The day was bright, the birds were singing, and the kids were running amok with their mommies and daddies in the playground. Luckily our story does not take place in the playground, or else our current writer would go through a seizure of bright colors and unbelieveable happiness.

Instead, our chapter begins in a cemetary where one girl, with a high pony tail streaked with colors of red and purple in her dark brown hair, kneels before the grave of her beloved master. Dressed in a tight red leotard tanktop which she would normally be wearing beneathe her gi shirt, tears brimmed at her eyes as she stood before the grave of a kind man who had taken her in and led her away from the hatred which now threatened to overcome her once more.

"Master . . . its been a while hasn't it?" Crista whispered softly. The wind slowly blew by, ruffling the soft red roses she had set before his grave. "You'd be glad to know that I'm doing fine, master. I've made alot of money in the tournaments I've entered, and I've gotten alot stronger as well. I . . . wish you could see me now." The tears slowly began to fall now. "I should have been there! Maybe if I hadn't gone out to buy some clothes after haggling with you . . ." Crista could only pause a moment to weep some more. She slowly regained herself, realizing this was not an act which her master would encourage. She stiffened her back more. "I'll be fine, master. I think I've almost found the man who murdered you . . . once I seek him out, all that will be left to judge of him are those in the after-life."

Crista stood up now, her right hand holding her left arm as she looked away to the side from his grave. The soft wind breezed by her, allowing her hair to fly in it as a wave of colors. It had been so long since she allowed herself to feel the soft breeze like this, and so long since she had last visited her master's grave.

The police said that they were doing all they could to hunt down his killer, but they were not doing it fast enough to suit Crista. The loss of her only true father-figure had shaken Crista's world up quite badly. Grandmaster Kim had seemed to invincible before her eyes and the eyes of others who trained under him. Indeed, he had sparred against many others, and was victorious even in his old age.

"I have to go now, master." Crista said softly as she touched the smooth texture of the stone beneathe her hands. "I promise that the next visit won't be so far off . . ."
 

Meanwhile in a distant valley of China . . .

Iwa Hoshi stood to her full 1.5 meters as she gazed across the ancient Buddhist trainings grounds. Reaching out with her senses, Iwa could feel the great peace and tranquility of the training ground. As she continued to allow her senses to reach out across the spiritual plane of this area, she saw monks training in their ancient way of martial arts.

Yes, Iwa decided, this ancient training ground was indeed a place fit to train her own mind and body to face the obvious challenges which would await her in the far future. Already filled with incredible power, Iwa sought complete control and mastery of this power. Power that is used without control would leave deadly consequences. The tournament would be big, Iwa felt, perhaps the other nine incarnations would appear as well.

Brand, a large brown and white wolf at her side, whined in its boredom at the lack of trees in the courtyard of the training ground. Maru, her rusty brown squirrel, merely chittered in annoyance. Iwa could understand that her friends wished to ber in a natural setting of trees and bushes, but she was here to train, not enjoy herself.

"I guess I'm not the only one who has thought of coming here." a soft voice whispered from behind Iwa.

"I was wondering when you would introduce yourself." Iwa replied apathetically, though she nearly jumped at the sudden presence of his voice. She looked critically up at the tall slender young man before her. Something within him was drawing her to him. Was he one of the nine incarnations?

"I've only just arrived." he replied indifferently. "I've heard that this place is a legendary Buddhist training ground. I seek . . . some peace before the journey I am about to embark." With that, the young man with the blue Chinese shirt stepped forward to get closer to the ancient training ground as he closed his eyes in search of the peaceful tranquility which these monks had sought all their lives.

Iwa was inwardly confused at this young man. She sensed a hidden power within his soul, but could not identify it very well. Judging at his current nature, was he the incarnation of Death? But he also seemed to be seeking knowledge . . . would that mean Wisdom? But the subtle animalistic being within his soul made Iwa fear that perhaps he was Nature. Any of those three could be him, and yet . . . any of those three could not be him.

"What do you seek from here?" he asked suddenly out of the blue, and Iwa saw that he looked somewhat . . . refreshed from the interaction with the spiritual plane.

"Training." Iwa replied apathetically as she leaped down the cliff and onto the training ground. She smirked as she thumbed this young man, she would find out if he was truely an incarnation or not, and if he was . . . which one he was. "Would you care to spar?"

"I haven't underestimated your power." he replied softly, a small smile threatening to take over his lips, the closest that Iwa had seen him yet to smile. And people thought she was cold! He then leaped forward and began running quickly along the side of the cliff straight towards her. "So don't underestimate my own!" He suddenly blurred before her eyes, before Iwa quickly sensed his being to raise her arms to block the elbow smash as he suddenly reappeared before her.

Their eyes met each other's as their battle auras began to slowly spark to life as he leaped backwards and setted his arms and legs into a fighting stance Iwa could tell would allow him to utilize his speed and strength at best.

Iwa's cold eyes met his indifferent eyes for a moment before she herself settled into a fighting stance.

"Let's go." he whispered.
 

Somewhere around a tropical area . . .

"What-what have I done . . . ?" Victoria whispered as she stared down at her bloodied hands and the man beneathe her. She did not recognize the man, so she would not know what he may have done to her. All she knew that her lapses sometimes brought her around to this, waking up at strange moments and finding people looking at her somewhat in fear.

Victoria could no longer handle this as she ran from where the dead man lay. The situation had become worse, she had never killed a man within her lapses of conciousness before! Victoria had sought as much help as she could from her lapses, a psychologist who lived nearby said that she was suffering from 'multiple personality disorder.' A deadly syndrome in Victoria's case, because she held a side which was quite violent and made those who knew her afraid. It was only her adoptive parents' great love of her other side that kept her from being abandoned away somewhere or instated into a hospital for the mentally insane.

Now, Victoria could only wander about as she seeks enlightenment about her very existance. The daggers and crucifix she still held, her only permanent tools and a relic of her past. Yet these relics could not fill the void which had been formed from loneliness. Going into towns at times were a bad idea, especially highly populated areas as her telepathic abilities would unknowingly kick in, and the thoughts of the many around her would come into her mind and make her scream in pain and agony.

A lonely life . . . Victoria thought to herself as she allowed her mind to wander when she stopped to rest in the peaceful tranquility of a forest she knew not where. At times, she seemed to drawn in certain directions and she followed that drawing, but then it might suddenly click off as if it had never existed.

At the moment, Victoria's mind was practically being drawn miles away as she held the vision of an oriental young man in a blue Chinese shirt fighting against a woman wearing a dark blue t-shirt beneathe a black vest with strange symbols upon the back. The young man seemed to draw her with some hidden abilities deep within himself . . . The abilities seemed so very much similar to hers . . . yet unknown even to him. There was a point when both seem to look at her straight in the eyes.

Victoria gasped in shock as she awakened from her trance. That never really happened to her before! Maybe these two would have the answers of her existance . . . and her powers.
 

Within the courtyard of the Buddhist temple . . .

"What's wrong?" Iwa looked sharply at the young man after she quickly composed herself of the mental image of the young hispanic woman.

However, the young man was just as quick to recover from the vision. He merely shook his head. "Nothing, just thought I heard something."

"Okay." was all Iwa said as she punched him in the gut.