When I returned to school on Monday morning, the calm of that weekend had already given way to the academy's usual bustle. The week's first Combat class had been scheduled for the afternoon — the class was held in a high-security area specially designed as an arena. It was located on the -3rd floor of Block C, next to the anomaly cages.
In Combat class my aim was clear as always: to spend only enough energy to pass the class, take the passing grade and step aside. By now I actually considered this a philosophy. When I went out onto the field, against the dummy Anomaly simulation in front of me I spent minimum Chi and landed a few precision strikes using only the accuracy my Control stat gave me. The dummy toppled over. On my System screen the words "Passing Grade" appeared. One of the nice things about the system was that, just like an artificial intelligence, it could analyze the situation around you and send you messages. Since it was linked with the school on registration day, you could see things like this too. I was picking up my towel and getting ready to leave the field when a cheerful but challenging voice rose behind me:
"Hey Kai! Being lazy again? I'm so bored, spar with me a little!"
When I turned around I saw Elena smiling at me with a training sword in her hand. Her green eyes were sparkling with excitement.
"Please?" said Elena, pointing her sword at me. At the same time she was looking at me with puppy-dog eyes, repeating "please, please" without stopping.
Seriously? You point a sword at my face and say please? I couldn't understand these people, but there was nothing to be done, I suppose. I turned to Elena, smiled, walked over that way and politely said, "No."
Elena was shocked. Just then Alex, who had finished his training at the side, looked at us and said, "Come on, Kai, would it kill you to train once with your friend? At worst you'll sweat."
I was about to turn to Alex and explain how dangerous sweating is, how it can make people ill, when Elena suddenly attacked. She made the first move on me. I flung her back with a sudden defense, but since I had no sword in my hand I had to block her sword with my hand, and that hurt a bit.
I tossed my towel onto the bench at the edge of the arena and took a wooden training sword in my hand. It was a heavy, badly balanced piece, but I wasn't going to complain. The class had surrounded the arena. Alex had folded his arms across his chest and was watching us with a bossy little smile. Dex, meanwhile, was leaning against the wall, his silver eyes fixed on us.
"Take it easy, Elena, I ate a lunch with all kinds of things in it, I could throw up on you any second," I said in a flat voice.
"No excuses, Kai!"
The moment she finished her sentence, Elena vanished from where she stood.
I knew from her stat panel that her Speed value was 44, but seeing it live was something else entirely. With a Chi explosion beneath her feet, leaving a faint wind behind her, she appeared at my right diagonal within milliseconds. The wooden sword was coming, splitting the air toward my temple.
With a movement of my head I made the blow miss by a centimeter. The wind the sword made as it cut through empty space tossed my hair. Elena didn't pause at all; thanks to her flexibility she spun where she stood and this time swung the sword low toward my left kidney.
*Crack!*
Purely on the reflex my instincts gave me, I brought my own sword down at the right angle. The two wooden swords clanged together. Elena's speed advantage created tremendous momentum, but because her Defense and Attack stats weren't very high her blows weren't hard, only hard to catch.
"Are you only going to run?" Elena whispered, with an eager smile. The moment we locked swords she threw a backflip, opened the distance between us and hurled herself at me again. This time it wasn't a single blow but a downpour of attacks coming from six different points within seconds.
*Crack! Crack! Crack!*
Swinging my sword with minimum movements, I met every one of her blows. My Defense stat was 29, my Attack stat 30. My abilities hadn't maxed out in a single area like hers, but I could control Chi far better than she could. That also meant I perceived far better. I could see the smallest Chi leak in Elena's muscles, the shift in her center of gravity in her foot before she took a step. I understood where she would strike from before she raised that sword of hers.
"You're very fast," I said, deflecting her fifth blow with the hilt of my sword. "But your route is very predictable."
Elena's eyes widened with surprise. The moment she planted her right foot on the ground to land her sixth blow, instead of trying to keep up with her speed stat, I made my move toward the point where she would stop. I tilted my body slightly to the left and struck her wrist hard with the tip of my sword.
The blow cut off her Chi flow for an instant. Elena's hand went numb; I was just about to move on her when with a sudden motion she ducked and leapt backwards to get away from me. I had no intention of letting go either — I had found the opening, and I threw myself forward. Adrenaline had started flowing in me too by now, and I had decided to push myself a bit more — maybe for the first time in my life I felt that, beyond a class, I truly wanted to win. But at exactly that moment, a familiar voice rose from the spectator seats: "I guess I'm not the only girl you harass!"
It was my sister's voice — but why was her voice at the school? I froze for a moment.
I couldn't make sense of what was happening and I suddenly turned toward her. Of course, this was an enormous mistake. Elena's sword, out of control, came right into my nose and broke it.
When I opened my eyes again I was in the infirmary. They had set my nose; thanks to Chi, the nurses could heal fractures very quickly. After I woke up I saw my sister beside me, and beside her was Elena.
At first I didn't understand what had happened, but afterwards my sister said that they had joined their school's annual introductory trip to Neopolis Academy, and that they had seen our duel at exactly that moment. She and her friends had made a bet on who would win, and to win the money she had sabotaged my match and made me lose.
"Kai... I'm really so sorry!" Elena said, clasping her hands in front of her and bowing slightly. "In that moment I completely lost control of my sword. My intention was really just to make a move you'd deflect easily, but when your attention suddenly broke..."
"It's because of me," Elisa cut in. Her face was red with embarrassment, but that sly blue glint in her eyes hadn't completely vanished. "Brother, I really only wanted to make a small joke and distract you. I couldn't have predicted your nose would break, I swear!"
I sat up and leaned my back against the pillow. I threw Elisa a cold look.
"So you wanted to distract me and win the bet," I said in a flat voice. "Sisterly love brings tears to my eyes, Elisa."
Elisa started looking at her big toes like a guilty child. Then she took a thick Bank Tark Card out of her pocket, showed it to me and smiled slightly.
"Um... The amount we won from the bet wasn't bad at all," she said, trying to catch a chirping tone. "To ease my conscience and as blood money for your broken nose... you know that restaurant in the city center you love so much? I'm treating you to a perfect dinner there after school. You can order as much steak as you want, I'm paying the bill!"
Angry as I was on one side, on the other I couldn't help laughing. That was my sister — both responsible for the trouble, and always making up for that trouble more than generously.
"Fine," I said with a sigh. "But this time I'm really going to order something expensive." Elena was still looking at me with eyes full of guilt. "Can I... join your dinner too? I mean, it's not all my fault in the end, but it is a bit."
"Come along," I said, shrugging. "You're the one who broke my broken nose anyway; at least if she refuses to pay halfway through, you'll cover the rest."
Before I left the infirmary, the nurse came over for one last check. She was a young woman in a white Chi treatment uniform, and she passed the scanner in her hand over my nose.
"The fracture has closed completely," she said, looking at the scanner. "Don't eat anything heavy this evening, and don't go into training tomorrow. If anything goes wrong, come back."
"Alright," I said, shrugging. "Thank you."
She nodded, closed the scanner and released me; she had already moved on to her next patient.
When we came out of the infirmary door, the air had cooled and the sky had taken on the orange tones of evening. Elisa grabbed my arm and shook it cheerfully. "Come on, I'm hungry, let's walk!" she said, as if she weren't the person who had sent me to the infirmary a few hours earlier.
"You're always hungry anyway," I said, but I didn't object.
As we left the infirmary and moved down the corridor, Elena stayed beside me, a little behind; she still seemed to feel guilty. "Are you really alright?" she asked, her voice more serious this time.
"I'm fine," I said, looking at her. "Honestly. These things happen, it's part of life. Don't blame yourself this much."
"But while I was watching you," she said, her voice dropping a little, "in that fight, for the first time I felt like I'd really seen you. I mean, not that indifferent Kai I see every day. The moment you read my route, predicted my moves... for an instant you truly seemed to be taking pleasure in life and to want to do something."
I kept walking without answering, because I knew there was a measure of truth in her words but I didn't want to admit it. Elisa must have noticed this silence between the two of us, because she cut in: "Okay, okay, romantic moments are over, I'm dying of hunger, let's walk!"
When evening came, the three of us — me, Elisa, Elena — set off toward the city center.
Before passing the last corridor and going down to the ground floor, we ran into Dex in the hallway — apparently he was there for a class too. When he saw us he stopped, and his eyes caught on the faint bruise on my nose.
"I heard," he said, his voice calm as always. "Are you alright?"
"I'm alive," I said, shrugging. "Elena's sword was faster than me, that's all." A faint smile appeared on Dex's lips. "It's hard to keep up with Elena's speed. But from what I heard, in the rest of the fight you gave her quite a hard time."
Elena, embarrassed behind us, said, "Don't exaggerate," but the smile on her face showed she was actually proud.
Dex looked at me for a moment, then unexpectedly asked: "Kai, would you practice with me sometime too? I'm curious what result that Control-based approach of yours would produce against my twin-blade style."
This offer surprised me — Dex was one of the school's quietest, least socializing students, and it was unusual for him to ask me for something this directly.
"Sure, I suppose," I said. I really had gotten interested, I think; however much I don't want to push myself, I had enjoyed fighting with friends. "But first let's wait for this nose to heal."
Dex nodded, smiled slightly, then went on his way. As I watched him go, Elena whispered, "Dex rarely offers anyone practice. He must really be curious about you."
"There's nothing about me to be curious about," I said.
"That's exactly why he's curious," Elisa said from behind me, without turning around at all.
They both laughed; and I kept walking.