1-_____ (way to guard)

Usage examples of oni.

Whenever Keill thought about her, the picture that came to his mind was exactly what was happening now - Oni dashing ahead towards some new excitement, Keill following behind, usually with a wry smile.

It was standing open, and through it Keill could see Oni sprinting across the dusty brown grass.

For a moment Keill lost sight of Oni - easy enough to do, among fifteen young people all dressed in shorts and sleeveless shirts.

Not the millions that Oni had announced - in fact, not more than a dozen.

Keill and Oni looked over at the thin figure of Charrel, standing hunched by himself on the riverbank.

Despite the self-discipline and self-control that was ingrained in even the young children of the Legions, the fourteen-year-old Oni could still sometimes let her impulsive, exuberant nature break free.

In any case, he was worried about Charrel, too, and wished just as much as Oni did that something could be done.

But he was no less worried, now, about what Oni might take it into her mind to do.

Keill did not want Oni to invent some wild scheme for helping Charrel that might make matters worse, and get Oni into trouble.

And Keill was relieved again to see that Oni and Charrel were in different squads - and that, in the evening, after toying briefly with his meal, Charrel vanished into his cubicle before Oni or anyone could speak to him.

So he clipped the energy gun to his belt, as Oni had done the night before, and set out south-eastwards.

Everyone was covertly watching Charrel, looking even more troubled than usual, sitting at one end of the table and poking darkly at his food - and Oni, sitting nearby, her eyes fixed on him.

But mingled with it was an almost equally painful sympathy - for Oni, who would be feeling a far more terrible torment.

Then Oni was beside him, her eyes calm and bright, her own blade flashing.

Her partner was hauling her away, and Oni was defending the doorway on her own.