The instant the taxi stopped, Rick leaped out. He fumbled for a sphere to pay in lucrim, not wanting to waste time getting the right change but not willing to toss extra lucrim in the window like he was in some kind of cheesy action movie. That was where it would have been convenient to have an automatic electronic method of payment, but he pushed the thought aside.

Instead he sprinted past the generic facade of the high school toward the park behind it. Once it had been a forest for meditation, but most of the trees had been cut down in favor of parade grounds and fields for various sports. He'd seen those before - he'd gone to the same school not so many years ago - but that didn't matter. All that mattered was the new stage set up in the middle of the stadium.

There was some faculty member still making a speech at the podium. He wasn't too late.

Letting himself calm down, Rick moved alongside the edge of the stadium, scanning the crowds. There were plenty of parents there waiting to take pictures of their kids, so he didn't look too out of place. Given his age, he could easily have been friends with one of the students, which he supposed was technically true.

Eventually he caught sight of Melissa's light brown hair. She was sitting with some friends he vaguely recognized, but not focusing on them. Instead, her eyes were scanning the sidelines with a worried look that he hated to see on her face.

Then she caught sight of him and the worry melted to a broad smile. She dialed it back the next second, instead giving him a wry grin and a nod. Rick glanced toward the filled stands and gave a helpless shrug, but she just bobbed her head understandingly. The important thing was that he was there to see her ceremony.

Melissa shot a glance at the speaker and rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. Rick had barely even been paying attention, so listened in just enough to figure out that the vice principal was going on about life being the greatest battle in the students' future. Nothing all that unusual for a graduation speech, in fact Rick remembered a similar line from his own graduation, but he supposed that she had been listening to it for a lot longer than he had.

After that speech, a student with a sash adorned with honors came up to the podium next. After thanking the vice principal, she launched into her own speech. "It's been a difficult year, hasn't it? We've had too much homework and last second breakouts and even the fire in the cafeteria." Laughter. Rick had no idea what that referred to and glanced to his sister, but she didn't react. "But we've fought our best and come through. I honestly believe this graduating class is one of..."

As the student continued speaking, Melissa caught his eye again and made a wanking motion with one hand. Despite the serious environment, Rick found himself smiling. Compared to dealing with her dangerous medical condition and being threatened by Mike's cronies, normal teenage problems must seem mundane to her. This was a good upper middle class high school that they'd struggled to test into, so not many of these students had as difficult a life.

When the student stopped speaking and the lights dimmed, Rick realized that it was finally time for the key ceremony itself. This would have been the last point he could have rushed in, so perhaps he could have taken a cheaper method of transportation after all, but he was still glad to have shared a few moments with Melissa prior, even if across the stadium.

The administrators moved their seats back and the podium was removed from the stage, clearing the combat circle. All lights darkened further except the spotlight outlining the combat circle precisely. From the shadows emerged the school's grandmaster, wearing the traditional ceremonial robes and cap.

It took a while for the crowd to become silent, then the first student's name was called. He nervously walked up the steps, tripping on his robe a bit, and stepped into the combat circle. A gong sounded, he and the grandmaster bowed to one another, and they both stepped forward.

Then the grandmaster handed the student his diploma and he walked on, waving to his friends.

A long time ago the final ceremony was one of combat, but that was a relic of ancient times. They didn't even ring the gong for every student anymore, just once at the beginning and once at the end. Rick knew a few older people thought the whole thing was a mockery of the original ritual, but he didn't particularly care. All that mattered was the graduation itself.

Most students had family cheering for them as they entered. A few yelled something or made some gesture that must have been some sort of inside joke. One fell down going up the stairs and the whole crowd clapped to encourage her, which just seemed to embarrass her more. None of it really mattered - Rick just kept his eyes on Melissa as she advanced in the line of students approaching the stage.

Finally it was her turn. She crossed the stage, bowed gracefully, and accepted her diploma without any mishap. Only a few cheered for her, but it didn't matter: when she had her diploma in hand, Melissa turned to look at him and they shared a broad smile. Rick felt the tension that had been building in him all day finally slip away, letting him forget about the stupid job interview or the Chamber of Combat.

He was proud of Melissa for her hard work, graduating with honors despite being born without an aura spark in her soul. And if he was honest with himself, he felt a bit vindicated. Everything he'd sacrificed felt worth it, to know that his sister had gotten the proper education he'd wanted.

His own high school experience had been terrible, dealing with their addict parents and fighting extended family while struggling to help raise Melissa. It was a miracle he'd passed at all. But despite her condition, Melissa had been able to make the most of her time in school, apply herself, and graduate. Though he wasn't sure where she'd go in life, he was sure that she wouldn't have his problems of lacking qualifications thrown in her face. He'd make sure of it.

Rick moved around the side to intercept Melissa as she got away from the stage. She ran and leapt to hug him, actually knocking him back a step. Once she'd been so frail that it felt like she weighed nothing, but since she'd begun to control her condition, her health had been improving. She was still thin, but nowhere near as skeletally frail.

"You made it." Melissa squeezed tightly before he set her down, then backed off to smile at him. Rick raised an eyebrow.

"Of course I did. I wouldn't have even done the job interviews today if you hadn't insisted."

"Yeah, but I expected you to bump into someone along the way and start another blood feud, or get run over by a couple cars, or-"

"Ha ha." Rick rolled his eyes and just put an arm around her shoulder. "Congratulations on graduating, sis. Do we need to stick around for the rest?"

"There's not much more. We might as well."

Fortunately, there were no more speeches. Once all the students had gotten through the ceremonial ring, the band played the school song, there was a collective cheer, some threw their combat sashes in the air, and that was it. The siblings headed out early to avoid the rush, though not having a car allowed them to skip the horrible traffic jam in the parking lot as everyone tried to leave at once.

Instead they walked across one of the fields in the general direction of home. Melissa tugged off her ceremonial sash and folded it under one arm. Rick glanced over at her. "So, what do you want to do to celebrate?"

"I was thinking of succumbing to peer pressure and doing drugs."

"If you do that, face punches will be your anti-drug." Rick flagged a taxi, a cheap one this time. "But seriously, do you want to go out to a restaurant? You've done great in school, so you do deserve to celebrate."

"Nah, everybody else will be clogging all the restaurants." Melissa pondered his question as the taxi stopped for them, then nodded to herself. "Let's just grab something from the more expensive Chinese place. That will taste a lot more like success to me than some fancy restaurant."

It would have been cheap to a lot of people, but for them ordering out at all had been a luxury. Rick had good memories of late training sessions fueled by that food, though, so he thought it was fitting enough. They stopped by to pick up their usual favorites, then headed back toward the apartments.

"Oh, I didn't even think about your friends." Rick frowned at himself as the thought suddenly occurred to him. "Would you have wanted to do something with them instead?"

"Nah." Melissa was quiet for a while, staring out the window. "We all promised to stay in touch, but we probably won't. That's how it usually goes, isn't it? You leave your school friends behind for work or college friends."

"Maybe for most people, but it doesn't have to be that way for you."

"Right, because you spend every night out drinking with your high school buddies."

Rick sighed, preferring not to think about the people who had passed for friends in high school. He didn't keep up with most of them, even online, but their lives had gone in entirely different directions. "I wasn't saying you had to, I just didn't even think about it."

"Bro, relax." Melissa looked back to him and favored him with a quiet smile. "I really don't want to do anything except go home and relax. And there's no one else I'd rather do it with. We got through school with just the two of us, so it should end with just the two of us."

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It was sweet - a bit too sweet. Rick smirked at her. "You know, I'm starting to wonder if you even have any friends at all. All these excuses... let me guess, your friends all had to leave on a training mission? I wouldn't know them anyway?"

"I'll have you know that I'm the most popular girl in school and I run around kissing all the boys."

"Uh oh, if that happens I think I'm contractually obligated to punch them."

"Aren't all of your contractual obligations punching?"

"Yeah, you're not going to like the celebratory punches once we get home."

Melissa grinned but didn't fire back. Instead, after a pause, she spoke in a quieter voice. "I really do think it's most fitting for it to just be the two of us. I actually considered inviting Lisa to my graduation ceremony, but it wouldn't have felt quite right."

That drew Rick up short and he considered that for a while. "I knew you met her for another lucrim massage, but are the two of you friends now or something?"

"I like her pretty well, but honestly, I'm probably too young for us to have a real friendship. I think she views me more as a little sister than anything." Melissa shook her head. "But that's not important. I want to go home and shove all of these noodles into my face."

"Well, now that you have a fancy high school diploma, you're smart enough not to shove them into your ear instead."

"Wait, are you saying that's not what the chopsticks are for?"

The joking faded as they got home, however. Melissa still seemed to be in a great mood, but when Rick stepped out of the taxi and looked at their apartment block, he found himself pausing. This place really was a shithole, now that he looked at it again. The broken glass, the peeling paint, the wasted inhabitants slouching near the stairs... now that Melissa had graduated, he really did need to find them somewhere better.

Or maybe just somewhere better for himself. Though Melissa still hadn't completely decided on what she'd do next, it was possible that she'd join a sect or go to college or otherwise leave him to start her own life.

When they got inside, Melissa set about organizing the takeout on the little table while Rick checked their mail and turned on the old laptop. Normally he wouldn't have, but he had an inkling of what he'd find: Uncle Frank had left a video message for Melissa congratulating her on graduating. He had been even busier than usual lately, work taking a rough turn, but Rick had been fairly certain that he'd make time for that.

While Melissa watched his message, smiling fondly, Rick poured water for both of them. Once Melissa finished Uncle Frank's message, she came back over, they grabbed their food, and they set about eating. For a while they just traded old jokes through full mouths, celebrating in their own way. But eventually Melissa sat back, patting her stomach in satisfaction.

"I almost can't believe I'm really done." She let her head roll to the side, toward her room. "While we were eating, part of me suddenly got nervous that I'd left the book I needed at school. But there's no more homework, ever."

"Unless you go to college. But if you don't do that, then yeah, adult life is pretty much just a constant party."

"I knew it. The whole 'taxes' thing is just an elaborate practical joke on kids, isn't it?"

Though he'd enjoyed their relaxed meal, Rick found his thoughts inexorably turning to the future. He set down his chopsticks and looked over at Melissa. "Have you made any final decisions?"

She didn't answer for a long time and eventually spoke without making eye contact. "I don't think I'm going to do college. Even with the scholarships, the expenses are just... I've done my research, and it's really hard if you aren't loaded with cash."

"Don't assume that. We could make it work."

"Oh, don't be that way." Melissa swatted his shoulder, breaking free from her reverie. "I didn't make that decision to be all sad and poor, I honestly don't think college is the right choice for me. You need it for some jobs, yeah, but it's a ridiculously expensive investment. I'm thinking that I want to go for a juvenile certification. That would open the door for a lot of career opportunities."

"What certification? I assume the CLAT, unless you had another idea?"

"Of course the CLAT. Anything else I want to do, that will be the most useful start."

"Huh. Good plan." Rick had never taken the Centralized Lucrima Aptitude Test himself. It wasn't that he couldn't afford the nominal fee, it was that he couldn't afford to take enough time off work. There were adult versions of the CLAT, but they weren't as prestigious and he hadn't really considered them. The way Melissa mentioned it led him to wonder if he shouldn't look into getting a simpler sort of certification. It wouldn't be too large an investment toward getting a new job.

While thinking about it, Rick realized that he was woefully ill-informed about the topic. He glanced over at his sister. "You know, I have no idea when the CLATs even take place. Right after school?"

"Nope, the next one is after summer. Apparently clans used to use that time to polish their best candidates, though that became irrelevant when all the tests got standardized. Anyway, I've got three months to prepare."

"Sounds like you have a clear plan. What do you have in mind for those months?"

"Actually, I wanted your help on that." Melissa poked him in the leg. "Get out your phone, let's check my portfolio and talk."

Now that she was no longer a minor, Melissa could access all features of the lucrima app and do that herself, but Rick got out his phone and pulled up her profile for old time's sake.

[Name: Melissa Hunter

Ether Tier: 19th

Ether Score: 189 (preliminary score)

Lucrim Generation: 10,100

Current Lucrim: 2496]

[Melissa Hunter's Lucrima Portfolio

Foundation: 2600 (Lv II)

Steel Lucore: 3300 (Lv II)

Combat Core: 2900 (Lv I)

Lucore Mass: 1300 (N/A)

Total Lucrim: 10,100]

"Oh, you broke into five digits. Good job, sis."

"Secret ninja training!" Melissa karate chopped his shoulder, but she was looking at the numbers seriously. "I want to get your advice on all kinds of things. I've managed to put a decent amount of lucrim into my combat core, but it's still rated low. I wasn't sure if you thought I should work on putting the rest of my Lucore Mass into it now, or try to improve the quality level first?"

"Both could work, and it's probably best to do a bit of both simultaneously." Rick pondered the uninvested lucrim for a while. "It really depends on what you want. Getting 3000 lucrim into a basic combat core is quite solid for someone your age. You might be better served by putting the rest into a more specialized core."

"Well, we can figure that out later. But there's one thing I definitely want: we need to spar for real!"

He looked up at her in surprise. "Are you sure you want to focus on combat?"

"Nah, it's not about that. Your lucrima soul improves when you fight people with stronger ones, right? Well, since celebrity fighters aren't going to let me start fights with them, I guess I'll have to rely on my good old big brother."

"I'll certainly do everything I can to help. You're going to get diminishing returns, but I've had some decent fighting experience, so it should give you a burst of improvement."

"I was reading some of the career guidance, and your Lucores are actually better than a lot of people's. They might have more lucrim, but worse ratings. I wonder if you could leverage that somehow. Like... get paid just to expose younger fighters to your lucrima soul."

Rick smiled wryly at her. "Congratulations, you've invented the concept of training."

Melissa rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'm not saying the first idea in my head is going to be a winner. But I want to get all the improvement I can, because that's going to be useful to me no matter what path I choose in life."

"Joking aside, I do agree that it's a solid plan. I'll support you as well as I can."

"What about you?"

"Huh?" Rick blinked at her, not having expected the sudden serious tone in her voice. "What do you mean?"

"What exactly are you aiming for? Other than the job applications and all of that." Melissa shifted to lean on one arm, tilting her head so that her hair fell to cover her face. "Say that I do great on the CLAT, master my inner void, and swim in money. What would you do then?"

"Other than come borrow money from you?"

"I'm serious, Rick."

"You literally just graduated, sis, do you really want to talk about my future?"

"I do." She looked at him again, no longer so serious. "We're in this together, just like we always have been. Come on, show me your portfolio. I want to compare and see just how far I have to go."

Seeing that she was not going to allow herself to be refused, Rick woke up his phone and switched the app to show the numbers that had become familiar to him.

[Name: Rick Hunter

Ether Tier: 15th

Ether Score: 296

Lucrim Generation: 43,650

Effective Rate: 41,662

Current Lucrim: 10,419]

[Rick Hunter's Lucrima Portfolio

Foundation: 3550 (Lv IV)

Offensive Lucore: 7650 (Lv IV)

Defensive Lucore: 16,800 (Lv VII)

Bunyan's Step: 7100 (Lv IV)

Graham's Stake: 8550 (Lv II)

Aura Leech: -1988 (Stage I)

Gross Lucrim: 43,650

Net Lucrim: 41,662]

Since the end of the tournament he had continued his training, but hadn't invested heavily in any of his combat lucores. He also hadn't eliminated the last debt leech, as much as it irritated him. The math was fairly simple: he was actually better off improving his Graham's Stake Lucore and letting the leech very slowly drain away its total. Now that he wasn't regularly in serious fights, it no longer felt like such an imposition.

Melissa whistled and shook her head. "Just seeing that is inspiring. Your defensive core alone is bigger than all of me put together."

"It's not that impressive overall."

"No, it is. I know what you went through to earn it." His sister moved her hand over to grasp his, squeezing for just a moment. "I'm glad for how much you've helped me, but I've graduated now. I want to be able to help you too. So whatever your goals are, I want to support them."

"Thanks, sis. That means a lot."

They kept talking, setting up the basics of a training plan for her. But through it all, Rick kept returning to her question of what he wanted.

He wasn't sure.