The Sword of Souls

Chapter 1~ Cranes and Curfews

D A S H

Dash Minamoto knew the origami crane meant trouble.

The little paper bird was left innocently in his room, perched on a stack of comic books on his desk. He instantly recognized it as the signature work of his sister, Naomi. Too bad it wasn't a gift at all, but a harbinger of disaster.

Born only a year apart, he had grown up knowing his big-brotherly-duty was to protect her. But most times Dash found he needed protection from his sister.

Dash loved Naomi, but she was a wild card. The daily subject of the dinner table, often an amalgamation of English and Japanese, revolved around Naomi's antics and her rebellious streak, which she chose to express physically with violet highlights. Dash found most conversations often boiled down to the same pattern.

"Did you hear what Naomi did today?"

"You'll never guess what your daughter has done now."

"She what?"

"AGAIN?"

Dash thought of himself and his sister as polar opposites. If he was, she wasn't. If he loved the book, she preferred the movie. She loved crowds of people to entertain, while anything vaguely public made Dash want to vomit. 'Ice and fire' as his grandmother called them.

The teenage boy quickly closed the door behind him, and after a moment of contemplation, he reluctantly picked up the bird. As he expected, unfolding the creature revealed a secret message written in his sister's handwriting.

Meet at the Tea Garden at 7. She instructed.

Dash wasn't one to break the rules, but this request would mean he would have to break the biggest one of them all- his mother's house rule. This particular rule was one he had been raised upon, the words ingrained in his mind with surgical precision. Never go out after dark.

This rule, the one and only rule that his mother seriously enforced, was to be obeyed no matter the circumstance. Nothing overruled it, nothing could veto it. That was simply the way it was.

Naomi had now snuck out past the daylight curfew, expecting him to follow her with no objections. He wished he could stay in his bedroom. He wished he could wait for her to get caught creeping back inside and give her his best I-told-you-so look. But not today, this day was different.

Dash quickly descended the stairs from the apartment, and down into his family's café.

The Minamoto family restaurant, the Lucky Cat Café, was on the corner of a bustling San Francisco street. The name, coined by Dash's late father, came from the maneki-neko, a Japanese lucky charm of a cat beckoning with an upright paw- the same figurine Dash had seen at every Asian restaurant in the city. But considering the inspiration of the name also stemmed from their cat Sushi, he had grown to like it.

Dash hid behind the spiral staircase as he scanned the room, hoping to see his sister waiting tables or doing anything other than her usual troublemaking. No such luck came.

"Tadashi," a familiar voice mused,"I thought you had homework."

Dash spun on his heels to find his mother, Hana, looking to him. He smiled a bit too enthusiastically,"Oh, yeah. Right. I just came down to see if Naomi was around."

Hana sat down a few steaming cups of Sencha tea at a table before shaking her head,"Your sister should be upstairs resting. She said she had a headache."

She is a headache, Dash thought to himself.

Hana waved at the tables as the café began to fill up,"I could use some help down here once you get done with your studying."

Dash smiled weakly at his mother. Ever since his father had died, something in her seemed to be broken. Her long black hair was tied up, but he knew she was already graying at her young age. She truly was a beautiful woman, but her heartache was clearly visible, reminding him of a teacup he once shattered on the floor.

"Sure thing," Dash finally managed to carve out.

Dash soon walked upstairs, already feeling guilt eat at his stomach. He hated to lie to his mother, but he had an obligation to his sister too. What she had snuck out for was important to the both of them, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

He entered the living room, finding his grandmother at the table preparing to play a game of Shogi, a Japanese board game similar to chess.

In front of her sat his dog, Hachi. She 'played' with the Akita dog everyday, insisting he is a worthy opponent. Spectating the intense game was Sushi the cat, who lounged on the kitchen counter.

"How much is Hachi winning by?" Dash inquired as he approached.

Noshiko Minamoto moved one of the wedge-shaped pieces, engraved with Japanese kanji symbols. She then smirked at the dog in front her,"We are all tied up. Want to join in?"

Dash chuckled, shaking his head,"Grandmother, you know I can't comprehend Hachi's tactics like you."

Grandmother laughed,"He is far more wise than meets the eye, you know."

Dash rubbed the dog behind the ear before grinning,"Oh, I know."

He began to walk back into his room when his grandmother peered up from her game,"You better get going. Your sister snuck out an hour ago."