Ja Yun readily agreed to test Rika’s new theoretical method of unifying one’s cultivation—in part because it meant that she got a reprieve from the constant sprinting. She was understandably nervous about the prospect of intentionally breaking down the foundation of her cultivation in order to awaken her other disciplines, but as a third-stage mage, the amount of essence needed would in theory only be a tiny fraction of the mana in her aura. After a long back and forth, Rika and Ja Yun had worked out a meditation method that would hopefully allow Ja Yun to directly transform part of her aura’s foundation into a new foundation for unified cultivation. It was an interesting experiment, but Jia didn’t really have much to contribute once Ja Yun joined Jung and Narae in the wagon to focus on her meditation.

With nothing left to do but wait, Jia, Eui, and Rika walked together alongside the wagon as they chatted.

“Do you think it will work?”

Rika shrugged at Jia’s inquiry.

“Maybe? That’s the point of an experiment, isn’t it? To find out.”

Eui snickered a bit.

“Here I thought you were just trying to find new and creative ways to bully her. You get way too into it sometimes.”

Rika blushed and looked away.

“You’re one to talk, you tiny little sadist! Anyway, Ja Yun’s adorable when she gets all flustered, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I enjoy teasing her. She makes it so easy.”

Eui nodded sagely.

“That she does. Jia always makes me work for it, but I enjoy the challenge—to say nothing of the prize.”

Between her sly grin and the rather amorous emotions Jia could feel from her, Eui’s implications made Jia’s face turn bright red.

“E-Eui!”

Jia’s protestations only drew out more of Eui’s signature cackling laughter, and Rika grinned at the pair of them.

“Aww, look at you two flirting. You guys really are perfect for each other.”

Eui put an arm around Jia’s waist and intertwined her tail with Jia’s, returning Rika’s grin with one of her own.

“Damn right!”

Jia stared down at her feet, blushing at the open display of affection, but enjoying it nonetheless.

“Th-thank you, Rika.”

Rika moved to ruffle Jia’s hair, but a death glare from Eui redirected her at the last moment to pat Jia roughly on the shoulder instead.

“Don’t mention it! Anyway, there was something I wanted to ask you two—well, mostly Jia, but I guess it’s something for Yoshika as a whole...gah, I’m not good at explaining myself...”

Jia cocked her head curiously, looking askance at Rika.

“What’s wrong? It’s rare to see you so flustered. You know you can talk to us about anything, Rika.”

With a hesitant smile, Rika nodded once and composed herself.

“Right, yeah of course. I know that it’s just...”

Eui rolled her eyes as Rika trailed off.

“Just spit it out already!”

“Jia, do you remember that favor you owe me?”

Jia furrowed her brows in confusion, searching her memories for what Rika could be talking about. The answer came to her quickly.

“You mean from when I dueled with Minami Yuuko? You and Dae made force shield talismans for me, then I burned them to prove that I could beat her on my own merits. You still remember that?!”

Rika tapped the side of her head with a smile.

“I may spend most of my effort on spiritual and martial arts, but I am still a mage too, you know. I’ve got the same perfect memory that you do.”

“Uh, right. You know you can just ask, right? I’d be happy to help you with whatever you need—owed favor or no. That’s what friends are for, right?”

Jia felt a little put-out by the fact that Rika was bringing up a vague old debt—it felt weirdly transactional for friends as close as they were. Rika bit her lip and looked away shamefacedly.

“I know, it’s just—this is kind of a big favor, and you did say you’d do anything back then. Although that’s a pretty lame excuse—this absolutely isn’t proportional to ruining a few spell talismans.”

Eui scoffed irritably, losing her patience.

“Oh my ancestors, Rika! Just say it! We’re not gonna get mad at you, but if you keep beating around the bush I might just go insane.”

Rika grimaced.

“Sorry! I was working my way up to it, honest! Alright, I’ll just be direct—Jia, Eui, could you guys let me meditate jointly with you?”

Yoshika stopped in her tracks, turning both heads to meet Rika’s eyes. If it weren’t for her perfect memory, she’d think that she’d somehow misheard her friend. When she responded, it was in a chorus of both her voices.

“Rika, did you just proposition us?”

Rika waved her arms in front of her face urgently.

“No no no! Oh kami, this is what I was afraid of. Not like—like dual cultivation or anything. And not on a permanent basis or anything—I’m not trying to intrude on your relationship, or join it or—”

Jia shook her head, a little bit embarrassed at her own reaction. With their minds split up again, Eui had immediately begun cackling while Jia held a hand out to stop Rika’s rambling.

“Rika, sorry, it’s okay! We didn’t think anything like that—we were just surprised. What’s this about?”

Rika took a moment to compose herself again, blushing fiercely all the while, even as she began to speak again.

“Okay, so you know how my technique lets me control multiple clones of myself?”

Jia glanced up to where Rika was driving the wagon, then back to Rika walking alongside her in front of it.

“I had noticed that, yes.”

Rika slapped her in the shoulder hard enough that it stung a bit.

“When did you get so sarcastic? Yan Yue was a bad influence on you! Anyway, as good as I’ve gotten at functioning with multiple bodies, I’ve hit a bit of a bottleneck with the technique. The problem is that I’ve only got one mind, and I have to split my attention between each of the bodies—it’s really hard.”

Eui raised a quizzical eyebrow at Rika.

“We’ve seen you casting spells while fighting two opponents at once. You seem pretty good at multitasking to me.”

Rika shook her head.

“It’s a trick. I can only really focus on one thing at a time, but if I practice enough there are certain things that I can sort of just...do? Like if I cast the same spell a thousand times, I don’t really need to think about casting it. My qi clones are like that—I just do things that don’t require my attention with them while I focus on one body at a time.”

Jia nodded with dawning comprehension.

“That really limits your flexibility in combat, doesn’t it?”

Rika snapped her fingers and pointed at Jia excitedly.

“Exactly! I have to follow really obvious patterns, and if I don’t, I totally fall apart! I might have been able to thrash Noguchi’s guards, but my grandpa never loses a match against me. He can always tell where my focus is and take advantage of it.”

“I’m still not sure what this has to do with joint meditation.”

“Yes! Joint meditation—wait, let me start at the beginning. I was talking to Ja Yun about improving my magic, and we got onto the subject of mental techniques. She uses one to get rid of her anxious thoughts in battle—a lot like Dae’s—and you’ve got your crazy memory thing, right? So I got thinking, what if I could take certain thoughts and put them into one of my copies?”

Jia frowned, scratching her chin in thought.

“I don’t know if it works that way.”

Rika nodded.

“That’s what Ja Yun said! But she had another idea—apparently some mages have mental techniques that let them cast two or even three spells at the same time! If that’s possible, then I should be able to do something similar with my doppelgangers.”

Eui cut in with an exasperated huff.

“Rika, you’re still not any closer to explaining why any of this means you need to link your...mind...hm.”

Rika’s eyes lit up at the sight of Eui’s contemplative frown.

“You get it, right?! I’ve been trying to figure the technique out on my own, but I can’t visualize it—I can’t comprehend what it’s like to have more than one mind, but for Yoshika, that’s just how you guys are!”

Jia and Eui both fell into thoughtful silence as they considered what Rika was saying. It made a certain amount of sense, but there were a lot of problems. Jia sighed as she met Rika’s hopeful eyes.

“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, Rika. Yes, I can definitely see how experiencing being part of a gestalt like Yoshika would help you to refine your technique, but actually trying it could be really dangerous.”

Rika’s face fell a bit, but she persisted.

“How so? I don’t mind taking a few risks in the name of progress! You’ve gotten so much stronger—I can’t afford to let myself fall behind!”

Jia’s heart ached for her friend’s insecurity. Rika had a competitive streak like none other—to the point that it was even part of her domain—and she was constantly comparing herself to her friends. Jia met Eui’s eyes with a worried glance, and they came to a silent agreement.

“Rika, this isn’t a small risk we’re talking about. We’ve never really told anyone about this, except Dae—and even then, he kinda just figured it out on his own. Do you remember when Yue kidnapped Eui, before we became friends?”

Rika grimaced.

“Yeah, I was ready to tear her head off. She turned out to be alright in the end, but I’m still not sure if you made the right call by giving her a second chance.”

Jia cast a glance towards the wagon, where Jung was.

“I had my reasons. Anyway, when Eui and I tried to reform our bond it—it didn’t work.”

Eui scowled irritably and tapped the center of her chest.

“As soon as we started meditating, this fucking core in my chest tried to eat her. I couldn’t control it.”

Rika glanced between them, confusion dawning on her features.

“But...you did restore your bond, didn’t you? I mean, obviously—Yoshika and all that.”

Jia nodded.

“Yeah, after Zheng Long pierced my heart with a flaming spear and I intentionally gave Eui my entire soul.”

Rika blinked at her in blank incomprehension.

“Wh—Jia, that’s ridiculous. You’re trying to tell me you—?”

“Died. Yeah. Eui didn’t end up eating my soul, though. Instead we—Yoshika—fought the pull of Eui’s core and, with a bit of help from Heian and our spirit halves, repaired my body and returned my soul. Our bond was repaired after that.”

“So you’re saying you’re worried that if we meditate together, Eui’s core will try to eat my soul?”

Eui shook her head.

“Not just mine. According to Lady Tennin, Jia’s core can also absorb essence freely given, and joint meditation involves sharing everything.”

“But they balance each other out, right?”

Eui shrugged.

“Against each other, yes. But who knows what happens if we introduce a third wheel? In the worst case, our cores fight over your soul and tear it apart.”

Rika swallowed nervously, glancing back and forth between Jia and Eui, her eyes searching as she tried to come up with an answer. After a moment, her face fell and she let out a shuddering breath.

“I’m already being torn apart.”

Jia moved to ask what she meant, but came up short when she saw the tears running down Rika’s face. Her oldest friend—the tall, energetic girl with the seemingly boundless good cheer—Jia had never seen Rika cry before. Rika sniffled and wiped at her eyes fruitlessly.

“I want to make my family proud! I want to be of service to my nation. I want to help you discover the secrets of unified cultivation, and save the realm from those greedy divine assholes. I want to see Eun-eun again and tell her that everything is going to be okay—that I don’t care that she’s a princess. I want to get Kaede’s head out of her ass. I want to track down Yue and get her away from that toxic family of hers.

“There’s so many things I want to do, but there’s just one of me. Just Rika—the normal one. I can’t move nations or shake the continent. I’m not a ruler, or a noble, or a leader of any kind. I don’t have an ancient demon teaching me, I don’t have nations at my beck and call. My only worth is in the people I know—you, Hayakawa, Eunae. I wouldn’t even be here if I didn’t happen to have ended up being Eunae’s roommate in the academy.”

Rika's voice had escalated into a rant, and Jia had surreptitiously erected a barrier of privacy so that she wouldn’t be overheard. After stopping to catch her breath, Rika resumed, her voice low and sullen.

“I was excited to see you two again, and I’m looking forward to seeing Eun-eun again, but I’m scared. It feels like even though you’re here now, you’ve only gotten further away. I feel so small and weak—I don’t even care about the risks, I just don’t want to be left behind.”

Yoshika wrapped her friend in a hug from both sides, speaking softly in Jia’s voice.

“We’re sorry, Rika. We shouldn’t have taken you for granted. We don’t want to leave you behind either—you’re our best friend! Whatever we can do to help you, we’ll do it.”

Rika looked up in surprise, but Yoshika cut her off before she could respond, this time in Eui’s voice.

“Yes, we’ll let you joint cultivate with us. But we’re going to do this very carefully—you’re too important to us to risk your life, okay?”