Kori was already taping her fingers when the two arrived.
She stood beside a glass rack where two long black cases rested like coffins for something expensive. Beside them, a second rack held replicas - blunt twin swords and a staff built with the exact same weight and balance as the real deal.
"Let me see those hands," she said, her version of hello.
Raizen and Hikari lifted their hands. Kori checked wrists, thumbs, forearms, shoulders - clinical, thorough.
"Bruises. Good. Today you learn how your work holds up against someone who worked just as hard, if not harder."
Mina's voice floated through the observation glass. "Telemetry live. Dueling Bay Two ready. Scoring on vitals only."
"Wait, dueling bay—?" Raizen started.
"Replicas first." Kori patted the padded weapons. "You'll earn the real ones later."
Two silhouettes appeared from the corridor. They looked the same age as Raizen.
The guy was tall and lean, hair a bright brown like freshly-cut wood falling past his shoulders and looped behind one ear. He moved with the kind of easy confidence that came from never losing fights that mattered. Distinguished but mocking at the same time, like nobility slumming it for fun.
"Arashi," Kori introduced. "Annoying accuracy, a beast when it comes to guns."
Arashi bowed like a noble at a gala and grinned. "My pleasure." Two sleek training pistols sat in open holsters at his hips - non-lethal, but painful enough to make you regret getting hit.
The second figure was quiet even when she moved.
Wavy crimson hair, bright as a fresh wound. A big claymore rested across one shoulder as if it weighed nothing. Her eyes stayed down, shoulders slightly hunched - shy, uncertain.
"And Keahi," Kori continued. "Doesn't talk much at first. Way stronger than she looks."
Keahi nodded once, eyes flicking up briefly before dropping again.
"Warm up however you want," Kori said. "Then we start."
Raizen took the replica twins. The grips settled exactly where his palms expected them, balance perfect. In his mind, he thanked Obi a hundred times for not messing them up. Hikari lifted the staff-spear and felt the weight distribute along her forearms like it had been made for her specifically.
✦ ✦ ✦
The dueling bay was a square of dark matte flooring bordered by white walls. Cameras blinked overhead, in each corner.
Arashi rolled his shoulders. "First touch buys tea. First vital buys dinner."
"My man, I don't have that kind of money," Raizen laughed.
Kori's hand dropped. "Go."
Arashi didn't rush. He walked calmly, then suddenly drew and fired in one extremely quick motion - a green-white shot that cracked like a whip.
Raizen leaned back, barely dodging the rubber bullet. Already moving before the second shot, closing distance. The right answer to a gun.
He slid in, one blade high, one low.
Arashi smiled. "Hello." He sidestepped, keeping perfect spacing. No panic, just control.
The fight moved fast. Raizen tried reading patterns but Arashi never gave him one - shifting rhythm, baiting mistakes, playing with tempo like a musician.
When Raizen stole distance and pinned him, Arashi rolled with it and turned control into a trap. His off-hand pistol cleared the holster invisibly fast.
Snap.
Practice round to the chest.
"Score: 1 to 0. Arashi, vital," Mina's voice came from the speakers in the walls.
They traded points. Raizen slid a blade to Arashi's shoulder - tied. Arashi tapped Raizen's ribs mid-dodge - tied again.
Raizen always tried to get in close, but every time, either Arashi kept perfect distance, or pulled out a crazy move… Up close.
Final point, Raizen almost had him - wrist trapped, blade lined up perfectly.
Arashi pivoted, traded his elbow to save his chest, and fired.
Clean shot to the neck.
"Match point, 3 to 2. Winner: Arashi."
Close. Too close.
Kori's hand landed on Raizen's shoulder. "You almost had him. Next time, finish without hesitation."
Then to Arashi: "And you - stop playing with your food."
Arashi shrugged, both pistols in his hands. "As you wish."
✦ ✦ ✦
The girls met in the middle.
Keahi planted her claymore's tip and studied Hikari's staff-spear, trying to figure out which end was more dangerous. She was taller, broader.
"Call it when you've had enough" Keahi said softly.
"You too," Hikari replied.
Kori's hand dropped. "Go."
Keahi moved first - clean descending arc, no hesitation. Hikari wasn't there when it arrived. The claymore swept horizontal. Hikari slipped under it and tapped the back of Keahi's knee with the blunt end.
Not vital, but a point. She didn't want flashy points, she wanted any opening that was given to her.
The next point, Keahi shortened her swings, trying to control space. Hikari gave ground deliberately, baiting the big blade into swings she could exploit. When Hikari stepped inside where claymores are weakest, Keahi didn't panic - she used her shoulder like a hammer.
Hikari bounced back, breath cut short. Then changed rhythm entirely.
Quick strike, retreat, angle shift. Forcing micro-adjustments until Keahi's posture looked uncertain and wobbly.
Hikari faked high, swung low.
"You're strong," Hikari said.
"You're quick," Keahi replied.
Final exchange: Keahi drove forward with three compact cuts. Hikari leaped, stepped on the blade mid-swing, spun in the air, and tapped Keahi's shoulder with the spear tip.
"Vital. 3-0. Winner: Hikari," Mina announced.
Keahi lowered her blaymore and wiped her jaw, grinning. "What you just did - I've never seen that move before. Amazing." She held out her fist.
Hikari stared at it, then awkwardly offered her palm. "You just… Weren't reactive enough."
Keahi laughed and shook her hand. "I'll work on that."
✦ ✦ ✦
Kori gathered them at the edge of the bay.
"Break. Ten minutes. Hydrate."
She tossed water bottles at each of them and disappeared through a side door.
The four of them sat against the wall, breathing hard. For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Arashi broke the silence. "Not bad, really. For someone growing up in the Underworks."
"I didn't grow up in the Underworks, but thanks." Raizen said flatly. "You're not bad either, for someone who talks this much."
Arashi's grin widened. "I don't talk a lot. I simply have worthwhile things to say."
"That's literally the definition of talking a lot, dummy" Keahi snorted into her water bottle, then coughed.
Arashi clutched his chest dramatically. "Betrayed. By my own partner." Then he looked at Raizen and Hikari with exaggerated suspicion. "You two are corrupting her."
"She seems fine to me," Raizen said.
"I'm very corruptible," Keahi said suddenly, then immediately looked like she regretted it.
Arashi laughed. "See? This is what happens when you let her talk."
"You're the worst," Keahi muttered, but she was smiling.
Raizen watched them banter and realized something. "You two have been training together for a while, right?"
"Eh, about a year," Arashi said. "Give or take a few dramatic incidents I've chosen to forget."
"A year and a half," Keahi corrected. "And you remember every single one."
"Do I?" Arashi put a hand to his forehead. "The mind is a fragile thing."
Hikari tilted her head. "How did you end up with Kori? She's..." She trailed off, looking for the right word.
"Intense?" Keahi offered.
"Terrifying," Raizen finished.
"Both accurate," Arashi agreed. He leaned back against the wall, suddenly looking more serious. "But she's the best. Former Phalanx, you know."
"If she's former Phalanx, then what's she doing in the Underworks?" Hikari asked quietly. "Training you guys?"
Keahi and Arashi exchanged glances.
"Weell… It's a bit complicated," Keahi said.
"Very complicated" Arashi added.
"That's not an answer" Raizen pressed.
Arashi sighed, smile fading slightly. "She's our tutor. Trainer. Guardian, sort of. Has been for some time now."
"Guardian?" Raizen repeated.
"It's—" Arashi started.
"Complicated" Hikari finished. "Yes."
"Because it is." Arashi ran a hand through his hair, looking genuinely uncomfortable for the first time. "Look, you'll probably know more from her. She can explain more than I do."
The door swung open.
Kori stepped through, wide grin on her face. "Break's over, on your feet kids!"
All four of them stood immediately. Three of them protested at Kori calling them kids, Hikari stood quiet.
Arashi shot Raizen a look that said later and moved back to the center of another bay.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kori walked to the black cases and tapped them.
"You earned a minute. One pass each with the real ones. Keep it simple."
She opened the cases.
Golden light particles danced along Raizen's twin blades like captured fireflies. Ocean-blue luminescence gathered at Hikari's staff end and flowed down channels like water finding its course.
Raizen raised one blade and cut a precise arc - low left to high right. Air seemed to slide apart, then ease shut. The Luminite hummed, easing into every motion.
Hikari set the staff end to the ground. Blue pulsed once, twice, three times. Then she spun and drew a small spiral with the spear tip. A thin crescent of blue light followed the motion, hung in the air for half a second, then vanished like it had never existed.
Kori's face went blank.
Her eyes sharpened instantly, like she'd seen something she wasn't supposed to see.
"Alright, that's enough." Her voice came out calm but tight. "Cases closed."
"Already?" Raizen sighed.
✦ ✦ ✦
Raizen and Hikari left after thanking everyone, Arashi half-bowing lazily, Keahi giving an awkward wave.
Kori stayed a moment longer, staring at the air where Hikari's crescent had been.
Her jaw clenched.
"Mina," she whispered. "Clip the last twenty seconds. Mark it private."
"Flagged," Mina confirmed through the glass.
Kori turned away, mind racing.
"The girl already knows how to use Eon."