When Kae woke up, her stomach still hurt and she was hungry but at least her head had stopped swimming. The history book still lay where she'd left it so Kae opened the book and took up where she left off; reading about the Revolutionary War, about Valley Forge and the winter of suffering that was endured there. She marveled over the courage and determination of the rebellious colonists, who could have returned to their homes instead of freezing in tents but remained in Valley Forge because they felt so strongly about what they were fighting for.

Kae closed the book, staring into space as she thought about it. She wondered if she had that kind of courage. So caught up in her reflections, Kae never noticed the silent ninja seated at the edge of the room until he spoke.

"What are you thinking, Kae?" He chuckled when she jumped. "It must have been serious for you not to notice me."

"I was thinking about Valley Forge, Um, what was that word?" She looked at him sheepishly, "the one that means 'teacher'."

"Sensei," he supplied. "I suppose you might use the English word, since you are hardly Japanese."

"But you're a Japanese teacher, teaching Japanese ideas," she argued after a moment's thought. "Sensei, it is."

"Thank you, Kae. Now tell me, what were you thinking about, regarding Valley Forge."

He sounded pleased. Kae was glad she'd decided to use the title he preferred. "I was just thinking about the soldiers who had no shoes that first winter, who had frostbite so bad they left red tracks in the snow."

She paused but he didn't comment, so she continued. "I was thinking that those men had homes and families waiting for them. They could have gone home at any time, left the army, gotten warm- but they didn't because of how strongly they believed in what they were fighting for." She paused sheepishly and bit her lip. "I was also wondering if I had that kind of courage."

"There is only one way to find out," Nakimura told her. "You must find something you believe in to fight for."

Kae thought about it for a moment. "First, I have to find out what I believe in." She paused and added quickly, "I mean, I know I believe in God, but other than that? I don't know."

"The path of wisdom is traveled one step at a time," he said, sounding to Kae like some old foreign-language film with subtitles at the bottom. She resisted the urge to giggle at first, but as he continued, she quickly sobered. "In realizing that you do not yet know what you believe in, you have taken the first step on that path. What is the next step that you must take?"

The question set her back a little. How was she to figure out what she believed in? "I guess I have to learn what there is to believe before I decide what to believe in," she thought aloud.

"But I can't study them all. It would take my entire life to do that and I still wouldn't be any closer to testing my courage." Realizing that her entire life might be far shorter than she'd previously thought, Kae wanted to cry. She bit her lip to control the tears and lifted her book again.

"I guess for now, I'll learn what my countrymen, my forefathers believed in. I'm not sure the mercs really believe in anything other than 'sticking it to the government' or making a buck."

"That would be an excellent second step," approved the ninja. Kae looked over at him when he fell silent and noticed he was sewing. She lost control of her giggle. "Why do you laugh?" he asked, not looking up from his handwork.

"I never took you for a seamstress," Kae gurgled. "Do you always sew when you are bored?"

He chuckled. "No, this is penance for disobeying Patches. She burned the gi and mask I wore yesterday, so now I must sew another."

Amusement gave his voice a warm lilt, Kae discovered. And when that warmth lit his voice, that voice seemed to go straight to her insides- more so than usual. Kae wanted to hear more of it. "What did you do wrong, to make your sister-in-law burn your clothes?"

"It wasn't so much my sister-in-law as it was Patches, the medical professional." The amusement was still there, along with a note of fondness for the sister-in-law in question.

"She asked me to keep my distance before she'd diagnosed your tuberculosis, but I disobeyed. When she found out, I was ordered to surrender the infectious material that was my favorite gi and go take a very hot, disinfecting shower. Having to sew a new one is the price of my disobedience."

Deliberately, Nakimura looked up at her and lowered one eye in a wink. "That or go naked, and I dislike standing out in a crowd."

Kae laughed until she started coughing. When she'd recovered her wind, she giggled again. "Says the man who goes about in a black mask and ninja costume; nope, you sure don't like standing out in a crowd."

His amusement faded entirely. "Believe me, Kae-de, if I did not wear this mask, I would be entirely unforgettable. People see me dressed as I am and think 'there goes a man in a costume' before they go on their way. If they were to see my face, they would take far more notice of me and not forget."

Kae lowered her head, wishing she still had long hair to hide her face with. He was displeased with her. Kae hoped he would not punish her for her insolence, but she was even sorrier that he was no longer pleased with her. "I'm sorry, Sensei." When she looked up, he was standing beside her, reaching for her. Kae flinched, expecting a blow.

His hand froze where it was, then slowly, deliberately rested on her shoulder. He gave it a reassuring squeeze before removing his hand. "You did nothing to apologize for, Kae-de. I do not strike my students outside of randori, ever. I swear to you; if you do something wrong, I will let you know with words."

Kae wished his hand were still on her shoulder. He was the first person to touch her in a kind way since her dad had died and Kae found that it was nice; nice to be held when she cried, nice to be told silently that she had done a good job. She looked up at him. "Thank you, Sensei." Kae paused, thinking. "What's randori?"

He chuckled. "Kae-de, ever the curious one; never lose that curiosity. Randori is practice-fighting, when two students or a Sensei and student, pull their punches and kicks to practice without hurting each other. There are two types; standing and kneeling.

"Standing randori starts with both combatants standing and facing each other to fight with blows and throws then often ends in kneeling, which allows one to practice wrestling holds."

"Oh, I see," Kae agreed thoughtfully. "And what does 'de' mean?"

"As in Kae-de?" he asked. She nodded. "Kae-de is the Japanese word for maple leaf. You remind me of the Japanese maple- smaller than most, yet the wood is just as beautifully grained and the leaves a lovely hue."

Kae blushed. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He returned to his seat. Kae wished he hadn't. To hide her thoughts, Kae picked up her book and started reading again. Nakimura resumed his needlework. Together, they sat in companionable silence until Patches brought breakfast.

"You need to eat, Kae," the doctor said, "especially since you never ate dinner last night."

Nakimura looked up from his sewing. "Kae, why did you not eat?"

"I had a bath and a haircut," she told him, "and then I was too tired to eat. Not only that, but the medicine makes me sick to my stomach."

"You must try," he admonished. "Now is when your courage will be tested, I think." He eyed the tray sat before her. "Patches has given you foods designed to calm your stomach and give you strength. This is not what Frosty made for breakfast."

Kae looked over her other shoulder to where Patches stood, since the two usually stayed on opposite sides of the bed. "You made this for me?" she asked, dumbfounded. No one had cooked for her since she'd been a small girl. As soon as she was tall enough to reach the back of the stove, her dad had given the task entirely to Kae.

"Rifampin is well known for its side-effects," Patches explained, "and with your body-condition, I thought maybe you'd be able to keep more of it in your stomach than Frosty's sausage, egg and cheese bagel sandwiches. The oatmeal has a pinch of ginger in it, the tea is chamomile, which has a muscle relaxing quality, bananas are high in potassium and the sugar in your milk should help your body to recover, too."

Kae felt her eyes watering again. To mask her embarrassing show of emotion, she bowed her head and offered a silent, hasty prayer of thanks,  peeled her banana, lowered her face mask to below her chin and took a bite of fruit. Once she'd swallowed, she thanked the doctor and started on her oatmeal, alternating bites of food with swallows of her milk and tea until she was full.

Her stomach protested, but not enough to reject what filled it. Nakimura wordlessly watched her eat, seeming to be keeping track of every bite. When Kae put down her spoon and replaced her face mask, she looked over at him. "Did I do well, Sensei?"

"Well enough," he allowed, "considering the number of meals you have missed lately and the meals you may miss as your treatments continue." He picked up his sewing and settled himself marginally in the chair. "Now, are you rested enough to continue your studies?"

"Yes, Sensei." Kae picked up her book and opened it.

For many days, Nakimura sewed on his new clothing while Kae read her book. When she couldn't read, they talked about what she'd read. Patches chased Nakimura out of the room for meals and rest several times and once, someone else summoned Nakimura away.

The new gi was eventually finished, as was Kae's book. Nakimura started her on a book about the Civil War and asked her to choose one she'd already read. The only book she'd actually read, aside from explosives manuals, was the Holy Bible, so Nakimura found one and began to read.

The two of them enjoyed several discussions based on their various readings. At some point during that time, Patches removed the manacle from the bed.

"Nakimura from Black Hawk," the device on Nakimura's wrist summoned him while he read from I Kings. It sounded almost like Nakimura himself. Kae kept her eyes on her book but listened intently anyway.

Nakimura flipped open the screen. "Hai," he answered. A long stream of what Kae assumed to be Japanese followed. Kae listened to the cadence of the language. "Out," finished Nakimura before he closed the device. "It appears that my team was more successful than I had anticipated," Nakimura remarked.

Assuming he was addressing her since he never spoke idly, Kae looked up at him. "How so?" she asked, mildly curious.

"I ordered them to scout out the base camp in Montana with the eventual goal of sending in a team to destroy it entirely. Pacu seized the opportunity to do so himself, however and managed to succeed with only the assistance of Black Hawk and some air support. It would seem that the Major is no longer part of any larger army, as he would have had us believe."

Kae pictured the only home she'd ever known, an old slide-in camper that rested on several fifty-five-gallon drums, rather than being 'slid-in' to the back of a truck. "The entire compound is . . . destroyed?" she asked faintly. Not that there was anything there she couldn't live without except the memories of her father, but it meant that Kae was completely homeless.

"Completely," he confirmed. "The remaining combatants have been secured, the women and children dispersed to new homes. Central Montana should be a little safer from now on."

"Oh." Kae leaned back against the bed and closed her eyes against the tears that threatened to overspill her lids. Suddenly, she was reminded afresh that, despite the kindness of these people, she was still a prisoner.

Slowly, she closed the book and slid it onto the table, her eyes still closed. Kae felt as if she'd been betrayed, either that or, because she was accepting aid and comfort from her captors, had betrayed the group- a thing punishable by death. Kae's chest tightened. Beside the bed, a monitor began to beep. God, what do I do? Where will I go now? I don't even own any clothes anymore. My Bible! I should have brought it with me.  I'm sorry, God!

"Kae?" Patches voice interrupted Kae's desperate prayers, sounded nervous.

A pressure in the pit of her stomach threatened to evacuate Kae's breakfast. Still trying not to cry, Kae crossed her arms over her chest against the pressure and controlled her breathing as if she were setting a difficult charge. Doing her best to concentrate, Kae kept her eyes closed.

"Kae, are you okay?" Patches touched Kae's shoulder. Tears erupted from between Kae's eyelids and trickled down her cheeks to soak into her mask but Kae didn't say anything or move. "Kae, talk to me. Are you in any pain?"

"Not any more than usual," Kae whispered finally. "Thank you for asking, Doctor." She really needed to remember who she was, and act like it.

"Your heart is threatening to go into arrest. What's wrong, Kae?"

Kae pressed her lips together against an angry retort. Above all things, life in the camps had taught her survival and Kae knew that to survive, she would need to please her captors. Kae thought for a moment.

"I just found out that the cemetery where my parents are buried has been destroyed along with my home. I guess it was a shock." Kae hated the tremor of nervousness in her voice.

She'd been trained to withstand questioning, to quell her body responses in reaction to questioning. She regarded her nervousness as a sign of weakness, a thing which must not show if one was to survive. "If you don't mind, Doctor, I think I'd like to sleep now."

The doctor's voice turned instantly to understanding and sympathy. "Of course, Kae; I'll dim the lights for you." Kae felt the light brush of Patches' hand against her shoulder as the doctor reached over and dimmed the lights.

There was a note of steel in the doctor's voice when she said, "Nakimura, outside." One set of footsteps retreated but Kae felt the faint rush of air as two people walked past the bed. Once they were gone, Kae concentrated on her bodily rhythms until the machine beside her bed stopped beeping in alarm. Deep in concentration, she never heard Patches come and leave again over the incessant beep of the monitor.

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Nakimura followed his sister-in-law out of the infirmary. She let him pass and then blocked the door with her body. "Go to the dojo and wait for Yuki and Pacu," Patches ordered. "I have a seriously ill patient to treat."

There was true anger in her voice and Nakimura knew she would bodily stop him from returning to the infirmary if he tried to go back through the door. Not that she could stop him if he were truly determined of course, but she was the doctor in charge, even when she was off-duty. He nodded once but didn't reply, knowing that she needed to vent when she was this angry.

"There is only one way that girl could have known about the strike," Patches continued. "You were the only person to have contact with her. How did you think she would react when you told her we destroyed her home, her neighborhood, her entire existence? That girl now owns not one thing in the entire universe, not even clothing! Did you think to even ask before telling her?"

An extended silence warned Nakimura that she expected an answer to this question. "No, Deirdre, I did not. I have come to think of her as my student rather than a prisoner and that was my mistake. It will not happen again."

"No, it will not!" she assured him, still angry and not appeased at all by his apology. "My patient nearly had a heart attack just now. I may have to sedate her to get her heart rate under control! Just go, Yasuo, and don't come back unless I call or you're in need of medical attention. I'm too angry to speak civilly with you and it's not safe for my patient to have you here."

"Hai." Nakimura bowed to Patches to show respect for her as a doctor and turned to go. Regret and failure hung heavily over him but he had no other options. As chief medical officer at the Arizona base, Patches' word was law in respect to the infirmary and all medical care, even when Doc was on duty and not she, herself.

Nakimura reproached himself thoroughly on his way back to the dojo. He would continue to read what Kae had asked him to read because Yasuo Nakimura kept his word, but perhaps Patches was right and he should focus on Pacu's training now that the young warrior had returned from his mission.

"Sensei!" Pacu was waiting for him in the dojo. "I have prepared my report."

"I am eager to hear it." Nakimura tented his fingers properly while his student reported his adventures to the squad leader.

Nakimura and those under him were usually in charge of scouting missions, though they also often went on missions that required brute force. General Graves knew that Nakimura and his team were a hidden advantage where tactics were concerned because not many foes would expect masked, gi-clad ninja warriors to be attacking them. Of course, their skill in finding hidden enemies and fleeing fugitives went without saying.

When Pacu had finished his report, Nakimura squeezed the young man's shoulder in silent approbation. "You are a fine warrior, Pacu. I have sent Mariko to finish her training as a tracker under Black Hawk. You and I will work together on your skills as a warrior until you are ready to go out on your own."

To Nakimura, that meant allowing the young man to take the lead on their missions so that he could observe and correct minor faults in strategy and character since Pacu's form was always flawless. Pacu was indeed, a ninja warrior.

Pleasure and pride colored the young man's expression, but he didn't comment other than to bow and add a quiet, "hai."

Black Hawk found his team leader later in the afternoon in order to give his report. "Pacu is quick to act," he told his younger brother, "and he plans beforehand. He needs to learn to anticipate flaws in those plans, however. He is skilled at predicting how others will act in a fight. As a warrior, he needs only to learn when to conserve force."

"These things, I will teach him. In the same way, you must teach Mariko the ways of the tracker. She must be able to follow a single man through the most complicated of trail, be that wilderness or the most crowded of city streets. She must be able to find a trail that has gone cold and be able to tell exactly how cold it might be. When she has learned what you can teach, then we will split into two teams, for it will not be long before Mariko and Pacu find each other."

"I too, have seen this. It makes you sad though, Brother. Are you wishing for a return of earlier times- or envious of their bond?" Black Hawk studied his brother knowingly.

Nakimura felt no need to answer, knowing his brother had only asked so that Nakimura might examine himself and his motives. Instead, Nakimura shut the door of the dojo and drew the blinds. When both men had removed their masks, he asked in his native tongue, "Have you spoken to Patches?"

Yuki grinned. "She is still rather angry with you. This surprises me, Yasuo. It is not like you to forget yourself."

"You would forget yourself too, if you had seen her. Even with no hair, Kae is beautiful. She reminds me in so many ways of Keiko too; her unbridle curiosity, the way she teases, even the way she ducks her head when she thinks someone is angry with her."

Nakimura took up a bamboo staff and began twirling it between his fingers. "I forgot myself." He tossed his brother a second staff and the two of them began to spar.

Preoccupied by thoughts of the lavender-eyed patient, Yasuo found himself making mistakes more often than he wished. After a second crack on the head by his brother, Yasuo pushed himself until the two brothers were totally involved in their match. Finally, both soaked with sweat and breathing hard, Yasuo finally was able to knock his brother to the ground.

"About time," remarked Yuki mildly from the floor. "You usually throw me long before now, Yasuo." Grinning, he accepted his brother's sheepish hand up. "I will tell my wife that you have been chastised and are penitent."

"I was that after the dressing-down she gave me outside the infirmary," Yasuo told him. "I will eat in the dojo tonight. Please tell Maemiko that I will see her tomorrow?"

Yuki laughed. "My daughter will not be pleased with you, Yasuo. Are you sure you wish to risk two such lectures from the Hall women?" He had asked his wife to retain her maiden name and to give their children her name as a means for protecting them from his enemies, for there were many that sought the lives of the Nakimura brothers.

After careful consideration, Yasuo sighed. "I must. The thought of facing your wife after my shameful behavior is intolerable."

"I will send some dinner over with Mariko then," suggested Yuki as he donned his mask again. "And I will make excuses for you at dinner." He clapped a hand on his brother's shoulder in comfort and left to join his wife for dinner.

Yasuo went to the rear of the dojo, where a separate, small area had been partitioned off as a bedroom and bathroom. With a sigh, he studied his face in the mirror, grimacing at the grotesque tattoo that flowed up from under his gi to cover his neck and entire face.

"I doubt any woman would want to have to spend her marriage looking at that," he said quietly, feeling foolish for voicing the sentiment out loud.

Even as he said it, the loneliness that had become his constant companion welled up, making Yasuo restless. Needing to occupy his mind, Yasuo picked up his reading and stretched out on his bunk to continue learning the history of the Israelite people. In his mind's eye, Yasuo pictured King David on his roof, watching another man's wife as she bathed.

He marveled as he read that even with the massive dishonor with which King David treated a man he'd called a friend, the God of Israel still called David a man after God's own heart. It seemed that the God of Israel was more tolerant of mistakes than the Shin.

"Nakimura from Patches."

"Nakimura."

"Get your masked self over here for dinner!" Her voice was teasing, not irritated or angry at all.

Nakimura keyed his device, opening up a visual so she could see that he wasn't masked. "I thought you were angry at me, so I was going to eat in my room tonight; over."

"Yasuo, you're still family. Hurry up or the trout will grow cold; out." Behind her, Nakimura could see little Maemi hollering for her uncle. Nakimura grinned and grabbed his mask. Patches and Yuki believed in the same God he'd been reading about. Maybe there was something to it after all. Yasuo decided to ask about it at dinner.

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