Kwan Shin’s (Sensei) POV:

What a glorious day. I became completely mesmerized by the crystal blue skies, the gentle crisp breeze, and the fragrant spring flowers and pine needles filling my spirit. The peaceful waterfall in the distance smoothly glided into the clear blue lake casted with tiny crystals from the sun’s beaming rays shining through the green leafy trees. The water was so clear today that it was almost like a mirror of a water color painting of flowers and trees reflecting in the water.

I could not think of a better way to spend the day than hiking in the Chi Mountains with my best comrade Lee Yong. Ever since we were little ninjas in training, or at least what we liked to call ourselves, this was always our favorite location to go to after a hard day of training back in Rutai Seowan, the small village we lived in located within the walls of Centra Palace. We have lived there all of our lives training and learning the art of Taekwondo. Lee Yong came to the village with his mother shortly after the mysterious death of his father when he was seven and I was taken in as an orphan after helping the royal guards fight off a mob of thugs attempting to break into the palace. When the emperor discovered my fighting potential he took me in to learn under the watchful eye of Master Chin Fu. Lee Yong also happened to be a pupil of his when I came along. To my surprise, we became like brothers rather quickly. And with Master Chin Fu there as our mentor, it felt like I was given a home, and a family.

Every day Yong and I would hike up to this point of the Chi Mountains to go fly fishing, camp out, boating, or simply lounge around. That is exactly what we were doing for today. After nearly a year and a half, we were enjoying the beautiful radiant weather beside the lake in the Chi Mountains, fly fishing and cooking our usually dozen fish on a skewer, our favorite non-traditional meal.

“You know,” Lee Yong started. “I was worried we would never get a chance to do this again, with you working so hard for your promotion, me becoming a father and what not.”

“Why would you think that,” I said as I cast another smooth line into the lake.

“It’s been 16 months since we have done this,” he said with a slight chuckle. “We aren’t exactly considered youth material anymore….at least when we become of age we won’t be.”

I laughed. “Hey just because we have almost hit our twenties does not mean we have to throw away our entire youth. We can still have boy time here.”

Yong gave me a smirk. “Boy time? Really?” he scoffed with a friendly glare.

I paused for a moment to think about what I just said. “….Okay,” I cleared my throat and stated in my dramatic heroic low voice. “Manly men time.…is that better?”

We both laughed as I turned around to spot the circle of six skewers of fish being cooked in our small fire. There were nearly complete. I drew my line in and set my fishing rod down as I walked over to the fire to dig the skewers into the ground so that they would face away from the fire.

“Another fish coming in,” Lee Yong cried out as he yanked a small trout out of the water with ease. “That makes twelve.”

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After we cooked the remainder of our fish we decided to eat them out on the lake in our bamboo boat we made when we were twelve. We always loved helping with construction over in Rutai, so one day we decided to make our own little project. It was nothing big, just a perfectly sized fit for two row boat. I am actually surprised this thing has lasted throughout these seven years, but it is what makes it more memorable to be out listening to the water fall and with the sun streaming down on our faces.

“So how is that little runt of yours doing these days,” I teased as I took a big bite out of my food. “What’s its name again?”

Lee Yong laughed, “Lee Jinki. And that little man is full of surprises. Eight months old and he is already starting to walk.”

“Hey, sounds like a promising martial artist on your hands there my good friend,” I cheered as I waved my skewered trout in the air. “They say a baby that walks early has great potential in martial arts!”

Yong gave another light chuckle as he started to carve on the rim of the boat. “Well, let’s see if he can master the avoidance of apparent obstacles on the ground. He keeps tripping over his toys rather than walking around them. He knows they’re there, but he just runs right into them. It’s like he’s trying to do a gag show or something. But if he wants to pursue in martial arts training, I definitely have a lot of high hopes for him.”

Yong smiled and continued to carve into the rim of the boat. Yet his expression also seemed a bit longing. I could tell he really misses being up in these mountains. He never really had much down time ever since Lee Mae unexpectedly became pregnant. I remember how panicked he was when he first heard the news, especially since they aren’t even married. But he grew accustomed to the idea of being a father pretty quickly. Even though taking care of Lee Mae and Jinki took up most of his time, he hardly ever complained about it. He loved being a father and that became his top priority. I couldn’t be more than happy for him. It just shows how much he really loves her, and their new son.

“Why are you carving the rim with your dagger?” I asked suddenly.

“I am carving out our names in hangul. Just to leave a legacy, ya know?” he gave a slight smile and leaned over to blow away some excess wood dust on the rim.

“Yong be careful!” I screamed but it was too late. Our shifted weights caused our boat to capsize and we fell straight into the water. I swam to the surface to catch my breath and Yong came shortly after me. “Well, swimming in the lake is a first for us. I wonder where Jinki gets his body gags from,” I joked.

“Well,” he said. “Hopefully it won’t rub off on him. Maybe I can teach him…..” Yong was interrupted by a soft booming sound. We looked around to see where it was coming from when suddenly felt a small wave tossed us up and down in the water slightly.

I blankly stared at Yong. “Where did that wave come from?” Suddenly, we heard the second boom, quickly followed by the small waving ripples striking us again. I hastily looked around the lake to see if someone was nearby.

“Wait a minute,” Yong said looking down into the water. “Kwan Shin. Look down there.”

I looked down to see a fainted object in green. I could not pin point what it was from the ripples in the water. I ducked my head underwater to find a green light shining at the bottom of the lake. I tried to swim down a little further to see if I could make out what it was when it suddenly boomed again and small seismic wave emerged from the green light.

I pulled myself back up above the surface. “There’s something down there,” I said. “I think that is what’s causing the sound and the wave.”

“Stay here,” Yong said. “I will swim down to see if I can grab it.”

While I waited for Yong to investigate, I used all the strength I had to flip our boat back in the upright position. Just as I finished climbing back into the boat Yong had emerged back to the surface. I grabbed his hand as he swung his other arm around to drop a sword into the boat.

What in the world was a sword doing at the bottom of the lake?

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Back on the shore, Yong and I just simply stared at the beautifully crafted samurai sword now lying on the ground in front of the water. The green light had faded so it just looked like an ordinary samurai sword. The black handle had a silver pin stripped line forming three large slender diamonds on each side. The blade was of flawless reflective steel without a hint of rust or a scratch. It looked as if it were brand new.

“Are you sure this was the green light you picked up in the lake?” I asked Yong in disbelief.

“Yes, I swear,” he assured me. “Once I grabbed hold of it, the light just faded.”

Both of us were silent for several long minutes, occasionally staring back and forth between the sword and each other not knowing whether we should touch it or leave it.

“I wonder who it belongs to,” I asked as I finally decided to inspect the handle to see if a name was anywhere in sight. The sliver line of the three diamonds formed diamond shaped indents on the handle on both sides. “I can’t help but think that there are some things missing from this handle. I have never seen a samurai sword with a handle like this before.”

I handed the sword to Yong to inspect the diamond indents. “Yeah, not quite your ordinary handle of a samurai sword. I wonder why it has these….” Suddenly the blade started to illuminate again.

The green light emerged through the flawless steel and flashed so brightly, it was almost blinding. It felt like it was brighter than the sun. Yong and I exchanged nervous glances as he held on to the handle as if his life depended on it. The light continued to grow brighter that I placed my hand over my face to cover the intense light from my eyes. It continued to become brighter until it happened again, this time with more intense than before. A sudden rush of wind exploded from the blade with enough force to knock us off our feet and dispel the flames from our little fire pit. With the wind came a booming sound so loud it was like thunder. The loud explosion caused the ground below us to shake a little and water rippled to the violent sensation. The sound continued for quite some time, cutting through the trees, the waterfall, and we could here rocks and boulders jumble about when the sound distanced further away from us.

I had buried my head into my heads for protection and slowly looked up as the sound continued to fade away. I looked over at Yong who was staring at the sword in his hand. I did not like the look of terror that was covering his face. I could see his hand was shaking and his breathing became really heavy. He slowly shifted his gaze towards me as if the sword had suddenly turned into a ghost.

“What…in the world just happened?” he asked through his shaking panicked breaths.

“Let me see that,” I said as gestured him to hand me the sword. I held the sword in my hand embracing myself for the déjà vu I expected to take place, except it didn’t happen. The sword remained unchanged. The shiny steel blade did not light up and no sound was heard beside the waterfall in the distance. We waited for several minutes.

“Why isn’t it lighting up when you touch it,” Yong asked staring in disbelief.

I opened my mouth to answer, but I knew had nothing to comprehend about why the sword would react the way it did. This was definitely a special sword that was beyond my knowledge of expertise. “Maybe we should take this to Master Chin Fu. I think maybe he would be able to explain this to us.”

“I don’t think we should, put it back!” Yong demanded. He spoke so fast his words were almost slurred together.

“Put it back, are you serious?” I asked. “Yong, I don’t think this is something that should be left out in the open. For all we know this could be some dangerous portal to a dark dimension, or whatever! Besides putting it back in the lake, well yeah let’s witness more explosions and bigger waves. Hey maybe eventually, the waves will be big enough that we can even go surfing!” I paused and gave Yong a very serious look. “You know we cannot leave this here Yong. We found it, and we need to figure out what it is, and why it did what it did.”

Yong looked distressed at the thought of taking the sword with us but hesitantly nodded in agreement. We picked up how fishing rods and left them by the boat and set off down the trail back to our village with the sword clutched in my hand. I continuously anticipated the sword to react again, but nothing ever happened. It did not take us long to get back to the main gate of the Centra Palace. We wasted no time and headed straight to the hanok that Master Chin Fu resides in. I can only hope he can provide us with an explanation of what we just experienced up in the mountains.

His place was not far from the main gate. We turned right down a small path into Rutai Seowan and turned a corner to a large courtyard with three hanoks lined up along the back. Yong and I quickly approached the house in the middle, swiftly passing by some fellow comrades who were practicing their fighting skills with great concentration. Yong and I took a deep breath and knocked on the Master’s door.

“Enter,” said a mild husky voice.

Without hesitation, we both walked in to find our Master meditating in the middle of the room from the front door. We quickly walked in and kneeled before him and bowed our heads in apology for interrupting his meditation.

“I am surprised the two of you would be paying me a visit today, Lee Yong and Kwan Shin,” Master said, his eyes still closed.

“Our apologies Sensei,” I delivered my apology with my head still bowed. “We had no intention of interrupting your duties for the day.”

“Something is troubling you,” he spoke as he slowly opened his eyes. “Your tone seems very uneasy.”

I looked up to gaze into my sensei’s eyes. I quickly glanced over to Yong, not knowing where to start.

“We found something that may be of some interest, Master.” Yong finally stated after a few moments of eerie silence.

Master nodded at him to continue talking.

Yong gestured me to hold out the sword. I pulled it out from behind me and laid it down in front of our Master to see. “We were up in the Chi Mountains this afternoon and stumbled upon this sword when we accidently capsized our boat into the lake.” Yong explained everything to Master Chin Fu. Everything about where we found it, the extravagant detail, the diamond shaped indents on the handle, about the green light, the abrupt vigorous power unleashed from the blade and most importantly the reaction to his touch, unlike me when nothing happened.

I ended the explanation stating, “We didn’t feel like it was the best judgment to leave it out in the open.”

It did not take long for Master Chin Fu to jump to vague conclusion. He lightly touched the sword himself to see if there was any reaction from the sword. Once again, nothing happened. “Hmm, perhaps this weapon was destined to be appointed to you, Lee Yong. See as the sword has not yet reacted to Kwan Shin’s touch or mine as well.”

Yong gazed upon the sword with bewilderment.

“If you please, Lee Yong, will you pick up the sword,” Master Chin Fu asked calmly.

Lee Yong looked up at his Master with an arduous look. He could not dare to touch it again, and I did not blame him. There was something about that abrupt force, from before, that made my insides feel uneasy. But being the obedient student he always was Lee Yong slowly grasped the handle of the sword, clutching it so tightly he knuckles turned white. Soon the light began to illuminate again, the same green firing light that blinded us before. The light grew brighter and brighter and I closed my eyes to brace myself for the wind, the loud explosion, and trembling atmosphere. Everything came to a halt followed by the sound of crashing steel on the ground.

My eyes shot opened to the sword that was released from Yong’s grip a crashed onto the wooden floor. I glanced over to see him back all the way up against the door, his hands shaking and breathing loud shallow breaths. Panic was stricken all over his face with eyes so wide they almost popped out of his head. Master Chin Fu’s expression even changed, to what kind of looked like, stunned.

“Something is not right,” Yong panted out heavily. He stood up and pointed a shaken finger at the sword. “There is nothing normal about a sword that reacts by only my hand with such…riot, or disturbance! Why hasn’t it done that whenever the two of you touched it?!”

What in the world was this? I have never seen Yong react like this before. He is even more panicked than when he found out about Lee Mae’s pregnancy.

“You seem to be disturbed of its power, Lee Yong,” Master calmly stated.

“Well,” Yong hesitated trying to regain his composure, “Overwhelmed, for lack of a better word.”

“Understandable,” Master spoke quietly. “Even though I have not seen the sword at its full potential, I have witnessed enough to comprehend the aspects of this sword and its astonishing powers. This is a very special sword that must be handled with care. These powers are far beyond of regular swordsmanship.”

Master’s expression grew a little dark that it made my stomach flip a little. I could not help but think that there was more to this sword than meets the eye. “For this reason,” Master continued, “we need to report this to the Emperor at the main palace. I do concur that the aspects of this sword are rather alarming and should not be exposed out in the open field.” He stood up and slowly walked over to the closet on the right side of the room and pulled out a satin cloth. “Please let me have the sword.”

I picked up the sword, still kneeling on the ground, and handed it to my Master. He gently placed it on top of the cloth and carefully wrapped it up so nothing to be revealed. He picked up the cloth wrapped sword and with a semi-stern look, he stated, “Come with me please.”

Yong and I looked at each other for a moment. Finally, we bowed and stood up from the ground. We followed Mater Chin Fu out his front door and started migrating toward the main gate where Yong and I had entered. We walked past the same group in the courtyard, none of which had seemed to notice us since they we were all engulfed in their concentration mastering their martial art techniques.

Yong was lingering behind a little bit and was deep in thought. I tugged his arm to pick up the pace a little bit. “What has gotten into you?” I asked. “Since when did you ever get cold feet? A martial artist does not get cold feet!”

“I’m sorry,” Yong whispered. “For some reason it dawned on me that this sword could be….I don’t know, dangerous. Trouble I guess.” He paused for several long moments. “I don’t know Shin, I just have a bad feeling about this.”

“Fear is the true opiate of combat, Yong.” I stated attempting to provide some comfort.

He glared at me, “We are not even in combat right now Shin!” He exclaimed.

“Okay, so my sensei wisdom speeches are a bit rusty right now, but hey, I am working on it. I don’t even have a student yet.” I said in my slight defense. However, this was not the time to be engaging in childish bickering. We had already reached the main doors of the palace.

The body guards escorted the three of us inside the palace into the main hallway. The hallway had a tall ceiling clad in red with gold pin striped Asian Elegance line tracing through flowers and leafs. The walls were covered with an occasional portrait of previous rulers, Grand Masters, and highly ranked martial artist recognized for their supreme skills and honor of their duties. We approached down a small corridor that led to the garden courtyard and turned right around a corner. Before we knew it we were standing at the Emperor’s throne room.

The body guards entered first and stood on either side of the door. Master Chin Fu entered slowly before kneeling and bowing. Yong and I did the same. The room was lavishly decorated with multiple colors of intricate patterns and symbols. Behind the throne was an immense window with a beautiful garden view. The curtains were lightly flowing against the breeze. The Emperor was dressed in a long black and gold robe with small silver symbols running down the button line and along the hem of his sleeves. He was sitting rather calmly upon his throne with two of his royal assistance standing on both sides. There was four more standing on each corner of the room. There was a moment of intense silence before the Emperor finally spoke.

“I sense some troubling news from you today, Master Chin Fu,” he said quietly. “What news has brought you here today?”

Master slowly raised his head and took a deep breath. “I believe…it has been found, Your Majesty.”

Yong and I shot a glance at each other…..what did he mean by ‘it has been found?’

Master Chin Fu slowly unraveled the cloth to reveal the samurai sword to the Emperor.

The look in his eyes made me feel sick to my stomach. “Where did you find that?” he asked sternly with wide eyes.

“Boys,” Master gestured us to start explaining again.

“We found it in a lake in the Chi Mountains this afternoon Your Majesty,” Yong said with a quivering voice. “There was this illuminating green light when we fell in the lake.” Yong continued to explain everything, once again, of what happened at the lake. The Emperor responded with an occasional nodded and listened very attentively. After Yong finished there were several of utter stillness. Nobody moved, and it even felt like nobody breathed. I wanted someone, so desperately, to break the silence that chilled me to the bone. Finally I heard the Emperor inhaled a long deep breath.

“It has, indeed, been found.” The Emperor stated after several long minutes of sheer silence.

Everything fell silent, once again.

What does he mean ‘it has been found?’

Well, one month and ten pages later, I finally have my first chapter up! YAY! How do you all like it so far?

I know I know, there is no SHINee yet but I promise I have a point in these first couple (maybe few) chapters. I like to elaborate on things that happened before the main characters come in, so please be patient and don’t hurt me? O:) *innocent face* heehee

Anyway back to the chapter. Uh-ohs! What did they find? There is definitely something lurking behind the powers of this mysterious sword! So you think it’s safe? Well I guess we will find out! Hahah!

Working on second chapter as we speak! :) YAY!