A small figure was doing their best to avoid the adults in the area. They were looking for someone in particular, and they weren't going to stop until they found him.

Spotting a head of blond hair that was attached to a man with mismatched eyes, they found their target.

"Big Brother!"

Mubai looked at the kid attached to his leg like a leech. The girl had black hair, but he could tell it was dyed by the fact the roots were a familiar shade of blond.

When the kid looked up at him, he saw familiar mismatched eyes attached to a face he knew semi-well.

"Yue? What are you doing here?" he asked alarmed.

Yue pouted at him.

"Everyone was being mean...so I went to find you!" she said brightly.

"Who is this?" asked Headmaster Fletcher.

"My half-sister Yue. She's supposed to be with her minders," said Mubai.

He had a lot of half sisters, but he remembered her because of how open and friendly she was. That and because he remembered hearing that Yue's mother died giving birth to her.

He bent down to look at his little sister.

"What are you doing here Yue? You're supposed to be home studying."

Yue remained silent, at least until Fon came into view.

"Hello little one. Now what are you doing so far from home?" he said gently.

Yue's eyes widened, and Fon felt a flicker of recognition pass between them. Especially when she saw Lichi on his shoulder.

Mubai felt somewhat relieved to see how Yue gravitated to Fon. He wasn't particularly good with small children.

"Papa and the others are being really mean to me. I think they were unhappy with Stormheart."

"Stormheart?" said Mubai.

He felt Yue call upon her martial soul, and confusion turned to sympathy and to a lesser extent relief.

In Yue's arms was a small tiger cub with mismatched eyes like her own.

"I take it there's a significance to the fact her spirit manifested externally, rather than a merger like the one you perform?" asked Fon.

Mubai nodded.

"When the spirit manifests externally, it means she doesn't have a chance of unlocking the rare ability in our bloodline. As a result she's automatically skipped over succession," said Mubai.

Yue hugged her little cub closer to her.

"Papa and the others were being really mean to me after I got Stormheart."

"I'm not surprised. They're cruel enough to those who manifest it normally... I can't send her back like this. They'll eat her alive."

"Why not let her stay with us at the Academy?" asked Fon, looking to Flender. "I'm certain you could easily pay for her to be there, even if she can't join in the same training sessions as us."

Mubai looked at Flender.

"You pay for her room and board, and if she stays out of the way of training I'll ignore the fact she's there," he said. Considering he knew what Mubai went through as a normal prince, he wasn't about to force a little girl to go through it as well. Especially if she would be targeted just because her spirit manifested externally.

Mubai handed over a hundred gold, which would easily pay for his sister to stick around. Much to the amusement of everyone else, she immediately gravitated to Fon.

Fon easily carried her on his shoulders, letting her ride piggy back without a second thought. He could maintain her weight without trouble for hours.

So he was pleasantly surprised when Yue tentatively asked...in Japanese no less...

"Fon-sensei?"

Fon's smile was fairly wide...only one person ever called him any varient of the word 'teacher'.

"I-Pin, I am happy to see you again. I always knew you were hiding a tiger in the reeds within you," he said back in the same language, making sure the others didn't hear save for Tang San and Viper.

I-Pin, or rather Yue in this life, beamed brightly and hugged him as best she could from her position. She had her adopted father back!

As they entered the arena, Yue opted to stay with Mubai while Fon and Viper registered as the Mist-Storm duo. Somehow Viper had the feeling Fon would be a regular at the arena, and not just to earn the 'graduation' requirement.

Mubai was at first baffled, then openly relieved when he realized Fon would act as Yue's minder...and that of her spirit Stormheart. The tiger was just as smitten with the older boy as his little sister was. Though why did Fon insist on teaching Yue and Oscar the same strange attack style that revolved around smelly buns?

Oscar officially had a new best friend, and his name was Fon. Not only did he eat the sausages he created without ridiculing them, but he also helped Oscar be taken as a serious opponent by teaching him a style that even he could use that used food as the first requirement!

Fon...was just surprised that a style he had learned as a joke was finding new root in this world and that he kept finding people who were predisposed to it.

A few days later...

"Father has found out Yue is here, and is demanding we send her back on the grounds she is too young to attend the academy," said Mubai with a scowl.

It was clear he intended to raise Yue up as a wife to be sold off to someone else and neglect her education as a potential spirit master.

Fon was not pleased by this, and Yue was already shivering in fear behind his legs. She had taken to him very quickly, but then again she knew she could trust Fon.

"What if she found a Master willing to train her? Would he still demand her return?"

"Would take someone special for him to allow her to stay."

"What about someone capable of training even an adult to get past level thirty, despite being stuck at twenty-eight for several decades? One with a known varient spirit?" asked Tang San.

Mubai looked between them, and he noticed Flender take strong interest in the conversation.

"You can't mean the Grandmaster," said Flender in shock.

"Master was at thirty-five when we left for here," said Tang San. "Fon discovered what was holding him back, and has been helping him cultivate past the bottleneck he was stuck with."

Flender looked at Mubai with a dead serious expression on his face.

"Mubai, convince your father to reconsider taking your sister back. The Grandmaster is known to have a varient spirit that kept him from cultivating past the second ring...if he truly has obtained a third, it would mean your sister has a chance to flourish under a suitable teacher," said Flender.

Mubai nodded. If Yue had a talent teacher capable of training even varient spirits past a third ring, then it would be silly not to cultivate ties with them.

Talented spirit masters were one thing... people with skills to actually teach talent and make it flourish was far harder to come by.

A week later, Mubai got another message from his family.

"She can stay, but only if she can reach twenty-nine by the time she's actually old enough to enter the Academy," he said with relief. "And if you can pull that off, then they said that they would be willing to hire you on a contract basis for others."

Fon smiled, and Yue was cheering. Getting her to twenty-nine would be easy...he'd be more surprised if she didn't hit thirty by the time he was done with her.

Stormheart roared in an adorable way next to her. She rarely kept her spirit hidden.

Fon had the sneaking suspicion that by the time I-Pin reached the second ring, that kitten would be big enough to ride on for her.

"I take it they want me to sign a contract?" asked Fon.

Mubai nodded, and once Fon signed it with his full name in this life, the courier took it back with him. It took very little time to receive an official copy with a seal, which meant Yue was now his full apprentice.

Most twelve year olds wouldn't even consider taking on a six-year-old as an apprentice...then again, the twins were hardly most twelve year olds.

Tang San found it rather enjoyable to teach Yue how to use some of the same skills he had learned at that age. Especially since he now had someone to cultivate the Purple Demon Eye with. Once she got the hang of enhancing her eyesight like he did, she proved to have a knack for it.

Fon found this privately amusing, and Tang San only learned when he joked about it.

"Yue was somewhat nearsighted in her last life and had to wear glasses. For her eyes to now be as sharp as an eagle is quite amusing."

"Brother, you knew her before as well?"

"She went by I-Pin and she was my last full apprentice. You know the style I taught the Grandmaster and Oscar? That was what I started her with," said Fon.

"You must have a deep bond, for her to follow you here," said Tang San.

"I-Pin was also my adopted daughter."

Tang San nodded. If he hadn't practically adopted Yue into their small, but swiftly growing trio as a younger sister, that would have convinced him. As it was, the little girl had already displayed a maturity and skill level beyond her years. She had picked up Gyoza-kempo so quickly that Fon had switched her to a different style before the month was out.

Now he knew why...she was already familiar with it and just needed minor correction!

"So the reason her tiger is called Stormheart..."

"Is because she had no idea I was reincarnated in this world, and wanted to name her closest companion after me. Besides, the next best name would have been Lambo, and that would only be suitable if the spirit had turned out to be a cow or bull of some sort," said Fon amused.

There was always a chance Lambo had been reborn as well, but he highly doubted it.

It was the first time they had a proper 'class' and it was the one thing that had everyone save for Fon and Tang San groaning in dismay.

They had to eat Oscar's sausages. Considering what his spirit chant was, most of them would rather avoid them.

Fon and Tang San, so used to ignoring what the grandmaster was stuck with whenever he attacked with Luo San Pao, did so without a second thought.

"This quality... Oscar, you've reached level thirty?!" said Flender in shock.

Oscar laughed and nodded.

"Thanks to Tang Fon, I found it much easier to cultivate. He was right in that I was really slacking in my training...once I ate a few of my sausages after a training session with him I hit the bottleneck in a few days at most!"

"It helps that I knew a martial arts style that suited your unique spirit...even if it meant cutting up a few of the sausages in question to add to the buns," said Fon.

Oscar had somehow managed to tweak the original recipe enough that he could use his special sausages with them. It made training go much faster and he could already tell he was improving because of it.

He truly was grateful to Tang Fon.

"If it helps, I reached level thirty this morning while practicing with Xiao Yue," said Fon.

Flender didn't look surprised to hear that. Fon's training was far more effective than he could have imagined...but then again Fon was somewhat cheating in that he used several different cultivation methods for different complimentary energy types.

Tang San knew how to unlock his inner chi, but Fon had been using Qi for years and it went well with his beast spirit. That plus the fact he was already a fire-based fighter meant he knew what he was doing.

Ma Hong Jun might not like his training methods, but if he had paid attention he would have noticed he was already another level higher.

"What of Yue?" asked Flender.

Fon patted the girl affectionately on the head.

"The little moon is already at the level where she would need to hunt for a spirit ring anyway."

"So soon?" asked Mubai in surprise.

"She awakened just shy of having a full innate spirit power," said Fon. "She only needed a bit of training to reach ten."

"Hmm... the forest I'm thinking off is a bit too dangerous for children."

"Fon and I can keep an eye on her," said Viper. "I can teleport us out of danger if nothing else."

That had been the first thing they went after for their initial spirit ring. It had taken far too long to find what they were looking for, but the results were more than worth it. Even if it did have a limited distance.

"If anything happens to her in the forest, it's on your heads," said Flender. If they wanted to take her with them, he wasn't going to stop them.