A Tradition Like Many

Zen

Jia's battle had been breathtaking, beautiful. She'd fought with such ease, it was like dancing to her. She could tell where Nuk was going to move before even he did. Zen could tell that Jia was taking it easy on him, she was enjoying the fight instead of trying hard to beat him. She already had. In only two seconds she beat one of the best hand-to-hand fighters of the Squad. And she did it almost flawlessly. He'd told her to improve her punches and her form, but still without it she was by far the best fighter of the newly elected, better than most of the veterans too. After watching the rest fight, Zen told the members to go and made the newlies pair up to do some exercises. 

- "No way, I'm not pairing up with the Dark." Zen heard a boy complain just as he was about to start. Zen inwardly sighed, predicting this would happen. It had been the one to fight after Jia, Gurah, he remembered his name to be. Zen had been expecting this. He thought maybe if they saw what a good fighter she was they would respect her, but clearly it wasn't enough, he walked towards them.

- "What's the problem here?" He asked uninterestingly, trying to shrug the problem off, Gurah scoffed.

- "The problem is this group is shamed because we have her in here with us, I don't want her to touch me." He said, Jia remained with her serious, impassive expression. Zen smiled amused. He didn't care about being shamed at all. With Jia in his squad they would raise the ranks and become number one in no time. What he cared about was that they looked at her as a teammate and not as an enemy.  

- "Shamed? Did you not see her fight?" Zen said. Gurah scoffed again.

- "Who cares? Look, she hasn't even taken off her dark uniform. Clearly she's one of them." He complained. Zen looked at Jia, he'd thought about that when she'd seen her come in. It didn't help anybody that she wore her dark uniform. Zen wondered why she'd done it and was annoyed that she had, but he was also annoyed of the boys complaints.  

- "If I tell you to do something you do it." Zen said, in an unusual authoritative and serious tone and expression that he didn't like to use. Gurah shyly looked down. Aware and ashamed of how disrespectful he'd been. Zen turned to Jia.

- "But he's right, you should wear white uniform only. Go take it off." He said, dismissively. 

- "No." Jia said. Zen looked at her with a frown. He needed her help if she was going to fit in the team. 

- "No?" He repeated in an angry tone, looking at her with a confused look. From what he'd seen when he picked her up at her home, she didn't hold much love for her people, taking off the uniform wasn't such a big deal.

- "I'm sorry, but I can't." She said. Zen was angry. Did she not want to be a part of the team? He could do it but he needed her help and this wasn't helping at all! 

- "Then leave the room." Zen finally said. A flash of hurt crossed Jia's face, but it was such a fleeting short moment Zen wasn't sure if he'd really seen it. He was being harsh but if he wasn't harsh about this then he couldn't keep the team together and that was the most important thing. It was what had made them rise the ranks. Good, perfect, united teamwork. Jia turned and left the room, everyone shot angry glances at her and it annoyed and hurt Zen to see it. She however, didn't even seem to notice the looks.

Zen paired up with Gurah and made the group do the planned exercises, continuing with normality so as to shred the incident of its importance. An hour before it was time for lunch Zen dismissed the kids. They all left the room. Zen looked around and started tidying the place up. He heard a sound come from the entrance and turned see what had caused it. It was Jia. She came in the room and closed the door behind her. 

Zen stood up straight and looked at her curiously. She walked determinately towards him and just looked at him. She was expecting a scolding, Zen realised, taken a back. 

- "You know I can't make you fit in with a little help on your part." He said. Jia looked at him with a deeper frown, confused, it hadn't been what she was expecting. "Is it because you feel attached to the Dark?" Zen said, not understanding why she would. Jia shrugged. 

- "There are no long sleeved shirts available in the white uniform." She said a little shyly. Her frowning face showing a little vulnerability. Zen frowned, confused.

- "So what? You're cold?" He said, his confusion evident. They were in the middle of summer, of course she wasn't cold, he thought. Jia shook her head and bit her lip. Zen looked at her curiously, it was the most expressive he'd seen her yet. After a while she looked up at Zen, determined, her beautiful green eyes looking at Zen fiercely under her thick black eyelashes and eyebrows. They made Zen's insides weaken a little. 

- "Do you know what the Kinjan Ceremony is?" She asked. Zen thought about it, the name seemed familiar but he couldn't quite place it, he shook his head. She continued talking, her voice hunky. "It's a Naiadi Tradition, all of its members go through it. You start when you're five years old and then every five years you do it again until you level up with as an adult, at at least fifteen years old. You can also participate in someone else's ceremony if you're single and haven't levelled up yet. It's a way to see who is an eligible partner for you. Who you're meant to marry. Who you deserve. It's a test of endurance." She said and took the sleeves off her thumbs. She started to wrinkle up her sleeves. 

She had Zen's full attention. She wrinkled the sleeves up to her elbows and showed the inside of her arms to Zen. Zen opened his eyes and mouth wide in shock. All through her arm there were multiple scars in shapes of crosses, starting at her wrists and ending in her elbow plead. Zen looked at her with wide eyes. "It consists in cutting small crosses into your arms and seeing how far you can go." She continued explaining. "You stand in front of all the eligible partners and start cutting, whoever stands with you when you give up are the partners that level up with you, they're the ones you can choose from. For a marriage to be possible you have to be levelled with them too, they have to choose you too, in other words you have to give in when they do or after in their own Kinjan Ceremonies." Zen's frown deepened, his heart pressing him. He looked at Jia's eyes, ghosts of memories flying behind her green eyes but her serious face still in place. 

She looked at her arms, her thick and long eyelashes making for a beautiful profile and passed her fingers through the scars. "When you are five years old and your parents tell you to endure, to do what you're told and not shed a tear, you try to do the best and obey. In my Kinjan ceremony I made a record lasting. Only one man stood in front of me in the end, after I'd cut all through both my arms. He was older than me and had already done four Kinjan ceremonies but no one had ever levelled up to him. It was Dun." She said, a little melancholic hint to her otherwise flat tone. Zen's eyes widened in shock as he remembered who Dun was. He was the man that had almost killed her in the examination. 

Jia turned to look at Zen now, her tone back to serious. "I don't like the Darks' traditions and the Naiadi are the ones that follow them more thoroughly, but…" She hesitated. "They're still my Tribe. And I don't think any of the Lights will understand this. I don't want the other members to know of this and look down at the Naiadi." She said. Zen just looked at her, still shocked. "That's why I'm wearing my long sleeves." She finished and looked at Zen expectantly. 

Zen swallowed as he tried to recover from the terrible story. He looked at her skinny arms all covered in scars. Five years old. Zen tried to picture himself at five. He'd had a troubled childhood too, but it was nothing compared to this. And at least his story was a tragic rarity and not the norm of a society. He tried to picture the girl in front of him as a five year old. Did she already have her constant frown? Or was that something that came after? She imagined her cutting her arms, fighting hard not to cry. It sent shudders through his spine. Zen sighed. 

- "Okay, I understand." He said, but the truth was he didn't understand. He didn't understand at all why somebody would hold a Tribe like that respect. Why somebody would still want to protect them after how Zen had seen her parents treat her. "You should go to lunch." He finally said, the girl gave a small nod and turned to leave, leaving Zen alone in that room with the shock of the story still dancing in his head. 

Reviews

[Created to Write]

Whoa. That's Intense. And it's so sad. That's why Dun is attached to her. Can't wait for next chapter. I hope she'll be okay.