---

Gabrielle: "She broke your heart? I don't understand." Xena: "For a while, I didn't understand myself … When I traveled with Akemi to her island for the ransom, I was to learn that my heart was seeking something else …"

Xena: [approaching an abandoned house] … "I thought I was taking you to your father."
Akemi: "His castle's in the north. We came here first to visit my grandfather. He died here many years ago."
Xena: "Are you telling me that we have walked days in the wrong direction to see a dead guy?"
Akemi: "We must visit my grandfather to seek his blessing. He's dead, but I can still speak to him."

Xena: "All your talk about moons up your sleeve, you were playing me for a fool. I ought to just …" … [raises her sword to strike] Akemi: [moving her hair aside exposing her neck, daring Xena to strike] … "You hear the Kami through the sounds of nature. In the same way, I hear sounds that are silent to you."

Akemi: "My grandfather says that you are a wise and appropriate teacher and he feels your sword is not good enough."
Xena: "There's a string of widows from here to Greece that say different."
Akemi: "Compared to a Katana all other swords are toys."
Xena: "Well, then, get me one of those."
Akemi: "The great Katana lies near here, but you must know, in our country women are forbidden to own Katana."
Xena: "Well, they're just gonna have to get used to it, aren't they?"

---

Akemi: "Sensei, I come bearing a challenge. My master wishes to fight you for possession of the Katana, forged from the purest ore of the Hakiman temple."
Sensei: "Your master must be a mighty samurai."

Xena: [entering] … "Oh, no, I'm just a girl in search of a really good sword." Sensei: "A woman?! A foreigner! Challenging us for the sacred Katana?! This is a great insolence!" Xena: "Well, I guess you're gonna have to teach me a lesson, hm?"

Xena: [the sensei's sword slices right through her blade] … "Ooh, gimme, gimme."

[Xena kicks a little sensei ass with her bare hands.]

Xena: "Yeah. Grandpa was right. Now, this is a sword."

---

Akemi: "'In a flurry of snow, two breaths of wind unite and become as one, and then disappear into each other.'"
Xena: "Listen, Akemi, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, I really love this sword, and you're a nice kid, but I just came for the ransom."
Akemi: "I don't believe that. What do you hear now?"
Xena: "Snow falling on cedars. No, your heart beating harder than normal."

Akemi: "You're a master of war, yet you know no words to speak of love. And then you go and save my life. There's no greater gift of love a teacher can give a student than that. I have another gift I must ask of you. I saw what you did to kill that coward, Kao."

Xena: "It's a sacred trust."
Akemi: "I would be honored beyond words if you'd teach me that."
Xena: "Alright."

Gabrielle: "You knew her for a few weeks and you taught her the pinch? Xena, in all the time--"
Captain: "Higuchi is under siege, and there's no place to dock. I'm turning back."
Xena: "What?! Gabrielle, I've got to go ashore."
Gabrielle: "I'm with you."
Xena: "I knew you'd say that." … [they both jump over the side of the boat and swim towards the city]

---

Yodoshi: [enters the tea house to find a very calm Akemi] ... "The katana, you sent it to the foreign whore ... thank you. She's traveling to the city of Higuchi, which my army right now is destroying. My gerneral awaits her, and when he captures her and my katana ... she'll lose her head to the sting of its blade. So, thank you ... daughter."

---

Xena: "Firebombs."
Gabrielle: "They're going to burn Higuchi to the ground."

Xena: [seeing a water tower on the other side of the burning city] … "We've gotta release the water from the tower. Gabrielle, what would you do?" Gabrielle: "I saw these acrobats. They used-- " Xena: "Show me, Gabrielle."

Gabrielle: "Grab on!" … [Xena and Gabrielle grab onto a rope and swing around, bounce off an awning and land on a nearby rooftop]

Xena: "Alright. What's next?"
Gabrielle: "This way!" … [Gabrielle jumps onto a leaning ladder, Xena lands on the other side and catapults Gabrielle halfway across the city]

Gabrielle: "Whoa! Xena! Go for the ladder!" … [performing some amazing death defying feats, the gals both land on another ladder and "walk" it to the water tower]

[Once at the tower, Xena uses her sword to bust a hole in the side of the water tank. Water sprays forth extinguishing the fires.]

Samurai: [looking up from his horse] ... "A wise general knows when a fight is lost, but I think we will meet again ... soon."

Villagers: "Yeah! We've won! We've won!" Gabrielle: "Higuchi is saved." Xena: "Not quite the way I would have done it, Gabrielle, but it sure worked."

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