A glow flashed in Aria’s eyes as she dashed forward, slashing the wooden sword straight toward Zett’s head. Zett’s eyes widened with a glow of its own. He dropped his bag and jumped back, swinging his arm up. He propelled a wall of wind at Aria, hoping to slow her approach by even a millisecond. Her sword barely brushed against his nose. Putting some distance in between them again, a bead of cold sweat rolled down Zett’s back.

“You got faster.” A pair of horns settled on his head.

Aria flourished her sword. A pair of black horns completely identical to Zett’s had also materialized on her as well, contrasting her white hair.

Jiaha shouted from the sidelines, “Unlike you, she actually practices every day!”

Zett glanced over with the corner of his vision to see Jiaha laying back on a lounge chair with hands behind her head. The moment Zett shifted his eyes, Aria dashed forward once more. Her crystal blue eyes were the last thing he saw before he collapsed. The mere second delay had cost Zett a sword to the ribs. His knees hit the ground as he clutched the side of his chest. A bruise and a coughing fit was Zett’s reward for the brief moment of distraction.

“One to nothing! Back to your positions!”

Zett looked up to see that Aria had already begun walking away. He caught his breath as quick as he could and steadily rose to his feet.

“You didn’t need to hit that hard did you?” Zett said with a nervous laugh.

“I was holding back.” The same burning glare stared back at him.

Zett swallowed his saliva at her words. Before he could reply, Jiaha started the next bout. “Begin!”

Zett hopped back with the wind blowing from below him to each jump. He floated through the air as fast as possible. Aria ran at him as he hopped out of range, zipping around the makeshift arena. It was only a matter of time before Aria caught up with him, though. He could see her inching closer and closer as time passed.

Gliding away, he turned the gears in his head. Zett could still feel the stinging pain on his side. He knew he’d be out of commission if he was hit like that again.

“Aria, I’m really sorry for not visiting sooner. I didn’t do it on purpose. How about I treat you to something?”

Aria was twenty steps away. He continued to zig-zag around the field.

“I’ll get you some sweets.”

Fifteen steps now. No reply came, but Zett caught her fierce expression waver for a moment.

“What about chocolate?”

Ten steps.

“Cheesecake?”

Eight.

“Jelly?”

Five. Her sword was an arm’s length away from Zett.

“I’ll get you anything you want!”

Suddenly, Aria stopped her sword in front of Zett’s face. “Finally. I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”

Zett already had his arms up in surrender. He could almost feel his heart beating out of his chest.

Aria held two fingers up to him. “Two conditions.”

“Name them.”

“One. A month’s worth of Yori’s.”

“A month?” Zett grimaced at the amount of money he’d have to spend.

“Well?”

He gritted his teeth. “Fine. Deal. And the other?”

“Fifty push-ups.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“What does this have to do wi-” Zett was cut off.

“You heard me.” Aria kept her sword directly in front of his ribs again.

Zett complied almost immediately and threw down his sword.

Muffled laughter from the side could be heard as his body continuously rose and fell. His cheeks and ears felt hot as he could feel the eyes of Aria and Jiaha watching him.

“Forty-nine, fifty!” He collapsed. “Ow.” His arms throbbed as he laid on his belly. Zett stood up after a moment, arms still trembling. “Okay, I fini-”

He was about to complete his sentence when he felt someone grab his wrist. Zett tried to yank back on reflex, but he couldn’t even budge. Aria kicked his feet from under him and he slammed his back on the grass. She stabbed two swords in a cross between his neck and brought them together until they touched his skin.

“Three to nothing! That’s game! Aria wins!” Jiaha announced.

“That was cheap.” He frowned at Aria.

Aria rested the sword on her shoulder and her expression changed for the first time as she smirked at him. “Don’t take your eyes off your opponent. We were still playing, you know?.” She thrust his sword into the dirt and reached out a hand for Zett.

His horns disappeared as he was pulled up to his feet. “So…are we good?”

“Yup. I pretty much got what I wanted.”

“You just wanted me to buy you sweets didn’t you?”

A grin filled her face. “Was it that obvious?”

“Also, you could have just told me to lose. Why make me do all those push-ups?” Zett rubbed his arms.

“Where’s the fun in that? And they were for your own benefit. You’ve been slacking haven’t you?”

“Hey, physical stuff isn’t my strong suit.”

“All the more reason to keep working on it.” Aria walked away and readied her sword at Zett. Her horns were still present.

“What are you doing?”

“Let’s go one more time.”

Zett placed a hand on his side. “I’m not sure I want to anymore.”

“Come on, don’t be like that.

“I think that’s enough for today.”

“How about a bet then?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll reduce Yori’s to a week if you win.”

“Tempting. And if you win?”

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“Nothing.”

“Nothing? Really?” He eyed Aria.

“Yup. Come on. You won’t lose anything from this.”

“Yeah, but I’ll gain a couple more bruises,” Zett muttered under his breath.

“Hey, boy!” Jiaha interjected. “I’ll get in on this bet too. I’d like to see you be serious for once. It’s too boring seeing you lose all the time. If you manage to actually win, I’ll teach you how to do this.” She took a large intake of her cigarette and flicked it up into the air. The white paper cylinder seemed to float against gravity as it continued to rise higher and higher until it was twenty-five feet from the ground. Her hand reached out with a thumb pointed upwards and her index finger directed towards the flying cigarette. Along with a cloud of smoke, a single word came from her mouth. “Bang.” The cigarette exploded into a star of flames. Licks of fire hovered down and were extinguished before it even hit the grass.

“What about me, master? Do I get anything if I win?” Aria perked up at Jiaha’s involvement.

“You get another win.” Jiaha took out another cigarette and lit it.

Aria hung her head down at her master’s instant response.

“I already teach you full-time. What more do you want? By the way, boy.” Jiaha turned her attention to Zett.

He was blankly standing in place with no change to his expression looking at where the explosion had just occurred. A dim light filled his eyes.

“Hey, boy!” Jiaha shouted.

Zett shook out of his stupor. “Huh? What?” The light quickly faded.

“Snap out of it. Do you accept?”

He looked to both Jiaha and Aria awaiting his answer with expectations.

“I guess I’ve got nothing to lose then.” Zett picked up his sword and a pair of horns reappeared on his head.

Aria pumped her fist in the air at Zett’s reply.

“Good. Are you both ready?” Jiaha asked, to which both Zett and Aria nodded.

Zett already knew Aria’s strength and skills far surpassed his own. In an actual duel, he would never be able to win.

But, this isn’t a duel.

“Begin!”

Aria rushed at Zett to which he responded with the same tactic as before. Running or in this case, hopping away. Aria easily caught up and swung at him. Zett held the handle of his sword with one hand and palmed the flat of the tip with the other, blocking her strikes. He jumped with each attack, taking the force of the strike and gliding further away.

It soon became a game of chase. Aria made a mad dash to Zett and every time she would swing her sword, it would only cause him to fly further and further from her.

Jiaha tapped the ashes on her cigarette on a nearby tray and smiled while watching the battle. “Pretty good, boy, pretty good. How long can you keep this up, though?” She commented to herself.

It wasn’t long before Zett failed to accurately block one of Aria’s attacks and was struck across the shoulder.

“One to nothing! Positions!”

“Almost!” Zett yelled out.

The next round began the same as the last. Zett used the same tactic, hopping and gliding all over the field.

“You’re not going to,” Aria breathed heavily, “win if you don’t,” another breath, “attack!” She swung her sword.

Zett barely managed to block in time and said nothing. He was focused solely on deftly blocking and nothing else. If he was hit, he would lose.

The round dragged on and on until Zett felt something hit his back. A tree prevented him from running any further.

“Got. You.” Aria trapped him from the front.

He ducked as a sword sliced across his head. The sound of broken wood burst from behind him. The entire wooden sword embedded itself into the side of the tree. The once thick and sturdy wooden decoration was now caved in nearly halfway through. Zett turned at Aria. A look of incredulity was directed to her. Aria replied with a meek smile and mouthed the words, ‘Sorry’ before ripping her sword out and going in for another hit. He brought up his arms to turtle his head. Aria struck him across the stomach at his decision.

“Two to nothing! Positions! And Aria! Control your strength! You’re going to kill him like that!”

“Sorry,” Aria’s breathing was ragged, “Master!”

Zett realized she was going easy on him from that exchange. He kicked the tree and slammed on it with his sword.

“Hey, boy! You need another sword? That one’s looking grim.” Jiaha asked.

“It’s fine!” Aria and Jiaha could hear the frustration in Zett’s voice.

“Alright, but blame yourself if it breaks in the middle of it.” Jiaha shrugged.

The third round began. Thinking he would run away again, Aria dashed toward Zett, but she saw him reeling his arm back. It was only a second later that she realized he was about to launch his sword at her. He flung it like a javelin. The trajectory of the sword flew straight at Aria’s head, but with her agility, a simple tilt was all she needed to do to avoid it. Just as the tip of the sword was about to fly past her cheek, in her periphery, she noticed Zett pointing a finger with his thumb up at her. Contrary to Zett’s recent behavior, he stood relaxed with a slight smile on his face.

“Bang.” A single word came from Zett’s mouth.

Before Aria could formulate another thought in her mind, a strong gust of wind blew near her face and the sword flying past spun around, smacking her in the back of the head. Aria stopped to a standstill and slowly craned up while holding a hand to the back of her skull staring back at the sword that had hit her.

“Ms. Jiaha,” Zett spoke up while walking to Aria, “That counts for two, right?” He picked up his sword. She just blinked at him.

“Two to two. Game point. Positions…” Jiaha almost couldn’t believe what Zett had done. It wasn’t a strong hit, almost akin to a decent slap, but rules were rules. Jiaha snuffed her cigarette out and sat up to closely watch Zett.

Just as Jiaha was about to begin the final round, Zett interrupted her. “Oops. Hold on.” He laid his sword down and crouched to readjust his shoe.

“Hurry up!” Jiaha tapped her fingers on her knee.

“Alright, I’m ready.” Zett used both his hands to brush off the dirt from his knees.

“Begin!”

“Hey. Your. Sword.” A word per breath came from Aria’s mouth.

Zett peeked at his hand realizing he was weaponless. “Oh.” He whipped his head left and right until he found his sword. He hurriedly bent down to pick up his sword. Just as his hand enclosed around the handle, he immediately threw it at Aria. It spun wildly in the air. Aria slapped it away with her sword and raised a brow to Zett who stood there awkwardly with his finger aimed at her.

“Shit.” Zett froze in place.

Aria ran at him seeing that he just threw away his weapon. He jumped back and another chase was about to ensue. Even though Aria’s stamina was nearly gone and her breath heavy, it was only a matter of time before she caught up to Zett. As she came up to Zett’s starting position she barely noticed an odd colored object sticking out of the grass. She saw a smile formed on Zett’s mouth again and a warning bell went off in her head.

A burst of wind erupted from the ground in front of Aria and a brown object sailed at her. It hit her square on the shoulder just as she began shifting her body to the side in reaction. With a laugh, Jiaha appeared next to her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Looks like you got played, Aria.”

“What. Happened?”

“Take a look.” Jiaha had picked up the wooden sword Zett carelessly threw. It was shorter than before and the tip had splinters sticking out. She then took the brown object laying on the grass and held it to the tip of the broken sword.

“It’s the sword he threw at you in the beginning.”

“So that means…” Aria’s horn disappeared.

“Yes. Two to three.” Jiaha looked over to Zett. “Zett wins,” she announced.

“You should pay more attention to your surroundings.” Zett fell backward on the grass and his horns vanished as he hit the ground. Staring up at the sky, he saw Jiaha and Aria come up next to him. He could barely find the strength to stand right now.

“Hey, how did you do that?” Aria squatted down next to him. The exhaustion from the four rounds was completely gone and there wasn’t a hint of anger nor frustration in her voice, only pure curiosity.

“That was based on my technique wasn’t it?” Jiaha crossed her arms.

Zett let out a chuckle and sat up. “Well, there was only so much I could glean from seeing it once.”

“Interesting. How does yours differ?”

“I’ll show you one more time, but I can’t explain until you keep your end of the deal first. You’re not going to back out, right?”

“Yes, yes. Don’t you worry about our little bet. Now, show me.”

Zett cupped his hand and a slight gust of wind flowed to his palm. He slowly shaped it into a ball of condensed wind. Since it was composed of air, with the naked eye, no one could tell anything was there. He threw the invisible sphere up into the air and a burst of wind exploded, blowing back everyone’s hair.

“Your molding skills are exemplary for someone your age,” Jiaha praised. “I can’t wait to hear more.”

“Ah! It’s what you did in the third round.” Aria realized what he had done. “But how did you do that from so far away? You’re not secretly training are you?”

“No way. There are very few things I find worth putting in so much work for. It’s just something I picked up. Like I said, I’ll tell you both when Ms. Jiaha delivers on her part.”

“Well, If you could do this, why drag it out for so long?”

“Two reasons.” Zett held out two fingers as Aria did to him. “One, I needed to tire you out.”

“Well, it worked,” she pouted.

Jiaha rustled Aria’s hair with a laugh. “That’s your own fault for falling for it. Looks like I need to give you a lot more cardio routines.” She put her attention back to Zett. “And the second?”

“I was still practicing.”

Both Aria and Jiaha had a puzzled expression on their faces, so Zett pointed to the multiple spots on the ground. All around the field, spots of grass could be seen flattened in a radius. Some in a circle, some a cone, from wide to narrow.“I needed to buy time.”

“If only you put this much effort into training,” Aria remarked.

“It’s too much of a hassle. It's too tough working this hard.” Zett threw his body back on the ground.

“Anyways, how did you break the practice sword? No offense, but we all know you don’t have the strength to do that. Did you use another skill?”

“I didn’t break it.” Zett pointed up at her. “You did.”

“Huh?”

“Why do you think he only blocked the entire time? He was trying to get you to weaken it.” Jiaha asked. “I bet you also hit the tree on purpose, right?”

Zett gave her a thumbs up.

“Alright then, a promise is a promise, but it’s getting late. I’ll teach you the next time you visit.”

“I guess I’ll have to keep my end of the deal too, then.” Aria hung her head between her legs.

“Actually,” Zett sat up again and looked at Aria, “I wasn’t planning on changing our previous bet.”

She tilted her head at Zett.

“We’ll keep it at a month’s worth. It’s the least I could do as an apology.”

Her face lit up and she threw her arms around Zett almost strangling him. “You’re the best!”

“Alright, alright! Get off! You’re covered in sweat!” Zett tried to peel her body off, but her raw strength bested him. He could only wait until she released him of her own volition.

After Zett was released, he brushed himself off and stood up. “I should head home then.”

“You’re not staying for dinner?”

“Can’t. My father should be expecting some news about me soon.”

“What’d you do this time, boy?” Jiaha used a finger to push his head back.

“Hey, it wasn’t my fault.” Zett rubbed his forehead.

“So you always say.” Both Aria and Jiaha said in unison.

Zett could only shrug. “Anyways, give my regards to uncle and auntie.”

“You don’t want to stay a bit longer? Mom and dad haven’t seen you in a while.” Aria was almost pleading.

“Next time. I’m sure they have their hands full with the wedding preparation and everything.”

“Oh. Then be sure to bring me Yori’s next time, alright?”

“Got it. What do you want?”

“A pack of Choco-slimes and Dragon Bread.”

“Greedy, aren’t you?” Zett scoffed.

“Okay, I’ll walk you out. You can rest until I come back, Aria. We’ve got a lot to work on after today.” Jiaha took him back into the building. Zett picked up his bag along the way and waved good-bye to Aria. When they were out of earshot of her, Jiaha whispered into his ear. “Careful, boy. She’s going to end up buying the whole menu.”

“It’ll be fine.” He paused then adding, “I hope.”

“By the way,” Zett continued, “How is she? Are they still saying the same thing about her?”

Jiaha nodded. “Yeah. Still nothing but a color pigmentation. At least that’s what the doctors keep telling us. They haven’t found anything wrong with her physically or mentally so far, but her parents think otherwise.”

“That’s why they hired you, isn’t it?”

“I’m just a precaution. If it turns out to be something serious, I can only hope to make her body strong enough. We’re beginning enhancements as soon as she learns how to fully control her body.”

“Really? I thought she’s already learned, seeing what did to that tree. I thought I was going to die.”

“I was surprised too. It was probably an unconscious activation. I would’ve stepped in if it happened another time.”

“Unconscious? Did she not realize she almost cut a tree in half? With a wood sword no less?”

“She wouldn’t have noticed. She only enhanced her strength by a smidge.”

“You mean she was already able to do that before? You’re creating a monster, you know.”

“You won’t be able to win against that ‘monster’ again if you don’t train your body, boy.”

“I don’t want to win against her again.” Zett tapped his ribs. “Too much work. And I keep telling you two that I’m just not cut out for physical stuff. And let’s not make another bet. That was a one time deal, alright?”

“Fine. No need to tell me twice. I’ve released the barrier at the gate.” They had both reached the front door. “Anyways, I don’t know what you did, but try not to anger your father too much this time.” Like with Aria’s, she rustled his hair.

“I’ll try, but no promises!” Zett waved good-bye and strolled down towards the street.

Jiaha watched him go and shook her head with a smile before closing the door.