Jaehwa’s surrender was a cathartic experience. It had been more than just a forfeit of the match—Sun had submitted to her entirely, and Yoshika knew that the girl wouldn’t dare cause any more trouble for her. Yoshika didn’t hate the small part of herself that felt sorry for Jaehwa as she broke down into sobbing tears, as annoying as it was. Without it, she knew that she risked becoming like Yan Ren—she still shuddered to recall the cold, matter-of-fact way he had told her that he wouldn’t hesitate to murder her if it was convenient to do so. Nevertheless, she locked that little part of herself away for now—Jaehwa deserved much worse than Yoshika had dealt her.

The match itself had been a lot of fun, and though she had crushed Jaehwa’s team entirely, it hadn’t been without hiccups. Yue wasn’t able to confound the entire team at once, so they had to lure them out one at a time, and separating them was a challenge. Jaehwa had also caught on to the illusions much sooner than they had counted on, and although she’d made some poor assumptions in the process, it still meant that Yoshika’s team had needed to improvise. Sun’s inattentiveness to her ‘subordinates’ had been her downfall, in the end. She simply failed to notice when a few of them went missing, which gave Yoshika’s team time to infiltrate while they were distracted by Rika setting off traps with her doubles.

In the end, Yoshika herself did precious little. She hadn’t even gotten the opportunity to test her new artifact—the gloves on her hands went unused. Her domain, though—it was practically singing after the match. Working together with her close friends, using each of their abilities to bring out the maximum potential of the others, and defeating their enemies without a fight was a perfect expression of her domain, and Yoshika expected to make good progress on her meditation that night.

There was only one obstacle left for her in the tournament—Hayakawa Kaede. Yoshika sat with her teammates at her home that night—less Dae, who participated via speaking stone. In her improved mood, Yoshika had returned to speaking in Jia’s voice.

“Our next opponents are Hayakawa’s team. We had hoped not to face her until the finals, but ‘fate’ seems to have something else in mind. Any ideas?”

Rika scratched her head and shrugged.

“Not really? I mean, you almost beat her by yourself right? It’s one third stage cultivator against three, and that’s without even considering Yoshika being Yoshika.”

Dae’s voice responded through the speaking stone, and Yoshika could imagine him shifting his posture awkwardly.

“Eh, well it’s not necessarily so simple, hehe. Certainly Miss Jia and I both gave Miss Hayakawa a challenge in our individual matches, but I don’t have another Gravity Trap talisman—the first was already an expensive experiment—and neither is Miss Hayakawa going to be alone.”

Yue leaned back in her seat and smirked, tucking a stray hair that had fallen loose from her bun back behind her ear.

“Hayakawa was cautious of me during the qualifiers. Do we have any reason to believe that she’ll be able to resist my powers? As powerful as she is, she has a glaring weakness in spiritual defense.”

Eunae shook her head at that.

“She knows that as well as you do. Hayakawa was there when we deafened ourselves against you during the mountain expedition. I doubt that she’ll hesitate to do the same.”

“Tsk, my illusions aren’t entirely sound based. Especially not now that I have such a lovely dance to match my song.”

Rika interjected.

“I’ve tried stalling Hayakawa with illusions before, but she just smashes through them like everything else. If you can’t hit her mind directly, the illusion’s not going to do much.”

Yue bit her thumbnail before slowly glancing towards Eunae, who carefully set her teacup down before turning toward Yue and cracking her eyelids open just a fraction.

“Yue, I suggest you think very carefully before speaking your next words. I trust you wouldn’t be considering using my power on Miss Hayakawa.”

Eunae’s tone didn’t change one bit from her usual friendly, composed demeanor, but the room’s atmosphere grew icy as Yue averted her gaze and shook her head.

“N-no. Of course not.”

Though most of the group had gotten used to Yue, and even grown closer to her over the last months, Eunae still held a grudge against her for forcing the use of her power against Jia. Yoshika cleared her throat to gain the room’s attention as she changed the subject.

“We’re getting off track. As Dae pointed out, Hayakawa isn’t our only opponent. We know about Hayakawa, Hana, and Satou’s abilities—what about the others?”

Rika scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Toshi’s barely touched the other disciplines—pure martial artist, just like his goddess. Earth element technique where he hardens his body and hits really hard. Nothing special, really. The other two, I don’t know.”

Yoshika nodded in confirmation of Rika’s evaluation of Miyata Toshiharu. They’d sparred occasionally in class, and his technique was pretty simple. He always refused to face Eui. It was Dae who filled in the blanks.

“Tokuda Ryo and Ozaki Keiji are also pure martial artists in style, though Hayakawa has ensured that her entire team is fully awakened in all three disciplines, she hasn’t enforced any particular doctrine in expanding their practice. Tokuda uses the same technique as Miyata, while Ozaki uses a corrosion element technique.”

That caught Yoshika’s attention, Jia’s ears perking up with interest.

“Corrosion? What kind of style is it?”

“Well, he wasn’t very forthcoming about it, hehe. I suspect it is similar in principle to Miss Jia’s Lightning God Transformation. It doesn’t seem to be as mobile, but he boasted that he can do significant damage even if his strikes are blocked or he lands only grazing blows.”

That fit the profile for the corrosion element, and Yoshika was willing to bet that it was even worse if it landed a pressure point strike. It would be weak to mana shields, though—his grazing blows would mean precious little if his infectious ki was blocked. It was clearly a technique meant for fighting other martial artists.

“So then our main concerns are Hayakawa, Satou’s tether, and Hana’s reactive shield technique. We were going easy on them, but Hana and Satou caught us off guard with how much they’d progressed their spiritual techniques.”

There was a round of nods as well as an audible confirmation from Dae. The other three weren’t much of a concern, but Hayakawa was much stronger than a typical martial artist of her level, while Hana and Satou had troublesome support abilities that would multiply Hayakawa’s abilities even further. Dae’s voice came through the spirit stone, with a hint of concern.

“Miss Yoshika’s aura might not work very well against martial artists, they are sturdy enough to shrug off the worst effects of it—especially Hayakawa and Ozaki, since he has a natural affinity for corrosion.”

It didn’t need to be said that Hayakawa was simply too strong to be brought low by the aura. Yoshika had already experienced as much during Jia’s match with her, though it would be much more powerful while Yoshika was together. Yoshika took a mental step back and tried to consider her own team’s abilities.

By herself, Yoshika had a small arsenal of simple spells, mainly in the form of lightning bolts, stone walls, and shields. She had a defensive martial art that she could use with either body, and aggressive ones for each—one which focused on speed, and another with unstoppable force. She could also weaken her opponents or dispel magic with her spiritual auras, and the range of her domain made scouting superfluous. Her other abilities, like Steps of the Stalker, were only for life or death emergencies—she was still a bit nervous about Yan Ren’s presence in the academy.

Rika could be in two places at once, and her communication between bodies was almost as good as Yoshika’s. Unfortunately, her range was much shorter, but in a tight skirmish she’d be able to single-handedly outnumber one opponent, or spread her contributions out and support wherever she was needed. She had also demonstrated that she could make her copies look like someone else, though they would still have her voice. It could sow a bit of confusion, but Yoshika doubted it would see much use in the upcoming fight.

Dae was a perfect long-range support. His unique spell-trigger technique let him cast spells with a speed and flexibility that Yoshika hadn’t seen any other mage even come close to approaching. He lacked power, but he could support multiple allies at once, and had a spell for every occasion.

Eunae was a complicated one to place. Her soulfire attacks would be devastating if she could land them, but Hayakawa’s team would no doubt be on the lookout for them, and they were slow. Her actual spellcasting wasn’t nearly as good as Dae’s—she had a similar repertoire and cast skillfully, but Dae would cast two spells or more for each one of Eunae’s. Like Yoshika’s ancestral technique, Eunae’s gaze was a life-or-death only technique that wouldn’t be seeing any use during the match—though it made her technically the single most dangerous person on Yoshika’s team.

Lastly, Yue. Her powers were a good counter to Hayakawa, who hadn’t had the time to refine her spiritual defenses, but Yue’s song was simple enough to counteract if one knew what to prepare for. Yoshika considered it for a moment—her own Fetid Bog technique was a spiritual attack that she could deliver through her domain. Would it be possible for Yue to evolve her Melody in a similar way? Did Yoshika want her to? She knew what that technique was capable of when fully realized, and making such a detestable power stronger gave her pause. Then again, Yue was her friend now—one of the few close enough to form a tangible bond within her domain, along with Eunae, Rika, and Dae—and Yoshika wanted to think that she could trust her. She just couldn’t shake the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that told her Yue might betray them again the moment she no longer depended on them. It was a difficult decision, but the potential trump card against her most powerful rival was too much to pass up.

“Alright. We have a few days to prepare while the other matches are being held. I think we should focus on training. Dae, do you think you can make a watered down version of that gravity trap spell? Maybe something we can link together?”

Dae’s voice was excited as he responded over the speaking stone.

“Oh! That’s not a bad idea! I think I might be able to teach you and Miss Eunae something that might suffice in time.”

“Good. Eunae, your soulfire is going to be one of our trump cards against Hayakawa. If we can trap her long enough to hit her with it, she’ll be out of the fight. Rika, you’re going to work on close support. Our best bet against Hayakawa’s team is going to be a tight skirmish, so we’re going to practice protecting the mages in close quarters. Yue...we might have a way to improve your Melody of the Dreaming Moon through your domain. We’ll work on it together over the next few days. Any other questions or suggestions?”

There weren’t, as each of her friends and teammates understood their roles in the upcoming battle and how to train for it in the intervening days. Yoshika allowed herself a bit of pride—she was starting to get the hang of this leadership thing. Eventually, Eunae and Rika excused themselves and left Yoshika with her once-unwelcome roommate. When they were alone, Yoshika eyed Yue thoughtfully until Yue noticed her gaze and raised a curious eyebrow.

“Can I help you, Yoshika? I assume you’re still joined, since both of you are staring at me. Is there a reason for that, by the way?”

Yoshika shrugged.

“We wanted to try living like this for a bit, to see what it was like.”

“And?”

“We’ve got mixed feelings about it. It’s an extremely intimate experience, but some things are better as two distinct personalities.”

Yue gave Yoshika a knowing smile that almost guaranteed that she was intentionally taking that the wrong way, cocking her head playfully.

“I see. That still doesn’t explain why you were staring at me. I hope you haven’t fallen in love! Not that I could blame you, but you’ll have to be satisfied just looking—I’m not interested in women.”

Yoshika grimaced.

“Ugh, not even as a joke, Yue. No offence, but you did instigate one of our most traumatic experiences since becoming cultivators. We may have forgiven you, but that’s not something we’ll ever be able to just forget.”

Yue stared down at her lap, chastened.

“Ah...my apologies. I didn’t mean to overstep.”

“It’s fine. Anyway, despite your best efforts to give us second thoughts about it, we’re going to work with you on improving your Melody of the Dreaming Moon.”

Yue looked askance at Yoshika, biting her thumbnail.

“I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others, and please take this with all due respect, but how do you anticipate improving the core technique that I have based my entire life of cultivation around in just three days with less than a year of experience?”

Yoshika smiled, it was a fair question.

“I’m not entirely sure. One of the first things we learned to do with our domain was to use it to enhance our Fetid Bog aura. It was pretty easy to do with that technique, since it was already an aura, but we thought that it might be possible to do the same with your Melody to bypass the need to hear it.”

Yue considered it in silence for a few moments before slowly shaking her head.

“I’ve already done so. I would have used it against you in our singles match if you had given me enough time to overpower your domain. The trouble is that I can’t maintain the technique in that way for very long—scant seconds at best. Worse, if I do so I require a full night’s meditation to replenish my qi afterwards. Fine for a one on one, but in a larger battle it will render me almost useless unless the effect is immediately decisive.”

Yoshika frowned—she should have guessed that someone as talented as Yue would have already learned how to use her domain to empower techniques. The limitations were harsher than she realized, however. Most likely because Yue was forcing herself to use higher stage applications of the technique than she currently had the energy to perform properly—a reminder of the years of cultivation she’d been forced to give up.

“Maybe we could work on a different application? Something more efficient, like the way Rika creates her doppelgangers.”

“In three days? I appreciate the thought, Yoshika, but I’m afraid we may need to resign ourselves to the fact that I will have precious little to contribute in the upcoming battle.”

Yoshika huffed irritably. She didn’t want to just leave it at that. There had to be something that they could do. A wild idea struck, and she spoke before she’d even had time to process it.

“Teach us! Maybe you’ll gain new insights into the technique as you try to share it.”

Yue gave her an incredulous look.

“Teach you? You do realize that Melody of the Dreaming Moon is a sacred technique which has been passed down from mother to daughter for generations, right?”

“You didn’t seem to mind much when you were teaching it to Ishihara.”

Yue blushed and averted her eyes.

“Well that was different. I just gave him some bare basics and let him come up with the rest on his own. If I taught Jia, I’d teach her properly.”

Poor Ishihara. Yoshika shook her heads.

“Not Jia, us. Yoshika. Everything we know we’ve always learned as either Jia or Eui, and then combined the knowledge later. Even our Soft Fist style is something that our two selves each learned independently. We want to try learning something new from the ground up as Yoshika.”

Yue tapped her finger on her lips in thought.

“Interesting...how would that even work? What would the alignment of your soul be?”

Thanks to Hwang and Do’s experiments, Yoshika had an answer to the latter question right away.

“Neutral. Neither yin or yang.”

Yue’s eyes widened.

“I shouldn’t be surprised. It makes sense, but neutral alignment is exceedingly rare. I’ve never met someone like that, much less tried to train them. How would something you learned as Yoshika translate to Jia and Eui anyway?”

“We don’t know, but we’d like to find out. Truth be told, we also don’t completely trust you.”

Yue’s brows furrowed in a hurt expression, but Yoshika preempted her response with a raised hand.

“We want to trust you, but you haven’t got the best track record. A part of us keeps nagging away at the back of our mind, telling us that it’s just a matter of time until you betray us. Either because you find shelter with someone more powerful, or because we’re no longer useful to you. Teaching us your most powerful technique—and how to counter it—would go a long way in easing our fears.”

Yue sighed, looking away wistfully.

“You’re not wrong. I—I’d be lying to you and myself if I claimed I didn’t have that capacity. I’ve already demonstrated as much more than once, and I regret it. As much as you want to trust me, I want to prove that I can be trusted—for my own sake as much as yours. Alright, fine, I’ll teach you the Melody of the Dreaming Moon. Just don’t expect to master it in a few days—even your talent must have some limits.”

Yoshika chuckled and nodded.

“Alright, we’ll look forward to it, then. We can start tomorrow.”

“That works for me. Goodnight, Yoshika. And...thank you—for being open with me about your mistrust. I know that I’ve earned it, and I appreciate the opportunity to prove myself.”

“For better or worse, Yue, we’re friends now. We have to trust each other.”

Yue nodded solemnly before retiring to her room for the night. Yoshika followed suit, settling in to meditate through the night. She sat in her usual pose, each of her bodies sitting across from each other, hands joined. As expected, it was a very productive meditation session—and she could practically feel the power of her domain expanding as she reinforced the bonds that she shared with her closest friends. Yet despite the speed of her growth, she still felt as if the peak of the third stage was impossibly far away—she could see why even talented cultivators like Yue had spent half their lives just training the third stage.

By the time morning came, Yoshika had finished her meditation. At some point Heian had manifested in her cat form and curled up between Jia and Eui to sleep. It wasn’t the first time that Heian had done something like that, and Yoshika took it as a good sign that her spirit familiar was independently choosing to act in the material world.

As she began to rise, she once more felt a strange oppressive feeling. She immediately focused on her domain in search of another presence, but there was nothing. Just a strange, inexplicable feeling of dread. It had been happening more often, and Yoshika was starting to grow concerned. What could be causing that feeling?

She put her concerns aside for now—it was time to start training for yet another confrontation with Hayakawa Kaede. For once, it actually felt like she had a better than even chance of winning.