Tension climbed the walls of the dojo like wild, choking vines. The frantic whispers of the students provided a staccato backdrop to the sudden silence of the vast hall, sounding like the erratic striking of piano keys.
It was a masterfully crafted crescendo as the two new challengers slowly stepped into the ring.
Nephis and Yuki stood opposite each other. Their eyes—one pair of liquid silver, the other of glacial blue—studied every minimal movement of the opponent, as if trying to dissect the mysteries hidden beneath the skin.
"Where is Everlasting Gloom?!" Nephis demanded. Her voice was firm, resonant; she wasn't merely asking, she was exacting an answer. The bright flames in her grey eyes burned with the fury of a promise unkept.
In a corner, hearing his name through his shadow, Sunny felt a surge of petty defiance. He had Gloomy perform a brief, kind salute—bent arm, fist up, hand slapping the bicep. If Gloomy hadn't been a shadow, the sound of that "greeting" would have echoed through the entire hall.
Yuki blinked, tilting her head as she recalled the brief, friction-filled interactions between Sunny and the silver-haired girl. "Sunny isn't... enrolled in this course," she finally said. Her words stumbled mid-sentence, as if they had momentarily frozen before resuming their flow like a steady stream of meltwater.
Hearing this, Nephis felt her temper flare into an inferno. Her eyebrows narrowed into a sharp downward arrow, and her eyes seemed to throw actual sparks. While the rest of her face remained an unreadable mask, it was painfully evident she was livid. She remembered back in the cafeteria when he had looked at her with such casual indifference, answering her challenge with a single, lazy word.
Sure. As if he were doing her a favor just by acknowledging her existence.
'Just you wait, Everlasting Gloom,' Nephis vowed to herself. 'Sooner or later, I will make you unsheathe your sword. Even if I have to pull it from your belt myself—with my hands or my teeth.'
By the grace of all that is sacred and profane, Changing Star did not voice that thought aloud, blissfully unaware of the double entendre and the particular brand of corruption that tends to plague the minds of the youths.
Nephis turned her gaze toward Professor Rock, who was waiting for the two of them to finish their introduction, and made a sudden, unexpected request.
"I wish to duel using a Memory."
"But why!?" Sunny cried out to the dark, lonely corners of his room, throwing his arms wide as if praying for a sensible answer to fall from the ceiling. He pressed his palms together, resting his nose against his fingertips, and let out a long, weary sigh. "This woman picks her moments like a thorn in the side," he muttered.
Behind him, Thene seemed to have the temperament—and the energy—of a seven-year-old. Having drained the communicator's battery, she had moved on to styling Sunny's hair into tiny braids. Unfortunately, Sunny's hair was far too short for such endeavors, resulting in hideous black tufts that crowned his head like the quills of a startled porcupine.
In the dojo, Professor Rock stood with his right hand half-raised to signal the start, frozen as he stared at Changing Star. His mind was at war. As a professor, his duty was to ensure his students didn't maim each other; these were supposed to be friendly spars, after all. But as a warrior, he recognized the raw, burning hunger in the young girl to test herself against a worthy opponent.
'If I say no, they'll just settle this outside of class where I can't intervene,' Rock reasoned. 'Better they settle their scores under my watch. Besides, it's not just Nightmare Creatures that will try to end them out there. Showing the other Sleepers a real fight might be the wake-up call they need.'
"Sleeper Yukino," Rock said, turning to the girl with the blue-braided black hair. "Do you consent to the use of Memories?"
Yuki nodded, her expression indifferent to the potential danger. She accepted the sudden escalation without a flicker of hesitation.
A ghost of a smile touched Nephis's lips. She reached out, and from a swirl of pure, white sparks, a long silver sword manifested in her hand. The blade was flat, emitting an untainted, ethereal glow.
"The [Dream Blade]," Sunny whispered from his room, rubbing his chin. He recognized the Memory instantly. 'If I remember correctly, she got that in her First Nightmare after literally setting herself on fire. Classic Neph! The woman was a pyromaniac from the very start.'
Sunny directed his shadow's gaze toward Yuki, leaning in with curiosity. What kind of weapon would the Ice Maiden draw? A rapier? A spear? Maybe something else?
Sparks of light gathered in Yuki's hands, coalescing into a solid form. Sunny blinked in sheer bewilderment. He had expected something elegant—a thin, sharp blade suited to her delicate beauty. Instead...
"A morning star?"
Yuki gripped a rugged haft made of translucent crystal, as clear as mountain ice. Attached to the end was a heavy sphere bristling with jagged spikes. At first glance, the weapon looked as fragile as glass, yet the wicked points of the mace gave the impression that they could shatter bone as easily as an eggshell. Light seemed to enter the ice of the weapon only to become trapped, swirling deep within the crystal.
Nephis and Yuki took their stances.
Changing Star widened her base, leveling her silver blade with focused intensity. Yuki rested the haft of her morning star casually across her shoulders, a confident, cold look sharpening her features.
Every Sleeper in the hall held their breath. The air grew brittle, ready to snap. Then, Professor Rock gave the signal.
"Fight!"
Nephis lunged forward, her silver blade striking the crystal haft of the morning star. The impact released a sharp, microscopic spark, but the weapon held firm.
With a powerful shove from both hands, Yuki pushed back, forcing Nephis to take two rapid steps across the ring to regain her balance.
Unfazed, Nephis tightened her grip. She launched a wide diagonal slash, but Yuki intercepted it, slamming the spiked sphere against the flat of the silver sword. The force diverted the blow, and the tip of the [Dream Blade] bit into the floor of the ring. Nephis followed the momentum, her torso pitched forward, momentarily exposed.
Seizing the opening, Yuki drove her shoulder into Changing Star's chest, sending her reeling back once more.
A flurry of thrusts and slashes followed. Nephis attacked with relentless precision, but Yuki met every blow with raw, overwhelming power. She wasn't just defending; she was systematically dismantling Nephis's technique. It was a brutal display that seemed to mock the legendary status of the girl who had achieved the impossible by earning a True Name in her First Nightmare.
Nephis paused for a fraction of a second, her eyes searching Yuki's face.
The Ice Maiden looked... satisfied.
A faint, provocative smirk touched her red lips as she rested the icy "teeth" of her mace against her left shoulder. Raising her free hand, Yuki beckoned her forward—an invitation to stop holding back.
Nephis let out a low grunt, her jaw setting tight. Fed up with the disparity in raw strength and the way her skill was being nullified, she accepted the challenge. As she stepped forward, her pale skin beneath her clothes suddenly ignited. Brilliant white flames erupted from her body, swirling around her like a mantle of silver radiance.
SSSHHHT. THUD.
The spectators snorted as the unexpected happened. Hidden in a dark corner, a shadow put a hand to its mouth stifling a laugh.
Nephis slipped. She hit the floor on her back with a resounding thud that echoed throughout the dojo. As she pushed herself up, her back and hips still throbbing from the impact, she felt a sudden, biting cold. Her palm and the knuckles gripping the [Dream Blade] were beginning to freeze.
Looking down, Nephis saw that the ground beneath her had turned into a skating rink. A layer of ice, thin as a sheet of paper, coated the entire surface of the ring.
She snapped her gaze up to Yuki and saw the girl was mocking her. Yuki's smile widened at the sight of her fall; only now did Nephis notice a faint, ethereal mist of frost swirling around the Ice Maiden's body, as if the very air were solidifying in her presence.
"YOU..."
Gritting her teeth with newfound anger, Nephis intensified her flames. The ice beneath her hissed and evaporated instantly. Springing back to her feet, she threw herself into the fray, and the battle resumed with redoubled ferocity.
Nephis and Yuki gave life to a breathtaking dance of scorching steel and radiant ice. Sparks of fire and jagged shards of crystal scattered across the arena with every collision of their weapons, a violent vortex that roared through the entire dojo.
Every soul present watched the exhibition with bated breath. This incredible display of skill was limited only by the current constraints of their powers and their still-developing experience with the blade. Even Professor Rock made no move to intervene; he didn't want to break the spell of such a spectacle.
And yet... beneath the aesthetic brilliance, the rhythm of the duel remained unchanged.
Yuki stood her ground like an ancient monolith of ice—stationary, unyielding, and absolute. She absorbed every one of Nephis's blows, parrying, blocking, or interrupting her momentum before shoving the silver-haired girl back with sheer, raw force.
Changing Star, meanwhile, was the living embodiment of a flame. she continued to burn and surge forward, desperate to consume the opposing defense. Slashing trails of fire met the biting frost; the ice did not melt, but the constant pressure slowly forced it to recede.
Nephis brought the pure white blade of her sword down in a heavy vertical strike, which slammed into the translucent haft of the morning star. Yuki braced her legs to absorb the shock, shifting the weight of the impact onto her quads. Then, pivoting on her left foot, she snapped a low kick into Nephis's knee, forcing her to stumble back.
Nephis lunged with a diagonal slash from the right; Yuki deflected it using the center of her staff before lunging forward with a brutal elbow to the chin. A direct thrust aimed at the shoulder was swatted away by the spiked sphere. Strike after strike, the feud seemed locked in an endless, punishing loop.
The fight continued without restraint.
Judging by Nephis's constant grunts and the way she ground her teeth, she was reaching her limit. It wasn't that she couldn't land a hit; it was simply that Yuki played dirty.
The Ice Maiden remained coiled in her defense, absorbing assaults or diverting them with her weapon only to strike back with her body. Punches, kicks, headbutts—there were no rules. Yuki was cunning, cold, and utterly unscrupulous. In short, she was the total antithesis of Nephis's superb swordsmanship, which relied on form rather than "vile" street tactics.
"Nephis has already lost," Sunny declared. He was sitting cross-legged on his bed, his tone as grave as his expression. His fingers were laced together with his chin resting upon them, forming a makeshift table. Thene had actually managed to give him a surprisingly dashing, stylish look with his hair; she nodded to herself, admiring her handiwork with a satisfied hum.
<
"Just watch," Sunny replied.
***
The battle had finally reached its tipping point. The hands of the clock had barely covered a fraction of their circle, yet for those watching, it felt as if hours had bled away.
Nephis surged forward, but exhaustion was clawing at her. Her muscles had turned to lead, and the searing agony inflicted by her own flames was becoming unbearable. Yuki, for her part, showed no outward sign of fatigue. She remained a perennial statue of ice—though a closer look would have revealed her hands trembling slightly under the brutal weight of the morning star.
Professor Rock tensed, his eyes locked on the two girls, ready to vault into the ring the moment things turned lethal.
Nephis gathered every shred of her remaining strength for one last, desperate gambit. Lunging forward, she swung the radiant edge of the [Dream Blade], putting everything into a final vertical overhead strike. This time, Yuki let her arms slide down, her morning star hanging low, though her grip remained iron-clad.
The blade descended like a ray of heaven's light. Nephis aimed to drive her opponent to her knees, targeting the right shoulder with the flat of the steel. Yuki closed her eyes, and the entire hall held its breath.
A single bead of sweat fell, shattering against the thin mirror of water formed by the melting ice.
Yuki's eyes snapped open like windows catching the first light of dawn. The blade of light was mere millimeters from her skin.
She side-stepped. A gust of superheated air whipped through her black hair as the [Dream Blade] hissed past her, cutting through the frost at her right. Before Changing Star could even register the miss, Yuki's left hand shot upward. She coiled her fingers into a devastating fist and drove it straight into the right side of Nephis's jaw.
A faint crack echoed. In that heartbeat, the Sleepers watched as Changing Star was launched backward, tumbling across the floor in a mess of silver limbs and broken momentum.
As the dust settled, only one thought filled the minds of the witnesses: The duel was over.
<
"Two reasons, actually," Sunny replied, snapping his fingers and glancing at his Flaw. He held up his index finger. "First off, Yuki is like me. She's from the Outskirts, and out there, nobody fights clean. In a match between a cheater and an honest man, it's obvious who wins from the start. She provoked Nephis and used her entire body as a weapon while her opponent relied solely on her sword."
He added his thumb to the gesture. "Second, Yuki played the long game. she focused on defense, letting Nephis tire herself out. While Nephis was fighting exhaustion, she also had to endure the agonizing pain of her own Flaw." Sunny tilted his head, considering. "I doubt Yuki knew it, but I think she sensed it mid-battle."
Sunny rested his chin back on his hands.
<
Sunny gave the little creature a brief look before glancing back at Thene, who was still meticulously perfecting his hair. He smirked.
"Nah... I'd win."
Nephis had been defeated.
Pushing herself up with trembling arms as her radiant sword dissolved into fading white sparks, she rose from the floor, gathering the scattered fragments of her pride. Changing Star turned her head, her exhausted eyes searching for the girl with the raven hair and the blue braid. They burned with the silent, desperate demand for a rematch.
Yuki walked off the ring, her own strength spent. As she moved through the stunned silence of the dojo, her gaze instinctively sought out a specific dark corner of the room.
There, hidden within the deep shadows, a solitary figure gave her a silent thumbs-up, celebrating the splendid victory she had just seized.
A fleeting, genuine smile touched Yuki's lips—a secret shared only with her shadow friend.