Yuriko gently intercepted the sabre aimed at her wrist with her own blade. A simple twist, and the opposing blade's alignment was off; another twist, and she sent her own towards her opponent's head. Kyra Hays, captain of the fencing club, managed to duck under the attack and riposte at the same time, aiming at Yuriko's side.
She leaned back slightly enough for the sabre to whiff past, and at the same time, she sent her own blade to cut towards Kyra's arm. The captain retreated, smacking Yuriko's strike away. She didn't resist the parry, though she could have done so easily considering the difference in strength, even lacking leverage, but doing so was blatantly unfair considering she was duelling a mortal. Kyra was a firecracker of a girl, but she wasn't awakened, Altered, or a Magi. She was exceptionally fit for a mortal, though, and as long as Yuriko restricted her physique to match the other girl, the matches were closer to even than otherwise.
Kyra was quite agile, and her strikes snapped out like firecrackers. Yuriko moved only the minimum distance to avoid getting hit, and her fencing sabre only took the most optimal distance and velocity to strike lethal blows, or rather, to score points. And since she matched the other's speed and agility, the shorter movements and distances meant that she was always faster. Sure, it also meant that her attack velocities were predictable, but going fancy wasn't always the most effective.
Over the past weeks since the semester started, Yuriko had been training the members of the fencing club that way, and there was already a marked improvement in their performance.
"Divine mercies, you're too quick!" Kyra spat out as the round ended in a draw. She kicked the matting beneath her petulantly and fumed. "Why do I always feel as if you're just playing with me every time we spar?" the petite captain muttered as she removed her fencing mask.
Yuriko did the same and smirked. "You aren't wrong."
"Oh, haha, very funny!" Kyra growled. "I oughta make you the captain."
"I'm too busy for it," Yuriko demurred.
"Yeah, I know. Are you sure you won't compete? It's such a waste if you don't."
"I won't," Yuriko said. "It won't be sporting."
Kyra huffed, "You're way too arrogant for your own good."
Yuriko chuckled as the two of them moved out of the sparring lanes. The fencing sabre wasn't hers but the club's property. After ensuring it was clean and undamaged, she returned it to the weapons barrel. The protective gear was hers though, as the thought of borrowing someone else's sweat-soaked gear sent shivers up Yuriko's spine. Maybe if it was Kyra's...
Yuriko paused as an odd thought occurred to her. She quickly reviewed her thought patterns and zeroed in on the people she found attractive in Astoria, and realised most, if not all of them were women. Her true body didn't mind either way, but her incarnation body seemed to have a preference. Was Lilibeth that way? But wasn't Evan Andrew her former lover?
Either way, the petite captain was obviously too short to borrow protective gear from and Yuriko ended up buying her own. She left her protective gear in the club's storeroom, however, since it was taken care of there, and was cleaned every week.
She entered the shower room at Kyra's heels. The room was in an old style with the shower heads dotting the far wall. There were no partitions and everybody just cleaned themselves and paid no mind to the other naked ladies. Yuriko knew the men's showers were of the same style though, of course, she didn't check while it was occupied.
While not all of the ladies were perfectly trim and athletic, most were fit in one way or another. Fencing was a sport that relied on agility rather than brute strength, so most members had a runner's physique. None sported the lean, minimal fat look that Yuriko knew most fashion or runway models had.
Yuriko wasn't really sweaty or dirty, but almost all of the club members showered after a training session and it would be odd if she didn't considering she sparred with nearly every club member over the past couple of hours.
"You've got to show us your conditioning routine during the training camp," Kyra said while she towelled her short, pixie-cut hair dry.
Yuriko brushed her hair after she dried it, using a hairdryer and surreptitious use of her Anima both. She shrugged and said, "I don't mind. When and where's the camp again?"
"On the 28th to 30th Mid Air Cycle," Kyra answered. "That's in a couple of weeks."
"Alright, I'll be there," Yuriko agreed.
She had to have at least two extracurricular activities with her club every semester from the second year onwards as they were part of the graduation requirements. While she didn't want to compete, a training camp was an entirely acceptable alternative. She planned to join the HAMA club's foray into a convention for her second activity, but that was only after the new year.
It took a bit of time for her to finish drying up and grooming herself to her current identity's standard, and while she did so, her perception scanned the surroundings. A few of her clubmates were still training, while some were browsing the Network on their phones. One, the vice-captain of the club, Elliot Shields, a young man about twenty, just a bit taller than Kyra, and had short cropped brown hair as well as pale green eyes. Unlike the other male club members, Elliot was built like a bull but was agile enough that when he wielded his epee, the tip moved like a striking viper. The Network site he browsed was a video-sharing site, and the channel was the National News Broadcast Network, NNBN.
"...terrorist group, has been spotted near Dyna County. Hours later, the town of Moonfall was found deserted…"
Elliot muttered, "Dyna County's just southwest of Neo Prism. Isn't that too close?" He stood up and looked around, spotted Kyra packing her things into a duffel bag, and called out, "Captain, disturbing news."
"What? You sprained your finger and can't train?" Kyra snarked.
"Eh, no, mercies, thankfully not." Elliot shook his head. "Unfettered news."
Any playfulness in Kyra's countenance disappeared. "Sightings?"
"Yeah, Dyna. Moonfall town, gone."
"Divines curse them," Kyra nearly shouted. "How many have those madmen hit?"
Yuriko put away her things and walked up to the pair. "Unfettered?"
"Yeah, spotted a hundred leagues away," Elliot answered.
"Isn't that far?" A hundred leagues would take most of a day to cross with a car or a bus.
"That's way too close." He showed his phone where the news anchor spoke about the matter.
"Protectorate teams have been sent to investigate as well as units of the National Guard. Residents of Dyna, Neo Prism, Jiran…should be cautious and stay within their residences during the hours of the night…"
Yuriko hummed as she thought about where she heard the term Unfettered. While she could preserve important information in her memory palace, it also meant that those snippets would normally be unavailable to her usual thoughts. Also, if she never put in the knowledge, then there was no way for her to retrieve it. While Radiant Physique enhanced all parts of her, that didn't mean she never forgot about things.
She eventually did find knowledge of Unfettered, though it came from Lilibeth's memories rather than recent events. Terrorists were an apt description of them, as well as reapers of life. They'd been active over the past decade, though not as frequently as the NNBN anchor made it seem. Still, there were confirmed sightings and activities at least once a year, and in some years, once a Season. Some of the people who disappeared were left with no traces, but it was the incident five years ago that cemented Unfettered's reputation. They found remnants of people, with one survivor barely clinging on to life.
He whispered, "Unfettered…monsters…" before finally passing away.
Yuriko hummed in thought. The retelling sounded overly dramatised, and considering how Astorians were, it probably was. Still, it didn't take away the fact that Unfettered was dangerous and them being spotted close to Neo Prism City, county, province, state—whatever they eventually decided to call the districts—meant that forays out into the countryside could potentially be dangerous. Then again, with Yuriko in the group, they probably had little to worry about.
'Careful about arrogance,' she reminded herself.
Anima Pride was a known quantity yet it was so hard to guard her mind against. Her Anima was an intrinsic part of her after all, and trying not to be affected by Pride was like trying not to think about something. Just the mere effort of doing so would run counter to the attempt.
Kyra looked quite concerned, but she shook her head and brushed it off. "The camp is two weeks away. Unfettered hasn't attacked the same area in that span of time. We should be alright."
"If you say so," Elliot said, still more than a bit concerned. He turned to Yuriko and smiled, "Master Lilibeth, you'll join the camp right? I'm eager to learn how you got that good."
Yuriko smiled. "Unrelenting practice."
"Right, as if that's enough," Kyra scoffed. "Who among us hasn't done that yet?"
"I guess talent, then," Yuriko said with a smile.
"Of course it is, hah!" Elliot laughed. "If only we had a smidgen of your talent then Trinity U Fencing Club would be the national champion!"
Yuriko smirked. "I'll teach you what I can, but if you want me to train all of you, you'll have to follow my methods."
"Alright, I guess we don't mind," Kyra said, "I'm not sure about the non-varsity members, so they will likely stick with the original plans."
"I'll teach as many as those who want it," Yuriko agreed, then hummed. "If you win, I'll have you boast about my sword school," she laughed, half joking but also half serious. She was quite well known now and had the dreamscape connections to prove it, but the quality of the threads should also matter, right?
Afterwards, Yuriko left the clubroom and headed to the student parking lot. Scarlett had a different schedule, so they agreed to go home separately. Yuriko got into her Nitsuda Civilian, idly thinking about upgrading to a fancier-looking car, when her phone rang.
She saw it was Darrel Schuter, her Pixel Fairy manager, on the line and she answered it.
"Hello."
"Miss Lawson!" Darrel said happily, "I've got some good news. The city mayor asked Pixel Fairy to make some election ads for her and her running mate, Mayor Rihanna Gillaim and Vice Mayor Walter Hamilton. They're on a video conference call while making plans and the mayor asked for you specifically to headline her ads."
"Alright," Yuriko said. "You've talked to Scarlett about this?"
"She hasn't answered," Darrel said. "This would be good for your reputation and fame in Neo Prism City, even if the mayor ends up losing the race. Plus, the funds are good."
"Hmmm, send things over to Scarlett, then."
"Yes, we have, actually," Darrel answered. "But since they're on the line now, they want to see and talk to you."
Yuriko hummed for a moment, then agreed. "Alright, send me the video conference link."
"Will do!" Darrel hung up and a few moments later, on her messenger app, a hyperlink appeared. It was a string of numbers and letters in no coherent pattern but since all she had to do was press the link, she supposed it didn't matter. When she did so, a video conferencing app—Zapple—booted up. Yuriko allowed the camera on her phone to activate and soon enough, she was looking at a screen divided into half a dozen squares.
"Hello, Miss Lawson, it's a pleasure to meet you," the mayor, a middle-aged woman with midnight black hair and piercing blue eyes, said. The square next to her had a middle-aged man with the same colouration, though his eyes were sharper and he was a bit chubbier. He nodded to her with a grin.
"Nice to meet you, Mayor Gilliam, and I assume, Vice Mayor Hamilton?"
"It's a pleasure," the vice mayor's grin widened and for a moment, she thought that his eye teeth gleamed, but the moment passed and the man gave her a nod.
They spoke pleasantries for a few moments before they returned to their conversation. Since Yuriko's input wasn't really required, just her nominal presence, she muted her microphone and proceeded to drive home.