Reina’s twenty-fourth birthday came louder than usual, an event that at first Dim Mak barely acknowledged had become a small tradition for both of them. She would insist on baking Reina a cake herself, and once even convinced some of her high school friends to hike to their small house to celebrate with them, though Reina suspected they did so more out of fear of her.

They sang Feliz Cumpleaños, cut the cake, and watched some of Reina's favorite movies, which involved a lady inspector from England going to Hong Kong and teaming up with the local detective to bring down a major crime boss. 

“Oh please,” Dim Mak remarked, amused at the fight scenes.

“You don’t think two people could take down that many, sifu?”

“Of course they could, I could,” Dim Mak added pointedly. “But anyone with that skill level is not going to be working as a civil servant. They’ll be…like me.”

Reina withheld her first comment, not liking the implications. “You do know not everyone that knows how to fight becomes like you, right?”

“Their loss,” Dim Mak replied simply.

It wasn’t the first time Dim Mak had scoffed at the more simple life choices of others. For someone who chose to live so humbly, there was also a deep pride in what she had accomplished as a warrior. Which would have been fine if she didn't also look down on those who “wasted their potential.”

All these years Reina had focused only on the present, on surviving and then getting stronger, but she had never thought about a day beyond tomorrow. Most people her age were now in College or working already, starting the rest of their lives and she didnt know if she had any options for her own.

"You spend too much time on your hair," Dim Mak commented one day, as she was brushing Reina's.

"Is that bad?" Reina asked, worried. "I know I go to the salon a lot, but so does every woman in this country, believe me."

"People with soft hair have a soft heart," Dim Mak said, with a weird tone that sounded like she was displeased in some way.

"The hell does that mean?"

"Nothing, you look good. Have fun today."

Dim Mak wouldn't say what bothered her, but Reina doubted it was her hair. She took great care of it and would not allow her to bring her self-image down. Still, the worry grew inside her through the next day, keeping her usual sharp senses dulled. She barely noticed the stranger in the thick coat and hoodie following her, despite the sweltering heat and the fact that no one would wear a coat in the city. She climbed into the cable car up the mountains as she did every other day keeping her cool, practically routine for her, but she had learned to be cautious.

The stranger kept a distance and waited for the next car, letting Reina relax and let her guard down for the slow ride up…that was a mistake. If it hadn’t been for the extensive meditation sessions to be hyperaware of her surroundings, she probably wouldn’t have sensed the slight weight shift in the car as someone landed above hers.

Reina braced herself in time and dodged out of the way as the stranger jumped inside the car with a somersault, forcing her to land on her hands in the downward-facing dog position. It took her a second to realize she had gracefully landed on top of her.

“Get the hell down from there!” Reina demanded, looking up angrily.

“You know where Dim Mak is, don’t you?” she asked, surprised to hear it was a woman, with a young voice slightly muffled behind what sounded like fabric. 

Reina’s heart skipped a beat. “Who the hell are you?”

“A shinobi of the Yamata no Orochi.”

The girl opened her coat to let it fall along with her hoodie, and Reina's eyes widened. The girl was a ninja! Just like the ones that visited her home that night her father died, only she wore all white instead of black, contrasting nicely with the dark skin and hair, and she had the same purple dragon symbol wrapped around her sleeve.

“And now that you know that, you have to die,” she said, through her purple face mask, which didnt obscure her sharp brown eyes as they looked at her with an insane conviction.

Instantly, she jumped backward when Reina straightened up and then leaped forward with a high kick that Reina narrowly missed. She was younger than her, and faster than any she had fought before, but she could still read her movement.

“Not blending much with your surroundings in that getup of yours,” Reina remarked, stopping her fists with her own

“I am an elite! Hand chosen by my lord Takeshi himself! I have no need to hide!”

“How about dodging?” 

Reina sunk her left hook into her face, catching the ninja by surprise and leaving her a bloody lip as a red stain grew on her purple mask.

“Not sure why you’re all eager to kill me, but we could always talk it out, girl to girl?”

“Ninjas don’t talk!”

“They do miss, however.”

“Shut up!”

The ninja surprised her by producing four kunai knives from her back and throwing them in rapid succession at Reina.

“Hey! Are we throwing knives now?” Reina yelled as she deflected them with her arm greaves, grateful she had worn protection. “Man, you are green if you need those to fight.”

The ninja jumped, grabbing onto the handle on the car's roof to deliver a double kick that caught Reina straight in the chest. She cracked the window behind her and barely had time to recover enough to block the quick strikers from her.

Despite the lucky hit, Reina was more surprised that she could keep up with her, a fully trained ninja, feeling every move she was about to make and blocking it. 

“Die!”

“Nah,” Replied Reina, grabbing her head and connecting it with her knee.

The ninja fell backward, dazed, and her mask now utterly ruined by her own blood. She grunted in pain, dizzy, and quickly lost consciousness on the floor as the car arrived at the top of the mountain. The guard waiting for them to disembark froze and gawked at them, Reina smiled awkwardly as she lifted the body and quickly ran away with her.

***

“Sifu, I…there’s a situation,” Reina started to say later that day when she got home. “I kind of got into a fight with someone…particular.”

“Did you win?” Dim Mak asked while making tea.

“Well, she’s tied outside by the old punching tree so I guess I did.”

Dim Mak paused and turned to look at her sharply. 

“I never took you for the type to take trophies,” she said with an odd mix of pride and doubt in her assessment.

“What? No, it’s not that, I just…didn't know what to do with her. I couldn't just leave a ninja there, and she’s even younger than me, it seemed wrong.”

Reina guided her towards her hostage, and the ninja’s color drained from her face when she laid eyes on Dim Mak. She ceased to struggle against the ropes, petrified.

“The Death’s Hand,” she whispered in equal amounts of awe and fear.

“You’re aware of me,” Dim Mak remarked, looking down at her with mild curiosity. “Good, that will make this faster. I know to who you belong, child. I know they never stopped looking for me, so my only question for you is…do they also know I’m here now?”

“No.”

Dim Mak stared hard at her, looking for any lies in her face. “Good,” she said satisfied. “Then we can dispose of you, I’ll make it quick.”

“Whoa! Hey!” Reina said, jumping in and daring to grab her Sifu’s hand, something she had never done before. Dim Mak seemed surprised and eyed her with a hint of amusement.

“We don’t need to kill her,” Reina pleaded.

“I beg to differ,” Dim Mak said, unmoved. “You were sent here to look for me and kill me, were you not?”

“Yes,” the ninja answered automatically.

“Don't help me or anything,” Reina growled.

“She knows best than to lie before me, they are taught very early what happens when they do.”

“My master told us all about the great Dim Mak, the greatest warrior our clan had ever seen, and how she betrayed us.”

“You’re going to make me cry,” Dim Mak said mockingly. 

“It would be an honor to die by your hands,” the ninja said and bowed her head as if inviting the fatal blow.

“See, even she wants it.”

“I don't care,” Reina protested. “What’s your name?”

“I am Tala, and I have served the Yamata no Orochi since they took me in when I was five years old.”

“Well, that sucks.”

“It does” Tala continued, “because now that I have failed, I have no recourse but an honorable death.”

Dim Mak looked pointedly at her as if she was being the unreasonable one for allowing her to murder someone, and it drove her insane.

“What happens to you if you return alive?”

Tala appeared horrified by the question. “My only option left would be to offer my life in sacrifice to ask forgiveness for my failure, but they may choose to kill me rather than accept my apology.”

“That is…messed us up,” Reina said, genuinely terrified for Tala now. Ninjas always seemed like a cool club to Reina, a family of warriors, but this sounded more like a cult.

“That is their way,” Dim Mak remarked quietly. “She has already failed her duties losing to you, the only mercy would be to end it quickly so they at least honor her death.”

“A la mierda con eso,” Reina said, switching to her native Spanish for a moment. 

She untied the restraints holding Tala, as both women looked at her with confusion. “What are you doing?”

“Giving you a third choice,” Reina replied. “If you can’t go back to your people, then you can stay with us.”

Tala stared. “I beg your pardon?”

“Ninjas need to serve a master, si? Could you argue there is one more worthy than the deadliest woman alive?”

Dim Mak laughed at the suggestion, but not in a mocking way. “She does have a point, and I have already bested your lot quite a bit, too.”

“To do that would mean a betrayal!” Tala said.

“I’ve seen enough movies to know you were dead to them the moment you failed to kill me, so you can go back and  let them kill you, or you can redeem yourself with a new master.”

“You’re thinking of samurai.”

“I might be,” Reina admitted

“But the principle is the same in our group. They are all I’ve known for so long.”

“You can lose everything and still find purpose in life,” Reina said, looking at Dim Mak with mixed emotions.

“Very well…master,” Tala said, lifting her head and looking straight at Reina.

Reina did a double take, thinking she had heard wrong. “No, she’s your master, I’m just-”

“The woman who defeated me, and the last disciple of the great Dim Mak. You are worthy of that title. If you will have me, I will give you my life.” Tala bowed down on one knee, head down before her.

“You wanted to spare her, this is how,” Dim Mak commented, amused with the situation. “Now you have an acolyte, little queen.”

“What do I do?” Reina asked, feeling nervous.

“Acknowledge her gift to you.”

Reina bowed before Tala, matching her, and spoke with all the determination she could muster. “Look, you don't owe me for life or anything but, if this does give you a way to live, then I accept your…your life,” she finished, grasping the full scope of it. 

"Thank you for not killing me, master."

Reina felt a sudden pit in her stomach at hearing the words, and a sinking feeling grew as she looked at her own master and realized what she was becoming for the first time.