Dance between Mortals and Immortals

Chapter 2.3

Fort Edo was bustling with activity as the new conscripts had been training for several days and since they were all almost exclusively hunters they were put into a ranger battalion of roughly 300 archers. This was a good thing because they would be more detached from direct fighting, or at least that is what Kijuro thought when he first was put in charge of a small portion of the battalion which consisted of 50 of the men mostly from his town. He was quite surprised to be given a commanding position among the conscripts, but took the title without question. This way he could more readily guard them for the battles to come. It wasn't until they gave him this position that they said our battalion was forward deploying battalions that were put in charge of ambushes and scouting enemy positions, making it one of the highest mortality rates of all the empires armies besides that of front line meat shields also known as conscripts. Those words caused Kijuro quite a lot of anxiety over the last couple days.

Kijuro felt a heavy burden as he spoke to his unit "you all know that our first mission in a couple days is going to be a real test as we have little experience with warfare" the previously hardened hunter's all knew that it was a daily struggle to survive when hunting dangerous beasts in the Great Northern forest, but fighting another who was just as intelligent and bent on survival as they were was not the same their eyes for many of them showed fear something Kijuro didn't know what to do about, because... he was terrified as well.

In three days' time his fellow men and himself were going into enemy territory to scout and destroy their supplies that were being shipped towards the enemies frontlines and this was something that most would consider a suicide mission, but Kijuro knew that no matter what happened he would survive to see his wife and daughter again.

Nyoko... Rize... wait patiently your Kijuro will be back he thought to himself as his men let loose another round of arrows at targets.

...

 In the next room Minako Rize stood silently waiting for the masters to show up. Though from the outside it looked like Rize was calm in her head she was still in a daze, never in a thousand lifetimes did she think she would have the opportunity or the talent to be accepted into the most famous academy in all of the empire, but what really excited her was the look her father would have when he came home. It really was too much for her young mind to take in fully yet.

As she waited, she thought about the moment the energy flowed through her body. She had never felt more elated in her life. It made her feel strong and secure something that she never really felt even in the warmth and protection of her parents. The pure raw power was almost addicted to the young girl.

"Minako Rize!" a thunderous voice came from above where the masters all stood on their own individual pavilions she looked up at them with determination.

"You have shown enough aptitude to be accepted as an outer disciple of the academy. As such you will not have a formal master until you reach the point when your spiritual energy awakens to its innate nature. Until then you will live and study in the academy along with doing upkeep and learning the martial arts. The other masters have all agreed to this result as I have informed them of your ability." Grandmaster Zhao spoke with a thunderous voice on a totally different level than he spoke with before.

There was a long pause as the Grandmaster finished his sentence Rize still didn't know what to say at this point "Is there anything you would like to ask?" one of the other masters asked who was a young beautiful woman who couldn't be older than 19 years old. Her voice was soft and gentle and she was more beautiful than anyone she had ever encountered before in her life even her mother who many considered a great beauty couldn't hold a candle to this woman. Her frame was slender and delicate with fair skin and deep well like eyes that accented her fox like face. This truly shocked Rize as she never thought that someone would be able to achieve such skill at such a young age to be considered a master, then again she never heard of spiritual energy or any of the things that people were referring to before so who was she to make a judgement. Though the other masters were significantly older than her as far as she could tell. It was still a shock that a ball of light came out of her body so deep down Rize had not yet comprehended it fully as of yet so she chose to accept it.

At that moment she did think of one question "I do have one question" she paused as the master smiled lightly "will I get to see my family again?"

The women nodded "yes disciples are allowed to see their family once a year during the lunar New Year festivals. Besides that they are allowed to write to their loved ones."

Rize's heart dropped like a boulder that rolled off a cliff. She wouldn't get to see her family, but one time a year?!? How could she do this? Seeing her mother, but once a year and only writing to her was earth shaking revelation.

"Child I know what you are thinking. Each and every other student goes through thoughts like this at this moment, know that once you graduate this academy you will be able to freely come and go as you please, your family has an entire lifetime to see you, this opportunity is only now."

The words sounded similar to that of her father's words and at that moment she nodded accepting that life was full of challenges "thank you for your words of wisdom master" she bowed respectfully to the young female master.

"Good we will send a letter to your guardian informing them of your choice" the women smiled one last time before they told her to go meet the person who would escort her to the living quarters for outer disciples.

Rize looked towards the exit one last time before moving forward her tiny frame standing stoically in the giant room. Maybe here…just maybe she won't be rejected because of who she is.