of the competition is inducted into the ranks.” Shun explained, illuminating on the areas that Kai would have left out simply to buy for sympathy.

Kenichi scoffed bitterly. “Your group has a better chance at greatness. You have two opportunities for success, with an internship and a job. We can only be great and win, or be slightly less great and lose.”

“Try not to think of it that way, Kenichi. It’s a reward for the one that puts in the most effort and utilizes their talent.” Pualani offered, her eyes smiling toward him, and only a hint of a curl on her lips. A breeze then caught her hair, whisking the earthen waves into an elegant form around her shoulders, neck and face. Kai sighed slightly, her eyes alight with both adoration and envy for that elegance.

Kai tucked her windswept blond hair behind her ear (which proved to be of little use as the long tendrils still whipped at her vision). Why was it that Pualani could manage such elegance and she could not? Surely there was no practicality to any elegance that Kai would have, but it was still a trait that she deeply desired. Pualani's hair could gently be taken by the wind and lick at the air with the grace of a dragon's wing, but Kai's could only strike at the air and whip her eyes.

Taming her hair, Kai's eyes turned up to the clouds and her eyes filled with the sky and the soft cotton clouds that obscured the otherwise perfect blue. For a moment, she was lost in the pureness of that blue. It calmed her and took away all of her vain thoughts. However, as she continued to stare into the sky, she found herself aching. There was something empty to the sky, but at the same time, Kai felt that the emptiness was more within her. She was missing something.

“Do you ever get the feeling that there is something very important that is taking place now, and no matter how badly you want to help, you’re neither there nor would you be of any help?” Kai asked, leaning back and laying in the grass before she closed her eyes. That wasn't what she meant. Those words didn't quite explain what she was feeling.

“Where did this deep question come from?” Pualani questioned, one thick eyebrow raised.

“I don’t know.” The other girl responded before turning her head to the side.

“Yes.” Shun spoke, answering her question from before.

"Hmm..." the blond hummed out, thinking on his response. "Perhaps that's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" Kenichi asked, tilting his head before filling his eyes with the sky. That strange accent of his once more mangled his words, but the group understood as if they could speak his native tongue.

"Perhaps..." she repeated, "perhaps there is something out there that you're meant to do and you just need to find it. What if we don't find it?" A sigh left her lips and she shook her head. "Never mind. The Universe has woven us each like strands of thread and we each have our own paths. We will each follow our own paths, regardless of whether there is something meant for us to do. That is the very essence of our humanity."

The conversation ended with the resounding ringing of the gong that was mounted upon the Academy building. There were three rings and the final ring was left to dissipate into nothing. The four students rose from their comfortable spots with a collection of groans and sighs and moans and stretches.

“Recreation time is over.” Shun sighed. “Back to work.”Next Chapter: http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/work.php?id=108731