Kasumi Shirogane closed her fan softly.
The sound was small.
Too small for the silence it left behind.
Across the courtyard, Mei looked at her as if she had just heard a personal threat. Hina stood beside her, her hands still close to the handle of her axe. Chiho held her mana bow without fully summoning it. Yui breathed slowly, wearing the expression of someone already raising an invisible barrier between herself and everything that could go wrong.
Sitting at the edge of the courtyard beside Sota, Yūta glanced sideways at Ishida.
"This is going to be worse, isn't it?"
Ishida was still watching his own hands.
"Probably."
"I prefer when you lie to comfort me."
"I didn't do that."
"Exactly. That's the problem."
A few meters away, Kenta still had not made fire again. He stared at his fingers as if they had just betrayed him. Kaito stood near him, not saying much, but not leaving either.
The courtyard was still heavy with the previous lessons.
Kagami had shown them that fighting near each other was not the same as fighting together.
Baku had shown them that anger could become a route for the enemy.
Kanzaki had shown them that survival was not running away.
Now Kasumi walked toward the center.
She did not seem to bring pressure.
She did not seem to bring noise.
She did not seem to bring calculation.
She seemed to bring something worse.
Precision.
"Mei Shirogane," Kasumi said.
Mei tightened her grip on her fans.
"I'm here."
"I know. You were always good at making sure people noticed when you were in a room."
Hina turned her head slightly toward Mei.
"Was that an insult or a family memory?"
"With her, it's usually both," Mei answered.
Kasumi smiled.
"Good. You can still recognize patterns."
Mei opened her fans.
"And you can still sound unbearable in fewer than ten words."
"It's a family talent."
"Don't say that like it includes me."
Kasumi's smile did not fade.
"Your surname includes you. Your anger is optional."
From the side of the courtyard, Yūta raised a hand.
"Sorry, question from a traumatized spectator: has this started, or are we still in the socially uncomfortable part?"
Kato answered without looking at him.
"Both."
"I hate when bad answers are complete."
Kana struck the ground with her cane.
"Kasumi."
"Yes, yes."
Kasumi turned toward the whole group.
"Come."
Mei advanced first.
Not because she wanted to obey.
Because she did not want it to look like she had hesitated.
Hina followed behind her. Chiho and Yui exchanged a glance before moving too. None of them looked comfortable, but each carried that discomfort differently.
Mei turned it into a blade.
Hina, into silence.
Chiho, into distance.
Yui, into defense.
Kasumi waited for them in the center of the courtyard.
"Four students," she said. "Four marks."
She lifted her closed fan and pointed at the ground.
A white line of mana appeared in front of each of them.
It was not bright.
It was not large.
It was a thin mark, like a brushstroke over stone. It looked fragile. Almost decorative.
That made Hina look at it with even more suspicion.
"Each of you has one mark behind you," Kasumi said. "If I cut it, that student is out."
Chiho looked at her mark.
"Do we only have to protect our own?"
"No."
Yui frowned slightly.
"Then we can move?"
"Yes."
"Can we switch positions?"
"If you say so before doing it."
Mei clicked her tongue.
"How convenient."
Kasumi looked at her.
"Does having to speak to your team bother you?"
"Having to listen to you bothers me."
"That isn't new. It also isn't a strategy."
Mei took one step forward.
"What's the objective?"
Kasumi lifted her fan.
"Prevent me from cutting all four marks before time runs out."
"How much time?"
"Three minutes."
Hina looked at Kasumi.
"And you?"
Kasumi smiled faintly.
"I'm going to cut."
She did not say it violently.
That made it worse.
From the side, Kagami crossed his arms.
"This will hurt."
Baku tilted his mask.
"Lady emotional blade scares me."
Kanzaki looked at him.
"Almost everything you can't interrupt scares you."
Baku raised one finger.
"Damn idiot. That was exact."
Kato did not take his eyes off Kasumi.
Yuna watched him from the side.
"You're very quiet."
"Kasumi is being gentle."
Yuna looked toward the center of the courtyard.
"That's gentle?"
"Yes."
"Your scale worries me."
"She hasn't started saying family truths yet."
From the center, without turning around, Kasumi said:
"I heard that, Ginjiro."
Kato closed his eyes.
"That was the problem."
Mei heard it too.
And her expression changed.
Only a little.
But Kasumi noticed.
Of course she did.
"Before we begin," Kasumi said, "one clarification."
Mei sighed.
"How strange. I thought you were going to train without giving a speech designed to ruin the day."
"No. That would waste material."
Kasumi opened her fan.
Mana appeared between the ribs like a white line.
Thin.
Clean.
Almost beautiful.
And unpleasant because of how exact it was.
"I'm not going to measure how much power you have. There are other instructors for that, other tests, and other boring ways to inflate egos. I'm going to measure how long it takes each of you to betray yourselves when someone touches the right place."
Chiho swallowed.
Yui tightened her hands.
Hina did not move.
Mei smiled without joy.
"Do you always talk like you're writing lines for someone to remember?"
Kasumi looked at her.
"Only when I know they're going to hurt."
Mei opened her fans fully.
Kasumi tilted her head slightly.
"Of the four of you, you worry me the most."
The courtyard became a little stiller.
Mei did not blink.
"What an honor."
"It isn't."
"Then spare me."
"No."
Kasumi closed her fan with a soft snap.
"You're weak, Mei."
The sentence fell into the courtyard with more edge than any technique.
Yūta opened his mouth.
He said nothing.
Hina looked at Mei.
Chiho lowered her bow slightly.
Yui stopped breathing for one second.
Mei did not move.
That was the worst part.
Her face did not show pain.
It showed contained fury.
"Say that again," she said.
Kasumi did not raise her voice.
"You're weak."
Mei's fans trembled.
"You don't know anything."
"I know more than you want me to."
"You have no right to say that to me."
"I have more right than you'd like."
Mei took a step.
Hina extended a hand without touching her.
"Mei."
Mei did not look at her.
Kasumi smiled faintly.
Not with joy.
With measurement.
"Your cut is fast. Your mana is good. Your instinct too. That was never the problem."
"Then shut your mouth."
"No."
The white line between Kasumi's fingers became a little more visible.
"The problem is that you attack as if every fight were a chance to prove you don't need anyone."
Mei clenched her teeth.
"I don't need you analyzing me."
"Yes, you do."
Kasumi took one step to the side.
"That's why you're still weak."
Mei moved.
She did not wait for Kana's order.
She did not wait for the official start.
She did not wait for her group.
Her fans cut through the air, and white wind burst toward Kasumi with beautiful, furious precision.
That was exactly what Kasumi wanted.
"Begin," Kana said.
Too late.
Kasumi was already moving.
Not fast like Kagami.
Not dirty like Baku.
Not calculated like Kanzaki.
Her movement was small.
Just one step.
A turn of the fan.
A white line in the air.
Mei's attack opened down the middle, divided with no visible resistance. Not destroyed. Not blocked. Cut at the exact point where it stopped being a technique and became anger.
Kasumi passed through the space she had created herself.
Mei tried to correct.
Hina moved forward to cover her.
"Mei, back."
Mei did not listen.
Or she listened and decided not to.
Chiho lifted her bow, looking for an angle.
Yui formed a barrier in front of her mark.
Kasumi did not go toward Mei.
She went toward the mark behind her.
Mei understood too late.
So did Hina.
The white line descended.
Mei's mark split in two.
"Out," Kasumi said.
Mei went still.
The wind around her fans vanished.
"You didn't touch me."
"I didn't have to."
Kasumi turned her fan.
"Your mark was your responsibility. You abandoned it to punish a sentence."
Mei breathed through her nose.
"I'm not done."
"Yes. That's why you're angry."
Hina stepped between Kasumi and her own mark.
The axe appeared in her hand, heavier than it looked. She held it with both hands without fully raising it.
Kasumi looked at her.
"Hina Tsukino."
"Yes."
"You hesitate before cutting."
Hina adjusted her fingers around the handle.
"That isn't always bad."
"No."
Kasumi walked toward her.
"But it is if you hesitate to punish yourself for being able to do it."
Hina did not answer.
The sentence touched something recent.
Too recent.
Hisayama was not far yet. Mio's house. The forest. The man in red. The axe used with the handle and not the blade. The feeling that protecting could also hurt.
Kasumi saw it pass across her face.
"There it is."
Hina lifted the axe.
"You don't know what you're looking at."
"I know enough."
Kasumi attacked.
A white line went toward Hina's mark.
Hina could cut it.
The movement was there.
She knew it.
So did her body.
But the axe hesitated for half a second.
Not because she feared Kasumi.
Because she feared herself.
Kasumi needed nothing more.
The white line curved around the edge of the axe, passed underneath, and cut the mark on the ground.
"Out."
Hina closed her eyes for an instant.
Mei turned toward her, furious.
"You didn't have to cover me!"
Hina opened her eyes.
"I was covering my mark."
"You were late."
"I know."
Mei tightened her fans.
That answer took away one thing she could attack.
Chiho retreated three steps and drew her bow. A mana arrow appeared between her fingers, thin and stable. She aimed at Kasumi's shoulder, then her foot, then her fan.
She did not shoot.
Kasumi advanced without hurry.
Chiho adjusted the angle.
Kasumi shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
Chiho corrected.
Kasumi smiled.
"A perfect shot is a beautiful idea."
Chiho drew the string tighter.
"Don't move."
"That is a very sweet request to make of an enemy."
Kasumi took one step.
Chiho saw the opening.
But it was not complete.
The shot could touch the fan. Maybe redirect the line. Maybe force her to stop.
Maybe.
She did not shoot.
Kasumi raised one finger.
A white line came from the fan and cut the mark behind Chiho.
"Out."
Chiho slowly lowered her bow.
Kasumi looked at her.
"A late shot isn't a clean shot. It's an apology shaped like an arrow."
Chiho did not argue.
Somehow, that made the sentence feel harsher.
Only Yui remained.
Yui had already raised a complete barrier around her mark.
It was good.
Very good.
Transparent, firm, with regular edges. A small dome of mana that covered the mark from every angle.
Kasumi stopped in front of it.
"Good barrier."
Yui did not lower her guard.
"Thank you."
"That wasn't complete praise."
"I assumed."
Kasumi touched the edge of the barrier with her closed fan.
The mana produced a faint sound, like glass under pressure.
"I can't cut this from the front without using more force than necessary."
Yui kept her expression still.
"Then it works."
"No."
Kasumi tilted her head.
"You trapped yourself."
Yui frowned.
"I'm protecting the mark."
"Only the mark."
A white line appeared at the tip of the fan.
It did not attack the dome.
It slid along the ground, so thin it was almost impossible to see. It passed beneath the minimal edge where the barrier touched the stone, not to destroy it, but to enter through the space Yui had left by not thinking about the base.
Yui opened her eyes.
Too late.
The mark was cut from inside.
"Out."
The barrier vanished.
The courtyard fell silent.
Four marks cut.
Less than a minute.
Kasumi closed her fan.
"First round over."
Mei took one step toward her.
"That was a provocation."
"Yes."
"Then you cheated."
"No. I told you what I was going to measure."
Mei pointed at her cut mark.
"You called me weak."
"And you abandoned your position to argue with the word."
Mei did not answer.
Because answering was, again, arguing with the word.
Kasumi looked at all four of them.
"You did not fail because I'm faster."
Baku raised a hand from the side.
"Though that helps."
Kasumi did not look at him.
"Be quiet, Baku."
"I like it when elegance threatens."
Kanzaki spoke dryly.
"Shishido."
"I'm shutting up, depressed emergency exit."
Kanzaki did not answer.
Kasumi continued.
"You failed because each of you protected a different lie."
The silence changed.
Mei lifted her gaze.
"What lie?"
Kasumi looked at her first.
"You protect the idea that you don't need to prove anything. But everything you do screams otherwise."
Mei clenched her jaw.
Kasumi looked at Hina.
"You protect the idea that hesitation always makes you a better person."
Hina lowered the axe slightly.
"I don't think that."
"Not with words."
Hina did not answer.
Kasumi looked at Chiho.
"You protect the idea that if you wait for the perfect shot, you won't make a mistake."
Chiho tightened her grip on the invisible string of her extinguished bow.
Kasumi looked at Yui.
"And you protect so much that sometimes you forget to leave a door."
Yui looked at the ground where her barrier had been.
"A barrier without a door still protects."
"Yes," Kasumi said. "Sometimes the threat. Sometimes the fear. Sometimes the wrong person."
That sentence touched more than one place.
Kana watched without moving.
She was not looking only at the students.
She was looking at Kasumi.
So was Kato.
Yuna crossed her arms more tightly.
"She's being too harsh."
Kato spoke low.
"Yes."
Yuna looked at him.
"You're not going to defend her?"
"No."
"Why?"
Kato took one second to answer.
"Because she's still choosing where to cut."
Yuna looked back toward the center.
"And if she cuts too deep?"
Kato did not answer immediately.
Kasumi was looking at Mei.
Mei looked back at her as if she wanted to split the world in two.
"Then someone will have to stop her," Kato said.
Yuna glanced at him.
"You?"
"If necessary."
Kasumi smiled from the center without looking at them.
"I heard that too."
Kato closed his eyes.
"Yes. I know."
Kasumi raised her fan.
"Again."
Mei let out a short laugh.
"For what? You already told us we're a disaster."
"No. I told you exactly where you started failing."
"How generous."
"I'm more generous than you deserve."
Mei took one step.
Hina placed a hand near her arm again.
This time, she touched her.
Only for a second.
Mei looked at her.
Hina said nothing.
She did not need to.
Mei breathed.
Not well.
But she breathed.
Kasumi noticed.
"Better."
"Don't praise me."
"I didn't."
The marks appeared behind them again.
Four white lines on the ground.
Kasumi walked slowly in front of the group.
"Second round. Same rules. Three minutes. If you want to change positions, say it. If you want to help, say it. If you want to do something stupid, try to do it with intention so at least I can evaluate it."
Baku sighed.
"What beautiful pedagogy. I only say 'don't die ugly.'"
Kanzaki looked at him.
"And yet you talk too much."
"Youth needs poetry."
"It needs instructions."
"Both can coexist."
"Not with you."
Baku placed a hand on his chest.
"Damn idiot, exact again."
Kana raised her cane.
"Begin."
Kasumi did not wait this time.
The first white line went toward Mei.
Not toward her mark.
Toward her.
Mei opened her fans.
The wind appeared.
Her body wanted to respond the same way as before.
Attack.
Cut.
Silence Kasumi with a technique faster than the sentence.
It showed in her shoulders.
In her fingers.
In her eyes.
Kasumi smiled.
"There it comes."
Mei clenched her teeth.
But she did not attack.
"Yui, left."
Yui raised a partial barrier, not a complete one.
Only an inclined panel, open at the top and on the right side.
Kasumi's white line struck the edge and deflected, not by force, but by angle.
Hina moved through the opening.
"Chiho, low."
Chiho shot.
The arrow did not go toward Kasumi.
It went to the ground right in front of her foot.
It would not have injured her.
It was not meant to.
It forced her to change her step.
Kasumi changed her step.
But for the first time, it was not exactly the step she wanted.
Kato smiled slightly.
"Good."
Yuna looked at him.
"Was that pride?"
"Technical observation."
"That's what I said earlier."
"Then it was correct."
Yuna sighed.
"Unbearable."
"Also technical observation."
At the center, Kasumi pivoted on her left foot and released two cuts.
One toward Yui's mark.
One toward Chiho's.
Yui raised another barrier.
This time, she did not close everything.
She left a narrow opening.
Chiho moved through that opening and shot without waiting for the perfect angle.
The white arrow struck Kasumi's cut from the side.
It did not destroy it.
It bent it.
Hina used the handle of her axe to strike the bent line and drive it toward the ground.
The cut came undone before touching the mark.
Hina breathed.
Kasumi looked at her.
"You didn't tremble."
Hina answered without looking away.
"I did."
Kasumi smiled.
"But you cut anyway."
Hina said nothing.
Because that was true.
Mei moved then.
Not alone.
That was what was different.
"Hina, switch."
Hina moved toward Mei's mark.
Mei stepped into the center.
Kasumi raised an eyebrow.
"Asking permission not to abandon your position?"
"Informing," Mei said.
"How mature."
"Don't provoke me if you want me to keep being that."
"I don't want that."
The white line shot directly toward Mei's mark, now protected by Hina.
Mei wanted to go back.
Kasumi saw it.
Everyone saw it.
So did Hina.
"Don't go back," Hina said.
Mei stopped for half a second.
"She's going for my mark."
"I'm at your mark."
The sentence was simple.
But heavy.
Mei did not go back.
Instead, she opened both fans and cut the line heading toward Hina's mark.
Kasumi's attack split before it arrived.
It was not perfect.
Part of the cut continued.
Chiho shot.
Yui raised a minimal barrier.
The line went out.
Kasumi stopped.
Only for an instant.
"That was better."
Mei was breathing hard.
"I don't care."
"Yes, you do."
"Shut up."
"No."
Kasumi took one step toward her.
The air seemed to narrow.
"You have talent, Mei."
Mei did not answer.
"A lot."
Mei's fingers closed around her fans.
"I don't want your praise."
"It isn't praise."
Kasumi lowered her voice slightly.
"Talent doesn't make you strong. Sometimes it only makes the fall more elegant."
Mei looked at her with hatred.
"Do you say that to everyone, or only to me?"
"To you."
"What an honor."
"I'm not going to let you be mediocre."
The word touched something different.
It was not "weak."
It was not "pride."
It was something else.
Mei took one step.
"Why do you care so much?"
For the first time, something fell out of Kasumi's smile.
Only for a second.
So briefly that almost no one could have seen it.
But Mei saw it.
And Kato.
And Kana.
Kasumi closed her fan.
"Because someone has to."
Mei went still.
The answer angered her more than any insult.
"You're not my mother."
The courtyard became more silent.
Kasumi did not change her posture.
But her eyes did.
Barely.
"No," she said.
Nothing more.
That "no" had too many things inside it.
Mei hated it.
Because she could not understand all of them.
Kasumi opened her fan again.
"And that distraction cost you."
The white cut went toward Mei's mark.
Hina tried to block it.
But she had looked at Mei.
Not the cut.
Chiho shot too late.
Yui raised the barrier half a second after.
The line touched the mark.
It did not cut it completely.
It only opened a crack in the center.
Kasumi looked at the damage.
"Half loss."
Mei started breathing again.
"That exists?"
"Today, yes."
"You're inventing rules."
"I'm an adult. It's one of the few privileges."
Baku raised a hand.
"Confirmed. I invented three before breakfast."
Kanzaki spoke without looking at him.
"And broke two."
"The third one was emotional."
"That too."
Baku pointed at Kanzaki.
"You pay too much attention to my life for someone who claims not to attend birthdays."
Kasumi moved again.
This time, faster.
Not much.
Just enough for all of them to understand that the second round would not remain a comfortable improvement.
Two lines toward Chiho.
One toward Yui.
A feint toward Hina.
Mei's body wanted to respond to the attack against her mark again.
But this time she saw something else.
Kasumi was not attacking the mark.
She was attacking the reaction.
Mei clenched her teeth.
"Chiho, don't shoot at her."
Chiho already had the arrow ready.
"Then where?"
"The fan."
Chiho changed the angle.
She fired.
The arrow struck one of the ribs of Kasumi's fan.
It did not break it.
But it pushed it one centimeter.
One centimeter was enough.
The cut meant for Yui opened too high.
Yui did not raise a dome.
She raised only a low wall, with space above for Hina to pass.
Hina passed.
This time she did not use the blade of the axe.
She used the handle to push Yui out of the second cut, then turned the weapon and stopped the white line with the flat of it.
The impact made her arms vibrate.
She did not fall.
Kasumi watched her.
"That hurt."
"Yes."
"Did you punish yourself for doing it?"
Hina breathed through her nose.
"I'll see later."
Kasumi smiled.
"Honest answer."
Mei appeared on her left.
Kasumi turned.
Mei's fans cut through the air.
Not toward Kasumi.
Toward the cut Kasumi was still holding with two fingers.
Mei's wind split it apart.
The white line dissolved.
For the first time, Kasumi took a full step back.
The courtyard reacted.
Not with shouts.
With a change in breathing.
Mei noticed too.
Her eyes opened slightly.
Kasumi lowered her gaze to the foot that had retreated.
Then smiled.
"There it is."
Mei raised her fans.
"What?"
"The part that didn't need to prove it."
Mei had no time to answer.
Kasumi snapped her fan shut.
White mana condensed into four extremely thin lines.
One toward each mark.
All at once.
Chiho shot an arrow toward the line going for her mark.
Yui raised a partial barrier.
Hina turned her axe.
Mei opened both fans and cut forward.
For one second, it worked.
Not perfectly.
But it worked.
Chiho's arrow deflected one line.
Yui's barrier let Hina pass and stopped another.
Hina cut the third without staring at the weight of the blow.
Mei stopped the fourth.
Then Kasumi moved her wrist.
Nothing else.
Mei's line bent.
Not toward her own mark.
Toward Hina's mark.
Mei opened her eyes.
Hina would not reach it.
Chiho had no angle.
Yui could not close the barrier without trapping Mei.
Mei could protect her own mark.
It was logical.
It was her responsibility.
It was what Kasumi had said at the beginning.
But Hina was standing at the mark she had defended for her.
Mei did not think too much.
For once, that was not pride.
It was decision.
"Yui, open."
Yui understood.
The barrier opened like a door.
Mei crossed through the gap and threw both fans toward the line going for Hina's mark. The wind reached it before it touched the ground.
The white cut was deflected.
But Kasumi was already behind Mei.
The closed fan touched the cracked mark Mei had left unprotected.
The line split.
"Out."
Mei went still.
Hina turned.
"Mei—"
"No."
Mei did not look at Hina.
She looked at Kasumi.
"Don't say anything."
Kasumi held her gaze.
"You chose to lose your mark to save another."
"Yes."
"You warned them."
"Yes."
"You did it late."
Mei clenched her teeth.
"Yes."
Kasumi closed her fan.
"Better."
Mei opened her mouth.
She said nothing.
For her, that was almost an entire battle.
Chiho's mark fell after that.
Kasumi cut from an angle that forced her to shoot before she could set her feet. Chiho shot anyway. She missed the center, but deflected enough for Yui not to lose her mark.
Yui was last.
Her barrier was no longer perfect.
It had deliberate cracks.
Openings.
Doors.
Kasumi took longer to find the point.
She found it anyway.
The white line entered through an opening Yui had left for Hina, not for Kasumi. It cut the mark from the side.
"Out."
Time had not run out.
But almost.
Kasumi raised her fan.
"Stop."
The four of them stopped moving.
Mei was breathing hard.
Hina's arms were tense from the previous impact.
Chiho kept the bow half-summoned, as if she could still correct the last shot.
Yui watched her barrier come undone, not with shame, but with attention.
Kasumi walked between the cut marks.
"Result: insufficient."
From the side, Yūta closed his eyes.
"All the adults learned the word 'insufficient' today and decided to use it as a weapon."
Without looking at him, Ishida said:
"It is precise."
"Precisely horrible."
Kasumi continued.
"But better."
Mei lowered her fans.
"That's all?"
"For today."
"How generous."
"Don't confuse relief with generosity."
Kasumi pointed at Chiho.
"You shot without waiting for perfection. Good. You missed more than once. Also good."
Chiho blinked.
"Missing is good?"
"If missing early gives information to the team, yes. If you miss late to protect your pride, no."
Chiho looked at her bow.
"Understood."
"No. But you've begun to hate the correct answer. That's enough for now."
Kasumi looked at Yui.
"Your barrier was worse."
Yui lowered her gaze slightly.
"I see."
"And that's why it was better."
Yui looked at her, confused.
Kasumi touched the place where the barrier had left an opening with her fan.
"A perfect defense that lets no one pass only works as long as the world agrees to stay on the right side."
Yui did not answer.
"This time, you left doors."
"And you entered through one."
"Yes."
Kasumi smiled faintly.
"That is the risk of doing something useful."
Yui breathed slowly.
"Then I have to choose better where to open."
"Exactly."
Then she looked at Hina.
"You cut."
Hina held the axe with both hands.
"Yes."
"You hesitated less."
"It didn't stop hurting."
"I didn't say it had to stop hurting."
Kasumi stepped closer.
"Only that the pain cannot decide for you."
Hina lowered her gaze to the blade of the axe.
She did not look satisfied.
But she did not look lost either.
"Understood."
Kasumi watched her.
"In your case, perhaps yes."
Hina lifted her eyes, surprised.
Kasumi was already looking at Mei.
The courtyard seemed to tense again.
Mei held her gaze with clean hatred.
Almost comfortable.
"Say it," Mei said.
Kasumi tilted her head.
"What?"
"Whatever you're saving so you can look important."
Kasumi remained silent.
One second.
Two.
Then she walked until she stood in front of her.
"You're strong."
Mei did not react as if she had been praised.
She reacted as if she had been offered a trap.
"Don't play with me."
"I'm not playing."
"You called me weak."
"Because you are."
Mei took one step.
Hina moved again, but Mei raised a hand.
This time, not to attack.
To tell her it was not necessary.
Kasumi saw it.
"Better."
"Stop saying that."
"No."
Mei breathed hard.
"Then what? Am I strong or am I weak?"
Kasumi closed her fan slowly.
"Yes."
Mei looked at her with pure contempt.
"Useless answer."
"Exact answer."
Kasumi lowered her voice slightly.
"You're strong when you fight for what's in front of you. You're weak when someone touches what's behind you."
Mei said nothing.
"Your pride is fast. So is your technique. But they are not always on your side."
Mei's eyes hardened.
Kasumi continued.
"Today you chose to lose your mark to save Hina's. That was correct."
Mei did not look away.
"It was also late."
"Yes."
"And it was still correct."
Mei tightened her fans.
The sentence seemed to bother her more than the criticism.
Kasumi smiled with a fatigue that was barely visible.
"Not everything correct leaves you looking good."
Mei spoke lower.
"I don't need you turning me into your project."
Something crossed Kasumi's eyes.
Again.
That tiny second.
That crack that was not enough to be an explanation.
"No," Kasumi said.
The word was soft.
"You need something worse."
Mei frowned.
"What?"
Kasumi stepped back.
The smile returned.
But not completely.
"Time."
Mei looked at her with more anger than before.
"I hate you."
"Not enough to stop listening."
Mei did not answer.
And that, for Kasumi, was almost an answer.
Kana struck the ground with her cane.
"That's enough for today."
The four lowered their weapons.
Chiho let the bow dissolve between her fingers.
Yui exhaled.
Hina made the axe disappear slowly.
Mei closed her fans with too much force.
Kasumi passed beside her on her way back to the side.
As she did, she spoke quietly.
Not loud enough for everyone to hear.
But Hina heard it.
"I'm not going to let you be mediocre."
Mei did not look at her.
"I didn't ask you for anything."
Kasumi stopped.
"I know."
"Then leave me alone."
The silence between them was short.
But not light.
Kasumi answered without looking at her.
"I wish I could."
Then she kept walking.
Mei remained still.
Hina looked at her.
"Are you okay?"
"No."
"Do you want to talk?"
"Even less."
Hina nodded.
"Fine."
Mei looked at her.
"You're not going to insist?"
"I'm not your aunt."
For the first time since the exercise had begun, Mei let out the smallest laugh.
Almost nothing.
But real.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
At the side, Baku watched Kasumi return and lifted his hand.
"Lady emotional blade, excellent work. I think you destroyed three defenses, two egos, and one future family lunch."
Kasumi looked at him.
"Only two egos."
"Modest."
Kanzaki watched the students.
"They improved under emotional pressure."
Baku turned toward him.
"I love when you say horrible things like you're talking about the weather."
Kanzaki's expression did not change.
"The weather also kills."
Baku raised one finger.
"I don't know how to answer that without making you right."
"Then don't answer."
"That option feels personally offensive."
Kato looked at Kasumi when she returned.
"You cut close."
Kasumi closed her fan.
"Not as close as I could have."
"I know."
Yuna watched Mei from a distance.
"She doesn't know that."
Kasumi did not answer immediately.
When she spoke, some of the brightness had left her voice.
"One day she'll hate me with more information."
Kato looked at her.
"That doesn't always make things better."
"No. But at least it will be fair."
Kana held her cane with both hands.
"Fairness rarely comforts anyone."
Kasumi smiled.
"I didn't come to comfort her."
Yuna looked at her.
"That was quite clear."
Kasumi held her gaze.
For an instant, the two women seemed to measure each other without raising weapons.
Then Kasumi lowered her eyes to the closed fan.
"Good."
She said nothing else.
In the courtyard, the students began to move slowly, as if the afternoon had left weight in their muscles. No one spoke too loudly. No one laughed too quickly.
Kenta was still looking at his hands.
Ishida was still looking at his too, but in a different way.
Mei was not looking at her fans.
She was looking at the ground where her mark had been cut.
Yūta watched everything from the edge.
There was something strange about seeing other people receive wounds that did not bleed.
With Kagami, the body understood.
With Baku, fear understood.
With Kanzaki, logic understood.
With Kasumi, the problem was that something else understood.
Something you did not always want someone else to understand for you.
Sota spoke beside him.
"All the trainings were different."
"Yes."
"But they all did the same thing."
Yūta looked at him.
"What?"
Sota watched the courtyard.
"They showed where someone could break."
Yūta did not answer right away.
The boy from Misato did not sound like someone trying to seem smart.
He sounded like someone recognizing something.
And that made it worse.
Yūta looked at Mei.
Then at Hina.
Then at Chiho and Yui.
Kasumi had cut four marks.
But that was not the important part.
The important part was that each of them had seen, even for one second, what she was truly trying to protect.
Mei closed her fingers around her fans.
She did not open them.
She did not attack.
She did not shout.
She only breathed.
Yūta thought that maybe, for Mei, that was the closest thing to not losing completely.
Across the courtyard, Kana looked at the four instructors.
Kagami.
Baku.
Kanzaki.
Kasumi.
Then she looked at Kato and Yuna.
"We continue tomorrow."
Baku raised a hand.
"With less trauma or the same family package?"
"With more precision," Kana said.
Baku lowered his hand.
"That was a threat dressed as a schedule."
Kanzaki nodded.
"It is."
Kagami looked at the students.
"They're not ready."
Kato crossed his arms.
"No one said they were."
Yuna spoke without taking her eyes off the courtyard.
"But now they know a little better how they aren't."
Kana did not smile.
"That is the beginning."
The wind moved the dust over the cut marks.
Four white lines slowly dissolved on the ground.
Mei watched them until they disappeared.
She had always thought that cutting meant deciding quickly.
Attacking first.
Arriving first.
Proving first.
Kasumi had just taught her something much worse.
Cutting meant deciding with precision.
And precision did not forgive pride.