It's the last day of school, and Karai has packed her bags and set them at the front door. She had her mother read the letter and made sure her mother saw it was signed so that she's aware Karai will be attending the academy. With her mother's understanding of it being like a hostel for ninja trainee students. Her mother agreed to take her after school once Karai came home and her mother is back from work.
"I'll be home by 3h15 and then you can just put your bags in the car and we will drive off, do you know the location?" Her mother asked lifting one eye brow. Karais face dropped and she shook her head but gestured that she had a plan and pointed to the computer indicating she will search for the co-ordinates. "Alright, get in the car for your last day of school." Karai got in with her small schoolbag. Since it was the last day she didn't need much. "See you this afternoon." Her mother hugged her before driving off.
Mid-day Karai went to sit on a nice bench in the sun overlooking the school ground, stretching her legs out while having her lunch. She looked at all the different groups of friends hanging out, laughing, and talking and so on. It didn't bother her too much being lonely but there was a little pain behind her placid expression. She's been used to this for a full year now so her feelings of misery have abated and it's become a habit of being lonesome, she depended only on herself and didn't have to worry about being let down or disappointed.
Summer and Jessie passed her as the bell rang but pretended not to notice her sitting out in the open and gossiped with Jessie giving out a raspy giggle.
Karai grabbed her left over lunch and walked to the next class with the Academy as the only thing on her mind.
*"What will it be like? Will I have my space? Will there be shared rooms? Will I make frie- acquaintances? I'll just have to search the co-ordinates online once I'm back home."* her mind was racing as she walked out the school gate, looked at the sun and smiled at the new beginning of the future that lay ahead.
Halfway walking home, a pitch black figure caught her eye as her hair wavered with the gust of wind when it passed by. There was no traffic on the road so it caught her attention immediately. When Karai looked up and turned her head she saw it was Ryuu and he immediately made a u-turn on the empty road and stopped by her side. Karai was left with an astonished expression on her face and couldn't think of one reason why Ryuu is out in broad daylight or even more so stopping beside her?
He handed Karai a black and grey helmet and she knew to put it on. Her face showed sheer confusion but she did what was expected of her and held her school bag between herself and Ryuu.
His arm came around the back and pulled her slightly closer and took her hands and placed them around his chest so she had a firm grip and was balanced well. Karai felt the blood flow to her cheeks and knew she was blushing but luckily no one could see though the helmet, especially Ryuu.
*"Where on earth is he taking me?"* She thought. Karai smiled and felt a warm feeling inside of her but it suddenly disappeared as her school uniform skirt blew up and grabbed it immediately and pushed it down on the seat. Once again she could feel her cheeks warm up again and this time she's sure it could be seen through the helmet...
Ryuu finally came to a stop when Karai turned her head and saw her front porch. He gestured her to go get dressed and bring her bags outside as he will be transporting her to the academy. Karai smiled brightly and ran towards the door, grabbed her bags from inside and placed it by the pavement where Ryuu had parked the bike and ran inside once again.
Ryuu placed her bags inside the bike seat and fastened one to the back of the bike when Karai came out and looked at the last bag on the floor with her bedding inside. Ryuu was taken aback at how gorgeous she looked in her black tights and sleeveless buttoned shirt that fastened all the way to her neck making her choker barely visible. The shirt was short in front and long at the back with a big gap leaving her shoulder blades exposed and had a galaxy patterns of black, blue, green and pink on it. He realized he was staring too long as he saw Karai starting to blush uneasily, he shook his head and gestured that she won’t need the bag with bedding. Karai smiled and took it inside, placed the bag on her bed and left a note to her mother.
"No lift needed, the Head Master came to fetch me?
Take care and will visit every second weekend."
Karai walked out, locked the house and got on the bike putting the helmet on again. Ryuu once again made sure Karai was secured on the bike with a good grip as he pulled her closer once again and drove off. By now she wasn’t only blushing but her heart rate was accelerating since there was no bag between them to separate them from one another, she had to sit with her body tightly against Ryuu’s. Karai was sure he could feel her heart throbbing against his back and tried to get herself to calm down.
After 2 hours they finally stopped in the forest near mountains divided by a lake. Ryuu had driven into what seemed like a cave but then it turned out it was a tunnel with multiple options but only one road led to the Academy. Karai's breath was taken away at how beautiful Mother Nature was. So green and full of life with a few red and gold Japanese traditional decor right before they entered the gates. Ryuu had stopped by the side entrance where bikes were permitted. Karai got off and Ryuu followed, he removed his helmet and put out his hand to help Karai off the bike hand over her helmet as well. He hung them carefully on the bike handles as he took her bags off and out of the bike seat when two other ninjas came towards them.
"Karai?" said a soothing voice in the female figure. Everyone was clothed in black but the two new figures had grey embroidery on their shins, waist and forearms. "Karai faced the woman with two braded pig tailed blonde hair and smiled politely and nodded slightly. “I am Chujitsuna also known as Flame Lily and this here is Kashikoi better known as Scabbard. We are deputy head masters working directly under Ryuu, known as Lone Wolf. We are the two main sensei's working under our Sensei, Lone Wolf. I will show you around and Scabbard will take your luggage to your dorm as well as get you registered on the system for the Academy. We welcome you and hope this is a pleasing experience for you." She said making a fist with her left hand and placing in the palm of her right hand slightly bent but fingers kept straight and bowed towards Karai with Scabbard following her movements. Karai smiled and did the same.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"What, no reply? Is she a mute as -" Lone Wolf held up his hand immediately to hush Scabbard, a tall thin brown haired guy with brown eyes. He immediately apologized to Karai, who gave a gentle smile and shook her head politely. "What's wrong with you Scabbard? -" Flame Lily scolded. "-I think you need to go for more discipline training!" She carried on poking him with her index finger as she walked passed him indicating Karai must follow her with a wave of her hand.
Karai smiled and placed her hand on Scabbards shoulder as he bent down to pick up her bags that Lone Wolf had placed on the floor to indicate he is forgiven as she followed Flame Lilly.
"She's quite the humble one." He commented towards Lone Wolf as he stood upright with all the bags. Lone Wolf nodded and looked at her for a few seconds as she walked off before getting on his bike and driving to the parking bay as Scabbard followed behind the two women.
"This will be your room, we don’t have many students at the Academy, as you know only few with exceptionally well skill get to attend if they have proven themselves. The whole academy consists of approximately 30 members excluding the headmasters of which three and five are regular senseis and the rest are students in training. The staff aren’t accountable but they aren't any less worthy than we are, everybody is treated equally so we do hope that you treat even a mere sweeper or chef with the utmost respect you would treat me or any other master." Karai nodded as they entered the room.
*It’s not big but not too small either, it's perfect even though I have to share it with another person." Karai thought to herself smiling as she took in this mesmerizing place and all its detail. The walls were made of bamboo and rice paper, the doors slid open and closed, she had her own little futon with Kenji letters on the duvet and pillow as well as an oil lamp on top of the oak drawers for extra clothing. They even have room dividers since the room has to be shared between 2 students each. In her cupboard next to the drawers was her ironed suit. Completely white hanging from the hanger, it would fit nice and comfortable and it won't be too tight yet too loose either.
"All new students wear white to ensure they are "juniors" regardless of their age so that when training and tournaments take place it will be easier to team you up or rank you with an equal match until you reach your 5th belt then you go over to light grey which is the "senior" phase and from your ninth black belt you are clothed in dark grey. Only masters wear black and grey as you see with Scabbard and I. The Head Master, Lone Wolf, is the only one in a full on black suit." Flame Lily said as she handed her the white suit.
"Scabbard please take Karai’s luggage to our dorms and inform all the masters we are to have a meeting this weekend in the hall to inform them of Karai’s arrival. Have her meet with them and making sure they are aware that she is a mute.”
"On it, I'll wait at the sign up station once I'm done." He replied before he sprinted off with her bags.
"Karai get dressed and once you're done I will show you where the bathroom is as well as our cafeteria. Please note our customs don’t allow shoes on the premises, so if you'd please remain barefoot or wear your tabbi boots or tabbi socks at all times. Also during training and tournaments it is required to wear your mask but any other given time of the day you may remove it but the uniform is a must, like a school uniform.” Flame Lily informed as she smiled and left Karais room, waiting outside.
Karai quickly got dressed and placed her casual wear in the bottom drawer. When she slid the door open she saw Flame Lily patiently waiting to continue the tour. She led Karai past the dojo to the cafeteria. "This is the dojo where your training will commence. Inside is where you will study all the stances and movements such as Thai Chi and outside is where it will all be acted out. You can see there is a parkour fields and training grounds where the weaponry skills will be tested and over that side is where your body will be pushed to its limit to ensure your toughness is at its maximum level.” Flame Lily said pointing at an open field with what looked like advanced gym equipment. “This is the cafeteria, there are 3 meals served a day and I do apologize but we won't be eating unhealthy foods that starch, sugar and fizzy drinks. Every student’s health and body must be kept in vigorous shape." Karai nodded in full agreement. Flame Lily smiled and carried on. "Up the hill is where the bathroom is, clearly marked males and females as privacy is respected and hygiene is highly required. Although there is one huge bathtub in the middle for all the girls to bath in on their own time, whether it be together or any other time suited to them or if you happened to enjoy your privacy either way, there are showers on each side. Same for the males. The toilets are right at the back. Also, for the weekend you will be staying in our dorms until it has been announced that you are mute. So afterwards you can make yourself comfortable in our empty dorm room."
After the tour Flame Lily didn't say much and left Karai to look around as they headed towards the sign up station.
"Right, so all I need is for you to kindly place your index finger or thumb on the biometric scanner then scan your eye over there -" Scabbard pointed to the opposite side of the room. "-then sign this disclosure form, it's nothing serious. It's just stating that it was your decision to accept the Academy invitation and that since this is a government facility there is no such thing as suing us if anything happens to you, but if so we will cover the costs of any damage or wounds and even funeral cover, God forbid. See tax money doesn't go to complete waste." Scabbard chuckled.
Karai took off her glove, placed her thumb on the scanner as a green light went vertically down it and beeped, she then walked over to the optometry scanner and placed her chin on the base with another bright green light scanning vertically down her face. Karai stood up straight, blinked a few times and shook her head.
"Hahaha that's normal but don't worry your vision will clear up in a few second or so." Scabbard guided her to the chair near the table. Once Kairai could see again she took the pen, quickly read through the agreement and signed it.
"What would you like your code name to be?" Scabbard asked with his hands ready on the keyboard. This was his favorite part of the sign up, apart from getting to know everyone's code names he would usually ask students or members why they chose the name. Karai simply wrote on a piece of paper 'Black Cat' but Scabbard knew better than to ask where she got her name because he obviously wouldn't get a simple explanation and they didn't have all day to write or type about it.
"Just give it a few minutes to load all the data." Scabbard said tapping on the keys while there was a bar on the screen loading 13%, 54%, 93%, 100%. "All done. You are now known as Black Cat and I will see to it that everyone address you so." Karai bowed slightly to show her gratitude. "You may go to the cafeteria to have dinner now and then back here as we’d like you to spend the next two days by our side before training commences on Monday. We will then inform all the masters about you being mute and have them introduce you to the rest of the students." Karai nodded and walked to the cafeteria feeling at peace with herself.
*"It's all finally paid off, I'm where I want to be, at last. And now, I fight."* She thought tightening her fist smiling.
After everything was sorted, Karai went to fetch food at the empty cafeteria and then went back to the masters dorms. Karai got her nighties then went to go showers & freshen up. As Karai entered the facility she saw two girls in the general bathtub with their backs turned against her talking without even noticing her pass by. Karai slipped past them as fast and nimble as possible to hop into the shower. Karai tied her hair in a bun and kept it firmly in place with a chop stick. Ten minutes later, Karai was out and on her way back to the dorm. The weekend passed by quickly as she was introduced to all the masters, exchanging information and warm regards.