"Tap out, tap out!"

She smirks victoriously. She releases his arm as she removes her knee from his back after successfully pinning him down. She steps back as her sparring partner sits up, reaching out to her offered hand and pulls himself up. He gives her a defeated but polite smile before walking back to the others.

Mizushima Masaki is a polite guy, true to the character that he is. He's overshadowed by the likes of her, unfortunately, but she knows he will make it.

"Alright, who's next?" she asks challengingly, looking at the Knight-In-Trainings, her colleagues and partners-in-trainings, around her. Some of them look hesitant, the ones she is familiar with just chuckle while shaking their head. She feels her lips stretch even wider. As one of the fastest rising Knight-In-Trainings of the current era, she can't help but feel extremely proud of herself.

With her pace, she will become a full-fledged Knight very soon.

Then, one person steps forward from the crowd.

Almost immediately, her lips curl downwards.

Of course it's him.

It just has to be him.

She doesn't know who he is because, while wearing the same uniform as everyone who is still training, he is wearing a full gold colored helmet, completely encasing his entire head from view. He never takes off his helmet, not even once, yet none of the trainer Knights say a single thing about it, for some reason.

Not only is his identity a mystery, he's a mysterious person himself. He barely attends training, never seen within the barracks. He's almost like a mannequin; never emote when he is around. The only times he can be seen is during sparring, like right now. And then he disappears soon after.

He stops in front of her, inside the circle she is in. The others begin to murmur in excitement. She glares through the slits of the helmet, where she knows his eyes are at, and she knows he's looking back. He doesn't show any visible reaction (not that she can tell anyway because of that goddamn helmet), merely quietly standing there with his hands in his pocket.

"Are you two lovelies ready?" the trainer Knight His Purple Highness (a controversial title bestowed but the King approved it so he got away scot-free) asks them both in his usual flamboyant way. She crouches down to her usual stance, hands touching the ground. Her sparring partner doesn't move a single muscle. And it pisses her off. It gives off the impression that he doesn't care.

But the two handfuls of spars they had had shown that it is the complete opposite. That lax stance of his is his ready stance, and it puts a disadvantage to her because that means she can't tell what his moves are going to be. All of his moves and what comes next are hidden.

He is deliberately not showing anything.

And he is also the only opponent she has not beaten yet.

"Fight!"

She launches off straight into him. She had been cautious before, and tried to be strategic, but they all led to her loss. So now she will give him any time to prepare. She has the physical advantage, thanks to her power. As far as she can tell from their previous sparring, he has no power that aids his physicality.

Then, as she flies towards him, she realizes that as soon as her feet are off the ground, he is already making a move. Has he always been that fast at reacting?

She pulls a foot back, ready for a strike to the head. At the same time, his body begins to lean forward. When she swings her leg, he suddenly dips down, completely dodging her kick. She curses through her teeth. He's a lot faster than she had expected. This asshole had been hiding his speed this whole time.

Then, a booted heel suddenly slams into her cheek, catching her surprise and stops her in her tracks. She flinches back before she feels herself fall onto the ground, causing her to let out a gasp. Before she could get her bearings and push herself off, she is suddenly pushed and held down to the ground.

She's completely immobilized. Past sparring tells her that it is useless trying to break free.

Gritting her teeth, she taps out.

"Usagiyama is out!"

That was her fastest defeat.

When helmet fucker finally releases her, she doesn't even look at him as she stands up. When she turns towards him, she gives him a hard glare.

"I'll fucking take you down soon, fucker," she threatens, pointing a finger directly at his face.

He doesn't give any visible reaction. Instead, he turns around and returns to where he had come from, leaving her in the circle alone despite being the defeated one. She glares at his disappearing back, promising on her words.

His Purple Highness, who has a hand on his cheek, doesn't stop him from leaving. His lips are quirked up and he has a mysterious glitter in his eyes.

"Don't be such a brood, boy," His Purple Highness says as he knocks on the helmet fucker's helmet as walks past him. "Remember to smile!" The fucker doesn't react to it, merely keeps on going.

Unfortunately, this is the last time she sees him.

.

"When is Shouta coming?" Little Eri asks, looking up at her with wide red eyes.

"Right now he has a little personal tea time with the King, his father," she answers with a kind smile. "He will be joining us soon, alright?"

"Okay," Eri nods her head, seems to be satisfied enough with the answer, before breaking eye contact, looking back forward as they walk hand in hand to the Prince's chamber.

The Prince was called by King Nedzu earlier for the meeting that he had deliberately skipped two days ago despite her constantly reminding him about it (sucks to be him). He had promised Eri earlier that they would play together later and asked her to wait for him in his chamber.

The little lady has been looking forward to it since, constantly asking for him every minute. She's really attached to him, huh? She can't blame the girl.

"We're here," she announces as she opens the Prince's chamber door. As she swings the door open, Eri lets go of her hand and rushes inside. It's no different than hers but Eri is more excited to be in the Prince's chamber than hers. The Prince's chamber is still bare, but there is a sign of life beginning to bloom in here, though they're mostly not his doing.

She stands by the door, guarding, while watching Eri run around the room, grabbing her stuff that she had left in the Prince's chamber for her to play. She watches the mute happiness on the little girl's face, still troubling to express herself but she's getting there.

She watches as Eri grabs onto an apple that is prepared for her on the table. She could see her eyes shine. Then, she rushes over to her, holding out the apple to her, going as far as standing on the tip of her toes.

"Rumi, could you please peel it for me?" Eri asks and her heart melts at the politeness.

"Sure, little lady." She takes the red fruit from her hand. The shine in Eri's eyes seems to get brighter. There is a twitch on her lips, almost breaking into a smile, but they never stretch up.

It's a slow and steady progress. She will get there eventually.

As Eri decides to play around instead of impatiently waiting beside her, she reaches for the knife on her belt.

Her hand quickly stops from grabbing onto the gray square hilt of a gray square scabbard.

She moves her hand away from it and to the smaller, intended blade right next to it and takes it out from its sheath. It's her newest addition to her belt, recently put there after Eri discovered her love for apples. She begins to carefully peel away the apple with said knife while keeping aware of where Eri is currently at.

Then, she notices that Eri is opening the door to the walk-in closet and enters. Keeping her hands steady as she peels the apple, she walks closer to not let the girl out from her sight.

"Rumi, look what I found!" she hears the little girl exclaim from inside. Her voice sounds weird though; it's as if she had put her head inside a bucket. When Eri quickly emerges back, she quickly stops in her tracks and her eyes widen at the sight. She almost cut her finger with her knife.

Eri is wearing a helmet. And it's not just an ordinary helmet.

It's a familiar gold colored helmet.

It's worn with age but she is extremely familiar with that helmet. She knows that shape very well, and loathes that color with passion.

And suddenly, it explained everything. It explained why the helmet fucker was never in the barracks with the other trainees. It explained why the helmet fucker always disappeared after their sparring. It explained why the trainer Knights overlooked it all.

That fucking asshole.

This whole fucking time…

"I never knew Shouta wears a helmet," she hears Eri comment before she takes it off from her head. Her hair puffs slightly due to it.

"Neither did I, Eri," she agrees through her gritted teeth. "I only know about it until now."

She hears the door open behind her, catching her by surprise considering she had been keeping her ears on alert. And right on time too.

"I apologize for being late," the Prince says, announcing his presence. "I am here now." She hears him closing the door and approaches them, judging by his footsteps (yes, footsteps because Eri is here). She turns around to face him, glaring at him.

She cannot stop her lips from jutting out into a pout.

"Is something wrong?" he asks, seeing her feature with a raised eyebrow. Then, she sees his eyes flicker to Eri behind her and blink in realization. They quickly snap back to her. "I can explain."

"You better explain faster or you will have a quick shortcut to the ground through the window."

"You're not as good as you said back then."

"Alright then you mother-"

"Language, at least not around Eri."

"Don't worry. My love language just happens to be physical."

.

"Ru-Ru, can you please not?"

"Nope!"

"Is that a yes nope or a no nope?"

"It is this nope!"

"Ru-Ru No-"

She crashes into his tummy before he has the chance to move away. Rather than hear, she feels him gasps at the impact, and the force behind her jump tackles him down to the soft ground. He grunts at the fall.

"Ru-Ru," the boy wheezes out, either from the tackle or her weight on top of him or probably both. "I told you not to."

"You're so weak, Sho-Sho!" she giggles, sitting up and straddles the boy beneath her. "If this keeps up, you won't be able to beat me!"

"I'm not strong like you, Ru-Ru," the boy continues to wheeze out beneath her but doesn't make any attempt to get up. "I don't have power like you."

"That is not an excuse!" the white haired girl replies while crossing her arms. "You just haven't worked out yet."

"You haven't as well yet here we are," he mutters, seemingly recovering his breaths now. "It just shows how many advantages physical enhancements could give to someone."

"I'm also nine years old so you have no excuse," she says smugly. That causes the boy to roll his eyes as he seems to submit to his current situation. "If this keeps up, I will be beating your ass forever!"

That earns a challenging look from the boy as he gives her a raised eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? Then I will take you down and you will not even realize it."

She challenges the challenging eyebrow with her own raised eyebrow. She straightens her spine, putting herself into a mightier position than she already is in right now.

"I would like to see you try, dummy! You can never get past me, Sho-Sho!"