Kat and Lily walked down the front path to Kamiko’s house. Nira had been oddly insistent they both visit and keep said visit a secret from Kamiko until they had arrived. Sure the plan was to visit anyway, so it wasn’t an issue, but it was a bit strange. "I wonder what was up with Nira. I mean, don’t get me wrong it’s always nice to visit Kamiko but Nira was a bit weird about it wasn’t she?" asked Kat.

"Yeah… maybe it’s a mum thing? My mum does that from time to time. Or well, she used to back when I was friends with you-know-who," said Lily.

"The dark lord? What does he have to do with it?" asked Kat with a teasing grin.

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Lily just rolled her eyes and pushed open the door, knowing fully well Kat was aware of who she was talking about. The flash of burning anger that quickly flashed across the link was rather telling. The house seemed empty, so they headed for Kamiko’s room and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" said Kamiko.

Kat and Lily shrugged again and open the door. There Kamiko was, lying sideways on the bed with a large clear water and ice filled thing across her body. It took Kat a few moments of confusion to realise it was a giant ice pack. "What are you doing?" asked Kat.

Kamiko paled as she heard the voice properly, the combination of the door and the ice pack covering her ear distorting things a tad too much. Kamiko had mistakenly believed the person at the door was just one of her sisters. "Oh… um… hello… so… well… you see… I don’t really want to say… but you are a friend… oh promise you won’t make fun of me…" said Kamiko, stumbling over the words in her panic.

"Sure?" said Kat confused. "I mean… it looks like you might be injured so I wouldn’t make fun of you for that… but it does look weird,"

"Urgh…" grumbled Kamiko. "Look… ok so I was out on a contract right? Well it wasn’t anything too hard, just had to escort these kids up the mountain. The place used to be this quaint little village, and all the children would challenge the mountain once as a right of passage. It was to signify they had become adults in the eyes of the village…

"Or well… no the term wasn’t quite adult, the translation was weird on it. A mixture of… the word… adult and also an implication of independence? The whole idea came from this one kid that ran away from his tribe after feeling stifle, so he set up a village where you could essentially ’run away’ at any time…

"But it was like… no joke. Originally at least. See, as part of the contract I had to learn the whole history of the thing like the kids were encouraged to, but no I HAD to learn so now you have to suffer as well,"

[I have no complaints.]

*NERD*

Kamiko continued "So anyway, this tradition has been going on for centuries at this point and the mountain really isn’t scary at all anymore. Thousands of people made the trip and even though making something like a staircase would be super forbidden, the place that was once a village is now a large city that covers the base of the mountain. Most of the animals are gone, and all of the dangerous ones were wiped out.

"So anyway, it’s a tradition about breaking free from tradition and making your own way that has been respected by forcing that tradition on their children, in a way that was supposed to encourage independence and opportunity seeking as well as prove that you had the right to move into your own house and start working. Now though… they go up in groups, on a set schedule every year as part of their graduation, normally from an apprenticeship.

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"And this time? It was the Lord’s son. He was a bit of a spoiled brat, but for nobility he wasn’t too bad actually. I was tasked with guiding the son and his friends up the mountain safety… which is ridiculously overkill. As I said, the animals are gone, and the deadly ones are extinct but whatever, it’s a job and I’m being paid to do it.

"I get them all the way up, no issues, because of course not. Well, one of the friends I was escorting up starts making a ruckus. Bragging about how easy it was, laughing at the challenge, badmouthing me as well… and then like god himself wanted to punish this kid for his hubris, he triggered an rock slide.

"Now, do remember a city sits around this mountain. No earthquakes are rock slides have been triggered in many years. It was completely unexpected, and I… well I didn’t exactly deal with the surprise well. I spent a bit too long in shock before I got moving, and I was only able to get four of the kids to safety before the rocks started falling down. There was still a kid there, and I couldn’t move him safely so I thought to myself… what would Kat do,"

There was the sound of flesh smacking flesh and Lily slapped herself in the face. "Hey!" said Kat turning around, "I’m not that bad am I?"

"Kamiko… you just stood in front of the rocks didn’t you?" asked Lily with exasperation.

Kamiko groaned but nodded under the water cold pack. "I stood in front of the rocks and let them hit me instead of the kid. It turned my entire right side into a bruise… but the kid was ok, so… not a total loss I just ended up as one big bruise and well… this is the result," Kamiko waved vaguely at the ice pack above her. "I did rush everyone down the rest of the way before leaving before my bruises started to be too noticeable…

"But well… my mother… she told me that while she could heal it, not even with her powers but with plenty of over the counter bruise cream… dealing with the humiliation and slower healing process was part of my punishment for slipping up so majorly. I’ve been trained since I was young to keep myself safe, and freezing up and something like a bit of rockfall was quite lax of me. Though I’m guessing mother sent you may way to rub salt in the wound a bit more,"

"Yeah…" mumbled Kat. "It might just be bad luck though, I mean, we just happened to come in for a check-up the same day, sure we knew about it in advance but I’m guessing it only took a day to go up and down the mountain?"

"Eh, two days, one up, camp at the summit and then one back down, but yes. Oh, you could totally make the trek in a day just sticking within standard human limits if the history lesson wasn’t included, and you personally could just fly up in much less time, but yeah… didn’t take long. So not enough time for it to have been planned out…" said Kamiko

Kat shrugged, "Probably just an ’attack of opportunity’ so to speak. I mean, we were going to visit without prompting so it Nira could’ve just let things take their natural course, but I suppose she wanted you to know that she was intentionally trying to embarrass you or something?"

Kamiko sighed, "Yeah that sounds a lot like something my mother would do. I mean, I love her but she really does enjoy embarrassing her kids. I suppose I should just be thankful that she only sent you around to see me like this. Sue’s fun, but I can’t imagine the sort of jokes she’d make about me being bruised from head to toe. I can basically feel the mortification approaching…"

Kamiko shivered, yes. It was best that she healed before Sue turned up for one of her regular visits. The jokes would never end. Kamiko thought she’d be lucky to hear the end of it a decade from now. So of course…

"Hey bitches what’s up!" said Sue as she walked into Kamiko’s room not bothering to knock. "Guess who’s finally Rank 2!" Sue beamed with a genuine smile on her face, happy to have caught up, at least somewhat, to her two best friends, for Sue was now certain of their place in her heart. Lily was up there too, even if she wasn’t quite best friend status yet. Then Sue opened her eyes properly and looked at the scene in front of her, Kat and Lily off to the sides, and Kamiko with a giant ice pack covering her side. Presumably for all the bruises.

Sue paused. "Ok… what the fuck happened to you?"

Kamiko groaned, not wanting to tell the story AGAIN! She’d just finished telling Kat, and it was embarrassing enough the first time, Sue would never let her live this down. Then Kamiko met Sue’s eyes and realised… there was no getting out of it and trying would just make it worse. So she sighed, and started her story again, "So… I just got back from a contract and it started like this…"

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