I leaned back against the wall, watching the fight play out in the ring. Well, maybe fight wasn’t the right word for this, it implied too much skill. It hadn’t been my intention to test how much my ‘students’ had been paying attention, but it was certainly working out that way. Honestly, at this point it was just getting embarrassing. The only question was if it was more embarrassing for me, or for them. I hadn’t decided yet. But the succubus was certainly enjoying it. Vicki may not be very tough, physically, but she was much more proficient at breaking holds and dodging blows than I had anticipated. Not that her opponents were making it especially challenging for her. They were telegraphing their moves like they thought this was a video game boss fight. Speaking of which, I refocused as an irritated Tony balled his fists at his side, body tensing. I sighed.

“No punching,” I reminded him, not for the first time.

He turned to face me, face the picture of innocence, hands immediately relaxing,

“I wasn’t going to…”

Vicki delivered a kick to the back of his knees and Tony dropped to the mat, swearing.

“And never turn your back on your opponent,” I added.

Vicki lunged at him, gleefully, hitting him in the chest, arms and legs. Vicki was actually behaving herself surprisingly well, she must be enjoying this. Tony flinched and rolled away, embarrassed.

“Are you alright?”

I jumped at the voice and turned to find Luke at my elbow. I had been so absorbed in the fight I hadn’t noticed him approaching.

“I’m fine, why?”

“Well, it’s just…” he hesitated, unsure if he should continue. “You are kind of scratching the back of your head like you have lice.”

I froze, it was true. I hadn’t even noticed I was doing it. Well, at least I knew Vicki was keeping up her end of the bargain. Forcing my left hand back to my side and gripping it with my right, I chuckled.

“Sorry, just an itch.”

“Yeah…” Luke frowned but didn’t push it.

I had to admit, I was starting to like the kid. He was observant, and more clever than he had seemed on first blush. Proving my point, he turned back to the fight and changed topics.

“So, your friend, she is… very enthusiastic.”

“Yes, she loves her work.”

“Teaching?”

“Sure, let’s go with that.”

Tony yelped as she bit his arm and wriggled from his grasp. I briefly considered stopping it there, but he hadn’t tapped out, and frankly, Tony could probably use being taken down a peg. It would be better for him in the long run. So, I let it play and I turned back to Luke,

“How are you feeling, by the way? Any troubles at all? Anything unusual?”

“No, why do you ask?”

“No reason.”

It was a shame; it would have been convenient if he was a Partial. But I wasn’t having much luck with that so far. The first group had been a bust, at least as far as I could tell, and I hadn’t noticed anyone promising from this set of students yet, either. But the day was still young. I turned my attention back to the observers. I searched their faces, watching for signs that they noticed anything unusual about their ‘guest lecturer’. She was certainly laying it on thick, so if they were ever going to react, now was the time. As I scanned the crowd, I noticed that someone had excused themselves from the group and gone to sit down in the corner of the room. Their head was down in their hands, and they were no longer observing the fight at all. That might be something.

“Hey Luke, I think I need to go check on Noah for a minute. Do me a favor and keep an eye on those two. If either of them seems to be getting… overly enthusiastic, give me a shout, alright?”

“Sure, but what do you think is going to…”

“Thanks, be right back.”

As I crossed the room, I tried to review what I knew about Noah. The answer was, not much. He was quiet, hadn’t made much of an impression yet, but he paid attention in class, and he had been paying attention today, until a few moments ago. Now, I just needed to find out why. It was always possibly that he had a stomach bug, or a hangover, in which case this was nothing. But there was only one way to find out. I dropped into the seat next to him,

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Hey, you feeling ok?”

Noah jumped and opened his eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I…”

“Relax, you aren’t in trouble. I just noticed you sitting here and wanted to check in and see how you were doing.”

“Not great, honestly,” he groaned. “I was fine when I got here today, but all of a sudden, I started feeling really nauseous. I just need a few minutes to pull myself together, ma’am. I promise, I’ll be back on my feet in no time. It’s always like that.”

“This sort of thing happen to you a lot?”

“I wouldn’t say a lot, ma’am. But yeah, I guess you could say that I have a kind of sensitive stomach. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve gotten these unpredictable waves of nausea. Not that often, really, but time to time. Doctors have never been able to figure out why. They said it was probably vertigo or something, but I never feel dizzy. Either way, usually I just need to sit down for a while, and it passes.”

“Usually?”

“Well, when I was about 16, I stayed with my cousin and his boyfriend for the summer. He worked at this ice cream shop on the beach, and I would go hangout there with him when he wasn’t busy. His boss was this chill older guy that everyone really seemed to like, but I couldn’t spend any time around him because I always felt like throwing up. The feeling never passed, as long as he was there. We joked that I must have been allergic to his cologne. It was weird.”

“Yeah, that is odd,” I agreed. “You ever see his boss again after that summer?”

“Nah, I never did. Actually, it’s funny, my cousin lost that job after his boss just dipped on them one day. Never even paid their final paychecks. He was pretty pissed about it.”

“I bet,” I nodded. “Tell me something.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Look over at the fight, do your symptoms get worse when you watch them?”

Noah looked up and squinted at Tony as he attempted, without much success, to pin Vicki to the mat. He was only able to watch for a moment before he had to cover his mouth with his hand and look away.

“Yeah, a lot worse,” he paused for a long moment, breathing deeply. “Probably the movement, right? Like a motion sickness thing?”

“Maybe,” I equivocated. “How about you close your eyes and put your head between your knees for a few minutes, see if you feel better? I’ll come back and check on you in a sec.”

I crossed the room again, scanning the assembled faces one last time. No other reactions that I could see. Still, one wasn’t bad, better than the first group. Though I wasn’t sure he was going to be especially useful, at least not out in the field. It wasn’t that unusual. Every sensitive reacted a bit differently to ubarae and while nausea wasn’t uncommon, I had heard it wasn’t the most pleasant option. I may get an itch I couldn’t scratch, but at least it had never made me lose my lunch. I imagined that made fighting them more difficult. And Noah seemed to react very strongly, too, which could be a mixed blessing. Too strong of a reaction could incapacitate a Partial, as he was handily demonstrating. Still, beggars can’t be choosers, hopefully with some training he would be able to gain some control. It hadn’t occurred to me before that without context, it would just read as an unusual medical condition, one with seemingly no rhyme or reason to it. Maybe an explanation would give him some comfort, some agency in the whole thing. But that would have to wait until the testing was done. Until then, Vicki’s identity needed to remain a secret. I returned to my spot at the edge of the ring.

“It he alright?” Luke craned his neck to get a better look at Noah, who was hard to see now that he was bent over at the waist.

“Not feeling too well, I told him to take a rest. How are they doing?” I nodded at the ring.

“Well, I think Tony needs to take you up on some of those extra lessons. He is looking pretty tired. Needs to get his endurance up.”

I studied his face. Luke was right, he looked exhausted. Vicki was being greedy, it seemed. Time to swap her opponent before things went too far.

“Alright,” I raised my voice, stepping closer to them. “That’s enough for now.”

“Aw but I was just…” Vicki began.

“I know what you were ‘just’,” I met her eyes. “Time for someone else to have a turn.”

“Right,” she sighed. “Of course. Good match.”

She offered Tony a hand and helped him up from the mat. He took it, then staggered off the field, collapsing into a chair to the side of the ring. I moved closer to the succubus.

“That was a bit far, Vik, don’t you think?” I kept my tone low.

“He could have tapped out at any time,” Vicki shrugged. “And just so you know, he never would have passed screening, in the old days. He may be immune to the… traditional methods, but he is very susceptible on other fronts. You send him out into the field, and he is going to be eaten alive. I did him a favor, frankly.”

She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. There was a reason that the screening had been multilayered, in the past. I was just going to have to do my best with what I had.

“Alright, well don’t do any favors for the next one, or I am going to have to call this off. Understand?”

“Fine,” Vicki rolled her eyes. “But if you want some advice…”

“Not from you, I don’t.”

“Well, I am going to give it anyway. Don’t get too emotionally invested in these pups. Didn’t anyone tell you that it’s a waste of time to train cannon fodder? Or do you think you can save them?”

Vicki watched my face, then smirked,

“Surprised? It isn’t hard to guess what is going on here. And it isn’t hard to see that you are getting too involved, again. Well, I suppose it is very human to make the same mistake, repeatedly, isn’t it?”

“Not just human. After all, I got you twice.”

“Well, fortunately, it looks like life is going to return the favor for me. I do hope I get to see your face, after the dust settles.”

“I can’t even guarantee you will see my face 5 minutes from now, if you keep this up,” we were treading on dangerous ground, and I didn’t need her sussing out any more information than she had already guessed.

“Fine,” Vicki raised her hands in surrender. “No one appreciates good advice, until it is too late. Well, who’s my next victim, then?”