“Rise and shine!” a piercing voice hollers in my ear. I let out a mangled screech and topple out of bed.

“What the-,” I rub my eyes and peer up at the tall, lanky figure wearing a sleeveless, fitted mesh top and basketball shorts standing above me. “Kris? What are you doing up so early?”

“We have to go train. What do you think?”

With effort, I heave myself up and glare at him. “Kris. Wu. It is 5 in the morning and I am exhausted from battling that disgustingly creepy cicada yesterday. Plus, I let you stay over. So let me sleep.” I sink back into the soft, warm goodness of my duvet…

Only to be yanked up again.

“Don’t even try.” Kris smirks.

5 minutes later, I’m grumpily pouring myself a bowl of cereal while Kris fixes his hair in the mirror. I scoff. How vain. I stick my tongue out at his turned figure. 

“This time, we’re going to train together,” Kris informs me. “One-on-one combat.”

"Wonononcomba?” I ask confusedly, my words muffled by the crunchy Cheerios in my mouth. After swallowing, I repeat myself. “One on one combat? Um, if you haven’t noticed, you’re way more advanced than I am.”

"Yeah, but the more we spar, the faster you'll improve.” He grabs an apple from the fruit bowl sitting on the counter and beckons for me to follow him out the door. “Let’s go.”

This morning’s training session begins the same as our previous training sessions: the trek through the underbrush to get to the open clearing, the stickiness of early-morning mist clinging on to my skin, and most of all: the familiar feeling of apprehension that I’m going to be an aching, sore mess by the end of this.

But when we begin warming up our chi force, I feel... more in control. Like I actually have an idea of what I’m doing.

For example, when I will myself to summon a ball of chi, it appears in my hand almost instantaneously. When I command that ball of chi to fly at Kris’ face, it does it (albeit a little slowly, causing Kris to step backwards and avoid it).

This is good. If I have my power under control, then maybe I have a chance of beating Kris...

That's what I thought.

 “You have to be faster than that,” Kris chuckles as he leisurely bends backwards to duck my side kick. He grabs my leg, twists it around, and flips me over his shoulder. I crash to the ground.

“I told you this wasn’t going to work out!” I pant, wiping sweat from my neck as I attempt to charge at him again.

I will admit: I used to consider myself a decent fighter. There was this one time when I beat up some sketchy mugger on the corner of Third Avenue. That caused me to think that I could defend myself in a dangerous situation.

Well, I sure thought wrong. 

Before I know it Kris’ lean figure has darted out of my view, then reappeared behind me. He slams his elbow into the small of my back, causing me to cry out in pain. I collapse to the grass on all fours.

"How- how did you disappear-,” I sputter.

He laughs. “You could, too. Concentrate your chi in the soles of your feet, then run.”

I follow his instructions, and start running. Suddenly, I feel like everything is whizzing past my face at an intense speed, like I'm in some kind of weird rollercoaster where I stay still but everything else moves in a blur.

I abruptly stop running and feel a pain shoot up my kneecaps. Dang, I think I stopped too fast.

“It’s sad that I’m beating you without my weapon,” Kris says superiorly. “Your limbs- or your weapon- are supposed to be of  equivalent level to my sword. Right now, they’re probably near the level of the 9 year olds in chi training back at the Headquarters Academy.”

“It’s not fair!” I burst. “You’ve been trained since you were 9, so of course you’re going to be bette- oof!” I’m cut off by the force of Kris hand slamming into my stomach. I double over and collapse to the ground in pain. Despite my best attempts, I can't stand back up. 

"Looks like I win this round,” Kris smirks. I’m in too much pain to punch him in the face.

In fact, I’m in too much pain to do anything. My body aches more than it ached after our first training session. This is horrible, absolutely awfully terribly-

“Hey, get up.” Kris nudges me with his toe. “Hana. Hana.”

Wait.

I know I'm almost out of energy... 

But I have an idea.

I have to give this my all.

I close my eyes and fake dead.

“Hana. Hey. Are you okay?” Kris' voice is becoming more panicked with every word. He desperately presses his foot on my leg.

Come on, take the bait…

Finally, Kris crouches down and places a hand on my back. “Hana, talk to me-,”

And that’s when I force all my chi into my right hand- channel it all into my palm, my fingers, my knuckles- and jab my curled fist upwards at his face.

Unfortunately, I miss his perfect little nose. But my hand makes contact with makes contact with his stomach, causing Kris to literally tumble over himself twice and land face-down on the grass. He lets out a strangulated moan and curls up into a ball.

“Payback.” I grin, ignoring the burning pain of my body- especially the hand that I just hit Kris with.