***Arslan***

"Neon's Aura is below 16%, Reese wins!"

"See? Told you wouldn't be a problem." Reese helps her adversary up with a triumphant grin, who tries to play it off.

"Psh, that was just the equalizer, you still need one more. Plus you got lucky this time, 1v1 duels were never my strong point." That much was obvious, also from her battle we saw yesterday.

"That wasn't luck, it was superior skill. Right, Arslan? How much Aura did I have left?"

"Superior skill or no is not for me to say." This is not that easy to compare, skill isn't just one-dimensional, after all. "But you had 37% Aura left, after starting with around 80, Neon was ultimately left with 8."

"That speaks for itself," Bolin agrees. "Sorry Neon, but when she stops messing around, Reese is actually kind of competent."

"Hey! What's 'kind of' supposed to mean? I can't recall the last time you actually beat me when I stopped messing around." Bolin's following silence coupled with Reese's slightly smug expression pretty clearly spell out that answer is 'never', and we all know it.

"What about her?" Neon points at me "Have you ever seriously beaten her, Reese?"

A single time, relatively shortly after our Team was first formed, I may have taken that loud girl with the needlessly fancy weapon lightly at that time, but after that no longer. "Once."

My answer comes very quickly, but Reese shakes her head with a grin. "Nu-uh. It's twice, thank you very much."

"It's not, that battle didn't count."

"So counts. Just because you didn't see the moving van coming."

How could I see a moving van falling out of a window of the dining hall coming? Why would I ever see a moving van falling out of the window of the dining hall coming? Still, Reese is never gonna live that 'victory' down, try as I might. "That victory was not legitimate," I protest, even knowing the answer.

"Why not? Shouldn't a Huntress always be prepared to deal with outside interference?" That's what I taught her, yet half the time Reese doesn't abide by it herself. "It's not like we specified any other rules than the Aura threshold beforehand." Tournament-style rules were highly implied, but never mind that... I suppose I should just give her that victory, but my pride won't let me without at least a token protest.

"What was that about a moving van?" Neon perks up "That sounds like an interesting story."

"'Interesting' is one way to put it." I say. "We're still not sure just what that whole incident was all about." And as is the case with schoolyard stories, the details have been lost to retellings and embellishment anyways.

"Yeah." Reese agrees "But it still makes for one hell of a story, so listen up. According to the best of our knowledge, it started when Skye, one of our freshmen from this year, got high because she ended up taking way too much cough medicine..."

Reese begins recounting the tale once more, no doubt intending to highlight the moment where I got pinned under aforementioned moving van and expended enough of my Aura for her to just sucker-punch me afterwards to claim victory. After checking the time I walk over to collect the flag Reese and Bolin used for their training and round up the other utensils we used, storing everything in our gear bag, which Nadir then picks up without me even asking. What a gentleman. If you stop to think about it, that notion is actually a bit sexist, but there's no way I'd hold that against Nadir, he's just doing what he learned growing up.

"...and that's the reason man-portable siege equipment is explicitly banned in Haven's inner city," Reese finishes. And while I doubt all of this is exactly what happened, this particular regulation does indeed exist. Though Reese's story got some upgrades since last time, I think the hovercraft full of eels was new. Either way Neon looks suitably entertained, as does Bolin, even if he's bound to have heard that story just as often as the rest of us before.

"All right!" I clap my hands to get everyone's attention. "Now that story time is over, I suggest we go eat some lunch. Neon, you're of course welcome to join us, if you don't prefer to eat with your own Team, that is."

"Nah, two of my guys are a bit... peculiar about their eating. Okay, one is, and the other goes along with him because she's a sweetheart and really likes him, I mean likes him. Whatever, for lunch it tends to be each one for themselves half the time anyways, so I'm sure Flynt won't be mad if I stick with you guys for today."

"Very well. Anyone any suggestions as to where? Except the ice cream place from yesterday," I add, and Reese, who was about to say just that, falls silent again.

"Oh, I know!" Neon is half bouncing on her heels "There's this bakery here that has some really awesome cake!" I had been hoping for actual, nutritious lunch, some meat in particular, and not the sweet stuff again, but a look around the rest of the Team shows they clearly agree with Neon's plan. Oh, well.

"Lead the way."

"Sure!" Neon darts ahead and only after a few seconds seems to realize the rest of us isn't wearing skates and pauses, waiting for us to catch up and falling in line next to Reese.

"Hey! I just remembered this cool story that happened at Atlas a few weeks after our Initiation, and I think it even beats the one with the Beowolf in the frilly dress Reese just told." Frilly dress? I heard it was a tutu. "So, in like our third week at Atlas, there was this tinfoil-hat – no, literally – guy that was sure 'they' were out to get him, and so he..."

On our way to the bakery Neon tells that tale of a highly unlikely series of events, accompanying it with grand gestures and spoken sound effects, much to the amusement of Reese and Bolin, and even much more reserved Nadir is clearly smiling and laughing along. I have to admit the story is pretty entertaining, if even more improbable than our Flying Creep incident Reese mentioned.

It's kind of fascinating. We only met Neon yesterday, but she's getting along great with the entirety of our Team already. Well, Bolin is relatively easy to approach anyways, and to an extent so is Reese, especially since the two share their biggest hobby, but for her to get Nadir out of his shell even just a little bit; quite remarkable. I guess I like her too, I mean, Neon is a very likable girl, I suppose she has what you'd call a 'magnetic' personality.

"...and then, just as he opened the door to see what the ruckus was all about, Bam!, the cart came rolling right into him, and the whole room was drenched." Neon continues the story and Reese and Bolin burst out laughing. I seem to have missed a bit there, and it's probably even funnier in context, but the mental image alone makes me chuckle. "But the best part is yet to come!" Neon continues "Remember the barrel of vegetable oil I mentioned before? As it turned out, in the meantime..."

Not even a minute later we actually have to pause for a moment because everyone is holding their sides and laughing too hard to go on.

This girl is quite something. She's just so earnestly positive and full of energy, it's admirable. And she and Reese really are a great match as well; even without their shared love of skating I could see the two getting along easily. Neon is even more energetic than Reese and just as competitive, and if last evening and this battle right now were any indication, the two are totally going to keep pushing each other. Which is kind of a good thing, I suppose, as long as they make sure not to overdo it and cross into the realm of recklessness. But I'm sure by now Reese is mature and responsible enough to- yeah, right. ...I probably should keep an eye on that, lest they drag the rest of their Teams along with them.

"...and ever since that day, everyone but the janitorial staff are forbidden from bringing cleaning supplies onto Atlas grounds." Neon finishes her tale of... whatever the hell happened there.

"Heh, not bad." Reese grins. "They actually changed the school rules because of you?"

"Yep. Apparently they just thought there was no need for that rule, because why would there? Boy, were they wrong. But your incident got an actual law changed, so I think you actually got us beat in that regard."

"It involved a live – at that point – Creep hurtling towards the mayor at terminal velocity," I add "so that's not too surprising."

"Yeah." Reese adds "The incidents that require new rules to be passed are the best ones, right?"

I refrain from any comment but Neon nods with a big grin, of course she would. "Totally."

"But it's not like that rule even worked," Reese continues "I mean, you guys remember the Ursa Ballista thing?" Yeah, that. At least that day I learned I fight just as good without clothes as with.

"We agreed to never talk about that again." Nadir reminds her. He's probably the one who got it the worst in that one, but I'm still not too keen on recounting the tale of trying to get back in my locked room while the rest of the Team was away with nothing to wear but a smile – and the hoodie I took off the first jackass to fucking wolf-whistle after me.

"Ooh, I see." Neon says "We had one of those too, and Iris said if I as much as mention the words, she's gonna find me and hurt me. ...It involved 40 pounds of mincemeat, by the way." She lowers her voice for a moment before jumping right back to full volume. "But you didn't hear that from me. Oh, hey, we're here!"

We indeed arrived at a large bakery, and as we follow Neon inside she abruptly changes the subject to how she got out of paying for her cake the day before by making a bet with her teammate, and the conversation just drifts from there while we buy cake and sit down at a table next to a window.

Reese has – at her recommendation – the same thing as Neon, a large stacked pie with the layers in the colors of the rainbow. How absolutely appropriate. Bolin sticks with the usual, two slices of plain cheesecake, Nadir has an elaborate Black Forest gateau, and I get a piece of dark chocolate pie. Neon was right, the cake is good. It's not very sweet, but highly aromatic, and tastes not only like plain chocolate, but also cinnamon and some other spices. It's still no meat, though, which means I'll have to get my dose at dinner once more.

Still following the conversation, that has somehow shifted into a discussion whether paragliding or bungee-jumping is superior – clearly paragliding, by the way –, with one ear, I take a look around the bakery.

The place seems to be pretty popular, there's few empty tables, and I know some of the students here either from back at Haven or because I saw their battle in the last two days. As can be expected, many are with their partners or Teams, and it's exactly for that reason one of the few solitary figures catches my eye.

A red-haired girl wearing a red and white jacket and a black beanie covering her left eye is sitting alone drinking what looks like a milkshake of some sort and gazing off in the distance. I think she was on the Team that fought JNPR yesterday, with a sniper rifle, if I recall correctly. Why isn't she with her Team? As she notices me looking at her, I give her a brief smile, but the girl quickly avoids my gaze with a frown. Not a people person?

"You know what would be awesome?" Neon asks, the conversation having moved – or derailed – in another direction yet again.

"Free ice cream forever," Reese says.

"Being able to breathe underwater." "The power of flight." Bolin and Nadir have their own ideas too, but all of these are rather obvious and maybe a little immature. A proper answer would be... It doesn't matter, actually, I don't think Neon was thinking of any serious answer either.

"A cake like the one we just ate, but with each layer having a different flavoring." Called it. I didn't try the cake Reese and Neon had, but this idea sounds interesting, if a lot of work. "Say, can anyone of your Team cook?" Neon asks and Reese thinks for a moment before pointing at Nadir. She's probably right about that too; herself and Bolin can pull of microwaving instant food and make sandwiches, but that's about it, and while I can cook some things, it's limited to meat and some really basic stuff. Nadir however, despite it not 'traditionally' being a boy's task, nevertheless learned to cook quite well growing up, and he knows a pretty big repertoire of recipes.

"Nadir, right? You wouldn't happen to be interested in a little baking project?"

"Um, I..."

"Really, Neon?" Reese beats me to it "Why don't you ask your own Team if they want to do any overly fancy baking for you?"

"I already did, and all of them said no."

"...Right."

We finish off our cake, Neon somehow having fit in another slice in the time it took Nadir to eat his one, and once everyone is done, I speak up. "So, originally, the plan was for a whole day of training, but I somehow doubt Neon wants to join us for that."

"Yep! But I'm just here for Reese, so the rest of you feel free to keep training."

Yeah, right. "Change of plans, then. We'll pick up where we left off tomorrow, rest of the day is free time."

"Oh, thank you, wise and glorious leader." Even a deaf man could catch Bolin's sarcasm. "But aren't we overdoing it a bit with the training? I mean, we're here for the Festival, we can keep doing what we're doing at Haven all the time when we're back at Haven."

"We were here to represent our school in the Tournament," Nadir corrects him.

"And since we kinda blew that one," I quickly add "we have to make sure we give a better showing next time. And that just happens to involve a lot of training."

"Whatever. Yo, Nadir, let's go check out the fairgrounds. We didn't really get to do that so far because we were way late thanks to that unnecessary mission we just had to go on right before the Festival started."

"Disaster aid is not unnecessary." I say, but Bolin just shrugs.

"But why require Hunters for that? We didn't even get to kill a single Grimm."

"And we should be thankful for that," Nadir counters. "Our task was protecting the workers, after all. Not every mission has to be only about combat."

"Come on, let's get going!" Neon suddenly gets up, starting towards the entrance, and we quickly follow her. I take it her and Reese will be off skating or whatever, and the boys will go to the fairgrounds; I believe I'll do that too, then return to Beacon to do some exercises.

Outside the door Neon stops to get her bearings before looking in the direction opposite of Beacon and the fairgrounds.

"We're gonna be headed that way! What 'bout you?"

"The Festival." Bolin points over his shoulder, and Nadir and I nod in agreement.

"'Kay," Reese says as she activates her hoverboard. "See you guys later then."

"Later. Have fun." I give a brief wave as she and Neon turn around and take off, the latter waving over her shoulder "We will!"

Suddenly someone bumps into me from behind and I stumble forward before catching myself "Hey!" I turn around to see the same redhead girl I noticed before.

"Oh, sorry," she says, and oh, she dropped her book. I reach down and pick it up a moment before she does, and as I get up and her gaze meets mine, she freezes. What's wrong? I take a quick look at the mostly-black book's title. Ninjas of Love. Oh.

"In public? That's pretty bold, sis." I wink at the stunned girl with a sly grin "But don't worry, I won't tell."

"I'm not your sis!" The girl just grabs the book I'm holding out to her from my hand. What is her problem?

"Hey, Arslan, you coming?" Before I can reply to her in turn, I'm distracted by Bolin calling for me, and when I turn back around, the girl is already gone. Some people...

After wandering around the fairgrounds with the boys for a while I excuse myself and leave while Bolin drags Nadir along to some other stand or attraction. Heading back to Beacon I think about the best place to practice my forms.

Our room is obviously out because there's far too little space, also it's indoors. I could try the training grounds, but depending on how many Teams are there I might not be able to properly focus. In front of the main building there is some lawn and enough space, but also too many people passing by. I really wish I knew my way around the school, maybe there's a suitably large rooftop accessible somewhere; being closer to the sky for this would be nice. However after a cursory look around, I have no such luck and eventually settle on the lawn stretching behind the school connecting to a small park.

There is ample space, only a few people taking walks, hanging out or reading and enjoying the pleasant late summer weather. And best of all there's a small river, its natural sound drowning out what little ambient noise there is.

I turn off my Scroll completely – something I consider very important, but my Team got annoyed before when they couldn't contact me at all – and put it, along with my rope dagger and bag, on the ground next to the trunk of a massive weeping willow growing right next to the river, then sit down cross-legged in its shadow with my hands open and forearms resting on my knees, and close my eyes.

Breathe in... Breathe out... Breathe in... Out... In... Out... The soft, yet dry grass under me. The murmur of the water behind me. The specks of warmth where the sunlight filters through the leaves above me. The aroma of the air, of summer and plants and life.

In... Out... Feel the all around me. In... Out... With every breath my Qi ebbs and flows. In... Out... I move my arms off my knees, loosely resting them besides me, palms facing upwards, and open up myself. In... Out...

After however long – not that much, though, there was nothing troubling me or anything – I feel sufficiently at one with myself and slowly open my eyes and get up. In a state of absolute calm, I take a few more steps away from the tree and the river, look around to make sure there is enough space in every direction, align myself to have the sun in my back and slightly to the left so I'm facing north best as I can, and begin.

Stand. Breathe in... Step. Breathe out... Strike. In... Guard. Out... Counter. I know this basic form by heart, after practicing it hundreds of times, I could do it blindfolded. And I do, keeping my eyes shut and the feeling of my body all the more heightened.

In... Out... Every movement takes as long as it takes, I completely lose the passage of time. For that brief span, I only seem to exist as the motion, losing myself in every moment. Which is probably as close to nirvana as I'll ever get.

In... Out... There's someone here. I more feel the slight shift than hear them. I tend to get some spectators when I do my forms, especially somewhere foreign. In Haven by now I'm a familiar enough sight to most, and after I ended up putting some irritating dumbass through a wall, I'm also generally left undisturbed – and that one wasn't even intentional, he just walked in front of me at the wrong moment. But elsewhere a somewhat exotic-looking girl doing a half-dance half-martial arts thing is still something unusual.

It doesn't matter. As long as they don't distract me, I don't care much about spectators. In... Out... They're gonna get bored and leave sooner or later, or if there's something they want of me either speak up eventually, or wait for me to finish. In... Out...

"Um... Excuse me?" Very well. I hope it's important at least. And I think I recognize that voice from somewhere. I finish the motion and then revert to my initial stance before opening my eyes with one final deep exhalation. "Yes?"

It's that girl with the beanie from the bakery again, standing a bit to the right of me, and I turn in her direction. "Good thing I found you. Um... Look, I-" She's fidgeting with her fingers and staring at the ground in front of her. "I just... I'm sorry for acting so bitchy to you in the bakery, that was really uncalled for, and um... sorry."

The girl waits for my answer with a somewhat hopeful expression and raises her gaze, but falls short of meeting mine – and end up staring at my chest instead. "My eyes are up here, you know," I grin and the girl blushes.

"Uh- sorry..." She looks away for a moment before steeling herself and looking at me properly. As I step a bit closer to her, I can see she has grayish-blue eyes – at least the one eye not hidden under her beanie – and is almost a whole head shorter than me, and she still looks a bit flustered. "Don't worry about that thing in the bakery. It's okay, everyone has their off days sometimes."

"Th-thanks..."

I extend a hand and give her a friendly smile. "By the way, my name is Arslan, of Haven's Team ABRN." However the girl looks away again and on the contrary hides her hands behind her back.

"M-May. From... Shade." Seriously, why is she acting so nervous?

"Is there something wrong?"

"N-no, I... I should... Ihavetogodosomethingbye!" May's entire face flushes and she turns on her heel and all but sprints towards Beacon, almost running down a pair of boys walking along the river hand in hand.

That was... a thing. If I didn't know any better I almost would've thought she was trying to ask me out. But there's no way... right?

Well, anyways, my form was almost done, and I don't feel like starting over, so I suppose I'll leave it at that for now. After a short finishing meditation, I take my bag, store my weapon in my sleeve again and turn on my Scroll to the notification of a missed call and multiple messages. I somehow took more than two hours, and by now the sun is visibly descending towards the horizon. As I head back towards Beacon I check the messages. Apparently the boys came up with some film they want to watch, and so they bought a bunch of coke and snacks and decided tonight is movie night. Reese is all for it of course, and so I would have been outvoted anyways, not that I really mind a movie night or something now and then, I just generally prefer a little more quiet.

Also Neon is tagging along, no big surprise, and she's bringing her partner with her. And apparently she went down the entire hallway of the dorms, knocking on doors and asking people if they want to join us. ...So much for quiet; good thing I just did enough meditation for today.

AN: I wish I had a spot to meditate anywhere near as cool as Arslan found here. Also flustered May is cute.

New viewpoint character, check it, I hope no one missed the change and thought we were back to Reese, or you would have been horribly confused. The idea for a new perspective only came up while writing the chapter, because it just happened to work out, as well as tie into another plot thread nicely.

I was just short of literally naming one of the incidents they were discussing the 'Noodle Incident'. Also those won't be elaborated on further, because it's funnier that way, and the stuff you'll come up with to fill the blanks with is gonna be way better than anything I could write anyways.

I know Qi comes from Taoism and Nirvana from Buddhism, but in Remnant neither of these belief systems actually exist, so whatever philosophy Arslan is following can have both of these concepts. (Plus it's not like the people are literally speaking English, technically that's just a convention of the medium).

Btw, the title comes from a track from the Metal Gear Rising soundtrack, and its meaning may become a bit clearer come next chapter.