Keiko covered her eyes, not wanting Drake to be hit by her father's strike, but with an amazing reflex, the foreigner managed to block the attack. Drake's own bokken was driven into his forehead by the monstrous strength of The Fire-Breathing Dragon.

Father raised his sword overhead, and came down like lightning. Again, with serpentine speed, Drake rolled out of the way and sliced at Kenshin. Keiko expected strange sword techniques out of Drake, and though he was incredibly quick, everything about his stance resembled regular, old Japanese kenjutsu. Before Drake’s attack hit, Father released one hand and grabbed the foreigner’s wrist. Smirking like the Devil, he yanked him in and slammed him with an upwards headbutt to the jaw. The pupils celebrated as Drake stumbled back, blood trickling from his mouth.

Keiko gasped, suddenly aware that she wasn’t pulling for her own father. Maybe Rin was right, after all. Drake fought with elegance, but father fought to win. It was as he always said to newcomers, as he said to Drake...

“Master Kenshin’s First Lesson: An ugly victory beats a beautiful defeat.”

Drake screamed like a broodmaring woman, his good nature dripping out of him like the blood from his nose. “Is this how a dragon fights? Without grace? Without formality?”

“You said it yourself: My house, my rules.”

Red-faced, katana-like teeth gnashed together, Drake bolted back into the fray. The foreigner swung wildly, abandoning his sound technique. He hammered mindlessly at father’s iron defence.

“You want to fight dirty? Fine by me!”

A toddler throwing a tantrum had better form, but Drake’s strength and speed made up for it. The Fire-Breather wasn’t one to break, but his sword was not made as tough. The thick, heavy bokken began to give, and with a fierce strike, Drake cleaved it in two.

Keiko stood still, stunned by the foreigner’s ridiculous feat of brutality. Kenshin, unarmed, could do nothing but gawk in disbelief as Drake’s next swing connected with his head. The Fire-Breathing Dragon fell.

“Father!” Keiko screeched, and ran to cradle Father’s cracked and bloody skull in her lap. It looked like the result of a game of suikawari: a juicy watermelon bashed open with sticks. Rin rushed over and put a cloth to his wound.

Drake stood over his victim. “You are no dragon.”

“How could you?” Keiko screamed at him through watery eyes. She felt used and deceived. All of his allure had dried up. That manly aroma that once made her weak now stung her nostrils like hot trash.

“I held back. He’ll live, though his pride may never recover.”

The other students approached the foreigner. As much as she’d have liked to see them beat the man into a pulp, Keiko didn’t want anyone else getting hurt. She held out her arms to stop them, but to her horror, they all dropped to their knees before him.

“Teach me sensei,” one said. “Please, accept me as a pupil!”

Rin’s incensed eyes narrowed; her acid-tipped tongue poised to lash them harder than ever. “Filthy traitors! Have you no pride?”

Drake smirked. “Don’t listen to that hot-headed girl. Follow me, children. I will teach you everything about the ways of the sword.”

Drake turned to depart the Kiryuu dojo trailed by the turncoats. Even Sasaki, that strong-willed boy, followed him as if sleepwalking or under some sort of hypnosis. Looking at his back, Keiko felt it too. That same flutter of her heart that she had when she passed him the weapon. She hated him, but didn’t want him to leave without her. He could be her new master…Drake...

A weak, bloody cough from her unconscious father brought her back to reality. She shook her head and wiped the blood from her poor father’s lips. Drake gave Sasaki and each other farm boy who tagged along on his sleeves a gentle pat on the head as they joined him.

A wooden sword flying straight towards the foreigner’s back caught Keiko by surprise. But not Drake. His fighting stance returned in an instant and he caught the bokken mid-flight.

“You aren't finished here,” Rin said, picking up another sword to replace the one she threw. “You’ll have to go through me.”

The other students came between their new master and Rin as she charged. They were his puppets, just like Keiko had been. But Rin seemed unaffected by Drake’s spell: her typical frown had transformed into a teeth-gritted, nostrils-flared war face.

Drake untucked the nodachi in his sash to defend with, but left it in its scabbard. “Step aside, children. I’ll handle this brat.”

The students obediently stepped back, letting Rin sprint in. Her sword collided with Drake’s tree trunk of a scabbard.

“You should be careful with that, girl,” he warned as he deflected Rin’s blows. “One of my kin was slain by a wooden weapon.”

Keiko laid her father’s head down in the gravel as carefully as she could. “Sorry papa, I have to help Rin.”

She ran to the archery range looking for a weapon, teary eyed. That bastard was going to bash her sis’ brains in next, and it was all her fault. Where did she leave her longbow again?

“Snap out of it, Keiko!” she told herself.

She spotted her bow resting against a target. She pictured its bullseye on that dagger-toothed gaijin’s forehead. Keiko’s shooting routine began with a deep breath as she nocked one of her arrows on the bowstring. She raised the longbow above her head and pulled down hard with her right hand. Drawing the arrow far back, the fletching brushed against her lips and found its anchor point in the corner of her mouth. Keiko lowered the yumi and exhaled, relaxing the muscles in her bow arm. Using a protruding knuckle on her hand to aim, she set her sights on Drake. He and Rin were in the midst of a deadly dance, turning, and swaying with each attack. It was impossible for Keiko to shoot Drake without endangering her little sister.

“You know, my offer applies to you girls as well,” Drake told Rin as their weapons clashed. “I'd love to teach young women with so much potential.”

Keiko called out to her sister. “Don’t listen! He’s cast some sort of magic over the others.” To her shame, she omitted the part when she herself had been taken in.

But Rin hardly needed the advice. “Like-hell-we’d-join-you-creep!” She shouted as she came down with one ferocious slash after another, all of which he blocked while laughing.

“Good! Good! Now, that’s a dragon’s spirit! This is the fight I was hoping for! You’re much more of a warrior than that old fart.”

“Don’t call him that!”

The Sister Dragon had definitely awoken.

Bowstring taught, standing statue-like and slowing her breathing, Keiko looked for an opportunity to shoot. While holding off Rin with one hand on his scabbard, Drake frowned and drew his long, steel mammoth, the perfect companion to his freakish strength. Rin pushed desperately, trying to lock his weapon in place. Her sister’s survival instincts gave Keiko the narrowest of openings. She released her arrow and it sailed towards Drake’s head. Digging his bare heels into the courtyard gravel, he broke through Rin’s guard and freed his nodachi. The arrow, then Rin’s bokken were both sliced in half with inhuman speed and precision. Rin stood frozen, lucky not to have been decapitated. Following the attack, Drake brought his big blade to his lips. It was stained red.

“A dragon's blood,” he whispered.

Rin fell on her ass as blood gushed from a gigantic gash in her cheek. Shaking, tears streaming down her face, mixing with the blood, she inched away from the foreigner’s toes.

“Rin, hang on!” Keiko cried as she readied another shot. Her bow felt heavy, her aim shaky.

Drake licked the nodachi clean. “Don’t bother, Kei-chan.” He closed his eyes, smiling like a statue of Buddha, and savoured the taste. “You can’t hit me with that bow.”

Paying Keiko no heed, he went in for another taste, this time from the blood on Rin’s face. Crouching beside her, he ran his long, wet tongue along her cheek.

Keiko sobbed and shut her eyes tightly, hoping to wake from the nightmare that was her reality. But there was no time to be sorry for herself. Rin needed her. They needed each other.

“Rin!” Keiko shouted, “Kitsune no ha!”

Keiko found the strength to steady her body and release a shot. A purposefully weak one. The arrow flew in a slow arc past Drake’s hips.

He taunted Keiko as he dodged her attack. “I told you, you can’t hit m-- ”

Drake choked. Rin had caught the arrow mid-flight and buried it in the side of his neck.

“I can’t, but she can.”

They had recently been practicing their ‘fox’s fangs’ move with fake arrows, but Keiko scarcely believed they could actually pull it off in a real battle. Drake stumbled back, allowing Rin the chance to run. She went to Keiko and embraced her.

Keiko sobbed. “Sister, are you alright?”

Rin hyperventilated and couldn’t reply in words, but nodded fervently.

The sight of their master with an arrow sticking out of his neck was more than enough of a signal to the brainwashed students that it was time to go. A mass exodus of screaming boys poured from the dojo doors, streaming past Drake, who impressively, remained standing. Keiko thought that he was dead on his feet, but his long, bony fingers suddenly moved, wrapping around the arrow and pulling it out. A torrent of gaijin juice sprayed out. He snapped the arrow in two and smiled, knife-teeth coloured crimson.

“Int--eres--ting...”

“What?” Keiko shrieked. “What are you?”

The hole in his neck began to magically heal itself. “One..of the reasons...I love Japan. So few of us. They call us vampires, nosferatu, kyuuketsuki. You had best study up if you want any shot at revenge. Ganbatte, ne?”

Drake turned to walk away. Before he did, though, he turned to deliver an ultimatum to The Fire-Breathing Twin Dragons:

“Become stronger. Then, I'll taste both of you.”