“Wormhole... so you used dimensional magic to move from wherever you were to Sin’s ring?” Jin asked. He knew of dimensional magic, but he didn’t know very much about it.

“Yes. It’s a technique I created, but it stems off of my mother’s dimensional technique. And... it’s not as powerful as you might be thinking, Sin.” Lilly said. She noticed Sin’s expression and lingering gaze in Rai’s general direction.

“... Whaaaaat? Me? Thinking about how to create a dimensional portal into Rai’s room at any time I wanted to? Oh no, that definitely couldn’t be me. Definitely.” Sin said. Convincingly.

Jin and Lilly stared at her. They were completely convinced. Sin was sure of it.

“... Right.” Lilly said. “Anyway, the wormhole was a way for me to travel to Sin whenever she needed me. I’ve already begun to set up a... kind of network of portals... and I was wondering...”

“If you could set one up here. Right?” Jin asked.

Lilly nodded.

“It would also allow Sin to come and train here... but just like you mentioned it wouldn’t be a daily occurrence. It would have to be limited to a weekly or bi-weekly schedule to avoid suspicion.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that Kallad can’t be associated with me. You would put your father at such risk for something so small?”

Sin was flabbergasted. She completely glossed over the fact that she’d be putting her father at risk when Jin said that his teachings were small.

“SMALL?! You might thi-”

“Sin. Please let me handle this.” Lilly said sternly.

“Oh. Uh, sure. Sorry.”

Sin quietened down. She wanted to yell at Jin for even thinking that his teachings were small. They definitely weren’t worth her dad’s life, but they certainly weren’t small either.

“Sword Dancer. You might not know this, but the public only knows of the Aspect of Deception fathering a single daughter. But there are 3 of us. He hasn’t publicly associated with either of us other than Sin. So if a portal network set up by me, someone who’s not even employed by my father, is used by Sin... then the portal itself can’t trace back to him.

I know that you’re concerned about him, but even if you do have this portal set up there won’t be a trail that leads back to him. Of that, I can promise you.”

Jin heard the girl out.

Most of his concerns would technically never come to fruition if she was right, and even scheduling was sorted out. Now, all Jin had to really worry about was...

“... I will accept on two conditions.” He said.

“Please, lay it out.”

“Kallad cannot know.”

“Ah, if that’s all then you needn’t worry. Dad was never to know in the first place. What is your second condition?”

“The only people able to use this portal to move to and from my daughter’s farm will be me, Reiki, Rai, and Sin.”

“As I am to be attuning the portal, I will also have access... but I can promise that I will never use the portal unless there is an emergency. On my word as Sin’s sister.”

“... That I can accept. You may set up a portal here linked with your ‘network’, as you call it.”

Sin’s face brightened quickly.

“Thank you thank you thank you!” She hurriedly said.

Sin then ran over to Rai to tell him the good news.

“How long will it take to set up?” Jin asked.

“Not long. 10 minutes, max.”

“Good. Get it done, then leave.”

Lilly bowed slightly.

“Yes, of course. Thank you.”

Jin didn’t respond.

Lilly went to ask Rai where would be best to set up a portal that wouldn’t be found easily.

Jin spent some time watching the bright sky.

He pondered on his life at this moment. There weren’t many things that he found exciting anymore, but Rai bringing more and more interesting people to his door brought some kind of intrigue to Jin’s heart. And with that intrigue came excitement at the prospect of learning more about them.

Jin surprised himself. He looked forward to teaching Sin.

And the first real lesson, would be today.

As he turned to the group at Rai’s chair and beside Reiki, Jin took a deep breath.

“Lesson isn’t over.” He said, just a slight bit louder than normal.

“Ah, sorry!” Sin shouted back.

She ran back over to Jin after a few more words with Rai.

“Sorry, again.” Sin said as she returned. “I explained it all to Rai and he’s really excited now. He said he’s gonna come back to the farm every weekend, so we should probably do our weekly lessons at the same time. If you want, of course.”

“Not a bad plan. For now, forget about the schedule. You’ve got more work to be doing.”

“Right! Tell me, what should I do next?”

“Let’s start with your forms.”

“... Forms?”

“Do... do you not know what forms are? Aren’t you a fighter?”

“Well, I mean... a little? I think? I use an offensive stance and a defensive stance at different times, but that’s really the only thing I know of them.”

“Oh. So you know nothing about forms?”

“... Are stances not the same as forms?”

Jin shook his head.

“Forms and stances are very different. Stances are often the way you adapt upon taking in the state of the battle, or the state of the opponent. Forms are used within battle, and are more to do with your specific manoeuvres than anything. You can consider them to be... like waypoints. They’re the starting point, and ending point, for certain movements and attack patterns.

If you’re going to learn a Dance, your forms will need to be as strong as possible, or you’re going to have a rough time.”

“Is that like all of the animals and living things that Rai somehow manages to like... bring out when he does certain moves within the Dance?”

“That’s one way to look at it.”

“... I see. In that case, I still have no idea where to start.”

“That’s fine. We’ll start with a form that can build off into other forms based on your choice of basic attacking or defending for now. We can move into forms for more niche stances later.”

And with that, Jin began to teach Sin about the different forms she would have to fundamentally understand in order to execute her Dance properly.

To begin with, she wasn’t allowed to use her magic or any weapons. The movements between the first form, into an attacking and defending form were the only thing that Jin elected to teach her during this session. Practicing without weapons was difficult for Sin, as she had to envision where her weapons would be while she was casting the spell and doing these movements.

Jin stressed that, because Sin’s foundational skills were lacking, she would have to practice doing these movements for months before she was proficient enough for multiple blades.

Until then, a few weeks of practice would work only just well enough for Sin to use her daggers as a part of her basic Dance. In fact, it would hardly be a Dance at that point, but it would be a starting point for her at least.

In the meantime, Rai had shown Lilly a place within the stables to set up the portal. It was a storeroom that wasn’t used very often. And even when it was used, it was often to just toss something useless in there.

She’d created the portal rune, which functioned if the people specified by Jin touched it and spoke the correct phrase. She told everyone there the phrase, and then left through her wormhole, just as she showed up.

By evening, Sin was exhausted.

She’d done work with the forms, and the transitions between them to the point that all of her muscles were aching.

*Thud*

Jin finally allowed Sin to fall to the floor.

She laid there. Gasping for as much air as she could gather.

As Sin laid, sprawled out, Rai shadowed over her.

His silhouette against the pink-ish blue evening sky made for a beautiful image in Sin’s mind.

“Well done.” He said.

“That... was... just... 1... day... FHOOO!”

“You want some water?”

“YES... PLEASE!”

Rai went back in to bring out 2 glasses of water for Sin.

She downed them both almost instantly.

“Damn. That was... well I’ll get you more. Just wait here.”

“NOT GOING ANYWHERE, RAI!” She wheezed rather loudly.

Rai laughed as he walked back into the house.

Jin had already gone back in before. He didn’t seem to have broken a sweat.

Sin pouted to herself. It felt almost like cheating if Jin didn’t even sweat when he was teaching her.

Rai came back out with more water.

Sin downed the first glass, then drank the second one slowly.

“That’s more like it. Don’t overdo it, Sin.”

“Mmm...”

“... You okay? You’re a bit quiet considering you just had your first lesson with the Sword Dancer.”

“Oh I’m happy. But I’m also sore as fuck. But... it was fun! Really fun! I can’t wait for the next one.”

“You’ll have to practice those movements constantly by the way. I made the mistake of thinking ‘oh it’ll be fine, I’ll remember it all perfectly’... and then I pulled like 3 muscles just trying to do the first form again. So, yeah. Do your practice diligently!”

“HAHAHA! You donut. Of course I will! But thank you for the... hard-earned advice, hahaha!”

“Hard-earned indeed. That shit was... rough.”

“I think rough might be just a slight understatement.”

“Yeah... anyway. You know what’ll be more fun than this?”

“Yes. I know exactly what would be. Take me!”

“Off to the bathhouse!”

Rai picked Sin’s sweaty body up. She wrapped her arms and legs around him as he carried her to the bathhouse.

The hot water in the bathhouse refreshed Sin’s body and made her feel a lot more energised.

The foot massage that Rai gave her now was on a completely different level compared to the one before. She felt like this kind of massage after such a long day was unbeatable by any other kind of pleasure. Of course, Sin was proven wrong.

Their fun in the bathhouse didn’t end there.

Rai and Sin’s night went just a bit longer than expected.