As Brock sighed, shadows rose up to consume the two of them. Silently, he sheathed Lament and considered the ensuing chat he was about to have with his elder sister. There wasn’t really much that could be said, he supposed. A ‘sorry’, and ‘it’s ok’ could constitute the entire conversation perfectly.

Still, he knew it was best if he didn’t leave the details of their departure to fester like last time. The guilt of it all had been a pretty heavy weight on Brock’s shoulders, and he knew his sister wouldn’t be faring much better, now being on the responsible end. He was oddly… thankful at how pushy Mio had been.

Finally, the shadows crept past his head, and he was plunged into darkness. The usual occurred, and seconds later he fell upwards. As he regained his footing, he paused.

“This… isn’t the hospital,” Brock said, regarding Mio without looking at her.

They were in a rather sparse area of forestry, clearly a section close to the city. Ferns and wildflowers grew up from the bases of the powerful trees spread about, and the wind rustled their tall canopies, creating a grand choir of chimes and airy whispers.

He took in a deep breath, and the scent of damp loam invaded his nostrils. Mio nodded, “Jane left the hospital shortly after you two talked. She’s currently at her house.”

Looking around, Brock realised that he did recognise a few pieces of land here and there, mostly just unique formations of roots or scars in the tree trunks. There was also a somewhat beaten track stationed underneath them and stretching onward. He was about to question why they weren’t just teleported directly to Jane’s home, but he stopped himself.

Most probably, it was to give her time to prepare as she sensed them approach. He certainly wouldn’t have managed to even stutter out an apology if Jane had just up and appeared beside him back before he’d actually done the deed and said sorry.

And so, they settled into the soothing act of hiking. From what he remembered, the trek was only five or so minutes long from the edge of town, so he used the time to prepare himself in turn.

Savouring the calls and sounds of the forest and closing his eyes, Brock surveyed the unique way he could see the aura wafting off from various creatures out and about. Insects roamed under the loam and clung to the trees, while birds flittered along the canopies. The sight was… stunning. His ability to see aura seemed to bring new life into the world around him.

Idly, as he kept his eyes shut, he called for his status menu and had a peek. It appeared in his vision, and he glanced over it. There weren’t any stat bonuses or anything, as he hadn’t levelled even once in the past few weeks. Though Oppressive Might had upped a Tier and was a decent portion through to the next one.

He recalled the sensation of it upgrading after he’d binded with Lament.

As per his original plan, he opened its mutations and selected Efficiency I. After he closed the screen, he promised to test how noticeable the effect was later on. The thought left him rather giddy. Progress.

Beside him, Mio was walking quietly, her eyes flitting among the tree tops and her face oddly passive. Despite her usual nature, she seemed to be at peace here, much like himself. Briefly, he considered jump scaring her, but decided it wasn’t worth the knife to the throat.

One of these days, she actually will kill me…

Another minute or so passed in relative silence, save for the noise of nature, and soon Brock stepped in a clearing and laid his eyes upon a simple abode laid in the centre of it all. Training dummies of wood and straw were sparsely placed about the area, all bearing marks of damage, whether by blunt force, cuts, or anything else.

A few trees even possessed a slew of injuries, though those didn’t seem to be intentional. Or maybe they were.

Weaving between each of those dummies, was his sister, the tails of her black silk blindfold billowing behind her as she moved, a quarterstaff blurring as she spun it overhead. Abruptly, she changed directions and smashed the weapon into one of the dummies. It buckled, and what appeared to be its stone base lifted up slightly, but it otherwise remained intact.

Jane continued to spin her weapon, even as her head turned to face them. She licked her lips.

Raising his brow as he recognised the signs of a bad time, Brock glanced over to where Mio was standing, only to find that she had disappeared. He cursed as he realised what was about to happen. Suddenly, Jane’s quarterstaff spun to a halt and the end impacted the ground.

“Brock Carter, I challenge you to an unofficial Honour Duel.” Jane stepped forward, the makings of a nervous smile playing along her lips, “If I win, you have to accept my sincere apology.”

Brock narrowed his eyes and slowly shifted his legs into a ready stance, “Righto. What do I get if I win?”

Jane’s face was split in two by a smile, “Nothing.”

Then she exploded forward.

**

Brock nursed a particularly painful bruise across his cheek. His sister could swing that stick hard.

Unsurprisingly to him, it had been a total beat down. In Jane’s favour. She had utterly mopped the floor with him. In the entire battle, he counted a total of four of his hits that actually landed – the ones that weren’t redirected or just outright dodged.

His immense Agility was practically useless against Jane’s skill and combat experience. She seemed to be able to predict how he would attack or react before he even made the movement, and despite the fact that he was noticeably faster, she was a spectre. Her reaction speeds were baffling.

He hadn’t exactly expected to win anyway, however. He knew how skilled Jane was at martial arts, and regardless of his stats, he had already known that she was a better fighter. All he’d been doing so far was hitting harder than the other guy, and maybe throwing in some scraps of skill he’d picked up here and there.

In the end, stats were only a supplement for skill.

Sure, if he had his Augments and Techniques, he was certain he’d have won, but that was beside the point. The point was his actual combat skill was pitiful. In fact, it was more instinctual than anything else.

“So… I won then?” Jane’s voice echoed out in the clearing, her tone almost venturing. Clearly, she was rather amused.

Brock waved his hand dismissively, “You already know the bloody answer.”

He heard her chuckle, though it was subdued. She knew the apology was coming soon.

Idly, Brock paused all that in his mind for a second, and instead travelled back to the fight in his memories. Jane was a veritable maelstrom, weaving and attacking in concert. It was almost unnatural with how much grace she moved and how easily she read his movements.

Did his aura show something to her that she could use to predict his moves? Or did she use echolocation somehow? Her whole ‘seeing without eyes’ shtick confuses me so much…

Sighing, he discarded those thoughts. They were for another time, he believed.

Licking his lips, Brock rubbed his ribs where a heavy ache had taken root, and got to his feet, wincing. He hadn’t taken Lament out of its sheath during the fight - mostly due to inexperience with the weapon and the fear he’d injure someone, whether himself or her - though he doubted it’d have made much of a difference in the fight’s outcome.

Jane cleared her throat, and Brock leaned against a nearby dummy for support. Its head was caved in, a sign of repeated blows. His sister didn’t like this one, it seemed. Snorting, he looked up and met his sister’s covered eyes.

“Brock… I’m…” she shifted on her feet as she seemed to consider how to proceed with her words, “Look, I’m sorry. You know… well you know that dad’s a sensitive topic for me. Us. I was just…”

The man didn’t respond, and instead just waited for Jane to get the words out. He knew she was trying hard. Idly, he detected Mio’s aura signature a ways off into the forest.

Finally, Jane continued, “I was just afraid. I didn’t want you to do the same things dad did.”

And it was out. Brock licked his own lips and remained resting against the dummy. Jane averted her gaze from his own by turning her head away from him slightly, and in that moment, his sister seemed so… vulnerable. Brock let a breath pass by his lips.

“It’s alright.” Brock’s voice resounded in the silence of the clearing like a gong, and Jane looked up at him once more, “Don’t stress too much abou-”

“No, Brock,” Jane stepped forward, “It’s not alright. You might not mean to do it, but if you don’t come back – if you die – that would be it. You would have lied, left, and never come back.”

Brock felt the breath leave his lungs slowly. Just like dad did…

“I won’t die. I can promise you that.” He surprised himself with how confident he sounded. It didn’t at all represent how he actually felt.

Jane remained silent for a moment, before finally, she smiled softly, “I’ll hold you to that.”

This time, when the silence once again fell over them, it was a comfortable one. It was obvious to Brock that his sister had indeed been stressing about this entire scenario. He sensed Mio’s aura begin to approach them. From the distance, her arrival seemed like it’d take a few minutes or so.

There wasn’t much else for the siblings to talk about once the apology was gotten out of the way, although Brock did bring up the fact that she wasn’t in hospital anymore. Apparently, the majority of

Jane’s wounds were healed, and the rest were somewhat superficial, so she’d just up and left. Brock supposed that the fact that no one was high enough in the hierarchy to stop her also helped with that.

She did offer to teach him some Ninjutsu in the wake of his skillful defeat, though he declined. Not only was he aware of how complex and complicated it was going to be, but he also knew he’d get it all muddled up with how he fought currently. His fighting style wasn’t exactly terrible per se, but it did need a tune up, both in its efficiency and moveset.

As for the runes on his blade, as Mio had mentioned in her attempts to coax him into getting beaten up by his older sister, they weren’t as rare as he thought they’d be. Jane showed him her own rune marked blade, a Katana made of Gurzanite like he’d seen in the shop, although it was called Falling Wind and the runes were yellow.

A few others had also been said to possess rune marked weapons, though apparently no one knew what actually made them become rune marked in the first place. The runes afforded their weapons a variety of effects, with Jane’s own runes being noticeably different characters than Brock’s ones. By her display, they allowed her blade to gather wind to enhance the speed and power of her slashes.

He was rather interested in how that actually worked, but decided it wasn’t important enough to ask.

“I was actually wondering,” Brock interrupted Jane’s tangent on rune marked weapon theories, and simultaneously wiped at the blood trickling down from his nose, “Could you teach me to use this? I don’t want to end up killing myself with it.”

He removed Lament from its scabbard and waved it around carelessly. Jane looked like she wanted to slap him over the head for doing so, “I can, but don’t ever swing it around like that again. You’ll take someone’s eye out.”

That’s what Mio said. He glanced over at the woman in question who had arrived several minutes ago. She was sitting atop Jane’s house and munching on treats he recognised as belonging to Beatrice’s bakery. Gotta pay her another visit. I miss her Danishes.

As his mouth watered, Jane created some distance between them.

“Hold the sword like this,” Jane called out, brandishing her own shorter weapon – a wakizashi - and holding it out in front of her. Brock followed suit, “Now shift your balance this way when swinging upwards…”

What followed was a two-hour long lesson on the art of swordsmanship. It was immensely enlightening, and while it wasn’t anything as advanced as secret sword techniques, it was certainly useful. Jane had called it the Swordsman’s Fundamentals, and it mostly involved things like stances, how to shift one’s balance and block, and how the body needed to move to achieve the most efficient and powerful cut.

Jane had mentioned that while these fundamentals mainly applied to shortswords and shorter weapons, they’d work fine regular swords as well. Good to know, I guess.

She also displayed to him some mistakes that people commonly made and let him correct them. Immediately as they went through them, he saw his swordcraft improve drastically, at least to the point where he was confident that he wouldn’t cut his own head off. Maybe, with some more practice, he’d become rather skilled. All in all, he didn’t regret coming here at all.

There was one time when he almost dropped the weapon and ran his foot through, and it had caused Mio to cackle menacingly, the sound echoing throughout the trees. Eventually though, as the sun started to fall, he knew it was time to go.

“Are you sure you don’t want anyone to come with you? Your friends? Carrie?” Jane asked, rather concerned. She didn’t mention herself because she had responsibilities back in city.

Brock considered changing his mind for a moment, but ultimately remained firm in his decision. There was no need to stack more worry on them and force them into his own problems. He’d told Jane he’d give them a call later on after he’d ventured out and visited Paris. Hopefully, Adam would be rather forthcoming with phone replacements.

He glanced at Mio, then back to his sister, “Yeah. I’m sure.”

As shadows once again rose up, and he exchanged a hug with his sister, Brock sighed, hoping that Paris was nice this time of year.

And that Maxwell was too busy to pay him a visit.