Karmic Balance

"Aack!" Jun squeaked as two pairs of arms enveloped her in a crushing hug.

"I'm sorry you had to go through all that Juju,' Sara whispered into her ear.

"This Earth sounds like shit," Cecilia growled angrily. "But you're home now."

Jun melted a little at her friend's comforting words. Telling them about her past was scary, but admitting it all took a weight off her chest and even helped her see things she hadn't seen before. She spent so long trying to please others and feeling like she had to sneak around and steal any small moments of happiness where she could just be herself, but her life here was different. She had friends who accepted her for who she was and a mother who protected and taught her. It didn't matter that her friends were magic wielding adventurers on another world, or that her mother was a a talking, transforming cat. She loved them, and they loved and supported her. That's what mattered, not some blood relationship in a body that was dead and gone.

The hug went on for some time before Shiori coughed, grabbing their attention. "As Jun explained, I sealed the soul parasite inside of her to starve it and give her time to grow strong enough to beat it. But, that seal has been damaged. Though you might not remember much of it, while you were unconscious, you fought a shard of the parasite that escaped confinement. It nearly took you over."

Jun's heart fell through her stomach at her mother's words. More memories tickled at the edge of her mind. A twisted figure spewing hate and pain, dragging up bad memories and using them like instruments of torture to make her give up. A shudder ran through her and she shook her head, trying to banish the unpleasant feelings cropping up.

"That is why you must learn Soul Combat. All three of you." Shiori stared at the trio of roommates, her tail swaying.

"All three of them?! It's one thing to teach Jun now, she needs to learn, but you cannot just force Sara and Cecilia to learn just to help your kitten!" Inari said, growling at Shiori with her ears pulled back.

"All three of them, including your kit, Inari." Shiori pointed at the trio, Sara and Cecilia still hugging Jun between them.

"You don't need to expose them to such techniques before they're ready! Even learning those techniques can be dangerous if they're not prepared!" Inari yelled, her tail puffing up.

Shiori fully turned to the foxkin, her pupils narrowing as she flattened her ears. "Look at their bond. Learning Soul Combat requires trust between student and teacher, and trust between opponents. They already trust each other, and Jun will need partners near her level to practice with. Neither of us can adequately spar with her in this, and if Jun is to defeat a soul parasite that has millennia of experience consuming souls, she will need every advantage she can get."

"You have no right to—"

"We'll learn with her mom," Sara said, standing up and getting between the two titans in beastkin form.

"Definitely," Cecilia said, joining the elf. "It's just another kind of combat. I like that kind of stuff, and besides, training with weapons and magic is dangerous, what's one more thing that could hurt a bit?"

Jun watched from her bed as Inari squared off against Shiori, Cecilia, and her daughter, her roommates' shoulders tense while the two older women seemed to have a silent conversation. After what seemed like an eternity, but what was only a minute, she heard Inari sigh as she and Shiori relaxed. "Fine, fine. I'll help, but just remember that you asked for this," she said fixing Sara with a flat stare.

"Let's get started then," Shiori said, sitting back in her armchair.

"Jun, lay back in bed, and you two, get comfortable," Inari said, gesturing as two more chairs appeared with dull clunks on the floor.

Jun laid back in bed as Sara and Cecilia took their seats.

"Don't panic," Shiori said before everything went black.

Shiori and Inari exchanged a look as the three girls slumped into unconsciousness.

"Shiori, are you sure we should do this ourselves? We could go to Kairon and—"

"I am not trusting that snake with my daughter's life," the cat hissed with a harsh glare. "The price he would extract for such a favor would be immeasurable."

"What's a favor for your daughter's soul? I would gladly pay the snake to save Sara."

"You know as well as I that we wouldn't be the ones paying. It would be them," Shiori said, gesturing to the girls. "Besides," Shiori's gaze softened as she looked at her oldest living companion, "our girls and their friend are strong. They can handle it as long as we support them."

"They are strong, but I don't look forward to hurting Sara. The very idea is unpleasant. I know you feel the same way about Jun."

"It is necessary for her though, and Sara will be stronger as well. As for their friend, Cecilia's remarkably stubborn for a human her age."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Clearly you haven't spent enough time among humans if you think Cecilia's stubbornness is remarkable. I'd say it's anything but."

"We've stalled long enough. It's time for the Trial of Souls."

Jun settled back into bed, her head resting against the soft pillow. She felt drained. Emotionally and physically. Telling everyone about her life on Earth had been stressful and all she wanted to do now was sleep, but it seemed her mother had other plans and meant to begin teaching them whatever this soul combat was immediately.

"Don't panic," Shiori said.

The infirmary vanished around her, replaced with an inky blank void that crushed in around her. Fear and anxiety started to grip her chest as her mother's words echoed in her head. Don't panic? All she wanted to do was panic!

No, said a voice from somewhere. If Shiori said not to panic, then it meant whatever happened next would be scary, but it shouldn't hurt if she stayed calm. As her mind began to ease, a screen appeared in front of her.

"Who are you?" A genderless voice asked, booming through the void.

"..." Jun opened her mouth to respond, to answer the question or ask who that was, but the words didn't come. Instead, images appeared on the screen. People and places she recognized. Memories.

Jun saw her childhood on Earth. Her father's anger and disdain, her mother's lack of care. She watched her own actions with growing frustration, watching as the young her tried in futility to earn their love. To be a good child so her mother wouldn't be stressed out, to be a good son and meet her father's expectations. And she always failed. Never good enough for them, never meeting their expectations. She could feel the hope in her die a death of a thousand cutting but small comments, and worse. The punishments disguised as lessons or discipline, uncaring of her feelings or who she was, just what they wanted out of a child. It hurt.

"An unwanted child," the voice declared. "Pressured and pushed until you broke, unable to do anything to stand up for yourself."

A new memory appeared. She was older, walking through her high school cafeteria. An awkward boy with only a few friends. She'd tried to stay in contact with Ash, but she'd just started dating the school's star quarterback and didn't have time for her childhood friend, especially a boy.

"Open your eyes you damned chink!" A large boy with blond hair appeared in the screen wearing a letter jacket and looking like every stereotypical handsome high school jock. Brad. Ash's boyfriend in high school, and Jun's bully. She hadn't thought about him since he left their town. Recruited into some fancy university to play football her father had said while complaining about Jun's own lack of athletic talent.

The image flickered and went black as laughter filled the void. Jun remembered this. She could feel the way her hands stung when Brad knocked her lunch tray up into her face, splattering her lunch all over her. Rage at being laughed at filled her, rage she quickly shoved down before it could show on her face. Good children didn't get mad or act out, her mother said while her father spanked her. She'd been 7 at the time. The lesson stuck.

The image came back, but everything was blurry. She'd had to wipe mashed potatoes out of her eyes, the hot food stinging and burning her skin, but lucky it didn't get inside, just burned her eyelids a bit. Squinting, she hadn't seen Brad winding up for a punch that smashed into her cheek and sent her falling back on her ass yelping in pain.

"Listen to the little rat squeal!" Brad crowed mockingly to choruses of laughter from other students. Jun scrambled back to her feet as Brad telegraphed another haymaker punch. Enough weekends and summers "training" in boxing with her father, at least before he gave up on his "pansy-ass talentless son" taught her a basic fighting stance, one she instinctively dropped into to guard her head against another punch that never came.

"Oh the rat thinks he's a ninja now! What're you going to do, bust out some kung fu on me?" Brad laughed, and so did everyone else in the cafeteria.

Embarrassed, Jun put down her hands as heat flooded her face. So focused was she on her embarrassment that she didn't realize Brad had moved closer until he grabbed her by the collar and hauled her close.

"Listen real close you yellow-skinned freak," Brad hissed into Jun's ear. "I catch you trying to talk to my girl again, ain't nobody going to find your body. Nobody. Talk to Ashley again and you're dead."

Before Jun could think to do anything else, Brad shoved her back. Flailing, Jun tried to keep her balance but stepped onto her discarded lunch tray and slipped, landing on her ass.

"Looks like you lost your lunch," Brad sneered. "Let me help you out!" A shock of cold ran down her spine as Brad dumped a carton of milk over her head. Jeers filled the cafeteria.

"We'll help out too," someone yelled right before something splattered across her back. More cheers and laughter filled the room, and more food pelted down on her.

Suddenly, the jeering stopped as a door slammed open and loud footsteps echoed through the room.

"Alright, what's going on in here?" she recognized her chemistry teacher Mr. Johnson's voice.

"Jun tried to start a food fight," Brad supplied, barely suppressed glee in his voice as Jun finally wiped her eyes clear enough to see.

As Jun sat there, she saw Mr. Johnson turn beat red with rage as his eyes locked onto her. "Takamori! I don't care what kind of movies you saw before coming to America, but no food fights! Clean this mess up then report to the Principal!

Jun blinked as the image froze on Mr. Johnson's angry face. She didn't know when she'd stopped watching the memory and started reliving it, but the sudden shift back into the void was jarring.

She remembered what happened after that. The Principal hadn't believed her when she said she didn't start it, and she'd gotten suspended for a week. Her father hadn't been pleased that he had to leave work to pick her up from school, and she'd been forced to ride in the bed of the truck and house herself off before her mother would let her in the house. Neither of her parents had listened to her side. "I don't care what the other kids are doing. You represent this family. You can't be violent or start fights. Don't burn your bridges no matter what other people do."

That lesson had stuck a little too well.

"Taught to stay quiet and to just accept what others gave you," the voice declared, before another image appeared on the screen.

Inari grimaced as she watched the three girls experience their worst memories. Her ears twitched as she heard Shiori grind her teeth. The Trial of Souls unearthed everything that shaped a person into who they were, good or bad, and forced them to relive it. To test their soul, their will. No matter how good of a life someone lived, it was a cruel experience that broke many who underwent it.

Her own hurt, throwing every failing back in her face as she relived hundreds of battles, the loss of thousands of friends and family, and even more patients and comrades. But it was the final step before Ascension.

She hoped the girls would manage better than she or Shiori did. Grabbing Shiori's hand in her own, she gave it a comforting squeeze. All they could do was watch, wait, and comfort the girls once it was over.