James kneeled in front of Tsukiko’s door, flowers in one hand and sweets in the other.

“Open up, please?” James asked.

The door stayed closed.

“Look, I know I was stupid,” he said.

The door clicked open. Tsukiko stood in front, arms crossed. James held the gifts up. She rolled her eyes.

“Here,” she said, dropping a piece of paper on him.

He caught it in one hand, “What’s this?”

Tsukiko huffed. “Since you so obviously want to get yourself killed, I’ve made a new plan just for you.”

He read the card. It told him to go jump off a cliff.

“Tsukiko, don’t be like that,” James tried.

She raised an eyebrow, her sharp eyes boring into James. “Oh, don’t be like what? Stubborn?”

He winced. “I know it was stupid, but I had to.”

She huffed and walked away but didn’t close the door. James stood and moved in. “I wasn’t about to leave master to fight that tiger alone.”

“She told you she could handle it,” Tsukiko argued. She turned her back to him, James wrapped her in a hug.

She struggled against him until he spoke again. “It doesn’t matter if she could handle it. Other than you, she’s the only one who cares. I couldn’t live with myself if I ran then.”

“You should have trusted her,” Tsukiko said after a long pause.

“I should’ve,” James agreed. “But you understand why I didn’t, right?”

Tsukiko sighed. “Yes.”

James pulled Tsukiko closer. “Thank you.”

“I’m still mad at you,” she said.

“I know,” he answered.

“You’re banned from visiting for the next three days.”

James frowned. “Can we make it—“

“No.”

James pouted. “But if I don’t get to see your cuteness I’ll die.”

“Die then,” Tsukiko said.

James leaned back as if struck. “Oh, the pain. My own girlfriend wishes death upon me.”

She stared daggers at him. “Stop it you idiot.”

James placed a hand over his brow like an overdramatic actor. “I cannot. My processing power is too small to understand complicated words. Please, talk to me only in handholding and kisses.”

He walked forward as he made obscene kissing noises. Tsukiko moved behind the bed and threw a pillow at him. “Stop!”

He didn’t. James scooped her up in another hug and planted a kiss on her cheek. She grabbed another pillow and pushed it between them. She freed herself from his grasp and marched to the door. “Out.”

James tried to look cute. It sometimes worked.

“Out,” Tsukiko said, though he could see the slivers of a smile on her.

He was about to try one more time before his handheld buzzed. Tsukiko’s as well. She looked at it.

“It’s Nadia. You’re late for your punishment,” she said.

James sighed. “Just when it was about to get to the good part.”

“Shut up,” Tsukiko answered. She reminded him as he walked out of the room. “Remember, three days.”

The door shut. James sighed. Dang it, he could have convinced her to lower it to two if he’d had a bit more time. She was breaking, he clearly saw it.

“Oh well, work time I guess,” he said to himself.

Most of the cleaning went by uneventfully. James used his previous training to practice sending cans into his bin, going as far as to leave it behind as he swept. He accidentally bounced a can the wrong direction once or twice, but James was able to salvage the situation with a quick toss from some scrap he kept at his belt.

Then Peregrine came to visit. Alone this time.

“I’m here to teach you another lesson, scrapheap,” the teenager said. All the while he flicked his eyes to the alley.

“Fine, let’s get this over with,” James said.

“You need to play your part better,” Peregrine said once they entered the alley. “Act more scared, or angry.”

“No one out there really cares,” James said. “Trust me, I’ve been watching.”

“What if your master was watching?” Peregrine whispered as he leaned in close. “She might have noticed you were acting.”

James leaned on his broom. “In that case, wouldn’t she be able to follow us in this alley?”

Peregrine suddenly looked around suspiciously.

James had to hold in a laugh. The teenager was getting too into the spy role. “Relax. She’s bargaining to let us buy things on the market floor again.”

Peregrine nodded. “Ah, yes. Her plan to split the sect is moving along steadily, I see.”

James had to ask. “Wasn’t it your side that blocked us in the first place?”

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“A likely story,” Peregrine said, getting animated. “As righteous cultivators, we would not dare remove someone from the market floors without good cause. No, your master used her influence to block the two of you out in order to cause more strife.”

James blinked. “She prevented both of us from the market in order to get people on her side to get us back in the market?”

He wondered what Peregrine was being taught to come to this kind of decision.

“Yes,” the teenager nodded. “But that isn’t what I am here to talk about.” Suddenly the man looked serious. “James, my brother has sent assassins after you.”

James straightened. “What?”

“You remember the other you fought with during Skateball?” Peregrine asked.

James nodded.

“He was reprimanded for his loss and demoted in his family. He… did not take it well. When I last visited, he revealed to me his intentions. He believes your disappearance will remove the stain from his records.” Peregrine hung his head. “I am truly ashamed, and told him as much. We are righteous, and above the deceitful tricks of assassination.”

James wanted to retort, to sarcastically reply with how Peregrine brought two others in their first fight. He held his tongue, he could see that now wasn’t the time. Peregrine seemed truly disturbed.

“Have you told anyone else?” James asked.

The teenager shook his head. “I could not. Despite my arguments with him, he is my brother. We swore to it together under the heavens with a bowl of sacred elixir. I could not betray him until I know he has truly fallen.”

James pictured two young kids early into cultivating holding a bowl of alcohol between them, laughing in that secretive way when they think they did something wrong. He also recalled the attacker when he had visited the gang with Garret. At the time, he thought the assailant was for the gang members, but it seemed now that it was for him.

“He will not send anyone with a core,” Peregrine said after the silence lingered. “The sect would be suspicious if his funds suddenly dropped by such a large amount. I expect him to send coreless though. Gang members and thugs who have no qualms with violence. Be on your guard.”

“Thanks,” James said. “You be careful too.”

“I am always careful, scrapheap,” Peregrine said. “But enough of my news. What have you learned from your master?”

James shrugged and explained his hunt in the lower floors. Nadia had already revealed the oxen to the market. All James had to do was embellish a bit to make it seem as if he had no idea such a rare beast would be at the plains.

“And you left the rest of the herd behind?” Peregrine asked.

“Sure did,” James answered.

“She must want to use them to bolster her private funds,” Peregrine surmised.

“We had trouble killing the ones we got,” James pointed out.

“From what my master tells me, Nadia can easily handle any number of beasts,” Peregrine said.

“You really trust your master a lot, don’t you?” James asked.

Peregrine nodded with pride. “Of course! Master Osman has taught me much in the ways of righteous cultivation. He is a pillar of the Blue Mountain Sect, the first to work and the last to leave. I can only wish that one day I will be as skilled in combat as his is in medicine.”

“Why is he teaching you combat?” James asked. “Wouldn’t a medicine instructor be better in medicine?”

“Master Osman is the only one with the same powers as I,” Peregrine said. “We are both able to perform fine motor control, though he with his hands while I with my feet. He is the only one qualified to train me.”

James nodded slowly. He was starting to get an idea of Peregrine. Well, more than started. The teenager radiated hero worship. In his mind, Osman could do no wrong.

No wonder the young cultivator was coming up with all these absurd theories about Nadia. He couldn’t imagine a world where his hero had a hidden agenda.

“He could help you as well. I know he could,” Peregrine said. “I noticed you and I have that same motor control. You’re better than I am with it. Not for long, though. I’ll quickly surpass a scrapheap like you!”

James absently nodded, then started. “You haven’t told him we have the same abilities, right?”

“I was going to bring it up once your master is revealed to be the demonic cultivator she is,” Peregrine said. “When she is ousted you will need a new master.”

James nodded. “Okay. That’s good. I’m sure if you told your master mine would find out.”

Peregrine looked serious. “You’re right. She has spies everywhere, I’m sure.”

Silence descended again, Peregrine shuffling awkwardly around. James raised an eyebrow. Eventually the teenager broke the silence.

“So, we need to sell the whole fight in the back alley,” he said. “We should trade pointers again.”

If James didn’t know any better, he would have mistook the teenager’s apprehension. The teenager wasn’t acting awkward because he knew they would have to get in a fight, it was because he actually wanted to train with James.

“Um, sure,” James said.

Peregrine almost beamed before pulling back into his haughty persona. “Excellent. Prepare for my new techniques!”

The young man moved, his feet sliding across the ground as he pulled a blunt sword from his side. James responded with a twist of his broom, knocking the blow away.

“No Metastate,” James said quickly. “I can’t afford to overheat.”

Peregrine stopped for a moment to agree, then continued the fight.

James had to admit, the teenager was improving. The man’s straightforward sword had become more harrowing. James could always tell where a slice was coming from, but it was the follow up that made things tricky. Each swing of the teenager’s blunted weapon fed into the next, creating a stream of nonstop attacks. And with the young cultivator’s footwork, he could keep up with James as they moved back and forth through the alley.

However, James still tricked Peregrine with his less than orthodox arts. James utilized the environment, kicking boxes to deflect blows even as he used the same box to climb out of reach. Leaps over Peregrine would turn into diving kicks that forced the young cultivator back. James followed with his own chain, each attack coming from a different angle to confuse and distract.

It ended with James pretending to sweep Peregrine’s leg before rolling and springing up to wrap himself around the teenager like a monkey’s tail around a tree. From there it only took a quick application of force to bring Peregrine to the ground, where he found his sword arm locked in a grapple.

“Junked beasts,” the teenager cursed. “Again you win with deplorable methods.”

“Doesn’t really matter if I win, right?” James asked as he helped the teenager up.

Peregrine nodded. “But don’t get cocky, scrapheap. One day I shall surpass you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” James said. He waved the teenager away and pretended to get back to sweeping.

Once he was sure Peregrine left, James messaged Tsukiko.

Look, I know you said three days, but I’ve got a problem.

Her answer came back in moments.

Let’s hear it.

James called her on his handheld and explained the conversation he’d had with Peregrine. He focused on the part where they had a similar constitution.

“If Osman ever finds out Peregrine is going to get experimented on,” James said. “And he’ll probably say yes because he thinks Osman is the Divine Buddha incarnate.”

“So bring it up to Nadia,” Tsukiko said.

“We won’t be able to do anything, though,” James said. “I need some kind of proof that he’s up to no good. Something that would oust him from the sect. I’m sure he has something.”

“James, that sounds like the same kind of stupid danger that almost got you killed,” Tsukiko said.

“I’m not going to do anything myself,” James explained. “But maybe we can hire some people to tail him? See if they can find anything?”

“With what money?” Tsukiko asked. “Anyone skilled enough to hide from him would cost more than you or I have.”

“Junk, you’re right,” James said. “Okay. I’ll try to think of something.”

“Or you can let Nadia know and work on it together,” Tsukiko said. “She does have a lot of money.”

“She’s already dealing with enough,” James said.

“You’re lucky I’m not next to you right now or you’d have the worst ear pinching of your life,” Tsukiko said. He could practically feel her stare through the handheld. “Weren’t you the one who convinced her to talk things out with you instead of just making decisions?”

“Yeah, but—“

“James,” Tsukiko said flatly. “If you’re actually going to be this much of an idiot I’m going to just tell Nadia myself and remove the choice from you. Beasts, how is it you can get Nadia to ask for your opinion but can’t seem to respect hers?”

James didn’t have an answer.

“Stop thinking you have to do everything yourself, moron,” Tsukiko said.

“…Okay,” James said after a bit. Tsukiko was right, he was doing what he accused Nadia of when she started training him. “Okay. I’ll talk to her. But after she deals with this whole market embargo. I promise I won’t do anything until I get her approval.”

“Good,” Tsukiko said. “Now, what are you doing the rest of the day?”

“Well, I gotta finish this punishment and then get some training in,” James said. “After that, nothing.”

“Come over then.”

“I thought I was banned?” James asked.

“I’m calling it off because you listened to me,” Tsukiko said. “See you tonight.”

James laughed to himself as she hung up.