Akage addresses the class, "Today you will begin learning the advanced techniques of Shuraido. We will start by teaching you to move with the lightning."

"Scientists say that matter and energy can be changed from one to the other, so it is when you move with the lightning. You cease to be crude matter and instead flow like the lightning from where you are to where you strike."

In the days that follow, the exercises become harder, and the meditation takes direction as you try to imagine yourself as a being of electricity. Akage is turning over more of the teaching to Irene, and now she wears a black belt as well. (By now the class would be in brown belts.)

Akage spends more time in resting and the years show their mark on him. Irene worries over him constantly and makes thing easier for him whenever she can.

One day a messenger arrives with a scroll. Akage reads the scroll to the class.

"We have been challenged to a tournament by the Fukashi school of the rising wave. All of us are asked to attend and take part.

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Lightning doesn't just fall to the earth, it rises to the heavens.