Purple petals hung in the quiet. Broken stone bore the prints of speed.
Aria's knees touched grit. Spark Rush dimmed to a thread. She lifted her chin anyway, refusing shame, accepting truth.
William pulled the pressure back until the air unclenched. He glanced at the width of a thumb shift in the rag and allowed a genuine smile to show.
"One more left," he said, voice carrying. "Kai, the martial artist. Lila, the healer. Aria, the powerhouse. And now you, Rin. Out of everyone here, you're the most versatile. Your skills are already Silver, maybe low Gold. Your multitasking and planning skills are at least at an expert level. And your Viatra... I hear you've unlocked Stage Two. That alone puts you high Silver, maybe low Gold."
His calm turned into excitement. "Show me what you've got."
Rin's scarf lifted with his breath. His pupils narrowed, Viatra igniting, intent lines and causal threads webbing the courtyard. Stage Two opened the window; a faint bleed traced his lower lid. He set his thumb on the guard of Tetsuba.
Across from him, William did something he hadn't done all day.
He raised his second hand and drew a sword of light.
No heat. No flare. A daylight edge formed from hilt to tip, perfectly still, casting almost no shadow. Not a trick; just courtesy. Equals.
Rin's eyes narrowed—not fear. Measure. He let the blade sing free.
"Alright," he said, voice muffled by the scarf. "You wanted a show."
The air thinned.
Petal Draw.
Steel whispered. A petal split, drifting into two neat halves as Rin reappeared at William's flank. The light blade was already there, meeting Tetsuba with a clean tang that rang like tempered glass. William's wrists absorbed, elbows aligned—economy first, then flourish.
They moved.
Rin probed the centerline with three minimal cuts, no wasted shoulder, feet soft, hips writing the angle. William responded with textbook center guards (Jōdan to Chūdan to Seigan), his light sword's edge never wavering, parries so small they felt like decisions, not motions.
Phantom Thread.
Rin nicked a field anchor at William's lead foot, a micro slice that sagged aura traction for half a beat. He stepped in to claim the frame.
William shifted a toe, stealing center back with a half turn that put the light edge above Rin's hands without ever touching skin. Respectful threat.
Rin flashed, Moon Draw—a blink cut that deletes circles on release. A silver arc: one, two, three, four along William's guard, each strike riding a different timing. William responded with a quick quad parry, wrists rolling like gears, then riposted with a straight thrust that drew a clean white line across the air. Rin's head slipped off axis by a hair; the thrust shaved the scarf fringe.
Silence Break.
Rin severed the rhythm in William's footwork; the sound itself cut for a blink. William's timing stuttered, then recovered instantly, grin flickering. He liked the trick.
William stepped in with a driving two-beat, no flash, just authority. The light blade pressed, weightless yet heavy in intent. Rin gave ground without ceding line, Hollow Line slicing through an "empty" in the pressure to unwind the shape of the push. The edges kissed—sparks: light shavings versus black steel dust.
Aria stood now, steady but silent, eyes wide. Lila kept her palm on Kai but tracked the white silver blur.
Stage Two widened. Rin read the following three options: shoulder feint, wrist cut, knee stop. He answered the future, not the present—Tetsuba was already in the position where the second option would be. William saw the read and rewrote, changing the second into a low outside pivot that wasn't in the set. Their blades crossed at X, locked, then slid apart and snapped.
William laughed under his breath. Not mockery: joy.
Rin: Petal Draw → Phantom Thread (weave): split/anchor cut blended, a paper-thin line angling for the rag knot by proxy.
William: Daylight Mirror: light doubles the edge for a heartbeat, creating a false center that eats the line. The cut lands, but on the mirror. Harmless.
Rin's eye bled a little more. He didn't blink.
Footwork flowed—heel turns, toe floats, hips like hinges. William's blade wrote calligraphy through space, two strokes, then the finishing dot. Rin cut through the dot with a Return-Line: Viatra's correction stroke that steals the next beat and hands it back as debt.
Debt collected: Tetsuba's tip tapped William's shoulder guard. Light flexed, taking it without yield. A point, if they were scoring.
William's grin widened. "Good."
Rin blurred, Moon Draw again—this time into a vertical drop daring a trade. William's light blade rotated a clean quarter, catching the drop with a flat, then drawing a perfect nadir cut along Rin's abandoned line. Rin broke the trade with Eclipse Step—shadow tilt across his ankles, reappearing inside William's lead with the Petal Draw already half released.
Steel met light at wrist distance. Both edges stopped one grain shy of bite.
Silence pressed.
They reset by mutual consent, one step at a time, blades low.
William lifted his sword, both hands now, full attention. The light along its edge condensed until it looked less like radiance and more like truth.
"Again," he said, excited, eyes bright.
Rin angled Tetsuba, scarf shadowing his mouth. Viatra threads spun tighter, Genmugan's lock sitting coiled behind the iris like a trap he didn't want to spring yet.
"All of it," William added—a promise, not a threat.
Rin nodded once.
They vanished, steel line and light line, into the next cut.
Wind hushed. Petals hovered.
Rin slid his left foot half a step, Tetsuba low, scarf shadowing his mouth. The veins at the corner of his eye brightened, then his aura dropped like a bell.
Soul Bloom—影花 Kagebana.
Shadows opened like a flower.
A black lotus sigil unfurled under his boots, each petal a moving seam of darkness. Air chilled. The courtyard's edges bent inward, lines tightening around Rin as if the world agreed to his timing. Viatra flared, threads of causality lit up, then bled; a fresh ribbon cut down his cheek. He didn't blink.
Aria's breath caught. "Rin..."
Lila paused over Kai's ribs. "Whoa."
Kai's eyes snapped open. Instinct before words. He forced himself up an inch, winced, and focused. He leveled up mid-fight.
Across from him, William lifted a hand. A daylight edge formed—a sword of light, hilt to tip, no flare, no heat. Courtesy. Equals. His aura pulsed once, respectful. Soul Bloom, he noted, delighted. Not Spirit Bloom. Aria and Kai borrow the storm. Rin binds the second itself, costlier, sharper.
"Come," Rin said.
White line. William lunged, thrust, erasing distance—and hit a wall that hadn't been there a frame before. Tetsuba was already set. Steel shaved light.
William grinned. "Good."
Rin's eye bled faster. The lotus tightened a petal. Behind the iris, Genmugan coiled.
A blink.
Reality tilted—no fog, just a tight loop around William's next step. He tore out of it on will alone, flashed to Rin's flank, arc mid-cut.
Tetsuba: already there. Parry, step through the hip line, pass the rag knot, and abort—claim center instead. William's brows flicked. He saw me leave the lock.
Kai breathed, "He's faster than before."
Aria didn't answer. Her eyes were bright, alive. Do it.
William's inner voice sharpened. Soul Bloom anchors will; Spirit Bloom channels flow. He's editing reality. He laughed, short, thrilled. "Again!"
Light accelerated—hands, feet, blade. Rin answered with Hollow Line, Phantom Thread, Silence Break, Moon Draw—cutting pressure, unseating anchors, severing rhythm, erasing circles. Every time William tried to vanish from causality, Genmugan dropped a lock beat on that choice: not that one.
They clashed cheek to cheek; Rin's scarf brushed William's jaw, blood stippling the light. Kagebana's petals turned slowly around their boots.
"Keep going," William whispered, excited.
"I intend to."
They broke—light and shadow, tearing air.
Rin changed.
His Viatra threads slid across the earlier fight. They overlaid Aria's footage—every step she took from the tree to William's tile, every stutter feint in Thunder Fang, every ankle hinge in Valkyrie Dash, every elbow ignition in Arc Burst, the impossible half-beat of Flashpoint. He'd recorded it all while hidden, and now he played it back, rewritten in shadow.
Aria realized what he was doing and went still. "No way..."
Rin stamped, Static Sink—stealing a finger's width of glare from the stone to thicken the shade, his version of her Static Grounding.
Then he moved.
Shadow Dash—Valykrie Dash, rewritten.
Angle change in mid-run became a seam jump: he kinked ninety degrees inside a shadow seam, reappearing on William's blind shoulder. William's light blade met him on reflex; Tetsuba slid around it like ink around glass.
Aria's hands rose to her mouth despite herself. "He copied me, clean."
Darkpoint Slashes—Flashpoint with steel. No wind-up. Tetsuba wrote point hits on the half-beat before reaction: chin doorbell, wrist nerve, hip crease. Each point was a razor flick that clipped decision time itself. Daylight sprayed like shavings.
William laughed under his breath, thrilled. "Yes."
Shadow Burst—Arc Burst, converted.
Elbow detonation, but the shock ring traveled through shade—not air. It blew William's guard open without the usual concussion—a silent thunder that displaced lines instead of flesh. Rin stepped through the cleared lane and claimed center with a quiet thrust that stopped one grain shy of bite.
Aria was dazzled. "He's faster, because he's using my techniques."
Rin didn't look at her, but his stance answered: Thank you for the blueprint.
William escalated, light strobing into a continuous line, the blade a theorem. He feinted a high cut, folded low, and vanished his shadow entirely to deny lanes.
Kagebana bloomed a petal under him—a seam that did not belong to the sun. Shadow Dash kinked again, undeniable. Rin arrived where the shadow should have been and met the thrust with a crisp cross parry, rolling it into Darkpoint across the forearm. A tiny wince, first nerve ping landed.
Viatra screamed; Rin's eye bled heavily. He advanced anyway.
Darkpoint: tap... delay... tap tap, stacking stun like Thunder Fang but delivered by steel on nerve lines. William's parry timing drifted a hair; Rin laced a Shadow Burst knee up his shin, reclaiming space on the recoil, Aria's exact cadence, reauthored.
Aria laughed once, breathless. "That's insane."
Lila even grinned. "Our tactician's a thief."
William's internal meter spiked. He studied her in hiding, stored the gait, rewrote it in gloom. He's not just fast, he's adaptive. He poured on speed, clean and joyous, both hands committed, the light blade singing.
Rin met him with better choices and the borrowed tempo—Shadow Dash to erase corners, Darkpoints to clip choices, Shadow Bursts to pry space, Static Sink to thicken lanes, Genmugan lock beats to say no to catastrophic branches. Every exchange shaved another truth from the air.
They hit a still point, blades crossed, breath hot.
William's eyes shone. "Magnificent."
Rin's voice was calm, iron under silk. "We're not done."
They split again, one line of light, one of shadow, Aria's storm math now living inside Rin's Kagebana, and the courtyard braced for a duel only a handful alive could follow.
The air already trembled.
Kai was on his feet, jaw tight, eyes bright, and the flame lotus rose around him.
Spirit Bloom—Lotus Bloom. Heat without smoke—mercy with teeth. Petals spun once and held.
Rin angled Tetsuba, Kagebana petals turning in counter time. "About time."
William smiled and lifted his light blade. "Look who's up from their nap."
Kai didn't answer. He moved.
Hanuman Step snapped him to Rin's side in a blink. Spirit fire brushed the shadow seams; lotus and black flower meshed as if they'd been made to fit.
William came to meet them, beaming with delight.
Rin shaved the centerline with Hollow Line. Kai drew Agni Mudra into his chest, one quiet breath to heat the flow, and drove a Bodhi Palm into the opening on the same heartbeat. William's parry met the palm; the parry's hinge was already trimmed, so Kai's strike moved him instead of bouncing, skidding him half a tile.
A flicker of memory crossed both boys' faces: the Black Forest, their second trial, a serpent split Rin's line, a forty-foot bear crumpling under Kai's blooming palm, the two of them trading angles while the swamp hissed. They didn't speak it. They wore it.
Rin nicked a foot anchor with Phantom Thread. Enlightened Senses read the weight shift; Kai rolled a Surya Spiral through hips and spine to bleed William's counter wide and hold center without overreach.
"Practiced," William said, pleased.
Shadow Dash kinked Rin ninety degrees inside a seam to William's flank. Hanuman Step snapped Kai to the far shoulder on the same beat. Light swept to split them and ran into a Viatra lock beat sitting on the worst branch; William rewrote mid-cut, choosing a safer line that still threatened both.
Kai felt the rewrite before it finished. Surya Spiral ate the force; Rin rode the stolen vector and touched Darkpoint on the wrist. Fingers tingled.
"Again," William said, brighter.
Rin borrowed Aria's math he'd recorded while hiding earlier, rewritten in gloom: Shadow Dash → Darkpoint String: tap... delay... tap tap, stun stacking across wrist and collarbone. Kai set a heated Bodhi Palm exactly within those micro delays, Agni primed; short, heavy, and organ-seeking through the guard.
Daylight flexed but didn't fracture. William drew a bright ellipse to reset the center and found the Static Sink thickening shade under his heel (Rin), while Enlightened Senses allowed Kai to catch the tell and Hanuman Step to the new line first. He slid an inch. Smiled wider.
A three-beat trap followed. Petal Draw showed at William's hip—not to cut, but to threaten the rag knot. The guard dipped a hair. Bodhi Palm hammered the open rib; a compressed aura thudded through the light. Tiles webbed. William absorbed and advanced, happy now, blade singing.
He surged in a white spiral, high feint, low line, inside stamp—made to unthread partners. Kagebana bloomed another petal; floor lines bent into lanes Rin owned. Enlightened Senses steadied Kai's timing inside those lanes. They switched without a word: Rin took front, Tetsuba on light, Silence Break cutting William's rhythm beat; Kai took rear, Hanuman Step to reinforce angle, Surya Spiral catching the rebound and reseating Rin over center.
William split the edge with a brief Daylight Mirror to fake center and shave Rin's entry. Agni Mudra primed Bodhi Palm met the false line and fed the bounce back. Rin slid around the recoil and stamped a Shadow Burst elbow through the opening. Daylight rang. No break. Joy sharpened William's eyes.
"Magnificent."
Kai's mouth twitched. "We're not done."
Blood tracked fresh from Rin's eye; Stage Two held.
William erased his shadow to deny lanes. Rin made one, Kagebana blooming a petal where none should exist. Enlightened Senses caught the micro window and put Kai in step with him. They arrived together on the exact grain:
Darkpoint to wrist (Rin). Bodhi, from the Palm to the sternum (Kai), pulled a hair short, showing respect, not killing.
The light sword crossed and caught both. Air detonated in a ring. Everyone slid half a shoe.
William reset high, ecstatic now. "Again."
Rin angled Tetsuba; Kagebana hummed. Kai rolled his shoulders, Agni Mudra warm in the Bloom.
They moved, two blooms in step, light singing to meet them.