Chapter 57: Two Days
They ran it again. Raizen and Hikari took the left lane, Keahi and Feris the right, Ichiro and Esen the climb, Lynea and Arashi the center line. The arena woke properly then - metal talking, improvised targets slamming up and down.
Raizen dashed in a cross and Hikari drew the circle that let him pivot without skidding. He threaded his dash through her geometry and felt the yes in his chest bloom. He overcooked one stop and tumbled, rolled, then popped up with his palms raised. Hikari only shook her head, smiled, and tossed him a circle to step in like a life ring.
Keahi painted all sorts of flame lines that Feris used as a guide to swing the projected head safely, her range growing by meters without slop. She learned to stop the projection right before impact and let the air punch instead. Then she decided to make the Mace itself’s head four times bigger with the projection, and effortlessly knocked a wall down. Surprisingly? Not in a chaotic manner. Kori nodded twice at that.
Ichiro built a moving terrace, stone ribs rising ahead of Esen’s feet. Esen used them like notes on a staff, each rib a beat, each beat a shockwave, two at a time, three at a clever angle, clapping scraps into each other. He learned to pull one wave a hair slower than the other so their meeting snapped at just the right point. When they missed, Ichiro grew a wall to catch the mistake and shaped it into a ramp again without breaking cadence.
Lynea set fragment planes like little islands the others could step on and Arashi threaded shots through their gaps. Twice Lynea tied shards with that razor string and cut Keahi’s flame gently in half. She tried cutting an Arashi spark midflight and the spark split and kept both halves homing, which made her blink and then grin like she liked the challenge.
"Physics is very resilient" Arashi said.
"Good" Lynea said. "Even better."
They broke once for water. The humming in the hall settled to a purr. Keahi rolled his shoulders and blew a breath at the ceiling. "Feels like a real team today."
"Don’t get soft" Feris said. "We still have to flatten the other guys."
Arashi squinted at the far door, where the banner for the upcoming duel had been hung crooked. "Two days. They look smug and I haven’t even seen them yet."
"You always see people as smug" Ichiro said.
"Because they are" Arashi said.
They went again. Hikari adjusted her circles on the fly, drawing mid run, quick and messy compared to her usual perfection, but the mess worked. Raizen’s dashes started stopping where they were told again. Once, he felt that greedy tug again and nearly pitched forward, but he saw Kori’s flat look and Hikari’s circle and chose restraint over glory. The stop was clean. He let the little lightning bolts tap a drone’s ankles instead of trying to decapitate it with a flourish.
Esen missed a clap and the two waves went wide like sulking birds. He grimaced, jogged, and reset his hips. The next one cracked so perfectly it made everyone flinch in delight.
"Sounded like my grandma’s breadboard" Feris said. "That means success."
"Where did you grow up?" Arashi asked, "and can we visit?"
Lynea used two fragment planes to catch the halves of different rays and projectiles before they burned anyone’s body. She looked at her own hands as if the exactness surprised her, then moved on without comment.
Kori let them run until sweat dripped off noses and shins burned. Then she raised her hand and signaled everything to stop. Legs folding under with a faint chirp. Silence dropped hard and warm.
"Better" she said. "Smarter." She looked at all eight of them in a slow look. "Two days. I’ll give you my recommendation. You will argue and then act like a unit."
They knew what was coming. It had been hovering the whole session like a shadow at noon. Four spots. Eight people.
Arashi broke the quiet first, because of course he did. "Naturally I volunteer as tribute."
Hikari wiped her palms on a towel. "It isn’t a popularity contest."
"It should be" Arashi said. "I would win."
Esen laughed and then choked it back like he shouldn’t. Ichiro looked at Kori. "Say it."
Kori set her shoulders. "For the duel’s rules and the opponent’s style, we need speed, field control, precision fire, and disruption. The four I’d put forward are Raizen, Hikari, Keahi, and Ichiro."
A ripple ran through them. Not surprise, exactly. More like the sound of a truth landing.
Feris lifted her chin and grinned sharp. "I get to be the loudest cheer section. Perfect."
"You can also break their morale by staring into their souls!" Arashi said. "Weaponize intimidation."
Lynea’s fragments floated nearer, a small constellation leaning in. "You four make the cleanest matrix with each other" she said. "I’ll set auxiliary fields from the sideline drills. If you call, I’ll answer."
Esen shrugged and smiled crookedly. "I’ll clap their ankles from wherever Kori lets me stand."
Arashi gave Raizen a little salute, no joke this time. "Go win. I’ll make whoever tries to flank you regret math."
Raizen found he had a thousand things to say and none of them helpful. Relief and weight both. He looked at Hikari. She met his eyes, steady, something sparking there that looked like the future. Keahi rolled his wrists like he was about to drop into a fight right now. Ichiro just nodded once, a solid anchor.
"We do it together" Raizen said. "Even the four of us are eight today."
"That was very inspirational" Arashi said. "I’m moved. Someone move me to lunch."
Kori cleared her throat and the small warmth of laughter hung a moment. "You’ll run formations after food. Two hours. Then individual cooldown work. Then rest." She glanced toward the crooked banner at the far door. "Leave the bravado to the posters. You will give me clean, boring excellence."
"Boring" Keahi said, rolling the word in his mouth like he wasn’t sure he recognized it.
"Boring wins" Kori said. "Now get out of my ring."
They filed off the floor, shoulders bumping, trading light shoves, bragging about nothing. Hikari fell into step with Raizen and flicked a small circle at his feet without looking. He stepped into it automatically and the floor felt kinder.
"You actually stopped when you should" she said.
"I’m full of surprises" he said. "Some of them aren’t concussions or explosions."
"Keep those" she said. "Leave the concussions for the people on the other team."
He looked back once at the arena. The light had shifted. The scars on the plates looked less like damage and more like history written down. In two days, they would add new lines. He felt the shadow of it, cool at his neck, and also the warmth of eight bodies moving toward the door together.
Arashi slowed to walk backward. "I propose a toast at lunch. To boring excellence."
Feris bumped his shoulder. "To unbroken classmates."
Esen lifted his water bottle. "To math that regrets being a thing."
Keahi raised his arms. "To fire that minds its manners."
Ichiro, silently: "To rocks that fly."
Lynea, after half a beat "To threads that cut only what we choose."
Hikari, soft but sure "To circles that hold."
Raizen lifted his own bottle, grin easy now. "To all of us. And to the four, and the eight, winning like one."
They touched bottles without clanking. The door opened. The hall’s hum faded behind them, leaving only the echo of their steps and the quiet, ready shape of what was next.