“O is for Outskirts. Every ’zen in the Outskirts has a chance to earn a spot in the city with talent and hard work.”

— Chikara City Elementary Primer

“The first thing we need to practice is the defensive triangle.” Sento didn’t waste any time taking charge. “Kiriai, you’ll be a single attacker. Pick up one of the padded bats and get ready to attack us when I tell you to.” Before she could protest at being excluded, he continued. “Jusha will demonstrate what you need to do, and then you’ll switch places, understand?”

Kiriai nodded and moved to the wicker basket in the corner with a variety of practice weapons standing on end. She picked one with a decent length and a padded end whose material wasn’t too ragged. Holding the weapon firmly she faced off against the other three fighters.

“Places,” Sento barked, imitating a head judge, and everyone bowed and dropped into fighting stances.

“Triangle, my lead. Kiriai, use a variety of attacks. Try to find weaknesses in our formation, understand?” When she nodded, he gave the command to start. “Hajime!”

The three young men pivoted with practiced movements, their backs together, fists and gazes facing outward in three directions to cover the whole room.

It was an unbalanced situation with only Kiriai trying to penetrate the vigilant guard of three experienced fighters. She knew it was just for practice, but it was frustrating! No matter what direction she attacked from, even when she tried to sprint to another side, the defensive triangle was impenetrable. Sento was almost always facing her, the triangle shifting, so he was the one defending against her attacks. She forced herself to focus on her opponents. If she could identify their frequently used moves, she might be able to anticipate at least a couple.

Hey, Trainee Kiriai. Your observation skill just improved. You have made 10% progress to level 2.

Kiriai almost tripped. She was an old hand at showing no outward signs of Yabban’s interruptions during her training, but Yabban’s tone was completely out of character. Maybe she should have chosen the autonomy upgrade instead of the personality one for her virtual trainer.

Kiriai shook her head. She needed to focus. The three defenders had noticed her lapse and didn’t look patient.

Kiriai whirled her club through a sequence of attacks and reminded herself to keep up the monotonous movements during her internal dialogue. Maybe she could finally have a reasonable discussion with her AI. It was worth a try.

Thanks, Yabban. It would be helpful if you didn’t interrupt me when I’m right in the middle of training. It’s distracting.

Whoops. Sorry about that. I’ll try to notify you of your progress at more convenient moments. When would that be?

Can you postpone all notifications until after the battle?

I’m sorry. As your trainer, I can’t help you improve without informing you of your progress on a regular basis.

But I’m not planning on learning anything new before then. I need to improve what I already know.

And I will give you feedback on your progress.

Fine. Kiriai quit arguing. What is the minimum amount of feedback you can give me?

I can update you once a day on your progress and stick to full level achievements outside of that.

That will be fine. Thank you, Yabban.

You’re welcome. I appreciate any feedback so I can improve my personality to your liking.

Kiriai smiled. This version of Yabban was much more reasonable and easier to talk to. Kiriai’s next few swings were exuberant. She’d been trying to influence the AI’s behavior since its first unwelcome intrusion into her life with little success. Now, Yabban had agreed to quit all the incessant monitoring during training in exchange for a daily summary. Kiriai felt like cheering and knew a huge grin probably split her face.

“Whoa,” Sento said, raising a hand in her direction. “We still have more training to do. Don’t wear yourself out too soon.” Kiriai nodded, still unable to erase the grin.

Sento turned back to the other two fighters. “Tsuyoi, your turn to lead,” he said, and the three shifted easily so Tsuyoi was the one to face the bulk of Kiriai’s attacks.

It didn’t take long before she was panting, her attacks and footwork slowing visibly.

“Yame!” Sento finally barked out the command. Relieved, Kiriai let her stick drop and focused on catching her breath.

“Tired already?” Tsuyoi asked, a smirk on his face.

“Enough already,” said Sento. Tsuyoi clamped his mouth shut. Kiriai just shook her head at the grouchy fighter. She’d had enough of his constant sniping.

“Look. I don’t like you and you don’t like me. But can we both agree that we want to win this battle?” She gave Tsuyoi a challenging look. He didn’t answer. She tried again, letting some of her emotion show. “Winning this battle is the most important thing in my life right now. I would fight alongside my worst enemy if it would help my chances. So you can’t be any worse, right?”

Jusha laughed. “She has you there, Tsuyoi.”

“I told you she has heart,” Sento said, a half smile on his face, too.

His partners’ good spirits didn’t thaw Tsuyoi’s attitude at all, but he unbent enough to answer her. “I will do what it takes to win.”

“Great. Now that we’re all agreed, let’s get back to work,” Sento said, reaching for Kiriai’s padded club. “Jusha, take this and we’ll teach Kiriai how the triangle works.”

Jusha followed directions without dissent and soon Kiriai shifted and turned to keep either Sento or Tsuyoi facing the attacks from the practice club. After a few missteps and one embarrassing tangle of feet, thankfully with Sento instead of Tsuyoi, Kiriai found the rhythm of the maneuver and started to actually get bored. Always being on the side away from the attacks wasn’t much to get excited about.

“Enough. We’ve got the basics now,” Sento said as he relaxed his stance and dropped his hands. “Jusha, can you go recruit two more volunteers to help with the attacking?”

Jusha nodded and hurried out of the room, reminding Kiriai of an obedient hound.

“Can I be point now?” she asked, hoping things would get more interesting if someone gave her a turn.

“No,” Tsuyoi said.

Sento elbowed the boy to silence him before addressing her. “Kiriai, this technique is designed specifically to let Tsuyoi and me do the brunt of the fighting to make up for your—” He stopped and flushed, obviously realizing how his next words would sound.

“—for how little you know?” Tsuyoi said, having no such compunctions.

Sento gave his partner another glare and looked to be losing his temper with all the bickering. Kiriai was glad his ire wasn’t directed her way. Tsuyoi must have sensed he was pushing it too far because he finally quit talking. Sento turned back to her. “It’s not that you don’t have a lot of potential, but Tsuyoi and I have been fighting for most of a year as scrappers compared to less than a month for you.” He gave her a shrug before finishing. “We are going to use whatever tactics give us the best chance of winning and right now I want us to focus on how to let the two of us do most of the fighting while you protect our flank. Understand?”

Kiriai gave him a reluctant nod, not happy, but unable to argue with his logic. At least not yet. She’d figure out a way to take a bigger role, eventually. There was no way she would take a back seat for the entire battle.

Jusha came in with two fighters behind him. The boy she recognized as Shunbin, a fellow beginner who she’d partnered with a few times in class. He was the smallest fighter in the room, but she knew from experience he was fast. Kiriai saw him glance at her neck and the yellow stripe glowing softly against the white of her fighter’s implant. She couldn’t stifle a flush of pride at the stripe when she knew his was still a blank white surface.

The girl who followed him into the room was heavyset but with a cheerful expression on her face. She looked familiar, though Kiriai couldn’t remember her name. She was a two-striper and probably a friend of the others.

Jusha and the entire room froze mid-movement.

Not again.

Also frozen, Kiriai couldn’t do anything but watch as the next small moment of time played out in slow motion for everyone in the room. The three fighters took forever to complete a single step while Sento and Tsuyoi turned to greet the trio with excruciating slowness. As usual, however, the episode didn’t last long. The short time interval was reversed as everyone snapped back to where they had been when the episode first began. Then everyone in the room completed their actions at a normal pace. Kiriai was getting sick of this. While more of a nuisance than a danger, these episodes were happening daily now. Eigo was the only one who knew about them, but he had been little help in figuring them out or stopping them.

“Shunbin, Mikata, thank you for helping us,” Sento said. “If you would grab two padded clubs and attack with Jusha, we need practice with our triangle defense.” Kiriai was happy to get back to fighting, grateful that only she seemed to notice the episodes.

In moments, Kiriai found herself lined up with her two partners facing the three attackers. For a brief moment, she could picture the actual fight on an arena floor, surrounded by a cheering crowd and her future as a scrapper on the line.

“Ready?” Sento asked, pulling Kiriai out of her thoughts.

“Hajime!”

With only a minor scuffle, Kiriai found her place at the back of the triangle. She shifted with her two partners, kept the bulk of the fighting on their side and forced herself to be patient waiting for the occasional attacker to make it around to her side. Maybe their backup plan would be a little more challenging.