A WEEK HAS PASSED SINCE YUKAN AND ITE BEGAN TRAINING UNDER KASHIKOI. The two of them put their blood, sweat, and tears into their training, for they knew that, if they didn't, they would likely die. During this session, Kashikoi had instructed the trainees to try to attack him with all of their might in a form of Tabata training. While Yukan and Ite were giving it their 100%, Kadaina was munching away on an apple, only half-attentive to the task at hand. Kashikoi defended all of their attacks with only a single finger to use his magic. After about three minutes of combat, Ite and Yukan collapse from exhaustion.

"Very good, you two," Kashikoi said, congratulating the two of them. "I'm impressed with your progress. You have all grown significantly since we first sat here drinking tea." He turned his attention to his earlier pupil.

“Kadaina!" Kashikoi yelled. “You're getting lazy again. You didn't even try this time."

“I tried!" protested the somewhat narcissistic Kadaina. “I was just increasing my stamina as I went!"

Although Ite was aware that she'd improved, Yukan was not so quick to admit as such. He didn't feel any stronger than when he'd started.

"What are you talking about?!" Yukan cried out in frustration. "I haven't improved a bit! Ite's over here shooting people blindfolded!" In a fit of rage, Yukan sliced one of the training targets clean in half, displaying his improved swing. The blade had cut through the target with almost no resistance, unlike the force he needed to use when he'd first begun. It had cut through the target as a chainsaw would through a single twig. He then stormed out of the room, still blind to his newfound power.

"He doesn't get it, does he?" Ite asked her teacher.

"He doesn't," answered Kashikoi, "but he will learn how strong he has become." As he said this, he gazed at the lone slice across the palm of his hand. It was still fresh, but Kashikoi had begun healing the cut to prevent infection.

"Don't worry," Kadaina intervened, tossing an apple up and down in his hand as if it were a toy ball, "I got this."

The young mage then ran after Yukan with a grin as Kashikoi turned to Ite.

"I need to show you something, Ite," spoke Kashikoi. "Please follow me." Kashikoi and Ite then left in the opposite direction of Kadaina.

Meanwhile, Kadaina had caught up with Yukan but still stayed a decent distance away from him to not alert him to his presence.

"Heads up, thick skull!" Kadaina suddenly yelled as he chucked the apple at Yukan's head. The young swordsman reacted almost immediately and the apple was sliced in two.

"Why are you throwing fruit at me?!" Yukan yelled out in a fit of rage.

"It may have looked like fruit to you," began the youngest in the household, "but I saw that as an improvement. You couldn't even dodge a punch last week, but now your reactions and instincts are a lot sharper."

"Dumb luck," Yukan falsely attributed this newfound skill of his. "Would you please stop throwing stuff at me?"

"I will if..."

"If what? If you run out of fruit in your little bowl?!"

"If you play one game of chess with me."

"But I need to train more to protect Ite."

"Training will teach many lessons, but there are some you need to learn through other means."

"Fine," Yukan complied. "One game, I just don't want you chucking a watermelon at my head." The two of them went to a chessboard. The pieces were worn and the black pieces had come to look more like gray pieces. The knight on the white side was the worst offender, seeming to have been worn down to the wood. Yukan sat at the side of the table with the white pieces, while Kadaina sat at the side with the black pieces.

"I'll let you play first," the younger of the two said.

"What's the point of this, exactly?" Yukan asked. He was familiar with chess as a game, as he often played it after school with some of his friends, but he never saw anything that could be considered a lesson in it.

"'Chess teaches foresight,'" began Kadaina, "'by having to plan ahead; vigilance, by having to keep watch over the whole chessboard; caution, by having to restrain ourselves from making hasty moves; and finally, we learn from chess the greatest maxim in life - that even when everything seems to be going badly for us, we should not lose heart, but always hope for a change for the better, steadfastly continuing to search for the solutions to our problems,' to quote Benjamin Franklin himself. This applies to real combat and, if you aren't vigilant or cautious, you're going to end up dead."

"Kadaina, I-" Yukan was interrupted by a loud banging at the door. As this happens, Kadaina puts his hand over Yukan's mouth and places a finger upon his lips, telling him to stop talking. Kadaina then directed Yukan to the cellar, where they saw that Ite was already down there.

"Master Kashikoi will handle this," said Kadaina. "We just need to be quiet as a dead knight." The other two students of Kashikoi nod in compliance and the three of them peered through the gaps in the floorboards.

As they peered through these gaps, as if they were trapped in a jail cell, they saw Kashikoi prepare to answer the door. As the door opened, Yukan caught a glimpse of the man on the other side. His blood began to boil, his mind filled with rage, for the man on the other side of the door was the man responsible for the death of his family.

"How can I help you humble gentlemen on this fine day?" greeted Kashikoi.

"Cut the crap, Kashikoi," interrupted Kunshu. "We know you're hiding your precious little student and the trash he picked up a week ago." As Kunshu spoke, Shirei entered the room, followed by a small fleet of soldiers from Aotoshi. The fleet began to flood the room as a levee had been opened to let them in and they surrounded Kashikoi as if they were a kettle of vultures, collecting above their next feast.

"Trash?" Kashikoi said in a very smug manner. "Was he picking up you and your subordinates?"

Shirei got on the offensive with this statement. "How dare you speak-" He was hushed by Kunshu before his leader continued speaking.

"Your house could use a bit of a clean, Kashikoi. Maybe we can... revise your memories of the plebeians you choose to shelter."

"No plebeians, as you claim," Kashikoi began to wind up for another verbal attack on the king of Aotoshi, "except for those on my front step."

"Don't make me slice your throat and feed it to your kids, Kashikoi," Kunshu was on the verge of snapping. "Where are they?!"

"They are in my house," spoke the trio's mentor sarcastically, preparing to seal his fate. "Where? I haven't the slightest clue."

"Looks like we're doing this the hard way!" Kunshu yelled as he began to reach for the Alpha Blade. "Good! I've always wanted an excuse to kill you, old fool!" He charged at the eldest mage with his sword, and the battle began.

A flurry of the elements seemed to flood the entire house. All but four troops in the Aotoshi army were killed during the conflict as collateral to the onslaught. Eventually, Kashikoi had grown too weary to keep up with his opponent. Kunshu took his blade and pierced it through Kashikoi's left breast. As the blood slowly dripped off of the blade as Kashikoi was sustained in the air like an impaled victim of Vlad Dracula, the teens watched through the floorboards as they saw the life escape their mentor's eyes. His body was shortly after tossed to the side.

"MASTER, NOOOO!!!!!!" Kadaina exclaimed at the sight of his deceased teacher. Yukan and Ite covered his mouth as soon as they heard the yell, but it was too late. Their location had already been revealed.

"Shoot the floor!" demanded Shirei. "They're under the floorboards!"

The four men that survived what could only be described as a war condensed into a single room began firing at the floor. The three of them felt the inevitability of their deaths. Fortunately, Ite grabbed Yukan by his shirt collar and dragged him through an arch in the wall, just large enough for them to fit. Kadaina followed in shortly afterward and managed to get through the gap just as the floor above them collapsed.

As the three of them tried to recollect themselves, Yukan felt a piece of the ground give out beneath him. Before he could grab onto anything, the young swordsman plummeted and heard Ite cry out to him as he continued to descend into what seemed to be an abyss.