Kojima and Yumi couldn’t help but squeal as Saruwatari flicked his head around, fear in his eyes. Matsuo jumped up as soon as he heard the scream. He whipped his whole body around and stared wide-eyed at the girls.

          “K-Kojima…Yumi!” He attempted a smile.

          “Are you all okay?” Kojima asked her friends.

          Saruwatari nodded, apparently not quite sure himself.

          “My sister…” he said in a low voice, very unlike his usual self. “She saw one of the ninja and…she hid us here…They didn’t bother to come into this shrine…They didn’t think anyone was still alive…”

          He bit his lip after that last sentence. His, along with Matsuo’s, eyes began to water. Yumi felt her heart sink. Kojima had never been one to care for feelings of sorrow. Even though she knew this was a very tragic time, she almost wanted to smack them. Sure, they had their rights to be sad, but they weren’t out of the battlefield quite yet. Kojima didn’t want to waste time sulking.

          “Get your butts up. We need to go,” she instructed.

          The three of them looked at her like she had just smacked them.

          “Kojima…” Matsuo began. But he knew not to say any more. He had known Kojima longer than any of them. They had been best friends since they were in diapers. He didn’t want her to get angry with him. Not at a time like this.

          “Don’t be stupid,” Saruwatari said blandly. “If we leave we’ll get caught.”

          “No, genius,” Kojima replied with more authority. She hardly spoke like this. She was usually either passive or the opposite of serious. This time she wasn’t going to let these buffoons take control. “How much longer do you think it will be before they come to burn these shrines? You won’t be able to escape then. And if you do, they’ll catch you. You’ve never fought a day in you life.”

          “Well…” Saruwatari didn’t know how to reply. “I’ll lead us out. I know this place better—”

          “Shut it. I’m leader,” Kojima interrupted, no change in her expression. She was dead serious. She knew letting Saruwatari take command would surely lead them to death. “I don’t care what you say. I am the higher authority. We go where I wish. Got it?”

          Matsuo was a little reluctant to, but he nodded. Yumi followed his nod. She knew Saruwatari well enough to know that he was not good at sneaking around.

          Saruwatari looked shocked. But he gave in after a few seconds of hearing screams erupting from the village down the hill.

          “Okay then…” Kojima had to think for a moment. She had never been leader before. She began to walk toward the open door. Her three comrades followed close behind her. She ran to the back of the building. The three followers were right behind her.

          We’re already at the edge of the village Kojima thought to herself. Only a few more…

          Before Kojima could even finish her thought, the ground shifted below her. She wasn’t the best at thinking fast. Her friends stopped running to stabilize themselves, but Kojima was a little slow to stop. The vibrations made Kojima drop to her knees. She looked around. She didn’t see anybody.

          Kojima looked more closely. She adjusted her glasses, the violent shaking making them bounce to the end of her nose.

          It was hard for her to see much of anything, even with her glasses pressed up against her face. Kojima began to worry. If her glasses were to be lost or severely damaged, she would surely die, blind as a bat.

          Then something caught her eye. A rock. It was just an ordinary rock. But there was one thing that stood out to Kojima: It didn’t shake with the upset ground. Even Kojima could tell through her irritation. She hated being unable to stand up straight.

          Kojima didn’t want to be a hero, but there was no way to trick her friends into checking out that rock. And even the merciless Kojima Hotaru Omyasaka would not send one of her best friends to what would most likely be their death. Even if she did want to send someone else over there, there was too much noise to shout above it and not be heard by their attackers, and any gestures would be dismissed for jerks from the vibrations.

          “Sure, why not,” Kojima whispered to herself. It would be too much work to not check out the rock herself. Plus, if it was the attacker’s base, her murder would give her friends time to run into the forest, just meters away. “But I don’t wanna be a hero…” she wined to herself.

          She dropped even farther down to her hands and knees. Then she began to crawl slowly to the rock. Even she couldn’t turn all of the adrenalin into an excited emotion. Kojima’s limbs grew numb and her focus foggy. She snapped herself back to reality. Now was no time to go into a daydream. She usually didn’t care if her body wanted to shut down and dream, but she figured now was not the best time.

          “Koji…” Yumi began. She stared at Kojima. “Don’t be an idiot.”

          Kojima didn’t hear her. Her mind was telling her to stop and save herself. As much as she wanted to, it was too late. She gripped the straight sword she had snatched from her father’s study and raised it high above her head.

          This is beyond stupid she thought to herself. I’m not going to be happy after this.

          She drove the sword down hard. She expected the force from her strength behind the sword and the vibration from the collision from the hard rock to come back to her arms, using the sword as a medium, shattering her arm’s bones.

          Instead, the straight sword went through the rock as if it were flesh…

          The ground stopped shaking instantly. It took a moment for Kojima to realize that her simple robes had been soaked with blood.

          Kojima’s eyes widened. She had always hated the mere sight of blood, let alone when it touched her. She could feel the warmth and wetness. It made shivers run up her spine. She began to freak out. Her arms began to twitch violently as her head snapped forward. She couldn’t control herself. The muscles in her stomach began to tighten as her eyes started to strain themselves uncontrollably. The muscles in her jaws tightened and twitched. Her hands grew numb and her spine jerked one way.

          “Kojima!” Matsuo shouted. 

          They stopped running toward her just as soon as they had started. They were no longer the only four present. Out of the ground rose a man with rock-solid muscles and rough eyes. He had Kojima by the throat. All she could do was gag. There was her straight sword, sticking out of the top of his blood soaked head. Short hair began to grow out of his scalp. His brown eyes stared at her with irritation.

          “Kojima!” Yumi screamed.

          “Kojima…” the man repeated. “I shall make those called ‘Kojima’ have one less in their numbers.”

          Kojima’s vision began to fade. Everything was starting to blur. She couldn’t even hear anything except faint screaming. But she was well aware that her friends were not running. That made her a bit angry. Had her bravery failed? No, she decided.

          With what was left of her breath, Kojima screamed as loudly as she could, “Run!”

          She grabbed the man’s arm, her sharp fingernails digging into his rough, tan skin. Her palms grew hotter and hotter. Within seconds fire engulfed his arm. He yelped in pain, dropping Kojima. She couldn’t move, couldn’t respond. As she regained her vision, she watched as her friends ran off. Then she became aware that sharp, metal fingers attached to the man’s gloves had dug into her neck in five places. She was bleeding…badly. The pain was immense, but she couldn’t help but smile. She was surely gone from the world, but her friends, due to her actions, would go free. And she realized that for once she felt needed. For once everything made sense, even though she never really cared that it didn’t. 

          Don't forget me…