Saya watched from above a girl with angelic wings. The girl shattered one of L’s shields. It left him with only one. She continued her assault and plunged downwards. He created a new shield above. It was shattered. Each time a shield was created she broke it. Every counter move she countered it. There was no limit on how high her sahar level was, Saya concluded.

“Kwazhak, now!” L shouted, as the angel continued.

“As you wish,” Kwazhak stopped attacking and crossed his arms, his sword levitating to his side. “Dihu Faitsup-Choisiu!”

Two red glyphs appeared around his hands as he threw out his arms. A large energy sphere surrounded everyone. L disappeared before the spell had hit. Saya couldn’t recognize the words. It wasn’t Renhua words, so it had to be a proto-language. The energy sphere imploded. A vast cacophony of particles scattered about. Everyone looked around in a daze, unaware of what the spell did. Toqemur’s Alkhafa wore off, the invisibility spell revealing her location. Perez’s gauntlets remained glued to his hands. The girl’s Tsubasa wings faltered up above.

“We can’t use our spells! What’s going on?” Shunji and Lanu panicked as they repeatedly chanted, only for nothing to happen.

“No dip guys, that prince dude just wiped our ability to use sahar spells,” Hyun-woo affirmed.

“Ohhh well, that’s a bummer,” Toqemur brushed her silver hair, sighing.

“Bahaha, this is nothing for the great Jose Perez!”

Perez dived at Kwazhak first. He threw powerful haymakers.

“Physical, this is our chance!” Saya smiled as she followed Perez’s lead. Zundui connected a barrel of punches. Kwazhak undulated with the fuller of his sword. He met Saya with her dance-like swings. Kwazhak was always facing his back towards the sun no matter what angle.

“Watch out!”

Saya turned around. The flightless girl stomped towards Kwazhak. The ground shook. With a charged fist she slugged Kwazhak’s sword with such force. Shockwaves bellowed the area.

“How is she imbuing her punches with sahar even though he canceled our spells…?” Lanu questioned, his hand still held outwards. “Possibly a gifted sahar level?... How did she pass the natal examination?”

“Something ain’t right with her,” Ashojan commented in Azu, only to be met with a shove from Zundui. The boy gave the Buhang a snarky look.

“She’s got something alright,” Zundui asserted, “Something that makes her stronger than the rest of us.”

The girl stepped back as Saya jumped in.

Each pluck of the shamisen. The sound of twirling sand, Saya felt it. Kwazhak parried each strike. That was when she noticed. Since he fought with only one hand, it would take more time to defend the unarmed hand. She focused her attention on his left side. Kwazhak adjusted and faced his shoulders perpendicular to hers. There was no opening. Then she saw Perez flanking him, so she tried to stall Kwazhak. Clank was the only sound heard. Perez unleashed a metal punch behind Kwazhak. He whirled around to counter it as Saya turned her blade to the flat side. She swung it sideways at his shoulder. It was then when Kwazhak’s face grew with sudden fear.

“Dihu Chuansong.”

He vanished from the scene. Saya and Perez slammed into each other and bumped heads. They both fell to the ground.

“Ow!”

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“Aray… San sha pumunta?”

“So we meet for the first time.”

Everyone turned to the stadium entrance to see a man with a black tuxedo, wearing glasses. A large portion of his hair was black, while a row of it was red. Saya felt a certain feeling from him. Like her heart was about to jump out of her chest. It bore an everlasting tingle down her spine.

“Mr. Thiệu, I see you have returned from your trip from the Bay of Tig,” L suddenly teleported in front of Saya, kneeling. “Everyone, kneel!”

Everyone dropped to L’s command in pure dreadfulness. Except for Perez, who stood with protest.

“Buwisit na ‘to?” He spat in Galag. “I-”

“Kneel, child.”

Perez’s body was brought down on his knees. Saya glanced. Did Thiệu do that? Jose was starting to shake as sweat ran down his neck.

“New conduct, child. When in my presence, kneel. I can’t judge you by first impressions, though. So I’ll let it go,” Thiệu spoke with such authority that even L was struggling to keep his composure. He briskly walked about, his disturbing footsteps becoming a hellish sound. Saya’s sweat stained her shemagh as Thiệu towered above her.

“Who were you fighting?”

The question dug into her brain. L signed to her with his hand. She guessed that if she mentioned Kwazhak, it would be over. This man was no joke. There was something about him that if they messed up even once, they would end up dead.

“We-”

“They were fighting each other, sir,” L answered for her, “I was observing them from afar.”

“Oh? I understand. I’ll take you at your word. Likewise, I was checking because these are our fighters, after all. They are our market,” Thiệu went on, turning his back to them. “Just remember your family’s contract, Kiyomiya L. Remember your purpose. Don’t disappoint me like last time.”

“...”

He opened the double doors and simply made his way out. Sweat dripped down her face. She was confused on why Thiệu called them a ‘market’. A Kazaàd company should only sponsor their candidates. Not only that, everyone opposed the tournament except for her. L dismissed her questions after that announcement last night, when she asked why they wanted to stop the tournament. Everyone shrugged their shoulders as they stood up.

“Hoh hoh, so that was the Thiệu L was talking about,” Toqemur smirked lightly.

“How can you be so care-free after what just happened?” Zundui stood from his knees back up and walked to her, “Perez almost got turned into mincemeat.”

“Oi, I understand Khoit you know,” Perez was fuming. “But I can’t speak it though…”

Hyun-woo bumped his shoulder, placing his weights back on. “Yangnom, do what L says next time. We would like to get out of this alive, if you noticed.”

“How dare you call me a yangnom, yangnom!” Perez went neck to neck with Hyun-woo, who seemed to respond to his endless jeers.

Although Saya was still recovering from what happened, there was someone she needed to praise. Once she spotted the girl, who was still sitting on the ground, Saya ran towards her with open arms.

“Hey, that was amazing!” She tackled her, as the girl groaned in discomfort and surprise. “Those spells were cool-looking, and especially when everyone’s sahar was wiped, you still kept going.”

“Uh… T- Thank you,” She glanced several times at Suruj before responding.

“You gotta teach me some of those spells,” Toqemur wrapped her arm around her, “That ajniha one especially.”

When Saya looked at the girl’s name patch, there was nothing on it. She had no name. Her uniform was a dull gray. It was strange. But even if that was true, no one said a word about it.

“That’s the target,” L dusted his hands. “Thiệu. Because of this incident, today’s fight’s off. Let’s head back.”

“How in Yyvubia’s name are we going to kill somebody like that,” Ashojan argued.

“Which is precisely why the Dineh Kazaàd training is here,” L followed along, nudging him.

Everyone filed out of the stadium, returning to the right wing. Exhausted coming back to the right wing, L had one last topic to announce.

“One hour break. You can’t exit Al-Wa property at any time, even now. After break, come to me if you wish to improve your saharic arts, Kwazhak to improve your melee ability.”

One hour break. For a brief while, Saya decided to return to her room with Kyukko on the second floor. Recollecting the details of the fight. Kwazhak and L took note of everyone’s skills. And it seemed as if they had done it before. They must’ve trained another group of fighters if they knew exactly what to do. But the confrontation with the CEO of Al-Wa was an unexpected variable. L and Kwazhak were extremely wary. Kwazhak teleported away as soon as he felt Thiệu’s presence walking up to the doors. Something wasn’t right.