Prologue 3 (Part 2) Fire Ignited (1) and Scholarship Requirements.

When she got home, Mako Nini took several glances at her. "What happened?"

"I wanted to play today, see what the world is like." She did not pause and was going upstairs.

"Hmm," she did not believe her niece. "And what were your findings?"

"More reason to stay inside."

"Kazu, you should not run from challenges, whatever they might be, and," she was going to ask what she had long ago sensed. "Where is your lunchbox?"

She closed her eyes, actually feeling bad. "I lost it."

Mako Nini paused and regarded her niece. Her face flashed anger but she closed her mouth and walked away. Kazu Nini's gut squeezed and she frowned. Why was today still getting so bad?

She went and sprawled on her bed, face down on the mattress but after a minute, she stood up and glanced at the mirror. Green frazzled hair, scrawny frame she had managed to keep despite her cultivation, her body had started maturing a long time ago but she did not see any increase to her slight curves, spectacles regarding her piercing almond eyes that looked down today and she said to herself as confidence filled them like a flame burning up dry tinder.

"They would not come in the way of my goals. I am going to get that scholarship. I hope she still funds me though."

She heard glass cracking downstairs, and after her own cultivation increasing over the few months, she knew that Kazu Nini could hear her clear as crystal. Luckily, she did not say how she had actually lost her lunchbox as she did not need any drama at the moment. Kazu Nini would have to buy Visual and AudioDampeners in her room but those things cost a fortune and an idea blossomed into her mind but now she had to bath and start it.

When she was as clean-cut diamonds, she went downstairs with a smile, but Mako Nini was nowhere to be found. On the rare occasion that she ate food at home alone, she felt empty but she pushed it away. Sighing after she cleaned her plate, Kazu Nini went to knock on the older Pixie's door.

She did not get an answer until fifteen minutes, at which point the door opened at the moment where she missed an intended a heavy swing at the door and was allowed to fall at the other Pixie's feet.

Kazu Nini had not fallen since last year, and was surprisingly hurt at it.

Sheesh.

She picked herself up slowly but rose up to a bow. "I am sorry."

The younger Pixie stayed there until the door was shut in her face.

She wished that Devon and Kivon would be a pest *after* the exams and not *before*. She could not avenge this at the moment and was at a loss of what to do, she went back to her room and silently cried. Using her tears to smooth her hair, she chuckled and held the dolls to herself.

"I will love you forever and ever."

It was hard to concentrate, early the next morning, when her aunt was not there for her but she did whatever training she could focus on nonetheless; flexibility, light strength, Mental energy and a bit of cultivation where she spread more liquid webs of Ko-jin over more of her muscle structure. She finished to meet the Pixie in the kitchen, more silent than usual.

"What am I having for breakfast?"

No answer. She tried tapping the woman but her reaching hands always seemed to be too far from Mako Nini's body, or too close or too much to the left… Mako Nini, in a flash of speed, turned the under of the pot to scald the girl's hand and returned it to the cooker where she continued her silent cooking. Also, the food was in the air and she had caught it with plates that she dragged, also with blinding speed, as she switched off the stove. And before Kazu Nini could speak again, she saw that a wrap had already been on a table and the older Pixie was in her room.

"Ha, I got a reaction, at least."

In no other reply and the silence of her company, she clutched her dolls tightly and ate her food before proceeding to bathe in preparation for school.

When she reached the bus, everyone was throwing things at her after Kivon yelled, "INCOMING!!!" Kazu Nini just hoped her aunt was okay and that everything was alright with her. As the pelting did not stop, she looked outside the window, distracted by her worry for Mako Nini and it was only when the bus stopped and the driver was asking her if she needed any help walking off the bus that she decided on what to do to Devon and Kivon.

Ignoring her mates making snide comments like, "arrogant idiot," or "she should know better" was easy. Not paying attention to sarcastic cat calls was even easier. She did not know if the teachers were ignoring it, or if Devon and Kivon even had more power than she imagined. Either way, she was not fazed.

Lunch bell rung and she waited in class for everyone to trail into various parts of the school or the cafeteria. When she stood up, she walked with her head low and made sure her eyes were red.

She easily spotted the loudest bunch and walked meekly and slowly in their direction. When one of the twins spotted them, they began clapping which lent them an audience. "Introducing… brother drum roll please… " Devon proceeded to slap his table repeatedly. "…Kazu Niniiiiii."

She dodged everything thrown at her and she held his eye contact while twirling her hair. "I came to ask – I love my new set of fans by the way – if you were willing to return my lunchbox?"

Everyone was not only surprised that everything they had thrown, had landed on someone else but at what she had just asked. Thus, they started laughing. But then she shouted, making the window curtains that surrounded the entire cafeteria explode before reforming it back together, so that they knew she was serious and they subconsciously replied with their silence.

Those who had not started cultivation backpedaled so fast at her shout had made their ears bleed while others had a wary expression on their faces.

"The lunchbox, please."

Devin and Kivon now paused for a second but they laughed when they realized that they probably had started cultivation before her. "Watch your tone, young *Pixie.*"

She drew a breath and looked in their eyes, "I will give you a deadline of graduation. I want it on or before that day." She even scoffed, "although you are always welcome to cripple me before then out of manly fear, of course." With that, she turned about and left.

"Hold on," she acted as if she did not hear and Devon was about to retaliate when Kivon held his hand and shook his head. Instead, he began clapping and shouted after her, "see you by graduation."

When she had left the cafeteria a hunchbacked, thin kid with glasses and buckteeth approached her as she stuffed food in her mouth by her locker. "That was brave." She felt her Ko-jin core quiver and she thought it was food.

"It wasn't just brave, it was honest." Kazu Nini grimaced as she had almost lost control of herself in there. Four more months and she would graduate; this young Pixie was getting the scholarship into Chilkt State Tertiary Institution, Kyniandral, and these bullies could do nothing about it. "Get lost." Was it because of hi cultivation level?

The person who was a boy a second ago became a domestic cat but his voice did not change at all. "You could rally people; seeing you stand up to the Sprite Twins made you a beacon that people would want to answer to."

She considered it from his point of view; she must be some pariah and she had at least 96 reasons to turn this guy away because having a following was responsibility of not just herself but her people. Having a name was painting a target on one's back and she believed it was counterproductive than moving in silence.

Kazu Nini closed her eyes and looked at it from another point; news updates, technique cultivation manuals and exposure. Another idea came to mind but the grimace was still on her face.

"I will take my leave now." Now in feminine form, the shapeshifter sauntered away.

"Get two other members. The first requirement is cultivation practitioners and the other requirement is that one should be resource gathering and the other should be for exposure, so preferably someone very proficient in Public Relations." Her mental energy was showing her possibilities and she was not done. "Pass it with paper and make sure you are not seen, after school is done, we will gather in the cafeteria. I want to do it before I leave." She took another bite of the lasagna that her aunty had made in a piece of plastic, so that she had to be careful of every bite she took so as to not let it stain everything. "No, not immediately, a thing can be destroyed easiest in its infancy stages. Now, get lost."

Someone came just as this one left and when she saw him, she almost panicked.

10 minutes later, in the Principal's office, she stared at the Slime, or where its eyes should be. Its' Amoebic form had a gurgling voice that also sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once. "Kazu Nini, I have met your aunt before." Two protrusions extended from either side of him that became hands flipping through her file on the table. "Your records show that you have always had good grades, so what would cause such a well-behaved child to destroy school property?"

"I fixed it back."

Sharlpali Hihpholi rose from the chair.

"Did it harm anyone?"

The creature was backing a window that showed some of the front and some of the side of the school. The long curtain stretched to another wall where it met another table with more cabinets and 3 chairs about it.

"If you knew what I did, you would know that it did not."

He turned around and she felt as if she was being scrutinized from all angles. "You were one of the candidates for the scholarship this year."

"Were?" Her eyes went red, but she closed them in a hard frown. "Can I go now?" It did not reply immediately, her clay dolls rubbing against a clenched fist.

"I know it does not sound fair, but the cameras are in the cafeteria what would you have me do?"

"I will get good grades and pass anyway so I am not too bothered." She had wanted to use the money to supplement the same plan she had asked about the relation between soil and glass for. But well, now she could not do it.

"You will have to get straight A's"

She looked at him.

"I have seen your records; I understand it will be easy for you." He paced to a corner of the office. "I would not have made this decision if I had not received a call from my aunt regarding the scholarship."

Her eyes grimaced in disbelief. Why would Mako Nini do this to her? Oh well, it was her money to spend but still…

"This is the part you ask me what can be done about it."

Her eyes glimmered then she closed them, "what can I do?"

"Get her recommendation again, and it would be much, much, easy for you."

Oh, maybe Mako Nini just wanted her to work for the apology, then. She rolled her shoulders and bowed. "I will."

"Don't be late for your next class."

***

When she was done with school that day, she had requested recommendation letters from all the classes she attended. Their classes had been quiet as everyone felt the rise of a storm brewing in the room. The Sprite twins did not disturb her at all, occasionally making remarks of not being able to wait, and hoping that some people would not run off in fear or if they would be prepared. She straightened her thoughts when she put her fingers in her hair and tousled them before walking into the cafeteria.

She was also later than usual but it was not yet 6:00 pm yet, so when she opened to see the cafeteria packed, she was quite surprised.

Kazu Nini eyes passed over a majority of the crowd who avoided her eyes or hoped to drink in all their eyes could in admiration.

Grabbing a seat directly behind the door, she sat facing its back rest to them and she clapped her hands once, all falling silent, and she spoke in a voice not too loud but heard by all.

"Let's begin."