Jiang stood up from his hiding spot, clenching his fists and loosing a mighty battlecry.

He snapped his head forward just in time to avoid an arrow that whizzed behind the back of his head.

He charged-- almost recklessly, toward his promised prize. He ducked low, avoiding two additional arrows, then halted and rolled sideways to dodge a third.

Tyvan glanced over to where Heidi was posted. She was at rest, likely because Jiang was fast approaching. That was polite of her.

He turned back to face Jiang. He gauged the young man’s speed-- and the distance he’d yet to cross...

Then... he kicked him in the chin.

It was an unfortunate, yet logical result of the circumstances. Jiang was focused on his speed to avoid Heidi’s arrows. He was physically and mentally exhausted. And... despite the boy’s quick reflexes, Tyvan’s movements were far faster than those of the humans to which he was accustomed.

It took several seconds for the young man to wake. He stared at the high ceiling lights, blinking his eyes and lolling his mouth open and closed.

Heidi approached in a jog, awash with the light scent of perspiration and wearing a sleeveless training shirt that revealed her developed shoulder muscles.

Tyvan held up the cereal bar to catch her eye. “Does he deserve it?”

She returned a bright smile. “Even the lightest drop of rain is welcomed by the parched earth.”

Jiang curled his body, flopping onto his side with moderate difficulty.

“P-please...” he whimpered, “I’ll take anything.”

Tyvan stood over the boy.

And the granola bar... he crumbled into a dozen pieces, allowing it to fall onto the grass. Tears brimmed at the corners of Jiang’s eyes as he stared at his broken meal.

“Fix it,” Tyvan said.

“I... I can’t,” Jiang replied, choking back a sob. “I’m... I’m outta juice.”

“We call it mana, Mister Jiang.” Tyvan knelt down, facing him eye-to-eye. “Fix. It.”

The young man sat up. He placed both hands on the ground. The magic stirred in the air, the pieces of the cereal bar trembling slightly.

The spell failed, the localised sphere of mana popping like an overlarge soap bubble.

A full tear dripped down the young man’s cheek. He looked up to Tyvan, his eyes empty and full of loss.

Tyvan met his gaze.

“Mister Jiang, there will be times in the future when you are forced to give more than you think you can offer... You may hate me. You may loathe me. But I demand this of you because I know you better than you know yourself.”

He gestured again to the fragmented cereal bar. “Now breathe. Focus. And do as I say.”

Jiang gulped... and nodded. He again placed his hands on the ground.

Good.

It took him three tries. But finally, he restored the cereal bar to a reasonable condition.

Jiang’s eyes brightened and he looked up to Tyvan once more. His tears still flowed-- but such was permissible. His expression was heartening.

Tyvan tossed his third, still-packaged, cereal bar onto the young man’s lap.

“Your two-hour rest period begins now. Afterward, you will be under my direct instruction.”

----------------------------------------

On a nice, breezy Saturday morning, Xue Yan rounded the corner of her block. Almost home! She could smell the fresh green-ness of Heidi’s plant nursery as she kept her jogging pace.

She considered speeding up to get back to Elysium faster... but that seemed like a hassle.

No need to rush.

She was steadily getting better over time. Her body and mind were adapting to the few-times-a-week training-- martial arts with Grandpa, physical training at home~

It was important not to skip out, though! Just like studying, (which she still had to do, on top of everything;) she had to maintain a strong and healthy physique.

Once she got back to the apartment complex, she stopped by the office. Raia was holding down the front desk, as usual, but... she looked like she was the one who went for a run. Her already pale face looked a bit paler, and strangely, she wasn’t wearing most of her piercings.

“Raia?” Shay said, “Is everything okay?”

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Raia bonked her forehead against the surface of the desk. A small plastic box fell off the edge, spilling a hundred multi-colored paper clips onto the floor. She groaned loudly, then went eerily still.

“No, I’m not okay,” she mumbled. “I have to get ready for my date in like... four hours? And everything is soOoore.”

“I’m... I’m sure she won’t care,” Shay said as she started gathering paperclips, “She just wants to see you-- that’s what’s important, right?”

Raia looked over her desk with a helpless expression. “Yeah, I know-- but Fina’s been looking forward to our date all week. I don’t want to disappoint her? And I know she’s not gonna like the answer if she asks just why I’m sore.”

“Why are you sore?” Shay asked.

“Why do you think?” Raia snapped. She frowned before adding, “And where did you just come from?”

Shay struck a pose, then spun around to show off her new black-and-white track jacket and pants. She bought it with her own money to replace her old maroon one, so she was extra proud of it.

“I just came back from a two-mile run,” she grinned.

“Yep. Fuck off.”

“What?” Shay frowned, “Is something wrong with that?”

“Two miles and what?” Raia glared.

“Well-- what else do you want me to say?”

Raia sighed and shook her head. She got up and walked around to help with the paper clip picking-upping.

“You’re still trying to get closer to Tyvan, right?”

Shay felt herself blush. That should have been obvious, especially to Raia-- but she still felt shy talking about it. She hadn’t really done anything to pursue that goal in the past couple of weeks, but...

“Yeah... do you have any ideas?”

“You need to... step up your training? For Tyvan, two miles is a fucking warm-up.”

“Wow, that’s crazy,” Shay said, smiling wryly. “But I mean, like-- he’s a guy, though.”

Raia plopped back on her butt, rolling her eyes and her whole head back.

“Oh. fuck. you. Shay. How the hell are you making this a gender thing? I’ve been training with Tyvan this whole week, running, lifting, fighting-- do you think he treats me special?”

Shay drew her hands back, clutching her fists in front of her chest. “Well-- yeah! But you’re--”

“But I’m what?” Raia interrupted, “Gay?”

It was Shay’s turn to glare. “No. I mean... you’re not human.”

“But that doesn’t make me any better at running?” Raia said-- “or any of those other things. I’m a teleporter, not a superhero.”

Shay nodded quietly. Raia was basically a superhero, though. But obviously, if she was just training her endurance, then she wouldn’t be using her shadowy teleport to get around.

Or... maybe she also teleported around? Maybe she teleported to one side of the block, ran back, and did it again?

Training with Tyvan sounded like it could have been fun... and she would have loved to spend more time with him even doing something mundane like a jog or some push-ups.

OoOh. She imagined Tyvan holding her feet while she did sit-ups. That made her feet feel tingly. Or maybe the staticky feeling was from her sitting on her knees.

But... from the way Raia talked about it, Training-Tyvan was Serious-Tyvan, not hang-around, talk, and eat three double-cheeseburgers in one sitting Tyvan. She liked Serious-Tyvan just as much as every other part of him, but she preferred to watch that from afar rather than up close.

“You, of all people, should know how important physical training is,” Raia said. “Aren’t you our resident Tae Kwon Do expert?”

“Actually,” Shay said, “I think my Gong Fu is better now.”

“I don’t care what you call your super secret chopstick technique-- you know what I mean.”

Wow. That was a... little racist. But Shay decided to forgive Raia in her heart.

“I have other things I’m good at,” she said. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t get hired because of my martial arts or my circumstantial relationship with a martial arts family.”

“Ughhhh,” Raia groaned, “Whatever.”

As they finished picking up the paperclips, Shay kept thinking about other ways to get close to Tyvan that didn’t involve her sweating like a waterfall or getting her arms and legs turned to jelly.

The door to the office opened, brusquely and deliberately.

Tyvan walked into the room, dressed a little flashier than usual-- a dark suit with an emerald-green, patterned trim. That made the golden snake pin on his lapel pop, looking extra-striking with his silver hair.

Shay immediately hopped up to her feet and saluted, near-shouting, “Boss! I missed you!”

That wasn’t what she meant to say, though. She should have said something normal like ‘It’s nice to see you’ or ‘Oh, you look so hot today!’ --aAaah, and she should have said his name instead of just calling him ‘Boss’ to be more personal.

Tyvan pursed his lips in his cute little frown. He took her saluting hand and brought it back down to her side. “Don’t do that.”

“Ah, sorry.”

“Good morning-- and I must beg for your apology, Miss Yan. I haven’t been in the office much, these past two weeks.”

Shay smiled cheerfully. Even though it seemed like Tyvan misunderstood what she was saying, that was better than getting ignored outright.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “Are you busy? I have some business with your grandfather.”

“I’ll go!” Shay said, “I’ll go anywhere, do anything-- I’ll even fight him mano-e-woman-o, if you need me to!”

Tyvan’s mouth twitched into... a smile! Maybe. It was always hard to tell, with him.

“I appreciate your candor, but... I doubt going as far will be necessary."