Katana (20 page)

“What was the other half?” I asked.

Braden answered. “Sons of farmers were not allowed to be samurai.”

I was going to ask why again, but Drew walked by with a weapon that distracted me. On top of a four-foot polished staff gleamed a two-foot-long curved blade. My palms grew slick with sweat. What kind of practice was this? Where were the foam nunchaku and wooden swords the children exiting Kim’s class had carried? “What the heck is that?” I nodded my head toward the weapon.

Drew smiled. “It’s a naginata.”

“A
girl’s
weapon,” Braden teased.

“Watch it,” Michelle warned, poking the tip of her sai into his rear.

Braden yelped and jumped forward. “Hey!”

Michelle blew on the tip as if it were a smoking gun, spun it, and stuck it into an imaginary pocket. I was starting to like her.

Drew rolled his eyes at Braden, who rubbed his bottom. “Anyway,” Drew continued, “it
was
mostly used by women. The length makes it possible to fend off an opponent while keeping them at a safe distance.”

“Makes sense,” I muttered, my eyes transfixed on the gleaming edge.

Drew shrugged. “Even so, I’ve always been partial to it. It just suits me. Here,” he said, offering me the staff. “What do you think?”

I placed the katana on the floor and accepted the weapon that stood taller than I did. The weight of the blade surprised me, and I fumbled with it to keep it upright.

“Anything?” Drew asked.

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but there was none of the familiarity with the naginata that I felt with the katana. I shook my head.

He laughed. “Senshi never liked to use the naginata. Maybe it was the stigma that it was a woman’s weapon, or maybe nothing suited her quite like the katana.”

I scowled and thrust the weapon back at him. Another test and another reference to Senshi. “You know,” I told him loud enough that everyone could hear me, “what everyone seems to be forgetting here is that there still is a chance I’m not this Senshi person. I’m sure there were millions of people throughout history who could fight and used a katana. I could be any one of them.” I looked around the room, making sure to make eye contact with everyone, daring someone to challenge me.

“Tell me, Rileigh, do you really believe that?” Kim answered. “Or are you so scared of the truth that you’re going to keep lying to yourself?” He walked over to me, forcing Drew to take a step back until there were only inches separating my raised chin from his chest.

Of course I was scared. I’d be stupid not to be. “I like who I am. I don’t want to be taken over, or whatever it is that happens, and lose myself.”

He sighed. “It doesn’t work like that. Who you were
makes
you who you are. It doesn’t change anything.”

“Well, coming from Mr. Truthy-trutherton himself, it must be true.”

Kim opened his mouth to answer, but a snicker from Braden cut him off. Kim shot him a look of warning and Braden quickly masked the rest of his laughter behind a series of coughs. Kim shook his head before looking at me. “Rileigh, I—”

“Save it. If this is the lecture where you explain that you lied for my own good—blah, blah, blah—I’ve already heard it.” I bent down and picked up the katana. “I thought we were going to train, or was that just another trick to get me to come here?”

A muscle flexed in Kim’s jaw. He nodded. “You’re right. Let’s get started. You and Michelle start over there.” He pointed to the side of the room closest to the mirrors.

Michelle gave me a nervous glance as we walked to our side of the room. I did my best to ignore her. I came to train and nothing else. But when I reached the designated area, a new thought hit me—I didn’t have the slightest clue what I was doing. I was seconds away from sparring and the voice inside of my head remained quiet. In front of me, Drew leaned back, preparing to strike, while Braden drew his sais together in front of him with a menacing hiss. But me? I stood with my hands at my sides, awkwardly clutching a sword with hands that were more accustomed to working iPods and cell phones than pointy weapons.

“Psst,” Michelle whispered to me. “What are you doing? Get into position.”

I stared blankly at the sword in my hands as if by looking at it hard enough I could somehow remember how to use it. But no such luck. The only cool breeze sliding along my skin came from the A/C duct overhead. “Um, I have a slight problem,” I whispered back.

“Can it wait?” she asked without looking at me.

“Uh, no.”

She sighed. “What’s the problem?”

“I … don’t know how to fight.”

Michelle looked at me, her eyes wide. “Wait, what?”

But I didn’t have time to explain. From across the room, Kim shouted for us to begin.

The fight was on.

25

I
took a step backward. “Michelle, what do I do?”

She jerked her head past her shoulder. “Get behind me!”

Before I could take a step back, a pressure began to build inside my chest. I immediately recognized the sensation. “Oh no,” I whispered. “No no no no.”

“What are you doing?” Michelle hissed. “Get out of the way!”

I tried, but my legs refused to cooperate. The pressure rolled against my ribs like a tidal wave and I cried out in pain.

“Rileigh?” Michelle said.

I hugged myself with one arm. “It hurts,” I panted. Like it had the night with the bikers, a heaviness stretched and pulled from my chest to my stomach.

“I think we need to stop,” Michelle called to Kim.

He shook his head. “Keep going.”

I shot him a seething look. Before I could give him the words to match, the pressure left my body in the form of a powerful wind, fluttering my hair and stinging the lines of sweat running down my temples. My muscles reflexively tightened, and my body coiled like a wire ready to spring.

Michelle, still holding her sais, ran her fists along her bare arms as if fighting off a chill. “What the heck was that?”

My eyes, I knew, were as wide as hers. “I don’t know,” I whispered. “But be happy you’re still standing.”

“I don’t believe it,” Michelle said, her face a paler shade than usual. “Did you just move your ki?” Before I could ask her what she was talking about, she snapped her head over her shoulder, and turned to meet Braden’s sais with her own. The two twisted against each other, breaking apart only to clash together again.

I ducked just in time to miss the naginata’s blade as it bore down on me. Luckily the shift from clueless shampoo girl to skilled fighter happened in a matter of seconds. I knew what to do and, better still, the inner voice was quiet. Interesting. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to figure out the change.

I spun to the right, bringing my blade up in front of my face as the naginata appeared close enough for a shave. Apparently Drew, like Michelle and Braden, fought better with his weapon of choice, and this was not going to be as easy as the other night when we all held katanas.

He stooped low, sweeping the naginata with him, trying to catch my feet. I jumped over the rod and answered him by bringing my sword, broad side down, on his shoulder. We weren’t, after all, trying to kill each other.

He cried in surprise, and then the gloves came off. He lashed out like a whirlwind, answering each of my blocks with another attack, his speed not allowing me the chance to make an advance of my own. Not that I would have been able to make much of one anyway. Just as he said, the naginata kept me well out of striking distance. If this continued, he would wear me down before I landed another blow. Then I had an idea.

He struck out again, but this time, instead of blocking the blow, I dropped to my knees and tumbled forward. I rose to my feet behind him. Before he could turn to face me, I brought my free arm up under his arm, over his shoulder, and behind his neck, bending him over in a painful angle that put me safely out of range of his flailing arms. He was bigger and weighed much more than me, but the angle of the lock I held him in left him helpless to counter.

After a minute of struggling, he gave a frustrated cry and dropped the naginata onto the floor.

“Drew, out!” Kim ordered.

Drew bowed to me before retrieving his fallen weapon. He left the ring and joined Kim.

Michelle’s in trouble.
I groaned as the voice blew inside my head. I knew the silence had been too good to be true. I pivoted and instinctively jumped over the fallen girl, sensing her placement on the floor without looking. I crouched down and fed my blade to the sai arcing toward her.

Braden hesitated. “How did you move so fast?”

“Beats me,” I grunted through clenched teeth. With a yell, I pushed Braden back a couple of steps, which gave Michelle time to scramble to her feet.

Braden regained his footing and came back at me. He swung a sai up, caught my sword, and attempted to wrench it from my hand. It almost worked, but I tightened my grip and pulled my katana back toward my chest. The sai spun from his hand onto the floor.

Michelle came up beside me, smirking at Braden. His eyes darted nervously between the two of us while he twirled his remaining sai. I wanted to wait for his next move, but Michelle didn’t have my patience. During her charge, Braden caught her two sais with his single one, twisting his arm to lock them in place. While she struggled to free her weapons, he brought his leg back and planted a side kick into her stomach.

She grunted, dropping her weapons as she flew backward. Crap. I jumped forward, catching her around the waist, spinning us both around, before releasing her safely to her feet. I turned to Braden.

“Nice,” he told me, smiling.

“Thanks.” I smiled back.

I watched Michelle sneak up behind Braden during our exchange, but by the time he noticed, it was too late. The roundhouse kick to his back knocked him forward. As he stumbled for balance, I gave him an additional spinning back kick to the side. He crumpled with a thud, his remaining sai landing a good ten yards from his hand.

“Match over!” Kim smiled.

Michelle turned to me. “Nice match, girl!” She held up her hand.

I hesitated, not sure how to respond. I finally shook my head and returned the high-five. I didn’t need to over-think everything.

She beamed.

“Nice job, Rileigh,” Drew said, patting me on the back.

I suppressed the flinch. I could do this. I could act friendly around these people even if trust was still an issue.

“Yeah,” Braden chimed in. “Nice job saving Michelle’s ass!”

“Hey!” Michelle poked the handle of her sai into Braden’s stomach.

“Well done,” Kim said. He turned for the break room, stopped, gave me a wink, then continued on his way.

To my annoyance, a heated flame licked the inside of my stomach. I was getting a little tired of the way my body warmed and my heart fluttered when he was around. I stuck my tongue out at the back of his head as he walked away.

Michelle, who watched the exchange, giggled. “Come on. We have a locker for you.” She motioned for me to follow her and the others as they headed toward the door in the back.

Drew and Braden were already stripping off their sparring pads when I entered the plain, windowless room and looked around. A short counter complete with a sink lined the side wall. In the middle of the room, a card table was set up with several folding chairs scattered about. Along the far wall stood a row of full-sized lockers, twice as big as the half lockers we have in school.

“That locker is yours,” Michelle said, pointing to the farthest one against the wall.

I counted the lockers. “Why are there only five?”

She just shrugged and smiled. “That’s all we need.”

I fought the urge to huff at her answer that wasn’t an answer. Instead, I stripped off my pads and loaded them into the locker. When I finished, I turned to find Drew creeping up behind Kim, who was pulling on a black T-shirt. I started to ask what he was doing, but Drew placed a finger to his lips. A sinister grin spread across his face.

Michelle appeared at my side and elbowed my arm. “Brothers,” she said, rolling her eyes.

Was she crazy? There was no way Drew, with his lily-white skin and blond hair, could be blood-related to Kim. “Was Kim adopted?” I asked.

She smiled. “No. In the old life, Drew’s name was Seiko.”

I didn’t bother to hide the skepticism in my voice. “Are you kidding me? Psycho? Like the personality disorder?”

She laughed. “It’s spelled differently, but it’s fitting, right? He was Kim’s older brother. I guess some things never change.”

Together, we watched Drew as he slowly crept forward. When he positioned himself behind Kim, he crouched low to the ground and gave us a thumbs-up.

Michelle snorted.

“What is he doing?” I whispered.

“Getting his ass kicked,” she whispered back.

Just then Drew let out a cry and kicked his leg out. He would have swept Kim’s legs out from under him—only Kim was already in the air lashing out with a roundhouse kick.