Yoshika was in a foul mood after her argument with Hayakawa. She knew it was stupid—it had been abundantly clear that Hayakawa had no interest in friendship, and she’d made peace with that. Yet she couldn’t help but be frustrated by the girl’s attitude. She obviously wanted friends, and seemed to like Jia and Eui well enough, but rejected them on the basis of her position. It was so aggravating that Yoshika hadn’t been able to think about much else all day.

There had been an announcement about the doubles tournament, but she barely paid attention to it. She knew that she was fighting on the first day and that her first opponents would be Kasai Hanako and Satou Ryuuji—that was all she needed. Few enough people had registered for the doubles that there would only be three rounds and frustratingly, Hayakawa wasn’t participating. Yoshika had been hoping for a rematch at full strength, but it would have to wait until the team division.

She was really looking forward to being able to fight at her full strength. Her sparring and practice with friends were one thing, but Yoshika wanted to see what she was truly capable of. To that end, she planned on keeping her minds merged for the entire remaining duration of the tournament, through to the end of the team division. For the next few weeks, she would do everything as Yoshika. Fighting, eating, sleeping, breathing, bathing, meditating—everything. It was time to find out exactly what she could do.

---

Kasai Hanako—Hana for short—had been working altogether much too hard lately. It started with that damned son of the provincial lord. He’d noticed her after a visit to her family dojo and immediately fallen for her—her looks, anyway. He announced that she was the most beautiful girl in the province—true—and that he would have her hand in marriage—ew, no thanks. Unfortunately, he was extremely persistent, and his father was extremely powerful. Even her own family had pressured her to agree. In the end, she had managed to get him off her back by agreeing to marry him if he managed to win the martial arts tournament that was being held to determine applicants for the new joint-dojo with the other nations.

Something must have gotten terribly mixed up, because somehow that turned into Hana being added to the tournament’s prizes. Anyone who won would earn her hand in marriage—which was not what she’d agreed to. Now, it wasn’t just the lazy son of the lord she had to worry about, it was every damn martial artist in the province! So unfair!

To cut a long story short—Hana entered the tournament herself. She trained her ass off for weeks in preparation, fought her way to the top, and faced the idiot who had caused all her problems in the finals. She might have been a little overzealous in her rejection of him, but that didn’t justify people calling her names like ‘Ice Queen’ or ‘Deadly Rose’—actually, she kind of liked the second one. It was an injustice! She had only been defending her right to choose her own love, and earned a reputation as some kind of frigid bitch! Hana was nice! She loved people! How dare they sully her name so!?

Well, that was how she ended up in the academy, anyway. Then, somehow she’d found herself in Lady Hayakawa’s inner circle, despite her common background. That just meant even more hard work, since she already had a terrible reputation back home, and now everything she did would reflect on Hayakawa. She had to represent her new liege well, to earn her family a cushy position as vassals of the new shogun. The problem was—Hana hated cultivation. It was interminably boring! Meditate for hours, go out and throw punches for another few hours, then meditate about the punches you threw. Repeat forever. Ugh!

Hana just wanted to arrange flowers, gossip with her friends, and maybe find a nice boyfriend—one that didn’t think she was a trophy to win, preferably. Her current partner in the tournament wasn’t too bad, but he was a bit dense. Satou Ryuuji was a stoic boy who had not once noticed her attempts to win him over, despite how often they trained together—maybe he was gay. Still, they worked well together—in a fight—and he hadn’t explicitly turned her down yet, so Hana wasn’t about to give up.

Speaking of giving up—Hana stared uneasily across the arena as her opponents stepped into the ring. Yoshika—Takeda’s nickname for the pair of youkai that were almost never seen apart, Lee Jia and An Eui. They had dour expressions, and while Hana wasn’t entirely sure what it was about, she suspected it had something to do with Master Ienaga calling them out for an extra lesson with Lady Hayakawa. Their rivalry with her was no secret, and Lady Hayakawa could be a bit...prickly at times. Hana had tried befriending her more than once, but Hayakawa had been quite firm that her only interest in Hana was her strength as a cultivator. If Hana couldn’t crack that shell—well, Lee Jia was nice enough, and cute as a button, but An Eui had all the charm of a knife in the gut.

Hana had fought Yoshika before—often with Satou as her partner. It was actually one of the most common sparring arrangements in their class. Their record was...not great. Hana had won a few times early on, while the two were still figuring out their martial arts, but they had improved fast, and it was an open secret that they had a dual-cultivation style that made the two of them much stronger together than they were individually. Add to that the fact that Lee Jia had individually fought Lady Hayakawa to a standstill and...

“Are you sure we can’t just forfeit? Of all the luck, we just had to get them in the first round.”

Hana pouted miserably as Satou just shook his head in response to her grumbling.

“It’s bad luck, but think of it as a survival match. If we can push them somewhat, then that will reflect well on us.”

Hana sighed.

“Fine! On one condition.”

“You already agreed to compete in this tournament with me—in fact, you asked me to join you.”

That’s because she thought they’d bond over the camaraderie—Hana ignored his protest.

“If we can last more than one minute, you have to take me out on a date.”

Satou raised an eyebrow at her.

“A minute?”

She blushed.

“That’s a long time for a fight!”

Satou was silent for a few moments.

“Five minutes.”

“Wha—that’s eternity! Two minutes at most!”

“We’ve got to manage a better showing than that. Three minutes.”

Hana huffed indignantly—was he really so against the idea of dating her?

“They're both third stage! One minute, and if I manage to land a blow you also have to buy me flowers. Plantable ones!”

Satou actually chuckled, and Hana was proud of herself for breaking his stoic expression.

“Alright, fine. Flowers, though—really?”

Hana’s blush spread even futher.

“I like flowers!”

The pair readied themselves for battle as the instructor announced them, locking eyes with their opponents. Hana noticed a change in Lee and An’s expressions.

“Is it just me, or do they look like they’re in a better mood than they were thirty second ago?”

“I’m sure they’re just psyching themselves up for the match.”

Hana looked askance at her partner. Why would they need to psych themselves up? She didn’t bother arguing, though. They sprang into action as soon as they heard the signal to begin. Satou ran forward—not far, just enough to defend Hana while she began to channel her own techniques. Like most of her countrymen, Hana had struggled with the complex magical theorems required for the arcane arts—though she’d awakened her mana sense easily enough. The spiritual arts, however, came fairly naturally to her once Lee Jia’s awakening stone had helped her get past the initial hurdle. In particular, one of the techniques that Yan Yue offered to teach had been practically made for her.

Lee and An charged forward in perfect synchronization, splitting off at exactly the same moment to surround Satou—a familiar pattern. It was eerie how well-timed their movements were, though. Hana wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but there was just an unsettling quality to the way they moved. She set her concerns aside and focused on countering their opening assault. They had planned this ahead and knew exactly what they planned to do. Satou focused his attention on An, while Hana watched Lee.

The reasoning was simple—Lee’s attacks were fast, but weak if you could avoid getting hit in pressure points, and while An’s attacks weren’t slow per se, they were extremely deadly. As the two of them closed in on Satou, he completely ignored Lee Jia’s attacks, concentrating only on avoiding An Eui’s deadly onslaught. When Lee’s first blows struck, Hana allowed the power swirling within her dantian to materialize. Lee’s claws didn’t touch Satou, instead causing a small flurry of pink flower petals as each strike was deflected.

Hana grinned. Her spiritual art was a wood-element technique that focused on defense, and though she had absolutely no confidence in blocking An Eui’s absurdly destructive blows, Lee Jia’s precision strikes were a perfect match for her. The pink blossoms weren’t just for show, either—her technique absorbed the force of an attacker's blows, focused it into a cutting power, and reflected it back. Hana had never even bothered to remember the name of the technique as Yan had described it, choosing instead to make it her own, restyling it as her own Dance of the Cherry Blossom technique.

The very instant that Lee Jia’s attack was deflected, both her and An Eui disengaged Satou at exactly the same time. Hana felt that same sense of unease as the two of them locked on to her. They hadn’t said anything, hadn’t communicated, hadn’t even looked at each other as far as Hana could tell, yet they had both reacted to the same thing at the same time. Something wasn’t right, but she didn’t have time to ponder it as Lee’s lightning step brought her instantly into close quarters with Hana—that part, at least, was going to plan.

Hana’s Cherry Blossoms worked even better when she used them to defend herself, since she didn’t have to project the manifestation at a distance. Not only did Hana manage to block Lee’s initial flurry reflexively, but the combination of the reactive razor petals and Hana’s own offensive quickly put Lee on the back foot. Hana pressed her advantage, knowing that she wouldn’t have much time before Lee rallied, or An Eui caught up to them. Luckily, they had a plan for the latter.

Instead of chasing An, Satou ran further back from her. The reason for that became apparent as An Eui skidded to a halt before reaching Hana. Satou had been working on his own version of the Domain of the Earthen Realm—a favorite among the boys, after Zheng Long and Xin Wei had repeatedly demonstrated the strength of the technique. Rather than a field of increased gravity, Satou Ryuuji created a gravitational tether between himself and another, and the further away his opponent got, the stronger the force would be.

To her credit, An Eui didn’t hesitate to change her tactics, immediately casting an earth pillar spell to launch herself back in the direction of the fleeing Satou. That bought Hana some time alone with Lee, who had managed to transition infuriatingly quickly from the rapid-fire spear-hands of the Lightning God Transformation to the more defensive reactionary style of the Soft Fist. Hana was still pressing the offensive, but despite that, it felt like Lee was in total control of their exchange.

Something was bothering Hana. She knew that Lee was capable of more than this, but it felt as if she was holding back and biding her time for something. What was it? Was she planning on using that insane technique of hers against them? No, there’d be no point in holding back just for that. Hana frowned as she tried to make sense of it. It worked for her, since she wanted the fight to last longer anyway, but it bothered her as a fighter.

In the distance, Satou and An had reengaged each other, and Hana knew that she was running out of time. Satou couldn’t hold An Eui off by himself for very long, and once he went down, she had no hope. Hana redoubled her efforts, focusing entirely on offense and leaving more openings than she could actually cover with her Blossoms, gambling that Lee wouldn’t know where the real openings were or get lucky enough to strike at them. The gambit paid off—as Lee Jia attempted to counter one of her attacks, Hana’s Blossom deflected Lee’s strike and left her open to retaliation. Hana took advantage of the opening, brazenly throwing a straight punch at Lee’s head. Though she avoided the strike, the movement forced Lee into the path of the razor blossom, which drew a thin line of red across her cheek.

Hana cheered mentally as Lee Jia wiped the blood from her face. It was obviously a superficial wound, but she was going to count it. She also did a quick mental check to confirm how long the fight had been going, and they’d almost reached a full minute—Hana’s mental awakening hadn’t gone entirely wasted. Hana had made it to her goal—though she was still a bit nervous about whatever it was that Lee and An were stalling for.

As if responding to her thoughts, the very second that a full minute had passed, the battle changed. As oppressive pressure descended on Hana, nearly paralyzing her with nausea, then Lee's movement’s suddenly accelerated beyond anything she could follow. In a panic, she threw up the strongest barrier her Dance of the Cherry Blossom could muster, but Lee Jia’s strike tore through it like paper, somehow annihilating it without even triggering the counter-attack. Hana screamed in pain as Lee’s claws effortlessly tore into her shoulder as if her flesh was nothing but soft clay.

The fight drained from Hana in an instant as she clutched at her bleeding shoulder. What was that!? Lee Jia had used the Six Arms of Asura? How!? Hana didn’t see what had happened to Satou, but it became clear that he had been dispatched just as swiftly once An Eui approached, looming over her menacingly. Hana fought back tears as she squeaked out her surrender.

“Y-yield!”

Both of her assailants softened their expression at once, and Hana finally realized what had been bothering her. They hadn’t just been doing things at the same time—they’d been acting as one. They were somehow using their dual cultivation technique in the middle of battle, without even touching each other. She wanted to groan in frustration, but it came out as more of a whimper as she held her wounded shoulder.

An Eui knelt down next to her and Hana felt the wood-element essence of life flowing through her body, a perfect match for her own affinity. An Eui whispered an apology as Hana’s damaged shoulder began to knit itself back together.

“Sorry about that. We’re not really used to doing that, and it was hard to control.”

For the first time, Hana noticed that the arm Lee Jia had used to attack her was hanging limply at her side, dripping blood—backlash from the Six Arms. Yet An Eui had prioritized healing Hana first. She felt her pride had been wounded even worse than her shoulder had as she sighed in exasperation.

“Why? You didn’t have to use a technique like that to beat us, and if you’d gone all-out from the start, we wouldn’t have lasted ten seconds! Was it just to toy with us? Test a new technique against someone too weak to stand a chance against you?”

Hana struggled to keep the bitterness out of her voice, but An just grinned at her.

“Enjoy your date!”

Hana froze. They had heard her. Youkai had way better senses than regular humans, but that distinction tended to be a lot smaller among cultivators, especially since martial artists also had enhanced senses. She had been certain that her conversation with Satou Ryuuji had been quiet enough to be private, but clearly she was wrong. They had heard her, and they had held back...for her. It all made sense now, why they had seemed to be stalling, why the fight had ended the very second her goal had been met—had Lee even taken a wound on purpose? Judging from the expression on her face, Hana wouldn’t be surprised if she had.

She lay back and stared blankly at the sky. Hana was surprised how much it rankled her pride to know that a pair of cultivators who had been mortals a year ago had so thoroughly defeated her. The fact that she had only accomplished the goal she worked so hard for—as trivial as she thought that it was—because they let her. What could she say to that? How should she respond to being so utterly crushed? There was only one thing she could say.

“You two are my new best friends. I owe you one.”

Hana was really looking forward to that date.