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Save for the prologue, the final chapter in Kai's tale, where I guarantee everything will be wrapped up properly. Probably. Don't ask me, I'm writing this before I even write the story, so I may forget to change it if it turns out to be wrong.

With that being said...enjoy =^.^=

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"Hey! I counted on..."

Those were the last words the panther spoke before receiving a knife in the heart. He'd been surprisingly easy to find even in as big of a city as it was, and that was the last anyone in that city heard of him or the assassin who'd silenced him.

It was in the next city over some ways down the road that anyone heard from said assassin, any knowledge of his being hired to kill an old, supposedly immortal man in a small town held only by the deceased panther, the assassin himself, and the old man and his three students. His one failure, and he was lucky enough for nobody that could do anything with that knowledge to know of it.

Casually walking up to and slicing the throat of a man guarding the door of a local club, the assassin, a black-furred, red-eyed fox garbed in a black, hooded vest, black pants, and black buckled gloves that reached up halfway to his elbows and left most of his fingers uncovered, in which there were obviously a few tools, such as the straight blade of a dagger, hidden.

"Hey, where've you been lately? Haven't heard about you in a little over two weeks. Oh, and by the way, the bouncer at the door? He probably woulda let you in, you know," a dark brown-furred rat wearing a similarly dark red robe that had the sleeves at some point removed asked the fox, slipping casually onto the barstool next to him.

"Don't care," the much younger fox grumbled. While the rat appeared to be in his forties, the fox seemed to only be 18, an age that many would comment would be a little young to be appearing in such a club.

"Alright then..." the rat said, not wishing to pry into the point of the doorman further. "So where have you been, anyway? Finally keeping yourself secret, maybe?"

"I've just been taking a little break, not having much luck finding jobs," the fox, Kai, said, giving a convincing enough excuse.

"Huh...hey, I just noticed...something wrong with yer eyes?" the rat asked, looking intently at the one of Kai's eyes he could see.

"What are you talking about?" Kai growled a little, glancing over to his companion.

"They're...different. What've you been doing, anyway? Seriously man, your eyes have lost some of that scary flare of theirs...you ain't going soft or anythin'..."

"Soft?" Kai suddenly growled loudly, turning fully on the rat, who barely managed to stay on his stool under that fierce, red-eyed glare. "Suggest that again, and I'll see how ‘soft' your little neck is..." he said much more quietly, fully aware that most of the club had turned its attention to him, silence ringing through the building for a few moments as they determined if it was anything worth watching. Deciding it wasn't, the club resumed its activities, noise returning within its walls.

"Alright, alright...looks like you need a job to take your mind off things," the rat suggested, holding a hand at his heart for a moment to monitor his heartbeat.

"Yeah, probably...something you had in mind?"

"Maybe...for now, though, this is why I love hanging out with you, kid. You're hot. There, see? I said it, and people know it, that's how you attract certain...attention," the rat said, glancing pointedly over to Kai's other side for a moment.

Inwardly kicking himself at not even noticing the girls' approach, Kai glanced over in that direction himself to see who he'd attracted this time. A somewhat thin-set bovine, white with large black speckles and dark green eyes, and a dark blue-scaled dragoness with bright blue eyes, both wearing the ever-revealing uniform customary for places like this, both of their tails waving contentedly along behind them.

"Hey, hope there's room for the two of us over here," the bovine said with a suggestive wink, drifting over to Kai's side while the dragoness made her way over to the rat.

"Always room for some lovely ladies like you," the rat said happily, quickly wrapping an arm around the dragoness. "Ain't that right, Kai? Eh...Kai?"

Apparently fully disinterested, Kai crossed his arms onto the bar and stared forward into space, not even a single drink in front of him to occupy himself with.

"Aw, someone a little upset? I'm sure I can help with that..." the bovine spoke, placing a seductive tone into her voice as she began to press her bust up against Kai's arm and part of his chest, reaching a hand toward the cheek opposite her.

"I doubt it..." Kai muttered, his expression mostly unreadable.

"Humph...well, if you change your mind, we'll be around," the bovine said, turning to leave and waving her dragoness companion after her.

"We...wha...Kai!" the rat stammered, seemingly torn between pursuing the two girls or getting upset at his own companion. "Those were two real lookers there, and you're letting them get away? Something really is wrong with you!"

"You said something about a job?" Kai asked, taking the conversation where he wanted it.

"Yeah, I did..." the rat admitted, wondering what could possibly be troubling the assassin he used to so enjoy hanging around, but knowing well better than to try and pry into it. He'd seen someone try and poke their way under the fox's fur before, and that hadn't ended well. For them.

Soft or not, Kai continued to complete the jobs he found without any more difficulty than usual over the whole of the next month, but kept quiet about everything, no longer seeming to care how much his reputation spread. A fact which disturbed those three surviving assassins that knew him. It just wasn't like him, how he was acting. Keeping to himself even in local clubs, ignoring all the passes that the females within such places attempted to make at him from city to city, and getting a bad habit of pointedly reducing the doorman population before any of them could speak more than a word.

Another month passed in such a way, and one of his fellow assassins finally got tired of it, approaching him one day in the type of club he'd always frequented, even if he didn't seem to do anything at them any more.

"Honestly, what is up with you, Kai? Keeping quiet, staying away from anyone, even in clubs like this? You turned down Yura in the other city, man! Yura! You know how often that lioness doesn't pay any attention to guys, whatever they try? So she walks right up to you, and what do you do? Tell her you're not interested," the wolf that this day had taken a seat in the stool next to Kai's complained emphatically, sighing, probably at the thought of how he would've liked to be in the fox's...if not shoes, since he didn't wear any, then fur...quite often, come to that. Wherever he went, the fox always naturally attracted attention from that strange black fur and piercing red eyes to go along with it.

"Yeah, yeah, you're going to do the same as everyone else. Tell me I've changed, complain at me, which I guess you just did, then try and come up with a way to ‘snap me out of it', right?" Kai said, sighing resignedly.

"Let me guess, there's a girl in your life, right? Man, you should know better than that!"

"Are these accusations really necessary?"

"Fine, whatever...speaking of girls, though, I heard about one that someone's not happy about, and some of us," the wolf began, referring to assassins on the whole as ‘us', "have heard things about the place she's at being difficult to get any work done in. It's probably some big place or something, I don't really know," he continued, shrugging.

"In short, you want a little help with it, right?"

"That's the plan...the client's a snake, apparently tried getting close to this girl and she turned him down. Hard."

"Explain to me why I should care."

"Right, only info that'll help with the job with you, right?" the wolf asked, and Kai nodded. "Anyway, the place is a little ways away...if we leave now, we should be able to make it there tomorrow night, and fortunately the guy told me just where to go.

On that cue, the two assassins left the club, passing the replacement doorman, to go on their way to the location of their target, Kai suspicious that the wolf only wanted him along to be able to keep an eye on the fox. If the wolf wanted to keep an eye on him, then fine, that was his deal. As soon as this job was over, he'd go his own way again.

His own way...

As the wolf expected, it took them until the next night, resting for a time during the day at an inn they stopped by, to reach their apparent destination through a forest, Kai running himself essentially on auto-pilot the entire way, neither realizing nor caring where it was they were going. Unfortunate enough, because then he would've been able to warn the wolf about something.

"Urgh...do you feel...sleepy all of a sudden?" the wolf asked groggily as they made their way along a winding pathway through what seemed to be some sort of garden. Blinking himself out of autopilot mode, Kai looked around in surprise, his surroundings, and especially a nearby plant, suddenly familiar to him. A cruel twist of fate indeed...it wouldn't surprise him very much if that old man had something to do with any of this.

"Kai...man...what's..." the wolf managed to get out before finally collapsing, firmly asleep from the effect of a nearby plant, one Kai recognized all too well.

"Hmph...sleep, for all I care. I have a little something to settle," the fox muttered quietly, making his way through the garden and into the building beyond it, his steps quiet as ever as he automatically turned to his right and down the pathway along the opposite wall, coming to the pair of sliding doors he was after and slowly parting them enough to slip through. All his previous attempts had failed for the fact that Shiro had known every time that he was coming...now, however, there was no way he could possibly know that the fox had returned.

Cautiously approaching the old man's bed, keeping his eyes and nose out for any more of his unique plants that he might be keeping around to foil any attempts to get near him, he reached a point two feet or so from the mat that Shiro slept on, remembering well the last time he'd made it this far and had suffered a similar fate to his lupine companion out in the garden. This time...it just seemed too easy, as if the seemingly ever-alert Master Shiro wasn't even trying.

One of his daggers already at the ready, he lifted it up to strike, surprised as the old man spoke, his voice not carrying that strength it used to have.

"So, the assassin returns..." Shiro said quietly, not even bothering to open his eyes. Still unnaturally perceptive, Kai saw.

"Hmph...immortal, huh? You seem awfully weak with age for someone who's immortal," he said, apparently missing the joke as the old man chuckled feebly.

"My immortality is of the soul and mind, not of the body. Unusual, I know, but it affords me an apparently endless string of reincarnations."

"That's bound to get boring after a while," Kai commented, and Shiro chuckled feebly again, interrupted momentarily by a small coughing fit.

"Yes, I suppose so, but it allows me knowledge and skills beyond that which most can hope for, such as the lifesense you've no doubt noticed by now," he replied. Lifesense...the fox had heard something about it before, but thought of it only as a senseless pursuit by those that apparently had nothing better to do, or as an ability only angels and demons possessed.

"If these are going to be your final words, then save your breath. My job may be over, but it'll still be pretty satisfying to finally end this life of yours, even if you will just come back somewhere, in some other body."

"Haha...yes, I suppose it will," Shiro agreed. "And yet, if you meant that as much as your tone implies, would you really have bothered talking to me?"

"No, I suppose not..." Kai said quietly. "What did you ever do to get on that panther's bad side? I feel like I should probably know."

"Only denied him the property my dojo was on. And I may have suggested he find someone who could blend in with the shadows."

"Why me, then?"

"Did I ever say I suggested you? No, I expected someone that could actually end me...then found you. A boy dragged into the shadows of a will other than his own, walking without true purpose down an empty path."

With those words, Kai couldn't decide if he should be insulted at Shiro apparently degrading his assassin skills, or simply continue on with how things were going. Taking a brief moment to think about it and coming to the conclusion that Shiro would've allowed the assassin to kill him, he decided to simply continue on. "Well, I suppose we've gotten this far...what do you expect to happen now?"

"One of the plants in my garden removes immediate memories...none of my students know about many of the plants there, but I've little doubt that you're insightful enough, especially through your encounters with them, to know which plant I'm talking about. Am I right?"

Grumbling a little at how much the old man simply seemed to know about anything around him, Kai nodded, having indeed come across such a plant during his explorations through the garden in his free time, trying to find anything he could use against the old man, who always seemed immune to any of the plants' effects when Kai subtly placed hints of them within his food. That particular plant had been his most unfortunate encounter of all, his resistances to poisons of most kinds unable to ward off that particular plant's effect, which, he'd realized, had erased his memory of the previous three plants he'd checked, forcing him to check them again.

Easily picking up on what the old man had in mind, Kai quietly left the room to return to the wolf where he still lie after gathering as much of the plant as he felt he needed, forcing it into the wolf and carrying him off through the forest to deposit him on the other side, confident that he'd erased all memories since before he would've heard about the job he'd been given. Probably the last he'd see of the wolf, as such.

Returning to Shiro's room, he also returned one of his blades to a ready position, only to find himself halted once again.

"If you could, allow me time at least to say my good-byes..." Shiro said weakly, remaining awake right now seeming to drain his energy.

"...nobody ever enters my room, I hope?"

"Your room...hehe, I'm somewhat surprised to hear you refer to it as such. But no, not a single one of my other students has entered it since you left."

"Fine. Say your good-byes when they're up...after that, it's over, even if I have to get through them to kill you."

"So you say...but I will fall peacefully."

Giving a small nod, Kai lifted his blade back into his glove, shifting one of the straps a little to hold it there as he returned to his old room, finding it just as he'd left it. Tomorrow...that would be the day that all this would end, and he'd leave this behind him as a past to be forgotten.

Awakening by the rise of the sun on the fated day, Kai lifted himself slowly from his sleeping place seated against the wall by one of his doors, tempted to sleep on the mat but not wishing to create any further attachments to this place, resolving instead to sleep uncomfortably.

And yet it was a certain attachment to this place, a memory of his usual time of waking here, that got him up at that particular time. Keeping his ears alert to anything going on outside his room, his nose catching the scent of breakfast for the morning, he waited for old Master Shiro to likely dismiss his students so that he could die in peace, for them never to know that it was Kai that finally ended this particular life of his. Even still, Kai had come to expect around this place that things didn't often go along the lines of anything he thought likely, and knew the old man would pull some sort of stunt.

"Everyone...I have an announcement to make, that I'm sure none of you will like hearing," Kai heard Shiro speak, imagining his three students waiting in anticipation and worry for what he was about to say. "It's obvious that I'm dying, and I doubt it should be any secret that I don't wish for a painful, drawn-out death."

"Father...then let me..." Shura began to speak, but he was quickly silenced. Doubtless from a gesture from his father, who took another moment before speaking further.

"I know it would please you to be allowed to end your father's suffering and allow him to pass peacefully...but no. I've no doubt you'd do the job effectively, but I worry that it would end my life with no small amount of pain."

"Then...what are you suggesting?" Edgar asked, worry leaking into his voice.

"A...specific set of skills that would allow such a death."

"Are you saying you want us to hire some assassin?" Shura asked, apparently angered. Not that Kai could really blame him given their...strained relationship.

"No. One has already been hired once more, even if they didn't come here after me. Whoever they came for, I suppose it doesn't matter now, for they have agreed to end me peacefully."

"Alright...show yourself, assassin!" Shura shouted in a challenge. "My father may be allowing you to kill him quietly, but I won't allow you to get away after that, I assure you!"

"Would you shut up already? Honestly, to so openly challenge an assassin like that, when they could kill you in any number of ways," the voice of said assassin came out from within the building, an amused tone in their voice. It didn't take him even coming into sight for the three students to realize who it was.

"You...I told you never to come back here! Father, what's he doing here?" Shura demanded, turning from Kai to his father.

"I believe I already told you. Shura, I can count on you to take care of this dojo, can I not?"

"What? Yes, of course...but..."

"No. I've enjoyed this life, and all of you. Even, to some extent, the person that stands behind me. But this body has grown old and fragile, and now, I feel, it is time for me to pass. Take care of yourselves, all of you, and turn away if you don't wish to watch."

Seeing that he couldn't argue with his father, Shura nodded slowly, glaring over to Kai before looking away, seeing Edgar and Myst do the same, resigned to the fact that their master wished to go, somehow relieved by the fact that it was by the blade of someone they knew, at least to some extent.

"What will I feel?" Shiro asked, calmly closing his eyes, the question clearly directed to the fox who'd slipped out one of his wrist-mounted blades.

"Remain still, and you'll probably feel a small poke as the blade makes initial contact, then...nothing," Kai replied, looking over the scene before him. The pain of loss, the weight of life, the joy of memories...both good and bad, and yet, somehow, all just as valuable. The ‘life' that Shiro had tried so hard to show him, everything that had been taken from him by an assassin, bundled up into one scene of death that used to seem so irrelevant and inconsequential to him.

One quick swipe, and it was over.

A quick slash to the back of his neck that would sever the old man's vital nerves and instantly kill him with minimal pain and effort, only for the fox to catch him from falling forward, lowering him instead onto his usual pillow for the back of his neck to rest on Kai's cloth that he'd removed from his face, bleeding slowly.

"...thank you..." Shura grudgingly said, walking over and kneeling down beside his departed father, the knowledge of Shiro's reincarnations withheld from him to keep his son from senselessly pursuing him after this body's eventual death.

"So...what happens now?" Edgar asked, not sure whether to direct the question toward Kai or Shura.

"We go into town, have a service held for my father," Shura replied, apparently gaining a little strength back as he stood up and faced his fellow former students Myst and Edgar.

"You do that. As for me...I'll be returning to my own path," Kai said, taking a quick glance back to Shiro before wandering off.

"Leave him. We don't need someone like that around here," he heard Shura say, figuring he was probably stopping Myst from trying to pursue him. He heard nothing else from the human as he continued his path out.

It didn't take long for the three to organize a funeral procession for the old human, all of the townsfolk gathering near the edge of the town, some, including Shura and Edgar, digging the hole to bury him in. More than a few people seemed to have something to say, three of his students included, and the event on the whole lasted late into the day as the sun began to set.

"Somehow...I knew I'd find you up here," Myst spoke as she approached the edge of the highest cliff on the mountain overlooking the town and a fair amount of the surrounding area.

"This from the person who never seemed to know when I was coming," Kai replied, sitting up on the cliff, his legs dangling over the side, and Myst giggled lightly.

"Hey, I've snuck up on you a few times, myself," she replied, walking over to take a seat next to the fox.

"Yeah, yeah," Kai muttered, seemingly a little annoyed. Glancing over to the dragonfly, he blinked in surprise as she leaned in close, staring intently into his eyes. "Huh? What's with you?"

"Your eyes...they used to really scare me, but now they're kind of attractive..." Myst said quietly, blushing and quickly sitting straight up, looking intently out into the distance as she realized what she was doing.

"Huh...you're not the first one to say that my eyes have changed..." Kai said thoughtfully, turning his own gaze to the setting sun beyond the mountains.

"Well...Edgar's leaving to find his own way in the world, and Shura's taking over the dojo with just me there with him for now...what will you do? Go back to your old life like last time, I suppose?" Myst asked, glancing back over to the fox.

"...I don't know," Kai replied, turning his gaze downward, turning it to the side when the dojo came into view, not wishing to look at that place right now. "First time I've been unsure about anything, really..."

"First? You're lucky, then...I'm probably unsure about something every day of my life..."

"I wouldn't call this life of mine lucky..." Kai grumbled.

"I...I'm sorry..." Myst said timidly, turning her eyes away from him again. "I guess...I should probably leave you alone, then..."

Getting up to leave, she began to walk toward the path down the mountain before finding herself stopped by a hand on hers, reminded of those few times she'd stopped the fox in the same fashion.

"Myst...I'm sorry, alright? Two weeks of my life I was put through things I've never seen before, dismissing it as a passing memory, as something to escape, but...I'm tired of it. I'm tired of everything..." Kai said, slowly releasing the dragonfly's hand as he glanced almost sadly off to the side, a look in his eyes it could be said nobody that knew him at all would ever expect to see.

"It...it was fun, in an odd sort of way..." Myst said, beginning to smile a little. "And I'm glad you're finally letting yourself open up at all, though I'm kind of surprised it's to me..."

"Who else would it be to? Edgar I never really knew, Shura and I pretty much hate each other, Master Shiro's dead...then there's you, the one who's always seemed to come back no matter how much I pushed," Kai replied, the dragonfly surprised to find him referring to the old human in that way, never getting the feeling that he cared for Shiro. But then, she supposed, it had been Master Shiro who had been pushing Kai in this direction.

"Kai...thank you, for trusting me like this. I doubt Shura will like it, but I'm sure you can stop by sometime, or something," she said. "So...goodbye, at least for now..."

Turning to leave, she once more found herself stopped by Kai's hand on hers, found herself turning back toward him to see him closer to her than she remembered, found her eyes slowly closing as his lips met hers in an action he'd later say that he would never regret.

The kiss lasted only briefly, to break into awkward silence between them for a few moments before they decided to split, Kai returning to his seat on the cliff while Myst walked down the path to return to the dojo, glancing occasionally up in the fox's direction to see him staring out toward the sunset, only about a quarter of the sun remaining in sight beyond the mountains, less as she traveled lower. She didn't think she'd see the fox again after that, but a memory like that nonetheless wouldn't be soon to pass.

The next morning she found herself woken up by a commotion outside, finding from the faint light against her back window that it was probably around the time the students would do their morning jog, having hoped to sleep in after the long day yesterday but finding now that it was impossible. Oddly enough, she caught the whole of the conversation that was going on near the entrance to the building, and though the voices were somewhat muffled and she couldn't identify them in her sleepy state, it quickly became apparent who each belonged to.

"What are you still doing here?"

"Jogging, isn't that what we usually started the day with?"

"Yes, but...what in the world are you doing here?"

"Didn't I just tell you? And could you stop shouting?"

"What...what are you wearing?"

"I dunno, I found it in my top drawer when I went to change so I decided to wear it."

"What were you doing in your drawers?"

"How long are you going to keep asking questions like that?"

"Wait...that's supposed to have sleeves! What did you do with the sleeves!?"

"I don't like sleeves."

"So you tore them off!?"

"Cut them off, it's much cleaner that way."

"What gives you the right to cut them off?"

"How about the fact that this outfit is clearly mine?"

"Okay, maybe it is, but couldn't you at least treat it with respect?"

"What do you want me to do, sew the sleeves back on?"

"It shouldn't be hard for you, so why not?"

"What makes you think I have any skill in sewing?"

"Just do it, or you're out of here!"

"Why don't you make me?"

"Would you two CUT IT OUT!" the two that had been arguing were surprised to hear a sudden shout from the final person that remained living there, quickly silencing them both. "Shura, stop complaining about what he did to his outfit. Kai, stop provoking him. And someone please remind me to buy earplugs later, I don't want to have to wake up to this every day," the dragonfly huffed, turning away from them and to the dining room cabinet to begin to prepare breakfast. Neither of the two willing to further bother the sleepy and irritable insect, Kai resumed his morning jog, soon joined by Shura, who kept his eyes off of the missing sleeves of the fox's black outfit, the same that he and Myst now wore, the same that his father had formerly worn, and had apparently decided that each of them had graduated into.

Glancing back out the door for a moment, Myst snuck casually into Kai's room as the breakfast began cooking in the oven, seeing on the table a letter. Smiling a little after she read it over, standing over it to do so and making sure not to disturb it or anything else in the room since the assassin would probably notice, she returned to the dining room to continue tending to her breakfast, hearing Kai and Shura continuing to argue under their breaths as they passed somewhat near the entrance.

'So you've returned, have you? Perhaps to end my life, perhaps for some other reason, I suppose I can't say as I write this, but there's little doubt that I'll have fallen to your blade by the time you read this. I also have little doubt that if you're reading this, you've decided to stay, a fact for which I am glad. Live life as you see fit, and enjoy the simpler pleasures, every small moment, even as the fleeting things you, as an assassin, doubtless know they can be. Lend to the world your skills in a different manner than you have been used to, you may be surprised to find how rewarding it will be. Most of all...step out of the shadows, and enjoy life.

Shiro'

Inscribed in what could easily be recognized as the old master's flowing style of writing, it held within it Shiro's final message to the fox, perhaps to all of them, and she was sure that Kai had taken his time in reading over it. There would still be that rivalry between him and Shura to deal with, but they'd probably get over it in time, at least to some extent.

"What happened last night...did you mean that?" she asked Kai quite directly as they all sat down for breakfast once it was finished, the fox grumbling and looking away from the four questioning eyes.

"Huh? What happened, exactly?" Shura asked, shifting his gaze from Kai to Myst.

"Nothing," Kai said quickly, turning his attention to his food, gathering a piece of fruit onto his fork. "And...yes..."

Neither of the two reacting to his inquiring gaze, Shura shrugged and joined them in eating breakfast.

"So...what do we do now? Continue on like normal?" Myst asked after they all finished, changing the subject.

"You mean as if Master Shiro was still here?" Kai asked, receiving a nod in response.

"He left us these outfits...that signifies us as masters in his eyes..." Shura said quietly, looking down to his own.

"So...look for students, you're saying?" Kai asked, turning his eyes to Shura.

"No...father never went looking for students, they found him. Edgar wandered into town ready to collapse, and was taken in. Then Myst, who was born in this town, came upon this place one day and was allowed to keep coming here until she eventually moved away from her parents. Then, of course, there was you, Kai..." Shura recalled, not needing an explanation for how he came to be there.

"So...I guess we wait, then, until someone comes," Myst said. "It'll feel kind of lonely around here without Edgar or Master Shiro around..."

"Yeah..." Shura agreed, staring down at the table. "I guess we'll have to do something with their rooms, especially my father's."

"Seems to me it would probably be best for you to move into your father's room," Kai said. "He basically left you this dojo, and you're his son and all, so..." he trailed off, shrugging, expecting a response like ‘how dare you suggest that!' or something along those lines.

"...yeah, you're right. I don't have much that's really mine in my room, so it'll be an easy move, and I'll be able to take care of all his things," Shura agreed, to Kai and Myst's mild surprise.

"So...what now, anyway?" Kai asked after a short pause in the conversation.

"Now...I suppose we should relax, and look forward to the life ahead of us," Shura replied.

It took a surprisingly short time to find new students for the dojo, Master Shiro's death perhaps attracting some attention, and a few people, to the place. As had been the old human's tradition, the students were given the knowledge that after a period of time their masters and fellow students would decide whether or not they were to stay. One, a troublemaking young wolf, was quickly removed from the group, which left three students to attend to, all of them quite young, from eight to eleven years of age. A green-scaled dragoness, the youngest of them all; a tan-furred lioness; and oldest of all of them, though somewhat barely, a rebellious male bluejay who quickly learned not to get on his Master Shura's bad side, especially while the human already had Master Kai to deal with, who'd taken the shy young dragoness under his tutelage.

Years passed, with the lioness eventually leaving to make her way in the world outside the dojo while the dragoness and bluejay remained, and Kai, Shura, and Myst's training styles, naturally, turned out differently, Kai's in particular focusing on speed and precision more than Shura cared for, but he wasn't teaching any of his assassination techniques, at least as far as he knew, so there didn't seem anything to rightfully complain about.

"Haha, can't catch me, Risa!" one of the current students taunted as they dashed around the training field, quickly pursued by another student, about ten years older than him but still having a difficult time keeping up with the boy that was in his mid teens. Needless to say, the three masters of the dojo had quickly given up trying to put a stop to it.

"Would you stop it already? We're supposed to stay together, and you're making it hard when you're always running so fast!" the other student, a green-scaled dragoness, complained, the final student, a bluejay around her age, keeping quiet about the whole thing and maintaining his own, slower pace. Watching the usual event, Myst sighed from her place leaning against the wall near the door, Shura remained impassively seated on the pillow that his father had once used, and Kai sat at the edge of the deck, one leg hanging over and his other foot propped up onto the edge, his elbow resting on his knee, watching the proceedings with mild interest.

"Yeah, yeah, you're just jealous that I'm faster."

"Honestly, one of these days, I will get you..."

Turning around quickly and sticking his tongue out at her, the student, a dragonfly with jet-black, armor-like skin, a head of short black hair, and red eyes, gave a confident smirk quite reminiscent of his father, continuing on at his pace as the dragoness uselessly chased after him.