(TC2) The Path of Resolution.

21 - Back to the present.

Many things changed in Reiko's life latest months, many things went funnier, others a bit darker. During one entire month she and Yukira got a lot of fun together. Her kitsune hyperactive friend would calm a little bit with her suggestions and crazy adventures but instead she'd demand having her feet pampered after her 'secret trainings'.
Such secret trainings always were taking at the same time that Reiko used to train with Soma. The nine tailed kitsune didn't joke when she said the training would be harsh, it was not only learning how to fight.
The training implied to know how to use basic weapons, mostly traditional ones and even bows. Really, in such a technological era, bows? The trainings included meditation, concentration, all kind of exercises to boost one's energy and get used to manipulate it, to give form to it. Any kind of theoretical classes that would give Reiko the bases she'd need to become one important member of the clan.
Yet, one night, Yukira dared to do it once more, she stole the tsukkin, though that time she had a plan to keep it for herself, she really was helpless sometimes... Being caught not only by Soma, but also by Hanzo-sama, they pursued her, recovered the Tsukkin and immediately expulsed her from the clan.

It didn't matter how many times her mother begged that her child was a good kid deep inside, Yukira would still get angry about all this and even dare to admit that the Tsukkin would rather be in her hands than getting dust.

Two months have happened since those events, Reiko lost contact with Yukira and also her chances of having fun with her, the kitsune got forbidden to get back to the clan and was told to find something else to do in the outside world, she was simply not fitting for being a servant, or even someone who would serve the clan as a fighter, not with such unruly behaviours.
Reiko couldn' avoid thinking what would have been or happened with her friend during these two months, was she even alive? Somewhere outside waiting for her to get out? The truth is that the white haired cat girl only had a few chances of going outside and she was most of the times busy with it.

Without Yukira there, the only way Reiko could at least satisfy a little her fetishy urges were when Soma punished her sometimes. The little shikigami sure took the trainings too seriously sometimes and she would not hesitate to 'incentivate' the cat girl in any possible way.
In the possitive way, just a few weeks ago Reiko's home tasks were cancelled, she was allowed to still live in her room and be a part of the clan, but she'd serve them in another way. Now that she understood the basics of the heavenly arts and she could even use their power to defend herself, a new world of possibilities opened to her.

It was the time to show to the others that she would be able to defend the city's peace, the innocent and dreamers and her clan from any menace, monster or bakemono that would try to get in their path.
Reiko Ashiran had a chance to become Reiko Yamamoto, she felt it within her grasp. Her path would have just started, but she already began to get into the right road and she definitely was the type of woman that would be able to protect those around her.

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And so, certain day... She got that chance, the chance to protect someone with her own hands, none other than the clan's heiress.

<- Tidai, year 2020 - late spring |*| Main residence of the Yamamoto - Shinjitsu's western district - Nanashima. ->

It was already the afternoon of a rather boring day. Reiko had no longer to do her usual servant tasks this week, whether if that was so she could recover from her exhaustion and trainings or it was definitive it was still being a question for her. She just got the order of reading some books while she rested on her room.
The sun was already starting to set. Funnily enough, the book she was reviewing was exactly the one that her friend stole that night, and that was discovered some time after her exile. The basics about the heavenly art, one of the Yamamoto's very own arts.