“You’re going to Yokohama Sekai until lunch?” Hannah asked.

After breakfast, Kye told everyone that she wanted to go in person and invite her other grandmother to stay at the resort for a few days. She didn’t want to take everyone, so she chose only a few to accompany her, Liliana, Ginchiyo, and Astraia. She didn’t want to take the entire entourage and wanted to be sure Alethea had a sufficient number of guards.

“We shouldn’t be even that long.”

Ginchiyo was on the verge of tears hearing the plan. She loved her daughter so much and was always frustrated when her grandson would prioritize his duties as a ruler over visiting his mother. Ginchiyo was overjoyed hearing Kye take an interest in Akane. “Kye, you’re such a good granddaughter!”

Kye smiled. “Well, you implied that my father doesn’t go see her often, so I wanted to show her better. I have a lot of family in this world and they’ve been nothing but accepting.” Kye frowned, thinking of some of her past lives where she’d been abandoned by her parents. “I know what it’s like to be alone.”

Ginchiyo hugged Kye. “Honey, please stay here in our world. You don’t ever have to leave.” Kye smiled with tears in her eyes.

Alethea ran over and joined the hug. “Shi-chan, I love this world, let’s just stay here! Surely, we’ve done enough.”

Kye smiled apologetically. “I’d like that.”

Half an hour later, the group of four headed to the Atlas Gateway Hub. It had a few active gateways to specific planets, as well as a blank gateway that was usually set for Atlantis. Astraia accessed the gateway’s terminal and set it to Yokohama Sekai.

“After you!”

Once they were on Yokohama, Ginchiyo took the lead, knowing where to go. She led them to a complex reminiscent of the Shinden-zukuri architectural style. Kye was overjoyed upon seeing the complex.

“Now this is a familiar site,” she said.

“You know of this place?” Ginchiyo asked.

“Not this place, no.” She looked around at the complex from above. Several smaller buildings were interconnected by covered walkways with open yards scattered about. There were trainees in martial arts uniforms practicing on training dummies, and the distinct sound of a shishi-odoshi rang out. “It’s the architecture and atmosphere. Many of my past lives were spent in places like this.”

“I see. Akane is very old school. I raised her in a dojo like this and she’s been insistent on this style ever since.”

“Princess is especially attached to the shishi-odoshi,” Liliana added. “She was adamant about having one in the castle grounds in New Tokyo.”

“I feel the same. My private home has one, too. It’s very calming.” Ginchiyo led everyone inside and took them to the front desk. “We are here to visit Akane Tachibana.”

“Name and appointment number please.”

“I don’t have an appointment number, but-”

“My apologies, but I cannot allow an unscheduled visit to a royal. Please access the dojo’s website and request an appointment. You’ll be given a number upon approval that you will need-”

Ginchiyo had the patience of a saint, but she didn’t want to let the poor clerk waste either of their time. “Miss, I understand all of that and I respect that you’re just trying to do your job, but if you’ll just look up from your paperwork, you’ll understand why we don’t need an appointment.”

She looked up and immediately apologized. “Lady Ginchiyo! My deepest apologies! One moment while I check Lady Akane’s schedule.”

“Thank you.”

Kye held back a giggle. A moment later, the clerk finished checking. “Lady Akane is currently teaching a class in Dojo 2. May I ask who your guests are so that I may log your visit properly?”

Ginchiyo gestured at Kye and said, “This is Kye Akari,” then she gestured at the white blonde next to her, “and this is Liliana Venturi.”

“The Goddess of Light?!”

Kye was beyond annoyed. “That stupid title has reached the vassal planets, too?” She sighed in exasperation. The clerk gave her an apologetic smile, and Liliana snickered. “I hope you get a dumb title, too! Let’s see... your specialty is light fire, so... Seraph! You can be Seraph the Burning Angel and your sister can be Shadow the Void Angel.”

“You think of us like that?” Liliana had stars in her eyes. “I love it, Princess!”

Kye sighed. “That backfired... whatever, let’s go.”

Ginchiyo led them through the building and across a walkway to the adjacent building. Once inside, they found the class that Akane was teaching. She was in the middle of testing a student in a sparring match. The match didn’t last long. She handily defeated the student and asked the class, “Who’s next.”

Kye smirked and volunteered, “I shall go next.” She teleported in front of Akane with her aethersteel weapon transformed into an iaitō.

“You can teleport? Very well. Are you a new student? I don’t believe I’ve seen you in class lately, but you look familiar.”

“Something like that. Shall we?”

Ginchiyo held back her laughter over Kye posing as one of the students.

“What of your uniform? Have you not received it yet?”

“I have not, no.”

“I see. Well, no matter. I will teach everyone who wants to learn. Ready yourself!”

Kye nodded and readied herself to draw her blade at any time.

“Starting with a draw cut, are you? Very well. Begin!”

The instant Akane said to begin, Kye drew her weapon and covered the distance between them. Akane was not taken off guard, however. She parried Kye’s attack and countered. Kye got ahead of her and preemptively blocked the counter. In a flurry of exchanges, the two showed each other no openings.

Once they jumped apart, Akane called the match. “Very well done.” She turned to the class. “Everyone, I do hope you watched closely. Such a heated match is an excellent learning opportunity!”

“““Yes, Lady Akane.”””

“Now, allow me to introduce you. This young lady is my granddaughter and heir to the throne of Nippon Sekai.” She gave Kye a quick glance.

“Greetings, I am Kye Akari of Nippon Sekai.”

“““Greetings, Lady Kye. Thank you for the amazing match.”””

Kye gave them a smile and Akane said, “I have guests, so I will be stepping out for a while. You there, lead the class. Run your drills.”

“Yes, Lady Akane.”

Akane smiled at Kye and led the group to her private building where she had an attendant prepare tea.

“I am happy to see you, mother, and I’m overjoyed to finally meet my beloved granddaughter. Where is Zen? He promised he’d come visit this month, but I still haven’t seen him.”

“Father is... father,” Kye said reluctantly.

“Indeed. That boy never keeps his promises to me. But I suppose I can overlook that for now since you are here.”

“Now that I’m sixteen and allowed to travel when I’m not in school, I’m finally able to meet more of my family. I’ve wanted to come visit for a long time, but father would never bring me! He’s ridiculously overprotective and refused to bring me here saying that it’s inappropriate for a young royal to be in public.”

“He’s not wrong, unfortunately.”

“Thanks to the sheltered childhood, I was only ever allowed to go between palaces. Mother did take me to a café in Arslade, but there were never commoners near or inside it. Now that I think of it, I expect that wasn’t a coincidence.”

“But now that you can travel, that’s all behind you. Thank you for coming to see me!”

Kye nodded. “I actually have gotten married and-”

“Indeed. Your mother sent me the details. I’ll be sure to attend the ceremony.”

“Thank you. I meant to come here after my stay on Atlas but after thinking about it some, I wanted to invite you to stay with us there for a few days.”

Akane had stars in her eyes, and Ginchiyo grinned at her daughter’s response. “Oh my, absolutely! I would love to! I’ll go get ready right now. I’ll be right back!” In what seemed like seconds, Akane returned with a packed bag. “My classes are taken care of for the next few days and I’m packed. I’m ready!”

“Hmm, wait a moment. Miko lives here, too, right?”

“Yes, but she’s away on business right now. If you wish to invite her, I can have her join us on Atlas if she finishes in time.”

Kye nodded. “Sure, that sounds good.”

“You knew who I was from the start, didn’t you?” Kye asked as they arrived at the resort.

“Of course!” Akane said. “You’re my dear granddaughter!”

Kye smiled. “That sparring match was fun. I didn’t know you teach in a dojo. Have you thought about teaching at the academy?”

“I did teach there once upon a time. For quite a while, in fact. Kanade wanted to teach there, too, so I retired and opened up the dojo on Yokohama Sekai.”

“I see. Maybe I could come for classes sometimes. Would that be okay?”

“I won’t say no, but from the way I’ve heard things, I think you’re about the furthest person from needing classes.”

“Ah, you already know about that, too, huh?”

“I sure do. I also know that you’re soul-bonded with Astraia. I’m an administrator.”

“Oh, okay. What do-”

“THEY’RE BACK!” came Hannah’s voice from down the hall. She raced toward the group but was shown up by Alethea, who leaped into Kye’s arms and welcomed her back.

“Kye, you’re back! I missed you!”

“I was only away for a couple hours.”

“Yeah, but an hour on a honeymoon is like a year.”

Kye gave her an apologetic smile.

“By the way, I went and picked up some stuff for us.”

“Hmm?”

“In the bags in our room. Let’s go try-” She stopped when she looked to the side and saw Akane. “Hello.”

“Greetings, Lady Alethea. I’m Akane Tachibana of Nippon Sekai. You are quite pretty. Thank you for taking care of my granddaughter!” She gave Alethea a warm smile.

Alethea almost had tears in her eyes. “Shi-chan, she’s so nice!” She looked back at Kye but was confused when she saw her staring off toward the nearby window. “Kye?”

“Hmm? Oh, sorry, something caught my attention.”

“Wanna share with the rest of us?”

“Oh, it was nothing. Let’s go back to our room. You said you got us something?”

“Yes! I think you’ll love it.”

Kye turned to the others. “Well, we’ll be right back, then.”

A few minutes later, Kye was posing in front of the large mirror in their bathroom wearing a simple black bikini. Alethea was watching with her own swimsuit on. Hers was a one-piece pink and white suit with a frilly skirt. They gave each other beaming grins. ““To the beach!””