“Yuki, sit,” I commanded, bringing my fingertips to my chin. Yuki cocked her head at me, clearly not understanding. It had been a couple of days since I got my new cores, and I was scheduled to fight today and was spending my time trying to train Yuki. “Yuki. Sit,” I repeated, making the same gesture and tapping Yuki’s butt. She seemed to get what I was trying to say this time and sat down hesitantly. “Good, girl!” I praised, pulling a meat treat from a paper bag and giving it to her. She snapped up the food happily. “Yuki, sit,” I repeated, and Yuki immediately sat, “Good girl!!” I praised her again, giving her another treat and scratching her behind the ears.
Yuki yapped happily as she ate the treat and nuzzled into my hand, her butt never leaving the floor as her tail wagged. Leila and Shersha giggled as they saw how cute Yuki was acting, and I turned sharply to them, “Hey, no. Get back to studying. You’ve got a test or something tomorrow at school, right?”
The twins looked sheepish and said, “Aye.”
“Then get back to it.”
“We already nu this stuff, though,” Leila complained.
“We nade new cores. Otherwise, we won’t keep up wi’ the class,” Shersha added.
I squinted at them while cycling chakra to my eyes. Their cores were small white orbs the size of my fist. I scowled. I have no frame of reference for how big they have to be to be level five. And they still wore grey belts, so I don’t know if they’re still level one stones. “What level are your cores? How many times have you expanded them?” I asked, deciding the direct approach would be better.
“We expanded them foive times,” the twins answered in unison.
I nodded and mumbled, “So that’s level four iron.” I then went over to my duffle bag, pulled out a silver belt, and tossed it to them. “Here, you two can fight over that. It’ll mark you as a level-four Root iron. If you expand your cores three more times, you can probably start working on getting the second core.”
“Can we really?”
“Yep, but it won’t be a perfect advancement. You would have to refine to level seven divine core and then clear the blockages if you want a perfect advancement,” I explained.
“Wha’ are—”
“Blockages?” the twins asked, cocking their heads in mirroring directions.
“The blockage on each core depends on the person, but they all deal with the same question,” Haze answered as she entered the hotel room with Cami and Scarlet behind her. “None of which Zeana is supposed to tell you yet. Or at all,” she added, glaring at me.
My ears flattened against my head as I felt chastised, “Well, I was only trying to help,” I grumbled.
“Well, don’t. It’s my job to teach and your job to learn. And on that note, I have things for you all,” Haze said, and Scarlet handed her a woven bag. From it, she pulled out a red gi fitted just for me and two silver belts for the twins. I took the gi greedily and disappeared into the bathroom to change clothes. A few minutes later, I stepped out of the bathroom wearing my red gi and quickly went over to my duffle bag to get the grey belt I’ve had for so long and put that on too.
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling and looking at my new outfit. Squealing with excitement, I lept at Haze and hugged her, “THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!”
Haze rolled her eyes and patted my head awkwardly, “Yeah, yeah. Just stop hugging me.”
At that, the twins joined in and made it a group hug. “Tank ye,” they said.
“Group hug!” Cami exclaimed and also joined the hug fest.
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After a couple seconds of silent suffering, Haze finally broke, “THAT’S ENOUGH! STOP HUGGING ME!!”
We all immediately complied and apologized, “Sorry, master.”
Haze took a deep breath to calm herself and said, “It’s time to go. You and Shiro are fighting today.”
I schooled my expression and nodded. Haze tossed the bag on her bed, and we all left the room to meet up with Shiro, Xiao, and Jax outside. After a few paces, I stopped and felt I was forgetting something. Then with a jolt of realization, I turned around and opened the door to our room to see Yuki still sitting where I told her to sit.
“Oh, my gods, you’re such a good girl,” I praised Yuki as I gave her another treat. She snapped it up happily, and I tapped my left shoulder, “Come on, up.” Yuki lept up to my shoulder and curled around my neck as she always does, and I scratched behind her ears as I gave her more praise and quickly left to catch up with my team to watch Shiro fight and have my fight.
***
Shiro walked out onto the arena amidst the overwhelming applause of the crowd. He scowled up at them, more than ready for them to go silent. “AND WITH MUCH ANTICIPATION, WE HAVE THE FALLEN ANGEL HIMSELF, SHIROKUMA IKIMURA!!” the annoying announcer Felix yelled over the crowd.
‘Shut the fuck up, you annoying piece of shit!’ Shiro thought and managed to keep his mouth shut as he made it to the center of the arena.
“AND IN THIS CORNER, WE HAVE THE MIGHTY BIRD OF PREY, FALCO BLOODBEAK!!” Felix yelled as an Avion man walked into the arena, waving to the crowd. The birdman had jet-black feathers, two red eyes, and a sharp gleaming black beak. He wore a red gi with a golden belt. His wings were tucked securely behind his back, his hands had three talons, and his bare feet had five.
Once the birdman was a few meters away, he finally stopped waving to the crowd and brought his attention to Shiro. Then immediately jumped back in surprise as he squawked, “It’s-it’s you!”
Shiro cocked an eyebrow at that statement and asked, “Have we met before, birdbrain?”
The birdman didn’t like being called birdbrain and shot back angrily, “Yes, we have shaved ape! We fought at the last Hollow Throne tournament two years ago! When we were still, Emerald ranked! How could you have forgotten our fight?!”
Shiro squinted at the bird and reflected on his last time in the tournament. “Oh, yeah,” Shiro said, snapping his fingers, “Now I remember you, Chicken-butt. That was a pathetic fight you gave me last time.”
“TEN!”
“What do you mean pathetic?!”
“NINE!”
Shiro cracked his knuckles, “I mean, you’re weak.”
“EIGHT!”
“Pathetic,” Crack!
“SEVEN!”
“Worthless,” Crack!
“SIX!”
“Cowardly,” Crack!
“FIVE!”
“And you’re going down in one minute,” Shiro said as he finished cracking his neck.
“FOUR!”
“We’ll see about that!” the pathetic bird said, getting into a fighting stance.
Shiro relaxed his body and did nothing but wait for the fight to start, “THREE! TWO! ONE!”
“Die,” Shiro growled.
“FIGHT!!”
Shiro cycled his Storm chakra and blasted forward, clearing the few meters between them in less than a blink, landing a solid punch in the bird’s stomach. The bird squawked and shot back as lighting made his body convulse involuntarily. Landing several meters away in a twitching heap.
With another blast of movement, Shiro closed the distance again and kicked the bird in the gut, sending him further away. This time, no lighting was mixed into the attack because Shiro expended what little Storm chakra he had on moving and the first attack. As the bird tumbled through the air, he was able to recover and landed on his feet, gasping for air.
The bird stood up quickly and got back into his fighting stance, ready for the next attack. As his eyes met Shiro’s, his body froze. Shiro’s blood-red eyes seemed to glow, darkening his features as a wicked smile slowly curled his lips. The bird began to cycle his own chakra out of habit rather than fighting intent. As Shiro’s smile showed his sharp canines, the bird began to quiver and shake as every instinct in his body told him one thing. Run.
Shiro blinked out of existence for a split second as he closed the distance again with a trail of red and blue flames behind him. The bird only had enough time to lean his head back and dodge the first punch but felt the full force of the second punch as he was again hit in the gut. A third punch caught him in the throat, and he could no longer breathe normally. A fourth punch hit the side of his head, and he went down in a crumpled heap.
With a snort of derision, Shiro turned to leave but felt a taloned hand wrap around his ankle. Shiro stopped and turned to see the half-unconscious bird struggling to put up a fight. “Pathetic,” Shiro sneered, and the bird looked up to see a flaming halo over Shiro’s head just before a torrent of flame engulfed his body, turning him into golden dust.
Extinguishing his halo, Shiro looked up at the timer and saw four minutes and thirty seconds remaining. Shiro smiled, ‘Under one minute, just like I said.’
Then the sound of the silent crowd hit him as Felix stammered, trying to find the right words, “Uh-umm … And … and with that folks, we have our winner!! Please give it up for Shirokuma!!”
The crowd slowly began to clap and cheer, but the one he heard loudest of all was Zeana whooping and screaming from the top stands. “Shut up, brat,” Shiro mumbled, smiling wryly.
***