A/N: In an effort to fill in some additional backstories and let the deleted scenes of Kuro Arashi see the light of day, I'll be introducing the first of the Interludes series. This Interlude series, Steel and Heart, tells of events that revolve around Seno and Motoko, both together and individually. I'll be prodding (read: beating over the head until they comply) the other actors in Kuro Arashi to begin their own Interludes series to expand on their own characters in a way that may not be covered during the course of events in Kuro Arashi.

There were a number of children who lived and studied Shinmeiryu within the ancient stone walls of the dojo, but there were none who had managed to befriend the five-year old Motoko Aoyama like the green-eyed boy from Tokyo. His inquisitive nature and brilliant smile were infectious, and the child heiress of the dojo spent every moment that wasn't taken up by training or studying playing all over the grounds with the boy. No more than a month after his arrival, Motoko had declared to her elder sister, Tsuruko Aoyama, that she and the boy were "bestest best friends."

Tsuruko, of course, had gently chastised her sister on her grammar, but had been very happy for her nonetheless. The two children were bound from the beginning by a red string of fate, and few were the instructors at the dojo who could not see this.

Stepping out onto the dojo grounds, Tsuruko immediately spotted the two children laughing and calling out as they chased each other in the warm sunshine. Patrolling groundskeepers watched them in their game with warm smiles on their faces, and would quickly move to the sides should the youngsters move into a potential collision with them. Motoko was the one doing the chasing, her small hand reaching out to grasp the edge of her best friend's gi sleeve as she dug her heels into the ground to bring him to a halt.

"Tag!" she exclaimed happily. "I got you, Sen-kun!"

"Nuh-uh!" he shot back, jerking his arm in an attempt to free his sleeve. Though he was the faster of the two of them, she was not only stronger than him but half a head taller. His efforts to free himself failed. "My clothes don't count! You gotta tag me!"

"No, I don't!" she argued, tackling him to the ground and pinning his arms beside his head. "I tagged you, now you're it!"

"No, I'm not!"

Watching the scene, Tsuruko smiled warmly and called out, "She is correct this time, Seno-kun. She got your sleeve, and that is a proper tag."

This elicited a protruding tongue toward the boy from Motoko, accompanied with a happy, "Told you so!"

"Come inside, children," Tsuruko beckoned. "It's time to finish your afternoon lessons, then you can get ready for the summer festival."

"Yay, festival!" Motoko exclaimed, jumping up and then reaching down to grab her friend's hand and pull him to his feet. "Come on, Sen-kun, we're going to the festival tonight!"

---

Central Park, Kyoto
1936 hours, local time

More or less all of downtown Kyoto had been prepared for the summer festival, with countless booths of food and entertainment set up along the central park. Everywhere, people from the surrounding countryside wandered the streets in their multi-colored and varied yukatas, catching up with old friends, spending time with loved ones, or simply enjoying the sights.

Two five-year old children sat on a bench in the middle of the park, recovering their energy from having spent the entire afternoon running amok, much to the chagrin of their guardians, and waiting for the fireworks display. Motoko, wearing a deep indigo yukata with flowers picked out in shades of white and violet on it, hugged close the yellow teddy bear that Seno had won for her at one of the shooting booths. It had taken an embarrassing number of tries to win the bear, and in the end the boothkeeper had ended up discreetly cheating in the boy's favor.

Sitting next to her, Seno wore a dark blue yukata with a stylized Kyoto skyline embroidered in white on the bottom half. He held a pouf of cotton candy larger than his head in his left hand that the two were idly pulling strands of congealed sugar from. He'd fairly well decided after the shooting booth incident that ranged projectile weapons weren't his forte, and that he'd best stick to his swordsmanship.

"Ne, Sen-kun," Motoko said, licking sugar off her fingers. "Did you know that aneue is getting married in a few weeks?"

He nodded slightly. "I heard the other kids talking about it. Sounds like it'll be fun."

Motoko nodded, and stared off into space for several moments. Then she looked back at her friend. "Sen-kun, do you know what you want to be when you grow up?"

He thought about it for all of half a second. "An archaeologist!" he said.

"A who?"

"You know, the guys that dig up dinosaur bones."

She smiled. Of course. Dinosaurs were his favorite subject, and he spent more time reading books about dinosaurs, some of them several grade levels higher than him, than he did studying the material he was supposed to be studying.

"Or maybe I want to be a weather guy," he reconsidered. "I don't know."

Motoko's little heart skipped a beat, and she felt her face warming. "I have an idea, Sen-kun."

He turned to give her his full attention. "What is it, Moto-chan?"

"Let's..." She looked down for a moment, squeezing the bear tightly. "Let's be in love when we grow up!"

After a few moments of silence, she dared look up at him. He looked confused. "What does that mean, Moto-chan?"

"I, uh...I'm not really sure..." she admitted. "I think it means that we'll get to play together all the time. I always want to be able to play with you, Sen-kun."

"Me, too, Moto-chan." He nodded, then clenched his free hand into a fist. "Okay! When we grow up, we're going to be in love, just like Tsuruko-sama and...uh..her friend?"

Motoko positively beamed, and without thinking, she leaned forward and kissed her friend, not taking into account that he was still facing toward her. Their noses bumped together a bit rudely, but neither of them seemed to notice.

It was over as soon as it began, but Motoko detected the lingering taste of cotton candy and soy sauce. She licked her lips, blushed healthily, then scooted over to lay her head on Seno's shoulder, hugging the bear tightly as she watched the first fireworks shoot up into the night sky.