A day after the memorial, Yuriko found herself going through her new routine.

After years of constant battle, exploration, and missions, the past couple of Seasons had been quite soothing. It was now the 6th Day of Earth, AF 3002, and today she was due at Faron’s Crossing’s new academy.

Her brother Rami should have enrolled in one of the central academies a couple of years back, but since the war escalated between Imperial Rumiga and the Federation, as well as the fact that the city had collapsed, schooling had been pushed back. It was quite detrimental to the kids, and only now that everything was over were things starting to get back on track.

Yuriko herself had not completed her traditional schooling, owing to several circumstances and the fact that she advanced nearly three years ago. She had been shoring that up for a while now, despite the fact that reading books written in Verdanian still gave her headaches. It was the same no matter what language it was written in, save for Old Imperial, but nobody had books in that language except for Runescivening books.

Her thoughts skittered over Damien’s legacy. She lingered at the door but ultimately turned back. In those final moments, Damien had transferred everything he could to her mind, and it was overwhelmingly huge. She had to store them in a partition of her mind, which not only took up a couple of strands of consciousness to maintain but also quite a bit of her Anima reach. Much like how carrying Eli’Theria in her Anima cost her nearly fifty paces of reach to hold, Damien’s knowledge and wisdom cost the same. Ah, she wasn’t carrying Eli’Theria around now. There was little point to it. The Colossus was stationed in what was left of the Watchtower, though Mum wanted to bring her back to Realmheart.

Eli’Theria didn’t want to, though, so that was that.

Anyway, behind the door of memories and knowledge lay what was left of her mentor. If she only accessed the knowledge vault every now and then, she could imagine it as his voice giving her the lecture…

Eyes moistened, she wiped the tears off before Ryoko could see them. Her handmaiden had finished laying down Yuriko’s dress for the day.

“I’m teaching swordsmanship today.” Yuriko reminded Ryoko.

“My mistress can fight as easily in an elaborate dress as well as in a uniform.” There was more than a hint of amusement there.

Rolling her eyes, Yuriko sighed and took off her bathrobe. She noticed Ryoko eying her appreciatively, of course, not that she minded that, though thoughts of what her handmaiden had been during her incarnations did surface.

The light blue dress was a halter top, which exposed her shoulders and arms. The hem fell a couple of inches above her knees and was paired with dark tights. She wore boots, of course: sensible and sturdy, even if the weather and inclement road conditions didn’t affect her at all. Ryoko also presented a shawl to cover up, which was just a couple of shades lighter than the colour of Yuriko’s hair. The shawl left only her forearms and hands bare. The last bit of the ensemble was a poofy beret in navy blue, with a cute silver pin up front. Not exactly swordsmanship instructor gear.

It was a couple of hours past dawn and the town had well and truly woken up. Yuriko left the house and decided to fly towards the schoolyard rather than wait for the Circuit Tram or walk. Well, she just floated over the road and followed it instead of going over the houses. She also carried her Arclight Sword though it wasn’t belted over her dress. She arrived at her old school less than a minute later and headed directly to the gymnasium, where she found the current batch of thirteen- to fifteen-year-old kids already into their weight training.

There were less than thirty teenagers in the group, each year level had between nine to eleven members. Rami was there, of course, along with his gang, Lance Zorin and Awley Keryn, Krystal’s and Millie’s younger brothers. Both elder sisters were of Yuriko’s batch though Millie had forgone going on to graduate studies to continue managing her family’s Olde Sweet Shoppe. Heron led the weight training portion and he gave her a quick smile and a wave.

She was a bit early, so she checked the training gear. Body armour and wooden weapons of all sorts. While she was the swordsmanship trainer, she was adept enough with other melee weapons that she could have taken an armsmaster license if she wished to. Of course, Remnant Rumiga was still in the process of reforging the tethers to Delovine Plane. Unfortunately, the only thing keeping the remnant plane in the vicinity of the stable plane was the second Gemheart, which was barely workable after it burned out from the Empress’ Grace.

Two Seasons already and they were only able to send Chaos ships from the temporary legion to access Delovine. The Chaos dwellers had destroyed and warped the fortified Waypoints that connected the Imperial planes; it would probably take decades to rebuild. But thankfully, of the two hostile Chaos Courts, only the Asheron had survived and they had fled. The last court, the Solamnus, were allies of convenience through Legate Segawa, but now that they held dominance in the surrounding Chaos Sea…

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She noticed the weight training had been completed. Heron had the younger teenagers do their cooldown stretches and approached her.

“Yuri.” He smiled and gave her a quick embrace. He pulled back after a moment and frowned. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’m fine,” she said quickly.

“Hmm, I doubt that, but I won’t push.” Heron chuckled. “Just know that I’m here for you.”

She nodded. “I know, Heron. Thank you.”

“Big sis!”

“Teacher!”

“Swordmistress!”

Her students ran up to her and clustered around. Heron gave them a sidelong glare then said primly, “The correct address is Swordmaster.”

Yuriko chuckled. “He’s right. Grab your gear and form up.”

Of the thirty students, only five wanted sword lessons. The rest weren’t interested in advanced combat so they would take Armsmaster Byrne’s class. The bald Knight arrived in the gymnasium a minute ago, nodding to Yuriko, and rolled his eyes at her attire. She gave him an innocent grin.

The last time he protested her wearing a dress to class, she’d shown him that being able to fight in any attire was an important skill. While he was her match in normal melee skill, he hadn't touched an Ennoia, so the victory had been easy. Not that it should be difficult considering her Anima strength advantage.

Of the five, two were Lance and Awley, who she really suspected were there to flirt with her. Cheeky brats. They did make an effort to learn the Four Phases, so she kept them in the class.

Heron chuckled as he headed towards the locker room to change. Yuriko, without lifting a finger, handed the training swords to the kids. She had them practice the Four Phases for half an hour, then sparring for the next half before she dismissed them. Physical training only lasted for a couple of hours in school, while the rest of the day was devoted to other subjects.

Duties done, Yuriko left to return home. Well, she actually strolled around town and helped keep the streets clean of snow. The first ones came just as the memorial finished, much to the town’s consternation. Faron’s Crossing had never had snow before, but with the altered weather patterns, it was clear that changes would happen. The Season of Air had been colder than any experienced in the past after all.

As she did every day, her thoughts returned to the events of last year, lips twitching in some amusement as she recalled Mum’s reaction after everything was over. Yuriko had not been in her right mind then, after experiencing loss, but she could appreciate Sadeen’s forbearance now.

Mum asked, of course, and Yuriko found that whatever restricted her from mentioning Damien had disappeared. Well, she only told Mum everything she could when they were in private. With Da, too. The Legates had been curious, but Iola Brygos had been gravely injured so they had that occupying their minds. Their unexpected victory had more than surprised them, but the fracturing of the plane that happened right after had galvanized them into action.

“I can live without a heart,” Iola Brygos yelled, “but I can’t live with myself if the plane falls!” Patently false sentiments, of course. Once Iola’s elemental form ended, she would die if her body had not been healed. Still, delaying had only caused her a prolonged convalescence and she should be back on her feet soonish.

Mum’s reaction to Yuriko’s revelation was strange while Da’s was amusing.

“You mean to tell me you had an old man living in your head, seeing everything you did for the past four years?” he asked in scandalised tones.

“Er, yes?”

“Young lady,” he sighed, “you’ve too much of your Mum in you if you’re that nonchalant.”

“And what do you mean by that?” Sadeen growled, though Yuriko noted that she wasn’t really angry. The entire thing had been swept aside with the two’s flirting, only for Sadeen’s news to blow everything away afterwards. “Oh, Yuri, you’ll have another baby sibling soon.”

And with that announcement, everything else in Yuriko’s mind ground to a halt. At least for a little while, just long enough for her to get a grip on herself. Two Seasons later and Mum was just beginning to show. Awakened women carried babies for a year before giving birth, so Mum was only halfway done by now.

Well, her advance to Knight Captain level had been reported, though she wasn’t sure if the news had been brought to Realmheart. The corresponding increase in her stipend had not happened yet since banking and other interplanar infrastructure were still being repaired. Da assured her that everything would be taken care of.

So it was that she languished in Rumiga for now. Sunk into a daily routine that kept her busy. At night, she meditated in an effort to centre herself, but it was slow going. Not that her progress had stalled. Two hundred days of constant meditation and training increased her Anima reach by about five paces. But her other strengths had not increased much. She has lost quite a bit of motivation now. But it wasn't so bad…

When she arrived home, she saw Gwendith waiting for her while seated on the porch. The lady with the corkscrew curls stood with a grin and ran up to hug her.

“Come see what I managed to do!” Gwendith said enthusiastically. “I’m close to the edge!”

Yuriko nodded and let her friend bring her inside.

_______

The days passed by in a blur and Kato couldn’t muster the energy to care. The wagon was the only thing keeping them alive in the Deep Chaos, and the rations and other supplies were nearly used up. Not to mention that the place had grown pungent and filthy, even though he tried to wipe out the filth with Animus-produced plasma. Just that it was much harder to use his Facet techniques without a weapon.

Many of the survivors had given up, though thankfully, none had taken their own lives. They spent long hours sitting with their backs against the wall, nibbling on a ration bar, or sipping a bit of watered-down ale. Caera had been able to cobble together a condenser runescript formation that dripped water into a barrel. Considering everything, Kato didn’t want to know the specifics of where the water came from.

The barrels of ale and brandy were the only things keeping him sane, and even his fiance spent most of the time in deep meditation. What else were they to do? Would they spend eternity floating in the Depths?

So it was that one day, or maybe night, in his stupor, he didn’t feel the wagon suddenly jolt and bounce. He noticed when the door was suddenly hacked open, and he screamed, thinking that death would come with the flood of superdense Chaos. He was wrong, though. They lived.

It was only after they found their circumstances changed that he realised that maybe being stuck in that wagon hadn’t been so bad, after all.