Ichi looked at the bowing Myon, her long ponytail drifted down from her back to the ground.

"Fight me."

Myon showed her palms to Ichi in surrender while she smiled.

"I'm tired, please spare me."

"Later?"

And so the morning after, Ichi was on the grass in his Grandpa's garden for the hundredth time, already.

"Can I have a break? No, let me rest. No, buy me ticket out of this town. No, smuggle me out. You leave for work, right? We can do it then."

"You're cute when you complain." Myon pushed her ponytail away from her chest and it swung to her back.

"I have my pride." Ichi said. He thought it's unfair to fight someone who who's been fighting a secret war across the world all her life. Because Myon is a girl, he wanted to win no matter what. Because Myon looked down on him, he wanted to win no matter what. But because Myon was Myon, there wasn't a chance for him to win. And Renya? Ichi lowered his expectations as he crawled back up.

"Renya doesn't seem that strong." Ichi remembered her vice grip. Might as well have been a robot. At this point, he would accept it if someone told him about her without complaint. She did like math, normal girls don't like math, Ichi grumbled.

Myon came over, rubbing Ichi on the back. She'd been tossing him all morning, the rough skinship payed off for their bitter relationship.

"It'd be nice if you told me what Syon said. I could take a guess at what she's thinking about Renya. Even if Renya's an amateur at fighting, from watching her, I feel like it wouldn't even take her a single week to become someone worth fighting with my full strength."

So Myon wasn't the only one who got that sense? Ichi didn't know why he thought the same thing about her. Must be because Renya's always doing math. Math makes you better at everything, which is why only smart people did it. Ichi didn't think himself as smart. At least not math smart.

"There's no way anyone knows what that Idiyon is thinking."

Ichi thought about whacking her hand on his back away. Although he hated to admit it to himself he liked it. And he couldn't deny the appeal of her appearance. To Ichi, her appearance was an insurmountable wall. If Myon was uglier or didn't have those mountains on her chest, Ichi felt for sure he'd be able to shrug her off no problem. Myon's hold on Ichi worried him all morning.

Which was why he gained distance instead, breaking his stick into two and held them crossed together in an x symbol. At least, he thought, I'll feel like I'm trying to win at something.

Myon took a stance, using only her body as she did all morning.

"You're right. There's no knowing what my misty eyed sister is thinking. Which is why you should trust me. If there's anyone you should trust, it should be me."

Ichi switched the white stick into a backwards grip with a twirl, then lunged forward. He stabbed under Myon's armpit. Like Myon saw many times before, it sucked her body towards it, holding her there. But the stick held only her shoulder and arm, she could move her feet fine. And before Ichi could see it he hit the grass again. Breathing out and sweating, Ichi cursed his speed.

He wanted to use the black stick's repelling ability against her legs, but Myon was simply too fast. She's too competent. The gulf between them felt like heaven and earth. Ichi resented Myon.

"You're right." Ichi said, responding to Myon's insistence to trust her. "The smart thing would be trusting you."

Myon giggled lightly.

"So, there's no chance, is there?"

"If Renya kills me, please put on my tombstone 'here lies an idiot who died because he saved a stupid cat'."

Myon weaved her fingers together behind her back, looking down on Ichi's heaving body.

"I could back you up with cover fire. Jump in if the fight gets too hot. You don't need to fight her alone."

Ichi reached behind his back, pulling out a piece of paper. This paper was his trump card, a shikigami to summon a tengu. He flapped it about at Myon.

"I'll use this against you."

"Not against Renya?" Myon said.

"That would be cheating. I'd rather die than use this against her."

Myon laughed.

"Could it be, you've fallen for a dangerous girl?"

"I don't like it. This situation. This village. The seer's council," Ichi rose to his feet. "I'm going to break them all. If I can't even win against some flat math girl who has been all over me for the past couple months, then there's no way I can beat all of you."

Myon's face went straight. Her arms swung to her sides. Then, her fists gripped themselves tight.

"I'm strong," Myon started, looking Ichi in the eyes. "Really strong. With Syon by my side, I've beaten opponents that would make you into tomato paste within a second and think nothing of it. Our seer's council, they are on a higher level than that. They're so powerful, that even Syon estimates we could kill only a few, and that's if we managed to fight them one on one."

"So?" Ichi shrugged.

"You don't understand. Syon's a genius, she-"

"Idiyon's got her head in the clouds," Ichi pointed his black stick at Myon. "You want to crush them, too, don't you?"

Myon looked to the side, her lips parted as she whispered out.

"I'm too smart for silly things like that."