The Weaponsmaster

Chapter 12

Drea had slept all afternoon yesterday; at least her being exhausted wasn’t a total lie. Danny had checked up on her to make sure she was ok, but she hadn’t been awake.

Now he waited patiently for her to come for their training. Hopefully there wouldn’t be another incident.

At school, Drea rushed away to meet Danny. There had been no Lori that day and she was excited to learn a new weapon. She changed to her Kaienshi uniform in midair and arrived to see Danny waiting patiently for her by the waterfall with his feet in the water and his pants rolled up past his knees.

She walked over to him and sat down next to him, taking her sandals off and rolling up her pants also. “I didn’t know you could relax.” Drea was amused by his face. He looked almost perplexed by the thought of relaxing. He didn’t seem like the type of guy who had a lot of extra time to just hang out.

“I suppose I’m usually pretty busy. This is nice.” He looked up at her and she laughed. She liked how calm he was; he made it so easy to smile. Looking at him, Drea noticed his striking green eyes, shiny black hair, wonderful smile… She gasped and blinked. She hadn’t even realized she’d been thinking about him. What’s happening to me?

“Are you alright Andrea?”

He was looking at her with that concerned look in his eyes. It made her blush and her heart skipped a beat. “Y-yeah, I’m fine.” She smiled. “You ready for a new weapon?”

He nodded and removed his feet from the river. Drea followed. They both put their shoes back on and walked over toward the flat rocks. “Today I’d like to teach you how to use a weapon that’s more tactical than the sword.”

He motioned for her sword and she removed both it and the belt. It disappeared in the ground as he opened the little green portal. Then he reached down and pulled out a new weapon. This one was smaller than the sword, but presumably just as deadly. The shape of it was familiar as Danny presented it to her. It was a knife like his, except it was more a generic kind. Danny’s was detailed with black designs over the blade and smooth black hilt. Hers was like the sword: a blue hilt with a shiny silver blade. Both of them were beautiful weapons.

She grabbed the knife in her hand, feeling that same familiarity as she had felt with the sword. Drea flipped the knife, grabbing it by the hilt under Danny’s watchful eye. It was obvious this was making him suspicious, but she couldn’t help but to hold the knife as though she had held it a million times.

For some reason, she began to feel remorseful, which tipped off Danny. “Do you know how to use this weapon Andrea?”

She examined the knife, but didn’t respond. Then he said, “It’s no problem if you do or don’t. It is similar to the sword in some ways, but the stance and reach are different.”

“I don’t know…” Drea looked at it with a puzzled expression. It bothered her that she couldn’t remember how to use the knife when she knew she should be able to. She regretted feeling as though she had forgotten something important. She unsheathed the knife and took a defensive stance. Some of what she’d forgotten came back to her, but it came back slowly. She nodded, giving Danny the signal to attack first.

He came forward, clashing with her. She felt as though she’d used the knife before, but she was having a hard time thinking. Danny was certainly taking it easy on her again, seeing as he was a master with the knife, but with each hit, she felt more information seep back into her.  

Drea felt herself getting stronger as she became more familiar with the weapon. She was no master, but she was far better than a novice. Each time they would draw in close, Drea could see Danny’s wonder at her skill, but he was still much better.

As they hit one more time, it was like everything paused for a moment. Even her body became immoveable. The entire world turned gray in her eyes as she heard, “Not yet, it’s not time yet. Be patient, you’ll learn soon enough.” It was a man’s voice, different from what she heard before.

She felt her heart beat as her vision returned to normal, but now she’d been caught off guard. Danny deflected her blade, and kicked her in the ribs, sending her backwards.

She lay flat on her back and stared at the sky. He’d knocked the air out of her lungs and the knife out of her hand. Stupid voices, why do they have to always get in the way? Between that and the visions, she wasn’t really getting anywhere. She almost thought she was going crazy.

Danny came up to her and helped her up. She could tell he felt bad. She smiled. “I suppose I’ll need to get used to this if I’ll be fighting the Lori anyway.” He ribs ached, but they weren’t broken.

“Very well,” he said. It dawned on him that he may’ve been taking it easy on her. He contributed this to the friendship they seemed to have, but it seemed to be something more. Every time he hurt her, he felt terrible, but he’d never felt like that when training others.

As Danny thought, so did Drea. She wondered what the voices were trying to tell her, but if they were right, she’d find out soon enough.

Danny interrupted her thoughts. “You did well today Andrea. I’m impressed. Beginners don’t normally do so well.”

He almost said it in a type of suspicious tone. Drea also wondered how she’d done so well also; it wasn’t really making sense to either of them.

“Tomorrow I’ll teach you one last weapon to test your skills. Then we can decide which weapon I show you a little more in and that’ll be yours to keep.”

“But I thought we were only supposed to try one weapon.”

“True, but we need to see which one you’re the best at. We can’t just pick the first one.” He was hiding something, but whatever it was, he wouldn’t say.

He seemed to feel her suspicion, since he felt the need to say more. “When we find your weapon, I’ll use a few more days to really teach you how to use it. Then you’ll be ready.” He didn’t end her suspicion, but he figured his answer was good enough. After all, she’d used the same tactic of not-lying-by-not-saying-the-whole-truth thing earlier. It worked very well.

“Are you ready to try once again?” Drea nodded and they continued their brawl. They clashed countless times, each time Drea feeling as though she was getting better. She was doing well, to both of their surprises.

They fought for a while, growing tired quickly in both mind and body. As fatigue raced through her body though, Danny gained the upper hand. With one swift flick of his wrist, Drea was disarmed.

They stood there panting with his knife to her chest. He stood straight and sheathed his knife as she fell to her knees. She was exhausted.

Danny bent down and offered her his hand. She took it and rose. “Once again, you did well today Andrea.” Danny smiled. He seemed proud of her. Drea liked that feeling.

She had no idea how she knew about the weapons she fought with, but all of them felt familiar. Danny was probably wondering about her skill also. She was excited about the next weapon she’d be learning though, but wondered why. Weapons were one thing that didn’t usually make teenage girls excited.

Drea’s phone rang suddenly from where she’d left her bag. She wasn’t in time to answer it, but when she looked at it, she saw she was late. “Oh my God Danny I have to go…” She rushed to get herself together. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” She ran off waving and jumped off with a quick change of clothes. In her rush, she forgot to grab her knife from where it had fallen.

It was quiet then as Danny stood alone near the waterfall. He knew Drea was special, but wondered why it had taken her a longer to get used to the knife than the sword. Tomorrow would be the final test. If she was the Weaponsmaster, he’d see.