Blades met in a flurry of steel, the clang of metal echoing across the training grounds as Yulli and Rio darted with smooth precision. Each blow was countered with another, a dance of instinct and skill as they went, Yulli clenching his teeth, sweat sliding down his temple as he fended off Rio's blows, his body under siege from her incessant speed.
Rio, however, looked completely at ease.
"You've improved," she admitted, effortlessly sidestepping a strike before twisting her blade to redirect his momentum. "But—"
In an instant, she spun on her heel, her sword knocking his aside before her foot hooked behind his ankle. With a firm yank, Yulli's balance was ripped away, and he crashed onto his back with a loud thud. His sword landed beside him.
Flat on the ground, Yulli panted, his chest rising and falling as exhaustion seeped into his muscles.
Rio stabbed the tip of her sword into the ground and inclined forward a little, examining him with a critical eye.
"You're improving," she said again, her tone more appraisal than praise. "But you still rely too much on instinct and not enough on trained technique."
Yulli groaned, scrubbing a hand across his face. "Can I at least get a 'good job' before you roast me?"
Rio smiled. "Well done," she continued, and then immediately went on, "you need to practice your sword fighting much more."
Yulli dropped his head back onto the grass. "Why do I get the feeling that 'good job' was nothing?"
Rio dropped down onto her knees beside him, elbows resting on knees. "Look, Yulli," she said, her voice serious. "You don't have a mark. That puts you at a disadvantage from the start against everyone else. You can't use brute force, and you can't muscle fights the way Bruce does. If you're going to make it out there, your only hope is to find other ways to compensate for that."
Yulli turned his head slightly to face her. "And that means…?"
"Polishing your skill," Rio replied. "You have to be faster, more accurate, and sharper than anyone else. If you can't count on a mark to compensate for your lack of power, then your skill must compensate. No wasted movement. No swing-and-a-prayer. Each blow must count."
"Alright," he muttered, straightening up. "Let's get it over with."
Rio folded her arms, regarding him with an evaluating gaze. "Your style. it's Kunta sword style, isn't it?"
Yulli blinked. "Yeah… what about it?"
"Where did you learn that from?"
"My mother," he said, the sound gentler than he meant. "She was a hunter. She taught me some things when I was a boy, but I only ever mastered two styles before she fell ill." "I see," Rio thought. "Well, lucky you—I know a bit of Kunta myself."
Yulli's eyes widened. "Huh? You do?"
She smiled at his astonishment. "Certainly. The Kunta form is no longer utilized much, but I had to learn it sometime. Besides, it is the Supreme Commander's sword form."
Yulli stiffened. "Supreme Commander… you must mean Sir Gurren?"
"Yes." Rio nodded. "The Supreme Commander of the Cathedral. One of the Five Pillars of Hunter Organization."
Yulli had heard about Gurren being powerful his whole life. Anyone who existed in this world knew that name. He wasn't a legend—he was the legend. The strongest hunter alive. A man whose mere presence could silence a battlefield, whose mere name made beasts and men tremble.
Yulli's throat constricted. "Wait… he uses the Kunta style?"
"Yes," Rio agreed. "You'd be surprised, really."
Yulli's mind was reeling. "I thought he just relied on brute force. I mean, he does have a mark, doesn't he?"
"He does," Rio replied. "But that's the point. Gurren isn't strong due to his mark. Lots of hunters have marks, but none of them are him. It's his talent that sets him apart. His technique is flawless, his flexibility is insane, and his experience? Unmatched. That's why they refer to him as the strongest hunter alive."
Yulli couldn't help but dispute that. Tales of Gurren's exploits were essentially lullabies for hunters-in-training. He had battled hordes of monsters single-handedly, slain creatures that took armies to slay, and lived through fights that no one should have been able to survive.
"He sort of reminds me of you, too," Rio said. Yulli almost choked.
"What?"
Rio smiled. "You'll know soon enough why."
He had no idea what she was saying, but was stopped from asking her questions by her raising her sword again.
"Very well," she said, assuming position. "Let's resume training." Yulli grunted to himself. He wasn't sure if he should be flattered or scared. Probably both.
The cadets, having survived the holocaustic ordeal of their training, managed to drag their battered bodies toward the dormitories, thoroughly tired yet enjoying the sore satisfaction of their pride in the day's training.
In the weakly illuminated corridors of the training facility, Rio was striding toward her office, preoccupied with thoughts far from sparring techniques and battle strategies. Upon entering, she was unsurprised to see Julius already lounging against her desk like it belonged to him.
"So how were the cadets?" he asked with feigned casualness, tossing a small knife into the air and catching it without looking.
"Very satisfactorily," she replied with a sigh, dropping herself down in her chair and stretching her arms behind her head. "Much better; especially Lawlet. This time, he really did take my advice."
"Well, he should. Don't want him shooting himself in the foot...again."
"Yeah, yeah, we don't talk about that," Rio waved him off. "Anyway, did you get my stuff?"
Julius stood up straight, his grin disappearing a little. He pulled out one thick folder from his jacket and tossed it at her desk. "Of course. Everything I could dig up on Zulu B. Pater."
Rio's smile came back as she took the folder. "Thanks, kiddo! Dinner's on me once we get these cadets through their practical."
Julius arched an eyebrow. "If you don't mind me asking...what do you need this for?"
Rio continued flipping through the pages aimlessly, scanning old reports. "Oh, just something that caught my interest."
Julius squinted. "And that is?"
She hesitated for a second before placing a single page onto the desk. An old hunter registry with names and classifications, two names circled in red.
"Zulu and Charlotte both share the surname Pater," Rio said, pressing a finger down. "Yulli's is different."
Julius tilted his head. "Hoffnung?"
"Yeah," Rio said with a nasty little shrug, leaning back in her chair. "Totally dissimilar from theirs. That would be weird on its own, but then I tried to find anything on Hoffnung...I came up with jack. No records, no birth certificate, no family history. It's like that name doesn't even exist."
Julius frowned. "That's...odd. Maybe it's an alias?"
"That's what I thought at first," Rio said. "But here's the thing: the Cathedral won't let me look at any files pertaining to it. Any time I tried to pull something, it was curtains; stonewalled."
Julius leaned over the desk, arms crossed. "Okay, that is weird. But...are you sure it's safe to poke your nose into this? You know how the Cathedral is. Dig too deep, and you just might find yourself on their shit list."
She laughed out loud. "HAH! You think I am afraid of a bunch of bureaucratic priests? Please. I can deal with a couple of bad apples."
Julius let out a sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I get that you're strong, but the Cathedral is something else entirely. If they're hiding something, it's probably for a reason."
Rio closed the folder and turned to the door, tossing him a lazy wave. "Well, I like poking at things I'm not supposed to."
"Anyway," she said. "I'm heading to my office. See you later, Julius."
Julius watched her go, tapping his fingers against the desk thoughtfully.
"Yulli, huh?" he mused under his breath. "The kid's been a mystery since day one... but just how deep does that mystery go?"
Julius sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, I know you're tough, but the Cathedral is on another level when it comes down to it. If they're hiding anything, perhaps there's a reason behind it."
Rio just smirked as she closed her folder, tucking it into her underarm. "Well, I am fond of poking into things that I shouldn't be." She turned to leave, waving at him lazily. "Anyway, I am heading to my office now. Crazy time hearing you later, Julius."
Julius simply watched her go while tapping his fingers thoughtfully against the surface of his desk.
"Yulli, huh?" he mused softly to himself. "The kid's been a mystery from day one, but just how deep does it go i wonder?"