The Day of Thunder

[Jiyo Sora]

Jiyo Shirayuki had only seen her father cry a few times in her seventeen years, but he'd never been shy about it when he had. He said there was a difference between crying and whining, and that while the latter was to be avoided, the former was part of being human.

So she let herself cry that first night after her father and Phi had left.

Not that she was unhappy to be in the Dragon lands- she loved the mountains, she loved the Dragon, she loved the people who were going to be her mother and father in law, and she loved Taiyo.

But she missed her family. Her mother, her father, Soryu, little Kozan and Reiko...

And she was going to miss Phi most of all. Her partner in crime, her other half. They'd been apart before, of course- Phi had gone with their father to the Scorpion lands, Shirayuki to the Spider- but they'd always known those would be short absences. This was different.

So she held the bell Phi had worn in her hair right up until she took her leave, snugged her dog close, and drifted off to sleep.

Shirayuki's dreams were troubled.

Her family turning away from her. Turning their backs.

"Mother! Father! Phi! It's me! It's 'Yuki!"

Her mother's voice, in lacerating tones Shirayuki had never heard her use "I thought you'd finally gotten rid of her, Sora! Can't you do anything right?"

Her father, sounding almost bored. "I told you we would have been better off losing her in the mountains. I know ways. Of course the Dragon sent her back, who would want her?"

Her twin sister, sounding so much like Shirayuki herself. "You promised she'd never come back! That I would be all, not just half of a set, that you'd love me more!"

Shirayuki stood in stunned, silent confusion. This wasn't right. None of it was right.

This was...

Her eyes narrowed.

"I see your lies."

She felt them, then, in her dream. The mirror once used by Lady Doji, given to her by Dojihime five years before, hanging loosely in her left hand. It seemed to burn in her grip. The bruises on the knuckles of her right hand from where Nozomi had drilled her in her forms, anchoring her. Her sister's bell in her hair, her mother's hands on her shoulders, her father chuckling the way he did when they'd made him proud off to her left.

Taiyo's hand holding hers. Stretching out to his right, his mother- her own namesake- and Togashi.

Jiyo Shirayuki bared her teeth in a snarl worthy of her father as she addressed the figures in her nightmare.

"I deny you."

She woke up in a cold sweat, Squirtling licking frantically at her face. But she woke up feeling like maybe she was where she needed to be.

***Later***

She'd been making new friends, of course, but the warm relations between the Dragon Clan and the Imperial Families (to say nothing of her father's own personal affection for the Clan) meant that Shirayuki had a few old friends to look up as well.

Which was why she was on the scene when Saru Bantaro... did what he did.

She didn't see the worst of it, which was a mercy. She hadn't known any of his three victims too well, which was a greater mercy.

But she did find herself facing him down as he rushed out of his house toward her, his eyes far too small, his mouth far too wide, his bloody hands stretching out toward her as he bellowed something about "imported meat."

She'd never been in a real fight, not one with her life on the line, but she felt her body moving almost of its own accord. The sidestep Nozomi had drilled into her through endless repetition. The brutal crescent kick her father had only taught her after he'd made her swear never to use it unless someone's life was in danger. The one that shattered joints if you delivered it properly.

Shirayuki delivered it properly, and Bantaro went down, his mad gibbering turning into a pained keening.

Part of her almost went for the next step, a brutal stomp to the side of the head that her father had told her would make her sick if she ever saw what it actually did to a human skull. But she didn't. She found herself remembering the stories Bantaro had told the previous week. How he'd made her laugh. How he'd made everyone laugh.

So instead she stayed poised, ready to light into him if she had to for the brief few seconds before the guard detail bundled him off.

She let out a ragged breath.

Now she knew what her father had been dealing with.

And what she was going to have to protect her new family from.

***Later Still***

The tattoo stung a bit, but that was all right. She was far too honored to have been offered the opportunity to complain about a minor physical inconvenience. And besides... the Ki-Rin on her left bicep was beautiful. She was glad it had been put someplace she could see it.

"It suits you." Taiyo, speaking from behind her, seemed to be almost as much in awe as she was. She hoped she'd always feel that little flutter in her stomach when she heard his voice.

"You think so?" She turned to look at him. Really look at him.

"I mean, most things suit you, but..." he grinned, an attempt to hide his own bashfulness behind the wild charm that was on the surface.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, but..." She trailed off. Arched an eyebrow and winked as she spoke in something akin to a purr. "Never stop trying, Taiyo-kun."

Her intended's face flushed, but he didn't break eye contact. She matched his grin with one of her own.

See how YOU like it, Taiyo!

Fortunes, whatever else happens... this is where I belong.