A spark was all it took for geometric forms and curve-shaped shadows to emerge in Aurora's mind. It took some time for everything to click into place: people bleeding from their mouths, traces of dark spittle creeping down their chins. She was on top of a mountain, hundreds of warriors fallen on the ground. She stared at a soldier as he crawled, trying to escape, his fingers digging into the earth. An unfathomable fog acted as a dome around him.

Next to Aurora, two undead, both with a sword in each hand, roared fiercely before throwing themselves at the soldier. They had no skin and their bones tumbled at every step. A deadly symphony, the climax drawing closer to the infamous soldier. They reached him and flipped him over. He had elegant robes, even if dirty, covered with earth and blood, the yellow of the golden lapels distinguishing him from the black of the other soldiers.

"Don't think that the Kaji School will fall along with me. We will rise again," he shouted, spattering his red robe.

The man had no face. Where it should be, there was only a double-eyed balloon and a mouth drawn with the tip of a thin feather. Aurora walked up to him. Both dead men had their skeletal feet on top of his robe, preventing him from fleeing. Both had traces and skin patches all over their bodies. One of them handed the sword to Aurora. The girl held it. She lifted it above her head, holding it with both hands, gathering the necessary courage to sink it in the dantian of the man before her. Even though he had no face, Aurora knew who he was. He was the Kaji School leader.

However, a familiar voice, stemming from the fog, made itself heard.

"Is that what you want for yourself?" It was her adopted father's voice, Bardolph. "Is that what I taught you? To punish those who claim for themselves the life they have always wanted because they do not know any better?”

"No," Aurora murmured. "You taught me to forgive, to give them a chance, and only then punish them if they didn't learn from it."

"I knew you wouldn't forget. I've always been very proud of you and I still am, no matter where I am or what you do. Go ahead, keep working hard and you'll get what you want. What you do then is up to you," the voice said. "I have to go now. We will be watching you in this life and the next."

Aurora stared at the sword again. A myriad of sand and blood permeated the air. Her fingers were covered in murky blood. She shouted so loudly that waves of dust swept over the top of the mountain. The black chi honed the air around her. She threw her sword to the ground. It bounced back twice, raising a brownish dust wall around her.

She knelt beside the faceless man. Tears filled her face. She grabbed the man by his collar and punched him in the mouth, cutting off his lip. The blood flowed down his chin as Aurora's fists trembled.

"This is not what I want to be. This is not what I was taught. I learned that I should always fight for others. My revenge will be to end his reign so that others will not have to go through what I have experienced," Aurora whispered.

"What if to achieve that goal you have to leave a bloodshed on the way?" a female voice said. A thunderstorm blew the sky in half, striking a spot within meters of Aurora. When the fog dispersed, Yin's mystical form was there. The force was so overwhelming that not only did Aurora find it difficult to get up, to speak, but black pulses swayed across the entire field. "Don't be surprised at my power. When we first met, I was in poor physical form, but here, within you, I have access to most of my potential, including the one that is hidden in the deepest corners of your dantian. Dao is waiting for you, girl. You can't run away from your destiny."

Aurora didn't answer right away. The more she watched Yin, the more she feared her. Her feet and arms were still just manifestations of black chi stretching and diminishing at her thoughts. She hovered upon the ground, this time being possible to see two thin features acting as a mouth, sometimes opening, sometimes closing, and unveiling endless darkness. She also had two creamy white eyes. They seemed to pierce through the soul to see beneath the mask that one could have for pure protection.

"I will find a solution. And..." Aurora said, pausing for a few seconds, raising her gaze, and facing Yin, "And if I have to, I will kill whoever stands in front of me. I am not naive. I know I cannot defeat Kaji School without killing, without blood...without people on my side. I won't do it alone, but I won't do it with you," she replied, twitching her face, a wrinkled line popping up on her forehead, branching out in both directions.

"Foolish. And where do you think you will get the power to fight those who dominate both chi and mana across miles? And how?" she asked, her voice rough, angry at being challenged.

Aurora, for the first time since the massacre, smiled out of happiness, "To the fondest memories," she said and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she was at the front door of the house where she had grown up. A parade of people, young friends, and old acquaintances walked down the dirt road paved by their ancestors. Everyone smiled back, waving, saying goodbye, and thank you. The lake shone, stained with white, an exact reflection of the clouds above.

"Come in," a boy with long wavy blonde hair, green eyes, and a contagious smile said, pointing to the house’s wooden door.

She opened it and found herself in the Genkan, the place that stands one step below the main entrance. She took off her shoes and placed them in her own small closet. She walked down the corridor covered in aged yellow Tatami, made of pressed rice straw covered with reed mat and side strip, barefoot, until she reached the large room where they used to eat.

Her adoptive parents were sitting on the floor, their legs crossed, waiting for her. Even though they didn't have all their teeth, and the ones they still had were already yellow, they didn't stop smiling the whole time. They ate in silence as usual.

Only by the end, did her adoptive mother broke the silence, "Are you ready? I'm sorry we didn't tell you the truth."

"It's okay. It's okay. You couldn't have predicted that we were going to be attacked. I'm not upset. Not anymore. But I won't let this happen to anyone else again. Someone has to stop them."

"You remind me of your father, you know? Always bursting with courage, looking for a solution to every problem, wanting to help everyone even if he had to place his body on the line," Bardolph told her, "Do it but do it a bit at a time. Don’t rush it. Train, train every day, train even when you think it's no longer necessary. We will meet in another life and I hope that by then the world will already be different, that the Kaji School will no longer exist," he said.

"I'm gonna make it. I can feel it. Thank you for everything," Aurora said, and with her damp cheeks, she hugged both her adoptive parents tightly, not wanting to let them go.

Within seconds, they began to fade and the wooden structure, bound by beams and ropes, crumbled to dust. A tornado of dust, bones, familiar faces, swirled around Aurora, the girl as the epicenter. She plummeted into darkness and woke up moments before hitting rock bottom.

She was back to the rock, to the creek, Liu-Ken still sitting on one of the chairs. Aurora stood up and looked around. The world looked different to her; the blue of the sky was a lighter tone, the weeds that grew near the gray walls of the garden were of strong light green and even the birds’ chirping now sounded peculiar, reassuring her and making her feel like she was being watched and protected from above.

"You've been there for hours. I guess it was worth it," Liu-Ken told her. He got up, with his hand on his forehead shielding him from the sun, and stared at the girl.

"Hours? It just seemed like a few minutes to me," Aurora replied, looking at the sun. It gleamed from the west, the horizon mirroring orange and vermilion throughout the surrounding areas.

"I should have warned you before. Time passes differently when you are visualizing. I didn't think it would take you that long. Do you want to talk about what you saw?"

"Not really. I am ready. I want to do it. I want to raise one of the dead," Aurora said, jumping off the rock.

Liu-Ken did not answer her. He merely raised his arm and signaled her to move forward. The two remaining bodies were still in the opposite corner, covered by the white sheet and surrounded by a smell so strong and putrid that the neighboring flowers had waned. Aurora stepped forward, approaching, and ignoring the smell, removing the sheet and throwing it to the side. It danced through the air before it landed on top of the engawa, a narrow, outdoor corridor that stood outside the house like a balcony, protecting the shoji from storms and heavy rains.

"Good luck," were Liu-Ken's last words before he sat down again. The book at the table was now a different one. The old one with the black flaps had been replaced by a more recent one, namely one that still had white pages with a few underlined words, containing the secret of some potions and mixtures.

"Enjoy the show," Aurora told him as she turned back to glance at her mentor.