We woke up, ate a light breakfast, and went out to train. First, we practiced gathering Chi, a vital step to training. Then we would train our bodies physically, as you need the strength and stamina to use the sword techniques properly. Finally, we drilled the style of the Dragon School into our bodies and minds.

We did sword drills, martial arts, spear and polearm techniques, nunchaku, and even throwing daggers and proper axe handling. Every skill was an important process of the training.

“You might not understand why you’re swinging a spear to learn to swing a sword, but!” My grandfather instructed from the sidelines, watching our progress. “The Dragon School is more than a mere sword style… it is a complete understanding of the martial world!”

My muscles were aching and my body was coated in sweat and dirt, but he didn’t let us stop. The beginner Bai Cai was barely able to keep up with us at all, and looked to be near death at the end of every day. In contrast, the outlander Tatsu never slowed, and even when sweating like a pig remained graceful in their movements. You could tell they were on a different level to us, a true prodigy who had trained this intensely all their life.

“If you understand how to fight in a way that isn’t your style, you can apply those techniques to your sword! And it limits what your opponent can surprise you with, if you know how their weapon works!”

I slipped up, my swing hitting the target improperly. At the same instant, my grandfather slapped me hard in the back, jolting me into an upright position.

“Yer fallin’ behind, Zen! As the proper heir to the school, try not to look so bad.”

“S-Sorry, I’ll try harder.”

“Ya better, you worm! Move to the next exercise!”

“Y-yes sir!” we replied in unison, moving to a new location.

This was the daily routine day in and day out, and it was truly mind numbing. In this world, ruled by Skills, it was no wonder less and less people put in the effort to learn how to do things on their own. If I could skip all of this crap and be moderately strong instantly, I might have taken that offer… in the past, but not the current me. I needed more than basic strength, I needed to be truly strong.

Another long day had ended for the rest of the trainees, but thanks to my years of lazing around, I decided to continue working on my basics. I lost track of time, and before I knew it, it had become near midnight. I finally called it quits for the day, and climbed the stairs to the back of the temple, heading towards the large open air hot springs baths.

As I entered, I noticed there was one other person there, I hadn’t expected to run into anyone so late. They splashed in the water, startled anyone had walked into the bath in the middle of the night.

“W-Who’s there?” the surprised voice of Tatsu glided over to my ears, though I couldn’t see them well through the steam of the spring.

“Yo, what are you doing up so late?” I called out, climbing into the spring. The hot water immediately began to sooth my screaming muscles.

“O-Oh, is that Yi Zen?” they asked from within the cloud of steam.

“Mm, the one and only. I was out training a bit extra and got carried away, but what are you doing here so late?”

I was curious if they had an actual reason, an excuse, thought up. I had a strong suspicion why they were here already, but I wouldn’t say anything unless forced to.

“I… was maintaining my Katana, and it took longer than expected.” they replied, moving slightly closer in the steam cloud, so I could actually see them a bit. Their hair was down, making their delicate face look even more feminine than normal.

“Katana, is that the name of your sword?” I ask, genuinely curious about their alien culture.

“The name of the make of the blade, yes. My sword’s proper name is Setsukage.”

“We’ve been so immersed in training in the Dragon School there hasn’t been a chance, but I’d love to see a demonstration of your personal style. The only person I’ve seen from your country didn’t exactly use a… normal combat style.”

“I am interested in this country’s innate Skills, will you show me yours in exchange?”

“Sure, but you might want to ask someone else, mine’s a bit… abstract in its use, there isn’t a lot to see.” I let out a sigh and sink into the hot springs, going under water for a moment. Above the water, I heard Tatsu make an exclamation of shock as I did so. I quickly surface, shaking the excess water from my face.

“W-What are you doing?” they asked me, holding their body defensively.

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“Hey Tatsu… can I ask you a question?” I look over at them, and they begin to shrink away from me.

“I-In my country, using someone’s given name when you’re not close friends is considered rude, you know?” they interrupt me with something unrelated, clearly trying to avoid where I’m going.

“Oh, I had no idea, should I call you Sonoda then?” I ask, humoring them, it’s not like I was going to forget my question so easily.

“T-tatsu is fine, I guess, I won’t force you to adhere to my culture.”

“Is it also part of your culture for girls to pretend to be men?”

“H-Huh?! I d-don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!” they moved away from my, pulling their arms tighter around their body. “I-Is that what you went underwater?!”

“I didn’t look, I had my eyes shut.” I replied, quickly cutting off that thought. “But it’s pretty obvious, and you can sometimes see those bandages wrapped around your chest in training.” I stood up from the bath, and Tatsu stared at me with a huge blush across their nose, but I was too exhausted to care about what they could see. “Well, you’ve obviously got your reasons, so I’ll leave it at that… though Lei probably figured it out already too, man’s a savant when it comes to detecting women around him.”

“W-Wait..!” she called out to me as I walked away. “You really… don’t care? You’re not bothered that I’m doing something so strange?”

“I fought a guy who was made of evil blood and could possess you with it, so anything below that isn’t very shocking to me anymore.”

“Back home, women are discouraged from fighting, or doing anything that isn’t seen as proper… so in order to learn the ways of the blade freely, I had to live my life as a lie...”

“Sounds tough, and you’ve maintained it because my granddad is a horny old man who loves flat chests, right?” I smirked, leaving the bath. “I agree, wouldn’t want to get assaulted by that dirty old man either!”

“T-That’s not it at all! Idiot!”

I returned to my bunk quickly, finally able to get some rest. It was a longer day than usual, but the real challenges ahead of us would make today feel easy.

Days passed into weeks, weeks into months, and before I knew it, almost two years had passed since we had begun training.

The weak Bai Cai had vanished, replaced by a strong young woman who could compete with us on the same level. She hadn’t grown much taller, but her chest had certainly grown, maybe she could win Lei over after all, if she even still cared.

Xinyi wasn’t a reckless country bumpkin with a sloppy self taught style, she moved like she was born was a sword in her hand.

Lei had a growth spurt during the training, now standing almost a head taller than me. His muscles could barely be contained in his training gear anymore, and his short brown hair was now down to his neck.

I hadn’t maintained my hair well either, only cutting it when it got too long, so it was a similar length to his. My face was also covered by a thick beard, as I hadn’t bothered to shave in several months.

As the years had gone on, and we have mastered the basic moves of the school, it became apparent that certain aspects of the styles were favored by one over the others. While the end goal is to master each path, it would take decades for that to be possible, so grandfather instructed us to specialize.

I easily picked up on the Crimson style, which focused on powerful offensive moves. Lei, despite what I would have expected going in, mastered the Stone Dragon School, becoming a stalwart wall against all attacks. He had traded in his fencing style sword for a large poleaxe, which suited his new height much better.

Bai Cai found her smaller frame very suited to the nimble aerial maneuvers of the Marine School, and as she learned to control her chi was even capable of manifesting some of Xie Jie’s cursed ability, mixing it with the sword style into a new, unique form.

And Xinyi had found her natural speed a perfect fit for the Thunder School, transforming herself into a blitz that couldn’t be seen, dashing across the battlefield as a one man wrecking crew, at least in theory.

Tatsu didn’t specialize, as they already had their own sword fighting style that suited them, they called it Iaido, and it focused on rapidly drawing their sword in hidden strikes.

We were nearing the end of what we could be taught in a closed environment, and would soon have to return to the city and put these skills to real use. However, my grandfather had summoned us the day before our graduation to tell us something important. Very important, he said.

“I am sorry, but I have lied to you all this time.” he said, sitting cross legged in front of us at the center of the temple.

“Eh, what are you talking about, old man?” I asked, confused.

“There is… a fifth path of the Dragon School.” he took a deep breath from his pipe, then exhaled the smoke above him. “I waited to see if any of you had the potential to learn it, as it isn’t like the others, before telling you.”

“So, I guess one of us passed that first test then?” Xinyi asked, her eyes lighting up at the thought of a secret technique.

“There are two of you who possess the necessary ability to be granted this style… Zen, Tatsu… the Golden Dragon has deemed you worthy.”

“The Golden… Dragon?” we mutter to ourselves, having never heard of such a thing before.

“Mmm, it is the original of the Dragon Arts, one that has not been seen for almost a thousand years… many times I have tried to obtain it, but it slipped through my fingers… and I grow too old to achieve it now… but you, you could do what I can not.”

“If you don’t even know this technique, how can you teach it to us?” I ask, completely lost.

“No no, you cannot be taught this by another, it is only you who can teach yourself this.”

“I, I don’t understand, master, what do you mean?” Tatsu, who had grown into a fine young woman, still dressed as a man, though it was hardly fooling anyone now. She was lost, unable to understand my grandfather’s words.

“And therein lies the path to the Golden Dragon. An ability that cannot be taught, only learned, the ultimate skill of one following the martial path, the culmination of everything you worked for… but you must find it first.”

“So, we can never learn that, we’re not good enough?” Lei asked, anger and frustration in his voice.

“No, I did not say this. I merely said you have not yet been chosen. Continue to train, and one day perhaps you too will be chosen, though you may never learn the secret.”

“So what do we do now, grandfather?”

“Seek the answers, not here, but out there, go and explore, gain knowledge and wisdom… I have faith in all of you, you were excellent students.”

The five of us bowed and left the room. He had given us a lot to think about, and I wasn’t sure where to even go from here.

The next morning, I shaved my face, leaving only a small patch on my chin, under my lower lip, and cleaned up my hair to close it’s old length, then I headed out to the front gates.

Everyone else was waiting for me, packed to leave. I looked towards Tatsu, and wanted to ask if she would come with us, but I hesitated, not wanting to bother her.

Everyone looked so different, so much more mature, seeing them out of training gear and in our traveling clothing we had arrived in let it sink in how much time had passed. Of course, our clothing was too small to fit us after two years, but it had been altered somehow by the monks here, and fit us perfectly now.

And then, the serene moment was interrupted and ruined by an uninvited guest.

“I finally found you… Yi Zen, Xie Jie...”

Standing at the gates, an enraged, blind swordsman walked forward. The guards fell to the ground, sliced in half.

My body tensed up, but I wasn't scared, no, just ready to fight.

“Xuefeng.”