...a young man studied the warrior ways of enlightenment. He trained in the martial arts to a dedicated purpose. Day after day, he concentrated on his skills deeply, until he found that his angry and evil family had moved away.
Finding that his family was gone, the young man was very happy. No longer would he be heckled, jeered, and ridiculed, being the subject of their anger. He was free to live and wander through his home: the Civilization of Silence. The city was very urban and modern. Even in the daylight, dark clouds filled the sky. The clouds and tall, angular buildings abated all wind where the young man was.
On a particular night, training in the park, the young man happened upon a woman. Her hair was brown and pulled into a ponytail. She walked with an aristocratic gait, and wore fine common clothes. He silented himself by crouching and waited for her to heels to pass along the sidewalk.
As she walked, the young man could tell she was not native to Civilization of Silence. His guess was that she was a foreigner from across the sea. She carried a leather case that he found interesting. He took it upon himself to escort her home, both for training and chivalry.
Quietly, without her showing any sign of knowing his presence, the young man followed the woman through the park, and out. Before exiting the park, the young man removed his outer camouflage from over his cool gray camo. It happened that while he was almost done, another passerby bumped into the woman and pushed her down.
The young man forgot his sense of calm void, and prepared for the worst. He rushed forward, forgetting silence and gripped the hilt of his sheathed sword. As he ran, his tabi boots padded against the ground, and the male passerby fell upon the woman to wrestle.
It was over in the space of a long, belated flash. The unknown attacker of the woman was paralyzed, laying off to her side, his head twisted in a direction it was not meant to go. No blood was in evidence. The young man, clad in a uniform resembling shinobi shozoku, sprawled effortlessly on the far side of where the woman lay on her back. Her eyes were looking at him, stricken with panic.
It took an effort, but the young man calmed his breath, and rose up. He worked quickly, searching over the body. He removed several items, including the purse and case that the woman had been carrying. He made hand motions for her to stay calm as he approached, offering his left hand for her to take.
The woman hesitated, afraid, but he shook his hand, palm up. She took his hand and he pulled her up, pressing her possessions to her grasp. Scanning about, the ninja found no sign of observation, so he guided her as quickly as he could back into the park, left hand in hers, right keeping his sword quiet.
Once enclosed, away from the paved sidewalk, and hidden in the shadows of trees, the young man stopped. He did not rest, but instead examined the victim more closely than before. Finding no critical wounds earlier, he was pleased to see that her only injuries seemed to be a disheveled appearance. Her hair was mussed and her business attire was slightly twisted. Again, he led her.
Following an invisible trail through the park, the young man guided his charge away from the lit sidewalks. Reaching the shadow of a tree closest to another edge of the park, the ninja stopped. He stood quietly, giving the woman time to collect herself. He noticed that she was looking at him with appreciation and awe.
They stood together for quite a few moments. He let go of her hand. At last, the ninja pointed his right, gloved hand toward the street. He was more confident that she would not be attacked among the better lit street lamps. For a few moments the woman looked uncertain.
In an accent that sounded foppish and noble, the woman thanked the ninja politely. She opened her case and produced a card. The ninja could not help his eyes turning suspicious, but he accepted the card between his index and middle fingers.
The ninja nodded, and backpeddled, turning as he walked to become shrouded in darkness beyond her gaze.
The young man, without the woman's knowledge, made certain that she reached her destination safely.
It happened on another still night that the woman the young man had rescued entered the park. He noticed her as she moved along the lit sidewalk. This was yet another time of many that he found her looking for him. Though she did not call out for him, the young man appreciated her determination. It was journey outside of her way, since he knew that she took the subway from her work to her home.
It pleased the ninja to learn that she no longer took the route she had first chosen when he rescued her. Be it for the reason of the unkept street lamps, or the memory of the event, he was glad to find that she now turned in the park and walked out the way that he had showed her.
Again, the young man wrestled with the idea in his mind. As a matter of training, he had taken an interest into her life, and had lurked about, learning things about her while avoiding detection.
He had not yet made up his mind about being able to trust her. He bothered to close his eyes and think deeply on the matter when his senses surprised him that someone knew of his presence. Looking about, he was mildly surprised that she had strayed from the sidewalk and into the grouping of fluffed bushes where he chose to wait.
The young man had been contemplating his deepest secrets and was ill prepared to stand. He sat on a rug and effected patience while waiting for the woman to explain herself.
She apologized for intruding, her polite and foppish voice revealing her uncertainty. The young man nodded, accepting her apology, but made no hint at emotion. He was dressed as before, though she was not. She had taken to donning walking shoes and less frumpy clothes when touring the city at night.
It happened in those moments, that the woman simply opened her mouth and started speaking. Before she had realized the full implications, she had poured out her worries on the unprepared ninja. She explained about her unhappiness and the danger she felt she was in. According to her words, there was a man who was casting aspersions on her so intently that he followed her, and entered her home.
The young man listened as the woman he rescued detailed her history, and offered only calm understanding when she lost control of her emotions.
He spoke her family name, the one he had read from the card. Unknowingly, he mispronounced it, and she smiled at the difference in their ethnicities. She spoke it to his surprise, practicing the name for him to say, rather than correcting. In the deepest parts of himself the young man was impressed and interested. He moved over to a side of the rug, and invited her to sit by words and gesture.
She did.
Again and again in the evening, the woman would come and sit for brief periods while the ninja would listen and quietly contemplate how best to help her. Finally, he came to the decision that she had the strength within herself to match the fool who harrassed her. The ninja began speaking to her about techniques to assist her in avoiding detection.
Over days and weeks, those discussions gave way to more varied conversation. The woman's desperate search for another rescue became friendly meetings as she practiced what the young man told and showed her. In the course of this time, he learned more specific details of her life which added to what he knew already. She also, learned a few things from his stories and careful explainations.
All the time, the ninja was careful not to disclose his deepest secrets.
Then it happened that the woman came to the park in the middle of the day. Rousing the ninja from sleep, he was angered to learn that her harrasser had installed himself in the woman's home, claimed he was her husband, and refused to leave under any circumstances. In the space of seven breaths, the ninja made a decision.
Having looked upon her face, and other places over her body that he had sensed, the ninja found wounds. He patiently calmed the woman with words and touch, quickly donning the disguise of a street rat afterward. He escorted her to a safe place and helped heal her.
During that short period, the woman introduced herself by her first name. The ninja was silently grateful, having practiced her first name, also, with the wrong pronouncing and emphasis. In turn, he introduced himself. At her asking, he explained the meaning of his names. It was the course of a few days that the woman needed to heal. Afterward, the ninja donned his street rat disguise again.
He guided the woman through the night, and to her home. Indicating that she should wait, the ninja succeeded in gaining the notice of the ugly and insane man who had been giving his friend so much difficulty. Ahead the harrasser, the ninja returned to his friend and guided her through the city to a ten story brick building.
The ninja set a quick pace, allowing just enough for the male to follow. Knowing that the elevator did not work, the young man lead a merry chase up the stairs through the forgotten building where his evil family used to live.
They all reached the roof, and the fool lunatic found the ninja up on the brick wall directly opposite of the roof access. The ninja offered a challange, that if the man loved the woman less than he did, he would not jump from the building with him.
Without hesitation the lunatic scrambled up the wall and prepared to jump.
In those moments, the ninja turned a confident glance to the woman he had come to have affection for. He smiled behind his mask, turned to face her as if to fall backward, and felt his eyes fill with blue lightening. The woman was afraid, and called out his name as his body transformed into a large black dragon -- the shape of a man, but with scales, enormous wings, and a powerful tail.
The lunatic, upon seeing this, promptly died, and fell to the ground.
The woman, in awe again, heard the shinobi's voice in her mind. She heard herself answer, "Yes," to his question, "Do you believe in dragons?"
So the dragon lifted the woman into his arms, and fell away from the building, extending his wings and flying off with her into the night.
