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The arena was smaller than I expected.
Not in size, but in weight. It didn't feel like a practice yard—though it was exactly that. Fenced in with wooden stakes, dirt underfoot, some worn patches that spoke of years of training. But standing there, watching Rin and Ayame take their places across from each other, it felt heavier. The kind of place where something more than sweat was about to be spilled.
I lingered just behind the others, my hands shoved into my pockets, my head still aching faintly from everything I'd heard in the last few days. And now—this? A duel.
