Her legs were a bit shaky from the morning’s workout, for which Dario had been notably absent, but still there was a spring in Nika’s step as she walked the halls of the Houjo residence. Compared to the nightmares of the Asomatous Floor, where she had been in a continuous state of confusion and self-doubt, having clear and measurable goals was like drinking from the clearest spring water.

  The clarity of knowing what to achieve and how to approach it was wonderfully refreshing. Within the next three months, she would train hard and work to leave her mark on the clan’s dealings on this floor. All that was left was to fully dedicate herself to the task.

  The only point of uncertainty was her scruffy companion. For all his genius with Ki manipulation, Dario was not in good physical shape. In fact, he was about as far away from Coral as anyone could be on this floor. After all he’d done for her, would she be forced to leave him behind?

  No, it was just another goal to achieve. Get Dario into shape. It might be her crowning achievement, if she succeeded in a mere three months, but she would give it her best. She wondered if it had been a mistake to give him the bag of pearls, but by rights, he should get an equal share of the earnings from the ‘treasures’ he’d brought up from that forgotten place. Though she would hold off on selling them until the third floor, that small downpayment would not even begin to cover it. It would not be virtuous to withhold funds from him.

  With her chin held high and a satisfied smile on her lips, she knocked thrice on Elder Ishikata’s door, leaving exactly one second in between each knock. After hearing his call to enter, she strode into the bare yet elegant office, giving a short bow. The man smiled at her through his thick beard.

  “Ah, Young Lady. I had not expected you to call on me on your first day. What is on your mind?”

  “Thank you for seeing me, Elder Ishikata. My time on this floor will be limited, but nevertheless my ambition is not limited to merely reaching Coral. It is my intention to contribute, in whichever way I can, to the success of our operations on this floor. I had hoped that you might be able to tell me what it is that our clan needs most?”

  His expression darkened, brows furrowing and his lips peeling back to reveal obsidian teeth before he turned to the window.

  “What the clan needs? A war!” he barked. Nika blinked, taken aback by the sudden anger. “A good, old-fashioned war! Even just between some smaller clans. Blades, blood and broken bones! Plenty of spent shields, perhaps a few smashed walls. That would bring our sales right up!”

  Nika gaped at his back, unsure what to say, but when he turned back to her he was smiling again.

  “Ah, but I jest. We don’t actually want that, of course,” he said sweetly. “Too much death and carnage, isn’t that right, Young Lady?”

  She nodded, struggling to keep her expression neutral.

  “What do we need on this floor specifically? Besides firming up alliances with other clans, there are two quotas that we must deliver. Both are tied together. One is recruits, the other is volumes of stone from the mines. Unfortunately, the number of recruits has been steadily declining, getting worse by the month. This leaves the mining teams shorthanded, ultimately resulting in failed quotas in both areas. As it stands, the situation is not tenable.”

  Nika perked up. “Understood, elder. I will do what I can to improve our performance.”

  “I would be in your debt, Young Lady.”

  “Do you have any idea what is causing the drop in recruitment?”

  The edges of his lips turned suddenly down in a sneer as he looked out the window again. “Of course I know! It’s those filthy pills,” he growled. “I hate to admit it, but those cursed refiners are getting better and better. Flooding the market with those nasty things. Now they’re even performance-enhancing. Bah!” he spat, bringing a fist down on the windowsill with a loud crack. “I’m even considering buying some, truth be told. I’ll be the last to flaunt clan policy, but we may have to, if we don’t turn things around soon.”

  Nika straightened her back. “No, Elder Ishikata. We must not resort to such measures,” she said firmly. “It would be bordering on licentious, to offer products of which we cannot guarantee the purity to fresh recruits. You may leave this with me. I will find a way to reach our quota without compromising our virtue.”

  Once again, a broad smile returned to the elder’s face as he turned back to her. “Ah, what a blessing that you’re here. A true blessing, Young Lady. Before you go, please take this,” he said, handing an envelope with the Hashira crest to her, a depiction of the pillar overlaid with an eye in the center.

  “It is an invitation to a gala for the fresh Ambers. Not exactly the kind of place where we Houjo tend to shine, but in these times, alliances must be strengthened.”

  Nika nodded as she took the envelope, expression serious. This was not exactly an area she was confident in, but as the elder said, forging alliances was part of her duty. She would take it seriously.

  “The other nobles may make things hard for you. When in doubt, always remember the Houjo values. A shield is not ostentatious; its strength lies precisely in its silent predictability. Always calm. Ever predictable and reliable, that must be the way we operate,” the elder said with a pleasant smile. Nika shifted slightly, but nodded.

  “There is another element to consider besides,” he continued. “Tenjou remains a harsh world and it is because we choose not to flaunt our strength that the wolves are kept at bay. As long as they wonder what we are capable of, the risk of crossing us is too high. So, Young Lady, keep your wits about you and always remember the clan policies.”

  The words she’d spoken before crushing Uso like an insect rang in her mind again as she walked out. ‘I want to better my clan’, she had said, without realizing how dire that need for improvement may have been. From a young age, her parents and elders had taught her to live in service of the clan. The clan was all she’d never known.

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  Their rate of recruits was declining. Who would not want to join the honored Houjo clan? Could it truly be in decline here? It felt a bit like finding out that your beloved childhood home had shaky walls and a rotting roof.

  That would not do. Her jaw was set as she headed for the mines. Whatever was going, she would get to the bottom of this.

  ***

  Dario patted his thick bag of pearls for the hundredth time, enjoying the faint rustling sound as he prowled the streets of Veinora.

  “Let’s see who’s got some shortcuts for uncle Dario. He’s got a fresh bag of pearls and isn’t afraid to use ‘em.”

  As he followed one of the Houjo staff to what was supposed to be a more reputable pillshop, ignoring the many hawkers shouting for his attention, he spotted a few orphans peeking around a corner.

  “Nope. We're not doing that again,” he said, shooing them away.

  Soon they arrived at the shop and it did look decent; it had some pills locked in display cases that looked like fancy artefacts, so odds were that those were not the cheap crap. The shopkeeper was on him in just a few moments, a burly man nearly as well-muscled as the cultivators out in the street.

  “Welcome, aniki! You’ve made the right choice walking in here-”

  “Hey. You got any shortcuts for me?” Dario cut in. The shopkeeper blinked, taken aback at having his sales pitch cut short.

  “That, err, depends… What does aniki mean by ‘shortcuts’?”

  “Shortcuts for training. For reaching Coral. You know, muscle growth and whatnot,” he said, waving his hand impatiently.

  “Of course! Of course we can help with that aniki, come right this way. Here we have our Testopower series, an affordable option that will boost overall muscle development.”

  Dario barely gave the long blue pills a glance, already staring at the fancy display case.

  “Show me the good stuff.”

  “Ah, aniki has a discerning eye. These are our premium products. This Roaring Bicep Pill will strengthen the upper body. We guarantee that customer’s previous records on bicep or chest exercises will be easily exceeded!”

  He frowned at the thick red pill, unconvinced.

  “Or what about this Buttocks Bulwark Pill? Squats will become much easier. Or, if I may present our finest work, the Tenfold Bulge Pill, made from only the finest and rarest of herbs! Your muscles will sing with never-before seen strength.”

  Dario pushed a bit of light Ki into his eyes as he investigated the round, black pill. Inside of the shop, the mist and lights were not there to overwhelm his sight. It was a mess of different colors of Ki, mostly a pale red, but with plenty of other stuff mixed in. There was no way to tell what it might do.

  “What’ll this bad boy do to my kidneys if I take it? Or my seams?”

  “There may be some minor side effects, but nothing to concern yourself with. The gains will far outweigh the cost! Which in this case, is a mere hundred-and-fifty pearls.”

  Dario narrowed his eyes at the shopkeeper. That would be nearly half the contents of his new purse.

  “And after I take it, I’ll just lie down in my hammock and… the muscles will just pop up, or what?”

  “Lie down in your hammock? Aniki, these pills will boost your strength and stimulate muscle growth. You’ll be far stronger and your muscles will grow far faster than before!”

  He frowned at the man, who was now frowning back.

  “Are you saying… I still have to actually train?”

  The burly man barked out a laugh. “Train? Of course you have to train, aniki! That’s what we all do on this floor, isn’t it? But you’ll be stronger and your muscles will grow faster than the rest, and…”

  Dario was already walking away.

  “Faster my ass. What a waste of time,” he grumbled.

  It looked like pills were off the menu. Who in their right mind would pay hundreds of pearls and put pills in their bodies that might even be toxic, if they didn’t do the actual work for them? Then again, if it was that simple to reach Coral, everyone would get there. Finding a shortcut wasn’t going to be easy.

  As he scanned the crowded street, considering his next move, one man stood out from the rest. Tall and dark-haired, he wore a red suit and a strange black hat with a half-dome shape on top. But what Dario noticed as the man walked past him, was the roughly crown-like shape of purple Ki hidden underneath the hat. He thought he recognized the color of that Ki.

  “Hey sir, what’s that under your hat? Is that a Sigil?”

  Dark eyes fixed on him as the man stopped, lifting an eyebrow. “Hmm? How did you… Do you have an eye Kaku?”

  Dario gave a proud nod, grinning.

  “Now there’s a useful gift. You need a job? I can always use more guards. Pay’s not bad.”

  “Oh. Uhh, thanks, but I don’t like to work and I don’t need cash right now.”

  The man frowned, then glanced at the Houjo staff that was waiting a few steps behind Dario before clicking his tongue.

  “Tied in with one of the clans, huh? That’s no good. Take it from me; they only want what’s best for themselves. The likes of you and me, they don’t want us to do well. They don’t want us to be free. My advice? Don’t play by their rules. Make your own.”

  Dario blinked at the unexpected advice. For a complete stranger, he sure didn’t hesitate to group the two of them together. Obviously, he meant their lighter skin and darker hair, marking them as people that grew up further away from the pillar. It was true enough that some nobles were assholes, but painting them all with the same brush was a touch extreme.

  “Err… thanks for the advice. I guess,” Dario said as the man began to move away. “Hey, what about the Sigil?” he called out to his back.

  “Oh, that? The man said, grinning darkly before turning fully away. “It’s the kind that lets me do this.”

  There was a sudden flare of purple Ki, a tendril reaching for him and-

  Dario stiffened as something pushed its way into his mind. For a brief moment, it felt like he was a passenger in someone else’s body, unable to control what was going on, but then, just like that, the effect was gone.

  “What the fuck?” he muttered, looking down at his hands, heart racing. The man in the red suit had already disappeared into the crowd.

  At least that had confirmed his suspicion - the purple energy was Controller Ki. Just like the kind his brother used, though Matteo would never think to use it on another human. That was strictly forbidden as his brother had told him countless times; an ancient taboo which had been written into law and signed by all the Great Clans.

  That man, whoever he was, had just casually broken that rule. Dario spent a long moment staring into the crowd, wondering what was wrong with the people on this floor.