It was shortly before dawn in a small town on the plain. At the inn, a man was stealthily going out the back door, to avoid having to pay for a room. It really was the best strategy for those who had no money to pay for a room with. The wind ruffled his brown hair as he adjusted his sword and walked down an alley.

Ben was used to small-town alleys just before dawn. Living as a wanderer with no money, he had snuck out of his share of inns, and just before dawn was his time. No one else was out. It therefore came as a mild surprise when he was forced to draw his sword to deflect a ninja star that otherwise would have hit him in the neck.

"Bloody hell!" cried a voice from above, and suddenly there were two people in the alley. The newcomer looked like a just-before-dawn person too. The ninja (Of course it's a ninja. Who else would throw a ninja star? Duh.) was about the same height as Ben and had on a standard black ninja suit, with a black mask covering all of the face except the eyes. There were more ninja stars in the suit, along with a short sheath. "How did you block my attack?"

"Well," answered Ben, "I drew my sword, and then put it in the space between your ninja star and my neck."

"Shma!" cried the ninja. "I know that! I meant, how were you fast enough? No one is faster than me!"

"The fact that my head is still attached to my shoulders is pretty strong evidence to the contrary."

"Damn it all! I'll admit that throwing a ninja star at you with no warning is a pretty cheap trick, so I guess I'll have to beat you hand to hand." The ninja dropped into a low crouch with hands forward in an offensive stance.

"You know," said Ben, adjusting his grip, "I'd really rather not kill you, but it seems to me you stand a pretty poor chance of blocking my sword with only your fists." He swung his katana in an arc that was surprisingly fast considering his leisurely stance. It was headed straight for the ninja's left leg.

"Then it's a good thing I have this!" cried the ninja, drawing a kodachi from the sheath. The ninja blocked the strike and brought a fist down with a great deal of force on Ben's right shoulder. He stumbled a bit, then stepped back.

"Well, it looks like I'm going to have to wake up a little for this fight," said Ben, and he blinked his eyes a few times. The ninja noticed the eyes for the first time.

"Wow, those eyes are bloody blue," thought the ninja.

"Now, let's try again," said Ben, and he charged forward with his sword held low. "Take this!" he cried, and the sword flew upward toward the ninja's face.

"Bloody no!" cried the ninja, and the kodachi swiftly moved to intercept the blow. "Ha ha!" the ninja cried. "Can't you do any better?"

The smile was wiped off the ninja's face as an instant later Ben's left hand brought his sword sheath right into the ninja's hand for a crushing blow, knocking the kodachi down to the ground.

Now it was Ben's turn to smile. "You're pretty fast. Most people wouldn't have been able to block that first attack in time." He came closer to the ninja, standing less than a foot away. He put his sword up to the ninja's neck. "But what are you going to do now, huh?"

Ben realized the folly of his words as the ninja's knee came sharply into a certain region that should never have another person's knee in it. Ben groaned and slumped to his knees. "You . . . must be a girl," he said, wincing.

The ninja looked at him. "Why do you say that?"

"Because in these stories, only girls do . . . that." He passed out and slumped to the ground.

The ninja took off her mask, revealing her long, blond hair. "He's right, of course. But that doesn't make sense. A guy could use that attack just as easily as a girl could." She paused for a second. "As long as he thought of it first."

Ben woke up the next day in a small, unfurnished room. He was lying on a cot. He looked over and saw a girl he didn't recognize, although the ninja suit lying on the ground near her gave him a pretty big hint.

"That was considerate of you to bring me up to your room after beating me," he said.

"Well, it was a cheap shot. Oh, and by the way, this isn't my room."

"Whose room is it?"

"I don't know. And unless we want to find out, we should probably leave soon."

Their conversation was interrupted by voices and steps approaching in the hallway outside. Ben drew his sword, and the ninja moved quickly into the shadows in a corner of the room. Two men entered the room. They looked vaguely familiar.

"Whoa, look at this!" said one of them. "What a haul! We sure are doing better for ourselves now that our leader is gone."

"Yeah," said the other. "Who would've thought that we could make more money robbing rich old widows than mysterious loners?"

The two men paused as they saw Ben, sword drawn. They stood still for a second. They looked at each other. Then they dropped the money purse they were holding and ran screaming back down the hallway they came from.

"That should give us a little more time," said Ben, and he slid his sword back in its sheath.

"Yeah, and a little more cash!" said the ninja, who swooped down to grab the purse. She looked inside. "They were right. This is quite a haul." She paused and looked at Ben. "You're not going to say that we have to return this to its owner, are you?"

"What?" he asked. "No, of course not. Nothing wrong with stealing what's already been stolen. Why do people always assume that I'm the honorable type?" He looked at the ninja. "What's your name anyway?"

"I'm Selma. What's yours?"

"I'm Ben. Hey, how would you like to travel around with me and be a wanderer?"

"Why? Aren't you a loner? I thought you guys didn't like having companions to travel around with you."

"Well, people like Kenshin may make being a wanderer seem glamorous, but in reality it's damn boring. I mean, it's just you, all by yourself, wandering from town to town and killing bandits. It gets really old without someone to talk to."

"I don't know . . ." said Selma, "I've got a pretty good life here."

"What do you do?"

"Ninjaing."

"And what's the money like in that these days?"

"Good point. All right, I'll wander around with you. That way I won't have to fight you for this money."

"Okay, but we probably still have to fight her," said Ben, pointing at a disgruntled old widow standing outside the door.

Ben and Selma walked down a deserted old road, that no one ever used anymore. They were both nursing minor wounds (angry old widows can hit pretty damn hard!) As they walked, they had a philosophical debate on the Pros and Cons of Banditry in Our Modern Era. The discussion became pretty one-sided after a minute or so when they realized that there were no Pros concerning bandits.

"They're just so stupid!" said Selma. "They always travel in groups, yet they always attack one at a time! And they always go after targets that they think they can beat, and end up getting clobbered!"

"They're weak, too," said Ben. "Have you honestly ever seen a bandit beat someone that wasn't old and feeble?"

"Or young and feeble."

"True."

"Hey, let's ask that monk what he thinks of bandits!"

Ben looked a little ways up the road, and sure enough, their was a person standing there, dressed in monk robes. When the person heard the word monk, she turned around, and it turned out to be a girl. She was about the same height as Ben and Selma, with shoulder length brownish hair.

"What?" said Ben "I thought only guys could be monks!"

The monk shrugged. "No one seemed to care when I signed up. Maybe they were just desperate for volunteers."

Selma walked up to the monk. "So, oh wise monk, can you teach us the ways of Buddhism?"

"No, not really. I'm actually more along the lines of a fallen monk."

"Oh, I see," said Ben. "You must have had some terrible experience that caused you to lose your faith in Buddha."

"No," said the monk, "I just got bored."

"Well, that's, um, interesting," said Ben. He turned to Selma and whispered, "Let's move on. Quickly and quietly." He started to back away.

"Hold on a second!" said the monk, and she punched a rock nearby (there's always a rock nearby when you need one), shattering it. Ben and Selma stopped.

"I said I was bored, didn't I?" she asked. "Now you two will have to keep me entertained by fighting me!"

"What's the deal with monks always being fist-fighters?" asked Ben

"Yeah," said Selma, "Isn't Buddhism a religion of non-violence?"

"I dunno," said the monk, "That non-violence thing never seemed to come up in monk school. Fist-fighting was the first thing they taught us there." She paused to think. "As a matter of fact, it was the only thing they taught us there. Besides, I'm not just an ordinary fist-fighter. I have the special technique of hitting things two times in a row, really fast, which makes it super-powerful for some reason. Come on, attack me!"

Ben and Selma looked at each other. Without speaking, they both held out their right fist over the palm of their left hand. They brought their fist down on the palm twice. Then Selma brought down her fist a third time, while Ben flattened out his hand so that it was palm-to-palm with the other. Selma swore. "Bloody hell!"

"All right, I'll fight this bloody monk," she said. "Let's see if she can smash me like she did that rock!"

Selma ran toward the monk. As she ran, she drew her kodachi and leapt into the air, letting out a horrible battle cry. Then there was a loud noise like a grenade. Selma flew ten feet into the air and landed on her back.

"Selma!" Ben cried. "Okay, I've had it! No one does that to my traveling companion and gets away with it." He drew his sword. "You may be pretty strong, but let's see how fast you are."

Ben ran toward the monk, just as Selma had. When he was about three feet away, the monk punched forward with all her strength. She hit nothing but air.

"Ha!" said Ben, from behind her. "You missed. Now I'll just . . . ugh."

Ben fell back a few feet as the monk's elbow caught him in the chest. The monk turned to face him. Then, without turning, she punched the air to her left, shattering the ninja star Selma had thrown.

"Polt it all!" yelled Selma

The monk turned to laugh at Selma, but then turned back when she heard Ben getting up. "That was pretty good," he said, "But let's see if you can keep up with this!"

Ben charged at the monk, going so fast he almost disappeared from sight. She punched forward, but by then he was off to her left. As she spun, she noticed him in the air above her head. She jumped out of the way, only to be tripped by him from behind. She leapt up to grab him, but he jumped back twenty feet almost instantaneously.

"Argh!" cried the monk. "Stand still so I can hit you!"

"Shall we go again?" Ben asked. "I'll make it easier this time, and call out where I am so you can follow me." He dashed forward again.

The monk kept spinning to keep up with Ben as he yelled out positions.

"Now I'm to the left!"

"Now I'm to the right!"

"Now I'm above you!"

"Now I'm be . . ."

"Ha ha!" cried the monk. "This time I saw you, and now I'm going to flatten you out!" She spun full force with her right hand in a fist over her head. Ben watched in horror as she spun . . .

. . . her chin directly onto Selma's outstretched foot, right after she had done a high kick. "No . . . fair," she said, "Fighting with two people . . . is . . . cheap." The monk wobbled for a moment, then collapsed.

"Am I going to die?" she asked

"No, you can't die," said Ben. "You're a main character now. What's your name?"

"Tiffany," said the monk, as her eyes closed for the last time (this chapter, anyway).

"Tiffany," said Ben. "Another Western name. You'd think at least one of us would have a Japanese name! We are in Japan, aren't we?" He looked questioningly at Selma, who just shrugged. "I mean, where are all the Hajime's? The Makoto's? The Kaoru's?"

"You could be Benshin," suggested Selma.

Ben stopped his rant and shuddered. "Maybe it's better this way."

There was a scene at the bar in the next town. It sounded like someone had purchased a great deal, and then suddenly realized they had no money. The whole place was in an uproar. Suddenly, the door flew open, and three figures raced out.

"How was I supposed to know you had no money?" yelled Ben. "What, do monks take an oath of poverty or something?"

"Hey, up till now all I've been doing is smashing rocks," Tiffany yelled back. "They drop a surprisingly small amount of money!"

"Hey guys, you do realize there's only one person chasing us, right?" said Selma

"Really?" asked Tiffany. She stopped, and raised her fist up behind her. The bartender ran into it full speed, then collapsed to the ground. "That takes care of that."

"It takes care of that, but it doesn't help the fact that we have to move on to another town only an hour after we came into this one!" yelled Ben

"Why?"asked Tiffany

"Because now everyone knows we have no money!"

"Oh, yeah."

So Ben, Selma, and Tiffany set out on the trail again. There were actually people this time, but no one seemed to find it odd that a samurai, a ninja, and a monk were all traveling together. They probably assumed it was a setup for a joke (even though they had already been to a bar).

Eventually, though, someone did seem to notice their presence. A short old woman wearing a black hooded robe and carrying a walking staff came up to them and asked, "Spare some change for a poor old woman?"

"Sorry lady," said Ben, "But we don't have any money ourselves."

"Oh, come now," said the old woman, "Three strong young warriors like yourselves must have something on you. You can't be broke."

"If you don't think we're bloody broke," said Selma, "Try asking after us in the town back there."

"But surely . . ." the old woman started again.

"Listen, you old hag!" yelled Tiffany. "No means no!" She hit the old woman, sending her flying back.

"Tiffany!" scolded Ben. "You can't just hit an old woman like that!"

"I didn't hit her very hard," said Tiffany, pouting.

"Um, guys," said Selma. "Look."

The old woman was about thirty feet away, but unlike they had expected, she was still upright. She had blocked her fall with her staff, and was now standing up straight so that she didn't appear to need to staff for walking at all. She spoke, and her voice sounded drastically changed from before. "So, you don't want to share your money with an old woman, eh?" she asked. Her hood fell down, revealing the face of a young woman, with frizzy blond hair. "In that case, Ashley the Destroyer will kill you and take it from your charred bodies!"

Tiffany started to laugh. "Looks like that first punch didn't take. I'll just have to give her another."

Tiffany ran forward. The girl bent her head, and light flashed around the top of her staff. When Tiffany got close enough to strike, a fireball blasted from the end of the staff and sent her flying back into a tree.

"Hee hee hee!" cackled the wizard. "You're all short-range fighters. None of you can get close enough to attack me!"

"We'll see about that," muttered Selma, as she drew three ninja stars from her belt. "Take this!" she yelled, hurling them at their opponent.

Ashley the Destroyer shook her head. "No use. Chain Lightning!"

A bolt of electricity shot forward from her hand, hitting the first star and exploding it. It then bounced to the next star and the next, also destroying those two. The final bounce hit Selma in the stomach, causing her to curl up on the ground.

Tiffany pulled herself up off the ground. "You think I'm just a short range fighter? I'll show you a thing or two." Tiffany punched the ground, sending a huge shockwave through the earth toward the wizard.

"You fool. As a wizard I control all the elements, and Earth is one of them!" Ashley held out her hand, stopping the shockwave. It then reversed course, and hit Tiffany dead on, knocking her back down.

Ashley turned to look at Ben, whose head was lowered. "How about you? You're the last one left. Do you think you could get close enough to beat me?"

Ben's head went up. His eyes looked directly into Ashley's. She started. "They're . . . so blue. And very angry."

Ben spoke, and the tone of his voice was darker than usual. "Ordinarily you would be right. A samurai does have to get close to his opponent to strike." He drew his sword. "However, my style of fighting focuses on drawing out the spirit inside the sword. Inside my sword resides an ancient dragon, and he gets very angry when you hurt my friends!"

Ben rammed his sword into the ground. Then he knelt over it and bowed his head almost as if he was praying. He stood up, and drew the sword from the ground. It was now wreathed in a bright blue flame, the same color as his eyes.

Ashley started to worry. "What kind of magic is this?" she thought to herself. Then she regained her composure. "You can't scare me with tricks like that! Fireball!"

Another huge blast of fire surged from the staff. Ben raised his sword , and calmly blocked the fireball with it. It was completely absorbed into the sword, without even pushing him back. "Holy polt!" cried Ashley.

Ben swung his sword in an arc in front of him, and a sheet of blue flame flowed out toward Ashley. There was no way for her to block. She was knocked back, unconscious.

A few hours later, Ashley woke up, surrounded by the people she had just been fighting. She looked around. "You didn't kill me?" she asked

"Well," said Ben, "We had a vote. There was one 'Leave her alive, she could be useful,' one 'Kill the witch! Burn her! Burn her!' and one 'I don't give a bloody frick!' Luckily for you, since I was the one that actually beat you, my vote counts double. By the way, we weren't lying when we said we had no money." Ben demonstrated by emptying his pockets, the universal symbol of poverty.

"Really?" asked Ashley. She thought for a second. "What is your quest?"

"To seek the Holy Grail!" yelled Tiffany

"Shut up! For the last time, we're not going to go looking for the Holy Grail!" Ben turned back to Ashley. "I don't know. We don't really have much of a quest right now, I guess. We're just wanderers, that we are."

"And you shut up too," said Selma, "You're not bloody Kenshin!"

"Okay!" said Ashley, standing up. "I will join with you, and you can all adopt my quest!"

"Which is?" asked Tiffany

"To steal money from the unworthy and give it to the poor!"

"What are you, some kind of modern day Robin Hood?" asked Tiffany

"Is this the modern day?" asked Ben. He looked at Selma. She shrugged. He turned back to Ashley. "I don't know. It sounds like a pretty lame quest to me."

"Well, I guess right now we're pretty poor, so . . ."

"You know," said Ben, "We need to get more guys in this group. People are going to start to think I'm a pimp or something."

"Yeah," said Tiffany, "You really look like a pimp." She slapped Ben on the back of the head.

"What'd you do that for?" asked Ben, rubbing the back of his head.

"I'm the violent type."

"Figures. There's one in every group . . ."

"Hey, why don't we just ask that guy to join?" asked Ashley, pointing into the distance.

"You can't just point into the distance like that and say, 'Let's ask that guy!' It doesn't work that way."

"Nuts."

"Actually," said Selma, "There is a guy over there. He's just sitting on a rock all by himself."

Ashley had a triumphant look on her face. "Fine!" said Ben. "We'll go over there and talk to him. But he doesn't get to join just because you pointed at him!"

The group approached the person on the rock. He was short with red hair. He was holding a large, gnarled stick.

"Hello there," said Ben. "What's your name?"

"Call me Patsy," said the stranger. "No, wait, call me Pat! My name is Pat!"

"Too late," said Tiffany, "You're Patsy now!"

"Damn it!" said Patsy. He started to hit himself in the forehead. "Why do I always do that?" He stood up. "Anyway, I'll introduce meself proper now. Me name be Patsy O'Shananahan of the Rocky Isle."

"The Rocky Isle?" asked Ashley

"It means Ireland," explained Patsy.

"What's that big stick you have?" asked Tiffany

"Oh, that's me sheleelah . . . um . . . shaloolay . . . um, big Irish beating stick."

"Cool," said Tiffany.

"So, do you want to join our group?" asked Ashley

"I'll pass. I prefer to just sit here with me stick, and ponder the meanin' o' life."

"What's the matter?" asked Tiffany. "You chicken?"

"No, it just sounds boring to me," said Patsy.

"Fine, we'll move on," said Ben. The group started to walk away. "I told you we couldn't just get some random guy we found on the road to join us."

"Isn't that how all the rest of us joined?" asked Selma

"Well, yeah, but this guy is, um, Irish." Ben belched, and clutched his stomach. "Ugh. The whiskey at that last bar was terrible. It's making me nauseous. I'm never going to drink that ag . . ."

The group paused as Ben collapsed to the ground. At first they thought it was just the whiskey, but then they noticed the lump on his head, and Patsy standing behind them clutching his stick. He was quivering with rage.

"You can call me Patsy, you can call me chicken, you can make fun of me accent," he said, still trembling, "But if ye dare to insult the good name of alcohol, I shall strike ye all down!"

"Oh really?" asked Selma, who was now standing behind him. "My knife says differently." Her kodachi was pressed against his throat.

Ashley examined Ben's head. "Wow, you hit him pretty hard," she said. "You must be strong."

"Well, there be not much to do out here but hit things with me stick."

"Come on, Patsy, just join us!" said Tiffany

"No."

Tiffany stepped closer to him. She raised her fist. "I'll beat the living polt out of you if you don't."

Pat stopped to consider this. "Okay. Sure. Whatever. I'll join your group."

The group of five was walking along yet another deserted path (they're surprisingly common) when they ran into a girl. She shorter than any of them, and had straight light brown hair.

"Hi guys!" she said. "I'm Joanie!"

"Okay," said Ben. "Hi, Joanie. What can we do for you?"

"I want to join your group!"

"Well, let's count," said Ben. "One, two, three, four. Yeah, five seems like a decent number."

"It's six," said Selma. "You forgot to count yourself."

"Fine, six! So what can you do, Joanie?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I cut people with my sword, Selma can sneak up on them before they know what's going on, Tiffany hits things, Ashley sets them on fire, and Patsy beats them with a big stick. What can you do?"

"Well, can you do anything?"

"I can tell stories."

"Stories? Like what?"

"Well, this one time when I was little I was at my uncle's house, and my two cousins were being jerks and spraying me with the hose, so I hit them, and they went and told my uncle, but he yelled at them and not me."

"Wow. That's great. Really . . . great."

"Are you sure you don't have any powers?" asked Ashley

"Yeah," said Tiffany, "It's always the small, innocent ones that are the most dangerous."

"Yep. Pretty sure."

"So, if enemies knocked out all the rest of us, and then cornered you, you wouldn't flip out, go crazy, and completely destroy them?"

"Nope. Don't think so."

"I don't trust her," said Tiffany. "She seems suspicious."

"Oh well, she can join," said Ben. "Can't think of a good reason not to let her in."

"Hey, we need a name for our group," said Selma. "We can't just keep saying 'The group of six' or 'Those guys'".

"How about Ben's Group?" suggested Ben

"I don't think so," said Tiffany, hitting him in the shoulder, not very lightly.

"How about the Oniwaban Group?" asked Patsy

"I think that's already taken," said Ashley.

"How about Card Club?" suggested Joanie

"Card Club?" said Tiffany. "That doesn't make any sense at all." She paused. "I like it."

"Me too," said Selma.

"Aye, me too," agreed Patsy.

"But we don't even play cards!" said Ashley

THE BEGINNING . . .