Takeda Rika was currently regretting her decisions. She hated Lord Noguchi’s stupid face and his simpering attitude. She hated getting dressed up in a kimono and wearing makeup. She hated the deference she had to show to ‘Lady’ Hayakawa in order to preserve the shogunate’s reputation. She especially hated how slow they had been travelling—a result of bringing along a significant entourage that was apparently appropriate and expected of a political envoy. Finally, she hated that after two years of secluded training, walking around in the open with her real body exposed was making Rika feel a little bit agoraphobic. She had even asked Hayakawa Kaede if she could just stay in the guest quarters and send a doppelganger, but apparently that would be ‘inappropriate’.

So she politely sat in Lord Noguchi’s estate, making pointless small talk while Hayakawa politely rebuffed the man’s attempts to gain political favors—and less politely turned down his thinly veiled attempts to court her, which was gross since he was twice her age. It took every ounce of Rika’s self-control to not just storm out and return home. That, and the rather incredible offer she’d managed to squeeze out of Hayakawa for her service—the Takeda clan was about to become much more prominent. Maybe they’d finally have some students that were grateful enough to actually return to the dojo after fucking off to the army.

Rika’s prayers for something more interesting to happen were answered by a man bursting into the room unannounced. The man had the tanned skin of someone living in the more rural parts of Yamato, with dark narrow eyes and a hawkish expression. He must have been quite high status to barge in unannounced as he did, and Rika’s suspicions were confirmed when she sensed the essence his aura gave off—definitely somewhere in the second stage, higher than Lord Noguchi himself.

Not that it was uncommon for the nobility to slack off in their martial arts. Especially lesser nobles like Noguchi. There was a reason he was the regent of a sleepy border province with no strategic importance. In the event of a sudden war with Goryeo, he’d be the buffer between the enemy and the parts of the country that were worth protecting—a sacrificial pawn.

The intruding man bowed hurriedly.

“My apologies for interrupting, my lord—ladies. I have an urgent message from the border!”

Lord Noguchi grimaced, his greasy features twisting into an ugly expression as he was interrupted from yet another ill-advised attempt to solicit Hayakawa for favors or marriage.

“What is it, Kano!? I’m entertaining Lady Hayakawa at the moment. Surely whatever this is can wait!”

The messenger—Kano, apparently—hesitated, but shook his head.

“No, I’m afraid not. In fact, it might be even better that Lady Hayakawa is here, as this may be a matter of national security that affects her diplomatic mission.”

Lord Noguchi groaned with irritation.

“Ugh! Out with it, then! This had better be good!”

Rika felt bad for the poor minister as he quailed before the lord’s threats—no urgent message about national security was ever going to be good news. To his credit, the man pressed on anyway.

“Two unknown Goryeon agents have appeared in Urayama village. Powerful mages—third stage at least, possibly xiantian. They were witnessed by the Tennin overcoming a xiantian level youkai in combat.”

Hayakawa raised an eyebrow at the man.

“And? I defeated a xiantian level beast back when I was still in the second stage. Recently awakened youkai aren’t nearly as threatening as they sound.”

Kano turned and bowed deeply to Hayakawa.

“With all due respect, my lady—the Tennin is an extremely powerful onmyouji, and claimed that she would not have been able to defeat the youkai in question herself.”

Rika wasn’t sure who or what the “Tennin” was, but she knew that priests like that were often the guardians of rural villages close to the wilderness. Hayakawa didn’t seem to know either, but she didn’t let herself show it as she responded.

“I see. What can you tell us about these two agents? Did they say what their purpose was?”

The minister shook his head.

“They claimed to be wandering mages who stumbled on the village by chance, but they were dressed in kimono and asked after you directly, Lady Hayakawa. I don’t believe that it’s a coincidence that they arrived in the province so close to your own arrival.”

Lord Noguchi’s eyes widened.

“Treachery, do you think? An assassination attempt?”

Kano hesitated before answering.

“I can’t say, my lord. It does seem suspicious that such powerful mages would be seeking out Lady Hayakawa when she’s already on route to Goryeo. I tried to warn the village elders against letting them meet the Tennin, but—well, you know how she can be. ”

“Ugh, that woman is such a thorn in my side! If they didn’t contribute to the draft each year I’d have sent the army in years ago to...”

Rika tuned out Lord Noguchi’s grumbling while Hayakawa began to frown in contemplation. Something was bothering Rika about the whole thing. Two powerful half-spirit mages who just showed up randomly in a village, tactlessly asking about one of the heads of state, who by sheer coincidence just happened to be in the same province on a diplomatic mission? Nobody was that stupid and lucky—unless...

“What did they look like? The mages.”

The minister was surprised that Rika had spoken up, since she’d been silent the entire time, but since she was an aide to Hayakawa he gave her a respectful bow before answering.

“Er, I didn’t have the chance to meet them myself, but according to the villagers they took the appearance of young girls. No doubt a plot to be intentionally disarming.”

Hayakawa sat up straight and met Rika’s eyes with a look of disbelief. She had realized it too. Rika couldn’t let herself get too excited. It was ridiculous to imagine—an impossible coincidence! Yet who else could manufacture such impossibilities like those two?

“Did they give names? Who are these mages?”

Minister Kano nodded curtly.

“I can’t confirm their identities, but the names they gave were Lee Jia and An Eui.”

Rika shot to her feet.

“We’re going! Right now!”

“Ri—Takeda, wait!”

Rika was already halfway out the door by the time Hayakawa found her voice. Rika turned back to glance over her shoulder at her employer.

“I listened to you once, and I regretted it for two years afterwards. I’m not letting them slip away again, so you can either come with me or stay out of my way!”

“Damnit, Rika!”

Hayakawa began to chase after her before pausing and turning back to address her host.

“My apologies for the sudden departure, but if those two mages are who they claim to be, then it is imperative that we find them. I hope you’ll keep this incident between us.”

Lord Noguchi smiled graciously.

“Of course, my lady! I shall be the very picture of discretion.”

Hayakawa grimaced at the familiar tone—she’d be paying for that discretion later. In the meantime, she turned to address Minister Kano.

“You’re with us. We’re making our way to this Urayama village with all haste, and you’ll be guiding us there.”

To his credit, Kano didn’t even check with his liege before bowing politely.

“Of course, my lady. Right this way.”

Yoshika’s domain was unmistakable. Though Rika hadn’t felt it in years, there was no way she would ever forget the indescribable beauty of the bond that Jia and Eui had created with each other—something that Rika was terribly envious of—or the feeling of comfort and safety it extended to her as part of her own bond with the pair of unusual cultivators. All of that combined with an undertone of intensity which reminded Rika that without her bond to Yoshika, the shadows would harbor only endless dangers. It was so uniquely Yoshika that every insecurity Rika had about being mistaken or getting her hopes crushed vanished in an instant. It was them and they were alive!

Hayakawa didn’t understand Rika’s excitement. Though she was hopeful that they might have chanced upon Lee Jia and An Eui, she didn’t share the same level of enthusiasm for that fact. She also couldn’t sense Yoshika’s domain, experiencing it only as a vague sense of unease as the atmosphere seemed to change around her. Her mana sense was still weak—barely in the second stage after two years of training—but she had learned to combine it with her own intuition to develop a sort of battle sense that had served her well. Rika shot off ahead, but Hayakawa maintained her composure—they’d already run the entire way to the village at the fastest pace that poor Minister Kano could match, and the man was quite haggard.

While Kaede was contemplating how she would meet Jia and Eui after such a long time, Rika made it to the foot of the mountain and saw them. Jia’s pretty white hair had grown a bit since last she’d seen it, but Rika easily recognized the familiar cat ears and the distinctive golden eyes. Next to her, as always, was Eui. She stuck to Jia’s side and eyed everything around her warily, her long dark hair covering half of her face—hiding the brand on her forehead—made her seem as if she was trying to disappear into the background. The only things that betrayed Eui as anything other than a regular human were the prehensile rat tail behind her, and the faintly glowing red eye visible on the side of her face not hidden by hair.

Rika was overcome by emotion—she had begun to think she’d never see them again! Without thinking, she summoned two of her clones at the edge of her domain and tackled each of them in a hug, which was a bit tricky since she was so much taller than them.

“Yoshika! You’re alive! I missed you guys so much! Where have you been!? Why didn’t you contact us sooner? How have neither of you managed to get any taller!?”

Tears were forming in the corners of Rika’s eyes as she bombarded Yoshika with questions from two directions at once. Their response came in that strange chorus that indicated Yoshika was speaking and not one of the two girls that formed her.

“Rika! It’s good to see you! We missed you too!”

Rika’s main body caught up to the pair, still held down by her crying clones—perfect. She advanced on them, infusing ki into each of her hands and delivering a full force flick to each of their foreheads. Their heads shot back from the unexpected assault.

“Ow! What the fuck, Rika!? What was that for!?”

Rika put her hands on her hips and stared down at the two, making use of her full six-foot height to loom over the much shorter girls as they rubbed their heads painfully.

“Seriously, where the hell have you been!?”

“Hayakawa is with you right? Let’s wait for her to catch up and we can all discuss it together. Also, wow, you’ve gotten way better with your clones! Even with our domain we can’t tell which is which—are they all projecting extensions of your domain? That’s so cool—”

Rika cut Yoshika off with another flick to the foreheads.

“Ugh! Some things never change—you’re still as cultivation-brained as ever. You do realize that there’s more to life than just getting stronger, right?”

“O-of course! We were just impressed...”

Rika sighed wearily. They were impressed. As if Rika couldn’t feel the raw power flowing around them, threatening to crush her with their presence alone—just what the hell had they been doing for the last two years? No wonder the villagers and that minister got so freaked out. As if on cue, Minister Kano and Hayakawa Kaede arrived. Hayakawa eyed the two girls nervously, despite the rather comical appearance of Rika’s clones hanging off of each of them. Neither Hayakawa nor Yoshika seemed to know what to say, but before Rika could try breaking the tension, Hayakawa bowed politely—not a deep bow, but probably more than was proper for a lady of her standing.

“Miss Lee, Miss An—I am glad to see you well. I understand that we did not part on the best of terms, and that I owe you both an apology. The descent of the gods was a trying time, and I do not believe I conducted myself in a manner appropriate to my station. I apologize.”

Yoshika blinked in confusion in that oddly synchronized and vaguely creepy way of hers, before Jia extricated herself from Rika’s grip and approached Hayakawa. Rika noticed that the look in Eui’s eyes had shifted in a subtle way that indicated they were no longer linked together—one of the small things that she had picked up on from their time together in the grand academy. Jia stood before Hayakawa Kaede with a smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes, then reached up and slapped her across the face. It wasn’t a particularly hard slap—as martial artists measured such things—but the resounding smack froze solid everybody present except for Jia and Eui. Still smiling, Jia bowed politely as Hayakawa slowly brought a hand up to her own reddening cheek.

“Your apology is accepted, Lady Hayakawa. I believe that we are now even. The Lady Tennin has asked me to extend to you an invitation to discuss the rest over tea at her temple.”

Rika stared slack jawed at Hayakawa’s wide-eyed expression of complete shock. Jia was insane, but Rika couldn’t help but be glad that after two years someone had finally done it.