The dojo of the Academy was a vast, rectangular training field. The ceiling lights bathed the hall in a radiant, whitening glow.
The Sleepers were observing the sparring matches unfolding before them, their eyes glimmed in eager to make their iron sang—even if with just a bunch of wooden swords. Professor Rock oversaw the fights, standing as imposing as a huge, gorgeous bear in front of the ring, his arms crossed over his chest.
Every gaze was fixed on the contenders dancing with their blades—everyone, except for a wandering shadow lingering in a corner; invisible to all and cast by nobody. Gloomy scratched its head, asking itself why its twisted master was making him look at the sidelined training equipment with such intense fascination while the real clashes were happening elsewhere.
'I wonder how much all this gear would set me back if I wanted to turn a basement into my personal gym,' Sunny mused, rubbing his chin. He was currently sitting cross-legged comfortably on his bed in his room as he watched the world through his shadow.
Beside him, lying on her stomach and kicking her bare feet in the air with nonchalant ease, was Thene. Her starless, night-black hair cascaded down her back and spilled across the clean sheets as she stared intently at a communicator screen.
To keep her busy and prevent her from getting bored, Sunny had handed her his device to play some games. At that moment, a blue panel flashed across the screen with a bright white text: #1 Victory Royale.
'Having a second pair of eyes to navigate the world is very useful. It reminds me of those old fantasy movies where a sorcerer shares his sight with an eagle or some other familiar,' Sunny pondered.
After adapting to this curious method of seeing the world, he had sent his shadow on a spying mission to the Combat Class. The Sleepers there were talented, more or less, but after witnessing a clash between Masters in his First Nightmare—and fighting one alongside an Awakened—these matches felt truly bland. To him, they were as dull as a poorly rehearsed stage play.
'Oh?' Sunny's focus shifted as Professor Rock made a new announcement. 'Looks like the main characters are finally stepping onto the stage.'
A large smile played on his lips as he directed his shadow's gaze away from the expensive machinery and back toward the dueling platform.
<
The real contenders—Nephis, Yuki and Caster— were finally stepping into the ring.
***
The sparring matches in the Academy's dojo had been passionate and respectful, but among the crowd of contenders, three figures stood apart. Three exceptional Sleepers whose physical prowess and mastery of the blade were on an entirely different level from the rest.
Caster, the prodigal son of the Han Li Clan; his movements were a blur, his thrusts unmatched in speed.
Changing Star Nephis, one of the few Sleepers to have ever received a True Name in her First Nightmare; her battle art was irregular, ruthless, and graceful, dismantling every opponent almost instantly.
And last, Yukino. With a brutality and physical strength that belied her delicate, feminine appearance—resembling a white lotus in full bloom—she crushed her adversaries one after another, striking their weaknesses with terrifying precision.
"Next match: Yukino versus Caster," Professor Rock announced, pointing to the participants with the practiced professionalism of a referee.
"This is going to be Cinema!" Sunny exclaimed while grinning back in his room, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
<
Meanwhile, Thene was occupied saving a princess from a very big turtle with a red tuft of hair and a spiked green shell.
The people around began to whisper in excitement, eager to witness the clash between the Ice Maiden and the rising star of the Han Li Clan.
Yuki and Caster took their places opposite each other. Their gazes locked, filled with anticipation and a burning desire. The wood of the practice swords seemed to hum against their palms, itching for contact.
After a brief introduction and a swift bow, Professor Rock raised his right arm. Then, dropping his hand like a descending blade, he signaled the start. "Fight!"
At the first ring of the bell, Yuki remained perfectly still, as motionless as an ice sculpture. Caster, however, vanished almost instantly. Lunging forward, he raised his weapon to shoulder height, launching a lightning-fast horizontal slash aimed at her left quad.
Yuki didn't flinch. She stood enchanting and unyielding, like the fractals of a snowflake falling on a quiet, snow mountain. Caster reached her in a heartbeat, his wodden sword snapping forward from right to left. In that split second, Yuki, without moving her head, shifted her gaze on him.
Before Caster could even realize what was happening, she raised her left hand to snatch his blade in mid-air, while her right lunged forward to seize the Legacy by his collar.
His mind, due to his acceleration, couldn't even process the sudden reversal.
With a swift rotation of her torso, Yuki used her legs as a fulcrum, hoisted Caster into the air, and slammed him into the mat behind her with pure, raw force.
"Aah!" Caster hit the ground with a thundering thud, a brief, sharp cry of pain escaping his lips.
Before he could even think of recovering, she planted her right heel firmly on his chest, pinning him to the ground. Yuki stood over him like an Ice Queen about to execute a fallen knight who had just dared to challenge her authority.
"Some guys have all the luck!" the Sleeper Markus sighed enviously, watching the scene from a corner. At his words, the people next to him took a single, long step to the side.
"Winner: Yukino," Professor Rock announced, gesturing toward the girl with black hair and a blue braid.
The jaws of Sunny and all the present in the dojo hit the ground simultaneously in disbelief. Astonished by what they had just witnessed, they let a cold silence take hold of the vast, rectangular hall.
"That's it?" Sunny said with his mouth agape, a bit disappointed by the brevity of the match.
<
"Yeah. No kidding," Sunny muttered, nodding. But as he refocused on his shadow's vision, the dark pools of his eyes widened.
Yuki was now staring directly at his shadow.
"WHAT THE—"
Gloomy, crouching in a corner hidden behind the shadows of a barbell, looked around to be sure, but there was no mistake. The second Yuki stepped off the ring, her ice-blue eyes had zeroed in on its silhouette in the far corner of the room.
As their gazes met, Gloomy shifted to the left; her eyes followed him. He tried to duck to the right; she still tracked him. Yuki tilted her head slightly, blinking.
'Hi,' the mysterious shadow gestured with a small wave. "Hi," Sunny mimicked the gesture in his room. "No, wait! What the hell am I doing?"
Yuki returned the gesture, giving him a little wave with her right hand. Her eyes were wide with curiosity toward the friendly entity hiding in the dark.
"Changing Star versus Caster," Professor Rock announced, pulling everyone's attention back to the ring.
Nephis and the Legacy stood opposite each other, Caster having just recovered from his crushing defeat.
Gloomy gave one dismissive wave on its back and shoved its hands into its pockets. "I've already seen this before," Sunny said from his bed. Having already read of this spar in the original story, he was not interested, and since the fights were proving to be quite boring, he was about to send his shadow back.
However... at the last minute, Caster said something that made the ears of his shadow perk up.
"Nice to meet you, Nephis of the Immortal Flame. Truly, your beauty is a joy to behold," Caster said, his voice dripping with the syrupy tone of a flatterer.
"Wait! What!?" Sunny cupped a hand over his ear, unable to believe his ears. "Am I gone mad, or did Caster just try to hit on Nephis?" He glanced at the Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder.
The mental image of his Flaw stood stunned for a moment before clicking its tongue and shrugging. <> It paused for a moment, then added: <
Behind him, Thene had moved on another game, this time playing as a boy dressed completly in green while saving another princess. The soft smile on her lips as she played was genuinely adorable.
Back in the dojo, Nephis's eye twitched visibly. Instead of deigning him of an answer, she simply raised her sword. Using his Shadow sense and Gloomy as a conduit, Sunny felt a wave of cold hostility between them. Despite Caster's sweet words, both felt a deep-seated loathing for the other. Around them, the spectators began to whisper.
"I have so many questions right now," Sunny thought, unable to decipher their interaction or the shadows lurking behind it.
Professor Rock signaled the start. The duel didn't deviate much from the original history; Caster won by the skin of his teeth, mostly because Changing Star held back and refused to use her Aspect.
"Fighting you was an honor for me," Caster said, leaving the ring with a ceremonious bow. For some unknown reason, this only seemed to make her fume more.
"Okay, what exactly is going on here?" Sunny muttered to the quiet darkness of his room.
His plan was simple: send Gloomy into the Combat Class to see if his Shadow Dance could be refined by analyzing and copying different fighting styles from a safe distance.
The matches so far, while technically proficient, had been underwhelming. He knew they were all beginners, but after witnessing a life-and-death struggle between the Champion of War and the Priestess of Shadows, Sunny found these controlled spars as exciting as a choreographed dance.
However, he never expected to witness Caster openly flirting with Nephis.
"And then..." Sunny pressed his thumb against his lower lip, his brow furrowed in thought. "Have Nephis and Caster already met in this timeline? What the hell happened between them to brew that kind of resentment? Hell, if they'd been holding real steel, they would have already torn each other apart."
He rubbed his temples, his mind racing through the possibilities created by the shifting threads of fate.
"What a headache," he muttered in exasperation. The tapestry he had once know was fraying, replaced by a pattern he didn't even know where it began.
A small, dark hand tugging gently at his right sleeve broke his whirlwind of thoughts. Sunny turned to see Thene behind him. She was holding out his communicator, pointing him the dark screen with a finger; the device had finally run out of battery.
Meanwhile, back in the dojo, the atmosphere shifted. The air grew heavy, charged with a sudden, sharp tension. The excitement in the air became palpable. Some Sleepers began making bets, others whispering loudly into their neighbors' ears.
Next, stepping into the ring were a radiant spark of light and a quiet shard of frost.
In the next second, both Nephis and Yuki took a step toward the ring.