PART 1

The morning commute to school. It was one of those classic backdrop things that you couldn't help but take for granted after a while, like brushing your teeth before you go to bed. It was one of the more relaxed parts of my day too; half an hour of easygoing horsing around with the guys before one more day spent trying to memorize mathematical formulae and dates we won't ever use for the rest of our lives.

Honestly speaking, it was a small wonder none of the guys ever questioned why we kept attending school, considering all the absolute, over-the-top zaniness that surrounded us on a daily basis. I mean, listen to this: two guys, a not-angel, a not-demon, a dragon girl, and a tiny shape-shifting fox hidden in a girl's shadow walk into a school. Sounds like the premise of a really tortured joke, doesn't it? And that didn't even include the school being a secret headquarters of a bunch of wizards by any other name!

However, there was a very pragmatic reason why the school was, and in a sense had to be, a very integral part of our lives. In fact, there were multiple reasons even. The Watsonian one was that we were minors, and thus we had to attend because it was the law. The Doylist explanation was also pretty straightforward: this was a supernatural school life battle harem kind of setting. Taking the 'school' part out of it would've shifted the genre, so attending was important for keeping things stable.

Speaking of stability, it was kind of sad to admit it, but the school was by far the most normal and mundane part of our lives, and in a sense, it was what anchored us into human society. Attending it like this, every morning, was our way to reaffirm our place in the world and avoid sliding into its underbelly full of supernatural secret societies, conspiracies, and random battles.

"… and that's the reason why we have to study for the exams."

"Yes, I get that, but do we really have to have another study meeting tomorrow too? Do we really?"

"Whether or not you're giving me the puppy eyes, we still have to," I told the Celestial girl a tad morosely. "Also, pay attention ahead. You're about to hit a lamppost."

While Angie turned around and grumblingly avoided a classic slapstick situation in the waiting, I let out a small sigh and also pulled Judy out of the way, as she was once again too busy poking her phone to pay attention to the road. In the meantime, the sulking Celestial returned to her still slightly awkward childhood friend's side. By the time she got there, she also somehow concluded that all of this was his fault. I decided that getting involved with their quarrel was counter-intuitive, so I pretended I didn't see it happening, and by looking away, I just caught my sister putting a hand in front of her mouth to hide an enormous yawn.

When she noticed I was looking, she shuddered for a moment and sheepishly averted her eyes, but it was times like this when I had to put aside my big-brotherly tendencies and focus on being her unofficial guardian instead, so I loudly cleared my throat to get her attention again.

"Sis? What did I tell you about staying up late?"

The moment I said that, Snowy conspicuously averted her eyes, which was as good as an outright admission of guilt in my book.

"I... was looking up reference images for something I was drawing, and I lost track of time."

"Oh? What were you drawing? Was it something cool?"

Oh, look at that. Angie already bounced back. That was unexpectedly quick even by her standards. More importantly though, Snowy scrunched up her brows, seemingly finding the question hard to deal with.

"Maybe a little cool, I think? It was about a Chinese dragon and a western dragon snarling at each other on a pagoda, and I was looking up architectural reference for that."

"That kind of sounds like an album cover," Josh noted on the side, and he took the words right out of my mouth, but that didn't mean I wouldn't voice my other suspicions.

"Did the princess ask you to make it?"

"Yes, she did," my sister meekly admitted. "She said I didn't have to make it right away, but she bought me the computer, so I wanted to do a really good job, but then before I knew it, it was past curfew." At this point she sneaked a peek at me, then quietly added, "Sorry, It won't happen again."

"It's not that big of a deal, but make sure you mind the time. The exams are coming up, and your brain can't function without sleep."

"That's funny when it's coming from you," Judy commented on the side, without looking up from her phone.

"Yeah, I realized it by the time I said it." My words earned me a few curious glances from the others, but I ignored them for the time being and focused on the girl walking by my side. "Say, Dormouse? You've been typing like mad for a while now. What exactly are you doing?"

"Can't help it, Chief. Someone's wrong on the internet."

"... There's always someone wrong on the internet. Do you plan on typing till the heat death of the universe?"

"No. Just until this heretic mends his or her ways."

"...... Okay, do I even want to know what you're arguing about?"

"I don't know if you do, but for the record, it's condiments." When my expression only became more confused at her explanation, she flashed her phone at me and added, "It's a cooking forum."

"Neat. Type along then," I told her with just a hint of resignation in my voice, but then I quickly exiled the topic from my mind when I noticed a blonde comet coming our way from just around the next corner.

"Good morning!" the princess greeted us, and while she wasn't exactly heaving, I could clearly see a few drops of sweat on her forehead.

"And here's the culprit," I jested, and my draconic girlfriend suddenly froze up and glanced around, forcing me to used my free hand to point at her and say, "No, I mean you."

"Me?"

She tried to point at herself in turn, but she was wearing one of those two-fingered winter glove things, so I could only infer what she tried to do from her body language. Speaking of which, she also had a thick felt coat over her winter uniform and long boots. Sure, this morning was especially chilly, with the temperature hovering somewhere around the freezing point, but I was under the impression that Draconian physiology didn't really care about the elements. She didn't look sick though, so I filed this observation under 'another princessy quirk' and moved on.

"Yes. You're our prime suspect in the 'who made Snowy stay up all night' case. What do you have to say in your defense?"

Elly looked just a touch flabbergasted for a moment, but before she could even gather her wits, Angie cut in with sparkling eyes.

"Oh, oh! Are we doing an interrogation? Can be I the bad cop? I always wanted to be the bad cop!"

"You're too nice to be the bad cop," Josh quipped on the side with a deadpan delivery that put even Judy to shame.

"Boo! I boo at ye! From hell's heart I boo at ye! Consider yerself booed! Boooooo!"

While the childhood friends had one of their customary spats, Snowy sneakily explained what was going on to the confounded princess, and she soon turned a disapproving frown my way.

"That was for the company. It's for the next single of Niddhog, and I told dad that I wanted to give an artist I know a chance. I'm just trying to help Neige establish her foothold in the industry."

"She can establish herself after the exam period," I pointed out, which resulted in a scathing, though at the same time kind of adorable, pout.

However, before the topic could gather any steam, my other girlfriend suddenly flagged her down and gestured for the princess to come closer.

"Yes?"

"Look at this."

Saying so, Judy showed her the phone in her hands, and after a few seconds, Elly's eyes opened wide like saucers.

"Mustard?! Are they mad?!"

"I know. That was my first reaction too," my dearest assistant agreed with a solemn nod, at which point I proceeded to completely tune them out. I had a feeling that showing any interest in the topic would result in some kind of crazy sidetrack, so I faced forward, put on my 'going to school' face, and paddled along.

It was like this that we soon reached the school gates. After getting inside, changing our shoes, and just a short Far Glance, I gathered up all the guys near the stairwell.

"You go ahead. I have to talk with the Knight girl first, so I might be a little late."

"The duel location?" Judy guessed, and I nodded back right away.

"Yep, the duel location. It shouldn't take too long, but in case things get dragged out and Mrs. Applebottom would be looking for me, tell her I'm at the nurse's or something."

"Be careful," Elly told me in the company of a small peck on my cheek, her previous sulky mood completely gone after her long discussion with Judy about the proper use of condiments. Still didn't know the details, still didn't care.

On my way, I ran into and briefly greeted Sahi while passing by her on the first-floor hallway. She was searching for something or someone, but she was accompanied by her minions (read: the four creepy amigos from my class), so I didn't linger for long and quickly headed for my target. At the moment she was... well, how should I put this? She kind of looked like a stalker, except she wasn't stalking anyone. Instead, she was hiding around the corner and very conspicuously peeking into the hallway leading to my classroom. Needless to say, even if I didn't know she was of the dastardly knight persuasion, I would've found her very suspicious.

By the way, she didn't notice me yet, because I purposefully went the long way, using the stairwell at the back of the building, to approach her from behind. As for why I bothered…

"Morning!"

My greeting resulted in the exact reaction I was expecting. Miss Unicorn shuddered with a loud 'Kyaaa!' and jumped back like she just met an especially friendly poltergeist. However, once the first shock passed, she hurriedly glanced around and then scampered over to my side.

"Brother! What are you doing here?" she hissed with a nervous twitch, and probably even she understood that her question was kind of silly, as she soon turned red and rephrased it as, "M-Mo-More importantly, where were you yesterday?"

"It's a long story, maybe I'll tell you later. Listen, I came to talk about the Arbitration."

"Oh. Did you reconsider?"

"No, not at all. I've got my witness and my preparations in order, so I'm just here to inform you about the location of the duel."

"Wait, wait! You... You actually want to go through with it?"

"Well, of course," I answered with just a hint of confusion.

"But, wait, no, but, no... I thought you would reconsider after thinking it through!"

"I'm sorry to say, but that's not really an option. It's an Arbitration we're talking about here. I thought you were clear on the rules."

"I am! I really am! The rules say you can just admit you were wrong and cancel the duel!"

"Yes, but doing so would mean I'd have to break up with my girlfriend, which isn't going to happen."

On closer look, she looked a bit shaken by my words. In fact, now that thought back on it, I was busy yesterday, and I wasn't keeping a close watch on her, but even so, I couldn't remember seeing her training with Sir Griffon. At the time I thought she was just overconfident, but maybe she thought I didn't come to school because I was freaked out about the Arbitration, and now that I showed up, I caught her flat-footed? It was worth a question.

"By any chance, did you think I already gave up just because I wasn't here yesterday?"

"N-No?"

Her response sounded suspiciously like a question, and the way she was averting her eyes didn't give it any extra credibility either.

"You know, if you don't want to fight me, you can always just cancel it on your end," I proposed mostly just to keep up appearances, as I was pretty sure she wasn't going to do so.

"No, I can't do that."

"Figures. I guess you aren't going to hear me out either, huh?"

"No, I can't!" That was already an odd reaction, but then she went ahead and even plugged her ears, which certainly raised my weirdness-o-meter by a notch. "If I listen to you, you're going to explain everything, and it will make perfect sense, and it will make me agree with you, and I can't agree with you, so I can't listen to you!"

"Wait, so you think I'll make sense and be able to convince you, and that's why you don't want to hear me out? Isn't that the same as admitting that I'm probably right and you're just being obstinate?"

"I can't hear you! I can't hear you!"

"Ugh, fine," I gave up with a stifled groan and grabbed hold of her hands to unplug her ears. "However, if you can't hear me, I can't tell you about the site of the duel."

"A-Awawa... That's... a fair point," she grudgingly admitted and let down her arms.

"Tomorrow, seven in the evening, in the Timaeus Municipal Park, at the clearing about two hundred meters west from the newspaper stand." For a second or two I waited for her to acknowledge my words, but the longer I waited, the more it felt like her expression said I might as well have been talking in a foreign language. "What? Is there a problem with that?"

"I don't know where that is," she readily admitted, though not without first flushing red to the tip of her ears.

"You know where the park is, right?" After some consideration, she shook her head, eliciting a drawn-out sigh from me. "Seriously? What kind of groundwork did you do in the city if you don't even know that? Wait a moment, I'll show it on the map."

Saying so, I took out my phone, and the moment I did so, the girl's eyes lit up like a middle-class neighborhood just before the holiday season.

"Is... Is that a Pearfone XI-Active Pro?"

"I... suppose?" Honestly speaking, I wasn't sure. Back then I just bought this one because it was the best rugged smartphone the store had in stock, and I didn't really pay a lot of attention to it, yet she was looking at it like it was the best thing since sliced bread.

"Is it the model with the quad-lens underwater camera? With optical zoom?"

I had no idea about what she was talking about, but it was easy to check, so I turned the phone around.

"One, two, three, four lenses. That checks out," I said, and somehow she became even more excited.

"Wow! That's so cool!"

"Maybe, but focus," I reprimanded her before she could reach out to it and turned the phone screen-up again, and after just a few short seconds, I had the map of Timaeus on it. "See, here's the school, and this is the park. The spot I'm talking about is around here, near where these two footpaths meet, and are you even paying any attention?"

"Huh? Y-Yes, of course! Where the two footpaths meet. Got it, but... Why's the screen scratched up like that?"

That was a bit of a non-sequitur, but on closer look, there indeed were a few small scratches on the glass. It wasn't exactly a big deal, so I dismissed her by blandly stating, "I guess it got a little battered during the scuffle with the Chimera. It still works fine, so I don't think it really matters."

"Oh, I... Wa-Wait, hold on! Did you really fight a Chimera?!"

"Yes."

"I thought that was just a rumor!"

"No."

"B-But if it isn't..." Whatever she originally wanted to say trailed into silence, and then she suddenly took a step back and declared, "I have to discuss matters with my witness, so if you excuse me—"

"Oh no, you don't," I responded at once and, just as she was about to take off, I grabbed her by the back of her collar, and she immediately let out a panicked 'Hauu!' in response. First things first I closed my eyes and exhaled hard to get rid of the strange sense of déjà vu, and once it was under control, I pulled on her a little more until faced me again. "Listen, kiddo. You came to this school, you enrolled in this school, you play by the rules of this school and act like a schoolgirl until the very end. Are we clear?"

"Y-Yes. I understand, I won't blow my cover, but—"

"No buts. Now, go to your classroom before the bell rings and behave yourself."

"Yes, big brother…"

She sounded less than enthusiastic, but after dragging her feet for a while, she obediently headed to the stairwell. I kept an eye on her (through Far Sight, naturally), just to be safe, and let out a small breath of relief when she entered the classroom. Based on her reaction, I'd bet my pancreas that she really wanted to go back to their base and practice, so stalling that by half a day was beneficial to me. Also, it was the right thing to do for a law-abiding citizen. Insert long-winded self-righteous monologue about how kids belong in schools here.

Seriously though, this girl was certainly a handful. She's lucky she was at least a little cute, otherwise…

"Ack, there we go again," I grumbled as I hit my temple with the heel of my hand. "What's wrong with my head nowadays?"

While I did that though, I noticed a marked decrease in the density of placeholders in the hallway, which told me that classes would start at any second. That, of course, meant that I'd better get inside as well before the teacher showed up.

"I wonder if I considered Elly cute because she tugged at some lost memories of this alleged sister of mine, or if I find her just a tiny bit cute because she reminds me of my princess…?" I murmured under my breath as I walked inside and sat down behind my desk.

"Is there a problem?" the blonde Draconian on my mind inquired the moment my butt touched the chair, and when I raised a brow in return, she clarified her question with, "You look distracted. Was there some kind of complication with the accursed Knight?"

"Oh, you mean that? Nah, it's good. It's just that… I'm kind of considering one of those 'chicken or the egg' questions at the moment…"

PART 2

"Make sure you stay safe."

"That's my line," my dear assistant deadpanned back at me as she straightened the XXL-sized coat strewn over my armor. For the record, I tried to buy one in a different color, but everything in this size was black. It's a conspiracy, I tell you.

On a more serious note, I carefully looked over everyone else gathered in my living room. The 'home sitter team', as I jokingly called it, was led by my dearest assistant, still in the process of arranging my apparel. Its members consisted of Snowy, currently serving hot cocoa in her maid outfit, a foxy miko fawning over her uniform, and unusually mellow class rep, with a mug in one hand and a hardcover book in the other, and Elly. I'd have liked to give a nice description of my girlfriend as well, but at the moment she was looking a little silly while glaring at me with a dopey smile on her face. It apparently had something to do with some conflicting emotions about my armor.

But back to the home sitter team as a whole: their job, so to speak, was to hole up behind the wards in my house and stay put, just in case the dreaded Narrative decided to muck things up again. Originally it was only supposed to be Judy staying for the night, but one thing led to another, and before I knew it, things escalated into a full-on tea party. Well, cocoa party, but that's a distinction without a difference, really.

I didn't mind. If they'd be cooped up for the evening, they might as well have fun. I didn't feel left out at all, I swear.

"I know you have this planned out, but if things become too dangerous, don't be too proud to cheat."

"Cheating is like plan F already," I told Judy, but before I could explain the details, I noticed a familiar sound coming from outside and added, "I'll try my hand with plans A to E first, but I'll keep what you said in mind. Now, if you excuse me, I have to let my accomplice in. I'll be right back."

Saying so, I backed away from her and walked over to the front door, just in time for the doorbell to sound.

"Haha! I won!" Angie declared with a grin. I had no idea what she meant by that, but her already present grin widened even further when she took a closer look at me. "Whoa! Josh, come check this out! Leo looks really cool!"

"What? Oh, that's just the armor. Anyone would look good in that," Joshua grumbled as he also came over. He had a thick blue winter coat over his school uniform, plus a bright yellow, open-faced scooter helmet that didn't fit the rest of his outfit at all, but I wasn't going to hold it against him. Safety was important. It's even in my middle name. In any case, once he came to a stop, he looked me over and quietly murmured, "Seriously, man? Are we really doing this?"

"The duel?" I blurted out in understandable perplexity, and he promptly shook his head.

"No, I mean, going to the park on my bike? With you wearing that? We're going to look incredibly stupid."

"Oh, you mean that! What's the alternative? I can't exactly put it on in the middle of the forest. Those stupid buckles are a two-man job."

"Yes, I know, but…"

"Guys, can I go in first? My ears are gonna freeze off!" Angie cut in, and her childhood pal all but rolled his eyes at her.

"I told you to wear a beany under the helmet, but nooooo…"

The Celestial girl stuck her tongue out in place of a proper answer, and I stepped aside to let her in.

"Snowy already made hot cocoa. Cookies are in the usual cupboard. Have fun, but don't cause a ruckus."

"Got it, dad!" She skipped inside with an impish grin, but then after she crossed the threshold she turned on her heel gestured for me to lean closer and told me, "Make sure Josh gets home in one piece, or I'll be really mad at you. I mean, he already promised to give me a ride home and I don't want to walk in the cold, you know?"

"Yes, sure, I'm certain that's the only reason you're worried about him," I hit her with my best deadpan delivery. She looked a little perplexed by my comment, but then my girlfriends came over and more or less elbowed her out of the way. She shrugged it off without a word and headed for the coat racks.

"Remember Leo: never let your guard down!" Elly warned me and took my gauntleted hand into her own. "The accursed Knights are a nefarious lot. Always expect the worst!"

"I already do," I responded while squeezing her hand back, careful not to hurt her fingers.

"Also expect that they expect you to expect that, so expect their expectations so that they cannot expect your unexpected actions."

Judy's warning was slightly less useful, but I nodded along anyway. No matter how prepared I was, she probably couldn't help but be worried about me, so I did my best to reassure her.

"It's going to be fine, Dormouse. This time around, I'm not only expecting the unexpected, I'm planning for it."

"That's uncomfortably close to jinxing it."

"And that's why we're not talking about the details," I told her with a playful wink, and while she still didn't completely ease up, at least she flashed me a smile in return. A barely perceptible 'Judy smile', of course, but that goes without saying.

"Come on, let's get going," Josh suddenly called out to me from behind. "The only thing worse than looking stupid while riding a bike is being late after looking stupid while riding a bike."

"Oh, cut it. We're not late from anywhere; they're still back at their base prepping for the duel."

To Josh's credit, by now he didn't even ask me how I knew that. That didn't mean he wouldn't direct a skeptical brow at me though, and he followed it up with the question, "Then why do we have to leave so early?"

"We have to set up the Purple Zone."

"Didn't you already do that with Ammy yesterday?"

"No, we just set up the boundaries and the anchor point. I still have to prime it before it's usable."

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My brief explanation was sufficient enough for Josh, though I supposed it could use some further elaboration. Long story short, as the challenged party, it was my job to set up the arena. That didn't mean just the venue, but the convenient little pocket dimension as well.

Now, here's the thing: apparently there were two kinds of those. One was a temporary version with fuzzy boundaries that most people of magical persuasion could invoke in a pinch. This was the kind that Elly and Snowy invoked during their somewhat violent disagreement a while back, and it automatically popped out of existence and ejected everyone and everything into 'realspace' in it after a while. For the record, I couldn't make one yet.

The other kind required considerably more setup, but in exchange it was semi-permanent, at least as long as the 'anchors' were routinely renewed. Needless to say, I couldn't make one of these either, but I had lots of people around me who could.

So, with all those technical details out of the way, let's return to the original topic: why did we need to go there early? Simply put, I had Ammy do all the heavy lifting for me by setting up a small permanent Purple Zone within the park. To be safe, we left it inactive for now, and while the activation process wasn't too hard, it took a couple of minutes, so I figured I'd warm it up before the knightly duo arrived.

Anyhow, since Josh was raring to go, I bid my girlfriends farewell one last time, including a couple of chaste comfort-kisses, and then I followed after him at once, only to come to a halt when I was suddenly offered a sky-blue biker helmet.

"... Dude. How am I supposed to wear a helmet on my helmet?"

"We're going to look dumb anyway, so put this on. The last thing we need is to be stopped and fined by a cop on our way to the park."

"Then where do I put my actual helmet?"

"Idunno. Just put it into the front basket or something."

"Wouldn't that look silly?"

"... Are you picking a fight with me, mate?"

"Nah, just arguing on principle."

Saying so, I took the bike helmet from him and casually put the knight helmet into the aforementioned basket. My friend wasn't fully satisfied by my response, but he wordlessly got onto his bike and fired up its engine. Getting onto the moped was a little tricky, considering I was already bigger and heavier than Josh, and now my armor and the coat over it added some extra bulk to me. It took a few tries (and nearly falling over once), but we finally gathered momentum and were on our way to our destination.

It was a short ride, and despite Josh's worries, we weren't turning any heads on our way and arrived in the nick of time. On a side note, the class rep was right. Josh indeed drove like a lunatic, though part of it was probably just the scooter being unbalanced because of my weight. Hopefully. Otherwise, I have to wonder what kind of madman gave him his license.

Putting my friend's peculiar driving habits aside, once we reached the park, we left our ride at the nearby bike racks and changed outfits. In my case it was over quick, since I only had to switch helmets, while Josh first handed over his coat and beany, activated his Magiformer, and then took them back and wore them over it. Once fully prepared, we wordlessly headed to the designated location. This wasn't my first time wandering around here after sunset, but by the looks of it, Josh found the dark, winding footpaths under the loose canopy of the nearly bare late-autumn trees at least a little spooky, as he was so tense he put piano wires to shame.

"You okay buddy?"

"No?" he responded with just a hint of a petulant edge. "I'm currently feeling very nervous about the fact that I'm being more nervous than you are."

"Ah, you should stop that. It's bad for your health." He didn't quite appreciate my quip. "Just take a few deep breaths and relax. We made all the necessary preparations. There's absolutely no reason to be anxious about a foregone conclusion."

"Well, if nothing else, you sound annoyingly confident," my friend grumbled back, but at least he sounded considerably less on edge. "Are you sure you can win?"

"It's not really a question of 'can'," I answered just a tad mischievously. "If there was a chance of me losing here, we wouldn't be having this leisurely walk through the park here. The only real questions are about how smoothly I'd do it and how many cards I could keep hidden until the end."

Josh remained silent for a while, and we already reached the designated location, a clearing a short distance away from one of the footpaths, when the curiosity got the better of him.

"Just for the record, in case it turned out you couldn't be sure about your chances, what was your plan B?"

"It's more like a plan L, but if you really want to know..." I paused here as I crouched down near one of the larger trees and began circulating mana in preparation of priming the anchor. While I did that, I also collected my thoughts a little, and then told him, "There were a couple of options. The simplest one was to just break off the Arbitration. I would've probably lost an Oath or two, but so far I already managed without my Knight gear, so it was an acceptable sacrifice. Of course, doing so would've torpedoed my future plans, but that's why it's so down the priority list."

"Future plans, you say?"

"Call it a pet project for my girlfriend. If everything works out, you'll see it soon enough. Anyhow, where was I?"

"Plan L, I believe."

"Nah, forfeiting the Arbitration was plan N. Plan L was about kidnapping the Knight girl's witness to disqualify her and win by default."

"Shouldn't that be much higher on the list?"

"Not really. Resolving it that way is anticlimactic."

"Anticlimactic," Josh repeated after me with subdued skepticism. I didn't respond right away, as I was still busy with connecting to the anchor. If only it was in this plane of existence so that I could touch it with my Phantom Limbs, I could've finished this in a second, but nooo. Anyhow, once I succeeded, I glanced back and found him still eagerly awaiting my explanation.

"Simply put, if we resolved this the easy way, without any action or combat, you can bet your spleen that something contrived would happen to force a confrontation anyway, so it's better to just put up a show and go through the whole song and dance routine than to try dealing with something like that."

"… Is that one of those superstition things?"

"I wish it was, but it's a bit more tangible than that. Can't explain the details though. Too meta."

My non-explanation obviously didn't sit well with the guy, but in the meantime I reached a critical juncture where I had to pay some attention, so I raised a finger to stall him and focused on the task at hand. As I mentioned before, activating a Purple Zone anchor wasn't particularly difficult, but boy was it tedious, and if I slipped up, I'd have to start the whole process from the beginning.

After a solid minute of sending the equivalent of mana morse code back and forth, the small Purple Zone was ready for use. It even came with a simple but nifty magical augmented reality thingie that allowed me to mark people I wanted to move over, so I quickly marked myself and Josh before I forgot about it. Speaking of my friend, seeing that I was done, he lightly cleared his throat to gain my attention.

"Just out of curiosity, you mentioned plans L and N. What about the one in-between?"

"Ah, yes. Plan M," I spoke as I stood back up and dusted off the hems of my coat. "It was creating a distraction and bogging down the Knights, so that Penelope couldn't show up, therefore automatically making her lose. My original idea involved the Fauns, a mysterious Abyssal, and some bombs, but it was a little convoluted, so Judy told me to shelve it." As I finished saying that, I noticed that Josh's brows had long since descended into a troubled frown, prompting me to ask, "What?"

"I'm just… kinda freaked out by how I'm no longer freaked out by you talking about kidnappings and bombs like they were completely normal stuff."

"I don't know what to say to that, but to be fair, compared to all the magical bollocks around us, they do feel a little mundane, don't they?"

"A fair point, but it doesn't make me feel any less freaked out." Josh looked around and, after seeing no movement, turned back to me. "Are they even coming?"

"They're on their way already."

Just to be sure, I checked with Far Sight, and sure enough, they were only a couple of blocks away. Also, they were in a minivan, with both Miss Unicorn and Sir Griffon already fully decked out in their armors. I would've made fun of them, but then again, I rode on a scooter while wearing my own armor, so doing so would've been too hypocritical even for me.

Since we still had a couple of minutes, Josh used the opportunity to do a couple of stretches and warm-up exercises, while I quickly Far Glanced at the usual suspects. Since everything was in order, I decided to sit down onto a nearby tree stump, close my eyes, and circulate my mana as my own way of warming up. Like this, a good ten minutes trickled by in silence as we waited. Well, at least until Josh started running out of patience.

"Did they get lost or something?"

"A little," I told him without opening my eyes. "They should be back on the right track already and… Actually, they are quite close." Saying so, I stood up and limbered up my arms a little, and then pointed to our left. "Unless they take another wrong turn, we should be able to see them coming from that direction soon."

"Oh, good. I was about to start getting cold," my friend griped before popping another blood-capsule into his mouth. After all our training, a single one of those was enough to keep him transformed for quite a while, even if it wasn't apparent because of the Magiformer, so I figured he only took it so that he wouldn't accidentally run dry in the middle of a possible fight. That was some commendable foresight, so I made a mental note to pat him in the back once we were done here. The only reason why I didn't do it right away was that I could already see some movement from the direction I was pointing at.

"Here they are. Act very sure of yourself and unflappable."

"How do I even do that?"

"Just pretend you're holding back a huge dump. That's how actors do it."

"… Okay, that sounded just plausible enough to be true, but once we get home I'm going to check, and if you're pulling my leg, I'm going to kick your plated ass."

"Joke's on you then; it'll only make your foot hurt," I told him and tapped against the metal on my thigh for good measure. In reality, the armor didn't directly cover my butt, because then I wouldn't have been able to move properly, but he didn't need to know that.

More importantly, Josh sounded considerably less high-strung than before, so I focused my attention on the incoming duo of armor-enthusiasts instead. Since we could see them, I presumed they also noticed us as well, but when they nearly started going down the wrong footpath, I had no choice but to call out to them. The effect was immediate and even a little overblown, as Miss Unicorn tried to get to us in a straight line, right through the underbrush, if not for Sir Griffon catching her by the scruff of her neck (or gorget, same difference) and forcing her to use the obvious footpath.

"Brother!" The girl in the unicorn armor greeted me the moment she got close to us and followed it up by an accusatory finger. "This is your last chance! I must commend you for honoring the sacred rules of Arbitration, but you must know that once we begin, I must fight you with all I have!"

"Yes, I'm very much aware," I told her while also sending a small nod towards the man arriving behind her. He returned the gesture, and even though I couldn't see his face, I had a distinct feeling that he was extremely tired.

"Then… Then I have no choice but to prove you wrong by defeating you!" she declared with much gusto, yet also a certain sense of reluctance, and once even the last echoes of her voice died down, my friend suddenly turned to me.

"Hey, Leo? Why's she talking like that?"

"You mean the voice?" I asked back, and when he nodded, I couldn't help but wonder myself. "I honestly don't know. Why are you still talking like that?"

"… What?"

Seeing that she was too surprised to process the question, I went ahead and reiterated it.

"We're asking why you're bothering with the deep voice. We all know how you naturally sound like, so what's the point?"

"It just sounds silly," Josh added, and for once I was starting to feel that he might've been too relaxed. "Also, what she just said doesn't make any sense either. How does defeating you prove you wrong? If anything, it proves you weaker."

"Are you questioning the rules of Arbitration?" Miss Unicorn hissed at my friend, but he didn't back down.

"As a matter of fact, I am. I mean, what if you disagreed on a math problem and did one of these Arbitration things to decide who was right? Would two plus two suddenly equal five just because the winner said so?"

"Well, no, but that's not the point…"

"But then what's the point? I mean, trying to change someone's mind about something just by defeating them in a duel doesn't sound very reasonable to me. Wouldn't you first try to reason with them before resorting to violence?"

"Youuu! Who are you to question me like that!?" Miss Unicorn cried out while turning her finger on my friend this time, and I graciously answered her question.

"He's Josh, my witness. I'm fairly sure you've already seen him at school."

"Ah, right. He's the one sitting behind you in class, isn't he?" the armored girl mused, only to hurriedly shake her head and redouble her pointing effort. "But that doesn't mean you can question our traditions or my voice! This is a matter between us members of the Brotherhood!"

"Your voice is a matter of the Brotherhood?" Josh blurted out, but before she could respond, the fourth member of our little group forcefully cleared his throat to get our attention.

"How about we leave the question of Penelope's voice for a later date and focus on the current quandary. Leonard, are you sure you want to go through with this?"

"Yes. She didn't really leave me much wriggling room."

"Says the guy with like fourteen plans," Josh grumbled under his breath, so I sent him a glance that said 'Not now' before facing Sir Griffon again.

"I still can't fathom what kind of disagreement arose between the two of you, where neither of you would even consider backing down, but since we're all here already, I reckon we should just get things over with. I'd also appreciate it if you'd explain yourself after the duel is over."

"Oh, don't worry," I told him with my best nefarious grin thankfully hidden by my own helmet. "Once we're done here, we're all going to have a very long and in-depth discussion about many things."

I didn't wait for him to respond, but instead I swiftly tapped into the anchor of the Purple Zone, and a split second later we all disappeared from realspace on that not-at-all ominous note. Insert mustache-twirling here.

...

Is it just me, or is my Bel persona rubbing off on me? Eh, probably just my imagination.

PART 3

"I finished the inspection," Sir Griffon declared with frankly unnecessary gravitas after making the rounds inside the small Purple Zone. "I've found no anomalies that could prevent the commencement of the Arbitration. Do you have any objections?"

It took Josh a solid second to realize he was talking to him, but then he hastily shook his head.

"Erm, no, nothing. It can certainly commence and whatnot."

The Griffon Knight apparently wasn't fully satisfied with his response, yet didn't dwell on it and turned to us instead. As the most senior Knight present, in both meanings of the word, he was given more or less full reign as far as setting up the Arbitration was concerned, and he took his sweet time inspecting every tree and clump of grass around the clearing. I didn't really mind, as I was planning to drag things out a little anyway, and as for my opponent...

"Are you certain you thought this through? You can get hurt really bad! I-I mean, I wouldn't hurt you on purpose, of course, but this is serious, you know?"

Simply put, she was waaay more nervous than me, and considering that she was the one who threw down the gauntlet at me, unexpectedly reluctant.

"Why didn't you think of that before you challenged him to a duel then?"

Josh's snide, but otherwise perfectly reasonable, comment earned him a fiery glare as Miss Unicorn crossed her arms and exhaled a throaty groan.

"This has nothing to do with you! It's a matter between the two of us!"

"I'd say I'm plenty involved, considering I had to come out here into the cold to witness this overblown sibling quarrel of yours."

"Youuu...! Keep this up, and I might just teach you some manners!" she hissed with a hand on the pommel of her weapon, and oddly enough my friend responded with a devil-may-care smirk.

"You keep this up, and I might just take you on."

"Slow down a bit, cowboys. How about you resolve this after we're done here?"

Both of them huffed at me more or less in unison, but they also stopped heckling each other, so I considered that conversation over. Since the opportunity presented itself, I used the momentary lull to Far Glance around a little, and once I concluded that things were proceeding relatively smoothly, I turned to the increasingly impatient man quietly staring at us from the side.

"How about we get started? My witness is right about the cold, and we still have a long evening ahead of us."

"I can imagine," Sir Griffon noted, and I couldn't help but feel a tinge of smug satisfaction about the fact that no matter what he imagined, he was in for a surprise. Insert ominous cackling here. More importantly, after a long beat, the man also glanced between me and my alleged sister and added, "I expect you to explain the reason behind this Arbitration in detail."

"No, we can't do that!" Miss Unicorn interjected in a spell of panic. "E-Even after I defeat Leo, we cannot talk about it! Never!"

"After you defeat him? Confident, aren't you?" Josh quipped on the side, and when the girl simply nodded, he let out a jaunty little whistle and turned to me. "You know what? I'm actually starting to see the family resemblance."

I simply rolled my eyes at him in lieu of a proper answer, eliciting a couple of chuckles from the guy. Seriously now, where did all that prior nervousness go? Or maybe this was his coping mechanism? Either way, it wasn't important at the moment, and after a second of silent consideration, I gestured for Miss Unicorn to follow after me. She complied, if reluctantly, and we made our way to the middle of the clearing, leaving our witnesses to observe us from the side.

"As the witness of the challenger, I swear that I've found no obstacles or any circumstances that would interfere with the process of fair Arbitration."

After saying so, he turned to Josh, and it once again took the guy several seconds to realize it was his turn and hurriedly proclaim, "Same here. No problems whatsoever."

"If so, then let the Arbitration commence. Are the participants ready?"

"I, Penelope Pendragon, am ready to undergo Arbitration."

When she said that, the already present ambient magical light around her went up a notch, and I could once again feel the same light heartburn as when she challenged me. I figured that was probably meaningful, so I promptly nodded along.

"I'm also ready for the Arbitration."

The uncomfortable warmth in my chest immediately vanished, but before I could breathe out a sigh of relief, it was replaced by a new unpleasant sensation that kind of felt like my entire upper torso was being constricted by one of those scary oversized snakes. It only lasted for a short while, after which the extra enchanted lights died down, leaving us in tense, deafening silence.

I used the momentary lull to observe the conditions of the battleground for one last time. The clearing was fairly spacious, about twenty meters in diameter, with an irregular shape. There wasn't exactly a clear perimeter either, as the trees at the edge were spaced loosely. The ground itself was mostly level, and the ninja maids apparently liked gardening as well, as even though we were at the tail end of autumn, there wasn't a single fallen leaf on the ground.

More importantly, while it was no longer raining, the grass was still wet and the soil a bit loose, so I made a mental note to pay attention to my footing. The lighting conditions were... pretty bad, to be honest, but bearing in mind that the armor on my opponent was literally glowing (at least to my eyes), I doubted I could lose track of her in the purple twilight even if I tried.

All of these things only took a second to consider, during which my opponent made no move at all. In fact, she still had her sword sheathed. So did I, now that I thought about it, but in my case I was planning on playing a defensive game, so I would've really preferred if she made the first move.

Now, the simplest way to get her moving was to taunt her, but how should I go about it? Now, if I was an arrogant young master type, I could say something like, 'Hah! Your Kung fu is weak! You're courting death! I will give you face and let you make three moves! Something-something face slapping your ancestors!'

...

Yes, I've only skimmed some popular Chinese books in preparation for the Asian Draconians coming over, what of it? More importantly, that didn't sound like me at all. How about a more western approach? Something along the lines of 'Come, you cur! Your mother was a European swallow! Now, come at me, or I shall taunt you a second time! Something-something elderberries!'

...

What? So what if most of my knowledge about how knights talked had more to do with Monthy Python than troubadour tales? I sincerely doubted researching the latter would've made me sound any better. I have a terrible French accent anyway.

Okay, so fancy taunting was off the table, how about something simple, like...

"So, are you coming or are we going to stand here all night?"

"Hey! I just wanted to say that!" I complained and pulled out my sword before facing my quippy opponent with it.

Miss Unicorn solemnly acknowledged my comment and wielded her blade as well, taking an aggressive stance by pointing the tip at me and lowering her center of gravity.

"Get ready. Here I come!"

Oh, she actually warned me before she came at me. How nice. More importantly, I readied myself by shifting my posture and focused my attention on her feet. I expected a long beat to raise the tension, but she didn't play along with the trope and lunged forward at once. I was half a breath faster though and stepped forth first. Honestly, after all that buildup, I expected something flashier for the first move, but that was probably just the meta-awareness speaking.

By spying on her sparring matches with Sir Griffon, I've learned she preferred to use the physical boost given by the Knight gear to bounce around her opponent to try to catch them in their blind spot. As such, plan one was to stick close to her and not give her the opportunity to widen the distance, and then slowly wear her down. It was a sound plan, at least in theory, which of course meant it probably wouldn't work, but I had the time to experiment, so I figured I might as well give it a go.

I stepped forth, ready to intercept her incoming charge… at which point she let out a startled yep and immediately tried to change the direction of her thrust. I waited for my dodging-reflexes to kick in, but when I got no forewarning whatsoever, I immediately halted my movement and set my feet. A blink of an eye later, she was right in front of me, the tip of her blade sailing past my right shoulder by a huge margin. However, unlike me, Miss Unicorn didn't consider the terrain before she made her charge, and with the combination of her last-minute swerve and the slick ground, she continued to barrel towards me in the company of another panicked yelp.

I, of course, already set my feet in preparation to parry her, so when she collided into me, I instinctively braced myself and pushed back with my full body weight. Predictably enough, she bounced off me with a series of metallic clanks and magical sparks, after which she landed on her back with a frankly pathetic 'Nyeh!' noise. Then, silence.

…

Okay, first off, what? Secondly, the hell? Finally, and most importantly, just happened?

After overcoming my initial shock, I glanced down at the sprawled out knightess, and for a moment a cold spike of apprehension lodged itself into my spine as I beheld her. Please, please tell me she wasn't knocked out just from that! This whole exercise in chivalrous roleplay was for the express purpose of avoiding an anti-climax; we couldn't have it end like this! This was worse than winning by disqualification!

"Uuuu!"

Oh, thank god! She was actually conscious. Why did I feel like, I dodged a bullet there?

"Are…?" I began, but then my shock-addled grey matter finally managed to sort itself out and forced my mouth shut so hard my teeth clicked. Crap, I almost asked her if she was all right. Focus, Leo. This is supposed to be a big, climactic battle with high stakes and emotions running high! I couldn't risk changing the tone into some lighthearted slapstick, or the dreaded Narrative might decide that this isn't climaxy enough and throw some more crap at us.

So, how do I salvage this? Lending her a hand and restarting the whole duel was the most straightforward option, but that would also shift the tone, so I needed to motivate her to get up on her own. Not only that, but I had to motivate her in general. Based on the first strike's trajectory, it almost felt like she was trying to do one of those clichés when a speedster stops the tip of their blade just a hair's breadth away from their opponent's neck to demonstrate dominance, but when I moved in, she became afraid that she would stab me and lost her balance.

That just wouldn't do. This had to be a proper fight, or we might just end up with another slapstick situation right after this was resolved. As for how I could do that…

"Are you serious, kiddo? Is that really the best you can do?" I purposefully lowered my voice a little to give it a threatening edge. "You make me feel like an idiot for worrying about my sister's safety when this is the extent of your resolve."

Now, that did the trick. In a display that felt borderline anatomically improbable, Miss Unicorn rolled to the side and out of the reach of my sword before she sprung to her feet and raised her sword again.

"She's not your sister!" she hissed, but didn't seem to be about to come at me yet. "You're my brother!"

"Am I? Does this look like how siblings are supposed to resolve their differences to you?" I provoked her by opening my arms wide and glancing around.

"It's… for your sake!"

"You keep saying that, but is it really? You actively refused to listen to me any time I tried to explain the situation to you."

"Yes, because if I didn't—!"

"You were afraid that you're wrong and I'm right," I cut in with my best angry growl, "and so you decided to try and resolve things with violence, because you were sure you're stronger than me."

"N-No… that's not—"

"Then what? Admit it kiddo; you were sure that I wouldn't dare to accept your challenge and I would sheepishly comply with your demands, didn't you? You never really expected I would put my money where my mouth is, and now you're getting cold feet."

"No, I just don't want to hurt you!"

"There you go again!" I thundered, and I was surprised to find at least a hint of genuine emotion in my own voice. "Hurt me? You? You didn't even have the resolve to strike directly at me! I'm here to put my life on the line to prove my point, and you bloody well take this seriously! You're already a failure as a sibling, so at least don't be a failure as a warrior!"

I might've overreached a little bit with that one, as I could see her eyes open wide through her visor.

"I'm not a failure!" She screamed and readied her weapon again. "I'm not! I'm your sister, and I'm doing this to save you!"

"Then shut up and fight!"

To punctuate my point, I raised my sword, and in response to my direct challenge, Miss Unicorn assumed another offensive stance, much to my relief. Now, I just had to keep the tension up and her passion burning for a while longer, and we were set. With that intent in mind, I held my sword with both hands and lunged at her. It was only a feint, but she actually fell for it, dodged out of the way, and launched a counter-attack at me…

"AAAAARGH!"

…in the company of an anguished cry I could've lived without. The strike she aimed at my leg was sharp, and this time I got a clear warning about it from my dodging senses, so I took a step to the side and then immediately moved forward to close the gap. It was not a moment too soon, as she was already trying her best to put some distance between us.

"Yes! That's what I'm talking about!"

Realizing there was no reason to stay in character any longer, I shut my mouth and focused on defending myself. It was quite a strange situation, as I was the one pushing, yet at the same time I was on the defensive. My earlier prediction was also spot-on, as she continued to do her best to break away from me. Our swords met over and over, sending ethereal sparks flying with every contact, and I hated to admit it, but I already had a hard time keeping up with her. Rinne was right; she was extremely fast and sharp, and even with my reaction time bolstered and my sixth sense giving me an edge, I had to devote my full attention to parrying her blade.

As we got closer to one of the trees loosely surrounding the clearing, she abruptly turned her back to me, and before I could capitalize on the opening (not that I would; it was still too early to finish this) she kicked off its trunk. What followed was both neat and something that would make a physics teacher cry, as somehow that made her soar over my head and land a fair distance behind me. The whole process reminded me of a documentary about grasshoppers. Or maybe trapjaw ants?

She didn't give me the chance to remember, as a moment later she was upon me again, using a rushing thrust reminiscent of the first move she made today. More importantly, she was getting faster, which was definitely bad news. I parried her strike to the side, sending another cluster of magical sparks cascading through the air, and by the time I restored my balance, she already pulled back and got ready for another lunge.

Well, so much for sticking close to her and keeping up the pressure. I didn't have high hopes for the tactic to begin with, but I hoped it would last longer than just a couple of exchanges. For the time being, I firmly planted my feet and decided to turtle down, and while she was still getting progressively quicker, I could still follow her attacks without too much trouble.

"Hya!"

Also, she was making high-pitched noises each time she struck. I had no idea why. Not even Rinne did that. Speaking of which, I was starting to wonder why Mountain Girl had such a hard time with her. Even in her full gear, and sufficiently riled up, her attacks were fairly predictable. Like, that was a feint. That's a feint too. Oh, that's an actual strike, but she tried to make it look like a feint and ruined her posture, so I used the opportunity to punish her by whacking her sword down after parrying in, eliciting a pained hiss and forcing her to retreat even further.

Okay, so where was I? Oh, right. Rinne. Now, granted, she wasn't exactly a great duelist, as she was too used to just cutting everything into tiny pieces without any resistance, and the less said about her super-special-awesome named techniques, the better, but I honestly expected more.

Though again, on second thought, maybe I was the problem? Looking at us from the outside, she was apparently some kind of super-prodigy, while I used to be a third-rate swordsman who got into the Botherhood of Dragon-Bothering through her, so I expected her to be way more overwhelming. However, I not only had my mysterious sixth sense to compensate for her speed-advantage, I was doing a lot of one-on-one training in the past month. As in, a LOT. Like, on average two hours of Dominance training with Brang every night, using an average of six specters. That's around three hundred and sixty hours of training, by my ballpark estimate. That was definitely food for thought.

But back to the duel. There was another feint, so I only lightly batted it away and took a step forward to put some pressure on her, and she immediately backed away towards the center of the clearing. By the looks of it, she wanted to avoid getting bull-rushed again, but because of this, she had to move much more than I did. That was in my favor, as it meant she would tire out faster. On top of that, I also had better range due to both my size and my longer sword, which meant she had more distance to cover each time she attacked before she retreated, giving me more time to parry or block her.

To sum it all up, I unexpectedly had way more advantages than I originally thought, and it resulted in a surprisingly even exchange of blows so far. Considering I still had a couple of aces up my sleeve, I was feeling unexpectedly chill, and content to keep the current status quo for as long as her patience allowed.

Unfortunately, that wasn't for long, as after I punished her for another opening the size of the Grand Canyon, she abruptly jumped back a good five meters from a standstill, which was both impressive and another one of those 'makes physicists cry' moments. I didn't know what to expect, so I raised my guard, especially after she let out a high-pitched battle-cry and held her slender sword in both hands. In the meantime, the glow of her armor slowly but steadily rose in intensity, and even the grass began to rustle around her feet, which told me that the warm-up was officially over and we were getting to the second stage of the duel.

"Here I come, brother!" she exclaimed, putting a lot of extra emphasis on the last word. For a moment or three, I sincerely considered whether I should respond, but before I could decide, we were both startled by a thunderous noise coming from our left. Neither of us moved a muscle, but we both sneakily glanced at a nearby tree that fell into the clearing not too far away from us.

"What the hell!?" Josh cried out a moment later and jumped over the fallen tree trunk, followed by Sir Griffon brandishing his saber in one hand and some kind of semi-transparent circular energy shield on the other.

"Continue as you were," the man in the griffon armor told us like there was nothing out of the ordinary. "I'm just going to ask a few questions from this wyrmblood collaborator." He paused here before sending me a sharp glance and adding, "I can't interfere right now, but once you're finished, you'll have a lot to answer for, Leonard."

"I told you we'd have a lot to discuss tonight," I told him with a jovial voice, only to get cut short by Josh butting in.

"Seriously, what the actual hell!? This guy almost took my head off!" I turned to my friend and gave him a 'Why did you think I gave you special training?' kind of look, which he may or may not have even seen. "I knew this would happen! I just knew it!"

So did I. I didn't know exactly when, how, or why, but I pretty much expected something like this to happen. I mean, Josh's the protagonist, right? And you can't exactly have an action-climax without a protagonist, right? And if I didn't take him with me, he would probably get entangled in some unrelated conflict somewhere else and I would have to divide my attention again, right? And this way I could give him a leg-up against the obvious opponent at the scene, so that he could score a victory and complete his small character arc after his defeat at the hands of Sahi, right? I'm totally right and not underhanded at all, right? Right. I'm glad we had this talk and we all agreed.

In the meantime, Sir Griffon once again brandished his blade, and to Josh's credit, he didn't dwell on the circumstances any longer and immediately threw one of his usual explody air-balls at the Knight. It was blocked (he had a shield, after all), but it bought Josh enough time to use another Abyssal spell to give himself some momentum and he practically flew into the more densely wooded area outside of the clearing. He was soon followed by a very annoyed Knight, leaving me alone with Miss Unicorn.

There was a long moment of… well, not exactly silence, considering the very loud altercation between the two guys nearby, but it was certainly a lull in the duel.

"Aren't you worried about your friend?" the Knight girl suddenly asked me without breaking her posture, and I promptly shook my head.

"Nah. He's going to be fine. He has plot armor."

"… He was wearing a school uniform."

One wry look later I let out a shallow sigh, limbered up my shoulders, and told her, "It's an inside joke. You wouldn't understand it even if I explained it to you. But more importantly…"

At this point I took a deep breath and began to circulate my mana in earnest. I don't know if she could see it, feel it, or if she was just reacting to my body language, but my opponent also tightened her grip on her sword.

I waited for her to fully rev up her internal engine, and once we were both eager and mana-saturated, I signaled the continuation of the fight with, "… it's time for round two!", and our blades clashed, filling the darkness of the Purple Zone with colorless magical sparks once again.