The sun slowly rose, its radiant beams of life-giving light bringing warmth into the city of Edge and shining in through the many windows of the Suzuki Clan homes. If you were to look through one of these particular windows, you would see a seven year-old girl with dark hair laying on a futon, her face illuminated by the golden rays.

Kira became conscious of a light shining through her eyelids and warmth spreading through her body. It was a pleasant warmth, one that seeped into her tired muscles and bones and increased the circulation in her blood vessels and Soul Paths. She lay there for while, enjoying that comforting feeling that was like a tender embrace before, slowly, getting up.

She blinked a few times, disoriented, before looking around her. What she saw were the familiar wooden walls and floor of her room, a bowl of fresh cleaning water and a cloth sitting in the far corner. As she tried to get up, her legs felt like jelly and she felt herself falling forwards. Through sheer force of will she regained her balance on legs that weren’t very inclined towards walking right now.

Now that she was more conscious, she was aware of a dull ache in all her muscles and other places that she couldn’t reach by hand. She felt as if she had been tossed into a barrel of stones and rolled down the Falchion Mountains.

Allowing herself to sit down and inspect herself internally, she was surprised at what she found. Although her Soul Paths appeared to be somewhat scorched, somewhat retarding her flow of Soul Energy, they were much better off than what she remembered before passing out. At the same time, they appeared to have gotten a bit more resilient.

Also, her Soul cultivation seemed to have increased by a few levels, to the point that she was now on the brink of breaking through to the Core rank. At the age of seven, and after successfully breaking through, she would be the youngest person in the clan’s history to have accomplished such a feat.

‘Hahaha. It looks like the sayings were right. What doesn’t kill you, truly makes you stronger.’

Her suppressed laugh was hollow because it meant that what had happened with the golden energy wasn’t a dream. She had very nearly lost her life that day. The thought alone made her shiver.

Kira didn’t fear death. To her, it was natural that every soul would taste death eventually. But even when compared to that feeling of being completely alone in that darkness devoid of those light-ribbons, the fear from experiencing that excruciating pain from the golden energy running rampant through her body made her want to curl up in a corner and never leave.

‘What actually happened there? I know I messed up somehow and it’s probably from my own lack of knowledge, but how could I have nearly killed myself? Either way, I’m alive now so I need to be more careful. There might be a day when I’m not so lucky and my life is the price I have to pay.’

Putting her darker thoughts aside, Kira knew that with her Soul Paths in that burned and withered state, she wouldn’t be able to cultivate, not without great pain anyway. Thinking back to the scrolls she had read on Soul Energy, an idea started to form in her head.

Sitting cross-legged in her training position, Kira closed her eyes and drew out some misty Soul Energy from her dantian. Her mother must have left some of her own Soul Energy there for her as Kira remembered completely depleting herself. Taking this energy directly and controlling it with her mental strength, Kira surrounded those scorched Soul Paths with the cool and tranquil Soul Energy.

Slowly, the Soul Energy faded as it was absorbed externally into the Soul Paths, nourishing them so that they began to be restored to their normal shape, while dark flakes drifted off them and got crushed into nothingness, and the refining process began to continue at its original pace again, filling her body with energy and brightening her mood.

It was several hours before Kira finally opened her eyes again. While she knew that her Soul Paths had been through such a great trauma, she knew must have been treated to some extent or she wouldn’t have been able to recover completely in such a short amount of time.

Stretching her stiff body, she cleaned herself up before making her way to the kitchen. Her father, Koto, and brother, Kagetsuna, were already there. From the light outside, it was already noon and time for lunch.

“Father, Brother, good afternoon.”

“Ah, it’s the glowing golden girl. You really had this old man worried, haha!”

Kira’s father leapt up from the table and gave her a massive hug. After a few seconds he realised that she might still be injured and released his arms quickly.

“Sis, nice to see ya up and about!”

When Kira had walked in, their faces were somewhat gloomy but, as soon as she spoke up and they turned their heads to see her walking without difficulty, wide grins had spread across their faces. They were truly happy to see that she was okay.

“According to Doctor Furuka, your insides were a total mess. She told us that she did the best she could and that the rest was up to you. You’ve been asleep for the last three weeks.”

“Really?”

Kira hadn’t expected the repercussions of that event to have been so severe, and that was with treatment by Edge’s finest physician. The thought that what had happened wasn’t something she could mess around with was even more deeply imprinted in her mind. On the other hand, she was still glad that she was alive.

“Where’s Mother?”

“Your mom said that she would be out to get ingredients for lunch, that you would be hungry when you woke up. How she knew that you would be awake today, I have no idea.”

“Kindly send someone to call for me when she gets back. I’m going for a walk. My limbs are still stiff.”

“I’m coming with you Sis. That fine?”

“Okay. See you later, Father.”

“Sooo…Sis, how are you doing really? Those internal injuries…From the look on Doctor Furuka’s face when we brought you in I really thought that you were gonna, y’know…die.”

Her usually relaxed and smiling brother had his usual expression of smugness on his face, but Kira could tell that, beneath the façade, he wasn’t actually as happy as he appeared to be.

“I really am fine. There’s no need for you to worry anymore. Just a bit of numbness here and there but that will fade with time.”

“Listen, it’s not ok. I’m really sorry that I pushed you so far. I had no idea that something like that would happen-”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Kira cut him off.

“It’s in the past now and I won’t hold any grudges against you. We’re family and family forgive each other when they make mistakes.”

Kira noticed the tension in him fade a bit as she said those words even though it didn’t disappear entirely.

They descended into a somewhat companionable silence as they strolled through the clan. However, Kira noticed that the clan members they passed held a strange expression on their faces. If it was just one or two people or a certain group she wouldn’t have been too bothered, but every single person they passed, young or old, male or female, stopped what they were doing and looked at her with the very same unchanging expression, a semi-blank look that was mixed with awe and a hint of fear.

“Brother, did the entire clan turn into undead while I was asleep?”

While her question appeared to be a joke, Kagetsuna knew her well enough to know that under the humour she was actually deadly serious. She genuinely didn’t know what could’ve happened to make them look at them this way.

“No, not actually. This because of us exchanging pointers that day.”

“Oh, but it was a draw right? Seeing as we weren’t able to complete that last exchange.”

“Actually, I told them it was your win.”

“What? Why?”

Kira was genuinely surprised. First of all, their sparring match was a personal one unless her brother invited hidden spectators, which was something that didn’t fit his character. He might love battle but he didn’t go looking for attention. It was his genius talent brought attention to him, something that Kira could empathise with from her previous life.

Second of all, there was no reason that she could think of that would cause him to declare it her win, unless something happened while she was struggling with the energy produced from her fused Twin Energies. She watched as Kagetsuna crossed his arms behind his head and stared up at the sky before replying.

“I had my reasons. The main one is that Skill you tried to do at the end. Even though you’re not even at the Core rank of cultivation, the power of that skill would’ve been at least Advanced-ranked if you had enough energy to make it work, if not higher.”

“Advanced-ranked?”

“Yep, from the way the wind was going kinda crazy around you and energy in the air, anyone could tell how strong that Skill would’ve been. So it kinda drew everyone’s attention.”

Kira sighed.

“You said there were multiple reasons.”

“Yeah, the next big one was the technique you used just before trying that Skill. I’ve never seen anyone move like that, not even Mom and Dad when I watch them practising, let alone my seven year-old younger sister. Even though I’m faster, stronger and further ahead in cultivation than you, you could still pressure me even while exhausted which was nothing more than amazing.

Failed Advanced-ranked Skill aside, from this alone, I felt like you deserved to win.”

“Oh…I see.”

Kira was stunned and wasn’t sure how to respond. To get such praise from her brother that she looked up to was a new and pleasant feeling that she didn’t know how to react to. Should she thank him? Stay silent? Nod in acknowledgement?

Before, people would praise her skill and elegance with a blade almost constantly, but those people meant nothing to her, so, similarly, those compliments washed over her like water that didn’t leave behind a single droplet on her skin.

Truth be told, Kira had completely forgotten that she had used her basic Iai techniques on him in their last exchange. She began to pray to whichever gods were listening that he didn’t ask where she learned them.

“Say, Sis…”

“Yes, dear Brother?”

“I know that it’s wrong of me to dig into your personal stuff so I won’t ask about where or when you learned about those techniques, but I still want to ask one thing.”

“And that is?”

“Please, will you teach them to me?”

For the second time in the last few minutes, Kira was stunned. Of all the ways she had imagined this going, this wasn’t one she had planned for. Thinking hard about it now, she realised that she should have expected this. Her brother was a battle-freak after all. At the same time, she knew that this was one of her trump cards, pure sword techniques that didn’t appear to exist in this world.

“Soooo……?”

“Very well, I will teach you. However, I have certain conditions.”

“I don’t care what it is, I’ll do it.”

“Firstly, no one can know about these techniques, even people in our own clan. This may seem selfish but it’s for my own safety. When you practice them, do so in private. The method of learning these techniques is simple, even if mastering them isn’t quite so easy.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Secondly, you are only allowed to use them in life or death situations, for the same reasons as before. Whatever happens, I don’t want these techniques becoming common knowledge. Understood?”

“I understand. I promise that I will keep these a secret from any and all minds and bodies for as long as I draw breath.”

“Good, let’s head back now, shall we?”

If anyone were to have heard this conversation between the two siblings, they would’ve have been shocked at the way the expressionless, younger, less talented but more hardworking sibling was assertively imposing conditions on her genius older brother. A situation like this was something that would’ve caused people to shake their heads in wonder.

Kira was about to return to her room to cultivate after lunch when…

“Little one, if you have a moment, I need to talk to you.”

“Of course, Mother.”

Closing the door behind her, Kira and her mother, Naomi, sat down on her futon. Thinking back, Kira realised that her mother had saved her with knowledge that she, who had read almost all the scrolls in the clan library, didn’t have. She knew that her mother wasn’t originally of the Suzuki Clan and her background was mysterious, even to those Elders of the clan. As such, she was naturally curious as to what her mother had to say as she was definitely keeping some secrets.

“First of all, how are you feeling now?”

“Apart from some numbness here and there, almost back to my peak condition.”

“That’s good. I had to take you to Doctor Furuka for emergency treatment and she wasn’t sure that you’d make it. I was really worried you know. Mind telling me everything that happened? And I mean everything. I’m certain that what Little Kage thinks he saw and what actually happened are two very different things.”

With a seriousness in her voice, Naomi asked Kira. Kira happily obliged, leaving out the details of her Iai techniques and simply calling them new moves. When she got to the part where she said that she was trying to create a new Skill on the spot while her Twin Energies were almost depleted, Naomi’s face darkened and her usually peaceful and elegant expression creased with frown lines.

“I hadn’t found much about creating Skills in the library so I didn’t know what the actual danger was until it was already beyond my control. At this point I believe Kagetsuna left to call Father and Mother. The rest is as you saw.”

“Kira, you were very fortunate. If you’d put any more energy into attempting that Skill, not even someone who had just broken into the Spirit Projection rank, let alone I, at the Soul Spirit rank, would have the strength so save you.”

Naomi paused for a few moments so that this statement could sink in. Kira knew that although the difference between Foundation rank and Core rank was already quite big, the qualitative difference between the following ranks, not to mention the cultivation required to reach the breakthrough points, was like the difference between heaven and earth.

“Then why is there no warning about attempting to create our own Skills if something like this could happen? If by some chance the potential of our Skills surpasses our limits, surely that means every child in the clan is like a firework waiting to explode!”

“That…There’s a secret which I’m about to share with you that you must never share with anyone. Do you promise?”

Kira kept quiet for a few minutes, seriously dwelling on the consequences of learning information about what had happened to her. While it was obvious that she had a great desire to have her questions answered, she knew that any power came with a cost, and that included the power of knowledge.

“I promise.”

“Good girl. I know I can trust you to keep secrets. This is something I need to tell you. Alright, here we go. To answer your question, this phenomenon is extremely rare, so rare that it’s rumoured only to appear somewhat randomly within a certain bloodline.

Normally, when the energy made by the fused Twin Energies, known by us as Quintessence, isn’t used in a Skill, or it is incorrectly used or, as in your case, when used to attempt to create a new Skill and fails, what normally happens is that the body has a defence mechanism that allows the excess energy to pass through the skin and dissipate harmlessly into the air, once again becoming natural energy.

In our case, there is something within us that prevents the energy from escaping which causes it to run wild inside the body and wreak great internal destruction. Even within the bloodline, the conditions for it to awaken are mostly unknown and, until then, the body will behave as normal.”

“So, what this means is that it is a defect of the body? One with life-threatening consequences?”

“Yes. However, we can use Quintessence in a way that only those with this kind of body can, in a way that directly takes advantage of it without needing to use Weapon Skills. You may have felt it after you passed the energy through your body.”

Kira thought back to those moments before losing consciousness. Although her memory was fuzzy, she had a vague feeling of being filled with energy despite not having any left a few moments before.

“That way of using Quintessence to forcefully break certain limits is an ability we call ‘Burning Soul’ due to the harmful burning effect it has despite its other benefits, the first of which being an immense increase in Soul Energy, letting you use a large number of Skills consecutively-”

“Mother, when you say ‘we’, does that mean you also have it?”

Kira interrupted, raising her suspicions at her mother’s choice of words.

“Haha, yes, I do. I honestly didn’t expect to see one of my descendants in this lifetime with it, let alone my own daughter. This must have been predestined by the gods. I’m surprised that you also have it because this ability is so rare. The main reason for this is that, on top of it being rare in itself, most of the knowledge about it has been lost, with only a few core facts surviving the test of time, passed on by word of mouth. Of course, out of the few who manage to awaken it, most of them die due to the damage done to their internal organs. I suppose you could say I was one of the lucky ones…and so are you.”

“Mother, I feel…as if I never want to use this ability again, no matter its benefits. The pain it caused…I would rather die than suffer it again. But say one day I use it by accident, will I always be putting my life on the line?”

Kira was naturally wary of this ‘Burning Soul’ now. While in theory it sounded like an ability that could turn the tide of any fight, having experienced it first-hand, a deep-seated fear of it had settled in her heart.

“Oh Kira, I understand that it’s scary and it hurts, but the truth is, if you don’t learn to control it, your life will always be at risk. Not only that, but it controls you in the sense that you will never feel comfortable pushing your limits if you always live in fear of it. If an accident does happen, maybe not now but maybe ten, twenty years from now, I may not be there to save you.

What you need to do is accept that this is the body you were given and make the most of it. If you learn to control Burning Soul, in a critical situation, you’ll be able to draw out a power that no one on the same cultivation ranks will be able to match…”

Naomi abruptly pulled Kira into her arms. The latter, caught by surprise, stiffly raised her arms to return the embrace after a few moments. This comforting feeling, this “mother’s love”, was truly a miraculous thing. Kira could feel all her worries and anxiety melt away and the tension in her muscles relax. The darkness in her heart brought about from fear of the pain of Burning Soul dissipated slightly and even the ice around her heart formed from losing her Takanashi Clan began to thaw.

“Don’t forget, no matter what happens, I’ll be there for you, little one.”

“Mmm…”