Kuroba Asashin's Arc

Chapter 14 of 44

The second session did not start. Jackie was at the well when the dog on the ridge stopped barking. He heard the silence before he heard the boots. He set the bucket down and moved to the front gate on bare feet. A man stood at the top of the stone path. Black armor. A helmet shaped like a general's. A crown welded to the brow. The sword in his hand glowed at the seams. Jackie's mechanical eye clicked and locked focus. He knew the shape from the way Kuroba had drawn it in the dirt one night. Kazrik. "Wrong dojo, bro," Jackie said. He drew both blades from his back. "Turn around." Kazrik did not answer. He walked. Jackie moved first because that was the only way he knew to move. He cut high and low in the same breath, fast, the way he had beaten every kid on his old block. Kazrik took the first cut on the flat of his sword and drove a fist into Jackie's chest. Jackie hit the stones on his back. He got up. He came again. Kazrik broke his guard, broke his nose, broke the metal shoulder at the bolt with one downward swing. Jackie went down on the path and did not get up. Blood ran from his mouth into his beard. Tish screamed from the porch. That was what pulled Kuroba out of the hall. He saw Jackie on the stones. He saw the helmet. He saw the scar under the plate where his odachi had gone in months ago. He drew the blade off his back and stepped onto the path. "Off my ground," he said. Kazrik came at him. Kuroba did not meet the sword. He slid his front foot the way Kenji had taught him, four days on the porch, weight in the heel. He let Kazrik's swing pass and cut across the outside of his knee. Kazrik dropped to one side. Kuroba drove the odachi into the plate at his shoulder and pinned him to the earth. Kazrik tore free and swung from the ground. The lava blade caught Kuroba across the thigh. Kuroba staggered. Kazrik rose. Then Kenji was between them. The old man had come off the porch without sound. He tapped Kazrik once behind the ear with the end of his staff. Kazrik's helmet rang. He tapped him again at the base of the neck. Kazrik went to his knees. "Leave the valley," Kenji said. "Do not come back on foot." Kazrik stood, slow. He looked at Kuroba. He looked at the old man. He walked back down the stone path and did not turn around. Kuroba knelt by Jackie. The boy was breathing. The shoulder was ruined. Tish came off the porch with a cloth and did not stop at the rail this time. Ona ran from the hall with the bow. Kuroba pressed his hand to Jackie's chest and drew the healing up. Blood ran from his own nose. The dojo was found. The next one would come with an army.