Circularly pacing in Loter's cottage and having a hand on her waist, Ramiron whined into her phone, "Come on, Rag. It can't be legal. Hiroku is a student of the academy and a citizen of MU. How can a random family in Haban just execute him? It's ridiculous."

"Give me the phone." Hiroku propped a hand on the table behind him and stood up. Meanwhile, Loter occupied an adjacent side of the table. Two pillows were stacked under his hips.

"Hold on," Ramiron told Dowii and handed it to Hiroku. She roamed away with both hands on her waist.

Upon receiving the phone, Hiroku spoke into it, "Thank you for your effort, Mr. Dowii. We are fully aware that the school can not do anything about the situation—"

"Wait!"

"—We will handle it by ourselves."

Ramiron tried to snatch the phone. Hiroku deftly turned away and tossed it to Loter.

Loter leaned backward to dodge. Yet, the phone smashed right into his face, knocking him down.

"I'm alright." Lying on the ground, Loter rubbed his face while holding the phone up. The call was already hung up.

"What the fuck?" Ramiron exclaimed with her head leaning forward. The irritation in her voice was non-neglectable.

"I'm a Kayama. If the family wants to kill me, they legally can. There is nothing others can do."

"But what if Loter loses the duel?"

"Then, I will die."

Loter joined into the conversation, "Hey, I won't lose, alright?"

Both Ramiron and Hiroku fell into silence for seconds before Ramiron hesitantly said, "We don't know that, Lot."

"If I can defeat Zayio with one shot, Zayio's brother must not be much of a problem." Loter sat up again, putting the phone into his hoodie pocket. After all, it was his phone.

"But you took him down in surprise. This Za—, Za-something person defeated Hiro." Ramiron took a seat across the table from Loter, and Hiroku sat by the side in between.

He interjected before Loter could respond, "We were in a tie. I only lost because I did not know he could use that one ability."

"Yeah," Loter concurred.

"What ability?" Ramiron asked.

"Judgment Beyond Clouds and Sky. It is a spell in Kayamas' magic. It can nullify others' power."

"What do you mean? Like an aura field?"

"No, the caster will launch a sword, and the sword will cancel all the spells and powers that are weaker than it on its way. Also, you can not dodge the sword because it…" Hiroku paused for a second to think of how to explain the concept. "It can slash through space and exist simultaneously on its landing point and its trajectory."

"Wait, what? Again?" Loter fidgeted and asked.

Hiroku rolled his eyes. "You can't dodge it. That's all you need to know. You can't dodge it."

"Okay, then I'll just stay invisible and fly around."

"Yes. I was thinking the same."

"Lot, are you sure you want to take this duel?" Ramiron asked again. She stuck her head forward, looking at her two short teammates from above. Her eyes swayed between them without finding what she wanted to find.

"I have made my decision, Ram. Just like Hiroku said, I can't change this place and save everyone, but at least I won't let my friend die to it."

"Lot… What if they decide to kill you? They tried to do the same on Hiro."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Loter took a second to think. Then, he looked away from the table, away from his friends. His eyes gazed into the empty wall as if there was anything on it. Slowly, he said, "I entered HueCam Academy to be a superhero. I can't be a superhero if I'm afraid of helping people. My father has been telling me I need to help people ever since I was a kid. I won't be able to help anybody if I don't even have the courage to help my friend."

Loter turned away from the void and faced Ramiron. Her frown was of sadness, not anger. She withdrew her forward posture and propped a hand on the floor behind her. Her eyes slid down and moved back up again. She said tenderly and firmly, "Aye, Lot. If this is your decision, then I'll be in full support of you." A bitter grin was squeezed onto her face.

"Thank you, Ram!" Loter returned her a sweet, wide smile.

"We can do the bonding part later. Now, we need to make a plan, and Loter, you need to start getting ready," Hiroku stated, standing up, "the duel is in two days, Loter. You need to train as much as possible."

"Can we eat lunch first?" Loter slumped onto the ground, his lying arms fully extended.

Hiroku sighed, "Fine. What do you want?"

"I want to try something new, and no more su—, su—, fish on rice. No more fish on rice."

"Seriously?"

"Come on. There must be more types of food than fish on rice in Haban."

"It's hard to pick one off the top of my head. Do you have any preference?"

"I want hot food."

"Sukiyaki?"

"Suki-what?"

Hiroku palmed his face for his rookie mistake of telling Loter a word he did not know.

Meanwhile, Ramiron just giggled through her bitterness, humored by the scene yet saddened by the situation.

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Sukiyaki was a special dish served in a pot heated by a gas stove. Inside the pot, water was mixed with sukiyaki sauce to make the sukiyaki broth. Meats and vegetables were put into the broth for several dozens of seconds and taken out to eat.

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

Loter kept asking if the meat was ready, and Ramiron learned the trade within a few minutes. Hiroku initially regretted the decision when being annoyed by Loter. Then, he smiled when Loter was amazed by the taste.

After lunch, the preparation began. This time, they were much more serious than the last. For the afternoon, Ramiron would spar with Loter to practice his combat skills. Hiroku would look through all the spells Boruka, Zayio's brother, might have learned to come up with counters for every situation.

To do that, Hiroku needed Yotan's help. He needed "The Great Treatise," the book that recorded all the spells in Tribe Kayama's magic system. Hiroku had read his father's copy once or twice when he was little.

Hiroku stood before Yotan's cottages. It was the biggest one in the estate. Two female servants in green kimono stood on the veranda beside the doors with their heads tilted down and hands behind their hips.

"Excuse me, may you please tell your master that I have things to discuss with him?" Hiroku politely asked from below. He maintained his manner by not walking up the stoop like a proper Kayama guest who was younger than the host.

Both of the servants nodded their heads, and the one on the left gently scurried into the cottage. After about a minute, Yotan came. He exited his cottage with his usual pride and upward-tilted head as if his nostrils had eyes.

"Hiroku Kayama! What a surprising visit from my dear, dear nephew. It is great to see you still healthy and vigorous after all the things that have happened," Yotan did his overly dramatic speech while walking down the stoop and halted by the last step, "oh, I must've made you wait for a long time, and time-wasting must be the most serious offense in your situation right now. Please forgive me and come in." He stood close to the handrail and held up an arm, pointing into his cottage.

"Mr. Yotan Kayama, it is also my pleasure to see you again. I can go on and on and on and on about my thrilling and frightening adventure for another hundred centuries, but I do come for a purpose that has a high specificity and an even higher importance," Hiroku said with an obviously forced grin as he went up the steps, not breaking eye contact with Yotan, "it will be my beyond-humanly-possible pleasure if you can reach out a helping hand."

"My dear Hiroku Kayama," Yotan gladly replied while going beside Hiroku, "I can feel your sincerity caressing my tiny heart with your earnest words. I am more than willing to lend as many hands as possible to you. I truly am. However, I do see my human limit of having only two hands." He held his spread hands to his midriff level. "As long as two hands are enough of hands, I will be able to help. If an extra hand is involved, I will have to kneel and beg your understanding, my dear Hiroku Kayama." Yotan's smiley face was unrestricted and fueled with amusement. One could only imagine how much this old man enjoyed those overly flattery bullshits.

After about an hour, Hiroku walked out of Yotan's cottage with a 4cm thick book in his hands. The book had a black leather cover and a title made of actual golden letters. Obviously, those decorative regalia caused the book to be unnecessarily heavier than it already was. The version that Hiroku's father had was much thinner with a paper cover and an ink title.

Hiroku skimmed through most of the spells in "The Great Treatise" and noted them down in his notebook.

Those that Zayio's brother, Boruka, probably knew went to the column at the front of the notebook. Those that Boruka probably did not know went to the column at the back of the notebook.

The process was mostly repetitive with Hiroku occasionally needing to read the actual description for spells he could not recognize. Every half an hour or longer, he would let out a sigh of fatigue and go on regardless. Sure, Hiroku was the kind with a great attention span, but Hiroku felt Key would be able to do the same if he were in this situation.

Whenever Hiroku's mind went loose and stopped tracking the words on the pages, the guilty feeling toward Loter would drive Hiroku back on the task.

At around 3 a.m., the door was knocked. Hiroku opened the door and saw Tori standing before him with her brows knitted into a scowl, glaring at him.