Chapter 15: The Snow Princess

Asumi, Meguri, and Taichi raced side by side through the obstacle course for their morning training, voices carrying between platforms.

“Meguri,” Taichi called, vaulting through a hoop and pulling slightly ahead, “what do you mean Tadokoro never came back? Did she go back to her parents or something?”

“I don’t know… I wasn’t close to her,” Meguri replied, ducking under a hammer that slammed down behind her. “Kodaka Sensei didn’t reply to my message asking him.”

“Do you think she’s coming back?” Taichi pressed.

“She’ll come back,” Asumi responded, ahead of both of them. “That’s the type of person she is.”

A sharp explosion burst beneath her feet, scorching the obstacles below her as she launched herself forward and cleared the final stretch with ease. Meguri followed after a last-second recovery – then Taichi, landing last.

He grit his teeth. Asumi was faster than usual.

“Were you ever really that close to Tadokoro, Asumi?” Meguri asked, rolling her shoulders. “I don’t remember you two hanging out.”

Asumi shook her head.

“We weren’t friends,” she said. “She was the first person I ever lost to here.”

“Right, in your first Top Ten Tournament,” Meguri nodded.

Taichi sat, listening.

“My family, the Yuki family…” Asumi continued. “It’s a lineage of water aspect users. Most of us specialize in freezing it into fractals. Snow. Ice. The name meaning ‘snow’ fits.”

Meguri, who had heard this story before, glanced at Taichi, then back to Asumi, settling in.

“For a while, all my family members attended Eclipse and did relatively well for themselves. None of them managed Rank #1, but the family made a name for itself with its signature use of snow-based attacks.”

“And then you were born with fire,” Taichi said quietly.

Asumi nodded.

“Fire aspects are fairly commonplace and not generally seen as very powerful amongst people at Eclipse. My family decided I had no potential. They stopped training me. Stopped supporting me. Told me Eclipse wasn’t meant for me,” she scoffed faintly. “As you can see, that went really well for them.”

“If your family refused, then who trained you?” Taichi asked.

“I trained myself. I went out in search of mentors. I learnt from the small amount of information on aspects online. Any expenses that went towards learning my aspect naturally came out of my own pocket… so I got a job at that ramen shop we went to in Shibuya, Taichi.”

“So that’s why they knew you…”

“Same with the manga and figure shop – that was my second job,” Asumi nodded. “Although I did end up buying quite a bit of their stuff while I was off shift…”

Meguri’s head snapped up. “Wait. You read manga?”

“You didn’t know that?” Taichi asked.

“And Taichi knew before me?!” Meguri gasped.

“I got ratted out by the shopkeeper when we went to Akihabara together,” Asumi muttered.

“Oh, so you went to Akihabara together?” Meguri grinned. “Same day as your ramen date?”

“It wasn’t a date!” Asumi protested.

“It was the same day, Meguri,” Taichi answered.

“Thank you, Taichi. Was that so hard, Asumi?”

“It wasn’t a date…” Asumi said quietly, looking away with a bright blush.

She cleared her throat and continued.

“Anyway! I trained a lot – most of it, as I said, was self-taught. I started late, so I had to do a lot of catching up, so I trained all day, every day.”

“Which is why you have the mana supplements,” Taichi continued.

Asumi nodded.

“I’d constantly push myself to the point of needing them, so they were a worthwhile purchase. As time passed, with all that training, my mana control became what it is now. I took the Eclipse Academy entrance exam, unbeknownst to my family, and was the first of my siblings to pass.” Asumi clenched her fist. “They disowned me.”

Taichi’s eyes widened, but Asumi continued.

“When they did, I made a vow to do what none of them were able to.”

“Rank #1…”

“Yes.”

Asumi exhaled.

“When I joined, everybody called me ‘Snow Princess’ like Natsu. I hated it. I wanted to escape my family’s shadow so badly at the time… so I fought. I fought as much as I could, and I was undefeated until I entered my first Top Ten Tournament. I proved that my fire aspect wasn’t something worthless – something to write off. I won the tournament and chose to fight Rank #10, Tadokoro Shoko.”

“Why would you pick to fight Rank #10 if your goal is #1?” Taichi asked.

“The same reason you climb a staircase step by step instead of 5 steps at a time. It’s less risky,” Meguri cut in. “Once you enter the Top 10, you’re allowed to duel the next highest rank as often as you want with no risk to your own rank, and they’re forced to accept. So essentially, once you’re at any position in the Top Ten, you can hit #1 by mowing through the rest of them. Of course, it’s better if you’re at a higher position, but it’s perfectly reasonable to want to start at the bottom and work your way up.”

“Either way, it didn’t work at the time,” Asumi said, shrugging. “I lost that fight. It took me too long to figure out her aspect. It was my first defeat in the academy — by the hand of Tadokoro Shoko.”

“Then you came back,” Taichi recalled.

Asumi nodded.

“The following month, I defeated Tadokoro and took Rank #10. It took a week to reach Rank #2 from there, when I was forced to face Natsu.” Asumi gritted her teeth, remembering just how brutal that fight was. “I lost. Badly. Enough to make me stop believing in my dream of hitting Rank #1… until I met you, Taichi.”

“I see… but why are you so confident Tadokoro will come back?” Taichi asked.

Asumi met his eyes.

“You crossed swords with her — surely you understand… she’s not a person who knows how to give up. She’s too prideful. She’ll keep coming for my spot for as long as it takes.”

Taichi, remembering the pain on the back of his head all too well, understood.

Meguri nodded quietly.

“If she isn’t back by the time the tournament ends tomorrow, then we’ve really got to figure out what’s up with the suits,” she said.

Taichi’s phone dinged — his next matchup was announced.

“Ishigami Seiko, Rank #56…” he muttered. “Meguri, intel?”

“Taichi, intel is important for foes near your rank, but if you need it to beat Rank #56, then you shouldn’t win the tournament.”

Another ding alerted his phone.

“Oh, they conceded.”

“I figured he would,” Asumi sighed, getting back on the obstacle course. “I wouldn’t be surprised if all of your matchups conceded. You beat the other two favorites to win the tournament pretty easily from the audience's perspective. People are too scared to fight you.”

Meguri stepped onto her own lane of the course. “Get up here, Taichi. If you win, we can go out for ramen, on me!” Meguri said with a smirk.

“Go out…?” Asumi said, viscerally shaking as she made eye contact with her.

“Yeah, just me and Taichi!” Meguri replied. “After all, we’re just gonna go out into Shibuya together with nobody else… grab a meal… enjoy each other’s company… drop into Akihabara for a bit… maybe do a little extra if y’know what I mean… but that’s not a date, right?”

Asumi clenched her fist with her mana radiating to heat the entire building. Her hair flew around, fluttering with the rising air. With a strained voice, she replied.

“I… guess not…” Asumi said. “And pray tell, what happens if I win?”

“Nothing,” Meguri replied. “You won the last round after all. We’re starting the race.”

They took their positions.

Taichi swallowed.

“Ready,” Meguri said.

“Ready,” Asumi echoed.

They launched forward.