“Why…” Meixian, the would-be imperial assassin who claimed to be my sister, wildly swung her sword at me.

“Won’t…” the Marine Dragon Empress sliced past my head, cutting into the ground at my feet.

“You…” Our swords clashed, a powerful vibration emanating from the paired swords.

“Fight back!” Her voice was close to cracking, and her eyes showed the beginning signs of tears forming.

She stabbed her blade forward, but it was too obvious an attack. My Crimson Dragon Emperor knocked it away with ease. I retailited with a weak thrust of my own, which she swatted away with a sword of ice, appearing in her hand with the stolen power of the slain Jin Chun.

“Stop mocking me… why won’t you fight me seriously… because I’m a woman? Because I’m your sister?!”

She jumped in the air, hundreds of ice blades appearing behind her. I could have cancelled them all with Zero, but that wouldn’t lead to the conclusion I wished for.

She harbored an intense rage, directed at my mother and myself. I wasn’t sure what had happened in the past, but it was clear I was lied to. Until I learned the truth, I wouldn’t treat them as my enemy.

“Dragon Arts… Volcanic Execution!” Flipping my sword into a reverse grip stance, I fill it with my chi, then unleash it in a wide range attack. My chi takes form as molten stone swords to match the ice blades she had made.

Our attacks clash, Skill vs Technique, though both did roughly the same effect. Each blade was of equal power, and they shattered each other on contact, with no blades hurting either of us.

Meixian landed behind me, her body shaking even more with anger. She slashed at me, but I blocked it without even turning around thanks to my reversed grip.

It may have seemed like I had seen the future, having perfectly deflected her attack, but it was really the most obvious outcome. She had leapt to the sky, and her forward momentum would surely take her behind me. It didn’t take a genius to figure out where she would strike at me from next, and I prepared myself properly.

“Go ahead and cry your eyes out, let out all of your pent up emotions… I’ll accept them all… sister.”

“Don’t try and act cool, you loser!” She screamed, a powerful surge of chi in her body washing over my senses. “You don’t understand how much I’ve suffered, how much father has suffered because of her!”

She teleported, or at least it looked like she had. Her speed was faster than my eye could follow it. To my left, then my right, behind me! My blade barely had time to guard against her attacks, and her rushdown quickly began to tire me out.

Her blade tasted my blood for the first time, slicing my left cheek shallowly, then my right forearm. I couldn’t keep up with her speed, she had to be using a Skill… I considered using Zero then, but it wasn’t necessary.

“Dragon Arts… Lightning Flash Annihilation!” Xinyi’s voice cried out, and a flash of light collided with Meixian.

The two women disappeared from my view, their speeds incomparable. Xinyi’s sword point dug against the flat of the Marine Dragon, pushing it’s wielder back with an intense force. The point of impact of the two blades heated up from the energy behind the strike, each blade glowing red hot.

“Don’t interfere… this is private family business!” Meixian’s face contorted in annoyance, and she knocked Xinyi away with a blast of pure chi from her palm.

“Family Business'' huh? Then I guess I have the right to butt in, as his fiance!” Xinyi retorted without any shame in her voice despite making such a ludicrous claim.

A shadow appeared behind Meixian, and a flash of steel impacted her sword. The sudden attack surprised her enough that she let go of the legendary sword, and lost control of it.

Tatsuko slid her sword back into its scabbard, though I hadn’t even seen her draw it. Meixian attempted to dive towards the fallen sword, but Tatsuko’s scabbard slammed into her stomach, pushing her back.

“As Lord Yi Zen’s Concubine, I’ll claim my right to stick my nose into this family business as well.” she replied, not a hint of emotion in her voice, making it impossible if she was making a joke, or being serious.

“You’ll pay for that comment later, Tatsuko…” Xinyi slowly approached her with unclear intentions. “But that can wait until after we’ve smacked this naughty puppy on the nose and calmed them down.”

“Agreed” Tatsuko gave a simple reply. “Zen, sit this one out, I’m sure you find it hard to fight girls, and if she’s your sister… well, just let us handle it.”

I’ll splatter your guts on the streets, you dumb bitches!” Meixian unleashed even more power, who knows how many Skills she activated at once.

Her hands glowed with an awesome power, a crimson red blade appeared in her hands, made of pure energy, and two shimmering wings appeared at her back. As she stepped forward, her feet shook the ground, the stones cracked against her power.

“Nobody can stand up to my Heaven’s Record… the Skill that surpasses the power of the gods!”

Her blade flashed, every movement she made fast enough to leave an afterimage. Xinyi deftly parried the blows, but in the shadow of the power of countless Skills, even her intense training wasn’t enough.

No matter how hard you trained, how powerful you were, Skills really were unbeatable, weren’t they? I prepared to use Zero as Xinyi was blown away, tumbling to the ground at my feet.

“The power of a god… interesting.” Tatsuko stepped between her and where I stood, her hand resting on her katana Setsukage’s handle. “Well then, shall we test that’s God’s power against a Demon’s?”

Tatsuko’s chi swirled around her, her aura so powerful it was visible to the naked eye. She took in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and spoke a single phrase.

“Aka Oni…”

The surge of power was like a Skill had activated, and in a sense, it had. The sword techniques we learned, the bloodline ability Bai Cai had taken for herself… Skills were merely an evolution of the same concepts. Over generations, learned skills start to become innate, and children were born with them as Skills, and they only grew in power over time.

Who said you couldn’t create a ‘new’ Skill?

Sonoda Tatsuko was a gifted genius swordsman, who had mastered multiple styles from across the world, took in all of their lessons, and condensed them down into a single ability. She created with her own hands a power no one else possessed, and the first to witness it was myself.

Four months ago, I had been heading to bed, when she asked me to spar with her in private. She achieved the first activation of her ‘Skill’ that night, and when she did, asked me to test something for her. I couldn’t cancel something that was just similar to a Skill, like Bai Cai’s blood abilities.

I used Zero on Tatsuko’s ability, and it shattered and fell apart against my Skill. She had been so happy that it had registered as a real skill she had leapt into my arms and kissed me right there. And this was the true story behind what had happened, but she asked to keep it a secret, hoping to hold it as a trump card later on.

“A god with nothing but stolen Skills… against a Demon who forged her own… I’ll be your opponent, Meixian!”

“Are you an idiot?! What good is one skill, when I have thousands… I’ll add yours to my collection too!”

Meixian rushed in at the speed of sound, a powerful shockwave destroying everything around her. Her summoned blade increased in size, extending past it’s normal range in a massive downward slash.

Tatsuko’s Chi had turned a vibrant vermillion in color, as it leaked out from her body forming two spectral horns on her forehead, as well as ghostly armor on her body in the style native to her land.

Tatsuko’s sword shattered the spectral blade of her opponent, but it appeared to never leave her scabbard. Her eyes closed, her body as still as a lake in a calm spring day.

“Shadow style… Shattering Judgement!” Tatsuko’s voice cut through the scene as her blade cut through the offense before her.

Meixian’s glowing wings were torn to shreds, her spectral blades broke to pieces, and she was thrown back. Her perfect, untouched golden armor scratched and dented against a storm of unseen blades. And yet, none of Tatsuko’s cuts drew blood.

Meixian collapsed to the ground, her gilded platemail falling to the ground below her, broken and smashed to bits. But she laughed, clawing her way to her feet. Next to her on the ground was the Marine Empress. It floated into Meixian’s hand with the power of a Skill she had stolen at some point.

“Recording… Complete.” She smirked, raising the blade in front of her and pointing it towards Tatsuko. “Idiot, thanks for making me even stronger, you stupid bitch!”

Tatsuko stretched out her neck, popping the joints in it, but remained calm.

“What of it, you overgrown child. Did you waste all of your brain capacity on Skills without learning how to be an adult?”

“Let’s see how tough you are when I kill you with your own Skill, you stupid bitch!” Meixian charged, slashing down at Tatsuko with the true Marine Dragon Empress.

Tatsuko’s blade caught her sword in mid swing, revealing itself from its scabbard for the first time in the fight. Meixian’s face shifted from anger to confusion, then shock. Her aura didn’t change, she didn’t become any stronger or faster.

Nothing had happened.

“My Skill isn’t something you can just copy, even if you knew the exact method to activate it, a lazy little girl who does nothing but cry and whine could never understand how to do what I learned over twenty years of blood and sweat!”

Tatsuko stepped in, sword still locked with Meixian’s blade. Her left fist curled, and a punch rocketed out into her opponent’s gut. A shockwave shot out from the impact, and the berserk swordswoman flew into a far wall. The bricks behind her shattered, and the free standing wall collapsed into a pile of rubble.

Tatsuko spun her sword a few times, showing off no doubt, then returned the katana to her scabbard with a smooth motion.

“Come back after a few hundred years, then maybe you could defeat me.” Tatsuko turned her back to the fallen Meixian, then slowly walked back to the rest of us, her Skill fading away and returning her to normal.

“Yoouuu…” Meixian rose to her feet, a blazing rage burning in her eyes. “I will shove your decapitated head up your ass while your heart is still beating!”

In a flash, She shot forward towards us in a burst of intense energy. Her bloodlust filled the plaza, making my legs feel weak just standing before it.

I stepped forward, gathering my chi to use my Zero. It was clear now that she wouldn’t calm down unless someone smacked some sense into her, and With that energy output, who else could do it but me?

And then Xuan Yan’s open hand slapped Meixian in the face. A deafening slap, it must have echoed for kilometers. All momentum and energy behind Meixian’s attack stopped, the girl looking dumbfounded.

“Who taught you how to speak in such a vulgar manner young lady?! Yi Gon was a proper man, there’s no way he would have allowed such behavior of his own daughter, so he must be an imposter!”

“H-Huh?” Meixian looked at our mother, completely confused.

Our mother slapped her again, with her other hand. Both of Meixian’s cheeks were red, the imprint of Yan’s hand clearly visible on her pale face.

“Hmm, you’re a bit old, but I suppose someone acting this poorly should be treated as a child, and not the adult her age says she should be.” A spectral chain shot of the ground at our mother’s command, binding Meixian’s arms behind her and her legs together. “And I’m sure that even someone as poorly raised as you knows what happens to bad girls, right~?”

“L-Let me go, you old hag!” Meixian struggled, but she couldn’t break the Platinum Knights chains.

“Now then,” Yan looked over at us, a sadistic glint in her eye. “Who wants to help me give this bad girl a much needed spanking?”

Lei raised his hand immediately, and both myself and Bai Cai slapped in the back of the head.

“Ow! She’s the one who asked, how is this my fault?!”