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The last few moments Tsukasa spent in hell were emblazened in his mind. Over and over the final moments of his mother being alive flashed through his unconsious hours. Tormented he tossed and turned in his sleep, the nightmare however eventually manifested itself into a full terror and turned on him. The sword that now pierced through his mother, turned it's blade upon him and followed him through the portal.

"no... stay away... get back... leave me alone... STAY AWAY!!!" Tsukasa screamed while jumping to his feet. He was breathing deeply and had cold sweat on his forehead. He wiped the sweat off and gazed around the room. It was a plain little room, it had one window that let a tiny bit of light through the dusty glass. The bed he was now standing on was poorly furnished and had only a small box pillow and a thin white sheet that was now on the floor. There was a small end table across the room that had a small piece of wood on it and an incense burning above it slowly, realeasing a fragrant mix of Aster and Iris to fill the room.

"where the hell am I..." He asked himself. He hopped off the bed and landed softly in the center of the room, then snuck silently to the only door access to the room. He could vaugly pick up the scent of human on the outside over the incense that was burning slowly behind him. He could hear voices as well and leaned closer to a wall for a better listen.

"...BUT HE'S A DEMON!!! He's probably one of Satan's troops, sent up here to finally kill us and get us out of the way so he can dominate the land!" Proclaimed one voice.

"Silence my son," Another softly spoke. "This demon child is not under the evil one's control. He is no doubtedly untrained and still pure. But lets put this matter aside for the moment, our guest is awake..."

The hairs on the back of Tsukasa's neck stood up and a cold shiver ran him straight down to his toes. He jumped back and got into one of the fighting stances his mother taught him in his days of home schooling. He paused for a second, wondering why he had just done that but it didn't matter now, the soft cherry door that separated him from the unknown figures outside was starting to move. It creaked and moaned open as it slowly shifted on it's hinges into the room. At this Tsukasa charged furiously towards the silhouette that was holding the door nob. He jumped into the air blindly and started his kick when he looked at the figure and froze for a moment as he looked down upon a very cute young girl. She was wearing a small little daisy dress and a pair of red slippers. For what seemed like hours he cursed himself for attacking, cursed himself for the kick but all he could do was use his energy to recoil the kick. This however knocked him severely off balance and sent him barreling into the wall next to the door. He smashed into it head first with all his momentum and ricocheted off of it. He fell unconsiously back to the ground and landed in a small heap. Two monks that were standing beside the young girl peered into the room to see what had happened.

"As I said before." The elder monk began. " Untrained and obviously not evil..."

Tsukasa didn't dream that time, nothing but darkness filled the depths of his inert mind. His comatose state lasted for several hours, but this time he did not toss and turn in his slumber. A day passed while he remained in his state and he sat up in a panic, but was immedietely hit with a servere headache, and pounding pain from his forehead.

"Ahh... you're awake..." Said a soft voice. Tsukasa turned quickly and scooted back against the wall, his eyes not able to focus on anything due to the pain inches above his eyes. He squinted a little and started to recognize the young girl from the other day. She was sitting next to a small bucket of embers and had a small metal plate on top of it.

"I'm sorry if I woke you... I was changing the plate..." She said softly. "I didn't mean to wake you..."

"What do you want?" Tsukasa said sharply.

"I... I..." She stammered. Tsukasa sighed and put his forehead in his hands before speaking.

"I'm sorry..." He said in a low voice.

The little girl stood up and moved the chair out of the way.

"I'm Jona." Said the girl in a slightly more confident tone. "I was sent here to bring you to the elder when you awoke... He... seeks your appearance in the dojo. Please follow me." At this she walked towards the door and opened it to leave. Tsukasa slowly got out of bed and followed her slowly, only pausing once to admire the patch work that was done to a large chunk of wall by the door.

"The elder was rather amused by your attack and wishes to test your strength. Please hurry, he's expecting you soon." Tsukasa followed her without saying anything. She led him down a narrow hallway, barely wide enough to hold two fully grown adults side by side. He looked with mild interest at the dull orange color that covered the walls, and the three portraits that appeared randomly as they went.

"... my name is Tsukasa..." He said after a little while.

"It's nice to meet you." Jona replied. "We're here." As she spoke those last words the hallway suddenly opened up into a massive dojo area. The floor was littered with small sparing rings as far as the eye could see. He counded at least 50 in all, and most had fighters on it. Some appeared to be monks, others looked to be everyday people, but all of it seemed to captivate him. They proceeded to press on towards the center of the room. Every once in a while a loud crash would signal that one fighter had been thrown out of the ring. As they neared the center Tsukasa noticed a rather large chair, kind of like a throne of sorts sitting in the exact center. A seemingly weak old man was sitting in it and when they were close enough he turned and smiled upon Jona and Tsukasa.

"Ahh... you are finally awake." He said soothingly. "My name is Masnashi Kilgaro. I am the master of this temple. And you are?" He asked.

"I'm Tsukasa, now what the hell do you want with me? Where the hell am I?" Said Tsukasa with a sharp bitterness in his tounge.

"You are in the Shaolin Fire Monk's Temple." He replied, still holding a smile on his face. "And you are here because I found you and brought you here. I wish to know where your loyalties lie."

Tsukasa didn't answer. The only person he felt anything for was his mother, and now even she was gone.

"You hide great pain behind the anger you show. You seek revenge, but you don't have the strength to obtain it."

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW!? YOU DON'T KNOW ME!" Tsukasa screamed. The dojo went quiet from the yell, all of the fighters had stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at this little boy. One of the monks who was beside the elder stepped forward, anger in his eyes.

"How dare you speak to our master like that... You should be thanking him for taking you in; no demon deserves to even talk to him, much less be shown the mercy he's given you."

"How dare I? What the hell does that mean... I have nothing to live for anymore... The only person I cared for is dead and nothing I do will bring her back. I would have rather DIED than live another moment being told to thank someone for "mercy". Mercy is a gift for the weak... I don't want to be weak anymore..." Tsukasa said slowly.

"Which is another point I wish to share with you young demon." Said Masnashi in a soft voice. "I wish to test your power and if you are indeed what I expect you to be I wish to train you."

Tsukasa froze for a moment after hearing this. The offer seemed like a joke, there was no way this old man could train him, he was after all... old. It looked like he needed a walker, what kind of training could he get from a corpse sitting in a chair.

"I see you doubt me. Then please, attack me if you can. If you can defeat me then you will recieve our temple's greatest treasure."

"Treasure... Humph... sure, but lets make it quick you old geezer..." Said Tsukasa defiantly. He jumped into one of the sparing rings and watched as the old man climbed into it on the other side. He stood straight up with his hands behind his back, just staring down at Tsukasa. Tsukasa felt uneasy, he had already gotten into a fighting stance to begin but the old guy hadn't even moved yet from when he first got up.

"If you are worried about hurting me don't, you won't even be able to hit me." Said Masnashi calmly. The words echoed in Tsukasa's head and he clentched his fists in anger and blasted forward. He swung back and threw a fist at the old guy, but in an instant a foot had risen in the air above him and with his head just barely falling below the heel he felt tremendous force sending him downwards and he smashed into the ground. Tsukasa belted back and swung a reverse kick at Masnashi, but this too was sent back with what appeared to be no more than a flick of the wrist and Tsukasa was hurrled to the ground again. For several minutes this continued until Tsukasa could barely lift his beaten and weary body from the ground.

"You are weak..." Said Masnashi with complete indifference. "but with training you could defeat those who threaten the ones you care for. You can protect them with your fists, is that not what you want? All you have to do is obey my every command and become my student."

Tsukasa rose slowly from the ground. His breathing was deep and painful, every inhale felt like a thousand needles were piercing his chest. He coughed up a little blood, staining the tatami tiles he looked down upon while on his hands and knees. Gradually he got to his feet where his arms hung like useless extremeties at his side. He slouched a little because he was struggling to keep himself up.

"I will... NEVER BOW DOWN!!!" Tsukasa screamed and exploded into a rage. He leaned forward for a second and clentched his fists tightly. A slight tingling touched his hands and he looked down. A whisper flowed though the crowd instantly, Tsukasa's hands were on fire. He held up his hands slowly and glared upon Masnashi with glowing crimson eyes. For an instant he appeared to be standing in place; the next moment his fist was being caught by Masnashi, who was now being pushed back by the force of the attack.

"Very good, but you are still too weak to hit me." He said in his normal tone. Tsukasa tried to punch with the other fist but before he knew it, an elbow had been placed on the side of his face. It slid down swiftly and a back hand collided with the top of his head, rocketing him to the ground where he hit with such violence that the ring itself imploded in on itself a little. Tsukasa coughed up one more bit of blood and his eyes went white, he had blacked out from the exhaustion, from the pain, and from the humiliation of once again being to weak to do anything...