Prologue:

Date Seiji sat quietly on a wide flat stone and watched carelessly as the world passed by. The day was cold, so much so that the warrior had considered staying home entirely, but the sky was clear and bright and Seiji could not refuse such an inviting escape from the business of reality.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, deliberately, and the chill air stung his lungs as he inhaled. As he sat he grew ever more unaware and his body relaxed against the cold.

"Excuse me!"

Seiji startled back to reality and peered about at the desolation. His eyes came to rest on a small child, a girl not more than eight years old, who peeked coyly over a large decorative boulder. When she saw Seiji look her way she perked up with a wide smile then shrank back shyly.

Seiji was dumbfounded. He was sitting on private land in the middle of an expansive patch of forest. He could count the number of people who knew of this place on one hand, and he had told no one that he would be leaving. No one knew he was here and Seiji noted that fact with more than a passing curiosity.

"Are you lost?" he asked.

The girl stepped out from her hiding place and fidgeted. She rocked back and forth, shifting her delicate weight from left to right, and peered at the ground until, at length, she peered up shyly at Seiji, who continued to stare. "Are you Seiji?" she said. "Date Seiji?"

He nodded and felt suddenly conflicted. There was a large part of him that jumped to the defensive and concluded that the little girl meant trouble, but when he looked at her, shy and apparently lost, he felt silly for even remotely considering her a danger. "Who are you?" he said evenly, tempering his concern.

"My name is Mai," she said happily and rushed to Seiji's side. She grasped his arm and tugged at his sleeve. "I need your help."

Seiji cocked his head, confused by the plea. "My help?"

"I can't find my brother!" she shrieked and looked suddenly urgent. "He came here to see you and I got separated and I can't find him anymore. I think he's in trouble. Please help me, Seiji oniichan."

"Who is your brother?" Seiji replied, unfazed by the girl's desperation.

Mai's face went suddenly blank and fat tears began to roll down her face. "Jun never told you about me?" she said quietly.

Seiji covered his face with his palm and sighed heavily. Of course, he thought, there was only one person capable of destroying such a beautiful getaway, and he had done so in a spectacular fashion. The last thing Seiji wanted to deal with on a vacation was a child, let alone two of them.

Presently Mai began to cry and Seiji looked at her with a soft gaze. She sniffled and wiped at her face with her arm, still clutching Seiji's gi. Then she looked at him gravely. "I think he's in trouble, I'm scared."

Seiji stood and Mai clasped his hand tightly. She wept and wiped at her face with her free hand, then pulled him along. All the while Seiji contemplated this strange situation with a heavy skepticism. The girl did bear a striking resemblance to Jun, but Seiji hadn't seen nor heard from the boy in years. Jun had, for all purposes, fallen off of the face of the planet, he didn't even write to Nasté anymore. The warriors had attributed it to age, had figured that Jun had moved on to bigger and better things than hassling them, and was probably working in some cubicle somewhere pushing pencils for middle management.

"How old is your brother now?" Seiji said skeptically.

"Nineteen!" Mai said and tugged Seiji harder.

"And he can't read a map?"

Mai shrugged. "He's not very smart."

Seiji rolled the statement over in his mind while the girl pulled him along. Jun had been annoying, stressful, and generally unpleasant to deal with, but he had never been stupid. Toma had tutored him in school for a long time and so Jun's marks were remarkably high for a boy of his age. Seiji thought that this was proof that the girl was indeed Jun's little sister and the remark was a jibe typical of siblings, but he could not shake the nervousness he felt. Jun had never had a sister, had never mentioned anything about any siblings at all, but the math did add up.

"Where are you taking me?" Seiji said.

Mai looked up at him with a pleasant expression. "To where I got lost."

The warrior sighed once more and relented, though he stayed ever on his guard, and allowed Mai to usher him through the dense wood. She stayed on the path for a while, perhaps half a mile, and then she stopped very suddenly and clung tightly to his arm. Seiji looked down at her before surveying the space. The forest was dark, darker than it should have been, and Seiji felt immediately that something was desperately wrong.

"Why did we stop?" he said. "Is this where you lost him?"

Mai dropped Seiji's hand and bolted into the darkness.

"Wait!" he cried and rushed blindly after her. "Where are you going?"

Frustrated, Seiji stopped running and looked all around. Mai was nowhere to be seen and he was far from the trail. He swore quietly and turned to return to the path but stopped short, startled.

Mai stood in his path, smirking slyly.

"What's your problem?" Seiji spat angrily. "I don't have time to deal with your games."

"Oh, Seiji," Mai said and she seemed suddenly very mature. She put a hand on her hip and gazed up at him, full of disappointment. "I had figured that you would be harder to dupe than this. I guess you're not as keen as we gave you credit for."

Seiji stepped back and reached into the pocket of his gi to retrieve the kanji orb stored there. But before he could summon his armor he stopped, frozen, and his blood ran cold. He could not move and could not speak. All he could do was stare at the deceptive little girl before him and try to suppress the fear mounting in him.

"You want to know what is going on, don't you?" she said and sauntered toward him. And as Mai walked her form became incorporeal and dark and then she was gone.

As soon as she disappeared Seiji fell forward, unexpectedly released from the binding paralysis. Immediately he summoned his under gear and looked about nervously. Then he heard a laugh, low and evil issuing from behind, and he turned to face it squarely.

Then the world went black.