Read Girl Fights Back (Go No Sen) (Emily Kane Adventures) for Free Online Page B

completely devoid of any human
sentiment towards her. But she wondered if she had overcommitted herself? She
remembered feeling the thrill of her own ferocity. Had she been able to control
it? She vanquished her assailants. But had she lost sight of herself in the
process?
    This was the first time she had
ever been in a real fight. Not sparring. Not a schoolyard scuffle. Those men
meant to harm her, perhaps even kill her. She had defeated them. Perhaps even
killed one of them. Maimed another. This is what it means to be in a fight. If
your opponent puts your life on the line, he can’t avoid putting his own life
on the line, too. If she had ever harbored any doubts about her ability to
defend herself, to keep her wits about her and to generate enough sheer
aggression to prevail, those had been effectively dispelled. But was that
enough? What had this victory really cost her? Was this the meaning of all of
her training? Or was it a distortion, a distraction from more important truths?
    She saw Danny in school the
following Monday. He seemed embarrassed, uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to
say to her. He had half expected to see a police report about it, maybe even
have to answer some questions himself. But he heard nothing all weekend. He
wondered if his mother had treated those guys at the ER. But the rest of the weekend
had been uneventful. He was at a loss for words.
    She told her father all about it
that same night. His eyes were alight, but he seemed otherwise very
self-controlled. He said little, listened carefully to her story. He asked if
she noticed anything familiar or recognizable about those men. “They were
trained,” she said. “They didn’t belong at the concert.”
    “Did they seem like soldiers?”
    “I don’t know, Dad. They were kinda
like the security guards around here,” she replied. “You know, trained but indifferent.
They didn’t care about us. They weren’t pissed at us or anything.”
    “Was that kid any help to you?”
    “Nah. Not really," she
snorted. “He probably won’t remember much of what happened either."
    “That figures," he growled.
    “He did okay, Dad. He was outnumbered
three to one,” she found herself saying in Danny’s defense, though she didn’t
quite know why she cared.
    “Fine. But now you know what you
can expect from him,” he said as he stood up. “I’ve gotta talk this over with
Mr. Cardano.”
    She was definitely not going to
tell Yuki about any of this, and she hoped her father wouldn’t either. But that
seemed unlikely. News like this just has a way of spreading throughout a
household. She shuddered to think what Yuki would say. In the end, Yuki said
nothing about it. Emily was sure she knew everything from the way she looked at
her the next morning. There was a cold, dark fury in the back of her eyes. “At
least she’s not pissed at me,” Emily thought, or rather hoped. But who was that
fury reserved for? Dad? Mr. Cardano? Danny?
    This all happened in early
September, more than a month ago. Why was she thinking about it now? Danny
eventually came back to the dojo. He recovered his composure around her, talked
to her again. He was relieved she had said nothing about it to anyone. Nothing.
He had expected to be the butt of every joke around school. But no one knew
anything. He enjoyed watching her spar in class much more now. He didn’t mind
going up against her anymore, even though he still always lost. Now he just tried
to learn something from her. That was the only path he could see to regaining
his sense of dignity.
    Around five am, just as she noticed
a slight glow in the eastern sky, she also sensed something was wrong at the
estate. She couldn’t put her finger on what exactly it was, but something was
very wrong. She expected to see some movement, at least, at the guard posts.
But there was nothing. She also noticed smoke coming out of the central chimney
of the main house. There was no reason to have that fireplace going this