“Shogaiiii, you should really go to sleep.” Nifa smiled, but her tone was very suggestive now. She tried to sound jolly and fun, but she really didn’t, and Wright could tell.

  “Hey, so…” he stammered, “I need to grab some medication from the other room. Be back in a moment.”

  Shogai wanted to yell at him for leaving him alone with the girl that looked like she wanted to murder him, but a one on one conversation was probably what they needed.

  “Nifa. I’m sor-”

  “What?” There was no obscuring her anger now. “What do you want, Shogai? To apologise? Apology accepted. Now run along.”

  “I understand that you’re upset, and you have every right to be mad at me-”

  “I know. And I am. I’ve lost my only sister. Was it your fault? I don’t know. But she was there because of you. Mother told me that. You showed up, and took my sister away.”

  “You’re right. It was my fault. And I-”

  “Oh, and now I’ve got a clinically insane mother who thinks her daughter will return. I’ve had to hire a babysitter for her. My own mother. To make sure she doesn’t hurt herself. Shogai, I’m sure you meant no harm. I’m confident of it. But that doesn’t change the fact that you did harm.”

  “...”

  “Say something.”

  “...what can I do to atone? Please. I don’t want to make you forgive me. I just want to make it right.”

  Nifa put her hand back on Ciela’s forehead. “You know, time is the greatest medicine. I don’t want to be mad at you forever. I’ve been told that I’m a very forgiving and generous person. But the person those people had been talking about was a person who’d never lost anything. How about you just leave me alone for a few months? I need to mourn. Do you understand that? Have you ever had to mourn anyone?”

  “Yes. Mira.”

  Nifa froze. Then she spoke. “Get out.”

  Shogai stood and left. Her words were harsh, but her tone was softer. Shogai figured he shouldn’t push his luck. He looked back as he climbed down the stairs. Wright had just returned, and Nifa was hiding tears from him.

  Morning came all too quickly. Ciela must have been moved upstairs, which was good. It meant she was recovering. Nifa was probably up there as well. Shogai wondered what the Inner Rank dorms looked like. He knew he wasn’t the only one. As he left the building to get some sunlight, he almost got torched.

  “Watch yourself, Shogai!” said Wright, who dragged him out of the way. There was a familiar display of orange and purple outside.

  “Rank battle.” Wright explained. “Raven challenges Valerie pretty often for that Outer 1 spot. After all, you can only challenge an Inner Rank for their title if you are Outer Rank 1.”

  Raven growled, and threw a smoke javelin at Valerie, who burnt it to a crisp. Kiara and Jade were already up, watching the fight. Valerie was playing quite defensively. She had to, because Raven was fighting like a berserker. At one point, she made smoke swords to slash through Valerie’s fire. That shouldn’t have worked, but then Shogai noticed Raven using Elano’s Heart. That was what gave her the strength to do that.

  Unfortunately for Raven, Valerie’s cool head led to her exhausting her opponent before she took any bad hits. Raven fell to the ground, panting.

  “I was closer that time! I’ll win next fight!”

  “Yeah, I’m sure you will.” Val was trying to sound as supportive as possible, which only angered Raven. “Hey Raven, you know ranks don’t really matter? Outer 3 is a respectable rank…”

  “No! It matters to me. I didn’t come here to settle in the lower half of Nexeans. My enemies would be far more frightened if I were an Inner Rank.”

  That last part got Shogai’s attention, and he remembered what Xero had said to him about climbing ranks. Maybe he should give it a try. But against whom? He raised the thought to Kiara and Jade, who seemed to agree. Jade was feeling better after last night, but she didn’t feel like she could rank up.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Zinnia was Outer 7 and Nifa is Inner 8. Supportive abilities are meant to rank low, it’s just how it is. You two, however, should definitely try and rank up. You’re strong enough.”

  “Are we? Against experienced Nexeans? Who could we even think about beating?”

  “Tina.” said a voice from behind them. It was Ryukyu.

  “Long time no talk, you three. I wasn’t eavesdropping, but if you want to think about ranking up, which really doesn’t matter by the way, I’d estimate that Tina is the strongest opponent you could beat. Raven is almost as strong as Valerie, so they’re probably out of reach.”

  Kiara agreed with what he was saying, and followed up that they definitely couldn’t beat Ryukyu himself. Ryukyu cleared his throat and seemed about to say something, but Wright appeared and clapped him on the back.

  “Don’t even think about denying that, Ryukyu. You’re far too modest. I’d say you could even put up a fight against me.”

  “Good one, Wright. As if.”

  “Mhm, sure. Well, if you want to challenge Tina, she’s currently inside. Do you want to challenge her?"

  Shogai felt like this question was a trap. In all honesty, he did feel as though Tina was an underwhelming Outer Rank 4. Her power was basic, and she had no weapons. But even so…

  "I won't challenge her" Kiara interrupted his thoughts. "I don't feel worthy of challenging an experienced Nexean yet."

  "Hmm, well, fair enough." Ryukyu then looked at Shogai. "You haven't denied anything yet, so I'll tell Tina to be ready by noon."

  "Wait what? No, stop!"

  It was too late. Ryukyu rushed off into Headquarters before Shogai could stop him. Running after him, Shogai didn't catch up in time. Tina and Ryukyu were talking, her looking very intrigued. She then saw Shogai and smiled.

  "Noon it is, then."

  Noon was only an hour away, but it felt like years. Clearly the Outer Ranks wanted some drama. Shogai was stressed. He'd been tricked into a fight with Tina. She was ranked so much higher than him.

  "You know, I wasn't lying." Ryukyu said, when Shogai had confronted him. "I think you can defeat her. Just don't get reckless."

  "Yeah. Thanks."

  "Calm down. It's not like she'll kill you. Don't hold back, though. She will murder you if you underestimate her. Good luck."

  "...got it."

  Tina was doing stretches in the field. Shogai came up to her, hoping to talk her out of it.

  "Oh, don't worry, Shogai. Really, you should be ranking up. You killed Sekara after all. Should someone like that stay as Outer Rank 6?"

  "You've been a Nexean way longer than me. Wouldn't it be-"

  "No. I don't know what your excuse is, but it's invalid. Ready?"

  "What?"

  "Here I come!"

  Tina lunged towards Shogai, who barely dodged. He'd been so distracted that he didn't realise Wright was counting down. They were doing this now.

  Shogai immediately got to analysing Tina's fight pattern. She's good with hand-to-hand combat. If she gets a hand on him, he probably loses. Emotion manipulation. It sounded weak, but as Shogai kept trying to duck her hits, he realised how threatening it was.

  "You can’t evade forever!" Tina feinted an uppercut and, as Shogai backed away to avoid it, she kicked out with her legs, knocking him over. It didn't hurt that much, but his head went dim.

  "Feeling sleepy? Will you surrender?"

  Shogai considered it. He really did. But he had a lot to live up to. He had to prove himself to a lot of people. Dizzy, he got to his feet, and Tina waited for his hands to raise. They didn't.

  "You haven't won yet. I haven't even started to fight."

  His vision was blurry, but he could vaguely make out Tina's red hair. Shogai was faster and stronger than her. He should be ending this in a second.

  Tina wasn't expecting a head on attack, so that’s what Shogai went for. He planned to hit her faster than she could react, but not so fast that it'd hurt her. That was his mistake. Tina parried his arm, and kicked him in the stomach.

  "Don’t underestimate me," she said, and tears began filling Shogai's eyes. He felt shallow and empty inside, and devoid of all motivation to fight. Depression was a problematic emotion. On the bright side, he was no longer feeling sleepy.

  "Do you give up?" Tina was well aware that she'd have won this fight if she was serious. She was far more agile than Shogai was expecting. So fast. And how was Shogai going to fight without any force behind his punches? He needed motivation. He needed to feel the stakes of this fight. An idea struck him. His eyes began to glow.

  "I- Shogai. I thought you couldn't control that."

  "Well, that just means I'm motivated to end this quickly."

  The wave of depression vanished. Shogai was panicked, for sure, but that was an emotion he could use to fight. Plus, he was faster now. And stronger.

  Shogai repeated the exact same attack he used last time, knowing Tina would parry. As she pushed his arm out of the way, he rammed into her with his shoulder. She wasn't able to hold back his momentum, and she fell to the ground. Shogai quickly apologised, but his voice sounded distant. His eyes were starting to burn. He had to deactivate Elano's Heart now.

  A voice came from a distance away. Shogai could barely make it out, but one word was clear as day.

  "Idiot."

  Something hit him in the head, and he blacked out.

  Come check out our Discord server!

  https://discord.gg/FQEam4725