Perhaps it was because of the Daffodil Cotillion that happened just six days ago, but the 5th Day of Water, the celebration of the Empire’s Founding, was far less exciting for Yuriko. They had the day off from school, and they were ushered into the open-air theatre in the middle of the Central Reserve where they were forced to watch a play documenting the events of the Founding and, of course, a bit of the Shattering.

Afterwards, they had been let loose to enjoy the holiday as they wished. For Yuriko, it was mostly training. She hadn’t learned any new Animus techniques but of the ones she currently knew, none were at the level of mastery she wished for.

Damien apparently agreed with her. The Golden Silhouette, the female version that mirrored Yuriko’s body, down to the widening hips and growing bosom, continued to show her the varied ideal forms of her techniques.

At one point, when the Golden Silhouette demonstrated the sword dances, she separated the three combined sword dances and twisted the third dance’s strand into something resembling a runescript line before she rewove the three into one. Then she attacked Yuriko.

It was a single stroke, a single fall of the blade, but for Yuriko, it was…perfection. She stood in front, with the blade striking towards her. It was only a single slice, vertical from above. But she saw no way to defend against it. She thought to guard but the moment she did, the attack’s trajectory automatically adjusted, and the parry Yuriko thought to do was immediately nullified, hitting only air should she continue the movement. She thought to leapt aside but even before she made a single movement, the blade turned to head towards where she planned to go. She thought to abort the dodge and the blade readjusted to its original trajectory. Finally, she could do nothing while it came to a halt less than a tenth of an inch beyond her forehead.

It was sublime, but Yuriko had absolutely no idea how to do it. It wasn’t the balance of all three dances. Something had been changed with the third dance and elements of the first and second supported it with the powerful, unavoidable strike.

She’d been training to achieve even a smidgen of that perfected strike, but alas, no progress.

The following twenty-three days until the end of term was far more hectic than the idyllic first five days of the year. The semester exams for each of her classes would be in the final two weeks of the term. The first week of exams was written, and the second, practicals. Of course, not all her classes had practicals. Animus Manipulation, Martial Sciences, the Specialties, and Reserve Officer Training were the only ones with practicals. Social Studies had practicals too, but that apparently had been the Cotillion. Oh well.

So from the 5th to the 14th Days of Water, Yuriko and her classmates and friends spent most of their time studying for the written exams.

“I hate Arithmetic,” Yuriko muttered while she tried to solve equations in a notebook.

“Yeah, yeah, we all know that. You’ve said as much in the past two weeks,” Krystal groused. “Come on, Yuri, you’re supposed to solve for variables A and B, not mash them together like that!”

“Why do they even replace letters with numbers then? What’s the point?”

“Look the equations are 3A + 2B = 23 and A + 2B = 21, you can imagine the variables as varied coin denominations and the goal is to figure out which ones,” Braden said, voice dripping with frustration.

“So why don't they just say 3 silver pennies and 2 silver marks then?”

“That’s just an example! Also, you can do a lot of nifty equations using it, and the variables don’t always have to correspond to coin values.”

“I still don’t get it!” Yuriko flopped down on the table, on top of the notebook, inadvertently pushing a pile of review notes off the table and scattering it across her living room floor.

“Yuri!” Krystal yelped. Orrin, Braden, and Heron leapt off their chairs and picked up the papers, all three laughing together for a change.

“Sowwy…”

That had just been one of the review sessions that happened each night. The six of them, Mikel included, had picked Yuriko’s room instead of any of theirs from the simple fact that she was the only one staying in a suite and she still had no roommate.

Of course, the Dorm mistress had given her an odd look when she applied to have visitors in her suite. But since it was the review period, the need for study groups was pretty normal. With the limited space available in the lounge, Yuriko was eventually given permission to have them over.

Review for Communication wasn’t so bad. The subject of the exam was mostly on Wojin, a sort of interplanar lingua franca. It was most commonly used in Federation territory, but apparently even the northern tribes spoke a pidgin version of it.

Verdanian was the Empire’s native language and Yuriko read and spoke it fluently. They had studied Old Imperial, what they called the collection of languages used before the Shattering, back in prep school. Some older records in the Empire were written in Old Imperial but almost everything already had been translated to Verdanian. The Federation actually also spoke a weird variant of Verdanian. It occasionally led to misunderstandings from words one side used differently from the other, so most interaction between Imperials and Feds were in Wojin. Well, for Yuriko, learning that tongue wasn’t any harder than learning how to shoot, so she was quite confident.

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As far as History went, Yuriko could only hope and pray that what came up in the exams was part of what she had painstakingly crammed into her mind. She had no doubt that she would dump all that knowledge straight into the bin after the exams.

She was reasonably confident when it came to Social Studies, though only on the etiquette part. That was something Mum and Da drilled into their children from when they were able to understand and follow.

The rest of Social Studies, well, not so much. Like History, she had to gamble in the hope that what she memorized would be in the exam contents. The same was actually true for the last general class she had: Natural Sciences. Most of that class had been lecture upon lecture. Dry, boring information without anything concrete to tie it in. Hopefully, she wouldn't dump too much knowledge during the break.

And so it was, during the written exams. Yuriko was delighted with Social Studies, having memorized the correct stuff. Chaos take Arithmetic. Not bad with Natural Science. Excellent with Animus Manipulation and Specialties. Communication was debatable. Same with History.

Written exams for Reserve Officer Training was similarly a memorization trial, but the main difference was that she actually liked learning it, so she had no trouble at all.

Martial Science's written exams were weird, to say the least. They didn't even have lectures. What was on the exams were scenarios and theories. She was given a situation and was asked to figure out how to get through them.

For her, most of her scenarios were if she got cornered by multiple opponents and she was alone. Well, her answers were mostly a variation of a complete beat down from her to them. Much more complex than that, of course, but it varied per scenario, taking into account positioning, obstacles, cover, and whatnot.

By the fourth week of the Season of Water, aside from the exams, a blizzard dumped several paces of snow into the City. The cold was nearly unbearable and the sun hadn’t peeked out of the clouds in days!

So she found herself trudging to the Song Building bundled up in Sharom Academy’s cold weather cloak over her uniform. It was a fur-lined blue fabric, quite thick and laced with runescript to warm her up, though that function cost Animus to maintain. The paths had been shovelled clear of snow, though she still had to be wary of ice puddles. That also meant she couldn’t go on morning runs, which frankly, made her far too restless.

She was looking forward to Martial Science’s practical exams, which she hoped was a scenario-based test too. When she came to the gymnasium, she saw most of the students in training gear. She hurried to the locker rooms to change, grateful for the warmth that radiated from the heater panels on the walls and floors.

After she changed clothes, she headed to her designated group where she found Krystal and her other friends. Everyone there was of her year level though.

An assistant instructor approached them once the group was complete, all ten of them.

“For Martial Science practicals, we will be conducting an individual sparring session against the instructors. A total of three spars per individual, unarmed, sword, and spear. One minute duels in rotation. We will begin with…” He looked down at his list, “Miss Yuriko Davar.”

“Here! Which one first?”

“Spear.”

They put on protective headgear and squared off.

“You may begin when read- oof!” the instructor grunted when Yuriko’s spear thrust right into his guts and knocked him out of the ring. He lay on his back for a couple of seconds, blinking at the ceiling before he rolled to his feet. “Duel’s over if you push me out. Thank you, Miss Davar,” he said in a monotone. He grabbed his crystal screen, made a notation, then called the next one.

“Hie hie, that was brutal,” Krystal whispered to Yuriko.

“Er, I thought he was ready when he said so.”

“No, you’re just too strong.”

Yuriko shrugged. “Whatever.”

Unfortunately for the instructor, every time Yuriko’s turn came about, she knocked him immediately out of the sparring ring within the first second. He looked a bit wild-eyed by the time the exam finished but his tone remained calm and even.

“No mercy, huh?” Krystal sighed. She couldn’t even make the instructor move his feet from where he stood when it had been her turn. For spears and unarmed anyway. With the sword, at least, she managed to land a few critical hits.

“I’m sure you got a good grade. The instructor’s skill level is much higher than the group.”

“Yeah, but you brought the average up. I hope I don’t fail because of that.”

“I doubt it.”

As for Animus Manipulation and Specialties, well, she’d been practising the skills and techniques every day and she gave a very good showing as far as she was concerned. Master Alfein seemed to agree as she had been nodding and while smiling the whole time Yuriko demonstrated.

For Specialties, which was Rune Scribing at this point, Yuriko had become quite well versed in basic runescript repair. She felt that she could easily do what Orrin did for her during the training camp, repair her Plasma Caster, with what she knew now.

As for Reserve Officer Training, well, it was a variation of the drills they’ve been doing for the entire season. Parade marching, a small practical test on small unit tactics, and a defend the base scenario. As she had been grouped with the Sharom Elite Class, they hadn’t done very well. At least for the group efforts.

At the end of the week, Yuriko, Krystal, and the boys relaxed in the Bistro Ilvain, enjoying steaming mugs of hot tea and honey cakes after a gruelling two weeks.

“Well, that was that,” she sighed. “End of term.”

“Aye.” Braden nodded.

He was seated right next to her with Orrin on his other side. Heron was shooting glares at him from the opposite side. It kind of happened that way, the two of them beside her, and Krystal gave a knowing smirk and sat across them. Yuriko just shrugged and let it be.

“I’ll spend the break earning merits,” Yuriko continued. “I’ll need a set amount to get a recommendation letter by the time I graduate.”

“Huh, I want to go home, honestly,” Mikel said. “Turns out that Agaza doesn’t force us into internships and since Mum isn’t back yet, I’ll have to help my father when I can.”

“Hoh, I’ll go with you,” Krystal nodded. “And you three? As if there was ever any doubt.”

“I’ll stay,” Heron declared, his face reddening enough to show over his tan.

“Same here!” The twins answered.

“Well, good luck to the three of you! Hie hie!” Krystal smirked.

“I’ll inform my advisor on Firstday of my intentions,” Yuriko decided.

The honey cakes were good but she missed having the Sweet Shoppe’s parfaits. She didn’t know any shops or cafes that made parfaits, and she wasn’t really inclined to explore right now.

Well, for now, she will rest, and get a good night’s rest after several weeks of cramming and studying. Her friends lifted their mugs at that, and they spent the rest of the afternoon in idle conversation and quiet joshing.