A dozen young men, left alone at in the gatehouse of the Heavensward Gates of Kinxui Hidden Fortress.

The girls had long since been separated to go change into their field gear, where the two halves of the classes would then execute sentry and stealth exercises. The boys, on the other hand, were left in their Xiao'nin uniforms, grey robes and leather padding afforded them both obscurity and durability, mobility and protection, all in one package. They had also long since drawn straws for the unlucky few who would be positioned outside as sentries in the moist, cold outer ramparts.

This was a rare moment for them. They had a spot of free time.

Shen 『慎』, the first or second among them to Seto 『康史』- wait. He meant Zed- depending on the day's results, sat quietly in the corner, his eyes closed. If he had the spare moment, he would sit silently and meditate. Reflect and cultivate his mind, even if it was only for a few moments.

"So." One of the boy started, raising his hand, his palm up as if to offer up this next topic of discussion to the group at large. "The girls in our class."

"Hm?"

"Which one you all think is cutest?"

"Haa? Where'd this come from, you loser?" Another one of the boys groaned at this. "You getting tired of doing it with your hand, Suga?"

"Shut the fuck up."

Shen opened one of his eyes at this. This was a popular choice of topic. The other boys gave groans of exasperation at the start of the topic and acted like they couldn't care less. But he could see the looks of interest amongst the young men at this. Soon their lackadaisical conversation transformed into a heated debate between the boys on their choice of girls and their slight differences in preference.

Good grief. Shen sighed at this. If they had put half as much energy into their training as they did arguing over the ideal nose bridge size on a girl, he and Seto would start to have some real competition at their daily sparring matches.

"Best one's got to be Haine 『海音』 though." The one who started this conversation, Suga, led the charge into this foray of discussion. "She's got like, this coolness to her." That drew a chorus of affirmations from the boys.

Haine… Shen thought back on the girl. The amazon-like girl was nearly as tall as he was, with long, black-brown hair that fell unstyled to her waist. Before sparring Haine always tied that long, long hair up with a clip, drawing more than a few looks from the other boys as she did.

Haine looked pretty enough, he guessed.

But… the girl could be cruel. Shen saw the way she acted and how she well and sweet she treated those she liked and the venom she had in store for those she hated. And the one who got the worst of it all…

The other child of the Triumvirate… Aka Li 『明麗』. The girl was just a bit younger than he was. She was shorter and slighter than him by far, with stiff hair that she constantly had gathered in a ponytail at the back of her head, with little to no effort put into her appearance. Shen saw how the other Xiao'nin ostracized her and Haine was at the forefront of it all. Every sparring season, the girl got beat up by those looking to unseat her assumed inheritance of the seat of Pruner of the Sacred Tree. With what little free time she had, the only person she ever talked with was the other loner in their class, Kou Na 『向娜 』. Despite Akali coming up short when compared to he or Seto, Shen could see the extra-bit of fatigue in the girl's muscles and the weariness in her eyes at the start of each morning's training sessions. If Akali's mother, Master Aka Sou 『明廋』, was anything like his own father who also took a personal hand in his training… her life must be just as strenuous as his.

And yet… day by day… despite her fighting battles on every front... the girl kept toughing through it all. They could hurt her, they could knock her down or run her feet raw and blistered, but neither her classmates nor her mother had truly defeated her yet.

Comparing Akali with Haine… he guess he admired that.

"Sh-?"

"-hen!"

"Earth to Shen!"

"Wei? Anyone there?" Shen felt a rap of someone's knuckles on his skull. There was one who was calling his name. It was Ryo, he thought his name was.

"Hm?" Shen looked up, lost in thought.

"What's your strike zone, pretty boy?" Shen noted Ryo's rueful smile on his face as he nudged him. "Hey, I bet you could even nab Haine if you wanted to, asshole."

"No." It took Shen only a second to recall all of his observations of Haine's actions and to firmly shake his head. Even he though he never thought of girls in an intimate way... he knew he wouldn't want whatever he did to be with Haine.

That got an appreciative, surprised 'Woah' from the crowd.

"Hey, hey, so even Haine's not good enough for you?" Ryo fell back, mock clutching his hand over his heart. How could he blaspheme against their amazon goddess? "Damn, Brother."

"We… see separate things in her." Shen put their differences as lightly as he could. He didn't want to get too caught up in this conversation.

"Wa-sai." Ryo threw up his hands in exasperation. "Then who DO you got your eye on?"

Shen noticed the other boys leaning in, curious as to exactly who one of two best in their class was gunning for. At first, Shen felt troubled. Why were they distracting themselves like this? They should be focused on their tasks at hand.

But… out of the corner of his eye… Shen saw something else in a few of their looks. It was nervousness. Fear of him.

Shen knew he was popular with the girls in the class. He could... imagine... their reactions if he ever tried to initiate a relationship with any of them. For most of them, it would be some variation of yes. Perhaps the other boys here were steeling themselves to abandon whatever aspirations they had in store for whoever he named. And now that he thought of it, the vast majority of Kinkou who were raised in the Order also married within the Order. Which meant for these kids, it wasn't just idle talk. They were probably sizing up their future wives and mothers of their children.

A… wife? His wife? Some faceless woman, holding his child? For the rest of his life? That sort of scared him, too.

Shen shook his head.

"I don't think of anyone like that."

There was a palpable, if silent, sigh of relief from a good amount of the boys surrounding him. Part of his reply was a kindness from the stoic boy, but Shen also knew it was partly the truth. He father gave him the Order. And with that gift came the burden of responsibility. Shen didn't have time for anything else.

Ryo wasn't satisfied by this though. The energetic, persistent boy pressed the attack.

"C'mon, Shen, you can't expect us to believe that? Who's been on your mind, huh?"

"No one." Shen replied again. That was the truth. He... thought.

"Maybe it's you, Ryo." A heckler from the side called out.

"Yiran. Fucking die."

Ryo put up his hands. Shen watched the boy approach like he was a wild animal, hands up padding towards him, carefully inching forwards. Shen gave a mental sigh of exasperation at this bout of dramatics. He wasn't going to bolt and run from them. "Alright, how about this, Shen? Who was the last girl in your head, huh? Who was the last one you thought about?"

The… last girl that he was thinking about?

That would be…

"Haine." Shen pat his fist in his hand in affirmation. "When you asked about her just now, I was-"

"Other than Haine, you idiot."

Oh… he was talking about the last girl he was thinking about, that he didn't have a poor opinion of. Shen had to rewind a bit to dig out the play-by-play of his mind. Well, his train of thought was started on Haine initially, and then that led to the kind of person Haine was… which led to exactly who Haine bullied the most… who was...

The Pruner's daughter.

"Akali." Shen replied, perhaps with more honesty than he wanted to. That got another surprised 'Woah' from the circle of boys around him.

"The Eye of Twilight's kid going after the Pruner's, huh?" Ryo took a step back, grinning. The boy held out his hand and one of his friends clasped it. Their innocent schoolkid crushes were still safe if Shen had that girl in his sights. "That suits you, man."

"I-I wasn't thinking of her like that-" Shen started, trying to nip spread of gossip in the bud, but he was cut off by his far more talkative, chatty peers.

"Akali, huh…" Suga put his hand on his chin, thinking on the girl, looking past his general disdain for her performance in class to focus on what really mattered- her surface-level looks. "She might be a screw-up, but she's kinda cute right?"

"Ehh..." Yiran called out. "I think Akali's eyes are kinda far apart. I like Kona more."

"Yeah, Kona's actually real friendly if she talks to you first." Touya noted. "They're both super weird though."

"She just looks a bit like a guy. Akali, I mean."

"Wai, Tomboys are nice though. Ah, but Shen's already called her, huh? I'll leave her to you, Brother."

"I didn't… c-call..." Shen uncharacteristically stammered. This was getting out of hand. Maybe he could steer them back towards...

Steer... back? Back towards what?

Wait.

Shen stopped himself right then and there.

Weren't they all here to do an exercise...?

From above and behind, there was the sound of bodies hitting the wooden floor. All of the boys gathered on the ground floor of the gatehouse looked up to the source of the sound- a tall, hulking boy with eyes dark as coals and a gaze that felt hot on the neck and cold in the heart towered over them from above.

It was Seto, known to those he cared to correct as Zed, glowering at them from the floor-and-a-half platform that lead out to the ramparts that they were supposed to have been ready to reinforce for their exercises. And in his hands-

"Idiots." Seto dropped another unconscious body from his hand. It was one of the girls… knocked out and carried around like a sack of rice. Oh shit, the boys looked amongst themselves at the sight. Their exercise had long since started. It looked like it had just finished, in fact.

Seto's gaze burned into each and every one of the boys gathered on the ground floor, so caught up in their idiotic debates that they nearly let the other half of their class slip right past them. Seto, who had been actually one to volunteer to take an outside position, had taken them all out as they approached- by himself. The hulking boy dumped the three girls in his right hand down the platform's short flight of stairs. Haine, Kona and Akali all tumbled in an unconscious heap at the bottom of the stairs. Though the girls hated each other's guts in the waking world, they were as close as sisters in their forcefully induced naps. Undoubtedly the rest of the girls were upstairs, also taking a quick nap.

"Hey, uh…" Suga started sheepishly. "Thanks for covering us, Zed."

"Hmph." Seto simply turned to walk away. Probably to report to Master Khen that their exercises were over.

Back on the ground floor, Shen sighed at himself, chiding himself mentally. It was unlike him to lose track of the situation so easily.

He got up, strolling over to helping the rest of the boys prop the girls up or carry them down from the floor above so they would at least be in one place, in a sitting position and not piled haphazardly on top of one another when Master Khen brought out the smelling salts to wake them.

Shen spared a glance at the girl who was on the bottom of the pile, who was being pulled out by the shoulders by Suga. She had dark hair with just a tinge of brown, gathered in a neat ponytail at the back of her head. Unlike her mother's full, red mouth, the girl's lips were thin and slightly cracked from so much time spent outdoors. Her eyes were closed in unconsciousness, but he knew the kind of look she could give when she was awake. But for now, at least… Akali looked peaceful.

Huh.