It had been a week since Nathaniel had left the hospital when Kagami decided to visit his home address. She wanted to get a better idea of what kind of person he was outside of missions and reports.
Finding the address had been easy enough. She was a noble, and nobles had access to resources that made certain records far less private than they should have been.
His place was decent, to say the least.
The apartment complex sat in a respectable district, neither extravagant nor cheap. Considering Nathaniel's documented history of solo biome hunting, affording a place like this was hardly surprising. The real surprise had been his vehicle.
Parked in its assigned space was an Axi-Millian 450.
Kagami recognized the model immediately. The SUV was famous for its durability and reliability in hazardous zones. It was also absurdly expensive. The vehicle alone cost roughly three times the annual salary of an average A-Rank augment user.
That said a lot.
Either Nathaniel managed his finances exceptionally well, or he spent far more time taking private contracts, biome hunts, and off-duty raids than his official records suggested. Given the aftermath of the recent operation, she was leaning toward the latter.
Kagami approached the door and knocked twice.
Sharp impacts echoed against solid hardwood reinforced by decorative steel bars. The design blended aesthetics with practical security.
She ignored the doorbell.
She hated doorbells.
Most mutant-type Neo-humans possessed heightened senses, and certain sounds could become unbearably irritating. The Ryuzen bloodline was particularly sensitive to sudden high-pitched chimes.
Less than a minute passed before the door opened.
A woman stood on the other side.
Brown eyes met Kagami's own before abruptly flashing jade.
Recognition.
For the briefest instant, Kagami felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.
The woman was beautiful in an understated way, dressed casually enough to suggest she had been home all day. Yet beneath the relaxed appearance was a presence Kagami couldn't immediately place. Years of combat had sharpened her instincts, and those instincts rarely reacted without reason.
The jade glow vanished almost immediately.
The woman blinked.
Then smiled.
"You're Kagami Ryuzen."
It wasn't a question.
Kagami's eyes narrowed slightly.
"And you are?"
The woman's smile widened just enough to seem knowing.
"Ginah Esker."
The name clicked instantly.
Nathaniel's assistant.
The woman stepped aside.
"Come in. Nathaniel's in the shower."
Kagami froze for half a second.
Something felt off.
Not threatening.
Not hostile.
Just... strange.
Then again, Nathaniel Alderman had become increasingly strange ever since the Karthanon incident.
As Kagami stepped through the doorway, a faint scent reached her.
Her nostrils flared instinctively.
A mixture of human pheromones, cleaning products, lingering hospital antiseptic, and something else.
Something she couldn't identify.
It was subtle.
Alien.
Not enough to trigger alarm, but enough that her draconic instincts immediately marked it as unusual.
Her pupils narrowed.
The scent seemed strongest around the hallway leading deeper into the apartment.
For a moment she considered asking about it.
Instead, she filed the information away.
The last time she'd ignored her instincts, Nathaniel had somehow blitzed her during a spar despite every logical reason suggesting he shouldn't have been capable of it.
One coincidence was chance.
Several became a pattern.
And lately, Nathaniel Alderman was becoming a collection of patterns that refused to make sense.
Kagami wasn't the only person paying attention to Nathaniel's progress.
As Squad 3's representative, she occasionally sat in on discussions with her overseer, Marione Kaina. Through those meetings, she had learned quite a bit about Squad 4. Marione maintained occasional contact with Oliver Narite, largely due to the circumstances that had landed the darkness manipulator in the Knight Program in the first place.
Naturally, Nathaniel's name had surfaced more than once.
Marione had shared several conversations she'd had with Erementaru Hayate regarding the young cadet.
The conclusion they reached was simple.
Nathaniel Alderman possessed the fastest growth rate among the current generation of cadet Knights.
That statement carried weight.
The Empire's five squads represented the absolute best of their generation. Every recruit had already survived an absurdly competitive selection process. Most were prodigies, mutants from prestigious bloodlines, or augment users who had distinguished themselves long before joining the Association.
Yet somehow Nathaniel was outpacing them.
When he had first entered the program, he had barely qualified as a respectable mid-tier B-Rank combatant.
Kagami remembered those early evaluations.
His technical skills had been mediocre.
His combat instincts were rough around the edges.
His augment wasn't particularly flashy.
The only things that truly stood out were his creative use of Kinetic Muscle and the bizarre physical resilience his body displayed.
At the time, she had assumed those traits were what pushed him through selection.
Now she wasn't so sure.
Because the difference between the Nathaniel from six months ago and the Nathaniel who had fought during the Karthanon operation was absurd.
The growth curve simply didn't make sense.
Across from her, Ginah Esker already knew the answer.
Or at least part of it.
The woman kept her pleasant smile firmly in place.
Higher-ups had their reasons for maintaining the illusion.
The man responsible for the largest biome break in recorded history sat hidden behind the identity of Nathaniel Alderman. Keeping him controlled, stable, and unaware of certain truths was considered a matter of national security.
So Ginah listened.
And she lied.
Professionally.
The two women sat across from one another in the apartment's living room.
Despite their vastly different backgrounds, they carried remarkably similar airs.
Kagami projected the refined confidence expected of old nobility. Every movement was deliberate and controlled, her posture straight enough to shame military officers.
She wore a fitted black turtleneck beneath a light jacket, paired with tailored dress pants and clean sneakers. A large ornamental hairpiece shaped like a dragon's claw rested within her crimson hair, serving as both decoration and a subtle declaration of lineage.
Ginah's appearance was more relaxed.
Casual clothes.
Comfortable posture.
No visible attempts to impress.
Yet there was a sharp businesslike intelligence behind every smile and glance. She carried herself like someone accustomed to negotiations, contracts, and reading people.
The atmosphere was polite.
Measured.
Dangerously observant.
Kagami had intentionally come under the radar.
No Association vehicle.
No official notice.
No escort.
She had simply taken a cab from the Association building and arrived unannounced.
Officially, this was a social visit.
Unofficially, it was an investigation.
Ginah already knew that.
"So," Ginah began, crossing one leg over the other, "you came all this way just to check on a teammate from another squad?"
Kagami met her gaze.
"I came because he interests me."
A small laugh escaped Ginah.
"That sounds worse than you probably intended."
"It wasn't intended that way."
"I know."
Ginah's smile widened slightly.
The dragon woman didn't smile back.
A brief silence settled between them.
Then Kagami leaned forward.
"Nathaniel wasn't always like this, was he?"
A dangerous question.
One Ginah had expected.
The assistant tilted her head innocently.
"What do you mean?"
"The growth."
Kagami's eyes narrowed.
"The adaptability. The physical changes. His instincts."
She paused.
"His scent."
For the first time, Ginah's expression froze.
Barely.
A fraction of a second.
But Kagami caught it.
Dragon senses weren't limited to smell.
They excelled at reading subtle physical reactions.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Then Ginah smiled again.
Professional.
Controlled.
Practiced.
"People change after near-death experiences."
Kagami studied her for several seconds.
Neither woman blinked.
Neither woman yielded.
And somewhere deeper within the apartment, beyond the walls and running water, Nathaniel Alderman remained completely unaware that two highly intelligent women were currently dissecting every strange thing about him while he was taking a shower.
Several minutes later, the conversation between the two women came to an abrupt halt.
A door opened deeper within the apartment.
Footsteps followed.
Heavy.
Unhurried.
Comfortable.
Nathaniel Alderman emerged from the hallway with damp hair hanging loosely over his forehead. A light stubble covered his jaw, making him look older than he did in uniform.
Unlike the polished image most cadets maintained, he looked completely off duty.
A grey sweatshirt hung loosely from his frame while black sweatpants completed the outfit. There was something almost comical about the contrast between the man who had recently fought a Kaiju-class threat and the exhausted young adult currently wandering toward his kitchen in search of food.
His stomach growled.
Loudly.
Incorporating Karthaneon had left him constantly hungry.
Not painfully so.
Just enough that he found himself eating far more than normal.
Nathaniel rubbed the back of his neck and shuffled toward the kitchen.
Then he froze.
His enhanced senses finally caught up.
A scent hit him like a freight train.
Dragon.
His entire body stiffened.
The smell carried traces of ozone, warm scales, expensive perfume, and the faint predatory musk unique to the Ryuzen bloodline.
Nathaniel slowly turned his head.
There, seated in his living room.
Calmly drinking tea.
Was Kagami Ryuzen.
For a moment his brain completely stalled.
Why the fuck is Kagami here?
The thought arrived with enough force that he nearly said it aloud.
Instead, years of social conditioning barely managed to save him.
"...Kagami?"
The dragon woman raised an eyebrow.
"Nathaniel."
His eyes shifted toward Ginah.
Ginah smiled.
A smile that immediately activated every survival instinct he possessed.
She looked far too pleased with herself.
"You invited her?"
"No."
"You told her where I live?"
"No."
Nathaniel looked back at Kagami.
Kagami took another sip from her cup.
"I found it myself."
That was somehow worse.
"That sounds incredibly illegal."
"It's only illegal if someone reports it."
Nathaniel stared.
Kagami stared back.
Ginah nearly laughed.
Nathaniel pointed at Kagami.
"You broke into classified records."
"I utilized available resources."
"That's noble-speak for breaking into classified records."
"I prefer efficient."
Nathaniel groaned and dragged a hand down his face.
Of course she did.
Of course the first thing a dragon noble did when she got curious was launch an unofficial investigation.
The worst part was that he couldn't even be surprised.
He had met her.
This was exactly the kind of thing she'd do.
Eventually he sighed.
"Fine."
He pointed toward the kitchen.
"I'm making breakfast."
Kagami glanced at the clock.
"It is nearly two in the afternoon."
"Then I'm making breakfast at two in the afternoon."
"That's lunch."
"It's breakfast if I just woke up."
"You woke up three hours ago."
Nathaniel stopped.
Slowly turned.
"How do you know that?"
The instant the words left his mouth, he regretted them.
Kagami's eyes narrowed.
Ginah's smile vanished.
The room became very quiet.
Nathaniel felt every survival instinct he possessed begin screaming.
Because he had accidentally revealed something important.
Kagami had arrived less than an hour ago.
There was absolutely no way he should have known she'd been present for three hours.
Not unless his senses had been tracking far more information than a normal Neo-human should be capable of processing.
A second later, Nathaniel desperately attempted to recover.
"...Lucky guess?"
Neither woman looked convinced.
Not even remotely.
Nathaniel's nose flared almost imperceptibly.
The momentary tension in the room became a flood of information.
Kagami's slight shift in posture.
The tightening of muscles around her jaw.
A fractional increase in heart rate.
The subtle redistribution of her weight toward her dominant leg.
Four months ago, after their sparring match, he could barely read any of that consciously. Now the information arrived automatically, his brain sorting and categorizing details faster than he could process them.
It was unsettling.
The changes Karthaneon had left behind were becoming more apparent every day.
He could identify Kagami's scent signature instantly. Not just recognize it, but separate it from every other smell in the apartment as though it possessed its own unique fingerprint.
Part of him wondered if it was related to her draconic genetics.
Karthaneon had likely descended from some hyper-evolved reptilian lineage. If that were true, then enhanced sensory processing would make sense.
The thought sent an uncomfortable realization through him.
If I keep developing like this...
His eyes narrowed slightly.
He was beginning to pick up things no person should reasonably know.
Sleep deprivation.
Stress levels.
Emotional state.
Hormonal fluctuations.
The information surfaced automatically, drawn from scent, body temperature, respiration, and dozens of other factors his brain was somehow interpreting.
The realization made his stomach turn.
Because he didn't want to know those things.
It felt invasive.
Wrong.
Like accidentally reading someone's private messages over their shoulder.
Nathaniel immediately forced himself to stop focusing.
He grabbed onto the kitchen counter and redirected his attention toward the far more important subject of food.
Nope.
Not doing that.
Those are other people's boundaries.
His growing sensory abilities were useful in combat.
Outside combat they were rapidly becoming a nightmare.
Across the room, Kagami watched him carefully.
"You look distracted."
Nathaniel opened the refrigerator.
"I'm hungry."
"That's not what I asked."
"Still hungry."
Kagami's eyes narrowed.
He was dodging.
Again.
Something about him felt different.
Not physically stronger.
Not faster.
Different.
Predators recognized predators, and lately Nathaniel's presence occasionally triggered instincts she normally reserved for dangerous creatures.
Not hostility.
Awareness.
The same feeling one experienced when noticing a large animal quietly watching from the edge of a forest.
Nathaniel pulled out enough food to feed three people.
Ginah raised an eyebrow.
Kagami raised both.
Nathaniel noticed.
"What?"
"That is not a normal amount of food," Kagami said.
"It is for me."
"It wasn't last month."
Nathaniel paused.
"...I've been exercising."
"You always exercised."
"More exercising."
"That isn't an answer."
"It is technically an answer."
Kagami sighed.
Ginah looked entertained.
Nathaniel began preparing food with the speed of someone whose body had already decided it desperately needed calories.
As he moved around the kitchen, Kagami continued watching.
The more she observed him, the more questions she accumulated.
And Nathaniel, despite being fully aware of her scrutiny, seemed far more concerned with making a sandwich large enough to qualify as a structural engineering project than explaining any of them.
Kagami watched him for several moments before finally standing and walking over to the dining table.
The apartment's dining area was larger than expected.
Five chairs surrounded the table.
Originally there had only been three, but additional seating had clearly been added over time as more people became regular occupants of the apartment.
Nathaniel sat at one end.
Ginah occupied another.
The remaining seats sat empty for the moment.
Valarie was still outside at Arkham's workshop—though Nathaniel stubbornly referred to it as the Foundry. The old name had apparently stuck, and nobody had bothered correcting him.
Kagami pulled out a chair and sat directly across from him.
Nathaniel didn't look up.
He was currently annihilating a sandwich the size of a small animal.
The thing looked less like food and more like a construction project.
"Quit playing dumb," Kagami said.
Nathaniel took another bite.
"I'm not."
"You are."
"I'm eating."
"You're avoiding the question."
"I'm avoiding several questions."
That at least earned a small smirk from Ginah.
Kagami's eyes narrowed.
Fine.
If direct questioning wasn't working, she'd try another approach.
Years of social training, draconic instincts, and mutant physiology had given her a toolbox that most people didn't possess.
Nothing as crude as mind control.
Nothing supernatural.
Just biological influence.
Subtle adjustments in posture.
Eye contact.
Tone.
And the carefully controlled release of pheromonal cues designed to arouse and fluster
The effect was usually minor, but it worked surprisingly well on most people from her clan given their physiology.
Nathaniel took another bite.
Chewed.
Swallowed.
Then reached for his drink.
Nothing.
No change.
No hesitation.
No shift in posture.
No increase in heart rate.
Nothing.
Kagami blinked.
Nathaniel looked up.
"...Why are you staring at me?"
The dragon woman's eye twitched.
"You're unusually difficult to read."
"That's because I'm eating."
"No."
Nathaniel took another bite.
"Pretty sure it's because I'm eating."
Kagami leaned forward.
The pressure in the room increased slightly.
Most of the branch members of House Ryuzen would have folded by now.
Nathaniel simply continued consuming enough calories to feed a family.
Finally she spoke.
"Erementaru says you've improved more in six months than most cadets improve in three years."
Nathaniel shrugged.
"I train."
"Not that much."
"I train a lot."
"You were unconscious for part of that time."
"Rest days are important."
Ginah nearly choked on her tea.
Kagami stared.
Nathaniel stared back.
Then immediately returned to his sandwich.
The infuriating part wasn't that he was refusing to answer.
The infuriating part was that he genuinely seemed more concerned about food than the interrogation.
Her senses focused on him.
Heart rate stable.
Breathing normal.
No obvious signs of deception.
Either he was an absurdly talented liar...
Or he honestly didn't view his own growth as unusual.
That possibility was somehow more concerning.
Across from her, Nathaniel reached for another sandwich.
Kagami looked down at the empty plate.
Then at the second sandwich.
Then at the first plate.
Then back at Nathaniel.
"...How many of those are you planning to eat?"
Nathaniel paused.
The question appeared to require actual thought.
"...Depends."
"On what?"
"Whether I'm still hungry after the next one."
For the first time since arriving, Kagami found herself genuinely speechless.
Even Ginah looked impressed.
Nathaniel, meanwhile, continued eating with the focused determination of a man whose body had recently healed and was demanding compensation in calories.
Ten minutes later, Nathaniel finally finished eating.
The mountain of food that had occupied the table was gone.
Not reduced.
Gone.
Kagami still wasn't entirely convinced that what she had witnessed was physically possible.
Nathaniel wiped his mouth with a napkin before leaning back in his chair.
Then he looked directly at her.
A meaningful look.
Kagami immediately understood.
A moment later, she stopped the subtle pheromonal output.
Nathaniel visibly relaxed.
Interesting.
So he had noticed.
Which meant he wasn't actually immune to it.
Just resistant enough that it wasn't affecting him the way it normally affected others.
That realization strangely made Kagami feel better.
At least he wasn't completely indifferent.
Compared to their first meeting months ago, that was progress.
Nathaniel stretched slightly before fixing her with an unimpressed stare.
"So."
Kagami raised an eyebrow.
"So?"
"You came all the way here just to bombard me with questions?"
"No."
Nathaniel looked at her.
Kagami looked back.
Neither said anything.
"...Yes," Nathaniel concluded.
"It was not the only reason."
"It was at least eighty percent of the reason."
"Seventy."
"Eighty-five."
Kagami folded her arms.
Nathaniel smirked.
The expression immediately made her suspicious.
Whenever Nathaniel smiled like that, someone was about to become annoyed.
Usually Ginah.
"What?" she asked.
His grin widened.
"What are you, paparazzi?"
Kagami's eyebrow twitched.
"No."
"Government investigator?"
"No."
"Secret police?"
"No."
"Stalker?"
"Nathaniel."
"Curious dragon?"
"Nathaniel."
"Do you want another spar?"
The grin widened further.
"Still sore about the last one?"
Silence.
Dead silence.
Then—
"THAT WAS A CHEAP SHOT, YOU BRUTE!"
Kagami shot to her feet.
Nathaniel immediately started laughing.
Ginah nearly fell out of her chair.
"You kicked me through a wall!" Kagami continued.
"It was one wall."
"ONE WALL?"
"It wasn't a load-bearing wall."
"THAT IS NOT THE POINT!"
Nathaniel pointed accusingly.
"You said and I quote: 'Stop holding back and hit me properly.'"
"I MEANT TECHNIQUE!"
"You should've specified."
Kagami looked moments away from committing a felony.
Nathaniel, meanwhile, had the audacity to look pleased with himself.
"I spent three days explaining to my overseer why I had several bruises after that training session."
"A good noble should have self control ."
"That's not mandatory as noble standard!"
"It should be."
"It absolutely should not!"
Ginah was openly laughing now.
Nathaniel leaned back.
Satisfied.
Kagami slowly sat back down, smoothing her jacket while attempting to recover what remained of her dignity.
Unfortunately, the faint redness creeping into her ears wasn't helping.
Nathaniel immediately noticed.
"You're blushing."
"I'm not."
"You are."
"I'm not."
"You absolutely are."
Kagami pointed at him.
"You are the most infuriating person I have ever met."
Nathaniel nodded thoughtfully.
"That's fair."
The casual agreement somehow made it worse.
For the first time that afternoon, however, the atmosphere genuinely relaxed.
The interrogation had faded.
The suspicion remained, certainly.
Questions still lingered.
But for a few moments they weren't Squad 3 and Squad 4.
They weren't noble heir and mysterious cadet.
They weren't investigating strange growth rates or unexplained changes.
They were simply two young Knights arguing over an old sparring match.
And judging by the triumphant look on Nathaniel's face, he was enjoying every second of her frustration.
"Rage-baiting you is fun, but I'm not trying to burn down this building with your loose-cannon personality. You're getting way too riled up."
Nathaniel barely finished the sentence before realizing his mistake.
Kagami's eye twitched.
Dangerously.
"Take."
She stood.
"That."
A step forward.
"Back."
Another.
Nathaniel immediately pointed toward Ginah.
"See? This is exactly what I meant."
"TAKE IT BACK!"
The dragon woman lunged.
Not seriously.
Not with murderous intent.
Just enough to grab him by the collar and shake some sense into him.
Unfortunately for Kagami, Nathaniel's instincts moved before his brain did.
The world slowed.
A pulse of Authority surged through his nervous system.
His body reacted automatically.
One moment Kagami was crossing the room.
The next—
Her wrist was caught.
Her momentum redirected.
A blur of motion followed.
Then silence.
Kagami found herself pinned against the nearest wall.
Not painfully.
Not violently.
Just completely and utterly immobilized.
One hand held her wrist above her shoulder.
The other pressed against the wall beside her head.
Nathaniel stood in front of her.
Still.
Calm.
White eyes glowing.
The joking expression was gone.
Gone so quickly it was unsettling.
The room became silent.
Even Ginah stopped smiling.
Because the shift was immediate.
Nathaniel wasn't angry.
He wasn't excited.
He wasn't showing off.
He simply looked...
Certain.
For the first time since entering the apartment, Kagami felt the full weight of his attention focused solely on her.
And her instincts screamed.
Not because he was threatening her.
Because he could.
The realization hit harder than any physical blow.
Four months ago she would have dismissed the possibility.
She had outclassed him in every measurable category.
Strength.
Speed.
Experience.
Technique.
Yet he had still managed to knock her unconscious during their spar.
At the time she had written it off as a fluke.
A lucky combination of timing and instinct.
Now?
Now she wasn't so sure.
Because the man standing in front of her wasn't the same Nathaniel Alderman.
His grip was steady.
Controlled.
Not a single tremor.
Not a hint of strain.
And despite the position she found herself in, what unsettled her most was the restraint.
He wasn't using force.
He didn't need to.
His posture alone communicated the message.
Stop.
The white glow in his eyes intensified briefly.
Not enough to be threatening.
Enough to be understood.
Kagami's heart skipped.
Not from fear.
From instinct.
Every draconic sense she possessed recognized the same thing.
Predators understood hierarchy.
And for the briefest moment, her instincts informed her that escalating this situation would be a very poor decision.
Nathaniel blinked.
The glow vanished.
The realization of what he was doing finally caught up to him.
"..."
"..."
"...Kagami?"
Her eye twitched.
"What."
Nathaniel immediately released her and took three steps back.
"Okay."
Another step.
"That happened."
Another.
"That was probably excessive."
Ginah pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Probably?"
Nathaniel pointed accusingly at Kagami.
"She tried to choke me!"
"You called me a loose cannon!"
"You immediately attempted violence!"
"Because you called me a loose cannon!"
"YOU ARE NOT HELPING YOUR CASE!"
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Kagami slowly straightened her jacket.
Nathaniel slowly sat back down.
The tension lingered.
Not hostile.
Not romantic.
Just awkward.
Extremely awkward.
Because both of them had realized the same thing.
Nathaniel's growth wasn't theoretical anymore.
And for the first time since she'd met him, Kagami had felt it firsthand. Not in a training room. Not in a report.
In her own instincts.
Which was far more difficult to ignore.
The apartment remained silent for several seconds.
Nathaniel sat down.
Kagami sat down.
Neither looked at the other.
The atmosphere was awkward enough to physically trip over.
Then a sharp clack echoed through the room.
Both heads turned.
Ginah had set her teacup down.
Carefully.
Very carefully.
The kind of careful that immediately informed everyone present that somebody was about to get verbally executed.
Her smile was gone.
That was the first warning.
The second warning was that she folded her hands together.
The third warning was that she inhaled.
Slowly.
Nathaniel visibly winced.
Kagami straightened instinctively.
"Oh good," Ginah said pleasantly.
"Now that the children have finished their little episode, perhaps the adults can speak."
Neither of them replied.
"Let's review today's events, shall we?"
Nathaniel immediately groaned.
"No."
"Oh yes."
The assistant pointed at Kagami.
"You."
Kagami blinked.
"What?"
"You are a cadet Knight, a noblewoman, and a representative of one of the Empire's premier bloodlines."
Kagami nodded cautiously.
"You attempted to assault your host because he made fun of you."
"..."
"..."
"When I phrase it like that, do you understand how ridiculous it sounds?"
Kagami opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
"...A little."
"A little?"
"A lot."
"Correct."
Ginah nodded before turning toward Nathaniel.
"And you."
Nathaniel immediately pointed at Kagami.
"She started—"
"Don't."
The single word hit harder than most attacks.
Nathaniel shut up instantly.
"You possess some of the most absurd reflexes I have ever seen."
"Thanks?"
"That was not a compliment."
"Oh."
Ginah continued.
"A normal person avoids the situation."
Nathaniel nodded.
"A trained cadet restrains the situation."
Another nod.
"You somehow escalated and de-escalated the situation simultaneously."
Nathaniel frowned.
"That doesn't even make sense."
"Exactly."
The assistant leaned forward.
"You pinned a noblewoman against a wall."
Kagami's face immediately turned red again.
Nathaniel buried his face in his hands.
"Oh, we're bringing that up."
"We are absolutely bringing that up."
"I didn't mean—"
"I know you didn't."
"Then why—"
"Because intent is irrelevant."
Ginah pointed between them.
"You two possess the emotional conflict resolution skills of territorial reptiles."
The room went silent.
Kagami stared.
Nathaniel stared.
Then both turned toward Ginah.
"That's not fair," Nathaniel said.
"It is perfectly fair."
"No, it isn't."
"You literally started wrestling in my living room."
"It wasn't wrestling."
Kagami immediately nodded.
"It wasn't wrestling."
Ginah stared at both of them.
The assistant looked physically exhausted.
"You know what?"
"What?" Nathaniel asked.
"I take it back."
Nathaniel sighed in relief.
Ginah smiled.
"You aren't territorial reptiles."
Nathaniel nodded.
"See?"
"You're worse."
The relief vanished.
Kagami snorted.
Then immediately stopped when Ginah looked at her.
"Don't laugh."
The dragon woman straightened.
"Yes, ma'am."
"You are not innocent."
The amusement vanished from Kagami's face.
Ginah leaned back in her chair.
"For the last hour I have watched one of the Empire's most promising cadets attempt an unofficial investigation into a man eating enough food to sustain a small military unit."
Nathaniel nodded.
"That's fair."
"And I watched said man respond by deliberately provoking her because he thought her reactions were funny."
Nathaniel's nod slowed.
"...Also fair."
"Good."
Ginah crossed her arms.
"Then we understand each other."
Silence.
More silence.
Then—
"Now."
Her gaze sharpened.
"Nathaniel."
Nathaniel sat up.
"Kagami."
Kagami sat up.
"You are both talented."
Neither spoke.
"You are both intelligent."
Again, silence.
"You are both catastrophically stubborn."
Nathaniel pointed at Kagami.
Ginah looked at him.
The finger immediately lowered.
"Better."
The assistant sighed.
"One of you keeps hiding everything behind jokes."
Nathaniel looked away.
"The other keeps trying to force answers out of people because she hates uncertainty."
Kagami looked away.
Ginah nodded.
"Thank you for proving my point."
The room grew quieter.
Because for the first time all afternoon, neither had a comeback.
Finally Ginah stood.
"I am going to make tea."
Neither moved.
"While I am making tea, I want both of you to behave like functional adults."
Nathaniel raised a hand.
"What if that's beyond our capabilities?"
Ginah's smile returned.
It was somehow more terrifying than when she was angry.
"Then I will call Erementaru."
Nathaniel froze.
Kagami froze.
The two cadets immediately looked horrified.
Ginah nodded in satisfaction.
"Wonderful."
Then she walked into the kitchen.
For the first time all afternoon, Nathaniel and Kagami sat quietly.
Neither willing to risk finding out whether that threat had been a bluff.